Indian Sub-continent

ISLAMABAD, July 12 (Xinhua) -- At least 10 family members were killed after a fire broke out in a three-story house in Pakistan's eastern Punjab province on Wednesday, police officials said.

The fire erupted during the early hours of Wednesday in the house in Punjab's provincial capital Lahore, trapping all the family members, police told local media.

Police said that the victims locked themselves in the back room, leaving them with no chance to escape after the fire engulfed the whole house.

11 July 2023; MEMO: Pakistan has received $2 billion in financial assistance from Saudi Arabia, days after Islamabad and the IMF reached a $3 billion stand-by agreement, the country's Finance Minister announced on Tuesday, Anadolu Agency reports.

11 July 2023; MEMO: The Taliban administration halted all activities by Sweden in Afghanistan on Tuesday in response to the burning of a Quran in Stockholm last month, and a major Swedish aid group said it was seeking clarification about the impact on its programmes, Reuters reports.

Kanpur: As many as 77,077 cusecs of water from Narora Dam and 1 lakh 35 thousand cusecs from Haridwar reached here. 

Owing to this release, the water level downstream of Ganga started rising rapidly. Therefore the water level of the Ganga rose by 41 cm.

Whereas a rise of 32 cm has been recorded in Shuklaganj of Unnao.

On the other hand, 45,364 cusecs of water were released from Kanpur to Prayagraj through all the 30  sluice gates of Kanpur Ganga Barrage.

All 30 gates of the Ganga barrage have been opened when the water level upstream crossed 113 metres.

ISLAMABAD, July 11 (APP): Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday thanked the Saudi leadership for their generous and unwavering support for Pakistan, which, he said, was particularly instrumental in securing the deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The prime minister was talking to Ambassador of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Nawaf bin Saeed Ahmad Al-Malkiy who called on him, PM Office Media Wing said in a press release.  

KATHMANDU, Jul 11 (NNN-XINHUA) – A helicopter carrying five foreign passengers and the pilot, crashed in a mountain district of Nepal today, but the fate of those aboard was not known yet, a local official said.

The ill-fated chopper, belonging to the private Manang Air, lost contact with the ground, 15 minutes after taking off from Surke, in Solukhumbu district, for the capital city of Kathmandu, Solukhumbu’s chief district officer, Basant Bhattarai, told Xinhua.

ISLAMABAD, July 11 (Xinhua) -- At least six people were killed and nine others injured in monsoon rain-triggered flash floods during the last 24 hours in Pakistan, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said.

Three women and a child were among those who lost their lives in separate flood-related incidents, according to an NDMA report released Monday.

The total death toll in Pakistan from this season's monsoon rains and floods that started on June 25 has risen to around 86, along with 151 injured, the NDMA said.

NEW DELHI (AP) — Schools in New Delhi were closed on Monday after heavy monsoon rains battered the Indian capital and caused landslides and flash floods in the country’s north, killing at least 15 people over the last three days.

The torrential rain over the weekend left parts of New Delhi overflowing with water that submerged roads and stranded residents. The northern hill states were the worst affected, with 10 people killed in flash floods and landslides in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand states, according to the Press Trust of India news agency.

Kanpur: While there was heavy rain in the southern region of the city and the lowlands of the Ganges, the rain remained light in the middle of the city.

According to the Meteorological Department of CSA, due to climate change, this time patching rain (region-wise rain) is getting more vigorous.

As regards today's situation, it remains dry as no rain has occurred so far, the possibility of rain can not be wholly rejected altogether. 

NEW DELHI/WASHINGTON, July 10 (Reuters) - India’s multi-billion-dollar purchases of U.S. arms are less about shifting its reliance on Russian defence equipment and moving towards the West - it's more about developing its own domestic weapons industry, security officials and analysts say.

India is the world's biggest arms importer but almost all of its major weapons purchases now include provisions for joint manufacture or technology transfer, irrespective of which country it is dealing with.