Headlines

Abu Dhabi: FIFA president Sepp Blatter confirmed on Friday that he would favour playing the controversial 2022 Qatar World Cup in November and December. “We are starting the consultations to bring it to the winter time. It can only be done in November-December, not January-February,” Blatter told reporters in Abu Dhabi, where he will attend this weekend’s under-17 World Cup final between Nigeria and Mexico. Meanwhile, the head of world football said he would also be prepared to listen to Qatar’s response to accusations of abuse of workers. Qatar has come under fire over the treatment of migrant workers who are employed to build the massive infrastructure needed for the tournament. “A clock has a ding-dong&rdquo...

November 9, 2013 at 1:08 am | News Desk

Paris: France, and the eurozone’s fragile recovery, were thrown on the back foot on Friday when rating agency Standard and Poor’s downgraded French debt by one notch, but the government reacted with defiance. Standard and Poor’s said in strong terms that high debt, taxes and unemployment were squeezing the government’s room for manoeuvre and that deeper structural reforms were urgently needed. But S and P held steady its ratings of leading French banks. The announcement pushed up France’s 10-year borrowing rate and depressed French stocks. The critically important 10-year bond yield rose to 2.391 percent from 2.158 percent late on Thursday. The downgrade to “AA” from “AA+” came three day...

November 9, 2013 at 1:08 am | News Desk

Muhammad Bilal Khan The death of Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud in an American drone strike on November 1almost derailed the government's plan to hold peace talks with Taliban militants. Mehsud was killed along with five senior leaders of the militant group when American drones fired missiles on a compound and their vehicles in North Waziristan tribal region.  The Taliban leaders came under attack after they held consultations ahead of the proposed peace talks with the government. Latest reports suggest that nearly 20 Taliban figures, who had gathered at the compound, were killed in the attack. Pakistani Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan accused the United States of sabotaging the government effort to ini...

November 8, 2013 at 8:02 pm | News Desk

KARACHI: NComputing, the leader in accelerating the adoption of desktop virtualization, has been recognized as the fastest growing vendor in the worldwide enterprise client device market in the second quarter of 2013. According to the IDC Worldwide Enterprise Client Device Tracker Q2 2013, published recently, NComputing showed 70% QoQ growth, as well as 65% YoY growth, far stronger than Dell, Wyse or HP. The impressive showing closed the market share gap between NComputing and the two traditional market leaders to just a few percentage points. According to the report, the company has also maintained its leadership position with 30.7% market share in the APAC region, miles ahead of some decades-old IT majors.The report also shows that NComp...

November 8, 2013 at 1:04 am | News Desk

MERANSHAH: Banned outfit in Pakistan, Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), has appointed its prominent commander from the Swat Valley Mullah Fazlullah on top post of the organisation on Thursday. Mullah Fazlullah, also known as Mullah Radio, has been appointed by the executive committee  of the organisation after the death of its former chief Hakimullah Mehsud in US drone attack last week, Reuters reported. “Fazlullah is the new TTP (Pakistani Taliban) chief,” he said. “The decision was taken at a shura meeting today.”, the news agency quoted the spokesperson. Mullah Fazlullah was involved in high profile killing of Major General (retd) Sanaullah Khan Niazi, the General Officer Commanding Swat, in Upper Dir via IE...

November 8, 2013 at 1:04 am | News Desk

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan’s Minister of Railways, Khawaja Saad Rafique has signalled for restoration of trade operations via carriage trains between Pakistan and Turkey in December. The announcement was made after Turkish Ambassador to Pakistan S. Babar Hizlan’s meeting with the railways minister Khawaja Saad Rafique in Islamabad. While detailing the upcoming carriage train project, Rafique said the railway link between Islamabad to Istanbul would be the perfect example of brotherhood and trade cooperation. He revealed that the Pakistan Railways has made an upgration plan for Quetta-Taftan railway track and Turkish companies will be welcomed for investments. The minister added that Pakistan would provide strong trade and econom...

November 8, 2013 at 1:04 am | News Desk

Nouakchott: Al-Qaeda’s north and west African division claimed responsibility Wednesday for the murders of two French journalists shot dead in Mali’s rebel-infested desert, in a statement published by a news agency in neighbouring Mauritania. Ghislaine Dupont, 57, and Claude Verlon, 55, were kidnapped and killed by what French officials called “terrorist groups” after interviewing a spokesman for Tuareg separatists in the flashpoint northeastern town of Kidal on Saturday. “This operation was a response to crimes committed by France against Malians and the work of African and international forces against the Muslims of Azawad,” Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) said, using the name given by the Tuareg...

November 7, 2013 at 1:20 am | News Desk

Ramallah (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – Swiss scientists have concluded Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is likely to have died from polonium poisoning, according to a text of their findings published by Al-Jazeera television Wednesday. The results of tests on Arafat’s remains “moderately support the proposition that the death was the consequence of poisoning with polonium-210,” said the 108-page analysis posted on Al-Jazeera’s website. “New toxicological and radio-toxicological investigations were performed, demonstrating unexpectedly high levels of polonium-210 and lead-210 activity in many of the analysed specimens,” said the report penned by 10 experts at the Vaudois University Hospital Centr...

November 7, 2013 at 1:00 am | News Desk

Havana: Colombia’s government and the FARC guerrilla group reached agreement Wednesday on the rebels’ participation in politics once they end their near 50-year insurgency, the two sides announced. “We have reached fundamental agreement on the second point of the agenda,” they said in a joint statement read out in Havana by a Cuban diplomat, Rodolfo Benitez. The rebels’ return to politics was one of five agenda points under negotiation in year-long peace talks between the government of Juan Manuel Santos and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. The sides must reach agreement on three more issues — drug trafficking, compensation for victims, and disarmament — to finalize a comprehensi...

November 7, 2013 at 1:00 am | News Desk

Moscow: The artistic director of the Bolshoi ballet Sergei Filin on Wednesday dramatically confronted the former dancer accused of plotting to blind him with acid, rejecting allegations of an affair with a top young ballerina. Filin, who nearly lost his sight in an acid attack early this year, took to the witness stand in the trial of former Bolshoi soloist Pavel Dmitrichenko who is charged with planning the assault. In a stunningly frank testimony, Filin denied favouring ballerinas based on any “intimate relations” and said he cannot forgive anyone behind the attack. “I don’t forgive anyone for what happened,” he said. The testimony exposed yet more of the intrigue and plotting behind the scenes of the Bolshoi...

November 7, 2013 at 1:00 am | News Desk

Brussels: Hopes of eurozone recovery momentum were dashed Tuesday, with new EU forecasts seeing more agony for millions on the dole as Brussels stepped up pressure on Germany and France to re-shape their economies. The European Commission said growth across the 17-member single currency area would amount to 1.1 percent next year, down from the 1.2 percent it forecast in May. But it should then rise to 1.7 percent in 2015. The eurozone economy will shrink by 0.4 percent this year, the commission said, unchanged from the previous estimate. The Commission signalled that France and Spain are set to overshoot their deficit reduction targets, and conceded that a “discussion” is imminent on Germany’s longstanding trade surplus &m...

November 6, 2013 at 1:55 am | News Desk

KARACHI: Sindh government has called tenders for establishment of 3 wide-open and modern jail projects like Guantanamo Bay estimably of Rs1.5 billion in Karachi, Hyderabad and Sukkur. Planning and Development Department of the Government of Sindh approved and called tenders for the Guantanamo Bay like jails’ projects expectedly of worth in Rs1.5 billion in three cities of the province. Special prisoner cells ‘High Prisoners’ Security Enclaves’ will be constructed inside the jails for high-risk offenders and special arrangements also been made like Guantanamo Bay prison, according to jail development programme reported by local newspaper. Governmental sources claimed that the high-risk prisoners will kept in those ...

November 6, 2013 at 1:02 am | News Desk

JEDDAH: Even though Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is famous for its strict measures regarding theft, nevertheless this is not the same for women. Despite the females too involved in burglary in mostly the shopping centers, they don’t face the same felony as is being charged on male thieves. These gangs in Saudi Arabia do not face the same penalty even though they are involved in thefts. Often most of them are caught red handed while shopping in their targeted stores. The main reason for the hurdle is the procedures of bureaucracy that often helps them get away from pick pocketing. Even with proof available from more than 400 CCTV cameras along with the presence of 160 private security guards, of which 20 are women, they tend to get aw...

November 6, 2013 at 1:02 am | News Desk

KARACHI: While appreciating the return of all-rounders Abdul Razzaq to the Pakistan T20 squad, the former chief selector, Abdul Qadir has questioned the wisdom behind retaining a few ‘failed’ players in place of a deserving lot. “Razzaq is a match winner and I am happy for his inclusion in the team. Now the captain should utitise him properly by providing consistent chances. If I had the authority, I would have appointed him [Razzaq] as the ODI skipper with Afridi as the captain of the T20 outfit”, said Abdul Qadir while talking to our correspondent. The former chief selector minced no word in coming down hard on the selection policy and said that the selectors had soft-corner for certain players. “Muhammad Haf...

November 6, 2013 at 1:02 am | News Desk

Manchester: (United Kingdom): England goalkeeper Joe Hart will remain on the bench for Manchester City’s Champions League group match against CSKA Moscow at Eastlands on Tuesday, Blues’ manager Manuel Pellegrini said Monday. Hart, following several high-profile errors this season, was replaced by Costel Pantilimon for Saturday’s 7-0 Premier League home rout of Norwich. And Chilean boss Pellegrini has decided the 26-year-old needs more than one game out of the firing line. “I don’t know when Joe will come back to the team,” Pellegrini said. “It is very important for him to have a rest. He has played all the matches in the last two-and-a-half years. “We will see in the future what we must do. Fo...

November 5, 2013 at 1:02 am | News Desk

London: A worldwide probe into suspected rigging of foreign exchange trading has reached HSBC, Europe’s biggest bank revealed on Monday as it announced also a jump in quarterly profits. The London-based bank revealed that global regulators are investigating a number of firms, including HSBC, “relating to trading on the foreign exchange market”. HSBC added that it was “cooperating with the investigations which are at an early stage”. It comes as the British bank announced a 28-percent increase in net profit to $3.2 billion (2.37 billion euros) during the three months to the end to September on major cost-cutting and lower bad debt charges. HSBC had posted profit after tax of $2.5 billion in the third quarter of ...

November 5, 2013 at 1:02 am | News Desk