Pakistan

Rallies staged in main towns to express solidarity with people of IIOJK

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MNA claims actual death toll much higher because govt only has data from state-run hospital

Robbers hold lawmaker, family, hostage from 2am till 5am, depart with gold, cash, SUV

Authorities halt illegal mining activity near revered Hindu religious site

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The retreat from Russia by Napoleon Bonaparte and the French Grande Armée in 1812 was a cataclysmic event that marked the beginning of the end for his empire and personal dominance in Europe, with about 300,000 soldiers perishing in a force that originally numbered roughly half a million. A new study involving DNA extracted from the teeth of 13 French soldiers who were buried in a mass grave in Lithuania’s capital Vilnius along the route of the retreat is offering a deeper understanding of the misery the Grande Armée experienced, detecting two pathogens not previously documented in this event. The discovery of the bacteria that cause paratyphoid fever and louse-borne relapsing fever showed, alongside previous work, that several infections had circulated among soldiers already enfeebled by cold, hunger and exhaustion. The Vilnius site, discovered in 2001, contains the remains of approximately 2,000 to 3,000 soldiers from Napoleon’s army. “Vilnius was a key waypoint on the 1812 retreat route. Many soldiers arri...

Thousands afflicted by respiratory, skin, eye problems

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Raise concerns over exclusion of poor, claim bias in survey process

Girl was presented before the bureau's special magistrate on Monday

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The roof of a sprawling rice mill in the eastern district of commercial capital Karachi is covered with sky blue solar panels soaking rays under the broiling midday sun. The mill is one of thousands of industrial units across Pakistan that have shifted to solar energy to counter rising electricity tariffs and frequent power outages in recent years. The South Asian country of around 255 million people has witnessed a solar uptake, particularly over the past two years, after an International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout forced Pakistan to sharply raise power and gas tariffs to support struggling suppliers in the heavily indebted energy sector. From pharmaceuticals to cement manufacturers in Karachi, to textile units in Faisalabad, and from supermarkets to mosques in Lahore, solar panels paired with lithium batteries have been adopted as an alternative to electricity from the national grid. “We were left with no other choice but to go for solar energy, as the power bills had literally become unpayable for industr...

On October 23, the red walls of the Institute of Business Management (IoBM), a private varsity in Karachi, reverberated with chants and slogans. “We want justice,” roared hundreds of students gathered at the entrance of the varsity’s main administration block. “We came here to study, not to fight for basic justice,” read a yellow placard, the only one visible in the sea of protesters, all of whom were students. The demonstration, touted as one of its kind in the university’s three-decade-long history, created a storm on social media, with some terming it the ‘power of Gen Z’. The phrase, which echoed across the world a couple of times this year, soon manifested: days after the protest, the university reinstated the female student, who had been expelled after she attempted to file a harassment complaint against a staff member. The reinstatement was announced minutes before a larger protest was scheduled to take place outside the varsity today, in anticipation of which the institution had been shut for a week —...

Jordan’s King Abdullah II on Monday lauded the Pakistan military’s contributions towards regional peace and security in a meeting with Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) Field Marshal Asim Munir on Monday, according to the military’s media wing. A statement from the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said the army chief is currently on an official visit to Jordan and called on the Jordanian king for a meeting, with Crown Prince Hussein bin Abdullah II also present. The ISPR said both dignitaries discussed matters of mutual interest, with a particular focus on enhancing bilateral cooperation in defence and security, and exchanging perspectives on regional developments. “His majesty appreciated the professionalism and contributions of the Pakistan Armed Forces towards regional peace and stability and expressed his desire to further strengthen defence collaboration between the two brotherly countries,” the ISPR said, adding that the army chief conveyed warm regards from Pakistan’s people, government and military...