Roadside bomb attack misses Afghan vice president, but kills 10

A roadside bomb in Kabul targeted first Afghan Vice President Amrullah Saleh on Wednesday morning but he escaped unharmed, his spokesman said. The attack killed at least 10 people.

The Taliban denied involvement in the attack, which comes just ahead of long-awaited peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban in Qatar’s capital Doha.

“Today, once again the enemy of Afghanistan tried to harm Saleh, but they failed in their evil aim, and Saleh escaped the attack unharmed,” Razwan Murad, a spokesman for Saleh’s office, wrote on Facebook.

He told Reuters the bomb targeted Saleh’s convoy and some of his bodyguards were injured.

Saleh appeared in a video on his social media accounts soon after, saying he had sustained a minor burn on his face and an injury to his hand in the attack.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a post on Twitter that Taliban fighters were not involved in the blast.

The former intelligence chief and the senior of President Ashraf Ghani’s two vice-presidents, has survived several assassination attempts, including one on his office last year that killed 20 people.

Wednesday’s blast killed at least 10 civilians and wounded 15 people including Saleh’s security guards, according to the interior ministry.

“Such attacks won’t weaken our resolve for a lasting and dignified peace in Afghanistan,” Javid Faisal, spokesman for the National Security Council, said in a tweet.

International powers including the European Union and Pakistan also condemned the attack.

“This is an attack on the Republic, & desperate act by spoilers of peace efforts, who must be collectively confronted,” the EU Delegation in Afghanistan said in a statement on Twitter.

Officials and diplomats have warned that rising violence is sapping trust needed for the success of talks aimed at ending an insurgency that began when the Taliban was ousted from power in Kabul by U.S.-back forces in late 2001.

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Roadside bomb attack misses Afghan vice president, but kills 10

A roadside bomb in Kabul targeted first Afghan Vice President Amrullah Saleh on Wednesday morning but he escaped unharmed, his spokesman said. The attack killed at least 10 people.

The Taliban denied involvement in the attack, which comes just ahead of long-awaited peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban in Qatar’s capital Doha.

“Today, once again the enemy of Afghanistan tried to harm Saleh, but they failed in their evil aim, and Saleh escaped the attack unharmed,” Razwan Murad, a spokesman for Saleh’s office, wrote on Facebook.

He told Reuters the bomb targeted Saleh’s convoy and some of his bodyguards were injured.

Saleh appeared in a video on his social media accounts soon after, saying he had sustained a minor burn on his face and an injury to his hand in the attack.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a post on Twitter that Taliban fighters were not involved in the blast.

The former intelligence chief and the senior of President Ashraf Ghani’s two vice-presidents, has survived several assassination attempts, including one on his office last year that killed 20 people.

Wednesday’s blast killed at least 10 civilians and wounded 15 people including Saleh’s security guards, according to the interior ministry.

“Such attacks won’t weaken our resolve for a lasting and dignified peace in Afghanistan,” Javid Faisal, spokesman for the National Security Council, said in a tweet.

International powers including the European Union and Pakistan also condemned the attack.

“This is an attack on the Republic, & desperate act by spoilers of peace efforts, who must be collectively confronted,” the EU Delegation in Afghanistan said in a statement on Twitter.

Officials and diplomats have warned that rising violence is sapping trust needed for the success of talks aimed at ending an insurgency that began when the Taliban was ousted from power in Kabul by U.S.-back forces in late 2001.

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WHO says vaccine safety top priority, as AstraZeneca pauses study

Safety of a prospective COVID-19 vaccine comes “first and foremost”, the World Health Organization’s chief scientist said on Wednesday, as a trial of a leading candidate from AstraZeneca was paused due to concerns over side effects.

Rollout of an effective vaccine is seen as a crucial step in helping battered economies recover from the coronavirus pandemic.

“Just because we talk about speed...it doesn’t mean we start compromising or cutting corners on what would normally be assessed,” Dr. Soumya Swaminathan said in a social media event.

“The process still has to follow through rules of the game. For drugs and vaccines which are given to people, you have to test their safety, first and foremost,” she said.

WHO officials did not immediately respond directly to questions from Reuters over the move by AstraZeneca to pause global trials, including large late-stage trials, of its experimental coronavirus vaccine due to an unexplained illness in a study participant.

The vaccine, which AstraZeneca is developing with the University of Oxford, has previously been described by the WHO as probably the world’s leading candidate and the most advanced in terms of development.

The WHO is in the midst of rounding up support for a global coalition, called the ACT Accelerator, in the hope of fairly distributing vaccines, treatments and diagnostics for the new coronavirus to rich and poor countries alike. In addition to 92 lower-income countries seeking aid, some 79 wealthier countries have expressed interest, with a Sept. 18 deadline for binding commitments.

But some countries that have struck their own vaccine deals, including the United States which is not joining the WHO effort.

The vaccine pillar of ACT, called COVAX, hopes to secure enough vaccine to deliver 2 billion doses by the end of 2021, though concrete fund raising has, so far, lagged goals. Volume buying and possible tiered pricing offered by some manufacturers could help make a vaccine more affordable, Swaminathan said.

“You need to come together. Essentially, if every country and every organisation tries to do this on their own, it’s going to be long and hard and difficult,” she said. “This is the first time that the world will need vaccines in the billions of doses.”

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Huawei to share progress on Android rival Harmony OS

Huawei Technologies is expected to respond on Thursday to the latest salvo of US technology restrictions against it and share its progress on developing a system that is seen as its best bet to replace Google’s Android mobile operating system.

Richard Yu, the head of Huawei’s consumer business group, will deliver a keynote speech at its annual developers conference in Dongguan, in what is expected to mark the company’s first official response to the Trump administration’s efforts to bar its access to chips.

In August the U.S. expanded earlier restrictions aimed at preventing Huawei from obtaining semiconductors without a special license – including chips made by foreign firms that have been developed or produced with U.S. software or technology.

Analysts said the restrictions threaten Huawei’s crown as the world’s largest smartphone maker, and that its smartphone business would disappear entirely if it could not source chipsets.

With U.S.-China relations at their worst in decades, Washington is pushing governments around to world to squeeze out Huawei, arguing it would hand over data to the Chinese government for spying. Huawei denies it spies for China.

Huawei will also reveal its progress in developing its proprietary Harmony operating system, which it has billed as an multi-device platform across watches, laptops and mobiles, rather than as a like-for-like challenger to Google’s Android mobile operating system. It unveiled the system for the first time at last year’s developers conference.

“We will introduce the community to a range of new technology developments, including HMS Core 5.0 and EMUI 11, and provide opportunities to discuss directly and openly with our engineers and management these new technologies and market opportunities,” a Huawei spokesman said, noting that it has 1.6 million developers onboard worldwide.

Huawei’s addition to the U.S. entity list in May last year barred Google from providing technical support for new Huawei phone models using Android, and from Google Mobile Services (GMS), the bundle of developer services upon which most Android apps are based.

The company is likely to focus on HarmonyOS’s application in devices like wearables and smartscreens, rather than in the smartphone business that is being heavily affected by the U.S. action, said Will Wong, an analyst with consultancy IDC.

It will not want to present HarmonyOS as a genuine Google alternative ahead of the U.S. election in November, in the hope that it might regain access to Google after that, he said.

A key challenge for Huawei is to show that its proprietary AppGallery and Huawei Mobile Services can integrate local apps from different countries and regions, said Tarun Pathak, an industry analyst with Counterpoint.

“The lack of Google services seriously impacts these devices’ appeal against competitors running a full commercial version of Android,” he said.

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Meghan Markle, Prince Harry can earn upto $1 million for single speech

Meghan Markle and husband Prince Harry, who quit royal duties to become financially independent at the start of this year, can earn as much as $1 million for a single speech according to a document leaked on Tuesday.

The British media quoting the leaked document reported that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who are currently stay in Los Angeles, signed up to Harry Walker Agency, a New York-based speakers’ bureau, in June.

The agency released a four-page ‘Virtual Event Request Form’ which details the demands of Prince Harry and Meghan as virtual speakers.

According to the agency, Prince Harry and Meghan, who stepped down as senior royals earlier this year, could earn as much as $1 million for a single speech through Harry Walker Agency.

The couple also demands strict control of their virtual bookings, revealed the leaked document.

Last week, Meghan and Harry announced over $150 million lucrative deal with streaming giant Netflix to produce films and documentaries under their production company.

They have also repaid £2.4 million taxpayers’ money, they used for renovation of their Frogmore Cottage in one chunk after the deal with Netflix.

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ECC forms committee to issue 5G licence

The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) has formed a committee for finalising the process of licence issuance of 5G technology in Pakistan.

A series of decisions was taken in the today’s session of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) held under the chair of Adviser to Prime Minister on Finance Abdul Hafeez Shaikh.

The committee approved new rates for electricity and RLNG for the export sector. The new rates were approved for different genre of export units including manufacturers of carpets, leather, sports products and textile.

Moreover, the members of the committee deferred the decision for imposing a ban on exports of potatoes till next session.

The committee made progress on the introduction of 5G technology in Pakistan and constituted a committee for looking into the licencing process.

In January, the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) had green-lighted non-commercial trials for the latest 5G wireless technology for digital cellular networks in Pakistan.

The telecom authority had allowed two private mobile operators to conduct needful tests to check the usability and delivery of the technology.

Chinese and Dutch mobile operators working in Pakistan had been granted permission to conduct trials for a duration of six-months. The permission was limited to non-commercial use only and warrants no trade-off of any kind on the technology.

Later in the same month, Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry had hinted that 5G technology is at the doorstep of Pakistan and it would become a big revolution.

Fawad Chaudhry had said 5G technology is slated to be introduced around the world which would a big revolution, whereas, the people will also witness major developments in hologram technology.

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ICC T20I rankings: Babar Azam loses his No.1 spot

England’s batsman Dawid Malan has risen to No.1 spot in ICC men’s T20I rankings after showing a great batting display in the recently concluded three-match series against Australia.

Pakistan’s limited-overs captain Babar Azam has lost his No.1 spot after 22 months. He rose at the top of batting rankings in October 2018.

? Dawid Malan rises to No.1 ?

The England batsman, who topped the run-scoring charts in the #ENGvAUS series, has jumped four places on the @MRFWorldwide ICC Men's T20I Rankings ? pic.twitter.com/rLvECHFigb

— ICC (@ICC) September 9, 2020

Malan was fifth in the rankings before the start of the series. He scored 129 runs and topped the run-scoring charts.

In bowlers’ rankings, Adil Rashid has risen to No.7 spot whereas Adam Zampa has been dropped to fifth. Pakistan’s Imad Wasim and Shadab Khan are at eighth and ninth respectively.

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