Author: Nader Sial

Punishing hot weather affects not only a person’s health or work productivity but also affects couples’ fertility and birth outcomes, a project by the National University of Singapore (NUS) found. Rising temperatures could further reduce Singapore’s resident total fertility rate, which dipped below 1 – a record low – in 2023. The rate refers to the average number of babies each woman would have during her reproductive years. Researchers from the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine studied sperm samples from 818 men that were already stored at the National University Hospital’s (NUH) andrology section. The scientists then traced the men’s…

Three draft bills that will make obtaining divorces far easier are due to be presented to Parliament next month. The Matrimonial Causes Act, the Recognition of Foreign Divorce Judgments Act and an amendment to the Civil Procedure Code will radically reform outdated laws that currently severely restrict grounds for obtaining divorce, Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe told the Sunday Times. At present, those seeking a divorce must prove one of three grounds in court: adultery by a spouse with a third party, malicious desertion, or impotency at the time of marriage. The burden on the person filing for divorce is heavy, and…

Brussels (4/11 – 25) It’s an old story, a broken record: war crimes in the Middle East, encouraged and stoked by outsiders with their own agenda. Israel, offended and humiliated by the 7 October attacks for which they had repeatedly been warned by Egypt. Hamas, encouraged and bankrolled by Israel initially, in its effort to undercut the appeal of Al-Fatah, has turned into Frankenstein’s Monster, breaching a border that was trumpeted as the most invincible in the world, with 24/7 surveillance, sensors to detect tunnels, full camera coverage and on and on – yet several thousand Hamas warriors parachuted in…

In the run-up to Pakistan’s general elections next February, a familiar pattern is repeating itself. Ousted Prime Minister Imran Khan sits in jail with 180 legal cases registered against him. Former three-time Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has returned from exile with the military’s backing, despite having been convicted and disqualified from running for office for life just a few years ago. The ground is now being prepared for his electoral run as the favored candidate of the establishment (a euphemism for Pakistan’s powerful army). This is par for the course in Pakistan. In the run-up to the 2018 election which elected Khan…

Minister for Culture, Tourism, and Civil Aviation, Sudan Kirati, asserted today that Nepal is on the brink of being removed from the European Union’s security list. In a meeting held today by the International Relations and Tourism Committee (IRTC) of the House of Representatives, the minister expressed optimism about Nepal’s impending removal from the EU’s security list, citing an audit of Nepal’s air security system by the EU’s technical team. “Nepali airlines will soon be delisted from the EU’s security concerns. The EU team conducted an audit from September 11 to 15. The bill related to the division of the…

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who is arriving in Kathmandu on October 13 on a four-day official visit, will be flying to Beijing on October 16 to participate in the third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation (BRF). China has also invited the Nepal government to the BRF event, but Kathmandu has yet to decide who will participate in the event. China is hosting the third edition of the BRF conference on October 17–18 in Beijing. Without giving details, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin earlier said: “China is in communication with all parties concerned on the preparation…

Police in eastern Pakistan have smashed an illegal organ harvesting ring, arresting eight people for surgically removing kidneys from hundreds of patients for wealthy people needing a transplant, authorities said Monday. The alleged gang leader, identified as “Dr Fawad,” is accused of conducting 328 operations on people to remove their kidney and selling them to clients for up to 10 million Pakistani rupees ($34,000) each, said Mohsin Naqvi, the chief minister of Pakistan’s Punjab province. Fawad was allegedly assisted in the operations by an unnamed car mechanic who administered the anesthesia, Naqvi said. The chief minister said the gang lured patients from…

Vienna, Brussels (26/9 – 36) David McCallum – the British actor who played as Dr. Donald “Ducky” Mallard, a pathologist on hit CBS TV program NCIS, has died aged 90 on Monday (25/09/2023). McCallum died on Monday of natural causes, surrounded by his family, at New York Presbyterian Hospital, CBS said in a statement. NCIS executive producers Steven D. Binder and David North shared their memories of working with McCallum. “For over twenty years, David McCallum endeared himself to audiences around the world playing the wise, quirky, and sometimes enigmatic, Dr. Donald ‘Ducky’ Mallard,” they shared in a statement. “But…

ISLAMABAD: A Chin­ese electric car manufacturing company has announced establishing an electric vehicle (EV) plant in Pakistan and chain of showrooms in major cities of the country. This announcement was made by a delegation of XinjianJingyi Cheng Group, led by its assistant chairman GU Xongquan, during a meeting with FPCCI Vice President Amin Ullah Baig here on Thursday. Mr Baig, who is also chairman of the FPCCI Capital Office, held an extensive discussion with the Chinese firm’s team on the investment landscape of Pakistan. Mr GU said entering the Pakistani market and setting up a manufacturing unit and showrooms was…

A squalid sprawl of about 300 huts and shanties on the western banks of the Balasan river that flows through the western part of Siliguri, the largest city in North Bengal, has a rather curious name–Lenin Colony. No marks for guessing that it was so named by the erstwhile Marxist rulers of Bengal. But the area is now better known as ‘Chhota Pakistan’. That’s not only because most of its residents are suspected to be illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and Rohingyas, but also because the area is a crime hub that shelters law-breakers. ‘Chhota Pakistan’ has been making it to…