VLIZY VILLACOUBLAY: French security forces guarding sites set to be used in the Paris Olympics are intercepting an average of six drones per day, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said. The miniature flyers are sometimes operated by “individuals, maybe tourists wanting to take pictures”, Attal said. “That’s why it’s important to remind people of the rules. There’s a ban on flying drones,” he added during a visit to the event’s drone defence hub at Velizy-Villacoublay air base outside Paris. “Systems are in place to allow us to very quickly intercept (drones) and arrest their operators,” Attal said. “We can’t allow anything to slip…
Author: Hasnain Abid Khanzada
LONDON: Briton Andy Murray, the first male tennis player to claim two Olympic singles gold medals, said on Tuesday that he will play the final event of his glittering career at the Paris Games before heading into retirement. Murray, widely regarded as one of Britain’s all-time great sportsmen, won gold in London 2012 beating Roger Federer in the final and successfully defended his title in Rio four years later defeating Juan Martin del Potro. The 37-year-old, who in 2013 ended a 77-year wait for a British men’s singles champion at Wimbledon and won the trophy again in 2016, had previously said that he was unlikely to…
PARIS: The International Olympic Committee (IOC) was on Tuesday weighing a Palestinian call for Israeli athletes to be barred from the Games over the military campaign in Gaza, three days before the Opening Ceremony in Paris. As the Israeli Olympic team settled into the Athletes’ Village, the IOC was studying a letter sent by the Palestine Olympic Committee to President Thomas Bach asking him to ban the Israelis, citing the bombings of the besieged Gaza Strip as a breach of the Olympic truce. The letter sent on Monday “emphasised that Palestinian athletes, particularly those in Gaza, are denied safe passage and have suffered…
LAHORE: Arshad Nadeem is banking on his fitness and preparations to end Pakistan’s over three-decade-long Olympic medal drought at the Paris Games. Pakistan have not bagged a medal of any colour since the 1992 Olympics but its star javelin thrower stressed on Tuesday that “he will try his best” for a podium finish in the French capital. “I’m fit and well-prepared and I’ve worked really hard for this prestigious event,” he told reporters before his departure to Paris. “I feel I can achieve my goal of winning a medal.” The 27-year-old will compete in the qualification round on August 6 with the…
ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb briefed global rating agencies for the second day running on Tuesday about the government’s efforts to stabilise macroeconomic indicators under a new staff-level agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). A virtual meeting via Zoom was held on Tuesday with representatives of Moody’s Ratings at the Finance Division to brief the global agency on the government’s steps outlined in the budget ahead of the IMF programme. This was the second virtual meeting in as many days, following a meeting with the credit rating agency Fitch on Monday. In February, Moody’s rating agency retained Pakistan’s long-term credit rating at Caa3, with a…
KARACHI: As a last resort to save the economy, the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) on Tuesday announced that it would file a case in the Supreme Court against the unbearable capacity charges being paid to independent power producers (IPPs). FPCCI Acting President Abdul Mohamin Khan, in a statement issued on Tuesday, said despite repeated and unrelenting expressions of its concerns and apprehensions — loud and clear — regarding IPPs’ capacity charges, the business community is still not being taken on board for the consultative process to resolve the issue as soon as possible despite being the primary stakeholder of…
KHYBER: Sugar export to Afghanistan has resumed after a four-year suspension, with over 400 vehicles crossing the Torkham border in the last four days. According to sources, Pakistan recently allowed the export of 150,000 tons of sugar to Afghanistan, setting the August 15 deadline for the completion of the shipment process. Customs clearing agents at Torkham told Dawn that around 100 vehicles, each carrying 33 tons of sugar, crossed into Afghanistan four days ago and more thereafter. The government slapped the sugar export ban four years ago to address shortages and control prices in the country, according to officials. The administration of the Khyber…
LAHORE: A customs appellate tribunal has upheld the recovery of a 10 per cent regulatory duty, amounting to billions of rupees, from six oil companies on the import of petrol (motor spirit) in 2022. The two-member tribunal passed the order allowing departmental appeals against an order of the collector customs (appeals) in favour of the oil importers including Hascol Petroleum Ltd, Gas & Oil Pakistan Ltd, Taj Gasoline Ltd, My Petroleum (Pvt) Ltd, Puma Energy Pakistan Ltd and Euro Oil (Pvt) Ltd. The oil companies claimed the benefit of an exemption from the regulatory duty under SRO 806(1)/2022 issued on June 20,…
DHAKA: The Bangladesh government said on Tuesday it would heed a Supreme Court ruling that 93 per cent of state jobs be open to competition, meeting a key demand of students after a week of some of the country’s deadliest protests in years. But students raised fresh demands including the scrapping of a curfew, restoration of internet services and a reopening of campuses, leaving unclear whether the government’s acceptance of the court decision would completely defuse the unrest. Relative calm prevailed for a second straight day in Dhaka and most major cities although the army chief said security had still not been entirely restored…
SHANGHAI: A Chinese lunar probe found traces of water in samples of the Moon’s soil, scientists have said, as the country pushes its ambitious space programme into high gear. The Chang’e-5 rover completed its mission in 2020, returning to Earth with rock and soil samples from the Moon. The lunar samples “revealed the presence of trace water”, the group of scientists from Chinese universities wrote in the Nature Astronomy journal published on Monday. A NASA infrared detector already confirmed in 2020 the existence of water on the Moon, while scientists found traces of water in recent analyses of samples dating…
