Pakistan

Seasonal flowers create refreshing ambience; citizens welcome beautification initiatives

Dams replenish reserves; Rawal Dam can supply water for 6 months, Khanpur for 3

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Police say suspects recorded assault, threatened to share videos on social media

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Only 1,512 charge sheets submitted out of 6,198 FIRs in two months

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Toxic emissions blamed for cancer and environmental damage

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday called on President Asif Ali Zardari to discuss the overall national security situation and key challenges facing the country, according to the President’s Secretariat. The meeting comes a day after the quadrilateral ministerial moot in Islamabad, involving the foreign ministers of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkiye and Egypt, discussing possible ways to bring an “early and permanent end” to the war in the region. The foregin ministers of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Turkiye had also called on PM Shehbaz after the meeting concluded. According to President’s Secretariat, the meeting was attended by Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, PPP Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, and Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi. National Security Adviser and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Director General (DG) Asim Malik also participated in the meeting. During the meeting, participants held a detailed discussion on the overall national security situation, reviewed the evolving...

PSMA calls for deregulation, ethanol blending to cut import dependence

ME tensions continue to fuel losses as KSE-100 sheds 4,865 points

Chairman warns of regulatory action against abuse of dominant position

Multiple people and accounts shared a video on several social media platforms on March 29, allegedly showing a leaked clip of Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Kash Patel dancing. However, the video is old and shows an unidentified man. Iran-linked hackers named ‘Handala’ on March 27 claimed they had accessed Patel’s personal email inbox, publishing photographs of the director and other documents to the internet. A Justice Department official confirmed that Patel’s email had been breached and said the material published online appeared authentic. The development occurred amid the conflict that began on February 28 when the United States and Israel carried out coordinated airstrikes targeting Iran’s military infrastructure, including missile systems and nuclear-related facilities. The strikes marked a significant escalation in tensions between the countries, following a period of heightened regional instability and previous confrontations. On March 29, an Indian user shared a video on X with the f...

Russia said on Monday that an oil tanker carrying 100,000 metric tons of crude oil had arrived in Cuba and that Moscow would stand by its friends by working on further supplies despite a US blockade of the island. The US cut off Venezuela’s oil exports to Cuba after toppling deposed Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro on January 3, and US President Donald Trump threatened to slap punishing tariffs on any other country that sent crude to Cuba. But Trump on Sunday signalled he was reversing course and expressed sympathy for the Cuban people’s need for energy. The Anatoly Kolodkin was waiting to offload at the port of Matanzas, Russia’s transport ministry said. The Kremlin said it had raised the issue of the tanker during talks with the US but that Russia felt it had a duty to support “friends” in Cuba. “This issue was indeed raised in advance during contacts with our American partners,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. Cuba has not received an oil tanker in three months, according to President Mi...

Peter Steinberger’s artificial intelligence agent tool OpenClaw has taken the tech world by storm with its ability to execute real-life tasks such as checking him in for his flight to Tokyo. AI is not yet a ubiquitous personal assistant for ordinary people, but “you’ll see much more of that this year because this is the year of agents”, Steinberger told AFP in the Japanese capital on Monday. “There are still some things we need to do to make it better,” the Austrian programmer said. Demand is ramping up, however, with more developers now “making the future happen”, he added in an interview during a gathering for OpenClaw enthusiasts. When downloaded, OpenClaw can be connected to existing AI models and given simple instructions through instant messaging apps, as if to a friend or colleague. Jensen Huang, head of the world’s most valuable company Nvidia, this month hailed the tool — whose symbol is a bright red lobster — as “the next ChatGPT”. But all the buzz has raised concerns over the cybersecurity risks of...

The Pakistan Stock Exchange’s (PSX) benchmark KSE-100 index plummeted by over 4,000 points during intraday trade on Monday. The KSE-100 index declined by 4864.54 points, or 3.21 per cent, to close at 146,842.97 from the previous close of 151,707.51. The index rose to an intraday high of 151,813.61 points at around 9:30am, shortly after trading began. However, it declined to an intraday low of 144,656.97 points at around 11:30am, before settling at 146,842.97. Topline Securities, in its daily market review, said, “the local bourse felt the heat today, as surging oil prices and escalating geopolitical tensions rattled investor confidence”. It said that the investors also grew “wary over the government’s decision to keep fuel prices unchanged for a second consecutive week, raising concerns of fiscal strain”. The statement added that the “bears wasted no time seizing control, unleashing aggressive selling across the board”. “Relentless liquidation pushed the index to an intraday slide of 7,050 points — bringing t...

The waterfowl hunting season across Punjab has officially wrapped up, with wildlife authorities enforcing a province-wide ban on all hunting activities.

ISLAMABAD: Kuwait has assured full facilitation in the supply of diesel and jet fuel to Pakistan, which has been stalled due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz due to the ongoing US-Israeli war on Iran. The assurance for the revival of oil exports to Pakistan came after Tehran allowed 20 cargoes with Pakistani flags to pass the Strait of Hormuz, as announced by Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar on Saturday. Pakistan imports more than 60 per cent of its diesel from Kuwait under a long-term contract between state-run oil giants of the two countries — Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) and Pakistan State Oil. Alternative routes, following the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, have resulted in additional freight costs for Pakistan. On Monday, Minister for Petroleum Ali Pervaiz Malik held a meeting with Kuwait’s Ambassador to Pakistan Nassar Abdulrahman Jasser Almutairi to discuss bilateral relations, energy cooperation, and regional developments. According to an official statement, Malik exp...

Governor of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Faisal Karim Kundi on Monday hosted a luncheon in honour of US Consul General Thomas Eckert and members of the consulate’s diplomatic staff at his residence in Islamabad.