LAKE SALDA: As Nasa’s rover Perse­verance explores the surface of Mars, scientists hunting for signs of ancient life on the distant planet are using data gathered on a mission much closer to home at a lake in southwest Turkey. Nasa says the minerals and rock deposits at Salda are the nearest match on earth to those around the Jezero Crater …

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has been invited by Russia to a meeting of ‘extended troika’ on Afghan peace being held on March 18 in Moscow. Russian newswire TASS quoted Russia’s presidential envoy for Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov as having said that the United States, China, Pakistan, the Afghan government and the Taliban have been invited to attend the coming expanded trilateral consultations on peaceful settlement …

WASHINGTON: The United States has prevented Turkey from supplying 30 locally-made attack helicopters to Pakistan, diplomatic sources in Washington. According to Bloomberg News, Turkey’s presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin told reporters on Monday that “the US has blocked Turkey’s helicopter sale to Pakistan, which will likely lead to Islamabad buying it from China.” The ATAK T-129 is a twin-engine, tandem seat, multi-role, …

WASHINGTON: The US State Department has said that the Biden administration has asked for Pakistan’s continued commitment to the Afghan peace process. US special envoy for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad visited Islamabad on Monday for talks on the US-led efforts to seek a negotiated settlement to the long-simmering Afghan dispute. Ambassador Khalilzad was a key member of the former Trump administration’s …

NEW DELHI: India’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday it had summoned the United Kingdom’s high commissioner over what it called “unwarranted and tendentious discussion” of Indian agricultural reforms in the British parliament. Three new agricultural laws introduced by India late last year have led to months of protests by farmers, angry at what they see as sops to large private …

Buckingham Palace said Tuesday that allegations of racism made earlier this week by Prince Harry and Meghan were “concerning” and would be addressed privately by the royal family. The comments, made in a statement issued on behalf Queen Elizabeth II, are the first from the palace since the two-hour television interview with Meghan and Harry rocked the royal family. Meghan, …

BAMIYAN: Twenty years after being blasted out of Afghanistan’s rugged central highlands, one of the country’s famed Buddha statues made a brief virtual return on Tuesday night as a three-dimensional projection filled the alcove that hosted the statue for centuries. The projection topped off a day commemorating the des­t­ruction of the two famous Buddha statues by the Tali­ban in March …

ISLAMABAD: The Capital Development Authority (CDA) has called bids for the construction of the over 10 km portion of Margalla Road, which remained stalled for years. A few days ago, the CDA invited bids from the construction firms for Khayaban-i-Margalla from G.T. Road to D-12 balance work under Package I. In 2012, the civic agency had awarded contract worth Rs …

US President Joe Biden will hold first-ever joint talks on Friday with the leaders of Australia, India and Japan, boosting an emerging four-way alliance often cast as a bulwark against China. It will be one of the first summits, albeit in virtual format, for Biden, who has vowed to revive US alliances in the wake of the disarray of Donald …

ISLAMABAD: As the number of out-of-school children in the country reached 18.7 million, the federal cabinet on Tuesday approved a framework to bring them back to schools. Education minister Shafqat Mahmood informed the cabinet that there were 18.7 million out-of-school children in Pakistan, posing a great challenge. He said one in every four children in the country had never attended …