International

02-03-2023 WASHINGTON: FBI Director Christopher Wray says his agency has assessed that a leak from a laboratory in Wuhan, China, was the likely cause of the COVID-19 pandemic. Wray’s comments follow a Wall Street Journal report on Sunday that the US Energy Department had assessed with low confidence the pandemic …

02-03-2023 By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Supreme Court has ruled that elections for the provincial assemblies in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa must be held within 90 days. The five-member top court bench, led by Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial, on Wednesday gave a split 3-2 decision. “Parliamentary …

02-03-2023 COLOMBO: Sri Lankan workers have gone on strike in defiance of a government ban to protest against a rescue plan for the bankrupt island nation, forcing the closure of some hospitals, banks and ports. President Ranil Wickremesinghe is facing a public backlash over steep tax hikes and spending cuts …

02-03-2023 RIYADH: Long partial to heavy lunchtime platters of meat and rice, Asim al-Shammari has recently turned to lighter fare from a self-described diet restaurant, swayed by Saudi Arabia’s anti-obesity push. Roughly one in five Saudi adults is obese, according to an in-depth study published by the World Bank last …

02-03-2023 ISTANBUL: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has indicated that national elections will be held on May 14, sticking to his previous plan for the vote with a date just over three months after devastating earthquakes killed more than 45,000 people in Turkey. “This nation will do what is necessary …

02-03-2023 WASHINGTON: Iran could make enough fissile for one nuclear bomb in “about 12 days,” a top US Defense Department official said on Tuesday, down from the estimated one year it would have taken while the 2015 Iran nuclear deal was in effect. Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Colin …

02-03-2023 WEST BANK: Police have arrested six suspects over a far-right settler rampage in the occupied West Bank earlier this week that an Israeli general described as a “pogrom”. The settlers attacked villages around the West Bank city of Nablus a few hours after a Palestinian gunman killed two Israeli …

02-03-2023 ABUJA: Nigeria’s ruling party candidate, Bola Tinubu, was declared president-elect of Africa’s most populous nation in the early hours of Wednesday after a weekend election that the main opposition parties have disputed. Tinubu, a former governor of Lagos state, will take over leadership of a country grappling with armed …

01-03-2023 By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report KABUL/ ISLAMABAD: Taliban forces killed a top Daesh (ISIS/ ISIL) commander who allegedly planned attacks against diplomatic missions in Afghanistan’s capital, a government official said. Violence in Afghanistan dramatically dipped after the Taliban seized power in August 2021 but in the past year, …

01-03-2023 Bureau Report + Agencies NEW YORK/ NEW DELHI: A record number of countries have enforced internet shutdowns in 2022 that had a “devastating impact on human lives”, a new report has found. The digital rights group Access Now and the #KeepItOn campaign, a coalition of about 70 organizations documented …