Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Wednesday  met his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Moscow. 

Qureshi, who arrived in Moscow early Wednesday on the last leg of his four-nation tour,  discussed the progress on Afghan peace process and the recent developments
in the region. The two leaders also talked about the bilateral and regional situation.

"On the final leg of his tour to regional countries, FM Shah Mahmood Qureshi held discussions with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov," Foreign Office
Spokesperson Mohammad Faisal tweeted.

He said that bilateral and regional situation especially progress on Afghan peace and reconciliation discussed.

Russia last month hosted Afghan peace talks that were attended by delegations of the Taliban, the Afghan government and global stakeholders. A Pakistani delegation
had also attended the peace talks.

So far Qureshi has visited Kabul, Tehran and Beijing, where he met his counterparts and other high-ranking officials.

During his meetings in Afghanistan, Qureshi stressed the importance of peace in the war-torn nation for regional stability and renewed Pakistan's commitment to assist
in the process.

With Zarif on his trip to Tehran on the same day, the foreign minister discussed bilateral relations and regional situation. Both officials agreed on the importance of
improved bilateral relations between the two countries.

On Tuesday, Qureshi was in Beijing and met Chinese State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussed the latest situation in Afghanistan.

China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told a media briefing in Beijing on Tuesday that both sides reiterated their determination to adopt a joint course of
action for regional peace and stability, to promote connectivity and work for Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace process.

Diplomatic sources said Qureshi briefed his hosts about Pakistan's efforts to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table in order to achieve peace in war-torn Afghanistan.

In a sudden move, President Donald Trump last week announced his decision to pull around half of the 14,000 US troops stationed in Afghanistan. The move has
stunned and dismayed allies, diplomats and officials in Kabul. The announcement comes during a renewed push for talks with the Taliban to end the 17-year war.

Last week, Pakistan brokered a meeting between the US and the Taliban in Abu Dhabi in a bid to pave the way for reviving the peace process that has remained stalled
since 2015, Dawn reported.

President Donald Trump staunchly defended his decision to withdraw U.S. forces from neighboring Syria despite a drumbeat of criticism from military officials and allies
who don’t think the job fighting Islamic State militants there is over.

Trump, making his first presidential visit to troops in a troubled region, said it’s because the U.S. military had all but eliminated IS-controlled territory in both Iraq and
Syria that he decided to withdraw 2,000 forces from Syria. He said the decision to leave Syria showed America’s renewed stature on the world stage and his quest to
put “America first.”
 
“We’re no longer the suckers, folks,” Trump told U.S. servicemen and women at al-Asad Airbase in western Iraq, about 100 miles or 60 kilometers west of Baghdad.
“We’re respected again as a nation.”

Iraq declared IS defeated within its borders in December 2017, but Trump’s trip was shrouded in secrecy, which has been standard practice for presidents flying into
conflict areas.

Air Force One, lights out and window shutters drawn, flew overnight from Washington, landing at an airbase west of Baghdad in darkness Wednesday evening. George
W. Bush made four trips to Iraq as president and President Barack Obama made one.
 
During his three-plus hours on the ground, Trump did not meet with any Iraqi officials, but spoke on the phone with Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi. He stopped
at Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany on his way back, for a second unannounced visit to troops and military leaders.
 
Trump’s Iraq visit appeared to have inflamed sensitivities about the continued presence of U.S. forces in Iraq. The two major blocs in the Iraqi parliament both
condemned the visit, likening it to a violation of Iraqi sovereignty.
 
The airbase where Trump spoke is about 155 miles (250 km) from Hajin, a Syrian town near the Iraqi border where Kurdish fighters are still battling IS extremists.
Trump has said IS militants have been eradicated, but the latest estimate is that IS still holds about 60 square miles (100 square km) of territory in that region of Syria,
although fighters also fled the area and are in hiding in other pockets of the country.
 
Mattis was supposed to continue leading the Pentagon until late February but Trump moved up his exit and announced that Patrick Shanahan, deputy defense
secretary, would take the job on Jan. 1 and he was in “no rush” to nominate a new defense chief.
 
“Everybody and his uncle wants that position,” Trump told reporters traveling with him in Iraq. “And also, by the way, everybody and her aunt, just so I won’t be
criticized.”
 
Critics said the U.S. exit from Syria, the latest in Trump’s increasingly isolationist-style foreign policy, would provide an opening for IS to regroup, give Iran a green light
to expand its influence in the region and leave U.S.-backed Kurdish forces vulnerable to attacks from Turkey.
 
“I made it clear from the beginning that our mission in Syria was to strip ISIS of its military strongholds,” said Trump, who wore an olive green bomber style jacket as he
was welcomed by chants of “USA! USA!” and speakers blaring Lee Greenwood’s song, “God Bless the USA.”
 
“We’ll be watching ISIS very closely,” said Trump, who was joined by first lady Melania Trump, but no members of his Cabinet or lawmakers. “We’ll be watching them
very, very closely, the remnants of ISIS”
 
Trump also said he had no plans to withdraw the 5,200 U.S. forces in Iraq. That’s down from about 170,000 in 2007 at the height of the surge of U.S. forces to combat
sectarian violence unleashed by the U.S.-led invasion to topple dictator Saddam Hussein.
 
Trump spoke on the phone with the prime minister, but the White House said security concerns and the short notice of the trip prevented the president from meeting
him face-to-face.

On Dec. 15, the U.S.-led coalition launched an airstrike in support of Iraqi troops who were chasing IS fighters toward a tunnel west of Mosul. The strike destroyed the
tunnel entrance and killed four IS fighters, according to the U.S. military in Baghdad. The last U.S. service member to die in Iraq was in August, as the result of a
helicopter crash in Sinjar.
 
Trump had planned to spend Christmas at his private club in Florida, but stayed behind in Washington due to the partial government shutdown.
 
Trump campaigned for office on a platform of ending U.S. involvement in foreign trouble spots, such as Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq. The Pentagon is also said to be
developing plans to withdraw up to half of the 14,000 American troops still serving in Afghanistan.

Saudi women have mounted a rare protest against the abaya, posting pictures on social media wearing the obligatory body-shrouding robe inside out.

The conservative petro-state has some of the world’s toughest restrictions on women, who are required to wear the typically all-black garment in public.

Powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in March said wearing the robe was not mandatory in Islam, but in practice nothing changed and no formal edict to that effect was issued.

Using the hashtag “inside-out abaya”, dozens of women have posted pictures of flipped robes in a rare protest against the strict dress code.

“Because #Saudi feminists are endlessly creative, they’ve come up with a new form of protest,” activist Nora Abdulkarim tweeted this week.

“They are posting pictures of [themselves] wearing their abayas inside-out in public as a silent objection to being pressured to wear it.”

South Korea dialled down the volume on Thursday as hundreds of thousands of students sat a crucial national university entrance exam, with authorities taking extraordinary measures to minimise possible distractions.

The college entrance test is the culmination of South Korea's highly demanding school system, and in an ultra-competitive society it plays a large part in defining students' adult lives, holding the key to top universities, elevated social status, good jobs, and even marriage prospects.

This year nearly 595,000 students were sitting the gruelling exam, which stretches over nine hours, according to the education ministry.

Extraordinary measures are taken nationwide to remove anything that could disturb the test-takers.

Public offices, major businesses and the stock market opened an hour later than usual to help ease traffic and ensure students arrived on time for the exam, which began nationwide at 8:40 am (2340 GMT).

Any students stuck in traffic could get police cars and motorbikes to rush them to the exam centres.

All takeoffs and landings at South Korean airports are suspended for 25 minutes to coincide with an English listening test, and all airborne planes must maintain an altitude higher than 3,000 metres (10,000 feet).

The Transport Ministry said 134 flights had to be rescheduled because of the exam.

Electronics are strictly forbidden and students cannot leave school premises until the test ends to reduce the chances of cheating.

But they will be allowed to wear masks during the exam this year, the education ministry said, with fine dust pollution levels persisting at "bad" on the peninsula.

The results of the daunting exam will be released on December 5.

ISLAMABAD: 

Two men allegedly killed their 15-year-old sister and 27-year-old cousin on Friday in Shangla district of Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in a suspected case of dishonour killing, the police said.

A police official told a Pakistani daily that the girl's brothers suspected the two were involved in a relationship and killed them in the name of "honour". The crime took place in the Laray area of Martung district in Shangla.

The police official said that the two victims were first cousins. The girl was unmarried while the 27-year-old man, Said Muhammad, had four children.

The murdered man's father, Khan Said, told the police that his two nephews shot his son dead while he was working in the fields. They then went back home and killed their teenage sister.