KARACHI: Stockbrokers are holding their breath while the government locks horns with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) over the stalled loan programme. The benchmark index of the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) barely inched up in the outgoing week because of the inordinate delay in the agreement, which will lead to the release of a $1 billion tranche against promises of …

KARACHI: Politics took a toll on the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Friday as an alliance of main opposition parties took to the streets against the government. As a result, the benchmark index failed to sustain its intraday high of 217 points and lost 243.04 points, or 0.53 per cent, to close at 45,578.36 points. On the corporate result front, …

KARACHI: The digital financial transactions in the country showed a robust growth during the fiscal year 2020-21, replacing the conventional banking transactions faster than expectations of the banking industry. According to the State Bank’s latest Annual Payment Systems Review (PSR) for FY21 issued on Friday, the transactions processed through the SBP’s large-value payments segment, known as Real-time Inter-Bank Settlement Mechanism …

RIYADH: The Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen said on Friday it had killed at least 92 Houthi rebels in air strikes on two districts near the strategic city of Marib. The deaths are the latest among hundreds that the coalition says have been killed in recent fighting around Marib, and come during a second week of reported intense bombing. “Operations …

MAIDAN SHAR: Teachers at an Afghan midwifery college in a Taliban stronghold have dodged bullets through their office windows and seen their last training centre blown up. But they kept working for the sake of the mothers and babies in their rural community. Now, with the hardliners in control of Afghanistan, the instructors are calling on the new government to …

MELBOURNE: Melbourne residents flocked to the city’s pubs, restaurants and hair salons in the early hours of Friday after the world’s most locked-down city emerged from its latest spate of restrictions designed to combat the spread of Covid-19. Australia’s second-largest city has so far endured 262 days, or nearly nine months, of restrictions during six separate lockdowns since March 2020, …

The Foreign Office (FO) on Saturday issued a statement on a CNN report claiming that a formal agreement for the use of Pakistan’s airspace by the United States to conduct military strikes in Afghanistan was close, clarifying that there was “no such understanding” between the two countries. CNN, in its report, cited three “sources familiar with the details of a classified briefing” to …

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday again refused to halt enforcement of Texas’ new ban on abortions after six weeks, but put the case on a fast track, setting oral arguments for Nov. 1. Abortions in Texas have been cut to a trickle since the high court allowed the law, known as Senate Bill 8, to take effect …

More than a dozen North Texans have been arrested on charges in connection with the Jan. 6 siege of the U.S. Capitol. They are among more the scores of people across the country who have been arrested on suspicion of involvement in the mob assault on the building, and the FBI has said more arrests are expected. In a briefing …

A Denton County deputy fatally shot a man early Friday in the northwestern part of the county. Deputies were called about 3 a.m. to the 11400 block of Chisum Road, near FM2450, where a disturbance had been reported. A woman told dispatchers that her husband had kicked in a door to their home and was yelling at her to kill …