Ruthless India demolish Australia Posted by naila , Wednesday, October 13, 2010 at 2:54 PM, in Labels: Sports »

Sachin Tendulkar hit his 49th test century to help India reach 224 for two at lunch on the third day of the second and final test against Australia on Monday.

Resuming on 128 for two, Tendulkar hit a six off Nathan Hauritz to reach the century mark and was unbeaten on 106.

The other overnight batsman, Murali Vijay, was 73 not out having added 186 runs for the third wicket.

Tendulkar, who became the first man to score 14,000 test runs on Sunday, was in sublime form with boundaries flowing from his blade. he hit two fours off the day's first over from Hauritz.

PCB cautions Afridi for criticising selection Posted by naila , at 2:53 PM, in Labels: Sports »

Pakistan cricket authorities handed limited overs captain Shahid Afridi a warning over his criticism of team selection after he showed displeasure at not being consulted.

A Pakistan Cricket Board spokesman confirmed Afridi had been officially warned over his comments.

"It is not a show-cause notice but a written warning, asking Afridi to avoid giving statements on selection issues," the spokesman said.

Under the PCB code of conduct, players are forbidden to speak on selection matters and are not allowed to criticise the board's policies.

Afridi has been named Pakistan captain for two Twenty20 and five one-day matches against South Africa starting in United Arab Emirates later this month,

"I make it a point to give the selectors my input because I'm the one who has to get the desired results from my team on the field," Afridi said in a television interview.

"I will meet Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Ijaz Butt to discuss this;

Pakistan, donors in row over utilisation of loans Posted by naila , at 2:49 PM, in Labels: Pakistan

  International lenders estimate this summer's floods in Pakistan caused damage totalling $9.6 billion Cdn to the country's infrastructure, agriculture and other sectors, a government official in Islamabad said Wednesday.

The estimate, drafted by the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank in consultation with Pakistani leaders, underscores the financial challenges facing Pakistan, a U.S.-allied nation that is battling an Islamist insurgency and was relying on international loans before the deluge.

Although other countries, including the U.S., have contributed millions to the flood relief effort, they have warned Pakistan they cannot foot the entire recovery and reconstruction bill, which some have estimated could surpass $40.44 billion Cdn.

U.S. officials, in particular, have urged Pakistan to improve its anemic tax collection to aid its long-term rebuilding.

The figure of $9.6 billion refers only to existing values of roads, buildings, irrigation systems and other devastated sectors that were evaluated nationwide, not to what it will cost to replace them, said the government official familiar with the report.

Replacement costs will depend on which projects the government chooses to pursue and whether it wants to rebuild certain structures in the same fashion or better, he said. The official requested anonymity because the draft findings have yet to be officially released.

The floods began in late July during unusually heavy monsoon rains, eventually covering one-fifth of the country and affecting some 20 million of Pakistan's 175 million people. Nearly 2,000 people died, and millions were left homeless, according to the United Nations.

Dozens of bridges were washed away, while more than 1.9 million homes were damaged or destroyed. Damage extended to about 2.4 million hectares of farmland, a severe blow to agriculture, the most important pillar of Pakistan's economy.

Even as most people displaced in the northwest have returned to their homes — or what's left of them — parts of southern Sindh province are still under water.

Aid groups have struggled all along to raise money to help Pakistan. With the disaster unfolding relatively slowly, and the number killed low compared with other major disasters such as the Haiti earthquake, experts said many countries and donors did not immediately realize the magnitude of the disaster. There also are concerns that corruption and inefficiency in Pakistan's government may lead to squandered aid.

The UN has appealed for a little more than $2 billion US to help Pakistan's emergency relief and early recovery but has received only about a third of that.

PM Gilani also starts seeing political actors, jokers Posted by naila , at 2:47 PM, in Labels: Pakistan

Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said Tuesday that renewed Afghan efforts to make peace with the Taliban and end the nine-year war would fail without Pakistan’s help.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai said this week he had renewed overtures to the insurgents, confirming in a US television interview that his government had been holding talks with the Taliban “for quite some time”.
But Gilani told reporters after a ceremony held to disburse Watan Cards to the flood affectees in Charsadda that Pakistan had an essential role to play if there was to be any prospect of peace.
“Nothing will happen without us, because we are a part of the solution, we are not a part of the problem,” Gilani said. Gilani refused to be drawn on whether Pakistan backed the plan.
Asked whether Pakistan had been consulted on contacts between Karzai’s government and the Taliban, Gilani said: “When Mr Karzai will share his roadmap with America, and Americans, and he share this with us, then we can comment.”
Prime Minister made it clear that he would not be appearing before the Supreme Court, adding that the appointment of NAB chief was an administrative and not a constitutional issue. He elaborated that the appointment of NAB chairman was made as transfers and appointments were made of chief ministers in the provinces.
Ruling out both mid-term and local bodies elections, Gilani said he had also been hearing for the last two years that the government was wrapping up but no such thing happened. 
“We are running the government under immense pressure. Had it been anyone else, they would not have been able to run the country more than six months,” Gilani said. 

Floods will not distract country from war on terror: Gilani Posted by naila , Monday, October 11, 2010 at 2:33 PM, in Labels: TOP STORIES

The prime minister said the nation is determined to overcome the affects of floods in the shortest possible time. -File Photo ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani emphatically stated that the flood tragedy would not distract Pakistan from ...link

PML-N issues 14 points charge sheet against Musharraf Posted by naila , at 2:30 PM, in Labels: TOP STORIES

The PML-N has prepared a 14-point charge sheet against former President Gen (r) Pervez Musharraf. The charge sheet also made seven demands from the government asking it to take action against the former president...link

Bigg Boss: Tears, tears and more tears! Posted by naila , Thursday, October 7, 2010 at 4:25 PM, in Labels: Entertainment

October 7, 2010: The great ‘tamasha’ of Bigg Boss 4 has just started and Pakistaniactress Veena Malik, too, voiced out her side of the story to add more spice to it. In Tuesday’s episode, she was seen clearly alleging her ex boyfriend Pakistani cricketer Mohammad Asif for the match fixing scandal.

Veena revealed about her bitter relation with Asif to some of the housemates like Shweta Tiwari, Hrishant Bhatt and Begum Nawazish Ali. She blamed him on Nationalchannel for physically torturing her, abusing her and lending a huge amount of money from her.

She told that Asif insulted her in front of his friends. He has allegedly kicked her, slapped her and locked her in a room for a week. Veena said that she tried to run away from him but he got hold of her and beat her again. This disclosure with her Bigg Boss house inmates has definitely increased the TRPs of the reality show but Asif will surely face some tough time after this.

According to Veena, Asif is a characterless man having lots of affairs with girls from different countries at the same time. The Pakistani actress said that she would have forgotten about the money if she was not tortured in such a cruel way. All these revelation started when Shweta was just joking with her about one of the inmates of the Bigg Boss house.

Veena said that she cannot think of getting into a relationship with anyone now. She wants to give herself time to recover from that bitter experience with Asif. Well, the truth is known only by Veena and Asif so we can’t come to any conclusion by just listening to her side of the story. ! However, the channel has surely gained much TRPs from the Tuesday’s episode !

Keep watching Bigg Boss 4 on Colors for many more melodrama and revelation!

Dollar under pressure amid QE2 speculation Posted by naila , at 4:23 PM, in Labels: business

Selling the dollar has been a one-way trade recently, as the Federal Reserve looks poised to pump more cash into the economy next month, but the bulk of the impact of extra easing may now be priced in.

The dollar lost 8.5 per cent against a basket of six major rivals last quarter, the most in eight years, on fears money-printing by the central bank will debase the currency.

Speculators pushed bets against the greenback to $22 billion in the week ended September 28, the highest since at least mid-2008. The dollar’s downtrend comes at a time when many other countries are trying to weaken their currencies or at least slow their appreciation. That has fuelled fears a global currency war could derail economic recovery.

The fall in the dollar has been so dramatic that some now believe the market may be getting ahead of itself, setting up investors for disappointment should policymakers fail to deliver. “The risk is that once it becomes reality, it will be a smaller program than the market thought and that will be a catalyst for a dollar bounce,” said Richard Franulovich, senior currency strategist at Westpac in New York.

“There’s too much division (within the Fed). There’s no way you can get a big program in place, like $1 trillion, with that much division,” he added.

While some Fed officials like New York Fed President William Dudley said more action was warranted, Dallas Fed Bank chief Richard Fisher and others believe a further relaxation of monetary policy might do more harm than good. The Fed has already pumped $1.7 trillion into the economy through purchases of Treasuries and mortgage-related debt.

If the Fed does decide to purchase more bonds, many economists said it would likely opt for a gradual, open-ended approach and a smaller amount than the first round of quantitative easing (QE) implemented in March, 2009. QE is seen as negative for the dollar because it tends to lead to higher inflation expectations and lower real rates.

UBS does not expect any Fed action, though it said there was risk around that view. The bank targets euro/dollar at $1.25 in three months.

Fed officials and investors will be in data-watching mode ahead of the central bank’s next meeting on November 2-3, with the key September jobs report due out this Friday and the first estimate of third-quarter growth on October 29. Surprisingly, strong data could shake expectations for the Fed, forcing a squeeze of dollar shorts.

US condemns deadly bombings at Pakistani shrine Posted by naila , at 4:21 PM, in Labels: Most Popular

 The United States on Thursday condemned twin bomb blasts that killed eight worshippers at a packed Sufi shrine in Pakistan, adding there was no "political justification" for such an attack.

"Our thoughts and deep sympathies are with the affected families and the people of Pakistan," Mark Toner, a State Department spokesman, told reporters.

"There's obviously no political justification for killing innocent people, and we strongly condemn any deliberate targeting of civilians," Toner said.

"While terrorists continue to target innocent Pakistanis, the United States continues to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Pakistan in its struggle against terrorism, as well as its recovery from the floods," he said.

Eight worshippers including two children were killed in the bomb blasts Thursday at the the shrine to Sufi saint Abdullah Shah Ghazi as devotees packed it for a weekly gathering in the southern port city of Karachi.

Provincial home minister Zulfikar Mirza said an investigation into the attack was already underway and that the government had decided to seal all shrines in the city immediately over security fears.

"It was a terrorist attack," he said...LINK

Blasts kill at least 7 in Pakistan's Karachi Posted by naila , at 4:18 PM, in Labels: TOP STORIES

(Reuters) - Two suspected suicide bombers blew themselves up inside a crowded Sufi shrine compound in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi Thursday, killing at least seven people, police said.

Police and ambulances rushed to the scene.

The U.S.-backed Pakistani government is battling Taliban insurgents who remain effective despite military crackdowns on their strongholds in the northwest near the Afghan border.

The Pakistani army has been stretched because of its relief efforts during and after summer floods which made over 10 million people homeless and inflicted billions of dollars in damage. Karachi is Pakistan's biggest city and commercial hub.