Opposition leaders in Indian-occupied Kashmir (IoK) have accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration of denying or cancelling permissions to hold campaign events, to help his party’s “proxies”. Omar Abdullah, a leader of the largest regional political party, the National Conference, said Modi’s government was trying to sabotage his campaign ahead of voting in the first of IoK’s three seats on Monday. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is skipping elections in IoK for the first since 1996, which analysts and politicians in the region say belies his narrative of integrating the region with the rest of the country and bringing peace and normality…
Author: Hasnain Abid Khanzada
Pakistan and Italy on Friday agreed to finalise a formal deal to jointly counter human trafficking and illegal migration, reported state-run Radio Pakistan. The development came about in a meeting between Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi and Italian Ambassador Marilina Armellin, after which the former ordered the authorities concerned to finalise the agreement at the earliest. Radio Pakistan reported that both parties agreed on adopting a common policy to stop illegal migrants from Pakistan from entering Italy. “The agreement to stop human trafficking in both countries will be finalised soon,” the interior minister was quoted as saying. Naqvi informed the ambassador that a comprehensive crackdown…
WASHINGTON: Experts have ‘warned’ about the threat posed by artificial intelligence going rogue for quite some time but a new research paper suggests it’s already happening. Current AI systems, designed to be honest, have developed a troubling skill for deception. From tricking human players in online games of ‘world conquest’, to hiring humans to solve “prove-you’re-not-a-robot” tests, said a team of scientists in the journal ‘Patterns’, on Friday. While such examples might appear trivial, the underlying issues they expose could soon carry serious real-world consequences, said first author Peter Park who is a postdoctoral fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of…
GENEVA: States aiming to pen a landmark global agreement, on handling future pandemics, began discussing how exactly to keep the process alive, as they ran out of time to seal a deal on Friday. With chances of concluding an agreement by the end of the day slowly fading, negotiations turned to ‘what the next steps might be’. They were ‘shaken’ by the failures exposed by the Covid-19 pandemic, which killed millions, shredded economies and crippled health systems. Since then, countries have spent two years drafting an international accord on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response. Despite a common desire for binding…
RAIPUR: A minimum of 12 Maoist insurgents were shot dead by Indian security forces, on Friday. Police informed those concerned regarding the latest clash in a ‘decades-long conflict’, waged in the country’s central forests. The guerrilla fighters were killed in a remote part of Chhattisgarh state, where a number of deadly assaults on rebel encampments, have been witnessed this year. “The bodies of 12 Maoists have been recovered during the search operation,” local police chief, Vivekananda Sinha, told the press. Sinha stated that security forces had ‘cordoned off’ a forested area within the Bijapur district, after they received intelligence signalling…
RIO DE JANEIRO: Less than three months from the Olympic Games in Paris, Brazilian athletes from the devastated southern state of Rio Grande do Sul are giving up their dreams to compete and staying at home to help with the rescue of victims of the severe floods. Rowers Evaldo Becker and Piedro Tuchtenhagen, due to compete in the qualifying phase for the Olympic Games in the lightweight double sculls category, decided to drop their sporting quest and join volunteers saving stranded neighbours, finding them shelter and distributing aid. “I said: Piedro, I can’t do it anymore,” Becker said in an interview.…
MAIDUGURI: Nine students were kidnapped from their classrooms by gunmen at a university in Nigeria’s northern state of Kogi, the state government said on Friday, as Africa’s most populous nation grapples with widespread insecurity. Armed gangs have been causing havoc in northern Nigeria, where they kidnap villagers, students and motorists for ransom, with security forces unable to end the practice. Kogi’s information commissioner said the students were studying when gunmen attacked the Confluence University of Science and Technology on Thursday night. He said a search and rescue operation by security agents and hunters who know the local terrain was underway.…
KABUL: Sixty-two people were killed in one day after deadly flash flooding ripped through northern Afghanistan on Friday. A disaster management official in the northern province of Baghlan said heavy seasonal rains sparked the flooding, and residents were unprepared for the sudden rush of water. “The number of dead in today’s flood in Baghlan province has risen to 62,” Hedayatullah Hamdard, the head of the provincial natural disaster management department, said. The toll “will probably increase”, he said, adding that light rain had continued into the night in multiple districts of the province. Emergency personnel were “searching for any possible victims under…
UNITED NATIONS: In a historic vote, the UN General Assembly decisively approved a resolution on Friday, granting Palestine an enhanced presence within the world body, bolstering its rights and privileges. The resolution passed with an overwhelming majority of 143 countries in favour, signalling a resounding international endorsement. Nine countries, led by the United States, voted against the resolution. Twenty-five countries, including Britain, abstained. US Ambassador Robert Wood said Washington’s negative vote does not reflect its opposition to Palestinian statehood. “We have been very clear that we support it and seek to advance it meaningfully. Instead, it is an acknowledgement that…
Flash floods that have ripped through northern Afghanistan left more than 200 people dead in a single province, the United Nations said on Saturday. More than 200 people were killed and thousands of houses were destroyed or damaged in Baghlan province when heavy rains on Friday sparked massive flooding, the UN’s International Organisation for Migration (IOM) told AFP. In Baghlani Jadid district alone, up to 1,500 homes were damaged or destroyed and “more than 100 people died”, an IOM emergency response lead said, citing figures from the Afghanistan National Disaster Management Authority. Taliban government officials said 62 people had died as of…
