The United States and Britain warned their citizens on Monday to avoid hotels in Afghanistan, days after dozens were killed at a mosque in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group. The Taliban, which seized power in August and declared an Islamic emirate, are seeking international recognition and assistance to avoid a humanitarian disaster and ease Afghanistan’s economic crisis. But, as …

TAIPEI: Taiwan will not bow to pressure by Beijing and will defend its democratic way of life, President Tsai Ing-wen said on Sunday, following an alleged spike in incursions by Chinese warplanes into its air defence zone. Self-governed Taiwan’s 23 million people live under the constant threat of invasion by China, which views the island as its territory and has …

LA PALMA: Blocks of molten lava as large as three-storey buildings rolled down a hillside on the Spanish island of La Palma on Sunday while a series of tremors shook the ground three weeks after the volcano erupted. There were 21 seismic movements on Sunday, with the largest measuring 3.8, the Spanish National Geological Institute (ING) said, shaking the ground …

DUBAI: FaceTime calls seemed to be working in the United Arab Emirates on Sunday, an apparent loosening of long-standing restrictions on the Apple programme in the federation of seven sheikhdoms. There was no official announcement on the matter. The UAE’s Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Apple also did not respond …

A US couple has been arrested in the state of West Virginia for allegedly selling information on nuclear warships to what they believed was a foreign state, the Justice Department said on Sunday. Jonathan Toebbe, 42, who worked as a nuclear engineer for the US Navy, and his wife Diana, 45, were arrested by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents on …

JERUSALEM: Outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel said Israel’s security will remain a top priority for “every German government”, during a farewell visit to the Jewish state on Sunday near the end of her 16-year term in office. Merkel laid a wreath at Jerusalem’s Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem, writing in the site’s guest book that visiting there “touches me at the core …

TAXILA: A health unit established during the British era to cater to the medical need of patients from over 20 villages in Makhad Sharif in Pindigheb, Attock, is in dire need of maintenance. The Government Rural Dispensary, which spreads over 17 kanals and 11 marlas with a covered area of 1.14 kanals, is providing medical facilities to inhabitants of the …

RAWALPINDI: The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has said that airlines operators are not serving meals onboard domestic flights within Pakistan on the pretext of Covid-19. The CAA had on Monday allowed serving of in-flight meals and refreshments on domestic flights. On Sunday, the authority said in a tweet: “It has been observed through numerous complaints made by passengers that airline …

MULTAN: Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has said that Pakistan is committed to continuing extending political, diplomatic and moral support to the Kashmiris in their struggle for right to self-determination. “We stand side by side with the Kashmiri brethren in their struggle for their right to self-determination. A dossier based on irrefutable evidences of the atrocities and war crimes of …

ISLAMABAD: The United States has agreed to provide humanitarian aid to a desperately poor Afghanistan on the brink of an economic disaster, while refusing to give political recognition to the Taliban rulers, according to a statement released on Sunday. The statement came at the end of the first direct talks between the former foes since the chaotic withdrawal of US troops …