Muslim vote gains significance as race for White House tightens

WASHINGTON: Muslim voters may play a larger than size role in the US elections next week as the race for the White House shapes into a close competition between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. The competition, which clearly favoured Clinton until this week, tightened after investigators revisited her email issue and media reports claimed that they discovered thousands of new emails that were not reported before. A summary of the opinion surveys...

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Four officers likely to be called back from India

ISLAMABAD: The government is considering pulling out from India four of its officers posted in Pakistan’s High Commission in New Delhi, days after Indian authorities declared one official persona non grata. “This is under consideration. A final decision would be taken shortly,” a source at the Foreign Office said on Monday. The names of the officers — commercial counsellor Syed Furrukh Habib and first secretaries Khadim Huss­ain, Mudassir...

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Yemen rebel missile shot down near Makkah

RIYADH: Yemeni rebels have launched one of their longest-range strikes against Saudi Arabia, firing a ballistic missile that was shot down near Makkah, the Saudi-led coalition fighting them said on Friday. But the rebels insisted that the missile had targeted Jeddah, the Red Sea city in the region, and not Makkah. The coalition has been carrying out a bombing campaign against the rebels since March last year and there have been rebel strikes towards...

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Information Minister Pervaiz Rasheed asked to step down amid Dawn story probe

Information Minister Parvaiz Rasheed has resigned from his position as Minister for Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage, DawnNews reported Saturday. A statement issued by the Prime Minister's office said: "Evidence available so far pints to a lapse on part of the information minister, who has been directed to step down from the office to enable holding of an independent and detailed inquiry.” The development comes after the publication...

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Pakistan to expel Indian diplomat in tit-for-tat move

The Foreign Secretary on Thursday summoned the Indian High Commissioner today and conveyed the decision of the Government of Pakistan to declare Surjeet Singh, an official of the Indian High Commission, as persona non grata, said a statement released by the Foreign Office. The statement added that the Foreign Secretary expressed deep concern over the activities of the Indian official that were in violation of the Vienna Convention and established...

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China’s Communist Party declares Xi Jinping ‘core’ leader

BEIJING: China’s ruling Communist Party declared its General Secretary Xi Jinping the “core” of its leadership on Thursday, elevating his already powerful status. A communique issued by top party leaders after a four-day meeting in Beijing called on all its members to “closely unite around the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core”, said the People’s Daily, the party’s official mouthpiece. The announcement followed a gathering...

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Twitter's video-sharing mobile app Vine to close

Twitter Inc announced Thursday that it would discontinue the video-sharing mobile app Vine, as it moves to cut 9 per cent of its workforce worldwide to keep costs down after beating Wall Street quarterly earnings expectations. The decision comes on the heels of a failed attempt to sell Twitter as it fights against stagnant user growth and mounting competition from other social media platforms. In a post published jointly by Twitter and Vine to...

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US cracks down on India-based call centre fraud racket

WASHINGTON: US justice authorities announced action on Thursday to shut down a group of Indian call centres that had cheated victims in the United States of hundreds of millions of dollars. The Justice Department said tens of thousands of victims, most of them from South Asia, were extorted by callers pretending to be US tax or immigration officials threatening them with arrest and deportation if they did not remit money to the government. But...

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US official warns over 9/11 law during Saudi visit

RIYADH: A United States law allowing victims of the Sept 11, 2001 attacks to sue Saudi Arabia could have “serious implications” for shared US-Gulf interests, a top Obama administration official said on Thursday. US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew made the comments at the opening of a meeting with finance ministers from the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council, whose most powerful member is Saudi Arabia. The US Congress voted overwhelmingly in September...

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Pakistan bans all Indian TV and radio as tensions mount

Pakistan has banned all television and radio content from India and threatened to shut down any stations that flout the sanction. The ban drew immediate criticism from cable operators and viewers in Pakistan, where Indian soaps and Bollywood films are popular. It follows a souring in relations between the south Asian neighbors. Tensions have run high since India cracked down on protests in Indian-administered Kashmir in July. Relations worsened...

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US seeks clarity on Duterte 'separation' comments

The US has said it will seek clarity on the Philippine president's announcement of a "separation from the US". Rodrigo Duterte made the comments in China on Thursday at an economic forum, saying the separation applied to military and economic co-operation. US officials said the remarks were "at odds" with the "close relationship" shared by the countries. Mr Duterte has grown increasingly hostile towards the US - a traditional ally - since taking...

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Russia accuses UK over 'shrinking' London embassy

The Russian ambassador to the UK has accused the British government of delaying the granting of visas to staff at its embassy in London. Alexander Yakovenko said the embassy was "shrinking" and questioned whether the UK wanted "an adequate Russian diplomatic presence". He also criticised the prime minister and foreign secretary for giving what he said were "anti-Russian statements". The Foreign Office said there was no policy to delay visas. Mr...

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Trump takes aim at First Lady Michelle Obama

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has launched a rare attack on Michelle Obama, saying "all she wants to do is campaign" for his rival. Speaking at a North Carolina rally, Mr Trump called the country's leadership "babies" and "losers". He also accused the first lady of attacking Hillary Clinton in 2007 by invoking a line she said about being fit to run the White House. The Obama campaign had denied the line referred to Mrs Clinton. "And...

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EU 'not capable' of signing deal with Canada

A trade deal between the EU and Canada is on the brink of collapse because a Belgian region with a population of just 3.6 million opposes it. An emotional Canadian Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland left the talks in Brussels, saying the EU was "not capable" of signing a trade agreement. Belgium, the only country blocking accord, needed consent from the regional parliament of Wallonia. The wide-ranging deal, seven years in the making, was to be...

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Russian ambassador says Moscow ready to provide assistance to Philippines

After the president of the Philippines announced a separation from the US – a statement which his government has since walked back – Russia’s ambassador to the country said Moscow is ready to provide assistance to and fully cooperate with Manila. Formulate your wish list. What kind of assistance do you expect from Russia and we will be ready to sit down with you and discuss what can and should be done,” Russian Ambassador Igor Khovaev told...

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ISIS fighters enter Kirkuk mosques, kindergarten, take civilians hostage

Islamic State militants have reportedly entered houses and mosques in Kurkuk, Iraq, and taken civilians as hostages. They have also broken into a kindergarten building, according to a Rudaw news agency report citing the city’s police chief. This latest intrusion comes just hours after Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) “sleeper cells” launched an attack on government buildings in the city that sparked clashes with security forces, and also...

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