SINGAPORE: The US and Chinese defence chiefs locked horns on Taiwan in their first face-to-face meeting in two years on Friday, while Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr slammed “illegal, coercive actions” in the South China Sea, a clear censure of Beijing. The exchanges at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, Asia’s biggest defence forum, came amid reports that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky would fly in to attend the meeting on Saturday. He is expected to try to drum up support for a Ukraine peace conference to be hosted by Switzerland in mid-June. Russia has not been invited and China has confirmed…
Author: Hasnain Abid Khanzada
NEW YORK: Donald Trump said on Friday he would appeal the guilty verdict that made him the first US president convicted of a crime, though he will have to wait until after his sentencing on July 11 before taking that step. In rambling remarks at the Trump Tower lobby in Manhattan, he repeated complaints that the trial was a “rigged” attempt to hobble his comeback White House bid. “If they can do this to me, they can do this to anyone,” Trump, 77, said in an unscripted 33-minute speech. Applauded by supporters, he took no questions from reporters. “We’re going to…
Marian Robinson, the mother of former first lady Michelle Obama, who moved into the White House with the first family, helped care for her young granddaughters and provided a stabilizing presence in one of the world’s most stressful residences, died on Friday, her family said. “We needed her. The girls needed her. And she ended up being our rock through it all,” her family said in a statement. Robinson was 86. Though she eschewed the spotlight, Robinson was present for some of the Obama family’s most visible moments, often appearing at holiday celebrations or other events alongside the first…
India’s six-week election reached its final day of voting Saturday, including in the holy city Prime Minister Narendra Modi has used as a staging post for his Hindu nationalist agenda. Modi is widely expected to win a third term in office when results are announced Tuesday, in large part due to his cultivated image as an aggressive champion of India’s majority faith. The 73-year-old’s constituency of Varanasi is the spiritual capital of Hinduism, where devotees from around India come to cremate deceased loved ones by the Ganges river. It is one of the final cities to vote in India’s gruelling election and where public…
ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office on Friday said that the Taliban administration in Afghanistan had assured Pakistan of its cooperation in investigation into the Bisham suicide attack in which five Chinese nationals and their Pakistani driver lost their lives. “The Afghan side has agreed to examine the findings of the investigation and to work with Pakistan to take the investigation to its logical conclusion,” FO spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said at the weekly media briefing. She was responding to a question about the visit of a high-level delegation led by Interior Secretary Khurram Agha to Kabul. At the talks, Deputy Taliban Interior Minister Muhammad Nabi…
ISLAMABAD: The head of Pakistan’s polio eradication programme resigned from his post on Friday, citing “personal reasons”. The resignation of Dr Shahzad Asif Baig came at a time when the virus was seeing a resurgence, with three cases of the crippling disease already reported in 2024. Even though the coordinator of the National Emergency Operations Centre for Polio Eradication said he was resigning for personal reasons, official sources said the government had already decided to replace him. In his resignation, Dr Baig thanked frontline health workers and his family. “I am proud that during my tenure, Pakistan achieved the significant objective of…
TAXILA: A Control of Narcotics Substance Court (CNS) in Taxila on Friday sentenced a man involved in drug peddling to nine years imprisonment and also imposed a fine on him. Jaffar Hussain was arrested by local police in the case registered under section 9-C of Control of Narcotics Substance Act 1997 after recovering 1.6kg hashish from his custody. The judge, after hearing the arguments of both the defence and prosecution counsel, announced the verdict after finding the accused guilty of possessing narcotics. Subsequently he awarded him nine years imprisonment and a fine of Rs80,000. During the proceedings, the public prosecutor…
ISLAMABAD: After causing massive confusion, the government on Friday ended up reducing the prices of petrol and high speed diesel by Rs4.74 and Rs3.86 per litre, respectively, a far cry from the figures released just hours earlier by the Prime Minister’s Office. In an earlier statement, the PMO notified a Rs15.39 and Rs7.88 per litre reduction in the prices of petrol and high speed diesel (HSD), respectively. But this did not sit well with the finance ministry, which had suggested a Rs4.74 and Rs3.86 per litre cut based on discussions with the Ministry of Energy and the Oil and Gas…
ISLAMABAD: The capital administration on Friday allowed the PTI to hold a public gathering on June 8 at an open space near Rawat, instead of F-9 Park as requested, subject to terms and conditions to be followed by the party. Officials of the capital administration said the PTI had filed an application seeking permission for the gathering in the park. Over the application, comments/views were sought from the SSP (operations), Intelligence Bureau and the Special Branch. In reply, the law enforcement agencies reported that due to the prevailing security situation in the capital and on the basis of the past…
ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday made it clear that the questions framed regarding spy agencies’ role in enforced disappearance cases would not remain unanswered despite the “recovery” of missing poet, Ahmed Farhad, and rejected the government’s request to dispose of the petition seeking his recovery until he is produced in court. Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani was earlier informed by the petitioner’s lawyer that Farhad had not reached home, as he had been arrested in another case registered at Saddar Police Station, Muzaffarabad. Farhad’s family visited him at another police station on the intervention of a senior police…
