Category: international

The US State Department on Monday noted "targeted attacks" on minorities, "home demolitions" and hate speeches against Muslims in India among threats facing religious freedom around the world.

India's ministerial and diplomatic staff will be mobilised to secure the return of potentially thousands of artefacts taken to Britain during the days of empire, in what one source described as a "reckoning with the past", Telegraph UK reported.

A city council in Australia has cancelled a Khalistan propaganda referendum event in Sydney following numerous complaints about threats posed by the event, a media report said on Friday.

Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan expressed grievances about his arrest on Thursday, claiming that he was abducted from the Islamabad High Court and beaten with sticks, which is not an acceptable treatment for even a criminal, media reports said.

The apex court had ordered to produce Khan in the court within an hour, as it started hearing the former Prime Minister's petition challenging his arrest in the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) case. A three-member bench took up the plea.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has urged visiting European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to launch talks on the war-torn nation's membership in the European Union (EU).

Following the arrest of former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan from the premises of the Islamabad High Court (IHC), government sources have confirmed that the countrys army has nothing to do with the development.

In a legal setback, former US President Donald Trump has been ordered to pay $5 million in damages to a woman who accused him of rape but he does not face prison time because it was a civil case.

A day after the arrest of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan, former Governor of Punjab province Omar Sarfaraz Cheema was taken into custody on Wednesday during a raid at his house by the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE).

Supporters of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) headed to the army installations in many parts of the country on Tuesday as the law and order situation continued to deteriorate following the arrest of Imran Khan, media reports said.

Based on orders by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan was arrested by the Pakistan Rangers from outside the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday.

Thatikonda, along with another victim of the shooting at a shopping mall in Allen, Texas on Saturday, was identified by authorities on Monday. Besides them, six more people were killed in the incident.

A UN Security Council (UNSC) that denies permanent membership to the world's largest democracy cannot be considered inclusive and the first step to "future-proof" the world organisation would be to reform the Security Council, according to India.

Despite hostilities between the two countries, an Indian national travelled to Pakistan and married a woman in Sukkur, the media reported. Mahendar Kumar, a resident of Mumbai, came to Sukkur along with his family to get married to Sanjugata Kumari, reports Geo News.

"Anand Singh allegedly attempted to entice an individual, who he believed to be a 14-year-old, to meet for sexual purposes, via dating and text apps", Damian Williams, the federal prosecutor for Southern New York, said on Monday.

The US snooping on India's National Security Adviser Ajit Doval has been revealed in the leak of a Washington document on talks between him and Russia's Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev.

Pressing its case for reforming the UN Security Council, India has said that either the veto rights should be abolished or be given also to new permanent members in a reformed Council.

Spurred by tensions along its borders, India's defence spending rose by nearly six per cent to $81.4 billion last year, ranking it fourth in military expenditures, according to an analysis by SIPRI, the premier think-tank tracking military spending.

Two secretive groups, Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) and Ansarul Islam, presently dominate Bangladesh's jihadist landscape, a top Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) official confirmed who declined to be identified for security reasons.

Perpetuating a UN Security Council built on an "anachronistic mindset" will also mean the continuing loss of faith in the world organisation, India has said as resounding calls from all sides for reform echoed in its chamber.

At least 10 people, including eight policemen, were killed and more than 20 others were injured in a "suspected suicide attack" at a Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) police station in Pakistan's Swat on Monday, reports said.

People should be self-evacuating immediately from all places near the coast where the earthquake was felt "for longer than a minute or was strong enough that it was hard to stand," New Zealand's National Emergency Management Agency said in a statement.

The US and UK announced on Sunday they had flown diplomats out of the country, while France, Germany, Italy and Spain have said that they are also organising evacuations, according to a BBC report.

The report revealed that, besides Imran Khan, Pakistan Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif and Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah may also be targeted by hostile elements to sabotage peace in the country, Express News reported.

Denying accusations of "bullying" civil servants, Indian-origin COP26 president and UK's former Business Secretary Alok Sharma said he was never made aware of any informal complaints or otherwise from the staff, media reports said.