TEHRAN: Iran hanged a man for murder, abduction and “terrorist” links on Saturday, website of the country’s judiciary said. Javid Dehghan Khalad was put to death early in the morning in the restive southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan, Mizan Online reported. It comes a day after the United Nations appealed to Iran not to go ahead with the execution of the 31-year-old. Mizan …

BRUSSELS: The European Union on Friday backtracked on a threat to restrict exports of coronavirus shots to Northern Ireland in its growing row with Britain, as the WHO warned against “vaccine nationalism”. Outbreaks are raging around the globe with Covid-19 deaths nearing 2.2 million, and while wealthy countries fight over limited vaccine supplies, there are fears the less privileged will …

Two students have been arrested in Turkey on charges of inciting hatred and insulting religious values over a poster depicting Islam’s most sacred site — the Kaaba — with LGBT flags. Their arrest late on Saturday came after top Turkish officials slammed the poster, displayed at an exhibition in Turkey’s most prestigious Bogazici University. For weeks, students and faculty have …

RAWALPINDI: Trucks and other goods transport vehicles have come up with a novel idea of dumping construction waste on the banks of Leh Nullah to create space for parking their vehicles in the congested Raja Bazaar and other areas. Just behind Ganjmandi police station and near a bridge, loading vehicles can be seen parked along Leh Nullah. This has reduced …

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tel­ecommunication Authority (PTA) has told the Islamabad High Court (IHC) that till January 2021, the authority has blocked 980,000 links containing hate speech, controversial and objectionable content. The PTA in a report submitted to the IHC stated that out of blocked content an overwhelming majority was of pornographic material. According to the report, 865,187 links of pornographic …

RAWALPINDI: A local court of Rawalpindi on Saturday convicted a man of raping and murdering his seven-year-old niece and sentenced him to death for two counts. The court also imposed a fine of Rs600,000 on the convict Waliullah. The father of the victim in his complaint to the Airport police on Nov 22, 2019, nominated his younger brother for raping …

ISLAMABAD: As the election year has begun in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), the opposition’s Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) and the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) have decided to stage their shows of power in the valley at two different venues on Feb 5 when Kashmir Solidarity Day will be observed. As the 10-party PDM has already finalised its plan to …

ISLAMABAD: The federal government intends to join the review proceedings initiated by the Sindh government against the acquittal of the accused ordered by the Supreme Court in the murder case of US journalist Daniel Pearl. A spokesman for the Attorney General Office on Saturday announced that it would be filing an application with the Supreme Court seeking permission to join as a …

ISLAMABAD: The National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) has reversed promotion of its 240 employees earlier identified as top performers by withdrawing its recent order on the direction of Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad. The office order, which was issued on January 25 only to be cancelled four days later, stated: “Chairman Nadra is pleased to promote 240 employees (who …

A special plane of the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) left for China on Sunday to bring back the first batch of the 500,000 vaccine doses that China had promised to provide to Pakistan earlier this month, according to a statement by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC). The NCOC has already decided upon a “comprehensive strategy” for the administration of the …