ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s capital market regulator will introduce seven new standards covering a variety of Islamic finance transactions, as it fast-tracks the adoption of rules to help streamline industry practices. The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) said it had opened a two-week public consultation period for the standards, which are to be issued by…

LONDON: London’s transport regulator on Friday stripped Uber of its license to operate from the end of the month, affecting over 40,000 drivers in a huge blow to the taxi app, reported Reuters. “Uber’s approach and conduct demonstrate a lack of corporate responsibility in relation to a number of issues which have potential public safety…

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Finance, Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar on Friday said the government managed to reduce the fiscal deficit from 8.8 percent in 2013 to 5 percent by increasing revenues and reducing expenditures. Winding up speech on charged expenditures here at National Assembly, Ishaq Dar expressed the hope that the 4.3 percent target of fiscal…

DUNEDIN: Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews admitted his side must raise their game if they are to win a second World Cup after surviving a scare against Afghanistan at University Oval in Dunedin on Sunday. Mahela Jayawardene's 19th one-day century rescued the 1996 champions from a perilous 51 for four in pursuit of a 233-run…

KARACHI: Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain criticized double standard politics of the government saying that today's rulers had also took out Long March when they were in opposition and now they are opposing the long march by other parties.. Addressing the parliamentary committee meeting here, he said the country was faced with political…

SAN FRANCISCO: Samsung Electronics, Intel Corp and Dell have joined to establish standard ways for household gadgets like thermostats and light bulbs to talk to each other, at odds with a framework backed by Qualcomm, LG Electronics and other companies. The new Open Interconnect Consortium, like the Qualcomm-supported AllSeen Alliance, aims to establish how smart…

SAN FRANCISCO: Facebook Inc removed a video of a woman being beheaded from its website on Tuesday and said it would use a broader set of criteria to determine when gory videos are permitted on the site.The move came a day after a public outcry over news reports that Facebook, the world's No. 1 social…

MANCHESTER: Prime Minister David Cameron said private enterprise and tax cuts were the best ways to raise living standards in Britain, dismissing plans by opposition Labour to raise corporation tax as nonsensical.”We know that profit, wealth creation, tax cuts, enterprise, these are not dirty elitist words, they're not the problem, they really are the solution…

ANKARA: Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan accused Western and Arab nations of “double standards”for failing to condemn the overthrow of former Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi, whose Muslim Brotherhood like Erdogan has Islamist roots.Turkey has emerged as one of the fiercest international critics of what it has called an “unacceptable coup” after Egypt's powerful military shunted…

KARACHI: Pakistan's central bank has adopted a global standard for sukuk (Islamic bonds), which could help Pakistani issues attract investment by foreign institutions from the Gulf and elsewhere.Issuers will have to comply with the “investment sukuk” guidelines of the Bahrain-based Accounting and Auditing Organisation for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI), or face penalties, the central bank…

WASHINGTON: The International Monetary Fund on Wednesday said that it lowered its normal standards for debt sustainability to bail out Greece and its projections for the Greek economy may have been overly optimistic.The IMF was one of a trio of international lenders that in 2010 stepped in to keep the euro zone country from defaulting…

Staff ReportISLAMABAD: Amid deadly demonstrations in Pakistan, Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf urged the international community on Friday to pass laws to prevent people from insulting the Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H), SAMAA reported.”If denying the Holocaust is a crime, then is it not fair and legitimate for a Muslim to demand that denigrating and demeaning Islam's…

Staff ReportISLAMABAD: Sindh Information Minister Sharjil Memo has said that judges should come out of their double standards, questioning why the Supreme Court is only after the Swiss case out of 8, 000 NRO cases. “Prime Minister would write to Swiss government to reopen graft cases only If the Constitution allowed so; otherwise no way,”…

Wasim Malik sheds light on the standards of public schools in Rawalpindi.

RAMADI: Hundreds of Iraqis took to the streets of the western city of Ramadi on Sunday, demonstrating against the Anbar provincial governor and the head of the local city council over their failure to provide the people of the city with basic services.”We want an honest governor, we want a governor who serves the province….

DUSHANBE: Serious irregularities including ballot-box stuffing mean Sunday's parliamentary election in Tajikistan failed to meet basic democratic standards, Europe's main election watchdog said on Monday. “I'm happy that election day took place in a generally good atmosphere but I'm even more disappointed that these elections failed on many basic democratic standards,” Pia Christmas-Moller, vice-president of…

KARACHI: Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani Saturday urged the international community not to have “double standards” on the issues of Kashmir and Gaza. He was addressing foundation stone ceremony of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Accident, Emergency and Trauma Centre to be established in Civil Hospital Karachi. The ceremony was organized here in Sindh Chief Minister House….

ISLAMABAD: Chairman Special Parliamentary Committee on Kashmir Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman urged the west to give up double standards, saying in Iraq, Afghanistan and FATA it supports the use of force, but in Kashmir and Palestine it stresses negotiations. Western powers, which advocated democratic ideals should respect sovereignty of Pakistan and follow one criteria, Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman said…

TORONTO: President Sri Lankan Cricket Board, Arjuna Ranatunga urged International Cricket Council (ICC) to form a policy to end double standards of players to save Pakistan cricket which is suffering due to cancellation of foreign teams' tours . “It is a sad situation Pakistan cricket is going through as teams have refused to visit the…