THATTO: Former Sindh minister for culture and tourism Sassui Palijo has called for strengthening the Sindh Coastal Development Authority and said Karachi coast should also be brought under the authority as there is no need to set up a separate body for the metropolis.
Read more » DAWN
http://m.dawn.com/news/1106065/call-to-give-karachi-coast-under-sindh-authority
ISLAMABAD: The Mari Petroleum Company, a joint venture of the government and the Fauji Foundation, announced on Monday a ‘significant’ gas and condensate discovery with estimated reserves of about 20 billion cubic feet (BCF) in Sujawal district of Sindh.
“We have been blessed with a significant gas and condensate discovery in Sujawal Block’s Sujjal-1 well,” said the announcement.
The company termed the discovery significant because it was the first hydrocarbon discovery in Lower Goru Upper C-Sand in the southernmost part of the country.
It said the discovery would result in expansion of the hydrocarbon potentials for other exploration and production companies operating in the area, thus opening up the country’s prospects of tapping into new reservoirs in the region.
Read more » DAWN
http://www.dawn.com/news/1105925/gas-reserves-found-in-sujawal
A historic, long-term deal for the delivery of Russian gas to China that has been 10 years in the making is 98 percent ready, Russia’s Deputy Energy Minister Anatoly Yanovsky has said. All that’s needed are the two countries’ signatures, he added.
Read more » RT
http://rt.com/business/158396-gasprom-russia-china-cnpc/
Chinese researchers at the Applied Superconductivity Laboratory of Southwest Jiaotong University claim their fast transportation concept based on magnetic levitation (Maglev) technology could potentially be three times faster than an airplane.
Maglev technology was first proposed in the mid-20th century. Nowadays, the Shanghai Maglev Train can reach speeds of over 430 kilometers (260 miles) per hour and is the world’s fastest passenger-carrying train.
The “Super-Maglev” could, however, beat even that. Chinese researchers have been testing a concept train encapsulated in a vacuum tube, thus decreasing the speed limitations imposed by air resistance on regular Maglev trains.
Should the project be successful, the workable prototype will set the standard for the future evacuation tube transportation (ETT).
“ETT systems might allow HTS Maglev trains to attain speeds in a new order of magnitude, such as super-high 3,000 km (1,800 miles) per hour, which could be applied to some military or space launch systems,”Dr. Deng Zigang, who’s been developing the technology for years, told The Daily Mail.
Read more » RT
http://rt.com/news/158116-china-super-maglev-train/
A “near-natural” prosthetic arm, that took eight years to develop and test, has been approved for mass production by the US Food and Drug Administration.
The DEKA Arm System has been affectionately dubbed “The Luke,” after Star Wars’ Luke Skywalker who received a robotic replacement for the hand he lost in a fight with Darth Vader in the 1980 film “The Empire Strikes Back.”
One of the developers, Dean Camen, the inventor of the Segway, says that the new type of a prosthetic limb will dramatically improve the lives of amputees. Tests have shown that subjects fitted with the arm were able to pick up grapes and raisins, use keys and locks, brush hair, open envelopes, pick up an egg without breaking it, eat cereal and even use chopsticks.
Read more » RT
http://rt.com/news/158048-natural-robotic-arm-approved/
Canada surprises with April jobs loss; trails U.S. employment pace
By Louise Egan
OTTAWA, May 9 (Reuters) – Canada’s economy lost 28,900 jobs in April, Statistics Canada said on Friday in a report that revealed across-the-board weakness in a labor market that is stalled and has been adding jobs at a more sluggish pace than in the United States.
The report suggests economic growth has not been gathering the speed that was expected in the second quarter and that business confidence is still shaky.
Read more » Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/09/canada-economy-jobs-idUSL2N0NU26Y20140509?feedType=RSS&virtualBrandChannel=11563
By Omar
Our great leader has taken the pulse of Twitter and Facebook (or heard good news from on high) and has decided to throw caution to the wind and board the anti-GEO bandwagon.
Sadly, once more, he may be boarding the wrong train. The army’s ability to swing itself into the harness and give orders has been slowly but steadily weakening for years. Zardari’s successful tenure (successful in not falling to a coup) and the peaceful transfer of power to MNS were baby steps. A major Paknationalist media empire deciding its time to openly challenge the ISI after its reporter is shot (by the ISI or by someone else) is a bigger step (because it means serious sections of the ruling elite feel it is time they can do this). This is not to condone GEO’s method of making the accusation, or their odious past record of labeling others as thieves, traitors, etc. That is all condemn-able and has been condemned in the past and should be condemned now. But their willingness to do so still indicates that they perceived a power shift.
The deep state (and its useful-idiot supporters in the PTI fan-base) have since mobilized to teach GEO a lesson and to show them who is still boss…but it is not exactly going as planned. It took a few days, but liberal fascists (a term GEO and Hamid Mir freely popularized when they and the establishment were on the same page) continue to pop up to question the army’s right to label GEO (or anyone else) as traitors. More significantly, MNS does not seem to be cooperating. Astute politicians like Zardari will soon get the hint (if they have not already got it) that there is not going to be a coup and its time to stand aside and let the ISI expose itself and its remaining supporters for what they are: people out of step with Pakistani political reality. (Look at the dozens or at most hundreds of people showing up to wave pro-ISI posters at rallies).
That leaves Imran Khan.
As expected, he has miscalculated. Thinking this whole sorry scheme of things entire may be wound up soon, he has boldly stepped forward (after waffling for a few days) and has now discovered that GEO is the enemy and he is ready to boycott them.
By doing so he stands ready to lose either way:
1. He is wrong and MNS and GEO both survive this episode, leaving him with abundant egg on his face after yet another failed “mobilization/revolution”.
OR
2. He has picked the “winning side” and the deep state will kill GEO and MNS (killing one without the other is not likely to be much help) on May 11th (the day Khan sahib and Canadian-gun-for-hire Tahir Ul Qadri are supposed to launch their campaign against this “corrupt system”). What then? He will find himself marked as a supporter of what will surely be Pakistan’s last and least successful coup. The inevitable disasters that follow will end his political career (and possibly more than that).
Read more » Brown Pundits
http://brownpundits.blogspot.ca/2014/04/imran-khan-getting-on-board-wrong.html?spref=fb
MULTAN: Human Rights Advocate Rashid Rehman Khan was gunned down by unidentified attackers in Multan, DawnNews reported late on Wednesday night.
Initial reports suggest that Khan was targeted by two gunmen inside his office at Kachehri Chowk.
Sources told Dawn.com that two clean-shaven young men barged into Advocate Khan’s office and shot him dead. They also injured his two lawyer friends, identified as Nadeem Parwaz and Afzal.
Injured were taken to Nishtar Medical Center where Parwaz is said to be in a critical condition.
“Armed gunmen stormed the chamber of Rashid Rehman and started indiscriminate firing on Wednesday evening, injuring Rehman and two of his associates present there,” senior police official Zulfiqar Ali told AFP.
Advocate Rashid Rehman Khan was a coordinator for the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP). The senior lawyer was defending a university lecturer accused of blasphemy and had complained that he had been receiving threats on his life.
The HRCP had voiced serious concern over the threats extended to Khan.
Read more » DAWN
http://www.dawn.com/news/1104788/rights-advocate-rashid-rehman-khan-gunned-down-in-multan
KANO (Nigeria): Boko Haram on Monday claimed the abduction of hundreds of schoolgirls in northern Nigeria that has triggered international outrage, threatening to sell them as “slaves”. “I abducted your girls,” the Islamist group’s leader Abubakar Shekau said in the 57-minute video obtained by AFP, referring to the 276 students kidnapped from their boarding school in Chibok, Borno state, three weeks ago.
Read more » THE TIMES OF INDIA
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/rest-of-world/I-will-sell-all-223-kidnapped-Nigerian-girls-in-market-Boko-Haram-leader-says/articleshow/34694994.cms
SRIHARIKOTA: When Pakistani troops took positions in Kargil in 1999, one of the first things Indian military sought was GPS data for the region. The space-based navigation system maintained by the US government would have provided vital information, but the US denied it to India. A need for an indigenous satellite navigation system was felt earlier, but the Kargil experience made the nation realise its inevitability.
On Friday, the Indian Space Research Organisation took the nation closer to the goal, which it would achieve in less than two years. The result, the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) will be as good as any such space-based system, as India can keep a close watch of not just its boundaries, but up to 1,500km beyond that. It works on a combination of seven satellites which would ‘look’ at the region from different angles, and, in the process, helps calculate from relative data, real-time movement of objects by as less as 10m.
Read more » The Times of India
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/science/How-Kargil-spurred-India-to-design-own-GPS/articleshow/33254691.cms
Senior journalist Hamid Mir on Wednesday refused to record his statement on his assassination attempt in the presence of a representative of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) director general.
The journalist who recently survived an attack on his life maintained that only ISI knew about his travel details and he could not record his statement in the presence of the same agency’s representative.
Read more » PT
http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2014/05/01/national/mir-wont-speak-in-isis-presence/
ISLAMABAD: Opposition leader in the National Assembly Syed Khursheed Shah has said that removing the defence minister due to a pressure from the institution functioning under the latter’s ministry would prove “dangerous”, as this may also lead to the ouster of prime minister in future.
Talking to media at the Parliament House, the opposition leader suggested that the federal government should induct a new minister in its cabinet and hand over the portfolio of defence to him.
Khursheed Shah said that whatever happened with Hamid Mir was regrettable, however, he added that some people are taking out rallies in favour of the military which should be stopped.
Read more » The News
http://www.thenews.com.pk/article-146147-Removing-defence-minister-may-prove-dangerous:-Shah
CPNE Vice President, Shaheen Qureshi’s worth listening speech on Hamid Mir Case. The speech is in Urdu/Hindi language.
Courtesy: Daily Motion
Say what you will, but the Chinese are clearly the fastest builders in the world, though sometimes quick haste makes to waste. A while ago, I wrote about how a Chinese company wants to build the tallest skyscraper in the world in just 90 days. Really crazy stuff, but now another Chinese company, with many years of experience working with 3D printers, plan to revolutionize the way fast constructions are being made. To demonstrate their concept, the Suzhou-based construction materials firm Winsun built 10 homes, albeit modest looking, in only a day using a massive, specially design 3D printer.
Read more at http://www.zmescience.com/ecology/green-living/3d-printer-10-homes-builds-china-5436543/#aFoL2kb4bQfP7kEm.99
‘Militant secularists’ offended by David Cameron talk about Britain’s status as ‘Christian country’
“Are you there God? It’s me David. And, um, well … I’ve managed to cause a spot of bother ….”
Apologies to author Judy Blume, but it’s hard not to imagine some of the inner conversations Prime Minister David Cameron might be having in the fevered wake of his pre-Easter comments about Britain’s “status as a Christian country.’
Admittedly, they might be a little more complex than the musings of a prepubescent girl struggling with her own religious identity while also trying to navigate the complex world of training bras and spin the bottle.
But David Cameron’s actual comments – and the reaction to them by a group of “militant secularists” as the tabloid press has dubbed them – have sparked a mini media frenzy in Britain.
Britain: a ‘Christian country?’
The debate has even drawn out the great serpent of spin Alistair Campbell, who has accused Cameron of exaggerating his Christian zeal in order to deflect government scandals. “How are we to believe Cameron believes it all when so recently he was twiddling the knobs on the radio trying to find his faith at all,” Campbell wrote in a blog.
Campbell, Tony Blair’s former communications chief, was referring to comments Cameron made about his own flickering faith just a few years ago when he famously said that it tended to “come and go” like a hard-to-find frequency on the radio.
Cue the quips about trying to tune in to religion and fuzzy dials.
Passing judgment
Cameron’s latest – and to some, offending – comments about his Christian faith came in the form of a pre-Easter reception at Downing Street for religious leaders. He followed up with an article written for a paper called the Church Times.
“I believe we should be more confident about our status as a Christian country,” wrote Cameron, saying that Britain should be “more evangelical about a faith that compels us to get out there and make a difference to people’s lives.
“Being more confident about our status as a Christian country does not somehow involve doing down other faiths or passing judgment on those with no faith at all,” he wrote.
A group of prominent liberals was quick to challenge that, writing an open letter to Cameron in the Daily Telegraph and accusing him of fostering alienation and division in the UK.
“We object to his characterization of Britain as a ‘Christian country’ and the negative consequences for politics and society that this engenders,” said the letter, signed by a bevy of “personalities” ranging from philosopher A.C. Grayling to author Philip Pullman.
“Apart from in the narrow constitutional sense that we continue to have an established Church, Britain is not a ‘Christian country,'” the letter said.
Read more » CBC
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/david-cameron-s-christian-country-remarks-fuel-mini-media-frenzy-1.2619116
KARACHI: Senior journalist Hamid Mir, who was wounded after being targeted in Karachi, still holds the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) responsible for orchestrating the attack.
Read more » DAWN
http://www.dawn.com/news/1102056
RAWALPINDI – A ban has been imposed on a private media group including its television channels at all offices of the Pakistan Army with immediate effect, a private ARY News channel reported on Wednesday.
The channel reported that there will be a blanket ban on the newspapers of the Independent Media Corporation, which owns the Jang Group of Newspapers and the Geo TV network, at all army offices, mess and units.
Read more » Daily Times
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/national/23-Apr-2014/a-media-group-banned-at-army-offices
CPJ condemns move by Pakistan’s ISI against Geo TV
New York, April 22, 2014–The Committee to Protect Journalists is greatly concerned by actions brought by Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI) against Geo Television today. In its complaint to the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority, the ISI accused Geo’s parent company, the Independent Media Corporation, of conducting a “false and scandalous campaign undermining the integrity and tarnishing the image of state institution (ISI) and its officers.”
The media regulator has the authority to shut down broadcasters based on such complaints, and has done so under previous administrations of Pakistan.
“We call on the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority not to act on this spurious complaint, and we call on Pakistan’s security services to recognize the critical role of the media and exercise tolerance and maturity,” said Bob Dietz, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator. “The ISI is free to rebut allegations in the media but should not try to censor coverage.”
Tension between Pakistan’s military and intelligence communities and much of the media swiftly escalated following an assassination attempt on Geo TV anchor Hamid Mir on April 19. Mir was hit with six rounds from assailants on motorcycles as his car was traveling between Karachi’s airport and the center of the city. Mir is severely wounded and recovering in the hospital. Geo TV has broadcast accusations that the ISI was involved in the murder attempt.
Courtesy: The Committee to Protect Journalists
http://cpj.org/2014/04/cpj-condemns-move-by-pakistans-isi-against-geo-tv.php
Military Lashes Out Against Geo News After TV Channel Airs Accusations Against Spy Agency
By Saeed Shah
ISLAMABAD—Pakistan’s military demanded that the government close down the country’s top-rated TV channel after it aired accusations that the spy agency was behind the shooting of its leading talk-show host.
The demand stems from remarks made by relatives of journalist Hamid Mir that were broadcast by Geo News on Saturday after he was shot six times in the southern city of Karachi.
They blamed the attack on the Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency, or ISI, and its chief, Lt. Gen. Zaheer-ul-Islam, who they say singled out Mr. Mir for his reports of the spy agency’s role in the country’s politics.
Read more » THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
http://online.wsj.com/news/article_email/SB10001424052702303825604579517903002721352-lMyQjAxMTA0MDIwMjEyNDIyWj
Proposes three-point formula to normalise situation
LAHORE – Former Army chief Gen Mirza Aslam Beg on Monday proposed a three-point formula to normalise the tense civil-military relations, warning the government of an Egypt-like change in case urgent steps were not taken in accordance with his suggestions.
He said the high treason case against Gen Pervez Musharraf should be dropped and he should be allowed to go abroad; the Pemra should ensure that no TV channel telecasts programmes that undermine the prestige of the army; and ministers or other leaders should be barred from speaking against the people who defend the country even at the cost of their lives. Talking to The Nation, he said the civil setup would face no threat and the situation would normalise within no time if the government acted in the light of his suggestions. Otherwise, he said, a military general would take over, just like Gen El-Sisi did in Egypt, and the United States would support the change for its own interests.
Gen Beg was of the firm view that the Constitution would not be able to block a military intervention if the rulers did not give the army its due respect. “ZulifikarAli Bhutto had said the 1973 Constitution would bury martial laws, but it was the martial law that buried Bhutto”.
Read more » The Nation
http://www.nation.com.pk/national/22-Apr-2014/gen-beg-warns-of-egypt-like-change-in-pakistan
DG ISI should answer all questions: Pervez Rasheed
ISLAMABAD: In a surprising development, Pakistan’s Information minister Pervez Rasheed refused to defend Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Zaheer ul Islam against the recent allegation of his involvement in murder attack on Hamid Mir.
Speaking in a Dunya News talk show, Information minister maintained that Hamid Mir’s brother Amir Mir has leveled allegations against ISI chief , not the government and the ISI chief should himself answer all questions.
“I do not want to become a party” said Pervez Rasheed.
It must be remembered that rumours of differences between Pakistan’s civil and military establishment were already taking rounds on the issues of Pervez Musharraf treason case and Taliban.
In the recent issue, no government official has come forward to defend Pakistan’s Intelligence Agency ISI.
Courtesy: The News Tribe » Duniya Tv News » Daily Motion
http://www.thenewstribe.com/2014/04/22/dg-isi-should-answer-all-questions-pervez-rasheed/
BADAIWANI WALA: For years Pakistanis have sweated and cursed through summer power cuts, but now the government plans to harness the sun’s ferocious heat to help tackle the country’s chronic energy crisis.
In a corner of the Cholistan desert in Punjab province, power transmission lines, water pipes and a pristine new road cross 10,000 acres of parched, sandy land.
The provincial government has spent $5 million to put in place the infrastructure as it seeks to transform the desolate area into one of the world’s largest solar power parks, capable one day of generating up to 1,000 megawatts of electricity.
The desert park in Bahawalpur district is the latest scheme to tackle the rolling blackouts which have inflicted misery on people and strangled economic growth.
Temperatures can reach 50 degrees Celsius in the country’s centre in June and July, sending demand for electricity soaring and leaving a shortfall of around 4,000 MW.
“In phase one, a pilot project producing 100 MW of electricity will hopefully be completed by the end of this year,” Imran Sikandar Baluch, head of the Bahawalpur district administration, told AFP.
“After completion of the first 100 MW project, the government will invite investors to invest here for the 1,000 megawatts.”
Engineers and labourers are working in the desert under the scorching sun to complete the boundary wall, with authorities keen to begin generating solar electricity by November.
“If you come here after one and a half years, you will see a river of (solar) panels, residential buildings and offices — it will be a new world,”said site engineer Muhammad Sajid, gesturing to the desert.
Besides solar, Pakistan is also trying to tap its unexploited coal reserves — which lie in another area of the same desert, in Sindh province.
In January Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif inaugurated construction on a $1.6 billion coal plant in the town of Thar, in Sindh.
Work has also begun on a pilot 660 megawatt coal-fired plant in Gadani, a small town on the Arabian Sea.
Another 600 megawatt coal plant has also been given the go-ahead in the southern city of Jamshoro.
But while coal may offer a short-term fix to the energy crisis, authorities are keen to move to cleaner electricity in the long run.
“We need energy badly and we need clean energy, this is a sustainable solution for years to come,” said Baloch.
“Pakistan is a place where you have a lot of solar potential. In Bahawalpur, with very little rain and a lot of sunshine, it makes the project feasible and more economical,” he said.
Baloch believes that the new solar park will make Pakistan a leader in that energy in the region. The initial pilot project is a government scheme but private investors are also taking an interest.
Raja Waqar of Islamabad-based Safe Solar Power is among them. His company plans to invest $10 million to build a 10 MW project in the new park.
“The government has allotted us land over here. Infrastructure, the transmission line and road are available here, that is why we are investing,”Waqar told AFP.
A million dollars per MW is a sizeable investment but Waqar said the company expected to reap returns on it over at least the next decade, and others were keen to get on board.
“There are up to 20 companies who are investing in this park and their projects are in the pipeline,” he said. “Some of them are working on 50 MW, some on 10 and others on 20.”But not everyone is so upbeat about the project.
Arshad Abbasi, an energy expert at Islamabad’s Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), said the cost of generating solar power from this project may be uneconomical for the government.
He also warned that buying in solar equipment from abroad made little economic sense.
“Had the government decided to establish more hydro or thermal plants in the country it would have generated more employment, business and construction opportunities,” he said.
And farmers in the area who scrape a living herding cattle on the unforgiving land are worried about their future.
“We don’t know if this energy park is good, the power will come or not, we only want the government to spare our area and allow us to continue living here with our cattle,” said Malik Jalal, a local villager.
Courtesy: DAWN
http://www.dawn.com/news/1101141
Aik din phir mere azeez hamwatno ho jaye ga – says Orya Maqbool Jan.The language of the video clip is in urdu [Hindi] language.
Courtesy: JAAG TV
KARACHI: Aseefa Bhutto Zardari has said it was not appropriate to shift former president General (retd) Pervez Mushararf anywhere else except jail, Geo News reported. The statement of Aseefa, younger daughter of former president Asif Ali Zardari and sister of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, came at a time when there were reports that Musharraf was planning to travel to Karachi.
Read more » Geo Tv
http://www.geo.tv/article-145129-It-is-appropriate-to-shift-Musharraf-to-jail-Aseefa
By: via Facebook Comments about Hamid Mir
Strongly condemn the attack on anchor, columnist & journalist, Hamid Mir in Karachi today. That tells you how some elements in the military & civil establishment & their collaborators ‘deal’ with the voices of dissent. His views on govt talks with Taliban, Musharraf trial, Balochistan army operation & on some other issues have been at variance with some powerful lobbies. And this is how they silence the voices of dissent. This may be an act by the mother of all terrorist outfits in Pakistan. The country is certainly becoming more & more dangerous for its citizens, especially the ones that don’t agree with the establishment.
Today it is about the attack on Hamid Mir. Yesterday it were Umar Cheema & Saleem Shahzad. (Even the killings of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, Benazir Bhutto, Akbar Bugti, Noroze Baloch, Nazeer Shaheed, Hasan Nasir, Bashir Qureshi, Muzaffar Bhutto, Sarai Qurban Khuhawar, Maqsood Qureshi, Samiullah Kalhoro & numerous others).
The supporters of the security establishment will not speak against the assailants & condemn them. They will even blame the victims. If you are in Pakistan, you can listen to some TV channels & commentators & read some columnists & see how they are blaming GEO news & Hamid Mir instead of condemning the attackers. Similarly, they will find ways even to defend the actions of military dictator Pervez Musharraf & try to undermine the Treason case against him.
They will label the critics of the security establishment as Indian agents. It is worst kind of fascism & it is dangerous. People must stand up against fascism.
According to his brother Aamir Mir; Hamid Mir had recently told family and colleagues that he had received threats from the IsI because of his political views and his stand supporting the Balochistan movement. He is the second prominent TV anchor to be targeted. Earlier this month, Raza Rumi was attacked, forcing the man to abandon his journalism career and leave the country.
We are not his followers and keep our right to oppose his point of view but killing some one on his right to say is inhuman.
State within State is not acceptable…nobody…no institution or its head is above the law… those responsible… direct or indirectly must brought to justice….
Please note: Above comments are taken from social media (Facebook)
Courtesy: Via Facebook
– – – – – – – – – – – –
Read more » Geo News
http://www.geo.tv/article-145131-Hamid-Mir-shot-injured-in-Karachi
Canada gets a “C” grade and ranks 12th out of 17 peer countries.
Income inequality in Canada has increased over the past 20 years.
Since 1990, the richest group of Canadians has increased its share of total national income, while the poorest and middle-income groups has lost share.
Read more » http://www.conferenceboard.ca/hcp/details/society/income-inequality.aspx
Big changes are coming to the labor market that people and governments aren’t prepared for, Bill Gates believes.
Speaking at Washington, D.C., economic think tank The American Enterprise Institute on Thursday, Gates said that within 20 years, a lot of jobs will go away, replaced by software automation (“bots” in tech slang, though Gates used the term “software substitution”).
This is what he said:
“Software substitution, whether it’s for drivers or waiters or nurses … it’s progressing. … Technology over time will reduce demand for jobs, particularly at the lower end of skill set. … 20 years from now, labor demand for lots of skill sets will be substantially lower. I don’t think people have that in their mental model.”
He’s not the only one predicting this gloomy scenario for workers. In January, the Economist ran a big profile naming over a dozen jobs sure to be taken over by robots in the next 20 years, including telemarketers, accountants and retail workers.
Gates believes that the tax codes are going to need to change to encourage companies to hire employees, including, perhaps, eliminating income and payroll taxes altogether. He’s also not a fan of raising the minimum wage, fearing that it will discourage employers from hiring workers in the very categories of jobs that are most threatened by automation.
DG ISI had to face tough questions from all
Inside the conference room of PM House … COAS assures PM things to be done as desired by govt
Excerpt;
The DG ISI gave a briefing on internal security and Pak-Iran relations. At one point, Zaheerul Islam claimed that some elements of Jundullah, a defunct organisation, were active in Balochistan upon which the prime minister gently asked the DG ISI whose job was this to inform the government about it. The prime minister at times asked questions directly from the DG ISI who, according to the law, came directly under his command.
During the briefing, the DG ISI mentioned Iran’s close relations with India on which Nawaz Sharif calmly reminded him of the government’s policy that they had nothing to do with the internal matter of any of the neighbours. Lt Gen Zaheerul Islam also discussed the internal security situation with regard to the Afghanistan situation.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, while addressing the participants, said that they needed peace and they didn’t want any kind of interference in any of the neighbouring countries. During the course of the meeting, the army chief, on a number of occasions, assured the prime minister that things would be done according to the directions of the prime minister. At no point there was any hint of any tiff between the civilian and the military leadership. Some participants, however, observed some unease between the army chief and DG ISI.
Read more » The News
http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-13-29792-DG-ISI-had-to-face-tough-questions-from-all
Foreign Ministry shut as striking workers block entrances
Unclear what will happen at Washington embassy, base of dozens of employees who don’t work for the foreign ministry.
By Barak Ravid
The Foreign Ministry headquarters in Jerusalem were shut on Monday, as striking ministry workers blocked all entrances and prevented entry.
The workers declared a general strike on Sunday, closing all foreign ministry offices and missions around the world. The workers are protesting the employment conditions of Israeli diplomats and the Finance Ministry’s decision to cut their salaries over the renewed sanctions.
As a result of the strike, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon cancelled a planned working visit to Rome next week.
The striking workers erected a protest tent at the entrance to the ministry early on Monday morning and blocked all access points with truckloads of garbage, assisted by members of the Histadrut’s Jerusalem district.
Security networks’ distrust of increased business dealings is counter-productive, warns Pakistani PM’s brother
By Jon Boone in Lahore and Jason Burke in Delhi, theguardian.com
The powerful brother of Pakistan‘s prime minister has warned the military establishments of both India and Pakistan not to block efforts to sweep aside trade barriers between the two distrustful neighbours.
On Indian affairs Shahbaz Sharif, the chief minister of Punjab, is widely seen as the de facto Pakistani foreign minister, conducting diplomatic missions to Delhi on behalf of his brother Nawaz Sharif, the prime minister.
But speaking to the Guardian he warned that distrustful “security agencies” in both Pakistan and India were one of the two main “blockages” holding back plans to liberalise trade, which the Sharifs believe will provide a desperately needed boost to Pakistan’s moribund economy.
“Security agencies on both sides need to really understand that in today’s world, a security-led vision is obviously driven by economic security,” he said. “Unless you have economic security then you can’t have general security.”
While the Sharif brothers, in common with most mainstream politicians in Pakistan, are impatient for a rapprochement with India, the military is far more wary.
Read more » theguardian
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/13/military-block-pakistan-india-trade-deal-sharif
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