Infinity Social Updates

Hezbollah vowed on Monday to keep fighting Israel in support of Gaza after its leader was killed in a massive wave of air strikes on Lebanon that dealt the group a seismic blow. In a televised address on Monday, the group’s deputy chief Naim Qassem said a new leader to replace Hassan Nasrallah , who enjoyed cult status among his supporters, would be selected “at the earliest opportunity”. He also said the group was ready for any Israeli ground offensive, even though Israel’s bombardment of its targets has in the past week killed a large number of its top commanders and officials. Hezbollah began low-intensity cross-border strikes on Israeli troops a day after its Palestinian ally Hamas staged its unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, triggering conflict in the Gaza Strip. Israel said earlier this month that it was shifting its focus from Gaza to securing its northern border with Lebanon, in order to allow Israelis displaced since October to return to their homes. It has al...

At least three policemen were killed in separate attacks by militants and gunmen in Iran’s southeastern Sistan-Baluchistan province, state media reported on Monday. One of Iran’s poorest regions, Sistan-Baluchistan has long been plagued by unrest involving drug-smuggling gangs, rebels from the Baloch minority, and extremists. “A border guard was killed a few hours ago in a clash with gunmen in Hirmand in Sistan-Baluchistan province,” the official IRNA news agency reported . A separate attack on law enforcement in the same region on Monday left another border guard killed and two others wounded, IRNA said. The news agency also reported that a member of the police special force was killed in the town of Khash, also in Sistan-Baluchistan. Pakistan-based militant group Jaish al-Adl (Army of Justice in Arabic) claimed responsibility for the last two attacks in a message on Telegram. The group has claimed responsibility for several attacks in recent months, including a Sunday raid t...

Japan’s incoming prime minister Shigeru Ishiba said on Monday he aimed to call snap elections for October 27, as equities plunged on a strong yen and fears that tax hikes are on the cards. Ishiba, who was set to be formally appointed as premier on Tuesday after winning the leadership of the ruling party, supports the Bank of Japan’s drive to hike interest rates and has said “there is room” to raise corporate levies. The leadership contest for the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which has governed almost uninterrupted for decades, went down to the wire on Friday, with right-winger Sanae Takaichi tipped to win when markets closed. With Takaichi a fan of former prime minister Shinzo Abe’s unorthodox “Abenomics” economic policies of ultra-low interest rates and tax cuts, the prospect of her winning sent stocks higher and the yen lower. Takaichi, an arch-nationalist, would also have been the first woman prime minister in a country where men still dominate politics and business. Ish...

LAHORE: The Punjab government has plans to purchase 79 new luxury vehicles for provincial ministers, parliamentary secretaries as well as escorts for provincial ministers’ security and VVIP protocol duties. It will cost the government Rs612.475m. The foreign affairs ministry had requested the Punjab government to provide it with 15 VVIP vehicles, including bulletproof cars, for deployment with the 12 prime ministers coming to attend the two-day Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) scheduled to start on Oct 15 in Islamabad. After this, the additional chief secretary (ACS) of Punjab briefed the Standing Committee of Cabinet on Finance & Development about the need for the vehicles with a plan to strengthen the Services and General Administration Department’s (S&GAD) transport pool with luxury vehicles. The senior officials in the S&GAD say that every new government, including the caretaker government, in the province had purchased luxury vehicles for provincial ministers...

Residents of Nepal’s flood-hit capital returned to their mud-caked homes on Sunday to survey the wreckage of devastating floods that have killed at least 148 people across the Himalayan republic. Deadly rain-related floods and landslides are common across South Asia during the monsoon season from June to September, but experts say climate change is increasing their frequency and severity. Entire neighbourhoods in Kathmandu were inundated over the weekend with flash floods reported in rivers coursing through the capital and extensive damage to highways connecting the city with the rest of Nepal. Kumar Tamang, who lives in a slum area by a riverbank, told AFP that he and his family had to flee after midnight on Saturday as waters rushed into his shack. “This morning we returned and everything looks different,” the 40-year-old said. “We couldn’t even open the doors to our house, it was jammed with mud,” he added. “Yesterday we were afraid that the water would kill us, but today we ...

Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb on Sunday said that tax filers for the current fiscal year had nearly doubled as compared to last year, stating that around 723,000 new filers have registered themselves. On September 20, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif approved drastic measures for tax enforcement and compliance, including a ban on all banking and financial transactions for non-filers of tax returns. “I think it is important that we, as a government, are walking the talk,” he said during a press conference held in Islamabad along with the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) chairman. “This also shows our resolve as we go forward.” The finance minister said that the FBR chairman had presented a report to the prime minister on non-filers and underfilers. On this, he stated that the estimated tax evasion of individuals who underfile amounted to Rs1.3 trillion. “I think I’ve already talked about that we have to declare war on cash in this country,” he said. “When we talk about [going] in...

A SpaceX rocket lifted off with two passengers on Saturday to retrieve two American astronauts stranded on the International Space Station (ISS) for months, according to Nasa. The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 1:17pm, carrying Nasa astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov to the ISS. The mission, Crew-9, features two empty seats intended to return Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who have been stranded on the ISS for months due to issues with their Boeing-designed Starliner spacecraft. “Congrats to Nasa and SpaceX on a successful launch,” NASA chief Bill Nelson wrote on X. “We live in an exciting period of exploration and innovation in the stars.” Wilmore and Williams, originally intended for an eight-day stay, had their mission extended after propulsion problems forced Nasa to reconsider their return plans. “We know that this launch is a bit unique in moving from the plan for crew members to two,” noted Nasa Associate Admi...

Mahnoor Ali took home a bittersweet victory on Sunday when she defeated her sister Sehrish to clinch the Under-13 title at the HEAD Danish Junior Open in Denmark. The 11-year-old dominated the final to win gold in three straight sets, thrashing Sehrish 11-3, 11-3, 11-2. “I’m very happy because this is a major tournament, it’s a big achievement for me,” Mahnoor said in a video message shared with Dawn.com . “Playing against my sister was a tough final. She plays really well, and we both train the same, but whoever plays better, wins,” an elated Mahnoor said. She thanked her sponsors, the BARD (Bilquis and Abdul Razzak Dawood) Foundation, for their support. “I get to achieve this title because of them, and I hope they support me further,” she said. Sehrish chalked up her loss to “bad luck” but said she’d train harder for next time. In the semi-finals, Mahnoor beat Bulgaria’s Bozhana Bozhilova 11-3, 11-4, 11-0, while Sehrish stormed into the final after defeating Poland’s Hania Gór...

Firefighters battled on Saturday to douse a fire that halted production at a major Tata Electronics plant in southern India which makes components for Apple’s iPhone, three people with knowledge of the situation said. There were no reports of casualties, but it was not immediately clear how extensively the fire, near a building set to turn out complete smartphones soon, would disrupt operations of the plant in the city of Hosur in Tamil Nadu state. Tata Electronics is one of the major contract makers of iPhones in India, along with Foxconn. The company said it was investigating the cause of the fire and would take necessary steps to safeguard employees and other stakeholders. “There has been an unfortunate incident of fire,” a Tata Electronics spokesperson said in a statement. “Our emergency protocols at the plant ensured that all employees are safe.” The fire caused the collapse of a building at the plant but no casualties were reported, a fire services official said. “We can’t g...

• Irfan Siddiqui criticises JUI-F for point-scoring by opposing amendments ‘benefiting CJP Isa’ • Bilawal to engage Maulana on constitutional court, appointment of SC judges ISLAMABAD: The government remains hopeful of securing JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s support for its proposed constitutional amendment package , which could soon be introduced in parliament for passage. However, the JUI-F has made it clear that it will not back any legislation designed to benefit the incumbent Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa. In a recent TV interview, Adviser to the Prime Minister Rana Sanaullah said the government could potentially secure the two-thirds majority needed to pass the amendments even without Maulana Fazl’s support but emphasised that the government would not proceed without his consent. Talking to Dawn on Friday, senior PML-N Senator Irfan Siddiqui stated, “The ball is now in Maulana’s court, and we are waiting for his positive response .” When asked about a draft reportedl...

Britain’s “youngest knife murderers” were on Friday sentenced to a minimum of eight-and-a-half years’ detention for killing a stranger in a machete attack when they were aged just 12. The sentence was ordered as a nationwide ban on “zombie” style knives and machetes with blades of over 20 centimetres came into force this week to curb a wave of horrifying killings by young people. The two boys, who are now aged 13 and cannot be identified legally because they are under 18, killed Shawn Seesahai, 19, in a park in Wolverhampton, central England, last November. They were described in court as “the youngest knife murderers” and are also believed to be the youngest convicted of murder in Britain since 1993, when 11-year-old, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables were found guilty of killing a toddler, James Bulger . Sentencing the pair, Judge Amanda Tipples told them: “What you did is horrific and shocking. When you killed Shawn he was 19, starting out in his adult life with everything to liv...

Japanese auto giant Toyota is to end their top-tier Olympics sponsorship, its chairman has said, citing the sporting showpiece’s “increasingly political” influence that puts athletes on the back burner. Toyota struck a 10-year sponsorship deal in 2015 with the International Olympic Committee (IOC). But now, with the Paris Games over, the carmaker decided to end the contract, chairman Akio Toyoda said during a podcast episode uploaded Thursday on the firm’s own YouTube channel. “I’ve wondered for a while now whether the event is truly putting athletes first”, Toyoda said. “It is also becoming increasingly political”. The withdrawal means Olympics logos currently carried by Toyota products will be phased out, and its vehicles will no longer be provided to assist with the event, the chairman said. Public broadcaster NHK said the company is also ending its Paralympics sponsorship deal. “For me, the Olympics should simply be about watching athletes from all walks of life, with all t...

• Overseas Pakistanis can remain on Active Taxpayers List without filing returns • Individuals earning below Rs600,000 per year won’t be required to file returns • Non-filers will face restrictions on opening current accounts, making large transactions ISLAMABAD: The government is set to introduce a raft of measures to address the concerns of individuals not required to file tax returns, such as housewives, people with an annual income below Rs600,000, and overseas Pakistanis. A new “family” category will exempt dependents from filing, while those earning below the threshold or living abroad will avoid penalties like SIM blocking or travel bans. The measures aim to prevent these citizens from being unjustly penalised as the government moves to abolish the “non-filer” category. The initiative comes in response to the rising number of nil-return filings, which have surpassed 2.5 million, making up nearly 70 per cent of all returns filed in the tax year 2023. Under the proposed syst...

Chinese President Xi Jinping and other top leaders admitted Thursday that the world’s number two economy was facing new “problems” and vowed to resolve a long-running housing sector crisis . Beijing has this week unveiled a raft of measures to boost its ailing economy, which it has targeted to grow five per cent this year — an objective analysts say is optimistic given the many headwinds it faces. On Thursday, the ruling Communist Party convened a meeting of its top body, the Politburo, to “analyse and study the current economic situation”. “Some new situations and problems have emerged in the current running of the economy,” the Xinhua news agency reported after the meeting, which was attended by Xi. “We must view the current economic situation comprehensively, objectively and calmly, face difficulties squarely, (and) strengthen confidence,” it added. Politburo members agreed on the need to “further improve the focus and effectiveness of policy measures” aimed at lifting the ...

A Missouri man was executed on Tuesday, according to the state’s Department of Corrections, even though the prosecutor’s office that secured his murder conviction 21 years ago expressed doubts about the integrity of the case and the victim’s family said he should be spared. The US Supreme Court, the last body that could have halted the execution, declined to intervene in the case hours before Marcellus Williams, 55, was put to death by lethal injection shortly after 6pm (2300 GMT) at a prison in Bonne Terre. His death came a day after both Missouri Governor Mike Parson and the state’s highest court also rejected his last-ditch bids to avoid execution. Williams was found guilty in 2003 of killing Felicia “Lisha” Gayle, a former newspaper reporter who was stabbed to death in her home. He had maintained his innocence. St Louis County prosecuting attorney Wesley Bell, whose office handled the original prosecution, had sought to block the execution due to questions about the original tr...

The son of Bangladesh’s ousted prime minister , Sheikh Hasina, said he was happy with the army chief’s timeline for elections within 18 months, though it was later than expected, but warned that genuine reform and polls were impossible without her party. General Waker-uz-Zaman, whose refusal to stand by Hasina in the face of deadly student protests prompted her flight to India in August, has told Reuters that democracy should return within a year to a year-and-a-half. “I’m happy to hear we have an expected timeline at least now,” Hasina’s son and adviser, Sajeeb Wazed, told Reuters late on Tuesday. “But we have seen this play out before where an unconstitutional, unelected government promises reform and then things only get worse.” He was referring to Bangladesh’s history of coups since independence from Pakistan in 1971 . The most recent was in 2007, when the military backed a caretaker government that ruled until Hasina took power two years later in a tenure that ran 15 years....

World leaders on Tuesday sounded the alarm over fears of a wider conflict after Lebanon suffered its deadliest day in two decades in Israeli air strikes on Hezbollah strongholds. After nearly a year of cross-border fire since the Gaza offensive erupted, Israeli bombardment on Monday killed 558 people in Lebanon, including 50 children, according to the country’s health ministry. The toll — the highest since Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah went to war in mid-2006 — raised fears of an all-out conflict engulfing the Middle East. ‘Tens of thousands’ flee: UN UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was “gravely alarmed by the escalating situation… and the large number of civilian casualties, including children and women,” his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. “Tens of thousands of people were forced from their homes yesterday and overnight, and the numbers continue to grow,” United Nations refugee agency spokesman Matthew Saltmarsh said in Geneva. ‘Spiral of violence’: US Israel’s clo...

China’s top diplomat Wang Yi told his Japanese counterpart that he hoped Tokyo would handle the fatal stabbing of a schoolboy in Shenzhen “calmly and rationally”, Beijing’s foreign ministry said Tuesday. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida demanded an explanation after the attack last week in the southern Chinese city and urged Beijing to ensure the safety of Japanese citizens. The boy, reportedly 10 years old, was stabbed on his way to a Japanese school. Beijing’s foreign ministry said one of his parents was Japanese and the other Chinese. Wang met Japan’s Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa during a visit to New York and told her that China would investigate and handle the case “in accordance with the law”. “Japan should view this calmly and rationally and avoid politicising or escalating the issue,” Wang said, according to the Chinese foreign ministry. Beijing “will as always safeguard the safety of all foreign citizens in China”, he said. It remains unclear if the attack was politicall...

Iran is ready to start nuclear negotiations on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York if “other parties are willing”, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Monday in a video published on his Telegram channel. The United States, under then-President Donald Trump, withdrew in 2018 from a nuclear accord signed in 2015 between Iran and six world powers, which restricted Tehran’s nuclear programme. Indirect talks between the US and Tehran to revive the deal have stalled. Iran is still part of the agreement but it has decreased its commitments due to US sanctions imposed on it. “I will stay in New York for a few more days than the president and will have more meetings with various foreign ministers. We will focus our efforts on starting a new round of talks regarding the nuclear pact,” Araqchi said. Araqchi added that messages have been exchanged and a “general declaration of readiness” issued, but cautioned that “current international conditions make the r...

Sonia waited 32 years to see her rapists convicted, a glacially slow legal process all too common in India where half a million cases have been pending for longer than two decades. The violence inflicted on her was horrific and the trauma was compounded by years of painful stop-start trials, beginning in 1992 and ending only last month with six men jailed for life. “My heart is full of pain,” said Sonia, 52, who as a young woman, was bound, gagged and raped in her home city of Ajmer in the northern state of Rajasthan. “I could not do anything,” said Sonia, whose name has been changed to protect her identity. “This should not happen to any girl.” In the world’s most populous nation, a staggering 533,000 cases have been languishing in court for between 20 and 30 years, according to justice ministry figures. More than three-quarters of them are criminal cases. Last year, the Supreme Court warned victims may become “disillusioned when the legal process moves at a snail’s pace”, ex...

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) will host a Connection Camp tomorrow in Lahore, the cricket board said in a press release on Sunday, aiming to establish a clear and unified vision for the future of Pakistan cricket. In a conversation with Dawn last week, a PCB official said that the event will mainly be aimed at reviewing PCB’s policies rather than the national team’s issues and will be attended by Pakistan’s respective white-ball and Test coaches Gary Kirsten and Jason Gillespie. The Green Team suffered a historic 2-0 Test whitewash at the hands of Bangladesh under Shan’s captaincy which was the latest blow in Pakistan’s disastrous run over the last 12 months, which has seen the team go down against the likes of Afghanistan and the United States in the 50-over and T20 World Cup tournaments, respectively with Babar as white-ball skipper. The series of shocking results have put the PCB under fire, with criticism being directed at the board from all quarters. However, according...

Minister for Petroleum Dr Musadik Malik on Saturday led a delegation of Pakistani energy companies to the eighth Silk Route Expo in China, aiming to strengthen energy partnerships with Chinese counterparts and foster collaboration in the sector. According to a statement from the petroleum ministry , Dr Malik laid down Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s vision during the discussion forum, assuring Chinese companies of full support in partnering with Pakistani firms for joint ventures, whether individually or through consortiums. According to reports, Pakistan’s current domestic oil and gas production stood at 70,998 barrels and 3,131 million standard cubic feet per day (MMSCFD), respectively. While PM Shehbaz had emphasised exploring new oil and gas reserves as a “top priority”, highlighting that during the next three years, around 240 potential reserve sites would be excavated with an investment of $5bn to explore petroleum and gas. During the meeting, key areas of partnership includ...