LAHORE: Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said a staff-level agreement for a crucial bailout deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was “very close” and expected in the next 24 hours. Pakistan is racing against time to unlock at least $1.1 billion under the lender’s ninth review of a $6.5-billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF) agreed in 2019. The programme expires on Friday. “We are very close to signing a staff-level agreement with the IMF,” minister Ishaq Dar told Reuters late on Thursday. “I think it should come some time tonight or maximum within 24 hours. We have finalised everything.” A source familiar with talks told Reuters that Pakistan and the global lender were also in discussions for the release of the full $2.5 billion pending under the IMF programme. The source said the staff-level agreement was to set to initially unlock around $1.1 billion and then be followed by a “standby agreement” which could release the rest after the programme finishes on Saturday. A repres...
Facebook suspends hundreds of apps over data concerns AFP On Aug 23, 2018 SAN FRANCISCO: Facebook on Wednesday said it has suspended more than 400 of thousands of applications it has investigated to determine whether people’s personal information was being improperly shared. Applications were suspended “due to concerns around the developers who built them or how the information people chose to share with the app may have been used,” vice president of product partnerships Ime Archibong said in a blog post. Apps put on hold at the social network were being scrutinized more closely, according to Archibong. The app unit launched in March by Facebook stemmed from the Cambridge Analytica data privacy scandal. Facebook admitted that up to 87 million users may have had their data hijacked by Cambridge Analytica, which was working for Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. Archibong said that a myPersonality app was banned by the social network for not agreeing to an audit and “...
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