RjNews

Four more people died in rain-related incidents in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Shangla and Charsada districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as the death toll in the province rose to 25, officials said on Tuesday. Contin­uous heavy rains accompanied by thunderstorms have lashed several parts of the country in the past few days. Heavy rainfall, floods and landslides continued to wreak havoc in the northern parts of KP for the fourth consecutive day. According to a KP Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) report issued last night, the death toll since April 12 rose to 21 with 13 more deaths — six men, two women and five children. Meanwhile, the total number of injured rose to 32. Rescue 1122 spokesperson Bilal Ahmad Faizi told Dawn.com today that two children were killed after a house collapsed in Shabqadar, Charsadda. Separately, Shangla Deputy Commissioner (DC) Ziaur Rehman also confirmed to Dawn.com two deaths in Shangla on Monday night in the Dehrai area of Alpuri where a mother an...

QUETTA: Balochistan police’s Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) has registered the FIR of Noshki attack in which nine men from Punjab were killed after being off-loaded from a bus. Officials said the FIR was registered against unknown armed men on the complaint of Noshki police station SHO Asadullah Mengal. The relevant provisions of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 and other laws have been added to the FIR. The CTD officials have also launched a probe into the attack. The nine men, hailing from Punjab were travelling on a bus from Quetta to Taftan on the Pakistan-Iran border. The attackers, who had set up a cordon on the N-40 Quetta-Noshki Highway, intercepted the coach and looted the belongings of passengers, including cash and mobile phones. After checking the identity cards of the passengers, the gunmen separa­ted the nine passengers and took them away. Their bullet-riddled bodies were later dumped under a bridge in a hilly area of Noshki. The outlawed Balochistan Libe­r­a­tion...

The government on Monday increased the price of petrol by Rs4.53 per litre and that of high-speed diesel (HSD) by Rs8.14 per litre for the next fortnight ending April 30. In the latest price review, the petrol price was increased to Rs293.94 per litre from Rs289.41. Additionally, the HSD price was increased to Rs290.38 per litre for the next 15 days, compared to Rs282.24 over the past fortnight. The notification from the finance ministry said the price variations were worked out by the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority based on price variations in the international market. Petrol is mostly used in private transport, small vehicles, rickshaws, and two-wheelers and has a direct bearing on the budgets of the middle and lower-middle classes. Most of the transport sector runs on HSD. Its price is considered inflationary as it is mostly used in heavy transport vehicles, trains and agricultural engines like trucks, buses, tractors, tube wells and threshers and particularly adds to th...

CHITTAGONG: Somali pirates freed a Bangladesh-flagged cargo vessel and its 23 crew on Sunday after sackloads of US dollars were air-dropped to them in ransom, the company and relatives said. The bulk carrier MV Abdullah was transporting more than 55,000 tonnes of coal from Maputo to the United Arab Emirates when it was seized by dozens of pirates around 550 nautical miles (1,000kms) off the Somali coast a month ago. The seizure came amid a surge in Somali pirate activity, with international naval forces diverted from the Gulf of Aden into the Red Sea to guard against attacks on shipping by Yemen’s Houthi fighters. Negotiations for the ship’s release were led by Meherul Karim, CEO of its owners KSRM. Bangladesh-flagged vessel was transporting over 55,000 tonnes of coal from Maputo to the UAE when captured “The pirates called us when they reached near the Somalia coast” and one of them spoke English, he told reporters in Chittagong on Sunday. “He communicated with us till we fina...

Palestinians injured during Israeli bombardment on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, wait to receive medical treatment at al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah in Gaza on Saturday.—AFP • Biden cuts weekend trip short for urgent Middle East consultations • Tehran says Israel ‘in complete panic’ over Syria attack response • Gaza death toll rises by 52 TEHRAN: Iran’s Revolutionary Guards seized a container ship “related to the Zionist regime (Israel)” in the Gulf on Saturday, state media reported, with tensions soaring in the region. The ship’s operator, the Italian-Swiss group MSC, later confirmed Iranian authorities had boarded it. A container ship “was seized by the Sepah (Guards) Navy Special Forces by carrying out a heliborne operation,” state news agency IRNA reported, naming it as the MSC Aries. It added that the operation took place “near the Strait of Hormuz” and “this ship has now been directed towards the territorial waters” of Iran. MSC confirmed the A...

BAGHDAD: Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohamed Shia Al-Sudani left Baghdad on Saturday for the United States, his office said, where he will meet with the US president as regional tensions flare. US President Joe Biden is due to receive the Iraqi leader on Monday to “coordinate on common priorities” and discuss the “evolution of the military mission” of the “US-led anti-jihadist coalition” in Iraq and Syria, according to the White House. The trip comes after Iran threatened to retaliate for deadly strikes, blamed on Israel, on its consulate in the Syrian capital Damascus. Biden has said he expects Tehran to take action “sooner rather than later”. “This official visit occurs at a delicate and sensitive time in the relations with the United States, as well as in the context of regional conditions and the ongoing crimes against innocents in the Palestinian territories,” a statement from Sudani’s office said. The surging tensions come against the backdrop of the escalation in Israeli attacks i...

Iran launched an unprecedented drone and missile attack on Israel late on Saturday, the Israeli army announced, in a major escalation of the long-running covert war between the regional foes. Blasts were heard in the skies above Jerusalem early on Sunday, AFP journalists said. Iran had repeatedly threatened to strike Israel in retaliation for a deadly April 1 air strike on its Damascus consular annexe and Washington had warned repeatedly in recent days that the reprisals were imminent. “Iran launched UAVs from its territory towards the territory of the state of Israel,” military spokesman Daniel Hagari said in a televised statement . “We are working in close cooperation with the United States and our partners in the region in order to act against the launches and intercept them,” Rear Admiral Hagari said. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards confirmed a retaliatory drone and missile attack was under way against Israel in retaliation for the Damascus strike which killed seven Guards, ...