Pakistan News

Donald Trump took a softer tone on Ukraine truce talks on Thursday as he hosted British Prime Minister Keir Starmer — but refused to give any firm commitments on the US security guarantees Europe desperately wants. In an upbeat meeting, the US president handed Starmer a win on a possible trade deal, while the British leader pandered to Trump’s love of the royal family with a invitation for a state visit from King Charles III. Trump, who has alarmed European capitals with his sudden pivot towards Russia, said there had been “a lot of progress” towards a deal to end the conflict in Ukraine and that negotiations were at a crucial stage. “It’ll either be fairly soon or it won’t be at all,” Trump told a press conference with Starmer. The mercurial US president played down an earlier rift with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, which had compounded fears that Trump would cut out Ukraine from negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin. “I have a lot of respect for him,...

The Central Ruet-i-Hilal Committee is set to meet today in Peshawar to announce the Ramadan crescent, marking the beginning of the holy month, the state-owned Radio Pakistan reported. The committee’s chairman, Moulana Syed Muhammad Abdul Khabir Azad, will preside over the meeting. “The Zonal Ruet-e-Hilal Committees will also meet separately at their respective headquarters to spot the Ramazan moon,” the report said. Earlier this week, the Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (Suparco) had forecasted that the holy month of Ramazan would begin on March 2 (Sunday) while Eidul Fitr would be observed on the 31st of the month. However, it emphasised that the Central Ruet-i-Hilal Committee would examine testimonies from across the country and formally announce the holy month’s official start since the unaided observation of the crescent moon with the naked eye was a religious obligation for determining the month’s beginning. “According to precise astronomical models,...

Transgender service members will be separated from the US military unless they receive an exemption, according to a Pentagon memo filed in court on Wednesday, essentially banning them from joining or serving in the military. The move, which goes further than restrictions President Donald Trump placed on transgender service members during his first administration, was described as unprecedented by advocates. Trump signed an executive order last month that took aim at transgender troops in a personal way — at one point saying that a man identifying as a woman was “not consistent with the humility and selflessness required of a service member.” This month, the Pentagon had said that the US military will no longer allow transgender individuals to join and will stop performing or facilitating procedures associated with gender transition for service members. Wednesday’s late-evening memo expands the ban to currently serving members of the military. The memo said that the Pentagon must ...

LOS ANGELES — Despite all the crap the Vancouver Canucks have been through this season, they had seen nothing like the river of filth that poured along the entrance to their dressing room when a sewage pipe burst at Crypto.com Arena just before their game Wednesday against the Los Angeles Kings. Everything but Andy Dufresne spilled across the hallway that takes players out of the rink. And just like Tim Robbins’ character from Shawshank Redemption, the Canucks came out clean on the other side. Just. Conor Garland sniped a goal at 4:26 of overtime, shooting through Los Angeles defenceman Brandt Clarke and past goalie David Rittich, as the Canucks beat the Kings 3-2 to claim both vital points after blowing a 2-0 lead halfway though the third period. After losing 10 games this season during three-on-three (or four-on-three) overtime, the Canucks found a novel way to win in the tie-breaker: skating four-on-four in the aftermath of Drew O’Connor’s tripping penalty 52 seconds i...

DeepSeek , the Chinese startup which triggered a $1 trillion-plus sell-off in global equities markets last month with a cut-price AI reasoning model, is looking to press home its advantage, according to sources. Now, the Hangzhou-based firm is accelerating the launch of the successor to January’s R1 model, according to three people familiar with the company. DeepSeek had planned to release R2 in early May but now wants it out as early as possible, two of them said, without providing specifics. The company says it hopes the new model will produce better coding and be able to reason in languages beyond English. Details of the accelerated timeline for R2’s release have not been previously reported. DeepSeek did not respond to a request for comment for this story. Rivals are still digesting the implications of R1, which was built with less-powerful Nvidia chips but is competitive with those developed at the costs of hundreds of billions of dollars by US tech giants. “The launch of D...

TOBA TEK SINGH: A minor student shot at and injured his female teacher in a private school in Chak 32-JB, Faisalabad. According to an FIR registered by Sandalbar police under sections 324 and 34 of the PPC, complainant Muhammad Bakhsh, father of the injured teacher, stated that during a farewell party hosted by eighth-grade students, Raja Aoun Saeed asked his classmate, Mirza Muhammad Dawood, to fire at their teacher, Hafza Bibi (21). Dawood fired, hitting the teacher in the leg. She was shifted to Allied Hospital. A police spokesperson said the main suspects had been arrested, and raids were underway to arrest his accomplice. Police were investigating the motive behind the attack and the source of the weapon. KILLED: A woman was murdered in Faisalabad’s Razabad locality on Tuesday after she refused to marry the suspect. Reports said Safdar Ali wanted to marry Shakeela Bibi, but she rejected his proposal. Enraged, Safdar and two unidentified accomplices attacked her near Lahori ...

SARGODHA: Five men gang-raped a 22-year-old woman on the pretext of a job abroad and left her at the DHQ Teaching Hospital in critical condition. The doctors at the hospital referred her to Lahore due to her serious condition. According to a doctor, the girl’s bones were also fractured and she had internal injuries of serious nature. The victim’s father said the main suspect lured his daughter for a job abroad and took her out on the same pretext. The main suspect, along with his four accomplices, raped her and fled the hospital when they came to know about her critical condition. He said the suspect threatened to kill him if he reported the matter to the police. District Police Officer Sohaib Ashraf took notice of the incident and directed the police to arrest the suspects immediately. He assured the girl’s father that justice would be served at all cost. The father of the girl appealed to Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz to provide his daughter with justice. MURDER: A girl was mur...

RAWALPINDI: New Zealand batter Kane Willamson bats in the nets during a practice session at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium on Sunday.—Tanveer Shahzad/White Star RAWALPINDI: New Zealand will look to cement their place in the ICC Cha­mpions Trophy semi-finals when they take on Bangladesh here at the Ra­w­alpindi Cricket Stadium on Monday. The BlackCaps are in immense form, having thrashed hosts Pakistan by 60 runs in the tournament opener. Earlier, they had also gone unbeaten in the tri-nation series, proving their mettle as a side to fear in South Asian conditions. They will be up against a Bangladesh team which didn’t trouble India much before going down to one of the title favo­urites by six wickets. But New Zea­l­and won’t be taking their opponents lightly. “We know Bangladesh are a very good side, we’ve played them a lot in the past and I guess here in Pindi its usually a pretty good wicket so we know they can be quite destructive,” New Zealand skipper Mitchell Santner said...

A prison official closes the main door of the Central Jail in Karachi on December 16, 2023: 102,026 people are housed in 128 functioning jails across Pakistan, with prisons operating at 152.2 percent capacity | AFP Prison conditions in Pakistan fall significantly short of international standards, with inmates facing numerous systemic challenges, including severe overcrowding , unhygienic living conditions, insufficient access to clean water, nutritious food and healthcare, exploitative labour practices, limited contact with family and legal counsel, and a lack of effective complaint mechanisms. Furthermore, prisons fail to provide adequate rehabilitative, educational, vocational or recreational activities, undermining the core objectives of incarceration. With a population of 102,026 inmates housed in 128 facilities across the four provinces, Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), Pakistan’s prison system operates under immense strain. Encouragingly, the nati...

Pakistan has won the toss and elected to bat as they face off against arch-rivals India in their blockbuster Champions Trophy match against India in Dubai on Sunday. The pitch in Dubai is expected to be slow as the same stadium hosted the International League T20 just before the Champions Trophy. Pakistan’s captain Mohammad Rizwan (C) and his Indian counterpart Rohit Sharma (R) look on after the toss before the start of the ICC Champions Trophy one-day international (ODI) cricket match between Pakistan and India at the Dubai International Stadium in Dubai on February 23, 2025. — AFP Pakistan have one change since their last match against New Zealand, with Imamul Haq replacing Fakhar Zaman as he has been ruled out of the tournament after being injured in Pakistan’s opening match in Karachi. The Rohit Sharma-led side are unchanged since their last encounter against Bangladesh at the same stadium, which they won by six wickets. India, who refused to travel to Pakistan for the...