International

ISLAMABAD: The United Nations Security Council has convened an emergency meeting for Friday (Aug 6) to discuss rising violence in Afghanistan, a senior diplomat said here on Wednesday. The meeting was called after Afghan Foreign Minister Haneef Atmar spoke to India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar in the wake of Taliban’s assault on major cities and an attack on the …

NEW DELHI: The chief minister of India’s capital ordered a judge-led inquiry on Wednesday after a nine-year-old girl was allegedly raped and murdered, sparking days of protests and renewed scrutiny of the country’s problem with sexual violence. Police have alleged that the girl was killed after she had gone to fetch water from a crematorium near her house in the …

GENEVA: The WHO called on Wednesday for a moratorium on Covid-19 vaccine booster shots as China tightened overseas travel curbs after recording its highest number of infections in months, while Tokyo reported the Olympic Games’ first cluster. The World Health Organisation said halting booster shots until at least the end of September would help ease the drastic inequity in dose …

ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Wednesday wrote letters to the UN Security Council and the UN Secretary General, drawing their attention to “unlawful steps” being taken by India after the annexation of the disputed region of Kashmir to strengthen its “colonial hold” on the territory. These actions include changes to the demographic structure and electoral boundaries in the …

UNITED NATIONS: Two days after India assumed the presidency of the UN Security Council, the spokesperson for the secretary general has clarified that the UN position on the Jammu and Kashmir dispute has not changed. The clarification followed a statement by India’s UN Ambassador T. S. Tirmurti that the disputed state was now an “integral” part of India. At a …

HISARONU: Roaring blazes encircled a Turkish thermal power plant on Tuesday and forced farmers to herd panicked cattle toward the sea, as wildfires that have killed eight people raged for a seventh day. The nation of 84 million has been transfixed in horror as the most destructive wildfires in generations erase pristine forests and rich farmland across swaths of Turkey’s …

NEW YORK: A five-month investigation has found that New York Governor Andrew Cuomo sexually harassed multiple women in violation of federal and state law, creating a “climate of fear” within his office, the state’s attorney general said on Tuesday. The independent inquiry showed that Cuomo engaged in “inappropriate behavior” with a total of 11 women, Letitia James told a news …

BAGHDAD: Over 17,000 looted ancient artefacts recovered from the United States and other countries were handed over to Iraq’s Culture Ministry on Tuesday, a restitution described by the government as the largest in the country’s history. The majority of the artefacts date back 4,000 years to ancient Mesopotamia and were recovered from the US in a recent trip by Prime …

WASHINGTON: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has approved the largest-ever distribution of monetary reserves of $650 billion to boost the global economy and help emerging and low-income nations deal with the mounting debt and Covid-19 crises. The IMF board of governors met in Washington on Monday and approved this historic allocation, known as Special Drawing Rights (SDR). Pakistan, which has …

Senior ministers and national security adviser on Wednesday criticised New Delhi for denying permission to five foreign journalists based in India to visit Pakistan, saying that free speech and independent journalism was shrinking under the “insecure” Indian government. The statements from Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry and National Security Adviser Moeed Yusuf surface a day after …