ZURICH: Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi is targeting an unprecedented fifth Ballon d’Or award in Zurich on Monday, with the Argentine heavily favoured to reclaim the prize from three-time winner Cristiano Ronaldo. Brazil striker Neymar, who plays alongside Messi at Barca, is also in the running to be crowned world player of the year after he was included on the three-man ...

PARIS: French President Francois Hollande made an unannounced visit to the main mosque in Paris on Sunday, a year after terrorist attacks in the French capital. “The president had a short conversation and a moment of friendship and fraternity over a cup of tea,” a French presidency official said. Earlier, Hollande attended a low-key event to mark a year since ...

KABUL: President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani has order the Ministry of Defense to continue bombing the fanatics of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) which is also known as Daesh. During his speech at the gathering organized in Jalalabad for the assessment of security situation and development on Sunday the President said that Daesh does not have room in ...

COLOGNE: German Chancellor Angela Merkel backed on Saturday a toughening of expulsion rules for convicted refugees, as protesters took to the streets against a shocking rash of assaults blamed on migrants during New Year’s festivities. Both women’s groups and supporters of the xenophobic PEGIDA movement mobilised in separate rallies in Cologne, as Merkel declared that refugees found to have committed ...

LAHORE: The Government College University has identified the hostel room where Dr Allama Muhammad Iqbal resided between 1895 and 1900. “The cubicle, located at the then boarding house (now Allama Iqbal Hostel) of the GCU is still in same condition as it was during Allama Iqbal’s stay. No renovation or alteration has been made to it,” GCU Vice Chancellor Prof ...

HYDERABAD: Adviser to the Sindh chief minister on information Maula Bux Chandio has said the federal minister for interior Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan behaves like a viceroy towards the province. The prime minister had asked him to visit Sindh but he did not condescend to see the Sindh chief minister, neither did he take the trouble to attend the senate ...

ISLAMABAD: China on Saturday took notice of the recent political divide among local leaders over China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and urged the political parties to address their difference in order to create favourable conditions for the completion of CPEC project. The People’s Republic hoped that the relevant political parties in Pakistan could strengthen communication and coordination on CPEC to ...

Police use water cannon and pepper spray on anti-immigration Pegida protesters Witnesses said some protesters were aiming fireworks, rocks and even flower pots at police DEUTZSCHLAND: Water cannons and pepper spray have been used to push back more than a thousand anti-immigration protesters in Cologne as anger mounted in a demonstration following attacks on New Year’s Eve. Pegida (Patriotic Europeans ...

AFGHANISTAN: The preparatory or quadrilateral meeting of Afghanistan, Pakistan, the United States and China for talks with Taliban would be held  in Islamabad on Monday. Afghanistan would be represented by Deputy Foreign Minister Hekmat Khalil Karzai and Pakistan by Foreign Secretary Aizaz Chaudhry. The U.S. and China would be reportedly represented by their special representatives for Afghanistan and Pakistan region. The conference ...

Yesterday a video began circulating that featured a very articulate older man telling actor Ahsan Khan his life story. But this wasn’t a segment on a TV show. Khan was out in about in Karachi when he spotted the man on the streets. He was homeless and destitute and had a sad story to tell, which Khan recorded on camera ...