WELLINGTON: Almost 100 pilot whales have died in a mass stranding on New Zealand’s remote Chatham Islands, conservation officials said on Wednesday. Most of the marine mammals beached themselves over the weekend but rescue efforts were hampered by the area’s isolated location, about 800 kilometres (500 miles) east of the South Island, the Department of Conservation (DOC) said. Department biodiversity …

WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo has reignited a debate about a purported meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman by saying that the two “may or may not have” met. The US and Israeli media reported earlier this week that the two leaders met in a little Saudi town called Noam on …

LONDON: The British government faced fury on Wednesday over its decision to ditch its long-standing target for overseas aid in the wake of what it described as the deepest recession in over three centuries. In a statement to lawmakers, Treasury chief Rishi Sunak said the target to allocate 0.7 per cent of national income to overseas aid will be cut …

SYDNEY: Australia has cancelled the citizenship of an Algerian-born Muslim cleric who was convicted of leading a terrorist cell that planned to bomb a football match in Melbourne in 2005, Minister for Home Affairs Peter Dutton said on Wednesday. Abdul Nacer Benbrika is now the first person to be stripped of his citizenship while still in Australia. “If it’s a …

MUZAFFARABAD: A villager of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) lost his life on Wednesday evening after an Indian sniper shot at him from across the restive Line of Control (LoC) while he was heading home on a motorbike, officials said. Chaudhry Ansar Mahmood, said to be in his mid-thirties, was about to reach his home in Gohra Mehri hamlet when …

Australia has issued termination notices to at least 10 special forces soldiers after the release of a report that found credible evidence of unlawful killings in Afghanistan, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) said on Thursday. An independent report published last week in redacted form said there was evidence that 39 unarmed Afghan prisoners and civilians were killed by 19 Australian soldiers. None …

A survey conducted by Transparency International (TI) has found that India has the highest rate of bribery in the region. The results of the survey — the Global Corruption Barometer (GCB) – Asia — which were released on Tuesday showed that India also had the highest rate of people using personal connections to access public services. The countries that were included in …

ISLAMABAD: As daily cases of Covid-19 surpassed 3,000 on Wednesday, federal Information Minister Shibli Faraz criticised the opposition parties’ boycott of a meeting of the parliamentary committee on the pandemic and announced that cases would be registered against organisers of political gatherings and the leaders attending these events. The opposition parties, in line with their decision that they would not attend any …

LAHORE: Former patron-in-chief and founding leader of the Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), Pir Afzal Qadri, on Wednesday stirred a controversy around the group’s leadership when he questioned the succession of “mentally unstable” Saad Hussain Rizvi to lead the party after the death of Khadim Hussain Rizvi. In a video clip where Afzal Qadri could be seen addressing from a platform, he …

ISLAMABAD: An accountability court on Wednesday issued a written order confirming the report filed by National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on freezing the ‘properties’ of Senate Deputy Chairman Saleem Mandviwala. Mr Mandviwala, on the other hand has moved privilege motions in the Senate against NAB Chairman retired Justice Javed Iqbal, NAB Director General (Rawalpindi) Irfan Naeem Mangi, the investigating officer, the …