Pakistan

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Machinery theft, unpaid WAPDA bills, damaged pipelines mar progress

Orders protection of 'every drop of water'

New Delhi, with its sprawling metropolitan region of 30 million residents, is regularly ranked among the world’s most polluted capitals. Acrid smog blankets the skyline each winter, when cooler air traps pollutants close to the ground, creating a deadly mix of emissions from crop burning, factories and heavy traffic. Here are some pictures from the Indian capital today. A man moves his boat through foam on the polluted Yamuna river, on a smoggy morning amid ongoing air pollution in New Delhi, India, on November 21. — Reuters A fisherman uses a string to catch fish through foam on the polluted Yamuna river, on a smoggy morning amid ongoing air pollution in New Delhi, India, on November 21. — Reuters Boats move through foam on the polluted Yamuna river, on a smoggy morning amid ongoing air pollution in New Delhi, India, on November 21. — Reuters A fisherman on a boat stands next to a fishing net covered with foam, on the polluted Yamuna river, on a smoggy morning amid ongoing air pollution in New Delhi, India, ...

Afridi orders immediate nurse recruitment, faster hospital upgrades

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A Pakistan International Airlines flight attendant has reportedly gone missing in Canada, prompting the airline to launch an inquiry into his disappearance. ​According to PIA spokesperson Abdullah Hafeez Khan, the attendant did not report for flight PK-798 from Toronto to Lahore. “When contacted, he cited ill health as an excuse,” the spokesperson said, adding that the matter is being investigated. “In case of illegal disappearance, departmental action will be initiated against the flight attendant,” Khan said. Missing PIA crew members, particularly in Canada, have been reported in the past, too. Last year in October, a cabin crew member was reportedly gone missing while on duty. The missing crew member, based in Islamabad, had disappeared during a layover in Toronto. Similarly, a 47-year-old PIA steward was reportedly gone missing in Canada in March 2024. In February 2024, another member of the airline’s cabin crew was reported missing while on duty. The member had arrived in Toronto on PIA flight PK-782 fro...

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Four people in Denmark who developed serious eye conditions after using popular weight-loss and diabetes drugs Wegovy and Ozempic are entitled to compensation, an independent body ruled on Friday. More than 40 people had sought reimbursement after they said they had developed a serious eye condition as a result of using one of the drugs, both made by Novo Nordisk, according to the Danish Patient Compensation Association. The condition, NAION (non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy), is a lack of blood supply to the optic nerve, which can lead to a loss of vision. The association said that it had ruled on five cases so far, and found four people who merited compensation. “It’s unfortunate for the patients who have been affected by the side effect. NAION is a serious condition that causes permanent and incurable damage to vision,” the association’s director, Karen-Inger Bast, said in a statement. Bast added that the cases were difficult to assess, given that it was a new medicine and the patients were...

An Indian fighter aircraft, the indigenously developed Tejas, crashed during a demonstration flight at the Dubai Air Show on Friday. A fireball was seen immediately after the aircraft impacted the ground, with thick black smoke rising from the site of the incident. In a post on X, the Indian Air Force (IAF) confirmed the death of the pilot in the incident. This is not the first time an IAF jet has been destroyed in an accident. Here’s a list of crashes reported over the past five years. 2020 February 23: MiG-29K An IAF MiG-29k crashed off the coast of Goa, The Times of India reported, quoting an Indian Navy spokesperson. The aircraft had been on a routine training sortie. An image of an Indian Air Force MiG-29K. — Photo courtesy The Times of India/File 2021 March 17: MiG-21 Bison An IAF pilot was killed when his MiG-21 Bison aircraft crashed in central India. Group Captain A Gupta had taken off for a combat training mission from an airbase before he experienced the fatal accident, an IAF statement said. It ad...

South Africa said on Friday the rate of violence against women in the country was a national disaster, as thousands protested to highlight the problem ahead of this weekend’s G20 summit of world leaders. The country has one of the world’s highest rates of gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF), leading to deaths five times higher than the global average, according to the United Nations’s gender equality organisation UN Women. In one of dozens of “lie-in” protests countrywide, thousands of people dressed in black lay on the ground for 15 minutes at an event in Johannesburg’s city centre, just a few kilometres (miles) from the venue where G20 leaders will meet on Saturday and Sunday. Organisers said the action was to honour the 15 women murdered every day in South Africa. A 2022 government survey found that one in three South African women had experienced physical violence, and almost 10 per cent had faced sexual violence. More than 10,700 cases of rape were reported to police in the first three months of 20...

Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Prime Minister Raja Faisal Mumtaz Rathore on Friday allocated portfolios to his 18 ministers and two advisers, two days after the formation of his cabinet. According to an official notification, the senior-most minister, Mian Abdul Waheed, retained the department of law, justice, parliamentary affairs and human rights, which he had also held in the previous coalition government. Sardar Javed Ayoub was assigned forests, wildlife, fisheries and the Muzaffarabad Development Authority; Syed Bazil Ali Naqvi was given health and population welfare; Javed Iqbal Budhanvi received food; and Nabila Ayoub was allocated the portfolio of the Kashmir cause, arts and languages. The portfolios of works and communications (C&W), local government and rural development and finance and inland revenue also went to the PPP loyalists, Sardar Ziaul Qamar, Chaudhry Amar Yasin and Chaudhry Qasim Majeed, respectively. Yasin is the son of PPP AJK President Chaudhry Muhammad Yasin, who was overlooked for the ...