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A 5.1-magnitude earthquake jolted parts of Balochistan on Friday, according to the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD). In a press release, the PMD said the quake’s epicentre was 60 kilometres northeast of Kohlu and that it was felt in the Zhob, Barkhan and Rakhni areas. PMD further said that the quake occurred at 4:48pm at a depth of 17km. Meanwhile, the United States Geological Survey ( USGS ) reported that a 5.2 magnitude quake was recorded north-northeast of Barkhan, at a depth of 10km. Earlier this week, a 5.4-magnitude earthquake jolted parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and Islamabad on Monday. According to the PMD, the earthquake was recorded at 3:22pm at a depth of 215km with the Hindu Kush region in Afghanistan as its epicentre. It was felt in Peshawar, Islamabad, Mansehra, Swat, Battagram, Abbottabad, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Attock, Chakwal, Mianwali, Multan and Potohar region, among other areas. Last month, at least one person was killed and 11 others were injured...

SOUTH WAZIRISTAN LOWER: The Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) has restored the affected generating units of the Gomal Zam Hydropower Station after eight years and successfully synchronised it with the national grid, bringing the facility back to its full generation capacity of 17.4 megawatts (MW). Officials said that both of the station’s generating units had ceased operations in October 2016 due to a major technical fault. One unit was repaired and brought back into service in June 2018, restoring half of the station’s installed capacity. However, the second unit remained out of service because of the complexity of the technical damage. As a result, the hydropower station continued operating at only half of its installed capacity, generating 8.7MW, for the past eight years. According to a statement issued by Wapda on Thursday, the restoration marks a significant milestone for the country’s hydropower sector. With both generating units now operational, the power stati...

Durga Devi finds no relief after a day working in New Delhi’s sweltering summer , because her poorly ventilated home radiates trapped heat, leaving her bedroom as hot as 45 degrees at night. Campaigners are now documenting conditions in this densely packed area of India’s capital, home to some of the country’s poorest people, hoping to push policymakers to better protect vulnerable communities. “I prefer staying outside after work, because inside the house there is no relief,” said 45-year-old Devi, who lives in the cramped lanes of Delhi’s Sundar Nagri district. She spends eight hours a day working in a factory without a fan, only to return at dusk to stifling heat at home. The one-room house — like many in this part of the sprawling megacity of 30 million people — has concrete walls, low roofs and poor ventilation, which combine to trap heat during the day and keep the space oppressively hot throughout the night. Devi’s son Abhishek has been keeping a heat diary and tracking te...

Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, fresh from a spat with US leader Donald Trump, was set to meet French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday to tighten ties. One of Europe’s most prominent right-wing leaders will arrive in the resort of Antibes on the French Riviera for her first bilateral summit with Macron. The talks, set to begin Tuesday afternoon, mark the first Franco-Italian summit since a treaty on a strategic alliance came into force in 2021, elevating relations to a level comparable to that between France and Germany. “This summit will provide an opportunity to deepen Franco-Italian cooperation in several strategic sectors, notably defence, nuclear energy, and space,” the French presidency said. “We need each other,” it said ahead of the talks at the Villa Eilenroc, a dazzling 19th-century residence overlooking the Mediterranean. Relations have often been strained between Macron, a pro-European centrist, and Meloni, who leads a coalition of right and far-right part...

It is a pecularity of Pakistan’s criminal justice system that it has treated children as miniature adults, not just in the way their crimes are prosecuted but in how the victims themselves are perceived. “We handle a four-year-old child through the same protocols used for an 18-year-old boy, a 16-year-old girl, or even a 30-year-old man,” said Police Surgeon Dr Sumaiyya Syed. She is part of the government effort to open the country’s pilot Child-Friendly Medicolegal Clinic at the Office of the Police Surgeon as part of the Anti-Rape Crisis Cell. It was inaugurated last week and fulfils a requirement of the Sindh Medico-Legal Act. In the case of bodily harm, a medico-legal certificate or report needs to be prepared as evidence. The child has to be brought to a government facility where one of its doctors will examine the child and document injuries, their severity and probable cause. The ML certificate is the bridge between medicine and the courts. Every year, Sahil, a nonprofit org...

As Europe sweats through record-breaking temperatures , Asian makers of air conditioners, such as South Korea’s Samsung Electronics, China’s Midea and Japan’s Mitsubishi Electric, are enjoying a boom in sales. Air conditioning is common throughout buildings, transport and homes in major cities across Asia, but it is rare in Europe, and people are struggling to stay cool as searing heat claims lives, disrupts power supplies and shuts schools. Seeking respite from the sizzling weather, people and companies across Europe are snapping up portable and fixed air conditioners as some countries warn the heatwave could intensify. “With temperatures expected to rise further from June onward, we expect sustained demand through the peak cooling season,” said Samsung Electronics in a statement to Reuters . Key markets, including Italy, Spain and France, generated double-digit sales growth in the first half of this year, it added. Rival LG Electronics said air conditioner production lines at on...

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif held a phone call with the Qatari emir on Wednesday, during which he said the two leaders expressed satisfaction at the “positive progress” made in the first round of technical talks between the US and Iran in Switzerland and agreed to sustain this momentum. “Had a warm and most cordial telephone conversation with my dear brother, His Highness Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, emir of the State of Qatar, this afternoon,” PM Shehbaz posted on X. He added that he thanked the Qatari emir for his country’s “steadfast support for the peace efforts that culminated in the historic Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding ”, which was signed by the US and Iran on June 18. “We expressed satisfaction at the positive progress made during the first round of technical talks in Bürgenstock and agreed on the importance of sustaining this momentum through continued dialogue and diplomacy,” he wrote. PM Shehbaz also thanked the Qatari emir ...