Top News

05-07-2021 By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report + Agencies KABUL/ ISLAMABAD: The Taliban’s march through northern Afghanistan gained momentum overnight with the capture of several districts from fleeing Afghan forces, several hundred of whom fled across the border into Tajikistan, officials said. More than 300 Afghan military personnel crossed from …

04-07-2021 MANILA: At least 45 people have died and dozens were injured when a Philippines Air Force plane carrying troops crashed and burst into flames after missing the runway in the country’s south. The Department of National Defence said 45 people had been killed, including three civilians on the ground, …

04-07-2021 Bureau Report + Int’l Monitoring Desk CALGARY/ ISLAMABAD: Seven Pakistanis, including four children, died in a Canadian city when their house caught fire, police said Friday prompting concerns from the community whether it was a result of Islamophobia. According to the police, the blaze tore through the home in …

04-07-2021 ALBERTA/ BRITISH COLUMBIA: Residents in parts of British Columbia (BC) have been ordered to evacuate as wildfires are raging across the Canadian province following a record heat wave that officials say contributed to hundreds of deaths. Around midday on Saturday, 176 fires were considered active across BC, including 76 that were …

04-07-2021 Bureau Report + Agencies PARIS/ NEW DELHI: A French judge has been tasked with investigating a controversial 2016 multi-billion-dollar sale of Rafale fighter jets to India on “corruption” suspicions, the national financial prosecutors’ office (PNF) said Friday. The 7.8-billion-euro ($9.3-billion) deal for 36 planes between the Indian government and …

04-07-2021 CIUDAD JUAREZ, MEXICO: For Claudia, the journey from her small Guatemalan village to the US-Mexico border was complicated by the fact she could speak only her native Ixil, one of 21 Mayan languages in Guatemala. On way to what she had hoped would be asylum in the United States, …

03-07-2021 TEHRAN:  Iran is bracing for another wave of COVID-19 infections as the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus is spreading through the country’s southern and southeastern provinces. Expressing alarm on Saturday, President Hassan Rouhani noted that adherence to health protocols such as using masks and physical distancing had …

03-07-2021 TOKYO: Dozens Japanese have been hurt and killed and many others have been reported missing on Saturday, after heavy rains hit Japan’s central city of Atami in Shizuoka, triggering landslides, according to the public broadcaster NHK. Two people were “found in a state of cardio and respiratory arrest”, Shizuoka …

03-07-2021 More than 130 wildfires – fuelled by lightning strikes – are burning across western Canada following a record-breaking heatwave. Canada’s federal government said it would send military aircraft to help emergency workers battling to control the fires in British Columbia. Earlier this week, people had to flee the village …

03-07-2021 WINNIPEG: Protesters have vandalized statues of Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth II in the Canadian city of Winnipeg as anger grows over the discovery of the remains of hundreds of children in unmarked graves at former indigenous schools. A crowd chanted “no pride in genocide” before pulling down the …