31-10-2021 WASHINGTON/ BEIJING: US intelligence agencies say they may never be able to identify the origins of COVID-19, but they have concluded it was not created as a biological weapon. In an updated assessment of where the virus began, the Office of the US Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) said …
Read More »PM Narendra Modi invites Pope for visit
30-10-2021 VATICAN CITY/ GLASGOW: India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has invited Pope Francis to visit his country – a significant turnaround after negotiations for a papal visit to India collapsed in 2017. The invitation came after Modi shared images of his first private meeting with the Pope at the Vatican. …
Read More »Climate & COVID top agenda as world leaders meet
30-10-2021 GLASGOW: Climate change and COVID are top of the agenda of leaders from the world’s major economies meeting in Italy. It is the first time the G20 leaders are meeting face-to-face since the start of the pandemic. However, China’s Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin are not in Rome …
Read More »Taliban appoint new envoy to run embassy in Pakistan
30-10-2021 By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report + Agencies ISLAMABAD/ PESHAWAR/ UNITED NATIONS: KABUL: The Taliban government has sent an envoy to run the Afghan embassy in the Pakistani capital, senior Taliban sources said, as the new administration starts to take over Afghanistan’s network of foreign delegations. Mohammad Shokaib was …
Read More »Aryan, son of Bollywood star released from jail in India
30-10-2021 Bureau Report NEW DELHI/ MUMBAI/ GOA: Aryan Khan, the son of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, has been released from a jail in Mumbai after he was arrested during a cruise ship drugs bust in a case that has gripped India. Aryan, 23, the eldest son of the actor …
Read More »Guantanamo detainee details CIA torture in US court
30-10-2021 WASHINGTON: A detainee held at the Guantanamo Bay detention centre has offered the first public account in a United States court, of torture at a CIA clandestine facility during Washington’s decades-long so-called “war on terror”. Majid Khan, a former resident of a Baltimore suburb, detailed being water-boarded, physically and sexually …
Read More »Stampede, killing, firing, fear & uncertainty continue in Pakistan
29-10-2021 By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report KARACHI/ ISLAMABAD/ LAHORE/ LONDON: Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA), an independent organization but under the direct supervision of ‘Pakistani State’ administrative control usually known as ‘a tool’ that has been using against opponents and anti-state particularly impartial media outlets of Pakistan has …
Read More »$88m settlement for Black victims of white US supremacist
29-10-2021 WASHINGTON: The Department of Justice announced an $88m settlement on Thursday with victims of a white supremacist who shot dead nine Black churchgoers in South Carolina in 2015. The settlement stems from allegations that the FBI was negligent when it failed to prohibit the sale of a gun by …
Read More »India tests Agni-5 ballistic missile
29-10-2021 Bureau Report + Agencies NEW DELHI/ BEIJING/ WASHINGTON/ ISLAMABAD: India has tested a ballistic missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead up to 5,000 kilometres (3,100 miles), the defence ministry said, in what media called a “stern signal” to China as the two remain locked in a border spat. …
Read More »Death toll rises as Khartoum rocked by more clashes
29-10-2021 KHARTOUM: Security forces have clashed with protesters furious over a military coup that derailed a fragile transition to democracy and sparked an international outcry, with the United States and United Nations dialing up the pressure on Sudan’s new military government. At least one protester was killed on Thursday, according …
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