GENEVA: Two Chinese coronavirus vaccines are safe and effective, WHO experts said on Wednesday after reviewing partial data, providing a potential boost to countries from Australia to Europe struggling to roll out vaccines fast enough. Fewer than 600 million jabs have been given out across the world, three months after vaccination programmes began in earnest in Western countries and leaders …

US climate envoy John Kerry will hold talks with Indian, Emirati and Bangladesh leaders during an Asian tour starting on Thursday in an effort to narrow differences on climate change goals to slow global warming. Notably, Kerry is not scheduled to hold talks with the leadership of Pakistan, which is one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to climate change. …

Four people were killed, one of them a child, in a shooting on Wednesday at an office building in suburban Los Angeles before the suspect, wounded in an exchange of gunfire with police, was taken into custody, police reported. The bloodshed in the city of Orange, about 30 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles, marked the third deadly mass shooting …

Two people died as the second phase of voting in a violence-marred Indian state election kicked off on Thursday, officials said, with crowds of opponents clashing on the streets despite a ban on large gatherings. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu-nationalist party and the firebrand leader of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee, are caught up in a fierce battle for the …

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Wednesday barred the Hindu community from interfering into the rebuilding the Samadhi (shrine) of Hindu Saint in Teri village in the District Karak which was vandalised by a mob on Dec 30. A two-judge Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Gulzar Ahmed also issued a direction to the Chief Secretary Khyber Pakhtunkhwas …

PESHAWAR: Strong winds with gusts up to 55 kilometers per hour hit the provincial capital for the second consecutive day on Wednesday causing prolonged power outages. The weathermen call the weather phenomenon ridge and said it would prevail for three to four more days. The windstorm was also reported in some other parts of the province on Tuesday and Wednesday. …

KARACHI: A religious scholar belonging to the Binnori Town seminary in the Gurumandir area was shot at and wounded in a suspected sectarian attack in Orangi Town late on Tuesday night, officials said. Police said Mufti Saleemullah Khan, 40, was travelling in a car with his family and two students when a gunman riding pillion on a motorcycle opened fire …

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has again asked the “establishment and the judiciary” to stay away from politics and leave the political matters to be decided by the politicians and the people. Speaking at a news conference on Wednesday, PML-N secretary general Ahsan Iqbal also urged the “establishment” not to support the present set-up as such an action could …

ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has sought early hearing of pending appeals of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif against his conviction in the Avenfield Apartments, Al-Azizia references. The accountability courts of Islamabad in July and December 2018 convicted Sharif in both the cases and sentenced him to 10 and seven years sentence respectively. Mr Sharif was granted bail in …

In a fresh bid to halt illegal logging in the scenic northern region of Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan has brought in a paramilitary force to stop organised groups from cutting down trees and transporting them to other parts of the country. The Frontier Constabulary (FC), a civil armed force working under the federal government and led by police officers, was deployed in …