MADRID: Spain’s parliament voted Thursday to approve a bill that will allow physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia for long-suffering patients of incurable diseases or unbearable permanent conditions. The bill, which was backed by the left-wing coalition government and several other parties, passed in a 198-138 vote. The conservative Popular Party and the far-right Vox party voted `No’. The bill will now …

PARIS: Europe became the first region in the world on Thursday to pass the milestone of 500,000 coronavirus deaths. The 52 countries and territories of the European region have recorded 500,069 deaths — ahead of Latin America and the Caribbean on 477,404, the United States and Canada (321,287), Asia (208,149), the Middle East (85,895) and Africa (57,423). Europe has once …

PARIS: President Emmanuel Macron tested positive for the coronavirus on Thursday, prompting a track-and-trace effort across Europe following numerous meetings between the French leader and EU heads of government in recent days. Macron, 42, was running the country remotely after going into quarantine in the Elysee Palace, the presidency said. In the early evening, he spoke to a conference on …

WASHINGTON: The first major snowstorm of the season left north-eastern United States blanketed in snow, setting records in some areas. A regional airport in Williamson made history, the National Weather Service said, reporting 24.7 inches of snow. Forecasters said that was the most snow in that location from a single storm on record, breaking the previous record of 24.1 inches …

WASHINGTON: The top US military officer pressed the Taliban to reduce violence in a rare meeting on Thursday as outgoing President Donald Trump seeks to hasten the end of the nearly 20-year war. Gen Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, met Taliban representatives in Qatar and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani in Kabul. It was only the second …

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi met with his United Arab Emirates (UAE) counterpart, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, late on Thursday in Abu Dhabi. The foreign minister is currently on a two-day visit to the UAE. The visit is taking place weeks after the UAE included Pakistan among the 12 countries for whose nationals it had suspended visit visas. …

Bollywood’s famous producer and director, Karan Johar, has been asked by India’s Narcotics Controls Bureau (NCB) to explain a video from one his parties, allegedly containing evidence of social media users consuming drugs. The case was taken up in response to a complaint by Manjinder Singh Sirsa — an Indian politician belonging to the second oldest party in the country, Shiromani Akali …

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) decided on Thursday night to approve Moderna Inc’s coronavirus vaccine on an emergency basis, the Financial Times reported, citing people close to the process. The report comes after the FDA said it informed Moderna that it would rapidly work towards the finalisation and issuance of emergency use authorisation for its Covid-19 vaccine candidate, according to …

Iran has begun construction on a site at its underground nuclear facility at Fordo amid tensions with the US over its atomic program, satellite photos obtained Friday by The Associated Press show. Iran has not publicly acknowledged any new construction at Fordo, whose discovery by the West in 2009 came in an earlier round of brinkmanship before world powers struck the 2015 nuclear …

PESHAWAR: Senate Deputy Chairman Saleem Mandviwala on Thursday declared the federal government’s decision about early Senate elections unconstitutional and said those elections would be held in line with the laid-down procedure and schedule only after the retiring Senators completed their term. “The government’s desire to hold the Senate polls before schedule can’t be fulfilled unless a necessary amendment is made …