PAK APEX COURT TO HIRE TRANSGENDERS TO MAINSTREAM COMMUNITY

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Supreme Court will hire two transgender people to help mainstream the community, Chief Justice Saqib Nisar said on Tuesday. “In our society transgenders are subjected to ridicule. It is our top most priority to give them their rights,” he was quoted as saying by Geo News. “The court wants to bring them into mainstream. It wants to resolve their issues.” Nisar said the community is facing threats and ridicule in Khyberpakhtunkhwa. The court took exception to a website that is allegedly spreading misleading materials against transgenders. The court was told the NGO Blue Van had established the website, which claims as many as 500 transgender people have been murdered in Pakistan. AGENCIES

Toll in Tuesday’s Afghan suicide attack soars to 68

JALALABAD: The death toll from a suicide attack on Afghan protesters has soared to 68, officials said on Wednesday, as violence flares across the country ahead of elections and a key Islamic holy day. Another 165 were wounded in the blast — one of the deadliest attacks this year — on Tuesday in the eastern province of Nangarhar, a provincial governor spokesman said.

Hanoi urges residents to stop eating dog meat

HANOI: Hanoi officials urged residents on Tuesday to ease off eating dog meat, saying the popular dish is tarnishing the city’s image and risks spreading rabies. Roasted, boiled or steamed, dog meat can be found in markets and food shops across Vietnam’s capital city famed for its tasty street food.

Nine killed in Pakistan coal mine collapse

PESHAWAR: Nine miners were killed and four injured when the roof of a coal mine collapsed on Wednesday in Pakistan’s northwestern town of Darra Adam

Khel, officials said. The incident, the second fatal coal mining accident in Pakistan in a month, happened in Akhurwal village as workers entered the coal mine, senior local administration official Shahid Ilyas said.

Turkey captures bombing suspect in Syria

ISTANBUL: The Turkish secret service staged an operation in the heartland of the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-assad to capture and bring back the prime suspect in a 2013 bombing, officials said Wednesday. Turkish citizen Yusuf Nazik is accused of planning a bombing in a Turkish border town in May 2013.