Author: Zachary Mills

The president of Iran was on Sunday night feared dead after the helicopter he was travelling in crashed in a mountainous region. The lives of Ebrahim Raisi and Hossein Amirabdollahian, his foreign minister, were “at risk”, an Iranian official said during a large search and rescue mission. Ahmad Vahidi, the Iranian interior minister, blamed the crash, which came just a month after Tehran launched an unprecedented missile and drone attack against Israel, on poor weather conditions. State media described the incident as an “accident”. The chief of staff of the Iranian military ordered the entire army and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)…

In a testament to the unwavering commitment to eradicating polio, Islamabad’s anti-polio campaign was concluded on Thursday with resounding success. Under the meticulous guidance of Deputy Commissioner Islamabad Irfan Nawaz Memon, a dedicated team of health workers embarked on a door-to-door endeavor, administering polio drops to every eligible child, ensuring that the vulnerable are shielded from the debilitating clutches of this crippling disease, ICT spokesman Dr Abdullah Tabasum said. The review committee meeting, chaired by Deputy Commissioner Memon, brought together Additional Deputy Commissioner East, District Health Officer (DHO), Assistant Commissioners, Health Department officials and other stakeholders to assess the campaign’s…

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Christian and Muslim religious leaders on Thursday condemned Israel for its “brutal” massacre in Gaza, accusing the Jewish state of shedding the blood of innocent Palestinians on land deemed holy by Muslims, Jews, and Christians alike. More than a million Palestinians have been displaced from northern Gaza since Oct. 13, when the Israeli military ordered residents to evacuate to the south on 24 hours’ notice. Israeli warplanes have targeted densely populated areas in Gaza, saying it is retaliating to a full-pronged attack launched by Hamas’ military wing on Oct. 7. Israel’s war over the past two months has…

India’s wheat inventories at state warehouses have dropped to 19 million metric tons, the lowest in seven years, two government sources said on Friday, as two years of falling production forced state-run agencies to sell more grain to private players. Last year, India, the world’s second-biggest wheat producer, banned exports after output was curtailed due to a heat wave and overseas sales picked up as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sent global prices to multi-year highs. While U.S. wheat prices have corrected more than 35% so far in 2023, prices in India have leapt more than 20% in the past few…

NEW DELHI – India’s drugs regulator has ordered that the source and quality of an ingredient used to make cough syrups be checked and verified as a “top priority”, in the wake of the deaths of at least 141 children globally. In one of the world’s worst such waves of poisoning, cough syrups made by three Indian manufacturers have been linked to the deaths of dozens of children in Gambia, Uzbekistan and Cameroon since the middle of last year. The drugmakers have denied allegations that their products were responsible for the deaths, which have cast a shadow over the quality…

Bangladesh is grappling with a widening gap between the official and open market exchange rates for the US dollar, as local banks are mandated to follow the central bank’s prescribed rate amidst a severe currency shortage. Despite efforts to stabilize the currency, the open market rate for the dollar has soared, revealing a significant Tk15 discrepancy from the regulated rate. On Thursday, the informal or “kerb” market observed a decline in the US dollar’s value, dropping from Tk 127 to Tk 126. By Sunday evening, the price had further decreased to Tk 123, according to AKM Ismail Haq, president of…

Valencia, Turin, Madrid (28/11 – 25) Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia retained his MotoGP world title with many records; there are nevertheless signs that the Ducati rider will face sterner competition next season. The Italian rider won the 2023 season-ending MotoGP Grand Prix in Valencia on Sunday to clinch his second world title in a row. The protege of Valentino Rossi becomes the third rider to take back-to-back MotoGP titles since the introduction of the class in 2002. Only Valentino Rossi and Marc Marquez previously managed to do that. Bagnaia is the first rider to successfully race and defend #1 in the…

KARACHI: Caretaker Chief Minister retired Justice Maqbool Baqar was on Sunday informed that the provincial cabinet had not formally approved minimum wage of Rs32,000 in the province. The CM was presiding over a joint meeting of the labour department and a 29-member delegation of the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (Piler), led by its Executive Director Karamat Ali, here at the CM House. He heard issues being faced by labourers working in various industrial units and ordered the department to resolve them. The meeting took up the issue of implementation of the minimum wage of Rs32,000, which was…

The Pakistani government is planning to sell off its part of the shares in the Reko Diq copper and gold mining project to Saudi Arabia. The other partners in the venture are the Canada-based Barrick Gold and the government of Balochistan. Pakistani newspaper The News International reported on Tuesday that Pakistan is keen to invite investment from the Gulf nation as part of the strenuous efforts by the government and the army to attract foreign investment from friendly countries. The deal to extract gold and copper from the highly insurgent-prone province of Balochistan had been signed by the previous government under prime…

Brussels (21/10 – 75) In May 2022, tens of ethnic Pamiri protesters were killed by security forces as demonstrations were violently suppressed and an “anti-terrorist operation” was launched in the east of the country. Activists, local leaders, journalists and bloggers were arrested and sentenced in unfair trials. Many reported being tortured. Access to information, including through the media and internet, remained heavily restricted. Domestic violence remained widespread with victims rarely securing justice or support. Afghan refugees continued to be detained and deported. Tajikistan’s economic and political life continued to be tightly controlled by the president, in the 30th year of…