PARIS: A French court on Thursday acquitted former prime minister Edouard Balladur on corruption charges after he was accused of using kickbacks from an arms deal but handed a suspended jail term to his former defence minister. The verdict by the Law Court of the Republic (CJR), which sits to try serving and former ministers for alleged violations committed in …

WASHINGTON: Security was tight on Thursday at the US Capitol in Washington, the scene of a deadly assault in January, after police warned that a militia group might try to attack it to mark a key date on the calendar of a baseless conspiracy theory. A bulletin issued on Tuesday by the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau …

US President Joe Biden has nominated a Pakistani-American, Dilawar Syed, to serve as the deputy administrator of the Small Business Administration (SBA), according to a statement released from the White House. Confirming the news on Twitter, Dilawar said he was “deeply humbled & honored” on the nomination, which is yet to be confirmed by the US Senate. “I will put my heart …

WASHINGTON: The US State Department used the term “union territory” while referring to India-occupied Jammu and Kashmir in its news briefing on Wednesday, but it emphasised at the same time that Washington’s Kashmir policy remained unchanged. “We welcome steps to return the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir to full economic and political normalcy consistent with India’s democratic values,” State …

JALALABAD: At least seven members of Afghanistan’s persecuted Hazara ethnic group were brutally murdered in the country’s restive east, officials said on Thursday, in the latest attack to target the largely Shia minority. The group of migrant Hazara labourers had their hands bound behind their backs and were shot to death on Wednesday night, according to Nangarhar provincial council member …

GILGIT: The Gilgit-Baltistan government has formed a seven-member parliamentary committee to make recommendations for the proposed constitutional and administrative reforms in the region. Chief Minister Khalid Khurshid Khan will head the committee while opposition leader in GB Assembly Advocate Amjad Hussain of PPP, Member GB Assembly Ghulam Mohammad of PML-N, Minister Mohammad Kazim Masem of MWM, Member GB Assembly Haji …

ISLAMABAD: The Establishment Division on Thursday suspended the Sialkot deputy commissioner (DC) and district police officer (DPO) over negligence in maintaining order during the NA-75 by-election. The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Feb 25 declared the NA-75 Sialkot-IV (Daska) election after finding that presiding officers of some polling stations tempered with the results. Earlier, they disappeared along with the …

RAWALPINDI: For the first time since December, the twin cities reported highest numbers of deaths and new cases on Thursday. In Rawalpindi, nine people died of the virus and 36 people tested positive while in Islamabad 231 new cases emerged with one death. Ghazanfer Ali, 60, a resident of Mubarak Lane, was brought to Rawalpindi Institute of Urology (RIU) on …

LAHORE: Water levels in Tarbela and Mangla dams have continued to decline due to no snow melting and almost no rainfall in the catchment areas in the ongoing and previous months. There may be 30 to 40 per cent of water shortage in the country if the situation persists till April. “The situation is very alarming as the water storage …

GUJAR KHAN: Seven suspects were arrested on charge of raping a woman in the jurisdiction of Lilla police station of Jhelum district. According to details, a woman reported to the police on Feb 28th that she had come to Lilla from Bhalwal tehsil of district Sargodha and when she got off from the van at Lilla interchange a man named …