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India, Pakistan to sign new liberalised visa agreement today

September 8, 2012

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Islamabad, September 8: The much-awaited liberalised visa agreement between India and Pakistan will be signed on Saturday, introducing for the first time group tourist visas.

"The visa agreement will be signed tomorrow (Saturday) between the two countries," said Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik, whose opposition was mainly responsible for the pact not being signed in May.

The new agreement will replace the old and tardy visa regime that was signed in 1974.


For the first time, India and Pakistan will introduce group tourist visas that will be issued to groups of 10-50 people who apply through tour operators, registered by the two governments.

The pact will benefit senior citizens and children as persons above 65 years and below 12 years will be issued visas on arrival at the border or airports, sources told PTI.

It will also include multiple-city visas valid for an year for businessmen, who are currently allowed to visit only three cities.

Sources said media and artists were also expected to benefit from the new visa regime which was finalised during the discussions held over the past year.

"Inking of the agreement is a positive development that will boost people to people contact," Malik said. Earlier in the day, when asked if the new visa agreement would be signed during External Affairs Minister SM Krishna's three-day visit here, Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar had said, "inshaallah (God willing). Should be".

Sources pointed out that India was always ready for signing the agreement. It was originally supposed to be signed in May during the Home/Interior Secretary-level talks held here in May, but Malik backed out at last minute saying that it should be inked at the political level.


For the first time, India and Pakistan will introduce group tourist visas which can be issued to groups of 10-50 people.


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News Network
May 11,2020

Kabul, May 11: Four back-to-back roadside bombs exploded in a northern district of Afghanistan's capital Kabul on Monday, wounding four civilians including a child, police said. Kabul police spokesman Ferdaws Faramarz said a clearance team was at the site of the attacks.

Militants have carried out several roadside bombings and rocket attacks in Kabul and other parts of the country in recent weeks, but Monday's four consecutive explosions appeared to be the first coordinated effort for some months.

The Taliban has not carried out any large attacks in the city since they signed a landmark withdrawal deal with the US in February, meant to pave the way for peace in the country. No group has claimed the attacks. The explosions come as authorities are trying to impose a lockdown in the capital to curb the spread of coronavirus in the country.

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News Network
May 28,2020

Geneva, May 28: The global death toll from the novel coronavirus has risen over the past 24 hours by 5,581 to 349,095, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in its daily situation report.

The number of confirmed cases has increased by 84,314 to 5,488,825, the WHO said.

Most cases of infection are recorded in the Americas (North and South America) - 2,495,924, with 145,810 deaths. While Europe has reported 2,061,828 cases and 1,76,226 deaths so far.

As per WHO tally, the US has the highest number of cases in the world with 1,63,4010 infections.

The global health body declared the outbreak of the new coronavirus a pandemic on March 11.

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Agencies
July 28,2020

Sydney, Jul 28: Nearly 3 billion koalas, kangaroos and other native Australian animals were killed or displaced by bushfires in 2019 and 2020, a study by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) said on Tuesday, triple the group's earlier estimates.

Some 143 million mammals, 2.46 billion reptiles, 180 million birds and 51 million frogs were impacted by the country's worst bushfires in decades, the WWF said.

When the fires were still blazing, the WWF estimated the number of affected animals at 1.25 billion. The fires destroyed more than 11 million hectares (37 million acres) across the Australian southeast, equal to about half the area of the United Kingdom.

"This ranks as one of the worst wildlife disasters in modern history," said WWF-Australia Chief Executive Officer Dermot O'Gorman in a statement.

The project leader Lily Van Eeden, from the University of Sydney, said the research was the first continent-wide analysis of animals impacted by the bushfires, and "other nations can build upon this research to improve understanding of bushfire impacts everywhere".

The total number included animals which were displaced because of destroyed habitats and now faced lack of food and shelter or the prospect of moving to habitat that was already occupied.

The main reason for raising the number of animal casualties was that researchers had now assessed the total affected area, rather than focusing on the most affected states, they said.

After years of drought made the Australian bush unusually dry, the country battled one of its worst bushfire seasons ever from September 2019 to March 2020, resulting in 34 human deaths and nearly 3,000 homes lost.

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