ISLAMABAD: Federal Board of Revenue Chairman Zubair Tiwana drew flak for an increase in taxes and punitive measures for non-filers, as the Senate Standing Committee on Finance deliberated on the Finance Bill 2024 on Thursday. In addition to a proposed raise in taxes on imported electric vehicles, reservations about hikes in other sectors, such as cement, telecom and beverages, were also discussed, and senators observed that abrupt …

ISLAMABAD: While telecom operators and mobile phone manufacturers have expressed concerns over taxation measures and the subsequent hike in service and set costs after the budget is approved, traders have already started charging higher prices for the current stocks. Telecom Association of Pakistan (TOA) has challenged the proposed Finance Bill 2024-25 in a letter to IT and Telecom State Minister Shaza Fatima. …

PESHAWAR: National and provincial lawmakers from Khyber Pakhtun­khwa continued to forcibly enter grid stations and turn on power supply on Thursday even as the utility company warned such actions could seriously damage the transmission infrastructure. The provincial home and tribal affairs department has also directed district administrations to ens­ure no unscheduled loadshedding is carried out. This is the latest development in the row bet­ween …

VATICAN CITY: Carlo Maria Vigano, a former Catholic Church diplomat and virulent critic of Pope Francis, said on Thursday the Vatican was putting him on trial for denying the pontiff’s legitimacy. The 83-year-old ultra-conservative, who was the Vatican’s US ambassador from 2011-2016, said the powerful department of doctrine had summoned him to hear the charges. In a blog posting he …

BARCELONA: A cruise ship rescued 68 migrants from a fishing boat spotted adrift south of Spain’s Canary Islands with five bodies on board, Spanish authorities and the ship’s operator said on Thursday. Rescuers were alerted on Wednesday afternoon to the vessel drifting in the Atlantic some 800 kilometres south of the island of Tenerife. The cruise ship, the Insignia, was …

NEW DELHI: An Indian court granted bail on Thursday to one of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s chief opponents, who was first detained over a long-running corruption probe in March. Arvind Kejriwal, the chief minister of Delhi and the leader of the opposition Aam Aadmi party, denies the charges as a “political conspiracy” by Modi and his Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party …

MANILA: The Philip­pines accused Chinese coast guard sailors of brandishing knives, an axe and other weapons in a clash with its naval vessels near a strategic reef in the South China Sea. The clash took place on Monday as Philippine forces attempted to resupply marines stationed on a derelict warship that was deliberately grounded atop the disputed Second Thomas Shoal …

LONDON: The man who made headlines less than two years ago for being the United Kingdom’s richest and first non-White prime minister will now go down in history as a symbol of failure. This week, a new poll forecast that the Conservatives will face a wipeout in London at the general election, and that Rishi Sunak will lose his own seat …

HANOI: The President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, says he wants to build a “reliable security architecture”, in the Asia-Pacific region. He made these remarks on Thursday, during a state visit to Vietnam, which is part of a ‘two-nation’ trip to Asia, viewed by many “as [a] show of defiance to the West”. A day after signing a mutual defence agreement with North …

BEIRUT: Fears of a regional war rose on Thursday after Lebanon’s powerful Hezbollah movement said none of Israel would be spared in a full-blown conflict, and Israel said it had approved plans for a Lebanon offensive. Experts are divided on the prospect of wider war, almost nine months into Israel’s vow to eradicate Hamas, the Palestinian group in the Gaza …