LAGOS: Nigeria’s biggest city Lagos and several states were under curfew on Wednesday as unrest rooted in anti-police protests broke out again following a day of violence, including the shooting of civilians by security forces. Fires burned across Lagos and residents reported hearing gunfire despite President Muhammadu Buhari’s appeal for “understanding and calm”. Armed police tried to enforce a round-the-clock …

WASHINGTON: After a four-year journey, Nasa’s robotic spacecraft Osiris-Rex briefly touched down on asteroid Bennu’s boulder-strewn surface on Tuesday to collect rock and dust samples in a precision operation 200 million miles (330 million kilometres) from Earth. The so-called “Touch-And-Go” or TAG maneuver was managed by Lockheed Martin Space in Denver, Colorado, where at 6:12pm an announcer said: “Touchdown declared. …

US Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe said on Wednesday that Russia and Iran have both tried to interfere with the 2020 presidential election. Ratcliffe made the announcements at a hastily arranged news conference that also included FBI Director Chris Wray. The announcement two weeks before the election showed the level of alarm among top US officials that foreign actors were …

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will visit Indonesia next week, his first trip to the country since its leadership rejected a US proposal to host its spy planes. Pompeo will address an Islamic youth group conference on religion and civilisation in Jakarta, Indonesia’s foreign minister Retno Marsudi said on Thursday, without providing further details of his itinerary. Earlier, Pompeo …

Government ministers on Thursday pointed to the absurdity of Indian media’s claims — being shared via their Twitter accounts — that a “civil war” had broken out in Karachi and called on the social media giant to to take notice. Human Rights Minister Dr Shireen Mazari said it was unfortunate that Twitter was “deliberately ignoring” Indian media’s fake news on …

Former US president Barack Obama returned to the campaign trail on Wednesday, launching a blistering attack on Donald Trump with less than two weeks to go before the Republican president’s Election Day face-off with Democratic nominee Joe Biden. Speaking at a drive-in rally in Philadelphia on behalf of Biden, his former vice president, Obama offered his fiercest critique yet of …

India is closing in on an agreement with the United States that will give it access to satellite data for better accuracy of missiles and drones, government and industry officials said, as it tries to narrow the gap with the powerful Chinese military. The two sides are expected to announce the pact during the visit next week of US State …

GILGIT: Pakistan Peoples Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Wednesday announced that his party would protect the constitutional rights of Gilgit-Baltistan region. He urged the local residents to vote his party to power to fulfil promises. Mr Bilawal reached Skardu city to lead the party’s 22 days long election campaign in all 10 districts of Gilgit-Baltistan. Accompanied by PPP leaders Qamar …

ISLAMABAD: The scrutiny committee formed in March 2018 to audit the PTI’s alleged foreign funding is set to miss the latest deadline, issued to it by Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Aug 27, 2020. The six-week deadline was to expire on Oct 11, however, sources in the commission said it will expire on Oct 22 as per the issuance …

KARACHI: Five people were killed and around two dozen injured in a huge explosion inside a private bank situated in a multistorey residential building in Gulshan-i-Iqbal on Wednesday morning, officials and witnesses said. The bomb disposal squad in its report concluded that the blast was due to the “leakage of natural gas” inside the bank located on the first floor …