WORLD

Islamabad, 30 October, 2026 (Nosheen): Qatari mediators have returned to Tehran to make further progress towards a possible agreement between the United States and Iran, as major differences over nuclear issues, sanctions and a US port blockade continue to hinder negotiations. An official familiar with the discussions told Reuters that the latest mediation efforts were being coordinated with Washington. Qatar had submitted a draft peace proposal to Iran earlier this week, but a senior Iranian official reportedly rejected the suggestions as unacceptable, reiterating Tehran’s position on its nuclear programme. The United States wants nuclear matters to be addressed from the outset of negotiations, while Iran insists that Washington must first lift its blockade of Iranian ports and remove res...

Islamabad, 29 October, 2026 (Nosheen): Opposition lawmakers in Albania disrupted a parliamentary session on Thursday by setting off flares, following weeks of violent anti-government protests led by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Edi Rama. Members of the opposition Democratic Party of Albania also blocked access to the podium during a vote on a Central Bank law. Opposition leader Sali Berisha accused ruling lawmakers of being criminals and said they deserved tear gas, rubber bullets and physical injuries rather than young protesters, before his microphone was switched off. Other opposition members surrounded him while holding photographs of demonstrators injured by rubber bullets, and some raised blue flares representing their party. Student-led demonstrations, fuelle...

 Islamabad, 29 October, 2026 (Ghufran): The timing of the next round of trilateral talks aimed at resolving the Ukraine conflict will depend on the situation in the Middle East and other factors, Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov said on Wednesday, casting doubt on whether the negotiations would take place next month as initially proposed. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he hoped the meeting would be held in Abu Dhabi between November 6 and 10. However, Ushakov said Moscow had not proposed a specific date, adding that the situation on the battlefield and the broader regional developments, particularly the US-Israeli war on Iran, could prevent the talks from taking place in the near future. He also said there had been no discussion about including European negot...

 Islamabad, 29 October, 2026 (Kamran Raja): Kuwait’s Foreign Ministry has summoned Iranian Ambassador Mohammad Toutounchi over a statement issued by the Iranian embassy that it described as “blatant interference” in the country’s internal affairs. The diplomatic dispute erupted after a Kuwaiti court sentenced three men to death on Monday for allegedly collaborating with Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah in a plot to assassinate senior Kuwaiti officials. In response, the Iranian embassy rejected allegations of Iranian involvement, claiming that the Iranian citizen mentioned in the case had not been present in Kuwait for the past ten years. The embassy also criticized what it called repeated baseless accusations against Iran, arguing that such claims contradicted the principle of good ne...

Doha, 29 October, 2026 (Ghufran): Qatari mediators have presented Iran with a new draft agreement aimed at ending the war involving the United States and Israel, but a senior Iranian official has described the proposals as unacceptable, according to officials familiar with the negotiations. An official briefed on the talks, who is not Iranian, said the new peace proposal for the eight-month-old conflict was presented on Sunday and was under consideration in Tehran, with a response expected by the end of the week. Qatar, alongside Pakistan, has been leading mediation efforts to end the conflict, which has disrupted global shipping and oil supplies and recently spread to Saudi Arabia and Yemen. The proposal reportedly sets out a seven-day timeline to address concerns raised by Tehran and Was...

 Seoul, 29 October, 2026 (Nosheen): South Korea is considering various options for a possible deployment to the Strait of Hormuz, including sending a maritime patrol aircraft, National Security Adviser Wi Sung-lac said on Thursday. Addressing a parliamentary audit, Wi said Seoul was continuing discussions with Washington on possible deployment options, but ruled out a combat deployment in line with President Lee Jae Myung’s earlier announcement. Meanwhile, the US military has spent more than $47 billion on the war in Iran so far, exceeding the US Defense Department’s estimate in July by over 25 percent, according to Pentagon data obtained by Reuters. The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and the revised estimate has not been made public. The disclosure...

Islamabad, 28 October, 2026 (Nosheen): An Israeli military officer was killed and three soldiers were injured after an Israeli military vehicle overturned in southern Lebanon, prompting an investigation by the Israeli military. According to foreign media reports, the incident occurred during military operations in southern Lebanon and was reported by the Israeli military on October 8. The deceased officer was identified as 21-year-old Captain Eliav Haim Tzapalamos, a resident of Haifa, who served in the 603rd Combat Engineering Battalion of the Israeli army’s 7th Brigade. An Israeli military spokesperson said the injured soldiers had been taken to hospital for treatment and that the officer’s family had been informed of his death. The military has launched an investigation to determine the...

Islamabad, 28 October, 2026 (Ghufran): Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc was leading its rival opposition alliance but remained short of a parliamentary majority on Wednesday after 66 per cent of the votes had been counted in the country’s crucial general election. According to the partial results, Netanyahu’s bloc had secured 54 seats in the 120-member parliament, while the opposition bloc led by Gadi Eisenkot had won 48 seats and Arab parties had secured 18 seats. The results may change as the counting continues. Voter turnout reached its highest level in decades as Israelis delivered their verdict on Netanyahu, the country’s longest-serving prime minister, whose government has pursued right-wing policies and launched military campaigns following Hamas’s October 7, 2023 at...

 Islamabad, 28 October, 2026 (Kamran Raja): The United States military has spent more than $47 billion on the war in Iran, exceeding the Pentagon’s previous estimate by over 25 per cent, according to data obtained by Reuters. The Pentagon has not publicly released the latest estimate and did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The rising cost of the conflict comes as Republicans face political pressure ahead of the November 3 elections, which will determine control of Congress for the next two years. The war’s impact on global energy prices has weakened support for Republican candidates and affected President Donald Trump’s approval ratings, while his party maintains narrow majorities in both chambers of Congress. According to the Pentagon’s estimate, more than $29 b...