Pakistan

A fire at a building housing a library and a coaching centre for college students in India’s Lucknow killed at least 14 people on Monday, officials said. The fire in Lucknow, the capital city of northern Uttar Pradesh state, started from the middle floor of the three-storey commercial building located in a residential area and soon spread to other levels. “Fourteen children from happy families were killed in the incident,” the state’s deputy chief minister, Brajesh Pathak, told reporters, adding four others were injured in the blaze. It was not clear whether all of the dead were students. Multiple students jumped from the upper level of the building onto the street below to escape the flames, witnesses told an AFP reporter. Indian TV showed images of the flames leaping out from the front facade of the building as firefighters struggled to put out the fire. The building housed a coaching centre for college students, a library and a computer graphics section. Building fires are common in India due to a lack of ...

KARACHI: Police on Monday registered a terrorism case against the driver of a van that crashed into a tent of mourners outside an imambargah in Karachi’s Defence Housing Authority (DHA) a day earlier. Three of the driver’s companions were also named in the first information report (FIR) registered on the complaint of the imambargah’s security head. According to police, at around 9.30pm on Sunday night, a Suzuki pick-up had rammed into a tent outside the imambargah where mourners were attending a Muharram majlis. A teenage girl injured in the incident succumbed to her wounds today. Twenty-three others were injured in the incident, including the driver and his companions, who are under treatment at a hospital and have been taken into custody. Five wounded were treated for minor injuries and discharged immediately, whereas the condition of a man admitted to Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) remains critical. South Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Syed Asad Raza earlier said the driver had lost control of t...

Opposition raises rights, governance concerns as government defends security record

.

.

.

.

Court sets aside tribunal ruling, orders review

.

.

GILGIT: The Gilgit-Baltistan Assembly elected PPP’s Advocate Amjad Hussain as the chief minister on Monday, just hours after the newly elected assembly members took oath. This came after the PPP’s Imran Nadeem Shigri and the PML-N’s Malik Kifayatur Rehman were elected as the assembly’s speaker and deputy speaker, respectively. Nadeem announced the election schedule for the leader of the House, gave until 7:40pm to file the nomination papers and withdrawals for the position of chief minister, and adjourned the proceedings. PPP’s Hussain filed nomination papers, but no other candidate did so for the chief minister’s position. Subsequently, Nadeem announced at 8pm that Hussain was elected as the GB CM unopposed. Meanwhile, the GB speaker declared PML-N local president Hafeezur Rehman as the opposition leader in the house, saying the opposition members had submitted a requisition in this regard. The assembly hall was crowded with the guests of members, journalists, politicians, visitors and VIPs, with the press g...

Dozens injured after blast inside Ras Laffan complex

.

.

Burnham looks set to replace him without a contest

.

.

Thirteen drown across France as people seek relief from European heatwave

Proceedings marred by noisy protests, expunged remarks

Reprimands IO for lack of progress in investigation