The incoming president of the United Nations General Assembly announced that he was postponing a scheduled visit to Pakistan “due to some technical flight problems.” Turkish diplomat Volkan Bozkir was elected president of the 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly last month and was scheduled to arrive in Islamabad on Sunday. But in a Twitter post, he said the visit to Pakistan's capital would have to wait. Pakistan's foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi tweeted in response to Bozkir that “I look forward to welcoming you to Pakistan soon for a constructive and fruitful visit.” A day earlier, a jubilant Qureshi, while announcing the visit, had hoped he would discuss a range of issues with Bozkir, including Kashmir, which is split between Pakistan and neighboring India and claimed by both in its entirety. Pakistan and India have fought two of their three wars over the disputed region since gaining independence in 1947. The two sides often exchange fire in Kashmir, causing troops and civilian casualties on both sides.
Pak journalist abducted
A senior Pakistani journalist, known for his criticism of the country's powerful institutions, was abducted by unknown persons from Islamabad, his family and a government minister confirmed. Matiullah Jan has been abducted from his car and taken towards some unknown location, according to a video circulating on social media. 'Matiullahjan, my father, has been abducted from Islamabad. I demand he be found and the agencies behind it immediately be held responsible. God keep him safe,” according to a tweet from his account which was apparently made by his son. Jan’s wife and brother told the media that his car was found parked outside a school with one of his mobile phones inside it. Information Minister Shibli Faraz told the media that he had sought details of the incident from the interior ministry.
25 Taliban militants killed by security forces
Over 25 Taliban fighters, including 12 Pakistani citizens, were killed in an airstrike by NATO Rescue Support in the Takht-e-Pol town of Kandahar province of Afghanistan last week. Jamal Barakzai, a spokesperson for the Kandahar Police Command, said that the Taliban fighters who were targeted had been planning to launch an attack on Afghan security forces outposts in the Thoro area of the district. Several bodies were left behind after the strike and documents showed that many of them were Pakistani citizens. Police also tweeted pictures and documents of Pakistani citizens who were killed while fighting along with the Afghan Taliban. According to Kandahar police five more Taliban militants were also killed and two wounded in counterattacks by security forces in the Arghistan district while seven militants were killed and four injured when attacks were repelled in the Taghray area of Maruf district of Kandahar.
Afghan girl kills two militants in revenge
An Afghan girl has been hailed on social media for her "heroism" after fighting back against Taliban militants who reportedly killed her parents. The girl took the family's AK-47 assault rifle, shot dead two of the gunmen and wounded several others, local officials in Ghor province said. Officials say the Taliban attacked as her father supports the government. The group denies any of its fighters died. A photo of the girl holding the gun has gone viral in recent days. Later in the shoot-out, which took place last week, more militants came to attack the house, in the village of Griwa, but were beaten back by villagers and pro-government militia. Social media users praised the teenager. The Taliban denied their fighters had been involved, far less killed, in the incident and called it government propaganda. A Taliban spokesman said, "What I have been seeing and hearing in the media is not true."
US inks nearly $2bn deal for Covid vaccine
The Trump administration announced a nearly $2 billion contract with the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and a smaller German biotechnology company for up to 600 million doses of a Covid-19 vaccine, with the companies on track to manufacture the first 100 million doses by December. Under the arrangement, the federal government would obtain the first 100 million doses for $1.9 billion, with the rights to acquire up to 500 million more. Americans would receive the vaccine for free. Before it could be distributed, it would first need at least emergency approval by the Food and Drug Administration. Large-scale safety trials are to begin this month, with regulatory review set for as early as October. “Depending on success in clinical trials, the agreement will enable the delivery of approximately 100 million doses of vaccine being developed by Pfizer and Bio-NTech,” Alex Azar II, the health secretary, said in a statement.
US sued over H-1B, other visa curbs
Several big US business groups sued the Trump administration seeking to throw out immigration restrictions, including those on H-1B visas issued to highly skilled workers with expertise in specialty fields. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in San Francisco against the department of homeland security and the state department, argues that President Trump exceeded his authority last month when he temporarily halted access to several employment-based visas, affecting hundreds of thousands of people seeking to work in the US. The plaintiffs include US Chamber of Commerce and National Association of Manufacturers.
Taiwan votes to rebrand its airline
Taiwan’s parliament passed a proposal to rebrand the island’s largest airline to avoid confusion with carriers on the Chinese mainland. China Airlines is frequently mistaken for Air China - the mainland’s national carrier - and there have long been calls to rename it or make it more clearly Taiwanese. The lawmakers approved a proposal asking the transport ministry to come up with both short- and long-term rebranding plans for the carrier. Another proposal passed called for the island “to further enhance the visibility of ‘Taiwan’ on our passports”. Taiwan’s passports currently say “Republic of China. Taiwan”. A proposal from a minority party calling for the removal of the phrase “Republic of China” did not pass. Meanwhile, Taiwan’s foreign minister Joseph Wu said China had increased its sabre rattling, with jets entering the island's air defence zone on an “almost daily” basis last month.
Wearing of masks made compulsory
Residents of Melbourne, Australia, must wear masks when leaving home as the country posted a record rise in novel coronavirus cases while New South Wales state was on "high alert". Australia recorded 501 new coronavirus infections recently, its highest since the epidemic began in March. Its death toll also rose by 2 to 128. Victoria state, of which Melbourne is capital, accounted for most of the new cases, with 484. Worryingly, more than half the people who tested positive for the virus in Victoria between July 7 and July 21, or more than 2,000 people, did not isolate, Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews said. "He said, that means people have felt unwell and just gone about their business," Andrews said. Andrews warned that the number of cases would stay on an upward trajectory if people did not self-isolate after getting tested. "And a six-week shutdown will not be for six weeks. It will run for much longer than that."
Pilgrims arrive in Mecca for hajj amid pandemic
Muslim pilgrims have started arriving in Mecca for a drastically scaled-down hajj, as Saudi authorities balance the kingdom's oversight of one of Islam's key pillars and the safety of visitors in the face of a global pandemic. The hajj, which begins on Wednesday, normally draws around 2.5 million people for five intense days of worship in one of the world's largest gatherings of people from around the world. This year, Saudi Arabia's Hajj Ministry has said between 1,000 and 10,000 people already residing in the kingdom will be allowed to perform the pilgrimage. Two-thirds of those pilgrims will be from among foreign residents in Saudi Arabia and one-third will be Saudi citizens. The kingdom has one of the Middle east’s largest outbreaks of the coronavirus, with nearly 269,000 reported infections, including 2,760 deaths. Although the hajj often draws all age groups, pilgrims this year were required to be between the ages of 20 and 50, and in good health. The physically demanding rituals of the hajj offer a profound experience for Muslims, with the faithful often weeping, their palms stretched toward the sky, in prayer and repentance. The hajj is required of all able-bodied Muslims once in a lifetime.
Airline flies empty so pilots don't lose licenses
Airlines are taking steps to survive the pandemic, with Asiana Airlines Inc. flying the world's biggest commercial plane more than 20 times, going nowhere and carrying no passengers, just to keep trainee pilots certified. Keeping crew flight-ready is one of the challenges carriers face as they grapple with the unprecedented crisis that keeps more than a third of the world's fleet grounded. The empty Airbus SE A380 flew over South Korea for a few hours a day for three days in May to enable pilots of the 495-seat superjumbo to practice taking off and landing. The alternative - a trip to Thailand to use a simulator owned by Thai Airways International Pcl - was blocked because of travel bans, an Asiana spokesman said. "Takeoffs and landings of this plane cost a lot of money, and it's money that needs to be used wisely, especially these days," said Um Kyung-a, an analyst at Shinyoung Securities Co. in Seoul. "Asiana is in a bind because it also can't afford for its pilots to lose their licenses." Asiana had another 135 pilots who didn't have enough flying time on its six A380s, but it couldn't afford to keep flying the empty jet.
93-year-old convicted for Nazi crimes
A Hamburg court convicted a 93-year old German man of helping to murder 5,232 prisoners at a Nazi concentration camp in World War II and gave him a suspended two-year sentence in one of the last cases against Nazi-era crimes. Rolled into the courtroom in a wheelchair and hiding his face behind a blue folder, Bruno acknowledged he had been an SS guard in the Stutthof concentration camp near Gdansk in what was then occupied Poland, but he said his presence did not amount to guilt. This did not convince the court. “How could you get used to the horror?” asked judge Anne Meier-Goering as she read the verdict. About 65,000 people, including many Jews, were murdered or died at Stutthof.
HK imposes restrictions as Covid-19 cases rise
China, Australia and Hong Kong have all reported rising coronavirus figures and Vietnam has detected its first locally transmitted cases since April, as countries across Asia try to fend off an apparent second wave of infections. Hong Kong banned dining out and capped group gatherings at two on Monday after recording more than 100 new cases for five days running. Authorities in the densely populated city have also closed pools and sports venues and made mask-wearing mandatory in public, urging people to stay home as much as possible in the middle of a sweltering summer. “The next two to three weeks will be critical. We need to prevent the further spread of the disease in the community,” said Hong Kong’s chief secretary, Matthew Cheung Kin-chung. “There is a high risk of a major outbreak in the community.” While hugely successful at suppressing the virus in the early months of the pandemic, the recent rise in infections has alarmed residents and authorities. More than half of its 2,634 confirmed cases have been recorded in July alone. Twenty people have died.
Japan plans to cancel Chinese President's visit
Japan is planning to cancel Chinese president Xi Jinping's state visit. Earlier this year, the Japanese government delayed plans for what would be the first state visit by a Chinese leader to Tokyo since 2008. Now, with Chinese military aggression rising in the region and Beijing cracking down on Hong Kong, Japan is considering cancelling Xi Jinping's visit altogether "but very gingerly. While its top allies have taken a harder line on China "especially the United States, which dramatically escalated tensions this past week by closing the Chinese Consulate in Houston" Japan has pursued a delicate balancing act, mindful of the economic might of its largest trading partner and its own limited military options. So as Chinese ships have engaged in the longest series of incursions in or near Japanese waters in several years, Japan has offered a restrained response, vowing to be firm but "calm". It did not join several Western nations in an initial statement criticising the draconian security law that Beijing imposed on Hong Kong.
Google sued over privacy breaches
Australia’s consumer watchdog moved court against Google alleging the technology giant misled account holders about its use of their personal data. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s action in the federal court is the latest litigation Google has faced around the world over allegations of privacy breaches. The allegations arise from Google’s move in 2016 to start combining users’ personal information in their Google accounts with information from the same users’ activity on non-Google sites that used Google technology, formerly DoubleClick technology, to display ads. “We allege that Google did not obtain explicit consent from customers to take this step,” the commission’s chair, Rod Sims, said in a statement. “The ACCC considers that consumers effectively pay for Google’s services with their data, so this change introduced by Google increased the ‘price’ of Google’s services, without consumers’ knowledge,” Sims added. Google said it had cooperated with the watchdog in its investigation and that its account holders had been asked to “consent via prominent and easy-to-understand notifications. We strongly disagree with their allegations and intend to defend our position,” a Google statement said.
