UNITED NATIONS: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres "looks forward to" working with US President-elect Joe Biden, according to the UN chief's spokesman Stephane Dujarric.

ISLAMABAD: Despite the Pakistan government's ban on holding public rallies in the wake of the unabated Covid-19 pandemic, the PDM opposition alliance staged its fifth power show in Multan which called for the ouster of Prime Minister Imran Khan.

WASHINGTON: The subway system in the Washington D.C. region may be forced to end its weekend service in 2021 in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a proposal.

ISLAMABAD:  A Pakistani official has said that the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) provides the country with a platform for increasing engagement with key global and regional partners and forging tighter links with Central Asia.

BRISBANE: Residents and visitors on Australia's Fraser Island on Tuesday were asked to prepare for the worst as an out of control bushfire swept towards a major tourist resort.

WASHINGTON:  US First Lady Melania Trump on Monday unveiled this year's White House decorations for Christmas under the theme "America the Great".

NEW YORK: US President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris have appointed Indian-American Maju Varghese, who steered their campaign, to be the executive director of their inauguration – the swearing-in ceremony and the festivities around it.

LONDON: UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock said that the coronavirus situation is "back under control" as the month-long lockdown in England, the second of its kind since the onset of the pandemic, is due to end on Wednesday.

BEIJING:  China's Chang'e-5 probe is preparing for a soft landing on the moon to undertake the country's first collection of samples from an extraterrestrial body, it was announced on Monday.

NEW YORK: Joe Biden, who is to become US President in January, has picked Indian-American Neera Tanden, a controversial close confidante of the Clintons, to head the powerful White House Office of Management and Budget, according to several media reports.

CANBERRA: A high alert was issued on Monday for the states of New South Wales and Queensland on Australia east coast for potential bushfires due to extreme heatwave that has hit the region.

COLOMBO: Another leopard was found dead in Matale, in the central hills of Sri Lanka over the weekend, raising the total number of reported leopard deaths in the island nation to 12 this year, wildlife officials said on Monday.

ISLAMABAD: At least 13 people were killed and 15 others injured in a passenger van-bus collision in Pakistan's Punjab province on Monday.
The accident took place when the van hit the bus coming from the opposite direction in Sheikhupura district, Xinhua news agency reported.

NEW YORK: US President-elect Joe Biden has named a seven member all-women team to lead the White House communications war room, headed by his campaign communications director Kate Bedingfield. This is the first time in American political history that the senior White House communications team will be entirely female.

OTTAWA: Canada has announced an extension of restrictions on international travel in an effort to prevent the further spread of the novel coronavirus amid an ongoing second wave of the pandeic in the country.

NEW YORK: US President elect Joe Biden has "confirmed hairline fractures" in mid foot and will require a walking boot for several weeks, according to imaging results out Sunday evening from Wilmington Delaware, where the Biden-Harris transition team has pitched tent.

NEW YORK: New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and Schools Chancellor Richard A. Carranza have announced a plan to safely reopen school buildings for in-person classes with more rigorous testing protocols in place.

ISLAMABAD: A Pakistani rights group has said that 52 per cent of cases of alleged forced conversions of women, specicially of underage girls from the religious minority communities, had occurred in Punjab province.

KABUL: At least 30 military personnel were killed and 24 others wounded in a suicide car bombing that took place near a military camp in Afghanistan's Ghazni city on Sunday, officials have confirmed.

LAHORE : Ace Pakistan cricketer Babar Azam has been accused of sexual and physical abuse by a woman.
In a press conference aired by Pakistani channel '24 NewsHD' on YouTube on Saturday, the woman claimed that Babar exploited her for 10 years and also got her pregnant, while making false promises of marriage.

ANKARA:Turkey observed the second weekend as part of a partial curfew imposed across the country in an effort to to curb the increase in the number of coronavirus cases.

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump lashed out at a reporter and called him "lightweight" after the latter questioned the President over the November 3 election outcome which has projected Democrat Joe Biden as the winner.

KABUL:  At least seven people were injured on Saturday in two separate magnetic IED blasts in Kabul, police in the Afghan capital said.

ISLAMABAD: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) announced that it has approved a $300 million policy-based loan targeting macroeconomic stability in Pakistan by improving trade.

KABUL: The Afghan National Army (ANA) has foiled at least 10 possible Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) blasts across the country, the Ministry of Defence said in a statement on Friday.

ISLAMABAD:  Pakistan has joined the Digital Cooperation Organisation (DCO), a Saudi-led initiative, aimed at promoting digital cooperation among member states, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi announced.

ISLAMABAD: At least four people were killed in a shooting at a vehicle in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, officials said.
The incident took place in North Waziristan district on Thursday.

SYDNEY:The Australian Museum in Sydney, which is the oldest one in the country, will reopen on Saturday after a A$57.5 million renovation, with free general admission to the public till June 30, 2021.

KABUL: A police officer was killed on Thursday as blast hit Tirin Kot city, the capital of Uruzgan Province in southern Afghanistan, provincial government spokesman Ahmad Shah Sahel said.

KATHMANDU: Indian Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla has started high-level meetings in Kathmandu immediately after kicking off his two-day Nepal visit on Thursday.

KABUL: Unidentified gunmen intercepted vehicles and abducted 28 travellers in Afghanistan's eastern Wardak province, police spokesman Hajji Mohammad Ofiani said on Thursday.

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced he has pardoned Michael Flynn, his former national security adviser who pleaded guilty to lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

WASHINGTON: The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania in the US on Wednesday ordered an injunction halting the certification of the rest of the ballots in the presidential election, pending a hearing about a case filed by Republicans alleging irregularities in mail-in voting.

KABUL:At least three suspects were arrested on Thursday in connection with the deadly bomb blasts in the city of Bamiyan in central Afghanistan that had killed at least 17 people and wounded over 50 others, police said.