International

WASHINGTON: The United States has pledged to further tighten the noose around militant groups such as the Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K) and the outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pak­­istan (TTP), as the two terrorist outfits step up their activities in Pakistan and Afghanistan. “We have seen the reports that IS-K has claimed responsibility for the attack,” a US State Department spokesperson told Dawn on Wednesday, days …

WASHINGTON: A US judge dismissed on Tuesday a lawsuit against Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for his alleged role in the 2018 murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Washington federal judge John Bates accepted a US government’s stance that Prince Mohammed, who was designated prime minister of Saudi Arabia in September, enjoys immunity in US courts as a foreign head …

NEW DELHI: India saw a big jump in extreme weather events such as heatwaves and lightning strikes this year and related deaths rose to their highest in three years, government data showed on Wednesday, with scientists blaming climate change for the heavy toll. There were nearly eight times as many heatwaves, 27 in all, and lightning strikes rose more than …

DHAKA: At least one person died on Wednesday and scores were injured in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka as police fired rubber bullets and tear gas at opposition supporters before arresting hundreds, witnesses and police said. Tension has been building this week after the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) called a massive rally on Saturday to force Prime Minister Sheikh …

WASHINGTON: India was not designated a violator of religious freedom because US Secretary of State Antony Blinken felt that the situation in India did not warrant such a designation, says the US State Department. On Friday, Secretary Blinken designated Burma, China, Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, Nicaragua, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan as Countries of Particular Concern …” …

NEW YORK: Time magazine named President Volodymyr Zelensky as well as “the spirit of Ukraine” as its 2022 person of the year on Wednesday, for the resistance the country has shown in the face of Russia’s invasion. Calling Zelensky’s decision to remain in Kyiv and rally his country “fateful,” Time editor in chief Edward Felsenthal said this year’s decision was “the most clear-cut in …

The Chinese capital showed tentative signs of a return to normal on Thursday after a sudden reversal of a hardline pandemic policy that hammered the world’s second-biggest economy and ignited rare protests. Beijing’s National Health Commission (NHC) on Wednesday announced a nationwide loosening of its zero-Covid restrictions, reducing the scope of mandatory testing, allowing some positive cases to quarantine at home, and …

Alphabet unit Google must remove data from online search results if users can prove it is inaccurate, Europe’s top court said on Thursday. Free speech advocates and supporters of privacy rights have clashed in recent years over people’s “right to be forgotten” online, meaning that they should be able to remove their digital traces from the internet. The case before …

Iran carried out its first known execution on Thursday over protests sparked by Mahsa Amini’s death, hanging a man convicted of blocking a street and wounding a paramilitary member. Demonstrations have swept Iran for nearly three months over the death-in-custody of Amini — a 22-year-old Iranian of Kurdish origin — after her arrest by the morality police in Tehran for an alleged breach …

State Department Spokesperson Ned Price has reiterated President Joe Biden’s pledge of taking action “in a way that protects our interests” if the US sees “international terrorists regrouping in Afghanistan”. The statement came on Wednesday in response to a question asked during a press briefing about the rise of violence in Afghanistan and the Taliban’s failure to not provide “safe …