Rawalpindi: A total of 293 people have been killed and 521 others injured in 436 terrorist attacks in Pakistan since January this year, the military’s media wing ISPR said.
In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, 192 people were killed and 330 injured in 219 incidents, whereas Balochistan reported 80 fatalities and 170 wounded persons in 206 attacks, said Director General (DG) of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry at a press briefing.
A total of 21 people were killed and 21 others injured in 11 incidents in Punjab and Sindh provinces, he told reporters here.
The DG added that this year, the security forces conducted 8,269 major and minor intelligence-based operations in which 1,535 terrorists were either killed or arrested.
An average of over 70 operations are being conducted by police, security forces, and other law enforcement agencies on a daily basis across the country, the official said.
“Due to untiring efforts of the public and army, there is no no-go area in Pakistan. However, in some areas, several groups of terrorists are active which are being eliminated on a daily basis. During these operations huge cache of arms and ammunition has been recovered from terrorists and their handlers,” he said.
The fatalities in the operations included 137 army personnel while there were 117 injured persons, he said, adding that “the war against terrorism will continue till elimination of the last terrorist”.
Talking about the internally displaced people, following operations in tribal areas, he said that 95 per cent of them returned home after the restoration of peace.
Mumbai: Police on Tuesday arrested 111 people, most of them women, during a protest against a proposed oil refinery at Barsu village in Maharashtra’s coastal Ratnagiri district, an official said.
More than 100 women were among the protesters who tried to block a road in Barsu and Solgaon areas of the district, around 400km from Mumbai, by lying on the ground to stop government vehicles from entering the proposed site of the refinery, he said.
The protesters were booked under IPC sections related to unlawful assembly, rioting, disobedience to an order lawfully promulgated by a public servant, wrongful restraint and relevant provisions of the Maharashtra Police Act, the official said, adding they will be produced before a court at Rajapur town in Ratnagiri district on Wednesday.
Local residents fear the mega project will adversely affect the fragile biodiversity of the coastal Konkan region and also hit their livelihood. The Opposition Shiv Sena (UBT) came out in their support and demanded an immediate end to “atrocities” against protesters.
A government team was scheduled to conduct a survey at the site in Barsu and Solgaon areas of Rajapur, on Monday, but locals started staging protests, the official said.
During the protest, women lay on the ground to prevent vehicles of the district administration and police from entering the areas, he said.
Considering the law and order situation, hundreds of police personnel were deployed at the project site, the official said.
Ratnagiri Superintendent of Police Dhananjay Kulkarni and other senior police officials were at the spot to avoid any untoward incident, he said.
Opposition leader Ajit Pawar of the NCP earlier in the day demanded that protests by locals against the refinery project be handled sensitively and urged that the state government stop the survey work till a peaceful solution was found.
Shiv Sena (UBT) Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut demanded an immediate end to “atrocities” against locals and asserted his party will not sit quietly on the issue and back the people.
Talking to reporters, Raut alleged the protesters were being pressurised by Industries Minister Uday Samant with the help of police.
“This is a government with a perverse mentality. They want a Jallianwala Bagh-like massacre. We are with people and the Shiv Sena (UBT) will not sit quiet,” Raut said.
He said Chief Minister Eknath Shinde thinks he is a “messiah” of the poor, but has left on a three-day “leave” in a helicopter, a reference to the CM going to his hometown in Satara district.
Shinde should instead take the helicopter to Barsu and meet the protesters there, said the Rajya Sabha member.
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader and former minister Aaditya Thackeray said, “The government should stop atrocities on people and also the soil survey.”
The former state environment minister said the government should start a dialogue with the agitating local residents.
The previous Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government had put some conditions before giving a nod to the project which included taking the locals into confidence and explaining the details of the venture and its benefits, Thackeray said.
Grimes has welcomed musicians to create new songs with her voice using Artificial Intelligence, saying she would split 50% of royalties on any successful AI-generated track that included her voice.
The Canadian singer, whose real name is Claire Boucher, tweeted that it was the “same deal as I would with any artist I collab[orate] with. Feel free to use my voice without penalty,” she tweeted.
She said she was interested in being a “guinea pig” and she thought “it’s cool to be fused with a machine and I like the idea of open sourcing all art and killing copyright”.
I’ll split 50% royalties on any successful AI generated song that uses my voice. Same deal as I would with any artist i collab with. Feel free to use my voice without penalty. I have no label and no legal bindings. pic.twitter.com/KIY60B5uqt
The music industry is currently entering unparalleled territory as it tries to keep up with the implications of a spate of songs created by training AI to generate artists’ voices.
Last week, Universal Music successfully petitioned TikTok, YouTube and Spotify to remove a track titled Heart On My Sleeve, which used AI vocals generated from their artists Drake and the Weeknd.
It was just one of several recently released tracks that featured AI-generated vocals based on Drake, who does not seem to be as enthused as Grimes. The rapper recently wrote: “This is the final straw AI,” on an Instagram story, referring to a version of Ice Spice’s song Munch that was released with a fake verse by him.
In a statement, the label said “the training of generative AI using our artists’ music” was “a violation of copyright law”. However, Universal’s position has not been tested in court, and it remains a legal grey area whether art that is created by a human, but which contains AI elements, can be copyrighted.
In October, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) warned that AI companies were violating copyrights en masse by using music to train their machines.
However, last month the US Copyright Office ruled that AI-generated art, including music, can’t be copyrighted as it is “not the product of human authorship”.
On Twitter, Grimes wrote she is working on software “that should simulate my voice well”, but would also consider releasing vocal tracks for people to use to train AI.
When asked what she would do if people used her voice to create racist or violent content, she wrote that she “may do copyright takedowns ONLY for rly rly toxic lyrics” or songs that were “anti-abortion or [something] like that”.
“That’s the only rule… [I] don’t wanna be responsible for a Nazi anthem unless it’s somehow in jest, a la Producers I guess,” she said.
Grimes, who has two children with SpaceX founder and Twitter CEO Elon Musk, has explored the quandaries posed by AI in tracks such as Flesh Without Blood. In 2020, she collaborated with music company Endel to create an AI-generated lullaby for her son X Æ A-12.
“I think AI is great,” she told the New York Times. “Creatively, I think AI can replace humans. And so I think at some point, we will want to, as a species, have a discussion about how involved AI will be in art.”
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
Yusuf Islam, the musician formerly known as Cat Stevens, has addressed King Charles III ahead of his coronation with a 10-point list entitled Manifesto for a Good King.
“Even if you are a King, you are still a servant of God”, the list begins, and goes on to include instructions to “feed the hungry”, “help the sick and homeless”, “beware of negative people in your circle” and “listen to constructive criticism”.
In an additional message, the 74-year-old singer-songwriter said: “One of the privileges of being an artist is to express what seems unimaginable, and then hang it up there for people to ponder; we can say things that others can’t. Sure, I know full well music can’t necessarily solve the world’s problems, but it can help to direct the narrative.”
He released a new single, the title track from upcoming album King of a Land, alongside the manifesto, and said that the major message of the track – to not “forget that there’s One above you, and be careful to look out for those who are below you” – applies to all of those in leadership positions.
The song is Islam’s first release since 2020’s Tea for the Tillerman 2, a reworking of his 1970 album, and his first brand new music since 2017.
He began releasing music in 1966, putting out 11 albums within the first 12 years of his career. After converting to Islam in 1977, and subsequently adopting the name Yusuf Islam, he ceased releasing music in 1979, auctioning all his guitars for charity and instead choosing to devote himself to running Islamic schools for children.
He returned to pop music in 2006 with An Other Cup, his first release under the name Yusuf, an alias he continued to perform under for his next two albums, 2009’s Roadsigner and 2014’s Tell ’Em I’m Gone.
Now known professionally as Yusuf/Cat Stevens, the artist has long used music as a tool to engage with current affairs and to open up conversations with leaders and political figures.
In 2016, he performed in a rare live concert by the Houses of Parliament to coincide with the release of his single He Was Alone, which draws attention to the plight of lone child refugees.
Speaking at the time, he said: “I have agencies saying to me: ‘We can get you so many millions [to do a tour],’ but I am not interested in that. I am more interested in the cause and in bridge-building.”
To honour 2021’s International Day of Peace, he recorded a new version of his 1971 hit Peace Train in collaboration with over 25 musicians from 12 countries, raising money for Playing for Change, an initiative that builds music and art schools for children.
Alongside his musical endeavours, he is also at the helm of the charity Peace Train, which provides food, safe water and playgrounds across the world.
Early last year, the organisation supplied widowed families in Sindh, Pakistan with livestock, tools and seeds; in October, he performed in Istanbul and Ankara to raise money for the charity.
King of a Land, his 17th studio album, is said to be more than a decade in the making; across its 12 songs, he invites the listener to imagine an alternative universe, “where happy endings can possibly happen”.
The full album will be released on 16 June.
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Yusuf/Cat Stevens’ Manifesto for a Good King in full
1. Even if you are a King, you are still a servant of God.
2. Remove hatred through education and spread peace.
3. Feed the hungry.
4. We are all humans that make mistakes, so be forgiving.
5. Help the sick and homeless.
6. Beware of negative people in your circle.
7. Everyone has a part to play, teach them to work together.
8. Be just and don’t show favouritism.
9. Listen to constructive criticism.
10. Be a guardian to all faiths, and the precious Earth we all share.
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#Beware #negative #people #Yusuf #Islam #writes #manifesto #King #Charles #III
( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
Harry Belafonte was a hero of mine. He meant everything to me. I met him around the release of 12 Years a Slave, and he became a mentor. I received a best director award at the New York Film Critics Circle awards and Harry gave an amazing speech: he talked about seeing Johnny Weissmuller as Tarzan at the cinema as a child and how the depiction of people of African descent made him feel being ashamed to be Black.
Look what he did – he was the first person to make an album that sold more than 1m records. He was Martin Luther King’s closest confidant and he supported his family. He was the main organiser to get Hollywood people involved in the civil rights movement, bringing people like Sidney Poitier. He was close to Bobby Kennedy, Eleanor Roosevelt. And he was an artist, and he was an actor; he studied with Brando, Brando was one of his best friends. He really was a renaissance man if there ever was one, and extraordinarily good looking. He had everything, but his service was always to his people. He told me that the civil rights days were scary – what he sacrificed and what he did for the good of people was incredible.
Harry didn’t compromise. When he wasn’t getting the roles that he thought that he deserved, he just went and did his music. And I think that vision came from his mentor Paul Robeson, who said: “Why don’t you sing your song?”
Harry understood that he was a Black man of the diaspora – his background was in Jamaica, his upbringing was in America, and he travelled the world as a Black man in the entertainment industry. He was an American but an internationalist – a man of the world. He was in Africa, he was in Cuba, he was in eastern Europe. Harry’s reach was global – he was world famous. His drive was incredible. He didn’t stop until he dropped.
‘I did all that I could’: A look back at the life and career of Harry Belafonte – video
We had plans to make a film about Robeson and we worked on it for a little while, but some things don’t always come together. The last time I heard from Harry was when I got a text from him and his wife Pam saying that they’d just watched Small Axe: “Brilliant, bravo, we send our love and thoughts through these crazy times, Pam and Harry.”
A child of the West Indies growing up in America and reaching the heights of international stardom. That was Harry. I loved him very, very much.
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
Mysuru: Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Tuesday held a massive roadshow in Krishnarajanagara here waving at a large enthusiastic crowd along the route, seeking people’s support ahead of the May 10 Assembly polls in Karnataka.
Standing atop a specially-designed vehicle, she was greeted by the crowd gathered on the sides of the roads and on nearby buildings.
Large number of party workers holding Congress flags were seen marching along with the vehicle, as it passed through the streets, amid drum beats and slogans like ‘Congress Congress’ and ‘Priyanka Gandhi ki jai’.
Vadra was accompanied by AICC General Secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala and other local party leaders.
She even clicked a selfie from the vehicle for an “admirer” standing on the road, and shook hands with a couple of them.
Addressing the people at the end of the roadshow, she urged them to change the government in Karnataka which is “looting” them.
“For the sake of your future, vote for Congress and bringing in a new government which will usher in a new hope in Karnataka,” she added.
Earlier in the day at a Congress public meeting, Vadra accused the BJP government in Karnataka of rampant corruption and charged that Rs 1.5 lakh crore has been “looted” from the state by the ruling dispensation.
The Congress leader later also interacted with women in Hanur town of Chamarajanagar district where she spoke to a couple of women personally and tried to understand their issues. She urged women voters not to take this election lightly, and said it is important for the future of their children and youth.
The Congress is going all out to unseat the ruling BJP in Karnataka and form the next government.
Voting is scheduled on May 10 and the results will be out on May 13.
Amaravati: With an aim to educate people from the state who seek to move to countries in the Middle-East to eke out a living, from being duped by unscrupulous agents, the Andhra Pradesh Non-Resident Telugu Society (APNRTS) is organising workshop in West Godavari district on Tuesday.
The society is planning to organise the workshops in parts of the southern state which see high numbers of migrations abroad for a living.
“Many people go to the Gulf countries from our state but a lot of them get deceived by unscrupulous agents’ words without proper awareness to face hardships,” the society, an entity of the Andhra government, said in a press release on Monday.
APNRTS called on people planning to migrate overseas, including NGOs and recruitment agents to attend the session and get their doubts clarified. The helpline numbers are: 0863-2340678 and 8500027678, for the same purpose.
Civil Supplies Minister Karumuri Venkata Nageshwara Rao and senior officials from the district administration will attend the workshop.
The society works for the safety and welfare of expatriates from Andhra Pradesh spread across the globe, including offering several other services useful for them.
Chennai: DNA samples of 11 people will be collected on Tuesday in connection with the Vengavayil case in which human feces were found dumped in a water tank that supplies drinking water to a Dalit colony.
According to sources, the DNA samples, including that of policemen, are to be collected at Pudukkottai Government Medical College.
The move follows a directive from a Pudukkottai special court. The court has also directed the presence of an Assistant professor of Pudukottai Government Medical College when samples are taken.
The shocking incident of human excreta found in an overhead water tank that supplies drinking water to a Dalit colony in Vengavayil in Pudukottai district had hit national headlines.
Presence of human waste was detected after a test was conducted in the drinking water since many people in the colony fell ill. The incident occurred in December and after initial investigations by the local police, the Crime Branch CID is now investigating the case.
Several Dalit outfits, including the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK), have been insisting on transferring the case to the CBI.
The DNA test is being conducted to identify the people whose feces were found in the overhead water tank.
The only Australian to play an official role in the coronation of King Charles III lives in the small Victorian town of Wangaratta – but most in the town have never heard of him.
Simon Abney-Hastings, the 15th Earl of Loudon, is one of 13 people appointed to play a ceremonial role at the 6 May ceremony.
In a statement provided to some media outlets, his private secretary, Terence Guthridge, said Abney-Hastings was “delighted” to have been invited to be the bearer of the great golden spurs, a part of the ceremony dating back to the coronation of Richard I (Richard the Lionheart), in 1189.
The mayor of the Rural City of Wangaratta, Dean Rees, learned of Abney-Hastings only recently, from media reports. Journalists from Melbourne have been scouting around the town trying to catch a glimpse of the royal, and his face was on the front page of the local independent newspaper, the Wangaratta Chronicle, on Friday.
“We certainly did not know that we had an earl – what is he, the 15th Earl of Loudon?” Rees told Guardian Australia. “He keeps a very low profile.”
Wangaratta, famously described as a ‘horrible town’ by Nick Cave Photograph: Stuart Walmsley/The Guardian
Wangaratta is not the easiest town in which to keep a low profile: it has just under 30,000 residents and only three supermarkets. Shoppers trying to navigate the grocery aisles at Woolworths on Saturday morning have to dodge around clusters of people who have stopped for a chat.
The north-east Victorian town had one of the highest growth rates in the state in 2021, due in part to mass regional migration during Melbourne’s extended Covid lockdowns. In the past decade it has undergone a rebranding from an industrial town, powered by employers such as Bruck Textiles, which collapsed in 2014, to a gateway to the Milawa and King Valley wine and food regions.
Rees said Abney-Hastings clearly valued his privacy “and we have got to respect his wishes”.
“He is a resident of Wangaratta and we are very proud to have him,” he said. “I hope he doesn’t have too many issues from the media as to his privacy.”
Abney-Hastings’ desire for privacy does not extend to Facebook, where he regularly updates his 991 followers about the Melbourne Highland Games and Celtic Festival, of of which he is a patron.
He also posted that he was “delighted and sincerely honoured to accept the invitation by the Crown to perform the Bearer of the Great Golden Spurs”.
The gold spurs feature a Tudor rose and a red velvet covered strap, and symbolise knighthood. The set currently in circulation was made in 1661 for Charles II. They were traditionally fastened to the sovereign’s feet but are now just held up to their ankles, then placed on the altar.
The 48-year-old is a direct descendent of George Plantagenet, the brother of Edward IV and Richard III, through his grandmother, Barbara Huddleston Abney-Hastings. Some historians have claimed that Edward was illegitimate and that George, as the eldest legitimate son, should have inherited. In 2004, a Channel 4 documentary entitled Britain’s Real Monarch asserted that Michael Abney-Hastings, the current earl’s father, was, as George Plantagenet’s eldest heir, the rightful king of England.
The Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, visits a winery near his home town during last year’s Victorian election campaign. Photograph: Luis Ascui/AAP
In a statement to Nine Newspapers, Guthridge acknowledged the claim, saying that “as a direct descendant of George Plantagenet, Simon Abney-Hastings has a right to inherit the throne of England”. But he added that the earl was a loyal supporter of the late Queen and her eldest son and had no intention of asserting himself.
“Indeed, they exchange birthday or Christmas cards each year,” the statement said.
But a claim to the English throne is not enough to make him one of Wangaratta’s most famous residents. That honour, says Rees, is a three-way tie between Nick Cave, who was expelled from Wangaratta high school at the age of 13 and later described it as a “horrible town” that inspired his bleak artistic vision; the Olympic cyclist Dean Woods, who won gold in the team pursuit at Los Angeles in 1984 and whose name and achievements adorn signs welcoming visitors to the town; and the current Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews.
Rex Hartwig, a two-time Wimbledon doubles champion who retired to a property on the outskirts of town, and the bushranger Ned Kelly, who did not even live in Wangaratta but hid out in the Warby Ranges and was arrested in the nearby village of Glenrowan, also rank before Abney-Hastings in a list of Wangaratta royalty.
A ceremonial role in the coronation is not likely to bump him up the list, Rees said.
“He might get some photos over there with the king that might make it into the paper, and it will all slow down from there,” he said.
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
Geneva: The World Health Organization (WHO) said that 413 people have died in the current Sudan conflict, while the UN children’s agency said children are paying a high price, with at least nine reportedly killed in the fighting and more than 50 badly injured, Turkish News Agency Anadolu reported.
WHO spokesperson Margaret Harris told in a UN press conference that according to figures from the government in Sudan, 413 people have died and 3,551 injured in the conflict.
The fighting is part of ongoing clashes between the country’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). She said there had been 11 verified attacks on health facilities, including 10 since April 15.
“According to the Ministry of Health in Sudan, the number of health facilities that have stopped working is 20. And also, according to Ministry of Health numbers, the number of health facilities at risk of stopping is 12,” said Harris.
“So this means that all those people who need care, and this is not only the people who’ve been injured hearings, terrible fighting, but that the people who were needing treatment before and continuing treatment,” are impacted, said the WHO spokesperson, Anadolu reported.
At the same press conference, UNICEF spokesperson James Elder said, “Clearly, as ever, the fighting takes a devastating toll on children.
“We now have reports of at least nine children killed and at least 50 injured. Those numbers will continue to rise as long as fighting continues,” he added.
Elder said large numbers of people are trapped and do not have access to electricity, Anadolu reported. “They’re terrified of running out of food, water, and medicines,” he said, adding, “One of our grave concerns is around hospitals that have come under fire.”
Elder said Sudan already had one of the world’s highest malnutrition rates among children. “And we’ve now got a situation where critical life-saving support for around 50,000 children is at risk,” said the UNICEF spokesperson.
The fighting also puts at risk “the cold chain” in Sudan, including over USD 40 million worth of vaccines and insulin, due to breaks in the power supply and the inability to restock generators with fuel, said Elder.
UNICEF also has reports of children sheltering in schools and care centres while fighting rages around them and of children’s hospitals forced to evacuate as shelling moves closer, Anadolu reported.
Elder said before the escalation in violence in Sudan, the humanitarian needs of children in the country were high, with three-quarters of children estimated to live in extreme poverty.
At the same time, 11.5 million children and community members needed emergency water and sanitation services, 7 million children were out of school, and more than 600,000 children suffered from severe acute malnutrition.
Fighting erupted last Saturday between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in the capital Khartoum and its surroundings, Anadolu reported.
Sudan has been without a functioning government since October 2021, when the military dismissed Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok’s transitional government and declared a state of emergency in what political forces called a “coup.” (ANI)
