PARIS — The premises of Al Ghazali Institute of the Grand Mosque of Paris was defaced with Islamophobic and racist inscriptions on Sunday. Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin condemned the act as “unacceptable degradation” and assured to find the perpetrators of these acts. The incident took place at the institute’s campus in the southern city of […]
UNITED NATIONS/GENEVA — The world is in a very “dangerous period” of the COVID-19 pandemic compounded by more transmissible variants like Delta, which is continuing to evolve and mutate, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has warned. He said in countries with low vaccination coverage, terrible scenes of hospitals overflowing are again becoming the […]
WASHINGTON — The Delta variant is the second most prevalent coronavirus mutation in the US and is predicted to become the predominant one in the coming weeks, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky said on Thursday. “An estimated 25 percent of all reported SARS-COV-2 sequences nationwide are the Delta variants, and in some regions of the […]
ISLAMABAD — Pakistan, Prime Minister Imran Khan has called upon the world leaders to crack down on online hate speech and Islamophobia following the deadly truck attack in London, Ontario, Canada. “Everyone is shocked in [Pakistan], because we saw the family picture, and so a family being targeted like that has had a deep impact […]
MAKKAH — Saudi Arabia hosted an event, which would bring together senior scholars from Afghanistan and Pakistan for a “historic, landmark event on the path toward reconciliation between competing groups, to end the fighting and create stability to the country.” The conference featured five sessions in which more than 20 senior scholars spoke on peace, […]
UNITED NATIONS — UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed ‘outrage’ on Saturday for the killing of more than 100 people, including children, in Burkina Faso. Guterres “strongly condemns the heinous attack and underscores the urgent need for the international community to redouble support to Member States in the fight against violent extremism and its unacceptable human […]
WASHINGTON — The head of China’s Wuhan virology lab, also called as the ‘bat woman’, and an expert from the University of North Carolina in the US, had in a paper published in 2015 flagged the dangers of their gain-of-function experiment of a novel coronavirus which could infect human cells, media reports said. In the […]
WASHINGTON — Facebook says it will suspend former President Donald Trump’s accounts for two years following its finding that he stoked violence ahead of the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection. “At the end of this period, we will look to experts to assess whether the risk to public safety has receded. We will evaluate external factors, […]
GENEVA — The World Health Organisation’s top vaccines expert says that immunising children against the coronavirus is not a high priority given the extremely limited global supply of vaccines. Dr Kate O’Brien says vaccinating children is not a priority from a WHO perspective , even as increasing numbers of rich countries authorise their COVID-19 shots […]
ISTANBUL — Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday warned that the United States risked “losing a precious friend” if it tries to corner his country, speaking two weeks before his first meeting with US counterpart Joe Biden. Already tense, relations between the two NATO states have further deteriorated since Biden replaced Erdogan’s ally Donald […]