Dawn

At least 24 people died after part of a highway collapsed due to heavy rains in southern China’s Guangdong province on Wednesday, state media said.

A string of senior Australian ministers on Wednesday refused to confirm reports that a “nest” of Indian spies had been uncovered in the country and expelled — allegations that threaten to damage a burgeoning alliance.

Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Asim Munir met his British counterpart General Sir Patrick Sanders, where the two discussed measures to further elevate bilateral defence relations, the military’s media affairs wing said on Wednesday.

ISLAMABAD: Head coach Roelant Oltmans expects an improved show by Pakistan in the 30th edition of the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup as the national squad is set to leave for Malaysia to compete in the event on Wednesday night.

President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday expressed the government’s resolve to bolster labourers’ welfare and safeguard their rights, state-run Radio Pakistan reported.

DORTMUND: The tantalising prospect of Kylian Mbappe squaring up to Real Madrid in the Champions League final looms large, with only Borussia Dortmund lying in Paris St Germain’s way.

WELLINGTON: New Zealand Cricket said Tuesday it will go ahead with a Test match against Afghanistan in September, a month after Australia scrapped a Twenty20 series against the same opponents.

LONDON: Paceman Jofra Archer was Tuesday recalled to England’s squad for the defence of their T20 World Cup crown after a year out of action.

White Star

LAHORE: Hundreds of students from different universities on Tuesday held a protest demonstration outside the US consulate against Israeli aggression in Palestine.

NEW DELHI: Elon Musk’s surprise visit to China this week won concessions for Tesla but left India feeling spurned after he cancelled a scheduled trip there for earlier this month, with Indian commentators calling the move a snub.

NEW YORK: A group of newspapers, including the New York Daily News and Chicago Tribune, sued Microsoft and OpenAI in a federal court on Tuesday, accusing them of misusing reporters’ work to train their generative artificial-intelligence systems.

ISLAMABAD: The US and Pakistan on Tuesday reaffirmed their close ties and pledged to enhance cooperation on regional security, according to the Foreign Office.

New York City police raided Columbia University late on Tuesday to arrest dozens of pro-Palestinian demonstrators, some of whom had seized an academic building, and to remove a protest encampment the Ivy League school had sought to dismantle for nearly two weeks.

KARACHI: A sessions court has sentenced a man to 10-year rigorous imprisonment on charges of raping his daughter-in-law.

ISLAMABAD: With payables touching almost Rs550 billion ($1.98bn), the government is contemplating finalising a schedule of payments to Chinese Independent Power Producers (IPPs) before convening the 13th Joint Coordination Committee (JCC) of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. This will be followed by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s visit to Beijing, expected in the first week of June.

KOHISTAN: The Karakoram Highway is blocked after a landslide in the Basari area, on Tuesday.—Dawn

GILGIT: A fresh rain and snowfall spell brought life in Gilgit-Baltistan to a standstill, leaving thousands of people stranded on the Karakoram Highway (KKH) after it was blocked at various points due to landslides triggered by the deluge.

• Minister blames caretakers for fiasco, promises fact-finding probe
• Cabinet undecided on ‘subsidy’ to small farmers, approves Kissan card
• LHC asks govt to provide details on procurement decision

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commi­ssion of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday took up for hearing yet another case pertaining to the PTI’s intra-party elections, but without sharing the details of the objections against it with the party.

NEW YORK / WASHINGTON: Demonstrators at Columbia University barricaded themselves inside a campus building on Tuesday, escalating a standoff with officials, but the White House chided them for using “the wrong approach”.

• UN chief decries Netanyahu’s pugnacious approach
• Israeli airstrikes continue in Gaza City, Khan Yunis

ASTRAZENECA, the pha­r­maceutical giant which virtually became a household name during the Covid-19 pandemic, has admitted that its Covishield vaccine could cause rare side effects, including blood clots and low platelet count.

THE HAGUE: Judges at the International Court of Justice on Tuesday ruled against issuing emergency orders to stop German arms exports to Israel, while expressing deep concern about “catastrophic living conditions in Gaza”. But the court also rejected a German request to throw out the case, so it can now move forward.

LONDON: A stabbing incident was reported in London on Tuesday, that involved ‘a man who used a sword’. The incident led to death of a 13-year-old boy, while four other individuals sustained injuries.

WASHINGTON: In the southern state of North Carolina, a warrant was being carried out at a private residence when a shootout took place. Officials stated that four US law enforcement officers were killed and four others were wounded in the events that ensued.

BANGKOK: Large swaths of Asia are sweltering through a heatwave that has topped temperature records from Myanmar to the Philippines and forced millions of children to stay home from school.