KARACHI: Afghan Taliban chief Mullah Akhtar Mansour’s five properties, estimated to be worth over Rs32 million and purchased by him in Karachi by using fake identities, have been taken over by the anti-terrorism court for auction, sources told Dawn on Thursday.

The FIA had booked Mullah Mansour, aliases Mohammad Wali and Gul Mohammad, Akhtar Mohammad and Amaar in a case lodged under Section 11H (pertaining to fundraising and money laundering) of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997, read with sections 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) and 471 (using as genuine a forged document) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Mullah Mansour, who was killed in a drone strike along the Pakistan-Iran border on May 21, 2016, had purchased five properties, including plots and houses, in Karachi.

This revelation came in a report submitted by the Federal Investigation Agency to the ATC-II in July last year regarding an investigation into a case related to alleged fundraising by the slain Afghan Taliban leader and his accomplices through the purchase of properties on the back of forged identities.

Mullah Akhtar Mansour bought Rs32m properties in Karachi using fake identities

Since January, the court had been directing the investigation officer (IO) to complete the process of attachment of Mullah Mansour’s properties and proclamation of his two alleged absconding accomplices — Akhtar Mohammad and Amaar — under sections 87 and 88 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

On April 24, the court had ordered the Nazir (a court official) to take over the properties of Mullah Mansour after the IO submitted a compliance report regarding completion of the attachment process of the properties by the Federal Investigation Agency.

The court had ordered the Nazir to auction those properties and get advertisements published in newspapers.

When the matter came up before the ATC-II judge recently, the court’s Nazir filed a report regarding seizure of property owned by Mullah Akhtar Mansour on behalf of the court.

The judge asked the Nazir to file a report about publication of the auction advertisement in newspapers on the next date of hearing.

The judge granted a request by Rehmatullah Domki, the investigation officer, to hear the case next month. She scheduled a hearing from June 11.

During a previous hearing, the IO had informed the court that the FIA had unearthed five properties purchased by the Taliban leader before his death. An estimated value of the properties is Rs32 million.

The court had already called for reports from the commissioners of Peshawar and Quetta regarding the process of proclamation of Mullah Mansour’s alleged absconding accomplices and attachment of their properties.

Published in Dawn, May 8th, 2020

WASHINGTON: The United States on Friday accused China and Russia of stepping up cooperation to spread false narratives over the coronavirus pandemic, saying Beijing was increasingly adopting techniques honed by Moscow.

“Even before the Covid-19 crisis we assessed a certain level of coordination between Russia and the PRC (Peoples Republic of China) in the realm of propaganda,” said Lea Gabrielle, coordinator of the State Department’s Global Engagement Center, which tracks foreign propaganda.

“But with this pandemic the cooperation has accelerated rapidly,” she told reporters.

“We see this convergence as a result of what we consider to be pragmatism between the two actors who want to shape public understanding of the Covid pandemic for their own purposes,” she said.

The Global Engagement Center earlier said that thousands of Russian-linked social media accounts were spreading conspiracies about the pandemic, including charging that the virus first detected last year in the Chinese metropolis of Wuhan was created by the United States.

China outraged the United States when a foreign ministry spokesman tweeted a conspiracy that the US military brought the virus to Wuhan, but the two countries reached an informal rhetorical truce in late March after telephone talks between President Donald Trump and his counterpart Xi Jinping.

Tensions have again soared as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo pushes the theory that the virus originated in a Chinese laboratory, even though both the World Health Organisation and the US government’s top epidemiologist say there is no evidence of this.

According to the Global Engagement Centre, China has again intensified its online campaign to defend its handling of the pandemic, which has killed some 270,000 people worldwide, and criticise the United States.

“Beijing is adapting in real time and increasingly using techniques that have long been employed by Moscow,” Gabrielle said.

China has increasingly used bot networks to amplify its message, Gabrielle said.

She said that official Chinese diplomatic accounts suddenly witnessed a surge in late March, going from adding around 30 new followers daily to more than 720, often from freshly created accounts.

She said that China was first observed using such online methods to “sow political discord” in its autonomous territory of Hong Kong, which has witnessed major pro-democracy demonstrations.

Published in Dawn, May 9th, 2020

'Australia is “gum stuck to the bottom of China’s shoe”, huh? Ok, well, it’s time for Australia to rethink trade and other agreements with China if they don’t like criticism'

Stars who depend on China's lucrative market have to watch what they say. Ordinary netizens? Not so much.

The project aimed to improve the transport conditions and services in Longnan municipality in the People's Republic of China. The targeted outcomes were the provision of efficient, safe and reliable road transport in the project area; and improved access to markets, income generating opportunities, education and health services and social activities for rural people. Key to this was a targeted reduction in travel times of between 5 and 7 hours, with 90% of the villages being served by an all-weather road.

The project’s key objective was to demonstrate an innovative integrated ecosystem and water resources management that will improve the environmental conditions in the Baiyangdian Basin in Hebei province, southwest of Beijing. It focused on the need to conserve Baiyangdian Lake—one of the most important and vulnerable ecosystems in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). It would also contribute to achieving the goals of the Baoding municipality’s Eleventh Five-Year Environmental Protection Plan.

Nepal has 2.7% of the earth’s freshwater, yet the people of Kathmandu, Nepal’s most developed region, struggle with scarce water supply.

Dentons is now the largest global law firm in Argentina and the first truly Pan-Latin American and the Caribbean firm in the history of the legal profession.

Microchip Delivers 50 Millionth MOST® Technology 50 Mbps Automotive Intelligent Network Interface Controller

Registration Now Open for Microchip’s 22nd Annual Worldwide MASTERs Conference

Rep. McSally Visits Microchip Executives to Discuss Semiconductor Supply Chain Resilience in the U.S. Amid Defense Industrial Base Report Findings

Registration Now Open for Microchip’s 23rd Annual Worldwide MASTERs Conference

Northern Arizona University Recognizes Microchip CEO With Honorary Doctorate Degree

Gentex Purchases Microchip’s 25 Billionth MCU, Advancing its HomeLink Interface

Enhancing System Architecture Implementation for AI Applications, Microchip Delivers its Analog Embedded SuperFlash® Technology

Microchip Honored with Best of Show Award at Flash Memory Summit 2019

Microchip Joins Responsible Business Alliance (RBA) – the Global Industry Coalition Dedicated to Corporate Social Responsibility

The Maternal and Child Health Integrated Care Project funded by the ADF 12 grant is improving hospital and health-care center infrastructure and equipment and helping staff and oversight agencies plan and deploy human resources more effectively in Tajikistan.

Capitedge India Investment Advisory, a realty fund and asset management firm floated by six former members of Indian realty team of American banking giant Wells Fargo, is coming out with a residential properties-focused fund in India. This would mark its first fresh fundraising exercise after floating an independent investment advisory firm, which is also managing the remaining assets of Wells Fargo after it shut operations in the country last year. While the founding partners are closely associated in operations, Hiral Soni is driving the domestic fundraise and investment strategy, as per the company website. She was previously with Marvel Realtors and had later also set up a boutique investment banking […]

East Asia is setting the pace for the recent trend in regional and interregional integration, which is associated with multilateral infrastructure connectivity initiatives.

A well-designed evaluation system can be effective in motivating bureaucrats to shift their efforts toward a more environmentally friendly growth path.

This brief presents recommendations to further encourage public-private partnerships for the environmental protection industry in the People's Republic of China, as the country seeks to address the negative impact of rapid urbanization.

Even though the central government issues strict regulation policies, it is the local governments’ discretion to adjust and enforce compliance.

Labor market discrimination is the main barrier to narrowing the gender earnings gap in the People’s Republic of China.

East Asia is setting the pace for the recent trend in regional and interregional integration, which is associated with multilateral infrastructure connectivity initiatives.

A well-designed evaluation system can be effective in motivating bureaucrats to shift their efforts toward a more environmentally friendly growth path.

Even though the central government issues strict regulation policies, it is the local governments’ discretion to adjust and enforce compliance.

AN3401 - Using Microchip I2C EERAMs with MPLAB X and MPLAB Code Configurator

In China, SEZs were developed along its southern coast in the areas of Shenzhen, Shantou, Zhuhai, Hainan and Xiamen which were backward small villages lacking in basic infrastructure and industrial resources. These zones were developed as manufacturing hubs and the open access to international trade sea lanes led to their success. These SEZs attracted huge amounts of foreign capital and optimised the use of management, advanced technology and equipment. In India, apart from a few port locations, most of the existing and proposed SEZs are located inland. Moreover, the Indian policy makers could only see half the picture in assuming that the foreign investors who were not comfortable with the […]

AUTO CHINA 2015, SHANGHAI – HARMAN, the premier audio, infotainment and software services company (NYSE:HAR), continues to make strides in China’s fast-growing auto market with new business wins and market roll-outs of infotainment and audio solutions with regional OEMs.

Shanghai Auto Show 2019 – SHANGHAI – April 16, 2019 – At the Shanghai Auto Show, HARMAN International, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. focused on connected technologies for automotive, consumer and enterprise markets, announced...

Today’s companies see the importance of design as more consumers demand elegance alongside flawless functionality and exceptional user experience. As a company that has created countless ingenious product designs in different markets all over the ...

For its 69th edition, basketball enthusiasts across the country gathered in the Windy City and home of the Chicago Bulls, to celebrate the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) annual All-Star Celebration.     As a proud and longstanding partner of...

BENGALURU, INDIA, FEBRUARY 11, 2020 – Expect fireworks as JBL unveils its new brand film featuring superstar and youth icon Ranveer Singh, urging consumers to ‘Live it real and Live it raw’.  Featuring striking visuals and inspiring rap vocals by the...

Rethinking Design for Man & Machine: Q&A with Huemen’s Stephanie Tuttle Design has an instrumental role in delivering powerful experiences. HARMAN’s mission to unlocking and elevating experiences for a wide range of stakeholders, from automakers and...

AUTO CHINA 2014, BEIJING -- Harman International Industries, Inc. (NYSE:HAR), the global premium audio and infotainment group, said today that it will open a new global research and development center in Suzhou, China in mid 2015, initially adding about 100 new employees at the site. Construction of the new 10,000 sq. m. (100,000 sq. ft.) facility will begin in June. The announcement was made during the Beijing International Automotive Exhibition.

With its highly strategic and importance place in the world, China is a critical market for international expansion for a wide range of global businesses including those in the automotive space. HARMAN is dedicated to expanding its footprint in the ...

By shining an X-ray beam through a diamond, scientists have made X-rays with unique quantum properties that let them make sharper images using less radiation

Google has published details of its quantum computing breakthrough, following an earlier leak. Despite claims from rival IBM, it seems to be the real deal

A glass bead has been brought down to its coldest possible quantum state using a new method that may one day allow us to observe an object in two places at once

Archie Mountbatten-Windsor, the son of Britain's Prince Harry and his American wife Meghan, celebrated his first birthday on Wednesday, with his parents marking the occasion with a video of his...

When the nightclub in which she touted for business in southern Chile was shut down by the authorities as the new coronavirus spread, sex worker Camila Hormazabal was left without access to her sole...

Temperature checks, compulsory face masks and scrupulous hygiene - it's more like going to a hospital than a school, but the Shanghai students returning to class after three months of lockdown are...

China's policymakers struggle to grapple with a property market, the world's largest, that is crucial for growth yet prone to bubbles springing up in unlikely places.

There's no doubt China's tech sector is heating up, but not all opportunities are made equal. 500 Startups' China partner Rui Ma tells Reuters' Jon Gordon where she sees the most promise

Retailers usually expect a nearly $20 billion bonanza on a Valentine's Day weekend -- but with an Arctic chill forecast for parts of the United States, will paramours be able to keep alive the retail heat? Mana Rabiee reports.

Nick Lehane's performance piece, Chimpanzee, in London for the first time, reveals how tragedy stalked the amazing achievement of raising chimps in human families

Upside-down jellyfish release tiny balls of stinging cells that can move through water on their own and survive for days – leaving a network of mucus that can sting you

Blue tits and great tits don’t need to taste unpleasant foods to avoid them – they can learn not to try them by seeing another bird’s disgusted response, even if it’s only on video