Talks between Indian and Chinese army commanders to disengage troops from key friction areas along their border have ended in a stalemate and failed to ease a 17-month standoff that has sometimes led to deadly clashes, the two sides said on Monday. The continuing standoff means the two nations will keep troops in the forward areas of Ladakh for a second consecutive …

WASHINGTON: As a US government agency probes claims that former Afghan president Ashraf Ghani took with him $169 million while fleeing Kabul, a senior member of his security staff said on Sunday that he has video proof of the alleged theft. Brigadier General Piraz Ata Sharifi, who headed Mr Ghani’s bodyguard, said in an interview that he not only saw …

The United States and Britain warned their citizens on Monday to avoid hotels in Afghanistan, days after dozens were killed at a mosque in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group. The Taliban, which seized power in August and declared an Islamic emirate, are seeking international recognition and assistance to avoid a humanitarian disaster and ease Afghanistan’s economic crisis. But, as …

TAIPEI: Taiwan will not bow to pressure by Beijing and will defend its democratic way of life, President Tsai Ing-wen said on Sunday, following an alleged spike in incursions by Chinese warplanes into its air defence zone. Self-governed Taiwan’s 23 million people live under the constant threat of invasion by China, which views the island as its territory and has …

LA PALMA: Blocks of molten lava as large as three-storey buildings rolled down a hillside on the Spanish island of La Palma on Sunday while a series of tremors shook the ground three weeks after the volcano erupted. There were 21 seismic movements on Sunday, with the largest measuring 3.8, the Spanish National Geological Institute (ING) said, shaking the ground …

DUBAI: FaceTime calls seemed to be working in the United Arab Emirates on Sunday, an apparent loosening of long-standing restrictions on the Apple programme in the federation of seven sheikhdoms. There was no official announcement on the matter. The UAE’s Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Apple also did not respond …

A US couple has been arrested in the state of West Virginia for allegedly selling information on nuclear warships to what they believed was a foreign state, the Justice Department said on Sunday. Jonathan Toebbe, 42, who worked as a nuclear engineer for the US Navy, and his wife Diana, 45, were arrested by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents on …

JERUSALEM: Outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel said Israel’s security will remain a top priority for “every German government”, during a farewell visit to the Jewish state on Sunday near the end of her 16-year term in office. Merkel laid a wreath at Jerusalem’s Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem, writing in the site’s guest book that visiting there “touches me at the core …

TAXILA: A health unit established during the British era to cater to the medical need of patients from over 20 villages in Makhad Sharif in Pindigheb, Attock, is in dire need of maintenance. The Government Rural Dispensary, which spreads over 17 kanals and 11 marlas with a covered area of 1.14 kanals, is providing medical facilities to inhabitants of the …

RAWALPINDI: The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has said that airlines operators are not serving meals onboard domestic flights within Pakistan on the pretext of Covid-19. The CAA had on Monday allowed serving of in-flight meals and refreshments on domestic flights. On Sunday, the authority said in a tweet: “It has been observed through numerous complaints made by passengers that airline …