Following are the top foreign stories at 1700 hours

Washington: Secretary of State Antony Blinken will reaffirm the strength of the US-India bilateral relationship during his visit to India and will have the opportunity to discuss matters of shared interests, officials here have said. ****

FGN4 US-LD GARCETTI

**** White House stands behind Garcetti as envoy to India as key Congressional vote on his nomination postponed

Washington: Eric Garcetti is qualified to serve as US Ambassador to India, the White House has said after a Congressional committee vote on his nomination was postponed till March 8 following a hold placed by a top Republican Senator. ****

FGN2 US-PAK-HALEY

**** Haley says Pakistan is home to at least a dozen terrorist organisations; should not receive any aid from US

Washington: Indian-American Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley has said that Pakistan is home to at least a dozen terrorist organisations and it should not receive any aid from the US, ramping up her attack on America’s adversaries. ****

FGN8 US-FTX-FRAUD-LD SINGH

**** Indian-origin engineer at FTX pleads guilty to fraud charges

New York: Nishad Singh, a 27-year-old Indian-origin former top executive of failed cryptocurrency trading platform FTX has pleaded guilty to the charges of alleged billion-dollar fraud at the now collapsed exchange. ****

FGN15 PAK-ECONOMY-IMRAN

**** Pakistanis paying heavy price for ‘regime change conspiracy’, says ex-PM Imran; fires fresh salvo at Bajwa

Islamabad: Pakistanis are paying a heavy price for the “conspiracy” of regime change, ousted prime minister Imran Khan said on Thursday as he once again tore into ex-Army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa for helping a “bunch of criminals” to come to power. ****

FGN13 PAK-COURT-GENERAL

**** Pak court quashes charge of causing mischief against high-ranking retired Army general

Islamabad: A Pakistani court on Thursday quashed the charge of causing mischief against a high-ranking retired Army general and ordered his immediate release from police custody.