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13-01-2023 Bureau Report + Agencies NEW DELHI/ MUMBAI: In the hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a shock announcement making 86 percent of India’s currency notes invalid on November 8, 2016, Mujammil Khan’s life changed at a pace he could not keep up with. Overnight, Khan’s livelihood as an …

13-01-2023 BEIJING: People in China worried on Thursday about spreading COVID-19 to aged relatives as they planned returns to their hometowns for holidays that the World Health Organization warns could inflame a raging outbreak. The Lunar New Year holiday, which officially starts from Jan. 21, comes after China last month …

13-01-2023 JERUSALEM/ MOSCOW: Israel’s new government, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has primarily made headlines domestically, and for its policies towards Palestinians, since coming into power late last year but on foreign policy, particularly regarding Russia’s war in Ukraine, some argue that Israel’s most right-wing government yet is inclined …

13-01-2023 By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report + Agencies ISLAMABAD/ LONDON: Islamabad has denied reports in the British media that a package containing uranium, which arrived at London’s Heathrow airport in December, originated from Pakistan. Newspapers including ‘The Sun’, a tabloid, and the Guardian made the claim, as well as …

12-01-2023 By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report KABUL/ ISLAMABAD: A suicide bomber killed at least five people outside the Afghan foreign ministry on Wednesday, police said, but some officials put the death toll higher. Kabul police spokesperson Khalid Zadran said the official confirmed death toll was five. Ustad Fareedun, an …

12-01-2023 TEHRAN: One of Iran’s most prominent female activists has described how confessions are forced out of prisoners, in a letter written inside a notorious jail. Sepideh Qolian has been serving a five-year sentence since 2018 after being convicted of acting “against national security” for supporting a strike. Writing from …

12-01-2023 NEW YORK: Normal air traffic operations are resuming gradually in the US after hours of delays, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) says. It follows a problem with the system that alerts pilots to potential hazards on flight routes. The FAA had said flights would take off again from 0900 …

12-01-2023 VIENNA: “Terrorism” charges against an Austrian academic, Farid Hafez, have been dropped after documentary revealed the case was based on false evidence and fabricated accusations. In an interview, Hafez said he was relieved to be no longer living in “limbo” more than two years after officers barged into his …

12-01-2023 TEHRAN/ BAGHDAD: Iran has summoned the ambassador of neighboring Iraq to protest against its use of the “Arabian Gulf Cup” name for a regional football tournament as part of a long-standing dispute over the waterway’s name. Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said on Wednesday that Tehran had communicated its …

12-01-2023 BEIJING/ TAIPEI: China has renewed its longstanding threat to attack Taiwan and warned that foreign politicians who interact with the self-governing island are “playing with fire”. A spokesperson for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office said on Wednesday that Beijing was recommitted in the New Year to “safeguarding sovereignty and territorial …