ISLAMABAD: The government on Thursday kicked off outsourcing of operations and land assets at three major airports to be run through a public-private partnership, a finance ministry statement said, a move to generate foreign exchange reserves. The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) has approved the hiring of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) — the private sector arm of the World Bank …

British drugmaker GSK has signed deals with three companies allowing them to make inexpensive generic versions of Cabotegravir, its long-acting HIV preventive medicine, for use in lower-income countries, where the majority of new HIV cases occur. The injected drug cabotegravir was approved by regulators in the United States in late 2021. Last July, GSK announced a program with the United …

Chile detected the first case of bird flu in a human, the country’s health ministry reported on Wednesday. The bird flu case was detected in a 53-year-old man who presented severe influenza symptoms, according to a statement issued by the ministry, but they noted the patient was in stable condition. The government is also investigating the source of contagion as …

WASHINGTON: Elon Musk has surpassed former US president Barack Obama as the most followed account on Twitter, five months after he bought the platform in a tumultuous takeover. The founder of Tesla and SpaceX on Thursday had 133,084,560 Twitter followers, a nose ahead of Obama, who had 133,041,813. The feat comes as the role of Twitter as a key platform for the exchange of …

LONDON: Triple Olympic breaststroke champion Adam Peaty said he will miss next week’s British swimming championships as he focuses on his mental health ahead of the 2024 Paris Games. The 28-year-old spoke in an Instagram post of his personal battles and the pressures that came with success. He said he was tired and not enjoying the sport as much as before. “Everyone …

KARACHI: The central bank’s foreign exchange reserves dropped for the first time in six weeks, shrinking by some $354 million during the week that ended on March 24, it said on Thursday. Meanwhile, China is working on a request from cash-strapped Pakistan to roll over a $2 billion loan that matured last week, a top finance ministry official told Reuters, …

PESHAWAR: Pakistan caused a major upset by beating a strong Austra­lian team 2-1 in their quarter-final tie of the ITF World Tennis Junior Team Competition Asia/Oceania final qualifying in Kuch­ing, Malaysia to qualify for the World Group event. The World Group event will be held later this year in the Czech Republic. According to the information made available here, Pakistan’s …

LONDON: Jonny Bairs­tow hopes to be fit for England’s opening Test of the summer against Ireland in June, according to Yorkshire head coach Ottis Gibson. Bairstow’s form last year came to an abrupt end when a freak accident on the golf course in Septe­mber left him with three separate fractures in his left fibula, as well as a dislocated ankle …

ISLAMABAD: The 969-megawatt Neelum Jhelum Hydropower Project would get back to power generation by July after a year-long closure due to tunnel collapse and K-Electric (KE) is entering into a 10-year agreement with the federal government for enhancing its intake from national grid to 2,600MW. These were the upshot of the two separate public hearings on increase in fuel charges …

KARACHI: The method that banks use for calculating their expected credit cost will change under the revised set of accounting standards that may lead to a higher exp­ense for commercial lenders in the medium term. Speaking to Dawn on Thursday, JS Global Capital Ltd Head of Research Amreen Soorani said banks will start reporting their loss expectations on investments and loans under …