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  • These pictures of Gwadar Marine Drive after CPEC works will take your breath away

    Stunning views of Gwadar Marine drive after the completion of roads and other construction work under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) are breaking the internet, and we guarantee you that the following pictures will take your breath away.

    The pictures were first shared by official handle of the CPEC on Twitter as the completion of construction work was announced.

    It wasn’t later that Twitterati among other netizens started reacting to the pictures and expressed their delight.

    Here is what Marine Drive looked until around three years ago.

    Earlier, it was reported that Gwadar’s population is set to exceed two million people in the long run with high-paid expatriate professionals accounting for up to 80 per cent of the population.

    High-paid jobs, tax-free environment, high-tech industries, mega shopping malls, luxury resorts, manmade islands and Pakistan’s largest international airport, which was inaugurated by Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan in 2019, are all included in the new Gwadar Smart City Masterplan that will see Gwadar become the third-largest city in Pakistan by economic output with assistance from China under the CPEC.

    The governments of Pakistan and China project Gwadar’s economy to surpass $30 billion per annum in the long-term, creating 1 to 1.2 million high-paid jobs with an income per capita of $15,000. Pakistan’s current income per capita meaning the economic output the country generates per person is around $1,500 which Gwadar will eclipse by some 1,000%.

  • Quiz – End of the World

    Quiz – End of the World

    [forminator_quiz id=”51276″]
  • Three must-play PS4 games before thinking of getting a PS5

    Three must-play PS4 games before thinking of getting a PS5

    Holiday Season this year will bring you a next-generation gaming console — PlayStation (PS) 5 — but before you upgrade, and over the next few months, while you wait for it to be available in the market, you must try these three new breathtaking games for the PS4.

    While one of them is already available in the market, the other two are about to launch. 

    1. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla 

    Launch: December 2020

    Developers: Ubisoft and Epic games

    Available on: PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, PC and Google Stadia

    The game has been produced by Ubisoft and Epic Games. You will take the character of a mighty Viking raider, who will lead his clan from the harsh shores of Norway to a new home amid the lush farmlands of 9th century England.

    You will explore an open world map, where you will encounter brutal enemies, raid fortresses, build your clan’s new settlement and create alliances to win glory and earn a place in the majestic Valhalla hall of Norse mythology.

    2. The Last of Us II

    Launch: June 2020

    Available on: PS4

    Developers: Naughty Dog 

    Publisher: Sony Interactive 

    The first part of this game was released in 2013. Players entered the role of 19-year old Ellie, who comes into conflict with a mysterious cult in post-apocalyptic United States (US). 

    The Last of Us 2 is the next part and it is the same action-adventure survival horror game. Players can use firearms, bows, improvised weapons, and stealth to defend against hostile humans and cannibalistic creatures. However, the graphics and mechanisms are on steroids.

    The trailer was mostly well-received by reviewers, and the critics also praised the improved graphics and features, enemy artificial intelligence, and combat mechanisms in the latest part. 

    3. Call of Duty: Warzone 

    Developers: Infinity ward, Raven software

    Publisher: Activision

    Series: Call of Duty

    Available on: PS4, Xbox One, PC

    Warzone is a massive combat experience with up to 150 players from all over the world who can join the map… and above all it’s free! 

    It has two very interesting features to offer — Battle Royale and Plunder.

    In Battle Royale, you can join forces and jump into a battleground with three other online players of your team.

    Your team should be the last group standing in the field to win the game. 

    The second mode is Plunder. The best part about Plunder is that if you get killed, the player will respond every time until the match ends. Besides, you will get more points which enable you to unlock new weapons, their upgrades and other awesome equipment.  

    The best part about this game is that it is very close to reality. Games like Apex Legends or Fortnite are awesome and millions play it. However, they’re unrealistic from the point of view of story and graphics.

    Which games are on your list? Let us know in the comments.

  • These areas, including Lahore Cantt and parts of Gulberg, will be under 15-day lockdown from tonight

    These areas, including Lahore Cantt and parts of Gulberg, will be under 15-day lockdown from tonight

    With Punjab becoming the first province to record 1,000 coronavirus fatalities amid a rapid surge in the number of COVID-19 infections, Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid has announced a 15-day selective quarantine in Lahore, which will come into effect from Monday-Tuesday midnight.

    Addressing a press conference, Dr Rashid said that selected neighbourhoods, including Lahore Cantonment, Shahdara, Mozang, Walled City, Harbanspura, Nishtar Town, Allama Iqbal Town will be locked down completely from midnight. Some areas in Gulberg will also be closed completely.

    Areas of Lahore to go into lockdown Monday-Tuesday midnight as part of government’s efforts to curb the spread of COVID-19 (Google Maps)

    According to the health minister, more than 300 cases had been recorded in each of these areas which was why the decision to enforce a lockdown was taken. However, Dr Rashid added, pharmacies, tandoors and dairy shops will remain open and so will any factories that are making protective equipment.

    “These areas will be locked down for at least two weeks and then we will observe the results.”

    She also once again urged people to follow the government’s announced standard operating procedures (SOPs) to stop the spread of the virus, adding that the virus could be stemmed by 50 per cent just by wearing a face mask.

    Lamenting the “wrong” criticism against the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government for alleged loose handling of the pandemic, she said, “If [you say that] our government has failed, so has every other government in the world.”

    “The media is comparing us to New Zealand and Taiwan. The population of New Zealand is half [about 5 million] of that of Lahore’s. Controlling the virus there is much easier than controlling it in a thickly populated country like ours,” she said.

    “People don’t understand that this is a viral infection. Even in China, where they followed strict measures with commendable discipline, there is a resurgence of cases,” the health minister said.

    ‘NO SWEEPING LOCKDOWN’:

    On Saturday, Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan had ruled out a sweeping lockdown once again on a visit to Lahore during which he held meetings with Punjab Chief Minister (CM) Usman Buzdar and other officials to evaluate the virus situation in the province.

    The premier’s visit to Lahore had come a day after the Punjab government sent recommendations to the federal government to tighten lockdown measures in the province, in particular Lahore, in a bid to curb the growing number of COVID-19 cases.

    But after holding meetings with the provincial government’s top brass, PM Imran had said a strategy of “smart lockdowns” will be implemented instead whereby strict adherence to SOPs will be ensured to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus.

    “After analysing with my Punjab team today, [we’ve decided that] we will not impose a lockdown but will impose selective lockdowns — trace and seal hotspots,” the premier had said, adding that the country’s administration and police were not in a position to take “such a huge burden of a complete lockdown”.

  • Data of 500,000 Pakistanis using govt’s coronavirus app at risk

    A French security researcher, Baptiste Robert — known by his penname Elliot Alderson on Twitter –, has criticised Pakistani government’s official COVID-19 mobile application over security flaws, highlighting several privacy errors in the application developed by the National Information Technology Board (NITB).

    In a series of tweets, Robert said the “Radius Alert” app was being managed without proper security bearings, using hardcoded passwords — the practice of embedding plain text (non-encrypted) passwords in the source code.

    “To display the pins on the map, the app is downloading the exact longitude and latitude of sick people,” he said. Any hacker could find the locations of the identified patients in Pakistan.

    He further tweeted that requests being sent to the server on the app were insecure (requests made with http) and any hacker can access the username and password being used to access the server. So far, more than 500,000 people have downloaded the app.

    In response to the allegations, NITB Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Shabat Ali Shah said the app did not show the exact coordinates of infected people, instead, it showed a radius parameter that is fixed by def­ault at 10 metres for self-declared pati­e­nts and 300 metres at a quarantine location.

    “The self-declared patients have given their consent to reveal their coordinates for the safety of other citizens, moreover, they have accepted our app privacy policy/terms and conditions,” he maintained.

    The NITB CEO said there was always room for improvement and any critical analysis would be appreciated.

    He added the NITB was also preparing a security audit report of the app.

  • COVID-19 research: Monkeys develop immunity after exposure to virus

    COVID-19 research: Monkeys develop immunity after exposure to virus

    Two studies conducted on Wednesday offer some hope that humans can develop protective immunity against the novel coronavirus — COVID-19.

    The study was published in a journal of science, after a prototype vaccine was tested whether infection with SARS-CoV-2 — the strain of coronavirus that causes COVID-19 — provides immunity against re-exposure.

    Two experiments were conducted on rhesus macaque monkeys to see whether they develop immunity against natural infection or from a vaccine.

    In the first experiment, carried out by the researchers, nine adult rhesus macaque monkeys were infected with the virus. The monkeys developed COVID-19 symptoms but created protective antibodies and recovered after a few days.

    To test their newly developed immunity, they were re-exposed after 35 days, what is called a “re-challenge”, and the monkeys showed no symptoms.

    The researchers of this experiment cautioned that further research is needed because of the great difference between humans and monkeys.

    “Rigorous clinical studies will be required to determine whether SARS-CoV-2 infection effectively protects against SARS-CoV-2 re-exposure in humans,” they said.

    The second study, involving many of the same researchers and led by Jingyou Yu, involved vaccinating 35 adult macaques with DNA vaccine candidates designed to generate protective antibodies.

    They were exposed to coronavirus six weeks later and had developed levels of antibodies in the blood which are sufficient to neutralise it, the study found.

    The levels of antibodies were similar to those seen in humans recovering from the virus, providing hope that an effective human vaccine can be developed.

    “Further research will need to address the important questions of the durability of protective immunity and the optimal vaccine platforms for a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine for humans,” the authors of the study said.

  • Quiz: Which Iftaari favourite are you?

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  • Woman refuses to let husband enter home without coronavirus test

    Woman refuses to let husband enter home without coronavirus test

    After the surging fears over coronavirus in India, a woman in Andhra Pradesh refused entry to her husband in the house, till he underwent COVID-19 test.

    The incident took place in Nellore district when the man stuck there since the lockdown began finally returned to his home town.

    The man, working in a gold shop in Nellore, was stranded there since lockdown was enforced last month. He finally succeeded in reaching home but his wife asked him to first undergo the screening for coronavirus before entering the house.

    She said this was needed for the safety of the children and society. She suggested he stay in a local healthcare center and requested volunteers to test him for the virus.

    The health personnel later took the man to Nellore, where his samples were collected. The test result was negative, much to the relief of the man and his family.

    “I would not have risked the lives of children and those living in the neighbourhood. That’s why I insisted that he enter the house after undergoing the test,” the woman said.

  • Pet animals found dead in shops due to suffocation, starvation

    Pet animals found dead in shops due to suffocation, starvation

    Lock down in big cities left hundreds of caged cats, dogs and rabbits dead inside pet markets, Dawn reported.

    Empress Market, Karachi: Very few animals were rescued when activists appealed the authorities to access closed shops. The cries of the locked pets could be heard from outside Empress Market. Together, the market housed more than 1,000 animals.

    “When we got inside, the majority of them were dead, about 70 per cent. Their bodies were lying on the ground,” said Ayesha Chundrigar, who runs ACF Animal Rescue.

    “It was so horrific, I can’t tell you.”
    Starving and locked in cages with no light or ventilation, the survivors sat amongst the dead, trembling.

    After the desperate rescue, Chundrigar has now convinced the Karachi authorities to allow pet shop owners and her team daily access to the animals.

    In Lahore, animals were found under the same circumstances. The bodies of about 20 dogs were found dumped in a sewer near Tollinton Market, a hub for pet businesses which had closed leaving animals to starve.

    Kiran Maheen was able to rescue more than two dozen dogs, rabbits and cats after convincing officials at the market to let her in, but a large number had already died.
    “When the police opened up the shutters, a lot of animals were already lying dead inside, many had suffocated from a lack of air.”

  • VIDEO: Suspected coronavirus patient at Lahore’s Mayo Hospital passes away

    VIDEO: Suspected coronavirus patient at Lahore’s Mayo Hospital passes away

    FOLLOW THIS LINK FOR AN UPDATED VERSION OF THE STORY WITH PUNJAB CM’S STATEMENT

    A suspected patient of the new coronavirus — COVID-19 — on Tuesday passed away at Lahore’s Mayo Hospital where he was under treatment since developing symptoms following his return from Iran.

    While some reports quote official sources as saying that the patient tested positive for the virus — marking the first fatality in Pakistan due to the global pandemic, others contradict the claim, saying the patient died of liver failure.

    An official confirmation of the circumstances surrounding the suspected coronavirus patient’s death was tweeted by Punjab Chief Minister (CM) Usman Buzdar later in the day.

    A video available with The Current showed the deceased being brought out of the hospital in a coffin by staff in hazmat suits.

    WATCH VIDEO:

    The individual had returned from Iran via the Taftan border crossing and spent 14 days in quarantine, reports said.

    While Ministry of National Health Services had earlier reportedly confirmed the death, Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid said the deceased patient, who was a native of Hafizabad, had been brought to the hospital on Monday night and the results of his tests were still awaited.

    She added that the deceased was not the first and only confirmed patient of the virus in Lahore, who is still in isolation at the same hospital.

    The minister said that the deceased patient’s blood samples were sent for testing while he had been kept in quarantined isolation at Mayo Hospital.

    The deceased had cleared screening upon arriving in the country.

    This was a developing story