World

A Pakistani news channel has hired the country's first transgender TV newsreader.

Marvia Malik, a journalism graduate who has also worked as a model, told the BBC she was moved to tears when she was offered the job.

She anchored her first show on private broadcaster Kohenoor on Friday, after three months of training.

Transgender people face discrimination in Pakistan and many struggle to find employment.

Some are forced into begging, dancing or prostitution to earn money.

Ms Malik told the BBC she had to stop herself from screaming with joy when she learned she had got the job.

"The dream that I saw for myself, I was able to climb on the first stair to achieving it," she said.

She said she hoped her work would help improve the lives of Pakistan's transgender community.

"Our community should be treated equally and there must not be any gender discrimination. We should be given equal rights and be considered ordinary citizens, instead of third-gender."

She added: "My family knows I have modelled and they know that I work as a newscaster. It's the age of social media and there's nothing that my family doesn't know. But they have still disowned me."

The owner of Kohenoor, Junaid Ansari, told VOA news that Ms Malik had been selected on merit, not on gender issues.

Earlier this month, Pakistan's Senate voted to support a bill protecting the rights of transgender people, and allowing them to determine their own gender identity.

In June 2016, a 23-year-old transgender activist died after delays in receiving medical treatment.

Alisha, who was shot eight times, was in critical condition when admitted to hospital but staff could not decide whether to put her in a male or female ward, according to her friends.

(BBC)

Vladimir Putin will lead Russia for another six years, after securing an expected victory in Sunday's presidential election.

Mr Putin, who has ruled the country as either president or prime minister since 1999, got more than 76% of the vote, official results show.

The main opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, was barred from the race.

Addressing a rally in Moscow, Mr Putin said voters had "recognised the achievements of the last few years".

Speaking to reporters after the results were announced, he laughed off a question about running again in another six years.

"What you are saying is a bit funny. Do you think that I will stay here until I'm 100 years old? No!" he said.

The scale of victory - which had been widely predicted - appears to be a marked increase in his share of the vote from 2012, when he won 64%.

Mr Putin's nearest competitor, millionaire communist Pavel Grudinin, received about 12%.

The race also included Ksenia Sobchak, a former reality TV host, and veteran nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky - they got less than 2% and about 6% respectively.

Mr Putin's campaign team said it was an "incredible victory".

"The percentage that we have just seen speaks for itself. It's a mandate which Putin needs for future decisions, and he has a lot of them to make," a spokesman told Russia's Interfax.

(BBC)

As rescuers continue to search the burned-out shopping mall in the city of Kemerovo, many have been frantically trying to reach their relatives, including children who were in the mall’s cinema or play area when the fire started.

So far, 48 people have been officially confirmed as having lost their lives in the blaze, according to the Emergencies Ministry. Up to eleven children are reportedly among the victims.

In the meantime, an estimated 16 people are still missing, but the chances of discovering anybody alive amid the smoldering rubble are slim. Earlier, 64 people had been listed as missing, but authorities clarified that these included the victims whose bodies were already found but had not yet been identified.

At least 48 people were injured in the blaze, according to the emergency services, and 12 remain hospitalized.

Emergency services battle the flames Credit: Danil Aikin/Getty

 Amid conflicting reports, some have described the source of the fire as the children’s playground, suggesting that the trampoline there caught fire after a child allegedly misused a lighter. Another version suggests that electrical wiring at the playground had short-circuited.

Reports from witnesses have described panic as people realized there was a fire spreading, with many saying on social media that there were no fire alarms or loudspeaker warnings, and that people had to find their own way through the top floor of the mall, which was already filled with smoke. Several hundred people, including many children, were in the mall at the time.

Tragically, some reportedly had left their children unattended in one of the mall's cinema halls or at the playground.

The fire, which broke out on Sunday afternoon, was finally contained some 12 hours later, after engulfing some 1,600 square meters. The building sustained severe damage, its roof and floors partially collapsing.

Fears are growing that almost an entire class of primary school children may have perished in the blaze. Eight kids from a school outside Kemerovo were visiting the city on an excursion with a teacher, who led them to watch a cartoon show at the shopping mall. Russian media reports suggest that she chose to have a stroll through the mall and left the children at the cinema, from which they apparently couldn’t find their way out.

‘No fire alarms, no warning’

When the blaze erupted, witness Anna Zarechneva was at the mall with her husband and little son. Describing their ordeal in an Instagram post, she said there was no fire alarm, that lights were not switched back on in the cinema and that the movie even kept playing. The family was lucky to escape as other mall-goers notified them of the fire.

When Anna and her son were safe outside of the mall, her husband tried to get back in to retrieve the clothes they left behind. The man witnessed chaotic scenes on the third floor, with children still trapped in the cinema and their parents unable to reach them through thick, toxic smoke.

Other eyewitnesses have also reported that the fire alarm at the mall did not work. When the fire broke out, people panicked and ran towards the exits in a reportedly disorderly rush.

“We’ve decided to go and watch a cartoon in this mall for the first time. God ... Thank you for saving us,” a woman, identified only as Alexandra, says in the caption to the video. “I saw a woman running and screaming about the fire ... panic erupted, we were almost knocked down ... No there were no alarms!”

There is an ongoing cyberattack on Russia’s Central Election Commission, targeting its information center, the body’s secretary has said. The commission’s website earlier came under a DDoS attack from 15 countries.

“We are registering what is in fact a cyberattack on our information center,” the commission’s secretary, Maya Grishina, said.

The Civic Chamber’s website observing the election was down after a DDoS attack, RIA reported, adding the problem is now over.

The commission’s website was also attacked soon after voting began. A distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack peaked between 2am and 5am on Sunday, chairperson Ella Pamfilova said.

The attack originated from 15 countries, according to Pamfilova.

The State Automated System Vybory (‘Elections’) cannot, however, be exposed to any cyber attacks, since it’s not connected to the global network, Pamfilova said. “It’s impossible to reach it,” she added. When all the ballots have been counted after polling stations close, the data will be punched into the system, along with the information from the ballot boxes with scanners and fully electronic voting devices.

The head of the state corporation Rostelecom, Mikhail Oseyevsky, earlier said that cyberattacks on various Russian websites surged in the days prior to the election. On Saturday, Russian media watchdog Roskomnadzor and online news outlet Lenta were attacked.

Source : rt.com

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, his ratings in a slump amid a suspected cronyism scandal and cover-up, apologised again on Sunday for causing anxiety and loss of confidence in his government.

Protesters urged Abe to resign, as riot police kept tight security outside the venue of his ruling party's annual convention, at which the premier stressed his intention to revise Japan's pacifist post-war, U.S.-drafted constitution.

Abe faces his biggest political crisis since taking office in December 2012 as suspicions swirl about a sale of state-owned land at a huge discount to a nationalist school operator with ties to his wife.

"This problem has shaken the people's confidence in the administration," Abe told the convention. "As head of the government, I keenly feel my responsibility and would like to deeply apologise to the people."

He pledged a thorough clarification of the facts and the prevention of a recurrence by pulling the government together, but offered no sign of stepping down.

Abe has denied that he or his wife intervened in the sale or that he sought to alter documents related to the deal.

His close ally, Finance Minister Taro Aso, has also denied involvement in the alterations made by ministry officials.

Public opinion polls last weekend showed support for Abe's cabinet sinking as low as 31 percent, with majorities saying he bears some responsibility for the affair.

The sliding support rates could dash Abe's hopes of winning a third three-year term as ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) leader in a party vote in September, victory in which would set him on track to become Japan's longest ruling premier.

Also at the party convention, the LDP adopted a proposal to revise the pacifist constitution in line with a plan floated by Abe last year to explicitly refer to the Self-Defence Forces, as Japan's military is known.

"The time has finally come to tackle constitutional revision, which has been a task since the founding of the party," Abe said.

"Let's stipulate the Self-Defence Forces and put an end to a controversy about violation of the constitution."

Abe proposed last May that the first two clauses of Article 9, which renounces the right to wage war and bans maintenance of a standing military, be unchanged but that a reference to the SDF be added to clarify its ambiguous status.

Despite its literal ban on a standing army, successive governments have interpreted the charter to allow a military exclusively to defence.

Abe wants to make that stance clear in the constitution itself, but says the change will not alter Japan's security policies. Critics worry the revision would open the way to a bigger role for the military overseas.

Abe's weakened support and a wary junior coalition partner could make it hard for the LDP to push for the change, which would spark a divisive debate. Japan's constitution has never been amended and any changes require approval by two-thirds of each house of parliament and a majority in a public referendum.

Source : Channel News Asia

Former South African President Jacob Zuma will be charged with 16 counts of corruption, money laundering and racketeering, the country's national prosecuting authority announced Friday.

The charges relate to 783 questionable payments Zuma allegedly received in connection with a controversial multibillion-rand arms deal.

On Friday, National Director of Public Prosecutions Shaun Abrahams said that there are "reasonable prospects of a successful prosecution" in Zuma's case.

The charges were previously dropped in 2009 just before Zuma was sworn in as President.

Source : CNN

Zimbabwe has launched an investigation into the country's former first lady, Grace Mugabe, over her alleged involvement in an ivory smuggling ring.

The probe was opened after a three-month undercover mission by Australian wildlife photographer Adrian Steirn.

Speaking exclusively to Al Jazeera, Steirn said he uncovered the poaching and smuggling syndicate when he began looking into the illegal ivory trade in December.

"Ivory was being sourced either from the national park's vault, being thieved or pilfered, or from live elephants being killed by poaching syndicates. The syndicate would then sell to Grace Mugabe's clientele," he said.

"She would then be able to pack that and send it out through the airport. Anything through that airport, that was the property of the first lady, was not searched or scanned in any way."

Steirn has gathered documents, undercover videos and testimonies, which he showed to Al Jazeera's Investigative Unit. They expose the syndicate and the former first lady's involvement in ivory smuggling, he said.

Controlled ivory trade is allowed in Zimbabwe, but its export is not permitted.

In a written statement to Al Jazeera, Christopher Mutsvangwa, a special adviser to President Emmerson Mnangagwa, said Zimbabwe's government "will seek answers from all parties including former First Lady Grace Mugabe … about their knowledge of the illegal export of prohibited items from our country."

Two alleged smugglers have been charged with possession of ivory.

Al Jazeera contacted Grace Mugabe's staff, lawyers and relatives for comment, but they did not respond.

During the presidency of her husband, Robert, she was a controversial figure, earning the nickname "Gucci Grace" for her extravagant shopping sprees.

Her hopes of succeeding him were dashed when the army forced Mugabe from power in November, and Mnangagwa took over.

That was when Steirn saw an opening to investigate, going undercover as an ivory buyer.

Three weeks later, in December, authorities in Zimbabwe seized an illegal shipment of 200 kilograms of ivory destined for Malaysia at Harare's Robert Mugabe International Airport.

Steirn said the evidence he gathered connects that shipment to Grace Mugabe and the smuggling syndicate.

Al Jazeera's Malcolm Webb, reporting from Johannesburg, said Mnangagwa's government was eager "to clean up its international image after decades of Mugabe rule".

"The poaching and smuggling investigation is the first major challenge to the Mugabe family dynasty since the change of power," he said.

Source : Al Jazeera

UK police have launched a murder investigation after the death of Russian businessman Nikolai Glushkov in south-west London.

Glushkov was found dead at his home in New Malden on 12 March.

A post-mortem examination revealed Glushkov, who was 68, died from "compression to the neck".

There is, at this stage, no evidence linking the death to the attempted murder of a former Russian spy and his daughter in Salisbury, police say.

Detectives are retaining an open mind and are appealing for any information that will assist the investigation.

In particular, they are appealing for anyone who may have seen or heard anything suspicious at or near his home in Clarence Avenue, New Malden, between Sunday 11 March and Monday 12 March to contact them.

Glushkov is the former deputy director of Russian state airline Aeroflot. He was jailed in 1999 for five years after being charged with money laundering and fraud.

After being given a suspended sentence for another count of fraud in 2006, he fled to the UK to seek political asylum and became a critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Source : BBC

European policymakers are suggesting a new tax on tech giants such as Facebook Inc. and Alphabet Inc.'s Google in a measure that could raise $6.2 billion through what advocates say would be a fairer way of taxing how the companies make their money.

The proposal, unveiled Wednesday, would tap into digital titans' revenues in countries where they have the bulk of their users and customers, imposing a 3% tax on income from online advertising, the sale of user data and the connecting of users to one another.

The initiative, which would need several rounds of approvals, comes amid a rapidly heating trade conflict between Europe and the United States. Absent action by President Trump, new U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum imports are set to go into effect Friday, and EU leaders have threatened countermeasures to follow shortly after.

It also comes as Facebook's actions are under a microscope, following revelations that the Cambridge Analytica data firm misused the data of 50 million U.S. Facebook users to help Trump win the presidency and that Russians also targeted U.S. voters on the social network.

The action by the executive arm of the 28-nation European Union would seek to impose common tax rules across the EU's vast market of 500 million consumers.

But the measure is likely to run into skepticism from the countries that serve as the legal homes to the companies, as well as small tech-savvy nations such as Estonia, where the technology behind Skype was born. Any EU-wide tax measure would require unanimity.

The goal, advocates say, is fairness. In Europe, companies with digital business models pay an effective tax rate of 9.5%, compared with 23.2% for companies with traditional business models, the European Commission said.

"The digital revolution has overturned economies, and it has profoundly affected the way businesses create value today," said Pierre Moscovici, the top EU economy and tax official, as he announced the proposal in Brussels.

"Your click triggers a whole chain of commercial transactions and therefore generates substantial profits" that are not taxed by most countries, he said. "This legal loophole is no longer acceptable."

European leaders also are concerned that the U.S. tax overhaul passed in December will divert tax revenue away from Europe and toward the United States. The tax law slashed corporate rates to 21% and offered incentives for companies such as Apple Inc., which had accumulated billions of dollars in its European subsidiary in Ireland, to bring home their profits. Moscovici has said that the European measures are not connected to actions by any other government, but French leaders advocated similar national plans in reaction to the U.S. policy changes.

The proposed EU tax would only hit businesses with annual worldwide turnover above $923 billion that also make more than $62 billion of their revenue inside the European Union. That would give small tech start-ups room to grow, European policymakers said. At least 120 global firms fit the criteria, Moscovici said.

Trump administration officials have raised sharp objections to the tax plan, which Moscovici outlined in a preliminary form Tuesday at a meeting of finance ministers of the Group of 20 major world economies in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

"The U.S. firmly opposes proposals by any country to single out digital companies," U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin said in a statement last week that did not specifically mention the EU tax plans. "Some of these companies are among the greatest contributors to U.S. job creation and economic growth."

Advocates of the measure said they are not targeting U.S. companies. But the U.S.-centered reality of the modern technology industry puts many U.S. companies in the crosshairs, and the tax could hit Amazon.com Inc., Uber Technologies Inc. and others. (The Washington Post is owned by Jeff Bezos, the founder and chief executive of Amazon.)

The EU plan is intended as a temporary measure until a permanent plan is devised that would overhaul the taxation of the profits of digital companies. But because of the difficulty of reaching tax compromises, temporary measures have sometimes remained in place for decades.

Rwanda has banned mosques in the capital, Kigali, from using loudspeakers during the call to prayer.

They say the calls, made five times a day, have been disturbing residents of the Nyarugenge district, home to the capital's biggest mosques.

But an official from a Muslim association criticised it, saying they could instead keep the volume down.

Some 1,500 churches have been closed for not complying with building regulations and noise pollution.

The majority of Rwandans are Christian. Muslims make up around 5% of the population.

The government says the Muslim community has complied with the ban.

Analysis: Rwanda's open secret

Ally Yusuf Mugenzi: Editor of BBC Great Lakes service

To understand the latest round of regulations imposed by Rwandan authorities on religious groups, we have to look back to the 1994 genocide, in which some 800,000 people were killed.

A number of the Roman Catholic churches, where thousands of Tutsis had taken refuge, became killing grounds during the 100-day rampage.

Rwandans lost faith in the powerful institution and gravitated towards Pentecostalism and Islam.

Today's noise pollution concerns have silenced the loudspeakers on Kigali's mosques. But it would be wrong to say that Muslims are being targeted. They can still go to mosques and pray five times a day.

The same cannot be said for the Pentecostals.

About 1,500 Pentecostal churches across the country have been closed over the past month, leaving worshippers with nowhere to pray.

This might have something to do with Rwanda's open secret: the country's religious denominations are expected to pledge loyalty to the government of long-time President Paul Kagame.

Pentecostal leaders might not be toeing the line.

But the authorities are right to focus on those churches' disregard for building regulations. Many of them hold noisy services, are badly constructed, situated in residential homes, and are a legitimate health and safety concern.

"I have found that they have begun to respect it and it has not stopped their followers from going to pray according to their praying time," Havuguziga Charles, a local official from Nyarugenge told the BBC's Great Lakes service.

This comes as the government continues its clampdown on substandard churches across the East African country.

Most of them were small Pentecostal churches, and one mosque was also closed.

The government says the reason is that some preachers "deceive their congregation with misleading sermons", AFP reports.

But some preachers have accused the government of trying to control their message to congregants in a country accused by human rights groups of stifling free speech.

(BBC)

Chinese President Xi Jinping has told the National People's Congress (NPC) that China must not become complacent about its development.

Speaking at the closing session of the annual parliament, Xi said China was at a critical stage in its history and only socialism could save it.

He also warned against Taiwanese separatism or attempts to split China. Xi is now set up to be China's president for life, after the NPC removed a two-term limit.

The motion was overwhelmingly approved by the roughly 3,000 delegates at the start of the session. The parliamentary session meets once a year. It essentially rubber stamps changes already decided by the leadership.

In his speech in the Great Hall of the People, Xi laid out his grand vision for China, re confirming his ambition to "rejuvenate" the country and continue China's "great contributions to civilisation".

"History has already proven and will continue to prove that only socialism can save China," he said.

He said he saw the people as "the real heroes" of China and that he and all fellow politicians "must work hard for the people's interests".

The president also highlighted major achievements of Chinese history from the invention of paper and gunpowder to building the Great Wall or the writings of Confucius.

Pointing at China's global ambitions, Xi said his country would be strong but not aggressive and would not develop itself at the expense of the rest of the world.

President Xi also said China had to be united to prosper and, in a reference to Taiwan, said Beijing would thwart any separatist attempts.

"The Chinese people share a common belief that it is never allowed and it is absolutely impossible to separate any inch of our great country's territory from China."

Self-ruling Taiwan is considered by Beijing to be a separatist province which will one day be reunited with the mainland. It remains a major potential flashpoint in the region.

Xi is now considered the most powerful Chinese leader since Mao Zedong, and the NPC saw his position further strengthened. It confirmed Xi Jinping's second term as president and ratified the inclusion of his political philosophy - "Xi Jinping Thought" - in to the constitution.

Lawmakers also appointed key positions including the central bank head and chief economic advisor and ratified a law to set up a new powerful anti-corruption agency.

The continued push against corruption, a key campaign of Xi Jinping's, is seen by some observers as potentially a tool to sideline his political rivals. The decision to lift the term limitations has, however, been criticised both abroad and within China.

Source : BBC

Stephen Hawking, the legendary physicist and author of popular science books such as A Brief History of Time, passed away in the early hours of Wednesday morning at his home in the U.K. The Guardian reports that his children, Lucy, Robert and Tim, put out a statement that includes:

“We are deeply saddened that our beloved father passed away today. He was a great scientist and an extraordinary man whose work and legacy will live on for many years."

He was 76.

Hawking was probably the best-known scientist in the world. He was a theoretical physicist whose early work on black holes transformed how scientists think about the nature of the universe.

Hawking famously suffered from motor neuron disease, with which he was diagnosed at age 21. The condition confined him to a wheelchair and necessitated the use of his famous computerized speaking device, but, despite a grim early prognosis, it did not stop him from living another 55 years and making numerous discoveries (and sometimes wild statements) about the cosmos. He will be missed.