Wednesday 23 July 2014

Dunya TV

Dunya TV

Tennis: Monaco moves into Gstaad quarter-finals

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GSTAAD (AFP) - Juan Monaco held his nerve in a tight final set to upset third seed Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 on Wednesday for a second consecutive place in a quarter-final at the Swiss Open.The Argentine, whose ranking has dropped to 105, won his sixth of eight meetings with Garcia-Lopez, whom he also beat in the second round in Gstaad a year ago.The unseeded South American missed his first chance to serve out victory in the concluding set but came through into the last eight on his second opportunity two games later, going through on his second match point.A year ago, Monaco held a match point in his quarter-final against eventual Gstaad champion and current top seeded Mikhail Youzhny.I like Gstaad, last year I played a great match against the champion. We both deserved to win it. I was happy with conditions (at 1,010-metre altitude) and I'm back again.This year, I'm feeling great. I was a little nervous when I was serving for the match at 5-2. I missed that opportunity. But I just tried to get focused on the changeover, thinking of where I'm going to serve.I had to play relaxed, it's the only way to play a good game. The last game was difficult but I'm m happy with how I played today.Every match for me is very important at this moment, said the player who has reached his third quarter-final of the season.Monaco stood 23rd on the ATP in early 2011 and won four titles - three on clay - in 2012. His last trophy came the week before the 2013 French Open in Duesseldorf.He stands outside the top 100 for the first time in more than eight years.Argentine fifth seed Federico Delbonis was also sent packing by Brazil's Thomaz Bellucci as the two-time former champion advanced 6-4, 6-4.Second seed Marcel Granollers fared far better though with a comprehensive 6-1, 6-4 defeat of Swiss wild card Yann Marti while Spain's Pablo Andujar beat Slovenian Blaz Rola 6-3, 6-3.In a first-round match interrupted by darkness on Tuesday, Swiss wild card Henri Laaksonen defeated Gianni Mina of France 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (7/3).

Formula One: Hamilton looks for Budapest bounce

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BUDAPEST (AFP) - Less than a week after his back-to-front charge through the field at the German Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton will be hoping for a more straightforward task in this weekend's Hungarian Grand Prix.Despite finishing third after starting from 20th place on the grid, the 29-year-old Briton was still disappointed to allow his Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg complete a perfect week by winning on home soil and extending his lead to 14 points in the title race.Hamilton has four pole positions and four victories so far at the slow and challenging Hungaroring, but a high-speed brakes failure in qualifying undid his best efforts at Hockenheim.Bruises and soreness notwithstanding, he will hope to return to his best at one of his favourite venues for what promises to be an intriguing contest in very hot conditions.For the Mercedes team, Hamilton will not be the only one nursing injuries on arrival. Both team chief Toto Wolff and technical boss Paddy Lowe were involved in a cycle crash during a team outing in Austria, on Tuesday, with Wolff suffering significant injuries.Commercial boss Wolff was admitted to hospital overnight for treatment to a broken wrist, elbow, shoulder and collarbone, but insisted he will be in Hungary this weekend for the 11th race of the 19-race season.Mercedes should dominate again, Rosberg and Hamilton having won nine of this year's races to sit first and second in the drivers' championship. In the constructors' title race, they have 366 points already -- nearly twice as many as their nearest rivals.As Mercedes bid to stay ahead, the revitalised Williams team will arrive in Hungary after the 800km trip from Hockenheim with a major update package in the hope that they can hunt down Red Bull for second place in the teams' title race.Three consecutive podium positions enabled them to overhaul Ferrari last weekend and they are now seeking to cut Red Bull's 67-points advantage over them and add consistency to the clear speed they have demonstrated.Williams' performance boss Rob Smedley said the team's upgrade was designed to help them at the high-downforce Hungaroring circuit. We identified what sort of improvement we would need to make to keep it competitive in Budapest, he said. Now we have met all the development targets that we are going to get on the car.It will improve the car and will be very specific for Budapest, so I believe that we will go there and be able to maintain a decent pace.While Williams and particularly their rising Finnish star Valtteri Bottas are in buoyant mood, Ferrari head towards Hungary and the now-traditional August break in reflective, if not sombre, mood as they continue to struggle to find a way to end their poor form this year.Two-time champion Fernando Alonso indicated he was less than impressed by a demonstration of the team's future plans when he went to the Maranello base before the German race.Mercedes showed us this year that some teams in this new era of Formula One can be dominant, said the Spaniard. We didn't make a good enough job with these new rules and there is a lot of room to improve -- it's not like other years where everything was more or less at the limit.The step between 2014 and 2015 cars will be a lot bigger than what we saw in the past, so that's the hope we have and I think everyone will have the same, because everyone has very good prospects for the future in July.

Cycling: Rafal Majka wins Tour de France 17th stage

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SAINT-LARY-SOULAN (AFP) - Young Pole Rafal Majka climbed to his second mountain stage victory of the Tour de France on Wednesday.Having already triumphed in the Alps, the Tinkoff-Saxo rider added a Pyrenean stage to his ledger with victory on the 124.5km 17th stage from Saint-Gaudens to Saint-Lary.Italian Giovanni Visconti was second at 29sec with race leader Vincenzo Nibali taking third at 46sec as he extended his overall advantage to Spaniard Alejandro Valverde to 5min 26sec.The battle for a podium place also took another twist as veteran Jean-Christophe Peraud rolled over the line fourth in the same time as Nibali and closed to just 8sec behind Thibaut Pinot, who retained third overall, but is now exactly six minutes behind the Italian leader.Majka's victory was his second in five days and Tinkoff-Saxo's third in the last four stages.The 24-year-old Pole had already triumphed Saturday at the Risoul ski station in the Alps while Australian Michael Rogers won Tuesday's first Pyrenean stage in Bagneres-de-Luchon.It means the Russian-owned team have gone some way to making up for the loss of leader Alberto Contador to a broken shinbone on Bastille Day.Majka was part of a large breakaway group that arrived on the final of four tough categorised climbs with 14 riders.Visconti made a break for home but once Majka set off after him he looked clearly the stronger.And so it proved as he accelerated away in the final 2km, also doing enough to retain the polkadot king of the mountains jersey that he had taken off Joaquim Rodriguez on Tuesday.

Dogs get especially jealous of other dogs: study

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WASHINGTON (AFP) - Dogs show jealousy when their owners spend time with what appears to be another dog, suggesting that the emotion may have survivalist roots, US researchers said Wednesday.Scientists tested 36 dogs and their owners with an experiment in which the owners were told to play with three separate objects in front of their dog.One of the objects was a toy dog that barked and wagged its tail when a button on it was pushed. The owners were told to play with it as if it were a real dog for one minute.They were told to do the same in the next phase of the experiment with a toy jack-o-lantern pail, acting as if it were a dog and playing with it.Finally, they were asked to read aloud a pop-up childrens book that played a song, as if they were telling the story to a small child.Certain dog behaviors were much more common when owners played with the toy dog versus the other objects, the researchers found.For instance, dogs more often snapped, pushed their owners, pushed against the object and tried to get in between the owner and the toy dog than they did with the other toys.The dogs were about twice as likely to push their owner (78 percent of dogs did this) when he or she was playing with the toy dog than when the interaction involved the jack-o-lantern (42 percent). Just 22 percent did so with the book.About 30 percent of the dogs tried to get between their owner and the toy dog, and 25 percent snapped at the stuffed canine.The dogs came from a range of breeds, including dachshund, Pomeranian, Boston terrier, Maltese and pug. Almost half of those in the study were mixed breeds.The research, led by Christine Harris and Caroline Prouvost from the University of California, San Diego, is published in the journal PLOS ONE.Our study suggests not only that dogs do engage in what appear to be jealous behaviors but also that they were seeking to break up the connection between the owner and a seeming rival, Harris said.We cant really speak to the dogs subjective experiences, of course, but it looks as though they were motivated to protect an important social relationship.

Climate change ravaging Antarctic fur seals: study

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PARIS (AFP) - A food shortage likely caused by climate change is shrinking a South Antarctic fur seal colony and changing the profile of its surviving members, researchers said Wednesday.South Georgia islands Antarctic fur seal pups have a lower average birth weight, and there are fewer breeding adults -- who hold out longer to reproduce than in the past, according to study results published in the journal Nature.Only the biggest animals survive to adulthood and reproduce.These are classic symptoms of long-term food stress, and emerged at the same time that availability of Antarctic krill, small crustaceans which are a fur seal staple, dwindled.The authors linked this, in turn, to higher sea and air temperatures in the region, and a decline in sea ice.Climate change has reduced prey availability and caused a significant decline in seal birth weight, they wrote.We detected a 24-percent decline in the number of breeding females over the past 27 years.Prior to this new decline, Antarctic fur seals bounced back from being hunted for their pelt to near extinction in the nineteenth century.Another common feature of the breeding female seals was high heterozygosity -- that is the level of diversity in the genes they obtained from their parents.The characteristic is linked to Darwins natural selection theory, as a heterozygous group of individuals carries a wider variety of genes that may allow adaptation to a changing environment through evolution in the future.Evolution happens when natural selection leads to an increase in the frequency of one or more favourable gene variants in a population.The team found that, counter-intuitively, evidence of natural selection for heterozygosity was not translating into an evolutionary benefit for the Georgia Island seal population.Only individual genes can be passed on to offspring, not the complete code and not the trait of heterozygosity itself.This means that many pups are born to survival fit mothers who are not fit themselves, and wont make it to adulthood.The clock is effectively being reset with each generation, study co-author Joseph Hoffman of the University of Bielefelds Department of Animal Behaviour told AFP by email.As local food availability has been progressively falling over time, fewer and fewer pups are surviving until breeding age and the population is in decline.The authors said the findings were important for anticipating how the entire South Georgia ecosystem may react to climate change -- including albatrosses, penguins, whales and fish that also hunt krill.The study results were based on data collected from 1982 to 2012 from individual seals, including their genetics, as well as environmental and climate statistics.In a comment on the study, zoologists Tim Coulson and Sonya Clegg said it remained to be established whether the seals were unusual in their response to climate change, or whether this was typical.Either way, it may be much harder to arrest the ongoing decline in fur seals in the 21st century than it was in the 20th.

Oil prices climb as US crude stocks fall

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NEW YORK (AFP) - World oil prices advanced on Wednesday after the US government reported a surprisingly large decline in the nation's oil inventories.US benchmark West Texas Intermediate for September delivery gained 73 cents to $103.12 a barrel in its first day of trade on the New York Mercantile Exchange.European benchmark Brent oil for September delivery climbed 70 cents to $108.03 a barrel in London.A drop in (US) oil inventories gave crude prices a lift, said analyst Jasper Lawler at trading firm CMC Markets.A report by the US Energy Information Administration Wednesday said American crude inventories tumbled by four million barrels in the week ending July 18.That marked the fourth weekly decline in a row and was far bigger than the 2.5 million-barrel decline forecast by analysts.The report also showed stocks at the closely watched trading hub of Cushing, Oklahoma, dropped by 1.5 million barrels.It's just a seasonal thing where you see crude stocks being drawn and products being refined while we're at a relatively high period of demand, said Matt Smith, analyst at Schneider Electric.We're right in the middle of driving season here, Smith added, referring to the summer vacation period, the busiest time of the year on highways and roads.The report showed the refinery utilization rate was unchanged from the prior week at 93.8 percent, far above the 92.3 percent pace a year ago, as plants process more crude into gasoline and other fuels.While traders are watching crises in Ukraine and Gaza that have drawn international attention, violence in Libya likely has the bigger effect on the oil market, Smith said.Fighting continued at the Tripoli airport, which has been closed since July 13 because of clashes which have left at least 47 dead and 120 wounded, according to the health ministry.At least five soldiers were killed on Tuesday in a double-suicide bombing on a special forces base under the command of Colonel Wanis Abu Khamada in the southeast of the city.The increase in violence in an oil-rich nation is going to have more of an impact on crude than is the events in Gaza, Smith said.

British pound dips as BoE chief talks higher rates

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NEW YORK (AFP) - The British pound retreated against the dollar and the euro Wednesday despite comments from the Bank of England's leader suggesting the need for higher rates.BoE governor Mark Carney told a Glasgow conference that the central bank needs to start raising record-low interest rates in the coming months, even as he emphasized there is no preset course for doing so.The UK economy has been growing rapidly, Carney said. As the economy normalizes, (the) bank rate will need to start to rise in order to achieve the inflation target.But Carney added that policy makers have no preset course and the timing of any increases in interest rates will be determined by the data.Carney's remarks came as minutes of a July monetary policy meeting showed that policy makers unanimously agreed to keep the bank's key interest rate at an all-time low of 0.50 percent.Samuel Tombs, senior UK economist at Capital Economics, said the minutes suggested the central bank was moving closer to action. He cited a finding that economic slack was likely being absorbed more quickly, suggesting the economy could withstand higher rates.But Christopher Vecchio, currency analyst at DailyFX, said the minutes showed an effort to highlight the weaker aspects of the economy, such as weak wage growth.The Bank of England is clearly shifting its bias, but it's also evident it's a long, drawn-out process, Vecchio said.

Trott claims first century since illness break

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LONDON (AFP) - England batsman Jonathan Trott scored his first century since returning to top-level cricket after a stress-related illness during Warwickshires County Championship game against Sussex on Wednesday.The 33-year-old right-hander, who scored 138 in a reserve game last month, reached 106 in the Division One match at Horsham before being caught behind off the bowling of Steve Magoffin.Trott withdrew from Englands tour of Australia after the first Test last November due to anxiety issues and took a five-month break from cricket.He returned to action for Warwickshire against Sussex in April, but the recurrence of his symptoms forced him to spend another spell on the sidelines.Trott brought up his century on Wednesday with a four off England bowler Chris Jordan. In total he faced 242 balls and scored 14 boundaries.It was important to spend time in the middle and continue to work on my game, Trott told the BBC.I feel comfortable adjusting to playing almost every day, as you do in county cricket. Ive learned a lot over the past couple of months which Im putting into practice now.Trott says that despite his century he is not yet targeting a return to England duty.It is important to take one step at a time and currently Im concentrating on Warwickshire, he added.

Target killing incident at Karachi kills 9 including Allama Talibs son-in-law.

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KARACHI (Dunya News) – At least 9 people were killed in various incidents of violence on Wednesday.The police and Rangers have arrested four suspects including two alleged target killers, Dunya News reported.According to reports, the firing on the car took place at Gulshan Iqbal area, resulting in the murder of advocate Mubarak Ali, son of Allama Talib.

People livid over load shedding, violent protests in various cities

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LAHORE/MULTAN/DERA ISMAIL KHAN: (Dunya News) – People resort to violent protests in Lahore as extensive load shedding makes it impossible for the people to bear it. People carrying sticks made it to G.T. road in Batapur. Hundreds of protesters blocked the road and started damaging the cars there. Only common people became the target of the violence.Businesses were forcefully closed down by the protesters and they kept the road blocked for several hours. Protesters said that the load shedding has made their lives a living hell. Protesters also attacked the Batapur Subdivision and damaged the building and equipment. Employees were beaten up by the protesters on this occasion and Police remained a silent spectator all this while.Lahore Electricity Supply Company (LESCO) officials then started discussions with the protesters and promised to restore the electricity within 2 hours. After getting the commitment from LESCO officials that unscheduled load shedding will not be conducted anymore, the protesters dispersed and the road got opened for the traffic.In Multan, protesters also made it to roads and blocked the roads by burning wheels. Protesters set their electricity bills on fire.Children and veiled women also came out on roads protesting load shedding in Dera Ismalil Khan. The protesters blocked the University Road and burned tyres there. Protesters said that WAPDA officials were not fixing the out-of-order transformer for the last two months.National Highway was blocked by the protesters in Kabirwala which blocked the traffic between Lahore, Faisalabad and Rawalpindi, Islamabad. Travelers waited in long queues of cars.Main highway was blocked in the Batkhela area of Malakand Division for three hours. Protesters told that they were facing deficiency of water due to long hours of load shedding. People kept cursing the administration for load shedding during Suhoor and Iftar timings.

Karachi left at mercy of hardcore terrorists by federal and provincial govts: Altaf Hussain

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LONDON (Dunya News) – In a statement from London MQM leader Altaf Hussain condemned the murder of religious scholar Allama Talib’s son-in-law Raza Kazmi, adding that the lack of arrests of terrorists involved in target killing incidents within Karachi have put a huge question mark on the Karachi operation.Altaf Hussain said that Karachi’s population has been left at the mercy of murderers and no amount of condemnation is enough for such target killings.According to a statement, Altaf Hussain has demanded the arrest of Mubarak Raza Kazmi’s murderers.

Google offers big prize for small power box

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SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - Google is offering a million-dollar prize for a breakthrough that would make solar or wind generated electricity more enticing for everyday uses.Google teamed with the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers to back a Littlebox Challenge promising to reward whoever comes up with the best design for a device no bigger than a laptop that can efficiently convert direct current to alternating current commonly used in homes and businesses.Renewable energy sources such as solar panels and wind turbines create direct current that must be converted into alternating current, the system for which now involves complex power grids and sources such as fossil or nuclear fuels.The challenge is to shrink power converters to about a tenth of their present size, which was described as on par with large picnic coolers.There will be obstacles to overcome; like the conventional wisdom of engineering, Eric Raymond of the Google Green Team said in an online post announcing the challenge.But whoever gets it done will help change the future of electricity.Small inverters could make it possible to accomplish handy feats such as creating low-cost power grids in remote places or using car batteries to keep lights on in homes during blackouts, according to Raymond.We think it's time to shine a light on the humble inverter, and the potential that lies in making it much, much smaller, Raymond said.Details of the competition were available online Wednesday at littleboxchallenge.com.

COAS visits PMA Kakul, lays down foundation for 4th battalion: ISPR

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KAKUL (Dunya News) – Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Raheel Sharif visited the Pakistan Military Academy (PMA) at Kakul to lay down the foundation of the 4th battalion and for the purpose of reviewing the training program of cadets, and the possibility of increasing capacity for it.After reaching PMA Kakul, COAS was received by Inspector General (IG) training and evaluation Lieutenant General Ikram and Commandant PMA Major General Nazir Butt.ISPR stated that Sharif laid the foundation for the fourth Pakistani battalion for the need of reinforcement within Pakistan Army’s ranks.According to Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), COAS praised the institutional facilities provided to the cadets, adding that there is surely room for improvement.

Rana Shoaib escapes Police raid in Lahore, flees from in-laws' house

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LAHORE: (Dunya News) – In an attempt to arrest Pakistan Muslim League (N) MPA Rana Shoaib Idrees, Faisalabad Police raided his in-laws’ house in Misri Shah Lahore today (Wednesday) but the MPA fled just a few minutes before the raid.Police has raided 30 different places so far in pursuit of the MPA yet it has been able to get hold of the absconder so far. In this latest development Police got the tip today that the MPA is hiding at his in-laws’ house in Misri Shah Lahore. Though the Police reacted immediately but Rana Shoaib proved a bit swifter in his response to the Police’s move as he fled from the house again just minutes before the Police raided the house.The 30 locations that Police has raided so far pursuing MPA Rana Shoaib Idrees include houses of two former MPAs of Faisalabad but could not arrest him.It is pertinent to mention here that Rana Shoaib Idrees has refused to appear before the police unless he secures bail before arrest.Rana Shoaib, along with armed men, had broken into Khurrianwala Police Station, Faisalabad, on the night between Friday and Saturday and had got a prisoner, charged with murder, freed from Police custody after torturing Police officials in the Police Station.Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif had directed Police to take indiscriminate action against the culprit and Law Minister Punjab Rana Mash’hood stated on Monday that Police has been ordered to arrest Rana Shoaib Idrees. It was also reported by Dunya News on Monday that an important member of PML-N has consulted the local and central party leadership and has decided, in light of the consultations, to seek resignation from MPA Rana Shoaib Idrees.7 Police officers were suspended previously by Faisalabad Police for allegedly leaking information to Rana Shoaib Idrees about the Police raid when he had fled from his house minutes before Police raid on Monday. Now the MPA again received the information about the raid and fled from his in-laws’ house before Police raid.

Journal raises concern about blood-thinning drug

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PARIS (AFP) - A medical journal raised concerns Wednesday about a blood-thinning drug widely used by people at risk of stroke, accusing its manufacturer of concealing safety data and regulators of laxness.A key selling point of the drug known as dabigatran or Pradaxa was that it required no blood-level monitoring, as does competitor warfarin.Dabigatrans maker, Boehringer Ingelheim, had said the drug was better than warfarin at reducing stroke in people with irregular heart rhythm, with a similar risk of major bleeds, according to the British Medical Journal (BMJ).Based on its own probe, the journal accused Boehringer of concealing information that blood-level monitoring could in fact reduce major bleeds by up to 30-40 percent compared to warfarin.The BMJ has found that neither doctors nor regulators have ever been aware of these calculations, said a statement.Irregular heart rhythm (atrial fibrillation) affects about 800,000 Britons and over three million Americans.According to BMJ investigations editor Deborah Cohen, who conducted the research, millions of people take the anti-clotting drug, with blood levels found to vary greatly between patients.These analyses suggest that dabigatran could be made safer, she told AFP by email.A one-off test may be sufficient to check how a particular patient was reacting to the drug, which seeks to keep the blood thin enough to protect against stroke, but not so thin to pose a major bleed risk.The BMJ said the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and European Medicines Agency (EMA), in 2010 and 2011 respectively, approved the drug without the need for blood tests, despite concerns.Once licensed, dabigatran proved a financial success, but by the end of 2011 concerns about fatal bleeds were beginning to emerge, it wrote.In May, the manufacturer settled for $650 million (480 million euros) in 4,000 cases in the United States linked to use of its blood-thinner.The FDA told AFP its approval of the drug had been based on information supplied by Boehringer.The FDA is constantly examining product labelling to make sure the label reflects the current knowledge with regard to the benefits and risks of the product, the agency said, adding it had published several drug safety tips about Pradaxa over the years.The EMA said it was evaluating whether any relevant information had not been submitted.In case of any new evidence, the EMA will take action as necessary to guarantee the safety of patients, it said.Boehringer UK in a tweet advised patients not to stop taking the drug, but consult their doctor if they were concerned.We remain confident in our medicines benefits and safety profile which have been reaffirmed by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and others, it tweeted.
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