Nat Geo's 'Afghan girl' arrested in Pak for fraud

October 26, 2016

Peshawar, Oct 26: Sharbat Gula, the famed green-eyed 'Afghan girl' who was immortalised in 1985 when the National Geographic magazine published her haunting picture on its cover, was arrested here today for staying in Pakistan with fake identity documents.

SharbatConfirming her arrest, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) authorities said Sharbat, now in her 40s, was arrested from the Nothia area for illegally possessing a Pakistani ID card.

Dubbed as 'Mona Lisa of Afghan war', Sharbat catapulted into global prominence after National Geographic photographer Steve McCurry captured her iconic photograph when she was a 12-year-old girl at the Nisar Bagh refugee camp on the edge of Peshawar in 1984.

She had migrated to Pakistan after situation in Afghanistan became worse and married to a Pakistani man.

Sharbat was arrested for fraud from her home following a two-year-long investigation.

She has been charged under Section 419, 420 of the Pakistan Penal Code and Section 5(2) of Prohibition of Corruption Act.

She was earlier investigated by the law enforcers who discovered that she was living in Pakistan with fraudulent identity documents.

She had also obtained fake identity cards for her two children.

Sharbat, who applied for a Pakistani identity card in Peshawar in April 2014, had used the name Sharbat Bibi.

She was one among thousands of Afghan refugees who managed to dodge Pakistan's computerised system to get an identity card.

The FIA authorities are also conducting raids to arrest her husband and two children.

Earlier, three National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) officials, including a Deputy Assistant Director and processing officers, were suspended for allegedly issuing her the ID card illegally.

Pakistan has been tackling the Afghan refugee crisis for over three decades; the UNHCR has termed it as the "largest protracted refugee situation globally."

According to UNHCR figures, Pakistan is home to some 3 million Afghan refugees, half of whom are unregistered, making it the third-largest refugee hosting nation in the world.

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News Network
April 27,2020

Seoul/South Korea, Apr 27: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is "alive and well", a top security adviser to the South's President Moon Jae-in said, downplaying rumours over Kim's health following his absence from a key anniversary.
"Our government position is firm," said Moon's special adviser on national security Moon Chung-in, in an interview with CNN on Sunday. "Kim Jong Un is alive and well."

The adviser said that Kim had been staying in Wonsan -- a resort town in the country's east -- since April 13, adding: "No suspicious movements have so far been detected."

Conjecture about Kim's health has grown since his conspicuous absence from the April 15 celebrations for the birthday of his grandfather Kim Il Sung, the North's founder -- the most important day in the country's political calendar.

Kim has not made a public appearance since presiding over a Workers' Party politburo meeting on April 11, and the following day state media reported him inspecting fighter jets at an air defence unit.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was not gravely ill, two South Korean government sources said on Tuesday, following reports he had undergone a cardiovascular procedure and was now in "grave danger."

His absence unleashed a series of unconfirmed media reports over his condition, which officials in Seoul previously poured cold water on.

"We have nothing to confirm and no special movement has been detected inside North Korea as of now," the South's presidential office said in a statement last week.

South Korea's unification minister Kim Yeon-chul reiterated Monday that remained the case, adding the "confident" conclusion was drawn from "a complex process of intelligence gathering and assessment".

'Grave danger'

Daily NK, an online media outlet run mostly by North Korean defectors, has reported Kim was undergoing treatment after a cardiovascular procedure earlier this month.

Citing an unidentified source inside the country, it said Kim, who is in his mid-30s, had needed urgent treatment due to heavy smoking, obesity and fatigue.

Soon afterwards, CNN reported that Washington was "monitoring intelligence" that Kim was in "grave danger" after undergoing surgery, quoting what it said was an anonymous US official.

US President Donald Trump on Thursday rejected reports that Kim was ailing but declined to state when he was last in touch with him.

On Monday, the official Rodong Sinmun newspaper reported that Kim had sent a message of thanks to workers on the giant Wonsan Kalma coastal tourism project.

It was the latest in a series of reports in recent days of statements issued or actions taken in Kim's name, although none has carried any pictures of him.

Satellite images reviewed by 38North, a US-based think tank, showed a train probably belonging to Kim at a station in Wonsan last week.

It cautioned that the train's presence did not "indicate anything about his health" but did "lend weight" to reports he was staying on the country's eastern coast.

Reporting from inside the isolated North is notoriously difficult, especially regarding anything to do with its leadership, which is among its most closely guarded secrets.

Previous absences from the public eye on Kim's part have prompted speculation about his health.

In 2014 he dropped out of sight for nearly six weeks before reappearing with a cane. Days later, the South's spy agency said he had undergone surgery to remove a cyst from his ankle.

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Agencies
August 3,2020

Manila, Aug 2: The number of COVID-19 cases in the Philippines has exceeded the 100,000 marks with a record 5,032 new infections registered on Sunday, the Health Ministry's data showed.

With the total cases now reaching 103,185, the spread of COVID-19 in the Southeast Asian nation is steeply rising. The daily growth rate just this Thursday set a record at over 3,800 cases, the next day there were nearly 4,000 new infections detected and on Saturday, over 4,800 cases were detected.

More than 65,000 people have recovered from the ailment, while 2,059 people have died.

The Philippines' epidemiological dynamic mirrors that of many Southeast Asian nations, where COVID-19 infections have only recently begun to climb. 

Most other nations in Europe and the Americas experienced an initial spread of the virus which later tailed off only to begin climbing again after easing of restrictions.

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News Network
March 6,2020

Beijing, Mar 6: World health officials have warned that countries are not taking the coronavirus crisis seriously enough, as outbreaks surged across Europe and in the United States where medical workers sounded warnings over a "disturbing" lack of hospital preparedness.

The World Health Organization warned Thursday that a "long list" of countries were not showing "the level of political commitment" needed to "match the level of the threat we all face".

"This is not a drill," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters.

"This epidemic is a threat for every country, rich and poor."

Tedros called on the heads of government in every country to take charge of the response and "coordinate all sectors", rather than leaving it to health ministries.

What is needed, he said, is "aggressive preparedness."

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