Wednesday 29 October 2014

Dunya TV

Dunya TV


Cyclone Nilofar 760km away from Karachi

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KARACHI (Online) - Severe Tropical Cyclone Nilofar in Arabian Sea is likely to move towards northward coastal areas of Sindh today. According to Pakistan Meteorological Department, the Cyclone would move with a speed of five kilometres per hour towards adjoining coastal areas of lower Sindh and Indian Gujarat today.The Met department officials also said that Nilofar, classified as a very severe cyclonic storm, may weaken to a cyclonic storm when it makes landfall.Under the influence of this cyclone, widespread rain, thundershowers with isolated heavy rainfalls accompanied by strong gusty winds are expected in lower Sindh, including Karachi and coastal areas of Balochistan from Wednesday night to Friday.At present, Severe Tropical Cyclone Nilofar that has intensified into Very Severe Tropical Cyclone over North Indian Ocean is located at 760 kilometres Southwest of Karachi with maximum surface winds of 105 Knots gusting to 130 Knots.The Met department has warned that Pakistan’s coastal areas will be hit by Nilofar on Thursday and Friday and therefore the fishermen should not go into the sea. The department also projected that the cyclone’s intensity will weaken by November 1st and it will next turn to Indian state Gujarat.

Hub: 3 killed in bus, truck collision

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HUB (Dunya News) – According to details, a bus collided with a truck while saving a camel on RCD Road near Hub on early Thursday morning as a result three people, including a minor girl, were killed on the spot.The ill-fated bus was travelling from Quetta to Karachi. At least 20 people also sustained injuries in the accident. The injured were shifted to nearby hospital while some seriously wounded people are being taken to Karachi.

Syria regime raids kill 10 in camp for displaced: NGO

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BEIRUT (AFP) - Syrian government aircraft dropped barrel bombs on a camp for displaced people in the northwestern province of Idlib on Wednesday killing at least 10 people, a monitoring group said.The strikes came as a car bomb wounded at least 37 people, including children, in a government-controlled neighbourhood of the central city of Homs, state television reported.The two barrel bombs also wounded dozens of people in the camp near Habeet, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.Most of the camps residents had fled fighting in the central province of Hama, the Britain-based group added.Video posted on YouTube by activists showed bodies lying among olive trees whose branches were littered with shreds of white canvas from tents that had been ripped apart by the bombs.In Homs, several wounded children were in serious condition after the car bombing in the the Al-Zahraa district of Syrias third largest city, state television reported.The Observatory said that one person had been killed.The majority of Al-Zahraas residents are Alawite, the same sect to which President Bashar al-Assad belongs.Government-controlled areas of Homs have been hit by a series of bombings in recent months.In early October, a double bombing at a school in another Alawite neighbourhood killed 52 people, among them 48 children.Afterwards, angry parents and residents held demonstrations calling for the resignation of senior security officials.Two were reassigned, although the Homs governor denied the move was related to the demonstrations.Homs was once known as the capital of the revolution because of the strength of anti-government activity in the city in the months after the uprising against Assads rule erupted in March 2011.But all of the city is now back under government control, except for the Waer district on its northwestern outskirts.

Iran wants sanctions lifted before nuclear deal: official

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PARIS (AFP) - Iran wants all Western sanctions to be lifted before striking a deal on its contested nuclear programme by a November deadline, a top official said Wednesday.The announcement came amid intensifying efforts to conclude a definitive pact. The six powers in the talks with Iran -- Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States plus Germany, known as the P51 -- have set November 24 as the deadline.The chairman of the Iranian parliaments National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Alaeddin Boroujerdi said the US proposal of a gradual lifting of sanctions was unacceptable.If we want a definitive accord on November 24, there must be an immediate lifting of sanctions, he told a news conference in Paris.A Western diplomat close to the negotiations with Iran on Monday said a firm deal by the deadline was highly unlikely, saying Tehran would have to make significant gestures.The aim is to close avenues towards Tehran ever developing an atomic bomb, by cutting back its enrichment programme, shutting down suspect facilities and imposing tough international inspections.In return, the global community would suspend and then gradually lift crippling economic sanctions imposed on the Islamic republic.But the two sides, despite long-running talks, remain far apart on how to reconcile their objectives.

Death toll tops 200 in battle for Libya's Benghazi

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BENGHAZI (AFP) - At least 10 people were killed in fighting for Libyas second city Benghazi Wednesday, taking the death toll from a two-week-old government-backed counter-offensive against Islamist militia to 201.Seven of the dead were killed by a shell which hit a funeral tent in the central Al-Majouri district of the eastern city, medics said.Pro-government forces battled Islamist militiamen in the streets in several districts, an AFP correspondent reported.Armed forces general staff spokesman Colonel Ahmed al-Mesmari said there had been heavy fighting as loyalists of former general Khalifa Haftar and regular army troops attacked the militias who have held the city since July.Haftars air force carried out several strikes against Ansar al-Sharia targets in the city, a military source said.The jihadist group, which is blacklisted by Washington as a terrorist organisation for its role in a deadly 2012 attack on the US consulate, is one of the two main Islamist militias in Benghazi.Previous offensives led by Haftar had been disavowed by the Libyan government.But its leaders have thrown their support behind the former general and rebel commander since they were forced out of the capital by Islamist militia in August.

Football: Real Madrid cruise to victory in Cup opener

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MADRID (AFP) - An understrength Real Madrid began their defence of the Copa del Rey with a comfortable 4-1 win over third-tier UD Cornella in the first leg of their fourth-round tie on Wednesday.With World Player of the Year Cristiano Ronaldo among a host of star names given the night off, it was centre-back Raphael Varane who produced the finishing touch in the first half as his bullet header put the visitors in front after just 10 minutes.Cornella, from the outskirts of Barcelona, had their magic moment 10 minutes later, though, as Oscar Munoz saw off challenges from Varane and Alvaro Arbeloa before firing high past Keylor Navas to equalise.However, in a game played at the home of top-flight side Espanyol, Varane restored Reals lead from another corner nine minutes before half-time and Javier Hernandez put the tie beyond the Catalans with a fine angled finish eight minutes into the second period.Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti then withdrew James Rodriguez, one of only four players to retain his place from Saturdays 3-1 Clasico victory over Barcelona, for Marcelo.And the Brazilian rounded off the scoring when he smashed home from a narrow angle after Jose Manuel Segovia had parried Iscos initial effort.With the second leg still to come at the Santiago Bernabeu in early December, Real remain very much on course for a last 16 meeting with La Liga champions Atletico Madrid.Sevilla are also well on their way to a place in the last 16 as on-loan Liverpool striker Iago Aspas scored a hat-trick in their 6-1 thrashing of Sabadell.

New Ebola cases slowing in Liberia but too soon to celebrate: WHO

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Geneva (AFP) - The World Health Organization confirmed Wednesday that the rate of Ebola infections appeared to be slowing in hard-hit Liberia, but warned the crisis was far from over.It appears that the trend is real in Liberia and there may indeed be a slowing of the epidemics spread there, WHO assistant director-general Bruce Aylward told reporters in Geneva.Data from a range of different sources, including from funeral directors reporting fewer Ebola and other burials and from treatment centres reporting lower Ebola patient admission rates, indicated a downward trend across much of Liberia, he said.Labs were also seeing a plateauing or slight decline in the number of confirmed cases, he said.Aylward added, though, that he was terrified that the information will be misinterpreted and that people will begin to think Ebola is under control.That is like thinking your pet tiger is under control, he warned.He said that a rapid scaling up of information to the community about the deadly virus, contact tracing and implementation of safe burial practices had likely contributed to the positive trend in Liberia.WHO is set to publish the latest death toll from the Ebola outbreak that has mainly been ravaging West Africa later Wednesday, with the number of deaths expected to pass the 5,000 mark.Aylward said that the number of cases had soared to more than 13,700 -- up from just over the 10,000 WH0 reported on Saturday -- but he stressed that the hike was mainly due to previously unreported cases being added to the statistics.Almost all of those cases were in Guinea, Sierra Leone and of course Liberia, which alone counted 6,535, he said.

Militant clash kills 8 soldiers

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PESHAWAR (AFP) - Eight soldiers were killed in a clash with militants in restive northwest Pakistan, officials said Wednesday, as security forces carried out a clearance operation.Eight soldiers embraced shahadat (martyrdom) during fierce fighting and exchange of fire with terrorists, a local security official based in Peshawar told AFP.He said that 21 militants were also killed.The incident occurred in the Spin Qamar neighbourhood, near the Bara area of Khyber tribal district, as security forces carried out an operation to clear suspected militants.Another security official also confirmed the incident.Pakistan has been battling Islamist groups in its semi-autonomous tribal belt since 2004, after its army entered the region to search for Al-Qaeda fighters who had fled across the border following the US-led invasion of Afghanistan.In June the army began a long-awaited offensive against militant hideouts in the North Waziristan tribal area, after a bloody raid on Karachi Airport ended faltering peace talks between the government and the Taliban.Pakistans army says it has killed more than 1,000 militants and lost 86 soldiers since the start of the operation.But the number and identity of those killed is difficult to verify as there is little regular media access to the conflict zones.

25 years on,Germany's east-west divide still palpable

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Prenzlau (Germany) (AFP) - Theres no such thing as a good wage here, not at an east German company.Twenty-five years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, those words bite in the frosty air of Prenzlau, a town in eastern Germany that encapsulates the ongoing, albeit narrowing, east-west divide.The man who utters them is Thomas Mielsch, who has just come out of the towns labour agency. The lorry driver grew up in Prenzlau, a 90-minute drive from Berlin.The capital of Uckermark, a rural region in the northeastern state of Brandenburg, Prenzlau has the highest unemployment in the country -- 14.7 percent in September, more than double the nationwide rate of 6.5 percent.Id move at the drop of a hat, but my wife wont, laughs the 46-year-old.Laid off by his previous employer, an east German-based transport firm that paid him a monthly wage of 1,580 euros (around $2,000) after tax for a 60-hour week, Thomas has just got a job with a Danish company.Ill take home twice as much for the same work. Id also earn a lot more if I worked for a company based in western Germany, he says.The lure of higher pay is hard to resist -- around a third of his friends work in the west, only coming home to their families at the weekend.- East-west divide persists -A quarter of a century after then chancellor Helmut Kohl promised flourishing landscapes in the five states that made up the former German Democratic Republic (GDR), the market economy has long supplanted the five-year planning of communism.Over the course of those 25 years, the west has pumped between 1.5 and 2.0 trillion euros into unification, estimates Thomas Lenk, professor of public finance at Leipzig University.All wage earners in Germany pay a so-called solidarity tax, a 5.5 percent surcharge introduced in 1991 to help rebuild the dilapidated and bankrupt east.The tax has been extended several times and is currently due to run until 2019.Thanks to the levy, the pot-holed roads of Prenzlau and elsewhere in the former GDR are now safely resurfaced and the crumbling buildings refurbished.But the gap between east and west still exists.According to the latest official data, unemployment in the five former eastern states stood at 9.7 percent in September, compared with 6.0 percent in the west. Ten years ago, the jobless rate in east Germany had stood at 18.4 percent, twice the rate in the west.Household income in the west is around one-third higher than in the east, and personal wealth is almost double. And the easts gross national product (GNP) is only two-thirds that of the west.- Sick man of Europe heals -Yet Germany need not hang its head. Once dubbed the sick man of Europe, the country has become the regions economic engine.The process still isnt over yet, thats clear, but theres light at the end of the tunnel, said Michael Burda, economist at Berlins Humboldt University.The causes of the disparity and the weaknesses of the former GDRs economy are well-documented.Transnational companies stayed in the west with its better working conditions and higher salaries, allowing them to hold on to a more skilled workforce.Prenzlau has no jobs for bankers or IT developers. The positions on offer at the labour office tend to be in agriculture, health care or tourism.But it is not like that everywhere in the east.Berlin, dubbed poor but sexy by its outgoing mayor, may still be dragging its feet, but other regions such as Saxony are much more innovative.In fact, there is now a north-south divide in Germany, with southern states such as Bavaria and Baden-Wuerttemberg the most economically dynamic.That divide is increasingly noticeable in eastern Germany, said economist Burda.Some experts also say that the inequality between east and west is less significant than the disparity between cities and rural areas across Germany.Hit by deep changes such as de-industrialisation, there are western regions that believe it is time to start re-directing some of the public money from the east back into a reconstruction of the west.In the Ruhr region, once the beating heart of German industry, the town of Gelsenkirchen, for example, has a jobless rate of more than 12 percent.Its mayor, Frank Baranowski, complained that more than 20 years after unification, policy is still geared to rebuilding the east.

Dollar jumps on hawkish elements of Fed statement

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NEW YORK (AFP) - The dollar Wednesday jumped against the euro and other major currencies after the US Federal Reserve ended its quantitative easing stimulus programme and described labor market conditions as improving.Near 1810 GMT, the euro fell to $1.2660, much below the $1.2743 shortly before the Feds 1800 GMT statement. The dollar also rose sharply against the Japanese yen, the Swiss franc and the British pound. The Fed, as expected, declared the end of a six-year-old quantitative easing program, which last December stood at $85 million a month in asset purchases and has been progressively trimmed.The Fed also said it would not raise interest rates for a considerable time after the end of the QE program, sticking to its timetable of an increase well into 2015.But analysts said the Feds policy statement included some important shifts in language that were more hawkish than expected. The Fed, which has long emphasized the need for a stronger jobs market, on September 17 said there remains significant underutilization of labor resources.Wednesdays statement from the Feds Federal Open Market Committee dropped that characterization and said indicators suggest that underutilization of labor resources is gradually diminishing.Omer Esiner, chief market analyst at Commonwealth Foreign Exchange, rated this very marginal shift in language as a bit of a hawkish surprise to global investors, who were expecting no changes to the language.Esiner said the Feds statement that longer-term inflation expectations remain stable, also suggested it is not concerned about lower prices. The risk of deflation has long been a Fed worry.On balance, the communique sounded a slightly more hawkish tone than many had expected and resulted in a significant move higher in yields and the US dollar, Esiner said.

UK's Fraud Office opens criminal probe into Tesco profits error

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London (AFP) - Britain announced a criminal investigation on Wednesday into accounting practices at Tesco, the countrys biggest retailer, after the supermarket group overstated its profits by £263 million ($424 million, 333 million euros).Tesco said it was cooperating fully with the inquiry by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), the government department responsible for investigating and prosecuting serious and complex fraud and corruption.The SFO confirmed today that the director has opened a criminal investigation into accounting practices at Tesco plc, the department said in a short statement, referring to director David Green.It said it could not provide further details while the investigation was underway.The SFOs action prompted the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Britains financial watchdog, to announce that it had discontinued its own investigation into the overstated profits.In an update to the London Stock Exchange, the supermarket group confirmed the development and said: Tesco has been cooperating fully with the SFO and will continue to do so.Tesco is the worlds third-biggest supermarket group after Frances Carrefour and global leader Wal-Mart.So investors were stunned last month when it revealed that its profit forecast for the six months to August 23 was overstated by an estimated £250 million.Following an independent probe by accountants Deloitte, the final figure was last week put at £263 million, which includes overstatements of £70 million for Tescos last financial year and £75 million relating to pre-2013/14.The announcement, along with the revelation that Tescos net profit had fallen to just £6.0 million in its first half from £820 million one year earlier, prompted the resignation of Tesco chairman Richard Broadbent on October 23.The issues that have come to light over recent weeks are a matter of profound regret. We have acted quickly to clarify the financial performance of the company, Broadbent said at the time.A new management team is in place to address the root cause of the mis-statement and to develop and implement the actions that will build the companys future.Tesco has also suspended eight executives since recently-appointed chief executive Dave Lewis launched an inquiry on September 22 into the overstated profits.After the announcement last week, Moodys ratings agency cut its long-term debt rating on Tesco from Baa2 to Baa3 -- which is just one level above junk.Even before the profits fiasco, Tesco had seen its profits hit in recent times by increased competition at home and abroad, where it shut its failed US division Fresh & Easy and exited from Japan.In July, the group appointed former Unilever executive Lewis to replace long-standing chief executive Philip Clarke and help revive the companys fortunes.

Football: Ferdinand banned, fined over Twitter comment

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LONDON (AFP) - Queens Park Rangers defender Rio Ferdinand has been suspended for three matches and fined 25,000 pounds ($40,000) for a comment he made on Twitter, the Football Association announced on Wednesday.The 35-year-old former England captain was apparently punished for a tweet in which he referred to the mother of another Twitter user as a sket -- a derogatory slang term for a promiscuous woman.Queens Park Rangers defender Rio Ferdinand has been suspended for three matches commencing with immediate effect, subject to any appeal, after an FA misconduct charge against him was found proven, read a statement released by the FA.It was alleged a comment Ferdinand posted on his twitter account was abusive and/or indecent and/or insulting and/or improper.It was further alleged that this breach was aggravated pursuant to FA rule E3(2) as the comment included a reference to gender.Following an independent regulatory commission hearing on Wednesday 29 October, Ferdinand was also fined 25,000 pounds, severely warned as to his future conduct and ordered to attend an education programme, arranged by the FA within four months.A Twitter user provoked the tweet that appeared to land Ferdinand in hot water by sending him a teasing message on transfer deadline day that said: Maybe QPR will sign a good CB (centre-back) they need one.Ferdinand replied: get ya mum in, plays the field well son sket.Former Manchester United defender Ferdinand, who won 81 caps for England, is a member of a commission set up by FA chairman Greg Dyke to investigate how to improve English football.Ferdinand, who said last week that he would probably retire from playing at the end of the season, has over 5.9 million followers on Twitter and is a prolific user of the social networking website.

SodaStream to close controversial West Bank plant

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Jerusalem (AFP) - Israeli drinks firm SodaStream, hit by international boycott calls, said Wednesday it was shutting a controversial factory in a West Bank settlement as it announced a nine percent fall in sales.The firm, which manufactures a device for making fizzy drinks at home and which was embroiled in a row earlier this year involving Hollywood actress Scarlett Johansson, said it would relocate the factory by the end of 2015.SodaStream said the plant closure would improve the operational efficiency of a group that has been listed on the New York stock exchange since 2010. Another factory in northern Israel will also close, the group said on its website.The manufacturer claims its factory in the Jewish settlement of Mishor Adumim in the occupied West Bank, is a model of integration employing 500 Palestinians, 450 Arab Israelis and 350 Israeli Jews on the same salaries and with the same social security benefits.Palestinian employees receive salaries four or five times that of the average wage in the territories controlled by Palestinian authorities, it has said.But the factory has been the focus of calls by Palestinian activists for a worldwide boycott of the firm.The row hit the headlines in January when Johansson quit as an ambassador for charity Oxfam following a dispute over her ad campaign for SodaStream.In one of the televised adverts, Johansson told audiences that they could drink SodaStream with a clear environmental conscience since the brands plastic bottles are reused when making carbonated drinks at home.The actress, who was at the time an ambassador for British charity Oxfam, came in for fierce criticism from the international BDS (Boycott, divestment, sanctions) campaign that pushes for a ban on Israeli products for profiting from occupation.A spokesman for Johansson said the star had parted company with Oxfam due to a fundamental difference of opinion over the boycott.She still appears on the SodaStream website.In an interview at the beginning of the year, SodaStream CEO Daniel Birnbaum acknowledged that Mishor Adumim, once a munitions factory, had become a thorn in the side of the company.SodaStream made no reference to the Johansson controversy on Wednesday, saying instead that the closure of its largest plant would save $9 million (seven million euros) in production costs.Its turnover was put at $125.9 million in the third quarter, down nine percent from 2013.We are launching a comprehensive growth plan to put the firm back on track, Birnbaum said.SodaStream employs more than 2,000 people at more than 20 sites in Australia, China, Germany and South Africa, as well as in Israel and the occupied West Bank.The group announced in 2012 it was to build a new factory in the Negev desert, in southern Israel.

Oil prices rally after slowing gains in US inventories

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NEW YORK (AFP) - World oil prices rallied on Wednesday after a smaller-than-expected increase in US crude inventories and the OPEC chiefs comments that recent price falls are unjustifed. US benchmark West Texas Intermediate for December jumped 78 cents to close at $82.20 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.Brent North Sea crude for delivery in December settled at $87.12 a barrel, up $1.09 from Tuesdays closing level.The US Department of Energy (DoE) earlier in the day reported US crude inventories rose by 2.1 million barrels in the week ended October 24, less than analysts consensus estimate of 3.1 million barrels.After a 7.1 million barrel gain the previous week, the data showed that US crude inventory growth slowed, said Bart Melek, head of commodity strategy at TD Securities.The DoE report meanwhile showed stronger-than-expected declines in inventories of gasoline and distillates, which include diesel and heating fuel.That data probably tells that well get more refinery utilization in the near future, Melek said.Meanwhile, OPEC secretary-general Abdullah El-Badri said that market conditions did not justify sharp falls for crude futures since June and signaled that OPEC would maintain output through next year.We dont see that much of a change in the fundamentals, El-Badri said Wednesday, addressing the Oil & Money Conference in London.Demand is still growing, supply is also growing. The magnitude of the increase in the supply does not really reflect this 25 percent change in the oil price.OPEC will decide on whether to alter its output levels at a meeting in Vienna on November 27.El-Badri also said that OPEC output in 2015 wont be far away from this year.The cartel has an official production ceiling of 30 million barrels per day, while it reported pumping 30.47 million barrels daily in September.

Tennis: Murray on brink of World Finals after defeating Benneteau

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PARIS (AFP) - Andy Murray turned in a clinical performance on Wednesday as he joined Stan Wawrinka, David Ferrer and Milos Raonic in the next round of the Paris Masters. The two-time Grand Slam winner, who was absent last year afer undergoing back surgery, overcame the challenge of French world number 28 Julien Benneteau and advanced to the last 16, 6-3, 6-4. The 27-year-old Scot will now meet either Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov or Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay for a place in the quarter-finals. If Murray, who won his third tournament of the season at Valencia on Sunday, wins his next match he will guarantee qualification for the World Tour Finals in London for the seventh straight year. Murray dictated play with pinpoint accuracy and although Benneteau put up some second set resistence the result was never in doubt. Also on Wednesday, world number four Stan Wawrinka snapped a three-game losing streak as he qualified for the third round with a 6-4, 7-6 (8/6) victory over Dominic Thiem. The Swiss 29-year-old came through a tight match in 1hr 36min against the Austrian to book a meeting with big-serving South African Kevin Anderson. Im trying to find my confidence, I have some victories but I know that my level of game is there. What I still miss is winning matches, said Wawrinka, who won his first Grand Slam at the Australian Open in January and admitted he was somewhat surprised by his recent rise into the top five. Im so happy, I didnt think I would be able to be ranked so high, but I had ups and downs. In the summer I didnt play very well and I had bad moments, although I did well in the US Open.I wouldnt change anything and I know I have a good level of game. I know things can change quickly; I can lose first round and I can also go very far in a tournament, so the important thing is really to concentrate on improving my level. Former champion and fourth seed David Ferrer also advanced as he subdued the talents of rising Belgian star David Goffin 6-3, 2-6, 6-3 to set up an all-Spanish third round tie against Fernando Verdasco. Earlier on the third day of the penultimate tournament of the season, Canadas Milos Raonic kept alive his chances of qualifying for the World Tour Finals with a tough three-set win over American qualifier Jack Sock. The number seven seed needs to win the tournament in Paris to guarantee his place in the elite eight-man field to take part in the season finale, which begins in London on November 9. He scraped through against world number 44 Sock, 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (7/4) in just over two hours. Awaiting Raonic in the third round will be Roberto Bautista-Agut, who knocked out Frenchman Richard Gasquet 6-4, 6-2.Later on centre court, world number two Roger Federer makes his much-anticipated debut in his second round match against another Frenchman, Jeremy Chardy. Federer comes to the French capital less than 500 points behind Novak Djokovic in the race for the season-ending world number one spot. There are a maximum 1,000 points on offer at Bercy for the champion while the World Tour Finals offer 1,500 points. Federer can also close ground or overtake the Serb, who won his second round match over Philipp Kohlschreiber on Tuesday, when he plays the Davis Cup final for Switzerland against France, starting on November 21 in Lille. Japanese sixth seed Kei Nishikori will take on Spanish veteran Tommy Robredo later in the day while Frenchmen Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Gael Monfils are in action against Austrian Jurgen Melzer and American John Isner respectively.

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