Women’s March On Washington.

                                                       It’s only one day after Trump’s inauguration, and tons of protesters have already taken to the streets around the nation in protest of his presidency. Click through our gallery to s ee pics of women, men, and children standing in solidarity together at the Women’s March...

Facebook’s Zuckerberg questioned at trial over virtual-reality technology...

                           
                                                             Facebook Inc (FB.O) chief executive Mark Zuckerberg took the witness stand in Dallas federal court on Tuesday and denied an allegation by a rival company that the virtual-reality technology of Facebook’s Oculus unit was stolen.

Zuckerberg, the founder of one of the world’s largest companies, faced hours of tough, public questioning about where Oculus obtained its ideas and how much he knew about the startup when Facebook bought it for $2 billion.

A jury is hearing evidence in a civil lawsuit brought by videogame publisher ZeniMax Media Inc against Oculus in 2014, in the middle of the Facebook-Oculus deal. ZeniMax said that Oculus unlawfully used its intellectual property to develop the virtual-reality system that includes the Rift headset…

During one heated exchange with ZeniMax lawyer Tony Sammi, Zuckerberg told a jury in the crowded courtroom that the technology was not even fully formed when Facebook bought it.

“Improving on that technology doesn’t make it yours,” Sammi countered. “If you steal my bike, paint it and put a bell on it, does that make it your bike?”

Zuckerberg, wearing a dark suit and striped tie rather than his typical T-shirt and jeans, answered, “no,” but then added: “The idea that Oculus technology is based on someone else’s is just wrong...”

                                   The 32-year-old Facebook founder has spoken about virtual reality as an important part of the company’s future business, especially as the technology becomes less expensive and its uses clearer.

The Oculus acquisition was more expensive than the $2 billion price tag indicated, Zuckerberg said in court, describing $700 million spent to retain employees and $300 million in payouts for reaching milestones. Oculus originally wanted $4 billion,he said…

Sammi questioned whether Facebook knew what it was doing when it made the acquisition. Zuckerberg said the Oculus deal was done over a weekend in 2014, which Sammi said did not show sufficient due diligence. Zuckerberg said, though, in later testimony that Facebook researched Oculus for months...

“It’s pretty common when you announce a big deal that people just come out of the woodwork and claim they own some part of the deal,” Zuckerberg said.

On the stand, he also gave details about Facebook’s $22 billion purchase of messaging service WhatsApp in 2014. While the deal was in progress, another company he did not identify made a last-minute bid that was higher, Zuckerberg said, but WhatsApp declined because of its good relationship with Facebook.

China to develop prototype super, super computer in 2017.

China plans to develop a prototype exascale computer by the end of the year, state media said Tuesday, as it seeks to win a global race to be the first to build a machine capable of a billion, billion calculations per second…

The achievement would cement its place as a leading power in the world of supercomputing.

The Asian giant built the world´s fastest supercomputer, the Sunway TaihuLight machine, in June last year, which was twice as fast as the previous number one.

It used only locally made microchips, making it the first time a country has taken the top spot without using US technology.

Exascale computers are even more powerful, and can execute at least one quintillion (a billion billion) calculations per second.

Though a prototype was in the pipeline, a complete version of such a machine would take a few more years to complete, Xinhua news agency cited Zhang Ting, application engineer at the National Supercomputer Center in the port city of Tianjin, as saying…

“A complete computing system of the exascale supercomputer and its applications can only be expected in 2020, and will be 200 times more powerful than the country´s first petaflop computer Tianhe-1, recognised as the world´s fastest in 2010,” said Zhang.

The exascale computer could have applications in big data and cloud computing work, he added, noting that its prototype would lead the world in data transmission efficiency as well as calculation speed.

Samsung chief faces long day as South Korean court weighs arrest warrant.

The head of South Korea’s giant Samsung Group faces a long day in court on Wednesday as a judge decides whether he should be arrested for bribery in a corruption scandal that has engulfed President Park Geun-hye’s administration.

Investigators questioned Jay Y. Lee for 22 hours last week as a suspect in the scandal which led to parliament impeaching Park in December and throwing the country into crisis.

Park, 64, remains in office but has been stripped of her powers while the Constitutional Court decides whether to make her the country’s first democratically elected leader to be forced from office.

She is likely to undergo “face-to-face” questioning by early next month, the special prosecutor’s spokesman said.

The prosecutor’s office has accused Lee, 48, of paying bribes totaling 43 billion won ($36.55 million) to organizations linked to Choi Soon-sil, a friend of the president who is at the center of the scandal, to secure the 2015 merger of two affiliates and cement his control of the family business.

Lee, who has denied wrongdoing, is also accused of embezzlement and perjury. Lee’s lawyer could not be reached for comment on Tuesday.

Seoul Central District Court will hold the hearing to decide on his arrest warrant. A court official told Reuters that Lee and his lawyer would attend the hearing.

A spokesman for the special prosecutor’s team said Lee would then be held in detention until the court had made its ruling.

“A judge’s examination of a suspect normally finishes in 30 minutes at the earliest, but can take longer than two hours for complicated matters, which is likely to be the case,” the court official said…

“Then, after the examination, the judge goes back to his office to review records and evidence and deliberate arguments of the prosecution’s side and the suspect’s side,” said the official, who declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter.

“A final decision is more likely to be made at dawn on Thursday, as there are tons of records, evidence and lots of things to review.

Have we really forgotten Mirza Ghalib, the greatest Urdu poet of all time?

Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib, who was born on Dec 27, 1797 in Agra, is widely regarded as the greatest Urdu language poet. Urdu is Pakistan’s national language and there are at least half a dozen cultural organisations in Karachi, a couple of them named after Ghalib, that harp on the importance of the Urdu language.

But for some strange reason Ghalib’s birth and death anniversaries are never observed or special events are held, leave alone observed the way they merit, by these organisations. The same negligent attitude was witnessed on the poet’s 219th birthday on Tuesday, which went by completely unnoticed.

Talking to Dawn, Ghalib Library’s secretary Rauf Parekh thinks that’s not the case; “We do hold special events and we intend to do one on Feb 15, 2017. Since we are a trust, lack of funds caused us to halt our activities in the past, but rest assured we have been doing our bit. We publish 30 to 35 books on Ghalib and he is very much alive with us. This year our grant has been increased, so you will see more programmes. That being said, I concede that we have not done enough.”

President of the Arts Council of Pakistan Karachi Ahmed Shah says: “Every year at our international Urdu conference we have a session on Ghalib. Even this year we had a lecture by Dr Nomanul Haq on ‘Ghalib Se Iqbal’. Yes, I agree that his birth and death anniversaries should be commemorated. To be honest, we were busy with our post-election stuff, so [we] could not think about it. Also, cultural organisations are not that connected to Urdu literature the way they should be. On Feb 15, which is Ghalib’s death anniversary, we will arrange a conference on his life and work...

Shah Rukh Khan has a special New Year's message for Raees fans.

Drunk driving claims more than 100,000 lives a year, and Shah Rukh Khan hopes to lower that statistic.

In a short video on Twitter hashtagged #RaeesKiSuno, the actor (threateningly) asks his fans to party but not drink and drive. Yikes!


Raees stars SRK and Mahira Khan and will release Jan 25 next year. The film's trailer was a hit and garnered positive response from both sides of the border.

Russia, Turkey agree ceasefire plan for all of Syria: Turkish state media.

Turkey and Russia have agreed a ceasefire plan for all of Syria that should come into force this evening at midnight, the Turkish state run Anadolu news agency said Wednesday.

The plan aims to expand a ceasefire in the city of Aleppo, brokered by Turkey and Russia earlier this month to allow the evacuation of civilians, to all of the country, it said.

But, like previous ceasefire plans that had been brokered by the United States and Russia, it excludes "terror" groups, the agency said...

If successful, the plan will form the basis of upcoming political negotiations between the regime and opposition overseen by Russia and Turkey in the Kazakh capital Astana, it added.

Turkey and Russia will work for the plan to come into force at midnight, the agency said, without giving further details...

It was not immediately clear how and where the plan had been agreed but there have been talks in the last weeks between Turkey, Russia and Syrian opposition representatives in Ankara.

Ankara and Moscow have been on opposing sides in the Syrian civil war, with Turkey seeking the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad and Russia, along with Iran, his key international ally..

But the two countries have started in the last months to cooperate more tightly on Syria, especially after a deal in summer to normalise ties battered by Turkey's shooting down of a Russian warplane last year.

Ankara remained conspicuously quiet as Assad's forces, backed by Russia, took control last week of all of Aleppo in the biggest defeat for the rebels in the civil war so far.

Pakistani-American doctor wins Nato Scientific Achievement Award 2016.

A Pakistani-American doctor has won the “Scientific Achievement Award 2016” from the Nato Science and Technology Organization (STO) for his extra-ordinary performance in research on medical countermeasures against biological agents.

STO, the largest Nato organisation for defence science and technology, honoured Dr Rashid A. Chotani, who was part of a task group researching medical countermeasures against biological agents.

Dr Chotani has worked in the healthcare industry, government and academia in areas such as advanced development of vaccines, therapeutic and diagnostic countermeasures, bio-surveillance etc. As a senior scientist, Dr Chotani has spent more than 20 years in providing bio-security and public health expertise to both public agencies and private industry.

He is an expert in the identification, surveillance and diagnosis of human and zoonotic infectious diseases. His success in the academic field includes establishing and directing the Global Infectious Disease Surveillance and Alert System (GIDSAS) at Johns Hopkins University..

In Pakistan, Dr Chotani helped in upgrading the Early Warning System at the National Institute of Health (NIH), re-developed and furbished the Epidemic Investigation Cell (EIC) with basic infrastructural needs, as well as housed six qualified epidemiologists to assist in disease surveillance..

He has also played an important role as the adviser to the Ministry of Health in developing Pakistan's influenza preparedness plan...

The Nato Achievement Award recognises the outstanding contributions made to STO's sponsored activities that continue to widen STO's technological mandate.

Pakistan’s fourth nuclear power plant goes online.

Pakistan´s fourth nuclear power plant went online Wednesday, a joint collaboration with China that adds 340 megawatts to the national grid as part of the government´s efforts to end a growth-sapping energy deficit.

Pakistan is one of the few developing countries pursuing atomic energy in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan in 2011, as it seeks to close an electricity shortfall that can stretch up to 7,000 MW in peak summer months, or around 32 percent of total demand.

The Chashma-III reactor, located some 250 kilometres (155 miles) southwest of capital Islamabad, is the third built as part of  a collaboration between the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) and China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC).

The country´s first nuclear plant was supplied by Canada in 1972, with an installed capacity of 137 MW.

"Today we have crossed an important milestone in the journey to free the nation from scheduled power cuts. I am thankful to Allah and congratulate the entire nation," Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif told an inaugural ceremony attended by Chinese and Pakistani officials...

He said that a fourth Chashma plant was expected to be commissioned by April 2017. Two more reactors would follow at an unspecified date in central Pakistan, as well as two giant 2,200 MW power stations in southern Karachi. Islamabad is aiming to produce 8,800 MW from atomic energy by 2030.

Pakistan has been struggling to provide enough power to its nearly 200 million citizens for years, and Sharif has vowed to solve the crisis by 2018.

The energy sector has traditionally struggled to cover the cost of producing electricity, leading the government to divert $2 billion annually as a subsidy, according to a recent report commissioned by the British government.

China meanwhile is ramping up investment in its South Asian neighbour as part of a $46 billion project unveiled last year that will link its far-western Xinjiang region to Pakistan´s Gwadar port with a series of infrastructure, power and transport upgrades.

Last week Pakistan´s main bourse announced that a Chinese consortium was set to acquire a 40 percent stake in the stock exchange in a deal estimated at $84 million.

Shanghai Electric announced in August it would buy a majority stake in the utility that supplies energy to Karachi for $1.7 billion, in the country´s biggest ever private-sector acquisition.

Trump says UN just a club for people to 'have a good time'.

The statement came days after the UN Security Council voted to condemn Israeli settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.

The president-elect wrote Monday on Twitter that the UN has “such great potential,” but it has become “just a club for people to get together, talk and have a good time. So sad...!”

On Friday, Trump warned, “As to the UN, things will be different after Jan 20th,” referring to the day he takes office.

The decision by the Obama administration to abstain from Friday's UN vote brushed aside Trump's demands that the US exercise its veto and provided a climax to years of icy relations with Israel's leadership.

Trump told The Associated Press last December that he wanted to be “very neutral” on Israel-Palestinian issues. But his tone became decidedly more pro-Israel as the presidential campaign progressed. He has spoken disparagingly of Palestinians, saying they have been “taken over” by or are condoning militant groups...

Trump's tweet Monday about the UN ignores much of the work that goes on in the 193-member global organisation.

This year the UN Security Council has approved over 70 legally binding resolutions, including new sanctions on North Korea and measures tackling conflicts and authorising the UN's far-flung peacekeeping operations around the world.

The General Assembly has also approved dozens of resolutions on issues, like the role of diamonds in fuelling conflicts; condemned human rights abuses in Iran and North Korea; and authorised an investigation of alleged war crimes in Syria.

Who planted so-called fake news about Israeli threat to destroy Pakistan?

Social media is abuzz with news accusing Pakistan of threatening to nuke Israel in response to a news published by a German-own website (www.awdnews.com) quoting the former Israeli defence minister Moshe Yaalon as saying that Israel will nuke Pakistan if it sends ground troops to Syria.

The reaction from Pakistan came from Defence Minister Kh Asif, who tweeted Friday: “Israeli def min threatens nuclear retaliation presuming Pak role in Syria against Daesh. Israel forgets Pakistan is a nuclear state too”

Israel’s defence ministry tweeted back Saturday, saying the original story on the site AWD News was “never said” and is “entirely false”.

The social media and news media is blaming Pakistan for reacting to the www.wednews.com report which was false or fake.

Interestingly, the news media did not question who planted such a report? Who was behind this serious story? It is simply saying that the report was fake and it was foolish on part of Pakistan to respond to this news.

It is a common knowledge that the so-called “fake” news is an important material which cannot be swept away as it plays an important role in forming public opinion which we witnessed during the last November presidential election.

The Washington Post reported on November 24 that “fake” news played an important role in the last presidential election: “The flood of “fake news” this election season got support from a sophisticated Russian propaganda campaign that created and spread misleading articles online with the goal of punishing Democrat Hillary Clinton, helping Republican Donald Trump and undermining faith in American democracy, say independent researchers who tracked the operation”.

Hence, the basic question remains who was behind planting this serious news on this German website. Pakistan cannot be blamed for responding to this “fake” news.