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Dawn - 05:25 Dec 23, 2025
Vince Zampella, the acclaimed co-creator of video gaming juggernaut “Call of Duty,” has died in a car crash, gaming giant Electronic Arts confirmed on Monday. He was 55. The developer and executive died on Sunday while driving his Ferrari on a scenic road north of Los Angeles, according to local broadcaster NBC4. “For unknown reasons, the vehicle veered off the roadway, struck a concrete barrier, and became fully engulfed,” the California Highway Patrol said in a statement, without identifying the two victims in the crash. The CHP added that both the driver and a passenger who was ejected from the vehicle succumbed to their injuries. Witnesses posted video of the mangled cherry-red Ferarri, engulfed in flames, on the mountain road. The cause of the crash remains under investigation. His studios created some of the world’s best-selling video games, and Zampella was considered an innovator in first-person military shooter style games. This year, when his “Battlefield 6” video game set a new sales record for the... -
Dawn - 04:35 Dec 23, 2025
US President Donald Trump on Monday announced a new class of heavily armed warships that will be named after himself — an honor usually reserved for leaders who have left office. Two of the Trump-class ships will be built initially, but that number could grow substantially, according to the president, who said they will be “some of the most lethal surface warfare ships” and “the largest battleship in the history of our country”. Trump made the announcement at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida alongside Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Navy Secretary John Phelan, with images of the planned high-tech vessels on stands nearby. Asked if the planned warships are a counter to Washington’s rival Beijing, Trump declined to specify, instead saying: “It’s a counter to everybody, it’s not China. We get along great with China.” He said the ships will weigh between 30,000 and 40,000 tons and will be armed with missiles and guns as well as weaponry still in development, such as lasers and h... -
Dawn - 03:13 Dec 23, 2025
• JUI-F chief warns against attempts to make Constitution ‘controversial’, seeks dissolution of all govts • Maulana stresses need to introspect on Afghan policy, expresses concern over plan to join Gaza force • Criticises move to force seminaries to obtain certificates from govt KARACHI: As political parties from the ruling and opposition camps propose talks to end the political confrontation, Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman on Monday demanded fresh elections across the country to do away with the governments allegedly born out of rigging. Positioning himself as the one political figure courted by both the government and the opposition, Maulana Fazl declared that the 2018 and 2024 polls were “rigged and did not reflect the will of the people”. Standing alongside the government’s key ally, MQM-P’s appointed Sindh Governor Kamran Tessori, Maulana Fazl questioned the legitimacy of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s government while also, without naming it, casting doubt on the past record o... -
Dawn - 03:12 Dec 23, 2025
Lockheed Martin, the US aerospace and defence company that manufactures F-16 fighter aircraft, has been named the principal contractor.—AFP/file • Lockheed Martin picked as main contractor; $686m deal aims to extend fleet service life until 2040 • US Congress was earlier notified of the proposed sale, didn’t raise any objections WASHINGTON: A US military upgrade package for Pakistan’s F-16 fighter fleet, worth $686 million, has been cleared through a statutory congressional notification process. Lockheed Martin, the US aerospace and defence company that manufactures the F-16 fighter aircraft, and has long been responsible for its design, upgrades, and sustainment programmes for international operators, has been named the principal contractor for the proposed sale. The sale was processed under existing authorities provided by the Arms Export Control Act and annual appropriations laws. These provisions allow the executive branch to obligate and disburse funds once Congress has been formally notified and does no... -
Dawn - 03:12 Dec 23, 2025
KARACHI: Pakistan has signed a multi-billion dollar deal to sell conventional military equipment to the Libyan army, entering a select club of countries that export conventional arms and equipment. According to the Reuters news agency, the over $4 billion deal, one of Pakistan’s largest-ever weapons sales, will see arms sold to the Libyan National Army (LNA). It was finalised after a meeting last week between Chief of Defence Forces Field Marshal Asim Munir and Saddam Khalifa Haftar, deputy commander-in-chief of the LNA, in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, officials said. Although foreign ministry, defence ministry and military did not respond to Reuters’ requests for comment, military officials called it “historic in terms of size and financial impact”. JF-17s, Super Mushak aircraft on LNA’s ‘shopping list’, said to be valued over $4bn A copy of the deal before it was finalised that was seen by Reuters listed the purchase of several JF-17 fighter jets, jointly developed by Pakistan and China, and a numbe... -
Dawn - 20:30 Dec 22, 2025
SAHIWAL: An anti-terrorism court (ATC) sentenced two blasphemy convicts to death on Monday, and also sentenced them to 22 years of rigorous imprisonment and imposed fines of Rs 550,000. The case was filed on the complaint of a local on July 17, 2024, and was registered at Kameer Police Station under FIR No. 710/24 in Sahiwal district. The FIR stated that the “alleged incident of blasphemy occurred on July 17, 2024, but was registered four months later, supported by testimonies from two local witnesses“. The court found the two individuals guilty of violating Sections 295-A and 295-C, Sections 7/9 of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) 1997, and Section 11 of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) 2016 of the Pakistan Penal Code. In his detailed verdict, the judge ruled that the convicts were separately sentenced to death and fined Rs500,000 under Section 295-C, 10 years imprisonment under Section 295-A, seven years under PECA 2016, and five years along with a fine of Rs50,000 under ATA 1997. A senior police ... -
Dawn - 18:42 Dec 22, 2025
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Tariq Fazal Chaudhry said on Monday that meetings with incarcerated PTI founder Imran Khan would remain suspended till February 8. “Meetings with Khan will remain suspended till Feb 8,” the minister said while speaking on Geo News’ show Capital Talk, in reply to a question by the show’s host about whether meetings with Imran would remain suspended. As court-ordered prison visits stay blocked, Imran’s family and party have expressed concerns about the conditions in which he is being kept inside the prison. A United Nations’ special rapporteur has also warned that Imran is being held in conditions that could amount to inhuman or degrading treatment. Chaudhry maintained that the prison is “not the headquarters of a political party”, and criticised the PTI for “spreading venom against institutions and leaders of the institutions“. The PML-N leader said that regular meetings were held between PTI leaders and its founder in Adiala jail in the past, and the government had no issues. Ho... -
Dawn - 16:56 Dec 22, 2025
RAWALPINDI: PTI leader Seemabia Tahir and 25 other activists were booked by police under Section 16 of the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance, 1960 (MPO), for allegedly blocking Rawalpindi’s Adiala Road and violating Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) on Sunday night. A special court sentenced PTI founder Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi to 17 years imprisonment in the Toshakhana-2 case on Saturday. In protest, the PTI announced it would observe a black day on Sunday against the conviction, as per an announcement posted on Imran’s social media account. Following the protest call, extensive security arrangements had been put in place in Rawalpindi, with over 1,300 police personnel deployed to maintain law and order. Though the day passed peacefully, as not a single activist of PTI appeared on the roads. Police said that a group of political workers. led by PTI leader Seemabia Tahir and nine others. gathered on Adiala Road on Sunday night at about 9:15pm. The protesters, nine of whom wer... -
Dawn - 14:57 Dec 22, 2025
An Air India Boeing 777 aircraft had to turn back after a drop in oil pressure forced the pilots to turn off one of the jet’s engines, India’s aviation regulator said on Monday. The aircraft, which was headed to India’s financial capital of Mumbai, landed safely back in Delhi and the incident will be investigated, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said in a statement. Modern aircraft are designed to safely fly and land on a single engine, if required. Air India has been under intense scrutiny this year after the June 12 crash of a Boeing Dreamliner killed 260 people. The DGCA has flagged multiple safety lapses at the airline, which was previously owned by the government till 2022. An Air India investigation into why one of its planes conducted commercial flights without an airworthiness permit found “systemic failures”, with the airline admitting it needed to do better on compliance, Reuters reported earlier this month. On Monday, pilots observed a low engine oil pressure on the B777-300ER airc... -
Dawn - 14:43 Dec 22, 2025
An additional district court in Islamabad awarded compensation amounting to Rs5.4 billion to the families of eight victims of the 2010 Airblue plane crash, which killed all 152 people aboard in the Margalla Hills. The court, headed by Rasool Bashir Mirjat, dismissed an appeal filed by Airblue, upheld the airline’s liability in the case, and imposed a penalty of Rs1 million on the airline for delaying the proceedings. Airblue Flight 202, which had taken off from Karachi in the morning, crashed into Islamabad’s Margalla Hills, killing all 152 people on board on July 28, 2010. According to a Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) investigation report, the crash was classified as a “Controlled Flight into Terrain (CFIT), in which the aircrew failed to display superior judgment and professional skills in a self-created unsafe environment. In their pursuit to land in inclement weather, they committed serious violations of procedures and breaches of flying discipline, which put the aircraft in an unsafe condition o... -
Dawn - 14:25 Dec 22, 2025
LAHORE: The Punjab government on Monday told the Lahore High Court (LHC) that the local government (LG) elections in the province would be held on a “party basis”. An assistant advocate general (AAG) shared this information about LG elections — which have been delayed for long and are not expected to be held before the second quarter of next year — during a hearing of petitions filed by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI)-backed lawmaker Sheikh Imtiaz and others, who have challenged the Punjab Local Government Act 2025 (PLGA). Contrary to the AAG’s claim, the local government law enacted in October states that the elections are to be held on a non-party basis. But, the AAG submitted a report on behalf of the local government secretary today, which said that any political party wishing to contest the LG polls “may allow its candidates to contest elections for any political office on its ticket”. “Section 55 of the PLGA does not, in any manner, put any party at a disadvantage compared to others,” he said. At that, L... -
Dawn - 13:48 Dec 22, 2025
Winter vacations in colleges across Punjab will begin from December 23 and run till January 10, according to a revised schedule issued on Monday. The Punjab Education Minister Rana Sikandar Hayat made the announcement in a post on the social media platform X. Earlier this month, the Punjab government announced the winter vacation schedule for public and private schools in the province. According to a notification by the School Education Department, the break will be from Dec 22 to Jan 10. In Sindh, all schools and colleges will remain closed for winter vacations during the last week of the month, starting from Dec 22 till Dec 31. Meanwhile, in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, the provincial government last week announced that winter vacation for the educational institutions will start from Jan 1 in the summer zone and run till Jan 15. In the winter zone, educational institutions will remain closed from Dec 23 till February 28. -
Dawn - 13:36 Dec 22, 2025
A Bangladeshi student political leader from the National Citizen Party (NCP) was shot and injured in Khulna on Monday, according to The Daily Star. The development comes after Sharif Osman Hadi, a key figure in last year’s student-led uprising that toppled longtime Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, was shot in the head by masked assailants in Dhaka on December 16 while launching his campaign for an election due in February. He died last Thursday in Singapore after six days on life support. According to The Daily Star, the injured 42-year-old Mohammad Motaleb Sikder is the NCP’s divisional chief in Khulna. “Miscreants opened fire targeting his head around 11:45am (10:45am PKT) near Gazi Medical College Hospital in the city,” the paper reported, quoting Rafikul Islam, the officer-in-charge of Sonadanga Model Police Station. “He was rushed to Khulna Medical College Hospital in critical condition.” Quoting the officer, the publication reported that Sidker was “out of danger”, as the bullet entered through one side of... -
Dawn - 12:42 Dec 22, 2025
National champions are typically forged from years of rigorous training, determination and a foray into the sport in childhood. But Umul Banin Nasry is anything but typical. Her journey to fencing stardom began with one element; curiosity. Barely one month after taking up the sport, she won gold at the national fencing championships, although her gold medal at last month’s 35th National Games holds a sense of greater grandeur for her. Now, as the 21-year-old awaits her international debut and a chance to become Pakistan’s first fencer at the Olympics, her journey is intentional, fuelled by an unwavering commitment to training and family support in defiance of societal disapproval. It all began five years ago. Banin was intrigued by some women at her college in Quetta practicing “weird stepping movements”, only to find out it was for a sport called fencing. She tried her hand at it — quite literally — and immediately fell in love with a sport she had only seen online. Her coach signed her up for the 4th Nation... -
Dawn - 12:14 Dec 22, 2025
KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) extended on Monday an interim order that suspended a Karachi University (KU) syndicate and Unfair Means Committee’s declaration cancelling the law degree of former justice Tariq Mehmood Jahnagiri, who was removed as an Islamabad High Court (IHC) judge last week. Jahangiri has found himself mired in a fake degree controversy since last year and has been facing legal proceedings in the SHC and IHC over the matter. While an IHC division bench, led by Chief Justice Muhammad Sarfraz Dogar, ruled on December 18 that his degree was “invalid” and his elevation to the high court was “without lawful authority”, the SHC extended today its order under which KU’s August 2024 decision to cancel his degree remains suspended. The order has been suspended until the next hearing, the date for which will be decided later. The decision was taken by a two-judge bench, comprising Justices Yousuf Ali Saeed and Abdul Mobeen Lakho, as it heard a contempt plea filed against the KU Vice Chancellor (... -
Dawn - 11:57 Dec 22, 2025
Head coach Shahid Anwer said that Pakistan had achieved their goal of playing “fearless but not careless cricket” after they won the Under-19 Asia Cup with a crushing victory over India on Sunday. Opener Sameer Minhas led the way for Pakistan at the ICC Academy Ground in Dubai with a breathtaking 172 to set up a massive 191-run victory for his side. “We began a process on June 17 [this year],” recalled Shahid at a news conference in Islamabad on Monday, following the team’s arrival and a meeting with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif where a Rs10million cash award was announced. “It was an unprecedented step … we called up 70 players, conducted trials and gave each player four matches each and then they participated in a regional One-day tournament,” he added. “The top performers, 30 of them, then took part in a five-month long camp … that’s how the team was made. “We wanted to play fearless but not careless cricket. We wanted a united team and the result is in front of us.” Team mentor and manager Sarfaraz Ahmed... -
Dawn - 11:22 Dec 22, 2025
Bangladesh has rejected India’s dismissal of a protest outside its high commission in New Delhi as “misleading propaganda”, saying the incident was “highly regrettable“. According to Bangladeshi media, around 20 to 25 protesters gathered in front of the Bangladesh High Commission in New Delhi on Saturday evening. According to mission officials, the protesters raised anti-Bangladesh slogans and issued threats against the Bangladesh high commissioner, Prothom Alo reported. In response, the Indian External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal issued a statement on Sunday saying India had taken note of “misleading propaganda in sections of the Bangladesh media on the incident”. “The fact is that about 20-25 youth gathered in front of the Bangladesh High Commission in New Delhi on December 20 and raised slogans in protest against the horrendous killing of Dipu Chandra Das in Mymensingh, while also calling for the protection of all minorities in Bangladesh,” he said. According to Prothom Alo, Das — a garme... -
Dawn - 09:53 Dec 22, 2025
A car bomb killed a senior Russian general in southern Moscow on Monday morning, the latest high-profile army figure to be blown up in a blast that came just hours after Russian and Ukrainian delegates held separate talks in Miami on a plan to end the war. Kyiv has not commented on the incident, but Russian investigators said they were probing whether the blast was “linked” to “Ukrainian special forces”. The attack was similar to other assassinations of generals and pro-war figures that have either been claimed, or are widely believed to have been orchestrated, by Ukraine. Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov, 56, head of the Russian General Staff’s training department, was killed when the bomb, which had been placed under his parked car, detonated in a residential quarter of southern Moscow. AFP reporters at the scene saw a mangled white Kia SUV, its doors and back window blown out. The frame was twisted and charred from the blast. The scene had been cordoned off by security forces, and investigators were sifti... -
Dawn - 09:29 Dec 22, 2025
LAHORE: Lahore High Court (LHC) Chief Justice Aalia Neelum issued an interim order on Monday to suspend the operation of the newly enacted Punjab Protection of Ownership of Immovable Property Ordinance, 2025, which empowers deputy commissioner-led committees to decide property disputes. Justice Neelum issued the ruling during a hearing of petitions by Abida Parveen and others that challenged decisions pertaining to property disputes taken under the ordinance. Through her interim order, she also suspended decisions taken under the new legislation to take away the possession of properties. Expressing her disapproval of the law, she remarked: “Someone should inform the government that if this law remains in force, even Jati Umra (the Sharif family residence) could be vacated within half an hour. “It appears that some people want to hold all powers.” Questioning the purpose of the law, CJ Neelum asked how could a revenue officer hand over the possession of a property in a matter pending before a civil court. The ... -
Dawn - 09:16 Dec 22, 2025
Saudi Arabia’s Defence Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman bin Abdulaziz has conferred the King Abdulaziz Medal of Excellent Class on Chief of Defence Forces (CDF) and Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir for his efforts to “advance Pak-Saudi ties”, it emerged on Monday. According to a report by Saudi Gazette, the medal has five classes; excellent, first, second, third, and fourth. It is usually awarded to those who have rendered outstanding services to Saudi Arabia or one of its institutions. The official Saudi Press Agency reported late on Sunday that CDF Field Marshal Munir was given the medal in honour of his “distinguished efforts to strengthen the strategic relationship and cooperation between the two nations”. The report added that the ceremony took place during the Saudi minister’s reception of CDF Field Marshal Munir in Riyadh. “Prince Khalid congratulated Field Marshal Munir on his appointment as Pakistan’s chief of defence forces, wishing him continued success in his new role,” the report add...
8064 items