WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden said on Thursday it will be “hard” to meet the May 1 deadline to withdraw all American soldiers from Afghanistan as part of a Taliban deal, but stressed troops are not there indefinitely. “It is going to be hard to meet the May 1 deadline in terms of tactical reasons. It’s hard to get those …

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist party are making a serious bid for electoral victories in three states that have sizeable minority Muslim populations. But the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has for years been accused of stoking religious polarisation and discriminating against minorities, and faces stiff challenges in making inroads in the local elections. Top BJP leaders, …

ISLAMABAD: All stakeholders have appreciated the government for initiating the process to remove Higher Education Commission (HEC) Chairman Dr Tariq Banuri from his post. The government has started this process as Cabinet Committee on Legislative Cases (CCLC) on Wednesday recommended that the tenure of HEC chairman should only be two years instead of the existing practice of four years. He …

LAHORE: Following the reports of persistent surge in the number of Covid-19 deaths and new positive cases in Punjab, the government has imposed smart lockdown in 11 areas of Rawalpindi, Gujranwala and Sialkot here on Thursday. While issuing a notification in this respect, the government said that the police and district authorities have sealed four areas each in Gujranwala and …

ISLAMABAD: As vaccination of the elderly goes on, arrangements have been made in the capital to vaccinate at least 4,000 people a day through the establishment of a mass vaccination centre. The centre has been set up at the Isolation Hospital and Infections Treatment Centre where vaccination will begin next week. Officials of the capital administration said 548 people were …

KARACHI: Federal Education Minister Shafqat Mahmood said on Thursday that the Cambridge Assessment International Education would hold O Level exams in Pakistan after May 15, but the A Level exams would be held as per schedule. However, the Cambridge International made no announcement and the minister said the organisation would share the details later. Mr Mahmood said in a tweet: …

ISLAMABAD: The Punjab government suffered a setback on Thursday when the Supreme Court ordered restoration of local government institutions in the province after declaring their dissolution as unconstitutional. “For reasons to be recorded later, Section 3 of the Punjab Local Government Act 2019 (PLGA) whereby the local bodies were dissolved is declared ultra vires of the Constitution and the local …

PPP’s Yousuf Raza Gilani was declared as leader of the opposition in the upper house of parliament on Friday, according to a notification issued by the Senate Secretariat. Gilani, a former prime minister, had recently been elected to the Senate after a highly contentious poll, in which he defeated the ruling PTI’s candidate, Abdul Hafeez Sheikh. He had subsequently contested the …

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — A woman and her common-law husband appeared in court for the first time since an 8-year-old boy was found badly injured in a west Houston hotel room and was later pronounced dead. The boy’s mother, Kayla Holzendorf, 24, appeared in court early Thursday morning, and her common-law husband, Dominique Lewis, 28, appeared several hours later. Both …

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — The mother of an 8-year-old boy found dead inside a hotel with “horrendous” injuries told police she and her common-law husband had sex while her son was dying. Harris County court records revealed the new details just hours after the child’s maternal grandparents told his mother concealed him from them before his death. Tuesday night, police …