Dunya TV

Gas pipeline blown up in Quetta
Ghais Pirach, Sultan Awan booked
US charges Swiss bankers for hiding $1.2b
Bank fires employee over leak of data
Coalition to pull $30B in gear from Afghanistan
No one can derail democratic process: PM
Khar meets Afghan Ambassador
Mother of Los Angeles arson suspect arrested
Public gathering, rallies banned in Karachi Red Zone
Gas pipeline blown up in Quetta
EU urges Israel, Palestine to continue promising talks
US concerned over Pak-Iran gas pipeline project
Black Berry vows privacy safeguard amid probe
Chinese sculpt city out of ice
Beckham puts family before PSG

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Some unidentified miscreants blew up a 16-inch diametre gas pipeline with explosives. According to reports, the pipeline carrying gas supply from Balochistan to Sindh was blown up by unidentified miscreants with explosives near Uch Sharif. Fire erupted at the site of the explosion. Police have registered a case with no arrest.

Ghais Pirach, Sultan Awan booked

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According to police officials, All Pakistan CNG Association President Ghais Piracha and Transport Union leader Sultan Awan have been charged with damaging public property during protests against hike in gas prices and load shedding. Talking to Dunya News, Pirach said neither he nor his companions were present in these protests but at that time they were holding meetings with Petroleum Ministry officials to resolve the issue.

US charges Swiss bankers for hiding $1.2b

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Three Swiss bankers were indicted in the United States Tuesday, accused of hiding $1.2 billion in assets of US clients seeking to avoid declaring their full wealth to tax authorities. The bankers, Michael Berlinka, Urs Frei and Roger Keller, were accused of "conspiring with US taxpayers and others" in a massive tax fraud scheme. In an indictment, the three bankers were said to have been client advisers at the Zurich branch of an institution identified only as "Swiss Bank A." They allegedly conspired with their US clients to hide the existence of bank accounts and the income they generated from the Internal Revenue Service, which collects taxes and requires US citizens to declare their holdings both at home and abroad. Swiss banks, which have a longstanding practice of offering clients secrecy, have come under steady attack by US authorities, highlighted by a probe into banking giant UBS which led to a deal between US and Swiss authorities. The service by "Bank A" was allegedly ramped up in 2008 and 2009 "in an effort to capture business lost by UBS AG and another large international Swiss bank in the wake of widespread news reports that the IRS was investigating UBS for helping US taxpayers evade taxes and hide assets in Swiss bank accounts," New York federal prosecutors said in a statement. They "allegedly told various US taxpayer-clients that their undeclared accounts at Swiss Bank A would not be disclosed to the United States authorities because Swiss Bank A had a long tradition of bank secrecy." The three accused bankers live in Switzerland. If convicted in the United States they would face maximum term of five years in prison. In the UBS case, some 4,000 case files on American clients of UBS were handed over to the United States in 2010, after Washington dropped a summons against the bank over tax evasion.

Bank fires employee over leak of data

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An exclusive Swiss private bank said Tuesday it fired an employee who leaked confidential client information linking the wife of the Swiss National Bank president to sensitive currency deals. Basel-based Bank Sarasin said the unnamed employee, who worked in IT support, had admitted passing the data to a lawyer who then arranged a meeting with a leading figure in the nationalist Swiss People s Party. "Bank Sarasin is extremely regretful about this incident and has apologized to the client for the considerable unpleasantness caused by the infringement of bank client confidentiality," the bank said in a statement. The leaked data has caused a political furor in Switzerland, after it reportedly showed how the wife of SNB President Philipp Hildebrand profited from the central bank s decision last year to depress the value of the Swiss franc. The SNB has said "rumors" of wrongdoing by Hildebrand are unfounded and its rules against insider trading weren t breached. Citing an unnamed informant, Zurich daily Blick reported Tuesday that Hildebrand s wife Kashya had bought more than half a million U.S. dollars on Aug. 15, before selling them again Oct. 12 at a profit of 61,000 francs ($65,000). The figures are similar to those reported by the respected Neue Zuercher Zeitung paper. Between those dates, on Sept. 6, the Swiss National Bank set the minimum exchange rate of the euro at 1.20 francs  a move that caused the value of the franc to instantly drop about 8 percent against other major currencies including the dollar. The Swiss National Bank confirmed that Kashya Hildebrand, a former currency trader who now runs an art gallery in Zurich, bought an unspecified amount of U.S. dollars for herself and her daughter Aug. 15. The central bank declined to say whether she sold them for a profit, but declared that the bank s board concluded Dec. 22 there had been no inappropriate transactions nor any abuse of privileged information. An SNB spokeswoman declined Tuesday to provide a copy of the rules governing personal deals by senior directors of the bank. "These are internal regulations that aren t public," Silvia Oppliger said.

Coalition to pull $30B in gear from Afghanistan

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As the pace of the drawdown of U.S. troops from Afghanistan picks up in 2012, military planners are trying to figure out how to ship huge quantities of alliance vehicles, weapons and other equipment out of the mountainous, landlocked country. The operation requires the removal of $30 billion worth of state-of-the-art military gear by the end of 2014, when U.S. and other coalition troops are to end their combat role, a senior U.S. official said Tuesday. Most of the American equipment will be shipped to military depots in the United States for refurbishment and then redistributed to bases around the country. Some assets will go to bases in Europe, primarily Germany, or in Asian nations like South Korea. "The stuff we have here is the very best the U.S. has ever produced," the official said. "It s better than anything available (to military units) in the United States." He spoke on condition of anonymity because the planning for the equipment pullout is still in its initial stages. Aside from the armored vehicles and trucks, other gear that will be shipped out includes large quantities of armor, communications and optical equipment, as well as large crew-served artillery systems. In 2011, the U.S.-led coalition began the withdrawal of nearly 140,000 foreign troops serving in Afghanistan, and 10,000 U.S. service members have already pulled out. By the end of this year, another 23,000 Americans are due to depart, along with thousands more allied soldiers, reducing the coalition force in Afghanistan to about 90,000. The quantity of military equipment that was accumulated here by the United States and its allies in 10 years of war is formidable. Although small amounts have already been removed, the planning is complex due to inherent complications of moving so much heavy gear out of a landlocked nation with problematic relations with some of its neighbors, said the official. Only a relatively small number of the tens of thousands of vehicles can be flown out by air, because of the high weight of some of them, such as the as the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles, or MRAPs, and its all-terrain variety, the M-ATV, tipping the scales at many tons each. Afghanistan s neighbor Pakistan shut down the alliance s main transit routes from the port of Karachi in November in response to a NATO air attack on a Pakistani border post that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers. The alliance has been able to ship equipment and supplies in from the north through Russia and the Central Asian nations. Additional agreements are needed to allow the two-way traffic to transport the equipment back to Europe via the northern route. During the recent pullout from Iraq, the U.S. military was able to simply drive its vehicles in large convoys to neighboring Kuwait, where a deep sea port was available. In contrast, the main routes out of Afghanistan require vehicles and containers to be loaded on trucks or trains for the onward journey. "The challenges of geography are enormous," the official said. "I wish Afghanistan was a coastal country with a great port, but it s not."

No one can derail democratic process: PM

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Senators and Members of the National Assembly called on Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani at his Parliament House Chamber on Tuesday. The members of the parliament welcomed the Prime Minister’s decisive statement about the government’s commitment towards Seraiki province in consonance with the aspirations of the people of the region. They extended their full support to the Prime Minister in his opposition to the proposal of PML-N President Mian Nawaz Sharif regarding establishment of the military courts in Karachi. The Prime Minister assured the Parliamentarians that democracy was there to stay, adding that those who were manipulating to derail the evolution of democratic process in the country were bound to be disappointed. He said that democracy was the voice of the people and the democratic government would continue the empowerment of the people which was their fundamental right. He said that the people of Pakistan were mature and knew who were their friends and foes.

Khar meets Afghan Ambassador

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Ambassador of Afghanistan to Pakistan Mohammad Umer Daudzai called on Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar and discussed matters of mutual interest and agreed to enhance bilateral interaction in various fields. They also reviewed economic cooperation for which the Bilateral Joint Economic Commission would hold its 8th session at the level of finance ministers in Islamabad in the third week of January 2012. The foreign minister urged independent, strong bilateral relations with Afghanistan as part of Pakistan’s consistent policy to reach out to its neighbours. She stressed the need to build synergies through people-to-people, civil society and parliamentary contacts. Both sides agreed on the need for high-level visits to provide the requisite impetus to bilateral relations. Mohammad Umer Daudzai thanked the foreign minister for grant of scholarships to Afghan students.

Mother of Los Angeles arson suspect arrested

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The mother of a man accused in a wave of arson fires across Los Angeles was facing possible extradition to Germany on fraud charges, a case federal prosecutors said on Tuesday appeared to have angered her son. But police who arrested Harry Burkhart on suspicion of arson following a string of 53 fires over the New Year s holiday weekend have not offered a motive for the crimes, and Burkhart has yet to be formally charged. His mother Dorothee Burkhart, 53, was taken into custody last week on an arrest warrant issued by German authorities stemming in part from accusations that she failed to pay for a 2004 breast augmentation surgery, court documents show. "Ms. Burkhart is being held after an arrest warrant was issued in the United States, after Germany asked that she be taken into custody," explained U.S. Attorney s spokesman Thom Mrozek. "What this indicates is that we are at the beginning of an extradition process. Germany has indicated that they want to bring her back to Germany to face the 19 counts of fraud filed against her." She appeared in U.S. District Court on Tuesday, apparently unaware that her son had been arrested in connection with the blazes that broke out over the weekend. The arson fires, which were mostly started in parked cars and in some cases spread to carports and homes, left Los Angeles residents on edge and caused an estimated 3 million dollars (USD) in damages. There was no reference to Harry Burkhart s arrest during the Tuesday proceedings, and Mrozek said the elder Burkhart did not seem to know that her son was in custody.

Public gathering, rallies banned in Karachi Red Zone

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According to Additional IG Akhter Hussain, it has been decided during a meeting to impose ban on holding public gathering, rallies in Clifton, Defence and Faisal Road. On the other hand, sources said that decision was taken after a protest which staged two days ago in front of Governor House.

Gas pipeline blown up in Quetta

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EU urges Israel, Palestine to continue promising talks

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European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton urged Israel and the Palestinians to press ahead with peace efforts on the heels of their "promising" talks in Jordan on Tuesday. Thanking the Jordanian authorities for facilitating the ground-breaking face-to-face, Ashton said: "I encourage Israel and the Palestinians to build on this promising first meeting and continue to work toward a just, lasting and comprehensive peace in the Middle East." "The EU remains fully committed to do all it can to contribute to the resolution of the conflict," she added in a statement. The meeting of Israeli and Palestinian negotiators in Jordan was their first face-to-face encounter in more than 15 months. Ashton expressed her "deep appreciation" to Jordan for facilitating the meeting with Tony Blair, representing the so-called Middle East Quartet -- the EU, Russia, the United Nations and the United States -- which has been working to draw the two sides back to the negotiating table.

US concerned over Pak-Iran gas pipeline project

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Pentagon spokesperson George Little said that US admits its faults regarding NATO attacks and had no intention to target Pakistani troops, adding that memogate is Pakistan’s internal matter. "We have acknowledged and take responsibility for the mistakes we made on Nov. 25-26, " he said, adding that the US has also offered to compensate the families of those killed and wounded in the incident. He said that NATO supply through Pakistan is still suspended and hoped for a quick reopening of the blocked supply routes. Twenty-four Pakistani soldiers were killed and 13 others injured Nov. 26 when NATO fighter jets and helicopters bombed two border outposts in the Mohmand tribal region near the Afghanistan border. The episode further deteriorated the relationship between Washington and Islamabad, which began to strain after an American raid inside Pakistan that killed Al-Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden on May 2. Following the outpost airstrikes, the Pakistani government immediately closed two border check points for NATO supplies into Afghanistan through Pakistan and threw the U.S. out of its Shamsi air base in southwestern Balluchistan province.

Black Berry vows privacy safeguard amid probe

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Research in Motion vowed Tuesday to defend the legal privacy rights of BlackBerry users after a judicial commission in Pakistan ordered copies of smartphone communications in a scandal probe. The Canadian firm reacted to news that a Pakistani commission was seeking records for a probe into an unsigned memo purported to ask for Washington s help to rein in Pakistan s military. The highly controversial memo was allegedly an attempt by a close aide of President Asif Ali Zardari to enlist the US military s help to head off a military coup in May in Pakistan. It was made public in October by Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz. On Monday, the commission directed Pakistan government officials to obtain the BlackBerry "record of conversation" between Ijaz and a former envoy to the US accused of crafting the memo, Husain Haqqani. Haqqani resigned over the affair and the Supreme Court has stopped him from leaving Pakistan. He has denied any involvement in the scandal. Canada-based RIM, which makes the BlackBerry, said, "Like others in our industry, from time to time, we may receive requests from legal authorities for lawful access assistance." The company statement added: "We are guided by appropriate legal processes and publicly disclosed lawful access principles in this regard as we balance any such requests against our priority of maintaining the privacy rights of our users."

Chinese sculpt city out of ice

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China s chilly city of Harbin gears up for its 28th annual Snow and Ice Festival, with workers creating castles, slides and sculptures out of ice and snow. Liu Xiaodong puts the final touches on his ice creation. To create this winter wonderland, attention to detail is key. And that s not hard for Liu, whose love of ice sculpting started at an early age. "For me, as a Harbin native, I have special feelings towards ice. Because when I was young and took part in my first ice sculpting competition, how do you put this, When I took up the knife, or let s say when I look at other people working and I m not working, my hands feel as if they want to say  let me help you.  And I feel very emotional." The Ice festival here is one of the largest and the best-known in the world. Operating manager Zhao Hongjun explains the magnitude of the project. "It took 15 to 17 days to finish constructing the Ice and Snow World. The Ice and Snow World takes up an area of 600,000 metres square. The total amount of ice used is 180,000 cubic metres. The total amount of snow used is 600,000 cubic metres." Although Harbin is known for its cold winters, averaging minus 17 degrees Celsius -- or 1 degree Fahrenheit -- this winter has been unusually warm.

Beckham puts family before PSG

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This has been said by the big-spending Qatar-backed French club s sporting director Leonardo on Tuesday. The statement comes amid reports the club will now try to lure either Kaka from Real Madrid or Pato from AC Milan. "He will not come to PSG," said the Brazilian, citing "family reasons" for the 36-year-old former England captain s decision not to relocate from Los Angeles to the French capital. "It s over," Leonardo was later quoted as saying by lequipe.fr."It s a shame. But the well-being of his family in Los Angeles and the desire to not change everything in his life weighed heavily." Club president Nasser al-Khelaifi added: "We are disappointed a little bit, of course, that he is not coming. "But we are agreed it would be better for everyone if that were so." Leonardo s announcement brings to an end months of speculation linking Beckham, whose contract with Los Angeles Galaxy finished on December 31, with a transfer to PSG, which on Friday named Italian Carlo Ancelotti as new coach.  "It s not Carlo Ancelotti s arrival that changed everything," Leonardo was quick to stress. PSG, which play AC Milan in a friendly in Dubai on Wednesday, earlier trained under the watchful eye of new owner, Qatar s Crown Prince Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, and club president Khelaifi. Following the close-season purchase of the club by wealthy investors Qatar Sports Investments (QSI), headed by the crown prince, rumours had been rife in the French press that the deal for Beckham was as good as done. But other sources close to the former Manchester United and Real Madrid star had long kept their distance, saying the player, his wife Victoria and four children were happy and settled in Los Angeles, where he won the MLS Cup title with the Galaxy last season. QSI strode into the French capital and bought a 70 percent controlling stake in PSG in June, with Khelaifi promising "to make the club a great team and a strong brand on the international scene". They promptly spent 85 million euros in the summer to attract new talent including a massive 42 million euros forked out to Italian side Palermo for 22-year-old midfielder Javier Pastore.  A QSI source told AFP Tuesday that Ancelotti will now target AC Milan s Brazilian duo Kaka and Alexandre Pato, whom the Italian previously coached at the San Siro in a deal set to cost some 61 million euros. Pato, who has a rocky relationship with Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri, would cost 38 million while Kaka would reportedly be available for 23.5 million - if Real coach Jose Mourinho sanctions a deal. PSG s first competitive match under 52-year-old former AC Milan and Chelsea boss Ancelotti, who won the Champions League twice both as a player and as a coach with AC Milan, will be a French Cup last-64 tie away to Brittany amateur outfit Locmine on January 8. --AFP

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Cricket - Sports

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

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