INTERNATIONAL

Multiple blasts at a school in the Afghan capital Kabul on Saturday killed at least 40 people and wounded dozens more, mostly female students, officials said. A senior interior ministry official told Reuters on condition of anonymity that most of the casualties were students coming out of the Sayed ul Shuhada school. Footage on TV channel ToloNews showed chaotic scenes outside the school, with books and school bags strewn across a bloodstained road, and residents rushing to help victims. A spokesman for the interior ministry, Tariq Arian, put the death toll at least 25 but did not specify the cause or the target. Ghulam Dastagir Nazari, spokesman for the health ministry, said 46 people had been taken to hospitals so far. Kabul is on high alert since Washington announced plan...

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Friday called Israel "not a country, but a terrorist base" during a speech on Al-Quds Day, an annual show of solidarity with the Palestinians. Thousands massed for rallies across several Muslim-majority countries including Iraq, Yemen and Pakistan for the day, seen in Israel as an expression of hatred and anti-Semitism. Tensions have been running high between arch-foes Iran and Israel following a series of maritime attacks, an explosion at an Iranian nuclear facility and the assassination of a top nuclear scientist that Tehran blamed on Israel. The Islamic republic does not recognise the Jewish state, and supporting the Palestinian cause, as well as backing armed groups such as Hamas and Lebanon's Hezbollah, has long been a pillar of...

In a clear case of Islamophobia, An arson attack was carried out on a mosque, in France’s southeastern Albertville city, on Monday night, the mosque said in a statement, on social media. According to the statement, the entrance of the mosque, run by the Milli Gorus Islamic Confederation (CIMG), was damaged in the attack although there were no injuries. A person was seen on security cameras setting the door of the mosque on fire, it said, adding that the police were informed and a complaint was filed. The statement said an investigation was launched into the incident and hoped that the perpetrators would be brought to justice. The CIMG has been criticized by the government and politicians for refusing to sign the Charter of Islamic Principles of France on the grounds that it ali...

In violation of the new Ceasefire pact, massive shelling and firing was witnessed along international border in Jammu Kashmir's Samba district on Monday, officials said. Border Security Force officials told news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO) that around 6.00 am, Pakistan Rangers targeted BSF patrolling party on international border in Ramgarh sector of Samba district. BSF officials said they also retaliated in a effectively. Earlier, on February 24 this year, in an unexpected move, India and Pakistan issued a joint statement agreeing to strictly observe ceasefire regulations afresh. The re-commitment to the 2003 ceasefire came at a time when tensions were slowly ebbing at the LAC where India and China had been involved in a stand-off for almost nine months—(KNO)

As India battles with the deadly coronavirus pandemic, a shocking report has come to the fore. As per a report by Reuters, a panel of scientists set up by government, had alarmed the Indian officials in early March about a new and more contagious variant of Coronavirus taking hold in the country. Five scientists who are a part of this forum have confirmed this. Despite warnings, four of the scientists said that the government did not seek to impose major restrictions to stop the spread. Reportedly, the Indian Sars-CoV-2 genetics consortium or Insavog had issued the warning in March. One of the scientists, who happens to be the director of a research center in Northern India and spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that it was conveyed to a top official, who reports directly t...

In the wake of the havoc wreaked by the deadly virus in India, the World Health Organization chief raised his concern on Monday at the alarming rise in Covid cases and deaths. "The situation in India is beyond heartbreaking," he said, adding “WHO is doing everything we can, providing critical equipment and supplies." With 28,13,658 active cases in India, this Monday saw a rise of 3,52,991 new positive cases and about 2,812 deaths on Monday, alone. According to a mathematical model by IIT scientists, the active cases in the second wave may peak at 38-48 lakh between May 14-18 and between May 4-8, the daily new infections could hit a high of 4.4 lakh. WHO Chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that the UN health agency was among other things sending India “thousands of oxygen con...

As India continues to struggle with the deadly second wave of covid-19, the neighbors, Pakistanis urged their Prime Minister, Imran Khan to lend support to India in fighting the deadly pandemic. It has surfaced that since the past couple days, the trends on Pakistani Twitter were based on the lack of oxygen in India required for the treatment of Covid patients. Social media users in Pakistan urged the PM to help India and keep aside the differences. Meanwhile, the Edhi Foundation wrote to the PM Modi offering help in the form of a fleet of fifty ambulances and other services. “We, at the Edhi Foundation, have been closely following the current impact that the Covid-19 crisis has had on the people of India,” Faisal Edhi, the chairperson of the Edhi Foundation said. “We are very sor...

As the covid 19 positive cases on a continuous surge across the globe, Dr Drew Weissman, professor of medicine at University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine has stated, "unless world is vaccinated, variants will grow more infectious." He further added that the pandemic will continue to cause more problem, and variants will be more scarier and scarier, until at least, two third of the world population is vaccinated. Meanwhile, The World Health Organization (WHO), on Friday, said in a detailed report that, around billion doses were given out, and that the covid vaccines remain out of reach in the poorest countries. They further added that vaccine hesitancy among people is a concern that needs to be tackled.

Hundreds of Israeli settlers assaulted Palestinians in different areas across occupied Jerusalem on Thursday night and Friday at dawn, even as Israeli forces also clashed with Palestinians, leaving at least 105 injured. The Israeli police announced in a statement on Friday that it had detained more than 50 Palestinians across Jerusalem through the night, accusing them of “violence.” In Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, dozens of Israeli settlers threw stones at the homes of Palestinians, who in turn sought to push them back. Eyewitnesses reported that the settlers damaged dozens of Palestinian cars on the neighborhood’s El-Moutran street. Another group of settlers attacked Palestinians’ properties in the French Hill neighborhood of occupied Jerusalem. For its part, the Palestinian...

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has listed India and thirteen other countries as Countries of Particular Concern (CPCs). This is the second time in row that India has been on this list. The USCIRF is an independent, bipartisan US government advisory body, that monitors and reports on religious freedom abroad and makes policy recommendations to the President, Secretary of State, and Congress. The report raises concerns over various incidents from the past year, beginning with "the passage of the religiously discriminatory Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA)—a fast track to citizenship for non-Muslim migrants from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan residing in India—led to nationwide protests against the CAA and spurred state and nonstate violence...