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Waqas Dar

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  1. Waqas Dar
    Hussain Nawaz appearing before the Panama JIT. Photo: Geo News ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif?s son, Hussain Nawaz, will submit his response on the Panama case Joint Investigation Team (JIT)?s report over ?impediments? faced by it as well as leaking of Hussain?s interrogation picture in the Supreme Court today.

    At the last hearing on Monday, the special implementation bench of the court had directed Hussain?s counsel, Khawaja Harris, to peruse the report which had been submitted by the JIT after the petitioner approached the court against the leaking of his picture. The report also included ?impediments? faced by the JIT in its probe of the Sharif family?s financial dealings, as instructed by the court earlier.
    Won?t be able to complete probe in time due to hurdles, JIT informs Supreme Court
    Special bench heard case related to leaking of Hussain's picture, hurdles faced by JIT
    The attorney general is also expected to submit his response to the JIT?s charges of interference today, along with some or all of the relevant departments.
    Since Monday?s hearing, the JIT report was leaked to the media and stirred up a controversy as it accused the petitioner of having mala fide intentions and several government organisations of creating hurdles in the high-profile probe by tampering records and pressuring witnesses as well as the investigators.
    The report cast the Prime Minister House, Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan, Federal Board of Revenue, Ministry of Law, Intelligence Bureau and National Accountability Bureau in a negative light by accusing them of impeding the investigation in various ways.
    Institutions tampering with records, creating hurdles: Panamagate JIT
    JIT accuses IB personnel of threatening its member, Bilal Rasool, trying to hack his family's Facebook accounts.
    Regarding the leaking of Hussain?s picture, the JIT said it took action within 24 hours of the picture?s circulation in the media. It stated that necessary action was taken against the official responsible for the leak, who was reverted to his parent department and punished accordingly.
    PM?s summons
    The investigation into the Sharif family assets is taking what could be considered its most significant turn, with the prime minister expected to appear before the JIT on Thursday (tomorrow).
    Thursday?s appearance: PM asks party workers to stay away from JIT secretariat
    In message to supporters, Nawaz Sharif asks them to remember him their prayers
    Till now, Hussain has appeared five times before the JIT whereas his younger brother, Hassan, has done so twice.
    Media reports on Tuesday also stated that the JIT has summoned the premier?s brother, Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif, on Saturday. 
    Panama case: Profiles of JIT members
    They looked best of the best of their trades. Senior officers, the country's top court picked to probe the Sharifs' family in Panama Leaks case on Friday, have an impressive career path and...




  2. Waqas Dar
    The North Korea flag flutters next to concertina wire at the North Korean embassy in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia March 9, 2017. Photo: Reuters   The US government on Tuesday issued a rare alert squarely blaming the North Korean government for a raft of cyber attacks stretching back to 2009 and warning that more were likely.

    The joint warning from the US Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation said that "cyber actors of the North Korean government," referred to in the report as "Hidden Cobra," had targeted the media, aerospace and financial sectors, as well as critical infrastructure, in the United States and globally.
    The new level of detail about the US government's analysis of suspected North Korean hacking activity coincides with increasing tensions between Washington and Pyongyang because of North Korea's missile tests. The alert warned that North Korea would continue to rely on cyber operations to advance its military and strategic objectives.
    North Korea has routinely denied involvement in cyber attacks against other countries.
    The North Korean mission to the United Nations was not immediately available for comment.
    Tuesday's alert said Hidden Cobra has been previously referred to by private sector experts as Lazarus Group and Guardians of the Peace, which have been linked to attacks such as the 2014 intrusion into Sony Corp's (6758.T) Sony Pictures Entertainment.
    Symantec Corp (SYMC.O) and Kaspersky Lab both said last month it was "highly likely" that Lazarus was behind the WannaCry ransomware attack that infected more than 300,000 computers worldwide, disrupting operations at hospitals, banks and schools.
    The alert did not identify specific Hidden Cobra victims. It said the group had compromised a range of victims and that some intrusions had resulted in thefts of data while others were disruptive. The group's capabilities include denial of service attacks, which send reams of junk traffic to a server to knock it offline, keystroke logging, remote access tools and several variants of malware, the alert said.
    John Hultquist, a cyber intelligence analyst with FireEye Inc (FEYE.O), said that his firm was concerned about increasingly aggressive cyber attacks from North Korea.
    The hacks include cyber espionage at South Korean finance, energy and transportation firms that appears to be reconnaissance ahead of other attacks that would be disruptive or destructive, he said.
    "It suggests they are preparing for something fairly significant," he added.
    Hidden Cobra commonly targets systems that run older versions of Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) operating systems that are no longer patched, the alert said, and also used vulnerabilities in Adobe Systems Inc's (ADBE.O) Flash software to gain access into targeted computers.
    The report urged organisations to upgrade to current versions of Adobe Flash and Microsoft Silverlight or, when possible, uninstall those applications altogether.
    Microsoft said it an emailed statement that it had "addressed" the Silverlight issue in a January 2016 software update. Adobe said via email that it patched the vulnerabilities in June 2016.
    North Korean hacking activity has grown increasingly hostile in recent years, according to Western officials and cyber security experts.
    The alert arrived on the same day that North Korea released an American university student who had been held captive by Pyongyang for 17 months.
    Otto Warmbier, 22, was on his way back to the United States on Tuesday but in a coma and in urgent need of medical care, according to Bill Richardson, a veteran former diplomat and politician who has played a role in past negotiations with North Korea.
    "The US government seeks to arm network defenders with the tools they need to identify, detect and disrupt North Korean government malicious cyber activity that is targeting our country's and our allies? networks," a DHS official said about the alert. The official was not authorised to speak publicly.


  3. Waqas Dar
    David Bonderman, Founding Partner, TPG, takes part in Private Equity: Rebalancing Risk session during the 2014 Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California April 29, 2014. Photo: Reuters  Uber Technologies Inc director David Bonderman said on Tuesday that he has resigned from the company's board following a remark he made during an Uber staff meeting that was widely seen as offensive to women.
    Bonderman's ill-timed remark came during an all-staff meeting Tuesday to discuss of how the ride-services company plans to transform itself following a probe into sexual harassment at the company.
    Bonderman said in a statement sent to Reuters that he did not want his comments to create distraction for Uber, which is working to rid its culture of sexual harassment and discrimination.
    His resignation from the board is effective Wednesday morning.
    During Tuesday's meeting, Uber board member Arianna Huffington spoke to employees about the importance of adding more women to the board of directors.
    "There's a lot of data that shows when there's one woman on the board, it's much more likely that there will be a second woman on the board," Huffington said.
    In response, Bonderman said: "Actually, what it shows is that it's much more likely to be more talking."
    The comment was disclosed through a recording of the meeting that was published by Yahoo. An Uber spokesman verified the authenticity and accuracy of the recording.
    Bonderman, who is a founder of private equity firm TPG Capital, an Uber investor, shortly after wrote an email to Uber staff to apologize.
    In his resignation statement that followed on Tuesday evening, Bonderman reiterated his regret, calling his remarks "careless, inappropriate, and inexcusable" and "the opposite of what I intended."
    "I take full responsibility for that," he said. "I need to hold myself to the same standards that we're asking Uber to adopt."
    Bonderman and other board members had joined Tuesday's staff meeting to lay out recommendations from an investigation into sexual harassment, diversity, inclusion and other employee concerns led by former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.
    Holder's law firm was retained by Uber in February after former Uber engineer Susan Fowler wrote a public account of her time at the company, which she said was marred by sexual harassment and an ineffective response by management.
    The recommendations, which were unanimously adopted by the board on Sunday, call for reducing Chief Executive Travis Kalanick's sweeping authority at the firm and instituting more controls over spending, human resources and the behavior of managers.


  4. Waqas Dar
    Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan addresses members of parliament from his ruling AK Party (AKP) during a meeting at the Turkish parliament in Ankara, Turkey, June 13, 2017. Photo: Reuters   Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday denounced the isolation of Qatar by neighbouring states as a violation of Islamic values and akin to a "death penalty" imposed in a crisis that has reverberated across the Middle East and beyond.
    Erdogan's comments marked the strongest intervention yet by a powerful regional ally of Doha eight days after Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt cut ties with Qatar and applied stringent economic sanctions on it.
    Later on Tuesday, the UAE ambassador to the United States, which has an air base in Qatar, said there was no military component to the steps taken against Doha.
    Qatar denies accusations that it supports militants.
    "A very grave mistake is being made in Qatar; isolating a nation in all areas is inhumane and against Islamic values. It's as if a death penalty decision has been taken for Qatar," Erdogan told members of his ruling AK Party in Ankara.
    "Qatar has shown the most decisive stance against the terrorist organisation Daesh alongside Turkey. Victimising Qatar through smear campaigns serves no purpose."
    The measures against Qatar, a small oil and gas exporter with a population of 2.7 million people, have disrupted imports of food and other materials and caused some foreign banks to scale back business.
    The UAE envoy, Yousef Al Otaiba, told reporters in Washington: "There is absolutely no military component to anything that we are doing."
    "I have spoken and seen (US Defense Secretary) General (Jim) Mattis four times in the last week; we?ve given them our complete assurance that the steps we have taken will not affect in anyway Al Udeid base or any operations supporting or regarding the base," Otaiba said.
    Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar is home to more than 11,000 US and coalition forces and an important base for the fight against Islamic State militants in the region.
    The chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Joseph Dunford, told a Senate hearing that the rift between Qatar and its neighbours was not affecting US military operations.
    Qatar, which imported 80 percent of its food from bigger Gulf Arab neighbours before the diplomatic shutdown, has been talking to Iran and Turkey to secure food and water.
    The world's second largest helium producer, Qatar has also shut its two helium production plants because of the economic boycott, industry sources told Reuters on Tuesday.
    Turkey has maintained good relations with Qatar as well as several of its Gulf Arab neighbours. Turkey and Qatar have both provided support for the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and backed rebels fighting to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
    Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi also criticised the measures imposed on Qatar, saying in Baghdad on Tuesday they were hurting the emirate's people, not its rulers.
    International diplomacy 
    Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdulrahman al-Thani said on Monday that Doha "still had no clue" why Arab states had cut ties. He denied Doha supported groups like the Muslim Brotherhood that its neighbours oppose, or had warm ties with their enemy Iran.
    Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Erdogan would discuss the Gulf rift in a telephone call with US President Donald Trump in coming days.
    Turkey approved plans last week to deploy more troops to a military base it has established in Qatar under a 2014 agreement with the Gulf Arab state. The move was seen as support by regional power and NATO member Turkey to Doha.
    In Moscow, the Kremlin said President Vladimir Putin and Saudi Arabia's King Salman discussed the crisis in a phone call on Tuesday. The Kremlin said the dispute was not helping to unite efforts to try to find a Syria settlement or fight terrorism.


  5. Waqas Dar
    Khan, 30, was attacked by a group of men in his hometown of Bolton. Photo: FameFlynet  MANCHESTER: Boxing champion Amir Khan was chased through the streets during a road rage attack when a car rammed into his £100,000 Range Rover on Wednesday.
    Pakistani-descent Khan was attacked by a group of men in his hometown of Bolton in Greater Manchester when his car was involved in an accident, The Sun reported.
    The boxer and other party engaged in a violent encounter after a confrontation over the collision -thought to have been caused when the boxer took a wrong turn.
    Several men set on Khan with one man throwing a punch in his direction, sources said.
    No arrests have been made in relation to the incident, which took place at around 9.15 PM local time on Friday.
    A Greater Manchester Police spokeswoman said: 'We were called to reports of road rage incident/assault?It appears the person driving has made a wrong turn and this has angered the person behind them and there's been an altercation.?
    This is not the first time the boxer has encountered trouble while driving.
    In 2012 he was targeted by a six-strong gang who tried to steal his Range Rover by ambushing him following a night out with his boxer brother Haroon in Birmingham.
    The brothers fought off the men who later posted a video online claiming to have stolen keys to his Porsche and a Louis Vitton wallet containing 500 euros.


  6. Waqas Dar
    US President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. File Photo: Reuters  US President Donald Trump has given Defense Secretary Jim Mattis the authority to set troop levels in Afghanistan, a US official told Reuters on Tuesday, opening the door for future troop increases requested by the US commander.
    The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said no immediate decision had been made about the troop levels, which are now set at about 8,400.
    The Pentagon declined to comment.
    The decision is similar to one announced in April that applied to US troop levels in Iraq and Syria, and came as Mattis warned Congress the US-backed Afghan forces were not beating the Taliban despite more than 15 years of war.
    "We are not winning in Afghanistan right now," Mattis said in testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee earlier on Tuesday. "And we will correct this as soon as possible."
    Mattis said the Taliban were "surging" at the moment, something he said he intended to address.
    US Defense Secretary James Mattis testifies before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., US, June 13, 2017. Photo: Reuters  A former US official said such a decision might allow the White House to argue that it was not micromanaging as much as the administration of former President Barack Obama was sometimes accused of doing.
    Critics say delegating too much authority to the military does not shield Trump from political responsibility during battlefield setbacks and could reduce the chances for diplomats to warn of potential blowback from military decisions.
    It has been four months since Army General John Nicholson, who leads US and international forces in Afghanistan, said he needed "a few thousand" additional forces, some potentially drawn from US allies.
    Current and former US officials say discussions revolve around adding 3,000 to 5,000 troops. Those forces are expected to be largely comprised of trainers to support Afghan forces, as well as air crews.
    Deliberations include giving more authority to forces on the ground and taking more aggressive action against Taliban fighters.
    Some US officials have questioned the benefit of sending more troops to Afghanistan because any politically palatable number would not be enough to turn the tide, much less create stability and security. To date, more than 2,300 Americans have been killed and more than 17,000 wounded since the war began in 2001.
    Any increase of several thousand troops would leave American forces in Afghanistan well below their 2011 peak of more than 100,000 troops.
    The Afghan government was assessed by the US military to control or influence just 59.7 percent of Afghanistan's 407 districts as of Feb. 20, a nearly 11 percentage-point decrease from the same time in 2016, according to data released by the US Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction.
    A truck bomb explosion in Kabul last month killed more than 150 people, making it the deadliest attack in the Afghan capital since the Taliban were ousted in 2001 by a NATO-led coalition after ruling the country for five years.
    On Saturday, three US soldiers were killed when an Afghan soldier opened fire on them in eastern Afghanistan.
    The broader regional US strategy for Afghanistan remains unclear. Mattis promised on Tuesday to brief lawmakers on a new war strategy by mid-July that is widely expected to call for thousands more US troops.
    Senator John McCain, the chairman of the Armed Forces Committee, pressed Mattis on the deteriorating situation during the Tuesday hearing, saying the United States had an urgent need for "a change in strategy, and an increase in resources if we are to turn the situation around."
    "We recognise the need for urgency," Mattis said.


  7. Waqas Dar
    US Attorney General Jeff Sessions testifies before a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., June 13, 2017. Photo: Reuters   Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Tuesday denounced as a "detestable lie" the idea he colluded with Russians meddling in the 2016 election, and he clashed with Democratic lawmakers over his refusal to detail his conversations with President Donald Trump.
    Sessions, a senior member of Trump's Cabinet and an advisor to his election campaign last year, had a series of tense exchanges with Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee during about 2-1/2 hours of testimony as they pressed him to recount discussions with the Republican president.
    "You raised your right hand here today and said you would solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth," Democratic Senator Martin Heinrich said. "Now you're not answering questions. You're impeding this investigation."
    Sessions refused to say whether he and Trump discussed FBI Director James Comey's handling of an investigation into possible collusion between Trump's campaign and Russia during the election campaign before the president fired Comey on May 9.
    He also declined to say if Trump opposed Sessions' decision to recuse himself from the Russia probe in March, and whether Justice Department officials discussed possible presidential pardons of individuals being looked at in the probe.
    Democratic Senator Ron Wyden told Sessions: "I believe the American people have had it with stonewalling. Americans don't want to hear that answers to relevant questions are privileged."
    "I am not stonewalling," Sessions replied, saying he was simply following Justice Department policy not to discuss confidential communications with the president.
    Sessions' testimony did not provide any damaging new information on Trump campaign ties with Russia or on Comey's dismissal, but his refusal to discuss conversations with Trump raised fresh questions about whether the White House has something to hide.
    Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House of Representatives' Intelligence Committee, which is conducting a parallel Russia probe, said on Twitter that Congress "must compel responses using whatever process necessary."
    Last week, Comey told the Senate committee that Trump had fired him to undermine the FBI's investigation of the Russia matter.
    Trump's decision to fire Comey, a move recommended by Sessions despite having already recused himself from the Russia probe, prompted critics to charge that the president was trying to interfere with a criminal investigation.
    Senator Angus King, an independent, questioned Sessions' legal basis for refusing to answer questions after Sessions said Trump had not invoked executive privilege regarding the conversations.
    Executive privilege can be claimed by a president or senior government officials to withhold information from Congress or the courts to protect the executive branch decision-making process.
    Sessions said it would be "inappropriate" for him to reveal private conversations with Trump when the president "has not had a full opportunity to review the questions and to make a decision on whether or not to approve such an answer."
    Legal experts said there was some merit to Sessions' argument.
    Andrew Wright, a professor at Savannah Law School and associate counsel under former President Barack Obama, said it was not unusual for government employees to refuse to discuss conversations with the president in order to preserve the right to invoke executive privilege later.
    Appalling
    Sessions' clash with the Democratic senators was the latest chapter in a saga that has dogged Trump in his first five months as president and distracted from his domestic policy agenda including major healthcare and tax cut initiatives.
    "The suggestion that I participated in any collusion or that I was aware of any collusion with the Russian government to hurt this country, which I have served with honour for over 35 years, or to undermine the integrity of our democratic process, is an appalling and detestable lie," Sessions said.
    "I have never met with or had any conversation with any Russians or any foreign officials concerning any type of interference with any campaign or election in the United States. Further, I have no knowledge of any such conversations by anyone connected with the Trump campaign."
    US intelligence agencies concluded in a report released in January that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an effort to interfere in the election to help Trump in part by hacking and releasing damaging emails about Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.
    Russia has denied any such interference, and Trump has denied any collusion by his campaign with Moscow.
    Sessions recused himself from the Russia investigation in March after revelations that he had failed to disclose two meetings last year with Russia's ambassador to Washington, Sergei Kislyak.
    In his testimony on Tuesday, Sessions addressed media reports that he may have had a third previously undisclosed meeting with Kislyak at Washington's Mayflower Hotel last year.
    Sessions said he did not have any private meetings and could not recall any conversations with any Russian officials at the hotel but did not rule out that a "brief interaction" with Kislyak may have occurred there.
    A former Republican senator, Sessions was an early supporter of Trump's presidential campaign, but sources say there has been tension between the two men in recent weeks because Trump was annoyed that Sessions recused himself from the Russia probe.
    Sessions said on Tuesday he did not recuse himself because he felt he was a subject of the investigation himself but rather because he felt he was required to by Justice Department rules.


  8. Waqas Dar
    Massive blaze engulfs a block of flats in London. Picture: Twitter LONDON: Firefighters are battling a massive fire in an apartment high-rise in London on Wednesday.
    One side of the building -- Grenfell Tower-- in West London appeared to be in flames. 
    Forty fire engines and 200 firefighters were called to the scene early Wednesday morning.
    Forty fire engines and 200 firefighters are battling the blaze. Photo: Twitter Two people were being treated at the scene for smoke inhalation and cordons were in place, the Metropolitan Police said. 

    ?Amazing Spaces? presenter George Clarke told Radio 5 Live he was covered in ash even though he was 100 meters (yards) from the scene, Associated Press reported.
    He said he saw people waving flashlights from the top level of the building and saw rescuers ?doing an incredible job? trying to get people out.


  9. Waqas Dar
    File photo Mainly hot and dry weather is expected in most parts of the country in the next twenty-four hours, the Pakistan Meteorological Department forecasted on Wednesday.
    However, rain and thunderstorm are expected at few places in Malakand, Hazara, Rawalpindi, Multan, Bahawalpur, D.G. Khan. and D.I. Khan divisions, Islamabad, Gilgit-Baltistan, Kashmir, and its adjoining hilly areas.
    A continental air is prevailing over most parts of the country, and a shallow westerly wave is present over upper parts of the country.
    Past weather
    The weather remained hot and dry in most parts of the country. However, rain and thunderstorm with gusty winds occurred at isolated places in Rawalpindi, Multan, Malakand, Hazara, Islamabad, and Kashmir.
    Rainfall in the last 24 hours (mm)
    Kashmir: Garhi Dupatta 27, Muzaffarabad 02, KP: Lower Dir 07, Drosh, Balakot 01, Punjab: Rawalpindi (Chaklala 06, Shamsabad 03), Islamabad (Z.P, Bokra 03, Saidpur 01), Mangla 02, Multan, Kamra 01.
    Today's highest maximum temperatures
    Sibbi 48°C, Nokkundi, Dalbandin, Noorpur Thal, Bhakkar 46°C, Larkana, Jacobabad, Sh. Benazirabad, Dadu, Turbat, Sukkur 45°C.
    Data courtesy: Pakistan Meteorological Department


  10. Waqas Dar
    Drones may be able to rush emergency defibrillators to patients in cardiac arrest faster than traditional emergency medical services (EMS), potentially improving survival odds, a small Swedish experiment suggests.
    Researchers ran 18 simulations comparing how long it took a drone and traditional EMS to reach various locations within a 10-kilometer (6.2 mile) radius of a fire station north of Stockholm. The drone consistently beat typical EMS response times, by almost 17 minutes in half of the cases.
    ?With drones carrying automated external defibrillators (AEDs) we may increase chances of survival significantly (by) delivering an AED within the very first minutes,? said lead study author Andreas Claesson of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.
    In cardiac arrest, the heart stops abruptly, often due to irregular heart rhythms. Cardiac arrest may occur with no warning and is often fatal unless the heart can be restarted quickly.
    Only about one in 10 patients typically survive a cardiac arrest when it happens outside a hospital, and reducing the time it takes to shock the heart back into a normal rhythm with a defibrillator is the biggest factor influencing survival odds, the researchers note in JAMA.
    Automated external defibrillators are already common in public places like restaurants and airports. These devices typically have electrodes that attach to the chest with sticky pads and deliver shocks based on what a computer in the defibrillator determines the person needs.
    Someday, emergency dispatchers might be able to respond to cardiac arrests by sending out drones with defibrillators that bystanders at the scene could use on cardiac arrest patients until EMS arrived. This shift might be especially helpful for improving survival odds in remote rural areas and resort communities that swell in population during the summer months, Claesson said by email.
    The drone used in the study was equipped with a global positioning system (GPS), a high-definition camera and an autopilot software system. Even though it could use GPS to fly on autopilot, a pilot was present at the landing locations and the dispatcher could take over the drone for descent if necessary.
    For the study, researchers pitted the drone?s performance in test flights conducted over 72 hours in October 2016 to the actual dispatch and arrival times for EMS in real cardiac arrest cases that occurred from 2006 to 2014.
    Half of the emergencies in the simulations were at least 3.2 kilometers (2 miles) away from the fire station. In half of the cases, the drone took no more than three seconds to take off after the emergency calls came in, compared with three minutes for EMS.
    With the drone, the time from dispatch to arrival at the scene of the emergency was only about five minutes in half of the cases, compared with 22 minutes for EMS.
    Limitations of the study include the small number of test flights, which were all done in good weather, the authors note.
    The drones also had some advantages in this experiment that they might not have in real life, said Dr Peter Pons, a professor emeritus of emergency medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Denver who wasn?t involved in the study.
    Drones, for example, might not work well in bad weather and might have a limited flight range, Pons said by email.
    At the same time, an ambulance involves several steps, including getting the necessary information on the location and the patient, notifying and assembling an EMS crew, and then getting the ambulance underway, Pons said.
    For the same cost it might require to build a drone network just to deliver defibrillators to cardiac arrest patients, it might be possible to instead expand EMS services to speed response times in all types of emergencies, Pons said.
    Still, he thinks drones could make a big difference in cardiac arrest survival odds.
    ?The time savings reported in this letter would clearly provide a meaningful improvement in the outcome of victims of cardiac arrest,? Pons said. ?We know that for each minute that CPR and defibrillation are delayed, survival from cardiac arrest decreases.?


  11. Waqas Dar
    Rapper-turned-actor Ice Cube received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Monday and thanked everyone who helped his career in music and movies.
    Friends and family attended the ceremony on Hollywood Boulevard, including Dr. Dre, a former fellow member of the seminal "gangsta" rap group N.W.A.
    "You know, you don't get here by yourself and when you're coming up doing music, movies, just trying to be creative, you never figure you'll be on the Hollywood Walk of Fame one day," Ice Cube said.
    "So today is not really about Ice Cube, it's about all the people who helped me get here," he added.
    Ice Cube, born as O'Shea Jackson, found fame in the 1980s alongside Dr Dre in the influential West Coast rap group N.W.A., writing many of the song lyrics for their iconic "Straight Outta Compton" album.
    After leaving the group over a royalty dispute, he released his debut solo album "AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted" in 1990.
    The rapper began acting in movies in 1991 with a starring role in John Singleton's film about life in a Los Angeles ghetto, "Boyz n the Hood." He has since appeared in the films "Friday", "Barbershop", and "Three Kings."
    Ice Cube was also a producer on the 2015 biopic "Straight Outta Compton", which told the story of N.W.A. His son O'Shea Jackson Jr. portrayed him in the film.


  12. Waqas Dar
    WASHINGTON: The US Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed the Trump administration more time to file papers responding to an appeals court ruling that upheld a block on a proposed travel ban on people entering the United States from six Muslim-majority countries.
    The move likely delays any high court action on the administration's two emergency applications asking for the ban issued on March 6 to immediately go into effect. The March ban was Trump's second effort to impose travel restrictions through an executive order.
    An entry on the Supreme Court docket said that the administration can file its new brief on Thursday. Hawaii, which challenged the ban and won in the appeals court, is permitted to file its own brief on June 20, meaning the court is unlikely to act on the emergency application until next week at the earliest.
    The court was responding to a request made by Acting Solicitor General Jeff Wall, who said in a letter that the ruling on Monday by the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco means the government needs to file a new brief.
    In an added dramatic twist, Trump himself plans to go to the Supreme Court on Thursday for the investiture of Justice Neil Gorsuch, an administration official said. Trump nominated Gorsuch in January. Gorsuch's confirmation by the US Senate in April restored the court's 5-4 conservative majority.
    Trump's visit to the court would be his first since he became president on Jan. 20 and would put him face-to-face with the nine justices as they consider the fate of his travel ban unless the court acts before then. It is common practice for presidents to attend such events, which are purely ceremonial.
    The Supreme Court could discuss how to act on the emergency application at its private conference on June 22, a week after the Gorsuch ceremony.
    Wall wrote that more time was needed because the 9th Circuit ruling in favour of the state of Hawaii is "the first addressing the executive order at issue to rest relief on statutory rather than constitutional grounds."
    Hawaii's lawyer, Neal Katyal, filed his own letter objecting to the government's timeline, although he agreed that both sides needed to file briefs responding to Monday's ruling.
    Federal judges in Maryland and Hawaii blocked Trump's 90-day ban on travellers from Libya, Iran, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. The Hawaii judge also blocked a 120-day ban on refugees entering the United States.
    The 9th Circuit largely upheld the Hawaii injunction on Monday.
    In the second case, the Richmond, Virginia-based 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals, on May 25 upheld the Maryland judge's ruling.
    The lawsuits by Hawaii and the Maryland challengers argued that the executive order violated federal immigration law and a section of the Constitution's First Amendment, which prohibits the government from favouring or disfavouring any particular religion. The Supreme Court is weighing emergency applications in both cases, but is likely to act on them together.
    Trump's first order on Jan. 27 led to chaos and protests at airports and in various cities before being blocked by the courts. The second order was intended to overcome the legal issues posed by the original ban, but was blocked by judges before it could go into effect on March 16.


  13. Waqas Dar
    KARACHI: Continuing on the trend K-Electric set from the first day of Ramadan, the metropolis yet again plunged into darkness, as power outages occurred in various areas on Wednesday morning as well.
    Liaquatabad, North Nazimabad, Nazimabad, North Karachi, New Karachi, experienced an electric breakdown on Wednesday once again, exacerbating public outrage.
    In addition, people in Gulistan-e-Johar, Maripur, Kemari, Gulshan-e-Iqbal, University Road and Safoora Goth and surrounding areas also started their fasts in complete darkness as ?load shedding? persisted.
    According to a K-Electric spokesperson, restoration work is underway to resume power supply disruption due to local faults in the affected localities.
    K-Electric stay committed towards providing relief to the public during Sehri and Iftar in Ramadan, he added.
    Earlier, consistent major power outages were experienced in various areas of the metropolis, beginning right from the very first time the public sat down to start fasting for the month of Ramadan. While the K-Electric spokesperson stressed that it is not the usual load shedding. ?It is wrong to label local faults as ?load shedding?."




  14. Waqas Dar
    File KARACHI: Police rounded up more than 45 suspects, said to be involved in different crimes, in multiple raids in Karachi late Wednesday, they said.
    The law enforcers conducted search operations in various areas of Karachi late this night and apprehended 45 suspects.

    At least nine suspects were arrested from the areas of Madina Colony, Saeedabad and Manghopir.
    Two muggers were apprehended from Tower, police said.
    According to police, suspects were involved in burglary of shops.
    In another raid in Soldier Bazar, police detained ten suspects.

    Officials said they were verifying identities of arrested suspects and looking for any criminal record.


  15. Waqas Dar
    French President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday the door was "always open" for Britain to remain in the EU even after Prime Minister Theresa May said Brexit talks would begin next week.
    "Of course the door is always open as long as the negotiations on Brexit have not finished," Macron said in a press conference.
    But he stressed that the British people had taken the sovereign decision to leave the 28-member bloc in their referendum a year ago, adding that the start of talks was an important milestone.
    "Once it (the Brexit process) has started we need to be collectively clear that it's more difficult to reverse course," he said at the Elysee palace.
    May stressed that she would stick to her timetable of starting Brexit discussions next week in Brussels, saying the talks were "on course" despite her domestic difficulties.
    Her Conservative party lost its parliamentary majority in a bungled snap election last week which some observers suggested might lead May to abandon her plans for a so-called "hard Brexit".
    "I think there's a unity of purpose among people in the UK. It's a unity of purpose having voted to leave the EU that their government gets on with that and makes a success of it," she said.
    Football diplomacy

    After their talks, May and Macron watched a friendly game of football between England and France where a minute's silence was held before kick-off to remember the victims of recent terror attacks in Manchester and London.
    The order of the national anthems was also reversed, leading thousands of French fans to put aside centuries of rivalry, war and their own history of regicide in a moment of cross-Channel solidarity.
    "God Save The Queen" they thundered before the match began.
    The poignant moment served to underline May and Macron's main message, namely that France and Britain will continue to work together despite Brexit.
    They announced a joint action plan to crack down on extremism and terror propoganda online, accusing internet companies and social media networks of doing too little to tackle the scourge.
    The measures aim "to ensure the internet cannot be used as a safe space for criminals and terrorists and it cannot be used to host the radicalising material that leads to so much harm," May said.
    Priorities include looking into encrypted communication platforms used by extremists to evade security forces and new laws to impose penalities on internet companies which fail to remove offensive content.
    Facebook, Twitter and other social networks had long argued that they were unable to monitor content posted online by their users, but have grown increasingly sensitive to criticism.
    Germany lawmakers recently introduced legislation requiring internet companies to remove content flagged as hate speech within 24 hours.
    Macron vs May

    Before May's arrival in Paris to meet Macron, many commentators had underlined their contrasting fortunes.
    He is a 39-year-old centrist leader seemingly clearing all obstacles from his path after standing in and winning his first-ever election this spring.
    Last Sunday, his new Republic On The Move party won the first round of parliamentary elections and is on course for an overwhelming majority in the new parliament.
    She is a 60-year-old rightwing veteran who is now fighting to keep her job following the loss of the Conservative party's majority in the British parliament.
    "Everyone assumes that she's a zombie," Francois Heisbourg, a former French diplomat and chairman of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, told AFP this week.
    He also repeated the conclusion of May's former cabinet colleague George Osborne, now the editor of the London Evening Standard newspaper, who called her a "dead woman walking".
    Macron's comments on leaving the "door open" are likely to encourage Britain's minority europhiles who still dream of keeping Britain inside the EU.
    May signalled she does not plan to change course, however, and the reversal of the historic Brexit decision last June would probably require another referendum.
    Macron's comments were echoed on Tuesday by German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble.
    "If they wanted to change their decision, of course they would find open doors, but I think it's not very likely," Schaeuble told Bloomberg Television.


  16. Waqas Dar
    GUJRANWALA: Police arrested one suspect, after two transgenders were allegedly tortured in Gujranwala for evading extortion.
    Naila and Gauri, residents of Kangni Wala in Gujranwala, informed police regarding Adnan Butt, who used to claim extortion from the two transgenders every month.
    Upon refusal to pay further extortion this month, Adnan Butt along with accomplices broke into our house and tortured us, said the transgenders.
    Police detained the suspect Adnan on the request of the transgenders, while Naila and Gauri were sent to Civil Hospital for a medical.
    Police said, the case will be registered after the medical report.


  17. Waqas Dar
    Thousands of French football fans joined in with the English national anthem as tribute was paid to the victims of recent terror attacks in the United Kingdom prior to a friendly match in Paris on Tuesday evening.
    The words to 'God Save the Queen' were displayed on big screens around the Stade de France before France's meeting with England, allowing the French spectators in the crowd of close to 80,000 to sing along with their English counterparts.
    A minute's silence was impeccably observed by the crowd, after the teams had come out to 'Don't Look Back in Anger', the song by Manchester group Oasis which was played by the band and choir of the French Republican Guard.
    They were ably backed up by around 2,500 travelling English fans in one corner of the ground on a balmy night in the French capital.
    That song was seen as an anthem for Manchester after the English city was hit by a suicide bombing at the end of an Ariana Grande concert last month which claimed 22 lives.
    Another eight people, including three French nationals, were also murdered in a terror attack in London on June 3.
    An English flag was displayed by a section of the Stade de France crowd as the teams entered the field. Underneath the display was a banner reading: "United with the Cities of Manchester and London".
    The match kicked off around five minutes later than the scheduled 9pm (1900 GMT) start, after French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Theresa May had arrived at the stadium in the nick of time.
    Macron and May had met at the President's Elysee Palace a little earlier to discuss business ahead of the start of Brexit negotiations next week.
    Security was very tight around France's national stadium, as it has been for all events since a wave of terror attacks began to hit the country over the last couple of years.
    The game was the first meeting of the sides since November 2015, when England won 2-0 in a friendly on an emotionally charged night at Wembley.
    That match was played despite France being in a state of shock in the wake of the terror attacks that struck Paris just four days earlier.
    A total of 130 people were killed on November 13, 2015, when the Stade de France itself was one of the targets, being attacked by suicide bombers during a friendly match against Germany.
    On that occasion, the London crowd joined in with the singing of the French anthem, 'La Marseillaise', which was also played before English Premier League games the following weekend.




  18. Waqas Dar
    Spanish prosecutors on Tuesday accused Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo of evading 14.7 million euros in tax through offshore companies, the latest footballer to fall foul of fiscal authorities.
    The 32-year-old -- the world's highest-paid athlete according to Forbes magazine -- follows in the steps of Barcelona forward and Argentina star Lionel Messi, who was found guilty of the same offence last year although the sums involved were allegedly smaller.
    If he too is put on trial and found guilty, he risks "a fine of at least 28 million" euros ($31.3 million) and could potentially be jailed for three-and-a-half years, the Gestha union of experts at Spain's Inland Revenue said in a statement.
    Ronaldo is accused of "four crimes against the public treasury between 2011-14... which involves tax fraud of 14,768,897 euros ($16.5m, £12.9m)", Madrid's public prosecutor's office said in a statement.
    "The accused took advantage of a company structure created in 2010 to hide income generated in Spain from his image rights from tax authorities, which is a 'voluntary' and 'conscious' breach of his fiscal obligations in Spain," it said.
    Prosecutors accuse the Portugal international of evading tax via a shell company based in the British Virgin Islands and another in Ireland, known for its low corporate tax rate.
    In addition, they say he only declared 11.5 million euros of Spanish-related income from 2011 to 2014, while what he really earned during that time was close to 43 million euros.
    And finally, they accuse him of "voluntarily" refusing to include 28.4 million euros in income linked to the sale of his image rights for the 2015 to 2020 period to a Spanish company.
    Ronaldo's lawyer said the four-time World Player of the Year was stunned by the accusations.
    "It's a total surprise for the player who feels wronged, which gives me a special responsibility to speak in his name of his feeling of sadness and injustice," Antonio Lobo Xavier told Portuguese television.
    "Ronaldo declared his income in relation to his image rights in 2014, which also included the three previous years."
    In a television interview last month when it was revealed that tax authorities had sent a report to prosecutors on Ronaldo's alleged fiscal evasion, Ronaldo had said he was "very serene."
    "I know these things will be resolved with the best decision, so I'm fine," he had said.
    Football scandals

    The football world in Spain has been rocked by charges of tax evasion or corruption pressed against some of its top stars.
    Messi was sentenced to a 21-month jail sentence and 2.09-million-euro fine last year for tax fraud.
    The prison term will be suspended as is common in Spain for first offences for non-violent crimes carrying a sentence of less than two years.
    The 29-year-old and his father Jorge Horacio Messi were found guilty of using companies in Belize, Britain, Switzerland and Uruguay to avoid paying taxes on 4.16 million euros of Messi's income earned from his image rights from 2007-09.
    The income related to Messi's image rights that was hidden includes endorsement deals with Danone, Adidas, Pepsi-Cola, Procter & Gamble and the Kuwait Food Company.
    In its statement, Gestha said the most favourable scenario for Ronaldo would be that he is also given a 21-month prison sentence.
    Former Barca defender Javier Mascherano also agreed a one-year suspended sentence with authorities for tax fraud last year.
    Meanwhile Brazil star and Barcelona forward Neymar and his parents are due to stand trial for alleged corruption over his transfer from Santos in 2013.


  19. Waqas Dar
    WASHINGTON: US Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Tuesday denounced as a "detestable lie" the idea that he colluded with Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential campaign, and he clashed with Democratic lawmakers over his refusal to detail his conversations with President Donald Trump.
    Sessions, a senior member of the Republican Trump's Cabinet and an adviser to his presidential campaign, had a series of tense exchanges with Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee during about 2-1/2 hours of high-stakes testimony as they pressed him to recount conversations with the president.
    "You raised your right hand here today and said you would solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth," Democratic Senator Martin Heinrich said. "Now you're not answering questions. You're impeding this investigation."
    Sessions refused to say whether he had discussed FBI director James Comey's handling of the FBI's Russia probe with Trump before the president fired Comey on May 9. Similarly, he did not answer whether Trump had expressed concern to Sessions about the attorney general's March decision to recuse himself from the Russia investigation. Sessions previously offered to resign because of tensions with Trump over his recusal decision.
    Sessions also refused to answer whether any Justice Department officials had discussed possible presidential pardons of individuals being looked at in the Russian investigations.
    Russia has denied repeatedly that it interfered in the US election, and Trump has denied any collusion by his campaign with Moscow.
    Democratic Senator Ron Wyden told Sessions, "I believe the American people have had it with stonewalling. Americans don't want to hear that answers to relevant questions are privileged."
    "I am not stonewalling," Sessions replied. Sessions said he was following Justice Department policy and would not discuss confidential communications with the president.
    Senator Angus King, an independent, questioned Sessions' legal basis for refusing to answer. Sessions said Trump had not invoked executive privilege regarding the conversations.
    Executive privilege is a power that can be claimed by a president or senior executive branch officials to withhold information from Congress or the courts to protect the executive branch decision-making process.
    "It is my judgment that it would be inappropriate for me to answer and reveal private conversations with the president when he has not had a full opportunity to review the questions and to make a decision on whether or not to approve such an answer," Sessions said.
    The committee's Republican chairman, Richard Burr, asked Sessions to ask the White House if there were areas officials there would be comfortable with him answering and provide written answers if so.
    US intelligence agencies concluded in a report released in January that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an effort to interfere in the election to help Trump in part by hacking and releasing damaging emails about Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.
    The testimony by Sessions marked the latest chapter in a saga that has dogged Trump's first five months as president and distracted from his domestic policy agenda including major healthcare and tax cut initiatives.
    "I have never met with or had any conversation with any Russians or any foreign officials concerning any type of interference with any campaign or election in the United States. Further, I have no knowledge of any such conversations by anyone connected with the Trump campaign," Sessions said.
    "The suggestion that I participated in any collusion or that I was aware of any collusion with the Russian government to hurt this country, which I have served with honour for over 35 years, or to undermine the integrity of our democratic process, is an appalling and detestable lie," he said.
    Sessions is the most senior member of Trump's administration caught up in the Russia controversy.
    In his opening remarks, Sessions said he knew of no conversations between Trump campaign individuals and Russian officials about interfering in the US election. But under questioning, Sessions acknowledged that Trump's campaign foreign policy advisers "never functioned as a coherent team" and there were members of that group he never met.
    SPECIAL COUNSEL
    Even before Sessions testified, attention in Washington swivelled to whether Trump might seek to fire Robert Mueller, named last month by the Justice Department to head a federal probe into the Russia issue.
    Sessions told the senators he has confidence in Mueller but said he had "no idea" if Trump did because he had not spoken to the president about the matter. Asked whether he would ever take any action to remove Mueller, Sessions said, "I would not think that would be appropriate for me to do."
    Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, the person who would be responsible for carrying out any such dismissal, told a different congressional panel he would not fire Mueller without good cause and he had seen no such cause.
    Sessions, a former Republican US senator and an early supporter of Trump's presidential campaign, testified just five days after Comey told the panel Trump ousted him to undermine the agency's investigation of the Russia matter. Sessions had written a letter to Trump recommending Comey's firing.
    In March he acknowledged he met twice last year with Russia's ambassador to Washington, Sergei Kislyak. Sessions said he did not mislead Congress because the encounters were part of his job as a US senator, not as a Trump campaign representative. Sessions recused himself from the Russia investigation in March after the revelations of the two Kislyak meetings.
    The abrupt dismissal of Comey prompted Trump's critics to charge that the president was trying to interfere with a criminal investigation.
    Asked about media reports that he had met with Kislyak on a third occasion at a Washington hotel last year, Sessions testified that did not remember meeting or having a conversation with the ambassador at the event. Sessions said he "racked my brain" and had no meeting with any Russian in his capacity as a Trump campaign adviser.
    Sessions said he did not recuse himself because he felt he was a subject of the investigation himself but rather because he felt he was required to by Justice Department rules.


  20. Waqas Dar
    Ahsan Iqbal Pakistan's Minister of Planning and Development speaks with a Reuters correspondent during an interview in Islamabad, Pakistan June 12, 2017. ? REUTERS ISLAMABAD: Pakistan expects China to fund a long-delayed Indus river mega dam project in Gilgit-Baltistan with work beginning next year, Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal said in an interview.

    Pakistan has been keen for years to build a cascade of mega dams along the Indus flowing down from the Himalayas, but has struggled to raise money from international institutions amid opposition from its nuclear-armed neighbour India.
    Those ambitions have been revived by China's Belt and Road infrastructure plans for Pakistan, a key cog in Beijing's creation of a modern-day Silk Road network of trade routes connecting Asia with Europe and Africa.
    The $12-14 billion Diamer-Bhasha dam should generate 4,500 megawatts (MW) of electricity, and a vast new reservoir would regulate the flow of water to farmland that is vulnerable to increasingly erratic weather patterns.
    Iqbal, the Islamabad lead on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), said a Chinese company from a Beijing-picked shortlist and a local partner would build the dam over a 10-year period, and work should begin in the "next financial year", which begins in July.
    "This water reservoir is most critical for food security in Pakistan, so is a very high priority project for Pakistan," Iqbal told Reuters late on Monday at his ministerial home in Islamabad.
    China and Pakistan signed a memorandum of understanding in December for Beijing to help fund and develop Pakistan's Indus Basin dams, though no timelines have been released.
    Pakistan estimates there is 40,000 MW of hydro potential.
    The Diamer-Bhasha dam and reservoir would displace more than 4,200 families in nearby areas and submerge a large section of the Karakoram Highway to China, Pakistan's Water and Power Development Authority estimates.
    Iqbal said Pakistani and Chinese engineers are also surveying other projects, including the 7,100 MW Bunji hydro power project that will be the first in the cascade that stretches down to the Tarbela Dam near Islamabad.
    India's foreign ministry and ministry for water resources did not respond to requests for comment.
    New Delhi this year fast-tracked $15 billion worth of dam projects in Indian occupied Kashmir (IoK), despite fears from Islamabad that the power stations will disrupt vital Indus water flows into Pakistan.
    Iqbal, a close ally of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, said India needs to "stop its myopic thinking towards CPEC" and accept the Chinese-funded project is going ahead. Better still would be for India to become part of Beijing's Belt and Road plans, he said.
    "$20 BILLION PLUS"
    Future CPEC plans are increasingly focussed on how Beijing can help build up Pakistan's ailing industries, creating special economic zones and opening up sectors from mining to agriculture to Chinese firms.
    But Iqbal said infrastructure construction won't stop, with contracts set to be signed for roads and for mass rail transport systems in Quetta, Peshawar and Karachi.
    He said about $10 billion in new deals should be signed in the next year on top of Chinese pledges topping $50 billion, and that was likely to double by 2020.
    "I would say conservatively $20 billion plus (in new investment by 2020)," Iqbal said, adding this would also include private investment.


  21. Waqas Dar
    ISLAMABAD: The Panama case joint investigation team (JIT), constituted by the Supreme Court to probe businesses and financial dealings of the Sharif family, alleged that certain state institutions are tampering records and creating impediments in its work, besides threatening some members of the team.

    The JIT, earlier this week, had submitted a report in the apex court detailing difficulties and hurdles during the course of its investigations.
    The team of investigators, in its report, alleged that the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) chairman and executive director are tampering records and displaying a non-cooperative attitude.
     The report also alleged the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) of non-provision of records and the Ministry of Law for delaying a letter for the sake of investigations abroad.
    The JIT accused Intelligence Bureau (IB) personnel of threatening JIT member, Bilal Rasool, and trying to hack Rasool and his family's Facebook accounts. It alleged that IB personnel were seen near the residence of Bilal Rasool on May 24, where they also threatened his servant.
    "The JIT asked the SECP for record of Chaudhry Sugar Mills and all past inquiries against Sharif family. But the SECP denied any inquiries held against Sharif family in the past, while a witness told that the SECP chairman directed not to search the record of inquiries," the report stated.
    "The SECP chief also ordered tampering of record of Chaudhry Sugar Mills and Executive Director Ali Azeem changed it from past dates. Azeem was also nominated by the SECP chairman for inclusion in the JIT, to sabotage investigations," it noted.
    The JIT further told the Ministry of Law and Justice caused five-day delay in responding to its letter for investigations abroad.
    The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) was also accused of pressurising JIT member, Irfan Mangi. It said the NAB issued a show cause notice to Mangi on April 25, for his deputation in the anti-graft body in 2004, and asked to submit an explanation in 15 days.
    When the FBR was asked for Sharif family's record since 1985, the report stated, it only provided details from the last five years.
    The investigation team also alleged the government of leaking details of JIT correspondence with concerned institutions. It further said the parties in the case have been asking witnesses to testify in their favour.
    "The chairman of Ittefaq Group directed Tariq Shafi to visit PM House before his appearance before the JIT, wherein he was asked to submit a statement according to their directives," the report read.
    It said the leaking of secret correspondence to media was aimed at making investigations controversial, adding the JIT secretly issued summons to the prime minister secretly, which the information minister confirmed to media.
    "Making information public this way raises concerns for witnesses' security," the report added.


  22. Waqas Dar
    Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan on Tuesday said that PML-N workers are planning a show of force at the venue of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's appearance before the joint investigation team (JIT). 
    The PTI chairman said he has received reports regarding the intentions of PML-N workers.
    "Finally the powerful will be presented in court," said Khan. 
    He added that the Supreme Court and the JIT should rest assured that the people of Pakistan stand with them.
    The JIT, constituted by the Supreme Court to probe businesses and financial dealings of the Sharif family, issued summons to the premier to appear before it on June 15.

    The premier has been asked to come to the Federal Judicial Academy - temporary headquarters of the JIT - at 11 am on Thursday, along with relative record and documents.


     



  23. Waqas Dar
    British boxer of Pakistani origin Amir Khan and his wife Faryal Makhdoom made headlines in the past due to the then raging family feud, although now it seems that the two have extended an olive branch.

    In the holy month, the spirit of forgiveness is alive and the couple has tried to make the most of the opportunity.
    According to a Sun news, the boxer posted on his social media account: ?My dad and I at the pak v ind cricket match last weekend. We both had a great time together. Faryal and I decided to put everything behind us. She played a big part in helping me move forward. Life is too short.?
    ?It?s the month of Ramadan. This is the month Allah asks us to clean our hearts & love one another. A lot has happened but my wife and I have accepted to move forward with a clean heart. We hope to expect the same from others ???? Ameen.?
    Although the post is no longer there, but on Amir?s Twitter account he has a picture with his dad at the India-Pak match in Birmingham.

    The couple and their families were thrown into the limelight when Faryal took to social media last year accusing her in-laws of subjecting her to verbal abuse and criticising her for her ?modern? way of dressing and living.

    The accusations triggered a war of words between her and the boxer?s family, with Amir Khan caught in the crosshairs. The situation became all the more embarrassing for the couple when an ?inappropriate? video tape of the boxer emerged, intensifying the feud.
    Amir Khan and Faryal also did not show up at his brother?s wedding celebration in Bolton.
    Faryal had revealed that no one bothered to invite the couple to the wedding event 


  24. Waqas Dar
    CHITTAGONG: Heavy monsoon rains and landslides have killed at least 92 people in southeast Bangladesh, burying many in their homes as they slept, authorities said Tuesday.
    Three young children from the same family were among those killed in the disaster, which comes just weeks after a cyclone battered the region and destroyed camps housing thousands of Rohingya refugees.
    Police warned that the death toll would likely rise as emergency workers reached remote parts of the Chittagong Hills, where telephone and transport links had been cut.
    Many of the victims were from poor tribal communities in the remote hill district of Rangamati, close to the Indian border, where 60 people were killed when mudslides buried their homes.
    One woman described the ground sliding from beneath their family home in the dead of night, sending them fleeing to a house next door.
    "A few other families also took shelter there, but just after dawn a section of hill fell on the house. Six people are still missing," Khatiza Begum told local news website Bangla Tribune at Rangamati hospital.
    District police chief Sayed Tariqul Hasan said most of the landslides happened before dawn on Tuesday.
    "Some of them were sleeping in their houses on hillsides when the landslides occurred," he said.
    Police and local authorities ordered the evacuation of thousands of people living in slums at the base of hills in the neighbouring district of Chittagong, where 26 people have been confirmed dead.
    At least 126 people were killed in that district when a massive landslide buried a village a decade ago.
    In the latest incident six people were killed in the nearby district of Bandarban, among them three children buried by a landslide as they slept in their home.
    Authorities have opened 18 shelters in the worst-hit hill districts, where 4,500 people have been evacuated, disaster management and relief minister Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya told reporters.
    ´Constant fear´
    Reaz Ahmed, head of the Department of Disaster Management, said disaster response teams had been deployed but had not yet been able to reach all the affected areas.
    "Once the rains are over, we´ll get a full picture of the damage and get the recovery work in full swing," he added.
    The monsoon rains came two weeks after Cyclone Mora smashed into Bangladesh´s southeast, killing at least eight people and damaging tens of thousands of homes.
    Rohingya leader Mohammad Anam said the latest rains had further worsened conditions in camps that were badly hit by the cyclone.
    "We´re living in constant fear of landslides," he told AFP.
    Around 300,000 Rohingya, a mainly Muslim stateless ethnic minority, are living in camps in southeastern Bangladesh after fleeing persecution in Myanmar.
    Heavy monsoon rains also pounded the capital Dhaka and the port city of Chittagong in the district of the same name, disrupting traffic for hours and flooding key roads and business districts.
    A ferry sank in the River Buriganga in Dhaka on Monday evening with an estimated 100 passengers aboard, police said, adding all the passengers had managed to swim ashore.
    Among the victims in Rangamati district were at least four soldiers who had been sent to clear roads after an earlier landslide.
    Thousands of troops are stationed in Rangamati, where a tribal insurgency raged for two decades, and which still suffers sporadic violence.
    "The soldiers were sent to clear roads hit by landslide in Manikchhari town when they were themselves buried by a second landslide," armed forces spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Rashidul Hassan told AFP.
    "They fell 30 feet (nine metres) from the main road," he said, adding one soldier was missing and 10 injured, five critically.


  25. Waqas Dar
    China on Monday said Chinese President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had met ?several times? during the recently concluded Shanghai Cooperation Summit (SCO) and denied rumours of any rift between the countries.
    The statement, given by China?s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, comes after reports had circulated that China?s Xi had not held a bilateral meeting with Sharif in Astana.
    The reports were termed by China's foreign ministry as "baseless and pointless". 
    ?I can assure you that at the sidelines of the 17th Meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the SCO Member States, President Xi Jinping held friendly talks with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif many times,? said the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman.
    The spokesperson did not confirm in his briefing if the talks between the two head of states were of bilateral nature or otherwise.  
    He added that Pakistan and China are ?all-weather strategic partners enjoying a relationship that runs long and deep?.
    Earlier last week, Pakistan was accepted as a permanent member of SCO, a regional block promoting economy and security.
    With the inclusion of Pakistan and India, the SCO now has a total of eight states as permanent members ? after China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
    Other observer states and governments and international organisations are also part of the group.
    The group will now represent nearly half of the world?s population after the inclusion of the subcontinental neighbours. 




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