pakistan news

By MAYUKH SEN from NYT Food https://nyti.ms/2EWr8vW

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KARACHI: Even after Supreme Court-ordered mass anti-encroachment drive in Karachi’s Saddar area as well as other localities, there exist more than dozens of areas where encroachment still persists reportedly. One such area is the Qalandaria Chowk in Karachi’s Central District where a charitable Blood Bank named Hussaini Blood Bank, Green Shield Public School and a Madrassah are at the risk of encroachers that hinder the routine life to a great extent.Shedding light on the matter, Chief Pathologist-Hussaini Blood bank Dr Omer Daraz said, “Main entrances of the Blood bank, school and a Madrassah have been encroached by the city’s Timber Mafia. When asked to remove the encroachments, they threaten us.” Dr Daraz stated that more than 1500 children suffering from blood disorders seek treatment daily at the blood bank. However, these encroachments create obstruction for them. Furthermore, 700 staff members who provide medical assistance to these patients also face problem while reaching the

ISLAMABAD: The Chinese Embassy has issued the latest progress report on the projects being executed under the multi-billion dollars China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).According to the report, 11 projects have so far been completed while as many projects are under construction, around 18.9 billion dollars have so far been invested in these projects.The progress report said 20 more projects are also in pipeline under the CPEC.It said out of 15 energy projects planned as priority with a total generation capacity of 11,110 MW, seven have been completed while another six are under construction with a total capacity of 6,910 MW.Regarding infrastructure projects, the report said currently three projects are under construction.It said CPEC is the largest and most comprehensive project under Belt and Road Initiative, besides being of great political, economic and social significance both to China and Pakistan. from The News International - National http://bit.ly/2SqObms

By JANE E. BRODY from NYT Well https://nyti.ms/2AofpTL

By ADEEL HASSAN from NYT U.S. https://nyti.ms/2QcRyvw

By KENNETH CHANG from NYT Science https://nyti.ms/2RqYh9J

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By JULFIKAR ALI MANIK and MARIA ABI-HABIB from NYT World https://nyti.ms/2CI02qY

Indian actress Sushmita Sen and her boyfriend Rohman Shawl have been making it to the news every now and then ever since they made their relationship public. It seems like things are moving fast between the former Miss Universe and her 26-year-old beau as the two were clicked together with Sushmita’s family in Jaipur only recently. The actress made Rohman an official part of her family on a post that included her parents, daughters Renee and Alisah and brother Rajeev Sen. Rohman and Sens have gathered in Jaipur to attend the wedding of Tamil filmmaker SS Rajamouli’s son SS Karthikeya’s wedding with singer Pooja Prasad, who is  a cousin of Sushmita. Recently, Sushmita even uploaded several stories of her “baby sister’s” sangeet on Instagram.The pre-wedding festivities of Karthikeya and Pooja’s nuptials entailed the who’s who of Bollywood and Tamil cinema such as Prabhas of ‘Baahubali’ fame and others attending the events.  from The News International - Entertainment http://bit.ly/2Akt

By JOSEPH SCIORRA from NYT Lens https://nyti.ms/2Qd6cCI

The traffic police have issued a traffic diversion plan for New Year’s Eve tonight in anticipation of revellers heading to Bagh-e-Ibne Qasim and Sea View to usher in the New Year.A statement issued from Traffic DIG Javed Ali Mehar’s office on Sunday has provided the public and DHA residents the routes and diversions to use for the night.According to the statement, all vehicular traffic coming from Akhtar Colony via Express Way and Korangi will not be allowed to move towards Khayaban-e-Ittehad [for Sea View], but will be diverted to the following route: main Korangi Road, Sharea Faisal, Regent Chowk, Club Chowk, Hoshing Chowk, Teen Talwar, left turn Race Course Signal, Ch Khaleequz Zaman Rd, Gizri Bridge, Saudia Signal, right turn Khayaban-e-Shamsheer, McDonalds left Sea View, Village Restaurant, left turn Khayaban-e-Ittehad to their destination. Or Saudia Signal to Khayaban-e-Hafiz to Ittehad to their destination.Similarly, all vehicular traffic coming from Nazimabad, Gulberg, Liaquata

While a number of Bollywood power couples like Deepika-Ranveer, Priyanka-Nick and Sonam-Anand took their relationships to the next level by tying the knot this year, Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma were busy celebrating their first wedding anniversary in Australia.While Anushka had to fly back to India briefly after, to wrap up the promotional schedule of her film ‘Zero’, the actress has jetted off to Sydney again to ring in New Year’s celebrations with husband Virat who is stationed there for his next match against Australia for January 3rd. Virat  posted a picture with Anushka on Instagram and captioned it, “Off to sydney. Looking forward to the new years eve with my one and only. [sic]” In the picture, Anushka Sharma is leaning on her husband’s shoulders while hiding her face with her palms.Anushka and Virat tied the knot in Tuscany, Italy in a private wedding on December 11, 2017.  from The News International - Entertainment http://bit.ly/2EYLapv

By NEIL MacFARQUHAR from NYT World https://nyti.ms/2VkIfxm

Apart from making phenomenal movies, ace film director Karan Johar also conducts a famous talk show named ‘Koffee with Karan’ that gets all celebrities of B-town spill out some deep, dark secrets. In an upcoming episode filmed for the show, the Kapoor siblings (Sonam Kapoor, Rhea Kapoor and Harshvardhan Kapoor) took to the couch to spill some sass. The much-talked-about rapid fire round had Sonam Kapoor revealing that she in fact looks best with Pakistani actor Fawad Khan, but Karan Johar “sent him back”. Sonam Kapoor worked with Fawad Khan in Disney’s 'Khoobsurat'. The film gave Fawad his first break in Bollywood, which he received a Filmfare Award for Best Male Debut for his role in the film. Fawad then went on to feature in films like ‘Kapoor and Sons’ in 2014 and Karan Johar’s ‘Ae Dil Hai Mushkil’ in 2016. However, due to the unstable political situation between India and Pakistan, Pakistani actors were barred from working in Indian movies with ‘Ae Dil Hai Mushkil’ becoming

Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas after tying the knot in December are ending 2018 in style as they vacation together in Switzerland. Recently, the 36-year-old actress has been sharing pictures of her snowy, wintery getaway alongside husband Nick and making it snow on Instagram. They are accompanied by Nick’s brother Joe Jonas, his fiancée Sophie Turner, Priyanka’s brother Siddharth Chopra and a few other friends. The latest picture shared by ‘The Sky is Pink’ starlet is from her skiing adventure with family. Priyanka shared photos from what appears to be the take-off point, in which she features with Nick Jonas (of course) and Sophie Turner. She captioned the picture: “Ski life”. She looked cute in a rose-printed ski suit while Sophie was adorable in matching separates.Recently, Priyanka broke the internet with a cute, adorable picture she had shared with Nick. The expressions on their faces were best described by Priyanka in the caption: "Happiness in the mountains," she wrote

Bollywood’s favourite couple Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh continue to make headlines even after days of tying the knot at the picturesque Villa del Balbianello in Lake Como, Italy.The young and vibrant couple has been basking in the glory of its dreamy nuptials that were a starry affair for all of Bollywood which even fans couldn’t help but admire. Even though it has just been a month since the power couple took the plunge, fans are already talking about how both of them will make beautiful babies. Deepika, addressing the matter in an interview with an entertainment website recently said, "Motherhood trumps being married. That's what I hear from people who have had children. Of course, it will happen at some point but no, I think it is unfair to put women through that, to put a couple through that. I guess the day we stop asking the questions is when we will bring about change."Speaking about how she plans to tackle pregnancy rumours, the Padmaavat starlet added, &q

Famed Bollywood actress Rani Mukerji is under hot waters after her controversial stance on the #MeToo movement was met with immense censure by internet users.Speaking at a roundtable discussion moderated by film critic Rajeev Masand that featured some top-of-the-line actresses including Deepika Padukone, Anushka Sharma and Alia Bhatt, the ‘Hichki’ starlet said that it is rather women who should be taught to be physically strong and courageous to shield themselves from sexual harassers. Responding to a question regarding what change has the movement brought with itself, Rani said, “I think as a woman you have to be that powerful within yourself, you have to believe that you're so powerful that if you ever come into a situation like that you have the courage to say 'back off.' I think you have to have the courage to be able to protect yourself."However,  Rani's viewpoint did not receive approval from the fellow actresses. Deepika, for instance, said, “I don't thi

LOS ANGELES: "Aquaman"  swm to $51.6 million in its second weekendof domestic release. That's a drop of just 29% from its $72.7 million opening weekend.  The Warner Bros film, with hunky and heavily tattooed Jason Momoa in the lead role, has grossed nearly $750 million globally. The second possession goes to Disney´s "Mary Poppins Returns." It actually gained altitude in its second weekend, taking in $28 million for the Friday-through-Sunday period, up 18 percent. The follow-up to the 1964 movie stars Emily Blunt as the stern but kind-hearted nanny, backed by the amiable Lin-Manuel Miranda of "Hamilton" fame.In third was Paramount´s "Bumblebee," a prequel to the "Transformers" movies, starring Hailee Steinfeld and John Cena, at $20.5 million. The Washington Post credits the film with rising above earlier editions in the franchise to show "humor, emotion and a surprising amount of heart."Fourth place went to Sony´s "Sp

SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowed to meet the South’s President Moon Jae-in "frequently" next year to discuss denuclearisation of the peninsula in a rare letter sent to Seoul, Moon’s office said on Sunday.The leader of the isolated North met with Moon three times this year -- twice at the border truce village of Panmunjom and once in the North’s capital Pyongyang -- as a reconciliatory push gathered pace.During Moon’s visit to Pyongyang in September, Kim promised to pay a return visit to the South’s capital Seoul "at an earliest date", sparking speculation he may visit by the end of this year.But the much-anticipated trip has not yet materialised, which left the young ruler feeling "much regret," according to Kim’s letter sent to mark the end of the year, Moon’s spokesman said.The North’s leader "expressed a strong determination to visit Seoul while watching future situation," Kim Eui-kyeom told reporters.Kim Jong Un also "express

KHARTOUM: Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir on Sunday told police to abstain from using excessive force against anti-government demonstrators as the UN called for a probe into deaths during the violent protests.At least 19 people have been killed since December 19 during protests sparked by Khartoum’s decision to hike the price of bread, according to the government.Rights group Amnesty International says 37 people have died.On Sunday, Bashir met top police officers in Khartoum and instructed them to refrain from using excessive force against demonstrators."We want to maintain security and we want the police to do that by using less force," Bashir, dressed in a blue police uniform, said.Protesters have rallied after the government raised the price of a loaf of bread from one Sudanese pound to three.Sudan is facing an acute foreign exchange crisis and soaring inflation despite Washington lifting an economic embargo in October 2017.Inflation is running at 70 percent and the Sudan

JAKARTA: A volcano on the Indonesian holiday island of Bali erupted on Sunday, belching ash high into the air and over nearby villages as officials warned tourists to keep clear of the area.Mount Agung has been erupting periodically since it rumbled back to life in 2017, when it grounded hundreds of flights and left 120,000 visitors stranded. On Sunday morning, the volcano -- which is about 70 kilometres from the tourist hub of Kuta -- sent ash skywards as it erupted for about three minutes, according to the country’s volcanology centre."Residents near Mount Agung as well as climbers and tourists should not carry out any activity in the danger zone or within four-kilometre radius from the crater," the centre said in a statement.On December 22, an eruption from Anak Krakatoa triggered a tsunami which hit the western tip of the neighbouring island of Java and southern Sumatra, killing at least 426 and leaving more than 7,000 injured.In the latest eruption, several villages on B

It is one of the worst ecological disasters of recent decades, but the shrinking of Iran’s great Lake Urmia finally appears to be stabilising and officials see the start of a revival.A rusty cargo ship and a row of colourful pedal boats lying untouched on the bone-dry basin are a sign of the devastating loss of water in what was once the largest lake in the Middle East.Situated in the mountains of northwest Iran, Lake Urmia is fed by 13 rivers and designated as a site of international importance under the UN Convention on Wetlands that was signed in the Iranian city of Ramsar in 1971.The lake has been shrinking since 1995, according to the UN Environment Programme, due to a combination of prolonged drought, over-farming and dams.By August 2011 the lake’s surface was 2,366 square kilometres and shrank drastically to just 700 km2 in 2013, according to the United Nations.The catastrophe has threatened the habitat of shrimp, flamingos, deers and wild sheep and caused salt storms that pollu

N’DJAMENA: More than 30 people have died in northern Chad after Arab fighters, crossing from neighbouring Libya, attacked miners in a region in the grip of a gold rush, rights activists said on Sunday.The clashes broke out on Thursday in the Kouri Bougoudi area of the Tibesti border region, the Chadian Convention for the Defence of Human Rights (CTDDH) said in a statement. At least 30 gold miners were killed and more than 200 wounded, it said.Abdul Aziz Youssouf Mustapha, a Chadian with the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH), said the fighters attacked all "non-Arabs" who had come to Kouri Bougoudi in search of gold.All miners were forced off the gold-mining area on Saturday, he said.A military source confirmed that there had been fighting but did not give further details.Many of the miners hailed from the Ouaddai region in central-eastern Chad. Sources among the Ouaddai community also confirmed there had been clashes in Kouri Bougoudi.Kouri Bougoudi has been a t

The Stars and Stripes fluttered above four US armoured vehicles driving through drizzle in the Syrian city of Manbij Sunday, each visibly carrying an armed soldier on lookout duty.The US patrol inside the strategic city near the Turkish border comes despite President Donald Trump’s shock announcement this month that he is pulling American troops out of the war-torn country.Almost eight years into Syria’s civil war, a Kurdish-led alliance called the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) controls a large swathe of territory in the country’s northeast, including Manbij.The unexpected US pullout announcement left Syria’s Kurds scrambling to find a new ally in the Damascus regime, as they feared losing US support would leave them exposed to a long-threatened Turkish assault.But inside Manbij on Sunday, American troops did not appear to have left yet, an AFP correspondent said, and residents were relieved to have spotted at least two US patrols."The Americans’ presence is reassuring for people

Sheikh Hasina set for landslide win in BD electionsAg AFPDHAKA: Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was heading for a landslide win in a general election on Sunday that was marred by opposition claims of vote-rigging and violence between rival supporters that killed at least 21 people.Hasina’s ruling Awami League party easily crossed the 151 seats required to form a majority government, according to local TV station Channel 24, which is compiling results from around the country.As midnight approached, the Awami League and its allies had won 191 seats -- some by tens of thousands of votes -- while the opposition coalition had only five, the channel said.The alliance running against Hasina, led by the main opposition Bangladesh National Party, branded the vote "farcical" and urged the country’s election commission to void the results."We are demanding that a fresh election is held under a neutral government as early as possible," Kamal Hossain, who heads the coali

A leading Bangladesh news channel was taken off the air and ten journalists were assaulted as the country voted for a new government on Sunday amid allegations of a media crackdown.The private Jamuna TV said the action was taken late on Saturday."Cable operators took Jamuna TV off air without giving us any explanation," Fahim Ahmed, the station’s chief news editor, told AFP."We are still transmitting. But no one in Bangladesh can see our channel due to the blackout," he said. The channel’s output can still be viewed online.The broadcaster, which is owned by Jamuna Group -- one of Bangladesh’s biggest conglomerates, which also runs a newspaper -- is known for its independent coverage.Salma Islam, a member of the family that owns the group, stood in Sunday’s election as an independent candidate against an influential ruling party businessman.A top cable operator in Dhaka said Jamuna broadcasts stopped for technical rather than political reasons."We are not gettin

OCCUPIED AL-QUDS: Israel’s foreign ministry issued a protest to Jordan on Sunday after a minister was pictured stepping on an image of the Israeli flag while entering a meeting.Jordanian minister of state for information Jumana Ghneimat was pictured last week stepping on the flag design when entering a meeting at a trade union complex.The image of the flag has been affixed to the floor just inside the entrance to the complex for several years to protest Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories and normalised ties between the Jewish state and Amman, according to union officials.Israel called Jordan’s ambassador in for clarifications on Sunday, the foreign ministry said."The foreign affairs ministry considers the incident in which a Jordanian minister insulted the Israeli flag in Amman as serious," a statement said.Jordanian Prime Minister Omar al-Razzaz was reported to have entered the building through a side door. Jordan and Egypt are the only two Arab countries to

LONDON: Britain’s chances of leaving the European Union are only "50-50" if MPs reject Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal, a senior minister warned on Sunday.Liam Fox, the international trade secretary and a vocal Brexit campaigner during the 2016 referendum, warned colleagues planning on voting against May that her plan was the only way to be "100 percent certain" that Britain would leave."If we were not to vote for that, I’m not sure I would give it much more than 50-50," he told The Sunday Times.May’s government is trying to persuade a sceptical British parliament to endorse a broad withdrawal deal she struck with European leaders last month.But the bill’s passage is far from certain, with May having to pull an initial vote with a crushing defeat looking, rescheduling it for the week beginning January 14.Pro-Brexit supporters are particularly concerned about the deal’s so-called "backstop" provision, which could keep Britain locked in a

aLOS ANGELES: A malware attack that appears to have originated outside the US delayed the hardcopy distribution of several major newspapers, according to a report.The LA Times said on Saturday that the attack, which was first assumed to have been a server outage, hit a computer network at Tribune Publishing which is connected to the production and printing process of multiple newspapers around the country.As a result, the delivery of the Saturday editions of the LA Times and San Diego Union Tribune were delayed.It also hit the distribution of the West Coast editions of the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, which are printed at the LA Times’ printing plant.The report said it could not provide firm numbers on how many subscribers were impacted but a majority of LA Times customers received their papers on Saturday morning, albeit several hours late. from The News International - World http://bit.ly/2LEikfq

Fifty years after Italy’s Matera was a national embarrassment because of its extreme poverty, the city is rescuing its dignity, baroque palaces and cave churches to become a European Capital of Culture."Yes, it’s true, we went from shame to glory," Matera mayor Raffaello De Ruggieri told journalists ahead of the southern city’s year-long stint as a European Union-designated cultural crossroads in 2019.In the 1950s, prime minister Alcide De Gasperi, one of the EU’s founding fathers, was outraged by Matera’s underdevelopment, where many lived in ancient limestone caves without electricity or running water, lives ravaged by malaria.Now, the city in the Basilicata region on the instep of Italy’s boot, is hoping to draw thousands of visitors for cultural and heritage events, many inside the same caves, now renovated."We want people who decide to come to Matera to live an experience," said Paolo Verri, director of the Matera-Basilicata 2019 Foundation.The city, one of the

KABUL: After a year of record bloodshed, Afghans are bracing for an even deadlier 2019 with the threat of a US drawdown and a looming presidential vote likely to fuel violence.President Donald Trump’s plan to slash the number of US soldiers in Afghanistan before negotiators have struck a peace deal with the Taliban has crushed hopes among many Afghans for an end to the 17-year conflict.The news, which the White House has not confirmed, capped an annus horribilis for the war-weary country which by some estimates has overtaken Syria as the world’s deadliest conflict zone this year.Ordinary Afghans, who have long borne the brunt of the relentless fighting, told AFP they felt increasingly despondent about the future as the Taliban and the Islamic State group adapt to ramped up security to carry out almost daily attacks on civilians and security forces."It is getting worse every day," said electrical engineering student Mohammad Hussain in Kabul, one of the deadliest places in the

MANILA: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte drew outrage Sunday after saying he “touched” his maid when he was a teenager, with women’s rights groups accusing him of attempted rape and encouraging sexual abuse.Duterte frequently sparks uproar with his comments on women, including rape jokes and boasting about adultery.In his latest remarks, Duterte recounted a confession he had with a priest in high school, detailing how he had entered the room of his maid while she was sleeping.“I lifted the blanket... I tried to touch what was inside the panty,” Duterte said in a speech late Saturday.“I was touching. She woke up. So I left the room.”Duterte recounted telling the priest that he had then returned to the maid’s room and again tried to molest her.Women’s rights political party Gabriela denounced Duterte’s “repulsive” comments and called for him to resign, saying he had confessed to attempted rape.“Rape does not happen only through penile insertion. If it is a finger or an object it is c

MANBIJ: The city of Manbij has switched control more than most places in Syria’s civil war.With U.S. troops set to leave after President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw them, residents fear others will rush to fill the vacuum, causing more upheaval: Syrian government forces have deployed nearby while Turkey is threatening its own assault on the city.U.S. forces have underpinned stability in Manbij since Islamic State’s defeat here in 2016.Some 30 km (20 miles) from the Turkish border, it occupies a critical spot in the map of the Syrian conflict, near the junction of three separate blocks of territory that form spheres of Russian, Turkish and - for now - U.S. influence.While U.S. forces have yet to leave, the consequences of Trump’s decision are already playing out in Manbij.Russian-backed Syrian government forces entered the outskirts on Friday for the first time in years at the invitation of Kurdish YPG militia who fear the U.S. departure could open the way for a Turkish attack.

FREETOWN: Sierra Leone’s former defense minister has been arrested by for alleged corruption in a deal to procure military supplies, an anti-corruption commission said Saturday, the latest former government figure to be nabbed in a sprawling graft probe. Alfred Paolo Conteh was detained along with Sannah Marrah, the defence ministry’s former director general, at the Criminal Investigation Department on Friday.Both are awaiting charges, the Sierra Leone Anti Corruption Commission said. The commission said officials are investigating allegations of corruption over procurement of military vehicles, uniforms and rice in 2015. The procurement contract was reported to be worth $10 million. “We are recovering monies stolen from our people,” anti-corruption commissioner Joseph Ben Kelfalla told reporters in Freetown, adding that authorities had recovered more than one million dollars from corrupt officials. Most of the military supply deals were done in China, according to a report published i

MOSCOW: Russia will in 2019 deploy the S-350 Vityaz new generation short-to-mid range surface-to-air defence missile complex, the Russian Defence Ministry said on Sunday, in a long-planned move to replace its ageing S-300 system.The ministry also said that the Russian military had deployed Pantsir-S and S-400 complexes in 2018 in Crimea, annexed from Ukraine in 2014, as well as in its Arctic region, the Kaliningrad exclave on the Baltic Sea, and in its easternmost Khabarovsk region. Russia has been flexing its military muscles abroad in recent years, and its involvement in the Syrian conflict and Ukraine has soured relations with the West.In a dispute over a separate, longer range missile system, Washington has threatened to pull out of the landmark 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), alleging that a new Russian missile, the Novator 9M729 (called SSC-8 by NATO), violates the pact. The landmark arms control treaty bans either side from stationing short and intermediate-

RIO DE JANEIRO: Brazil will move its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, with only the date of the transfer to be decided, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly said Sunday during a visit to Rio de Janeiro. “It’s not a question of ‘if’ but of ‘when’,” Netanyahu told members of Rio’s Jewish community, according to Brazil’s UOL news website. The issue of the embassy has been hovering over Netanyahu’s visit to Brazil, the first-ever by an Israeli prime minister. He arrived on Friday to hold talks with Brazil’s far-right president-elect Jair Bolsonaro, who is to be sworn-in in a ceremony in Brasilia on Tuesday, with Netanyahu among the foreign dignitaries attending. from The News International - World http://bit.ly/2LHtv7g

aDHAKA: Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina appeared headed for a landslide win in a general election Sunday that was marred by clashes between rival supporters that killed 14 people and opposition claims of rigged voting.Early results showed Hasina's Awami League racing into a clear lead, quickly securing 61 seats against one for the opposition -- some by tens of thousands of votes -- according to Channel 24, which is compiling results from around the country.The alliance of parties running against Hasina branded the election "farcical" and urged the country's election commission to void the results."We are demanding that a fresh election is held under a neutral government as early as possible," Kamal Hossain, who heads the coalition, told reporters.Deadly violence and bitter rivalry that marred the election campaign spilled over into voting day, even as authorities imposed tight security with 600,000 troops, police and other security forces deployed ac

KABUL: Afghanistan’s presidential election will be postponed until July 20, an official said Sunday, as US-led efforts to end the 17-year war with the Taliban gather steam.The three-month delay, announced by the Independent Election Commission (IEC), comes after weeks of speculation that the vote would be put off to create more space for peace talks with Afghanistan’s largest militant group.The presidential ballot was originally scheduled for April 20, which many observers had considered unrealistic given the IEC was still finalising results of October’s shambolic and bloody parliamentary elections.Provincial and district council elections, as well as a previously postponed parliamentary vote in Ghazni province, will be held on the same day, IEC chief Abdul Badi Sayyad told reporters.A spokesman for President Ashraf Ghani, who plans to seek re-election, welcomed the new timeline.“The Afghan government respects the decision by the IEC and is prepared to cooperate with the commission in

MIANDOAB, Iran: It is one of the worst ecological disasters of recent decades, but the shrinking of Iran’s great Lake Urmia finally appears to be stabilising and officials see the start of a revival.A rusty cargo ship and a row of colourful pedal boats lying untouched on the bone-dry basin are a sign of the devastating loss of water in what was once the largest lake in the Middle East.Situated in the mountains of northwest Iran, Lake Urmia is fed by 13 rivers and designated as a site of international importance under the UN Convention on Wetlands that was signed in the Iranian city of Ramsar in 1971.The lake has been shrinking since 1995, according to the UN Environment Programme, due to a combination of prolonged drought, over-farming and dams.By August 2011 the lake’s surface was 2,366 square kilometres (914 square miles) and shrank drastically to just 700 km2 in 2013, according to the United Nations.The catastrophe has threatened the habitat of shrimp, flamingos, deers and wild shee

JERUSALEM: Israel’s foreign ministry issued a protest to Jordan on Sunday after a minister was pictured stepping on an image of the Israeli flag while entering a meeting. Jordanian minister of state for information Jumana Ghneimat was pictured last week stepping on the flag design when entering a meeting at a trade union complex. The image of the flag has been affixed to the floor just inside the entrance to the complex for several years to protest Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories and normalised ties between the Jewish state and Amman, according to union officials. Israel called Jordan’s ambassador in for clarifications on Sunday, the foreign ministry said. “The foreign affairs ministry considers the incident in which a Jordanian minister insulted the Israeli flag in Amman as serious,” a statement said. Jordanian Prime Minister Omar al-Razzaz was reported to have entered the building through a side door. Jordan and Egypt are the only two Arab countries to have diploma

JERUSALEM: An Israeli woman walking near ancient ruins noticed a head sticking out of the ground, leading to the uncovering of two Roman-era busts, archaeologists said Sunday. The life-size sculptures, carved in limestone, were found in the northern city of Beit Shean earlier this month, with the Israel Antiquities Authority dating them to the late Roman period, some 1,700 years ago. The well-preserved busts are of men, one of them bearded, sculpted in the Oriental style that was becoming fashionable at the end of the Roman period, according to Eitan Klein, deputy head of the IAA’s theft prevention unit. The sculptures emerged north of Beit Shean’s national park, where the ruins of a Roman and Byzantine city lie, probably thanks to the recent rains. "Busts like these were usually placed near or in a burial cave, and they may have represented the image of the deceased along general lines," Klein said. from The News International - World http://bit.ly/2s0XpKw

TEL AVIV: Two right-wing Israeli government ministers on Saturday launched a new party aimed at winning over secular voters ahead of snap elections in April. Education Minister Naftali Bennett and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked said they were quitting the far-right Jewish Home party to found the New Right party. Nationalist Jewish Home -- of which Bennett was the head and Shaked deputy leader -- has been part of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition with eight seats in parliament. The two ministers said at a press conference that their new party aimed to establish equality between religious and non-religious voters "in a real partnership". Jewish Home, founded in 2013, has been stagnating in opinion polls after failing to attract support from secular Israelis. from The News International - World http://bit.ly/2LIfCWd

GAZA CITY: Gaza’s Islamist rulers Hamas on Saturday denied an allegation by Egypt’s deposed president Hosni Mubarak that it infiltrated hundreds of men across the border during the 2011 uprising. Mubarak took to the witness stand in a Cairo court Wednesday to testify about jailbreaks allegedly orchestrated by his successor Mohamed Morsi and members of the Muslim Brotherhood. The former president said he had received information at the time from his intelligence chief on infiltration by militants from the Gaza Strip to the country’s east during the uprising. "General Omar Suleiman informed me on January 29 (2011) that 800 armed militants infiltrated through the border," he said, adding that militants from Hamas, assisted by North Sinai residents, used underground tunnels to cross. But Hamas said in a statement that it "strongly denies the claims made by Egypt’s ousted president Mohammed Hosni Mubarak during his testimony in court". from The News International - Wor

NEW DELHI: A top official at a Indian state-run university urged his students to “murder” fellow students if confronted instead of complaining to him, amid a wave of violence being reported from across the state where the school is based. “If you’re a student of this University, never come crying to me,” said Raja Ram Yadav, vice-chancellor of Purvanchal University, in a speech, video from Reuters partner ANI showed. Adding: “If you ever get into a fight, beat them, if possible murder them, we’ll take care of it later.” Yadav was speaking at a college event in Ghazipur in Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state. In the same city a police officer was stoned to death during violent protests, though there is no indication of a link with Yadav’s remarks. Uttar Pradesh is notorious for communal tensions and crime, and has been plagued by incidents of mob violence in recent weeks. from The News International - World http://bit.ly/2LFcmeo

BAGHDAD: Iraq’s newly appointed education minister has said she tendered her resignation over online accusations her brother was a member of the jihadist Islamic State group. Shaima al-Hayali announced her decision in a tweet on Saturday, two weeks after parliament approved her nomination, saying she had handed her resignation to Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi."I announce that I have submitted my resignation to the prime minister... and it is up to him to decide whether he will accept it once he has ascertained any link between me and terrorists," she said in the tweet. Her decision comes days after MPs and local officials from Mosul made accusations online that her brother, Layth al-Hayali, was an IS member. The accusations were accompanied by two videos dating back to 2016 showing Layth in IS propaganda videos, at a time when he worked for a local administration in IS-held Nineveh province, where Mosul is located.In these videos, the man, whose whereabouts are currently un

N’DJAMENA: More than 30 people have died in northern Chad after Arab fighters, crossing from neighbouring Libya, attacked miners in a region in the grip of a gold rush, rights activists said Sunday.The clashes broke out on Thursday in the Kouri Bougoudi area of the Tibesti border region, the Chadian Convention for the Defence of Human Rights (CTDDH) said in a statement. At least 30 gold miners were killed and more than 200 wounded, it said.Abdul Aziz Youssouf Mustapha, a Chadian with the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH), said the fighters attacked all “non-Arabs” who had come to Kouri Bougoudi in search of gold. All miners were forced off the gold-mining area on Saturday, he said. A military source confirmed that there had been fighting but did not give further details. Many of the miners hailed from the Ouaddai region in central-eastern Chad. Sources among the Ouaddai community also confirmed there had been clashes in Kouri Bougoudi. Kouri Bougoudi has been a theatre of

LOS ANGELES: A malware attack that appears to have originated outside the US delayed the hardcopy distribution of several major newspapers, according to a report.The LA Times said Saturday that the attack, which was first assumed to have been a server outage, hit a computer network at Tribune Publishing which is connected to the production and printing process of multiple newspapers around the country. As a result, the delivery of the Saturday editions of the LA Times and San Diego Union Tribune were delayed. It also hit the distribution of the West Coast editions of the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, which are printed at the LA Times’ printing plant. The report said it could not provide firm numbers on how many subscribers were impacted but a majority of LA Times customers received their papers Saturday morning, albeit several hours late. "We believe the intention of the attack was to disable infrastructure, more specifically servers, as opposed to looking to steal infor

DHAKA: Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has secured a fourth term with a landslide victory in polls the opposition slammed as "farcical" over claims of vote-rigging, and clashes between rival supporters that killed at least 17 people.Hasina’s ruling Awami League party and its allies won 288 seats in the 300-seat parliament, with the main opposition securing only six seats, Election Commission secretary Helal Uddin Ahmed said.Hasina’s government had mounted a crackdown on the opposition, an alliance led by the Bangladesh National Party, which urged the country’s election commission to void the results."We are demanding that a fresh election is held under a neutral government as early as possible," Kamal Hossain, who heads the alliance, told reporters.Deadly violence and bitter rivalry that marred the election campaign spilled over into voting day, even as authorities imposed tight security with 600,000 troops, police and other security forces deployed across t

What kind of day will you have today? Read our horoscope...Your daily Horoscope for Sunday, December 30, 2018ARIES(March 21-April 19)Discussions about how to secure your future in practical ways will appeal to  you today. You want to make things as perfect as they possibly can be.(And perhaps you can.)TAURUS(April 20-May 20)This is a good day to solve problems, because you have vision and imagination, and yet you won’t overlook details. In fact, you’re surprisingly practical.GEMINI(May 21-June 20)Your ideas to make more money might sound a bit pie-in-the-sky to others. Nevertheless, pursue them, because your imagination is grounded in reality. You might just pull this off!CANCER(June 21-July 22) Discuss future educational plans for yourself or for your children. Something can be done here. Likewise, creative ideas about publishing, especially for children, will be worthwhile.LEO(July 23-Aug. 22) Quiet research, perhaps at home, can yield surprising results about how to deal with shared

WASHINGTON: Patrick Shanahan, who on Tuesday becomes the acting US secretary of defense, takes the helm of America´s massive military machine at a critical time.Shanahan is moving up from his position as deputy defense secretary to the top spot following the resignation of Jim Mattis, who quit over long-running -- and ultimately irreconcilable -- disagreements with President Donald Trump.Little known outside business and Washington circles, Shanahan will be thrust onto the world stage at a time of tumultuous changes and unpredictable foreign policy moves under Trump.The president this month ordered the withdrawal of all US forces from Syria and, according to US officials, a 50 percent draw down in Afghanistan -- momentous decisions that have left lawmakers and international allies fearing for what comes next.Shanahan must now oversee the US withdrawal from Syria and play a key role in helping Trump decide the pace of the pull out.Another consideration he must weigh is what, if any, pro

WASHINGTON: Outgoing White House chief John Kelly said in an interview published Sunday that he had "nothing but compassion" for undocumented migrants crossing into the US, and undercut President Donald Trump´s claims to be building a "wall" at the Mexico border.As a partial government shutdown entered a ninth day due to an impasse over Trump´s demands for funding the US-Mexico border barrier, the president´s chief of staff told the Los Angeles Times: "To be honest, it´s not a wall.""The president still says ´wall.´ Oftentimes frankly he´ll say ´barrier´ or ´fencing,´ now he´s tended toward steel slats," Kelly said."But we left a solid concrete wall early on in the administration, when we asked people what they needed and where they needed it," he added.Building a solid "wall" along the 2,000-mile (3,200-kilometer) US-Mexico frontier was a central plank of Trump´s 2016 election campaign, and he has tweeted about it almost 100

TEHRAN: Iran´s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei appointed the head of the judiciary, Sadegh Amoli Larijani, as chairman of the powerful Expediency Council on Sunday, according to his website.The Expediency Council is a key behind-the-scenes institution, settling disputes between different branches of government.It was led for many years by one of the Islamic republic´s founding figures, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, until his death in early 2017.Larijani, 58, was personally sanctioned by the United States in January 2018 for "human rights abuses" and "supporting Iranian weapons programs", according to the US Treasury.He was also appointed to the 12-man Guardian Council -- a post he previously held -- that vets legislation and election candidates, according to a statement on Khamenei´s website.A new judiciary chief was expected to be named shortly.Larijani takes over the Expediency and Guardian council posts from Ayatollah Hashemi Shahroudi, who died last week.He is

Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin has reassured his US counterpart Donald Trump that Moscow remains "open to dialogue" despite the year ending without the hoped-for warming of relations, the Kremlin said on Sunday."Russian-US relations remain an important factor in order to guarantee strategic stability and international security," the presidency said in a New Year statement.Putin "has confirmed that Russia is open to dialogue with the United States on the maximum number of subjects," the statement added.In December 2017, Putin said he hoped to "normalise" relations with Donald Trump but the chances of that evaporated with multiple investigations of Moscow´s alleged meddling in US politics.Washington this year dramatically announced its intention to pull out of a key Cold War-era nuclear weapons deal -- the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty -- to which Putin responded that Moscow would develop new missiles.Putin also sent messages t

ISLAMABAD: A top official at a Indian state-run university urged his students to “murder” fellow students if confronted instead of complaining to him, amid a wave of violence being reported from across the state where the school is based.“If you’re a student of this University, never come crying to me,” said Raja Ram Yadav, vice-chancellor of Purvanchal University, in a speech, video from Reuters partner ANI showed, a private TV channel, reported on Sunday.Adding: “If you ever get into a fight, beat them, if possible murder them, we’ll take care of it later.”Yadav was speaking on Friday at a college event in Ghazipur in Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state.In the same city a police officer was stoned to death during violent protests on Saturday, though there is no indication of a link with Yadav’s remarks.Uttar Pradesh is notorious for communal tensions and crime, and has been plagued by incidents of mob violence in recent weeks.A senior police officer and another man were killed

Kabul: Afghanistan´s presidential election will be delayed until July 20, an official said Sunday, three months later than the ballot had been scheduled to be held.The announcement by the Independent Election Commission (IEC) comes after weeks of speculation that the vote would be postponed to create space for US-led efforts to end the 17-year war with the Taliban.Provincial and district council elections, as well as a previously postponed parliamentary vote in Ghazni province, will be held on the same day, IEC chief Abdul Badi Sayyad told reporters.The presidential ballot was originally scheduled for April 20, which many observers had considered unrealistic given the IEC was still finalising results of October´s shambolic parliamentary elections.A spokesman for President Ashraf Ghani, who plans to seek re-election, welcomed the new timeline. from The News International - World http://bit.ly/2LE0yJt