ISLAMABAD: The flags at the United Nations were barely dry on the announcement when the congratulations began flooding in — from Wellington and Tokyo, from Ottawa and Berlin, from Riyadh and Rome. By Monday evening, it was clear that the preliminary agreement between Washington and Tehran to end more than three months of war had touched something in the international community that even the most seasoned diplomats had not dared expect: genuine relief.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is heading into what government meteorologists describe as a difficult and potentially dangerous summer, with an official three-month forecast projecting below-normal rainfall and higher-than-normal temperatures across much of the country from July through September — a combination that threatens crops, strains water supplies, and raises the specter of flash floods, heat emergencies, and disease outbreaks all at once.

KARACHI: Pakistan’s central bank held its benchmark interest rate steady at 11.5% on Monday, resisting pressure from industry to ease monetary conditions even as the Gulf conflict that drove its last rate increase shows signs of waning.

LAHORE: The Pakistan Cricket Board unveiled a sweeping overhaul of its central contract system on Monday, restructuring the financial framework that governs the country’s professional cricketers into five distinct categories while granting dedicated Test specialists the rare freedom to play first-class cricket abroad — a concession that represents, in the board’s own framing, a deliberate wager on the long-term health of the longest format.