Variable rate mortgage holders feeling the pinch

Ruston with Purposed Financial. “I always tell people, some of the best investments you can make is often to pay down your debt because it can catch up on you very, very quickly.”

Ruston believes the days of rock bottom interest rates has come to an end.

“The issue that we run into is the fact that we’ve got a generation that’s grown up in a very low interest rate environment. They don’t know what it’s like to have the interest rates we’re experiencing now overall. So it kind of comes as a shock and often what is happening is people have been spending against lines of credit, or using their credit cards, because interest rates were fairly low, but now is where the hit will be seen.”

He notes relief could be on the way as inflation starts to slow down.

“There has been anticipated for a while now, that in the second or maybe even the third quarter of 2023, we might even see some contraction or pulling back of interest rates overall, which would be a wonderful thing. But right now, we’re just hoping that we won’t see more increases.”

Ruston says there hasn’t been much movement on long-term mortgage rates, while GIC rates have increased slightly.

More tall towers being proposed, approved and completed in Vancouver, Burnaby, Surrey and Coquitlam

More tall towers being proposed, approved and completed in Vancouver, Burnaby, Surrey and Coquitlam video has failed to load.Is there a young tenor, baritone or bass in your house looking for an outlet for choral singing?

There are 20 development projects with towers over 45 storeys that are selling condo units, under construction or near completion. Read on.

Young singers interested in being part of a male-voice choir are invited to take part in Chor Leoni’s MYVoice program, a free, 10-week choral experience for singers aged 12 and up.Editor: I just read the article about the lack of space available for students in the Brentwood area.At 8:02 a.

Try refreshing your browser, or.Play Video And there are several proposals for more tall towers like this in Surrey that haven’t been made public yet.Along the way, the young singers will have a chance to work with some of Vancouver’s top choral instructors, take part in workshops with Chor Leoni artistic director Erick Lichte and participate in Vancouver’s major male choral festival, the VanMan Summit, on May 13.Sunrise presented by Vancouver Sun Start your day with a roundup of B.C.C.m.focused news and opinion delivered straight to your inbox at 7 a.to rescue someone stuck in an elevator. m.You can find information, including a detailed schedule, and registration at the Chor Leoni website.C., Monday to Friday.Email Address There was an error, please provide a valid email address.24.Sign Up By clicking on the sign up button you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.Janet Reid. You may unsubscribe any time by clicking on the unsubscribe link at the bottom of our emails or any newsletter.Rehearsals take place at Burnaby Central Secondary.“This is an important step in our work to greatly enhance our response capability in the event of an emergency in the Burnaby Mountain area,” Mayor Mike Hurley said in a news release.

Postmedia Network Inc.| 365 Bloor Street East, Toronto, Ontario, M4W 3L4 | 416-383-2300 Thanks for signing up! A welcome email is on its way.Follow Julie MacLellan on Twitter @juliemaclellan.

If you don’t see it, please check your junk folder.The next issue of Sunrise presented by Vancouver Sun will soon be in your inbox.ca.We encountered an issue signing you up.” Approximately 2,000 students currently live in residence and housing at SFU and more than 6,000 people live in the UniverCity development, but the city has long known about the need for Burnaby Mountain to have its own fire station. Please try again Article content “There are ones of similar heights that are moving forward,” said Chris Dikeakos of Vancouver-based Chris Dikeakos Architects Inc.“A nd it’s not just in Surrey.Burnaby is another municipality. Coquitlam is starting to get applications for some much taller towers.” He added that with increased land and construction costs, developers are motivated to use all the density they can get and build taller towers.Fire Station 8 is one of two new fire halls the city is building in the Burnaby Mountain area over the next year.

India & USA keen to conclude $3 billion MQ-9B predator drone deal

India and the United States are keen for an early conclusion of the 30 MQ9B predator armed drones deal at a cost of over $3 billion, which will help New Delhi strengthen its overall surveillance apparatus along the Line of Actual Control and the Indian Ocean. n the works for more than five years, the “ball is now in India’s court”, officials familiar with the development said Wednesday, without explaining further.

The MQ-9B predator armed drones -- 10 each for three services -- is seen to be a key part of India’s national security and defense needs.

The officials did not elaborate further but ruled out that there was any bureaucratic hurdle or regulatory issues involved.

“I have to take that back and check on that,” Assistant Secretary of State for Political Military Affairs Jessica Lewis told reporters here when asked for the delay in the deal, which was announced in the summer of 2017. It has been pending for quite some time now, for reasons not known in the public. However, the issues are believed to have been discussed during the meetings that the visiting National Security Advisor Ajit K Doval has had with top American leadership, including his counterpart Jake Sullivan.

During the meetings, it is believed that both sides expressed their eagerness to see that the drone deal is fast tracked. India is eager that an early decision would help it get an early delivery of MQ-98 predator armed drones that would strengthen its national security and surveillance not only in the Indian Ocean, but also along the LAC.

The Biden administration is keen on inking this deal as soon as possible, which will create jobs and would be politically beneficial ahead of the next year’s presidential elections, according to people familiar with the development.

“MQ-9B would enable its Indian military users to fly farther than anything else in this category, spend more time in the air and handle a greater diversity of missions than any other similar aircraft.

The SkyGuardian and SeaGuardian can deliver full-motion video in virtually any conditions, day or night, as well as other kinds of detailed sensing with their onboard systems,” Vivek Lall, chief executive, General Atomics Global Corporation, said.

Giant blisters and leg fractures. Inside a marathon march to ‘remake India’

“I’m often asked by people, ‘Why are you walking?’” one yatri told me, recounts Manish Khanduri. “My response is, ‘Given the state of affairs in this country, why are you not walking?’” (Pictured above: Crowds gathered for Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on the Yatra’s

“I’m often asked by people, ‘Why are you walking?’” one yatri told me, recounts Manish Khanduri. “My response is, ‘Given the state of affairs in this country, why are you not walking?’” (Pictured above: Crowds gathered for Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on the Yatra’s

Along the way, we worked to engage with locals in multiple ways — holding hundreds of corner meetings, press conferences and rallies, distributing pamphlets with political messaging and staging dance performances and music shows.

At one level, the march is a high-stakes battle for relevance.

After independence in 1947, the Congress party’s ideology was broadly defined by secular, left-of-center policies that acknowledged India’s complex religious, cultural, linguistic and geographic diversity. It governed India for more than five decades. Since 2014, however, the political landscape has been transformed — and the party’s fortunes have declined — with the rise to power of the right-of-center Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), under the leadership of strongman Prime Minister Narendra Modi..

In 2014 and 2019 the Congress lost two national elections in a row. Its share of members in the Indian house of elected representatives, the Lok Sabha, is among the lowest in its history. Three years later, in 2022, the party contested elections in 7 Indian states and failed to form a government in 6.

After these losses, Congress party leaders held a three-day-long ‘soul searching’ session aiming to identify strategies to bounce back. “Hotly debated topics,” Indian news site The Wire reported, included “the party’s ideological stance and the need to build political alliances with smaller parties.”

Major recommendations that emerged included new elections for the party’s President as well as affording greater representation to younger generations — and the implementation of our yatra.

(The yatra has attracted criticism from the BJP, with a party spokesperson describing it as a “parivaar bachao andolan” (“Save the family movement”) in reference to the Gandhi family’s political fortunes. The BJP has further questioned the need for the yatra, and alleged the project is dividing the nation.)

Under Modi, the BJP’s electoral successes have been built on a platform of militant Hindu nationalism, or Hinduvta. A key component of minority, a group that forms around 15% of the country’s 1.4 billion people — though a BJP spokesperson said earlier this month the party, and should be treated as such… With that, PM Modi has stated that no one, including Muslims, should be left out.” This state-driven ‘othering’ of the Muslim minority has translated to finds itself under increased pressure to follow right-wing narratives. In 2022, the television news channel NDTV, long critical of the BJP government, was bought in a hostile takeover by billionaire Gautam Adani, a key business acolyte of Modi. (In a recent regulatory filing, its new owners said NDTV will be implementing “a fresh strategic direction” moving forward.)

Can Sri Lanka trade its way back to prosperity?

Sri Lanka is, in the words of its own president, “bankrupt”.

The Indian Ocean nation defaulted on its sovereign debt in May 2022, plunging the country into economic and political chaos.

TheColombogovernmentsecureda$2.9bn (£2.4bn) International Monetary Fund bailout in principle the following September.

But the cash will not be released to Sri Lanka until its sovereign creditors in China and India first agree to a restructuring of the billions of dollars of bilateral debt they are owed. Despite optimism over the past month that such an agreement was imminent, a deal has still not materialised - and Sri Lanka’s economic agony, and the suffering of its population, continues.

Yet, even if the bailout cash does start to flow in the coming weeks or months, that will not mark the end of Sri Lanka’s economic rebuilding programme, but merely the beginning.

For it’s widely accepted that Sri Lanka’s economic model needs a fundamental overhaul.

In the years following the savage end of the government’s 25-year war against the separatist Tamil Tigers in 2009, Sri Lanka benefited from something of a financial “peace dividend”.

The government at the time successfully attracted large flows of foreign investment, not only from foreign governments like China, but also private international bondholders.

These financial flows pumped up domestic economic growth, but at the cost of ballooning imbalances.

The domestic economy grew steadily less internationally competitive in these years. And while exports continued to rise from 2000 to 2018, from $6.5bn to $19.4bn, over the same time period they slumped as a share of the economy, from 39% to 23%.

Even before the pandemic hit in 2020, tearing the heart out of the island’s lucrative tourism industry, the Sri Lankan trade deficit - the gap between its imports and exports - was already running at more than 6% of GDP.

That imbalance is one of the reasons the default hit Sri Lanka so hard - it suddenly found itself without the means to generate the foreign currency needed to import vital supplies of food and fuel.

Ranil Wickremesinghe, who took over the presidency after the discredited and reviled Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country in July 2022, has been clear that Sri Lanka’s road to recovery will have to involve addressing the imbalance at source, and, in particular, driving up exports.

“We have to transform into a highly competitive export-oriented economy,” he told local business leaders last year.

“There is no other way out. We are a country with 22 million people. We have to find markets outside.”

So the big economic question looming over Sri Lanka is: can this be done? Can the country trade its way back to prosperity?

Traditionally, Sri Lanka’s big exports have been agricultural, starting with cinnamon, which attracted European colonisers in the 16th Century. Today tea is still the biggest export commodity.

Court orders Triveni Interchem director to Pay Rs 20 Million to Pfizer or go to jail

Delhi High Court recently asked a private company to pay Rs 2 crore in damages to pharmaceutical company Pfizer for patent infringement.

Pfizer Inc. and its group companies had filed a suit in the court against Triveni Interchem Private Limited & others accusing the latter for infringing their patent(IN 218291) for the compound Palbociclib.

The private entities(Triveni entities) were found to advertise and offer for sale generic Palbociclib in API form on their own websites and on IndiaMART (e-commerce platform), without any permission or authorisation from Pfizer, Advocates Pravin Anand along with Tusha Malhotra and Richa Bhargava, who were representing Pfizer told the court. fizer filed a contempt application against the activities of the Triveni entities and the High Court on July 7, 2022 observed that Triveni entities were in contempt of the injunction order.

The High Court had on October 21, 2021 granted an injunction in favour of Pfizer but the pharma company said they had found that the private entities had not stopped the sale of the compound Palbociclib.

It claimed it had found that the entities were selling the same compound in a new packaging and through another channel.

Even after this, the infringing products were still found to be available on Connect2India

RBI asks banks for details of exposure to Adani Group

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has stepped in to take stock of commercial banks’ exposure to the Adani group after the shares of the firms in the conglomerate fell sharply following US-based short-seller Hindenburg Research’s report accusing it of stock manipulation and accounting fraud.

According to bankers, on Wednesday the regulator asked lenders to furnish the details of the loans sanctioned and those outstanding to the Adani group as on January 31.

“We submitted the details on Wednesday itself,” said an official of a large bank.

Last week, rating agencies sought similar details from commercial banks.

The exposure of State Bank of India, the country’s largest lender, to the group is $2.6 billion, or Rs 21,000 crore, including $200 million from its overseas branches, a Bloomberg report said, quoting unnamed sources. SBI had earlier said its exposure was much below the Large Exposure Framework limit of the RBI. Punjab National Bank, another large state-owned lender, has an exposure of Rs 7,000 crore.

Late Wednesday evening, the group cancelled its follow-on public offer even though the share sale to raise Rs 20,000 crore was fully subscribed.

Despite that, the rout in shares continued unabated, resulting in the loss in market capitalisation exceeding $100 billion on Thursday.

From page 1

Adani Group loses $107 billion after a week of stock carnage

crore) market-cap have all slipped by over Rs 1 lakh crore in the past six trading days.

Did India’s top billionaires rescue Adani Enterprises FPO? Here’s what we know so far

Did India’s top billionaires rescue Adani Enterprises FPO? Here’s what we know so far

AdaniGreenEnergysharesfall10%asCredit

Suisse assigns zero lending value to bonds

Adani Green Energy shares fall 10% as Credit Suisse assigns zero lending value to bonds

‘Old tax regime to fade’: Section 80C and tax-saving investments will soon be a thing of the past, say netizens

‘Old tax regime to fade’: Section 80C and tax-saving investments will soon be a thing of the past, say netizens

Apart from this, state insurer Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and State Bank of India (SBI), which have liberal investments in the group, have seen substantial market cap erosion of over Rs 1.2 lakh crore or $ 15 billion.

The withdrawal of the FPO has further raised concerns on how the Adani group will now look to service the over Rs 2.2 lakh crore debt on its books. Of which Adani Green Energy has the maximum amount of debt crossing Rs 52,000 crores followed by Adani Ports and Adani Power which have over 45,000 crores of debt.

The market cap of nine Adani stocks has reduced from Rs 19.2 lakh crore before the short-seller’s attack, to Rs 10.5 lakh crore at the end of the trading session on February 2, 2023

Group chairman Gautam Adani said the rationale behind withdrawing Adani Enterprises FPO was to insulate investors from potential losses.

“After a fully subscribed FPO, the decision of its withdrawal would have surprised many. But considering the volatility of the market seen yesterday, the board strongly felt that it would not be morally correct to proceed with the FPO,” said Adani.

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Dubai ruler renames Al Minhad area as Hind City

Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum recently issued orders to rename a district in Dubai city. The ruler, who is also the Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE, renamed Al Minhad district and surrounding areas as ‘Hind City’. The area also includes housing key roadways like Emirates Road, DubaiAl Ain Road, and Jebel Ali-Lehbab Road.

On Twitter, several people were claiming that the area has been renamed to honour the contribution of Indian Hindus. However, there is no mention of why the area was renamed and if “Hind” relates to India or Hindus. Hind” is also a word in Arabic which means “100 camels”. It is said to be a common and ancient name for girls in the Arab region. In fact, Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum’s senior wife’s name has Hind in it - Sheikha Hind bint Maktoum bin Juma Al Maktoum.

This won’t be the first time either that a region in Dubai has been renamed. One of the most notable name changes was that of the world’s tallest building Burj Khalifa, which was earlier known as Burj Dubai.

Shah Rukh Khan not a Muslim, go to his home and kill him

As protests intensify across India over the Shah Rukh Khan starrer Pathaan, a Muslim cleric from Mumbai has told right-wing elements to go to Bollywood megastar’s home and shoot him dead if they are really want to protest against his movie.

The cleric Khalil-Ur-Rehman from nothing to do with Muslims and neither Bollywood is a Muslim. The cleric’s outbursts came following Bajrang Dal members raising objectionable slogans against Prophet Muhammad during protests against Pathaan in Madhya Pradesh’s Indore on Wednesday.

Rehman said that if Bajrang Dal and Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) men are really serious about their protest, then they should go and kill Shah Rukh Khan at his home. He told Times Now, “You do whatever you want to do with Shah Rukh Khan, but if you utter objectionable words against our Prophet Muhammad, then we will not tolerate it.” “Former BJP leader Nupur Sharma was responsible for all of this and had she was arrested, there should not have been such an environment of tension,” Rehman claimed after reports of ‘Sar Tan Se Juda’ slogans in Indore after derogatory words against Islamic Prophet.

The cleric demanded that all those who utter objectionable words against prophet should be booked under MCOCA Act.

Slogans against Prophet Muhammad in Indore over Pathaan protests

The video of the Bajrang Dal members allegedly raising slogans against Prophet Muhammad went viral on social media on Wednesdau.

After the Bollywood megastar Shah Rukh Khan and his film ‘Pathaan’ are facing backlash for showing Deepika Padukone in a saffron bikini in the song ‘Besharam Rang’. Many leaders, including from the Vishwa Hindu Parishad have demanded a ban on the film.

Made-in-India GE jet engines sought in closer US security ties

India and US are all set to advance their defence cooperation. In collaboration with the Defense Research and Development private manufacturer of defence equipment, the Joe Biden administration has already given the green light for General Electric (GE), a world leader in military jet engines, to produce 98 kilo-newton thrust GEF414 engines in India. Both the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft, which is now under construction and will have twin engines, and the LCA (Light Combat Aircraft) Mark II will be powered by the India-specific GE-414 INS6 engine, which will be introduced by Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) early next year and enter service by the end of 2024. According to a Hindustan times (HT) report, the GE-414 engine will be produced under conditions that involve a complete transfer of technology (ToT). A high-level team of the Indian govt, which is now in the US under the leadership of NSA (National Security Advisor) Ajit Doval, is anticipated

DRDO director Samir V Kamat, principal scientific adviser Ajay Sood, secretary (telecom) K Rajaram, and scientific adviser to Raksha Mantri Satheesh Reddy have also joined Doval in the bilateral discussion on “Critical and Emerging Technologies” with US NSA Jake Sullivan.

India stands with Adani amid billionaire’s Hindenburg battle

“IndiaStandsWithAdani” was among the top trending hashtags on Twitter in response to losses totalling $65 billion for Adani group stocks since last week’s Hindenburg Research report, which flagged concerns over its debt levels and use of tax havens.

Many Indians voiced their support for Gautam Adani on Tuesday as the school dropoutturned-billionaire sealed a $2.5 billion share sale in the face of criticism from a U.S. short-seller. “IndiaStandsWithAdani” was among the top trending hashtags on Twitter in response to losses totalling $65 billion for Adani group stocks since last week’s Hindenburg Research report, which flagged concerns over its debt levels and use of tax havens.

“I am proud of my country’s billionaire. Indians will not get fooled ... India will not bend in front of any foreign power,” tweeted Mukund Jethava, a member of the IT unit of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in Gujarat state.

Support online mirrored financial backing for Adani Enterprises, which despite having 30% anchor bids for its share sale last week had only amassed 3% subscriptions by Monday in the public offering, amid concerns it could fail.

India has become our largest site outside US, says Boeing India President Salil Gupte

India has become the largest site for Boeing outside the US in terms of manufacturing and workforce, its India President Salil Gupte said, underscoring the region’s importance for the aircraft major.

“India is leading the way. It is not just building something that is already built somewhere. India is leading in innovation at Boeing…To me, that’s an example of what India can make and accomplish and we are excited about this market,” he said.

Gupte’s words come at a time when there are talks about Air India securing around 190 Boeing 737 MAX narrow-body planes along with 20 Boeing 787s and 10 Boeing 777X.

“Today the demand for aircraft has jumped high. There is no surprise that Air India is looking for more aircraft. They are going to talk to Boeing, Air Bus, and everyone to match that demand,” Gupte said adding that the times are very exciting for the aviation industry. Boeing has around 300 suppliers in India and 70 are MSMEs, Gupte said.

Tory peer accused of ‘racially charged’ attack

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, still licking his wounds from the Nadhim Zahawi affair, is being drawn into a fresh crisis following inflammatory and apparently racist remarks made by senior Tory peer Rami Ranger about British Pakistanis.

Lord Ranger, who has given more than £1m to the Conservatives, is patron of the Conservative Friends of India group. Fellow patrons include former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith, former Prime Minister Theresa May - and

Sunak. Significantly, Security Minister Tom Tugendhat is another patron.

Lord Ranger’s remarks came in the wake of this month’s BBC documentary series on Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s relationship with India’s Muslims. After the first episode, which featured a UK government report that criticised Modi’s conduct during the 2002 anti-Muslim pogrom in Gujarat, the Indian government invoked emergency laws to ban the documentary.

India’s regulator discussed Adani firms with ratings agencies

India’s market regulator met with ratings agencies to discuss Adani Group companies, according to people familiar with the matter, after a short-seller’s scathing report eroded more than $69 billion of the conglomerate’s stock market value. Assessors including Crisil Ltd., the local arm of S&P Global Ratings, made a presentation to the Securities and Exchange Board of India in recent days, said the people, who declined to be identified as the discussions were private.

The finances of companies backed by Gautam Adani, Asia’s richest man, have come into focus after short seller Hindenburg Research accused the group of corporate malpractice. But there has been no suggestion it would struggle to make debt payments or that the meeting with ratings agencies is more than routine dialog.

Punjab given a raw deal in budget: CM Mann

The Centre has sought a revenge from the Punjabis for the farm agitation by ignoring the minimum support price (MSP) of crops in the Union Budget, said Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann. He slammed the Central Government for presenting an anti-Punjab, anti-people, anti-farmers and a directionless Union

Budget. “The government has not even made a mention of the issue and farmers once again have been left to fend for themselves,” CM Mann said.

“Punjab, in fact, was missing from the country’s Budget and we know this is being done intentionally,” he said. Punjab Govt, in its pre-Budget

Govt to provide job to former hockey player currently working as (‘Palledar’) loader

During his interaction, the chief minister said that Paramjeet will be recruited as a hockey coach in the sports department and soon formalities in this regard will be completed.

On being asked whether the earlier government took note of his plight, the ex-hockey player replied, “No, did not get any response”. Mann said that it is our duty to respect the players.

Paramjeet also told Mann that he wants to make his son a hockey player but it seems

CBI registers preliminary enquiry against Police Commissioner

The CBI has registered a preliminary enquiry against Jalandhar Police Commissioner Kuldeep Singh Chahal for alleged corruption and misconduct during his tenure as the SSP, Chandigarh, officials said on Thursday.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has launched the enquiry on a reference from Punjab Governor and Chandigarh Administrator Banwarilal Purohit, they added. The 2009-batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, who was on deputation in Chandigarh, was sent back to his parent cadre,

Punjab govt to send 36 school principals to Singapre for training

Head teachers from 36 Punjab govt schools will leave for Singapore to attend training programme, CM Mann said.

The AAP had given a “guarantee” to transform the state’s education system in the run-up to last year’s assembly elections, he said. Since teachers are nation builders who can lift the level of education, it was guaranteed that their teaching skills would be upgraded by ensuring quality training, Mann added.

Mann said the 36 principals would travel for the training programme as part of this guarantee. They will take part in a professional teachers’ training seminar in Singapore from February 6-10, the chief minister said according to an official statement.

Pakistan

Govt can’t afford to spend Rs14bn on Imran Khan’s contest by-election stand from 33 constituencies

Former Prime Minister Imran Khan opts for solo run on 33 National Assembly seats in by-elections. It’s people’s democratic right to select their political representatives through free and fair elections. Unfortunately, Former Prime Minister, Imran Khan & Chairperson Tehreek-e-Insaaf party, has turned this right into a political joke.

Khan has decided to contest by-elections on 33 National Assembly seats to be held on March 16. The seats vacated after PTI parliamentarians resignations. The election act and rules do not put a bar on any candidate to context more than one constituency on national and /or provincial level.

Peshawar mosque bombing attack kills 100

Peshawar mosque bombing has underscored a resurgence in militant attacks in recent months in Pakistan. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, in which more than 100 people were killed, but officials believe it was launched by Islamist militants. The powerful blast blew away the wall of the prayer hall and an inner roof.

The outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the attack. It later distanced itself from it but sources earlier indicated that it might have been the handiwork of some local faction of the outlawed group. that the rescue and search operation at the blast site has been completed, after almost 24 hours. In a media briefing at the Police Lines on Tuesday Jah Ansari said that the most pertinent question at the moment was how a “suicide bomber” was able to enter Police Lines and go to the mosque.

Govt braces for fuel shortages amid liquidity crisis

Pakistan could face a crunch in fuel supplies in February as banks have stopped financing and facilitating payments for imports due to depleting foreign exchange reserves, traders and industry sources said.

The South Asian nation is facing a balance of payments crisis and the plummeting value of the Pakistani rupee is pushing up the price of imported goods. Energy comprises a large chunk of Pakistan’s import bill.

Pakistan typically meets more than a third of its annual power demand using imported natural gas, prices for which shot up following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine “There is no shortage this fortnight.

Gilgit-Baltistan, Kashmir short on food, fuel & finance

In a contrast that may seem cruel, Pakistans snow-bound north is feeling the heat of shortages of food, fuel and finance — and frustration among the people of the tourist paradise is causing angry protests.

Long years of neglect are showing. Angry demonstrations have dotted

Pakistan-governed Kashmir and the remote Gilgit-Baltistan provinces where people find even wheat flour, a basic daily necessity, getting out of their reach. The provincial administrations are running short of funds allotted for wheat purchases.

National Federation Party claims Bainimarama lied in Parliament

The National Federation Party has called on the former Prime Minister and Minister for Sugar to inform Fijians, particularly cane growers, how the Fiji Sugar Corporation executives were receiving half a million dollars annually.

General Secretary Seini Nabou claims that Bainimarama lied to Parliament on February 14, 2019, when he stated that an investigation had commenced and was ongoing regarding alleged financial abuse and mismanagement by the former CEO of FSC. Nabou states that revelations about the salaries of FSC executive management,

Khaiyum terminated by Fijian Broadcasting Corporation Board

The Fijian Broadcasting Corporation Board terminated the contract of FBC

In a statement, Board Chair Ajay Amrit says they have no confidence in the ability of the current CEO.

Amrit says Chief Finance Officer Vimlesh Sagar will act in this position until such time as the Board can confidently appoint a person with the appropriate commercial competency and attributes needed to lead the company. He says the board has also been made aware that the CEO of FBC earns considerably more than government ministers and even the Prime Minister, which was a shock to the board, adding that it would be a shock

He further stated that accountability and transparency have been brought up in Parliament many times over the past few years,

Minister of Home Affairs visits Commander Military Forces

The Minister of Home Affairs and Immigration Honorable (Hon) Pio Tikoduadua visited the Commander Republic of Fiji Military Forces (CRFMF), Major-General Ro Jone

Kalouniwai at the Strategic Headquarters (SHQ) in Berkeley Crescent in Suva. Tikoduadua’s visit to the RFMF SHQ is the first after he took office as the Minister of Home Affairs and Immigration late last year.

Fiji Labour Party Leader Mahendra Chaudhry says former Supervisor of Elections Mohammed Saneem should not be allowed to get away by simply resigning. In a statement, Chaudhry says the resignation raises a lot of questions. The former Prime Minister says Saneem’s

Saneem’s resignation should not be accepted until all allegations against him are cleared resignation should not be accepted until all allegations against him are cleared, adding Saneem should be put through the due process of the law and held answerable to all allegations made against him. ChaudhryhasalsoquestionedifSaneem’s resignation is an admission of guilt.