The Foreign Office on Saturday rejected Indian External Affairs Minister (EAM) Subrahmanyam Jaishankar’s comments accusing Pakistan of justifying terror as a policy and for the frail relations between the two countries. In a statement, the Foreign Office said Pakistan “completely rejects these unwarranted and tendentious comments”. The Indian minister had claimed during a recent online think-tank event that the Pakistani …

MEXICO CITY: Mexico’s former defence minister Salvador Cienfuegos used his power in office to protect a faction of the Beltran-Leyva cartel, directing operations against rival gangs and even finding maritime transport to ship drugs, US prosecutors said on Friday. Cienfuegos, arrested at Los Angeles airport on Thursday, took bribes in return for protection that included warning cartel members about US …

BEIRUT: Hundreds marched in Lebanon’s capital on Saturday to mark the first anniversary of a non-sectarian protest movement that has rocked the political elite but has yet to achieve its goal of sweeping reform. A whirlwind of hope and despair has gripped the country in the year since protests began, as an economic crisis and a devastating Aug 4 port explosion pushed …

BERLIN: Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Germans to come together like they did in the spring to slow the spread of the coronavirus as the country posted another daily record of new cases on Saturday. “Difficult months are ahead of us,” she said in her weekly video podcast. “How winter will be, how our Christmas will be, that will all be …

BANGKOK: Tens of thousands of Thai pro-democracy protesters rallied across Bangkok on Saturday, defying an emergency decree banning gatherings for a third consecutive day to demand the resignation of the prime minister and reform of the powerful monarchy. Police had used water cannon against peaceful demonstrators on Friday but protestors said they were not cowed by the escalation in tactics. …

BEIJING: A Chinese city is offering Sinovac Biotech’s experimental Covid-19 vaccine to essential workers and other high-risk groups as part of a national programme for about $60. The eastern city of Jiaxing’s center for disease control and prevention (CDC) said in a statement on WeChat that two doses of the vaccine candidate, called CoronaVac, will cost 200 yuan ($29.75) per …

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Saturday attacked a longtime congressional critic who warned this week that his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and authoritarian leaders could cause a “Republican bloodbath in the Senate” in the Nov 3 elections. US Senator Ben Sasse is the least effective of the 53 Republican senators, Trump wrote on Twitter, calling him “a liability …

STEPANAKERT: The foreign ministries of Armenia and Azerbaijan have said they will declare a “humanitarian truce” from midnight (2000 GMT, Saturday) after nearly three weeks of fighting over a disputed region. It will be a second attempt of the warring sides to declare a ceasefire to quell almost three weeks of clashes over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region that have killed hundreds of people. “The …

KARACHI: Federal Minister for Law and Justice Dr Farogh Naseem has said that the government’s basic agenda is (promotion of) the rule of law and under the law there are some “red lines” regarding national institutions. Speaking at a judicial conference at a local hotel on Saturday, he said that the federal government was working for (promotion of) constitutionalism and …

LAHORE: An accountability court on Saturday sought arguments on an application by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) seeking an approval to close an investigation into illegal allotment of 12 plots against Leader of Opposition in National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif for want of evidence. The investigation involves allegation of illegal exemption of plots in Gulshan-i-Ravi Scheme established by the Lahore Development …