PARIS: Thousands marched in Paris and cities across France on Saturday to protest against the far-right National Rally (RN) ahead of upcoming elections to the French parliament. Following the RN’s surge in last Sunday’s European elections, police said 350,000 people were expected to march and 21,000 officers had been mobilised after labour unions, student groups and rights groups called for rallies to oppose the anti-immigration, eurosceptic party. At least 150 marches were expected in cities including Marseille, Toulouse, Lyon and Lille. In Paris, where police said 75,000 people turned out, a march set off at 1200 GMT from Place de…
Author: Hasnain Abid Khanzada
LONDON: Catherine, Princess of Wales, on Saturday tentatively returned to UK public life for the first time since being diagnosed with cancer, attending a military parade in London to mark King Charles III’s official birthday. Kate, as she is widely known, travelled in a state carriage alongside her three children at the outset of the annual event before watching the ceremonial proceedings from a viewing point. The 42-year-old future queen then appeared on the Buckingham Palace balcony, to cheers from the crowds below who had braved torrential rain to turn out for the pageantry. It comes nearly three months…
JERUSALEM: Eight Israeli soldiers were killed in the southern Gaza Strip on Saturday, the military said, as forces continued to push in and around the southern city of Rafah and strikes hit several areas of Gaza, killing at least 19 Palestinians. Earlier, the armed wing of Hamas said fighters had ambushed an armoured personnel carrier, killing and wounding a number of Israeli soldiers, in the Tel Al-Sultan area in the west of Rafah, where Israeli forces have been advancing for weeks. Israeli tanks advanced in Tel Al-Sultan and shells landed in the coastal area, where thousands of Palestinians, many of…
SHANGHAI: New Chinese coast guard rules took effect on Saturday, under which it can detain foreigners for trespassing in the disputed South China Sea, where neighbours and the G7 have accused Beijing of intimidation and coercion. Beijing claims almost the entirety of the South China Sea, brushing aside competing claims from several Southeast Asian nations including the Philippines and an international ruling that its stance has no legal basis. China deploys coast guard and other boats to patrol the waters and has turned several reefs into militarised artificial islands. Chinese and Philippine vessels have had a series of confrontations in…
Pilgrims perform the last major ritual of the haj, the “stoning of the devil”, in western Saudi Arabia on Sunday, as Muslims in parts of the world celebrate Eidul Azha. In Pakistan, Eidul Azha will officially be observed tomorrow. Beginning at dawn, the 1.8 million Muslims undertaking the pilgrimage this year will throw seven stones at each of three concrete walls symbolising the devil in the Mina valley, located outside Makkah, the holiest city in Islam. The ritual commemorates Prophet Ibrahim’s stoning of the devil at the three spots where it is said Satan tried to dissuade him from obeying God’s…
Two prison guards at a jail in southern Russia have been freed without harm after they were taken hostage by inmates of the militant Islamic State (IS) group, with the assailants “liquidated”, the country’s prison service said on Sunday. “During a special operation… the criminals were liquidated and the employees taken hostage were freed and were not wounded,” the service said in a statement. “The inmates took two prison officers hostage” in detention centre Number One of the Rostov region, the statement read. It added that negotiations were under way during the siege. According to a police source interviewed by…
China views the annexation and “elimination” of Taiwan as its great national cause, Taiwan President Lai Ching-te said on Sunday, telling cadets at the military’s premier academy they must know their enemy and not give in to defeatism. Lai has faced sustained personal attacks from China, which views Taiwan as its own territory, since assuming office last month, with Beijing calling him a “separatist”. China staged war games around Taiwan shortly after Lai’s inauguration. Lai says only Taiwan’s people can decide their future and has repeatedly offered talks with Beijing but has been rebuffed. Speaking in Kaohsiung in the south of the island on…
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court was moved by a private citizen on Saturday against the dismissal of his petition seeking ex-premier Imran Khan’s disqualification for allegedly concealing his daughter Tyrian Khan White in the nomination papers for 2018 general elections. The petitioner, Mohammad Sajid, through his counsel Saad Mumtaz Hashmi, pleaded that the full bench of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) that dismissed his petition has erred in considering the concurring opinion of two of the three judges as court judgment though it had been reserved and not announced. The ex-premier did not mention the existence of his alleged daughter, Tyrian Khan White, when he filed nomination…
ISLAMABAD: In the absence of mitigation measures and a rise in unregulated construction projects in the federal capital, the air quality in Islamabad has continued to deteriorate mostly on the back of vehicular emissions and rapid industrialisation, significantly adding to the concentration of particulate matter in the air. Not only this, the waterways in and around the capital territory face contamination from various sources, including industrial discharges, agricultural runoff, and domestic waste. The deteriorating quality of water threatens both public health and aquatic life. Quite recently, a report in this paper mentioned that the Rawal lake — which provides water to Rawalpindi…
ISLAMABAD: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Chairman Amjad Zubair Tiwana on Saturday clarified that there had been no immediate travel restrictions on non-filers as proposed in the federal budget presented by the government for the next fiscal year on June 12, stating that a prior notice and inclusion in the Income General Tax Order would be pre-requisite for such an action. This clarification was given by the FBR chairman before the Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Revenue which was presided over by Senator Saleem Mandviwala of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), according to an official handout issued by the Senate Secretariat.…
