WASHINGTON: The top US military officer pressed the Taliban to reduce violence in a rare meeting on Thursday as outgoing President Donald Trump seeks to hasten the end of the nearly 20-year war. Gen Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, met Taliban representatives in Qatar and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani in Kabul. […]
TEHRAN: Iran has begun construction on a site at its underground nuclear facility at Fordo amid tensions with the US over its atomic program, satellite photos obtained Friday by The Associated Press show. Iran has not publicly acknowledged any new construction at Fordo, whose discovery by the West in 2009 came in an earlier round […]
KABUL: The top US general held unannounced talks with Taliban peace negotiators in the Persian Gulf to urge a reduction in violence across Afghanistan, even as senior American officials in Kabul warned that stepped-up Taliban attacks endanger the militant group’s nascent peace negotiations with the Afghan government. Army Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the […]
BEIJING: China’s Chang’e-5 probe successfully touched down on Earth in the early hours of Thursday, bringing home the first samples of the moon in over 40 years. The spacecraft landed in Siziwang Banner in north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region at 1:59 AM (local time), according to the China National Space Administration (CNSA). Zhang Kejian, […]
BRUSSELS: The global scheme to deliver Covid-19 vaccines to poorer countries faces a “very high” risk of failure, potentially leaving nations home to billions of people with no access to vaccines until as late as 2024, internal documents say. The World Health Organization’s COVAX programme is the main global scheme to vaccinate people in poor […]
London: Remdesivir may be a highly effective antiviral against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, according to a new single-patient study that contradicts previous research which found the drug had no impact on death rates from the disease. The researchers from the University of Cambridge in the UK who gave the drug to a patient […]
LONDON: UN chief Antonio Guterres called on governments Saturday to declare a “state of climate emergency” and make good on their promises to slash carbon pollution as they recover from the pandemic. Speaking at the opening of the Climate Ambition summit, held online to mark five years since the Paris climate deal, Guterres warned that […]
WASHINGTON: The US gave the final go-ahead Friday to the nation’s first COVID-19 vaccine, marking what could be the beginning of the end of an outbreak that has killed nearly 300,000 Americans, according to a person familiar with the decision but not authorised to discuss it publicly. Shots for health workers and nursing home residents […]
UNITED NATIONS: The UN General Assembly approved a resolution over Russian objections Thursday commending progress in peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban while urging stepped-up efforts to tackle terrorist attacks by the Taliban, al-Qaida, the Islamic State extremist group and their affiliates. The vote in the 193-member world body was 130 in […]
BEIJING: Underlining that common efforts were needed to maintain good relations between China and India, a senior Chinese official on Thursday said that Beijing is committed to resolving the border standoff through dialogue but was also determined to safeguard its territorial sovereignty. Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said this while reacting to External Affairs […]