ISLAMABAD — As Pakistan stepped into the global centre-stage through Iran war mediation, it hired a US lobbying firm to push Washington for boosted security cooperation and minerals investment, the contract shows. The two-year, $1.2-million lobbying agreement, filed in a public official database, began in May, spanning a period officials and experts say is critical […]
SYDNEY — More than 500 people are feared dead after reports that two boats carrying members of Myanmar’s persecuted Rohingya minority have capsized in the Bay of Bengal, officials said Thursday. According to preliminary information, the two boats left Myanmar’s western state of Rakhine in late June carrying mostly Rohingya passengers, including some who had […]
PESHAWAR — Militants ambushed a security convoy and hours later a suicide bomber struck a police station in twin attacks in northwest Pakistan Wednesday that officials said left least three police officers dead and 20 wounded, in the latest sign that violence is escalating in the region bordering Afghanistan. The first attack occurred in the […]
HANOI, VIETNAM — A tourist boat returning from an island trip in southern Vietnam capsized on Saturday, killing 15 Indian visitors, state media reported. The speedboat was carrying 32 Indian tourists and four crew members when it overturned about 400 meters (1,310 feet) from Hon May Rut Ngoai Island, which is near Phu Quoc, Vietnam’s […]
BEIJING — Authorities in southern China said Thursday that 39 people have died in flooding from Tropical Storm Maysak. Most of the deaths were related to the breach of a dam in the city of Nanning, which claimed 26 lives, said Ding Wei, the city’s vice mayor, at a news briefing. Maysak brought record rainfall […]
COLOMBO — Deadly clashes broke out inside a prison in the outskirts of Sri Lanka’s capital, officials said on Monday. Unrest broke out at the prison in Negombo, about 35 kilometers (22 miles) north of the capital Colombo, on Sunday and continued on Monday, according to the local media and police. Local television station Hiru […]
QUETTA — A speeding, overcrowded passenger bus plunged from a highway into a rocky ravine in southwestern Pakistan early Friday, killing 40 people and injuring eight others in one of the deadliest road accidents in recent years, officials said. The bus went out of control and fell into the ravine in Dana Sar, a remote […]
LAHORE — Fourteen children died after the roof of a tutoring centre collapsed in Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore on Tuesday, rescue officials said, as authorities opened the way for a possible negligence investigation. Punjab’s emergency service said rescuers found children and a 30-year-old female teacher under rubble of the private after-school facility. The dead […]
KABUL — At least 28 civilians were killed and 49 injured in airstrikes carried out by Pakistan on its border with Afghanistan, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said on Monday. Pakistan’s security forces said they had killed at least 29 militants in ground and air operations along the Afghanistan border, while the […]
PESHAWAR — Pakistan’s Ministry of Interior has ordered a nationwide crackdown on illegal foreign nationals, directing authorities to arrest Afghan citizens residing in the country without valid visas from July 10. According to an official notification issued by the ministry on Sunday, chief secretaries, inspectors general of police (IGPs) of all four provinces and the […]