ISLAMABAD: Iran on Wednesday said it was ready to help with intra-Afghan talks for durable peace in Afghanistan. “Like before, the Islamic Republic of Iran is ready to provide any requested help for the advancement of peace and will share its good experiences and facilities with its Afghan brothers and sisters to achieve an enduring peace,” Iran’s Ambassador to Pakistan …

Kanye West has reportedly been blocked from Twitter after sharing a video of himself urinating on one of his Grammy awards. The 43-year-old rapper is no stranger to hitting headlines with his social media antics, but reached a new level of controversy when he shared a video on Wednesday. The ‘Stronger’ hitmaker reportedly did so as part of an ongoing …

Pop superstar Justin Bieber has stunned fans as he released a video clip of his new single ‘Holy’, showing him in bed with  Ryan Destiny. In the short video, the ‘Sorry’ hitmaker is seen waking up in the morning next to a woman who is not his wife Hailey Baldwin. The 26-year-old star rolls over to find gorgeous actress and …

When Narayan Mitra died on July 16, a day after being admitted to the hospital for fever and breathing difficulties, his name never appeared on any of the official lists put out daily of those killed by the coronavirus. Test results later revealed that Mitra had indeed been infected with Covid-19, as had his son, Abhijit, and four other family …

WASHINGTON: The US Justice Department on Wednesday announced charges against five Chinese nationals and two Malaysians who ran global hacking operations for at least six years to steal identities and video game technology, plant ransomware, and spy on Hong Kong activists. Three of the Chinese suspects operated out of Chengdu 404, a Sichuan-based company that purported to offer network security …

u ST JOHN’S: Barbados has announced its intention to remove Queen Elizabeth II as head of state and become a republic by November next year, as the Caribbean island nation seeks to move fully beyond its colonial past. The decision was formalised in the so-called Throne Speech, delivered on behalf of Prime Minister Mia Mottley by the island’s Governor-General Sandra …

ISLAMABAD: Terming it a black day in the country’s parliamentary history, Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly and PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif on Wednesday slammed NA Speaker Asad Qaiser for “trampling upon parliamentary norms and bulldozing legislation”. Addressing a press conference along with PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and other opposition leaders after a walkout from the joint sitting of …

GENEVA: Venezuela’s president and top ministers are responsible for probable crimes against humanity including extrajudicial killings and the systematic use of torture, UN investigators said on Wednesday. In their first report, a team of investigators tasked with probing a slew of alleged violations in Venezuela said they had found evidence that state actors, including President Nicolas Maduro, were behind serious …

New Zealand plunged into recession for the first time in a decade on Thursday, as data confirmed a record-breaking economic collapse that forced Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to defend her pandemic response ahead of next month’s general election. The 12.2 per cent contraction in April-June was “by far the largest” since records began, national data agency Stats NZ said, with …

NEW DELHI: Coronavirus infections in India soared past five million on Wednesday, as the EU’s chief warned against “vaccine nationalism” in the frantic global race to battle the disease. Worldwide cases are rapidly approaching 30 million, with more than 936,000 known Covid-19 deaths since the virus emerged in China late last year. The global economy has been devastated and nations …