WASHINGTON: US President-elect Joe Biden on Monday named the deeply experienced Antony Blinken for secretary of state, also nominating the first female head of intelligence and a czar for climate issues, with a promise to a return to expertise after the turbulent years of Donald Trump. As Trump continued to make flailing attempts at overturning the results of the election …

DUBAI: The United Arab Emirates has relaxed and removed a range of limits on foreign ownership of companies, state-run media reported on Monday, in the country’s latest bid to boost its global status and attract foreign investors. The overhaul signals yet another startling change for the federation of seven desert sheikhdoms as it grapples with the economic fallout of the …

HONG KONG: Three young Hong Kong dissidents including Joshua Wong were remanded into custody on Monday after pleading guilty to inciting a rally during last year’s pro-democracy protests, deepening the crackdown against Beijing’s critics. Hong Kong was convulsed by seven straight months of huge and often violent democracy rallies last year in which millions took to the streets. Beijing has …

JERUSALEM: Israel on Monday sent a delegation to Sudan, its first since last month’s announcement of normalisation of relations between the two countries, a senior Israeli official said. For days there have been rumours in Jerusalem that a delegation would visit Khartoum in the wake of the accord announced by US President Donald Trump on October 23. Israeli army radio …

China launched an ambitious mission on Tuesday to bring back rocks and debris from the moon’s surface for the first time in more than 40 years — an undertaking that could boost human understanding of the moon and of the solar system more generally. Chang’e 5 — named for the Chinese moon goddess — is the country’s boldest lunar mission …

LAHORE: As the PML-N on Monday sought at least a two-week parole for its president Shehbaz Sharif and his son Hamza to participate in the last rites of his (Shehbaz’s) mother, the deputy commissioner’s office said they could be released ‘only for 12 hours’. Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and Shehbaz Sharif’s mother Begum Shamim Akhtar had died in London …

US President Donald Trump agreed early on Tuesday to allow the transition process to begin, ending weeks of speculation. But he did so only after certified election results also confirmed that his rival Joe Biden’s victory in the November 3 election was irreversible. Biden, a Democrat, now has 306 electoral votes against Trump’s 232 and leads his Republican rival by …

ISLAMABAD: The Punjab government is yet to provide records of 231,826 acres purportedly transferred to the capital territory of Islamabad from Rawalpindi in 1980. A source told Dawn that a letter was dispatched from the office of the additional advocate general (AAG) Punjab to the Senior Member Board of Revenue (SMBR) Punjab, chief settlement commissioner Board of Revenue Punjab, secretary Forest Department …

LAHORE: The Covid-19 infection is spreading at an ‘alarming’ rate in government schools all over the province. An official report unveiled that 1,004 schoolchildren of nursery to matriculation class tested positive for the virus during the last two months with a higher percentage than reported during the first wave of the infection in Punjab. According to the report, hundreds of …

ISLAMABAD: The capital administration has asked all government and private hospitals treating Covid-9 patients to increase isolation wards and arrange more beds and ventilators in the wake of rising number of cases. According to sources, representatives of some private hospitals met capital administration officials on Monday to discuss the issue and make necessary arrangements. These facilities will also be arranged …