26-09-2020 By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report + Int’l Monitoring Desk ISLAMABAD/ NEW DELHI/ UNITED NATIONS: In a speech to the United Nations, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan called India’s Hindu-nationalist government a sponsor of hatred and prejudice against Islam, while denouncing its moves to cement control of Muslim-majority Kashmir. …

25-09-2020 By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report VATICAN CITY/ LONDON/ MELBOURNE: High-ranking Vatican official Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu has unexpectedly resigned but has revealed he was told to do so by Pope Francis. He said he was suspected of giving Church money to his brothers, and denied any wrongdoing. Cardinal …

24-09-2020 By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report BEIJING/ MELBOURNE: China’s network of detention centres in the northwest Xinjiang region is much bigger than previously thought and is being expanded, even as Beijing says it is winding down a “re-education” program for ethnic Uighurs that has been condemned internationally, new research …

23-09-2020 By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report ISLAMABAD/ BEIJING/ NEW DELHI: China and India said on Friday they had agreed to de-escalate renewed tensions on their contested Himalayan border and take steps to restore “peace and tranquillity” following a high-level diplomatic meeting in Moscow. Chinese State Councillor Wang Yi and …

22-09-2020 By Marwan Bishara (Al Jazeera’s Senior Political Analyst) + By SJA Jafri (Messenger’s Bureau Chief Australia) RIYADH/ JERUSALEM/ WASHINGTON/ ISLAMABAD/ MELBOURNE: As we approach the second anniversary of the state-sponsored assassination of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Saudi Arabia continues its retreat, losing direction and influence in the Gulf and Middle …

22-09-2020 By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report KABUL/ISLAMABAD/ DOHA: As many as 80 Taliban and 57 more members of the Afghan security forces were killed and hundreds injured in overnight clashes with Taliban fighters across Afghanistan, security officials said on Monday, in the bloodiest day of fighting since government and …

21-09-2020 By SJA Jafri ISLAMABAD/ KARACHI/ MELBOURNE: Bishop John Joseph, 65, one of Pakistan’s most prominent human rights activists, had been campaigning for decades to reform the country’s strict blasphemy laws. On the morning of May 6, 1998, he led a procession to the steps of the court in the …

20-09-2020 By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report KABUL/ ISLAMABAD: Almost 11 civilians were killed and more than 10 others wounded on Saturday in twin air strikes on a Taliban base in the northeastern Afghan province of Kunduz, a provincial official said. The Taliban issued a statement accusing Afghan forces of …

19-09-2020 By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report LONDON/ MELBOURNE: British Queen Elizabeth-II cannot be arrested and her staff are immune to civil arrest. There is only one person above the law in the UK and that is the monarch, as the Government, police, courts and prison system all act in …

17-09-2020 By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report + Agencies KABUL/ DOHA/ ISLAMABAD: Fighting between Afghan forces and the Taliban left dozens dead in a restive eastern province as negotiators from both sides pushed ahead with peace talks in Qatar. Overnight clashes erupted in three districts of Nangarhar province when Taliban …