TEHRAN: Iran’s health ministry on Sunday reported more than 680 daily Covid deaths for the first time, as nationwide restrictions to contain the spread of the virus were lifted. The ministry said the deaths of 684 people in the past 24 hours brought the total number of fatalities to 102,038. Iran also registered 36,419 new infections raising the total since …

SINGAPORE: Vice President Kamala Harris began a trip to Asia on Sunday where she will offer reassurances of Washington’s commitment to the region after the chaotic US pullout from Afghanistan and Taliban takeover.“The vice president will make clear throughout the trip that we do have an enduring commitment to the region,” said a senior US official. Harris, an Asian-American whose …

MOSCOW: President Vladimir Putin on Sunday rejected the idea of sending people evacuation from Afghanistan to countries near Russia, saying he did not want “militants showing up here under cover of refugees”, Russian news agencies reported. Putin criticised an idea of some Western countries to relocate refugees from Afghanistan to neighbouring Central Asian countries while their visas to the United …

A firefight broke out between unidentified gunmen, Western security forces and Afghan guards at the North Gate of Kabul airport on Monday, Germany’s armed forces said, as thousands of Afghans and foreigners thronged the airport, seeking to flee Taliban rule. One Afghan guard was killed and three others were injured in the battle, which also involved US and German forces, …

PESHAWAR: Twenty-five more persons died and 783 Covid-19 patients were detected in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Sunday amid door-to-door vaccination in Peshawar division to prevent the rapid transmission of the virus. Peshawar division is home to most coronavirus-related deaths and incidence as compared to the other six divisions in the province. The province’s tally of deaths due to the virus reached …

LAHORE: The Pakistan Mus­lim League-Nawaz (PML-N) says it is ready to support a no-confidence motion to topple the government provided the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) comes up with a workable proposal. “We’re ready to support the PPP’s idea for dislodging the PTI government through a no-confidence motion but it should put forward a workable proposal for this purpose,” PML-N secretary …

RAWALPINDI: A sanitation worker of the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (PCAA) was caught hiding on a special plane en route to the Netherlands at the Islamabad International Airport (IIA). He was later sent to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Anti-Human Trafficking Cell (AHTC) for further investigation. The aircraft was carrying staff of the Dutch embassy from Kabul to the Netherlands. …

KARACHI: Dr Mahnoor Farzand, a flight lieutenant in the Pakistan Air Force (PAF), died of Covid-19 early on Sunday morning, taking the tally of doctors falling victim to coronavirus so far in Sindh to 77. Since Feb last year, 220 doctors in the country have died of coronavirus. According to Pakistan Medical Association (PMA), Dr Mahnoor was eight months pregnant …

ISLAMABAD: Religious scholars belonging to various schools of thought have condemned the rape of a girl in a seminary in Rawalpindi and demanded that perpetrators of such heinous crimes should be given punishment in public through speedy trial. In a joint declaration issued after attending a consultative meeting held under the aegis of the Pakistan Ulema Council on Sunday, they …

ISLAMABAD / KARACHI: As the number of hospitalised Covid-19 patients has increased by almost three folds in the past 45 days, the Sindh government has decided that educational institutes in the province will remain closed till their staff is vaccinated. Meanwhile, a consignment of two million doses of vaccine reached Pakistan from China on Sunday. While 3,842 were infected with …