PTI, Lahore
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan ordered the Punjab government to ensure that former premier Nawaz Sharif gets the best possible medical care, media reports said on Wednesday.
Nawaz Sharif, 69, was shifted to the Services Hospital in Lahore on Monday after his health deteriorated in jail.
Russian ‘agent’ Maria Butina to be released from US prison
AFP, Washington
Maria Butina, the red-headed gun advocate from Russia who built a network of high-level Republican contacts before being arrested for spying, is expected to return to her country after her Friday release from a Florida prison.
The only Russian arrested and convicted in the three-year investigation of Moscow’s interference in US politics, Butina parlayed ties with the NRA firearms lobby into a network that brought her into contact with President Donald Trump before his 2016 election, as well as with one of his sons.
Japan, South Korea PMs meet with relations in deep freeze
AFP, Tokyo
Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met his South Korean counterpart Thursday and warned frayed relations should be mended, but appeared to suggest it was Seoul’s responsibility to make that happen.
Bilateral ties between the regional neighbours are at rock-bottom over a dispute related to the use of forced labour during World War Two, with the countries trading retaliatory sanctions.
Tanzania court upholds law banning child
marriage
AFP, Nairobi
A Tanzanian court has upheld a law banning the marriage of girls under the age of 18 in a ruling praised by rights activists.
The High Court in 2016 ruled that laws allowing girls as young as 15 to be married with the permission of their parents, or even 14 with the permission of a court, were unconstitutional and discriminatory. However, the state had appealed the ruling.
