02-11-2021 GLASGOW: More than 100 countries promised to halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by the end of 2030, underpinned by $19bn in public and private funds to invest in protecting and restoring forests. The joint statement issued at the COP26 climate talks in Glasgow late on Monday …

02-11-2021 By SJA Jafri KARACHI/ LAHORE/ ISLAMABAD: At least 23 Pakistani journalists have been penalized under the country’s draconian cyber-crime law in the last two years, establishing a “chilling pattern” of using the threat of legal action to silence dissent, a new report by a media rights watchdog says. Freedom …

02-11-2021 GLASGOW: India’s economy will become carbon neutral by the year 2070, the country’s prime minster has announced at the COP26 climate crisis summit in Glasgow. The target date is two decades beyond what scientists say is needed to avert catastrophic climate impacts. India is the last of the world’s …

02-11-2021 LONDON/ NEW YORK: More than five million people are known to have died of Covid-19 worldwide, 19 months since the pandemic began, according to Johns Hopkins University. Vaccines have slowed the death rate, but some health experts say the true toll could be far higher. The milestone comes amid …

02-11-2021 RIYADH/ DUBAI/ BEIRUT: Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister said on Saturday the latest crisis with Lebanon has its origins in a Lebanese political setup that reinforces the dominance of the Iran-backed Hezbollah armed group and continues to allow endemic instability. Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries expelled Lebanese envoys in …

02-11-2021 LONDON/ NEW DELHI/ ISLAMABAD: Thousands of Sikhs across the United Kingdom took part in a referendum for an independent Sikh homeland, Khalistan, at the Queen Elizabeth Centre near the British parliament on Sunday, the day when Indian premier Indira Gandhi was assassinated in 1984 for ordering Operation Blue Star …

01-11-2021 By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report KABUL/ ISLAMABAD: Taliban supreme leader Haibatullah Akhundzada addressed supporters in the southern city of Kandahar, officials announced Sunday, his first public appearance since taking control of the group in 2016. Akhundzada has been the spiritual chief of the Islamist movement since 2016 but …

01-11-2021 RIYADH: Saudi Arabian state oil producer Aramco has said its third-quarter net profit more than doubled, boosted by higher crude oil prices and volumes sold, beating analysts’ forecasts. Net income jumped to $30.4bn for the quarter to September 30 from $11.8bn a year earlier, it said in a bourse …

01-11-2021 GLASGOW: The United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) has begun in the Scottish city of Glasgow, accompanied by drastic warnings from the scientific community of an escalating climate crisis. Delayed by a year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, COP26 aims to keep alive a target of capping global warming at 1.5C …

01-11-2021 OCCUPIED EAST JERUSALEM, ISRAEL: A few metres away from the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound’s eastern walls lies the centuries-old Al-Yousufiya Cemetery, also known as the Bab al-Asbat (Lion’s Gate) Cemetery. Over the past few weeks, videos and images of Palestinians clinging to their family members’ graves as Israeli forces arrest, …