ISLAMABAD: To reach an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for revival of its programme, the government on Wednesday announced that it’s going for ‘rationalisation of taxes’ to bridge over Rs450bn gap in revenues it had given up on petroleum products to keep their prices one of the lowest in the world. “We will have to definitely rationalise taxes but I …

The rally comprising thousands of workers of the proscribed Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) left Kamoke and neared Gujranwala city on Thursday morning, as life in the areas surrounding its route continued to remain disrupted. Some 4,000 TLP workers travelled on the Grand Truck Road in large trucks and buses along with their supplies, as stick-wielding activists of the group guarded the …

CAMBRIDGE: To cheers and a trumpet fanfare, a Cambridge University college on Wednesday handed a bronze statue looted in the 19th century back to Nigerian officials, in the first such move by a UK institution. Sonita Alleyne, the head of Jesus College, gave the elaborately carved cockerel known as “Okukor” to a Nigerian delegation. Okukor was among thousands of African …

BEIJING: China insisted on Wednesday that Taiwan had no right to join the United Nations, after the United States ratcheted up tensions with a call for the democratic island to have greater involvement in the world body. In a statement marking 50 years since the UN General Assembly voted to seat Beijing and boot out Taipei, US Secretary of State …

TEHRAN: Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has called for devising a long-term roadmap for Afghanistan in order to advance the agenda of political engagement, economic integration, and regional connectivity. Speaking at the second Ministerial Meeting of Neighbouring Countries of Afghanistan in Tehran on Wednesday, he stressed the need for exploring possibilities of collaboration with key international actors that can support …

LONDON: The United States urged two senior British judges on Wednesday to clear the extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and reject a lower court’s ruling that he is a suicide risk. Washington also assured the High Court in London that it would not hold the Australian in isolation in a US “supermax” prison, as it sought to sideline several …

SHANGHAI: Bottled-water tycoon Zhong Shanshan has become China’s wealthiest person, according to an annual ranking released on Wednesday, as a government campaign to rein in the super-rich took a big bite out of the fortunes of perennial front-runners like Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma. Zhong, in his late 60s, has seen his fortune swell following the stock listings last year of …

JERUSALEM: Israel on Wednesday advanced plans for building more than 3,000 settler homes in the occupied West Bank, a move condemned by the Palestinians that came a day after the US forcefully criticised such construction. The Civil Administration’s high planning committee gave final approval to 1,800 homes and initial endorsement for another 1,344, a spokesman for the military body that …

SRINAGAR: Police have launched an investigation after several hundred students in India-occupied Kashmir celebrated India’s recent defeat to Pakistan in the cricket World Cup, officials said on Wednesday. Around 300 students in two top Srinagar medical colleges gathered in two hostels watching the match on Sunday and burst into celebrations when Pakistan crushed India in the high-octane contest in Dubai. Videos of …

The United States on Wednesday announced its first passport with “X” for gender, a landmark step for people outside the binary male or female categories. The State Department said it had issued the first passport with “X” for gender and would make the option routinely available by early 2022 both for passports and birth certificates of Americans abroad. “I want …