GUERNICA: Hundreds of families were displaced after police in Argentina torched their makeshift homes on Thursday to remove them from land they occupied during a coronavirus lockdown. Some 4,000 officers entered the 100-hectare camp in Guernica, in the southern suburbs of the capital Buenos Aires, at dawn — creating panic and anger among residents. The residents threw rocks and other …

PARIS: Bars, restaurants and services shut down in France and Germany on Thursday as countries around the world grappled with how far to push lockdown measures amid a surging tide of coronavirus cases. Hundreds of thousands of new infections took the known global caseload past 44.5 million with nearly 1.2 million deaths, as the disease continued its deadly spread worldwide. …

ISLAMABAD: The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet approved Prime Minister’s Rs24 billion Package to reduce input cost for farmers for the upcoming rabi season, with the intent of increasing wheat production. The approval came at a time when farmers were working on sowing rabi crops and the government’s timely intervention is estimated to enhance crop production. The PM’s …

KARACHI: The Sindh cabinet, in order to avoid spending foreign exchange on purchase of costly imported wheat, on Thursday took a decision to encourage local growers to cultivate more wheat by fixing minimum procurement support price at Rs2,000 per 40kg. The cabinet also approved sugar cane support price at Rs202 per 40kg and the crushing season would start from November. …

LAHORE: Pakistan’s first and mega High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) project — Matiari-Lahore transmission line — has almost been completed as engineers finished the entire line stringing work besides energising the converter station near Lahore. The project, launched under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, has now officially entered the testing and commissioning phase that is likely to complete by December this …

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday said that he would soon visit Balochistan and unveil a comprehensive development package for “backward” southern parts of the province. Presiding over a meeting on development projects for backward areas of the province, he said: “I will soon visit south Balochistan and announce a comprehensive development package for southern Balochistan areas and inaugurate …

ISLAMABAD: Instead of opposition, treasury members belonging to the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) on Thursday blasted their own government in the National Assembly over the unprecedented increase in prices of medicines over the past two years, saying they were unable to face people in their constituencies due to the prevailing price hike. The opposition members kept on thumping desks and …

ISLAMABAD: Former president Asif Ali Zardari filed in the Islamabad High Court on Thursday an application seeking transfer of his bail petitions in different cases from one bench to another. Currently, an IHC division bench comprising senior puisne judge Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani is hearing the former president’s bail petition in a case related to suspicious …

ISLAMABAD: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, Pakistan Bar Council and Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists have rejected the investigation team announced by Prime Minister Imran Khan to probe the abduction of Karachi-based Geo News journalist Ali Imran Syed. The organisations claim that the team in question consists of personnel with links to state agencies who are allegedly “culpable” in similar past activities. Last …

KARACHI: A National Accountability Bureau (NAB) team on Thursday raided the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD), checked its financial records, questioned officials of the health facility, gathered relevant documents and returned after more than five hours raising doubts over financial affairs of the largest specialised public-sector hospital and inviting strong reaction from the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) on …