KABUL: The United States has attacked a militant Islamic State group’s “planner” in the Nan­garhar province bordering Pakis­tan in retaliation for Thursday’s bombing outside the Kabul airport and said there is a high risk of further blasts and attacks as it winds up its evacuation efforts. The Pentagon declined to say if the people targeted in the latest US strike were directly …

A priest and three other men have been charged with the gang rape and murder of a nine-year-old Dalit girl, Indian police said, in a case that sparked days of protests in New Delhi. The girl was allegedly assaulted by the priest, 53, and three workers on Aug 1 after she had gone to a crematorium to fetch water. The …

US forces are in the final phase of leaving Kabul, ending two decades of involvement in Afghanistan, and just over 1,000 civilians at the airport remain to be flown out before troops withdraw, a Western security official said on Sunday. The country’s new Taliban rulers are prepared to take control of the airport, said an official from the group that …

RAWALPINDI: After the cancellation of land acquisition for Rawalpindi Ring Road project, the district administration has recovered Rs60 million from landowners and transferred the land back to them. Land worth Rs380 million had been acquired for the Ring Road project, however, following reports of corruption in the project, land acquisition was cancelled. A high-level inquiry revealed that changes were made …

ISLAMABAD: Amid doctors’ concerns about the impact of mix-and-match vaccines on public health, the Ministry of National Health Services (NHS) has decided to facilitate foreign travel of those who have been administered Chinese vaccine by charging them for the booster shot. The NHS ministry fixed charges of Rs1,270 per booster dose to make it available for the overseas Pakistanis who …

PESHAWAR: The health department has announced that 30 per cent of the targeted adult population in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has been vaccinated against coronavirus and the vaccine jabs will be given to 10 million more people in the next two months. The announcement comes amid 18 more deaths from the infection and 571 new cases in the province. “We’ve vaccinated 7.3 …

ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Climate Change Malik Amin Aslam on Saturday said preparations were underway to establish the country’s first-ever Asian Leopard reserve in the Margalla Hills National Park. Spanning over 17,386 hectares and ranked as the third largest in the world, the scenic national park is home to rich biodiversity comprising around 600 plant species, …

BAHAWALNAGAR: Fixing responsibility for the Aug 19 security lapse which led to an attack on an Ashura procession in the city, police under the pressure of a provincial minister found a scapegoat to spare two officials who were actually answerable. The grenade attack had left two persons dead. An official announcement on Aug 20 from the office of Bahawalpur Regional …

ISLAMABAD: The capital administration and police are still in the dark about international transit passengers expected to arrive from Afghanistan in the next few days, sources told. Officers of the capital administration and police told on condition of anonymity that they had been asked to make arrangements for the accommodation and safety of international transit passengers who would start arriving …

KARACHI: In a major assertion indicating Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s political ambitions in Sindh, the federal government on Saturday expressed confidence that the current provincial set-up would be Pakistan Peoples Party’s last administration due to record corruption cases and bad governance in its three consecutive terms. The PTI is going to form the next Sindh government, said a key member of the …