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LAHORE - Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif on Thursday rejected a proposal to impose charges on bottled drinking water, declaring that access to safe drinking water was a basic public service and should not become a financial burden on citizens.

I work as a journalist and am a single mother to a child who was diagnosed a little over three years ago with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Allow me to share what that means based on a clinician’s report: When she was three-and-a-half years old in 2023, Elia scored 35.5 on the Childhood Autism Rating Scale, placing her in the moderate to severe category. So she had developed more like an 18-month-old, would not speak any meaningful words and instead pulled or dragged me to what she wanted. She would avoid eye contact and not respond to her name either. When she was overwhelmed or angry, she would use repetitive behaviours to self-regulate, like rolling her hair, spinning car wheels, flapping her hands or walking on her toes. Her doctors said she needed Applied Behaviour Analysis and Developmental Therapy. Speech and language therapy would use non-verbal tools like the Picture Exchange Communication System so she could point to pictures to express needs. Occupational Therapy would help her learn fine motor control...

ISLAMABAD - Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif met Chinese Ambassador Jiang Zaidong on Thursday, underscoring the value of people-to-people contacts, as well as exchanges between the political parties and parliaments of both countries.

ISLAMABAD - The federal government on Thursday slashed the prices of petrol and High Speed Diesel by Rs 3.

German defense company Diehl Defence is developing the Sky Sphere counter-drone system with the CICADA effector, which successfully completed testing at the Grafenwoehr training range in 2025.

Președinta Republicii Moldova, Maia Sandu, a criticat dur modul în care a fost gestionată vizita la Chișinău a unei delegații a Ministerului Agriculturii din Afganistan, aflat sub controlul talibanilor, calificând situația drept „rușinoasă” și punând incidentul pe seama unor erori comise de funcțion

EVERY discussion about data protection in Pakistan reaches the same conclusion: we still don’t have a comprehensive data privacy law. Technically, that’s true. The Personal Data Protection Bill has sat in draft form since 2018, and after years of delay it’s easy to assume Pakistan’s approach to data governance is on hold. That assumption can now be challenged. While attention stayed fixed on the stalled privacy bill, another development moved far faster. In late June, the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication (MoITT) released the draft National Data Governance Policy 2026 for public consultation. That consultation closed on July 10. This week, MoITT and the Pakistan Digital Authority (PDA) held a high-level meeting, chaired by Federal Minister Shaza Fatima Khawaja, to finalise the policy ahead of cabinet approval and gazette notification. It isn’t law yet, but we cannot treat it as a mere policy draft either. Many Pakistani tech companies already maintain strong governance practices because...

THE interior minister of Pakistan had said the other day that whether “we admit it or not, this system has collapsed” and that “this system has to be reset”. The healthcare system of Pakistan is sadly a clear illustration of what the minister said, and the spread of HIV and hepatitis C symbolise this collapse. The latest reported figure of small children infected with HIV in the country due to reused syringes and transfusion of unscreened blood is 7,500, minus cases in 2026 from Punjab, which has reportedly not bothered to share its data with the federal government. The total number of deaths due to HIV is reported to be 25,000. The number of children’s deaths is not available. As for the case of hepatitis C, we have the world’s largest infected population, ie around 10 million. The current estimated prevalence of hepatitis C in Pakistan is 7.5 per cent, which is also the highest in the world. Twenty per cent of the global burden of hepatitis C is in Pakistan alone. HIV and hepatitis C share the same modes of...

Een rechter in de Amerikaanse staat New Mexico heeft Meta, het moederbedrijf van Facebook en Instagram, donderdag opgedragen 567 miljoen dollar (zo’n 492 miljoen euro) te storten…

Crypto exchange Bitget has signed an agreement with Gelephu Mindfulness City Authority to pursue a regulated local presence. Bitget has signed an agreement with Bhutan’s Gelephu Mindfulness City Authority to explore establishing a licensed local operation, as the crypto exchange seeks a foothold in the country’s developing digital asset sector. The agreement could pave the way for Bitget to establish a legal presence and prepare its application for a relevant financial services license in GMC, a $100 billion autonomous economic zone backed in part by Bhutan’s national Bitcoin reserves that aims to create high-value roles in finance, tech and wellness. “GMC is the emerging hotbed for digital finance, and Bitget looks forward to contributing exchange experience, infrastructure knowledge and local talent development as this ecosystem grows,” said Gracy Chen, CEO at Bitget. Read more

Show returns with revamped house, new contestants as former winners reunite

Российский певец Григорий Лепс, известный как сторонник диктатора Владимира Путина и войны против Украины, столкнулся с последствиями агрессии РФ в оккупированном Крыму.

Ukraine's Security Service (SSU) has exposed another online agitator in Cherkasy who justified Russia's aggression and discredited Ukraine's Defense Forces.

Furtunile și ploile puternice au provocat avarii semnificative în infrastructura energetică din Republica Moldova, lăsând mai multe localități fără energie electrică. Ministerul Energiei a anunțat că linia de înaltă tensiune de 330 kV Bălți–Dnestrovsk a fost grav afectată în urma fenomenelor meteo.

More than 60 Palestinians detained or questioned during nearly two-day military operation

On the day the report was released, an Oklahoma-based organization called Jewish Tulsa made news for urging US President Donald Trump’s administration to offer refugee status to Jewish Canadians.

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• Says Oman, other ‘brotherly states’ leading different aspects of diplomacy • Insists Islamabad is focused on settlement rather than ‘individual symptoms of crisis’ • Pakistan examining TORs, operational modalities of Saudi-led maritime coalition • Govt will decide on Gaza stabilisation force after formal proposal ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office on Thursday insisted that Pakistan remained actively engaged in efforts to defuse the Strait of Hormuz stand-off, while also examining the terms of reference and operational modalities of a newly announced Saudi-led multinational maritime coalition aimed at protecting shipping routes in the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. The Foreign Office acknowledged that different regional partners, particularly Oman, were taking the lead on different aspects of the diplomatic process. It portrayed Islamabad’s role as part of a coordinated effort by “brotherly states” to steer the crisis back towards the framework established under the Islamabad Memorandum o...

DESPITE the use of both carrots and sticks by the international community, the Afghan Taliban refuse to cut their ties to terrorist groups such as the TTP. This poses a particular problem to Afghanistan’s neighbours, including Pakistan, which has borne the brunt of terrorist violence ever since the Taliban’s return to Kabul in 2021. Both KP and Balochistan are currently in the grip of violent insurgencies, with the elements responsible for the bloodshed finding safe havens in Afghanistan. Pakistan raised the issue at the UN Security Council on Wednesday, with this country’s permanent representative highlighting the “increasingly permissive environment” for terrorist groups in Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover. He urged the Taliban to fulfil their obligations and ensure Afghan soil is not used against neighbouring states. China’s representative at the same forum echoed these concerns, urging the Taliban to take action, whilst supporting Pakistan’s counterterrorism efforts. The Chinese diplomat also called...

ISLAMABAD: While the government has once again invited the main opposition party, PTI, to begin negotiations, the party has linked any dialogue with improved meeting facilities and access to medical care for its founding chairman, Imran Khan. Aamir Dogar, the PTI’s Chief Whip, met National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq on Thursday. The meeting was also attended by Federal Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry. Speaking to the media after the meeting, Dr Fazal said the government had once again offered talks at the venue proposed by PTI within Parliament House. “The ball is now in PTI’s court,” he said, expressing hope that the opposition would respond positively. He recalled that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had earlier offered dialogue to the opposition, but PTI had not responded. Aamir Dogar meets NA speaker, minister in Parliament House He said negotiations were the only way to resolve political issues. PTI Central Information Secretary Sheikh Waqas Akram, while talking to Dawn, ...