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NEW YORK / WASHINGTON: Demonstrators at Columbia University barricaded themselves inside a campus building on Tuesday, escalating a standoff with officials, but the White House chided them for using “the wrong approach”. Demonstrators vowed to remain at the hall until their demands are met, including that Columbia divest all financial holdings linked to Israel, after administrators began suspending protesting students for failing to comply with an order to disperse. Protests have swept through US higher education institutions, with many erecting tent encampments on campus grounds after around 100 protesters were first arrested at Columbia on April 18. At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, police moved in Tuesday morning to clear one encampment, detaining some protesters. TV footage showed police at the Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in Richmond on Monday evening pushing and shoving away protesters, with students saying teargas and pepper spray was deployed. ...

Seven new deaths from rain-related incidents has raised the death toll in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa since April 26 to 17, according to the Provincial Disaster Management Authority. PDMA spokesperson Anwar Shahzad confirmed the death toll to Dawn.com today and said 23 were injured in different parts of the province. Shahzad said that nine men, three women and five children were among the deceased whereas nine men, three women and 11 children were injured. He said the Bajaur district of Malakand division was the most affected district where five people died, ten were injured and 20 houses were damaged. The KP PDMA spokesman said that 116 houses were damaged due to landslides, roofs and wall collapses. According to the PDMA report dated April 29, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com , 148 cattle also perished in different areas of the province in the landslide and collapse of houses. Four schools and nine other government infrastructures were damaged during rainfall since April 26. ...

The Institute of Space Technology on Tuesday said Pakistan’s “historic” lunar mission iCube-Q will be launched on May 3 at 12:50pm on board China’s Chang’e 6 lunar probe from Hainan, China. According to the Institute of Space Technology (IST), the satellite ICUBE-Q has been designed and developed by IST in collaboration with China’s Shanghai University SJTU and Pakistan’s national space agency Suparco. ICUBE-Q orbiter carries two optical cameras to image the lunar surface. Following successful qualification and testing, iCube-Q has now been integrated with the Chang’e 6 mission. Chang’e 6 is the sixth in a series of China’s lunar exploration missions. The launch activity will be telecast live on the IST website and IST social media platforms. China’s lunar mission will touch down on the moon’s far side to collect samples from the surface and return to Earth for research. The mission holds significance for Pakistan as it will also take a CubeSat Satellite iCube-Q, developed...

ISLAMABAD: The Karachi-based K-Electric has sought approval to charge up to Rs18.6 per unit additional fuel cost from power consumers at an average monthly burden of about Rs2 per unit to mop up about Rs28bn additional funds and clear a backlog of about nine months (July 2023 to March 2024). In a series of petitions filed before the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra), the KE presented three different options for additional fuel cost recovery from consumers on a “provisional basis” to clear the backlog and avoid a sudden increase in burden on its consumers. Nepra has called a public hearing on May 9 for the KE’s petition on provisional monthly fuel charges adjustments (FCA) for the period of July 2023 to March 2024. The KE explained that since its multi-year tariff (2024-30) was currently under regulator’s deliberation, it has filed FCAs based on three scenarios with the request for the approval of any one of the three scenarios and guide recovery mechanism for these...

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) on Monday said it had arrested “four key terrorists” belonging to the banned militant Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) group involved in the suicide attack in Bisham last month. On March 26, five Chinese engineers — and their Pakistani driver — were killed in a suicide bombing in KP’s Bisham while travelling between Islamabad and a hydroelectric dam construction site in Dasu. The bus was attacked in the Bisham city of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Shangla district. The attack prompted China to demand a thorough probe into the deadly blast and security for its citizens. In response, Islamabad had announced a swift probe to hold the “perpetrators and accomplices” accountable. Chinese investigators had also arrived to join the probe. In response to the Chinese government’s demand to promptly investigate the incident and act against those involved, the government had also decided to form a joint investigation team to probe the at...

PEOPLE stand near a flower arrangement reading ‘Free Palestine’ during a demonstration against Israel’s atrocities in Gaza at the University of Southern California, in Los Angeles, on Saturday.—Reuters At 7am on Thursday, minutes after a fifth-year PhD student at Princeton University’s economics department stepped on campus, he was arrested and detained in a holding cell. His crime? Being at the site of a protest camp, set up by students demanding the university divest from organisations and companies facilitating or profiting from Israel’s ongoing atrocities against Palestinians in Gaza. The student, a US national of Pakistani origin, told Dawn that he was held by the university police, detained in a holding cell and charged with trespassing. “[It] felt quite surreal,” he said about the charge, given that he was a university student and had the right to be present on campus at the time. Pakistani-American protester from Princeton recounts arrest; student says ‘hijabs ripped ...

ISLAMABAD: Judge Abual Hasnat Mohammad Zulqarnain, who convicted former prime minister Imran Khan and foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi in the cipher case , has been granted a 20-day leave, according to an official notification. In a related development, the federal government has assigned another judge to the Special Court (Official Secrets Act), set up to prosecute the former premier and foreign minister in the cipher case. According to the notification issued by the Ministry of Law and Justice, the Special Court’s charge has been assigned to Additional District and Sessions Judge Tahir Abbas Sipra. He was recently posted as an anti-terrorism court (ATC) special judge. ADSJ Tahir Sipra given charge of special court The leave application of Judge Zulqarnain was approved by Islamabad High Court’s (IHC) Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, who is also the inspection judge of the capital’s special courts. The decision to grant leave to Judge Zulqarnain came days after Justice Kay...

Armed men kidnapped a sessions judge on Saturday from the border between Tank and Dera Ismail Khan districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, police said. DI Khan Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Mohammad Adnan told Dawn.com that the South Waziristan judge was abducted from Bhagwal village near the border between the two districts. He said he was present at the scene with the Tank district police officer with a heavy contingent of personnel, and raids were being launched as part of a search operation in process. KP Chief Minister Sardar Ali Amin Gandapur took notice of the incident and ordered the inspector general of police to ensure the judge’s safe recovery. “Steps should be taken on an emergency basis to recover the judge. All available resources should be utilised for this purpose,” he was quoted as saying in a statement from the KP government. “The alleged abduction of the judge is highly condemnable and regrettable. The elements involved in the incident cannot escape from the g...

LONDON: Scotland’s First Mini­s­ter Humza Yousaf said he intended to fight a vote of no confidence called by political opponents following his decision to withdraw from a coalition agreement and try to run a minority government. “I’m quite confident, very confident in fact, that I’ll be able to win that vote of no confidence,” he told Sky News on Friday. Scottish National Party leader You­saf ended an alliance with the Scottish Greens after a dispute over a decision to scrap a climate change emissions reduction target last week. The Scottish arm of the Conservative Party that governs Britain then said it would seek to topple Yousaf with a no-confidence motion, calling him a “lame duck”. His position now hangs on a knife-edge vote after almost all other parties, including his former coalition partners, said they would vote against him. With the Conservatives, Labour, Greens and Liberal Democrats all indicating they have no confidence in Yousaf, he would need the support of Ash Rega...

PML-N Punjab President Rana Sanaullah on Friday requested party supremo Nawaz Sharif to assume its presidency after his relief in legal cases against him. The senior PML-N leader was addressing a press conference in Lahore flanked by Javed Latif and Khurram Dastgir after an organisational meeting of the PML-N Punjab wing concluded with the unanimous passing of a resolution advocating for Nawaz’s appointment as the party president. Sanaullah said now that Nawaz had secured legal relief in cases against him, it was the “wish” of PML-N Punjab with the same request to the PML-N supremo to assume the presidency again and lead the party through “this difficult time”. “We have faith that under his leadership, the PML-N will achieve greater success than ever before,” Sanaullah added. The former interior minister said that the PML-N Punjab had carefully considered the political climate before and after the general elections when putting forward its request. “They have determined that...

ISLAMABAD: Amid supply chain challenges leading to the closure of refining units and storage constraints, the government has asked the Mini­stry of Interior and the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to start immediate operations against oil smuggling with the support of other stakeholders. Informed sources told Dawn the prime minister had also taken up the matter with the defence authorities to extend maximum support to the civil agencies concerned in eradicating smuggling, which causes annual losses of hundreds of billions of rupees and negatively affects the smooth functioning of the petroleum supply chain, including refineries and marketing companies. Separately, the Ministry of Interior and the FBR have been directed to take “appropriate and immediate action to address this critical issue”, according to a communication of the petroleum division based on a complaint by the Oil Companies Advisory Cou­ncil (OCAC) to the Special Investment Faci­litation Council (SIFC) and the Prime Min...

Balochistan Assembly Speaker Abdul Khaliq Achakzai was reinstated on Thursday after the Supreme Court annulled the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) orders to suspend him . The ECP’s order of re-polling at 12 polling stations in Balochistan’s PB-51 (Chaman) constituency was also declared null and void. Achakzai was removed from his position following the ECP decision earlier this month to suspend his election notification and order re-election in 12 polling stations within PB-51. The directive for the re-election came after a challenge to his victory by three contenders: Muhammad Asghar Ach­akzai of the Awami Natio­nal Party (ANP), Abasin Achakzai and Muham­m­­ad Sadiq, all of whom were defeated in the general ele­­ction for the PB-51 seat. Achakzai, a PML-N member, challenged the decision in the apex court and a three-member bench headed by Justice Aminuddin Khan conducted the hearing on the matter today. With the consent of PB-51’s candidates, the court sent the matter bac...

QUETTA: Two workers died after inhaling poisonous gas while working deep inside a coal mine in Duki district of Balochistan on Wednesday. Levies officials said a group of miners were operating hundreds of feet below the ground when lethal methane gas accumulated in the mine located in the Duki coalfield. Two of the miners fell unconscious after inhaling the poisonous gas while others succeeded in getting out of the mine. Soon after receiving information about the incident, other mineworkers rushed to the site and launched a rescue operation. They succeeded in reaching the trapped miners, but found them dead. “The bodies were shifted to the district hospital where doctors confirmed their death,” the officials said, adding that the bodies were later handed over to their families. They were identified as Abdul Bari and Lali Khan. Hundreds of miners lose their lives every year due to the presence of methane gas in almost all coalfields in in Balochistan. Last month, 12 workers were k...

Pakistan’s Special Representative on Afghanistan Ambassador Asif Durrani said on Wednesday that the former has suffered more due to the latter’s internal situation than its three wars with India in terms of blood spilt and finances drained. Ambassador Durrani was speaking at the one-day International Conference “Pakistan in the Emerging Geopolitical Landscape”, organised by the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad (ISSI) and the German Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES). Durrani said over 80,000 Pakistanis died during the past two decades of the War on Terror, saying that the country was still counting its dead and injured. “After the withdrawal of Nato forces, it was hoped that peace in Afghanistan would bring peace to the region. However, such expectations were short-lived.” He said attacks by the outlawed militant Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) group on Pakistan’s border areas increased by 65 per cent, while suicide attacks increased by 500pc. “The TTP’s enhanced attacks o...

KUALA LUMPUR: Two Malaysian military helicopters collided and crashed during a training session on Tuesday, killing all 10 crew onboard, the country’s rescue agency said. Footage shared online showed several helicopters flying low in formation over the Lumut naval base, located about 160km from Kuala Lumpur, while participating in a fly-past rehearsal ahead of Naval Day celebrations in May. One chopper was seen clipping the rear rotor of another, causing both to go into a tailspin and crash. “The two helicopters collided during flight training,” said Suhaimy Mohamad Suhail, senior operations commander from the fire and rescue department, adding that all 10 crew members on board were confirmed dead by medical officers. The two aircraft involved were a Eurocopter AS555SN Fennec and an AgustaWestland AW139, the rescue agency said. Photos showed the Eurocopter model heavily mangled in the wreckage on the naval base stadium track with rescue personnel surrounding it as well as various ...

Pakistani mixed martial arts fighter Shahzaib Rind on Tuesday lamented that it was the government’s “bad luck” that it did not support its country’s heroes after his 2-1 victory over India at Dubai’s Karate Combat 45 event over the weekend. Karate Combat, which describes itself as the world’s “premier full-contact karate league”, held a “night of martial arts excellence ” with its debut event in Dubai on April 20. The match between India and Pakistan in the combat sport was played over three ties with Rizwan Ali knocking out Pawan Gupta in the first round. The Indian side had equalised the contest after Himanshu Kaushik defeated Faizan Khan by decision. Rind and India’s Rana Singh took on each other in the final battle of the contest, leading to a quick victory for the former. Rind, who was “unstoppable” in the pit, had raised both nation’s flags after his victory helped Pakistan take an unassailable lead in the contest. He had later explained that the purpose of carr...

Three terrorists were killed by security forces in an intelligence-based operation in Balochistan’s Pishin District, the military’s media wing said on Tuesday. A press release from the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said that the operation took place last night on the reported presence of terrorists in the area. “During the conduct of [the] operation, after intense fire exchange, three terrorists were sent to hell, while one terrorist was apprehended in injured condition, who has been identified as an Afghan national,” the ISPR said. It added that a large cache of arms, ammunition and explosives was also recovered during the operation. “Security forces of Pakistan, in step with the nation, remain determined to thwart attempts of sabotaging peace, stability and progress of Balochistan,” the ISPR said. Two alleged terrorists were also killed and several injured in a gun battle with security forces in the district a day ago. According to officials, the local administration ...

Buildings and streets are flooded after heavy rains hit China’s southern Guangdong province.—AFP QINGYUAN: Floods swa­mped cities in southern China’s densely populated Pearl River Delta following record-breaking rains, sparking worries about the region’s defe­nces against bigger deluges induced by extreme weather events. The province once dubbed the “factory floor of the world” is prone to summer floods. Since Thursday, Guangdong has been battered by unusually heavy, sustained and widespread rainfall, with powerful storms ushering in an earlier-than-normal start to the province’s annual flooding season in May and June. In Qingyuan, a relatively small city of four million, residents counted their losses. “My rice fields are fully flooded, my fields are gone,” Huang Jingrong, 61, told Reuters . Over the weekend, waterways in Guangdong overflowed including the river near Huang’s village. Published in Dawn, April 23rd, 2024 from The Dawn News - Home https://ift.tt/wBLZhQl

LAHORE: PML-N supreme leader Nawaz Sharif on Monday left for China on a ‘low-profile’ five-day visit, with the ruling party refusing to divulge details about the nature of his trip. PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurang­zeb and Information Minister Attaullah Tarar did not confirm the elder Sharif’s “unannounced visit” to Beijing. “I have no idea (about Nawaz Sharif’s China visit),” Mr Tarar told Dawn . However, a PML-N minister confirmed to Dawn that the elder Sharif had indeed left for China on a “private visit”. Media reports suggested the visit was of a ‘personal nature’, during which he will undergo a “medical check-up” and hold meetings with some Chinese companies regarding development works in Punjab, where his daughter Maryam Nawaz is the chief minister. Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and Maryam’s son Junaid Safdar are accompanying him. CM Maryam directs Punjab govt to provide solar power systems to 50,000 households A source close to the Sharif family told Dawn that the purpo...

Three suspects were arrested on Monday for an alleged honour killing in the Bataira area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Kolai Pallas district, according to the police. Kolai Pallas Sub-divisional police officer (SDPO) Abdul Raoof had told Dawn.com a day ago that a youth was killed “for honour” on Friday night, allegedly due to his brother who had eloped with a girl, a family member of the suspects, a year ago. SDPO Raoof had said since the girl and the older brother of the deceased were missing, the girl’s family had allegedly opted to kill Matiur Rehman. Rauf told Dawn.com today that the police arrested three suspects, the father of the prime suspect and his two cousins, adding that they had helped plan the murder. A first information report (FIR), a copy of which is available with Dawn.com , was lodged on the complaint of the deceased’s uncle Attaur Rehman on April 19 under Section 109 (abetment) and 302 (intentional murder) of the Pakistan Penal Code. The uncle said that Rehman, men...

MALE: The party of Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu won control of parliament in a Sunday election landslide, results showed, with voters backing his tilt towards China and away from regional powerhouse and traditional benefactor India. Muizzu’s People’s National Congress (PNC) won 66 of the first 86 seats declared, according to the Elections Comm­ission of Maldives results, already more than enough for a super-majority in the 93-member majlis, or parliament. The vote was seen as a crucial test for Muizzu’s plan to press ahead with closer economic cooperation with China. The PNC and its allies had only eight seats in the outgoing parliament, with the lack of a majority stymieing Muizzu after his presidential election victory in September. In 93-member parliament, Muizzu’s party wins 66 of the first 86 declared seats The main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) — which had previously had a super-majority of its own — was headed for a humiliating defeat with just a dozen ...

PERUGIA: The rise of artificial intelligence has forced an increasing number of journalists to grapple with the ethical and editorial challenges posed by the rapidly expanding technology. AI’s role in assisting newsrooms or transforming them completely was among the questions raised at the International Journalism Festival in the Italian city of Perugia that closes on Sunday. What will happen to jobs? AI tools imitating human intelligence are widely used in newsrooms around the world to transcribe sound files, summarise texts and translate. In early 2023, Germany’s Axel Springer group announced it was cutting jobs at the Bild and Die Welt newspapers, saying AI could now “replace” some of its journalists. Generative AI — capable of producing text and images following a simple request in everyday language — has been opening new frontiers as well as raising concerns for a year and a half. One issue is that voices and faces can now be cloned to produce a podcast or present news on ...

Thirteen new deaths from a second spell of heavy rain in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa raised the death toll to 59 on Saturday, according to the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA). The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) had predicted more spells of rain across the country on Tuesday, extending until April 22 as “another strong westerly wave” was likely to enter western parts of the country. In KP, the PMD had predicted “rain-windstorm/thunderstorm (few heavy, with isolated very heavy falls) with snowfall over high mountains” in areas including Shangla, Buner, Bajaur, Khyber and Peshawar from Wednesday night until April 21. The rain, which started on April 12, triggered flash floods in the northern areas of the province and caused landslides and house collapses across KP. According to the KP PDMA report issued today, 33 children, 14 men and 12 women are among those killed in rain-related incidents since April 12 with a total of 72 people injured. Further, 2,883 houses and...

PESHAWAR: The Pesh­awar High Court (PHC) has directed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister and cabinet to convene the assembly session within a fortnight to ensure that those elected on reserved seats for women and non-Muslims take oath. A PHC bench comprising Justice Syed Mohammad Attique Shah and Justice Shakeel Ahmad, in its 24-page detailed judgement on three identical petitions filed by around 20 MPAs-elect of the opposition in KP, also ordered the provincial assembly speaker to administer the oath to the said MPAs-elect in the session to be requisitioned in accordance with the court order. While the bench in its March 27 short order had not issued any such directive to the CM and the provincial cabinet, the court in its detailed judgement ord­ered both to “take all material steps in terms of Arti­cle 109 along with all enabling provisions of the Cons­titution for summoning the session of the provincial assembly within fortnight positively, after receipt of this judgement, so ...

• Hastens process amid rise in smuggling, complaints from oil industry • Move may help shift brunt of public criticism to oil marketing companies ISLAMABAD: Amid increasing fuel prices and the oil industry’s complaints over the rising influx of smuggled oil products, the government has expedited the process of deregulating petroleum pro­duct prices to shift the brunt of public cri­ticism to oil marketing companies (OMCs). In a directive, the petroleum division has asked the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) “to share a presentation on the analysis and implications of deregulation of petroleum products” within three days. This should particularly cover the “in-country freight equalisation margins (IFEM) and other related aspects”, it said. The directive came following instructions from the Prime Minister’s Office for urgent finalisation of a “deregulation framework for the petroleum sector”, a senior government official said. The government has been under public criticism fo...

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday said he would personally monitor the completion of projects with Saudi investment, adding that negligence regarding these ventures was not acceptable. Chairing a meeting in Islamabad to review matters related to the visit of a recent high-powered Saudi delegation and Saudi investment in different sectors, the premier said the trip under the leadership of the Saudi foreign minister was the beginning of a “new era of commercial and strategic partnership” between the two countries, according to a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office. The meeting’s participants were briefed that the Saudi delegation discussed investment in mining and minerals, agriculture, energy, information technology and infrastructure development. They were also told that both sides had deliberated on making Pakistan a part of the global supply and value chain while the Saudi delegation had also praised Pakistan’s preparedness. The participants termed the arrival of ...

ISLAMABAD: A controversy over what apparently started as an internal dispute between a political party and one of its workers spilled over into the country’s highest court with a plea that someone it had not fielded as its candidate has managed to win the slot, allegedly through impersonation. The Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F) moved the Supreme Court against the Peshawar High Court’s (PHC) April 2 order which had led the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to reinstate Sadaf Ihsan as a member of the National Assembly. Sadaf Ihsan is accused of stealing identity and impersonating another candidate actually fielded by the JUI-F on a reserved seat for women from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It may be recalled that the ECP had earlier withdrawn the victory notification after the JUI-F disowned Sadaf Ihsan being a member of the party. JUI-F claims Sadaf Ihsan ‘impersonated’ its actual candidate Sadaf Yasmin; assails PHC order after her notification by ECP Moved through senior counsel Kamran...

Around 70 people have been killed by heavy rains lashing Afghanistan over the past five days, the government’s disaster management department said on Wednesday. Afghanistan was parched by an unusually dry winter which desiccated the earth, exacerbating flash-flooding caused by spring downpours in most provinces. Disaster management spokesman Janan Sayeq said “approximately 70 people lost their lives” as a result of rains between Saturday and Wednesday. Fifty-six others have been injured, he said, while more than 2,600 houses have been damaged or destroyed and 95,000 acres of farmland wiped away. Giving a smaller death toll last week, Sayeq said most fatalities at that point had been caused by roof collapses resulting from the deluges. Pakistan has also been hammered by spring downpours with people killed in storm-related incidents as rain falls at nearly twice the historical average rate. The United Nations last year warned that “Afghanistan is experiencing major swings in extre...

COPENHAGEN: A fire ripped through Copenhagen’s Old Stock Exchange, one of the Danish capital’s most famous landmarks, on Tuesday, engulfing its spire which collapsed in a scene reminiscent of the 2019 blaze at Paris’ Notre-Dame Cathedral. Emergency services, employees from the Danish Chamber of Commerce, including its CEO Brian Mikkelsen, and even passers-by were seen carrying large paintings away from the building in a race to save historic artefacts from the flames. A video showed the flaming spire breaking in half as it tumbled down, sending a large part crashing to the ground next to a fire truck. “Everybody is crying at the Danish Chamber of Commerce right now. It’s their workplace, but also their history,” Mikkelsen told reporters, shaking his head in disbelief. Danish museum sends employees to save artefacts, paintings “It’s our cultural heritage that I’m looking at. It’s 400 years that have shaped Danish cultural history and the society we live in today.” Denmark’s Nati...