Indian Sub-continent

COLOMBO, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka's treasury bill auction experienced a drop in the weighted average yield rate on Wednesday, with the borrowing cost to be reduced for the government, supporting economic growth, a state minister said on Wednesday.

State Minister of Finance Shehan Semasinghe said on his Twitter that the rates came down significantly to 17.79 percent from 23.00 percent for 91 days, to 15.93 percent from 19.49 percent for 182 days and to 13.86 percent from 16.99 percent for 364 days.

ISLAMABAD, July 4 (Xinhua) -- Pakistani rupee gains significant strength against the U.S. dollar following Pakistan's staff-level agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as the greenback was being traded at 275.44 rupees in the interbank market on Tuesday, according to the State Bank of Pakistan.

The U.S. dollar closed at 285.99 rupees on June 27, and it went down on Tuesday after the local currency appreciated by 10.55 rupees or about 3.83 percent against the U.S. dollar, official figures showed.

KANGVAI, India (AP) — Zuan Vaiphei is armed and prepared to kill. He is also ready to die.

Vaiphei spends most of his days behind the sandbag walls of a makeshift bunker, his fingers resting on the trigger of a 12-gauge shotgun. Some 1,000 yards ahead of him, between a field of tall green grass and wildflowers, is the enemy, peering from parapets of similar sandbag fortifications, armed and ready.

NEW DELHI, July 4 (Reuters) - The leaders of China, India, Russia and Pakistan on Tuesday sought to forge closer ties and boost cooperation within the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) group as it seeks to expand its reach and counter Western influence in the region.

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Russia's President Vladimir Putin, China's President Xi Jinping, Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and leaders of four central Asian countries attended a virtual summit of the political and security group formed in 2001 by Beijing and Moscow.

BHUBANESWAR, India, July 4 (Reuters) - Workers repairing a rail-road barrier in India made faulty connections in the automated signalling system on the network, leading to the country's worst rail disaster in two decades, an official probe has found.

The June 2 crash at Bahanaga Bazar station, in the eastern Indian state of Odisha, killed 288 people and injured more than 1,000.

The disaster struck when a passenger train hit a stationary freight train, jumped off the tracks and hit another passenger train coming from the opposite direction.

ISLAMABAD, July 3 (APP): President Dr Arif Alvi on Monday said that he held good meetings with Bangladesh President Shahabuddin in Makkah, Mina and Madina.

On his Twitter handle, the president posted twin pictures and informed that in white was his childhood friend Salman Rehman, who is now a Member of Parliament, Minister and Advisor in Bangladesh.

“We met after 60 years (yrs). Blessings of Allah will do wonders for our relationship,” he further added.

The president has been in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to perform Hajj.

ISLAMABAD, July 3 (APP): The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), in an extraordinary meeting, held at Jeddah General Secretariat, has strongly condemned the recent despicable aggression against the sanctity of the copies of the Holy Quran, on the first day of Eid al-Adha, outside the central mosque in the capital city of Stockholm, Kingdom of Sweden.

LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan, Jul 3 (NNN-ANA) – Afghan police have arrested seven kidnappers and rescued an abducted man, in the southern Helmand province, officials said today.

“The provincial police personnel launched a series of special operations, arresting seven individuals involved in the abduction of a man, identified as Nimatullah, son of Gul Mohammad, in Musa Qala district of the province,” the provincial information and culture directorate said in a statement.

Kathmandu Jul 2 (PTI) China is positive towards providing further development assistance to Nepal, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs Narayan Kaji Shrestha said on Sunday.

Talking to reporters here, Shrestha said he held extensive discussions with the Chinese leaders focusing on strengthening bilateral relations, promoting trade, investment and economic development.

Shrestha said he found Chinese officials positive towards assisting Nepal in its development endeavours.

Islamabad, Jul 3 (PTI) Debt-trapped Pakistan will become the fourth largest IMF borrower in the world after receiving a fresh loan of USD 3 billion in the next nine months under the standby arrangement reached with the global lender.

Pakistan, which is facing its worst economic crisis since independence from Britain in 1947, was on March 31, 2023, ranked fifth in the list of countries with the highest borrowing from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), The Express Tribune newspaper reported, citing the global lender's data.