International

08-07-2021 BAGHDAD: At least 14 rockets hit an airbase in western Iraq hosting US and other international forces on Wednesday, the latest in a series to tit-for-tat strikes with powerful Iran-aligned militias in the country. Colonel Wayne Marotto, spokesman for the US-led coalition, said that Al-Assad Air Base in western …

07-07-2021 WASHINGTON/ RIYADH/ ISTANBUL: Top Biden administration officials on Tuesday hosted a brother to Saudi Arabia’s powerful crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, in the highest-level such visit known since the U.S. made public intelligence findings linking the crown prince to the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The Biden administration did …

07-07-2021 AMSTERDAM: Crime reporter Peter R de Vries, known for his work in exposing the Dutch underworld, was shot and seriously wounded on a street in Amsterdam on Tuesday. “Peter R de Vries was shot down in Lange Leidsedwarsstraat,” police said in a statement, referring to a street near one …

07-07-2021 KABUL/ WASHINGTON/ ISLAMABAD: Western intelligence chiefs are worried. They have good reason to be. The hurried departure this month of the remaining Western forces from Afghanistan, decreed by US President Joe Biden, has emboldened Taliban insurgents. In recent days they have seized one district after another, overrunning bases where …

Bureau Report NEW DELHI + MUMBAI: Dilip Kumar, India’s enduring film legend through the decades, died at a Mumbai hospital on Wednesday after prolonged illness, his family and doctors treating him said. He was 98. The actor, known to generations of film-goers as ‘tragedy king’ for his portrayal of the …

07-07-2021 WASHINGTON/ LONDON/ TEHRAN: The United States and European powers have condemned Iran’s decision to produce uranium metal enriched to 20 percent purity but the US said the window for diplomacy to allow both to resume compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal remained open. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) …

07-07-2021 By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report + Agencies KABUL/ ISLAMABAD: The Taliban will present a written peace proposal to the Afghan government next month, according to the group, despite their major territorial gains in the country, as severe fighting breaks out with the imminent withdrawal of foreign forces from …

07-07-2021 HELSINKI: Finland’s northernmost Arctic Lapland region has recorded its hottest temperature for more than a century at 33.6 degrees Celsius (92.5 Fahrenheit), during a heatwave that has been afflicting the entire Nordic country for weeks. The temperature was measured on Monday at Finland’s northernmost Utsjoki-Kevo weather station near the …

06-07-2021 MOSCOW/ KAMOHATKA: A passenger plane with 28 people on board crashed into the sea on Tuesday off Russia’s far eastern Kamchatka Peninsula as it was preparing to land, RIA news agency reported on Tuesday. The plane, an Antonov AN-26 twin-engined turboprop, was en route from regional capital Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky to …

06-07-2021 NEW DELHI/ JAKARTA: India may now be past the peak of its latest coronavirus surge, but some other countries in Asia are experiencing rising infections. The Delta variant is contributing to a rapid rise in case numbers in Indonesia, where a crisis over oxygen supplies is unfolding. Meanwhile, vaccination …