Like kids dreaming of presents under the tree, the scientists at the Jupiter control room at the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou are patiently waiting for December 25. The James Webb Space Telescope — soon to become the most powerful ever to be launched into space — after technical and weather delays is set to take off on Christmas Day …

Indian police said on Friday they have launched an investigation into an event where Hindu hardliners called for mass killings of minority Muslims. A speaker at the gathering earlier this month told the crowd that people should not worry about going to jail for killing Muslims, according to a video verified as genuine by AFP. “Even if just a hundred of us …

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that insulting Holy Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) does not count as an expression of artistic freedom but is a “violation of religious freedom”, according to state news agency TASS. Putin made these remarks during his annual press conference in Moscow on Thursday, adding that insults to Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) were a violation of “the sacred …

SEOUL: South Korea’s ex-president Park Geun-hye received a pardon on Friday, cutting short a jail term of more than 20 years for corruption with her successor saying he granted it in the interest of national unity. Park became South Korea’s first woman president in 2013, but less than four years later she was impeached and ousted after a graft scandal …

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Afghan Taliban authorities have overcome the recent row over border fencing by agreeing that further fencing would be done through consensus, a senior official said on Friday. The official, who spoke to a group of journalists on the background, said: “It has been decided at a senior level that fencing-related issues would in future be dealt with through mutual …

TOKYO: It’s a bus, it’s a train, it’s a DMV! The world’s first dual-mode vehicle, equally at home on road and rail, is set to make its public debut on Saturday in the town of Kaiyo in Japan’s Tokushima prefecture. The DMV looks like a minibus and runs on normal rubber tyres on the road. But when it arrives at …

TEHRAN: Three Iranian diplomats have received visas from rival Saudi Arabia allowing them to take up posts at the headquarters of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Jeddah, officials said Friday. Shia-majority Iran and the Sunni Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, both members of the pan-Islamic body, have held several rounds of talks since April aimed at improving relations. In …

NEW YORK: Over 2,000 flights have been cancelled and thousands delayed around the world as the highly infectious Omicron variant disrupts holiday travel. According to tracking website Flightaware.com at 1540 GMT on Friday, a total of 2,118 flights had been cancelled worldwide, including 500 flights originating from or headed to US airports, and over 5,700 delayed. Pilots, flights attendants and …

UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan supports a comprehensive and equitable accountability in Afghanistan, says the country’s envoy to the United Nations, which recently adopted a resolution to allow humanitarian and financial assistance to Kabul. Although the UN Security Council (UNSC) unanimously adopted the resolution moved by the United States, some council members suggested holding the Taliban responsible for the current situation in …

The Saudi-led coalition on Saturday launched a “large-scale” assault on Yemen after a projectile killed two people in the kingdom, in the first such deaths in three years blamed on Iran-backed Houthi rebels. A retaliatory coalition airstrike on Yemen killed three people and wounded six others in Ajama, a town northwest of the Houthi-held capital Sanaa, Yemeni medics said. Yemen …