Thursday 15 August 2013

Dunya TV

Dunya TV

Zardari, Khursheed Shah greet Zamurd Khan

Posted:

ISLAMABAD (Online): President Asif Ali Zardari and leader of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Khursheed Shah Thursday paid tribute to former chairman Bait-ul-Mal, Zamurd Khan over his extreme courage and utmost bravery.Khursheed Shah telephoned Zamurd Khan and greeted him as he saved the nation from a senseless armed person.On the occasion, Zamurd Khan congratulated the nation and thanked God as he was succeeded to save the children from the firing of their father.Meanwhile, MQM chief Altaf Hussain, Sindh Governor Dr Ishrat-ul-Ebbad, CM Sindh Qaim Ali Shah, PPP leader Faryal Talpur and former foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar have also appreciated courage and bravery of PPP leader Zamrud Khan for overpowering the armed man in Blue area, Islamabad. They paid tribute to his courageous service.

Death toll soars to 638 in Egypt violence

Posted:

CAIRO (AP) - Weeping relatives in search of loved ones uncovered the faces of the bloodied, unclaimed dead in a Cairo mosque near the smoldering epicenter of support for ousted President Mohammed Morsi, as the death toll soared past 600 Thursday from Egypts deadliest day since the Arab Spring began.World condemnation widened for the bloody crackdown on Morsis mostly Islamist supporters, including an angry response from President Barack Obama, who canceled joint U.S.-Egyptian military maneuvers.Violence spread Thursday, with government buildings set afire near the pyramids, policemen gunned down and scores of Christian churches attacked. As turmoil engulfed the country, the Interior Ministry authorized the use of deadly force against protesters targeting police and state institutions.The Muslim Brotherhood, trying to regroup after the assault on their encampments and the arrest of many of their leaders, called for a mass rally on Friday in a challenge to the governments declaration of a monthlong state of emergency and a dusk-to-dawn curfew.At least 638 people were confirmed killed and nearly 4,000 wounded in the violence sparked when riot police backed by armored vehicles, snipers and bulldozers smashed the two sit-ins in Cairo where Morsis mainly Islamist supporters had been camped out for six weeks to demand his reinstatement. It was the deadliest day by far since the 2011 popular uprising that overthrew autocratic ruler Hosni Mubarak and plunged the country into more than two years of instability.The Health Ministry said that 288 of those killed were in the largest protest camp in Cairos Nasr City district, while 90 others were slain in a smaller encampment at al-Nahda Square, near Cairo University. Others died in clashes that broke out between Morsis supporters and security forces or anti-Morsi protesters elsewhere in the Egyptian capital and other cities.Mohammed Fathallah, the ministry spokesman, said earlier that the blood-soaked bodies lined up in the El Iman mosque in Nasr City were not included in the official death toll. It was not immediately clear if the new figures included the ones at the mosque.Inside the mosque-turned-morgue, the names of the dead were scribbled on white sheets covering the bodies, some of them charred, and a list with 265 names was plastered on the wall. Heat made the stench from the corpses almost unbearable as the ice brought in to chill the bodies melted and household fans offered little relief.Weeping relatives filled the mosque courtyard and spilled into the streets. In a corner, a woman cradled the head of a slain man in her lap, fanning it with a paper fan. Nearby, an anguished man shouted, God take revenge on you el-Sissi a reference to the powerful military chief, Gen. Abdel-Fatah el-Sissi.Slumped over the body of his brother, Ihab el-Sayyed said the 24-year-old was getting ready for his wedding next week. Last time I heard his voice was an hour or two before I heard of his death, he said, choking back tears.Over the mosque speakers, announcements urged people to leave because their body heat was making the humid conditions worse inside the mosque, where posters of Morsi lay piled up in a corner.Many people complained that authorities were preventing them from obtaining permits to bury their dead, although the Muslim Brotherhood announced that several funerals had been held Thursday. Fathallah denied that permits were being withheld.Bodies are getting decomposed. We only want to bury them. This is unfair, said Hamdan Abdullah, who had traveled from the city of Fayoum to retrieve the body of his niece.Omar Houzien, a volunteer helping families search for their loved ones, said the bodies were carried to the mosque from a medical center at the protest camp in the final hours of Wednesdays police sweep because of fears they would be burned.Elsewhere, a mass funeral was held in Cairo for some of the 43 security troops authorities said were killed in Wednesdays clashes. Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim, who is in charge of the police, led the mourners. A police band played solemn music as fire engines bore the coffins draped in white, red and black Egyptian flags in a funeral procession.The deadly crackdown drew widespread condemnation from the Muslim world and the West.Obama canceled joint U.S.-Egypt military exercises scheduled for next month, although he gave no indication that the U.S. planned to cut off its $1.3 billion in annual military aid to the country. The U.S. administration has avoided declaring Morsis ouster a coup, which would force it to suspend the military aid.While we want to sustain our relationship with Egypt, our traditional cooperation cannot continue as usual when civilians are being killed in the streets and rights are being rolled back, the U.S. president said, speaking from his weeklong vacation in Massachusetts.Obama said he also ordered his national security team to assess the actions taken by the interim government and further steps that we may take as necessary with respect to the U.S.-Egyptian relationship.

Car bomb kills 14 in south Beirut suburb

Posted:

BEIRUT (AP) - A powerful car bomb tore through a bustling south Beirut neighborhood that is a stronghold of Hezbollah on Thursday, killing at least 18 and trapping dozens of others in an inferno of burning cars and buildings in the bloodiest attack yet on Lebanese civilians linked to Syrias civil war.The blast is the second in just over a month to hit one of the Shiite militant groups bastions of support in years, and the deadliest in decades. It raises the specter of a sharply divided Lebanon being pulled further into the conflict next door, which is being fought on increasingly sectarian lines pitting Sunnis against Shiites.Syria-based Sunni rebels and militant Islamist groups fighting to topple Syrias President Bashar Assad have threatened to target Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon in retaliation for intervening on behalf of his regime in the conflict.Thursdays explosion ripped through a crowded, overwhelmingly Shiite area tightly controlled by Hezbollah, turning streets lined with vegetable markets, bakeries and shops into scenes of destruction and burning cars.Dozens of ambulances rushed to the scene of the explosion and fire fighters used cranes and ladders in trying to evacuate dozens of residents from burning buildings. Some terrified residents fled to the rooftops of buildings and civil defense workers were still struggling to bring them down to safety several hours after the explosion.The blast appeared to be an attempt to sow fear among the groups civilian supporters and did not target any known Hezbollah facility or personality.Hezbollahs Al Manar TV and Red Cross official George Kattaneh said the death toll was at least 18 and said more than 280 were wounded.The army, in a statement, said the explosion was caused by a car bomb. It called on residents to cooperate with security forces trying to evacuated people trapped in their homes.

UN Security Council to meet on Egypt

Posted:

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The U.N. Security Council scheduled an emergency briefing Thursday on the latest developments in Egypt following the governments deadly crackdown on supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi.Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused the West of ignoring the violence and called on the Security Council to meet urgently to discuss the situation. Britain, France and Australia all council members jointly requested the council meeting.The U.N. spokesmans office said Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson will brief the council behind closed doors at 5:30 p.m. EDT (2130 GMT).The death toll in Egypt soared to 638 on Thursday as turmoil spread across the country, following Wednesdays crackdown on two camps housing supporters of the ousted president who were demanding his reinstatement.U.N. diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity because discussions have been private, said they do not expect the council to issue a statement or adopt a resolution Thursday.Whether the council takes any action in the future is uncertain. Russia and China traditionally oppose Security Council involvement in the domestic affairs of a country, partly because of sensitivity over disputes in their own countries, including in Chechnya and Tibet.Argentina, which holds the rotating presidency of the Security Council this month, condemned the brutal repression against popular protests that won the streets of the main cities of Egypt. It urged authorities to totally and immediately cease the spiral of violence loosed in recent days against unarmed citizens.

UN chief 'deeply troubled' by Israeli settlements

Posted:

RAMALLAH (AP) - UN Secretary-General Ban-Ki moon says hes deeply troubled by continued Israeli settlement building, warning it will ultimately prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state.Ban spoke in a news conference Thursday with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.A day earlier, Israelis and Palestinians launched formal talks on the terms of a Palestinian state after a five-year freeze.The talks were overshadowed by recent Israeli announcements on promoting plans for more than 3,000 new settlement apartments.The Palestinians want a state in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, captured by Israel in 1967. Israel has built dozens of settlements there that are now home to more than half a million Israelis.Ban says settlement activity is deepening the Palestinian peoples mistrust in the seriousness on the Israeli side toward achieving peace.

US: Iraq must stop weapons from flowing into Syria

Posted:

WASHINGTON (AP) - US Secretary of State John Kerry told his Iraqi counterpart Thursday that Iraq must stop weapons from flowing through its airspace to arm the forces of embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad.Iraq and Iran claim the flights are carrying humanitarian goods, but the U.S. is confident that air shipments along with material being trucked across Iraqi territory from Iran to Syria are helping Assads regime cling to power by increasing its ability to strike Syrian rebels and opposition figures.The issue has long been a source of contention between the U.S. and Iraq, and Kerry raised it again during a meeting ent with Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari.Kerry also said the two discussed weapons that are flowing out of Syria for use against Iraqis.Its a two-way street. Its a dangerous street, Kerry said.He said some progress has been made to curtail the movement of weapons but that he and Zebari agreed that there is very significant progress yet to be made.Zebari emphasized that Iraq was taking a neutral position on the Syrian crisis. He said Iraq had not provided arms, money or oil to the Syrian regime and said Iraqis were not going into Syria to fight with the consent of the Iraqi government.Iraq is a reliable, a dependable ally and partner for the United States, Zebari said.Both noted rising sectarian violence in Iraq, nearly two years after U.S. troops withdrew from the country.Attacks have been on the rise since a deadly security crackdown in April on a Sunni protest camp. More than 3,000 people have been killed during the past few months, raising fears Iraq could see a new round of widespread sectarian bloodshed.On Thursday, a wave of car bombs hit the Iraqi capital, killing 33 people and wounding dozens. There was no claim of responsibility.Iraq sits at the intersection of regional currents of increasingly turbulent, violent and unpredictable actions, Kerry said. Sunni and Shia extremists on both sides of the sectarian divide throughout the region have an ability to be able to threaten Iraqs stability if theyre not checked.And al-Qaida, as we have seen, has launched a horrific series of assaults on innocent Iraqis, even taking credit for the deplorable bombings this past weekend that targeted families that were celebrating the Eid holiday. And this al-Qaida network, we know, stretches well beyond Iraqs borders.Kerry said many al-Qaida leaders were currently operating in Syria and said the U.S. and Iraq must work faster to find a diplomatic resolution to the conflict in Syria.Zebari acknowledged the upswing in violence in Iraq, but he said the nation was not undergoing a civil or sectarian war.Kerry said he and Zebari talked about Iran and Hezbollahs efforts to fuel conflict in the region.We agreed that we cannot allow them to play on the sectarian divides to recruit young Iraqis to go fight in a foreign war, the same way that we cannot allow al-Qaida and other extremists to recruit young men from Iraq and elsewhere to join into their twisted version of jihad, Kerry said.

Federer rallies, rough summer improves in Cincy

Posted:

MASON (AP) - Roger Federers tough summer finally got a warm moment at one of his favorite tournaments.Federer overcome a rough start at the Western & Southern Open on Thursday and emerged from his string of subpar showings since Wimbledon. He beat Tommy Haas 1-6, 7-5, 6-3 to advance to the quarterfinals.The fifth-seeded Swiss star has been struggling to get his game back in shape since he was upset at Wimbledon by a player ranked 116th in the world. Hes switched rackets and been limited by a sore back.Hes won in Cincinnati an unprecedented five times, including last year.Also Thursday, No. 1 Novak Djokovic needed only 50 minutes to beat qualifier David Goffin, 6-2, 6-0, leaving him on track for a little ATP history. Hes lost in the finals four times at Cincinnati, the only Masters series event he has yet to win.A victory would make him the first player to win all nine Masters.I played four times finals, so its been one of the tournaments where Ive performed well, Djokovic said. Never managed to make the final step, and hopefully this year I can do so.I have an extra motivation and an opportunity to make history in this tournament, so Im very inspired to play well day after day.It appeared Federer wasnt long for the tournament after a stunningly bad start against Haas. The 35-year-old Haas needed only 31 minutes to win the first set and was up 4-2 in the second before Federer started to approach the net, hitting shots with confidence and taking control.He pumped his right fist after a backhand return hugged the line to set up a break point that put him up 5-3 in the final set, and again when he finished it off one of his few satisfying moments in months.Earlier Thursday, seventh-seeded Juan Martin del Potro earned a berth in the quarterfinals, holding off 27th-ranked Spaniard Feliciano Lopez 6-4, 1-6, 6-4.Russian qualifier Dmitry Tursunov pulled off another upset, beating third-seeded Spaniard David Ferrer 6-2, 6-4. The 44th-ranked Tursunov never lost his serve while reaching the quarterfinals for the first time in six appearances at the event.Victoria Azarenka advanced by defeating No. 33 Magdalena Rybarikova 6-3, 6-4.Serbias Jelena Jankovic overcame a slow start and beat American Sloane Stephens 3-6, 7-5, 7-5 to reach the semifinals. Stephens struggled with her first serve after winning the first set, allowing Jankovic to rally.Azarenka withdrew from last weeks Rogers Cup in Toronto with a lower back injury. The previous week, she lost to Samantha Stosur in the finals of the Southern California Open.Azarenka reached the quarterfinals for the first time in three appearances at the event.Last year, Djokovic lost in the finals to Federer. It was a record fifth win in Cincinnati for the 32-year-old Swiss star, who is hoping to get his game straightened out on the fast, blue center court that has always seemed to favor him.Federer was beaten in the second round at Wimbledon by Sergiy Stakhovsky, his earliest exit from a Grand Slam event since 2003. That ended Federers streak of reaching the quarterfinals in 36 straight major tournaments.The improbable upsets were just starting.Federer lost to a 114th-ranked qualifier in the semifinals at Hamburg and was beaten by a 55th-ranked player in his opening match at Gstaad, Switzerland. There were reasons that figured in the losses: He was experimenting with a larger racket and his back was bothering him.He skipped Montreal last week to get ready for Cincinnati, hoping a good showing this week would get him ready for the U.S. Open.

US Open stadium to have roof by 2017 tourney

Posted:

NEW YORK (AP) - US Open rain delays at Arthur Ashe Stadium will be no more by 2017.The Grand Slam tournaments center court could be covered by a retractable roof as soon as the 2016 tournament, but more likely the following year, U.S. Tennis Association officials said Thursday.As the mens final was delayed to Monday each of the last five years, they had insisted a roof wasnt yet feasible financially or structurally. A decade after the USTA started studying the issue and three years after architectural firm Rossetti began researching the project, the price tag and the technology are finally workable. The construction will cost about $100 million, down from earlier projections of $200 million.The U.S. Open becomes the last of the four major tournaments to cover up. The main stadiums at Wimbledon and the Australian Open already have roofs, and the French Open plans one, too.The Ashe roof is part of a larger, $550 million project to rebuild and expand other courts at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. No. 2 stadium Louis Armstrong also will eventually be covered.The Grandstand, the third-largest court, will move to the opposite corner of the complex, with capacity increased from 6,000 to 8,000 fans. Armstrong, which currently seats 10,000, will be replaced with a larger version that can hold 15,000. The construction will allow for more and improved concessions than the two 50-year-old stadiums currently support.New tournament and practice courts with additional seating also will be built so more fans can see the players in action; they could be complete as soon as next years Open. As of now, only a few dozen spectators can squeeze in a view of the practice courts through a fence.Walkways will be widened and esplanades created in an attempt to reduce the bottlenecks that frequently pile up between the main entrance and Ashe. The tennis centers capacity for each day session will increase from 40,000 to 50,000 people.The new Grandstand is scheduled to open by the 2016 Open and Armstrong by 18. Fans will see some of the work in process; temporary bleachers likely will be used around the new Armstrong court at the midpoint of the two-year project.The USTA must still receive final approvals from the city for the plans.The organization had commissioned three different studies over the years that determined a roof wasnt feasible. The last time the USTA made a request for proposals, in 2009, it did not select Rossetti, the original architect for Ashe.The firm took it rather personally, said Danny Zausner, the tennis centers chief operating officer.Behind the scenes, they worked on the project for free for a year to try to come up with a concept that no one else thought of, he said.When Rossetti presented its findings to USTA officials in 2010, they were intrigued. Still, the firm was a long way from solving the riddle of topping Ashe.As USTA executive director Gordon Smith put it: It wasnt built for a roof, and the land conditions around it on the site are abysmal.We had to find out how to support 5,000 tons of steel on soil that is mush, said Matt Rossetti, the firms head.Using lighter materials atop the stadium was considered, but that proved unworkable. The USTA was willing to remove some seats, though not the entire upper bowl.Technology innovations over the years helped in making what was once impossible possible, Rossetti said in particular, computer modeling. But about 80 percent of the shift simply came from the painstaking, time-consuming process of delving into different options.A big breakthrough came just six months ago, when the firm surmised that the roof could be supported by just eight columns. At one point, the prediction was 32 and there wasnt space for that at the tennis center. It was only two months ago that Rossetti determined the eight columns would actually work.

FIFA fines Brazilian federation in doping case

Posted:

SAO PAULO (AP) - FIFA says it has fined the Brazilian football federation for failing to provide information relating to a doping case.Footballs governing body said Thursday that it fined the federation 10,000 Swiss francs (about $10,700) for not complying with the request from the FIFA Disciplinary Committee.FIFA said documents and information related to the case were not submitted within the deadline.FIFA did not immediately disclose the name of the player, but Brazilian media widely reported that it was related to former Vasco da Gama playmaker Carlos Alberto, who was cleared of doping charges after a test came back positive for a banned diuretic.

Abeba Aregawi wins 1,500 at athletics worlds

Posted:

MOSCOW (AP) - Sweden capped an eventful world championship day with its first gold medal after one of its high jumpers set off a controversy over Russias anti-gay law in the morning with a rainbow-colored protest that drew pole vault great Yelena Isinbayeva into condemning homosexuality.Abeba Aregawi won the closing 1,500 meters Thursday, beating defending champion Jenny Simpson of the United States with a great last-lap effort.Earlier in the day, Aregawis teammate Emma Green Tregaro flaunted her rainbow-painted fingernails in the morning as she qualified for the weekend high jump final, a show of support of gays and lesbians in Russia.It set off Isinbayeva, the Russian pole-vaulting star, who criticized homosexuality and defended the new anti-gay law which has drawn sharp criticism and led Western activists to call for a boycott of next years Winter Olympics in the Russian resort of Sochi.The law means that anyone wearing a rainbow flag on the street or writing about gay relationships on Facebook, for instance, could be accused of propagandizing.We are just against the publicity in our country and I support our government, Isinbayeva said.Green Tregaro posted a picture of her fingers on social media website Instagram, saying Nails painted in the colors of the rainbow. She followed that with several hashtags, including pride and moscow2013.If we allow to promote and do all this stuff on the street, we are very afraid about our nation because we consider ourselves like normal, standard people, Isinbayeva said.Another high jumper, Bohdan Bondarenko of Ukraine, seized the spotlight when he just missed out on a world record of 2.46 meters and had to settle for a championship record of 2.41 for gold, edging Mutaz Essa Barshim of Qatar by three centimeters.On a night of almosts for Americans, Simpson was not the only one to settle for silver.Jehue Gordon of Trinidad and Tobago threw himself across the finish line to hold off Michael Tinsley by .01 seconds and win the 400-meter hurdles.Gordon came on strong down the stretch and finished in a world-leading time of 47.69 seconds to edge Tinsley. Emir Bekric of Serbia was third and two-time Olympic champion Felix Sanchez wound up fifth.It was a similar story in the womens 400 hurdles, even if the margins were bigger. Zuzana Hejnova of the Czech Republic beat American duo Dalilah Muhammad and defending champion Lashinda Demus.The U.S. silver medal tally ballooned to eight, with a championship leading 14 overall. The United States also leads the gold medal standings with four.Kenya moved up into second place together with Russia when steeplechaser Ezekiel Kemboi further established himself as the greatest of his era, winning gold ahead of compatriot Conseslus Kipruto for his third world title in a row. It was the fourth straight 1-2 finish for Kenya at the world championships.Both nations now have eight medals overall, including three gold.Jamaica is only sixth at the moment but is expected to add many more to its tally when sprinting takes back precedence over the last three days of the championships. The womens 200 final is Friday and both 100 champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Olympic champion Allyson Felix dominated their semifinal heats, keeping Fraser-Pryces ambition alive for three golds something teammate Usain Bolt achieved at two Olympics and two world championships so far.Felix is looking for the same triple she won at the London Olympics last year, combining the 200 with the 4x100 and 4x400 relays.Felix had the top time of 22.30 seconds, but Fraser-Pryce coasted well ahead of the line and still finished with the fourth best qualifying time for Fridays final.Fraser-Pryce is primarily a 100 sprinter and has two Olympics golds that attest to that, but she said in Moscow that she has never been as ready as this year to add the 200, too.

Oil rises past $107 on Middle East turmoil

Posted:

NEW YORK (AP) - The price of oil has been inflated by turmoil and increasing violence in the Middle East, but ample global oil supplies are helping to keep the rise in check.The price of U.S. benchmark oil rose 48 cents to $107.33 per barrel in afternoon trading Thursday. Brent crude, a benchmark used to price imported crude purchased by many U.S. refineries, rose 91 cents to $111.11 per barrel.The trouble spots right now are Egypt, which is under a state of emergency; Libya, where strikes at oil facilities have curtailed production; and Iraq, where a bomb attack halted oil flowing through an export pipeline. Analysts estimate that concerns about those countries have added $6 or more to the price of oil.The higher crude prices are not expected to significantly boost U.S. gasoline prices because gasoline supplies are plentiful. The average retail price of a gallon of gasoline stayed at $3.54 Thursday. Wholesale gasoline futures, which signal the price drivers will pay at the pump, did not rise along with oil. The average retail price has fallen 9 cents so far this month and is 17 cents lower than at this time last year.The simmering turmoil in Egypt erupted Wednesday, as clashes between police and supporters of ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi killed 525 people and injured 3,700. Egypt is not a major oil exporter, but traders worry that the violence could spill over to more important oil exporting countries or disrupt major oil transport routes that cross Egypt.The situation in Egypt deteriorated significantly, analysts at Commerzbank in Frankfurt said in a report. This makes any return to a more peaceful situation in this country which plays a key role in the entire region's stability impossible.Libya is having an even greater effect on oil prices, analysts say. Strikes at oil facilities have helped cut Libyan production by to 650,000 barrels a day from 1.65 million barrels a day a year ago. When the country's oil production stopped completely during the revolution in 2011, oil rose by $20 per barrel over the span of two weeks. Occasional attacks on a pipeline linking Iraq and Turkey have also prevented supplies from reaching global markets in recent weeks.Oil passed $100 per barrel in early July for the first time since September as Morsi was being ousted. It reached a high for the year of $108.15 on July 19 as Libyan output fell.A drop in U.S. supplies has also pushed prices higher by raising hopes of an improving economy that would need more diesel, gasoline and jet fuel. Supplies have dropped six of the past seven weeks, declining by more than 30 million barrels over that period, according to the U.S. Energy Department. The U.S. consumes 18.5 million barrels of crude and petroleum products per day.But rising oil production in the U.S., Canada, and elsewhere in the Americas has helped keep the market well-supplied with oil. Even with recent decline, U.S. stockpiles remain near the top of their 5-year average and global demand growth is expected to be modest.U.S. crude production rose to 7.6 million barrels per day last week, the highest weekly total since December of 1989.Judith Dwarkin, chief economist at ITG Investment Research, says the higher prices are the result of short-term nervousness and that higher production and supplies are preventing a sharper rise in oil prices like the one seen in the spring of 2012 when Brent Crude surpassed $125 per barrel.It's providing a psychological and actual cushion, she says of higher production outside of the Middle East.That has Dwarkin forecasting lower oil prices in the coming months.She observed that the price of oil to be delivered next month is much higher than the price of oil to be delivered further in the future. That suggests prices will come down if the Middle East violence doesn't spread.In other energy futures trading on Nymex, natural gas rose 8 cents to $3.42 per 1,000 cubic feet (28.32 cubic meters).

NASA gives up fixing planet-hunting telescope

Posted:

CAPE CANAVERAL (AP) - NASA called off all attempts to fix its crippled Kepler space telescope Thursday. But its not quite ready to call it quits on the remarkable, robotic planet hunter.Officials said theyre looking at what science, if any, might be salvaged by using the broken spacecraft as is.The $600 million Kepler mission has been in trouble since May, unable to point with precision at faraway stars in its quest for other potential Earths. Thats when a critical second wheel failed on the spacecraft. The first of four gyroscope wheels broke in 2012. At least three are needed for precise pointing.Since it rocketed into space in 2009, Kepler has confirmed 135 exoplanets planets outside our solar system. Its also identified more than 3,500 candidate planets.NASA expects to know by years end whether the mission is salvageable. Kepler is already on an extended quest; its prime, 3½-year mission ended in November.The spacecraft is 51 million miles (82 million kilometers) from Earth, orbiting the sun.If nothing else, new discoveries are expected from data collected over the past four years.This is not the last youll hear from Kepler, promised Paul Hertz, NASAs astrophysics director.Kepler has made extraordinary discoveries in finding exoplanets, including several super-Earths in the habitable zone, said John Grunsfeld, a former astronaut who heads NASAs science mission office.The habitable zone is the distance between a star and planet in which temperatures would permit liquid water and, possibly, life.Knowing that Kepler has successfully collected all the data from its prime mission, I am confident that more amazing discoveries are on the horizon, Grunsfeld said in a news release.Engineers tried without success, over hundreds of hours, to revive the two disabled wheels. The spacecraft remains stable, with thrusters controlling its pointing with as little fuel as possible.The costs and benefits of the remainder of this mission will be analyzed; results from a pair of studies are expected this autumn, with decisions coming afterward.Keplers principal investigator, William Borucki of NASAs Ames Research Center in California, said no one knew at the beginning of Keplers mission whether Earth-size planets were rare and whether Earthlings might be alone.Now at the completion of Kepler observations, we know our galaxy is filled to the brim with planets, Borucki said at a news conference. A large portion of these planets are small like Earth, not gas giants like Jupiter, he noted.Hundreds, if not thousands, of more exoplanets are expected from Kepler findings, Borucki said. He said it would take another three years to analyze the remaining data.We literally expect ... the most exciting discoveries are to come in the next few years as we search through all this data, he said.

Bresnan out of Ashes with stress fracture

Posted:

LONDON (Reuters) - England pace bowler Tim Bresnan has been ruled out for the remainder of the English season, including the final Ashes test, with a stress fracture in his lower back.Bresnan will begin a recovery and rehabilitation programme and a date for his return to cricket will be determined in due course, the England and Wales Cricket board said in a statement on its website (www.ecb.co.uk) on Thursday.The Yorkshire all-rounder helped England win the Ashes outright after taking a 3-0 series lead with victory over Australia in the fourth test at Chester-le-Street on Monday.He is likely to be replaced by fast bowler Chris Tremlett for the fifth test at the Oval starting on Wednesday.Graham Onions, who would have been another candidate to come in, has been ruled out with a broken finger meaning England are unlikely to be able to rest main strike bowler James Anderson.Swing specialist Anderson started the Ashes in fine form but was upstaged by team mate Stuart Broad in the fourth test where he looked tired.Bresnan will also miss two Twenty20 internationals against Australia at the end of this month and the five one-day internationals in September.England will hope he is fully fit for the reverse Ashes series starting in Australia in November.

Ian Botham to lead cricket stars on charity walk

Posted:

COLOMBO (AP) - Former England all-rounder Ian Botham plans to lead several former and present cricket stars in a charity walk from the north to the south of Sri Lanka later this year, aimed at raising money to give disadvantaged children access to sports.Botham announced the event, called Beefys Big Walk, in Colombo on Thursday. It is scheduled to start Nov. 1 and last nine days.Former cricketers Brian Lara, Saurav Ganguly, Kapil Dev and current stars Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene also are expected to take part.Botham has previously helped raise funds for victims of the 2004 Asian tsunami, which killed 30,000 people in Sri Lanka.

Sikandar arrested, wife and children safe, PPP leader Zumurrad takes initiative

Posted:

The six-hour long standoff between Islamabad police and the armed man came to an end around 11.00 o clock Thursday night.Pakistan People’s Party leader Zumurrad Khan went to the man and after shaking hands with the children jumped at Sikandar Khan to grab him.Meanwhile, security personnel fired a shot at the leg of Sikandar Khan and arrested him.The wife and two children of Sikandar Khan remained safe in the incident.PPP leader Zumurrad Khan said he was watching the whole drama for the last five hours and came from home along with his children to save the situation.Police searched the car of Sikandar and took it in its custody.A person identified as Sikandar from Hafizabad, reached Red Zone area in a car along with his wife and two children and opened fire on policemen Thursday at Constitution Avenue.Earlier, the man asked his driver to take the car towards the road leading to Parliament House but the driver stopped the car and ran away.Sikandar parked the car in middle of the road and started firing shots in the air.He came out of the car with two Kalashnikovs in his hands fired shots and sat down on the front seat of the car.He kept smoking and having drinks during this time.In the meanwhile, SSP Operations Doctor Rizwan, along with heavy police contingent, reached the area.Doctor Rizwan held negotiations with the armed man but the man refused to surrender.The woman claimed that the armed man was her husband and that she had no idea what he wanted.Talking to Dunya News Sikandar said he wanted to bring change in Pakistani society which had become corrupt.When asked about his demands Sikandar said he wanted imposition of Nizam-e-Mustafa in the country.He said he was ready to die along with his wife and children.He said he had recently visited Kashmir and Balochistan.“Muslims are being subjected to cruelties everywhere in the world,” he said.The whole drama started at 5.50 pm Thursday when the man appeared on the scene.Interior Minister Ch Nisar Ali has directed the security agencies to ensure the safety of his wife and two children.Police raided the house of Sikandar in Hafizabad and taken into custody important documents.A neighbor informed the Dunya News that Sikandar was running a business of Aluminum in Dubai, and had two wives.The father-in-law of Sikandar said he had links with some religious organization.
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)