MAKKAH MUKARMA, Jun 10 (APP): A total of 240 buildings, divided into nine sectors, exclusively procured in Makkah to ensure ample, comfortable lodging for Pakistani pilgrims during Hajj, Director Moavineen e Hujjaj Sajjad Haider Yaldram said.

Talking to APP, he said a total of 140 buildings are presently providing accommodation to 56,000 Pakistani hujjaj who have arrived in Makkah Mukarama so far.

ISLAMABAD, June 10 (Xinhua) -- Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Saturday talked over the phone with Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev on bilateral ties, according to the prime minister's office.

During the phone conversation, Sharif noted that Pakistan deeply valued its bilateral relations with Kazakhstan, saying the countries need to further enhance cooperation in areas of mutual interest, the office said in a statement.

Thane, Jun 10 (PTI) Three days after the chopped body parts of a woman were recovered from a flat of a building in Maharashtra's Thane district, the residents of this housing complex say they are still in a state of shock and yet to come to terms with the fact that such a horrific incident occurred right where they live.

BEIRUT, Jun 10 (NNN-NNA) – The Israeli army, yesterday attacked with tear gas, Lebanese citizens in the border villages of Kfarchouba and al-Arqoub, who were demonstrating against Israel’s bulldozing work on their lands, Elnashra news website reported.

Scores of Lebanese residents from Kfarchouba, Shebaa, al-Arqoub, Kfarhamam and other villages, held a sit-in against the Israeli move, calling on the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), to end Israeli violations of Lebanon’s sovereignty.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Heavy rains swept through Pakistan’s northwest on Saturday, causing several houses to collapse and leaving at least 20 people dead and 80 injured, authorities said.

Rains and hail hit the Bannu, Lakki Marwat and Karak districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, senior rescue officer Khateer Ahmed said, uprooting trees and knocking down electrical transmission towers.

Officials were working to provide emergency relief to the injured, Ahmed said.

BEIJING, June 10 (APP): After successful transportation of seafood cargo container to Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region through Karakoram highway, Pakistan will be targeting $1 billion of trade with China through land route in coming years, Commercial Counselor, Embassy of Pakistan, Ghulam Qadir said on Saturday.

08 June 2023; MEMO: Iran, on Thursday, described its missile program as "conventional" and "legitimate", rejecting what it called "interventionist" remarks by Western leaders over the unveiling of the country's first hypersonic missile, Anadolu Agency reports.

Iran's missile program is "conventional, defensive and is completely legitimate based on international law," Foreign Ministry spokesman, Nasser Kanaani, said in a statement.

08 June 2023; MEMO: The interim Taliban administration in Afghanistan said, Thursday, that poppy cultivation in the country has been "almost eradicated" and praised the recent UK-based organisation's report which acknowledged their efforts at the global level, Anadolu Agency reports.

08 June 2023; MEMO: A visit by the US Secretary of State to Saudi Arabia drew little Saudi media coverage on Thursday, at a time of soured relations despite a US push to defuse rows that have touched on oil prices, human rights and Riyadh's opening to Iran, Reuters reports.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The FBI on Thursday arrested a businessman at the center of the scandal that led to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s historic impeachment, a move that came amid new questions about the men’s dealings raised by financial records the Republican’s lawyers made public to try to clear him of bribery allegations.

WASHINGTON, June 9 (Reuters) - The United States and five of its allies on Friday condemned the use of trade practices that amount to economic coercion in a joint declaration that did not single out other countries but appeared to be aimed at China.

Australia, Britain, Canada, Japan, and New Zealand jointly released the statement with the United States, emphasizing that "trade-related economic coercion and non-market-oriented policies and practices" threatened the multi-lateral trading system and "harms relations between countries."

MOSCOW, June 9. /TASS/: The world’s economy is recovering after the pandemic and returning to the structure it had before the COVID-19 pandemic, Governor of the Central Bank Elvira Nabiullina said at a press conference after the Board meeting.

"The global economy is returning to the pre-COVID structure. The demand for services fell abruptly and the demand for goods surged during the pandemic; the situation is reverse now," she said.