KARACHI: Wind power projects (WPPs), which have remained mostly idle since November 2022, will start despatching electricity to the national grid in the next 10 days. The major victory by WPPs came after their delegation held a meeting on Thursday with all stakeholders, including the regulator of the power sector. Speaking to Dawn on Friday, Pakistan Wind Energy Association Chairman Rumman Arshad …

BEIJING: China’s ministry of science and technology said on Friday said it saw the potential of ChatGPT-like tech and would be pushing for the integration of artificial intelligence into Chinese society and the economy. “[This technology] has the potential to be applied in many industries and fields,” Chen Jiachang, who heads the ministry’s high-tech department, told a news briefing, praising …

SEOUL: North Korea said on Friday it had fired cruise missiles and claimed that ramped-up US-South Korea military drills “can be regarded as a declaration of war”. It came after the two allies conducted a tabletop exercise at the Pentagon focused on responses to a nuclear attack by Pyongyang. North Korean forces held a “strategic cruise missile launching drill” in the early …

UNITED NATIONS: Pakis­tan is among the 32 countries that abstained from voting in the UN General Assembly on Thursday on a resolution that rejected the forcible acquisition of land, and called for a just and lasting peace in Ukraine. More than 60 countries, including the United States and major European powers, moved the resolution in the General Assembly’s 11th emergency …

WASHINGTON: The United States has repatriated two Pakistani brothers who were held at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp without any charge, the US Department of Defence announced on Friday. The two brothers, Mohammed Ahmed Ghulam Rabbani, 53, and Abdul Rahim Ghulam Rabbani, 55, were detained over alleged links to terrorism. According to The New York Times, they were never charged …

LONDON: Tens of thousands of junior doctors in England will take strike action for three days from March 13 in a dispute over pay, the British Medical Association (BMA) said on Friday, adding to a series of walkouts by other staff in a strained health system. Junior doctors, who agreed in 2019 to an annual 2 per cent pay rise …

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s election commission indefinitely postponed local polls on Friday after the president — installed by parliament last year after his predecessor fled — refused to fund the vote. The March 9 polls would only have picked local councillors but would be the first electoral test for Ranil Wickremesinghe since he took office in July after months of protests …

BENGALURU: Ger­many and France insisted on Friday that any joint statement from the ongoing G20 finance ministers meeting must refer to the Ukraine “war”, following reports that host India wanted to avoid the word. Organising a raft of Group of 20 meetings during its presidency this year puts India in an awkward position, as it has refused to condemn the invasion of …

Canada’s renowned Rideau Canal Skateway, the world’s largest natural ice skating rink, will not open this season for the first time due to a lack of ice, its operator said on Friday, blaming the closure on climate change. The 7.8 km (4.9 mile) Rideau Canal Skateway, first opened over 50 years ago, is part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site …

Turkiye has begun work to rebuild homes following this month’s devastating earthquakes, a government official said on Friday, as the combined death toll in Turkiye and Syria surpassed 50,000. More than 160,000 buildings containing 520,000 apartments collapsed or were severely damaged in the Feb 6 earthquakes that killed tens of thousands in Turkiye and neighbouring Syria. The Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) …