LONDON: Britain’s proposed law to implement what it calls the biggest overhaul of asylum rules in decades “undermines established international refugee protection rules”, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said on Thursday. Interior minister Priti Patel — a prominent supporter of Brexit, where “taking back control” of immigration was a key campaign issue — said the current system was “overwhelmed”. Instead, …

ISLAMABAD: The government on Thursday urged the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to support it in introducing electoral reforms. “Holding transparent, free and fair elections is the prime responsibility and mandate of the ECP and the government does not want to interfere in its domain,” said federal Minister for Science and Technology Shibli Faraz as he urged the commission to …

MADRID: This time, Real Madrid didn’t need to rely solely on Karim Benzema and Vinicius Junior to keep winning in La Liga. Benzema scored twice to reach 200 league goals but Real also got a hat-trick from Marco Asensio on their way to a comfortable 6-1 win over Mallorca at home on Wednesday, a result that extended the team’s winning …

ISLAMABAD: Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry has sought six weeks from the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to submit his reply to a notice he received after an outburst against the organisation on Sunday. An informed source told Dawn that the minister had filed an application through his lawyer Aftab Maqsood on Thursday. It was not clear whether Azam Swati, another minister under notice, had …

CanSinoBIO’s single-dose COVID-19 vaccine, given at a lower dosage than that for adults, is safe and triggers an immune response in children aged 6-17, results from a small trial showed. Researchers decided to lower the dosage after a few participants developed fever and headaches graded at level 2 severity – the second-lowest of four levels. In children, the lower dose …

RAWALPINDI: The opening ceremony of the Joint Anti-Terrorist Exercise (JATE) 2021 was held at the National Counter Terrorism Centre in Pabbi on Thursday. According to a press release issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations, troops from the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) of China and Pakistan Army are participating in the exercise, which is part of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s (SCO) …

Sinovac’s COVID-19 vaccine is highly effective against serious illness, although rival shots from Pfizer/BioNTech and AstraZeneca showed better protection rates, a large real world study from Malaysia showed. The latest data is a boost to the Chinese firm, whose COVID-19 vaccine has been under growing scrutiny over its effectiveness following reports of infections among healthcare workers fully immunized with the …

SYDNEY: England cricketers heading to Australia for the Ashes this year will get ‘no special deals’ allowing their families to join them, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has declared. The five-Test series is due to start in Brisbane on Dec 8, but whether England bring a full-strength squad remains to be seen. Some players, particularly those with young children, have expressed …

MELBOURNE: Pakistan-born Australian cricketer Usman Khawaja says “money talks” and no team would say no to touring India but it is “easy for players and organisations” to turn down assignments in Pakistan or Bangladesh. England followed New Zealand in pulling out of Pakistan tour, citing security concerns, dealing a massive blow to the country’s efforts to bring back international cricket. …