Category: International

Thousands of Pakistan traders have shuttered their shops, striking over soaring energy and fuel bills stirring widespread discontent ahead of national elections. There were widespread market closures on Saturday in Lahore, Karachi and Peshawar, where abandoned bazaars were posted with placards decrying “the unreasonable increase in electricity bills and taxes”. “Everyone is participating because the […]

NEW DELHI: India on Saturday launched its first space mission to study the sun. Aditya-L1 spacecraft was launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, located in southern India at 11.50 a.m. local time (0620GMT), according to Press Information Bureau. The spacecraft would study the sun from a point about 1.5 million kilometres (930,000 […]

TAIPEI: As People’s Liberation Army fighter jets from China sped toward Taiwan on Friday, life on the self-governing island carried on as normal. Andy Huang, a restaurateur in Taipei, said he has become desensitized to military threats from the mainland. “I’ve been hearing about China invading for 30 years,” he said. Taiwan’s government is racing […]

India’s newly formed opposition alliance has resolved to fight the upcoming general elections jointly, the alliance announced on Friday. “We, the INDIA (an acronym for Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance) parties, hereby resolve to contest the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections together as far as possible,” said Jairam Ramesh, a top leader of the main opposition […]

The French military said on Friday that it is ready to respond if any renewed tensions in Niger target its military and diplomatic facilities in the conflict-hit West African country. “The French army is ready to respond to any renewed tension that would target French military and diplomatic facilities in Niger,” the French General Staff […]

The caretaker government has pushed through a sharp hike in the price of petrol by Rs14.91 per litre and high-speed diesel (HSD) by Rs18.44 per litre. The increase brings the price of petrol to Rs305.36 per litre and HSD to Rs311.84 per litre, the Ministry of Finance said in a post on X (formerly Twitter) […]

China’s President Xi Jinping is not expected to attend the G20 summit in India next week and will send Premier Li Qiang in his stead, a senior EU official said Thursday. “My last information… was that Xi didn’t intend to travel, it would be the prime minister,” the official told reporters in Brussels ahead of […]

Nine soldiers were martyred while five others were injured in a suicide attack at a military convoy in the Jani Khel general area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Bannu district, the military’s media affairs wing said on Thursday. According to a statement issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), a “motorcycle-borne suicide bomber exploded himself on a […]

A growing crisis in China’s “shadow banking” sector is threatening further damage to an economy reeling from multiple problems, even as a new report questions the ability of the government in Beijing to come to the rescue via fiscal stimulus. On Wednesday, Bloomberg News reported that Chinese authorities have enlisted the Citic Trust Co., a […]

Protests against high electricity bills in Pakistan have grown after the government refused to slash energy prices without a nod from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). A massive increase in the price of electricity triggered protests across major cities last week, with people burning utility bills, blocking highways and attacking power companies’ offices. Caretaker Prime […]