KARACHI: As the federal government is busy giving finishing touches to its next year’s budget, Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab on Friday sought from the prime minister a comprehensive development package for the metropolis. Speaking at a press conference here, the mayor asked the Centre to come up with development schemes for the business capital of the country and execute them …

ROME: The United States and Italy are drawing up a plan to exchange a small number of refugees, a Rome source said on Friday, in a reported bid to deter illegal migration. “A reciprocal plan is currently being studied, according to which the US would host refugees present in Libya who want to go to Europe,” a source in Prime …

HODEIDA: The United States and Britain carried out air strikes on Yemen in what they said was a bid to degrade their maritime attack capabilities, with Houthi media on Friday reporting 16 killed. The Houthis have been targeting shipping around the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden since November, citing solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Journalists heard loud explosions …

LONDON: The world’s youngest Nobel laureate and co-founder of the Malala Fund, Malala Yousafzai, announced a new scholarship initiative for Palestinian students at the University of Oxford this week. According to a press statement, the announcement was made during her keynote address at the Oxford Pakistan Programme (OPP) fundraiser dinner, which takes place as the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza …

WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden on Friday called on Hamas to agree to a new offer from Israel on releasing prisoners in exchange for a Gaza ceasefire, saying this is the best way to begin winding down the deadly conflict. In his first major address outlining a solution to the eight-month conflict, Biden said the proposal started with a six-week phase …

SINGAPORE: The US and Chinese defence chiefs locked horns on Taiwan in their first face-to-face meeting in two years on Friday, while Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr slammed “illegal, coercive actions” in the South China Sea, a clear censure of Beijing. The exchanges at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, Asia’s biggest defence forum, came amid reports that Ukrainian President Volodymyr …

NEW YORK: Donald Trump said on Friday he would appeal the guilty verdict that made him the first US president convicted of a crime, though he will have to wait until after his sentencing on July 11 before taking that step. In rambling remarks at the Trump Tower lobby in Manhattan, he repeated complaints that the trial was a “rigged” attempt …

Marian Robinson, the mother of former first lady Michelle Obama, who moved into the White House with the first family, helped care for her young granddaughters and provided a stabilizing presence in one of the world’s most stressful residences, died on Friday, her family said. “We needed her. The girls needed her. And she ended up being our rock through …

India’s six-week election reached its final day of voting Saturday, including in the holy city Prime Minister Narendra Modi has used as a staging post for his Hindu nationalist agenda. Modi is widely expected to win a third term in office when results are announced Tuesday, in large part due to his cultivated image as an aggressive champion of India’s majority faith. The 73-year-old’s …

ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office on Friday said that the Taliban administration in Afghanistan had assured Pakistan of its cooperation in investigation into the Bisham suicide attack in which five Chinese nationals and their Pakistani driver lost their lives. “The Afghan side has agreed to examine the findings of the investigation and to work with Pakistan to take the investigation to its logical …