WARSAW (AFP): Hundreds of Ukrainians crammed up against a closed passport office in Warsaw on Wednesday, furious over Kyiv’s suspension of consular services for fighting-aged men in a bid to force them to return home and bolster troop numbers. Ukrainian authorities said Tuesday that they were “temporarily” blocking men aged 18 to 60 from accessing consular services, after Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said they were letting compatriots fight in their place on the front lines. “Staying abroad does not relieve a citizen of his or her duties to the homeland,” Kuleba posted on social media. The ..read more

MYANMAR (Reuters): A Myanmar rebel group has withdrawn its troops from a town along the Thai border following a counteroffensive by soldiers of the ruling junta from whom the resistance fighters had wrested the key trading post this month, an official said on Wednesday. The Karen National Union made a “temporary retreat” from the town of Myawaddy, a spokesperson said, after the return of junta soldiers to the vital strategic area that is a conduit for annual foreign trade of more than $1 billion. “KNLA troops will … destroy the junta troops and their back-up troops who marched to Myawaddy,” s ..read more

JERUSALEM (Reuters): Israel’s military is poised to evacuate Palestinian civilians from Rafah and assault Hamas hold-outs in the southern Gaza Strip city, a senior Israeli defense official said on Wednesday, despite international warnings of humanitarian catastrophe. A spokesperson for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government said Israel was “moving ahead” with a ground operation, but gave no timeline. The defense official said Israel’s Defense Ministry had bought 40,000 tents, each with the capacity for 10 to 12 people, to house Palestinians relocated from Rafah in advance of an assaul ..read more

DUBAI (AFP) : The United Arab Emirates announced $544 million to repair the homes of Emirati families on Wednesday after last week’s record rains caused widespread flooding and brought the Gulf state to a standstill. “We learned great lessons in dealing with severe rains,” said Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum after a cabinet meeting, adding that ministers approved “two billion dirhams to deal with damage to the homes of citizens.” Wednesday’s announcement comes more than a week after the unprecedented deluge lashed the desert country, where it turned streets into rivers a ..read more

F.P. Report KARACHI: Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday expressed the confidence that the the country’s exports volume would be doubled over the next five years with the support of business community. He said the government, in consultation with the business community, would chalk out a comprehensive policy framework to increase the exports that would ultimately help ensure sustained economic growth. The export-led growth would also help resolve the country’s foreign exchange reserves’ issue, he added. “You are actually the backbone of the national economy as without your sup ..read more

F.P. Report PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Cabinet which met under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Sardar Ali Amin Gandapur took several decisions about energy production, education, food security, procurement of wheat, and sustainable development and issues related to the day-to-day affairs of the Province. The cabinet approved the rehabilitation and restoration of the 17-megawatt (MW) Ranolia Hydropower Project in Kohistan Lower. The Provincial Development Working Party (PDWP) had already approved the project at a cost of Rs.8.1 billion with the condition that the same will be processe ..read more

F.P. Report ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari on Wednesday said that Pakistan and China enjoyed long-term strategic relations, which need to be further strengthened in the areas of trade, economy, agriculture, people-to-people contacts, and culture. The president, in a meeting with the visiting Chairman of China International Development Cooperation Agency (CIDCA), Luo Zhaohui, who along with his delegation called on him, underlined the need for both countries to continue to work together to take bilateral relations to new heights. The ambassador of China in Pakistan Jiang Zaidong, the De ..read more

F.P. Report ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) conducted the hearing of a petition filed for the recovery of missing Baloch students on Wednesday. Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani presided over the proceedings. During Wednesday’s hearing, Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) Mansoor Usman Awan presented a report on the recovered missing Balochs. The judge inquired about the allegations of human rights violations detailed in the petition. The petitioner’s lawyer, Imaan Mazari, informed the court that on the same day, the caretaker prime minister [Anwaarul Haq Kakar] appeared before this cour ..read more

NEW YORK (Reuters): The executive board of the International Monetary Fund will meet on April 29 to discuss the approval of $1.1 billion funding for Pakistan, the fund said on Wednesday. The funding is the second and last tranche of a $3 billion Stand-By Arrangement (SBA) with the IMF, which it secured last summer to avert a sovereign default and which runs out this month. The South Asian nation is seeking a new long-term, larger IMF loan. Pakistan’s Finance Minister, Muhammad Aurangzeb, has said Islamabad could secure a staff-level agreement on the new program by early July. Islamabad says i ..read more

F.P. Report ISLAMABAD: The recently held intra-party elections of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) have once again been questioned by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), sources said on Wednesday. The electoral authority has sent a notice to the former ruling party over alleged irregularities in the intra-party polls conducted on March 3, according to the sources. The Political Financing Wing of the ECP has asked PTI representatives to appear before the electoral watchdog on April 30. This is the third time that the poll organising authority has taken exception to the beleaguered par ..read more