NEW DELHI: A group of senior US lawmakers including former House speaker Nancy Pelosi met on Wednesday with the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government-in-exile in India, sparking heavy criticism from China. The bipartisan group of US lawmakers, led by Congressman Michael McCaul and Pelosi, visited the 88-year-old Buddhist spiritual leader at his home base in the northern Indian hill-town of Dharamsala. China, which maintains Tibet is part of its territory, denounced “external interference” and said that matters in the Himalayan territory were “purely China’s domestic affairs”. Pelosi told crowds of Tibetans it was an “honour” to have met with…
Author: Hasnain Abid Khanzada
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has said India has no right to object to the references made to Jammu and Kashmir in Pakistan-China joint statement issued in Beijing after talks between Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his Chinese counterpart Li Qiang on June 8, and reiterated it is an established fact that Jammu and Kashmir is an internationally-recognised disputed territory. “It is an established fact that Jammu and Kashmir is an internationally-recognised disputed territory. The dispute has been on the agenda of the UN Security Council for over seven decades,” the Foreign Office (FO) spokesperson said in a statement issued on Wednesday while…
ISRAELI forces may have repeatedly violated the laws of war and failed to distinguish between civilians and fighters in the Gaza conflict, the UN human rights office said on Wednesday. Separately, the head of a UN inquiry accused the Israeli military of carrying out the “extermination” of Palestinians. In a report on six Israeli attacks that caused many casualties and destroyed civilian infrastructure, the UN human rights office (OHCHR) said Israeli forces “may have systematically violated the principles of distinction, proportionality, and precautions in attack”. “The requirement to select means and methods of warfare that avoid or at the very least minimise…
GAZA STRIP: Israeli air strikes and clashes between troops and Palestinian militants rocked Gaza on Wednesday, after Israel’s army warned it had readied an offensive against Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement on the country’s northern front. Witnesses and the civil defence agency in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip reported Israeli bombardment in western Rafah, where medics said drone strikes and shelling killed at least seven people. The Israeli military has announced a daily humanitarian “pause” in fighting on a key road in eastern Rafah, but a United Nations spokesman said days later that “this has yet to translate into more aid reaching people…
A batch of toxic illegal alcohol in India has killed at least 34 people with more than 100 others rushed to hospital, Tamil Nadu state officials told reporters on Thursday. The deadly mix of locally brewed arrack drink was laced with poisonous methanol, chief minister M.K. Stalin said, the Press Trust of India news agency reported. Stalin said arrests have been made over the deaths and warned such crimes “ruin society and will be suppressed with an iron fist”, according to a statement from his office. Hundreds of people die every year in India from cheap alcohol made in backstreet distilleries. In order…
KHYBER: Unidentified gunmen killed a senior journalist in Landi Kotal tehsil of Khyber district, police and family sources said on Wednesday. According to them, Khalil Jibran was traveling with friends, including a local lawyer, after attending a dinner party in the Mazreena locality of Sultan Khel when their vehicle was ambushed by armed men on Tuesday evening. They said two armed men dragged Khalil Jibran out of the car and ordered the other three occupants to get out, stating that they were not the targets. The gunmen then unleashed a hail of bullets at Jibran, killing him on the spot.…
ISLAMABAD: National media watchdog Freedom Network has called on the government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, the international community and the United Nations to come forward and support Afghan refugee journalists who are coping with a number of issues and challenges since they left Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover in August 2021. The appeal for support from all relevant stakeholders for these refugee journalists, numbering less than 200, comes as World Refugee Day is being observed globally, including Pakistan, on Thursday. “Let’s join hands to help and assist these refugee journalists, who are cramped by a host of issues and…
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s bid to join the BRICS economic bloc marks the country’s significant strategic intent to position itself alongside the world’s burgeoning and influential economies, besides underscoring its aspiration to be an integral player in the ascendant collective of the Global South. This was stated by Mr Mushahid Hussain Sayed, a former senator and head of Pakistan-China Institute and Pakistan-Africa Institute for Development & Research, at the International BRICS Forum held in Russian far eastern port city of Vladivostok. The two-day forum was organised by Russia’s ruling ‘United Russia’ Party. In November of last year, Pakistan officially applied for membership…
GILGIT: A rescue mission was called off after one of the two Japanese mountaineers, Atsushi Taguchi, remained untraceable during an extensive search on Spantik peak in Shigar district as rescuers believe he is no more. On the other hand, consultation is underway to start a mission to bring down the body of the other member of the Japanese expedition team, Ryuseki Hiraoka, from the peak. Addressing a press conference on Wednesday, Shigar Deputy Commissioner Waliullah Falahi along with Naiknaam Karim, CEO of Adventure Tours Pakistan, and local rescuers said the two Japanese climbers went missing during their attempt to summit 7,027-metre Spantik peak. On…
ISLAMABAD: Nine more positive environmental samples for polio were detected this week, taking the tally for the current year to 185. The total number of infected districts for the year stayed unchanged at 45, as against 126 from 28 districts during the entire 2023. Five cases of polio have been reported this year. An official of the Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health confirmed the detection of Type-1 Wild Poliovirus (WPV1) from nine sewage samples. “In Quetta, an environmental sample was collected from Railway Pul site and it was the 22nd positive sample from Quetta district…
