Tunis, Tunisia – AFP More than 100 members of Tunisia’s suspended parliament defied President Kais Saied on Wednesday, holding an online session in which they voted to roll back his July power grab. Saied — elected in 2019 on public anger against the political class — on July 25 last year sacked the government, froze [&...
KARACHI, Pakistan (AA) – Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday faced another blow when a key allied party quit the ruling alliance ahead of a no-confidence motion submitted by the opposition against him. The ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and allies had 179 seats in the 342-member National Assembly. But the Muttahida Qaumi M...
NEW DELHI (AA) – Three Kashmiri students who were detained on charges of celebrating Pakistan’s victory against India in a cricket match last year have been granted bail. A court in India’s northern state of Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday announced the verdict. The students, Arhseed Yusuf, Showkat Ahmed Ganai and Inayat Altaf Sheikh, w...
WASHINGTON (AA) – The US sanctioned an Iranian national and his network of companies Wednesday on charges of aiding Iran’s ballistic missile program. Mohammad Ali Hosseini used his network to procure items for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Research and Self Sufficiency Jihad Organization, which is responsible for T...
RAMALLAH, Palestine (AA) – Israeli army forces early Wednesday detained 23 Palestinians, including a woman, in raids in the occupied West Bank, according to a Palestinian NGO. The detention campaign targeted the cities of Qalqilya, Jenin, Nablus, Ramallah and Bethlehem, the Asra Media Office said in a statement. In a related development,...
GENEVA – As the Rohingya refugee response in Bangladesh is approaching its fifth year, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) has called for international support for the refugees escaping genocide in Myanmar and for their Bangladeshi hosts. The 2022 Joint Response Plan for the Rohingya Humanitarian Crisis was launched on March 29, and humanitari...
KHARTOUM, Sudan (AA) – Sudanese protesters on Tuesday blocked main roads in the capital Khartoum, demanding full civilian rule. “Khartoum witnessed an almost complete closure of roads with cement barriers, tree trunks, and burning tires,” an eyewitness told Anadolu Agency. Sudanese authorities deployed extra forces in the capital i...
ISTANBUL (AA) – Senior officials from Afghanistan, Indonesia, and Qatar met in Doha at the weekend for talks on the situation in Afghanistan, an Afghan official said on Monday. The three-way meeting of acting Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi, and Lolwah Al-Khater, deputy foreign ministe...
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AA) – Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday nominated the head of his allied party as the new chief minister of key Punjab province, in an attempt to bag five crucial votes against the opposition’s no-trust motion which could de-seat him. Information Minister Farrukh Habib confirmed that Usman Buzdar, the ch...
PARIS (AA) – France held talks Sunday with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates on diversifying Europe’s energy supplies in order to reduce the continent’s dependence on Russia. Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian in a phone call with his Saudi and UAE counterparts Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud and Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan str...