NEW YORK: Oil prices rose on Monday in a session of volatile trade, as tight global supplies outweighed worries that demand would be pressured by a flare-up in Covid-19 cases in Beijing and more interest rate hikes. Brent crude rose 68 cents to $122.69 a barrel at 12:13 p.m. EDT (1613 GMT). US West Texas Intermediate crude rose 61 cents …

KARACHI: Despite a massive price increase, State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) curbs on auto financing, and high interest rates, car sales increased by 51 per cent in 11MFY22 to 210,633 units from 139,613 units in the same period last fisca. Car sales in May 2022 also soared to 19,395 units, up from 18,626 units in April 2022 amid Eidul Fitr …

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is facing a stifling balance-of-payments (BoP) crisis and is trying very hard to grapple with the situation both economically and socially, Minister for Commerce Naveed Qamar told the 12th World Trade Organisation Ministerial Conference (MC12) in Geneva. Mr Qamar is representing Pakistan at the MC12, which is being held from June 12-15 in Switzerland. The conference was due …

ISLAMABAD: Addi­tional measures will be needed to bring Paki­stan’s budget for the year 2022-23 in line with the key objectives of its International Monetary Fund programme, the lender’s resident representative in Islamabad said. “Our preliminary estimate is that additional measures will be needed to strengthen the budget and bring it in line with key programme objectives,” Esther Perez Ruiz told Reuters. …

BAGHDAD: Iraq temporarily closed Baghdad airport on Monday as choking clouds of dust blanketed the capital, the latest crippling sandstorm in a country that has warned climate change poses an “existential threat”. It was the tenth such storm since mid-April to hit Iraq, which has been battered by intense droughts, soil degradation, high temperatures and low rainfall linked to climate …

BRUSSELS: Google parent Alphabet has offered to let rival ad intermediaries place ads on YouTube to address a crucial part of an EU anti-trust investigation that could pave the way for it to settle the case without a fine, people familiar with the matter said. The European Commission opened a probe last year to examine whether the world’s largest provider …

ATALAIA NORTE: Hum­an remains have been found in the search for a British journalist and Brazilian indigenous expert who disappeared deep in the Amazon after receiving threats, Brazil’s president confirmed on Monday. Relatives of the missing men — veteran correspondent Dom Phillips, 57, and respected indigenous specialist Bruno Pereira, 41 — meanwhile said Brazilian authorities had informed them two bodies …

KRAMATORSK: Ukraine said on Monday its forces had been pushed back from the centre of key industrial city Severodonetsk, where President Volodymyr Zelensky described a fight for “literally every metre”. The cities of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk, which are separated by a river, have been targeted for weeks as the last areas still under Ukrainian control in the eastern Lugansk region. …

ISLAMABAD: A day before leaving for Iran on an official visit, Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Monday made it clear that former prime minister Imran Khan and his government had not been removed because of the latter’s visit to Russia as the present coalition government was also following the PTI government’s foreign policy of being neutral in the Russia-Ukraine war. …

WASHINGTON: China and some other allies are quietly working to get Pakistan off the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) grey list during the agency’s next plenary session, diplomatic sources told Dawn. The FATF, a global body which monitors money laundering and terrorism financing, is holding the four-day — June 14-17 — session in Berlin, Germany, from Tuesday. FATF delegates representing …