ISTANBUL: Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on Sunday pledged to improve ties during a call, both sides said, after tensions mounted over drones and Nato in recent weeks. Turkey, a Nato member since 1952, has angered Moscow by supplying combat drones to Ukraine that Russia fears could be used by Kiev in its conflict with separatists in two eastern regions. Putin and Erdogan “exchanged New Year’s greetings and summarised the main results of bilateral cooperation and confirmed the desire to further intensify the mutually beneficial partnership between Russia and Turkey,” the Kremlin said in…
Author: Hasnain Abid Khanzada
BEIJING: New Covid-19 cases in the locked-down Chinese city of Xian fell to their lowest in a week, health officials said on Sunday, as residents face their eleventh day under strict home confinement. China has followed a “zero Covid” approach involving tight border restrictions and swift, targeted lockdowns since the virus first surfaced in a central city in late 2019 — but this strategy has been put under pressure in recent weeks with a number of local outbreaks and cases remaining stubbornly high. There were 122 fresh infections reported Sunday in the historic northern city — the lowest since December…
BRUSSELS: Draft European Union plans that would allow nuclear and gas energy to remain part of the bloc’s path to a climate-friendly future came under immediate criticism over the weekend from both environmentalists and some governing political parties in EU member nations. In draft conclusions, the EU’s executive commission proposes a classification system for defining what counts as an investment in sustainable energy. Under certain conditions, it would allow gas and nuclear energy to be part of the mix. The plans would have a huge impact on nuclear-fired economies like France and on Germany’s gas-fueled power plants since they might…
BEIJING: Twenty-two people were injured when a shallow earthquake hit southwestern China on Sunday afternoon and shook the popular tourist city of Lijiang, local authorities said. The quake struck near the border between Yunnan and Sichuan provinces, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS), which put the magnitude at 5.4 and depth at 38 kilometres (24 miles). The Yunnan Seismological Bureau said 22 people had been injured in the quake, two severely, in Ninglang county. The provincial seismological administration said there were no reports yet of damage to houses, but state news agency Xinhua said a 60-strong search and rescue team…
PARIS: French authorities took down the European Union flag from the Arc de Triomphe monument in Paris on Sunday, after right-wing opponents of President Emmanuel Macron accused him of “erasing” French identity by installing it in place of the national flag. The giant blue flag was raised in place of a French flag on New Year’s Eve to mark France’s turn at the rotating presidency of the EU Council, which it will hold for the next six months. The arch, a monument to war dead, and other landmarks including the Eiffel Tower and the Pantheon are being illuminated with blue…
KHARTOUM: Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok said on Sunday he was resigning, less than two months after being reinstated as part of a political agreement with the military. In a televised speech, he said a roundtable discussion was needed to come to a new agreement for Sudan’s transition to democracy. The announcement came in the wake of relentless anti-coup demonstrations which have gripped the capital Khartoum since early last month. The country plunged into turmoil after Abdel Fattah al-Burhan — Sudan’s de facto leader following the ouster of Omer Bashir — launched his coup on Oct 25 and detained Prime…
Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday launched the Pak-China Business Investment Forum aimed at enhancing information exchange and promoting communication between businesses of the two countries, thereby opening up new avenues of cooperation. According to Radio Pakistan, the forum consists of 18 Chinese and 19 Pakistani companies and its objective is to promote sustainable investment, export industry and development of modern technology in Pakistan. The forum has been formed with the collaboration of the Board of Investment Pakistan and All Pakistan Chinese Enterprises. Addressing its launching ceremony in Islamabad, the prime minister rued that smaller countries were faring much better than Pakistan in…
WASHINGTON: The US military spent $14 trillion during two decades of war in Afghanistan and the Middle East, enriching arm manufacturers, dealers and contractors. A detailed, full-page report in The Wall Street Journal shows that since Sept 11, 2001, US military outsourcing pushed up Pentagon spending to $14 trillion. One-third to half of that sum went to contractors. The report includes numerous examples of how American tax-payers’ money was wasted on projects that never came to fruition. On one such project, “the Pentagon spent $6 million on a project that imported nine Italian goats to boost Afghanistan’s cashmere market. The project never reached scale.”…
PESHAWAR: All component parties of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) are fully prepared for the proposed Mehngai march on Islamabad, Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman said on Sunday. Talking to reporters after chairing a meeting of the Pakistan Democratic Movement’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chapter at the JUI-F Secretariat to discuss the line of action for the proposed march towards the capital on March 23, Maulana Fazl said the participants agreed that the date of the march would not be changed due to the second phase of local government elections. Leaders of component parties of the opposition alliance Murtaza Abbasi,…
RAWALPINDI: Police claimed to have arrested 125 people in 85 cases of violations, including firing into the air, wheeling and displaying fireworks, on the new year night. A police spokesman said of the 85 cases, 37 were registered with the Rawal Division police where 71 people were detained. Moreover, 38 cases were registered with the Potohar Division police with the arrest of 37 people. He said the Saddar Division police registered 10 cases and arrested 17 people. The district police had taken tight security measures with heavy deployment to prevent wheeling, aerial firing and fireworks. During a crackdown, the police…
