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 Pakistan's Supreme Court on Friday directed the central bank to issue funds for provincial snap polls, a court order said, a day after parliament ruled against provision of the money, deepening a discord between the judiciary and the government amid months of economic and political turmoil.

Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial had summoned officials from the finance ministry, the central bank and the Election Commision of Pakistan (ECP) to his chamber on Friday to seek a reply on the funds, warning that non-compliance would have consequences.

The parliament had on Thursday ruled it wasn't possible to spare 21 billion rupees ($74.79 million) in funds for the snap polls, which the court had ordered.

The court order seen by Reuters said the chief justice directed the central bank's acting governor and the finance ministry to coordinate and "forthwith allocate and release" the money from federal consolidated funds no later than April 17

"All this must be done at the earliest and at the absolute latest not later than the close of business on Monday," the order said, adding this should also be confirmed to the ECP.

It ordered the central bank and the finance ministry to file back a compliance report by Tuesday. It added: "We may also note that this order shall be deemed sufficient authority for all purposes for the authorization of the expenditures."

The top judiciary and the government have been locked in a standoff at a time when Pakistan faces soaring inflation and an acute balance of payments crisis as talks with the IMF to secure $1.1 billion in funding, part of a $6.5 billion bailout package agreed to in 2019, have so far yielded no results.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's government says it is not economically viable to hold snap elections, in two provinces where former leader Imran Khan had dissolved the local governments this year, ahead of a general election due in October.

Voting is constitutionally mandated within 90 days of the dissolution of a legislative assembly.

The court had ordered snap polls in the most populated Punjab province to be held on May 14, and said a date could be agreed later for the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, pending some technical issues.

 At least 20 shops were gutted after a fire broke out at Nawabpur Mohammadia Market on Thursday (April 14) 10:08 pm.

Accordign to information, fourteen units of fire service doused the blaze at 14:45am.

Shahjahan Shikder, deputy assistant director of Fire Service and Civil Defence's media wing confirmed the matter.

The reason behind the fire is under investigation. No casualties were reported, he said, adding 20 tin-shed shops and warehouses were burnt in the fire.

 Ex-US President Donald Trump is suing his former lawyer for $500m (£400m), alleging breach of contract.

He says Michael Cohen breached his duty as attorney to act in his client's best interests.

The lawsuit comes amid escalating attacks from Trump allies on Cohen, who is a key witness in a New York investigation into the ex-president.

A Manhattan prosecutor last week charged Mr Trump with fraud in relation to hush money payments to a porn star.

Cohen's spokesman and lawyer, Lanny Davis, told the BBC he was confident the lawsuit against his client would fail.

The legal action, filed in a Florida federal court, also accuses Cohen of making "improper, self-serving, and malicious statements about his former client, his family members, and his business".

Cohen worked as Mr Trump's attorney for over a decade. He was also a vice-president at the Trump Organization, and was often described as Mr Trump's fixer.

But the two had a major falling out after the 2016 election, as investigators began looking into several of Mr Trump's aides.

In 2018, Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison and a fine after pleading guilty to charges of fraud and campaign finance violations.

Now out of prison, Cohen has become a high-profile critic of Mr Trump, and a frequent guest on news programmes.

He has written a book and hosts a podcast, both of which Mr Trump cites in the lawsuit.

It says Cohen fabricated conversations and wrongfully called Mr Trump a "racist" in his 2020 book Disloyal.

Cohen's lawyer, Mr Davis, said in a statement to the BBC: "Mr Trump appears once again to be using and abusing the judicial system as a form of harassment and intimidation against Michael Cohen.

"It appears he is terrified by his looming legal perils and is attempting to send a message to other potential witnesses who are co-operating with prosecutors against him."

New York prosecutors have charged Mr Trump with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, in what they say was an effort to cover up payments intended to keep a porn star, Stormy Daniels, quiet about her alleged affair with him.

What the 34 felony charges against Trump reveal
On 4 April, Mr Trump appeared in Manhattan criminal court - the first former US president ever indicted on criminal charges. He pleaded not guilty.

Cohen has admitted that as Trump's fixer, he facilitated a $130,000 pay-out to Ms Daniels.

As Mr Trump's court date approached, Cohen made numerous appearances on major network news programmes and criticised his former boss.

"He's not thick-skinned," Cohen told CNN after Mr Trump's indictment. "He's actually very thin-skinned, and he has a very fragile ego."

 North Korea said Friday it flight-tested a solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile for the first time, a possible breakthrough in its efforts to acquire a more powerful, harder-to-detect weapon targeting the continental United States.

North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency issued the report a day after the country’s neighbors detected a launch of a long-range missile from near Pyongyang, which extended a run of weapons displays involving more than 100 missiles fired into the sea since the start of 2022.

Thursday’s test did not appear to demonstrate the weapon’s full capacity, and it remains unclear how far North Korea has come in mastering technologies to ensure the warhead would withstand atmospheric re-entry and accurately strike targets. Still, analysts said the test was most likely a meaningful advance in North Korea’s goal to build a nuclear arsenal that could directly threaten the United States.

KCNA said the launch was supervised on site by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who described the missile — named Hwasong-18 — as the most powerful weapon of his nuclear forces that would enhance counterattack abilities in the face of external threats created by the military activities of the United States and its regional allies.

Kim pledged to further expand his nuclear arsenal to “constantly strike extreme uneasiness and horror” in his rivals and make them feel regret for their wrong choices.

North Korea has justified its weapons demonstrations as a response to the expanding military exercises between the United States and South Korea, which the North condemns as invasion rehearsals while using them as a pretext to push further its own weapons development.

Kim added that the Hwasong-18 would rapidly advance North Korea’s nuclear response posture and further support an aggressive military strategy that vows to maintain “frontal confrontation” against its rivals.

North Korea has tested various intercontinental missiles since 2017 that demonstrated the potential range to reach the U.S. mainland, but the others use liquid fuel that must be added relatively close to the launch and they cannot remain fueled for prolonged periods.

An ICBM with built-in solid propellants would be easier to move and hide and fired quickly, reducing the opportunities for opponents to detect and counter the launch. It is not immediately clear how close the North is to having a functional solid-fuel ICBM capable of striking the U.S. mainland.

South Korea’s Defense Ministry in a statement described Hwasong-18’s flight as a “mid-phase test” and said North Korea would need more time and effort to complete the system. It maintains that North Korea’s technologies haven’t reached the point where it can protect its ICBM warheads from the harsh conditions of atmospheric re-entry.

Last month, South Korean Defense Minister Lee Jong-Sup also told lawmakers that North Korea most likely hasn’t yet acquired the technology to place nuclear warheads on its newer short-range missiles targeting South Korea, though he acknowledged the country was making considerable progress on it.

Still, Thursday’s test marked a “significant breakthrough for the North Koreans, but not an unexpected one,” said Ankit Panda, an expert with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

“The primary significance of solid-fuel ICBMs is in terms of what they’ll do for the survivability of North Korea’s overall ICBM force,” he said.

“Because these missiles are fueled at the time of manufacture and are thus ready to use as needed, they will be much more rapidly useable in a crisis or conflict, depriving South Korea and the United States of valuable time that could be useful to preemptively hunt and destroy such missiles.”

North Korean state media published photos of the missile blasting off from a launch vehicle at a test site inside a forest as Kim watched from an observation post along with military officials and his daughter.

 Russia said Thursday it had cut off Ukrainian forces inside Bakhmut, while Kyiv insisted supply lines were still open into the town, scene of the most brutal battle of the war.

AFP was unable to verify the status on the ground in the eastern town, which has turned into the longest and bloodiest fight since Russia invaded Ukraine last year.

Russian troops have been battling since last summer to capture the town, which had a pre-war population of 70,000, and whose fall would now mostly present a symbolic victory for Russia.

The Russian army said its airborne troops were "blocking the transfer of Ukrainian army reserves to the city and the possibility of retreat for enemy units."

It also said that Wagner mercenary units were advancing in Bakhmut.

But the Ukrainian army told AFP it had communication with its troops inside Bakhmut and was able to send them munitions.

"This does not correspond to reality," Sergiy Cherevaty, spokesman for Ukraine's eastern forces said, referring to Russia's claims.

"We are able to... deliver food products, ammunition, medicines, all that is necessary, and also to recover our wounded."

The Ukrainian general staff nevertheless acknowledged a "difficult" situation in Bakhmut.

- 'Nowhere to go' -

But even as Russian forces say they are getting closer to the town, some residents of nearby areas have no plans to leave.

"I've got nowhere to go. I can't afford to leave," 71-year-old Vira Petrova told AFP in the village of Kalynivka, several kilometres west of Bakhmut.

"If my home is destroyed. I'll live in my basement," she added, not flinching after each boom.

Petrova gestured to artillery damage to her home, explaining why she was no longer afraid of the war creeping nearer.

"We've already been shelled. Half the kitchen roof was destroyed. Our neighbour's roof was destroyed. We're used to it," she said.

Her street, lined with cherry blossom trees and abandoned one-storey homes, has only around two dozen residents remaining -- a fraction of those who once called it home.

The Kremlin is looking to present a triumph at home as the offensive drags on for a second year.

Adding confusion to the situation on the ground, Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of Russian paramilitary outfit Wagner, also cast doubt on Moscow's claims, saying it was "too early" to talk about Russian forces encircling Bakhmut.

"The Ukrainian Armed Forces continue to deploy reserves and transfer them," Prigozhin's press office said on social media.

"The hardest, bloodiest battles are going on, so it's too early to talk about the complete encirclement of Bakhmut".

The European Union on Thursday added Wagner to its sanctions list for "actively participating in the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine".

Wagner had already been placed on a separate EU sanctions list in February for violating human rights and "destabilising" countries in Africa.

The EU also slapped sanctions on RIA FAN, a Russian media outlet that is part of the Patriot Media Group, whose board of trustees is headed by Prigozhin.

- Big losses -

Tensions between the Kremlin-linked businessman and Russia's army have emerged during the battle for Bakhmut.

Both Russia and Ukraine have conceded big losses in Bakhmut, with neither giving numbers.

Recent days have suggested Russian forces are making some gains, after months of Kyiv and Moscow wearing each other down.

Kyiv has said the battle for the town is key to holding back Russian forces along the entire eastern front.

Experts say that the salt mining town's political importance has surpassed any military significance as the battle drags on.

President Volodymyr Zelensky visited Ukrainian positions near Bakhmut late last month, praising Kyiv's troops.

Several Russian war correspondents have made visits to Bakhmut this week, publishing images of a city of ruins.

The Russian-installed head of the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk, Denis Pushilin, also visited Bakhmut this week.

 Federal investigators on Thursday arrested a 21-year-old air national guardsman who they believe is linked to a trove of leaked classified U.S. intelligence documents, which have upended relations with American allies and exposed weaknesses in the Ukrainian military.

The man, whom The New York Times was first to identify as Jack Teixeira, is a member of the intelligence wing of the Massachusetts Air National Guard and is tied to an online group where the leaked documents first appeared.

Airman Teixeira oversaw an online Discord group named Thug Shaker Central, where about 20 to 30 people, mostly young men and teenagers, came together over a shared love of guns, racist online memes and video games.

On Thursday afternoon, around a half-dozen rifle-carrying F.B.I. agents pushed onto the property of a residence in North Dighton. Attorney General Merrick Garland said Thursday that the agency had made an arrest; the bureau said it was continuing to conduct “authorized law enforcement activity” at the residence. Mr. Garland said Airman Teixeira was accused of illegally sharing classified defense information.

Starting months ago, the authorities say, one of the users of the online group uploaded hundreds of pages of intelligence briefings into the small chat group, lecturing its members, who had bonded during the isolation of the pandemic, on the importance of staying abreast of world events.

The New York Times spoke with four members of the Thug Shaker Central chat group, where Airman Teixeira served as group administrator. While the gaming friends would not identify the group’s leader by name, a trail of digital evidence compiled by The Times led to Airman Teixeira.

 he Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) in different operations in the last 24 hours till 6 am Friday (April 14) arrested 49 persons for their alleged involvement in selling and consuming drugs.

Being informed, the DMP’s police and detective units conducted the anti-drug campaign in the city’s various areas, seizing drugs and arresting drug sellers and abusers, said a DMP statement today.

They seized 13,265 pieces of Yaba tablets, 14.730kg of hemp, 32gm 55 puria of heroin, 59 bottles of phensedyl. 2 litres of local wine and 8 bottles of foreign wine from their possessions, the statement said.
 
According to the statement, a total of 41 cases have been filed against the detained persons under the Narcotics Control Act.