Turkey does not have “the luxury” of turning its back on Afghanistan, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday. “It is our common wish that Afghanistan achieves lasting peace and stability,” Erdogan told a meeting of the Parliamentary Union of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation Member States (ISIPAB). “We do not have the luxury مزید پڑھیں

Democracy faces “sustained and alarming challenges” worldwide, US President Joe Biden said on Thursday at a virtual summit on democracy where he sparked controversy by pointedly not inviting China and Russia. Biden, who took office in January amid the biggest US political crisis for decades, said trends are “largely pointing in the wrong direction” and مزید پڑھیں

At least 54 people have been killed and scores more injured after the truck they were being transported in crashed in southern Mexico, authorities say. More than 150 people, said to be migrants from Central America, were crammed into the truck’s trailer when it rolled in the state of Chiapas. Pictures from the crash scene مزید پڑھیں

A first edition of “Harry Potter” sold for $471,000 (over €416,900) in the United States in what the auctioneers said was a world record price for a 2Oth century work of fiction. The hardback 1997 British edition of “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone,” with a color illustration on the cover, was described by Heritage مزید پڑھیں

The southern Gulf emirate of Sharjah announced Thursday a shift to a three-day weekend for the official sector. The move comes after the United Arab Emirates said Tuesday it is slashing the official working week to four-and-a-half days and moving its weekend to Saturday and Sunday. Going a step further, the Sharjah Executive Council said مزید پڑھیں

World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has warned that Omicron variant can spread more rapidly than previous variants of the COVID-19. Addressing a press briefing in Geneva, Chief of the WHO said certain features of the Omicron variant, including its global spread and large number of mutations, suggest it could have a major impact مزید پڑھیں

Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman arrived in Doha on Wednesday on his first visit since Riyadh and several Arab allies imposed an embargo on Qatar in mid-2017 and set off a bitter dispute that was resolved only in January. Prince Mohammed was received on arrival by emir Sheikh Tamim bin مزید پڑھیں

New Zealand plans to ban young people from ever buying cigarettes in their lifetime in one of the world’s toughest crackdowns on the tobacco industry, arguing that other efforts to extinguish smoking were taking too long. People aged 14 and under in 2027 will never be allowed to purchase cigarettes in the Pacific country of مزید پڑھیں

China warned on Tuesday the United States would “pay the price” for a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics over human rights concerns. The US move — which stopped short of preventing athletes from attending — comes after Washington spent months wrangling over what position to take on the Games, beginning in February next مزید پڑھیں

An Indian Army helicopter with Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat and senior Indian defence officials on board, crashed in Tamil Nadu’s Coonoor Wednesday, as per Indian media reports. Indian news agency ANI tweeted about the crash, saying that 14 people in total were on board the chopper, including the Indian defence assistant, IAF مزید پڑھیں