NEW YORK CITY: Harvey Weinstein could be retried on rape charges in Manhattan on November 12 after a judge set a tentative trial date at a Friday court hearing. Judge Curtis Farber said he was also open to an earlier start date in September depending on how pretrial discovery plays out. Weinstein’s lawyers say they want to proceed as soon as possible. Weinstein, 72, has denied wrongdoing and has denied having any non-consensual sexual encounters with anyone. Jurors in Manhattan found him guilty on rape charges in February 2020, but the New York Court of Appeals threw out the conviction in April, finding Weinstein…
Author: Hasnain Abid Khanzada
MOSCOW: A Russian court found US reporter Evan Gershkovich guilty of espionage on Friday and sentenced him to 16 years in a maximum security penal colony in what his employer, The Wall Street Journal, called “a disgraceful sham conviction”. Gershkovich, a 32-year-old American who denied any wrongdoing, went on trial in the city of Yekaterinburg last month after being accused of trying to gather sensitive information about a tank factory. He was the first US journalist accused of spying in Russia since the Cold War, and his arrest in March last year prompted many US and other Western correspondents to leave Moscow. President Joe Biden said Gershkovich…
TEL AVIV: A long-range drone hit the centre of Tel Aviv in the early hours of Friday in an attack claimed by the Yemen-based Houthi militia that killed one man and wounded four others, the Israeli military and emergency services said. The explosion, which footage shared on social media suggested came from the sea and did not trigger air raid alarms, occurred hours after the Israeli military confirmed it had killed a senior commander of the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia in southern Lebanon. Chief spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said the military assessed that the drone, which hit a building near…
ISLAMABAD: As many as 43 Pakistani prisoners languishing in Sri Lankan prisons are set to return home within a week. A decision to expedite the release and repatriation of these Pakistani prisoners was taken during a meeting between Federal Minister for Interior and Narcotics Control Mohsin Naqvi and Sri Lankan High Commissioner in Pakistan retired Admiral Ravindra Chandrasiri Wijegunaratne. During the meeting, matters of mutual interest and the release of Pakistani prisoners detained in Sri Lanka were discussed. It was agreed to repatriate Pakistani prisoners stranded in Sri Lanka for several years within seven days. Both sides agreed to complete…
LONDON: Violence that erupted in Leeds on Wednesday has made headlines in the United Kingdom, eliciting condemnation from Prime Minister Keir Starmer. On the night of July 18, what began as a routine intervention by social workers in Harehills quickly escalated into chaos. Social workers attended to a child protection issue on Luxor Street, but were met with hostility. As the situation intensified, West Yorkshire Police were called to assist, but their presence seemed to infuriate the crowd further. This intervention turned into a flashpoint, igniting a night of violent disorder. Sky News reported that the rioting saw a double-decker bus…
THE HAGUE: The UN’s top court on Friday ruled that Israel’s decades-long occupation of Palestinian territory was “illegal” and needed to end as soon as possible. The finding by The Hague-based International Court of Justice was immediately welcomed by the Palestinian leadership which called it “historic”, but slammed as a “decision of lies” by Israel. The ICJ’s statement, called an “advisory opinion”, is not binding, but it comes amid mounting concern over the death toll and destruction in Israel’s war against Hamas sparked by the group’s Oct 7 attack. It comes in response to a UN General Assembly query in…
Services from airlines to healthcare, shipping and finance were coming back online on Friday after a mistake in a security software update sparked hours-long global computer systems outages, another incident highlighting the vulnerability of the world’s interconnected technologies. After the outage was resolved, companies were dealing with backlogs of delayed and cancelled flights and medical appointments, missed orders and other issues that could take days to resolve. Businesses also face questions about how to avoid future blackouts triggered by technology meant to safeguard their systems. A software update by global cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, one of the largest operators in the industry,…
Riding high after a triumphant convention that formalized Donald Trump as the Republican Party’s White House nominee, the ex-president returns to the campaign trail Saturday for his first rally since narrowly escaping assassination. As Trump descends on Michigan to stump in public with his freshly announced vice presidential running mate JD Vance for the first time, Joe Biden’s campaign is grappling with an internal Democratic Party revolt from senior lawmakers and donors calling on the 81-year-president to quit the race. Biden is currently off the campaign trail nursing a case of Covid while he and his inner circle engage in political firefighting, as party stalwarts warn that by remaining…
Bangladesh soldiers patrolled Dhaka’s deserted streets on Saturday amid a curfew to quell deadly student-led protests against government job quotas that have killed more than 100 people this week. A suspension on internet and text message services has remained in place since Thursday, cutting off Bangladesh from the world as police cracked down on protests that have continued despite a ban on public gatherings. The violent clashes have killed at least 105 people and injured thousands this week, according to data from hospitals across Bangladesh. The Dhaka Medical College Hospital received 27 dead bodies on Friday between 5pm to 7pm. The nationwide…
PESHAWAR: The Afghanistan-Pakistan Joint Chamber of Commerce has claimed that the export of fresh fruits and vegetables to Pakistan has been suspended for two weeks after “high increase” in customs tariffs by Islamabad. A statement issued by the Afghan Taliban media claimed that since Pakistan increased customs duty on fresh fruits and vegetables recently, many traders quoted by them stated that this tariff had made the export of fresh fruits more expensive for them. Farooq Ahmadi, a businessman, alleged that every year when Afghanistan’s export season came, Pakistan allegedly increased the taxes. “This time the tax was increased by 18…
