An accountability court in Islamabad barred former prime minister Imran Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, from issuing statements against state institutions and officials, The Express Tribune reported. Judge Basir Javed Rana ordered the PTI founder and his spouse from speaking against state institutions in the courtroom during the hearing of a petition seeking a fair trial. The court also ordered the media to avoid publishing such political provocative statements which target state institutions and their officials. According to the order, the PTI chief made provocative political statements again ..read more

The US on Thursday (local time) rebuked a Pakistani reporter's questions on allegations of an Australian journalist's claims not allowed to cover Indian general elections and said that the country determines which non-citizens it allows to enter, either as short-term travellers or international journalists. Responding to a question by a Pakistani reporter on allegations of denial of visa renewal to Australian journalist, Avani Dias, US State Department Principal Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel said, "The Government of India can speak to its own visa policy. That's not something I'm going to o ..read more

Thursday's ruling overturning Harvey Weinstein's New York rape conviction gives the one-time film mogul a chance at a new trial and calls into question what evidence prosecutors can use in future sex crime cases. Here is a look at what happened to the case, which helped define the #MeToo movement, and what might happen next. WHY WAS WEINSTEIN'S CONVICTION OVERTURNED? Weinstein, 72, was found guilty of raping one woman and sexually assaulting another after both testified in court. But a 4-3 majority of the New York Court of Appeals, the state's highest court, found that the trial judge should n ..read more

A key witness in the criminal trial of Donald Trump detailed Thursday how he worked with the former president's personal lawyer to kill a Playboy model's story about a sexual relationship with the Republican. It's the third day of testimony in the criminal trial of Trump, whom prosecutors accuse of falsifying business records to pay off adult film actress Stormy Daniels in exchange for her silence over a 2006 sexual encounter that could have derailed his 2016 White House campaign. He is the first former US head of state to face criminal charges. The high-stakes trial demands Trump report to th ..read more

China must stop supporting Russia's war in Ukraine if it wants to enjoy good relations with the West, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday, warning Beijing in unusually harsh words it cannot have it both ways. During a visit to Berlin, the chief of the Western military alliance said Beijing's help was vital to Moscow's war effort as it was propping up Russia's war economy by sharing high-end technology like semiconductors. "Last year, Russia imported 90% of its microelectronics from China, used to produce missiles, tanks and aircraft. China is also working to provide Russia ..read more

Britain's Royal Navy shot down a missile fired at a merchant vessel in the Gulf of Aden by Iranian-backed Huthis, the defence ministry said on Thursday. The HMS Diamond warship used a Sea Viper missile system to shoot down the missile on Wednesday, the ministry said. "The UK continues to be at the forefront of the international response to the Iranian-backed Huthis' dangerous attacks on commercial vessels, which have claimed the lives of international mariners," Defence Secretary Grant Shapps said. "I want to thank the brave crew of HMS Diamond for her vital role in saving innocent lives and p ..read more

British Sikh lawyers have come together to set up a new court as a dispute resolution forum for the community caught up in family and civil disputes, a UK media report said on Thursday. According to 'The Times', the Sikh court was launched last weekend at a ceremony at the Old Hall at Lincoln's Inn in London accompanied by religious chants. Baldip Singh, a 33-year-old London-based barrister who is one of the court's founders, told the newspaper that it was not a religious tribunal but aimed at assisting Sikh families in their time of need when dealing with conflict and disputes "in line with S ..read more

TikTok owner ByteDance would prefer shutting down its loss-making app rather than sell it if the Chinese company exhausts all legal options to fight legislation to ban the platform from app stores in the US, four sources said. The algorithms TikTok relies on for its operations are deemed core to ByteDance overall operations, which would make a sale of the app with algorithms highly unlikely, said the sources close to the parent. TikTok accounts for a small share of ByteDance's total revenues and daily active users, so the parent would rather have the app shut down in the US in a worst case sce ..read more

The discovery of mass graves at two Gaza hospitals, said by Palestinian authorities to contain hundreds of bodies, have triggered calls by the UN rights chief and others for an international investigation. While not defined under international law, a mass grave is a burial site containing multiple bodies, the existence of which could be important in detecting possible war crimes. What is known about mass graves discovered in Gaza? Palestinian authorities said a grave site discovered at the Nasser hospital, the main medical facility in central Gaza, contained nearly 400 bodies. It was uncovered ..read more

The US Supreme Court heard arguments on Thursday on whether a former president is immune from criminal prosecution and appeared poised to issue a ruling that could further delay Donald Trump's trial on charges of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election. The historic case -- the last in the court's current term -- has far-reaching implications for executive power and Trump's multiple legal issues as he seeks the White House again. "We're writing a rule for the ages," said Justice Neil Gorsuch, one of three conservative justices appointed to the nation's highest court by the former Republican p ..read more