Category: World

Nepal has banned popular Chinese digital payment apps WeChat Pay and AliPay saying payments from the unregistered systems were illegal and resulting in a loss of income to the Himalayan nation, a spokesman for the central bank said on Wednesday. Laxmi Prapanna Niroula, a spokesman for the Nepal Rastra Bank, said the two digital payment […]

Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday dismissed “fake” Indian exit polls predicting a clear election victory for his opponent, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a day before the scheduled release of results. A slew of exit polls released after the world’s largest election ended on Sunday projected that Modi and his allies would return to power with between […]

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Wednesday called for collective efforts by Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) member states to meet present day challenges and achieve sustainable development, Radio Pakistan reported. The foreign minister, while addressing a two-day SCO Council of Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, described the SCO as an important platform for the creation of […]

WASHINGTON: Global sea levels could rise by two metres or 6.5 feet and displace tens of millions of people by the end of the century, according to new projections that double the UN’s benchmark estimates. The vast ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica contain enough frozen water to lift the world’s oceans dozens of metres. The expansion […]

ISLAMABAD: Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif is expected to visit Islamabad later this week for consultations with the Pakistani leadership, a senior diplomatic source said on Tuesday. The visit will take place amidst Iran’s escalating tensions with the United States. The source said FM Zarif would meet civilian and military leaders during his daylong […]

JAKARTA: Heavily armed Indonesian troops were on high alert on Tuesday amid fears of civil unrest in the capital Jakarta, as the surprise early announcement of official election results handed Joko Widodo another term as leader of the world’s third-biggest democracy. The election commission had been due to give the divisive poll’s final tally on […]

The man accused of shooting dead 51 Muslim worshippers in the Christchurch mosque attacks was formally charged with terrorism for the first time on Tuesday, New Zealand police said. In addition to the terror charge, Brenton Tarrant also faces 51 charges of murder and 40 of attempted murder over the March 15 attacks that rocked the South Pacific nation. […]

India’s main opposition Congress party has told its workers not to lose heart and to remain vigilant at vote-count centres after exit polls predicted a clear election victory for Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The counting of votes cast in the seven-phase general election will take place on Thursday, with the result expected later that day. […]

Eleven people, including a lawmaker and four of his family, were killed in an ambush by tribal separatists in the eastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, a senior police official said on Tuesday. Heavily armed militants fired automatic weapons at the five-vehicle convoy of Tirong Aboh, a member of the legislative assembly for the state […]

Saudi Arabia has said that Yemen’s Houthi rebels have launched a bomb-laden drone targeting civilian infrastructure in a city along the kingdom’s border to Yemen. A statement early on Tuesday on the state-run Saudi Press Agencyquoted Saudi-led coalition spokesman Col. Turki al-Maliki as saying the Houthis “had tried to target” the site in Najran. The statement […]