Pakistan

Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah welcomed a high-level Saudi business delegation on Thursday and highlighted 12 priority sectors for investment in the province. The high-level business delegation from Saudi Arabia, led by Saudi-Pakistan Joint Business Council Chairman Prince Mansour bin Mohammad Al Saud, arrived in Pakistan on Tuesday to discuss trade, investment and collaboration. The development followed Pakistan forming an 18-member committee to oversee bilateral economic engagements and negotiations with the kingdom. Last month, the two countries also signed a mutual defence agreement, pledging a joint response to any act of aggression. A press release issued today from the CM Secretariat said the delegation was welcomed at CM House by Shah and provincial ministers. It added that the delegation included over 30 prominent businessmen and investors associated with the energy, infrastructure, agriculture, livestock, mining, construction, logistics and investment sectors. Representatives of the Pakistan Bu...

In a bid to ease mounting political tensions, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari held a phone conversation to discuss the country’s political situation, foreign policy matters, and ongoing flood relief efforts.

The London High Court has ruled in favor of Brigadier (r) Rashid Naseer in a defamation lawsuit against UK-based YouTuber Adil Raja, directing Raja to pay more than Rs130 million (£350,000) in damages and legal costs.

Hungarian writer Laszlo Krasznahorkai won the 2025 Nobel Prize in Literature, the award-giving body said on Thursday. The prize is awarded by the Swedish Academy and is worth 11 million crowns ($1.2 million). Established in the will of Swedish dynamite inventor and businessman Alfred Nobel, the prizes for achievements in literature, science and peace have been awarded since 1901. “The Nobel Prize in Literature for 2025 is awarded to the Hungarian author László Krasznahorkai for his compelling and visionary oeuvre that, in the midst of apocalyptic terror, reaffirms the power of art,” said Mats Malm, Permanent Secretary at the Swedish Academy. Past winners of the 11 million Swedish crown ($1.2 million) literature prize include French poet and essayist Sully Prudhomme, who bagged the first award, American novelist and short story writer William Faulkner in 1949, Britain’s World War Two Prime Minister Winston Churchill in 1953, Turkey’s Orhan Pamuk in 2006 and Norway’s Jon Fosse in 2023. Last year’s prize was won...

Afghanistan’s foreign minister arrived in India on Thursday for talks aiming to foster economic ties with New Delhi in the first such visit by a leader of the group since it seized power in 2021. The six-day trip by Amir Khan Muttaqi highlights the Taliban’s efforts to spur engagement with regional powers to secure eventual diplomatic recognition. He is set to meet Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and other officials to discuss a range of political, economic and trade matters. “We look forward to engaging discussions with him on bilateral relations and regional issues,” foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in a post on X welcoming the minister. Muttaqi is also expected to speak with Indian business representatives, visit the ancient monument to love, the Taj Mahal, and a historic Islamic seminary, media said. He arrives in New Delhi after talks in Moscow with diplomats from Afghanistan’s neighbours, who appeared to unite against US President Donald Trump’s stated aim of taking over the...

Britain said on Thursday it had signed a £350 million ($468m) contract to supply the Indian army with UK-manufactured lightweight missiles, as part of a deepening weapons and defence partnership between the two countries. The announcement came as British Prime Minister Keir Starmer was visiting Indian counterpart Narendra Modi in Mumbai, where the pair hailed the potential of the commercial links from their months-old trade deal. In its statement on the defence deal, the British government said the new contract for Lightweight Multirole Missiles made by Thales in Northern Ireland would secure 700 jobs at a factory which currently makes the same weapons for Ukraine. British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, deliver a statement to the press at Raj Bhavan, in Mumbai, India, on October 9. — Reuters “The deal paves the way for a broader complex weapons partnership between the UK and India, currently under negotiation between the two governments,” it said. Starmer has, ...

A London high court has ruled against YouTuber and former Pakistan Army officer retired Major Adil Farooq Raja in a high-profile defamation case filed by retired Brigadier Rashid Nasir, a former Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) officer. The defamation suit was filed in August 2022, but was made public in April after the respondent stirred another controversy in Pakistan over his allegations targeting leading film and TV actresses. On Thursday, the court found Raja’s allegations of corruption, electoral interference, and human rights abuses against Nasir to be “false and baseless”, ordering him to pay £350,000 in damages and legal costs. Justice Richard Spearman KC delivered the judgment, ordering Raja to pay £50,000 (around Rs20 million) in damages and approximately £300,000 (around Rs110m) in legal costs. The court also directed Raja to publish a summary of the verdict on all his social media platforms, confirming that his claims against Nasir were untrue. In addition, he must apologise and give a written a...

he Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan has announced fully funded PhD scholarships under the US-Pakistan Knowledge Corridor Project, offering Pakistani students the opportunity to pursue doctoral studies at top 300 QS World-Ranked universities in the United States.

Otis Khan missed a penalty as Pakistan played out a goalless draw against Afghanistan at the Jinnah Stadium in Islamabad on Thursday, securing their first point in the third round of qualifying for the 2027 AFC Asian Cup. Nolberto Solano’s side had the better of the opportunities against the jaded visitors, who only arrived in Islamabad less than 24 hours before kickoff due to a prolonged visa problem. However, the hosts weren’t able to capitalise on the chances — notably Otis’ opportunity when he blazed his spot-kick over the bar midway through the second half — in front of a fervent home crowd. The draw meant Pakistan and Afghanistan both got off the mark in Group ‘E’, and they trail joint-leaders Syria and Myanmar by five points. Syria were hosting Myanmar later on Thursday in a clash between two teams with maximum points from their two games. The winner of the group advances to the tournament finals in Saudi Arabia.

A Chinese research team from the Institute of Zoology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences has uncovered a key mechanism explaining why different organisms independently evolve similar functions when adapting to similar environments, using an artificial intelligence (AI) protein language model. Convergent evolution, or convergence, refers to the repeated, independent emergence of the same trait in two or more lineages of species during evolution, often indicating functional adaptation to specific environmental factors. The research team uncovered the critical role of high-order protein features in adaptive convergence. Despite the significant evolutionary distance between bats and toothed whales, both species have independently developed the ability to perceive their environment through echolocation. The research team, led by Zou Zhengting, proposed a computational analysis framework named “ACEP”. The core innovation of this framework lies in its use of a pre-trained protein language model. “A protein language ...

An anti-terrorism court (ATC) in the federal capital has extended the interim bail of Senator Azam Khan Swati in a case related to the November 26 protests, granting relief until November 13, 2023.

The air quality in Karachi has sharply deteriorated following a change in wind direction, pushing the metropolis to sixth place among the world’s most polluted cities, according to air quality monitoring data released on Thursday.

Pakistan received $3.

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar on Thursday said Pakistan welcomes the agreement on first phase of the Plan, including an immediate ceasefire, release of hostages and prisoners, and unhindered humanitarian aid to Gaza.

Indus River System Authority (IRSA) on Thursday released 100,900 cusecs of water from various rim stations with an inflow of 109,500 cusecs.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday directed the authorities concerned to secure the best possible deal for the state-owned enterprises proposed for the privatisation, warning against any red tape or delay in the process.

Former senator Mushtaq Ahmad, detained by Israeli forces during last week’s Gaza aid flotilla interception, has left Jordan for Pakistan.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Thursday issued the schedule for the by-election in NA-1 Chitral Upper-cum-Chitral Lower, following the disqualification of MNA Abdul Latif under Article 63(1)(h) of the Constitution.

Google announced on Thursday that Pakistani students of age 18 and above will be able to gain access to a free one-year subscription to its AI Pro plan. According to a press release by the company, the offer is designed to help students “enhance their learning, research, and creativity through advanced AI tools — at no cost”. The Gemini AI Pro Plan allows these students to access Google’s most capable AI features. These include the Gemini 2.5 Pro model, which gives higher access to its “most capable model” for features like Deep Research to assist with assignments, research, and creative projects. Gemini is also available in Google Apps, “bringing AI assistance directly into Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Meet, helping students summarise emails, create study presentations, and analyse data more efficiently”. Students also gain access to NotebookLM, Google’s personalised, AI-powered research and writing tool, and are given higher limits to tools for creating videos from text or photos, including Veo 3 in Gem...

Italy are struggling to qualify automatically for next year’s World Cup finals and the pressure on the team is exacerbated by the tension surrounding next Tuesday’s qualifier with Israel in Udine. Italy was the scene of some of Europe’s biggest pro-Palestinian protests last weekend, as Israeli forces continue their offensive in Gaza. Hundreds of thousands of people gathered across Italy in anger at Israel’s actions, and calls for the country to be barred from international sport have grown louder. The protests were in response to Israel’s military operation in Gaza, which was sparked by the attack by Hamas fighters on October 7, 2023, on Israeli communities near the Gaza Strip. During Friday’s massive strike action in support of the Palestinians, demonstrators went to the Italian national team’s training centre in Florence to demand the match against Israel be called off. As of Tuesday only around 4,000 tickets had been sold for the game in Udine, a small city in Italy’s far north-east, which was picked speci...