WASHINGTON: FBI agents complained Monday that the month-old US government shutdown is preventing them from paying informants, buying drugs undercover in narcotics busts, and even renewing their own security clearances. Investigations and prosecutions are suffering from the lack of money to travel to interview witnesses or funds to pay translators, agents are saying, according to Tom O'Connor, president of the...
WASHINGTON: FBI agents complained Monday that the month-old US government shutdown is preventing them from paying informants, buying drugs undercover in narcotics busts, and even renewing their own security clearances. Investigations and prosecutions are suffering from the lack of money to travel to interview witnesses or funds to pay translators, agents are saying, according to Tom O'Connor, president of the...
ANKARA: Turkey is planning to launch an international investigation into the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and will take further steps in the coming days, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu was quoted as saying by state-owned media. Khashoggi, a royal insider who became a critic of Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and began writing for the Washington Post...
ABU DHABI: On Tuesday, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates will sign a US$3 billion support package, as pledged by Abu Dhabi to boost the liquidity and foreign exchange reserves of the cash-starved country. According to the package, which would be signed in a ceremony scheduled in Abu Dhabi, the UAE will deposit $3 billion in the State Bank of...
KABUL: A Taliban attack in central Afghanistan on Monday killed scores of security personnel, officials said, with some estimates putting the death toll at more than 100, amid government silence about one of the most deadly insurgent attacks in months. Attackers rammed a captured military Humvee packed with explosives into a training center of the National Directorate for Security in...
Thousands of skywatchers across Europe, Africa and the Americas battled sub-freezing temperatures to catch a glimpse of an unusual set of circumstances resulting in a lunar extravaganza known as a super blood wolf moon. The full Moon appears bigger than normal because it is closer to the Earth — about 222,000 miles (358,000 kilometers) away — which earns it the...
TLAHUELILPAN, Mexico - At least 73 people were killed after a pipeline ruptured by suspected fuel thieves exploded in central Mexico, authorities said on Saturday, as President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador defended the army despite its failure to clear the site before the blast. Forensic experts filled body bags with charred human remains in the field where the explosion occurred...
India’s opposition parties drew half a million supporters to Kolkata’s streets on Saturday for the largest show of force yet against Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a national election looms. Police in the eastern city said 500,000 people turned out for the massive "Unite India" rally, which saw leaders from across the opposition spectrum rail against Modi and his ruling...
ISLAMABAD: On Saturday, adviser to PM for Commerce, Textile and Industry Production Abdul Razak Dawood vowed to make a record by increasing the volume of exports to a new historical level in 2019. "This year, we will achieve the target of highest exports in the history of the country," he added. Dawood, while addressing a ceremony in Karachi, said that...
OTTAWA: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau renewed calls for the release of Saudi blogger Raif Badawi after meeting his wife on Friday, calling the issue "a priority" for him and all Canadians. Trudeau said Canadians' view of Saudi Arabia had been defined in part by its treatment of Badawi, who was jailed for 10 years and has received 50 lashes of...
BRUSSELS: British Prime Minister Theresa May spoke to EU leaders Jean-Claude Juncker and Donald Tusk by telephone on Friday to discuss where to go next on Brexit. May had previously been in touch with Brussels only by text message since Tuesday, when the British parliament rejected the divorce deal she signed in November. "Discussed with PM @theresa_may the next steps...
WASHINGTON: Authorities in the US state of Georgia have arrested a 21-year-old man who sought to buy explosives and an anti-tank rocket for a suicide attack on the White House planned for Thursday. Byung Pak, the US attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, announced the arrest of Hasher Taheb of Cumming, Georgia, late Wednesday after a months-long FBI investigation...
ISLAMABAD: On Thursday, Pakistan People's Party Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari started his speech in the National Assembly by taking a jibe at Prime Minister Imran Khan, saying had the premier shown up at the parliament, he could have responded to his tweet earlier in the day face to face. Bilawal was referring to a tweet by Prime Minister Khan in which the latter...
LONDON: British Prime Minister Theresa May on Wednesday survived a no-confidence vote sparked by the crushing defeat of her Brexit deal just weeks before the UK leaves the European Union. A stunning 24-hour span saw May on Tuesday dealt the heaviest drubbing by parliament in modern British political history — 432 votes to 202 — over the divorce terms she...
LONDON: European Union officials are examining plans to delay Brexit until 2020 after Germany and France indicated their willingness to extend withdrawal negotiations amid British political turmoil, The Times newspaper reported. Previous planning had centered on a three-month delay to Brexit from March 29 until the end of June but now, according to sources quoted by The Times, EU officials...
LONDON: Prime Minister Theresa May faced the prospect of defeat in a historic vote on her Brexit deal in parliament on Tuesday, potentially leaving Britain in limbo about the biggest political and economic change for the country in decades. A day after May urged lawmakers to take a second look at her plan, parliament looked set to reject it in...
KABUL: At least four people were killed and 90 wounded when a bomb-laden car blew up near a high-security compound in the Afghan capital Kabul on Monday, officials said. An Afghan government security official said the blast occurred on Jalalabad Road in eastern Kabul near the Green Village compound, home to several international companies and charities. “Most of the victims...
