31-10-2021 TOKYO: A man brandishing a knife on a Tokyo commuter train on Sunday stabbed several passengers before starting a fire. NHK public television reported dozens passengers were injured, including one seriously. The attacker, only identified as a man in his 20s, was arrested on the spot and was being …

31-10-2021 Bureau Report MELBOURNE: More than 300,000 Victorians are still without power and some residents may in the dark until Monday after a destructive storm brought down powerlines and tore rooves off houses overnight. Energy Minister Lily D’Ambrosio said nearly a quarter of the whole state had lost power as …

31-10-2021 By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report NANGARHAR/ KABUL/ ISLAMABAD: Gunmen who identified themselves as Taliban attacked a wedding in eastern Afghanistan to stop music being played, killing at least two people and injuring 10 others, officials say. A Taliban spokesman said two of the three gunmen had been arrested …

31-10-2021 ROME: Leaders of the world’s 20 major economies have approved a global agreement that will see the profits of large businesses taxed at least 15%. It follows concern that multinational companies are re-routing their profits through low tax jurisdictions. The pact was agreed by all the leaders attending the …

31-10-2021 By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report WASHINGTON/ KARACHI/ ISLAMABAD: A man convicted of terrorism charges who was held at the held US military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, told a sentencing jury how he was raped, beaten, and waterboarded by CIA interrogators in the first-ever public account of torture …

31-10-2021 LONDON: Prime Minister Boris Johnson has acknowledged “turbulence” in the UK’s relationship with France as the row over fishing rights escalates. After dozens of French boats were denied post-Brexit fishing licences for UK and Jersey waters, France threatened to block ports to British vessels but Johnson told the BBC …

31-10-2021 WASHINGTON/ BEIJING: US intelligence agencies say they may never be able to identify the origins of COVID-19, but they have concluded it was not created as a biological weapon. In an updated assessment of where the virus began, the Office of the US Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) said …

30-10-2021 VATICAN CITY/ GLASGOW: India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has invited Pope Francis to visit his country – a significant turnaround after negotiations for a papal visit to India collapsed in 2017. The invitation came after Modi shared images of his first private meeting with the Pope at the Vatican. …

30-10-2021 GLASGOW: Climate change and COVID are top of the agenda of leaders from the world’s major economies meeting in Italy. It is the first time the G20 leaders are meeting face-to-face since the start of the pandemic. However, China’s Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin are not in Rome …

30-10-2021 By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report + Agencies ISLAMABAD/ PESHAWAR/ UNITED NATIONS: KABUL: The Taliban government has sent an envoy to run the Afghan embassy in the Pakistani capital, senior Taliban sources said, as the new administration starts to take over Afghanistan’s network of foreign delegations. Mohammad Shokaib was …