International

18-05-2020 TEHRAN: While countrywide demonstrations marking the International Quds (Jerusalem) Day have been cancelled in Iran due to the coronavirus outbreak, a series of exceptional plans has been formulated to mark the event, an official said. Deputy head of the Islamic Development Organization of Iran’s coordination council announced on Sunday …

17-05-2020 By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report + Agencies KABUL/ ISLAMABAD: Hours after gunmen on Tuesday stormed a maternity clinic in Kabul and killed two dozen people, including women and babies, Feroza Omar rushed to another hospital where about 20 babies who survived the attack had been transferred. When she arrived at Ataturk …

16-05-2020 TEHRAN/ PARIS: Iran has sentenced French-Iranian academic Fariba Adelkhah to six years in prison on national security charges, according to her lawyer. Saeid Dehghan told Reuters News Agency on Saturday he would appeal against the verdict. “The branch 15 of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court has sentenced her to five years …

16-05-2020 By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report ISLAMABAD: A Pakistani pharmaceutical company will start to manufacture coronavirus drug Remdesivir within two months, said Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health Dr Zafar Mirza yesterday. “American company Gilead has manufactured this drug and it has proven effective in treating coronavirus …

14-05-2020 By SJA Jafri + Agencies ISLAMABAD/ UNITED NATIONS:  Past and present world leaders have urged that any eventual COVID-19 vaccines and treatments should be made available to everyone free of charge. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan were among more than 140 signatories of a letter …

14-05-2020 By SJA Jafri + Agencies ISTANBUL/ WASHINGTON/ RIYADH: The fiancee of murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi has urged Newcastle United fans in an open letter to oppose a proposed Saudi takeover of the football club. The call by Hatice Cengiz on Wednesday came as news circulated that an investment …

14-05-2020 By SJA Jafri + Int’l News Desk GENEVA/ LONDON: The coronavirus “may never go away”, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned. Speaking at a briefing on Wednesday, WHO emergencies director Dr Mike Ryan warned against trying to predict when the virus would disappear. He added that even if …

13-05-2020 By SJA Jafri + Agencies NEW YORK/ MELBOURNE: The America’s Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has accidentally disclosed the name of a Saudi diplomat suspected of directing support to two al-Qaeda hijackers in the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, sources reported. The mistake about the identity of …

12-05-2020 TEHRAN/ WASHINGTON: Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman said the incompetence of the US administration to address the COVID-19 crisis has “imposed intolerable burden” on the American nurses who are on the frontline of the battle against the deadly virus. “Today is International Nurses Day, amid COVID19; we are all indebted …

12-05-2020 Dozens Shia killed during Daesh attacks in Afghanistan By SJA Jafri + Agencies + Bureau Report KABUL/ ISLAMABAD: Afghan forces have evacuated dozens and ended the siege at a maternity hospital in Kabul, killing the three gunmen behind the deadly attack on the government-run hospital in the capital, the interior ministry spokesman …