World

Islamabad, Aug 30 (IANS) In view of the skyrocketing prices of vegetables amid the ongoing floods and relentless monsoon rain across Pakistan, the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) on Tuesday demanded the government to give permission for vegetable import from neighbouring India through the Wagah border.

LCCI President Nauman Kabir urged the government to grant permission to import vegetables from India to control its prices, Geo News reported.

"The recent floods have destroyed crops of tomato, onion, potato and other vegetables across the country," he said, adding that the crisis is expected to prevail for the next three months.

The vegetable crisis could further worsen in September, October and November, he added.

It will take a few days to transport vegetables from India to Pakistan via the Wagah border, Geo News reported.

The prices of vegetables skyrocketed as the grocery vendors are charging exorbitant prices from consumers amid the countrywide floods triggered by torrential rains.

The traders are making hefty profits at a time when the death toll from the relentless monsoon rains has exceeded the 1,100 mark and inflicting $10 billion loss on the country's economy.

According to the details, tomato is being sold at 250 PKR per kg in the market while its official price is 190 PKR per kg.

Similarly, the vendors are selling onion at 300 PKR to 320 PKR per kg while the commodity's rate was fixed at 290 PKR by the authorities, Geo News reported.

Potatoes are being sold at 120 PKR to 140 PKR per kg instead of its official rate of 100 PKR per kg.

Ginger's official rate is 360 PKR per kg but it is available for 380 PKR per kg in the market.

Garlic is being sold at 250 PKR per kg while its official rate is 200 PKR per kg.

--IANS
san/ksk/

New Delhi, Aug 30 (IANS) Microsoft has announced the general availability of the latest Azure Virtual Machines featuring the Ampere Altra Arm–based processor.

The new virtual machines will be generally available on September 1, and customers can launch them in 10 Azure regions and multiple availability zones around the world, the company said in a statement.

In addition, the Arm-based virtual machines can be included in Kubernetes clusters managed using Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS). This ability has been in preview and will be generally available over the coming weeks in all the regions that offer the new virtual machines.

"Hundreds of customers have tested and experienced firsthand the excellent price-performance that the Arm architecture can provide for web and application servers, open-source databases, microservices, Java and .NET applications, gaming, media servers, and more," said Paul Nash Vice President, Azure Compute Platform.

Azure's Ampere Altra Arm–based virtual machines represent a cost-effective and power-efficient option that does not compromise the level of performance that customers require, said the company.

"The general availability of Microsoft Azure VMs on Arm marks an important milestone in redefining what is possible in cloud computing," said Chris Bergey, SVP and GM, Infrastructure Line of Business, Arm.

All the new virtual machine sizes support up to 40 Gbps of networking bandwidth.

The Ampere Altra Arm–based Azure virtual machines are now available in the US, Europe, Asia and Australia.

"We plan to expand Azure regional availability after September 1," said the company.

--IANS
na/

New York, Aug 30 (IANS) Colombian qualifier Daniel Elahi Galan caused a major upset at the US Open on Tuesday, showing fourth-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas the exit door with a hard-fought 6-0, 6-1, 3-6, 7-5 victory against the Greek player on Tuesday.

With the help of 41 winners, the world No. 94 reached the second round at Flushing Meadows after a two hours and 48 minutes slugfest on his main draw debut at the season's final major.

This was the 26-year-old Colombian's biggest win of his career.

"Definitely one of the best moments of my career," Galan was quoted as saying by atptour.com. "Definitely the best match of my career, not only because of the circumstances, also the opponent. I'm really happy."

Galan, who did not lose a set in qualifying, won the first 11 games of the match against Tsitsipas with a superb display of aggression.

"I think he (Tsitsipas) started playing better in the third set. He served much better than the first two and I was putting the serve in the court, but not putting pressure on him. He was always in control," Galan said.

"I think he felt really comfortable during those two sets. I tried to change a little bit the position when I was returning and that changed a lot because I was able to return (deeper) and he was not so offensive on the first ball, so I was able to do a little bit more."

Galan had entered the match with a 0-6 record against Top-20 opponents. He had reached the third round at Wimbledon and his confidence showed against Tsitsipas. The Greek has now lost in the first round of the US Open in two of his five appearances and has never advanced to the second week. He made 57 unforced errors compared to 28 winners in his defeat, according to atptour.com.

"He dominated the match," Tsitsipas admitted. "I just couldn't get into it."

--IANS

akm/

Manila, Aug 30 (IANS) The Philippines' Department of Health said on Tuesday that deaths from dengue fever have climbed to 400 this year as cases rose by 143 per cent from the same period last year.

The Department has tallied 118,785 cases from January 1 to August 13, reports Xinhua news agency.

Data showed the Central Luzon region recorded the highest, with over 21,000 cases, followed by Central Visayas and Metro Manila with over 11,000 each.

Six of the country's 17 regions "have exceeded the epidemic threshold" in the past four weeks from July 17 to August 13, with Metro Manila "showing a sustained increasing trend".

Dengue is endemic in the Philippines.

Water-borne diseases, including dengue, usually peak at the start of the rainy season from July to October due to fluctuating weather conditions, flooding and accumulation of contaminated water.

Dengue mosquitos breed in stagnant water like water-filled containers and some plants including bananas.

In severe cases, dengue can cause joint pain, nausea, vomiting, rashes, breathing problems, haemorrhaging and organ failure.

The Philippines had declared a "national dengue epidemic" in August 2019.

--IANS
ksk/

New Delhi, Aug 30 (IANS) Gautam Adani was already Asias richest man and now he is also the world's third richest person, overtaking LVMH chairman Bernard Arnault and becoming the first Asian person to take that spot, according to Bloomberg and its Billionaires index.

Adani, who runs one of India's top conglomerates, is now believed to be worth approximately $137 billion, the tracker shows.

That's after a surge this week placed him just behind Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, whose own fortunes are estimated at $251 billion and $153 billion, respectively, CNN reported.

Like other billionaires around the world, Adani has seen his wealth skyrocket during the pandemic.

The founder of the eponymous Adani Group controls companies ranging from ports and aerospace to solar energy and coal.

His fortune has grown exponentially since the start of the global health crisis, as investors bet on his ability to grow his business in sectors that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has prioritized for development.

Adani has also benefited from an uptick in coal usage, which has catapulted his ascent in recent months, according to Bloomberg.

He overtook fellow Indian tycoon to become the region's wealthiest person in February, CNN reported.

His shot up the global wealth rankings comes as some members of the world's 1 per cent give away more of their resources.

In July, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates announced he would devote $20 billion to the endowment of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and reiterated his intention to move "off of the list of the world's richest people".

Bill Gates is currently ranked the world's fifth most affluent person, according to Bloomberg's index, with a net worth of $117 billion, CNN reported.

--IANS
san/ksk/

Mumbai, Aug 30 (IANS) India seems to be enjoying the 'There Is No Alternative' (TINA) factor, as globally all countries are facing the churn and India seems to the best placed jurisdiction in terms of growth and inflation outlook in FY23, according to the SBI Ecowrap report.

This optimism is because China is also facing a bleak outlook on the back of a construction sector meltdown. In fact, report believes that the China story may now be facing clear headwinds and India is likely to benefit from such stark realities over the longer term.

The trends in prices of both retail and commercial real estate in China now show much deeper structural adjustment. The long-term trends in retail prices show that since 2016, prices have been steadily declining along the linear trend.

In 2022, even the nominal price index has witnessed degrowth which is a worrying sign. The real price index growth has been in negative growth since December 2021. Home sales in China have fallen for 11 months in a row, official data shows. That is the longest slump since China created a private property market in the late 1990s.

Chinese demographers are now predicting that negative population growth in China will be the dominant trend in the coming years for a long time and improving the overall quality of the population and changing economic development plans are vital to address the problem.

With ageing, size of the family will gradually shrink. The housing demand will eventually decline in the long run in China as seen in Japan. The future outlook of the construction sector in China over the long run structural factors such as demographic ageing and rebalancing of economy will eventually remove a substantial portion of demand.

India is likely to be the beneficiary as China slows down in terms of new investment intentions.

Since the default by Evergrande group, once hailed as the toast of Chinese infrastructure resurgence, the financial situation of the construction sector in China has steadily moved southwards.

The debt default by Evergrande group spread to other large and mid-tier construction companies. Listed developers' share prices have fallen US$55 billion during 2022, while the sector's dollar notes have fallen by more than US$35 billion. Bank loans to the real estate sector have dropped for the first time in 10 years.

--IANS
msn/dpb

Geneva, Aug 30 (IANS) Israeli President Isaac Herzog reiterated his country's concerns about Iran's nuclear strategy ahead of a possible deal to prevent Tehran from building nuclear weapons.

The international community must never remain silent about Tehran's attempts to spread terror in the region and wipe Israel off the map, Herzog said during a meeting with Swiss President Ignazio Cassis in Bern on Monday.

"We expect the family of nations to make this point crystal clear: The international community, and the nations that so proudly push for international peace, should not accept calls and efforts to eradicate a sovereign member state of the UN," dpa news agency quoted the Israeli President as saying.

Iran's behaviour "cannot be met with silence", Herzog said.

"Iran's activities cannot go unpunished. And most critically, such a state must not be allowed to possess nuclear capabilities. Iran must be denied such capabilities by all means necessary."

Efforts are under way to revive the 2015 Vienna agreement to set controls on Iran's nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief.

Tehran insists its nuclear research activities are solely for civilian use.

However, Israel has repeatedly slammed the current version of the deal.

Herzog's comments came a day after Prime Minister Yair Lapid warned that Iran would just bide its time until it can return to weapons building and that the deal does not include strict enough monitoring to ensure Iranian compliance.

--IANS
ksk/