SYDNEY: Australia’s largest city Sydney entered a two-week lockdown on Saturday to contain a sudden Covid surge, but several European nations lifted restrictions despite the global spread of a highly contagious form of the disease. While vaccination drives have brought down infections in numerous — mostly wealthy — countries, the rise of the Delta variant which first emerged in India …

Two low-intensity explosions were reported in the technical area of the Jammu Air Force Station in early on Sunday morning, the Indian Air Force (IAF) said, adding that no equipment had been damaged. “One caused minor damage to the roof of a building while the other exploded in an open area. Investigation is in progress along with civil agencies,” it …

A United Arab Emirates (UAE) ban on entry from India, South Africa and Nigeria remains in place, the federal aviation authority said on Sunday, after Dubai had announced it would ease entry restrictions from those countries. Dubai, a business and tourism hub, is the most populous of the UAE’s seven emirates. Throughout the pandemic the UAE’s seven emirates have set …

Searchers worked early on Sunday to find more than 150 missing residents amid the rubble of a Florida condo building that collapsed three days ago as questions arose about the tower’s structural integrity. The death toll rose to five on Saturday after emergency workers found a victim in their methodical search of the site in Surfside, a shore town near Miami, Miami-Dade …

PESHAWAR: After the extension of the Sehat Sahulat Programme to the entire population of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Chief Minister Mahmood Khan on Saturday announced the start of the Education Card System to enrol deserving students from economically disadvantaged families in the country’s top educational institutions. “Many brilliant children are left out of good educational institutions due to poverty, so the provincial …

ISLAMABAD: National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser on Saturday issued production orders for two detained opposition members enabling them to attend the ongoing budget session on Monday (tomorrow). The speaker has issued the production orders for Pakistan Peoples Party MNA from Sukkur Syed Khurshid Ahmed Shah and independent MNA from erstwhile tribal areas Ali Wazir. During the ongoing budget session, a …

Prime Minister Imran Khan on Saturday urged Pakistani filmmakers to focus on original content and adopt new approaches in filmmaking. Addressing the prize distribution ceremony of the National Amateur Short Film Festival (NASFF) in Islamabad, the premier said he had seen Pakistani cinema evolve over time. He said mistakes were committed at the beginning since the Pakistani film industry was …

PML-N leader and former finance minister Miftah Ismail hit out at the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI)-led government on Sunday, holding it responsible for a looming energy crisis in the country and delays in the dry docking of liquified natural gas (LNG) terminals — one of the reasons he identified for the emerging shortage of gas and electricity. Addressing a press conference …

murad alu LARKANA: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has demanded that all provinces should bear shortage of irrigation water equally in accordance with Water Apportionment Accord, 1991, but unfortunately it is not being done. Shah told journalists at the residence of Saleem Jan Mazari in Kashmore on Saturday after having offered condolence on the death of Mazari’s mother …

Prime Minister Imran Khan on Sunday asked all Pakistanis, especially the youth, to prepare themselves for the “biggest tree planting campaign in Pakistan’s history” ahead of the monsoon season this year. The premier shared an infographic on Twitter that showed the number of trees per person in different countries. According to the chart, there are 10,163 trees per person in …