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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. ...

ISLAMABAD: Delivering his maiden speech in the National Assembly, Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman on Monday lambasted the “establishment” for “constantly interfering” in politics and announced his party’s plan to launch a protest movement from next month against the alleged rigging in the Feb 8 polls. The announcement from the JUI-F chief to begin the protest movement with a “million march” in Karachi on May 2 came as the National Assembly hastily passed the Tax Laws (Amendment) Act 2024 after suspending the rules and without allowing a general debate, prompting the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) members to lodge a protest and stage a walkout. Before staging the walkout and in an effort to block the passage of the bill, a PTI member pointed out lack of quorum, but Speaker Ayaz Sadiq after a headcount declared the house in order and gave the floor to Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar to present the bill for passage. The JUI-F chief, who had come to th...

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...

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 ...

KARACH: Forty-three areas in 11 districts, including 34 in Karachi division alone, are at a high polio risk whereas more than 38,000 cases of refusals were reported in the province during the national immunisation days observed in February this year. This was shared during a meeting of the provincial task force for the eradication of polio held at the CM House on Saturday. The meeting, presided over by Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah, was organised to discuss the challenges in the upcoming national immunisation campaign scheduled for Monday (April 29) in 25 districts. Briefing on the latest polio situation in the country, Health Minister Dr Azra Pechuho said that two polio cases had been detected this year in Balochistan; one in Dera Bugti and the other in Chaman district. Anti-polio campaign to begin tomorrow; over 38,000 cases of refusal reported in February In Sindh, she said, environmental samples had been collected from all the districts and 43 areas of 11 districts were...

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...

PTI founder Imran Khan ruled out any “deal” in a message released on Friday for the party’s 28th Foundation Day. The PTI marked its 28th Foundation Day on April 25 (Thursday). In a message released today on Imran’s account on social media platform X to mark the occasion, he said that the “worst dictatorship” was imposed on the country which was becoming the basis for the “destruction of the economy, government rule, democracy and judiciary”. He called on every individual to play their role in stopping this descent towards the country’s ruin. “It is my message for the nation that I will give any sacrifice required for actual freedom but will never compromise on my or my nation’s freedom.” Saying that he was kept behind bars for the past nine months due to “fake [and] concocted cases”, Imran said: “I will remain in jail if I have to for nine more years, or more, but I will never strike a deal with those who have enslaved my nation.” The message was issued shortly after PTI lead...

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: The first regular session of the Senate after its most recent election turned out to be hot and cold where opposition and treasury benches traded barbs but also agreed on working together to pull the country out of the economic quagmire. The session on Thursday started with 11 Khyber Pakhtunkhwa seats vacant since the election wasn’t held there over the delay in the administration of oath to KP assembly members elected on reserved seats. As the first order of business, Senate Chairman Yousuf Raza Gilani took oath from Faisal Vawda and Maulana Abdul Wasay, who became Senate members after winning the election on April 2. Their oath taking was delayed as the two senators were not present in the house’s opening session on April 7. Dar seconds Shibli’s offer for reconciliation to tackle challenges; bipartisan committee to examine tax amendments In a fiery speech after the oath, the newly appointed opposition leader, Shibli Faraz, questioned the legitimacy of the present a...

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...

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/cJKRWr2

ISLAMABAD: Just a day after by-elections held across the country, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) leaders alleged that intelligence and security agencies had played a role in rigging the polls. Saying that April 21 will be remembered as a “black day” in the history of Pakistan, the party urged the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to withhold the notifications of results and announced a series of protests, starting from Friday. “[The] day of election is considered an accountability day, and people cast their votes with great zeal. However, on April 21, open and blatant violations of law were observed. The magnitude of the rigging and violation of law has never been observed in the history of Pakistan. Gates of polling stations were closed, and at some polling stations, more votes were polled than the total registered votes,” PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Khan told a press conference. Accompanied by Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Omar Ayub, Central Information Secretar...

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...

• Highway connecting border town with Quetta still closed for traffic • Met Office predicts more downpour QUETTA: The road link to many areas of Balochistan couldn’t be restored till Friday as rains and thunderstorms continued in different areas of northern and southern Balochistan during the last 24 hours. The border district of Chaman continued to witness disaster as flash floods entered the town from Khozak and other mountain ranges. The deluge also damaged the Quetta-Chaman highway, cutting off traffic between the two cities. Trucks carrying Afghan Transit Trade goods were stuck near Qila Abdullah and Chaman, and they are waiting for the road to be cleared. Officials in Chaman said Levies and other forces had reached the people stranded in hilly areas and “are making all-out efforts” to restore traffic on the highway. They added that the bodies of a woman and a child were recovered from a seasonal stream. They died after the vehicle they were travelling in was swept away in...

NAROWAL: Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz visited Kartarpur on Thursday via helicopter and she was not travelling with a motorcade at the time of an accident, which claimed the life of a youth in Narowal, the provincial government said on Friday. In a statement, a spokesperson said the CM had taken notice of the youth’s death and ordered immediate action, issuing directions for the identification of the car involved in the accident and the arrest of the culprits. The spokesperson said that police, on the orders of the CM, had registered a case and launched an investigation into the man’s death. According to initial reports and eyewitness accounts, 23-year-old filling station worker Muhammad Abubakar had died after allegedly being hit by an Elite Force vehicle, said to be part of the chief minister’s convoy. Spox says case registered over youth’s death; police say inquiry launched against driver of ‘official vehicle’ The incident took place at the Chandowal Stop on the Shakarg...

NEW DELHI: Elections to the 18th Lok Sabha kicked off on Friday across 21 Indian states covering 102 seats of the 545-member house, and although voters queued up in searing heat across much of the country to record an overall voting of over 60 per cent, absent from the fray was any sign of a Modi wave. The first of the seven-phase polls saw eight seats in the politically crucial western Uttar Pradesh in the contest. The state sends 80 MPs and is regarded as a must-win for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s bid for a third consecutive term. His Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had grabbed 62 of the seats in 2019, mainly riding the military standoff with Pakistan, which he exploited with posters seeking votes in the name of the army. The 2014 elections were buoyed by the communal polarisation instigated in Muzaffarnagar with false stories of Muslims abducting Hindu girls. This time the key BJP plank of Ram temple in Ayodhya has evidently failed to enthuse the voters. Moreover, this time aroun...