Prime Minister Imran Khan and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan are known to have developed a close affinity for each other.
A recent video of the pair meeting at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) session has gone viral in which Erdogan can be seen kissing PM Imran on his cheeks in what is a customary Arab greeting.
The footage soon began doing the rounds on social media with users heralding the close bond between the leaders of the two Muslim nations.
Ankara has stood by Islamabad on the Kashmir issue and been vocal against New Delhi’s move to enforce a curfew and information blockade in Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) for over 50 days now.
Meanwhile, the two countries along with Malaysia have decided to rollout their own English television channel to counter Islamophobia the world over.
The decision was announced following a tri-lateral meeting between PM Imran, Erdogan and Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on the sidelines of the 74th UNGA session being held in New York.
“…we decided our 3 countries would jointly start an English language channel dedicated to confronting the challenges posed by Islamophobia and setting the record straight on our great religion – Islam,” PM Imran tweeted.
Ninety among the 400 Pakistanis – who were found to be holding offshore assets in international tax havens according to the 2016 Pamama Papers leaks – have benefited from the tax amnesty scheme offered by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) led government.
The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) had managed to trace 140 of these 400 Pakistanis and according to a senior FBR official, 90 among these 140 people have availed the last amnesty scheme. “The FBR has once again sent notices to the rest of 50 people,” he said.
The PTI had been a strong critic of such schemes in the past and had filed a case in the Supreme Court of Pakistan against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, names of three of whose children had also surfaced in the leaks. That case had resulted in disqualification of Nawaz in July 2017.
The FBR has also approached the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) seeking financial information of the remaining offshore company owners and money launderers after countries including British Virgin Islands, Panama and Bahamas did not respond to its letters.
According to the FBR official, several letters were written to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and other countries for retrieval of financial information pertaining to owners of offshore companies but these letters are either not answered or the authorities have provided sketchy information.
However, the National Assembly Standing Committee on Government Assurances in its session held on August 26 directed the revenue division to expedite inquiry into the remaining Panama cases and also permitted it to make any amendments to the law if desired.
The committee had also advised the revenue authorities to seize assets of offshore companies whose owners and directors had expired. The committee had summoned the FBR Chairman Shabbar Zaidi to personally brief it on the issue.
According to sources, a report on offshore companies has already been submitted to the committee. Zaidi while briefing the meeting on Wednesday maintained that 90 of the 140 people named in Panama Papers have availed the government’s amnesty scheme and declared their assets with due payment of taxes.
Zaidi said action was being taken against remaining people, including those holding properties and Iqama in the UAE. However, action in this regard is taken after due process of law which takes time and involves bottlenecks such as unavailability of information and wrong information.
A total of 184 people named in Panama leaks did not even file income tax returns while some others are not submitting their returns for the past few years. The 184 non-filers have been issued FBR notices with clear directions for submission of asset details along with income tax returns.
Meanwhile, majority of the filers named in Panama Papers maintain that their offshore companies were built decades ago and remained nonfunctional.
According to a report submitted by DG Intelligence, Zaidi said, some of the people named in Panama Papers have declined to be owners of the offshore companies.
We’ve all found ourselves standing next to strange and unusual figures while waiting for the bus.
But commuters in St. Petersburg were likely shocked to find a lone horse waiting at But commuters in St. Petersburg were likely shocked to find a lone horse waiting at their bus stop Tuesday morning.
Video shared on VKontakte shows the horse nonchalantly grazing on some grass at the bus stop. When the bus arrives, the equine passenger tries to hop on the bus just like any other day until the bus doors abruptly shut in its face.
Maybe the animal didn't have a ticket. Maybe it was just the wrong bus. Either way, the horse's attempts to ride the bus were foiled, leaving it with no choice but to walk to its destination.
But the horse wasn’t upset by the refusal — it simply turned around and walked away to snack on some more grass.
Many online observers were puzzled by the sight of the horse, which wasn’t accompanied by a human and wasn’t wearing a harness or saddle. According to some social media users from St. Petersburg, there is a stable next to the bus stop and it’s not surprising to see horses in the area.
While some online observers tried to joke that “One horsepower was just parked in the wrong place,” others sympathized with the animal.
“Just let the animal eat, later it will be carrying carriages around the Hermitage,” one social media user said.
Another user simply remarked: “This is Russia. Why are you surprised?”
British-Pakistani author Kamila Shamsie has been stripped off of her German Literary award due to her support for Palestine.
Shamsie was announced as this year’s winner of the Nelly Sachs Prize (named after a Jewish poet and Nobel Laureate) in September but her support for the pro-Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement has made the organisers rethink their decision of awarding the author.
In a statement on Wednesday, the organisers shared that the eight-member jury has reversed its decision and the 2019 award will not be handed to any author.
“Despite prior research, the members of the jury were not aware that the author has been participating in the boycott measures against the Israeli government for its Palestinian policies since 2014,” the statement read.
“Shamsie’s political positioning to actively participate in the cultural boycott as part of the BDS (Boycott Disinvestment Sanctions) campaign against the Israeli government is clearly in contradiction to the statutory objectives of the award and the spirit of the Nelly Sachs Prize.”
Shamsie condemned the decision in her response saying, “It is a matter of outrage that the BDS movement that campaigns against the government of Israel for its acts of discrimination and brutality against Palestinians should be held up as something shameful and unjust.”
“It is a matter of great sadness to me that a jury should bow to pressure and withdraw a prize from a writer who is exercising her freedom of conscience and freedom of expression,” she Tweeted.
Many lauded the author for voicing her support for Palestine.
The Sindh government has written a letter to the court authorities to initiate a judicial inquiry into the death of Nimrita Kumari, a student of the Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Medical University's Bibi Aseefa Dental College.
Adviser to Chief Minister Sindh on Information Senator Murtaza Wahab had yesterday promised a group of protesters in Karachi that the Sindh government would ask for a judicial inquiry into the death of the girl.
Kumari was found dead on Monday, the university administration had earlier said, adding that she had allegedly committed suicide by hanging herself from the ceiling fan in her room in the university's hostel.
However, Nimrita Kumari's brother said Tuesday that his sister was murdered. Kumari's peers at the university, as well as other people close to her, have recorded their statements pertaining to the case,
According to the principal of Larkana's Chandka Medical College, Professor Dr K. Das Dholia, the initial post-mortem report ascertained the cause of Kumari's death to be suicide.
An Indian official has claimed that cow dung can save people from nuclear radiation and even went on to say that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) had proved it.
The Indian officer's statement gained a lot of attention on social media and was even shared by the director-general of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor.
At the end of his tweet, the army’s spokesperson clarified that the purpose of the tweet was not to offend any religious views.
Asif Ghafoor
✔
@peaceforchange
Here it comes. Scientifically proven. @NASA is for sure authority.
After #CowColaEnegy it’s #CowDungAntiRadiationGuard.
No offence to religion which remains respectable.
In the video clip, the officer can be heard saying that when he went to Nagpur for bomb disposal training, he was told that the US has made centres to shield its population against nuclear radiation.
The officer asked about India and how it can save against the nuclear radiation, to which he was told: “Dig a ditch, put wooden planks and leaves on top of it, then place a 1.5-feet layer of cow dung on it. This will save India from the nuclear radiation.”
The show's host asked the guest again — probably to confirm — if cow dung could save people from nuclear radiation but the Indian officer stood firm by his claim.
In the video clip shared, it can be seen that the host and other guests were smiling or stifling their laughter.
Kamal Khan’s critically acclaimed film, Laal Kabootar, has been selected as Pakistan’s submission to the Oscars 2019.
The makers of the film took to social media to share the news. “Something for us all to be proud of as a team. All the sweat and hard work was worth it.”
Speaking to media Mansha Pasha shared, “Kamal, Hania, and Kamil worked so hard on this film. They had such a great work ethic that this film was going to be one of its kind. We hoped Laal Kabootar would be the trailblazer for more Pakistani films that tap into different genres and diverse content. This film will Insha Allah stand the test of time.”
Starring Mansha, Ahmed Ali Akbar, Ali Kazmi, and others, the film revolves around the gritty, raw life of Karachi.
Saba Qamar fans rejoice!
After delivering power-packed performances as Kanwal Baloch in Baaghi and later, Mannat in Cheekh, the actor has announced she will be making a big screen comeback with director Sarmad Khoosat’s upcoming project titled Kamli.
Qamar shared first picture of the upcoming film on her Instagram.
While the Hindi Medium star is staying tight-lipped about her upcoming venture, this is not the first time the duo will be working together in a film.
Khoosat and Qamar were last seen in Manto, the former’s take on the controversial life and work of Saadat Hasan Manto.
Kamli is set to release in 2020.
Former Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Najam Sethi took a dig at Prime Minister Imran Khan through twitter, after it was announced that various Sri Lankan players had opted out of the proposed Sri Lanka tour of Pakistan which is scheduled for this month. Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) officials however have clarified that a team will still be sent for the tour.
Sethi took to twitter, to mock the current Prime Minister for his comments on international players who took part in the Habib Bank Limited (HBL) Pakistan Super League (PSL) in 2017.
“Imran Khan should guide the PCB on how to make sure Sri Lanka doesn’t send a “Relukata” team to Pakistan!” Sethi tweeted.
sure Sri Lanka doesnt send a “Relukata” team to Pakistan!
The former Chairman, who is widely credited with bringing international cricket back to Pakistan, received criticism for bringing in second tier players for the HBL PSL final in 2017 which was held in Lahore.
Khan, in a video, called the international players ‘phateechar’, ‘rallukatta’ and ‘from Africa’. The former World Cup winning captain believed that these second tier players could have been called to play in the country regardless of the security conditions.
These terms were classified as derogatory and racist during the time. Khan received a significant amount of backlash for the comments and had to justify his stance accordingly.
Sethi’s comments come at a time when the PCB is still striving to get international cricketers to play in the country.
Dubbed "breakbone fever", dengue is one of the world's leading mosquito-borne illnesses and infects tens of millions across the globe annually.
Around half of the planet's population live in at-risk areas, mainly in Latin America, Africa and Asia.
Outbreaks have ravaged Southeast Asia this year, infecting hundreds of thousands, killing hundreds, and crippling health care systems as governments struggle to contain the untreatable virus.
So what is dengue, how does it spread, and how can it be contained?
How does Dengue spread?
Dengue is transmitted mainly by the Aedes Aegypti mosquito, which thrives in densely-populated tropical climates and breed in stagnant pools of water.
The mosquitoes pick up the virus from infected humans — even asymptomatic ones — and pass it along to other people through bites.
Infections have steadily climbed across the globe since the 1970s due to rising temperatures and irregular monsoon rains linked to climate change, which allow for ideal mosquito breeding conditions.
Dengue is mostly found in crowded areas, and breakneck urbanisation across the globe has helped the virus thrive, especially in fast-growing mega-cities like Manila, Rio de Janeiro, Ho Chi Minh City and Tegucigalpa.
A massive boom in international travel and trade has also expanded dengue's footprint, allowing the virus to be carried across the globe in a matter of hours and unleashed in new communities.
Experts say the widespread adoption of plastic is also to blame — storage containers, discarded takeout boxes, backyard pools, plant pots and cooking urns all collect water — a problem made worse during dry spells.
"When you have a drought, people collect water in containers. That is one place the dengue mosquito loves to breed," said Gawrie Loku Galappaththy, a dengue specialist with the World Health Organization in the Philippines.
What does it feel like?
Its grim nickname comes from the disease's intense flu-like symptoms: severe headache, pain behind the eyes, full-body aches, high fever, nausea, vomiting, swollen glands or rash.
It's most serious — and deadly — in children, especially young girls though scientists don't know why.
Contracting one of dengue's four strains gives immunity only to that particular one — which is why adults in endemic areas are often safe because they've likely had it before.
But later picking up a different strain, called a serotype, usually causes a worse infection than the first time.
With no known treatment for dengue, doctors can only help to ease the virus' brutal symptoms, which can last weeks and often renders patients completely immobile.
Why have cases spiked this year?
Once confined mostly to cities in tropical climates, dengue is now found in at least 125 countries across the world, with around 100 million infected every year and some four billion people living in dengue-prone areas, according to the journal Nature Microbiology.
The disease is cyclical — dramatic outbreaks occur every few years — but climate change is believed to have contributed to a spike in cases in 2019, with July clocked as the warmest on record.
"Extremely warm temperatures we've seen this year" likely facilitated its spread, Rachel Lowe, assistant professor at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, told AFP since mosquitoes thrive in warm weather climates.
Several European countries where dengue was once marginal have seen outbreaks, while Latin American countries including Brazil, Colombia, Honduras and Nicaragua are tackling a surge in cases.
How can it be contained?
In Southeast Asia, insecticide fogging is commonly used to kill mosquitoes off, but they usually return after a few days, and insects can quickly become resistant to the chemicals.
A controversial vaccine developed by French pharmaceutical firm Sanofi Pasteur has been greenlit for use in 21 countries and the European Union — but it's far from perfect.
The vaccine, called Dengvaxia, requires three doses, and should only be given to people above the age of nine — the maximum age varies by country — who have been previously infected by dengue.
In 2016 the Philippines was one of the first countries to use Dengvaxia in a mass immunisation programme, but its fumbled rollout has been blamed for the deaths of dozens of children and led to its eventual ban.
Several countries are also trialling the so-called Wolbachia method, and though it's too early to say if the approach works on a large scale, early results are promising.
Mosquitoes are infected with the naturally-occurring Wolbachia bacteria — which is mostly dengue-resistant — and are released to repopulate wild mosquito colonies to reduce disease transmission.
A shrewd young boy named Khalifa Abdullah Al Kaabi managed to save his classmates just seconds before their school bus burned down in Kalbaa, Sharjah. With the help of his speed and wittiness, he got his classmates out of the bus within 4 seconds before it exploded.
Kaabi said the bus driver was in a state of confusion when he saw smoke coming out of the car, adding that he was able to pick up the driver's phone and inform the police in time.
The fire was brought under control by the Sharjah Police and in a few moments, in cooperation with the civil defense teams. The valiant teams have succeeded in securing the safety of all students and transporting them safely to their school shortly after.t>
The hit TV series Chernobyl has attracted a new generation of tourists to the nuclear disaster zone but guides say that many are more interested in taking selfies than learning about the accident.
"They do not need information anymore, they just want to take a selfie," said Yevgen Goncharenko, an official plant guide, at the site of the worst nuclear accident in history.
Tourists now are often on the look out for locations featured in the acclaimed HBO drama and can be surprised to discover that certain sites were fictional, he told AFP.
The hard-hitting mini-series recreates the April 1986 disaster, when one of the reactors at the Soviet Union's Chernobyl plant, in what is now Ukraine, exploded during testing.
The blast spewed radiation over a vast swathe of Europe and a 30-kilometre (19-mile) exclusion zone remains in place around the plant, although a small part of it is open to a growing number of tourists.
The abandoned site had already become a "dark tourism" destination in recent years, even before the eponymous TV show that has picked up 19 Emmy nominations.
But some Ukrainian travel agencies have adapted their tours to take in locations from the Chernobyl series and offer further special trips, such as kayaking in rivers around the exclusion zone.
Oleksandr Syrota, head of the Chernobyl information centre, said that certain tourist companies were offering up the disaster zone as "fast food" — a quick and easy travel experience.
And the trend towards more tourists looks set to continue. In July, new Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree that aims to develop the site further as a tourist attraction.
'Mutants'
Louis Carlos, a 27-year-old visiting from Brazil, said he didn't know much about the disaster before watching the TV series but was motivated to travel to Ukraine to find out more.
"If people come here to understand what happened and try to learn, it's a good thing," Carlos said, as a friend took a photograph of him next to the nuclear power station.
"It's history," he added.
Tourist numbers have steadily increased every year, and last year 72,000 people visited Chernobyl.
The tour operators' association working in the region said it expected the number to jump to 100,000 this year.
Zone guide Goncharenko, who accompanies groups of tourists on visits organised by private companies, said he'd experienced such booms before.
One came after the release of the American horror film Chernobyl Diaries in 2012, he said, also mentioning the impact of the site featuring in the Call of Duty computer game series.
"Sometimes people who came after the computer games seriously asked where one can find mutants," he recalled.
Upbeat photos, 'trendy' place
Shortly after the TV show aired this summer, social media users came under fire for sharing "sexy" or upbeat photos from the ghost town of Pripyat, a city of nearly 50,000 people near Chernobyl that was evacuated after the explosion.
Writer and producer of the series Craig Mazin addressed them on his Twitter feed.
"Yes, I've seen the photos going around," he wrote in June.
"If you visit, please remember that a terrible tragedy occurred there. Comport yourselves with respect for all who suffered and sacrificed".
Yaroslav Yemelianenko, head of the Chernobyl tour guide association, admitted the region had become a "trendy" place to visit.
Instead of fixating on the tragic aspect, Yemelianenko said that Kiev should promote the exclusion zone as a place of reflection about what was a terrible accident.
"We need to promote it, talk about it, attract people here," he said.
Some, like Slovenian tourist Jan Mavrin, insisted they had come to pay tribute to those who had lost their lives in the disaster.
"You've got to have some sort of respect towards this kind of place," Mavrin said, taking a photo of the Ferris wheel at Pripyat's abandoned amusement park.
"You should be modest, you shouldn't just walk around picking (up) stuff," he added.
Souvenirs on eBay
Visitors — both those on official tours and so-called "stalkers" who break in illegally — have been known to take objects out of the exclusion zone as souvenirs, according to Syrota, of the Chernobyl information centre.
"Even we, Pripyat natives, do not allow ourselves to pick up our own things from there," he said.
"And then we are surprised when we see them on eBay," he added.
Syrota said that it was "hard to imagine" where the government's plans for more tourism at the site could lead and stressed that space was limited.
"We have no experience of what this can turn into," he says.
Indonesia has sent hundreds of garbage-filled shipping containers back to their countries of origin, according to the customs agency, as the Southeast Asian nation pushes back against becoming a dumping ground for foreign trash.
About 250 containers seized across the archipelago in recent months have already been returned and authorities are inspecting more than 1,000 others, a customs official said.
Among them, 49 containers of waste seized on Batam Island near Singapore have been shipped back to the United States, Germany, France, Hong Kong and Australia, said agency spokesman Deni Surjantoro.
The shipments were loaded with a combination of garbage, plastic waste and hazardous materials in violation of import rules.
"Imports can't be contaminated with toxic or dangerous materials," he said.
Nearly 200 containers have also been shipped out of Surabaya, Indonesia's second-biggest city, to the US, Britain and Germany, according to customs data.
Meanwhile, authorities near Jakarta are gearing up to send back about 150 containers while inspecting more than 1,000 others that could contain banned materials, Surjantoro said.
Indonesia has been tightening its surveillance of foreign trash in response to soaring imports.
Huge quantities of waste have been redirected to Southeast Asian nations after China - which used to receive the bulk of scrap plastic from around the world -- closed its doors to foreign refuse last year in a bid to clean up its environment.
Australia has pledged to stop exporting recyclable waste amid global concerns about plastic polluting the oceans and increasing pushback from Asian nations against accepting trash.
Around 300 million tonnes of plastic are produced every year, according to the conservation organisation WWF, with much of it ending up in landfills or polluting the seas, in what has become a growing international crisis.
A particular environmental concern are microplastics - tiny pieces of degraded waste that absorb harmful chemicals and accumulate inside fish, birds and other animals.
At the age of 73, an Indian woman from Andhra Pradesh gave birth to twins on Thursday.
The woman and her 82-year-old husband wanted children and had been trying to conceive but were unsuccessful – until now – despite numerous visits to multiple doctors.
The girls were born following an IVF treatment and delivered by cesarean section.
“The mother and the babies are doing well,” the doctor said.
“We are incredibly happy,” said the husband but on Friday, he suffered a sudden stroke and was rushed to the hospital where he is undergoing treatment.
“Nothing is in our hands. Whatever should happen will happen. It is all in the hands of God,” said Mr Rajaro when he was asked what would happen to the children because of the couples’ advanced age.
The couple complained about feeling stigmatised in their village for not having any children. “They would call me a childless lady,” said Ms Yaramati.
She called the birth of her baby girls, the happiest time of her life.
An Australian man venturing into the skies for a first flying lesson has been forced to make an "amazing" solo landing after his instructor blacked out mid-flight.
Max Sylvester's wife and three kids watched from the ground as air traffic control talked him through safely landing the Cessna two-seater at Perth's Jandakot airport on Saturday.
The 30-something had issued a panicked mayday call from an altitude of 1,900 metres (6,200 feet), after his instructor slumped onto his shoulder and could not be woken.
"Do you know how to operate the aeroplane," the air traffic controller in Perth asked urgently, according to a recording of their exchange.
"This is my first lesson," Sylvester responded, adding that he had never landed an aircraft before.
Realising the enormity of the task at hand, the tower responded: "The first thing that we are going to do is make sure that the wings stay level."
He was instructed to maintain altitude and to make a pass above the runway to get a sense of the terrain and become more at ease.
"You're doing a really great job," the operator reassures the trainee as someone more familiar with the aircraft was rushed to the tower.
"I know this is really stressful. But you're going to do an amazing job and we're going to help you get down to the ground, OK?"
Some twenty minutes later, the plane made a heart-stoppingly bumpy landing.
"You did it mate!" exclaimed the air traffic controller. "Well done. That's amazing!"
The instructor was taken to hospital in a stable condition and Sylvester received his first solo flight certificate from the instructor's employer, Air Australia International.
"This could have gone way, way bad," Air Australia International owner Chuck McElwee said, according to public broadcaster ABC.
"But everything worked out right, and it worked right, mostly because of the cooperation of the tower."
