BEIJING: Typhoon Gaemi pummelled towns in China’s coastal Fujian province on Friday with heavy rains and strong winds as the most powerful storm to hit the country this year began its widely watched trek into the populous interior. The storm has affected almost 630,000 people in China’s Fujian so far, with almost half of them — over 300,000 people — having to be relocated, Xinhua news agency reported. Earlier this week, it killed several people as it swept through Taiwan and worsened seasonal rains in the Philippines. Gaemi was packing winds of up to 100.8 kilometres per hour (kph) near its centre, easing slightly…
Author: Hasnain Abid Khanzada
OTTAWA: Steady rain is helping firefighters working to contain a massive wildfire that has devastated parts of the western Canadian tourist town of Jasper, authorities said on Friday. Jasper is in the middle of mountainous Jasper National Park in the province of Alberta. A huge fast-moving fire has damaged or destroyed up to half the town’s structures. Parks Canada said between 10 mm and 15 mm of rain had fallen on Thursday. “This precipitation will likely keep fire behaviour low for the next 72 hours,” it said in a statement. “Crews will take advantage of this time to make as much progress…
BAGHDAD: Several rockets were launched on Thursday and Friday against bases hosting troops from the US-led coalition in Iraq and Syria, security officials and a war monitor said. Such attacks were frequent early in the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza but since then have largely halted. “Four rockets fell in the vicinity” of Ain al-Assad base in Anbar province, an Iraqi security source said. Another security official said an attack occurred with “a drone and three rockets” that fell close to the base perimeter. A United States official said initial reports indicated that projectiles landed outside the base…
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday stressed the need for further strengthening bilateral relations with Tajikistan specially trade and investment. The prime minister expressed these views as Ambassador of Tajikistan to Pakistan Sharifzoda Yusuf Toir paid a courtesy call on the PM at the PM House. The prime minister welcomed the ambassador and wished him a successful tenure in the country. Recalling his recent visit to Dushanbe earlier this month, the prime minister said he was touched by the warm welcome extended to him and hailed friendly and productive discussions with President Emomali Rahmon during the visit. Expressing satisfaction at…
WASHINGTON: Influential US Senator Marco Rubio introduced a bill in Congress on Friday, pledging to help India combat China’s growing influence and address alleged threats from Pakistan. The proposed US-India Defence Cooperation Act strongly supports “technology transfers” to India and urges the administration to “treat India as if it were of the same status as US allies such as Japan, Israel, South Korea, and Nato members.” Rubio, a Republican senator from Florida who has held his seat since 2011, delivered the Republican response to President Obama’s State of the Union Address in 2013. He ran for president in 2015, winning primaries…
KHAN YUNIS: More than 180,000 Palestinians have fled fierce fighting around the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis in four days, the United Nations said on Friday, after an Israeli operation to extract prisoners’ bodies from the area. Recent “intensified hostilities” in the Khan Younis area have fuelled “new waves of internal displacement across Gaza”, said the UN humanitarian agency, OCHA. It said “about 182,000 people” have been displaced from central and eastern Khan Yunis between Monday and Thursday, and hundreds are “stranded in eastern Khan Yunis”. The Israeli military ordered the evacuation of parts of the southern city on…
DHAKA: Bangladeshi police detectives on Friday forced the discharge from hospital of three student protest leaders blamed for deadly unrest, taking them to an unknown location, staff told AFP. Nahid Islam, Asif Mahmud and Abu Baker Majumder are all members of Students Against Discrimination, the group responsible for organising this month’s street rallies against civil service hiring rules. At least 195 people were killed in the ensuing police crackdown and clashes, according to an AFP count of victims reported by police and hospitals, in some of the worst unrest of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s tenure. All three were patients at a hospital in the…
PARIS: Lady Gaga sang a French cabaret song near Notre Dame cathedral, as athletes were cheered by the crowd along the Seine in the pouring rain and dancers took to the rooftopss of Paris in the Olympics’ opening ceremony on Friday. A fleet of barges took the competitors on a 6km-stretch of the river alongside some of the French capital’s most famous landmarks. As tradition dictates, the Greek delegation had the honour of leading out the flotilla, as the cradle of the modern Olympic movement. This is the first time an opening ceremony has taken place outside a stadium, adding…
DHAKA: Bangladeshi police detectives on Friday forced the discharge from hospital of three student protest leaders blamed for deadly unrest, taking them to an unknown location, staff told AFP. Nahid Islam, Asif Mahmud and Abu Baker Majumder are all members of Students Against Discrimination, the group responsible for organising this month’s street rallies against civil service hiring rules. At least 195 people were killed in the ensuing police crackdown and clashes, according to an AFP count of victims reported by police and hospitals, in some of the worst unrest of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s tenure. All three were patients at a hospital in the…
ISLAMABAD: Federal Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal on Friday said the final draft of the Artificial Intelligence policy would be presented to the federal cabinet for approval in August. Addressing a meeting of the Special Task Force on Artificial Intelligence, he directed the quarters concerned to complete the consultation process with all stakeholders as soon as possible. He highlighted the importance of AI in the modern era. “Artificial Intelligence is not the future but the present reality in the world,” he said, terming it an essential tool for advancement in multiple fields. The minister recalled that it was the PML-N government…
