ISLAMABAD: Diets low in fat and carbohydrates can improve the health of middle-aged and older adults, a new study is reporting.   Short-term clinical trials have shown the health benefits of low-carbohydrate diets and low-fat diets for weight loss and heart health.   The study, published in the Journal of Internal Medicine, examines the effects of those diets on mortality …

UNITED STATES: Tech bosses were summoned to the White House on Thursday and were told that they must protect the public from the dangers of Artificial Intelligence (AI).   Sundar Pichai of Google, Satya Nadella of Microsoft, and OpenAI’s Sam Altmann were told they had a “moral” duty to safeguard society.   The White House made it clear that it …

UNITED KINGDOM: Banks in the United Kingdom have warned of a large increase in fraud in the coming months and years, with much of this originating online.   Barclays told media that 77 percent of scams are now happening on social media, online marketplaces and dating apps.   TSB said a large increase in cases of impersonation, investment and purchase …

SCOTLAND: Captive breeding programmes have been recommended as one way to save the Scottish wildcat The Scottish wildcat population is on the brink of extinction with most wild-living cats now hybrids, according to new research.   The five-year project led by NatureScot concluded there are too few wildcats in the country for the population to be viable.   It said …

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and China have reaffirmed the resolve to work together for promoting regional peace and prosperity as well as jointly cope with external challenges. Both sides emphasized the need to further advance and deepen bilateral cooperation in the areas of trade, economy, culture and defense for the mutual benefit of the two countries. The two sides also called for …

UNITED STATES: Job creation in the United States remained robust last month, despite turmoil in the banking sector and the impact of higher borrowing costs.   Employers added 253,000 jobs, which was better than many analysts had expected. The unemployment rate fell to 3.4%, returning to a multi-decade low.   The gains were a reminder of the resilience of the …

ANKARA: Turkish National Intelligence Organization (MIT) killed a senior member of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in northern Iraq, the state-run TRT broadcaster reported on Friday. MIT “neutralized” the PKK’s special forces logistics officer Nechirvan Seven, code-named “Firaz Zilan”, in an operation in the Gara region of northern Iraq, according to the TRT. Turkish authorities often use the term …

GENEVA: The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday that the COVID-19 pandemic no longer constitutes a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), the WHO’s highest alert level. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of WHO, made the announcement at a virtual press conference from Geneva. The WHO first gave COVID-19 its highest level of alert on Jan. 30, 2020, and …

BEIJING: Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning on Friday expressed opposition on the strengthening military collusion between the United States and the Taiwan authorities, saying that the U.S. is turning Taiwan into a “powder keg.” Mao made the remarks at a regular press briefing when asked to comment on a delegation of 25 U.S. arms dealers swarming to the island …

BEIJING: Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday stressed speeding up the construction of the country’s modern industrial system backed by the real economy and advancing Chinese modernization with support from high-quality development of the population. Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks while presiding …

Anushka Sharma is all set to make her debut appearance at the Cannes Film Festival in 2023. Cannes takes place ever year in May bringing together all the talented actors, producers, directors, critics, and distributors from all over the globe. After Deepika Padukone’s debut at Cannes, now Anushka is gearing up to grace the red carpet with her debut appearance. …

Indian is set to host the ICC Men’s 50-over World Cup later this year and the fans are eagerly waiting for Team India taking on arch-rivals Pakistan. Both teams will play a game of cricket on Indian soil after more than seven years and Ahmedabad’s Narendra Modi Cricket Stadium, the largest in the world, is likely to host the mouth-watering …

PAKPATTAN: Four people were arrested from Pakpattan district of Punjab province for torturing a minor girl and then parading her naked. According to police, the suspects tortured the girl and later paraded her naked through-out the area. The suspects also recorded her video and uploaded it on social media. As the video made rounds on social media the police also …

ISLAMABAD: A study shows that one dose of vaccine can prevent the virus that leads to most cases of cervical cancer may be as effective as the usual two or three doses. The findings could have a significant impact on cutting the rate of cervical cancer worldwide, because a single dose would simplify the vaccination process and cost less. Cervical …

JERUSALEM: Three Palestinians were killed on Thursday by Israeli soldiers during an Israeli military operation in the West Bank city of Nablus, the Palestinian Health Ministry said in a statement. Four other Palestinians were also injured by Israeli soldiers during the clashes that broke out between the soldiers and dozens of young men and gunmen in the city, it added. …

BEIJING: The international community needs to stay on high alert against cyber-attack activities conducted by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the United States around the world, and the United States must stop using cyber weapons to carry out espionage and cyber-attacks, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said on Thursday. Spokesperson Mao Ning made the remarks at a regular press …

JERUSALEM: The secret language of plants has been unlocked by a group of Israeli researchers in the George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences at Israel’s Tel Aviv University. According to an article published in the scientific journal Cell, plants usually emit more sounds when they are under stress. The click-like sounds are imperceptible to human ears, but can probably …

MOSCOW: A fire broke out at an oil refinery in southern Russia’s Rostov region after a drone crashed into the plant, the region’s governor said Thursday. The fire broke out on Thursday morning at the Novoshakhtinsk oil refinery after an unmanned aerial vehicle crashed into a facility at the plant that was under construction and exploded, Governor Vasily Golubev said …

BEIJING: Chinese scientists have recently discovered that passion fruit can directly kill the eggs of fruit flies, providing a new method to control the pest, according to a Science and Technology Daily report published Thursday. The fruit fly is a major pest species that reduces the yield of commercial fruits, vegetables and nuts. Passion fruit, native to South America, was …

JERUSALEM: A Palestinian woman was killed on Wednesday after she stabbed an Israeli soldier at Huwara military checkpoint south of the northern West Bank city of Nablus, Palestinian sources said on Thursday. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said in a press statement that Israeli soldiers stationed at the checkpoint opened fire at 26-year-old Iman Oudeh near the village of Einabus …

  Nasrullah Khan, a Pakistani evacuated by a Chinese navy vessel from Sudan, meets with his friends and family at his home in northwest Pakistan’s Swabi, on May 3, 2023. Khan, a 42-year-old Pakistani mechanic who worked in Sudan, experienced the real adversity of life for the first time since his birth when sitting anguished and penniless in Port Sudan …

LAHORE: Sabeena Farooq, the actress portraying the negative character of Haya in popular drama ‘Tere Bin’, has recently shared an interesting video expressing the anger of Meerab Murtasim fans towards her. The drama, ‘Tere Bin’, has been breaking records of popularity with every episode. While the pairing of Meerab and Murtasim is loved by all, Sabeena’s portrayal of Haya has …

ISLAMABAD: The government succeeded in raising Rs705 billion through an auction of market treasury bills despite Rs1.195 trillion bids offered mostly by banks on Wednesday. The banks having surplus liquid cash took part in bidding that showed their willingness to invest in the government bills. The government was close to its target of Rs750 billion but the accepted amount was …

ISLAMABAD: Some patients prone to kidney stones lowered the amount of sodium and calcium they consumed in 2020 as they switched to home cooking during the pandemic lockdowns, and the reductions have persisted even as restaurants have reopened. Researchers from the Department of Urology at Stony Brook University Hospital in Stony Brook, NY, reported the findings recently at the 2023 …

DHAKA: Bangladesh’s exports continuously dropped for the second month in a row by plunging 16.52 percent from a year earlier in April, the government data showed Wednesday. The country’s overall outbound shipments reached 3,956 million U.S. dollars in April, compared to 4,738.67 million dollars from a year ago, according to data released by the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) under the …

JINAN: At least nine people were killed and one injured, with one still missing, after an explosion at a chemical plant in the city of Liaocheng, east China’s Shandong Province, local authorities said Wednesday. The incident occurred on Monday morning at the hydrogen peroxide production area of Luxi Chemical Group under Sinochem Holdings Corporation Ltd. The injured person was rushed …

RUSSIA: Russia has blamed Ukraine of trying to assassinate President Vladimir Putin by using drones to target his residence in the Kremlin in central Moscow. The presidential office said defense forces took down two drones overnight. Putin’s spokesman said the Russian leader had not been in the complex at the time. Unverified footage on social media appeared to show an …

DAMASCU: Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on Wednesday lauded Syria’s victory in emerging from a 12-year war during his meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian capital of Damascus. “Syria’s government and people have gone through tremendous hardships, and today we can say that you have weathered and overcame all these problems and achieved victory despite the threats and …

KABUL: Afghan police have destroyed 60 acres of poppy farms in the northern Balkh province, provincial police spokesman Mohammad Asif Waziri said on Wednesday. “The counter-narcotics police in the campaign against illicit drugs have destroyed 60 acres of poppy farms and hashish in Chamtal, Charbolak, Shortepa and Balkh districts of Balkh province since beginning this year,” Waziri told reporters. Police …

ANILA: The Philippines received more than 1.8 million foreign tourists since January this year, Philippines Tourism Secretary Christina Garcia Frasco said on Wednesday. “We have met last year’s target of 1.7 million in four months,” Frasco told a forum held here, adding the Southeast Asian country aims to become a “tourism powerhouse” in Asia. She attributed the tourism arrival to …

JERUSALEM: Israel and Georgia on Wednesday signed the first tourism agreement, the Israeli Ministry of Tourism announced in a statement. The agreement was signed by Israeli Tourism Minister Haim Katz and Georgia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Ilia Darchiashvili who is paying an official visit to Israel. As part of the agreement, the two countries will promote joint programs and exchange …

LAHORE: Pakistani actor Hania Aamir has made headlines once again, this time for sharing a photo of herself without makeup on social media. The 26-year-old actress posted the photo on her Instagram account with the caption ‘Morning Sun’. The picture received a lot of love from her fans, with over 650,000 people liking it in just a few hours. This …

ISLAMABAD: Tax experts have urged the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) for an early initiation of investigation into allegations surrounding potential smuggling of cigarettes by multinational companies, in addition to their legally imported consignments. According to data from the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, approximately 15,907 metric tonnes of tobacco and tobacco products, including a small quantity of cigarettes, were imported …

ISLAMABAD: As the PTI and the PDM-led government concluded the third and final round of negotiations on Tuesday, the government was set to present the annual budget for the fiscal year (2023-24) on June 9, sources said on Wednesday. The final round ended with both sides agreeing on holding elections on same day with no consensus on the date. Sources …

This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image of the spiral galaxy NGC 4395 looks at a small section of the larger galaxy. As galaxies go, NGC 4395 has a very low surface brightness, meaning it is diffuse and emits less light than normal galaxies. Sitting about 14 million light-years away from Earth, this spiral is also a Seyfert galaxy, or a …

ISLAMABAD: A study published today in the journal PLOS Medicine looks at adherence to the Mediterranean diet and the incidence of type 2 diabetes. Researchers studied how specific biomarkers in the blood can be used to measure how well people are sticking to a Mediterranean diet. Based on their measurements, the researchers reported that following a Mediterranean diet could help …

LONDON: Food inflation in the United Kingdom (UK) increase to 15.7 percent in the year to April, up from 15.0 percent in March, reaching the highest in the food category on record, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) said on Tuesday. Fresh food inflation also accelerated in April to a record 17.8 percent, up from 17.0 percent in March. Food prices …

MOGADISHU: The Somali National Army on Tuesday claimed to have killed 60 al-Shabaab militants during a special operation in the Mudug region of central Somalia, a military official confirmed. Odowaa Yusuf Rageh, the Somali National Army chief, told Somali National News Agency that the troops arrested some militants and recovered weapons during the operation. “Our forces and the local forces …

ISLAMABAD: The Board of Directors (BoD) at Silkbank Limited has given its go-ahead to the management to formally pursue the ‘potential merger’ with United Bank Limited (UBL).   Silkbank shared the development in a filing to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Tuesday.   “We would like to inform you that United Bank Limited (UBL) has expressed an interest in …

UNITED NATIONS: A UN Security Council committee has agreed to allow the Taliban administration’s foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi to travel to Pakistan from Afghanistan next week to meet with the foreign ministers of Pakistan and China, diplomats said.   Muttaqi has long been subjected to a travel ban, asset freeze and arms embargo under Security Council sanctions.   According …