News Update

  MELBOURNE: New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Saturday she will announce her new government on Monday after offering the Green Party two ministerial portfolios outside of cabinet as part of a proposed cooperation agreement. Ardern delivered earlier this month the biggest election victory for her centre-left Labour Party in half a century. Although she no longer needs support to govern, coalitions are the norm in New Zealand as parties look to build consensus. Under the agreement offered to the Green Party - one of Ardern government’s coalition partners prior to the election - the two portfolios would be held by the Green Party’s co-leaders. James Shaw would be minister for climate change and would be associate environment minister, while Marama Davidson would become the minister for the prevention of family and sexual violence. “On election night I said I wanted to govern for all New Zealanders and to reach as wide consensus on key issues as possible,” Ardern said at a

  MANILA: Philippine officials on Saturday ordered evacuation of thousands of residents in the southern part of the main Luzon island as a category 5 storm that is the world’s strongest this year approaches the Southeast Asian nation. Typhoon Goni, with 215 kph (133 miles) sustained winds and gusts of up to 265 kph (164 mph), will make landfall on Sunday as the strongest typhoon to hit the Philippines since Haiyan that killed more than 6,300 people in November 2013. Pre-emptive evacuations have started in coastal and landslide-prone communities in the provinces of Camarines Norte and Camarines Sur, while Albay provincial government would order residents in risky areas to leave their homes, Gremil Naz, a local disaster official, told DZBB radio station. “The strength of this typhoon is no joke.” Typhoon Molave last week killed 22 people, mostly through drowning in provinces south of the capital Manila, which is also in the projected path of Goni, the 18th tropical storm in the country.

  BARCELONA: A Moroccan man was arrested in Barcelona for praising the beheading of a French schoolteacher outside Paris this month and "inciting" more attacks, police said on Saturday. The man, who was not named and who was detained on Friday, posted messages on social media in support of the Oct. 16 murder of Samuel Paty, Catalan regional police said. Paty was killed outside his school in a Paris suburb by an 18-year-old Chechen who was apparently incensed by the teacher showing a blasphemous caricature of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) in class. Police shot the attacker dead. “Police officers from the Mossos d’Esquadra have arrested a man of Moroccan nationality, for an alleged crime of exaltation of terrorism and a crime of incitement to commit terrorist crimes,” Catalan police tweeted. The suspect appeared before a court in Barcelona on Saturday and was released on condition he surrender his passport and appear before magistrates every 14 days, police said. An attacker kill

  WASHINGTON: The Trump administration is deporting migrant children to Mexico even if they are not originally from the country and have no family there, according to a report on Friday. The actions are in violation of an agreement the US brokered with Mexico under which the Trump administration is supposed to return minors detained by immigration authorities to their home countries. The expulsions of children from countries including El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras have put them at risk, according to the New York Times, which reported on the matter based on an internal email from a senior Border Patrol official. Over 200 deportations have taken place over the past eight months. They have taken place under a border closure policy the US has instituted under the rationale of fighting the spread of the novel coronavirus. Most of the children who were already deported "appear to have been put, at least at first, into the care of Mexican child welfare authorities, who oversee shel

  Chief Minister of India’s Uttar Pradesh state, Yogi Adityanath has issued a veiled threat against inter-faith marriages, saying his government will go to any extent to curb the “love jihad”— a term radical Hindu groups use to accuse Muslim men of converting Hindu women by marriage. Commenting on a local court order, Adityanath belonging to right-wing ruling BJP party said: "Allahabad High Court has said religious conversion isn't necessary for marriage. The government will work to curb ‘love jihad’. We will make a law”. “I also warn those who conceal their identity and play with our sisters' respect," he said while addressing an election rally,  NDTV  reported. Adityanath, whose administration has been criticised for a spate of horrific crimes against women – including two separate instances of alleged rape against Dalit women in September – allowed to initiate a 'Ram naam satya' (the chant associated with Hindu funerals) campaign to protect the sanctity of

  MAKKAH: Saudi authorities arrested a man late on Friday for crashing his car into the outer-perimeter gate of the Grand Mosque in Makkah in an incident that did not cause any casualties,  local media  reported. Security officials present responded to the incident after the vehicle rammed into one of the entrance gates of the mosque, the spokesperson for the Makkah region governorate said. According to the  Saudi Press Agency  (SPA), the car swerved while moving at a high speed on one of the roads surrounding the southern courtyard of the Grand Mosque. The driver - a Saudi national - was found in an unnatural state and was immediately detained and will be referred to the public prosecution, SPA added. Videos posted on social media showed the car plowing through plastic barricades in the outer courtyard of the mosque before driving straight into one of the large outer doors.

  DUBAI: Weddings, wakes and conferences will be banned in the Iranian capital until further notice as the Middle East’s hardest-hit nation battles a third wave of Covid-19, police said on Saturday. President Hassan Rouhani meanwhile announced new restrictions that will take effect on Wednesday in 25 of Iran’s 31 provinces for 10 days. The official IRNA news agency said Tehran police had extended by one week the closure of businesses including beauty salons, teahouses, cinemas, libraries and fitness clubs. Police will make unannounced visits to other high-risk businesses, and those that violate health protocols will be shut down, IRNA quoted police official Nader Moradi as saying. Deputy Health Minister Alireza Raisi said in a televised press briefing that the new restrictions from next week in the 25 provinces and 89 counties will include include the closure of institutions such as schools, universities, libraries and mosques. Rouhani said in televised remarks that strict health proto

  WASHINGTON: With the coronavirus roaring back across the United States, President Donald Trump is spending the closing days of his re-election campaign criticizing public officials and medical professionals who are trying to beat it back. Campaigning across the Midwest on Friday, Trump delivered a closing message that promised an economic revival and a vaccine to combat a pandemic that is pushing hospitals to capacity and killing up to 1,000 Americans each day. But that slice of optimism was delivered with great heapings of grievance - directed at Democratic rival Joe Biden and plenty of other people who aren’t on Tuesday’s ballot. Trump falsely said doctors earn more money when their patients die of the disease, building on his past criticism of medical experts like Dr. Anthony Fauci, his top infectious-disease expert. He told reporters he was not concerned that supporters who flock to his events might contract the virus, even though he, his family and many White House staffers have

  WASHINGTON: Kamala Harris will make history if she becomes the next vice president of the United States in the election on Tuesday, and she will immediately be in a strong position to run for the top job four years from now. If Joe Biden and his running mate Harris win the election, she would be the first woman, the first Black American and the first Asian American to hold the country’s second highest office. Given his age, the 77-year-old Biden is not expected to seek a second term so Harris, 56, would be an obvious candidate for the Democratic nomination in 2024. A US senator from California, Harris has a track record of shattering glass ceilings. She served as San Francisco’s first female district attorney and was California’s first woman of color to be elected attorney general. Her background in criminal justice could help a Biden administration tackle the issues of racial equality and policing after the country was swept by protests this year. Harris, whose mother and father emi

  Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau defended free speech on Friday, but added that it was “not without limits” and should not “arbitrarily and needlessly hurt” certain communities. “We will always defend freedom of expression,” Trudeau said in response to a question about the right to show caricatures deemed blasphemous, as France's Charlie Hebdo magazine did. “But freedom of expression is not without limits,” he added. “We owe it to ourselves to act with respect for others and to seek not to arbitrarily or unnecessarily injure those with whom we are sharing a society and a planet.” “We do not have the right for example to shout fire in a movie theatre crowded with people, there are always limits,” he argued. Distancing himself from the position of French President Emmanuel Macron, Trudeau pleaded for a careful use of free speech. “In a pluralist, diverse and respectful society like ours, we owe it to ourselves to be aware of the impact of our words, of our actions on others,

  IZMIR: A mother and three of her children were pulled to safety on Saturday after being trapped for almost 18 hours under a building in the western Turkish city of Izmir that was flattened in a powerful earthquake. Rescuers were continuing efforts to free the woman’s fourth child, as the Aegean port city’s major said around 180 people remained trapped. “In the meantime, we are delighted to be hearing miracles happening as a result of diligent work by rescue teams,” Mayor Tunc Soyer told television channel  Fox TV . Friday’s quake killed 26 people in Turkey and two on the Greek island of Samos, officials said. It destroyed at least 20 buildings in Izmir, causing panic in the city and setting off tidal waves that slammed into coastal areas and islands. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, speaking in a televised address, said 885 people were injured, 15 of them critically. In Izmir, the rescue work was punctuated by frequent aftershocks, of which Turkey’s disaster agency recorded around 5

  NEW DELHI: India has complained to Saudi Arabia over a banknote that shows Occupied Kashmir as a separate country, in the latest protest over maps of the disputed region that have also targeted foreign media outlets and a social media giant. The foreign ministry in New Delhi said it expressed "serious concern" over a new 20 Riyal note issued to mark Saudi Arabia's presidency of the powerful G-20 bloc of countries, which includes India. The world map on the note's background shows it as a separate country, including the part of the territory under illegal Indian rule. The Himalayan region has been fighting the Indian rule for more than 70 years and has seen decades of unrest that has claimed tens of thousands of lives. The ministry said Thursday it had asked Saudi authorities to take "corrective steps". Saudi authorities have yet to publicly respond. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is still expected to address a virtual G-20 summit in November. India has becom

PARIS: A Greek Orthodox priest was shot and injured on Saturday at a church in the centre of the French city of Lyon by an assailant who then fled, a police source and witnesses said. The priest was fired on twice at around 4pm (1400 GMT) as he was closing the church, and he was being treated on site for life-threatening injuries, the source said. Witnesses said the church was Greek Orthodox. Police immediately cordoned off the area. The incident came two days after a man beheaded a woman and killed two other people in a church in Nice. Two weeks ago a schoolteacher in a Paris suburb was beheaded by an 18-year-old attacker who was apparently incensed by the teacher showing a blasphemous caricature of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) during a class. Government ministers had warned that other militant attacks could take place. President Emmanuel Macron has deployed thousands of soldiers to protect sites such as places of worship and schools. Many Muslims around the world have been angered abo

  SRINAGAR: Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) was hit Saturday by its biggest general strike since losing its semi-autonomous status last year, with local anger brewing over a new measure allowing outsiders to buy land in the disputed territory. The Himalayan region has been fighting the Indian rule for more than 70 years and has seen decades of unrest that has claimed tens of thousands of lives. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist government changed the constitution to bring the territory under direct federal rule last year, sparking protests and a months-long internet blackout. Shops and businesses stayed shut on Saturday and most residents kept at home after a shutdown was called by a coalition of political and religious groups that want self-determination for the region. Extra Indian security forces patrolled the nearly empty streets. This week New Delhi announced the abolition of laws that meant only the 12 million permanent Occupied Kashmir resi

  Pakistani makeup artist Shoaib Khan came into the limelight with his take on Madam Noor Jahan's iconic look. The makeup mogul, since then, has presented many renditions of famous celebrities, such as Rani Jee and Deepika Padukone. Khan's latest muse was none other than the Dirilis: Ertugrul famed Esra Bilgic. He took inspiration from her most popular role as Halime Sultan in the aforementioned historic drama.  "A woman so strong who can be gentle, so simple who can be beautiful, so high in a character who can be humble, so fierce, she can be compassionate, so passionate who can be rational and so disciplined yet so free," he quoted, adding, "Such is an inspiring character of Halima Sultan whom I paying this tribute today!" The makeup artist is famous for his epic transformations of celebrities. He recently had fans doing a double take as the queen of melody, the late Malika-e-Tarannum or Noor Jehan. Khan has also taken on makeovers such as Angelina Jolie&#

  The rupee strengthened against the dollar at Rs160.91 in the inter-bank market on Tuesday compared with Monday’s close of Rs161.05, according to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP). Earlier, the SBP let the rupee depreciate massively in the inter-bank market after finalisation of an agreement with the IMF for a loan programme on May 12, 2019. The IMF has asked Pakistan to end state control of the rupee and let the currency move freely to find its equilibrium against the US dollar and other major world currencies. Also, the World Bank, which finances some of the infrastructure and social safety net projects in Pakistan, has supported the idea of leaving the rupee free from state control in a bid to give much-needed boost to exports and fix a faltering economy.

  BENGHAZI/ TRIPOLI, LIBYA: Libya’s warring armies have agreed a ceasefire and, years after being forced to flee for their lives, the Bouzids and the Alis are finally back at home. Like many on opposite sides of the front lines, the two families have lost loved ones and seen their livelihoods and dreams destroyed by nearly a decade of conflict. But while daunting obstacles still stand in the way of a lasting political settlement, the Bouzids are slowly repairing their own small corner of the country, the ransacked south Tripoli farm they returned to after fighting in the area ended in June. “Dad, Mum and I would sit in the middle of the day and drink tea and enjoy the view of our crops. But then the war came and we fled,” said Mohammed Bouzid, 45. “After we returned, there was nothing left.” To the east in Benghazi, the Alis had to leave their Misrata Street neighbourhood when fighting engulfed Libya’s second biggest city in 2014. They returned in 2018, so desperate to get home that th