QUETTA: The road traffic between Quetta and Sibi linking Baluchistan with Sind and Punjab provinces has been suspended due to heavy flood water passing five feet above Kundlani bridge... . The bridge came under flood water about midday today [July 22]. The Provincial Secretary for Communications and Works said … that the flood water is expected to subside in six to seven hours provided the flood water is not supplemented by fresh heavy rain. He said vehicular traffic on the National Highway beyond Sibi is normal. Various roads in Zhob and Loralai districts have also been affected... . — News agencies

[Meanwhile, as reported by news agencies from Pasadena, California,] the first colour photograph of the surface of Mars shows a desert of red rocks against a sky of washed-out whitish blue. The “Red Planet” indeed is red, the photo showed. Before Viking’s close-up look, there had been speculation that distortions between here and Mars ... had made the planet look falsely red. “It’s spectacular, isn’t it!” exclaimed Doctor Thomas Mutch, head of the team that assembles pictures transmitted from Mars by the Viking space probe.

Published in Dawn, July 23rd, 2026