Web Desk

ISLAMABAD: Australia&#39;s men&#39;s national cricket team will tour Pakistan later this month for a three-match One-day International (ODI) series, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) announced on Thursday. According to the schedule released by PCB, Australia will arrive in Islamabad on May 23, with the first ODI scheduled for Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium on May 30.&nbsp; The remaining two matches of the series will take place at Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore on June 2 and June 4. Australia, which played a T20 series in Pakistan earlier this year, will defend its 50-over title at the World Cup co-hosted by South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Namibia in October 2027. It will be the team&#39;s first bilateral ODI series in Pakistan since March-April 2022, PCB said. The Australian team also featured in matches during the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 in Pakistan, including a five-wicket victory over the England cricket team at Gaddafi Stadium on Feb 22.&nbsp;

3rd T20I - Pakistan vs Australia at Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore ( Photo: Pakistan Cricket Board)

Cricket

Australia will arrive in Islamabad on May 23 ahead of matches in Rawalpindi and Lahore, marking the teams’ first bilateral ODI tour of Pakistan since 2022, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) announced.

Pakistan to host Australia for three-match ODI series next month

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan&rsquo;s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar on Thursday said the first anniversary of Marka-e-Haq symbolizes Pakistan&rsquo;s courage, unity, and resolve. He praised the armed forces and reaffirmed support for dialogue in the region. In a message to the nation released by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) marking one year since the military conflict with India that took place from April 22 to May 10, 2025, Dar paid tribute to Pakistan&rsquo;s armed forces and citizens, saying the country had responded to &quot;imposed aggression&quot; with restraint and principle under the leadership of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. <div class="fr-embed"><div class="twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered" style="display: flex; max-width: 550px; width: 100%; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><iframe id="twitter-widget-0" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true" title="X Post" src="https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-0&features=eyJ0ZndfdGltZWxpbmVfbGlzdCI6eyJidWNrZXQiOltdLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X2ZvbGxvd2VyX2NvdW50X3N1bnNldCI6eyJidWNrZXQiOnRydWUsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfdHdlZXRfZWRpdF9iYWNrZW5kIjp7ImJ1Y2tldCI6Im9uIiwidmVyc2lvbiI6bnVsbH0sInRmd19yZWZzcmNfc2Vzc2lvbiI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJvbiIsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfZm9zbnJfc29mdF9pbnRlcnZlbnRpb25zX2VuYWJsZWQiOnsiYnVja2V0Ijoib24iLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X21peGVkX21lZGlhXzE1ODk3Ijp7ImJ1Y2tldCI6InRyZWF0bWVudCIsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfZXhwZXJpbWVudHNfY29va2llX2V4cGlyYXRpb24iOnsiYnVja2V0IjoxMjA5NjAwLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X3Nob3dfYmlyZHdhdGNoX3Bpdm90c19lbmFibGVkIjp7ImJ1Y2tldCI6Im9uIiwidmVyc2lvbiI6bnVsbH0sInRmd19kdXBsaWNhdGVfc2NyaWJlc190b19zZXR0aW5ncyI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJvbiIsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfdXNlX3Byb2ZpbGVfaW1hZ2Vfc2hhcGVfZW5hYmxlZCI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJvbiIsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfdmlkZW9faGxzX2R5bmFtaWNfbWFuaWZlc3RzXzE1MDgyIjp7ImJ1Y2tldCI6InRydWVfYml0cmF0ZSIsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfbGVnYWN5X3RpbWVsaW5lX3N1bnNldCI6eyJidWNrZXQiOnRydWUsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfdHdlZXRfZWRpdF9mcm9udGVuZCI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJvbiIsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9fQ%3D%3D&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=2052254949841818087&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fmain.d1wrm1qseko1cp.amplifyapp.com%2Farticles%2F&sessionId=1020b0725deadd7a0416a8dfc400a125cae13c44&theme=light&widgetsVersion=6a3ad42b224df%3A1778106238597&width=550px" style="position: static; visibility: visible; width: 550px; height: 576px; display: block; flex-grow: 1;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</iframe></div></div> Referring to Pakistan&rsquo;s response under Operation Bunyan-ul-Marsoos following Indian conventional strikes on civilian infrastructure on the night of May 6, 2025, he noted that Pakistan had exercised its right to self-defense in line with the UN Charter, according to the Foreign Office. The FM said the response -- led by Chief of Army Staff and Chief of Defense Forces Field Marshal Asim Munir -- targeted only military installations and was &quot;determined, decisive and proportionate.&quot; He also praised the role of the Pakistan Air Force under Zaheer Ahmad Babar Sidhu, saying it had shot down multiple Indian fighter jets and neutralized key military targets. The Pakistan Navy, led by Naveed Ashraf, remained fully prepared to counter any maritime aggression, he added. Pakistan&#39;s response &#39;lawful and restrained&#39;&quot;Pakistan stands for peace, but it will never compromise on its dignity, sovereignty, territorial integrity, and political independence,&quot; Dar said. He maintained that Pakistan&rsquo;s diplomatic outreach during the critical period helped present the country&rsquo;s position at bilateral and international forums, describing Islamabad&rsquo;s response as &quot;lawful and restrained.&quot; Dar reiterated that lasting peace in South Asia could not be achieved without resolving the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in line with UN Security Council resolutions and the aspirations of the Kashmiri people. Reaffirming Pakistan&rsquo;s support for dialogue and diplomacy, he warned that any threat to the country would be met with &quot;national unity, unshakeable resolve, and strength through all means available.&quot; The anniversary of Marka-e-Haq should also serve as a reminder of the need to strengthen Pakistan&rsquo;s economy, education system, and social sectors, while empowering youth and promoting national unity, the statement said. &quot;Let this day renew our collective pledge: to stand united; to reject division; to work tirelessly for a peaceful and prosperous Pakistan,&quot; he said. A &lsquo;defining chapter&rsquo; for PAF : ISPRMeanwhile, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said the first anniversary of Marka-e-Haq marked a &quot;defining chapter&quot; in Pakistan&rsquo;s military history, particularly for the Pakistan Air Force (PAF). In a press statement, the military&rsquo;s media wing said the conflict had &quot;strengthened national confidence, reaffirmed institutional resolve and validated the PAF&rsquo;s efforts towards modernisation and operational capability enhancement&quot;. According to ISPR, the PAF&rsquo;s use of multi-domain operations demonstrated its preparedness for the evolving nature of modern warfare and highlighted the force&rsquo;s &quot;professional excellence&quot;. &quot;Pakistan is a peace-loving country, and its Armed Forces remain dedicated to preserving peace, promoting stability and ensuring security in the region&quot; the statement said, adding that &quot;peace for Pakistan has always been inseparable from honour, dignity and sovereign equality&quot;. ISPR warned that Pakistan&rsquo;s armed forces remained fully aware of the evolving regional security environment and any &quot;hostile design&quot; against the country would be met with &quot;greater strength, precision and resolve&quot;.

FILE: Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar (Photo: X/@ForeignOfficePk)

Politics

Security

Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar pays tribute to Pakistan’s armed forces and citizens, saying the country had responded to 'imposed aggression' with restraint and principle under the leadership of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

Pakistan's response to Indian aggression 'lawful and restrained', says FM on Marka-e-Haq anniversary

ISLAMABAD: United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, called Thursday for continued international efforts to recognize what he described as &ldquo;gender apartheid&rdquo; under Taliban rule, warning that sweeping restrictions on women and girls require sustained global attention. He made the remarks during a parliamentary conference on Afghanistan at the French National Assembly in Paris, according to Afghanistan International.&nbsp; Speaking to lawmakers, rights advocates and former Afghan officials, Bennett said the human rights situation in Afghanistan remains deeply troubling, particularly for women and girls facing severe limitations on education, employment and public life. &ldquo;Alongside realism about the situation, we must maintain hope for the people of Afghanistan,&rdquo; Bennett said, emphasizing the need for continued international engagement and support for Afghan citizens. Bennett also highlighted the role of the Afghan diaspora, saying communities abroad could help sustain hope and contribute to the country&rsquo;s future direction. Since returning to power in 2021, the Taliban have imposed a series of restrictions on women and girls, including bans on secondary and higher education for girls, limits on employment and constraints on movement without a male guardian. Rights groups and UN officials have repeatedly condemned the policies as violations of fundamental human rights. The conference in Paris focused on Afghanistan&rsquo;s humanitarian and political situation, with participants discussing international responses to the country&rsquo;s ongoing crisis.

Burkha clad woman begs by the side of the road in Afghanistan (File Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

Afghanistan

UN Special Rapporteur Richard Bennett urges international community to recognize 'gender apartheid' in Afghanistan and maintain support for Afghan women facing severe Taliban restrictions.

UN rapporteur urges recognition of gender apartheid in Afghanistan

GENEVA: Doctors Without Borders on Thursday accused Israel of having deliberately restricted food and aid in Gaza, creating a &quot;manufactured malnutrition crisis&quot; with particularly devastating impacts on infants and pregnant and breastfeeding women. The report also examined what it said was the harm done by the US- and Israeli-backed private organization set up last year to largely replace UN distribution of aid in Gaza. The medical charity, known by its French acronym MSF, based its case on an analysis of the situation between late 2024 and early 2026 at four health facilities it supports in the Gaza Strip. That analysis showed significantly higher levels of prematurity and mortality among infants born to malnourished mothers, and spikes in miscarriages, it said. MSF linked these outcomes with Israel&#39;s blockade of essential goods and attacks on civilian infrastructure, including medical facilities. &quot;Insecurity, displacement, restrictions on aid, and limited access to food and medical care have had devastating consequences for maternal and newborn health,&quot; the charity said in a statement. The situation remained &quot;extremely fragile&quot;, despite a ceasefire in place since last October after two years of devastating conflict, it warned. MSF called on the Israeli authorities to allow the unhindered entry of assistance and supplies into Gaza immediately. &quot;The malnutrition crisis is entirely manufactured,&quot; Merce Rocaspana, MSF&#39;s medical referent for emergencies, said in the statement. Before the war in the Palestinian territory erupted following Hamas&#39;s unprecedented attack inside Israel on October 7, 2023, &quot;malnutrition in Gaza was almost non-existent&quot;, she said. Malnourished women giving birth&nbsp;MSF said it had collected data from more than 200 mothers and newborns receiving treatment in neonatal intensive care units at hospitals in Khan Yunis and Gaza City between last June and January. Its analysis found that more than half of the women were affected by malnutrition at some point during their pregnancy. A quarter of them were still malnourished during delivery. The impact was clear: 90% of the babies born to malnourished mothers were born prematurely and 84% had low birth weight, the analysis found. &quot;Neonatal mortality was twice as high among infants born to mothers affected by malnutrition compared with those born to mothers without malnutrition,&quot; MSF said. The medical charity also examined data from 513 infants under six months of age admitted to outpatient therapeutic feeding programs in Khan Yunis between Oct. 2024 and Dec. 2025. Of them, &quot;91% were at risk of poor growth and development&quot;, it said. By last December, 200 of the infants were no longer in the program, but fewer than half had been cured, it found. Seven percent of them had died, it added. &nbsp;&#39;Militarized and deadly&#39; Infants are not the only ones going hungry. Between January 2024, when the first cases of child malnutrition were reported in Gaza, and February 2026, MSF said it had admitted 4,176 children under 15 years old -- 97 percent of them younger than five for acute malnutrition programs. During the same period, 3,336 pregnant and breastfeeding women were enrolled in ambulatory programs, it said. Thursday&#39;s analysis also highlighted the impact of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation a US and Israeli-backed private organization set up last year to largely replace UN distribution of aid in Gaza. MSF pointed out that by late May 2025, food distribution points in Gaza had dropped from around 400 to four under GHF, which disbanded last November. The food distribution points were &quot;militarized and deadly&quot;, warned Jose Mas, head of the MSF emergency unit. During the period GHF was functioning, MSF said that facilities it supported in Gaza had seen &quot;a sharp increase in patients seeking care due to violence perpetrated at food distribution points and malnutrition linked to deprivation of food&quot;. MSF teams had also observed a high number of miscarriages during this period, it said.

Displaced children carry food packets being distributed by Palestinian sisters Lina Zeid and Aya Zeid as a charity in the Al-Tuam area, west of Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on May 6, 2026.

Middle East

Doctors Without Borders says Israel’s aid restrictions in Gaza created a 'manufactured malnutrition crisis,' causing severe harm to infants, pregnant women, and civilians seeking food aid.

MSF says Israel has 'manufactured malnutrition crisis' in Gaza

HONG KONG: Tokyo&#39;s Nikkei index soared Thursday to lead another strong rally across Asia stocks, fueled by growing optimism the Iran war is close to ending and the revival of demand for all things AI. Oil prices also held the week&#39;s steep losses due to hopes Washington and Tehran will conclude the conflict and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which has been effectively closed since the start of March, choking off a fifth of the world&#39;s crude. Risk sentiment got a huge boost Wednesday when President Donald Trump said an agreement was near, a day after he paused efforts to help stranded ships through Hormuz, which drew Iranian attacks and threatened their fragile ceasefire. If &quot;Iran agrees to give what has been agreed to&quot; the war would be over, the US president said. But if not, the bombing would resume &quot;at a much higher level and intensity&quot;. He later told reporters: &quot;We&#39;ve had very good talks over the last 24 hours, and it&#39;s very possible that we&#39;ll make a deal.&quot; US news outlet Axios cited two US officials as saying both sides were close to agreement on a one-page memorandum of understanding to end the war, open the strait and set a framework for more detailed nuclear talks. Iran has yet to respond to the US offer, with foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei telling local media it was &quot;still under review&quot;. Parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who has taken the lead in negotiations, warned Washington trying to &quot;force us to surrender&quot;. Oil prices were flat Thursday, having fallen around 10% over the previous two days. Investors, who have largely remained optimistic that a deal can be reached, tracked another record day on Wall Street and pushed Asian markets higher. The gains have also been helped by a fresh wave of cash back into the tech sector as traders snap up all things AI, helped by standout earnings from US giants including Microsoft, Apple and Alphabet. Tokyo&#39;s Nikkei soared more than 5% as investors there returned from a long holiday, with tech investment titan SoftBank rocketing more than 15% while chip-linked firms Tokyo Electron and Advantest also ratcheted up big gains. Seoul extended Wednesday&#39;s surge that took it past 7,000 points for the first time, with Samsung also up following its meteoric rise to pass the $1 trillion market capitalization mark. Hong Kong, Shanghai, Sydney, Singapore, Taipei, Wellington, Manila and Jakarta also clocked up big gains. The prospect of cheaper oil prices tempered worries about inflation, which also helped gold rally more than 3% Wednesday. Stephen Innes at SPI Asset Management said &quot;traders aggressively embraced the idea that the Iran war may finally be shifting from missile trajectories to negotiation tables, while the AI frenzy simultaneously poured jet fuel onto the risk rally&quot;. &quot;The result was one of those rare sessions where nearly every macro domino fell in perfect sequence. Oil collapsed, bonds rallied, the dollar sank, gold exploded higher&quot;, and stocks surged. Investors in Tokyo were also closely watching the yen after speculation of intervention by the Japanese government to prop up the beleaguered currency. The unit, which has been hit by surging oil prices and a rush to the safe-haven dollar, hit a 10-month high against the greenback Wednesday, in the latest of a series of spikes in recent days that have fueled rumors that officials have provided support. The government spent $32-$38 billion buying yen in the market last Thursday, local media reported, quoting Bank of Japan data. Atsushi Mimura, Japan&#39;s top currency official, on Thursday declined to comment, local media reported. Key figures at around 0230 GMT&nbsp; Tokyo - Nikkei 225: UP 5.7 percent at 62,915.87 (break) Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: UP 1.5 percent at 26,598.50 Shanghai - Composite: UP 0.2 percent at 4,167.62 West Texas Intermediate: FLAT at $95.08 a barrel Brent North Sea Crude: UP 0.1 percent at $101.32 a barrel Dollar/yen: DOWN at 156.23 yen from 156.39 yen on Wednesday Euro/dollar: UP at $1.1756 from $1.1752 Pound/dollar: UP at $1.3600 from $1.3594 Euro/pound: DOWN at 86.42 pence from 86.45 pence

A man walks past a board showing numbers of the TAIEX Index (C) and other markets at the Taiwan Stock Exchange in Taipei on May 4, 2026. (Photo by I-Hwa Cheng / AFP)

Business

Asian stocks surged led by Tokyo’s Nikkei as optimism over a possible Iran-US deal, easing oil prices, and booming AI-driven tech demand boosted global investor confidence.

Tokyo leads Asia stock surge on growing Mideast peace hopes

Muhammad Usman Amin

PESHAWAR: Across the globe, Silicon Valley tech companies are investing billions to build the future of artificial intelligence, making headlines. But in Peshawar, two university students are challenging the status quo with grit, determination, and a bit of prize money from national hackathons. Muhammad Uzair and Junaid Ahmed, both fourth-semester computer science students at Peshawar University and both cousins, have built AI models designed specifically for the Pashto language.&nbsp; With over 60 million speakers worldwide, especially in Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Middle East, Pashto has been poorly integrated by major AI platforms like ChatGPT and Gemini. The lack of Pashto data online for training AI models means that the more established AI giants often mix it up with Arabic or Persian because of their similar scripts. Recognizing this digital niche, Uzair and Junaid decided to take matters into their own hands. Uzair&#39;s solution is &quot;Katib-ASR,&quot; an Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) model. Katib is the traditional word for scribe as the model writes down what it hears, converting spoken Pashto audio directly into accurate Pashto script. Building it was a huge linguistic hurdle. Pashto features 45 letters, including more than half a dozen variations of a single letter like &quot;Ye&rdquo;. Because relevant datasets didn&#39;t exist, Uzair had to build his own from scratch. He pulled audio from regional podcasts, generated it himself and with friends and family or found it online and clipped it into tiny segments to teach his model how specific sounds correspond to text.&nbsp; Currently sitting at an impressive 75%-80% accuracy, Uzair&rsquo;s goal is to further refine the model and eventually introduce text-to-speech and other capabilities for Pashto speakers. Meanwhile, his cousin Junaid faced a similar problem with text generation. His focus is &quot;Qehwa AI,&quot; a text-generation model named after the region&#39;s famous traditional tea. Junaid scraped every corner of the internet for Pashto text, translated entire books from English and Urdu and compiled an astonishing 1.5 billion words. According to Junaid, this makes it the largest Pashto dataset.&nbsp; By feeding this massive library into an open-source base model, he has created an AI that understands the deep context, literature, cultural nuances and history of the language.&nbsp; Whether you prompt it in English, Urdu, or Pashto, Qehwa AI processes the information and responds in Pashto. Since it is specifically trained on Pashto, Junaid claims that Qehwa AI outperforms global models in Pashto translation and summarization tasks. According to the two developers, training AI requires immense computational power, usually found in massive data centers. When the duo approached local institutions for help, they found a lack of supercomputers or advanced graphics cards (GPUs). And lack of funds was also a major obstacle.&nbsp; The idea they came up with was to compete in major national Hackathons, win and use that money. And win they did. They pooled their prize money -- nearly Rs200,000 -- and used it to rent cloud-based GPUs. Grassroots, self-funded operation.&nbsp; Going forward, both students see this as just the beginning. While Uzair aims to perfect the audio mechanics, Junaid plans to expand his model to include other regional languages like Punjabi, Sindhi, and Balochi, ultimately creating a unified AI for all Pakistani languages. In a world where AI is dominated by corporate conglomerates, Uzair and Junaid are a reminder that actual innovation can often start with limited funds and resources, and a drive to empower and represent one&#39;s own culture, land and language on a global level.

Artificial Intelligence

Two computer science students at Peshawar University have built AI models specifically designed for the Pashto language. 

How two students are putting Pashto AI on the world map

SEOUL: South Korea&#39;s presidential office said on Thursday it would continue its peace efforts despite North Korea&#39;s constitutional revision, which removed all references to unifying the divided peninsula. The two Koreas remain technically at war because the 1950-53 conflict ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty. North Korea&#39;s constitution had previously stated that the nuclear-armed country sought &quot;the reunification of the homeland.&quot; But that clause no longer appears in the latest version of the document, which AFP reviewed on Wednesday. &quot;We will comprehensively review matters related to the trend of the revision of the North Korean Constitution,&quot; South Korean President Lee Jae Myung&#39;s office said. &quot;Based on a comprehensive review, the government will consistently promote the policy of peaceful coexistence on the Korean Peninsula.&quot; South Korea&#39;s own constitution contains a commitment to peaceful unification. Lee has taken a dovish approach towards the North, repeatedly calling for unconditional talks and vowing to act &quot;proactively&quot; to restore trust. His administration has hinted that it may have lobbied the United States to ensure that UN humanitarian aid exemptions reached the North. But those overtures have fallen short so far. In February, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said Pyongyang had &quot;absolutely no business dealing with South Korea&quot;, adding that it would &quot;permanently exclude South Korea from the category of compatriots.&quot; Kim has also dismissed Seoul&#39;s peace efforts as a &quot;clumsy, deceptive farce.&quot;

Asia

President Lee takes dovish approach toward the North, repeatedly calling for unconditional talks and vowing to act 'proactively' to restore trust; Administration hints that it may have lobbied the US to ensure that UN humanitarian aid exemptions reached the North.

South Korea to seek peace despite North's revised constitution

MADRID: A cruise ship hit by a deadly hantavirus outbreak will reach the Spanish island of Tenerife &quot;within three days,&rdquo; with the evacuation of passengers to start from May 11, Spain said on Wednesday. The fate of the MV Hondius has sparked international alarm after three people traveling on the ship died, though World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus insisted the outbreak was not comparable to the Covid pandemic. One passenger, Ruhi Cenet, a 35-year-old Turkish travel vlogger, said what started out as an idyllic voyage turned chaotic when the ship&#39;s captain announced on April 12 that a passenger had died. &quot;He said it was due to natural causes,&quot; Cenet told AFP. &quot;They didn&#39;t even consider the possibility of having such a contagious disease,&quot; he added. &quot;They didn&#39;t take the problem seriously enough.&quot; The WHO said emergency crews evacuated three people &mdash; two sick crew members and another person who had been in contact with one of the confirmed cases &mdash; from the ship on Wednesday, which later left its anchorage off Cape Verde and headed for Spain&#39;s Canary Islands. After being taken from the ship to an ambulance boat by medical personnel in hazmat suits, the three evacuees later boarded flights at the airport in Praia, the capital of Cape Verde. A medical plane carrying two evacuated passengers landed at Amsterdam Airport in the Netherlands at 1747 GMT, according to AFP reporters at the scene. German emergency services said they had picked up one evacuee in Amsterdam who came into contact with an infected person on board the ship, and were transporting the individual to a hospital in D&uuml;sseldorf. Another medical plane landed at Las Palmas in the Canary Islands earlier Wednesday, an AFP journalist there saw. Spanish officials said the plane had landed due to a &quot;broken isolation bubble.&quot; Spain&#39;s health ministry said a new plane would be needed to travel on to the Netherlands. Low global risk: WHO&nbsp;Experts confirmed the version of the virus detected aboard the Hondius was a rare strain known as the Andes virus, the only one that can be transmitted between humans. The first person to have the virus on the ship could not have been infected during the cruise, given the one- to six-week incubation period, WHO expert Anais Legand told AFP. The ship left Ushuaia, Argentina, on April 1, and the first death occurred on April 11. Argentine officials said the first couple killed had visited Chile, Uruguay and Argentina before the cruise. They said experts would travel to Ushuaia to test rodents there for hantavirus. Argentina has seen an increase in hantavirus cases, but not an outbreak, expert Raul Gonzalez Ittig told AFP. Health officials downplayed fears of a wider global outbreak of the virus, which is less contagious than Covid. UN health agency chief Tedros told AFP it was not like the Covid-19 pandemic, adding: &quot;The risk to the rest of the world is low.&quot; The ship has been at the center of an international health scare since Saturday, when the WHO was informed that three passengers had died and the suspected cause was hantavirus. The rare respiratory disease is usually spread from infected rodents, typically through urine, droppings and saliva. A Dutch man died on board on April 11, and his wife, who left the ship to accompany his body to South Africa, died there 15 days later after also falling ill. Two other people are still being treated &mdash; one in Johannesburg and one in Zurich, Switzerland. Two people who returned to the UK from the ship have been advised to self-isolate, the UK Health Security Agency said, adding they were asymptomatic and insisting the risk to the public was &quot;very low.&quot; Spanish Health Minister Monica Garcia Gomez said the vessel would dock in Tenerife, in the Canaries, within the next three days, and all foreign passengers would be flown back to their home countries from there if their health allowed. Contact tracing&nbsp;The Dutch woman who died had flown on a commercial plane from the island of Saint Helena to Johannesburg while she was showing symptoms. Officials were trying to trace people on that flight, which the South African-based carrier Airlink said was carrying 82 passengers and six crew members. Fueling fears of further contact, Dutch airline KLM said on Wednesday that one of the people who died from the virus had been &quot;briefly&quot; on its flight from Johannesburg to the Netherlands on April 25, but was removed before take-off. The cruise ship originally had 88 passengers and 59 crew members, representing 23 nationalities on board.

Climate

The fate of the MV Hondius has sparked international alarm after three people traveling on the ship died; World Health Organization insists the outbreak is not comparable to the Covid pandemic.

Virus-hit cruise ship heads for Spain as evacuees land in Europe

WASHINGTON: A US judge on Wednesday released a suicide note purportedly written by convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein weeks before his death in a New York jailhouse. Epstein&#39;s cellmate has said that he found the letter in a book following a failed suicide attempt by the disgraced financier, several weeks before his eventual August 2019 death. &quot;They investigated me for months &mdash; Found NOTHING!!!&quot; the text of the letter, written on lined paper, reads. &quot;It is a treat to be able to choose one&#39;s time to say goodbye.&quot; The text concludes with, &quot;Watcha want me to do &mdash; Bust out cryin!! No fun &mdash; NOT WORTH IT!!&quot; The letter had been sealed for years as part of the cellmate&#39;s criminal proceedings, but was released by Judge Kenneth Karas of the US District Court for Southern New York after a request by the New York Times. While the document has not been authenticated, its release comes as questions continue to swirl about the well-connected financier&#39;s death while awaiting sex trafficking charges. His death was ruled a suicide, but numerous security lapses at the jail and missing CCTV footage have led to persistent doubts about the official account. Epstein was found injured in his cell in late July 2019, in what officials said was a failed suicide attempt. It was ahead of this earlier incident that the letter was purported to be written and stuffed into a graphic novel. The Epstein saga has continued to roil American and British politics, as documents related to the expansive investigation into the financier&#39;s life have been released in previous months.

Americas

Epstein's cellmate has said that he found the letter in a book following a failed suicide attempt by the disgraced financier, several weeks before his eventual August 2019 death.



US court releases purported Epstein suicide note

Web Desk/AFP

'When you look at the kind of things that are happening, we are doing that for one very important reason: We cannot allow them to have a nuclear weapon. So I think most people understand that. They understand that what we are doing is right, and it'll be over quickly,' Trump tells a tele-rally for Georgia Republican governor candidate Burt Jones.

Pakistan to host Australia for three-match ODI series next month

Related Articles

Pakistan include four uncapped players for Bangladesh Tests

PM Sharif signs off on letting fans to attend PSL playoffs: Naqvi

Latest News

Pakistan to host Australia for three-match ODI series next month

Pakistan's response to Indian aggression 'lawful and restrained', says FM on Marka-e-Haq anniversary

UN rapporteur urges recognition of gender apartheid in Afghanistan

MSF says Israel has 'manufactured malnutrition crisis' in Gaza

Tokyo leads Asia stock surge on growing Mideast peace hopes