‘Specially bred’ ducks from China to fight locust menace

ISLAMABAD/BEIJING: China will send 100,000 specially-bred ducks to Pakistan to aid its fight against the locust menace, described by Prime Minister Khan as the worst such attack in decades.

Newly hatched ducklings from eastern China’s Zhejiang province will be the frontline weapons in this assault on the insects, billions of which have spread from east Africa to several parts of Pakistan, laying to waste thousands of hectares of farmland.

China has already dispatched a team of experts from the Chinese ministry of agriculture and rural affairs, which is visiting the worst-affected Sindh, Balochistan and Punjab provinces to coordinate control measures.

KHAN IN QATAR AHEAD OF US-TALIBAN DEAL

Pakistan PM Imran Khan met Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim al Thani in Doha on Thursday, just two days prior to the signing of a landmark peace deal between the US and the Taliban in the Gulf nation’s capital to end the brutal war in Afghanistan. Qatar’s energy minister Saad Sheirda al Kaabi received Khan at the airport.

“Arrival at Daiwan-e-Amiri & Meeting with Emir of Qatar

Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani,” Khan’s party said in a tweet accompanied by a short video of the meeting.

TEEN’S REMAINS FOUND IN LIONS’ ENCLOSURE

A 17-year-old Pakistani boy has been mauled to death by a pride of four lions at an animal park in Lahore.

The remains of Bilal, who had been missing for two days, were found on Wednesday in the lions’ enclosure of the Lahore Safari, according to a park official. “We recovered the remains in the park on Wednesday,” said Lahore Safari official Chaudhry Shafqat.