Islamabad: Minister for Interior Rana Sanaullah along with his family on Thursday departed for Saudi Arabia on five-day visit to perform Umrah.

The minister departed for Jeddah from Islamabad International Airport at 11 a.m, said a statement issued here.

The minister would perform Umrah besides attendance at Roza Rasool (PBUH) in Madina. Sanaullah would also hold meetings with his Saudi counterpart and other senior officials.

The minister would also talk with Saudi officials to further strengthen Pak-Saudi bilateral relations.

Seoul: The death toll from South Korea’s record-breaking rains and flooding has risen to 11, officials said Thursday, with eight more people still missing as Seoul struggles to clean up after the deluge.

Two days of torrential rain flooded streets and subway stations in the capital, with President Yoon Suk-yeol saying it was the heaviest rainfall since Seoul weather records began 115 years ago.

Images shared on social media earlier this week showed people wading through waist-deep water and overflowing metro stations, with the posh Gangnam district particularly hard hit.

Of the 11 dead, six were in Seoul, three in Gyeonggi province and two in Gangwon province, according to data from the interior ministry. Three of the eight missing were from the capital.

More than 5,300 people were forced to evacuate their homes, the ministry added.

Among the 11 victims, three died while trapped in their flooded semi-basement apartment, known as a banjiha, according to the ministry. Local reports say the victims were a teenager, her mother and her aunt.

One victim is believed to have been electrocuted while removing a tree that had fallen onto a sidewalk while another died when a landslide buried his home in mountainous Gangwon.

At an official meeting on relief efforts, South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said the government had already completed the bulk of emergency repair work.

SOURCE: AFP

The last Supermoon of 2022 is set to appear tonight. 

As summer slips into autumn and nights begin to grow longer, the final supermoon of the year will make a big splash Thursday (Aug. 11).

Supermoons occur when a full moon is within 90 percent of perige or the point where the moon is closest to Earth in its orbit. This celestial phenomenon causes the moon to appear bigger and brighter than usual.

Scientifically, supermoons radiate around 30% more light on Earth than usual. However, there are only 3-4 supermoons in a year! 

The full moon of August, known as the Surgeon Moon, will occur on Thursday (Aug. 11) at approximately 9:36 p.m. EDT and 6:36 p.m. PDT (Friday at 0136 GMT). The supermoon will peak around 01:36 am GMT at night. It will occur when the moon is within 90% of its closest approach to Earth, making it a "supermoon" according to Fred Espanak, an eclipse expert and retired NASA astrophysicist. 

We have already witnessed three supermoons this year, in May, June, and July.