New book “Story of the Four Saints” published

National Book Foundation (NBF) has published a new English book “Story of the Four Saints” here on Saturday.

The book was the translation from the Persian literature book “Qisa Chahar Darwesh”. ‘Qisa Chahar Darwesh’ compiled by Mir Amaan Dehlvi is a collection of allegorical stories by Amir Khusro written in Persian in the late 13th century.

Mir Amman translated it from Persian into everyday Urdu, under the title Bagh o Bahar and now NBF translated it into English.

The central character is a king, Azad Bakht, who falls into depression after thinking about his own mortality and so sets out from his palace seeking wise men.

Pokémon Go: helping players tackle anxiety, depression

Tempting mobile gamers into the great outdoors, forging new communities – there’s an app for that, apparently, and it’s called Pokémon Go. In less than a fortnight, the mobile app game – which currently is officially available only in the US, Australia and New Zealand – has achieved levels of success that most developers can only dream of. Just a day after its US launch, Pokémon Go had been downloaded onto more than 5 per cent of phones running the Android operating system – compared with 2 per cent for the ground-breaking dating app Tinder.

Pokémon Go’s recipe for success is a combination of nostalgia for Nintendo’s cute characters, first made popular in the 1990s and the novelty of GPS-based augmented reality. The app co-opts the smartphone camera to lay Pokémon characters over the real world on-screen. Players must walk to find Pokémon (that’s their plural) in order to capture and train them. When players collect enough, they join one of three teams and battle characters at “gyms”: real locations that can attract dozens of players.

By luring stereotypically sun-starved gamers outdoors, Pokémon Go is being hailed for revolutionising the industry. But in an interesting twist, some gamers suffering from depression and anxiety have tweeted that Pokémon Go has helped to tackle their symptoms. “It can sometimes be really hard to find the motivation to leave the house if you’re coping with mental health conditions,” says Lola Phoenix, a 28-year-old digital marketer based in London, who has managed to break into Pokémon Go in the UK.  “What I like is that about Pokémon Go has encouraged me to go out more and do more things. That, in turn, has improved my mood, even just in five days,” says Phoenix, who struggles with anxiety and is on the autistic spectrum.

Similarly, 24-year-old Jesseanne Pope from Corvallis, Oregon, has found respite from the bouts of anxiety and depression.  “I have not felt this energised in a very long time,” says Pope. “When Lure Modules [where players can temporarily catch wild Pokémon] are dropped in Corvallis, people flock to them.” You only have a limited time to catch these modules, Pope says: “Soon after one is dropped there are 30-plus people within a 5ft radius, all laughing and walking and connecting: elderly people, parents and their children, couples, dogs, high-school students and college students, people with all different gender expressions and racial identities.”

Pope, who’s seen strangers greeting each other by yelling the Pokémon catchphrase “Gotta catch ’em all!”, adds: “Both movement and social connection together, through the adventure that is Pokémo Go, allow me to build relationships, exercise, explore, learn, and have fun.” And it’s a reaction shared by Victoria Renee Wafe, a 23-year-old teacher from Baltimore, Maryland, whose condition can sometimes make it difficult to leave her room or interact with others, including her own family.

For Wafe, Pokémon Go is a wonderful way to reconnect with her childhood and explore Baltimore.

“I loved the show as a child. Now Pokémon Go allows you to catch Pokémon in the real world. I have visited parts of my own city I never have before with this game,” she says. “And for the first time in probably years, I don’t feel nervous going up to people and starting up a conversation. I believe it is because I know we have something in common that’s fun too.”

Cautiously, experts agree that the health benefits of Pokémon Go and augmented reality games could be very real. “Outdoor activities can have huge benefits for wellbeing, and can even be as effective as antidepressants in treating mild to moderate depression and anxiety,” says Stephen Buckley, head of information for the mental health charity Mind. “Getting regular contact with people is also helpful as it can reduce loneliness and boost self-esteem. It is important, however, that gaming does not replace or damage genuine social relationships.”

More rigorously, Professor Daniel Freeman of the department of psychiatry at Oxford University believes that clinical tests are needed to prove the potential of augmented reality, but allows: “It could be used to refocus your attention away from threat by getting you immersed in engaging activity, or it could be used to present the things you fear for long enough to help your anxiety naturally decline. Combine the right psychological science and augmented reality and you’ll have a really powerful treatment tool.”

However, Dr Suzanne Gage, senior research associate at Bristol University’s School of Experimental Psychology, is more sceptical. “Of course, it’s great if people find it helps them, as individuals, and gets them out of the house,” she says. But can computer games change a person’s mental health? It’s far too early to tell, she says.

On a practical level, there is no magic cure for symptoms, explains a Rethink Mental Illness spokeswoman. “It is important to consider these [apps] as part of a broader toolbox of support available, including talking therapies and sometimes medication. Mental illness is complex and what works for one person won’t necessarily work for another, so it’s important people have access to the support that’s right for them, at the time they need it.”

Nevertheless, just a handful of days into what can already be rightly called a phenomenon, Pokémon Go has made a palpable impact. As Pope says: “It’s a growing community and an active community, and there is so much potential to turn it into more.”

Courtesy: Independent

SpaceX to launch key ‘parking spot’ to space station

SpaceX is poised to launch its unmanned Dragon cargo capsule to the International Space Station on Monday, carrying a key piece of equipment that was lost last year in a rocket explosion.

The international docking adapter will function as a parking spot for space taxis, enabling commercial spaceships carrying astronauts to latch on securely to the orbiting outpost.

It is the first of two docking adapters needed for the crew spaceships being built by SpaceX and Boeing, with those pioneer commercial flights planned for 2017 and 2018.

For Monday’s launch, the gumdrop-shaped Dragon spaceship is packed with nearly 5,000 pounds (nearly 2,300 kilogrammes) of gear, including science experiments and equipment for the astronauts living in space.

After blasting off from Cape Canaveral, Florida at 12:45 am, SpaceX will attempt to return the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket to an upright landing on the solid ground at the NASA facility.

The California-based company headed by Internet entrepreneur Elon Musk has already managed to land its rockets on land and on a barge in the Atlantic Ocean several times, as part of an ongoing effort to make rocket parts as re-usable as components from commercial aeroplanes.

According to Hans Koenigsmann, vice president of flight reliability at SpaceX, setting the rocket back down on solid ground requires more propellant than a water landing, but also affords a larger and more stable area for the touchdown.

“I think it is going to be an easier trajectory than the last one,” he told reporters.

“I am pretty optimistic at this point in time that we will land it, but I would always knock on wood. Just by the nature of this manoeuvre, it is pretty challenging.”

SpaceX is still in the process of scheduling the first rocket launch using one of the pieces it has recovered, perhaps in the fall, he added.

Weather is 90 percent favourable for the launch, which will mark the ninth of 20 missions to the space station for SpaceX, as part of a $1.6 billion contract with NASA.

In June 2015, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket exploded about two minutes after launch, destroying a previous version of the docking adapter and thousands of pounds of gear.

The total loss amounted to $118 million, according to NASA.

The cause of the accident was a faulty strut that allowed a helium tank to break loose in flight, SpaceX said.

Following the accident, the US space agency negotiated “discounted mission prices” with SpaceX for upcoming supply trips, according to an Office of the Inspector General audit released last month. It did not specify how much.

If the launch goes as planned Monday, the Dragon is expected to arrive at the space station early Wednesday.

A Russian Progress cargo ship is scheduled to arrive Monday.

The Dragon will stay at the orbiting outpost for about a month before returning to Earth for a splash down in the Pacific Ocean, carrying back 1,300 pounds of science experiments.

Workers’ remittances rise 6.38% to $19.9bn in 2015-16

The country received an amount of $19.915 billion in remittances from various countries during the last fiscal year (2015-16), up by 6.38 per cent compared with $18.720 billion received during the same period of last year.

According to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), “Overseas Pakistani workers remitted $19.915 billion in 2015-16, showing a growth of 6.38 per cent compared with $18.720 billion received during 2014-15.”

“During June 2016, the inflow of workers’ remittances amounted to $2.073 billion, the SBP said. The country wise details for the month of June 2016 show that inflows from Saudi Arabia, UAE, USA, UK, GCC countries (including Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Oman) and EU countries amounted to $582.84 million, $434.90 million, $274.01 million, $309.27million, $232.27 million and $50.31 million respectively compared with the inflow of $536.68 million, $423.24 million, $258.95 million, $247.96 million, $209.66 million and $ 34.36 million respectively in June 2015.

Remittances received from Norway, Switzerland, Australia, Canada, Japan and other countries during June 2016 amounted to $189.37 million altogether against $110.63 million received in June 2015.

PPL announces gas discovery in Sanghar

Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL), the operator of Gambat South Block, on Friday announced another gas discovery at its exploration well, Hadi X-1A, located in District Sanghar, Sindh.

Earlier, the company announced gas discovery in its first exploration well Kotri X-1 located in District Hyderabad, Sindh in May 2015.

PPL is working on this well with 65 per cent working interest along with its joint venture partners, Government Holdings Private Limited and Asia Resources Oil Limited with 25 per cent and 10 per cent working interest.

Hadi X-1A was spud on February 5 of this year and reached the final depth of 4,020 meters on April 19, 2016, the company announced. Based on wireline logs interpretation, potential hydrocarbon bearing zones were identified in Sembar Formation. During initial testing in Sembar Formation immeasurable amount of gas flowed at the surface for three days and reservoir appeared to be tight.

To further evaluate tight gas potential, Frac job was conducted after which flow rates improved significantly, the company said. The well flowed at 0.85 MMSCFD at 32/64 inches choke size, thus confirming the presence of natural gas at Hadi X-1A, it added.

Post Frac results suggest that it is a tight gas discovery. However, further evaluation is required to determine the size and commercial value of the discovery, based on post well studies and its integration with geological, geophysical and engineering data collected during drilling and testing of the well.

A pioneer of the natural gas industry in the country, PPL has been a frontline player in the energy sector since the mid-1950s. As a major supplier of natural gas, PPL today contributes over 20 per cent of the country’s total natural gas supplies besides producing crude oil, natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas in the country.

Total exports slide by 12.11% in 2015-16, imports by 2.32%

Despite an effort of the government to enhance exports in 2015-16, the country’s exports declined by 12.11 per cent to $20.802 billion during the last fiscal year (2015-16) from $23.667 billion during the same period of the previous year.

The Ministry of Commerce announced the trade policy after a delay of almost 9 months in March and set a target of $35 billion of exports by 2018, but analysts and businessmen claim the government’s export target will be hard to achieve in such circumstances.

In the recently announced budget for 2016-17, the Finance Ministry gave some incentives of rebate and zero-rated sales tax to top five important textile sectors to enhance their exports in the next two years. These five sectors export almost half of the total goods exported from Pakistan, especially to the European Union (EU), America and other countries.

“The exports of the country are in line with the expectations as we were expecting the goods exports of the last fiscal year to be about $21-$22 billion,” an analyst said. “The exports are almost $21 billion while the imports have gone down by a mere $2.32 per cent during the fiscal year. The exports receipts are the major indicator to keep the government’s external account stable. The country also received about $19.9 billion through the workers’ remittances last year which will cover the current account of the country, the analyst said.

However, the businessmen said that the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) did nothing last year except to hold exhibitions in Tajikistan and some other Russian states. Punjab faced the worst power and gas shortage during the last fiscal year. After a hue and cry of the business community, the government provided some relief to the industry during the last three months of the previous fiscal year. The government announced the import of Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) to fulfill the demand of the industrial sector in February 2016.

On month-on-month basis, the country’s exports decreased by 9.88 per cent and stood at $1.651 billion in June 2016 compared to $1.832 billion in May 2016, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics data revealed on Friday. However, on year-on year basis, the exports declined by 8.73 per cent in June 2016 compared to $1.809 billion in June 2015.

Meanwhile, the country’s total imports fell by 2.32 per cent to $44.765 billion during July-June this year from $45.826 billion during the same period of last year.

On year-on-year basis, imports increased by 2.27 per cent in June 2016. The imports were recorded at $4.467 billion in June 2016, which stood at $4.368 billion in June 2015. On month-on-month basis, the imports of the country increased by 11.45 per cent to $4.467 billion in June 2016 compared with $4.008 billion in May 2016.

The trade deficit in July-June 2015-16 increased by 8.14 per cent to $23.963 billion from $22.159 billion during the same period last year. In June 2016, trade deficit increased by 10.04 per cent on MoM basis due to increasing imports.

Through the budget announcement for 2016-17, five major export oriented sectors were given zero rated sales tax regime to facilitate the export-oriented industry. This decision of the government was welcomed by the textile industry and its trade bodies.

The step will go a long way to help promote the country’s exports which have been stagnant for a long time, a businessman said. The notification is an indication of government’s seriousness to put the economy back track, which would boost the trust of not only local businessmen but would also give a good message to the foreign investors.

Zero-rated sales tax regime for value-added textile sector would certainly bring down the industrial cost of doing business and Pakistani products will be able to win their due share in the international market. This initiative of the government will encourage businessmen to supplement the government endeavours aimed at the economic revival of the country.

Generals, judges among dozens held over Turkey coup plot

Turkish authorities rounded up dozens of senior military personnel and judges in a ruthless crackdown Sunday, after thousands massed in the streets nationwide overnight to denounce a coup aimed at ousting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

World leaders including US President Barack Obama have strongly condemned the attempted putsch but also urged Turkey to respect the “rule of law” in its aftermath, especially after pictures emerged showing the rough treatment of some coup plotters when arrested.

According to the government, 161 civilians and regular troops lost their lives when a group within the army sought to overthrow the authorities by seizing key strategic points in Istanbul and Ankara.

Over 100 coup plotters were also killed, the military has said.

The botched coup bid marked the biggest challenge to Erdogan’s rule in 13 years as prime minister and now president. But he successfully mobilised supporters into the streets to face down the plotters.

Thousands responded late Saturday to a new call by the president to pour into the squares to celebrate the “victory of democracy” with mass rallies of flag-waving Turks reported in cities including Ankara, Istanbul and Izmir.

– ‘Respect rule of law’ –

The Turkish authorities have made clear they will show no mercy in the wake of the coup, accusing the plotters of acting on behalf of Erdogan’s arch enemy, the US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen.

The government has already said that almost 3,000 soldiers had been detained on suspicion of involvement in the putsch which raised fears of chaos in the strategic NATO member state of almost 80 million.

Turkish television has shown images of captured coup plotters forced to lie face down on the tarmac after arrest while photographers have seen suspects roughly led away pursued by angry mobs.

NTV television said that 34 generals of various grades had been detained so far. They include senior figures like Erdal Ozturk, commander of the third army and the commander of the Malatya-based second army, Adem Huduti.

In an operation early Sunday, authorities detained the commander of the garrison in the western town of Denizli, Ozhan Ozbakir, along with 51 other soldiers, according to the state-run Anatolia news agency.

Turkey also detained a senior air force general and other officers accused of backing the failed coup at a key air base used by US forces for raids in Syria.

Brigadier air force general Bekir Ercan Van was detained along with over a dozen lower ranking officers on Saturday at the Incirlik air force base in Turkey’s southern Adana province, newspapers including the Hurriyet daily said.

The base has become a key hub for US forces after Turkey last year agreed to allow the United States to use Incirlik to carry out lethal raids against jihadists in Syria.

The crackdown is however not restricted to the military and Anadolu said that prosecutors have issued arrest warrants for a total of 2,745 judges and prosecutors across Turkey.

The entire investigation is being led by Ankara prosecutors and those arrested are suspected of belonging to Gulen’s group, which Turkey dubs the “Fethullahci Terror Organisation (FETO)”.

Gulen’s supporters say their group which they call Hizmet (Service) is entirely peaceful.

US President Barack Obama has warned Turkey there is a “vital need” for all parties to “act within the rule of law” in the aftermath of the coup.

While condemning the coup bid, German Chancellor Angela Merkel also said the plotters had to be dealt with “under the rule of law”.

– ‘Extradite Gulen’ –

Friday’s putsch bid began with rebel F-16 jets screaming low over rooftops in Ankara, soldiers and tanks taking to the streets and multiple explosions throughout the night in the capital as well as the biggest city Istanbul.

Parts of parliament were turned to rubble after being hit by air strikes from rebel jets.

Rebel troops also moved to block the two bridges across the Bosphorus Strait in Istanbul, culminating in a stand-off with an angry crowd.

Turks have not seen such scenes since 1980 when the military led by general Kenan Evren ousted the government and many had no desire to revive these memories.

Erdogan has pinned the blame on Gulen, a former ally who he accuses of running a “parallel state”, and called on Obama to extradite the reclusive preacher to face justice.

“Mr President, I told you myself, either deport or hand over to us this person who lives in 400 acres of land in Pennsylvania,” he told a triumphant rally in Istanbul late Saturday, carefully not referring to Gulen by name.

But Gulen “categorically” denied any involvement in the plot, calling the accusation “insulting”.

Meanwhile, Turkey has demanded the extradition of eight people thought to have been involved in the putsch who landed in a Black Hawk military helicopter in Greece.

The suspects are still in Greece, but the chopper itself is now been flown back to Turkey, a Turkish official said.

Istanbul authorities have sought to get life back to normal, resuming service at Ataturk International Airport, which was shut down by the plotters.

But Washington on Saturday warned citizens against travel to the country, suspending flights and banning all airlines from flying to the United States from Turkey due to uncertainty after the coup bid