LAHORE: Two new cases of wild poliovirus have been detected in Punjab, bringing the number of children affected by the crippling disease in the province so far this year to eight. According to the Punjab anti-polio programme, an eight-month-old boy affected by the virus in Dera Gazi Khan passed away. All his limbs were crippled by the disease. In Bahawalpur, …

A high proportion of COVID-19 infections among U.S. healthcare personnel appear to go undetected, according to a report on Monday in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Between April and June, among more than 3,000 frontline workers in 12 states, roughly 1 in 20 had antibody evidence of a previous COVID-19 …

Cell phone use patterns suggest that when people stay home, coronavirus infection rates go down, researchers say. For a study published on Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine, they analyzed publicly available de-identified cell phone activity and location data collected between January and May from 2,740 counties across the United States. After mid-February, when the coronavirus outbreak began, cell phone activity …

KARACHI: According to the latest biannual transparency report, micro blogging website Twitter has started complying with content removal requests from Pakistan — a marked departure from previous years of non-compliance. The total compliance rate, released for the first time by the company, refers to the percentage of requests where Twitter took a specific action to remove content (e.g, Tweet or …

KARACHI: The stock market remained generally bullish though several spells of profit-taking forced it to move sideways. In the end, the KSE-100 index recorded minor gains of 54.71 points (0.13 per cent) and settled at 41,110.93 on Monday. The index opened on a positive note and quickly climbed to intraday high by 255 points. But at that point, it succumbed …

‘Digital’ has become one of the most commonly used words these days. Everything now has the precursor ‘digital’ attached to it, and digital banking is no exception. With the advent of Covid-19, articles claiming a “digital financial revolution” and Pakistan’s sleeping commercial banking sector turning the corner were seen in abundance. Unfortunately, the reality is far from these rosy pictures …

KARACHI: The dollar continued to fall against the local currency as it slipped by Rs1.20 to Rs166.23 in the interbank market on Monday while total decline in the last three sessions was 1.3 per cent. The State Bank of Pakistan reported the dollar closed at Rs166.23 but bankers dealing in the currency market said the greenback was sold as low …

ISLAMABAD: Revenue collection in August fell two per cent or Rs5 billion year-on-year to Rs294bn, data released by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) showed on Monday. The FBR also missed the month’s collections target by 4.5pc or Rs14bn. The board had projected revenue collection of Rs308bn for August. The heavy rainfall badly affected customs clearance of imported cargo during …

ISLAMABAD: The government is examining the options of involving private managers through management contracts and forensic audit of loss-making state-owned entities (SOEs) as it prepares to submit a progress report to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) by Sept 30. Presiding over a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on State-Owned Enterprises (CCSOEs), Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance & Revenue …

Hollywood star Amber Heard is pointing her guns at ex-husband Johnny Depp once more, accusing him of ‘organising and orchestrating’ a smear campaign against her. According to US court documents, the Pirates of the Caribbean actor made attempts to sully his ex-wife’s name and cause damage to her social repute and career. The Aquaman star and her lawyer Adam Waldman allege Depp …