International

20-12-2020 Bureau Report KATHMANDU/ ISLAMABAD/ NEW DELHI: Nepal’s president has dissolved Parliament at the request of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli’s cabinet and announced that general elections would be held in April and May, more than a year ahead of schedule. Sunday’s move plunges the Himalayan country, which has seen …

20-12-2020 By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report KABUL/ ISLAMABAD: A major US air base north of Kabul was the target of a rocket attack at dawn on Saturday, but there were no casualties or damage at the airfield, officials said. Five rockets were fired at Bagram airfield at 6 a.m., …

19-12-2020 NEW YORK: The New York Times has returned an award and had another withdrawn after it found discrepancies in its podcast on the Islamic State group. After a two-month investigation, the newspaper said the podcast, Caliphate, failed to meet its editorial standards. In the 2018 series, Shehroze Chaudhry, one …

19-12-2020 Bureau Report ADELAIDE/ OVAL: Josh Hazlewood took five for eight as Australia romped to an emphatic victory by eight wickets in the first Test at Adelaide Oval on Saturday after skittling India for 36, their lowest innings score in 88 years of Test cricket. Hazlewood and Pat Cummins (4-21) …

19-12-2020 MEXICO CITY: The former governor of Mexico’s troubled western state of Jalisco was shot dead on Friday, marking the latest of a series of violent attacks in a country already plagued by drug-related gangs. Aristoteles Sandoval was killed in an attack at 1.40am (07:40 GMT) in a restaurant’s toilet …

18-12-2020 By SJA JAfri + Bureau Report KABUL/ ISLAMABAD: An explosion at a religious gathering in central Afghanistan has killed and injured dozens, the country’s interior ministry said, adding that children may be among the victims. Those killed and wounded were attending a Quran recitation ceremony on Friday. Initial information …

18-12-2020 ABUJA: Hundreds of schoolboys who were kidnapped in northwestern Nigeria nearly a week ago have been released, a local official said late on Thursday, prompting joy and relief for families that had been praying for the boys’ safe return. Katsina state Governor Aminu Bello Masari said in a televised …

18-12-2020 NEW DELHI: India expects to begin vaccinating people against COVID-19 in January, federal health officials told media. The officials – who requested anonymity – said a few vaccine candidates were likely to get emergency-use authorization from the drug regulator in the “next few weeks”. Two companies have already applied …

17-12-2020 PARIS: A Paris court has handed jail terms ranging from four years to life to more than a dozen people convicted of helping gunmen who massacred cartoonists at satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo and customers at a Jewish supermarket in January 2015. Lawyers for the victims and activists hailed Wednesday’s …

16-12-2020 By SJA Jafri + Al-Jazeera LILLE/ PARIS/ DOHA: Three far-right activists in France caught on camera during an Al Jazeera undercover investigation have been found guilty of offences that included assault, and in one case incitement to “terrorism”. A judge at the High Court in the northern city of …