World Echo

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif discussed regional developments, particularly the situations regarding Iran and Afghanistan, with Qatar’s Deputy Prime Minister Sheikh Saud bin Abdulrahman bin Hassan Al Thani on Tuesday. Both leaders underscored the importance of dialogue, de-escalation and collective efforts to promote peace and stability in the region. According to a joint statement issued after the Doha meeting, both leaders discussed bilateral cooperation in defence and security and reaffirmed the strong and historic ties between Pakistan and Qatar. The prime minister expressed satisfaction with the ongoing collaboration between the armed forces of both countries and emphasised Pakistan’s commitment to further strengthening and expanding the defense partnership. Sheikh Saud praised the professionalism of Pakistan’s armed forces and expressed Qatar’s interest in deepening defence cooperation. The discussions also covered regional developments, particularly regarding Iran and Afghan...

Two military pilots and two market vendors were killed on Tuesday morning when an army helicopter crashed into a fruit market in central Iran, according to state media reports cited by Al Jazeera and Anadolu. The crash occurred in Dorcheh, a town in Isfahan province that hosts a major army airbase. State media said the incident was likely caused by a technical fault, though investigations are ongoing. Footage aired by state television showed the wreckage at the scene and emergency responders extinguishing flames. Read More: What does Trump want in Iran? In a statement, the Army Aviation Training Centre identified the deceased pilots as Colonel Hamed Sarvazad and his co-pilot, Major Mojtaba Kiani. Two merchants working at their stalls in the market were also killed after the helicopter crashed and caught fire. The army said the cause of the crash remains under investigation. Local judiciary chief Asadollah Jafari confirmed that a case has been opened and investigators have been disp...

India’s drug regulator has inspected nearly 90% of the country’s cough syrup makers and found compliance lapses, its chief said on Monday, amid heightened scrutiny after India-made syrups were linked to the deaths of children in the country and abroad. The inspections follow the discovery of a brand of cough syrup contaminated with diethylene glycol that was linked to the deaths of 24 children in October last year. The product, named Coldrif, was made by Sresan Pharmaceutical, based in Tamil Nadu. “We took serious actions on serious non-compliances, and our belief is that the rot of cough syrup manufacturing will be removed,” Drugs Controller General of India Rajeev Raghuvanshi said at the IPA 11th Global Pharmaceutical Quality Summit in Mumbai. The regulator is looking to fix issues around cough syrup products, he said, without providing a timeline. Read More: WHO identifies India-made contaminated cough syrup in Western Pacific The agency is under pressure to tighten oversight of the...

President Donald Trump renewed his condemnation of the United States Supreme Court on Monday after it ruled against his sweeping tariff program last week, vowing to turn to other tariff powers and licenses but giving no details. "The court has also approved all other tariffs, of which there are many, and they can all be used in a much more powerful and obnoxious way, with legal certainty, than the tariffs as initially used," he wrote in a social media post. https://ift.tt/FWpkQBR Trump said on Saturday he would raise a temporary tariff from 10% to 15% on US imports from all countries, the maximum level allowed under the law, a day after the court ruled that Trump had exceeded his presidential authority when he imposed an array of higher tariff rates under an economic emergency law. In his post today, Trump also pointed to the potential use of licenses to pressure countries, writing that "incomprehensibly, according to the ruling, [I] can’t charge them a licence fee — but...

Iran said Monday that a US attack of any scale would spur the Islamic republic to respond "ferociously", after President Donald Trump said he was considering limited strikes against the country. The United States has built up forces in the Middle East to pile pressure on Iran to make a deal at negotiations due to restart on Thursday, with Trump weighing a limited strike if no agreement is reached. On Monday Iran's foreign ministry reiterated that any strike, even limited, would be "would be regarded as an act of aggression. Period". "And any state would react to an act of aggression as part of its inherent right of self-defence ferociously so that's what we would do," ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said at a briefing in Tehran attended by an AFP journalist. The two countries concluded a second round of indirect talks in Switzerland on Tuesday under Omani mediation. Further talks, confirmed by Iran and Oman but not by the United States, are sched...

Somaliland is willing to give the United States access to its minerals and military bases, a minister has told AFP, as the breakaway region of Somalia seeks international recognition. Israel became the only country in the world to recognise Somaliland's independence in December -- something the territory has been seeking since declaring its autonomy from Somalia in 1991. The government in Mogadishu still considers Somaliland an integral part of Somalia even though the territory has run its own affairs since 1991, with its own passports, currency, army and police force. "We are willing to give exclusive (access to our minerals) to the United States. Also, we are open to offer military bases to the United States," Khadar Hussein Abdi, minister of the presidency, told AFP in an interview on Saturday. "We believe that we will agree on something with the United States." Somaliland president Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi already suggested in recent weeks granting Israe...