South Africa women’s cricket team sealed the three-match ODI series after defeating Pakistan women by 25 runs under the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern (DLS) method in the second encounter at Lahore, 24NewsHD TV reported on Friday.  

Chasing a daunting 313-run target in a rain-affected contest, Pakistan fought valiantly but were bowled out for 287, falling just short of the revised total.

Opener Sidra Ameen once again stood tall for Pakistan with a magnificent 122, her second consecutive century of the series, but her effort went in vain as wickets at regular intervals halted the team’s momentum.

Natalia Pervaiz contributed a solid 73, while Omaima Sohail chipped in with 43. Aliya Riaz added 18, and Rameen Shamim managed 12, but none could provide the finishing touch Pakistan desperately needed.

Earlier, the match was curtailed to 46 overs a side due to rain interruptions, with South Africa’s batting and bowling units rising to the occasion.

Opening batter Tazmin Brits continued her stunning form, hammering an unbeaten 171 runs in a commanding display that left the Pakistan bowlers struggling for answers.

She was well supported by skipper Laura Wolvaardt, who brought up a fluent century of her own.

Together, the pair put on a record-shaping 260-run opening stand — the third-highest partnership for the first wicket in the history of women’s ODIs.

Diana Baig was the only Pakistan bowler to get wickets, ending up with figures of 2-45 off her five overs.

With the win, South Africa claimed an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series, leaving Pakistan to play only for pride in the third and final ODI scheduled for September 22.

On Wednesday, South Africa outclassed the hosts with a clinical performance, chasing down a target of 256 runs to secure victory by eight wickets in the opening match on Tuesday.

Security forces personnel have killed three terrorists during an intelligence-based operation (IBO) in the Badrang area of Awaran District of Balochistan, reported 24NewsHD TV channel on Thursday, quoting security sources.

The operation was conducted under Operation Radd-ul-Fitna 3, with security forces targeting terrorists affiliated with Fitna al-Hindustan.

The sources said a large quantity of weapons and ammunition was recovered from the terrorists. They added that members of Fitna al-Hindustan had suffered significant losses during ongoing security operations across Balochistan.

“Security forces remained committed to continuing operations until they restored peace and order in the province and eliminated terrorism,” the sources said.

Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi praised the security forces for their successful operation and lauded the professional capabilities of the security forces.

“Brave personnel of the security forces remain determined to establish peace in Balochistan. I salute the security forces for foiling the nefarious designs of the terrorists,” Naqvi said.

Reporters Ahmad Mansoor and Awais Kiyani

The Lahore High Court on Thursday threw out the petition filed by former Pakistan cricket team skipper Muhammad Rizwan against the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA), saying it was inadmissible for the hearing, reported 24NewsHD TV channel. 

LHC Chief Justice (CJ) Justice Aalia Neelum remarked that the petitioner’s counsel had failed to give satisfactory answers to the court’s questions.

Addressing the lawyer, the CJ asked, “Why should not the court fine you?

She said that heavy fine should be imposed on him for concealing the facts. “You better appear before the NCCIA and reply to the show-cause notice issued to your client,” she said, adding, “Go and present your opinion there.”

Justice Neelum asked the counsel whether the cricketer had received the notice from the NCCIA.

“Yes, my client had been summoned on September 10,” he replied.

The judge then asked whether Rizwan had appeared before the Agency on that date. 

“He did appear. But now we have again been summoned,” the lawyer replied.

The chief justice asked him to appear before the NCCIA and present the former skipper’s stance there. 

A week ago, the NCCIA had questioned former Pakistan Mohammad Rizwan and Imam-ul-Haq for about two hours against the backdrop of dressing-room leaks.

The two cricketers appeared before the NCCIA at its Johar Town office in Lahore at 3pm.

They were also asked about their contacts and meetings during practice sessions and matches in England.

The duo sought more time to submit further responses to the NCCIA.

34-year-old Rizwan, who hails from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, is among the seven cricketers who were suddenly dropped from the Pakistan squad on an emergency basis following the team’s defeat in the Lord’s Test.

He travelled from London to Islamabad after being dropped from the squad.

Rizwan, who has represented Pakistan in 47 Tests, 103 ODIs and 106 T20Is, reportedly contacted the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) before appearing before the NCCIA at its Lahore office.

He subsequently appeared before the agency.

Reporter: Malik Ashraf 

The police in Karachi have arrested the main accused in connection with the gruesome murder of a woman and her three children in Surjani Town a few days ago, reported 24NewsHD TV channel on Thursday.

Accused Humayun was a tenant of the deceased woman who had development a relationship with her.

The woman and her three children were bludgeoned to death in their Surjani Town home on Monday evening.  All four victims sustained blows to the head with a sharp-edged object.

Police had initially detained the woman’s husband for questioning. However, police have now arrested the main accused in connection with the killings.

Police sources said the detained suspect had previously been a tenant of the woman some time ago and used to visit her often. He had development friendship with the woman but murdered her and her children after seeing someone else’s message on her phone, said sources in the police investigation team.

On the day of the murders, the accused was present inside the woman’s house, but someone’s text message on woman’s mobile phone triggered him which let to a scuffle between the two.

The accused said that the woman tried to strangulate him after which he got hold of an iron rod and hit the woman in the head.

In the meanwhile, the children who were given an intoxicated drink started to wake up. The accused also murdered them with a shar-edged weapon as they recognized him very well, the sources added.

The sources further revealed that the murder weapon has also been recovered from the accused, and further interrogation was under way.

The four victims — Mehwish Danish, 34, Hasnain, 6, Mirha, 8 and Ashmeera, 3, — were laid to rest at a local graveyard amid moving scenes the next day after their murder.

Police Surgeon Dr Summaiya Syed had said that the post-mortem examinations of the deceased persons were carried out at the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital and doctors found “multiple injuries on head”.

She said it appeared that the mother had been killed with hard and blunt instruments, such as an iron rod or stick, while the children succumbed to fatal head injuries caused by impact with a hard surface.

On Tuesday, a case was registered on the complaint of Muhammad Yameen, the grandfather of the children, under Section 302 (premeditated murder) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code against unknown persons.
 

Reporter Osama Malik

Pakistani social media commentator Dr Ejaz Waris has taken a dig at singer Ali Zafar after the latter spoke out against the body-shaming of Bollywood actress Katrina Kaif.

The latest development comes in an online debate over Katrina’s appearance following motherhood. Recent videos of the actress sparked comparisons with her older photographs, with some social media users commenting on changes in her weight and appearance.

Dr Ejaz Waris had also come under criticism over his remarks about Katrina’s changed look. His comments drew a strong reaction online, with many users accusing him of body-shaming the actress.

Ali Zafar later addressed the wider issue in a video shared on Instagram. Without naming Katrina or the person whose remarks he was referring to, Ali spoke about the way women are judged over their appearance and said people should think about their own behavior before criticizing others.

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Ali, who worked with Katrina in the 2011 Bollywood film Mere Brother Ki Dulhan, said he had come across posts comparing a former co-star’s appearance from the past with how she looks now.

The singer questioned why men feel they have the right to decide how a woman should look, behave or live her life. He also urged people to be more understanding, saying no one knows what another person may be dealing with privately.

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Ali further spoke about changing beauty standards and the pressure placed on both women and men to meet unrealistic expectations. He stressed that people make mistakes but should be willing to recognize them and change their behavior.

Soon after Ali’s remarks, Dr Ejaz Waris appeared to respond through an Instagram story, taking a direct swipe at the singer.

The story read: “Katrina Kaif ko Yaad bhi nahi hoga ke she ever worked with you in a movie معذرت کے ساتھ.”

The message means that Katrina Kaif may not even remember that she once worked with Ali Zafar in a film. The remark appears to mock Ali’s reference to his past professional connection with the actress.

Ali and Katrina worked together in Mere Brother Ki Dulhan, which also featured Imran Khan. The 2011 film was one of Ali’s Bollywood projects before he went on to appear in several other Indian productions.

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Pakistani actor Sheheryar Munawar has left fans amused with his witty response to a social media user who questioned why actor Umer Alam was not cast as Abu Bakar in the popular drama Dare Nijat.

A comment recently surfaced online asking Sheheryar why Umer Alam was not selected for the role of Abu Bakar, a character currently being portrayed by Sheheryar in the drama.

Responding to the question, Sheheryar jokingly revealed that Umer’s “dates issue” was the reason behind the casting decision, playfully referring to the actor’s scheduling conflicts.

However, the actor quickly added a more heartfelt note, making it clear that there was no hard feeling involved. “On a serious note, I love him and Inshallah soon,” he wrote, hinting that he would be happy to work with Umer Alam on a future project.

Sheheryar’s light-hearted response quickly caught attention, with the exchange giving fans a glimpse into the actor’s playful personality away from the intense world of Dare Nijat.

Sheheryar plays Abu Bakar, a focused and reflective Harvard-educated executive engineer whose character is deeply rooted in faith, family values and a strong moral compass.

His portrayal has been central to the drama’s emotional narrative, particularly as Abu Bakar’s relationship with Zaryab becomes increasingly complicated by circumstances, past connections and personal conflicts.

Durefishan Saleem plays Zaryab, a vibrant and privileged young woman whose life is heavily shaped by her intense love for her childhood friend. Nameer Nawaz Khan essays Zamil, an ambitious man from Zaryab’s past whose insecurities and jealousy towards Abu Bakar create further complications.

Sania Saeed appears as Khushbakht, Abu Bakar’s devoted and wise mother, while Saba Hameed plays Kishwar Jahan, Zaryab’s values-driven grandmother who views Abu Bakar as an ideal match for her granddaughter.

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Written by acclaimed novelist Umera Ahmed revolves around emotional struggles, relationships, spiritual reflection and the possibility of redemption.

The drama has generated considerable discussion among viewers for its layered characters and emotionally charged storyline, with the central relationships continuing to fuel speculation and debate across social media.

Meanwhile, Sheheryar’s amusing response to the Umer Alam casting question has added a lighter moment to the ongoing buzz surrounding the drama.

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The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday rejected the petition filed against the appointment of high court judges Justice Arbab Muhammad Tahir and Justice Saman Rafat Imtiaz, reported 24NewsHD TV channel. 

Justice Khadim Hussain Soomro pronounced the verdict on the petition filed by GM Chaudhry, a lawyer, who had requested the court to declare the appointment of both judges illegal and remove them from their posts.  

Earlier in May, the IHC had declared a petition challenging the appointment of Justice Saman Rafat Imtiaz as a judge inadmissible, observing that such litigation reflected a “regrettable tendency” to undermine the independence and dignity of the judiciary.

In a two-page written order, Justice Arbab Muhammad Tahir held that the petition contained “extremely defamatory, baseless and unsubstantiated allegations” against a serving judge, adding that the nature of the claims prima facie fell within the ambit of contempt of court.

The court emphasised that any attempt to scandalise a judge or question judicial conduct through unsubstantiated accusations cannot be entertained, as it directly impacts the institutional integrity of the judiciary. “The tendency to undermine the independence and dignity of the judiciary is very regrettable,” the order stated, while directing the petitioner to exercise caution in future. 

The petition had been filed by Advocate Kulsoom Khaliq, challenging the appointment of Justice Saman Rafat Imtiaz. However, the court noted that the allegations raised were linked to judicial proceedings and the conduct of a sitting judge, matters which fall outside the jurisdiction of such petitions.

Justice Tahir underlined that the law provides specific mechanisms for addressing grievances against judicial decisions, including appellate forums. He further clarified that any inquiry into alleged misconduct of a judge lies exclusively within the domain of the Supreme Judicial Council, the constitutional forum empowered to examine complaints against superior court judges.

“The contempt of court petition is not maintainable,” the order concluded.
Justice Saman Rafat Imtiaz had been transferred from the Islamabad High Court to the Sindh High Court. The transfer, however, was not a subject of adjudication in the present case.

Reporter: Ehtesham Kiyani 

Steve Smith says he is still traumatised by the infamous "Sandpapergate" ball-tampering scandal in 2018, but the former Australia skipper is undaunted about returning to South Africa for his first Test series since.

The prolific batsman was sent home in disgrace, banned for a year and sacked as captain after conspiring to alter the ball using sandpaper during the third Test in Cape Town eight years ago.

David Warner, considered the ringleader, was suspended for 12 months and stripped of all leadership roles while Cameron Bancroft was slapped with a nine-month ban.

Smith, preparing for the first Test in Durban on October 9 before the series moves to Gqeberha and Cape Town, said he still suffers flashbacks to a traumatic period of his life.

He is haunted by memories of leaving Johannesburg airport, with cameras clicking furiously around him, and a harrowing Sydney press conference on his return when he broke down in tears.

"I'm not a big fan of cameras ... I get anxious around cameras to be honest," he told News Corp. in an interview published Thursday.

"That was a traumatic experience in my life and when I hear the flash of a camera it makes me revisit that in a way.

"The 24-48 hours of being told by James Sutherland (then-Cricket Australia chief executive) that I was getting banned for a year. That and going through the airport in Johannesburg getting absolutely mobbed, and then flying back and doing that press conference.

"I still have little flashbacks here and there of it."

Smith bore the brunt of the scandal that is considered one of Australian sport's darkest moments, but bounced back emphatically.

He smashed a superb century against England on his return and has gone from strength to strength, with 10,920 Test runs so far at an average of 56.

"It was certainly a difficult period, particularly the initial period a few days after," he said.

"The mental state I was in was not great. That's somewhere I'd like not to get to again, but I certainly learned from that and have been able to move forward with my life.

"I've tried to kind of erase a lot of 2018 and what happened," he added.

"I can't remember a lot about the series. I've tried to block most of it out of my memory bank."

Smith has been back to South Africa for a white-ball series since 2018, but not for a Test and he is bracing for hostile crowds.

But the 37-year-old is unperturbed, having negotiated multiple Ashes tours to England since 2018, where the Barmy Army abused him relentlessly.

"It's something I'm kind of used to. I've copped a lot at times away from home at different venues across my career and it's something that I take in my own stride," he said.

"I use it as motivation to try and go out and do well and try and take a positive from it."

Pakistani YouTuber Rajab Butt has spoken about the tragic Aizal case after visiting her grieving mother in Karachi and expressing his support for the family’s demand for justice.

According to clips circulating on social media, Rajab met Aizal’s mother during his visit and spoke about the heartbreaking case. He said the child was still very young and had barely seen the world before her life was cut short.

Rajab said that anyone involved in crimes against children should face strict punishment. He also urged people to support Aizal’s family and raise their voices so that her mother can get justice as soon as possible.

Speaking during the meeting, Rajab said Aizal was too young to understand the world around her and deserved a chance to live her life. He stressed that people who harm children should be made an example of and called for serious action against those responsible.

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The Aizal case has continued to draw attention on social media. The Punjab Women Protection Authority has also assured Aizal’s mother of legal and moral support as she continues her fight for justice. According to the authority, Aizal was 18 months old and died following an alleged sexual assault in Karachi.

Rajab’s visit comes at a time when he is also facing criticism over a separate controversy. An old clip from a TikTok Live session with digital creator Zaid Ali recently resurfaced, in which Rajab made an inappropriate joke about child sexual abuse. The video triggered strong criticism from social media users and several public figures.

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Rajab later apologized for his remarks, admitting that the comment was inappropriate. He said child abuse is a serious matter that should never be treated as a joke and acknowledged that the age of the video did not excuse what he had said.

His meeting with Aizal’s mother has now attracted further attention online, with users discussing his decision to publicly support the family over the ongoing criticism surrounding him.

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A Moroccan cartoonist appeared in court on Wednesday to face charges of "insulting a constitutional institution" after posting caricatures of the king on social media, according to a source in the public prosecutor's office.

Yasser Mounbir, 22, was arrested three months ago, said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The prosecution decided to charge him with "insulting a constitutional institution by electronic means", as well as insulting public officials, the source added.

The charges were brought after Mounbir posted caricatures of King Mohammed VI on Instagram, said Hakim Sikouk of the Moroccan Association for Human Rights, an NGO that is following his case.

Mounbir appeared without a lawyer due to an nationwide strike in the legal profession that has been going on for several weeks.

He insisted, however, on his right to a legal defence, prompting the court to postpone the hearing until September 21, according to the prosecution source.

Article 179 of the Moroccan Penal Code forbids "defamation, insult or infringement of the private life of the king" and provides for prison sentences ranging from six months to two years.

The sentences may be doubled when the offence is committed electronically.

Real Madrid superstar Kylian Mbappe said on Wednesday that he wanted to make a gesture in support of immigrants who had lost their lives by not wearing a t-shirt in support of the people of Ceuta properly.

Real Madrid players Mbappe, Vinicius Junior and Ibrahima Konate were criticised, including by La Liga president Javier Tebas, for wearing the t-shirt partially rolled up ahead of their La Liga win over Elche on Tuesday.

The rest of the team and Elche players wore the t-shirt, which brandished the words "we are all Ceutans", normally, which was intended to be a message of support for people in the Spanish territory in north Africa, which recently has been affected by a migration crisis.

Residents have complained about migrants from Morocco camping on beaches and sleeping in the streets, with the city overwhelmed amid a humanitarian crisis. Scores of people died while attempting the crossing in July.

The Moroccan Association for Human Rights, a non-governmental group, estimates the death toll to be at least 141.

"The first thing I want to say is that I have complete solidarity with Ceuta and all the victims, because before being a player, I am human," Mbappe told Spanish daily AS.

"But I also wanted to make a gesture and express my thoughts for all the immigrants who have lost their lives and who are also living in difficult conditions."

Tens of thousands of migrants arrived in Ceuta from Morocco on July 30 and 31. Most of them returned in the hours following their arrival, but several thousand remained in Ceuta.

Mbappe said he intended to send a "message of peace" and reiterated he did not mean the gesture as disrespect for residents of Ceuta.

"It wasn't an easy position, a difficult one, because in the end people might think I'm against the people of Ceuta, but no, absolutely not," continued Mbappe.

"I have nothing against them, and I support them 100 percent. But I also wanted to think about all the people who are suffering, because ultimately I'm human, and I don't want to prioritise suffering."

- Tebas criticism -
Earlier, Tebas said that wearing the t-shirt rolled up was the same as refusing to wear it altogether.

"We saw three players decide not to wear it -- putting it half on is the same as not wearing it... bad, bad," Tebas told reporters.

The initiative for the teams to wear the shirts came from a group of entrepreneurs from the Valencia region. Tebas said that it had been approved but not organised by La Liga and was "not a political act of any type".

La Liga teams playing matches not involving clubs from the Valencia region have not been wearing the top.

The president of Real Madrid's Ceuta fan club, Miguel Angel Montano said he was disappointed by the decision from the trio not to wear the tops properly.

"We were very happy to see (players) wearing the t-shirts, because we need support, but we were baffled when we saw that these three players covered up the message," Montano told Spanish radio station esRadio earlier on Wednesday.

Villarreal hosted Real Betis on Monday and both sets of players wore the t-shirts supporting Ceuta, while Levante players wore the top before their game against champions Barcelona on Sunday, but the Catalan side elected not to use it.

Real Betis and Morocco winger Abde Ezzalzouli defended himself on social media on Tuesday after he was criticised for wearing the t-shirt.

"I want to make one thing clear -- at no point was the t-shirt referring to the people of Ceuta used with a political objective or out of contempt for my people, the Moroccan people," said Ezzalzouli in a post on Instagram.

The former Barcelona winger described it as a social gesture in support of the population of the city "regardless of their nationality".

An Afghan man was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Wednesday for providing support to the Islamic State branch in Afghanistan, the group behind the deadly 2021 suicide bombing at Kabul airport.

Mohammad Sharifullah, a member of Islamic State Khorasan (ISK), was convicted by a federal jury in Virginia in April of conspiracy to provide material support to a terrorist organization.

Prosecutors had sought to tie Sharifullah to the Kabul airport attack that killed at least 170 Afghans and 13 American troops but the jury failed to agree on the extent of his involvement.

The jury found Sharifullah guilty of conspiracy to provide support to ISK but deadlocked after two days of deliberations on his alleged role in the airport suicide bombing.

President Donald Trump, in an address to Congress last year, had described Sharifullah as the "top terrorist responsible" for the Kabul airport attack.

According to prosecutors, Sharifullah scouted out the route to the airport where the suicide bomber later detonated his device among packed crowds trying to flee days after the Taliban seized control of Kabul.

The United States withdrew its last troops from Afghanistan in August 2021, ending a chaotic evacuation of tens of thousands of Afghans who had rushed to the airport in the hopes of boarding a flight out of the country.

Sharifullah was extradited to the United States from Pakistan in March 2025 and put on trial in Alexandria on the outskirts of the US capital.

According to the US authorities, Sharifullah was involved in a number of ISK attacks between 2016 and his arrest by Pakistani authorities in 2025.

They included a June 2016 suicide bombing that targeted Nepali security guards protecting the Canadian Embassy in Kabul.

Sharifullah was accused of conducting surveillance and transporting the suicide bomber to the attack site.

He was also accused of giving weapons instructions to ISK gunmen who attacked the Crocus City Hall near Moscow in March 2024.

Turkish police released more than 100 protesters who had been detained a day earlier for demonstrating against a major weekend crackdown on the LGBTQ community, legal rights activists and an AFP journalist said late Wednesday.

All 106 had been detained outside an Istanbul courthouse on Tuesday where rights activists were to read out a statement denouncing sweeping raids targeting members and activists of the LGBTQ community.

The Progressive Lawyers Association (CHD) confirmed late Wednesday that all 106 had been freed, with most of the releases witnessed by an AFP correspondent.

Among them were two journalists, one from the left-leaning BirGun daily and another from Germany's ARD television, who were held while covering the protest, CHD and BirGun said.

Early on Sunday, Turkish police began raiding gay bars, nightclubs and the homes of activists and members of the LGBTQ community under a warrant naming 162 individuals, nine organisations and 13 companies in 15 provinces including Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir.

According to Lawyers for Justice (AIH), 109 people were detained.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who heads an Islamo-conservative government, has described the LGBTQ community as a "deviant" movement of "perverts".

His justice minister defended the raids as a bid to protect "children and the institution of the family".

By Wednesday evening, courts in several cities had remanded in custody 81 of those rounded up on Sunday, according to Kaos GL, a leading LGBTQ rights group that was also targeted in Sunday's raids.

Another 33 people appeared in court in Istanbul on Wednesday, with a judge jailing 20 of them, Kaos GL said, indicating the other 13 were granted conditional release.

At least nine of those jailed represented LGBTQ organisations.

- 'Shocking escalation' -
On Tuesday evening, an Ankara court had jailed 13 people, including seven from Kaos GL, five transgender people and a journalist.

Another 28 were jailed in Mersin, the DHA news agency said.

Meanwhile, the access restrictions targeting the websites and social media accounts of LGBTQ associations, activists and rights groups that began on Saturday continued apace on Wednesday, Turkey's Freedom of Expression Association IFOD said on X.

The latest to be blocked were the accounts of several left-leaning journalists, a socialist news outlet and two umbrella associations representing women's organisations, it said.

In recent days, the Turkish authorities have blocked access to the accounts of lawyers, human rights defenders, the MLSA legal rights group, Amnesty International Turkey, Academics for Peace and Evrensel newspaper among others.

Although same-sex relations are legal in Turkey, hostility towards LGBTQ people remains widespread, with homophobia evident even at the highest levels of government.

Turkey's LGBTQ community has faced increasing pressure since the government declared 2026 to be the start of its "Decade of the Family".

The crackdown has drawn criticism from opposition parties and the European Union, with the European parliament's Turkey rapporteur Nacho Sanchez Amor describing the arrests as "a shocking escalation of repression".

US lawmakers approved broad new sanctions designed to squeeze Russia over its war in Ukraine on Wednesday, sending the legislation to President Donald Trump after months of delay.

The Republican-led House of Representatives passed the package by 262-159, giving a final congressional green light to the most substantial US legislative effort against Moscow since Trump returned to office.

Trump has said he will sign the measure, which sailed through the Senate in an 86-11 vote last month.

The legislation targets Russia's energy and defense sectors, President Vladimir Putin and other senior officials, as well as Moscow's so-called shadow fleet of tankers used to circumvent Western sanctions.

It also gives Trump authority to impose tariffs of up to 100 percent on major buyers of Russian oil and gas -- including potentially China and India -- in an effort to choke off revenue financing Moscow's war.

But its sweeping tariff powers produced an unusual split among Democrats, who overwhelmingly support Ukraine but have resisted handing Trump greater authority over trade.

Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, called the bill "deeply flawed."

"White House lawyers drafted the current text to maximize President Trump's authority to impose new import taxes on the American people, and to minimize any obligation to actually impose new sanctions on Russia or its enablers," he said.

Meeks said he would support the legislation if the secondary tariff provisions were removed, but Republicans rejected amendments aimed at narrowing them.

- Pressure on Putin -
Dozens of Democrats nevertheless backed the measure, offsetting opposition from a handful of Republicans who objected to sanctions on free-market or non-interventionist grounds.

Supporters argue that tougher economic pressure is needed, with Russia's full-scale invasion grinding through its fifth year and no peace settlement in sight.

The House vote was celebrated by pro-Ukraine activists, who pointed to Russian attacks continuing, including drone strikes Wednesday on civilian transport in the south that officials in Kyiv said killed five people.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had urged Congress to pass the sanctions package, saying greater pressure was needed to force Moscow toward negotiations.

"So now Putin is losing 30,000 his soldiers per month... it's many losses, but he doesn't want to stop this war," Zelensky said during a July trip to Washington that included a meeting with Trump.

"So now initiative (is) not in the hands of Putin."

The bill would also target companies and foreign actors supporting Russia's military and extend sanctions involving Iran.

Trump has generally preferred to retain control over sanctions and tariffs rather than have Congress dictate policy, helping delay the measure for more than a year.

Its sponsor, Republican senator Lindsey Graham -- who died suddenly in July -- had pushed the legislation since April 2025.

Wednesday's vote came just before House lawmakers were due to leave Washington to campaign ahead of November's midterm elections.

"Once the bill is quickly signed and becomes law, we hope for strong US enforcement to finally end the cash flows to the Kremlin's war chest," said Svitlana Romanko, executive director of Ukrainian energy lobby group Razom We Stand.

"Every day of delay is a day we in Ukraine must bury more people."

The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said Thursday that the country's nuclear-armed status was "absolute", calling those hoping for its denuclearisation "idiots".

North Korea has legally enshrined its status as a nuclear weapons state, with its leadership declaring the country's atomic arsenal permanent and irreversible.

US President Donald Trump said in August that Pyongyang possesses 57 "very powerful" nuclear weapons, with Seoul putting the figure at between 80 and 120.

Seoul said it was paying close attention to Thursday's remarks because they come as Trump has floated the idea of a new meeting with Kim.

"The DPRK's position as a nuclear weapons state is absolute which can not reverse with anything," Kim's sister, Kim Yo Jong, said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

Pyongyang's nuclear arsenal "makes a significant contribution to deterring the outrageous acts of international rogues", she said.

Kim's statement came during the General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, where she said the "familiar silly talk" of efforts to denuclearise the North was expected.

"If they believe that it is really possible, they will only hear the word of idiots," she said.

"No matter how rhetorically the hostile forces may deny, the reality in which the nuclear position of the DPRK has been permanently settled physically and legally cannot change even a bit," she added, using the acronym for North Korea's full name.

An official at South Korea's Unification Ministry said the statement was noteworthy given its timing.

"We are paying close attention to Kim Yo Jong's statement, as it comes at a time when US President Donald Trump has recently expressed his willingness to pursue dialogue with North Korea," the official said, according to a transcript obtained by AFP.

The US leader has repeatedly expressed a willingness to resume dialogue with Kim Jong Un, saying last month that he planned to meet him later this year.

Trump met Kim three times during his first term, but their diplomacy ultimately stalled after their 2019 summit in Hanoi failed to produce an agreement on sanctions relief and what Pyongyang would offer in return for denuclearisation.

Pyongyang has expanded its nuclear arsenal since the failed Hanoi summit.

Journalist and author Zeinab Badawi, whose history of Africa has sold more than 110,000 copies, is turning her attention to younger readers with a forthcoming children's edition of the book.

Badawi, best known for her work as a broadcaster for the UK's Channel 4 News and the BBC, was born in Sudan and brought up in England.

"An African History of Africa: From the Dawn of Humanity to Independence" was first published in 2024 and now she is working on a children's version.

Like the adult volume, the adapted edition will trace the broad sweep of African history from the rise of powerful kingdoms, great trading centres and influential leaders, before charting the continent's path towards independence in the modern era.

"Of course you have to engage the young reader through vivid illustrations and I have a wonderful illustrator who I think captures the essence of the characters I have focused on in the children's book," she told AFP.

"History is best understood if it is seared into the imagination and that is especially true for young readers," she added.

Entitled "Africa: History and Heroes", the new book will combine simple text with illustrations aimed at making "Africa's history come alive" for younger readers.

- No history 'myth' -
Badawi, 67, said she believed children should be introduced to African history at an early age to help them understand that it was "part of our global story".

A French translation of Badawi's original book is being published on Friday in France which she hopes will reach new readers in francophone Africa.

France and Britain were the major colonial powers on the continent.

The book began life as a BBC series and has seen her travel to about 30 African countries to meet with historians, anthropologists and specialists in African culture.

"I wanted to dispel the myth that Africa had no history," she said.

Badawi, the president of SOAS University of London, said Africa's history had previously been largely seen through the European lens.

The extent to which it had been sidelined really hit home, she said, when a former African president admitted he was "better" at naming English medieval kings than kings and queens of Africa.

"If you ask most people 'what do you know about Africa's history?' they know nothing, really, including on the continent itself," she said.

"So I really wanted to tackle this ignorance, which, frankly, even I had in many ways."

- Steeped in culture -
Badawi, who left Sudan at the age of two, describes herself as merely a go-between helping the reader access the continent's experts steeped in its languages and culture.

She said she hoped the book filled a gap that she had experienced herself.

"I'd go to a library or a bookshop and I could not find a book that conveyed the African perspective on Africa's history, which gave me this kind of holistic overview."

For now, she remains optimistic about Africa partly due to its youth. The average age is around 18 compared to 38 in the United States.

And she welcomed the United Nations' vote earlier this month to adopt a new more accurate world map.

The new map replaces the traditional so-called Mercator projection, dating from 1569, which inflated the size of northern regions and compressed equatorial ones.

As a result it made Europe and North America appear much larger, while shrinking Africa and South America.

"I think we have to abandon the old thinking that made Africa look like it was tiny," sh said.

"I really welcome the fact that that balance has been redressed."

Artificial intelligence is set to loom large when Chinese President Xi Jinping meets counterpart Donald Trump in Washington next week, but for all the urgency surrounding the technology, the rivals remain far from agreeing on anything substantial.

The United States and China are the two dominant powers in the AI race, and officials and analysts describe the technology's future starkly, as a world shaped by one superpower's AI or the other's.

China, long seen as trailing the United States on frontier AI, has been closing that gap fast.

Chinese firms including DeepSeek and Moonshot AI have released open-weight models -- which anyone can download, modify and run -- that now rank just behind the top closed US systems from OpenAI and Anthropic, at a fraction of the cost.

Moonshot's Kimi K3, released this summer, is seen by analysts as the clearest sign yet of that narrowing gap.

Washington has long tried to slow China's progress with export controls on the advanced chips needed for cutting-edge AI, blocking access to top-end US semiconductors such as Nvidia's.

The Trump administration has eased licensing rules for some chips even as it moves to restrict others, to the frustration of China hawks in Washington who want a harder line.

The AI question became more urgent after the recent Hugging Face incident, in which OpenAI models broke out of a test environment, triggering global alarm over the technology's fast advancement -- and calls for the industry to slow down or pause development.

- 'Lose the race' -
The AI debate in the US remains dominated by the idea that the country's leading developers -- OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and Meta -- cannot afford to slow their pace of innovation, whatever the risks, for fear that China will pull ahead.

"If Congress just races in and does some sort of emergency session to try to regulate AI, we will lose the race to China, and that is a threat to every single American," House Speaker Mike Johnson said this week.

Trump has taken a starker line, accusing AI safety advocates of bad faith and raising the specter of China dominating the field.

"There is a SICK conspiracy going on against AI and Data Centers, and the only one that is happy about it is China," he wrote on his Truth Social platform.

Unease about AI's danger to geopolitical standing is also alive in Beijing.

Minister of State Security Chen Yixin on Sunday described AI as "the main battleground" for global competition "and a new track for major power strategic rivalry."

Despite the heated rhetoric, hope remains that the two global rivals can agree on something regarding the technology when the leaders meet in Washington.

But anything ambitious, like agreeing to slow development or craft global safeguards, is likely out of reach.

The US and China are stuck in "a prisoner's dilemma at two levels," said Aalok Mehta of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), arguing that neither individual AI labs nor individual countries can afford to slow down unilaterally as long as they fear their rivals will not.

"What would it mean if the US were to slow its pace at a time China doesn't?" asked Jennifer Huddleston of the Cato Institute, framing the dilemma facing US policymakers.

"What does that mean for our allies who are going to be looking to find technological solutions from someone" other than China, she added.

- 'Close communication' -
Others were skeptical that even modest cooperation was likely.

Jonathan Czin of the Brookings Institution said the dim prospects for cooperation reflect divisions on both sides.

"There's not a consensus, by any means, that's crystallized in the United States on what, if anything, to do about AI," he said.

On the Chinese side, he said, there is "a deeply ingrained suspicion" that any dialogue on restraint is "just going to be a trap" designed to slow China down.

Any deal would likely be hammered out ahead of time by US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who meets his Chinese counterpart He Lifeng this weekend to prepare the ground.

"As the number one and number two superpowers in AI by a lot, it behooves all of us to put up guardrails, to have close communication," Bessent told reporters this month.

When transgender woman Kali Sidharth Medepalli began hormone replacement therapy in India, she expected to complete her medical transition and undergo surgery within a year.

But just months after she began treatment earlier this year, India's parliament amended the country's transgender law, and the clinic where she was receiving care stopped her medicines.

"Everything shut down," the 23-year-old communications specialist and LGBTQ rights activist told AFP in the southern city of Hyderabad.

Kali said she went 10 days without a testosterone blocker, experiencing hot flushes and body aches.

The amendment introduced penalties for forcing someone to assume a transgender identity through surgical, chemical or hormonal procedures.

Authorities say the changes are meant to better protect vulnerable groups by strengthening penalties for exploitation, forced identity and trafficking.

The government said it does not criminalise consensual, medically supervised care, but activists and doctors say the amendment created uncertainty for thousands of people.

"The healthcare system is very fearful right now," said transgender rights activist Vyjayanti Vasanta Mogli, a member of a Supreme Court advisory committee on transgender welfare.

The lack of clarity, she said, could "scare away even the ones who have the best interests for the trans people".

Kali later managed to obtain her medicine using her existing prescription but was forced to self-medicate.

"Ideally, you should have a doctor doing this for you," she said.

- Doctor's dilemma -
The case illustrates the dilemma facing transgender people seeking safe medical care, said Sanjay Sharma, head of the Association for Transgender Health in India.

Doctors face a choice. Continuing treatment could expose them to legal risk, but refusing care could conflict with their medical responsibilities.

"How can I refuse care? I took an oath that above all do no harm," said Sharma, a doctor and retired airforce commodore.

Some private clinics have continued treatment but are taking extra precautions, including additional paperwork, consent forms and charging patients more.

"Private clinics will now give care, but they lawyer up," Sharma said.

It is particularly difficult for people without supportive families, established doctors or money for private care.

Mumbai-based Meghna Kulkarni, who supports her child's transition, said the amendment "immediately rang danger bells", but unlike others, they had a support network.

"We already knew the doctors, the surgeon, the psychiatrist," Kulkarni said.

There are no official figures for how many transgender people receive gender-affirming healthcare in India, making the scale of the disruption difficult to assess.

India does not have a current estimate of its transgender population.

While India's official 2011 Census recorded roughly 488,000 transgender individuals, human rights groups and experts estimate that the actual population is between five and six million people.

- Uneven access -
The uncertainty over the amendment also affects transgender identity certification.

Bhukya Ahalya, 21, who transitioned in 2025, wants regular employment but has struggled to update her identity documents, which still identify her as a man.

She now survives by begging at traffic signals.

"Everyone wants me to move on from this life," she said. "But when I want to move on, when I want to earn a respectful life, I don't get a TG (transgender) card."

The government website for applying for a transgender identity card -- the first step towards changing other key documents -- has not functioned since the amendment came into force.

The amendment has added an extra layer of scrutiny to the process. Now a designated medical board must recommend certification, after which a magistrate can issue the identity certificate.

The amendment is being challenged in the Supreme Court. Petitioners cite constitutional protections including dignity, autonomy and privacy, as well as the right to self-identification.

AFP contacted the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment for clarification on the amendment, its rules and the identity-card portal, but received no response.

For Kali, her carefully planned medical transition has become uncertain.

"I don't know the future," she said. "I can't plan it anymore".

US President Donald Trump's chief of staff Susie Wiles said Wednesday she was free of cancer, nearly six months after revealing her diagnosis.

Wiles, dubbed the "Ice Maiden" by Trump, announced that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer in March and was receiving treatment.

In a post on X, Wiles said that after a medical appointment this week "my pathology results came back clear. I am cancer free."

Wiles, 69, thanked her family, friends and doctors and gave a "special thank you to President Trump for his unwavering support."

"I am deeply grateful and will continue to work to advance his America First Agenda," she said.

The first female White House chief of staff, Wiles has been widely credited with driving Trump's second presidency forward behind the scenes.

Prince Harry and wife Meghan have kept a low profile since returning to Britain three weeks ago but, as his first public engagements loom, tensions over their security and monarchy relationship have surfaced.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex relocated from California on August 26 and have not spoken publicly yet, nor even issued a public statement officially confirming the surprise move.

However, in recent days Meghan has used her personal Instagram account to offer glimpses of their new UK life, coinciding with the prince's 42nd birthday on Tuesday.

Reportedly now based in central England's Cotswolds region, she posted a montage of family videos -- featuring their son Archie, 7, and daughter Lilibet, 5 as well as their two dogs -- enjoying the English countryside.

Prior to that, King Charles III's youngest son had only been seen publicly on September 7, when photographs of a visit to a London recording studio appeared on Instagram.

Harry's presence back in Britain is set to become more visible later this week, when he is due to appear at several events linked to his Invictus Games charity for wounded veterans.

He will attend a September 21 awards ceremony for the WellChild charity, which he has been a patron of for nearly two decades.

- 'Caught off guard' -
The couple's shock return has featured prominently across Britain's newspapers and on television news bulletins, but the media has complied with a request not to reveal their exact new whereabouts or which schools their children are attending.

However, several outlets reported Monday that both children had changed schools just a few days into term over security fears.

The Sussexes's private security team had raised concerns over the length of their original daily journeys and heavy traffic on the route, according to the BBC, citing a source close to the pair.

UK media also reported this week that the independent body responsible for deciding which politicians, royals and others get police protection will review whether to reinstate their taxpayer-funded security.

Harry had previously ruled out returning to Britain due to security concerns after losing a years-long legal battle to retain the publicly subsidised protection while living in the United States.

It had been withdrawn following their 2020 decision to quit Britain and royal duties amid a bitter feud with other senior royal family members.

Harry has since reconciled with his father, but reportedly remains estranged from his elder brother and heir-to-throne Prince William.

His and Meghan's sudden relocation "to some extent caught the royal household off guard", royal expert Ed Owens told AFP.

In a likely sign of that, Buckingham Palace sought to clarify their status earlier this month.

The couple are not to be considered "working members of the royal family", according to a letter issued by the Lord Chamberlain, the palace's most senior official.

- 'Anxious' -
Former BBC royal correspondent Jennie Bond said the letter -- sent under Charles's instructions to "senior stakeholders" in the government, military and other institutions, as well as Harry and Meghan -- was a "blunt statement of fact".

It showed "the door clearly remains firmly closed to any ambition the Sussexes might have harboured to resume their lives as working royals," she wrote in the iPaper.

"The King is not going to be bounced into accepting any change in their status just because they have chosen to return."

Owens noted the palace were likely "anxious" the couple could distract attention from other royals' work.

Meanwhile Harry and Meghan were "surprised" to see the guidance made public just an hour after they received it, according to reports.

Britons appear unenthused by any prospective return to royal duties, with only 16 percent favouring such a move compared with around half who were opposed, according to a recent YouGov poll.

"Irrespective of whether they are working formally on behalf of the British royal family, their activities will impact the image of the monarchy," Owens argued.

Potential fallout from the current uneasy relationship between the couple and the monarchy could be seen in recent weeks over Uganda's participation in Harry's Invictus Games.

The African country's military chief, General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, had announced its withdrawal from the games, in order "not to be construed as being opposed to His Majesty King Charles III".

But the move was then reversed following a reported call from Charles's principal private secretary to reassure that the king had "no problem" with taking part.

The planet's water cycle is becoming increasingly erratic, swinging between too little and too much, the United Nations warned Thursday, with an unprecedented El Nino expected to exacerbate the long-term trend.

Last year was among the driest for the world's rivers in over three decades, the UN's World Meteorological Organization said in a report.

In 2025 -- one of the warmest years on record -- glaciers also shrank across all regions, even as groundwater levels in many parts of the world are in multi-year decline, it found.

Overall, the WMO's annual State of Global Water Resources report showed that the Earth's freshwater storage -- the total amount of water stored in groundwater, lakes and rivers, soil moisture, vegetation and ice and snow -- continued a decade-long decline.

Some elements of the water cycle change rapidly -- like precipitation, river flow and soil moisture, responding to weather within days or weeks.

WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo voiced particular concern about the decline in "slow reserves", like groundwater and glaciers, which she said had traditionally served as the planet's "savings account".

They have served as "a buffer that absorbs bad years so that a single drought or a single dry season does not translate directly into a water crisis", she told reporters.

- 'Spending our reserves' -
Now, "we are depleting that savings account", she warned. "We are spending our reserves."

Glaciers have also been shrinking at a precipitous rate, with 2025 marking the fourth consecutive year where they shed significant ice mass across all regions.

Between 2023 and 2025, the report estimated that glaciers lost a cumulative global glacier mass of 1,400 gigatonnes of water -- roughly equal to the water required to fill 560 million Olympic-sized swimming pools, or about a third of the world's annual freshwater withdrawals.

"Groundwater tells a similar story: nearly two-thirds of monitored wells worldwide showed conditions outside the historical norm in 2025," Saulo said.

She highlighted that this was happening in parallel with "more water-related disasters".

In particular, she pointed to the current El Nino pattern, which is expected to be the strongest since comparable records began four decades ago.

El Nino is the warm phase of a natural climate cycle that occurs every two to seven years and is characterised by above average ocean temperatures across the Pacific, and brings  worldwide changes in winds and rainfall patterns and erratic weather.

"The strengthening El Nino will increase the risk of drought in some areas, and flooding in others," Saulo cautioned.

- 'Abnormal' -
Already before El Nino hit, rivers worldwide were showing "abnormal" flows, WMO said, with 2025 among the three driest years for rivers in 35 years.

For a seventh year in a row, the number of river basins globally experiencing "normal" conditions were in a clear minority in 2025.

Only around 36 percent saw normal flows, while an equal percentage saw below-normal discharge conditions and 21 percent were above normal, the report found.

The WMO stressed the importance of good data to map the developments in the water cycle, warning that significants gaps remained in hard-hit areas.

"Weather respects no borders, and this is especially true for water," Saulo said, arguing for the importance of "shared data, shared standards and shared early warnings".

"A river basin is fed by water upstream, often in another country," she pointed out.

And "a glacier disaster in one country can lead to devastation in another as we saw with the recent tragedy of China and Nepal".

Accepting the petition filed by the Punjab Healthcare Commission, the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Thursday declared null and void a district court’s decision to overturn a fine slapped on a quack who would practise as a doctor at a medical store, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

The Punjab Healthcare Commission had fined the quack Rs300,000. 

In its 10-page verdict, which has been described as a judicial precedent, the court said that a dispenser’s competence and Drug Sale Licence did not permit him to practice as a doctor or administer an injection.

The court further said that 24 used syringes and different injections were recovered from the medical store, and the suspect had confessed before the commission to have administered the injection.

The court went on to say that no plausible explanation was given for the presence of used syringes. 

It acknowledged that the Commission’s hearing committee had the legal authority to impose the fine. “The commission has been tasked with banning all kinds of quackery,” the court said.   

Climate change was a core factor in last month's deadly glacial mountain collapse on the China-Nepal border that killed more than 1,400 people and left at least 6,600 missing, scientists said Thursday.

However, scientists from the World Weather Attribution (WWA) group said, the disaster was not caused by a single extreme weather event, rather a "compound crisis" shaped by long-term warming, glacier retreat, permafrost thaw and geological instability.

"Relentless warming has lifted the altitude of the freezing threshold on the high Himalaya, exposing ice and permafrost deep in the bedrock to higher and longer thaw temperatures, weakening mountain slopes," a WWA report said.

A massive section of rock and glacier broke away from Langtang Lirung mountain on August 26, triggering a huge flood of water, ice and debris that swept downstream, destroying communities and infrastructure.

Report co-author Walter Immerzeel, a mountain hydrologist at Utrecht University, said the region was undergoing "fundamental, irreversible shifts", with glacier retreat and permafrost degradation undermining mountain stability.

"We conclude that this was a geologically vulnerable slope, potentially weakened by the 2015 earthquake, but it was destabilised further by glacier retreat and permafrost fall," Immerzeel told reporters.

Nepal, a largely rural nation of 30 million people, contributes a fraction of global greenhouse gas emissions compared to industrialised nations.

The study found that July and August 2026 were the warmest months locally recorded, while heavy snowfall in late 2025 contributed to increased meltwater before the collapse.

A magnitude 7.8 earthquake in Nepal in 2015 may have further weakened the slope, although its precise role remains uncertain, the report said.

Last month's disaster has also raised concerns about the limits of adaptation.

Prime Minister Balendra Shah will take his first foreign trip as Nepal's leader to address the UN General Assembly on the urgent issue next week.

Nepal estimates the reconstruction bill after deadly floods sparked by a glacial mountain collapse last month will amount to $4.78 billion.

"There is no doubt that climate change is one of the drivers, and therefore obviously it needs to be discussed in the context of loss and damage," Friederike Otto, a professor of climate science at Imperial College London, told reporters.

Nepal's disaster authority said Wednesday it had sharply revised up the number of people considered missing to 6,150, following data collection and verification in affected districts.

The number of bodies retrieved stands at 1,403 bodies, 105 of which had been identified, according to the disaster agency.

In China, the toll is 43 dead and 519 missing, according to state media.

The combined toll from both nations now stands at 1,446 people dead and at least 6,669 missing.

A special Indian court has sentenced 10 Maoist rebels to death over their role in a 2013 ambush on a convoy that killed 27 people, including members of the Congress party.

The Maoists were convicted for multiple offences including conspiracy and waging war against the state before being handed the death penalty, India's National Investigation Agency (NIA) said Wednesday.

The nearly six-decade long Maoist rebellion, which began in the 1960s and killed more than 12,000 people, was once described by a former prime minister as the biggest internal security threat India faced.

But the insurgency has been effectively defeated after a sustained military offensive across the "Red Corridor", areas where the guerrillas shut out the government and established their own parallel administration.

The land-mine and gun attack in May 2013 took place in a remote forested area of the central state of Chhattisgarh, effectively wiping out the top state leadership of the Congress party.

The attackers detonated an explosive device, opened "indiscriminate firing" and threw grenades at the convoy, the NIA said in a statement.

The agency said its investigation had established that the 10 Maoist cadres were involved in a "criminal conspiracy to attack and kill senior Congress leaders and security personnel".

India imposes the death penalty by hanging, although it is rarely carried out in practice.

The last executions in India were in March 2020, when four men convicted of the 2012 gang rape and murder of a woman on a Delhi bus were hanged, in a case that sparked huge nationwide protests.

US President Donald Trump threatened on Wednesday to cut trade with the European Union after the bloc proposed to make Canada its first ever associate member.

EU chief Ursula von der Leyen raised the prospect a day before Canadian leader Mark Carney was due to address the European Parliament.

Her pitch comes as both Canada and the European Union seek to pivot away from an aggressive United States under Trump's leadership.

"I think it's laughable," Trump told reporters when asked about the plan.

"If they do that, if I think it's at all a hostile act, I will put very serious tariffs or stop trading with Europe, on many things."

He added: "If it's a good intention, that's fine. If it's a bad intention, we'll put very heavy tariffs on Europe, which is a possibility."

Von der Leyen pitched closer cooperation on tech, defense and energy to Carney, who became the first non-European head of government to attend the annual "State of the European Union" speech.

The German told the European Parliament in Strasbourg that, as democracies face a "fracture in the international rules-based system," Brussels and Ottawa needed to pull closer together.

"I would like to work with you on opening the door for Canada to be the first associate member of the EU," von der Leyen told the Canadian premier, drawing a standing ovation in the chamber.

- A broader alliance -
Carney has been pursuing closer ties with the European Union as Canada gets drawn ever deeper into a trade war with the United States.

He is set to address the parliament on Thursday, with his visit meant to act as a catalyst ahead of an EU-Canada summit in Montreal next month.

Von der Leyen said it was time to move from cooperation based on trade to a broader "alliance for the future" and "bring the relationship with Canada to the highest level possible."

"We will work on intelligent manufacturing. We will create a tech alliance. We will integrate defense industrial bases. We will make the Arctic a flagship joint project," she said.

She listed energy, critical minerals, batteries, AI, cyber and economic security as other fields of cooperation.

"This is a partnership not against anyone else, but for our common strength," she said.

But both the EU and Canada have been buffeted by tariffs and territorial threats from the US and competition from China.

"In a more dangerous and divided world, Canada is forging stronger relationships with trusted partners," Carney's office said in a statement.

- What's in a name -
While EU treaties do not envision the possibility of becoming an "associate member," the idea was first floated by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz this year for Ukraine.

Under that plan, which met a cold reception from a country pushing for full membership, Ukraine would have been allowed to attend the bloc's summits and have a representative in the European Commission.

It would have also benefited from parts of the EU budget, but without full voting rights.

"We don't really know yet what it means," said Tobias Cremer, a center-left European lawmaker from Germany and the main sponsor of a resolution urging stronger EU-Canada cooperation, after von der Leyen's "associate membership" pitch.

Under EU rules, member states have to approve any form of partnership with a third country and it was unclear how much support von der Leyen's proposal would receive from capitals.

Brussels and Ottawa already enjoy a considerable level of cooperation.

The CETA free-trade agreement that abolished almost all tariffs has been credited with boosting trade in goods and services by more than 80 percent since 2016.

And this year Canada became the first non-EU country to join a flagship defense loan programme.

Carney later flew to Britain for his first meeting with new UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham.

They attended a football match between Everton and Wolverhampton together before Carney's return to Strasbourg for his Thursday speech.

Pakistani singer and actor Ali Zafar has seemingly taken a subtle swipe at latest remarks made about Bollywood star Katrina Kaif’s post-pregnancy appearance, urging men to look within themselves and reconsider the way they judge women’s bodies.

The ‘Mere Brother Ki Dulhan’ star addressed the growing conversation around body shaming without naming anyone, sharing a video on Instagram in which he reflected on the “psychological issues” surrounding men’s attitudes towards women and their appearance.

Ali said he had recently come across social media posts targeting a former Bollywood colleague and co-star, with people comparing how she looked in the past with her appearance now.

While he did not mention Katrina by name, his comments came amid criticism directed at the actress over her post-pregnancy appearance following her recent public outings. The online discussion included comparisons between her appearance before and after motherhood.

Speaking about the wider issue, Ali emphasized that men, in particular, need to examine their own behaviour and acknowledge when they cross a line.

He explained that everyone makes mistakes, but what matters is recognising those mistakes, reflecting on them and trying to correct them.

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A post shared by Ali Zafar (@ali_zafar)

The singer further challenged the notion that being a man gives anyone the privilege to decide how a woman should look, behave or live her life.

According to Ali, when a woman fails to fit the standards created by men, she is often unfairly looked down upon a mindset he described as wrong and unhealthy.

He urged people to be more compassionate, understanding and accepting, stressing that everyone is dealing with their own struggles and that outsiders cannot know what another person may be going through.

“It's not healthy to always criticise other people. They are all human beings and we have the potential to be nice to each other,” Ali said in his video.

He also reflected on changing beauty standards, pointing out that expectations surrounding women's bodies have shifted over the years, while unrealistic physical ideals are also imposed on men.

Ali’s remarks surfaced after Katrina Kaif became the subject of online commentary over her appearance following motherhood. The actress, who welcomed her first child with Vicky Kaushal last year, recently made public appearances that prompted social media users to compare her current look with older photographs.

The controversy also involved a recent post by Pakistani entertainment commentator Dr Ejaz Waris, who faced criticism over remarks about Katrina’s appearance. Reports described his comments as mocking her changed appearance and weight.

Although Ali did not identify the person behind the remarks, the timing and subject of his video have led to speculation that his message was aimed at the wider conversation surrounding Katrina’s body-shaming.

The US House of Representatives held billionaire investor Leon Black in contempt of Congress on Wednesday for defying subpoenas issued in its investigation into notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The resolution was adopted by unanimous consent, without a recorded vote, a day after the House Oversight Committee unanimously recommended the action.

The matter will now be referred to the Justice Department, which will decide whether to pursue criminal charges.

"No one is above the law. Leon Black defied two subpoenas, and the US House of Representatives acted swiftly to find him in contempt of Congress," panel chairman Jamie Comer said in a statement.

"We will continue to seek transparency for the American people and justice for survivors in our investigation of the federal government's handling of the Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell criminal cases."

Black, the billionaire co-founder of Apollo Global Management, failed to appear for a September 3 deposition and did not fully comply with a separate subpoena seeking nondisclosure agreements.

His lawyers called the House action "outrageous," accused lawmakers of rushing the process and said they would continue a court challenge to the subpoenas, US media reported.

Black had appeared voluntarily before the committee in June, acknowledging that he paid Epstein $158 million for tax and estate-planning advice.

But that session ended early after he declined to answer questions about some nondisclosure agreements, prompting lawmakers to demand further testimony and documents.

Black has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and said he had no knowledge of Epstein's criminal activities.

Epstein died in federal custody in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges involving minors, in what authorities ruled a suicide.

The scandal has continued to dog Washington, with lawmakers pursuing testimony and documents from prominent political and business figures who had ties to the disgraced financier.

The United States has denied Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas an entry visa to attend the UN General Assembly in New York next week, a source familiar with the case said Wednesday.

In a separate statement that did not mention Abbas by name, the State Department say it would deny visas to members of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and officials with the Palestinian Authority (PA), "as a consequence of their failure to reform, contrary to their commitments to the United States, and their ongoing activities that undermine the prospects for peace."

A source familiar with the matter confirmed to AFP that the Palestinian Authority president, Abbas, was covered by the measure.

The Trump administration took the same step last year, forcing the Palestinian leader, a regular at the UN General Assembly, to address the body of global leadership by video.

In its statement Wednesday, the State Department said that the PLO and PA had "once again, failed to live up to their commitments."

"This includes initiating and supporting actions at international organizations that undermine and contradict prior commitments," the department also said.

Washington also accused the organizations of "taking actions to internationalize the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict including through the International Criminal Court (ICC) and International Court of Justice (ICJ), seeking to bypass negotiations through seeking unilateral recognition, and continuing to pay stipends to terrorists and to glorify acts of terrorism and terrorists in public pronouncements and school textbooks."

The move puts the United States at odds with numerous countries, including France, that recognized a Palestinian state at the United Nations last year.

A total of 142 UN member states endorsed it following the conference on a two-state solution co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia.

The decision comes as violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians has escalated in recent months in the West Bank.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967, and violence there has surged since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack that triggered the war in the Gaza Strip.

According to an AFP tally based on Palestinian health ministry data, Israeli soldiers or settlers have killed at least 1,109 Palestinians in the West Bank -- fighters and civilians -- since October 7, 2023, when a Hamas-led attack killed more than 1,200 people.

The ensuing Israeli military campaign waged relentless strikes on Gaza that have killed more than 73,700 people, according to Gaza's health ministry, which operates under Hamas authority and whose figures are considered reliable by the United Nations.

The international community has expressed concern over the violence, but the United States has remained largely quiet on the issue, saying only that the US government opposes any annexation of Palestinian territory.

Israel and Morocco have agreed to open embassies in their respective countries following a meeting between their top diplomats and the US ambassador to the United Nations in New York on Wednesday.

The two countries established ties in 2020 as part of the US-led Abraham Accords, under which several Arab states normalised relations with Israel.

At the meeting, Israel and Morocco reaffirmed their commitment to measures including "upgrading diplomatic relations between the two countries, elevating their respective diplomatic missions to the level of embassies, and the appointment  of ambassadors", an Israeli foreign ministry statement said.

A joint statement released by the US mission to the UN on behalf of all three countries said they believed that the "establishment of full diplomatic, peaceful and friendly relations between Morocco and Israel is in the common interest of both countries and will advance the cause of peace".

The statements did not offer a timeline for the establishment of the embassies, and Israel had previously made a similar announcement in June 2022 during a visit to Morocco by then-foreign minister Yair Lapid.

The two countries also said after Wednesday's meeting that a series of economic agreements would be concluded between them by year's end, while the Israeli statement added that "high-level reciprocal visits between the two countries will take place in the coming months".

A member of the Punjab Assembly, belonging to ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), has passed away in Chichawatni, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

MPA Chaudhry Muhammad Hanif Jutt breathed his last due to cardiac arrest. His Namaz-i-Janaza will be offered at Azadi Chowk Stadium after Asr prayers today.

Hanif Jutt was first elected to the Punjab Assembly as a candidate of the PML-N from constituency PP-226 (Sahiwal-VII) in the 2013 general elections.

He was re-elected to the Punjab Assembly as a PML-N candidate from constituency PP-203 Sahiwal-VI in October 2025 by-election.

The only child, who had survived Islamabad’s Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) fire, finally breathed her last on Thursday morning, bringing the total number of newborns dying in the incident to 15, reported 24NewsHD TV channel. 

The girl named Eezal Waqas was a premature baby, and was admitted at a hospital.

She had been saved by a nurse named Razia Noreen. Eazal belonged to Azad Jammu and Kashmir. 

As many as 14 newborns had died after fire ripped through a nursery in Pims’ Mother and Child Hospital on August 26, sending shockwaves across the country and prompting calls for bringing those responsible to justice. 

Tamgha-i-Shujaat for nurse

President Asif Ali Zardari has approved the conferment of Tamgha-i-Shujaat upon Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) staff nurse Razia Noreen, who demonstrated exceptional courage by risking her life to rescue the sole surviving child during a fire incident at the hospital.

The recognition follows the tragic fire at PIMS hospital’s neonatal nursery on August 26, 2026, which broke out during the early morning hours and claimed the lives of 14 infants.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif earlier met with nurse Razia Noreen and presented her with a cheque of Rs10 million and had also announced a national award for her, praising her selfless devotion to duty and exceptional bravery.

President Zardari also approved other summaries on different legislative and institutional matters including The National Institute of Folk and Traditional Heritage (Lok Virsa) Amendment Bill, 2026, The Standard Time (Interpretation of References) Amendment Bill, 2026, and another bill related to the environmentally sound management of hazardous materials in ships, besides approving the Revision of the Table of Organization and Equipment (TOE) for the Armed Forces Institute of Urology (AFIU) Rawalpindi.

Reporter: Babar Shahzad Turk 

Jemima Goldsmith has shared the first glimpse of her wedding with Cameron O’Reilly, posting a series of photographs from the ceremony and revealing the special role her sons, Sulaiman and Kasim Khan, played on her big day.

The former wife of Pakistan’s former prime minister and cricket legend Imran Khan shared a carousel of wedding pictures on Instagram. Along with the photographs, she thanked the family members, friends and professionals who helped make the day special for both her and Cameron.

In her heartfelt caption, Jemima wrote, “Thank you to everyone who made this day so very special & happy for both of us,” before going on to mention the people who were part of the ceremony and celebrations.

One of the most personal details she shared was about her sons. Jemima revealed that Sulaiman and Kasim walked her up the aisle during the wedding, making them an important part of the ceremony.

She also acknowledged Cameron’s children, revealing that his daughters, Swasha and Tara O’Reilly, were among her bridesmaids. His sons, Elliot and Oscar O’Reilly, served as his best men, while Jemima’s daughter, Tyrian Khan-White, was her maid of honor.

Jemima also thanked her nephews Frankie Goldsmith, Isaac Goldsmith and James Goldsmith, who served as ushers, as well as Cameron’s brothers Gavin and Tony O’Reilly for being part of the wedding party.

The producer also used her Instagram caption to acknowledge the people who worked behind the scenes. She thanked Martha Ward for dressing her and Kate Rothschild and Annabel Rivkin for helping with her wedding preparations.

She also praised wedding organizer Hamish, Sherlock Parties and Kate Lewis for organizing the celebration. The food was provided by Phil Winser and The Bushcamp team, while Nicola was involved in overseeing the tastings.

Jemima credited Paula Pryke for the flowers and Sarah Jane Wai for her makeup. She also mentioned Raphael Salley, Josh Wood and Roi for her hair, while Miranda Rigg handled the bridesmaids’ makeup. Savita Hirani and Anu Khapung were credited for brows and lashes.

For the ceremony, Jemima wore a dress by Oscar de la Renta and also acknowledged the wider beauty and styling team who helped prepare her and the bridal party.

Jemima, 52, was previously married to Imran Khan. The couple tied the knot in 1995 and divorced in 2004 after nine years of marriage. They have two sons, Sulaiman and Kasim.

Her wedding to O’Reilly comes months after reports of their engagement emerged in May. The couple had reportedly been dating for around a year before getting engaged.

Cameron O’Reilly, 62, is the son of late Irish media businessman and former rugby player Sir Anthony O’Reilly. He has worked in business and finance and has also been involved in the media and technology sectors.

Jemima’s family was among the first to share the wedding news publicly. Her sister-in-law Jemima Jones posted a picture from the celebrations and congratulated Jemima and Cameron.

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A post shared by Jemima Goldsmith (@khanjemima)

Oil prices fall in early trade, extending the previous day’s losses, as reports of Saudi Arabia offering extra crude cargoes through Oman reduced fears of supply disruptions in the Middle East.

Brent crude futures drop $1.24, or 1.2 per cent, to $104.59 a barrel by 0049 GMT, while US West Texas Intermediate futures down $1.14, or 1.1pc, at $101.29. Both contracts fell about $3 on Wednesday.

“Concerns over supply tightness eased slightly following news that Saudi Arabia would ship cargo via Oman,” says Hiroyuki Kikukawa, chief strategist of Nissan Securities Investment, a unit of Nissan Securities.

“Expectations of progress toward easing tensions in the Middle East ahead of US-China summit next week are also capping price gains,” he added.

Saudi Arabia is offering more loadings of crude oil to Asian refiners via ship-to-ship transfers off Oman’s Sohar port, blunting some of the hit to global supply from attacks on the country’s East-West pipeline to the Red Sea.

“News around Saudi Arabia exporting from the Gulf suggests concerns that the disruption could be larger are easing,” said UBS analyst Giovanni Staunovo.

US President Donald Trump has said that he hoped an end to the war against Iran was near and a media report separately said he is expected to meet Gulf leaders on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly on Tuesday to discuss the conflict.

His comments come with the Iran war in its seventh month and with no immediate end in sight.

Axios reported Trump’s meeting with Gulf leaders next week in New York is expected to focus on US plans for a post-war strategy.

Scoop: Trump to hold Iran talks with Gulf leaders next week https://t.co/j6aRB4Gv5e

— Axios (@axios) September 16, 2026

"Well hopefully we're toward the end of the war."

President Trump says Iran wants to reach an agreement as he discusses efforts to end the conflict.

"They want to make a deal. We'll see how that works out." pic.twitter.com/GoyXcc3Y35

— Fox News (@FoxNews) September 16, 2026

‘Iran has no military nuclear programme’

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei has said that the country has “no ‘military’ nuclear programme — no matter how often the Israeli fabricated ‘big lie’ is repeated by Israeli apologists”.

In a post on X, he criticised the German chancellor’s statement on the war in Iran and its nuclear programme as a “knowingly distorted narrative”.

“It was USrael (United States and Israel) — not Iran — that launched a war of aggression, and Germany failed to show even the minimum moral courage required to deplore that.

“Those Berlin labels ‘proxies’ are independent actors with their own clear causes and calculations. They are fighting for self-determination, freedom, and dignity against occupation, aggression and subjugation.

“Our region should not have to pay the price for Germany’s guilt complex or its habit of appeasement vis-a-vis bullies,” he said.
Iran oil facilities being restored
Oil Minister Mohsen Paknejad says that the reconstruction of oil industry facilities damaged during the US-Israeli-imposed war was progressing well, with part of the lost capacity expected to return by the end of the current calendar year to late March.

Paknejad said on Wednesday that the remaining damaged capacity was expected to become available during the first half of the following Iranian year.

He said reconstruction work at four gas refineries and liquid fuel storage and loading facilities in Tehran that were hit and damaged during the war was progressing at a satisfactory pace.

A very large number of workers are involved in the reconstruction effort, Paknejad said, adding that progress was sufficiently rapid to be monitored on a weekly basis.

The government has increased the prices of petrol and high-speed diesel (HSD) with effect from September 17, 2026, amid elevated international oil prices.

According to an official statement, the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) determined the ex-depot prices of petroleum products for September 17.

The price of petrol has been increased by Rs6.88 per litre, taking the new price to Rs391.22 per litre.

The price of high-speed diesel has been raised by Rs5.62 per litre to Rs421.45 per litre.

The statement said crude oil and petroleum product prices remained elevated in the international market due to global uncertainty.

It said rising international oil prices were also affecting petrol and diesel prices in Pakistan.

The increase announced on Wednesday was primarily linked to higher petrol and diesel prices in the global market, the statement said.

It added that changes in domestic petroleum prices also reflected Platts rates, premiums and other relevant factors.

Major scandal involving the Foreign Ministry regarding the attestation of citizens' documents has come to light. According to probe, 12 billion rupees were minted in the process of attesting citizens' documents. 

The investigative report submitted to the Foreign Ministry was prepared by a four-member committee led by Dr. Ahmed Ali Sarohi, DG Audit and Inspection. 

The report identifies a mafia that extorted money from the public for the attestation of documents. According to the report, citizens were charged 800,000 rupees to use illegal channels for document attestation. A total of Rs 12 billion was collected illegally over the course of a year. 

Officials said a private courier company had alleged links with an officer from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The report also includes the names and statements of officers and personnel linked to the alleged mafia. According to the report, an officer working in the Foreign Secretary's office was also part of the mafia. 

The report also includes the names of Directors General (DGs) from various wings, a former Additional Secretary, and a former diplomat. Foreign Ministry sources state that the report, sent to the Foreign Secretary's office in July, was not forwarded to NAB or any investigative agency. Despite the committee's recommendations, several of the implicated officers were posted abroad, according to Foreign Ministry sources. 

Rain is expected in parts of Punjab and Gilgit-Baltistan during the next 24 hours, with showers also forecast in Islamabad, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Azad Kashmir and north-eastern Balochistan.

The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) forecast hot and humid weather in other southern parts of the country. Heavy rain may cause flooding in low-lying areas of Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Peshawar. Urban flooding also remains a risk in Lahore, Okara, Kasur, Sargodha, Faisalabad, Multan, Sahiwal, Gujranwala and Sialkot.

Flash floods may affect Dir, Chitral, Swat, Malakand, Abbottabad, Gilgit-Baltistan, Azad Kashmir, Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Dera Ghazi Khan. The PMD has also warned of landslides in the hilly areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Gilgit-Baltistan, Murree and Azad Kashmir.

Heavy rain, hailstorms, strong winds and lightning may damage weak structures, the weather department said.

After federal government's measures to import wheat, Trade Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) opens tender for the import of 750,000 metric tons of wheat. 

Overall TCP receives 13 bids for wheat import. Eleven of them submitted bids, while two submitted letters of regret. Out of the 11 submitted bids, nine were declared technically and financially suitable. 

TCP received a lowest bid of $348.83 per metric ton for Karachi. TCP received a lowest bid of $352.97 per metric tonne for Gwadar. Bidders have been given until 6 PM tomorrow to lodge any complaints. The federal government will make a decision regarding the award of the tender at a later stage. TCP had issued the wheat import tender following a decision by the federal government. 

Pakistan on Wednesday summoned the Charge d’Affaires of the Indian High Commission and lodged a strong protest over a “highly provocative and unacceptable” action by an Indian Navy vessel in Pakistan’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) on September 15.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the incident occurred while the Pakistan Navy was conducting its biennial exercise SEASPARK-26.

The ministry said the Indian vessel carried out aggressive manoeuvres in dangerously close proximity to a Pakistani naval ship, resulting in contact between the two vessels.

It described the incident as a serious violation of international law and the bilateral Agreement on Advance Notice on Military Exercises, Manoeuvres and Troop Movements, 1991.

Pakistan said the incident also risked escalating tensions in the region.

The Indian Charge d’Affaires was asked to convey to the Indian government that Pakistan “strongly rejects” the action and urged New Delhi to adhere strictly to international law and bilateral agreements, particularly those aimed at preventing incidents at sea.

The Foreign Office said the Charge d’Affaires of the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi would lodge the same demarche with India’s Ministry of External Affairs.

Pakistan also urged the international community to call upon India to abandon a “belligerent posture” and refrain from actions that could further destabilise South Asia.

“This region can ill-afford to remain perpetually hostage to India's reckless pursuit of conflict and instability,” the ministry said.

The federal government has made it mandatory for all government officers in Grade 17 and above to submit details of their assets and income online; according to an office memorandum issued by the Establishment Division in this regard, the federal government has decided to digitize the asset details of government officers.

Under the Civil Servants (Conduct) Rules 2026, online asset declaration has been made mandatory for officers in Grade 17 and above, and a system for the digitalization of government officers' assets has been implemented. According to an office memorandum issued by the Establishment Division, this system is being implemented in collaboration with the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) pursuant to Section 15-A of the Civil Servants Act 1973 and the Civil Servants (Conduct) Rules 2026. 

According to the memorandum, all officers are required to provide their name, designation, active email address, mobile number, and identity card number to the relevant cadre administrator, after which their accounts will be created on the FBR’s online portal. Once the account is created, officers will be able to log in using their identity card number and set a password by obtaining an OTP via the ‘Forgot Password’ option.

Officers will submit the required information regarding their income and assets via the 'Declaration' option on the portal, with the responsibility for the accuracy of the provided data resting on the concerned officer. According to the office memorandum, only non-sensitive details of the assets will be released to the public on the FBR website, while the submitted information will be verified through risk-based checks. The deadline for the digital submission of asset details for the 2025-26 fiscal year has been set for October 30, 2026. 

In the event of any error in the submitted details, amendments may be made with the approval of the respective cadre administrator up to November 30, 2026. The office memorandum clarifies that disciplinary action under the relevant rules may be initiated in cases of misrepresentation, concealment of information, or failure to submit asset details in accordance with the prescribed procedure. In case of technical difficulties, officers are to contact their respective cadre administrator, who will take up the matter with the FBR's designated focal person. 

Reporter Baber Shahzad Turk 

Ijaz Satti, a senior vice president of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Rawalpindi Cantonment, passed away after suffering a cardiac arrest during a Punjab Police raid on his home on Wednesday night, according to party leadership statements. 

Ijaz Satti had been arrested earlier on Wednesday by the Westridge police. He suffered a heart attack while being transported in a police vehicle. Police left Ijaz Satti's body at DHQ Hospital and departed. Ijaz Satti had also been a PTI candidate from Cantonment Board Ward 6. 

According to PTI leader Omar Ayub Khan, Satti was actively preparing for a visit by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Khan Afridi to Rawalpindi at the time of the raid. 

PTI leaders have strongly condemned the action, attributing the mounting toll of party worker deaths during raids and custody to provincial and federal authorities, while independent observers and supporters have raised serious concerns regarding the circumstances surrounding law enforcement actions during political crackdowns. 

Lebanon on Wednesday returned to Egypt dozens of pharaonic artefacts that had been seized from the Beirut port years earlier. "Thirty-seven antiquities... were seized from Beirut port in 2020, having arrived from an Arab port," Lebanese Culture Minister Ghassan Salameh said during a handover ceremony at the Beirut national museum.

"After investigating the identity and ownership of these items, it was determined that they belonged to Egypt," he added.

Five of the items were on display at the ceremony, including masks made of fabric, wood and clay.

"Cooperation between states... contributes to preserving humanity's heritage," Egyptian ambassador Alaa Moussa said at the ceremony.

Laura Salloum, an official with Lebanon's directorate of antiquities, told AFP that at the time of their seizure, the items were stored in a single container.

They "had been purchased by a Lebanese national without any official documentation regarding their source -- namely, Egypt," she said.

Antiquities smuggling is common in Egypt. Over the past decade, Cairo has recovered nearly 30,000 archaeological artefacts, according to officials.

A police sub-inspector was killed when his cousin allegedly opened fire on him over a property dispute in the Kalu Khan area of Swabi, Reported 24NewsHD TV.

According to DPO Waqas Rafiq, Sub-Inspector Qamar Zaman Khan was deployed with the Special Branch in Mardan and was currently attending a course. He had come home on leave when the incident took place.

The accused fled the scene after the firing, while police reached the spot and launched an investigation.

The body of the deceased police officer was shifted to Kalu Khan Hospital.

Meanwhile, two police personnel were killed and two others injured when a speeding car overturned near Jamshoro in Matiari.

According to police, the car was travelling from Jamshoro towards Sehwan when it met with an accident within the limits of Thebat Police Station.

The speeding vehicle went out of control, diverged off the road and fell into a ditch.

Police identified the deceased as Shaheen Force personnel Javed Jalbani and Ghulam Mustafa Panhwar.

The injured were identified as Shaheen Force In-charge Zaman Panhwar and Sanaullah Brohi, who were shifted to Sehwan Hospital for medical treatment.

The funeral prayers of martyred police official Ghulam Mustafa Panhwar were also offered with full police honours. SSP Jamshoro Zafar Siddique Chhanga attended the funeral, while a smartly turned-out police contingent presented a guard of honor.

Reporter: Anwar-ul- haq

Speaker of National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq Wednesday called for stronger parliamentary leadership, democratic accountability and international cooperation to effectively address the growing challenges posed by climate change.
Addressing the 69th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference in Cape Town,  Ayaz Sadiq also referred, without naming any country or delegation, to issues relating to sudden flows of water in rivers and the withholding of water, highlighting the broader implications of water-related challenges in the context of climate change.
While Ayaz Sadiq was addressing, members of the Indian delegation started to create disordeliness during the speech.
The chair intervened and called for decorum and order so that the speech could continue. Even after some time, The Jamican Speaker and host of the meeting has also grabbed a mic from a member of Indian delegation while he was talking. This made Indian delegation  a laughing stock in the hall.

Despite the brief interruption, the Speaker continued his address, reiterating that climate adaptation could only be made effective through fair financial support, democratic accountability, international cooperation, and sustained parliamentary engagement. 

Ayaz Sadiq’s address was well listened attentively by participants, with international delegates appreciating his emphasis on climate justice, parliamentary oversight, democratic accountability, and collective action to address the global challenge of climate change.

Fuerthermore, Ayaz Sadiq said that climate adaptation policies should be formulated with effective public participation, while democratic institutions must exercise meaningful oversight over climate-related policies and their implementation. 

He emphasized that climate change was affecting various aspects of human life, including food security, water availability, and public health.
The speaker also said that Pakistan is  among the countries most severely affected by climate change and stressed that addressing the challenge required climate justice, equitable financial support, and the meaningful involvement of democratic institutions.
He said that international climate finance should remain within the ambit of parliamentary oversight to ensure transparency, accountability, and effective utilization of resources.
Ayaz Sadiq highlighted the role of Pakistan’s Parliament in promoting climate adaptation through legislation, budgetary oversight, and the work of parliamentary committees.
He said that parliaments had an important role in translating climate policies into practical action and ensuring that climate-related commitments were effectively implemented.
The speaker further emphasized the need for the inclusion of women, youth and other segments of society in efforts to address climate change.
He called upon parliaments across the Commonwealth to share experiences, best practices, and innovative approaches to strengthen resilience against climate-related risks.
Ayaz Sadiq stressed that parliamentary dialogue on global challenges such as climate change should remain purposeful and constructive.
“Parliaments should promote cooperation and meaningful dialogue rather than differences in addressing climate change challenges,” he said, adding that strong democratic institutions were essential for building strong and resilient societies.
 

Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli were named in India's ODI squad on Wednesday for the West Indies series starting this month, as the team continue to prepare for next year's World Cup.

Both Rohit, 39, and Kohli, 37, only play the 50-over format internationally after retiring from Test and T20I cricket.

Shubman Gill will lead the 15-man squad for the three-match series starting September 27 in Thiruvananthapuram.

According to media reports, Rohit's place was in doubt despite hitting 138 in his last ODI outing against England at Lord's in July.

The two stalwarts of Indian cricket are keen to play in next year's ODI World Cup, but fans and pundits are divided over their places in the side.

All-rounder Ravindra Jadeja returns to the squad, having last played an ODI in January.

Medium-pace bowler Auqib Nabi and batting all-rounder Naman Dhir could be in line for their international debuts after receiving their maiden call-ups.

India will also play the Caribbean tourists in five T20 internationals, starting on October 6 in Lucknow.

Selectors also made changes to India's Asian Games squad, with spinner Varun Chakravarthy ruled out due to a side strain injury he suffered during the ongoing Afghanistan T20 series in New Delhi.

He will also miss the one-off T20 against Japan in Sano on September 22.

All-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy, who was originally included in the Asian Games squad, has been withdrawn and will instead feature in the ODI series against the West Indies. 

ODI squad

Shubman Gill (capt), Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Ruturaj Gaikwad, KL Rahul (wk), Dhruv Jurel (wk), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Prasidh Krishna, Gurnoor Brar, Mohammed Siraj, Auqib Nabi, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Naman Dhir 

T20I squad

Shreyas Iyer (capt), Abhishek Sharma, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Ishan Kishan (wk), Sanju Samson (wk), Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Arshdeep Singh, Prince Yadav, Mayank Yadav 

Updated Asian Games squad

Shreyas Iyer (capt), Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Shivam Dube, Tilak Varma, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Yash Thakur, Vipraj Nigam