Beijing: Chinese President Xi Jinping will pay state visits to France, Serbia and Hungary from May 5 to 10, foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying announced on Monday.

 President Xi will be undertaking the visits at the invitation of President Emmanuel Macron of the Republic of France, President Aleksandar Vučić of the Republic of Serbia, and President Tam Sulyok and Prime Minister Viktor Orb¡n of Hungary.

Later, in response to a question about the program and expectation of the upcoming visit, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson, Jin Jian told media during his regular briefing that President Xi would be visiting any European country after five years.

The visit will be the Chinese president’s first trip to Europe in the past nearly five years. He said that these visits are widely important for China’s relations with France, Serbia, Hungary and European Union (EU) at large and would provide new impetus for the global peace and development.

Islamabad: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) gave green signal for a $1.1 billion loan to Pakistan as the final installment of its $3 billion Stand-by Arrangement (SBA), the sources close to the development said on Monday.

Ministry of Finance insiders revealed that the IMF is set to release an official statement confirming the approval, with the loan expected to be disbursed later this week.

This development follows a meeting between Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva in Riyadh, where the possibility of Pakistan entering into another IMF program was discussed.

This funding marks the culmination of Pakistan's SBA with the IMF, which was secured last summer to prevent a sovereign default and is set to conclude this month.

The approval follows discussions at the IMF Executive Board meeting in Washington, where Pakistan's request for the release of funds was deliberated.

With this installment, Pakistan will have received a total of $1.9 billion under the agreement.

Beijing: China on Monday strongly condemned the perpetrators of atrocity at Nasser Hospital and Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza. “We are deeply shocked and strongly condemn the perpetrators of the atrocity,” Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lin Jian said during his regular briefing.

He was responding to a question regarding hundreds of bodies which were found days ago buried deep in the ground at Nasser Hospital and Al-Shifa Hospital.

Lin Jian said that vast swaths of Gaza were now left in rubble, with over a million civilians struggling in despair on the brink of death.

“The fact that this is even happening in the 21st century is an outrage to the moral conscience of humanity, and tramples on the most fundamental aspect of international justice,” he added.

The spokesperson said that more than 200 days had passed since October 7, and the conflict in Gaza had caused over 100,000 causalities and displaced over a million. Jin Jian said,”A humanitarian catastrophe that should never have happened continues to unfold before our eyes. The biggest imperative is to put in place a ceasefire as soon as possible. This is the number one overriding priority in Gaza.”

 He said that the relevant country must no longer turn a deaf ear to the call for justice from people with conscience across the world. “It must no longer talk about the need of a ceasefire while pouring weapons into the conflict, and talk about aid while creating obstacles for humanitarian access.

“It must immediately implement relevant UN Security Council resolutions, realize unconditional and durable ceasefire, and take concrete action to end this biggest humanitarian tragedy in the 21st century once and for all.”

He said as Foreign Minister Wang Yi noted in the written interview with Qatar-based Al Jazeera Media Network, the Gaza calamity showed once again that the perpetual denial of the legitimate national rights of the Palestinian people was the root cause of the Palestinian question, and was is also the core issue of the Middle East question.

Jin Jian said that China would continue to strengthen solidarity and cooperation with the Middle East countries and the whole international community to firmly support the just cause of the Palestinian people in restoring their legitimate national rights; firmly support internal reconciliation among different factions of Palestine through dialogue; firmly support Palestine’s full membership in the United Nations at an early date; and firmly support establishing the independent State of Palestine and realizing “the Palestinians governing Palestine.”

“We call for a more broad-based, more authoritative and more effective international peace conference to set a timetable and a roadmap for the two-state solution, to promote comprehensive, just and lasting settlement of the Palestinian question, and to ultimately realize peaceful coexistence between Israel and Palestine as well as harmony between the Arab and Jewish peoples,” he added.