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After a divorce, LHC decides that women who have been harmed by their spouses get their dower.

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A woman who gets a divorce because of her husband’s abuse, cruelty, or other marital wrongdoing is not automatically denied her right to dower (haq mehr), according to a ruling by the Lahore High Court.

In a landmark ruling on khula, divorce, and dower rights, the court decided that each case’s facts define who is entitled to dower and that not all khula cases need the return of dower.

A appeal submitted by Arsalan contesting the rulings of the Family Court and the District Judge in Toba Tek Singh was dismissed at the preliminary hearing stage by Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, who also gave the written verdict.

The petitioner claimed that the Federal Shariat Court had already ruled that sub-sections (5) and (6) of Section 10 of the Family Courts Act, 1964 were in conflict with Islamic injunctions and that the Supreme Court was still considering the case. He argued that the Family Court lacked the authority to give his ex-wife any share of the dower.

The ruling states that the pair was married on March 18, 2022, with an unpaid dower of Rs. 100,000.

Nisha Shahid, the wife, told the Family Court that after she insisted on receiving the dower, her husband started abusing her physically. She said that he was unemployed, frequently aggressive over trivial matters, addicted to drugs and larceny, demanded money from her parents, verbally abused her, threw her out of the house, neglected to pay maintenance, and never made an effort to make amends.

The District Judge rejected the husband’s appeal as unmaintainable, but the Family Court partially accepted her claim and granted her 50% of the postponed dower.

The High Court made a distinction between khula and judicial dissolution of marriage, noting that the question of returning the dower may come up if a woman seeks khula only because she no longer wants to be married. However, the wife retains her right to dower and the husband cannot demand its return if the marriage terminates due to the husband’s cruelty, violence, maltreatment, failure to give maintenance, or other legally recognized circumstances.

The court further ruled that psychological, emotional, verbal, and financial abuse are all considered forms of abuse in addition to physical violence. It further stated that a wife’s credible testimony and the circumstances surrounding the incident may be sufficient evidence, and that she is not have to provide a medical report or FIR for each incidence.

The ruling emphasized that merely classifying the divorce as khula does not automatically terminate the wife’s dower rights and instructed Family Courts to first ascertain the true cause of the marriage’s dissolution before resolving the dower issue.

In order to ensure that women are not denied dower in cases where the husband’s misconduct is proven, the Lahore High Court also suggested that the Punjab government and the Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan amend the law to require Family Courts to clearly determine responsibility for the breakdown of a marriage before deciding dower claims.

The Punjab Law Secretary and the Pakistani Law and Justice Commission were instructed by the court to receive copies of the ruling.

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Nvidia invests $5 billion in Safe Superintelligence in strategic collaboration

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Nvidia will make a $5 billion equity investment in AI startup Safe Superintelligence (SSI) as part of a strategic relationship with the business co-founded by former OpenAI head scientist Ilya Sutskever, a person familiar with the agreement said.

The two corporations announced the agreement on Monday, but did not disclose financial specifics. But Reuters said the investment by Nvidia will be $5 billion in total.

The cash will allow SSI to considerably increase its processing resources as it develops advanced artificial intelligence systems, the businesses said.

The deal also grants Safe Superintelligence access to Nvidia’s upcoming Vera Rubin AI hardware, providing the startup with more computational power for future research and development.

Sources familiar with the situation told Reuters the strategic collaboration was negotiated and finalized in a matter of weeks, reflecting the continuous investment by Nvidia in premier AI firms as competition grows in the artificial intelligence market.

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Final day of US championships: Jefferson-Wooden perfect for 200m title

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Melissa Jefferson-Wooden won the 200 metres title in a clean sprint on the final day of the U.S. national championships on Sunday, with world champion Noah Lyles falling short in the men’s event.

Jefferson-Wooden, who completed the sprint double in Tokyo last year, was close to the top of her form as she blitzed through the first half of the race and crossed the line in 21.69 seconds, one hundredth of a second off her personal best.

Camryn Dickson was third in 22.58 and Cambrea Sturgis a distant second in 22.22.I went up to the line and just told myself, ‘Just let each part of the race come to you. Don’t be too hard on yourself. Just go out there and let it fly when the rifle goes off,” Jefferson-Wooden said. “And that is what I did.”

Lyles scared the crowd when he pulled up with a leg cramp down the final straight, gasps going through the stands of Icahn Stadium. The winner of the 100m earlier in the championships later indicated he was okay, given the burden he put on himself.

Garrett Kaalund won in 20.04 seconds with Brandon Hicklin second in 20.29 and Maximilian Thomas two thousandths of a second slower for third.

MISSING ATHLETES HAVE ‘OFF YEAR’

There was no customary intrigue to the tournament in a “off year” with no Olympics or worlds, the first time since 2018 that the U.S. nationals were not a selection meet for the two global competitions.

The New York crowd took some time to warm up to the event — which was staged in the five boroughs for the first time in more than three decades — and low early attendance gave way to a packed house for Sunday’s finale.

Some of the sport’s biggest names were absent including current women’s and men’s 400m hurdles Olympic champions Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, who gave birth earlier this month, and Rai Benjamin.

Olympic silver medalist Anna Cockrell ran to the top of the podium in 52.94 with confidence, while Christopher Robinson had his best performance of the season to win the men’s race in 47.61.

Nia Akins (1:59.25) just edged off Addy Wiley (1:59.40) down the final straight to win the women’s 800m. It was the second sorrow in two days for Wiley, who lost the ⁠1,500m by four hundredths of a second to Nikki Hiltz on Saturday.

Cooper Lutkenhaus, 17, had another clinic on the boys’ side, winning in 1:43.48, more than a second ahead of Wes Ferguson (1:44.55).

Cordell Tinch held off Bradley Franklin to win the final track event of the day in 13.00, by barely four-thousandths of a second. Ja’Kobe Tharp, who recently set the world mark, did not compete.

Olympic champion Valarie Sion threw 69.54 meters on her fourth try to win her eighth straight U.S. women’s discus national title, while Jordan Geist won the men’s shot put with a throw of 22.32 meters on his last attempt.

The women’s long jump had a last touch of drama with Olympic champion ​Tara Davis-Woodhall initially named the winner with her final try before being placed third. The jump was deemed a foul after a protest and Alyssa Jones was given the victory with 6.96, while Monae’ Nichols (6.92) placed second.

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NTSB chair calls on Congress to pass aviation safety bill

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Jennifer Homendy, chair of the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), has called on Congress to resolve a months-long legislative gridlock and adopt key modifications to aviation safety geared to prevent future midair collisions.

Homendy said the NTSB already has given lawmakers “a clear roadmap” to improve aviation safety and help prevent another catastrophic airborne disaster. Now, she said, it’s time for Congress to act on measures it promised months ago.

The request comes after an American Airlines regional flight crashed into a US Army helicopter outside Washington, DC in January 2025, killing 67 people in the biggest US aviation tragedy since 2001.

The US House of Representatives voted 396-10 in April to pass a sweeping plan to enhance aviation safety. The law contains dozens of recommendations that came out of the tragedy. A related legislation, the so-called ROTOR Act, cleared the Senate unanimously in December but failed to get the two-thirds support needed in the House under fast-track rules.

The NTSB said the 2025 crash in the congested airspace above the US capital may have been avoided if Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) technology was in operation.

Earlier this year, the NTSB said the tragedy was caused by systematic flaws at the Federal Aviation Administration.

The House bill would require all U.S. military aircraft excluding fighter planes, bombers and drones to have collision-prevention technology by 2031. It also sets standards for collision avoidance systems on civilian airplanes and helicopters.

House and Senate members are still talking about ways to address disagreements between the dueling proposals.

Earlier this month, FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford told Reuters that the agency gave technical help to Congress during the legislative process. The FAA can proceed with greater use of ADS-B technology without clearance from Congress, he said, but would like clear direction from lawmakers.

The NTSB found that the 2025 accident was caused by the FAA’s decision to allow helicopters to operate near the airport without proper separation from commercial aircraft and its failure to review safety data and implement past recommendations to divert helicopter traffic from the airport.

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