GLOBAL SNAPSHOT

Mushers on move

ANCHORAGE: Competitors took to the snowy trail as the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race kicked off on Sunday in Willow, Alaska. Sixty-seven teams of mushers are signed up for the 1600km trek over mountain ranges, frozen rivers and other dangerous terrain. The winner is expected to reach the finish in the old Gold Rush town of Nome in about nine days.

Baptism for Markle

LONDON: Meghan Markle will be baptised and confirmed as an Anglican by the Archbishop of Canterbury ahead of her wedding to Prince Harry. The 36-year-old divorcee will be welcomed into the church in a private service at Kensington Palace this month. Markle, who is to become a British citizen, was raised a Protestant and went to a Catholic school. She married Trevor Engelson, who is Jewish, in 2011 but she did not take his faith.

Bloody protests

SRINIGAR: Parts of Indiancontrolled Kashmir were under curfew and businesses and schools were shut yesterday to contain anti-India protests that spilt into the streets overnight after soldiers killed four civilians and a rebel. Locals said the civilians were killed in cold blood.

US Navy visit

HANOI: For the first time since the Vietnam War, a US Navy aircraft carrier is visiting a Vietnamese port, seeking to bolster both countries’ efforts to stem expansionism by China in the South China Sea. Yesterday’s visit by the USS Carl Vinson, accompanied by a cruiser and a destroyer, brings more than 6000 crew members to Danang, the largest such US military presence in Vietnam since the country was unified under Communist rule.