INTERNATIONAL

The former prime minister of Pakistan Imran Khan was arrested by Rangers personnel on Tuesday triggering nation wide protests. Khan was arrested in connection with an investigation into the Al-Qadir Trust case. The PTI chief was taken into custody from the premises of Islamabad High Court (IHC), where the former PM was seeking bail in multiple cases registered after he was ousted from power last year. What is Al-Qadir Trust case? Imran Khan along with his wife Bushra Bibi and other PTI leaders are facing an inquiry related to a settlement between the PTI government and a property tycoon, which allegedly caused a loss of 190 million pounds to the national exchequer. According to the accusations, Khan and the other defendants allegedly changed Rs 50 billion (190 million pounds...

As Pakistan is reporting country wide protests against the detention of Imran Khan, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram's services are reportedly down for many users in Pakistan. Users are unable to access the popular social media platforms on Tuesday evening, reports said. According to the outage-tracking website, Downdetector.com, users are unable to log in to their accounts on all three platforms, meaning they also couldn't post or view anything. Downdetector tracks outages by collating status reports from a series of sources, including user-submitted errors on its platform. The outage could have affected a larger number of users. A large number of smartphone users are also complaining about their WhatsApp which is not working both on desktops and cellphones. Pertinently form...

Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has been taken into custody by paramilitary forces, local GEO TV reported on Tuesday. Mr Khan was taken into custody from a court premises in Islamabad in a corruption case, the broadcaster reported. "Islamabad High Court has been occupied by Rangers, lawyers are being subjected to torture, Imran Khan's car has been surrounded," Imran Khan's aide and his party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Fawad Chaudhry tweeted in Urdu. "Imran Khan has been abducted by Rangers from inside the Islamabad High Court. The party has given a call to immediately start protests across Pakistan," PTI leader Azhar Mashwani tweeted.

As part of their efforts to attract tourists, Saudi Arabia is reportedly targeting a potentially lucrative market by extending a welcome to LGBTQ visitors, CNN reported. The Q&A section on the website of the Saudi Tourism Authority has been updated to indicate that gay tourists are allowed in the country. The website said, “Everyone is welcome to visit Saudi Arabia and visitors are not asked to disclose such personal details,” is the website’s response to the question on its FAQ page: “Are LGBT visitors welcome to visit Saudi Arabia?” The exact date of the update to the Saudi Tourism Authority’s website is unclear. A representative for the organization stated that the policy had already been in effect, however, CNN reported that an archived version of the website from March 14...

Sudan’s death toll from the ongoing clashes between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has risen to 528, according to the Health Ministry on Saturday. A ministry statement said that 4,599 people have also been injured in the violence in the period between April 15 to April 27. The ministry had earlier put the death toll from the ongoing violence at 512 and 4,193 others injured. According to the ministry, 12 out of Sudan’s 18 states have seen clashes between the two warring rivals. Renewed clashes erupted on Saturday between the Sudanese army and RSF fighters despite a 3-day cease-fire. In a statement, the RSF claimed to have shot down a military aircraft in Omdurman, the twin city of Khartoum. There was no comment from the Sudanese army on the claim....

Abbas-Ali Soleimani, a powerful Iranian cleric, has been assassinated in an armed attack. Abbas-Ali Soleimani was inside a bank when he was assassinated. According to the eyewitnesses, an unidentified person snatched the gun of a guard and shot at Ayatollah Abbas-Ali Soleimani, killing him on the spot. The attack on the Iranian cleric Abbas-Ali Soleimani took place in the city of Babolsar in the northern province of Mazandaran on Wednesday. The assailant was arrested soon after the attack. WHO WAS ABBAS-ALI SOLEIMANI? Abbas-Ali Soleimani, 75, was previously the representative of the country’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. In addition to his role as an imam who led Friday prayers, he was also responsible for conducting weekly services in the cities of Kashan l...

Balesh Dhankhar, a prominent member of the Indian community in Australia, was found guilty of raping five Korean women in Sydney after drugging them, a media report said on Monday which described him as “one of the worst rapists” in the city’s recent history. A District Court jury in Sydney’s Downing Centre on Monday found the “politically connected predator” lured five Korean women into a web of lies, paralysed them with drugs and hoarded trophies of his callous assaults, the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper reported. It also reported that he was the former chief of the ‘Overseas Friends of the BJP’ in Australia. Dhankhar also recorded his sexual assaults using a camera hidden in his bedside alarm clock and on his phone, it said. “Balesh Dhankhar is one of the worst rapists in Sy...

Tarek Fatah, died on Monday following a prolonged battle with cancer.He was 73. Fatah's daughter Natasha Fatah informed about her father's demise. The RSS on Monday condoled the demise of Pakistan-born Canadian writer Tarek Fatah and said his significant contributions to the media as well as the literary world will be greatly remembered. In a condolence message posted on Twitter, RSS general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale said Fatah was an eminent thinker, author and commentator. “His significant contributions to the media and the literary world will be greatly remembered. He remained committed to his principles and beliefs throughout his life and was respected for his courage and conviction,” Dattatreya said. “My thoughts go with his family, friends, and admirers who will be...

At least 78 people have been killed and hundreds injured in a stampede in Yemen’s capital. The stampede happened late on Wednesday as hundreds of people crowded into a school in Sanaa in the hope of getting a charitable donation of about $10 (800 INR approx.) that was being handed out by merchants to mark Eid ul Fitr. More than 300 people were hurt, the AFP news agency reported, citing a Yemeni security official. At least 73 of the injured were taken to the al-Thowra Hospital in Sanaa, according to hospital deputy director Hamdan Bagheri, with families rushing to hospitals to try and find their loved ones. Al Jazeera’s Mohammed Al Attab, who is in Sanaa, said the disaster had “sparked nationwide anger”.

Two Palestinian militants were killed on Tuesday in the West Bank city of Nablus, Palestine. The identified as Saud Al-Titi, an officer with the Palestinian Authority security forces, and Mohammed Al-Bouf, who had respectively spent 14 years and seven years in Israeli prisons, Xinhua news agency reported. Israeli forces have killed at least 96 people, including 16 children, since the start of January, at a rate of nearly one murder a day, in what the Palestinian health ministry has described as the deadliest start to a year since 2000. On Monday, Israeli troops killed a 15-year-old Palestinian boy in the occupied West Bank city of Jericho.