search online

Thursday, January 2, 2014

Dunya TV

Dunya TV

Senates 100th session starts today

Posted:

ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – The Senate session has been summoned by President of Pakistan by exercise of powers conferred on him by Clause 1 of Article 54 of the Constitution. Chairman Senate Syed Nayyar Hussain Bokhari will chair the session.

China loans Pakistan $6.5 b, for nuclear plants

Posted:

ISLAMABAD (AFP) - China has agreed to lend Pakistan $6.5 billion to help build nuclear power stations including a 2,200-megawatt plant in Karachi, as Beijing increases its involvement in the cash-strapped country.Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif announced the package at a briefing on Wednesday, saying it would help ensure an uninterrupted power supply.The loans are to be provided by Chinese state-owned Exim Bank and will be repaid at a concessional rate over 20 years, according to reports.A finance ministry spokesman confirmed the deal to AFP on Thursday.It is the latest example of Chinese involvement in Pakistan, which is battling to get its shaky economy back on track and solve a chronic energy crisis that cripples industry.Pakistan began building the 2,200-megawatt plant, set to be its largest nuclear power station, last month with Chinese technical assistance.The country faces an electricity shortfall of around 4,000 megawatts in the sweltering summer, leading to lengthy blackouts that make ordinary people's lives a misery and have strangled economic growth.Chinese companies are working on more than 100 major projects in energy, roads and technology, according to Pakistani officials, with an estimated $18 billion expected to be invested in coming years.Aside from the 2,200 MW project Chinese companies built two of Pakistan's three operational reactors.Chinese engineers are also busy in the construction of a 969 MW hydropower project in Kashmir. They have also committed to generate 6,000 MW of electricity from coal and wind in the southern province of Sindh.

Lahore: Torture kills minor house servant

Posted:

LAHORE (Dunya News) - According to details, the incident occurred in Askari 9 area where a 10-year-old house servant Iram, a resident of Ocara, was tortured to death by the house owner.Altaf Hussain of Askari 9 had hired Iram to work in his house for a monthly pay of just Rs 2,500. Iram was brought to Services Hospital in critical condition on Thursday night where she died.According to initial reports the death was caused by torture. Police said that the real cause of the death would be exactly known after the postmortem. The body of deceased has been shifted to Mayo Hospital.

Car bomb kills four in Hezbollah Beirut bastion: minister

Posted:

BEIRUT (AFP) - A car bomb killed four people in south Beirut Thursday, the fourth attack to hit the Hezbollah bastion since the Shiite group announced its intervention in Syria last year, the health minister said.The bombing came just weeks after a twin suicide bombing killed 25 people at the Iranian embassy in the same area and marked a new breach of the tight security in Hezbollah's stronghold.Health Minister Ali Hassan Khalil said four people had been killed and 77 wounded. He said the remains of a fifth person had also been found.Interior Minister Marwan Charbel said it may have been a suicide bombing.Hezbollah's public confirmation last April that its fighters had intervened in the civil war alongside President Bashar al-Assad's forces outraged Lebanese Sunnis, most of whom sympathise with the Syrian rebels, and has made it a target for Sunni hardliners.An AFP photographer in the densely populated area saw flames and smoke rising from burning vehicles and at least three damaged buildings.Hezbollah's Al-Manar television aired footage of panicked bystanders scrambling to douse burning vehicles on the busy Al-Arid street, beneath a building whose facade had been burned out.The terrorist explosion targeted a densely populated residential area, just 150 to 200 metres (yards) away from Hezbollah's political bureau, Al-Manar reported, but said the building was not thought to have been the target. The district is symbolic for Hezbollah, which once based many of its leadership institutions in the area. Much of the neighbourhood was reduced to rubble during the massive Israeli air bombing that accompanied its 2006 war with Hezbollah, but it has since been rebuilt.Interior minister Charbel told private Lebanese channel MTV: We are leaning towards the hypothesis that a suicide bomber caused the blast, as human remains were found inside the car. But we cannot confirm this until we complete our investigations.In a statement, the Lebanese army said 20 kilogrammes (44 pounds) of explosives had been planted inside a four-by-four vehicle, and that the method of explosion is being investigated.

Bangladesh PM rules out election cancellation

Posted:

DHAKA (AFP) - Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina ruled out Thursday any last-minute cancellation of weekend elections that have been boycotted by the opposition, accusing her rivals of holding the country hostage.In a final address to the nation ahead of Sunday's violence-plagued polls, Hasina accused opposition leader Khaleda Zia of shunning dialogue and rejecting an offer to share power in an interim administration.We have tried our best to bring the BNP (Bangladesh Nationalist Party) into the elections, Hasina, who is the leader of the ruling Awami League, said in a 40-minute televised address.She (Zia) spurned my offer for dialogue and instead chose the path of confrontation.The January 5 polls will be held in accordance with the constitution, she added.More than 140 people have been killed in violence in the last two months since Hasina announced she would not bow to calls to stand aside and let a caretaker government organise the elections.Zia's BNP and 20 other opposition parties have refused to take part in the elections over fears that the result would be rigged, dimissing the contest as a farce.The BNP has organised a series of general strikes and blockades designed to paralyse the country and hence scupper the contest.She held the people to hostage in the name of strikes and blockades, Hasina said of Zia, blaming her supporters for the deaths of civilians and security forces.Diplomatic sources say Hasina has been under new pressure this week to hold off on the election, with envoys privately warning her top aides that the polls would only further inflame tensions.The United States and the European Union have cold-shouldered the contest, further undermining its credibility by refusing to send observers.But Hasina, who was elected in 2009 after beating two-time former premier Zia, insisted the polls would be free and fair.The polls are being held under an independent election commission, said the 66-year-old premier, who is the daughter of Bangladesh's slain founding father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

Iraq oil pipeline bombed, pumping halted

Posted:

KIRKUK (AFP) - Militants bombed a major oil pipeline in northern Iraq on Thursday, causing a fire and forcing pumping to be suspended, an official from the North Oil Company said.Blasts hit the pipeline, which runs to the Turkish port of Ceyhan, in Salaheddin province to the north of Baghdad, the official said, adding that the fire was extinguished and repairs had begun.Militants frequently attack the pipeline, which ferries a significant portion of Iraq's oil exports to international markets.Iraq is heavily dependent on oil exports, and the government is seeking to dramatically ramp up its sales in the coming years to fund the reconstruction of its battered infrastructure.Officials are aiming to increase production capacity to nine million barrels per day by 2017, a target that the International Monetary Fund and International Energy Agency have warned is over-optimistic.

Kerry in Israel on new Mideast peace push

Posted:

JERUSALEM (AFP) - US Secretary of State John Kerry met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Thursday as he pushed a framework for Middle East peace talks, amid growing tension with the Palestinians.The two met in Jerusalem, launching what is expected to be an intense four days of shuttle diplomacy between Israeli and Palestinian leaders.Kerry's meeting with Netanyahu was extending into the night, having already lasted more than four hours. Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon and Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, who is the chief negotiator with the Palestinians, had joined the talks, Israeli media reported. The top US diplomat will be meeting with his Israeli counterpart Avigdor Lieberman on Friday before heading to the west Bank city of Ramallah for talks with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.Kerry has faced fierce opposition from both sides to any compromise on mostly irreconcilable demands since he kick-started direct negotiations in July after a three-year hiatus.His latest visit, the 10th since March, comes with Palestinian and Israeli leaders accusing each other of lacking serious commitment to achieving a lasting peace.I plan to work with both sides more intensely in these next days to narrow the differences on a framework that will provide the agreed guidelines for permanent status negotiations, Kerry told reporters before meeting Netanyahu.An agreed framework would be a significant breakthrough.Netanyahu repeated that he did not believe the Palestinians were taking the process seriously.Unfortunately, given the actions and words of Palestinian leaders, there's growing doubt in Israel that the Palestinians are committed to peace, he said.A few days ago in Ramallah, president Abbas embraced terrorists as heroes... How can he say that he stands against terrorism when he embraces the perpetrators of terrorism and glorifies them as heroes?Netanyahu was referring to Israel's release of the third of four batches of 104 veteran Palestinian prisoners as a goodwill gesture agreed under the talks process.As the meeting between Kerry and Netanyahu continued on Thursday night, dozens of Israelis were protesting outside the US diplomat's hotel for the release of Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard, a former US Navy analyst detained in 1985 for supplying Israel with secret documents.A State Department official said ahead of Kerry's trip that he aims to hammer out a framework to guide the sides through the tough final months of talks, due to end in late April.Kerry and his team hope to have the framework in place soon, addressing the core issues.These include the contours of the borders of a future Palestinian state, the fate of Jerusalem which both sides claim as their capital, and Palestinian refugees.The Palestinians want borders based on the 1967 lines that existed before the Six-Day War, when Israel captured the West Bank, including now annexed Arab east Jerusalem.But Israel wants to retain existing settlements it has built inside occupied Palestinian territory since then.

Israel strikes in Gaza after rocket attack

Posted:

JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israeli war planes carried out a series of strikes in the Gaza Strip early Friday, the army said, shortly after a rocket from the Palestinian enclave struck the Jewish state.A statement from the army said that in response to rocket fire toward Israel, its aircraft targeted a terror infrastructure site in the central Gaza Strip and three concealed rocket launchers in the northern Gaza Strip.Direct hits were confirmed, the statement read.There were no immediate reports of injuries in Gaza.Late Thursday night a projectile fired from the Islamist Hamas-run enclave hit southern Israel, a police spokeswoman told AFP, causing no harm or damage.Early on Thursday, a Palestinian youth was shot in the leg by Israeli soldiers near the border fence in the northern Gaza Strip, with the army saying he had been damaging the border fence.On Sunday, Palestinians said two people were wounded by Israeli tanks in central Gaza.Exchanges of fire between the sides peaked last Tuesday, when a sniper inside Gaza killed an Israeli repairing the border fence.Israel retaliated against terror sites in Gaza with warplanes and tanks, killing a toddler and wounding at least six people.

Nadal ousts Gulbis to reach Doha semis

Posted:

DOHA (AFP) - World number one Rafael Nadal showed his trademark grit and determination on Thursday as he reached the semi-finals of the Qatar Open with a 7-5, 6-4 victory over Latvian Ernests Gulbis. The Spaniard has never previously won an ATP World Tour title in the first week of the season, but he is on course to do so this time after seeing off Gulbis, the only other seeded player left in the draw.Gulbis hit some startling winners, led 5-4 in the first set, and had three points to take a 4-1 lead in the second, but Nadal was always tough and resilient when it mattered most.Nadal also served very well, approached the net more than usual, and his standard went up markedly when it seemed that Gulbis might take a grip on the second set.I am not thinking about Australia, he said, referring to the first Grand Slam event of the year, starting later this month in Melbourne. I am thinking about Doha.For me this is a tournament I like to play but have never had a chance to win. I'm trying to be competitive, and after the match I am hoping I will feel competitive for tomorrow (Friday).Uncharacteristically teeming rain caused a two-hour delay to proceedings, before a further interruption of 10 minutes during which the two players sat on court with towels over their heads.That did not seem to disrupt Gulbis's rhythm, for he continued to hit spectacular winners, only to attempt a risky drop shot at 30-40 in the 11th game which effectively cost him the first set when it landed wide.Gulbis then played beautifully for the first five games of the second set, dragging the match to another dimension.He broke his opponent in the second game, only for Nadal to break back in the fifth game thanks to his formidable forehand.He then broke again, decisively, in the seventh game and saw out victory with a backhand pass struck from well behind the baseline and which touched the net on the way over.That was a very good sign, said Nadal. I have been practising more than I usually do for a tournament, but I understand that that is what I need to do.He next plays unheralded German Peter Gojowczyk, who earlier saw off compatriot Dustin Brown in three sets.Gojowczyk had only ever won one match on the ATP World Tour before this week, but here he continued his run despite coming close to losing in a dramatic decider which finished in a tie-break.I was really nervous, but I was really nervous in the beginning, too, Gojowczyk admitted. Later, a second German made the semis when Florian Mayer, the conqueror of Wimbledon champion Andy Murray, missed four match points in the second set against Victor Hanescu of Romania before winning 6-4, 6-7 (8-10), 6-4.Mayer will face Gael Monfils in the last four after the Frenchman won comfortably 6-2, 6-1 against Daniel Brands, another German.

Tennis: Last gasp puts Poland into Hopman Cup final

Posted:

PERTH (AFP) - Polish pair Agnieszka Radwanska and Grzegorz Panfil edged past Australia on Thursday to scrape into the final of the mixed teams Hopman Cup.In their country's first appearance at the event, the Polish duo advanced to Saturday's final with a 2-1 win over the host nation that left them as the only unbeaten team in their group.But the Poles didn't secure their berth in the title decider until the last gasp.Earlier on Thursday, the Canadian team of Eugenie Bouchard and Milos Raonic had kept their hopes of reaching the final alive, notching a 3-0 win over Italy after Flavia Pennetta was forced out by a wrist injury during the opening women's singles rubber.The Canadians remained in the hunt for the final as Poland and Australia split the singles with Bernard Tomic giving the host nation the lead in the tie with an easy win over Panfil and the fifth-ranked Radwanska then squaring the ledger by beating Samantha Stosur in three tight sets.That meant the Poles needed to win at least one set in the deciding mixed doubles to reach the final.They achieved that when they prevailed in a tight second set to level the match after the Australians had taken the first easily and threatened to run away with the match, and in doing so hand Canada a berth in the final.Radwanska and Panfil then claimed the third set in a match tiebreak to win 1-6, 7-5, 10-8.Although Poland were the nominal top seeds for the tournament, they were given little chance of glory when Jerzy Janowicz was a late withdrawal and little-known world number 288 Panfil took his place.Panfil is on the verge of the the biggest payday of his career and could scarcely believe his luck.It is a great week for me. We play in the final ... it is a good evening, he said.Unbeaten in his first two singles matches in Perth, including an astounding win over world number 11 Raonic, Panfil produced his worst performance of the week against Tomic, capitulating meekly as the Australian won 6-1, 6-4.Despite nursing a shoulder problem, Radwanska then came from a set down to beat Stosur, who was again plagued by problems with her misfiring serve, 3-6, 6-4, 6-3.That set the scene for a dramatic mixed doubles encounter.With the Australian Open just over a week away, Pennetta was forced to withdraw from her singles match against Canadian teenager Bouchard when trailing 4-0, due to soreness in her right wrist.Milos Raonic then beat Andreas Seppi in straight sets in the men's singles and the mixed doubles was forfeited.Pennetta had an operation on the same wrist in 2012, but was confident the latest setback was nothing more than inflammation.The world number 31 said the wrist was sore when she awoke on Thursday and she was close to withdrawing before the start of the match.She had strapping applied after the third game but the injury was clearly affecting her serve and forehand.The 31-year-old Italian is still expecting to play in Hobart next week to complete her preparations for the year's opening Grand Slam, starting on January 13 in Melbourne.It's the wrist that I had the operation on... Sometimes it gives me some problem, I hope it's nothing too serious, she said. I was thinking maybe with some warm-up it would get better but it did not.I will have some treatment. Maybe I won't play for one or two days to help because I think it's more something like inflammation, it's not like a tear or ligaments.In the men's singles, world number 11 Raonic overpowered the out-of-sorts Seppi 6-2, 6-4.Seppi, ranked 25th in the world, retired from his first match at the tournament due to illness, and lost both his subsequent singles outings in disappointing fashion.Raonic was a shock loser to Panfil on Sunday and was pleased to put that result behind him.

Qatar ready to host World Cup 'whatever the date': organiser

Posted:

DOHA (AFP) - Qatar will be ready to host the 2022 World Cup finals whether the competition is played in summer or winter, Nasser Al-Khater from the organising committee told AFP on Thursday.Football's world governing body FIFA have launched a consultation process over whether the tournament should be moved from its habitual June and July dates to the winter to avoid the unbearable heat in the Gulf.However, Al-Khater says the uncertainty has had no impact on Qatar 2022's work thus far.Our plans are still to deliver the World Cup in the summer as we have bid and as we have promised, he said. And I think it's only right that if there will be a change that the international football community agrees amongst themselves and decides. For us we will be ready regardless of the date that they choose.With that in mind, work is underway on the first stadium to be built for the tournament and Al-Khater said that construction will accelerate in 2014.We will be announcing five more stadiums in 2014 and five stadiums will be in different sorts of levels of work in 2014, he stated. So this is the year where real progress will be showing on the ground.Plans to cool the air inside the stadiums - one of the most eye-catching elements of Qatar's World Cup bid - will go ahead even with the doubt surrounding when the tournament will be played, with Al-Khater emphasising the need to improve conditions for domestic competitions too.You open the horizons for other countries because this (air-cooling) technology is not just for stadiums, he said. It's for open and public spaces. So a fan zone, a public square can benefit from these kinds of technologies, which means that other countries that haven't hosted events because of the weather or so forth have now an opportunity to engage with us, and for us to engage with them to look at solutions.Al-Khater also insisted that reports in foreign media highlighting the difficult conditions faced by immigrant workers in the tiny country, while creating negative publicity, could turn out to be a positive thing.It's good that a light has been shown on something like this because it raises the question. However we also need to recognise that this isn't the status quo and this isn't something that is rampant. Yes they are perpetrators of the law and, these people, what they are doing is illegal. I think that what it means now is things need to be reviewed on how to make sure that this can be enforced and the government at the highest level is taking this issue and matter very seriously.We've created workers welfare standards which are going to be mandatory requirements that are going to be placed on all our contracts that will make sure these principles are maintained.They are going to go into details of how to protect their rights, to make sure their welfare is being upheld, to make sure that things like their salaries are being paid on time.

Football: Jese strike carries Real to victory over PSG in Doha

Posted:

DOHA (AFP) - Real Madrid defeated Paris Saint-Germain 1-0 in a prestige friendly played under pouring rain in Doha, Qatar on Thursday. The only goal of the match was scored by 20-year-old Jese after 19 minutes in front of an enthusiastic crowd who favoured the Spanish giants despite the Qatari-ownership of Ligue 1 leaders PSG. A lively first half produced plenty of open football and good scoring chances but it was Real who struck first.A defence-splitting pass from Alvaro Morata allowed Jese to get behind the PSG back four and the young striker made no mistake as he slotted the ball past Italian 'keeper Salvatore Sirigu. The under-21 international, who made his debut under former coach Jose Mourinho in 2011, has seen his first-team chances limited but took his opportunity with aplomb under the wet Doha conditions. For us, it was a preparation match so we don't really consider it to be a defeat, it was more of a training excercise, said PSG's Brazilian left-back Maxwell. The most important thing for us is Sunday and our match in the French Cup (against second division side Brest). We're not at 100 per cent and could still feel the effects of the holiday season in our legs, he added. The goal came slightly against the run of play as Laurent Blanc's men conjured up the best of the first-half chances, notably a golden opportunity for Edinson Cavani, who botched his one-on-one duel with Real 'keeper Diego Lopez.The Uruguayan's shot from point-blank range, just two minutes before the opening goal, was superbly blocked by Lopez.The French club again enjoyed most of the possession after the break and Zlatan Ibrahimovic almost scored with a close-range header minutes after the restart, although the offside flag was up. Blanc and his Italian counterpart Carlo Ancelotti shook up their starting line-ups and there was no further scoring, as Jese's lone goal separated the sides.

Football: Bayern set for Qatar training camp

Posted:

BERLIN (AFP) - European and club world champions Bayern Munich head for Qatar on Sunday for a nine-day winter training camp in the Gulf state.When we get there, we have everything we need to prepare for the forthcoming challenges, commented Bayern chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge on Thursday.The Bavarians have not trained since beating Raja Casablanca in Marrakech to win the Club World Cup on December 21, completing a remarkable haul of five trophies in 2013, following their triumphs in the Champions League, Bundesliga, German Cup and European Super Cup.Pep Guardiola's side will take on Sudanese champions Al-Merrikh in Doha on January 9 and, on their way home, will stop off in Kuwait for a friendly against local champions Kuwait SC on January 13.Bayern do not return to competitive action until January 24, when they go to Borussia Moenchengladbach.They are seven points clear of Bayer Leverkusen with a game in hand at the top of the Bundesliga.

Scientists discover hormone that blocks marijuana buzz

Posted:

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A naturally occurring hormone acts as spontaneous defense in the brain against the high caused by marijuana and could be useful in preventing addiction, researchers said Thursday.French researchers studied lab rats and found that the steroid hormone pregnenolone reduced the activity of a particular brain molecule called the type-1 cannabinoid receptor (CB1).The hormone, which was not previously believed to have any biological effect of its own, actually cancels out the high caused by THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, according to lead author Pier Vincenzo Piazza of the French Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM).These researchers werent trying to be buzzkills, said the journal Science, in which the study appears.Their discovery could lead to new approaches to treating marijuana intoxication and addiction -- and it may allow researchers to isolate the medicinal properties of cannabis while blocking its behavioral and somatic effects.About 147 million people globally -- or about 2.5 percent of the population -- use cannabis, according to the World Health Organization.While cannabis products can alleviate symptoms of depression, glaucoma, spasms, and nausea associated with cancer and AIDS, they are also known to impair brain development, memory and lung function, and some say they can lead to addiction.Researchers discovered the previously unknown role of pregnenolone when they administered high doses of cannabis to lab rats, on the order of three to 10 times more than the typical human marijuana smoker might be exposed to, Piazza told AFP.The high doses of cannabis raised the brains level of pregnenolone, which blocked the harmful effects of THC on the brain.They also did tests in the lab on human cell lines -- not human patients -- that showed a similar blocking effect.We hope to be able to start clinical trials in people in a year to a year and a half, Piazza told AFP.If pregnenolones effect can be confirmed, it would mark the first pharmacological therapy for cannabis dependence, he added.

Study pinpoints likely site of next big China quake

Posted:

WASHINGTON (AFP) - It is impossible to predict when the next big earthquake will hit, but researchers said Thursday they have a good idea of where in China such a temblor is likely.The hot zone is a 60-kilometer (37-mile) segment of the Longmenshan fault which divides the Tibetan Plateau from the Sichuan Basin in southwestern China, said the study in the journal Seismological Research Letters.The area is northeast of the Lushan rupture zone, and is under pressure as a result of a pair of deadly quakes in Sichuan province in 2008 and 2013, the study said.That particular segment is most likely to produce the next big earthquake in this region, said the study, led by Mian Liu of the University of Missouri.Such a quake could be as large as a magnitude 7, based on the amount of accumulated stress in the fault, it said.However, a risk assessment map produced by the Global Seismic Hazard Assessment Program shows the entire Longmenshan fault zone as being relatively safe, the study noted.A massive 7.9 earthquake in Wenchuan county killed more than 80,000 people in 2008, marking the largest earthquake to hit China since 1950.A magnitude 6.6 quake in Lushan, about 90 kilometers to the south, in 2013 killed more than 200 people.
Posted by at

No comments :

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments ( Atom )