International

ISLAMABAD: The For­eign Office on Friday said that the Pakistan government expected the Afghan Taliban authorities to add­ress its security concerns. “It is not a question of just raising again. We have been raising this matter consistently and we will continue to do that. We expect our concerns to be addressed,” Foreign Office spokesman Asim Iftikhar said at the weekly …

LONDON: Nichola Khan — a social anthropologist and lecturer at Brighton University who has written extensively on Muhajir politics — on Friday gave testimony as an expert witness before the jury in the ‘hate speech’ trial of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) supremo Altaf Hussain. Dr Khan said the MQM did not just have political and charity wings but also a …

MOSCOW: Russia said on Friday it would respond in kind if Germany moved to end a dispute over their respective media outlets, but would escalate the row if Berlin chose to do so. Russia said a day earlier it was shutting down the German broadcaster Deutsche Welle’s operations in Moscow and stripping its staff of their accreditation in response to Berlin banning …

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka marked its independence day on Friday with an appeal to its diaspora to send money home to overcome the island’s worsening economic crisis and a pledge to protect foreign investments. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa urged millions of Sri Lankans abroad to invest their savings in their home country, which is facing its worst debt crisis since independence from …

LONDON: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was fighting on Friday to shore up his authority after a senior aide resigned over his false claim that the leader of the opposition Labour Party failed to prosecute a notorious child sex abuser. Johnson, who in 2019 won the biggest Conservative majority since Margaret Thatcher, has repeatedly refused to resign over reports that …

NEW DELHI: India’s official death toll from Covid-19 passed 500,000 on Friday, although many experts believe the real figure is likely much higher. The daily update from the country’s federal health ministry showed the number of fatalities reaching 500,055, up 1,072 in the previous 24 hours. Total infections stood at 41.9 million, according to the statistics, second only to the …

KABUL: The United Nations has demanded the Taliban provide information on two more women activists allegedly detained by the group this week — bringing to four the number missing in Afghanistan this year. Since their August return to power, the Taliban have cracked down on dissent by forcefully dispersing women’s rallies, detaining critics and beating local journalists covering protests. The …

WASHINGTON: In a major move towards easing restrictions on Afghanistan, the United States has now decided to allow international banks to transfer money to the country for humanitarian purposes. A directive issued by the US Department of Treasury earlier this week also allows aid groups to pay teachers and healthcare workers at state-run institutions without the fear of breaching US …

MOSCOW: China and Russia proclaimed a deep strategic partnership on Friday to balance what they portrayed as the malign global influence of the United States as China’s President Xi Jinping hosted Russia’s Vladimir Putin. In a joint statement, the two countries affirmed that their new relationship was superior to any political or military alliance of the Cold War era. “Friendship …

President Joe Biden’s administration on Friday restored sanctions waivers to Iran to allow international nuclear cooperation projects, as indirect American-Iranian talks on reviving the 2015 international nuclear deal with Tehran enter the final stretch. The waivers had allowed Russian, Chinese and European companies to carry out non-proliferation work to effectively make it harder for Iranian nuclear sites to be used …