WUHAN: WHO experts on Sunday visited the market in central China linked to the first known Covid-19 cluster, seeking clues about the outbreak of the pandemic as a number of nations further tightened restrictions to stop the coronavirus. France’s borders were to close at midnight to non-European countries, a day after Germany imposed a ban on most travellers from nations …

WASHINGTON: A Covid-19 vaccine is not only permissible in Islam, but also obligatory as it has the potential to stop the spread of an extremely dangerous disease, says an edict issued by the Assembly of Muslim Jurists of America (AJMA). On Saturday, the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) arranged a seminar which also concluded that there’s no religious restriction …

WASHINGTON: Former President Donald Trump has parted ways with his lead impeachment lawyers just over a week before his Senate trial is set to begin, two people familiar with the situation said. Butch Bowers and Deborah Barbier, both South Carolina lawyers, are no longer with Trump’s defence team. One of the people described the parting as a mutual decision that …

Myanmar’s military seized power on Monday in a coup against the democratically elected government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who was detained along with other leaders of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party in early morning raids. The army said it had carried out the detentions in response to “election fraud”, handing power to military chief Min …

RAWALPINDI: A flight steward of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) reportedly went missing in Canada soon after the airline’s flight PK-798 landed in Toronto on Friday. According to sources, the steward boarded the PIA flight from Islamabad and disappeared after reaching Toronto. The matter was brought to the notice of PIA’s station manager in Canada who later informed the airport authority …

Indian police and paramilitary dug ditches and spread razor wire across main roads into New Delhi on Monday to prevent protesting farmers entering the capital as the finance minister prepared to deliver the government’s annual budget in parliament. Internet and messaging services were blocked in several neighbourhoods on the outskirts where protests turned violent last week, and security was stepped up around …

Several senior Indian journalists are facing charges of sedition over their reporting and online posts about a protest by farmers last week, sparking criticism of the legal action from media associations. The cases have been filed with police in at least five states against the journalists including Rajdeep Sardesai, a prominent anchor on the India Today television channel, and Vinod Jose, executive editor …

NOWSHERA: Defence Minister Pervez Khan Khattak on Sunday said that opposition leaders Nawaz Sharif and Asif Ali Zardari would soon be behind bars because of their corruption. Similarly, he said, JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rahman would also be behind bars as he had failed to justify his assets accumulated beyond his known sources of income. “If justice is done, all …

HYDERABAD: The director general of health, Sindh, Dr Irshad Memon, has asked all the officials concerned to discourage use of government ambulance services for transporting dead bodies from hospitals to other places. “These vehicles are only for shifting critically sick people from one to another health facility on medical advice, the Sindh health DG said in a letter addressed to …

450 health professionals to receive jabs every day Twin cities report two deaths, over 100 cases ISLAMABAD: With over 17,000 frontline healthcare workers having registered for inoculation, the federal capital is all set to start its Covid-19 vaccination at nine centres set up in the city. As many as 450 healthcare workers will be vaccinated daily for a few days. …