Mari Petroleum becomes largest company on PSX by market capitalisation KARACHI: Mari Petroleum has emerged as the largest company on the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) by market capitalisation, surpassing Oil & Gas Development Company (OGDC) for the first time. According to analyst Mohammad Sohail at Topline Securities, Mari Petroleum’s market value reached Rs984 billion ($3.5 billion), exceeding OGDC’s valuation of Rs963 billion ($3.4 billion). This milestone marks a significant leap for Mari Petroleum, which ranked seventh in market capitalisation during the same period last year, while OGDC held the top spot. Sohail attributed Mari’s rapid ascent to heightened expectations of hydrocarbon discoveries and a major bonus share announcement earlier this year. The company’s annual report for FY24 highlights a 7.0 per cent year-on-year (YoY) increase in hydrocarbon sales, reaching 39.01 million barrels of oil equivalent (MMBOE). This growth is credited to the successful operations and capacity enhancement of the Sachal Gas Processing Complex (SGPC), accelerated production from the newly discovered Ghazij reservoir, and improved management of HRL, SML-SUL reservoirs and satellite fields. Mari Petroleum’s gas market share as an operator rose from 24 per cent in FY23 to 29 per cent in FY24, while its oil market share grew from 2.1 per cent to 2.5 per cent. The company also reported robust financial results for FY24, posting a profit-after-tax (PAT) of Rs77.28 billion, up nearly 38 per cent YoY from Rs56.13 billion in the previous year. In October, the company’s management revealed that the government had approved the renewal of Mari’s Development and Production (D&P) Lease until November 10, 2029. As part of this renewal, Mari Petroleum will contribute an additional 15 per cent of the wellhead value of gas produced to the federal government. Mari Petroleum also launched a subsidiary, Mari Technologies Limited, on September 25, 2024. The new entity will focus on data centres, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and other petroleum and mining-related technologies. Addressing gas production curtailment, the government is working to manage the number of cargoes and gas volumes required by Sui companies to resolve intake issues. Regarding bonus shares, the management noted that many shareholders have made the required bonus tax payments. For those unable to pay, the bonus shares will be sold at market price, with any shortfall compensated by adjusting an additional 10 per cent of the shareholders’ shares held by the company, according to a report by Arif Habib Limited.NEW YORK — There's a Christmas Day basketball game at Walt Disney World, featuring Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Wemby. An animated game, anyway. The real game takes place at Madison Square Garden, where Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs face the New York Knicks in a game televised on ABC and ESPN and streamed on Disney+ and ESPN+. The special alt-cast, the first animated presentation of an NBA game, will be shown on ESPN2 and also stream on Disney+ and ESPN+. Madison Square Garden is a staple of the NBA's Christmas schedule. Now it merges with a bigger home of the holidays, because the "Dunk the Halls" game will be staged at Disney, on a court set up right smack in the middle of where countless families have posed for vacation photos. Why that location? Because it was Mickey Mouse's Christmas wish. "Basketball courts often have the ability to make a normal environment look special, but in Disney it can only turn out incredible," Wembanyama said in an ESPN video promoting his Christmas debut. The story — this is Disney, after all — begins with Mickey penning a letter to Santa Claus, asking if he and his pals can host a basketball game. They'll not only get to watch one with NBA players, but some of them will even get to play. Goofy and Donald Duck will sub in for a couple Knicks players, while Mickey and Minnie Mouse will come on to play for the Spurs. "It looks to me like Goofy and Jalen Brunson have a really good pick-and-roll at the elite level," said Phil Orlins, an ESPN vice president of production. Walt Disney World hosted real NBA games in 2020, when the league set up there to complete its season that had been suspended by the COVID-19 pandemic. Those games were played at the ESPN Wide World of Sports. The setting for the Christmas game will be Main Street USA, at the entrance of the Magic Kingdom. Viewers will recognize Cinderella's castle behind one baseline and the train station at the other end, and perhaps some shops they have visited in between. Previous alternate animated broadcasts included an NFL game taking place in Andy's room from "Toy Story;" the "NHL Big City Greens Classic" during a game between the Washington Capitals and New York Rangers; and earlier this month, another NFL matchup between the Cincinnati Bengals and Dallas Cowboys also taking place at Springfield's Atoms Stadium as part of "The Simpsons Funday Football." Unlike basketball, the players are helmeted in those sports. So, this telecast required an extra level of detail and cooperation with players and teams to create accurate appearances of their faces and hairstyles. "So, this is a level of detail that we've never gone, that we've never done on any other broadcast," said David Sparrgrove, the senior director of creative animation for ESPN. Wembanyama, the 7-foot-3 phenom from France who was last season's NBA Rookie of the Year, looks huge even among most NBA players. The creators of the alternate telecast had to design how he'd look not only among his teammates and rivals, but among mice, ducks and chipmunks. "Like, Victor Wembanyama, seeing him in person is insane. It's like seeing an alien descend on a basketball court, and I think we kind of captured that in his animated character," said Drew Carter, who will again handle play-by-play duties, as he had in the previous animated telecasts, and will get an assist from sideline reporter Daisy Duck. Wembanyama's presence is one reason the Spurs-Knicks matchup, the leadoff to the NBA's five-game Christmas slate, was the obvious choice to do the animated telecast. The noon EST start means it will begin in the early evening in France and should draw well there. Also, it comes after ABC televises the "Disney Parks Magical Christmas Day Parade" for the previous two hours, providing more time to hype the broadcast. Recognizing that some viewers who then switch over to the animated game may be Disney experts but NBA novices, there will be 10 educational explainers to help with basketball lingo and rules. Beyond Sports' visualization technology and Sony's Hawk-Eye tracking allow the animated players to make the same movements and plays made moments earlier by the real ones at MSG. Carter and analyst Monica McNutt will be animated in the style of the telecast, donning VR headsets to experience the game from Main Street, USA. Other animated faces recognizable to some viewers include NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, who will judge a halftime dunk contest among Mickey and his friends, and Santa himself, who will operate ESPN's "SkyCam" during the game. The players are curious how the production — and themselves — will look. "It's going to be so crazy to see the game animated," Spurs veteran Chris Paul said. "I think what's dope about it is it will give kids another opportunity to watch a game and to see us, basically, as characters." Get local news delivered to your inbox!
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UVALDE, Texas — A Texas judge on Thursday refused to throw out criminal charges accusing the former Uvalde schools police chief of putting children at risk during a slow response to the 2022 Robb Elementary School shooting. Pete Arredondo said he was improperly charged and that the shooter was responsible for putting the victims in danger in the school attack on May 24, 2022. Nineteen children and two teachers were killed. Arredondo also said he was scapegoated for the halting police response. Nearly 400 law enforcement agents rushed to the scene in rural South Texas but waited more than 70 minutes to confront and kill the gunman in a fourth-grade classroom. Judge Sid Harle handed down the ruling during a hearing in a Uvalde courtroom, and set a trial date for Oct. 20, 2025. Several victim family members attended the hearing but left without comment. Arredondo has pleaded not guilty to 10 counts of abandoning or endangering a child, each of which carried a punishment of up to two years in jail. He and former Uvalde schools officer Adrian Gonzales are the only officers who have been charged for their actions that day. Gonzales has not asked the judge to dismiss his charges but could at a later date. Gonzales and Arredondo attended the hearing in person. Nico LaHood, an attorney for Gonzales, said he will ask for the trial to be moved out of Uvalde County because he believes his client cannot receive a fair trial there. “Everybody knows everybody,” in Uvalde, LaHood said. The indictment against Arredondo alleges he did not follow his active shooter training and made critical decisions that slowed the police response while the gunman was “hunting” his victims. It alleges that instead of confronting the gunman immediately, Arredondo caused delays by telling officers to evacuate a hallway to wait for a SWAT team, evacuating students from other areas of the building first, and trying to negotiate with the shooter while victims inside the classroom were wounded and dying. Arredondo’s attorneys say the danger that day was not caused by him, but by the shooter. They argued Arredondo was blamed for trying to save the lives of the other children in the building, and have warned that prosecuting him would open many future law enforcement actions to similar charges. “Arredondo did nothing to put those children in the path of a gunman,” said Arredondo attorney Matthew Hefti. The massacre at Robb Elementary was one of the worst school shootings in U.S. history, and the law enforcement response has been widely condemned as a massive failure. Nearly 150 U.S. Border Patrol agents, 91 state police officers, as well and school and city police rushed to the campus. While terrified students and teachers called 911 from inside classrooms, dozens of officers stood in the hallway trying to figure out what to do. More than an hour later, a team of officers breached the classroom and killed the gunman. Within days of the shooting, the focus of the slow response turned on Arredondo, who was described by other responding agencies as the incident commander in charge. Multiple federal and state investigations have laid bare cascading problems in law enforcement training, communication, leadership and technology, and questioned whether officers prioritized their own lives over those of children and teachers. Several victims or their families have filed multiple state and federal lawsuits. ___ Associated Press reporter Jim Vertuno in Austin, Texas, contributed.
Counting will commence at 8 am on Saturday in Digras, where Shiv Sena and Congress are the dominant political parties, along with 287 Assembly seats in Maharashtra. The seat witnessed 75.71% turnout on November 20. Local issues such as infrastructure development, water scarcity and agricultural challenges shaped the voter sentiment, making the outcome in Digras important not just for the assembly seat, but as a potential indicator of broader electoral trends in the state as well. The contest in Digras, a general category constituency, had garnered huge attention, with two prominent leaders — Sanjay Rathod from the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and senior Congress leader Manikrao Govindrao Thakre — vying for control. Sanjay Rathod, a prominent Shiv Sena leader and the current MLA for Digras, sought re-election for a third consecutive term. He has built a strong reputation due to his grassroots connections and influence in the Yavatmal district. Rathod, representing the Shiv Sena faction led by Eknath Shinde, was focusing his campaign on continuing development projects and addressing agricultural issues — a top concern in this largely rural constituency. On the other hand, Manikrao Govindrao Thakre, a senior Congress leader, was also contesting the seat, adding competition to the race. Thakre, who previously served as an MLA from the nearby Darwha constituency, was a member of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly from 1985 to 2004.Retrotechtacular: 1980s Restoration of San Francisco’s Cable Car System