BEIRUT: UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Monday said Lebanon needed proper accountability for the August 2020 Beirut port explosion and that elections due to be held next year could usher in political stability in the troubled country. His comments followed a meeting with Lebanese House Speaker Nabih Berri and a visit to the port, where he laid a wreath …

HONG KONG: Candidates loyal to China’s Communist Party won a landslide victory in Hong Kong’s legislative elections after pro-democracy activists were imprisoned and authorities received the power to exclude those deemed inappropriate for office. Candidates loyal to Beijing won a majority of the seats in Sunday’s election after the laws were changed to ensure that only pro-Beijing patriots could run …

ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi on Monday emphasised the need for early completion of the ambitious multi-billion-dollar Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (Tapi) gas pipeline project, expressing the hope that it would help overcome the energy crisis in the country. “Pakistan is committed to early completion of the Tapi pipeline project,” the president said while talking to Turkmenistan Foreign Minister Meredov Rashid Ovezgeldiyevich at …

MOSCOW: Russia on Monday expelled two German diplomats in response to a spat with Berlin over a German court’s ruling that Moscow had ordered the 2019 assassination of an ex-Chechen commander in a Berlin park. “The German ambassador was informed that two diplomatic employees of the German embassy in Russia were declared ‘persona non grata’ as a symmetrical response,” Russia’s …

SURIGAO CITY: The death toll from the strongest typhoon to hit the Philippines this year surged to 375 on Monday, as desperate survivors pleaded for urgent supplies of drinking water and food. The Philippine Red Cross reported “complete carnage” in coastal areas after Super Typhoon Rai left homes, hospitals and schools “ripped to shreds”. The storm tore off roofs, uprooted …

ISLAMABAD: The United States would show greater flexibility on financial sanctions imposed on Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover to allow delivery of humanitarian aid to the war-ravaged country, a senior State Department official said on Monday. The official, who spoke to Islamabad-based journalists working with foreign media organisations, indicated that increased cash flow to Afghanistan would be allowed to put …

WASHINGTON: Data collected after years of litigation and months of investigation persuaded The New York Times to conclude that civilian casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan were much higher than the United States ever acknowledged. Summing up its efforts to probe the US wars in the greater Middle East region, the newspaper wrote: “The promise was a war waged by all-seeing drones and precision …

New Zealand delayed the planned reopening of its international border because of the sweeping spread of Omicron around the world on Tuesday, as several other countries reimposed social distancing measures. Many nations are on high alert just days ahead of Christmas and New Year celebrations, as the latest health crisis also takes a toll on financial markets, which fear the …

Israel’s former military intelligence chief says the country was involved in the American airstrike that killed Iranian general Qassem Soleimani in January 2020. It was the first public acknowledgement of Israel’s role in the operation. Soleimani headed the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s elite Quds Force and helped orchestrate Iran’s involvement with paramilitary groups abroad. He was killed in a US drone strike at …

Around 200 Afghans marched in Kabul Tuesday to demand the release of billions of dollars of assets frozen by the international community — a rare protest allowed by the Taliban as the country battles a major economic crisis. There were no women in Tuesday’s march, organised by a little-known group called the Afghan People’s Movement which in the past has …