T20 WC: David Warner stars as Australia down West Indies to close in on semi-finals spot

 

DBU DHABI, NOV 6: Opener David Warner smashed an unbeaten 89 as Australia hammered West Indies by eight wickets to edge closer to the semi-finals in the Twenty20 World Cup on Saturday.

Chasing 158 for victory, Australia rode on a 124-run second-wicket stand between Warner and Mitchell Marsh to romp home in 16.2 overs in Abu Dhabi and go level with Group 1 leaders England on eight points.

Marsh, who hit 53 of 32 balls, got out to Chris Gayle who celebrated the wicket in what was his likely swansong in West Indies colours.

Earlier, Josh Hazlewood took four wickets to keep West Indies down to 157 for seven despite skipper Kieron Pollard’s 44 in the Super 12 clash.

South Africa play England, who are all but through to the final four, in the evening match and the result will decide the two semi-finalists this group.

South Africa need a dominant win to improve their run rate and edge out Australia. England can only miss out on the final four if they lose heavily.

Reigning champions West Indies failed to give a winning farewell to Dwayne Bravo, who played his last international.

Australia gave Bravo and Gayle a guard of honour after Warner hit the winning runs.

Pollard rescued his side, who failed to defend their title after a loss to Sri Lanka took them out of the semi-final race, from 91-5 with his 31-ball knock and a key partnership of 35 with Bravo.

Bravo, who remains the leading wicket-taker in T20 matches with 553 scalps, scored 10 and walked back to claps and hugs.

Andre Russell finished off the innings with two sixes off Mitchell Starc in his unbeaten 18 off seven balls.

Openers Evin Lewis and Gayle started in attacking mode, hitting the Australian pace bowlers to all parts of the ground in an opening stand of 30 off 14 balls.

Lewis smashed Hazlewood for three successive boundaries.

Gayle hit two sixes, including one off Pat Cummins, before the bowler got the veteran big-hitter to chop a delivery onto the stumps.

The 42-year-old West Indies great made 15 off nine balls and walked back to a standing ovation from his teammates.

Hazlewood came back with a bang with twin strikes as he sent back Nicholas Pooran and Roston Chase, bowled for nought, in the space of three deliveries, to leave the West Indies teetering at 35-3.

The left-handed pair of Lewis and Shimron Hetmyer, who made 27, fought back with a partnership of 35 but Adam Zampa broke the stand with his leg-spin.

He got Lewis out for 29.

In reply, Warner came attacking and unsettled the West Indian attack with boundaries all around the park despite losing opening partner Aaron Finch for nine.

Marsh was equally punishing of the bowlers as he hit five fours and two sixes in his fifth T20 fifty.

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Courtesy Dawn News

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Moscow, Tehran support restoring nuclear deal to original form

 

MOSCOW, NOV 6: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amirabdollahian both expressed support for restoring a 2015 nuclear deal to its original form, the RIA news agency reported on Saturday, citing Russia’s foreign ministry.

Under the 2015 deal between Iran and six world powers, Tehran curbed its uranium enrichment programme in return for the lifting of U.S., U.N. and European Union sanctions.

President Ebrahim Raisi said on Thursday Iran would not back down “in any way” in the defence of its interests, after the sides announced that nuclear talks would resume on Nov. 29.

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Courtesy Anews

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Turkey, Azerbaijan’s main objective is stability in region: Turkish defense chief

 

ANKARA, NOV 6: The main objective for Turkey and Azerbaijan is the continuity of a cease-fire and to bring stability to the region, Turkish defense chief Hulusi Akar said Friday at a reception at the Azerbaijan Embassy in Ankara for Victory Day.

The reception celebrating Azerbaijan’s victory that put an end to Armenia’s nearly 30-year occupation of Azerbaijani lands was attended by Turkish military officials including, Chief of General Staff Yaşar Güler, Land Forces Commander Gen. Musa Avsever, Naval Forces Admiral Adnan Ozbal, Air Forces Commander Gen. Hasan Küçükakyüz and Deputy National Defense Minister Alpaslan Kavaklıoğlu.

“The stability is not only necessary for Azerbaijan and Turkey,” said Akar, adding that Armenia will also gain security and welfare if Armenia cooperates with Azerbaijan and Turkey.

“In this regard, we have a broad vision. We all know that very important steps can be taken for the security and welfare of the entire Caucasus by even holding six-party talks if necessary,” he said.

Akar said Turkish and Azerbaijani armed forces continue to clear mines in liberated regions from the Armenian occupation.

He reiterated Turkey’s endless support for Azerbaijan.

“We will continue to stand by our Azerbaijani brothers in their just cause, as we have done so far,” he said.

LIBERATION OF KARABAKH

Relations between the former Soviet republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan have been tense since 1991 when the Armenian military occupied Nagorno-Karabakh, also known as Upper Karabakh, a territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent regions.

New clashes erupted Sept. 27, 2021, with the Armenian army attacking civilians and Azerbaijani forces and violating several humanitarian cease-fire agreements.

During the 44-day conflict, Azerbaijan liberated several cities and 300 settlements and villages that were occupied by Armenia for almost 30 years.

Prior to that, about 20% of Azerbaijan’s territory was under illegal occupation.

The fighting ended with a Russian-brokered agreement on Nov. 10, 2020, with the cease-fire seen as a victory for Azerbaijan and a defeat for Armenia.

Two months later, the leaders of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a pact to develop economic ties and infrastructure to benefit the entire region. It also included the establishment of a trilateral working group on the Karabakh issue.

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Courtesy Anews

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Chinese spy convicted of plotting to steal U.S. aviation trade secrets

 

WASHINGTON/BEIJING, NOV 6: A spy for the Chinese Ministry of State Security has been convicted by a federal jury of plotting to steal trade secrets from several U.S. aviation and aerospace companies, the Justice Department said on Friday.

Yanjun Xu, the first Chinese operative extradited to the United States for trial, was convicted of two counts of conspiring and attempting to commit economic espionage, in addition to a count of conspiracy to commit trade secret theft and two counts of attempted theft of trade secrets.

The ruling means Yanjun could face up to 60 years in prison total for all violations and fines totaling more than $5 million, according to a press release. He will be sentenced by a federal district court judge.

In a statement, FBI Assistant Director Alan Kohler Jr. said the bureau was working with dozens of U.S. agencies to share information and resources to combat operations by the People’s Republic of China.

“For those who doubt the real goals of the PRC, this should be a wakeup call; they are stealing American technology to benefit their economy and military,” he said.

Going back as far as 2013, Yanjun was accused of using multiple aliases to carry out economic espionage and steal trade secrets on behalf of China. Multiple U.S. aviation and aerospace companies, including GE Aviation, a unit of General Electric Co, were his targets, the release said.

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Courtesy Anews

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T20 World Cup: Rahul blitz keeps India alive with crushing win over Scotland

 

DUBAI, NOV 5: KL Rahul's 50 off 19 balls helped India stay alive in the Twenty20 World Cup with an eight-wicket thrashing of Scotland inside seven overs on Friday.

Ravindra Jadeja and Mohammed Shami took three wickets each to help bowl out Scotland for 85 in 17.4 overs after India put the opposition into bat in the Super 12 contest in Dubai.

Rahul and Rohit Sharma, who hit 30, then took the Scotland bowling apart as India raced to their target in 6.3 overs to radically improve their run-rate.

They still need to win their last game against Namibia on Monday and depend on the result of Sunday's New Zealand-Afghanistan match to have any chance of making the final four.

Rahul smashed six fours and three sixes in his batting blitz as he raised the fifty in 18 balls before getting out to Mark Watt.

Sharma fell lbw to Brad Wheal who ended the 70-run opening stand.

Suryakumar Yadav hit the winning six with skipper Virat Kohli, on his 33rd birthday, relishing the huge win at the other end.

Pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah bowled Scotland captain Kyle Coetzer after the batsman's seven-ball struggle at the crease. It was a maiden wicket for Bumrah.

George Munsey counter-attacked as he smashed Ravichandran Ashwin for three successive boundaries but Shami cut short the opener's stay on 24.

Jadeja came on to bowl after the first six overs of powerplay and made an instant impact with twin strikes to send back Richie Berrington, bowled without scoring a run, and Matthew Cross trapped lbw for two.

With Scotland's top four back in the dugout at 29, Calum MacLeod and Michael Leask put up some resistance during a 29-run stand.

Jadeja broke through with his left-arm spin as he sent back Leask lbw for 21 and Ashwin got Chris Greaves for one.

MacLeod, who made 16, and Mark Watt also attempted to bring some respect to the total but Shami returned to pick up two wickets in one over and Bumrah wrapped up the innings in 17.4 overs.

Earlier on Friday, New Zealand stayed on course for the semi-finals with a 52-run win over Namibia.

Group 2 leaders Pakistan have already made sure of a semi-final place with four wins in four games.

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COURTESY DAWN NEWS

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Germany confirms finding Russian diplomat ‘dead’ outside Berlin embassy

 

BERLIN, NOV 5: Germany‘s foreign ministry is said a Russian diplomat was found lying dead on the pavement outside Russia’s Berlin embassy in October, confirming a report in German magazine Der Spiegel on Friday, a ministry spokesperson said.

For privacy reasons, the ministry would not give any further details about the case, the foreign ministry spokesperson told a regular government news conference.

The man fell from an upper floor of the embassy building located in Berlin’s Mitte district, according to the report.

Reacting to the deadly incident, Foreign Ministry’s deputy spokesman Christofer Burger told journalists in Berlin he was aware of the case but he could not say anything, citing privacy reasons.

According to an official list of diplomats, the diplomat had been accredited as the embassy’s second secretary in Berlin since summer 2019.

German security authorities, however, regarded him as an undercover employee of the Russian domestic intelligence agency FSB (Federal Security Service) which is responsible, among other things, for the fight against terrorism and is linked by Western intelligence services to the so-called Tiergarten Murder, in which an exiled Georgian was shot dead in broad daylight in Berlin in the summer of 2019.

According to reports, officials from the second service of the FSB were also involved in the poison attack on Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny in 2020.

According to Der Spiegel, the circumstances of the alleged fall and the cause of death of the Russian diplomat were “unknown”.

Since the deceased had diplomatic status, the German public prosecutor was unable to conduct a death investigation. It was also unclear whether there were indications of third-party negligence.

According to reports, the diplomat’s body has now been transferred to Russia.

When asked, the Russian Embassy spoke of a “tragic accident” that was not commented on for “ethical reasons”.

Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, the 40-year-old Georgian, was shot twice in the head at close range in Kleiner Tiergarten park on August 23, 2019, allegedly by a Russian man who was arrested shortly afterwards.

The Russian suspect, 55-year-old Vadim Krasikov, alias Vadim Sokolov, is on trial over the murder, which German prosecutors say was ordered by Moscow.

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COURTESY ANEWS

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Samrah Enterprises introduces Hunter Food’s Safari Potato Grills to Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, NOV 5: After successfully launching several international brands across the country, Samrah Enterprises, a distinguished distribution company, has launched Hunter Food’s Safari Potato Grills in Pakistan.

This product originates from the UAE and is available in the flavor ‘Emirati Chilli’, which is an aromatic blend of spices from the Middle East and Asia. The potato snacks are vegetarian and contain no added preservatives hence catering to the needs of different consumers. Honoring the Emirati culinary tradition, the packaging is dressed with the UAE national colors.

“We always aim to bring unique and innovative brands to Pakistan for our consumers,” said Syed Muhammad Salman, VP, Samrah Enterprises. “The Safari Potato Grills are an extremely popular snack in the UAE which is why after an in depth market analysis, we decided to bring it to Pakistan.”

“The newly rebranded Safari chips have been a part of growing up since the 80s in Dubai. They’re also the go-to snack for children and even most adults,” said Samrah Munsub, Director, Samrah Enterprises. “At Samrah Enterprises our mission is to bring the most innovative brands to Pakistan, giving our consumers more options.”

The Safari Potato Grills are available to purchase at all the leading stores in Pakistan. They are also available online at naheed.pk, samrahenterprises.com and daraz.pk.

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AIOU, Anadolu University ink MoU for exchange programmes

 

ISLAMABAD, NOV 5: Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) and Anadolu University, Turkey signed an agreement to work on exchange programs for faculty, students and administrative staff assuring mutual benefit to each other in the relevant academic fields.

The memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed on the occasion of the second Executive Board Committee of COMSTECH-Inter Islamic Networks of Virtual/Open Universities held in Anadolu University Turkey, said a press release issued here on Thursday.

Prof. Dr. Faut Erdal, Rector, Anadolu University and Prof. Dr. Zia Ul-Qayyum, Vice Chancellor, AIOU signed the MoU.

While speaking on occasion, Prof. Zia hoped that collaboration between the two mega universities would go a long way for promoting education in both countries.

He viewed that the panacea for social and economic development of majority of the Islamic countries lied in bringing the quality of education at par with the developed world.

It was need of the hour that higher education institutions of the Islamic world should be developed to strengthen academic linkages with one another and get benefitted with their experiences, he added.

He also shared the recent developments at AIOU including end-to-end digitization of AIOU system.

Prof. Faut showed keen interest in AIOU digitation and asked for the assisting digitalization of Anadolu University.

Dr. Zahid Majeed, Director, International Collaboration and Exchange, AIOU and Dr. Kagan, Director International Affairs, Anadolu  university shared their universities’ profile, strengths and possible areas of collaboration.

Prof. Faut agreed that AIOU and Anadolu would work on joint degree programs, exchange of faculty, staff and students.

Both universities would offer short-term trainings for the staff of each other.  It was also discussed that both universities could develop combined degree programs for international students of Europe, Africa and Middle East.

Prof. Faut thanked Prof. Zia for visiting his university and signing an MoU. Prof. Zia acknowledged the administrative and leadership role to run the mega university of the world. He also officially invited him to visit AIOU to see the potential, capabilities and possible areas of collaboration.

In the near future, both universities would start the faculty and administrative staff exchange programs. Dr. Zahid Majeed, Director IC&E, AIOU and Dr. Kagan, Director IA, Anadolu were appointed as focal persons for follow-up and further discussions.

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Jokowi taps Andika as sole candidate for TNI commander

 

JAKARTA, NOV 4: President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has proposed that Indonesian Army chief of staff Gen. Andika Perkasa should succeed Air Chief Marshal Hadi Tjahjanto as Indonesian Military (TNI) commander, as the latter enters retirement age on Nov. 8.

The nomination was confirmed in a presidential letter sent to the House of Representatives on Wednesday, quashing all speculation that a candidate from the Navy (TNI-AL) might take over the reins of the nation’s armed forces.

Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, House Speaker Puan Maharani confirmed that the Jokowi administration had submitted a letter seeking the House’s approval to make Andika the next military commander.

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Courtesy thejakartapost

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Pakistan-born cricketer in Yorkshire racism row urges ‘cultural change’

 

LONDON, NOV 4: Pakistan-born cricketer Azeem Rafiq has demanded sweeping changes at his former English county club, Yorkshire, and across the sport and has revealed he is still suffering abuse amid a deepening racism row.

Yorkshire offered the 30-year-old off-spinner “profound and unreserved apologies” in a report on his allegations of racial abuse in September.

But last week, the county said it would take no disciplinary action against any staff, unleashing a wave of criticism and prompting sponsors to withdraw their support.

Rafiq said the row was about “institutional racism and abject failures by numerous leaders at Yorkshire County Cricket Club and in the wider game”.

“The sport I love and my club desperately need reform and cultural change,” he posted on Twitter. “The system and environment changes that will organically educate and bring through a new generation that make this the beautiful game it should be,” he added.

The row has drawn in British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, as well as governing body the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB).

Johnson stepped up the pressure on the ECB on Thursday as his spokesperson told reporters: “The PM’s clear that racist language should never be used in any context whatsoever. These are serious allegations. They must be investigated thoroughly and quickly. We urge the ECB to look at this carefully.”

Rafiq, Yorkshire’s chairperson and the county’s chief executive and director of cricket have all been summoned to testify before a parliamentary committee on November 16.

Former England international Gary Ballance on Wednesday admitted using a racial slur against Rafiq during their time together at Yorkshire, saying in a statement: “I regret that I used this word in immature exchanges in my younger years.”

“I do not wish to discredit Rafa by repeating the words and statements that he made about me and others but I have to be clear that this was a situation where best friends said offensive things to each other which, outside of that context, would be considered wholly inappropriate,” Ballance said, adding that “at no time did I believe or understand that it had caused Rafa distress”. He said that if he had realised, “then I would have stopped immediately”.

However, Rafiq on Thursday said that despite the condemnation of his treatment at Yorkshire, criticism is still coming his way.

“We wonder why people don’t come forward. Even after everything that is out there, there seem to be personal attacks coming. What a sad state of affairs,” he said.

Ballance’s admission came after publishing company Emerald ended their association with Yorkshire and their Headingley ground in Leeds over the handling of the report that found Rafiq suffered “racial harassment and bullying” at the club, with other club sponsors following suit.

Rafiq, who represented Yorkshire in two spells between 2008 and 2018, made 43 allegations and said he had been driven to suicidal thoughts by his treatment at the club.

Yorkshire’s redacted report upheld seven of his claims but concluded the club was not institutionally racist.

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COURTESY DAWN NEWS

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Huawei Shares How to Tackle Climate Change with Technology Innovation at COP26

ISLAMABAD, NOV 4: Dr. Fang Liangzhou, Vice President and CMO of Huawei Digital Power, recently spoke at COP26. At the session "System Change and Climate Innovation in the Technology Industry" hosted by the UNFCCC Global Innovation Hub, Fang virtually delivered a keynote address on "Building a Low-Carbon Smart Society."

Fang described how Huawei Digital Power integrates digital and power electronics technologies to help industries save energy and reduce emissions from both power generation and consumption. 

Digitalization of power can cut waste in energy consumption, sharply boost power generation from renewables, and make transportation and cities green. Fang called for joint efforts to build a low carbon smart society together.

Fang said, "Carbon neutrality has become a shared mission of the world. Technology innovation will play a central role in tackling climate change and achieving carbon reduction goals. Huawei Digital Power integrates digital and power electronics technologies, develops clean power, and enables energy digitalization to drive energy revolution for a better, greener future. We focus on converging and innovating on technologies to accelerate the digitalization of energy and enable various industries to upgrade. 

We aim to accelerate clean power generation, build green transportation, sites, and data centers, and work with industry partners to build a low-carbon smart society."

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the main sources of global carbon emissions are electricity, industry, and transportation. The electricity and transportation sectors account for 40% and 21% of carbon emissions respectively. The ICT sector consumes 4% of global electricity. 

To achieve carbon neutrality, low-carbon electricity production and electric energy consumption are a must. Huawei Digital Power works with partners to continuously innovate on energy production and consumption to achieve green and low-carbon outcomes:

In smart PV, Huawei develops a clean power system that focuses on renewable energy technologies such as wind, solar, and energy storage. In the Middle East, Huawei is helping Saudi Arabia's Red Sea Energy Storage Project supply power to the entire city. This project will use the 400 MW PV + 1.3 GWh energy storage system, going to meet the energy requirements of millions of people in the future. Once the project is rolled out, the city will be the first in the world to be powered with 100% clean energy of PV and storage.

In energy digitalization, Huawei leverages a combination of digital and power electronics technologies to reduce consumption during energy conversion, storage, and use, thereby improving energy efficiency. Huawei, together with China Southern Power Grid, uses AI technologies to automatically identify typical risky scenarios and defects on transmission lines. Thanks to the new preventive maintenance approach based on intelligent analysis and manual judgment, the time for completing onsite work is shortened from 20 days to 2 hours, improving the efficiency by 80 times.

In site power facility, Huawei uses cabinets instead of rooms and poles instead of cabinets to simplify sites, and have launched a series of off-grid fuel-removal power supply solutions to help carriers accelerate network carbon neutrality and bridge the energy divide. For example, the carrier in Zhejiang, China used Huawei Site Power high-density eMIMO technology to replace six cabinets with one cabinet, reducing the footprint from 5 m2 to 1 m2 and improving the site energy efficiency from 85% to 96%. 

They also adopted Huawei's green power solution where the unique iPV technology helps generate 20% more electricity, enabling PV to become the main power supply for green ICT networks and reducing carbon emissions by 8 tons per site each year.

In data center facility, prefabrication, modularization, and intelligent technologies are used to build simplified, green, intelligent, and secure next-generation data centers. For example, Huawei's prefabricated modular data center solution helped Wuhan quickly build an AI computing center. 

The center was built in 120 days and put into use in 180 days, shortening the rollout time by more than 50%. In addition, AI energy conservation technology is adopted to decrease the PUE to 1.25, which represents a saving of more than 3.4 million kWh of electricity each year. In addition, carbon dioxide emissions can be reduced by approximately 42,000 tons over the course of the lifecycle.

In mPower, Huawei provides power domain solutions and charging infrastructure to accelerate the process of transportation electrification. For example, Huawei's DriveONE powertrain system helped SERES build the world's first mass-produced, high-performance electric coupe SUV with a cruising range of more than 1000 km, achieving 0–50 km/h acceleration in 1.99 seconds.

Huawei adheres to the green pledge of "Tech for a Better Planet" and has continued to invest in reducing carbon emissions, promoting renewable energy, contributing to a circular economy, and conserving nature with technology. As of September 30, 2021, Huawei Digital Power has helped customers generate 443.5 billion kWh of green power, save 13.6 billion kWh of electricity, and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 210 million tons, which was equivalent to planting 290 million trees.

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