RIYADH: Saudi Arabia will gradually resume Umrah pilgrimage from October 4, the kingdom’s Ministry of Interior announced on Tuesday. The ministry said the decision was made after assessing the coronavirus situation and in response to the desire of Muslims around the world to perform the ritual. In the first phase, 6,000 citizens and expatriates from within the kingdom will be …

WASHINGTON: A number of Taliban prisoners who were released by the Afghan government as a condition for peace talks have taken up arms again, the government’s lead negotiator Abdullah Abdullah said on Tuesday. Abdullah, the chairman of Afghanistan’s High Council for National Reconciliation, said discussions with the Taliban in Qatar so far have been positive. However, he said some — …

WASHINGTON: The United States and the United Arab Emirates hope to have an initial agreement on the sale of F-35 stealth fighter jets to the Gulf state in place by December, as the Trump administration studies how to structure a deal without running afoul of Israel. Sources close to the negotiations said the goal is to have a letter of …

UNITED NATIONS: President Xi Jinping gave a robust defence of China’s ambitions on Tuesday in a speech to the UN, warning against the perils of a “clash of civilisations” during a pandemic that has ripped through the world. In an opening address presaged by a demand by his US counterpart Donald Trump for China to be held “accountable” for the …

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has called for bringing back self-exiled former military ruler Gen Pervez Musharraf to the country in connection with Benazir Bhutto’s murder case and regretted the failure of the state to implement the orders of the court which had already issued his non-bailable arrest warrants. Talking to reporters outside the Lahore High Court’s Rawalpindi bench …

ISLAMABAD: The government on Tuesday passed the buck to the judiciary to decide the fate of the under-construction prison in the federal capital. The decision was taken at the federal cabinet meeting presided over by Prime Minister Imran Khan. A member of the cabinet, who did not want to be named, told Dawn that though the cabinet in its last meeting had …

ISLAMABAD: The army on Tuesday held a demonstration of the newly received main battle tank, VT-4, at Tilla field firing ranges near Jhelum following its induction into the Armoured Corps. The demonstration was witnessed by Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa. Produced by Chinese state-owned armoured vehicle manufacturer, Norinco, the delivery of VT-4 tanks from the manufacturer …

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Tuesday regretted that the Federal Bureau of Revenue’s (FBR) Directorate General of Intelligence and Investigation (DG-I&I) was running on an ad hoc basis and conducting its affairs apparently in an illegal manner. The observations came in an order authored by Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed on an appeal against the Dec 18, 2018 Peshawar High Court …

• ATC rules Pakistan’s deadliest factory blaze was arson • Muttahida claims it has nothing to do with case; PPP rejects assertion • Four gatekeepers jailed for life; Rauf Siddiqui acquitted KARACHI: An antiterrorism court on Tuesday sentenced two former activists of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) to death and awarded life imprisonment to four gatekeepers of the Baldia garments …

ISLAMABAD: PTI lawmaker Dr Ramesh Kumar Vankwani on Tuesday announced to hold a sit-in in the Red Zone of the federal capital to seek justice over the death of 11 Pakistanis in the Indian city of Jodhpur, who were killed by extremist Hindu nationalists. Addressing a press conference, the MNA, who is the patron-in-chief of Pakistan Hindu Council (PHC), said convoys from …