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ISLAMABAD (Xinhua) : Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Monday that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is a cornerstone for regional connectivity and the economic development of his country, the prime minister’s office said in a statement. During his visit to the provincial capital city Quetta of the country’s southwest Balochistan province, the prime minister said that the “work on the completion of CPEC is progressing rapidly,” adding that the initiative is playing a pivotal role in shaping Pakistan’s future. Sharif noted that flight operations have commenced at the China-aided New Gwadar International Airport, marking a step forward in…

Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov arrived in Beijing on Tuesday, starting his state visit to China from February 4 to 7.

While assuming the rotating presidency of the United Nations (UN) Security Council for February, China will work on the priorities of reaffirming member states’ commitment to multilateralism and enhancing global governance, Fu Cong, China’s permanent representative to the UN, said Monday. As the world enters a very turbulent period and the number of conflicts worldwide hits a new high since the Cold War, there is an increasing call in the international community, among the Global South in particular, for reforming and improving the global governance system, he said. “At the Security Council, solidarity and cooperation are replaced by division and…

China’s film industry set a new record during the 2025 Spring Festival holiday, as the box office for the period from Jan. 28 to Feb. 4 reached a staggering 9.51 billion yuan (1.33 billion U.S. dollars), the China Film Administration announced Wednesday. The number of moviegoers also soared, with 187 million people attending theaters during the holiday, marking both a box office and attendance milestone.

Hemanth Mandapati, CEO of German startup Novo AI, was an early adopter of DeepSeek chatbots, switching to the Chinese AI model from OpenAI’s ChatGPT two weeks ago. “If you have built your application using OpenAI, you can easily migrate to the other ones … it took us minutes to switch,” he said in an interview on the sidelines of the GoWest conference for venture capitalists in Gothenburg, Sweden. DeepSeek’s emergence is reshaping the AI landscape, offering companies access to the technology at a fraction of the cost, according to interviews with more than a dozen startup executives and investors. It…

China is increasingly less dependent on trade with the U.S., which will lessen the shock of an additional 10-percent U.S. tariff on Chinese exports, according to the Council on Foreign Relations, an American think tank. China has ramped up trade with other partners, with the U.S. dropping to third place with $688 billion in 2024, following the ASEAN with $982 billion and the EU with $786 billion. The country’s exports to the U.S. account for only 15 percent of its total exports. China has also steadily reduced the importance of trade to its economy as the country has expanded domestic…

UNITED NATIONS : UN agencies on Tuesday offered a dire assessment of the global impact of deep cuts to grassroots humanitarian funding by the incoming Trump administration and reiterated calls for US to retain its position as a global aid leader. The development follows the pause announced to billions of dollars of funding on 24 January by the US administration affecting “nearly all US foreign aid programmes, pending a 90-day review”, said Pio Smith from the UN’s sexual reproductive health agency, UNFPA, briefing journalists in Geneva. In Pakistan, the UN agency warns that the US announcement will affect 1.7 million…

RAWALPINDI : Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Gen Asim Munir presided over the 267th Corps Commanders’ Conference (CCC) at the General Headquarters (GHQ) on Tuesday, said ISPR. According to the military’s media wing, the participants paid profound tribute to the sacrifices made by the armed forces, law enforcement agencies, and citizens who have laid down their lives in pursuit of peace and stability of their beloved motherland. The forum undertook a comprehensive review of the regional, and internal security landscape, assessing the full spectrum of threats. The prevailing situation along the Line of Control (LoC) and the working boundary was…

ISLAMABAD : Amendments to the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) 2025 have been challenged in the Supreme Court of Pakistan. Muhammad Qayyum Khan, a citizen, filed the plea and made the president, National Assembly speaker, Senate chairman and law secretary respondents. The petitioner contends that the latest amendments to the law contravene fundamental human rights and provisions of the constitution. He said the bill had been passed by the speaker of a sham assembly and the president elected through it. Khan requested the apex court to declare the amendments null and void and form a full bench to hear…

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday attributed the ongoing sacrifices of the country’s armed forces to past “blatant mistakes and wrong decisions,” which, he said, had led to the release of thousands of terrorists. Addressing a meeting of the federal cabinet, the prime minister condemned the recent attack in Kalat, where 18 soldiers were martyred. He also visited the injured, praising their resilience and courage. “Our martyrs and ghazis are sacrificing their lives to protect Pakistan,” the premier said, adding that the country must not repeat the mistakes of the past that had enabled terrorism to resurface. He also offered Fateha for…