ISLAMABAD: Pakis­tan has turned down Swit­zerland’s invitation to the Ukraine Peace Sum­mit citing scheduling conflicts and other considerations. “Pakistan received an invitation from Swit­zerland for the Conference, which is being held from 15th to 16th of June. However, due to a host of factors, including scheduling challenges, Pakistan is not participating in this conference,” FO Spokes­person Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said at the …

Over one million Muslims packed the giant tented city of Mina near Makkah on Friday for the Haj pilgrimage held in sweltering heat and against the grim backdrop of the Gaza crisis. Robed worshippers arrived on buses or on foot, many shaded by umbrellas, at the vast encampment in Mina after performing the “tawaf” — the circumambulation of the Kaaba, the large …

BARI: G7 leaders meeting in Italy on Friday hardened their tone against China, warning Beijing to stop sending weapons components to Russia and play by the rules on trade, according to a draft summit statement. China has been a key focus of the Group of Seven talks in Puglia, amid souring trade relations between Beijing and the West and concerns …

BORGO EGNAZIA: Pope Francis became the first pontiff to address a Group of Seven summit on Friday, warning world leaders that artificial intelligence (AI) must never be allowed to get the upper hand over humanity. An array of global chiefs warmly embraced the 87-year-old pope as he made his way around their huge oval table, pushed in a wheelchair as …

LONDON: Kate, Britain’s Princess of Wales, said on Friday she is making good progress as she undergoes preventative chemotherapy, but is “not out of the woods” ahead of her first public appearance since surgery revealed the presence of cancer. In a personal written message, Kate said she had been “blown away” by the thousands of kind messages from across the …

WASHINGTON: The US Supreme Court on Friday declared unlawful a federal ban on “bump stock” devices that enable semi-automatic weapons to fire rapidly like machine guns, rejecting yet another firearms restriction — this time one enacted under Republican former president Donald Trump. The justices, in a 6-3 ruling authored by conservative Justice Clarence Thomas, upheld a lower court’s decision siding …

PARIS: France’s left put up a united front on Friday, vowing a “total break” with President Emmanuel Macron’s policies if it wins polls on June 30 and July 7 that could propel the far right to major gains in parliament. Far-right figurehead Marine Le Pen, also making a pitch to voters, pledged a “national unity government” if her party takes power in …

JANNATA: Plumes of smoke billowed on Friday over a south Lebanon village after a deadly Israeli strike as shopkeepers swept shattered glass and vowed to stay put despite soaring cross-border violence. Jannata had been largely spared more than eight months of clashes between Hezbollah fighters and Israeli forces as war rages in Gaza, but the Lebanese village was shaken by an …

More than 1.5 million Muslims will pray on Mount Arafat in soaring temperatures on Saturday, in the high-point and most gruelling day of the annual Haj pilgrimage. Worshippers from all over the world will climb the rocky, 70-metre (230-feet) hill, about 20 kilometres (12 miles) from Makkah, where Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) gave his last sermon. The desert summer heat is expected to hit 43 …

ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa on Friday claimed he was a more senior journalist than those doing court reporting and to substantiate his claim, he cited several articles he authored, including those published in this newspaper. According to the CJP, after the Supreme Court judgement on March 6, regarding a presidential reference in which the apex …