Author: afp

  • Claudia Goldin wins Nobel economics prize for work on women’s pay

    Claudia Goldin wins Nobel economics prize for work on women’s pay

    An economic historian and Harvard professor, Claudia Goldin, has been awarded with the Nobel Prize in economics for her work examining the gender pay gap.

    Goldin’s unprecedented research highlights the fact that women, despite their higher academic qualifications, are paid less than men; and that mostly this difference arises after childbirth.

    “This year’s Laureate in the Economic Sciences, Claudia Goldin, provided the first comprehensive account of women’s earnings and labour market participation through the centuries,” the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said on Monday.

    “Her research reveals the causes of change, as well as the main sources of the remaining gender gap.”

    After Elinor Ostrom in 2009 and Esther Duflo in 2019, Goldin is the third woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize in economics — a category with the lowest number of female laureates.

    Goldin’s research examines data tracing 200 years of women’s participation in the workforce in the United States.

    As per her research, a woman’s role in the job market and her pay are, in part, decided by individual decisions, including educational choices, as well as broad social and economic changes.

    The prize committee highlights that while much of the earnings gap historically could be explained by differences in education and occupational choices, Goldin “has shown that the bulk of this earnings difference is now between men and women in the same occupation, and that it largely arises with the birth of the first child”.

  • Russian woman lived with needle in brain for 80 years

    Doctors in Russia have found an inch-long needle in the brain of an 80-year-old woman, most likely inserted when she an infant.

    According to a post on Telegram by the Ministry of Health in Sakhalin, radiologists found the three-centimeter long needle during an x-ray scan, embedded in the woman’s left parietal lobe

    The woman’s name has not been disclosed and the discovery is said to have occurred in 2023. She is said to have born around the year 1943, making her at least 80.

    Officials claim that the needle has been in her brain since infancy, and doctors believe her parents tried to kill her when she was a baby.

    The ministry explained that during wars, “some desperate parents would insert a needle into a soft spot of a newborn’s head, where bones in the skull hadn’t yet come together.

    “That spot — the fontanelle — would then close and obscure the needle, though the infant would die.”
    Such cases were not uncommon during the famine years, the ministry added.

    Even though she pulled through the attempted infanticide, she never suffered headaches because of the needle.
    Doctors have decided against the removal of the needle because a surgery can worsen her condition, the ministry highlighted.

    The woman is currently being monitored by a physician, and her health is not in danger.

    According to Insider, Sakhalin is an island with a population of around 500,000 in the Sea of Okhotsk in north of Japan’s Hokkaido.

    Sakhalin was divided amongst the Soviet Union and the Japanese Empire in the early 20th century and was later fully seized by Moscow during World War II.

  • ‘They barged in like goons’; Indian journalists raided by Dehli police

    ‘They barged in like goons’; Indian journalists raided by Dehli police

    Indian journalists linked with Newsclick have been raided by Delhi Police on Tuesday morning in an alleged connection with an investigation into the news website’s funding.

    The raids are linked with a case registered on August 17 under provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and Sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups) and 120B (punishment for criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.

    Reportedly so far, the raided include editor Prabir Purkayastha; and journalists Abhisar Sharma, Aunindyo Chakravarty, Bhasha Singh, Sumedha Pal, Aritry Das and satirist Sanjay Rajaura.

    Apart from the editorial desk, the police have also conducted a raid on other staffers and even contributors.

    Journalists took to X (formerly Twitter), posting that their electronic devices have been taken away.

    Scroll.in spoke with Sanjay Rajaura’s friend who was present at Delhi’s Lodhi Colony police station. He explained that the authorities broke into Rajaura’s house around 6.30 am. “They barged in like goons and confiscated Sanjay’s phone, laptop and some CDs,” he said. “They did not provide us with any warrant or FIR copy. They only said that they want to investigate all those linked to the Newsclick investigation.”

    Newsclick’s office in Delhi is also reportedly under investigation.

    Fellow journalists respond on X (formerly Twitter)

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  • Journalist corrects Indian media spreading misinformation about Pakistan

    Journalist corrects Indian media spreading misinformation about Pakistan

    Naimat Khan, a journalist working with Arab News, pointed out false news being widely circulated by Indian media.

    Indian news platforms have been reporting that Maulana Qaiser Farooq has been shot and killed in a target attack in Karachi, alleging that he was one of the prominent leaders of Lashkar-e-Taiba and was a close associate of Hafiz Saeed.

    Khan, however, fact checked and corrected the outlets by stating that Maulana Qaiser Farooq, killed by unknown assailants in Karachi, was associated with Gulshan-e-Umar, a branch of Binori Town, a top Deobandi seminary in Karachi. He pointed out that this institution has no connection with Hafiz Saeed.

  • ‘This is no boarding house’; German Ambassador fact checks Indian ad

    Dr Philipp Ackermann, German Ambassador to India and Bhutan, was forced to fact check an advertisement printed in an Indian newspaper on X (formerly Twitter).

    The ad was of a boarding school fair, complete with a picture of an impressive building. And while India does have numerous buildings built on European architecture styles, the one in the ad, however, was actually Schloss Bellevue — residence for the German Federal President’s principal official in Berlin.

    Ambassador Philipp factually corrected the advertiser as well as the newspaper with humour, directing the post to “Dear Indian parents” stating, “this building is no boarding school! It is the seat of the German President in Berlin. Our Rashtrapati Bhavan as it were.”

    Rashtrapati Bhavan is the official residence of the President of India in New Delhi.

    “There are good boarding schools also in Germany – but here, no child will be admitted”, he said, jokingly.

    Dear Indian parents – I found this in today’s newspaper. But this building is no boarding school! It is the seat of the German President in Berlin. Our Rashtrapati Bhavan as it were. There are good boarding schools also in Germany – but here, no child will be admitted

    People react:

  • Great-grandmother, 92, goes to school in India

    Great-grandmother, 92, goes to school in India

    A 92-year-old great-grandmother from India goes to school for the first time in her life.

    Salima Khan, a resident of Bulandshahr in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, said that there were no schools in her village when she was a girl.

    Born around the year 1931, Khan got married at the age of 14.

    She always longed to read and write but her dream could not come true for the longest time.

    In 2023, six months ago, Salima Khan started school alongside classmates eight decades younger than her. Her grandson’s wife accompanies her to classes.

    Her story came to light when a video of her counting from one to 100 made rounds on social media.

    Speaking to Times of India, she said, “My grandchildren used to trick me into giving them extra money as I couldn’t count currency notes. Those days are gone.”

    School headmistress Pratibha Sharma stated that the teachers were initially “hesitant” but they realised how much “passion” the nonagenarian had for studying.

    “We didn’t have the heart to refuse her,”she said.

    According to Sharma, Khan’s story has inspired 25 women from her village to enroll in classes including two of her daughters-in-law.

  • NADRA resumes registration of transgenders

    NADRA resumes registration of transgenders

    The National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) has resumed the process of registration of transgenders after almost three months.

    NADRA stopped the issuance of X ID cards after the decision of the Federal Sharia Court against various provisions of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2018 in May this year.

    History
    The National Assembly passed the Transgender Persons (Protection of Right) Act in 2018, giving all legal rights and recognition to transgender persons, penalising any form of discrimination against them.

    However, in September 2022, the Federal Sharia Court took up petitions challenging the law which had Jamaat-i-Islami’s Senator Mushtaq Ahmed, TV anchor Orya Maqbool Jan, and transgender persons Almaas Boby and Bubbly Malik as party to the petition.

    In May this year, the Federal Sharia Court struck down all provisions in the Amendment Bill 2022 that they said conflicted with Islam and the Constitution in May, declaring Section 2N(3), Section 2F, Sections 3 (recognition of identity of transgender person) and 7 (right to inherit) of the Transgender Act to be unconstitutional.

    But lawyers, civil society and human rights activists insisted on its restoration.

    In July this year, Farhatullah Babar challenged the decision of the Sharia Court in the Sharia Appellate Bench of the Supreme Court.

  • Injection causing vision loss withdrawn from market

    Injection causing vision loss withdrawn from market

    Federal Health Minister Nadeem Jan has banned the sale and usage of Avastin injection that led to severe eye infections and loss of vision.

    On Sunday, Caretaker Chief Minister of Punjab, Mohsin Naqvi, held a meeting with the Health department and doctors to discuss the matter.

    The number of patients affected by the injection across Punjab has increased to more than sixty, with the highest number of cases in Multan. The number of patients affected is expected to increase.

    According to the health minister, diabetic patients in Lahore, Kasur and other districts were given Avastin injections to tackle retinal damage, however, it led to severe infections and loss of sight in a dozen patients.

    Punjab Chief Minister has also halted sales of the injection in question and to remove stock from the market till the inquiry report is finished.

    Moreover, a case has been lodged against the two absconding suppliers of locally manufactured injection Avastin, while Punjab government has formed a five-member committee of experts to look into the matter and submit a report in three days.

    The Chief Minister has stated that strict action will be taken against all concerned drug inspectors for negligence and the affected persons will be treated free of cost.

    The Punjab government has also decided to monitor the supply of eye medicines, forming a committee for the sale of eye medicines and injections to issue licences.

    All the details of medicines and injections will be compiled in the data of the health department and there will be monitoring of surgeons’ procedures.

    The issue was raised by Chaudhary Manzoor Ahmed, member of Pakistan Peoples Party, who had posted on X (formerly Twitter) that his friend got infected and eventually blinded after getting the injection.

  • Imran Riaz Khan returns home after four months

    Imran Riaz Khan returns home after four months

    Youtuber and television anchor Imran Riaz Khan has been brought home safely by Sialkot Police on early Monday morning, four months after he was detained.

    Sialkot Police confirmed his release through a post on social media.

    His release was also confirmed by his lawyer, Mian Ali Ashfaq.

    Riaz was arrested on 11 May, two days after PTI Chairman Imran Khan’s arrest on May 9 which resulted in violent protests.

    On September 20, the Lahore High Court (LHC) questioned the Punjab police chief on Riaz, giving him a “last opportunity” to recover the YouTuber by September 26.

  • Turkish journalist jailed fifth time

    Turkish journalist jailed fifth time

    Turkish investigative journalist Baris Pehlivan, who was ordered to return to prison by text message this month, was jailed on Tuesday for the fifth time in three years.

    The justice ministry informed him on August 2 via an SMS message that he had to surrender himself by August 15 to the prison in Silivi on the outskirts of Istanbul, where many of the government critics are held.

    Pehlivan’s latest book, “SS”, accuses former interior minister Suleyman Soylu of having links to organised crime.
    “Baris might be released on parole,” his lawyer Huseyin Ersoz told AFP. “A decision could be made at any time,” he said.
    A former editor in chief at Oda TV and contributor to daily newspaper Cumhuriyet, Pehlivan has already been imprisoned four times.
    Two of those incidents involved him spending a day behind bars — once in February and once in May.

    Pehlivan and six other journalists were sentenced to three years and nine months in prison in 2020 for reporting the funeral of a member of Turkey’s MIT secret services who was operating in Libya, where Ankara supports the UN-recognised Tripoli government.
    While his death has never been denied by the Turkish authorities, the reporters were charged with revealing “state secrets”.
    Pehlivan was recalled this time to serve eight months of the 2020 sentence for violating the country’s national intelligence laws.

    “People go to jail (in Turkey) just for writing the truth, just for doing journalism,” Pehlivan said before being sent to prison.
    “Mine is a drop in this ocean, in this big fight,” he said.

    Press freedom advocates last week condemned the “judicial harassment” of the journalist and urged the Turkish government to respect media freedom.
    Erol Onderoglu of Reporters Without Borders said Pehlivan was the 13th journalist to be jailed this year.
    “Arresting a reporter is an anachronistic attack on public opinion,” he commented on Twitter, recently rebranded as X.

    Turkey is ranked 165th out of 180 countries in the RSF’s latest press freedom index.