JERUSALEM: Israeli President Isaac Herzog is preparing to visit Turkey, his office said on Tuesday, in a rare trip that marks the latest sign of a thaw following years of frayed ties. A statement from Herzog’s office said that a high-ranking Turkish delegation was due in Israel this week, including a top aide to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Ibrahim Kalin, and deputy foreign minister Sedat Onal. The Turkish delegation’s visit was “part of preparations for the planned visit of President Isaac Herzog” to Turkey, the Israeli presidency said. In a television interview last month, Erdogan said he expected Herzog to…
Author: Hasnain Abid Khanzada
The California State Senate has passed a resolution to establish a sister-state relationship between California and Punjab till December 2026, it emerged on Wednesday. According to a press release on the website of Assembly member Chris Holden, who introduced the resolution, the sister-state relationship between California and Punjab will “promote mutual trade and commerce and increase the potential for educational, environmental, and cultural relations”, leading to a positive impact on both regions. “Punjab’s capital, Lahore, is a cultural, historical, economic, and cosmopolitan centre of Pakistan where the country’s cinema industry and much of its fashion industry are based,” the press release added.…
LONDON: Britain said on Tuesday it would co-host a virtual UN summit aimed at raising billions to avert a “devastating” humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan after the Taliban seized power. With the fundamentalist regime now denied access to Western funds, the United Nations says more than 24 million Afghans need urgent help to survive, and half the population is facing acute hunger. The UN said last month that $4.4 billion was needed, as it launched its largest appeal yet for a single country. Donor countries, UN agencies and Afghan civil society organisations are set to take part in the online event…
UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan has urged the UN Security Council to hold accountable the “masterminds” who continue to support, finance, and sponsor cross-border terrorist attacks into its territory. Pakistan raised the issue of cross-border terrorism from Afghanistan after India used the UN forum on Monday to accuse Pakistan of sponsoring terrorism in occupied Kashmir. The Indian initiative turned the annual meeting of the UN Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC) in New York into a battle of words between South Asia’s two nuclear powers. This was the committee’s first briefing since January when India assumed its chair. Last week, Pakistani security forces repulsed two attacks…
Senior schools reopened in the Indian state of Karnataka on Wednesday a week after authorities closed them in the face of protests against a ban on female students wearing the hijab. A court is deliberating the recent ban on schoolgirls wearing the hijab imposed by Karnataka authorities, the latest issue of contention involving India’s Muslim minority, who make up about 13 per cent of the Hindu-majority country’s 1.3 billion people. Students wearing olive-green uniforms, some in the hijab, walked hand-in-hand on Wednesday into the Government Girls Senior School P. U. in Udupi district, where the protests started this month. Male and female police stood…
Russia said more of its forces surrounding Ukraine were withdrawing on Wednesday but Britain joined the United States in saying it had yet to be convinced the pullout was real. In Ukraine, the defence ministry said its web portal had been hit by an unprecedented cyberattack that was into its second day. The Russian defence ministry published a video that it said showed tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and self-propelled artillery units leaving the Crimean peninsula, which Moscow seized from Ukraine in 2014. Their deployment was part of a huge build-up of Russian forces to the north, east and south of Ukraine since…
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) leader Faisal Vawda on Tuesday filed an appeal before the Islamabad High Court (IHC) against his lifetime disqualification from parliament. The petition argued that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) lacked jurisdiction to invoke Article 62(1)(f) of the Constitution and to disqualify Mr Vawda for life since it was not a court of law. IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah will take up the petition on Wednesday (today). An ECP bench, headed by the chief election commissioner, had disqualified Mr Vawda for concealing his US citizenship and directed him to return the salary and other benefits he had received…
HYDERABAD: The four-day sit-in at the Qazi Ahmed section of the National Highway ended peacefully in the early hours of Tuesday when the Bhand community and Zardari clansmen agreed on the terms of a compromise regarding the Feb 12 killing of six persons, five of them belonging to the Bhand community. An FIR against the suspects nominated by the community was registered and the dead were taken away for burial. The attack, blamed on Zardari clansmen, was motivated by a dispute between the two sides over a 390-acre piece of land in the riverine area of Shaheed Benazirabad district. Soon after the…
KARACHI: As an antiterrorism court dismissed the bail application of MNA Ali Wazir in another ‘hate speech’ case, the sit-in organised by the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM) for his release continued for the third consecutive day on Tuesday. Ali Wazir along with others had been incarcerated in the Karachi central prison since Dec 31, 2020 following registration of four identical cases pertaining to hate speech, sedition and inciting public against the state. A fifth identical case is lodged against him at the Miramshah police station. On Tuesday, the matter came up before the ATC-X judge, who is conducting the trial in the…
KARACHI: The Sindh forest department on Tuesday issued a notification declaring the intertidal zone of Thatta and Sujawal districts, including the areas of Korangi and Phitti creek on which the islands of Bundal and Buddo exist, as protected forests. On Feb 2, the provincial cabinet had decided to declare the islands of Bundal and Buddo off the coast of Karachi as protected forests on the orders of the Sindh High Court. The court was hearing a petition that challenged the federal government’s authority of promulgating an ordinance over the islands that exist in the “exclusive territories of the province of Sindh” and…
