International

ISLAMABAD: While the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has expressed satisfaction overPakistan’s efforts as well as plans against money laundering, India continues to raise questions about terror financing. “The proceedings went well and almost all the FATF members appreciated measures taken by Pakistan and actions planned by it,” sources told Dawn after the conclusion of a three-day conference in Sydney, Australia. …

MANAMA: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived in Bahrain on Friday, the first leg of a tour of Gulf monarchies which Washington says are “critical” to confronting Iran and jihadists. “These Gulf partnerships are critical to achieving shared regional objectives — defeating ISIS (militant Islamic State group), countering radical Islamic terrorism, protecting global energy supplies and rolling back Iranian …

Two Reuters journalists jailed for seven years for breaching Myanmar’s Official Secrets Act, while reporting on a massacre of Rohingya Muslims, lost an appeal against their conviction on Friday. “The verdict originally given was not wrong according to the law. The court decides to dismiss the appeal,” Aung Naing, the judge of Yangon Regional High Court said. Reporters Wa Lone, 32, and …

Saudi Arabia on Thursday awarded a contract to build a $500 million wind farm, a first for the world’s top oil exporter as it pushes to diversify its energy sector. A consortium led by France’s EDF and Abu Dhabi’s Masdar won the bid for the 400-megawatt Dumat al-Jandal wind project in the northern Al Jouf province, the Saudi energy ministry …

WAKEFIELD: British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn called on lawmakers on Thursday to help his opposition party “break the deadlock” over Brexit and support his call for a motion of no confidence in the government to trigger an election. Pledging to vote against Prime Minister Theresa May’s deal next week, Corbyn said only a Labour government could secure an accord with …

NEW DELHI: Indian parliament has approved a bill providing a 10 per cent quota in government jobs for the poor members of upper castes who have been excluded from existing quotas for low-ranking castes. The Congress party and other opposition parties supported the legislation, but criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government for getting it approved just months before national elections, …

CAIRO: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo vowed on Thursday the United States and its allies would work diplomatically to expel all Iranian troops from Syria, urging Middle East nations to forge a common stand against Tehran. “It’s time for old rivalries to end, for the sake of the greater good of the region,” said Pompeo at a keynote address …

A German court on Thursday threw out a lawsuit by Pakistani plaintiffs against clothing retailer KiK over a deadly 2012 fire at a Karachi garment factory, saying the statute of limitations had expired. The blaze at the Ali Enterprises factory, which was started deliberately, killed 258 people in one of the worst industrial disasters. A survivor and three relatives of victims had …

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan wants the Taliban to give up their refusal to talk to the Afghan government so that a political settlement of the 17-year-old conflict could be negotiated. “We want them to sit together. It is for Afghans to sort out their problems and as long as they do not sit down and talk to each other, outsiders can do …

KABUL: The Taliban launched a series of attacks on security checkpoints in four Afghan provinces early on Thursday, killing 32 members of the security forces and pro-government militias, provincial officials said. The latest Taliban attacks came in the northern provinces of Kunduz, Baghlan, Takhar and Badghis in the west. Ahmad Fahim Qarluq, the chief of the Qala-e-Zal district in Kunduz, …