International

02-06-2021 COLOMBO: A chemical-laden cargo ship is sinking off the coast of Sri Lanka, sparking fears of an environmental disaster. The Singapore-registered X-Press Pearl had been on fire for almost two weeks before the blaze was put out this week. Hundreds of tonnes of oil from fuel tanks could leak …

02-06-2021 JERUSALEM: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s opponents are finalizing a coalition government to end his 12-year rule, the longest by any Israeli premier – before a Wednesday midnight (21:00 GMT) deadline. Centrist Yair Lapid is expected to unveil the coalition by 11am (08:00 GMT). The union came into being after far-right …

02-06-2021 TEHRAN/ DUABI: One of Iran’s largest navy ships has sunk after catching fire near the Strait of Hormuz under unclear circumstances. The Kharg, named after an island nearby that serves as a key oil terminal, caught fire in the early hours of Wednesday local time and more than 20 …

02-06-2021 Bureau Report + Al-Jazeera NEW DELHI /LUCKNOW: Virendra Kumar, a resident of Ajrayal Kheda village in Unnao district, about 520 kilometres (323 miles) from India’s capital New Delhi, says he had to bury the dead body of his son on the banks of the Ganges River instead of cremating …

02-06-2021 WASHINGTON: The world’s largest meat processing company has been targeted by a sophisticated cyber-attack. Computer networks at JBS were hacked, causing some operations in Australia, Canada and the US to temporarily shut down, affecting thousands of workers. The company believes the ransomware attack originated from a criminal group likely …

02-06-2021 Bureau Report KABUL/ ISLAMABAD: The US moved one step closer to the withdrawal of its forces from Afghanistan after it announced that it will be handing over its main Bagram Air Base to Afghan forces in about 20 days, an official said Tuesday. The vast base, built by the …

02-06-2021 Bureau Report + Agencies GENEVA/ BEIJING: The World Health Organization (WHO) has approved China’s Sinovac Covid vaccine for emergency use. It is the second Chinese vaccine to receive the green light from the WHO, after Sinopharm. It opens the door for the jab to be used in the Covax …

02-06-2021 By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report KABUL/ ISLAMABAD: Three bombs rattled the Afghan capital Kabul martyring at least 10 people and plunging the city into darkness, an Afghan government spokesman has said. Two bombs exploded in quick succession in separate locations of a west Kabul neighborhood late on Tuesday, …

01-06-2021 RIYADH/ MECCA: Saudi Arabia’s Islamic affairs minister is defending a contentious order restricting the volume of mosque loudspeakers, saying it was prompted by complaints about excessive noise. In a major policy last week in a country home to the holiest Muslim sites, the Islamic affairs ministry said the speakers …

01-06-2021 BEIJING: A 41-year-old man in China’s eastern province of Jiangsu has been confirmed as the first human case of infection with the H10N3 strain of bird flu, China’s National Health Commission (NHC) said on Tuesday. The man, a resident of the city of Zhenjiang, was hospitalized on April 28 …