Pakistan

Momentous: witnessing baby gorillas in Rwanda (Image: Intrepid Travel) SUBSCRIBE Invalid email We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you've consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. More info As the world’s largest B-Corp-certified travel company with social good a fundamental of its operations, the new itineraries go ever further afield with more ethical wildlife adventures, an increase in activities supporting Indigenous communities and female-run businesses, and fresh ways to discover the world’s most iconic destinations. Related articles Octopus farm’s ‘cruel’ plan to freeze ‘sentient’ animals to death Ban on imports of animal hunting trophies approved by MPs Through these Intrepid provides more meaningful ways to forge connections while making a positive impact on the places visited. … [Read more...] about Celebrate Africa’s gorilla conservation and Pakistan’s rich culture with Intrepid Travel

KARACHI, Pakistan — This country has a poor record of protecting its religious minorities, but we outdo ourselves when it comes to Ahmadis. Members of the sect insist on calling themselves Muslims, and we mainstream Muslims insist on treating them like the worst kind of heretics. The day I wrote this piece, a small headline in a newspaper informed me that an Ahmadi lawyer, his wife and two-year-old child had been shot dead by gunmen at home , for being Ahmadis. Killings like this have happened so many times that the story wasn’t even the main news. On May 28, 2010, some 90 Ahmadis were killed during attacks on two mosques in Lahore. No public official attended the funerals. You would think that the government, law enforcers and the courts would do something about such sustained acts of brutality. But they are too hard at work. I learned from another recent headline that a district court near Lahore, in eastern Pakistan, had sentenced three Ahmadi men to death for blasphemy . … [Read more...] about Pakistan, Land of the Intolerant

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — At least 18 people were killed on Tuesday when a bus was ambushed by gunmen in northwestern Pakistan, government officials said. At least seven people were reported to be wounded. Jundullah, a banned Sunni militant group, claimed responsibility for the attack, local news media reported. Extremist Sunni militant groups often target religious minorities, especially Shiites, in the country. The bus was carrying mostly Shiite passengers to the northern town of Gilgit, according to local news reports. It came under attack in the mountainous Kohistan district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province. Police officials confirmed that the passengers were targeted because of their faith. The gunmen made the passengers disembark from the bus and shot them one by one after identifying them as Shiites, the police said. President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani condemned the killings and vowed to bring the perpetrators to justice. Separately on … [Read more...] about Gunmen Ambush Bus in Pakistan, Killing at Least 18

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of Pakistan honored Abdus Salam, a theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate who belonged to a persecuted minority, by renaming a department of physics at one of the nation’s leading public universities after him on Monday. Mr. Salam, who died in 1996 , belonged to the Ahmadi (or Ahmadiyya) sect. Though Ahmadi beliefs are strongly rooted in Islam, other sects consider them heretical, and they are declared non-Muslims under the Pakistani Constitution. They are widely singled out for discrimination and violence in Pakistan. Mr. Sharif also announced a “Professor Abdus Salam Fellowship” through which five science scholarships would be given to Pakistani students in foreign universities. Mr. Salam shared the 1979 Nobel Prize in Physics. “He was the first Pakistani to receive a Nobel Prize in science and the second from an Islamic country to receive any Nobel Prize,” read a statement from Mr. Sharif’s office. “His remarkable … [Read more...] about Pakistan’s Premier Honors Nobel Laureate From Persecuted Minority

LAHORE, Pakistan — Hafeez Malik heard the gunfire outside the mosque, then shots inside the prayer hall. “People were dying one after the other,” said Mr. Malik, a 55-year-old architect. “I could count more than 20 people dead around me.” From inside another mosque several miles away near the central train station, his brother, Abdul Rashid Malik, 65, an engineer, called his family on his cellphone. He was a hostage and had been shot in the leg, he said. He has not been heard from since, Hafeez Malik said. More than 80 worshipers of a minority Muslim sect, the Ahmadis, were killed and more than 110 wounded Friday in a coordinated assault by seven well-trained attackers on two mosques in Lahore, Pakistan’s second largest city, the authorities said. At the mosque known as Dar-ul-Zakir, near the train station, two attackers blew themselves up inside the prayer hall after spraying the congregation with bullets, police officers said. The target was the Ahmadis, a group of … [Read more...] about Attackers Hit Mosques of Islamic Sect in Pakistan

close Video Fox News Flash top headlines for March 17 Fox News Flash top headlines are here. Check out what's clicking on Foxnews.com. At least 10 people, including women and children, were killed and three others were injured when a massive fire broke out early Friday at a wooden house in northwest Pakistan, police and rescue workers said. The incident happened in Kohistan, a district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, said Taimoor Khan, a provincial disaster management official. He said the deaths were caused by the roof collapsing amid the fire. PAKISTANI MOURNERS ATTEND FUNERAL FOR FIELD HOCKEY PLAYER WHO DIED IN MIGRANT BOAT CRASH OFF ITALY'S COAST At least 10 people died in a wooden house fire in northwest Pakistan early Friday morning. (Fox News) CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP It was unclear what caused the blaze and police said they were still investigating. Prime Minister Shahbaz … [Read more...] about Northwest Pakistan house fire kills at least 10 people

(CTN News) – On Friday, to celebrate the Senate’s 50th anniversary as Pakistan’s upper chamber of parliament, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) released a special commemorative coin with a face value of Rs50. SBP Issues Commemorative Coin to Mark Senate’s 50th Anniversary According to a statement released by the SBP, the Senate will celebrate its golden jubilee in 2023 by issuing a commemorative coin with a face value of Rs50. Constitutionally a permanent house, the Senate of Pakistan represents a process of continuity in national affairs and is the upper legislative chamber of Pakistan’s bicameral parliament, with equal representation from all of Pakistan’s provinces. Coins can be obtained starting March 17th at all SBP Financial Services Corporation branch exchange counters. The coin is 30 millimeters in diameter, weighs 13.5 grams, and comprises 75% copper and 25% nickel cupro-nickel. #SBP has issued a commemorative coin of Rs. 50 to celebrate the Golden Jubilee … [Read more...] about SBP Issued a Commemorative Coin of Rs50 to Mark the Pakistan Senate’s Golden Jubilee

On Saturday, Pakistani police stormed former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s residence in the eastern city of Lahore, arresting 61 people amid tear gas and clashes between Khan’s supporters and police, according to the Associated Press . Suhail Sukhera, a senior police officer who led the operation in an upscale Lahore neighbourhood, said police were called in to remove a barricade erected by members of Khan’s Tehreek-e-Insaf party and defiant supporters. He claimed they used concrete blocks, felled trees, tents, and a parked truck to block the lanes around Khan’s house. Khan was not at home because he had travelled to Islamabad to appear before a judge on charges of selling state gifts while in office and concealing his assets. The judge rescheduled the hearing for March 30. According to Sukhera, baton-wielding Khan supporters attempted to resist police by throwing stones and Molotov cocktails, and a man on Khan’s roof opened fire. Three police officers have been injured. … [Read more...] about Police in Pakistan Storm Home of Imran Khan, 61 Arrested

(CTN NEWS)  – The National Seismic Monitoring Centre (NSMC) said on Tuesday that a 7.7-magnitude moderate earthquake rattled some areas of Pakistan, but no one has been killed as of yet. The US Geological Survey reported that the earthquake’s Richter scale magnitude was 7.7. According to the seismic center, tremors from the earthquake were reported across the nation, including in Gilgit, Jhelum, Chakwal, Pakpattan, Lakki Marwat, Nowshera, Swat, Malakand, and Azad Kashmir. According to the seismological center, the earthquake’s epicenter occurred in the Hindu Kush region of Afghanistan, and its depth was 173 kilometers. It shook some areas of Pakistan and its neighbors, India and Afghanistan. Peshawar, Lower Dir, Chitral, Khyber District, Waziristan, Tank, Bajaur, Mardan, Parachinar, Murree, Mansehra, Abbottabad, Multan, Sheikhupura, Chiniot, and Kotli were also affected by the earthquake. The areas that were hit by the earthquake. — NSMC Minor … [Read more...] about A 7.7-Magnitude Earthquake Shook Pakistan

The US has the lowest life expectancy of all Seventy years ago people in America could expect to live until they were 68, with the country ranking 13th globally behind the likes of Norway, Sweden and Denmark. Although the average person now lives a decade longer than in 1950, progress has stalled compared to other developed nations. The US has since fallen to 53 on the global standings. Britain has also fared badly, dropping from tenth to 36th in a UN list of 200 nations. Experts suggested the sluggish progress was likely down to the health inequalities widening, resulting in poorer social groups dying earlier than the wealthy. The graph shows how each G7 country fared in international life expectancy rankings each year from 1950 to 2020. While Japan climbed from 45th place to third, the UK slumped from 10th to 36th and the US plummeted from 13th to 53rd. It is based on data from academics from the University of Oxford and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical … [Read more...] about US has the LOWEST life expectancy of all G7 nations: Alarming analysis shows America now isn’t even in the world’s top 50