Pakistan News

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Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday departed for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on a one-day visit to offer condolences over the death of Sheikh Saeed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, the brother of President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan. In a tweet, Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb said the premier would meet the UAE president during his brief trip and extend condolences to the latter on behalf of the Pakistani nation. Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and special assistant to the premier Tariq Fatemi are also accompanying the prime minister. The UAE Presidential Court had announced Sheikh Saeed’s death in an obituary notice published by state news agency WAM on Thursday. It also said that a three-day mourning period would be observed, with flags flown at half-mast across the country, from July 27 to July 29. According to Khaleej Times , Sheikh Saeed was laid to rest at Al Bateen Cemetery in Abu Dhabi on Thursday afternoon. The report said Sheikh Saeed was born in 1965 in Al ...

The Punjab Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) on Friday said it had arrested 17 suspects associated with defunct organisations during various intelligence-based operations (IBOs). According to an official statement by the CTD, officials conducted 132 IBOs in various parts of the province. During these operations, the CTD interrogated 134 suspects, resulting in the arrest of 17. The statement disclosed that two of the arrested suspects were associated with the TTP (Ghazi Force) and were detained in Attock, adding that they were “planning to target Chinese nationals”. The CTD also said that three suspected TTP terrorists were arrested in Dera Ghazi Khan, adding that they were reportedly “planning to attack worship places”. The CTD also apprehended a terrorist associated with Jamaatul Ahrar who was “planning to target worship place in Lahore”. According to the CTD statement, three other suspects were detained in Gujranwala and Sargodha for possessing banned literature, while eight...

Meta Platforms executives are heavily focused on boosting retention on their new Twitter rival Threads, after the app lost more than half of its users in the weeks following its buzzy launch , CEO Mark Zuckerberg told employees on Thursday. Retention of users on the text-based app was better than executives had expected, though it was “not perfect”, said Zuckerberg, speaking at an internal company town hall, the audio of which was heard by Reuters . “Obviously, if you have more than 100 million people sign up, ideally it would be awesome if all of them or even half of them stuck around. We’re not there yet,” he said. Zuckerberg said he considered the drop-off “normal” and expected retention to grow as the company adds more features to the app, including a desktop version and search functionality. Meta is looking at adding more “retention-driving hooks” to entice users to return to the app, like “making sure people who are on the Instagram app can see important Threads,” said Chi...

Islamabad police said on Friday that the statement of a teenage maid, who was reportedly severely tortured by a civil judge’s wife , had been recorded. A resident of Sargodha, the teenage girl was shifted to the Lahore General Hospital on Monday when her employers — a civil judge in Islamabad and his wife — were accused of torturing her. According to the girl’s medico-legal certificate (MLC), she had “laceration on head from vertex, on forehead, right side above eyebrow, swollen upper lips, laceration under upper lip on right side, broken left incisor and left canine, laceration on check, nose bleed, laceration on left side of vertex, multiple bruises on lower leg, fracture on right forearm, swollen left and right eyelids, bruise on right skull, laceration on back, multiple bruises on back and attempt on strangulation.” After initially showing reluctance, Islamabad police had registered a first information report in the case on July 26. Police booked the judge’s wife for criminal i...

Saudi Arabia summoned a Danish diplomat to protest desecration of the Holy Quran by an extreme-right group in Copenhagen, state media reported early on Friday. During the meeting on Thursday with the Danish charge d’affaires, foreign ministry officials delivered a protest note urging an end to “these disgraceful acts, which violate all religious teachings (and) international laws and norms” and can “fuel hatred between religions”, the official Saudi Press Agency said. The far-right group Danske Patrioter on Monday posted a video in which a man is seen desecrating and burning what appeared to be the Holy Quran. It was just the latest such incident to stir anger in the Muslim world. Saudi Arabia, home to the holy cities Makkah and Madina, has also denounced protests by a Sweden-based Iraqi refugee who last month burned pages of the Holy Quran outside Stockholm’s main mosque. In a separate protest last week, the refugee, Salwan Momika, stepped on the Holy Quran but did not burn it, ...

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