Building trust: Facebook adds incognito login

Zuckerberg announced, 'changes are to make Facebook a more stable platform for applications'. PHOTO: REUTERS/FILE

SAN FRANCISCO, USA: Facebook moved Wednesday to bolster the trust of its more than one billion users by providing new controls on how much information is shared on the world’s leading social network.

In a major shift away from the notion long preached by Facebook co-founder and chief Mark Zuckerberg of having a single known identity online, people will be able to use applications anonymously at Facebook.

The social network also provided a streamlined way for people to control which data applications can access and began letting people rein in what friends can do with shared posts at Facebook.

Zuckerberg announced the changes, along with moves to make Facebook a more stable platform for applications, at the social network’s sold-out f8 developers conference.

“By giving people more power and control, they are going to trust all the apps we build more and over time use them more,” Zuckerberg told an audience of about 1,700 conference attendees.

“That is positive for everyone.”

BJP asks Pakistan not to meddle in India’s affairs

NEW DELHI- The Indian opposition party BJP, which expects to return to power after the ongoing elections, today slammed Pakistan for attacking Narendra Modi and asked it to “mend” its ways, saying the “manner” in which they have been functioning with India “will not work.”
The BJP said Pakistan should not interfere in India’s internal affairs, after its Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan’s strong comments against Mr Modi over Dawood Ibrahim issue.
BJP spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi said, Mr Modi had never talked about attacking Pakistan and was instead questioning Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde’s attitude of making public the governments efforts to bring back Dawood Ibrahim. “We will tell Islamabad to mend their ways, the manner in which they have been functioning and trying to work with India will not work,” Ms Lekhi said. She said the Pakistani Minister had chosen to react to a statement of Mr Modi which was critical of Indian Home Minister. India did not interfere in electoral politics or internal affairs of other countries and expected the same from them, she said.

Capital groping in dark

ISLAMABAD - Agencies - Panic gripped various government departments in the federal capital on Tuesday when Minister of State for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali ordered disconnection of power supply to the offices not paying electricity dues.
The target of disconnection included President House, PM Secretariat, Parliament House, Parliament lodges, Sindh House, Balochistan House, National Database Registration Authority, Cantonment Board, Motorway police and the Capital Development Authority.
The move apparently came also as a bid to connect to the common people who have been facing unannounced power outages with increasing frequency amid the rising temperatures.
The Supreme Court came up with immediate clarification that it had paid electricity dues, while heads of more than a dozen other departments faced an embarrassing situation as their officials in Islamabad rushed to make partial payments to avoid power disconnection.
The spokesman for Islamabad Electric Supply Company (Iesco) told The Nation that an emergency desk had been established at its head office for receiving outstanding amounts from defaulters, adding that departments that owed money to the company were rushing to make payments after the minister’s warning.
Pakistan is blighted by rolling power cuts, caused in part by people not paying bills, with government offices among the worst offenders. Ordinary people struggle without electricity for 12 to 18 hours a day in the blistering heat, but up till now little action had been taken against recalcitrant bureaucrats working in air-conditioned offices.
Iesco officials said that electricity supply to more than 100 other government offices would be disconnected over non-payment of bills. The power company on Tuesday disconnected power supply to 18 government offices, including municipal administration (TMA) Rawal Town in Rawalpindi, for two hours, brining activities in the defaulter offices to a standstill. The temporary power suspension also caused interrupted water supply in Rawalpindi-Islamabad as tube wells that supply drinking water came to a standstill due to unavailability of electricity. The power suspension also affected water filtration plants.
According to Iesco authorities, government offices in Islamabad were power defaulters to the tune of Rs3.1 billion and had failed to pay their outstanding power bills for months. The Iesco spokesman said that several government departments, including Pak Secretariat, approached his office for paying electricity bills. He said they hoped that all other government departments would also clear their outstanding dues. The Capital Development Authority, owes the Iesco Rs2.36 billion. The President’s Secretariat, which is the head of state’s office and residence, owes Rs28 million, while lawmakers’ residential block, Parliament Lodges, have to pay Rs20 million. Officials handling financial matters in CDA told this scribe that the amount was too big to be paid in few days, adding that top officials of the civic agency would request Iesco to allow it pay the dues in instalments.
Addressing a press conference on Tuesday, Minister Abid Sher Ali announced an “indiscriminate drive” to recover unpaid bills and warned that all offices and customers who had defaulted would be cut off.
He said that the overall power sector receivable has piled up to more than Rs470 billion. He said private sector has to pay Rs366 billion, while remaining is to be paid by public sector. “Nazir Feeder of Sukkur Electric Supply Company has 91 per cent line losses and only 70 consumers out of total 998 were paying their bills.”
About the provinces, the minister said that Sindh government has to pay Rs56 billion outstanding amount, Punjab Rs 3.4 billion while Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan each has to pay Rs 2.5 billion outstanding bills. He said that Azad Jammu and Kashmir government also owed Rs33 billion. The minister said the PM has constituted a committee comprising the minister of water and power, state minister for water and power and the information minister to take up the matter with the AJK government.
Abid Sher Ali said that he told Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in a meeting on Monday that if markets were closed around 8pm then 1,000 megawatts of electricity can be saved.
As state minister’s campaign against defaulters and illegal connections is gaining momentum so is the loadshedding in the country. According to today’s power data, power generation at 12:15 hours from Hydel was 3,920 MW, thermal 1,680 MW, IPP’s 5650 MW, total generation was 11,250MW, whereas demand reached to 13,850 MW, and the total shortfall swelled to 2600 MW. The shortfall has soared up from 2,000 megawatt in last couple of days and due to this increasing shortfall, loadshedding in different parts of the country has increased.

Pakistan retained on US intellectual property rights 'priority watch list'

In USTR's annual "Special 301" report on intellectual property rights violators, China led 10 countries on the "priority watch list". PHOTO: CREATIVE COMMONS

WASHINGTON: The annual US government report on major intellectual property rights violators retained Pakistan on the “priority watch list” and said that the United States Trade Representative (USTR) was working with Pakistan to develop action plans to address the issues discussed in the report.

The “Special 301” report also placed Pakistan among nations that were highlighted for unauthorised use of software by the government. “Further work on this issue remains with certain trading partners, such as China, Costa Rica, India, Morocco, Pakistan, Paraguay, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Ukraine, and Vietnam.”

“Although Pakistan has continued its efforts to advance IPR enforcement, including through raids, seizures, and arrests by various enforcement authorities,” the report said, “there have not been significant improvements in its overall IPR protection.”

The report noted that Pakistan had not yet fully implemented the Intellectual Property Organisation of Pakistan Act of 2012.

“Pakistan should also take the necessary steps to reform its copyright law to address the piracy challenges of the digital age,” the report added.

China

According to the report, China’s efforts to steal US trade secrets are of “significant concern” as it again listed the country as a major violator of intellectual property rights.

China led 10 countries on the US Trade Representative’s “priority watch list”, marking its 25th year on the list.

Despite some improvement in cooperation over combating counterfeit products and software and entertainment piracy, the USTR said, China is still the centre of huge losses for US rights holders.

IP rights holders still face “serious obstacles” in enforcing their rights in all forms inside China, the report said.

The most serious problem is trade secret thefts, which go on both inside and outside China.

“Conditions are likely to deteriorate as long as those committing such thefts, and those benefiting, continue to operate with relative impunity,” the USTR said.

The thieves can use the stolen secrets to boost their competitive advantage and even to enter into business relationships with the victims, it said.

“The United States strongly urges the Chinese government to take serious steps to put an end to these activities and to deter further activity by rigorously investigating and prosecuting trade secret thefts conducted by both cyber and conventional means,” the USTR said.

Other countries

Also perennially present on the priority watch list were Chile, India, Indonesia, Thailand and Turkey, mostly accused of turning blind eyes to widespread piracy of software, entertainment and branded goods.

The others on the list were Russia, Algeria, Pakistan and Argentina.

The USTR meanwhile praised Italy and the Philippines for enforcement progress that saw them removed from the broader “watch list” of 27 countries with high levels of violations of IP rights.

Pakistan, ADB sign $167.2m loan agreement to enhance power distribution

EAD secretary Nargis Sethi and ADB country director Werner Liepach signing the loan agreement for power distribution enhancement in Islamabad on Wednesday. PHOTO: PID

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Wednesday signed a loan agreement that would see the cash strapped country get $167.2 million for improving power distribution.

The agreement was signed by Economic Affairs Division secretary Nargis Sethi and Country Director-ADB Werner E. Liepach for the Power Distribution Enhancement Investment Program (Tranche-4) at Economic Affairs Division.

ADB is providing Ordinary Capital Resources (OCR) Loan to Pakistan amounting to $167.2 million. The Project aims to reduce the overloading and increase the capacity of the power distribution system in the project area through system augmentation and expansion.

The project includes augmentation and extension of existing 132 KV power transformers at substations of the secondary transmission grid to add up to 5,021 megavolt amperes to the transformers capacity. Replacement of overloaded distribution transformers with transformers of higher capacity, and the installation of additional distribution transformers capacity on 11 kilovolt feeders are also part of the project.

Sethi said that the objective of the Investment Program is to provide adequate and reliable power supply to a greater number of industrial, commercial and residential consumers. She added that as a part of the investment programme, the project aims to reduce the overloading and increase the capacity of the power distribution system in the project area through system augmentation and expansion.

Liepach resolved that Pakistan and ADB’s development partnership will continue to grow further in the coming days.

Pakistan among the world's lowest price economies

WASHINGTON- Switzerland and Norway are the world's most expensive economies, followed by Bermuda, Australia and Denmark, according to a new ranking by the World Bank.

The economies with the lowest prices are Pakistan, Egypt, Myanmar, Ethiopia and Laos, according to a review of economic data which seeks to compensate for exchange rate effects and measure spending power across countries.

The United States, the world's largest economy, was in relatively affordable 25th place, lower than most other high-income countries. The richest countries, or those with the highest gross domestic product (GDP) per capita on a purchasing power parity basis, were Qatar, Macao, Luxembourg, Kuwait, and Brunei. Eight countries, including Malawi, Mozambique and Liberia, had GDP per capita of less than $1,000.

Corporate results: Pakistan State Oil’s profit soars 107%

In the third quarter alone, PSO recorded earnings of Rs3.6 billion, an increase of 18% from the same period of previous year, but down 55% from the previous quarter. PHOTO: FILE

KARACHI: Pakistan State Oil (PSO), the country’s largest oil marketing company, has posted earnings of Rs19.4 billion in the first nine months of financial year 2013-14, up 107% compared to Rs9.4 billion in the corresponding period of previous year.

With a muted growth of 4% in volumes, the growth in profit came primarily as a result of higher other income that soared 304% in the July-March period, Shajar Research said in a report on Tuesday.

The growth in other income stemmed from realisation of late payment mark-up and profit on Pakistan Investment Bonds issued to the energy sector. Further support came from subdued growth in other expenses, the research house said.

In the third quarter alone, PSO recorded earnings of Rs3.6 billion, an increase of 18% from the same period of previous year, but down 55% from the previous quarter.

In the nine-month period, gross sales crossed the trillion mark and stood at Rs1.02 trillion compared to Rs930 billion in the same period of last year, representing a growth of 10%, PSO said in a press release.

Depreciation of the rupee against the US dollar by 6.5% in the first half was followed by an appreciation of 7% in the third quarter, resulting in a net exchange loss of Rs1.2 billion.

Owing to liquidity issues faced by the company caused by outstanding receivables, mainly from power sector customers, the PSO board decided to defer dividends at this stage.