- Peru mourns divisive former strongman Fujimori
- Vaughan's son takes 11 wickets as Somerset revive title bid by beating champions Surrey
- Long-awaited case on Man City charges to start on Monday: report
- PSG refuse League order to pay Mbappe disputed €55 million
- Harris, Trump target swing states after fierce debate
- Ten Hag hits back at Ronaldo criticism over Man Utd ambition
- Oscar hopefuls to bookend US French film festival
- UN chief calls for 'courage' ahead of Summit of the Future
- French rugby federation blames 'poorly managed' supervision for youth player drowning
- Movie producer Harvey Weinstein indicted on new charges: US media
- Ex-Scotland captain Hogg to miss Montpellier match after bail release
- 'Historic': Bad weather slashes wine harvest in France's Jura
- ECB rate cut boosts European stocks, euro
- Piastri not 'pulling over' for Norris at every race
- 'Energised' Tebogo looking to close season with Diamond League bang
- Millions in SE Asia battle floods, death toll passes 250
- Fiat 500 electric production pauses for one month
- London Fashion Week opens with Charli XCX party and second-hand runways
- ECB cuts rates again, Lagarde backs EU reform call
- Storm Francine downgraded but still drenching US south
- Everton say 'work to be done' on Textor takeover
- Shelling kills 3 Red Cross workers in E.Ukraine
- Shelling kills 3 Red Cross workers killed in E.Ukraine
- Iran president makes 'historic' visit to Iraqi Kurdistan
- Brigitte Macron awarded damages over false trans claim
- ECB rate cut boosts Europeans stocks, euro
- Deadly Israeli strike on Gaza school draws global condemnation
- Russia recaptures part of Kursk region
- Bike-loving Dutch grapple with 'fatbike' phenomena
- Ahead of Champions League warm-up, PSG are soaring and Brest slumping
- ECB cuts rates again as inflation slows
- Denmark's von Trier to direct a new film
- Arteta agrees new Arsenal deal
- Jon Bon Jovi helps woman standing on edge of US bridge
- SpaceX makes history with first spacewalks by private citizens
- England's Livingstone 'feels like a kid again' after injury setbacks
- Brazil urges EU to suspend 'punitive' anti-deforestation law
- Myanmar residents flee deadly floods in boats and on makeshift rafts
- Power struggle and chaotic player trading: What's going at Chelsea?
- Blinken seeks common cause in Poland after Ukraine jitters
- Stocks rally on cooler US inflation, before ECB rate call
- Spanish PM meets Venezuelan opposition figure amid tensions
- McLaren set to introduce team orders to support Norris title bid
- Tottenham's Bentancur charged with misconduct over remarks about teammate Son
- UniCredit CEO says Commerzbank takeover an option: Bloomberg
- Pogacar aims to conquer Canada before cycling worlds
- UK military urged to stop using bearskin hats on cost grounds
- New Queen Elizabeth II statue panned in Northern Ireland
- Ireland launches EU privacy probe into Google AI development
- Irish skipper Tom Dolan wins Solitaire du Figaro sailing race
RYCEF | 2.33% | 6.45 | $ | |
BP | 1.18% | 31.665 | $ | |
RELX | 1.41% | 47.825 | $ | |
RBGPF | 4.7% | 59.81 | $ | |
GSK | -1.48% | 43.13 | $ | |
AZN | -2.05% | 78.915 | $ | |
NGG | -0.27% | 69.135 | $ | |
CMSC | -0.24% | 25.18 | $ | |
BTI | -0.44% | 38.95 | $ | |
RIO | 0.98% | 61.815 | $ | |
CMSD | -0.08% | 25.11 | $ | |
SCS | 1.11% | 13.49 | $ | |
BCC | 3.48% | 126.49 | $ | |
VOD | -0.1% | 10.03 | $ | |
JRI | -0.08% | 13.17 | $ | |
BCE | 0.1% | 35.225 | $ |
Pakistan parched and pummelled by blistering heatwave
Pakistan was in the grip of a heatwave on Friday, with parts of the nation previously scalded by temperatures of nearly 50 degrees Celsius as officials warned of acute water shortages and a health threat.
Swathes of the country have been smothered by high temperatures since late April, in extreme weather the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has warned is consistent with climate change.
On Thursday the city of Jacobabad in Sindh province hit 49.5C (121 degrees Fahrenheit), the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) said, with temperatures forecast to remain high until the end of the week.
"It's like fire burning all around," said labourer Shafi Mohammad, who is from a village on the outskirts of Jacobabad where residents struggle to find reliable access to drinking water.
Nationwide, the PMD alerted temperatures were between 6C and 9C above normal, with the capital Islamabad -- as well as provincial hubs Karachi, Lahore and Peshawar -- recording temperatures around 40C on Friday.
"This year we have jumped from winter right into summer," said PMD chief forecaster Zaheer Ahmad Babar.
Pakistan has endured heightened heatwaves since 2015, he said, focused in upper Sindh province and southern Punjab province.
"The intensity is increasing, and the duration is increasing, and the frequency is increasing," he told AFP.
Jacobabad nurse Bashir Ahmed says that, for the past six years, heat stroke cases in the city have been diagnosed earlier in the year -- starting in May, rather than June or July.
"This is just increasing," he said.
- 'Take cover' -
Punjab province irrigation spokesman Adnan Hassan said the Indus river -- Pakistan's key waterway -- had shrunk by 65 per cent "due to a lack of rains and snow" this year.
Sheep have reportedly died from heatstroke and dehydration in the Cholistan Desert of Punjab -- Pakistan's most populous province, which also serves as the national breadbasket.
"There is a real danger of a shortfall in food and crop supply this year in the country should the water shortage persist," Hassan said.
On Tuesday climate minister Sherry Rehman warned residents in the megacity of Lahore "to take cover for the hottest hours of the day".
The heatwave has also ravaged India, with temperatures in parts of Rajasthan hitting 48.1C on Thursday.
Pakistan -- home to 220 million -- says it is responsible for less than one percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.
But it ranks as the nation eighth most affected by extreme weather events, according to a 2021 study by environmental group Germanwatch.
Extreme heat can also trigger cascading disasters that could pummel Pakistan's generally impoverished population.
The mountainous portions of the country are home to more than 7,000 glaciers, a number larger than any region outside the poles.
Quickly melting glaciers can swell lakes, which then burst their banks and unleash torrents of ice, rock and water in events known as glacial lake outburst floods.
Last weekend a key highway bridge in the Gilgit-Baltistan region was swept away in flash flooding caused by glacier melting.
In April, officials warned there were 33 lakes in Pakistan in danger of unleashing similar dangerous deluges.
A.Rodriguezv--AMWN