Tag: trending

  • Torrential rains predicted in the coming week

    Torrential rains predicted in the coming week

    Torrential rains have been predicted in the country from August 14 to August 18.

    The weather department shared details of the new spell, saying monsoon winds from the West, Arabian Sea, and Bay of Bengal will affect the country. Heavy rains will descend in some places in Islamabad, Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, Gilgit-Baltistan, and Kashmir.

    There is a possibility of light rain in the coastal areas of Sindh during the evening or night of August 15 to August 18, according to the meteorological department.

    Additionally, rain continues in various districts of Balochistan, and the Meteorological Department has predicted a new spell of rain with wind and thunder in 16 districts from August 15.

    Meteorologists have also warned of strong winds and thunderstorms in the coastal areas of Khuzdar, Lasbela, Awaran, Kalat, Zhob, Barkhan, Musa Khel, Mastung, Sibi, Shirani, Kohlu, Bolan, Harnai, Nasirabad, Jafarabad and Makran during August 15 to 18. Intermittent rain and heavy rain in some places have been predicted.
    6.6 mm of rain was recorded in Barkhan and Kalat during the last 24 hours.

    Besides this, Monday was the hottest day in Nokundi, with a maximum temperature of 47 degrees Celsius.

  • Voice of Pokémon’s Misty, Rachael Lillis, dies at 46

    Voice of Pokémon’s Misty, Rachael Lillis, dies at 46

    Rachael Lillis, the voice actress known for her work in the Pokémon TV series, films, and video games since the late 1990s, has died from breast cancer at the age of 46.

    Lillis voiced major Pokémon characters, including Misty. Her death was announced by Veronica Taylor, who co-starred as Ash Ketchum, the lead character in Pokémon.

    Ms. Taylor wrote, “Rachael was an amazing talent, a bright light that shone through her voice whether speaking or singing.”

    “We all know Rachael Lillis from the many wonderful characters she played,” Ms. Taylor shared on social media on Monday.

    “She filled our Saturday mornings and before/after school hours with her beautiful voice, her terrific comic timing, and her remarkable acting skills.” She also mentioned that Lillis was grateful for the support she received during her illness. “It truly made a positive difference,” Ms. Taylor added.

    Laurie Orr, Lillis’s sister, also confirmed the news on a website that had helped raise money for Lillis’s cancer treatment. She expressed deep grief, saying, “This was unexpected, and we are completely heartbroken. Losing my dear little sister breaks my heart, but I find comfort knowing she is at peace.”

    Lillis was born in Niagara Falls, New York, in 1978, and studied opera at university before becoming a voice actress. Her voice was featured in 423 episodes of Pokémon between 1997 and 2015.

  • BLF commander killed by own comrade

    BLF commander killed by own comrade

    A top commander of the banned terrorist organisation, Balochistan Liberation Front (BLF), identified as Shambeen alias Shahak, has reportedly been killed by his own comrade due to internal strife, Express Tribune has reported.

    Shahak was a highly wanted militant, alleged to be involved in multiple terrorist activities in the country. His assassination highlights the factions within the militant organisation.

    The BLF is said to be embroiled in an internal power struggle over authority and finances. Tribune reported that these internal conflicts are believed to be escalating.

    Meanwhile, Shahhak was directly involved in numerous attacks on security forces in Balochistan, including target killings of former associates who had surrendered to the state.

  • Trump holds meandering live ‘chat’ with backer Musk, after delay

    Trump holds meandering live ‘chat’ with backer Musk, after delay

    Donald Trump ran through his checklist of conspiracy theories Monday in a rambling conversation with his uber-wealthy supporter Elon Musk that was initially derailed by what the tech titan said was a technical glitch.

    In a very one-sided conversation on X, Trump vented about a “zombie apocalypse” of immigration, repeatedly blasted President Joe Biden as “stupid”, and mused about developing a new missile defense system based on the one that defends Israel.

    The Republican standard-bearer also dismissed climate change, whose sea-level rises he said would simply create more real estate opportunities.

    “The biggest threat is not global warming, where the ocean is going to rise one-eighth of an inch over the next 400 years,” he told Musk.

    “You’ll have more ocean front property, right? The biggest threat is not that. The biggest threat is nuclear warming, because we have five countries now that have significant nuclear power, and we have to not allow anything to happen with stupid people like Biden.”

    What was billed as a “no limits” conversation between the two started more than half an hour late, with many of those logging on unable to listen in live.

    Musk, the world’s richest man according to Forbes, claimed the platform formerly known as Twitter had experienced a cyber “attack.”

    Read more: ‘I am very happy that Twitter is now in sane hands’: Trump welcomes Musk’s takeover

    Border ‘apocalypse’

    The conversation was intended to help reinvigorate Trump’s stuttering campaign, which has flagged since Biden dropped out of the race, to be replaced by a surging Kamala Harris.

    The young men who view Musk as a hero are a prized target for Trump, whose following tends to skew older.

    More than a million users listened in live to the conversation on X. Musk, who has said he previously voted Democrat, has thrown his weight — and his wealth — behind Trump since a gunman tried to assassinate the Republican at a rally last month.

    The apparent technical difficulties come after Musk fired swathes of staff at the platform, and also served as an uncomfortable reminder that the Tesla boss had once backed Trump’s rival Ron DeSantis, whose campaign launch on the platform was also beset by problems.

    When things finally got under way, Musk said the “massive attack illustrates there’s a lot of opposition to people just hearing what President Trump has to say.”

    Trump was banned from Twitter after a mob of his supporters stormed the US Capitol in January 2021, but Musk reinstated him when he took the platform over and renamed it.

    The South African-born billionaire has emerged as a major voice in US politics, but is accused of turning X into a megaphone for right-wing conspiracy theories.

    He is one of the Democrats’ fiercest critics, leveraging his 194 million-strong following on X to assail liberal efforts to boost diversity and inclusion — what he calls the “woke mind virus” — and the White House’s handling of the southern border.

    “We have people streaming over,” Musk told Trump, likening the border to the “zombie apocalypse” depicted in the film “World War Z.”

    “It’s just not possible for the United States to absorb, you know, everyone from Earth,” said Musk, identifying himself as a “legal immigrant.”

    Read more: Elon Musk restores Donald Trump’s Twitter account

    Cost ‘cutter’

    In his “chat” with Musk, Trump returned often to a favorite theme — boasting about his relationship with autocrats like Russia’s Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping, and insisted America would be safer under his stewardship.

    “One of the things we’re going to do is we’re going to build an Iron Dome,” he said, referring to Israel’s missile defense system.

    “We’re going to have the best Iron Dome in the world… because it just takes one maniac to, you know, start something.” Musk reiterated his strong support for Trump, saying the ex-president “was the path to prosperity and Kamala is the opposite.”

    At one point he also appeared to be touting for a job under a future Trump administration, suggesting he would like to serve on a cost-cutting committee.

    “I think it would be great to just have a government efficiency commission that takes a look at these things and just ensures that taxpayer money… is spent in a good way,” he said. “I’d be happy to help out on such a commission.” Trump appeared sold on the job application.

    “You’re the greatest cutter,” he told the man who slashed swathes of staff months after taking over Twitter.

  • Not a suicide; Sania Zehra was murdered

    Not a suicide; Sania Zehra was murdered

    Major developments in the death of 20-year-old Sania Zehra, a mother of two, whose death took social media by storm, have unveiled crucial details of her demise.

    Azma Bokhari, Punjab’s Information Minister, informed the media on Monday that Sania’s death was not a result of suicide. It was in fact a homicide.

    Sania’s father, Syed Asad Abbas Shah, had already claimed in the FIR that his daughter’s husband had killed her.

    The provincial minister asserted that the husband is a suspect along with his mother, as all evidence points towards their role in Zehra’s killing.

    “No evidence of suicide has been found in the Sania Zehra case. The mother-in-law and husband had put a noose around the girl’s neck together,” she said during a press conference.

    The revelations have surfaced two days after the Punjab government constituted a six-member committee to oversee the probe into the murder case. The committee was authorised to find discrepancies in the FIR’s contents and the victim’s autopsy report.

    Azma, along with Chairperson of the Women Protection Authority Hina Pervaiz Butt, updated the media that the wounds on the girl’s shoulder and neck were not due to the noose used for suicide. “Forensic lab traces such cases. Forensics have found evidence against Sania’s mother-in-law and husband,” she added.

    Hina Butt stressed that she knew it was not a suicide case after seeing photographs of the crime scene. “Evidence later revealed that the girl was murdered and hanged. Mother-in-law and husband polygraph test positive,” Butt said.

    Forensic test report

    Punjab Forensic Science Agency also submitted all its test reports stating that the forensics found no evidence of suicide.

    “All the tests and investigations show that it is not a case of suicide. Sania Zehra was killed on July 9, and her [murder] was presented as a suicide,” the submitted report read.

    Zehra’s neck was not swollen or elongated due to the noose. “The DNA of Sania’s husband and mother-in-law matched with the dupatta used as the noose,” as per the forensic report.

    The noose around Zehra’s neck did not cause her death, and the scar on the neck and shoulder was not because of the dupatta, the report added.

    “The DNA of the sample found from Sania’s nail was also matched with that of her husband,” it read.

    Earlier, the reports came out allegedly confirming that Sania hanged herself, implying that she committed suicide. The reports also asserted that she was not pregnant.

    Since the Punjab government established the suicide, The Current talked to Azma Bukhari, and she confirmed that Sania’s pregnancy could not be confirmed, blaming it on the forged post-mortem report. She said that Sania’s uterus was not opened, and the medical officer got changed at the last minute, which raised concerns about this aspect being compromised in the post-mortem investigation.

    Azma admitted that even though the parents say that she was pregnant, the government can’t confirm because the post-mortem report was influenced.

    The case so far

    On July 9, 2024, Zehra was found hanging from a ceiling fan in her home. Her father, Syed Asad Abbas Shah, reported the death to the police, accusing Zehra’s husband and in-laws of murder, claiming Sania showed signs of torture, including a broken jaw and bruised ribs.

    However, the victim’s husband, Ali Raza fled the scene and was initially not held accountable.

    The case attracted significant social media ire, prompting Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz to instruct officials to investigate.

    A joint investigation team was formed, and on July 13, the body was exhumed for a forensic report which confirmed asphyxia from hanging as the cause of death.

    Husband Ali Raza was later arrested on July 20, facing charges related to forgery and dishonesty as he hid the truth of his first marriage from Sania and her family.

    Despite claiming the death was a suicide following a domestic argument, Raza was arrested again after a press conference where he shared his version of the story and framed it as a case of suicide.

    Read all the details of the case: Sania Zehra case: Hanging confirmed, pregnancy dismissed

  • Food & Agri Exhibition concludes with deals worth $1.2billion

    A three-day food and agri event attended by more than 800 buyers from 75 countries ended in Karachi with 330 exporters exhibiting around 500 quality products.

    Dawn reported that international chain stores, buyers and multinational companies visited the Second International Food and Agriculture Exhibition at the Karachi Expo Centre. The largest participation was from China, comprising 150-plus buyers.

    As result of 7,000 business-to-business meetings, deals worth $1.2bn were finalised, besides signing of more than 36 Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) mainly in rice, processed food, seafood, kinnow, potato, lentils, chickpeas, mangoes, confectionery, meat, food and beverages, spices, cereals and oil seeds by China, Malaysia, Egypt, Kazakhstan, Russia, Sri Lanka, Gambia and France.

    Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) Chief Executive Zubair Motiwalla said the estimated export orders of $1.2bn will complement the target set by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in his inaugural speech at the event.

    According to a press release issued by the Ministry of Commerce, $35 million worth of export contracts were signed between Pakistani and Chinese companies in the seafood sector. Additionally, several MoUs and investment interests were expressed by various companies, including HVA (dairy investment), Bolynta (potato seeds from the Netherlands), Huiyuan Beverages and Food Group (China), and METAS (Qatar).

  • PTI office raid revealed Gen Faiz’s role in facilitating PTI, alleges Omar Cheema

    PTI office raid revealed Gen Faiz’s role in facilitating PTI, alleges Omar Cheema

    Journalist Omar Cheema revealed last night on his YouTube channel, Omar Cheema Exclusive, that when authorities raided the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Secretariat last month, they found evidence of former spymaster Lt Gen (retd) Faiz’s “role in facilitating PTI.”

    On July 13, former Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Lieutenant General (retd) Faiz Hamid was taken into custody by the army over allegations of land grabbing and snatching valuables from the owner of a private housing society

    Omar alleged, “Gen Faiz was connected to PTI leadership and trained them to bypass intelligence agencies’ supervision because he was the inside man.”

    The journalist further claimed, “The problem that the army is facing is the involvement of its own people with PTI. And the leader of all these internal dissenters is Gen Faiz.”

    He stated that the founder of PTI, Imran Khan, was getting some facilities in jail that nobody could explain until now.

    Cheema claimed that the Top City Case in which Gen Faiz was found guilty was just for optics, while the real reason was his cooperation with PTI and Imran Khan.

    “This is a big setback for Imran Khan because his biggest supporter has been arrested,” said Cheema.

    He said this indicates where the relationship between the army and the PTI is going.

  • Lahore College names history museum after Maryam Nawaz

    Lahore College names history museum after Maryam Nawaz

    Lahore College for Women University (LCWU) has dedicated its history museum to alumnus Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz.

    The News reported that Vice Chancellor Dr Shagufta Naz said that in politics, Maryam Nawaz has achieved significant success and became the Chief Minister of the largest province, making it the biggest goal an alumnus has achieved. “Maryam Nawaz’s remarkable success in the political arena and her recent elevation to the highest executive position in Punjab is a matter of immense pride for LCWU,” she said.

    She added that the History Museum is dedicated to Maryam, acknowledging her highest status among the alumni.

    The VC asserted that during LCWU’s centenary celebrations, a history museum was established in which biodata of prominent alumni and monuments related to the institution were collected.

    Maryam Nawaz has also been formally invited to visit the university and visit the History Museum.

  • Imran warns of protests if Chief Justice Pakistan given extension

    Imran warns of protests if Chief Justice Pakistan given extension

    Chairman Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf (PTI) Imran Khan has warned of a nationwide protest if the government attempts to extend the tenure of Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faiz Isa.

    The former Prime Minister has said that protests will be held if the CJP-led bench fails to implement the verdict on reserved seats.
    The former premier alleged that the CJP and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) worked together, with the military supporting them, while talking to the media in Adiala jail.

    Mr Khan further said: “All these things have been witnessed in Pakistan as well. Before elections, a crackdown was launched against the PTI on the pretext of May 9 violence”, while terming the situation in Pakistan worse than Bangladesh.

  • FBR registers 58000 traders against 3.2 million target

    The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has so far registered over 58,000 small traders or new shopkeepers under the Tajir Dost Scheme against the target of 3.2 million.

    Business Recorder has reported that monthly tax payments from traders will start from the ongoing month.
    Chief Coordinator of the Tajir Dost Scheme Naeem Mir said that the Board has projected total collection Rs 50 billion under this head in the current year.

    Mir said that it is an ambitious target and would require full cooperation of the traders to voluntarily deposit monthly tax payment installments.
    FBR has chalked out monthly advance income tax table for traders in 42 major cities of the country.
    Based on location of shops, the FBR has issued market or area wise indicative income, indicative income tax and Monthly Advance Tax to be paid by small traders.

    Under the monthly tax payment plan, the traders and shopkeepers in 78 percent of the markets would be required to pay monthly advance income tax of Rs 5,000.

    The monthly tax payment would be Rs 10,000 per month for traders covered in 14 percent markets of the country. The tax payment would be Rs 20,000 per month in five percent areas. Traders will pay Rs 30,000 per month as tax installment in two percent areas and Rs 45,000 monthly payment in 0.6 percent areas and traders would pay monthly advance income tax of Rs 60,000 per month in 0.40 percent markets of the country.