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Waqas Dar

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Blog Entries posted by Waqas Dar

  1. Waqas Dar
    FAISALABAD: One man was martyred and nine others injured when the roof of a mosque collapsed near Risala Road here late Sunday night, Geo News reported.
    The mosque?s roof fell suddenly on people offering Taraweeh prayers (Namaz-e-Taraweeh) on Sunday night after Iftar, rescue sources said, adding that it took the life of one worshipper and wounded nine others in the process.
    The rescue officials stated that the injured people have been shifted to the city?s Civil Hospital.


  2. Waqas Dar
    A man walks by a building engulfed in darkness due to a power outage that occurred in Karachi on the second day of Ramazan. May 28, 2017.  KARACHI: Continuing on the trend K-Electric set on the first day of Ramazan, the metropolis was thrown into darkness as power outages occurred in various areas on second Sehri late Sunday night, Geo News reported.

    Golimar, North Karachi, New Karachi, and surrounding areas experienced an electric breakdown on Sunday night once again, exacerbating public outrage after power breakdowns during Sehri and Iftar times on the first day of fasting.
    In addition, people in Lyari, Maripur, Agra Taj Colony, Bihar Colony, Manghopir, Orangi Town, Shah Faisal, Model Colony, Block 8 of Gulistan-e-Johar, Liaquatabad?s C1 and No. 10 areas also started their fasts in complete darkness as ?load-shedding? persisted.
    Candlelight Sehri: Major power outage in Karachi on first day of Ramazan
    An extra high-tension line tripped, causing generators in Jamshoro and Hubco power plants to shut down, an NTDC spokesperson said
    After Sehri, Karachi suffers power outages during Iftar
    With temperature soaring high, citizens were forced to break their fast in the absence of electricity








    On the other hand, Al-Hilal Society, Old Sabzi Mandi, and surrounding areas face power outage since more than four hours now.
    A K-Electric spokesperson in a statement issued around sehri time acknowledged that some areas in Malir and Shah Faisal have no electricity, adding that work is underway to resume power supply in the affected localities.
    However, the spokesperson stressed that it is not the usual load-shedding. ?It is wrong to label local faults as ?load-shedding?,? they said.


  3. Waqas Dar
    German-born Hollywood star Diane Kruger cast her glamorous image and returned to her roots to win best actress at the Cannes film festival Sunday.
    Kruger, best known from blockbusters such as "Troy" and "Inglourious Basterds", plays a woman who loses her husband and son in a neo-Nazi bomb attack in "In the Fade" (Aus dem Nichts) by acclaimed German-Turkish director Fatih Akin.
    Variety praised her "powerhouse performance" as the distraught tattooed and drug-taking Katja who fights for justice and ultimately vengeance for her family.
    Kruger said the emotional demands of the role were "terrible... The film almost killed me. It was terrible to live with, really upsetting."
    "I haven't worked since... I haven't read a script since. The film really changed me, it changed my life," she told reporters at Cannes.
    Akin wrote the screenplay based on one of Germany's biggest post-war scandals: the discovery in 2011 of a group calling itself the National Socialist Underground (NSU) which carried out a series of undetected racist murders over the course of a decade.
    Akin told German media that he long wanted to work with Kruger, who had called the man behind hits such "Head-On" and "The Edge of Heaven" her favourite German director.
    The former model, now 40, is a regular front-row guest at the Paris fashion week shows, and went without makeup on set in Hamburg.
    Born Diane Heidkrueger in what was then West Germany, the statuesque beauty left home as a teenager for Paris, quickly landing catwalk jobs for Marc Jacobs and Dolce and Gabbana and print ad campaigns for Yves Saint Laurent and Chanel while polishing her English and French skills.
    Style and moral fortitude

    Hollywood soon beckoned, however, and she got her break as Helen in Wolfgang Petersen's 2004 swords-and-sandals epic "Troy" co-starring with Brad Pitt and Orlando Bloom.
    Kruger went on to star as German actress turned Allied spy Bridget von Hammersmark in Quentin Tarantino's Nazi-bashing "Inglourious Basterds", which competed for the Palme d'Or in Cannes in 2009.
    She won plaudits for the role, in which she channelled Marlene Dietrich with a blend of Teutonic glamour and moral fortitude in wartime.
    Her CV includes diverse roles in films such as the time-travel adventure "National Treasure: Book of Secrets" with Nicolas Cage and as the wife of a South African prison guard who befriends Nelson Mandela in "Goodbye Bafana".
    And she played a US homicide cop in the FX series "The Bridge" set in the drug violence-torn border city of Ciudad Juarez.
    Kruger has also shown off her French on screen in films such as "Farewell, My Queen" by Benoit Jacquot, an erotically and politically charged drama about a lovelorn Marie Antoinette on the eve of the French Revolution.
    After its screening at the Berlin film festival in 2012, Kruger brushed aside a question on whether she was playing cinema's first "lesbian Marie Antoinette" but said she could identify with her as a foreign-born woman living in a world of splendour.
    "Some think she was a poor little party girl that was put in a situation that she was just overwhelmed by," she said, perhaps recalling Sofia Coppola's much-maligned "Marie Antoinette".
    "Others think she was a terrible queen and spoiled rotten. I was trying to not judge her... I could relate to her as a woman."
    Kruger is at home on the festival circuit and holds the rare honour of having served on the juries at Berlin, Venice and Cannes.




  4. Waqas Dar
    WASHINGTON: The United States might ban laptops from aircraft cabins on all flights into and out of the country as part of a ramped-up effort to protect against potential security threats, US Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said on Sunday.
    In an interview on "Fox News Sunday," Kelly said the United States planned to "raise the bar" on airline security, including tightening screening of carry-on items.
    "That's the thing that they are obsessed with, the terrorists, the idea of knocking down an airplane in flight, particularly if it's a US carrier, particularly if it's full of US people."
    In March, the government imposed restrictions on large electronic devices in aircraft cabins on flights from 10 airports, including the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Turkey.
    Kelly said the move would be part of a broader airline security effort to combat what he called "a real sophisticated threat." He said no decision had been made as to the timing of any ban.
    "We are still following the intelligence," he said, "and are in the process of defining this, but we're going to raise the bar generally speaking for aviation much higher than it is now."
    Airlines are concerned that a broad ban on laptops may erode customer demand. But none wants an incident aboard one of its airplanes.
    "Whatever comes out, we'll have to comply with," Oscar Munoz, chief executive officer of United Airlines, told the company's annual meeting last week.
    Airlines were blindsided in January when President Donald Trump issued an executive order banning entry for 90 days to citizens from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen, sending airlines scrambling to determine who could board and who could not. The order was later blocked in the courts.
    In the case of laptops, the administration is keeping the industry in the loop. Delta Air Lines said in a statement it "continues to be in close contact with the US Department of Homeland Security," while Munoz applauded the administration for giving the company a "heads up."
    "We've had constant updates on the subject," he said. "We know more than most. And again, if there's a credible threat out there, we need to make sure we take the appropriate measures."
    MORE SCRUTINY OF CARRY-ONS
    Among the enhanced security measures will likely be tighter screening of carry-on items to allow Transport Security Administration agents to discern problematic items in tightly stuffed bags.
    Kelly said that in order to avoid paying fees for checking bags, people were stuffing them to the point where it was difficult to see through the clutter.
    "The more stuff is in there, the less the TSA professionals that are looking at what's in those bags through the monitors can tell what's in them."
    The TSA has begun testing certain new procedures at a limited number of airports, requiring people to remove additional items from carry-on bags for separate screenings.
    Asked whether the government would expand such measures nationwide, Kelly said: "We might, and likely will."




  5. Waqas Dar
    North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un watches a military drill marking the 85th anniversary of the establishment of the Korean People's Army (KPA) in this handout photo by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) made available on April 26, 2017. KCNA/Handout/REUTERS/File Photo  SEOUL: North Korea fired what appeared to be a short-range ballistic missile on Monday that landed in the sea off its east coast, South Korea's military said, the latest in a series of missile tests defying world pressure and threats of more sanctions.
    The launch was immediately reported to South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who called a meeting of the National Security Council at 7:30 AM (3:30 AM Monday), South Korea's Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.
    The missile was believed to be a Scud-class ballistic missile and flew about 450 km, the Joint Chiefs said in a statement. North Korea has a large stockpile of Scud missiles, originally developed by the Soviet Union.
    Modified versions have a range of up to 1,000 km.
    North Korea last test-fired a ballistic missile on May 21 off its east coast and on Sunday said it had tested a new anti-aircraft weapon supervised by leader Kim Jong Un.
    Pyongyang has conducted dozens of missile tests and tested two nuclear bombs since the start of 2016 in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions. It says the program is necessary to counter US aggression.
    Kim's rocket stars: the trio behind North Korea's missile program
    The three, seen with Kim in photographs and TV footage, are of great interest to Western security and intelligence agencies
    UN Security Council vows sanctions over North Korea missile test
    North Korea´s long-term bid to develop a credible nuclear attack threat to the US mainland saw it launch Sunday what appeared to be its longest-range missile yet








    The United States has said it was looking at discussing with China a new UN Security Council resolution and that Beijing ? the main diplomatic ally of Pyongyang ? realises time was limited to rein in the North's weapons program through negotiations.
    Experts say the North appears to be gaining meaningful data that is fed into its effort to build an intercontinental ballistic missile.
    'Did not pose a threat'
    The US Pacific Command said it tracked what appeared to be a short-range ballistic missile for six minutes and assessed it did not pose a threat to North America.
    "We continue to monitor North Korea's actions closely," the Pacific Command said, adding that it was working on a more detailed assessment of the launch from near the country's Wonsan Airfield.
    "US Pacific Command stands behind our ironclad commitment to the security of our allies in the Republic of Korea and Japan," it in a statement.
    "The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) assessed that the missile launch from North Korea did not pose a threat to North America."
    US 'government is aware'
    US President Donald Trump has been briefed about North Korea's firing of a projectile reported to have been a missile test, a White House official said on Sunday.
    "The United States government is aware," the White House official said. "The president has been briefed."

    'Highly problematic'
    Japan lodged a protest against the North's latest missile launch, which appeared to have landed in Japan's exclusive economic zone, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said.

    "This ballistic missile launch by North Korea is highly problematic from the perspective of the safety of shipping and air traffic and is a clear violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions," Suga told reporters in televised remarks.
    While no damage to planes or ships was detected, Suga added, "Japan absolutely cannot tolerate North Korea's repeated provocative actions. We have strongly protested to North Korea and condemn its actions in the strongest terms."
    Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe also vowed action along with other nations to deter Pyongyang's repeated provocations. "As we agreed at the recent G7, the issue of North Korea is a top priority for the international community," Abe told reporters in brief televised remarks. 
    "Working with the United States, we will take specific action to deter North Korea."


  6. Waqas Dar
    AS Roma celebrated Francesco Totti's final game after 25 seasons at the club by beating Genoa 3-2 to clinch second place in Serie A on Sunday after 16-year-old Pietro Pellegri had given the visitors a shock lead.
    One-club man Totti, 40, came on in the 54th minute for his 786th appearance, and his 619th in Serie A, in what had been dubbed "Totti Day" by Italian media.
    Diego Perotti grabbed a 90th-minute winner for Roma as they finished one point ahead of Napoli whose 4-2 win at Sampdoria on the final day of the season was in vain.
    The win means that Roma qualify directly for next year's Champions League group stage while Napoli's third place sends them into the final qualifying round -- where Italian teams have lost in six of the previous eight seasons.
    Roma finished on 87 points, four behind Juventus who finished their campaign with a 2-1 win at Bologna on Saturday.
    At the bottom, Empoli became the third and final team to go down when they lost 2-1 at already-relegated Palermo and were overhauled by Serie A debutants Crotone who beat Lazio 3-1, helped by two goals from Andrea Nalini.
    Seventh-placed Inter Milan finished an otherwise unhappy season in style, beating Udinese 5-2, while Gregoire Defrel scored a hat-trick for Sassuolo but still ended up on the losing side in a 5-3 defeat at Torino.
    Totti confirmed on Thursday that the Genoa match would be his last for Roma, who did not offer him a new contract, but hinted he could continue his career elsewhere.
    ?There are people who are not normal. There are careers that are not normal. I saw a banner that said the real battle against modern football is to wear the same jersey for 25 years,? said Roma midfielder Daniele De Rossi, who himself has been at the club since 2001-02.
    Roma were quickly in trouble as Pellegri sprinted clear of their defence and fired past Wojciech Szczesny in the third minute to become the first player born in 2001 to score a Serie A goal.
    Edin Dzeko levelled seven minutes later with his 29th goal of the season, finishing as Serie A top scorer, and Roma missed a succession of chances before halftime.
    The fact that there was so much at stake for Roma added some real drama to an already highly-charged, emotional occasion and coach Luciano Spalletti, who has restricted Totti's playing time this season, duly brought on the talisman in the second half.
    otti created two good chances before Dzeko got behind the Genoa defence and pulled back the ball for De Rossi to slam home in the 74th minute.
    But Genoa had not read the script and five minutes later Diego Laxalt floated over a cross which Szczesny missed and Darko Lazovic headed the equaliser at the far post.
    Lazovic hit the post on another Genoa counter but, just as it seemed that Genoa were about to wreck the party, substitute Perotti popped up to fire in his late winner.
    Lorenzo Insigne provided the highlight of Napoli's win when he broke down the left and sent a dipping shot over Christian Puggioni from a seemingly impossible angle just before halftime to put them 2-0 up after Dries Mertens had opened the scoring.
    Marek Hamsik and Jose Callejon were on target in the second half for Napoli, the league's highest scorers with 94 goals, while Fabio Quagliarella and Ricardo Alvarez replied for Samp.


  7. Waqas Dar
    CANNES: As a hired killer whose weapon of choice is a particular brand of hammer, Joaquin Phoenix delivered a short, sharp shock of a movie to close the Cannes Film Festival's main competition on Saturday.
    "You Were Never Really Here" is a taught, bloody thriller from Scottish director Lynne Ramsay whose reputation is such that she was allowed to enter the movie for the Palme d'Or without showing the selection committee a finished version.
    Ramsay, whose last movie, the high school massacre drama "We Need to Talk About Kevin", competed at Cannes in 2011, told reporters she was still editing "You Were Never Really Here", prompting one journalist to beg her not to cut too much from the 85-minute version shown to the press.
    "I didn?t want to bore you all at Cannes," said Ramsay whose movies all come in under 90 minutes.
    "There?s nothing worse than being at the end of this festival and watching a two-and-a-half-hour-long film that?s (got) self-indulgent scenes in it," she said, a description that could apply to many of the films screened this year.
    Variety's Guy Lodge, who said Ramsay may be the world's "greatest working filmmaker", called her new film "astonishing ... a stark, sinewy, slashed-to-the-bone hitman thriller far more concerned with the man than the hit".
    The film has drawn comparison's with the Martin Scorsese classic "Taxi Driver" due to the moral ambiguity of Phoenix's Joe who, like Robert De Niro's Travis Bickle, is a psychologically damaged military veteran who tries to save a sexually abused girl.
    "'Taxi Driver' is probably one of the movies that really made me want to be an actor, a particular type of actor, so I am sure that its influence (was there), but there was no conscious decision to do that (copy De Niro's performance)," Phoenix said, adding: "I thought we were making a comedy."
    With a reputation as one of Hollywood's most difficult stars when it comes to dealing with the media, Phoenix was remarkably forthcoming, thanking reporters for coming and staying on for autographs and selfies. During much of the news conference he placed a protective arm around Ramsay and rubbed her shoulders.
    Not all critics were glowing about "You Were Never Really Here". Ben Croll of website The Wrap called it "grimly violent and willfully oblique ... more of a collection of accomplished filmmaking moments than a wholly satisfying film".
    The Palme d'Or winner will be announced on Sunday when the festival concludes.


  8. Waqas Dar
    A gunman on a rampage during a domestic dispute in rural Mississippi fatally shot eight people, including a sheriff´s deputy, US news reports said on Sunday.
    The shootings took place late Saturday in two small hamlets, Brookhaven and Bogue Chitto, both about 60 miles (100 kilometers) from the city of Jackson.
    Although details were still murky, the gunman -- Willie Cory Godbolt, 35 -- told The Clarion-Ledger newspaper after his arrest on Sunday that he had gone to a home in Bogue Chitto to talk about getting custody of his children.
    After the conflict escalated, neighbours called police, and Godbolt shot the arriving deputy.
    "My pain wasn´t designed for him. He was just there," Godbolt said of the officer.
    "We was talking about me trying to take the children home," he told the newspaper while sitting on the ground at one of the shooting scenes, arms cuffed behind his back.
    "Somebody called the officer," he added. "It cost him his life. I´m sorry."
    Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant issued a statement Sunday calling the shootings a "tragedy" and hailing law enforcement officers who "sacrifice to protect and serve their communities."




  9. Waqas Dar
    Armed police officers keep watch over junior runners competing in the Great Manchester Run in central Manchester, Britain May 28, 2017. REUTERS/Phil Noble  MANCHESTER: British police arrested a 19-year-old man on Sunday, the 15th person to be taken into custody in connection with the Manchester suicide bombing that killed 22 people.
    The arrest was made during a raid in the Gorton area of Manchester on "suspicion of offences contrary to the terrorism act", the Greater Manchester police said in a statement on Twitter.

    Police said earlier on Sunday they were also searching an address in Rusholme area.
    Two suspects ? a man and a woman ? have been released without charge, while thirteen are now in custody.
    'At full tilt'
    Members of Manchester suicide bomber Salman Abedi's network are still potentially at large, British interior minister Amber Rudd said on Sunday, after the terrorism threat level was lowered over significant progress in the investigation.

    Police said they have arrested a large part of the network behind the bombing and four more men were arrested over the weekend as police continued to close in on the group.
    Asked during an interview on BBC television whether some of the group were still at large, Rudd said, "Potentially. It is an ongoing operation. There are 11 people in custody, the operation is still really at full tilt in a way.
    Bomb assembled in apartment
    Prime Minister Theresa May said developments in the investigation into the bombing meant that intelligence experts had decided to lower the threat level from its highest rating "critical", meaning an attack could be imminent, to "severe".
    Enlarged versions of CCTV images of 22-year-old Manchester attacker Salman Abedi tweeted by Greater Manchester Police on May 28, 2017.  Police have issued a photograph of Abedi, a 22-year-old Briton born to Libyan parents, taken on Monday night before he blew himself up and said they believed he had assembled his bomb in an apartment in the city centre.
    British officials have confirmed he had recently returned from Libya and the officers said that police needed information about his movements since his return to Britain on May 18.
    Abedi was known to British security services before the bombing, the government has said, but Rudd declined to comment on exactly what had been known about him.
    Manchester terror attack: Remembering those who went to enjoy but never returned
    Here are the victims named so far in what was the deadliest terror attack in Britain since 2005
    UK police hunt Manchester bomber's network, angered by US leaks
    Police scrambled to close down a network around the Manchester suicide bomber with arrests in Britain and Tripoli on Wednesday








    Media have reported that people who knew Abedi had raised concerns about him and his views as long ago as five years before he carried about Monday's attack.
    "The intelligence services are still collecting information about him, but I wouldn't rush to conclusions, as you seem to be, that they have somehow missed something," Rudd said.
    'Top list' of militants
    When asked how many potential militants the government was worried about, Rudd said the security services were looking at 500 different potential plots, involving 3,000 people as a "top list", with a further 20,000 beneath that.
    "That is all different layers, different tiers. It might be just a question mark about one of them or something serious with that top list," she said.
    Armed police officers keep watch over junior runners competing in the Great Manchester Run in central Manchester, Britain May 28, 2017. REUTERS/Phil Noble  The government has previously complained that technology companies are not doing enough to tackle the use of their networks both to promote extremist ideology and for communication between militant suspects via encrypted messages.
    'Hate material'
    Rudd said Britain was making good progress with the Internet companies on this but that more could be done. Technology companies such as WhatsApp say they cannot break end-to-end encryption.
    "I believe we can get them to be more successful in working with us to find a way of getting some of that information," she said.
    "The area that I am most concerned about is the Internet companies who are continuing to publish the hate publications, the hate material that is contributing to radicalising people in this country.
    Manchester bomber was part of a network: police
    Earlier, interior minister Amber Rudd said the bomber, Salman Abedi, had recently returned from Libya
    "Security minister Ben Wallace also told the BBC that the government was looking at a range of options to put more pressure on Internet companies to take down extremist material and change their algorithms to stop such posts from linking to similar material elsewhere online."


  10. Waqas Dar
    Europe "must take its fate into its own hands" faced with a western alliance divided by Brexit and Donald Trump's presidency, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Sunday.
    "The times in which we could completely depend on others are on the way out. I've experienced that in the last few days," Merkel told a crowd at an election rally in Munich, southern Germany.
    "We Europeans truly have to take our fate into our own hands," she added.
    While Germany and Europe would strive to remain on good terms with America and Britain, "we have to fight for our own destiny", Merkel went on.
    Special emphasis was needed on warm relations between Berlin and newly-elected French President Emmanuel Macron, she said.
    The chancellor had just returned from a G7 summit which wound up Saturday without a deal between the US and the other six major advanced nations on upholding the 2015 Paris climate accords.
    Merkel on Saturday labelled the result of the "six against one" discussion "very difficult, not to say very unsatisfactory".
    Trump offered a more positive assessment on Twitter Sunday, writing: "Just returned from Europe. Trip was a great success for America. Hard work but big results!"
    The US president had earlier tweeted that he would reveal whether or not the US would stick to the global emissions deal -- which he pledged to jettison on the campaign trail -- only next week.
    On a previous leg of his first trip abroad as president, Trump had repeated past criticism of NATO allies for failing to meet the defensive alliance's military spending commitment of two percent of GDP.
    Observers noted that he neglected to publicly endorse the pact's Article Five, which guarantees that member countries will aid the others they are attacked.
    The omission was especially striking as he unveiled a memorial to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks against the US, the only time the mutual defence clause has been triggered.
    Trump also reportedly described German trade practices as "bad, very bad," in Brussels talks last week, complaining that Europe's largest economy sells too many cars to the US.
    Sunday's event saw Merkel renew bonds with the Christian Social Union (CSU), Bavarian sister party to her own centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), ahead of a parliamentary vote in September.
    Polls show the chancellor, in power since 2005, on course to be re-elected for a fourth term.


  11. Waqas Dar
    ISLAMABAD: The government has expressed its concerns over summoning of Hussain Nawaz, son of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, by the joint investigation team (JIT) mandated by Supreme Court to probe the assets of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his family.

    Speaking to Geo News, Minister for Information Marriyum Aurangzeb said the team of investigators should have waited for one day, since the matter was sub judice.
    Panama case: Hussain Nawaz records statement before JIT
    Prime minister?s son has objected to two JIT members 'bias'
    She lamented that the JIT summoned Hussain Nawaz only a day before hearing of his petition by the Supreme Court pertaining to reservations on some members of the team.
    "We don't want to give the perception expressing reservations is meant to avoid responding to queries," the minister said.
    Meanwhile, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Shafqat Mehmood said Sharif family, by appearing before the JIT, has not been doing a favor to anyone. "It would be contempt of court, had Hussain Nawaz not appeared before the team," he said.
    The PTI leader further criticised Hussain Nawaz for arriving at the Federal Judicial Academy along with party activists, saying that it is tantamount to pressurising the JIT.


  12. Waqas Dar
    KARACHI: After a major power breakdown on first Sehri in Ramazan, citizens in Karachi once again faced outages during Iftar on Sunday.

    The lofty claims by K-Electric proved hollow as power supply to several areas in Karachi remained suspended during Iftar as well. These included Malir, Rifa-e-Aam, Gulistan-e-Jauhar, Gulzar Hijri and several other areas.
    Candlelight Sehri: Major power outage in Karachi on first day of Ramazan
    An extra high-tension line tripped, causing generators in Jamshoro and Hubco power plants to shut down, an NTDC spokesperson said
    With temperature already soaring high, citizens were forced to break their fast in the absence of electricity.
    Late last night, this city was hit by a major power breakdown, which the K-Electric said resulted from tripping of Jamshoro KV line.
    Though power supply to some areas was restored by Sunday morning, a few areas were still awaiting restoration.


  13. Waqas Dar
    NEW DELHI: Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh claimed on Sunday that the his government will soon find a permanent solution to the Kashmir issue.

    Speaking to a local TV channel, Singh said the government cannot provide a time frame for resolution of the issue, it is however working towards a permanent solution.
    The minister refused to divulge his government's strategy on the issue.
    Singh said his government wants to speak to all stakeholder?s vis-a-vis the Kashmir issue, but "talks will be unconditional."
    Complete shutdown observed in IoK today
    Authorities impose curfew, detain separatist leaders
    Earlier on Saturday, Indian troops martyred eleven Kashmiri youth including a top Hizbul Mujahideen Commander, Sabzar Ahmed Butt, in Indian occupied Kashmir on Saturday, the Kashmir Media Service (KMS) reported.
    Indian troops, in fresh acts of state terrorism and continued violent military operations, killed eight youth in Rampur and Uri areas of Baramulla and three others including Sabzar Ahmed at Saimoh in Tral area of Pulwama.
    The killings prompted a complete shutdown in the occupied valley on Sunday.
    The two-day strike in the valley has been called by the Hurriyet leadership comprising Syed Ali Gilani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, and Mohammad Yasin Malik, against the killings and use of brute force on civilians Indian by troops.



  14. Waqas Dar
    file photo LONDON: London's Heathrow Airport said it expected further delays and cancellations of British Airways flights on Sunday and told passengers not to travel to the airport unless they were rebooked on other flights.
    BA resumed some flights from Britain's two biggest airports on Sunday after a global computer system failure sowed chaos, grounding planes and leaving thousands of passengers queuing for hours.
    "Following a worldwide British Airways' IT system issue yesterday, delays and cancellations of British Airways flights are expected today," Heathrow said in a statement on Sunday.
    "All passengers whose flights were canceled yesterday should not travel to the airport today unless they have already rebooked onto another flight," the airport said.


  15. Waqas Dar
    ISLAMABAD: Opposition leader Khursheed Shah on Sunday said that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan are the two sides of the same coin. 

    The Opposition leader was speaking in the capital. He said that the situation of the country foretells that both the leaders would be disqualified.
    ?First Nawaz Sharif, then Imran Khan will be disqualified,? said Shah.
    Imran Khan is playing with fire, says Khawaja Saad Rafique
    Rafique says ?some amateur political players? are causing harm to national politics
    The two complement each other and are waiting to get saved anyhow, but it seems it won?t be the case, said Shah. 
    Now the issue of ?minus one? is not being discussed, by the looks of the ongoing cases of both the parties against each other, it appears that first Nawaz will be disqualified and then it will be Imran?s turn, he said.



  16. Waqas Dar
    North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has supervised the test of a new anti-aircraft weapon system and ordered its mass production and deployment throughout the country, the state news agency reported on Sunday, after weeks of defiant ballistic missile tests.
    The North's KCNA news agency did not report the exact nature of the weapon or the time of the test but said it was organized by the Academy of National Defence Science, a blacklisted agency that is believed to be developing missiles and nuclear weapons.
    The North has been pushing to develop a wide range of weapon systems since early last year at an unprecedented pace including a long-range missile capable of striking the mainland United States and has in recent weeks tested its intermediate-range ballistic missile, making some technical advances.
    The reclusive state rejects UN and unilateral sanctions by other states against its weapons program as an infringement of its right to self defense and says the program is necessary to counter US aggression.
    It last conducted a ballistic missile test a week ago.
    The United States denies any intention to attack the North.
    "Kim Jong Un ... watched the test of a new type of anti-aircraft guided weapon system organized by the Academy of National Defence Science," KCNA said on Sunday.
    "This weapon system, whose operation capability has been thoroughly verified, should be mass-produced to deploy all over the country ... so as to completely spoil the enemy's wild dream to command the air, boasting of air supremacy and weapon almighty," it said.
    KCNA said Kim was accompanied by his military aides and listed the three men believed to be the top officials in the country's rapidly accelerating missile program.
    They are Ri Pyong Chol, a former top air force general; Kim Jong Sik, a veteran rocket scientist; and Jang Chang Ha, the head of the Academy of National Defence Science, a weapons development and procurement center.
    North Korea said on Monday it had successfully tested what it called an intermediate-range ballistic missile that met all technical requirements and could now be mass-produced, although outside officials and experts questioned the extent of its progress.
    On Tuesday, the head of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency said that if left unchecked, North Korea is on an "inevitable" path to obtaining a nuclear-armed missile capable of striking the United States.
    Appearing at a Senate hearing, Defense Intelligence Agency Director Vincent Stewart declined to offer a time estimate but Western experts believe the North still needed several years to develop such a weapon.


  17. Waqas Dar
    Lasith Malinga. Photo: AFP COLOMBO: Sri Lanka have turned to old warhorse Lasith Malinga to put fight into their Champions Trophy campaign and reverse their decline in the one-day game.

    The islanders have missed Malinga -- one of the world´s great fast bowlers -- through injury and their performances have suffered.
    Sri Lanka won a series against Zimbabwe and West Indies last year but were beaten in one-day contests on tours of England and South Africa in 2016-17 season.
    So selectors have turned to Malinga and brought back fit-again all-rounder Angelo Mathews to lead the side for the 50-over tournament starting June 1.
    Malinga, 33, was a surprise choice considering he has played hardly any international cricket in the past 18 months.
    He has won the Indian Premier League title with the Mumbai Indians however. Malinga was the only player excused from the high altitude training camp for Sri Lanka´s England-bound players because of the IPL campaign.
    "His fitness is improving and we are hoping that he will be able to deliver the full quota of 10 overs (a match) in England," said Sri Lanka Cricket president Thilanga Sumathipala.
    Sri Lanka have also made Allan Donald fast bowling coach for the tournament after bringing back Graham Ford for a second coaching stint with the team since early 2016.
    Donald said he has high hopes for the pace attack of Suranga Lakmal, Nuwan Pradeep, Nuwan Kulasekera, Thisara Perera and Malinga.
    "The Sri Lankan attack has what it takes to win the tournament," said Donald, the first South African to 300 Test wickets.
    "Sri Lanka has a lot of skills. A lot of leadership with the ball ... what is there to be scared of?"
    Scotland shock
    Ford has played down the team´s chances in the eight-nation event however, calling them the tournament "underdogs".
    "Sometimes that is a good place to be. We´ve certainly got a chance of upsetting one of the so-called better nations. We will just be going one game at a time," said the South African.
    Those hopes hit an early rock when world´s sixth ranked one day team were beaten by minnows Scotland in a preparatory 50-over game in Kent this week.
    Sri Lankan quicks, without Malinga, failed to defend a 287-run score and Scotland cantered home in 42.5 overs.
    Sri Lanka made some amends by winning the second match against Scotland by nine wickets to end the two-match series on 1-1.
    Sri Lanka´s best show in the Champions Trophy was when they hosted the event in 2002. They shared the title with India after the final was twice rained off.
    But skipper Mathews, who last played an ODI in the home series loss to Australia in August 2016, remains upbeat.
    "We will definitely improve day by day and I am sure the boys are up to the challenge," said Mathews.
    "We don´t have time for hiccups in a tournament like this."
    Sri Lanka are in Group B with India, Pakistan and South Africa. They begin the Champions Trophy against the Proteas at The Oval on June 3.


  18. Waqas Dar
    LAHORE: Minister for Railways Khawaja Saad Rafique said on Sunday that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chief Imran Khan is playing with fire, adding the party leader is taking the saw to the same branch he is sitting on.
    The federal minister was addressing a press conference in Lahore. He criticised the PTI chief saying ?some amateur political players? are causing harm to national politics.
    At first, we were accused of money laundering now regarding the commission, he said.
    ?Nawaz Sharif has now decided to do an economic blast,? said Rafique.
    The minister said that the PML-N had to go to court in response to the allegations laid against the party.
    Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif?s son Hussain Nawaz appeared before the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) probing the premier?s assets.
    Talking to Geo News, Islamabad Mayor Ansar Sheikh confirmed that Hussain has recorded his statement before the JIT.
    Hussain, in a petition filed in the Supreme Court that is set to be heard on Monday (tomorrow), has objected to two JIT members, questioning their partiality.
    Earlier, reports stated that as the premier?s son is not in the country, he may send a legal representative.
    Responding to those reports, tn a statement on Twitter Saturday night, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan said he is not surprised to learn that Hussain Nawaz is reluctant to appear before the JIT. He [Hussain Nawaz] too cannot play without the help of the umpire, just like his father, the PTI chief remarked.


  19. Waqas Dar
    Gauri Khan recently shared a picture of her kids Suhana and AbRam on the occasion of latter?s fourth birthday and the internet just couldn't handle it.
    The adorable picture shows both siblings cuddling with each other while looking extremely cute.


    A week ago, Gauri posted another picture of her daughter on the occasion of her birthday and captioned it with ?Birthday Girl.?





  20. Waqas Dar
    SRINAGAR: A complete shutdown marked by curfew and other restrictions is being observed in Indian occupied Kashmir today, against the killing of top commander of Hizbul Mujahideen Sabzar Ahmed Butt and 11 other youth by Indian troops, the Kashmir Media Service reported.
    The two-day strike in the valley was called by the joint resistance leadership comprising Syed Ali Gilani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, and Mohammad Yasin Malik against the killings and use of brute force on civilians by troops.
    The leaders also called for a march to Tral on Tuesday to pay tribute to Sabzar Ahmad Butt and other youth martyred yesterday, by troops in Pulwama and Baramulla areas.
    Curfew and other restrictions have been imposed in Srinagar, Pulwama, Shopian, Islamabad, Gandarbal and other districts of the territory.
    The authorities also ordered schools and colleges to be closed in Srinagar and other parts of the territory on Monday.
    Mobile and internet services were suspended on Saturday afternoon, a day after authorities lifted a month-long ban on the social media. This is the third time this year that authorities suspended internet services.
    Most Hurriyet leaders were placed under house arrest including Syed Ali Gilani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq. Other detained leaders include Shabbir Ahmad Shah, Advocate Shahid-ul-Islam, Muhammad Ashraf Sehrai, Ayaz Akbar, Altaf Ahmed Shah, Muhammad Ashraf Laya and Hilal Ahmed War.


  21. Waqas Dar
    KARACHI: New captain Sarfraz Ahmed will face his stiffest test yet when he leads unfancied Pakistan in the Champions Trophy -- starting with a highly-charged clash against India.
    After qualifying by the skin of their teeth, Pakistan will need to overcome serious batting deficiencies to be competitive following their struggles in the one-day format in recent years.
    Pakistan´s tournament in England starts with the toughest of games against arch-rivals India, the defending champions, in Birmingham on June 4.
    They are looking to halt a slump that began with a first-round exit from the 2015 World Cup, prompting all-rounder Shahid Afridi and skipper Misbah-ul-Haq to exit the one-day scene.
    Test specialist Azhar Ali then led Pakistan to an embarrassing 3-0 whitewash in Bangladesh and 4-1 reverses to both England and Australia before Sarfraz was handed the reins.
    The wicketkeeper-batsman is credited with injecting new energy after winning three of his first four games, two against the West Indies and one against lowly Zimbabwe.
    Sarfraz Ahmed during pre-tournament press conference. Photo: ICC But former captain Ramiz Raja believes the team lacks the skill-set needed to regularly beat top sides in modern limited-overs cricket, which tilts heavily towards batting.

    "They say a captain is as good as his team and this side lacks power-hitting skills," Raja told AFP.
    "Also to win he needs to find wickets with the new ball. He has to be in control of his emotions -- he must have a flexible plan based on discipline to create a winning environment."
    Pakistan squeezed into the eight-team tournament courtesy of their clean-sweep against minnows Zimbabwe in May 2015, while also profiting from England´s whitewashing of the West Indies.
    But the animated Sarfraz, who was often spotted screaming instructions at his fielders during the West Indies series, warned that Pakistan cannot be counted out.
    "It´s true we are (ranked) number eight but we are capable of giving a tough time to our opponents," Sarfraz told AFP.
    "We will overcome our weaknesses during our preparations in a camp in Birmingham and will be noticed for our fight."
    Clearing the ropes
    Pakistan´s biggest task will be matching the big-hitting of other teams.
    Pakistan is "playing the style or brand that belongs to the 1990s when the game has moved on, so we need a huge lift in that area", head coach Mickey Arthur said.
    For Raja, the problem lies in the number of dot deliveries (balls from which the batting side does not score) that allows the run-rate to dry up.
    "I would recommend Sarfraz to bat at four or five just to shake things up," he said.
    Veteran Shoaib Malik and all-rounder Imad Wasim will be required to give impetus to the batting line-up.
    Imad Wasim in action during Pakistan's warm-up match against Bangladesh. Photo: Getty Images But the team is lacking the services of explosive opener Sharjeel Khan, who is currently facing a tribunal for spot-fixing and could face a life ban if found guilty.

    Enfant terrible Umar Akmal, the other batsman seen as capable of consistently clearing the boundary, was kicked out of the squad and sent home for failing two fitness tests.
    The bowling department is in better shape. New boy Shadab Khan can spring a few surprises with his leg-spin in an attack led by Mohammad Amir, whose swing and accuracy was almost back to its former best in the West Indies.
    Pakistan have never won the Champions Trophy but they reached the semi-finals in 2004 and 2009.
    On both occasions they got the better of India, their only wins against their bitter rivals in a multi-national ICC event.
    For Sarfraz, Pakistan´s opener against India will set the tone for the rest of their tournament.
    "We all know how lively these Pakistan-India matches are, so we will turn up fully motivated to have a winning start," he said.
    They also face South Africa, on June 7 in Birmingham, and Sri Lanka on June 11 in Cardiff. The top two teams from each group will qualify for the semi-finals.


  22. Waqas Dar
    Emergency teams rushed to distribute aid Sunday to half a million Sri Lankans displaced after the island's worst flooding in more than a decade claimed 126 lives and left scores more missing.
    Floodwaters were receding in some areas after a break in the rain, giving authorities a chance to deliver much-needed supplies to victims who lost everything as torrents of water swept away their homes.
    Many villages were still underwater Sunday, officials said. Medical teams were dispatched to the worst-affected areas to help prevent an outbreak of waterborne diseases.
    "We have the expertise to deal with this situation," Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne said, adding cholera and diarrhoea had been successfully prevented in past floods.
    Heavy rains on Friday triggered the worst flooding and landslides in 14 years in the southern and western parts of the island claiming at least 126 lives.
    The official Disaster Management Centre said another 93 remained missing as of Sunday morning while about 50 injured in landslides were hospitalised.
    Senaratne said most of the victims were killed when mountainsides collapsed on homes.
    He said nearly 500,000 people were forced from their homes and most of them had moved into temporary shelters.
    The government withdrew an evacuation order for thousands of residents in the southern district of Matara as water levels subsided.
    "The threat of floods around the (river) Nilvala has subsided," irrigation department director M. Thuraisingham said.
    A Sri Lankan boy carries pillows through floodwaters from his home in Kelaniya, in the suburbs of Colombo. The military has deployed helicopters, boats as well as amphibious vehicles to rescue marooned people and deliver food and other essentials

    "The flood levels near Colombo have also gone down because we did not have rain in the past 24 hours."
    Water levels in Ratnapura, Sri Lanka's gem district east of Colombo, subsided but many villages in Kalutara, south of the capital, were still under water, officials said.
    The military has deployed helicopters, boats as well as amphibious vehicles to rescue marooned people and deliver food and other essentials to victims.
    Sri Lanka has also sought international help and India rushed a naval ship equipped with a medical team and other supplies.
    The United Nations said it will give water containers, water purification tablets and tarpaulin sheets while the World Health Organization will support medical teams in affected areas.
    Pakistan said it was in talks with Colombo to send relief supplies. Islamabad recently gave 10,000 tonnes of rice to Sri Lanka to help drought victims.
    The meteorological department said the rains ended a prolonged drought that had threatened agriculture as well as hydropower generation.
    The flooding is the worst since May 2003 when 250 people were killed and 10,000 homes destroyed after a similarly powerful monsoon, officials said.
    Monsoon rains last year caused flooding and landslides, killing more than 100 people


  23. Waqas Dar
    A movie by an Iranian who was arrested for his work in Iran won the "Un Certain Regard" competition at the Cannes Film Festival on Saturday, bolstering the country's filmmakers' reputation for defying the censors to make high-quality films.
    "A Man of Integrity", filmed in Iran but unlikely ever to be shown there due to censorship, is a tense drama about a man persecuted by powerful economic and political forces who refuses to bribe his way out of trouble.
    Writer-director Mohammad Rasoulof, 45, was arrested alongside acclaimed director Jafar Panahi in 2010 and sentenced to jail. He is free on bail and has continued to make films that explore political and moral corruption.
    Clutching the scroll he had just been awarded, Rasoulof said he hoped the prize would make things easier for him to make films in Iran.
    "I love Iran, but it's like an alcoholic father, sometimes it hits me," he told Reuters.
    Rasoulof's win comes three months after Asghar Farhadi won the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar for "The Salesman", also shot in Iran, and recognizes him as a major force in international cinema.
    "International support has really helped all filmmakers and especially me, by stopping the pressure they were putting on us," Rasoulof told Reuters in an interview earlier in the festival.
    Rasoulof said Iranian authorities had given him a permit to shoot "A Man of Integrity" but only after he signed a paper promising not to make it "too dark". He has not been granted permission to screen the film in Iran so, like his previous five features, it is unlikely to be seen there except via unauthorized copies.
    Variety called "A Man of Integrity" "a tense, enraging drama about corruption and injustice ... a scathing critique of contemporary Iranian society ... (that) manages to resonate on both specific and universal levels".
    "Un Certain Regard", a separate section from the main contest at Cannes, recognizes younger talent and innovative filmmaking. The winners in the main competition, including the Palme d'Or for best picture, will be announced on Sunday.


  24. Waqas Dar
    A total of 34 artificial intelligence startups were acquired in the first quarter of this year, more than twice the amount of activity in the year-ago quarter, according to the research firm CB Insights.
    Tech giants seeking to reinforce their leads in artificial intelligence or make up for lost ground have been the most aggressive buyers. Alphabet Inc's Google has acquired 11 AI startups since 2012, the most of any firm, followed by Apple Inc, Facebook Inc, and Intel Corp, respectively, according to CB Insights.
    The companies declined to comment on their acquisition strategies. A spokesman for Apple did confirm the company's recent purchase of Lattice Data, a startup that specializes in working with unstructured data.
    The first quarter also saw one of the largest deals to date as Ford Motor Co invested $1 billion in Argo AI, founded by former executives on self-driving teams at Google and Uber Technologies Inc.
    Startups are looking to go deep on applications of artificial intelligence to specific fields, such as health and retail, industry observers say, rather than compete directly with established companies.
    ?What you will see is very big players will build platform services, and startup communities will migrate more to applied intelligent apps,? said Matt McIlwain, managing director of Madrona Venture Group.
    Healthcare startup Forward, for example, is using artificial intelligence to crunch data that can inform doctors? recommendations.
    ?For people who really want to focus on core AI problems, it makes a lot of sense to be in bigger companies,? said Forward Chief Executive Officer Adrian Aoun, who previously worked at Google. ?But for folks who really want to prove a new field, a new area, it makes more sense to be separate.?
    Artificial intelligence companies that do remain independent field a steady stream of suitors: Matthew Zeiler, chief executive of Clarifai, which specializes in image and video recognition, said he has been approached about a dozen times by prospective acquirers since starting the company in late 2013.
    Clarifai?s pitch to customers such as consumer goods company Unilever Plc and hotel search firm Trivago is bolstered by its narrow focus on artificial intelligence.
    ?(Google) literally competes with almost every company on the planet,? Zeiler said. ?Are you going to trust them with being your partner for AI??
    Tech giants have been locked in a bidding war for academics specializing in artificial intelligence. Startups rarely have the capital to compete, but a company with a specialized mission can win over recruits, said Vic Gundotra, chief executive of AliveCor, which makes an AI-driven portable heart monitor.
    ?They say, ?I want to come here and work on a project that might save my mother?s life,?? Gundotra said.


  25. Waqas Dar
    MULTAN: A man, identified as Nomi, stabbed his brother-in-law to death in Multan?s New Al-Madina colony on Sunday.
    The man, who the police said is a drug addict, entered his brother-in-law?s home and attacked the latter and his four children, the police said.
    The children, aged between three and 10 years, were wounded by the knife attack and shifted to Nishtar Hospital for medical assistance.
    ?The wife of the deceased man is out of the country for pilgrimage,? the police said, adding that the accused will be arrested soon. 


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