WASHINGTON: Twitter said it permanently suspended Donald Trump’s account after the January 6 Capitol riot because there was a risk of further incitement of violence, following months of tweets disputing Joe Biden’s presidential election victory. False and misleading claims about American politics have since plummeted, a trend Twitter and Facebook — which also blocked Trump but may reverse course — …

BEIJING: The Chinese capital Beijing woke on Sunday morning shrouded in thick dust carrying extremely high levels of hazardous particles, as a second sandstorm in two weeks hit the city due to winds from drought-hit Mongolia and northwestern China. Visibility in the city was reduced, with the tops of some skyscrapers obscured by the sandstorm, and pedestrians were forced to …

While much of the country, particularly prime-time TV anchors and politicians, was hooked to the issue of the central bank’s independence and its possible impact, another major development took shape last Friday: the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) unveiled the Digital Bank Regulatory Framework draft. It lays out the regulations and procedures by which challenger banks will come into being …

KUWAIT CITY: Kuwait received on Sunday eight tonnes of documents and other items taken during the 1990 Iraq invasion led by Saddam Hussein, officials said. It is the third shipment that Kuwait has received since 2019, according to officials from both countries. Kuwait’s assistant foreign minister Nasser al-Hain welcomed the move, saying the shipment contained archives from Kuwait University, the …

PARIS: An upsurge in new coronavirus cases is forcing governments across Europe into new, damaging lockdowns that threaten to delay a much hoped-for return to growth, economists say. The plan was that mass vaccination programmes would turn the tide on the pandemic, allowing locked-down consumers free rein after months penned up at home. Instead the virus has embarked on a …

Two girls, aged 13 and 15, were charged with the murder and carjacking of a Pakistani immigrant killed last week while working at his job delivering food in Washington, DC, in an incident a bystander captured on video. Mohammad Anwar, 66, died when police said the girls, armed with a taser, sped off in his car as he clung to the driver’s …

Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged Qatar on Monday to eliminate male guardianship rules that prevent women from making independent decisions on basic rights such as marriage, travel and accessing reproductive health care. New York-based HRW said that after taking initiatives on women’s rights, including on education and social protection, Qatar was now falling behind Gulf neighbours, after Saudi Arabia in …

A massive container ship blocking Egypt’s Suez Canal for nearly a week has been partially refloated, the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) said, raising hopes the busy waterway will soon be reopened. The 400 metre-long Ever Given became jammed diagonally across a southern section of the canal in high winds early last Tuesday, halting shipping traffic on the shortest shipping route between Europe …

An international expert mission to Wuhan has concluded it was very likely that Covid-19 first passed to humans from a bat through an intermediary animal, while all but ruling out a laboratory leak. The intermediate host hypothesis was deemed “likely to very likely”, while the theory that the virus escaped from a lab was seen as “extremely unlikely”, according to …

SUKKUR: Police on Sunday claimed to have made a breakthrough in the murder case of TV reporter Ajay Lalwani by announcing arrest of the prime suspect and two of his accomplices in the wake of a protest march by media persons from Salehpat to Sukkur and sit-in outside Sindh High Court building in Sukkur a day before. Police nabbed the …