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Foreign women's abduction, rape case: 3 suspects remanded in judicial custody

LAHORE: A judicial magistrate on Monday sent three suspects on 14-day judicial remand in a case pertaining to the kidnapping and rape of two foreign women. Defence C police produced the three suspects before the court on the expiry of their physical remand. The police asked the court to remand the suspects in judicial custody. The magistrate accepted the request and sent the suspects to the judicial lockup, directing police to submit their investigation report at the next hearing. A duty magistrate on Sunday had allowed the police five-day physical remand of a suspect identified as “Boss” by the complainant in the first information report (FIR). Separately, a Lahore High Court judge on Monday disposed of a habeas corpus petition filed by the mother of the aforementioned suspect seeking recovery of her son from police custody. A law officer told the court that the petitioner’s son was on physical remand, after which the LHC disposed of the petition. Four other suspects, including...
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Andy Burnham set to take over as new British PM

Andy Burnham will on Monday become Britain’s sixth prime minister to move into Downing Street since 2016, with an in-tray overflowing with challenges and little time to make his mark. The new leader takes over from the unpopular Keir Starmer just two years after the outgoing prime minister led Labour party to power in a landslide election victory after 14 years of Conservative rule. After being asked by King Charles III to form the next government, Burnham, 56, is due to make his first speech Monday outside 10 Downing Street shortly after Starmer has said his farewells. In an interview with The Times published late on Sunday, Burnham set out his ambition for change, saying he wanted to draw a line under a decade of political turmoil. “What we’ve been doing hasn’t been working. That’s the way I see it,” he said. “I am going to try and do things in a different way.” In his first speech, he will acknowledge he feels “acutely conscious” of the need for a more stable brand of poli...

After backlash over proposed law, state minister outlines more stringent measures for blue passport issuance

ISLAMABAD: After criticism on a bill seeking to allow the issuance of blue passports to former parliamentarians’ children, Minister of State for Interior Tallal Chaudhry has assured that measures would be taken to ensure that the travel document is used for “only official duties” abroad and issued for a limited time in most cases. The bill, seeking the issuance of blue passports to dependent children under the age of 28 of ex-members of parliament, was approved by a Senate panel on July 10. If the Members of Parliament Salaries and Allowances (Amendment) Bill, 2026 becomes law, the legislation would place former members of parliament on par with retired Grade-22 government officers, whose dependent children already enjoy the same entitlement. An official press statement released by the Senate Secretariat earlier this month noted that Chaudhry had “also agreed on the passing of the bill”. However, he later claimed he had opposed the bill during the July 10 proceedings of the Senate...

Dar, Venezuelan FM emphasise 'considerable potential' for enhancing economic collaboration

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar held a phone call with Venezuela’s newly appointed Foreign Minister Felix Plasencia on Sunday, with the two leaders emphasising the “considerable potential” for enhancing economic collaboration between their countries, the Foreign Office (FO) said. The two foreign ministers also exchanged views on the “longstanding friendly relations between Pakistan and Venezuela and reaffirmed their shared commitment to further strengthening bilateral ties”, the FO statement said. It added that they discussed opportunities to expand cooperation across a broad range of sectors, including trade, investment, business, agriculture, IT, and other areas of mutual interest. “Both sides underscored the considerable potential for enhancing economic collaboration and fostering stronger people-to-people contacts for the mutual benefit of the two countries,” the statement read. It said that Dar emphasised the...

Underdogs, upsets, politics: The story of a World Cup that comes down to Argentina vs Spain

There is a version of this tournament that exists only in press releases: 104 games, three countries, a halftime show with more headline acts than most music festivals manage in a weekend, a Peace Prize nobody quite understands, hydration breaks timed to the minute. FIFA built something enormous this summer, then spent five weeks discovering that a football tournament, however large you make it, still insists on being decided by 22 people and a ball. Tonight, at the MetLife Stadium, Madonna, Shakira and BTS will perform to a crowd that mostly just wants them to hurry up so Argentina and Spain can get on with it. That, in miniature, has been the story of the last month: spectacle straining against substance and mostly, gloriously, losing. Noise before a ball was kicked Start with the noise, because there was so much of it before a ball was even kicked. The draw itself happened under a cloud, staged at a Kennedy Centre now reshaped in Donald Trump’s image, with enough absent artists ...

1 missing, 6 injured in glacier burst incident in Swat's Kalam: Rescue 1122

SWAT: Search efforts were underway to trace a person who went missing after a glacier burst incident in Upper Swat’s Kalam Valley, Rescue 1122 said on Saturday. Six others were injured in the incident that took place in Kalam’s Matiltan area a couple of days. The glacier burst was reported once the survivors returned to the main Kalam bazaar. A man, identified as Syed Ali Shah, a resident of Khwazakhela, remained missing. According to his companions, he is believed to have died. However, his body has not yet been recovered. Initial reports indicated that three injured individuals received first aid from the Rescue 1122 medical team before being transferred from the Kalam Tehsil Headquarters Hospital to Central Hospital in Saidu Sharif for further treatment. Three other people sustained minor injuries and were reported to be safe. Rescue officials said that further verified information will be shared with the media and the public as it becomes availa...

O, the passions of oily Turkish men

Even before the pehlwans square off in the mud, the air is already wrestling with a mix of bruised earth and olive oil. Men of all age and build, gleaming like magazine models from head to toe, prep for a day under the July sun in Edirne. For over six centuries, men have gathered in this northwestern Turkish city for Kırkpınar, the yağlı güreş or oil wrestling festival for what is considered the national sport. It has been around for so long that it was ancient by the time the Olympics were revived in 1896. “People say it’s all tall tales about the history of this festival. But whether you believe it or not, it’s all true,” says 59-year-old Yakup Kaya, as he weaves the taxi through Edirne’s cobbled streets and Ottoman-era lanes towards Sarayiçi Er Meydani, where Kirkpinar comes alive. Legend has it that in 1361 Suleyman Pasha, the son of the second Ottoman sultan, Orhan I, and his army of forty soldiers, marched through the Eastern Thracian province of Edirne. To kill time, the men ...