International

Israel’s Foreign Minister Yair Lapid will visit the United Arab Emirates, in the first official ministerial visit since the two nations agreed to normalise ties, his office said on Monday. Israel and the UAE, along with Bahrain, normalised ties in September, and the Jewish state also last year agreed to normalise relations with two other Arab nations, Morocco and Sudan. “Foreign …

WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden looks forward to welcoming Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Dr Abdullah Abdullah, Chairman of the High Council for National Reconciliation, to the White House on June 25, the White House announced on Sunday. “The visit will highlight the enduring partnership between the United States and Afghanistan as the military drawdown continues,” the White House said. …

Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that once the Kashmir issue is resolved, there will no longer be any need for nuclear deterrents. He said this while speaking to journalist Jonathan Swan on Axios on HBO. “Intelligence analysts say Pakistan has the fastest growing nuclear arsenal anywhere in the world. Why?” the interviewer questioned. “I don’t know where they’ve come up with this. …

SAO PAULO: Brazil’s death toll from COVID-19 surpassed 500,000 on Saturday as experts warn that the world’s second-deadliest outbreak may worsen due to delayed vaccinations and the government’s refusal to back social distancing measures. Only 11% of Brazilians have been fully vaccinated and epidemiologists warn that, with winter arriving in the southern hemisphere and new variants of the coronavirus circulating, …

In a gruesome act, a youngster killed four members of his family and hid the bodies inside the water tank of his residence, only to be found by police after the suspect’s brother lodged a complaint regarding missing family. The incident occurred in the Malda district of West Bengal where a 19-year old boy killed four of his own family …

HONG KONG: Two executives from Hong Kong’s pro-democracy Apple Daily appeared in court on Saturday on charges of collusion and were denied bail after authorities deployed a sweeping security law to target the newspaper, a scathing critic of Beijing. Chief editor Ryan Law and CEO Cheung Kim-hung are accused of colluding with foreign forces to undermine China’s national security over a series …

ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Saturday urged Asian countries to renew focus on geo-economics and underlined the need for promotion of a rules-based global order. He was participating in a high-level panel discussion on regional cooperation in Asia along with foreign ministers of Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan under the Antalya Diplomacy Forum of Turkey. Mr Qureshi highlighted …

YANGON: Anti-coup protesters in Myanmar donned flowers in their hair on Saturday to mark the birthday of ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who remains under house arrest and is due to face court again next week. Suu Kyi’s elected government was overthrown in a Feb 1 coup that sparked mass protests and renewed clashes between the military and …

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani and Indian National Security Advisers will be attending an upcoming Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meeting in Dushanbe next week, but would not be meeting each other on the sidelines. Sixteenth meeting of the secretaries of the security council of the SCO’s member states is being held on June 22-23 in Dushanbe. National Security Adviser (NSA) Dr Moeed Yusuf …

ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office on Saturday rejected Indian criticism of the Kulbhushan Jadhav-specific legislation passed by the National Assembly recently and accused Delhi of politicising the issue by misinterpreting the International Court of Justice verdict in the case. “Pakistan abides by all its international obligations, and this applies to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) judgement in the case of Indian …