Infinity Social Updates

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un pledged to solidify the country’s comprehensive strategic partnership with Russia in his letter to President Vladimir Putin on Monday, state media KCNA reported on Tuesday. In the message, Kim sent New Year greetings to Putin and all Russians, including their troops and expressed his willingness to further step up bilateral ties, which he said the two leaders have elevated to a new height this year, through new projects, KCNA said. Kim “wished that the New Year 2025 would be recorded as the first year of victory in the 21st century when the Russian army and people would defeat neo-Nazism and achieve a great victory,” KCNA said. Kim and Putin signed a mutual defence treaty at a summit in June, which calls for each side to come to the other’s aid in case of an armed attack. North Korea has since dispatched tens of thousands of troops to Russia to support its war against Ukraine, and Seoul and Washington said that more than a thousand of them have ...

LAHORE: The Sabzazar police lodged a case against four police personnel for allegedly robbing a retired government officer at gunpoint and harassing him. In the first information report (FIR), retired additional commissioner Ahmad Kamal Sheikh alleged that on the day of the incident, he was going to drop his maid to her home in his car. He said as he reached the Multan Road, four policemen stopped his car and harassed him and his maid. One of the police personnel, Tanvir, occupied the front seat of the car, searched his body and robbed him of his money. He also treated his maid the same way, the complainant said, adding that the police personnel later took him and his maid to a deserted road where they made a video clip to blackmail him. They forced the retired officer to go to a bank and withdraw an amount of Rs25,000 through his ATM card, according to the FIR. The complainant alleged that the policemen later disappeared from the scene hurling serious threats for bringing matter...

The Chinese government urged local officials to provide more financial relief or step up one-time allowances to people in need ahead of major holidays over the next month, as China’s economic difficulties are set to extend into 2025. China’s economy has struggled to gather steam this year, mainly due to a protracted property crisis and weak domestic demand . Securing employment, particularly for fresh college graduates, is also a policy priority, authorities say. Ahead of New Year’s Day and the Lunar New Year in late January, local governments with financial capacity are encouraged to distribute relief funds or step up one-time allowances to those in need, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said in a statement published on Saturday. The ministry issued a similar call in late September ahead of a major holiday for one-off assistance to the extremely poor, orphans and those in difficulty. According to the ministry’s weekend statement, assistance to certain groups, such as unemployed ...

• Hassan Murtaza assails PML-N for not addressing party’s concerns over power-sharing • Naveed Qamar says it remains to be seen how Imran’s input will be incorporated into govt discussions with PTI KARACHI: Two key leaders of the PPP — one of the federal government’s key allies — have voiced concerns with the way both the PML-N and PTI have been approaching ongoing negotiations, and ignoring their concerns over power-sharing, especially in Punjab, Dawn.com reported. In separate interviews with DawnNewsTV , PPP MNA Syed Naveed Qamar and Punjab leader Hassan Murtaza voiced discontentment with the ruling party over policy-making issues, with the latter saying that if the PML-N did not change its ways, “it could jeopardise the alliance”. “If the PML-N continues along this path, then this alliance will not survive. I do not believe the PML-N will change, because they gave a lot of space to the opposition. They think that if they give space to the PPP, they will be left with nothing,” Mr...

Pakistan Peoples Party’s Sindh President Nisar Ahmed Khuhro in a statement on Sunday said that “the federal government should immediately announce its withdrawal from the controversial canal project.” Sindh has been grappling with a severe water crisis for many years, exacerbated by inadequate federal support and mismanagement. The province’s irrigation system is under strain, with acute water shortages impacting agriculture and daily life. Sindh’s grievances include the federal government’s failure to ensure equitable water distribution, leading to disputes over water rights and allocation. Khuro’s comments came after PPP Cha­i­r­man Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Saturday criticised the federal government’s “unilateral appro­ach” to water resource management, calling for consensus-driven policies to avoid controversy. Bilawal had highlighted concerns over recent decisions to construct canals, likening them to the contentious Kalabagh Dam project. Echoing the PPP chairman’s sentiment...

Activists and leaders of the mainstream religiopolitical party, Majlis Wahdat-i-Muslimeen (MWM), continued sit-ins across Karachi on Sunday, blocking major roads to protest the Parachinar killings, demanding measures including reopening a road in Parachinar, closed for 90 days, to ensure access to essential food and medicines, according to traffic police and organisers. The demonstrators are protesting the ongoing violence in Parachinar as well as an incident where two people were killed and later decapitated after being waylaid on their way towards Parachinar in the Bagan area of Kurram. Today, the continued blockade of main arteries like Sharea Faisal, University Road, and Sharea Pakistan, among others, triggered traffic jams, causing inconveniences to the commuters who used alternative roads, mostly plying vehicles on one track. MWM spokesperson Syed Ali Ahmer Zaidi told Dawn.com that his party has “ended the sit-in on one track of the main Sharea Faisal near Star gate for the...

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Saturday said overbilling by power distribution companies (Discos) was unacceptable and ordered that the installation of smart meters be completed as soon as possible to ensure transparency. In February, a four-member independent inquiry committee on ‘Abject Failure — Illegal Overbilling’ confirmed overcharging allegations made by the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) against all Discos across the country but absolved them of “deliberate and mala fide” fleecing. In April, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi made it clear that overbilling would not be tolerated under any circumstances. The National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Energy (Power Division) had also expressed grave concern over rising overbilling complaints in August. The directives were issued today as the premier chaired a review meeting on the performance of Lahore Electric Supply Company (Lesco), Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) and Faisalabad Electric Supp...