External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif met in Islamabad on Tuesday. The leaders shook hands and exchanged greetings during an informal dinner hosted by Sharif. Jaishankar is in Islamabad for the 23rd meeting of the Council of Heads of Government (CHG) of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO). It is for the first time in nearly nine years that an Indian foreign minister has visited Pakistan, even as the ties between the two neighbours remain frosty over cross-border terrorism emanating from Pakistan. The last Indian Foreign Minister to visit Pak

The operator of a pulp mill in northwestern Alberta has been fined $1 million for letting almost 31 million litres of toxic wastewater flow into the Peace River. Environment and Climate Change Canada says the effluent released in April 2021 was ``acutely lethal'' to fish. Mercer Peace River Pulp Ltd. pleaded guilty last month to asection of the Fisheries Act. The conviction means the company's name will be added to the Environmental Offenders Registry. The federal government says the pulp mill was shut down for maintenance and waste was directed to a spill pond, where it was to

Canada is listing the pro-Palestinian group Samidoun as a terrorist group, while the U.S. has added a Canadian citizen affiliated with the organization to its counter-terrorism list. Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc says Samidoun will now be listed under Criminal Code offences that ban people from donating or providing property to the group. Samidoun is also known as the Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, and Ottawa says it "has close links with and advances the interests of" another group that Canada already lists as a terrorist entity, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Pale

An Air India flight made an emergency landing this morning in Nunavut following a security threat posted online. RCMP say Air India Flight 127 was en route from New Delhi to Chicago, but landed instead at the Iqaluit International Airport at 5:21 a.m. The police force says in a news release all 211 passengers and crew were relocated to the airport. Air India says it and other airlines have been subject to `a number of threats'' in recent days, adding that all of them have later been found to be hoaxes. The airline says the emergency landing was a precautionary measure and the a

It's the last week of the British Columbia election campaign after a busy long weekend of promises for the B.C. Conservatives, including a new Children's Hospital for Surrey. B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad is expected to explain how he's going to pay for all his promises, from the so-called Rustad rebate to exempt up to $3,000 a month of rent or mortgage payments from taxes, to the plan to eliminate the carbon tax. Rustad also said the Conservatives would eliminate the provincial deficit of nearly $9 billion within two terms of government. In the battle to win the 10 Surrey ridings, the

Shiromani Akali Dal's senior leader and spokesperson Virsa Singh Valtoha has left the Akali Dal. Actually, Shri Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Raghbir Singh took a strict decision against Virsa Singh Valtoha and ordered him to be dismissed from the primary membership and from all other positions of Shiromani Akali Dal for 10 years within 24 hours. Valtoha accused Jathedar Sahib Giani Harpreet Singh of conniving with the BJP and the central government. While leaving the party today, he said that today the anti-Akali forces will surely be happy, but steps are not taken from the throne to create terr

By-election dates for 4 Vidhan Sabha seats of Punjab have been announced. According to the Election Commission's press conference held in Delhi today, Barnala, Dera Baba Nanak, Chabbewal and Gidderbaha assembly seats will go to polls on November 13 and the results will be released on November 23. Out of the by-elections in Punjab assembly seats, 3 seats were held by Congress and one seat by Aam Aadmi Party. These seats fell vacant after the MLAs were elected as MPs during the Lok Sabha elections this year.

A Calgary official says a water main break has closed a road and left some homes and businesses dry, but says it is not related to a feeder main rupture earlier this year in the same area of the city that resulted in months of water restrictions. Ryan Kidd, the city's deputy director of water services, says the recent break happened in a smaller, 250-millimetre cast-iron distribution line that serves the immediate area, which is near Bowness Road and 51 Street Northwest. Kidd says water began bubbling up at street level on Sunday night and crews immediately shut down the line for repairs, ad

Panchayat elections in Punjab have ended today. Meanwhile, clashes and firing incidents also took place at many places. A person was injured due to firing at Khuda village near Sanur in Patiala district, while there were allegations of occupation of the booth by Aam Aadmi Party workers and supporters in some places. The special thing is that this time Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had appealed to contest elections without party symbols and to elect panchayats unanimously, but the majority of people did not accept this appeal and preferred to contest elections.