PAKISTAN INFLATION RISES TO 48-YEAR HIGH AS IMF VISITS

Karachi: Inflation has risen to a 48-year high in crisis-hit Pakistan, where the International Monetary Fund is visiting for urgent talks, according to data released on Wednesday by the country's statistics bureau.

Year-on-year inflation in January 2023 was recorded at 27.55 percent, the highest since May 1975, with thousands of containers of imports held up at Karachi port.

The world's fifth-biggest population has less than $3.7 billion in the state bank -- enough to cover just three weeks of imports.

On Tuesday, an IMF delegation arrived in Islamabad to revive negotiations over a stalled bailout package with the government, which has so far held out from meeting the global lender's tough conditions.

In the recent days, the government loosened controls on the rupee to rein in a rampant black market in US dollars, a step that caused the currency to plunge to a record low. Artificially cheap petrol prices have also been hiked.

The state bank is no longer issuing letters of credit, except for essential food and medicines, causing a backlog of thousands of shipping containers at Karachi port stuffed with stock the country can no longer afford.

'One cannot earn enough'

Industry has been hammered by the imports block and massive rupee devaluation. Public construction projects have halted, textiles factories have partially shut down and domestic investment has slowed.

The National Consumer Price Index for January 2023 rose by 2.88 percent from the previous month, the figures released on Wednesday showed.

Former Prime Minister Imran Khan, who was ousted last year in a no-confidence motion, negotiated a multi-billion-dollar loan package from the IMF in 2019.

But he reneged on promises to cut subsidies and market interventions that had cushioned the cost-of-living crisis, causing the programme to stall.

It is a common pattern in Pakistan, where most people live in rural poverty, with more than two dozen IMF deals brokered and then broken over the decades.

RUSSIA PLANNING 24 FEBRUARY OFFENSIVE, UKRAINIAN DEFENCE MINISTER SAYS

Ukraine's defence minister has said Russia is preparing a major new offensive, and warned that it could begin as soon as 24 February.

Oleksii Reznikov said Moscow had amassed thousands of troops and could "try something" to mark the anniversary of the initial invasion last year.

The attack would also mark Russia's Defender of the Fatherland Day on 23 February, which celebrates the army.

Meanwhile, three people have died in an attack on the city of Kramatorsk.

Eight others were wounded in the city in Donetsk region after a Russian missile struck a residential building, the provincial governor said.

The toll is expected to rise as rescuers comb through the wreckage.

"The only way to stop Russian terrorism is to defeat it," Mr Zelensky wrote on social media about the attack. "By tanks. Fighter jets. Long-range missiles."

Ukraine has recently renewed calls for fighter jets to help protect itself from air attacks after Germany, the US and the UK agreed to send them tanks.

Mr Reznikov said Moscow had mobilised some 500,000 troops for the potential offensive.

U.S. ‘DESTROYED’ ARMS CONTROL PACT: MOSCOW

The Kremlin accused Washington on Wednesday of “destroying” weapons control agreements, after the U.S. said Russia was not complying with their last remaining arms pact, the New START treaty.

Tensions between the countries were already at breaking point before Russia sent troops to Ukraine, but have plummeted further since. The State Department faulted Russia for suspending inspections and cancelling talks but did not accuse Moscow of expanding nuclear warheads beyond agreed limits. “We believe that the continuation of this treaty is very important,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. “We see that the U.S. has actually destroyed the legal framework in the field of arms control and security,” he added.

Russia’s Ambassador to the U.S. said Moscow has been “irreproachably observing” the accord.

TTP ATTACKS POLICE STATION IN PAK’S PUNJAB

Heavily-armed Pakistani Taliban militants opened fire at a police station in Mianwali in Pakistan’s Punjab province, days after a member of the outfit blew himself up inside a mosque in Peshawar that killed over 100people. District police officer Mianwali Muhammad Naveed said around 20 TTP militants armed with automatic weapons attacked the Makerwal police station on Tuesday night but were repulsed by the law enforcement agency, GeoTV reported. The latest incident assumes significance because TTP, which hitherto targeted police stations and check posts in Pakistan’s restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan, has now trained its guns inPunjab province.

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s security agencies arrested 17 suspects in connection with the suicide blast in a high-security zone mosque in Peshawar that killed 101 people, including 97 policemen, as Army chief Gen. Asim Munir vowed zero tolerance for terror groups and directed his generals to eliminate the threat of militancy.

AUSTRALIA TO REPLACE QUEEN ELIZABETH'S IMAGE ON ITS BANKNOTE

Australia will replace late UK Queen Elizabeth II's image on its A$5 note with a new design honouring the history of its indigenous culture, the Reserve Bank of Australia said. The decision follows consultation with the federal government, which supports the change, the bank said, adding that the other side of the note will continue to feature the Australian Parliament.

NEW US VISA CURBS AGAINST TALIBAN FOR EDUCATION, JOBS BANS ON WOMEN

Washington: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced new visa restrictions against the Taliban Wednesday in response to bans on employment and education for women in Afghanistan.

"I am taking action today to impose additional visa restrictions on certain current or former Taliban members, members of non-state security groups, and other individuals believed to be responsible for, or complicit in, repressing women and girls in Afghanistan," Blinken said in a statement.

Blinked said the repressive actions included "the Taliban's decision to ban women from universities and from working with NGOs."

Washington: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced new visa restrictions against the Taliban Wednesday in response to bans on employment and education for women in Afghanistan.

"I am taking action today to impose additional visa restrictions on certain current or former Taliban members, members of non-state security groups, and other individuals believed to be responsible for, or complicit in, repressing women and girls in Afghanistan," Blinken said in a statement.

Blinked said the repressive actions included "the Taliban's decision to ban women from universities and from working with NGOs."

Blinken added that Washington will continue to work in coordination with allied countries to make "clear to the Taliban that their actions will carry significant costs and close the path to improved relations with the international community."

TANKER BREAKS DOWN IN SUEZ CANAL, BUT TRAFFIC NOT DISRUPTED

A tanker transporting liquefied natural gas broke down in the Suez Canal on Wednesday but traffic in the global waterway was unaffected, a canal spokesperson said. The Bahamasflagged Grace Emilia suffered a malfunction of its rudder and tugboats pulled it to the side of the canal to allow other vessels to pass, said George Safwat, a spokesperson for Egypt’s Suez Canal Authority. In March 2021,the Panama-flagged Ever Given, acolossal container ship, crashed into a bank on a singlelane stretch of the canal, blocking the waterway for six days.

LOST RADIOACTIVE CAPSULE IN AUS FOUND

Sydney : Australian authorities on Wednesday found a radioactive capsule smaller than a coin that was lost in the vast Outback after nearly a week-long search involving around 100 people along a 1,400 kilometres stretch of highway, officials said. The Caesium-137 capsule lost in transit more than two weeks ago was discovered when a vehicle travelling at 70 km per hour equipped with specialist detection equipment picked up the radiation, according to officials from the state of Western Australia. The search teamthen used portable detection equipment to find the capsule, which was located about 2 metres from the side of the road in a remote area far from any community, they added.

The capsule was part of a gauge used to measure thedensity of iron ore feed from Rio Tinto’s Gudai-Darri mine in the state’s remote Kimberley region. The gauge was being taken to a facility in Perth —a distance further than the length of Great Britain. Rio was willing to pay for the cost of the search if asked by the state government, iron ore division head Simon Trott said. Rio said it would investigate whether the use of specialist contractors had been appropriate, having entrusted the gauge to SGS Australia and Centurion for packaging and transport respectively.

MYANMAR STREETS EMPTY IN PROTEST ON COUP ANNIVERSARY

Streets emptied and shops closed in protest across Myanmar on Wednesday, the second anniversary of the coup that toppled Aung San Suu Kyi’s government, with the junta hinting it may extend a state of emergency and delay new elections. Myanmar has been in turmoil since the military’s power grab and bloody crackdown on dissent, which has sparked fighting across the country and tanked the economy.

Western powers launched a fresh broadside of sanctions against the generals on the anniversary but previous rounds have shown little sign of throwing the junta off course.

Streets in the commercial hub Yangon largely emptied from late morning, AFP correspondents said, after activists called for people across the Southeast Asian country to close businesses and stay indoors from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. local time.

Roads leading to the famous Shwedagon pagoda – a Buddhist shrine that dominates Yangon’s skyline and is usually thronged by worshippers – were largely deserted.

Most buses on roads elsewhere in the city were empty and there was a heavy security presence.

It was similarly quiet in the second city of Mandalay, a resident told AFP.

SAUDI EXECUTIONS UP SHARPLY UNDER KING SALMAN, MBS: RIGHTS GROUP

Executions in Saudi Arabia have nearly doubled under King Salman and his son Mohammed bin Salman, rights groups said on Tuesday. Capital punishment soared from an average of 70.8 executions a year from 2010 to 2014, to 129.5 a year since 2015, said a report by the European Saudi Organisation for Human Rights.