Siasat Wala Blog

LONDON: Senior Iranian officials on Tuesday rejected US President Donald Trump’s offer of talks without preconditions as worthless and “a humiliation” after he acted to reimpose sanctions on Tehran following his withdrawal from a landmark nuclear deal. Separately, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Trump’s repudiation of the accord reached in 2015 was “illegal” and Iran would not easily yield to Washington’s renewed campaign to strangle Iran’s vital oil exports. In May, Trump pulled the United States out of the multilateral deal concluded before he took office, denouncing it as one-sided in Iran’s favour. On Monday, he declared that he would be willing to meet Rouhani without preconditions to discuss how to improve relations. The head of Iran’s Strategic Council on Foreign Relations said on Tuesday Tehran saw no worth in Trump’s offer, made only a week after he warned Iran it risked dire consequences few had ever suffered in history if it made threats against Washington. “Based...

MUMBAI: Chinese smartphone maker OnePlus aims to expand its retail store presence in India, a company executive said on Tuesday, as the firm plans to make the world’s No.2 smartphone market its second headquarters by end 2018. Shenzhen-headquartered OnePlus, which sells a bulk of its phones through Amazon.com’s India unit, plans to have 10 retail stores by the second half of 2018, Vikas Agarwal, General Manager, OnePlus India told Reuters in an interview. The company, which currently operates five retail stores in India, will also start a research and development unit in a market which accounts for one third of its revenue. “We’ve already upgraded to local production of the components and will continue to look at further plans as the government announces the next wave of localisation,” Agarwal said, adding that all OnePlus phones sold in India were made locally. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s flagship “Make in India” drive has pushed smartphone vendors to assemble their devices lo...

LOS ANGELES: Madonna on Monday launched a $60,000 (£45,675) fundraiser to support her work with children in Malawi, and had already raised more than $10,000 in the first 24 hours. The “Rebel Heart” singer, who has adopted four children from the African nation in the past 10 years, said 100 percent of every contribution would go directly to her Raising Malawi foundation’s rural orphanage, Home of Hope. She launched the fundraiser, which will run throughout August, through her Facebook page to mark her 60th birthday on Aug. 16. “For my birthday, I can think of no better gift than connecting my global family with this beautiful country and the children who need our help most,” Madonna wrote. “Every dollar raised will go directly to meals, schools, uniforms and healthcare,” she added. According to her website, more than 200 people had contributed almost $11,000 of the $60,000 target on the first days of the project’s launch. Madonna established the non-profit Raising Malawi in 2006 ...

SEOUL: Samsung posted its slowest quarterly profit growth in more than a year on Tuesday as its Galaxy S9 device missed sales targets and competition heated up, casting doubt on its leadership of the smartphone market. The Apple components supplier and smartphone rival said operating profit from the mobile business recorded its steepest rate of decline since the first quarter of 2017, as cheaper Chinese-made handsets put pressure on margins. The South Korean tech giant gave investors little reason to hope for a quick turnaround in the mobile business, flagging stiffer competition in the second half amid concerns its premium phones lack innovation to drive sales growth. “Samsung was already lost to China in price competition and is getting threatened by Chinese models in designs and hardware strength,” said Park Jung-hoon, a fund manager at HDC Asset Management that owns Samsung shares. “It is not an easy game for Samsung unless it really meets consumers needs for new smartphones.”...

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and the Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) on Tuesday decided to form coalition government in Balochistan and support Chairman BAP Jam Kamal for the post of chief minister. This was decided in a meeting between leadership of the BAP with Chairman PTI Imran Khan at Bani Gala, Islamabad. Talking to media, PTI leader Jahangir Tareen said it was BAP’s prerogative to choose the CM and the party had chosen Jam Kamal which we fully support. “In sha Allah, Jam Kamal will be the next CM Balochistan,” he said. Jam Kamal said both the parties in coordination would find solutions for the civic and political issues of Balochistan. “We have had enough in the past, now we need to move towards change. We will help each other for the betterment of citizens. “We exist with big number of seats in the province,” he said. On the provincial assembly seats, the BAP has won 15 and after joining of four independents and seven candidates of different other parti...

KARACHI: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Tuesday said that their party has always struggled for strengthening of democracy and the parliament, and the  party would use the parliamentary forum to advance its ideology and ideals. The PPP chairman was addressing a luncheon meeting with the newly-elected parliamentarians from the country at the Bilawal House. Former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, PPP Women President Faryal Talpur, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate Sherry Rehman, Qaim Ali Shah, Khursheed Shah, Nisar Khuhro, Raza Rabbani and Murad Ali Shah were also present. Bilawal said that despite difficulties and pre-poll pressures on candidates and workers, the party fared better in 2018 general elections than previous 2013 elections. He said that some opposition parties were considering to boycott the new parliament but PPP convinced them to join the parliament and fight for democracy, which a victory for democrats though they also had ...

LAHORE: Punjab Food Authority (PFA) on Tuesday sealed a factory for producing substandard fruit juice and selling it with the name of a popular brand, ARY News reported. According to ARY News correspondent, PFA teams conducted raids in different parts of the city and sealed a number of production units over breach of food safety regulations. In on such raid, a factory on Lahore’s Ravi Road and sealed it for producing substandard packaged juice and selling it with the name of a popular brand. In another raid on Bund Road, the PFA team sealed an ice production unit for using contaminated water for production of ice while another unit was sealed for producing sweet meat using fabric colours. The food authority also sealed a gutka producing factory in Garhi Shaho area. The post Punjab Food Authority seals ‘fake’ juice factory in Lahore appeared first on ARYNEWS .