An Australian archaeologist and two Papua New Guinea researchers held for a week by 20 armed men in a remote part of the Pacific Island nation were released on Sunday, while their captors remain at large, a local official told Reuters. Professor Bryce Barker and doctoral student Teppsy Beni from the University of Southern Queensland, and Papua New Guinea National Museum …

Pakistan has been suffering from chronic governance issues for the past several decades. Inheriting the post-colonial bureaucracy and with its manageable population of 30 million (West Pakistan, 1947), the country managed to get by in the early days. The population continued to grow to 70m in 1971 and to 130m in 1998, but it remained unfashionable and politically incorrect to …

Hong Kong police said on Sunday they had arrested three people in connection with the murder of 28-year old model Abby Choi, whose legs were found in a refrigerator in a house on the city’s outskirts, along with tools used in dismembering bodies. Police found Choi’s body on Friday but have yet to locate her head, torso and hands. They …

President Vladimir Putin has cast the confrontation with the West over the Ukraine war as an existential battle for the survival of Russia and the Russian people — and said he is forced to take into account Nato’s nuclear capabilities. A year since ordering the invasion of Ukraine, Putin is increasingly presenting the war as a make-or-break moment in Russian history — …

Twitter Inc has laid off at least 200 employees, or about 10 per cent of its workforce, the New York Times reported late on Sunday, in its latest round of job cuts since Elon Musk took over the micro-blogging site last October. The layoffs on Saturday night impacted product managers, data scientists and engineers who worked on machine learning and site reliability, which …

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for National Health Services Abdul Qadir Patel on Sunday said that effective measures were being adopted to make further improvements in the national immunisation program. Addressing the annual meeting of the Federal Directorate of Immunisation, Qadir Patel said that a collaborative strategy was being formulated to ensure 100 percent results, by reaching everyone during every immunisation drive …

GENEVA: Banks in Switzerland are holding a substantial amount of millions of dollars Lebanese central bank chief Riad Salameh is accused of embezzling, Swiss media reported on Sunday. Salameh, 72, faces investigations related to suspicions of money laundering and illicit enrichment in Lebanon and abroad after he amassed a fortune in the country mired in a financial crisis. A Lebanese …

From an all-time low of Rs276.58 a US dollar on February 3, the rupee gradually rose to 259.99 on February 24 — a recovery of 6 per cent — as crippling import restrictions remained in place. But it may come under renewed pressure in the April-June quarter. The external sector fundamentals are still too weak to lend lasting support to …

This year Ramazan will definitely be tougher than previous years for many low and middle-income group people, especially in terms of skyrocketing prices in the last year After over 12 hours of fasting, people try to enjoy lavish iftar by arranging many items. But many people with mediocre wages and salaries are likely to limit their purchases this year. All …

With petroleum prices increasing to Rs277 per litre, the fuel cost burden for a motorcycle owner will significantly increase. Pakistan needs to move fast towards electric motorcycle adoption to provide relief to these lower-middle and middle-class households. This requires enabling market-driven approaches with the government playing a facilitator role. Assuming an average of one-litre consumption per day, motorcycle users will …