KHABAROVSK: Tens of thousands of people took to the streets in Russia’s Far East for a fifth consecutive weekend as anti-Kremlin rallies showed little sign of dying down on Saturday. The rallies in the city of some 600,000 people on the border with China is a major show of defiance against Moscow’s policies and present a headache for President Vladimir …

HONG KONG: China on Saturday slammed the United States for imposing “barbarous” sanctions in response to Beijing’s crackdown in Hong Kong, capping a dramatic week of deteriorating relations between the world’s two biggest economies. In the toughest US action on Hong Kong since China imposed a sweeping new security law on the territory, Washington on Friday sanctioned a group of …

KOZHIKODE: Investigators have recovered the “black box” flight recorders from an Air India Express plane that crashed in southern India killing at least 18 people, the aviation minister said on Saturday. The plane carrying 190 people crash-landed during bad weather on Friday night and tore into two, injuring scores of passengers. The Boeing 737, on a special flight from Dubai to bring …

ISLAMABAD: Amid an ongoing debate in the country over lack of support by Muslim countries and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) for the Kashmir cause, Prime Minister Imran Khan on Saturday expressed his gratitude to former prime minister of Malaysia Dr Mahathir Bin Mohamad for speaking in support of the people of India-held Kashmir. “I want to thank Dr …

Thousands of Israelis rallied outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence in Jerusalem on Saturday as anger mounted over corruption allegations and his handling of the coronavirus crisis. “Your time is up”, read the giant letters projected on to a building at the protest site, as demonstrators waved Israeli flags and called on Netanyahu to resign over what they say is …

BEIRUT: Lebanese riot police fired tear gas at demonstrators trying to break through a barrier to get to the parliament building in Beirut on Saturday and shots were heard as protests over this week’s devastating explosion grew. Dozens of protesters broke into the foreign ministry where they burnt a framed portrait of President Michel Aoun, representative of a political class that has …

A traditional Afghan council concluded on Sunday with hundreds of delegates agreeing to free 400 Taliban members, paving the way for an early start to negotiations between Afghanistan’s warring sides. The declaration read out in both of Afghanistan’s official languages of Pashto and Farsi calls for an immediate start to negotiations and cease fire. The move looks to bring the …

ISLAMABAD: An accountability court of Islamabad has directed the registrar office of accountability courts in Karachi to ensure arrangements for indictment of former president of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari and other Park Lane case suspects through video link on Monday. Judge Mohammad Azam Khan in a letter to the registrar stated: “It has been decided by this court to frame …

ISLAMABAD: Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif said on Saturday that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) was a fate-changer and a game-changer, crucial for the alleviation of poverty in the region. During a meeting with Chinese envoy Yao Jing, the PML-N president added that CPEC would play a key role in the economic revival of the …

LAHORE: Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar has said that fully empowered secretaries of various departments will soon be posted to the south Punjab secretariat. He said these officials would be given administrative and financial autonomy to deal with affairs related to Multan, Bahawalpur and Dera Ghazi Khan divisions. The chief minister stated this during a meeting with Foreign Minister Shah …