KARACHI: The country received over $30 billion in remittances in FY24, showing an increase of 10.7 per cent over the last fiscal year, while inflows for last month jumped by 44pc year-on-year, the central bank reported on Tuesday. The country received almost $3bn more than the receipts for last year, but it was still below the record inflows of $31.3bn in FY22. The growth in remittances has already exceeded the earnings from exports, reflecting the increasing dependence of the economy on overseas Pakistanis. According to the State Bank, the total remittances in FY24 were $30.3bn, compared to $27.3bn in FY23. Financial experts…
Author: Hasnain Abid Khanzada
BEIRUT: A war monitor said an Israeli strike on Tuesday in Syria killed two people, with a source close to Hezbollah saying a former bodyguard to the group’s leader died in the raid. Hezbollah since October has traded almost daily cross-border fire from Lebanon with the Israeli army in support of Palestinian ally Hamas, with Israel targeting operatives from the group in both Lebanon and neighbouring Syria. “At least two people were killed and one was wounded in an Israeli drone strike on a Hezbollah car” near a Syrian army checkpoint close to the border with Lebanon, said Rami Abdel…
LONDON: Britain’s new lawmakers excitedly squeezed into parliament on Tuesday with Labour sitting on the government’s side of the chamber for the first time in 14 years following last week’s landslide win. More than 400 Labour MPs jostled for space on the ruling side of the green-benched House of Commons, with many having to stand, as parliament returned after being dissolved before Thursday’s vote. New Prime Minister Keir Starmer addressed the house for the first time as Britain’s leader, vowing to “put an end to a politics that has too often seemed self-serving and self-obsessed”. “We all have a duty…
LIMA: The preserved body of an American mountaineer who disappeared 22 years ago while scaling a snowy peak in Peru, has been found after being exposed by climate change-induced ice melt, police said Monday. William Stampfl was reported missing in June 2002, aged 59, when an avalanche buried his climbing party on the Huascaran mountain, which stands more than 6,700 metres high. Search and rescue efforts were fruitless. Peruvian police said his remains were finally exposed by ice melt on the Cordillera Blanca range of the Andes. Stampfl’s body, as well as his clothes, harness and boots had been well-preserved…
BRASILIA: Brazil has put into effect a free trade agreement with the Palestinian Authority that has been waiting for ratification for more than decade, in a show of support for the Palestinian people. “The agreement is a concrete contribution to an economically viable Palestinian state, which can live peacefully and harmoniously with its neighbors,” Brazil’s foreign ministry said on Monday in a statement. It said Brazil, which recognises a Palestinian state and allowed a Palestinian embassy to be built in the Brazilian capital in 2010, ratified the agreement on Friday between the Mercosur trade bloc of South America and the…
ISTANBUL: At least seven migrants were found dead on an island off the western Turkish coastal town of Cesme on Tuesday, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said, adding that search and rescue efforts continued for one missing person. Turkiye’s coastguard arrived at the scene after a fishing boat in the area raised the alarm at 10:47am (0747 GMT) and 19 migrants were rescued, Yerlikaya said on the X social media platform. “One helicopter, four coastguard vessels and a diving team were involved in the search and rescue operation”, he added. Meanwhile, the UN human rights chief said on Tuesday that his…
VATICAN CITY: The global Catholic Church is split on whether to allow women to serve as deacons, a Vatican document showed on Tuesday, just weeks after Pope Francis ruled out any opening on the issue. Giving women a greater role in the male-dominated Church is one of the issues up for the debate at a summit of bishops known as the synod. An initial, inconclusive session was held last year. On Tuesday, the Vatican released a working document due to inform discussions at a second and final session in October. “While some local Churches call for women to be admitted…
KABUL: The Taliban government’s morality police will play an increasing role in enforcing religious law in Afghanistan, according to a UN report published on Tuesday that accused them of creating a “climate of fear”. The report from the UN assistance mission in Afghanistan said the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice “had negative impacts on the enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms… with a discriminatory and disproportionate impact on women”. But the report also carried a response from Taliban authorities, who said the vice ministry had a bigger role to play. Morality police squads…
TOKYO: Six people have died of heatstroke in Tokyo as Japan swelters under a rare rainy season heatwave, prompting authorities to issue a flurry of health warnings. Over the weekend, the central Shizuoka region became the first in Japan to see the mercury reach 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) this year, far surpassing the 35-degree threshold classified by weather officials as “extremely hot”. Such severe heat in the middle of Japan’s rainy season is “rather rare”, caused in part by a strong South Pacific high-pressure system, a weather agency official said. Temperatures also hit record highs near 40 degrees Celsius…
MOSCOW: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday told President Vladimir Putin that “war cannot solve problems” and urged “peace through dialogue” on a trip to Moscow more than two years into the Ukraine offensive. Modi touched down in Moscow as tensions flared in Europe, following a massive Russian missile barrage in Ukraine that Kyiv said hit a children’s hospital in the capital. During his first meeting with Putin in Russia since the Kremlin launched its campaign in Ukraine, Modi said the conflict was discussed “openly and in detail”. “When innocent children are murdered, one sees them die, the heart…
