Daily News Pakistan

At least five people were injured in an explosion near a railway track in the Mashkaf area of Balochistan’s Bolan district on Tuesday, a senior official of Pakistan Railways said. Muhammad Kashif from railways said that the blast occurred when Rawalpindi-bound Jaffer Express was passing by the area. The train was coming from Quetta. He said the blast had also derailed the train from the track, resulting in injuries to at least five persons who were moved to a nearby hospital. Police have not yet issued a statement on the incident. Meanwhile, Balochistan Chief Minister Mir Abdul Qaddos Bizenjo, in a statement, strongly condemned the blast and directed authorities to provide immediate relief to the persons injured in the incident. "Targeting a passenger train is a cowardly and highly reprehensible act," the chief minister said. He said those involved in the incident will not be spared, adding that security agencies were active and working round the clock for the eradica...

Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed on Tuesday warned of more terrorism-related incidents in the federal capital after a policeman was shot dead and two others were injured at a check-point. The Monday night gun battle, in which two militants were also shot dead, started when two gunmen riding a motorcycle opened fire on a police check-point in the vicinity of the Karachi Company police station. "This was not an incident of dacoity or theft. Terrorists opened fire on them [police officials]. This is a signal for us that terror incidents have started taking place in Islamabad," he said while speaking to journalists after the martyred police official's funeral prayers. The interior minister said authorities needed to remain alert, as he noted the incident was "purely of terrorism". Rasheed said the authorities had tracked down the "sleeper cell" of the terrorists through their motorcycle. "Islamabad police and other forces are on alert." Sh...

Senior leader of Pakistan Muslim League- Nawaz (PMLN) Shahid Khaqan Abbasi stated that the government can not take loan from the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and will have to approach other banks. While holding a press conference, he stated the board that the government used to consult with has been demolished. “Governor State Bank will be the second most powerful person. Now, it will be difficult for the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) to smoothly manage the national affairs and development process,” he added.

The five-member probe committee formed by the government to inquire about the Murree tragedy has completed its investigation on Sunday and has revealed that the incident occurred due to administrative negligence. According to sources, after completing its investigation — which was based on interviews of victims and administrative officials — the probe committee has departed from the hill station to Lahore. The inquiry committee is expected to present its report to the Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar on Monday, sources said. The probe committee prepared its report after recording the statements of victims and more than 30 officers from different administrative departments in Murree. The probe has revealed that on the day of the incident, several snowploughs were parked at the same place which led to road blockages, the administrative staff was absent from duty, while a blizzard warning from the metrological department was blatantly neglected, according to sources. On Ja...

President Xi Jinping has called for improved regulation and governance of China's digital economy to guard against its "unhealthy" development as Beijing aims to boost the sector's contribution to the country's growth. In an essay in the ruling Communist Party's publication Qiushi on Saturday, Xi called for focusing on key areas including integrated circuits, displays, communications equipment and intelligent hardware. China should "cultivate a number of enterprises with international competitiveness, and leading ecological firms with control over industrial chains, to create world-class digital industry clusters," he said. "We must see that compared with large and powerful countries in the global digital economy, China's digital economy is big but not strong, and fast but not superior." Xi also called for regulation and standardisation to plug regulatory loopholes and prevent "monopolies and disorderly expansion of capital...

Tsunami reached Japan late Saturday through early Sunday, and waves as high as three meters were possible, the Japan Meteorological Agency said, hours after a massive volcanic eruption near Tonga. The agency said a 1.2 metre (about four feet) tsunami reached the remote southern island of Amami Oshima around 11:55pm (1455 GMT) Saturday before other areas along Japan's Pacific coast observed smaller tsunami. The eastern shores of northernmost Hokkaido island as well as southwestern regions of Kochi and Wakayama also saw tsunami as high as 0.9 metres shortly after midnight, the agency said. National broadcaster NHK switched to special programming and aired live footage from ports of affected regions, calling on area residents to evacuate to higher ground. The footage showed no clear signs of abnormality, however. A weather agency official told a televised, midnight news conference that the agency had detected a tidal change higher than one metre after 11pm. The agency didn...

All the remaining hostages being held at a synagogue in Colleyville, Texas, were safely released on Saturday night more than ten hours after a man demanded the release of Dr Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist jailed in the US for almost a decade, by disrupting a religious service and starting an tense stand-off with police. The man had initially taken four people hostage, including the rabbi, at the Congregation Beth Israel. One hostage was released unharmed six hours later. Local reporters said they heard the sound of explosions, possibly flashbangs, and the sound of gunfire shortly before Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced the crisis was over. “Prayers answered. All hostages are out alive and safe,” Abbott said on Twitter. Information about the man who had taken them hostage was not immediately available. The Colleyville Police Department said it first responded to the synagogue with SWAT teams in response to emergency calls beginning at about 10:41 a.m. during the Sh...