Author: i2wtc

ISLAMABAD: Asian Cricket Council chief Mohsin Naqvi, who also heads Pakistan’s cricket board, said Wednesday that India are “welcome” to collect their Asia Cup trophy from his office in Dubai. India defended their Asia Cup title by defeating Pakistan on Sunday, but refused to take the winning prize from Naqvi, who is also Pakistan’s interior minister. The Indian players instead celebrated retaining their regional crown by mimicking holding a trophy, and later skipper Suryakumar Yadav said they were denied the trophy. “As ACC President, I was ready to hand over the trophy that very day and I am still ready…

ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb on Wednesday reaffirmed Pakistan’s commitment to raising tax collection to 11% of GDP by the end of the fiscal year, despite the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) missing its quarterly target by Rs198 billion. Aurangzeb told reporters after a parliamentary committee meeting that negotiations with the IMF were progressing in the “right direction.” Separately, Pakistan informed the IMF that its requirement to make public the asset declarations of senior public officials — including beneficially owned assets and those held by family members — would apply only to civil servants, not the judiciary or other state institutions. “We…

Vlad Tenev, chief executive officer of Robinhood Markets Inc., during the Token2049 conference in Singapore, on Thursday, Oct. 2, 2025. Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesThe tokenization of real-world assets, from stocks to real estate, will spread to financial markets around the world, according to Robinhood Markets Chief Executive Officer Vlad Tenev. “Tokenization is like a freight train. It can’t be stopped, and eventually it’s going to eat the entire financial system,” Tenev told a panel at a crypto conference in Singapore on Wednesday. “I think most major markets will have some framework in the next five years,” he said, though he…

ISLAMABAD/LAHORE: Alarmed by the specter of creeping provincialism, sparked by tit-for-tat barbs over the flood response, the top leadership of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) huddled together on Wednesday in a bid to douse tensions and salvage coalition harmony. National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq stepped in as mediator, hosting a meeting between the two sides at his chamber to defuse tensions. In Lahore, meanwhile, PPP leader Qamar Zaman Kaira denounced Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz’s recent speeches as “inappropriate”. The criticism drew an immediate riposte from Punjab Information Minister Azma Bukhari, who accused…

Pakistan’s national space agency, the Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission, has announced nationwide celebrations for World Space Week (WSW) 2025, the world’s largest annual space event, to be observed from October 4 to 10 across Pakistan and globally. According to a spokesperson, this year’s theme, “Life in Space,” highlights how humanity is preparing to live and work beyond Earth and how space science and technology are shaping the future. Established by the United Nations in 1999, World Space Week is held annually to commemorate two landmark events: the launch of the first artificial satellite, Sputnik-1, on October 4, 1957,…

Saudi Arabia has unveiled a new temporary licensing system for pilgrim accommodations in Makkah and Madinah during the 2026 Hajj season, aiming to ease housing shortages and improve service quality for millions of worshippers. The Ministry of Hajj and Umrah announced Wednesday that the initiative will allow property owners to obtain seasonal licenses for hosting pilgrims. Developed in partnership with the ministries of tourism and municipalities and housing, the scheme is designed to expand capacity during the pilgrimage without compromising safety or standards. Applicants will need to register through the Nusuk Masar platform, with approvals processed via the Ministry of…

Sam Altman, chief executive officer of OpenAI Inc., during a media tour of the Stargate AI data center in Abilene, Texas, US, on Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025. Kyle Grillot | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesOpenAI has finalized a secondary share sale totaling $6.6 billion, allowing current and former employees to sell stock at a record $500 billion valuation, according to a person familiar with the transaction.Bloomberg was first to report that the deal had closed.CNBC reported in August that OpenAI was looking to conduct a secondary share sale at a valuation of $500 billion, with investors including Thrive Capital, SoftBank, Dragoneer…

A drone photo taken on Sept. 16, 2025 shows a cargo ship leaving the Qinzhou Port in Qinzhou City, south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. As of August 2025, the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor has expanded its reach to 577 ports in 127 countries and regions, handling over 1,316 product categories. (Xinhua/Zhang Ailin)NANNING, Oct. 2 (Xinhua) — Cargo volume on the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor surged 70.3 percent year on year to 1.09 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in the first three quarters of this year, according to the China Railway Nanning Group Co., Ltd.”This year has seen…

Assuring that Pakistan’s commitments to the International Monetary Fund will be upheld, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb said the government will not impose any additional taxes to cover the revenue shortfall. Speaking to reporters in Islamabad on Wednesday, Aurangzeb stressed that Pakistan remains committed to raising its tax-to-GDP ratio to 11 per cent during the current fiscal year, in line with IMF targets. He said that ongoing litigation over tax disputes in the courts represents a potential revenue source once resolved, which would help narrow the fiscal gap. “The revenue shortfall will not be met through new taxes,” the minister said,…

Co-founder and Chief Science Officer at Hugging Face, Thomas Wolf, speaks at the opening ceremony of the Web Summit, in Lisbon, Portugal, November 11, 2024. Pedro Nunes | ReutersCurrent artificial intelligence models from labs like OpenAI are unlikely to lead to major scientific breakthroughs, a tech co-founder said, pouring cold water on some of the hype around the technology and claims by major figures in the field.The comments by Thomas Wolf, co-founder of $4.5 billion AI startup Hugging Face, are in stake contrast to those by major names in AI including OpenAI boss Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei.When Wolf…