LAHORE: Southern Punjab really mean business in the second leg of the Nation T20 Cup in Lahore where they are back in the semi-final race. Barely 18 hours after chalking up their first win in the competition luck has at last started to side with them as they sealed the Punjab derby against the superior Central side on Thursday. While …

A blast tore through a mosque in Afghanistan’s northeastern province of Kunduz on Friday, a Taliban official said, causing multiple deaths. “This afternoon, an explosion took place in a mosque of our Shia compatriots … as a result of which a number of our compatriots were martyred and wounded,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on Twitter, adding that a special …

KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) welcomed the diminishing trend in global energy prices on Thursday as its benchmark index closed at 44,586 points, up 212.81 points or 0.48 per cent, from a day ago. According to Topline Securities, the stock market opened on a positive note as Russia announced its willingness to stabilise the global energy market by exporting …

BOSTON: Russia accounted for most state-sponsored hacking detected by Microsoft over the past year, with a 58pc share, mostly targeting government agencies and think tanks in the United States, followed by Ukraine, Britain and European Nato members, the company said. The devastating effectiveness of the long-undetected SolarWinds hack it mainly breached information technology businesses including Microsoft also boosted Russian state-backed …

WASHINGTON: The CIA said on Thursday it will create a top-level working group on China as part of a broad US government effort focused on countering Beijing’s influence. The group will become one of fewer than a dozen mission centres operated by the CIA, with weekly director-level meetings intended to drive the agency’s strategy towards China. The CIA also announced …

ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office on Thursday emphasised the need for regular engagement with the United States as US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman reached here for talks on bilateral ties and Afghanistan situation. Foreign Office spokesman Asim Iftikhar, at the weekly media briefing, said: “Close and regular engagement between Pakistan and the United States has always been mutually beneficial …

BRUSSELS: As desperate Afghans resort to selling their belongings to buy food, officials are preparing to fly in cash for the needy while avoiding financing the Taliban government, according to people familiar with the confidential plans. Planning for the cash airlifts is going ahead against the background of a rapidly collapsing economy where money is short, although diplomats are still …

GENEVA: The European Union on Thursday won its battle at the UN Human Rights Council to create a new special rapporteur on Afghanistan, despite opposition from China and Russia. The rapporteur will be responsible for monitoring the rights situation in the country following the Taliban takeover, and make recommendations on improvements. “This is an essential step to ensure continued monitoring, …

National Security Adviser (NSA) Moeed Yusuf has said that a “wait-and-see approach” on Afghanistan is tantamount to abandoning the war-torn country and has called for holding a donor conference to formulate immediate humanitarian and economic relief plans for averting the risks of instability and threat of terrorism faced by the entire world. “A wait-and-see approach, although more politically tenable for …

The 2021 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded on Friday to journalists Maria Ressa of the Philippines and Dmitry Muratov of Russia. They were cited for their fight for the freedom of expression. The winners were announced on Friday by Berit Reiss-Andersen, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee. “Free, independent and fact-based journalism serves to protect against abuse of power, lies …