LONDON: UK lawmakers said on Tuesday the government’s response when Covid-19 swept into Europe cost thousands of lives and was “one of the most important public health failures” in the country’s history. In a damning assessment, a cross-party group of MPs found that official pandemic planning was “too narrowly and inflexibly based” on curbing influenza, and had failed to learn …

JERUSALEM: Israel formally agreed on Tuesday to double the amount of fresh water it provides to neighbouring Jordan, one of the world’s most water-deficient nations. The two countries announced in July that Israel would sell 50 million cubic metres of water a year to Jordan, doubling what it already supplies, according to the terms of a peace deal from the …

PARIS: Even if humanity beats the odds and caps global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels, seas will rise for centuries to come and swamp cities currently home to half-a-billion people, researchers warned on Tuesday. In a world that heats up another half-degree above that benchmark, an additional 200 million of today’s urban dwellers would regularly find themselves …

ISLAMABAD: Chief of General Staff of Iran’s Armed Forces Maj Gen Mohammad Bagheri arrived here on Tuesday on a three-day visit. Lt Gen Saqib Mehmood Malik, chief of logistics staff of Pakistan Army, received him at the airport. General Bagheri is leading a high-ranking military delegation. The top Iranian commander will meet Chief of the Army Staff General Qamar Javed …

SRINAGAR: Indian government forces killed five suspected militants in occupied Kashmir, police said on Tuesday, a day after militants allegedly shot dead five soldiers. The killings come as the restive and disputed territory is hit by a string of civilian shootings, with seven killed last week in attacks claimed by an anti-India militant group, The Resistance Front (TRF). Police said …

WASHINGTON: The Biden administration has appointed Elizabeth Jones, a veteran diplomat, to lead efforts for relocation and resettlement in Afghanistan, the US State Department said on Tuesday. “As the Coordinator for Afghan Relocation Efforts, Ambassador Jones will assume oversight of the entire Afghanistan relocation effort, from our ongoing efforts to facilitate the departure of individuals from Afghanistan to their onward …

Afghanistan’s new Taliban government has warned US and European envoys that continued attempts to pressure them through sanctions will undermine security and could trigger a wave of economic refugees. Acting foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi told Western diplomats at talks in Doha that “weakening the Afghan government is not in the interest of anyone because its negative effects will directly …

ISLAMABAD: The parliamentary committee on appointment of Election Commission of Pakistan members will meet here on Thursday to discuss appointment of the commission’s two members. The committee will consider nominations by the government and the opposition for appointment as ECP members from Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The two ECP members from Punjab and KP — Altaf Ibrahim Qureshi and Irshad …

ISLAMABAD: The board of Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), the government’s social safety net, has decided to adopt an international system of assessing performance of its employees in order to encourage them to improve work and get rewarded accordingly. Called as the ‘Bell Curve Concept’, the new Performance Management System (PMS) was approved at a meeting of the BISP board …

ISLAMABAD: Though the recent rains brought the temperature down to 22°C, there was no let-up in dengue cases as 214 patients surfaced in the twin cities on Tuesday. Islamabad reported over a 100 cases of dengue fever for the third time in the current season. According to District Health Officer (DHO) Islamabad Dr Zaeem Zia, 113 people contracted dengue fever …