Indian Sub-continent

NEW DELHI, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Adani Group sought to reassure investors on Monday, saying it had strong cashflows and its business plans were fully funded, as an Indian regulator confirmed it was investigating a critical report by a short-seller that has battered the group's stocks.

Led by billionaire businessman Gautam Adani, the group's seven listed stocks have together lost about $120 billion in market value since a Jan. 24 report by U.S. short-seller Hindenburg Research accused it of improper use of offshore tax havens and stock manipulation, allegations the group has denied.

KABUL, Feb. 13 (Xinhua) -- Afghanistan received another package of 40 million U.S. dollars in cash as humanitarian aid and deposited it in one of the commercial banks in Kabul on Monday, a statement of Da Afghanistan Bank (DAB), the country's central bank said.

This is the third batch of 40 million U.S. dollars sent to Afghanistan over the past five days. The previous two batches reached Kabul on Wednesday and Sunday, respectively.

LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistan’s police arrested at least 50 suspects in the kidnapping and lynching of a man already detained on charges of blasphemy, officials said Monday.

A mob of hundreds of enraged Muslims descended on the police station in the Nankana district of eastern Punjab province on Saturday. Members of the mob had been alerted that a man identified only as Waris desecrated a copy of Islam’s holy book, the Quran.

ISLAMABAD, Feb. 12 (Xinhua) -- A polio vaccination campaign is set to kick off from Monday in 39 districts of Pakistan to vaccinate more than 6 million children under the age of five, the Pakistani Health Ministry said.

The five-day polio drive has been primarily initiated after sewage samples in the country's eastern Lahore city tested positive for wild poliovirus last month, the ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

ISLAMABAD, Feb 11 (APP): Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif on Saturday called Syrian Arab Republic Prime Minister Hussein Arnous to extend heartfelt sympathies to the brotherly Syrian people on the human and material loss in the wake of recent devastating earthquake.

The prime minister offered all possible support in the relief efforts, PM Office Media Wing said in a press release.

NEW DELHI, Feb 11 (NNN-PTI) – The Indian government said yesterday that, it had decided to offload three million metric tonnes of wheat, under the Open Market Disposal Scheme (OMSS), to cool down prices of wheat and wheat flour.

Junior minister of consumer affairs, food and public distribution, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, made the announcement in the upper house of the Indian parliament, locally called Rajya Sabha.

According to the official, the government has taken various steps from time to time to augment domestic availability and control increasing food prices.

COLOMBO, Feb. 11 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka's government has donated a consignment of Ceylon tea to earthquake-hit Türkiye, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Saturday.

According to the ministry, the consignment was handed over to the Turkish ambassador in Colombo by the director general for emergency response of the ministry on Friday.

The donation was coordinated by the Prime Minister's Office, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Sri Lanka Tea Board, the ministry said.

LAHORE, Feb 10 (APP): Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday said Pakistan would extend every possible support to Turkiye in the wake of catastrophic earthquake that killed and injured thousands and urged the people to donate to the Prime Minister’s relief fund.

Talking to media here at the Lahore airport, the prime minister handed over 100 tonnes relief goods including food, medicines and winterized tents for the people of Turkiye.

SHIBERGHAN, Afghanistan, Feb 9 (NNN-ANA) – Four commuters lost their lives and three others were injured, as their vehicle turned turtle, in Afghanistan’s northern Jawzjan province today, local police official, Kafayatullah Mutawakil, said.

The accident took place on a road linking Jawzjan to neighbouring Balkh province, in the wee hours of Thursday, leaving four dead on the spot and three injured, the official said.

Blaming reckless driving for the crash, the official, without providing more details, said that, an investigation had been initiated into the case.

SHIBERGHAN, Afghanistan, Feb 9 (NNN-ANA) – Four commuters lost their lives and three others were injured, as their vehicle turned turtle, in Afghanistan’s northern Jawzjan province today, local police official, Kafayatullah Mutawakil, said.

The accident took place on a road linking Jawzjan to neighbouring Balkh province, in the wee hours of Thursday, leaving four dead on the spot and three injured, the official said.

Blaming reckless driving for the crash, the official, without providing more details, said that, an investigation had been initiated into the case.