BUCHAREST: The Romanian government of liberal Prime Minister Florin Citu was brought down by a no-confidence vote on Tuesday, threatening to plunge the country into fresh political instability. The result of the vote showed 281 MPs voting in favour of the no-confidence motion, with none against as the government and its allies boycotted the poll. The crisis comes as Romania, …

DUBAI: US Commissioner General to the Expo in Dubai Robert Clark, who was appointed by President Joe Biden, said on Tuesday that he would lobby Congress to pass legislation to allow the government to finance the country’s participation in future world fairs. The United States is banned by Congress from using public funds to take part in fairs organised by …

ISLAMABAD: Border security and regional peace and stability topped Pakistan-Iran talks held on Tuesday. The 11th session of the Bilateral Political Consultations (BPC) was held at the Foreign Office. Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Dr Ali Bagheri Kani and Foreign Secretary Sohail Mahmood led their respective sides at the talks. The two sides, the FO said, reviewed entire …

PARIS: Hundreds of millions of people were unable to access Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp for more than six hours on Monday, underscoring the world’s reliance on platforms owned by the Silicon Valley giant. But what actually caused the outage? What does Facebook say happened? In an apologetic blog post, Santosh Janar­dhan, Facebook’s vice president of infrastructure, said that “configuration changes on the …

Member of the UK Parliament, Naz Shah, on Tuesday said voices against atrocities in Indian-occupied Kashmir (IoK) needed to be galvanised at a grassroots level to make them heard effectively at the international level. In an interview with the Associated Press of Pakistan during her visit to Pakistan, she said that attention raised on human rights violations in IoK such as the incidents of …

GENEVA: More than five billion people could have difficulty accessing water in 2050, the United Nations warned on Tuesday, urging leaders to seize the initiative at the COP26 summit. Already in 2018, 3.6 billion people had inadequate access to water for at least one month per year, said a new report from the UN’s World Meteorological Organisation. “We need to …

WASHINGTON: US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman arrives in Islamabad on Thursday for talks aimed at bridging a growing chasm between the United States and Pakistan on the Afghan issue. The State Department said Ms Sherman will be in New Delhi on Oct 6 for a series of bilateral meetings, civil society events, and the India Ideas Summit. On Oct 7, …

KABUL: Afghanistan will start issuing passports to its citizens again, a senior official said on Tuesday, following months of delays that hampered attempts by those trying to flee the country after the Taliban seized control in August. The process, which had slowed even before the Taliban’s return to power following the withdrawal of US forces, will provide applicants with documents …

KARACHI: The central government’s total debt increased by 11.5 per cent in August this year from August 2020 while the external debt (in terms of rupees) increased by 8pc in the first two months of 2021-22. The State Bank of Pakistan’s latest report on government’s total debts showed the external debts also increased significantly by Rs1.3 trillion in a year’s …

Tazah, a B2B agriculture marketplace in Pakistan, has raised $2 million in a pre-seed round led by Global Founders Capital and co-led by Zayn Capital. Other investors included Ratio Ventures, Walled City Co, i2i Ventures, Suya Ventures, Globivest, Afropreneur Syndicate, +92 Ventures, Sunu Capital and Musha Investments. The round also witnessed participation from local business groups, including Mezan Foods and …