International

TEHRAN: Iran and Russia agreed on Wednesday to collaborate on the construction of the final part of a commercial transport network linking to the Gulf and India while avoiding Western sea lanes. Iranian Transport Minister Mehrdad Bazrpash, who signed the agreement with his Russian counterpart in Tehran, said the 164-kilometre railway in Iran’s north would be completed within three years. …

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday announced that Iran will supply 100 megawatts of electricity daily to Balochistan’s Gwadar once the Polan-Gabd electricity transmission line project becomes functional. The prime minister made the announcement at a media briefing after he and Iranian President Seyed Ebrahim Raisi inaugurated the transmission line project and a marketplace at the Mand-Pishin border crossing point. …

A woman won a local election in India almost two weeks after her death as supporters kept their pledge to back her in a sign of respect, officials said. Ashiya Bi polled at nearly 44 per cent in the race for a municipal civic body seat in India’s most populous state of Uttar Pradesh this month and was declared victorious …

WASHINGTON: An annual US report has once again criticised the Pakistan Democratic Movement government for using the blasphemy card against former prime minister Imran Khan. The US report on international religious freedom, which was released in Washington on Monday, noted that several political leaders used inflammatory religious language to attack their political rivals last year. The annual report covers 2022 events. “On …

NEW DELHI: India’s drug regulator has proposed testing cough syrups in government laboratories before they are exported, media outlet News18.com reported on Tuesday, after Indian-made syrups were linked to dozens of deaths in Gambia and Uzbekistan last year. India’s health ministry received the proposal from the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation(CDSCO) this month and is considering it, the news website quoted an unidentified …

PARIS: The world must halve single-use plastics and slash throwaway consumption to stem the tide of environmental pollution, according to a UN report on Tuesday that warns the next few years are critical. Concern is growing about the impacts of plastics, with microplastic fragments found from the deepest oceans trenches to the top of Mount Everest. In humans, they have …

LILLE: A relative of French first lady Brigitte Macron has been beaten up outside her family’s chocolate shop in an apparent politically motivated assault that sparked widespread condemnation on Tuesday. Jean-Baptiste Trogneux was attacked on Monday evening while returning to his apartment above the famed Trogneux chocolate shop in Amiens, northern France. The 30-year-old was surrounded by anti-government protesters who …

Albuquerque (New Mexico, US): An 18-year-old gunman stalked through a New Mexico neighbourhood on Monday firing randomly at bystanders, houses and cars, killing three people and wounding six before police shot him dead outside a church, authorities said. The late-morning shooting spree unfolded in a residential area of Farmington, New Mexico, a major retail centre and regional hub for the …

THE Chinese consulate general in Karachi has clarified a news item published by Dawn under the headline, “Canada suspects presence of more Chinese police stations”, in its May 15 (Monday) issue. The Reuters report had quoted a minister as saying Canada suspects presence of “more Chinese police stations” on its soil. The report also recalled a police statement in March that they were “investigating whether two …

ISTANBUL: A little-known nationalist who helped push Turkiye’s election to a runoff said on Tuesday he could throw his support behind either President Recep Tayyip Erdogan or his secular rival. Entering the campaign at the last minute, Sinan Ogan, 55, won 5.2 per cent of the vote in Sunday’s landmark election, helping deprive Erdogan of a first-round victory for the …