RAWALPINDI: Saudi Arabia has lifted travel restrictions on people having valid visas subject to their Covid-19 tests coming negative 48 hours prior to their travel. In a statement, the Foreign Office spokesperson said there was no Pakistan-specific travel restriction. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, 75 Pakistan Interna­tional Airlines (PIA) flights operated every week — Jeddah 42, Riyadh 13, Madina 12 and …

NEW DELHI: Thousands of farmers in India blocked roads and railway tracks on Friday in a protest against new legislation that they say could pave the way for the government to stop buying grain at guaranteed prices, leaving them at the mercy of private buyers. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has defended the bills — recently approved by parliament — …

MADRID: Spanish officials expanded a lockdown in and around Madrid on Friday to cover one million people, as European nations faced up to a sustained spike in virus cases. Madrid’s health authority said new rules largely banning tens of thousands from leaving their districts — in addition to the 850,000 already living under similar restrictions — would be enforced from …

WASHINGTON: Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a champion of gender equality, made history again on Friday as the first woman and the first Jewish person to lie in state in the US Capitol, encircled by images of prominent Americans. Ginsburg, a stalwart liberal on the high court since 1993, died last Friday at age 87. Known simply as RBG, …

VATICAN CITY: One of the Vatican’s most influential cardinals proclaimed his innocence on Friday after being pushed out by Pope Francis following news reports of the prelate allegedly directing church funds to family members. The Holy See announced the resignation of Cardinal Angelo Becciu in a terse statement on Thursday night, saying the trusted 72-year-old aide to the pontiff who …

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday urged warring Afghan factions to cooperate for lowering violence in Afghanistan so that an enduring peace could be achieved there. PM Khan said this in telephone conversation with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani in which the two leaders discussed the Afghan peace process. The PM Office quoted Mr Khan as emphasising “the importance of …

BERLIN: Thousands of young people across Europe joined a global day of climate protests on Friday, many wearing masks and keeping their distance against the coronavirus. The rallies marked the resumption of street protests by the “Fridays for Future” movement, which had kept its actions mainly online in recent months because of the pandemic. Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, who …

LOUISVILLE: Louisville police arrested 24 people, including a Kentucky state representative, as relative calm prevailed overnight during a second night of protests since police were cleared of homicide in the shooting death of Breonna Taylor. Among those arrested was state Representative Attica Scott, the only Black woman in the Kentucky legislature and the author of the proposed “Breonna’s Law,” which …

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen visited a low-key but critical maintenance base for fighter jet engines on Saturday, offering encouragement as the Chinese-claimed island’s armed forces strain in the face of repeated Chinese air force incursions. This month alone, China’s drills have included its jets crossing the mid-line of the sensitive Taiwan Strait and exercising near the Taiwan-controlled Pratas Islands in the South …

Pakistan — in a strongly worded rebuke to the Indian response following Prime Minister Imran Khan’s speech at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) — categorically stated that Jammu and Kashmir never was and never will be a part of India, adding that New Delhi has no claim over the region other than that of a “military occupier”. “In Jammu and Kashmir, …