04-10-2021 BAGHDAD: War-torn Iraq will hold parliamentary elections on October 10, a year ahead of schedule, to appease an anti-government protest movement as corruption and economic crisis continue to plague the country. The country is emerging from almost two decades of conflict and insurgency since the 2003 US-led invasion toppled …

03-10-2021 By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report + Agencies KABUL/ ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is in disarmament talks with some factions of the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Prime Minister Imran Khan has said, as the government seeks stability in the country in the backdrop of a fast evolving situation in Afghanistan. PM …

03-10-2021 EDINBURGH: The world’s major economies must do more at the upcoming United Nations COP26 climate summit in Scotland to show they are serious about wanting to tackle global warming and heed the warnings of young activists, policymakers said on Saturday. COP26 President Alok Sharma said there was renewed urgency …

03-10-2021 WASHINGTON/ NEW YORK: Tens of thousands of women have marched across cities in the United States to protest increasing restrictions on abortion. The 660 demonstrations around the US on Saturday, including on the steps of the Supreme Court in Washington DC, were largely sparked by a Texas law that …

02-10-2021 Bureau Report SYDNEY/ NEW DELHI: Australia and India hope to reach a long-pending landmark trade deal by the end of 2022, according to a joint statement released on Friday announcing the formal relaunch of stalled negotiations. Bilateral trade was around Aus$24 billion (US$17 billion) last year, with India exporting …

02-10-2021 MANAMA/ JERUSALEM: Anti-Israel protests broke out in Bahrain on Friday, a day after Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid’s visit to open the Jewish state’s first embassy in the country. Police fired tear gas during one rally as scattered, small-scale protests took place around the tiny Gulf state. Protesters marched …

02-10-2021 PARIS: A decades-long manhunt for a notorious French serial killer appears to be over after a former military police officer confessed in a suicide note to being the murderer. The man, identified by French media as Francois Verove, was found dead on Wednesday in the southern town of Le …

02-10-2021 TEHRAN: Iran’s military has launched a large military drill near the country’s border with Azerbaijan, in a show of force amid tensions with its neighboring country partly linked to the latter’s close ties with Israel. State television on Friday showed footage of tanks, helicopters, artillery and soldiers being deployed …

02-10-2021 MADRID: A Spanish judge has shocked women’s rights groups by dismissing a case that involved women being secretly filmed urinating in public and the videos then being posted on porn websites. Recordings of some 80 women and girls were made as they urinated in a side street because of …

01-10-2021 SJA Jafri + Bureau Report + Agencies KABUL/ ISLAMABAD/ LISBON: The Taliban on Thursday violently cracked down on a small women´s rights demonstration, firing shots into the air and pushing back protesters, journalists witnessed. A group of six women gathered outside a high school in eastern Kabul demanding the …