International

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi is set to be paid a visit today by Qatar’s Deputy Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani, who is expected in Pakistan. According to a statement released by the Foreign Office (FO), Qureshi and Al Thani, also Qatar’s foreign minister, will focus on the developments in Afghanistan as well as bilateral relations. …

GENEVA: The World Health Organisation called on Wednesday for countries to avoid giving out extra Covid jabs until year-end, pointing to the millions worldwide who have yet to receive a single dose. “I will not stay silent when the companies and countries that control the global supply of vaccines think the world’s poor should be satisfied with leftovers,” WHO chief …

Roya Rahmani, Afghanistan’s first female ambassador to the United States who left her post in July, is clearly horrified by the Taliban takeover of her country. But she is not surprised. In an interview, Rahmani accused the former US-backed government in Kabul of a failure to lead the country and of widespread corruption that ultimately paved the way for the …

Two Afghan journalists were left with ugly welts and bruises after being beaten and detained for hours by Taliban enforcers for covering a protest in the Afghan capital. The pair were picked up at a demonstration on Wednesday and taken to a police station in the capital, where they say they were punched and beaten with batons, electrical cables and …

A C-130 aircraft of the Pakistan Air Force carrying relief goods for Afghans landed at the Kabul airport on Thursday morning. According to Radio Pakistan, Pakistan’s Ambassador to Afghanistan Mansoor Ahmad Khan, while receiving the goods at the Kabul airport, said that the process of providing relief and humanitarian assistance to the Afghan people will continue in weeks and months to …

As Taliban fighters entered Kabul on the evening of August 15, executives at Afghanistan’s biggest independent TV network had a tough decision to make: stay on-air or go dark. Tolo kept broadcasting, but like the rest of the country’s TV and radio stations, it now faces a tough and uncertain future under the Taliban, whose return has sent fear coursing through the media. …

Afghanistan cricket chiefs are still awaiting instructions from the country’s new Taliban government on the future of the women’s game and are not anticipating a decision any time soon, a top cricket official told Reuters. The Taliban named a new government on Tuesday, three weeks after sweeping to power when the Western-backed government collapsed in the wake of the withdrawal of US-led foreign …

BERLIN: German Chanc­ellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday lauded her party’s candidate Armin Laschet as the best choice to succeed her, as polls showed the gaffe-prone Rhinelander still trailing badly ahead of this month’s election. Laschet, the chancellor candidate for Merkel’s conservative CDU/CSU bloc, was long the favourite to be the next German leader, but his ratings have plummeted following a …

YANGON: Myanmar’s shadow government, formed by opponents of military rule, on Tuesday called for a nationwide uprising against the junta amid reports of new protests and a flare-up in fighting between the army and ethnic military groups. Duwa Lashi La, acting president of the National Unity Government (NUG), said the shadow government was launching a “people’s defensive war”, signalling in …

LONDON: Breaking an election pledge not to raise taxes, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Tuesday announced hefty new funding to fix a social care crisis and a pandemic surge in hospital waiting lists. The government said the tax hike brings Britain into line with France, Germany and Japan, which have all raised social insurance levies to help care for …