Four sisters in Germany invented a coronavirus-themed board game during the first lockdown in the country. Corona is the name of the board game that can be played by four players at one time.
The players compete to purchase all the groceries on a shopping list for an elderly neighbour who is shielding against the virus.
The players collect and swap game cards. The winner is the one who delivers all the items first. The obstacles along the way include bump into the virus that would send you into quarantine, or finding that hoarders have already snapped up all the pasta or toilet rolls.
“The basic principle is one of solidarity. But each of the players can decide to cooperate with the others or make thing harder for them by blocking their path with viruses,” Sarah told Reuters TV from their family home in the western city of Wiesbaden, Germany.
Former Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar has slammed the International Cricket Council (ICC) for not including a single Pakistan player in their T20I team of the decade, announced on Sunday.
In a video posted to his YouTube channel, Akhtar criticised the parent body of cricket, terming their team of the decade an IPL XI instead of being a world cricket team.
“They did not pick a single player from Pakistan in the team. We don’t need your (ICC) T20I Team of the Decade because you announced the IPL team, not a world cricket team,” Akhtar said in the video.
The former speedster also cited the current T20I rankings indicating that Pakistan skipper Babar Azam should have been included in the T20I team of the decade.
“I think ICC forgot that Pakistan is also a member of ICC and they also play T20I cricket. They did not pick Babar Azam, who is currently the number one batsman in the ICC T20I rankings.”
Akhtar further openly criticised the working of ICC and claimed that the organisation is ruining the game for money.
“ICC only thinks about money, sponsorships and TV rights. They introduced two new balls and three powerplays (in the ODI cricket). Where is Dennis Lillee, Jeff Thomson, big five of West Indies, Wasim (Akram) and Waqar (Younis)? Where are the world’s fastest bowlers and leg-spinners? They went away because ICC commercialised and materialised cricket so much and allowed ten leagues to earn more revenue,” Akhtar said.
“They just want two World Cups in three years and leagues. ….There is a big difference between today’s cricket and in 70’s cricket. If there is no Sachin vs Shoaib then what’s the point of watching cricket? There is no big player than Babar Azam in T20I. He is a top-scorer for Pakistan and his averages show what he has done for the country, even in comparison with Virat Kohli. It is so embarrassing and I’m sure after this video they will think that they have to announce the World Team of the Decade, not the IPL team,” Sohaib concluded.
Earlier in the day, ICC included Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, MS Dhoni, and Jasprit Bumrah in its T20I Team of the Decade. Dhoni has also been named as the skipper of the ICC’s T20I Team of the Decade.
In the team, four players are from India, two are from Australia, two from West Indies, one from Sri Lanka, South Africa, andAfghanistan.
The ICC Men's T20I Team of the Decade. And what a team it is! ⭐
Meanwhile, Pakistan cricket fans and analysts are enraged and questioning ICC for not including any Pakistani cricketer in the list. Here are some reactions:
Islamabad main itni sardi hai kay @ICC ki Teams of dDecade dekh kar mera ghussa bhee freeze ho gia! Phir aik dost nay bataya k ye awards merit per nahi voting per diyey jaatay hain or India ki abadi hum sai bohat ziyada hai!🤷♀️So keep supporting ur players.😊
The chief justice of the Lahore High Court has ordered a review of interviews of Lahore police chief Umer Shaikh over his remarks against the judiciary, wherein he implicitly blamed the courts for an increase in the crime rate.
Reacting to the statement of the CCPO Shaikh in which he said the criminals detained by the police were given bail by the courts, the chief justice said the suspects are granted bail in line with the constitution. He said such statements by CCPO Shaikh were akin to committing contempt of court and asked the Punjab advocate general to give details of his interviews in 15 days.
He said the Lahore police chief boasted that he would curb the crime rate in the provincial capital in three months, but it seems the robberies and streets crimes are on the rise despite his posting.
He further added that the courts will not tolerate unfounded criticism by the police officer and if he has a complaint against the bail granted to the accused, he could approach the relevant forum in this regard.
This is not the first time that Sheikh has made headlines for all the wrong reasons as soon after his posting, he had landed in hot water for victim-blaming after the horrific motorway gang-rape incident. The Lahore CCPO had remarked that the rape survivor should have been more careful and taken a safer route.
In Sept, a trainee sub-inspector Fahad Iftikhar Virk submitted his resignation after he was abused by CCPO Umer Sheikh for speaking in English.
Inspector General of Police (IGP) Punjab Shoaib Dastgir was also removed amid much controversy after a standoff with Sheikh after the latter asked his subordinates to ignore the IG’s order.
Sarah Khan remembered her late parents in a heart-touching post on social media.
Sharing a painting called the “first moments in heaven” in which people can be seen rejoicing, Sarah wrote: “I can’t wait for the day when we reunite again InshAllah.”
“Please remember my Baba and Mama in your prayers,” she added.
The female workforce has been increased in the Grand Mosque in Makkah. As per details, 1,500 females have been appointed in different departments to serve female visitors.
A total of 600 women have been recruited in the Technical and Service Affairs Agency while other staff will be appointed in electric vehicles department, Zamzam watering unit, guidance and intellectual affairs, administrative affairs, public relations, media and communication and the General Department of Internal Auditing.
Dr Al-Anoud bint Khaled Al-Aboud, deputy president for women’s development affairs, said the step is part of the General Presidency for the Affairs of the Two Holy Mosques’ transformational initiatives 2024. The move aims to increase the level of services provided in the Two Holy Mosques,
It is also a part of the Saudi leadership’s plans to empower women and to provide the best possible services to all female pilgrims visiting the Grand Mosque in line with Saudi Vision 2030.
Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari has said that if he can send former president General (r) Pervez Musharraf home, then bringing Prime Minister Imran Khan down is not a problem for him.
Speaking to a rally in Garhi Khuda Buksh to commemorate the death anniversary of slain PM Benazir Bhutto, Zardari said the opposition parties needed to change their tactics and mindset regarding the anti-government drive instead of “dictating each other”.
The PPP would want to see all parties on a single page in the fight against the government, but “we should not dictate each other what to do”, he added. “We will have to fill up the jails,” said Zardari, adding that Benazir had left a message for her party to keep on fighting for Pakistan.
Taking a jibe at the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government, the former president said that the PTI has no importance and it will come to an end just like the party formed by Gen Musharraf during his era.
According to the PPP co-chairman, Imran government has a little time left. “They will crumble beneath their own weight.” “These [PTI] are the people who run a cricket team, not a country,” he quipped.
The PPP leader said that incumbent government was targeting political rivals through the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).
“NAB is running a black market and issuing warrants for businessmen,” said Zardari, adding that the PPP never targeted the opposition politicians during its tenure.
It is a historical fact that the country suffered whenever the democracy was derailed, he said, calling upon the PM to quit the government if he was unable to run the country.
The country’s exports had fallen and the dollar had seen a steep rise, he said, referring to the poor state of the economy. The PPP had kept inflation in check in spite of the financial crunch, he claimed, adding that “everyone is hoping that one day Bhutto’s party will rise to power” again.
In addition to other politicians, PPP Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice President Maryam Nawaz also spoke on the occasion.
The scene is apparently from the movie “Neend” which was directed by Hassan Tariq and was released in 1959. The cast of the movie includes Diljit, Asad Jaafri, Nur Jehan, Neelo and Aslam Pervaiz.
Popular song “Akeli Kahin Mat Jana Zamana Nazuk hai” is from the same movie.
According to media reports, Dharmendra Anija a resident of India’s Ajmer city gifted his wife three acres of land on the Moon on their wedding anniversary.
Talking to an International media news outlet he said, “It was our wedding anniversary on December 24. I wanted to do something special for her. Everyone gifts earthly possessions like cars and jewellery, but I wanted to do something different. Therefore, I purchased land on the Moon for her.”
Dharmendra further added that he is happy over the fact that he is the first man in Rajasthan to buy a land on the moon.
The land was bought fromthe Luna Society International and the whole process took about a year to complete.
Dharmendra’s wife Sapna expressed her happiness over receiving an “out of the world” gift from her husband. “I’m extremely happy. I never expected he would gift me something so special. The party was organised by professional event organisers, and the setting was surreal. It felt like we are literally on the moon, said Sapna. The husband gifted a framed certificate of the property document to his wife.
Earlier this year, a man from Rawalpindi bought a one-acre plot of land on the moon as a wedding gift for his wife. The land was bought for $45 from the International Lunar Lands Registry.
The coming week will usher us to a new year and the entire world is hoping that it would be better than 2020. This year was certainly one that we will remember for a long, long time.
Concepts like social distancing, wearing face masks and sanitising your hands regularly, ‘work from home’ and lockdowns have become a norm. Many regular travellers have not travelled in almost a year. A lot of people have lost their loved ones due to this novel coronavirus.
The coronavirus pandemic has changed the world in many ways. From exposing how the healthcare system was unable to deal with a global pandemic in most countries, to an economic crisis that many poor countries would take years to recover from, it affected all and sundry.
According to a blog published by the World Bank, “the pandemic has harmed the poor and vulnerable the most, and it is threatening to push millions more into poverty. This year, after decades of steady progress in reducing the number of people living on less than $1.90/day, COVID-19 will usher in the first reversal in the fight against extreme poverty in a generation.”
COVID-19 should also make the world think of how much damage we have done to our globe and environment. Climate change is a harsh reality that one can only ignore at their own peril. When lockdowns around the world started and travel restrictions were imposed, the level of air pollution compared to last year went down during that same period.
People were fascinated by the clear blue skies in their cities. According to researchers at Future Earth’s Global Carbon Project, the global COVID-19 lockdowns caused fossil carbon dioxide emissions to decline by an estimated 2.4 billion tonnes in 2020, which was a record drop.
This pandemic was also one of the main reasons why Donald Trump lost the US elections. The way Trump mishandled the pandemic and denied how serious it was, it led to more than 300,000 deaths till date. On the other hand, Pakistan was relatively successful in dealing with the pandemic after the first wave. Now that the second wave is here, we hope that people will take it more seriously and not be careless.
Hopefully, the next year will bring some semblance of normalcy once the vaccine is administered in all countries. Unfortunately, it seems that poor countries will get the vaccine much later than rich countries. Let’s hope that the world community will help each other in this hour of need.
In what seems to be just another news for 2020, fast-food giant KFC has launched a gaming console that can also keep chicken warm. It’s called KFConsole. Forget the PS5, ignore the XBox, the true king of gaming consoles is KFC.
Back in June this year, KFC released a ridiculously hilarious trailer for the KFConsole right after Sony’s PS5 reveal. The tech world didn’t take the news seriously and considered this a marketing stunt from KFC.
KFC has collaborated with Cooler Master and has launched a gaming console that is capable of handling 4K gaming titles at 240 fps.
But what makes this console special, apart from the brand that it is coming from, is that has the world’s first built-in chicken chamber in it. KFC promises to keep the contents of the chicken chamber hot and ready for consumption for gamers. This is made possible thanks to a custom-build cooling system that manages to keep the hardware working at normal temperature while the heat precipitated through the console’s component will be used to warm the console’s chicken chamber.
According to reports, Mark Cheevers, KFC PR head in a press release said, “This machine is capable of running games at top-level specs, all on top of keeping your meal warm for you to enjoy during your gaming experience, what’s not to like?” What’s not to like indeed.
Continuing with his wit Cheevers remarked, “If Sony or Microsoft want any tips on how to engineer a chicken chamber for their efforts next time, they’d be welcome to get in touch.”
The KFConsole is not just a product born out of a marketing gimmick. According to the reports, it is powered with an Intel NUC CPU, a 1TB SSD by Seagate Barracuda, and an Nvidia GPU. According to Cooler Master, KFConsole also has a one of a kind swappable GPU slot that can be used for easy upgrades.
