China will work to straighten out trade frictions with the US this year, the country’s commerce minister told state media, following talks with US negotiators this week. A large US delegation ended a three-day visit to Beijing on Wednesday in the first face to face trade talks since President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in December pledged a …

The decade-long Palestinian split looks set to deepen in the coming months, with President Mahmoud Abbas poised to take multiple measures against Gaza to squeeze its Islamist rulers Hamas. The moves raise concerns of more suffering for Gaza’s two million residents, already under an Israeli blockade and facing severe electricity shortages, while a cornered Hamas could renew violence against Israel. …

The death toll in a coal mine roof collapse in northern China has risen to 21 after rescuers found two more miners dead on Sunday, state media reported. A total of 87 people were working underground in the Shaanxi province mine at the time of the accident on Saturday afternoon, according to official news agency Xinhua, citing local authorities. Rescuers …

President Donald Trump said he was holding off on declaring a state of emergency to end the partial United States government shutdown that dragged into a 23rd day on Sunday, as he insisted on $5.7 billion to build a Mexico border wall that congressional Democrats oppose. Asked by Fox News why he didn’t immediately declare a national emergency to secure the funds without congressional …

A high-ranking Yemeni intelligence official injured in a Houthi rebel drone attack on the country’s largest air base died of his wounds on Sunday, medical sources said. Intelligence Brigadier General Saleh Tamah was wounded on Thursday in a strike on a military parade in Al-Anad air base, in government-held Lahij province some 60 kilometres (40 miles) north of Yemen’s second …

KARACHI: The Supreme Court on Saturday directed the authorities concerned to continue the ongoing anti-encroachment drive in the city. Justice Gulzar Ahmed of the SC presided over a meeting at the apex court’s Karachi registry about encroachments. The meeting was attended by officials of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation, Karachi Development Authority, Sindh Building Control Authority, Pakistan Railways, cantonment boards and …

ISLAMABAD: The management of Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) has decided to constitute an independent committee to investigate incidents of deaths of patients. The decision has been made after a number of incidents in which relatives beat up doctors following the death of their patient or doctors held strikes after clashes with relatives of patients. “I get annoyed with …

KOTRI: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has vowed to fight the “politics of vendetta” saying he is not afraid of threats of the exit control list, National Accountability Bureau and imprisonment. Addressing a public meeting here on Saturday after inaugurating Kotri-Jamshoro overhead bridge, he said the PPP had faced “Gen Zia’s lashes and Gen Musharraf’s prisons and exile” …

LANDI KOTAL: The National Logistic Cell personnel thrashed immigration staff at Torkham border the other day for distributing stamped passports to the Afghan nationals without informing them, sources said. They confided to Dawn on condition of anonymity that the NLC officials exchanged hot words with a staff member of immigration after he distributed stamped passports to Afghan nationals without informing …

LAHORE: Minister for Railways Sheikh Rashid Ahmad says the government will have to go to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) sooner or later to improve the economic situation of the country. “In such a situation, the governments cannot avoid the IMF and the PTI government also will have to go to the IMF finally,” the minister told the media on …