International

**PHNOM PENH: Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Saturday said that Pakistan has a keen desire to enhance its engagement with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) — an intergovernmental organization comprising ten Southeast Asian countries. In his meeting with Cambodian For­e­i­­­gn Minister Prak Sokhonn on the sidelines of the 29th Ministerial Meeting of Asean Regional Forum (ARF), Mr Bhutto-Zardari …

KYIV: Parts of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant were “seriously damaged” by military strikes that forced one of its reactors to shut down, the plant’s operator said on Saturday. The Friday strikes on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in south Ukraine — Europe’s largest atomic power complex — “seriously damaged” a station containing nitrogen and oxygen and an “auxiliary building,” Energoatom …

Chinese and Taiwanese warships played high-seas “cat and mouse” on Sunday ahead of the scheduled end of four days of unprecedented Chinese military exercises launched in reaction to a visit to Taiwan by the US house speaker. Nancy Pelosi’s visit last week to the self-ruled island infuriated China, which responded with test launches of ballistic missiles over the island’s capital for the …

The death toll from escalating violence in Gaza rose to 29 on Sunday, as well as the killing of a senior commander of a Palestinian armed group, as Israel extended its bombardment of the territory for a second consecutive day. In a statement today, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement (PIJ) confirmed the killing of one of its senior armed commanders …

Journalist Anas Mallick, who was reported missing in Kabul on Thursday, has revealed that he was “physically assaulted” during his disappearance. The Islamabad-based journalist, who is affiliated with Indian news channel WION, surfaced on Friday, with the Foreign Office in Pakistan and Ambassador Mansoor Khan in Kabul both sharing on Twitter that Mallick was “safe” and “back in Kabul”. Hours later, WION claimed in a report …

PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry on Saturday said that the “question” was not about Pakistan’s soil being used in the US drone attack that killed Al Qaeda leader Ayman Al Zawahiri, but its airspace as he demanded a formal statement from ministries. The former minister was seemingly referring to Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General Babar Iftikhar DG ISPR’s recent remarks on the matter. In …

GAZA CITY: Israel pounded Gaza with air strikes on Friday, killing more than 15 people, including a top commander of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement, and triggering a barrage of retaliatory rocket fire from the territory. Israel said it launched a pre-emptive strike against Islamic Jihad, killing its commander it blames for a series of recent attacks inside Israel. Islamic …

COLOMBO: A potential Inter­national Monetary Fund bailout for Sri Lanka could be delayed if its creditors — the largest being China — do not agree on concessions, the country’s president warned on Friday. A crucial debt restructuring — with the countries to which it owes billions agreeing to write off some of their dues — is a pre-condition before the …

LONDON: A British cabinet member admitted on Friday “I don’t know where Boris is” as the prime minister checked out on holiday, in a week that saw the Bank of England warn a year-long recession is coming. Boris Johnson has since Wednesday been on a belated honeymoon with wife Carrie. Downing Street has refused to say where, but The Times newspaper said …

MOSCOW: President Vladimir Putin and Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday adopted a statement pledging to boost political and economic cooperation including in energy and trade. The talks between Putin and Erdogan came as Russia’s isolation grows following its intervention in Ukraine. “Despite the current regional and global challenges, the leaders reaffirmed their common will to further develop Russian-Turkish …