International

Iranian teenager Armita Garawand died on Saturday a month after falling into a coma following a disputed incident on Tehran’s metro, local media said. “Armita Garawand, a student in Tehran, died an hour ago after intensive medical treatment and 28 days of hospitalisation in intensive care,” reported the Borna news agency affiliated with the youth ministry. The 16-year-old ethnic Kurd was hospitalised in Tehran …

GAZA: Social media and the internet, the last means of communication the people of the besieged Gaza Strip had with the outside world, was severed on Friday as broadband and mobile phone services were cut off. The disconnection of the Palestinian enclave meant that — as the bombing of Gaza entered its 21st day — fresh photos, videos and other …

MADRID: Over 200,000 minors are estimated to have been sexually abused in Spain by the Roman Catholic clergy since 1940, according to an independent commission report published on Friday. The report did not give specific figures but said a poll of over 8,000 people found that 0.6 per cent of Spain’s adult population of around 39 million people said they …

BAGHDAD: Influential religious leader Moqtada Sadr called on the Iraqi government on Friday to close the American embassy in Baghdad because of Washington’s “unconditional support” for Israeli aggression on Palestinian people. “If the government and parliament do not respond, we will take a different position that we will announce later,” the cleric, who often criticises the government, warned on X, …

By: Raja Zahid Akhtar Khanzada California, USA: In the US state of California, the renowned Pakistani singer, Atif Aslam, graced the audience with the melodies of Ustad Nusrat Ali’s ghazal, “ Soichta hoon kay wooh keetnay masoosm thay “ ( leaving everyone pondering the innocence of the past and the transformations of the present.) During his performance, a fan in …

WASHINGTON: China’s top diplomat opens talks on Thursday in Washington as President Xi Jinping decides whether to visit the United States next month to take up the slew of rifts between the world’s two largest economies. President Joe Biden has invited Xi to San Francisco to participate in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit but he has also stood firm …

BELO HORIZONTE: Scientists in Brazil, the world’s second-biggest consumer of cocaine, have announced the development of an innovative new treatment for addiction to the drug and its powerful derivative crack: a vaccine. Dubbed “Calixcoca,” the test vaccine, which has shown promising results in trials on animals, triggers an immune response that blocks cocaine and crack from reaching the brain, which …

ACAPULCO: Hurri–cane Otis killed at least 27 people as it lashed Mexico’s beach resort city of Acapulco as a scale-topping category 5 storm, officials said on Thursday, in what residents called a “total disaster.” The storm crashed into Acapulco with furious winds of 165 miles (270 kilometres) per hour, largely cutting off communications and road links with the region. President …

UNITED NATIONS: The UN General Assembly held an emergency special session on the Israel-Palestine crisis on Thursday, a day after a similar emergency session in the Security Council ended in a deadlock. On Wednesday, Russia and China vetoed a US-backed resolution while a second Russia resolution failed to get the required votes. The stalemate continued even as conditions in the …

ISLAMABAD: As the nation observes ‘Kashmir Black Day’ today, marking the 76 years of Indian armed forces’ illegal occupation in Kashmir, President Dr Arif Alvi and caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar have assured the Kashmiri people of Pakistan’s unwavering support for their legitimate struggle for the right to self-determination. Meanwhile, the Foreign Office spokesperson, at a weekly press briefing, …