KARACHI: The Sindh Provincial Development Working Party (PDWP) on Friday approved two schemes worth Rs3.942 billion in the energy and health sectors.
The first PDWP meeting for the current fiscal was presided by Additional Chief Secretary for Development Muhammad Waseem. One scheme relates to the construction of pretreatment system for RO (reverse osmosis) plant at the Left Bank Outfall Drain (LBOD) water supply scheme at Nabisar for Thar Coal power project worth Rs3474.950 million while the other is for strengthening of Sindh Government Qatar Hospital in Orangi Town, Karachi worth Rs449.458m.
KARACHI: Cotton prices soared to a new high level on Friday on short supply of phutti (seed cotton) and rising demand from spinners.
Reports of rains in most cotton-growing areas in Punjab and Sindh triggered panic buying. But the trading volume remained slow and restricted due to short supply.
The domestic market was also influenced by global trend where most major cotton markets remained bullish. The New York market gained over two US cents per lb for October 2016 contract.
Moreover, spinners are reluctant to buy at this stage as moisture content in phutti after downpour has resulted in low quality of lint.
However, high demand from some needy spinners pushed prices to a seasonal high of Rs7,040 per maund (around 38 kilograms). But short supply of quality cotton kept the proceedings devoid of much needed activity.
According to figures recently released by the textile commissioner, cotton consumption was around 14.42 million bales during August 2015 to May 2016. Similarly, spinners put consumption of cotton in June 2016 at 1.4m bales.
Cotton analyst Naseem Usman contested these figures, saying that if this data was correct then why All Pakistan Textile Mills Association kept claiming that the industry was running under capacity due to high cost of doing business and power crisis.
The Karachi Cotton Association increased its spot rates by Rs250, to Rs6,650 per maund.
Major deals on the ready counter were: 200 bales from Mirpurkhas (at Rs6,790 per maund), 200 bales Sanghar (Rs6,800), 100 bales Chichawatni (Rs7,000), 200 bales Gojra (Rs7,025) and 100 bales Haroonabad (Rs7,040).
LONDON: Gold fell as much as 1.2 per cent on Friday, as the dollar rose after US data showed employment increased more than expected in July, raising the probability of an interest rate hike from the Federal Reserve this year.
Nonfarm payrolls increased by 255,000 jobs last month as hiring rose broadly after an upwardly revised 292,000 surge in June, the Labor Department said on Friday.
Spot gold, steadier initially, fell to one-week low of $1,344.85 an ounce and was down 1.1pc at $1,345.51 by 1326 GMT.
The dollar rose 0.5pc against a basket of six major currencies and global stock markets gained after the data.
Holdings of SPDR Gold Trust, the world’s largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, rose 0.37pc to 973.21 tonnes on Thursday.
Among other precious metals, spot palladium was down 0.6pc at $699.40 an ounce.
Spot platinum was down 1.1pc at $1,147.95, after touching its highest since April 2015 at $1,177.40 on Tuesday, while spot silver fell 1.7pc to $19.89 an ounce.
RIO DE JANEIRO: Brazil unfurled a vast canvas celebrating its rainforest and the creative energy of its wildly diverse population in welcoming the world on Friday to the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, all to the pounding beat of samba, bossa nova and funk.
Brazil's interim President Michel Temer declared open the first Games ever in South America. But in a display of the deep political divisions plaguing Brazil, he was jeered by some in the crowd at the famed Maracana soccer stadium.
The opening ceremony was decidedly simple and low-tech, a reflection of Brazil's tough economic times.
Ghulam Mustafa Bashir carries the flag of Pakistan during the opening ceremony for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.— AP
In one of the world's most unequal societies, the spectacle celebrated the culture of the favelas, the slums that hang vertiginously above the renowned beaches of Rio and ring the Maracana.
There was no glossing over history either: from the arrival of the Portuguese and their conquest of the indigenous populations to the use of African slave labour for 400 years. The clash of cultures, as the ceremony showed, is what makes Brazil the complex mosaic that it is.
Home to the Amazon, the world's largest rainforest, Brazil used the ceremony to call on the 3 billion people watching the opening of the world's premiere sporting event to take care of the planet, plant seeds and protect the verdant land that Europeans found here five centuries ago.
Brazilian marathon runner Vanderlei Cordeiro de Lima, a bronze medallist in Athens in 2004, lit the Olympic cauldron, a small and low-emission model befitting the environmental theme of these Games.
The 'analogue' show
Unlike the opening ceremonies in Beijing in 2008 and London in 2012, a financially constrained Brazil had little choice but to put on a more “analogue” show, with minimal high-tech and a heavy dependence on the vast talent of Brazil and its Carnival party traditions.
Brazilian model Gisele Bundchen performs during the opening ceremony of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.— AFP
In the nearly four-hour event, nothing appeared to go awry.
While the Rio 2016 organising committee has not said how much the ceremony cost, it is believed to be about half of the $42 million spent by London in 2012.
The show drew homegrown stars, like supermodel Gisele Bundchen, who walked across the stadium to the sound of bossa nova hit “Girl from Ipanema” and tropicalia legends Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil. Everyone performed for free.
Loud cheering erupted when two of the last teams entered the stadium: the first Refugee team in Olympic history and finally a samba-dancing Brazil contingent.
Fireworks explode during the opening ceremony.— Reuters
The joyful opening contrasted with months of turmoil and chaos, not only in the organisation of the Olympics but across Brazil as it endures its worst economic recession in decades and a deep political crisis.
Temer, flanked by dozens of heads of state, played a minor role in the ceremony, speaking just a few words.
The leader who was supposed to preside over the Games, President Dilma Rousseff, was suspended last May to face an impeachment trial and tweeted that she was “sad to not be at the party”.
The $12 billion price tag to organise the Games has aggrieved many in the nation of 200 million and in Rio, where few can see the benefits of the spectacle or even afford to attend the Games.
Due to Brazil's most intense security operation ever, some among the 50,000 attendees faced two-hour-long lines to enter the venue.
People on the periphery
The creative minds behind the opening ceremony were determined to put on a show that would not offend a country in dire economic straits but would showcase the famously upbeat nature of Brazilians.
It started with the beginning of life itself in Brazil, and the population that formed in the vast forests and built their communal huts, the ocas.
The Portuguese bobbed to shore in boats, the African slaves rolled in on wheels and together they ploughed through the forests and planted the seeds of modern Brazil.
“They're talking about slavery? Wow,” said Bryan Hossy, a black Brazilian who watched the ceremony in a bar in Copacabana. “They have to talk about that. It's our story.”
The mega-cities of Brazil formed in a dizzying video display as acrobats jumped from roof to roof of emerging buildings and then on to the steep favela that served as the front stage for the ceremony.
From the favela came Brazilian funk, a contemporary mash-up of 20th century rhythms, sung by stars Karol Conka and 12-year-old rapper MC Soffia.
“This is a conquest. The people on the periphery are having an influence, it's a recognition of their art,” said Eduardo Alves, director of social watchdog Observatorio de Favelas.
Before the entry of a few thousand of the 11,000 athletes that will be competing in the Games, the playful rhythms of the ceremony gave way to a sober message about climate change and rampant deforestation of the Amazon.
Each athlete will be asked to plant seeds that will eventually grow into trees and be planted in Rio in a few years.
The party wrapped up with a rousing parade of the city's samba schools that compete in Carnival.
Hundreds of drummers donned their colours and played out Brazil's trademark beat, as athletes from over 200 countries tried out their first steps of samba.
PARIS: A fire in a bar in the northern French town of Rouen killed 13 people and injured another six, the interior ministry said in a statement on Saturday.
A judicial inquiry has been opened to determine the cause of the blaze, Cazeneuve said in a statement.
The local Paris-Normandy newspaper said the fire ignited in the basement of the Cuba Libre bar, which was rented for the evening for the birthday celebration.
The paper, without citing sources, said the ceiling quickly ignited when candles were lit. The neighbourhood was blocked off, and Rouen Mayor Yvon Robert was on the scene.
More than 50 firefighters battled the blaze at the bar in the city centre, said French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve.
Rouen this week held the funeral of an elderly priest who was knifed at a church altar in a nearby town in a militant attack. The funeral Mass was held at the Rouen cathedral on Tuesday.
KARACHI: Numerous roads of the metropolis flooded and several areas were without electricity as monsoon showers hit the city for second consecutive day on Saturday.
The spell that continued from a day earlier turned into heavy showers Saturday morning, and soon exposed the city’s vulnerable infrastructure.
Sindh's newly elected Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah visited some flooded areas of the city personally, and ordered authorities to take immediate steps to free roads of rainwater.
Meanwhile, a section of the city's residents were left wondering if they could make it to work, and many opted to not take the risk as all major thoroughfares were submerged in rainwater.
A Karachi road flooded with rainwater on Saturday.— Photo courtesy: Facebook
Sharea Faisal, M.A. Jinnah Road, I.I. Chundrigar Road, Saddar, Bilawal Chowrangi, Gulshan-i-Iqbal, DHA, Karsaz, University Road, Gulistan-i-Jauhar and Bath Island are some of the flooded areas.
Some 400 feeders of K-Electric (KE) tripped due to the rain, leaving most of the metropolis in dark, DawnNews reported. Although most of the feeders were stored, some areas remain without electricity as KE teams work to restore the remaining feeders.
Areas still without power include Garden, Clifton, Saddar, pockets of DHA, Lyari, Gizri, North Nazimabad, Liaquatabad and Gulistan-i-Jauhar.
A KE representative declined to provide Dawn.com a time by which electricity was expected to be restored in the entire city.
On Friday, the city underwent a similar situation as two men died due to electrocution, which has become a regular feature after rain spells here.
The Met Office earlier described the fresh spell as a “moderate to heavy rainfall” and said that the trend was likely to continue for at least for 24 hours.
'Karachi is not the same anymore'
CM Murad Ali Shah on a city visit during rain.— DawnNews
Sipping tea and munching onparathas at a roadside tea stall in Saddar, CM Murad lamented the picture Karachi's roads presented after the rain spell.
"I could see today what we have done to this city in the past years," he said, regretting that despite constructing underpasses and overhead bridges, a proper drainage system was not built.
"Karachi is called the city of lights... unfortunately it is not the same now," he said, as a large part of the city suffered without electricity.
The CM said he hoped he would be able to "return the lights" to Karachi but asked for resident's support to accomplish this task.
ISLAMABAD: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) early Saturday morning said it arrested a "blacklisted" US national after he was granted entry by a FIA sub-inspector and his son at the Benazir Bhutto International Airport (BBIA).
The US national, identified as Mathew Landing, was blacklisted from Pakistan in 2011 on charges of espionage.
The FIA has registered a First Information Report (FIR) against the officials.
According to the FIA, Landing forged documents to enter the city. The move alerted the organisation's Islamabad chapter.
After arresting Landing, the FIA transferred him to the immigration cell.
Allegedly, sub-inspector Raja Asif and his son Ihtesham-ul-Haq's negligence led to the security breach for which the two were also named in the FIR.
FIA is conduting raids to arrest the accused.
Houston-based Vice Councilor forVisa Sayeda Altaf was also named in the FIR for issuing visa to Landing, said FIA, assuring, that the main culprits will be unveiled.
In June this year, a Spanish national of Pakistani original, who was blacklisted by the British authorities after being convicted in a drug smuggling case, was offloaded from a flight to Manchester at the BBIA.
Can the government tackle the energy crisis? Doing so in the long run may be possible, but in the immediate term, consumers must begin using more energy-efficient products in order to mitigate the issue, reveals the report "Energy Conservation: Avoid Wastages, Prevent Shortages" by Research and Advocacy for the Advancement of Allied Reforms (Raftaar).
1.
The average shortfall in the power sector is 4,000 MegaWatts, and nearly two billion cubic feet per day (BCFD) in the natural gas sector.
The shortfall in the power sector can rise to around 7,000MW or 32pc of total demand for electricity.
2.
Chronic power shortage, in the form of load-shedding and power outages, costed the Pakistan economy Rs14 billion (7pc of GDP) last year.
3.
Over 140 million Pakistanis either have no access to the power grid or suffer over 12 hours of load-shedding daily. Pakistanis who do not have access to the grid are often poorer than those on the grid. Meanwhile, household electricity consumption has grown at an average annual rate of 10pc yearly.
4.
500,000 households are impacted with unemployment as businesses have been forced to shut down due to energy shortages.
Installed capacity and maximum demand for electricity.
5.
In the last five years, Pakistan has taken a hit of Rs145 billion per annum from system losses in the grid due to inefficient transmission and distribution.
6.
Investment in the power sector has fallen to 0.7pc of the GDP in the last 10 years, from a high of 1.5pc during the 1980s and 1990s.
7.
Rs30 billion is the approximate expenditure by Pakistani households on UPS and battery chargers alone. About 60pc of Pakistani households have some form of UPS as a backup for selected appliances during power cuts and shortages. Backup power sources are a stopgap solution, both wasteful and inefficient.
How can Pakistan cope with chronic power shortage?
Although the government is attempting to add capacity to the grid in order to remedy the persistent power shortage, these measures will take time to come into effect.
A more immediate solution to the problem is the conservation and efficient use of energy, as about 67pc of domestic energy consumption stems from inefficient appliances such as lights and fans.
Another alternative is to shift to renewable forms of energy, such as wind and solar power.
There is enough potential from wind generation to supply all of Pakistan's electricity needs. Half this potential exists in one contiguous belt of Sindh coastline.
There are around 1.2m irrigation pumps installed in Pakistan, with about 90pc of these pumps using diesel directly or indirectly.
The use of solar irrigation pumps for agricultural purposes instead of diesel-powered or tractor driven pumps could mean a 27pc saving in consumption of diesel fuel for irrigation pumping.
The China Pakistan Economic Corridor is another way Pakistan could turn towards cleaner forms of energy, as China is a world leader in total wind and solar installed renewable energy, at about 140,000MW.
Punjab must lead the way in this initiative, as the province is home to the largest population in Pakistan and consumes the most electricity. About 90pc of all tubewells are also in Punjab.
The Raftaar report says the greatest responsibility and opportunity lies with the province to improve energy efficiency and conservation in agriculture, as well as in households and businesses.
About Raftaar
Raftaar is an economic reform platform whose knowledge partners include a coalition with the CDRP (Consortium for Development Policy Research), which is itself a consortium of Pakistan’s top economists and economic think tanks (including the International Growth Centre, Institute of Development and Economic Alternatives and Center for Economic Research in Pakistan).
WASHINGTON: More than 100 global design professionals on Thursday offered support to Apple in its long-running patent design battle with Samsung, now before the US Supreme Court.
The group, which includes US fashion designer Calvin Klein, Nicolas Ghesquiere of the French group Louis Vuitton and renowned German industrial designer Dieter Rams joined an amicus brief supporting Apple's contention that Samsung's $548 million penalty for infringing on a design patent should stand.
The case is expected to result in a landmark decision on whether total profits from an unlawfully copied design should be assessed as a penalty, in the first major design patent case at the top US court in over a century.
The amicus brief filed on behalf of design professionals, researchers and academics said they have no financial interest in the case but argue on the basis of “fundamental principles of visual design.” They cite precedents like the Coca-Cola bottle, which is an integral part of the value of the product, according to the brief.
“The history of industrial design and the experience of America's most profitable industries demonstrate that a product's visual design becomes the product itself in the mind of consumers,” they argued.
“It is the design of a successful product that embodies the consumer's understanding of and desire to own and interact with it.”
Other signatories of the brief include Bentley Motors designer Stefan Hans Sielaff, Terence Conran of Conran Holdings and fashion designer Alexander Wang.
Clash with tech firms
The arguments run counter to those offered by many in the technology industry, who claim that upholding the award will only encourage frivolous suits filed by “patent trolls” that make no products.
A brief filed earlier this year by Google, Facebook, eBay, Dell, Hewlett-Packard Enterprise and others said allowing the award to stand “will lead to absurd results and have a devastating impact on companies... that spend billions of dollars annually on research and development for complex technological products and their components.”
The tech firms argued that awarding a design patent holder the total profit from an infringer's product when the design covers only a relatively minor portion of the product “is out of proportion with the significance of the design and out of touch with economic realities.”
A California jury ruled that Samsung had infringed on the US firm's patent for the iPhone, including for its design, in smartphones made by the South Korean giant.
The Supreme Court in February agreed to hear the case, opening the door to reducing the hundreds of millions of dollars in damages owed in the blockbuster patent case between the world's biggest smartphone makers.
The justices will not reconsider Samsung's guilt, but will look at whether the penalty was excessive for copyright infringement of certain electronic components.
Samsung last year agreed to pay Apple some $548 million, pending the outcome of the appeal.
But Samsung argued that $399 million of the penalty was excessive because it was based on the premise that “Apple was 'entitled to' those entire profits no matter how little the patented design features contributed to the value of Samsung's phones,” according to the appeal brief.
SEATTLE: Seattle-based Amazon is unveiling its first branded cargo plane at the annual Seafair Air Show, one of 40 jetliners that will make up Amazon's own air transportation network.
It's Amazon's latest push to speed delivery of products to millions of its online shoppers drawn to fast, no-extra-cost delivery.
The e-commerce giant is taking more control of its delivery process as it ships an increasing number of packages worldwide.
Amazon's parcel volume was an estimated 1 billion packages in 2015 — the same number that FedEx delivered three years earlier for hundreds of thousands of customers. Amazon has leased 40 Boeing jets from Atlas Air and Air Transportation Services Group, which will operate the air cargo network.
Amazon claims that its planes and trucking trailers are meant to ease movement of goods between Amazon's warehouses, rather than delivering orders to customers directly. Hence, its initiatives are meant to bolster business with UPS and FedEx rather than compete with them.
However, some analysts wonder if Amazon's advances in the transportation sector are not part of a bigger objective with ambitious plans to bring the delivery process under its own control. Amazon may be a major customer for both UPS and FedEx, but neither of the companies have shown any sign of alarm, reported the Washington Post.
Eleven of the planes, without the Amazon branding, are already delivering packages for Amazon's Prime customers with the remaining planes to be rolled out in the next couple of years.
DHAKA: Bangladesh has shut down dozens of online news services including those of pro-opposition media, an official said Friday, sparking accusations of government censorship.
The head of the national telecoms regulator said he ordered the closures late Thursday night, citing “objectionable contents”.
“We've shut down 32 news portals and websites following instructions from an intelligence agency,” Bangladesh Telecommunications and Regulatory Commission (BTRC) Chairman Shahjahan Mahmood, told AFP.
He said the list included Sheershanews.com, a popular website known for its fast news coverage, and amardeshonline, a news portal linked to a pro-opposition Bengali daily that the government shut down in 2013.
The crackdown comes after the government banned live television coverage of extremist attacks in the wake of last month's deadly assault on a cafe in which 22 people were killed including 18 foreigners.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina publicly criticised the coverage of the attack and told private broadcasters to be more responsible.
The head of Sheershanews Ekramul Hoque said he was stunned by the move, which would mean about 100 journalists losing their jobs.
“We think it's a direct assault on the country's freedom of press. The government is shutting down the news organisations they don't like. They want total control of the media,” Hoque said.
“By closing down these news portals, the government is sending a clear message to all media firms that they won't tolerate any news organisation that does not follow their line,” he said.
Sheershanews was drawing up to 200 million hits a month this year.
CONCORD: Self-driving trucking start-up Otto is poised to put its software in the hands of long-haul truckers by the end of this year for testing, its co-founders said on Thursday.
Otto, co-founded by Google car and map project veterans Anthony Levandowski and Lior Ron, will also begin testing five retrofitted Volvo trucks at Northern California's autonomous vehicle testing grounds, GoMentum Station, in coming weeks.
By the end of the year, small owner-operators and larger commercial partners will begin using Otto's self-driving kit, Levandowski told Reuters at the facility in Concord, north of San Francisco, adding the company has a target of "thousands" of testers by 2017.
Otto has not yet announced when the technology will be ready for sale.
Launched in May, Otto focuses on maximizing the efficiency and safety of long-haul trucks, which spend much of their time on the side of the road as drivers rest.
The Otto trucks are equipped with a series of sensors and mapping technology to allow them to gauge their position on highways and make real-time driving decisions.
It's unknown just how Otto's partners will test the trucks, but Otto's vision allows the driver to leave the wheel, similar to a plane's "autopilot" system.
Many experts believe full self-driving technology will first roll out in the trucking sector, rather than in passenger cars. Autonomous driving lends itself to highways, where trucks do not have to contend with pedestrians and the myriad distractions of city streets.
Ron said trucks fitted with Otto software can drive more than double their normal daily mileage. "There is a very strong return on investment."
Since its launch, Otto has received hundreds of emails from mom-and-pop owner-operators around the country asking to use the technology, Ron said.
Otto's staff has more than doubled to 90 employees from 40 in May, and the self-funded company now has a fleet of five test trucks.
CINCINNATI: Delta Air Lines says it's investigating an Ohio Muslim couple's claim that they were removed from a return flight from Europe after an airline employee singled them out because of their appearance.
A statement from Delta also says the company will issue a full refund of the couple's airfare for the July 26 flight from Paris to Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky International Airport.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations Cincinnati chapter alleged Thursday that Delta removed the suburban Cincinnati couple from the flight because an airline employee wasn't comfortable having them on the plane.
Faisal and Nazia Ali are US citizens originally from Pakistan. They were returning home after visiting London and Paris to celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary. The couple flew home the following day.
LAS VEGAS: Apple Inc said it plans to offer rewards of up to $200,000 to researchers who find critical security bugs in its products, joining dozens of firms that already offer payments for help uncovering flaws in their products.
The maker of iPhones and iPads provided Reuters with details of the plan, which includes some of the biggest bounties offered to date, ahead of unveiling it on Thursday afternoon at the Black Hat cyber security conference in Las Vegas.
The program will initially be limited to about two dozen researchers who Apple will invite to help identify hard-to-uncover security bugs in five specific categories.
Those researchers have been chosen from the group of experts who have previously helped Apple identify bugs, but have not been compensated for that work, the company said.
The most lucrative category, which offers rewards of up to $200,000, is for bugs in Apple's “secure boot” firmware for preventing unauthorised programs from launching when an iOS device is powered up.
Apple said it decided to limit the scope of the program at the advice of other companies that have previously launched bounty programs.
Those companies said that if they were to do it again, they would start by inviting a small list of researchers to join, then gradually open it up over time, according to Apple.
Security analyst Rich Mogull said that limiting participation would save Apple from dealing with a deluge of “low-value” bug reports.
“Fully open programs can definitely take a lot of resources to manage,” he said.
Apple declined to say which firms provided advice.
Such rewards are currently offered by dozens of firms, including AT&T Inc, Facebook Inc, Google, Microsoft Corp, Tesla Motors Inc and Yahoo Inc .
Microsoft, which has handed out $1.5 million in rewards to security researchers since it launched its program three years ago, also offers rewards for identifying very specific types of bugs. Its two biggest payouts have been for $100,000 each.
Not all bounty programs are as focused as the ones from Apple and Microsoft.
Facebook, for example, has an open program that offers rewards for a wide-range of vulnerabilities. It has paid out more than $4mn over the past five years, with last year's average payment at $1,780.
In March, Facebook paid $10,000 to a 10-year-old boy in Finland who found a way to delete user comments from Instagram accounts.
GUWAHATI: An unidentified gunman on Friday shot dead at least 12 people and wounded 15 in a busy market area in a town in India's restive northeastern state of Assam, police officials said.
The gunman opened fire at the crowded market in Kokrajhar, a town about 220 km west of the state's commercial capital Guwahati, superintendent of police in the town of Sreejith T. told Reuters.
The fate of the gunman was not immediately clear.
Assam, a remote and underdeveloped state in India's northeast, has suffered from years of ethnic and tribal insurgencies.
This is a developing story that is being updated as the situation evolves. Initial reports in the media can sometimes be inaccurate. We will strive to ensure timeliness and accuracy by relying on credible sources such as concerned, qualified authorities and our staff reporters.
