ISLAMABAD: With the federal government gearing to average out domestic and imported gas to address about Rs150 billion of circular debt, the Sindh government on Tuesday made clear that being the largest producer it would not allow weighted average sale price of cheaper local natural gas and expensive imported gas. Sindh sought compensation for its gas flowing to other provinces …

KARACHI: Foreign direct investment fell sharply by 38.7 per cent during the first month of the new fiscal FY22 compared to July FY21, following the declining trend noted in the previous fiscal year. The State Bank’s latest data issued on Tuesday showed that the country received only $90 million as FDI during July against an inflow $128.7m in the same …

DAKAR: Forty-seven migrants are feared to have died off the coast of Mauritania after a boat was found drifting with seven survivors on board, an official with the UN’s migration agency said on Tuesday. The boat “most probably” left the Laayoune region of Western Sahara on August 3, heading for the Spanish archipelago of the Canaries, Nicolas Hochart of the …

BANGKOK: Iran continues to produce uranium metal, which can be used in the production of a nuclear bomb, the United Nation’s atomic watchdog confirmed on Tuesday, in a move that further complicates the possibility of reviving a landmark 2015 deal with world powers on the Iranian nuclear programme. In a report issued by the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna …

JERUSALEM: Israeli firefighters battled flames for a second day on Monday in the hills west of Jerusalem, forcing the evacuation of five communities and prompting the government to ask for international help. “The Greek foreign minister already said he will help as much as possible,” Foreign Minister Yair Lapid wrote on Twitter. Foreign Ministry spokesman Lior Haiat said Greece and …

WELLINGTON: New Zealand imposed a snap three-day lockdown on Tuesday after identifying a single case of locally transmitted Covid-19 suspected to be the Delta variant, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said. Ardern said New Zealand, which had not recorded any infections in the community for six months, could not take any chances with the “game changer” Delta strain. “We have seen …

KABUL: A photo shows more than 600 Afghans — women, men, children and the elderly — sitting packed on the floor of a cavernous US military plane, part of a dramatic airlift hours after Kabul fell to the Taliban. The now-viral image, obtained and posted by the respected military news site Defense One, was taken inside a US Air Force C-17 …

KABUL: Some Kabul residents cautiously ventured back to work through quiet streets on Tuesday, fearful after a night broken by the sound of gunfire and facing questions from their new Taliban rulers stationed at checkpoints across the Afghan capital. The Taliban, who stopped women from working and administered punishments including public stoning during their previous 1996-2001 rule, swept the country …

More than 2,200 diplomats and other civilians have been evacuated from Afghanistan on military flights, a Western security official told Reuters on Wednesday, as efforts gathered pace to get people out after the Taliban seized the capital. The Taliban have said they want peace, will not take revenge against old enemies and would respect the rights of women within the framework of Islamic …

Girls wearing white hijabs and black tunics crammed into classrooms in the western Afghan city of Herat just days after the Taliban’s takeover. As the school opened its doors, the students scurried down corridors and chatted in courtyards, seemingly oblivious to the turmoil that has engulfed the country in the past two weeks. The scenes — which many feared would be …