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An earthquake of magnitude 5.8 struck Pakistan on Wednesday, the German Research Center for Geosciences (GFZ) said.
The quake was at a depth of 10 km (6.21 miles), GFZ said.
COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s new president embarked on his first Middle East trip on Monday to participate in the World Governments Summit 2025 in Dubai.
Anura Kumara Dissanayake secured the top job in September, taking over the leadership of a country reeling from the 2022 economic crisis — the worst since its independence in 1948 — and the austerity measures imposed under a bailout deal with the International Monetary Fund.
He has so far made two foreign trips: to India in December, where he met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, President Droupadi Murmu, and External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar; and to China, where he held talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
During the Dubai trip, Dissanayake will address the annual summit that brings together leaders, policymakers, and experts from around the world to discuss global governance, public policy, and the future of governments.
Accompanied by Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath, he is also expected to hold bilateral meetings with the UAE leadership and witness the signing of several agreements.
“Sri Lanka is set to enter into agreements on fuel and gas purchases, power and energy projects and trade and investment ... Setting up of a joint commission between Sri Lanka and UAE will be another highlight of the visit,” Sri Lanka’s foreign ministry said in a statement to Arab News.
“Government-to-government projects are to be entered into and memoranda of understanding are expected to be signed. Negotiations on the import of fuel and gas advantageous to Sri Lanka will be among the priorities.”
Other agreements that the Sri Lankan government are going to pursue include job opportunities for its expat workers, promotion of tourism and education.
“Sri Lanka is looking forward to promote the export of tea and gems while attracting tourists from UAE. Besides the bilateral meeting with the president of the UAE, meetings will also be held with the business community,” the ministry said.
“Sri Lanka is looking forward to increase investments from the UAE.”
More than 350,000 Sri Lankans live and work in Dubai. The president is expected to have a meeting with the diaspora as well.
MOSCOW: The Kremlin said on Monday it was waiting for more details on USpresident Donald Trump’s plan to buy the Gaza Strip, an idea which has sparked condemnation from many countries.
Trump said on Sunday he was committed to buying and owning Gaza, but could allow sections of the war-ravaged land to be rebuilt by other states in the Middle East.
Asked whether Trump’s plan was acceptable for Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov noted that 1.2 million people lived in Gaza.
“It’s worth waiting for some details here if we’re talking about a coherent plan of action. We are talking about almost 1.2 million Palestinians who live there, and this is probably the main issue,” Peskov told a conference call.
“These are the people who were promised a two-state solution to the Middle East problem by the relevant Security Council resolutions, and so on and so forth. There are a lot of questions like that. We don’t know the details yet,
so we have to be patient,” said Peskov.
PARIS: Nearly all nations missed a UN deadline Monday to submit new targets for slashing carbon emissions, including major economies under pressure to show leadership following the US retreat on climate change.
Just 10 of nearly 200 countries required under the Paris Agreement to deliver fresh climate plans by February 10 did so on time, according to a UN database tracking the submissions.
Under the climate accord, each country is supposed to provide a steeper headline figure for cutting heat-trapping emissions by 2035, and a detailed blueprint for how to achieve this.
Global emissions have been rising but need to almost halve by the end of the decade to limit global warming to levels agreed under the Paris deal.
UN climate chief Simon Stiell has called this latest round of national pledges “the most important policy documents of this century.”
Yet just a handful of major polluters handed in upgraded targets on time, with China, India and the European Union the biggest names on a lengthy absentee list.
Most G20 economies were missing in action with the United States, Britain and Brazil — which is hosting this year’s UN climate summit — the only exceptions.
The US pledge is largely symbolic, made before President Donald Trump ordered Washington out of the Paris deal.
There is no penalty for submitting late targets, formally titled nationally determined contributions (NDCs).
They are not legally binding but act as an accountability measure to ensure governments are taking the threat of climate change seriously.
Last week, Stiell said submissions would be needed by September so they could be properly assessed before the UN COP30 climate conference in November.
A spokeswoman for the EU said the 27-nation bloc intended to submit its revised targets “well ahead” of the summit in Belem.
Analysts say China, the world’s biggest polluter and also its largest investor in renewable energy, is also expected to unveil its much-anticipated climate plan in the second half of the year.
The UAE, Ecuador, Saint Lucia, New Zealand, Andorra, Switzerland and Uruguay rounded out the list of countries that made Monday’s cut-off.
The sluggish response will not ease fears of a possible backslide on climate action as leaders juggle Trump’s return and other competing priorities from budget and security crises to electoral pressure.
Ebony Holland from the London-based International Institute for Environment and Development said the US retreat was “clearly a setback” but there were many reasons for the tepid turnout.
“It’s clear there are some broad geopolitical shifts underway that are proving to be a challenge when it comes to international cooperation, especially on big issues like climate change,” she said.
A street performance by Ed Sheeran in India’s tech capital of Bengaluru was stopped abruptly by police on Sunday, outraging fans and prompting the British singer to issue a clarification.
Sheeran, dressed in a white t-shirt and shorts was seen singing and playing his guitar on a pavement in the center of Bengaluru ahead of his concert on Sunday night.
Local channels showed a policeman walking up to Sheeran as he was singing the hit single “Shape of You” and unplugging the microphone, as onlookers jeered. Sheeran left soon after.
Police said event organizers had refused permission for the street performance, which was on one of the city’s busiest streets.
“I refused to give permission because Church Street gets very crowded. That is the reason he was asked to vacate the place,” Bengaluru police official Shekar T Tekkannanavar was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
Sheeran, who began his career as a busker in the UK, said later on his Instagram account that he did have permission to perform.
“It wasn’t just us randomly turning up. All good though,” he wrote.
Sheeran is in India for a series of concerts, and performed in front of thousands of people at an open ground in the city later that night, accompanied by Indian singer Shilpa Rao.
MOSCOW: Chinese President Xi Jinping has accepted Russia’s invitation to attend the commemorations of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two, TASS state news agency reported on Monday.
“Chinese President Xi Jinping has accepted an invitation to take part in the celebrations on May 9 in Moscow on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War,” TASS cited Russian ambassador to China, Igor Morgulov, as telling Russian state television.
The Kremlin said in December that it had invited “many countries” to attend the 80th anniversary of the end of the war, which Russians call the “Great Patriotic War.”
The Soviet Union lost 27 million people in World War Two, including many millions in Ukraine, but eventually pushed Nazi forces back to Berlin, where Adolf Hitler committed suicide and the red Soviet Victory Banner was raised over the Reichstag in 1945.
Nazi Germany’s unconditional surrender came into force at 11:01 p.m. on May 8, 1945, marked as “Victory in Europe Day” by France, Britain and the United States. In Moscow it was already May 9, which became the Soviet Union’s “Victory Day” in what Russians call the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45.
Victory Day has become Russia’s most important secular holiday.
Morgulov said that Xi in return, invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to China for the country’s commemoration of the end of World War Two, which are planned for September.
