06-03-2021 GENEVA/ BEIJING: The international investigation into the COVID-19 pandemic’s origins in China will publish its report in the week of March 15, the World Health Organization’s chief has said. The report was originally due to be published in two stages: an initial summary in February, followed by the full …

06-03-2021 Bureau Report NEW DELHI: Demanding dowry “is forbidden in Islam”, an Indian Muslim leader said Friday, days after a young woman in the Gujarat state’s largest city, Ahmedabad, died of suicide over her husband’s pressure to bring dowry and violence she faced at his hands. Asaduddin Owaisi, one of the two …

05-03-2021 TEHRAN: Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has said authorities foiled a hijacking attempt on a passenger plane in a flight on Thursday night, without giving further details. The purported hijacking targeted an Iran Air Fokker 100 regional commercial jet heading from the southwestern city of Ahvaz to …

05-03-2021 BAGHDAD: Pope Francis began a historic visit to Iraq on Friday, the first by a pontiff to the birthplace of the Eastern Churches from where more than a million Christians have fled over the past 20 years. An Alitalia plane carrying the pontiff and his entourage, including about 75 journalists, arrived …

05-03-2021 ZURICH: “Stop Extremism!” urges a red billboard in a quiet village outside Zurich above an image of a scowling woman wearing a black headscarf and face veil. The billboard is part of a campaign by the far-right Swiss People’s Party (SVP) to ban face coverings in public and which …

A BJP Central Election Committee meeting is underway in New Delhi to finalise the party’s first list of candidates for five assembly polls. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP President J P Nadda and other senior party leaders including Union Ministers Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh are attending the meeting at …

04-03-2021 By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report + Agencies KABUL/ JALALABAD/ ISLAMABAD: Afghanistan remained in shock and outrage erupted Wednesday after funerals were held for the three Shia women journalists assassinated a day earlier here in the country’s eastern city, with international rights and journalist bodies called for a probe …

04-03-2021 DJIBOUTI/DUBAI/ SANA’A: The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has said that at least 20 migrants and refugees are dead after smugglers threw 80 people overboard during a voyage from Djibouti in East Africa to Yemen. A statement says “smugglers started shouting there were too many on board” after the …

03-03-2021 By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report PERTH/ CANBERRA/ MELBOURNE: Australia’s Attorney General Christian Porter has identified himself as the cabinet minister at the centre of a rape accusation, an allegation he strongly denies. A letter sent to Prime Minister Scott Morrison last week alleged Porter had raped a 16-year-old …

03-03-2021 BAGHDAD/ WASHINGTON: At least 10 rockets have landed at Ain al-Asad airbase in the western Iraqi province of Anbar, according to the Iraqi military and the US-led coalition forces. The rockets struck the airbase, which hosts US, coalition and Iraqi forces, at 7:20am local time (04:20 GMT), Colonel Wayne …