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23-04-2020 WASHINGTON: American President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to temporarily suspend the approval of green cards. The order, which contains a number of exemptions, is to last for 60 days and then could be extended, he said. Trump said the policy was designed to protect American workers’ …

22-04-2020 By SJA Jafri PARIS/ MELBOURNE/ KARACHI: The 2020 World Press Freedom Index, compiled by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), shows that the coming decade will be decisive for the future of journalism, with the Covid-19 pandemic highlighting and amplifying the many crises that threaten the right to freely reported, independent, …

22-04-2020 LONDON/ RIYADH/ NEW YORK: The price of a barrel of Brent Crude – the UK benchmark for oil – has slipped below $20, its lowest level since 2002. The more than 25% slump followed negative prices being recorded for a barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI), the benchmark for …

21-04-2020 By SJA Jafri + Agencies GENEVA/ LONDON/ NEW YORK/ BEIJING: The World Health Organization (WHO) said that all available evidence suggests that the novel coronavirus originated in bats in China late last year and it was not manipulated or constructed in a lab. US President Donald Trump said last …

21-04-2020 By SJA Jafri + Agencies + Bureau Reports MEDINA/ RIYADH/ ISLAMABAD/ DAMASCUS/ SANA’A/ KUWAIT CITY: Including one hundred and fifty-six  (156) Shia Muslims including eleven (11) teenagers and six (6) young girls, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) executed a record  one hundred and eighty-seven (187) people during the …

20-04-2020 By SJA Jafri + Agencies JERUSALEM: Wearing face masks, waving black flags, and keeping two meters apart, thousands of Israelis demonstrated against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu under strict coronavirus restrictions and declared PM as Crime Minister (CM). “Let democracy win,” said one placard on Sunday, while some protesters wrote …

20-04-2020 By SJA Jafri + Agencies OTTAWA/ PORTAPIQUE (NOVA SCOTIA): A gunman who dressed as a policeman killed at least 13 people, including a female police officer, in the province of Nova Scotia, Canadian police say. The 12-hour rampage ended in a car chase. The attacker is also dead. Residents …

19-04-2020 By SJA Jafri + Agencies WASHINGTON: The American President Donald Trump has been accused of stoking Islamophobia after raising questions about social distancing in mosques during the holy month of Ramadan. Trump said on Saturday there “could be a difference” in how authorities and politicians enforce coronavirus lockdown measures …

19-04-2020 By SJA Jafri + Agencies + Bureau Reports + Int’l Monitoring Desk HOUSTON/ WASHINGTON/ NEW YORK/ LONDON: In the United States, New York reported the lowest daily death toll in more than two weeks with Governor Andrew Cuomo expressing hope the hard-hit state may now be “past the plateau”. …

18-04-2020 By SJA Jafri + Agencies RIYADH/ DUBAI/ Concerns have been raised about a prominent member of Saudi Arabia’s royal family after claims she was being detained without charge in a notorious prison used to house al-Qaeda militants. In a series of tweets published on her verified Twitter account late on Thursday, …