International

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Satur­day expressed serious concern over illegal possession of a large quantity of uranium by two unauthorised persons in India and pointed to gaps in state control mechanisms there. “We have noted with serious concern the reports about seizure of more than 7kg natural uranium from unauthorised persons in India,” Foreign Office Spokesman Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri said. Indian authorities had …

YANGON: Myanmar’s junta declared on Saturday night that a group of ousted lawmakers running a shadow government would now be classified as “terrorists”, as the military moves to tighten its grip over a country in turmoil. Since the military seized power in a Feb 1 coup, detaining and ousting civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a nationwide uprising has refused …

GLASGOW: Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon vowed on Saturday to press ahead with plans for a new referendum on leaving the United Kingdom after saying there was no doubt elections to the Scottish parliament would return a pro-independence majority. In a rebuke to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson who has said he would block a secession vote, Sturgeon said it …

The death toll from bombs planted outside a girls’ school in an area of the Afghan capital populated largely by Shia Hazaras rose to 50 on Sunday as the Taliban denied government accusations that they were behind the bloody attack. Saturday’s blasts — the deadliest in more than a year — rocked the west Kabul district of Dasht-e-Barchi, a regular target …

• Joint statement also urges Afghan parties to realise historic opportunity for political settlement • PM, Saudi crown prince back political solutions to conflicts in Libya, Syria, Yemen ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Saudi Arabia on Saturday expre­ssed desire for resolution of Kas­hmir dispute through dialogue and Afghan conflict through political settlement. A joint statement, which is being considered a significant development …

Scores of people were injured on Saturday as Israeli forces targeted Palestinians outside the Old City of Jerusalem for the second night as tens of thousands of Muslim worshippers prayed at the nearby Al-Aqsa Mosque on Lailatul Qadr. Palestinian youth threw stones, lit fires and tore down police barricades in the streets leading to the walled Old City gates as …

Turkey’s daily Covid-19 cases fell below 20,000 for the first time since March 17, with 18,052 infections over the last 24 hours, health ministry data showed, as the country heads into its second week of lockdown. Last week, President Tayyip Erdogan announced what he called a “full lockdown” until May 17 to curb a surge in infections and deaths after …

MALE: Mohamed Nash­eed, the first democratically elected president of Maldives and current parliament speaker, was injured in a blast on Thursday near his home and was being treated in a hospital in the capital. Photos circulated on social media showed a ripped up motorcycle at the scene, but it was not clear whether the blast was an assassination attempt. Nasheed, …

MOSCOW: At least 170 endangered seals washed up dead over the course of several days on the shores of the Caspian Sea in Russia’s republic of Dagestan, researchers said on Thursday. “These are the dead animals that we saw, photographed and whose GPS coordinates we noted,” said Viktor Nikiforov of the Moscow Marine Mammals research centre. Images shared showed several …

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan would continue supporting the Palestinian people in their struggle for right to self-determination and attaining the goal of establishment of an independent state, said Foreign Office Spokesman Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri on Thursday. Speaking at a webinar hosted by the Islamabad Policy Institute (IPI) on ‘Dynamics of Muslim World & Future of Palestine: Time to Fight Back’, the spokesman …