Jack Ma’s Ant group plans to create a new consumer finance company

Ant is working with Nanyang Commercial Bank Ltd., China TransInfo Technology Corp. and Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. to build a consumer finance platform

Companies News: Jack Ma’s Ant Group is planning to create a new consumer finance company to bolster its market share in the country’s fast growing online lending industry. Ant is working with Nanyang Commercial Bank Ltd., China TransInfo Technology Corp. and Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. to build a consumer finance platform that will focus on doling out loans to individuals in China, people familiar said, requesting not to be named because the matter is private. The Chongqing incorporated company will have a registered capital of 8 billion yuan ($1.2 billion).

China TransInfo Technology jumped as much as 10%, the daily limit, while Contemporary Amperex Technology rose 4.3% in the afternoon trading session. The new entity would boost Ant’s lending capacity since consumer finance companies are allowed to lend out 10 times their capital. That would far surpass the two to three times leverage of Ant’s existing micro-loan companies in Chongqing, which operate its Huabei and Jiebei platforms.

Consumer finance is getting increasingly competitive in China. More than 20 such companies have emerged after the banking regulator started a pilot program in 2010 to promote purchases of durable goods such as home appliances. Such firms, while unable to take deposits, can fund their loans by borrowing from the interbank market, shareholders and issuing bonds and asset-backed securities…Read More

Donald Trump approved air strikes on Iran, then pulled back: Report

Airstrikes would have marked a dramatic escalation in the already high tensions between the two nations and would raise the specter of a broader conflict in the volatile region

President Donald Trump approved military strikes on Iran after an American drone was shot down by Iranian armed forces, but then decided not to go through with them, the New York Times reported Thursday night. The targets included radar and missile batteries, the newspaper said, citing unnamed administration officials. The operation was actually underway on Thursday evening — with planes and ships heading toward their targets — when the administration called off the attack, according to the Times.

The White House declined to comment on the report. The Times said it was unclear why the attack did not go forward. Airstrikes would have marked a dramatic escalation in the already high tensions between the two nations and would raise the specter of a broader conflict in the volatile region, which supplies one-third of the world’s oil.

Earlier Thursday, Donald Trump downplayed Iran’s attack on the US Navy drone in the Persian Gulf that escalated regional tensions and fueled a surge in oil prices, suggesting a “loose and stupid” individual may have been responsible for the strike.

“I would imagine it was a general or somebody who made a mistake by shooting that drone down,” Trump said during an Oval Office meeting Thursday with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. “I find it hard to believe it was intentional. It could have been somebody who was loose and stupid.” The last time the US launched a significant military operation against Iran was Operation Praying Mantis in 1988. In that operation, US Navy ships sank two Iranian ships and destroyed two Iranian surveillance platforms.

50 yrs of Moon landing: Let’s not forget, or forsake, the lessons of past

The first step is to protect the sites which chronicle our history on the Moon

“How about that package out of your sleeve? Get that?” is certainly not the most famous phrase uttered by a human while on the Moon. And the items nestled in a small packet that astronaut Buzz Aldrin had stowed in the pocket just below the shoulder of his extravehicular mobility unit were certainly not mission critical. They were sentimental objects, intended to be left on the Moon purely for symbolic and commemorative purposes.

Apollo 15 astronauts David R. Scott and James B. Irwin left a commemorative plaque on the Moon in memory of 14 NASA astronauts and USSR cosmonauts. The tiny, man-like object represents the figure of a fallen astronaut/cosmonaut. NASA More than one hundred sites You may be surprised to learn that a partial catalog of human-made objects on the Moon fills more than 20 single-spaced pages.

There are more than a hundred sites on the Moon with evidence of human activity. The sites contain materials from the European Space Agency, Japan, India, Russia, China and the United States. Not only do these sites contain ongoing experiments, they hold invaluable data. For example, engineers are hoping to examine these materials to determine how they have fared after continuous exposure to the elevated radiation levels on the Moon. Along with scientific equipment, robotic landers and other objects left behind to lighten the load for the return home, there are a number of memorial and tributary items.

But perhaps most important, these varied objects, and their position on the lunar surface, alone can reveal the true story of humanity’s history on the Moon. A chronicle which celebrates the persistence and passion of hundreds and of thousands of scientists, engineers and aviators throughout human history who have supported the effort to “slip the surly bonds of Earth” and reach the stars.

One in three UN employees say they were sexually harassed in last two years

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told staff in a letter that the study contained “some sobering statistics and evidence of what needs to change” to improve the workplace at the United Nations

International News: A third of United Nations employees have reported experiencing sexual harassment at the world body over the last two years, according to the findings of the first-ever survey on such misconduct released Tuesday.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told staff in a letter that the study contained “some sobering statistics and evidence of what needs to change” to improve the workplace at the United Nations.

One in three respondents, or 33 per cent, reported at least one instance of sexual harassment in the past two years, but that figure climbed to 38.7 per cent for those who reported some form of sexual harassment during their time at the United Nations.

The most common type of sexual harassment were sexual stories or jokes that were offensive, or offensive remarks about appearance, body or sexual activities.

UN employees were also targeted for unwelcome attempts to draw them into discussion about sexual matters, offensive gestures and touching, according the survey carried out by Deloitte in November…

Contain Source: Business Standard or BS

This girl became the Instagram queen of Iraq. And then was shot to death

Ms. Fares’s likeness remains repeated in this internet hall of mirrors: swathed in a hotel robe, getting her hair done on Eid al-Fitr, playing video games, flaunting her intricate tattoos

BS|On Oct. 9, the Iraqi author Sinan Antoon tweeted, “Killing those who are other/different has become a ritual/hobby, practiced by individuals for fun, after having been institutionalized by the state, political parties and militias for years.” His tweet referred to reports that an Iraqi teenager had been butchered on a Baghdad street by an assailant who thought he looked gay. But Mr. Antoon could have been referring to any of the young Iraqis who have tried to break free of the rigid social codes governing both genders only to suffer vicious reprisals.

The most famous of these victims has been Tara Fares. When she was killed in September, Ms. Fares, who had 2.8 million followers on Instagram, was the sixth most popular person on Iraqi social media. At 22, she was a self-created celebrity who mixed sexy fashion shoots with video diaries in which she fired back at her conservative critics. Ms. Fares was shot dead in Baghdad’s Camp Sarah neighborhood while riding in her Porsche.

When I read about Ms. Fares’s murder, recognition hit me like a punch. Though I am 13 years her senior, when I was her age, I also worked as a scantily clad internet model. I also reinvented myself on social media, posting endless photos of myself, trying to build a following that would somehow translate into something more. Back then, qualified only for menial jobs, I also saw my looks as a fast-closing door to freedom and used them as best I could. But I am in the United States, and she was in Iraq. The stakes for Ms. Fares were far higher. Her 

91 killed, hundreds wounded by 7.0 earthquake in Indonesia’s Lombok island

The latest quake had a magnitude of seven and struck just 10 km underground, the USGS said

At least 91 people have been killed after a powerful earthquake measuring 7 on the Richter scale jolted the Indonesian island of Lombok, officials said.

Also, hundreds of people have been wounded by Sunday’s quake, disaster management officials said, BBC reported.

The magnitude seven tremor was shallow, happening only 10 km underground. It damaged thousands of buildings and triggered power cuts.

In the neighbouring island of Bali, video footage showed people running from their homes screaming.

The quake comes a week after another quake hit Lombok, a popular tourist site for its beaches and hiking trails, killing at least 16 people.

A tsunami warning was issued but was lifted after a few hours.

A spokesman for Indonesia’s disaster mitigation agency said many buildings had been affected in Lombok’s main city of Mataram, most of them built with weak construction materials.

Article Source : BS

Stormy's lawyer: Russian oligarch sent $500,000 to Cohen to pay hush money

That and other revelations caught the president's team off guard when Avenatti unveiled them Tuesday on Twitter

 

A company tied to a Russian oligarch sent $500,000 last year to an entity that President Donald Trump’s lawyer used to pay hush money to porn actress Stephanie Clifford, her attorney Michael Avenatti claimed.

That and other revelations caught the president’s team off guard when Avenatti unveiled them Tuesday on Twitter. It’s the latest twist in litigation brought by Clifford, known professionally as Stormy Daniels, centered on a $130,000 payment that lawyer Michael Cohen arranged on the eve of the 2016 presidential election to secure Clifford’s silence about an alleged sexual encounter with Trump.

In a document made public online, Avenatti uncovered several corporate relationships. Among $4.43 million in transactions identified by Avenatti as suspicious were deposits from AT&T Inc. and a unit of Novartis AG to the Cohen company. AT&T confirmed shortly afterwards that it had paid Cohen a consulting fee late last year to provide “insights” into the Trump white house.

It’s unclear whether Avenatti obtained bank information as part of litigation involving Trump, Cohen and Clifford over the non-disclosure agreement Cohen negotiated. Separately, federal prosecutors in Manhattan are investigating the payment and Cohen’s broader business practices, and there are increasing indications that Cohen may be under financial strains. New financial filings this week, for example, show Cohen and his wife have used their apartment on New York’s Park Avenue as collateral for a troubled loan for his taxi businesses.

Renova Link

The money flows outlined by Avenatti ran largely through an account that Cohen opened at First Republic Bank in October 2016, just ahead of the U.S. presidential election. Soon after, Viktor Vekselberg -- a Russian oligarch with links to Russian President Vladimir Putin -- “caused substantial funds to be deposited into the bank account, from which Cohen made the payment” to Daniels, Avenatti said.

Vekselberg and his company, Renova Group, are among individuals and companies that have since been sanctioned by the U.S. to punish Russia for its election meddling and actions in Ukraine and Crimea.From Collusion to Cohen, Tallying Trump’s Legal Risks: QuickTakeAvenatti said the transfers to the Cohen entity came from a Renova investment vehicle, Columbus Nova.

Describing itself as a management company, Columbus Nova said Tuesday that it hired Cohen after Trump’s inauguration to consult on potential sources of capital and investments in real estate and other ventures. Columbus Nova is solely owned and controlled by Americans, the company said in a statement.

“The claim that Viktor Vekselberg was involved or provided any funding for Columbus Nova’s engagement of Michael Cohen is patently untrue,” its attorney, Richard Owens, said in the statement. “Neither Viktor Vekselberg nor anyone else other than Columbus Nova’s owners was involved in the decision to hire Cohen or provided funding for his engagement.”

‘Not a Payment’

An attorney for Cohen said he wouldn’t discuss the $500,000 from Vekselberg, according to a tweet posted by a reporter. “I understand the shorthand you’re using, but it wasn’t a payment,” the attorney, Steve Ryan, told Natasha Bertrand of the Atlantic.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team has questioned Vekselberg about the payments into Cohen’s account, CNN reported Tuesday.

Reached by telephone half an hour after Avenatti posted the information, Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani said he doubted the report’s veracity.

Facebook to introduce Clear History privacy tool in coming months

Facebook is developing the feature in response to an outcry about data collection and privacy on its sites

Facebook Inc. is going to let users see which websites and apps send the social network data on their activity — and then give them the option to delete it, with a new “clear history” tool.

The Menlo Park, California-based company is developing the feature in response to an outcry about data collection and privacy on its sites, following revelations that an outside developer improperly handled personal information on tens of millions of users. The crisis has spawned questions from lawmakers and privacy advocates about who owns the data that users share on Facebook, and the company has taken other steps to address the concerns, including pausing some developer tools and auditing apps on its platform.

“The past several weeks have made clear that people want more information about how Facebook works and the controls they have over their information," Chief Privacy Officer Erin Egan wrote in a blog post on Tuesday, just as the company kicked off its F8 annual developer conference. “If you clear your history or use the new setting, we’ll remove identifying information so a history of the websites and apps you’ve used won’t be associated with your account.”

It will take months to build the new Clear History feature, Egan wrote, adding that the company will work with privacy advocates, academics, policy makers and regulators for input on how to remove personal information.

Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg said he learned, while testifying in front of Congress last month, that he didn’t have clear enough answers to questions about data and Facebook should offer users this kind of option to control their information.

Zuckerberg risks a night at Big Ben

Facebook Inc. Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg has been asked again to appear before British lawmakers, or risk a formal summons. If he refuses that, Parliament could demand Zuckerberg spend the night in the clock tower.The penalties for holding Parliament in contempt vary. Technically — though very unlikely — the House of Commons could call Zuckerberg to appear before them and berate him for his behavior. Zuckerberg may be issued with a fine, although this penalty hasn’t been used since 1666. As a last resort, lawmakers could threaten to send him to the clock tower of the Palace of Westminster — more commonly known as Big Ben — a resort not used since 1880.

FB scandal: It was my mistake and am sorry, Zuckerberg tells US Senate

Zuckerberg traversed Capitol Hill on Monday surrounded by police and trailed by packs of reporters ahead of his scheduled appearance before three congressional committees

Facebook Inc Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg swapped his trademark T-shirt and jeans for a dark suit and a purple tie on Monday as he met U.S. lawmakers to apologize for the social network's misuse of its members' data and to head off possible regulation.

His apologies precede two days of congressional hearings this week, where Zuckerberg will be asked how 87 million Facebook users' data was improperly shared with a political consultancy, Cambridge Analytica.

He will also likely face questions about ads and posts placed by Russian operatives, in what U.S. authorities believe was an attempt to influence the U.S. 2016 election.

"We didn't take a broad enough view of our responsibility, and that was a big mistake," he said in written remarks released by the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee on Monday. "It was my mistake, and I'm sorry."

If Zuckerberg does not provide satisfactory answers this week, Congress is more likely to push new laws to strictly regulate Facebook. Anticipating such a move, the company has already said it favors new legislation that would make social networks disclose who is behind political ads, much as TV and radio stations must already do.

Tighter regulation of how Facebook uses its members' data could affect its ability to attract advertising revenue, its lifeblood. Facebook shares closed up 0.5 percent on Monday. They are still down almost 17 percent from highs hit in January, amid a broader tech selloff, partly because of investor concerns about regulation.

PRIVACY ISSUES

Zuckerberg traversed Capitol Hill on Monday surrounded by police and trailed by packs of reporters ahead of his scheduled appearance before three congressional committees on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Zuckerberg held meetings with the top Republican and Democratic senators on the Commerce and Judiciary committees that will question him on Tuesday in a joint meeting. He faces further grilling from the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Wednesday.

On Monday, he was pictured in one photo showing his mobile device to Senator Bill Nelson, the top Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee. He did not respond to questions from reporters as he entered and left the building.

Nelson told reporters after the meeting: “The message I wanted to convey to him is that if we don't rein in the use of social media, none of us are going to have any privacy anymore." He met Senator John Thune, the Commerce Committee's Republican chairman, later in the day. He also met Chuck Grassley, the Senate Judiciary Committee's Republican chairman, and the leading Democrat on that committee, Dianne Feinstein.

Top of the agenda in this week's hearings will be Facebook's dealings with Cambridge Analytica, a London-based company that counts U.S. President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign among its past clients, or go-betweens. Cambridge Analytica has disputed Facebook's estimate of the number of affected users.

Lawmakers are also expected to press Zuckerberg closely on the 2016 election, which he anticipated in his written testimony.

"It's clear now that we didn't do enough to prevent these tools from being used for harm..." he said. "That goes for fake news, foreign interference in elections, and hate speech, as well as developers and data privacy."

Zuckerberg's testimony said the company was "too slow to spot and respond to Russian interference, and we're working hard to get better." He vowed to make improvements, adding it would take time, but he was "committed to getting it right." Facebook disclosed in September that Russians under fake names had used the social network to try to influence U.S. voters in the months before and after the 2016 election, writing about inflammatory subjects, setting up events and buying ads.

In February, U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller charged 13 Russians and three Russian companies with interfering in the election by sowing discord on social media.

The company's data practices are under investigation by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.

Click here : Mark zuckerberg

Facebook was going to collect patients' data for hospitals. Now, it won't

Facebook has admitted that information of up to 87 million people, mostly in the US, may have been improperly shared with the British political consultancy firm Cambridge Analytica

 

In the wake of the Cambridge Analytica data breach, Facebook has reportedly suspended a research project where the social media giant was in touch with several major US hospitals to collect data about their patients.

According to a report in CNBC late Thursday, Facebook aimed to build profiles of patients and help the hospitals, including Stanford Medical School and American College of Cardiology, figure out which patients may need special care or treatment.

"This work has not progressed past the planning phase, and we have not received, shared, or analysed anyone's data," a Facebook spokesperson told CNBC.

A Facebook statement said: "Last year Facebook began discussions with leading medical institutions to explore whether scientific research using anonymised Facebook data could help the medical community advance our understanding in this area.

"The project could have raised new concerns about the massive amount of data Facebook collects about its users, and how this data can be used in ways users never expected."

Facebook, however, told The Verge that the patient data would instead be used more generally.

"The project would not attempt to provide health recommendations for specific people. Instead, the focus would be on producing general insights that would help medical professionals take social connectedness into account as they develop treatment or intervention programmes for their patients," a Facebook spokesperson was quoted as saying.

Facebook has admitted that information of up to 87 million people, mostly in the US, may have been improperly shared with the British political consultancy firm Cambridge Analytica.

Private data of over half a million Indian Facebook users was also compromised by a private marketing firm that later sold the personal details acquired through a quiz app to Cambridge Analytica.

Article source: Business standard

I am LeT's biggest supporter; Hafeez Saeed likes me too: Pervez Musharraf

The former president added he was always in favour of terrorist action in Kashmir

Politics: Former Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf has come out in support of the terror groups, the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and the Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD), saying they were the biggest force against the Indian Army in Kashmir.

Speaking on Pakistan's ARY News, Musharraf said, "I am the biggest supporter of the LeT and I know they like me and the JuD also likes me."

He further said he liked the global terrorist, JuD chief Hafiz Saeed, and had met him.

The former president added he was always in favour of terrorist action in Kashmir, and the LeT and the JuD were the biggest forces to take on the Indian Army in the state.

"I was always in favour of action in Kashmir and of suppressing the Indian Army in Kashmir and they [LeT] are the biggest force," Musharraf said.

He also accused India of declaring the LeT and the JuD as terror groups with the help of the United States.

"India got them declared as terrorists by partnering with the US," Musharraf said, adding," Yes, they [LeT] are involved in Kashmir and in Kashmir it is, between, we [Pakistan] and India."

Earlier this week, the US strongly condemned the release of LeT leader Hafiz Saeed from house arrest and called for his immediate re-arrest and prosecution.

Read More: Parvez musharraf on LeT

Bali volcano alert at highest level, airport closure affects 445 flights

A significant eruption could be imminent: Senior state volcanologist Gede Suantika

The alert for a volcano belching huge plumes of smoke on Indonesia’s resort island of Bali has been raised to the highest level, officials said on Monday, with fears a significant eruption could be imminent.

“The volcano’s alert level has been raised to the highest level,” said senior state volcanologist Gede Suantika. “Constant tremors can be felt.

The closure of I Gusti Ngurah Rai airport on the Indonesian island of Bali due to a volcanic eruption has affected 445 flights, including 196 international routes, its operator said on Monday.

PT Angkasa Pura, the operator, has prepared five alternative airports for airlines to divert their inbound flights, including ones in neighboring provinces, it said in a statement.

Bali airport’s official website showed flights operated by Singapore Airlines, Sriwijaya, Garuda Indonesia , Tiger Air, Malaysian Airlines and Jetstar had been cancelled.

Malaysia Airlines will cancel all flights between Kuala Lumpur and Denpasar-Bali today following the volcanic activity at Mount Agung in Bali.

“The airline is monitoring the situation closely and will adjust its flight operations into and out of Ngurah Rai International Airport when necessary,” a statement by Malaysia Airlines read.

Thereafter, Malaysia Airlines will allow affected passengers to – apart from a full refund or deferment of travel until end of February 2018 – a change of destination (subject to seat availability) to Jakarta, Surabaya or any ASEAN destination the airline flies to.

Jet Airways 9W4622 from Bali Denpasar Airport (DPS) to Singapore has also reportedly been cancelled.

Indonesia has raised an alert for the volcano on the tourist island of Bali and have ordered evacuation of people within 10 kilometres.

The eruption at Mount Agung has become magmatic, the country’s disaster management agency said, warning that a larger eruption could be imminent. As a result, the alert status for the surrounding area has been raised to level 4, the highest level.

Mount Agung spewed smoke reportedly as high as 4,000 m above its summit and disrupted at least 28 flights departing and arriving at the island.

The region around Mount Agung has been on alert since late September when more than 140,000 people were told to evacuate over fears of an imminent eruption.

Mount Agung last erupted in 1963, killing nearly 1,600 people in one of Indonesia’s most devastating eruptions.

 

What Saudi purge and Prince Salman's game of thrones means for West Asia politics

The purge of the princes, unprecedented in recent Saudi politics, is clearly aimed as clearing the way for Prince Mohammed bin Salman to ascend the throne

 

Saturday, November 4, was an extraordinary day: it witnessed three developments which, taken together, suggest a major escalation in the armed conflict in West Asia is in the offing, even as the region is already groaning under the violence of bloody wars in Syria, Yemen and Iraq, in which half a million people have been killed and several million have been displaced.

Saudi Arabia is at the heart of all these developments. First, in a dramatic coup within the royal family, engineered by Prince Salman and his son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, 11 princes have been detained, along with four sitting ministers and several former ministers and officials.

Three developments

Prince Miteb bin Abdullah, the commander of the National Guard, the country’s powerful domestic security force, has been summarily dismissed, so that force has now also come under the control of the crown prince. The instrument used to effect these changes is the anti-corruption committee set up by the king on Saturday, with the crown prince as its chairman.

The second development was the sudden announcement in Riyadh by the Lebanese prime minister, Saad Hariri, that he was resigning. Hariri had taken charge only in December 2016 after entering into a power-sharing agreement with President Michel Aoun. In his public remarks, Hariri said that Iran had planted “disorder and destruction” in his country and had made Hezbollah a “state within a state” in Lebanon.....READ MORE

Rohingya crisis: Return of 'displaced persons' only solution, says Swaraj

India's External Affairs Minister spoke on the issue during her two-day visit to Bangladesh

 

India is "deeply concerned" at the spate of violence in Myanmar's Rakhine State where normalcy will be restored only with the return of "displaced persons", External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Sunday said amidst the raging Rohingya refugee crisis.

Nearly 600,000 minority Rohingya Muslims have fled to Bangladesh since late August to escape violence in Myanmar's Rakhine State where the army has launched a crackdown against militants.

Myanmar doesn't recognise Rohingya as an ethnic group and insists that they are Bangladeshi migrants living illegally in the country.(economy news)

Bangladesh has sought India's "sustained pressures" on Myanmar for its resolution.

"India is deeply concerned at the spate of violence in Myanmar's Rakhine State," Swaraj said after talks with the Bangladeshi side as part of the fourth Joint Consultative Commission.

She, however, preferred not to use the word "Rohingya" and said: "We have urged that the situation be handled with restraint, keeping in mind the welfare of the population."

Swaraj is on a two-day visit to Bangladesh at the invitation of Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali.

"It is clear that normalcy will only be restored with the return of the displaced persons to Rakhine state.....read more

Panama Papers scribe killed in Malta car bomb

Caruana Galizia filed a police report 15 days ago to say that she had been receiving death threats

A journalist who led the Panama Papers probe into corruption in Malta was killed on Monday in a car bomb near her residence, the media reported.

Daphne Caruana Galizia died on Monday when her car, a Peugeot 108, was destroyed by a powerful explosive device, reports the Guardian.

A blogger whose posts often attracted more readers than the combined circulation of the country’s newspapers, Caruana Galizia was recently described by the American news outlet Politico as a “one-woman WikiLeaks”.

Her latest revelations accused Malta’s Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and two of his closest aides, connecting offshore companies linked to the three men with the sale of Maltese passports and payments from the government of Azerbaijan.

No group or individual claimed responsibility for the attack, the Guardian reported.

Malta’s President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca, called for calm. “In these moments, when the country is shocked by such a vicious attack, I call on everyone to measure their words, to not pass judgement and to show solidarity.”

In a statement, Muscat condemned the “barbaric attack”.

“Everyone knows Caruana Galizia was a harsh critic of mine,” said Muscat, adding “Both politically and personally, but nobody can justify this barbaric act in any way.”

He announced in parliament later on Monday that Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) officers were on their way to Malta to assist with the investigation, following his request for help from the US government.  | Click here to know more about panama papers

Indian-origin teenager Akshay Ruparelia becomes UK’s youngest millionaire

Ruparelia claims to have already sold 100 million pounds worth of properties since he set up his business

An Indian-origin teenager has become one of Britain’s youngest millionaires after his online estate agency business got valued at 12 million pounds in just over a year.

Akshay Ruparelia, at just 19 years of age, juggled his school work with negotiating property deals for his no-frills business that offers to sell properties for a fraction of the cost charged by established high street estate agents.

This week “doorsteps.co.uk” became the 18th biggest estate agency in the UK just 16 months after the website went live.

Ruparelia claims to have already sold 100 million pounds worth of properties since he set up his business.

“I got the website up and running and after a couple of weeks a man in Sussex asked me to sell his home and a separate chunk of land he owned beside it.

“I had to pay my sister’s boyfriend 40 pounds to drive me to Sussex to take photographs of the house, as I hadn’t passed my driving test and didn’t have a car,” he recalls.

The north London-based schoolboy was able to sell the property and land within three weeks, which set the ball rolling.

He started his company with 7,000 pounds, borrowed from relatives and now employs 12 people. | Click here to know more about Akshay Ruparelia

Fire breaks out at PMO; doused in 20 minutes

The blaze was reported in room number 242, located on the second floor, at around 3.35 am

A minor fire broke out in a room at the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) in the wee hours on Tuesday.

The blaze was reported in room number 242, located on the second floor, at around 3.35 am.

“At around 3.35 am we got a call in our control room that a fire broke out in PMO’s office, room number 242,” Divisional Fire Officer Gurmukh Singh told ANI.

Fire tenders were immediately rushed to the spot and they took care of the situation in less than 20 minutes.

Singh said the fire broke out due to sparking in a computer’s UPS. No casualties have been reported due to the incident.

The room belonged to a section’s officer.

Click Here To Known More About : Fire At PMO

 

Fire breaks out at PMO; doused in 20 minutes

The blaze was reported in room number 242, located on the second floor, at around 3.35 am

A minor fire broke out in a room at the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) in the wee hours on Tuesday.

The blaze was reported in room number 242, located on the second floor, at around 3.35 am.

“At around 3.35 am we got a call in our control room that a fire broke out in PMO’s office, room number 242,” Divisional Fire Officer Gurmukh Singh told ANI.

Fire tenders were immediately rushed to the spot and they took care of the situation in less than 20 minutes.

Singh said the fire broke out due to sparking in a computer’s UPS. No casualties have been reported due to the incident.

The room belonged to a section’s officer.

Click Here To Known More About : Fire At PMO

 

Harvey Weinstein fired after harassment allegations

Weinstein, known for aggressive awards campaigns that led to Oscars for movies like 'Shakespeare in Love'

Weinstein, the Oscar-winning movie studio, fired co-founder and guiding creative force Harvey Weinstein, just days after he stepped away from the company over allegations of sexual harassment stretching back decades.

Weinstein, 65, had taken a leave of absence from the company he started with his brother Robert after the New York Times said he had reached settlements with at least eight women claiming to have been harassed by him. Among those were at least three employees and an unidentified actress, the Times said.

“In light of new information about misconduct by Harvey Weinstein that has emerged in the past few days” the board informed “Weinstein that his employment is terminated, effective immediately,” the company said in an email Sunday.

The one-sentence statement culminated a swift fall for the longtime movie mogul and marked a new period of uncertainty for the company, which has struggled financially despite its artistic accolades. The independent studio is being led by co-Chairman Robert Weinstein and Chief Operating Officer David Glasser.

Weinstein, known for aggressive awards campaigns that led to Oscars for movies like “Shakespeare in Love,” denied many of the allegations and told the New York Post the report was unfair. Three board members at New York-based Weinstein resigned Friday, according to Deadline. The remaining directors —Robert Weinstein, Lance Maerov, Richard Koenigsberg and Tarak Ben Ammar—hired outside lawyers to investigate the allegations.

Pak responds to US, says ISI's 'links' with terrorists not same as support

After US' Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said the ISI has links to terrorists, Pak attempted to defend itself by claiming that having links with such groups was not the same as supporting them

Pakistan's military establishment on Thursday attempted to draw a distinction between its Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency "having links" with militant organisations and "supporting" such outfits, the Pakistan daily Dawn reported.

In a wide-ranging conference that saw the country's powerful military establishment discuss security issues, including internal security, civil-military relations, and relations with India, Afghanistan, and the US, the director general of the Inter-Services Public Relations, Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor, hit out against allegations that the ISI has tied with militant organisations.

"Having links is different from supporting. Name any intelligence agency which does not have links. Links can be positive, and he [US Defence Secretary James Mattis] did not say there was support, so the narrative [against Pakistan's army and intelligence agencies] that I talked about is relevant here as well. We should not be a part of it. We have our own narrative," Ghafoor said, according to Dawn.

ALSO READ: Economic benefits for Pak from India if it ends terror safe haven: Mattis

Ghafoor's attempt at differentiating "links" from "support" came even as the country's civilian establishment, stung by remarks from US officials, sought to defend the ISI.

According to agency reports that cited Dawn, the Pakistani Foreign Office on Thursday refuted as "baseless" the remarks of a top US general who said the ISI has connections with terrorist groups.

"The US government and army cannot make Pakistan a scapegoat for its failures in Afghanistan," Foreign Office Spokesperson Nafees Zakaria said....read more