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2 killed as international aid agency office attacked in Afghanistan (Second Lead)
Kabul, Jan 24 (IANS) At least two persons were killed and 12 injured in an attack on the headquarters of an international aid agency in Afghanistan’s Jalalabad city on Wednesday, a government official said.
The attack, still ongoing, began at 9 a.m. when the attackers detonated explosives before storming the offices of the Save the Children aid agency in the eastern Afghan city.
According to the BBC, the assault began with a suspected suicide car bomb blast at the entrance of the agency’s compound. Officials said about 50 staff were in the building at the time.
At least three gunmen are involved in the attack, reports said, with fighting continuing on the upper floor of the building.
Nangarhar provincial government spokesman Attaullah Khoghyani said one security force member and one civilian were killed, Tolo News reported.
Images showed a huge plume of thick black smoke rising from the compound and people fleeing from the area. The area was cordoned off by security forces. No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.
The aid agency tweeted that it was “devastated”. “Our primary concern is for the safety and security of our staff.”
Afghanistan’s CEO Abdullah Abdullah said “such attacks show insurgents do not care and just want to create terror among the people”.
All security forces across the country were ordered to “not show sympathy to insurgents and to eliminate them”, Abdullah said.
Swedish Ambassador to Afghanistan Tobias Thyberg also condemned the attack. “We pay tribute to those who saved innocent lives and express our deep sorrow for the dead, the wounded and their families. This mad violence will not break Afghanistan.”
There are several other aid agencies in the area along with government offices.
Save the Children carries out education, healthcare and protection work for children in Afghanistan.
Charity groups continue to work under tough conditions in Afghanistan, facing regular attacks and kidnappings.
In October last year, the International Committee of the Red Cross announced it would be “drastically” reducing “its presence and activities” in the country after several attacks and the killings of seven of its staff members.
–IANS
soni/bg
International online casino Casino Days has published a report sharing their internal data on what types and brands of devices are used to play on the platform by users from the South Asian region.
Such aggregate data analyses allow the operator to optimise their website for the brands and models of devices people are actually using.
The insights gained through the research also help Casino Days tailor their services based on the better understanding of their clients and their needs.
Desktops and Tablets Lose the Battle vs Mobile
The primary data samples analysed by Casino Days reveal that mobile connections dominate the market in South Asia and are responsible for a whopping 96.6% of gaming sessions, while computers and tablets have negligible shares of 2.9% and 0.5% respectively.
The authors of the study point out that historically, playing online casino was exclusively done on computers, and attribute thе major shift to mobile that has unfolded over time to the wide spread of cheaper smartphones and mobile data plans in South Asia.
“Some of the reasons behind this massive difference in device type are affordability, technical advantages, as well as cheaper and more obtainable internet plans for mobiles than those for computers,” the researchers comment.
Xiaomi and Vivo Outperform Samsung, Apple Way Down in Rankings
Chinese brands Xiaomi and Vivo were used by 21.9% and 20.79% of Casino Days players from South Asia respectively, and together with the positioned in third place with a 18.1% share South Korean brand Samsung dominate the market among real money gamers in the region.
Cupertino, California-based Apple is way down in seventh with a user share of just 2.29%, overshadowed by Chinese brands Realme (11.43%), OPPO (11.23%), and OnePlus (4.07%).
Huawei is at the very bottom of the chart with a tiny share just below the single percent mark, trailing behind mobile devices by Motorola, Google, and Infinix.
The data on actual phone usage provided by Casino Days, even though limited to the gaming parts of the population of South Asia, paints a different picture from global statistics on smartphone shipments by vendors.
Apple and Samsung have been sharing the worldwide lead for over a decade, while current regional leader Xiaomi secured their third position globally just a couple of years ago.
Striking Android Dominance among South Asian Real Money Gaming Communities
The shifted market share patterns of the world’s top smartphone brands in South Asia observed by the Casino Days research paper reveal a striking dominance of Android devices at the expense of iOS-powered phones.
On the global level, Android enjoys a comfortable lead with a sizable 68.79% share which grows to nearly 79% when we look at the whole continent of Asia. The data on South Asian real money gaming communities suggests that Android’s dominance grows even higher and is north of the 90% mark.
Among the major factors behind these figures, the authors of the study point to the relative affordability of and greater availability of Android devices in the region, especially when manufactured locally in countries like India and Vietnam.
“And, with influencers and tech reviews putting emphasis on Android devices, the choice of mobile phone brand and OS becomes easy; Android has a much wider range of products and caters to the Asian online casino market in ways that Apple can’t due to technical limitations,” the researchers add.
The far better integration achieved by Google Pay compared to its counterpart Apple Pay has also played a crucial role in shaping the existing smartphone market trends.
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