Pakistan

The US embassy in Oslo was hit by an explosion in the early hours of Sunday but no one was injured, police in the Norwegian capital said, adding the cause was not immediately known. The blast occurred around 1am local time (0000 GMT) and caused only “minor material damage” to one of the building’s entrances, Oslo police said in a statement. Investigators were examining the scene, while dogs, drones, and helicopters were involved in the search “for one or more potential perpetrators”, it said. “Police view such incidents in public spaces as very serious, and are investigating the case with substantial resources and high priority.” Police commander Michael Dellemyr told TV2 police would “not comment on anything related to the type of damage, what it is that has exploded and similar details, beyond the fact that there has been an explosion” because “it is very early in the investigation”. He later told TV2 that police “have an idea of the cause”, adding: “It appears to us that this is an act carried out by someo...

KARACHI: The University of Karachi (KU) has announced to hold all morning classes online from Monday (tomorrow) till the end of Ramazan. According to a KU spokesperson, evening classes have already been online since the start of Ramazan and that the latest decision will now provide relief to morning students given the significant hike in fuel prices. “Keeping in view the convenience of its students during Ramazan and transportation restraints likely to be caused by the recent price hike in petroleum products, the University of Karachi has decided that all the morning classes from Monday, March 9, 2026, till end of the month of Ramazan will be conducted only online,” the varsity said in a notification. Published in Dawn, March 8th, 2026

There was a moment — brief but powerful — where we began to believe we had finally slain an old giant. It came with the rise of platforms that promised to “democratise” media, to give voice to every individual, to let every athlete, thinker, activist, executive or celebrity broadcast their own story, without the filters of legacy institutions. Elon Musk said as much when he spoke about decentralising media, opening it up to everyone with a phone and an internet connection. No more gatekeepers. No more old hierarchies. Just pure, unmediated truth. And, at first, it felt liberating. Every podcast became a direct line to the person who actually lived the narrative. Every social media platform turned into a newsroom and every public figure into their own anchor. We were told to reject “mainstream media” — that it was biased, outdated, elitist — and embrace instead the beautiful chaos of direct testimony. Fake news, they said, wasn’t the problem; controlled narratives were. And now those narratives could be topple...

ISLAMABAD: As the conflict in the Middle East escalates, Pakistan’s Planning Commission has cautioned about possible economic impacts on the country, including increased energy costs, strain on remittance inflows, and potential interruptions to exports and financial stability. The ministry warned that instability in the region, especially around the strategic Strait of Hormuz, could drive up global oil prices and sharply increase Pakistan’s import costs, given the country’s heavy dependence on petroleum imports from the Middle East, according to the Ministry of Planning’s Monthly Development Update for March. Such developments could also fuel domestic inflation, raise production and freight costs for exporters, and place additional pressure on the exchange rate and fiscal position, according to the report released here on Saturday. At the same time, prolonged conflict could affect remittance inflows from Gulf countries, where millions of Pakistani workers are employed, and create uncertainty for Pakistan’s ex...

TOKYO: Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Saturday that former prince Andrew should be removed from the line of royal succession over his “deplorable” behaviour. Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor is being investigated for alleged misconduct in public office following revelations about his dealings with the late US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. He was arrested and released in February on suspicion of having passed confidential information to Epstein during his 2001-2011 role as a UK trade envoy. “There is a process in order to do it….but I certainly think his actions which are deplorable and have caused him to be stripped of his royal titles, certainly… necessitate his removal from the line of succession,” Carney told reporters in Tokyo. The Canadian PM was visiting Japan to hold talks with his counterpart Sanae Takaichi. The former prince — who was stripped of his royal titles last year over his alleged connections to Epstein — has denied all wrongdoing. Virginia Giuffre, who died by suicide last year, clai...

• Stages rare helicopter raid deep into Bekaa Valley, killing 41 • UN, Ghana condemn ‘war crime’ attack that wounded three peacekeepers BEIRUT: Israel warned Lebanon it would pay a “very heavy price” if it fai­l­­ed to control the Hezbollah group on Saturday, as Israeli forces pounded the Beirut with airstrikes and mounted a deadly airborne raid in the country’s east. The warning came as the cross-border conflict, which dragged Lebanon into a wider Middle East war on Monday following Hezbollah’s retaliation after Israel killed Iran’s supreme leader Ayat­ollah Ali Khamenei, escalated sharply. On Saturday morning, more buildings in the southern suburbs of Beirut lay as mounds of smoking rubble and twisted metal, Reuters video showed, after heavy Israeli bombardment that followed an evacuation order for civilians. ‘A night of hell’ Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz, addressing Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun in a statement, said that if the Lebanese government failed to enforce a 2024 agreement to disarm Hezb...

Tankers are seen off the coast of Fujairah, as Iran vows to close the Strait of Hormuz.—Reuters KARACHI: Though Pakistan is not part of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, it is the first victim in the region as the government raised oil prices while the high-cost oil is still at sea; the 28-day stocks are being sold at prices yet to reach consumers. India kept petrol and diesel prices stable despite global price spikes, but LPG prices were increased. The Indian government has so far managed high import costs for crude. Trade and business people were disappointed with the sudden jump in oil and diesel prices by Rs55 per litre, while ordinary citizens were highly concerned about the ripple effects of this oil price hike. “The easiest way to extract money is to bomb the common citizens and destroy the already ailing economy,” said Syed Shakil, a textile industry worker. He said the textile industry was facing tough times and could face the most difficult times in the wake of the Middle East war. Industry p...

NEW YORK: A court in the United States held on Friday that a Pakistani man with alleged “ties to Iran was guilty of plotting to assassinate President Donald Trump” or other US officials in retaliation for the American military killing of Revolutionary Guards commander Qassem Soleimani, prosecutors said. Asif Raza Merchant allegedly sought to hire a hitman to assassinate a politician or a government official in the US, prosecutors said during the trial in a federal court in Brooklyn. Soleimani, the head of Iran’s foreign military operations, was killed in a US drone strike in Baghdad in Jan 2020. Iran has repeatedly vowed to avenge his killing. Merchant testified that he was forced into the plot to protect his family in the Iranian capital Tehran from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, adding that he thought he would get caught before anyone was killed, multiple media outlets reported. He said he was never ordered to kill a specific person, but added that his Iranian contact had mentioned three people in connection ...

.

.

.

Annual expenditure on official transport expected to jump

.

LOWER SOUTH WAZIRISTAN: Two cops were martyred while 31 people, including five policemen and 26 civilians, were injured in an improvised explosive device (IED) blast in Wana’s Rustam Bazaar area on Saturday. According to police officials, the explosion occurred when policemen on routine patrol were present in the area around 5pm. They said that explosive material was planted near the main gate of a supermarket, which caused casualties among policemen and civilians present at the scene. Wana Circle Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Asghar Ali Shah said that the explosive material had been planted at the main entrance of the supermarket and was detonated through a remote control or a timed device. Immediately after the blast, local residents, police personnel and rescue teams initiated relief operations and moved the injured to the district headquarters hospital. The medical superintendent of the hospital, Dr Jan Mohammad, said that the bodies of two policemen were brought to the facility. He said that the ...

New attacks in Gulf follow Iran's president's statement; Water desalination plant on Qeshm island attacked

Sentences POs to 10 years in jail; orders convicts to surrender within 60 days

CDF Munir reassures Saudi leadership of full support

Explosions target Wana Bazaar, Lakki peace committee chief's relative

.

Province makes third-party motor insurance mandatory to enhance financial protection for road users