PHUKET: Thailand prepared on Wednesday to reopen the holiday hotspot of Phuket to tourists quarantine-free, even as the country registered its highest single-day death toll from Covid-19. High hopes have been pinned on the so-called “Phuket sandbox” — a model that will allow vaccinated travellers to visit without a quarantine period in an effort to revive Thailand’s battered tourism industry. …

WASHINGTON: The fast-paced withdrawal of foreign troops, stalled peace talks and rising violence in Afghanistan can undermine Pakistan’s efforts to facilitate the Taliban’s alleged return to Kabul through power-sharing arrangements, says an international report released on Wednesday. The report — “Pakistan: Shoring Up Afghanistan’s Peace Process” — was compiled by the International Crisis Group, a think tank with offices in Washington and …

THE HAGUE: Two former Serbian spy chiefs in Slobodan Milosevic’s regime were convicted on Wednesday after a retrial by a UN court of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the 1990s Balkans conflict. Jovica Stanisic, 70, the former head of Serbia’s state security service, and his deputy Franko Simatovic, 71, were each sentenced to 12 years in jail for …

WASHINGTON: Former US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld, whose reputation as a skilled bureaucrat and visionary of a modern military, was unraveled by the long and costly Iraq invasion, died on Tuesday. He was 88. In a statement on Wednesday, Rumsfeld’s family said he was surrounded by family in his beloved Taos, New Mexico. Regarded by former colleagues as equally smart …

BERLIN: Most European troops have already pulled out of Afghanistan, quietly withdrawing months before the US-led mission was officially expected to end part of an anticlimactic close to the forever war that risks leaving the country on the brink of civil war. Germany and Italy declared their missions in Afghanistan over on Wednesday and Poland’s last troops returned home, bringing …

Bill Cosby was freed from prison and returned home on Wednesday, less than two hours after Pennsylvania’s highest court overturned his sexual assault conviction, saying he never should have faced charges after striking a non-prosecution deal with a previous district attorney more than 15 years ago. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court issued its split decision after Cosby had served more than …

YANGON: Myanmar authorities released more than 2,000 anti-coup protesters from prisons across the country on Wednesday, including local journalists jailed after reporting critically on the junta’s bloody crackdown. Myanmar has been rocked by massive protests and a brutal military response since the February coup that ousted Aung San Suu Kyi and her government. More than 880 civilians have been killed …

GENEVA: China was certified as malaria-free on Wednesday by the World Health Organisation, following a 70-year effort to eradicate the mosquito-borne disease. The country reported 30 million cases of the infectious disease annually in the 1940s but has now gone four consecutive years without an indigenous case. “We congratulate the people of China on ridding the country of malaria,” said …

ISLAMABAD: A relative of Saad Hussain Rizvi, the chief of Tehrik-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), approached the Supreme Court for his release on Wednesday. Saad Rizvi, son of the late Allama Khadim Hussain Rizvi, was arrested on April 12 over allegations that he had incited his followers to take law into their own hands as, according to him, the government had gone …

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court has declared illegal an order of Nowshera’s district collector (deputy commissioner) to de-notify an award announced around two decades ago for acquiring 3,413 acres of land in Nowshera district for establishing an artillery range. A bench consisting of Justice Roohul Amin Khan and Justice Mohammad Nasir Mahfooz accepted five petitions filed by several Nowshera residents …