ISLAMABAD: Punjab and Balochistan are the two most expensive provinces in terms of the gap between actual and prices fixed by district administration of essential food items, according to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS). PBS has ranked the provinces in terms of the gap between the market prices and those set by district administrations. The exercise is aimed at …

BERLIN: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Saturday promised a full investigation after what appe­ared to be a recording of confidential army talks on the Ukraine war was posted on Russian social media, in a potentially huge embarrassment for Berlin. The head of Russia’s state-backed RT channel, Margarita Simonyan, on Friday posted the 38-minute audio recording of what Scholz claimed were …

DUBAI: A cargo ship loaded with fertiliser has sunk in the Gulf of Aden less than two weeks after it was damaged by missiles from Yemen’s Houthi rebels, Yemen’s government said on Saturday. The Houthis claimed the Feb 19 attack against the Rubymar, a cargo ship flying a Belizean flag and operated by a Lebanese firm, which transported combustible fertilisers. …

KYIV: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday urged the West to deliver more air defence systems as a wave of Russian missile, drone and artillery strikes killed at least ten people. Seven were confirmed dead, including a three-month-old baby and two-year-old child, after an overnight drone strike on the southern port city of Odesa. Separate shelling attacks on the frontline …

MUMBAI: Three men were arrested on Saturday after the gang rape of a Spanish tourist on a motorbike trip through India’s remote east with her husband, local media reports said. The attack took place on Friday night in the Dumka district of the eastern state of Jharkhand, where the couple had stopped to camp the night in a tent. The …

GAZA STRIP: Israel has “more or less accepted” a proposal for a six-week ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, a US official said on Saturday as Palestinian negotiators were expected in Cairo. Mediators have been scrambling to lock in a truce before Ramazan begins on March 10 or 11. The US official told reporters that “there’s a framework deal” for a …

WASHINGTON: A Sikh musician (ragi) was shot dead outside a gurdwara in the US city of Selma on Feb 23, making it the second killing of an Indian-origin person in less than a month. Indian media reported this week that Raj Singh, also known as Goldy, was shot dead outside a gurdwara in Selma, a city in the southern US state of …

LONDON: For the first time since he became prime minister 16 months earlier, Rishi Sunak made an impromptu speech from outside his office, not to call a general election but to rail against extremist groups, which, according to him, are trying to tear the nation apart. Standing in the rain, his back to 10 Downing Street, PM Sunak in speech …

GAZA CITY: A UN team has reported seeing “a large number” of gunshot wounds among Gazans after Israeli troops opened fire on Palestinian civilians scrambling for food supplies near an aid convoy, killing 115 people and wounded more than 750. The aid convoy deaths pushed the number of Palestinian dead in Gaza since Oct 7 to 30,320, mostly women and …

ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office on Saturday issued a sharp rebuke in response to India’s interception and seizure of a commercial consignment en route to Pakistan, labelling the action as an “unjustified seizure” and criticising India’s self-assumed role as a regional enforcer. “Pakistan condemns India’s high-handedness in seizure of commercial goods. This disruption of free trade underscores the dangers inherent in …