ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - At least 14 infants were killed in a fire at a state-run hospital in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad on Wednesday, the prime minister said, with the health minister attributing the tragedy to a blast in the nursery ward. The blaze started around 7 a.m. (0200 GMT) at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, on the third floor of the hospital’s mother and child health ward, said broadcaster Geo TV, which put the death toll at 15. “The fire erupted after a blast in (an) air conditioner”, Health Minister Mustafa Kamal told Geo TV, adding that ample oxygen in the ward helped it spread. The incident is among the deadliest hospital fires in recent years in the country, where government healthcare is subsidized but facilities are under-resourced and overburdened. Watchdogs have frequently criticized state-run facilities as mismanaged.

 

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 MOSCOW (AP) -The Kremlin said Wednesday that CIA Director John Ratcliffe held talks in Moscow with his intelligence counterparts, a rare and secretive visit at a time when relations with Washington remain strained over Russia- Ukraine war. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Ratcliffe did not meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was informed of the contacts that were “on the intelligence agencies’ level.” “Of course, President Putin is immediately informed of everything,” Peskov added, refusing to say what was discussed. Russian state news agencies reported that a U.S. military plane landed in Moscow’s Vnukovo airport on Tuesday and departed later that day.

 

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BRATISLAVA (XINHUA) – Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said on Tuesday that the European Union (EU) should pursue “friendly competition” with China rather than treat the country as an enemy and put up barriers. Fico made the remarks after talks in Bratislava with European Council President Antonio Costa, who began his annual tour of EU capitals in Slovakia. Their discussions covered the EU’s next long-term budget, competitiveness, energy prices and enlargement. Fico said Slovakia was concerned about the EU’s ability to compete globally, arguing that greater competitiveness should not mean imposing new tariffs or barriers, but rather striving to do better and outperform others.

 

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HONG KONG (Reuters) - China’s coastal areas and southern regions are preparing for days of intense precipitation, with tens of thousands of people evacuated as Typhoon Narra tracks inland and another storm churns toward the country’s eastern seaboard. Narra made landfall as a tropical storm on Tuesday evening in the southern island province of Hainan after lingering over the Beibu Gulf — also known as the Gulf of Tonkin — for several days, dumping heavy rain across Guangxi, Hainan and Guangdong. Narra and the accompanying Typhoon Saudel, alongside tropical cyclones Gaenari and Atsani, form a rare quartet of storms swirling simultaneously across the Northwest Pacific and South China Sea, according to China’s Meteorological Administration.

 

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BEIJING (Reuters) - China and India agreed on Tuesday to continue dialogue and seek a “fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable settlement” of their border issue after talks between senior diplomats in Beijing. The world’s two most populous nations, both nuclear powers, share a roughly 3,800-km (2,400-mile), largely undemarcated and disputed border in the Himalayas. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and India’s National Security Advisor Ajit Doval had “comprehensive, in-depth, friendly and candid” discussions on border affairs and bilateral ties, China’s foreign ministry said in a statement. Wang said China-India relations were no longer only of bilateral importance but carried global and strategic significance, saying the two neighbors should strengthen communication and reduce their differences.