SWABI: The police on Saturday arrested two persons for allegedly assaulting a girl near the boundary of Swabi with Haripur district. A police official said that the victim was a close relative of the accused, who belonged to Haripur district. He said an FIR was registered in the Utla police station against the accused, and the medical report also confirmed …

GILGIT: The chief secretary of Gilgit-Baltistan has constituted a high-level committee to conduct a fact-finding inquiry after a recent scrutiny found there were 83 ghost employees in the Communication and Works Department. Ibrar Ahmad Mirza, the chief secretary, asked the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) on Saturday to finalise legal action over the malpractice. The six-member committee, to be headed by the …

Taliban authorities said on Saturday that demands over women’s rights were “Afghanistan’s issues” to solve, ahead of United Nations-led engagement talks where the exclusion of Afghan women has sparked an outcry. The Taliban government, which has imposed restrictions on women since seizing power in 2021 that the UN has described as “gender apartheid”, will send its first delegation to the …

ESSEN: The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) declared its ambition to rise to power in Germany as its party congress kicked off on Saturday with clashes between hooded demonstrators and police, just weeks after it scored record EU election results. About 1,000 police were deployed in the western city of Essen, where demonstration organi­sers said 50,000 protestors marched towards the …

BELGRADE: A Serbian police officer on Saturday killed a man who shot him in the neck with a crossbow in front of the Israeli embassy in Belgrade, in what the prime minister called a “terrorist act”. Police identified the assailant as being a “convert” to Islam, who was born in 1999 in the town of Mladenovac, some 50 kilometres from …

BEIJING: China has unveiled a list of rare earth regulations aimed at protecting supplies in the name of national security, laying out rules on the mining, smelting and trade in the critical materials used to make products from magnets in electric vehicles to consumer electronics. The regulations, issued by the State Council or cabinet on Saturday, say rare earth resources …

ATHENS: A wildfire ignited on Saturday afternoon in a forest area north of Athens, amid heightened fire risk across six Greek regions. At least forty wildfires have erupted since dawn across the country with wind speeds exceeding 100 kilometres per hour, according to fire brigade sources. “In general, the conditions that prevail are difficult and dangerous,” Fire Department spokesperson Vasilis …

PANAMA CITY: A Panamanian court on Friday acquitted 28 people charged with money laundering in connection with the now-defunct law firm Mossack Fonseca, the epicentre of the “Panama Papers” international tax evasion scandal. Among those acquitted were the firm’s founders, Jurgen Mossack and Ramon Fonseca, the latter of whom died in May in a Panamanian hospital. During the trial, which was held in …

WASHINGTON: A senior US official has assured Islamabad that the United States and Pakistan maintain a stable and broad-based relationship despite occasional friction between the two allies. The assurance follows the recent adoption of a resolution by an overwhelming majority in the US Congress, expressing concerns about the state of democracy and human rights in Pakistan. Islamabad responded strongly, rejecting the concerns …

GAZA STRIP: Explo­sions, air strikes and gunfire rattled northern Gaza on Saturday, the third day of an Israeli military operation that has uprooted tens of thousands of Palesti­nians and compounded what the UN called “unbearable” living conditions in the territory. A correspondent repor­ted explosions from the Shujaiya area near Gaza City, and a resident saying bodies were seen on the …