TORONTO: The season’s first major wildfire continued to burn across Western Canada as firefighters tamed the fast-spreading blaze while authorities evacuated a town in British Columbia and advised residents of an oil hub in Alberta to prepare to leave. Alberta said the wildfire was extreme and out of control, located 16 km (9.94 miles) southwest of Fort McMurray and spread …

PORT SUDAN: Clashes reignited between the Sudanese army and rival paramilitaries earlier this week in the key Darfur town of El-Fasher, the United Nations said on Sunday, killing at least 27 people in one day. Eyewitnesses have reported air strikes, artillery fire and machine gun clashes battering the city since Friday, when an hours-long battle left an estimated 850 people …

WASHINGTON: The first patient to receive a genetically modified pig kidney transplant died, two months after the procedure, the US hospital that carried it out said. “Mass General is deeply saddened at the sudden passing of Mr Rick Slayman. We have no indication that it was the result of his recent transplant,” the Boston hospital said. In a world first, surgeons …

TANAH DATAR: At least 34 people were killed and 16 more were missing in western Indonesia after flash floods and cold lava flow from one of the archipelago’s most active volcanos damaged homes, roads and mosques, officials said on Sunday. Hours of heavy rain caused flooding in Agam and Tanah Datar districts in West Sumatra province on Saturday evening, threatening …

MOSCOW: At least seven people were killed and 17 injured when a whole section of an apartment building in Belgorod collapsed after being hit by a missile fired by Ukraine, Russian officials said. In one of the deadliest attacks to date on the region of Belgorod, Ukraine launched what Russian officials said was a massive missile attack with Tochka ballistic …

RAFAH: Israeli forces continued to conduct air strikes on Gaza on Sunday after it expanded an evacuation order for Rafah, with the United Nations warning an outright invasion of the crowded southern city risked an “epic” disaster. Gaza’s civil defence agency said two doctors were killed on Sunday in the central town of Deir al-Balah amid heavy gunfire from Israeli helicopters. Witnesses …

Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar on Monday expressed Pakistan’s resolve to advance cooperation with the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) on security and development, the Foreign Office (FO) said. The development comes as the foreign minister met with SCO Secretary General Ambassador Zhang Ming in Beijing, where he arrived earlier today.     According to Radio Pakistan, Dar reaffirmed Pakistan’s “unwavering commitment” to …

India’s six-week election resumed on Monday including in India-occupied Kashmir (IoK), where voters are expected to show their discontent with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cancellation of the disputed territory’s semi-autonomy and the security crackdown that followed. Modi remains popular across much of India and his Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is widely expected to win the poll when it concludes early next month. But …

NEW YORK: Featuring an array of fantastical beings such as mud people and giant grandmothers, an AI film festival is giving a glimpse of the storytelling made possible by the novel technology. Nearly 3,000 short films were submitted to the festival organised by Runway AI, one of the leading start-ups in the field of AI-powered video generation. The 10 films …

ISLAMABAD: After a long wait of almost eight years, Saudi Arabia and other countries in the Gulf have again recognised the century-old postgraduate degree programme of Pakistan — MS (Master of Surgery) and MD (Doctor of Medicine) — and included it in the eligibility list of the highest paid tier. The development has become possible because of the efforts of …