SIALKOT: The 23rd FIFA World Cup began on Thursday, launching nearly six weeks of football across the stadiums of the United States, Canada and Mexico. The players are from 48 nations. The coaches speak dozens of languages. But the ball they will all chase — the one that will determine who lifts the trophy in New Jersey on July 19 — was made in Pakistan.
Lifestyle
Supreme Court acquits two MQM members in 2012 Baldia factory fire, citing gaps in evidence and doubt over JIT report
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Wednesday threw out the convictions of two men sentenced to death for their alleged roles in the 2012 Baldia Town factory fire in Karachi — a blaze that killed more than 260 garment workers and stands as the deadliest industrial disaster in the country’s history — ruling that prosecutors had failed to establish their guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
Global nuclear spending surges to record $119 bln; Pakistan sees second-steepest rise
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s spending on nuclear weapons rose 18 percent last year to an estimated $1.5 billion, outpacing the rate of increase by rival India and ranking as the second-steepest percentage jump among the world’s nine nuclear-armed states, according to a report published on Tuesday by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.
ICC penalises Lord’s and Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium for ‘unsatisfactory’ pitches
LAHORE: The International Cricket Council on Tuesday sanctioned two of cricket’s most storied venues, awarding demerit points to Lord’s in London and Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium after match referees condemned the pitches used for recent internationals as heavily skewed in favour of bowlers.
BISP chief calls on critics to apologise for ‘beggar’ slur against aid recipients
ISLAMABAD: The head of Pakistan’s flagship social protection programme called on Monday for critics to apologise to millions of beneficiaries whose dignity she said had been wounded by remarks likening state welfare payments to a vehicle for turning recipients into beggars.
Pakistan steps up diplomacy to free crew held by Somali pirates as $4m ransom talks stall
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is intensifying diplomatic pressure to secure the release of crew members held hostage aboard an oil tanker seized by Somali pirates nearly seven weeks ago, with senior officials acknowledging that negotiations over a ransom demand have yet to yield a breakthrough.
Pakistan’s top court rules acid attacks more heinous than homicide, calls for sweeping reforms
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan declared acid attacks a graver crime than homicide in a landmark ruling on Monday, calling on federal and provincial governments to establish a national rehabilitation fund for survivors, impose sweeping restrictions on the sale of corrosive substances and extend disability protections to victims of what the court described as an assault on the soul as much as the body.
Temperatures to hit 51°C as Pakistan faces severe heatwave through mid-June
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s national weather authority issued a sweeping heatwave warning Saturday covering most of the country, forecasting temperatures that in some districts of Sindh and Balochistan could climb as high as 51 degrees Celsius — a level of heat that poses acute risks to human life — and cautioning that the scorching conditions would persist through at least June 12.
NAB returns Rs6 billion to northwestern province in first phase of sprawling public funds fraud case
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s national anti-corruption agency has returned more than six billion rupees — roughly $21.5 million — to the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, authorities said on Tuesday, marking the first concrete recovery in a fraud case that investigators say drained more than 37 billion rupees, or approximately $133 million, from public coffers over nearly a decade.
Pakistan marks nuclear anniversary with pledge of deterrence, not aggression
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif declared Thursday that Pakistan “harbors no aggressive intentions” against any country as the nation observed the 28th anniversary of its nuclear tests, a milestone that transformed it into the world’s newest declared atomic power and reshaped the balance of terror in South Asia.