Sharif inaugurates hydropower plant in PoK
Islamabad: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Monday inaugurated the first privately built hydroelectric power plant in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. The 84MW run-of-the river project at Mirpur is also the country’s first green energy project and will be registered with the United Nations’ Framework Convention on Climate Change as a clean mechanism development project. The New Bong Escape Hydro Power Project near Mangla Dam will provide energy to the national grid at half the price of thermal power stations, which provide the bulk of over 18,000 MW needed by Pakistan.
13 killed in a blast outside Syrian police hQ
Beirut: A car bomb exploded outside the police headquarters in a town north of the Syrian capital, killing at least 13 people including 10 policemen, activists said on Monday. The Britain-based Observatory for Human Rights said the blast took place overnight in the town of Deir Atiyeh, some 80 kilometres (50 miles) north of Damascus. One child was among the dead, the Observatory said.
1.11 million officials probed for corruption in China
Beijing: Chinese prosecutors are probing more than 1.11 million officials besides over 8.30 lakh enterprises for complaints of corruption as President Xi Jinping stepped up his anti-graft drive invoking Mao Zedong’s similar campaign decades ago. Chinese prosecutors received more than six lakh inquiries about bribery records involving companies or individuals in the first six months registering a 76.5 per cent rise from the same period last year, the Chinese Supreme People’s Procuratorate (SPP) said in a statement.
Asiana airlines faces govt investigation
Seoul: South Korea’s Asiana airlines will be subject of a three-week Government investigation after one of its passenger jets crash landed in San Francisco, officials said today. The transport ministry also ordered all South Korean airlines to step up safety measures and provide additional training for their pilots and crew. “South Korean airlines are required to strengthen safety measures in all areas, from flight operation, maintenance and their operation manuals to facilities,” vice transportation minister Yeo Hyung-Koo said in a statement released by his office.
USenvoy calls for dialogue, end to violence in Egypt
Cairo: Senior US diplomat Bill Burns on Monday urged Egypt's divided factions to engage in dialogue and end violence, according to comments he made in Cairo aired on Arabic television channels.Burns also condemned a fortnight of deadly attacks in the restive Sinai peninsula, but said the situation in war-ravaged Syria would not be repeated in Egypt, according to an Arabic translation.The visit by under secretary of state is the first to Egypt by a senior US official since the military toppled Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, the country's first freely elected leader, in a popularly backed coup on July 3.