GENEVA: The United Nations on Tuesday launched its biggest appeal for relief funds, saying it needed 7.4 billion dollars in 2011 to provide urgent humanitarian aid to over 50 million people in 28 countries. “On behalf of the millions of people needing urgent help and the hundreds of organisations that have come together to devise these plans, I appeal for 7.4 billion dollars to help some of the most vulnerable people in the world survive...

LAHORE: Pakistan has dropped under-suspicion wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal and senior batsman Mohammad Yousuf from the Twenty20 and Test squads announced Tuesday for next month’s tour of New Zealand. Shahid Afridi will lead the Twenty20 team while Misbah-ul-Haq was retained as Test captain. Akmal, who was ruled out of Pakistan’s recent series against South Africa in the United Arab Emirates after surgery for appendicitis, has been at the...

KARACHI: The government started securing the attacked websites on Tuesday, shortly after a group of hackers calling themselves the ‘Indian Cyber Army’ gained root access to a main server hosting important Pakistani government websites. In an email sent to media outlets earlier, the hackers’ group claimed to have gained root access to the server hosting the websites. Meanwhile, a report said the government’s experts claimed the cyber...

NEW DELHI: India on Thursday accused Pakistan of not doing enough to punish the men who plotted the 2008 militant attacks on Mumbai, as the city prepared to mark the second anniversary of the bloodbath. A senior Pakistan diplomat confirmed to AFP that an official diplomatic message was delivered to the embassy in New Delhi urging Pakistan to “fulfil its obligation and commitment” to bring the plotters to justice. Ten gunmen launched coordinated...

GUANGZHOU: Pakistan bagged its third gold medal of the 2010 Asian Games when it defeated Malaysia 2-0 in the final in Guangzhou, China on Thursday. Fired-up Pakistan annexed the Asian Games men’s hockey gold medal after 20 years with the final win. Specialist drag-flicker Sohail Abbas gave Pakistan the lead in the 28th minute when he converted from a penalty corner. Abbas slammed home the ball in the top right corner in Pakistan’s second...

GUANGZHOU: Pakistan created history Friday in crushing Bangladesh by 10 wickets to win the first-ever Asian Games women’s cricket tournament.The victory handed Pakistan their first gold of the Guangzhou Games and prevented Bangladesh from claiming their country’s first ever at an Asiad.The win comes as welcome relief at a time of major problems for the men’s game in Pakistan, which has been embroiled in spot-fixing and disciplinary issues...

TORONTO: Two glasses of tomato juice a day strengthens bones and can ward off osteoporosis, say scientists.The key ingredient is thought to be lycopene, the antioxidant already credited with cutting the risk of prostate cancer in men and protecting against heart disease.Researchers at the University of Toronto in Canada asked 60 post-menopausal women, aged 50 to 60, to cut out all tomato products from their diet for a month.This led to...

JAKARTA: Indonesia’s Mount Merapi volcano has killed 283 people since it began erupting late last month, with more than 270,000 people still living in makeshift camps, an official said Saturday. “The Merapi death toll has reached 283 people. More than 270,000 people are still living in temporary shelters,” disaster management official Ratnasari said, updating the previous toll of 275 dead. “Some people under treatment have died and more...

WASHINGTON: The United States is seeking to expand the areas inside Pakistan where Central Intelligence Agency drones can operate, The Washington Post reported late Friday.Citing unnamed US and Pakistani officials, the newspaper said US officials were eyeing areas surrounding Quetta, where the Taliban leadership is believed to be hiding.But the request also seeks to expand the boundaries for drone strikes in the tribal areas, the report...

...

...

...

WASHINGTON: The United States should seek Pakistan’s membership or at least observer status in major international forums, such as the Group of Twenty, a US task force recommended on Friday. The panel – led by Richard Armitage and Samuel Berger, top aides to former presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton – notes that Pakistan’s presence in such groups would enable it “to connect with new power structures and familiarise it with emerging...

NEW YORK: When we consider purchasing the best makeup, we often take into account several different factors like price, ingredients, whether or not the product is tested on animals, packaging, and skin type designation.However, once the purchase has been made, just as with other products, we have a tendency to think that the decision-making is over. What many do not consider is that taking care of our products is just as important in maximizing...

MADRID: Spain's press reacted with alarm Wednesday to news that a 10-year-old girl had given birth. Newspapers expressed shock at the delighted reaction of the mother of the girl, who reportedly moved from Romania to the small southern Spanish town of Lebrija three weeks earlier. Photographed smiling outside their modest apartment block, the baby's grandmother, identified only as Olimpia, was quoted telling reporters that she and her only...

DUBAI: Pakistani cricket team wicketkeeper Zulqarnain Haider went missing from hotel room in Dubai this morning, as the situation takes a surprise turn, Geo News reported Monday. The wicketkeeper Haider is missing from his hotel room since 6am this morning. Sources said he was last seen at 630am while leaving his room. A Source said Shahid Aslam saw the wicketkeeper leaving his room at around 6am; he intercepted Haider, who told he is...

NEW DELHI: President Barack Obama pledged Monday to work more closely with India to combat global terrorism and offered to help India and Pakistan resolve their long-standing dispute over Kashmir, without intervening directly. Speaking at a news conference alongside India’s Prime Minister Manmoham Singh, Obama said that while both India and Pakistan have an interest in reducing tensions in the region, the US, “cannot impose a solution to...

KARACHI: Pakistan went down 6-0 to Thailand in one of the six opening-day tussles of the 16th Asian Games Football Tournament at the Huangpu Sports Centre in Guangzhou, China on Sunday. The U-23 football event kicked off five days prior to the actual opening of the games. The Group ‘F’ encounter between Pakistan and Thailand saw the latter on constant attack from the word go (Pakistan got one shot at the goal while Thailand 16) while a...

ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi reiterated that Pakistan was willing to talk to India and was committed to eliminating terrorism and dismantling any networks operating from the country. “We condemn terrorism. We do not and will not allow Pakistani soil to be used against anyone and that includes India,” he told India’s CNN-IBN news channel. “We have taken considerable steps in the last two years to deal with this situation.”...

DUBAI: Pakistan tail-end batsman Zulqarnain Haider and Wahab Riaz pulled off a sensational one wicket win for their team over South Africa in the fourth one-day match after Younis Khan’s fifty here on Friday.Younis’s sedate 73 built Pakistan’s run-chase but they owed it to their tail-enders Haider (19 not out) and Riaz (18) as they put on 28 runs for the ninth wicket to help their team chase down a challenging 275-run target. Fit-again...

PESHAWAR: A suicide bomber struck a mosque frequented by anti-Taliban tribal elders in northwestern Pakistan during afternoon prayers Friday, killing at least 67 people in one of the deadliest attacks this year.Later in the day, three grenade blasts killed three people at a mosque in another northwest area where an anti-Taliban militia was active.The blasts were the latest to hit religious gatherings and underscored the relentless security...

...

ABU DHABI: Abdul Razzaq’s dazzling 109 helped Pakistan edge to a morale-boosting one-wicket win over South Africa in the second one-day international at the Zayed Cricket Stadium on Sunday. Pakistan, which lost the opening one-dayer and both Twenty20 matches against South Africa, was staring at another defeat when Razzaq belted 10 sixes and seven boundaries for a 72-ball innings of 109. Razzaq scored 63 of the last 65 runs and hit the final...

DUBAI: Pakistan players Mohammad Amir and Salman Butt must wait to learn if their suspensions over spot-fixing allegations will be lifted after an International Cricket Council (ICC) hearing was extended on Saturday. Officials from cricket’s governing body said the hearing would now conclude on Sunday. “The hearings went on all day,” Butt’s lawyer Khalid Ranjha told reporters after the eight-hour session. “It will continue tomorrow. I can’t...

On the occasion of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah's sixty-first death anniversary presents an oral history in which the first generation of Pakistani citizens recall encounters with the pathbreaking leader of their new nation. The memories and stories of those who knew Jinnah comprise the most vital account of what the Quaid was like both as a friend and a head of state - they sift through the politics and convey a sense of the person....

QUITO: Fishermen have found a dozen bombs believed to be from World War Two buried on the Galapagos Islands, a local government official said on Tuesday. The bombs were found on Bartolome Island, one of the Galapagos group located about 600 miles (966 km) off South America’s northwestern coast. The islands are a province of Ecuador, which let the United States set up a military base on one, Baltra Island, during World War Two due to...

MOSCOW: It is a typical Friday scene – worshippers kneeling in the rain outside Moscow’s biggest mosque, forced to use their shoes to anchor their prayer rugs to keep them from blowing away in the autumn winds.The scramble for a place inside is a weekly headache for Muslims in the Russian capital, a city with one of the biggest percentage of Muslims in Europe but with only four mosques. And their plea for more space to worship is stirring...

GUJRAT: Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani on Saturday declared that Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) had made a blunder in its first government in 1972 by nationalizing tens of thousands of schools and colleges in the country. “Yes it was a wrong move, and we cannot move forward without admitting our mistake”, the prime minister said about the decision of the party’s founding leader late Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. Gilani in his remarks also...

...

ABU DHABI: Paceman Lonwabo Tsotsobe and off-spinner Johan Botha took three wickets apiece to help South Africa beat Pakistan by six wickets in the first of two Twenty20 matches here on Tuesday.Tsotsobe, with a career-best 3-16, and skipper Botha (3-31) led a spirited South African bowling to restrict Pakistan to a paltry 119 at the Abu Dhabi Stadium in a match whose income will go to flood victims in Pakistan. Jean-Paul Duminy hit...

KARACHI: The country may not be performing well in several fields but it has moved up the corruption ladder, from the 42nd rung in 2009 to 34th this year.According to Transparency International’s report for 2010, Pakistan is more corrupt today than it was last year.The report released here on Tuesday by TI Pakistan’s chief Adil Gilani and in Berlin by its president Huguette Labelle said that on a list of 178 countries Pakistan fared...

LONDON: The sister-in-law of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has converted to Islam following a visit to Iran, claiming she is a “proud member” of the Muslim community.Lauren Booth has given up alcohol and pork, prays five times a day and has not ruled out wearing a burqa in the future, she told The Mail on Sunday newspaper.The 43-year-old journalist and reality television contestant underwent the religious conversion on her return...

ABU DHABI: Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi hoped his beleaguered side is focused enough to counter a spirited South African team in the back-to-back Twenty20 matches starting here on Tuesday.Pakistan's recent tour to England was rocked by spot-fixing allegations which prompted a Scotland Yard investigation and the suspension of three of their players by the International Cricket Council.Test captain Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad...

A bomb planted on a motorcycle exploded at the gate of the famous Baba Farid Shakar Ganj sufi shrine in central Pakistan’s Pakpattan district during morning prayers Monday, killing at least five people, officials said.The blast at the shrine in Punjab province was the latest in a string of attacks targeting Sufi shrines in Pakistan.The dead from Monday's blast included at least one woman, said Maher Aslam Hayat, a senior government official...

...

PORT-AU-PRINCE: A sudden cholera epidemic has killed more than 208 people, officials said Saturday as Haiti scrambled to contain a wider outbreak 10 months after an earthquake devastated the Caribbean nation. A few days after the first cases appeared in the north, the outbreak looked to be moving closer to the capital, Port-au-Prince, which is heavily populated by homeless residents in tent cities where sanitation is poor. "We have recorded...

PAKISTAN (LAHORE): At least seven people were killed in two different incidents of firing here on late Saturday.According to police sources, the first incident took place near Harbans Pora Lal Bridge when two groups opened fire at each other, killing three persons on the spot. It was an old family dispute which led to shootout, police said while those killed were identified as Ashraf, Murtaza and Sarfaraz.Another man Shahid Khan suffered...

...

The NHK Trophy is held in Nagoya, central Japan and is the first event of the six-stage ISU figure skating Grand Prix series. Here is a look at the skating eve...

PARIS: The International Cricket Council said Friday that Pakistan’s fast bowler Mohammad Asif had withdrawn his challenge to the provisional suspension handed down last month for alleged match-fixing. Teammates Salman Butt and Mohammad Amir have appealed against their own provisional suspensions and their hearings are still set for Dubai on 30 and 31 October. “Mohammad Asif confirmed earlier today that he has withdrawn his challenge...

HERAT: Three suicide bombers wearing police uniforms and burqas on Saturday attacked the United Nations office in the western Afghan city of Herat, senior police and UN officials said. There were no casualties among UN workers, Delawar Shah Delawar, deputy police chief of Herat province, told AFP after the raid, which was claimed by the Taliban. “One of the suicide attackers drove his explosives-packed vehicle into the rear gate of...

ISLAMABAD (PAKISTAN): Following the International Cricket Council’s stern 30-day warning, Pakistan’s cricket authorities have formed an anti-corruption committee, reports in the local media said on Friday.Keeping in line with the instructions given by the ICC, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has formed a seven-member team which will monitor cricketers and officials linked with the board.PCB Chairman Ijaz Butt will head the committee, which...

WASHINGTON: Pakistan called Friday for President Barack Obama to intervene in its longstanding dispute with India over the Himalayan region of Kashmir, the cause of two of the three wars the nuclear-armed rivals have fought.Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi made the unusually blunt appeal for Obama to seek a resolution of the dispute when he visits India next month, saying he should ''redeem the pledge'' he made as a candidate.The...