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South Sudan's President Salva Kiir held an urgent meeting of top security brass on Friday after a shootout at the home of powerful former spy chief Akol Koor, who was sacked almost two months ago amid rumours of a coup plot. Gunfire erupted on Thursday evening in the capital Juba, sparking concerns about the stability of the world's youngest country that is already plagued by power struggles, ethnic infighting and a deep economic malaise. The shooting around the home of Koor, who was fired by Kiir in early October and placed under house arrest, caused panic among local residents before it was contained after about an hour. Following the meeting, South Sudan People's Defence Forces (SSPDF) spokesman Lul Ruai Koang said the incident took place after a "misunderstanding" between security forces attempting to relocate the ex-head of the National Security Services. Koang said Koor had now agreed to the relocation "with his dear wife, one bodyguard, and a cook" elsewhere in the city. He would be provided with additional army protection at his new residence, but Koang emphasised he was not under "their (army) detention." He said four people, two civilians and two soldiers, had been killed during the confrontation. The meeting convened by Kiir included the heads of defence, police, national security and military intelligence. A source in the presidency press unit said Koor was also present. The Sudans Post newspaper quoted a security official as saying the meeting had "resolved all outstanding tensions" and that the spy chief and his family "have been assured of their safety". In an alert to its staff on the ground on Thursday, the United Nations in South Sudan had said the shooting was linked to the arrest of the former spymaster and advised people to take cover. Koang told AFP that Koor "remains at his house", and denied claims circulating on social media that he had fled to the UN compound in Juba. There was a heavy deployment of military forces around his home in the Thongpiny district, an AFP correspondent said, but traffic has resumed and people were going about their daily business. Police spokesman John Kassara said the situation was now calm but that Thongpiny remained sealed off and residents "should remain vigilant". Koor became head of the feared National Security Services (NSS) after South Sudan's independence in 2011 but was sacked in October leading to widespread speculation he had been planning to overthrow Kiir. After his dismissal from the NSS, Koor was appointed governor of Warrap State, Kiir's home state, but this was abruptly revoked by the president before he took the oath of office. Koang said there had been a "misunderstanding" between two security services forces present at Koor's residence when a third unit arrived for the relocation. "That was the start of the armed confrontation that you heard," he said. Four people, two servicemen and two civilians, were killed in the incident, he said, and two civilians were wounded. Koor's sacking came just two weeks after Kiir again postponed by two years, to December 2026, the first elections in the nation's history. The delay has exasperated the international community, which has been pressing the country's leaders to complete a transitional process, including unifying rival armed forces and drawing up a constitution. The NSS was at the centre of controversy in July when parliament approved amendments to legislation allowing the agency to continue to arrest -- without a warrant -- anyone accused of offences against the state, raising alarm among rights groups and South Sudan's international partners. The country has struggled to recover from a brutal civil war between forces loyal to Kiir and his now deputy Riek Machar from 2013 to 2018 that killed about 400,000 people and drove millions from their homes. It remains one of the poorest and most corrupt countries on the planet and continues to be plagued by chronic instability and climate disasters. str-txw-rbu/givStocks slipped in afternoon trading Friday as Wall Street closes out a rare bumpy week. The S&P 500 dropped by less than 0.1% and is on track for a loss for the week after three straight weekly gains. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 25 points, or 0.1% to 43,884 as of 2:11 p.m. Eastern time. The Nasdaq rose less than 0.1% and is hovering around its record. Broadcom surged 22.1% for the biggest gain in the S&P 500 after the semiconductor company beat Wall Street’s profit targets and gave a glowing forecast, highlighting its artificial intelligence products. The company also raised its dividend. The company's big gain helped cushion the market's broader fall. Pricey stock values for technology companies like Broadcom give the sector more weight in pushing the market higher or lower. Artificial intelligence technology has been a focal point for the technology sector and the overall stock market over the last year. Tech companies, and Wall Street, expect demand for AI to continue driving growth for semiconductor and other technology companies. Even so, some big tech stocks were in the red Friday. Nvidia slid 2.4%, Meta Platforms dropped 2% and Netflix was down 1%. Furniture and housewares company RH, formerly known as Restoration Hardware, surged 13.8% after raising its forecast for revenue growth for the year. Wall Street's rally stalled this week amid mixed economic reports and ahead of the Federal Reserve's last meeting of the year. The central bank will meet next week and is widely expected to cut interest rates for a third time since September. Expectations of a series of rate cuts has driven the S&P 500 to 57 all-time highs so far this year . The Fed has been lowering its benchmark interest rate following an aggressive rate hiking policy that was meant to tame inflation. It raised rates from near-zero in early 2022 to a two-decade high by the middle of 2023. Inflation eased under pressure from higher interest rates, nearly to the central bank's 2% target. The economy, including consumer spending and employment, held strong despite the squeeze from inflation and high borrowing costs. A slowing job market, though, has helped push a long-awaited reversal of the Fed's policy. Inflation rates have been warming up slightly over the last few months. A report on consumer prices this week showed an increase to 2.7% in November from 2.6% in October. The Fed's preferred measure of inflation, the personal consumption expenditures index, will be released next week. Wall Street expects it to show a 2.5% rise in November, up from 2.3% in October. The economy, though, remains solid heading into 2025 as consumers continue spending and employment remains healthy, said Gregory Daco, chief economist at EY. “Still, the outlook is clouded by unusually high uncertainty surrounding regulatory, immigration, trade and tax policy,” he said. Treasury yields edged higher. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.39% from 4.34% late Thursday. European markets slipped. Britain's FTSE 100 fell 0.1%. Britain’s economy unexpectedly shrank by 0.1% month-on-month in October, following a 0.1% decline in September, according to data from the Office for National Statistics. Asian markets closed mostly lower.
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In academia, the true measure of academic rigour lies not in the quantity of words but in the depth of ideas and their clarity of expression. Yet, in Pakistan, thesis standards still prioritise the former. Research theses are often regarded as the ultimate benchmark of a student's academic journey, shaping how their contributions are evaluated. The norm in many Pakistani institutions is for PhD theses to be lengthy - spanning hundreds of pages with extensive references. This practice, widely perceived as a marker of dedication and thoroughness, can inadvertently shift the focus from quality and originality to sheer volume. However, global academic practices tell a different story. When I pursued my PhD in Sweden, my thesis was a concise document, just under 100 pages, including six of my published papers as appendices. This format, common across Europe, emphasises quality over quantity, prioritising clear synthesis of findings and robust arguments over exhaustive elaboration. The experience left me convinced that Pakistan's approach to thesis writing needs reimagining. In most of the developed countries, the expectation is that a thesis should synthesise core findings with clarity, offering concise arguments supported by robust evidence. In Pakistan, however, students often spend years producing hundreds of pages to meet institutional standards. These standards, which emphasise minimum page counts and exhaustive references, promote a "checklist" mentality. Students focus on meeting formal requirements rather than crafting impactful insights. This approach can dilute the originality and clarity of their research, creating documents that are long but lack coherence. The example of Nobel laureate John Nash's groundbreaking 26-page thesis, Non-Cooperative Games, illustrates the power of concise and impactful research. Despite its brevity and only two references, Nash's thesis introduced the Nash Equilibrium, a concept that revolutionised multiple fields, including economics and political science. This underscores that academic rigour is not measured by length but by the depth, precision and clarity of ideas. Similarly, the practice of integrating published papers into theses, common in Europe, demonstrates how a focus on quality and innovation can yield work that is both concise and impactful. These examples challenge the prevailing assumption in Pakistan that length equates to thoroughness, suggesting that clarity and originality should instead define academic rigour. Reimagining academic rigour in Pakistan requires a shift from quantity-driven metrics to quality-focused evaluation. Institutions must revise their guidelines to emphasise analytical depth, originality, and clarity over arbitrary page counts. Allowing students to incorporate published papers into their theses, as practiced in Europe, would encourage them to focus on producing high-quality, impactful research rather than meeting length requirements. Faculty mentors play a pivotal role in this transformation. By guiding students to prioritise precision and innovation, mentors can foster a research culture that values clear communication and critical thinking. Such a model would not only benefit students by enhancing their ability to present complex ideas succinctly but also ensure that theses are easier for reviewers to evaluate based on their merits. Adopting a quality-over-quantity model for research theses in Pakistan could bring the country's academic standards in line with global best practices. Shorter, well-focused theses would encourage critical thinking, originality and effective communication - qualities essential for impactful research. Moreover, students trained in this approach would be better equipped to contribute to international academia and professional fields, where clarity and precision are highly valued. By reimagining academic rigour, Pakistani institutions have the opportunity to cultivate a new generation of scholars whose work is defined by its depth, not its length. In doing so, they can foster an academic culture that prizes meaningful contributions over exhaustive verbosity, aligning with the true essence of scholarly pursuit. COMMENTS Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive. For more information, please see our
Eagles WR DeVonta Smith (hamstring) ruled out vs. Rams'We've just walked around it': Tourists unfazed by Seoul's impeachment protests Published: 14 Dec. 2024, 06:00 Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI Entrance to the Myeong-Dong shopping streets on a cold Thursday morning [HA YUN-JI] President Yoon Suk-Yeol’s martial law declaration threw Korea into a political crisis last week. Citizens, it was widely reported, fell into a nationwide panic, taking to the streets to protest, clearing daily necessities from convenience store shelves and flooding the country's social networks with a deluge of traffic that likely took their servers down. The won crashed, and the stock market has struggled to recover. On the streets of Seoul's most Instagram-able tourist districts, however, international visitors largely seem to be getting on with things. Related Article 'Travel advisory: Korea': Martial law scare threatens tourism with national warnings Railway workers' strike disrupts commutes as union fails to reach agreement Tourism minister aims to hit inbound traveler targets with foreigner friendly infrastructure boost Crowds were slightly below their usual levels in Seoul's famous Myeong-dong shopping center on a crisp Thursday winter morning. Dotted throughout the throng were several pairs of Walking Tourist Guides, dressed in bright red, who'd been sent to help overseas travelers find their way. A group of five Australian visitors in Myeong-dong, central Seoul, said that they were “stoked” to be in Korea, having experienced nothing so far that would prompt them to cut their trip short. “We haven’t experienced anything with regards to the martial law stuff,” one mid-20s tourist told the JoongAng Daily, seated in front of a large Christmas tree. Although the group had recently crossed paths with a protest in Busan, none of the five had viewed it as a concern. “It was fine,” the tourist said of the experience. Fewer visitors than usual enter and exit Lotte Young Plaza in Myeong-dong, central Seoul. [HA YUN-JI] Government officials, however, clearly don't feel the same way. Several countries have issued travel warnings: China told its citizens to “enhance security awareness and reduce unnecessary outings” while in Korea while the United States recommended avoiding large crowds. Domestically, stakeholders including businesses and tourism associations have expressed public fear that the political crisis could hurt future tourism, pushing officials to spring to damage control. In response, Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon announced several countermeasures, to promote “Safe Seoul,” at a meeting of tourism stakeholders on Wednesday. “We will do our best to ensure that tourists who experience Seoul return home with the conviction that Seoul is a safe, enjoyable city that they would want to visit again,” the mayor said. Oh’s office promised to provide targeted incentives to small businesses, such as employment subsidies for skilled workers and support to develop travel packages and events. Alongside deploying more Walking Tourist Guides, the city is pushing out more promotional material with the message that Seoul is a “consistently safe and tourist-friendly city.” A group of students explore their surroundings. [HA YUN-JI] On Thursday, the government extended the K-ETA temporary exemption, which grants free entry to visitors from 67 countries, by one year to the end of 2025. How the aftermath of Yoon's declaration will impact international tourism numbers — which had recovered to 97 percent of pre-Covid levels as of October of this year — remains to be seen. The key demographic of concern is Chinese tourists, who represented more than 29 percent of Korea’s international visitors between January and October of 2024. That number represented an increase of 158.9 percent from the January-October 2023 period and grew 57.2 percent in October alone. According to Bloomberg Intelligence, there could be a reduction in Chinese visitor levels of as much as 19 percent early next year, as public safety concerns have a greater resonance among them. Japanese visitor levels were the second most populous group, making up 19.2 percent of Korea's total. The group grew 42.9 percent year-over-year in 2024. Shoppers frequent Myeong-dong stores. [HA YUN-JI] But the Australian tourists on the streets of Myeong-dong, for their part, remain undeterred by the occasional protest they encounter. “We've just sort of walked around it,” a member of the group said. BY KAYA SELBY [ [email protected] ] var admarutag = admarutag || {} admarutag.cmd = admarutag.cmd || [] admarutag.cmd.push(function () { admarutag.pageview('3bf9fc17-6e70-4776-9d65-ca3bb0c17cb7'); });
NEW YORK, Dec. 13, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Attorney Advertising -- Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC, a nationally recognized law firm, notifies investors that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Sun Communities, Inc. ("Sun Communities" or "the Company") SUI and certain of its officers. Class Definition This lawsuit seeks to recover damages against Defendants for alleged violations of the federal securities laws on behalf of all persons and entities that purchased or otherwise acquired Sun Communities securities between February 28, 2019 and September 24, 2024, both dates inclusive (the "Class Period"). Such investors are encouraged to join this case by visiting the firm's site: bgandg.com/SUI. Case Details The Complaint alleges that Defendants made false and misleading statements and/or failed to disclose material information regarding SUI's accounting practices, internal controls, and financial disclosures. Specifically, the Complaint alleges that Defendants misled investors about the integrity of SUI's Board and the accuracy of its financial reporting. When this information was revealed to the market on September 24, 2024, SUI's stock price declined significantly, causing investors to suffer losses. What's Next? A class action lawsuit has already been filed. If you wish to review a copy of the Complaint, you can visit the firm's site: bgandg.com/SUI. or you may contact Peretz Bronstein, Esq. or his Client Relations Manager, Nathan Miller, of Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC at 332-239-2660 . If you suffered a loss in Sun Communities you have until February 10, 2025, to request that the Court appoint you as lead plaintiff. Your ability to share in any recovery doesn't require that you serve as lead plaintiff. There is No Cost to You We represent investors in class actions on a contingency fee basis. That means we will ask the court to reimburse us for out-of-pocket expenses and attorneys' fees, usually a percentage of the total recovery, only if we are successful. Why Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC is a nationally recognized firm that represents investors in securities fraud class actions and shareholder derivative suits. Our firm has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for investors nationwide. Follow us for updates on LinkedIn , X , Facebook , or Instagram . Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes. Contact Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC Peretz Bronstein or Nathan Miller 332-239-2660 | info@bgandg.com © 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.Inside the Gaetz ethics report, a trove of new details alleging payments for sex and drug use