Category: World

Nearly 800,000 people in eastern India have been evacuated from the path of an incoming major cyclone packing winds gusting up to 200 kilometres (125 miles) per hour and torrential rains, officials said on Thursday. The Indian weather service said Extremely Severe Cyclonic Storm Fani was expected to make landfall on Friday afternoon in Odisha […]

Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) is determined to avoid a global “energy crisis” as some of its members are facing international sanctions and others struggling with unrest, the cartel’s secretary-general said in Tehran on Thursday. “As an organisation, we will remain focused on our goal of avoiding an energy crisis that may affect […]

A former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer could spend the rest of his life behind bars after pleading guilty on Wednesday to spying for China, the Justice Department said. Jerry Chun Shing Lee, 54, was arrested in January 2018, suspected of having provided information on a CIA network of informants that was brought down by […]

GENEVA: The UN special adviser on the prevention of genocide said on Wednesday a new class of nationalist, far-right leaders in Europe was redolent of the 1930s when the Nazis rose to power. Adama Dieng urged Europe’s centre-left to do more to oppose a resurgence of xenophobia, alluding to a spreading backlash over an influx […]

GENEVA: Any country using oil as a weapon could cause the collapse of oil producer group Opec, Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said on Wednesday, according to SHANA, the news outlet of the oil ministry. Oil prices hit their highest since November in recent days after Washington said all waivers for those importing sanctions-hit Iranian oil […]

WASHINGTON: The US military has stopped tracking the amount of territory controlled or influenced by the Afghan government and militants, a US watchdog said on Tuesday, one of the last remaining public metrics that tracked the worsening security situation in the war-torn country. The move comes as US and Taliban officials have held several rounds […]

KATHMANDU: A dedicated clean-up team sent to Mount Everest has collected three tonnes of garbage in its first two weeks, officials said on Wednesday, in an ambitious plan to clean the world’s highest rubbish dump. Decades of commercial mountaineering have left the pristine mountain polluted as an increasing number of big-spending climbers pay little attention […]

BANGKOK: Thailand’s King Maha Vajiralongkorn, who will have his official coronation on Saturday, has appointed his consort as the country’s queen. An announcement on Wednesday in the Royal Gazette said Suthida Vajiralongkorn Na Ayudhya is legally married to the 66-year-old king, and is now Queen Suthida. Although she has been in the public eye for […]

PAKISTAN on Wednesday sought introduction of a single tourist visa for all member states of the Central Asia Reg­ional Economic Coope­ration (Carec) Programme as well as a unified marketing strategy for efficient and cost-effective development and promotion of interlinked tourist attractions and facilities in the bloc. Speaking at the Carec Forum on Sustainable Tourism Development, […]

LONDON: British Prime Minister Theresa May on Wednesday sacked Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson following a probe into the leak of news that Britain had conditionally allowed China’s Huawei to develop its 5G network. “The Prime Minister has this evening asked Gavin Williamson to leave the government, having lost confidence in his ability to serve in […]