World News Headlines

Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday hinted at appointing former Pakistan captain Ramiz Raja as the new chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), sources said. The development came during a meeting between Prime Minister Imran Khan, PCB sitting Chairman Ehsan Mani and former Pakistan captain Ramiz Raja at the PM Office today. PCB chairman has been informed that he would not be given another term in the office, the well-informed sources said, adding that PM Imran Khan will recommend Ramiz Raja’s name to the PCB's governing board for the coveted post. After meeting with the prime minister, Ehsan Mani left without speaking to the media, said the sources. Earlier, PCB sitting Chairman Ehsan Mani and former Pakistan captain Ramiz Raja Monday arrived at the PM Office to meet Prime Minister Imran Khan. Mani's term as PCB chief is ending on August 25. The sources said the prime minister has decided to appoint former cricketer Ramiz Raja, who is likely to be given the task to

Malaysia’s new Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob struck a conciliatory tone in his first national address on Sunday, saying he would embrace the opposition in an effort to tackle the runaway pandemic and revive a slumping economy. A day after being sworn in, Ismail said the political battles that led to a change of government twice since 2018 elections had been detrimental to the country and distressed the public. Let us move forward. Let us stem this grab for political power, he said, urging all lawmakers to find common ground and work together to help the nation recover. The new prime minister, 61, said he would invite the opposition to be part of the National Recovery Council and the committee combating Covid-19. "Political stability must be swiftly achieved through unity, and this includes cross-party cooperation,” he said. Many view Ismail’s appointment as a return to the status quo. He was the deputy prime minister under the government of Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yas

The United States does not have hostile intent toward Pyongyang and is open to meeting any time and any place, Washington's special envoy for North Korea said on Monday during a visit to South Korea. Sung Kim arrived in Seoul on Saturday for a four-day visit. The visit comes as a brief thaw in inter-Korean relations in July gave way to a new standoff over US-South Korean military exercises that North Korea has warned could trigger a security crisis. "The United States does not have hostile intent toward [North Korea]," Kim told reporters after meeting with his South Korean counterpart, Noh Kyu-duk. "The ongoing [US-South Korea] combined military exercises are longstanding, routine, and purely defensive in nature and support the security of both our countries." Noh said the pair discussed possible humanitarian aid to North Korea, as well as ways to restart stalled denuclearisation talks. "We agreed to work together to resume dialogue with North Korea

WhatsApp has launched a new update for the Android Beta Programme, WABetaInfo reported Monday. The platform said that the update was submitted through the Google Play Beta Programme, bringing the version up to 2.21.18.1. What’s new in this update? The update is bringing a lot of changing colours to our WhatsApp's Android application. WABetaInfo reported that the changes are most visible on the chat screen. Users will see different colours for the chat bubbles, the send button, and the navigation bar. New colours have been introduced for both the light mode and the dark mode. Other elements include a new coloured ring for status updates. Besides the colour change, there is also the possibility of a darker wallpaper and new icons for the chat share sheet. For the light theme, WhatsApp has updated the colour of the navigation bar which can be seen in the picture shared by WABetaInfo. The new colours will be available from August 23 for beta testers. The new update is also b

The world community has started recognising Pakistan's efforts for establishing an all-inclusive government in Afghanistan, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said Monday, two days after he had lamented over no acknowledgment of Islambad's evacuations from Kabul. Thousands of foreign and Afghan nationals — since the Taliban's lightning takeover of Afghanistan on August 15 — have been evacuated from the country, with Pakistan also operating special flights for repatriating its citizens and people of other nationalities. The foreign minister, addressing a press conference in Islamabad, said 542 foreign nationals were evacuated to Pakistan today, while more than 3,000 foreigners have been brought to Islamabad to date. FM Qureshi said the world was focused on Pakistan after the turmoil that had taken place in Afghanistan, as he assured the world community that Islamabad aspired nothing more than peace in Kabul. 'Safe evacuations from Afghanistan are important'

Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid said on Monday the Afghan Taliban had reassured the government that the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) would not be given permission to operate in Afghanistan against Pakistan. Responding to a question while addressing a press conference in Islamabad, the interior minister said some TTP members such as Maulvi Faqir Mohammad had been released by the Taliban after their takeover of Kabul on August 15, adding that the government was in "full contact" with the Taliban on the issue. "The related authorities there have been told that those who have done terrorism in Pakistan [are controlled]. "The Afghan Taliban have reassured [us] that Afghanistan's land will not be allowed to be used in any case by the TTP," said Rashid. He said Pakistan desired peace in Afghanistan since peace in one country was related to peace in the other. The interior minister's comments come two days after the Foreign Office said Pakista

Fawad Alam continues to impress fans in Pakistan and around the globe by breaking one record after another.The left-handed batsman, who has proven to be one of the most reliable Test batsman with his stellar performances over the past year or so, has managed to rewrite history books by becoming the fastest Asian to reach five centuries. Fawad Alam, according to official records, has managed to score five centuries in just 22 innings. Which means the Ertugrul-inspired cricketer has managed to achieve the feat in even fewer innings than Indian legend Saurab Ganguly (25), Sunil Gavaskar (25) Cheteshwar Pujara (24) and Vijay Hazare (26). Fawad Alam also became the sixth Pakistani batsman to score a century at Sabina Park, joining Imtiaz Ahmed (122, 1958), Wazir Mohammad (106, 1958), Asif Iqbal (135, 1977), Younis Khan (106, 2005) and Inzamam-ul-Haq (117 not out, 2005). Fawad, who returned to the Test arena in August 2020 against England nearly 11 years after playing his third and last