WORLD

China has rolled over a $600 million loan to Pakistan, helping shore up the South Asian country's foreign exchange reserves on the back of an IMF deal, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Tuesday.

This was in addition to over $5 billion in loans that longtime ally China has rolled over for Pakistan in the last three months, Sharif said last week, helping Pakistan avert a default as negotiations to secure the IMF bailout dragged on.

China has rolled over a $600 million loan to Pakistan, helping shore up the South Asian country's foreign exchange reserves on the back of an IMF deal, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Tuesday.

This was in addition to over $5 billion in loans that longtime ally China has rolled over for Pakistan in the last three months, Sharif said last week, helping Pakistan avert a default as negotiations to secure the IMF bailout dragged on.

A popular female singer from Afghanistan, who reportedly fled the Taliban regime in 2021 and took refuge in Pakistan, was assassinated by unknown gunmen late Sunday night. The news of 38-year-old Hasiba Noori’s death in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which was first reported by local media in Afghanistan, has created a stir in both countries.

Noori was a renowned Pashtun singer who had been featured on Afghan channels like Ariana Television and AMC TV. She was known for adding a modern twist to traditional folk songs, and was among the many women performers and celebrities who fled the country fearing the oppressive Taliban regime.

A passenger took control of a small plane and crash-landed on an island in US' Massachusetts after its pilot suffered a medical emergency on Saturday, The Washington Post reported.

The incident took place on Saturday afternoon near Martha's Vineyard Airport in West Tisbury, Massachusetts. The 79-year-old male pilot suffered the emergency during the plane's final approach, Massachusetts State Police said. 

"The crash resulted in a hard landing outside the runway that caused the aircraft's left wing to break in half," The Post quoted the state police as saying.

The government in Pakistan's Punjab province has declared to hoist its national flag on a 500-foot-tall flag mast, costing around PKR (Pakistani rupee) 40 crore on August 14 to mark its 76th Independence Day. This comes after Pakistan secured a bailout package from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to contain its crumbling economy.

Punjab province in cash-strapped Pakistan, which reportedly needs at least Rs 2,000 crore in the next two years to pay back foreign loans (with interest), will hoist the flag at Liberty Chowk in Lahore.