DHAKA: Police in Bangla­desh on Friday baton charged and fired tear gas at hundreds of students demonstrating in the capital after a prominent writer and government critic died in jail. At least 10 people suffered minor injuries in the clashes with police, a witness said, amid growing demands for an independent investigation into the death of Mushtaq Ahmed. A correspondent …

NEW DELHI: India and China have agreed to set up a hotline between their foreign ministers as the two nuclear-armed neighbours look to reduce tensions along a disputed Himalayan border where their troops have been locked in confrontation since last summer. The decision was reached at a lengthy call between the two foreign ministers on Thursday, India’s foreign ministry said …

Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler approved an operation to capture or kill murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, according to United States intelligence released on Friday as the United States imposed sanctions on some of those involved but spared the crown prince himself in an effort to preserve relations with the kingdom. Khashoggi, a US resident who wrote opinion columns for the Washington …

PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif said on Friday that an investigation into the alleged rigging in the NA-75 (Daska) by-polls was more important than the upcoming re-election in the entire constituency on March 18. The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Thursday, while hearing an application by PML-N candidate Syeda Nosheen Iftikhar, declared the by-poll held in the constituency on February 19 as …

NEW YORK: Myanmar’s UN Ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun, speaking for the country’s elected civilian government ousted in a military coup on Feb 1, appealed to the United Nations on Friday “to use any means necessary to take action against the Myanmar military” to restore democracy to the Southeast Asian country. He addressed the 193-member UN General Assembly after Secretary General …

MUZAFFARABAD: Amid an alarming spike in Covid-19 cases in Mirpur district of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), the local administration announced a one-week lockdown in the district from Monday. All educational institutions will remain closed for two weeks and other religious, political and social activities have also been banned, according to an order issued by office of the Deputy Commissioner …

LAHORE: The new positive cases of Covid-19 jumped to 748 on Friday in Punjab, the highest figures reported in a day across the province this month, raising concerns among health experts. With the new infections, the total number of the confirmed cases of the virus reached 170,222 in Punjab since March last year. Of the new cases, most of them …

ISLAMABAD: On the direction of the Ministry of Human Rights, the Kohsar police have registered a case against a citizen on the charge of torturing her 11-year-old maid. The police said the girl was working in a house at F-7/4. About a month ago, her woman employer tortured the girl after she broke a glass. The girl also sustained burn …

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has barred President Dr Arif Alvi and the governors of all the provinces from taking part in the campaign for the upcoming Senate polls. “The President and Governors of the Provinces shall not take part in election campaign relating to election to the Senate in any manner whatsoever and shall not use their …

KARACHI: The Sindh advisory council of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf on Friday demanded Prime Minister Imran Khan remove Governor Imran Ismail for “taking wrong decisions” and condemned a show-cause notice issued to senior leader Liaquat Ali Jatoi, calling it a conspiracy to weaken the party. The demand came from certain PTI leaders whose relations with their party got further strained after …