Author: Javaneh Buriro

Ahead of the festive season, Nepal is set to import 20,000 metric tonnes (MT) of sugar from India, which meets at least 70% of the Himalayan country’s domestic annual demand of approximately 3,00,000 MT. In view of the upcoming festivals, including Vijaya Dashami and Deepawali, the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies has asked the Finance Ministry to give customs waiver for importing 60,000 MT of sugar to meet the local demand. The Finance Ministry has, however, given permission to import only 20,000 MT for the time being. According to Finance Ministry spokesperson, Dhaniram Sharma, the Ministry has given 50%…

Pakistan has a stockpile of approximately 170 nuclear warheads which could realistically grow to around 200 by 2025 at the current growth rate, according to top American atomic scientists. “We estimate that Pakistan now has a nuclear weapons stockpile of approximately 170 warheads. The US Defense Intelligence Agency projected in 1999 that Pakistan would have 60 to 80 warheads by 2020, but several new weapon systems have been fielded and developed since then, which leads us to a higher estimate,” the Nuclear Notebook column published in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists on September 11 said. The Nuclear Notebook is researched and…

Geneva, London (29/7 – 50) Mary Lawlor, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, condemned the arrest and imprisonment of journalists, bloggers and civil society activists in Tajikistan, and questioned the credibility of the evidence presented in court against them. Lawlor was on a two-week official visit to Tajikistan last December. The report prepared by her and members of the delegation on the results of this visit was published in May of this year, but only now became available to the public. The authorities of Tajikistan will have to prepare an official response to the document, which…

Iran’s new ambassador to Pakistan has said Iran can help to solve Pakistan’s energy crisis by supplying electricity, gas and oil at the “lowest price.” Speaking to local media in Islamabad on Saturday, Reza Amiri Moghadam, who was appointed as Iran’s new ambassador in June, said that the Islamic Republic would be able to relieve Pakistan’s electricity and gas shortages with cheap fuel. His comments come three weeks after the Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian visited Pakistan and their Ministry of Energy announced that a new contract had been signed to increase electricity imports from Tehran. During his unofficial discussions…

New Delhi: Amid concerns over record-high surge of tomato prices across India, the consumers are expected to get a big relief as Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday said that India would be importing tomatoes from Nepal. As part of the measures to control overall inflation in the country, the government, however, aims to check prices of tomatoes and sell them to the consumers at an affordable price in the market. The move of the government comes after tomato prices have reportedly skyrocketed more than 1,400 per cent at the wholesale markets to a record average of Rs 140 per…

The Bangladesh Cricket Board on Friday named Shakib Al Hasan as its captain for the upcoming Asia Cup and World Cup. The allrounder will replace Tamim Iqbal, who resigned from the captaincy because of uncertainty around his fitness. Shakib is now the captain for Bangladesh in all three formats of cricket after being earlier appointed as ODI skipper. “Shakib is the easiest choice as the captain for his experience and influence,” BCB president Nazmul Hassan said. “So he was our obvious choice.” Vice-captain Liton Das and allrounder Mehidy Hasan were also candidates but the BCB felt Shakib was best equipped…

In late July, Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe traveled to New Delhi to meet with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The trip addressed several important issues, such as greater connectivity. However, there was one item on the agenda that did not receive much media attention despite its potential impact on Indian Ocean regional security: Sri Lanka’s new standard operating procedure (SOP) to determine which military and non-military ships and aircraft may visit the country. Sri Lanka began developing the SOP after a Chinese satellite- and missile-tracking ship named the Yuan Wang 5 made a controversial visit to the southern Sri Lankan port of…

A 51-year-old Pakistani national was released from a Central Prison here after the Telangana High Court set aside a state government order according permission to the police for detaining him in connection with a case for allegedly obtaining Indian passport fraudulently.Shaik Gulzar Khan alias Gulzar Massih was released from the Cherlapally Central prison here last week following the orders by a Bench comprising Justice K Lakshman and Justice P Sree Sudha on July 13.“The GO No. 599 issued by respondent No.1 (Telangana government) is illegal and the same is liable to be set aside,” the bench said in its orders,…

A married Indian woman has travelled to Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province to meet her friend whom she befriended and fell in love with on Facebook, police said on Sunday. Anju, 34, was born in Kailor village in Uttar Pradesh and lived in Alwar district of Rajasthan. She is now in the Upper Dir district of Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to meet her 29-year-old Facebook friend Nasrulla. Nasrullah, who works in the medical field, and Anju became friends on the social media platform Facebook a few months ago, ARY News reported. Anju is visiting Pakistan for a month and has not…

Days of heavy monsoon rains have inundated Pakistani cities once again, killing at least 55 people and hitting vulnerable communities still recovering from last year’s historic deluge. The monsoon rains that started in the last week of June have have triggered flash floods, with the eastern city of Lahore seeing a record-breaking downpour on Wednesday, flooding many streets and disrupting normal life. Authorities said the number of dead in the past two weeks has risen to 55, with 12 people, including eight children, killed on Thursday. At least 87 people were injured during this period. “Fifty deaths have been reported in different rain-related incidents all over Pakistan since…