26-10-2020 By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report CANBERRA/ MELBOURNE/ DOHA: Victoria in Australia has recorded no new Covid-19 cases for the first time since Melbourne – the state capital – went into lockdown 111 days ago. The state was the epicentre of Australia’s second wave, accounting for over 90% of …

25-10-2020 By SJA Jafri ISLAMABAD/ PARIS: Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan slammed French President Emmanuel Macron over his anti-Muslim attitude on Sunday, criticizing him for hurting the sentiments of millions of Muslims around the world. The French president is being criticized with protests breaking out in several cities across the …

24-10-2020 By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report KABUL/ ISLAMABAD: 34 people have been confirmed dead and over 77 wounded in a suicide bomb attack outside an education centre in the Afghan capital, Kabul, while another alleged attack on bus was reported, officials say. The explosion at the private facility, which …

24-10-2020 By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report ISLAMABAD/ PARIS: Pakistan will remain on a terrorism financing watch list until it completely implements a set of preventive guidelines, a global watchdog said, urging Islamabad to improve financial controls. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an inter-governmental body, praised Pakistan for progress …

23-10-2020 By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report NASHVILLE/ NEW DELHI/ ISLAMABAD: The final debate between US presidential nominees Donald Trump and Joe Biden did not bring good news for India as the US president described the air in India as “filthy”. The reference to India was made by Donald Trump …

22-10-2020 By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report KABUL/ ISLAMABAD: An Afghan military air raid targeting Taliban fighters has killed at least 13 people, including children, and wounded 14 in an attack that hit a religious school and mosque in the northeastern province of Takhar, provincial officials said. In an account …

22-10-2020 By SJA Jafri + BBC VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis has said that he thinks same-sex couples should be allowed to have “civil unions”. He made the comments, which observers say are his clearest remarks yet on gay relationships, in a documentary directed by Evgeny Afineevsky. “Homosexual people have a …

21-10-2020 By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report KABUL/ NANGARHAR/ ISLAMABAD: Dozens Afghans have been killed and several injured in a stampede near a Pakistani consulate in eastern Afghanistan. The stampede occurred in a stadium in Jalalabad city where thousands of Afghans had gathered to secure visas from the consulate, officials …

21-10-2020 By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report BEIJING/ NEW DELHI/ ISLAMABAD: China’s official military newspaper has said that India has returned a Chinese soldier who had strayed across a contested de facto border in the western Himalayan region where both sides have been locked in a tense standoff. The soldier …

21-10-2020 By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report WASHINGTON/ RIYADH/ ISTANBUL/ MELBOURNE: Hatice Cengiz, the fiancee of late Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, has filed a lawsuit in the United States against Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) over the journalist’s grisly murder. Cengiz and a rights group founded by …