ISLAMABAD: Inflation measured through the Sensitive Price Index (SPI) posted a decline of 0.50 per cent for the week ended on Dec 30 driven by a sharp decline in the prices of essential food items, data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) showed on Friday. The data released show that SPI-based inflation posted a negative growth after an increase for the past two consecutive weeks. In November, the highest jump of 1.81pc in weekly inflation was recorded. For the lowest income group earning below Rs17, 732 per month, the SPI dropped by 0.80 per cent and for the…
Author: Hasnain Abid Khanzada
PARIS: Free birth control for all women under 25 will be available in France from Saturday, expanding a scheme targeting under-18s to ensure young women don’t stop taking contraception because they cannot afford it. The scheme, which could benefit three million women, covers the pill, IUDs, contraceptive patches and other methods composed of steroid hormones. Contraception for minors was already free in France. Several European countries, including Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands and Norway, make contraception free for teens. Britain makes several forms of contraception free to all. France announced the extension to women under 25 in September, saying surveys showed…
DHARAMSALA: The last surviving member of a small troop of Indian soldiers who escorted the Dalai Lama as he fled Tibet in 1959 has died aged 85, his former regiment said on Friday. The Tibetan spiritual leader arrived in India as a young monk after a 13-day trek through the Himalayas disguised as a soldier to evade detection by Chinese troops. Naren Chandra Das, who died at his residence in Assam on Monday, was 22 at the time and had just completed his training with the Assam Rifles, the Indian army’s oldest paramilitary force. Along with six other soldiers, he…
SUPERIOR: Fast-moving wildfires in the US state of Colorado destroyed hundreds of homes and forced at least 33,000 people to flee, officials said, as flames tore through areas desiccated by a historic drought. At least 1,600 acres (650 hectares) have burned in Boulder County, much of it suburban, with officials warning that deaths and injuries were likely as the blaze took hold of a hotel, shopping centre and apartment complex in the town of Superior. “We know that approximately 370 homes in the Sagamore subdivision… have been lost. There’s a potential of 210 homes lost in Old Town Superior,” Boulder…
SYDNEY: The world began ushering in 2022 on Friday after another tumultuous and pandemic-ridden year capped by new restrictions, soaring case numbers, and a slight glimmer of hope for better times ahead. The past 12 months saw a new US president and a fresh Adele album, the first spectator-free Olympics, and dreams of democracy from Afghanistan to Myanmar and Hong Kong crushed by authoritarian regimes. But it was the pandemic — now entering its third year — that again dominated life for most of humankind. More than 5.4 million people have died since the coronavirus was first reported in central…
JERUSALEM: Israeli troops on Friday shot dead a Palestinian man who allegedly attempted to stab soldiers and civilians at a bus stop in the occupied West Bank, the military said. The Palestinian health ministry confirmed the death of the alleged assailant, identifying him as Amir Atef Rayyan. The army said the attempted stabbing took place near the Gitain Avisar junction in the West Bank. The Palestinian, it said, approached a military post in a car “and got out of the vehicle armed with a knife”. The man “ran towards the bus station where civilians and IDF soldiers were standing. The…
WILMINGTON (Delaware, US): President Joe Biden warned Russia’s Vladimir Putiin on Thursday that the US could impose fresh sanctions against Russia if it takes further military action against Ukraine, while Putin responded that such a US move could lead to a complete rupture of ties between the two nations. The two leaders spoke frankly for nearly an hour amid growing alarm over Russia’s troop buildup near Ukraine, a crisis that deepened as the Kremlin stiffened its insistence on border security guarantees and test-fired hypersonic missiles to underscore its demands. Further US sanctions “would be a colossal mistake that would entail…
At least 12 people died and 13 were injured in a stampede at a religious shrine in India in the early hours of Saturday as thousands of pilgrims massed to offer prayers, officials said. The disaster happened around 3:00am while it was still dark on the route to the Vaishno Devi shrine in occupied Kashmir, one of the country’s most revered Hindu sites. “People fell over each other… It was difficult to figure out whose leg or arms were tangled with whose,” witness Ravinder, who gave only one name, told AFP by phone from the scene. “I helped pick up eight bodies…
Pakistan and India on Saturday exchanged the lists of their prisoners in each other’s custody and nuclear sites as part of the various agreements in place between the two countries. According to a Foreign Office (FO) statement, Pakistan shared a list of 628 Indian prisoners with the Indian High Commission in Islamabad in accordance with the 2008 Agreement on Consular Access. About 51 prisoners on the list are civilians, while 577 are fishermen. “The Indian government also simultaneously shared the list of 355 Pakistani prisoners in India including 282 civilians and 73 fishermen with the High Commission for Pakistan in…
Pope Francis used his New Year’s message on Saturday to issue a clarion call for an end to violence against women, saying it was insulting to God. Francis, 85, celebrated a Mass in St Peter’s Basilica on the day the Roman Catholic Church marks both the solemnity of Holy Mary Mother of God as well as its annual World Day of Peace. Francis appeared to be in good form on Saturday following an unexplained incident on New Year’s Eve where he attended a service but at the last minute did not preside over it as he had been expected to.…
