PARIS: The Eiffel Tower was plunged into darkness as Paris switched off the lights on its best-known tourist attraction to mark the Earth Hour, media reports said.

The global event sees nearly 200 major landmarks around the world unplugged at 8:30 pm local time for its 13th annual edition.

The major landmarks include New York’s Empire State Building, the Christ the Redeemer statue in Brazil and the Sydney Opera House.

The annual Earth Hour is gradually becoming popular since the first event in 2007. It is currently marked in more than 180 countries and territories, according to the organizers. (Agencies)

GANDHINAGAR : Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah on Saturday filed his nomination from Gandhinagar constituency for the upcoming elections, Indian media reported.

Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament (MP) Shah is contesting the Lok Sabha elections for the first time. He has been fielded from Gandhinagar constituency, which is currently held by BJP veteran LK Advani.

HERAT: Flash floods triggered by heavy rains have killed at least 17 people in western Afghanistan, destroying homes and sweeping through makeshift shelters that housed displaced families, a government official said on Saturday.

CAIRO: As many as 266 Palestinians were killed in a military action carried out by Israeli soldiers in the last one year in Israel-controlled Gaza strip, according to a report.

According to the report unveiled by the Health Ministry based in Gaza, 30, 398 sustained injuries, 536 critically, during the period.

Fifty among those killed in the demonstration are children, six women, one senior citizen, three medical persons and two journalists.

Similarly, two Israeli soldiers died during the period, said the report.

(With inputs from Agencies)

WASHINGTON: On the day that their talks in Hanoi collapsed last month, US President Donald Trump handed North Korean leader Kim Jong Un a piece of paper that included a blunt call for the transfer of Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons and bomb fuel to the United States, according to the document seen by Reuters.

Trump gave Kim both Korean and English-language versions of the US position at Hanoi’s Metropole hotel on February 28, according to a source familiar with the discussions, speaking on condition of anonymity. It was the first time that Trump himself had explicitly defined what he meant by denuclearization directly to Kim, the source said.

A lunch between the two leaders was canceled the same day. While neither side has presented a complete account of why the summit collapsed, the document may help explain it.

The document’s existence was first mentioned by White House national security adviser John Bolton in television interviews he gave after the two-day summit. Bolton did not disclose in those interviews the pivotal US expectation contained in the document that North Korea should transfer its nuclear weapons and fissile material to the United States.

The document appeared to represent Bolton’s long-held and hardline “Libya model” of denuclearization that North Korea has rejected repeatedly. It probably would have been seen by Kim as insulting and provocative, analysts said.

Trump had previously distanced himself in public comments from Bolton’s approach and said a “Libya model” would be employed only if a deal could not be reached.

(Agencies)

WASHINGTON:  US Attorney General William Barr said he will make public a redacted copy of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s nearly 400-page investigative report into Russian interference in the 2016 election by mid-April.

In a letter to the lawyers of both the Democratic and Republican parties, Bar said, “Everyone will soon be able to read it on their own,”

On March 22, Mueller completed his 22-month probe and Barr on Sunday sent a four-page letter to Congress, outlining the main findings.

Barr told lawmakers that the investigation did not establish that members of the election campaign of President Donald Trump conspired with Russia.

(Agencies)

LONDON: Lawmakers of the United Kingdom have rejected Prime Minister Theresa May’s EU withdrawal agreement on the day the UK was due to leave the EU, media reports said.

The government lost by a margin of 58 votes – 344 to 286.

Now that the UK has missed an EU deadline to delay Brexit to 22 May and leave with a deal.

Prime Minister May said the UK would have to find “an alternative way forward”.

She said that the outcome was “a matter of profound regret”. “I fear we are reaching the limits of this process in this House,” she added.

Meanwhile, the Downing Street said it was still not an “inevitability” that the country would have to take part in elections to the European Parliament in May. (Agencies)

HANOI: Vietnam has recovered more than nine tons of ivory that was shipped from Congo.

The ivory was shipped in a timber shipment from the African country. It is one of the country’s largest wildlife hauls in years, international media reported.

Though it is illegal to buy and sell ivory in communist Vietnam, lax law enforcement has allowed the illicit trade to flourish on the black market.

KABUL: About 24 people, including 14 police officers, were killed after Taliban militants attacked police checkpoints in Afghanistan, media reports said.

In one incident, nine police officers, including a district police chief, were killed and six police wounded at Ghazni city, capital of eastern Ghazni province.

In northern Badakhshan province, five security forces, two civilians and eight Taliban militants were killed.

DHAKA: At least 25 people were killed when a fire broke out in a large office tower in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Several dozen others have been injured, local media said on Friday.

Large flames burning through the 24-story building, F.R. Tower were posted on social media. Witnesses said several people had fallen while trying to descend using cables, according to reports.

A total of 21 firefighting units were dispatched to douse the blaze. At least 70 others were injured, police said (Agencies)