Pak faces monumental crisis as economy tumbles

industry. Eventually, though not of direct consequence to ordinary consumers, airlines are likely to raise the cost of domestic and international rupee denominated airfares.

Meanwhile, the official rant of placing the guilt of Pakistan’s present day economic troubles upon the last government is neither true nor productive.

Dar came to the job in his latest tenure, promising to oversee the appreciation of rupee to a rate of 200 rupee to a US dollar. And the ultimate outcome in today’s forex market is nothing but a massive departure from that ambition, The News reported.

Ukraine sanctions Russian firms

their properties will be used for our defence,” Zelensky said in a video address.

The sanctioned companies chiefly engage in the transportation of goods, vehicle leasing and chemical production, according to the list published by the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine.

KYIV, JAN 29 (AGENCIES): Ukraine imposed sanctions against 182 Russian and Belarusian companies, and three individuals, in the latest of a series of steps by President Volodymyr Zelensky to block Moscow’s and Minsk’s connections to his country, reports Reuters.

“Their assets in Ukraine are blocked,

The list includes Russian potash fertiliser producer and exporter Uralkali, Belarus state-owned potash producer Belaruskali, Belarusian Railways, as well as Russia’s VTB-Leasing and Gazprombank Leasing both dealing with transport leasing.

Ukraine has sanctioned hundreds of Russian and Belarusian individuals and firms since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February last year.

Govtraisespetrol,dieselpricesbyRs35

Cash-strapped Pakistan’s government on Sunday raised prices of petrol and diesel by Rs 35 each, giving another jolt to the country’s inflation-stricken people. Finance Minister Ishaq Dar made the announcement in a televised address on Sunday morning, spoiling people’s weekly holiday as prices in the past had been adjusted on a fortnightly basis from the first to sixteenth of every month.

After the rise, the price of petrol was set at Rs 249.80 per litre, high-speed diesel at Rs 262.80, kerosene oil at Rs 189.83, and ultra-Orthodox east Jerusalem settlement of Neve Yaakov.

On Saturday, a 13-yearold Palestinian boy opened fire elsewhere in east Jerusalem, wounding two Israeli men, paramedics said. The attacker was shot and hospitalised.

Funerals for the victims in Friday’s shooting, the deadliest attack on Israelis since 2008, were scheduled to take place Sunday.

Netanyahu’s Cabinet also said it plans a series of other punitive measures, including cancelling social security benefits for the families of attackers, and would take steps to “strengthen the settlements” this week as part of the gov- ernment’s response to the weekend’s attacks.

Israeli soldiers arrive to the family home of the gunman in Al-Tur on January 29, 2023. (AFP) rorist who carried out the horrendous attack in Jerusalem, and his home will be demolished”. “We are not seeking an escalation, but we are prepared for any scenario. Our answer to terrorism is a heavy hand and a strong, swift and precise response,” he said.

Netanyahu said that strengthening settlements in the occupied West Bank was aimed at “sending a message to the terrorists that seek to uproot us from our land that we are here to stay”. Israel captured the West Bank, along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war. It has built dozens of settlements, now home to more than 500,000 Jewish settlers, in the decades since. Most of the international community considers the settlements an obstacle to peace with the Palestinians, who seek the West Bank as the heartland of a future independent state.

Turkey issues travel warning to Europe following protests

ISTANBUL, JAN 29 (AP):

Turkey issued a travel warning late on Saturday for its citizens living in or planning on going to European countries, citing Islamophobia and anti-Turkish demonstrations. The warning comes after last weekend’s protests in Sweden where an anti-Islam activist burned the Quran and pro-Kurdish groups protested against Turkey. The Turkish foreign ministry urged its citizens to take precautions and stay away from demonstration areas. It also said they should go to local authorities if they face xenophobic or racist attacks.

Turkey strongly condemned far-right activist Rasmus Paludan’s burning of the Quran in Stockholm, which he repeated in Copenhagen Friday. Ankara also summoned the Dutch am- bassador after another farright activist tore pages of the Quran in the Hague. The Turkish government also said there was an increase in anti-Turkish protests by “groups with links to terror groups” — a reference to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which has waged a decades-long insurgency against Turkey. ProKurdish groups have been demonstrating in Sweden, waving the flags of the PKK and its affiliates. The protests are a response to Sweden and Finland’s promise to prevent the PKK’s activities in their countries in order to gain Turkey’s approval for their NATO bids. Following the protests, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned Sweden not to expect support for its membership bid for the military alliance. light diesel oil at Rs 187 per litre.

Last week, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had said that the ruling alliance led by his party was ready to swallow the bitter pill of the International Monetary Fund’s “stringent” conditions to revive the loan programme and it has clearly conveyed intentions to complete the ninth review to the IMF.

The IMF team would be in Islamabad from January 31 to February 9 to hold talks with the officials over the implementation of its conditions attached with the assistance package.

WASHINGTON, JAN 29 (PTI): Ashraf Ghani, the former Afghanistan President who fled the country when the Taliban grabbed power in Kabul, was “a total fraud” solely focused on his own desire to stay in power and a big hurdle in any peace talks, former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said.

In his book titled ‘Never Give an Inch: Fighting for the America I Love,’ Pompeo claims that both Ghani and Afghanistan’s former chief executive Abdullah Abdullah were involved in corruption at the highest levels that limited the US’ ability to successfully exit the war-torn country in August 2021.

The United States completed its withdrawal from Afghanistan on August 31, ending its 20-year-old military presence in the country.

“As negotiations accelerated, Ghani was always a problem. I met scores of world leaders, and he was my least favourite. That’s saying a lot when you have Kim (Jong-un), Xi (Jinping), and (Vladimir) Putin in the mix. Yet Ghani was a total fraud who had wasted American lives and was focused solely on his own desire to stay in power,” Pompeo writes in his book that hit the bookstores this week.

WASHINGTON, JAN 29

(AGENCIES): The Indian community on Saturday held a protest against the BBC documentary series “India: The Modi Question” at Fremont in the San Francisco Bay area of California, reports ANI.

About 50 members, under the banner of “Indian Diaspora”, chanted slogans and marched through the streets of Fremont in San Francisco area of United States stating that they “reject BBC’s sinister and biased documentary.” While marching in Fremont, people were shouting slogans like “Biased BBC” and “racist BBC.”

While protesting at Fremont, people carried banners which said, “BBC IS A BOGUS Broadcasting Corporation” and “Indian Diaspora rejects BBC’s Sinister and Biased Documentary against Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” “BBC Documentary spreading fake propaganda,” “BBC is a fake news peddler.” UK’s national broadcaster BBC aired a two-part series attacking PM Narendra Modi’s tenure as Gujarat Chief Minister during the Gujarat riots of 2002. Prominent Indian-origin UK citizens condemned the series. Prominent UK Citizen Lord Rami Ranger said the “BBC caused a great deal of hurt to over a billion Indians.”

On January 19, India denounced the controversial BBC documentary series on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and described it as a “propaganda piece” that is designed to push a discredited narrative.

Addressing a weekly media briefing External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson, Arindam Bagchi said this documentary show, based on some internal UK report, shows the colonial mindset. The documentary sparked outrage and was removed from select platforms.