Indian Sub-continent

KARACHI, Pakistan, April 8 (Reuters) - Pakistan Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Saturday said he had canceled his trip to Washington for the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank on the orders of the prime minister due to the political situation in the country.

However, Dar said he would attend important bilateral and multilateral meetings virtually and a Pakistani delegation would be present in Washington.

NEW DELHI, April 8 (Reuters) - Ukraine's First Deputy Foreign Minister Emine Dzhaparova will ask India on an upcoming visit for humanitarian aid and equipment to repair energy infrastructure damaged during Russia's invasion, a newspaper reported on Saturday.

India's foreign ministry said the Ukrainian minister was arriving in India on Sunday on a four-day trip during which the two sides would discuss their relations, the situation in Ukraine and global issues.

NEW DELHI, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Indian President Droupadi Murmu took a sortie in a fighter jet on Saturday, becoming the third president and the second woman president to undertake such a flight.

The Su-30 MKI aircraft took off from the Tezpur Air Force Station in the northeastern state of Assam, said a statement issued by the President's Secretariat.

The president flew for approximately 30 minutes before returning to the ground. The fighter jet flew at a speed of about 800 km per hour at a height of about 2,000 m.

New Delhi, Apr 7 (PTI) Several convicts and undertrial prisoners who were granted emergency bail or parole during the COVID-19 pandemic returned to Delhi's jails on Friday after the Supreme Court directed them to surrender.

New Delhi, Apr 7 (PTI) The rise in Covid cases is indicative of the SARS-CoV-2 virus moving into an endemic state in India and behaving like other coronaviruses that cause common cold-like symptoms and can keep reinfecting, say scientists.

Giving the reassurance that a monster spike on the lines of the Delta wave in the spring of 2021 is unlikely due to the endemic nature of the virus, they also cautioned that the spread could be halted by following established protocols.

New Delhi, Apr 7 (PTI) The Congress on Friday attacked the Centre over the National Green Tribunal constituting a committee to re-examine the environmental nod to the Great Nicobar Island project, alleging that the Modi government has embarked on "ecocide" and what is being pushed through is an "ecological nightmare".

ISLAMABAD, Apr 7 (NNN-APP) – Pakistan’s top intelligence agency, successfully arrested founder and leader of the terrorist organisation, Baloch National Army (BNA), the military said, today.

The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the media wing of the Pakistan army, said in a statement that, the intelligence agency apprehended the high-value target named, Gulzar Imam alias Shambay, a hardcore militant, involved in activities in the country’s south-west Balochistan province.

MEHTARLAM, Afghanistan, Apr 7 (NNN-ANA) – Seven members of a family lost their lives, as the roof of their house caved in today, in Afghanistan’s eastern Laghman province, provincial director for Natural Disaster Management and Humanitarian Affairs, Qari Khair Mohammad Ghazi, said.

According to the official, the deadly incident took place at 2:00 a.m. local time, in Alishing district, when the roof of a mud house collapsed and killed seven members of the ill-fated family.

MUMBAI, April 7 (Reuters) - India's federal government asked states to identify emergency hotspots and ramp up-testing for COVID-19, after the country recorded its highest daily case count since September, a Reuters tally showed on Friday.

There were 6,050 new cases of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, the federal health ministry said on Friday, continuing a sharp upward trend since a lull last year.

ISLAMABAD, April 7 (Reuters) - Pakistan's finance minister has cancelled a visit to Washington for spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank, government officials said on Friday, citing domestic political turmoil as the reason.

Minister Ishaq Dar was scheduled to attend the meetings from April 10 and see top IMF officials and multilateral creditors in a bid to secure stalled funding that the South Asian country desperately needs to avert a balance-of-payments crisis.