ISLAMABAD: Attributing easing of inflationary pressures to robust agriculture output, lower fuel prices and high base effect of last year, the government on Wednesday promised strong commitment ahead of the next year budget to strengthening of public finances through reforms and initiatives on both revenue and expenditure sides, supported by the next three-year IMF bailout programme. The inflation outlook continues “on …

Shares at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Thursday made only marginal gains of nearly 42 points amid uncertainty regarding the upcoming budget. The KSE-100 index stood at 75,021.59, gaining 185.29, or 0.25 per cent, at 11:34am from the previous close of 74,836.30. However, the index failed to hold the gains and closed at 74,878.12, up by only 41.82 points, …

TOKYO: The world’s first wooden satellite has been built by Japanese researchers who said their tiny cuboid craft will be blasted off on a SpaceX rocket in September. Each side of the experimental satellite developed by scientists at Kyoto University and logging company Sumitomo Forestry measures just 10 centimetres (four inches). The creators expect the wooden material will burn up …

MEXICO CITY: Clashes broke out on Tuesday between police and protesters outside the Israeli embassy in Mexico, rallying against the country’s military offensive in the southern Gazan city of Rafah, journalists said. Some protesters covered their faces and threw stones at riot police who blocked their path to the diplomatic complex in the city’s Lomas de Chapultepec neighborhood. Around 200 …

LONDON: Britain’s first Black woman lawmaker, Diane Abbott, said on Wednesday she was dismayed the opposition Labour Party looked set to bar her as an election candidate over comments she made over a year ago about Jews and racism. Abbott, 70, is Britain’s longest-serving Black member of parliament. First elected in 1987, she is a leading figure on Labour’s left …

UNITED NATIONS: Israel must do more to protect Palestinian civilians in Gaza and should “remove all barriers to the flow of aid at scale through all crossings and routes” into the enclave, the United States told the UN Security Council on Wednesday. “The continued pattern of significant civilian harm resulting from incidents like Sunday’s airstrikes undermines Israel’s strategic goals in …

STOCKHOLM: Swedish police on Wednesday said they were investigating a hate crime after an unidentified person dumped a dead boar outside a mosque in southern Sweden overnight. Police wrote on their website that the mosque “had a pig thrown at its facade”. “The complaint is being classified as agitation against an ethnic group, but other suspicions may arise later,” police …

ISLAMABAD: Blaming a small group of criminal elements behind violent clashes that left some Pakistani students injured in Bishkek, the Ambassador of Kyrgyzstan in Islamabad, Ulanbek Totuiaev said the chief and nine officers of the Internal Affairs Directorate of the Sverdlovsk region were removed from their positions after riots on the night of May 18. “Do not let an isolated event put …

QUETTA: Four Pakis­tani nationals were killed and two others injured in firing by Iranian forces along the border in Washuk district of Balochistan. According to officials, the firing occurred in the Judar-Bacharai border area late Tuesday night. “Iranian forces op­­ened fire inside Pakistani border,” a senior official of the Mashkel administration said, adding that the victims were sitting in the Pakistani border …

New York will boost security for the upcoming T20 Cricket World Cup in June, the governor said on Wednesday, after reports of threats especially related to the India-Pakistan match. “In preparation for the Cricket World Cup, my team has been working with federal & local law enforcement to keep attendees safe,” Governor Kathy Hochul wrote on X, adding there was “no credible …