Dunya TV

3 more fall prey to Karachi violence
Two bodies recovered in Lasbela
US earmarks $2.4 billion for Pakistan in budget 2013
Shahbaz Bhattis murder suspect brought back to Pakistan
Smoke free laws lead to less smoking at home
Scientists say Obama Mars cuts to hit research
Iran denies Israeli embassy attacks
NATO admits Afghan children killed in Kapisa
Syria ignores Arab plan to stop bloodshed
17 killed in Libyan tribal clashes: tribesmen
215 Russians die in cold snap, well over 600 in Europe
Ivanovic advances in Doha
Federer forgets his Davis Cup disappointment
Sharapova takes world No 2 ranking
Injury forces Clarke out of Sri Lanka game

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According to details, some unidentified persons shot dead 50-year-old Rehman in Qasba Colony. The deceased reached Karachi from Swat a day ago. The police have termed the killing as an old enmity. In Nazimabad No 2, some unidentified attackers opened fire at two persons, riding a motorcycle, killing one, Shabbir and critically injuring another named Ateeq. Ateeq was shifted to a private hospital where he succumbed to his injuries. According to police, the attackers belonged to a banned organization. Earlier, an armed clash between to religious groups created panic in Lines Area. A heavy contingent of Rangers and police reached the site and cordoned off the area. Police have also arrested four suspects from the area. In Mawach Goth area, three accused hurled a hand grenade on the Rangers officials. Luckily the grenade did not explode. Rangers have arrested all the accused identified as Dilshad, Niaz and Naeem. Meanwhile, CID police conducted a raid in Gulistan Jauhar and arrested and alleged target killer. The accused is said to an activist of a political party. Police have also recovered arms from him.

Two bodies recovered in Lasbela

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According to details, both the deceased went missing three months ago from Lasbela. The dead were identified as Bakhshal Bugti and Jan Muhammad Murri. Bakhshal Bugti, 35, was resident of Baila while Jan Muhammad Murri,37, belonged to Othal. Both the deceased were killed by firing. Police have shifted the bodies to Rural Health Centre Wander and informed their heirs.

US earmarks $2.4 billion for Pakistan in budget 2013

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The US Deputy Secretary for Management and Resources, Thomas Nides, during a special briefing at the State Department Monday, said that out of the total $56.4 billion funds of the State Department, "23 percent or $11.9 billion goes in defending our now security interests in the frontline states of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan."  "Our Civilian Overseas Contingency Operations budget, better known for OCO, funds the temporary extraordinary cost associated with these missions. Using the same methodology from the last year’s request, we’ve asked for $8.2 billion in OCO, and $3.7 billion in our base budget for a total of $11.9 billion for the frontline states," he informed. "For Pakistan, our 2013 request is $2.4 billion including civilian and security assistance," he said adding that the proposed allocation for Pakistan "includes funds to strengthen democratic institutions, countering extremism, supporting joint counterterrorism efforts, and protecting our civilians on the ground". The requests made by the US administration in the budget have to be approved by the Congress and Senate as per the law of the land. Deputy Secretary Nides conceded that the Kerry-Lugar-Berman bill s funds for Pakistan had been reduced from $1.5 billion last year to $1.1 billion for 2013, whereas the security assistance for Pakistan was staying the same. Commenting on the nature of Pak-US relationship, he said, "our relationship with Pakistan is challenging, but make no mistake, effective cooperation with Pakistan is critical to Afghanistan’s future and to America’s national security." Later, explaining the reduction in civilian assistance to Pakistan, a senior State Department official said that "the Kerry-Lugar-Berman bill, enacted in 2010, authorized up to $1.5 billion each year to Pakistan for five years. "For the first couple of years, we requested $1.5 billion from the Congress but despite negotiations, we never got that high," he recalled.  "Given the budget constraints, we have decided to request a little bit lower than the 1.5 billion dollars, and we did the same thing last year by requesting $1.1 billion from Congress," he informed adding that the US administration was at about 1.1 billion for Kerry-Lugar bill, for the non-military assistance programme.  "It means that to get to the $7.5 billion of what we refer to as Kerry-Lugar-Berman funding, it’s just going to take us a little bit longer. But we still have a very, very robust commitment to Pakistan", he emphasised.  "On the actual expenditures of KLB during last three years, the money has not moved as quickly as we would want, because of various difficulties on the ground and with the government in Pakistan," he agreed responding to a question. "In addition to this civilian assistance of 1.1 billion dollars, there is money in military assistance, the traditional foreign military assistance, which is part of a multiyear agreement," he said.  "Even though we have our challenges with the government right now, we wanted to make sure that the budget reflected the nature of the program, its importance to our security, importance to our efforts in that region," he observed. "The $2.4 billion Pakistan budget, which includes those two things plus the Pakistan Counterinsurgency Capability Fund, is a strong statement of US support for Pakistan," the official argued adding that Pakistan, with an assistance programme, at over a billion dollars was still one of the largest recipients of assistance in the US budget. Responding to a question about the level of civilian assistance for Pakistan during the current fiscal, he said "we have about $1 billion in non-military assistance for Pakistan in 2012." "It has been hovering around that level for Pakistan for the last few years, so we are confident to get these proposals approved frm the Congress," he said when asked about the possibility of approval of US administration s proposals.  "We’re going to have a lot of negotiation to do, so we’re going to make the best argument we can and we’ll have to work out with the Congress ultimately what the final appropriation for Pakistan is going to be", the State Department official stated. "The nonmilitary assistance piece (1.1 billion dollars), the foreign military finance piece (300 million dolars), and the Pakistan Coalition Support Fund (800 million) are the three components of our assistance to Pakistan," he dilated. - Contributed by Awais Saleem, Dunya News correspondent in Washington, DC

Shahbaz Bhattis murder suspect brought back to Pakistan

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The alleged accused, Abid Malik, was brought back to Lahore from Dubai on Emirates Airline flight EK 622. A large contingent of police was present on the air port. The alleged suspect was arrested in Dubai with the help of Interpol. His wife and a child also reached Lahore on the same flight. The accused was taken out of Lahore Airport through a secrete route under tight security arrangements. He was sifted to an undisclosed location where a joint investigation team will investigate him. Former minorities minister Shahbaz Bhatti was murdered in March last year, during an attack on his vehicle in Islamabad after which his assassin managed to escape abroad.

Smoke free laws lead to less smoking at home

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Anti-tobacco laws in several European countries prompted many smokers to ban smoking at home and to cut their cigarette consumption, according to a study reported in the journal Tobacco Control on Tuesday. Doctors pored over a survey into smoking habits in France, Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands, both before and after bans on smoking in the workplace, restaurants and bars took effect in the last decade. The trends in those countries were compared with Britain, which at the time did not have smoke-free legislation. After the laws took effect, the percentage of smokers who banned all smoking at home rose by 17 percent in France, 25 percent in Ireland, 28 percent in the Netherlands and 38 percent in Germany, the study found. The overall number of cigarettes that an individual smoked each day also fell "significantly" in Ireland, Germany and the Netherlands, but not in France. The authors, led by Ute Mons of the German Cancer Research Centre in Heidelberg, say the findings rebut those who claimed banning smoking in public places would simply shift the habit to the home, exposing family members to dangerous second-hand smoke. In fact, the new laws prompted many smokers to ban smoking at home, especially if they had already been mulling an intention to kick the habit, supported smoke-free legislation or had a young child exposed to passive smoke. "Our findings strongly support the premise that smoke-free legislation does not lead to more smoking in smokers  homes," says the paper. "The data suggest rather that smoke-free legislation may stimulate smokers to establish total smoking bans in their own home." The research was based on responses from 4,634 smokers in the four countries and 1,080 in Britain. The British results came from across the United Kingdom except Scotland.

Scientists say Obama Mars cuts to hit research

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The United States will scale back Mars exploration under a proposed budget by President Barack Obama released Monday that has some scientists fuming over the risk of a NASA brain-drain. The plan kills a deal between the US and European space agencies to cooperate on Mars robotic rover missions in 2016 and 2018, with a view to preparing to return samples from the red planet in the next decade. "It is a real scientific tragedy and I personally believe it is a national embarrassment," G. Scott Hubbard, a Stanford University professor who served as the first NASA Mars program director, told AFP. "Here we had one of the most successful NASA programs of the last decade and it is being effectively turned off." NASA administrator Charles Bolden admitted that "tough choices" had to be made in axing the European deal, but vowed to restructure the Mars program so that future robotics mission could potentially be revisited in 2018-2020. The fiscal 2013 budget, which is unlikely to face a vote in Congress while Obama seeks re-election, called for a $226 million reduction, or a near 39 percent cut in the US space agency s Mars exploration program. Meanwhile, it funds other big projects such as the James Webb Space Telescope and a new heavy-lift rocket to propel an eventual deep space mission to an asteroid, and provides seed money for private companies seeking to replace the space shuttle which was retired last year. The overall proposal is to give NASA $17.7 billion, a decrease of 0.3 percent or $59 million less than 2012. Obama s budget pointed to the successful launch last year of the Mars Science Laboratory, also known as Curiosity, the biggest and most advanced rover ever built which should land in August, as it called for reduced support for new robotic projects. But according to Bill Nye, chief executive of the Planetary Society, an association of scientists skilled in the search for alien life, such program cuts could have devastating consequences. "We are concerned that once planetary exploration programs are stopped, they just can t be restarted," Nye told AFP. NASA currently employs the world s top experts in landing robotic vehicles on Mars, he said, noting that the recent failure by Russia to get its Mars probe off to a successful launch provides evidence of the danger. "If all the (NASA) people expert in Entry, Descent, and Landing (EDL) on Mars have no missions and then retire, the program just cannot recover," Nye said. Russia has been floated as potential partner with Europe in the ExoMars project should the United States withdraw. According to the ExoMars deal NASA and ESA made in 2009, NASA would have contributed $1.4 billion to the project and ESA would have chipped in $1.2 billion. The ExoMars plan would have sent an orbiter to Mars in 2016 and called for two rovers to land on the red planet in 2018. Tens of millions of US dollars have already been spent on the plans, according to Hubbard. John Logsdon, an external White House adviser and longtime space analyst, said the United States withdrew from ExoMars because it "cannot afford now to commit itself to another multi-billion dollar project."

Iran denies Israeli embassy attacks

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Iran on Tuesday denied Israeli accusations that it was behind attacks on Israeli embassy staff in Georgia and India, Al-Alam television said, quoting the foreign ministry spokesman. "We categorically reject the accusations made by the Zionist regime. They are part of a propaganda war," Ramin Mehmanparast was quoted as saying by the Arabic-language channel. "Iran condemns all acts of terrorism," he added. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blamed Iran for the attacks that wounded at least two people, one of them an Israeli woman. "Iran is behind these attacks. It is the biggest exporter of terror in the world," Netanyahu told members of his rightwing Likud party. The Israeli leader said there had been a number of attempts to harm Israelis and Jews in recent months, in places such as Thailand and Azerbaijan, in a series of attacks coordinated by Tehran and Lebanon s Shiite militia Hezbollah. "In all these incidents, those responsible were Iran and its protege Hezbollah," he said. Israel would continue to act "with a firm hand" to stamp out "international terror coming from Iran," he warned. On Monday a car outside the Israeli embassy in New Delhi exploded in a ball of fire, injuring two people, one of whom was an Israeli woman, Netanyahu said. Separately, the Georgian interior ministry confirmed that police in the capital Tbilisi had defused an explosive device found in the car of an Israeli embassy employee. Mehmanparast said Iran "has also been the victim of terrorist actions," adding that "the Zionist regime itself is based on state terrorism and occupation" in reference to Israeli-occupied Palestinian land.

NATO admits Afghan children killed in Kapisa

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The US-led NATO force in Afghanistan on Monday conceded that several children died during a bombing raid last week in the northeast province where French troops are based. Afghan President Hamid Karzai had condemned the air strikes and ordered an investigation after saying that eight children were killed on February 8. Brigadier General Carsten Jacobson, spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), said that an ongoing assessment showed that troops engaged "a group of men, who were armed and engaging in unusual behaviour". "This group was engaged by coalition aircraft and that engagement followed all ISAF tactical directives. Following the engagement, additional casualties were discovered and these casualties were young Afghans of varying ages. "At this point in our assessment, we can neither confirm nor deny, with reasonable assurance, a direct link to the engagement," he said. But Mohammad Tahir Safi, a member of parliament for Kapisa and part of the investigation team dispatched by Karzai, disagreed. To reporters, he narrated an account in which the local head of Afghan intelligence told a French colonel that the area of the planned operation was "not a threat", refusing to countenance an operation. Safi said French troops raided the homes of two former jihadi commanders before dawn, confiscating "only one mortar round, a shotgun... some AK rounds and nothing else". About 600 metres west of the village, children gathered to start a fire when "all of a sudden a plane dropped one bomb in first round and another bomb later", he said, showing pictures of bloodied children in shrouds. "There were eight people and all innocent children and you can see their pictures," he said. The dead were aged between six and 14, with "another guy aged about 18 to 20" who was mentally ill, Safi said. Jacobson called any deaths of innocent people a tragedy but insisted: "We simply are not yet certain how this happened." The Afghan president, who has a strained relationship with his Western allies, has regularly condemned NATO for civilian deaths in the decade-long war against Taliban insurgents fighting to overthrow him.

Syria ignores Arab plan to stop bloodshed

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Syria on Monday ignored a new Arab initiative to end the bloodshed, with its troops pounding the protest hub of Homs as the top UN rights official said crimes against humanity have probably been committed over the past year. "The nature and scale of abuses committed by Syrian forces indicate that crimes against humanity are likely to have been committed since March 2011," High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay told the UN General Assembly. Her comments came as European powers welcomed an Arab League decision to ask the United Nations to send a joint peacekeeping force to Syria although Moscow cautioned a ceasefire is needed before peacekeepers can be deployed. President Bashar al-Assad s regime swiftly rejected the initiative that was announced on Sunday. Hours after the League s decision, troops resumed shelling Baba Amr, a rebel bastion in the central city of Homs, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. "The neighbourhood of Baba Amr has been subjected to sporadic shelling since 5:00 am (0300 GMT) by the Syrian army," the Britain-based group said in a statement. Regime forces killed 11 civilians, among them three in Homs and two in nearby Rastan, including a 13-year-old girl in shelling after clashes between army defectors and soldiers. Three troops also died. Security forces also raided homes to arrest people in the southern Daraa province, cradle of the Arab Spring-inspired 11-month uprising against Assad s iron-fisted rule. A government official said Syria was determined to crush dissent, regardless of the latest Arab initiative, the official SANA news agency reported.

17 killed in Libyan tribal clashes: tribesmen

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A fierce gunfight between two tribes in Libya s remote southeastern desert has killed at least 17 people in the past two days and wounded another 22, tribal sources said on Monday. Clashes between the tribes of Zwai and Tobu in the town of Kufra have killed 17 people since Sunday, including nine from the Zwai tribe and eight from the Tobu clan, sources from both the tribes said. A source from the Tobu tribe said "shelling from the Zwai side was intense with heavy weapons." He said that members of his tribe turned to the the National Transitional Council for help but that Libya s ruling body "did not respond and did not answer our calls." Earlier on Monday, NTC spokesman Mohammed al-Harizi confirmed that there  were clashes between two groups on Sunday. "It was a problem between two tribes and they are working to find a peaceful solution," he told AFP, without naming the tribes. Both groups were using light arms when the fighting initially erupted on Sunday, but the violence then intensified, with the two sides firing rocket-propelled grenades and anti-aircraft guns, sources said. A militant from Tobu tribe said those fighting him and his comrades since Sunday were Zwai tribesmen supported by the NTC. "There is a plan to exterminate the Tobu tribe. Our situation is worse than what it was under Kadhafi," he said without giving his name. Members of Tobu, who are dark-skinned, were discriminated against even under the regime of slain dictator Moamer Kadhafi. The latest clashes apparently erupted after a young man from the Zwai tribe was killed in Kufra by three dark-skinned men believed to be from the Tobu tribe three days ago, a source from the Zwai tribe said.

215 Russians die in cold snap, well over 600 in Europe

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Some 215 Russians have died this year in a prolonged period of abnormally cold winter weather, the health ministry said Monday as the overall death toll for Europe rose to well over 600. Heavy snow continued to fall on Monday in Romania and Bulgaria, but the cold snap that froze much of Europe for the past two weeks began to ease in the west of the continent. In Russia, 215 people died and 5,546 people suffered from hypothermia and frostbite, including 154 children, between January 1 and February 13, the ministry said in a statement. While accustomed to frosty winters, Russia has seen 20 days of unusually cold weather, with the average temperature falling 7 to 14 degrees Celsius below average, the state weather service said. Meanwhile in the former Soviet republic of Georgia, authorities set up shelters in the capital Tbilisi on Monday after two homeless people died during the coldest weather for decades. Two homeless men died Friday after being admitted to hospital with hypothermia, one in the capital and the other in the western town of Ozurgeti, local media reported. In Romania, the death toll from the cold increased to 74 on Monday as new snowfalls blanketed the south of the country. Snow disrupted road and railway transportation in the south and in Bucharest. More than 300 passenger trains were cancelled, officials said. In neighbouring Bulgaria where heavy snowfalls also took place, the newspaper Trud on Monday said 47 people had died of cold or drowned since late January. There is no official death toll. In Bosnia, an 84-year-old woman was found dead of cold in Foca, while in neighbouring Montenegro one of 80 passengers who have been stranded in a train for the past three days because of an avalanche died of a heart attack. The total number of deaths in the western Balkans was put at 56. Twenty people have died in Serbia, 13 in Bosnia, 10 in Kosovo, five in Montenegro, three in Croatia, three in Albania and two in Montenegro. In Sarajevo the heavy snowfall caused the roof of the Olympic sports hall in Skenderija to collapse but no one was injured. Over the past two weeks at least 135 people have died of the cold in Ukraine, 82 in Poland, and 45 in Italy. In western Europe, temperatures began to return to normal February averages.

Ivanovic advances in Doha

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Ana Ivanovic made the second round of the Qatar Open on Monday, but she was denied a full match as rival Carla Suarez Navarro retired with a back problem in the second set. Ivanovic, the former world number one, who has now slipped to 19th in the rankings, had won the first set 6-1 and was leading 4-1 in the second when her Spanish rival quit after receiving courtside treatment. And the Serbian star knows she has a long way to go before she reaches the level that saw her win the French Open in 2008. "I think it s different in the sense that now a lot more girls can challenge top players from the early rounds," Ivanovic said. "That s exciting for us, because we do want challenges. But I feel like those girls that are on top at the moment, they re playing very aggressively, and that s the way you have to play in order to win. "It s a big challenge for us to raise our level." But despite the challenges, the Serbian beauty added that her goal was to get as higher in the rankings as possible. "Well, that s why I m here," she said when asked if she was targeting the number one status again." she said. "If I didn t think so, I probably wouldn t be sitting here. But, yeah, I definitely believe so." As the top eight seeds who have been given first round byes enjoyed a rest, the first upset of the event came when Kazakhstan s Ksenia Pervak defeated the 10th seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenko of Russia 1-6, 6-2, 6-3. Israeli Shahar Peer and China s Shuai Peng also advanced, beating Arab wild cards Nadia Lalami of Morocco and Fatma al-Nabhani of Oman respectively in straight sets.

Federer forgets his Davis Cup disappointment

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Roger Federer on Monday began putting his weekend Davis Cup disappointment well behind him as the popular Swiss made a return to the Rotterdam Open for the first time since winning the 2005 title. The world number three and his family flew to the Dutch port city only a day after Switzerland suffered a 5-0 thrashing from the United States in Davis Cup play in Fribourg. Adding insult to injury was the mis-translation of Federer s French remarks into English after he and Olympic gold-medal partner Stanislas were beaten in doubles. While Federer said: "I played a good doubles, and Stan not a bad one," the remark was reported in English as Federer saying his partner played poorly. But the Swiss said the matter has been put to rest along with any lingering memories. "It was a tough weekend for us, we were clearly not at our best at home," said the 30-year-old, who begins Rotterdam play as top seed on Wednesday night against Frenchman Nicolas Mahut. "It was a disappointing result. But I had a day to recover on Sunday and that helped. The Stan comment was taken completely the wrong way. "I d never say that, and I ll move on quickly. I spoke with both (captain) Severin (Luthi) and Stan to make sure there is no misunderstanding." Federer will be competing at the Ahoy stadium for the seventh time in his career and is keen to come good after seven years away. On court in the first round, French fifth seed Richard Gasquet became the first man into the second round as he defeated Italian Flavio Cipolla 6-3, 1-6, 6-1.

Sharapova takes world No 2 ranking

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Russian Maria Sharapova overtook Czech Petra Kvitova to take the world number two spot in the latest WTA rankings released on Monday. Sharapova was beaten in the quarter-finals of the Paris Open last week by Germany s Angelique Kerber, who went on to take the title, but the former world number one benefitted from the absence of last year s Paris winner Kvitova. Kvitova drops to third while Kerber moves up five places to 22nd.

Injury forces Clarke out of Sri Lanka game

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Australia captain Michael Clarke will miss Friday s tri-series one-day international against Sri Lanka with a hamstring injury, Cricket Australia said on Monday. Clarke strained his right hamstring while fielding during Australia s four-wicket ODI loss to India in Adelaide on Sunday. The Australia skipper said scans on Monday revealed that the injury was not too serious. "I have a grade one hamstring strain so will be out of Friday s game," Clarke posted on Twitter. Australia will name a replacement captain on Tuesday for the Sydney ODI against Sri Lanka, with wicketkeeper and vice-captain Brad Haddin and ex-skipper Ricky Ponting in the frame. Regular vice-captain Shane Watson only returned to club cricket last weekend after a six-week absence with a calf injury. While Clarke said he hoped to return for Sunday s one-dayer against India in Brisbane, team physiotherapist Alex Kountouris was non-committal. "(He) sustained a low grade right hamstring strain," Kountouris said in a statement. "I will assess him later this week and decide on his availability for the game in Brisbane on Sunday." Selectors face several decisions in choosing their next one-day squad, with Clarke s injury and wicketkeeper Brad Haddin s future key discussion points. Haddin missed Australia s initial three matches of the tri-series, with selectors saying he was rested as Matthew Wade took his spot. Australia s batting line-up also faces scrutiny with newcomer Peter Forrest making 66 on debut in Sunday s defeat by India to bolster his chances of remaining in the squad. "I know the selectors are meeting today so I ll be sitting by my phone tomorrow (Tuesday) hoping to get a call," Forrest told reporters in Brisbane on Monday. "Yesterday was a great day and one I m not going to forget. "It was nice to contribute but it would have been a lot nicer had I got 80 plus or a hundred and got the side to a win."

PoliticusUSA

Cricket - Sports

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

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