Clashes in Kenya as Ruto declared president-elect after disputed count
NAIROBI: William Ruto was declared the victor of Kenya’s hard-fought presidential poll on Monday, but the outcome sparked a split in the election commission and some violent protests in his defeated rival’s strongholds. Ruto won with 50.49 percent of the vote on Aug 9, narrowly ahead of Raila Odinga on 48.85pc, Independent Electoral and Boundaries […]
Iran denies link with Rushdie’s attacker, says writer and his supporters to blame
Iran “categorically” denied on Monday any link with the attacker who stabbed British writer Salman Rushdie, but blamed the writer himself. Rushdie is recovering after being stabbed repeatedly at a public appearance in New York state. The suspected assailant, 24-year-old Hadi Matar from New Jersey, was wrestled to the ground by staff and other audience […]
US to conduct ‘freedom of navigation’ transit near Taiwan
A senior US official said Friday the US was set to conduct “freedom of navigation” operations in the Taiwan Strait during the coming weeks. Kurt Campbell, the US Indo-Pacific coordinator in the administration of President Joe Biden, said the operations will consist of “air and maritime transit through the Taiwan Strait over the next few […]
Wildfires burn, farmers struggle as another heatwave bakes western Europe
HOSTENS: European nations sent firefighting teams to help France tackle a “monster” wildfire on Thursday, while forest blazes also raged in Spain and Portugal and the head of the European Space Agency urged immediate action to combat climate change. More than 1,000 firefighters, backed by water-bombing planes, battled for a third day a fire that […]
G7 wants Russia to return nuclear plant control to Kyiv
• Ukraine accuses Russia of using N-plant as shield • China calls US ‘main instigator’ of crisis • 13 killed in rocket attacks KYIV/BERLIN: As Ukraine on Wednesday accused Russia of exploiting its position in a nuclear power plant it had seized to target a nearby town in rocket attacks that killed at least 13 […]
UN chief seeks access to Ukraine N-plant after attack
TOKYO: UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called on Monday for international inspectors to be given access to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant after Ukraine and Russia traded accusations over the shelling of Europe’s largest atomic plant at the weekend. “Any attack to a nuclear plant is a suicidal thing,” Guterres told a news conference in Japan, […]
Thousands trapped in China’s tourism hotspot
BEIJING: Over 80,000 tourists are stranded in a resort city popularly known as “China’s Hawaii” after a Covid flare-up led authorities to impose strict travel restrictions. Tourism hotspot Sanya is a city of more than a million people on the southern island of Hainan, where 483 Covid cases were reported on Sunday. All flights out […]
Chinese, Russian FMs boycott Japanese minister’s speech
PHONM PENH: Tensions over developments around Taiwan spilled into an Asian meeting of foreign ministers on Friday, diverting attention at a gathering that had been expected to focus on efforts to end the crisis in Myanmar. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov walked out of a plenary session just as Japan’s […]
Anger, anguish as Lebanon marks two years since Beirut mega-blast
BEIRUT: Lebanon marked two years on Thursday since a massive explosion ripped through Beirut — a grim anniversary marked by angry protests and the dramatic collapse of blast-damaged grain silos in a cloud of dust. The 2020 disaster, one of history’s biggest non-nuclear explosions, killed more than 200 people and decimated vast areas of the […]
Taliban say investigating US claim of killing Al Qaeda leader Zawahiri
The Taliban are investigating a US “claim” that Al Qaeda leader Ayman al Zawahiri was killed in a US drone strike in Kabul, a Taliban official said on Thursday, indicating the group’s leadership were not aware of his presence there. The US killed Zawahiri with a missile fired from a drone while he stood on […]
