Infinity Social Updates

Pope Francis plans to make his first appearance in more than five weeks on Sunday, offering a blessing from the window of his room at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital as he battles double pneumonia , the Vatican said. Francis, 88, was admitted to the hospital on February 14 with a severe respiratory infection that has required evolving treatment. The pope has only been seen by the public once during his hospital stay, in a photo the Vatican released last week , showing the pontiff at prayer in a hospital chapel. Francis wants to come to the hospital window around noon on Sunday to give a greeting and blessing, the Vatican said in a brief statement on Saturday. The pope usually offers a weekly noon-time prayer in St Peter’s Square on Sundays. Francis has not been able to do this since February 9, before going to hospital. The Vatican said Francis was not expected to deliver the prayer this Sunday, in a sign that the pope is still recovering from pneumonia, but would come to the window for ...

The Torkham border crossing reopened on Saturday for pedestrians after a month and thousands on both sides were in queues to cross the gate, officials said. The Torkham border crossing reopened on Wednesday after 27 days following much-awaited parleys between jirga members of Pakistan and Afghanistan, according to a jirga leader from the Pakistani side. The cross-border movement of people via the Torkham border crossing was abruptly suspended on February 21 after Pakistani and Afghan security forces developed differences over construction activities on both sides of the border. The situation worsened this month when eight people, including six tro­ops, were injured as Pakistan and Afghan Tali­ban forces traded fire at the border. Afghan officials said thousands of passengers are stranded on both sides of the Torkham border due to the closure, which has caused a lot of congestion there. The head of Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province information department asked the people to ...

Columbia University has agreed to changes demanded by the Trump administration as a precondition for restoring $400 million in federal funding that was pulled this month over allegations the school tolerated anti-Semitism on campus. The New York-based university, acquiescing to several demands in a memo released on Friday, laid out plans to ban some face masks on campus, empower security officers to remove or arrest individuals, and appoint a new official with broad powers to review departments that offer courses on the Middle East. What Columbia would do with its Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies department was among the biggest questions facing the university as it confronted the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in government grants and contracts. The Trump administration had told the school to place the department under academic receivership for at least five years, taking control away from its faculty. Academic receivership is a rare step taken by a univ...

A rescue operation is underway after a fire broke out on Friday at Kawish Plaza on Karachi’s Sharea Faisal Road, a Rescue 1122 spokesperson said in a statement. “People of the building have climbed onto the rooftop and they will be rescued soon,” the statement said. The fire initially broke out in the generator on the second floor, making the rescue operation difficult due to the smoke. “As soon as the Central Command and Control Rescue 1122 received the information, the Fire and Rescue Team, along with one ambulance and three fire brigade trucks, reached the scene,” the statement added. According to the spokesperson, Rescue 1122 is trying to control the fire as soon as possible. Sindh Minister for Rehabilitation Makhdoom Mehboobuz Zaman has also instructed the rescue operation to be expedited, according to a statement by his spokesperson. Fire incidents are common in the metropolis due to the absence of adequate fire safety measures in buildings. Last month, thirty shops wer...

Last year was the deadliest year for migrants , with nearly 9,000 people dying worldwide, the United Nations said on Friday, calling the “tragedy… unacceptable and preventable”. “At least 8,938 people died on migration routes worldwide in 2024,” the fifth year that numbers have reached record highs, the UN’s migration agency said. “The tragedy of the growing number of migrant deaths worldwide is both unacceptable and preventable,” said Ugochi Daniels, the deputy director of the International Organization for Migration (IOM). “Behind every number is a human being, someone for whom the loss is devastating,” Daniels said. “The actual number of migrant deaths and disappearances is likely much higher, as many have gone undocumented because of the dearth of official sources,” the IOM said. It added that the identities and other details of the majority of victims were unknown. Asia, Africa and Europe had record numbers of people dying in 2024 with 2,778, 2,242 and 233 respectively. A...

Former finance minister and economist Miftah Ismail on Thursday criticised the federal government for allowing electricity and sugar prices to get to an exorbitant level. Speaking at a press conference in Karachi, Miftah criticised the current government for allowing sugar mill owners to export for profits. “Six months ago, the government permitted the export of 5 to 6 million tonnes of sugar, so that Sindh and Punjab’s sugar mill owners can get dollars and relief,” he said. He said he wanted to remind the current government that when the former premier Imran Khan had exported sugar, PML-N leaders had criticised the move, calling it “theft and a decision influenced by powerful sugar mills”. “Today, I ask Shehbaz Sharif sahab , who influenced your decision to export sugar?” he rhetorically asked. “Because you had promised — when sugar was Rs80 to 90 — that you won’t let it exceed Rs140,” he highlighted, adding that “exports started when sugar was at Rs115 — now it was at Rs175”. “...

At least 22 Maoist rebels were killed in the jungles of central India on Thursday in one of the deadliest clashes since the government ramped up efforts to crush the long-running insurgency. More than 10,000 people have been killed in the decades-long “Naxalite” rebellion, whose members say they are fighting for the rights of marginalised people in India’s resource-rich central regions. An Indian paramilitary soldier was also killed in one of two separate skirmishes that broke out in Chhattisgarh state, both of which carried on through the day, according to police. “22 Naxalites were killed in 2 separate operations of our security forces,” Amit Shah, Indian interior minister, wrote on social media platform X, using the common Indian name for the insurgent movement. Police said the soldier had been killed during a skirmish that broke out soon after dawn in Bijapur district, where 18 guerrillas had also been killed. Another four rebels were killed in a separate clash in the state’s...