SHEIKH RASHID

The Pakistani Taliban have claimed responsibility for multiple overnight gun attacks on police in the capital of Islamabad and the country's restive northwest.

Officials say at least 22 people, including 10 children, died in a popular mountain resort town in Pakistan after being stuck in their vehicles overnight during a heavy snowstorm.

The Taliban violently dispersed scattered protests for a second day as they moved to consolidate their rule less than a week after seizing power.

A two-week pandemic lockdown in Australia's biggest city is being extended for another week due to the vulnerability of a population largely unvaccinated against the coronavirus.

LAHORE, Pakistan — Pakistan’s acquiescence to the demands of far-right radical Islamist group Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) reached a tipping point last week, leading to a formal ban on the group on April 15. The group, which seeks the expulsion of the French ambassador Marc Barety , escalated nationwide violence that resulted in the deaths of four police officers apart from infrastructure damage. The group is irate with the French satirical publication “ Charlie Hebdo ” for publishing Prophet Muhammad’s caricatures. But some analysts believe that like other proscribed radical Islamist groups in Pakistan — most notably Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (now called Millat-e-Islamia) — the TLP could resurface under a new banner. The TLP’s latest pushback comes after “Charlie Hebdo” decided to republish caricatures of Prophet Muhammad, coinciding with the trial of abettors of the 2015 jihadist attack on the publication.

A lawmaker from Pakistan’s ruling party has kicked off a debate in Parliament on whether the French ambassador should be expelled over the publication of controversial cartoons depicting Islam’s Prophet Muhammad.

Pakistan's interior minister says an outlawed Islamist political group has freed 11 policemen it had held hostage in the eastern city of Lahore amid clashes with security forces.

The French embassy in Pakistan is advising all of its nationals and companies to temporarily leave the country amid violent anti-France protests by supporters of a radical Islamist political party.

Sheikh Mohammed made the announcement Tuesday on Twitter that his country plans to send an unmanned spacecraft to the moon in 2024. Already, an Emirati space probe is hurtling through space on its way to Mars while last year it sent its first astronaut to the International Space Station. Sheikh Mohammed said the rover would be named “Rashid,” the same name of his late father, Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum. Sheikh Rashid was one of the original founding rulers of the United Arab Emirates, a federation of seven sheikhdoms on the Arabian Peninsula. ___Associated Press writers Isabel DeBre in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to this report.