SYDNEY: Australia’s largest city will emerge from a 106-day lockdown on Monday, as Sydney authorities confirmed coronavirus vaccination targets had been met. Stay-at-home orders will be lifted for the Harbour City’s five-million-plus people now that 70 percent of state residents over 16 have been double jabbed. “The light at the end of the tunnel is … Read more
ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi alleged on Thursday that the amended National Accountability Ordinance (NAO) has been designed to cover up the incumbent government’s embezzlement. Addressing the media, Abbasi shared that National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) powers have been reduced under the amended ordinance. He claimed that the anti-corruption watchdog can no longer raise … Read more
WASHINGTON: US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman is set to arrive in Islamabad today (Thursday). Sherman, after CIA chief Bill Burns, will be one of the first high-level officials under President Joe Biden to visit Pakistan. The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government has reportedly exempted an eight-member US delegation, led by Sherman, from the coronavirus … Read more
WASHINGTON: The US State Department has disclosed the number of nuclear weapons in the country’s stockpile. A report issued on Tuesday showed that the US stockpile consisted of 3,750 nuclear warheads as of September 2020. The stockpile includes both “active” and “inactive” warheads, the report noted, adding that some 2,000 additional warheads are currently retired … Read more
SYDNEY: Australian respiratory researchers are preparing to start the next stages in developing a nasal spray to protect people from viral diseases such as COVID-19 and influenza. Hunter Medical Research Institute (HMRI) and University of Newcastle (UON) scientists in the state of New South Wales said on Thursday that they had been working to create … Read more
ISLAMABAD: Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah has demanded that the ministers, whose names have appeared in the infamous Pandora Papers for having offshore companies, should step down from their positions. Talking to the media in Islamabad on Thursday, Shah said that Prime Minister Imran Khan should keep the same standards for himself as he … Read more
QUETTA: Around 20 people were killed and more than 300 injured when an earthquake of 5.9 magnitude intensity hit Balochistan early Thursday morning, with rescuers trying to reach coal miners reportedly trapped underground. The epicentre of the earthquake was near the remote mountainous district Harnai, and it was 15 kilometres deep. A lack of paved … Read more
RAWALPINDI: In a major army reshuffle, Lieutenant General Nadeem Anjum on Wednesday replaced Lieutenant General Faiz Hameed as the Director-General (DG) Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). According to the media wing of the armed forces, Lt Gen Anjum was commissioned in the Light Anti Tank Battalion of Punjab Regiment and throughout his career he has had command, … Read more
PARIS: Hundreds of millions of people were unable to access Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp for more than six hours on Monday, underscoring the world’s reliance on platforms owned by the Silicon Valley giant. But what actually caused the outage? What does Facebook say happened? In an apologetic blog post, Santosh Janardhan, Facebook’s vice president of … Read more
RAWALPINDI: In a major reshuffle in the Pakistan Army, Lieutenant General Faiz Hameed was transferred as the Peshawar corps commander, while Lt Gen Nadeem Anjum has taken over as director general of the Inter Services Intelligence, the military’s media wing said on Wednesday. A statement issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said that Lt … Read more
BEIJING: Historical epic “The Battle at Lake Changjin” continued to dominate the Chinese mainland box office on Tuesday, data from the China Movie Data Information Network showed Wednesday. Co-directed by Chen Kaige, Hark Tsui and Dante Lam, the film ended its sixth day of screening with over 487 million yuan (about 75.1 million US dollars), … Read more
WASHINGTON: Democratic and Republican senators called on President Joe Biden to expel Russian diplomats if Moscow does not issue more visas to US diplomats. 17 bipartisan senators, including leaders of the Senate Intelligence and Foreign Relations committees, wrote in a letter to Biden on Monday that there are over 400 Russian diplomats in the United … Read more
TOKYO: An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.0 on Wednesday struck off Japan’s Iwate Prefecture, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA). The quake occurred at around 2:46 a.m. local time, with its epicenter at a latitude of 40.0 degrees north and a longitude of 142.4 degrees east, and at depth of 50 km. The … Read more
MOSCOW: Russia’s top gas producer Gazprom plans to prioritise its home market over export sales because the winter will be cold and snowy, the head of its domestic gas selling business was quoted by Interfax, as saying. The gas demand has surged partly in response to economies recovering from the pandemic, as well as low … Read more
KARACHI: Pakistan’s largest digital Bank, Mobilink Microfinance Bank Limited (MMBL) has put forth its nine-point agenda for the future of financial inclusion, covering far-reaching and research-based recommendations in the areas of diversity and inclusion, microfinance, SME finance, housing finance, agriculture finance, digital lending, payments, savings, and insurance, a statement said. The nine-point agenda was formally … Read more
LAHORE: The Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has urged the government to take immediate measures for saving the hospitality industry, a statement said. Talking to the delegation of the Lahore Hotels and Tourism Association, LCCI president Mian Nauman Kabir said that the pandemic has caused a serious blow to the hospitality industry. Asif … Read more
KARACHI: Bank Alfalah Limited (BAFL), one of the country’s leading financial institutions, and Al-Ghazi Tractors Limited (AGTL) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to facilitate farmers by fast-track processing and delivery of tractors, as well as other farm machinery, a statement said. The ceremony was held at Shaadin Manzil, Lahore and the MoU was signed … Read more
ISLAMABAD: Member National Assembly (MNA) Sher Ali Khan called on Prime Minister Imran Khan and discussed matters relating to development schemes in his constituency and reconstitution of committee for the axle load management regime. The prime minister stressed for timely completion of the ongoing development schemes in the constituency for the benefit of the local … Read more
KARACHI: Sindh is eager to provide all kinds of technical support to set up Special Economic Zones (SEZs) of other provinces in the larger interest of scaling up the national economy, an official said. “Sindh is also willing to cooperate with other provinces in providing all kinds of technical assistance to establish SEZs and to … Read more
GENEVA: More than five billion people could have difficulty accessing water in 2050, the United Nations warned on Tuesday, urging leaders to seize the initiative at the COP26 summit. Already in 2018, 3.6 billion people had inadequate access to water for at least one month per year, said a new report from the UN’s World … Read more
RAWALPINDI: Corps Commanders have taken serious note of the “malicious propaganda by the Indian military” and expressed resolve to take all necessary measures to safeguard Pakistan’s territorial integrity. The resolution in this regard was expressed during the 244th Corps Commanders’ Conference in Rawalpindi on Tuesday with Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa in the chair. … Read more
KOTLI: Chairman Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Tuesday said that the answers to soaring inflation and rising poverty in the country lied with his party. Addressing an election campaign rally in Kotli, Bilawal said, “Our opponents are unable to show their faces as those who have been defeated in elections cannot show … Read more
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan has directed the Ministry of Interprovincial Coordination to ask the Sindh government for the immediate release of wheat. In a tweet on Tuesday, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry observed that the wheat price was the highest in the province. “The reason was that the provincial government has halted the … Read more
PARIS: Offshore companies are a lynchpin in the system used by leaders and the ultra-rich to hide assets that was exposed in the trove of leaked documents dubbed the “Pandora Papers”. Some 11.9 million documents from financial services firms, which were obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), showed how the elite used … Read more
BEIJING: China’s Mars rover and orbiter have suspended explorations since mid-September, to wait out a period of sun outage, the China National Space Administration said on Tuesday. A sun outage refers to a phenomenon when Mars and the Earth move to either side of the sun and the three are almost perfectly aligned. During this … Read more
