BAS BOHUT HO GYA

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s attorney general said on Tuesday $107 billion has been recovered so far in a major crackdown on high-level corruption and that 56 suspects were still being investigated. Sheikh Saud al-Mojeb said he has completed inquiries into 381 high-profile corruption suspects and decided to keep 56 in custody and free the rest. Those released include individuals proven not guilty but also others who had agreed financial settlements with the government after admitting corruption charges, he said. Total settlements with the suspects had topped 400 billion riyals in various forms of assets handed over that included property, securities and cash. In November, the authorities launched an unprecedented anti-graft swoop that netted hundreds of members of the extended royal family, top businessmen and officials. The anti-corruption drive was led by Mohammed bin Salman, the 32-year-old crown prince and author of the "Vision 2030" programme of social and economic reforms ...

NEW DELHI: An eight-month-old Indian girl was on Tuesday recovering in hospital after she was raped at her home in Delhi, the latest such case in a country notorious for high levels of sexual violence. The girl’s parents rushed her to hospital after discovering her bed covered in blood when they returned from work on Sunday. She later underwent a three-hour operation for her injuries. The Press Trust of India said the girl’s 27-year-old cousin had been arrested and charged under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, meaning he could face a life sentence. "The worst has happened," tweeted Swati Maliwal, the head of the Delhi Commission for Women, after visiting the girl in hospital. "An eight-month-old baby has been brutally raped in the Capital and is battling for her life in a hospital." A UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in 2014 said one in three rape victims in India was a minor and expressed alarm over the widespread sexual abuse of chil...

WASHINGTON: North Korea has made new advances in its intercontinental ballistic missile program but has not yet demonstrated all the capabilities needed to hit America with such a weapon, a top US general said on Tuesday. While Pyongyang has shown it can put the United States in range and point a rocket to the country, General Paul Selva, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said it has not yet proven that its fusing and targeting technologies can survive the stresses of ballistic missile flight. "They have made some strides but it’s still true that they haven’t demonstrated all of the components of an intercontinental ballistic missile system," Selva told reporters. Also unclear is whether North Korea has a re-entry vehicle strong enough to return into the Earth’s atmosphere from space and deliver a warhead. "It’s possible North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un has them, so we have to place the bet that he might have them, but he hasn’t demonstrated them," Selva...

BELGRADE: A group of migrants, including 11 Syrians, were rescued on Tuesday from an Italian fishing trawler in the Adriatic Sea and taken to Montenegro, police said. Montenegro’s coastal security sent out a rescue team after Erica, a 15 metre-long vessel, put out a distress signal 17 nautical miles (31 km) off the coast, said Safet Kocan, director of maritime safety. The Italian ship with migrants on board was finally moored in the Montenegrin port of Zelenika, inside the Boka Kotorska bay. Police said there were 11 Syrian nationals on the vessel, two people from Morocco and two from Yemen, one person from Afghanistan and one from Pakistan. The group included four children. "The distress call was sent this morning ...by the Italian fishing vessel Erica seeking assistance as it was transporting 17 people and was facing danger of sinking," a police statement said. "According to findings, Erica’s crew had previously aided these people by picking them up from a small in...

BERLIN: Germany’s two biggest parties agreed on Tuesday to allow refugee family reunions to bring up to 1,000 people a month to the country, removing a key hurdle in their talks to form a government. Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives have sought to limit arrivals after a mass influx, while the Social Democrats (SPD) argue that asylum seekers must be allowed to bring their relatives on humanitarian grounds and to aid their social integration. The refugee aid group Pro Asyl slammed as "absolutely insufficient" the compromise hammered out in the ongoing coalition talks and labelled it a victory for the "hardliners" in Merkel’s Bavarian sister party the CSU. In their talks aimed at continuing their right-left "grand coalition" after inconclusive elections last September, the parties have also agreed in principle to limit total new migrant and refugee arrivals at around 200,000 a year. from The News International - World http://ift.tt/2DMo2LA

ADEN: Separatists in war-ravaged Yemen have seized all but one district of the government’s de facto capital Aden, also laying siege to the isolated presidential palace on the city’s southern outskirts on Tuesday. Global charity Save the Children said it was suspending life-saving work in Aden as its staff were forced to hunker down amid gun battles that the Red Cross says have killed at least 36 people in the past three days. A number of ministers fled the port city by boat on Monday night, docking in the district of Brega further west, a military source told AFP. A port official confirmed their arrival, saying they were transported to a base of the Saudi-led coalition which backs Yemen’s government. But the ministers returned to Aden before dawn, after receiving guarantees from the coalition that the presidential palace would not be stormed, a government source said. The source said Saudi Arabia and its coalition allies are now in talks with southern separatists and with Yemen’s g...

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s attorney general said on Tuesday $107 billion has been recovered so far in a major crackdown on high-level corruption and that 56 suspects were still being investigated. Sheikh Saud al-Mojeb said he has completed inquiries into 381 high-profile corruption suspects and decided to keep 56 in custody and free the rest.Those released include individuals proven not guilty but also others who had agreed financial settlements with the government after admitting corruption charges, he said. Total settlements with the suspects had topped 400 billion riyals ($107 billion) in various forms of assets handed over that included property, securities and cash.In November, the authorities launched an unprecedented anti-graft swoop that netted hundreds of members of the extended royal family, top businessmen and officials. The anti-corruption drive was led by Mohammed bin Salman, the 32-year-old crown prince and author of the “Vision 2030” programme of social and economic refor...

KABUL: Afghanistan said on Tuesday the Taliban would have to be defeated on the battlefield after US President Donald Trump rejected the idea of talks with the militants following a series of deadly attacks. The Taliban reacted to Trump’s announcement by saying they never wanted to talk to the United States anyway, but one senior member of the group said he suspected efforts would still be made to get negotiations going. A spokesman for Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said while the government had encouraged the Taliban to talk, the attacks in Kabul, including a suicide bomb attack on Saturday that killed more than 100 people, was a “red line”. “The Taliban have crossed a red line and lost the chance for peace,” said the spokesman, Shah Hussain Murtazawi.“We have to look for peace on the battlefield. They have to be marginalized.“ He declined to comment directly on Trump’s announcement. A spokesman for the Taliban, who are fighting to oust foreign forces, defeat the US -backed govern...

PARIS: Women who follow a diet rich in fresh fruit and vegetables, fish, and olive oil may stand a better chance of falling pregnant through in-vitro fertilisation (IVF), researchers said Tuesday. A study of 244 women enrolled for IVF in Athens, Greece, showed that those younger than 35 who followed a so-called “Mediterranean” diet for six months before IVF, were more likely to have a healthy baby, a team reported in the journal Human Reproduction. Women in this group “had a 65-68 percent greater likelihood of achieving a successful pregnancy and birth compared to women with the lowest adherence to the Mediterranean-style diet”, researchers said in a statement. A Mediterranean diet, inspired by menus popular in countries such as Greece, Italy and Spain, has long been said to be good for heart health. It involves eating little red meat, and lots of fruit and veggies, legumes such as peas and beans, unrefined cereals, fish, and vegetable oil. “The important message from our study is ...

WASHINGTON: The United States now ranks as the world’s second largest contributor to financial secrecy, enabling money laundering, corruption and tax evasion to an increasing degree, according an index published Tuesday. As the “global capital of bank secrecy,” Switzerland remains at the top of the Tax Justice Network’s biennial “Financial Secrecy Index” — but the growing share of opaque financial services offered by the United States means it allows more ill-gotten wealth to be stashed away in secrecy, the network said. Hiding the owners of wealth promotes environmental plunder, corruption, terrorism and human rights abuses, while denying governments funds to pay for development and social spending, activists say. Since the financial crisis of 2008, campaigns to pierce banking and financial secrecy, in particular by requiring corporations to identify their true owners, have gained some traction.Under heavy pressure from Washington, Swiss banks have paid hundreds millions of dollars...

WASHINGTON: The US-led Nato mission in Afghanistan admitted Tuesday it had mistakenly classified data on the Taliban that had been public, citing “a human error in labeling,” and said it would no longer withhold the information. The acknowledgment came after the US government’s office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) published a report saying the US military had barred it from disclosing how much of Afghanistan is under Taliban control. Such a restriction would have represented a significant break from past accountability amid mounting security woes in the war-torn nation.But after the report came out, Navy Captain Tom Gresback, a spokesman for Nato‘s Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan, said the intent was not to withhold or classify information which was available in prior reports. “A human error in labeling occurred,” Gresback said in a statement. “The classification system, because it incorporates both a Nato and US nomenclature, can be...

PARIS: Dating sites would be well-advised to add “brain activity” as a compatability criterion, according to a study released Tuesday showing that close friends have eerily comparable neural responses to life experiences. “Our results suggest that friends process the world around them in exceptionally similar ways,” said lead author Carolyn Parkinson, director of the Computational Social Neuroscience Lab at the University of California in Los Angeles. Using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to compare which regions of the brain lit up as 42 volunteers watched short clips from news reports, music videos, comedy skits and documentaries, researchers were able to identify who among them were friends. The closer the relationship, the more alike the neural patterns in parts of the brain governing emotional response, high-level reasoning, and the capacity to focus one’s attention. “Friends had the most similar neural activity patterns, followed by friends-of-friends,” the authors said in a ...

RAMALLAH: Israeli soldiers shot dead a Palestinian teenager on Tuesday in the occupied West Bank in a village north of Ramallah, the Palestinian health ministry said.It said the 16-year-old was hit in the head during clashes with soldiers, and named him as Laith Abu Naim. The ministry said he was shot in the village of Mugheer.A spokeswoman for the Israeli military confirmed that “violent riots are taking place in this area and burning tyres and stones were thrown at the soldiers”. She said she was unable to confirm that any Palestinians had been hit by gunfire.Nineteen Palestinians have been killed since US President Donald Trump’s controversial declaration of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital on December 6, most of them in clashes with Israeli forces. One Israeli, a settler in the West Bank, has also been killed since then. from The News International - World http://ift.tt/2DO5YwK

MIAMI: Japanese songbirds can make unique calls to warn of a snake nearby, causing their comrades to conjure a visual image of the predator and react accordingly, researchers said Monday. Until now, the ability to visualize something after hearing the word or sound was thought to be a human-only trait, said the report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a peer-reviewed US journal. “The Japanese tit (Parus minor) produces particular alarm calls when, and only when, encountering a predatory snake,” said study author Toshitaka Suzuki at the Center for Ecological Research, Kyoto University. Researchers played recordings of songbird calls warning of a snake, while a short tree branch was moved “in a serpentine fashion — up a tree trunk or along the ground,” said the report. When birds saw this movement and heard the call, they reacted as if seeing a snake. “With a snake’s image in mind, tits can efficiently search out a snake regardless of its spatial position,” said Suz...

ANKARA: A Turkish prosecutor ordered the detention of 11 senior members of the Turkish Medical Association (TTB) on Tuesday, including its chairman, after the body criticised Turkey’s military operation in northern Syria. The prosecutor said police in Ankara had started legal proceedings on Tuesday morning and search-and-detention operations were carried out in several provinces. Media reports said nine of the medics had been detained. Turkish authorities have cracked down on any expression of dissent over the air and ground offensive against the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia in Syria’s Afrin region. More than 300 people have been detained for social media posts criticising the campaign since it began 10 days ago. from The News International - World http://ift.tt/2DQwtSb

Al Rumhiya, Saudi Arabia: Huddled together on a dusty racetrack, Saudi judges scrutinise pouty lips and shapely humps in a high-stakes camel beauty pageant mired in scandal after botox and cosmetic fillers were detected. Some 14 camels have been disqualified from the month-long King Abdulaziz Camel Festival, an annual bedouin tradition supported by the Saudi royal family that lures breeders from around the Gulf with prize money of up to $57 million (46 million euros). Organisers of the festival — with 30,000 participating camels — are cracking down on cosmetic enhancements, a malpractice that has thrived amid stiff competition and despite strong penalties as some stake millions on acquiring top breeds. “Some breeders cannot afford to buy expensive camels,” said Abdullah bin Naser al-Dagheri, one of the judges, scribbling scores on sheafs of papers as he stood on tracks littered with camel droppings. “They buy cheap, not so good-looking camels and try to beautify them artificially. We’r...

GENEVA: An estimated 60,000 children face potential starvation in North Korea, where international sanctions are exacerbating the situation by slowing aid deliveries, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Tuesday. World powers have imposed growing sanctions on North Korea for its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes. Last week the United States announced fresh sanctions on nine entities, 16 people and six North Korean ships it accused of helping the weapons programmes. Under United Nations Security Council resolutions, humanitarian supplies or operations are exempt from sanctions, Omar Abdi, UNICEF deputy executive director, said. from The News International - World http://ift.tt/2DNz1QN

QUEBEC City: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called Monday for Canadians to stand up against Islamophobia and discrimination as he paid tribute to six Muslims killed a year ago at a Quebec mosque. Trudeau lamented that acts of hate and discrimination have become “commonplace” or “even tolerated,” saying in parliament that “it should never have come to this point.” “We cannot bring back those who perished, but we owe it to them to fight the very sentiment that caused their loss. We owe it to them to speak up and stand tall and explicitly against Islamophobia and discrimination in all its forms,” he said. On January 29, 2017, just after the Sunday evening prayer, a gunman burst into the mosque in a residential neighborhood of Quebec City and opened fire on worshippers. In addition to the six deaths, four of the victims suffered permanent disabilities in what remains one of the worst attacks on an Islamic place of worship in the West. In the aftermath, thousands of people, including Trudeau...

MADRID: A Spanish village on Tuesday declared a day of mourning following the death of a retired farmer billed as “the world’s oldest man”, who passed away just over a month after turning 113. Francisco Nunez Olivera, who was 10 years old when World War I broke out, died on Monday in the village of Bienvenida in southwestern Spain where he had lived throughout his life, village mayor Antonio Carmona told AFP. “It’s a very cold day and most of all a very sad day,” Carmona said. from The News International - World http://ift.tt/2DNe3la

WASHINGTON: A secret Republican memo alleging that a politically motivated Department of Justice and the FBI flagrantly abused regulations to spy on the Trump campaign has gripped Washington just as the Russia meddling probe edges closer to the White House. Republicans are keen to see the four-page memo — written by Republican lawmaker Devin Nunes, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and a close defender of President Donald Trump — released, and his committee voted to do so. Trump, who has five days to block the release, is expected to allow it.Democrats however say the memo is highly distorted and political, and ultimately aims to discredit special prosecutor Robert Mueller’s probe of possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia in the 2016 election. According to news reports citing people who have seen the document, it sums up how the Justice Department and FBI were able to obtain a so-called FISA national security warrant to run surveillance on Carter Pag...

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ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Tuesday took a suo motu notice of the brutal murder of Asma Rani – a medical college student – in Kohat a day after the police confirmed that the main accused, Mujahid Afridi, had fled the country for Saudi Arabia from the Benazir Bhutto International Airport, Islamabad. It also observed that the failure to catch the culprit involved in the rape and murder of four-year-old Asma was a clear sign of incompetency of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police. Last week, Mujahid and his accomplice Sadiqullah reportedly opened fire at the medical college student, after she refused a marriage proposal. The victim was visiting her family in Kohat during a session break. Mujahid and Sadiqullah had fled the crime scene. The victim received three bullets and was rushed to a nearby hospital, where she had identified Mujahid as the assailant before succumbing to her injuries. Meanwhile, Sadiqullah, who had been named in the FIR, was arrested on Tuesday morning after the polic...

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Tuesday took a suo motu notice of the brutal murder of Asma Rani – a medical college student – in Kohat a day after the police confirmed that the main accused, Mujahid Afridi, had fled the country for Saudi Arabia from the Benazir Bhutto International Airport, Islamabad. It also observed that the failure to catch the culprit involved in the rape and murder of four-year-old Asma was a clear sign of incompetency of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police. Last week, Mujahid and his accomplice Sadiqullah reportedly opened fire at the medical college student, after she refused a marriage proposal. The victim was visiting her family in Kohat during a session break. Mujahid and Sadiqullah had fled the crime scene. The victim received three bullets and was rushed to a nearby hospital, where she had identified Mujahid as the assailant before succumbing to her injuries. Meanwhile, Sadiqullah, who had been named in the FIR, was arrested on Tuesday morning after the polic...

ISLAMABAD: The accountability court resumed hearing of corruption references against former premier Nawaz Sharif and his family on Tuesday. The court admitted for hearing the National Accountability Bureau’s supplementary reference in the Avenfield case. Nawaz's counsel Khwaja Harris objected to NAB's filing of the supplementary reference, arguing that there is nothing new in the supplementary reference. He pleaded the court not to accept the supplementary reference as it was not as per the Supreme Court's directives. However, the judge rejected the plea and accepted the supplementary reference. All the witnesses were issued notices to appear before the court to record their statements. NAB pleaded with the court to allow the UK-based witnesses to record their statements via video link. The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had filed three corruption references against the Sharif family in September last year in the light of Supreme Court’s July 28 verdict in the Pan...

ISLAMABAD: The accountability court resumed hearing of corruption references against former premier Nawaz Sharif and his family on Tuesday. The court admitted for hearing the National Accountability Bureau’s supplementary reference in the Avenfield case. Nawaz's counsel Khwaja Harris objected to NAB's filing of the supplementary reference, arguing that there is nothing new in the supplementary reference. He pleaded the court not to accept the supplementary reference as it was not as per the Supreme Court's directives. However, the judge rejected the plea and accepted the supplementary reference. All the witnesses were issued notices to appear before the court to record their statements. NAB pleaded with the court to allow the UK-based witnesses to record their statements via video link. The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had filed three corruption references against the Sharif family in September last year in the light of Supreme Court’s July 28 verdict in the Pan...

ISLAMABAD: The Chief Justice of Pakistan, Mian Saqib Nisar, on Tuesday summoned a meeting of chief justices of all the high courts so as to develop a mechanism in dealing with legal disputes with regard to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). He said that he was inviting all the chief justices for adressing CPEC related litigation for a meeting on Saturday in Islamabad. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court of Pakistan on Tuesday imposed a fine on the Punjab government for failing to submit a report regarding the scale of water utilisation from a pond in the Katas Raj temple through sub-soil wells by nearby cement factories in a suo motu case. A three-member bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar and comprising Justice Umar Ata Bandial and Justice Ijaz Ul Ahsan, imposed Rs100,000 fine on the provincial government for not complying with its directive given on December 13, 2017 regarding the report. The court had taken up the case based on reports that the Ka...

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan announced verdict in a 100-year-old property inheritance case that started in the court of Rajasthan, India, in 1918. The case revolves around a dispute over the inheritance of 5,600 kanals of land in Khairpur Tamiwali tehsil in Bahawalpur district that was transferred to the Supreme Court from trial courts in 2005. During the hearing, Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar said the property should be distributed among the heirs under the Islamic law. He added the court will not deprive anyone of their legal share. As per the complainants, the property belonged to their elder, Shahabuddin, who died in 1918, after which the case was taken to the courts and has been going on since then. There are thousands of cases, including those pertaining to land disputes, pending in courts of Pakistan for decades. According to legal experts, the number of such cases cannot be brought down until amendments are introduced in the Pakistan Penal Code, Crim...

ISLAMABAD: Panama Papers' case Joint Investigation Team member Irfan Naeem Mangi’s posting as director general National Accountability Bureau Rawalpindi has raised many eyebrows as the Sharif family had severe reservations of the WhatsApp calls-fame JIT and its findings and NAB Rawalpindi is handling the references filed as a result of the SC judgement in Panama Papers case. Now the tainted Mangi would oversee the references filed against the Sharif family. Mangi has remained in the news for quiet sometime as he was made part of the JIT just a day after he was served a show-cause notice by NAB on the orders of the Supreme Court for being hired illegally which could have resulted in his termination from service. The Supreme Court in its July 28th 2017 judgement held that the services of the JIT members be protected. His case became an interesting case as not only the past disciplinary proceedings against him were halted but no fresh proceeding could be initiated after different ben...

FAISALABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Tuesday admitted committing mistakes in awarding party tickets for the 2013 elections, saying money might have been involved in the process. He, however, promised that merit would be the sole criterion for the purpose in the coming polls. Promising to provide an environment conducive to investment, Imran said a textile-centric policy was imperative to economy but the successive governments had failed to harvest the dividends of a cotton producing country. Fake, hollow and unrealistic claims are now being made about economic revival with an ulterior motive to gain political benefits in the upcoming general elections, said Imran. The PTI chief also claimed that the businessmen were investing in the industrial sector of Dubai only due to corruption in Pakistan. “In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, no politician can do business,” said Imran and added his party would make a policy to ensure that those in government did not benefit them...

FAISALABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Tuesday admitted committing mistakes in awarding party tickets for the 2013 elections, saying money might have been involved in the process. He, however, promised that merit would be the sole criterion for the purpose in the coming polls. Promising to provide an environment conducive to investment, Imran said a textile-centric policy was imperative to economy but the successive governments had failed to harvest the dividends of a cotton producing country. Fake, hollow and unrealistic claims are now being made about economic revival with an ulterior motive to gain political benefits in the upcoming general elections, said Imran. The PTI chief also claimed that the businessmen were investing in the industrial sector of Dubai only due to corruption in Pakistan. “In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, no politician can do business,” said Imran and added his party would make a policy to ensure that those in government did not benefit them...

LAHORE: The purpose of celebrating the International Day for Street Children is to sensitise the people and to raise a strong voice for their rights, said Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif. In his message issued on Tuesday, the chief minister described securing the future of the street children as a priority and said the Punjab government was utilising resources to provide an atmosphere conducive to help them grow as educated and confident citizens. “The Child Protection and Welfare Bureau is working in an effective manner to give better future to the street children and different facilities have been arranged in this department so that such children could be fully rehabilitated,” he added. Shahbaz said, “Like all other children, the street children are also a responsibility of the nation and the government is actively working for their rehabilitation through various educational facilities.” He said the PML-N government had ensured a bright and prosperous future for all the chil...

As Pakistan's electronic media reach new heights in the last few years and become one of the strongest and powerful organs of the state, it is confronted with numerous challenges and pressures, both within and outside. No doubt it has a lot of positives and it has become a strong source of information, but the problematic area begins when professional ethics become hostage to ratings and in the process fake news, fake information replace factual ones. The media is not supposed to set the agenda, but its prime responsibility is to give 'factual information and news based on facts. Accuracy is key to journalism. Solution to these challenges depends on the approach to address the problematic areas. As long as channels or programmes’ rating remain the only source for profit drive, the anchors and director news and programming would remain under constant pressure, the issues like the one under scrutiny at the highest level i.e. Supreme Court of Pakistan. There is one basic soluti...

ISLAMABAD: Bahria Town Chairman Malik Riaz Tuesday said that disappearance or escape of suspended SSP Malir Rao Anwar should be investigated thoroughly. He said that never colluded with law violators, and cannot even think of it. Malik Riaz said that he always helped the needy during natural disasters and the needy in distress and sent them abroad for medical treatment. He clarified that Rao Anwar had never used any of his planes, saying he hoped that “the culprit behind Naqeebullah Mehsud’s murder will be brought to justice”. “I have two personal aircraft for the last eight years and none of them have ever been used by Rao Anwar,” the business tycoon said. The rumours of Anwar’s escape from the country in a Bahria Town plane are baseless and condemnable, he added. Addressing the ‘Pakhtuns of Karachi’ and the parents and relatives of the deceased while recording his video statement from London where he has been staying for a week, Malik Riaz said, “I’m as aggrieved [on Naqeebullah‘s...

KARACHI: The world showed little interest in Panama Papers and Paradise Papers practically and investigations could not go beyond announcements in most cases. Probes remained limited across the world, from resignation of Iceland prime minister to investigations against Shakira in Spain. Sigmundur Daví, the premier of Iceland, who had resigned after his name appeared in the Panama Papers, reached the parliament again after being elected by the people. It very clearly showed how much seriously people in the world took the Panama Papers scandal. The European Union conducted bold investigations and blacklisted 17 countries or territories terming them tax havens. However, it had to review its decision only within one-and-a-half months and it excluded eight countries including Panama from the list. The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) itself admitted in a report that extraordinary investigations were conducted in Pakistan against former premier Nawaz Sharif. He...