NEW DELHI: Elections were announced on Monday to the 70-member Delhi Legislative Assembly as student protests continue to surge across the country. Polling would be on February 8 and the votes counted on February 11, the Election Commission of India (ECI) said. Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora said the poll notification would be issued on January 14. The last date …

TOKYO: New reports emerged on Monday on how fugitive former Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn jumped bail in Japan, as the country’s justice minister said border controls would be bolstered after the escape. The 65-year-old executive skipped bail nearly a week ago, fleeing Japan where he was awaiting trial on multiple counts of financial misconduct that he denies. The details of …

PARIS: Both Iran and the United States must observe a convention obliging states to preserve cultural sites, the UN’s cultural agency said on Monday, after President Donald Trump threatened to target Iran’s cultural heritage. Unesco director general Audrey Azoulay highlighted that both Tehran and Washington had signed a 1972 convention prohibiting states from taking “any deliberate measures which might damage …

Firefighters joined by fresh teams from the US and Canada were taking advantage of rainy and cooler conditions to tackle out-of-control blazes ahead of rising temperatures forecast later this week. In the biggest-ever call up of reserves, military teams were deployed across eastern Australia to help emergency services assess the damage, restore power and deliver supplies of food, water and …

WASHINGTON: Prime Minister Imran Khan was one of the world leaders who had engaged in an “off-ramp” diplomacy to defuse recent tensions between Iran and the United States, an official of the US State Department said on Monday. “The off-ramp has been there for three years. The Iranians keep projecting it. And it’s not just us,” said the official during …

America’s military strategy in Iraq was thrown into confusion Monday as the Pentagon admitted a letter from a general informing the Iraqi government of an imminent US troop pullout was sent by “mistake”. The latest developments came as a sea of black-clad mourners in Tehran paid homage to Qasem Soleimani, the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force who …

The United States has denied a visa to Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif that would have allowed him to attend a United Nations Security Council meeting in New York on Thursday, a US official said. Monday’s comments by the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, came as tensions escalate between the two countries after the United States killed …

The Pentagon on Monday distanced itself from US President Donald Trump’s assertions that he would bomb Iranian cultural sites despite international prohibitions on such attacks. US Defence Secretary Mark Esper said the US will follow the laws of armed conflict. When asked if that ruled out targeting cultural sites, Esper said pointedly, “That’s the laws of armed conflict”. The split between the …

ISLAMABAD: The government changed the National Accountability Ordinance in haste in order to restrain the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) from arresting two top aides to Prime Minister Imran Khan, former interior minister Ahsan Iqbal alleged on Monday. Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, the detained ex-prime minister, said on the other hand that the hastily tabled bill seeking extension in the term of …

ISLAMABAD: A three-judge Supreme Court bench has issued notices to a number of respondents in a case regarding permission to ride heavy bikes on the motorway, as the federal government believes the presence of such vehicles in high speed lanes is a danger to public safety. The bench, headed by Justice Mushir Alam, issued notices on Monday to a number …