Blog

  • Ramzan Miracle: ‘Mystery baby’ from Turkey earthquake reunited with mother previously declared dead

    Turkey’s ‘miracle baby’, rescued after nearly 128 hours under the rubble in the Turkey earthquake, has been reunited with her mother who was previously believed to be dead.

    The baby was handed over to her mother Yasemin Begdas at a hospital in the city of Adana, where she is receiving treatment.

    The baby had been named Gizem (Mystery) by the medical authorities who took care of her.

    “54 days of longing is over. Vetin Begdaş, who was rescued from the wreckage after 128 hours and named Gizem Bebek by our nurses, was reunited with her mother after 54 days. Vetin is now our baby too. As the Ministry, our support will always be with you,” Turkey’s Ministry of Family and Social Services, Derya Yanık tweeted.

    The baby’s father and two brothers lost their lives in the earthquake. The death toll from the February 6 earthquake and subsequent tremors in Turkey and Syria has risen to at least 44,000 according to Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD).

  • City Police Officer Islamabad directs all SHOs to disclose assets

    City Police Officer Islamabad directs all SHOs to disclose assets

    On Sunday, City Police Officer (CPO) Operations Syed Shahzad Nadeem Bukhari instructed all station house officers (SHOs) to disclose their assets. The CPO also directed that biometric attendance should be ensured in all wings of the operations division, and biometric machines should be installed as soon as possible.

    He added that the weekly performance of each officer will be reviewed, and investigation officers should meet plaintiffs in all cases. These instructions were given at a meeting held to review crime and performance at the divisional level, which was chaired by the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Islamabad Dr Akbar Nasir Khan.

    It is worth noting that police officers across the country, especially SHOs, face allegations of corruption due to the unlimited powers they hold as the head of police stations. CPO Bukhari urged present and former SHOs to work together to make a concrete action plan to deal with crime, with the main target being criminals and proclaimed offenders. He also instructed the officers to ensure the cleanliness of police stations and to make the patrolling system more efficient.

    According to Dawn, the IGP reviewed the crime performance at the divisional level and directed officers to adopt comprehensive strategies to prevent crime in their respective areas. He suggested that safe city monitoring should be implemented at the police station level to help SHOs trace criminal elements early. The IGP also instructed SHOs to spend more time in police stations and a special plan should be made to eliminate serious crimes, especially street crime, and drug trafficking, particularly in educational institutions. The details of buyers of stolen goods should also be collected, and postmortems should be done on every dead body.

    Moreover, the IGP urged the acceleration of the crackdown on illegal weapons, and the completion of challans of under-investigation cases as soon as possible and submitted to relevant courts. He also emphasised that more personnel were being provided in police stations, and special campaigns against offenders should continue, with offenders brought to justice. The IGP also listened to the problems of all the SHOs and promised to solve them on a priority basis.

  • Supreme Court reserves decision over postponement of Punjab and KP elections

    The Supreme Court has reserved its decision over Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) elections and will announce the decision tomorrow (Tuesday).

    The hearing of the case has been going on for the past week with Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) demanding immediate elections.

    On February 22, Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial took a suo motu notice of the delay in elections, forming a larger bench to hear the case but later many top judges excused themselves from the hearing.

    Today, the hearing was headed by a three-judge bench comprising Justice Munib Akhtar, Justice Ijaz ul Ahsan and Bandial.

    Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) Mansoor Awan, Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) lawyers Irfan Qadir and Sajeel Swati, PTI lawyer Ali Zafar, and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) counsel Farooq H. Naek were present in the courtroom.

    At the outset of the hearing, Naek came to the rostrum. Justice Bandial asked the lawyer if PPP had ended its boycott against the court hearing to which the latter replied that he had not boycotted the proceedings.

    Naek replied in the affirmative and said that “we never boycotted the hearing”.

    At one point during the hearing, the CJP noted that harmony among judges was crucial for the Supreme Court. He observed that while judicial proceedings were made public, consultations among judges were considered internal matters.

  • ‘We can be like Turkiye or become another Myanmar’: Khan chooses to stand with constitution

    ‘We can be like Turkiye or become another Myanmar’: Khan chooses to stand with constitution

    Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan has said that Pakistan is at a turning point.

    “Today we stand at a turning point in our Constitutional history where we can be like Turkiye or become another Myanmar,” tweeted Khan.

    The PTI leader went on to say, “Everyone must choose whether they stand, as PTI does, with Constitution, Rule of Law & democracy; or with a corrupt mafia, law of the jungle & fascism.”

  • McDonald’s temporarily closes US offices ahead of layoffs announcement

    McDonald’s temporarily closes US offices ahead of layoffs announcement

    McDonald’s, the fast-food chain, will temporarily close its US offices this week to inform its corporate employees about layoffs as part of a broader company restructuring.

    Last week, the company sent an internal email to its US employees and some international staff requesting that they work from home on Monday through Wednesday to communicate staffing decisions virtually. It is currently unknown how many employees will be affected by the layoffs.

    The Chicago-based company stated in the message that it would communicate “key decisions related to roles and staffing levels across the organization” during the week of April 3. The report also indicated that McDonald’s asked its employees to cancel all in-person meetings with vendors and other outside parties at its headquarters.

    In January, McDonald’s had previously announced that it would review corporate staffing levels as part of an updated business strategy that could result in layoffs in some areas and expansion in others.

    McDonald’s is expected to start announcing key decisions this week.

  • Subha utha nahi jata? Don’t worry, researchers back up your laziness with scientific explanation

    Subha ka alarm miss hojata hai chahe kitni dafa time set karo?

    If you can’t wake up in the morning, you’re not alone. And now you have a scientific explanation that is more respectable than good old laziness.
    Researchers have concluded that there is a logical explanation behind why you can’t seem to become a morning person- and it all boils down to the way genes function, as Wired has reported.

    Previous research done by a group of biologists who later went on to win the Noble Prize in 2017 showed that human bodies have a total of 24 genes known as the ‘period genes’ which determine the human body clock.

    Now, research published by New Communications has concluded that there are actually 351 genes, which can determine whether a person is an early bird or a night owl. According to Michael Weedon, a bioinformatics at the University of Exeter Medical School:

    “Depending on how many of those genes you carry, you can be anywhere on the scale of ‘morningness’. But our research showed that the top five per cent with the most of those 351 genes go to sleep on average 25 minutes earlier than the five per cent who carry the least.”

    Furthermore, the study further looked into where those genes are more likely to be switched on in the body, because different parts of our body carry different tissues. Samuel Jones from the University of Exeter Medical School explained:

    “The genes we found to be related to our circadian rhythms tend to be switched on a lot more in the brain and in the retina,” he explained. “This helps us map what parts of the body are important in creating morning and evening people.”

    The scientists went on to explain how the genes are activated inside our brain. In a specific zone of the hypothalamus known as suprachiasmatic nucleus (SNC), an oscillator which sets our body time of the day, in accordance to the diffferent signals it receives from the environment.

    An important signal for the SNC to activate is light, because once the retina signals that it is night time, our brain releases a sleep-inducing hormone called melatonin, which is our cue to fall asleep.

  • Govt to send one million Pakistanis abroad for employment

    Govt to send one million Pakistanis abroad for employment

    The Government of Pakistan will send 1 million citizens abroad for employment, Tikka Sani has reported for Samaa. Federal Minister for Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development, Sajid Hussain Turi, while talking to Samaa said that the ministry is working on signing work visa agreements with fifty countries including Germany.

    He continued by adding that Saudi authorities are coming to Pakistan soon to issue visas and citizens who pass technical training tests will be able to get the visa.

    The minister further said that Japan has also opened visas for Pakistani workers while South Korea has a demand for 10,000 skilled workers from Pakistan.

    The Federal Minister for Overseas Pakistanis said that 27,000 blocked passports of overseas Pakistanis have also been restored.

  • Imran Khan ko Shah Mahmood se khatra hai, PPP leaders

    Imran Khan ko Shah Mahmood se khatra hai, PPP leaders

    Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leaders have questioned the loyalty of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Senior Vice chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi to party Chairman Imran Khan.

    Saeed Ghani has said that Quershi should never forget his past before criticising Asif Ali Zardari and Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari. Qureshi was part of the PPP and a foreign minister during the party’s tenure.

    Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Memon said that Shah Mahmood Qureshi has changed political parties according to circumstances, alleging that PPP caught him red-handed while hatching a conspiracy.

    “The biggest threat to PTI chief Imran Khan is from Shah Mahmood Qureshi,” Memon said.

    Qureshi joined PTI in 2011, one of the first big names to do so.

    Earlier, Qureshi held a press conference and criticised the PPP leadership.

    Speaking to the media in Karachi, the former foreign minister asked PPP to clear its stance on whether they are standing with the Constitution or abrogating it.

  • Historian gets mistaken for actor Tom Holland, gets swamped by messages from Bollywood fans

    Ever thought getting mistaken for a celebrity would be a life changing adventure? Turns out reality is far more bizarre than fiction.

    At the launch of the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Center, or as we call it ‘Ambani Gala’, celebrities from all over the world showed up dressed to the nines and had the time of their life. Present among them were Hollywood model Gigi Hadid, and actors Zendaya and Tom Holland rubbing shoulders with the who’s who of Bollywood.

    Holland, renowned for playing Spiderman, only has one social media account on Instagram. However, as photos of the actor posing with Indian celebrities showed up online, Bollywood fans didn’t realise that the Marvel superstar is not on Twitter.

    They tagged another Tom Holland in their tweets, a historian from London.

    The case of mistaken identity later kickstarted a hilarious sequence of Bollywood fans spamming Holland with pictures of an event he definitely did not attend.

    Twitter users found this mistake extremely funny.

    I mean who wouldn’t want to be mistaken for a Marvel star?

  • Khunjerab Pass reopens to boost bilateral trade between Pakistan and China

    Khunjerab Pass reopens to boost bilateral trade between Pakistan and China

    In a press release issued by the PM Office Media Wing, Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif expressed his pleasure over the reopening of the Khunjerab Pass on Sunday. He stated that this development would help to increase bilateral trade between Pakistan and China, and described it as a welcome occasion for boosting trade with “Iron brother China.”

    The prime minister emphasised that the reopening of the Pass had removed a hurdle that would further expedite the pace of work on the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). He added that the restoration of the trade route between the two countries, after a span of three years, was a matter of great rejoicing.

    Furthermore, the prime minister noted that the journey towards CPEC had started way back in November 2019 and recommenced in the year 2023. He expressed his resolve to move ahead on CPEC with dual speed in comparison to 2018.

    He said that CPEC is a gift of progress and prosperity given by Muhammad Nawaz Sharif and the Chinese leadership for the region and the people. The prime minister also mentioned the affection and cooperation from the Chinese leadership for the people of Pakistan, which he described as unforgettable.

    The prime minister expressed his disappointment over a “foreign funded person” who had created controversy over CPEC. However, he appreciated the relevant authorities of the two countries and the team members over the restoration of trade and travel facilities.