KARACHI: Amid optimism for a smooth passage of the budget for fiscal year 2024-25 and a subsequent deal with the International Monetary Fund, the stock market continued its recovery momentum on Thursday. Investors engaged in value-hunting in oil and banking shares, which helped the benchmark index extend its overnight bull run. Ahsan Mehanti of Arif Habib Corporation said the finance minister’s proposal to abolish …

KARACHI: The budget proposals for FY25 will stifle growth and innovation in the informal technology sector and exacerbate brain drain through high taxation, the chief of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) said on Thursday. Atif Ikram Sheikh, the FPCCI chief, said at a press conference that despite repeated assurances from the incumbent government, budgetary proposals …

VIENNA: Vienna is still the world’s most liveable city for a third year in a row, while the rating of Tel Aviv in Israel slumped, according to a new survey published on Thursday. In The Economist’s annual ranking, the Austrian capital again came first, followed by the Danish capital Copenhagen and Zurich in Switzerland. Melbourne in Australia and Calgary in Canada completed …

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Interior Mohsin Naqvi on Thursday briefed his Chinese counterpart Qi Yanjun on the progress made in the probe into the Bisham attack in which five Chinese engineers and their Pakistani driver were killed. During a meeting at the Permanent Mission of China to the United Nations in New York, Mr Naqvi and Mr Qi discussed bilateral relations, security-related matters and cooperation between the …

TOKYO: Japanese scientists have used human cells to develop an equivalent to living skin that can be attached to robotic surfaces to flash a realistic — if creepy — smile. The University of Tokyo researchers published their findings this week along with a video of the gooey-looking pink material being stretched into an unsettling grin. They used a “skin-forming cell-laden gel” to …

NAIROBI: A climbdown by Kenya’s president over plans to raise taxes brought no end to nationwide protests on Thursday, with at least two people reported killed in clashes near the capital Nairobi and others shot by police elsewhere. A day after President William Ruto abandoned a tax hike bill, demonstrators in Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu and other cities called for him to step down, although …

WASHINGTON: A defunct Russian satellite has broken up into more than 100 pieces of debris in orbit, forcing astronauts on the International Space Station to take shelter for about an hour and adding to the mass of space junk already in orbit, US space agencies said. There were no immediate details on what caused the break-up of the RESURS-P1 Russian …

DUBAI: Two hardline candidates dropped out of Iran’s presidential election on Thursday, a day ahead of the landmark vote, and called for unity among forces supporting the country’s Islamic revolution, state media reported. Iranian’s tightly controlled election on Friday follows Ebrahim Raisi’s death in a helicopter crash last month, with the outcome expected to influence the succession to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the top …

GAZA STRIP: Palestinians fled eastern Gaza City on Thursday under heavy bombardment as the Israeli military issued an evacuation order for the area it had previously declared clear of Hamas fighters. The flare-up in the northern Gaza Strip’s Shujaiya district, which witnesses and medics said caused numerous casualties, comes as fears grow of a wider regional conflagration involving Israel and …

President Joe Biden delivered a shaky, halting performance while his Republican rival Donald Trump battered him with a series of often false attacks at their debate on Thursday, as the two oldest presidential candidates ever exchanged personal insults ahead of the November election. The two men traded barbs on abortion, immigration, the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, their handling of the economy and even …