Social network: Sina Weibo, ‘China’s Twitter,’ files for IPO in US

Weibo had 129.1 million monthly active users in December and 61.4 million average daily active users.

NEW YORK: 

Weibo Corporation, the Chinese micro-blogging service often compared with Twitter, filed for a US stock offering seeking to raise $500 million.

The move will allow the popular Chinese-language social network to spin off from the internet giant Sina, according to documents filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

The filing said that Weibo had 129.1 million monthly active users in December and 61.4 million average daily active users.

The company did not indicate whether Weibo would file its IPO on the Nasdaq or New York Stock Exchange.

The lead underwriters will be Goldman Sachs Asia and Credit Suisse. “A microcosm of the Chinese society, Weibo has attracted a wide range of users, including ordinary people, celebrities and other public figures, as well as organisations such as media outlets, businesses, government agencies and charities,” the SEC filing said. “Weibo has become a cultural phenomenon in China.”

“Weibo allows people to be heard publicly and be exposed to the rich ideas, cultures and experiences of the broader world,” it added.

“Media outlets use Weibo as a source of news and a distribution channel for their headline news. Government agencies and officials use Weibo as an official communication channel for disseminating timely information and gauging public opinion to improve public services.”

The filing said Weibo’s initial public offering (IPO) will be part of a carve-out from Sina, but that Sina would continue to provide us with certain support services after it becomes independent.

FCR commissioner reduces Dr Shakil Afridi's sentence by 10 years

Express News screengrab of Dr Shakil Afridi.

PESHAWAR: The Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) Commissioner Captain (retd) Munir Azam announced his decision to reduce Dr Shakil Aridi’s sentence by 10 years,Express News reported Saturday.

Shakil was convicted of treason by the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) tribunal for alleged ties to militants and jailed for 33 years in May 2012 and asked to pay a fine of Rs320,000.

Authorities set aside the sentence in August last year on appeal and ordered a retrial, but now a tribunal has agreed to cut a decade off his jail term.

“The tribunal has reduced the 33-year imprisonment to 23 years and also reduced the fine of 320,000 rupees to 220,000 rupees,” defence lawyer Samiullah Afridi told AFP.

Samiullah said that he would appeal against the decision as he wanted to have a new trial, as stipulated by the authorities last August.

“We will appeal against this decision, because it is unjust,” Samiullah said.

Jamil Afridi, the brother of the jailed doctor added: “We wanted to have a fresh trial, but the court just ruled on one point and reduced the sentence by 10 years. We will file an appeal against this decision.”

Lawyers for the doctor had challenged the August ruling, made by the commissioner of the northwestern city of Peshawar, in the FATA Tribunal.

Shakil was arrested after US troops killed al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in May 2011 in the northwestern town of Abbottabad.

Islamabad branded the raid a violation of sovereignty and US relations fell to an all-time low.

Shakil had been recruited by the CIA to run a vaccination programme in Abbottabad in the hope of obtaining DNA samples to identify Osmam bin Laden, although medics never managed to gain access to the family.

He was convicted not for working for the CIA, for which the court said it had no jurisdiction – but for alleged ties to militants.

In November, authorities unexpectedly charged Afridi with murder and fraud over the death of a patient some six years earlier.

The problem with our drama industry and its depiction of Pakistani women

Somewhere, this over projection is making the idea of domestic violence socially acceptable as the constant exposure can make the society immune to it and further reiterate the patriarchal system.

The troubled image of modern Pakistani women conjured up by Pakistani dramas is extremely distorted and single dimensional. Stories, it is said, are a subtle yet are the most influential way of documenting the social evolution of a society. The story of a woman sells but the modern media has gone one step ahead by proving that the story of a woman being abused, tortured, beaten and humiliated sells faster.

The massive projection of domestic and women related violence might appear as an attempt to serve the cause but a closer look will reveal an entirely different and gross story. The disturbing image of woman being pushed, slapped, bad mouthed (mostly by close family) constantly overwhelms the TV screen. No matter how fast you switch channels, it is impossible to escape the harrowing images.

Domestic violence is a highly sensitive area and must be advocated in subtle and meaningful ways. If mishandled – the way it is on our dramas – it could create an impact far more unsettling than sexually explicit content. Such disturbing content must appear with prior warnings to avoid the uneasy situation in a family living room.

When children see family settings in a drama they instantly relate it to their own family and when it turns violent it certainly creates unfathomable effects of insecurity and fear in their subconscious. The sight of explicitly treated domestic violence creates embarrassing situation among the family as well.

Just to quote an example, Hum Tv’s Kisay Apna Kahen shows the character Iqra cutting her wrist and soaking in blood over little skirmish in the house.

What kind of message are we sending across to the young girls especially with newspaper already filled of such news?

Somewhere, this over projection is making the idea of domestic violence socially acceptable as the constant exposure can make the society immune to it and further reiterate the patriarchal system. It is lethal for an audience already overdosed on terrorism and violence.

Projection of reality is one thing but the exploitation of domestic abuse to gain ratings is inhumane. Special care is being taken to make these sensational visuals part of the advertisement, which makes it even more unnerving. Geo Tv’s drama serial Bewafae’s ad shows the husband slapping and abusing his wife. The popular Turkish drama serial Feriha’s ad has the protagonist beaten by her father, brother and then by her husband. The drama has much more to it, like the ambition of a girl to do something better with her life, but these visuals are specially chosen to grab viewers’ attention.

The women in our contemporary dramas are objectified and the only purpose they serve is to win a man’s heart. The conflict is just one: how she could win this man and rest of the plot sails on her manoeuvres in this ordeal. It trivialises inter-woman relationship by pitting one woman against the other and that too for the sake of a man.

ARY’s Shukk spins the same formula by making the hero ending up with two wives and both of them are clinging to the man, unwilling to let go, as if it is impossible for them to survive on their own. ARY’s Kabhi Kabhi Pyar May starts with an independent, strong headed heroine Eshal but after being divorced by the love of her life, she tries to find refuge with another man.

There are no dilemmas, self-discovery and development of the female characters. The female leads are no more interesting, inspiring and awe worthy like they used to be; in fact, they have become repetitive, mindless, muted, predictable and flat.

The degeneration reminds me of strong female leads we used to have. I remember Shahnaz of Alpha Bravo Charlie, she chose Gul Sher over his stronger friends and his death led her to a profound road of self-discovery, instead of marrying one of the other friends. Zara of Tanhaiyan, turned an entrepreneur after her parents death and took care of her sister without looking for any fancy shortcuts. The character of Nazli in Dhuwan avenges her lover’s death independently, instead of sulking in the Bechari-syndrome.

Nazli of Dhuaan (L), Shahnaz of Alpha Bravo Charlie (C) and Zara of Tanhayan (R)

We are psyched into believing that the violence is fed to us on our demand but the reality is, like a curse, the degeneration of society has seeped into our dramas. Drama industry is cocooned into the safe zone and not ready to venture out and experiment.

We are living in the exciting times of Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy, Samina Baig and Malala Yousafzai, so let them shine in our stories. Trust me, their stories will sell too.

Majority of youth does not seek employment: survey

Around 33 percent of Pakistanis said that majority of unemployed individuals in the country do not try to find employment while 42 percent said this is not the case.

According to a Gilani Research Foundation survey carried out by GallupPakistan, a nationally representative sample of adult men and women from across the four provinces were asked about the ratio of unemployed individuals trying to find out employment.

Responding to this, 11 percent said they completely agree, 22 percent said they somewhat agree and 22 percent said they neither agree nor disagree.

Around 30 percent of the respondents disagreed with the statement whereas 12 percent said they completely disagree. Three percent did not respond.

A gender breakdown did not reveal a very high disparity between males and females. 11 percent of the male respondents completely agreed with the statement compared to 10 percent of women.

As many as 24 percent men said they agree, 21 percent said they neither agreed nor disagreed and 29 percent said they disagreed. 12 percent said they completely disagreed.

For women, 20 percent said they agree whereas 23 percent said they neither agree nor disagree and 32 percent said they disagree. Only 11 percent on the women said they completely disagree and 4 percent did not respond.

The recent survey was carried out among a sample of 2,587 men and women in rural and urban areas of all four provinces of the country, during February 17.

Malaysia PM says lost plane's movements indicate a deliberate act

KUALA LUMPUR- Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said today that the movements of a missing plane were consistent with a deliberate act by someone who turned the jet back across Malaysia and onwards to the west.
Investigators had confirmed that an aircraft tracked by military radar was the lost Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, after its communications were likely switched off before it reached the east coast of Malaysia a week ago, Najib told a news conference.
"Despite media reports the plane was hijacked, I wish to be very clear, we are still investigating all possibilities as to what caused MH370 to deviate," Najib said.
The PM said that Malaysia was ending a search in the South China Sea for a vanished jetliner after investigations indicated the missing plane likely turned far to the west.
"We are ending our operation in the South China Sea and reassessing the deployment of our assets," Najib told reporters.

Facebook COO seeks to ban ‘B’ word

ABC
NEW YORK-Can putting a ban on one school-yard word really change the way people think? Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg (along with countless other familiar faces) says yes.
ABC News reports Sandberg, also the author of “Lean In,” is leading the charge to ban the word “bossy,” saying the negative word keeps girls from pursuing roles in leadership.
“We know that by middle school, more boys than girls want to lead,” Sandberg said, “and if you ask girls why they don’t want to lead, whether it’s the school project all the way on to running for office, they don’t want to be called bossy, and they don’t want to be disliked.”
Sandberg said these patterns begin when kids are young and can continue into their grown-up lives.
“We call girls bossy on the playground,” Sandberg said. “We call them too aggressive or other B-words in the workplace. They’re bossy as little girls, and then they’re aggressive, political, shrill, too ambitious as women.”
Sandberg’s organization, Lean In, is teaming up with former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Girl Scouts USA CEO Anna Maria Chávez. They’re launching the public service campaign, “Ban Bossy,” which gives tips for parents, kids, teachers and others on how to push young women to embrace their desire to lead.
“Imagine a classroom in America where 50 kids are present: 25 girls, 25 boys,” Chávez said.
“And the teacher walks into this classroom and says: ‘Boys and girls, I have this really hard, difficult program that I need to solve that’s gonna impact this country.’ She writes the problem on the board and then turns around and escorts 24 of the 25 girls out of the room. ... She leaves one girl and 25 boys to solve that equation. That’s what’s happening every day in this country. Why wouldn’t we want more girls to be opting in to building the right solutions this country?”
The main mission of the campaign is to help females of all ages feel more confident and comfortable in leadership roles.
“I was called bossy when I was in ninth grade,” Sandberg recalled. “My teacher took my best friend Mindy aside and she said, ‘You shouldn’t be friends with Sheryl. She’s bossy.’ And that hurt.”
Sandberg said she and other women leaders have been able to rise above those taunts, but many girls can’t.
“If you look at the world, women do 66 percent of the work in the world. Woman produce 50 percent of the food. Women make 10 percent of the income and women own 1 percent of the property. We are 50 percent of the population. We are 5 percent of the Fortune 500 CEOs,” Sandberg said. “We are 17 percent of the board seats. We are 19 percent in Congress. That’s not enough for 50 percent of the population. We live in a world that is overwhelming run and owned by men.”
The ladies were quick to clear up the fact that they are not encouraging rude, mean-girl behavior or bullying.
“Leadership is not bullying and leadership is not aggression,” Sandberg said. “Leadership is the expectation that you can use your voice for good. That you can make the world a better place.”

Great Britain fight back to beat China for Paralympic curling bronze

British curlers Aileen Neilson, left, Bob McPherson, centre, and Jim Gault during the Paralympic Games in Sochi. Photograph: Sergei Chirikov/EPA

Skip Aileen Neilson inspired Great Britain's curlers to Winter Paralympic bronze with a 7-3 triumph over China. Neilson's rink, beaten 13-4 by the hosts Russia in their semi-final , regrouped superbly to fight back from an early 3-0 deficit. Victory took Britain's medal tally in Sochi to six.

Neilson was in tears at the finish as she celebrated with her team-mates, Angie Malone, Jim Gault, Gregor Ewan and alternate Bob McPherson. Britain had lost 6-3 to the Chinese in their final round-robin match on Thursday, but in the bronze medal match Neilson produced her best match of a tournament in which her all-Scottish rink have been inconsistent, mixing impressive wins with heavy losses.

It was thanks to Neilson they were not trailing by more than 3-0 after two ends, a rescue effort in the first limiting their opponents to a one-stone success. A pinpoint takeout from the 42-year-old in the third end made it 3-2 and in the next she forced an error from the China skip Wang Haitao to put her side 4-3 in front.

One-stone successes then followed in the fifth, sixth and seventh ends to leave China with too much ground to make up.

Neilson finished the match with an accuracy of 75%.

Malone, the only remaining member of the 2006 silver medal-winning team from Turin, who was brought in for McPherson for the match, also justified her inclusion with 75% accuracy.