NEW DELHI: India on Saturday summoned the Charge d’Affaires of the Pakistan High Commission to register a strong protest over alleged heavy shelling by Pakistani forces on multiple sectors along the Line of Control (LoC) on Friday that left at least nine people dead, local reports said. They quoted a statement by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said India …

ADDIS ABABA: Leaders of Ethiopia’s northern Tigray on Saturday claimed rocket attacks on two airports in a nearby region and threatened to strike neighbouring Eritrea, raising tensions that the escalating conflict could spread across national borders. The attacks — and threats of more — fuelled concern that a conflict Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed vowed would be quick and contained …

WASHINGTON: Gliding over significant challenges still to come, President Donald Trump on Friday offered a rosy update on the race for a vaccine for the resurgent coronavirus as he delivered his first public remarks since his defeat by President-elect Joe Biden. He still did not concede the election. Trump spoke from the Rose Garden as the nation sets records for …

Hundreds of millions of Indians in north India woke up on Sunday to toxic air following Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, after many revellers defied bans on using firecrackers to celebrate. The capital New Delhi was blanketed with a thick haze, with the average pollution level over nine times what is considered safe by the World Health Organisation (WHO). …

Israel has pushed on with plans to build a new Jewish settler neighbourhood in east Jerusalem, a watchdog group said on Sunday, warning such efforts were being stepped up before United States President Donald Trump leaves office. The Trump administration has broken with decades of bipartisan US practice by not opposing Jewish settlement activity in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem and the …

Several thousand supporters of United States President Donald Trump in Washington protested election results and then hailed Trump’s passing motorcade before nighttime clashes with counter-demonstrators sparked fistfights, at least one stabbing and at least 20 arrests. Several other cities on Saturday also saw gatherings of Trump supporters unwilling to accept Democrat Joe Biden’s Electoral College and popular vote victory as …

Azerbaijan said on Sunday it had agreed to extend a deadline for Armenia to withdraw from a disputed district as part of a peace accord that ended six weeks of fierce fighting over the Nagorno-Karabakh region. The first of the territories, Kalbajar, was to be turned over on Sunday. But Azerbaijan agreed at the last minute to give Armenian forces and civilians …

A historic wooden mosque in Istanbul caught on fire on Sunday and Turkish firefighters put out the blaze, working from both land and sea. The Vanikoy Mosque, built in the 17th century during the reign of Ottoman Sultan IV Mehmed, is located on the Asian side of Istanbul along the Bosporus Strait. Videos showed heavy smoke pouring from the structure. …

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court has expressed resentment over provincial authorities for not complying with its earlier order about formation of a committee to send proposals to the cabinet for necessary amendment in relevant law to control unauthorised use of CNG kits and cylinders in public transport and school vans. A two-judge bench headed by Justice Mohammad Ali Mazhar directed …

United States President Donald Trump appeared to edge closer towards acknowledging his election defeat in a tweet on Sunday morning, as he again railed against supposed mass fraud in the vote won by challenger Joe Biden. “He won because the Election was Rigged. NO VOTE WATCHERS OR OBSERVERS allowed, vote tabulated by a Radical Left privately owned company,” Trump tweeted in …