05-09-2021 OTTAWA: Canada’s Conservative Party, which holds a slim lead in a tight electoral race, is facing mounting criticism for its stance on gun control after the Conservatives pledged to overturn a 2020 ban on some “assault-style” weapons. Conservative leader Erin O’Toole has been pressed repeatedly this week over his campaign …

05-09-2021 By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report + Agencies KABUL/ ISLAMABAD/ DUBAI/ WASHINGTON: Fighting was reported on Saturday between the Taliban and resistance forces in Afghanistan’s Panjshir Valley, the last region of the country holding out against the armed group. A spokesman for the National Resistance Front (NRF) of Afghanistan, …

05-09-2021 WASHINGTON: An unspecified number of Afghan government email accounts have been temporarily locked down by Google, according to a person familiar with the matter, as fears grow over the digital paper trail left by former officials and their international partners. In the weeks since the Taliban’s swift takeover of …

05-09-2021 TEHRAN: Iran urged the United States Saturday to stop its addiction to sanctions against the Islamic republic and accused President Joe Biden of following the same “dead end” policies as Donald Trump. Foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh made his remarks a day after the US Treasury announced financial sanctions …

04-09-2021 By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report KARACHI/ KABUL: As the world watched the frantic evacuations from Kabul’s airport, thousands of people were making their way to Afghanistan’s border with Pakistan on foot and in any vehicles they could find, far from the glare of news cameras. Officially, the border …

04-09-2021 NEW YORK/ WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden has directed the Justice Department and other agencies to begin a six-month process of declassifying documents related to the FBI’s investigations into the September 11, 2001 attacks. The move on Friday comes days before the 20th anniversary of the al-Qaeda attacks and …

04-09-2021 BAGHDAD/ NAJAF: Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Mohammed Saeed al-Hakeem, one of Iraq’s top Shia leaders, has died aged 85 in the southern holy city of Najaf. Al-Hakeem’s office announced on Friday that he died of a sudden medical condition it did not specify. A relative, Mohsen al-Hakeem, told The Associated …

03-09-2021 By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report + Agencies PANJSHIR/ KABUL/ IALAMABAD: Fighting between the Taliban fighters and resistance forces has intensified in the northern province of Panjshir, as the Afghan group battles to take control of the country’s last rebel stronghold. Residents in nearby areas of neighboring Parwan province …

03-09-2021 AUCKLAND: At least six people have been injured in a lone-wolf stabbing attack at a supermarket in the New Zealand city of Auckland, before police shot him dead, according to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. The man, known to the government’s “multiple agencies”, was killed within 60 seconds after beginning …

03-09-2021 HOUSTON: US President Joe Biden has launched a “whole-of-government” response to oppose a new law in Texas that bans most abortions. He called the Supreme Court’s decision not to block the law an “unprecedented assault” on women’s rights. Any individual now has the right to sue anyone involved with …