The Bundesliga soccer season will resume on May 16 in empty stadiums, picking up right where it left off two months ago amid the coronavirus pandemic.Thursday's announcement comes one day after clubs were told the season could restart following a meeting between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and t...

A unanimous Supreme Court on Thursday threw out the convictions of two political insiders involved in the "Bridgegate" scandal that ultimately derailed the 2016 presidential bid of then-New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. The justices found evidence of deception, corruption and abuse of power in the sch...

Authorities in southern India say at least five people are dead after a gas leak at an industrial plant Thursday.Over 100 residents in the city of Visakhapatnam were taken to local hospitals after a leak of styrene gas was detected coming from the LG Polymers chemical plant located on the outskirts ...

U.S. President Donald Trump is reportedly demanding US$1.3 billion a year to maintain American troops in Korea. That is a whopping 53.3 percent higher than the W1.4 trillion Korea had to pay last year. A senior U.S. official told the Chosun Ilbo on Thursday, "The U.S. faces many difficulties, includ...

Japan has fast-tracked the approval of the anti-viral drug remdesivir to be used to treat COVID-19 patients in that country.Speaking to reporters Friday in Tokyo, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga confirmed the rare fast-track, four-day approval of remdesivir by the Ministry of Health,...

Rawalpindi: Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum President Mian Zahid Hussain has said that sales tax should be withdrawn on cottonseed, oil cake, etc. while withholding tax refunds stuck since a decade should be released.He said the largest foreign exchange earning sector is in trouble,...

Islamabad : The coronavirus pandemic has increased the transgender persons' socioeconomic vulnerability and isolation, so short and long-term measures, especially by the government, are imperative to support them and ensure alternate means of livelihood in the changing environment.This was the...

Islamabad : President Arif Alvi on Friday directed that social distancing should be maintained in the upcoming session of the National Assembly for the safety of the parliamentarians and staff against the threat of coronavirus.During a visit to the National Assembly, the president was apprised by...

Microchip’s Low-Power Radiation-Tolerant (RT) PolarFire FPGA Enables High-Bandwidth Space Systems with Lower Total System Cost

Microchip Smart Storage Adapters Now Interoperate Seamlessly with MegaRAC® SP-X Management Firmware from AMI for At-Scale Secure Storage Management

Reduce Memory Costs and Retain Data at Power Loss with Microchip’s EERAM Memory Solutions

Microchip Announces Industry’s First Space-Qualified COTS-Based Radiation-Tolerant Ethernet Transceiver and Embedded Microcontroller

Microchip Simplifies Functional Safety Requirements with MPLAB TÜV SÜD-certified Tools

New PIC® MCU Family Moves Software Tasks to Hardware for Faster System Response

Enabling Cloud Connectivity to All MCUs and MPUs, Microchip Launches a Range of Embedded IoT Solutions for Rapid Prototyping

Protect Against Rootkit and Bootkit Malware in Systems that Boot from External SPI Flash Memory

Microchip Expands Silicon Carbide (SiC) Family of Power Electronics to Provide System Level Improvements in Efficiency, Size and Reliability

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Loan agreements outline the terms of an agreement for a loan. This document dated 6 May 2020 is provided for the ADB project 54183-001 in Bhutan.

Environmental monitoring reports describe the environmental issues or mitigation measures of a project. This document dated May 2020 is provided for the ADB project 43319-022 in the Lao People's Democratic Republic.

Grant agreements outline the terms of an agreement for a grant. This document dated 7 May 2020 is provided for the ADB project 54229-001 in Fiji.

Procurement plans describe and update the procurement of major goods, works and consulting services either ongoing or expected to take place related to a project or program. This document dated 15 November 2019 is provided for the ADB project 48118-002 in the Lao People's Democratic Republic.

ADB has a vacancy for the position of Senior IT Officer (Project Management) (3 Vacancies) in the Information Technology Department . The deadline for submitting applications is on 22 May 2020.

ADB has a vacancy for the position of Procurement and Contracts Officer in the Office of Administrative Services. The deadline for submitting applications is on 22 May 2020.

ADB has a vacancy for the position of Associate Facilities Planning and Management Officer (Project Management) in the Office of Administrative Services. The deadline for submitting applications is on 22 May 2020.

ADB has a vacancy for the position of Budget and Management Services Analyst in the Budget, Personnel, and Management Systems Department. The deadline for submitting applications is on 22 May 2020.

ADB invites papers for the Asian Development Conference 2020 to be held 16-17 July 2020 in Seoul, Korea.

radeep Sharma Tribune News Service Chandigarh, January 23 The group-housing societies, residential colonies of employers and commercial-cum-residential complexes of developers will be supplied power on single-point (bulk supply) system by the electricity department from April 1. While the electricity bills for February/March would be issued as per the existing practice, the bills from April onwards would be issued as per the single-point metering system, according to an order issued by the Chief General Manager (Commercial), Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (UHBVN). The new system would be implemented in housing colonies having 20 or more houses. The order said on the basis of the reading of April 1, the bills of […]

The coronavirus lockdown wiped out 20.5 million US jobs in April, destroying nearly all the positions created in the previous decade in the world's largest economy, the country's labour department reported on Friday.

The unprecedented collapse drove the unemployment rate to 14.7 per cent — well beyond the peak hit in late 2009 during the global financial crisis — from 4.4pc in March.

And job losses in March were worse than initially reported, falling 870,000 even though the business closures mostly happened in the second half of the month.

The plunge in non-farm payroll employment was the largest ever recorded since 1939, while the jobless rate was the highest and the biggest increase since 1948, the report said.

Employment fell sharply in all major industry sectors, with particularly heavy job losses in leisure and hospitality, the first sector hit and the one bearing the brunt of the impact of the lockdowns.

However, the labour department noted that the some workers were misclassified in the report as employed when they should have been counted as laid off.

Had they been listed properly, the unemployment rate would have been nearly five percentage points higher.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump downplayed unprecedented US job losses, saying they were not a surprise.

“It's fully expected, there's no surprise. Somebody said, 'oh look at this,'” he said on Fox News minutes after the labour department published the figures.

“I'll bring it back,” he said.

TOKYO: Japan on Thursday approved Gilead Sciences Inc’s remdesivir as a treatment for Covid-19, making it the country’s first officially authorised drug to tackle the coronavirus disease.

Japan reached the decision just three days after the US drugmaker filed for fast-track approval for the treatment.

“There has so far been no coronavirus medicine available here so it is a significant step for us to approve this drug,” a Japanese health ministry official said at a press briefing. Remdesivir will be given to patients with severe Covid-19 symptoms, he added.

With no other approved treatments for Covid-19, interest in the drug is growing around the world. Administered by intravenous infusion, it was granted authorisation last week by the US Food and Drug Administration for emergency use for the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

Gilead says the drug has improved outcomes for people suffering from the respiratory disease and has provided data suggesting it works better when given in the early stages of infection.

Japan, with just over 16,000 infections and under 800 deaths, has recorded fewer cases than other major industrialised nations.

However, a steady rise in cases has put pressure on medical facilities in some parts of the country, and a drug that helps patients recover more quickly could help in freeing up hospital beds.

A trial performed by the US Institutes of Health (NIH) showed the drug cut hospital stays by 31 per cent compared with a placebo treatment, although it did not significantly improve survival.

On Monday, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe extended a month-long state of emergency until the end of May in an attempt to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

Japan as yet does not know when it will get its first doses of remdesivir or how much, the health ministry official said.

Gilead on Tuesday said it was in discussion with several companies, including generic drugmakers in India and Pakistan to produce remdesivir in large quantities.

Remdesivir, which previously failed as a treatment for Ebola, is designed to disable the ability by which some viruses make copies of themselves inside infected cells.

Published in Dawn, May 8th, 2020

KARACHI: The number of coronavirus-infected policemen has gone up to 115, a police spokesperson said on Friday.

“So far, 115 policemen and officers have been infected with the contagion.” Out of them, five new cases emerged on Friday. The majority of the policemen belonged to Karachi.

As many as 97 police personnel were under treatment at different hospitals while 15 policemen have been discharged after treatment. The condition of one sub-inspector was stated to be critical.

“Covid-19 infected policemen were being looked after properly and steps were being taken to this effect on daily basis,” added the spokesperson.

The police on Friday also issued a video message, highlighting ordeals of the families of the policemen and commitment of the law enforcers to serve humanity in these testing times.

Published in Dawn, May 9th, 2020

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday reserved its judgement on a petition filed against the National Database and Registration Authority’s (Nadra) notification of revoking the citizenship of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) leader Hafiz Hamdullah.

Nadra in its written reply referred to intelligence reports claiming that Mr Hamdullah is not a Pakistani national.

On Oct 11 last year, Mr Hamdullah lost his citizenship when Nadra declared him an ‘alien’.

Subsequently, the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) banned his appearance on TV channels.

As per the Oct 26 Pemra directive, Nadra had in a letter dated Oct 11 conveyed that “Hafiz Hamdullah Saboor is ‘confirmed alien’ as he is not a citizen of Pakistan”.

It further said Nadra had “cancelled and digitally impounded” the CNIC [computerised national identity card] issued to Mr Hamdullah.

“Since it is established that the said person is an ‘alien’, all the TV channels (news and current affairs) are directed to refrain from inviting and projecting Mr Hafiz Hamdullah Saboor in their programmes/talk shows, news, etc,” the authority said in its letter.

In October, JUI-F leader lost his citizenship when Nadra declared him an ‘alien’

Nadra took the stance before the IHC that the intelligence agencies claimed that Mr Hamdullah’s credentials were also fake and subsequently his computerised national identity card had been cancelled.

Mr Hamdullah, who was a senator from Balochistan between March 2012 and March 2018, frequently makes appearances in evening talk shows on different news channels.

The directive banning his TV appearances came at a time when the JUI-F’s Azadi March was about to start.

Advocate Kamran Murtaza, who filed a petition on behalf of Mr Hamdullah, informed the court that the petitioner was born in the province of Balochistan and that his father, children and other family members also held CNICs. One of Mr Hamdullah’s children is serving in the armed forces of the country as a commissioned officer.

According to the petition, Mr Hamdullah has also remained member of the Balochistan Assembly and “Nadra is not vested with jurisdiction to adjudicate upon the citizenship of citizen which otherwise has to be dealt with the Pakistan Citizenship Act, 1951. It shows that Nadra’s order was issued without any lawful authority,” the petition said.

IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah, after hearing the arguments of petitioner’s counsel and other respondents, reserved the judgement.

Published in Dawn, May 9th, 2020

The Chandigarh Housing Board (CHB) has terminated its housing scheme, which was announced last year, amid poor response. Applicants who were picked on the basis of a demand survey will get their paid amounts refunded while a new scheme is framed. The housing scheme in Chandigarh, which would have offered homes in Sector 53, has reportedly been scrapped by the housing board, CHB. Officials have been asked by the government to frame a new, which would be more affordable. The scheme was criticised for being so expensive. For 492 flats, Chandigarh Housing Scheme received only 178 applications despite the board reducing the prices of the flats twice and also extending the […]

This week we’re very fortunate to speak with Rayner Saggers. Rayner is a Senior Systems Engineer on the F-35 Program at BAE Systems in the UK. That’s already pretty cool, but in addition to that, he’s a pillar of the MATLAB community at BAE Systems. He is the editor of... read more >>

"The COVID-19 pandemic is not an excuse for human rights violations. Excessive force and brutality are unacceptable from any of our enforcement or security forces."

Around 500 migrants are arriving at the Colombian border city of Cúcuta every day intending to return to Venezuela. As of April 15, a total of 34,000 people had passed through the city.

"Nigeria is a secular state and freedom of speech is one of the fundamental characteristics of a modern democratic state. Criticizing a religion is not a criminal offence."

East Africa's "triple threat" — the coronavirus, locusts, and floods — are not mutually exclusive. In fact, each is inextricably linked.

Since the start of India's COVID-19 lockdown on March 25, 2020, instances of Islamophobia have intensified, threatening the life, rights, and integrity of millions of Muslims.

Benin drops 17 places in the 2020 World Press Freedom Index, following the withdrawal from a key document of the African Charter of Human and People's Rights.

The decision to wear a mask in public is becoming a political statement — a moment to pick sides in a brewing culture war over containing the coronavirus.