. GENEVA: The United Nations appealed to donors on Friday not to cut funding for women’s programs in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, saying this would add to suffering in a country where conditions for women are already the worst in the world. Despite ever-deteriorating conditions for women five years after the Taliban’s return to power, funding shortfalls … Read more

. WASHINGTON: A U.S. federal appeals court handed President Donald Trump’s administration a legal victory on Friday in its efforts to seek data from providers of transgender healthcare to minors, reinstating a Justice Department subpoena that a lower court had blocked as politically motivated. In its ruling, a divided panel of the San Francisco-based 9th … Read more

. NEW DELHI: The High Commission for Pakistan in New Delhi celebrated Pakistan’s 80th Independence Day with traditional zeal and fervour on Friday. Chargé d’Affaires Saad Ahmad Warraich highlighted the country’s nuclear capability, defence preparedness, regional peace efforts and the need for resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute. He hoisted the national flag during … Read more

. WASHINGTON: The US is preparing to tell dozens of countries they must pick sides in the artificial intelligence race with China, warning they will be excluded from a US-led AI coalition if they also sign up for Beijing’s competing framework, according to a US official and an internal draft reviewed by Reuters. Washington last … Read more

President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif interact during a meeting at the Presidency. PHOTO: PPI ISLAMABAD: After weeks of political friction and increasingly public differences, President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday moved to draw a line under their spat, agreeing to rein in public criticism and keep … Read more