30-07-2021 Bureau Report CANBERRA/ MELBOURNE/ NEW DELHI: The National Gallery of Australia is to return 14 works of art to India that are suspected of having been stolen, looted or exported illegally. The religious and cultural artifacts include sculptures, photos and a scroll and are worth around $2.2m (£1.57m). Gallery …

30-07-2021 PARIS: Poorer countries are still struggling to secure precious shots despite recent donations, despite more than four billion coronavirus vaccine doses being injected around the world. At least 4,014,302,550 doses had been injected into people’s arms by 1100 GMT on Thursday, according to tally based on official sources. Global …

30-07-2021 By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report + Agencies ISLAMABAD/ KABUL/ WASHINGTON: The first flight evacuating Afghan interpreters and others who worked alongside the United States forces in Afghanistan has landed at Washington Dulles International Airport, the US government has announced. An airliner carrying 221 Afghans, including 57 children and …

29-07-2021 Bureau Report + Agencies NEW DELHI/ WASHINGTON: NEW DELHI: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken issued a veiled warning Wednesday about Indian democracy backsliding in his first official visit to Washington’s important ally. Rights groups say civil liberties and the space for dissent are under increasing attack in the …

29-07-2021 ALASKA: A shallow earthquake of magnitude 8.2 has struck the Alaska Peninsula, prompting tsunami warnings across the Pacific Ocean. The US Geological Survey (USGS) said the quake, which struck at 10:15pm (06:15 GMT Thursday), was at a depth of 35km (22 miles). In Alaska, the National Tsunami Warning Center …

29-07-2021 By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report + Agencies KABUL/ KANDAHAR/ ISLAMABAD: Last week, Kawsar Sama and her family packed up their belongings and got on a flight to the capital city of Kabul. For the 21-year-old and her family, life in the southern city of Kandahar had become dangerous …

29-07-2021 TEHRAN: The Leader of the Islamic Revolution said one of the realities that the outgoing Iranian administration experienced during two terms was that putting trust in the West is futile, since the Westerners do not offer any help and seize every opportunity to harm Iran. Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei …

28-07-2021 RIYADH/ LONDON: Saudi Arabia will impose a three-year travel ban on citizens travelling to countries on the kingdom’s ‘red list’ under efforts to curb the spread of coronavirus and its new variants, state news agency SPA said on Tuesday. It cited an unnamed interior ministry official as saying some …

28-07-2021 KANDAHAR/ KABUL: The arrest of four journalists in Kandahar by the National Directorate of Security, NDS, the country’s intelligence agency, has sparked reactions from watchdog organizations who say the four must be released and the reason for their detention should be made clear. Three of the journalists–Bismillah Watandost, Qudrat …

28-07-2021 KOLKATA/ NEW DELHI:  India’s ambitious railway project to connect a small northeastern Indian state along its border with China to the rest of the country is raising concerns among local forest dwellers and environmentalists. The 45km (28-mile) project, work on which began in 2009, connects Sevoke in eastern state …