PAKISTAN GOVT RECEIVES NAMES OF SENIOR GENERALS FOR NEXT ARMY CHIEF

ISLAMABAD: The clouds of uncertainty around the appointment of Pakistan's new army chief began to clear on Wednesday after the government announced on Wednesday that it has received the names of six senior generals for the post to succeed incumbent General Qamar Javed Bajwa.

Gen Bajwa, 61, is scheduled to retire on November 29 after a three-year extension. He has ruled out seeking another extension.

The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) issued a brief statement on Twitter that it received the summary from the ministry of defence for the appointment of the new chief of army staff (COAS) and the chairman joint chief of staff committee (CJCSC).

“The prime minister will take a decision on the appointments as per the laid down procedure,” according to the statement.

The army also confirmed that it had sent the names of six top lieutenant generals for the appointments.

Two of them would be picked by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif for promotion and appointment for the posts of COAS and CJCSC before November 29.

Sharif will send the summary to President Arif Alvi who will notify the appointments.

Defence minister Khawaja Asif said on Monday that the process of appointment of the next army chief will be completed by November 25.

US SUPREME COURT CLEARS WAY FOR LAWMAKERS TO GET DONALD TRUMP'S TAX RETURNS

WASHINGTON: The US Supreme Court on Tuesday cleared the release of Donald Trump's tax returns to a House of Representatives committee, handing a defeat to the Republican former president who had called the Democratic-led panel's request politically motivated.

The justices denied Trump's October 31 emergency application to block a lower court's ruling that upheld the Ways and Means Committee's request for his tax records as a justified part of the panel's legislative work. No justice publicly dissented from the decision.

The committee, which has sought six years of Trump's tax records spanning 2015 to 2020, will have little time to complete its work related to the returns before a Republican takeover of the House. Republicans secured a narrow majority following the November 8 midterm elections and take control of the House - and the committee - in January.

The fight over his tax returns is one of many legal woes for Trump as he moves forward with another run for the presidency in 2024. Trump last week announced the launch of his candidacy.

Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal said the Supreme Court's action upholds the principle of congressional oversight.

"This rises above politics, and the committee will now conduct the oversight that we've sought for the last three and a half years," Neal said in a statement.

IN LAST SPEECH, PAK ARMY CHIEF SLAMS CRITICS FOR ‘ANTI-MILITARY NARRATIVE’

Pakistan’s outgoing army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa on Wednesday lashed out at the “anti-military narrative” of a section of the people and political establishment, wondering aloud why neighbour India's military is “seldom the target” of similar criticism within the country despite its record of “human rights violations”, reports Omer Farooq Khan. In possibly his last public speech as chief of army staff before retiring on November 29, Gen Bajwa said, “Our army, which day and night serves the nation, is often made the subject of criticism. A major reason for this is the army’s interference in politics for the last 70 years, which is unconstitutional.” The general claimed that under him, the army made a conscious decision to move away from that template. “This is why, in February last year, the army decided not to interfere in any political matter. I assure you we are adamant on this and will remain so,” he said. General Bajwa rued that instead of welcoming the military's decision, “many sectors used very inappropriate and undignified language while making the army the target of severe criticism”.

ZERO-COVID CHINA ASKS: IS WORLD CUP ON ANOTHER PLANET?

Chinese state media have given huge attention to the World Cup this week, but the matches are fuelling frustrations that people in the country are being left out of the celebrations.

On top of China's men's national team not qualifying for the event, scenes of maskless celebrations and raucous gatherings in Qatar have irritated viewers, who have been discouraged from gathering to watch the games.

Many have used the World Cup to complain online about China's existing strategies. The country maintains a zero-Covid policy, where entire communities are locked down over single cases of the virus, in order to prevent it from spreading.

China is currently experiencing its worst outbreak in six months, and localised lockdowns have surged over the last couple of weeks.

CHINA ORDERS COVID LOCKDOWN IN ZHENGZHOU AFTER IPHONE FACTORY PROTESTS

BEIJING –– A central Chinese city home to a vast iPhone factory has ordered an effective Covid lockdown for several districts, after violent protests that saw demonstrators clash with police erupted at the facility.

Residents of Zhenghzhou's city centre cannot leave the area unless they have a negative COVID test and permission from authorities, and are advised not to leave their homes "unless necessary", the local government said.

The restrictions, which will last 5 days from midnight Friday, affect more than 6 million people -- about half the city's population.

The government notice, issued late Wednesday, also requires the residents of 8 districts to take a nucleic acid test every day during the 5-day period.

Zhengzhou's order came after violent protests broke out at the city's vast iPhone factory complex.

The factory, owned by Taiwanese tech giant Foxconn, has itself been under COVID restrictions for over a month amid spiraling cases in its worker dormitories.

Footage emerged last month of panicking workers fleeing the site on foot in the wake of allegations of poor conditions at the facility.

The Zhengzhou government on Wednesday said the city's outbreak was "still severe and complicated".

The country's daily tally of COVID cases hit a record high on Thursday, at 31,454 domestic cases -- relatively small compared with China's 1.4 billion population but exceeding the peak recorded in mid-April when Shanghai was under lockdown.

Zhengzhou on Thursday recorded 675 new COVID infections -- the vast majority of which were asymptomatic.

WALMART EMPLOYEE KILLS SIX IN U.S. MASS SHOOTING

A Walmart employee shot dead six persons at a store bustling with Thanksgiving holiday shoppers, before turning the pistol on himself, the police said on Wednesday, in the country’s second mass shooting in four days.

Four other persons remained hospitalised in unknown condition following the Tuesday night rampage in the Walmart in Chesapeake, Virginia.

The police said the gunman was believed to have died of a “self-inflicted gunshot wound,” and that the motive behind the latest attack in America’s gun violence crisis was not immediately known.

The assault two days before Thanksgiving, the quintessential American family holiday marked this year on November 24, followed a weekend gun attack at an LGBTQ club in Colorado that killed five persons.

It was also the second mass shooting in the state of Virginia this month: three students at the University of Virginia who played on its football team were killed on November 13 by a classmate after a field trip.

DEUBA’S PARTY EMERGING AS SINGLE LARGEST IN NEPAL POLLS

Kathmandu : Election results showed the ruling Nepali Congress party was leading on Wednesday and could emerge as the single largest group, said analysts who expect a hung parliament to give new political parties a decisive role in forming the government. About 61% of roughly 18 million Nepalese voted in Sunday’s elections for the 275 members of parliament, where 165 seats will be decided on a first-pastthe-post basis and the rest by proportional representation.

The Nepali Congress of PM Sher Bahadur Deuba has won 13 of 22 results declared, with three each going to the main opposition Nepal Communist Unified Marxist-Leninist (UML) party and the newly formed National Independent Party (NIP). Deuba’s party, which contested 91 seats, was leading in 42 races, while its main rival UML, contes-ting 141 seats, was ahead in 43 and the NIP in five of the 135 constituencies where votes were being counted. A five-time PM, Deuba won his remote Dadeldhura constituency for the seventh straight time since 1991. The Maoist Centre, a dominant partner in the ruling coalition, is leading in 14 seats and has won just two seat in the parliament. But final results could be about 10 days away. Deubamay need the support of his alliance partners as well as some new parties to become PM for a sixth time, as his party is unlikely to win the majority of seats, analysts said.

UK SC REJECTS SCOTLAND BID FOR NEW INDEPENDENCE VOTE

London : The Scottish government cannot hold a second referendum on independence without approval from the British parliament, the UK’s top court ruled on Wednesday. Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, leader of the pro-independence Scottish National Party (SNP), had announced earlier this year she intended to hold an advisory vote on secession next October, but that it had to be lawful and internationally recognised. The senior law officer of the Scottish government had approached the SC to find out if such a referendum would be legal.

Under the 1998 Scotland Act, which created the Scottish parliament and devolved some powers from Westminster, all matters relating to the Union of the Kingdoms of Scotland and England are reserved to the UK parliament. The court concluded any referendum, even advisory, would be a reserved matter. The five justices on Wednesday ruled that SNP’s proposed Scottish Independence Referendum Bill did relate to such reserved matters. The powers of the Scottish parliament were not in issue during the 2014 referendum —in which Scots rejected ending the 300-year-old union with England by 55% to 45% — because an Order in Council modified the definition of reserved matters to enable the Scottish parliament to pass the referendum legislation. The UK government has refused to do this again. The Scottish government had argued the Scottish people had the right to self-determination under international law. But the five justices unanimously ruled that the Scotland Act did not infringe any principle of self-determination, saying that international law favoured the territorial integrity of states and did not confer any right to secede.

Sturgeon said she was disappointed by the SC ruling but accepted the judgment.

POPE LINKS UKRAINIANS’ PLIGHT TO STALIN’S ‘GENOCIDE’

Pope Francis on Wednesday linked the suffering of Ukrainians now to the 1930s “genocide artificially caused by Stalin”, when the Soviet leader was blamed for creating a man-made famine in Ukraine believed to have killed over 3 million people. Francis’ linking of the plight of Ukrainian today to those killed by starvation 90 years ago, and his willingness to call it a “genocide” caused by Josef Stalin, marked an escalation in papal rhetoric against Russia. As of this year, only 17 countries have officially recognised the famine.