EU warns Meta CEO to remove pro-Hamas news
London, Oct 12: After warning X owner Elon Musk, European Commissioner Thierry Breton has now written to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, telling him to remove pro-Hamas content across his platforms and “be very vigilant” else it could put the company in violation of new EU regulations. In a letter to Zuckerberg, Breton urged Meta to remove illegal terrorist content and hate speech amid the ongoing war in Israel. He said that the European Commission had seen “a surge of illegal content and disinformation being disseminated in the EU.” “I urgently invite you to ensure that your systems are effective. Needless to say, I also expect you to be in contact with the relevant law enforcement authorities and Europol, and ensure that you respond promptly to any requests,” he noted. (IANS)
Mainly women, kids were killed
in Afghan quake
Islamabad, Oct 12: More than 90 per cent of the people killed by a 6.3-magnitude earthquake in western Afghanistan last weekend were women and children, UN officials reported Thursday. Taliban officials said Saturday’s earthquake killed more than 2,000 people of all ages and genders across Herat province. The epicenter was in Zenda Jan district, where 1,294 people died, 1,688 were injured and every home was destroyed, according to UN figures. Women and children were more likely to have been at home when the quake struck in the morning, said Siddig Ibrahim, the chief of the UNICEF field office in Herat, said. “When the first earthquake hit, people thought it was an explosion, and they ran into their homes,” he said. Hundreds of people, mostly women, remain missing in Zenda Jan. The Afghanistan representative for the United Nations Population Fund, Jaime Nadal, said there would have been no “gender dimension” to the death toll if the quake had happened at night. (AP)
Pak PM Kakar to attend BRF
in China
Islamabad, Oct 12: Pakistan’s interim Prime Minister Anwaar ul Haq Kakar will visit China to participate in the third Belt and Road Forum commencing in Beijing later this month, the Foreign Office said on Thursday. Foreign Office Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch at the weekly briefing said Kakar was undertaking the trip at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping. “The prime minister will attend the opening ceremony of the Belt and Road Forum on October 17 and hold bilateral meetings with President Xi Jinping, senior Chinese leaders, as well as, other leaders attending the Belt and Road Forum,” she said. Baloch said Kakar would highlight the key achievements of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and highlight future priorities for the multi-billion dollar initiative. The CPEC, announced in 2013, is part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a giant connectivity initiative planned by China to revive the ancient Silk Road across Eurasia and Africa. The CPEC enters Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir through the Karakoram Highway in Gilgit Baltistan and aims to circumvent the Straits of Malacca and the South China Sea to improve infrastructure within Pakistan for better trade with China. (PTI)