LONDON: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s staffers were invited to a “bring your own booze” party in the garden of his Downing Street residence during the first nationwide coronavirus lockdown in 2020, according to a leaked email seen by broadcaster ITV. Johnson, who won a landslide victory in a 2019 election, has faced a barrage of criticism over alleged parties in government offices, including his own, in breach of Covid rules. Around 40 staff gathered in the garden for the drinks party, including Johnson and his wife Carrie, ITV said, even though at the time social mixing between households was limited to two…
Author: Hasnain Abid Khanzada
ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Monday met Romanian Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca and discussed with him bilateral matters, the situation in Afghanistan and human rights violations in India-held Kashmir. On his arrival at the PM Office, Foreign Minister Qureshi was received by Romanian Chief of Protocol. The foreign minister conveyed good wishes from Prime Minister Imran Khan and highlighted historic and cordial ties between the two countries. He told the Romanian leader that Pakistan desired to establish broad-based and result-oriented relations with his country and the current improvement of bilateral relations manifested the vision of the leadership of…
ALMATY: Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said on Monday his country had defeated an attempted coup d’etat during historic violence last week, blaming militants from Central Asia, Afghanistan and the Middle East for the unrest. He also insisted that Russian-led troops called in to help quell the unrest were in the country to only protect strategic facilities and would go home “soon”. The Central Asian country is reeling in the wake of the worst violence in its recent history, but life in Kazakhstan’s largest city Almaty appeared to be returning to normal on Monday as the nation observed a day of…
NEW YORK: New York Mayor Eric Adams said on Monday that a “significant number” of the Bronx fire victims were Muslims, originally from Gambia. At least 19 people, including nine children, were killed on Sunday when an apartment building in the New York borough of Bronx caught fire. A representative for the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), which was working with other Muslim charity groups to help the survivors, said “almost all the victims” were Muslims. Mayor Adams said the city was coordinating with faith leaders to ensure the dead receive Islamic burial rites. City officials also confirmed that…
GENEVA: Two decades after the first detainees arrived at Guantanamo Bay, a group of UN experts on Monday urged Washington to finally close the site of “unrelenting human rights violations”. Independent UN rights experts voiced outrage that the military prison in Cuba created after the Sept 2001 attacks to house detainees in the “war on terror” was still operating. On the 20th anniversary of the first arrivals at the detention centre, they described it as a site of “unparalleled notoriety” and a “stain” on Washington’s stated commitment to the rule of law. “Twenty years of practising arbitrary detention without trial…
RAWALPINDI: Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa on Monday stressed the urgency to swiftly devise an institutional mechanism for channeling humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan in order to avert a looming catastrophe in the war-torn country. The COAS said this during a meeting with the military adviser to minister of defence of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Major General Talal Abdullah Al-Otaibi, here at the General Headquarters, an Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) news release said. The two sides discussed matters of mutual interest, regional security, current situation in Afghanistan and bilateral defence relations between the two countries.…
GENEVA: Senior US and Russian officials launched special talks on Monday aimed at defusing tensions over a Russian military buildup on the border with Ukraine, part of a flurry of diplomatic activity in Europe this week. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov and his delegation arrived under Swiss police escort at the US diplomatic mission in Geneva for face-to-face talks with Wendy Sherman, the US deputy secretary of state, and her team. The meeting is part of Strategic Security Dialogue talks on arms control and other broad issues launched by Presidents Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin during a June summit…
The United States announced on Monday that India would allow imports of US pork and pork products for the first time, welcoming the removal of an old block on US farm trade. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and US Trade Representative (USTR) Katherine Tai made the announcement in a statement. “This new opportunity marks the culmination of nearly two decades of work to gain market access for US pork to India — and it signals positive movement in US-India trade relations,” Vilsack said. At the Trade Policy Forum between the United States and India held in New Delhi in November 2021,…
KABUL: The Taliban’s foreign minister said on Monday he held talks in Iran on the weekend with Ahmad Massoud, son of the late legendary Afghan resistance leader Ahmad Shah Massoud, and guaranteed his security if he returned home. Massoud’s Panjshir Valley forces provided the last resistance in September to the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, weeks after government troops capitulated. In a video posted by state media on Twitter, Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said he also met Ismail Khan, a Herat province warlord who surrendered to the Taliban and left the country. The Taliban had announced Muttaqi’s departure to Tehran…
RAWALPINDI: A five-member committee announced by the Punjab government to investigate the causes and lapses that led to the death of 22 tourists during a snowstorm in Murree hills formally started working on Monday. The committee — led by Additional Chief Secretary Home Zafar Nasrullah and assisted by provincial government secretaries Ali Sarfraz and Asad Gillani, Additional Inspector General of Punjab Police Farooq Mazhar and an opted member — is likely to reach Murree in the next two days to proceed with the investigation. The committee has been tasked with completing its report and determining responsibility within seven days. Tourists banned from entering resort…
