WORLD

Pakistan's prime minister on Monday ordered authorities to unblock Wikipedia, the government announced, just days after the online encyclopedia was restricted for "blasphemous content".

Blasphemy is a sensitive issue in Muslim-majority Pakistan, and social media giants Facebook and YouTube have previously been banned for publishing content deemed sacrilegious.

Minister of Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb tweeted a copy of the order that stated: "The Prime Minister is pleased to direct that the website (Wikipedia) may be restored with immediate effect."

The Wikimedia Foundation -- the non-profit fund managing Wikipedia -- told AFP on Monday that it "was made aware that the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) had been directed to restore access to Wikipedia" and hoped to see online traffic in Pakistan "resume soon."

According to Indian intelligence agencies, Pakistan has asked its embassies across the world to plan a conspiracy in the Kashmir Valley in a way that would tarnish the image of the Indian government. 

Intel agencies have said the Pakistan foreign ministry has sent a secret note to its embassies, detailing new conspiracies against India. 

For the 'Kashmir Solidarity Day' (observed by Pakistan on February 5), the Pakistan High Commission in Islamabad sent faxes and emails to all its embassies, detailing the plan to sabotage the Indian armed forces, Intel said.

US House of Representatives Republicans on Thursday ousted Democrat Ilhan Omar from a high-profile committee over remarks widely condemned as anti-semitic, two years after Democrats removed two Republicans from committee assignments.

The deeply divided House voted 218-211 along party lines to remove Omar from the Foreign Affairs Committee with Republicans citing the 2019 remarks for which she later apologised. One Republican voted "present."

Omar, who arrived in the United States as a refugee from Somalia, is the only African-born member of Congress and one of the only Muslim women in the House. She was in line to be the top Democrat on the foreign affairs panel's Africa subcommittee.

Viswanath began his career as an audiographer for Vauhini Studios in Madras. After a short stint as a sound engineer, he began his filmmaking career under filmmaker Adurthi Subba Rao and eventually went on to work as an assistant director on 1951 Telugu film Pathala Bhairavi.

Viswanath made his directorial debut with 1965 film Aatma Gowravam, which went on to win the state Nandi award.

It was with the widely popular and celebrated 1980 Telugu film Sankarabharanam that Viswanath became a national phenomenon, thanks to the film’s unbelievable success everywhere. The film spoke about the gap between Carnatic music and Western music based on the perspective of people from two different generations.

Asuspected Chinese surveillance balloon was spotted in US airspace but the Pentagon decided not to shoot it down as it could cause harm to people on the ground. The floating 'spy' balloon has caused further strain on US-China relations. 

A senior defence official told reporters the Pentagon is very confident that the Chinese balloon was flying over "sensitive sites" to collect information. The balloon was spotted in Montana, home to one of the nation's three nuclear missile launch facilities at Malmstrom Air Force Base, AP reported.