International

PARIS: Iran has executed a 17-year-old murder convict on Friday, as rights groups expressed outrage at the execution of people for crimes committed as minors. Hamidreza Azari was executed on Friday in prison in the eastern town of Sabzevar in Razavi Khorasan province, the Norway-based Hengaw and Iran Human Rights (IHR) groups said in separate statements. Persian-language satellite TV channel …

JARINJE: British troops are patrolling the Kosovo-Serbia border as part of a Nato peacekeeping presence being bolstered amid concern that the former wartime foes could return to open conflict following a series of violent incidents in recent months. The North Atlantic Treaty Organisa­tion sent hundreds of additional forces to Kosovo from Britain and Romania after a battle between the authorities …

BEIRUT: The UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon said Israeli fire hit one of its patrols in the country’s south on Saturday, despite a Hamas-Israel truce largely quietening the Lebanon-Israel frontier. “At around 12pm, a UNIFIL patrol was hit by IDF (Israeli army) gunfire” in the vicinity of Aitarun, the United Nat­ions Interim Force in Leb­anon said in a statement. “No …

WASHINGTON: Derek Chauvin, the US police officer whose murder of George Floyd sparked massive racial justice protests in 2020, was stabbed in prison on Friday, the New York Times reported citing unnamed sources. Chauvin knelt on the 46-year-old Black man’s neck for more than nine minutes on a Minneapolis street despite the dying man’s pleas. Floyd’s cries of “I can’t …

LONDON: Tens of thousands of protesters marched in London on Saturday demanding a permanent ceasefire in Gaza as a temporary truce largely held in the besieged strip. It was the latest large pro-Palestinian demonstration in the British capital since the unprecedented Oct 7 events. “The occupation needs to end. We need a full ceasefire and not a four-day ceasefire,” Alaa …

KARACHI: Dr Hafeezur Rehman is among the 2,800 Pakistani doctors who have responded to volunteer in Gaza on the call of Al Khidmat Foundation (AKF), a non-governmental organisation. When the 42-year-old orthopedic surgeon from Lahore told his father about his decision, the only thing the latter said was “give my salams to the people of Palestine”. Several Pakistani NGOs have …

UNITED NATIONS: Israeli military operations killed at least 73 people a day before a 4-day pause in fighting became effective on Nov 24, a UN agency reported on Saturday. Over 1.7 million people in Gaza, or nearly 80 per cent of the population, are estimated to be internally displaced, with nearly 896,000 IDPs sheltering in 99 facilities in the south. …

China’s health ministry on Sunday urged local authorities to increase the number of fever clinics as the country grapples with a surge in respiratory illnesses in its first full winter since easing Covid-19 restrictions. The spike become a global issue last week when the World Health Organisation asked China for more information, citing a report on clusters of undiagnosed pneumonia …

Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar will depart for a three-day bilateral visit to United Arab Emirates (UAE) today. According to a press release issued by the Foreign Office, the premier will meet UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed during his visit from Nov 26 to Nov 28. “This engagement will provide an opportunity to advance bilateral ties in all …

ISLAMABAD: A new research brief with estimates on gender-related killings of women and girls, produced by two UN agencies, shows that globally nearly 89,000 women and girls were killed intentionally in 2022, the highest yearly number recorded in the past two decades, indicating that the number of female homicides is not decreasing. Most killings of women and girls are gender motivated. In …