Dunya TV

Afghan protest: Crocker urges US not to pull troops out
3 dead in Canadian train derailment
Oil tankers to halt supply today
Australia: PM Julia Gillard beats Rudd
Syria: Amateur video purports to show damage and shots fired
Company denies brake failure in Argentine train tragedy
WikiLeaks publishes 5m mails of US intelligence firm
Pak, UAE ink prisoners exchange deal
G-20 linking IMF hike to bigger EU 'firewall' fund
Pakistani held in Bangladesh over spot fixing
BP oil spill trial delayed for settlement talks
Dike of Attabad Lake to be blown up today
Liverpool beat Cardiff 3-2 to win league cup
Case against Baloch leaders quashed
Kasur NA-140 by-polls: Malik Rashid wins by 89 votes

Afghan protest: Crocker urges US not to pull troops out

Posted:

The United States should resist any urge to pull troops out of Afghanistan ahead of schedule in response to the violence against Americans sparked by a burning of the Koran at a U.S. military base, U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Ryan Crocker said on Sunday. "Tensions are running very high here. I think we need to let things calm down, return to a more normal atmosphere, and then get on with business," Crocker said in an interview. He added that a full investigation of the incident was underway at the Bagram airbase near Kabul. A U.S. Defense Department spokesman said the Afghan defense and interior ministers were postponing scheduled trips to the United States this week while consulting with other Afghan leaders on protecting allied forces and quelling the violence. Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak and Interior Minister Interior Minister Bismillah Mohammadi had been set to meet U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Thursday, March 1. Panetta looks forward to hosting them at the Pentagon in the "near future," and understands why their efforts at home take priority now, Pentagon press secretary George Little said in an email. Crocker said, "This is not the time to decide that we are done here. We have got to redouble our efforts. We ve got to create a situation that al Qaeda is not coming back," Crocker added. "If we decide we re tired of it, al Qaeda and the Taliban certainly aren t," he said. U.S. forces are scheduled to cede the lead role in combat operations in Afghanistan next year, but will keep fighting alongside Afghan troops under American plans announced recently. The U.S. forces have been fighting in Afghanistan since a 2001 invasion that toppled the Taliban rulers who harbored the al Qaeda leaders responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States. President Barack Obama apologized on Thursday in a letter to Afghan President Hamid Karzai for the burning of copies of the Koran, which he called "inadvertent" and an "error." Crocker added that Karzai accepts both publicly and privately that the burning was inadvertent. Still, anger raged in Afghanistan for a sixth day on Sunday over desecration of the Muslim holy book. At least Seven U.S. military trainers were wounded on Sunday when a grenade was thrown at their base in northern Afghanistan. At least four American troops have been killed in apparent revenge attacks in the past week, and dozens of Afghans have been killed or wounded in protests over the incident.

3 dead in Canadian train derailment

Posted:

Via Rail spokeswoman Michelle Lamarche said the three people killed were all engineers riding in the cab of the locomotive at the front of the train when it derailed in Burlington, Ontario. A fourth Via worker in the locomotive was injured, she said. Burlington Mayor Rick Goldring also confirmed that three people died in the accident. Lamarche said no passengers died but 45 were injured. She said 75 people were on board the train traveling from Niagara Falls to Toronto when the train left the tracks around 3:30 p.m. Sunday within view of a residential area near Aldershot station. The locomotive crashed on its side into a small trackside building, and at least two passengers car behind it were driven off the tracks into an L-shape. All six cars derailed, a Via official said. Amid the twisted metal and debris emergency crews scrambled to pull passengers to safety amid reports fuel was leaking from the train. Some passengers were carried away on boards and stretchers while others, looking dazed and battered, were led out of the wreckage by emergency workers. Three passengers were airlifted to hospital, one with a heart attack, another with a broken leg and the third with a back injury. Forty-two other passengers suffered less-serious injuries and were either treated at the scene or taken to local hospitals. Some 30 passengers were well enough to continue on to Toronto s Union Station by bus. Deanna Villela of Welland, Ontario, said she felt a slight bump before the train jumped off the tracks, sending people and luggage flying. The crash lasted about 10 seconds but felt like "forever," she said. Goldring said the crash caused minor damage to nearby buildings. "There s no question it s very tragic. We re a relatively small company, we re a family, we know everyone by name," Via chief operating officer John Marginson said at the scene. "We certainly feel for the families of the colleagues that we lost." Transportation Safety Board investigators were on the scene Sunday. A key piece of evidence will be the train s data recorder. Weather was not believed to be a factor, as it was clear and dry at the time of the crash. It was not immediately known how fast the train was traveling.

Oil tankers to halt supply today

Posted:

All Pakistan Oil Tankers Owners Association president said that they had given 72 hours to the government to fulfill their demands but the government failed to meet their demands therefore oil supply across the country would be halted today for indefinite period. Oil supply to air ports will also be suspended during the strike, he added.

Australia: PM Julia Gillard beats Rudd

Posted:

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard on Monday survived a leadership challenge from Kevin Rudd, trouncing the former leader in a damaging battle to head the ruling Labor party, media reported. The nation s first female prime minister retained office after smashing Rudd 71-31 in a secret ballot of the 103-member Labor caucus, although only 102 votes were cast. Earlier, media reports said she had won 73-29. "The ballot has taken place and Julia Gillard has won the ballot 71 votes to 31," said Chris Hayes, the returning officer.

Syria: Amateur video purports to show damage and shots fired

Posted:

At least 31 Syrian civilians and soldiers were killed on Sunday in bloodshed that coincided with a vote on a new constitution that could keep President Bashar al-Assad in power until 2028. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a military bombardment of opposition districts in Homs had killed nine civilians while rebels had killed four soldiers in clashes. The British-based Observatory said eight civilians and 10 members of the security forces were killed in violence elsewhere in Syria, scene of what has become an increasingly militarised revolt against four decades of Assad family rule. Voting took place in the referendum on a new constitution, which Assad says will lead to a multi-party parliamentary election in three months. The result is expected to be announced on Monday. Western powers described the vote as a sham. The Interior Ministry acknowledged obliquely that security conditions had disrupted voting, saying: "The referendum on a new constitution is taking place in a normal way in most provinces so far, with a large turnout, except in some areas." The Syrian government, backed by Russia, China and Iran, and undeterred by Western and Arab pressure to halt the carnage, says it is fighting foreign-backed "armed terrorist groups". Prime Minister Adel Safar, asked about opposition calls for a boycott, said this showed a lack of interest in dialogue. "There are some groups that have a Western and foreign agenda and do not want reforms in Syria and want to divert Syria s steadfastness," he told reporters in Damascus. "We are not concerned with this. We care about ... spreading democracy and freedom in the country," Safar said. "If there was a genuine desire for reform, there would have been movement from all groups, especially the opposition, to start dialogue immediately with the government to achieve the reforms and implement them on the ground." The outside world has been powerless to restrain Assad s drive to crush the 11-month-old revolt, which has the potential to slide into a sectarian conflict between Syria s Sunni Muslim majority and the president s minority Alawite sect. Unwilling to intervene militarily and unable to get the U.N. Security Council to act in the teeth of Russian and Chinese opposition, Western powers have imposed their own sanctions on Syria and backed an Arab League call for Assad to step down. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned on Sunday of the perils of any foreign intervention. "I think there is every possibility of a civil war. Outside intervention would not prevent that, it would probably expedite it," she told BBC television in an interview. "We have a very dangerous set of actors in the region: al Qaeda, Hamas and those who are on our terrorist list claiming to support the opposition.

Company denies brake failure in Argentine train tragedy

Posted:

The commuter train line operator in the Argentine capital where a crash last week killed 51 people rejected Sunday a conductor s claims that brake failure was to blame. "The train completed its route without there having been confirmed, or even reported, any irregularities, prior to the crash in the Once station," Trenes de Buenos Aires (TBA) said in a statement. The engineer operating the train blamed the brakes for failing, after he repeatedly warned they were faulty, a judicial source said Saturday. Engineer Marcos Cordoba is being investigated by police but was free after being treated at a hospital. He has told police he reported brake problems to his supervisors but that he was ordered to continue the trip that ended in the third worst rail accident in Argentine history. Another 703 people were injured when the train on Wednesday slammed into a bumper at Buenos Aires  Terminal Once. The train carried about 2,000 people. The severity of the rail disaster for Argentina ranked behind only the 1970 train accident in Benavides that killed 236 people and the 1978 wreck in Santa Fe province that resulted in 55 deaths.

WikiLeaks publishes 5m mails of US intelligence firm

Posted:

Whistleblowing website WikiLeaks on Monday began publishing more than five million confidential emails from US-based intelligence firm Stratfor, the anti-secrecy group said. The messages, which date from between July 2004 and December 2011, will reveal Stratfor s "web of informers, pay-off structure, payment-laundering techniques and psychological methods," claimed a WikiLeaks press release. "The material shows how a private intelligence agency works, and how they target individuals for their corporate and government clients," added the press release. The online organisation claims to have proof of the firm s confidential links to large corporations, such as Bhopal s Dow Chemical Co. and Lockheed Martin and government agencies, including the US Department of Homeland Security, the US Marines and the US Defense Intelligence Agency. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is currently in Britain fighting extradition to Sweden where he is wanted for questioning on rape and sexual assault allegations, and WikiLeaks has long expressed concern that if he is sent to Sweden, Stockholm would quickly send him on to the United States. Washington is eager to lay hands on the founder after the organisation s publication of hundreds of thousands of classified US diplomatic files.

Pak, UAE ink prisoners exchange deal

Posted:

Interior Minister Rehman Malik and his UAE’s counterpart Sheikh Saif-ud-Din Al-Nahyan signed the pact. According to the pact, now prisoners can spent their imprisonment in their own country.

G-20 linking IMF hike to bigger EU 'firewall' fund

Posted:

The G-20 nations are conditioning additional money for the International Monetary Fund on the European Union first increasing its financial stabilization funds to ease concerns about the euro zone debt crisis, officials said Sunday. Officials participating in a meeting of G-20 nations  finance ministers and central bank heads said an EU decision to add to the estimated €500 billion ($675 million) in firewall funds already committed to the effort would be essential before the rest of world considers contributing to the stabilization measures. "There is broad agreement that the IMF cannot substitute for the absence of a stronger European firewall and that the IMF cannot move forward without more clarity on Europe s own plans," U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said following the close of the meeting, noting the U.S. would not be making any increased contribution. The weekend talks mainly focused on stability for the euro zone, where debt and economic problems have threatened to destabilize global financial markets. Though no specific amount in firewall funds was discussed, Geithner said the funds "have to be large ... my sense is that they (Europeans) understand that." Other officials said the added funds must be enough to calm market concerns and should be available to countries before they fully carry out promised fiscal reforms. While the United States, Brazil and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development had already publicly urged an increase, a senior G-20 official who spoke on condition she not be quoted by name said the consensus that the EU must act was much broader, including big potential lender countries like China and Japan. They feel the IMF can play a back-up role, but the EU s own fund must be the first line of defense, the official said. It appears Germany s reluctance to further fund EU stabilization funds may be the sticking point, largely because the issue is a sensitive one in German domestic politics. Germany is the EU s strongest economy and would probably be the biggest contributor, and the German parliament must still approve the current round of support efforts for debt-plagued Greece. At a news conference, Mexican Treasury Secretary Jose Antonio Meade noted the euro-zone countries are to assess their stabilization efforts at a March meeting and said the results of that assessment, and possible changes in the size of the firewall funds, would "be fundamental" to how G-20 nations decide on increasing funding for the IMF. Mexico s central bank head, Agustin Carstens, said the EU decision would be an "essential input" for IMF funding decisions. Geithner noted that "the G-20 is committed to making sure that the IMF has the resources it needs to help its members deal with the risks from Europe." He also called the appreciation of China s currency, the renminbi, "welcome progress." China s currency has risen about 12 percent in real terms against the U.S. dollar over the last 18 months. But Geithner said that "we believe it is in China s interest and in the interest of the global economy for their exchange rate to continue to appreciate." Geithner also said he had "a series of encouraging conversations with countries planning to significantly reduce imports from Iran," to reinforce sanctions aimed at discouraging Iran s nuclear program. "We are seeing very effective cooperation from our partners on the financial front to help ensure that their banks cease transactions with the Central Bank of Iran and that Iranian banks find it harder than ever to facilitate Iran s illicit nuclear activities or to help Iran evade sanctions," he said at a new conference. Turning to the U.S. economy, Geithner said, "this is an important year for financial reform in the United States, where we expect to have the major foundations of our reform in place by the end of 2012." While noting that the U.S. has made progress in some sectors on economic recovery, "even with this progress, however, the damage inflicted by the crisis will still take some time to repair. Unemployment, while falling, is still very high. And the housing market remains weak." German officials did not speak to the media following the conference but appear reluctant to increase stabilization funds. In a column in the Mexican newspaper El Universal on the eve of the meeting, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble wrote that "should we increase even more the firewalls? The response is a resounding no." Schauble also rejected sharing other euro-zone country debts or expanding the euro money supply to meet countries  budget gaps. "This would not only not solve the problems of debt and competitiveness that brought the affected countries to their current state of affairs, it would also discourage their governments from carrying out consolidation and reform," he wrote. German central bank president Jens Weidmann noted Friday that euro-zone political leaders discuss further increases for the EU s firewall fund in their March meeting, but while he didn t rule out increased funding, he said money alone won t do it. "Higher walls of money can buy time, but that time must be used to tackle the roots of the crisis," Weidmann said at a seminar prior to the ministers meeting. "Ultimately, Greece cannot be forced to comply with the program," he said of the indebted country s commitment to make fiscal, wage and other changes in exchange for the EU bailout. "But it should be clear that no further disbursements will be warranted if Greece fails to keep its side of the bargain."

Pakistani held in Bangladesh over spot fixing

Posted:

A Pakistani has been questioned by police over his suspected involvement in spot-fixing during the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) Twenty20 tournament, a Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) official said on Sunday. Karachi resident Sajid Khan arrived in Dhaka on February 10 and BCB security chief Mesbahuddin Serniabat said they had been watching him since the BPL s Chittagong phase from February 18-22. "His movement was very suspicious and we followed him from Chittagong," Serniabat said. "We immediately took him to the visiting ICC Anti-Corruption and Security Unit official before handing him over to police." Sajid made a call to Pakistan every time a six was struck while watching the game from a VIP area on top of a dressing room, Serniabat said. He also attempted to enter the players  zone on several occasions.

BP oil spill trial delayed for settlement talks

Posted:

A blockbuster trial to determine how much BP and its subcontractors owe for the massive 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill was delayed a week to allow for more settlement talks, a judge ruled Sunday. Tens of billions of dollars are at stake in the complex trial -- previously due to start Monday -- in which a federal judge will rule on whether deadly missteps constitute gross negligence and assign a price tag to the damages. Judge Carl Barbier adjourned the trial until March 5 "for reasons of judicial efficiency and to allow the parties to make further progress in their settlement discussions." BP said in a statement that the delay was aimed at allowing it "more time to continue settlement discussions and attempt to reach an agreement" with the Plaintiffs  Steering Committee. That committee is charged with handling the claims of thousands of people and businesses affected by the spill, which blackened beaches in five US states and devastated the Gulf Coast s tourism and fishing industries. A settlement with that committee would not mark the end of the case, nor would it resolve the bulk of BP s liabilities. BP still faces staggering fines and potentially criminal charges from the federal government and must also resolve claims brought by state and local governments. It also still hopes to shift some of the financial burden onto Transocean, which operated the Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling rig, and Halliburton, which was responsible for the faulty cement job on the runaway well. Asked about the status of settlement negotiations with the government and its subcontractors, a BP spokesman declined to comment. "BP and the PSC are working to reach agreement to fairly compensate people and businesses affected by the Deepwater Horizon accident and oil spill," BP said in a joint statement with the Plaintiffs  Steering Committee.

Dike of Attabad Lake to be blown up today

Posted:

According to DCO Hunza, about 50,000 cusecs of water will be released due to the opening of the spill-way. The DCO told the Dunya News that all the arrangements have been completed to evacuate the nearby villages, while a high alert has been declared in the district.

Liverpool beat Cardiff 3-2 to win league cup

Posted:

Liverpool beat Cardiff City 3-2 on penalties to win the English League Cup for the eighth time in a thrilling game which ended 2-2 after extra time at Wembley. Cardiff s Anthony Gerrard, cousin of Liverpool s Steven, fired the final spot kick wide as the Championship (second division) side s hopes of becoming the first Welsh club to win the trophy ended in heartache. Dirk Kuyt, Stewart Downing and Glen Johnson converted their spot kicks for Liverpool, while Cardiff missed three of theirs. Substitute Kuyt appeared to have sealed victory for Liverpool when he put his side 2-1 ahead at the start of the second half of extra time after a nailbiting final had ended 1-1 after 90 minutes. The Dutchman then turned saviour as he headed a Cardiff effort off the line, but from the resulting corner Ben Turner prodded in a dramatic equaliser to take the game to penalties. Cardiff, the first Welsh side to reach the League Cup final in the competition s 52-year existence, stunned Liverpool when they took the lead after 19 minutes through Joe Mason s smartly taken shot and Kenny Miller almost snatched victory near the end of full time after defender Martin Skrtel had equalised for Liverpool on the hour.

Case against Baloch leaders quashed

Posted:

According to a notification issued by federal government to Balochistan government as well as province’s IGP and Commissioner Quetta, all the cases filed against Harbyar and Brahamdagh, Akhtar Mengal and all other Baloch leaders in exile have been quashed. Earlier, Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik had announced that government was set to put the exiled Baloch nationalist leaders off the hook so that they could return to Pakistan. He said all Baloch leaders would be welcomed on return.

Kasur NA-140 by-polls: Malik Rashid wins by 89 votes

Posted:

Earlier, Malik Rashid was declared winner in the initial counting but independent candidate Dr Azeemuddin Lakhvi challenged the result and demanded recounting. In the recounting Azeem Lakhvi was declared winner by 264 votes. However, during the third counting the returning officer declared Malik Rashid winner by 73 votes again. Dr Azeemuddin Lakhvi’s supporters besieged Returning Officer’s Office over alleged poll rigging. The protesters blocked Lahore-Kasur Road and besieged the Returning Officer’s office. They also chanted slogans against the provincial government and blamed for rigging. On that, District Returning Officer Kasur cancelled result and offered recounting. According to the last counting, Rasheed Ahmed clutched 42,295 votes to defeat Azimmuddin Lakhvi by 89 votes, who got 47,206.

PoliticusUSA

Cricket - Sports

Monday, February 27, 2012

Dunya TV

Dunya TV

0 comments:

Reuters News Agency

World EYE