Europe | Pakistan

Icy temperatures plunged swathes of Europe into a second day of travel chaos on Tuesday, with weather-related accidents causing six deaths from the continent’s bitterest cold snap this winter so far. Five of those deaths since the mercury dropped on Monday were in France alone, while a woman died in Bosnia as heavy snow and rain sparked floods and power outages across the Balkans. Paris’s two airports, Roissy-Charles de Gaulle and Orly, were to cancel many flights early Wednesday to allow ground crews to clear snow from runways and de-ice planes. Forty percent of flights at Charles de Gaulle were to be scrapped, and 25 per cent at Orly. A person gathers snow following a short snow shower in Parliament Square, in London, Britain on January 6, 2026. —Reuters In Britain, the mercury plunged to -12.5C overnight Monday-Tuesday in Norfolk, eastern England, while temperatures below -10C across the Netherlands brought trains to a standstill on Tuesday morning. “Last night was the coldest night of the winter so far,” ...

BEIRUT: Pope Leo XIV on Tuesday criticised anti-migrant activists who stoke “fears” of Islam and said co-operation between Christians and Muslims in Lebanon should be an example for Europe and the United States. The 70-year-old pope spoke to reporters on the plane at the end of his visit to Turkey and Lebanon — his first trip outside of Italy since becoming head of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics in May. Leo said anti-Muslim sentiment was “oftentimes generated by people who are against immigration and trying to keep out people who may be from another country, another religion, another race.” He said his visit to Lebanon was intended to show “that dialogue and friendship between Muslims and Christians is possible”. Leo said stories he heard during the trip of Christians and Muslims helping each other were “lessons … that we should perhaps be a little less fearful”. The pontiff urges halt to attacks in Lebanon as first trip abroad ends The US-born pope spent two decades in Peru as a missionary within the Augu...

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Russia was “ready” for war if Europe seeks one, accusing the continent’s leaders of trying to sabotage a deal on the Ukraine conflict before he met with US envoys. The comments came as United States envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner were in Moscow for high-stakes talks on ending the nearly four-year war, which were preceded by days of intense diplomacy. “We are not planning to go to war with Europe, but if Europe wants to and starts, we are ready right now,” Putin told reporters in Moscow. “They have no peaceful agenda, they are on the side of war,” he added, repeating his claim that European leaders were hindering US attempts to broker peace in Ukraine. He added that European changes to Trump’s latest plan to end the war “aimed solely at one thing — to completely block the entire peace process and put forward demands that are absolutely unacceptable for Russia”. Washington has presented a 28-point draft to end the c...

Stargazers will have a chance to see a “Blood Moon” on Sunday night during a total lunar eclipse visible across Asia, as well as swathes of Europe and Africa. When the Sun, Earth and Moon line up, the shadow cast by the planet on its satellite makes it appear an eerie, deep red colour that has astounded humans for millennia. People in Asia, including India and China, will be best placed to see Sunday’s total eclipse, which will also be visible on the eastern edge of Africa as well as in western Australia. The total lunar eclipse will last from 1730 GMT to 1852 GMT (10:30pm PKT to 11:52pm PKT). Stargazers in Europe and Africa will get a brief chance to see a partial eclipse just as the Moon rises during the early evening, while the Americas will miss out. The Moon appears red during lunar eclipses because the only sunlight reaching it is “reflected and scattered through the Earth’s atmosphere”, said Ryan Milligan, an astrophysicist at Northern Ireland’s Queen’s University Belfast. Blue wavelengths of light are...

ISLAMABAD: Romania on Saturday proposed offering Pakistan a direct trade corridor into Europe through its Constanța Port, aiming to enhance bilateral trade and regional connectivity. Federal Minister for Commerce Jam Kamal Khan and Romanian Ambassador Dan Stoenescu held a constructive meeting in Islamabad, focusing on enhancing bilateral cooperation in trade, logistics, defence, energy, and culture. […]

The number of Pakistanis seeking political asylum in Europe has declined in 2024, following a record surge in 2023, according to the latest EU asylum trends report.

Four people died in Spain, two in France and two in Italy as an early summer heatwave continued to grip much of Europe on Wednesday, triggering health alerts and forest fires and forcing the closure of a nuclear reactor at a Swiss power plant. Spanish officials said a wildfire in Catalonia had killed two people a day earlier, and authorities reported heatwave-linked deaths also in Extremadura and Cordoba. France’s energy minister reported two deaths linked to the heat, with 300 others taken to the hospital. Italy issued red alerts for 18 cities, while in Germany, temperatures were forecast to peak at 40 degrees Celsius in some areas, making it the hottest day of the year. Two men over the age of 60 died in separate incidents on the beach in Sardinia from the heat, ANSA news agency reported. Weather forecaster Meteo France said red alerts remained for several areas of central France. The risks were greatest for vulnerable members of the population, and Catherine Vautrin, France’s health and families minister, ...

Firefighters battled wildfires in Turkiye and France on Monday, and more than 50,000 people were evacuated as an early summer heatwave hit Europe. Health alerts were issued in France, Spain, Italy, Portugal and Germany. Even the Netherlands, used to a milder climate, issued a warning for high temperatures in the coming days, coupled with high humidity. “Large parts of Western Europe are experiencing extreme heat and heatwave conditions that are normally observed in July or August, rather than June,” said Samantha Burgess, strategic lead for climate at the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service. Temperatures were in some locations 5-10 degrees Celsius warmer than they otherwise should have been at this time of the year, she said. In Turkiye, wildfires raged for a second day in the western province of Izmir, fanned by strong winds, Forestry Minister Ibrahim Yumakli said. More than 50,000 people have been evacuated from five regions, including more than 42,000 in Izmir, Turkiye’s AFAD emergency management author...

Peshawar - Governor Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Faisal Karim Kundi, on Sunday declared the southern districts of the province more beautiful than Switzerland and Europe, emphasizing that peace is essential to unlocking their true potential.