International

03-09-2022 CAPE CANAVERAL: Ground teams at Kennedy Space Center prepared on Saturday for a second try at launching NASA’s towering, next-generation moon rocket on its debut flight, hoping to have remedied engineering problems that foiled the initial countdown five days ago. Launch controllers began filling the 32-story tall Space Launch …

03-09-2022 MOSCOW: Russia laid to rest the last leader of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev in a Moscow ceremony but without the fanfare of a state funeral and with the glaring absence of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Gorbachev, the Soviet leader beloved of the West, lived long enough to see …

Thousands in Iraq demand regime change 03-09-2022 BAGHDAD: Angered by a months-long political crisis, thousands of Iraqis have taken to the streets of the capital, Baghdad, days after deadly clashes between rival Shia groups sparked fears of widespread unrest. The non-partisan protesters streamed into western Baghdad’s Al-Nusoor Square on Friday, …

03-09-2022 MAIDUGURI: Gunmen kidnapped dozens of worshippers attending Friday afternoon prayers at a mosque in Nigeria’s northwestern state of Zamfara, police and witnesses said. Armed gangs are rife across Nigeria’s northwest where they rob or kidnap for ransom, and violence has been increasing, where thinly stretched security forces often fail …

02-09-2022 By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report CANBERRA/ MELBOURNE: Australia raised its ceiling on permanent migration in a move that will allow as many as 35,000 more workers to enter the country every year as part of an effort to ease worsening labor shortages. The increase could see many more …

02-09-2022 By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report KABUL/ HERAT/ ISLAMABAD: An explosion outside a mosque in the city of Herat in western Afghanistan killed a high-profile pro-Taliban cleric as well as more than a dozen civilians. The blast went off in the Guzargah Mosque in Herat during Friday noon prayers. …

02-09-2022 MOSCOW: Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet leader, was shocked and bewildered by the Ukraine conflict in the months before he died and psychologically crushed in recent years by Moscow’s worsening ties with Kyiv, his interpreter has said. Pavel Palazhchenko, who worked with the late Soviet president for 37 years …

02-09-2022 COLOMBO: Bankrupt Sri Lanka’s deposed former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa is expected to end his self-imposed exile in Thailand and return home on Saturday, a top defence official told AFP. The 73-year-old fled the island under military guard in July after a huge crowd stormed his official residence, following months …

02-09-2022 By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report + Agencies KARACHI/ ISLAMABAD/ TEXAS/ BEIJING/ LONDON: While Pakistanis count the cost of one of the country’s worst recorded floods, heavy rain is hitting southwestern China as the Texas city of Dallas recovers from a 10-inch deluge in a single day last month. …

02-09-2022 PHILADELPHIA: US President Joe Biden charged Republican allies of Donald Trump with undermining the country’s democracy and urged voters on Thursday to reject extremism ahead of November’s midterm elections. Biden accused lawmakers and others devoted to the Make America Great Again (MAGA) agenda led by former US President Trump …