LONDON: Bitcoin has scant experience with rising interest rates, posing perils for investors looking to capitalise on its dramatic drop. The cryptocurrency has tanked along with other risk assets such as tech stocks after the US Federal Reserve amped up rates last week, sending them on a trajectory that’s expected to pass thee percent early next year. Bitcoin was an …

GENEVA: China’s flagship zero-Covid strategy to defeat the pandemic is unsustainable, the World Health Organisation said on Tuesday, adding that it had told Beijing so and called for a policy shift. China has imposed draconian measures, trapping most of Shanghai’s 25 million people at home for weeks as the country combats its worst outbreak since the pandemic began. The Shanghai …

UNITED NATIONS: The UN food security meeting that Pakistan has been invited to starts next week but it’s still not clear if Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari will physically attend the meet. “He has both options, to be in New York for the meeting or address it virtually from Islamabad,” a diplomatic source told. A source at the Foreign Office in …

An Al Jazeera reporter was killed by Israeli army gunfire in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, the Qatar-based news channel said. According to Al Jazeera, Shireen Abu Aqleh was hit by a live bullet, while videos of the incident showed that Abu Aqleh was shot in the head. One Palestinian official said she had been “assassinated” by Israeli forces while reporting on …

COLOMBO: Sri Lankan authorities issued shoot-on-sight orders on Tuesday to quell further unrest a day after the island was rocked by deadly violence and rioting. With thousands of security forces enforcing a curfew, the defence ministry said troops “have been ordered to shoot on sight anyone looting public property or causing harm to life”. On Monday, government supporters attacked with …

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday restrained the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) from harassing social media activist of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and issued a stay order against the arrest of anchorperson Sami Abraham. PTI’s activist Mariam Malik and anchorperson Abraham were facing inquiries for criticising state institutions. Interestingly, advocate Imaan Zainaib Hazir Mazari, who was mostly pleading the …

LAHORE: A five-member larger bench of the Lahore High Court constituted to decide the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s (PTI) intra court appeal (ICA) challenging an order of a single bench for oath taking of Chief Minister Hamza Shehbaz would resume its hearing on May 12. Justice Sadaqat Ali Khan would head the larger bench with Justice Shahid Jamil Khan, Justice Shehram Sarwar …

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Climate Change Sherry Rehman on Tuesday said although planting trees was a necessity to reduce environment degradation among other things, it was not, nor could be the core public policy on global warming. Talking to Dawn, Sherry Rehman said this was especially true for an acutely water-stressed and climate-stressed country like Pakistan. “We literally face a clear and …

ISLAMABAD: Despite the absence of a full opposition bench, the government on Tuesday failed to move a planned resolution in the National Assembly to “condemn” President Dr Arif Alvi for allegedly violating the Constitution by delaying and then rejecting the prime minister’s advice regarding the removal of the Punjab governor. However, a small opposition group managed to disrupt proceedings of …

State Department Spokesperson Ned Price has said the United States will not let “lies get in the way” of its bilateral ties with Pakistan, a relationship he stressed it values. Price made these remarks during a press briefing on Tuesday while answering a question about former prime minister Imran Khan blaming the US for his ouster from office and running …