KARACHI: Banks approved over Rs59 billion till the end of August under the government’s flagship markup subsidy scheme Mera PakistanMera Ghar. The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Wednesday said that as a result of numerous measures taken by it and support of the government, lending for the housing finance scheme had picked up momentum. The SBP said since the …

SAN FRANCISCO: Google on Wednesday ramped up cloud collaboration tools for businesses, expecting “hybrid” work routines to remain even after the pandemic has ended. The internet titan competes with Microsoft, Zoom, Facebook and others with online services that employees can use to collaborate remotely. Tech giants turned to their own tools after abandoning campuses early in the pandemic, which fueled …

MOSCOW: A Russian minister died on Tuesday while trying to save a filmmaker who slipped from a cliff during training exercises in the Arctic, officials said. Emergencies minister Yevgeny Zinichev, who previously served in President Vladimir Putin’s security detail, is the first Russian cabinet member to die on duty. He was lauded by senior government officials and the Russian leader …

RAMALLAH: Israeli troops have arrested at least six relatives of Palestinians who broke out of a high-security jail, a local watchdog said on Wednesday amid protests in support of the escapees. The six Palestinians staged their jailbreak on Monday through a hole they had dug under a sink in a Gilboa prison cell in northern Israel — reportedly using a spoon. …

Hong Kong: China, Germany and Japan offered a lukewarm reception on Wednesday to the Taliban’s provisional government in Afghanistan, following the group’s lightning seizure of Kabul last month. Taliban leaders filled all the top posts in Tuesday’s government list — which had no outsiders and no women — while an associate of the group’s founder was named prime minister and the interior …

DUBAI: Former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, who fled Kabul as Taliban forces reached the outskirts of the city last month, apologised on Wednesday for the abrupt fall of his government but denied that he had taken millions of dollars with him. In a statement posted on Twitter, Ghani said he had left at the urging of his security team who …

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi is set to be paid a visit today by Qatar’s Deputy Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani, who is expected in Pakistan. According to a statement released by the Foreign Office (FO), Qureshi and Al Thani, also Qatar’s foreign minister, will focus on the developments in Afghanistan as well as bilateral relations. …

GENEVA: The World Health Organisation called on Wednesday for countries to avoid giving out extra Covid jabs until year-end, pointing to the millions worldwide who have yet to receive a single dose. “I will not stay silent when the companies and countries that control the global supply of vaccines think the world’s poor should be satisfied with leftovers,” WHO chief …

Roya Rahmani, Afghanistan’s first female ambassador to the United States who left her post in July, is clearly horrified by the Taliban takeover of her country. But she is not surprised. In an interview, Rahmani accused the former US-backed government in Kabul of a failure to lead the country and of widespread corruption that ultimately paved the way for the …

Two Afghan journalists were left with ugly welts and bruises after being beaten and detained for hours by Taliban enforcers for covering a protest in the Afghan capital. The pair were picked up at a demonstration on Wednesday and taken to a police station in the capital, where they say they were punched and beaten with batons, electrical cables and …