Islamabad [Pakistan], July 15 : A World Bank arbitration court has imposed a penalty of over five billion dollars on Pakistan for unlawful denial of a mining lease to a company for the Reko Diq project in 2011.
The Tethyan Copper Company had approached the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes in 2012 after the Balochistan government declined its lease request. The international tribunal on Saturday announced in a 700-pages ruling that Pakistan has to pay Tethyan Copper USD 5.8 billion in damages, Samaa News reported.
Pakistan’s Supreme Court had terminated the deal in 2013. The mining company said that it had invested over USD 220 million on Reko Diq.
The company is still “willing to strike a deal with Pakistan,” Tethyan board chair William Hayes said in a statement. But, added that “It would continue protecting its commercial and legal interests until the dispute was over.”
The case between the Pakistani government and the international company continued for at least seven years.
The penalty came as a major blow to the cash-strapped economy of Pakistan that has received billions in financial aid packages from international organisations such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and a few friendly countries, including China, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) during the current fiscal year.
Prime Minister Imran Khan on Sunday issued orders for the formation of a commission to investigate and fix responsibility for the massive loss borne by Pakistan in the Reko Diq case.
The Attorney General’s office issued a press release stating that Islamabad together with the Balochistan government was analysing the legal and financial effects of the court orders and that the government was considering all aspects of the matter and will decide the future course with a consultation.
The press release said Pakistan had the right to use all legal options available under the international laws. The government also welcomed Tethyan Copper Company’s (TCC) offer to resolve the issue through negotiations. It also welcomed all the international investors to Pakistan.
It added that Pakistan was further interested in the development of Reko Diq resources and as a responsible state saw the international agreements and protection of legal rights and interests with seriousness.
Reko Diq mine is famed for its vast gold and copper reserves and is believed to have the world’s fifth largest gold deposit.
The small town of Reko Diq in Chagai district in Balochistan is located in a desert area, 70 kilometres north-west of Naukundi, close to the border with Iran and Afghanistan.
BRASILIA : The Brazilian government said on Thursday it had asked the World Trade Organization to establish a panel aimed at resolving its dispute over Indian sugar subsidies, according to a joint statement by the foreign and agriculture ministries.
The WTO’s Dispute Settlement Body is expected to take up Brazil’s request at its meeting scheduled for July 22, the statement said. Australia and Guatemala also lodged complaints against India on Thursday, according to the ministries.
Brazil alleges that the Indian government has taken actions that distort global sugar markets. The South American country claims India doubled the minimum price for sugarcane since the 2010/2011 crop year with Indian sugar exports soaring in 2018/19 to 5 million tonnes from 2 million tonnes the prior year.
In February, Brazil had requested that the WTO start consultations on the subject but the two sides failed to reach a resolution, the statement said.
By the year 2050, London’s climate will resemble Madrid’s today; Paris will be more like Canberra; Stockholm like Budapest and Moscow like Sofia, according to a new analysis published Wednesday that relied on optimistic projections.
The changes will be even more dramatic for the world’s major tropical cities like Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, and Singapore which will experience unprecedented climate conditions, resulting in extreme weather events and intense droughts.
The study was carried out by scientists from ETH Zurich and published in PLOS ONE on Wednesday.
Researchers examined the climate of the world’s 520 major cities using 19 variables that reflect variability in temperature and precipitation.
Future projections were estimated using established modeling that was intentionally optimistic, meaning it assumed carbon dioxide emissions would stabilize by the middle of the century through the implementation of green policies, with a mean global temperature increase of 1.4 Celsius.
The team then compared climate similarity of current and future cities to one another, and the results make for dire reading.
Across the northern hemisphere, cities in 2050 will resemble places that are over 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) further south towards the equator.
Those closer to the equator won’t see drastic warming but will likely have more extremes of drought and rainfall.
Overall, 77 percent of the world’s cities will experience a “striking change” in climate conditions, while 22 percent will experience “novel” conditions — ie something that has never before been encountered.
In Europe, summers and winters will get warmer, with average increases of 3.5 celsius and 4.7 celsius, respectively.
While the modeling used in the analysis is not new, the purpose of the paper was to organize that information in a way that will inspire policy makers to act.
“The point of this paper is to try to allow everyone to get a better grasp on what’s happening with climate change,” lead author Jean-Francois Bastin told AFP.
Bastin, who is from Belgium, added it was not certain that by 2060 his country would experience sub-zero temperatures in winter, a necessary condition for wheat seeds to become activated.
As summer temperatures surge, more people in northern Europe will purchase air conditioners, adding to the strain on electric grids and possibly creating a vicious cycle, he added.
“It’s been more than 30 years that most of us have agreed that there is a climate change which is caused by human activity, but still we fail to really transform that in to global actions,” he said.
New Delhi, Jul 11: In a landmark step, the Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the amendments to make provisions for the death penalty in Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012.
The amendments in the POCSO Act also proposed fines and jail term to curb child pornography.
“The amendments made to address the need for stringent measures required to deter the rising trend of child sex abuse in the country on one hand and to address the menace of relatively new kind of crimes on the other hand,” said Union Minister Prakash Javadekar while briefing about Cabinet decisions here.
He said the amendments will be made in section – 2, section- 4, section – 5, section – 6, section -9, section – 14, section – 15, section 34, section- 42 and section – 45 of POCSO Act, to address the aspects of child sexual abuse in appropriate manner.
“Section – 4, Section – 5 and section – 6 are proposed to be amended to provide option of stringent punishment, including death penalty, for committing sexual assault and aggravated penetrative sexual assault crime on a child to protect the children from sexual abuse,’ the Minister added.
The amendments are also proposed in Section -9 to protect children from sexual offences in times of natural calamities and other similar situations and in case where children are administered, in any way, any hormone or any chemical substance, to attain early sexual maturity for the purpose of penetrative sexual assault.
Section -14 and section 15 of the POCSO Act, are also proposed to be amended to address the menace of the child pornography.
It is proposed to levy fine for not destroying or deleting or reporting the pornographic material involving a child with an intention to share or transmit it.
New Delhi, July 11: The Government on Wednesday banned ‘Sikhs for justice’, a separatist organisation being operated from the Canada, US and Britain.
Home ministry officials said the Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, decided to declare SFJ proscribed under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.
The SFJ has been banned for a period of five years under section 3(1) of the 1967 law.
A senior official of the home Ministry said the Government had wide-ranging consultations in this regard with Sikh organisations, which all supported the step.
Washington, July 11: Researchers have identified that kids, who are mocked by their parents, are at a higher risk of becoming bullies as they come from hostile, punitive and rejecting backgrounds.
Derisive parents use demeaning or belittling expressions that humiliate and frustrate the child, without any obvious provocation from their kid. These parents respond to child engagement with criticism, sarcasm, put-downs and hostility, and rely on emotional and physical coercion to obtain compliance.
The study, published in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence, emphasises on the emotional underpinnings of peer difficulties. The researchers followed 1,409 children for three consecutive years from grades 7 to 9 (aged 13-15 years).
Findings show that derisive parenting fosters dysregulated anger in adolescent children. Dysregulated anger is indicative of difficulties regulating emotion, which typically result in negative emotions, verbal and physical aggression, and hostility. Increases in dysregulated anger, in turn, place adolescents at greater risk for bullying and victimization, and for becoming bully-victims (bullies who also are victimized by other bullies).
The latter finding is noteworthy given the past research indicates that bully-victims are at the greatest risk for poor mental health, behavioural difficulties, and suicidal thoughts when compared to “pure” victims, “pure” bullies, or non-victims. Identification of the family-specific origins of bully-victim status may be a key step in limiting or preventing such poor outcomes.
Importantly, these findings held after controlling for parenting behaviours implicated in child adjustments, such as warmth, control and physical punishment. This study suggests that derisive behaviour is a unique form of parenting that increases the risks that adolescent children will adopt inappropriate anger management strategies that increases their risk for peer difficulties.
“Inappropriate interpersonal responses appear to spread from parents to children, where they spawn peer difficulties. Specifically, derisive parenting precipitates a cycle of negative affect and anger between parents and adolescents, which ultimately leads to greater adolescent bullying and victimization. Our study is important because it provides a more complete understanding of how parents’ belittling and critical interactions with adolescents thwart their ability to maintain positive relationships with peers,” said Brett Laursen, the co-author of the study.
“Implications from our study are far-reaching: practitioners and parents should be informed of the potential long-term costs of sometimes seemingly harmless parenting behaviours such as belittlement and sarcasm. Parents must be reminded of their influence on adolescents’ emotions and should take steps to ensure that adolescents do not feel ridiculed at home,” said Daniel J. Dickson the senior author of the study.