Hundreds of millions of Indians in north India woke up on Sunday to toxic air following Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, after many revellers defied bans on using firecrackers to celebrate. The capital New Delhi was blanketed with a thick haze, with the average pollution level over nine times what is considered safe by the World Health Organisation (WHO). …

Israel has pushed on with plans to build a new Jewish settler neighbourhood in east Jerusalem, a watchdog group said on Sunday, warning such efforts were being stepped up before United States President Donald Trump leaves office. The Trump administration has broken with decades of bipartisan US practice by not opposing Jewish settlement activity in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem and the …

Several thousand supporters of United States President Donald Trump in Washington protested election results and then hailed Trump’s passing motorcade before nighttime clashes with counter-demonstrators sparked fistfights, at least one stabbing and at least 20 arrests. Several other cities on Saturday also saw gatherings of Trump supporters unwilling to accept Democrat Joe Biden’s Electoral College and popular vote victory as …

Azerbaijan said on Sunday it had agreed to extend a deadline for Armenia to withdraw from a disputed district as part of a peace accord that ended six weeks of fierce fighting over the Nagorno-Karabakh region. The first of the territories, Kalbajar, was to be turned over on Sunday. But Azerbaijan agreed at the last minute to give Armenian forces and civilians …

A historic wooden mosque in Istanbul caught on fire on Sunday and Turkish firefighters put out the blaze, working from both land and sea. The Vanikoy Mosque, built in the 17th century during the reign of Ottoman Sultan IV Mehmed, is located on the Asian side of Istanbul along the Bosporus Strait. Videos showed heavy smoke pouring from the structure. …

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court has expressed resentment over provincial authorities for not complying with its earlier order about formation of a committee to send proposals to the cabinet for necessary amendment in relevant law to control unauthorised use of CNG kits and cylinders in public transport and school vans. A two-judge bench headed by Justice Mohammad Ali Mazhar directed …

United States President Donald Trump appeared to edge closer towards acknowledging his election defeat in a tweet on Sunday morning, as he again railed against supposed mass fraud in the vote won by challenger Joe Biden. “He won because the Election was Rigged. NO VOTE WATCHERS OR OBSERVERS allowed, vote tabulated by a Radical Left privately owned company,” Trump tweeted in …

Fifteen Asia-Pacific countries on Sunday signed the world’s biggest free trade deal, seen as a huge coup for China in extending its influence. The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) includes 10 Southeast Asian economies along with China, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand and Australia, with members accounting for around 30 per cent of global gross domestic product. First proposed in …

ISLAMABAD: Former president Asif Ali Zardari on Saturday challenged the order of Supreme Court’s registrar office to return his pleas seeking transfer of four references pending against him from the accountability court of Islamabad to any such court in Karachi. While returning the four separate petitions on Tuesday, the assistant registrar of the Supreme Court had observed that the applications amounted to …

LAHORE: Minister for Railways Sheikh Rashid has warned the politicians of the possible terror attacks in the country sponsored by India, advising them to be careful with their security. He claimed the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf would be the winner in the Giligit Baltistan election, followed by the PPP, independents and the PML-N. “Today’s press briefing by the ISPR DG and the …