pakistan
Pakistan and Afghanistan agree to temporary Eid al-Fitr 'pause' in conflict
Pakistan and Afghanistan agree to temporary Eid al-Fitr'pause' in conflict Pakistan and Afghanistan have agreed to a temporary "pause" in hostilities during the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr this week, officials said, amid weeks of deadly violence between the neighbouring countries. Pakistani Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said on Wednesday that the pause - set to run from midnight on Thursday (19:00 GMT on Wednesday) until midnight on Tuesday (19:00 GMT on Monday) - had been requested by Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkiye. However, he warned that "in case of any cross-border attack, drone attack or any terrorist incident inside Pakistan, [operations] shall immediately resume with renewed intensity". Shortly after the announcement, a spokesperson for Afghanistan's Taliban government also said it would temporarily suspend military operations against Pakistan. The pause in fighting is set to begin just days after Afghanistan accused the Pakistani military of killing hundreds of people in an air strike on a drug rehabilitation centre in the country's capital, Kabul.
- Asia > Pakistan (1.00)
- North America > United States (0.52)
- South America (0.41)
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Do Taliban's drone attacks expose a chink in Pakistan's armour?
Do Taliban's drone attacks expose a chink in Pakistan's armour? On the evening of March 13, drones struck three locations across Pakistan. Two children were wounded in Quetta. Civilians were also injured in Kohat and in Rawalpindi, the garrison city that houses the headquarters of Pakistan's armed forces and neighbours the capital, Islamabad. Pakistan's military said the drones were intercepted before reaching their targets.
- North America > United States (1.00)
- South America (0.40)
- North America > Central America (0.40)
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- Asia > Afghanistan (0.14)
- Europe > Finland > Uusimaa > Helsinki (0.05)
- Asia > Middle East > Israel (0.05)
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- Leisure & Entertainment > Sports > Football (1.00)
- Law Enforcement & Public Safety > Terrorism (0.68)
- Government > Regional Government > North America Government > United States Government (0.68)
Between Myths and Metaphors: Rethinking LLMs for SRH in Conservative Contexts
Humayun, Ameemah, Zubair, Bushra, Mustafa, Maryam
Low-resource countries represent over 90% of maternal deaths, with Pakistan among the top four countries contributing nearly half in 2023. Since these deaths are mostly preventable, large language models (LLMs) can help address this crisis by automating health communication and risk assessment. However, sexual and reproductive health (SRH) communication in conservative contexts often relies on indirect language that obscures meaning, complicating LLM-based interventions. We conduct a two-stage study in Pakistan: (1) analyzing data from clinical observations, interviews, and focus groups with clinicians and patients, and (2) evaluating the interpretive capabilities of five popular LLMs on this data. Our analysis identifies two axes of communication (referential domain and expression approach) and shows LLMs struggle with semantic drift, myths, and polysemy in clinical interactions. We contribute: (1) empirical themes in SRH communication, (2) a categorization framework for indirect communication, (3) evaluation of LLM performance, and (4) design recommendations for culturally-situated SRH communication.
- Asia > Pakistan > Punjab > Lahore Division > Lahore (0.05)
- Asia > India (0.04)
- Africa > Kenya (0.04)
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- Research Report > New Finding (1.00)
- Questionnaire & Opinion Survey (0.88)
- Research Report > Experimental Study (0.67)
Unveiling Gamer Archetypes through Multi modal feature Correlations and Unsupervised Learning
Kanwal, Moona, Siddiqui, Muhammad Sami, Ali, Syed Anael
Profiling gamers provides critical insights for adaptive game design, behavioral understanding, and digital well-being. This study proposes an integrated, data-driven framework that combines psychological measures, behavioral analytics, and machine learning to reveal underlying gamer personas. A structured survey of 250 participants, including 113 active gamers, captured multidimensional behavioral, motivational, and social data. The analysis pipeline integrated feature engineering, association-network, knowledge-graph analysis, and unsupervised clustering to extract meaningful patterns. Correlation statistics uses Cramers V, Tschuprows T, Theils U, and Spearmans quantified feature associations, and network centrality guided feature selection. Dimensionality-reduction techniques such as PCA, SVD, t-SNE are coupled with clustering algorithms like K-Means, Agglomerative, Spectral, DBSCAN, evaluated using Silhouette, Calinski Harabasz, and Davies Bouldin indices. The PCA with K-Means with k = 4 model achieved optimal cluster quality with Silhouette = 0.4, identifying four archetypes as Immersive Social Story-Seekers, Disciplined Optimizers, Strategic Systems Navigators, and Competitive Team-Builders. This research contributes a reproducible pipeline that links correlation-driven network insights with unsupervised learning. The integration of behavioral correlation networks with clustering not only enhances classification accuracy but also offers a holistic lens to connect gameplay motivations with psychological and wellness outcomes.
- Asia > Pakistan > Sindh > Karachi Division > Karachi (0.05)
- North America > Canada (0.04)
- Europe > Ukraine (0.04)
- (2 more...)
- Research Report > New Finding (1.00)
- Research Report > Experimental Study (1.00)
- Asia > Pakistan (0.79)
- Asia > India (0.55)
- South America (0.08)
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- Information Technology > Game Theory (0.44)
- Information Technology > Artificial Intelligence > Games (0.40)
See Kathmandu's destroyed and barricaded streets after violence
See Kathmandu's destroyed and barricaded streets after violence There's a real sense of tension in Kathmandu, the BBC's Samira Hussain says, after protests against corruption spiralled into arson and violence. Nepal's army deployed patrols on the streets, as the Himalayan nation reeled from its worst unrest in decades. The prime minister quit and politicians' homes were vandalised, and government buildings and parliament were torched. The streets of Nepal's capital have a heavy military presence, with barricades erected outside parliament and the supreme court. The military parade was attended by world leaders including Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un and showcased China's new weapons.
- Asia > Nepal > Bagmati Province > Kathmandu District > Kathmandu (0.83)
- South America (0.15)
- North America > Central America (0.15)
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- Government > Military (0.70)
- Government > Regional Government > Asia Government (0.55)
- Government > Regional Government > Europe Government (0.50)
Watch: How the Nepal protests unfolded
From'nepo kids' to PM resignation: How the Nepal protests unfolded Nepal has been shaken by deadly protests that have led to the resignation of the country's Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli. The BBC's Charlotte Scarr is on the streets of Kathmandu, where she saw torched government buildings and military presence. The Himalayan nation has been experiencing its worst unrest in decades, after a campaign highlighting the lavish lifestyles of politicians' children and allegations of corruption took off on social media. Thirty people have been killed in the protests and more than 1,000 injured since the unrest began. The military parade was attended by world leaders including Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un and showcased China's new weapons.
- Asia > Nepal > Bagmati Province > Kathmandu District > Kathmandu (0.26)
- South America (0.15)
- North America > Central America (0.15)
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- Government > Military (0.70)
- Government > Regional Government > Asia Government (0.55)
- Government > Regional Government > Europe Government (0.50)
Massive Leak Shows How a Chinese Company Is Exporting the Great Firewall to the World
Geedge Networks, a company with ties to the founder of China's mass censorship infrastructure, is selling its censorship and surveillance systems to at least four other countries in Asia and Africa. A leak of more than 100,000 documents shows that a little-known Chinese company has been quietly selling censorship systems seemingly modeled on the Great Firewall to governments around the world. Geedge Networks, a company founded in 2018 that counts the "father" of China's massive censorship infrastructure as one of its investors, styles itself as a network-monitoring provider, offering business-grade cybersecurity tools to "gain comprehensive visibility and minimize security risks" for its customers, the documents show. In fact, researchers found that it has been operating a sophisticated system that allows users to monitor online information, block certain websites and VPN tools, and spy on specific individuals. Researchers who reviewed the leaked material found that the company is able to package advanced surveillance capabilities into what amounts to a commercialized version of the Great Firewall--a wholesale solution with both hardware that can be installed in any telecom data center and software operated by local government officers.
- Asia > China (0.60)
- North America > Canada (0.14)
- Asia > Russia (0.14)
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- Law > Civil Rights & Constitutional Law (1.00)
- Information Technology > Security & Privacy (1.00)
- Government > Regional Government > North America Government > United States Government (1.00)
- Government > Military (0.89)
Aid group delivers food, medicine to flooding victims in Pakistan
Al Jazeera's Kamal Hyder joined aid workers on a boat as they delivered food and important medical supplies to people who have lost everything as Pakistan's flood-ravaged Punjab province braces for even more heavy rain over the next two days. Nepal'Gen Z' protest death toll climbs, parliament stormed Israel wants to'destroy Gaza City, not occupy it'
- Asia > Middle East > Palestine > Gaza Strip > Gaza Governorate > Gaza (0.70)
- Asia > Pakistan (0.68)
- Asia > Nepal (0.27)
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