YANGON: Denied their chance to take their parliament seats after a coup in Myanmar this week, a group of lawmakers held their own house session on Thursday in a show of defiance towards the return of military rule. About a dozen elected legislators from deposed Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party held the session …

WASHINGTON: Asserting a broad reset of American foreign policy, US President Joe Biden said on Thursday that he would halt the withdrawal of troops stationed in Ger­many, end support for Saudi Arabia’s military offensive in Yemen and make support for LGBTQ rights a cornerstone of diplomacy. About relations with Moscow, President Biden said he had warned President Vladimir Putin that …

BEIRUT: A prominent Lebanese publisher and vocal critic of Hezbollah was found shot dead in his car on Thursday morning, a brazen killing that sparked fears of a return to political violence in this country gripped by social and economic upheaval. The body of 58-year-old Lokman Slim, a long-time Shia political activist and researcher, was slumped over on the passenger …

NEW DELHI: The US embassy in New Delhi urged India’s government on Thursday to resume talks with farmers whose months-long protests over agricultural reforms erupted into violence last week. India’s Foreign Ministry said it had “taken note” of the comments and underlined ongoing efforts between Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government and farmers’ groups to resolve the situation. “We encourage that …

WASHINGTON: A bipartisan report to the US Congress claims that there’s an understanding between China and Pakistan on how to protect their interests in Afghanistan and Islamabad enjoys a leading role in this strategy. “The increasing closeness of the China-Pakistan relationship means that, for the most part, Beijing’s Afghanistan policy has hewed closely to that of Islamabad, with Islamabad taking …

LONDON: The world faces around 4,000 variants of the virus that causes Covid-19, prompting a race to improve vaccines, Britain said on Thursday, as researchers began to explore mixing doses of the Pfizer and AstraZeneca shots in a world first. Thousands of variants have been documented as the virus mutates, including the so-called British, South African and Brazilian variants, which …

KARACHI: Despite some hiccups, including reluctance among healthcare providers, the Covid-19 vaccination drive is slowly picking up pace in the city, sources. They also pointed to the lack of clarity in the registration process, lack of consultation with stakeholders as well as apprehensions about the government policy towards the private sector as factors affecting the drive. According to the health …

ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice of Pakistan Gulzar Ahmed on Thursday emphasised the need for bringing democratic values in political parties, instead of party head behaving like a dictator. “The political party heads should not act like dictators and convert the political party into one-man party,” observed the chief justice while heading a five-judge SC bench that had taken up a reference …

ISLAMABAD: Senate Deputy Chairman Saleem Mandviwalla appeared before the accountability court of Islamabad on Thursday in connection with a plot allotment reference filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) against him. Accountability judge Mohammad Bashir asked the prosecution of NAB to distribute copies of the reference among the accused persons and adjourned proceeding till Feb 18. Talking to the media, …

DERA ISMAIL KHAN: Former provincial finance minister Makhdoom Mureed Kazim Shah died at a hospital in Rawalpindi after a brief illness. He was 71. His funeral prayers were offered in Blot Sharif on Thursday in which besides religious and political figures a large number of local people participated. He was buried in his ancestral graveyard of Hazrat Shah Issa. Mureed …