Locusts damage crops in Nepal
Kathmandu: Locust swarms that entered Nepal from India last week have damaged over 1,100 hectares of crops in the Himalayan country.
According to the Plant Quarantine and Pesticide Management Centre (PQPMC) under the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development, the attack by swarms of locusts has resulted in crop damage of 1,118 hectares of land, reports Xinhua news agency. “Though the damage is considerably low, the locusts have dominantly damaged crops of five districts in Nepal,” Ram Krishna Subedi, coordinator at the Locust Information Center at PQPMC, said on Saturday. (IANS)
Show-cause notices sent to Pak pilots
Islamabad: Show-cause notices were issued to 30 more Pakistani pilots with ‘dubious licences’ after completion of an inquiry as the government sped up scrutiny process of suspected pilots, Aviation Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan said.
While addressing a press conference at the Rawalpindi secretariat of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) on Saturday, he said the cabinet would decide the fate of pilots though a valid point of case-to-case hearing, reports Dawn news.
He said an inquiry board was constituted that started scrutiny of pilots’ licences and a discrepancy was found. (IANS)
Child injured in rocket attack
Baghdad: The Iraqi military said on Sunday that a rocket aimed at Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone, home of the U.S. Embassy, struck a residential house and injured a child.
Iraqi officials said the embassy’s recently installed C-RAM air defense system may have attempted to intercept the rocket as the system was operational late on Saturday. A recent spate of rocket attacks have struck close to the US Embassy and targeted American troops in Iraqi bases. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations. (AP)
US soldier killed in Afghanistan
Washington/Kabul: An American soldier died following an accident in Afghanistan’s Farah province, the Pentagon has confirmed.
The Pentagon on Saturday identified the victim as Spc. Vincent Sebastian Ibarria, of San Antonio, Texas, reports TOLO News. It further said that he was killed in a vehicle rollover accident on Friday, adding that the incident was being investigated. In February, two US service members were killed in a firefight in Sherzad district, Nangarhar province. (IANS)
