International

22-10-2021 Bureau Report KABUL/ ISLAMABAD: An explosion brought down electricity lines and cut off power to Kabul on Thursday, in a further blow to Taliban efforts to stabilise Afghanistan two months after they seized control. The cause of the blast was not immediately clear, but if it is confirmed as …

22-10-2021 Bureau Report MELBOURNE: Australian authorities are offering a A$1m ($750,000; £540,000) reward for information on the whereabouts of a four-year-old girl they fear may have been abducted from a remote campsite. Cleo Smith was last seen sleeping in her family’s tent at the Quobba Blowholes coastal camp in Western …

22-10-2021 LONDON: Ali Harbi Ali, the man charged with murdering British Member of Parliament David Amess, considered himself affiliated with the Islamic State group (ISIL) and had settled on a plan to kill lawmaker years ago, a prosecutor said on Thursday. “Ali considered himself affiliated to Islamic State,” James Cable …

22-10-2021 LOS ANGELES: Former US president Donald Trump announced he would launch his own social media platform, TRUTH Social, saying it would “stand up to Big Tech” companies, Twitter and Facebook that have barred him from their platforms. TRUTH Social will be created through a new company formed by a …

21-10-2021 By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report + Agencies MOSCOW/ KABUL/ WASHINGTON/ ISLAMABAD: Afghanistan’s new Taliban rulers won backing from 10 regional powers at talks in Moscow for the idea of a United Nations donor conference to help the country stave off economic collapse and a humanitarian catastrophe. On Wednesday, …

21-10-2021 Bureau Report MELBOURNE: Almost 4000 fully vaccinated people will be able to attend a live music event in Melbourne next week as the state prepares to begin operating under a ‘vaccinated economy’. Details of Melbourne’s first major event after months of lockdown have been revealed after Victoria recorded 1841 new local …

21-10-2021 MENLO PARK, CALIFORNIA: Social media giant Facebook Inc is planning to rebrand itself with a new name next week, American technology blog the Verge reported on Tuesday, citing a source with direct knowledge of the matter. Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg plans to talk about the name change …

21-10-2021 LONDON/ SANA’A: Human rights lawyers have filed a complaint to British police accusing senior government figures in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates of complicity in war crimes in Yemen. The London-based Guernica 37 legal team submitted their dossier to the capital’s Metropolitan Police Service and the Crown …

20-10-2021 DHAKA: Thousands of members of Bangladesh’s ruling party rallied on Tuesday in support of the nation’s besieged minority Hindus after one of the worst bouts of communal violence in the Muslim-majority nation for over a decade. The wave of clashes left at least six people dead and dozens of …

20-10-2021 By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report + Agencies UNITED NATIONS/ KABUL/ ISLAMABAD: The UN has announced a nationwide polio immunization campaign in Afghanistan for the first time in many years. Children’s agency UNICEF said they had the full support of the Taliban for the project due to begin in …