BANGKOK: Thousands of Thai protesters marched on the prime minister’s office to demand his resignation on Thursday after scuffling with royalists opposed to the youth-led movement’s calls for reforms to the monarchy. Student activists have staged huge rallies recently calling for Premier Prayut Chan-o-cha, a former army chief who took power in a coup six years ago, to step down. …

RIYADH: A young falcon in Saudi Arabia has sold for more than $170,000, the most expensive sale ever of that type of bird and the costliest purchase so far at an annual 45-day auction. The bird was sold on Tuesday for 650,000 Saudi riyals ($173,000) by virtue of its unique characteristics and scarcity, the auction’s organisers, the Saudi Falcon Club, …

ZURICH: Countries straining to contain a second wave of Covid-19 are turning to faster, cheaper but less accurate tests to avoid the delays and shortages that have plagued efforts to diagnose and trace those infected quickly. Germany, where infections jumped by 4,122 on Tuesday to 329,453 total, has secured 9 million so-called antigen tests per month that can deliver a …

PESHAWAR: The recent fire incidents in the Peshawar Bus Rapid Transit buses were caused by the malfunctioning of a motor controller installed between hybrid batteries and electrical motors, reveals a month long inspection of the vehicles. The BRT service formally launched on Aug 13 has been suspended since Sept 16 after fire broke out in four buses. A 20-member team …

KARACHI: “In over 70 years, we could only create islands of standard education in our country. But we couldn’t spread this education to our entire country. It is just scattered here and there,” said Federal Minister for Education and Professional Training Shafqat Mahmood. He was speaking at the Second Education Summit on ‘Digital disruption: innovative pedagogies, redefining curriculum and leadership’ …

• Qureshi hails ‘prompt’ decision to import wheat to fill 1.7m-tonne gap • Hammad predicts up to Rs15 cut in sugar price per kg ISLAMABAD: Admitting that rising prices of wheat and sugar have added to the miseries of common people, three federal ministers have claimed that the government has started taking effective and practical measures, which will bring stability …

HYDERABAD: Many Sindh towns remained completely shut while others partially closed on Wednesday in response to Sindh Taraqqi-pasand Party’s call for protest against promulgation of presidential ordinance for the establishment of Pakistan Islands Development Authority (PIDA) to control Sindh’s islands. Partial strike was observed in Hyderabad where STP leader Dr Ahmed Noonari and others staged a demonstration and sit-in on …

ISLAMABAD: Chairman of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) retired Justice Javed Iqbal expressed satisfaction over a monthly report of a Combined Investigation Team (CIT) formed to investigate the sugar scam on Wednesday and asked the officials concerned to complete the investigation in an impartial, transparent, and professional manner soon. Reviewing the progress made by CIT in their probe, the NAB chief asked …

PESHAWAR: Around 350 volunteers of the Tiger Force having affiliation with the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and belonging to 35 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will attend convention in Islamabad on Oct 17 at the government’s expenses, sources said. The sources said the office of the chief secretary had directed all deputy commissioners to send 10 members of the Corona Tiger Force …

Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar has urged the nation to take standard operating procedures (SOPs) for curbing the spread of the coronavirus seriously once again in the face of a rising positivity rate. “National positivity of Covid cases was 2.37 per cent. This is the highest positivity rate in more than 50 days. The last time this level …