Wednesday 20 August 2014

Dunya TV

Dunya TV

'US does not support extra-constitutional changes in Pakistan'

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WASHINGTON (Agencies) - The US has said that it does not support any extra-constitutional changes in Pakistan, where deadlock continues between Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and two key opposition figures seeking his resignation over allegations of corruption and election rigging.We support the constitutional and electoral process in Pakistan, which elected Nawaz Sharif as the Prime Minister. That was a process they followed, an election they had, and we are focused on working with Pakistan, State Department Deputy Spokesperson Marie Harf told reporters.We do not support any extra-constitutional changes to that democratic system or people attempting to impose them, Harf said.The protests against Sharifs government led by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leader Imran Khan and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) leader Tahir ul-Qadri have virtually shut down Pakistans capital, Islamabad, raising fears of unrest in the country with a history of military coups.However, the protests remained peaceful as PAT and PTI delegations engaged in dialogue with the government to resolve the crisis.

Govt-PTI negotiation teams to meet again today

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ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – The next round of dialogues between government and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf will be held today (Thursday) in Islamabad.Earlier, both the teams met in a hotel in Islamabad on late Wednesday night during which PTI team presented its demands to the government negotiation team.Talking to media after the meeting, Vice Chairman PTI Shah Mahmood Qureshi said that we put our demands before the government team and they promised to get back to us on Thursday (Today) after examining them.Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar, a member of the government team said the talks were cordial.Whatever decision the two committees take will be in the best interest of Pakistan, he said.

Tennis: Serena Williams named US Open top seed

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NEW YORK (AFP) - Two-time defending champion Serena Williams was named the top seed Wednesday for the US Open, the year's final Grand Slam tennis showdown that opens Monday on the Flushing Meadows hardcourts.World number one Williams was also the US Open top seed in 2002 and 2013 and each time went on to win the title. She also won the US Open crown in 1999, 2008 and 2012.Williams is a five-time Wimbledon and Australian Open champion as well and also lists two French Open titles among her 17 Grand Slam singles crowns.Adding another trophy to her career haul after the Flushing Meadows fortnight would put Williams, 32, level with Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert as the second-best all-time Slam singles title winners of the Open Era, behind Steffi Graf's record 22 titles in the span.A sixth US Open title by Williams would also match Evert for the most in the Open Era.Romania's Simona Halep, runner-up at this year's French Open, was made the second seed followed by Czech Petra Kvitova, who last month captured her second Wimbledon crown, and Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska in fourth.World No. 2 Li Na of China withdrew in July because of a knee injury. Otherwise the US Tennis Association followed rankings in setting the top seeds.Russia's Maria Sharapova, the reigning French Open champion and 2006 US Open winner, was made the fifth seed.Belarus' Victoria Azarenka, who lost to Williams in the past two US Open finals, was made the 16th seed.Two-time US Open champion Venus Williams was seeded 19th while 2004 US Open winner Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia was seeded 20th, four spots above the 2011 US Open champion, Samantha Stosur of Australia.World number one Novak Djokovic, the reigning Wimbledon champion seeking his eighth career Grand Slam singles crown, was named the top seed on the men's side with 17-time Grand Slam winner Roger Federer, the five-time US Open champion, made the second seed.Djokovic has played in the past four US Open men's finals, winning the title in 2011. He downed Federer in five sets in last month's Wimbledon final.Second-ranked Rafael Nadal withdrew from the event with a right wrist injury.Andy Murray, the 2012 US Open champion, was seeded eighth.Federer is seeded at the US Open for the 14th year in a row, an Open-Era streak trailing only the 18 consecutive years of Jimmy Connors.

Tennis: Four-time winner Wozniacki ousted at New Haven

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NEW HAVEN (AFP) - Italys Camila Giorgi upset four-time champion Caroline Wozniacki 6-4, 6-2 on Wednesday to reach the quarter-finals of the WTA Connecticut Open, a final US Open warm-up hardcourt event.Giorgi dispatched the former world number one in 78 minutes to book a last-eight date with Spains Garbine Muguruza, who eliminated Chinese qualifier Peng Shuai 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 in another second-round match.Giorgi, ranked 38th, also ousted Wozniacki in last years US Open but lost their only other meeting this year at Eastbourne.Wozniacki, whose best Grand Slam showing was a 2009 US Open runner-up effort, won the title at New Haven from 2008-2011, but saw her record at the Yale University event dip to 24-3.The 24-year-old Danes only prior losses since Wimbledon came in three-set battles with world number one Serena Williams in Montreal and Cincinnati.I knew I was going to get limited break chances and when I did get them, I didnt convert, Wozniacki said. I knew I had to be aggressive out there and try to push her back, but I didnt manage to do that. She played well and I didnt.The defeat does allow Wozniacki a few extra days to prepare for the years final Grand Slam event which starts on Monday.I would have loved to have been here longer, but it wasnt to be this year, Wozniacki said. Now I just need to take the positives out of it. I get a few extra days to rest up and practice for the US Open.

Seals not Columbus brought TB to Americas

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PARIS (AFP) - Seals and sea lions probably brought tuberculosis to the Americas centuries before Christopher Columbus first set foot there, scientists said Wednesday.A new study challenges the theory that Europeans introduced TB to the New World, where it killed millions of indigenous Americans along with other foreign diseases like whooping cough, chicken pox and flu.As many as 20 million people lived in the Americas before Europeans arrived, and up to 95 percent of them were wiped out by new diseases to which they had no immunity.But the latest data revealed that TB may have had a hand in American Indian deaths prior to the influx of European diseases, according to the US National Science Foundation (NSF), which co-funded the study.An international expert team analysed DNA of bacteria from three 1,000-year-old human skeletons found in Peru, and found a type of TB closely related to strains that infect seals and sea lions today.The finding provides a plausible, if unexpected, route of entry into the New World, the studys authors wrote.It means that seals and sea lions probably contracted the disease from a host animal from Africa, where the disease likely originated, and swam across the Atlantic to South America.The mammals were probably eaten by coastal people who were themselves then infected and spread the bacteria to others, said the study, published in the journal Nature.The source of tuberculosis in the New World has long been a question for researchers, Elizabeth Tran, the NSFs biological anthropology programme director said in a statement.This paper provides strong evidence that marine mammals may have been the likely culprits.The analysis also revealed that tuberculosis in the form we know it was much younger than originally thought, and probably only evolved in Africa about 6,000 years ago.The study offers answers to a number of long-standing questions about TB in the ancient Americas.Genetically, modern strains of New World TB are closely related to European ones, which led to the conclusion that Europeans introduced the disease after Genoese navigator Columbuss first contact with Amerindians in 1492.Yet there is archaeological evidence in skeletons and mummies of tuberculosis in the Americas hundreds of years earlier.Some have suggested the disease must have spread with early humans out of Africa, before the Bering land bridge between Siberia and Alaska was flooded at the end of the last ice age about 11,700 years ago.But this fails to explain the European genetic likeness, or the fact that TB is probably a younger disease than that.The latest study concluded that TB bacteria in the three ancient skeletons were different to strains found in humans in the Americas today.Having been initially brought over by sea mammals, the disease seems to have been replaced by European strains.The connection with seals and sea lions is important to explain how a mammalian-adapted pathogen that evolved in Africa around 6,000 years ago could have reached Peru 5,000 years later, said co-author Johannes Krause, of the University of Tuebingen in Germany.A marine introduction seems the most likely way that the disease could have reached humans in the Americas thousands of years after the inundation of the Bering land bridge, when terrestrial movements into the Americas was no longer possible.More than 8.6 million people fell ill globally with tuberculosis in 2012, according to the World Health Organization, and 1.3 million died from it -- making it the biggest killer disease after HIV.The strains that still exist in seals and sea lions today can still make people ill, though it happens extremely rarely, the researchers said.

Oil prices advance on signs of stronger US demand

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NEW YORK (AFP) - Global oil prices rebounded Wednesday from multi-month lows after a surprisingly big drop in US oil inventories.US benchmark West Texas Intermediate for September delivery jumped $1.59 to $96.07 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, recovering from a seven-month low hit Tuesday.European benchmark Brent oil for October delivery gained 72 cents to close at $102.28 a barrel in London, rallying from the 14-month low the day before.Crude stocks dropped a lot more than expected, said Bart Melek, head of commodity strategy at TD Securities. The market is looking at maybe a demand which is a little bit higher.Melek said the energy inventory data, coupled with commentary in Wednesday's US Federal Reserve meeting minutes on the jobs market, suggest the US economy may be doing okay in terms of growth. Data from the US Energy Information Administration said crude oil stockpiles fell 4.5 million barrels in the week ending August 15. That was far heavier than expectations for a drop of 900,000 barrels, according to analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires.The report also showed that stocks of distillates, which include heating oil and diesel, dropped one million barrels. Analysts had predicted a 700,000-barrel decline.Gasoline reserves however climbed by 600,000 barrels. Analysts had projected a drop of 1.3 million.Traders are also continuing to track conflicts in crude producers Libya and Iraq, as well as in Ukraine, a key conduit for Russian gas exports to Europe, analysts said.

Dollar continues push higher against euro

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NEW YORK (AFP) - The US dollar pushed to its highest level against the euro in 11 months, helped by Federal Reserve meeting minutes which showed an increasing focus on inflation.The third straight gain for the greenback took it to $1.3258 per euro, up 0.45 percent for the day, and capped a three-month run from the $1.39 per euro level.The dollar was already headed up early Wednesday after Eurostat -- the official statistics agency -- reported that exports from the eurozone fell 0.5 percent in June from May.June's eurozone trade data provided yet further evidence that the external sector remains too weak to make up for the region's feeble domestic recovery, said Jessica Hinds of Capital Economics.Later, the Federal Reserve released minutes from its July 29-30 meeting showing policy makers increasingly at odds over how strong the US labor market is and what that means for inflation -- a key issue in planning rate hikes next year.The intensifying debate signalled an increase, albeit still measured, level of hawkish sentiment in the Fed that could speed up any rate hike.Ian Shepherdson of Pantheon Macroeconomics said there is still a clear hawk/dove split on the outlook for wages and inflation. The hawks are becoming more nervous, though.

Pollard, Ramdin rescue troubled Windies

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ST. GEORGE'S (AFP) - Kieron Pollard and Denesh Ramdin saved the West Indies from a humiliating defeat and engineered a three-wicket victory over Bangladesh in the first one-day international at the National Stadium in Grenada on Wednesday.Reeling at 34 for five in reply to the tourists' total of 217 for nine, Pollard's commanding 89 and Ramdin's polished 74 turned the match on its head, their 145-run sixth-wicket partnership transforming the improbability of victory into a leisurely canter by the time the winning runs were hit by Jason Holder in the 40th over.They played positively and exposed the limitations of the Bangladeshi bowling attack as visiting captain Mushfiqur Rahim was at his wit's end to stem the flow of runs following the early clatter of wickets.Medium-pacer Al-Amin Hossain emerged with the bowling honours, taking three of the first five wickets to fall and finishing with four for 51.He added the scalp of Pollard, who fell to an outstanding outfield catch by Mahmudullah as the big-hitting right-hander attempted to heave another six to take him closer to a hundred and his team nearer to victory.It was good to be able to put my head down together with Denesh to bring the match home, said Pollard.No-one needs to remind me about that. I know what I have to do and I'm glad I was able to deliver today.Anamul Haque's workmanlike hundred held the Bangladesh innings together as the visitors reached 217 for nine batting first.Put in on a pitch that made free scoring difficult, the opening batsman's 109 was essential to giving the innings some respectability with more senior players in the batting order failing to contribute significantly. Fellow opener Tamim Iqbal and lower-order player Nasir Hossain were the next best contributors with 26 runs apiece.We were probably 20-25 runs short of being really competitive, said Musfiqur after the match. Our bowlers did a good job up front but after taking those early wickets we couldn't sustain the effort.Dwayne Bravo was the most successful West Indies bowler, finishing with four for 32, including the wickets of Mashrafe Mortaza and Anamul in the final over of the innings.There's a lot of room for improvement because the top order of the batting, including myself, let us down again, said Bravo in reflecting on the victory.The bowlers did their part definitely. We just need the batting to come up trumps.Anamul's knock occupied 138 deliveries during which he struck 11 fours and the lone six of the innings, a top-edged hook off fast-medium bowler Ravi Rampaul. The 21-year-old's two ODI hundreds have both come against the West Indies, his top score remaining the 120 compiled in the series in Bangladesh at the end of 2012.He lost Tamim after an opening stand of 41, the left-hander miscuing an attempted pull off Holder for Pollard to take the catch at short mid-wicket. Wickets continued to fall at regular intervals until Nasir joined Anamul at 141 for five in the 34th over, the pair putting on 53 for the sixth wicket and giving the innings a bit of momentum before Nasir departed, caught at the wicket off a miscued swing at Rampaul as he attempted to accelerate the scoring.Despite the greater urgency, Bangladesh still struggled to improve the run-rate significantly, leaving their bowlers with a tough task to prevent the West Indies overhauling what appeared, at that time, to be a modest target.The win was also a much-needed boost for a West Indies team whose coach Ottis Gibson was axed in the hours before the match.The second of the three-game series is at the same venue on Friday.

The political 'wrap-up' begins

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ISLAMABAD (AFP) - Pakistani ministers and opposition politicians met anti-government protesters on Wednesday, but talks ended for the day with the sides appearing no closer to resolving a week-long political crisis that has rattled the restive, nuclear-armed nation.Thousands of followers of cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan and populist cleric Tahir-ul-Qadri have been demonstrating outside the parliament building in Islamabad, trying to force Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif from office.Khan and Qadri say last year's general election that swept Sharif to power by a landslide was rigged and are demanding his resignation.Late Wednesday Khan's team met with government negotiators in Islamabad to discuss his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party's demands.We put our demands before the government team and they promised to get back to us on Thursday after examining them, PTI vice-chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi told reporters after talks.Khan had earlier struck a defiant note, insisting Sharif must resign before he would participate in negotiations.Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar, a member of the government team and governor of Punjab province said the talks were cordial.Whatever decision the two committees take will be in the best interest of Pakistan, he said.Earlier Wednesday evening, a cross-party delegation met members of Qadri's team to try to resolve the standoff, but the session finished with no concrete result.Talks were dominated by the issue of the alleged murder by police of at least 10 of Qadri's Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) movement's workers in Lahore in June, Rahiq Abbasi, a member of the cleric's committee, told reporters afterwards.We called for the immediate registration of a case and the arrest of all accused, Abbasi said, reiterating his call for Prime Minister Sharif's government to stand down. The government's response was not immediately known.- Showdown adds instability -The showdown has added to instability in a country that has had three military coups since its creation in 1947 and which is struggling with a homegrown Taliban insurgency, a crippling power crisis and a sluggish economy.The two protest movements are not formally allied and have different goals, beyond toppling the government. But their combined pressure -- and numbers -- have given extra heft to the rallies.If PAT were to reach a settlement with the government and withdraw, PTI's position would be significantly weakened, despite Khan's tough stance.Neither movement has mobilised mass support beyond their core followers and opposition parties have shunned Khan's call to unseat the government and begin a campaign of civil disobedience.The Supreme Court, which has played an influential role in Pakistani politics in recent years, ordered Khan and Qadri to appear on Thursday to explain their protests.The ruling came after petitions urging the court to restrain Khan and Qadri from making illegal and unconstitutional demands, Kamran Murtaza, a senior lawyer, told AFP.The protests have so far been peaceful but the crisis has raised fears that Pakistan's fragile democracy could be under threat of another military intervention.Rumours have abounded that elements within the influential military have been behind Khan and Qadri's moves, though the cleric and the interior minister have adamantly denied this.- 'Patience required' -The army's chief spokesman General Asim Bajwa said via Twitter the situation required patience, wisdom and sagacity from all sides and could only be resolved through meaningful dialogue.Sharif has a history of testy relations with the military -- his second term as prime minister ended abruptly in 1999 when then-army chief Pervez Musharraf seized power in a coup.His government is thought to have angered the military further by pursuing criminal cases against Musharraf dating back to his 1999-2008 rule, including treason charges.Military analyst Ayesha Siddiqui warned that the situation was precarious.From the military perspective, they have tried and tested Nawaz Sharif a third time and they feel disappointed. Why would they let him be? she told AFP.But Hamid Gul, the former head of the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence agency, said that despite the military's differences with Sharif, he thought they were unwilling to get involved.They (Khan and Qadri) are trying to drag the army into it, to pull the army, but the army is very reluctant, Gul told AFP, adding that the crisis would inevitably weaken Sharif.If Nawaz wants to stay in power he has no choice but to listen to the army, Gul said.The United States, Britain and the European Union have all voiced support for Pakistani democracy and urged the feuding sides to negotiate a way out of the impasse.Last year's election, rated free and credible by international observers, was an important landmark for Pakistani democracy -- the first time one democratically elected government had completed its term and handed over power to another.

UN urges Israel to resume talks with Palestine

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UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - The UN Security Council on Wednesday urged Israel and the Palestinians to return to the negotiating table to quickly agree on a lasting truce in Gaza.In a unanimously adopted statement, the 15-member council offered full support to the Egyptian initiative and called upon the parties to resume negotiations to urgently reach a sustainable and lasting ceasefire.The statement drafted by France was agreed after negotiations in Cairo teetered on the verge of collapse amid a fresh flareup of violence in the war that has killed more than 2,000 Palestinians since July 8.The measure fell short of a full resolution, but diplomats signaled they would be ready to move toward a stronger response if the Egyptian-led peace track hit a dead end.The urgency today was to respond to the fact that the talks appear to be breaking down and there has been a resumption of hostilities, and it was important for the Security Council to respond to that, said British Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant, whose country holds the council presidency.Earlier this month, Jordan circulated a draft resolution backed by Arab countries that calls for a ceasefire, the lifting of the Israeli blockade of Gaza and the delivery of urgently-needed aid to the Palestinians.The fighting over the last six weeks marks the most violent confrontation between Israel and Hamas militants since the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising, from 2000-2005.- Palestinians want peace deal -Palestinian representative to the United Nations Riyad Mansour said his side was ready to return to the negotiations in Cairo.We want a sustainable negotiated peace. We want to stop dying. We want the violence to end. In order to do that, Israel must cease its aggression and agree to a deal, Mansour told reporters at UN headquarters in New York.The armed wing of Gaza's Islamist rulers Hamas warned foreign airlines against flying into Tel Aviv on Wednesday and declared the Cairo talks over.Israeli warplanes carried out dozens of air strikes across Gaza in response to multiple rocket attacks on southern Israel, as nine days of calm exploded into bloodshed.In the statement, the council expressed grave concern at the return to hostilities and the loss of civilian lives.It called on the sides to prevent the situation from escalating and to reach an immediate humanitarian ceasefire as a first step toward a deal on a lasting truce.UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the flareup in violence on Tuesday and called on both sides to reach an immediate understanding on a durable ceasefire.The hopes of the people of Gaza for a better future and the hopes of the people of Israel for sustainable security rest on the talks in Cairo, Ban said.

India invests in weapons

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NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Some of India's biggest companies are pouring billions of dollars into manufacturing guns, ships and tanks for the country's military, buoyed by the new government's commitment to upgrade its armed forces using domestic factories.India, the world's largest arms importer, will spend $250 billion in the next decade on kit, analysts estimate, to upgradeits Soviet-era military and narrow the gap with China, which spends $120 billion a year on defence.Under the last government, procurement delays and a spate of operational accidents - especially dogging the navy - raiseduncomfortable questions over whether India's armed forces are capable of defending its sea lanes and borders.Even before his landslide election victory in May, Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised to assert India's military prowess and meet the security challenge posed by a rising China and long-running tensions with Pakistan.Within weeks of becoming prime minister, he boosted defence spending by 12 percent to around $37 billion for the current fiscal year and approved plans to allow more foreign investment into local industry to jump-start production.Launching a new, Indian-built naval destroyer last week, Modi said: My government has taken important steps in improvingindigenous defence technology ... We can guarantee peace if our military is modernised.This build-up comes as SoutheastAsian nations expand their own defence industries, spurred by tensions with China. India, reliant on a state defence industry that often delivers late and over budget, risks being caught flat-footed.The opportunity is huge, said M.V. Kotwal, president at Larsen and Toubro Ltd, one of India's biggest industrial houses.We really expect quicker implementation. There are signsthat this government is very keen to grow indigenisation, added Kotwal, referring to increasing domestic production.Tata Sons, a $100 billion conglomerate, said last month it will invest $35 billion in the next three years to expand into new areas with a focus on a handful of sectors including defence.Larsen is putting $400 million into a yard to build ships for the navy, while Mumbai-based Mahindra Group is expanding a facility that makes parts for planes, including for the air force, and investing in armoured vehicle and radar production.The companies are being lured by the prospect of lucrative returns on their investments as the Modi government has pledgedto make buy Indian the default option for future orders.Larsen is targeting a fourfold increase in annual defence revenue to $1 billion within the next five years.Critics of indigenisation argue that producing gear - especially in the lumbering state sector - is more costly than buying from abroad.Such deals can add layers of bureaucracy, increasing risks of corrupt dealings.Indian industry is renowned for its ability to adapt, yet questions remain whether the private sector can come up with the solutions needed to bring armed forces into the 21st century without sufficient access to world-class foreign technology.Delays some companies are also sceptical of the government's commitment to grow the private market given New Delhi's history of delays and order cancellations, and the traditionally strong ties between the military and state-run manufacturers.They cite the case of a $10 billion Future Infantry Combat Vehicle (FICV) programme. Conceived in 2009, the defenceministry invited three private players and the Ordnance Factory Board, a state entity, to bid for the 2,600-vehicle contract butsuddenly withdrew the letter of intent in 2012.Bidders included Mahindra and Tata, which is developing a vehicle along with Lockheed Martin Corp and GeneralDynamics Corp that could compete for a future contract, said Rahul Gajare, an analyst at Edelweiss Securities.A quick decision to relaunch the programme would demonstrate Modi's resolve, said S.P. Shukla, who heads Mahindra's defence business. Past tenders have stalled amid wrangling over whether or not to allow state manufacturers to bid and under what terms.Larsen's Kotwal said its Kattupalli shipyard in south India has yet to receive any orders for warships or submarines despite being designed to do just that and despite past government pledges to build at least two submarines in private yards.In the meantime, the yard has switched to constructing and repairing commercial vessels.The policy in India has been right since 2006. The problem has been implementation, said Rahul Chaudhry, CEO at Tata Power SED, which makes rocket launchers, sensors and radars.Local firms have captured a fraction of the Indian defence market since it first opened to private participation in 2001.Consecutive governments have handed orders to state factories or to foreign giants like Boeing, Lockheed and BAE Systems. Gajare at Edelweiss estimates total India private sector revenues from defence, including overseas orders, at below $2 billion last year, less than 6 percent of the country's defence spending.

US fails to rescue hostages from Syria

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WASHINGTON (AFP) - US personnel recently tried to rescue American hostages held in Syria by the so-called Islamic State (IS) but failed, the Pentagon and White House said Wednesday, a day after the militants released a video of a US reporter being beheaded.The United States attempted a rescue operation recently to free a number of American hostages held in Syria by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (IS), Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby said in a statement.This operation involved air and ground components and was focused on a particular captor network within ISIL (IS).Unfortunately, the mission was not successful because the hostages were not present at the targeted location.The White House said in a separate statement that the rescue attempt was authorized earlier this summer.American reporter James Foley was kidnapped in northern Syria in November 2012.The video of his execution, released Tuesday, also showed a second US reporter, Steven Sotloff, being paraded on screen.It was not immediately clear if either reporter was the target of the failed US rescue mission.IS, also known as ISIL, considers Washington its arch enemy and has overrun large swaths of Iraq and Syria.It says it represents the aspirations of a global Muslim caliphate.As we have said repeatedly, the United States government is committed to the safety and well-being of its citizens, particularly those suffering in captivity, said Kirby.In this case, we put the best of the United States military in harms' way to try and bring our citizens home.In a White House statement on the rescue attempt, Lisa Monaco, assistant to President Barack Obama for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, said: The president authorized action at this time because it was the national security team's assessment that these hostages were in danger with each passing day in ISIL custody.The US government had what we believed was sufficient intelligence, and when the opportunity presented itself, the president authorized the Department of Defense to move aggressively to recover our citizens.

First round of Govt-PTI dialogue concludes

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ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – The first ever direct negotiations between government and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf teams were held at a hotel in Islamabad on late Wednesday night.The government committee comprising Governor Punjab Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar, federal ministers Pervez Rashid, Ahsan Iqbal, Abdul Qadir Baloch and Zahid Hamid held dialogue with PTI committee comprising Javed Hashmi, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Asad Umar, Jahangir Tareen and Arif Alvi.Imran Khans team has put forward six demands to government negotiators in their first meeting on Wednesday.Talking to media after the meeting, Vice Chairman PTI Shah Mahmood Qureshi said that we put our demands before the government team and they promised to get back to us on Thursday (Today) after examining them.Qureshi said that first demand of his party was resignation of PM Nawaz Sharif.Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar, a member of the government team said that the talks were cordial.Whatever decision the two committees take will be in the best interest of Pakistan, he said.

HP's revenue booms everywhere except China

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SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - Hewlett-Packard on Wednesday reported that its quarterly revenue rose for the first time in three years, nudged by improved computer sales everywhere except Russia and China.Net revenue for the quarter that ended July 31 was $27.6 billion, a one percent improvement from the same period last year when the California computer maker took in $27.2 billion.Meanwhile, HP profit in the recently ended quarter ebbed to $985 million compared to $1.39 billion in the same period a year earlier, due in part to cost savings from a massive effort by chief executive Meg Whitman to find new momentum as lifestyles shift from personal computers to smartphones and tablets.Overall, I'm very pleased with the progress we've made, Whitman said in the earnings release.When I look at the way the business is performing, the pipeline of innovation and the daily feedback that I receive from our customers and partners, my confidence in the turnaround grows stronger.HP shares slipped a fraction of a percent to $34.86 in after-market trading that followed release of the earnings figures.Whitman said during an earnings call with analysts that the financial quarter marked an important milestone in the effort to turn HP around, and that she was encouraged by progress.Sales of home and business computers were bright spots in the quarter despite pressure on the overall personal computer market due to competition from smartphones and tablets.The PC market, I mean right up through tablets, is flat to declining, Whitman said.We think that will continue and we think that we can continue to gain share in a flat market.She based her confidence in HP's product line-up and relationships with partners, saying the company's PC business has some wind beneath its wings.And while China, home to HP rival Lenovo, was a weak spot for HP personal computer sales, the region did well when it came to printer, server and software products, according to Whitman.HP expected political forces in Russia and fierce competition in China to present challenges for the company.HP executives promised that at least half of the company's cash flow will go to buy back shares or pay dividends, with an emphasis on the former because they saw the stock as attractively priced.Whitman said that HP would also put money into acquisitions.Last month, HP announced that Whitman will replace Ralph Whitworth as chair of the US tech giant. Whitworth said he was stepping down for health reasons.Meg has been an outstanding leader since coming to HP, and we believe that as chairman she can most effectively drive the turnaround and continue to build value for our shareholders, said Gary Reiner, chairman of the board's nominating committee.Whitman, who previously was chief executive at eBay, has been president and chief executive officer of HP since September 2011.HP is undergoing a massive reorganization to cope with the move away from traditional personal computers to mobile devices.The California company said in May that it was cutting an additional 11,000 to 16,000 jobs on top of 34,000 reductions planned under a program begun in 2012.

US offers $30 mln in search for Haqqani leaders

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WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States offered a total $30 million Wednesday in return for information on key leaders of the feared Haqqani militant network, blamed for numerous bloody attacks in Afghanistan.The Department has authorized rewards of up to $5 million each for information leading to the location of Aziz Haqqani, Khalil al-Rahman Haqqani, Yahya Haqqani, and Abdul Rauf Zakir, the State Department said in a statement.It also increased its previous reward offer of up to $5 million for information on the groups leader, Sirajuddin Haqqani, to up to $10 million.The State Department added: The group is allied with Al-Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban and cooperates with other terrorist organizations in the region.It said that the Pakistan-based Haqqani network was the most lethal insurgent group targeting the US-led NATO coalition and Afghan personnel in neighboring Afghanistan.
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