ISLAMABAD: Baffled by the rising food inflation, Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin on Wednesday asked the Ministry of Commerce to expedite the process of slapping a ban on the export of perishable commodities to control prices in domestic market. The rising food prices have compelled the incumbent government to take some remedial policy measures to ban exports of perishable products for …

RAWALPINDI: The twin cities saw a sharp increase in dengue cases in the last few days as 157 patients were admitted to hospitals on Wednesday. In the garrison city, 99 patients landed in three hospitals. Though the Holy Family Hospital, District Headquarters Hospital and Benazir Bhutto Hospital have established special dengue wards, Cantonment General Hospital failed to allocate beds and …

ISLAMABAD: Capital police have announced that they have started a crackdown on illegal weapons. Addressing a press conference at Rescue 15 on Wednesday, DIG (Operations) Afzaal Ahmed Kousar said he had directed the officials concerned to launch a crackdown on people possessing illegal weapons, adding that law breakers created law and order situation, harassed public and played with the lives …

Israeli police fatally shot a Palestinian woman who allegedly tried to stab officers in Jerusalem’s Old City on Thursday, police said. And in the northern West Bank, Israeli forces shot dead a male who purportedly opened fire on them during clashes prompted by an overnight arrest operation, police said. According to a police statement, the woman in Jerusalem tried to …

LONDON: France warned on Wednesday of retaliation in Brussels against the United Kingdom and Jersey over their refusal of many post-Brexit fishing licences, while French trawlermen threatened fresh protests and even an exports blockade. Fishing rights for EU boats in UK waters was a key stumbling block to negotiations for a Brexit trade accord between London and Brussels, and threatened …

COX’S BAZAR: Uniden­tified assailants shot dead a top Rohingya community leader in a refugee camp in the Bangladesh resort district of Cox’s Bazar on Wednesday. Mohibullah was talking with other refugee leaders outside his office after attending prayers when four assailants came to the spot and shot him dead, according to a police spokesman. “Four to five unidentified assailants shot …

SAN FRANCISCO: YouTube said on Wednesday it would remove videos that falsely claim approved vaccines are dangerous, as social networks seek to crack down on health misinformation around Covid-19 and other diseases. Video-sharing giant YouTube has already banned posts that spread false myths around coronavirus treatments, including ones that share inaccurate claims about Covid-19 vaccines shown to be safe. But …

Foreign Office spokesperson Asim Iftikhar Ahmad said on Wednesday that “unwarranted” references to Pakistan in a bill that was recently introduced in the United States Senate was “inconsistent” with the spirit of cooperation that had existed between the two countries on Afghanistan since 2001. “We see that a debate is under way in Washington both in the media and on Capitol Hill …

TOKYO: Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) anointed former foreign minister Fumio Kishida as its new leader on Wednesday, a victory for the party’s establishment that virtually ensures the soft-spoken veteran will become prime minister within days. Although he enjoys only moderate popular support and is saddled with an image of being bland, Kishida had critical backing from some party …

MADRID: Lava from an erupting volcano in the Canary Islands has reached the ocean, volcanologists said, raising fear of toxic gases being released as the lava hits the sea water. The regional government of the Spanish archipelago had already declared an exclusion zone of two nautical miles around where the lava was expected to enter the Atlantic and asked nearby …