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Norwegian Minister for legal action against refugees visiting homeland

August 5, 2017August 5, 2017 News Desk

Oslo, News Desk, Aug 5, 2017 Minister of Immigration and Integration Sylvi Listhaug (Frp) asked people to “follow” and report to the authorities if they know or suspect that refugees they know are traveling to their home country. Norway’s Prime Minister Solberg (H) compares it with thief fishing. “People have come to me in the election campaign and told about neighbors and others in the community who have been on holiday in the country they fled from. And it seems many people are very strange as these when they came…

Will soon reveal the reason to not join federal cabinet: Nisar

August 5, 2017 News Desk

Former interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, while speaking in a jalsa in his constituency on Friday, said he will soon reveal the reason he did not join Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi’s cabinet. Nisar’s portfolio has been transferred to Ahsan Iqbal in Prime Minister Abbasi’s cabinet, which took oath today (Friday). Reports of Nisar’s misgivings with other PML-N leaders had emerged last month, following which he had announced he would hold a press conference to clear the air. He finally spoke last week, after postponing the talk twice, to…

Amir Khan ‘tweets wife in shock divorce row and accuses her of cheating on him with Anthony Joshua’

August 4, 2017August 4, 2017 News Desk

Shock tweets from Amir Khan’s official account claim he has split from his wife as she ‘has cheated on him with heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua’. It’s not known whether the Olympic champion was hacked or not, but messages from his account read: “So me and the wife Faryal [Makhdoomh] have agreed to split. I’m currently in Dubai. Wish her all the best.” He followed it up with a screenshot of a Snapchat conversation, which he claimed was between Faryal and Anthony. “Faryal moved on quick. Always mentioned to me how…

Islam has nothing to do with terrorism, Says Dr Tahir Qadri in Norway

August 4, 2017August 4, 2017 News Desk

By Syed Sibtain Shah (Oslo, Aug 04, 2017) Chief of a Pakistani religious-political organization, “Idara Minhal ul Quran” Allama Tahir ul Qadri has said, Islam is message of Peace and love and has nothing to do with terrorism. He was addressing a gathering of Norwegian people in a city of near capital Oslo. The conference was organized at opening of three-day Al Hidaya Camp in Norway. Dr Qadri said, I have studied different religions but I have never seen hate in teaching of any religion. Purpose of the religion is…

Pakistan urges comprehensive political plan for Afghan peace

August 4, 2017 News Desk

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Thursday hoped that the ongoing US review would result in a comprehensive political strategy to promote reconciliation and peace in Afghanistan and the region amid reports that the Trump Administration is in a fix to evolve a workable plan. As the US administration is finalising its plan for Afghanistan and South Asia, a US delegation led by Ambassador Alice G Wells, Acting Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs, held talks with Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua at the Foreign Office. The US delegation is currently on tour…

Eight killed in rain related incidents in Islamabad, K-P

August 4, 2017 News Desk

PESHAWAR: Heavy downpour on Wednesday flooded parts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhawa (K-P), upper Punjab and the federal capital, killing at least eight people and injuring dozens. With these casualties, the total death toll in Pakistan due to current monsoon rains rose to 105. Three children reportedly died in Islamabad after roof of a house collapsed at the Allah Ditta Brick Kiln near Benazir Chowk at the capital’s Tarnol area. In another related incident, a girl was killed and four other members of her family sustained injuries in the suburbs of Jhelum on Wednesday.…

New cabinet takes oath: Khawaja Asif foreign minister, Ahsan Iqbal interior minister

August 4, 2017 News Desk

Members of the new cabinet took oath at a ceremony organised at the Presidency in Islamabad on Friday morning. President Mamnoon Hussain administered the oath to 44 members of Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi’s cabinet comprising mostly old faces but with some reshuffled portfolios. The cabinet comprises 28 federal ministers and 18 state ministers. The names of the cabinet members and their portfolios were finalised by PM Abbasi after six-hour-long consultations with his predecessor Nawaz Sharif and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif in Murree on Thursday. Khawaja Muhammad Asif, earlier the defence…

Heat in South Asia could reach ‘unsurvivable’ levels by 2100

August 4, 2017 News Desk

The study in the journal Science Advances warned of “summer heatwaves with levels of heat and humidity that exceed what humans can survive without protection”. The research is based on two climate models. One is a ‘business-as-usual’ scenario in which little is done to contain climate change, and the second is aimed at limiting temperature rise to well below two degrees Celsius, as pledged by more than 190 nations under the 2015 Paris climate accord. The study is the first of its kind to look not just at temperatures, but…

Karachi’s influential prisoners are living the dream

August 4, 2017 News Desk

KARACHI: Suspected murderers, rapists and terrorists are inmates of the Central Jail, Karachi. Or, they are supposed to be. Around 40 convicted and under-trial prisoners have been living a life of luxury at various public and private hospitals in blatant violation of prison department laws. Infamous convicts, like the murderers of university student Shahzeb Khan and A-Level student Suleman Lashari, have been living in private wards of hospitals that they have turned into their homes away from home. Some prisoners have even been ‘admitted’ to private hospitals for months at…

Asma Jahangir censures SC

August 4, 2017 News Desk

ISLAMABAD: Rights activist and lawyer Asma Jahangir has questioned the role of the Supreme Court in the Panamagate case, and its recent verdict disqualifying the ex-prime minister from his office. Speaking at a meet the press programme on Thursday, the former president of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) censured the apex court’s judgment in the case. “I do not support Nawaz Sharif and I have never voted for the PML-N, but I support the rule of law and the principles. And I think voices should be raised when the highest…

Panama papers firm shrinks internationally

August 4, 2017 News Desk

PANAMA CITY: Mossack Fonseca, the law firm linked to the Panama Papers scandal, has had to close most of its international offices due to a slump in business, company officials said on Wednesday. “We had about 45 offices abroad. Now there are about six left,” Jürgen Mossack, one of its founders told a briefing while insisting the Panama headquarters was not expecting to close. A trove of 11.5 million digital records from the Panamanian law firm revealed how many of the world’s wealthy used offshore companies to stash assets. Perpetrators ranged…

Former AGP’s conviction suspended

August 4, 2017 News Desk

ISLAMABAD: The sacked auditor general of Pakistan (AGP) Akhtar Buland Rana, who was convicted of concealing his Canadian nationality, was released on bail on Thursday. Additional District and Sessions Judge (ADSJ) Faizan Haider Gillani suspended the verdict of senior civil judge Mohammad Shabbir and issued notice to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) for September 19. The ADSJ released the AGP on Rs200,000 surety bonds. A senior civil judge had convicted Mr Rana under section 6(c) of the Passport Act 1974 for concealing his Canadian nationality and awarded him six-months of…

Corps commander, governor pledge to ensure durable peace in Karachi

August 4, 2017 News Desk

Corps commander Karachi meets governer sindh

KARACHI: The military establishment on Thursday hinted that the Karachi operation, which is going to complete four years next month, was not going to end anytime soon as the new corps commander of the city in a meeting with the Sindh governor vowed to continue the exercise “till its logical end”. During a meeting at Governor House Governor Mohammed Zubair and Corps Commander Karachi Lt-Gen Shahid Baig Mirza discussed efforts that were afoot to make peace in the city sustainable and lasting, after the sacrifices of many security and law…

Footprints: when sacrifice is insufficient

August 4, 2017 News Desk

KARACHI: Outside the Garden Headquarters of the Sindh police, I meet Muhammad Hamza. He has come to file a document required to be recruited as a constable in the law enforcement agency. The 21-year-old graduate does not want to be a constable, and would prefer the position of an officer, but there is no choice. Hamza lost his father, constable Muhammad Afzal, last month in an armed attack on a police vehicle in Korangi. Two other policemen also died while doing their duty on one of the city’s busiest roads.…

Al Qaeda frees South African hostage after six years

August 3, 2017 News Desk

A South African man abducted from his hotel and held hostage by Al Qaeda in Mali since 2011 has been freed unscathed, his country’s foreign ministry said on Thursday. Stephen McGown, 42, was kidnapped from the historic trading city of Timbuktu in Mali’s north along with Swede Johan Gustafsson and Dutchman Sjaak Rijke, both of whom were subsequently released. McGown has returned to South Africa and been reunited with his family, foreign ministry official Clayson Monyela told AFP. “It was a big surprise when he walked through the door. When I…