World

Amman, Feb 26 (IANS) Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi has said that the Kingdom would continue to work extensively to ensure adequate aid reaches the Gaza Strip.

Safadi made the remarks on Sunday during a joint press conference with Bulgaria's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Mariya Gabriel in Amman, during which he stressed Jordan's ongoing efforts to ensure sufficient entry of aid into Gaza, Xinhua news agency reported.

Safadi added that Gabriel's visit provided an opportunity to discuss ways to strengthen the two countries' already strong bilateral ties while highlighting a number of areas in which Jordan and Bulgaria's cooperation could be enhanced, particularly in the fields of education and tourism, the state-run Al Mamlaka TV reported.

During the press conference, Safadi also emphasized the urgent need to halt the ongoing Israeli attacks in Gaza.

The two sides discussed the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the efforts to coordinate the delivery of aid to the Palestinian enclave, according to the report.

Safadi reiterated that Jordan and Bulgaria share the belief that the two-state solution is the only way to achieve security, peace, and stability in the region.

Gabriel voiced her support for Jordan in formulating a peace plan, stressing Bulgaria's concern about the humanitarian situation in Gaza and its support for allowing access for humanitarian workers as well as the implementation of the two-state solution.

She said that her visit to Jordan was a message to strengthen political dialogue between the two countries, expand strategic cooperation, and coordinate efforts to provide solutions to regional and global challenges.

--IANS

int/sha

Reigning National champion Velavan Senthilkumar sailed into the quarterfinals of the Pittsburgh Open squash, a prestigious USD 75,800 PSA World Tour Silver event, with an 11-6, 5-11, 11-5, 11-8 win over home favourite and No.8 seed Faraz Khan in a thrilling encounter.

This is the first PSA outing of the year for the 25-year-old Tamil Nadu player, ranked 63 in the world, after a breakout 2023 that saw him win four PSA titles in his first full year as pro.

Senthilkumar took an impressive early lead over the American, and cruised to an 11-6 first-game win. Khan regrouped, showing the World No.63 his strength as he levelled the match at 1-1.

The Indian reacted, storming to a 10-5 lead and Khan struck the tin on his return to put the 25-year-old within a game of his maiden Silver-event quarter-final.

The American pulled ahead in the fourth game as he took a 6-1 lead, but Senthilkumar upped his game, playing quick and accurate squash to level the game at 8-8. The Indian continued his late resurgence and won the fourth game 11-8 to secure the match, ending with a mistake from Khan on the match ball.

"It was really good. First of all, Faraz is a really good player. I’ve seen him play recently and he’s been having some really good results so going into the match I was a bit nervous, but at the same time really excited to be here competing. I was just there, enjoying my squash and enjoying myself," Senthilkumar was quoted by tournament's website.

The Indian ace will meet Egyptian world No 21 Youssef Ibrahim in the quarterfinals.

On achieving his maiden Silver-event quarter-final, he said: "I’m really happy, it’s something that I’ve always pushed for, and I’m always going to keep pushing for it as much as I can.”

"I’m excited to have this opportunity, I’m really happy to be here, and compete another day, and playing (Youssef Ibrahim) is going to be fun, and I’m really looking forward to it."

In the opening round, Senthilkumar beat Japanese Ryunosuke Tsukue 11-2, 7-11, 11-6, 11-8.

--IANS

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New Delhi, Feb 9 (IANS) All the emerging markets indices saw negative performance in January with China being the worst performer at 10.6 per cent. As far as developed markets are concerned, Japan emerged as the best performer at 4.6 per cent, as per a report by Motilal Oswal Asset Management Company.

Nifty 50 declined by -0.03 per cent in January 2024. However, the index has shown positive growth since the past year, the report said.

This year's turmoil in China has sparked a stock meltdown, blown up structured financial products, led to public disgruntlement, and now Chinese President Xi Jinping has put a new market regulator in control, Bloomberg reported.

Yet powered by the US tech euphoria, global equities are approaching records, haven assets are out of favor and even neighboring Asian markets are relatively unscathed. Chinese assets are out of sync with the rest of the world, with a measure of global financial market volatility trending lower this year, Bloomberg reported.

It's a stark contrast to what happened when China's bubble burst in 2015 and the world's two largest economies engaged in a trade war in 2018, which led to a synchronised drop in global shares. This time around Beijing's woes remain an isolated affair after an exodus of international capital, Bloomberg reported.

With the selloff extending after three straight years of declines, even once-staunch China bulls including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. have been forced to rethink their views. If foreigners are not coming back, it will make Xi's mission to engineer a market recovery more difficult to achieve. It’s also more fodder for investors looking to funnel capital to the pre-eminent US market and elsewhere in Asia instead, Bloomberg reported.

Over the past three years, about $6 trillion -- equivalent to roughly twice Britain’s annual economic output -- has been wiped off the value of Chinese and Hong Kong stocks, CNN reported earlier.

The astonishing losses, reminiscent of the last Chinese stock market crash of 2015-2016, highlight a crisis of confidence among investors concerned about the country’s future, CNN reported.

Foreign brokerage, Morgan Stanley said in an earlier report in January that it continues to prefer Japan and India versus overall EM and China this year.

Japan remains a key OW market at the global equity level with a TOPIX base-case target price of 2600 (+4 per cent upside) and a rising likelihood of our bull case of 2800 (+12 per cent upside) coming into play as fund re-allocations to Japan have been high year to date driving multiple expansion.

India looks solid on most parameters – strong flows, earnings growth and macro-outlook, BNP Paribas said in India Strategy Report 2024. Strong domestic and FPI flows into Indian equities boosted domestic stocks in 2023. We see no reason for this to change. The macro environment seems favourable with inflation easing. For the US, Also, in terms of underlying fundamentals, India has seen double-digit earnings growth with minimal consensus downgrades in recent quarters.

India continued its stellar performance in CY23 as it emerged as one of the best performing markets, trailing only the US and Taiwan, led by factors such as: 1) solid domestic macro environment; 2) strong domestic flows; 3) resurgence of FII inflows post March 2023; 4) resilience in corporate earnings; and 5) easing inflation fears and expectations of global interest-rate cuts, the report said.

--IANS

biz/san/svn

Dallas (US), Feb 9 (IANS) Top seed Frances Tiafoe registered 6-4, 6-3 victory over fellow American Alex Michelsen to reach the Dallas Open quarterfinals.

Tiafoe, who last year cracked the Top 10 in the ATP Rankings, brought out all his tricks in his opening match at the ATP 250 event. He combatted the awkward baseline game Michelsen with an all-court performance.

Late in the second set, he even purposely carved a backhand drop volley with so much backspin, it bounced back to his side of the court.

“It was incredible. You guys really enjoyed yourself, I really enjoyed it. It was a lot of fun. I really love this city, I have a tonne of fun here. You guys really showed me a lot of love tonight, so I appreciate it," Tiafoe said in his on-court interview.

According to ATP Stats, Tiafoe won 52 per cent of his return points and converted five of his eight break points. He will next play another countryman in Marcos Giron, against whom he owns a 3-1 ATP Head-to-Head advantage.

In other action, seventh seed Jordan Thompson cruised past lucky loser Denis Kudla 6-1, 6-1. The Australian will try to slow down the big-serving game of third seed Ben Shelton in the quarter-finals.

German lefty Dominik Koepfer also advanced with a 6-3, 7-6(5), victory over Australian Rinky Hijikata. Koepfer will next challenge second seed Tommy Paul.

--IANS

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Mumbai, Feb 8 (IANS) Black Box Limited has announced the unaudited financial results for the quarter and nine months ended 31st December 2023.

EBITDA for the quarter grew by 62 per cent YoY to Rs. 116 crores while Profit after tax for Q3FY24 stood at Rs 41 crore.

It said that revenue for Q3FY24 witnessed a growth of 5 per cent QoQ and was muted on a YoY basis. For 9MFY24 revenue grew by 4 per cent YoY

The strategy to focus on large revenue customers is yielding results and the pipeline continues to remain robust with some hold up in decision making, leading to delay in getting new orders.

It said that the EBITDA margins increased by a robust 270 bps YoY at 7.0 per cent for Q3FY24 and by 260 bps YoY at 6.4 per cent for 9MFY24.

It said that the emphasis on cost rationalisation and enhanced productivity has begun to generate positive outcomes, leading to an increase in the EBITDA margins.

It said that profit after tax for Q3FY24 increased by 5.2x YoY to Rs. 41 Crs and grew by 28 per cent on a QoQ basis and for 9MFY24 profit after tax increased to Rs 97 Crs as compared to Rs 1 cr in 9MFY23.

It said that the operating performance has resulted in better profitability despite higher interest costs.

Commenting on the results and performance Sanjeev Verma, Whole Time Director, Black Box said: “We are delighted by our achievements in Q3 and 9MFY24. Our EBITDA margins and overall profitability both on a QoQ and YoY basis has increased substantially due to our emphasis on cost rationalisation and enhanced productivity. Strong order book coupled with deal wins in excess of

$50Mn during the quarter, makes us confident in our resilient business model. As each of our business segments gathers momentum, it reinforces our confidence in delivering improved performance in the upcoming quarters.”

Deepak Kumar Bansal, Executive Director and Global Chief Financial Officer of Black Box, commented: “Revenue for Q3FY24 witnessed a growth of 5 per cent QoQ and was muted on a YoY basis. For 9MFY24 revenue grew by 4 per cent YoY. Our strong focus on profitability over the last few quarters has started yielding positive results as evidenced by our profit after tax surging 5.2 times YoY in Q3FY24.

“Further, we are optimistic, this trend to continue both in terms of margin enhancement and overall profitability, boosting our confidence in achieving strong performance in fiscal year 2024 and onwards.”

--IANS

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Tel Aviv, Feb 9 (IANS) An elderly Israeli citizen, who was believed to be kidnapped during the October 7 attack, died on that day itself and his body is being held by Hamas in Gaza, southern Israel village community Kibbutz Be'eri said.

The family of Manny Godard, 73, has been informed that he was murdered during Hamas October 7 attack on Israel and that his body is being held by terrorists in Gaza.

Immediately after the attack, there was no trace of Godard and family presumed that he was in the custody of Hamas. However after none of the hostages, who were released from Hamas custody during the weeklong ceasefire from November 24 to December 1, claimed to not have seen him during their custody period, there was skepticism in his family as well as community whether he was alive or not.

However, there was no formal announcement until now.

Godard's wife Ayelet called one of their children on October 7 screaming that her husband had been killed and that she was hiding in the bushes from the terrorists.

Ayelet's body was found and identified nearby two weeks later, but Godard's body was not recovered.

The couple is survived by their children, Mor, Gal, Bar and Goni, as well as six grandchildren and several siblings.

A eulogy posted on the kibbutz website on Thursday remembered Ayelet as a longtime educator, "a special teacher, one from days gone by, the kind who brought nature into the classroom and took the children outside," and who shaped many of the youths who grew up in the Kibbutz and nearby.

She was an "incredible mother and a revered grandmother," who also "believed with all her heart in the Kibbutz and its members, and was an active part of Kibbutz life".

Godard, the community said, had "a love of sports, the ocean and people". He was a professional soccer player in the 1970s before enlisting in the army and fighting in the Yom Kippur War.

In the Kibbutz, he worked in a successful printing house, a local store, as chief economist and a lifeguard.

--IANS

aal/svn

New York, Feb 9 (IANS) Indian-American doctor Amish Shah has stepped down from the House of Representatives in the US state of Arizona to focus on his congressional campaign.

The first Indian-American to serve in the Arizona legislature, 46-year-old Shah announced his run as a Democrat last year from the state's 1st Congressional District, which is presently held by Republican David Schweikert.

"With mixed emotions, I resigned as your House Rep this week to pursue my Congressional campaign. Serving at the State Legislature was an incredible honor, offering diverse perspectives. As a Congressional candidate, I am eager to bring our collective values to the national stage," Shah wrote in a post on X.

Along with Shah, an emergency physician for over 15 years, at least six other candidates are seeking a Democratic-run from the district, which covers parts of Scottsdale and northern Phoenix.

The top issues Shah is running on include education, healthcare, and voting rights, and according to his website, he wants fair wages for workers, universal healthcare, and abortion access.

Thanking Shah for his service and leadership, the Arizona House Democrats said on X: "Worth your time. @DrAmishShah bids a fond and thoughtful farewell to his House colleagues. Dr Shah, who is running for Congress, resigned today after 5 years in office and a tremendous track record of bi-partisan legislation".

Shah’s departure leaves three empty Democratic seats in the House amidst the legislature’s bill season, Arizona-based KGUN9 news channel reported.

Shah said in a release that he raised more than $530,000 from individual donors in the opening quarter of his congressional campaign, and over 75 per cent of these donors were from Arizona.

According to his campaign statement, he has made a name for himself with his unique brand of door-to-door campaigning, having visited over 15,000 households, and to date, he has had more bills signed into law than any other Democrat currently in the Arizona legislature.

"Giving back is a core value for me. Because of the sacrifices of my parents, who both came to this country from India to pursue a better life, I was able to become a doctor... and be the first Indian-American to serve in the Arizona legislature," Shah said in an earlier statement.

Born and raised in Chicago, Shah's parents were engineering students who immigrated from India in the 1960s.

He attended Northwestern University in Evanston and graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics.

He graduated from the Northwestern University Medical School as part of the Honors Program in Medical Education.

Outside of his medical practice, he founded the first Arizona Vegetarian Food Festival as a philanthropic endeavour to promote healthy eating.

He was named the 2022 Women's Health Care Champion Legislator of the Year by the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology for his work protecting reproductive rights.

He also received the Nursing Hero Award in 2022 from the Arizona Nurses Association and the President's Award for Mental Health Advocacy from the Arizona Psychiatric Society.

--IANS

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San Francisco, Feb 9 (IANS) The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has barred robocalls with voices generated by artificial intelligence (AI) to protect consumers from voice-cloning scams.

The unanimous judgment on Thursday recognises the calls made with AI-generated voices as "artificial" under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, according to FCC.

"Bad actors are using AI-generated voices in unsolicited robocalls to extort vulnerable family members, imitate celebrities, and misinform voters. We’re putting the fraudsters behind these robocalls on notice," FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in a statement.

"State Attorneys General will now have new tools to crack down on these scams and ensure the public is protected from fraud and misinformation," she added.

This comes as New Hampshire authorities continue their probe into AI-generated robocalls that used the voice of US President Joe Biden to discourage people from voting in the state's first-in-the-nation primary last month.

"This technology now has the potential to confuse consumers with misinformation by imitating the voices of celebrities, political candidates, and close family members," the agency said.

Effective immediately, the regulation empowers the FCC to fine companies that use AI voices in their calls or block the service providers that carry them. It also opens the door for call recipients to file lawsuits and gives state attorneys general a new mechanism to crack down on violators, according to the FCC.

The ruling, which goes into effect immediately, allows the FCC to fine companies that utilise AI voices in their calls or restrict the service providers that carry them.

According to the FCC, it also allows call recipients to file lawsuits and provides state attorneys general with a new tool for enforcing violations.

--IANS

shs/kvd

"That’s all I can do is wish him well and I think the whole world that follows Virat and that enjoys his cricket, must just wish him well, and whatever the reason is for this break. Really hope that he comes back stronger, better, healthier, and fresh," the former South African batter told IANS.

Earlier, de Villiers had said that Kohli's second child is on the way and it's family time and things are important to him. It did not go down well with the Indian cricket fans and they lambasted Kohli for giving the England series a miss.

However, now the South African changed his statement and tried to pacify the situation. As per latest reports, Kohli's absence in the England series is set to be extended, with the senior India batter expected to miss the third and fourth Tests in Rajkot and Ranchi, respectively.

It was on January 22, three days before the start of the England series, that the BCCI announced that Kohli had pulled out of the first two Tests for "personal reasons".

It will be interesting to see when the selectors announce the team for the next match. And will the BCCI share the "true information" related to Kohli.

--IANS

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Washington, Feb 9 (IANS) President Joe Biden has announced his intent to nominate Indian-origin judge Sanket Jayshukh Bulsara to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York.

Bulsara, who has been a United States Magistrate Judge for the Eastern District of New York since 2017, was among the four individuals nominated by Biden to federal district courts.

All of the nominees "are extraordinarily qualified, experienced, and devoted to the rule of law and our Constitution", the White House announced on Wednesday.

"These choices also continue to fulfill the President’s promise to ensure that the nation’s courts reflect the diversity that is one of our greatest assets as a country -- both in terms of personal and professional backgrounds."

From January 2017 to May 2017, Bulsara served as the Acting General Counsel of the US Securities and Exchange Commission, where he had been the Deputy General Counsel for Appellate Litigation, Adjudication, and Enforcement since 2015.

Before that, he worked at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP as an associate from 2005 to 2008, a counsel from 2009 to 2011, and a partner from 2012 to 2015.

For six months between 2007 and 2008, he served as a Special Assistant District Attorney at the Kings County (Brooklyn) District Attorney’s Office and worked as an associate at Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP in Los Angeles, California from 2003 to 2004.

As a magistrate judge, he has presided over 400 settlement conferences, several bench and jury trials, and authored over 300 published opinions, according to the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York.

Bulsara is an adjunct professor of Law at St John’s Law School where he teaches Remedies and Securities Litigation, and a guest instructor at the Harvard Law School Trial Advocacy Workshop.

A graduate of Edgemont High School, Bulsara received an A.B. degree magna cum laude in 1998 from Harvard College and a J.D. degree cum laude from Harvard Law School in 2002.

In recognition of his pro bono work in support of victims of domestic violence, he received the Sanctuary for Families Above & Beyond Award three separate times.

A resident of Long Island City, Bulsara was born in the Bronx to immigrant parents before moving to New Rochelle and later Edgemont, New York.

According to the White House, this was Biden’s 45th round of nominees for federal judicial positions, bringing the number of announced federal judicial nominees to 219.

--IANS

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