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People across Pakistan crowded markets on Saturday after a nationwide coronavirus lockdown was eased, despite the country recording its second-highest daily infection toll.

The government has allowed businesses to reopen in phases from the weekend, citing the economic havoc the virus restrictions have wreaked on citizens.

In Rawalpindi, thousands of shoppers were preparing for Eidul Fitr, with many flouting social distancing rules and advice to wear masks.

In Karachi, shopkeepers set out their wares of shoes, clothes, bangles and fabrics, while in the capital Islamabad shoppers stood in tightly-packed queues as they waited for stores to open.

Similar scenes were played out in Lahore, Quetta and Peshawar.

Omar Shirazi, a banker shopping for clothes with his daughter in Rawalpindi, welcomed the move.

“Eid is approaching,” he said. “We have to buy new garments for our children. It's the responsibility of people to comply with rules and wear safety gear.”

Tehmina Sattar, who was shopping with her sister and sons, was more cautious.

“We are happy with this decision but at the same time I have a fear in my heart that if this disease spreads it could be devastating. People here are not taking preventative measures.”

Information Minister Shibli Faraz warned earlier in the day that the lockdown on businesses would be reimposed if safety guidelines were not followed, after authorities reported more than 1,700 new cases in the past 24 hours.

Infections have been rising steadily as testing has increased, with more than 28,000 cases and more than 600 deaths recorded.

The easing comes as many across the country have openly ignored restrictions on gatherings in public during the past month, especially during the evenings as people observe Ramazan.

Schools will remain closed until mid-July however, while there are no immediate plans to restart public transportation or domestic flights.

LAHORE: The Covid-19 is proving more lethal when it comes to male patients as compared to women virus carriers as an analysis of official data shows that 69 of its victims in Punjab were men, while the remaining 31 per cent women. Only two transpersons died from the pandemic in the province.

A senior official told Dawn that Punjab reported 1.82 per cent virus death rate, while 40pc of carriers recovered from the disease across the province so far.

Meanwhile, the Punjab government issued new guidelines for the treatment of severe and critical Covid-19 patients to keep the death toll low.

Recommended by Corona Experts Advisory Group (CEAG), the guidelines had been dispatched to all the vice-chancellors of the medical universities, principals of medical colleges and the heads of the teaching and other government hospitals, keeping in view recent surge in the death rate in Punjab.

According to an age-wise analysis, the virus proved most fatal for those in 50-60 year age bracket as such patients make 32pc of the total victims. The patients between 61 to 70 years of age were the second-most vulnerable group as 27pc of those who died from Covid-19 fall in it.

Those in 50-60 age bracket ‘most vulnerable’

Similarly, 16pc of the patients who died were between the age of 41 and 50 years, and 13pc between 71 to 80.

Interestingly, only two percent of Covid-19 patients were 80 years old or above, while 10pc of the deaths occurred among those who were 40 or below.

Another alarming factor the data analysis revealed was that most of those who died had no other disease or co-morbidity.

The gender-wise analysis further revealed that of the 31pc females who died, 66pc had no co-morbidity, while of total 69pc male victims, 67pc were having no other disorder.

Similarly, the recovery ratio among young Covid-19 patients is the highest, as compared to others.

According to the analysis, out of total patients who got recovered, 23pc were in 24-34 age group, 17pc in 35-44 group, 15pc in 18-24, 14pc in 45-54, 13pc in 55-64, eight percent in 65-74 and only one per cent of recovered patients were in 75 years and above age bracket.

The analysis was conducted by experts of the both health departments and shared in an official meeting in order to devise future strategies to curtail the pandemic, accordingly.

Meanwhile, eight more critical patients of Covid-19 died at various hospitals of the province during the last 24 hours, as per official data shared on Saturday, taking the death toll to 191 in Punjab.

Most of these deaths occurred in Lahore, Multan and Rawalpindi.

The total number of confirmed patients reached to 10,471 in Punjab, when 438 more tested positive for the virus on Saturday.

According to the official figures, 228 fresh cases were reported from Lahore, 58 from Gujranwala, 28 from Gujrat, and 11 from Rawalpindi, besides some other cities.

With the new cases, total number of confirmed patients in Lahore has jumped to 4,084, the highest in Punjab, followed by Rawalpindi 592 and Gujranwala reporting 480 cases so far.

The health department spokesperson said the number of critical virus patients in the province has jumped to 41. The number of Covid-19 critical patient in Punjab was 22 on Friday.

The spokesperson said no new case was reported from the quarantine centres housing the pilgrims returning from Iran and the Tableeghi Jamaat members.

Published in Dawn, May 10th, 2020

KABUL: At least six people were killed when protesters angry over what they saw as unfair food aid distribution during the coronavirus pandemic clashed with police in Afghanistan’s western Ghor province on Saturday, according to officials.

Four civilians and two police officers died in the incident, according to Tariq Arian, spokesman for the Ministry of Interior.

“A delegation will be sent from Kabul to investigate today’s incident in a comprehensive manner,” he said, adding that 10 police officers and nine civilians were injured.

Gulzaman Nayeb, a lawmaker representing Ghor, said that seven people were killed and more than a dozen wounded during the protest, sparked by growing discontent at the distribution allegedly favouring people with political connections.

Police had opened fire after some among the around 300 protesters threw stones, started to fire guns and tried to enter the governor’s house, said Mohammad Arif Aber, a spokesman for the provincial governor of Ghor. He put the toll at two dead and five wounded. He denied that aid was being unfairly distributed.

War-ravaged nation has reported 4,033 cases of Covid-19 and 115 deaths

Among the dead was Ahmad Naveed Khan, a local volunteer radio presenter who was sitting in his nearby shop and was hit in the head by a bullet, according to Ahmad Quraishi, executive director at the Afghanistan Journalists Centre.

The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) is looking into the “worrying reports of police firing on protesters”, its chairperson Shaharzad Akbar said on Twitter.

Rights group Amnesty International also called for an independent investigation into the use of police force.

The government has been distributing food aid around the country as the restrictions imposed by the coronavirus pandemic have led to many job losses and rising food prices. Akbar said this week that the commission was being inundated with complaints from the public that food aid is being distributed unfairly.

“We hear repeated complaints from people that the ones who are receiving the limited aid that is there are not the ones that are most deserving, they are the ones who have connections to local authorities or local officials,” she said, adding it was not possible to verify the extent to which it was happening.

Afghanistan has reported 4,033 cases of the coronavirus and 115 deaths.

Published in Dawn, May 10th, 2020

NEW DELHI: Nepal has protested to India over a border road, which it claims traverses its territory, a charge New Delhi has denied, The Wire news portal said on Saturday. It said the protest also flowed from a new map of the region India drew after the bifurcation of occupied Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories in December last year.

“Rumblings in Nepal about the boundary with India have now resulted in a full-scale eruption since India inaugurated a new road in Uttarakhand which leads to territory that is claimed by Kathmandu, near the border with China,” The Wire said.

On Friday, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh inaugurated by videoconference the road between Dharchula and Lipu Lekh, which will reduce the length of the Hindu pilgrimage of Kailash Mansarovar Yatra inside China by several days.

Nepalese opposition leaders immediately raised the pitch, asking for the government to clear its public stance. A day later, Nepal’s foreign ministry expressed “regret” at India’s “unilateral act” and called upon India to refrain from carrying out any activity on Nepalese territory, portal said.

A new map of the region drawn by India after the bifurcation of occupied Jammu and Kashmir also behind the controversy

In a lengthy statement, Nepal’s foreign ministry reminded that Nepal claims all territories east of Mahakali river, “including Limpiyadhura, Kalapani and Lipu Lekh” as per the 1816 Sugauli Treaty”.

“This was reiterated by the Government of Nepal several times in the past and most recently through a diplomatic note addressed to the Government of India dated 20 November 2019 in response to the new political map issued by the latter,” the statement said.

“The context of the last diplomatic note is that months ago, India had issued a new political map to show the bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir into two new Union Territories. In it, it depicted Kalapani as part of Indian territory, which led to a strong objection from Nepal,” The Wire said.

It further pointed out that when India and China had agreed to include Lipu Lekh pass as a bilateral trade route in a May 2015 joint statement, Nepal had issued separate diplomatic protest notes to the two Asian giants for not obtaining Kathmandu’s consent.

On the latest move, Nepal stated: “This unilateral act runs against the understanding reached between the two countries including at the level of prime ministers that a solution to boundary issues would be sought through negotiation.”

Stating that Nepal sought a diplomatic solution in the spirit of friendly relations, its foreign ministry asserted: “In light of this development, the Government of Nepal calls upon the Government of India to refrain from carrying out any activity inside the territory of Nepal.”

The Kathmandu Post had reported that Nepalese Foreign Secretary Shankar Das Bairagi spoke to Indian Ambassador Vinay Kwatra on Friday.

The statement issued in Kathmandu also reiterated that Nepal had twice proposed dates for holding meeting between the foreign secretaries of the two sides after the Kalapani controversy gathered momentum last year.

Nepal’s Foreign Minister Pradeep Gyawali had told visiting Indian journalists in February that if India could solve longstanding and complex boundary disputes with Bangladesh, then it should be able to do so with Nepal. He had also highlighted that India had still not given a concrete response for a meeting of the two foreign secretaries.

On Friday evening, India’s Ministry of External Affairs responded that the road section “lies entirely within the territory of India”. “Under the present project, the same road has been made pliable for the ease and convenience of pilgrims, locals and traders,” The Wire quoted MEA spokesperson Anurag Srivastava as saying.

He added that both countries had an established mechanism on boundary matters and that the delineation of the boundary was still an “ongoing process”. “India is committed to resolving outstanding boundary issues through diplomatic dialogue and in the spirit of our close and friendly bilateral relations with Nepal,” said Srivastava.

On the demand for a meeting of foreign secretaries, he said that the meeting would be held “once the dates are finalised between the two sides after the two societies and governments have successfully dealt with the challenge of Covid-19 emergency”.

Published in Dawn, May 10th, 2020

Foreign Office spokesperson Aisha Farooqui on Sunday said that Pakistan rejects the "baseless and inaccurate" allegations by Harish Salve, India's legal counsel in the Kulbushan Jadhav case.

In an online lecture on May 3, Salve, who had represented India in the case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), alleged that Pakistan refused to respond to Indian queries about how it would carry out the ICJ's judgement and review and reconsider Jadav's case.

"We have written four to five letters to Pakistan [...] but they just keep on denying. I think we have reached a point where we have to now decide whether we want to go back to ICJ for consequential directions because Pakistan has not moved ahead," Tribune India quoted Salve as saying.

He also alleged that Pakistan granted consular access to Jadhav "too late" and refused to share details of the case with India.

The Foreign Office, while refuting the allegations, said that Pakistan has "fully complied" with the international court's judgement. "Pakistan has granted India consular access to commander Jadhav and is processing measures for effective review and reconsideration as per the guidelines provided by ICJ in its judgment," a statement from the FO read.

The Foreign Office also said that Salve's statements were "regrettable and a misrepresentation of facts", adding that Pakistan followed "all its international obligations".

Read: Timeline: How the Kulbhushan Jadhav saga unfolded

The ICJ in its verdict in July 2019 had ruled that Jadhav be allowed consular access immediately and asked Pakistan to ensure "effective review and reconsideration of his conviction and sentences".

The ICJ had, however, rejected all other remedies sought by India, which included the annulment of the military court decision convicting Jadhav, restricting Pakistan from executing the sentence, securing Jadhav's release and ordering his return to India.

Arrest of Indian spy

Jadhav — a serving commander of the Indian Navy associated with Indian spy agency Research and Analysis Wing — was arrested on March 3, 2016, from Balochistan on allegations of espionage and terrorism.

Read: Transcript of RAW agent Kulbhushan’s confessional statement

In his subsequent trial at a military court, Jadhav had confessed to his involvement in terrorist plots.

The spy was subsequently sentenced to death in 2017. However, India insisted that Jadhav was not a spy and said he was kidnapped from Iran.

On April 10, 2017, Army Chief Gen Qamar Bajwa had endorsed the death penalty for Jadhav. In June 2017, the Indian spy had filed a mercy petition against the death penalty, in which he again confessed to his involvement in terrorist activities.

However, before Pakistani authorities could make a final decision, the ICJ, after being approached by India, had ordered a stay in his execution through an interim order.

Palo Alto, CA – Aha by HARMAN™ today announced that the new 2014 Mazda3to be launched in North America and Europethis fall will offer access to Aha's free service withthe ability to select presets from more than 40,000* audio and information stations.

Palo Alto, CA – Aha™ by HARMAN today announced new content available via the free Aha Radio app for Android and iOS and included in the in-vehicle infotainment system in over 40 models of cars. With the addition of self-improvement publisher Hay House, live podcast network BlogTalkRadio and leading national broadcasters American Public Media (APM) and CBC/Radio-Canada, Aha adds thousands of new programs, across a multitude of genres, extending its content library of 40,000 audio and non-audio programs to include exactly what consumers want to hear in the car, at home, and on the go.Specific offerings include APM’s business and economic news program Marketplace, AAA station The Current, Classical Minnesota Public Radio and regional news from Southern California Public Radio and Minnesota Public Radio.

Palo Alto, CA – Aha™ by HARMAN announced today that it has partnered with Fishidy and has rolled out ParkVisitor’s services, expanding its already robust content pipeline. Aha uses the HARMAN Cloud Platform to enable Web-based entertainment and information in vehicles using a radio-like format that is familiar to drivers. More than 40,000 music and non-music programs that span from live radio stations to podcasts and audiobooks from the Web are delivered straight to the car's dashboard through a seamless connection with an Aha smartphone app for iOS and Android systems.

CES 2014, LAS VEGAS – HARMAN, the premium global audio and infotainment group (NYSE:HAR), unveiled two new services for the automotive market that leverage the Aha by HARMAN Cloud Platform and HARMAN’s infotainment system design leadership to ensure safe, personalized and connected driving experiences throughout the life of the vehicle. Extending beyond the popular Aha Radio interactive content service, the new Aha Updates and Aha Analytics services take HARMAN’s expertise and investments in cloud infrastructure into new directions.

CES 2014, LAS VEGAS, NV – HARMAN announced today that its Aha Radio service has partnered with Univision Radio, the leading Hispanic radio group that owns and operates 69 broadcast radio stations in 16 of the top 25 U.S. markets, to integrate more than 65 radio stations from the Uforia digital music service into Aha-enabled vehicles and mobile apps.This partnership represents a continuing effort by Univision Radio to provide Hispanic audiences with high-quality content across all its platforms. For Aha, this is another step to further expand its content offerings and specifically, to provide high-quality content to Hispanic audiences in the U.S.

CES 2014, LAS VEGAS – HARMAN today announced it will begin delivering targeted audio advertising to its users through a partnership between its Aha Radio and AdsWizz. A leading global technology provider of advertising solutions for the digital radio and audio industries, AdsWizz will be Aha Radio’s primary technology partner in enabling targeted audio advertising in vehicles and mobile phones through the Aha Radio app.This is the first time that the AdsWizz server-side Audio Injector for Streamers (AIS), built to be compatible with most of the market recognized streaming technologies, will be used in the vehicle audioadvertising space.

GENEVA – HARMAN, the premium global audio and infotainment group (NYSE:HAR), is making one of its strongest showings ever at this year’s Geneva Autosalon, demonstrating infotainment and audio solutions in vehicles from an impressive range of manufacturers. Also testifying to the company’s strength as an industry innovator, HARMAN is showcasing, together with Rinspeed, a new concept car for mobile connectivity within urban spaces. In total, technology and solutions by HARMAN are present in stands throughout the show, demonstrating the predominant role that HARMAN has come to play across the auto industry.

Palo Alto, CA – August 12, 2014– HARMAN announced today that its Aha Radio service has integrated Radio Disney, the #1 radio network for kids, tweens and families, into today’s two million Aha-enabled vehicles. This alliance represents the continuing effort of Aha by Harman to further expand its content offerings and specifically, provide an enjoyable experience for all users, regardless of age or taste in music.

Professional sound systems like those used in performance venues such as stadiums, theaters, cinemas and night clubs need tremendous power to amplify sound to their audiences. In these instances, did you know HARMAN offers audio solutions that reduce...

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau warned on Saturday that if provinces move too quickly to reopen their economies, a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic could send Canada "back into confinement this summer."

China and the United States both supported a draft United Nations Security Council resolution confronting the coronavirus pandemic on Thursday and it was "shocking and regretful" that Washington changed its mind on Friday, a Chinese diplomat said.

A major U.S. airline trade group on Saturday said it backed the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) checking the temperatures of passengers and customer-facing employees during the coronavirus pandemic.

Tesla Inc sued local authorities in California on Saturday as the electric carmaker pushed to re-open its factory there and Chief Executive Elon Musk threatened to move Tesla's headquarters and future programs from the state to Texas or Nevada.

Three children in New York have died from a rare inflammatory syndrome believed to be linked to the novel coronavirus, Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Saturday, a development that may augur a pandemic risk for the very young.

Japanese Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura said on Sunday the government is looking to lift the state of emergency in "many of 34 prefectures" that are not among the hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic before the nationwide deadline of May 31.

Former President Barack Obama described President Donald Trump's handling of the coronavirus pandemic as "chaotic" in a conference call with former members of his administration, a source said on Saturday.

Three senior officials guiding the U.S. response to the coronavirus pandemic were in self-quarantine on Saturday after coming into contact with someone who had tested positive for the disease, their agencies and spokesmen said.

China's National Health Commission reported 14 new confirmed coronavirus cases on May 9, the highest number since April 28, including the first for more than a month in the city of Wuhan where the outbreak was first detected late last year.

The British government wants to slowly and cautiously restart the economy, housing minister Robert Jenrick said on Sunday ahead of a televised address from the prime minister to set out plans to begin easing the coronavirus lockdown measures.