GENEVA: A UN rights expert on Friday accused Saudi Arabia of bullying after a top official allegedly threatened her life following her probe into journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s 2018 murder. “The Saudi Arabia threat against me was brazen, it took place in a high level diplomatic setting and it was made public, confirmed by the UN,” Agnes Callamard said in a …

CAIRO:  The Japanese company owning the vessel, that has blocked the all important shipping lane Suez Canal, says  that the megaship could be refloated as early as Saturday. The MV Ever Given, which is longer than four football fields, has been wedged diagonally across the span of the canal since Tuesday, blocking the waterway in both directions. At a press …

Voting began in Assam and West Bengal on Saturday in state elections that will show how support for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is holding up following a coronavirus-stricken year, and months of protests by farmers against his agricultural reforms. Re-elected for a second five-year term in 2019, Modi’s grip on power is under no threat, but the elections in the two eastern …

ISLAMABAD: In a development that took the two main component parties in the opposition PDM further apart, former prime minister and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) candidate Yousuf Raza Gilani was on Friday declared as opposition leader in the Senate. A notification issued by the Senate Secretariat states that in pursuance of Rule 16 (3) of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct …

KOHAT: The police have collected samples of over 40 suspects for DNA following the sexual assault and murder of a four-year-old girl. Talking to here on Friday, district police officer Sohail Khalid said the suspects included locals and some distant relatives of the victim, whose body was found in a drain on Thursday morning after she went missing from her house on …

ISLAMABAD: The Capital Development Authority (CDA) has decided to provide direct links to F-8 and the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) side from Jinnah Avenue. For this purpose, the CDA will construct two loops on each side of the existing underpass on Faisal Avenue and Blue Area. The decision was taken in a meeting held at the CDA headquarters …

KARACHI: The Meteorological department has forecast hot and dry weather for next two days as temperature rose further to 39.1 degrees Celsius on Friday. Maximum temperature recorded on Thursday was 38.1 degrees Celsius. “It’s the dry continental air that has landed across the country blocking sea breeze and causing rise in temperature in the city,” said Sardar Sarfaraz of the …

ISLAMABAD: Panic gripped the accountability court on Friday when an active coronavirus patient emerged to testify in the National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) reference. The NAB prosecution produced Ameer Haider Malik, a Covid-19 patient, as witness in the Mudarabah reference in the accountability court judge Azam Khan. He appeared as a routine witness in the court and remained with the litigants, …

KARACHI: When the last iteration of the Karachi Literature Festival (KLF) took place in 2020, no one had an inkling that a year later words such as ‘online’ and ‘digital’ would be used by its organisers. The coronavirus pandemic had hit closer to home, the first case had just surfaced and there was palpable concern for everyone’s safety in the …

LAHORE: Leader of Opposition in National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif on Friday moved the Lahore High Court (LHC) for post-arrest bail in a reference of money laundering and illegal assets five months after he was sent to jail on judicial remand by the trial court. Usually an accused files petition for post-arrest bail immediately after the end of physical remand. However, …