Thousands of workers of the proscribed Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) continued their sit-in in Wazirabad for a second day on Saturday as they waited for instructions from their leaders to move ahead. The workers, who reached Wazirabad from Gujranwala on Friday, spent the night at the Zafar Ali Khan Bypass. Meanwhile, traffic and internet services remained suspended in the city while …

VATICAN CITY: US President Joe Biden, only the second Catholic to hold his office, had a private audience with Pope Francis on Friday at the start of a European trip aimed at reasserting US international credentials. The president hailed the pontiff as “the most significant warrior of peace I have ever met”, in a meeting at the Vatican lasting more …

WASHINGTON: The United States has issued a fresh round of Iran-related sanctions tied to an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) drone programme that it said threatened regional stability, the Treasury Department said on Friday. US officials, in a statement, said the IRGC has been providing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) or drones for use by Iran-backed groups, including Lebanese militant group …

BEIJING: Beijing officials on Friday told residents to postpone weddings and keep funeral ceremonies short, as disease controls across China were tightened just months before the Winter Olympics kicks off in the capital. The world’s most populous nation has reduced infection numbers to a trickle since its initial epidemic last spring thanks to a zero-tolerance approach of border closures, targeted …

FRANKFURT: Afghanistan’s Tali­b­an government is pressing for the release of billions of dollars of central bank reserves as the drought-stricken nation faces a cash crunch, mass starvation and a new migration crisis. Afghanistan parked billions of dollars in assets overseas with the US Federal Reserve and other central banks in Europe, but that money has been frozen since the Taliban …

NEW DELHI: Dozens of people, many from Hindu right-wing groups, were arrested on Friday in India for disrupting Muslim prayer gatherings, local media reported, in the latest sign of growing religious tensions in the country. Hindu groups have been pressuring authorities for weeks in the northern city of Gurgaon on the outskirts of New Delhi to stop Muslims from offering …

Gunmen on a motorcycle brandished small arms and fired on a broadcast journalist in his car in the Afghan capital of Kabul late on Friday night, lightly wounding him. Ali Reza Sharifi, a journalist for Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, survived the attack, Taliban deputy spokesman Bilal Karimi told The Associated Press. “We are investigating to find the perpetrator,” he said. No …

A US government watchdog on Friday accused the US State Department and Pentagon of suppressing information that lawmakers and the public need to understand the collapse of Afghanistan’s former government and military and the chaotic US troop pullout. “The full picture of what happened in August — and all the warning signs that could have predicted the outcome — will …

At least four people were killed and six others, including two women, suffered injuries in an explosion in Karachi’s North Nazimabad locality on Friday night, according to police and rescue officials. DIG West Zone Nasir Aftab told that the incident occurred at a petrol pump near Abdullah College. The senior officer said that the explosion occurred at the feul station’s …

ISLAMABAD: Ulema and scholars of Ahl-i-Sunnat Wal Jamaat on Friday offered their cooperation in ending the government-Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) standoff and urged both sides to settle the issue through dialogue. A group of Ulema of the specific sect from all over the country met President Dr Arif Alvi when the TLP’s long march, started from Lahore, reached Wazirabad. Media reports …