A Chinese probe carrying samples from the far side of the Moon returned to Earth on Tuesday, capping a technically complex 53-day mission heralded as a world first. The landing module of the Chang’e-6 spacecraft touched down at a predetermined site in Inner Mongolia at 2:07pm (6:07am GMT), the China National Space Administration said, hailing the mission a “complete success”. It comes bearing soil and rocks from the side of the Moon facing away from Earth, a poorly understood region that scientists say holds great research promise because its rugged features are less smoothed over by ancient lava flows than…
Author: Hasnain Abid Khanzada
India’s newly elected lawmakers took the oath of office on Tuesday, but without two vocal government critics unable to take their seats because they are jailed on national security charges. One is the Sikh separatist Amritpal Singh, a firebrand preacher arrested last year after a month-long police manhunt in Punjab state. The other is Sheikh Abdul Rashid, a former state legislator in Indian-occupied Kashmir, known popularly as Engineer Rashid. Rashid, arrested on charges of “terror funding” and money laundering in 2019, is awaiting his latest bail hearing on July 1, his lawyer Ubaid Shams told AFP. The family of Singh, an advocate of…
Police opened fire on demonstrators trying to storm Kenya’s legislature on Tuesday, with at least five protesters killed, dozens wounded and sections of the parliament building set ablaze as lawmakers inside passed legislation to raise taxes. In chaotic scenes, protesters overwhelmed police and chased them away in an attempt to storm the parliament compound. Flames could be seen coming from inside. Police opened fire after tear gas and water cannon failed to disperse the crowds. A Reuters journalist counted the bodies of at least five protesters outside parliament. A paramedic, Vivian Achista, said at least 10 had been shot dead. Another…
OKARA: A Christian man was booked for his alleged botched plan to set the Holy Quran on fire to take revenge on his two siblings, thinking the angry Muslims would lynch them. As per the first information report (FIR), a City A Division police team, headed by a Sub-Inspector Haider Ali, was on patrol on Sunday night. It found six to seven men standing on the road close to the DHQ City Hospital near Christian Colony. One of them, identified in the FIR, said that he had the Holy Quran and would set it on fire to enrage the Muslims…
LAHORE: PML-N President Nawaz Sharif on Monday “directed” the governments of his younger brother Shehbaz Sharif and daughter Maryam Nawaz in the Centre and Punjab, respectively, to take the party on board in the decision-making on important issues. During a maiden meeting after becoming the party’s president on Monday, the elder Sharif made it clear that both governments should be free from “bureaucratic influence”. PML-N Punjab President and Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination Rana Sanaullah and Khawaja Saad Rafique briefed the former prime minister on the government’s talks with the PPP to mitigate its concerns and the proposal to hold negotiations…
ISLAMABAD: An independent panel of experts is believed to have raised red flags last year about the headrace tunnel (HRT) of the Neelum-Jhelum Hydropower Project, as well as recommending preventive measures that were not implemented before the 969-megawatt project, valued at over Rs500 billion, was shut down last month. The shutdown of the Neelum-Jhelum Hydropower Project, which officially ceased operations on May 2, 2024, is estimated to result in direct annual losses of over Rs55bn, according to officials. Indirect losses, due to the need for expensive replacement fuel, could range from Rs90bn to Rs150bn, depending on the fuel source. The project previously…
SWAT: An anti-terrorism court on Monday remanded the 23 accused arrested in the Madyan lynching case to police for 10 days. Shaukat Ahmad Khan, Special Judge of ATC-I Malakand division, pronounced the judgment. The Madyan police had requested the court for a 30-day physical custody of the accused. The accused were booked under sections 302, 326, 353, 436, 427, 460, 341, 186, 148,149 of Pakistan Penal Code, and 7-ATA. However, the court only granted a 10-day remand of the accused mentioned in the FIR subject to their pre-and-post-arrest medical examination. The court ordered the production of the accused on July 3. On…
ISLAMABAD: Lawmakers belonging to the PPP, a key partner in the ruling coalition, during their speeches in the National Assembly on Monday not only made a scathing attack on the tax-laden and ‘directionless’ federal budget, but also targeted the ruling PML-N, claiming that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had lost popularity among the masses. Despite expressing serious reservations over the budget, the PPP members, who had initially boycotted the ongoing debate and started taking part in it only after a high-level intervention at the top leadership level, however, expressed their helplessness, stating that ultimately they would have no choice, but to vote for the budget. During…
ISLAMABAD: The opposition and treasury benches on Monday locked horns over the plan to launch a fresh military operation, with Leader of the Opposition Syed Shibli Faraz voicing concern over the Azm-i-Istehkam operation and saying the word Istehkam (stability) has political connotations. Mr Faraz was of the view that stability would remain a pipe dream sans supremacy of the Constitution, rule of law, adherence to democratic principles and recognition of the true mandate of the electorate. He said those who came to power through ‘Form 47s’ had failed to present a balanced budget, which even their allies refuse to own. Mr Faraz…
Three of the 10 men abducted last week by unknown armed men from Shaban — a picnic point on the outskirts of Quetta — returned home on Tuesday, officials said. According to officials, a large number of people went to the Shaban area for picnic last Thursday, during which a group of armed men had encircled the mountains and started checking the national identity cards of the picnickers. The armed men had separated 14 individuals from the other picnickers after finding Punjab addresses on their identity cards and took them away to an unknown destination. An eyewitness had said the…
