GAZA STRIP: Talks resumed in Egypt on Saturday aimed at halting months of war in Gaza between Hamas and Israel that have triggered protests around the world. Mediators from Qatar, Egypt and the United States sat down with a Hamas delegation to hear the group’s response to a proposal that would halt fighting for 40 days and exchange hostages for Palestinian prisoners, according to details released by Britain. Israel has yet to send a delegation to Cairo, with a top official telling AFP that it would do so only if there was “positive movement” on the proposed framework. “Tough and long negotiations…
Author: Hasnain Abid Khanzada
PORTO ALEGRE: The death toll from floods and mudslides triggered by torrential storms in southern Brazil has climbed to 56 people, with 74 injured and another 67 missing, the country’s civil defence agency said on Saturday. Fast-rising water levels in the state of Rio Grande do Sul were straining dams and threatening the metropolis of Porto Alegre, one of the largest cities in southern Brazil. Authorities there were scrambling to evacuate some neighborhoods that had been submerged — in some cases using helicopters to rescue people stranded on roofs. And heavy rains of “very high severity” are expected to continue…
Canada’s investigation into alleged Indian involvement in the killing of a Sikh separatist in Vancouver last year is a “political compulsion”, New Delhi’s foreign minister said after three Indian citizens were arrested over the killing. Canadian police on Friday arrested the trio for the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, saying they were investigating their links to the Indian government, “if any”. The killing sent diplomatic relations between Ottawa and New Delhi into a tailspin last autumn after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said there were “credible allegations” linking Indian intelligence to the crime. India vehemently rejected the allegations and deemed them “absurd”, halting the processing…
SIALKOT: Defence Minister Khawaja Asif stated on Saturday that those who attacked sensitive installations on May 9 are now considering holding talks with the military. Addressing a press conference at his residence, he said that the Corps Commander’s House in Lahore, Mianwali Air Base, and GHQ Rawalpindi were attacked as part of a planned conspiracy involving a political party. Mr Asif noted: “Throughout our history, there have been differences between political parties and the establishment, but it was the first time that a political party expressed its anger after a vote of no-confidence was passed against it.” He emphasised that evidence, in…
TAXILA: Officials of the district administration, including the health and livestock departments, were on their toes following the death of a man from Crimean Congo Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF) in the Hazro town of Attock on Saturday. CCHF is a viral hemorrhagic disease that is transmitted to humans through contact with infected animals, mainly through the handling of livestock or their blood, tissue, or excrement. It can also be transmitted from human to human through direct contact with the blood or bodily fluids of an infected person. According to the district health authorities, Mohammad Imran, 44, a native of Malla Kalan…
LAHORE: A delegation of Tehreek-i-Tahafuz-i-Aien (movement for protection of constitution), led by its president Mahmood Khan Achakzai, on Saturday met newly-elected Jamaat-i-Islami emir Naeemur Rehman and won a “limited” support for the new movement. The JI would be part of the seminar to be held next week for developing a political consensus on the issue. According to some insiders, Jamaat won’t join the movement nor give it blanket support. It will respond on the basis of each issue, lending support to the opposition only where it thinks it should and, above all, if the JI Shura allows. “The current consensus…
ISLAMABAD: The PTI has said it will oppose any amendment to the Constitution that would modify the tenure of judges, calling such changes “person-specific” to benefit the incumbent chief justice. In a statement, a PTI spokesperson accused CJP Qazi Faez Isa of being the “main facilitator” in the scheme of “snatching” the party’s electoral symbol and “stealing its public mandate”. Any such constitutional amendment would be “resisted tooth and nail”, the statement said, and called the changes “nothing but a bribe” for the incumbent CJP. While there was no clarity yet on the issue, media reports have claimed that the…
ISLAMABAD: Justice Shahid Waheed, a senior judge of the Supreme Court, has highlighted the need for early hearing of the military court cases since the issues highlighted in the case involve lives and liberties of citizens. “All these cases be set down for hearing as soon as possible because the questions involved therein concern the lives and liberties of citizens,” Justice Waheed wrote in his additional note which was part of the five-page SC order released on Saturday. The order pertains to the April 24 hearing of a set of Intra-Court Appeals (ICA) against the Oct 23 unanimous ruling of declaring as illegal the…
PESHAWAR / QUETTA: Police and security forces killed at least 10 alleged terrorists in separate exchanges of fire in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa areas, on Saturday. The military’s media wing said six terrorists were gunned down and their hideouts were busted in an intelligence-based operation carried out by security forces in North Waziristan district of KP, while the counter-terrorism department (CTD) of Balochistan said four terrorists were hunted down and killed after they fired at a police vehicle on Quetta-Sibi Road late in night. A statement issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) read the security forces carried out the…
ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari on Saturday formally approved the appointment of governors for Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan as per the power-sharing formula agreed upon by the parties in the ruling coalition, headed by the PML-N, after the Feb 8 general elections. The president approved the appointment of Sardar Saleem Haider as the governor of Punjab, Faisal Karim Kundi as KP governor and Sardar Jafar Khan Mandokhail as Balochistan governor, according to an official announcement from the presidency. Both Mr Haider and Mr Kundi are considered PPP loyalists, whereas Mr Mandokhail is the president of PML-N’s Balochistan chapter. Mr…
