latest news

SINCE 2009, rich nations have failed to fulfil the pledge of $100bn every year in climate finance to developing nations.—AFP/file • 70 ministers gather to hammer out details before next month’s UN climate summit in Dubai • Many sceptical of rich countries’ willingness to set up the fund ABU DHABI: Setting up a “ loss and damage ” fund for poorer nations hit by climate change dominated preliminary talks on Tuesday one month before COP28 in Dubai, where delegates look set to tussle over the future of fossil fuels. Around 70 ministers have gathered since Monday at the Emirates Palace, a luxurious resort in the United Arab Emirates capital Abu Dhabi, to hammer out details before next month’s UN climate summit, the most important since the landmark Paris agreement in 2015. “The main focus for the moment is clearly the loss and damage fund,” said French Energy Minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher. The agreement to set up a dedicated fund to help vulnerable countries cope with climate ...

The caretaker government on Tuesday maintained the current prices of petrol and high-speed diesel (HSD) for the next fortnight. According to a notification from the Ministry of Finance, available with Dawn.com , the prices of petrol and HSD will remain Rs283.38 and Rs303.18 per litre, respectively. Meanwhile, the prices of kerosene oil and light-diesel oil were reduced by Rs3.82 and Rs3.4 per litre, respectively, to Rs211.03 and Rs189.46 per litre. The move comes contrary to expectations of a reduction of Rs5-18 per litre for diesel and petrol. Official sources had told Dawn that the price of HSD was likely to decrease by about Rs5-6 per litre, falling to less than Rs300 per litre, unless the caretaker government further increased the petroleum levy. On the other hand, petrol was expected to be cheaper by about Rs18 per litre. This was mainly due to the rupee’s gain of about Rs3 against the dollar over the last fortnight, while the average price of diesel has dropped by about $1....

Nangarhar: Dozens of trucks, loaded with Afghan families returning via the Torkham border, arrive in Afghanistan on Monday, on the eve of an Islamabad-mandated deadline for foreigners’ repatriation.—AFP • Deadline for voluntary return of foreigners expires tonight, but hundreds of people still in process of leaving • Officials doubt govt will see smooth sailing as logistics of detaining aliens may overburden prisons and holding centres • Around 100,000 returned via Torkham, Chaman since announcement of deadline, provincial govts set to begin rounding up those who stay behind KARACHI / PESHAWAR / QUETTA / LAHORE: The deadline for foreigners staying in Pakistan illegally is set to expire at the end of the day, but despite the government’s claims that preparations are in place for rounding up and deporting all unregistered aliens — Afghans or otherwise — officials familiar with the process foresee a lot of logistical and political hurdles. Nearly 100,000 illegal Afghan immigrants...

• Inzamam steps down after ‘conflict of interest’ allegations emerge • TV anchor under fire for displaying WhatsApp chat with Babar without consent THE turmoil continues back home; its aftershocks threatening to further derail Pakistan’s campaign at the World Cup in India. It’s an unwelcome distraction that could’ve been put off, at least until Babar Azam’s men were well and truly out of the race for the semis. But that’s Pakistan cricket for you: a place where things unravel fast. This time, a lot has happened in the space of just over 48 hours, culminating in the resignation of chief selector Inzamamul Haq on Monday, on the eve of yet another must-win game for Pakistan against Bangladesh in Kolkata. So when Pakistan take the field at Eden Gardens, looking to keep alive their faint hopes of reaching the last four, they will be essentially be doing so with the man who selected them no longer at the helm; the man who, alongside captain Babar, was named as being responsible for the ...

TAMPA (Florida): A street is closed off following the fatal shooting in the Ybor City area, on Sunday.—AFP FLORIDA: Gunfire erupted in the midst of Halloween festivities early on Sunday around a clutch of bars and clubs in the Florida city of Tampa, leaving at least two people dead and 18 others injured, police said. Videos posted on social media site X showed a chaotic scene of crowds of people running through the streets with the sound of at least a dozen shots ringing out. The videos showed police scrambling to give aid to costumed victims bleeding on the sidewalks. The images came as a grim reminder of the last year’s tragedy in Seoul when a stampede during Halloween festivities left nearly 160 people dead. However, police said a fight between two groups broke out around 3am in the historic neighborhood of Ybor City, where hundreds of people filled the streets. As soon as the shooting began, people ran for their lives and the clubs and bars were closed. While early i...

KARAGANDA: Kazakhstan held nationwide mourning on Sunday after 45 people died in a blaze at an ArcelorMittal mine, the worst accident in the Central Asian country’s post-Soviet history. The tragedy, which struck at the Kostenko coal mine in the Karaganda region on Saturday, came after a series of deadly incidents at ArcelorMittal mines and has prompted the nationalisation of the company’s local affiliate. Kazakhstan’s emergency services said on social media that the bodies of 45 people had been found, whereas the search for four miners continued. Rescuers earlier warned that finding the remaining miners alive were “very low”, due to the lack of ventilation and the force of Saturday’s explosion. The death toll overtook a 2006 accident that left 41 miners dead at another ArcelorMittal site. It also came just two months after another incident killed five miners. ArcelorMittal, led by Indian businessman Lakshmi Mittal, operates some 15 factories and mines in the centre of the former ...

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has received a record 1,324 objections (representations) to the preliminary delimitations of the constituencies published on September 27 for the upcoming general elections. According to the data released by the ECP on Saturday, the commission received a total of 672 representations concerning the delimitation of constituencies in Punjab, followed by 293 for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh (228), Balochistan (124), and seven for Islamabad. The ECP had invited objections from registered voters after publishing the list of preliminary delimitations on September 27 after rearranging electoral districts across the country in light of the 2023 digital census. It had set Oct 27 as the deadline for receiving representations, announcing that it would take decisions on these representations after hearing the positions of the respective parties and set one-month time to decide the representations. The ECP has already constituted two benches...

Matthew Perry, one of the stars of smash hit TV sitcom “Friends,” was found dead at his home on Saturday, US media reported. He was 54. First responders found Perry unconscious in a hot tub at his Los Angeles home and were unable to revive him, law enforcement sources told the Los Angeles Times . The LA Times and TMZ , which first reported the news, both said there were no signs of foul play, citing anonymous sources. Perry was best known for his portrayal of the wise-cracking Chandler Bing on NBC’s wildly popular “Friends,” which ran for 10 seasons from 1994 to 2004. Perry had battled for years with addiction to painkillers and alcohol, and attended rehabilitation clinics on multiple occasions. In his memoir Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing , published last year, Perry described going through detox 65 times, spending some $9 million in attempts to get sober. Perry experienced health problems including a burst colon in 2018 due to his drug usage, which required a se...

MADRID: Over 200,000 minors are estimated to have been sexually abused in Spain by the Roman Catholic clergy since 1940, according to an independent commission report published on Friday. The report did not give specific figures but said a poll of over 8,000 people found that 0.6 per cent of Spain’s adult population of around 39 million people said they had suffered sexual abuse by members of the clergy when they were still children. The percentage rises to 1.13 per cent (or over 400,000 people ) if abuse by lay members is included, Spain’s national ombudsman Angel Gabilondo told a presser called to present findings of the 700-page report. The revelations in Spain are the latest to rock the Roman Catholic Church after a series of sexual abuse scandals around the world, often involving children, over the past 20 years. The commission also interviewed 487 victims, who stressed “the emotional problems” the abuse has caused them, Gabilondo said. “There are people who have (died by) su...

QUETTA / LAHORE / PESHAWAR: As the government-ordained deadline for the deportation of illegal immigrants — mostly Afghans — draws near, authorities have intensified their efforts by setting up ‘holding centres’, and opening additional border crossing points to speed up the repatriation process. To expedite the repatriation of undocumented foreigners to Afgha­nistan and Iran, the Balochistan government is opening three more crossing points. “These crossing points are being opened in Qila Saifullah, Qameruddin Karez and Baracha Noor Wahab in Chagai district to help Afghan and Iranian Baloch immigrants to meet the deadline of Oct 31,” said Balochistan Information Minister Jan Achakzai at a press conference on Friday. Similarly, foreigners found in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa without proper documents would be repatriated from KP crossing points, he added. After the deadline, he asserted, the government would implement its plan with full force, involving all relevant institutions in expelling i...

KURRAM: An armed conflict between two religious groups in Kurram claimed seven more lives on Friday, as officials said efforts to overcome the situation were underway. The clashes between the two sects, which erupted after a controversial video went viral on social media a few days ago, have so far claimed 15 lives. Although the contents of the video were strongly condemned by both sides, sporadic violence erupted in the area. Officials told Dawn that five people were killed in clashes between the two armed groups in the Boshara area, while two others lost their lives in Khar Kalay and Baleech Khel areas, on Friday. Officials said that at least 23 people, including 10 hurt in Friday’s clashes, had been injured in the four days of armed conflict that has swept through the region. Cellular networks remain suspended and all routes in and out of the district are closed for traffic, officials said, adding that locals were stranded and many others, who arrived from other parts of the c...

ISLAMABAD: The Sup­reme Judicial Council (SJC) has decided to issue a show-cause notice to Justice Sayyed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi over complaints of alleged misconduct and assets beyond means. In a 3-2 decision, the council, which met on Friday, directed the judge to submit a reply within two weeks. SJC is a constitutional body that probes allegations of misconduct against the judges of Supreme and high courts. It comprises the chief justice, two senior-most SC judges and two senior-most high courts’ chief justices. Currently, Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa; Supreme Court justices Sardar Tariq Masood and Ijazul Ahsan; and top judges of Lahore and Balochistan High Courts Mohammad Ameer Bhatti and Naeem Akhtar Afghan, respectively, are SJC members. CJP Isa, Justice Masood and CJ Afghan voted to issue the notice, while Justice Ahsan and CJ Bhatti requested more time to consider the complaints. After the decision, the copies of 10 complaints were sent to Justice Naqvi f...

ISLAMABAD: Social media platform TikTok has removed 14.14 million videos in Pakistan for violating community guidelines in April-June 2023. According to its Comm­unity Guidelines Enfo­rce­ment Report for April-June 2023, TikTok removed 106.47m videos globally, or around 0.7pc of all videos uploaded to TikTok. Of them, 66,440,775 videos were removed through automated systems, while 6,750,002 videos were restored after review. Published in Dawn, October 27th, 2023 from The Dawn News - Home https://ift.tt/NWVUJzZ

ISLAMABAD: The federal cabinet has approved the telecom infrastructure-sharing framework and green-lighted the formation of a committee to auction the spectrum for the next-generation 5G wireless network, Caretaker IT Minister Dr Umar Saif said on Wednesday. The infrastructure-sharing framework aims to help telecom companies jointly use resources, including towers, antennas and cable ducts, optimise resource consumption and possibly cut operational costs. The minister hoped the framework’s adoption would also open doors for new companies to enter the domestic telecom space. As for the 5G auction, he said the new panel — to be headed by Caretaker Finance Minister Sham­shad Akhtar — would play a key role in rolling out the faster network. The committee would also include the ministers for IT, science and technology, industries and production, the secretaries of relevant ministries, and Federal Board of Revenue officials. Dr Saif said the committee’s primary task would be to asse...

Senior PML-N leader Senator Ishaq Dar on Wednesday said he expected a meeting between party supremo Nawaz Sharif and PPP co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari would “hopefully” take place, after weeks of enduring withering criticism from the PPP. Speaking in an interview on Dawn News show Live with Adil Shahzeb , the senator was questioned about mounting criticism from the PPP ahead of Nawaz’s return and on whether there was a possibility of a meeting between the party heads. “There is no restriction on a meeting; it should happen and will hopefully take place in the near future.” Dar said Nawaz was busy with his legal issues after returning to Pakistan. On criticism from the PPP, he said the PML-N had had a “very good working relationship” with the party. Dar added he felt it “inappropriate” to respond to critical statements from PPP leaders since the two parties had a relationship which would continue into the future. He said he personally wished that all major political parties shou...

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday summoned the interior secretary to appear in person on Nov 13 to explain why PTI chief Imran Khan could not be produced for a contempt hearing. The development came as a four-member ECP bench, led by Sindh member Nisar Ahmed Durrani, conducted a hearing on the matter of contempt of ECP and the chief election commissioner against Mr Khan and two former PTI officials, Fawad Chaudhry and Asad Umar. While Mr Chaudhry and Mr Umar were present, Mr Khan could not be brought from Adiala Jail to the proceedings — something PTI lawyer Shoaib Shaheen described as the “real insult” to the Election Commission. The assistant inspector general of police (operations) presented a report suggesting potential risks associated with transporting Mr Khan from the densely populated area of Rawalpindi. The report said the PTI chairman had himself said there were threats to his life. At this, Mr Durrani, the ECP’s member from Sindh, asked the ...

RAWALPINDI: Head of the Polio Eradication Programme in Punjab Khizer Afzaal on Monday took pride in highlighting the fact that the country’s biggest province had been free of polio cases for nearly three years since October 2020, terming it “an achievement of the programme”, but cautioned that, as evident from the genomic sampling of viruses in Lahore and Rawalpindi environmental samples, Punjab was at risk of virus importation. “The Punjab has been free of polio cases for the last three years, but as long as polio exists anywhere, it is a threat to children everywhere”, Mr Khizer said in a statement on the eve of ‘World Polio Day’ to be observed on Tuesday (today). The Emergency Operations Centre (EOC), Punjab, has organised several ceremonies to mark the day all over the province. “To end polio, we must reach every child in this challenging last mile of eradication, which is within our grasp. The government and health department are fully committed to winning this decisive round t...

ISLAMABAD: As an accountability court in Islamabad gave PML-N leader Ishaq Dar a clean chit in an assets beyond means case on Monday, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif formally filed two separate applications seeking restoration of his appeals against the conviction in the Avenfield Apartments and Al-Azizia references. IHC division bench comprising Chief Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb will hear these applications along with the petition seeking his protective bail in these cases. Mr Sharif was convicted in Avenfield and Al-Azizia references in 2018. In the applications, the PML-N supreme leader said that while he was abroad for medical treatment, the pending appeals were dismissed for non-prosecution. The applications requested the court to revive the pending appeals to make a decision on these pleas on merit. The applications stated that Nawaz Sharif never took advantage of the bail granted to him in all the cases. The plea also cited that the ou...

KARACHI: The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), which has been consistently vocal against attempts to delay the polls beyond the January timeline set by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), on Sunday took issue with the demand — coming from the PML-N and JUI-F — to postpone the elections even further. In a statement, PPP leader and former deputy NA speaker Faisal Karim Kundi said the ECP was bound by the Constitution and could not delay polls on the wishes of two political parties. He expressed concern that postponing elections could be construed as an attempt to ‘steal the election’ and expressed disappointment over the ECP’s delay in announcing a final election date. “The ECP is legally bound and is not operating according to the orders of two personalities, hence elections cannot be delayed,” he said. “It is about time we put an end to the ‘selection’ process, and head towards elections,” he added. Kundi says ECP not supposed to operate on ‘orders of two figures’, dubs Nawaz’...

• Fixed monthly fee to jump from Rs10 to Rs400, consumer rates by 194pc • Special ECC meeting scheduled today to clear unprecedented hikes ISLAMABAD: Before seeking final dates for the second review of the ongoing IMF loan programme, the government has convened a special meeting of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) on Monday (today) to discuss and clear an unprecedented surge of 3,900 per cent in fixed monthly charges and a 194pc hike in consumer rates for natural gas. These price adjustments, set for cabinet’s ratification on Tuesday, aim to be implemented retroactively from Oct 1. This is on top of the petroleum division’s request to shift towards a new gas pricing mechanism on the pattern of the weighted average cost of local and imported gas (WACOG) to ensure the actual cost of gas supply and eradicate the flow of the gas sector’s circular debt, which stands at Rs2.1 trillion as of this June, according to a summary submitted to the ECC. However, there’s a disparity in ...

PALESTINIANS evacuate a wounded man after an Israeli strike near a school run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in Khan Yunis, on Saturday.—AFP AL ZAHRA: Omar Ashur became a refugee during the Nakba (catastrophe) experienced by Palestinians following Israel’s creation in 1948 and now fears the ongoing bombardment of Gaza will again force him into exile. A retired general from the Palestinian Authority security forces, 83-year-old Ashur lives in Al Zahra, central Gaza, where Israeli missiles flattened an area of more than 20 buildings late on Thursday. Residents had been warned to flee before the strikes, but many of them raced into the street with no idea of where to go. When they returned in the early hours of Friday morning, they found a scene of devastation, with several blocks of buildings reduced to smoking ruins and rubble. The area lies about 10 kilometres south of Gaza City, where Israeli warplanes have focused their fierce bombardments since the Hamas ra...

WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden acknowledged in a recent press talk that the Oct 7 raid by Hamas on Israel might have achieved its target of disrupting a potential normalisation of ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia. “One of the reasons Hamas moved on Israel … they knew that I was about to sit down with the Saudis,” said Mr Biden at a Washington fundraiser earlier this week. “Guess what? The Saudis wanted to recognise Israel,” he added. Such a deal would have further isolated the Palestinians who were kept out of the entire process, although it have had the greatest impact on their future. The quotes, reported by international media outlets, confirmed speculations in Washington that the Oct 7 attack was not a random incident. It was planned ahead, with a single objective: preventing Saudi Arabia from recognising Israel. President Biden, however, did not mention the move to establish diplomatic ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia when he addressed his nation on Friday . I...

Ziauddin AFTER a relentless and brutal bombing campaign of the Gaza Strip, Israel is on the brink of launching a ground assault. This is not the first time that Tel Aviv has opted for a ground incursion into Palestinian territory. The current circumstances and situation, however, are unprecedented and not just in terms of sheer violence. But there are fears of worse to come if Israel launches the ground invasion it has promised. The incessant bombing of the besieged enclave has resulted in at least 4,137 Palestinian casualties so far, according to Gaza’s health ministry, around 500 of whom perished in the bloodbath at the Al-Ahli Hospital earlier this week. This even surpasses the toll from the bloody Second Intifada (2000-2005), which, according to Reuters figures, stood at over 3,000 casualties. The latest spate of Israeli violence against Gazans marks the deadliest period in the territory’s history, even more so than the two intifadas The latest round of violence start...

• Pakistan joins China’s moon programme • Kakar offers Friday prayers in Xinjiang • Khunjerab border crossing to operate throughout the year ISLAMABAD: Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar returned home on Friday evening after a whirlwind five-day China trip that took him to places where only few foreign dignitaries before him visited, and one that saw Islamabad and Beijing ink over 20 agreements, covering areas from currency swapping to building a research station on the moon’s south pole. Although both sides vowed to cement ties in various fields, especially for China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), President Xi Jinping sought guarantees from Islamabad regarding security of Chinese personnel working in Pakistan. The agreements signed cover round-the-year functioning of the Khunjerab border crossing, coordination on Afghan issue, close trust and coordination between their armed forces, peace talks between Palestine and Israel, currency swapping, partnership on building ...