QAMINAS: Syrian regime artillery killed five Turkish soldiers in Idlib on Monday, Turkey’s defence ministry said, as the number of people displaced by violence in the region neared 700,000 since December. The barrage also wounded five soldiers in the violence-plagued northwest, prompting the Turkish military to respond by “destroying targets”, the defence ministry added. The exchange was the second in …

SRINAGAR: The family of a former held Kashmir chief minister went to India’s supreme court on Monday in a bid to overturn his detention under a law allowing incarceration for up to two years without charge. The case was launched as it was revealed that the police case against Omar Abdullah was mainly that he has used “dirty politics” while …

  BEIJING: Chinese President Xi Jinping donned a face mask and had his temperature checked on Monday while visiting medical workers and patients affected by the deadly coronavirus that has killed more than 900 people. The Chinese president, who has called the virus a “demon”, made a rare visit to meet frontline medical staff at a hospital treating infected patients. …

US President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump will visit India on February 24-25 and travel to New Delhi and Ahmedabad, the White House said on Monday. The latter city is the largest in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujarat and played an important role in Mahatma Gandhi’s life and leadership of the Indian independence movement. Press …

  From his dormitory in the locked down Chinese city of Wuhan, PhD student Hassan spoke to his father in Pakistan for the last time on Thursday. The 80-year-old begged him to come home. The next day, Hassan’s father died of a heart ailment. Hassan is one of more than 1,000 Pakistani students in China’s Hubei province, the epicentre of …

India’s ruling party was projected to lose a key state election on Tuesday, the vote count showed, in its first electoral test since deadly anti-government protests erupted nearly two months ago. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi won a bigger majority in a general election in May, but it has lost a string of state …

The death toll from a new coronavirus outbreak surged past 1,000 on Tuesday as the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned infected people who have not travelled to China could be the spark for a “bigger fire”. The rise came after Chinese President Xi Jinping made a rare visit to a hospital in Beijing, wearing protective gear as he chatted with …

KARACHI: Sindh Minister for Education, Labour and Human Resources Saeed Ghani has said that he alone cannot do anything for education as minister as he needs officers, teachers and students to support him in his work. He expressed these views while addressing students of the Government College of Commerce and Economics during their assembly on Monday morning. Later, he also …

PESHAWAR/KHAR: The home and tribal affairs department on Monday notified the merger of 4,517 Khasadar and Levies personnel into the provincial police department. The merged Khasadar and Levies personnel include 2,441 in Bajaur district, 1,043 in Orakzai district, 618 in Darra Adamkhel and 425 in Bittani. Notifications were issued separately for each district in pursuance of the KP Khasadars Force …

  ISLAMABAD: The Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP) on Monday recommended the elevation of senior puisne judge Justice Mohammad Qasim Khan as the next chief justice of the Lahore High Court (LHC). Presided over by Chief Justice of Pakistan Gulzar Ahmed, the meeting was attended by Justice Mushir Alam, Justice Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Qazi Faez Isa and Justice Maqbool …