International

Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Thursday welcomed his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir Abdollahian at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Islamabad. Abdollahian arrived in Islamabad yesterday for a two-day visit at FM Bilawal’s invitation. According to the Foreign Office (FO), it is the Iranian foreign minister’s first bilateral visit to Pakistan. Earlier today, the two leaders held a “tête-à-tête” at the …

Massive wildfires in Canada have already spewed out twice the smoke emissions than the previous whole-year record, the EU’s climate monitor said on Thursday, with the blazes expected to continue to scorch their way through forests for weeks or even months. The devastating wildfires have burned some 30 million acres this year so far, incinerating an area larger than the …

BEIJING: A Chinese zoo has been forced to deny that its sun bear is actually a human in a costume, after footage of one standing on its hind legs raised online accusations of a furry imposter. A video clip of a bear rearing up and interacting with a group of people at a zoo in eastern Hangzhou city went viral …

PARIS: The military coup in Niger raises the question of Europe’s dependency on uranium mined in the West African nation for its nuclear power plants. France’s nuclear fuel firm Orano, formerly part of Areva, operates a uranium mine in the north of the country, employing some 900 mostly Nigeran staff. The company said last week that it was monitoring the …

SYDNEY: An Australian childcare worker sexually abused 91 young girls over 15 years, police said on Tuesday, accusing him of documenting his “unfathomable” alleged crimes in thousands of photos and videos. Seasoned detectives have described it as one of Australia’s “most horrific” child sex abuse cases, calling it “beyond the realms of anyone’s imagination”. “I know this news will seem …

WASHINGTON: The top American diplomat for east Asia and the Pacific region held a “candid, substantive, and productive discussion” with his Chinese counterpart in Washington on Monday, the US State Department said. Yang Tao, director general of the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s North American and Oceanian Affairs Department, was hosted at State Department headquarters by US Assistant Secretary of State Daniel …

YANGON: Myanmar reduced ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s 33-year prison sentence by six years in a partial pardon on Tuesday, as the junta struggles to quell bloody resistance to its rule. The country has been ravaged by violence in the two years since Suu Kyi was deposed in a coup and hit with 19 criminal cases ranging from …

MOSCOW: A high-rise building in Moscow’s business district that houses three Russian government ministries was struck by a drone for the second time in three days on Tuesday, in what Russia called an attempted Ukrainian “terrorist attack”. A Ukrainian presidential adviser said Moscow should expect more drone attacks and “more war”. The building that was hit is known as the …

China on Wednesday dispatched thousands of rescue workers to Zhuozhou, a flooded city of over 600,000 residents southwest of Beijing, as the remnants of Typhoon Doksuri continued to wreak havoc on swathes of the city twice the size of Paris. Zhuozhou is in Hebei province, which has borne the brunt of the worst storms to hit northern China in over a decade, killing at …

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday renewed his invitation to Turkiye for joining the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), citing the latter as a “natural partner”. The premier made the remarks while addressing the launch of the fourth Milgem class corvette at the Karachi Shipyard, where Turkiye Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz was also present. In November last year, the premier had invited Turkiye …