KARACHI: Pakistan’s road to securing high credit ratings will depend on whether the elections this week will bring about a government that can push for tough reforms, according to S&P Global Ratings. Almost all top rating agencies have downgraded the country’s ratings due to prolonged political and economic crisis. The economic situation has apparently improved, but the uncertainty over fair …

King Charles was seen in public on Tuesday for the first time since it was revealed he was suffering from a form of cancer as his estranged younger son Prince Harry flew into London to see him. Buckingham Palace announced on Monday that Charles, 75, on the throne for less than 18 months since the death of his mother Queen Elizabeth, has …

Turkish police on Tuesday shot dead a man and a woman belonging to a leftist “terrorist” organisation who attacked a security checkpoint outside Istanbul’s main courthouse, injuring six people, officials said. Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said the assailants were members of the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C) — a fringe leftist group that has staged periodic attacks in Turkiye since …

BEIJING: Freezing rain, snow and ice have snarled traffic in central, eastern and southern China as millions of people travel home ahead of the Spring Festival holiday in the blistering cold that has swept through parts of the country over the past week. Southern Hunan and central Hubei provinces bore the brunt of the severe weather, which deteriorated over the …

WASHINGTON: Donald Trump does not have immunity from charges he plotted to overturn his 2020 election defeat, a federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday, bringing the former US president a step closer to an unprecedented criminal trial. A three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rejected Trump’s claim that he cannot be prosecuted because the …

LARACHE: Archaeologists in Morocco have unearthed more than 80 human footprints dating back around 100,000 years and believed to be the oldest in North Africa. The footprints, probably left by five homo sapiens, including children, were discovered on the coast of Larache, a city 90 kilometres south of Tangier, by archaeologists from Morocco, Spain, France, and Germany. “This group (of …

STRASBOURG: The EU on Tuesday urged a 90-per cent cut to its greenhouse gas emissions by 2040, even as the bloc’s transition to a greener future was clouded by a widespread farmers’ revolt. “Based on the best available science, and a detailed impact assessment, we are recommending that the 2040 target should be a 90pc emission cut” compared to 1990 …

Jacob Elordi is involved in a police investigation in his home country of Australia after allegedly assaulting a radio producer, Variety reported. The Saltburn actor was at a hotel in Sydney when he was approached by Joshua Fox, a producer for The Kyle & Jackie O Show on KIIS FM. Fox claimed that he asked Elordi for some of his bathwater for Jackie O for her …

WASHINGTON: The US State Department has voiced apprehension over observed challenges to freedom during Pakistan’s current electoral process. Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel, in a news briefing on Monday, affirmed, “We want to see that process take place in a way that facilitates broad participation with respect for freedom of expression, assembly, and association.” Mr Patel also expressed concerns about “incidents …

UNITED NATIONS: The UN aid coordination office (OCHA) warned on Tuesday that Israel’s invasion of the densely populated southern city of Rafah would constitute a war crime. “We, as the UN and member states, can bear witness,” OCHA spokesperson Jens Laerke told journalists. “We can make it clear that under international humanitarian law, indiscriminate bombing of densely populated areas may …