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July 7, 2018
- NAB Court sentences Nawaz Sharif to 10, Maryam to 7 years in jail; imposes millions in fine
- Order Govt to confiscate Avenfield Flats, Ex-PM caught for beyond-means assets, exonerated from corruption charges, Safdar handed one-year prison for helping wife in forgery, Perpetual arrest warrants issued for Hassan, Hussain Nawaz
- In a judgment that will bear heavily on upcoming elections and echo for decades in Pakistan’s political theatre, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz have been sentenced to several years in jail and slapped with heavy fines.
- A fine of eight and two million pounds was also imposed on the father and the daughter respectively in the Avenfield Apartments Reference, which is one of the three corruption cases filed by NAB in light of Supreme Court’s judgment in Panama Papers case.
- In the 74-page verdict, the court ordered the federal government to confiscate Sharifs’ high-end properties in London’s exclusive Mayfair neighbourhood.
- The judgment also rendered convicts disqualified to hold any public office for 10 years until they undergo the sentence. They were also barred from taking any monetary benefit during this period.
- Hasan Nawaz and Hussain Nawaz, the sons of Nawaz Sharif, who have been absconding the NAB court hearings were declared proclaimed offenders and the court issued perpetual non-bailable arrest warrants for them.
- Though he was sentenced for being benamnar owner of London flats, Nawaz Sharif – the two-time chief minister of Punjab and three-time prime minister –was acquitted of the charges of committing corruption while in office, as alleged by NAB.
- Maryam was primarily sentenced for aiding and abetting the crime, and playing the front-man for her father.
- NSC reaffirms commitment to enforce action plan agreed with FATF
- The National Security Committee (NSC) has reaffirmed its commitment to implement the action plan agreed with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the international illicit financing watchdog for checking terror financing and money laundering.
- Members of the NSC discussed the action plan during a meeting held on July 6, 2018 `The participants reiterated a firm commitment to fulfilment of obligations regarding combating money-laundering and terror financing,` said a statement issued by the Prime Minister Office on the NSC meeting.
- The meeting coincidentally took place on a day that was dominated by the news about former prime minister Nawaz Sharif`s conviction and sentencing in a corruption case by an accountability court.
- Three-day Shandur polo festival begins today
- The three-day Shandur polo festival will start today (July 7, 2018) here in the world`s highest polo ground.
- Polo matches between the teams of Chitral and Gilgit Baltistan will be the major events of the festivaland the tourists will also enjoy cultural and music programmes and fireworks at night time.
- The PIA has started operating special flights for Chitral to facilitate the tourists on the occasion of polo festival. For those coming by road the district administration has established a facilitation centre at Ziarat village near Lowari tunnel where the tourists are welcomed and given information and help on need basis.
- Caretaker Chief Minister Dost Mohammad Khan will inaugurate the festival today (Saturday) while its concluding ceremony will be attended by caretaker Prime Minister Nasirul Mulk on Monday when the final match would be played between the teams of Chitral and GB.
- World powers reaffirm commitment to N-deal, ties with Iran
- Iran`s remaining partners in the 2015 nuclear deal vowed on July 6, 2018 to keep the energy exporter plugged into the global economy despite the US withdrawal and sanctions threat.
- Britain, France and Germany along with Russia and China met with Iran in Vienna to offer economic benefits and assurances that would lessen the blow of sweeping US sanctions announced by Trump.
- They said they remained committed to the accord and to building up trade and investment links with Iran, including `the continuation of Iran`s export of oil and gas` and other energy products.
- Joint goals the foreign ministers on July 6, 2018 agreed on an 11-point list of joint goals in the Austrian capital, where the accord was signed with the aim of stopping Iran from building the atomic bomb in return for sanctions relief.
- In the joint statement, Zarif and other top diplomats reconfirmed their commitment to the deal and its `economic dividends` for Iran, which has suffered worsening financial turbulence since Trump abandoned the accord.
- After the US threat to penalise companies that do business with Iran, the remaining signatories said they would work for `the protection of companies from the extraterritorial effects of US sanctions`.
- Trump’s scandal-plagued environment chief resigns
- US President Donald Trump on July 6, 2018 announced the departure of his environment chief, Scott Pruitt, who faced ever-growing ethics scandals over his spending and conduct in office.
- “I have accepted the resignation of Scott Pruitt as the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency,” tweeted the president, ending months of speculation about the future of the man he had tasked with dismantling former president Barack Obama’s green legacy. “Within the Agency Scott has done an outstanding job, and I will always be thankful to him for this,” added Trump.
- Trump told journalists aboard Air Force One that there was “no final straw” that led to Pruitt’s departure, and that the move – which he said had been in the works for “a couple of days” – was “very much up to him.”
- Trump tweeted that Pruitt’s deputy, the former coal lobbyist Andrew Wheeler, would take over Monday as acting head of the agency. “He is a very environmental person. He’s a big believer, and he’s going to do a fantastic job,” the president told journalists of Wheeler.
- Rebels in southern Syria reach deal to end violence
- Fighters battling a fierce government-led offensive in southern Syria have reached an agreement with Russia, a major ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, to end violence in the area and surrender a key crossing point with Jordan.
- Ibrahim Jabawi, spokesman for the rebels’ joint operations room, was quoted as saying by news agencies that under agreement reached with Russian negotiators the fighters will begin to hand over some of their heavy weapons in return for a government pullout from several villages.
- Jabawi added that Russian military police will deploy along the border with Jordan, including the strategically important Naseeb border crossing, and that rebels opposed to the deal will be evacuated to rebel-held regions in northern Syria.
- There was no immediate comment from Assad’s government and its Russian backers.
- Trade war begins between China, US as tariffs kick in
- The United States and China slapped tit-for-tat duties on $34 billion worth of each other`s imports on July 6, 2018, with Beijing accusing Washington of triggering the `largest-scale trade war` as the world`s two biggest economies sharply escalated their conflict.
- Hours before Washington`s deadline for the tariffs to take effect, US President Donald Trump upped the ante, warning that the United States may ultimately target over $500 billion worth of Chinese goods, or roughly the total amount of US imports from China last year.
- China`s commerce ministry, in a statement shortly after the US deadline passed at 0401 GMT on Friday, said that it was forced to retaliate, meaning imported US goods including cars, soybeans, and lobsters alsofaced 25 per cent tariffs.
- China`s soymeal futures fell more than 2pc on Friday afternoon before recovering most of those losses, amid initial market confusion over whether Beijing had actually implemented the tariffs, which it later confirmed it had.
- Long-expected tariff volley fuelled fear that a prolonged and escalating battle would deal a blow to global trade, investment and growth, while also damaging US farmers who stand to lose revenues and potentially driving up food prices in China.
- Pacific nations plan new security pact as Chinese aid grows
- Australia and New Zealand are set to seal a new security agreement with their Pacific island neighbours as China increases its influence in the region, officials said on July 6, 2018.
- The agreement was expected to be signed at the 18-nation Pacific Islands Forum in September, New Zealand`s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said, describing the Pacific as an `increasingly contested strategic environment.
- New Zealand`s government said that China was acting more confidently and assertively in pursuing its interests in Asia, which had raised tensions with other countries including the United States.
- As China had integrated into the international order, it had not adopted the same values around human rights and freedom of information that are championed by traditional leaders, a strategic defence policy statement released by New Zealand Defence Minister Ron Mark said.
- Macron gathers world`s top sovereign funds to send climate signal
- Sovereign wealth funds managing more than $2 trillion are to lay out a strategy on July 6, 2018 in Paris to pressure companies to be more climate-friendly.
- President Emmanuel Macron, who has cast himself as the guardian of the Paris agreement on climate change since Washington announced it would pull out, is championing the initiative, which will bring together the heads of six sovereign funds to thrash out a pro-environment investment framework.
- With five of the funds coming from oilrich nations Abu Dhabi, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Norway and the sixth from New Zealand, the Elysee dismissed suggestions the funds could just be opportunistically jumping on the climate bandwagon.
- Three YouTube vloggers die in waterfall plunge
- Three members of a YouTube travel blogging collective have died after falling over a waterfall in Canada.
- Ryker Gamble, Alexey Lyakh and Megan Scraper were part of High On Life, who post videos of their travel adventures. The group said: “They were three of the warmest, kindest and most driven and outgoing people you could ever meet.”
- Police said the trio were swimming at the top of Shannon Falls in British Columbia when they “slipped and fell into a pool 30m (98ft) below”.
- Other members of the group, who have 1.1 million followers on Instagram and more than 500,000 YouTube subscribers, named the three on their memorial fund page and in a tribute video. They said: “There are truly no words that can be said to ease the pain and the devastation we are all going through right now.”