MANILA, July 21(ABC): The Asian Development Bank (ADB) projected Pakistan’s economic growth to “recover slightly” in the fiscal year 2022-23, while slashing its 2022 growth forecast to develop Asia. “Growth is projected to recover slightly in FY2023, supported by structural reforms,” the institution said in a report, titled: “Asian Development Outlook (ADO) 2022 Supplement: Recovery Faces Diverse Challenges”. For FY2022 …

LAHORE, July 21(ABC): After a heavy spell of rains have commenced in Pakistan, heavy rain was reported from different parts of the country including Lahore. Due to the rain, a woman lost her life in Lahore. The woman, who was a resident of Salamat Pura died after roof of her house fell on her. The house was very old and …

ISLAMABAD, July 21(ABC): Central Power Purchasing Agency (CCPA) has sought hike in power tariff by Rs9.90 under the monthly fuel adjustment mechanism for June. According to National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA), it will conduct hearing on CCPA plea for power tariff hike on July 28. Meanwhile K-Electric has also sought Rs11.38 increase in power tariff under the monthly fuel …

KARACHI, July 21(ABC): Amid the political uncertainty in the country due to PTI’s landslide triumph in make-or-break Punjab by-elections, the Pakistani rupee nosedive continued and dropped to a record low. According to details, the greenback was being traded around Rs227 in interbank compared to previous close of Rs224.92 on Wednesday. A day earlier, the dollar also gained RS2.93 and appreciated …

BEIJING, July 21(ABC): China’s search engine giant Baidu Inc on Thursday unveiled its new autonomous vehicle (AV) with a detachable steering wheel, with plans to put it to use for its robotaxi service in China next year. Cost per unit will drop to 250,000 yuan ($37,031.55) for the new model, compared with 480,000 yuan for the previous generation, Baidu said …

SAN FRANCISCO, July 21(ABC): A million people eager to dabble with a new artificial intelligence tool that lets them create images simply by describing them with words will soon get their wish, its creators said Wednesday. Artificial intelligence research firm OpenAI is conducting a wide-scale beta test of DALL-E, a cutting-edge software that creates images from textual descriptions. Although the …

ISLAMABAD, July 21(ABC): As Pakistan awaits the final nod from the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Executive Board, the global lender is looking to assess Saudi Arabia’s commitment to financing Pakistan before disbursing fresh funds, reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The publication stated that the Washington-based lender wants to ensure that Saudi Arabia will follow through with as much …

WEB DESK, July 21(ABC): An alarming situation has arisen as markets in the country are short on several essential medicines, including suicide prevention drugs, due to a hike in their production costs — creating fear of an increased suicide rate in the country, reported. “None of the brands selling lithium carbonate are available in the market for the last couple …

ISLAMABAD, July 21(ABC): The second phase of the local body elections in Sindh, scheduled to take place on Sunday, July 24, has been postponed and will now occur on August 18, a spokesperson for the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) confirmed on Wednesday. Earlier, officials privy to the development had told on the condition of anonymity that the ECP, in a …

ISLAMABAD, July 21ABC): The active COVID-19 case count in Pakistan has exceeded the 10,000 mark again as 599 more people got infected with the virus during the last 24 hours, National Institute of Health, Islamabad (NIH) data showed Thursday morning. The last time the active case count grew past 10,000 was on July 16 when the number of cases stood …

WEB DESK, July 20(ABC): Netflix has teamed up with Microsoft to offer a cheaper subscription plan to customers that will show adverts. The streaming giant says the service will be an “addition” to its existing plans, which do not include adverts. The company has not yet revealed how much it plans to charge subscribers for the new service. Netflix announced …

WEB DESK, July 20(ABC): Many of the most challenging optimization problems encountered in various disciplines of science and engineering, from biology and drug discovery [1] to routing and scheduling [2] can be reduced to NP-complete problems. Intuitively speaking, NP-complete problems are “hard to solve” because the number of operations that must be performed in order to find the solution grows …

WEB DESK, July 20(ABC): Researchers from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Ivannikov Institute for System Programming, and the Harvard Medical School-affiliated Schepens Eye Research Institute have developed a neural network capable of recognizing retinal tissues during the process of their differentiation in a dish. Unlike humans, the algorithm achieves this without the need to modify cells, making the …

WEB DESK, July 20(ABC): Air conditioning and other space cooling methods account for about 10% of all electricity consumption in the U.S., according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces have developed a material that cools the wearer without using any electricity. The fabric transfers heat, allows moisture to evaporate from the …

WEB DESK, July 20(ABC): Rooftop radiative cooling system could provide lighting power when solar energy is unavailable. Researchers have designed an off-grid, low-cost modular energy source that can efficiently produce power at night. The system uses commercially available technology and could eventually help meet the need for nighttime lighting in urban areas or provide lighting in developing countries. Although solar …

KARACHI, July 20 (INP): Pakistan will receive the $1.17 billion tranche from International Monetary Fund (IMF) in the third week of August under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) programme, the officials of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said on Wednesday. In a statement, the SBP officials claimed that there was no obstacle in receiving the payment from the global …

ISLAMABAD, July 20(ABC): The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Wednesday said that the country’s situation is completely different from Sri Lanka and after the no-confidence motion against the former Prime Minister Imran Khan, the International Monetary Fund’s confidence in Pakistan has decreased but there is no option left other than IMF. In this regard, SBP official said the State …

RAWALPINDI, July 20(ABC): Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa inaugurated state of the art Tunneling Institute of Pakistan in Rawalpindi on Wednesday. According to a statement issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the institute, an initiative of Frontier Works Organization, is aimed at promoting professional tunneling expertise including research and development and synergize tunneling resources. It …

ISLAMABAD, July 20(ABC): Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has convened an emergency meeting regarding the economic situation of the country, reported Wednesday. The meeting will be attended by the economic team and other high-ranking government officials. It will discuss the reasons behind the recent appreciation of the dollar against the rupee and consider ways to curb the trend. The economic team …

WEB DESK, July 20(ABC): As the race for Punjab’s chief minister’s election heats up, PTI Chairman Imran Khan claimed on Wednesday that horse-trading was happening in Lahore with MPAs being offered Rs500 million to switch their loyalty. “Today, Lahore is seeing a repetition of the Sindh House horse-trading episode that happened in Islamabad, with up to Rs500 million being offered …

ISLAMABAD, July 20(ABC): As the Pakistani rupee continues to plunge against the US dollar, Finance Minister Miftah Ismail blamed political uncertainty for the massive plunge of local currency against the US greenback — which slumped to an all-time of 224.92 on Wednesday. In a phone interview, Miftah said: “In terms of the real economic fundamentals, we are fine but the …

KARACHI, July 20(ABC): After shattering all previous records, the Pakistani rupee on Wednesday further depreciated to Rs226 after losing 4.1 against the US dollar in the interbank market. The Pakistani rupee had hit an all time low on Tuesday as well of 224 against the dollar in the afternoon interbank trade, before closing at 221.99. It was the highest day-on-day …

LAHORE, July 20(ABC): PTI leader and former provincial minister Murad Raas claims that the party’s lawmakers are being offered between Rs30 million and Rs50 million each by PML-N to change their loyalties ahead of the vote recount for the Punjab chief minister post. In a tweet, Raas referred to the PML-N as “chors (thiefs)”. Referring to PML-N, he said these “shameless …

ISLAMABAD, July 20(ABC): PTI general secretary Asad Umar on Wednesday announced that an “Anti Victimisation and Accountability Committee” has been formed in Punjab to get all the cases — filed in connection with the party’s “Azadi March” on May 25 — withdrawn through a legal process. Taking to Twitter, Umar said that the committee “will collect the details of all …

GALLE, July 20(ABC): Abdullah Shafique hit an unbeaten 160 as Pakistan chased down a record target of 342 in Galle on Wednesday to beat Sri Lanka by four wickets in the first Test. The green shirts achieved the win in the final session of the fifth day’s play to take a 1-0 lead in the two-match series. The previous highest …

ISLAMABAD, July 20(ABC): It was another bad day for the country as seven more people died of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, in addition to a steep rise in the number of positive cases reported by the National Institute of Health (NIH) Islamabad Wednesday morning. According to the latest NIH stats, during the last 24 hours, 592 fresh COVID-19 …

KARACHI, July 20(ABC): Taking note of the sliding rupee, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Tuesday said that the local currency’s depreciation against the US Dollar was “in large part a global phenomenon”. In a series of tweets, the central bank said that the “recent movement in the rupee is a feature of a market-determined exchange rate system”. “Under …

ISLAMABAD, July 20(ABC) : Finance Minister Miftah Ismail said Tuesday it was the coalition government’s “priority” to save Pakistan from defaulting after the rupee hit an all-time low against the dollar and the stocks took a battering during the day’s trade. The Pakistani rupee hit a record low of 224 against the dollar in the afternoon interbank trade, before closing …

RAWALPINDI, July 20(ABC): A returning officer (RO) has rejected PTI candidate Shabbir Awan’s plea for a vote recount in Rawalpindi’s PP-7 after PML-N candidate Raja Sagheer emerged victorious by a thin margin of 49 votes in the Punjab by-polls held on July 17, reported. According to the unofficial and unverified result of PP-7, PML-N’s Ahmed won the seat with 68,906 votes, …

ISLAMABAD, July 19(ABC): Former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan on Tuesday while taking a dig at the government said that the economic meltdown shows Sharifs never had any expertise in running economy or administration. Venting out his anger on the incumbent rulers in his latest tweet, the former prime minister wrote that the nation will hold …

LAHORE, July 19(ABC): Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PMLN) Vice President Maryam Nawaz on Tuesday while reviewing post Punjab by-elections results said that it was a big improvement for the party to fight hard despite not having candidates in several constituencies in 2018, and we have snatched seats from Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). Taking to Twitter, Maryam penned that PML-N has …

LAHORE, July 19(ABC): Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader and Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb on Tuesday calling out to all those demanding early elections in the country said that elections will be held when the government decides. Addressing a press conference in Lahore, the Federal Information Minister while criticizing the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leadership said that they are targeting the Election …

ISLAMABAD, July 19(ABC): Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has said Kashmir’s Accession to Pakistan Day is reflection of Kashmiris’ pledge to continue their struggle till the idea of accession become a reality. In a tweet on Tuesday, he said the Indian oppressive state apparatus has failed to stop this journey of resistance, sacrifice and defiance. He said we salute the courage …

LAHORE, July 19(ABC): Minister for Railways Khawaja Saad Rafique Tuesday announced that the federal government will complete its tenure, dismissing all speculation regarding the possible dissolution of the government following PTI’s victory in the recently-concluded Punjab by-election. The decision came after the PML-N faced defeat in the Punjab by-elections on 20 constituencies on July 17 against the PTI. The PTI won 15 …

ISLAMABAD, July 19(ABC): The Foreign Office spokesperson Tuesday termed PTI Chairman Imran Khan’s Chief of Staff Shahbaz Gill’s claims that the cypher — containing the alleged threat to Pakistan —  was hidden from the then foreign minister and prime minister, as “baseless” “Such a question simply does not arise. The Foreign Office operates on professional basis and it would be detrimental …

ISLAMABAD, July 19(ABC): Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial said Tuesday it was his opinion that the matter of revisiting the National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) law will be returned to the Parliament, as there is no alternative to the forum. “In my opinion, this matter will be referred back to Parliament. There is no substitute to Parliament […] and we cannot …

ISLAMABAD, July 19(ABC): After PTI’s chances have grown to get its candidate elected as the Punjab chief minister after the triumph in the by-polls, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah says that the PML-N will not let the PML-Q’s Chaudhry Pervez Elahi become the provincial chief executive easily on July 22. “These 20 seats were of PTI, five of which have been …

ISLAMABAD, July 19(ABC): PTI Senior Vice President Fawad Chaudhry said Tuesday that the PTI — once it forms its government in Punjab — may impose a ban on Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah and Punjab Home Minister Attaullah Tarar’s entry into the province next week. The PTI leader’s comments came during a press conference in the federal capital after the interior …

ISLAMABAD, July 19(ABC): Former federal minister for human rights Shireen Mazari has claimed that a voice recorder was found in her bedroom under a coffee table, highlighting that it violates her rights and the Constitution. Speaking at a press conference shared by the PTI on Twitter, Mazari, flanked by former minister for information technology Shibli Faraz, revealed that the “listening device” …

WEB DESK, July 19(ABC): On July 6, a doctor threaded an implant consisting of “wires and electrodes into a blood vessel” in the brain of an ALS patient at Mount Sinai West medical centre in New York, according to Bloomberg. ALS, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, creates muscle stiffness or weakness which eventually impacts all muscles, making it difficult to eat, …