Aqeel Ahmed

A meeting of Academic Council decides to grant admissions for 3rd year since HEC no longer offers master's programmes the University of Karachi on Thursday approved the four-year BS degree programme for the academic session 2022 during a meeting of KU's  Academic Counsel at the varsity's Arts Auditorium. The meeting, chaired by KU Vice Chancellor Khalid Iraqui, announced that two new fields — poultry and genetics — have been approved by the Board of Faculty of Science to be added to the fields in which the new degree programme will be offered. During the meeting, it was decided that admissions will be granted for 5th semester (3rd year) to the students who have graduated in the desired fields, since the Higher Education Commission no longer offers the Master's programmes. The students eligible to secure admission in the 5th semester would also include those who have completed a two-year associate degree programme at any college. However, their associate degrees will be ...

WASHINGTON: The United States announced a $10 million reward Thursday for help finding leaders of the high-profile ransomware gang DarkSide, authorities' latest try at combating spiking cyber-extortion attacks. Washington blamed the Russia-based group for the online assault that forced the shutdown of the largest oil pipeline in the eastern United States in May. Cyber-extortion heists involve breaking into a company or institution's network to encrypt its data, then demanding a ransom, typically paid via cryptocurrency in exchange for the digital key to unlock it. "In offering this reward, the United States demonstrates its commitment to protecting ransomware victims around the world from exploitation by cyber criminals," said a US State Department statement. Washington also offered a $5 million bounty for information leading to the arrest or conviction in any country of anyone who tries to join in an attack with DarkSide. Despite the temptation potentially provoked b...

PESHAWAR: Banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan maintains that it would be "too early" to lay down arms on the PTI-led government's request to surrender, sources within the Afghan Taliban said Friday. Sources told  Geo News  that the Pakistani government has asked the banned organisation to give in and Afghan Taliban commander Sirajuddin Haqqani is playing a key role in the peace talks to make the negotiations a success. However, the group has demanded the government to release their members from the prison before the desired ceasefire, saying that it would be "too early to" surrender.  The government has not reacted to the demands of the banned outfit yet, the Afghan Taliban sources said, adding that negotiations could be successful if strong guarantors are provided and the outfit's conditions are accepted. According to the sources, the chief of the banned TTP Mufti Noor Wali is leading the talks from the group's side. They added that while some factions of...

  ATTOCK: Sindh's decision to shut down three sugar mills all of a sudden contributed to the hike in the price of the commodity, Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Friday.  "The price of sugar in Pakistan has hit Rs140 per kg. I inquired why this was so. I learnt that three sugar mills in Sindh which were operational were shut down," the prime minister said as he addressed a ceremony in Attock to lay the foundation stone of Maternal and Child Hospital. The premier said that when sugarcane crushing season begins in Pakistan, sugarcane is first taken to sugar mills from Sindh and then later from Punjab. He said that when the three sugar mills in Sindh shut down, there was a sudden drop in supply and then prices rose to Rs140 per kg. The prime minister went on to say that he subsequently learnt that due to the reduced supply, the sugar mills in Punjab began to hoard the commodity. "I told the chief secretary that our law forbids hoarding and so if the sugar mills are doi...

PESHAWAR: Four permits auctioned for markhor trophy hunting in Chitral at the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa game reserves on Friday fetched Pakistan the record-high revenue of $575,500, Wildlife Department said. According to the Wildlife Department statement, the highest bid offered in the auction for the year 2021-2022 was  $160,250, which was the highest bid offered so far for the trophy hunting of the national animal of Pakistan. The second-highest bid offered was $155,100, followed by $135,150 for the third permit, and $125,100 for the fourth, read the statement. The permits for hunting the animal are issued annually for various areas including the Gilgit-Baltistan, the Tooshi Conservancy district Chitral, Gehrait Conservancy district Chitral, and Kaigah Conservancy in district Kohistan. Trophy hunting has produced positive results as the markhor population has now increased to 3,500-4,000 in the country as compared to 1,500-2,000 in 2001. Under the trophy hunting programme, the local com...

  Dwayne Johnson recently took to social media to share some of the iconic behind-the-scene moments to the making of his rap debut song  Face Off   music video (MV). The video has been posted to Instagram and features a look at the making of  Face Off. The post also contained a gratitude-filled caption that highlighted The Rock’s amazement over the recent milestones his debut has been amassing. “THANK YOU ALL for rockin’ with and loving our music! We made an anthem”. “I had so much FUN making this song and BIG LUV to my USO’s ~ some baaaaad dudes in the game!!!” (sic)    

     ISLAMABAD: Pakistan reported a COVID-19 positivity rate of less than 2% for the 14th consecutive today (Sunday), the National Command and Operation Centre’s (NCOC) data showed.      According to the latest stats of NCOC, 733 people tested positive for the virus after 48,192 COVID-19 tests were taken across the country during the last 24 hours. This brings the positivity rate to 1.52%.      Meanwhile, coronavirus claimed another 11 lives in Pakistan during the same period, taking the national death toll from the virus to 28,449. The number of active cases now stands at 23,094.      The country is reporting 628 new infections on average each day, 11% of the peak — the highest daily average reported on June 17.      Pakistan has administered at least 103,514,198 doses of COVID vaccines so far. Assuming every person needs 2 doses, that’s enough to have vaccinated about 23.9% of the country’s population.  ...