Pak says Kartarpur corridor to open irrespective of ties with India

Agencies
August 25, 2019

Islamabad, Aug 25: The opening of Kartarpur corridor will remain on track irrespective of Pakistan's ties with India over the Kashmir crisis, has said Firdous Ashiq Awan, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Information and Broadcasting.

Addressing a press conference in Lahore on Saturday, Awan rejected rumours that Pakistan had stalled the work on Kartarpur corridor after the country's relations with its neighbour strained in the aftermath of India's decision to change the constitutional status of Jammu and Kashmir, Geo News reported.

Awan further assured that doors will remain open to Sikh pilgrims visiting Darbar Sahib Kartarpur in Pakistan in connection with the upcoming 550th birth anniversary of Baba Guru Nanak.

The historic corridor will be inaugurated in November this year, she was quoted as saying.

On Thursday, Pakistan's Foreign Office (PFO) had stated that it remains committed to opening the Kartarpur corridor in November on the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev.

"Pakistan is sticking with its plan to open the first visa-free border crossing with India to facilitate Sikh pilgrims despite brewing tensions between the two neighbours over the longstanding Kashmir issue," the office stated.

However, India is yet to receive a response from Pakistan over its proposal to hold technical level meetings in the first week of August to finalise the alignment of the interim approach path for the Kartarpur Corridor, sources had said on August 10.

They said India had proposed to Pakistan to hold technical level meetings in the first week of August to work out arrangements and finalise the alignment of the interim approach path for the Kartarpur corridor, develop mechanism to share information about pilgrims between nodal points, develop mechanism to deal with exigencies that may arise in the use of the corridor.

Sources said Pakistan is yet to respond and a reminder has also been issued to them. India had also shared proposals for finalising the agreement on the modalities to operationalise the Kartarpur corridor.

Previously, India and Pakistan had held the second round of bilateral talks on July 14 to narrow down their differences on the corridor for travel of Sikh pilgrims from Dera Baba Nanak Sahib in Punjab to Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur in Pakistan. Both sides said that they had agreed to a majority of modalities for the smooth passage of the pilgrims.

Pakistan, which had made a unilateral decision to downgrade diplomatic ties with India in the wake of Narendra Modi government abrogating Article 370, had said that the work on the Kartarpur corridor would continue as planned.

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Agencies
June 24,2020

Washington, Jun 24: Twitter has once again flagged a tweet from US President Donald Trump which promoted violence by saying if protesters tried to set up an "autonomous zone" in Washington, DC they would be met with "serious force".

This is the fourth time Twitter has red flagged Trump's tweet for glorifying violence or violating its policies.

Trump has been critical of the "autonomous zone" in Seattle, an area occupied by protestors for much of this month.

"We've placed a public interest notice on this Tweet for violating our policy against abusive behaviour, specifically, the presence of a threat of harm against an identifiable group," Twitter's safety team tweeted late Tuesday.

Trump had tweeted: "There will never be an ‘Autonomous Zone' in Washington, D.C., as long as I'm your President. If they try they will be met with serious force!"

Twitter earlier labeled a video tweeted by him which mocked CNN as manipulated media.

According to Twitter, "this Tweet has been labeled per our synthetic and manipulated media policy to give people more context".

In May, Twitter labeled two Trump tweets that made false claims about mail-in ballots in California.

Twitter later labeled another Trump tweet glorifying violence in which he said, "when the looting starts, the shooting starts."

Facebook also removed a Trump campaign ad featuring a symbol used by Nazis for political dissenters, saying the ad violated its policies.

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April 9,2020

Washington, Apr 9: At least 11 Indians have died of COVID-19 in the United States with another 16 testing positive for the infection which has claimed more than 14,000 lives and afflicted more than four lakh people in the US.

All Indian citizens who have succumbed to the deadly infection in the US are male, with ten of them from New York and New Jersey area. Four of the victims are said to be taxi drivers in New York City.

New York City has emerged as the US epicentre for COVID-19 spurt, accounting for more than 6,000 deaths and over 1,38,000 cases of infections. New Jersey accounts for 1,500 fatalities and nearly 48,000 infections.

One Indian national reportedly died in Florida because of coronavirus. Authorities are also ascertaining the nationality of some other Indian origin people in the States of California and Texas.

All 16 Indians, including four females, who have tested positive for coronavirus are in self-quarantine. Coming from diverse background, eight of them are from New York, three from New Jersey and rest from other states like Texas and California. They hail from Indian states like Uttarakhand, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh.

Indian Embassy and consulates across the United States are working closely with local authorities and Indian-American organizations to provide necessary assistance to Indian nationals and students affected with COVID-19.

Because of the strict travel restrictions and regulations to prevent the spread of the deadly virus, local city officials have been performing the last rites of the deceased and in many cases are not allowing even their immediate family members to attend their cremations, officials said.

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News Network
June 25,2020

Jun 25: Tencent Holdings Ltd.'s $40 billion surge this week and the recent ascent of Pinduoduo Inc. have reshuffled the ranking of China's richest people.

The country's largest game developer has surpassed Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. as Asia's most-valuable company, with its shares rising above HK$500 in intraday trading Wednesday for the first time. Pinduoduo, a Groupon-like shopping app also known as PDD, has more than doubled this year.

The rallies have propelled the wealth of their founders, with an added twist: Tencent's Pony Ma, worth $50 billion, has surpassed Jack Ma's $48 billion fortune, becoming China's richest person. And Colin Huang of PDD, whose net worth stands at $43 billion, has squeezed real estate mogul Hui Ka Yan of China Evergrande Group out of the top three earlier this year, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

The coronavirus pandemic has accelerated the digitization of the workplace and changed consumers' habits, boosting shares of many internet companies. Now tech tycoons are dominating the ranks of China's richest people. They occupy four of the top five spots: Ding Lei of Tencent peer NetEase Inc. follows China Evergrande's Hui.

‘Perform Strongly'

Tencent has come a long way since hitting a low in 2018, when China froze the approval process for new games. Since then, the stock has almost doubled, and last month the tech giant reported a 26 per cent jump in first-quarter revenue.

“Tencent's online games segment will probably perform strongly through the Covid-19 pandemic, and most of its other businesses are relatively unscathed,” said Vey-Sern Ling, a Bloomberg Intelligence analyst.

That has been a boon for Pony Ma, 48, who owns a 7 per cent stake in the company and pocketed about $757 million from selling some 14.6 million of his Tencent shares this year, data complied by Bloomberg show.

The native of China's southern Guangdong province studied computer science at Shenzhen University and was a software developer at a supplier of telecom services and products before co-founding Tencent with four others in the late 1990s. At the time, the company focused on instant-messaging services.

It has been a long comeback for Pony Ma. He overtook real estate tycoon Wang Jianlin as China's second-richest person in 2013 and topped Baidu Inc.'s Robin Li as the wealthiest in early 2014. Later that year, Alibaba went public in the U.S., catapulting Jack Ma's fortune.

Bloomberg Intelligence's Ling notes, however, that Tencent's jump this year has lagged behind some internet peers, especially those in e-commerce, games and online entertainment. Just consider: Tencent shares have climbed 31 per cent in 2020, while PDD's American depositary receipts have more than doubled. Alibaba, meanwhile, has advanced just 6.9 per cent.

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