ROME: Italian police said on Sunday they had arrested 12 people, including top officials of the extreme right-wing party Forza Nuova, following clashes in Rome against a government drive to make the COVID-19 “Green Pass” mandatory for all workers. Thousands of people took to the streets of the Italian capital on Saturday, with many chanting “freedom, freedom” as some attempted …

VIENNA: Austria’s Sebastian Kurz on Saturday announced he was stepping down as chancellor following pressure on him to resign after he was implicated in a corruption scandal. In a televised media statement, Kurz said he wanted to “make space to prevent chaos”. “We need stability,” the 35-year-old conservative said, adding it would be “irresponsible” to allow Austria to “slide into …

ISLAMABAD: With the arrival of 98 new dengue cases in the hospitals of the twin cities, the patients’ tally in Islamabad alone crossed the 1,000 mark on Saturday. District Health Officer (DHO) Islamabad Dr Zaeem Zia said out of the 98 cases 73 were reported from the rural areas and 25 from the urban localities. He said 21 patients were …

DOHA: The Taliban warned the United States not to “destabilise” the regime during their first face-to-face talks since the US withdrawal, its Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said on Saturday. “We clearly told them that trying to destabilise the government in Afghanistan is good for no one,” Muttaqi told the Afghan state news agency Bakhtar after talks in the Qatari capital. “Good …

RAWALPINDI: Despite the claim of Islamabad Electric Supply Company (Iesco) that it is not carrying out loadshedding, the residents of the garrison city are continuously suffering from frequent power outages. Iesco chief Dr Amjad Khan told Dawn that the company had suspended power supply in some areas due to repair and maintenance work. “Other than that no loadshedding was taking place in …

ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi and Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum on Saturday reiterated the resolve to solidify the multifaceted bilateral relationship. During a meeting at the Leaders Pavilion at the Dubai Expo 2020, the two leaders reaffirmed the resolve to strengthen the existing close fraternal relations between Pakistan …

ISLAMABAD: The fate of 15 bail petitions pending in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) in different cases related to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) hang in the balance as the recent presidential ordinance amended the NAB law empowering trial courts to grant bail in such references. National Accountability Ordinance (NAO) 1999 did not provide granting bail to the accused as …

ISLAMABAD: Deputy Executive Director of Unicef Omar Abdi has said his organisation sees the possibility of an end to polio in Pakistan as only one polio case has been reported in the country this year. Talking to Dawn at the end of his visit to Pakistan, Mr Abdi said: “We have been looking at the trend for the last 20 years and …

ISLAMABAD: Confusion prevailed among around 200,000 candidates who appeared in the Medical and Dental Colleges Admission Test (MDCAT) after the Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) announced on social media that the result cards that had been sent to them through e-mail should be ignored as they had a number of mistakes. Later, it was announced that around 125,000 candidates — 65 …

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Government Employees Housing Authority (FGEHA) on Saturday approached the Supreme Court against the Islamabad High Court’s order that suspended allotments made in favour of judicial officers who are serving or had served in the high court and district courts. In an appeal before the SC through counsel Mohammad Akram Sheikh, the FGEHA pleaded to set aside the …