WASHINGTON: The US military has met its goal of reducing the number of troops in Afghanistan to about 2,500 by Friday, a drawdown that appears to violate a last-minute congressional prohibition. President Donald Trump, who ordered the reduction in November, said Thursday that troop levels in Afghanistan had reached a 19-year low, although he did […]
BEIJING: Thirteen international experts of the WHO arrived in Wuhan on Thursday for the long-awaited probe into the origins of the deadly coronavirus pandemic, while two others did not board the flight from Singapore to the central Chinese city after they tested positive for Covid19 antibodies. “The international team of 13 scientists examining the origins […]
KABUL: National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, who arrived here on a two-day unannounced visit, on Wednesday met the top Afghan leadership and discussed issues of strategic mutual interest as well as on synchronising efforts to combat terrorism and build the peace process. Doval, who is leading a high-level delegation, called on Afghan President Ashraf Ghani […]
JAKARTA: Indonesian divers on Sunday located parts of the wreckage of a Boeing 737-500 at a depth of 23 meters (75 feet) in the Java Sea, a day after the aircraft with 62 people onboard crashed shortly after takeoff from Jakarta. “We received reports from the diver team that the visibility in the water is […]
WASHINGTON: Outgoing US President Donald Trump has slammed Twitter for permanently suspending him, vowing that he and his support base would not be silenced. The unprecedented move by the California-based microblogging site on Friday comes after Trump tweeted that he would not attend the inauguration of his successor Joe Biden on January 20. “After close […]
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s King Salman on Thursday received a Covid-19 vaccine jab, more than three weeks after the kingdom kicked off a threephase inoculation programme, official media said. King Salman, 85, “received the first dose of the coronavirus vaccine,” in the futuristic Red Sea city of Neom, the Saudi Press Agency said. Official media published […]
WASHINGTON: US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said the House would move ahead with the process to impeach President Donald Trump for encouraging a mob that stormed the Capitol if he did not resign “immediately”. Trump, who lost the November 3 elections, would be succeeded by Joe Biden on January 20 as mandated […]
TEHRAN: Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Friday banned Iran from importing of American Pfizer-BioNTech and Britain’s Astrazeneca Covid-19 vaccines, a reflection of mistrust toward the West. In a televised speech, he said the import of American and British vaccines were “forbidden,” referring to the surging death tolls from the virus in both countries. ”I really […]
SYDNEY: The storming of the US Congress left America’s image as a beacon of democracy severely tarnished Thursday, with allies unable to hide their shock and authoritarian regimes gleefully exploiting the unrest. In normal times, a state-backed gang rampaging through a legislature to demand a lost election be nullified would have US diplomats marching to […]
WASHINGTON: Thousands of supporters of Donald Trump have converged here to attend a massive rally to be addressed by the US president on Wednesday in protest against what he alleges to be a rigged presidential election. “Washington is being inundated with people who don’t want to see an election victory stolen by emboldened Radical Left […]