Imagine zipping down a 750-foot zipline over your private lake, then taking in the beautiful Colorado views from the comfort of the expansive front porch of your log home.

"I was inspired by my sense of fashion," Ward said. "It was my first home and I wanted my home decor to represent me and my personality as much as possible. I have a lot of space so I could create different aspects of my life into each room."

A roundup of stay-at-home orders in Colorado due to the coronavirus outbreak. Read the details of the orders in San Miguel County, Denver, Boulder, Piktin County and the Southern Ute Tribe.

Islamabad : Ehsaas Emergency Cash payments to category-III beneficiaries which were identified through district administrations began on Friday.The Ehsaas Emergency Cash disbursements have been ongoing for the last one month and so far, Rs89.143 billion have been distributed cumulatively for...

Rawalpindi : Merchants while lauding decision of the government for relaxing coronavirus lockdown took a sigh of relief as Eid season is around the corner. For the last few weeks specifically following the advent of the holy month of Ramazan, there were reports that merchants were treating...

Islamabad : President Arif Alvi on Friday directed that social distancing should be maintained in the upcoming session of the National Assembly for the safety of the parliamentarians and staff against the threat of coronavirus.During a visit to the National Assembly, the president was apprised by...

The Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science, and Technology on Thursday held its 42nd senate meeting at the Governor House Sindh.The online meeting was chaired by President of Pakistan Dr Arif Alvi, who is also the varsity’s chancellor. The meeting approved the nomination of two faculty...

The Sindh High Court has directed the home department to decide the representation of a proscribed organisation’s activist against his 90 days’ detention under the Maintenance of Public Order within a week.The activist, Abdul Hameed Bugti, had been recently released in the Pakistan...

The Pakistan Navy in a joint raid with the Anti-Narcotics Force seized 100 kilogrammes of crystal meth worth around Rs3 billion.A Navy spokesman said that in an intelligence-based joint operation with the ANF, they seized 100 kilogrammes of crystal myth off Pasni, Balochistan. The drug was valued...

Expressing serious concern over dozens of unexplained deaths of asymptomatic COVID-19 patients in home isolation in Sindh, local and foreign health experts have advised the government to provide tele-consultation to the patients in home isolation on a regular basis.The experts also asked the...

Microchip Smart Storage Adapters Now Interoperate Seamlessly with MegaRAC® SP-X Management Firmware from AMI for At-Scale Secure Storage Management

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Microchip Releases Version 2.1 of TimeProvider 4100 Timing Grandmaster

New Functional Safety Ready AVR® DA Microcontroller Family Enables Real-Time Control, Connectivity and HMI Applications

Loan agreements outline the terms of an agreement for a loan. This document dated 6 May 2020 is provided for the ADB project 54183-001 in Bhutan.

Safeguards due diligence reports are prepared as part of safeguard due diligence and review to ensure compliance with ADB safeguard policy due diligence requirements. This document dated May 2020 is provided for the ADB project 51039-002 in Afghanistan.

Safeguards due diligence reports are prepared as part of safeguard due diligence and review to ensure compliance with ADB safeguard policy due diligence requirements. This document dated May 2020 is provided for the ADB project 2020-05-07 in Afghanistan.

Environmental monitoring reports describe the environmental issues or mitigation measures of a project. This document dated May 2020 is provided for the ADB project 43319-022 in the Lao People's Democratic Republic.

Grant agreements outline the terms of an agreement for a grant. This document dated 7 May 2020 is provided for the ADB project 54229-001 in Fiji.

Procurement plans describe and update the procurement of major goods, works and consulting services either ongoing or expected to take place related to a project or program. This document dated 15 November 2019 is provided for the ADB project 48118-002 in the Lao People's Democratic Republic.

ADB has a vacancy for the position of Principal Investment Specialist in the Private Sector Operations Department. The deadline for submitting applications is on 22 May 2020.

ADB has a vacancy for the position of Senior IT Officer (Project Management) (3 Vacancies) in the Information Technology Department . The deadline for submitting applications is on 22 May 2020.

ADB has released the 13th annual performance report of its corporate results framework, the Development Effectiveness Review, a management tool that monitors performance and progress during 2019.

ADB has a vacancy for the position of Procurement and Contracts Officer in the Office of Administrative Services. The deadline for submitting applications is on 22 May 2020.

Providing safely managed sanitation services for all requires extending the partnership between the public and private sectors.

ADB has a vacancy for the position of Associate Facilities Planning and Management Officer (Project Management) in the Office of Administrative Services. The deadline for submitting applications is on 22 May 2020.

ADB has a vacancy for the position of Budget and Management Services Analyst in the Budget, Personnel, and Management Systems Department. The deadline for submitting applications is on 22 May 2020.

Even though the central government issues strict regulation policies, it is the local governments’ discretion to adjust and enforce compliance.

This ADBI–WCTRS webinar will examine land use and transport interactions for inter-regional accessibility enhancements achieved through high-speed rail development.

ADB invites papers for the Asian Development Conference 2020 to be held 16-17 July 2020 in Seoul, Korea.

The Annual Meeting of the ADB Board of Governors is an opportunity to provide guidance on ADB administrative, financial, and operational directions. The meetings provide opportunities for member governments to interact with ADB staff, nongovernment organizations (NGOs), media, and representatives of observer countries, international organizations, academe and the private sector. ADB’s annual meetings have become a premier forum for the discussion of economic and social development issues in Asia and the Pacific.

Schools and universities are to resume classes in June, Education Minister Tarek Majzoub said Friday

TOKYO: Japan on Thursday approved Gilead Sciences Inc’s remdesivir as a treatment for Covid-19, making it the country’s first officially authorised drug to tackle the coronavirus disease.

Japan reached the decision just three days after the US drugmaker filed for fast-track approval for the treatment.

“There has so far been no coronavirus medicine available here so it is a significant step for us to approve this drug,” a Japanese health ministry official said at a press briefing. Remdesivir will be given to patients with severe Covid-19 symptoms, he added.

With no other approved treatments for Covid-19, interest in the drug is growing around the world. Administered by intravenous infusion, it was granted authorisation last week by the US Food and Drug Administration for emergency use for the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

Gilead says the drug has improved outcomes for people suffering from the respiratory disease and has provided data suggesting it works better when given in the early stages of infection.

Japan, with just over 16,000 infections and under 800 deaths, has recorded fewer cases than other major industrialised nations.

However, a steady rise in cases has put pressure on medical facilities in some parts of the country, and a drug that helps patients recover more quickly could help in freeing up hospital beds.

A trial performed by the US Institutes of Health (NIH) showed the drug cut hospital stays by 31 per cent compared with a placebo treatment, although it did not significantly improve survival.

On Monday, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe extended a month-long state of emergency until the end of May in an attempt to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

Japan as yet does not know when it will get its first doses of remdesivir or how much, the health ministry official said.

Gilead on Tuesday said it was in discussion with several companies, including generic drugmakers in India and Pakistan to produce remdesivir in large quantities.

Remdesivir, which previously failed as a treatment for Ebola, is designed to disable the ability by which some viruses make copies of themselves inside infected cells.

Published in Dawn, May 8th, 2020

A white former police officer and his son were arrested on Thursday in Georgia, United States of America, and charged with murder in the shooting death of an unarmed black man, an incident that touched off a furore in the community and among civil rights activists nationwide.

Gregory McMichael, 64, and his son Travis, 34, were taken into custody by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and charged with aggravated assault as well as murder in the killing of Ahmaud Arbery in the town of Brunswick, the agency said in a statement.

The Feb 23 shooting death of Arbery, 25, as he ran unarmed through the small town was captured on video by an unnamed witness in a vehicle near the scene. The video’s wide broadcast in recent days ignited outrage among activists, politicians and celebrities who saw the incident as the latest case of white perpetrators killing a black man and going unpunished.

It was not immediately clear on Thursday if the two men had retained attorneys.

A district attorney appointed to handle the high-profile case after two other prosecutors recused themselves said on Wednesday he would ask a county grand jury to decide if the two men should face charges.

The men’s arrest by the GBI, one day after the agency opened an investigation into the case, appears to have sidelined any grand jury probe.

Three shots

The video footage shows Arbery jogging down a narrow two-lane road and around the McMichaels’ white pickup truck, which had stopped in the right lane with its driver’s door open.

As Arbery crosses back in front of the truck, a gunshot is fired. Arbery is then seen struggling with a man holding a long gun as a second man stands in the bed of the truck brandishing a revolver. Two more shots are heard before Arbery stumbles and falls face down onto the asphalt. The GBI said it was Travis McMichael who fired the fatal round.

According to a police report obtained by the New York Times, Gregory McMichael, a former Glynn County police officer and district attorney’s investigator, told detectives the incident began when he spotted Arbery from his front yard “hauling ass” down the street.

McMichael told police that, because he suspected Arbery in a string of recent neighborhood break-ins, he and his son gave chase in the truck, with Gregory McMichael carrying a .357 Magnum revolver and Travis armed with a shotgun.

Gregory McMichael said Arbery began to “violently attack” his son, fighting him for the shotgun, prompting Travis to open fire.

According to a letter obtained by the Times, the prosecutor in Brunswick argued there was not probable cause to arrest the McMichaels because they were legally carrying firearms, had a right to pursue a burglary suspect and use deadly force to protect themselves.

KARACHI: The number of coronavirus-infected policemen has gone up to 115, a police spokesperson said on Friday.

“So far, 115 policemen and officers have been infected with the contagion.” Out of them, five new cases emerged on Friday. The majority of the policemen belonged to Karachi.

As many as 97 police personnel were under treatment at different hospitals while 15 policemen have been discharged after treatment. The condition of one sub-inspector was stated to be critical.

“Covid-19 infected policemen were being looked after properly and steps were being taken to this effect on daily basis,” added the spokesperson.

The police on Friday also issued a video message, highlighting ordeals of the families of the policemen and commitment of the law enforcers to serve humanity in these testing times.

Published in Dawn, May 9th, 2020

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday reserved its judgement on a petition filed against the National Database and Registration Authority’s (Nadra) notification of revoking the citizenship of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) leader Hafiz Hamdullah.

Nadra in its written reply referred to intelligence reports claiming that Mr Hamdullah is not a Pakistani national.

On Oct 11 last year, Mr Hamdullah lost his citizenship when Nadra declared him an ‘alien’.

Subsequently, the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) banned his appearance on TV channels.

As per the Oct 26 Pemra directive, Nadra had in a letter dated Oct 11 conveyed that “Hafiz Hamdullah Saboor is ‘confirmed alien’ as he is not a citizen of Pakistan”.

It further said Nadra had “cancelled and digitally impounded” the CNIC [computerised national identity card] issued to Mr Hamdullah.

“Since it is established that the said person is an ‘alien’, all the TV channels (news and current affairs) are directed to refrain from inviting and projecting Mr Hafiz Hamdullah Saboor in their programmes/talk shows, news, etc,” the authority said in its letter.

In October, JUI-F leader lost his citizenship when Nadra declared him an ‘alien’

Nadra took the stance before the IHC that the intelligence agencies claimed that Mr Hamdullah’s credentials were also fake and subsequently his computerised national identity card had been cancelled.

Mr Hamdullah, who was a senator from Balochistan between March 2012 and March 2018, frequently makes appearances in evening talk shows on different news channels.

The directive banning his TV appearances came at a time when the JUI-F’s Azadi March was about to start.

Advocate Kamran Murtaza, who filed a petition on behalf of Mr Hamdullah, informed the court that the petitioner was born in the province of Balochistan and that his father, children and other family members also held CNICs. One of Mr Hamdullah’s children is serving in the armed forces of the country as a commissioned officer.

According to the petition, Mr Hamdullah has also remained member of the Balochistan Assembly and “Nadra is not vested with jurisdiction to adjudicate upon the citizenship of citizen which otherwise has to be dealt with the Pakistan Citizenship Act, 1951. It shows that Nadra’s order was issued without any lawful authority,” the petition said.

IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah, after hearing the arguments of petitioner’s counsel and other respondents, reserved the judgement.

Published in Dawn, May 9th, 2020

WASHINGTON: Some debts were not sustainable and needed to be restructured, re-profiled or written off, International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said in an interview recorded earlier this week.

In this interview to ITV News, Ms Georgieva also urged governments to spend more money on health workers to protect the most vulnerable.

“There is a possibility that in some cases debt simply is not sustainable and therefore some action has to be taken either to re-profile or restructure or in some cases write off this debt,” she said.

Although G20 countries have promised some debt relief, a transcript of the interview, released by the IMF headquarters in Washington, indicated that Ms Georgieva believed the crisis required them to go further.

Imran has argued that heavy debt burdens are preventing countries from focusing on the challenge of saving people from pandemic as well as hunger

Last month, Prime Minister Imran Khan appealed to the leaders of rich countries, the UN secretary general and heads of financial institutions to give debt relief to developing countries like Pakistan so that they could combat the deadly Covid-19 in a better way.

The prime minister argued that heavy debt burdens were preventing some countries from focusing on the real challenge of saving their people from the deadly pandemic and hunger that extended lockdowns would trigger.

The IMF chief, while acknowledging the need to restructuring loans, also said the first priority was to combat the disease that has already killed hundreds of thousands and infected several millions across the globe.

“The only thing we ask countries is please spend more money for your doctors and nurses — and please, please use the money to protect the most vulnerable,” she said.

The interviewer, Julie Etchingham, noted that loans usually came with conditions — such as tightening public spending — that were difficult to implement during the Covid-19 crisis.

Ms Georgieva said she was aware of the risks ahead for the IMF. “We are looking to the transparency and accountability in countries. They themselves are coming up with commitments to audit the use of the funds we provide, but there are no strings attached,” she said.

The IMF chief said that more than 100 countries had reached out to them for help to fight the pandemic and 50+ requests were swiftly approved for a total of about $18 billion.

Asked to assess the scale of the crisis facing the global economy, Ms Georgieva did not mince her words. “It is the worst crisis since the Great Depression. But it is more than that because it is a combination of a health crisis and an economic shock,” she said. “And it is truly global.”

The IMF now has about $1 trillion dollars lending capacity — four times more than in the last financial crisis.

The IMF approved $1.386 billion of assistance for Pakistan under the Rapid Financing Instrument to address the economic impact of the Covid-19 shock.

Published in Dawn, May 9th, 2020

A llama called Winter could prove useful in the hunt for a treatment for Covid-19, according to US and Belgian scientists who have identified a tiny particle that appears to block the new coronavirus.

The scientists, from Belgium’s VIB-UGent center for medical biotechnology and the University of Texas at Austin, published research on Tuesday in the journal Cell, with the llama in Belgium central to their studies.

The group began four years ago looking into antibodies that might counter the Sars virus, which spread in 2003, and the Mers virus that flared up in 2012.

“The work was a side project in 2016. We thought maybe this was interesting,” said Xavier Saelens, joint leader of the Belgian part of the collaboration. “Then the new virus came and it became potentially more crucial, more important.”

Winter, the llama, was given safe versions of the Sars and Mers viruses and samples of its blood were later taken.

Llamas and other members of camel family are distinct in creating standard antibodies and smaller antibodies, with which scientists can more easily work.

The Belgian part of the research team, also led by Bert Schepens, identified fragments of the smaller antibodies, known as nanobodies, to see which bound most strongly to the virus.

Saelens describes the new coronavirus as the cousin of the Sars virus. Both have a corona, or crown, shape with protein spikes, onto which an antibody can latch.

The team intend to begin tests on animals, with a view to allowing trials with humans to begin by the end of the year. Saelens said negotiations were under way with pharmaceutical companies.

The research is not the first into nanobodies derived from camels or llamas. French group Sanofi paid 3.9 billion euros ($4.23 billion) in 2018 to buy Ghent-based nanobody specialist company Ablynx.

ATxmega128/64/32/16A4U Silicon Errata and Data Sheet Clarification

The Chandigarh Housing Board (CHB) has terminated its housing scheme, which was announced last year, amid poor response. Applicants who were picked on the basis of a demand survey will get their paid amounts refunded while a new scheme is framed. The housing scheme in Chandigarh, which would have offered homes in Sector 53, has reportedly been scrapped by the housing board, CHB. Officials have been asked by the government to frame a new, which would be more affordable. The scheme was criticised for being so expensive. For 492 flats, Chandigarh Housing Scheme received only 178 applications despite the board reducing the prices of the flats twice and also extending the […]

NEW DELHI: Is India’s real estate bubble finally bursting? The International Monetary Fund’s recently-launched data series on global housing prices hints at that. Among 52 major markets for which IMF has collated house price data, India has witnessed the steepest fall. IMF’s calculation on the annual percentage change in property prices shows that prices in India fell by 9.1 per cent, the highest among major real estate markets. The fall is even worse than in countries struggling with the ongoing European Union’s financial crisis. Property prices in Greece, Italy, Cyprus, Spain and Portugal have all come down, but at a much slower rate. Ireland, on the other hand, registered a […]

NEW DELHI: The Narendra Modi government is set to substantially ease norms for foreign investment in the construction sector, hoping to drum up interest in the prime minister’s plans for 100 smart cities as well his affordable housing initiative. The government is seriously considering the removal of all restrictions on size and minimum capitalisation for the smart cities as well as affordable housing projects. “The discussions are on for exempting smart cities from all FDI conditionalities. We need to give them a push by making it attractive for investors,” said a government official. The new policy is also expected to provide easier exit windows.The proposal could be moved for the […]

Around 500 migrants are arriving at the Colombian border city of Cúcuta every day intending to return to Venezuela. As of April 15, a total of 34,000 people had passed through the city.

It's unlikely they will murder you, but they pose a serious threat to apiaries.

The decision to wear a mask in public is becoming a political statement — a moment to pick sides in a brewing culture war over containing the coronavirus.

A unanimous Supreme Court on Thursday threw out the convictions of two political insiders involved in the “Bridgegate” scandal that ultimately derailed the 2016 presidential bid of then-New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. The justices found evidence of deception, corruption and abuse of power in the scheme, but said “not every corrupt act by state or local officials is a federal crime.”

The Justice Department on Thursday said it is dropping the criminal case against President Donald Trump's first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, abandoning a prosecution that became a rallying cry for the president and his supporters in attacking the FBI's Trump-Russia investigation.