ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said on Monday observance of human rights by the Taliban in Afghanistan was linked to the loosening of economic squeeze on them. In a video statement made at the UN conference on the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan, Mr Qureshi said: “Ensuring sustainable development and promoting respect for human rights require political stability and peace …

LONDON: Europe’s largest frozen food group and the maker of Bird’s Eye fish fingers has teamed-up with US company BlueNalu to develop seafood products grown from cells in a laboratory rather than harvested from the oceans. Nomad Foods, which also owns the Findus, Iglo, La Cocinera and Green Cuisine brands, said on Monday it aimed to commercialise cell-cultured seafood to …

CAIRO: Israel’s Naftali Bennett met Egyptian Pres­ident Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Monday, on the first visit to the North African country by a prime minister of the Jewish state in over a decade. Sisi hosted Bennett in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh where they discussed “efforts to revive the peace process” between the Israelis and Palestinians, presidential spoke­sman …

PARIS: Vaccines are effective enough at preventing severe Covid-19 that there is no current need for the general population to be given third doses, according to a report in The Lancet published on Monday. Some countries have started offering extra doses over fears about the much more contagious Delta variant, causing the World Health Organisation to call for a moratorium on third …

GENEVA: Donors have pledged more than $1.1 billion to help Afghanistan, where poverty and hunger have spiralled since the Taliban took power, and foreign aid has dried up, raising the spectre of a mass exodus. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, speaking halfway through a UN conference seeking $606 million to meet Afghanistan’s most pressing needs, said it was too early …

DUBAI: Qatar’s foreign minister said on Monday the Gulf state has urged Afghanistan’s new Taliban rulers to respect women’s rights and that it was still too early to consider recognising their government. Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani was speaking in a joint news conference with French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian in Doha. Le Drian said dozens of French nationals …

WASHINGTON: The United States spent $290 million every day for 7,300 days on its war efforts and nation-building projects in Afghanistan, says a report compiled by Brown University. That’s how the United States ended up spending more than $2 trillion in the last 20 years in Afghanistan, the report by the university’s Costs of War project added. The report – highlighted by …

A militia group leader, who was convicted of the 2017 bombing of a mosque outside of Minneapolis that “terrorised” the community of Somali immigrants it served, was sentenced on Monday to 53 years in prison. Emily Claire Hari, 50, was found guilty in December, after a five-week trial, on five federal charges related to the pipe bombing of the Dar al-Farooq Islamic …

The United States will be looking at its relationship with Pakistan in the coming weeks, US State Secretary Antony Blinken said on Monday, to formulate what role Washington would want it play in the future of Afghanistan. Testifying before Congress on the Taliban victory in Afghanistan, Blinken heard from lawmakers across party lines who pushed for a harder line on …

ISLAMABAD: While the country reported less than 3,000 Covid-19 cases after a gap of 50 days, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health Dr Faisal Sultan on Monday claimed that Pakistan was performing well in terms of vaccination. However, he said the pandemic was very much there so the citizens should continue wearing masks as it was one of …