International

19-04-2021 By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report ISLAMABAD/ KARACHI: Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has called for Muslim-majority countries to band together to lobby Western governments to criminalize the insulting of Islam’s prophet, as negotiations between his government and a far-right anti-blasphemy religious group continues. In a televised address to …

19-04-2021 NEW YORK/ BEIJING: China is committing crimes against humanity in its treatment of the Uighur ethnic minority and other Turkic Muslims in the northwest region of Xinjiang, with Beijing responsible for “policies of mass detention, torture, and cultural persecution, among other offenses”, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said in …

19-04-2021 By SJA Jafri + Agencies + Bureau Report TEHRAN: Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Saeed Khatibzadeh said Tehran would welcome negotiations with Riyadh. Asked about recent reports of direct talks between Iranian and Saudi officials in Baghdad, Khatibzadeh said at a press conference on Monday that he would not make …

19-04-2021 Bureau Report CANBERRA/ WELLINGTON: Tearful reunions filled Auckland airport on Monday as residents from Australia were able to travel freely to New Zealand for the first time in more than a year. The long-awaited Australia-New Zealand travel bubble means visitors no longer need to quarantine on arrival. Thousands of …

19-04-2021 SJA Jafri + Bureau Report DHAKA/ NEW DELHI/ ISLAMABAD: Hundreds of members and supporters of an Islamist group, including its influential leader, have been arrested in Bangladesh over the past week, officials said, over deadly protests against the visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month for the …

18-04-2021 CAIRO: Hundreds of passengers were injured when some train carriages derailed in Egypt’s Qalyubia province north of Cairo, the health ministry said in a statement. More than 50 ambulances rushed to the site and moved the injured to three hospitals in the province, it said on Sunday. Local media …

18-04-2021 KENOSHA (WASHINGTON): During a current and continuous wave of “White Terrorism” in America, three more dead and two injured as claimed by sources closed to Capitol Hill police. Three people were killed and two were left wounded early Sunday in a shooting at a tavern in southeastern Wisconsin, sheriff’s …

18-04-2021 By SJA Jafri + Agencies + Bureau Report ISLAMABAD/ BAGHDAD/ TEHRAN/ RIYADH: Senior Saudi and Iranian officials held direct talks in a bid to repair relations between the two regional rivals, according to a report in the Financial Times which quoted officials briefed on the discussions. The first round …

18-04-2021 Bureau Report CANBERRA/ SYDNEY: Australia is in no hurry to reopen its international borders and risk the country’s nearly coronavirus-free lifestyle, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Sunday. Australia closed its borders to all non-citizens and non-residents in March 2020 and has been permitting only limited international arrivals in …

18-04-2021 TEHRAN/ VIENNA/ WASHINGTON: Another round of talks in Vienna to restore Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers has concluded on a hopeful note as different sides said progress is being made. The Joint Commission of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) convened on Saturday in the Austrian …