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Five miners killed in Duki coalfield accidents

QUETTA: Five coal miners were killed in two separate mine accidents that took place in the Bolan and Duki coalfield areas of Balochistan, while another miner was injured, officials said on Wednesday. Officials said several miners had entered a coal mine in the Bolan coal mining field near the Mach area when methane gas accumulated inside the mine, trapping three miners deep underground. Other miners managed to escape from the affected mine and informed the local administration and relevant authorities about the incident. Rescue teams from the Mines and Minerals Department, along with local workers, launched an operation and reached the trapped miners. However, they were found dead due to suffocation caused by inhaling methane gas. The bodies were retrieved from deep inside the mine and shifted to Mach Hospital. “We received three bodies of coal miners who died from inhaling poisonous methane gas,” hospital officials said. The deceased were identified as Murad Bakhsh, Ali Hassan, an...
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Amid Lebanon truce talks, Israel kills 3 paramedics

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Wael Sabbagh, whose mother Afaf Sidaoui and brother Hassan were killed in an Israeli strike on an apartment building, stands outside the site of the attack in Beirut.—Reuters BEIRUT: Amid efforts of a ceasefire in Lebanon, Israel continued its attacks and targeted paramedic teams on Wednesday in southern part of the country, killing at least three of them. “The Israeli enemy targeted paramedic teams in the town of Mayfadoun, Nabatiyeh district, three consecutive times,” the Lebanese health ministry said in a statement. “This resulted in the martyrdom of three paramedics and the injury of six others, while one paramedic remains missing,” it said. The Israeli military renewed an order for people to leave a swathe of southern Lebanon as it intensified the attacks on Wednesday, a day after talks with a Lebanese government envoy in Washington, which Hezbollah condemned and termed the Lebanese government move “a national sin” that would widen divisions in a deeply polarised Lebanon. ...
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Punjab mining bills draw flak for targeting forests

• PA panel approves three bills to permit mining in protected areas • WWF-P says biodiversity loss will be irreparable, move against climate pledges LAHORE: Serious concerns emerged over potential damage to protected forests and wildlife habitats after the Standing Committee on Forests and Wildlife of the Punjab Assembly unanimously approved three similar amendment bills that would permit mining activities in protected areas. The committee approved the Punjab Protected Areas (Amend­ment) Bill 2026, the Forests (Amendment) Bill 2026, and the Punjab Wildlife (Protection and Management) (Amendment) Bill 2026 during a meeting chaired by acting chairperson Chaudhry Akhtar Abbas Bosal. Under the proposed legislation, the Punjab government decided to promote the mining sector by allowing mineral extraction even in protected forests and designated conservation areas. The amendments aim to revise existing laws, including the Forest Act 1927, the Punjab Protected Areas Act 2020 , and the Pu...
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Trump eyes round two of Islamabad talks within days

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Workers and journalists stand in front of a building in Tehran, which was hit by US-Israel air strikes days before a ceasefire took effect last week.—AFP • Says dialogue with Iran may resume within two days as diplomatic efforts intensify • PM Shehbaz set to visit S. Arabia, Turkiye as Dar meets top diplomats • China warns naval blockade of Hormuz to aggravate confrontation • Iranian president praises states for stance against ‘warmongering’ Israel • Macron urges Trump, Pezeshkian to resume talks, include Lebanon in ceasefire • Xi meets UAE leadership, puts forward four-point proposal WASHINGTON/ISLAMABAD: US President Donald Trump on Tuesday hinted at a possible second round of talks with Iran in Islamabad within days, even as Washington stepped up military pressure by enforcing a naval blockade on Iranian ports following the failure of weekend negotiations . Speaking to the New York Post in a phone interview, Trump said fresh talks could take place in Pakistan “over the ...
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Lebanon, Israel agree to direct negotiations after Washington talks

Israel and Lebanon agreed to direct negotiations following talks in Washington on Tuesday that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had hailed as a “historic opportunity” for peace. The two countries have technically been at war for decades, and Tuesday’s talks have been vehemently opposed by Hezbollah, which announced that it had fired rockets at more than a dozen northern Israeli towns just as the meeting was getting under way. The United States is pressing for a halt to the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, fearing it could derail the two-week ceasefire in Washington’s war with Iran after talks with Tehran in Pakistan failed to achieve a breakthrough. Tuesday’s meeting in Washington, the first high-level direct talks since 1993, was mediated by Rubio and involved the Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors to the United States. “This is a historic opportunity,” Rubio said as he welcomed the ambassadors, acknowledging the “decades of history” complicating the process. “The hope toda...
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No Strait answer: Can international law stay afloat in Hormuz?

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On Sunday, President Donald Trump stepped in to raise the stakes of an already volatile standoff, announcing that the United States Navy would begin “BLOCKADING” the Strait of Hormuz — delivered, in classic Trump fashion, the emphatic all-caps. The deadline passed at 7pm (PST) on Monday. The developments came after a night of diplomacy in Islamabad that promised more than it delivered, with inconclusive takeaways and very little to show for 21 hours of deliberations. The negotiations ended with a terse briefing from JD Vance, confirming what everyone had been hoping to avoid: nothing had been agreed. Judging from the string of off-the-cuff, rhetorically charged posts on Trump’s Truth Social feed, he appears to have revived what once again looks like the ‘madman theory’ — using brinkmanship and unpredictability as a strategic bargaining chip. He seems to be signalling that if Iran can rattle markets by blocking one of the world’s primary energy arteries, Washington can rattle t...
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Two Customs officers arrested for allegedly replacing 400kg of seized silver with lead

The Pakistan Customs said on Monday that two of its preventive officers had been arrested on charges of “swapping 400 kilogrammes of seized silver bullion with lead”. In a statement on X, the Pakistan Customs said the alleged replacement of silver with lead was carried out “during official transportation from Quetta to Pakistan Mint Lahore”. A first information report had been registered and both officers were in custody, the statement said. It added, “The officers were officially deputed to transport 688 kg of confiscated silver in 36 sealed boxes via Pakistan International Airlines from Quetta to Lahore. Upon unpacking at Pakistan Mint, 400 kg of silver was found to have been replaced with fake lead bricks of identical weight and packaging.” According to the statement, CCTV footage from Safe City in Quetta “confirmed the deliberate swapping of the transportation vehicle carrying the original silver”. from Dawn - Home https://ift.tt/46MxBnl https://ift.tt/VGft0Pe
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