Author: Edwin Omar Owens

Pakistan’s Hamza Khan on Sunday won the World Junior Squash Championship, bringing the title to the South Asian nation that once ruled the sport after 37 years. Khan beat Egypt’s Mohamed Zakariya 3-1 in the final played in Melbourne, Australia. “Hamza Khan comes from behind to win the 2023 WSF World Junior Squash Championship!” the World Squash Federation said in a tweet. The 17-year-old, who won the U-15 title at the British Junior Open Squash Championship in 2020, thanked his coach, his managers and his parents for their support. “First of all, I would like to thank Allah, and my…

Pakistan intends to bolster its arms exports through a new government body meant to attract foreign direct investment and ease the manner of doing business, according to Federal Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal. A key aspect of this approach was to use a single body, instead of multiple organizations, in order to cut down red tape. Iqbal spoke Wednesday at a news conference in Pakistan about the the Special Investment Facilitation Council, or SIFC, which was formed in June to establish economic policies to “ensure policy predictability, continuity and effective implementation to revive the economy.” Alongside defense production, SIFC will also…

After five days behind bars, Pakistani woman Seema Ghulam Haider and Greater Noida local Sachin Meena stepped out of the Luksar Jail in Gautam Budh Nagar at 8.30 am on a rainy Saturday and hugged each other. Haider arrived with her four children, while Meena’s older brother came in a Santro car to pick them up. The two went to Rabupura village’s Meena Thakuran colony, where Sachin’s father, Netrapal Singh, had arrived a day earlier after being released on bail from jail. On July 4, the Gautam Budh Nagar police arrested Haider for illegally entering India without a visa via…

The Pakistan government announced a commission of inquiry into the fatal shipwreck off Pylos today. The committee has already been constituted by the decision of Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, and within a week, it will submit a finding on further action. From the state officials’ statements, it appears that the Pakistani government will take legal action against Greece, possibly also against the EU. Such a move certainly has not only legal but mainly political dimensions, SLPress reports. Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah has assured that the government will take strict action on the fatal sinking of the fishing boat in Greek waters…

The transaction of Pakistan’s first government-to-government import of discounted Russian crude oil in Chinese yuan is in line with Pakistan’s practical and broad-based economic partnership with China and is based on our strong mutual trust and win-win cooperation, Pakistani Ambassador to China Moin ul Haque told the Global Times in an exclusive interview on Monday. Ambassador Haque told the Global Times that with growing economic ties and the new projects being launched under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), China and Pakistan have agreed to the use of the Chinese yuan and Pakistani rupees for financial transactions. The first cargo of…

Pakistan has one month to satisfy the International Monetary Fund before its stalled support program expires, raising the risk of a sovereign default. But just as the cash-strapped country enters crunchtime, friction between the government and the fund is clouding its prospects. Commenting on Pakistan’s situation earlier this week, IMF Mission Chief Nathan Porter said Islamabad must arrange new foreign loans, approve a new budget in line with the fund’s guidelines and allow the open market to determine the value of the rupee, if it is to revive the $6.5 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF) agreed in 2019. Porter also…

Pakistan’s ousted Prime Minister Imran Khan has had a tough few weeks. Thousands of his supporters are in jail. Dozens from the leadership of his party have left – and it it could even be banned. Mr Khan himself could potentially be called before a military court. “You think it is a big crisis for me, I don’t,” he tells me. We are sitting inside a portacabin in the courtyard of his home in Lahore, Zaman Park. It has been turned into a media room where Mr Khan now conducts his live broadcasts on his social media platforms and his…

Russia’s defense ministry said on Thursday that its forces had taken four blocks in north-western, western and south-western Bakhmut, Russia state-owned news agency RIA reported. Reuters could not independently confirm the claim. Russian forces have been struggling for months to capture the city in eastern Ukraine. Source : Alarabiya

The Chinese president, Xi Jinping, will send a delegation to Ukraine to hold talks with all parties on resolving the conflict there, after his first phone call with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, since Russia invaded in February 2022. According to Chinese state media, Xi made the offer during a telephone call on Wednesday with Zelenskiy and offered to help facilitate peace talks aimed at achieving a ceasefire as soon as possible. Xi also appeared to pledge China would remain neutral in the conflict, saying Beijing “will neither watch the fire from the other side, nor add fuel to the fire, let alone…

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — A Chinese national who was arrested in Pakistan on charges of blasphemy has been released from a high-security prison after a court granted him bail, a defense lawyer and local police said Friday. Atif Khan Jadoon, the lawyer for the man who has been only identified as Mr. Tian said the Chinese national was granted bail by a judge in the northwestern city of Abbottabad on Thursday. Tian was released after he filed a surety bond of 200,000 rupees ($700), Jadoon said. The latest development comes weeks after Tian, who worked on a dam project, was detained after…