Friday 20 December 2013

Dunya TV

Dunya TV

Two killed, more than 20 injured in Karachi blast

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KARACHI (Dunya News) – At least two persons including a child were killed and more than 20 others including Shafique Tanoli were injured in a blast near Purani Sabzi Mandi on Friday.The vehicle of police officer Shafique Tanoli was targeted but he escaped the attack as he was not in the vehicle by the time of explosion.Police and rescue teams rushed to the scene after the incident while the injured were shifted to Jinnah Hospital for treatment. Shafique Tanoli was shifted to a private hospital for treatment.The explosion also caused damage to eight shops.According to police authorities, IED device was used in attack on Shafique Tanoli.Different teams of CID police also visited the scene and started investigation after collecting evidences.Additional IG Police Karachi Shahid Hayat also visited the crime scene.Law enforcement agencies cordoned off the area and started search operation.According to Bomb Disposal Squad, more than four kilograms of explosive material and ball bearing were used in the blast while forensic analysis of different objects found from the scene would be conducted to search for the accused and to the final report.

Sindh LG Ordinance approved, Opposition stages walkout

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KARACHI (Dunya News) - The Sindh Assembly resembled a fish market after members of opposition and government exchanged heated arguments over local bodies (LB) ordinance on Friday.The ruckus started after the opposition chanted slogans and tore copies of the agenda.As soon as the session began in chair of Speaker Sindh Assembly Agha Siraj Durani, parliamentary leader of PML-N Irfanullah Marwat tried to submit a unanimous resolution of the Opposition against Local Government Ordinance but the speaker didn’t permit after which the opposition stood and exchanged hot words with the government officials.The opposition accused government of not holding a debate over the ordinance, adding that the conduct of speaker was also disappointing.The opposition members boycotted the session and staged walkout from the Sindh Assembly chanting slogans against the provincial government and the ordinance.However, the treasury members continued the session and passed Sindh Local Government (Amended) Act 2013 majority.The Sindh Assembly also passed a resolution for public holiday in the province on December 27 to pay homage to former prime minister and PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto on the occasion of her death anniversary.Later, the Speaker adjourned the Sindh Assembly session for an indefinite period.

New Corp buys 'social news' agency Storyful

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NEW YORK (AFP) - Rupert Murdochs publishing group News Corp. said Friday it had acquired the social news agency Storyful, which seeks to merge journalism with social media.US-based News Corp. will pay $25 million for the Irish-based start-up, according to a statement.The firm acquires and distributes video and user-generated content to its partners, and provides social media dashboards, analytics and other tools to news organizations to help improve their news and advertising efforts online and on mobile platforms.Storyful, which has been a partner with the News Corp-owned Wall Street Journal, will continue to operate as a stand alone unit from its Dublin headquarters and work with media clients.Storyful has become the village square for valuable video, using journalistic sensibility, integrity and creativity to find, authenticate and commercialize user-generated content, said Robert Thomson, chief executive of News Corp.Through this acquisition, we can extend the village square across borders, languages and platforms.Mark Little, founder and CEO of Storyful, said the tie-up will be beneficial for both firms.By joining forces with News Corp, Storyful can quickly transform its vision into a global reality, said Little.We believe that journalism in the age of social media needs to be open, innovative and collaborative, and so does the business model that will sustain it. News Corp is a natural fit for a company which wants to help reinvent the news industry.Little added in a blog post: Our global team of journalists will continue to cover real-time news 24/7. Our technology teams will continue to build tools to power the newsrooms of the future.We will continue to serve the worlds leading news organizations (with more resources and focus). And we will work with brands, advertisers, non-profits and other organizations to help them realize the full potential of verified video and other online content, Little added.News Corp. is the publishing and newspaper segment of the Murdochs recently split media empire, a breakup which created 21st Century Fox for its fast-growing TV and film operations.Murdoch remains in control of both firms, and is chairman of News Corp, which includes The Wall Street Journal and New York Post newspapers in the United States, The Sunday Times of London and The Sun in Britain, and The Australian in the country of the tycoons birth.

BlackBerry loss widens, recognizes manufacturing

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OTTAWA (AFP) - BlackBerry said Friday it fell deeper into the red in the past quarter as the struggling smartphone maker unveiled a new manufacturing partnership and a revamped organizational structure.The Canadian firm reported a massive $4.4 billion loss in its third quarter, four times higher than in the previous quarter, as smartphone sales slumped by half.The company also unveiled a five-year partnership with Foxconn, described as the worlds largest manufacturer of electronic products and components, targeted at emerging countries.Foxconn will jointly develop and manufacture a number of new devices and help manage inventory -- an area where BlackBerry has struggled.Taiwan-based Foxconn is also a main supplier of one of BlackBerrys chief rivals -- Apple.The new partnership, according to BlackBerry, demonstrates its long-term commitment to selling smartphones, after speculation that it might abandon device sales to focus software and services.It has made repeated public pleas this past year for customers to stick with it amid forecasts of its pending demise.The Waterloo, Ontario ,firm attributed the extent of its quarterly loss to a $4.6 billion charge for an inventory write-down and other one-time costs.But the company is also seeing plummeting sales, with third quarter revenues of just $1.2 billion, 56 percent lower than a year earlier.The company sold just 1.9 million smartphones in the quarter, nearly half the figure from the previous quarter, suggesting the release of the Z10 handset -- a touchscreen device aimed at competing against Apple and Android rivals -- had failed.But the company said that 40 million new iOS/Android users have registered over the past 60 days to use its messaging system.This was the first financial report since John Chen was slotted into BlackBerrys top job last month, in a management shakeup that also saw several top executives depart.Chen said BlackBerrys enterprise services for organizations and its messaging products are in good shape, and its most immediate challenge is to turnaround its handset business.We have accomplished a lot in the past 45 days, but still have significant work ahead of us as we target improved financial performance next year, Chen said.The chief executive said BlackBerry is financially strong and has a broad and trusted product portfolio to work with.With the operational and organizational changes we have announced, BlackBerry has established a clear road map that will allow it to target a return to improved financial performance in the coming year, he vowed.In September, the company announced that it was laying off 4,500 staff -- or one third of its global workforce -- after losing $965 million in its second quarter.BlackBerry helped create a culture of mobile users glued to smartphones, but lost its luster as many moved to iPhones or devices using Googles Android software.BlackBerry still has some 70 million subscribers worldwide, but most of these are using older handsets, with newer devices on the BlackBerry 10 platform unveiled in January failing to gain traction.Technology analyst Jack Gold said the partnership with Foxconn should help BlackBerry both financially by lowering costs and with new designs for the emerging markets where they still have a major presence.turnaround.The new management restructuring will likely help, but the primary challenge is to stem the losses in devices and get more people interested in the higher end devices, which is not happening at the current time, Gold said.

Global envoy holds fresh talks to pave the way for Syria peace conference

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GENEVA (AFP) - UN-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi held fresh talks Friday to pave the way to a January peace conference between Syrias government and rebels, amid wrangling over who will be at the table.Brahimi and senior US and Russian officials met behind closed doors at the United Nations in Geneva, then held broader talks with fellow UN Security Council permanent members Britain, China and France, before sitting down with envoys from Syrias neighbours Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey.The veteran mediators intensive shuttle diplomacy between Geneva, the Middle East and the capitals of world powers last month helped finally set January 22 as the start date for talks in Switzerland.Delegates were tight-lipped as they arrived for Fridays meeting, with Brahimi scheduled to brief reporters later in the day.On Thursday, he had underscored that the Syrians themselves would have to drive the talks.Theres a necessity for national ownership of this process, he said at the UN in Geneva.All eyes are on the potential list of participants from Syria, amid opposition rifts between supporters of negotiations and hardliners who say even talking to the regime of President Bashar al-Assad is a betrayal.The head of the Western-backed rebel Free Syrian Army, once the countrys strongest armed opposition force but now increasingly marginalised by Islamists, called Friday for unity in the rebel ranks.We consider that all those who fight against the criminal regime of Bashar (al-Assad) are our brothers, and we call on all revolutionary leaders to unify in the face of oppression, General Selim Idriss said in a video published Friday.Having begun as a rag-tag collection of military defectors and civilians taking up arms to defend peaceful anti-Assad protesters from a March 2011 crackdown, the rebels have been increasingly torn by ideological differences and conflicting interests.Syrias Kurds, meanwhile, said they looked set to send two delegations to the talks, one in the opposition camp and another with Assads representatives, to defend their minoritys interests.There is also debate over which Middle Eastern countries should take part -- beyond Syrias neighbours who have taken in the overwhelming majority of the 2.4 million refugees from a war that to date has claimed over 126,000 lives.There has been persistent wrangling over a role in the talks for Assads staunch ally Iran, also a leading backer of the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah fighting alongside Syrian government forces.Russia, a key backer of Assads regime, has sought to have Iran at the table, while Western nations are pushing for Saudi Arabia to take part.Moscows strong support of the regime in Damascus was again highlighted Thursday when it blocked a US-sponsored UN Security Council statement denouncing Assads government for its brutal military offensive on the northern city of Aleppo, where scores of civilians have been killed in recent missile and barrel bomb attacks.France said the indiscriminate air strikes on Aleppo amounted to war crimes.And French President Francois Hollande warned that the conference could not be a success if it confirmed Assad in power.The meeting cannot be an objective in itself, he said on the sidelines of an EU summit in Brussels.Saudi Arabia and fellow Sunni monarchies in the Gulf, such as Qatar, are major backers of the rebels in Syrias civil war, which has morphed into a sectarian battle between Islams two main branches.invited to the January talks opening day, before the Syrians meet.The so-called Geneva II conference is meant as a follow-up to one held in June 2012, where world powers issued a call for a Syrian transition government.But Syrias warring sides failed to agree on whether Assad or his inner circle could play a role in the process, and amid spiralling fighting plans for Geneva II repeatedly were put on hold.The January 22 session will in fact be held in Montreux, a city 90 kilometres (about 60 miles) northeast of Geneva.The negotiations involving the two Syrian delegations and Brahimi will continue at the UN in Geneva on January 24 but it remains undecided how long they will last, his staff said.

Two killed, 20 injured in Karachi blast

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KARACHI (Dunya News) – At least two persons including a child were killed and 20 others were injured in a blast near Purani Sabzi Mandi on Friday.The vehicle of SHO Maripur Shafique Tanoli was targeted but he escaped the attack as he was not in the vehicle by the time of explosion.Police and rescue teams rushed to the scene after the incident while the injured were shifted to hospital for treatment.According to hospital sources some of the injured were in critical condition. An emergency had been declared in Jinnah hospital.Law enforcement agencies cordoned off the area and started search operation.According to the sources, SHO Mari Pur Shafique Tanoli has been receiving threats for his action against the terrorists while his brother also fell victim to target killing.

Cricket: Pakistan set 285-run target for Sri Lanka in second ODI

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DUBAI (AFP) - Opener Ahmed Shehzad scored 124 as Pakistan, sent into bat by Sri Lanka, made 284 for four in their 50 overs in the second day-night international in Dubai on Friday.Skipper Misbah-ul Haq made 59 for his 34th one-day half-century while Mohammad Hafeez scored 32 and Shahid Afridi chipped in with 30.Pakistan lead the five-match series 1-0 after winning the first game by 11 runs in Sharjah on Wednesday.

Pakistan set 285-run target for Sri Lanka in second ODI

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DUBAI (AFP) - Opener Ahmed Shehzad scored 124 as Pakistan, sent into bat by Sri Lanka, made 284 for four in their 50 overs in the second day-night international in Dubai on Friday.Skipper Misbah-ul Haq made 59 for his 34th one-day half-century while Mohammad Hafeez scored 32 and Shahid Afridi chipped in with 30.Pakistan lead the five-match series 1-0 after winning the first game by 11 runs in Sharjah on Wednesday.

Pakistan issues security alert for High Commission staff in Bangladesh

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ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – Hundreds of Bangladeshis protested outside Pakistan’s High Commission and protested against Pakistan for resolution against hanging of JI leader Abdul Quader Mullah.Pakistan Foreign Office on Friday issued alert for its High Commission staff in Bangladesh.The High Commission staff has been directed to refrain from visiting public areas and unnecessary travel due to protests in Bangladesh.Earlier, Foreign Office spokesperson, Tasneem Aslam said Friday that the Bangladeshi government was providing security to the Pakistani High Commission in Dhaka. She said that the government was in contact with the Bangladeshi Foreign Office.Meanwhile, during the weekly Foreign Office news briefing, the spokesperson said that events in Bangladesh were an internal matter.“Parliament’s purpose was not to intervene in the internal affairs of another country,” Aslam said in reference to the National Assembly resolution.It is worth mentioning here that anti-Pakistan protests in Bangladesh continued on Friday.On Thursday, protesters threatened to storm the Pakistani High Commission if Bangladesh did not suspend its diplomatic ties with Pakistan.On Wednesday, Hundreds of Bangladeshis protested outside Pakistan’s High Commission and demanded to withdraw resolution against hanging of Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh leader Abdul Qadir Mullah.The protesters marched from Shah Bagh Chowk of Dhaka to Pakistani High Commission and entered into the Dipplomatic Enclave after crossing barricades.Police failed to stop the enraged protesters while the mob torched Pakistani flag outside Pakistani High Commission and shouted slogans against Pakistan.The protesters demanded the expulsion of Pakistani High Commission from Bangladesh and suspension of diplomatic relations with Pakistan.The protest started after National Assembly of Pakistan passed a resolution against the hanging of Jammat-e-Islami Bangladesh leader Abdul Quader Mullah.On Tuesday, Bangladesh Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned Pakistans high commissioner in Dhaka, after Pakistans National Assembly passed a resolution expressing concern over the hanging of Bangladesh war criminal Abdul Quader Mullah.The Pakistan National Assembly passed the resolution moved by the Jamaat-e-Islami party Monday expressing sympathy for Mullahs family.The assembly demanded that the Bangladesh government should not resurrect issues of 1971 and end all cases against the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami leadership in the spirit of understanding.We witnessed the fall of Dhaka 42 years ago and we seem to have not learnt our lesson, said Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan who earlier protested the hanging of Mullah.However, some parties in Pakistan opposed the Jamaat-e-Islami’s resolution passed with a majority vote in parliament.Bangladesh separated from Pakistan in 1971 after a nine-month war. The Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami with Mullah as its leader had sided with Pakistan during the war.Mullah was executed Dec 12 for alleged crimes against humanity including mass murder during the war. About three million Bangladeshis were killed in the war.

Germany to send sports minster to Sochi Games

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BERLIN (AFP) - Germany will send its sports minister to attend the Sochi Winter Olympics, the government said Friday, after President Joachim Gauck said he would stay away from the event in Russia.Gauck has denied his no-show at the February 2014 event was a boycott over Russias human rights record, but it was nonetheless widely interpreted as a snub of President Vladimir Putins government and rights record.A spokesman in Berlin said that Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere will travel as the German Minister of Sports to the Olympic Winter Games in Sochi to attend sporting competitions and support the German athletes on site.Gauck, the largely ceremonial head of state, who was a Lutheran pastor and rights activist in the former communist East Germany, has made no official visit to Russia since he took office in 2012.He plans to meet Germanys athletes when they return from the Games in a ceremony to be held in Munich on February 24.Chancellor Angela Merkel this week made clear she also has no plans to attend the event, stressing that in eight years as German leader she had never visited any Olympics events.Rights groups have criticised Russia for the way workers recruited to build the sporting venues in Sochi have been treated and for its law banning gay propaganda, which critics say can be used for a broad crackdown on homosexuals.

US economy grew 4.1% in third quarter

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WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US economy grew at a robust 4.1 percent annual rate in the third quarter, much faster than previously estimated, the Commerce Department said Friday.The departments final estimate of gross domestic product growth was sharply higher than the 3.6 percent pace in its prior assessment of expansion in the worlds largest economy.The upward revision surprised analysts who on average expected the department would leave the 3.6 percent figure unchanged.In the second quarter, GDP increased at a 2.5 percent rate.Consumer spending that was much stronger than initially believed led the revised estimate, the department said.The spending, which accounts for about two-thirds of US economic activity, rose 2.0 percent in the third quarter, 0.6 percentage point higher than the prior estimate.

Oil prices mixed in thin trading

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LONDON (AFP) - New Yorks main contract, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for February delivery, fell 29 cents to $98.75 a barrel.Brent North Sea crude for February rose 21 cents to $110.50 in London.Both contracts had risen on Thursday as investors read the Feds decision to cut its monthly asset purchases by $10 billion from January as a sign of the central banks confidence in the US economy.The US benchmark (oil) price has rallied 6.5 percent since the start of the month as commodities and equity indices surge on renewed market optimism on the Fed decision to begin tapering in January, Kash Kamal, research analyst at Sucden brokers, said on Friday.The Federal Reserve added this week that it planned to continue with its ultra-low interest rates, even after achieving its goal of bringing unemployment to below 6.5 percent.The commitment from the Fed to keep its key interest rates low had lifted confidence, garnering support for crude oil prices, Singapore-based broker Phillip Futures said in a note to clients.Investors had been concerned that a wind-down of the stimulus would hit oil demand outside of the United States.

China vice police minster faces investigation

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BEIJING (AFP) - Chinas ruling Communist Party said Friday it was investigating a vice police minister for alleged disciplinary violations, the latest official to be targeted a high-profile campaign to root out corruption.Li Dongsheng, a vice minister of public security, is being probed for severe violations of discipline and the law, the partys internal Central Commission for Discipline Inspection announced on its website, using a phrase that is usually a reference to alleged corruption.

Singapore deports South Asian workers involved in riots

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SINGAPORE (AFP) - Singapore on Friday said it had deported 53 South Asian workers allegedly involved in the city-states first riot in four decades, while four others awaited repatriation later in the day.Officials on Tuesday had said they were deporting the 53 men -- 52 Indians and one Bangladeshi -- and pursuing criminal charges against 28 others for their role in the December 8 rampage.The rare riot left 39 persons, including police officers, injured and 25 vehicles damaged or burnt.It was triggered after an Indian construction worker was fatally hit by a bus in a district known as Little India, where tens of thousands of South Asian labourers converge on weekends.In a statement on Friday evening, police commissioner Ng Joo Hee said the 53 men originally slated for deportation had already been sent to their home countries after receiving police warnings and immigration removal orders.Four other Indian nationals who were released Tuesday after criminal charges were withdrawn will also be repatriated on Friday after being served with police warnings, Ng said.No reasons were given for the decision to deport the four additional men after their release from police custody.When the last of these are removed, bringing the total number repatriated to 57, the repatriation operation arising from police investigations into the Little India riots will, more or less, come to an end, Ng said.The Ministry of Home Affairs had earlier stated that the men being deported were deemed to have threatened public order for failing to disperse despite police orders.The 28 Indian nationals currently remanded in police custody and facing rioting charges were judged to have been active participants in the riot.About 200 others will be handed police advisories after investigations showed they were at the scene of the riot but were relatively passive.The mass repatriation comes as international rights groups including Humans Rights Watch and Amnesty International accused the government this week of arbitrarily deporting people without due process, in its haste to punish the alleged rioters.The government maintains that it has legal powers to repatriate foreigners deemed a threat to public security.In December last year, 29 Chinese bus drivers were deported for their involvement in a work stoppage for better wages and living conditions -- the first industrial strike in the city-state since 1986.Five others served jail terms after the strike was declared illegal.

No one can stop PTI's Lahore rally: Sheikh Rashid

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LAHORE (Dunya News) - Awami Muslim League (AML) chief Sheikh Rashid Ahmad said he knew PML-N very well and could expose its leaders any time.Addressing a press conference here on Friday, Sheikh Rashid said that the demand of mid-term elections was a constitutional way to stop martial law.He said that Awami Muslim League would fully participate in anti-price hike rarrly organised by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in Lahore on December 22.Sheikh Rashid said that the situation in Rawalpindi can further worsen if Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif does not assure law and order on the occasion of Chehlum.The Awami Muslim League chief said that Punjab was the only peaceful province in the country. He said Shia-Sunni clashes in the province were part of an international conspiracy against Pakistan.Sheikh Rashid said that 2014 was an important year for the present rulers, He said there was no hurdle for Nawaz Sharif and his government would become stable if he succeeded to maintain good governance otherwise he would fail due to his own mistakes.The AML chief said that a large number of people were there in Bangladesh who love Pakistan.He said that Abdul Quade Mullah was hanged in Bangladesh but the execution was decided in India.
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