WASHINGTON — US Vice President JD Vance said Washington and Tehran are close to agreeing a deal to extend their ceasefire in the Middle East war, but the potential breakthrough still hangs on President Donald Trump’s approval. Trump remained notably silent into Friday morning, despite US sources telling AFP a deal just needed his sign-off, […]
GENEVA — The World Health Organisation (WHO) on May 29 announced the first recovery of a confirmed Ebola patient in the outbreak raging in the Democratic Republic of Congo. “The DRC has said that on May 27, a patient recovered and left the hospital and has been discharged into the community,” the WHO’s Ms Anais […]
BUNIA, DR CONGO — Dorcas Mapenzi fears the worst if Ebola comes to the Kingonze camp, where she lives alongside more than 25,000 other displaced people in the conflict-hit eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. “If Ebola comes, we’ll be wiped out as we’re packed like sardines,” the displaced woman told AFP at the sprawl of […]
BHOPAL — Bashir Badr, one of most quoted Urdu poets of his generation with famous lines like “Ujale apni yaadon ke hamare saath rehne do”, died in Bhopal on Thursday after a prolonged illness. He was 91. The veteran poet, who was living with dementia for many years, breathed his last at his home in […]
JAMMU — Security forces on Thursday launched a fresh fire assault and multiple grenade launcher (MGL) attacks on specific suspected terrorist hideouts as the anti-terror operation in the dense forests of Jammu and Kashmir’s Rajouri district entered its sixth consecutive day. According to preliminary reports, two to three Pakistani terrorists, including a commander, are believed […]
GENEVA — Global average temperatures are likely to continue at or near record levels this year and for the next four years afterwards, the United Nations warned on Thursday. The 11 hottest individual years ever recorded all happened from 2015 onwards and the UN’s weather and climate agency said the trend was set to continue, […]
WASHINGTON — The United States carried out new strikes on southern Iran on Thursday, after President Donald Trump threatened to “finish the job” if Tehran did not agree to a peace deal. Iranian media reported three loud explosions rang out in the port city of Bandar Abbas in the early hours of Thursday morning, following […]
SRINAGAR — Authorities on Wednesday refused to allow Eid prayers at the Eidgah and the historic Jama Masjid in the old city here for the eighth consecutive year, besides placing Mirwaiz Umar Farooq under house arrest. “For the eighth consecutive year, Muslims of Kashmir have been denied the right to offer Eid prayers at the […]
SRINAGAR — Eid-ul-Azha, commemorating Prophet Abraham’s devotion and sacrifice, was celebrated across Kashmir on Wednesday with devotees gathering in large numbers at eidgahs, mosques, and shrines in large numbers to offer prayers, officials said here. The largest congregation was at the Hazratbal shrine in Srinagar, where more than 60,000 people offered Eid prayers, they said. […]
MINA, SAUDI ARABIA — Muslim faithful took part in the climactic ritual of the annual hajj pilgrimage on Wednesday, symbolically stoning the devil near Mecca. From dawn, crowds of pilgrims gathered in the valley of Mina, southeast of the holy city of Makkah, to throw pebbles at concrete pillars symbolising the devil. It reenacts the […]