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Waqas Dar

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Blog Entries posted by Waqas Dar

  1. Waqas Dar
    Pakistani actress Mahira Khan made the country proud after she won two awards at the 8th Beirut International Awards Festival (BIAF) held on Sunday night.
    Speaking exclusively to Geo.tv, the actress said, "When you get awarded internationally you feel like your country is getting awarded. You are there because of the love and respect the people of your country have given you. Obviously, it's the hard work we put in and our efforts get recognised but I am 'Mahira Khan from Pakistan' always."

     She called it an award for her country and won over the hearts of her audience by trying to say "I love you all" in Arabic.
    Mahira looked flawless in a Nicolas Jebran couture gown, her signature side swept hair, and nude-pink makeup.
       The actor radiated elegance and grace on the red carpet. 

    She made it a point to share her victory with her fans on Twitter.

    It comes as no surprise that the actress continues to get international recognition. She?s made headlines across the globe ever since she shared the silver screen with Bollywood superstar Shahrukh Khan in Raees. 







  2. Waqas Dar
    Firefighters tackle a fire at Camden Market in north London, Britain, July 10, 2017. Photo: REUTERS More than 70 firefighters have brought a fire under control at London's Camden market after a blaze broke out at a building at the popular tourist attraction overnight, firefighters said.
    The cause of the fire was unknown and there were no immediate reports of any injuries or casualties.
    The fire damaged the first, second and third floors and the roof of the building in north London which contained a number of businesses, London Fire Brigade (LFB) said on Monday morning.
    "Crews worked hard to get the fire under control and to stop it from spreading to neighbouring buildings," said Station Manager David Reid. LFB said 10 fire engines had been sent to tackle the blaze.
    The incident comes a month after a blaze in the 24-storey Grenfell Tower apartment block killed at least 80 people, putting fire safety in the capital in the spotlight.
    Camden Market, which is home to more than 1,000 shops, stalls, bars and cafes, suffered a fire in 2008 when storage areas and shops in the locality were set ablaze and adjoining houses were damaged. A major part of the market had to close for several months.


  3. Waqas Dar
    A boy runs past a pile of garbage along the river Ganges in Mirzapur, India, April 19, 2017. Photo: REUTERS/file India's holy Ganges begins as a crystal clear river high in the icy Himalayas but pollution and excessive usage transforms it into toxic sludge on its journey through burgeoning cities, industrial hubs and past millions of devotees.

    Worshipped by a billion Hindus and a water source for 400 million, "Mother Ganga" is dying, despite decades of government efforts to save it.
    Lokesh Sharma, a 19-year-old priest in Devprayag, a small hill town where two rivers converge to form the Ganges, is his family's fourth generation to lead riverbank prayers.
    "I never thought of going somewhere else and settling. Devprayag is a heaven for me. I feel blessed to be born next to Mother Ganges," Sharma said, as chanting priests and devotees, some bottling the water, dunk themselves in the fast-flowing river.
    Thousands of Indians immerse themselves and idols of their gods every day, believing a dip in the Ganges absolves a lifetime of sins. People drink the water and use it for crops.
    But the pristine waters soon becomes a distant memory as the 2,525 km-long (1,570 mile) Ganges snakes its way down to the densely populated plains of north India, where too much water is sucked out to maintain a healthy flow.
    Sliding under bridges in the industrial city of Kanpur, the water's colour turns dark gray.
    Industrial waste and sewage pour in from open drains, as clouds of foam float on its surface.
    At one stretch, the river turns red.
    Nearby, tannery workers haul chemical-soaked buffalo hides into huge drums. The filthy run-off is dumped in the river.
    Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has pledged to build more treatment plants and move more than 400 tanneries away from the river, but his $3 billion clean-up plan is badly behind schedule.
    Less than a quarter of an estimated 4,800 million liters of sewage that flow daily into the river from main towns and cities is treated.
    POLLUTION-FREE PRAYERS
    The sorry state of the Ganges is most keenly felt in Varanasi, the ancient and most holy of cities for Hindus.
    Religious students practise yoga, pilgrims seek spiritual purification and families cremate their dead by the water's edge, scattering ashes so that souls go to heaven and escape the cycle of rebirth.
    Along the bathing ghats, prayers invoking followers to keep the Ganges clean fill the hot evening air.
    "I remember earlier the water was very clean and we could drink it," said 58-year-old boatman Anil Sahni. "Now you can't even bathe in it."
    As the river widens it curves southwards, towards the Bay of Bengal, passing thousands more villages and swelling cities.
    In the 14-million strong metropolis of Kolkata, people bathe and brush their teeth next to towering mounds of rubbish. On the outskirts, brick kilns and factories line the river banks.
    Downstream, a packed ferry sets off for Sagar Island, or Ganga Sagar, a magnet for Hindu pilgrims that marks the point where the Ganges meets the sea.
    "I feel sad about what's happening around us. The Ganges is getting dirty day by day but nobody cares. Not even its children," said 66-year-old priest Ashok Kumar in Mirzapur, a riverside carpet and brass ware hub.
    "The Ganges is our mother. There won't be any future if she dies."


  4. Waqas Dar
    The Apple logo is seen on the facade of the new Apple Store in Paris, France, January 5, 2017. Photo: REUTERS/file Apple Inc will build its second data centre in southern Denmark, to be powered entirely by renewable energy, a spokeswoman told Reuters on Monday.

    The data centre, which is due to begin operations in 2019, will power Apple's online services, including the iTunes Store, App Store, iMessage, Maps and Siri for customers across Europe.
    Apple will invest around 6 billion Danish crowns ($920 million) in the project, Danish media reported.
    The first data center in Denmark with a price tag of around 850 million euros will begin operations this year.


  5. Waqas Dar
    Malala with her father before leaving for their trip. Photo: Geo News BIRMINGHAM: Education and rights activist Malala Yousafzai, along with her father Ziauddin Yousafzai, is off to the Middle East to celebrate her 20th birthday with internally displaced girls from conflict-ridden areas.
    Malala, who was shot by Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan terrorists in 2012 in her hometown of Swat, Pakistan, joined Twitter a few days ago and informed her followers about her plans.
    Following the brutal attack on her, Malala was moved to the UK where she underwent surgery and subsequently settled with her family, pursuing her education. Having graduated this summer, the young role model may pursue higher education at Oxford University.
    Designated the UN Messenger of Peace in 2017, Malala has advocated education from a very young age, by speaking against the Taliban and making efforts to keep girls in school through the Malala Fund and other initiatives.
    The Nobel Peace Prize winner also plans on taking more ?Girl Power Trips? to Africa and Latin America later this summer.
    She was born on July 12, 1997 and rose to fame by authoring a blog as a young student while Swat was under occupation of militants in 2007. 


  6. Waqas Dar
    LONDON: For the first time since 2011, the top four men´s seeds have reached the Wimbledon last-16 with Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal taking centre-stage on ´Manic Monday´.
    The four stars have shared the Wimbledon title since 2003 when Federer won the first of his seven trophies at the All England Club.
    Djokovic has claimed three with defending champion Murray and Nadal winning two apiece.
    It´s the kind of domination that looks unlikely to end Monday when the fourth round takes place.
    Murray, who has battled hip pain, is the only one of the ´Big Four´ to have dropped a set in the first week.
    He faces unpredictable Frenchman Benoit Paire who is in the last-16 for the first time.
    "He has very good hands, moves well, takes a lot of chances, goes for his shots," said Murray who has a 1-0 career lead over Paire.
    Murray has not lost at Wimbledon before the quarter-finals since 2006.
    Murray faces unpredictable Frenchman Benoit Paire who is in the last-16 for the first time Djokovic takes a 1-0 career edge over unseeded Adrian Mannarino of France into his last-16 clash, with that win coming at Wimbledon in straight sets in the second round last year.
    Former coach Boris Becker praised Djokovic for his first week performances after fears that the Serb had lost his love for the sport after losing all four Grand Slam titles he held last year.
    "Boris knows me very well. So he´s right when he says that the passion is back," said second seed Djokovic.
    Federer faces ´natural heir´
    Federer, bidding for a record eighth Wimbledon title, which would also make him the oldest champion at the All England Club, faces Grigor Dimitrov boasting a 5-0 record over the man once tipped as his natural heir.
    "It´s a great day to play. I would be happy to be a fan," said Federer of a day when all last-16 matches in the men´s and women´s events are played.
    Federer is playing in the fourth round for the 15th time.
    Federer is bidding for a record eighth Wimbledon title Nadal, fresh from a 10th French Open title, faces fellow left-hander Gilles Muller, who is looking to make the quarter-finals for the first time in seven years.
    Nadal has a 5-1 record over Muller although he will be wary that the Luxembourg grass court specialist beat him at Wimbledon in 2005.
    "He´s one of the toughest opponents possible on this surface," said Nadal.
    The title as well as the world number one spot are up for grabs in the women´s tournament which remains wide open in the absence of Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova.
    Angelique Kerber, the runner-up to Williams last year, could lose the top spot to either Simona Halep or even Karolina Pliskova despite the Czech having been knocked out in the second round.
    The German tackles 2015 runner-up Garbine Muguruza having survived a three-set scare to see off Shelby Rogers in the third round.
    ´How the hell did I do that?´
    In contrast, Muguruza has sailed into the last 16 without dropping a set, a run which has even surprised herself.
    "I never feel that comfortable on grass. Every time I start the grass season, I´m like, How the hell I did that final?" said the 2016 French Open champion.
    Muguruza, the 15th seed, holds a 4-3 career lead over Kerber, having won all of the last four meetings including in the Wimbledon fourth round two years ago.
    Muguruza has sailed into the last 16 without dropping a set  Victoria Azarenka, bidding to become the first mother to win Wimbledon in 37 years, faces Romanian second seed Simona Halep.
    Former world number one and two-time Australian Open champion Azarenka is playing in her first Grand Slam since giving birth to son Leo in December.
    She made the semi-finals in 2011 and 2012 while Halep was in the last-four three years ago.
    In all, the women´s last-16 features seven Grand Slam winners and seven playing in the Wimbledon fourth round for the first time.
    Two of those new faces are the bookmakers´ new favourite Johanna Konta, the British sixth seed, and France´s 21st seed Caroline Garcia who face each other.
    Konta is looking to be the first British woman in the quarter-finals in 33 years.
    French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko and Elina Svitolina face off in another duel of first-timers while another battle of last-16 debutantes sees Slovakia´s Magdalena Rybarikova facing Petra Martic of Croatia.
    Martic is the last qualifier in the tournament but the 135-ranked player has already made the fourth round at the French Open this year after also coming through the qualifying event.
    Old stagers Agnieszka Radwanska, the 2012 runner-up, tackles former French and US Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova.
    Five-time champion Venus Williams, at 37 comfortably the sentimental favourite, faces 19-year-old Croatian Ana Konjuh who was born six months after the American made her debut at the All England Club in 1997.


  7. Waqas Dar
    KARACHI: The benchmark KSE 100-index went up by 830 points on Monday, reaching 46,050 points.
    Out of the total 297 companies that engaged in trading at the Pakistan Stock Exchange, share prices of 208 increased, while those of 77 others declined.
    The trend was unlike the one noticed in the beginning of last week, on Monday, when the market saw a bearish trend, given uncertainty over the Panama case. 


  8. Waqas Dar
    PTI's legal counsel Babar Awan while speaking to the media outside ECP on Monday. Photo: Geo News screen grab ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf's (PTI) legal counsel Babar Awan remarked on Monday that Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) does not have jurisdiction to hear contempt of court cases, while presenting initial arguments in case against party chief Imran Khan.
    A five-member ECP bench, led by Chief Election Commissioner Justice (retd) Sardar Muhammad Raza, was hearing the case pertaining to contempt of court by Imran Khan over the petition filed by Akbar S Babar.
    During the proceedings on Monday, Babar Awan argued that only Supreme Court and high courts have the jurisdiction over contempt of court case.
    Responding to this, the petitioner?s lawyer asked for a few days to submit a reply to this. The hearing was adjourned till July 19.
    Speaking to the media, PTI?s Spokesperson Fawad Chaudhry pointed out that the arguments of party?s legal counsel have been formed on technical points. ?We want ECP to accept our plea,? he remarked.
    Countering statements of political opponents, he said that they are spreading false information in the media.
    Adding to this, Babar Awan said ?we have filed a lawful answer? while speaking to the media. 
    "There is no case in which Imran Khan can be disqualified from contesting elections," he claimed. ?There is a lot of difference between Imran Khan and Nawaz Sharif. Imran Khan?s family is not facing any corruption charges.?
    Opponents react
    PTI is coming first from the bottom, remarked Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz?s (PML-N) Daniyal Aziz while lashing out at Imran Khan in front of media.
    Time and again, Imran Khan has failed to submit reply in all the cases against him, he remarked, adding that Imran Khan attacks state?s institutions, PM House, ECP and expects that no action will be taken against him.
    ?Pakistani people are very smart. Don?t make the mistake of underestimating them. Everyone knows how corrupt Imran Khan really is,? he remarked.
    Moreover, PML-N leader Talal Chaudhry claimed that Imran has insulted the court not once or twice but multiple times, adding that PTI chief is known for his corruption.
    Imran Khan expects to hold people accountable for three past three generations but not one should ask anything from him, he said. 


  9. Waqas Dar
    The Adarsh housing society is a 31-storey apartment complex in south Mumbai. Photo: Hindu Two former Indian army chiefs, General Deepak Kapoor and General NC Vij, along with other senior military officers have been indicted in a housing society scam in an inquiry, which was ordered by the Defence Ministry, according to Indian media.

    The Adarsh housing society, a 31-storey apartment complex in south Mumbai, was built for the families of veterans of Kargil war however politicians, bureaucrats and other military officers have become owners of the apartments.
    The scam surfaced in 2010 after which Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan was forced to resign.
    Later, in April 2016, then Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on the direction of the Bombay High Court ordered an inquiry into the scam. The inquiry was conducted by a retired IAS officer, Rajan Katoch, and Lt Gen Ravi Thodge.
    In the report, Gen NC Vij has been held guilty of ?providing a protective umbrella to facilitate the alienation of the land?. On the other hand, Gen Kapoor was ?not directly connected with the case? but ?not well advised? in becoming a member of the society, adding that that it did not seem he had adequately weighed the implications of accepting an apartment in the complex.
    Former navy chief admiral Madhavendra Singh, who was also allotted a flat in the housing society, has also been named in the report.


  10. Waqas Dar
    LONDON: Pakistan leg-spinner Yasir Shah will complete an impressive international line-up when MCC face Afghanistan in the new Test nation´s first match at Lord´s on Tuesday.
    Yasir, who has taken 149 wickets in 26 Tests, has most recently been playing for Kent in the County Championship and joins fellow Pakistan international Misbah-ul-Haq in facing Afghanistan in a 50 overs per side match.
    Lord´s owners MCC will be captained by former New Zealand skipper Brendon McCullum.
    Their team also features West Indies great Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Sri Lanka star Kumar Sangakkara.
    McCullum is currently playing for Lord´s-based Middlesex in English county cricket´s Twenty20 Blast.
    MCC´s side also includes England all-rounder Samit Patel and former England wicket-keeper Chris Read, both of whom recently tasted victory at Lord´s with the Nottinghamshire side that won the One-Day Cup.
    Afghanistan, recently awarded Test status, can include spinner Rashid Khan and all-rounder Mohammad Nabi in their side, with both players having featured for Sunrisers Hyderabad in this year´s Indian Premier League.
    "Yasir joins the MCC team as the final piece in the jigsaw for this match and we are delighted he is able to play in this historic fixture," said MCC head of cricket John Stephenson in a club statement.
    "With Afghanistan having recently been awarded Test match status, it is fitting that they will make their Lord´s debut in this match and we hope that many of their UK-based supporters are able to see them in action," the former England batsman added.
    Although its more than 40 years since Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) ceased to run English cricket, it retains worldwide responsibility for the sport´s rules, known as Laws. 


  11. Waqas Dar
    Last month, black bears killed two people in the US. Photograph: Getty Images A teenage staffer at a Colorado camp fought off a bear after waking up to find the animal biting his head and trying to drag him away.
    The 19-year-old woke up at around 4am on Sunday to a ?crunching sound? with his head inside the mouth of the bear, which was trying to pull him out of his sleeping bag as he slept outside at Glacier View Ranch 48 miles (77km) north-west of Denver, Colorado Parks and Wildlife spokeswoman Jennifer
    The teenager punched and hit the animal and other staffers who were sleeping nearby yelled and swatted at the bear, which eventually left, she said.
    The staffer, identified only as Dylan, was treated briefly at a hospital and released.
    The teen told KMGH-TV that the bear dragged him up to 3.5 metres (12ft) before he was able to free himself.
    ?The crunching noise, I guess, was the teeth scraping against the skull as it dug in,? said the teen, who teaches wilderness survival at the camp owned by the Rocky Mountain Conference of Seventh Day Adventists.
    Dylan and the other staffers were near teepees where 12- and 13-year-old campers were sleeping. None of them were hurt.
    Black bears are not usually aggressive but have attacked several people in the western US in recent weeks.
    A woman and her dogs were attacked on Tuesday after they apparently surprised an adult bear and her cub in a huckleberry patch in the Idaho
    Last month, black bears killed two people in Alaska in separate attacks.
    Sixteen-year-old Patrick ?Jack? Cooper of Anchorage was killed after he got lost and veered off a trail during a mountain race south of Anchorage. Mine contract worker Erin Johnson of Anchorage died and her co-worker was injured in a mauling about 275 miles northeast of Anchorage.
    Earlier this month a boy aged 11 shot a bear that was charging at his family who were on a fishing expedition in Alaska.
    Black bears will defend their young and have been known to paw and bite tents with food inside. After the Colorado attack wildlife officers did not find any food that would have attracted the bear so they have set bear traps in the area and plan to continue a search with dogs on Monday.
    The bear?s behaviour was so atypical that any bear found in the traps in the next few days will likely be euthanised and officials will test later to see if it was the same bear involved in the attack using DNA evidence, Churchill said.


  12. Waqas Dar
    Pakistan's central bank has issued guidelines covering how banks that want to be fully-fledged Shariah compliant can achieve that status, setting a three-year time frame for applicants to complete the process.

    The rules aim to accelerate the growth of Islamic banking in the Muslim-majority country. The sector enjoys double-digit growth but lags conventional banks in terms of size and profitability.
    Islamic banks follows religious principles such as bans on interest and pure monetary speculation, ruling out the use of interest-based financial instruments such as bonds and treasury bills.
    Eligible applicants must have existing Islamic finance operations and the conversion process must start within six months of approval, the central bank said in a circular.
    After the conversion of conventional branches, the applicant can then apply for a full-fledged Islamic banking license.
    Converting back to conventional banking operations will not be allowed, the circular said.
    Such conversions are rare in Islamic finance but are seen as a way to increase the scale of Islamic banking and widen its reach into under-served rural areas.


  13. Waqas Dar
    Ronaldinho in action during exhibition match in Lahore  Pakistan hosted some of the biggest names in world football over the weekend, as the entire nation came together to welcome Brazilian legend Ronaldinho, Manchester United stalwart Ryan Giggs and other stars for the historic show.



    Social media went into a frenzy as the dreams of football lovers in the country turned into a reality when they saw ?Ronaldinho and Friends? grace the football pitches of Pakistan. Fans and sporting stars hailed the visit of the football legends and expressed joy over the message given to the rest of the world that Pakistan is a peace and sports loving country.
    Ronaldinho was just as excited to have been welcomed so warmly in Pakistan!
    DG ISPR Major General Asif Ghafoor also took to Twitter to thank 'Ronaldinho and Friends' for visiting Pakistan and showing the world that Pakistan is peaceful and loving.




  14. Waqas Dar
    Empty prisons in The Netherlands are finding new leases of life, from offices and homes, to restaurants and even a university college, as crime rates have fallen. Photo: AFP1 BREDA: Voices echo around the magnificent, luminous dome of Breda prison, breaking the silence of the 130-year-old building, now empty of inmates like dozens of others in The Netherlands.
    Falling crime rates over the last decade, as well as changing ideas about punishing criminals have robbed this penitentiary of its original purpose, and its gates clanged shut in 2014.
    Built in 1886, it was possible to watch everything happening in the prison from its central courtyard under the main dome -- a classic example of the 18th century social theory of Panopticism on passive behaviour when people are constantly observed, first mooted by the English philosopher Jeremy Bentham and later built upon by his French counterpart Michel Foucault.
    Metal spiral staircases snake all around the dome down to the former canteen under the glass floor. Old sports areas are marked out on concrete, all are surrounded by cells stacked four storeys high, their now-rusted doors swinging open.
    Unlike the previous occupants, some 90 businesses hold the keys to the building, free to come and go at will.
    'A lot of history'
    Miguel de Waard, co-founder of the 3D Red Panda VR start-up, is among those who believe they have found a perfect office location, helping give new life to a protected national monument.
    "We just instantly fell in love with this particular office: the high ceiling, the nice touches and the big windows and the lighting," de Waard told AFP.
    "We don't see bars, I think, when we look outside, we just see a beautiful part of Breda."
    But he acknowledged the past has cast long shadows. "Every time we enter the dome or the women's prison, it's pretty dark, that's true. And there's a lot of history and sometimes you can feel it as well," he said.
    "The first time we were here and we had the keys, we were, like, wandering around at night in the dark and it's a pretty amazing experience."
    From cells to restaurants
    There are now only 38 prisons still in operation in The Netherlands, with 27 closed since 2014.
    Six were sold for about 20.7 million euros ($23 million), while others have been rented out, often as centres for asylum seekers, bringing in a total of around 18 million euros.
    After leaping crime rates swelled Europe's prison population in the 1990s, numbers in The Netherlands have dropped thanks, in part, to prevention programmes and a greater focus on re-integration.
    "Judges are sentencing people in different ways. Not more lightly, but differently, with community service, or ankle bracelets" and rehabilitation clinics, said Anneloes van Boxtel, who administers the interior ministry's real estate.
    Crimes fell some 26 percent between 2007 and 2015, according to the official Central Statistics Bureau.
    In a decade, the number of people imprisoned every year in The Netherlands fell from 50,650 in 2005 to 37,790 in 2015. And the rate of incarceration stands at 57 prisoners per 100,000 residents, compared with 458 in the United States.
    So the Dutch have sought to put their empty cells to good use.
    A detention centre in northern Veenhuizen has been rented out -- guards included -- to Norway to house its own inmates. A former women's jail in northeastern Zwolle is now an award-winning restaurant.
    With a 60-million-euro price tag, a penitentiary in Amsterdam Overamstel is to be transformed into a new residential district with thousands of homes. And a centre in Haarlem, bought by the local municipality for 6.4 million euros, will open its doors in 2019 as a university college.
    New buzz
    In Breda, the prison and its 33,302 square metres (358,330 square feet) of space was handed over to a special body in 2016 to be re-used for "social" projects.
    "That was our biggest challenge: to open the prison again," said Mandy Jak, communications and marketing advisor for the VPS association.
    But interest has been huge, with some 300 people swiftly signing up to move in.
    "It actually feels like not a prison anymore. If you look around, it looks like a prison of course, but with all those start-ups, it's got new energy," she added.
    However, one summer evening new "inmates" were spotted, as about 350 people were once again locked in, taking part in perhaps the ultimate "Prison Escape" adult adventure game that has become popular in many countries. Barricaded into the cells, participants have to plot an escape over three hours with the help of some 80 actors.


    But once rid of these thrill-seekers, the building again sank into silence. Until the next business day.


  15. Waqas Dar
    A child being administered anti-polio drops in Peshawar. Photo: Reuters  PESHAWAR: A three-day polio immunisation campaign will begin in twelve districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and two tribal agencies today.

    According to officials, 3.2 million children up to five years of age will be administered anti-polio drops in Peshawar, Haripur, Abbottabad, Mansehra, Batagram, Kohistan, Torghar, Shangla, Swat, and Lower Dir, Chitral, Khyber and South Waziristan agencies.

    A six-day special anti-polio campaign in nine union councils of Khairpur District is also expected to start from today. A total of 18,000 children are expected to be vaccinated against polio in the district. 
    Special security measures are also being taken to ensure security of polio teams.
    Earlier this month, the first polio case of 2017 was reported in Balochistan.
    The provincial health department stated that an 18-month-child was confirmed with the polio virus in the Chaman area of Qilla Abdullah since her patents had refused to administer polio drops.


  16. Waqas Dar
    US President-elect Donald Trump speaks with his son Donald Trump Jr. during a news conference in the lobby of Trump Tower in Manhattan, New York City, US, January 11, 2017. Photo: Reuters   President Donald Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr., agreed to meet with a Kremlin-linked lawyer during the 2016 election campaign after being promised damaging information about Hillary Clinton, the New York Times reported on Sunday, citing three advisers to the White House.
    Trump's then-campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, also attended the meeting at Trump Tower on June 9, 2016, two weeks after Trump won the Republican nomination, the Times reported.
    In a statement quoted by the Times and later made available to Reuters and other media outlets, Donald Trump Jr. acknowledged meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya.
    "After pleasantries were exchanged, the woman stated that she had information that individuals connected to Russia were funding the Democratic National Committee and supporting Ms Clinton," the statement said. Clinton was the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee.
    "Her statements were vague, ambiguous and made no sense. No details or supporting information was provided or even offered. It quickly became clear that she had no meaningful information."
    Trump Jr. said Veselnitskaya then turned the conversation to the adoption of Russian children and a US law blacklisting Russians linked to alleged human-rights abuses.
    President Trump was "not aware of and did not attend" the meeting, Mark Corallo, a spokesman for Trump's legal team, said in an emailed statement.
    Trump Jr. said he was asked to attend the meeting "with an individual who I was told might have information helpful to the campaign" at the request of an acquaintance he knew from the 2013 Miss Universe pageant.
    "I asked Jared and Paul to attend, but told them nothing of the substance," he said.
    "The meeting lasted approximately 20 to 30 minutes," he said. "As it ended, my acquaintance apologised for taking up our time. That was the end of it and there was no further contact or follow-up of any kind. My father knew nothing of the meeting or these events."
    The New York Times report said Trump Jr. was promised damaging information about Clinton before agreeing to meet with the lawyer. It cited three advisers to the White House briefed on the meeting and two others with knowledge of it.
    The Times first reported on the meeting on Saturday, after which Trump Jr. issued a statement confirming that it took place, but made no mention of the Clinton aspect.
    Representatives for Manafort and Kushner did not respond to requests for comment.
    Allegations of the Trump campaign's ties to Russia have cast a shadow over Donald Trump's first five months in office.
    A federal special counsel and several congressional committees are investigating possible contacts between the campaign and Russian representatives as part of a larger probe into allegations that Moscow meddled in the election.
    The June meeting was the first confirmed private meeting between members of the president's inner circle and a Russian national, the Times reported, citing confidential government records and interviews with people familiar with the documents.
    The revelations come after President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the allegations of election meddling during the summit of leaders from the Group of 20 major economies in Hamburg, Germany.
    The Kremlin has denied US intelligence agencies' conclusion that Moscow tried to tilt the election in Trump's favour, using such means as hacking into the emails of senior Democrats.


    Trump has repeatedly denied any collusion.


  17. Waqas Dar
    US President Donald Trump waves as walks on the South Lawn of the White House upon his return to Washington, US, from the G20 Summit in Hamburg, July 8, 2017. Photo: Reuters   US President Donald Trump on Sunday backtracked on his push for a cyber security unit with Russia, tweeting that he did not think it could happen, hours after his proposal was harshly criticised by Republicans who said Moscow could not be trusted.
    Trump said on Twitter early on Sunday that he and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed on Friday forming "an impenetrable Cyber Security unit" to address issues like the risk of cyber meddling in elections.
    The idea appeared to be a political non-starter. It was immediately scorned by several of Trump's fellow Republicans, who questioned why the United States would work with Russia after Moscow's alleged meddling in the 2016 US election.
    "It's not the dumbest idea I have ever heard but it's pretty close," Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina told NBC's "Meet the Press" program.
    Ash Carter, who was US defence secretary until the end of former Democratic President Barack Obama's administration in January, told CNN flatly: "This is like the guy who robbed your house proposing a working group on burglary."
    Trump's advisers, including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, had recently sought to explain Trump's cyber push.
    Mnuchin said on Saturday that Trump and Putin had agreed to create "a cyber unit to make sure that there was absolutely no interference whatsoever, that they would work on cyber security together."
    But Trump returned to Twitter on Sunday to play down the idea, which arose at his talks with Putin at a summit of the Group of 20 nations in Hamburg, Germany.
    "The fact that President Putin and I discussed a Cyber Security unit doesn't mean I think it can happen. It can't," Trump said on Twitter.
    He then noted that an agreement with Russia for a ceasefire in Syria "can & did" happen.
    Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona acknowledged Trump's desire to move forward with Russia, but added: "There has to be a price to pay."
    "There has been no penalty," McCain, who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, told CBS' "Face the Nation" program according to a CBS transcript. "Vladimir Putin ... got away with literally trying to change the outcome ... of our election."
    Trump argued for a rapprochement with Moscow in his campaign but has been unable to deliver because his administration has been dogged by investigations into the allegations of Russian interference in the election and ties with his campaign.
    Special Counsel Robert Mueller is investigating the matter, including whether there may have been any collusion on the part of Trump campaign officials, as are congressional committees including both the House of Representatives and Senate intelligence panels.
    Those probes are focused almost exclusively on Moscow?s actions, lawmakers and intelligence officials say, and no evidence has surfaced publicly implicating other countries despite Trump's suggestion that others could have been involved.
    Moscow has denied any interference, and Trump says his campaign did not collude with Russia.
    Representative Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, told CNN's "State of the Union" program that Russia could not be a credible partner in a cyber security unit.
    "If that?s our best election defence, we might as well just mail our ballot boxes to Moscow," Schiff added.
    Separately, US government officials said a recent hack into business systems of US nuclear power and other energy companies was carried out by Russian government hackers, the Washington Post reported on Saturday.
    Trump said he "strongly pressed President Putin twice about Russian meddling in our election. He vehemently denied it."
    He added: "We negotiated a ceasefire in parts of Syria which will save lives. Now it is time to move forward in working constructively with Russia!"
    In Trump's first attempt at ending the six-year Syrian civil war, the United States, Russia and Jordan on Friday reached a ceasefire and "de-escalation agreement" for southwestern Syria. The ceasefire was holding hours after it took effect on Sunday, a monitor and two rebel officials said.
    Any joint US-Russia cyber initiative would have been a different matter. Depending how much it veered into military or espionage operations, it could have faced major legal hurdles.
    Language in the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act prohibits the Pentagon, which includes the National Security Agency and the US military's Cyber Command, from using any funds for bilateral military cooperation with Russia.
    Michael McFaul, a former US ambassador to Russia, also noted restrictions on sharing information with Russia that would clearly prohibit offering Moscow a sense of US cyber capabilities. Russia would be similarly adverse to revealing its capabilities to the United States, he noted.


    "It just will not happen," McFaul told Reuters.


  18. Waqas Dar
    A traveler walks past a sign for Royal Jordanian airline at JFK International Airport in New York, US. Photo: REUTERS Royal Jordanian and Kuwait Airways are the latest Middle East carriers to be exempted from an in-cabin ban on laptops and other large electronic devices on flights to the United States.

    The Jordanian and Kuwaiti airlines join Emirates, Etihad Airways, Qatar Airways and Turkish Airline, which each last week announced a lifting of the ban.
    In March, the United States banned laptops and other large electronic devices on flights originating at 10 airports in eight countries -- Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and Turkey -- to tackle fears that bombs could be concealed in them.
    Royal Jordanian, which flies to New York, Chicago and Detroit from Amman, Jordan, lifted the ban after new security measures were adopted for US-bound flights, airline President Stefan Pichler said in a statement on Sunday.
    State-owned Kuwait Airways, which flies from Kuwait to New York via Ireland, said the ban was lifted after US officials inspected security measures on its flights.
    US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) spokesman Mike England said in an email the bans were lifted after Amman and Kuwait airports "implemented the required initial enhanced security measures."
    The United States announced enhanced security measures on June 29, requiring additional time to screen passengers and electronic devices for possible explosives.
    The new US measures, which take effect within three weeks of the announcement, will affect around 325,000 passengers a day traveling on 180 airlines from 280 airports around the world, according to the US Department of Homeland Security.
    Airlines that fail to meet the new requirements could still face in-cabin restrictions on electronic devices.
    Saudi Arabian Airlines (Saudia) has said it expects the ban to be lifted on flights from Jeddah and Riyadh by July 19.
    Royal Air Maroc also believes it can have the ban lifted for flights out of Casablanca's Mohammed V International Airport by July 19, a senior official from the state-owned airline told Reuters on July 6.
    State-owned EgyptAir has also been affected by the ban.

    [embed_video1 url=http://stream.jeem.tv/vod/5f7dd638d1c6fe5234e8ae2290388d6b.mp4/playlist.m3u8?wmsAuthSign=c2VydmVyX3RpbWU9Ny8xMC8yMDE3IDQ6Mzc6MjcgQU0maGFzaF92YWx1ZT1WcThKdElNaEhCOHRzdU0xOTZhc1V3PT0mdmFsaWRtaW51dGVzPTYwJmlkPTE= style=center]



  19. Waqas Dar
    DG ISPR with Ronaldinho during reception hosted by the Army Chief Director General Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Major General Asif Ghafoor thanked Ronaldinho and the accompanying group of international football legends for visiting Pakistan to take part in exhibition matches.
    In a Twitter post early Monday morning, Major General Asif Ghafoor also extended thanks to the group of footballers for showing the world, through their visit, that Pakistan is a peaceful and loving country.
    ?Thank you @10Ronaldinho and your fellow players for visiting Pakistan and letting world know that Pakistan is peaceful & loving. Tchau!? the DG ISPR said.
    Earlier on Sunday, following the second leg of the football series in Lahore, Brazilian legend Ronaldinho thanked Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa and the entire country and said Pakistan is a peaceful and loving country.
    ?Pakistan is peaceful & loving. Thanks #PakArmyChief Thanks #Pakistan See you again... @OfficialDGISPR @LeisureLeaguePK @wgtrunkwala1912,? the star tweeted.
    Ronaldinho along with Manchester United great Ryan Giggs, former England goalkeeper David James, Dutch star George Boateng, former French players Robert Pires and Nicolas Anelka, and Portuguese player Luis Boa Morte were welcomed by Army Chief General Qamar Bajwa over the weekend, where he thanked the players for visiting Pakistan and said Pakistan as a country is peace-loving and loves sports.
    Team Ronaldinho beat Giggs-7 by 2-0 in Lahore to win the exhibition series.

    [embed_video1 url=http://stream.jeem.tv/vod/335be76096ee1fe019fe05fdf47b4bd7.mp4/playlist.m3u8?wmsAuthSign=c2VydmVyX3RpbWU9Ny8xMC8yMDE3IDQ6NDA6NDQgQU0maGFzaF92YWx1ZT0xeVFXMGNKZGFCRXdnV1NJbGgvUFZRPT0mdmFsaWRtaW51dGVzPTYwJmlkPTE= style=center]



  20. Waqas Dar
    Photo: Web  The Pakistan Meteorological Department on Monday said a seasonal low lies over northeast Balochistan. Moderate monsoon currents are penetrating in central and upper parts of the country.
    Mainly hot and humid weather is expected in most plain areas of the country today. However, rain-thunderstorm with gusty winds is expected at scattered in places in Hazara, Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, Lahore divisions, Kashmir, while at isolated places in Malakand, Peshawar, Kohat, Sargodha, Faisalabad divisions, FATA, Islamabad, and Gilgit-Baltistan.
    Past weather
    The weather remained hot and humid in most parts of the country on Sunday. However, rain-thundershowers with gusty winds occurred at isolated places in Gujranwala division & Kashmir.
    Rainfall (mm) in the last 24-hours
    Punjab: Sialkot (Cantt 08, A/P 02), Kashmir: Rawalakot 12.
    Yesterday's highest maximum temperatures
    Nokkundi 46°C, Sibbi 45°C, Chillas 44°C, Larkana, D.I khan, Bhakkar 43 °C.


  21. Waqas Dar
    JIT head FIA Additional Director Wajid Zia at an earlier Supreme Court hearing. Photo: File  ISLAMABAD: The Panama case Joint Investigation Team (JIT) will submit its final report to the Supreme Court?s special implementation bench today.
    The JIT, formed on May 5 in light of the Supreme Court?s April 20 judgment, was tasked to ascertain the money trail of the Sharif family-owned properties in Park Lane, London.
    The members of the high-profile probe team were busy Sunday preparing the report, according to sources.
    Authorities have issued a red alert for the federal capital's Red Zone, where the Supreme Court is located, and strict security measures will be in place in light of the JIT?s report submission.
    Additional contingents of police and Rangers will be deployed both inside and outside the Supreme Court premises, officials said.
    In a last-ditch effort to press the Sharif family?s case, top Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz leaders addressed the media at separate events across the country on Sunday.
    Federal Minister for Railways Khawaja Saad Rafique was speaking to a gathering in Lahore, where he said that he knows who is playing against the ruling party. 
    Defence Minister Khawaja Asif addressed a gathering in Sialkot, where he demanded that the JIT proceedings should be made public so the entire nation should know what the JIT asked from the premier.

    Meanwhile, responding to the ministers' remarks, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan said the government ministers threatened not to accept the verdict of the Supreme Court, as they said the JIT report without the Qatari prince's statement is 'unacceptable' to them.
    Speaking to media on Sunday, the PTI chief expressed apprehensions that he sees a situation leading to an attack on the apex court developing, similar to the PML-N assault on the apex court in 1997.


  22. Waqas Dar
    ISTANBUL: Turkey's main opposition leader told a huge protest rally on Sunday that the country was living under dictatorship and pledged to keep challenging the crackdown launched by the authorities after last year's failed military coup.
    Addressing hundreds of thousands of people waving Turkish flags and banners demanding justice, Kemal Kilicdaroglu said his 25-day march from Ankara to Istanbul - culminating in Sunday's rally in Istanbul - was the first stage of a long campaign.
    "We will be breaking down the walls of fear," he told the crowd who gathered to welcome him at the end of his 425 km (265 mile) trek from the Turkish capital.
    Kilicdaroglu's protest march drew only modest support in its early days, but as more people joined him it grew into the biggest protest yet against the year-long, post-coup crackdown launched by President Tayyip Erdogan's ruling AK Party.
    "The last day of our Justice March is a new beginning, a new step," said Kilicdaroglu, a bespectacled, 68-year-old veteran politician. "Rights, law, justice," the crowd chanted back.
    He called on the government to lift a state of emergency enforced after the abortive July 2016 coup, release scores of journalists from prison and restore the independence of Turkey's courts.
    Kilicdaroglu, head of the secularist Republican People's Party (CHP), launched his protest last month after the jailing of a fellow parliamentarian for 25 years on spying charges.
    Enis Berberoglu was the first CHP lawmaker to be imprisoned in the purge. About 50,000 people have been arrested and 150,000 state workers including teachers, judges and soldiers, have been suspended.
    "The era we live in is a dictatorship," Kilicdaroglu said.
    AGAINST ONE-MAN RULE
    Rights groups and government critics say Turkey has been drifting toward authoritarianism for years, a process they say accelerated since the coup bid and a referendum in April which granted Erdogan stronger powers.
    The government says the crackdown and constitutional changes are necessary to address challenges and security threats.
    Erdogan criticised Kilicdaroglu when he launched his protest, saying justice should be sought in parliament, not on the street. He likened the protesters to those who carried out the attempted coup, saying they could face charges.
    But Kilicdaroglu said the opposition had no alternative because Turkey's courts had been politicised, "the powers of parliament have been seized" and the media had been muzzled.
    "There is only a single place for our demand for justice and that is the streets," he said.
    People in the crowd said they were heartened by the turnout.
    "This is now our future at stake," said Beyhan, a 50-year-old civil servant who declined to give her full name. "Seeing this crowd has made my hopes blossom."
    "We are here for justice and democracy. We are here because we are against one-man rule," she said. "There is no democracy, there is no freedom, even thinking is a crime."
    Samet Burak Sari, 21, a student at Marmara University, said he spent four weeks in prison because he described Erdogan as a terrorist on Twitter. He was released but his trial continues.
    He said Sunday's Istanbul rally was the third time the opposition had come together in large numbers - firstly in the 2013 protests in Istanbul's Gezi Park, then in April over the referendum which narrowly approved Erdogan's new powers.
    "Through this march again, people with varying opinions have come together for the third time. Things like this keep the public opposition alive," he said.




  23. Waqas Dar
    File KARACHI: The weather turned pleasant after parts of the metropolis received light showers in the wee hours of Monday.
    Several of those commuting on motorcycles slipped due to the slippery roads following the rain in various areas including Shahrah-e-Faisal, MA Jinnah Road.
    Areas of Gurumandir, Lasbela, Saddar, II Chundrigar, Urdu Bazar also experienced light showers.
    The overnight rain caused several roads across the city to flood up with water.
    According to Met office, the process of light drizzle could continue for next 24 hours, however, there is no chance of heavy rain in the metropolis.
    Moreover, dust-thunderstorm and light showers with gusty winds are expected at isolated places in Rawalpindi, Lahore, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Bahawalpur, Dera Ismail Khan, Sahiwal, Malakand, Hazara, Peshawar, Mardan, Kohat, FATA, Gilgit-Baltistan and Kashmir, according to Pakistan Meteorological Department.
    Light rain was forecasted for the Friday-Sunday period in some locales of Sindh and Balochistan.
    Heavy rain forecast in the north
    The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) has forecasted heavy rain in certain areas of northern Pakistan as well as Islamabad itself.
    The expectation for Tuesday through Thursday remains of light showers in various locales of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), FATA, Gilgit-Baltistan, and southern Punjab.
    Rivers and canals in Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, Dera Ghazi Khan, and Islamabad, alongside some areas of KP and Kashmir, are predicted to overflow due to the monsoon rains.
    Consequently, this is expected to flood the low-lying areas of Sindh and Punjab, as well as some parts of Balochistan.
    There is also a risk of landslides in Malakand, the Hazara division, Gilgit-Baltistan, and Kashmir.


  24. Waqas Dar
    A fast-moving wildfire burned overnight through thousands of acres of steep terrain near California's central coast, officials said on Sunday, as high temperatures and parched vegetation fuelled dozens of blazes in the US West and Southwest.
    The Alamo Fire has engulfed about 23,900 acres in the area of the border between San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties, a few miles from the city of Santa Maria, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire for short. That was up from 19,000 acres on Saturday evening.
    About 10 percent of the fire had been contained, Cal Fire said.
    On Saturday, hundreds of people were ordered to evacuate the remote canyons affected by the fire. No injuries have been reported. Hundreds of firefighters were trying to stop the fire from reaching wineries to the south and electric transmission lines to the southeast, Santa Barbara County officials said.
    The Alamo Fire was one of about 50 large uncontained fires burning in western states, the National Weather Service said on Sunday morning.
    A wave of scorching weather has hit California in recent days. On Saturday, a fire at an electrical power station in Los Angeles left 140,000 residents without power, after a second straight day marked by temperatures that exceeded 90 degrees (32 Celsius).




  25. Waqas Dar
    LAHORE: At least twenty kite flyers were arrested in a crackdown on Sunday by the police and cases were registered against them.
    Despite a ban on kite-flying in Lahore and frequent crackdown operations by the police since five months, some people still continue making and flying kites, while disobeying the law.
    According to police officials, in crackdown operations across various areas of Lahore, 20 kite flyers were arrested. The police also seized huge amounts of kites, rolls and strings, and registered cases against the suspects.
    DIG Operations Dr Haider Ashraf said kite flying will be strictly prohibited and action should be taken against those found violating the ban by flying or selling kites and the material associated with the activity. He also appealed that parents should discourage their children from participating in this dangerous activity.
    The ban on the selling and flying of kites will be maintained by any means, added police officials.
    Earlier, in May, at least three people were injured as youth in Lahore engaged in kite flying on weekend night, defying the ban.
    In Singhpura area, a 31-year-old man was injured after a kite string slit his neck and hand. The man, Qadeer, was shifted to Mayo Hospital, where he got six stitches on his neck.
    Ali Hassan, 25, and Abrar, 28, were also wounded in similar incidents in Dhobi Ghat and Railway Station areas. They were also shifted to Mayo Hospital.
    Citizens complained that violation of the ban on kite flying during night-time has become a routine in Salamatpura, Harbanspura, Journalist Colony and several other areas.
    In the past five months, over 300 kite flyers have been arrested from several areas of Lahore. Police also seized over 6,000 kites, rolls and strings.


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