Facebook, Instagram crack down on gun sales on social networks

AGENCIES-

Facebook Inc and its photo sharing subsidiary, Instagram, will delete posts offering to buy or sell guns without background checks, Facebook announced on Wednesday.

In an effort to curb what gun control advocates say is the increasing use of the social networks to circumvent checks and controls on firearms sales, Facebook and Instagram will also bar users under 18 from viewing gun offers posted by individuals or groups.

“We will not permit people to post offers to sell regulated items that indicate a willingness to evade or help others evade the law,” Facebook said.

The move by the world’s largest social network and Instagram may add fuel to an already intense debate over U.S. gun rights, following a series of mass shootings across the country.

A spate of shootings in recent weeks across the United States has renewed questions about the vulnerability of public places like shopping centers and schools and sparked fresh calls for stiffer gun controls such as universal background checks and limitations on the sale of ammunition.

States like Connecticut and New York have passed a series of new gun measures. But opponents, including the National Rifle Association, the nation’s leading gun rights lobby, argue that tighter restrictions would unfairly limit the rights of responsible gun owners.

Facebook said its policy change was made in consultation with a number of individuals and organizations, including New York state Attorney General Attorney Eric Schneiderman, Mayors Against Illegal Guns, Sandy Hook Promise and Moms Demand Action, which drew attention to loopholes on the Internet that allowed private sales of firearms without background checks.

“Our campaign exposed how simple it is for dangerous people to get their hands on guns, no questions asked – not only on Facebook and Instagram – but across the Internet,” Mayors Against Illegal Guns Chairman John Feinblatt said in a joint statement with Moms Demand Action.

“Unfortunately, the ‘private sale loophole’ allows anonymous parties to sell guns without background checks, and there are simply too many ways for criminals, minors and other prohibited gun purchasers to get them easily – with just the click of a mouse,” he said.

On Wednesday, the NRA accused Mayors Against Illegal Guns of previously trying to inhibit free expression on Facebook.

The groups “tried to pressure Facebook into shutting down discussion of Second Amendment issues on its social media platforms,” said Chris Cox, executive director, NRA Institute for Legislative Action.

“NRA members and our supporters will continue to have a platform to exercise their First Amendment rights in support of their Second Amendment freedoms.”

The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects freedom of expression, as well as freedom of religion.

The Second Amendment says, “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” Whether the amendment protects an individual’s right to own firearms or solely a state’s right to self-defense has been heavily debated.

Humaima Malick appointed ambassador for WWF

Humaima Malick is helping Pakistan come closer to a better environmental future. The acclaimed actor is now officially the Pakistan Ambassador for one of the biggest environmental organisations in the world, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), according to a press release.

Representing Pakistan in all its might, Humaima strongly believes that there is an urgent need for all those living in Pakistan to move towards conserving the environment, along with adopting healthier lifestyle choices. Talking about this prestigious position, she says,” I feel honored to become a part of such a huge organization that has a global mission of conserving and protecting the environment. I am committed as a person, to WWF’s mission of making this earth a better place to live in.’’

Humaima Malick has been in the spotlight consistently over the past few years. From hosting TV shows to the Sindh Festival, and walking the runway at FPW6, Malick is a well-known face in the country, and is identified as a style icon and a talent hub. Malick is also one of the first actors from Pakistan to take up such a task.

Humaima we wish you luck, and hope you succeed in raising awareness in order to preserve Pakistan’s wildlife and environment!

Fatima Bhutto nominated for top UK literary prize

LONDON-

Fatima Bhutto, the niece of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, has been nominated for the Women’s Prize for Fiction, the judges announced Friday.

Bhutto is among 20 women on the long list for the award, which was formerly known as the Orange prize and is open to English-language novels from anywhere in the world.

She is nominated for “The Shadow of the Crescent Moon”, her first attempt at fiction following several fact-based books, including a memoir of her family’s blood-soaked history.

Bhutto is a fierce critic of her charismatic aunt, who twice served as prime minister, claiming she was power hungry and “morally responsible” for the murder of her brother, Fatima’s father Murtaza Bhutto, in 1996.

The winner of the prize, which will be announced at the Royal Festival Hall in central London on June 4, receives £30,000 ($50,000, 36,500 euros) and a bronze known as a “Bessie”.

Other nominees for the 19th annual award include “The Luminaries” by New Zealand author Eleanor Catton, which won the 2013 Booker Prize.

Australia’s Hannah Kent is nominated for “Burial Rites”, while Indian-American Jhumpa Lahiri is long-listed for “The Lowland”.

Salman Khan hints at marriage this year to Romanian beauty

Superstar Salman Khan has hinted at a possibility of getting hitched by the end of this year as he is tired of being single for a long time.

The 48-year-old ‘Jai Ho’ star, who was at his funniest best at last evening’s media Conclave 2014, did not rule out the chances of marrying Romanian beauty Iulia Vantur, whom he is allegedly dating for quite sometime.

“Now I’m in transit period and I like it. From the age of 15, I did not get a transit period. For the first time, I have such a chance to sigh. I am sighing more since it has been two-and-a-half years. It’s time to stop sighing because

“I follow humanity. I follow Islam, Christianity, and follow right thing as much I can. I have been kind of blessed. Father is Pathan, mother is Hindu, second mother is catholic, and brother-in-law is Punjabi. Wife, I am thinking to bring from outside…,” Salman said.

Salman has often been linked with his co-stars and also being termed as a ‘possessive’ boyfriend. He admitted that he was a miserable lover but a great friend.

“When you are in a relationship you try everything to see that she doesn’t leave you. You try to be good. You give her a silent treatment. You yell, cry and when nothing works you say go.

“I thought they were the most correct people for me… Great girls bad boyfriend. I have not been like the most incredible boy friend. I could be the friend and I have heard this from the ex girlfriends also that (he is) a great friend but miserable boyfriend,” Salman said.

The actor also thanked his parents — father Salim Khan and mothers Sushila Charak Khan and Helen — for being with him at his worst times.

“No child would have given them as may problems. I was a naughty kid. They had to hear slanderous things about their son from others — the jail episodes, the cases that have come. If these things would not have come, my father and mother would have looked as young as I look now,” he said.

China says to work with Afghanistan to fight terrorism

China said on Saturday that it will work with Afghanistan to fight terrorism, after it blamed a deadly train station attack on extremists from its western Xinjiang region, which shares a short border with the war-torn nation.

Beijing has become increasingly concerned about security in restive Xinjiang, where it says Muslim extremists receive help from militants in neighboring countries.

China says separatists from the region, home to a large Muslim Uighur minority, launched a terrorist attack in the southwestern city of Kunming last week, killing at least 29 people and injuring about 140.

China will work with the international community for political reconciliation in Afghanistan and support reconstruction, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said at a press briefing during an annual session of China’s largely rubber-stamp parliament.

“We will also work with Afghanistan and other neighbors to resolutely fight all terrorist forces,” he said.

China will host a foreign ministerial conference on Afghanistan in August to encourage “a move toward lasting peace”, Wang said.

Wang last month visited Afghanistan as U.S. and allied troops prepare to draw down their forces after more than 12 years of fighting Taliban extremists.

China has been stepping up its engagement with other regional players in recent months in Afghanistan, Beijing-based diplomats say, mainly out of concern that the NATO-led force’s pullout may spawn instability that could spill into Xinjiang.

Many Uighurs in the energy-rich region, which borders ex-Soviet Central Asia, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, chafe at Chinese restrictions on their culture and religion. More than 100 people there have been killed in unrest in the past year, according to Chinese state media reports.

China bristles at suggestions from exiles and rights groups that the violence is driven more by unhappiness at government policies than by any serious threat from extremist groups who want to establish an independent state called East Turkestan.

Experts say militant ideology does in part fuel the unrest, but the level of organization has long been disputed

Hollywood blockbuster ‘Noah’ faces ban in Arab world

Three Arab countries have banned the Hollywood film “Noah” on religious grounds even before its worldwide premiere and several others are expected to follow suit, a representative of Paramount Pictures said on Saturday.

“Censors for Qatar, Bahrain and the UAE (United Arab Emirates) officially confirmed this week that the film will not release in their countries,” a representative of Paramount Pictures, which produced the $125 million film starring Oscar-winners Russell Crowe and Anthony Hopkins, said.

“The official statement they offered in confirming this news is because ‘it contradicts the teachings of Islam’,” the representative said, adding the studio expected a similar ban in Egypt, Jordan and Kuwait.

The film will premiere in the United States on March 28.

Noah, who in the Bible’s Book of Genesis built the ark that saved his family and many pairs of animals from a great flood, is revered by Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

Cairo’s Al-Azhar, the highest authority of Sunni Islam and a main center of Islamic teaching for over a millennium, issued a fatwa, or religious injunction, against the film on Thursday.

“Al-Azhar … renews its objection to any act depicting the messengers and prophets of God and the companions of the Prophet (Mohammad), peace be upon him,” it announced in a statement.

They “provoke the feelings of believers … and are forbidden in Islam and a clear violation of Islamic law,” the fatwa added.

Mel Gibson’s 2004 film “The Passion of the Christ” on Jesus’s crucifixion was widely screened in the Arab World, despite a flurry of objections by Muslim clerics.

A 2012 Arab miniseries “Omar” on the exploits of a seventh century Muslim ruler and companion of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) also managed to defy clerics’ objections and air on a Gulf-based satellite television channel.

Japan’s Fukushima Anniversary: Thousands Demand End to Nuclear Power

TOKYO-

Banging on drums and waving “Sayonara nukes” signs, thousands of people rallied in a Tokyo park and marched to Parliament Sunday to demand an end to nuclear power ahead of the third anniversary of the Fukushima disaster.

Participants at the demonstration, one of several planned across cities in Japan, said they would never forget the March 11, 2011, nuclear disaster, the worst since Chernobyl.

They also vowed to block a move by the government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to restart some of the 48 idled reactors and backpedal on the commitment by the previous government to aggressively reduce the nation’s reliance on nuclear power. Oil imports have soared since the disaster, hurting the economy.

Katsutoshi Sato, a retired railway worker at the rally, was holding a fishing pole with a picture of a fish dangling at the end to highlight his worries about radiation contaminating the rivers.

“The protests are growing,” he said, noting he was taking part in his third anti-nuclear demonstration. “All kinds of people are joining, including families with kids.”

Protests like Sunday’s have popped up across the nation over the last three years, as the usually docile and conformist Japanese begin to question the government’s assurances that nuclear power is safe.

The movement has also drawn celebrities like Ryuichi Sakamoto, who shared an Oscar for “The Last Emperor” score, and Nobel Prize-winning author Kenzaburo Oe.

The Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, which exploded and underwent three core meltdowns, continues to spew radiation into the air and sea. Decommissioning is expected to take decades.

Robert Geller, a seismologist at the University of Tokyo, said it was troubling that after three years there is no full explanation on what went wrong at Fukushima, and how to avoid a recurrence