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20-05-2020 JERUSALEM: An Israeli court has ordered Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to appear for the opening of his criminal trial in Jerusalem on Sunday, shortly after his lawyer sought an exemption. Netanyahu had asked Jerusalem District Court to be excused from his May 24 arraignment, deeming the event a formality …

19-05-2020 DAMASCUS/ SANA’A/ NEW YORK: The United Nations Syria mediator has urged the United States and Russia to make the most of “some calm” in the war-torn country and talk to each other about a push for peace. A crackdown by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on pro-democracy protesters in 2011 …

19-05-2020 WASHINGTON/ BEIJING: President Donald Trump has lashed out again at the UN’s health body by labelling it a “puppet of China”. The comment came hours after the US said the World Health Organization (WHO) had let Covid-19 spin “out of control” at the cost of “many lives”. “There was …

18-05-2020 TEHRAN: While countrywide demonstrations marking the International Quds (Jerusalem) Day have been cancelled in Iran due to the coronavirus outbreak, a series of exceptional plans has been formulated to mark the event, an official said. Deputy head of the Islamic Development Organization of Iran’s coordination council announced on Sunday …

17-05-2020 By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report + Agencies KABUL/ ISLAMABAD: Hours after gunmen on Tuesday stormed a maternity clinic in Kabul and killed two dozen people, including women and babies, Feroza Omar rushed to another hospital where about 20 babies who survived the attack had been transferred. When she arrived at Ataturk …

16-05-2020 TEHRAN/ PARIS: Iran has sentenced French-Iranian academic Fariba Adelkhah to six years in prison on national security charges, according to her lawyer. Saeid Dehghan told Reuters News Agency on Saturday he would appeal against the verdict. “The branch 15 of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court has sentenced her to five years …

16-05-2020 By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report ISLAMABAD: A Pakistani pharmaceutical company will start to manufacture coronavirus drug Remdesivir within two months, said Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health Dr Zafar Mirza yesterday. “American company Gilead has manufactured this drug and it has proven effective in treating coronavirus …

14-05-2020 By SJA Jafri + Agencies ISLAMABAD/ UNITED NATIONS:  Past and present world leaders have urged that any eventual COVID-19 vaccines and treatments should be made available to everyone free of charge. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan were among more than 140 signatories of a letter …

14-05-2020 By SJA Jafri + Agencies ISTANBUL/ WASHINGTON/ RIYADH: The fiancee of murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi has urged Newcastle United fans in an open letter to oppose a proposed Saudi takeover of the football club. The call by Hatice Cengiz on Wednesday came as news circulated that an investment …

14-05-2020 By SJA Jafri + Int’l News Desk GENEVA/ LONDON: The coronavirus “may never go away”, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned. Speaking at a briefing on Wednesday, WHO emergencies director Dr Mike Ryan warned against trying to predict when the virus would disappear. He added that even if …