Following are the top foreign stories at 1700 hours today:

Following are the top foreign stories at 1700 hours today:

(Eds:Updating)

FGN5 PAK-SHARIF-LD PANAMAGATE

Islamabad: Embattled Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's legal team dismisses as illegal and biased a probe panel's final report that recommended filing of a graft case against him and his children as the Supreme Court resumed the hearing of the Panamagate graft case. By Sajjad Hussain

FGN9 CHINA-ARMY-2NDLD DRILL

Beijing: China's military says it has conducted live-fire exercises in the remote mountainous Tibet region to test its strike capability on plateaus, amid the standoff between Indian and Chinese troops in the Doklam area in the Sikkim sector. By K J M Varma
 

FGN8 CHINA-2NDLD ECONOMY

Beijing: China's GDP grew 6.9 per cent in the second quarter, above the government's target for the year of 6.5 per cent, indicating that the world's second largest economy would comfortably meet its 2017 growth target amid concerns over high debt levels. By K J M Varma

FGN6 NIGERIA-BLAST

Maiduguri: Eight people were killed when a female suicide bomber detonated her explosives at a mosque in northeast Nigeria, in the latest attack in the restive region. (AFP)

FGN4 AFGHAN-TALIBAN

Kabul: An Afghan official says the country's security forces have driven the Taliban out of a key district in southern Helmand province from where they had been threatening the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah. (AFP)

FGN3 AFGHAN-CIVILIANS-LD UN

Kabul: Civilian deaths in Afghanistan hit a new high in the first half of 2017 with 1,662 killed and more than 3,500 injured, the United Nations says.