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- Security forces found Zeenat Shahzadi, the female journalist who went missing in Lahore in August 2015 while tracing an Indian prisoner accused of espionage.
- Pointing out that non-state actors and enemy agencies had kidnapped Zeenat and that she was recovered from them, Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal, head of Pakistan's missing persons commission, said on 20 oct, "Tribal elders in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa played an important role in her recovery on 18 oct night from near the Pak-Af border."
- Zeenat's family and human rights organisations had earlier said they believed she was kidnapped by Pakistan's secret agencies.
- Zeenat, 25, is a freelance reporter who had raised her voice for missing persons in Pakistan. Through social media she managed to get in touch with Fauzia Ansari, the mother of Hamid Ansari, an Indian national who had gone missing in Pakistan.
- She had filed an application with the Pakistan Supreme Court's human rights cell on behalf of Fauzia Ansari and played an important role in encouraging the government Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances to investigate his case.
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- In what could boost National Investigation Agency's probe into cases of Islamic State operatives of Indian origin, Karen Aisha Hamidon named in radicalization of Indian recruits has been arrested in the Philippines.
- The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) of the Philippines arrested the prominent female online recruiter who has been acting on behalf of the IS on several social media platforms.
- Hamidon, widow of Philippines-based terrorist leader Mohammad Jafaar Maquid, gained international notoriety in 2016 when Indian agencies found that she used Facebook, Telegram channels and WhatsApp groups to recruit 'foreign fighters' from India and other countries.
- Since then, she is wanted by intelligence agencies of over a dozen countries.
- NIA had sent a letter rogatory (a judicial request) last year to Philippines seeking details and evidence on Karen. In its request, NIA had provided her address in Diego Shilang village in Taguig City, Metro Manila, along with her phone numbers and her identity as Karen Aisha Al-Muslimah with her ID as @KarenAishaHamidon.
- Now, sources say, NIA will approach Philippines once again seeking access to her, so that she can be questioned about her links with ISIS operatives from India, who are yet to be traced. NIA may request to question her, either by video conferencing or by allowing a team to travel to Manila, added the source.
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- Two NASA astronauts have successfully completed a spacewalk to install a new camera system outside the International Space Station (ISS), replacing a blown fuse and installing a new high definition camera on the starboard truss of the station.
- During the spacewalk, which lasted six hours and 49 minutes, the duo of Randy Bresnik, Expedition 53 Commander and Joe Acaba, Flight Engineer at NASA worked quickly and were able to complete several "get ahead" tasks, Melanie Whiting from NASA wrote in a blogpost.
- Acaba greased the new end effector on the robotic arm. Bresnik installed a new radiator grapple bar and completed prep work for one of two spare pump modules on separate stowage platforms to enable easier access for potential robotic replacement tasks in the future.
- "He nearly finished prep work on the second, but that work will be completed by future spacewalkers," Whiting said.
- This was the fifth spacewalk of Bresnik's career 32 hours total spacewalking and the third for Acaba - 19 hours and 46 minutes total spacewalking.
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- Germany's Julia Goerges clinched a career third WTA title with a straight-set romp over Daria Kasatkina of Russia in the final of the Kremlin Cup on 21oct.
- The seventh-seeded German prevailed 6-1, 6-2 in one hour six minutes to chalk up her third victory over the 20-year-old Kasatkina in their fifth head-to-head meeting.
- "I just feel amazing," Goerges said on court after the match. "I've been working hard for this moment. I'm so happy and so emotional right now."But at the same time it means a lot for me that I can share this moment with Dasha (Kasatkina).
- "It was my second year here and I must say that I had a great time here last year regardless of my result. And I will come here next year to defend my title."
- The 28-year-old, who was contesting her fourth WTA final of the season, looked in complete command breaking her rival's serve twice from the start to take the opening set in 24 minutes
- In the second Goerges underlined her domination at the hard court of Moscow's Olympic indoor arena producing two more breaks to claim her first title of the year.
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- The stringent regulations drawn up by the central bank last week to oversee digital payment companies have prompted the industry to join forces and seek changes in a few of the stipulations, according to senior industry executives.
- The Payments Council of India, an industry grouping, has already written to the central bank seeking a hearing on issues they deem as "critical" to the nascent payments industry. "Some of the new norms could severely cripple the industry and make the wallet business unviable," said one person cited above.
- "We have already reached out to the Reserve Bank of India. We are expecting to meet senior officials in the central bank and raise our concerns regarding the stringent provisions in the prepaid instrument (PPI) licence guidelines," he said.
- Among the major points of concern, according to industry members, are the demand for a mandatory full KYC or know your-customer certification, phased introduction of interoperability and restriction of peer-to-peer fund transfer in semi-KYC wallets.
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