WASHINGTON: A breakthrough has been reached in Qatar’s three-year-old dispute with Saudi Arabia and three other Arab countries and an agreement aimed at ending their rift is to be signed in Saudi Arabia today (Tuesday), a Trump administration official said. The development is the latest in a series of Middle East deals sought by Washington — the others involving Israel …

WASHINGTON: Georgia’s Repu­blican top election official said on Monday the White House had pushed him against his better judgement to take a call from President Donald Trump in which he pressured the state to overturn his November presidential election defeat there. In the call on Saturday, Trump told Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” enough votes to overturn …

ISTANBUL: Hundreds of people demonstrated in Istanbul on Monday against what they claim is the politically motivated appointment of a rector at a top Turkish university by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. A reporter estimated the number at more than 1,000, with dozens of police officers watching the rally without intervening. Anger erupted after a January 1 presidential decree in which …

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and the United States on Monday reaffirmed their commitment to continue cooperating with each other for peace in Afghanistan. The resolve was expressed in a statement issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) after a meeting between Army Chief Gen Qamar Bajwa and US Special Representative for Afghan Reconciliation Amb Zalmay Khalilzad. “During the meeting matters of mutual …

LONDON: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced on Monday a new national lockdown for England until at least mid-February to combat a fast-spreading variant of the coronavirus, even as Britain ramped up its vaccination programme by becoming the first nation to start using the shot developed by Oxford University and drugmaker AstraZeneca. Johnson said people must stay at home again, …

US President Donald Trump and his allies launched a desperate attempt early on Tuesday to undo President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, cajoling, threatening and pleading with state officials to keep the former in the White House for another four-year term. Their desperation rises as America enters the final phase of the electoral battle that began on Nov 3 last year and …

la KARACHI: A suspected militant who had been missing since last one year was found dead in the outskirts of the metropolis on Monday, according to police. Gulshan-i-Maymar police said that the body of the man later on identified as Luqman Khan, 32, was recovered from bushes near Sawan Mor off the Northern Bypass on Monday morning. The corpse was …

RAWALPINDI: Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid on Monday said three-time former prime minister Nawaz Sharif should fullfil his commitment to returning to the country as his health condition is now normal. “The former premier went abroad on court orders for medical treatment and now his condition is normal and he should come back,” she said. Dr Rashid was speaking …

LAHORE: The Punjab police department has appointed Deputy Inspector General (operations) Sohail Akhtar Sukhera as official spokesperson for the department under a newly-created information management and data sharing system. The seat was created under the Punjab Police InformationBranch (PPIB), a news wing madeon the pattern of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR). According to a standing order issued by Inspector General …

PESHAWAR: Hundreds of teachers of government schools on Monday blocked one of the city’s main thoroughfares and plunged the provincial capital into the worst gridlock. The protesting teachers gathered on Khyber Road and blocked it to traffic to press the government to upgrade their pay scales. The blockade of Khyber Road, in the heart of the city, led to the …