President Donald Trump confirmed on Thursday that the US had killed the leader of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula — days after the militant group claimed responsibility for a mass shooting at a US naval base. The US “conducted a counterterrorism operation in Yemen that successfully eliminated Qassim Al Rimi, a founder and the leader of Al Qaeda in …

DUBAI: Amnesty Inter­­national accused Saudi Arabia on Thursday of using a secretive court established to try terrorism cases as “a weapon of repression” to imprison peaceful critics, activists, journalists, clerics and Shias, including some who were sentenced to death and executed. The London-based rights organisation examined court documents and spoke to activists and lawyers for its 53-page report, which sheds light …

India has extended the detention of four political leaders in occupied Kashmir, including former chief ministers Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti, who have been held by authorities since August of last year after the Indian government scrapped Article 370 of the Indian constitution that granted special status to the occupied region. The latest detention order was issued under the draconian Public Safety …

Chinese President Xi Jinping assured his US counterpart on Friday that China was doing all it can to contain a new coronavirus that has killed almost 640 people, including a doctor who sounded the alarm only to be threatened by police. China was gradually achieving results and was confident it could defeat the epidemic with no long-term consequences for economic …

ISLAMABAD: The Sup­reme Court ordered Punjab police on Thursday to seek the assistance of law enforce­ment agencies (LEAs) of all the provinces to trace Asma Majeed, a woman who went missing from Dera Ghazi Khan almost five years ago. A three-judge Supreme Court bench, headed by Justice Umar Ata Bandial, had taken up a petition filed by Abdul Majeed, the …

Russian authorities have added over 200 Jehovah’s Witnesses to a register of extremists and terrorists, the organisation said in a statement on Friday. The latest move in a crackdown on the religious group effectively cuts the believers off from the country’s financial system, as being on list leads to one’s bank accounts being frozen and to severe restrictions on any …

KARACHI: Correspondence is under way between the National Accountability Bureau and the Pakistan Air Force, which is willing to refund the amount collected from the affectees of the Fazaia Housing Scheme Karachi (FHSK) and to further settle all liabilities in that regard. This was stated by investigating officer Aslam Pervaiz Abro in a report regarding progress in the probe into …

PESHAWAR: All the line departments and Pakistan Army have teamed up to counter the threats posed by the outbreak of Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) in the neighbouring China, according to officials. They said that a meeting called after the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government declared emergency and invoked Public Health (Surveillance and Response) Act, 2017, was informed that all the departments must work …

ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly Standing Committee on Law and Justice has given the Punjab police a month to implement Lahore High Court (LHC) Justice Shabbar Raza Rizvi’s report on the 2009 attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team. The committee said that if the report was not implemented, the Establishment Division would be asked to attach the case in the …

TAXILA: Legendary tent pegging champion and chief of the Kot Fateh Khan clan of Attock, Malik Ata Mohammad Khan, passed away on Thursday. Born on Oct 25, 1941, Malik Ata was known for his equestrian hobbies. He was the first elected president of the Equestrian and Tent Pegging Federation of Pakistan. He was well-known in Pakistan for his attempts to …