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Category: Lifestyle

  • Malala working on her ‘most personal book yet’

    Malala working on her ‘most personal book yet’

    Nobel laureate and education activist Malala Yousafzai has revealed that she is in the process of writing her next book, emphasizing that it will be her most intimate and personal work to date.

    In a social media post on Monday, she expressed her excitement about the book.

    “I am overjoyed to announce that I am working on my next book! The last few years of my life have been marked by extraordinary transformation — finding independence, partnership and, ultimately, myself. This will be my most personal book yet and I can’t wait for you to read it,” wrote Malala in the caption of the post.


    “This October will be a decade since ‘I Am Malala’ was published, shortly after my 16th birthday. I am excited to share what has happened since and take the next step in my journey with the incredible teams at @atriabooks in the U.S., @wnbooks in the U.K. and more countries coming soon,” she added.

  • Here is the new bus route of Peoples Bus Karachi

    Sharjeel Inam Memon, the Information Minister of Sindh and head of the transport ministry, has announced the launch of a new route for the Peoples Bus Service in Karachi.


    The route, designated as No. 4, will commence from Power House Chorangi and conclude at Tower, passing through various areas such as Nagan Chorangi, Shafiq Mor, Sohrab Goth, Shahra e Pakistan, Aisha Manzil, Laloo Khait, Teen Hati, Guru Mandir, Numaish, Civil Hospital, City Court, Light House, Boltan Market and Tower.

    Here are the new routes:

    The People’s Bus Service was launched in June 2022 in Karachi and Larkana. Chairman Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari ingurated the bus service in both cities.

  • Winner of SONY photography contest turns down award, confesses image was created by AI

    Winner of SONY photography contest turns down award, confesses image was created by AI

    Boris Eldagsen, the German photographer who won the prestigious SONY World Photography Contest, has turned down the award after confessing that his image was an Artificial Intelligence (AI) creation.

    Eldagsen, a former student of photography and visual arts at the Art Academy of Mainz, and Conceptual Art and Intermedia at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, had submitted his photograph titled ‘Pseudomnesia: The Electrician’ for the creative open category. The photo was a haunting black-and-white image of two women from different generations.

    In a statement posted on his website, Eldagsen said he ‘applied as a cheeky monkey’ to check if photography competitions are prepared to identify AI images, but they are not.

    “We, the photo world, need an open discussion,” Eldagsen wrote. “A discussion about what we want to consider photography and what not. Is the umbrella of photography large enough to invite AI images to enter – or would this be a mistake? With my refusal of the award I hope to speed up this debate.”

    Eldagsen thanked the judges for picking his photograph for the award, pointing out that this was a historic moment because for the first time an AI image had won a prestigious photography competition, and hoped that this would encourage them to recognize the difference between real and AI generated photographs.

    “How many of you knew or suspected that it was AI generated? Something about this doesn’t feel right, does it? AI images and photography should not compete with each other in an award like this. They are different entities. AI is not photography. Therefore I will not accept the award.”

    A spokesperson from the World Photography Organisation has confirmed in a statement that Eldagsen had revealed to them that his image was created using AI, before he had been announced as a winner.

    “In our correspondence, he explained how following ‘two decades of photography, my artistic focus has shifted more to exploring creative possibilities of AI generators’ and further emphasising the image heavily relies on his ‘wealth of photographic knowledge’. As per the rules of the competition, the photographers provide the warranties of their entry. The creative category of the open competition welcomes various experimental approaches to image making from cyanotypes and rayographs to cutting-edge digital practices. As such, following our correspondence with Boris and the warranties he provided, we felt that his entry fulfilled the criteria for this category, and we were supportive of his participation.”

  • India removes chapters on evolution from textbooks of grades 9 and 10

    The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) of India has removed chapters and topics related to evolution from textbooks meant for students of grades nine and 10.


    According to Al Jazeera, the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has eliminated Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution for the 2021-2 academic year. As per the report, all references to evolution have been removed from the textbooks, while students who want to learn about evolution must take biology in the 11th or 12th grade.


    Earlier this month, news reports in Indian media said that chapters and topics related to the Mughal empire were removed from India’s 12th-grade history syllabus. However, NCERT director Dinesh Prasad Saklani denied the news reports calling them a lie. “There was a rationalisation process last year. Due to Covid, there was pressure on students everywhere,” the NCERT director said, adding that the expert committee recommended dropping the chapters which won’t impact the knowledge of the students.

  • Qatar announces 11-day-long Eid holiday

    Qatar announces 11-day-long Eid holiday

    According to the Amiri Diwan, Qataris will have an 11-day long holiday to celebrate Eid ul Fitr.


    The holiday will last from April 19, 2023 to April 27, 2023. The first working day is set for April 30, 2023, Sunday.


    The holiday will be observed by all government agencies, public institutions, and ministries; however, the beginning and ending dates will be determined by the governor of the Qatar Central Bank (QCB), other banks, and financial institutions regulated by the QCB and the Qatar Financial Markets Authority (QFMA).


    The government of Pakistan has announced a five-day holiday for Eid.

  • Police arrest Chinese worker on accusation of blasphemy

    Police arrest Chinese worker on accusation of blasphemy

    A Chinese worker at the Dasu Hydropower Project in Upper Kohistan was arrested by the police on Sunday after being accused of committing blasphemy by some of the laborers working on the location, Dawn has reported.


    The SHO of Komila confirmed the arrest and mentioned that an FIR has been lodged against the accused under Section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code.


    The complaint was filed by Gulistan and Yasir. According to the complaint filed at the Komila police station, a mob attempting to break into a Chinese camp near Barseen was reported to police official Jehanzeb on Sunday night.


    “After receiving the information, a police party reached the site, took control of the area and safely shifted the accused to the Komila police station,” the complaint said.


    Despite the arrest, a large number of protesters arrived at Komila early on Monday and once again obstructed the Karakoram Highway while raising slogans against the Chinese man. However, following the police’s guarantee of filing an FIR, the protestors reopened the Karakoram Highway for traffic. Additionally, local religious leaders appealed to the demonstrators to end the protest.

  • Mother almost falls for $1 million kidnapping hoax after daughter’s voice is cloned by AI

    A mother from Arizona almost fell for a kidnapping hoax after the culprits used Artificial Intelligence (AI) to clone her daughter’s voice.

    According to People magazine, Jennifer DeStefano shared that her daughter, Briana, was on a ski vacation with her friends when the mother received a phone call from an anonymous number, where she heard her daughter crying and pleading for help.

    “I heard my daughter’s voice crying and sobbing, saying, ‘Mom.’ And I’m like, ‘OK, what happened?’ She’s like, ‘Mom, these bad men have me. Help me, help me.’ “

    A man then talked to her and demanded that she pay $1 million to free her daughter.

    “This man gets on the phone and he’s like, ‘Listen here. I’ve got your daughter. This is how it’s going to go down. You call the police, you call anybody, I’m going to pop her so full of drugs. I’m going to have my way with her and I’m going to drop her off in Mexico,’” she said. “And at that moment, I just started shaking. In the background, she’s going, ‘Help me, Mom. Please help me. Help me,’ and bawling.”

    DeStefano, who was at a dance studio when she received the call, negotiated with the man to take the ransom down to $500,000, while her acquaintance contacted the police and her husband contacted Briana, who revealed that she was safe and in her room.

    “She was upstairs in her room. Then I get angry, obviously, with these guys. This is not something you play around with.”

    DeStefano shared that she was truly shocked how similar her daughter’s voice sounded to the voice she had heard on the phone, which had been cloned by AI.

    “It was completely her voice. It was her inflection. It was the way she would have cried. I never doubted for one second it was her. That’s the freaky part that really got me to my core.”

    Briana also revealed how terrifying this situation could have gotten, had her mother not confirmed her whereabouts:

     “I started to wonder, like, if these people were asking to track my mom and pick her up, they could have obviously been putting some information together to try and track me or some of my siblings to actually make this a reality. So it definitely scared me.”

  • Teen dies after cardiac arrest, comes back to life two hours later

    Sammy Berko, a teenager from Missouri City in Texas, was declared dead after suffering cardiac arrest at a rock climbing gym. However, two hours later, the boy revived, coming back to life in front of his parents.

    Despite administering two hours of CPR after his heart stopped, medical professionals were unable to save Sammy’s life and ultimately declared him deceased.

    “He climbed to the top of the wall, rang the bell, as we were told, and then his body went limp, and it looked like he was either playing around or passed out. They weren’t quite sure and when they realized he was unresponsive, they lowered him slowly,” said Jennifer, the mother of the young boy.

    After doctors told the parents that Sammy was “gone”, the mother and father sat with their sons to say goodbye.

    “I started talking to him, just telling him how much I love him and sorry that we didn’t know how to save him. Suddenly, as I started praying, my husband said, ‘Oh my gosh, he’s moving,’” Jennifer recalled to a local news station.

    Medical personnel came back to the room and administered aid, reviving Sammy fully.

    “I don’t remember anything about the day it happened. The last thing I remember is the night before we had to sign waivers online (for the rock climbing gym), and then I woke up, not even in the pediatric ICU. I woke up in the transitional ICU and that’s the first thing I remember. Then I remember my dad telling me, this is what happened and you better remember this time, because he said it so many times,” said Sammy while talking about his experience.

    Although he went two hours without oxygen, the boy has no significant brain damage.

  • Almost two years to Noor’s murder, Zahir Jaffer challenges death sentence

    Almost two years to Noor’s murder, Zahir Jaffer challenges death sentence

    Zahir Jaffer has lodged an appeal in the Supreme Court challenging the death sentence he was given for murdering Noor Mukadam in 2021 in Islamabad.

    Jaffer has argued that the trial and the Islamabad High Court (IHC) failed to recognize the fundamental deficiencies in the First Information Report (FIR) and that their judgments were based on an incorrect understanding of the evidence, Hassnat Malik has reportsd for Express Trbuine.

    On Feburary 2, 2022, a sessions court sentenced Zahir Jaffer to death for a murder that prompted national outrage. The victim,
    27-year-old Noor, was found beheaded at Jaffer’s residence in Islamabad’s upscale F-7/4 Sector on July 20, 2021. She was the daughter of a diplomat and had known Jaffer.

    The gruesome murder sent shockwaves across the country and sparked nationwide calls for justice for Noor, cumulating in a sensational trial and eventual convictions.

  • Daughter kills father for not letting her marry lover

    Trigger warning: Murder/Violence

    A 30 year-old-woman in Jhang conspired with her friend to murder her own father in order to clear the way for her to marry the person she had chosen, Samaa has reported.

    After killing her father, Sadia buried his body in their yard with the help of her friend Ashraf. The police in Jhang were able to locate the victim’s body and apprehend the perpetrators. The victim’s seven-year-old son Zulfiqar had reportedly begged the police to capture those responsible for the brutal murder.
    The police have revealed that Ashraf is a known criminal and has been involved in numerous previous cases. Jhang Police Spokesman, Muhammad Aun Raza, has stated that the police conducted an investigation and recovered the body from the yard of the house the daughter lived in, leading to the arrest of Sadia Bibi and her accomplice, Ashraf.

    The family of the deceased has demanded the toughest punishment for the killers.