KARACHI: An international freedom advocacy group and research organisation has found Pakistan among top 10 countries in the world where internet freedom has been on the decline and raised concerns over the rules proposed by the country that could further damage cyber liberty. In its latest report titled “Freedom on the Net 2021: The Global Drive to Control Big Tech”, the Washington-based …

UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan on Tuesday urged the United States to go beyond the Afghan conflict and build a bilateral relationship anchored in trade, investment and people-to-people contacts. “We want to build a more broad-based and multidimensional relationship. We want to break out of the cyclical pattern that defined Pakistan-US ties in the past,” said Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi …

ROME: Pope Francis joked that “some people wanted me dead” and cardinals were already preparing to replace him after his colon surgery this summer, according to a media report on Tuesday. The 84-year-old pontiff made the comments during a meeting with fellow Jesuits in Bratislava on September 12, according to Jesuit journal La Civilta Cattolica. Asked by one of those …

KARACHI: Prime Minister Imran Khan has warned that Afghanistan could descend into civil war if the Taliban failed to form an inclusive government. “If they do not include all the factions, sooner or later they will have a civil war,” he said in an interview with the BBC. “That would mean an unstable, chaotic Afghanistan and an ideal place for terrorists. …

MELBOURNE: Melbo­urne riot police used pepper spray, foam baton rounds and rubber ball grenades to disperse a violent protest against mandatory Covid-19 vaccinations for construction workers on Tuesday. More than 1,000 demonstrators wearing work boots and hi-vis jackets rampaged through the centre of Australia’s second-largest city, lighting flares, throwing bottles, attacking police cars and chanting their opposition to vaccines and …

UNITED NATIONS: Iran’s new ultraconservative president on Tuesday voiced support for renewed nuclear negotiations in his international debut even as he hailed what he termed the decline of US hegemony. President Ebrahim Raisi, a hardline cleric who succeeded a government that sought better relations with the West, called on the United States to fulfill its promises to end sanctions under …

The Taliban have decided to take action against officials who removed Pakistan’s flag from an aid truck that arrived in Afghanistan via the Torkham border carrying necessary food items. On Sunday, Pakistan had donated food items — loaded in 17 container trucks — on humanitarian grounds to the newly-formed Taliban government in Afghanistan. Speaking on the occasion, Pak-Afghan Cooperation Forum Chairman Habibullah …

BRUSSELS: European ministers rallied around France on Tuesday over the US and Australian decision to strip Paris of a submarine supply contract, as the dispute threatened to delay trade talks with Washington and Canberra. German Europe Minister Michael Roth said France’s diplomatic crisis with the US was a “wake-up call for all of us” on the importance of uniting an …

At least three people were killed on Wednesday by gunmen who attacked a checkpoint in eastern Afghanistan, a Taliban official confirmed. While the Taliban official said all the deceased the civilians, witnesses and a security source told AFP that two of the casualties were Taliban fighters. The latter added that the attack was carried out by unidentified gunmen in a rickshaw and …

Who should represent Afghanistan at the United Nations this month? It’s a complex question with plenty of political implications. The Taliban, the country’s new rulers for a matter of weeks, are challenging the credentials of their country’s former UN ambassador and want to speak at the General Assembly’s high-level meeting of world leaders this week, the international body says. The …