After 3 yrs of Covid restrictions, N Korea allows citizens abroad to return
SEOUL, Aug 27: Reopening its border following more than three years of its stringent virus restrictions, North Korea has lifted an entry ban imposed on its citizens staying abroad over Covid-19 concerns, state media reported Sunday. According to the Korean Central News Agency, North Korean “citizens abroad have been allowed to return home,” as it has decided to “adjust the anti-epidemic degree in reference to the eased worldwide pandemic situation.” “It added that those who return home will be put under “proper medical observation at quarantine wards for a week,” Yonhap news agency reoprted quoting KCNA. The move came after North Korea resumed commercial flights with China and Russia last week following more than three years of border closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Flights operated by Air Koryo, North Korea’s national carrier, arrived in Beijing and Vladivostok from Pyongyang last week, bringing the North’s people staying there back home. With the lifting of the entry ban, more North Korean diplomats, laborers and students staying in foreign nations are expected to come back to the North. (PTI)
Ex-PM Imran Khan ‘confesses’ to losing cipher again
ISLAMABAD, Aug 27: Former Pakistan Prime Minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan has once again “admitted to losing the cipher”, saying he “couldn’t recall” where he kept it, a media outlet reported. According to The News, the deposed Prime Minister — who was ousted from office following a no-confidence motion in April last year — was responding to questions posed during an interrogation in the Attock jail by a three-member team of the Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) Cybercrime Circle, headed by Deputy Director Ayyaz Khan. The investigation team grilled Khan in the missing cipher case, sources said, adding that the PTI chief cooperated during the hour-long inquiry with patience. He, however, denied that the paper he waved at a public gathering last year was the cipher, The News reported. “The paper I gestured in the public were cabinet meeting minutes, and not cipher,” the former premier claimed. (IANS)
Indians celebrate Sri Aurobindo’s 150th birth anniv in Singapore
SINGAPORE, Aug 27: The life of Sri Aurobindo is an inspiration for everyone today, India’s envoy in Singapore has said, as he joined followers of the freedom fighter and philosopher in celebrating his 150th birth anniversary. The remarks by Shilpak Ambule, the High Commissioner of India in Singapore, came as he attended a seminar to mark the occasion. The three-hour seminar, “Humanity Unity & Individual Growth: A Journey of Destiny in the Light of Sri Aurobindo”, had participation from experts and musical performances by artists from the Singapore Indian Fine Arts Society. Some 120 followers of Sri Aurobindo also attended the seminar.Ambule highlighted the life of Sri Aurobindo, pointing out how the seer, philosopher, yogi and poet is “an inspiration for all of us today.” (PTI)