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Pakistan is preparing to issue its first-ever tranche of Panda bonds before December this year, Bloomberg News reported. As per the report, Pakistan aims to raise $250 million through the yuan-denominated debt. The bonds will be privately placed on China’s national interbank market and offered to qualified institutional investors. “Indicative coupon of the bond is in the range of 3%-4% per annum with a three-year tenor,” the report said. “The transaction is being structured with a consortium of financial advisers and underwriters like China International Capital Corporation Ltd. and Habib Bank Ltd.” In July, Representatives of the Ministry of Finance…

China has accused the United States and Britain of undermining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait with their decision to send warships through the waterway, a mission that the two allies described as routine.The People’s Liberation Army Eastern Theatre Command said Chinese naval and air forces closely monitored the destroyer USS Higgins and the British frigate HMS Richmond as they transited the strait on Friday.The passage amounted to “harassment and provocation”, command spokesman Senior Colonel Shi Yi said, adding that the action “sent wrong signals and undermined peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait”.“The command remains on high alert…

Elon Musk’s xAI has laid off at least 500 workers from its data annotation team, which helps develop the company’s Grok chatbot, Business Insider reported on Friday. The company notified employees by email on Friday night that it was planning to downsize its team of generalist AI tutors, the report said, citing multiple messages viewed by Business Insider. Responding to a request for comment, xAI referred to a post on X, opens new tab in which the company said it was hiring for roles across domains and planned to increase its specialist AI tutor team by “10X.” The data annotation…

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cleared Apple to roll out a hypertension detection feature on some of its smartwatches, the health regulator said in a statement late on Friday. The company unveiled a blood pressure monitor in its latest Apple Watch at a September 9 event, where it also introduced a refreshed iPhone lineup, including a slimmer iPhone Air. Apple said the new hypertension notification feature will be available on Apple Watch Series 9, Series 10, Series 11, and the premium Ultra 2 and Ultra 3 models before the end of September. The feature, expected to be…

Pre-order sales of Apple’s new iPhone 17 series have got off to a robust start in China, shattering previous records despite delays in the shipment of the iPhone Air.In the first minute after pre-orders began at 8pm Friday local time, sales on JD.com – one of China’s largest online shopping platforms – surpassed the first-day pre-order volume of last year’s iPhone 16 series, according to the e-commerce operator. The standard iPhone 17 with 256GB of storage emerged as the most popular variant, JD.com said.Those numbers excluded the iPhone Air, the company’s thinnest model ever, as its release has been postponed…

The waters of Lake Taal have long captivated visitors with serene vistas and storied myths. But this idyllic image of the Philippines’ third-largest lake has since been darkened by a chilling discovery.Since July, divers have uncovered hundreds of skeletal fragments from its depths – and with them, an extraordinary story of gambling scams, alleged police pay-offs and men who never came home.Investigators believe the ribs, skulls and other bones found may belong to at least 35 sabungeros, or cockfighting enthusiasts, who vanished in a trail of intrigue, money and murder stretching back more than three years.Lightning flashes as Taal Volcano…

Fifty years ago, Christian Social Union in Bavaria chairman Franz Josef Strauss visited Beijing, becoming the first West German politician to meet Chinese leader Mao Zedong.According to German media reports, the late conservative politician sent a postcard to Helmut Schmidt, Germany’s chancellor at the time and head of the rival Social Democratic Party, saying “Beijing is worth a trip.” Schmidt became the first German leader to visit China later that year.A half-century later, the roles have been reversed; China has come to Bavaria.Despite rising tensions between China and the European Union – with Brussels increasingly uneasy about Beijing’s growing economic…

KOYAGI, Japan (AP) — Dozens of relatives of former Dutch prisoners of war who suffered abuse and starvation during their captivity in one of Japan’s largest World War II prison camps visited on Saturday the site where their loved ones were held in Nagasaki to pay tribute to their memory.The commemoration comes as Japan this year marks the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombing of the southwestern city of Nagasaki — a blast that many of the Dutch POWs saw from their camp.Their names are engraved in a stone monument at the Fukuoka POW Camp No. 2 — the site…

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkish authorities on Saturday detained the mayor of an Istanbul district, along with 47 other officials, over allegations of corruption, as part of a widening crackdown on the country’s main opposition party.The state-run Anadolu Agency said the Istanbul chief prosecutor’s office ordered the detentions in connection with an investigation into alleged extortion, bribery, fraud and bid rigging by the Istanbul’s Bayrampasa municipality.Bayrampasa’s mayor, Hasan Mutlu, denied the allegations in a statement on X.“What is happening consists of political operations and baseless slander. Be assured that, together with you, the valued residents of Bayrampasa, we will overcome…

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — As an alderperson in northwestern Spain, Rosana Prieto tends to the running of her tiny village and is far removed from major cities, often rocked by protests over geopolitical issues. But with one of the world’s biggest cycling races coursing through the bucolic hills nearby, she and hundreds of like-minded townspeople sensed a chance to make their small voices heard, denouncing Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.Palestinian flags in hand, they stood precisely where they knew the television cameras would broadcast their message to the world: the last turn before the finish line of the 15th stage,…