PTI, Karachi
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif today said that forcible conversion and destruction of worship places of other religions is a crime in Islam and in Pakistan as he greeted the Hindu community on the occasion of Holi.
Addressing a function to celebrate Holi with Hindus in Karachi, he insisted that it was not anyone’s job to decide who will go to hell or heaven, but to make
Dutch vote in key test for far-right
AFP, The Hague
Millions of Dutch voters went to the polls Wednesday in a key test of the “patriotic revolution” promised by far-right MP Geert Wilders, as final opinion polls showed his support deflating.
Following last year’s shock Brexit referendum, and Donald Trump’s victory in the US, the Dutch vote is being closely watched to gauge support for populism in Europe ahead of key elections in France and Germany this year.
China detains two South Korean pastors
Reuters, Seoul
Chinese authorities have arrested two South Korean Christian pastors, accusing them of helping to smuggle North Korean defectors out of China, the Yonhap news agency said on Wednesday.
The arrests come amid tension between South Korea and China over the latter’s vociferous objections to the deployment in South Korea of a U.S. missile defense system that China says will destabilize the balance of security in the region.
Colombia to set up special war crimes courts
AFP, Bogota
Colombia’s senate late Monday approved a constitutional reform to set up special war crimes courts, a key component of the historic peace agreement with FARC guerrillas that ended five decades of war.
The court system will be made up of three sections: a truth commission, a unit to search for missing people, and a temporary, autonomous body to try crimes committed during the armed conflict before December 1, 2016.
Aussie woman released in Afghanistan
AFP, Kabul
An Australian woman kidnapped in Afghanistan last year has been released, officials said Thursday.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation said the woman was an aid worker abducted in November last year in the Afghan capital Kabul, reportedly at gunpoint.
Truck accidentally kills 7 Afghan refugees
AP, Quetta
A Pakistani police official says a truck loaded with sand toppled over, collapsing a mud shack and killing seven members of an Afghan refugee family living there.
Police official Aslam Bokhari says the incident happened on Tuesday in the southwestern city of Quetta. He says the truck was about to unload its cargo of sand when the accident took place.
