08-05-2022 BEIJING: The streets of Beijing’s business district were deserted on Thursday as the government called for people to return to work remotely, with scores of subway stations shut after a national holiday muted by coronavirus curbs. Chinese authorities have stuck to their zero-COVID policy of lockdowns and mass testing …

08-05-2022 By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report KABUL/ ISLAMABAD: Afghanistan’s supreme leader has ordered the country’s women to cover their faces in public, one of the harshest restrictions imposed on them since the Taliban seized power last year and an escalation of growing restrictions on women that is drawing a …

08-05-2022 Bureau Report + Agencies NEW DELHI/ ISLAMABAD: The devastating heatwave that gripped India and Pakistan over the last two months is unprecedented, but worse, perhaps far worse, is on the horizon as climate change continues apace, top climate scientists told media. Even without additional global warming, South Asia is, …

08-05-2022 SANA’A/ RIYADH/ TEHRAN: The Saudi-led coalition forces and their allied militant groups have breached a UN-brokered nationwide truce more than 5,000 times, a Yemeni official said. The truce went into effect more than a month ago with the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The official, who …

08-05-2022 BAGHDAD: A mosque pulled down by tractors, angry protesters setting buildings on fire, and police arrests; despite their relatively small-scale, recent events across a few cities in Iraq were enough to startle the country over the last month, and all were linked to a controversial Muslim scholar, Mahmoud al-Sarkhi. …

07-05-2022 SEOUL/ PYONGYANG: North Korea fired an unidentified projectile into waters off its east coast Saturday, the South Korean military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said. The latest launch comes just three days after Pyongyang last fired a missile, as warnings grow that it may conduct a nuclear test. “North Korea …

07-05-2022 NEW YORK: The Omicron variant of the SARS-CoV2 virus is intrinsically as severe as previous variants, unlike assumptions made in previous studies that it was more transmissible but less severe, a large study in the United States has found. “We found that the risks of hospitalization and mortality were …

07-05-2022 LONDON: Amnesty International says it has documented war crimes in Ukraine, including the “wilful killings of civilians” by Russian forces when they occupied an area northeast of Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, in February and March. Civilians have also suffered abuse such as “reckless shootings and torture” at the hands of …

07-05-2022 By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report KABUL/ WASHINGTON/ ISLAMABAD/ KARACHI: Dozens of Anti-Shia Terrorists Organizations (ASTO) have not only complete hold in Afghanistan but also trying to re-establish themselves (again) countrywide like they are well groomed, trained and have entire controlled in Pakistan (independently as well as with the …

07-05-2022 COLOMBO: Thousands of shops, schools and businesses closed on Friday as public and private sector workers in Sri Lanka went on strike, demanding the president and his government step down for their mishandling of the island’s worst financial crisis in decades. Hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic and rising …