International

Saudi Arabia is lifting a ban on travellers arriving from 11 countries that it had imposed to curb the spread of the coronavirus, the Saudi state news agency said on Saturday. Pakistan, however, is not among those countries. Despite the ban being lifted, Saudi Arabia will still require quarantine procedures. Travellers from the United Arab Emirates, Germany, the United States, …

Police in Italy are searching for the body of an 18-year-old girl suspected to have been killed by her Pakistani family after refusing an arranged marriage. The girl’s parents, an uncle and two cousins are under investigation for murder, lieutenant colonel Stefano Bove of the Carabinieri police said on Saturday. All “are supposed to have taken part in the crime”, …

COLOMBO: Tonnes of plastic pellets from a burning container ship swamped Sri Lanka’s west coast on Friday, sparking a ban on fishing as international efforts to salvage the vessel dragged into a ninth day. The government declared an 80-kilometre coastal area off limits for fishermen fearing contamination with pollutants and plastic waste from the stricken ship. The ban included Colombo’s …

BAGHDAD: Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Friday arrived in Iraq’s capital where he will hold detailed discussions with the leadership of this country on bilateral cooperation and on the unity of Ummah. The foreign minister was received at the Baghdad International Airport by Iraq’s Deputy Foreign Minister Dr Saleh Al-Tamimi, Iraqi ambassador in Pakistan Hamid Lafta, Pakistan’s ambassador-designate to …

COPENHAGEN: The WHO’s European director warned on Friday that the Covid-19 pandemic won’t be over until at least 70 per cent of people are vaccinated, while deploring that the vaccine rollout in Europe is still “too slow”. “The pandemic will be over once we reach 70pc minimum coverage in vaccination,” the World Health Organisation’s reg­ional director for Europe Hans Kluge …

The WHO’s European director warned Friday that the Covid-19 pandemic won’t be over until at least 70 percent of people are vaccinated, while deploring that the vaccine rollout in Europe is still “too slow”. “The pandemic will be over once we reach 70 percent minimum coverage in vaccination,” the World Health Organization’s regional director for Europe Hans Kluge told AFP …

YEREVAN: Six Armen­ian soldiers were captured by Azerbaijan on Thursday, the latest in a series of escalating border incidents after last year’s war over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region. The capture of Armenia’s soldiers comes at a delicate time for Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan ahead of snap elections next month. Pashinyan described the situation as “tense and explosive” and called for …

A group of Muslims, Jews and Christians joined on Thursday to lay the foundation stone for a centre that will house places of worship for each religion in a symbol of interfaith dialogue in the German capital. Days after protests in Berlin over the attacks by Israel in Gaza, and at a time when politicians are warning of rising anti-Semitism …

DUBAI: Israel’s top diplomat to the United Arab Emirates attended a ceremony in Dubai on the grounds of the Arabian Peninsula’s first permanent exhibition to commemorate the Holo­caust. Hours earlier, he’d attended an event establishing a joint venture betw­een an Israeli and Emirati company. The receptions on Wednesday were the clearest indication since a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip came …

JAKARTA: An Indonesian court sentenced on Thursday hardline Muslim cleric Rizieq Shihab to eight months in prison and fined him 20 million rupiah ($1,400) for breaching coronavirus curbs after his return last year from self-imposed exile. A livestream of the court hearing showed Rizieq, the spiritual leader of an outlawed Islamist vigilante group — the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) — …