BANGKOK: The charred remains of more than 30 people, including women and children, were found in burnt-out vehicles in Myanmar on Saturday, a rebel group and a monitor said, accusing the junta of the attack. Myanmar has been in chaos since a coup in February, with more than 1,300 people killed in a crackdown by security forces, according to a …

HONG KONG: A haul of ketamine worth over $100 million has been seized by Hong Kong officials, police said on Saturday. The record-breaking 1.3 tonnes of the drug, valued at around HK$840 million ($108 million), is the largest bust of its kind in the city’s history. Travel restrictions related to Covid-19 have forced smugglers to make risker bulk shipments instead …

KABUL: The Taliban have dissolved Afghanistan’s election commission, a panel that supervised polls during the previous Western-backed administration, a spokesman for the Islamist government said on Saturday. “There is no need for these commissions to exist and operate,” Taliban government spokesman Bilal Karimi said, referring to the Independent Election Commission (IEC) and the Independent Electoral Complaints Commission. “If we ever …

LONDON: A man who entered the grounds of Windsor Castle, where Britain’s Queen Elizabeth is spending Christmas, has been arrested and is being held on suspicion of possession of an offensive weapon, police said on Saturday. The 19-year-old from Southampton in southern England did not enter any buildings and security processes were triggered within moments, Thames Valley Police said in …

KHARTOUM: Thousands of Sudanese protesters rallied on Saturday two months after a military coup, demanding soldiers “go back to the barracks” and calling for a transition to civilian rule. Waving flags, beating drums, dancing and chanting, crowds marched on the streets of Khartoum despite a heavy deployment of security forces — who later fired tear gas to break them up. …

BEIJING: China on Saturday reported its highest number of new coronavirus cases in four months as officials rushed to contain outbreaks in several regions, including Xi’an city where millions are still under lockdown. China, where the coronavirus was first detected in late 2019, is on high alert for new infections as it prepares to hold the Winter Olympics in February …

The bodies of 28 migrants have washed up on Libya’s western coast after their boat sunk, a security official said Sunday, the latest tragedy on the world’s deadliest migration route. “Libyan Red Crescent teams recovered 28 bodies of dead migrants and found three survivors at two different sites on the beaches of Al-Alous,” some 90 kilometres (55 miles) from Tripoli, …

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and veteran of South Africa’s struggle against white minority rule died on Sunday at the age of 90, the presidency said. In 1984, Desmond Tutu won the Nobel Peace Prize for his non-violent opposition to apartheid. A decade later, he witnessed the ends of that regime and he chaired a Truth and Reconciliation …

RAWALPINDI: A 29-year-old man has confessed to killing his former wife, an American national of Pakistani origin, and burying her body in Lakki Marwat, disclosed Rawalpindi City Police Officer (CPO) Sajid Kiani on Saturday. While addressing a press conference, the police chief said suspect Rizwan Habib Bangash had murdered his ex-wife Wajiha Farooq Swati, 47, after kidnapping her and shifted …

ISLAMABAD: No emplo­yer can terminate the services of its employees on mere verbal instructions without any written order containing explicit reasons or cause for termination, the Supreme Court has held. Authored by Justice Mohammad Ali Mazhar, a verdict issued by the apex court emphasised that there was no provision under the Labour Laws or the Service Laws permitting the employer …