26-01-2022 Bureau Report BEIJING/ SRINAGAR/ NEW DELHI: China is building a bridge across the Pangong Lake in the frontier region of Ladakh in Indian-administered Kashmir, raising fresh security concerns in India. The 400-metre-long and 8-metre-wide bridge being constructed near the Line of Actual Control (LAC), the de facto border between …

26-01-2022 GENEVA: The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Monday that it was dangerous to assume the Omicron variant would herald the end of COVID-19’s acutest phase, exhorting nations to stay focused to beat the pandemic. “It’s dangerous to assume that Omicron will be the last variant …

26-01-2022 LONDON: A young Pakistani entrepreneur has become the first in Britain to start a “Chai Ada” café which accepts multiple cryptocurrencies as a form of payment. Tayyab Shafiq, 26, has established the Chai Ada coffee shop outside Westfield in Shepherds Bush, West London, to sell a variety of Pakistani …

26-01-2022 TEHRAN/ PARIS: A French tourist has been jailed for eight years for spying by a court in Iran, his lawyer in Paris has said. Benjamin Briere, 36, was arrested in May 2020 after flying a drone near the Iran-Turkmenistan border. The lawyer, Philippe Valent, said his client “did not …

25-01-2022 PYONGYANG/ UNITED NATIONS: North Korea has fired what appeared to be two cruise missiles into the sea off its east coast, Yonhap news reported, citing military sources, following a series of banned ballistic missile tests earlier this month. South Korea’s military is assessing Tuesday’s launches to determine the nature …

25-01-2022 ISTANBUL: The suspension of flight operations at Turkey’s Istanbul Airport was extended on Tuesday due to heavy snowfall, while winter weather snarled transport across the city, home to about 16 million people. “The suspension of flight operations have been extended until 1000 GMT on Jan 25 due to adverse …

25-01-2022 WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden was caught on a live microphone Monday calling a Fox News journalist a “stupid son of a bitch” on the sidelines of a White House photo op. As journalists were leaving the room after the event, a reporter from Fox News, the favorite channel …

25-01-2022 By SJA Jafri + Agencies KARACHI/ DAMASCUS: A brazen ISIL attack on a prison in northeast Syria and the ensuing five days of fighting with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) is a stark reminder of the armed group’s growing strength, exactly as “Taliban’s influences increase in Pakistan”, sources …

25-01-2022 OUAGADOUGOU: Burkina Faso’s President Roch Marc Christian Kabore was detained by Daesh (ISIS or ISIL), security officials said, with troops leading the apparent coup saying his government failed to support them during the country’s years-long conflict with armed groups. The news reports on Monday came a day after soldiers …

25-01-2022 LONDON: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange can take his legal fight against extradition to the United States to the Supreme Court, the United Kingdom’s High Court has ruled. While the court in London gave Assange permission to appeal, the Supreme Court must agree to accept the case before it can …