PARIS: Former French president Valery Giscard d’Estaing died on Wednesday after suffering from Covid-19. He was 94. In their tributes French and European leaders hailed him as an ambitious reformer and great statesman. Under his single seven-year term from 1974-1981, France made great strides in nuclear power, high-speed train travel and legalised abortion. He placed Paris at the heart of …

NEW YORK: Facebook has decided to revise its hate speech algorithms to prioritise blocking slurs against blacks, Muslims and others that have historically faced discrimination, the Washington Post reported on Thursday. The change is set to alter the social network’s “so-called race-blind” system that has removed anti-white comments and excised innocuous comments by people of colour, the Post said. The reform is at an …

ROME: Iran’s foreign minister on Thursday urged US president-elect Joe Biden to abandon Washington’s “rogue” behaviour and lift crippling sanctions on his country, rejecting talk of renegotiating the 2015 nuclear deal. Mohammad Javad Zarif said that when President Donald Trump left the landmark agreement, the United States had breached a UN Security Council resolution endorsing it. “The US has been …

UNITED NAIONS: Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Thursday decried countries — without naming names — who rejected the facts about the coronavirus pandemic and ignored guidance from the World Health Organisation (WHO). Guterres addressed a special session of the 193-member U.N. General Assembly on the coronavirus, which emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan late last year and spread globally, …

ISLAMABAD: The Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP) headed by Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed on Thursday approved the nomination of two prominent lawyers, Babar Sattar and Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri, for appointment as judges of the Islamabad High Court (IHC). The meeting of JCP — which comprises besides the chief justice of Pakistan senior most judges of the Supreme Court, chief justice …

The Israeli government on Thursday urged its citizens to avoid travel to the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, citing threats of Iranian attacks. Iran has been threatening to attack Israeli targets since its chief nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, was assassinated last Friday near Tehran. It accuses Israel, which has been suspected in previous killings of Iranian nuclear scientists, of being behind …

prot ISLAMABAD: The employees of Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) on Thursday continued their protest against the Medical Teaching Institution (MTI) Ordinance, suspending all services, except in the Covid-19 ward and emergency department. The ordinance was promulgated by President Arif Alvi last month under which the hospital would be run through a board of governors. A large number of …

ISLAMABAD: As the second wave of Covid-19 continues to surge in the country, President Dr Arif Alvi on Thursday issued a declaration to revive the already agreed SOPs (standard operating procedures) for collective prayers in mosques and imambargahs. The joint declaration was issued after a meeting of more than 86 clerics from the four mainstream schools of thought in the …

GILGIT: A three-member team has begun their expedition to summit the world’s second highest peak, K2 (8,611m), for the first time in the winter season. The climbers include John Snorri, 47, from Iceland, Mohammad Ali Sadpara, 44, from Gilgit-Baltistan, and his son, Sajid Ali Sadpara, 21. K2 has never been scaled during the winter season. According to the expedition officials, …

LAYYAH: A resident of Choubara has alleged that her two daughters, a daughter-in-law and she herself were held captive for nine months and raped by nine people. Karor police registered a case against the culprits. Desert Tehsil Choubara’s Union Council Nawan Kot resident alleged that nine people raped them to avenge an elopement. She said a girl of the suspects’ …