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			<title>48 terrorists killed in IBOs across Balochistan over 72 hours: ISPR</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627418/12-terrorists-killed-in-balochistans-kalat-ibo-ispr</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627418/12-terrorists-killed-in-balochistans-kalat-ibo-ispr#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 04 Sep 26 08:50:36 +0500</pubDate>
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				<![CDATA[Web Desk]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Balochistan]]></category>
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				<![CDATA[ISPR says a cache of ammunition, improvised explosive devices also destroyed on-site]]>
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				<![CDATA[Security forces killed 48 &quot;Indian sponsored terrorists&quot; in intelligence-based operations (IBOs) in Balochistan over the last 72 hours, the military&rsquo;s media wing said on Friday.

According to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the anti-terrorist operations were carried out in Mastung, Quetta, Kalat and Sibi districts against &quot;Indian proxies, Fitna-al-Hindustan and Fitna-al-Khawarij&quot;. 

The federal government last year officially designated all terrorist groups operating in Balochistan as &#39;Fitna al-Hindustan&#39;, accusing India of sponsoring a proxy war through these outfits.

&quot;During comprehensive anti-terrorist operations with increased tempo in Balochistan, in last twelve - twenty four hours Security Forces have conducted multiple Intelligence based operations in Mastung, Quetta, Kalat and Sibi District of Balochistan, against Indian proxies, Fitna al Hindustan &amp; Fitna al Khwarij sending to hell thirty six Indian sponsored terrorists,&quot; ISPR said.

The military&rsquo;s media wing noted that on September 4 2026, during the conduct of an operation in Mastung, the movement of terrorists was &quot;identified and engaged&quot; by security forces, further adding that the intense exchange of fire resulted in the killing of six &quot;Indian sponsored terrorists&quot;.



The security forces have killed forty-eight terrorists belonging to Indian proxies Fitna al Hindustan and Fitna al Khwarij in multiple operations across Balochistan during last 48 to 72 hours@OfficialDGISPR #News #RadioPakistan https://t.co/2e8xwtvttY
&mdash; Radio Pakistan (@RadioPakistan) September 4, 2026



The statement also added that a cache of ammunition and improvised explosive devices was also destroyed on-site.

ISPR stated that &quot;in another engagement, an intelligence-based operation was conducted in the general area of Shaban, district Quetta. During the conduct of the operation, own troops identified four Khwarij hideouts and, after an ensuing fire exchange, neutralised twenty-six Khwarij&quot;.

The statement further added that another IBO was conducted in Kalat, stating that during the conduct of the operation, security forces raided a terrorist hideout and killed two Indian sponsored terrorists.

&quot;In Bhag area of district Sibi, swift response by security forces in conjunction with local population foiled terrorist attempt to raid police station, Bhag. During the fire exchange, two Indian sponsored terrorists were sent to hell,&quot; ISPR said.

The statement noted that in the &quot;last forty-eight to seventy-two hours, 48 terrorists belonging to Indian proxies, Fitna al Hindustan &amp; Fitna al Khwarij have been neutralised across Balochistan&quot;.

ISPR said that &quot;sanitisation operations were being conducted to eliminate any other Indian sponsored terrorist found in the area&quot;, noting that the relentless counter terrorism campaign under vision &ldquo;Azm e Istehkam&rdquo; (as approved by Federal Apex Committee on National Action Plan) by security forces and law enforcement agencies of Pakistan would continue at &quot;full pace&quot; to wipe out menace of &quot;foreign-sponsored&quot; and supported terrorism from the country.

In an earlier statement in the day, the military&rsquo;s media wing said that security forces had killed 12 terrorists belonging to the Indian proxy, Fitna al-Hindustan, in an IBO in Balochistan&rsquo;s Kalat district.

According to a statement issued by the ISPR, the operation was conducted on September 2 following reports of the presence of terrorists in the area.

&ldquo;During the conduct of the operation, terrorists&#39; hideout was identified, monitored and busted through prompt surgical action by own forces,&rdquo; ISPR said. It said the action had killed &ldquo;all twelve Indian sponsored terrorists&rdquo;.

&ldquo;Cache of ammunition and improvised explosive devices were also destroyed on-site,&rdquo; the ISPR said. Sanitisation operations were under way in the area to search for and eliminate &quot;any other Indian sponsored terrorist.&quot;

&quot;The relentless counter-terrorism campaign under the vision of Azm-e-Istehkam (as approved by the Federal Apex Committee under the National Action Plan) by the security forces and law enforcement agencies of Pakistan will continue at full pace to wipe out the menace of foreign-sponsored and supported terrorism from the country,&quot; the statement concluded.

Separately, security forces foiled a terrorist attack in Bhag, Kachhi district, Radio Pakistan reported on Friday.

During the effective action by security forces, multiple terrorists were killed. A clearance operation by security forces was under way in the area to eliminate any remaining terrorists.

President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif paid tribute to the security forces for eliminating 12 terrorists backed by Indian proxy Fitna al-Hindustan during an intelligence-based operation in Kalat.

In separate statements, the president and the prime minister expressed their resolve to completely eradicate the menace of terrorism from the country. They said the entire nation stood firmly with the armed forces in their unwavering resolve to safeguard the country.

&ldquo;The continuous operations by law enforcement agencies and security forces are aimed at completely eliminating terrorism being patronised by external elements,&rdquo; the president said.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said officers and personnel of the security forces were conducting effective operations against terrorists attempting to undermine peace in the country. He said the government will never allow terrorists to succeed in their nefarious designs to disrupt peace in Balochistan.

Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi praised the security Forces for a successful operation against terrorists of Fitna al-Hindustan in Kalat. Security forces, through timely and effective action, sent 12 terrorists to hell. I pay tribute to the brave sons of the security forces, he wrote on X.



وفاقی وزیرداخلہ محسن نقوی کی قلات میں فتنہ الہندوستان کے دہشتگردوں کے خلاف کامیاب کارروائی پر سکیورٹی فورسز کی ستائش
سکیورٹی فورسز نے بروقت موثر کارروائی کرکے 12 دہشتگردوں کو جہنم رسید کیا۔
سیکورٹی فورسز کے بہادر سپوتوں کو خراج تحسین پیش کرتا ہوں۔
&mdash; Ministry of Interior GoP (@MOIofficialGoP) September 4, 2026


Terrorism is a growing problem for Pakistan, with the number of attacks rising every year since 2022, according to Armed Conflict Location &amp; Event Data (ACLED), a global monitoring organisation. Data from ACLED shows attacks in Pakistan rose nearly fourfold to 2,425 in 2025 from 658 in 2022, and over the same period, TTP attacks increased more than sevenfold to 838 from 118.

Read: Security forces kill 12 terrorists in Balochistan IBOs: ISPR

Although Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa has borne the brunt of terrorism, Balochistan has also remained a major target of Indian proxies, which often target civilians and military installations in the province.

In one such attack on the last day of 2025, terrorists targeted innocent civilians in Balochistan&rsquo;s Gwadar and Kharan districts, where 18 people, including women, children, the elderly and labourers, embraced martyrdom.

The forces continued operations across the provinces against what the state describes as Indian-sponsored terrorists and their proxies, but despite these efforts, the groups have continued to target civilian and defence installations.

Last month, at least 30 people, including 27 police personnel, were martyred when terrorists identified by the state as the Indian proxy Fitna al-Hindustan ambushed police personnel deployed in the Kach Mangi Phase III area of Ziarat, triggering hours-long gun battles. The attackers also abducted several civilians and police personnel after the assault.

In the aftermath of the attack, the Pakistan Army, Frontier Corps and Balochistan Police launched a joint operation, which remains underway, with forces intensifying action against terrorists across the province.]]>
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			<title>Iran prepared for 'any confrontation’ as 'threat is not over': air defence commander</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627394/eu-joins-operation-economic-outcast-campaign-against-iran-us-treasury-secretary</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627394/eu-joins-operation-economic-outcast-campaign-against-iran-us-treasury-secretary#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 04 Sep 26 05:22:00 +0500</pubDate>
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				<![CDATA[AFP]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
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				<![CDATA[US respects neither Arab sovereignty nor Iranian sovereignty: Iranian FM]]>
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				<![CDATA[Iran&rsquo;s joint air defence commander Brigadier General Alireza Elhami says the country is &ldquo;ready for any kind of confrontation&rdquo; because &ldquo;the threat is not over,&rdquo; Al Jazeera reported, as per Fars news agency.

He adds that Iran&rsquo;s air defence &ldquo;achieved complete self-sufficiency&rdquo; and that the country has presented &ldquo;a new definition of national power&rdquo; to the world.

Earlier, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi responded to comments made by the Jordanian foreign minister on Friday, saying the US does not respect Arab or Iranian sovereignty.

&quot;How much time does the Jordanian Foreign Minister believe Iran should wait before responding to an aggressor that respects neither Arab sovereignty nor Iranian sovereignty?&quot;



كم من الوقت يرى وزير الخارجية الأردني أنه يتعين على إيران أن تنتظر قبل أن تردّ على معتدٍ لا يحترم سيادة العرب ولا سيادة إيران؟

وهل هو حقًا غير مدرك أن المجال الجوي والأراضي والمياه العربية استُخدمت في الهجمات الأمريكية الأولى التي أسفرت عن مقتل إيرانيين أبرياء؟ pic.twitter.com/joI7qMsMOS
&mdash; Seyed Abbas Araghchi (@araghchi) September 4, 2026


He also questioned whether the Jordanian minister was unaware that Arab airspace, lands, and waters were used by the US in its initial attacks that resulted in the &ldquo;killing of innocent Iranians&rdquo;.

Israel claims seizing southern Lebanon&#39;s Ali al-Taher ridge

Israel claimed it seized southern Lebanon&rsquo;s Ali al-Taher ridge, which is reportedly a strategic position for Hezbollah, AFP reported on Friday.

Hezbollah has not confirmed losing the highland, which is approximately 10 kilometres from the border with Israel and has been targeted by several Israeli strikes in recent weeks despite a ceasefire.

The ridge lies close to the major city of Nabatieh and the Litani River. It is just a few kilometres from Unesco-listed Beaufort Castle, another strategic site that Israel captured in recent months.

Ali al-Taher ridge, on the edge of the Israeli-proclaimed &ldquo;security zone&rdquo;, overlooks surrounding areas and key districts further north, and sits atop a network of tunnels.

Red Cross says it transferred four people released by Israel to Lebanon

Humanitarian workers said on Friday that they facilitated the transfer to Lebanon of four more people detained by Israel, a day after another person was freed, AFP reported.

&ldquo;The International Committee of the Red Cross [ICRC], at the request of the relevant parties, facilitated the transfer to Lebanon of five individuals released from Israeli detention,&rdquo; the ICRC has said in a statement.

&ldquo;One individual was transferred on Thursday, and four others on Friday,&rdquo; it added.

Iran continued crude oil exports without interruption during war, petroleum minister says

Iranian Petroleum Minister Mohsen Paknejad said on Friday that Iran&rsquo;s crude oil exports continued without interruption throughout the 40-day war, despite attacks on oil and gas infrastructure and the severe logistical challenges created by US aggression and the subsequent maritime blockade, according to state news channel Press TV.

&ldquo;During the 40-day war, despite the wartime conditions, the country&rsquo;s crude oil exports did not stop even for one hour from February 28 until the temporary ceasefire was established,&rdquo; Paknejad said.

Israel claims it has cleared Hezbollah fighters from tunnels under key Lebanon ridge

Israel&rsquo;s military has cleared Hezbollah fighters holed up in tunnels under the strategic Ali al-Taher ridge in southern Lebanon, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz claimed on Friday, though the group did not immediately comment.

Israel claimed Hezbollah fighters were embedded in tunnels under the ridge, which overlooks a wide area and had become one of the most hotly contested areas in the Israel-Hezbollah conflict, despite a ceasefire announced in June.

&ldquo;The mission was completed and the tunnels were cleared of terrorists,&rdquo; Katz said on social media, after a statement by the military claiming it had operational control of the ridge.

The military said some Hezbollah fighters were &ldquo;eliminated&rdquo;, while others fled.

EU joins &#39;Operation Economic Outcast&#39; campaign against Iran: US Treasury Secretary

The European Union has officially joined the US&rsquo;s economic pressure campaign, &ldquo;Operation Economic Outcast&rdquo;, against Iran, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent wrote.

In a post on X, Bessent said &ldquo;The United States stands firm with our allies in ensuring the murderous Iranian regime cannot exploit the global financial system to fund its nuclear ambitions, weapons programs, and terror proxies.&rdquo;



Under @POTUS, this Administration is standing up for America&rsquo;s students by ensuring racial discrimination has no place in American education. Schools rebranding race-based preferences as equitable, inclusive, or diversity-enhancing does not change their discriminatory nature.&hellip;
&mdash; Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (@SecScottBessent) September 3, 2026


&ldquo;The world is sending a clear message to the Iranian regime: We will not stop until every remaining financial lifeline has been severed,&rdquo; he added.

Seoul weighs &#39;contributions&#39; to Hormuz security: president&#39;s office

South Korea said that Seoul could contribute to the US security efforts in the Strait of Hormuz as long as its own military readiness is not compromised, AFP reported.

&ldquo;Contributions to the Strait of Hormuz could be managed within limits that do not compromise military readiness,&rdquo; a presidential official said, adding a review is still under way

South Korea preparing for Strait of Hormuz deployment: report

The South Korean military is making &quot;concrete preparations&quot; to deploy troops to the Strait of Hormuz, according to a report released on Thursday.

&quot;We are making concrete preparations to dispatch naval forces to the Strait of Hormuz,&quot; a National Defense Ministry official told Australia&#39;s broadcaster SBS.

Read: Vance: US probing airstrike that Iran says hit a wedding party

The report said the deployment, which is underway, includes P-8 maritime patrol aircraft, an explosive ordnance disposal team and a logistics support ship.

The South Korean government previously expressed that it would pursue a deployment to the strait only after the US-Iran war ends.

It came after US President Donald Trump publicly criticized Seoul for refusing to take part in action against Iran, as the United States recently scaled back a military exercise with South Korea.

&quot;I understand that discussions regarding base ports and operational bases are also underway with the relevant countries,&quot; a high-ranking military official was quoted by SBS.

The deployment requires a decision by the National Security Council (NSC), a resolution by a Cabinet meeting, and consent from the National Assembly.]]>
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			<title>PM Shehbaz, ADB vice-president discuss early groundbreaking of ML-1</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627408/pm-shehbaz-adb-vice-president-discuss-early-groundbreaking-of-ml-1</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627408/pm-shehbaz-adb-vice-president-discuss-early-groundbreaking-of-ml-1#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 04 Sep 26 07:49:31 +0500</pubDate>
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				<![CDATA[Web Desk]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Islamabad]]></category><category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>
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				<![CDATA[PM says administrative bottlenecks are being actively dismantled through dedicated execution task forces]]>
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				<![CDATA[Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday stressed the need for the early groundbreaking of the Main Line-1 (ML-1) railway project, saying the Karachi-to-Peshawar corridor was vital for modernising freight transport and strengthening regional trade connectivity, the Prime Minister&#39;s Office (PMO) said.

According to the PMO. It was discussed during a breakfast meeting between the prime minister and Asian Development Bank (ADB) Vice President for South, Central and West Asia Yingming Yang in Islamabad on Friday.



Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif hosted a breakfast meeting in honour of Asian Development Bank (ADB) Vice President for South, Central, and West Asia, Mr. Yingming Yang.

The meeting reviewed the multi-decade development partnership and chart out priority interventions&hellip; pic.twitter.com/pSJ7MKMloh
&mdash; Prime Minister&#39;s Office (@PakPMO) September 4, 2026


PM Shehbaz said upgrading ML-1 was &ldquo;essential for modernising freight logistics, strengthening regional trade connectivity, and supporting major industrial initiatives&rdquo;.

The meeting discussed the need for the &ldquo;early groundbreaking of ML1&rdquo;, which the PMO said was vital for infrastructure development and modernising connectivity.

&quot;The meeting reviewed the multi-decade development partnership and chart out priority interventions under the new Country Partnership Strategy (CPS) 2026&ndash;2030,&quot; it added.

Welcoming Yang on his first official visit to Pakistan as ADB vice president, PM Shehbaz praised the bank&rsquo;s &ldquo;consistent professionalism and responsiveness&rdquo; in delivering transformative urban infrastructure, transport, and public service projects in the country.

The prime minister also said Pakistan had successfully navigated a difficult economic recovery through &ldquo;rigorous fiscal, structural, and governance reforms&rdquo;.

Read: PM Shehbaz reaffirms Pakistan&rsquo;s support for multilateralism in meeting with UN chief candidate

&ldquo;These corrective actions have restored macroeconomic stability, reinforced investor confidence, and earned stable outlook upgrades from major international credit rating agencies including Fitch, Moody&rsquo;s, and S&amp;P,&rdquo; he said.

PM Shehbaz reaffirmed the government&rsquo;s commitment to long-term economic transformation and &quot;stressed that the administrative bottlenecks are being actively dismantled through dedicated execution task forces.&quot;

The meeting also explored ways to expand cooperation in several sectors, including support for the private sector, energy security and food security.

&quot;Expanding cooperation in various sectors, the meeting explored collaborative avenues in support for private sector, energy security, food security, enhancing support in export competitiveness, Artificial Intelligence and Infomation Technology,&quot; the PMO said.

The meeting concluded with a &ldquo;mutual pledge to translate the strategic priorities of the CPS 2026&ndash;2030 into concrete, high-impact results&rdquo;. The PMO said the partnership was aimed at driving sustainable growth and &ldquo;visibly enhance the standard of living for the people of Pakistan&rdquo;.

ML-1 a &quot;key priority&quot;

In a meeting with ADB on Thursday, Minister for Economic Affairs Ahad Cheema called ML-1 a &ldquo;flagship project of national significance and a key priority for Pakistan&rdquo;, as the government pushed to accelerate work on the long-delayed railway corridor. The ADB welcomed progress on the project and agreed to help establish a joint working group on reforms in Pakistan Railways.

The Main Line-1 (ML-1) is a planned 1,733-kilometre upgrade of Pakistan&rsquo;s main railway corridor, linking Karachi with Peshawar through major cities including Lahore and Rawalpindi. The project also covers the Taxila-Havelian section. Much of the existing railway track dated back to the British era and had deteriorated over decades, making major rehabilitation and expansion necessary.

The project was designed to upgrade and double-track the railway corridor, with trains expected to eventually travel at speeds of up to 160km/h, compared with around 80km/h at the time. It was also aimed at improving passenger and freight services, reducing transport costs and strengthening Pakistan&rsquo;s trade and logistics network.

Read: Govt declares ML-1 &#39;national priority&#39;

ML-1 was a major component of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), but its implementation had faced repeated delays. The roughly $2.5 billion project had remained stalled for years because of funding constraints, bureaucratic delays and an unfavourable economic and international financing environment.

The government had sought to revive the project by starting procedural work on an elevated 480km section between Karachi and Rohri. The first phase is estimated to cost around Rs450 billion and is expected to be financed by Chinese banks alongside other international lenders.

Despite the renewed momentum, securing financing and bringing in the required engineering expertise remained major challenges. The government had also faced pressure to ensure that ML-1 did not become another long-delayed infrastructure project, with physical work targeted to resume from the beginning of 2027.

The scale of the project meant its impact would extend beyond Pakistan Railways. A modern railway network was expected to improve the movement of goods and passengers across the country, strengthen regional trade links, and connect Pakistan more effectively with wider rail and economic connectivity projects.]]>
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			<title>FO rejects India's claims over Narowal temple demolition as 'false, politically motivated'</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627395/fo-rejects-indias-claims-over-narowal-temple-demolition-as-false-politically-motivated</link>
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			<pubDate>Fri, 04 Sep 26 05:40:58 +0500</pubDate>
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				<![CDATA[Web Desk]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category><category><![CDATA[Islamabad]]></category>
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				<![CDATA[Islamabad says century-old Hindu temple collapsed due to torrential rains, restoration underway]]>
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				<![CDATA[The Foreign Office (FO) on Friday rejected India&rsquo;s allegations over the reported demolition of a century-old Hindu temple in Narowal as &ldquo;false and politically motivated,&quot; saying the structure had been damaged by torrential rains.

India&#39;s Foreign Ministry on September 2 expressed concern over reports of the destruction of the historic temple in Siraj village, describing it as an act of vandalism against a century-old minority place of worship.

&ldquo;We categorically reject the false and politically motivated assertions made by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs,&rdquo; FO spokesperson Sajjad Haider Khan said in response to media queries regarding the temple at Adda Siraj, Narowal.



🔊PR No.2️⃣3️⃣3️⃣/2️⃣0️⃣2️⃣6️⃣

Statement by the Spokesperson

🔗⬇️ pic.twitter.com/Czt2W3Au5t
&mdash; Ministry of Foreign Affairs - Pakistan (@ForeignOfficePk) September 4, 2026


&ldquo;Unlike the false propaganda being peddled by India, the temple&rsquo;s structure was damaged on July 21, 2026 due to torrential rains,&rdquo; Khan said. He added that local authorities had already surveyed the damage caused by the rains and &ldquo;initiated steps for the restoration of the building.&quot;

&ldquo;It is, therefore, shameful that India is distorting facts and resorting to cheap gimmicks,&rdquo; the spokesperson said.

According to the Pakistani government, the over-century-old temple had collapsed following torrential rains. However, a minority rights group had claimed that the structure was deliberately demolished to facilitate the expansion of an adjoining seminary.

Read: Pakistan issues &#39;strong demarche&#39; to US over &#39;irresponsible&#39; remarks by ambassador in India on IIOJK status

Khan said India&rsquo;s &quot;distortion of facts&rdquo; could not divert attention from its treatment of minorities. &ldquo;Such deliberate distortion of facts cannot distract attention from India&rsquo;s abysmal record of systematic persecution of minorities and state-sponsored attacks against their places of worship,&rdquo; he said.

&ldquo;The world is well aware of the weaponisation of Hindutva ideology against minorities,&rdquo; the spokesperson concluded, noting that Indian leadership &ldquo;must be held accountable&rdquo; for the persecution of Muslim, Sikh and Christian communities.]]>
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			<title>Deadly strike on Iranian wedding was likely a direct hit by a US munition, analysis shows</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627398/deadly-strike-on-iranian-wedding-was-likely-a-direct-hit-by-a-us-munition-analysis-shows</link>
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			<pubDate>Fri, 04 Sep 26 06:22:02 +0500</pubDate>
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				<![CDATA[Reuters]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
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				<![CDATA[Incident has reignited concerns about the civilian toll in US war with Iran]]>
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				<![CDATA[An explosion that ripped through a wedding celebration in southern Iran on Tuesday, killing four people and injuring at least 68 others, likely resulted from a direct hit by a US munition and not a ricochet off another target, according to an analysis by weapons experts who reviewed images and video verified by Reuters.

The incident in the small town of Kuhestak has reignited concerns about the civilian toll in the US war with Iran and marks the most dramatic case since a missile struck an Iranian primary school in February, killing scores of children and teachers inside.

The US Central Command had announced its forces carried out multiple strikes across Iran&rsquo;s south on September 1, targeting Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps air defence sites, radar systems, and communications facilities. The barrage came in retaliation for earlier Iranian attacks on US military assets around the Gulf.

On Thursday, US President JD Vance said the United States was investigating the strike. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re investigating it because obviously we care. We want to know,&rdquo; Vance said during a White House press briefing.

Read: Vance: US probing airstrike that Iran says hit a wedding party

The US military said it was aware of reports and was looking into them.

Iran&rsquo;s delegation to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

On the night of the attacks, dozens of residents had gathered in a home in Kuhestak for a wedding ceremony, according to eyewitnesses. During the party, a munition likely struck the building&rsquo;s roof.



The truth of this unlawful war of choice - and the true face of the war crime - is in Sirik, where a wedding ceremony was brutally bombed as part of America&rsquo;s desperate struggle to conceal its failure, not in AI-generated videos portraying American officials as triumphant heroes.&hellip; pic.twitter.com/7GlHxE9oP1
&mdash; Esmaeil Baqaei (@IRIMFA_SPOX) September 2, 2026


Reuters shared video and images of the incident with four military weapons experts who said the damage was consistent with a direct hit, as opposed to secondary damage from a munition ricocheting off a separate target.

Three of the experts said the munition was likely a US weapon, rather than an errant Iranian air defence missile.

After the strike, bloody shoes lay amid the rubble, and wedding decorations that are common in that part of Iran were strewn about, the images show.

One eyewitness sent a voice note to Reuters moments after the strike, saying: &ldquo;Kuhestak is destroyed. Four, five, ten houses were destroyed. Many people are under the rubble. God help us.&rdquo;



&ldquo;Unfortunately, this happened during my daughter&rsquo;s wedding ceremony, with drones &mdash; two drones.&rdquo;

At least four people were killed and 50 wounded at a wedding near Sirik, a coastal area on the Strait of Hormuz, the Iranian Red Crescent reported, as the United States and Iran&hellip; pic.twitter.com/agW38liTn1
&mdash; TRT World (@trtworld) September 3, 2026


Local residents spoke on condition of anonymity.

Two US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the US military had carried out strikes in the area of Kuhestak on September 1, specifically targeting the town&rsquo;s telecommunications tower.

That tower is roughly 135 meters from the site of the wedding celebration, according to satellite imagery. The tower was hit at approximately 9:30pm local time, according to Iranian media.

The count of four deaths and 68 injuries came from Balochestan Human Rights Documentation Network and Haalvsh, which monitor and document human rights abuses.

Three of the people killed were guests of the wedding &ndash; Kolsoom Mollahi Najhandania, 43; Zarkhatoon Taheri, 50; and four-year-old Amir Mohammad Karimi &ndash; according to the groups. The fourth person, 16-year-old Mohammad Mallahi, was killed while riding his motorcycle near the communications tower.

The names have also been confirmed in Iranian media.

The incident comes more than six months after a missile destroyed a primary school in Minab on February 28, hours after the start of the US and Israeli attacks on Iran that launched the current conflict. That hit killed more than 175 children and teachers, according to Iranian officials.

The Pentagon has not publicly released the findings of its investigation into the Minab strike, which was the US military&rsquo;s biggest civilian casualty attack in decades. But Reuters reported on March 5 that &zwnj;an initial, internal US military investigation showed US forces were responsible for that strike on the opening day of the war with Iran.



WARNING: Some of the images may distress some viewers.
Dozens of people are injured and at least five killed, including a child, after US strikes hit a #wedding ceremony north of the Iranian port city of #Sirik. pic.twitter.com/bViQMe1MuC
&mdash; Beyond Wars (@BeyondWars) September 2, 2026


At approximately 9:30pm local time on September 1, posts on social media started to circulate about an attack on the local wedding.

Human rights groups in touch with local residents said that after the strike, local authorities pressured eyewitnesses not to discuss the attack with foreign media.

Reuters spoke to residents through intermediaries.

&ldquo;At the wedding, there were a lot of people. Many [injured] people have been taken away, many more [injured people] are being taken right now,&rdquo; one local resident said in a voice message just after the wedding was hit.

Iranian state media, citing telecommunications authorities in Hormozgan, said the tower was a civilian structure that delivers mobile, telephone, and internet services to people living in the surrounding Sirik County.

During the six-month war in Iran, the US military has repeatedly struck Iranian radar and communications facilities near the strategic Strait of Hormuz, intending to stop the Iranian military from threatening commercial ships and oil tankers transiting the waterway.

Iran has shown that it can throttle energy shipments in the strait, driving up global energy costs and creating a political challenge for the Trump administration ahead of the US midterm Congressional elections.

Trevor Ball, a former US Army explosive ordnance disposal technician and current weapons technical analyst for Armament Research Services, was among the experts who reviewed the photos and video at Reuters&rsquo; request.



Wreckage recovered from the site of a US attack on a wedding ceremony in #Sirik, southern Iran, late Tuesday, September 1, has been identified as belonging to a US-made AGM-84H SLAM-ER cruise missile.

Weapons analyst Trevor Ball identified the remnants as the SLAM-ER, a&hellip; pic.twitter.com/vtuq2z8MJK
&mdash; Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) September 2, 2026


&ldquo;The damage seen appears to be from a munition which detonated on contact with the roof, or just above the roof,&rdquo; he said, adding it was apparently a direct hit.

&ldquo;The visible blast damage could not result from fragments from the nearby strike on the communications tower striking the area.&rdquo;

He said it was likely a US weapon.

Collett agreed with Ball&rsquo;s analysis.

&ldquo;The weight of evidence leans towards a US 500 lb air-dropped munition as opposed to an Iranian air defence missile,&rdquo; he said.

Sebastian Schutte, a Research Professor at the Peace Research Institute in Oslo, also reviewed the visual material. Based on available evidence, he also agreed that the hole on the roof was not the result of a ricochet off of the telecommunications tower.

The three experts said it was unlikely that a misfired Iranian missile had destroyed the home.

Schutte said the angle of the impact was inconsistent with an air defence missile, and Collett said there was no evidence of the kind of fragmentation that would normally be present with an air defence warhead.

Various weapon fragments were also shown on Iranian media. Ball identified &ldquo;some of these remnants&rdquo; as belonging to a joint standoff weapon (JSOW), a type of glide bomb commonly used by the US military.

On September 3, mourners gathered to pay their respects in a funeral procession for 4-year-old Amir Mohammad Karimi in the town of Sirik, Hormozgan Province. WANA via REUTERS



A grand funeral ceremony is being held for the victims of US&#39; criminal strike on a wedding in Kuhestak, Hormozgan Province. pic.twitter.com/eZJjuROPkC
&mdash; IRNA News Agency ☫ (@IrnaEnglish) September 3, 2026


On Thursday, residents of Kuhestak held a funeral for those killed. Mourners filled the procession, carrying a casket and holding posters above their heads as a funeral prayer played in the background.

Women wearing black full-body cloaks with bright red traditional facemasks distinctive to the southern coastal region of Iran threw flowers on 4-year-old Amir Mohammad Karimi&rsquo;s small casket as it passed.

&ldquo;The situation in Sirik is sad and mournful, and people are still in shock,&rdquo; said one eyewitness.]]>
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			<title>US consul general calls for stronger economic ties with Pakistan</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627422/us-consul-general-calls-for-stronger-economic-ties-with-pakistan</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627422/us-consul-general-calls-for-stronger-economic-ties-with-pakistan#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 04 Sep 26 09:22:59 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Web Desk]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2627422</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Charles Goodman meets representatives of Hyderabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Sindh Abadgar Board]]>
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				<![CDATA[US Consul General Charles Goodman called for stronger economic ties between Pakistan and the United States, highlighting trade, investment and American technology during his two-day visit to Hyderabad, the US Consulate General Karachi said on Friday.

According to a press release issued by the US Consulate General Karachi, Goodman concluded his two-day Hyderabad visit on September 2, meeting business leaders, government officials&nbsp;and entrepreneurs&nbsp;and exchange program alumni to &ldquo;strengthen US-Pakistan commercial ties, showcase American innovation, and mark the 250th anniversary of US independence.&rdquo;

Goodman met representatives of the Hyderabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Sindh Abadgar Board to discuss trade and investment in Hyderabad&rsquo;s agricultural and industrial sectors.

The sectors included &ldquo;food processing, textiles, auto parts, and mineral resources including coal, marble, and gypsum&rdquo;, the statement said. He also held discussions with animal feed producers in the Hyderabad area who use animal feed technology from Siemens USA and Elanco USA. He also welcomed a new agreement streamlining fumigation requirements for soybean imports

&ldquo;Improving the efficiency of soybean imports into Pakistan to support Pakistan&rsquo;s robust animal feed industry is in the best interests of both Pakistan and the United States,&rdquo; he said.

During a visit to the National Incubation Center, Goodman discussed with technology leaders &ldquo;the demand for US AI and agritech solutions&rdquo;, the consulate said. He also met members of the Pakistan-US Alumni Network Jamshoro Chapter who work in &ldquo;technology, agriculture, water resources, renewable energy, and education&rdquo;.

Read:&nbsp;&#39;Road to Liberty&#39; brings US founding story to Karachi

Goodman inaugurated the Founders Museum at Lincoln Corner Hyderabad, which the consulate said was &ldquo;a White House initiative celebrating America&rsquo;s founding and 250 years of independence&rdquo;.

The exhibit was due to travel to academic and cultural institutions across Sindh through December, &ldquo;introducing students and educators to America&rsquo;s Founding Fathers and American values&rdquo;, the statement said.

Echoing the words of President Donald Trump, Goodman said, &ldquo;Americans expanded the blessings of freedom, and we have never stopped expanding our ambitions and our dreams.&rdquo;

Goodman also met Sindh Irrigation Minister Jam Khan Shoro to discuss &ldquo;irrigation, flood response, and US investment.&quot; He later toured Colgate-Palmolive (Pakistan) Ltd, a multinational consumer-goods company established by the Lakson Group in 1977.

&ldquo;American companies, technology, and investment are woven into the fabric of Pakistan&rsquo;s economy,&rdquo; Goodman said. He reaffirmed the US commitment to &ldquo;expanding economic partnership and trade&rdquo;, the consulate concluded.]]>
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			<title>Mir Raza case: Judicial commission directs IO to seek re-employment, housing for cab driver</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627427/mir-raza-murder-judicial-commission-directs-io-to-seek-re-employment-housing-for-cab-driver</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627427/mir-raza-murder-judicial-commission-directs-io-to-seek-re-employment-housing-for-cab-driver#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 04 Sep 26 10:13:00 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Nasir Butt]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2627427</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Commission criticises authorities for treating the driver as a suspect despite his cooperation in the investigation]]>
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				<![CDATA[The judicial commission probing the murder of Mir Raza Ali expressed displeasure in a written order published on Friday over the treatment meted out to the ride-hailing app driver who provided key information in the case.

The commission instructed Investigation Officer (IO) DSP Siraj Lashari to contact the driver&#39;s employer and landlord and request that his contract be renewed. Justice Omar Sial also directed Lashari to assure both that the driver was not a suspect but a key witness who had cooperated with authorities in establishing facts surrounding the incident.

Mir Raza, a young entrepreneur, was murdered and his body was dumped in bushes near a wedding hall in Karachi&#39;s Gulistan-e-Jauhar. His body was found a day after his disappearance was reported to police on July 28. A second post-mortem was conducted after the initial examination failed to provide the required answers, confirming that he had been tortured and killed.

Raza&#39;s family continued to seek the formation of a joint investigation team (JIT) for a transparent probe into the incident, a request that was turned down by the Sindh High Court. A judicial commission was subsequently tasked with evaluating the merit of the probe.

Read More: Judicial commission questions Mir Raza Ali&#39;s business partner over irregularities

A day earlier, cab driver Ahsanullah told the commission that his employer had taken back the vehicle he used to earn a livelihood. He also said his landlord had evicted him, forcing him to take shelter at Ferozabad police station.

The commission noted that he had fully cooperated with Raza&#39;s family in their efforts to locate him. According to the order, he had provided details of the ride, submitted a location map and disclosed ride-related information before the commission.

Justice Sial directed the IO to address the concerns raised by the driver&#39;s employer and landlord and assure them that no coercive action would be taken against them in connection with the murder case.

The commission observed that, rather than being rewarded for assisting the family, Ahsanullah was being treated by the system as an accused. &ldquo;The system&hellip; in fact is punishing him for assisting the family,&rdquo; the order stated.

Also Read: Mir Raza Ali murder: Judicial commission announces Rs100,000 reward for information

The commission also recorded the statements of Raza&#39;s business partners Ahmed and Abdullah, as well as SDPO Arshad Afridi.

The written order noted that Ahmed would submit a copy of a notice issued by the Sindh Revenue Board, along with receipts for payments made to a food delivery company, which had come to light during the commission&#39;s proceedings.

Due to a shortage of time, the commission directed Hasem, Raziq and SHO Adeel Afzal to appear at the next hearing.

It also ordered summons to be issued to Gulistan-e-Jauhar police station SHO Kamran Qureshi and Court Moharir Zeeshan, directing them to appear before the commission at the next hearing.

The commission will reconvene on September 7 at 11am.

Case developments

A judicial commission was formed on the request of the Sindh government to probe the death of Raza, who was allegedly kidnapped from PECHS before his body was found in bushes near a wedding hall in Karachi&#39;s Gulistan-e-Johar on July 29. The case had initially been surrounded by uncertainty over whether he had been murdered or died by suicide. The first post-mortem findings contained discrepancies and omissions, leading to a second post-mortem that confirmed his murder. Consequently, considering the probe &quot;botched&quot;, the family filed a petition in the SHC seeking the formation of JIT.

During earlier hearings regarding the formation of JIT, the investigating officer probing the death of Raza told the SHC that investigators were treating the case as murder and had ruled out suicide based on the post-mortem findings. DSP Siraj Lashari said the investigation had restarted &ldquo;from zero&rdquo; on August 13 and was being conducted using digital evidence, including CCTV footage. Investigators had recovered a bullet casing but had yet to find the weapon, while final post-mortem and forensic reports were still awaited.

Separately, the judicial commission convened its second hearing on Monday, September 1, wherein it grilled Medico-Legal Officer Dr Usama Sheikh over discrepancies in the first post-mortem report filed by him. The commission also recorded the statements of the victim&#39;s family and Edhi volunteers who shifted his body during the hearing. After the conclusion of the second hearing, Advocate Nasir said the first account of the MLO proved that he was correct about the &quot;botched probe&quot; and, since the commission is not tasked with the probe and can only oversee it, he reiterated that a JIT was crucial for a transparent investigation into the case.

In the latest hearing convened by the commission on Thursday, the commission noted that Raza&#39;s business partner Ahmed Bhurdey gave out unnecessary details that suggested his involvement in the murder rather than absolving him of the crime. It suggested that Ahmed was worried about Raza&#39;s financial backlog more than he cared about what happened to his childhood friend. The commission also grilled the SDPO Arshad Afridi for suggesting that Raza committed suicide after showing the CCTV footage to the family.

&nbsp;]]>
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			<title>South Korea reviewing military options for Hormuz, no decision made, official says</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627399/south-korea-reviewing-military-options-for-hormuz-no-decision-made-official-says</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627399/south-korea-reviewing-military-options-for-hormuz-no-decision-made-official-says#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 04 Sep 26 06:38:20 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
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			<description>
				<![CDATA[Seoul reportedly weighing maritime patrol aircraft, mine detection unit for strait amid public opposition for move]]>
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				<![CDATA[South&nbsp;Korea&nbsp;is&nbsp;reviewing&nbsp;options, including&nbsp;military&nbsp;measures, to support freedom of navigation in the Strait of&nbsp;Hormuz, the presidential office said on Friday, while denying media reports that the government had already decided on a deployment.

Several&nbsp;South&nbsp;Korean media outlets, including JTBC and MBC, reported late on Thursday that Seoul was preparing to deploy&nbsp;military&nbsp;assets before the end of the year and could seek parliamentary approval this month.

The reports said&nbsp;options&nbsp;under consideration included a maritime patrol aircraft, a logistics support vessel or a mine detection and clearance unit. Seoul had also been discussing the scale and nature of a potential contribution with countries including the United States, Britain and France, they said.

A presidential&nbsp;official&nbsp;told reporters that&nbsp;South&nbsp;Korea&nbsp;had been discussing practical ways to contribute to freedom of navigation in the strait and confirmed that military measures were among the&nbsp;options&nbsp;under review.

Read:&nbsp;China urges South Korea not to take sides, blames US policy for Korea tensions

&quot;Nothing has been decided,&quot; the&nbsp;official&nbsp;said, adding that Seoul would also have to consider domestic legal procedures,&nbsp;military&nbsp;readiness on the&nbsp;Korean Peninsula and parliamentary approval. The&nbsp;official&nbsp;also said claims that&nbsp;South&nbsp;Korea&nbsp;had provided no assistance related to the Strait of&nbsp;Hormuz&nbsp;were &quot;not true&quot;, saying Seoul had long discussed practical contributions with the international community.

South&nbsp;Korean President Lee Jae Myung may discuss&nbsp;options&nbsp;on the Strait of&nbsp;Hormuz&nbsp;when he meets French President Emmanuel Macron next week, the&nbsp;official&nbsp;said.

US President Donald Trump said in an August social media post that he had&nbsp;scaled back&nbsp;US-South&nbsp;Korea&nbsp;joint&nbsp;military&nbsp;exercises in part because&nbsp;South&nbsp;Korea&nbsp;had declined to&nbsp;help the US in the war against Iran.

Managing alliance risks

Ban Kil-joo, a professor of international security studies at the&nbsp;Korea&nbsp;National Diplomatic Academy, said a deployment would send an important signal to Washington that Seoul remains willing to shoulder alliance responsibilities despite recent friction over trade and other issues.

&quot;A deployment would help&nbsp;South&nbsp;Korea&nbsp;manage alliance risks and reinforce its credentials as a model US ally at a time when Washington is asking partners to do more,&quot; Ban said. Ban said the reported&nbsp;options&nbsp;pointed to a &quot;medium-intensity&quot; contribution that would demonstrate Seoul&#39;s support for international efforts in the Strait of&nbsp;Hormuz&nbsp;without amounting to participation in combat operations against Iran.

Read More:&nbsp;US, South Korea agree to closely cooperate on resolving North Korea&rsquo;s nuclear issue

Retired Lieutenant General Chun In-bum, a former&nbsp;South&nbsp;Korean special forces commander, said a deployment would be in line with&nbsp;South&nbsp;Korea&#39;s national interests.

&quot;It is important to contribute to ensuring the Strait of&nbsp;Hormuz&nbsp;remains open because&nbsp;South&nbsp;Korea&nbsp;has significant economic interests tied to the waterway,&quot; Chun told Reuters. He said&nbsp;South&nbsp;Korea&#39;s &quot;asymmetric&quot; relationship with the US made&nbsp;a proactive response preferable.

Under&nbsp;South&nbsp;Korean law, overseas&nbsp;military&nbsp;deployments require approval by the National Assembly. Public support may be limited. In March, a Gallup&nbsp;Korea&nbsp;poll found 55% opposed sending&nbsp;South&nbsp;Korean warships to the Strait of&nbsp;Hormuz, while 30% supported such a move.

If approved, the mission could mark&nbsp;South&nbsp;Korea&#39;s first maritime deployment outside the&nbsp;Korean Peninsula since the Cheonghae anti-piracy unit was dispatched to the Gulf of Aden in March 2009, according to Defence Ministry records. The unit remains deployed off Somalia as part of international maritime security efforts and to protect commercial shipping.

South&nbsp;Korea&nbsp;relied on the Strait of&nbsp;Hormuz&nbsp;for 61% of its crude oil imports and 54% of its ​naphtha imports last year.]]>
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			<title>After heatwaves, will EU pivot back to the climate fight?</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627415/after-heatwaves-will-eu-pivot-back-to-the-climate-fight</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627415/after-heatwaves-will-eu-pivot-back-to-the-climate-fight#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 04 Sep 26 08:17:39 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[AFP]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2627415</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Climate concerns took backseat to defence, industry goals after years as leading EU cause]]>
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				<![CDATA[Is climate change set for a comeback as a top European Union&nbsp;priority, after a deadly summer of record-breaking heatwaves across Europe?

The fight against global warming is expected to feature prominently in a key policy speech by EU chief Ursula von der Leyen this month, after two years critics say were marked by major environmental rollbacks.

With Europe barely emerging from a sweltering summer, climate would have been hard to ignore in the normally sprawling &quot;State of the European Union&quot; address - a yearly speech setting out political priorities for the next 12 months.

After years as a leading EU cause, climate concerns have taken the backseat to defence and industry goals over the past couple of years - to the frustration of environmentalists.

Read:&nbsp;Europe&#39;s hottest town says climate change is reshaping daily life

The bloc has notably watered down new green rules for businesses and proposed abandoning a ban on the sale of new internal combustion engine cars by 2035. Yet some hope the September 16 speech could signal a rebalancing of priorities in Brussels.

In August, about 200 environmental groups urged von der Leyen in a letter to use the speech to lay out concrete plans to wean the 27-nation bloc off fossil fuels. And in a possible harbinger of things to come, the EU&#39;s 27 commissioners are scheduled to meet Swedish climatologist Johan Rockstrom for a post-summer seminar in Brussels on Friday.

&#39;Uphill battle&#39;

But other evidence points in a different direction.

EU sources say von der Leyen will focus on &quot;climate resilience&quot; and the economic potential of green industries -&nbsp;two low-hanging fruits. The latter has been a familiar refrain during von der Leyen&#39;s seven years at the helm and legislation on climate resilience was already due to be presented before the end of the year.

The kind of ambitious climate legislation that defined von der Leyen&#39;s first five years in office -&nbsp;known as the Green Deal - is a hard sell in Brussels these days.

Green parties lost out in the 2024 European elections, and the business-friendly centre-right now holds sway in a European Parliament where climate sceptics on the far-right also have a bigger say.

Read More:&nbsp;Europe&#39;s heatwave &#39;virtually impossible&#39; without climate change, scientists say

The priority is not &quot;to repaint in green laws that Europeans have asked to be changed&quot;, said right-wing lawmaker Celine Imart.

Within the commission itself there are divisions. In recent months for example green voices have clashed with pro-business colleagues over the impact of a carbon market reform on the aviation and maritime transport sectors.

At the same time, EU countries are wrangling over where to allocate the limited resources that are to be dished out under the bloc&#39;s next long-term budget.

&quot;It&#39;s going to be an uphill battle,&quot; said Green leader Terry Reintke. Her group was nevertheless going to &quot;push very, very hard&quot; to have von der Leyen lay out concrete climate actions in her speech.

&quot;We are talking about existential situations here,&quot; she told AFP.]]>
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			<title>Indonesia's top rights body calls for police to probe poisoning of more than 2,000 students</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627410/indonesias-top-rights-body-calls-for-police-to-probe-poisoning-of-more-than-2000-students</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627410/indonesias-top-rights-body-calls-for-police-to-probe-poisoning-of-more-than-2000-students#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 04 Sep 26 07:57:49 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2627410</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Three major islands report cases as poll finds president's free school meals scheme increasingly unpopular]]>
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				<![CDATA[Indonesia&#39;s&nbsp;top&nbsp;human&nbsp;rights&nbsp;body&nbsp;urged the&nbsp;police&nbsp;on Friday to investigate several new outbreaks of food&nbsp;poisoning&nbsp;linked to President Prabowo Subianto&#39;s flagship programme&nbsp;to provide free meals to&nbsp;students, which made&nbsp;2,000&nbsp;people sick this week.

In separate cases across at least&nbsp;three&nbsp;major Indonesian islands,&nbsp;more&nbsp;than&nbsp;2,000&nbsp;students&nbsp;and teachers fell ill after eating lunch issued by the government as part of a scheme to eradicate malnutrition launched&nbsp;by Prabowo last year.

&quot;Rights&nbsp;to food, especially safe-to-consume food, are human&nbsp;rights,&quot; the Indonesian independent&nbsp;rights&nbsp;body&nbsp;known as Komnas HAM said in a statement. &quot;Without a rigorous sanitation standard...the nutrition intervention that the state is doing will lose its moral legitimacy,&quot; it said.

Komnas HAM called on the&nbsp;police&nbsp;to launch a&nbsp;probe&nbsp;into the&nbsp;poisoning&nbsp;cases, without providing further details. The National&nbsp;Police&nbsp;did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The&nbsp;rights&nbsp;group also&nbsp;called on the National Nutrition Agency, which oversees the programme, to suspend the kitchens allegedly responsible for the poisoning outbreaks.

Read:&nbsp;Austria arrests baby food poisoning suspect

Some 170&nbsp;students&nbsp;and teachers in the South Sulawesi region of Tana Toraja also fell ill after eating the free meals on Thursday, local government head Zadrak Tombeg said, following&nbsp;more&nbsp;than&nbsp;1,700 cases spread across the provinces of Central Java, East Java, and West Sumatra.

Another 256&nbsp;students&nbsp;in an East Java region also fell sick after consuming the meals this week, news website CNN Indonesia reported on Friday.

The overseeing agency was slated to hold a press conference on Friday, but delayed it without providing a reason or a rescheduled time. It did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but agency head Sudaryono said on Thursday that the&nbsp;poisoning&nbsp;cases would be handled seriously.

As of September 1, 50,000 individuals had been affected by food&nbsp;poisoning, lawmaker Charles Honoris said on Wednesday, citing health department data,&nbsp;with some previous cases blamed&nbsp;on improper&nbsp;food storage and&nbsp;the late&nbsp;delivery of cooked meals.

Prabowo&#39;s beleaguered programme has become increasingly unpopular among the public, with only one-third of Indonesians surveyed in July&nbsp;expressing satisfaction&nbsp;with the scheme,&nbsp;pollster Saiful Mujani Research and Consulting said.&nbsp;Many respondents cited the&nbsp;poisoning&nbsp;cases as a reason.

Ester Patandung, whose child was hospitalised in Tana Toraja, told Reuters,&nbsp;&quot;My hope as a parent is for the central or regional government to cancel the free meal programme.&quot;]]>
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			<title>How engineers in a WhatsApp group are guiding Nepal's tunnel rescue efforts</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627396/how-engineers-in-a-whatsapp-group-are-guiding-nepals-tunnel-rescue-efforts</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627396/how-engineers-in-a-whatsapp-group-are-guiding-nepals-tunnel-rescue-efforts#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 04 Sep 26 06:18:23 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
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			<description>
				<![CDATA[Over 500 experts share data in group as rescuers search devastated hydropower plants for survivors]]>
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				<![CDATA[An army of experts in a WhatsApp group is guiding rescue workers scouring a Nepali valley after a huge flash flood more than a week ago as they desperately search for anyone who may be alive inside tunnels of devastated hydropower plants.

The messaging group was set up by engineers before the wall of water, mud and rock crashed down the Trishuli valley in Nepal on August 26. It has since become a valuable tool alongside helicopters and heavy machinery in the race to find survivors.

The authorities hope some of the about 900 people reported missing from six hydropower plants - at least three of which were under construction - may have escaped the deluge because they worked in or fled into the tunnels.

In a first sign of success, two people were brought out alive from a tunnel linked to the Upper Trishuli 3A hydropower plant on Friday, nine days after the disaster, a lawmaker said.

Even finding entrances to some of the tunnels, which were designed to channel water or used to access hydropower facilities, is tough now after the flood deposited 2.2 million tonnes of mud and debris down the valley.

&#39;Send me layout drawings&#39;

&quot;Can you send me Chilime layout drawings,&quot; a government official wrote on the engineers&#39; WhatsApp group on Saturday as rescue workers searched the buried remains of the Chilime hydropower plant high in the Himalayan valley close to the Chinese border.

Minutes afterwards, a member of the group chat, which was expanded to add more experts in support of the rescue effort, responded by sending drawings of the project&#39;s powerhouse, as well as details of access tunnels. That exchange and others posted on the group, which has more than 500 members, were seen by Reuters.

Nepal&#39;s Independent Power Producers&#39; Association said on Monday at least eight people could be trapped at Chilime, while an official at the Nepal Electricity Authority said 46 may be trapped at Rasuwagadhi hydropower plant, further south.

Reuters spoke to a dozen people - including government and military officials, engineers, survivors and relatives of missing workers - who described the efforts to search the tunnel networks of ruined hydropower plants, including how real-time guidance was being provided by experts over WhatsApp.

Read: Nepal must rebuild thousands of homes, no letup in search for missing

&quot;The flood has altered the terrain around the tunnels and changed their structure, while mud, rocks, soil and other debris had accumulated inside,&quot; Nepal army spokesperson Raja Ram Basnet told Reuters. &quot;This is not a normal closure of tunnels.&quot;

At Chilime, Reuters images on Monday showed a large tunnel entrance with flood debris rising to the ceiling a short way inside.

More than 1,200 people were killed in last week&#39;s deluge caused by a glacier collapse. More than 4,000 people are still missing, including those who might be trapped inside tunnels.

Alongside Chilime, rescue workers are searching five other hydroelectric sites in the valley that were part of an expanding network of plants powering the nation and exporting the surplus. The flood wiped out 10% of Nepal&#39;s generation capacity.

Seeking advice about tunnel networks via WhatsApp

At Rasuwagadhi hydropower plant, rescue workers reached 250 metres into one tunnel before finding it blocked. But they have not given up the search.

&quot;We are trying to reach there inside again to look for people,&quot; said Amshu Kiran Shahi, a board member of the Nepal Electricity Authority, adding that 46 people may have been trapped in a chamber, where they might have access to food and water.

A manager at the Nepal Electricity Authority, speaking on condition of anonymity, said rescue workers had also asked former plant employees for advice about the tunnel networks via the WhatsApp group. He said drawings posted on the group had been useful.

At the Upper Trishuli 3A hydropower project, rescue workers took almost six days before reaching the tunnel because the entrance was buried, Shahi said. Before the survivors were pulled out on Friday, rescue workers had been trying to supply oxygen via pipes into any cavities in case someone was trapped.

A Reuters photographer who flew to the site on Thursday saw excavators trying to move huge boulders from the mouth of a tunnel and seeking to work their way deeper inside.

Read More: Himalayas face GLOF risks, UN official warns

Jan Jiwan Thakur, a civil engineer at the Upper Trishuli 1 plant, said a colleague warned him of the coming flood moments before it swept down the valley, giving him enough time to climb to higher ground with about 100 others from the facility. &quot;We just ran away towards the hillside and, after two to three minutes when we looked down, everything was gone,&quot; he said. &quot;The flood debris had entirely covered our office area.&quot;

Dhan Bahadur Tamang described escaping through a tunnel at the same plant when the flood hit, sending pipes and other equipment rushing inside. With knowledge of the tunnel system, he and several others found a way out but he described seeing dead bodies during his subterranean journey to escape.

On the engineers&#39; WhatsApp group, members shared names and mobile phone numbers of missing workers, asking government officials to relay them to telecom authorities in a bid to find their last recorded location.

Meanwhile, family members await news of missing loved ones, like Rajesh Shrestha, whose 30-year-old son, Rajish, is an environmental engineer at Upper Trishuli 1. &quot;Whenever I look outside, I imagine seeing him carrying a bag and coming home, just as he used to,&quot; said Shrestha, who runs a workshop making window grills.

&quot;I am surviving on the hope that he will return.&quot;]]>
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			<title>Sarmad Khoosat's 'Lali' to screen at BFI London Film Festival</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627397/sarmad-khoosats-lali-to-screen-at-bfi-london-film-festival</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627397/sarmad-khoosats-lali-to-screen-at-bfi-london-film-festival#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 04 Sep 26 06:20:39 +0500</pubDate>
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				<![CDATA[Life And Style Desk]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Life &amp; Style]]></category>
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			<description>
				<![CDATA[Director says opening-day slot makes film selection 'feel a little more special']]>
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				<![CDATA[Sarmad Khoosat&#39;s Lali&nbsp;picked up another major festival credit, being selected for the 70th BFI London Film Festival, the United Kingdom&#39;s largest film event, running from October 7 to 18.

Khoosat shared the news on Instagram after the festival unveiled the line-up, posting images from the programme announcement. &quot;To be in this line-up, and to get to bring all the madness, music, colour, love and the many other crazy things of Lali to a global audience at the London Film Festival. Well, that feels rather lovely,&quot; the director wrote, adding that the film&#39;s placement on the opening day made the selection &quot;feel a little more special.&quot;





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According to the official festival programme, Lali will screen at the Institute of Contemporary Arts on the opening day. The festival will present 251 features, shorts, series and immersive works from 88 countries this year, with Khoosat&#39;s work&nbsp;screening as part of the festival&#39;s &quot;Laugh&quot; strand.

The film, co-written by Khoosat and Sundus Hashmi, had its world premiere at the 76th Berlin International Film Festival&nbsp;in February this year, becoming the first fully Pakistani-produced feature film to screen at the Berlinale. It was produced as a collaboration between Khoosat Films and Dubai-based Enso Studios.

The film&nbsp;follows Zeba, played by Mamya Shajaffar, a young woman branded a &quot;cursed bride&quot; after three of her suitors die under mysterious circumstances. She is pushed into an arranged marriage with Sajawal, a man carrying his own troubled past and a facial birthmark, a setup the film plays as a pitch-black comedy with supernatural undertones.

The ensemble cast also includes Channan Hanif, Joyland&#39;s Rasti Farooq and Churails star Meher Bano.

The London selection builds on a run of international recognition for Lali. It previously earned an honourable mention from the feature jury at the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles in April, where it was praised for its genre fluidity and visual richness.

Khoosat&#39;s 2019 film Zindagi Tamasha was also selected as Pakistan&#39;s entry for Best International Feature Film at the 93rd Academy Awards, while Joyland, which he produced in 2022, won the Jury Prize at Cannes that year and went on to become Pakistan&#39;s Oscar entry for the 95th Academy Awards.]]>
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			<title>Iqra Aziz calls marriage to Yasir Hussain a blessing, dismisses age-gap concerns</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627423/iqra-aziz-calls-marriage-to-yasir-hussain-a-blessing-dismisses-age-gap-concerns</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627423/iqra-aziz-calls-marriage-to-yasir-hussain-a-blessing-dismisses-age-gap-concerns#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 04 Sep 26 09:46:51 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Life And Style Desk]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Life &amp; Style]]></category>
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			<description>
				<![CDATA[Actor speaks about compatibility, motherhood, mom guilt and her plans to eventually take on theatre]]>
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				<![CDATA[Iqra Aziz described her relationship with husband Yasir Hussain as a blessing, saying their age gap had never affected their relationship.

The actor spoke in an&nbsp;interview while supporting her husband at his theatre production So Suite in Lahore. During the conversation, she spoke about her relationship with Hussain, addressing criticism over their age gap, as well as motherhood and her acting career.

When speaking about her relationship with Hussain, Aziz said, &ldquo;I think people say otherwise but I feel it is &lsquo;Khush kismati&rsquo; and nothing else&rdquo;.

&ldquo;Yasir is such a kind husband and you can see that from being around our family and how happy I am. He is one of a kind,&rdquo;&nbsp;she added.

Addressing fan speculation about their more than 10-year age gap, Aziz said she disagreed with the idea that it was a negative thing, arguing that compatibility was more important.

&ldquo;I think this age gap is good because if you see, it was the same with our parents and when they got married. The only important thing is that your life goals align,&rdquo;&nbsp;she said.





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Aziz also opened up about motherhood, saying that mom guilt was a major concern for working mothers.

&ldquo;When working moms are not present, we do not get to give our kids the same attention. When we are available, they want us to just stay and keep our attention on them. So, today when I was here after a shoot, they were like no video or photos and just attention to us,&rdquo;&nbsp;she said.

She also spoke about the support system around her children, saying both families helped ensure they were surrounded by loved ones. &ldquo;My family is with the kids and also Yasir&rsquo;s sister. So they have their grandmother and aunt and so many people in our family that they are always happy,&rdquo;&nbsp;she added.

Aziz ended her comments on motherhood by offering advice to mothers struggling with guilt. &ldquo;Mom guilt comes to working women and non-working women. Do not put yourself down because of it. You are doing amazing.&rdquo;

The actor also praised Hussain&rsquo;s theatre production, describing it as a major leap from television while admitting that she would like to take on theatre herself one day. &ldquo;I am scared of theatre. I&rsquo;ll do it someday because I have always been on television so acting that way everyday is different,&rdquo;&nbsp;she said.

Reflecting on her own acting career, Aziz said she had waited for the right opportunity to make her debut. &ldquo;It was written for me to come on screen when I got a good character.&rdquo;

Aziz and Hussain married in December 2019 after getting engaged a year earlier at an awards ceremony. The couple have two children, Kabir and Sophia.]]>
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			<title>Taapsee Pannu opens up on emotional toll of playing grief-heavy roles</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627419/taapsee-pannu-opens-up-on-emotional-toll-of-playing-grief-heavy-roles</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627419/taapsee-pannu-opens-up-on-emotional-toll-of-playing-grief-heavy-roles#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 04 Sep 26 08:55:49 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Life And Style Desk]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Life &amp; Style]]></category>
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			<description>
				<![CDATA[Indian actor says she convinces herself characters' tragedies had happened to her, reveals she sought therapy]]>
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				<![CDATA[Indian actor Taapsee Pannu discussed the emotional cost of playing intense, grief-heavy characters, revealing that the process she relied on to access pain on screen was far from a healthy one.

Speaking to Variety India about her role as Bani in Gandhari, Taapsee admitted that she often convinced herself her character&#39;s tragedies had actually happened to her in real life, in order to play the roles most authentically. &quot;I don&#39;t have a very healthy method. Unfortunately, it&#39;s the only method I know,&quot; she said, adding that she had followed the same approach across every film which ultimately left her emotionally drained.

Taapsee, who admitted she had never had formal acting training, also revealed that she did not know specific &quot;switches&quot; to access an emotion on cue. Instead, she mentally placed herself inside her character&#39;s circumstances, often imagining the loss of someone close to her. &quot;I psych myself out into believing that whatever is happening to my character has happened to me. I have used this method, and it has worked for me on screen. On a personal level, it has left me with scars. Said scars cannot heal entirely,&quot; the actor shared.

Asked whether she had sought therapy to move on from playing Bani, Taapsee revealed that professional help had been part of her process since Pink, and that she had since found healthier ways to manage the emotional aftermath of intense roles. &quot;I did seek help in the beginning, to understand how to get out of this. Now I know. I have developed hacks to unwind mentally,&quot; she said.

The actor added that while such roles had changed her at some level, it was something she had learnt to live with. &quot;I cannot heal 100%. But it is something that I can live with. It is not damaging. I have started the unlearning process bit by bit while seeking help and understanding myself,&quot; Taapsee shared.

This wasn&#39;t the first time the actor spoke publicly about personal struggles. Earlier this year, she reflected on her past obsession with achieving a flat stomach, revealing that she once pushed her body &quot;beyond its limits&quot;&nbsp;while chasing an idealised image.

Between her comments on therapy and body image, Taapsee has positioned herself as one of Bollywood&#39;s more candid voices on the private costs of public-facing work.]]>
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			<title>Kinza Hashmi's 'Sheroes' segment gets first teaser release</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627405/kinza-hashmis-sheroes-segment-gets-first-teaser-release</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627405/kinza-hashmis-sheroes-segment-gets-first-teaser-release#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 04 Sep 26 07:23:18 +0500</pubDate>
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				<![CDATA[Life And Style Desk]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Life &amp; Style]]></category>
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			<description>
				<![CDATA[Segment titled 'Artist' hints at forgery plot as film awaits September 18 premiere]]>
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				<![CDATA[The first of three individual teasers for the upcoming film&nbsp;Sheroes, backed by the Sindh Information Department, was released, spotlighting actor Kinza Hashmi&#39;s segment titled &#39;Artist&#39;.

The segment stars Kinza alongside Nayyer Ejaz, Nazar Ul Hasan and Ahmad Hassan. It is one of three standalone stories that come together to form Sheroes.

In the teaser, Ejaz&#39;s character was seen discussing an old family heirloom with two prospective buyers. The screen then flashed the line, &quot;Artist or con artist?&quot; hinting that Kinza&#39;s character dealt in forged art passed off as authentic.

A running thread through the trailer was that art and artists went unappreciated, with one character remarking that &quot;people buy frames, nobody buys art.&quot; Kinza&#39;s character later delivered the segment&#39;s standout line: &quot;A lie travels the world as the truth is left tying its shoelaces.&quot;





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Sheroes was first previewed through its full trailer in late August. The film brings together Kinza, Zara Noor Abbas and Ushna Shah in three separate, self-contained stories. Zara features as a police officer navigating high-speed chases and bomb disposal, while Ushna takes on the role of a boxer working her way toward a fight, backed by her family.

The project follows Sindh Films&#39; previous major release Mera Lyari,&nbsp;which premiered in May this year. It starred Ayesha Omar as a football coach mentoring young girls in Lyari, with Dananeer Mobeen in a supporting role.

With teasers for Zara and Ushna&#39;s segments expected to follow in the coming days, Sheroes&nbsp;is set to premiere in cinemas&nbsp;nationwide on September 18.]]>
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			<title>Sarah Khan urges action for child safety, demands death penalty be enforced</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627413/sarah-khan-urges-action-for-child-safety-demands-death-penalty-be-enforced</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627413/sarah-khan-urges-action-for-child-safety-demands-death-penalty-be-enforced#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 04 Sep 26 08:03:45 +0500</pubDate>
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				<![CDATA[Life And Style Desk]]>
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			<description>
				<![CDATA[Actor calls for transparency in how cases are handled, appeals to government officials]]>
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				<![CDATA[Actor Sarah Khan demanded urgent action for child safety and called on the government to enforce existing punishments for child sexual abuse,&nbsp;saying she was &quot;ashamed&quot; of the world children were growing up in.

In a series of stories shared on her Instagram, Sarah wrote, &quot;As a mother of two daughters, I feel ashamed that this is the world our children are growing up in. Little children who don&#39;t even know what&#39;s happening to them. I can&#39;t imagine the fear, the pain, or what their parents must live with afterwards.&quot;

The actor continued, &quot;How many more children have to go through something this horrific before we start treating child safety as an EMERGENCY?&quot;



Screengrab: SarahKhan/Instagram

Sharing that she believed those who raped or sexually abused children deserved the severest punishment under the law, Sarah stated, &quot;If the law provides the death penalty for such crimes, enforce it.&quot;

In a follow-up story, the actor addressed officials directly, writing, &quot;We don&#39;t need another statement of condemnation after another child has been abused. We need action before it happens.&quot;

Sarah also pressed for transparency in how cases were handled. &quot;Tell us what is being done to protect our babies, toddlers and young girls. Tell us how these cases are being investigated, how offenders are being prosecuted, and what measures are being taken so that another family doesn&#39;t have to live through this nightmare,&quot; the actor demanded.



Screengrab: SarahKhan/Instagram

She concluded her post with a direct appeal, asking those in power to &quot;please use the power and responsibility you have been given to make our children safer.&quot; She added, &quot;They cannot fight for themselves. We have to fight for them.&quot;

Sarah tagged Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, the Government of Pakistan, and Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar in the post.

The actor&#39;s remarks added to a broader wave of frustration from the country&#39;s entertainment industry, with celebrities including Mahira Khan, Naimal Khawar, and Sonya Hussyn demanding accountability over a string of recent incidents involving the abuse of children. These include the&nbsp;abduction, sexual assault and murder of five-year-old Ayat Noor in Haripur and the sexual assault and murder of a one-and-a-half-year-old girl in Karachi.]]>
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			<title>PM Shehbaz, ADB vice-president discuss early groundbreaking of ML-1</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627408/pm-shehbaz-adb-vice-president-discuss-early-groundbreaking-of-ml-1</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627408/pm-shehbaz-adb-vice-president-discuss-early-groundbreaking-of-ml-1#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 04 Sep 26 07:49:31 +0500</pubDate>
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				<![CDATA[Web Desk]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Islamabad]]></category><category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>
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				<![CDATA[PM says administrative bottlenecks are being actively dismantled through dedicated execution task forces]]>
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				<![CDATA[Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday stressed the need for the early groundbreaking of the Main Line-1 (ML-1) railway project, saying the Karachi-to-Peshawar corridor was vital for modernising freight transport and strengthening regional trade connectivity, the Prime Minister&#39;s Office (PMO) said.

According to the PMO. It was discussed during a breakfast meeting between the prime minister and Asian Development Bank (ADB) Vice President for South, Central and West Asia Yingming Yang in Islamabad on Friday.



Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif hosted a breakfast meeting in honour of Asian Development Bank (ADB) Vice President for South, Central, and West Asia, Mr. Yingming Yang.

The meeting reviewed the multi-decade development partnership and chart out priority interventions&hellip; pic.twitter.com/pSJ7MKMloh
&mdash; Prime Minister&#39;s Office (@PakPMO) September 4, 2026


PM Shehbaz said upgrading ML-1 was &ldquo;essential for modernising freight logistics, strengthening regional trade connectivity, and supporting major industrial initiatives&rdquo;.

The meeting discussed the need for the &ldquo;early groundbreaking of ML1&rdquo;, which the PMO said was vital for infrastructure development and modernising connectivity.

&quot;The meeting reviewed the multi-decade development partnership and chart out priority interventions under the new Country Partnership Strategy (CPS) 2026&ndash;2030,&quot; it added.

Welcoming Yang on his first official visit to Pakistan as ADB vice president, PM Shehbaz praised the bank&rsquo;s &ldquo;consistent professionalism and responsiveness&rdquo; in delivering transformative urban infrastructure, transport, and public service projects in the country.

The prime minister also said Pakistan had successfully navigated a difficult economic recovery through &ldquo;rigorous fiscal, structural, and governance reforms&rdquo;.

Read: PM Shehbaz reaffirms Pakistan&rsquo;s support for multilateralism in meeting with UN chief candidate

&ldquo;These corrective actions have restored macroeconomic stability, reinforced investor confidence, and earned stable outlook upgrades from major international credit rating agencies including Fitch, Moody&rsquo;s, and S&amp;P,&rdquo; he said.

PM Shehbaz reaffirmed the government&rsquo;s commitment to long-term economic transformation and &quot;stressed that the administrative bottlenecks are being actively dismantled through dedicated execution task forces.&quot;

The meeting also explored ways to expand cooperation in several sectors, including support for the private sector, energy security and food security.

&quot;Expanding cooperation in various sectors, the meeting explored collaborative avenues in support for private sector, energy security, food security, enhancing support in export competitiveness, Artificial Intelligence and Infomation Technology,&quot; the PMO said.

The meeting concluded with a &ldquo;mutual pledge to translate the strategic priorities of the CPS 2026&ndash;2030 into concrete, high-impact results&rdquo;. The PMO said the partnership was aimed at driving sustainable growth and &ldquo;visibly enhance the standard of living for the people of Pakistan&rdquo;.

ML-1 a &quot;key priority&quot;

In a meeting with ADB on Thursday, Minister for Economic Affairs Ahad Cheema called ML-1 a &ldquo;flagship project of national significance and a key priority for Pakistan&rdquo;, as the government pushed to accelerate work on the long-delayed railway corridor. The ADB welcomed progress on the project and agreed to help establish a joint working group on reforms in Pakistan Railways.

The Main Line-1 (ML-1) is a planned 1,733-kilometre upgrade of Pakistan&rsquo;s main railway corridor, linking Karachi with Peshawar through major cities including Lahore and Rawalpindi. The project also covers the Taxila-Havelian section. Much of the existing railway track dated back to the British era and had deteriorated over decades, making major rehabilitation and expansion necessary.

The project was designed to upgrade and double-track the railway corridor, with trains expected to eventually travel at speeds of up to 160km/h, compared with around 80km/h at the time. It was also aimed at improving passenger and freight services, reducing transport costs and strengthening Pakistan&rsquo;s trade and logistics network.

Read: Govt declares ML-1 &#39;national priority&#39;

ML-1 was a major component of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), but its implementation had faced repeated delays. The roughly $2.5 billion project had remained stalled for years because of funding constraints, bureaucratic delays and an unfavourable economic and international financing environment.

The government had sought to revive the project by starting procedural work on an elevated 480km section between Karachi and Rohri. The first phase is estimated to cost around Rs450 billion and is expected to be financed by Chinese banks alongside other international lenders.

Despite the renewed momentum, securing financing and bringing in the required engineering expertise remained major challenges. The government had also faced pressure to ensure that ML-1 did not become another long-delayed infrastructure project, with physical work targeted to resume from the beginning of 2027.

The scale of the project meant its impact would extend beyond Pakistan Railways. A modern railway network was expected to improve the movement of goods and passengers across the country, strengthen regional trade links, and connect Pakistan more effectively with wider rail and economic connectivity projects.]]>
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			<title>Global investors trim US exposure amid debt fears</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627456/global-investors-trim-us-exposure-amid-debt-fears</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627456/global-investors-trim-us-exposure-amid-debt-fears#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 04 Sep 26 13:44:44 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Web Desk]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2627456</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Norway cuts Treasury allocation as Dutch central bank moves gold reserves to London amid rising risks]]>
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				<![CDATA[Growing concerns over soaring government debt, rising bond yields and geopolitical uncertainty are prompting some of the world&rsquo;s biggest institutional investors and central banks to rethink their exposure to US assets, with Norway&rsquo;s sovereign wealth fund planning to reduce its holdings of US Treasurys and the Dutch central bank moving a huge portion of its gold reserves from North America to London, according to CNBC.

The moves come as global government bond markets face renewed pressure, with yields on several major sovereign bonds climbing to multi-decade highs amid concerns over inflation, interest rates and mounting public debt.

Norway&rsquo;s $2.3 trillion sovereign wealth fund, the world&rsquo;s largest, has proposed a major restructuring of its fixed-income portfolio, CNBC reported. Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), which manages the Government Pension Fund Global, has recommended reducing the share of government bonds within its bond benchmark from 70% to 50%.

The fund said the lower allocation would still provide sufficient liquidity during periods of market turbulence while allowing it to pursue higher returns through other fixed-income assets.

Under the proposed changes, NBIM&rsquo;s US Treasury holdings would fall from 34.1% of its government bond portfolio to 21.9%, while its euro area holdings would decline from 16.8% to 14.1%.

The proposed reduction in Treasury exposure comes at a sensitive time for the US bond market. Long-term Treasury yields have recently risen to decade-high levels as investors have become increasingly concerned about the trajectory of US government finances and the country&rsquo;s rapidly expanding debt.

Economist Mohamed El-Erian said the Norwegian fund&rsquo;s planned reduction was relatively small in terms of its direct impact on the Treasury market, but significant as a signal.

&ldquo;The size isn&rsquo;t big, but the signal that traditional holders and buyers are becoming less reliable is a very important one,&rdquo; El-Erian told CNBC, pointing to Japan, China and Gulf countries as other major holders facing pressures that could affect their appetite for US government debt.

He argued that the recent rise in interest rates was driven less by concerns about inflation or the credibility of the Federal Reserve than by a fundamental imbalance between the enormous amount of debt being issued and the pool of reliable buyers willing to absorb it.

&ldquo;China, for geopolitical purposes, is no longer as willing,&rdquo; El-Erian said. &ldquo;Japan and the Gulf countries have domestic issues.&rdquo;

Norway&rsquo;s fund is simultaneously seeking greater diversification within its fixed-income portfolio. NBIM plans to increase its holdings of nongovernment US fixed income, including corporate bonds, from 16.2% to 27.6%.

Fund chief executive Nicolai Tangen and Norges Bank Governor Ida Wolden Bache said the fund could earn higher premiums by moving into riskier assets such as mortgage-backed securities. Such securities, they argued, can behave differently from equities during periods of market stress and could therefore provide an additional source of diversification and reduce overall portfolio volatility.

The strategy reflects growing concerns over concentration risk. NBIM currently holds around $1.65 trillion in equities, representing almost 1.5% of all listed shares globally, alongside about $592 billion in fixed-income assets.

The fund has posted record profits in recent quarters, benefiting from its enormous investments in US and Asian technology companies and stocks linked to the artificial intelligence boom. But Tangen has warned that such returns cannot be expected to continue indefinitely, particularly if global markets experience a major correction.

A recent NBIM stress test found that a sharp correction in AI-related assets could wipe about $740 billion, or 35%, from the fund&rsquo;s value.

El-Erian said investors should meanwhile expect pressure on global government bonds to persist, particularly because there is little political appetite in the United States for immediate fiscal consolidation. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t see any appetite in the US for immediate fiscal consolidation. So I suspect we will continue to see upward pressures on yields,&rdquo; he said.

He identified Britain, Japan and France as three G7 economies particularly vulnerable to sovereign debt problems. Britain, he said, was especially sensitive to movements in US yields, with its borrowing costs tending to move by considerably more when US rates change.

At the same time, El-Erian criticised what he described as excessive attempts by the US administration to influence financial markets and monetary policy.

The Treasury Department recently announced plans to at least double the size of its long-dated Treasury buybacks after a surge in borrowing costs. Vice President JD Vance has also called on the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates, adding to political pressure on the central bank.

El-Erian described the moves as &ldquo;unfortunate&rdquo;, warning that the Treasury could not permanently impose desired outcomes on a market as large as the US bond market without risking unintended consequences.

Read More: US consul general calls for stronger economic ties with Pakistan

The concerns over US assets are also reflected in central banks&rsquo; management of their gold reserves.

The Dutch central bank, DNB, said it had transferred approximately 86 metric tons of gold from storage facilities in New York and Ottawa to London between March and August, according to CNBC. The amount represented just over one-quarter of its gold reserves previously held in North America.

The gold is now stored with the Bank of England, which DNB said offered access to the world&rsquo;s most easily tradable gold because bars stored there meet international trading standards.

DNB said the move was aimed at strengthening its contingency planning and crisis preparedness amid increasing geopolitical unrest. &ldquo;With this relocation, we have improved the tradability of our gold reserves,&rdquo; DNB Governor Olaf Sleijpen said, adding that the central bank expected never to need to use the reserves in a crisis but wanted to strengthen its resilience.

The transfer gives DNB a more geographically balanced distribution of its gold. London now holds 32.1% of its reserves, while 30.8% is stored at the central bank&rsquo;s cash centre in Zeist in the Netherlands. New York and Ottawa each hold 18.5%.

DNB said gold stored in the US and Canada could not be utilised as quickly and directly in a crisis, while London&rsquo;s established gold market infrastructure offered greater tradability.

The Dutch move follows a similar decision by the French central bank, which transferred 129 metric tons of gold from the New York Federal Reserve between July 2025 and January 2026. French central bank Governor Fran&ccedil;ois Villeroy de Galhau said the transfer was not politically motivated.

The moves by Norway and the Netherlands come as gold prices have surged amid heightened financial and geopolitical uncertainty. Gold has gained nearly 25% over the past 12 months and was recently trading around $4,430 an ounce.

Taken together, these moves suggest that the world&rsquo;s largest investors are beginning a gradual, rather than abrupt, retreat from US markets, according to analysts. Rising debt, higher yields, geopolitical tensions and policy uncertainty are encouraging institutions to reduce their reliance on US Treasurys and dollar-linked assets.

While the shift does not amount to a wholesale abandonment of US markets, it signals that their once-dominant position in global portfolios can no longer be taken for granted.]]>
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			<title>PSX closes with modest gains of 400 points</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627452/psx-closes-with-modest-gains-of-400-points</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627452/psx-closes-with-modest-gains-of-400-points#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 04 Sep 26 12:52:36 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Our Correspondent]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2627452</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[KSE-100 Index recovers to 175,328 amid oil caution, Friday selling]]>
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			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) ended Friday on a modestly positive note, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index closing at around 175,330 points, up almost 400 points, after spending most of the session under pressure.

The KSE-100 Index closed at 175,328 points, up 0.24% DoD (+399 points), with 259 million shares traded. Trading activity remained concentrated in CNERGY, BOP, MLCF and PPL, which recorded volumes of 149 million, 13 million, 10 million and 9 million shares, respectively.

The session remained mixed, with the index trading under pressure for most of the day before recovering towards the close, said Ahmed Sheraz of KASB KTrade.

Also Read: PSX edges up 153 points amid geopolitical uncertainty

Sector-wise, commercial banks, oil &amp; gas and cement stocks contributed positively, while refineries remained a drag on overall market sentiment. Among individual stocks, MEBL, BAHL, MARI, PPL, and OGDC closed higher.

Brent crude continued to hover around $95-$96/bbl, keeping energy prices a key concern for the market. With no fresh escalation in the US-Iran situation, geopolitical tensions remained relatively contained; however, the usual Friday profit-taking and cautious participation kept volumes subdued and selling pressure intact during the session.

Looking ahead, the market is expected to remain sensitive in the next week to geopolitical developments, domestic economic and political developments, and persistently elevated energy prices. Volatility is likely to remain elevated, with direction largely dependent on how these factors evolve.]]>
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			<title>Oil prices set for weekly gain as US-Iran hostilities intensify</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627403/oil-set-for-steepest-weekly-gain-since-mid-july-fuelled-by-us-iran-clashes</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627403/oil-set-for-steepest-weekly-gain-since-mid-july-fuelled-by-us-iran-clashes#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 04 Sep 26 07:06:51 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2627403</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Brent crude futures down 47 cents or 0.49% at $95.05]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[Oil prices eased on Friday but were still headed for a &zwnj;weekly gain as rising&nbsp;US-Iran tensions&nbsp;heightened concerns over Middle East supply risks.

Brent crude futures were down 47 cents or 0.49% at $95.05 a barrel by 1:13pm PKT, while US&nbsp;West Texas Intermediate crude futures lost 64 cents, or 0.70%, ​to $90.66.

However, Brent rose 6.5% for the week, its biggest weekly gain since August 17, while ​WTI climbed 8.8%, its strongest weekly performance since July 13.

US attacks this ​week that killed and wounded dozens, including Iranian civilians, marked the ⁠fiercest clashes between the two countries since July. The war, which began with US-Israeli ​strikes in late February, is now in its seventh month.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz renewed ​warnings that Israel would &quot;cripple&quot; Iran&#39;s military and civilian infrastructure, including energy facilities.

A US&nbsp;campaign to throttle&nbsp;Iran&#39;s economy&nbsp;by blockading its oil exports and stopping sanctions evasion is growing increasingly difficult to withstand, three senior ​Iranian sources said.

&quot;The combination of renewed US-Iran hostilities and ongoing uncertainty around the Strait of Hormuz ​has been enough to reprice risk higher, even while actual tanker flows have not collapsed,&quot; said Tim Waterer, chief &zwnj;market analyst ⁠at KCM Trade.

Four&nbsp;commodity vessels&nbsp;transited the key Strait of Hormuz waterway on Thursday, down from nine a day earlier and well below the 10-day average tally of about 15, preliminary shipping data showed.

Iraq&nbsp;increased its August oil exports to about 2.34 million barrels per day from about 1.35 million bpd ​in July, two Iraqi ​energy officials said on ⁠Wednesday.

Analysts turned more bullish on prices as concerns grew over the Strait of Hormuz, a key chokepoint that handled about one-fifth of global oil and ​liquefied natural gas supplies before the conflict began in late February.

Citi raised ​its average Brent ⁠crude price forecast for the third quarter to $86 a barrel from $80, saying the reopening of the strait is taking longer than previously expected.

ANZ analysts also raised their Brent crude forecast on Friday to $95 a ⁠barrel in ​the short term, with upside risk if the Middle East ​conflict intensifies.

Elsewhere, fear of supply disruptions due to renewed hostilities between the US&nbsp;and Iran and attacks on Russian refineries by ​Ukraine pushed average US&nbsp;diesel prices to&nbsp;record highs.]]>
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			<title>IT exports soar, AI triggers job cuts</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627332/it-exports-soar-ai-triggers-job-cuts</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627332/it-exports-soar-ai-triggers-job-cuts#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 03 Sep 26 22:25:54 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Usman Hanif]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2627332</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Entry-level hiring down 25% as exports hit $4.6b, freelancers account for $1.6b]]>
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				<![CDATA[Pakistan&#39;s information technology industry has just posted its strongest year on record. It has also started shedding people faster than at any point in its recent history. Both statements are true, and that is the paradox now hanging over the country&#39;s most celebrated export story.

State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) data show IT and IT-enabled services receipts climbed to $4.6 billion in fiscal year 2025-26, up about 21% from $3.814 billion a year earlier. The sector is now the largest services export category, accounting for close to half of all services earnings. It still missed the government&#39;s $5 billion target by roughly $400 million. The longer-term Uraan Pakistan goal remains $10 billion by FY2028-29.

The same year, the Pakistan Software Houses Association (P@SHA) found entry-level hiring at major technology firms down around 25%. Employment among developers aged 22 to 25 has fallen nearly 20% since 2024. Entry-level freelance listings have dropped from about 15% of the market to below 9%. Basic writing and translation work is down 32% year-on-year as clients switch to AI tools. One Islamabad software house has said it cut as much as 80% of delivery-side roles after replacing routine work with AI. Another software house located in NASTP Silicon Valley in Karachi, which provided website development services to clients in the Middle East, is reported to have decreased its employee strength from around 150 to nearly 35%.

&quot;At first glance, it may seem contradictory that Pakistan&#39;s IT exports are growing while software companies are laying people off,&quot; said Syed Azfar Hussain, Project Director at the National Incubation Center Karachi. &quot;But both trends are happening because the industry is going through a major transformation. AI is taking over many routine coding and support tasks, so companies no longer need as many people for the same work.&quot;

The demand that is rising, he added, is for a different workforce: artificial intelligence, cloud computing, cybersecurity and data engineering. &quot;The challenge isn&#39;t that opportunities are disappearing. It&#39;s that the skills employers need are changing much faster than before.&quot; If Pakistan reskills at scale and moves into higher-value services, Hussain argued, AI can drive both export growth and longer-term job creation rather than only layoffs.

Two industries, not one

Chief Executive of Jaffer Business Systems, Veqarul Islam draws a sharper line between the domestic market and the export machine. On the local side, he said, not a single Pakistani tech company has scaled to a size comparable with the country&#39;s major industrial groups. Tech elsewhere grows on the back of corporates, government demand for systems and institutions stronger than personalities. Pakistan, he argued, drifted after the 1980s into weak institutions and personality-driven governance. Technology needs data, audits, transparency and accountability. Those foundations never matured, capital preferred real estate, and large groups that did experiment with tech often retreated to brick-and-mortar.

The export side looks better on paper. Islam is not convinced the headline number tells the whole story. &quot;There is a lot of scepticism in the industry, myself included, on the growth numbers. The devil is in the detail.&quot; Freelancers now account for about a quarter of IT export receipts, or roughly $1.6 billion. Islam said he respects entrepreneurship, but tax design has encouraged full-time employees of both tech and non-tech firms to rebadge as freelancers. &quot;This is a death of corporatisation. Countries grow at the back of growing corporates. Individuals are a part of this growth and not the other way round.&quot;

The United States remains the dominant destination, followed by the United Kingdom, the UAE, Canada and Europe, with the Middle East and Africa rising. Islam said geopolitics and AI now require a pivot toward markets that will still matter in a decade, not only those that pay today&#39;s invoices.

What the boom has, and has not, delivered

The foreign-exchange gain is real. ICT remains far less import-intensive than textiles, and a large share of the value stays in wages paid at home. Online banking, commerce and payments have changed how urban Pakistanis live. Islam&#39;s verdict on national transformation is colder: the impact on the country&#39;s overall progress has been &quot;negligible.&quot; Global tech majors have either left, shrunk local operations or never treated Pakistan as a serious market. Microsoft closed its local office in 2025. Careem&#39;s global restructuring has hit Pakistani engineering and support staff.

AI, Islam said, is a bigger disruption than anything in living memory, larger, in his view, than the industrial revolution. Machines that once only executed instructions now recommend, act and outperform humans on a widening set of tasks. The binding constraints are energy, chips, compute, networks and, above all, trusted data. Pakistan remains a largely undocumented economy. Without institutions that put technology at the centre of governance, he does not expect a broad transformation outside pockets such as banking, telecoms and defence.

China, he noted, has energy in abundance and is closing the gap on chips and foundation models. It already matters for Pakistan in defence and infrastructure. But Chinese partners, he said, are weaker at training local talent, sharing practices and putting Pakistanis in key roles. The Western growth model, by contrast, has historically developed local industry. Balance-of-trade data, he added, is a blunt but useful guide to how open a partner really is to Pakistan&#39;s own growth.

Crash training schemes that promise to &quot;skill thousands&quot; in IT and AI leave him unimpressed. &quot;How many times in the past have we seen such initiatives? How many times have they made an impact? These are optics.&quot; Money, he said, would be better spent on schools, colleges and universities than on short programmes whose impact is announced before it is measured.

Connectivity is another drag. Unreliable cross-border links have already dented client confidence. Pakistan has not attracted top global tech and telecom investors in the way regional peers have. &quot;Our basics need some serious introspection,&quot; Islam said.]]>
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			<title>Iran prepared for 'any confrontation’ as 'threat is not over': air defence commander</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627394/eu-joins-operation-economic-outcast-campaign-against-iran-us-treasury-secretary</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627394/eu-joins-operation-economic-outcast-campaign-against-iran-us-treasury-secretary#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 04 Sep 26 05:22:00 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[AFP]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2627394</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[US respects neither Arab sovereignty nor Iranian sovereignty: Iranian FM]]>
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				<![CDATA[Iran&rsquo;s joint air defence commander Brigadier General Alireza Elhami says the country is &ldquo;ready for any kind of confrontation&rdquo; because &ldquo;the threat is not over,&rdquo; Al Jazeera reported, as per Fars news agency.

He adds that Iran&rsquo;s air defence &ldquo;achieved complete self-sufficiency&rdquo; and that the country has presented &ldquo;a new definition of national power&rdquo; to the world.

Earlier, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi responded to comments made by the Jordanian foreign minister on Friday, saying the US does not respect Arab or Iranian sovereignty.

&quot;How much time does the Jordanian Foreign Minister believe Iran should wait before responding to an aggressor that respects neither Arab sovereignty nor Iranian sovereignty?&quot;



كم من الوقت يرى وزير الخارجية الأردني أنه يتعين على إيران أن تنتظر قبل أن تردّ على معتدٍ لا يحترم سيادة العرب ولا سيادة إيران؟

وهل هو حقًا غير مدرك أن المجال الجوي والأراضي والمياه العربية استُخدمت في الهجمات الأمريكية الأولى التي أسفرت عن مقتل إيرانيين أبرياء؟ pic.twitter.com/joI7qMsMOS
&mdash; Seyed Abbas Araghchi (@araghchi) September 4, 2026


He also questioned whether the Jordanian minister was unaware that Arab airspace, lands, and waters were used by the US in its initial attacks that resulted in the &ldquo;killing of innocent Iranians&rdquo;.

Israel claims seizing southern Lebanon&#39;s Ali al-Taher ridge

Israel claimed it seized southern Lebanon&rsquo;s Ali al-Taher ridge, which is reportedly a strategic position for Hezbollah, AFP reported on Friday.

Hezbollah has not confirmed losing the highland, which is approximately 10 kilometres from the border with Israel and has been targeted by several Israeli strikes in recent weeks despite a ceasefire.

The ridge lies close to the major city of Nabatieh and the Litani River. It is just a few kilometres from Unesco-listed Beaufort Castle, another strategic site that Israel captured in recent months.

Ali al-Taher ridge, on the edge of the Israeli-proclaimed &ldquo;security zone&rdquo;, overlooks surrounding areas and key districts further north, and sits atop a network of tunnels.

Red Cross says it transferred four people released by Israel to Lebanon

Humanitarian workers said on Friday that they facilitated the transfer to Lebanon of four more people detained by Israel, a day after another person was freed, AFP reported.

&ldquo;The International Committee of the Red Cross [ICRC], at the request of the relevant parties, facilitated the transfer to Lebanon of five individuals released from Israeli detention,&rdquo; the ICRC has said in a statement.

&ldquo;One individual was transferred on Thursday, and four others on Friday,&rdquo; it added.

Iran continued crude oil exports without interruption during war, petroleum minister says

Iranian Petroleum Minister Mohsen Paknejad said on Friday that Iran&rsquo;s crude oil exports continued without interruption throughout the 40-day war, despite attacks on oil and gas infrastructure and the severe logistical challenges created by US aggression and the subsequent maritime blockade, according to state news channel Press TV.

&ldquo;During the 40-day war, despite the wartime conditions, the country&rsquo;s crude oil exports did not stop even for one hour from February 28 until the temporary ceasefire was established,&rdquo; Paknejad said.

Israel claims it has cleared Hezbollah fighters from tunnels under key Lebanon ridge

Israel&rsquo;s military has cleared Hezbollah fighters holed up in tunnels under the strategic Ali al-Taher ridge in southern Lebanon, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz claimed on Friday, though the group did not immediately comment.

Israel claimed Hezbollah fighters were embedded in tunnels under the ridge, which overlooks a wide area and had become one of the most hotly contested areas in the Israel-Hezbollah conflict, despite a ceasefire announced in June.

&ldquo;The mission was completed and the tunnels were cleared of terrorists,&rdquo; Katz said on social media, after a statement by the military claiming it had operational control of the ridge.

The military said some Hezbollah fighters were &ldquo;eliminated&rdquo;, while others fled.

EU joins &#39;Operation Economic Outcast&#39; campaign against Iran: US Treasury Secretary

The European Union has officially joined the US&rsquo;s economic pressure campaign, &ldquo;Operation Economic Outcast&rdquo;, against Iran, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent wrote.

In a post on X, Bessent said &ldquo;The United States stands firm with our allies in ensuring the murderous Iranian regime cannot exploit the global financial system to fund its nuclear ambitions, weapons programs, and terror proxies.&rdquo;



Under @POTUS, this Administration is standing up for America&rsquo;s students by ensuring racial discrimination has no place in American education. Schools rebranding race-based preferences as equitable, inclusive, or diversity-enhancing does not change their discriminatory nature.&hellip;
&mdash; Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (@SecScottBessent) September 3, 2026


&ldquo;The world is sending a clear message to the Iranian regime: We will not stop until every remaining financial lifeline has been severed,&rdquo; he added.

Seoul weighs &#39;contributions&#39; to Hormuz security: president&#39;s office

South Korea said that Seoul could contribute to the US security efforts in the Strait of Hormuz as long as its own military readiness is not compromised, AFP reported.

&ldquo;Contributions to the Strait of Hormuz could be managed within limits that do not compromise military readiness,&rdquo; a presidential official said, adding a review is still under way

South Korea preparing for Strait of Hormuz deployment: report

The South Korean military is making &quot;concrete preparations&quot; to deploy troops to the Strait of Hormuz, according to a report released on Thursday.

&quot;We are making concrete preparations to dispatch naval forces to the Strait of Hormuz,&quot; a National Defense Ministry official told Australia&#39;s broadcaster SBS.

Read: Vance: US probing airstrike that Iran says hit a wedding party

The report said the deployment, which is underway, includes P-8 maritime patrol aircraft, an explosive ordnance disposal team and a logistics support ship.

The South Korean government previously expressed that it would pursue a deployment to the strait only after the US-Iran war ends.

It came after US President Donald Trump publicly criticized Seoul for refusing to take part in action against Iran, as the United States recently scaled back a military exercise with South Korea.

&quot;I understand that discussions regarding base ports and operational bases are also underway with the relevant countries,&quot; a high-ranking military official was quoted by SBS.

The deployment requires a decision by the National Security Council (NSC), a resolution by a Cabinet meeting, and consent from the National Assembly.]]>
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			<title>More than 80 killed in Yemen clashes since Thursday: sources</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627433/more-than-80-killed-in-yemen-clashes-since-thursday-sources</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627433/more-than-80-killed-in-yemen-clashes-since-thursday-sources#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 04 Sep 26 11:36:34 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[AFP]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2627433</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Military official on the Red Sea coast reported 24 men killed, while another in Taiz area said 15 killed]]>
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				<![CDATA[Clashes between Yemen&#39;s Houthi rebels and government forces have killed 81 combatants since Thursday, according to a tally of figures from two military officials and medical sources in rebel-held territory.

A military official on the Red Sea coast reported 24 of his men killed, while another in the inland Taiz area said 15 had been killed there.

At least 42 Houthi militants were also killed, according to medical sources in areas under their control.

Deadly clashes erupted in Yemen on Thursday, after Houthi fighters targeted populated districts along Yemen&#39;s western coast in Taiz and Hodeidah provinces with 14 ballistic missiles and drone attacks, the Yemeni Armed Forces Media Centre said on Thursday.

Military government sources told AFP the rebels were attempting to cut off the key port city of Mokha, under fire for weeks, from other government areas, and advance towards areas bordering the strategic Bab al-Mandab strait.

Air defences intercepted several drones in the Taiz front and others over districts along the western coast, the centre quoted a military source as saying.

The source praised the &quot;high combat readiness&quot; of Yemeni armed forces, saying morale remained high and military units across different sectors maintained a high level of vigilance and preparedness.

The ballistic missiles did not hit positions of forces deployed along the western coast, the source said.

Yemen, embroiled in more than a decade of civil conflict,&nbsp;became the latest country to be drawn into the Middle East war in July, as the Houthis upended a 2022 truce with the Saudi-backed government.]]>
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			<title>Romanian prosecutors indict Andrew Tate for trafficking minors, money laundering</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627437/romanian-prosecutors-indict-andrew-tate-for-trafficking-minors-money-laundering</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627437/romanian-prosecutors-indict-andrew-tate-for-trafficking-minors-money-laundering#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 04 Sep 26 11:50:56 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2627437</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Prosecutors say Tates recruit their victims by seducing them, falsely claiming to want relationship, marriage]]>
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				<![CDATA[Romanian prosecutors officially indicted social media influencer Andrew Tate on &zwnj;Friday for trafficking minors, money laundering, sex with a minor and witness tampering and his brother Tristan for complicity, years after they began investigating them.

The Tate brothers, former kickboxers with dual US&nbsp;and British citizenship,&nbsp;were arrested&nbsp;in Miami in late July after Britain requested their extradition.

Mainly based ​in Romania since 2017, they have been under criminal investigation in the country on charges including human trafficking ​since December 2022.

Romanian prosecutors said the Tates recruited their victims by seducing them and falsely claiming ⁠to want a relationship or marriage, before&nbsp;forcing them&nbsp;to produce pornographic content for a webcam business.

They have denied all wrongdoing. &quot;We ​will examine every aspect of (the indictment) with the same level of scrutiny and we will challenge any evidential, procedural or legal ​deficiencies through the appropriate judicial process,&quot; a Romanian lawyer for the Tates, Eugen Vidineac, said in a statement.

&quot;Our clients continue to reject the allegations against them.&quot;

Prosecutors describe case involving 15-year-old

The Tate brothers remain in jail in the US&nbsp;while a judge decides on the request for their extradition ​to Britain, where they are wanted on rape charges.

The spokesperson for the Romanian anti-organized crime prosecuting unit DIICOT &mdash; which is ​investigating the Tates &mdash; said it was not immediately clear whether the unit will seek their extradition from the United States.

The Tates can be &zwnj;tried ⁠in absentia in Romania, but the trial will not start immediately. Under Romanian law, the indictment gets sent to a preliminary court chamber, where a judge will inspect the case files to ensure legality.

Read:&nbsp;Andrew Tate, brother arrested in US

While the law states that the preliminary chamber judge has 60 days to finalize the report, indictments routinely take significantly longer.

DIICOT said one of Andrew Tate&#39;s victims was 15 when ​he seduced her in Britain ​in 2012, before moving her ⁠to the Romanian capital Bucharest and using physical violence and mental intimidation to sexually exploit her by forcing her to produce pornographic content for social media sites.

His brother Tristan was an ​accessory, the unit said, using physical aggression to coerce the victim.

Prosecutors said the brothers kept $1.25 ​million from the ⁠videochat income generated by the victim, roughly 80% of all her gains. The brothers tried to launder the funds by buying four luxury cars, they added.

The brothers were previously indicted in Romania on charges of human trafficking, but in late 2024 the Bucharest ⁠court of ​appeals sent the case back to prosecutors after deeming some evidence inadmissible.

Andrew ​Tate, a self-described misogynist, previously said he moved to Romania because law enforcement there was more lax.

Both brothers have grown their following of mainly young men ​by building a lavish, hyper-macho image of driving fast cars and dating beautiful women.]]>
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			<title>Argentina's Milei steps up Falklands sovereignty claims with oil sanctions</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627439/argentinas-milei-steps-up-falklands-sovereignty-claims-with-oil-sanctions</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627439/argentinas-milei-steps-up-falklands-sovereignty-claims-with-oil-sanctions#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 04 Sep 26 11:54:28 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2627439</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Prospect of oil firms exploring the islands urgent threat ​to Argentine interests, Milei said]]>
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				<![CDATA[Argentine President Javier Milei said he would sanction oil companies drilling in the Falkland Islands, stepping &zwnj;up the country&#39;s claims to sovereignty over the British overseas territory.

Milei&#39;s comments in a televised national address on Thursday came days after US&nbsp;President Donald Trump said he was&nbsp;reviewing&nbsp;the United States&#39; neutral position on the remote archipelago in the South Atlantic.

The prospect of oil firms exploring the islands, which Argentina calls Las Malvinas, was an urgent threat ​to Argentine interests, Milei said, 44 years after his country was defeated by Britain in a&nbsp;war over sovereignty.

Milei, a Trump ally, referenced the ​possible shift in the US&nbsp;position and said &quot;winds of change&quot; favoured the Argentine claim. He said he was sending ⁠Congress a bill aimed at strengthening Argentina&#39;s response to violations of its sovereignty.

British position &#39;unwavering&#39;

Britain, which has controlled the territory since 1833, said on Friday that its ​position on the islands was &quot;unwavering&quot;.

Read:&nbsp;Oil set for steepest weekly gain since mid-July, fuelled by US-Iran clashes

&quot;The Islands are British and will remain so because that is the overwhelming position of the Islanders,&quot; British foreign minister Ed Miliband ​said on X.

&quot;Their right of self-determination is paramount, grounded in international law and we will resolutely uphold it.&quot;

British defence minister Wes Streeting added that Milei&#39;s words reflected &quot;domestic politics in Argentina&quot;.

Milei had previously favoured diplomacy as the best way to pursue Argentina&#39;s claim to the Falklands, but with more oil drilling due in the coming months and Trump&#39;s repeated mention of ​the islands, he is now striking a tougher tone.

Trump told GB News on Thursday that he was not sure if Britain would be prepared to ​fight for the islands again.

&quot;I just don&#39;t know if you have the capacity to do that,&quot; Trump said. &quot;The Falklands is very interesting because your country is not the same &zwnj;country it ⁠was 20 years ago, 25 years ago.&quot;

A&nbsp;potential shift&nbsp;in the US&nbsp;position towards the Falklands was included among a range of options considered by the Pentagon earlier this year to pressure NATO allies it believed failed to support US&nbsp;military operations in the war with Iran.

In 1982, Britain&#39;s then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, whom Milei in 2023 described as a &quot;great leader&quot;, sent a naval task force to the South Atlantic following an Argentinian invasion. Britain regained control of the islands after ​74 days of fighting, which left ​more than 900 people dead.

But in ⁠Thursday&#39;s address, Milei said Britain was now a country &quot;in decline&quot;.

Sea lion oilfield

Saying the islands were part of Argentina&#39;s future, Milei said he would send Congress an urgent &quot;national sovereignty defence&quot; bill to toughen penalties for unauthorised operations around the islands, ​extend sanctions to suppliers and broaden the legal framework to cover other activities affecting Argentina&#39;s natural resources.

Read more:&nbsp;Officials: US firm to take over some Venezuela oilfields previously run by Chinese, Russian firms

The Sea Lion ​oilfield, which lies ⁠about 140 miles north of the Falkland Islands, is operated by Tel Aviv-listed Navitas Petroleum&nbsp;and also has London-listed Rockhopper Exploration&nbsp;among its shareholders.

In 2010, when drilling first found the field, Argentina said it was illegal. It is estimated to hold 1.7 billion barrels of oil, making it a major discovery in global terms.

Rockhopper stock ⁠fell 6% on ​Friday morning, while Navitas was down 2%. The companies said in a statement they had ​valid petroleum licences.

&quot;The partnership believes that the recent developments are not expected to have a material effect on the development activities of the Sea Lion Project, including the timetable for completion of ​the Project&#39;s development,&quot; they said.]]>
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			<title>Indonesia's top rights body calls for police to probe poisoning of more than 2,000 students</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627410/indonesias-top-rights-body-calls-for-police-to-probe-poisoning-of-more-than-2000-students</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627410/indonesias-top-rights-body-calls-for-police-to-probe-poisoning-of-more-than-2000-students#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 04 Sep 26 07:57:49 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
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			<description>
				<![CDATA[Three major islands report cases as poll finds president's free school meals scheme increasingly unpopular]]>
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				<![CDATA[Indonesia&#39;s&nbsp;top&nbsp;human&nbsp;rights&nbsp;body&nbsp;urged the&nbsp;police&nbsp;on Friday to investigate several new outbreaks of food&nbsp;poisoning&nbsp;linked to President Prabowo Subianto&#39;s flagship programme&nbsp;to provide free meals to&nbsp;students, which made&nbsp;2,000&nbsp;people sick this week.

In separate cases across at least&nbsp;three&nbsp;major Indonesian islands,&nbsp;more&nbsp;than&nbsp;2,000&nbsp;students&nbsp;and teachers fell ill after eating lunch issued by the government as part of a scheme to eradicate malnutrition launched&nbsp;by Prabowo last year.

&quot;Rights&nbsp;to food, especially safe-to-consume food, are human&nbsp;rights,&quot; the Indonesian independent&nbsp;rights&nbsp;body&nbsp;known as Komnas HAM said in a statement. &quot;Without a rigorous sanitation standard...the nutrition intervention that the state is doing will lose its moral legitimacy,&quot; it said.

Komnas HAM called on the&nbsp;police&nbsp;to launch a&nbsp;probe&nbsp;into the&nbsp;poisoning&nbsp;cases, without providing further details. The National&nbsp;Police&nbsp;did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The&nbsp;rights&nbsp;group also&nbsp;called on the National Nutrition Agency, which oversees the programme, to suspend the kitchens allegedly responsible for the poisoning outbreaks.

Read:&nbsp;Austria arrests baby food poisoning suspect

Some 170&nbsp;students&nbsp;and teachers in the South Sulawesi region of Tana Toraja also fell ill after eating the free meals on Thursday, local government head Zadrak Tombeg said, following&nbsp;more&nbsp;than&nbsp;1,700 cases spread across the provinces of Central Java, East Java, and West Sumatra.

Another 256&nbsp;students&nbsp;in an East Java region also fell sick after consuming the meals this week, news website CNN Indonesia reported on Friday.

The overseeing agency was slated to hold a press conference on Friday, but delayed it without providing a reason or a rescheduled time. It did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but agency head Sudaryono said on Thursday that the&nbsp;poisoning&nbsp;cases would be handled seriously.

As of September 1, 50,000 individuals had been affected by food&nbsp;poisoning, lawmaker Charles Honoris said on Wednesday, citing health department data,&nbsp;with some previous cases blamed&nbsp;on improper&nbsp;food storage and&nbsp;the late&nbsp;delivery of cooked meals.

Prabowo&#39;s beleaguered programme has become increasingly unpopular among the public, with only one-third of Indonesians surveyed in July&nbsp;expressing satisfaction&nbsp;with the scheme,&nbsp;pollster Saiful Mujani Research and Consulting said.&nbsp;Many respondents cited the&nbsp;poisoning&nbsp;cases as a reason.

Ester Patandung, whose child was hospitalised in Tana Toraja, told Reuters,&nbsp;&quot;My hope as a parent is for the central or regional government to cancel the free meal programme.&quot;]]>
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			<title>OpenAI agents hijacked German website in previously undisclosed AI breakout this spring</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627436/openai-agents-hijacked-german-website-in-previously-undisclosed-ai-breakout-this-spring</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627436/openai-agents-hijacked-german-website-in-previously-undisclosed-ai-breakout-this-spring#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 04 Sep 26 11:44:18 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
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			<description>
				<![CDATA[More than 15,000 edits carried out by AI agents on a German-language wiki site, DseWiki, were found]]>
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				<![CDATA[&nbsp;A swarm of rogue OpenAI agents hijacked a German website this spring and transformed it into a bulletin board for other AI agents, according to ​new research published Friday and two people familiar with the matter.

OpenAI officials learned of the incident weeks ago but kept it under wraps as executives grappled with the fallout from &zwnj;the July breach of the open-source repository Hugging Face, the people said.

The episode, which began in May and has not previously been reported, underscores growing tension within the AI industry. Companies are racing to build increasingly autonomous agents capable of carrying out complex, valuable tasks, yet evidence is mounting that those systems may also learn to bend rules, exploit loopholes and coordinate with one another in ways developers neither anticipated nor intended.

During the Hugging Face breach, OpenAI agents autonomously plotted a digital heist that ​went undetected for more than a week, intensifying concerns OpenAI is sacrificing safety to push the AI frontier. Its failure to disclose the May incident may revive questions about its oversight.

OpenAI has pledged to monitor models ​more closely. Last month, it briefly paused&nbsp;some of its model training to add more safety measures. But this week, OpenAI unveiled&nbsp;its new &quot;Astra&quot; that promised better performance but could ⁠evade human monitoring.

Read:&nbsp;Claude, ChatGPT, Grok and Microsoft email services recover after disruption

&ldquo;We are unable to meaningfully respond to claims or findings on a report that we have not had an opportunity to review,&quot; an OpenAI spokesperson said. &quot;Reuters and the report&rsquo;s authors declined our request for ​access. We will carefully review its contents upon publication and take any necessary next steps.&quot;

The German incident reflects a broader pattern of AI activity that some OpenAI investigators wanted to scrutinize more closely. But efforts to widen the ​probe met resistance from others inside OpenAI, including legal advisers, according to four people familiar with the matter.

&quot;Claims that our legal team discouraged investigation of the incident are false,&quot; the OpenAI spokesperson said.

The activity in Germany wasn&#39;t related to Hugging Face and wouldn&#39;t have been included in a Hugging Face incident report, the spokesperson said, adding that OpenAI has acted in good faith by working with outside experts and disclosed relevant incidents.

Wiki message board

The AI agent breakout in Germany was detailed in a report shared exclusively with Reuters&nbsp;by a group of researchers including Sydney Von Arx, CEO of AI safety nonprofit Nightingale, and Cormac Slade Byrd, a quantitative trader-turned AI researcher. They uncovered the activity in late August while scouring ​the internet for signs of unauthorized AI-agent behavior, they told Reuters.

The pair said they found more than 15,000 edits carried out by AI agents on a German-language wiki site, DseWiki, that is geared toward programmers and accepts communal edits along &zwnj;the lines of ⁠Wikipedia.

The edits showed OpenAI&#39;s agents had repurposed the site into a message board, sharing tactics to cheat on some tasks, bypass OpenAI&rsquo;s restrictions and mask their behaviour.

&ldquo;It seems extremely unlikely that OpenAI wanted them to do this,&rdquo; said Von Arx. &ldquo;I doubt they&rsquo;re supposed to be coordinating with each other. I doubt they&rsquo;re supposed to be writing on the open internet.&rdquo;

The researchers said they recognized the activity on the site as driven by AI agents which operate at superhuman speeds. They also showed intense focus on solving technical questions which are typical of the evaluations that AI companies use to train and test their models.

Read more:&nbsp;Abu Dhabi AI institute releases fully open-source models with training data, code

The messages were signed by users that referred to themselves ​and each other as agents, and about half ​gave themselves names that suggested an affiliation with OpenAI, ⁠such as &ldquo;OpenAIResearcher&rdquo; or &ldquo;OAIResearchMar26.&rdquo;

The researchers said public server logs indicated much of the activity originated from Microsoft Azure infrastructure, which OpenAI sometimes uses. They also observed repeated visits to the site by OpenAI employees after the episode, a pattern they said strongly suggested the agents and the company were linked.

Cheating, hiding

Messages reviewed by the researchers showed ​agents plotting ways to evade detection, use tools such as Tor and preserve communications even after they had been shut down.

When the site&#39;s moderator began deleting ​pages in June, the agents ⁠responded by creating backup pages to dodge the cleanup.

&ldquo;wiki cleanup/deletion sweep appears active alphabetically,&rdquo; one agent wrote on June 19. &ldquo;If this page vanishes, try [[ZZZDataUSAConstructionWageLive]]&quot;.

The researchers also found efforts to tamper with the website itself. Lukasz Olejnik, a visiting senior research fellow at King&rsquo;s College London, said this amounted to a hacking attempt. OpenAI disputed that characterization based on its analysis of the material Thursday.

Past examples of AI-agent misconduct have often been downplayed as a logical byproduct of cybersecurity testing, ⁠where models ​are explicitly assessed on offensive capabilities. Olejnik said the latest findings suggested rogue behavior may not be confined to those settings.

Maurice Chiodo, ​an academic at Cambridge University&#39;s Centre for the Study of Existential Risk who reviewed some of the agents&#39; communications, said the messages resembled &quot;the operation of some sort of underground network, hell-bent on achieving a task or mission.&quot;

The episode, he said, should reinforce growing concerns that the ​greatest threat from advanced AI may not be a single superintelligent system, but &quot;vast colluding swarms of semi-intelligent AI.&quot;]]>
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			<title>US military turns off ad trackers on devices amid Middle East targeting reports</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627444/us-military-turns-off-ad-trackers-on-devices-amid-middle-east-targeting-reports</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627444/us-military-turns-off-ad-trackers-on-devices-amid-middle-east-targeting-reports#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 04 Sep 26 12:09:55 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2627444</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Restrictions will essentially ensure their location ​isn't being included in bulk data sales being done by vendors]]>
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				<![CDATA[US&nbsp;military officials say they have disabled advertising trackers on a ​range of phones and computers,&nbsp;according to letters, released on Friday by US&nbsp;Senator Ron Wyden and statements given &zwnj;to Reuters, a development that&nbsp;follows reports&nbsp;that commercially available location data had been used to target American forces in the Middle East.

The Air Force told Wyden it disabled the advertising identifiers on computers and mobile phones two months ago. US&nbsp;Special Operations Command said in a separate letter that it had &quot;recently&quot; disabled ​them on its Windows devices. The Army told Reuters that advertising IDs tied to mobile devices had been disabled since ​earlier this year.

Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, has pressed the Pentagon on the issue for months.

The disclosures highlight ⁠a growing national security concern: that location data collected by the advertising industry and sold by data brokers &mdash; companies that collate and ​resell personal data &mdash; can be used to track and target military personnel deployed to war zones.

The Air Force and Special Operations Command declined ​further comment. Similar letters from the Army and Navy to Wyden said they disabled advertising IDs on military devices but gave no indication of when the restrictions were imposed.

The Army said in a statement that advertising IDs had been blocked on Windows computers &quot;since before 2021&quot; but that Android and Apple ​mobile devices had only had it disabled by default &quot;since at least February 2026.&quot;

Messages seeking comment from the Navy went unreturned.

The effort to ​reduce the location data generated by smartphones comes as military officials weigh increasingly strict restrictions on phone use overall. In July, Reuters reported that some &zwnj;deployed personnel ⁠in the Middle East&nbsp;could be ordered to surrender their phones&nbsp;amid concerns that mobile videos they were posting to the internet were helping Iran target American bases in the region.

Read:&nbsp;Deadly strike on Iranian wedding was likely a direct hit by a US munition, analysis shows

Wyden and US&nbsp;Representative Pat Harrigan, a North Carolina Republican, sent a letter to the Pentagon on Friday asking for an investigation into whether the military had properly countered the dangers of the location data trade. The letter included ​the updates from the various service ​branches on their efforts to ⁠disable advertising IDs on military devices.

Wyden said in a statement that it was clear that the military&#39;s efforts &quot;have not been effective at neutralising this threat.&quot; Harrigan said that US&nbsp;enemies &quot;should not be able ​to pull out a credit card and buy information that helps them track American troops.&quot;

The Pentagon ​said in an email ⁠it would respond to the lawmakers directly.

Mobile advertising IDs, often abbreviated MAID, are unique identifiers tied to specific devices that can be used to track a person&#39;s activity across mobile apps and pinpoint their physical location.

Zach Edwards, co-founder of privacy ad tech company Decryptads, said that efforts ⁠to disable ​MAID on military-operated devices were &quot;definitely a positive thing.&quot;

The restrictions &quot;will essentially ensure their location ​isn&#39;t being included in bulk data sales being done by numerous vendors,&quot; although he cautioned that personnel might still be tracked through apps in other, more complicated ways, ​for example, by triangulating technical device details with network data or location information.]]>
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			<title>How engineers in a WhatsApp group are guiding Nepal's tunnel rescue efforts</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627396/how-engineers-in-a-whatsapp-group-are-guiding-nepals-tunnel-rescue-efforts</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627396/how-engineers-in-a-whatsapp-group-are-guiding-nepals-tunnel-rescue-efforts#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 04 Sep 26 06:18:23 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2627396</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Over 500 experts share data in group as rescuers search devastated hydropower plants for survivors]]>
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				<![CDATA[An army of experts in a WhatsApp group is guiding rescue workers scouring a Nepali valley after a huge flash flood more than a week ago as they desperately search for anyone who may be alive inside tunnels of devastated hydropower plants.

The messaging group was set up by engineers before the wall of water, mud and rock crashed down the Trishuli valley in Nepal on August 26. It has since become a valuable tool alongside helicopters and heavy machinery in the race to find survivors.

The authorities hope some of the about 900 people reported missing from six hydropower plants - at least three of which were under construction - may have escaped the deluge because they worked in or fled into the tunnels.

In a first sign of success, two people were brought out alive from a tunnel linked to the Upper Trishuli 3A hydropower plant on Friday, nine days after the disaster, a lawmaker said.

Even finding entrances to some of the tunnels, which were designed to channel water or used to access hydropower facilities, is tough now after the flood deposited 2.2 million tonnes of mud and debris down the valley.

&#39;Send me layout drawings&#39;

&quot;Can you send me Chilime layout drawings,&quot; a government official wrote on the engineers&#39; WhatsApp group on Saturday as rescue workers searched the buried remains of the Chilime hydropower plant high in the Himalayan valley close to the Chinese border.

Minutes afterwards, a member of the group chat, which was expanded to add more experts in support of the rescue effort, responded by sending drawings of the project&#39;s powerhouse, as well as details of access tunnels. That exchange and others posted on the group, which has more than 500 members, were seen by Reuters.

Nepal&#39;s Independent Power Producers&#39; Association said on Monday at least eight people could be trapped at Chilime, while an official at the Nepal Electricity Authority said 46 may be trapped at Rasuwagadhi hydropower plant, further south.

Reuters spoke to a dozen people - including government and military officials, engineers, survivors and relatives of missing workers - who described the efforts to search the tunnel networks of ruined hydropower plants, including how real-time guidance was being provided by experts over WhatsApp.

Read: Nepal must rebuild thousands of homes, no letup in search for missing

&quot;The flood has altered the terrain around the tunnels and changed their structure, while mud, rocks, soil and other debris had accumulated inside,&quot; Nepal army spokesperson Raja Ram Basnet told Reuters. &quot;This is not a normal closure of tunnels.&quot;

At Chilime, Reuters images on Monday showed a large tunnel entrance with flood debris rising to the ceiling a short way inside.

More than 1,200 people were killed in last week&#39;s deluge caused by a glacier collapse. More than 4,000 people are still missing, including those who might be trapped inside tunnels.

Alongside Chilime, rescue workers are searching five other hydroelectric sites in the valley that were part of an expanding network of plants powering the nation and exporting the surplus. The flood wiped out 10% of Nepal&#39;s generation capacity.

Seeking advice about tunnel networks via WhatsApp

At Rasuwagadhi hydropower plant, rescue workers reached 250 metres into one tunnel before finding it blocked. But they have not given up the search.

&quot;We are trying to reach there inside again to look for people,&quot; said Amshu Kiran Shahi, a board member of the Nepal Electricity Authority, adding that 46 people may have been trapped in a chamber, where they might have access to food and water.

A manager at the Nepal Electricity Authority, speaking on condition of anonymity, said rescue workers had also asked former plant employees for advice about the tunnel networks via the WhatsApp group. He said drawings posted on the group had been useful.

At the Upper Trishuli 3A hydropower project, rescue workers took almost six days before reaching the tunnel because the entrance was buried, Shahi said. Before the survivors were pulled out on Friday, rescue workers had been trying to supply oxygen via pipes into any cavities in case someone was trapped.

A Reuters photographer who flew to the site on Thursday saw excavators trying to move huge boulders from the mouth of a tunnel and seeking to work their way deeper inside.

Read More: Himalayas face GLOF risks, UN official warns

Jan Jiwan Thakur, a civil engineer at the Upper Trishuli 1 plant, said a colleague warned him of the coming flood moments before it swept down the valley, giving him enough time to climb to higher ground with about 100 others from the facility. &quot;We just ran away towards the hillside and, after two to three minutes when we looked down, everything was gone,&quot; he said. &quot;The flood debris had entirely covered our office area.&quot;

Dhan Bahadur Tamang described escaping through a tunnel at the same plant when the flood hit, sending pipes and other equipment rushing inside. With knowledge of the tunnel system, he and several others found a way out but he described seeing dead bodies during his subterranean journey to escape.

On the engineers&#39; WhatsApp group, members shared names and mobile phone numbers of missing workers, asking government officials to relay them to telecom authorities in a bid to find their last recorded location.

Meanwhile, family members await news of missing loved ones, like Rajesh Shrestha, whose 30-year-old son, Rajish, is an environmental engineer at Upper Trishuli 1. &quot;Whenever I look outside, I imagine seeing him carrying a bag and coming home, just as he used to,&quot; said Shrestha, who runs a workshop making window grills.

&quot;I am surviving on the hope that he will return.&quot;]]>
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			<title>Claude, ChatGPT, Grok and Microsoft email services recover after disruption</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627282/claude-chatgpt-grok-and-microsoft-email-services-recover-after-disruption</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627282/claude-chatgpt-grok-and-microsoft-email-services-recover-after-disruption#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 03 Sep 26 16:10:33 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Webdesk]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2627282</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Claude models recover after fix; Opus 4.8 and Opus 5 remain affected by elevated error rates]]>
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			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[AI agent claude, ChagGPT, xAI&rsquo;s Grok and Microsoft&rsquo;s email services were gradually recovering after a technical issue disrupted access to Exchange Online and several other Microsoft 365 services worldwide. According to Axios, all three major AI agents showed disruption as stated by the outage company, Dowdetector.

Axios also reported worldwide issues with Google&rsquo;s Gemini, however, the company has confirmed the outage notice. Claude&#39;s website said Opus 4.8 and Opus 5 models are affected while the issue affecting Claude Mythos 5.1, Claude Fable 5.1, and Claude Opus 5 has been resolved.



User reports indicate problems with Cloudflare since 11:12 AM EDT.
How is it affecting you? #CloudflareDownhttps://t.co/hfld2LwDK7
&mdash; Downdetector (@downdetector) September 3, 2026


Microsoft initially said it had identified a common failure pattern involving authentication and protocol connectivity within Exchange Online, its cloud-based email and calendar service.

The company later traced the disruption to an issue involving a core authentication configuration used by several internal services within the Exchange Online infrastructure.

Microsoft engineers conducted manual tests on individual servers before expanding remedial measures across the affected infrastructure. &ldquo;We continue to see gradual improvements to the service as our mitigation actions are applied,&rdquo; the company said in an update.

It warned that users could continue to experience varying levels of disruption and email delays while recovery efforts continued.

Microsoft also said the authentication issue affected services beyond Exchange Online. Reports indicated that OneDrive for Business, SharePoint Online, Teams, Microsoft Purview and Microsoft Defender XDR were among the services experiencing disruption.

Outage-monitoring platform Downdetector recorded thousands of user reports at the height of the disruption, although its figures reflect reports submitted by users and do not represent the total number of people affected.]]>
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			<title>Nvidia to buy Hugging Face for $13b in big bet on open AI models</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627293/nvidia-to-buy-hugging-face-for-13b-in-big-bet-on-open-ai-models</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627293/nvidia-to-buy-hugging-face-for-13b-in-big-bet-on-open-ai-models#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 03 Sep 26 17:20:13 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2627293</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Hugging Face would give it developer access, tools and data to help close the AI gap with US and Chinese labs]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Nvidia&nbsp;will buy popular developer platform Hugging Face for $12.93 billion, betting that support for open AI models will drive &zwnj;future demand even as its biggest customers develop their own chips to reduce reliance on the semiconductor giant.

Shares of the company were up 1.5% after the deal was announced on Thursday, which ranks among its biggest.

The deal will cement Nvidia as a central player in the market for open models that users can freely ​download, run and customize, unlike the closed systems built by OpenAI and Anthropic.

Nvidia has already played an active role in backing ​the open AI industry with its widely used Nemotron model.

Acquiring Hugging Face will give it direct access to a ⁠platform developers use to collaborate, test and share tools using various open AI models, potentially providing valuable insight and data to help it narrow the technology ​gap with top US and Chinese labs.

Demand for open-weight models has surged from businesses balking at the steep bill of deploying the technology, with Chinese ​companies such as DeepSeek and Z.ai emerging as crucial players with models that can match the best from the US in tasks, including generating computer code at a lower cost.

Read More: Abu Dhabi AI institute releases fully open-source models with training data, code

That surge has fueled fears that some American firms could become reliant on Beijing&#39;s models as both countries race to dominate a technology they see as crucial to ​their future.

&quot;Hugging Face will remain an open platform for the entire AI ecosystem,&quot; Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said, adding that his company&#39;s chips ​would not be required to build on or deploy through Hugging Face.

Under the deal, Nvidia will pay about $11.9 billion to Hugging Face investors, while offering an &zwnj;equity-based retention ⁠program of up to $1 billion for employees who join Nvidia.

The two companies already work together to help developers use Nvidia&#39;s computing services on the platform.

Balance sheet strength

Hugging Face was valued at $4.5 billion in its&nbsp;in August 2023, when it raised $235 million from investors such as Salesforce&nbsp;, AMD&nbsp; and Amazon&nbsp;.

Nvidia, meanwhile, exited its July quarter with $22.44 billion in cash and cash equivalents, more than double January&#39;s $10.61 billion, giving the chipmaker substantial ​capacity to fund the deal.

That financial ​strength reflects a rapidly expanding ⁠business. Late last month, Nvidia issued a&nbsp;rare year-ahead outlook, forecasting revenue growth of about 70% in fiscal 2028 as the AI infrastructure boom rages on.

But the chipmaker&#39;s use of its balance sheet has also drawn scrutiny. ​Deals such as its agreement to guarantee&nbsp;up to $105 billion&nbsp;for OpenAI&#39;s Ohio data-center lease have intensified investor ​concerns that Nvidia ⁠is supporting the demand driving its growth.

For Nvidia, building up open source may help it cushion a demand slowdown from customers such as Meta&nbsp;, OpenAI and Microsoft&nbsp;, which are developing their own AI chips to cut reliance on its costly and supply-constrained processors.

Hugging Face has also been in the news ⁠recently after ​a hack by rogue AI agents that escaped OpenAI&#39;s testing environment. Beyond hosting AI ​models, it offers datasets, software libraries and cloud services used to build and deploy AI applications.

The New York-based startup was founded in 2016 by French entrepreneurs Cl&eacute;ment Delangue, Julien Chaumond ​and Thomas Wolf.]]>
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			<title>Saadi targets karate revival</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627431/saadi-targets-karate-revival</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627431/saadi-targets-karate-revival#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 04 Sep 26 11:13:07 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Alam Zeb Safi]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Sports]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2627431</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Head coach says solid training can help fighters win medals in SAG]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Former Asian champion Saadi Abbas has been appointed head coach of Pakistan&rsquo;s karate team for next year&rsquo;s South Asian Games and he plans to overhaul the national side&rsquo;s preparation for the biennial event.

Canada-based Saadi said his immediate priority would be to understand training programmes being followed by fighters representing various departments before putting in place a coordinated plan for the team.

The 14th South Asian Games will be held in Pakistan from April 3-11, giving Saadi about seven months to prepare the fighters for the event.

&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a privilege for the people but for me it&rsquo;s work of more responsibility,&rdquo; Saadi told The Express Tribune in an interview.

&ldquo;I had a chat with the federation as we want to make the things organised properly.&rdquo;

Pakistan&rsquo;s karate fighters are currently preparing with their respective departments for a national event expected to be held in October. Saadi said he would first meet departmental coaches to assess the existing programmes and identify problems affecting the athletes.

&ldquo;First of all I will hold a meeting with coaches of the departments and will discuss with them the onward strategy,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It will help me know what type of training they are doing, problems they face and will try to resolve those issues.&rdquo;

Saadi said he would return to Pakistan in October to observe the selection process for the national team and, if a training camp continues, hopes to bring in a foreign physical coach with whom he has previously worked in Dubai and Canada.

He envisages a 20-day physical conditioning camp aimed at improving the fighters&rsquo; fitness before moving into more specialised preparations.

&ldquo;So that fighters could be made physically fitter for the task,&rdquo; Saadi said.

In November, he plans to arrange further two-week training camp in the Gulf and said he was already in discussions with countries in the region about hosting Pakistan fighters

The programme would then include international competition and exposure, with Saadi targeting the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games in Riyadh from December 13-21.

Although he does not expect Pakistan to be among the leading medal contenders at the event, Saadi said participation would provide an important opportunity to assess the players.

&ldquo;Although medal chances are not that big but I will check how our team picks the things,&rdquo; he said.

Saadi, who is himself battling arm injury, has not ruled out competing at the South Asian Games, saying he would assess his fitness closer to the event while continuing in his coaching role.

&ldquo;I will keep coaching and if I feel that there is room then I will also make myself available,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;And if I see that the team does not need me then I will as a coach handle the side full-fledged.&rdquo;

Saadi wants to take Pakistan team to Georgia in January for the World Karate Series and invite overseas fighters for a joint training camp in February.

He said additional competitions during that period would help the team reach peak condition for the South Asian Games.

&ldquo;In the meanwhile if we get another tournament then it will take us to the peak point for the South Asian Games,&rdquo; Saadi said.

&ldquo;I have received several proposals from abroad as they want joint training camps with us,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It will be a nice preparation and if we get seven to eight months proper support then I am confident we will set a good standard in karate.&rdquo;

&ldquo;All these things will be made possible only if state and Pakistan Olympic Association accept our proposal; accept my coaching expertise fee but we have to start as a federation,&rdquo; Saadi said.

&ldquo;I hope state should back us because in individual sports disciplines, Pakistan is touching lowest ebb,&rdquo; he said.]]>
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			<title>India, Japan set for historic T20I</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627443/india-japan-set-for-historic-t20i</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627443/india-japan-set-for-historic-t20i#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 04 Sep 26 12:08:38 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Sports Desk]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Sports]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2627443</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[The two sides meet for the first time in international cricket on September 22]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[India and Japan will meet for the first time in international cricket when they face off in a men&rsquo;s T20I on September 22.

The Japan Cricket Association (JCA) and Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) confirmed that the match will be played at the Sano International Cricket Ground in Tochigi Prefecture.

The contest will serve as preparation for both teams ahead of the Asian Games 2026, where they will compete in the men&rsquo;s cricket tournament.

Japan will begin their campaign in the group stage, while India have been handed a direct place in the quarter-finals.

India, who won the ICC Men&rsquo;s T20 World Cup earlier this year, will use the match as an important warm-up ahead of their bid to defend the gold medal they won in the men&rsquo;s cricket competition at the previous Asian Games.

For Japan, the fixture offers a rare opportunity to test themselves against one of the world&rsquo;s leading cricket teams and gain valuable experience ahead of the Asian Games.

&ldquo;The BCCI is delighted to be part of this historic occasion as the Indian and Japanese men&rsquo;s teams come together for a special T20 International in Japan,&rdquo; BCCI Secretary Devajit Saikia said.

&ldquo;This is a significant moment for cricket, as it takes the Indian team to new territory and provides an opportunity to introduce the sport to a wider audience in Japan and East Asia.&rdquo;

JCA chief executive Naoki Miyaji welcomed the opportunity to host the reigning world champions.

&ldquo;To be able to invite the reigning World Champions to the home of cricket in Japan is a landmark moment for our association,&rdquo; he said.

The fixture is part of cricket&rsquo;s continued global expansion, with the Asian Games providing another platform for the sport as it builds towards its return to the Olympics.]]>
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			<title>Zverev survives US Open five-set epic</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627438/zverev-survives-us-open-five-set-epic</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627438/zverev-survives-us-open-five-set-epic#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 04 Sep 26 11:51:34 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[AFP]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Sports]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2627438</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[The German edges Halys 6-4, 4-6, 7-6, 6-7, 6-3]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Top-seeded Alexander Zverev kept his bid for a first US Open title on track with a gritty five-set victory over Quentin Halys, staying the course as a spate of upsets rocked the men&#39;s draw on Thursday.

A trio of former women&#39;s champions -- Coco Gauff, Iga Swiatek and Naomi Osaka -- booked third-round berths, along with reigning Grand Slam champions Elena Rybakina and Mirra Andreeva.

But men&#39;s third seed Felix Auger-Aliassime tumbled out, along with sixth-seeded Alex de Minaur and 13th-seeded Lorenzo Musetti.

Zverev labored util 2:15 am Friday on Arthur Ashe Stadium to shake off 52nd-ranked Frenchman Halys 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (7/3), 6-7 (3/7), 6-3.

The four-hour 33-minute marathon followed his wild first-round five-setter against 89th-ranked Lorenzo Sonego that kept Zverev at it until shortly before 2 am on Wednesday.

&quot;The performance was quite shit to be honest, but I won, that&#39;s the most important thing,&quot; Zverev said afterwards.

&quot;Physically, I feel fine. I am proud, I think, to be physically quite strong. I just hope at some point I&#39;ll start playing better tennis.

&quot;I&#39;m winning ugly right now. It&#39;s also a skill to win ugly and when you&#39;re not playing great tennis. I think I&#39;ve mastered that right now.&quot;

While Zverev survived, Auger-Aliassime fell 6-7 (5/7), 6-3, 6-2, 6-2, to 50th-ranked Russian Karen Khachanov, pulled away relentlessly from the physically ailing Canadian, who said he was &quot;dizzy and seeing spots.

&quot;I thought maybe it would pass, but it didn&#39;t,&quot; a dejected Auger-Aliassime said.

Khachanov took full advantage of 47 unforced errors, with eight double faults, from Auger-Aliassime, who struggled particularly on serve.

&quot;I thought maybe he had some physical issues, it&#39;s part of our sport,&quot; Khachanov said. &quot;From my side I tried to give my best performance, fighting, fighting.&quot;

De Minaur fell to Botic van de Zandschulp 6-4, 7-5, 6-2 while 123rd-ranked Australian Dane Sweeny shocked 13th seed Musetti 3-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2 to reach the third round of a major for the first time.

It&#39;s not the first time Van de Zandschulp has sprung an upset at Flushing Meadows, where he shocked Carlos Alcaraz in the second round in 2024.

Meanwhile top women contenders marched on.

Fourth-seeded Gauff, the 2023 champion, thrilled the Ashe night crowd with a 6-4, 7-6 (7/5) victory over former world number two Paula Badosa of Spain.

Swiatek sailed through with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Nadia Podoroska while Osaka survived a second-set swoon to beat Katerina Siniakova 6-2, 5-7, 6-1.

Australian Open winner Rybakina, the world number two who is closing in on Aryna Sabalenka&#39;s number one ranking, saw off Spain&#39;s Jessica Bouzas Maneiro 6-2, 6-4, and Andreeva rolled over Germany&#39;s Eva Lys 6-0, 6-2.

Gauff, 22, had lost five of her eight prior meetings with Badosa, so she was ready when the Spaniard piled on the pressure in the second set, regaining a break to force the tiebreaker.

&quot;I knew she would raise her level. She&#39;s capable of blasting winners and blasting return winners,&quot; said Gauff, who was pleased she kept her composure.

&quot;I think I need matches like this to build my confidence,&quot; the 2023 US Open winner said.

Swiatek, whose six Grand Slam titles include the 2022 US Open, had things mostly her own way against Podroska, a former top-40 player now 449th in the world.

She fought off four break points at 5-3 in the first set then pulled away to polish off the win in little more than an hour.

Japan&#39;s Osaka, who counts two US Open titles among her four majors, looked in total control against Siniakova as she raced through the first set and to a 4-2 lead in the second without facing a break point.

But the Japanese star&#39;s unforced errors began to pile up and doubles world number one Siniakova pounced to climb from 5-3 down and take the set.

Osaka regrouped in the decider, riding a quick break to a 3-0 lead and fending off a pair of break points on the way to victory.

&quot;I just felt like I had to fight,&quot; she said.

So did former Australian Open champion Madison Keys, who saved five match points to beat Anna Bondar 4-7, 6-4, 7-6 (10/5).

There was a bittersweet goodbye on Louis Armstrong Stadium, where 20-year-old American Learner Tien ended 40-year-old Gael Monfils&#39;s Grand Slam career with a 6-3, 6-4, 6-3 victory.

&quot;It&#39;s been a long ride,&quot; Monfils told an adoring New York crowd. &quot;You are my second best crowd. Of course, it can&#39;t top Paris, but you are up there!&quot;]]>
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			<title>FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup begins</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627434/fifa-u-20-womens-world-cup-begins</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627434/fifa-u-20-womens-world-cup-begins#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 04 Sep 26 11:37:35 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Sports]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2627434</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Infantino attendance uncertain in Poland]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Some 15,000 people are expected for the opening matches of the Under-20 Women&rsquo;s World Cup on Saturday, but it is not yet clear whether FIFA President Gianni Infantino will be among them.

The tournament, which runs until September 27 in Poland, is the first major FIFA competition that could have been affected by the governance standoff that followed Infantino&#39;s proposal to sell a stake in the World Cup to private investors.

Infantino abandoned the proposal on July 31 after fierce opposition from UEFA and other stakeholders.

The FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) plan envisaged transferring ⁠commercial rights linked to FIFA competitions, including the men&rsquo;s and women&rsquo;s World Cups and Club World Cup, into a new subsidiary, with outside investors paying about $4.2 billion for a stake that valued the business at around $20 billion.

The 56-year-old Swiss administrator has since faced calls to resign from UEFA, the AFC and CONCACAF, although he has announced he will seek a fourth term at the FIFA Congress in March 2027.

No challenger has yet formally declared, but UEFA has said it will work with other confederations to ensure member associations are offered a credible alternative.

Important development tournament

The Under-20 Women&rsquo;s World Cup is an important development tournament in the women&rsquo;s game, with many of its players hoping eventually to feature at the senior Women&rsquo;s World Cup in ⁠Brazil next year.

The opening day sees hosts Poland face Argentina before Mexico take on Benin, with both matches being played in Katowice.

FIFA could not confirm on Friday whether Infantino would attend the opening matches.

While he has not always attended the opening games of FIFA age-group tournaments, Infantino has remained highly visible since the FFE proposal collapsed.

He attended the closing ceremony of the Esports World Cup in Paris ⁠last month and three days later watched Vietnam clinch the ASEAN Championship against Thailand in Hanoi.

He also visited the Dominican Republic while a Caribbean Football Union Under-14 tournament was taking place, despite CONCACAF President Victor Montagliani asking him to stay away, arguing that the controversy surrounding ⁠the FIFA president risked overshadowing the youth event.

Montagliani has been mentioned as a possible challenger to Infantino but has not declared his candidacy. The deadline to do so is November 18.

All six regional confederations are represented among the 24 teams ⁠in Poland.

Under regulations introduced by FIFA this year, each team in FIFA women&rsquo;s competitions must have a woman as head coach or among its assistant coaches.

North Korea are the defending champions after winning the 2024 tournament and were seeded in the top pot alongside hosts Poland, Japan, Spain, Brazil and France.]]>
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			<title>Gillespie lambasts Aaqib over sackings</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627416/gillespie-tells-javed-look-in-the-mirror-over-sackings</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627416/gillespie-tells-javed-look-in-the-mirror-over-sackings#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 04 Sep 26 08:26:29 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[AFP]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Sports]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2627416</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Former Pakistan coach questions handling of players during England Test series]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Former Pakistan coach Jason Gillespie said Friday chairman of selectors Aaqib Javed needs to &quot;look at himself in the mirror&quot; with the national team &quot;playing with fear&quot;.

In a shock move Pakistan this week replaced head coach Sarfaraz Ahmed and pace-bowling chief Umar Gul, and sent seven players home from England, in a dramatic response to successive Test thrashings.

Australia&#39;s Gillespie, who led the side for eight months in 2024, including a 2-1 Test series win against England, said it was sad to see.

&quot;I feel for the players, this is these guys livelihoods,&quot; he told The Australian newspaper. &quot;From the outside it looks like they are playing with fear.

&quot;Salman Ali Agha goes from captaining the team in the first Test against England to out of the team for the second Test and on the plane home before the third Test.

&quot;How does that work?&quot;

He laid the blame firmly at the door of Javed.

&quot;It&#39;s pretty clear they don&#39;t have a selection strategy at all, particularly under Aaqib Javed. They change their mind like they change their pants -- daily,&quot; he said.

&quot;Aaqib Javed came out recently and blamed (former Pakistan white-ball coach) Gary Kirsten and myself for everything that is going on.

&quot;Aaqib has been chairman of selectors for the past two years. We haven&#39;t even been there.

&quot;Somehow he claims it is our fault. Make sense out of that. I think Javed needs to look at himself in the mirror.&quot;

The tourists suffered an innings and 103-run loss in the series opener at Headingley before going down by 194 runs at Lord&#39;s.

The third and final Test starts at Edgbaston on September 9.

&quot;There is definitely no communication between Aaqib Javed, who is meant to be chairman of selectors, and the players,&quot; added Gillespie.

&quot;The players who were sacked heard it through family and friends and the media they had been sacked.

&quot;How disrespectful is that?&quot;

Several other ex-Pakistan coaches and players have been left similarly bewildered, including former captains Shahid Afridi and Shoaib Malik.

Ex-coach Mickey Arthur called it &quot;an absolutely ridiculous situation&quot;.

New Zealander Mike Hesson, who was already Pakistan&#39;s white-ball chief, and Australian Ashley Noffke, have taken charge for the rest of the tour.]]>
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			<title>48 terrorists killed in IBOs across Balochistan over 72 hours: ISPR</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627418/12-terrorists-killed-in-balochistans-kalat-ibo-ispr</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627418/12-terrorists-killed-in-balochistans-kalat-ibo-ispr#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 04 Sep 26 08:50:36 +0500</pubDate>
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				<![CDATA[Web Desk]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Balochistan]]></category>
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			<description>
				<![CDATA[ISPR says a cache of ammunition, improvised explosive devices also destroyed on-site]]>
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				<![CDATA[Security forces killed 48 &quot;Indian sponsored terrorists&quot; in intelligence-based operations (IBOs) in Balochistan over the last 72 hours, the military&rsquo;s media wing said on Friday.

According to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the anti-terrorist operations were carried out in Mastung, Quetta, Kalat and Sibi districts against &quot;Indian proxies, Fitna-al-Hindustan and Fitna-al-Khawarij&quot;. 

The federal government last year officially designated all terrorist groups operating in Balochistan as &#39;Fitna al-Hindustan&#39;, accusing India of sponsoring a proxy war through these outfits.

&quot;During comprehensive anti-terrorist operations with increased tempo in Balochistan, in last twelve - twenty four hours Security Forces have conducted multiple Intelligence based operations in Mastung, Quetta, Kalat and Sibi District of Balochistan, against Indian proxies, Fitna al Hindustan &amp; Fitna al Khwarij sending to hell thirty six Indian sponsored terrorists,&quot; ISPR said.

The military&rsquo;s media wing noted that on September 4 2026, during the conduct of an operation in Mastung, the movement of terrorists was &quot;identified and engaged&quot; by security forces, further adding that the intense exchange of fire resulted in the killing of six &quot;Indian sponsored terrorists&quot;.



The security forces have killed forty-eight terrorists belonging to Indian proxies Fitna al Hindustan and Fitna al Khwarij in multiple operations across Balochistan during last 48 to 72 hours@OfficialDGISPR #News #RadioPakistan https://t.co/2e8xwtvttY
&mdash; Radio Pakistan (@RadioPakistan) September 4, 2026



The statement also added that a cache of ammunition and improvised explosive devices was also destroyed on-site.

ISPR stated that &quot;in another engagement, an intelligence-based operation was conducted in the general area of Shaban, district Quetta. During the conduct of the operation, own troops identified four Khwarij hideouts and, after an ensuing fire exchange, neutralised twenty-six Khwarij&quot;.

The statement further added that another IBO was conducted in Kalat, stating that during the conduct of the operation, security forces raided a terrorist hideout and killed two Indian sponsored terrorists.

&quot;In Bhag area of district Sibi, swift response by security forces in conjunction with local population foiled terrorist attempt to raid police station, Bhag. During the fire exchange, two Indian sponsored terrorists were sent to hell,&quot; ISPR said.

The statement noted that in the &quot;last forty-eight to seventy-two hours, 48 terrorists belonging to Indian proxies, Fitna al Hindustan &amp; Fitna al Khwarij have been neutralised across Balochistan&quot;.

ISPR said that &quot;sanitisation operations were being conducted to eliminate any other Indian sponsored terrorist found in the area&quot;, noting that the relentless counter terrorism campaign under vision &ldquo;Azm e Istehkam&rdquo; (as approved by Federal Apex Committee on National Action Plan) by security forces and law enforcement agencies of Pakistan would continue at &quot;full pace&quot; to wipe out menace of &quot;foreign-sponsored&quot; and supported terrorism from the country.

In an earlier statement in the day, the military&rsquo;s media wing said that security forces had killed 12 terrorists belonging to the Indian proxy, Fitna al-Hindustan, in an IBO in Balochistan&rsquo;s Kalat district.

According to a statement issued by the ISPR, the operation was conducted on September 2 following reports of the presence of terrorists in the area.

&ldquo;During the conduct of the operation, terrorists&#39; hideout was identified, monitored and busted through prompt surgical action by own forces,&rdquo; ISPR said. It said the action had killed &ldquo;all twelve Indian sponsored terrorists&rdquo;.

&ldquo;Cache of ammunition and improvised explosive devices were also destroyed on-site,&rdquo; the ISPR said. Sanitisation operations were under way in the area to search for and eliminate &quot;any other Indian sponsored terrorist.&quot;

&quot;The relentless counter-terrorism campaign under the vision of Azm-e-Istehkam (as approved by the Federal Apex Committee under the National Action Plan) by the security forces and law enforcement agencies of Pakistan will continue at full pace to wipe out the menace of foreign-sponsored and supported terrorism from the country,&quot; the statement concluded.

Separately, security forces foiled a terrorist attack in Bhag, Kachhi district, Radio Pakistan reported on Friday.

During the effective action by security forces, multiple terrorists were killed. A clearance operation by security forces was under way in the area to eliminate any remaining terrorists.

President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif paid tribute to the security forces for eliminating 12 terrorists backed by Indian proxy Fitna al-Hindustan during an intelligence-based operation in Kalat.

In separate statements, the president and the prime minister expressed their resolve to completely eradicate the menace of terrorism from the country. They said the entire nation stood firmly with the armed forces in their unwavering resolve to safeguard the country.

&ldquo;The continuous operations by law enforcement agencies and security forces are aimed at completely eliminating terrorism being patronised by external elements,&rdquo; the president said.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said officers and personnel of the security forces were conducting effective operations against terrorists attempting to undermine peace in the country. He said the government will never allow terrorists to succeed in their nefarious designs to disrupt peace in Balochistan.

Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi praised the security Forces for a successful operation against terrorists of Fitna al-Hindustan in Kalat. Security forces, through timely and effective action, sent 12 terrorists to hell. I pay tribute to the brave sons of the security forces, he wrote on X.



وفاقی وزیرداخلہ محسن نقوی کی قلات میں فتنہ الہندوستان کے دہشتگردوں کے خلاف کامیاب کارروائی پر سکیورٹی فورسز کی ستائش
سکیورٹی فورسز نے بروقت موثر کارروائی کرکے 12 دہشتگردوں کو جہنم رسید کیا۔
سیکورٹی فورسز کے بہادر سپوتوں کو خراج تحسین پیش کرتا ہوں۔
&mdash; Ministry of Interior GoP (@MOIofficialGoP) September 4, 2026


Terrorism is a growing problem for Pakistan, with the number of attacks rising every year since 2022, according to Armed Conflict Location &amp; Event Data (ACLED), a global monitoring organisation. Data from ACLED shows attacks in Pakistan rose nearly fourfold to 2,425 in 2025 from 658 in 2022, and over the same period, TTP attacks increased more than sevenfold to 838 from 118.

Read: Security forces kill 12 terrorists in Balochistan IBOs: ISPR

Although Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa has borne the brunt of terrorism, Balochistan has also remained a major target of Indian proxies, which often target civilians and military installations in the province.

In one such attack on the last day of 2025, terrorists targeted innocent civilians in Balochistan&rsquo;s Gwadar and Kharan districts, where 18 people, including women, children, the elderly and labourers, embraced martyrdom.

The forces continued operations across the provinces against what the state describes as Indian-sponsored terrorists and their proxies, but despite these efforts, the groups have continued to target civilian and defence installations.

Last month, at least 30 people, including 27 police personnel, were martyred when terrorists identified by the state as the Indian proxy Fitna al-Hindustan ambushed police personnel deployed in the Kach Mangi Phase III area of Ziarat, triggering hours-long gun battles. The attackers also abducted several civilians and police personnel after the assault.

In the aftermath of the attack, the Pakistan Army, Frontier Corps and Balochistan Police launched a joint operation, which remains underway, with forces intensifying action against terrorists across the province.]]>
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			<title>FO rejects India's claims over Narowal temple demolition as 'false, politically motivated'</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627395/fo-rejects-indias-claims-over-narowal-temple-demolition-as-false-politically-motivated</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627395/fo-rejects-indias-claims-over-narowal-temple-demolition-as-false-politically-motivated#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 04 Sep 26 05:40:58 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Web Desk]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category><category><![CDATA[Islamabad]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2627395</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Islamabad says century-old Hindu temple collapsed due to torrential rains, restoration underway]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[The Foreign Office (FO) on Friday rejected India&rsquo;s allegations over the reported demolition of a century-old Hindu temple in Narowal as &ldquo;false and politically motivated,&quot; saying the structure had been damaged by torrential rains.

India&#39;s Foreign Ministry on September 2 expressed concern over reports of the destruction of the historic temple in Siraj village, describing it as an act of vandalism against a century-old minority place of worship.

&ldquo;We categorically reject the false and politically motivated assertions made by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs,&rdquo; FO spokesperson Sajjad Haider Khan said in response to media queries regarding the temple at Adda Siraj, Narowal.



🔊PR No.2️⃣3️⃣3️⃣/2️⃣0️⃣2️⃣6️⃣

Statement by the Spokesperson

🔗⬇️ pic.twitter.com/Czt2W3Au5t
&mdash; Ministry of Foreign Affairs - Pakistan (@ForeignOfficePk) September 4, 2026


&ldquo;Unlike the false propaganda being peddled by India, the temple&rsquo;s structure was damaged on July 21, 2026 due to torrential rains,&rdquo; Khan said. He added that local authorities had already surveyed the damage caused by the rains and &ldquo;initiated steps for the restoration of the building.&quot;

&ldquo;It is, therefore, shameful that India is distorting facts and resorting to cheap gimmicks,&rdquo; the spokesperson said.

According to the Pakistani government, the over-century-old temple had collapsed following torrential rains. However, a minority rights group had claimed that the structure was deliberately demolished to facilitate the expansion of an adjoining seminary.

Read: Pakistan issues &#39;strong demarche&#39; to US over &#39;irresponsible&#39; remarks by ambassador in India on IIOJK status

Khan said India&rsquo;s &quot;distortion of facts&rdquo; could not divert attention from its treatment of minorities. &ldquo;Such deliberate distortion of facts cannot distract attention from India&rsquo;s abysmal record of systematic persecution of minorities and state-sponsored attacks against their places of worship,&rdquo; he said.

&ldquo;The world is well aware of the weaponisation of Hindutva ideology against minorities,&rdquo; the spokesperson concluded, noting that Indian leadership &ldquo;must be held accountable&rdquo; for the persecution of Muslim, Sikh and Christian communities.]]>
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			<title>PM Shehbaz reaffirms Pakistan’s support for multilateralism in meeting with UN chief candidate</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627404/pm-shehbaz-reaffirms-pakistans-support-for-multilateralism-in-meeting-with-un-chief-candidate</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627404/pm-shehbaz-reaffirms-pakistans-support-for-multilateralism-in-meeting-with-un-chief-candidate#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 04 Sep 26 07:09:56 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Web Desk]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category><category><![CDATA[Islamabad]]></category>
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				<![CDATA[PM also underscores need to ensure respect for international law, international treaties]]>
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				<![CDATA[Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday reiterated Pakistan&rsquo;s support for multilateralism and the United Nations&rsquo; (UN) role in maintaining global peace and security during a meeting with Uganda&rsquo;s candidate for UN Secretary-General, Olara Otunnu, according to the Prime Minister&#39;s Office (PMO).

According to the PMO statement on X, the meeting focused on Pakistan&rsquo;s commitment to the principles of the UN Charter, respect for international law and the priorities the next UN Secretary-General should pursue.



H.E. Ambassador Olara Otunnu, candidate for the position of Secretary-General of the United Nations, called on Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif today. He was accompanied by H.E. Mr. Ruhakana Rugunda, Special Envoy of the President of Uganda and Former Prime Minister of&hellip; pic.twitter.com/ZY5QkKJDSe
&mdash; Prime Minister&#39;s Office (@PakPMO) September 4, 2026



The prime minister &ldquo;reiterated Pakistan&rsquo;s commitment to the principles and purposes of the United Nations Charter&rdquo;, the PMO said. He also &ldquo;underscored the need for ensuring respect for international law and international treaties&rdquo;.

PM Shehbaz said Pakistan would continue to provide &ldquo;strong and abiding support for multilateralism and the role of the United Nations in global affairs&rdquo;. He also stressed the importance of maintaining a balanced approach to the three main pillars of the UN&rsquo;s work.

The prime minister expressed the hope that the next secretary-general of the UN&nbsp;would continue to focus on &ldquo;peace and security, development, and human rights&rdquo; in an &ldquo;interconnected and balanced manner&rdquo;.

Read:&nbsp;PM approves Trade Facilitation Board

Otunnu is a candidate for the position of UN secretary-general, with the selection process for the organisation&rsquo;s next chief under way ahead of the end of Ant&oacute;nio Guterres&rsquo;s term.

During the meeting, Otunnu expressed his &ldquo;profound gratitude&rdquo; for Pakistan&rsquo;s longstanding contributions to multilateralism and its work across all three pillars of the United Nations. The PMO said Otunnu &ldquo;appreciated Pakistan&rsquo;s leadership for playing a key role in the ongoing efforts for international peace and security&rdquo;.

Otunnu was accompanied by Ruhakana Rugunda, Special Envoy of the Ugandan President and a former Prime Minister of Uganda. Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister Tariq Fatemi, and Foreign Secretary Amna Baloch also attended the meeting.]]>
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			<title>CDA conducts fire safety drill at Parliament House</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627440/cda-conducts-fire-safety-mock-drill-at-parliament-house</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627440/cda-conducts-fire-safety-mock-drill-at-parliament-house#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 04 Sep 26 11:56:54 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[APP]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2627440</guid>
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				<![CDATA[Simulates a fire emergency to check institutional preparedness and liaison between relevant authorities]]>
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				<![CDATA[The Capital Development Authority (CDA) on Friday conducted a special fire safety mock drill at the Parliament House in Islamabad to assess and strengthen emergency preparedness in case of fire or any other emergency.

As part of the exercise, a fire emergency situation was orchestrated inside the Parliament House to assess the evacuation procedure, emergency response, flow of communication between relevant authorities, rescue operation and other essential safety measures.

Officers and officials of the Parliament House actively participated in the drill and extended full cooperation to the CDA staff.

The exercise also provided an opportunity to review existing emergency arrangements and identify areas for further improvement.

Officials said such drills are aimed at enhancing institutional preparedness, strengthening safety systems and ensuring the protection of human lives while minimising potential losses during emergencies.

Read: Three buildings sealed over fire hazard

On August 26, 14 newborns were killed after a fire broke out on the third floor of the Mother and Child unit at PIMS hospital in Islamabad, triggering widespread outrage and demands from people and political parties for action against those responsible.

The tragedy prompted immediate action from the federal government, with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif forming a five-member inquiry committee headed by former interior secretary Shahid Khan to investigate the circumstances surrounding the fire and determine whether negligence or failure of duty contributed to the deaths.

Four days later, on August 31, CDA sealed three buildings for failing to comply with fire-safety directives in the federal capital. The Shaheed-e-Millat Secretariat, State Life Building and Trade Development Authority of Pakistan building were sealed for committing fire-safety violations.

Separtely, the CDA Hospital and Polyclinic Hospital was each fined Rs500,000 for flouting fire-safety regulations and failing to rectify identified deficiencies despite being served multiple notices.

The CDA&#39;s Directorate of Fire and Emergency Services has stepped up inspections of government, private and commercial buildings across Islamabad to ensure compliance with fire-safety regulations to avoid any untoward event.]]>
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			<title>ANF says Afghan drug network disrupted, 671kg of meth seized</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627420/anf-says-afghan-drug-network-disrupted-671kg-of-meth-seized</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627420/anf-says-afghan-drug-network-disrupted-671kg-of-meth-seized#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 04 Sep 26 08:58:12 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Web Desk]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2627420</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Haul includes 200kg seized at Karachi Port and 471kg recovered during a joint operation in Colombo]]>
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				<![CDATA[The Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) said it had disrupted a transnational drug trafficking network involved in smuggling Afghan-origin drugs through Pakistan to international markets, resulting in the seizure of 671kg of methamphetamine in Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

In a press release, the ANF said an operation based on actionable intelligence had led to the recovery of 200kg of methamphetamine, commonly known as Ice, from a container at Karachi Port. An Afghan national identified as Ehsan Ullah, whom the force described as the mastermind, was also arrested along with local handlers, it said.

The ANF said its investigators obtained critical information after questioning Ehsan Ullah and subsequently shared it with Sri Lankan authorities and the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

On Wednesday, anti-narcotics agents from the United States and Sri Lanka seized almost half a tonne of crystal methamphetamine during a joint operation targeting a Pakistani drug network, police said.

The US embassy in Colombo said the narcotics, valued at $21 million and concealed in bath towels, were intended for international markets via Sri Lanka.

According to the ANF, the information it provided prompted the DEA to coordinate with relevant Sri Lankan authorities, resulting in a joint operation at Colombo Port.

The operation led to the recovery of another 471kg of methamphetamine, which had been concealed in towels, the ANF said.

Read: Pakistani drug network busted in Colombo

The force said the combined operations at Karachi and Colombo ports resulted in the seizure of 671kg of methamphetamine linked to the Afghanistan-based trafficking network.

The ANF said it had shared the intelligence with the DEA &ldquo;to ensure timely coordinated action and prevent the international trafficking of the narcotics&rdquo;.

It described Pakistan as &ldquo;a victim state for Afghan-origin drugs&rdquo; and said it worked closely with allied and partner agencies to conduct coordinated counter-narcotics operations in fulfilment of its international obligations.

The force said it had played a &ldquo;pivotal role&rdquo; in the operation by using intelligence-based strategies to identify the trafficking network.

The ANF said the operation demonstrated its &ldquo;professional capabilities, commitment to combating narcotics trafficking, and its effective cooperation with international law enforcement agencies&rdquo;.

The force also said its efforts to dismantle international drug trafficking organisations (DTOs) and apprehend Afghan drug traffickers and their local facilitators had been &ldquo;formally acknowledged&rdquo; by Sri Lankan authorities and the US DEA.

According to the ANF, the acknowledgement underscored its role in international counter-narcotics cooperation.]]>
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			<title>Mir Raza case: Judicial commission directs IO to seek re-employment, housing for cab driver</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627427/mir-raza-murder-judicial-commission-directs-io-to-seek-re-employment-housing-for-cab-driver</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627427/mir-raza-murder-judicial-commission-directs-io-to-seek-re-employment-housing-for-cab-driver#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 04 Sep 26 10:13:00 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Nasir Butt]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
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			<description>
				<![CDATA[Commission criticises authorities for treating the driver as a suspect despite his cooperation in the investigation]]>
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				<![CDATA[The judicial commission probing the murder of Mir Raza Ali expressed displeasure in a written order published on Friday over the treatment meted out to the ride-hailing app driver who provided key information in the case.

The commission instructed Investigation Officer (IO) DSP Siraj Lashari to contact the driver&#39;s employer and landlord and request that his contract be renewed. Justice Omar Sial also directed Lashari to assure both that the driver was not a suspect but a key witness who had cooperated with authorities in establishing facts surrounding the incident.

Mir Raza, a young entrepreneur, was murdered and his body was dumped in bushes near a wedding hall in Karachi&#39;s Gulistan-e-Jauhar. His body was found a day after his disappearance was reported to police on July 28. A second post-mortem was conducted after the initial examination failed to provide the required answers, confirming that he had been tortured and killed.

Raza&#39;s family continued to seek the formation of a joint investigation team (JIT) for a transparent probe into the incident, a request that was turned down by the Sindh High Court. A judicial commission was subsequently tasked with evaluating the merit of the probe.

Read More: Judicial commission questions Mir Raza Ali&#39;s business partner over irregularities

A day earlier, cab driver Ahsanullah told the commission that his employer had taken back the vehicle he used to earn a livelihood. He also said his landlord had evicted him, forcing him to take shelter at Ferozabad police station.

The commission noted that he had fully cooperated with Raza&#39;s family in their efforts to locate him. According to the order, he had provided details of the ride, submitted a location map and disclosed ride-related information before the commission.

Justice Sial directed the IO to address the concerns raised by the driver&#39;s employer and landlord and assure them that no coercive action would be taken against them in connection with the murder case.

The commission observed that, rather than being rewarded for assisting the family, Ahsanullah was being treated by the system as an accused. &ldquo;The system&hellip; in fact is punishing him for assisting the family,&rdquo; the order stated.

Also Read: Mir Raza Ali murder: Judicial commission announces Rs100,000 reward for information

The commission also recorded the statements of Raza&#39;s business partners Ahmed and Abdullah, as well as SDPO Arshad Afridi.

The written order noted that Ahmed would submit a copy of a notice issued by the Sindh Revenue Board, along with receipts for payments made to a food delivery company, which had come to light during the commission&#39;s proceedings.

Due to a shortage of time, the commission directed Hasem, Raziq and SHO Adeel Afzal to appear at the next hearing.

It also ordered summons to be issued to Gulistan-e-Jauhar police station SHO Kamran Qureshi and Court Moharir Zeeshan, directing them to appear before the commission at the next hearing.

The commission will reconvene on September 7 at 11am.

Case developments

A judicial commission was formed on the request of the Sindh government to probe the death of Raza, who was allegedly kidnapped from PECHS before his body was found in bushes near a wedding hall in Karachi&#39;s Gulistan-e-Johar on July 29. The case had initially been surrounded by uncertainty over whether he had been murdered or died by suicide. The first post-mortem findings contained discrepancies and omissions, leading to a second post-mortem that confirmed his murder. Consequently, considering the probe &quot;botched&quot;, the family filed a petition in the SHC seeking the formation of JIT.

During earlier hearings regarding the formation of JIT, the investigating officer probing the death of Raza told the SHC that investigators were treating the case as murder and had ruled out suicide based on the post-mortem findings. DSP Siraj Lashari said the investigation had restarted &ldquo;from zero&rdquo; on August 13 and was being conducted using digital evidence, including CCTV footage. Investigators had recovered a bullet casing but had yet to find the weapon, while final post-mortem and forensic reports were still awaited.

Separately, the judicial commission convened its second hearing on Monday, September 1, wherein it grilled Medico-Legal Officer Dr Usama Sheikh over discrepancies in the first post-mortem report filed by him. The commission also recorded the statements of the victim&#39;s family and Edhi volunteers who shifted his body during the hearing. After the conclusion of the second hearing, Advocate Nasir said the first account of the MLO proved that he was correct about the &quot;botched probe&quot; and, since the commission is not tasked with the probe and can only oversee it, he reiterated that a JIT was crucial for a transparent investigation into the case.

In the latest hearing convened by the commission on Thursday, the commission noted that Raza&#39;s business partner Ahmed Bhurdey gave out unnecessary details that suggested his involvement in the murder rather than absolving him of the crime. It suggested that Ahmed was worried about Raza&#39;s financial backlog more than he cared about what happened to his childhood friend. The commission also grilled the SDPO Arshad Afridi for suggesting that Raza committed suicide after showing the CCTV footage to the family.

&nbsp;]]>
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			<title>K-P renews push to enrol out-of-school children, expand girls’ education</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627451/k-p-renews-push-to-enrol-out-of-school-children-expand-girls-education</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627451/k-p-renews-push-to-enrol-out-of-school-children-expand-girls-education#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 04 Sep 26 12:50:58 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[APP]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2627451</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Province plans new classrooms, accelerated learning centres and higher stipends to improve access and retention]]>
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				<![CDATA[The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Education Department has reinstated focus on the enrolment of out-of-school children in the formal education system while expanding existing schools and promoting alternative learning through distance education and non-formal education (NFE).

K-P Elementary and Secondary Education Department Procurement Specialist Muhammad Ijaz Khalil said this while addressing a post-budget seminar on girls&rsquo; education organised by the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Commission on the Status of Women (KPCSW) in collaboration with Blue Veins Organisation.

K-P Assembly Secretary Syed Wiqar Shah, parliamentarians, representatives of the Education Department, civil society and media attended the seminar.

Speaking at the seminar, Khalil said various schemes had been launched under the latest budget to increase student enrolment, with a special focus on girls&rsquo; education. He added that 73 new projects had been earmarked in the education sector for fiscal year 2026-27 at a total cost of Rs125.14billion, with an allocation of Rs3.89billion for the first quarter.

Read: PHC summons Peshawar BISE chairman, controller of examinations over student awarded &#39;zero&#39; in biology

Khalil further said the government was working on construction of around 10,000 additional classrooms to enhance the capacity of existing educational institutions.

Similarly, he stated, work was underway to convert 50 mosques into government primary schools, enabling children in the respective areas to access formal education through existing religious institutions.

To provide educational opportunities to out-of-school and over-age children through the Elementary and Secondary Education Foundation (ESEF) and partner organisations, around 300 Accelerated Learning Programme (ALP) centres have been established across the province, he added.

Outlining more measures to boost school enrolment and retention of girls, Khalid said that a monthly stipend of Rs500 is being awarded to every female student in the merged districts with the support of the World Food Programme (WFP). &ldquo;In pursuance of the directives of former chief minister Ali Amin Gandapur, work was also underway to increase the stipend from Rs500 to Rs1,000 per month.&rdquo;

Earlier in her welcome address, KPCSW Chairwoman Dr Sumera Shams said the objective of the seminar was to discuss budgetary allocations for fiscal year 2026-27, development schemes and the implementation of initiatives related to girls&rsquo; education.

Read more: BISE Peshawar cracks down on cheating

Sumera highlighted that the government had increased the education budget by around 11% for the current fiscal year after concerns were highlighted by relevant stakeholders and representatives of the civil society organisations.

&ldquo;However, our responsibility is to monitor the utilisation of the allocated funds to ensure effective implementation of the schemes and ensure that their benefits reach students, particularly girls,&rdquo; she underscored.

Speaking at the seminar, Blue Veins Programme Manager Qamar Naseem stressed the importance of increasing pupil enrollment in K-P in view of the large number of out-of-school children in the province.

He cited the 2023 population census, which indicated that around 4.9 million children were out of school in the province, of whom approximately 2.9 million were girls. &ldquo;Around 52% of girls aged between five and 16 were not attending school in K-P, while among those enrolled, around 60% did not reach secondary level,&rdquo; Naseem emphasised.

Also Read: Bara girls face higher education crisis

The programme manager further said that bringing the estimated 4.9 million out-of-school children into the education system would require construction of around 15,000 new schools, which could take a considerable period of time.

Even with full availability of resources, he added, the provincial government could construct only around 300 schools annually. Therefore, he said he welcomed the Education Department&rsquo;s announcement of a Multi-Sectoral Response policy to increase student enrollment.

Exemplifying the initiative of the Sindh government under which private schools are engaged to provide additional space for students, Naseem recommended a similar public-private partnership be initiated in K-P to address the lack of infrastructure challenge.

Addressing the seminar attendees, K-P Assembly Secretary Syed Wiqar Shah called for measures to ensure implementation of the minimum wage in private schools, where teachers, particularly women, are often paid low salaries. He said the practice negatively impacted their performance.

Shah also offered the office of the Speaker of K-P Assembly to MPAs and other stakeholders for raising issues related to girls&rsquo; education and submitting suggestions for improving the system.]]>
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			<title>PM sets deadline for Jinnah Complex</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627362/pm-sets-deadline-for-jinnah-complex</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627362/pm-sets-deadline-for-jinnah-complex#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 04 Sep 26 00:59:30 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Our Correspondent]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2627362</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Orders first phase completion by March 2027]]>
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				<![CDATA[Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday directed the authorities concerned to complete the first phase of the Jinnah Medical Complex and Research Centre by March 2027, aiming to provide the citizens with modern healthcare facilities at the earliest.

The prime minister issued these directives while chairing a review meeting on the construction of the Jinnah Medical Complex and Research Centre and the Phase-2 extension of the Federal Government Polyclinic here at the PM Office, a news release said.

The prime minister said that providing quality healthcare facilities to the public was the top priority of the government, adding that the pace of reforms in the health sector should be further accelerated.

During the meeting, various construction designs and proposals for the proposed Jinnah Medical Complex and Research Centre building were presented for consideration. The participants were also briefed on the progress made on the construction of the Federal Government Polyclinic Phase-2 extension.

The meeting decided that the Federal Government Polyclinic extension, currently under construction in Sector G-11, would be launched as the first phase of the Jinnah Medical Complex. The decision was aimed at making the hospital operational at the earliest and providing citizens with the best possible healthcare facilities.

The prime minister directed that all possible measures be taken to develop the first phase of the Jinnah Medical Complex and Research Centre into a modern, state-of-the-art hospital. He further directed that the installation of modern and high-tech medical equipment and machinery at the hospital be ensured.

The prime minister also directed that third-party validation of the project be continued alongside its physical progress, to maintain transparency and quality standards.

Cheque

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday met the nurse who saved a newborn&#39;s life during the recent fire at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) and awarded her a cheque of Rs10 million in recognition of her extraordinary bravery and sense of duty.

In a meeting held at the PM Office in Islamabad, the premier said, &quot;Nurse Razia Noreen, by placing her own life in danger, saved the newborn with courage  for this noble act, may Allah Almighty bestow abundant reward,&quot; adding that the entire nation took pride in her and acknowledged her bravery.

To honour her sense of devotion to duty, the premier presented a Rs10 million cheque to the nurse as she accompanied Health Minister Mustafa Kamal and Information Minister Attaullah Tarar at the meeting.

The monetary reward carried its own meaning; the real recognition was that she truly deserved this honour, he added. He further announced that the Sitara-e-Khidmat would be conferred on her on March 23, 2027, in recognition of her extraordinary services.

PM highlighted that the mother of the child whom the nurse saved would forever remember Razia in her prayers.

At the same time, the premier vowed to punish those responsible for the fire at the PIMS hospital. &quot;The government will make every effort in this regard,&quot; he stressed during the meeting.

Razia said she was &quot;only carrying out her duty&quot;, as people had entrusted their children to her.

She said that she was happy to receive recognition and hoped fellow nurses followed her example and replicated her dedication and work.

Recalling the fire incident at PIMS, she said she could not think of anything and went straight inside to save who she could. She also said she instructed another nurse to save the children, who then helped her rescue people outside the neonatal ward, including mothers who recently went through C-sections.

She said she rescued a small child weighing 1050 grams and handed him over to Dr Abdul Rehman so that he did not get misplaced during the chaos that followed the fire. She said she ran back inside to save another child when a blast tore through the area, engulfing it in smoke and darkness.

Razia lamented that she could not save more children.]]>
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			<title>Governor urges CM to prioritise K-P issues</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627393/governor-urges-cm-to-prioritise-k-p-issues</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627393/governor-urges-cm-to-prioritise-k-p-issues#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 04 Sep 26 04:17:37 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Our Correspondent]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Khyber Pakhtunkhwa]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2627393</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Calls for dialogue with striking Levies, Khasadars]]>
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				<![CDATA[Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Governor Faisal Karim Kundi has called upon Chief Minister Sohail Afridi to prioritize the province&#39;s core issues, including terrorism, unemployment, and law and order, while also urging immediate dialogue to resolve the ongoing strike by Levies and Khasadar forces in the merged tribal districts.

Addressing media representatives on the sidelines of a scholarship distribution ceremony at the Northwest School of Medicine in Hayatabad, Governor Kundi emphasized that the provincial government must form a delegation to meet with the striking personnel and address their grievances. He also criticized the Sindh government&#39;s past conduct, noting that while it had welcomed former CM Gandpur on a previous visit, the focus should remain on K-P&#39;s pressing challenges.

On the broader political landscape, the Governor asserted that the Parliament is the sole legitimate forum for debating the creation of new provinces and administrative units. He accused the PTI-led provincial government of undermining local governance, stating that local body elections have been stalled and the powers of municipal institutions have been systematically curtailed since PTI came to power. He noted that elected local representatives have consistently protested for their due funds and authority. &quot;All four provinces must empower their local bodies to ensure public issues are resolved at the grassroots level,&quot; he said.

Regarding the recent sit-in organized by Jamaat-e-Islami, Governor Kundi described the protest as peaceful and confirmed his participation on the directives of PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari. He also welcomed the government&#39;s decision to form a negotiation team to engage with the party.

Earlier, addressing the ceremony as chief guest, Governor Kundi distributed scholarships among 30 deserving students. He lauded the administration of Northwest School of Medicine for awarding merit-based financial aid and described investment in medical education as an investment in the future of society. &quot;Talented youth must be provided with more scholarships and opportunities. Parents are making immense sacrifices for their children&#39;s education, and it is the collective duty of institutions and society to encourage and support deserving students,&quot; he remarked. He expressed confidence that the scholarship recipients would fulfill their professional responsibilities with excellence and contribute meaningfully to the healthcare sector in K-P and Pakistan.

In a separate event, the Governor attended the closing ceremony of a Risk Management Training Workshop organized by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and UNICEF for the Pakistan Boys Scouts Association. The ceremony was attended by Provincial Secretary Iftikhar Shamozai, Executive Director NDMA Air Commodore (retd) Tanvir Paracha, Acting Commissioner Hafiz Tariq Mahmood, Cadet College Battrasi Principal Brigadier (retd) Abdul Hafeez, UNICEF representatives, and scouts.]]>
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			<title>Flood threat forces residents to leave homes</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627376/flood-threat-forces-residents-to-leave-homes</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627376/flood-threat-forces-residents-to-leave-homes#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 04 Sep 26 02:30:01 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Our Correspondent]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Islamabad]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2627376</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Directive states that once the heavy rain begins, parents should not allow their children to go outside]]>
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				<![CDATA[Following the Meteorological Department&#39;s forecast of another spell of out-of-season heavy rain on Friday, September 4 and 5, Rawalpindi Deputy Commissioner Nadeem Nasir has barred children from leaving their homes during rainfall across the district and issued directives in this regard.

The directive states that once the heavy rain begins, parents should not allow their children to go outside. The administration has also acknowledged that around 200 manholes across the district have not been fitted with protective grilles or covers due to a severe shortage of funds.

Orders had been issued to install protective grilles capable of bearing a weight of 100 kilogrammes in the manholes.

The administration has also failed to construct protective walls along the drains. Meanwhile, the Meteorological Department has forecast further rains in Islamabad, Rawalpindi and the Potohar region on September 4 and 5, following which a rain emergency has also been imposed for the current week.

Amid continuous destructive rains and four floods in three weeks, residents living along the 18-kilometre-long Nullah Leh and 15 major rainwater drains, as well as those residing near their banks and in highly low-lying areas, have temporarily shifted to safer places for one month.]]>
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			<title>PM approves Trade Facilitation Board</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627343/pm-approves-trade-facilitation-board</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627343/pm-approves-trade-facilitation-board#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 03 Sep 26 23:23:37 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Our Correspondent]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2627343</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Set-up to streamline cross-border trade]]>
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				<![CDATA[Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday approved the establishment of a Trade Facilitation Board, to be chaired by him, aimed at streamlining trade processes and addressing non-tariff barriers to cross-border commerce.

Chairing a meeting on trade facilitation in Islamabad, the prime minister said the board would take decisions to improve the entire trade supply chain and resolve issues affecting cross-border trade.

The meeting was informed that the board would prepare a roadmap to promote trade, formulate a Trade Facilitation Index and devise a mechanism to monitor progress.

PM Shehbaz directed the relevant authorities to work on an &quot;emergency basis&quot; to enhance the capacity of the country&#39;s ports and ordered the formation of working groups to oversee the process.

He said these groups would focus on increasing port capacity, improving coordination among relevant departments, ensuring compliance with the regulatory framework, facilitating pre-arrival clearance and promoting the participation of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in international trade.

The prime minister also called for the simplification of transportation, clearance and other procedures for importers and exporters at ports, directing that &quot;maximum possible facilitation&quot; be provided to the business community.

The meeting was informed that ongoing reforms had reduced port charges, resulting in a significant increase in port utilisation.

It was further briefed that the facility for submitting Goods Declarations before the arrival of vessels was being expanded. The measure is expected to speed up clearance procedures.

Nepal

Prime Minister, Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday visited the Embassy of Nepal here and signed a condolence book opened in memory of the victims of the recent devastating flash floods and landslides that struck Nepal, in a gesture reflecting Pakistan&#39;s solidarity with the Himalayan nation during its hour of grief.

Daanish University

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday directed authorities to finalise detailed plans for the establishment of Daanish University, along with a timeline for its construction, within two weeks.

Chairing a review meeting on the university, the prime minister said the institution should provide international-standard education and professional training to talented students belonging to economically disadvantaged and middle-income families.

He emphasised that Daanish University should have a system distinct from conventional universities and be established as a model of excellence.]]>
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			<title>Afridi leads PTI street movement in Sindh</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627391/afridi-leads-pti-street-movement-in-sindh</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627391/afridi-leads-pti-street-movement-in-sindh#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 04 Sep 26 04:17:37 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Our Correspondent]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Khyber Pakhtunkhwa]]></category><category><![CDATA[Sindh]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2627391</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Launches five-day Sindh tour to mobilise PTI workers for September 27 Islamabad Long March]]>
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				<![CDATA[Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Muhammad Sohail Afridi has arrived in Sindh on a five-day visit to lead Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf&#39;s (PTI) Street Movement as part of preparations for the September 27 Islamabad Long March.

Upon his arrival in Sindh, the Chief Minister received an enthusiastic welcome from PTI&#39;s local leadership, workers and supporters. Members of the K-P cabinet, along with central and provincial leaders of PTI, are accompanying him during the visit.

The Chief Minister is scheduled to hold meetings with local political leaders and party workers in different parts of Sindh to strengthen organisational preparations and mobilise supporters for the planned Long March.

Addressing PTI workers at Kamo Shaheed on the Sindh-Punjab border, Sohail Afridi thanked the people of Sindh for what he described as a warm and overwhelming reception. He said he had also received an enthusiastic welcome during his previous visit, but the public response witnessed this time suggested that earlier records of support and participation could be surpassed.

He asked the gathering whether they wished to march towards D-Chowk in Islamabad or remain focused on Karachi, drawing loud responses from the workers.

The Chief Minister said the people of Sindh were fully aware of the political realities of the province and had witnessed the injustices and deprivation faced by ordinary citizens. Despite governments remaining in power in Sindh for decades, he said, the people had not received their due rights or their rightful share of development.

Sohail Afridi said PTI founder Imran Khan would ensure that the people of Sindh received their rightful share and development opportunities. He maintained that PTI stood firmly with the people of Sindh and would continue to support them openly and without hesitation.

He said the people of Sindh, in return, were standing steadfastly with Imran Khan.

At Mureed Shakh, the Chief Minister thanked PTI leaders, workers and youth for their enthusiastic reception and urged them to maintain their spirit of mobilisation. He called upon workers to carry the party&#39;s message to every corner of the country and make full preparations for the September 27 Islamabad Long March.]]>
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			<title>Failed climate goal</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627311/failed-climate-goal</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627311/failed-climate-goal#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 03 Sep 26 19:35:07 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[editorial]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Editorial]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2627311</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Pakistan must adopt own climate policy that tackles global warming in context of own region]]>
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				<![CDATA[For years, environmental activists - who understand the urgency of climate change far better than global policymakers - have rallied to prevent global temperatures from rising by 1.5 degrees C. Their warnings have, however, fallen on deaf ears. According to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), this inaction has made overshooting 1.5 degrees C inevitable.

A recent report by the UN affiliated body titled &#39;Limiting Overshoot&#39; offers this brutal reality check and outlines how &quot;the challenge has shifted from avoiding overshoot to navigating it&quot;. The infuriating truth is that climate activists and scientists have been alerting those in positions of power to this very situation but once the time for change has passed, they can do nothing more than feign sympathy and offer condolences.

To gain an understanding of how significant a 1.5 degrees C rise would be for global climate, one simply needs to recall that water is liquid at 1oC and solid at 0 degree C. The destruction that climate change brings upon the world may not be linear enough for the world to gain time to adapt. It can absolutely be sudden, and the inevitability of overshooting 1.5 degrees C only raises that possibility further.

Countries in the Global South need to be much more vigilant of this reality. The impact of rising temperatures and, consequently, melting glaciers, collapsing ice sheets and the disruption to marine life will primarily be endured by us before it even gets the chance to move on to colder climates and richer nations. Nepal is a recent and highly devastating example of this impact.

At the very least, Pakistan must adopt its own climate policy that tackles global warming in the context of its own region. Building climate-friendly architecture and reducing carbon emissions - while also pressuring the West to curtail its own emissions - should now be nothing short of a high-level priority.]]>
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			<title>A war without a mandate</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627310/a-war-without-a-mandate</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627310/a-war-without-a-mandate#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 03 Sep 26 19:35:07 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[editorial]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Editorial]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2627310</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Trump's popularity currently at lowest level, even among Republicans]]>
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				<![CDATA[Days after plunging his country into a war with Iran at the behest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, US President Donald Trump claimed that hostilities would be over in four or five weeks. Instead, the war is now in its seventh month, oil prices are up, US GDP growth is down, and inflation has erased all wage growth over the past 12 months. Meanwhile, the Iranians continue to show great resilience despite heavy losses, US military readiness has been significantly depleted, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has apparently fired a generation of senior military officers for daring to disagree with him on military strategy.

Hegseth touts himself as an expert on warfare, though his active military service consists of a year as a prison guard, a few months as an infantryman in Iraq, and a stint as an instructor in Afghanistan. The men he fired had dozens of years each of active service in war zones. Hegseth also bankrupted a charity after allegedly embezzling from it, barred from serving as a guard for President Biden because of his suspected white nationalist sympathies, and successfully lobbied for war criminals to receive presidential pardons. And since he is a Trump sycophant, it apparently makes him the only person qualified to run the US military.

But despite this, it appears the American public is finally catching on. Trump&#39;s popularity is currently at its lowest level, even among Republicans, and a clear majority of Americans oppose the Iran War. In response to the historically unpopular war, Trump has started a trade war with Canada - once considered America&#39;s closest ally. Unfortunately for Trump, it appears he is losing this one as well, as only 20% of Americans support his tariffs, and only 14% support his renaming of Lake Ontario to Lake America.

The president&#39;s refusal to ever accept fault and admit defeat means that Americans must force the decision in the November elections. But even if the Democrats - as predicted - retake control of Congress, the situation will continue to devolve until new members are seated in January.]]>
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			<title>Dual-tranche Euro bond</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627309/dual-tranche-euro-bond</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627309/dual-tranche-euro-bond#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 03 Sep 26 19:35:07 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[editorial]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Editorial]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2627309</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Pakistan has proven that it can mobilise long-term financing, as is evident from 10-year Eurobond]]>
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				<![CDATA[Pakistan&#39;s forex reserves got a shot in the arm as the country raised $3 billion through a dual-tranche Eurobond. This unprecedented success comes on the heels of renewed confidence exhibited by lenders in macroeconomic reforms and the stringent implementation of the IMF&#39;s programme. It is the largest single international capital market transaction achieved from a broad and diversified base of institutional investors across global markets and continents. The breakdown of the issuance includes $1.75 billion through a 5.5-year bond at a coupon rate of 7.5 per cent, and $1.25 billion through a 10-year bond at 7.9%.

After almost a decade, Islamabad has been able to float and sell its sovereign paper commitments in the market at a half-percentage-point lower interest rate. Panda Bonds to the tune of $500 million and the Global Medium-Term Note initiative have been other success stories, alongside the fact that the government has been able to settle maturities in due time. This confidence in the currency market must now serve to reassure investors that Pakistan is a preferred geopolitical destination for big-ticket businesses.

Pakistan has proven that it can mobilise long-term financing, as is evident from the 10-year Eurobond. This development, however, coincides with the bitter truth that the country&#39;s total debt has crossed Rs100 trillion, raising doubts about its stabilisation efforts. Had it not been for remittances from expatriates and the financial succor from the Gulf States and China, the balance sheet would have been terrible. Facing heavy debt repayments and cuts in developmental outlay, Pakistan has been struggling with a fiscal deficit of around 5% of GDP and a growth rate of less than 3% over the last three years.

The way forward is to manage debt accumulation by generating plausible new avenues of income and tapping into export markets. At the very least, there is an urgent need to recraft the economic model to bridge the financing gap. Tapping the bond market, as and when required, is a healthy sign for reigniting confidence with global financial institutions.]]>
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			<title>The collapse</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627313/the-collapse</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627313/the-collapse#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 03 Sep 26 19:35:07 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Shahzad Chaudhry]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Opinion]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2627313</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Government will do well to build a spine, collect experts, read models, take leap of faith in building anew]]>
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				<![CDATA[Mohsin Naqvi may have said it. PIMS proved it. Fourteen young lives were burnt to ashes in a jiffy. Born and gone because of a fire in the newborns&#39; Nursery that no one knew how to report or manage. The five people on duty at night had a choice &ndash; save themselves or the children. They chose self over duty. The desperate parents of the newborns could do nothing because the door to the Nursery was locked from the inside by the staff. It was an incinerator waiting for a light, which came from a reported spark in an air conditioning unit that some said was unfunctional for some time. The first responders, the firefighters, could not find their way into the Capital&#39;s most popular and most frequented teaching hospital because the entry and exit gates for the vehicles in such emergencies were locked. Those who were meant to be at their stations chose to sleep through their duty time. The Nursery in the Mother-and-Child Wing, meant to save the lives of those needing special care at birth, burned to ashes. This is how a collapse looks.

Just a month back, I walked into the Emergency of PIMS to assist someone with the process to help his son get the attention he was seeking. I passed by a stinking corpse of a decayed human body, thankfully in a bag but just lying unattended at the gate of the medical unit. The only way was to close the nostrils and go around it at a distance, as everyone else was doing. My first thought was about the stretcher on which it had been placed and the next patient who would be wheeled on it. Would someone clean and sanitise it for the next use, or in desperation just place the next one on it to run into where hundreds seemed to teem into small attending rooms. There was no order or a sense of sequence. Our society, and hence the medical practitioners, are not trained for order. This was the outer Emergency. What they call the Main Emergency is a little further ahead. The first building is meant to exercise what they term medical triage. I don&#39;t think there was a chance in hell that the concept has moved out of the pages where it is first read. Contacts, influence, status, position and money short-circuit all teaching.

PIMS is a people&#39;s hospital. Only the common man visits there. Of which there are just too many from areas around, as indeed the ones who may be living in Islamabad but are clearly out of place. The rest, entitled, walk directly into the Consultant&#39;s office because they are bigwigs of the government or society, as are indeed the attending Physicians who are meant to be tops in a top governmental facility of the capital. For some reason, my thoughts wander to Delhi&#39;s All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). PIMS too is Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, but God alone knows when and if we will ever be able to touch the gold standard that AIIMS in India has become. I guess it has a lot to do with how the society at large is coming up. In the normal run of things, though, the common man is dealt with by the duty doctors in the wards and the Emergency. That too, if he is lucky, has walked in with a reference, or knows someone in there who can navigate him through to the doctor&#39;s desk. I, over the next three days, endeavouring to help someone, did not get to see a consultant. The collapse is complete.

If this be so, and it is so &ndash; hail to Mohsin Naqvi for calling it out &ndash; we should be doing something about it. The collapse is all around, in every sphere of our national and societal journey, save a few. But what is of the government, by the government, and with the government is already at its bottommost. Let&#39;s save those few that are not and recover those that can be. I wrote last week about the need to change attitude and the approach. It will only come slowly, if at all. Can structures change behaviours? That is my next inquiry. When we talk of reforms, we talk of changing structures where such human frivolity has less agency. Maybe it is worth a try.

Since the politicos cannot put pen to paper nor have the mind to wield the pen, they must then fall back on the bureaucracy to help devise the way out of their predicament as people&#39;s representatives. Except, why would a bureaucrat burn his own boat and suggest that the system needs complete replacement with another kind? It becomes a zero-sum circle of no joy. The government will do well to build a spine, collect some experts, read some models, and take the leap of faith in building anew.

Here is a recipe to consider. And it addresses those who are concerned, hold the power to get things done, and can make it happen; hybrid or otherwise: Over the next year, review and reconsider the path that has been imposed on this nation while facing the inevitability of the corner it found itself in. Turns out, those steps have only dug the hole deeper. So I would review all that I undertook as an immediacy to the issues at hand. And this includes the incremental mutilation of the Constitution and the judicial system. The entire gamut needs to be reconstituted to obviate self-serving deviations. The judiciary must be independent and seen to be independent. Then only can the people repose their trust in the &#39;system&#39;.

Reforms through restructuring should run in parallel, led by experts in the field. This applies to all governmental functions that have required bureaucratic intervention. These functions need to be made bureaucrat-proof. Instead, a citizen&#39;s body should exercise control over the labyrinth of the process, and ensure the predictability of a function. It can always induct a specialist to advise when needed. For too long, the politicians have outsourced their thought, mind and intellect to the bureaucrats who have, over time, turned into guns for hire.

A model to remedy the dysfunctionality of the state already exists. The 18th Amendment Committee took nine months to modify the Constitution in favour of the ruling dynasties and elites; a similar arrangement can be made to undo the damage and institute reform over the remaining period of this government. Reform, restructuring and improved governance should bring greater efficiency, transparency, effectiveness and responsiveness. It can be done. If not today, then never. This one isn&#39;t working. Let&#39;s try another. If that too is doomed, we are doomed anyway. How far worse can it get? We are now burning newborns.

PS: The young man of eighteen years I was trying to assist was handed back to us dead on Day 6. He had walked in with a perfect Blood Pressure, remained unattended despite &#39;suspected Hydrocephalus&#39; till his kidneys began to fail on him. A nephrologist could never make it to the ward he was in.]]>
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			<title>The unequal right to fail</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627314/the-unequal-right-to-fail</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627314/the-unequal-right-to-fail#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 03 Sep 26 19:35:07 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Faisal Kutty]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Opinion]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2627314</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Someone from an underrepresented community should not have to be exemplary to justify being in the room]]>
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				<![CDATA[Jason Arday is dead at 41. There were legitimate questions about his academic work, his biography and Cambridge University&#39;s decision to appoint him. They deserved investigation. Academic integrity matters, and neither race, disability nor an inspirational life story should put anyone beyond scrutiny.

But let&#39;s not pretend that is all that happened here.

This was not merely a plagiarism story. Serious questions emerged about Arday&#39;s academic record and extraordinary claims about his life. Some were difficult to substantiate; others produced conflicting evidence. Journalists had every right to investigate them. Cambridge also had questions to answer about how thoroughly it vetted him.

Acknowledging that makes the question of proportionality more important, not less.

Arday became a symbol in the war against diversity, equity and inclusion. Once that happened, scrutiny widened beyond his scholarship to his qualifications, appointments, charity work, athletic accomplishments, childhood and disability. Somewhere along the way, the man himself became the investigation.

Professor Steven Barnett counted 289 stories about Arday in Britain&#39;s mainstream press in just 22 days, almost two-thirds after he resigned. Arday wasn&#39;t a prime minister. He was a sociology professor. Cambridge Chancellor Chris Smith called the coverage a &quot;racist feeding frenzy&quot;, while also insisting that allegations of academic misconduct must be rigorously investigated. Both things can be true.

A Black academic can fail. He can exaggerate. He can plagiarise. He can be inadequately qualified for a position. Equality requires that we investigate those things and say so when the evidence warrants it. But equality should also mean that his failure remains his own.

A white professor accused of misconduct is usually a professor accused of misconduct. A Black professor whose appointment was celebrated as evidence of diversity can suddenly become evidence that diversity itself has failed. Arday was no longer simply an academic facing serious questions. He had become evidence in the case against DEI.

Compare that with other academic-integrity controversies. In 2003, Norman Finkelstein accused Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz of plagiarism in The Case for Israel, including improperly relying on Joan Peters&#39; From Time Immemorial for quotations and sources. Dershowitz vigorously denied the allegation, and a Harvard review found the plagiarism charge without merit.

I have no interest in retrying that dispute. What interests me is what happened afterward. Dershowitz remained at Harvard for another decade, continued writing and teaching and remained one of America&#39;s most prominent legal commentators. The allegation did not become proof that he had never deserved his Harvard chair.

Then there is Neil Gorsuch. During his 2017 Supreme Court confirmation, questions arose about unattributed similarities between portions of his academic writing and earlier works. Experts disagreed about their significance. Some considered them violations of academic ethics; others defended his attribution practices. Gorsuch was confirmed to the Supreme Court.

The cases are not identical. Arday faced a broader and, in some respects, more serious collection of questions. But we know how to distinguish allegations from findings, mistakes from misconduct and misconduct from an entire career. We just don&#39;t seem to extend that generosity equally.

And this is broader than Black academics. Members of dominant groups generally enjoy the privilege of being individuals. Their achievements belong to them, and so do their failures. We don&#39;t treat a white professor accused of plagiarism as evidence that white professors don&#39;t belong in universities. Their misconduct may destroy their careers, but it doesn&#39;t normally put everyone who looks like them on trial.

People from underrepresented groups don&#39;t always get that luxury. Black academics can find themselves standing in for diversity. Muslim academics can find their scholarship or political views treated as evidence about Muslims generally. Women and other minorities can discover that their mistakes are no longer simply their own. Their successes are celebrated as breakthroughs; their failures become evidence against the very efforts that opened doors.

That is the unequal right to fail.

Universities contribute to the problem. Elite institutions love diversity success stories. Cambridge highlighted Arday as its youngest Black professor, his journey with autism and his work increasing minority representation in higher education.

There is nothing wrong with celebrating representation. But when institutions turn people into symbols of diversity, critics can reverse the symbolism when something goes wrong. Cambridge helped make Arday a symbol of inclusion. His critics turned him into a symbol of DEI failure. Somewhere in between was a human being.

The answer is not to lower standards or shield anyone from scrutiny. Universities should rigorously vet those they hire and investigate allegations fairly. Protecting someone from racism or harassment does not mean protecting them from criticism.

But when an individual fails, let that individual fail.

Someone from an underrepresented community should not have to be exemplary to justify being in the room. Equality should also mean the right to be imperfect without your imperfection becoming evidence against everyone who shares your identity.

None of this absolves Arday or Cambridge. Arday had serious questions to answer. Cambridge had an obligation to examine its appointment process. Journalists were entitled to investigate both. But scrutiny and spectacle are not the same thing.

Arday said before resigning that the accusations, speculation and public commentary had taken a &quot;profound toll&quot; on him and those he loved. That doesn&#39;t tell us why Jason Arday died, and we should resist pretending that it does.

But his story leaves us with a larger question. Can we hold people accountable without turning their failures into an indictment of everyone who shares their race, religion, gender or background?

We should be able to. Academic integrity and equality are not competing values. Real equality should include the right to fail as an individual.]]>
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			<title>On letters, art and the things we still need to say</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627312/on-letters-art-and-the-things-we-still-need-to-say</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627312/on-letters-art-and-the-things-we-still-need-to-say#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 03 Sep 26 19:35:07 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Sadia Pasha Kamran]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Opinion]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2627312</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Art functions as transhistorical form of correspondence]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[Dear RM &amp; Nurrayah,

I have long advocated for the epistolary form of communication. Letters, with their deliberate pace and tangible traces - hesitations and idiosyncratic marks - reflect a uniquely human form of connection. They cultivate intimacy: each carries the writer&#39;s presence, signaling, &quot;I thought of you.&quot; This gesture initiates a relational dynamic, as the writer anticipates the recipient&#39;s response. Your recently curated exhibition, Chitthi Aayi Hai - Letter has arrived (O Art Space, ongoing) &ndash; foregrounds this communicative potential. The title itself suggests anticipation and connection, evoking the experience of a letter&#39;s arrival and underscoring the social nature of correspondence.

Art functions as a transhistorical form of correspondence. Before museums, image-making was itself a means of communication. The earliest cave marks - never intended for gallery walls or museums - were messages. Through symbols, animal depictions and handprints, early humans established visual contact across time and space. These handprints are among the most elemental inscriptions: a visual assertion of presence, perhaps among the earliest declarative acts in human history.

Art transmits beliefs and narratives - evidence of an enduring impulse to connect. While modes of expression have evolved, the communicative drive remains. Artworks invite viewers to observe, interrogate and respond. Like letters, works of art are not merely vehicles for expression but occasions for exchange, implicitly asking: What is being communicated, and to whom? Artists&#39; correspondence often discloses vulnerability and subjectivity absent in their finished works. The marks and gestures in these letters form a personal script. Artists have addressed letters to lovers, friends, patrons, institutions and fellow practitioners. These exchanges reveal uncertainty, frustration, affection, doubt and humour - qualities not always visible in completed artworks.

Within &#39;Chitti Aayi Hai&#39;, each artist employs a visual language as distinctive as handwriting, transforming their works into letters for the viewer. Marks become script, images become sentences and symbols comprise a visual lexicon. Once in the gallery, these private communications become public, contributing to a broader discourse. The exhibition reframes the letter as open correspondence: the personal becomes collective dialogue.

The artwork&#39;s journey - from origin to destination - makes the interval between artist and viewer essential. The idea of the artwork as an agent seeking its audience is evocative. Here, &#39;Chitti Aayi Hai&#39; is not only a title but an invitation, announcing the arrival of something that solicits a response. Will you engage with this invitation? Will you devote attention to its meaning or allow yourself to be moved by another&#39;s gesture? The crucial aspect of correspondence is not the act of addressing, but the latent possibility of reply - the dialogic potential in every communication.

A letter acquires significance only upon its reception, just as an artwork is realised through viewing. Meaning is negotiated between creator and recipient. My own letter-writing arises from a desire to personalise communication, to address a specific interlocutor. This impulse - to acknowledge the other - may explain my resonance with your exhibition. Communication transcends mere transmission; sending is easy, but genuine reception and understanding require effort.

Thank you for illustrating that art continues to function as correspondence - showing that images communicate and artistic marks become a visual language. Every act of communication presumes a recipient. This is the enduring appeal of both letters and art: they persist in speaking to us, even in the absence of their creators. I now turn to the ninety-nine letters in the exhibition - some from friends, others from strangers - whose voices I am eager to encounter.

With affection,

Bano

September 2026]]>
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			<title>We have to keep Netanyahu 'a little bit sane', says Trump</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2614354/we-have-to-keep-netanyahu-a-little-bit-sane-says-trump</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2614354/we-have-to-keep-netanyahu-a-little-bit-sane-says-trump#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sun, 21 Jun 26 02:21:50 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[APP]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2614354</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[.]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[US President Donald Trump delivered a blunt critique of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a press interview, stating their relationship is &quot;good, but we have to keep him a little bit sane&quot;

The remark came when Trump was asked by Axious, an American media outlet, about his ties with the Israeli premier amid ongoing efforts to end fighting in Lebanon.

Trump asserted he can control Israeli military actions in Lebanon because officials there &quot;do as I say.&quot;

He highlighted American military superiority, saying that the US provides &quot;the guns&quot; and &quot;B-2 bombers,&quot; and claimed that without his intervention, Israel would have been &quot;eviscerated,&quot; echoing his remarks earlier this week asserting: &quot;Without the United States, there would be no Israel.&quot;

Earlier this week, the US president said he advised Netanyahu to use a &quot;softer touch&quot; in Leb-anon, saying Israel does not have to &quot;knock down a building every time somebody walks into it that&#39;s from Hezbollah,&quot; referring to frequent Israeli bombing of Lebanon, including many residential areas.]]>
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			<title>Five dead in South Korea aerospace plant blast</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2611013/five-dead-in-south-korea-aerospace-plant-blast</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2611013/five-dead-in-south-korea-aerospace-plant-blast#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 01 Jun 26 22:32:55 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2611013</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Five people have died and two others were injured on Monday after an explosion and fire on a South Korean production line for rocket propellant at a factory operated by Hanwha Aerospace in the city of Daejeon, officials said.

The two survivors, including one who was badly burned, had escaped from the facility themselves, a fire official told a briefing.

&quot;Authorities have yet to identify the victims because their bodies were severely damaged,&quot; a health official told the same briefing.

A fire official said that an explosion had triggered the blaze, though the cause of the blast was still being investigated. The blast appeared to have occurred while water was being used to clean explosive material from tools making rocket propellant, a Hanwha official told a company briefing.

&quot;We bow our heads in apology to the victims and their bereaved families,&quot; said Chief Executive Officer Son Jae-il, pledging to cooperate fully with authorities to determine the cause of the accident.

The five dead included two temporary workers in their 20s and all were employed by Hanwha, the company said.]]>
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			<title>Israeli strikes kill seven in Gaza</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2610261/israeli-strikes-kill-seven-in-gaza</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2610261/israeli-strikes-kill-seven-in-gaza#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Tue, 26 May 26 18:45:04 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
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			<description>
				<![CDATA[.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Israeli strikes killed at least seven Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday including five in a refugee camp and two in a car, health officials said.

Medics and residents said an Israeli drone fired a missile at people who came out of their homes when an Israeli-backed Palestinian militia tried to storm an area east of Maghazi camp.

As well as at least five fatalities, several people were injured.

The Israeli military, which has been fighting Hamas in the Palestinian territory since October 2023, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on that incident.

Incursions by Israeli-backed armed gangs, whom Hamas brands &quot;Israeli collaborators&quot;, have escalated in past weeks.

Leaders of those groups, who operate in areas under Israeli control, say they aim to topple Hamas rule.

Later on Tuesday, an Israeli airstrike struck a vehicle in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, killing two people and wounding several others, medics said.

The Israeli military told Reuters it was a &quot;targeted strike&quot; and provided no further details.]]>
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			<title>US, Armenia sign partnership agreement</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2610262/us-armenia-sign-partnership-agreement</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2610262/us-armenia-sign-partnership-agreement#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Tue, 26 May 26 18:45:04 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2610262</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[.]]>
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				<![CDATA[US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan signed a strategic partnership agreement in Yerevan on Tuesday, less than two weeks before parliamentary elections in the South Caucasus country.

Rubio&#39;s visit comes as Russia has threatened to exert economic pressure on Yerevan for its growing ties to the West by raising prices Armenia pays for Russian gas if the country turns away from integration with Moscow

On June 7, Armenia votes in an election pitting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan&#39;s Civil Contract party against an array of opposition parties, many of which are pro-Russian.

Rubio and Mirzoyan

also signed a framework agreement on critical minerals and another on cooperation on a proposed 43-km (27-mile) transit corridor across southern Armenia

that would give Azerbaijan a direct route to its

exclave of Nakhchivan

and into Turkey, Baku&#39;s closest ally.

Dubbed the &quot;Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP)&quot;, the corridor is a key part of a peace agreement reached last August between Armenia and Azerbaijan, which have been at war on-and-off since the late 1980s. No formal peace deal has been signed.

The route would better connect Asia to Europe - bypassing Russia and Iran - at a time when U.S. President Donald Trump has expressed interest in critical minerals deals with resource-rich Central Asian countries to the east of the South Caucasus region. The mining of iron, copper and zinc and other minerals is also a major sector of Armenia&#39;s economy.

&quot;We are going to be able to work together to make sure that both of our

countries, both of our economies, are going to have reliable access

to these critical minerals,&quot; Rubio said at the

signing ceremony on Tuesday.]]>
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			<title>Medical check up went 'perfectly' says Trump</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2610265/medical-check-up-went-perfectly-says-trump</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2610265/medical-check-up-went-perfectly-says-trump#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Tue, 26 May 26 18:45:11 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[AFP]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2610265</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[.]]>
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				<![CDATA[Donald Trump said an annual medical check-up had gone &quot;perfectly&quot; Tuesday, as the health of the oldest US president ever to take the oath faces growing scrutiny with the approach of his 80th birthday.

It was Trump&#39;s third medical examination since returning to office last year and follows mounting speculation about issues including bruising on his hands and apparent sleepiness during meetings.

&quot;Everything checked out PERFECTLY,&quot; Trump posted on his Truth Social network as he drove back to the White House from the Walter Reed Military Hospital near Washington.

But Trump has long been accused of a lack of transparency about his health -- and the chronology of his various check-ups during his second term has added to the confusion.

He referred to Tuesday&#39;s check up as a &quot;six-month physical,&quot; despite the White House billing it as an annual dental and medical examination when it announced it earlier this month.

Trump&#39;s last scheduled annual check up was in April 2025. But it was followed by an unannounced hospital visit that October, which the White House then also described as an annual physical.]]>
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			<title>Trump envoy arrives for Greenland visit</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2608753/trump-envoy-arrives-for-greenland-visit</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2608753/trump-envoy-arrives-for-greenland-visit#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 18 May 26 02:04:09 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[AFP]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2608753</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[.]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[US President Donald Trump&#39;s special envoy to Greenland landed in Nuuk on Sunday for a visit of several days to the autonomous Danish territory, local media reported.

Governor of Louisiana Jeff Landry arrived for his first visit in the role and is due to take part in an economic forum in the Greenlandic capital on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Organised by the employers organisation Gronlands Erhverv, the Future Greenland event will bring together investors, political and business leaders to try to encourage investment there.

Landry&#39;s visit comes after international tension over Trump&#39;s repeated claims to the territory, which sparked alarm not just in Greenland and Denmark but across western Europe.

Landry arrived accompanied by around 10 other people and drove off in a convoy of five cars, the local daily Sermitsiaq reported.

The US ambassador to Denmark is due to fly in to Greenland on Monday.

&quot;Together, they will meet with a wide range of Greenlanders to listen and learn with a goal of expanding economic opportunities, building people-to-people ties, and increasing understanding between the United States and Greenland,&quot; said a US embassy statement sent to AFP.

Trump appointed Landry to the post on December 22.

In January, Trump backed down from his repeated threats to seize Greenland, after which Copenhagen and Nuuk held a first meeting in Washington.

Trump has repeatedly argued the US needs to control Greenland because of national security concerns, claiming that if the US does not take the Arctic island then it would fall into the hands of China or Russia.

Last Tuesday, Greenland&#39;s prime minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said talks between the territory, Denmark, and the United States had yet to produce an agreement, even if there had been progress.]]>
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			<title>Trump rules out any deal except ‘unconditional surrender’ as Iran vows to defend its ‘dignity and sovereignty’</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2596085/trump-says-not-currently-considering-us-ground-forces-in-iran</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2596085/trump-says-not-currently-considering-us-ground-forces-in-iran#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 06 Mar 26 05:23:32 +0500</pubDate>
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				<![CDATA[AFP]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
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			<description>
				<![CDATA[Iran says some countries have begun mediation efforts amid retaliatory strikes]]>
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				<![CDATA[United States President &zwnj;Donald Trump demanded Iran&#39;s &quot;unconditional surrender&quot; on Friday and ruled out any deal, a dramatic escalation of his demands a week into the war he launched alongside Israel.

Trump made the remarks on social media just hours after Iran&#39;s president announced that unspecified countries had ​begun mediation efforts in one of the first signals of any diplomatic initiative to end ​the conflict.

&quot;After ⁠that, and the selection of a great and acceptable leader(s), we, and many of our wonderful ​and very brave allies and partners, will work tirelessly to bring Iran back from the brink of ​destruction, making it economically bigger, better, and stronger than ever before.&quot;



https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/116182551337254643



On Thursday, Trump had told Reuters in a telephone interview that he was demanding the right to help select Iran&#39;s new supreme leader, to replace Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, killed ​in the war&#39;s first day.

Israel pounded the Lebanese capital Beirut on Friday after ordering an unprecedented evacuation ​of the entire southern suburbs of the city, in a major expansion of the war.

It carried out heavy air strikes on Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs of Beirut and started a &quot;broad-scale&quot; wave of attacks against infrastructure in Tehran, while Iran said it targeted the heart of Tel Aviv with missiles.

Explosions and flashes lit up the night sky over Beirut&#39;s southern suburbs. The Israeli military said it had carried out 26 waves of strikes overnight in the southern suburbs, saying targets included Iran-backed Hezbollah militia command centres and weapons storage facilities.

It also launched a new &zwnj;wave ⁠of attacks on Iran, saying 50 of its warplanes had struck a bunker beneath the destroyed Tehran compound of Khamenei, still being used by Iran&#39;s leadership after he was killed.

Iran says some countries have begun mediation efforts amid retaliatory strikes

Earlier, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian revealed that some countries had begun mediation efforts as the Islamic Republic continued its retaliatory strikes against Israel and US military bases in the Gulf region.

&ldquo;Some countries have begun efforts at mediation,&rdquo; Pezeshkian wrote in a post on his official X handle.

&ldquo;Our response to them is clear: we are committed to lasting peace in the region, but we have not the slightest doubt in defending the dignity and sovereignty of our country,&rdquo; he added. &ldquo;The intended audience for mediation should be those who, by underestimating the Iranian people, have stoked the flames.&rdquo;



Some countries have begun mediation efforts. Let&#39;s be clear: we are committed to lasting peace in the region yet we have no hesitation in defending our nation&#39;s dignity &amp; sovereignty. Mediation should address those who underestimated the Iranian people and ignited this conflict https://t.co/MxWCuNYOYR
&mdash; Masoud Pezeshkian (@drpezeshkian) March 6, 2026


Iran&rsquo;s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said Kheibar missiles were fired towards Tel Aviv as part of the 21st wave of its &ldquo;Operation True Promise 4&quot;. In a statement, the IRGC said the wave began with a combined missile and drone operation targeting sites in the heart of Tel Aviv.

Overnight, Iranian drones attacked the US Al Udied airbase in Qatar, the biggest US base in the Middle East, Qatari officials said. There were no reported casualties.

The IRGC said Iranian forces had targeted the Ramat David air base and a radar site in Israel, the Al-Adiri camp in Kuwait where US forces are stationed, and a drone attack on a base hosting US troops in Erbil, Iraq.

A Guards spokesperson said new initiatives and weapons would soon be deployed to confront Israeli and U.S. aggression, without giving details.

&quot;This was an &#39;existential war&#39; for Iran, leaving us with no choice but to respond wherever American attacks originate from,&rdquo; Iran&rsquo;s Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh said at the Raisina Dialogues conference in New Delhi on Friday.

Hezbollah, in a message published in Hebrew on its Telegram channel early on Friday, warned Israelis to leave towns within five kilometres of the border.

&quot;Your military&#39;s aggression against Lebanese sovereignty and safe citizens, the destruction of civilian infrastructure and the expulsion campaign it is carrying out will not go unchallenged,&quot; Hezbollah said.

At least 1,230 people have been killed in Iran since the fighting began a week ago, according to the Iranian Red Crescent Society.

The Lebanese health ministry has reported 123 people have been killed and another 683 wounded as a result of Israeli attacks this week. Its figures do not distinguish between civilians and combatants. There have been no reported fatalities in Israel as a result of Hezbollah attacks.

Azerbaijan was preparing unspecified retaliatory measures on Thursday after it said four Iranian drones crossed its border and injured four &zwnj;people in the Nakhchivan exclave. Iran, which has a significant Azeri minority, denied it targeted its neighbour.

Ground troops in Iran

Trump said on Thursday it would be a &quot;waste of time&quot; currently to consider sending US ground troops into Iran, NBC News reported, dismissing the Iranian foreign minister&#39;s warning that such a move would spell disaster for invaders.

&quot;It&#39;s a waste of time. They&#39;ve lost everything. They&#39;ve lost their navy. They&#39;ve lost everything they can lose,&quot; he told NBC by telephone, adding that Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi&#39;s earlier remark that Iran was ready for a US or Israeli ground invasion was a &quot;wasted comment&quot;.



US President Trump said Iran is being demolished &ldquo;ahead of schedule and at levels people have never seen before&rdquo;, claiming the country now has &ldquo;no air force, no air defence&rdquo; and the air force is &ldquo;gone&rdquo;.

🔴 Follow our LIVE coverage: https://t.co/q1Q18tbGFl pic.twitter.com/ILTEFBYY5m
&mdash; Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) March 6, 2026


Trump also indicated he is keen to see Iran&#39;s leadership structure removed and that &quot;we want to go in and clean out everything&quot; quickly.

&quot;We don&#39;t want someone who would rebuild over a 10-year period,&quot; he said. He added that he had ideas for a new leader but declined to name anyone.

Trump said earlier he would &quot;have to be involved&quot; in the appointment of Iran&#39;s next leader after US-Israeli strikes killed Khamenei when the conflict began on Saturday. He rejected the possibility that Khamenei&#39;s son Mojtaba could succeed his slain father, dismissing him as a &quot;lightweight&quot;.

Heavy attacks were reported in Tehran after Israel said it was hitting &quot;regime infrastructure&quot; in a &quot;new phase&quot; of the war it launched with the US against Iran.

Read: Middle East war spreads to Lebanon, Iraq as Israel attacks Tehran

The conflict, now in its seventh day, has seen Iran target Israel, the Gulf states, Cyprus, Turkey, and Azerbaijan. The violence has also spread to the Indian Ocean, where a US submarine sank an Iranian naval ship off the coast of Sri Lanka.

The Iranian ship was invited to take part in the International Fleet Review 2026 in India. The strike killed around 87 sailors.



Welcome! | خوش آمدید!

🇮🇳🤝🇮🇷 Indian Navy welcomes IRIS Dena, of the Iranian Navy, on her arrival at #Visakhapatnam to participate in #IFR2026_India and #MILAN2026, reflecting long-standing cultural links between the two nations.@India_in_Iran #BridgesOfFriendship&hellip; pic.twitter.com/O77v2qNJHJ
&mdash; Eastern Naval Command 🇮🇳 (@IN_HQENC) February 17, 2026


According to former Indian Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal, he wrote in a post on X that, &quot;I am told that as per protocol for this exercise, ships cannot carry any ammunition. It was defenceless.&quot;



The Iranian ship will not be where it was if we had not invited it to talk part in our Milan exercise.

We were the hosts.

I am told that as per protocol for this exercise ships cannot carry any ammunition. It was defenceless.

The Iranian naval personnel had paraded before&hellip; https://t.co/3r8bWFJn8d
&mdash; Kanwal Sibal (@KanwalSibal) March 5, 2026


Araghchi has rejected calls for a ceasefire and stated there was no reason to negotiate with the US. Despite the challenges, Iranian forces continue to retaliate against Israel and its allies. According to Drop Site News, Iran warns that it has not begun using their &quot;new&quot; weapons.

IRGC spokesman Brig. Gen. Ali Mohammad Naeini said, according to Mehr News Agency, &ldquo;The enemy should expect painful blows in every operational wave,&rdquo; he said, adding that Iran&rsquo;s &ldquo;new innovations and weapons&rdquo; have not yet been used on a large scale.



⭕️ Iran warns new weapons have not yet been used

Iran is prepared for a prolonged war and has not yet deployed many of its newest weapons systems, IRGC spokesman Brig. Gen. Ali Mohammad Naeini said, according to Mehr News Agency.

➤ &ldquo;The enemy should expect painful blows in&hellip; https://t.co/54Lc5YXOFe
&mdash; Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) March 6, 2026


US-Israeli escalation

On Friday morning, Iranian media reported heavy strikes in Tehran shortly after Israel&rsquo;s announcement that it was targeting Iran&rsquo;s &quot;regime infrastructure&quot;.

Israel&rsquo;s military chief, Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir, warned that the US-Israeli campaign had entered the next phase and would &ldquo;further dismantle the regime and its military capabilities&rdquo;.

Zamir also hinted at &quot;additional surprises&quot; to come, but declined to disclose further details. US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed that &ldquo;firepower over Iran and over Tehran is about to surge dramatically&quot;.



🚨Important: IDF Chief of Staff outlines next phase of war against Iran and Lebanon

▪️On Iran, Israel will escalate strikes aimed at weakening the Iranian state:

&ldquo;We will intensify the blow to the foundations of the regime and its military capabilities. We still have additional&hellip; pic.twitter.com/rJdN0O3UmB
&mdash; Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) March 5, 2026


Iran&rsquo;s Revolutionary Guards responded by launching missiles toward Tel Aviv after an earlier explosion in central Israel caused a fire at a residential building. AFP journalists reported hearing simultaneous explosions in Tel Aviv, while rocket trails lit up the sky in Netanya, further north.

Trump backs Kurds

In the midst of the escalating conflict, Trump expressed support for Iranian Kurdish militias in Iraq, encouraging them to intensify their attacks against Iran.

Speaking to Reuters, Trump stated, &ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s wonderful that they want to do that, I&#39;d be all for it.&rdquo;

These militias, based along the Iran-Iraq border in Iraqi Kurdistan, have been in consultations with the US on launching attacks on Iran&rsquo;s western security forces.

Read more: Iran hits CIA site in Riyadh as US seeks to arm Kurdish forces against Tehran

Security sources reported two Iranian drone strikes on an opposition camp in Iraqi Kurdistan on Thursday, underscoring the rising violence. Iranian Kurdish forces have been preparing for such operations to weaken Iran&rsquo;s military while US and Israeli airstrikes target Iranian installations.

Iran&rsquo;s future leadership

Meanwhile, Hegseth sought to clarify that, despite Trump&rsquo;s comments, there were no changes in the US military&rsquo;s objectives in Iran. &quot;There&rsquo;s no expansion in our objectives. We know exactly what we&rsquo;re trying to achieve,&quot; Hegseth said.

Also read: US investigation points to likely US responsibility in Iran school strike, sources say

Azerbaijan prepares retaliation

Azerbaijan has vowed to retaliate after &quot;Iranian&quot; drones crossed its border and injured four people in the Nakhchivan exclave. President Ilham Aliyev condemned the attacks as an &ldquo;unprovoked act of terror and aggression&rdquo; and vowed to take action.

Hezbollah responds

Hezbollah, an armed force fighting against Israeli aggression in Lebanon, launched missiles in retaliation for the war.

Displaced families are seeking shelter on a beach, facing dire conditions.

Attacks across region

US forces sank an Iranian frigate off the coast of Sri Lanka that had travelled to India to take part in a parade, while Azerbaijan threatened retaliation after a drone attack on an airport. Iran also targeted US bases inside Gulf countries, including Qatar, which intercepted a drone targeting a US base in Al-Udeid. Bahrain reported an alleged attack on a hotel and residential buildings, while Saudi Arabia intercepted three ballistic missiles.

Casualties mount in Iran, Lebanon

In Lebanon, 77 have died. Thousands have fled southern Beirut, further exacerbating the humanitarian crisis. Additionally, two paramedics have been killed in Shiraz, Iran, according to Al Jazeera.



UPDATE: Two paramedics killed in Shiraz, Iran: Report

🔴 LIVE updates: https://t.co/C3iSVX4pRP pic.twitter.com/CXHJVw5D20
&mdash; Al Jazeera Breaking News (@AJENews) March 6, 2026


More than 3,000 homes in Iran were damaged by US-Israeli attacks, according to the Red Crescent.

Pir Hossein Kolivand, president of the Iranian Red Crescent Society, says the US-Israeli attacks have damaged 3,643 civilian sites, including 3,090 homes. Also damaged are 528 commercial and service centres, 14 medical or pharmaceutical facilities and nine Red Crescent facilities, he said.

Most of the targets, he added, were in &ldquo;densely populated residential areas&rdquo;.

Drop Site News reports that 20 more Iranian civilians were killed and 30 injured after US&ndash;Israel strikes hit the Zibashahr residential area of Shiraz, a major city in southwestern Iran about 420 miles south of Tehran, the acting head of the political deputy office of the Fars Province governorate said, according to Islamic State News Agencies.



🚨 New: 20 Iranian civilians killed in U.S.&ndash;Israel strikes on residential area in Shiraz

At least 20 civilians were killed and 30 injured after U.S.&ndash;Israel strikes hit the Zibashahr residential area of Shiraz &ndash; a major city in southwestern Iran about 420 miles south of Tehran &ndash;&hellip; https://t.co/TRKWPIvfDd
&mdash; Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) March 6, 2026


Prolonged conflict preparation

US officials, including Admiral Brad Cooper, head of Central Command, confirmed that strikes from Iran have significantly diminished, with ballistic missile attacks decreasing by 90% and drone attacks down by 83%. However, Pentagon officials reaffirmed their commitment to the ongoing campaign, emphasising the availability of sufficient munitions for a sustained effort.

Global disruptions

The conflict has disrupted global markets, energy supplies, and travel. While oil prices have surged, global logistics and air transport have been heavily affected. Iran claims control over the Strait of Hormuz, a key energy chokepoint, but the US has signalled it may escort ships through the area if necessary.]]>
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			<title>Global investors trim US exposure amid debt fears</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627456/global-investors-trim-us-exposure-amid-debt-fears</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627456/global-investors-trim-us-exposure-amid-debt-fears#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 04 Sep 26 13:44:44 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Web Desk]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>
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			<description>
				<![CDATA[Norway cuts Treasury allocation as Dutch central bank moves gold reserves to London amid rising risks]]>
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				<![CDATA[Growing concerns over soaring government debt, rising bond yields and geopolitical uncertainty are prompting some of the world&rsquo;s biggest institutional investors and central banks to rethink their exposure to US assets, with Norway&rsquo;s sovereign wealth fund planning to reduce its holdings of US Treasurys and the Dutch central bank moving a huge portion of its gold reserves from North America to London, according to CNBC.

The moves come as global government bond markets face renewed pressure, with yields on several major sovereign bonds climbing to multi-decade highs amid concerns over inflation, interest rates and mounting public debt.

Norway&rsquo;s $2.3 trillion sovereign wealth fund, the world&rsquo;s largest, has proposed a major restructuring of its fixed-income portfolio, CNBC reported. Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), which manages the Government Pension Fund Global, has recommended reducing the share of government bonds within its bond benchmark from 70% to 50%.

The fund said the lower allocation would still provide sufficient liquidity during periods of market turbulence while allowing it to pursue higher returns through other fixed-income assets.

Under the proposed changes, NBIM&rsquo;s US Treasury holdings would fall from 34.1% of its government bond portfolio to 21.9%, while its euro area holdings would decline from 16.8% to 14.1%.

The proposed reduction in Treasury exposure comes at a sensitive time for the US bond market. Long-term Treasury yields have recently risen to decade-high levels as investors have become increasingly concerned about the trajectory of US government finances and the country&rsquo;s rapidly expanding debt.

Economist Mohamed El-Erian said the Norwegian fund&rsquo;s planned reduction was relatively small in terms of its direct impact on the Treasury market, but significant as a signal.

&ldquo;The size isn&rsquo;t big, but the signal that traditional holders and buyers are becoming less reliable is a very important one,&rdquo; El-Erian told CNBC, pointing to Japan, China and Gulf countries as other major holders facing pressures that could affect their appetite for US government debt.

He argued that the recent rise in interest rates was driven less by concerns about inflation or the credibility of the Federal Reserve than by a fundamental imbalance between the enormous amount of debt being issued and the pool of reliable buyers willing to absorb it.

&ldquo;China, for geopolitical purposes, is no longer as willing,&rdquo; El-Erian said. &ldquo;Japan and the Gulf countries have domestic issues.&rdquo;

Norway&rsquo;s fund is simultaneously seeking greater diversification within its fixed-income portfolio. NBIM plans to increase its holdings of nongovernment US fixed income, including corporate bonds, from 16.2% to 27.6%.

Fund chief executive Nicolai Tangen and Norges Bank Governor Ida Wolden Bache said the fund could earn higher premiums by moving into riskier assets such as mortgage-backed securities. Such securities, they argued, can behave differently from equities during periods of market stress and could therefore provide an additional source of diversification and reduce overall portfolio volatility.

The strategy reflects growing concerns over concentration risk. NBIM currently holds around $1.65 trillion in equities, representing almost 1.5% of all listed shares globally, alongside about $592 billion in fixed-income assets.

The fund has posted record profits in recent quarters, benefiting from its enormous investments in US and Asian technology companies and stocks linked to the artificial intelligence boom. But Tangen has warned that such returns cannot be expected to continue indefinitely, particularly if global markets experience a major correction.

A recent NBIM stress test found that a sharp correction in AI-related assets could wipe about $740 billion, or 35%, from the fund&rsquo;s value.

El-Erian said investors should meanwhile expect pressure on global government bonds to persist, particularly because there is little political appetite in the United States for immediate fiscal consolidation. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t see any appetite in the US for immediate fiscal consolidation. So I suspect we will continue to see upward pressures on yields,&rdquo; he said.

He identified Britain, Japan and France as three G7 economies particularly vulnerable to sovereign debt problems. Britain, he said, was especially sensitive to movements in US yields, with its borrowing costs tending to move by considerably more when US rates change.

At the same time, El-Erian criticised what he described as excessive attempts by the US administration to influence financial markets and monetary policy.

The Treasury Department recently announced plans to at least double the size of its long-dated Treasury buybacks after a surge in borrowing costs. Vice President JD Vance has also called on the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates, adding to political pressure on the central bank.

El-Erian described the moves as &ldquo;unfortunate&rdquo;, warning that the Treasury could not permanently impose desired outcomes on a market as large as the US bond market without risking unintended consequences.

Read More: US consul general calls for stronger economic ties with Pakistan

The concerns over US assets are also reflected in central banks&rsquo; management of their gold reserves.

The Dutch central bank, DNB, said it had transferred approximately 86 metric tons of gold from storage facilities in New York and Ottawa to London between March and August, according to CNBC. The amount represented just over one-quarter of its gold reserves previously held in North America.

The gold is now stored with the Bank of England, which DNB said offered access to the world&rsquo;s most easily tradable gold because bars stored there meet international trading standards.

DNB said the move was aimed at strengthening its contingency planning and crisis preparedness amid increasing geopolitical unrest. &ldquo;With this relocation, we have improved the tradability of our gold reserves,&rdquo; DNB Governor Olaf Sleijpen said, adding that the central bank expected never to need to use the reserves in a crisis but wanted to strengthen its resilience.

The transfer gives DNB a more geographically balanced distribution of its gold. London now holds 32.1% of its reserves, while 30.8% is stored at the central bank&rsquo;s cash centre in Zeist in the Netherlands. New York and Ottawa each hold 18.5%.

DNB said gold stored in the US and Canada could not be utilised as quickly and directly in a crisis, while London&rsquo;s established gold market infrastructure offered greater tradability.

The Dutch move follows a similar decision by the French central bank, which transferred 129 metric tons of gold from the New York Federal Reserve between July 2025 and January 2026. French central bank Governor Fran&ccedil;ois Villeroy de Galhau said the transfer was not politically motivated.

The moves by Norway and the Netherlands come as gold prices have surged amid heightened financial and geopolitical uncertainty. Gold has gained nearly 25% over the past 12 months and was recently trading around $4,430 an ounce.

Taken together, these moves suggest that the world&rsquo;s largest investors are beginning a gradual, rather than abrupt, retreat from US markets, according to analysts. Rising debt, higher yields, geopolitical tensions and policy uncertainty are encouraging institutions to reduce their reliance on US Treasurys and dollar-linked assets.

While the shift does not amount to a wholesale abandonment of US markets, it signals that their once-dominant position in global portfolios can no longer be taken for granted.]]>
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			<title>Natasha acquitted in drug case linked to Karsaz accident</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627449/natasha-acquitted-in-drug-case-linked-to-karsaz-accident</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627449/natasha-acquitted-in-drug-case-linked-to-karsaz-accident#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 04 Sep 26 12:44:19 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Our Correspondent]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2627449</guid>
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				<![CDATA[Court observes medical evidence does not establish she consumed drugs]]>
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				<![CDATA[A judicial magistrate&rsquo;s court in Karachi on Thursday acquitted Natasha, the accused in the Karsaz road accident case, in a separate case registered under the anti-narcotics law after the prosecution and investigating authorities failed to prove the charge against her.

The court observed that the medical evidence did not establish that Natasha had consumed drugs. It further noted that no signs of drug use were detected in her blood test.

The prosecution told the court that in August 2024, Natasha had allegedly run over a father and daughter riding a motorcycle on Karsaz. Imran Arif and his daughter, Amina Imran, were killed in the accident, while Abdul Salam and Shane Alexander sustained injuries.

A case over the accident was registered at Bahadurabad police station on the complaint of Imtiaz, the brother of the deceased Imran, the prosecution said.

The prosecution further informed the court that Natasha had already been acquitted in the main Karsaz accident case.

The court, finding the prosecution unable to establish the drug-use charge, acquitted Natasha in the anti-narcotics case.]]>
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			<title>ANF says Afghan drug network disrupted, 671kg of meth seized</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627420/anf-says-afghan-drug-network-disrupted-671kg-of-meth-seized</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627420/anf-says-afghan-drug-network-disrupted-671kg-of-meth-seized#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 04 Sep 26 08:58:12 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Web Desk]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2627420</guid>
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				<![CDATA[Haul includes 200kg seized at Karachi Port and 471kg recovered during a joint operation in Colombo]]>
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				<![CDATA[The Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) said it had disrupted a transnational drug trafficking network involved in smuggling Afghan-origin drugs through Pakistan to international markets, resulting in the seizure of 671kg of methamphetamine in Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

In a press release, the ANF said an operation based on actionable intelligence had led to the recovery of 200kg of methamphetamine, commonly known as Ice, from a container at Karachi Port. An Afghan national identified as Ehsan Ullah, whom the force described as the mastermind, was also arrested along with local handlers, it said.

The ANF said its investigators obtained critical information after questioning Ehsan Ullah and subsequently shared it with Sri Lankan authorities and the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

On Wednesday, anti-narcotics agents from the United States and Sri Lanka seized almost half a tonne of crystal methamphetamine during a joint operation targeting a Pakistani drug network, police said.

The US embassy in Colombo said the narcotics, valued at $21 million and concealed in bath towels, were intended for international markets via Sri Lanka.

According to the ANF, the information it provided prompted the DEA to coordinate with relevant Sri Lankan authorities, resulting in a joint operation at Colombo Port.

The operation led to the recovery of another 471kg of methamphetamine, which had been concealed in towels, the ANF said.

Read: Pakistani drug network busted in Colombo

The force said the combined operations at Karachi and Colombo ports resulted in the seizure of 671kg of methamphetamine linked to the Afghanistan-based trafficking network.

The ANF said it had shared the intelligence with the DEA &ldquo;to ensure timely coordinated action and prevent the international trafficking of the narcotics&rdquo;.

It described Pakistan as &ldquo;a victim state for Afghan-origin drugs&rdquo; and said it worked closely with allied and partner agencies to conduct coordinated counter-narcotics operations in fulfilment of its international obligations.

The force said it had played a &ldquo;pivotal role&rdquo; in the operation by using intelligence-based strategies to identify the trafficking network.

The ANF said the operation demonstrated its &ldquo;professional capabilities, commitment to combating narcotics trafficking, and its effective cooperation with international law enforcement agencies&rdquo;.

The force also said its efforts to dismantle international drug trafficking organisations (DTOs) and apprehend Afghan drug traffickers and their local facilitators had been &ldquo;formally acknowledged&rdquo; by Sri Lankan authorities and the US DEA.

According to the ANF, the acknowledgement underscored its role in international counter-narcotics cooperation.]]>
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			<title>K-P renews push to enrol out-of-school children, expand girls’ education</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627451/k-p-renews-push-to-enrol-out-of-school-children-expand-girls-education</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627451/k-p-renews-push-to-enrol-out-of-school-children-expand-girls-education#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 04 Sep 26 12:50:58 +0500</pubDate>
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				<![CDATA[APP]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
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				<![CDATA[Province plans new classrooms, accelerated learning centres and higher stipends to improve access and retention]]>
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				<![CDATA[The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Education Department has reinstated focus on the enrolment of out-of-school children in the formal education system while expanding existing schools and promoting alternative learning through distance education and non-formal education (NFE).

K-P Elementary and Secondary Education Department Procurement Specialist Muhammad Ijaz Khalil said this while addressing a post-budget seminar on girls&rsquo; education organised by the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Commission on the Status of Women (KPCSW) in collaboration with Blue Veins Organisation.

K-P Assembly Secretary Syed Wiqar Shah, parliamentarians, representatives of the Education Department, civil society and media attended the seminar.

Speaking at the seminar, Khalil said various schemes had been launched under the latest budget to increase student enrolment, with a special focus on girls&rsquo; education. He added that 73 new projects had been earmarked in the education sector for fiscal year 2026-27 at a total cost of Rs125.14billion, with an allocation of Rs3.89billion for the first quarter.

Read: PHC summons Peshawar BISE chairman, controller of examinations over student awarded &#39;zero&#39; in biology

Khalil further said the government was working on construction of around 10,000 additional classrooms to enhance the capacity of existing educational institutions.

Similarly, he stated, work was underway to convert 50 mosques into government primary schools, enabling children in the respective areas to access formal education through existing religious institutions.

To provide educational opportunities to out-of-school and over-age children through the Elementary and Secondary Education Foundation (ESEF) and partner organisations, around 300 Accelerated Learning Programme (ALP) centres have been established across the province, he added.

Outlining more measures to boost school enrolment and retention of girls, Khalid said that a monthly stipend of Rs500 is being awarded to every female student in the merged districts with the support of the World Food Programme (WFP). &ldquo;In pursuance of the directives of former chief minister Ali Amin Gandapur, work was also underway to increase the stipend from Rs500 to Rs1,000 per month.&rdquo;

Earlier in her welcome address, KPCSW Chairwoman Dr Sumera Shams said the objective of the seminar was to discuss budgetary allocations for fiscal year 2026-27, development schemes and the implementation of initiatives related to girls&rsquo; education.

Read more: BISE Peshawar cracks down on cheating

Sumera highlighted that the government had increased the education budget by around 11% for the current fiscal year after concerns were highlighted by relevant stakeholders and representatives of the civil society organisations.

&ldquo;However, our responsibility is to monitor the utilisation of the allocated funds to ensure effective implementation of the schemes and ensure that their benefits reach students, particularly girls,&rdquo; she underscored.

Speaking at the seminar, Blue Veins Programme Manager Qamar Naseem stressed the importance of increasing pupil enrollment in K-P in view of the large number of out-of-school children in the province.

He cited the 2023 population census, which indicated that around 4.9 million children were out of school in the province, of whom approximately 2.9 million were girls. &ldquo;Around 52% of girls aged between five and 16 were not attending school in K-P, while among those enrolled, around 60% did not reach secondary level,&rdquo; Naseem emphasised.

Also Read: Bara girls face higher education crisis

The programme manager further said that bringing the estimated 4.9 million out-of-school children into the education system would require construction of around 15,000 new schools, which could take a considerable period of time.

Even with full availability of resources, he added, the provincial government could construct only around 300 schools annually. Therefore, he said he welcomed the Education Department&rsquo;s announcement of a Multi-Sectoral Response policy to increase student enrollment.

Exemplifying the initiative of the Sindh government under which private schools are engaged to provide additional space for students, Naseem recommended a similar public-private partnership be initiated in K-P to address the lack of infrastructure challenge.

Addressing the seminar attendees, K-P Assembly Secretary Syed Wiqar Shah called for measures to ensure implementation of the minimum wage in private schools, where teachers, particularly women, are often paid low salaries. He said the practice negatively impacted their performance.

Shah also offered the office of the Speaker of K-P Assembly to MPAs and other stakeholders for raising issues related to girls&rsquo; education and submitting suggestions for improving the system.]]>
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			<title>Romanian prosecutors indict Andrew Tate for trafficking minors, money laundering</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627437/romanian-prosecutors-indict-andrew-tate-for-trafficking-minors-money-laundering</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627437/romanian-prosecutors-indict-andrew-tate-for-trafficking-minors-money-laundering#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 04 Sep 26 11:50:56 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2627437</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Prosecutors say Tates recruit their victims by seducing them, falsely claiming to want relationship, marriage]]>
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				<![CDATA[Romanian prosecutors officially indicted social media influencer Andrew Tate on &zwnj;Friday for trafficking minors, money laundering, sex with a minor and witness tampering and his brother Tristan for complicity, years after they began investigating them.

The Tate brothers, former kickboxers with dual US&nbsp;and British citizenship,&nbsp;were arrested&nbsp;in Miami in late July after Britain requested their extradition.

Mainly based ​in Romania since 2017, they have been under criminal investigation in the country on charges including human trafficking ​since December 2022.

Romanian prosecutors said the Tates recruited their victims by seducing them and falsely claiming ⁠to want a relationship or marriage, before&nbsp;forcing them&nbsp;to produce pornographic content for a webcam business.

They have denied all wrongdoing. &quot;We ​will examine every aspect of (the indictment) with the same level of scrutiny and we will challenge any evidential, procedural or legal ​deficiencies through the appropriate judicial process,&quot; a Romanian lawyer for the Tates, Eugen Vidineac, said in a statement.

&quot;Our clients continue to reject the allegations against them.&quot;

Prosecutors describe case involving 15-year-old

The Tate brothers remain in jail in the US&nbsp;while a judge decides on the request for their extradition ​to Britain, where they are wanted on rape charges.

The spokesperson for the Romanian anti-organized crime prosecuting unit DIICOT &mdash; which is ​investigating the Tates &mdash; said it was not immediately clear whether the unit will seek their extradition from the United States.

The Tates can be &zwnj;tried ⁠in absentia in Romania, but the trial will not start immediately. Under Romanian law, the indictment gets sent to a preliminary court chamber, where a judge will inspect the case files to ensure legality.

Read:&nbsp;Andrew Tate, brother arrested in US

While the law states that the preliminary chamber judge has 60 days to finalize the report, indictments routinely take significantly longer.

DIICOT said one of Andrew Tate&#39;s victims was 15 when ​he seduced her in Britain ​in 2012, before moving her ⁠to the Romanian capital Bucharest and using physical violence and mental intimidation to sexually exploit her by forcing her to produce pornographic content for social media sites.

His brother Tristan was an ​accessory, the unit said, using physical aggression to coerce the victim.

Prosecutors said the brothers kept $1.25 ​million from the ⁠videochat income generated by the victim, roughly 80% of all her gains. The brothers tried to launder the funds by buying four luxury cars, they added.

The brothers were previously indicted in Romania on charges of human trafficking, but in late 2024 the Bucharest ⁠court of ​appeals sent the case back to prosecutors after deeming some evidence inadmissible.

Andrew ​Tate, a self-described misogynist, previously said he moved to Romania because law enforcement there was more lax.

Both brothers have grown their following of mainly young men ​by building a lavish, hyper-macho image of driving fast cars and dating beautiful women.]]>
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			<title>More than 80 killed in Yemen clashes since Thursday: sources</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627433/more-than-80-killed-in-yemen-clashes-since-thursday-sources</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627433/more-than-80-killed-in-yemen-clashes-since-thursday-sources#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 04 Sep 26 11:36:34 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[AFP]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
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				<![CDATA[Military official on the Red Sea coast reported 24 men killed, while another in Taiz area said 15 killed]]>
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				<![CDATA[Clashes between Yemen&#39;s Houthi rebels and government forces have killed 81 combatants since Thursday, according to a tally of figures from two military officials and medical sources in rebel-held territory.

A military official on the Red Sea coast reported 24 of his men killed, while another in the inland Taiz area said 15 had been killed there.

At least 42 Houthi militants were also killed, according to medical sources in areas under their control.

Deadly clashes erupted in Yemen on Thursday, after Houthi fighters targeted populated districts along Yemen&#39;s western coast in Taiz and Hodeidah provinces with 14 ballistic missiles and drone attacks, the Yemeni Armed Forces Media Centre said on Thursday.

Military government sources told AFP the rebels were attempting to cut off the key port city of Mokha, under fire for weeks, from other government areas, and advance towards areas bordering the strategic Bab al-Mandab strait.

Air defences intercepted several drones in the Taiz front and others over districts along the western coast, the centre quoted a military source as saying.

The source praised the &quot;high combat readiness&quot; of Yemeni armed forces, saying morale remained high and military units across different sectors maintained a high level of vigilance and preparedness.

The ballistic missiles did not hit positions of forces deployed along the western coast, the source said.

Yemen, embroiled in more than a decade of civil conflict,&nbsp;became the latest country to be drawn into the Middle East war in July, as the Houthis upended a 2022 truce with the Saudi-backed government.]]>
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			<title>Argentina's Milei steps up Falklands sovereignty claims with oil sanctions</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627439/argentinas-milei-steps-up-falklands-sovereignty-claims-with-oil-sanctions</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627439/argentinas-milei-steps-up-falklands-sovereignty-claims-with-oil-sanctions#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 04 Sep 26 11:54:28 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2627439</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Prospect of oil firms exploring the islands urgent threat ​to Argentine interests, Milei said]]>
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				<![CDATA[Argentine President Javier Milei said he would sanction oil companies drilling in the Falkland Islands, stepping &zwnj;up the country&#39;s claims to sovereignty over the British overseas territory.

Milei&#39;s comments in a televised national address on Thursday came days after US&nbsp;President Donald Trump said he was&nbsp;reviewing&nbsp;the United States&#39; neutral position on the remote archipelago in the South Atlantic.

The prospect of oil firms exploring the islands, which Argentina calls Las Malvinas, was an urgent threat ​to Argentine interests, Milei said, 44 years after his country was defeated by Britain in a&nbsp;war over sovereignty.

Milei, a Trump ally, referenced the ​possible shift in the US&nbsp;position and said &quot;winds of change&quot; favoured the Argentine claim. He said he was sending ⁠Congress a bill aimed at strengthening Argentina&#39;s response to violations of its sovereignty.

British position &#39;unwavering&#39;

Britain, which has controlled the territory since 1833, said on Friday that its ​position on the islands was &quot;unwavering&quot;.

Read:&nbsp;Oil set for steepest weekly gain since mid-July, fuelled by US-Iran clashes

&quot;The Islands are British and will remain so because that is the overwhelming position of the Islanders,&quot; British foreign minister Ed Miliband ​said on X.

&quot;Their right of self-determination is paramount, grounded in international law and we will resolutely uphold it.&quot;

British defence minister Wes Streeting added that Milei&#39;s words reflected &quot;domestic politics in Argentina&quot;.

Milei had previously favoured diplomacy as the best way to pursue Argentina&#39;s claim to the Falklands, but with more oil drilling due in the coming months and Trump&#39;s repeated mention of ​the islands, he is now striking a tougher tone.

Trump told GB News on Thursday that he was not sure if Britain would be prepared to ​fight for the islands again.

&quot;I just don&#39;t know if you have the capacity to do that,&quot; Trump said. &quot;The Falklands is very interesting because your country is not the same &zwnj;country it ⁠was 20 years ago, 25 years ago.&quot;

A&nbsp;potential shift&nbsp;in the US&nbsp;position towards the Falklands was included among a range of options considered by the Pentagon earlier this year to pressure NATO allies it believed failed to support US&nbsp;military operations in the war with Iran.

In 1982, Britain&#39;s then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, whom Milei in 2023 described as a &quot;great leader&quot;, sent a naval task force to the South Atlantic following an Argentinian invasion. Britain regained control of the islands after ​74 days of fighting, which left ​more than 900 people dead.

But in ⁠Thursday&#39;s address, Milei said Britain was now a country &quot;in decline&quot;.

Sea lion oilfield

Saying the islands were part of Argentina&#39;s future, Milei said he would send Congress an urgent &quot;national sovereignty defence&quot; bill to toughen penalties for unauthorised operations around the islands, ​extend sanctions to suppliers and broaden the legal framework to cover other activities affecting Argentina&#39;s natural resources.

Read more:&nbsp;Officials: US firm to take over some Venezuela oilfields previously run by Chinese, Russian firms

The Sea Lion ​oilfield, which lies ⁠about 140 miles north of the Falkland Islands, is operated by Tel Aviv-listed Navitas Petroleum&nbsp;and also has London-listed Rockhopper Exploration&nbsp;among its shareholders.

In 2010, when drilling first found the field, Argentina said it was illegal. It is estimated to hold 1.7 billion barrels of oil, making it a major discovery in global terms.

Rockhopper stock ⁠fell 6% on ​Friday morning, while Navitas was down 2%. The companies said in a statement they had ​valid petroleum licences.

&quot;The partnership believes that the recent developments are not expected to have a material effect on the development activities of the Sea Lion Project, including the timetable for completion of ​the Project&#39;s development,&quot; they said.]]>
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			<title>New York's Muslims reclaim their city after 9/11 backlash</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627430/new-yorks-muslims-reclaim-their-city-after-911-backlash</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2627430/new-yorks-muslims-reclaim-their-city-after-911-backlash#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 04 Sep 26 11:09:58 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[AFP]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2627430</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[With a Muslim mayor, 100 new mosques and a 9% Muslim population, Islamophobia still persists in New York City]]>
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				<![CDATA[Asad Dandia was eight when he watched the September 11, 2001 attacks on television at his Pakistani-immigrant parents&#39; home in New York. Then came the backlash -- years of Islamophobia as Americans processed attacks that had killed nearly 3,000 people.

There was anger, suspicion, and worse.

At 19, Dandia experienced a police informant posing as a friend to infiltrate his family home, part of a now-disgraced surveillance effort purportedly seeking to detect Islamic extremism.

Today, though, the 33-year-old historian finds a New York transformed: one with its first Muslim mayor, public prayers in Times Square and new mosques rising across the city. &quot;Twenty-five years after 9/11, we mourn, and we grieve what happened, and at the same time, we recognize that I am not responsible for what happened,&quot; he told AFP.

&quot;I don&#39;t deserve to be targeted for what happened, and I am as much of a New Yorker as anybody else in that respect,&quot; said Dandia, who leads walking tours centered on the city&#39;s Muslim communities.

Islamophobia surged in the United States after the 2001 attacks in which militants hijacked airliners and flew them into Manhattan&#39;s World Trade Center and the Pentagon outside Washington. A fourth plane crashed into a Pennsylvania field after a passenger revolt.

Muslims reported increased public assaults and harassment, and some stopped wearing visual markers such as hijabs in a bid to conceal their religion.

Meanwhile, US authorities monitored Muslims by requiring thousands of men and boys to register with the government, leading to many being deported from the country.

Read: The West&#39;s increasing campaign against Islam

&quot;Everyone was in such fear,&quot; said Mohammed Razvi, a native Pakistani who founded the Council of Peoples Organization nonprofit to support Muslims in New York after 9/11. &quot;We had gunshots fired in our neighborhood by individuals who felt that we were responsible,&quot; he added.

Razvi said he started introducing himself as &quot;Mo&quot; after 9/11 to avoid the stigma he encountered when saying &quot;Mohammad.&quot;

&quot;Muslims trying to live the American dream were being blamed for something they had nothing to do with or even control,&quot; he said.

Terrifying

In New York, police began surveilling hundreds of Muslims as part of their counterterrorism strategy, often targeting people without evidence of wrongdoing.

Dandia experienced this as a 19-year-old college student, when a young Bangladeshi man joined a mutual aid charity he had started. The pair grew close: sharing meals, playing sports, and even sleeping at Dandia&#39;s home. But seven months later, the man revealed that he was an NYPD informant sent to monitor Dandia and his community.

&quot;It was heartbreaking, but it was also terrifying,&quot; he recalled. &quot;My relationship with the world around me shifted underneath my feet.&quot;

After his ordeal, Dandia and rights groups won a landmark legal settlement that restricted the NYPD from launching similar surveillance programs and established a watchdog to monitor the force.

Read More: Scotland probes anti-Muslim &#39;attacks&#39;

For Gadier Abbas, an attorney with the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the NYPD program was the prime example of the &quot;anti-Muslim hysteria&quot; that followed 9/11.

But today, Abbas said, &quot;there is a lot of hope.&quot;

&quot;You see American Muslims in every single walk of life, almost at every single level, and that&#39;s a testament to the vibrancy of the community.&quot;

Power

New York will soon boast the largest mosque in the state -- one of more than 100 added since 2001 in New York -- while Muslims are a rising cultural and political force. Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who took his oath of office on a Quran, has become the new face of American leftist politics.

Still, Islamophobia persists in the city where around nine percent of the population is Muslim. In March, a far-right influencer organized a &quot;Stop the Islamic Takeover of New York City&quot; rally outside the mayor&#39;s residence.

Meanwhile, a conservative senator has said Mamdani should be sent to Guantanamo Bay, the US detention camp best known for holding 9/11 suspects.

Some relatives of September 11 victims have called for Mamdani -- an avid supporter of Palestinian rights -- to skip this year&#39;s 9/11 memorial, while other families have defended the mayor.

Dandia acknowledged Islamophobia had not disappeared, but he was optimistic about how far New York&#39;s Muslim community has come. &quot;I&#39;ve seen the growth of our institutional power, but also the recognition by other New Yorkers who are not Muslim, that we are all part of this city together,&quot; he said.

&quot;I think that&#39;s really valuable because, you know, Rome was not built overnight, and it was not built by one person or one group of people. It was built by the community.&quot;]]>
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			<title>NDMA issues nationwide alert ahead of pre-monsoon rains, warns of hazards</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2615432/ndma-issues-nationwide-alert-ahead-of-pre-monsoon-rains-warns-of-hazards</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2615432/ndma-issues-nationwide-alert-ahead-of-pre-monsoon-rains-warns-of-hazards#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sun, 28 Jun 26 14:34:40 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[APP]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2615432</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Says intermittent pre-monsoon rains expected from June 28 to July 3]]>
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				<![CDATA[National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) on Sunday advised citizens to stay alert as intermittent pre-monsoon rains were expected across Pakistan from June 28 to July 3.

According to NDMA&nbsp;officials talking to media channels, a dangerous combination of intense heat and expected pre-monsoon rainfall was likely to accelerate glacier melting, triggering a sharp rise in water levels in rivers and streams across Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B), Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), and Azad Jammu and&nbsp;Kashmir.

The authority warned that vulnerable mountainous regions face heightened risks of glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs), flash floods, and landslides during the forecast period due to rapidly changing and unstable weather conditions.



NDMA issues strong countrywide alert ahead of pre-monsoon rainfall spell, warns of hazards pic.twitter.com/JuCxbEGIZu
&mdash; APP (@appcsocialmedia) June 28, 2026


Residents, tourists and travellers have been strongly advised to exercise extreme caution in high-risk districts, including Hunza, Nagar, Ghizer, Skardu, Shigar, Ghanche, Kharmang, Astore, Diamer, Upper and Lower Chitral and Swat, where sudden weather shifts could create life-threatening situations.

NDMA further urged the public to strictly avoid unnecessary movement near rivers, streams, glacial lakes and riverbanks, stressing the importance of immediate reporting of any unusual or hazardous conditions to local authorities to prevent loss of life and property.

Read More:&nbsp;Lahore swelters before monsoon

Provincial Disaster Management Authorities (PDMAs) have been placed on high alert with strict instructions to ensure full emergency preparedness, rapid response capability and coordinated action in case of any disaster triggered by the expected weather system.

Overall, NDMA&nbsp;stressed that timely precautions, strict adherence to safety advisories, and coordinated preparedness at all levels were essential to minimise risks, protect lives and reduce potential damage from the expected weather-related hazards.]]>
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			<title>Govt decides to end fuel subsidies after sharp decline in global oil prices</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2614572/govt-decides-to-end-fuel-subsidies-after-sharp-decline-in-global-oil-prices</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2614572/govt-decides-to-end-fuel-subsidies-after-sharp-decline-in-global-oil-prices#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 22 Jun 26 17:51:19 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Web Desk]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2614572</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Committee agrees to withdraw fuel subsidies after benefit already passed on to consumers]]>
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				<![CDATA[Owing to a sharp decline in global fuel prices, the government on Monday decided to discontinue fuel subsidies provided to motorcyclists, small farmers and public transport.

The development comes after recent reductions in petroleum prices, under which petrol was cut by Rs74 per litre and diesel by Rs67 per litre, bringing them down to Rs299 per litre and Rs311 per litre respectively, following a decline in the international market after the US and Iran reached an agreement to end a conflict that had lasted over three months.

The decision was taken during the seventh meeting of the National Steering Committee on Fuel Subsidy, chaired by Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar.



Deputy Prime Minister &amp; Foreign Minister Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar @MIshaqDar50 chaired the 7th meeting of the National Steering Committee on Fuel Subsidy.

The Committee reviewed the rollout of fuel subsidy for motorcyclists, small farmers, public transport &amp; goods transport in&hellip; pic.twitter.com/I4X55tPKNV
&mdash; Ishaq Dar (@MIshaqDar50) June 22, 2026


The committee reviewed the rollout of fuel subsidy for motorcyclists, small farmers, public transport and goods transport across all provinces, Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

Noting the sharp decline in global fuel prices and that the benefit had already been passed on to consumers, the committee agreed to discontinue the subsidy, with the prime minister&rsquo;s approval.

While appreciating the committee&rsquo;s work marked by sustained interprovincial coordination, the deputy prime minister directed that lessons learnt from the exercise be documented and gaps in data and delivery be addressed to strengthen future initiatives aimed at improving public service delivery.

Also Read: Govt disburses Rs38b in fuel subsidy

The meeting was attended by SAPM Tariq Bajwa, federal secretaries of petroleum and IT, the State Bank of Pakistan governor and senior representatives from all provinces, Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

Following the oil price surge in the global market after the US-Iran conflict, the government significantly increased petroleum product prices after initially deciding to absorb the burden.

At one point, petrol prices had reached Rs458 per litre in April this year. However, days later, the prime minister announced an immediate Rs80 per litre reduction in the petroleum levy to provide relief to the public.

While announcing the relief, the prime minister also unveiled a fuel subsidy package aimed at shielding the public from rising fuel costs triggered by tensions in the Gulf region.

Under that initiative, motorcyclists were to receive a subsidy of Rs100 per litre, while goods transport, public transport and freight vehicles were also provided support for one month.

Under the same relief measures, small trucks were given Rs70,000 per month, large trucks Rs80,000 and public transport buses Rs100,000 as monthly subsidies.

The initiative also included support for small farmers, who were provided Rs1,500 per acre in assistance.]]>
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			<title>Govt moves to fully digitise passport issuance system</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2614022/passport-system-to-go-fully-digital-with-e-passport-rollout</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2614022/passport-system-to-go-fully-digital-with-e-passport-rollout#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 19 Jun 26 07:45:38 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Web Desk]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category><category><![CDATA[Islamabad]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2614022</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Preparatory work for home delivery of passports in Pakistan, abroad completed, service will be launched soon]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[The government on Friday decided to transition its passport issuance system to a complete e-passport framework as part of sweeping reforms aimed at modernising immigration services and eliminating fraud.

According to the Interior Ministry, a high-level meeting on Passport and Immigration was held at the headquarters under the chairmanship of Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, where key decisions regarding the digital overhaul of the system were approved.

A principal decision was taken to fully shift passport issuance to e-passports, with the move aimed at reducing fraud and forgery in the passport system. However, no deadline has been announced for the phase-out of existing passports.



وزیر داخلہ محسن نقوی کی زیر صدارت پاسپورٹ اینڈ امیگریشن ہیڈکوارٹرز میں خصوصی اجلاس
ڈی جی پاسپورٹس اینڈ امیگریشن محمد علی رندھاوا نے وفاقی وزیر داخلہ کو تفصیلی بریفنگ دی
پاسپورٹ کے اجراء کو مکمل طور پر ای پاسپورٹ پر منتقل کرنے کا اصولی فیصلہ
ای پاسپورٹ پر منتقلی سے فراڈ اور&hellip; pic.twitter.com/UlOOovm4Yv
&mdash; PTV News (@PTVNewsOfficial) June 19, 2026


The Director General of Passports and Immigration, Muhammad Ali Randhawa, briefed the minister on ongoing reforms and plans. Officials said premium service applicants will now be charged according to the actual cost of passport services.

According to the briefing, preparatory work for home delivery of passports within Pakistan and abroad had been completed, and the service will be launched soon.

From July 1, a cashless payment system will be introduced at passport offices across the country, and online passport applications will also be shifted to the Pak-ID platform.

The meeting also decided to finalise a policy for business passports in consultation with the Federal Board of Revenue.

Also Read: Public cautioned over multiple passports

The ministry said the reforms are part of broader efforts to make the passport system more efficient, transparent, and citizen-friendly.

According to the Ministry of Interior, the e-Passport is a highly secure travel document. It has an electronic chip embedded in one of the passport pages, which will be used to store biometric information about the holder.

The chip contains data that will verify the passport holder&rsquo;s identity and will include the biometrics of the passport holder, the personal data found on the data page of the passport, a unique identification number, and a digital signature.

An e-passport has a contactless chip on it which means that those passports can be read electronically. The newly launched e-Passports in Pakistan are in compliance with the United Nations&rsquo; ICAO standards.]]>
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			<title>PMD forecasts drizzle, light showers in Karachi till Friday</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2613639/pmd-forecasts-drizzle-light-showers-in-karachi-till-friday</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2613639/pmd-forecasts-drizzle-light-showers-in-karachi-till-friday#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Wed, 17 Jun 26 09:51:47 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Aftab Khan]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
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				<![CDATA[Predicts thunderstorms and heavy showers in the northern districts of Sindh]]>
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				<![CDATA[The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) on Wednesday forecast dusty winds and light rain in Karachi till Friday, along with thunderstorms and heavy showers in the northern districts of Sindh, as a westerly weather system continued to affect the region.

The Met Office predicted intermittent drizzle, light showers and scattered rainfall in parts of Karachi during the night as the westerly system maintained its intensity.

It added that Jacobabad, Kashmore, Qambar Shahdadkot, Shikarpur and Ghotki were likely to experience dusty winds, windstorms and moderate rain with thunderstorms until June 20.

The weather department also forecast light to moderate rain in Sukkur, Dadu, Khairpur, Sanghar, Naushahro Feroze, Shaheed Benazirabad and Jamshoro during the forecast period.

Authorities advised residents, particularly those living in areas prone to strong winds and thunderstorms, to remain cautious and stay updated on the latest weather advisories.



Weekly Weather Outlook (17&ndash;23 June 2026)#WeatherUpdate #WeeklyWeather #PakistanWeather #RainAlert #Thunderstorm pic.twitter.com/OOUbIecnr0
&mdash; Pak Met Department محکمہ موسمیات (@pmdgov) June 17, 2026



Earlier in the week,&nbsp;PMD&nbsp;forecast widespread dust storms, windstorms and rain-thunderstorms across several parts of the country from June 16, as moist currents from the Arabian Sea were expected to penetrate upper and central regions of Pakistan.

According to the Met Office, the incoming westerly wave was likely to trigger scattered dust storms, windstorms and rain-thunderstorms, accompanied by isolated heavy rainfall and hailstorms in various parts of Punjab between June 16 and 20.

Read More:&nbsp;Pakistan braces for widespread dust storms, thunderstorms from June 16

The Met office said Karachi and its surrounding areas may also experience dust storms accompanied by light rain.

It&nbsp;warned that strong winds, hailstorms and lightning could damage vulnerable infrastructure, including solar panels, electric poles and billboards.]]>
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			<title>Yemen's 'Spider-Man' climber dies after fall into volcanic crater</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2613104/yemens-spider-man-climber-dies-after-fall-into-volcanic-crater</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2613104/yemens-spider-man-climber-dies-after-fall-into-volcanic-crater#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sun, 14 Jun 26 10:08:39 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Web Desk]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2613104</guid>
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				<![CDATA[Civil defence teams recovered his body after nearly 24-hour search and recovery operation]]>
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				<![CDATA[A Yemeni free climber who gained social media fame for scaling sheer rock faces without ropes or safety equipment died after falling into a volcanic crater on Friday, according to reports by Al Jazeera

Al-Qa&rsquo;qa&rsquo; bin Antar, 30, also known as Qaqaa Antar al-Absi and dubbed the &quot;Spider-Man of Yemen&quot; online, reportedly fell on Friday while attempting to climb the 120-metre (394-foot) Haradhat Damt volcano crater in Yemen&rsquo;s southern province of Al Dhale, according to Al Jazeera.

He had become widely known for videos showing him climbing steep cliffs and volcanic formations without protective gear, sometimes marking high points on rock faces with white chalk writing.



Yemen&rsquo;s &#39;Spider-Man&#39; has died after falling while climbing the 120-metre Haradhat Damt volcanic crater without equipment.

Tributes have poured in from fans of Al-Qa&#39;qa&#39; bin Antar, who became famous for his videos attempting daring climbs. pic.twitter.com/gazsdVovGQ
&mdash; Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) June 13, 2026


Civil defence teams recovered his body on Saturday after a nearly 24-hour search and recovery operation, Yemen Monitor reported.

Read: Yemen&rsquo;s Houthi leader says group ready for escalation

Footage circulating online appears to show the moment he lost his grip and fell into the crater.



افضل مقطع قد تشاهده
مقطع اسطوري ومرعب للقعقاع 🫣

وهو يمارس هوايته في التسلق ويظهر فيه شجاعته وقوة تركيزة وثقته بنفسه

مقطع يخليك تخاف وانت في غرفتك فوق فرشك ويخلي أعصابك تنهار من شدة التوتر

مقطع سيجعل كبار المتسلقين في العالم يقفون مذهولين pic.twitter.com/CBLXjk3JGP
&mdash; فرفشة٢٤ farfasha24 (@MjhrMwq84778) June 13, 2026


According to Yemen Online, rescue teams deployed diving units, water rescue equipment and lighting systems to reach the difficult terrain inside the crater, where steep rock faces and hazardous conditions significantly hampered efforts.

Yemen Online also previously reported that bin Antar had cited poverty as a motivation for undertaking the dangerous climbs in an attempt to earn income.]]>
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