The weather report on Sunday (March 01, 2015) and the forecast for Monday (March 02, 2015).

Comparative table of returns being given banks on their Profit and Loss Sharing Investment Accounts and Term Deposits.

Following currency fluctuations took place in foreign exchange rates during the last week. (February 23 to 27, 2015).

All timings are in PST (Pakistan Standard Time).

The Indus River System Authority (IRSA) has reduced water outflow off the Tarbela Dam on the mighty Indus River from 45,000 to 20,000 cusecs for irrigation and hydel power generation purposes as widespread rains in the upcountry and nearly 30,000 running

Earlier this month, BR Research sat down with Kashif Ansari, the CEO of Sachal Energy Development - a wind power IPP project in Pakistan - now has just taken charge as the president of Institute of Cost and Management Accountants of Pakistan (ICMAP).

Earlier this month, BR Research sat down with Kashif Ansari, the CEO of Sachal Energy Development - a wind power IPP project in Pakistan - now has just taken charge as the president of Institute of Cost and Management Accountants of Pakistan (ICMAP).

How unfortunate it is that Nanga Parbat climber massacre suspect has managed to escape prison. This militant was accused of killing as many as 10 foreign climbers in far north in 2013. According to media reports, Habibur Rehman managed to escape from pris

German airline Lufthansa has long been struggling to match its rivals' rock-bottom costs. Chief executive Carsten Spohr, now ten months on the job, is fighting on several fronts and trying to find new areas to expand the business.

Most West Bank shops no longer carry the products of six major Israeli food companies, as a boycott triggered by rising Israeli-Palestinian tensions is taking hold, a boycott leader said Sunday. Activists in the Fatah movement of Palestinian President Mah

Data manipulation has become a standard normal activity for Pakistani governments though, in all fairness, one cannot say that such a practice is limited to Pakistani political leadership - be it civilian or military. Other countries do engage in data man

The first set of estimates of FBR revenue collections during the period, July to February, 2014-15, published last Saturday in the Business Recorder, reveals the makings of a revenue crisis. The growth rate of FBR revenues in the first six months of 2014-

Forced by the apex court to come clean on the issue and give a clear timeframe for local government (LG) elections the Election Commission of Pakistan has announced election dates. The local government elections will be held early next year. Balochistan h

The revelation by the State Bank of Pakistan that the amount of Non-Performing Loans (NPLs) had declined, albeit marginally, during 2014 should be a source of some comfort to the monetary authority of the country as well as the banking community. Accordin

President Nicolas Maduro plans to limit the US diplomatic presence in Venezuela and require American tourists to obtain visas, in a sign of growing tensions between the two countries. The leftist president said the measures, announced Saturday, aimed to "

The BBC on Sunday strongly rejected findings by Rwandan investigators that it had broken the country's law on genocide denial with a documentary on the 1994 massacres screened last year in Britain. The British broadcaster said it was "extremely disappoint

The Malian government signed a peace agreement with some northern armed groups on Sunday in Algiers but the main Tuareg rebel alliance asked for more time to consult its grassroots. The deal, hammered out in eight months of tough negotiations in neighbour

US Secretary of State John Kerry pressed the case on Sunday for completing nuclear diplomacy with Iran despite Israeli opposition, saying the United States deserves the benefit of the doubt on getting a deal that would prevent any need for military action

The son of Chilean president Michelle Bachelet has resigned from the country's Socialist Party, as authorities pursue an influence peddling investigation against him. Sebastian Davalos, 36, in a resignation letter released Sunday by Socialist Party offici

A Nepalese court convicted a Canadian orphanage volunteer on Sunday of sexually abusing a 15-year-old disabled boy and sentenced him to seven years in prison, an official said. Ernest Fenwick MacIntosh, 71, arrived in the Himalayan nation on a tourist vis

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni replaced his finance, security and transport ministers in a reshuffle on Sunday, which analysts said was aimed at rewarding his allies ahead of an election due early next year.

Cancer doctor Tabare Vazquez was sworn in as Uruguay's new president Sunday, returning to office a decade after first leading the left to power. Vazquez took the oath of office in the National Assembly before a crowd that included Brazilian President Dilm

Tens of thousands of supporters rallied Sunday for Argentine President Cristina Kirchner, days after a judge dismissed allegations brought against her by a prosecutor who died mysteriously. Seeking to seize the spotlight from a mass rally last month in me

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi held talks in Riyadh on Sunday, coinciding with a visit to Saudi Arabia by his Turkish counterpart who Cairo accuses of backing the banned Muslim Brotherhood. Sisi and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose r

Estonians voted Sunday in an election marked by jitters over a militarily resurgent Russia and a popular pro-Kremlin party, with the security-focused centre-left coalition tipped for another term. Moscow's annexation of Crimea last year and its meddling i

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto will pay a state visit next week to Britain, receiving a lavish royal welcome that may provide some distraction from his domestic troubles. Pena Nieto will be welcomed Tuesday by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace

Over 2100 candidates appeared in the entry test conducted at Public School, Latifabad, for admission in Sindh Agriculture University (SAU), Tandojam for 2014-15. The candidates for admissions in Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Agricultural College Dokri and K

Unidentified miscreants blown up two gas pipelines in Dera Bugti and Pir Kho on Sunday. According to Levies sources, both pipelines of 8-inch-diameter were exploded with the gap of 10 minutes, disrupting the gas supply to the plant. Levies and Frontier Co

Speakers at a seminar held here on Sunday at Dr Ziauddin University focused on the gynaecology-related complications and their treatment. The seminar held under the chairmanship of the university's vice chancellor Prof (Dr) Pirzada Qasim was largely atten

Punjab Chief Minister Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif has expressed deep sense of sorrow and grief over the loss of precious human lives in a traffic accident near Chakwal. The Chief Minister sympathised with the bereaved families and also ordered administration

Two Afghan policemen were killed in a militant attack in Chaman area of Balochistan on Sunday. A senior administration official in Chaman, who declined to be named, told media persons that six militants on three motorcycles opened fire on the vehicle of A

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly passed the Select Committee proposed Bill for the establishment of Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority (TEVTA) with changes in its administrative structure. The Bill was taken into consideration by the provinc

Steering Committee of People Network on Food and Agriculture (PNFA) formed "Working Committee on sustainable agriculture policy for Sindh" during the meeting arranged by Society for Environmental Actions, Reconstruction and Humanitarian (SEARCH) at SEARCH

According to a report of BBC Urdu service on Sunday, Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, the prime suspect and alleged mastermind of the Mumbai attacks of 2008, was living a life of comfort while being held in detention in Adiala Jail, Rawalpindi. After a long drawn le

Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon said on Sunday that there was no chance of the governor rule in the Sindh province, adding that the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) is in talks with the Sindh government about a possible coalition partnership.

Chairperson Benazir Income Support Program (BISP), Marvi Memon has said that besides cash in hand scheme, other financial instruments like health and education would be added to existing programme to empower its women beneficiaries in the country. She sai

Corals in the Great Barrier Reef are eating small plastic debris in the ocean, Australian researchers said on February 24, raising fears about the impact the indigestible fragments have on their health and other marine life. The scientists found that when

A small molecule derived from an Asian herb may help stop Ebola infection by preventing the virus from entering the cells of the body, researchers said on February 26. So far the research using the calcium channel blocker Tetrandrine, found in some Chines

Why do humans and other mammals have eyelashes?

Young babies who are fed formula have far higher levels of arsenic in their bodies than breast-fed infants, according to research released on February 23. Arsenic in the urine of six-week-old babies who were fed formula was 7.5 times higher than babies wh

With peanut allergies on the rise world-wide, a study on February 23 found that contrary to previous advice, feeding foods containing peanuts to babies before 11 months of age may help prevent allergies. The findings in the New England Journal of Medicine

Astronomers said on February 25 they had detected an "impossibly large" and ancient black hole that challenges theories about how these phenomena grew in the early Universe. With a mass 12 billion times that of our Sun, the black hole formed about 900 mil

People who drink four to six cups of coffee daily may be less likely to get multiple sclerosis, according to international research out on February 26. "Caffeine intake has been associated with a reduced risk of Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases," said

The World Health Organisation has called on healthcare providers around the globe to switch to syringes that can only be used once in order to better battle deadly diseases spread by needle sharing. In new guidelines released on February 23 the UN health

Electrical engineers in Germany have developed a 3D-image-processing system that can monitor the daily activities of dementia patients in their homes and remind them of things such as the time to take their pills.

U2 faced such a backlash over its free album that the band apologised, but the Irish superstars claimed vindication Tuesday as research showed its music dominated iTunes listening. U2's "Songs of Innocence" was automatically sent to the world's half billi

Altair Semiconductor said on Wednesday it has developed a new technology that will allow small devices like security alarms and electricity meters to connect to fourth generation (4G) mobile networks more efficiently. A big limitation for devices that use

Smiley emoji, sad emoji, hearts emoji, and now, for the first time, racially diverse emoji. Apple is preparing to release non-white faces in its line-up of the cartoon faces used to liven up text and email messages, news reports said.

Facebook said Tuesday it has boosted the number of advertisers on the social network to two million as it launched a mobile app for those managing their commercial pitches. Dan Levy, Facebook's vice president for global marketing and small business, said

Most people in the developing world do not use the Internet, with access limited by high costs, poor availability and a lack of relevant content, a Facebook report said Tuesday. Facebook, which carried out the study through its Internet.org initiative tha

Open source internet browser Firefox is about to become a little less open: its parent foundation, Mozilla, has promised to require security signatures before any add-ons can be grafted onto the programme.

Google said Wednesday that Gmail is now available in Burmese, marking the 74th language for the popular email service.

Google said Wednesday it was launching a reorganisation of its European operations in the face of a tougher regulatory environment. The overhaul was first reported by the Financial Times, citing Matt Brittin, an executive who will head a new unit unifying

Microsoft has announced plans to make its OneNote notebook programme free and will give away the 2013 version of the application.

YouTube made it even easier for children to watch online videos Monday with the introduction of a kid-friendly app. The app, available for free in the US via Google Play and the Apple Store, includes kid-centric features like big controls for little finge

VLC's Videoplayer is once more available for iOS devices. People who had previously used the programme, which helps to view various video formats, can now download the new version, 2.4.1. However, it might be a while until the programme regularly appears

There's no secret to guaranteed success with online, but a British study has shown that there are some tactics that work better than others. They include: being honest; showing a sense of humour; and opting for group photos. The results by researchers fro

Activity trackers are quickly proving unnecessary for anyone who owns a smartphone, according to a study by the University of Pennsylvania. Fitness apps available for contemporary smartphones like the iPhone 5s and the Samsung Galaxy S4 can do things like

Abu Dhabi-listed Etisalat posted a 47 percent jump in fourth-quarter profit on February 26 as its purchase of a majority stake in Maroc Telecom and lower taxes and impairment charges boosted its bottom line, although it missed analysts' forecasts.

GlaxoSmithKline said on February 26 that its chairman-designate Philip Hampton would take charge of Britain's biggest drugmaker from May 7, an earlier transition than initially anticipated. Hampton, who chairs Royal Bank of Scotland, was named as the phar

Africa's top bullion producer AngloGold Ashanti said on February 23 it fell into a loss in the fourth quarter of 2014 because of costs associated with layoffs and restructuring at its key Ghana operation and accounting adjustments. AngloGold posted a four

German insurer Allianz raised its dividend by less than expected after earnings in its core property and casualty insurance businesses lagged and results in asset management stalled following client defections at its US unit Pimco. Europe's largest insure

The head of Dubai's Emirates has hit back at US airlines in an increasingly bitter subsidy spat and urged Washington to block their calls to renegotiate Open Skies agreements. In an interview with Reuters, Tim Clark, president of the world's largest inter

Hewlett-Packard Co reported flat or lower quarterly revenue in all its operating units on February 24, and forecast full-year earnings well below analysts' expectations due to the strong US dollar. Its shares tumbled 6.7 percent in after-hours trading.

Global miner BHP Billiton posted a 31 percent drop in half-year profit as prices for all its main products collapsed, but beat market forecasts and flagged further belt tightening to withstand the tough conditions. The company again cut its targets for ca

Global miner BHP Billiton posted a 31 percent drop in half-year profit as prices for all its main products collapsed, but beat market forecasts and flagged further belt tightening to withstand the tough conditions. The company again cut its targets for ca

Reigning French Open champ Rafael Nadal defeated Carlos Berlocq in straight sets to reach the final of the Argentina Open where he will try to secure a slice of clay-court history. The 28-year-old left-handed Spaniard rallied in the opening-set tie-breake

Pakistan skipper Misbah-ul-Haq told his batsmen to shape-up or ship out of the World Cup after the 1992 champions scraped a 20-run win over Zimbabwe on Sunday. It was Pakistan's first victory of this World Cup after losing by 76 runs to India and sufferin

Liverpool's Philippe Coutinho produced a moment of Brazilian magic to dent Manchester City's Premier League title aspirations in a 2-1 home win on Sunday as Arsenal moved up to third with a 2-0 victory against Everton. Coutinho found the corner with a stu

England's horror World Cup run continued when Sri Lanka smashed the third-highest run chase in the tournament's history to clinch a nine-wicket defeat in Wellington on Sunday. Centuries by Kumar Sangakkara and Lahiru Thirimanne ensured Sri Lanka overhaule

David Ferrer won a record-equalling fourth Mexican Open title with a 6-3 7-5 victory over Kei Nishikori in the Acapulco hardcourt final. The Spanish world number nine's triumph put him level with Austrian Thomas Muster with four Mexican titles having also

Abbas Ali Khan,a five handicapper and Shoaib Shams a nine handicapper emerged as winners in the 9th Infotech Golf Championship staged at the Royal Palm Golf Course. Both the golfers used their skills to become entitled to the top prizes in the gross and n

Incoming England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) chairman Colin Graves has given Kevin Pietersen a glimmer of hope that he may yet be able to resurrect his England career. Pietersen, 34, has not played for England since the ECB effectively called time on hi

Veteran official Jagmohan Dalmiya is set to be elected head of Indian cricket's governing body, replacing the sport's world supremo Narayanaswami Srinivasan following a corruption scandal, reports said Sunday. Dalmiya, a former head of the International C

Pakistan got their World Cup campaign back on track Sunday when the 1992 champions downed Zimbabwe by 20 runs to claim their first win of the tournament. Led by some patient batting from captain Mizbah-ul-Haq, who made 73, Pakistan recovered from losing t

Baghdad and Kurdish regional authorities are making progress to rescue a deal over crude oil exports, Iraq's oil minister said on Sunday, after it nearly unravelled due to Kurdish threats to halt shipments in protest over lack of payment.

Running short of dramatically new phone designs, leaders of the world's wireless industry agree their next big idea is 5G, shorthand for the fifth generation of networks they expect to have up and running by 2020. But first they'll have to decide what 5G

Libya's oil production is now at more than 400,000 barrels per day (bpd), an increase from recent levels when fighting between rival armed groups closed two key ports, an official from the National Oil Corporation said on Sunday.

Uganda's economic growth is set to accelerate to 5.3 percent in fiscal 2014/15, driven by infrastructure investment aimed at maximising benefits from an expected oil boom, outgoing finance minister Maria Kiwanuka said. She was speaking to Reuters before s

The main talking point at this week's Geneva car show is likely to be a vehicle that may never be built: the Apple car. The world's automakers will gather in the Swiss city to tout their latest minivans, city cars and sport utility vehicles against an unc

A strike by pilots at Norwegian Air, Europe's third-biggest budget airline, led to some cancellations of domestic flights on Sunday, but long-haul routes to the US and Asia were operating as normal, the airline said.

Austria's Financial Market Authority stepped in on Sunday to wind down "bad bank" Heta Asset Resolution and imposed a moratorium on debt repayments by the vehicle set up last year from the remnants of defunct lender Hypo Alpe Adria.

What a difference a year makes. Twelve months ago, tumultuous weather in the US Northeast caused record natural gas price spikes and forced some power plants to shut for lack of fuel as power producers scrambled to outbid each other for scarce supplies.

Canadian insurance company Sun Life Financial Inc said it was looking for acquisition opportunities in business areas such as wealth management that are less impacted low interest rates.

China's manufacturing activity contracted for the second straight month in February, the government said Sunday, a day after the central bank announced an interest rate cut to help stem a slump in the world's second-largest economy. The official Purchasin

Sri Lanka's new president has cancelled mining licences issued by the previous government to 16 foreign companies to search for blue sapphires and other gems, his office said Sunday. The office of Maithripala Sirisena said permits granted to the unidentif