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Waqas Dar

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Blog Entries posted by Waqas Dar

  1. Waqas Dar
    NEW YORK: A Netflix rally boosted the Nasdaq Composite to a record high on Tuesday while Goldman Sachs Group Inc dragged the Dow lower as earnings take center stage on Wall Street.
    The Nasdaq posted its eighth consecutive session of gains, the longest streak since its 10-day string in February 2015.
    The tech-heavy index was largely boosted by Netflix. The movie streaming company rose 13.5 percent to $183.60 a day after it crushed Wall Street forecasts by reporting 5.2 million new streaming customers in the second quarter.
    As the second-quarter earnings season gears up, investors will put most of their focus on the performance of individual companies, analysts said.
    "Earnings and guidance will move the market more than news out of D.C. Goldman is more important to the market today, as is Netflix, and that will be the case for the next couple of weeks," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Wunderlich Securities in New York.
    The Dow was dragged lower by a drop in Goldman Sachs, which fell 2.6 percent to $223.31 after reporting a 40 percent fall in bond trading revenue and posted the weakest commodities results in its history as a public company.
    Other widely held stocks were active after posting results.
    Johnson & Johnson gained 1.7 percent to $134.46 after saying expected sales growth to pick up in the second half of the year.
    Harley-Davidson Inc fell 5.9 percent to $48.95 after the motorcycle maker cut its forecast for 2017 shipments.
    Analysts estimate an 8.5 percent rise in second-quarter earnings and a 4.7 percent increase in revenue for S&P 500 companies from a year earlier.
    This follows a robust first quarter when U.S. companies posted the fastest rate of growth in earnings since 2011, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
    The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 54.99 points, or 0.25 percent, to 21,574.73, the S&P 500 gained 1.47 points, or 0.06 percent, to 2,460.61 and the Nasdaq Composite added 29.87 points, or 0.47 percent, to 6,344.31.
    Both the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 set record closing highs.
    The CBOE Volatility index ticked up to end at 9.89 on its fourth consecutive close below 10.
    U.S. Senate Republicans failed to muster enough votes to repeal the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare, but reaction was muted in the stock market. Analysts said the expectation for business-friendly legislation out of Washington is all but priced out of equities.
    "Investors are looking for an investment that doesn't need the economy to do a lot better, and (where) it doesn't need Washington," said Matthew Peterson, chief wealth strategist for LPL Financial.
    Technology was the largest percentage gainer among the 11 S&P 500 sectors. Healthcare ended up less than 0.1 percent.
    Despite the muted reaction from stocks, news of the healthcare bill's collapse sent the U.S. dollar to a 10-month low against a basket of major currencies.
    Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc was down 4.3 percent at $374.98 after it closed a restaurant in Virginia due to a suspected norovirus outbreak among some diners.
    Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 1.10-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.24-to-1 ratio favored decliners.
    About 5.70 billion shares changed hands in U.S. exchanges, compared with the 6.48 billion daily average over the last 20 sessions.


  2. Waqas Dar
    KARACHI: Two people were injured in a firing incident here in the Kuwari Colony area late Tuesday night, police sources said.

    The incident took place when the wounded showed resistance during a robbery attempt, security officials noted, adding that locals caught the suspect and beat him before he could be taken into custody.
    Of the wounded, one has been shifted to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital while the other has been moved to a private hospital on Stadium Road on the outskirts of Gulshan-e-Iqbal.
    Police recovered weapons from the detainee.
    On the other hand, two suspects were taken into custody during a search operation carried out in the metropolis' Gulberg area, security officers stated.
    Weapons, as well as a stolen motorcycle, were seized from the arrestees, Superintendent of Police (SP)-Gulberg added.
    Another search operation is currently underway in Orangi Town No. 6, SP Orangi Abid Ali Baloch mentioned.
    A door-to-door search is being carried out as part of the operation, the police official explained, adding that it was commenced over a tip alleging that criminals were present in the area.


  3. Waqas Dar
    WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin held a second, previously undisclosed conversation during a dinner for G20 leaders at a summit earlier this month in Germany, a White House official confirmed on Tuesday.
    The two leaders held a formal two-hour bilateral meeting on July 7 in which Trump later said Putin denied allegations that he directed efforts to meddle in the 2016 US presidential election.
    The White House official did not say how long the second meeting took place or what was discussed.
    The second conversation between Trump and Putin took place during a dinner for the Group of 20 heads of state and their spouses in Hamburg, said Ian Bremmer, the president of political risk consultancy Eurasia Group, who was first to report the meeting in a note to clients.
    Television coverage of the dinner showed that first lady Melania Trump was seated next to Putin.
    Bremmer said Trump got up from his seat halfway through dinner and spent about an hour talking "privately and animatedly" with Putin, "joined only by Putin's own translator."
    The lack of a US translator raised eyebrows among other leaders at the dinner, said Bremmer, who called it a "breach of national security protocol."
    Trump is under intense scrutiny by Congress and a special counsel investigating Russian interference into the 2016 presidential election, and probing whether Trump's campaign had ties to the activity. Trump has denied collusion between his campaign and Moscow.



  4. Waqas Dar
    File KARACHI: The weather turned pleasant after parts of Karachi received light rain in the wee hours of Wednesday.
    Several of those commuting late at night suffered skidding in their vehicles 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.


  5. Waqas Dar
    History -- some of it intensely personal -- leant heavily on Christopher Nolan when he was making his wartime epic "Dunkirk", which got ecstatic reviews from critics Tuesday.
    The English-born director of the "Batman" movies had longed for years to tackle the story of how a kind of victory was pulled from Britain's worst defeat of World War II.
    And given its string of five-star reviews it was worth the wait, with the Hollywood Reporter calling it "an impressionist masterpiece", The Guardian deeming it "his best film" while Variety -- blown-away by its "vertebrae-rattling" pace -- simply declared, "What an achievement it is!"
    Yet the film's setting could not be more sombre.
    With the cream of the British army trapped by a lightning German advance into northern France in May 1940, the country's new leader Winston Churchill was told they would be lucky to get 30,000 men out alive.
    But in nine days more than 10 times that number of British, French and Canadian troops were evacuated in what became known as the "Miracle of Dunkirk".
    Many were plucked from the beaches by a flotilla of "little ships" crewed by civilians who answered the call to cross the Channel.
    Their courage came home to Nolan and his wife, producer Emma Thomas, when they crossed the same stretch of water in a small boat in what he described as "one of the most difficult and frankly dangerous experiences of my life."
    "It drove home to us how heroic this was," Thomas told AFP. "And no one was shooting or dropping bombs on us."
    "I grew up in a household where the war was very important," Nolan added.
    Grandfather's grave

    "My grandfather (Francis Thomas Nolan) was a navigator on a Lancaster bomber and he died near here in 1944. While we were shooting the film I took the children to see his grave. Seeing my own grandfather and the rest of his crew in a communal grave, you realise the concept of entertainment and war is a very tricky thing."
    Which is why "Dunkirk" -- despite its relentless high-octane score and action scenes -- is not "really a war film", he said.
    Indeed Nolan wanted to turn it into a "survival story... and to create a different feeling and rhythm to what people have ever seen or experienced before in a cinema."
    "The leads at the heart of the film are kids," he told AFP, including the pop star Harry Styles of One Direction fame.
    "You are not expecting them to take on the German army. When you see the young soldier played by Fionn Whitehead at the beginning (fleeing German fire) you just want this guy to be OK. You don't have a problem with him dropping his rifle and running. Because that is what you would have done."
    For a while, Nolan -- who is known for his technical and narrative daring -- toyed with even making "Dunkirk" "almost as a silent film", driven by "pictures and sound effects rather than dialogue".
    Brexit bombshell

    "I was looking for ecstatic truth of what happened" to the hundreds of thousands of men left stranded like sitting ducks on the beach.
    "I was trying to make pure cinema," he said, using huge IMAX cameras and shooting with 70mm film -- twice the size of the usual format -- to make the "experience overwhelmingly real".
    Rather than relying on special effects, Nolan shot on, above and off the very beaches where the evacuation took place with real World War II planes and warships.
    Some of the original "little ships" which picked the soldiers up were also pressed back into service.
    The gargantuan production starring Cillian Murphy, Kenneth Branagh and Mark Rylance even involved rebuilding the one kilometre-long (1,093-yard) breakwater called The Mole, from which thousands of troops were taken onto larger ships.
    "I think we had the largest marine unit ever used in a film," Nolan added. "At one point we had 60-plus boats in the water," including three former minesweepers, a destroyer and a hospital ship.
    Storms played havoc with the "arduous" shoot, ripping chunks out of The Mole. But Nolan said they also gave him "incredible images that you couldn't plan or fake."
    And then as filming reached its climax last year came the Brexit bombshell. Suddenly the prospect of another retreat from Europe gave the film an unexpected and unwanted political resonance.
    Nolan said that "like most British people we didn't think Brexit would happen".
    With the idea of Britain alone against the world again in the air, he warned against "the Dunkirk spirit" being abused.
    "Dunkirk is always being used by politicians as a symbol of something. But whenever anyone tries to link it with contemporary politics they are flying in the face of the fact that it happened in 1940," he said.


  6. Waqas Dar
    US President Donald Trump speaks about the Senate health care bill during a lunch with members of the US military in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, DC, July 18, 2017. AFP/Saul Loeb  WASHINGTON: An angry President Donald Trump railed Tuesday against dissenters in his party who dashed his months-long effort to dismantle his predecessor's landmark health care law, as moderates baulked at the latest Republican plan to scrap Obamacare.

    With several efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA) now squashed, the Senate's top Republican said he would forge ahead with what could be a last-gasp vote ? on a new plan to kill off most of the 2010 reforms of Trump's predecessor without a replacement at the ready.
    Four Republicans had lined up against Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's earlier health overhaul, flat-lining it in the chamber, where the party could afford only two defectors in order to get the measure passed.
    McConnell announced a fresh effort aimed at repealing Obamacare now and crafting a replacement later. But that too ran into opposition from at least three Republicans who refused to support repealing the law without a suitable fix at the ready.
    The Republican leader nonetheless prepared to force a vote to see where his members stood on the repeal-only measure.
    "That's a vote I think we're very likely to have in the very near future," McConnell told reporters.
    No date was given, but number two Republican John Cornyn said he expected it this week.
    The dramatic implosion effectively means that Trump, who marks his first half-year in office Thursday, has no major legislative victory in hand, squandering months of political capital.
    Trump fired off a morning tweet storm complaining about how he was "let down" by Democrats "and a few Republicans" opposed to the repeal.
    He had campaigned relentlessly on a pledge to abolish most of the ACA, proclaiming at an October campaign rally that it would be "so easy" to immediately repeal and replace the law.
    But he has run into the uncompromising reality of American politics: even with a president's party enjoying a majority in both chambers, crafting and passing landmark legislation can be perilous in the US Congress.
    The White House insisted that success remained within reach, with deputy spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders saying "we are not done with the health care battle."
    But Trump said he was "disappointed," and repeatedly offered that now it would be easier to just "let Obamacare fail."
    He also stressed he wanted nothing to do with the blame for the collapse.
    "We're not going to own it. I'm not going to own it. I can tell you the Republicans are not going to own it," he said.
    "We'll let Obamacare fail and then the Democrats are going to come to us" looking to work on a solution.
    'Time to start over'
    McConnell's new bid would repeal much of Obamacare outright, but with a two-year delay of implementation, in order to allow Congress time to craft a replacement.
    A straight repeal bill passed Congress in 2015. That was during Obama's presidency, and Republicans knew they would pay no political price for their votes, as Obama vetoed the measure.
    It is no longer a dress rehearsal, and some Republicans are clearly concerned they would be on the hook for any ensuing disruption to the health care system.
    Two years ago, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office warned that simply repealing Obamacare would essentially kick 18 million people off health care in the first year compared to current law, a figure that would balloon to 32 million by 2026.
    That is far worse than the 22 million that the CBO forecast would lose coverage under the latest repeal-and-replace legislation.
    With a number of Senate Republican moderates voicing concern about how the latest bill could adversely impact millions of people insured through Medicaid, the health coverage program for the poor and the disabled, McConnell's bid floundered.
    "I cannot vote to repeal Obamacare without a replacement plan that addresses my concerns and the needs of West Virginians," Senator Shelley Moore Capito said in a statement.
    Her state has significant numbers of residents on Medicaid.
    Another Republican opposed to the new plan, Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, acknowledged that McConnell had the nearly impossible task of corralling enough votes from his caucus' rival conservative and moderate factions.
    "The majority leader is trying to keep all the frogs in the wheelbarrow, and it's a tough job," Murkowski said.
    While Democrats celebrated, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer extended an olive branch to his Republican rivals and encouraged them to work with Democrats to improve Obamacare.
    "It's time to move on. It's time to start over" on health care, he said.
    Meanwhile, a bipartisan group of 11 governors urged the Senate to "immediately reject" the repeal-only effort and work with state executives on bettering the current system.
    "The best next step is for both parties to come together and do what we can all agree on: fix our unstable insurance markets," said the governors, including Ohio's John Kasich ? a 2016 Republican presidential hopeful ? and Democrat Terry McAuliffe of Virginia.


  7. Waqas Dar
    This picture, taken in Paris on December 4, 1996, shows the President of the UDF party Francois Leotard, who was charged before the Cour de justice de la Republique (CJR) in the so-called Karachi case ? an alleged arms deal kickbacks said to have funded the presidential campaign of Edouard Balladur in 1995 ? sources from the judiciary said on July 18, 2017. AFP/Jacques Brinon and Pascal Pavani/File Photo  PARIS: Former French defence minister Francois Leotard has been placed under formal investigation in a probe into an arms corruption scandal dating to the 1990s, a source close to the inquiry said Tuesday.

    Leotard, 75, was questioned on July 4 over suspected "complicity in abuse of social assets", the source said, confirming a report in Canard Enchaine, the satirical and political news weekly.
    Leotard becomes the second former minister to be placed under formal investigation, a status roughly equivalent to being indicted, after ex-premier Edouard Balladur.
    The probe centres on a web of corruption behind the 1994 sale of submarines to Pakistan and frigates to Saudi Arabia, with suspicions that kickbacks went to fund Balladur's presidential bid in 1995.
    The investigation is being carried out by the Court of Justice of the Republic (CJR), a court specially set up to probe cases of ministerial misconduct.
    Magistrates are also probing whether a 2002 Karachi bombing that killed 11 French engineers was revenge for the cancellation of bribes secretly promised to Pakistani officials.


  8. Waqas Dar
    CALGARY: Canada was deploying military aircraft and Australia was sending 50 firefighters to battle rapidly spreading wildfires in British Columbia that have forced 39,000 people from their homes, federal Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said on Monday.
    Goodale told reporters the western Canadian province had made two requests of the federal government for military assistance to fight the fires, which he said were expected to worsen.
    The military has sent two planes and five helicopters to help with evacuations and transportation for first responders, according to the Department of National Defence.
    British Columbia chief fire information officer Kevin Skrepnek said in a conference call the Australians were due to arrive on Wednesday.
    There were 159 fires across the province in an area between 150 km (95 miles) to 350 km (217 miles) northeast of Vancouver, including 17 new ones, although the total numbers were down slightly from 162 on Sunday, Skrepnek said. No casualties have been reported.


  9. Waqas Dar
    Marvel Comics co-creator Stan Lee places his handprints in cement during a ceremony in the forecourt of the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles, California, US, July 18, 2017. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni LOS ANGELES: Stan Lee ? whose Marvel superheroes have dominated popular culture for half a century ? was honoured Tuesday when he plunged his hands and feet into cement at Hollywood's TCL Chinese Theatre.
    In a typically colourful comment, the 94-year-old comic book legend ? whose characters include Spider-Man, the Hulk, Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor ? joked that he "would have asked for a raise" if he'd known how good he was.
    "I've been the luckiest man in the world because I've had friends. And to have the right friends is everything ? people you can depend on, people who tell you the truth if you ask for something," he said.
    He paid emotional tribute to his "wonderful" wife of nearly 70 years, Joan, who died less than two weeks ago at age 93.
    It has been a poignant week for Lee, who was honoured as a Disney Legend during the D23 Expo in Anaheim on Friday, where he delivered a rousing speech and received a standing ovation.
    Born Stanley Martin Lieber on December 28, 1922, in New York, he began his career in 1939 as an assistant at Timely Comics with such duties as getting lunch, filling inkwells and proofreading.
    His first published work was a text filler for Captain America No. 3, published in 1941. He wrote under the name Stan Lee, which would later become his legal name, revealing in his autobiography that he intended to save his given name for more literary work.
    Lee was named interim editor of Timely Comics in 1941. He became editor-in-chief for what would evolve into Marvel Comics in 1961 and was named publisher in 1972.
    More than two million of Lee's comic books have been published in 75 nations and in 25 languages, and he is responsible for creating or co-creating 90 percent of Marvel Comics' characters.
    They have been featured in 24 animated television series and numerous live-action movies. 


  10. Waqas Dar
    This photo from April 1, 2012, shows eyewear that meshes the online world with the real world. AFP/Google/File Photo  SAN FRANCISCO: After spending two years on the sidelines, Google Glass' Internet-linked eyewear is back in the game ? this time aimed at helping workers do their jobs.
    General Electric, Volkswagen, and Boeing are among more than 50 businesses taking part in testing a Glass Enterprise Edition in a limited program, project lead Jay Kothari said Tuesday in a blog post.
    Three years ago, an Explorer program let developers and other "early adopters" try out the glasses, in an early test of potential business applications. But that initiative was eventually put on ice in 2015.
    "Workers in many fields, like manufacturing, logistics, field services, and health care find it useful to consult a wearable device for information and other resources while their hands are busy," Kothari said.
    The team at Glass, which is back to being part of the X lab innovative new technologies unit at Google-parent Alphabet, has spent the past two years customising the eyewear for workers.
    Feedback from businesses taking part in the program has prompted a decision to make Glass Enterprise Edition available to more companies, according to Kothari.
    Financial details of the program were not disclosed.
    After the Explorer program ended, corporate restructuring put the division devoted to "moonshots" such as Internet-linked eyewear and self-driving cars under corporate parent Alphabet.
    Glass ? hotly anticipated by some, mocked by others ? became available in the United States in early 2014 to anyone with $1,500 to spare and a desire to become an "explorer".
    The Glass test ? or beta ? program was later expanded to Britain.
    Glass connected to the Internet using Wi-Fi hot spots or, more typically, by being wirelessly tethered to mobile phones. Pictures or video could be shared through the Google+ social network.
    Google faced a challenge to burnish the image of the consumer version of Glass, which triggered concerns about privacy since the devices are capable of capturing pictures and video.
    A mixed reality market has since begun to blossom.
    HTC, Sony, and Facebook-owned Oculus compete with virtual reality gear, and Microsoft has unveiled HoloLens augmented reality visors that hold promise for workplace applications.


  11. Waqas Dar
    Police raided the headquarters of Spain's football federation on Tuesday and arrested its president Angel Maria Villar as part of an anti-corruption probe.
    Villar, 67, a senior vice president of FIFA, world football's governing body, was being held on suspicion of abusing his position to embezzle funds from the federation, among other charges, a judicial source said.
    FIFA declined to comment on the arrest, with a spokesman saying it was an "internal affair" for Spain despite Villar's years as a top international football administrator.
    His son Gorka along with federation vice president and financial chief Juan Padron were also held in connection with the probe which notably focuses on allegations of skimming profits from international matches, the source told AFP.
    An investigating magistrate from Spain's political and financial crimes court is leading the investigation into allegations of "collusion, fraud, embezzlement and presumed forgery."
    Police who carried out raids on the federation headquarters in the upscale Madrid suburb of Las Rozas and other locations said that Villar is suspected of organising international football matches as part of a scheme to embezzle funds for the benefit of his son.
    Spanish media said a friendly between Spain and South Korea held in June 2016 is among the matches that are believed to have been staged as part of the scheme.
    Police agents escorted Villar, who was dressed in casual clothes, into the federation offices several hours after he was arrested.
    Spanish government spokesman Inigo Mendez de Vigo told public television in response to the Villar arrest that "no-one is untouchable and everyone must obey the law".
    Villar, a former acting president and current vice president of UEFA, which runs European football, has headed the Spanish federation since 1988.
    He was reelected unopposed for an eighth term in May.
    Following his re-election in May, El Pais newspaper denounced his "despotic" management and bemoaned his close ties to FIFA and UEFA leaders embroiled in corruption probes.
    Ethical questions

    His son Gorka Villar is a former director general of CONMEBOL, the South American football confederation, a post he quit in July last year. He also served on a FIFA advisory panel aimed at reforming the organisation mired in corruption allegations.
    Villar senior has overseen a glorious period in the Spanish national team's history as they won three consecutive major tournaments, triumphing at Euro 2008 and 2012 either side of a first ever World Cup in South Africa in 2010.
    But his critics say his period in charge has also been undermined by ethical questions and an autocratic management style.
    Javier Tebas, the head of the Spanish league, has had a long-running feud with Villar and refers to him as a feudal baron.
    Villar survived the massive corruption scandal that engulfed FIFA in 2015 and ultimately led to the downfall of former president Sepp Blatter.
    He rose to become stand-in UEFA head for almost a year from October 2015 when Michel Platini was fighting to keep his job before he was banned from football for corruption.
    But the former Athletic Bilbao midfielder, capped 22 times for Spain, has been dogged by ethical issues over the years.
    He has been under investigation after the federation received a 1.2 million euros ($1.4 million) subsidy to set up a football academy in Haiti that was never built. The federation returned the money but the plan is still the subject of court proceedings.
    In early 2016 the government's sports council also ordered the opening of a disciplinary probe into his alleged misconduct in dealings with a third division club.
    Most notably he was fined 25,000 Swiss francs ($25,700) by FIFA's ethics committee in 2015 for failing to cooperate during an investigation into the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar respectively.


  12. Waqas Dar
    Zion Harvey says he looks forward to being able to throw a football with his own hands. AFP via Children's Hospital of Philadelphia  WASHINGTON: The first child in the world to undergo a double hand transplant is now able to write, feed, and dress himself, doctors said Tuesday, declaring the ground-breaking operation a success after 18 months.

    The report in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health provides the first official medical update on 10-year old Zion Harvey, who underwent surgery to replace both hands in July 2015.
    "Eighteen months after the surgery, the child is more independent and able to complete day-to-day activities," said Sandra Amaral, a doctor at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, where the operation took place.
    "[Zion Harvey] continues to improve as he undergoes daily therapy to increase his hand function, and psychosocial support to help deal with the ongoing demands of his surgery."
    Harvey had his hands and feet amputated at the age of two, following a sepsis infection. He also had a kidney transplant.
    The child was already receiving drugs to suppress any immune reaction to his kidney, which was a key factor in his selection for the 10-plus hour hand transplant surgery.
    Immunosuppressive drugs must be taken continuously to prevent a patient's body from rejecting the transplant. These drugs carry risks, including diabetes, cancer, and infections.
    Doctors reviewed both the successes and challenges Harvey and his family have faced, noting that a large team of specialists was hard at work supporting them through all the ups and downs.
    The child has "undergone eight rejections of the hands, including serious episodes during the fourth and seventh months of his transplant", said the report.
    "All of these were reversed with immunosuppression drugs without impacting the function of the child's hands."
    Harvey continues to take four immunosuppression drugs and a steroid.
    "While functional outcomes are positive and the boy is benefitting from his transplant, this surgery has been very demanding for this child and his family," said Amaral.
    Post-surgery progress
    Before the double hand transplant, Harvey had "limited ability to dress, feed, and wash himself through adapted processes, using his residual limbs or specialist equipment," said the report.
    His mother hoped he would one day be able to dress himself, brush his teeth, and cut up his own food.
    For his part, Harvey wanted to climb monkey bars and grip a baseball bat.
    The donor's hands became available in July 2015 from a deceased child.
    Within days of the surgery, Harvey discovered he could move his fingers, using the ligaments from his residual limbs.
    "Regrowth of the nerves meant that he could move the transplanted hand muscles and feel touch within around six months when he also became able to feed himself and grasp a pen to write," said the report.
    Eight months after the operation, Harvey was using scissors and drawing with crayons.
    Within a year, he could swing a baseball bat using both hands.
    He also threw out the first pitch at a Baltimore Orioles game last August.
    Regular meetings with a psychologist and a social worker were part of the recovery process, aimed at helping him cope with his new hands.
    Scans have shown his brain is adapting to the new hands, developing new pathways to control movement and feel sensations.
    Researchers cautioned that more study is needed before hand transplants in children become widespread.
    "The world's first double hand transplant in a child has been successful under carefully considered circumstances," said the report.
    The first successful hand transplant in an adult was completed in 1998.


  13. Waqas Dar
    KARACHI: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Talal Chaudhry, speaking with regard to Panama Leaks case, has said that it is not possible to punish the prime minister on the basis of his family.

    Speaking on Geo News' program 'Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Kay Sath', Talal said the grandson in Sharif family has accounted for his grandfather and even if there occurred a mistake on someone's part, then the law does not state that Nawaz Sharif is to be punished for that.
    "The way Sharif family has accounted for there is no example of it. And no one is held accountable for what his relatives did, that too when the latter is no longer alive," he maintained.
    The PML-N leader, however, said that if there was some tax evasion then the burden of proof lies on PM Nawaz Sharif. He reiterated that audio, video recording of JIT proceedings should be made public.
    Asked about opening of volume 10 of the JIT report, he said that his party has requested in writing to open it.


  14. Waqas Dar
    ISLAMABAD: The counsel for Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Khawaja Harris Ahmed, will resume his arguments on Wednesday in the Supreme Court in the ongoing Panama Papers case. 
    Counsel for the premier's children, Salman Akram Raja, is also expected to initiate his arguments on the third day. 
    Earlier on Tuesday, the three-member special Supreme Court bench hearing the case observed that it would examine all the material and then decide on disqualifying the premier or sending the matter to an accountability court.
    The bench resumed hearing the case after the petitioners presented their arguments in favour of the Joint Investigation Team?s (JIT) final report a day earlier.

    Previous hearing
    On Monday, the petitioners delivered their arguments in favour of the Panama case JIT report and against the Sharif family.
    The counsels for the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and Sheikh Rashid presented their arguments during Monday?s proceedings.
    PTI counsel Naeem Bukhari pleaded with the apex court to summon Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for cross examination, disqualify him from Parliament and send cases against him and his family to an accountability court.
    The counsel for JI argued that the premier did not speak the truth during his speech in Parliament.
    Sheikh Rashid, presenting his arguments, said the nation was embarrassed to find out its prime minister is a paid employer of another company.
    In his brief remarks to the bench on Monday, the Sharif family's lawyer said a case against the Sharif family cannot be undertaken on the basis of the JIT report.
    The bench observed that an investigation was required based on the nature of the allegations and was thus directed. "The JIT was not conducting a trial...choose you words carefully," observed Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed.
    Later, the bench adjourned the hearing, with Justice Ejaz observing that they do not wish to waste the court and the nation's time.
    The JIT, formed in light of the apex court?s April 20 judgment to probe the Sharif family?s money trail, submitted its 60-day investigation report to the court on July 10.
    The report highlighted the failure of the Sharif family to provide a money trail for its London apartments and claimed the prime minister and his children own assets beyond their known sources of income.
    Following the report's submission, the special bench issued notices to all parties to submit their responses. 


  15. Waqas Dar
    Coldplay hailed the contributions of immigrants to the United States as the English rockers released a video for a new song, "Miracles (Someone Special)."

    Without any explicit reference to President Donald Trump and his crackdown on immigration, Coldplay made clear that the history of the United States goes beyond people of European heritage.
    The video starts with a wall of old photos. The shot zooms in to show immigrants arriving at Ellis Island, the station in New York Harbor through which 40 percent of Americans trace lineage.
    The videos intersperses black-and-white pictures of European immigrants with new Americans of other backgrounds, starting with a family of turbaned Sikhs.
    "You could be someone special / You've got fire in your eyes, I see Heaven inside / You'll go further than we've ever gone," frontman Chris Martin sings on the mid-tempo pop track led by keyboards.
    Rapper Big Sean contributes a verse in which he speaks of the struggle to earn a stable living in contemporary America.
    The video opens and closes with a child lying in a bosom of the shape of the Statue of Liberty, which is within sight of Ellis Island.
    The video came out over the weekend after the song appeared on Coldplay's EP, "Kaleidoscope," which was released Friday.
    It is the second song to raise social issues from the five-track EP by Coldplay, which has long been active on humanitarian causes.
    Coldplay earlier this month released the track "Aliens" after performing at the Global Citizen concert against global poverty on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Hamburg.
    The band said proceeds from "Aliens" would support a charity that rescues migrants attempting the perilous trip across the Mediterranean into Europe.
    Coldplay, one of the most successful rock bands of the early 21st century, released "Kaleidoscope" two years after "A Head Full of Dreams," which the band had hinted could be its final full-length album.


  16. Waqas Dar
    The US slapped fresh sanctions on Iran Tuesday over its ballistic missile program, just hours after Washington admitted the Islamic Republic was complying with a landmark nuclear deal signed two years ago.
    Iran's parliament retaliated by voting for extra funding for the missile program, a move that speaker Ali Larijani said would show the Americans that Iran "will resist them with all its power."
    The heightened tensions came after President Donald Trump was forced to back off from a key campaign promise to withdraw from a 2015 nuclear accord with Tehran, which eased sanctions in return for limiting its ability to produce material for atomic weapons.
    Trump had described it as "the worst deal ever" and accused Iran of continuing to back terrorism in the Middle East. But on Monday the White House admitted that the Islamic Republic was sticking to the nukes agreement.
    It noted, however, that while Iran might be meeting its requirements on paper, it was ?unquestionably in default of the spirit" of the accord.
    In announcing the new sanctions against 18 individuals and entities in Iran, the State Department said it "remains deeply concerned about Iran's malign activities across the Middle East which undermine regional stability, security, and prosperity."
    It cited Iran's support for Hezbollah, Hamas, the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Huthi rebels in Yemen fighting a US-backed coalition led by Saudi Arabia.
    In addition to earmarking an additional $260 million for its ballistic missile program, Iran's parliament also agreed Tuesday to allot a similar amount to the Revolutionary Guards' foreign operations wing, the Quds Force, accused by Washington of fomenting unrest across the region.
    The Pentagon has also repeatedly voiced concern over a string of high-profile incidents in waters off Iran involving Iranian vessels.
    It has accused the Revolutionary Guards of conducting risky maneuvers around US warships in the Gulf, some of which resulted in the Americans firing warning shots.
    "These sanctions target procurement of advanced military hardware, such as fast attack boats and unmanned aerial vehicles, and send a strong signal that the United States cannot and will not tolerate Iran?s provocative and destabilizing behavior," said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
    Washington is also concerned about the fate of Xiyue Wang, a 37-year-old Chinese-American researcher at Princeton University who was recently sentenced to 10 years in Iranian prison.
    Iran pushback
    While the US complained about Iran's defiance of the spirit of the nuclear accord, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said he would make his own complaints about US non-compliance when representatives of the five nuclear powers - China, Russia, France, Britain, the United States - plus Germany meet in Vienna on Friday to take stock of the deal.
    Zarif accused the Trump administration of failing to lift sanctions in line with the deal.
    He said he had no communication with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, in stark contrast to his predecessor John Kerry, with whom Zarif negotiated the groundbreaking nuclear deal.
    "It doesn't mean there can't be. The possibilities for engagement... have always been open," said Zarif in New York, where he was attending a UN forum on development.
    He said he was willing to discuss Wang's case "on humanitarian grounds" but stressed that Iran's courts were independent of the government.
    Trump and his top security officials have always taken a tough line on Iran: his defense secretary, Jim Mattis, fought Iranian-backed militias during the US occupation of Iraq while serving as a Marine general, and memories are still fresh of Hezbollah's attack on the Marine Corps barracks in Lebanon in 1983.


  17. Waqas Dar
    ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday held a meeting with a delegation from Qatar led by Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammad bin Abdulrehman Al-Thani here and discussed bilateral relations and the Middle East situation.
    Al-Thani apprised the prime minister of Qatar?s stance on demands put forward by Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain to end the Arab countries? boycott of Qatar.
    Saudi Arabia, Gulf states cut ties with Qatar; Iran blames Trump
    Egypt, Bahrain, UAE all accuse Qatar of supporting terrorism, extremism; Qatar denies charges
    He also informed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif about efforts by the Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Jaber-al-Sabah to end the dispute, which were praised by the premier.
    The prime minister on the occasion said that Pakistan and Qatar enjoy brotherly relations and that good relations with Gulf countries are a priority for Pakistan. He also emphasised on the need to work together to resolve the Gulf crisis.
    Al-Thani vowed to further strengthen relations between Qatar and Pakistan and thanked the prime minister for his efforts to resolve the Gulf crisis.



  18. Waqas Dar
    A virtual reality "space ride" in which viewers feel as if they are flying through the air inside a giant glass ball has been developed in Japan.
    Unlike conventional VR systems, the "8K:VR Ride" - which resembles a cross between a theme park ride and a miniature IMAX theatre - does not require users to wear any headgear.
    Instead they are placed on two swiveling, elevated chairs just in front of a semi-spherical screen which entirely engulfs their field of vision.
    "Unlike the conventional flat screen, you can see images coming closer to you physically in this dome screen," said Makoto Nakahira, an engineer at Wonder Vision Techno Laboratory.
    "This is a system in which you can experience visuals that you have never seen before."
    The experimental technology was unveiled to Japanese media for the first time on Tuesday before a scheduled showing at Japan's Digital Content Expo 2017 in October.
    Its name refers to the screen's super-high definition 8K technology, which is 16 times more detailed than most current HD images.
    Wonder Vision co-developed the system with Japan-based NHK Enterprises and NHK Media Technology - both affiliated with public broadcaster NHK - and RecoChoku Labo.
    The space ride was first showcased at SXSW 2017, a major conference on convergence in the interactive, film and music industries, in Austin, Texas in March.
    The system features a hemispherical theatre known as Sphere 5.2 -- a screen 5.2 metres (17 feet) wide, 3.4 metres tall and 2.6 metres deep.


  19. Waqas Dar
    DUBAI: The Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen prevented a UN flight carrying aid agency staff from traveling to the Houthi-controled capital Sanaa on Tuesday because three international journalists were also aboard, aviation sources said.
    The coalition, which intervened in the Yemen conflict in 2015 in support of the internationally recognised government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, controls the airspace over Yemen and can prevent any flights made without prior permission.
    Aviation sources said the flight was prevented from taking off from Djibouti to Sanaa because three BBC journalists were on it.
    A United Nations spokesman confirmed the report.
    "The coalition claimed that the security of the journalists could not be guaranteed in areas under militants' control and advised the three journalists to travel on commercial flights," said Ahmed Ben Lassoued, a spokesman for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Yemen.
    "It's unfortunate and partially explains why Yemen, which is one of the world's largest humanitarian crises, is not getting enough attention in international media," he added.
    A source in the coalition said that the Yemeni government was the only party entitled to issue visas for foreigners and that entry must be made via commercial flights through Aden airport, which is under its control.
    "The United Nations is not concerned with transporting journalists, except those who are coming to cover its own activities," a source in the coalition said, adding that the U.N. must ensure the journalists safety and make sure they do not carry out any other activity.
    US-based humanitarian agency CARE International said its Secretary-General Wolfgang Jamann was scheduled to fly to Sanaa for a first-hand look at a cholera outbreak that has killed nearly 1,800 people since April.
    "This is the only way in and out of Sanaa," said Wael Ibrahim, CARE country director in Yemen said.
    The impoverished Arab country has been devastated by the war, which has killed more than 10,000 people and displaced more than 3 million.
    "The lack of coverage is also hindering humanitarians' effort to draw the attention of the international community and donors to the humanitarian catastrophe the country is experiencing," Ben Lassoued said.


  20. Waqas Dar
    Photo: AFP A couple that disappeared in the Alps 75 years ago has been found preserved in a receding glacier, ending decades of uncertainty for their seven children, Swiss media reported Tuesday.
    The bodies were found lying near each other in the Diablerets massif in southern Switzerland, along with backpacks, a bottle, a book and a watch, according to Le Matin daily.
    The head of the Glacier 3000 ski resort, Bernard Tschannen, told Le Matin that the bodies were found last Thursday.
    "It was a man and a woman wearing clothes from the last (world) war", Tschannen was quoted as saying. "The ice preserved them perfectly and their belongings were intact".
    Tschannen told the paper that the couple had likely fallen into a crevasse.
    A DNA search has been planned to definitively establish their identities, but Le Matin quoted Marceline Dumoulin as saying she believed the remains were of her parents, who went missing on August 15, 1942.
    Marcelin Dumoulin, a 40-year-old shoemaker at the time, and his wife Francine, a schoolteacher aged 37, had left their village of Chandolin to graze their cattle in the mountainside.
    Searches were carried out for more than two months but ultimately the seven orphans -- five boys and two girls -- were placed in foster homes.
    "We spent our whole lives searching for them, without stopping. We never thought we´d be able to give them the funeral they deserved," Marceline Dumoulin, who was four when her parents went missing, told Le Matin. 


  21. Waqas Dar
    NEWYORK: Uber Technologies Inc was sued on Tuesday by disability rights groups that said th ride-sharing company violates New York City human rights laws by failing to make enough of its vehicles accessible to disabled people.
    The proposed class-action complaint accused Uber of "pervasive and ongoing discrimination" because people in wheelchairs can use only a few dozen of its more than 58,000 vehicles in the city.
    Given Uber´s growing popularity, this "substantially undermines" the benefits of New York City´s prior commitment to make half of its yellow taxis wheelchair-accessible by 2020, the complaint said.
    "Riders either face very long wait times or can´t get rides at all," Rebecca Serbin, a staff attorney for Disability Rights Advocates, said in an interview.
    "The human rights law reflects the City Council´s commitment to accessibility.
    Uber is flagrantly violating that law.
    "Uber had no immediate comment, having yet to review the complaint filed in state Supreme Court in Manhattan.
    According to the complaint, Uber offers wheelchair-accessible rides through its UberWAV service, but fewer than 100 vehicles in its city fleet provide it.
    The case follows lawsuits in Chicago and Washington accusing Uber of violating other laws protecting the disabled.
    It adds to problems affecting the San Francisco-based company, which has been beset by complaints about its workplace culture, a federal inquiry into software to help drivers avoid police, and an intellectual property lawsuit by Waymo, the self-driving car unit of Google parent Alphabet Inc.
    Tuesday´s lawsuit was brought by the Brooklyn Center for Independence for the Disabled (BCID), Disabled in Action of Metropolitan New York, and the Taxis for All Campaign.
    Two other plaintiffs are Gabriela Amari of Brooklyn and Valerie Joseph of Queens Village in the city´s Queens borough, who use wheelchairs and say they want to use Uber vehicles but cannot.
    Both work for BCID. Neither was immediately available for comment.
    The complaint seeks to require Uber to implement a plan "to ensure full and equal access to its services for riders who require accessible transportation.


  22. Waqas Dar
    Beirut: More than a dozen Syrian militants have died in hit-and-run clashes with a US-backed alliance dominated by Kurdish forces in the country´s north, a monitoring group said Tuesday.
    The Turkish-backed rebels were locked in a second day of fighting on Tuesday with units from the Syrian Democratic Forces around the village of Ain Daqna.
    "Since Monday, 15 fighters from Syrian rebel factions were killed in the clashes and four SDF fighters were wounded, including one in critical condition," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said.
    Ain Daqna, in Aleppo province, has been held by the US-backed SDF since February.
    It lies on a sliver of land contested by the SDF and Turkish-backed rebels.
    A local official from the Kurdish People´s Protection Units (YPG) which make up the bulk of the SDF, said his forces had retrieved some of the militants´ bodies.
    "We will hand over these nine bodies to the Kurdish Red Crescent in Afrin (west) for their families to retrieve them," Brusk Hasakeh said in a statement distributed to journalists.
    Turkish-backed rebels fighting under the banner of "Ahl al-Diyar" said in a statement Monday they had attacked Ain Daqna because they see the SDF as "occupiers."
    "We promise our people more flash attacks... We will make them regret occupying this land and displacing thousands," it read.
    Syria´s conflict erupted in March 2011 with anti-government protests, but it has since evolved into a complex civil war drawing in regional powers.
    Turkey has backed rebels in Syria´s north to take on both the Islamic State group and the YPG.
    Ankara considers the YPG a terrorist group and the Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Workers´ Party (PKK), which has waged an insurgency inside Turkey since 1984.
    That places it at odds with Washington over the United States´ support for the SDF, which is fighting to oust IS from its Syrian stronghold of Raqa.
    Rights groups including Amnesty International have accused the YPG of razing villages and displacing residents in northern Syria, which the militia has denied. 


  23. Waqas Dar
    ISLAMABAD: The Senate has recommended the immediate removal of Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) Chairman Zafar Hijazi from his post, read a draft resolution signed by 40 members on Tuesday, following registration of a case against him relating to Panama Leaks case.

    The special bench of the Supreme Court, overseeing the implementation of the Panama case verdict, had on July 10 ordered registration of FIR against Hijazi for tampering official records.
    The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in its report had identified the SECP chief as the culprit behind changing records of the Chaudhry Sugar Mills, owned by the Sharif family, to help their case.
    SC orders registration of case against SECP chairman
    Special implementation bench adjourns hearing till Monday next
    Record tampering case: Court approves SECP chairman?s pre-arrest bail
    SECP chairman has been granted five-day bail against two surety bonds worth Rs250,000 each
    The upper house, however, today recommended that Hijazi should immediately be removed from his office. It has been learnt that a resolution seeking removal of the SECP chief will be tabled in the Senate on Wednesday.
    On Monday, a lower court approved Hijazi?s five-day pre-arrest bail against two surety bonds worth Rs250,000 each.
    He was earlier granted a transit bail by the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on July 13.


  24. Waqas Dar
    The passport of Islamic preacher Zakir Naik was revoked at the behest of the India's National Investigation Agency (NIA), a Hindustan Times report quoted officials as saying.
    Naik?s passport was revoked after he failed to respond to a show-cause notice in relation to an investigation on July 13.
    The NIA was probing Naik under allegations of money laundering and terror, stated the report.
    Naik had his passport renewed last year in January, and it will expire after 10 years.
    In November 2016, the Indian government had blocked website of Naik?s not-for-profit organisation the Islamic Research Foundation.
    On the recommendation of Mumbai Police and National Security Agency, the Indian government had also imposed a five-year ban on International Research Foundation.
    India blocks Dr Zakir Naik's website
    Islamic Research Foundation's website blocked
    Indian and Bangladeshi law enforcement agencies had launched a probe against the speeches of Naik, whose sermons were said to have allegedly inspired two of the Dhaka attackers who killed more than 20 hostages last year in a café in Bangladesh.
    "I disagree that I inspired this act of killing innocent people" Naik had said and had declared terrorism "Devil-ish?.


  25. Waqas Dar
    Imran claimed the enterprises were fronts for money laundering operations.  ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairperson Imran Khan on Tuesday alleged that all businesses of the Sharif family were fronts for money laundering. 

    In a series of tweets on Tuesday evening, the PTI chairman said that all enterprises of the Sharif family, established in Pakistan, UK, UAE, and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, were in a loss and yet Nawaz Sharif and his children's wealth has increased. 
    He claimed the enterprises were fronts for money laundering operations. 
    Imran further said that the Sharif family has focused on mega projects, instead of social welfare projects, from where money has been siphoned off. 
    The PTI chairman, once again reiterated that "it is abundantly clear that their business is corruption".
    The remarks by Imran come after a three-member special Supreme Court bench hearing the Panama Papers case observed on Tuesday that it would examine all the material and then decide on disqualifying the premier or sending the matter to an accountability court.
    Earlier on Monday, the petitioners delivered their arguments in favour of the Panama case JIT report and against the Sharif family.

    The JIT, formed in light of the apex court?s April 20 judgment to probe the Sharif family?s money trail, submitted its 60-day investigation report to the court on July 10.

    The report highlighted the failure of the Sharif family to provide a money trail for its London apartments and claimed the prime minister and his children own assets beyond their known sources of income.
    Following the report's submission, the special bench issued notices to all parties to submit their responses. 


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