WASHINGTON: Presid­ent Joe Biden ordered US intelligence agencies on Wednesday to report to him in three months on whether the Covid-19 virus first emerged in China from an animal source or from a laboratory accident. Agencies should “redouble their efforts to collect and analyse information that could bring us closer to a definitive conclusion, and to report back to me …

Afghanistan’s capital has become an unlikely pandemic transit route for Pakistanis desperate to reach the riches of Saudi Arabia despite deteriorating security and the threat of bomb blasts. With most Gulf flights from Pakistan cancelled as the country is added to a growing number of coronavirus travel blacklists, thousands of workers are hoping to reach the kingdom after first spending two weeks …

United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) President Volkan Bozkir — who arrived in Islamabad a day earlier — met Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi at the Foreign Office (FO) on Thursday. The situation in Palestine and occupied Kashmir, the Afghan peace process and matters of mutual interest were discussed during the meeting. Welcoming Bozkir to the FO, FM Qureshi appreciated the UNGA president’s …

LONDON: The British government “disastrously” failed the public by mishandling the start of the coronavirus pandemic, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s former top adviser and Brexit architect Dominic Cummings told lawmakers on Wednesday. In an excoriating account of the crisis’s early days, Cummings — a divisive figure who carved out a uniquely powerful role in Johnson’s government before stepping down in …

LAHORE: Police on Wednesday arrested PML-N MPA Mian Naveed Ali after the Lahore High Court withdrew his pre-arrest bail in a case of slapping Pakpattan Assistant Commissioner Khawar Bashir. Pakpattan City police had registered an FIR against the MPA, his father and others on charges of slapping the assistant commissioner and hurling threats at him. The alleged incident took place …

LAYYAH: Prime Minis­ter Imran Khan on Wednesday said that provision of health cards to every citizen would ensure complete and free health coverage, which he said was unimaginable during past governments in the country. Addressing a ceremony for the launch of Sehat Sahulat card for the people of Sahiwal and Dera Ghazi Khan divisions, the prime minister said that with …

RAWALPINDI: Two inquiries have been launched into the Rawalpindi Ring Road (RRR) project with the Punjab Audit Directorate sending a three-member team to check record to find irregularities while the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) has sought land acquisition details within two days. The three-member team arrived in Rawalpindi on May 24 (Monday) on the directives of the Punjab Audit Directorate director …

LAHORE: The Punjab government seems to feel the pressure the Jahangir Tareen’s group of parliamentarians had built during the past few weeks as it (government) has begun facilitating the MPAs in terms of posting of officers at the tehsil level in their constituencies. A senior provincial minister who remained close to developments with the Tareen group, said it was agreed …

GWADAR: Maulana Abdul Hayee Baloch, the district emir of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (Fazl) and a prominent religious scholar, was killed in an armed attack in Panjgur on Wednesday. Police officials said he was on his way home from Madressah Arabia Khair-ul-Madaris Mahmoodia when armed motorcyclists opened fire at his car. He received multiple wounds and died on the spot. The …

ISLAMABAD: A microbiologist on Wednesday said though some black fungus cases had been reported in Pakistan, situation is not as alarming as in India. However, the number of cases can increase in coming days, he added. Talking to Dawn, he said while around 5pc of patients are severely affected and hospitalised due to the Covid-19 related complications, black fungus is going …