CMYK
Sunday, 03 May, 2015
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Rajab 14, 1436
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Rs 25.00
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Vol V No 304
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112 Pages
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Karachi Edition
Forgiving is easy but Forgetting is hard
Sharif tells MQM chief to think twice before making statements against national security institutions Political parties announce to move resolutions in assemblies against Altaf Hussain’s anti-army statements
no more resignations From altaF! STORIES ON PAGE 03
AFGHAN DELEGATION TO MEET WITH TALIBAN IN QATAR
NAB CALLS FOR SUPRA-TAX REGULATOR
STORY ON PAGE 04
IRAN PLEDGES TO PROTECT SHARED SECURITY INTERESTS WITH YEMEN STORY ON PAGE 04
STORY ON PAGE 09
ACCOUNTABILITY WATCHDOG SAYS TAX APPELLATE AUTHORITIES SHOULD BE PUT UNDER LAW MINISTRY
44 MILITANTS KILLED IN NWA, KHYBER AIR STORY STRIKES ON PAGE 03
EX-MALIR SSP RAO ANWAAR SURVIVES ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT FIVE ASSAILANTS KILLED IN RETALIATORY GUNFIRE AFTER TERRORISTS ATTACK POLICE OFFICIAL’S CONVOY IN KARACHI’S MALIR AREA STORY ON PAGE 02
02 NEWS
Sunday, 3 May 2015
Ex-Malir SSP rao anwaar SurvivES aSSaSSination bid FIVE ASSAILANTS KILLED IN RETALIATORY GUNFIRE AFTER TERRORISTS ATTACK POLICE OFFICIAL’S CONVOY IN KARACHI’S MALIR AREA KARACHI
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STAFF REPORT
oRMER Malir police chief, Senior Superintendent of Police Rao Anwaar’s convoy came under a grenade and gun attack in the Malir area of Karachi on Saturday night. The policemen escaped unhurt, however, five attackers were killed in retaliatory fire. According to details, the SSP was returning from slain DSP Fateh
WOMEN BANNED FROM VOTING IN GB CONSTITUENCY GILGIT: Pakistan’s four major political parties found themselves on same page to endorse a decree banning woman from using their right to vote in Gilgist Baltistan. The Pakistan Muslim LeagueNawaz, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl supported a Fatwa issued by Ulema of constituency LA-17 that prevents women from casting their votes in the upcoming election on June 8th. The decree was issued during a meeting at a local mosque where leaders of the four parties were also in attendance on Friday. Haider Khan, Dr Muhammad Zaman, Rehmat Khaliq and Ghaffar Khan represented the PML-N, the PTI, the JUI and the PPP respectively. Following the decree, more than 12,000 women of the Diamir area won’t be able to cast their votes. STAFF REPORT
FIVE PAKISTANIS KILLED IN RIYADH BUILDING FIRE RIYADH: At least five Pakistani citizens residing in Saudi Arabia were killed when a fire broke out in a housing unit in Riyadh on Saturday. The fire in the Saudi capital had also left several injured. Moreover, media reports quoted Saudi Red Crescent’s Abdullah Al-Meraibed as saying that ambulances were dispatched to the location in Al-Nadheem district in the east of Riyadh after news of the blaze emerged. Al-Meraibed said the five deaths occurred due to smoke inhalation, adding that the bodies were taken to the National Guard Hospital in Riyadh. AGENCIES
Muhammad Sangi’s residence, who was martyred earlier on Friday, when unidentified assailants, in one car and three motorcycles, hurled hands grenades and opened fire at his convoy. Anwaar stated that he was heading to inspect the incident site where DSP Sangi was killed when his convoy came under attack. “Police retaliated promptly to the attack, killing five attackers, who appear to be Taliban militants,” said the SSP. He further said that weapons and hand grenades were recovered from the
killed attackers; however, their identities were still unknown. This is not the first time that SSP Anwaar has been attacked. In April 2012, when SSP Anwar was making his way to the Malir court for a meeting with a sessions judge regarding an enquiry into the murder of former Malir Bar Association president Salahuddin and his son Ali, a suicide bomber hit his APC. The attack had left five people dead and injured eighteen others, but the police officer survived. The attack comes two days after SSP Anwaar was removed from the post of the District Malir, just hours after he had held a controversial press conference in which he announced the arrest of the two suspects, who he claimed were members of Indian spy agency RAW (Research and Analysis Wing).
SAULAT MIRZA’S DEATH WARRANT ISSUED FOR MAY 12 KARACHI STAFF REPORT
An anti-terrorism court (ATC) issued a fresh death warrant for Saulat Mirza on Saturday, according to which the condemned prisoner is set to be hanged on May 12 in Machh Jail. Saulat Ali Khan, better known as Saulat Mirza and a worker of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), was sentenced to death by an ATC in 1999 for killing the then managing director of Karachi Electric Supply Corporation Shahid Hamid, his driver, and a guard in 1997 in Karachi’s Defence area. The MQM has however said that Mirza had been fired from the party much before the murder took place. Mirza, however, denies the party’s claim. The trial court had issued the first black warrant against Mirza on March 11 and had asked the jail authorities to send him to the gallows on March 19. However, the
president had deferred the execution a few hours before the convict was to be hanged after private news channels aired a video message of the convict in which he levelled serious allegations against the top MQM leadership. Later, a joint investigation team was also constituted to grill the death row prisoner. Another black warrant for Mirza
AGRA AGENCIES
As many as 17 people from the Indian city Agra have reverted to Islam, nearly five months after they had ‘converted’ to Hindusim on December 25 last year under a controversial ‘ghar wapsi’ campaign. The conversion took place on Friday at the Mahuar Lathia village in the Achnera block of the district. Those who reverted all belonged to the ‘Nat’ community who are gypsies living in the slums. The 70-year-old head of the family, Rehmat, his sons Ravi alias Muhammad Arif and wife Nafeesa,
was issued on March 24 for a hanging on April 1 after jail officials informed the trial court on March 22 that the three-day stay ordered by the president had ended and they had not received any further stay orders. The superintendent of the Machh jail then wrote a letter to the court informing it that the implementation of the last black warrant, issued on March 24 for hanging on April 1, was deferred by the presidency for one month (April 1 to April 30). Saturday’s is the third death warrant issued for the condemned prisoner who along with some other high-profile inmates was shifted from Karachi to the Machh prison in April last year. The SHC had twice turned down the applications of Mirza’s relatives seeking his transfer back to the Karachi central prison after provincial authorities informed it that the condemned prisoner had been moved to Machh jail for security reasons.
FORMER PPP MNA SURVIVES BLAST IN BAJAUR
PESHAWAR: Former Pakistan People’s Party MNA Akhunzada Chatan survived an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) blast in Bajaur tribal region’s Mandal area on Saturday. According to sources, the former PPP lawmaker was on his way from Khar to Mandal village to attend a political gathering when the IED planted on a roadside exploded near the village. As a result, some vehicles in Chatan’s convoy got damaged but he managed to escape the attack unhurt. STAFF REPORT
JUDICIAL COMMISSION TO RECORD PTI’S WITNESSES’ TESTIMONIES ON 6TH ISLAMABAD: The judicial commission formed to probe allegations of rigging in the May 2013 general elections on Saturday issued summons to witnesses whose names had been submitted by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). PTI had submitted a list of its witnesses on April 22. The commission on Saturday told witnesses to appear before the court at 1pm on May 6 to record their statements. The witnesses to whom summons have been issued include former Punjab caretaker chief minister Najam Sethi, Punjab caretaker chief secretary Javed Iqbal, Punjab caretaker additional chief secretary Rao Iftikhar, the managing directors (MDs) of the presses of the Printing Corporation of Pakistan (PCP) in Karachi and Lahore at the time of the 2013 elections, National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) Chairman Usman Yousaf Mobeen, former MNA Nabeel Gabol, senior journalist Hamid Mir and a Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) representative. The judicial commission had ruled on April 29 that the PTI will present their witnesses on May 5, while the witnesses requested that the hearing be pushed to May 6. STAFF REPORT
Indian family reverts to Islam months after adopting Hinduism under‘ghar wapsi’campaign Munna alias Ali Muhammad and wife Shazia, Raju alias Shaukat and wife Salma and their children recited the ‘kalma’, the obligatory words to enter the religion, by a cleric and were supervised by the head of an organisation spearheaded by clerics. According to Rehmat, his son Ali Muhammad had pressurised the family to make the decision, while according
to the latter, he only did so when he was assured by a Hindu leader that they will be handed over the possession of land, something underprivileged families in the country can only dream about. Ali, himself, later converted to Islam as well. The Muslim community in the city had reacted strongly to the conversion campaign by Hindus, and barred those
who had converted from attending marriage ceremonies. They were told that they could only do so after reverting to Islam. Moreover, according to a Mufti of the city, the status of marriage between a couple becomes void if one of them converts to another religion. Therefore, couples among the 17 men and women will have to retake their marriage vows.
PROVE CLAIMS OF CPEC ROUTE CHANGE, CHALLENGES MINISTER ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT
Federal Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal on Saturday challenged the politicians who have accused the government of altering the route of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) to substantiate their allegations with evidence. Addressing the convocation of the Rawalpindi Medical College in the garrison city, the minister assured that “not a single inch of the originally proposed route has been changed” and that “such baseless allegations” were not in the nation’s interest. Iqbal said China’s investment of $46 billion would prove a milestone for Pak-
istan’s economic development and would change the outlook of the country’s economy. He said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif would brief parliamentary leaders on matters relating to CPEC on May 13. During Chinese President Xi Jinping’s recent visit to Pakistan, Pakistani and Chinese officials signed a series of over 50 accords to inaugurate the CPEC, which will create a network of roads, railways and pipelines linking China’s restive west to the Arabian Sea through Pakistan. The project is part of Beijing’s “Belt and Road” plan to expand its trade and transport footprint across Central and South Asia. It will give China easier access to Middle Eastern oil via the deepwater port of Gwadar. The project generated controversy
with political leaders particularly of smaller provinces alleging that the project had been altered to benefit Punjab. The route apparently under its original plan ran from Gwadar to Quetta, then up to Zhob before veering east towards Dera Ismail Khan. The government was criticised for having allegedly changed this route to go straight east from Gwadar towards Khuzdar, then slightly northeast to cross the River Indus near Ratodero and connect with the road network in Sindh. The government has however strenuously denied that any route changes were made, arguing that two routes are being pursued, and on the request of the Chinese, the second route was being built first simply because it was cheaper to do so.
CMYK
Sunday, 3 May 2015
NEWS
Forgiving iS EaSy but ForgEtting iS hard SHARIF TELLS MQM CHIEF TO THINK TWICE BEFORE MAKING STATEMENTS AGAINST NATIONAL SECURITY INSTITUTIONS ISLAMABAD/KARACHI/QUETTA
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STAFF REPORT
day after Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain tendered an apology for making defamatory statements against the armed forces, political parties in parliament announced on Saturday that they would bring condemnatory resolutions in parliament and provincial assemblies against the MQM chief. The announcement coincided with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s caution to Altaf Hussain to keep in mind the integrity of national institutions and “think twice before making statements related to national security and interests”.
SAYS GOVT RESPONSIBLE FOR UPHOLDING ARMED FORCES’ HONOUR AND DIGNITY, CAUTIONS MEDIA AGAINST VIOLATING CONSTITUTION
“MQM chief Altaf Husain’s apology is a good gesture but issues related to national security and national interest are very sensitive. one should think twice before making statements on such issues,” Prime Sharif said in a statement. Sharif said the MQM chief had hurt the sentiments of millions with his antiarmy remarks. “It is the government’s responsibility to uphold and guard the integrity of the armed forces, and defence and security institutions,” he said. The premier also asked the media to act responsibly and in line with the constitution. The federal government on Friday advised the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) to clamp down on broadcast of hate speeches of
POLITICAL PARTIES ANNOUNCE TO MOVE RESOLUTIONS IN ASSEMBLIES AGAINST ALTAF HUSSAIN’S ANTI-ARMY STATEMENTS
political leaders live. According to a statement issued by PEMRA, the government expressed concerns over the live telecast of the hate speech of political leaders by majority of the electronic channels and urged the regulatory body to invoke Section 27 of the PEMRA Amendment Act 2007. Acting on the government’s advice, PEMRA issued show cause notices to 14 television channels. Having faced strong criticism over his comments regarding the army, Hussain apologised for “hurting the sentiments of national security institutions and patriotic people”. Earlier, the Pakistan Army had censured Hussain for castigating the military
ISLAMABAD
NO MORE RESIGNATIONS FROM ALTAF! MQM chief says won’t step down from MQM chairmanship even if treason case is registered against him KARACHI: Reacting to calls for a ban on his party and statements of pursuing legal action against him, Altaf Hussain said on Saturday whoever seeks such actions against him should do so but he will not step down as Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief. “If you want to initiate a case of treason against me or ban my party, you may,” Altaf said in a telephonic address. “I won’t resign from my position as the party chief no matter what the circumstances,” the MQM chief added. “I will continue my struggle till my last breath.” Giving examples of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan and former Jamaat-e-Islami leader Munawar Hasan’s speech against the army, Altaf said, “There are many leaders who hurled a lot of abuses at the armed forces, but only I am being targeted for my speech.” “I can see that efforts are being made to bar me from delivering speeches in the future,” he added. Altaf’s statement comes a day after, he apologised if his words had “hurt national security institutions and patriotic people.” The MQM further clarified their chief did not censure the armed forces and in fact applauded the leadership of Army chief General Raheel Sharif. STAFF REPORT
GOVT WAITING FOR MEDIA HOUSES’ REPLIES ON PEMRA NOTICES
Pakistan on Saturday lodged a protest with India over the killing of a Pakistani by Indian border security forces for inadvertently crossing the Working Boundary. According to a statement by Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the first secretary of the Indian High Commission in Islamabad was summoned to the Foreign office and a protest was lodged. Amanat Ali was shot dead by In-
dian Border Security Force (BSF) across Shakargarh on the Working Boundary on Friday. The Foreign office condemned the BSF’s violation of Border Ground Rules. on Friday, Ali was harvesting wheat in a border village in Shakargarh sector of Sialkot Working Boundary. According to senior officials of the Chenab Rangers, Amanat Ali (40) of Sariya Kothey-Shakargarh village was busy in wheat harvesting along with other local farmers in the fields close to the Sialkot Working
(PML-N) and PML-Quaid will also move to put forward resolutions against Muttahida Qaumi Movement s chief in Senate. After the decision in Balochistan Assembly to pass a resolution against Altaf Hussain’s statements, Punjab and Sindh Assembly have decided to follow suit. opposition Leader in Punjab assembly Mehmoodur Rasheed will move the resolution on Monday in this regard, it is learnt. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak has also said that he would move for passing a resolution on the same issue after consulting with coalition parties. The PML-N has also announced to bring a resolution in KP and Sindh assemblies.
leadership and called his remarks ‘uncalled for and disgusting’. The chief military spokesperson, Maj Gen Asim Saleem Bajwa, used his Twitter account not only to rebut the allegations but also announced legal action against Altaf Hussain, who in a late Thursday night address to his supporters had made references to the surrender of Pakistani troops after the fall of Dhaka in 1971. RESOLUTIONS AGAINST ALTAF: Meanwhile, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) seems in no mood to let go off the incident as it announced to put forward resolutions in National and provincial assemblies against Altaf Hussain’s statements. Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz
Pakistan lodges protest with India over killing of farmer near Working Boundary STAFF REPORT
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Boundary. The Indian BSF around 1 pm handed over his body to Punjab Rangers in Shakargarh sector of Sialkot Working Boundary. The grieved family, heirs and local people staged an anti-India protest for the killing. They held up banners and placards inscribed with slogans against India. They said the Indian BSF had violated the international border laws and shot dead an innocent Pakistani after dragging him into Indian territory from Zero Line.
SPEAKER BALOCHISTAN ASSEMBLY RESIGNS QUETTA: Balochistan Assembly Speaker Jan Muhammad Jamali has resigned from his post over differences with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N). Differences between Jan Muhammad Jamali and PML-N leadership surfaced during Senate elections held this year. Acting against the party policy, Jamali had opted to vote for his daughter in the Senate election. As a result, the daughter of the speaker and senior PML-N leader Sardar Yaqoob Khan Nasir lost the election, which was a great embarrassment for the party. According to a report, the speaker sent his resignation to PML-N Balochistan President Sanaullah Zehri who left for Islamabad to consult the prime minister. STAFF REPORT
44 MILITANTS KILLED IN NWA, KHYBER AIR STRIKES PESHAWAR STAFF REPORT
At least 44 suspected militants were killed on Saturday in precise aerial strikes in North Waziristan and Khyber Agency. According to Inter-Services Public Relations, 16, mostly foreign militants, were killed in Datta Khel area of North Waziristan while 28 militants were killed in Tirah area of Khyber Agency. on April 30, five months into the military operation in the troubled spots of the Khyber tribal region, the military claimed a ‘huge success’ after ‘intense fighting’ that left 27 terrorists dead. The Khyber-II operation was launched in mid-october last year following reports that some militants had fled the ongoing military offensive in North Waziristan Agency to seek shelter in the strategic Tirah Valley of Khyber Agency. The army launched an offensive operation Zarb-e-Azb in North Waziristan against militants in June 2015. Tirah Valley, which shares borders with the tribal agencies of Khurram and orakzai and also with the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar, had become a stronghold of the banned extremist outfit Lashkar-eIslam, led by its elusive chief Mangal Bagh Afridi. Bagh later announced the merger of his group with the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan.
DOZENS TRIED FOR MOB KILLING OF AFGHAN WOMAN THAT SPARKED OUTCRY KABUL AGENCIES
Dozens of Afghan men including several policemen faced trial on Saturday over the mob killing in Kabul of a 27year-old woman accused of burning a Koran, a lynching that prompted unprecedented protests. The trial, expected to last two days, was broadcast live on television. A frenzied crowd beat and kicked the woman, named Farkhunda, to death on March 19 and set her body on fire as several police looked on near a shrine in central Kabul. The attack was captured by mobile phone video and distributed online. Some of those arrested were tracked down after bragging about participating on social media. one of the men on trial Saturday,
ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Pervez Rashid on Saturday said the government was waiting for replies from media houses on the show cause notices issued to them by Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA). PEMRA had issued show-cause notices in reaction to some channels airing the derogatory remarks passed by Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain during his live speech late Thursday night. The Information Minister in a statement said no compromise will be made on the matters of national security. He said controversial issues relating to media coverage will be dealt with strictly under PEMRA laws. APP
CMYK
identified only as Sharifullah, described his role in the attack. “I kicked her once or twice but did not participate in the whole thing,” he testified. “others were asking for a match box, so I gave them my lighter.” The broad-daylight attack proved a polarizing incident in conservative Muslim country. Some defending the killing as a defense of Islam, but many others were outraged at the viciousness of the attack even before an investigation showed that Farkhunda had been falsely accused of desecrating the holy book. Several protests against violence against women sprung up in Kabul, including one in the last week that re-enacted the attack. It is the first time since the Taliban were ousted in 2001 that a popular movement has mobilized in support of a woman.
04 NEWS 234 MORE GIRLS, WOMEN RESCUED FROM BOKO HARAM
Sunday, 3 May, 2015
Iran pledges to protect shared securIty Interests wIth yemen DUBAI
ABUJA AGENCIES Nigeria’s military rescued 234 more girls and women from a Boko Haram forest stronghold in the country’s northeast, the military announced Saturday. More than 677 females have been released this week, as the Nigerian military continues its campaign to push the Islamic extremists out their last remaining strongholds in the Sambisa Forest. “FLASH: Another set of 234 women and children were rescued through the Kawuri and Konduga end of the .Sambisa Forest on Thursday,” said the Nigerian Defence Headquarters early Saturday on its official Twitter account. The army has deployed ground troops into the forest after weeks of punishing air raids on the area. “The assault on the forest is continuing from various fronts and efforts are concentrated on rescuing hostages of civilians and destroying all terrorist camps and facilities in the forest,” said Defence Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Chris Olukolade. In recent weeks the military and troops from neighbouring countries have taken back control of towns in northeastern Nigeria that had been held by Boko Haram and where the extremists had declared an Islamic caliphate. Sambisa Forest is reported to be the Islamic militants’ last holdout. President Goodluck Jonathan, whose term ends this month, pledged Thursday to “hand over a Nigeria completely free of terrorist strongholds.” It is not known how many girls, women, boys and men Boko Haram has kidnapped during its nearly 6-year-old rebellion. Nigeria’s army has reported rescuing only females. Some women shot at their rescuers and were killed, as Boko Haram used them as an armed human shield for its main fighting force. Soldiers were shocked when women opened fire on troops who had come to rescue them in the village of Nbita last week, The Associated Press was told by a military intelligence officer and a soldier who were at the scene. The women killed seven soldiers and soldiers fighting back killed 12 of the women and wounded several others, they said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press. Most of the females who have been released are traumatized, said army spokesman Col. Sani Usman. Nigeria’s military says it has flown in medical and intelligence teams to screen the rescued girls and women and find out their identities. It is still not known if any are the schoolgirls kidnapped from a boarding school in Chibok town a year ago — a mass kidnapping that outraged much of the world. Some identify with the insurgents’ extremist ideology after months of captivity and forced marriages, a counsellor who has helped rehabilitate other women held captive by Boko Haram told the AP. It remains unclear if some of the women had willingly joined Boko Haram, or are family members of fighters. Some of the freed women and girls are pregnant, Muhammad Gavi, a spokesman for a self-defence group that fights Boko Haram, said citing information from group members who have seen the females.
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AGENCIES
RAN’S deputy foreign minister said Tehran will not let regional powers jeopardise its security interests in Yemen, Tasnim news agency reported, in the strongest acknowledgement yet of Iranian involvement in the Arabian peninsula. Iran has denied accusations from Western and Arab states that it is arming Shi’ite Muslim Houthi rebels in Yemen. But it has regularly condemned a Saudi-led air campaign against the insurgents. “Others will not be allowed to put our shared security at risk with military adventures,” Hossein Amir Abdollahian said, according to the Iranian Tasnim news agency in an article published on Saturday. Saudi Arabia, which sees itself as the guardian of Sunni Islam, has long vied for influence with Iran, the region’s main Shi’ite Muslim power. The Saudi-led coalition has been carrying out air strikes in Yemen since late March against the Houthis and their allies, whose rapid advances forced Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and his government into exile in Riyadh. Iran does not recognise Hadi and has portrayed the air strikes as an intervention in Yemen’s internal affairs. Earlier this week, Saudi Arabia said
Army chief congratulates Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Nayef RAWALPINDI STAFF REPORT Army chief General Raheel Sharif on Saturday congratulated Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Nayef on his appointment as deputy prime minister of the kingdom. The army chief is reported to have telephoned Prince Mohammed bin Nayef. Matters of bilateral relations were discussed during the phone conversation. On April 29, Saudi Arabia’s King Salman named his powerful Interior Minister as heir to the throne and a son as second in line, under a shakeup that also saw the world’s longest-serving foreign minister replaced. A royal decree removed Crown Prince Moqren bin Abdul Aziz bin Saud and replaced him with Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, who headed a crackdown on al Qaeda a decade ago. “We have decided to respond to his highness and what he had expressed about his desire to be relieved from the position of crown prince,” said a statement from the royal court, carried by the official Saudi Press Agency. A royal decree removed Crown Prince Moqren bin Abdul Aziz bin Saud and replaced him with Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, who headed a crackdown on al Qaeda a decade ago. “We have decided to respond to his highness and what he had expressed about his desire to be relieved from the position of crown prince,” said a statement from the royal court, carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.
coalition jets destroyed the runway of Yemen’s Sanaa airport to prevent an Iranian cargo plane from landing there. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Saturday that several countries, including Iran, backed a negotiated political
process to resolve the conflict in Yemen. “As long as that is yet untested and unfailed ... all of us have hopes that Yemen can find a path forward,” Kerry said during a visit to Sri Lanka. “It is not going to be easy, many things have to happen.”
Afghan delegation to meet with Taliban in Qatar TALIBAN SPOKESPERSON CONFIRMS AN EIGHT-STRONG TALIBAN DELEGATION WOULD ATTEND THE EVENT DOHA AGENCIES
An Afghan delegation left for Qatar on Saturday where they will hold two days of “open discussion” with Taliban representatives aimed at ending Afghanistan’s long war, according to an official. “A 20-member Afghan delegation, two from the High Peace Council, left to attend talks in Qatar on Sunday and Monday,” Abdul Hakim Mujahid, first deputy of the council, told AFP. “It will be an open discussion, based on peace talks in Afghanistan,” Mujahid said, adding that representatives from Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Taliban would be in attendance. The High Peace Council was established by
former Afghan president Karzai in 2010 to negotiate peace with the Taliban and other insurgent groups, but so far there has been very little progress. The Taliban’s official spokesperson, Zabihullah Mujahid, confirmed that an eight-strong Taliban delegation would attend the event, which is being organised by the Pugwash Council, a global organisation that promotes dialogue to resolve conflicts. However, the Taliban’s attendance “does not mean peace talks or negotiations at all,” the Taliban’s spokesperson cautioned. Previous efforts to open dialogue with the Taliban have collapsed. The group opened an office in Qatar in June 2013 as the first move towards a possible peace deal, but it shut
a month later after enraging thenAfghan president Hamid Karzai by styling itself as the unofficial embassy of a government-in-exile. The Taliban have denied rumours of having previously engaged in talks with the Afghan government and have always insisted that this would only happen if foreign forces withdraw unconditionally from Afghanistan. Last month the Taliban launched their spring offensive across Afghanistan, stepping up attacks on government and foreign targets and inflicting a heavy toll on civilians and Afghan security forces. This year’s Taliban offensive marks the first fighting season in which Afghan forces will battle the insurgents without the full support of US-led foreign combat troops. NATO’s combat mission formally ended in December but a small followup foreign force has stayed on to train and support local security personnel.
CLASHES ERUPT IN US WEST COAST CITIES DURING MAY DAY MARCHES SEATTLE/OAKLAND AGENCIES
Crowds clashed with police during May Day marches in several U.S. West Coast cities late on Friday, as officers responded with stun grenades and pepper spray, police and media said. Anti-capitalist protesters hurled wrenches and rocks at officers in Seattle, police said. Demonstrators in Oakland, California, and several other cities, rallied against a series of police killings of unarmed black men, local media reported. Footage on social media showed protesters smashing shop windows in Seattle and crowds scattering as police in riot gear threw in “flashbang” grenades. Demonstrators set fire to garbage and damaged at least two dozen vehicles, police said. “This is no longer demonstration management, this has turned into a riot,” Seattle Police Captain Chris Fowler said in a statement. At least three officers were injured, two seriously, and at least 16 people were arrested, Seattle’s police department said on its Twitter account. Several hundred protesters snaked through the streets of Oakland for hours on Friday night after a day of peaceful protests. More than 100 windows at businesses, restaurants and banks along the route were smashed, and several people were taken into custody overnight. At least one vehicle was burned and others damaged on the lot of a local car dealership. Oakland police did not immediately respond to request for comment. Pepper spray and flashbangs were also used in Portland after some protesters threw objects at officers and tried to force their way onto a bridge, the city police department said on its Twitter account. One officer was injured, it said. Protesters annually assemble on May 1 as a day to focus attention on labor and immigration issues. Demonstrators in cities across the country also used the occasion to rally against police violence. Many rallies proceeded largely without major incident. In Baltimore, demonstrations were peaceful and even celebratory after prosecutors brought charges against all six officers involved in the arrest of Freddie Gray, the 25-year-old black man who died of spinal injuries suffered while in police custody last month. Gray’s death has become the latest flashpoint in a national outcry over excessive force used against African-Americans and other minority groups by the white-dominated U.S. law enforcement establishment. It set off riots in Baltimore on Monday.
LIGHTNING KILLS 5, INJURES 3 IN BANGLADESH DHAKA AGENCIES
They say lightning does not strike the same place twice. Even as that may be, it managed to kill no less than five people and injured three others in separate incidents in Sunamganj, a borderline district in north-eastern Bangladesh on Saturday. Those killed by nature’s wrath were identified as Abdul Jalil, 50, Harivokto Das, 45, Razu Miah, 20, Abdul Kader, 18, and Rasheda Begum, 31. According to police and eyewit-
nesses, four people were killed as they were harvesting a paddy at the croplands during the morning in Dirai and Dharampasa areas when the thunderbolts killed them. Another victim of lightning, Rasheda was struck when she ventured outside the safety of her home to save her cattle in Kuna Kucha village, according to Mohammad Shahidullah, officer-in-charge of Tahirpur Police Station. Those injured in the incident were then taken to Dirai Upazila health complex for treatment.
CMYK
This, however, is not the worst incident of deaths by lightning in Bangladesh. In April 11, 2012, at least 13 people were killed and 15 others were hurt when lightning struck a mosque in a remote village in northeast Bangladesh during special Ramazan prayers, police said. The mosque’s imam was among those instantly killed when the lightning bolt hit the tin-and-thatch building at Saraswatipur village, about 200 kilometres (125 miles) from the capital Dhaka. The lightning appeared to “electrify” the mosque after hitting a
rooftop microphone being run on power from a car battery, a local council member Abul Kalam said. Lightning is a major threat in Sunamganj, home to some of Bangladesh’s biggest lakes. Most lightning strikes occur during the monsoon season between June and September when the district receives huge amounts of rainfall. In May 2011, at least 29 people were killed – most of them farmers who were harvesting rice – and dozens injured when a series of lightning strikes hit several districts in a single day.
NEWS 05
Sunday, 3 May, 2015
Death toLL reacheS 6,621 aS NepaL ruLeS out fiNDiNg more quaKe SurvivorS KATHMANDU
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EPAL on Saturday ruled out the possibility of finding more survivors buried in the rubble from a massive earthquake that killed more than 6,000 people and devastated vast swathes of one of Asia’s poorest countries. One week on from Nepal’s deadliest quake in over 80 years, hopes of detecting more signs of life among the ruins of the capital Kathmandu have all but disappeared and the focus is shifting to reaching survivors in far-flung areas who are yet to receive relief supplies. The UN children’s fund Unicef has also warned of a race against time to avert an outbreak of disease among the 1.7 million youngsters estimated to be living in the worst-hit areas, with monsoon rains just a few weeks away.
The 7.8-magnitude quake wreaked a trail of death and destruction when it erupted around midday last Saturday, reducing much of Kathmandu to rubble and even triggering a deadly avalanche on Mount Everest. “It has already been one week since the disaster,” said home ministry spokesman Laxmi Prasad Dhakal. “We are trying our best in rescue and relief work but now I don’t think that there is any possibility of survivors under the rubble.” Along with updating the death toll to 6,621, Dhakal put the number of injured at 14,023. While multiple teams of rescuers from more than 20 countries have been using sniffer dogs and heat-seeking equipment to find survivors in the rubble, no one has been pulled alive since Thursday evening. More than 100 people were also killed in neighbouring India and China. The exact scale of the disaster is yet to emerge,
with the mountainous terrain in the vast Himalayan nation complicating the relief effort. The numbers of foreigners who have died was also unclear with around 1,000 European Union (EU) citizens still unaccounted for in Nepal, according to diplomats. Missing eurOpeans: The Europeans had mostly been climbing in the Everest region or trekking in the remote Langtang range in the Himalayas near the quake epicentre. “They are missing but we don’t know what their status is,” EU ambassador to Nepal Rensje Teerink told reporters, confirming that 12 EU citizens are known to have died so far. Another EU official said on condition of anonymity that the majority were likely to be found safe, but given the difficulty of the terrain and poor communications, their whereabouts were currently unknown. Rameshwor Dangal, joint secretary of Nepal’s National
Disaster Management Division, said many people were waiting to either receive emergency aid supplies or else be airlifted to safety. “In many areas people are not getting relief and it is natural that they are unhappy about it,” he said. “We estimate that there may still be around 1,000 people in Sindhupalchowk and Rasuwa areas who need to be rescued. This includes
the injured and the stranded people, including the foreigners.” “Almost every house in my village is destroyed, and 20 people died. We lost our cattle and our sheep,” said Kumar Ghorasainee, amid the ruins of his hometown of Melamchi. The 33-year-old English teacher said the school had collapsed and there was nowhere for the children to go. “No one has
come to help us — the cars and the aid trucks just drive by...How will we manage now?” In Melamchi, shops and restaurants were closed and streets were mainly deserted. In nearby rice-farming communities, almost all the houses had been so severely damaged that they were no longer habitable, and locals were sleeping in makeshift tents. Disease fears: The Nepalese government has acknowledged being overwhelmed but the UN’s humanitarian chief defended its performance. “The scale and devastation wreaked by the earthquake and the aftershocks would have challenged any government,” Valerie Amos said on Friday. Unicef said the health and well-being of children affected by the disaster were “hanging in the balance” as so many had been left homeless, in deep shock and with no access to basic care.
Parents stop children from taking school trip to local mosque in England NEWS DESK Some parents in England banned their children from a religious education school trip to a local mosque following ‘safety’ concerns. Lostwithiel School in Cornwall had planned to take nearly 100 students to visit a mosque in Exeter, Devon as part of learning about different faiths. However, fearing the safety of their children, Cornwall Council said ‘a small number of parents’ raised concerns regarding the security of their children. Chairman of governors for the school, Kat Smith said a group of parents had expressed concerns about the trip due to recent terror attacks by groups such as Islamic State. “Because of recent news reports about extremist groups, such as IS, that identify themselves with Islam, a small number of parents have expressed concerns about the trip and the teaching of Islam in school.” One mother claimed she ‘doesn’t want to put her son at risk of being shot’ while some parents said their children would be exposed to ‘violence and guns’ and expressed ‘grave concerns’ about the teaching of Islam. Schoolchildren, from grades
three to six, were due to visit the city’s cathedral before taking a tour of the mosque and observing a congregational prayer. Sally Cox, 39, did not permit her son 10-year-old son, Jed Pearce, from going on the visit saying, “You can see what they are like every day on the news. There was a Muslim bomber in Exeter just a few years ago.” “It is unsafe. I don’t want my son being shot,” she added. The mother further said that the school in return has decided to take him of the religious education lesson. “We have grave concerns about the children’s safety during the trip due to the horrific events that occur
every day,” another parent said. However, not all parents were opposed to the trip, with some backing the school and suggesting the visit is a positive move. “I think we need to educate our children to be tolerant and dispel the rumours the media can congregate,” Alice Mitchell said. “I am all for my children going on the trip. I think celebrating diversity is a great thing,” she added. Responding to the parents’ concerns, the chairman said, “A full risk assessment has been conducted for the trip and there is no more risk attached to this trip than any other school trip.” Smith added the school had a duty under
the Equality Act 2010 to promote good relations between people of different beliefs and ethnicities. “The governing body fully supports this trip and the teaching of Religious Education, including Islam.” “It is the governors’ hope that the visit to the mosque will provide an insight for pupils into the nature of British Islam, help them understand how Islam is presented in the media and that groups like the Islamic State are not a true reflection of the Islam followed by the vast majority of Muslims in Britain,” Smith added. The Muslim Council of Great Britain said it was concerned by the views of some of the parents who strongly opposed the trip. “We would have thought a well-rounded education involves learning about those of a different faith,” a spokesperson said. “These laudable initiatives take place across the country. It is therefore disappointing to hear that some parents have chosen to pull their children out of a visit to a mosque due to events elsewhere in the world.” “We commend the headteacher for rightly stating that such a visit will help her pupils to understand real Islam and dispel the myths and hysteria that surrounds our religion,” added.
Kerry visit seals end to Sri Lanka pariah status COLOMBO: US Secretary of State John Kerry headed for talks with Sri Lanka’s new President Maithripala Sirisena Saturday on a visit that caps the island’s transformation from diplomatic pariah to a “beacon of democracy”. The top American diplomat arrived early Saturday local time in Colombo and met with Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera. He then met President Maithripala Sirisena, and was to speak later with the prime minister and leading officials from the nation’s Tamil minority. He entered the Foreign Ministry under a welcome sign bearing his image and was greeted by musicians playing horns and drums and dancers in silver breastplates as he proceeded down a long crimson rug. “In this journey to restore your democracy, the American people stand with you,” Kerry declared. “We intend to broaden and deepen our partnership with you,” he added, saying the two countries would start an annual partnership dialogue and that US officials from the Treasury and Commerce departments would provide technical assistance to Sri Lanka’s government. AGENCIES
Rivals India, China win hearts, minds in quake-hit Nepal KHATMANDU AGENCIES
At Pokhara airport in the Himalayas, Indian soldiers race back and forth loading rice, blankets, tarpaulins and other aid onto waiting helicopters for delivery to Nepal’s quake-devastated villages. In the ruined ancient town of Bhaktapur outside the capital Kathmandu, Chinese rescuers in blue uniforms search for survivors in the rubble of toppled temples and homes. Nepal’s overwhelmed government has been criticised by frustrated residents, hundreds of thousands of whom are desperate for assistance after Saturday’s monster quake. But foreign countries, with their medics, specialist rescuers and helicopter sorties, have won applause, with neighbour India sometimes singled out for praise as the biggest provider. “We are hungry, we have no food, and we’ve had no help from our own government,” Arjun Budhathoki, 30, said as he queued, along with thousands of others,
for a bus out of Kathmandu this week. “The Indian government is the only one helping our citizens, they are doing so much for us,” Budhathoki said. India and economic powerhouse China have long vied for influence in the impoverished Himalayan country which was ripped apart by the quake, leaving more than 6,200 people dead. China has dispatched about 300 personnel to Nepal and announced about $10 million in aid so far, according to state media. ‘Wiping the tears’: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has promised to “wipe the tears of every Nepali” while the country’s air force alone has sent 950 personnel and dropped more than 400 tonnes of aid across the country. India’s hyperactive media have devoted hours to the country’s assistance, including plucking stranded climbers from Everest base camp. But analyst Rajrishi Singhal said India’s efforts involved a degree of self-interest. “We share a long border with Nepal and any turmoil there can spill into
India,” Singhal, senior fellow at the Gateway House think tank in Mumbai, said. “It is in our interest to see that Nepal gets back on its feet as soon as possible.” Singhal said both India and China could play a significant role in Nepal’s reconstruction once the relief effort has concluded. “Affordable housing is one area where India can really help Nepal because we have seen the large-scale devastation and the way houses have been destroyed,” he said. “In that sense when it comes to rebuilding and reconstruction, both India and China must be prepared for the long haul in Nepal.” Beijing has swept aside any suggestion it is being overshadowed by its rival in the quake zone, although it says it is planning to “intensify our efforts in disaster relief”. “The assistance shows that all the Asian countries are part of the community of common destiny and we will work together with Nepal to help them rebuild their homeland as soon as possible,” foreign ministry spokesman
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Hong Lei said in Beijing on Thursday. Nepal’s Foreign Minister Mahendra Bahadur Pandey has attempted to strike a balance, saying his government is grateful to its “very good friend” India, but also quick to mention China. Different zOnes: “They [China] too are sending teams of people and medicines,” Pandey said in an interview with the Indian Express newspaper on Tuesday. “They are trying their best to rescue our people. We have divided areas between India and China.” Modi, a staunch Hindu nationalist, has made clear since being elected last May that boosting India’s influence in its backyard is a priority. But India has long struggled to compete with the financial muscle of China, which has for years been building roads and investing billions of dollars in hydro-power and communications in Nepal. Chinese state media said last month that a railway between Tibet and Nepal is under consideration that could include a tunnel under Everest. Bei-
jing’s increasing role has raised alarm in Delhi amid concerns China, already allied to Pakistan, is also forging closer economic ties with other neighbours such as Sri Lanka and the Maldives. China has in the past come under criticism for a sluggish response to humanitarian crises, including after Super Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines in 2013 when it initially offered only $100,000. Analyst Amitabh Mattoo said this time China seemed to be upping the ante. “China is using aid and help in Nepal as an instrument of its foreign policy,” said Mattoo, a professor at Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University. At Pokhara airport, Indian Wing Commander Suraj Shankar was oblivious to any jostle for influence as he talked of his troops’ efforts. “So far they’ve evacuated up to 50 casualties and 180 stranded villagers...they’ve dropped off about 16 tonnes of relief material,” he told AFP. “As far as India is concerned, obviously our neighbours are the dearest to us and we would do anything to help.”
06 NEWS
Sunday, 3 May, 2015
for afghaNiStaN’S abaNDoNeD chiLDreN, heLp iS Scarce KABUL
mosque in cardiff opens doors to non-muslims A mosque in Cardiff has been opened to non-Muslims in a bid to improve relations within the community. Mohammed Alamgir Ahmed of Darul Isra Mosque, in Cathays said they were trying to break down barriers by building closer relationships. “The first part of our religion is to engage with the wider community, Muslim and non-Muslim,” Mohammed Alamgir Ahmed, the mosque’s head of outreach said. A series of open days were held at the mosque with workshops and an Islam exhibition. Ahmed said the idea was to help counter negative stereotypes, such as terrorism and Muslims going to Syria. “There’s been no particular backlash in Cardiff, but there was a spate of Islamophobic attacks – not physical but spitting and slurs,” he added. NEWS DESK
eastWest institute names munter new ceo neW YOrK: The Board of Directors of the EastWest Institute (EWI) announced the appointment of Former U.S. Ambassador Cameron Munter as its new President and Chief Executive Officer, effective August 1, 2015. Munter succeeds John Edwin Mroz, EWI’s founder, who died last year. “As we mark our 35th anniversary, we are excited that Ambassador Munter will be leading the EastWest Institute into the next chapter in our history,” Ross Perot Jr., Chairman of the Board, said. “As a diplomat who worked at the highest levels in Pakistan, Iraq, Serbia, and other critical countries, Munter can help us bring global leaders together to build trust and identify new solutions to international challenges, while helping to ease tensions in difficult regions. Ambassador Munter has the experience, spirit, energy and vision to expand EWI’s efforts to reduce conflict in an increasingly dangerous world.” For the past three decades, Munter has been a career diplomat, serving in some of the most conflict-ridden areas of the globe. He served as U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan from 2010-2012, where he guided U.S.-Pakistani relations through a strained period, including the operation against Osama bin Laden, while leading a 2,500-employee embassy. Previously he served as Ambassador to Serbia, where he negotiated Serbian domestic consensus for European integration and managed the Kosovo independence crisis. Munter also served at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, overseeing U.S. civilian and military cooperation in planning the drawdown of U.S. troops. In Europe, he served in the Czech Republic and Poland, where he helped manage the American contribution to those countries’ integration into the global economy. He was a Director at the National Security Council at the White House, and had numerous other domestic assignments at the State Department in Washington. “In these volatile times, when trust is so important and global cooperation is critical, I’m eager to help build bridges, create new ideas for solving international problems and advance practical solutions,” Munter said. Before joining the Foreign Service, Munter taught European history at the University of California Los Angeles. He also taught at Columbia University School of Law and has two honorary doctoral degrees. For the past two years, Munter has been Professor of International Relations at Pomona College in Claremont, California, as well as a Fellow at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Born in California in 1954, Munter graduated magna cum laude from Cornell University and earned a doctorate in Modern European History from John Hopkins University. PRESS RELEASE
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TARVED and beaten by his stepmother, the little boy with big brown eyes was already withdrawn and unhappy by the time his father banished him from the family home and sent him to an orphanage in the Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul. There, the beatings and the abuse continued, this time by older boys, and it took a while before a teacher at school noticed just how much in pain the 10-year-old was and slowly got him to tell her his story. The boy’s mother had become sick and died, he said, and when his father remarried, the new wife took against the boy and his sister, often beating them and withholding food for days on end. It would have been an all too common story in Afghanistan had the teacher not reached out to a parliamentarian, who got in touch with a government rights commission, which then contacted a non-government organisation that in turn provided a lawyer ─ and after a complicated cascade of events the boy was eventually brought to a shelter run by Hagar International, the NGO. After almost four decades of war, two generations of Afghans have no experience of life without a backdrop of brutality. The 10-year-old was one of the lucky few to escape what can appear to be a never-ending cycle of violence. Human rights officials and those working with abandoned, orphaned or unwanted children say up to 6.5 million Afghan children live in danger of abuse. The country, with an estimated population of around 30m, has had much of its services devastated by the conflict and has little capacity to care for them. On a recent visit to the Hagar shelter for vulnerable minors in Kabul, the Associate Press gained access to a tiny fraction of those children. With the permission of the shelter managers ─ who are the children’s legal guardians ─ and with the consent of the 10-year-old himself, the AP talked to the boy about his life since his father sent him away. The shelter, in the western
suburbs of the capital, is one of two in Kabul run by Hagar International, which for the past five years has aimed to provide a range of services for children who have suffered extreme abuse. Many are not orphans in the traditional sense. They still have a parent living ─ but one who is not willing or financially capable of caring for the child. At Hagar, many of the children experience education for the first time and acquire skills that could one day help them earn a salary. But most importantly, they learn that their lives have value and they are treated with dignity, said Sara Shinkfield, Hagar’s country director in Afghanistan. “One of the difficulties in this job is that every day, we are meeting clients who have been through hell, they have been through the worst that life can offer, they have been treated without dignity, they have been treated as less than human,” said Shinkfield. Currently Hagar is caring for more than 40 women and children, boys and girls, at its two Kabul shelters. The children study and have classes as they
would in school ─ mathematics, geography, history, along with English and computers. There is time for play and they are regularly taken on field trips. In recent months, groups from the shelters visited the city’s only amusement park, the Green Park, as well as Kabul’s famous Babur Gardens, the National Museum and the National Archive. They also have drawing and painting classes ─ their artwork often revealing the profound pain they have suffered and in many cases, still keep hidden. According to Najibullah Zadran Babarakzai, national coordinator for the rights of children with the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, Afghan children are on the verge of a humanitarian crisis and desperately need more of everything, including shelters. “Between 6 million and 6.5 million children in Afghanistan are either directly in danger or are slowly moving toward danger,” Babarakzai said. Few independent or government organisations focus on children’s issues or provide shelters for victims of violence and other abuse, he said.
India sex attack victim’s family refuse to cremate her NEW DELHI AGENCIES
The father of an Indian schoolgirl who died after being pushed from a bus while resisting an alleged sex attack refused Saturday to release her body for postmortem until a powerful politician is arrested for her death. The 16-year-old, who was travelling with her mother in a bus owned by the ruling family of northern Punjab state, died on Wednesday while resisting an alleged assault before being thrown out of the moving bus. “Until police book Sukhbir Badal for my daughter’s death, we will not allow her postmortem or cremate her,” Sukhdev Singh, the girl’s father, told AFP. Singh alleged he is being pressured to accept compensation money of two million rupees (around $30,000) as his wife, who
An Indian youth protest outside the Saket Court complex in New Delhi. The father of an Indian schoolgirl who died after being pushed from a bus while resisting an alleged sex attack refused to release her body for postmortem until a powerful politician is arrested for her death.
was seriously injured in the attack, is recuperating at a hospital in
Moga district. Police said the chartered bus belongs to a company
owned by Punjab deputy chief minister Sukhbir Badal but they do not have any legal grounds to file a case against him. “We are investigating the case. There has to be some legal grounds to charge a person for a crime,” Moga police chief Jatinder Singh Khehra told AFP. The police chief said a postmortem was critical in criminal cases and the refusal to allow one could jeopardise the case in a court of law. Police have arrested four suspects over the attack, including the bus conductor and a cleaner. The attack has sparked heavy criticism from opposition parties on the state government, which is headed by Sukhbir’s father Prakash Singh Badal. The junior Badal has rejected the allegations and vowed to punish the guilty. “It is absurd even to think that the company’s ownership will allow such brutality and brazenness to go unpunished,” he told reporters.
Female Afghan ‘Top Gun’ soars above gender barrier KABUL AGENCIES
With a hint of swagger, Afghanistan’s first female pilot since the fall of the Taliban is defying death threats and archaic gender norms to infiltrate what is almost entirely a male preserve. Dressed in khaki overalls, aviator shades and a black headscarf, 23-yearold Niloofar Rahmani cuts a striking presence as she struts across the tarmac at the Kabul Air Force base, which is otherwise devoid of women. “Ever since I was a child, when I saw a bird in the sky, I wanted to fly a plane,” she told AFP at the base, hemmed in by rolling dun-coloured hills. “Many girls in Afghanistan have dreams... but a number of problems, threats stand in the way.“
Rahmani, who grew up in Kabul, enlisted for an air force training programme in 2010 and kept it secret from her relatives who believe a woman does not belong outside the home. Two years later she became the first female fixedwing aviator in Afghanistan’s history and the country’s first woman pilot since the ouster of the Taliban regime. The once-unimaginable feat recently won her the US State Department’s International Women of Courage Award, and earned her the sobriquet “Afghan Top Gun” on social media, after the 1986 Tom Cruise film about flying aces in the US Navy. It is believed there were female Afghan pilots during the pre-Taliban Communist era, but details are scant. Nearly 14 years since the Taliban gov-
ernment was toppled in a US-led invasion, Afghan women have taken giant strides of progress, with female lawmakers and security personnel now commonplace. That marks a sea change in women’s rights, as previously women weren’t allowed to leave their homes without a male chaperone and were brutally consigned to the shadows. But gender parity still remains a distant dream as conservative attitudes prevail. Rahmani has received threatening calls and letters purportedly from the Taliban, warning her to quit. The threats grew so menacing in 2013 that she was forced to leave the country for two months. “They threatened to hurt me and my family,” she said over the roar of military transport planes. “My only choice was to be strong
and ignore them. “Rahmani always carries a pistol for her protection and though she has grown accustomed to the ogling eyes of men, she never leaves the base in uniform, lest it make her a target. “Simple things like walking in the streets, going shopping is no longer possible. My freedom has all gone,” she said. ‘i have hOpe’: But more than physical threats, it is pervasive conservatism that hurts the most, with Afghanistan stuck in what many deride as a medieval time warp. Rahmani says she was heartbroken when a mob in Kabul savagely lynched a young woman called Farkhunda last month after an amulet seller, whom she had castigated, falsely accused her of burning the Quran.
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KARACHI 07 Building in Sindhi Muslim Society catches fire KARACHI: A flat on the third floor of a residential building in Sindhi Muslim Society on Saturday caught fire while fire brigade vehicles were in process of extinguishing the fire. The society’s building caught fire and as many as six vehicles of the fire brigade reached the fire site after learning about the news. The fire brigade staff was struggling extinguish the fire till filing of this report. However, the residents of the building were safely evacuated. Earlier, a godown in Jamia Cloth market had caught fire and was countered by the fire brigade staff. Online
11 injured as rival groups clash over water
KARACHI: Fire-fighters try to extinguish fire which erupted in a building in Sindhi Muslim Society. Online
PoliTical flagS, PaTharaS reTurn To Saddar KARACHI
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HE roadside encroachments called patharas have returned back to Saddar, especially at the junction of New Preedy Street and CDGK car parking plaza, Due to poor follow up of civic agencies and are creating nuisance for the citizens. In recent past, Rangers had successfully removed all encroachments from Saddar area, but the corrupt officials in civic agencies have managed allowing them to occupy New Preedy Street from Saddar up to CDGK car parking plaza up to afternoon and whole Saddar area from afternoon to evening when office hours are over. A couple of vehicles of civic agencies are seen parked in front of the Empress Market for removing patharas but they purposefully ignore hundreds of patharas at New Preedy Street and surrounding areas. Moreover, the flags of the main ruling party of Sindh have again returned in Saddar area, presumably to disdain officials from taking action against Pathara holders who punctually pay Bhatta. Hamid Mehmood, president of All Pakistan Association of Small Traders, and Cottage Industries Karachi chapter Hamid Mehmood, said in the bhatta cultural of Karachi hoisting of political flags in markets and residential areas means that party would handle all such affairs in the locality. He said different outfits had domino of bhatta collection in different areas and no other outfit interferes in these areas till ‘conquering’ them. He said illegal encroachments from Karachi in-
cluding Saddar area could not be removed permanently, because patharas were important component of bhatta collection industry. He said till FIRs were lodged against encroachers and they were arrested and presented before courts, this cat and mouse play of encroachment removal would continue. He said the cleanliness condition of market areas was very pathetic. In many localities including Teen Hatti, Jamshed Road and Nagan Chworangi gutters overflow were causing immense problems for pedestrians. He said even the chocked gutter line of Preedy Street in front of CDGK car parking plaza could not be opened even after passage of two years, which showed that the so-called cleanliness drive was no more than a hollow slogan.
Nasir Mansoor, Deputy General Secretary of National Trade Union Federation (NTUF), said it was the responsibility of the government to keep roads and streets free from encroachments. He said special open markets like Jumma Bazaars could be established so that small vendors could earn their livelihood. However, illegal encroachments of roads and streets should not be tolerated. He also demanded to improve public transport system of Karachi to cope with road congestion and traffic jams. Ahsan Bari Advocate, President of Voice Against Corruption, said it a was sad fact that corruption was deep-rooted in government departments including KMC and KWSB. “This is why the government officials are not serious to solve the civic issues.”
OBARO: At least 11 persons were injured in an exchange of fire between two rival groups over water dispute on Saturday. Police said that armed men of two groups hailing from Khambra area of Obaro, which were in dispute over water share, exchanged hot words. The verbal clash turned violent after which they traded fire. In cross fire, 11 people belonging to both the groups sustained wounds. The injured were shifted to a local hospital for medicolegal formalities where condition of three wounded persons was stated to be serious. Tension gripped the entire due to heavy firing and people were restricted to homes. Heavy contingent of police reached the scene after the incident and brought situation under control. The police, after registering a case against armed men of both groups, have started the investigation. inP
Three killed, two cops among three injured KARACHI: Three persons including a woman were killed and three others including two policemen injured in different incidents in the metropolis on Saturday. A man, Nauman, 30, son of Liaquat was gunned down by unknown assailants near Bin Qasin Stadium, Sector 5G, New Karachi. The body was shifted to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital (ASH) for an autopsy. According to rescue sources, a strangulated body of a woman, Farzana, 30, was recovered from Block 15 Federal B area. It was shifted to ASH for medico-legal formalities. A four days old body of an unknown man, aged about 40, was recovered from Banoria Town area. The body was shifted to Civil Hospital Karachi for medico-legal formalities. Two policemen, ASI Nawab Khan, 45, and Ashraf Qureshi, 45, son of Abbas Qureshi, were injured when unidentified armed men open fire on them in a restaurant in Gulshan-e-Ghazi, Baldia area. They were brought to ASH for treatment. Yet in another incident, a man, Ahmad Baksh, 55, son of Abdul Hakeem, was shot and injured by unknown gunmen near Saba Cinema in New Karachi area. He was rushed to ASH for treatment. STAFF RePORT
PTI to table resolution against Altaf’s speech
KARACHI: A group painting exhibition of prominent artists was held at Grandeur Art Gallery at Zamzama. Photo shows CEO Neshmia Ahmed, Rozina Jalal, Saadia Nawabi, and Tabinda Qureshi with artists and guests. PR
KARACHI: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Saturday decided to table a resolution in the Sindh Assembly against the hate speech of MQM head Altaf Hussain against armed forces. The decision was taken at a meeting of PTI’s Karachi Division. Samar Ali Khan while speaking to media announced that his party would submit resolution in the provincial assembly against Altaf Hussain’ speech on Monday. Earlier, the Balochistan Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution condemning Altaf Hussain for his speech. Deploring Hussain’s speech as “disgusting and uncalled for”, military announced that it would pursue the matter legally. Online
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KARACHI: Deputy High Commissioner of Bangladesh Noor - E Helal Saifur Rahman and Shabnum Mostari hosted a dinner at their residence. Photo shows host and hostess with Ahsan Mukhtar Zubairi, diplomats from Korea, Japan, Qatar and Turkey. PR
08 KARACHI
Sunday, 3 May, 2015
illegal inTer-ciTy BuS Service reSuMeS again KARACHI
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N less than six months of the Shikarpur-bound passenger bus mishap on the National Highway Link Road in which over 60 people lost their lives, illegal inter-city bus service has again resumed in the metropolis, Pakistan Today learnt through reliable sources. At least 67 people were killed when a fire broke out in an ill-fated Shikarpur-bound passenger bus after collision with an oil tanker at National Highway Link Road in January 2015. As per details, an illegal inter-city bus service, which was stopped after the National Highway accident, has resumed again. By forgetting the deadly
accident, the residents started travelling to interior Sindh by using illegal busservice which is charging comparatively less than the rout permit holders. After the deadly mishap, traffic police had launched a crackdown against the bus owners who were running the service without a rout permit. It was also observed in the crackdown that most of the buses used in this illegal business did not have fitness certificate and this was the only reason that the bus owners never approach for rout permit. With the passage of time, the illegal transport service established their stops again in Landhi and Korangi and started inter-city bus service. During hearing of Shikarpur-bound bus carnage, the Sindh High Court (SHC) was informed that the ill-fated
bus had neither a rout permit nor a valid fitness certificate. Regional Transport Authority (RTA) and Karachi Traffic Police had submitted a report claiming that the bus accident on National Highway Link Road took place due to negligence of the tanker’s driver and dilapidated condition of the road. The RTA’s Law Officer (LO), Fouzia Sikandar, told the court that criminal negligence of the tanker’s driver led to the accident, adding that uneven and dilapidated condition of the road was also one of the causes of the deadly accident. The official of the traffic police told judges that the accident took place due to criminal negligence of the tanker’s driver. It was stated that the road was in dilapidated and poor condition and was not maintained since its construction.
Talking to this scribe, SBOA Chairman Mir Afzal said they appealed the transport department and Karachi traffic police repeatedly for timely action. The ill-fate Shikarpur-bound bus also started from Korangi Chakra Goth, which did not posses rout permit, and collided with oil tanker on National Highway,” Afzal recalled. He demanded of the Sindh chief minister to take action against illegal bus stops, initiate action against bus owners running vehicle without a rout permit and issue directives to the transport department and Karachi traffic police to check weather or not the bus owners were running their vehicles on allocated routes. He warned that if the government failed to meet their demands, they would stage a sit-in outside the CM house.
Shc summons SSP West in missing persons’ case KARACHI: The Sindh High Court has summoned district West’s SSP to explain what efforts were made for the recovery of two citizens who were missing since 2012. A division bench, headed by Justice Naimatullah Phulpoto, was hearing a petition filed by Khanzada Khan, seeking whereabouts of his son, Adnan Amin, and a relative, Bilal, who was a baildaar in the Frontier Constabulary. The judges expressed dissatisfaction over the efforts made by the law enforcement agencies to recover the missing men, saying the men had been missing since 2012 but the police personnel were clueless about their whereabouts. The court summoned the SSP West to submit a report showing what efforts were made to recover the missing men, adjourning the hearing till May 21. The petitioner claimed that the personnel of Sachal Rangers had picked up Amin and Bilal on October 30, 2012. Since then, their whereabouts were unknown. Earlier, the court had directed then interior secretary to make sure that a complete list of detention center and the people being detained there was presented in court to ascertain whether, the petitioner’s missing relatives were detained there. Subsequently a list was submitted by the authorities but the names of Amin and Bilal were not mentioned in the list. STAFF RePORT
KARACHI The Sindh High Court has barred the local government secretary, city’s administrator, and other KMC officials from taking action against a wedding lawn without due process of law. A division bench, headed by Justice Hassan Azhar Rizvi, issued notices to the respondents and provincial law officer on a petition against imminent demolition of a marriage lawn at Korangi.
FAJR SUNRISE
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Bilawal condemns attacks on PPP minister’s office KARACHI: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has strongly condemned the terrorist attacks on PPP Minister Javed Nagori’s office in Karachi and convoy of PPP FATA President Akhunzada Chattan in Bajaur Agency. It should be recalled that Akbar Nagori, brother of Sindh Minister Javed Nagori, was martyred following injuries in a grenade attack that wounded five more PPP workers on Friday midnight. Convoy of PPP FATA President Akhunzada Chattan had been attacked with remote-controlled bomb, in which he escaped miraculously uninjured. Bilawal said such coward attacks could not deter his party, its leaders and workers from drifting the cause of elimination of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. “The PPP remains the only political party of the nation which is being targeted by the terrorists and their sponsors for building a narrative against cancer of extremism and terrorism,” he added. The PPP chairman expressed his sympathies with Javed Nagori and his family for the loss. He also praised Akhunzada Chattan for waging a war on the party platform for the rights of FATA people and assured that the party would stand by them through thick and thin. Online
lyari tense after minister’s brother killed in attack
HYDERABAD: A child takes a bath in a canal as the temperature rises in the city. Online
SHC restrains authorities from taking action against wedding lawn STAFF RePORT
PRAyeR TiMingS
The petitioners, Muhammad Ali, submitted that he was running a marriage lawn on a plot, near Degree College Korangi, which he had got on lease executed in 2009 with district municipal authorities, adding the Korangi’s deputy commissioner had also issued noobjection certificates to establish the wedding lawn. Under the terms of the leases, they said, they were paying monthly charges to the authorities. The petitioner told the judges that KMC officials visited his lawn and demanded money, threatening to demolish
the lawn if their demand was not met. The authorities had launched a campaign against the marriage lawns constructed on amenity properties, they said while apprehending that in garb of this campaign, their lawful lawns will be demolished. Nominating the secretary local government department, Karachi Metropolitan Corporation’s administrator, deputy commissioner of Korangi districts, KMC’s anti-encroachment cell director as respondents, they prayed to the court to restrain the official respondents from razing his lawn.
KARACHI: Lyari remained tense after Saturday after a PPP leader and brother of a minister was killed in a grenade attack. A brother of Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarian MPA and Provincial Minister Javed Nagori was killed and four others including a policeman were injured in a hand-grenade attack in Lyari on Saturday. Akbar Nagori, brother of the provincial minister and four other people, sustained injuries in a hand-grenade attack in Nayaabad, Lyari. The injured were brought to Civil Hospital Karachi for treatment where Akbar Nagori succumbed to injuries. According to hospital sources, all other injured persons were out of danger. Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah condemned the attack and sought a report from the Sindh IG. DIG South Dr Jameel told media outside the hospital that a cache of arms were recovered on Thursday from Liaquat Colony area of Lyari. He said the grenade attack perhaps was reaction to the police raid. STAFF RePORT
hot spell to continue KARACHI: The Met Office has forecast hot/very hot and dry weather in Karachi on Sunday with maximum temperature ranging between 40-42 degrees centigrade. Very hot weather has been forecasted for Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas, Sukkur and Larkana divisions. On Saturday, the highest maximum temperature of 45.5 degree centigrade was reordered at Lasbella/Turbat while lowest minimum of 12.0 at Quetta. STAFF RePORT
Liaquatabad Hospital urgently requires 15 senior medics: MS KARACHI PPi
Sindh Government Hospital Liaquatabad Medical Superintendent Dr Ansar Ahmed Ansari said on Saturday that his hospital urgently needed specialist doctors to deal with the rising number of patients and to further improve patients’ care. Dr Ansari said the number of visiting patients had increased sharply in this 200beded hospital. He said 1500 to 2000 patients attend OPDs on daily basis. He said posts of over 15 senior medical officers were lying vacant in the hospital. He said the posts of specialist
doctors including pathologist, general surgeon, urologist, physician, neurologist, nephrologist and casualty doctors were also lying vacant in the hospital. He informed that 50 posts of nurses had been sanctioned for the hospital but only 28 nurses were available in three shifts, while rest of the posts were lying vacant which needed to be filled to further improve patients’ care. He said there was no shortage of medicines in the healthcare but a request had been sent to the health department for increasing the budget for drugs to cater increasing number of patients. Dr Ansar said his hospital offered all
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major OPD services include paeds, gynecology, orthopedic, ENT, cardiac emergency, dialysis facilities, emergency care, paeds nursery, blood bank and diagnostics facilities to the residents of Liaquatabad, Nazimabad, FB Area and other neighbouring localities free of cost. He said dialysis facilities were available free of cost in the hospital and 35 registered patients were availing these facilities on regular basis. He said a Breast Cancer Diagnostic Center building had been completed in the hospital and screening of women would start soon. He said this new diagnostic center would be made functional
within two months. He said around 200 to 250 patients were brought to the hospital’s emergency department every day where they receive emergency treatment. He said currently 150 doctors were performing their duties but the hospital urgently needed specialist doctors to improve patient care. He said 350 paramedics, nurses and other administrative employees are also performing their duties. He said a paramedical training institute and a school of midwifery and school of nursing had also been established in the hospital. He said paramedics, nurses and midwives also trained under the supervision of experts.
BUSINESS 09
Sunday, 3 May, 2015
NAB cAlls for suprA-tAx regulAtor ACCOUNTABILITY WATCHDOG SAYS TAX APPELLATE AUTHORITIES SHOULD BE REMOVED FROM SUBORDINATION OF FBR AND PUT UNDER LAW MINISTRY ISLAMABAD
t
AMER MAHMOOD
HE National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has forwarded a set of recommendations to the Prime Minister’s Office proposing establishment of a Pakistan Revenue Regulatory Authority (PRRA) for imposing taxes while limiting the role of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to tax collection. The prevention committee on tax evasion recommendations were drafted in meetings held between mid-March and April to stop large scale tax evasion in the
country. The committee was headed by NAB Deputy Chairman Rear Admiral (r) Saeed Ahmad Sargana and included representatives from FBR, SBP, FPCCI, ICAP, PTBA and TIP. It recommended the PRRA to be fully autonomous in making laws for revenue generation while working directly under the prime minister. The tax appellate authorities should be removed from subordination of FBR and work under the Ministry of Law, while members of the appellate tribunals should be appointed and work under the respective high courts. The committee recommended limiting powers of FBR to just an implement-
cell phone import rises 13.06 percent in 9 months ISLAMABAD: The mobile phone imports into the country increased by 13.06 percent to US $539.583 million during first nine months of the year 2014-15 over the same period of last year’s imports of $477.255 million. On month on month and year on year basis, the cell phone import in March also increased by 1.05 percent and 64.94 percent when compared to the import in February 2015 and March 2014 respectively, according to the data of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS). The mobile phone import during March 2015 stood at $73.929 million against the import of $73.161 million in February 2015 and $44.822 million in March 2014. Similarly, the overall telecom imports also increased by 14.70 percent during July-March (2014-15) over the same period of last year. The imports of telecom into the country during first nine months of current fiscal year were recorded at $1.071 billion against the imports of $933.543 million in July-March 2014-15. On year on year basis, the telecom imports telecom imports in March increased by 8.46 percent from $100.144 million in March 2014 to $108.619 percent in March this year whereas on month on month basis the telecom imports decreased from $115.454 million in February 2015 to $108.619 million in March 2015 thus showing 5.92 percent decrease. APP
CORPORATE CORNER pIA offers great summer discounts KARACHI: PIA is offering Grand Discounts this summer of up to 40% on Club Class fares and 20% on Economy Class fares, according to PIA spokesman Aamir Memon. The Discounts would be applicable to PIA tickets purchased for travel to USA, Canada, UK, Europe, Kuala Lumpur, Bombay, Delhi and Dhaka according to the PIA spokesman. Elaborating further, he said the discounts are valid from May 01, 2015 to July 25, 2015 for both Club Class (40%) and Economy Class (20%) and the tickets should have been purchased between May 01, 2015 and May 15, 2015. PRESS RELEASE
KARACHI: Khyber Food Festival being inaugurated at the Pearl Continental Hotel. PR
ing agency. The tax machinery under the control of the executive is an obvious impediment in providing fair and quick justice to the harassed and bonafide taxpayer. It recommended immediate automation of FBR through the implementation of ERP software. It would reconcile all kind of data, sale purchase of shares, property, saving certificates, dividends and registration of vehicles and would help unearth the tax evaders. The recommendations also call for withdrawal of Section 111 of the In-
come Tax Ordinance 2001 related to foreign remittances and assets. The government should draft appropriate laws to seize local assets in equivalent value to levy appropriate taxes if assets outside the country or the source of income could not be established. Bearer certificates and prize b o n d s worth Rs 7,500 should be issued in name with NIC numbers. The federal government should work with the provincial governments to create bi-annual or annual real es-
tate market rates to evaluate the property price for taxes and levies. GST should be imposed in VAT mode. Accountability in tax administration should be introduced to reduce the rampart corruption and inefficiency. The recommendations call for immediate combined audit of all the telecom companies to plug the revenue leakages. All the telecom recharges should be through the prepaid cards, which should be printed at the Pakistan Security Printing Press. The top-up balance recharge should also be through pre-paid cards. The FBR should be given online access to the system of telecom companies. The committee has only recommended forensic audit for the other sectors, textiles and manufacturing. Unlike the telecom sector, the committee has waded away from castigating the major tax evading sectors like the power companies, sugar mills, cement, and wholesalers.
Pakistan now enjoying strong business culture, good roads: Economist ISLAMABAD APP
Visitors to Pakistan are surprised to discover a strong business culture and good roads as the country is mid-table in the World Bank’s ease-ofdoing-business rankings, well above India, reports London-based The Economist newspaper. “Those in search of a thriving stockmarket, a stable currency and low inflation would not normally pitch up in Pakistan. It is more readily thought of as a pit of instability than as a source of opportunity. Yet Pakistan is enjoying a rare period of optimism about its economy,” The Economist said in its recent article about Pakistan’s economy. The newspaper while highlighting Pakistan’s economic performance said that International Monetary Fund (IMF) reckons that the economy will grow by 4.7% next year, the fastest rate in eight years. Consumer prices rose by 2.5% in the year to March, the smallest increase for more than a decade. Twice already this year the central bank has lowered its benchmark interest rate. Some indicators are pointing to an upturn in spending. Compared with a year earlier, cement sales, which are a guide to how much construction is taking place, rose by 5.5% from July to March. Car sales rose by 22% over the same period, the paper said. It added that a fall of two-fifths in the oil price is a huge slice of luck for a country such as Pakistan. It relies on imported fuel oil for two-fifths of its power supply and is prone to periodic balanceof-payments crises. The country’s import bill can easily overwhelm the foreign-exchange earnings from textile exports and the remittances that Pakistanis working in the Middle East and Europe send home. In 2013-14 Pakistan’s net import bill for oil came to $12.6 billion, or around 5% of GDP. But if oil prices stay low, Pakistan could save a total of $12 billion in the next three years, the paper said quoting the IMF. The money could be spent on things with more local content and give the economy a lift, The Economist said.
It said the government of Nawaz Sharif takes some credit for the economy’s new stability. It has stuck to an IMF programme agreed to in 2013, a few months after it came to power in Pakistan’s first-ever handover from one civilian government to another. Foreign-exchange reserves have more than doubled, to $17.7 billion. Electricity tariffs have been raised, and some unpaid bills collected, easing the cash burden on hard-pressed distribution companies. Tax receipts have risen, albeit from pitiful levels, in response to efforts to broaden the base and cut exemptions, the paper said. The Economist said that the revenue agency has sent over 1,50,000 tax notices to non-payers. More retailers are being drawn into the indirecttax net. A draft budget aims to bring the budget deficit below 4% of GDP in 2015-16, from a peak of over 8%. A privatisation drive that stalled last June resumed in April, when the government sold its stake in Habib Bank, the country’s largest lender, for $1 billion. Three-quarters of bids came from foreign investors. Pakistan’s stockmarket has doubled in dollar terms since the start of 2012, thanks in large part to such foreign interest. Privatisations will only add to the market’s variety and appeal. Listed companies are highly profitable, although in part because they often face too lit-
tle competition, the paper said. “The visitors to Pakistan are surprised to discover good roads and a strong business culture. The country is midtable in the World Bank’s ease-of-doing-business rankings, well above India.” The infrastructure is solid enough to support big fast-food chains: McDonald’s, KFC, Pizza Hut and Subway have 187 outlets between them, more than in all of Sub-Saharan Africa’s “frontier” economies combined, says Daniel Salter, of Renaissance Capital, a stockbrokers, the paper said. The Economist said the progress in providing economic stability is encouraging. But Pakistan needs sustained growth of 5-7% a year if it is markedly to cut poverty-at the last count, nearly a quarter of Pakistanis were below the poverty line. It said optimists point to a sharp decline in recent years in the number of deaths from terrorist attacks. Now the army is stepping up operations in regions bordering Afghanistan that harbour the Pakistani Taliban and other militants. “If we had more security, we could double or triple our orders,” The Economist said quoting a businessman.
Another ATR-72 aircraft added to PIA fleet KARACHI STAFF REPORT
A second ATR-72 aircraft arrived at the Jinnah International Airport on May 1, 2015, to join the PIA fleet. This is the second of the five additional ATR-72 aircraft that the PIA is inducting in its existing ATR fleet, according to PIA spokesman Muhammad Aamir Memon. Under its fleet expansion plan, the PIA is acquiring five French-built ATR-72 aircraft, each with a capacity of 70 seats on dry lease for a period of eight years and this is the second of the newly acquired aircraft. According to the PIA spokesman, the ATR will be operated with an alleconomy class configuration. Since the state-of-the-art turbo-prop plane is fuel-efficient, it will further reinforce PIA’s savings plans. The PIA chairman expressed his gratitude to Prime Minister of
Pakistan Nawaz Sharif and Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Aviation Shujaat Azeem for taking active interest in reviving PIA and for providing necessary funds for the purpose. On induction of the latest ATR aircraft, Nasser NS Jaffer said now
the PIA would be in an even better position to rationalise its domestic routes to further facilitate passengers as the ATR would be flying on domestic and feeder routes and other short-haul sectors. He hoped that all formalities would be completed by the PIA at
the earliest for the aircraft to start operating in the PIA fleet. With increase in the number of aircraft in the PIA fleet, the airline would now be in a better position to offer additional flights and also increase flight frequency on existing profitable routes.
10 LEISURE
Sunday, 3 May, 2015
HaGaR tHE HoRRIblE
aries
taurus
gemini
Although you Rams are sometimes criticized for behaving selfishly, the emphasis is on everyone else today. You might even feel a sense of relief now that you can take a break from focusing on your own personal agenda.
Serving others now can take you down a very sweet path to happiness today as the lovely Libra Moon brings you an abundance of pleasurable experiences. However, you might not feel so great if you choose to only satisfy your own needs.
You deserve the respite you may be offered from a rather tumultuous few weeks and the heavier issues clouding the horizon won't get in your way if you let them slide for a while. A change of pace does you a world of good.
cancer
leo
virgo
You might not be able to spend the entire day hanging out with your family and friends, but being around those you love revitalizes your spirit while the Moon is camping out in your 4th House of Domestic Conditions.
You don't have to say yes to every single invitation with your name on it, because you could end up so scattered that your current spark of excitement is extinguished. You may have many tasks to complete, especially if you are in charge of a family or group activity.
You're able to keep your feet on the ground today while also flitting around like a social butterfly. You have a particular point of view, but don't want to waste energy defending it. Work smarter, not harder.
dIlbERt
GaRFIEld
libra
scorpio
sagittarius
Maintaining an objective approach to life isn't straightforward today as the emotional Moon in your sign activates susceptible Venus. Your insecurities, opinions and biases may leak out, even if you think you are cleverly keeping them out of sight.
Don't tie your disclosure to anyone else's actions; just put your feelings out there with no expectations. Ultimately, whatever you say can be less disruptive if you say it with kindness.
Kicking back with a few of your best friends might be just what you need today. In fact, the timing could be right for a celebration, since it's wise to surround yourself with like-minded people while the Moon is currently visiting your 11th House of Networking.
baldo
capricorn
aquarius
pisces
You demand respect from all those you encounter while the Moon is energizing your 10th House of Status. Fortunately, doing the right thing elevates your standing in your community. limit your interactions to those who can move you closer to your dreams.
You may feel as if you're up for nearly anything that sounds like fun, especially if your friends are participating in the activity. In fact, what you do is currently less important than who you do it with. Although you can get away with following your heart now, you still must honor your previous promises.
You prefer to approach all interactions in a rational manner today. Unfortunately, if someone makes an unreasonable demand, you still might try to fulfill their wishes. Balancing your needs with those of others can be challenging.
cRosswoRd
sUdokU
woRd sEaRcH
ACROSS
bRIdGE
How to play fill in all the squares in the grid so that each row, column and each of the squares contains all the digits. the object is to insert the numbers in the boxes to satisfy only one condition: each row, column and 3x3 box must contain the digits 1 through 9 exactly once.
latex lien machine mixed negative pane peer purge quartz render robot short spend thick vector victim vulnerable
Today’s soluTions
bEInG tRUE to paRtnER
cHEss black TO PlaY aND MaTE IN ThrEE MOVEs 8
crossword solution
7 6 5 4 3 2
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
chess solution
A
1...d3 2.Rxd3 Rxd3 3.Qxd3 e4 *
1
sudoku solution
1,12 shakespeare play (1,9,6,5) 7 small fatty fish, usually tinned (8) 8 public disturbance (4) 9 back end (4) 10 branch of mathematics (7) 12 see 1 14 shakespeare play (7) 16 dogfish used as food (4) 19 buzz off! (4) 20 lively (8) 21 shakespeare play (3,7) DOwn 1 prejudiced against older persons (5) 2 it causes a desire to scratch (7) 3 bird — dance (4) 4 dim duels (anag) — natural hazard after heavy rains (8) 5 spine-tingling (5) 6 organised massacre (6) 11 resolute and firm (8) 12 nicked (6) 13 give instruction to (7) 15 eldest son of cain — the late mr powell (5) 17 perspire (5) 18 secure — business partnership (4)
apartment break bright brink cart closets crease dent district drank energy export extent farther friend gird importation
Sunday, 3 May, 2015
Royal baby boRn: It’s a gIRl!
Royal fans hold up a sign that reads 'it’s a princess' as they celebrate following the announcement of Prince William's second child, a daughter, outside the Lindo wing at St Mary's hospital in central London on Saturday.
LONDON
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AGENCIES
rITAIN’S Duchess of Cambridge, the wife of Prince William, gave birth to a daughter on Saturday, the couple’s Kensington Palace residence announced. The baby, their second child, weighed 8 lbs 3 oz and William was present at the birth, it said in a Twitter
statement. “Her royal Highness and her child are both doing well,” the palace added. She gave birth at 8:34 am, some 21/2 hours after having been admitted in the early stages of labor to the private Lindo wing of St Mary’s Hospital, West London, the palace said. Both families of the couple had been informed, it said, including the new baby’s great-grandmother Queen Elizabeth, her grandfather
Prince Charles and William’s brother Prince Harry. A ceremonial town crier announced the birth of the new baby, who will be fourth in line to the throne after Charles, William and her older brother George. No name for the newborn has yet been announced. William, 32, was born at the same hospital to the late Princess Diana in 1982. He and Kate, 33, met as students at St Andrews University in Scotland,
married in a spectacular ceremony at Westminster Abbey in April 2011 and have since become global stars. When Kate leaves hospital, the couple will initially return to Kensington Palace for a couple of days before heading to Anmer Hall, their country mansion on the queen’s Sandringham estate in Norfolk, eastern England. The much awaited birth of the second royal baby was celebrated across social media.
DANGEROUS WW2 BOMBS STILL LITTER GERMANY'S LANDSCAPE MOM SPENDS $161,000 ON TWO-YEAR-OLD'S BIRTHDAY WARDROBE What would you spend $161,000 on? A young Chinese mother believes that the answer to that question is her two-year-old’s designer wardrobe. According to the Daily Mail via Chinese website IFeng, the mother, whose name was not revealed, spent 1 million yuan, roughly $161,000, on an exclusive wardrobe which was subsequently modelled at a fashion show organized as a birthday present for her toddler. The collection was displayed at a hotel in Taiyuan, the capital of Shanxi province and included outfits from designers such as Dior, Louis Vuitton and Burberry, at a fashion show. The hotel’s foyer, along with a runway and professional photographer were also hired for the occasion. The toddler’s extravagant wardrobe was lovingly collected by her mother during various visits to the United States, South Korea and Hong Kong, especially for the occasion. “We have no financial issues, so I just want my daughter to have a better life,” she told IFeng. COURTESY DAILY MAIL
‘HIGH HEELS FOR BABIES’ ARE NOW A DEPRESSING REALITY AND PEOPLE ARE NOT HAPPY AT ALL Whatever happened to baby booties? A US footwear company that manufactures and sells high heels for babies has attracted the ire of the internet. Yes, you read correctly: high heels for babies. Pee Wee Pumps is the brainchild of Michele Holbrook, who came up with the idea after she was unable to find suitable “crib heels” for her baby daughter. After two years, she successfully developed a shoe with a collapsible heel that stayed on her baby’s foot et voilà. The company describes its shoes as “your daughter’s first fashion statement” and “like mom’s favourite pair of pumps only in a miniature size”. It currently has six products for sale on the site, including the Diva and the Glamorous. As one might expect, the product hasn’t gone down well with everyone with many describing the shoe as inappropriate and unnecessarily adult for babies, and questioning the marketing. COURTESY YAHOO NEWS
BERLIN AGENCIES
The danger of unexploded World War Two aerial bombs lurking in the soil still haunts Germany 70 years after the war ended on May 8, 1945, exploding without warning or surfacing after frost. More than 2,000 tonnes of live bombs and munitions are found each year in Germany, even under buildings. They are defused or detonated in controlled blasts but not before causing disruption, evacuations or sometimes even death. “The older they are, the more dangerous they become,” said Detlef Jaab, a Berlin police munitions expert who has defused thousands of the devices over 23 years. “It’s a dangerous job but there’s a lot of variety and freedom to make decisions, whether a bomb can be defused or is too deteriorated and has to be detonated where it’s found.” The sounds and smells of World War Two, which Germans will mark next week, come back to life at a police blasting ground in Berlin’s Grunewald forest eight times each year when Jaab’s squad blows up stockpiled munitions. Air raid warning sirens wail before the earth in the high-security area erupts in successive explosions. The ground shakes, red-hot shrapnel sometimes flies through the forest and smoke wafts over the site. “There are still an estimated
2,500 bombs buried in Berlin and many more artillery shells. Since 1948 we have found 1,395 bombs,” said Jaab. About 56 tonnes of unexploded ordnance were retrieved last year in Berlin, the prime target of British and American aerial bombs that was further devastated by Soviet artillery and grenades during the climactic Battle of Berlin 70 years ago. The country was pummelled by 1.5 million tonnes of bombs from British and American warplanes that killed 600,000 people. German officials estimate 15 percent of the bombs failed to explode, some burrowing six metres deep. Acute dAnger: Many are found by city planners studying warera aerial maps, construction workers or people digging in gardens. Farmers sometimes find bombs weighing up to 4,000 pounds pushed, like boulders, to the surface by the process of frost and thaw. “The dangers lurking grow more acute as time passes,” said Wilfried Mueller, who oversees the removal of munitions on federal and military properties from his Hanover headquarters. Mueller said while some of the bombs can be found by studying aerial photographs and looking for signs: “Dredging canals, rivers, lakes, seashores or waterways is very difficult. Unexploded bombs are everywhere.” Germany’s Luftwaffe began bombing civilian targets early in the
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war before the Allies responded with aerial attacks that destroyed many German towns and cities. Three police explosives experts in Goettingen were killed in 2010 while preparing to defuse a 1,000pound bomb and last year a construction worker in Euskirchen was killed when his power shovel struck a buried 4,000-pound bomb. In 1994 three Berlin construction workers were killed in a similar accident. In 2012, a fireball lit up the sky in Munich, causing millions of euros of damage to 17 buildings, when authorities had to detonate a deteriorated 500-pound bomb. In April this year a 1,000-pound bomb ripped a three-metre-deep hole in a motorway near Offenbach. Hardly a week goes by without a bomb being found, often forcing thousands to evacuate their homes or offices. Germans are often unperturbed by the disruption, taking it in their stride as a fact of everyday life. “Germans have developed an obsession about security and safety yet when it comes to World War Two bombs that are found just about everywhere we just accept it,” said Jessica Gienow-Hecht, an historian and war scholar at Berlin’s Free University. “It touches on Germany’s responsibility and war guilt,” she added, saying she grew up playing in bomb craters and was matter of factly told about bomb damage by realtors while looking to buy a house. “It’s part of what we did and you can’t undo it.”
ARTS
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FORMER HEAD OF GERMANY’S ANTI-ISLAM MOVEMENT APOLOGISES TO MUSLIMS BERLIN AGENCIES
Former leader of Germany’s anti-immigrant Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West (Pegida) movement apologised to Muslims in a public Facebook message. Kathrin Oertel, a harsh critic of immigrants, apologised to Muslims and immigrants in a video published on Thursday, and said that they were not the root cause of the problems in Germany and Europe. “Those still belonging to the Pegida movement need to understand that they are advocating for the wrong cause,” she said. “Asylum seekers are blamed for our problems in Europe and Germany. However, they’re not the root cause of our struggle,” she continued. “I want to apologise to all migrants and to all Muslims among them who live peacefully and are assimilated with German society, who respect our culture and laws. They are in the vast majority and most Germans overlook this fact,” Oertel said. Oertel was initially the spokesperson and later the head of the the popular movement which openly condemned immigrants. Last November, right-wing extremists and citizens had marched in joint weekly rallies in opposition to Muslim immigration to Germany. Although the protests have declined in number and frequency, they still continue. “I feel partially responsible for a campaign of hatred we caused. I want to apologise and the only thing I can do is to help resolve those tensions,” Oertel said in the statement which appeared to have been spontaneously recorded in a car. “To achieve peace, one needs to be ready for dialogue,” Oertel said, adding that “that’s the only way to get rid of prejudices.” The former Pegida leader ascertained that she was no longer fighting against Islam, but instead for “world peace” as she mentioned in her own words. “Someone needs to start to connect people,” she said — implying that she was ready to be that person. Earlier this year, she made remarks in interviews which attacked Muslims and other immigrants, which were in stark comparison to her more recent comments. Speaking to CNN in January, Oertel said, “Muslims are only a tiny fraction of the population, but they’re so dominant in pushing for their demands that German culture is being pushed back.” Another female protester was quoted as saying that she was shocked to see that “asylum seekers in Germany have expensive mobile phones, while I cannot afford such luxury.” Many former supporters of Oertel have been shocked by her new fight for world peace. “Before criticising others, one should always take a step back and reflect on the actions of oneself,” Oertel advised others in her video message. “One has to allow an individual to evolve. Many other people will have to go through this. The creation of enemy images needs to stop,” she added. Her criticism was not only limited to her former fellow Pegida supporters, but also included the media. In her statement, she continued to condemn the mainstream media who continue to “severely criticise Muslims and their religion” and to use them as scapegoats. Oertel declined a request by The Washington Post to explain her allegations. Ironically, during her time with Peginda, Oertel had condemned the media for not being critical enough of Islam, immigration and the rising numbers of asylum seekers in Germany.
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Sunday, 3 May, 2015
ARTS
why shah Rukh Khan reaches ‘Raees’ sets early Most Bollywood actors are known to throw tantrums and for reaching late on the film sets. But Shah Rukh Khan, who has started shooting for Raees, is so excited that he has been reaching the sets an hour prior to the callin time, reported India Today. SRK is in constant touch with the producers, Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani, and the actor is taking personal interest in every aspect of the film. He reaches the sets before time and spends some time reading the script and interacting with the crew. Shah Rukh surprised the entire crew with his non-starry attitude to an extent that the team panicked when Shah Rukh came on the sets early on the first day, as they thought it to be a coordination error. The actor has been working 10-12 hours at a stretch every day. The spokesperson of the film told the daily, “The shoot has been going fantastic! Shah Rukh has been taking the energy on sets a notch higher. He has been reaching early, interacting with everyone on sets, shooting for extra hours.” NEWS DESK
soul singer ben E King dies at 76
Soul and R&B singer Ben E. King, famous for his deep, velvety baritone voice and the classic hit song “Stand by Me,” died of natural causes in New Jersey at the age of 76, his representative said on Friday. “He passed away on Thursday,” said publicist Phil Brown, adding funeral arrangements would be announced within days. King was born in North Carolina and moved to Harlem, New York, as a child. He began his career in the doo-wop group The Five Crowns, which later became The Drifters, before branching out as a solo artist. “With an extremely heavy heart, I must say goodbye to one of the sweetest, gentlest and gifted souls that I have had the privilege of knowing and calling my friend for more than 50 year years, Mr Ben E. King,” R&B singer Gary U.S. Bonds said on Facebook. The Drifters had a string of hits with Atlantic Records and were inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988. King cowrote and sang the lead on the group’s first hit, “There Goes My Baby,” in 1959. NEWS DESK
Fawad Khan’s big Fat ‘Punjabi niKaah’?
F
AWAD Khan seems to be all set to tie the knot once again – in an on-screen appearance in Sohail Khan’s My Punjabi Nikaah, Bollywood entertainment portal Pinkvilla has reported. While there has been no official announcement from the producers just yet, stylist Ashley Rebello has confirmed that he will be styling Fawad for the film, according to Pinkvilla. My Punjabi Nikaah is a romantic comedy loosely based on My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Fawad will play a nawab’s son in the film – a Muslim who falls in love with a Hindu girl. The film has been on the backburner since 2005 and was initally supposed to star Salman Khan and Kareena Kapoor Khan, but for some reason did not
manage to kick off. Sohail Khan later confirmed that Salman Khan would not be a part of the project due to date conflicts. If it goes ahead, this project would be an addition to the growing list of Bollywood films that the Pakistani hearthrob has under his belt. Fawad Khan made his Bollywood debut in 2014 opposite Sonam Kapoor in Khoobsurat, and soon found himself surrounded by film offers. He is currently working on Battle for Bittora, also opposite Sonam Kapoor, and will soon start shooting for Kapoor and Sons opposite Alia Bhatt and Sidharth Malhotra. He has also made several TV appearances in India, showcasing his singing skills. NEWS DESK
Anushka Sharma and Ranbir Kapoor draw Virat Kohli MUMBAI AGENCIES
During the promotion of their film, Bombay Velvet, Anushka Sharma and Ranbir Kapoor were asked to sketch Royal Challengers Bangalore’s ‘best batsman’, the results of which left everyone roaring with laughter. After a fan sketch of Virat Kohli surfaced on Facebook, Star Sports decided to challenge The Bombay Velvet duo to sketch the famous Indian cricketer. The two grabbed their pens, as time ticked away in the rapid fire round, and took to the canvas to show off their drawing skills. However, once time was up,
what the canvas unveiled was a rather funny sketch of Anushka’s beau. While
Anushka clearly beat Ranbir at drawing, the two sketches looked nothing like Virat.
Priyanka shares photo with ‘Mastani’ Deepika on Instagram
Priyanka Chopra posted a picture of Deepika Padukone and her feet during the shooting of ‘Bajirao Mastani’.
Bollywood beauties, Deepika and Priyanka will be seen in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Bajirao Mastani having an intense Lavani-style dance face-off, reported India Today. When they got a moment of leisure from their tiring dance number training, Priyanka clicked a picture of her and Deepika’s feet wearing white ballerinas on Instagram. The song will have the two versatile actors dancing dressed up in similar attire Madhuri Dixit and Aishwarya Rai donned in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Devdas. The Lavani number will be choreographed by Remo D’Souza and is being shot on a grand scale with over 100 back-up dancers and extravagant sets. The song is to be shot in Mumbai over a period of ten days. Bajirao Mastani is a period drama based on the love story of Bajirao Peshwa and dancer Mastani, played by Ranveer Singh, Deepika Padukone, respectively. Priyanka Chopra plays Bajirao’s first wife. NEWS DESK
People ask me if i’m joey’s dad: Matt Leblanc LOS ANGELES: It has been eleven years since Friends wrapped up, but it seems that fans cannot think of Joey Tribbiani as anything else but the young and immature dimwit who was continually struggling to establish himself as an actor. In an interview with BBC1′s The Graham Norton Show, actor Matt LeBlanc, who played the role of Joey Tribbiani in the super-hit sitcom, revealed that he is often stopped in the streets by people asking if he is related to the actor who plays Joey Tribbiani. The actor said, “They say, ‘What’s with the grey hair? Are you Joey’s dad?’” Friends was one of the most watched comedy series during its ten year run, and continues to enjoy a loyal and ever-expanding fan base despite being discontinued in 2004. Thanks to repeats shown around the world the entire cast remains very popular to this day. According to Matt LeBlanc, “Friends is always on somewhere so there is a new crop of teenagers finding it for the first time.” AGENCIES
neil welcomes smarter bad guys in bollywood MUMBAI: With his tall, fair and handsome looks, he could have been a quintessential Bollywood hero, but he chose to be an onscreen baddie. Actor Neil Nitin Mukesh, who ventured into Bollywood in Johnny Gaddaar, feels that the trend of negative characters has picked up in Hindi cinema immensely. “There are a lot of layers for an actor to do, and today if you have seen, the trend of actors doing negative roles, is picking up,” Neil said in an interview here. After stepping into the cine world in 2007, the actor has been seen mostly in negative roles like 7 Khoon Maaf, David and Player. In Tamil cinema, his 2014 movie Kaththi also featured him in a negative character. Talking about his bent towards negative roles, Neil said: “I started my career with it. Johnny Gaddaar was a negative role. If you see the west, all the superstars have done negative characters.” The actor, who has even turned producer by collaborating with Madan Pahliwal of Miraj Group, says he’d like his banner to steer clear from the adult comedy genre. AGENCIES
Bill Cosby’s list of accusers grows; two more allege sexual assaults LOS ANGELES AGENCIES
Two more women, a writer and an actress, on Friday said comedian Bill Cosby had sexually assaulted them decades ago, bringing the list of his accusers to more than 40. Actress Lili Bernard and writer Sammie Mays made the allegations against the comedian at a news conference with prominent lawyer Gloria Allred the day before the last show of Cosby’s national comedy tour in Atlanta. Cosby, best known for his role as Dr. Cliff Huxtable on the hit TV series The Cosby Show, has never been charged over any of the allegations. The 77-year-old settled a 2005 civil lawsuit alleging sexual misconduct. His representative did not respond to a request for comment on Friday.
Cosby’s attorney, Marty Singer, has previously dismissed similar allegations by other women as “discredited” and “defamatory”. Lili said Cosby drugged, raped and threatened her while he helped her prepare for a role in the 1984-1992 show’s last season. “After he had won my complete trust and admiration, he drugged and raped me,” said the mother of six. Lili said she told her agent, family, several friends and her pastor about the attack. She later became suicidal and was hospitalized. “I still suffer panic attacks and night terrors as a result of what Mr. Cosby did to me,” she said. “I stand here to take back my power and confront the fear that has paralyzed me for so many years.” Lili and Gloria said they went to Atlantic City, New Jersey, where one of the alleged attacks occurred, on
Thursday to report it to the police. New Jersey has no statute of limitations for rape. The Atlantic City Police Department did not respond to a request for comment. Sammie Mays said she was a writer at a television convention in New Orleans in 1986 when Cosby agreed to an interview. After accompanying him to his hotel room and accepting a drink, she said she woke up confused and partially undressed as Cosby stared down at her. She said she quickly tried to compose herself, then left. “Once in the lobby, I realized I had just survived an encounter with a scheming madman who hid his demons behind an alluring personality,” she said. Gloria, who represents many of Cosby’s accusers, said she will join a planned protest on Saturday at the Atlanta theater where Cosby is scheduled to perform.
CMYK
SPORTS 13
Sunday, 3 May, 2015
Fantastic tamim, Kayes slam doors on PaKistan t
SPORTS DESK
HE incredible opening stand between Tamim Iqbal and Imrul Kayes passed the 300-run mark, setting more records while making short work of what had seemed like a match-winning lead for Pakistan a little over 24 hours ago and attained, undeniably, one of the top spots in Bangladesh cricket legend. Kayes, who moved shoulder to shoulder with Tamim during the stand, fell for 150, but there was no stopping Tamim. He had kick-started Bangladesh’s resurgence in the Test and went on with unwavering resolve to register the highest Test score 206 - by a Bangladesh batsman. As Tamim walked back after a rare mistake in the 99th over, Mohammad Hafeez, the successful bowler, was the first one to congratulate him on an enthralling innings that was both serene and audacious. And it came at a time of grief in the family. Kayes’ innings was no less vital. The draw in Khulna was in line with improvements Bangladesh have shown across formats after a difficult 2014. The transformation happened somewhere along the home series win against Zimbabwe last October, continued through the World Cup down under and if there were still doubts after the ODI and Twenty20 wins against Pakistan, the first Test should quell them. It was the first time in nine Tests that Pakistan were not able to force a win against Bangladesh. Irrespective
of the conditions, that stat alone was a huge boost for Bangladesh cricket. Pakistan, a few rungs above the home side in Test rankings, are still favourites ahead of the Dhaka Test, but will be under severe pressure. The seeds of doubt for Pakistan were solely sown by the Tamim-Kayes stand. The striking feature of the batsmanship was the ability to change gears from time to time. A number of remarkable innings have been played by Bangladesh batsmen in the past, but not many have seen batsmen marrying personal goals with team requirement as seamlessly as Tamim and Kayes did in this Test. Tamim had said before the start of play on the final day that it was crucial for Bangladesh to keep their concentration through the first session as they were still behind in the Test, and both he and Kayes took time to set themselves up again. Only six runs were scored in the first five overs, with Kayes playing out three maidens on the trot from Junaid Khan, one more than what they had played in the 61 overs yesterday. The pitch had refused to change much though it was the fifth day but Junaid was reversing
the ball both ways in that initial spell. Kayes was saved by the inside edge first ball of the morning as one swung in late. Then Tamim was floored by a vicious inswinger that struck him flush on the boot, the batsman falling forward on his elbows after losing balance. That delivery would have grazed the leg stump, too. If there was any hangover from yesterday, it was duly shaken off. Two balls later, Tamim watchfully clipped a similar delivery to fine leg before Kayes, in the same over, leaned into a fuller delivery to hit the first boundary of the day, which drew the pair level with Colin Cowdrey and Geoff Puller’s 55-year-old record of the highest opening stand in second innings of a Test. In the next over, Tamim stepped out of the crease and crisply drove Yasir Shah through covers to put Bangladesh in the lead. And just
Scoreboard 332 bangladeSh 1St inningS paKiStan 1St inningS 628 bangladeSh 2nd inningS 206 tamim iqbal St †SarFraz ahmed b mohammad haFeez 150 imrUl KaYeS c SUb (babar azam) b zUlFiqar babar 21 mominUl haqUe b JUnaid Khan mahmUdUllah lbW b JUnaid Khan 40 ShaKib al haSan not oUt 76 0 mUShFiqUr rahim lbW b mohammad haFeez 33 SoUmYa SarKar c mohammad haFeez b aSad ShaFiq 20 ShUVagata hom not oUt 9 extraS (lb 4, W 2, nb 3) total (6 WicKetS; 136 oVerS) 555 did not bat: taijul islam, rubel hossain, mohammad Shahid Fall oF WicKetS: 1-312 (imrul Kayes, 75.4 ov), 2-345 (mominul haque, 88.3 ov), 3-399 (tamim iqbal, 98.2 ov), 4-463 (mahmudullah, 115.5 ov), 5464 (mushfiqur rahim, 116.5 ov), 6-524 (Soumya Sarkar, 130.2 ov) boWling: Junaid Khan 21-5-88-2, zulfiqar babar 32-1-125-1, mohammad hafeez 20-0-82-2, -Wahab riaz 20-3-75-0, Yasir Shah 30-2-123-0, azhar ali 6-1-26-0, asad Shafiq 7-0-32-1 match detailS: toss - bangladesh, who chose to bat Series - 2-match series level 0-0 test debuts - mohammad Shahid and Soumya Sarkar (bangladesh); Sami aslam (pakistan) player of the match - tamim iqbal (bangladesh) Umpires - nJ llong (england) and reJ martinesz (Sri lanka) tV umpire - pr reiffel (australia) match referee - JJ crowe (new zealand) reserve umpire - Sharfuddoula
like that, they were back in cruise mode again. Bangladesh reached 300 in the 69th over, Tamim touched 150 in the 71st and Kayes joined him three overs later. While Tamim went on to pass his previous best of 151, Kayes, looking to push the scoring, holed out at long-off. Unaffected by the dismissal, Tamim carried on in a controlled manner, his calmness gnawing on the last crumb of hope Pakistan might have harboured. Mominul Haque came and went, missing a fuller delivery to give Junaid his first wicket of the match, but the score kept moving along. Then, as if waking up from an afternoon slumber, Tamim surprised Yasir Shah to move from 182 to 194 in two balls. In the next over, after being beaten on the charge, he smashed Junaid down the ground for his seventh six to move past Mushfiqur Rahim’s 200.
FIERY MANDEEP DOWNS KKR IN THRILLER Scoreboard KolKata Knight riderS rV Uthappa c †KarthiK b chahal 23 12 g gambhir c mandeep Singh b WieSe ad rUSSell rUn oUt (†KarthiK) 45 12 rn ten doeSchate c de VillierS b Starc YK pathan not oUt 11 Sa YadaV not oUt 0 8 extraS (lb 3, W 4, nb 1) total (4 WicKetS; 10 oVerS) 111 did not batmK pandey, pJ cummins, pp chawla, gb hogg, Ut Yadav Fall of wickets 1-33 (gambhir, 3.5 ov), 2-71 (Uthappa, 6.5 ov), 3-96 (russell, 8.4 ov), 4-102 (ten doeschate, 9.1 ov) bowling ma Starc 2-0-15-1, Vr aaron 2-0-29-0, hV patel 2-0-220, d Wiese 2-0-20-1, YS chahal 2-0-22-1 roYal challengerS bangalore ch gaYle c rUSSell b hogg 21 34 V Kohli* c Sa YadaV b rUSSell ab de VillierS b chaWla 2
SPORTS DESK The penultimate ball of the penultimate over of the match. Umesh Yadav had his fine leg inside the circle, and Mandeep Singh stepped across his stumps to scoop the ball over the fielder. Deep backward square leg sprinted desperately to his right to stop the ball, but he
had no chance. It had rained, and the outfield was a little slow, but this ball landed on a practice pitch and raced into the boundary. Next ball, Mandeep skipped down the track and looked to swipe a length ball through mid-off. He ended up edging it to the third man boundary. In the space of two balls sprinkled with a fair
measure of fortune, Royal Challengers Bangalore had gone from needing 20 to win from eight balls to needing 12 from six. Such things happen all the time in Twenty20, but this was a rain-shortened 10-overs-a-side match. Even Ravi Shastri, interviewing the losing captain at the post-match presentation, commiserated
45 mandeep Singh not oUt d WieSe not oUt 9 4 extraS (W 4) total (3 WicKetS; 9.4 oVerS) 115 did not bat: Kd Karthik†, Sn Khan, hV patel, ma Starc, Vr aaron, YS chahal Fall oF WicKetS: 1-48 (gayle, 3.5 ov), 2-51 (de Villiers, 4.4 ov), 3-81 (Kohli, 7.2 ov) boWling: pJ cummins 2-0-18-0, Ut Yadav 2-0-31-0, gb hogg 2-0-23-1, pp chawla 2-0-21-1, ad russell 1.4-0-22-1 match detailS: toss - royal challengers bangalore, who chose to field pointS: - royal challengers bangalore 2, Kolkata Knight riders 0 plaYer oF the match - mandeep Singh (royal challengers bangalore) Umpires - Jd cloete (South africa) and pg pathak tV umpire - c Shamshuddin match referee - J Srinath reserve umpire - VK Sharma
with him, calling it a “lottery”. Mandeep, though, played a massive hand in deciding the fate of the lottery. He walked when Royal Challengers had just lost Chris Gayle and AB de Villiers in the space of six balls, when they needed 62 from 32 balls, and produced a stunning, unbeaten 18-ball 45 to power his team home with two balls remaining.
COOK RELIEF AT ENDING HUNDRED DEBATE SPORTS DESK Alastair Cook admitted he had to overcome the “denial” about struggling for runs over the last two years after scoring his first Test hundred in 23 months on the opening day in Barbados. Cook batted until the final over of the day for 105 off 266 balls, his 26th Test hundred, before edging a short delivery against Marlon Samuels after more than six hours of concentration. Before Christmas, Cook was in line to captain England at the World Cup but after a difficult tour of Sri Lanka, where the team lost 5-2 and he did not pass fifty, he was sacked from that role. He had previously spoken about the hurt he felt at the decision and said that “disappointment” remained, but time has been a healer and he also used the vacant space in his winter to work extensively in the nets with his mentor Graham Gooch. He scored a hundred in the facile warm-up match against St Kitts at the start of the West Indies tour, but a double failure in Antigua ensured talk of his form was never far away. However, twin fifties in Grenada meant he had made five half-centuries in eight innings going back to the series against India last year and now that elusive three figures has been ticked off again. “Over the next year I’ve got the chance to focus on the five-day stuff and make sure I’m doing the right stuff time and time again,” he told Sky Sports before the start of the second day in Barbados. “Over the last two year or so, I haven’t scored the runs I’d like, a few technical things had crept in, you go into a bit of denial about them - ‘nah they’re fine, it’s what it’s always
done’ - and it’s given me time to look at it. It’s not huge changes, just a couple of things. I’m never the most technically pleasing batsman, so they’ll always be there, so it’s trying to make sure they aren’t too big to stop me scoring runs. “No matter how many runs you score you still have the belief and it was a matter of time before I got three figures. I did quite a lot of work with Goochie after being left out of the World Cup and felt really good in the Essex nets. In Antigua it didn’t go so well but the way I’ve been hitting the ball in the last seven
months in the red-ball stuff I did feel the score was there. But there’s only so many times you can go into a press conference, as captain, which is asking when are you going to score the hundred. That’s now gone and I can concentrate on what’s important, runs at the top of the order and England winning.” Talking of the technical adjustments which his international break had allowed him to focus on - although he did not go as far as to say the one-day omission had been a good thing for him - Cook pinpointed trying to play the ball straighter. He picked out the shot that took him to a hundred - a clip off his toes wide of mid-on - as evidence of how his game was back in good working order. “My shot to get the hundred was a good sign, although you should do that after 250 balls. Probably over the last year or so I might have clipped that behind square for one,” he said. “It went quite a long way in front of square, so that’s a good sign, but it’s about being able to groove that so under pressure all you think about is the ball coming down. “The World Cup is still disappointing, you always want to lead your country in a World Cup but that isn’t going to happen. You dust yourself down; your pride gets dented and you wonder if you want to leave the house with the reaction you will get. Then you have a couple of weeks to get over that, and think what your next challenge is and what the best way is to prepare for that. You look at some technical stuff and I worked really hard from the beginning of February, two months of solid work. Naturally you are refreshed, but the technical work was more important.”
CMYK
Fisher can excite england: Bresnan SPORTS DESK Matthew Fisher has only been playing Championship cricket for a fortnight but in Yorkshire they are more confident than ever that he has the attributes to become an England fast bowler. “Matt Fisher: I think he is going to be an unbelievable bowler,” said Tim Bresnan after his introduction to Championship cricket against Nottinghamshire and Warwickshire, voicing what Yorkshire and England - have privately been hoping since Fisher first came on the scene. Bresnan, not the sort for overstatement, in fact quite the contrary, told the Telegraph & Argus: “He is 17 years old, and he is swinging it both ways at 85mph and has a sharp bouncer as well. He looks a really good prospect. “ Yorkshire have six players in the Caribbean but the confidence that their England production line will continue is evident. Bresnan himself has returned to England’s ODI squad against Ireland in Dublin and Alex Lees is regarded by many as a future England opening batsman. But it is Fisher, already a central part of England’s U19 side, who became Yorkshire’s sixth youngest Championship debutant this season when, at 17 years and 161 days old, he faced Nottinghamshire in a draw at Trent Bridge, who is carrying such expectations at a young age. He is used to that. In June 2013, aged 15 years and 212 days, he became the youngest postwar county cricketer when he played in a 40-over match against Leicestershire. He was still 15 when he was first included in an England Under-19 squad for a triangular series against Bangladesh and Pakistan that summer. His chances of further 1st XI cricket must give way for the moment to more serious matters as he takes his A levels But first of all, the 17-year-old fast bowler must concentrate on another type of examination - his ALevels at Easingwold School. Bresnan, who at 30 still has miles in the tank, has been an England stalwart until injury disrupted his career and he knows the challenge of meeting expectations at a young age, having made his debut at 16 in a one-day match against Kent.
14 SPORTS
DIRE KINGS XI ALREADY IN MUST-WINTERRITORY SPORTS DESK This is a game between sides that played the most positive Twenty20 cricket over the last two IPLs. In 2013, Mumbai Indians by playing five specialist bowlers, five specialist batsmen and a wicketkeeper-batsman. If six can’t score the runs in 20 overs, seven won’t make a big difference. No specialist was sacrificed for a bits-andpieces players. In 2014 Kings XI Punjab didn’t think of what-ifs, and put their best batsmen at the top. Twenty overs is a short time, make use of it. This year is proving it is easy to implement such idyllic plans only if your players are in form. Kings XI have two wins from eight games, and Mumbai are only slightly better at three. Mumbai have lost two overseas players, and Lasith Malinga is no longer the threat he was two years ago; Kings XI’s top order can’t buy a run, and Mitchell Johnson and Glenn Maxwell haven’t quite warmed up yet. If Kings XI win this game, they might just sink both the teams. To end up in the top four you roughly want to want half your matches; if Kings XI make it three wins each for these teams, both will need to win each of their last five games. Suffice to say Kings XI can’t afford to lose this one. Form guide
Sunday, 3 May, 2015
‘A very big turning point for b’desh cricket’
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SPORTS DESK
HEN asked how he rated Imrul Kayes and Mahmudullah as wicketkeepers, Mushfiqur Rahim joked that both looked awkward behind the stumps. The pair had to step in after Mushfiqur hurt his right ring finger on the second day. But he hailed their effort, particularly that of Imrul who kept wickets from the 37th over of the Pakistan innings on the second afternoon till the fourth morning. “I think his keeping was disgusting,” Mushfiqur said giggling. “But seriously, it was extraordinary of him. In this heat, he didn’t back down. We tried to support him, and motivate him. He did it with an open heart.” After his 120-over stint behind the wicket, Imrul asked Mahmudullah if anyone else could take over as he felt faint. Mahmudullah then took the gloves for the first time in his cricket career, and even effected a stumping, albeit the ball coming off his pad, making the dismissal look unintentional. “He has great football skills. He did a
decent job. It looked like a giant was standing behind the wicket. But really, it was good,” Mushfiqur said Mushfiqur Rahim has said that drawing the first Test in Khulna was as big as a win for Bangladesh, while the coach Chandika Hathurusingha believes the result was proof of the team’s competitiveness in the longest format. This was the first time Pakistan failed to win a Test match against Bangladesh, who continued to stay on top of the visitors after their complete domination in the limited-overs leg of the tour. “We had plans to declare but for that we needed a safe score,” Mushfiqur said. “We thought about giving them something in the mandatory 15 overs but we needed enough time to bowl them out too. We dominated this draw and it was nothing less than a win, against such a team and with 296 runs behind. Such a performance gives you belief as a group that we can overcome future goals.” Hathurusingha said the 312-run opening stand between Tamim Iqbal and Imrul Kayes, now the highest opening stand in the second innings of a Test match, was a performance worth being called a watershed moment.
“I think it is a very big turning point in Bangladesh cricket. We recently made some history but it is mostly beating our own records. The significance here is the biggest opening partnership in the second innings. “We have really made a mark in the international stage that we have come of age. The last two days have proved that we are a very competitive side,” he said. Hathurusingha added that the on-field performance was also a result of the Bangladesh players’ clarity of communication with themselves and the coaching staff. He had talked during and after the World Cup about how he was willing to give the batsmen more freedom. “You need to have clarity in whatever you say to the players. They are talented enough to take their own decisions,” Hathurusingha said. “My job is to be clear and give them freedom to make decisions in the middle. As long as they do that, it makes me happy. What you see in the middle is the clarity of what we are talking about in the dressing room,” .
ROYALS DESPERATE TO END WINLESS RUN Form guide: Rajasthan Royals lllWW (last five completed matches, most Recent fiRst) delhi daRedevils WlWlW
Kings Xi punjab lllWl (last five matches, most Recent fiRst) mumbai indians WWlWl
Watch out For… The Vs of Kings XI. Virender, Vijay and Vohra. None of them have had a big innings with more than half the competition over. Look no further for the main source of trouble. Their power-packed middle order has hardly had a hit without having to worry about rebuilding. Whichever of the two play on Sunday will have to give Kings XI a decent start to build on from. Ambati Rayudu finally came good for Mumbai Indians in their win over Rajasthan Royals, but one in eight for a batsman who doesn’t bowl and is not asked to take the responsibility of batting in the top four can’t be good enough. Rayudu will have to kick on for Mumbai to have a chance of progressing from here. StatS and trivia: With 93 wickets, R Vinay Kumar is the secondmost-successful quick, and fifth-most overall, in IPL. Team-mate Lasith Malinga leads the tally with 129, with three spinners Amit Mishra, Piyush Chawla and Harbhajan Singh in between. Kings XI’s opening partnership has averaged 13.87 this IPL. No other team has had such poor starts. M Vijay has been run out 11 times in the IPL, the joint-highest with Gautam Gambhir and Venugopal Rao.
He also pointed out the crucial moments that Bangladesh overcame in the Test, particularly since the fourth morning, to ultimately find the desired result. “I don’t think the wicket helped us draw the game. The batters’ skills helped us, so hats off to them. Even Taijul took six wickets so we didn’t leave anything in Pakistan’s hand to make a declaration. So little things like that helped us to draw the game.” Despite all the records, though, Mushfiqur felt Bangladesh still had to bowl better in order to take 20 wickets. “There is no end to improvement,” Mushfiqur said. “We should have scored more runs in the first innings because you won’t be making 550 in the second innings. We must give less runs, maintain a good economy rate, and we also need to take the chances. “You need 20 wickets to win a Test match. We bowled better on the fourth day than we did on the third day. Taijul bowled very well. We have to plan according to the pitch in the next game. Hopefully it will have some help for the bowlers to take 20 wickets.”
SPORTS DESK From being homeless, Rajasthan Royals have gone winless in no time. Delhi Daredevils, on the other hand, seem to have started getting it right, with their first-choice eleven finally available for selection. After winning their first five matches of the season, Royals have failed to win any of their last five. With two of those games washed out, Royals have seen an addition of two points to their kitty. That has helped them retain their top-two standing. But with just four matches remaining, Royals would know they are running out of time to get back to winning ways.
Delhi Daredevils have no such problems. After a slowish start, they have started appearing as a more consistent unit and have moved from the bottom of the pile into the Playoffs cut-off. A win against a higher-ranked team would bolster their chances to make the cut. It is supposed to be a home game for the Royals but the Brabourne Stadium will see its first game of the season. Royals may hold the edge, not just because of a strong presence of Mumbai players in their squad, but also due to the fact that they had a pre-tournament camp at Cricket Club of India. Delhi would also be far from alien to the conditions, with Mumbaikars Zaheer Khan, Shreyas Iyer and Pravin Amre being vital cogs in their set-up.
Watch out For… It took him seven innings to score his first fifty of the season but Sanju Samson would still be cursing himself for having failed to see his team through against Mumbai Indians on Friday night. The wicketkeeper-batsman has been shuffled in the batting order as much as Steven Smith’s horizontal movement at the crease. Samson appeared comfortable at No. 3 and would look to build on his good form. Zaheer Khan was considered to be more of a bowling coach rather than being a player. But the injury-prone bowler made his presence felt in the first game he played for a year by dismissing Virender Sehwag off his second ball. If Zaheer can keep himself fit, Daredevils would have a lethal pace combo in him and an in-form Nathan Coulter-Nile. StatS and trivia: Ajinkya Rahane is six runs shy of becoming the 20th batsman to tally 2000 IPL runs. With 1846 of his 1994 IPL runs having been scored for Royals, Rahane sits behind Shane Watson (2197 runs) in leading scorers for Royals in IPL. Amit Mishra needs one wicket to become the first bowler to earn 50 wickets for Delhi Daredevils in IPL. Rajasthan Royals are one win away from joining Chennai Super Kings (75) and Mumbai Indians (60) to join the 60-win club in IPL. QuoteS: “In our team even if you don’t do well you can see so many people coming to you and talking positive things to you.” Sanju Samson on being a part of Rajasthan Royals “We now have to win 4 out of the remaining 6 games. That’s how we are looking at it.” Zaheer Khan spells out Daredevils’ target of winning eight games to progress
Beginning to see merits of england players in ipl: Butcher COURTESY CRICINFO Former England batsman Mark Butcher believes people are beginning to “see the merits” of ensuring more England players are involved in future editions of the IPL. Butcher, who is India on assignment with British broadcaster Sky Sports, told ESPNcricinfo that watching games from the grounds has been like “nothing else I’ve ever seen at cricket grounds around the world.” “It’s quite remarkable, the fervour for the game and the atmosphere and the skill level,” he said. “When the IPL first began, it was more about what was happening off the field; giving the older players a bit of a pay day. In the last three-four years, though, the standard of cricket and the way that the game is being taken a lot more seriously and the way that the skills have been elevated to a new level has
made it a wonderful combination. I have no doubt whatsoever that any players whether they being young or old - will only improve by experiencing it and playing it.” Butcher is convinced that young England players, especially those identified as key to their limited-overs plans in the years ahead, such as Jos Buttler, Alex Hales, Chris Woakes and the likes, will benefit immensely from playing in the IPL. However, he said, they can only hope to attract interest from franchises if they are available to participate in the entire season and not for a short period, as is the case currently. “At the moment, because English players initially couldn’t stay for the entire duration of the tournament which meant that their price was not worth paying, people are not even looking at English players to play in the competition,” he said. “So, that’s going to change. I
have no doubt about that. It will take us a little while because it always takes us a little while to catch up with things but people are now beginning to see the merits.” England’s shocking early exit from the World Cup has led to considerable churn in the country about how to bridge the gap with other countries in the limited-overs formats. Butcher believes that outcome has put “more pressure” to try and find ways to get more English players involved in the IPL. “If you play all your domestic cricket in one country, you do not know how cricketers do it in other countries like Bangladesh or India or South Africa,” he said. “Everybody has their own different things that they bring to the table. What we’re seeing with these players is that with them being exposed to more leagues around the world, it is no longer difficult for a New Zealander
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to come out and play brilliantly on slow Indian pitches. They know how to do it. That’s the learning curve you get by being here for six weeks.” While Butcher didn’t think it was possible to tweak the county season to allow English players to play the IPL, he advocated considering what he described as a “short-term loss” over “long-term gain”. “I think what the ECB and the counties have to look at is how much we gain in the long run by exposing some of our brightest and the best to competitions like the IPL,” he said. “You might lose out a little bit in the short term by missing your best players but what you will gain in the long term is the knowledge of playing under pressure when they come back which will pay dividends later on in the long run. So, you have to speculate a little bit to accumulate.” Former England batsman and coach
David Lloyd, who also had his first firsthand experience of the IPL as a commentator this season, was equally enthused after his stint. Writing in his blog on Skysports.com, Lloyd conceded that while cricket won’t enjoy the same following in the UK as India, a template similar to the Big Bash League in Australia should be considered by the ECB. “We can certainly stage something very similar to the Big Bash. That would be our template - have eight teams, who play everybody twice,” Lloyd wrote. “If we could find a three-to-four-week window and block it off - that’s what all the players want but you’ve got to sell that idea to 18 counties so there’s got to be a will to do it that way. You’d have to play it alongside Test-match cricket - as they do in Australia - to fit it into the schedule and you’d have to try to attract the best players in the world and make it a real event.”
Sunday, 3 May, 2015
Andre gignAc scores 100th goAl As MArseille beAt Metz
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Wo goals from Andre-Pierre Gignac, the 100th and 101st of his Ligue 1 career, helped olympique Marseille end a wretched run of
four straight defeats as they swept past struggling Metz 2-0 on Friday. France forward Gignac took his goal tally in the league this season to 19 when he pounced on a mistake by Metz goalkeeper Anthony Mfa in the
38th minute. The Gabon international dropped the ball following a right-wing corner and the Marseille striker swivelled sharply to hook the rebound low into the net. Gignac then made it 2-0 in the 62nd minute when Dimitri Payet, who had a superb game in midfield, sent him racing clear and he waited for Mfa to rush out at his feet before carefully dinking the ball over the keeper’s head. Marcelo Bielsa’s Marseille moved up to fourth in the table, on 60 points and with three games left to play, and back in with a strong chance of claiming the third place that offers a slot in the preliminary round of next season’s Champions League. Monaco, who are two points better off in third position, host Toulouse on Sunday. Paris St Germain, who are three points clear at the top, visit Nantes on Sunday while secondplaced olympique Lyonnais entertain Evian Thonon Gaillard on Saturday. Metz’s defeat leaves them with a mountain to climb to escape relegation. They are second from bottom, eight points from safety with three games to go.
SHAUN MURPHY LEFT ONE FRAME FROM WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL SPORTS DESK
SUAREZ HITS HAT-TRICK AS BARCELONA PUT EIGHT PAST CORDOBA Luis Suarez scored a hat-trick as Barcelona won 8-0 away to Cordoba to stay in charge of the Liga title race. Lionel Messi scored twice and passed up the chance to complete his hat-trick when he allowed Neymar to take a late penalty. Ivan Rakitic and Gerard Pique added the other goals in a rout that confirmed Cordoba’s relegation from La Liga. Cordoba held out for 41 minutes but folded after Ivan Rakitic broke the deadlock - Barca scored four in 11 minutes either side of half-time to move five points clear of Real Madrid, who play their game in hand on Saturday evening. Suarez’s prolific form has brought the Uruguayan 17 goals from his last 16 games in all competitions while Messi is now top scorer in the league with 40 goals — one more than Real’s Cristiano Ronaldo. Rakitic volleyed into the roof of the net to give Barca the lead after 42 minutes at Cordoba and then Suarez slotted home in first-half stoppage time. Messi headed in straight after the restart, with further headers from Suarez and Gerard Pique as Barcelona hit their stride. Messi scored into an open net with 10 minutes to go and then Neymar hit a penalty after he was brought down by defender Adrian Gunino. spoRts desK
Shaun Murphy stands just one frame away from a place in the World Championship final despite Barry Hawkins’ heroic rearguard action in the semi-final at the Crucible. The 2005 champion leads 16-8 going into Saturday afternoon’s concluding session, and seems certain to make the final for the third time - and the first time since 2009. Yet his hopes of earning a day off in between his semi-final and final were dashed in extraordinary fashion. Hawkins trailed 13-3 going into the evening session, facing the very real prospect of losing the match with a session to spare. But Hawkins produced some of his best snooker of the tournament, jumping at the least opportunity and scoring ruthlessly when at the table. Though Murphy played well - winning the
evening’s opener - Hawkins played better, as he won the next four frames in a row, collecting breaks of 103, 57, 104 and 73 as he did so. Murphy found his game with breaks of 90 and 106 to show that he had not gone off the boil, and looked like finishing the job in the final frame of the night: after a miss by Hawkins left Murphy with a perfect chance to wrap up the match. But the twice UK Championship winner left himself hampered on a simple red, missing to the top right corner - and Hawkins needed no second invitation. His 76 wrapped up the session 5-3, earning Hawkins a huge cheer from the crowd and the right to walk away with head held high and a smile on his face. While it’s all but inconceivable that he will win the next nine frames of the match to make the final, but at least he will leave the Crucible with his confidence and pride intact after an excellent fortnight.
Aston Villa moved two points clear of the relegation zone with a 3-2 win over Everton, who were unrecognisable from the team that beat Manchester United 3-0 last weekend. Christian Benteke outshone his compatriot Romelu Lukaku, scoring twice to take his recent record to 11
goals in his last nine appearances. The Belgian’s first was a towering header from Fabian Delph’s cross before he powered the ball high into the net just before half-time after being left unmarked from a corner. Just five minutes later Villa regained their two-goal lead, however, as Leandro Bacuna picked out Tom Cleverley’s brilliant run, before the
JORGE LORENZO BAGS SPANISH GP POLE POSITION SPORTS DESK Jorge Lorenzo continued his domination of MotoGP’s Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez by taking his first pole position since Misano last September. The Yamaha rider was unstoppable in Q2, setting provisional pole with his first flying lap and then twice improving on it to get down to a 1m37.910s - the fastest ever motorcycle lap around Jerez. That put Lorenzo, who has yet to take a podium finish in 2015 but who topped three of the four Jerez practice sessions, on pole by nearly four-tenths of a second. Marc Marquez crashed in the practice four session immediately before qualifying, but avoided further damaging his broken finger and managed to put his Honda second on the grid. Practice four pacesetter Andrea Iannone produced another strong qualifying performance for Ducati to complete the front row in third, although his works team-mate Andrea Dovizioso could only manage eighth.
I THINK ANGEL DI MARIA WILL STAY: VAN GAAL Manager Louis van Gaal has been disappointed with Angel di Maria’s first year at Manchester United but still expects the British record signing to stay at Old Trafford this summer. The 27-year-old has been linked with a move back to Spain or to Paris St Germain after failing to start any of United’s last six games. Di Maria’s family were also subjected to a terrifying burglary in January while the midfielder was playing in United’s home game against Leicester. Van Gaal says Di Maria has a decision to make about his future, but he insists he cannot just walk away from Old Trafford - and the Dutchman believes he will stay anyway. “I think Di Maria shall stay,” the United manager said. “He is working hard. I am pleased with his attitude, so that is not a problem. “The manager and the club is always dependable on the opinion of the player himself. The player decides. We shall see what he decides. “The decision is not only to him because now we have a contract, so we shall speak always with every player - evaluation, as I always do. “Then we speak with each other about the future, and that is with every player.” It’s been a disappointing season for Manchester United’s record signing Angel Di Maria. The Argentine broke the British transfer record when he joined United spoRts desK
BROOKE HENDERSON LEADS BY ONE AT TEXAS SHOOTOUT
Christian Benteke eases Aston Villa’s relegation fears in win over Everton SPORTS DESK
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on-loan Manchester United midfielder drove the ball high into the net. KeY momentS 10’ - GoAL! Aston Villa 1-0 Everton (Benteke) Belph’s looped cross from the left takes a small deflection and lands perfectly for the Belgian, who towers above his markers and nods home. 45’ - GoAL! Aston Villa 2-0 Everton (Benteke) It’s Benteke again! Everton’s marking from the corner is bad. Really bad. Vlaar flicks the cross to the far post where Benteke is completely free and thumps the ball high into the net. 59’ - GoAL! Aston Villa 2-1 Everton (Lukaku) Everton win a penalty after Vlaar’s trip on Naismith following a scramble for possession. Lukaku takes a delayed run-up before sliding the ball into the bottom right corner. Game on. 64’ - GoAL! Aston Villa 3-1 Everton (Cleverley) Bacuna plays a beau-
tiful ball through to Cleverley who takes one touch before side-footing it into the roof of the net. Two in two games for Cleverley! 90+2’ – GoAL! Aston Villa 3-2 Everton (Jagielka) It will be an anxious final two minutes for Aston Villa as Jagielka nods home from close range at the second attempt. KeY StatS: Aston Villa striker Christian Benteke has scored 10 goals in his last eight games. This was Aston Villa’s first win over Everton in nine attempts, after four wins and four draws. This is the first fixture in English league history to have been played 200 times. Aston Villa have won 73, Everton 74 and there have been 53 draws. man oF the match: Fabian Delph (Aston Villa): Despite Benteke’s goals, it was Delph who controlled the game for the home side. His excellent assist for the opener got Aston Villa on their way and his energy in midfield gave Villa the edge from that point on.
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Canadian Brooke Henderson seized her second consecutive 36-hole lead after shooting a six-under 65 at the LPGA North Texas Shootout on Friday. The 17-yearold, who is not a member of the LPGA and had to qualify to make the field, moved to eight-under for the tournament and leads South Korea’s world number two Park In-bee and 54-year-old Juli Inkster by one shot. Henderson also charged to the top of the leaderboard after two rounds at last week’s Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic before eventually finishing third. “I hit it great all day and I was able to make a few putts,” Henderson told reporters as she vies to become the first Monday qualifier since Laurel Kean in 2000 to win an LPGA event. “I’m happy to be in the position that I am. I was in the same position last week and hopefully it will be a little better this week.” Inkster is also in the running for the second straight week as she seeks her first win since 2006. Four players are tied at six-under including Lexi Thompson heading into the weekend at the Los Colinas Country Club. World number one Lydia Ko narrowly avoided missing her first LPGA cut after bouncing back from a four-over 75 in the opening round to fire a three-under 68. At one-over for the tournament, she finished on the cut line. spoRts desK
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Sunday, 3 May, 2015
Published by Arif Nizami at Plot No 79, Sector 24, Korangi Industrial Area Karachi.
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