Bussiness n World News

October 19, 2012 - Updated 1540 PKT From Web Edition       7   6   1   0 BIRMINGHAM: Malala Yousafzai has come out of her coma, according to Dav Rosser the medical head of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. According to the Rosser, Malala is expressing her thoughts by writing notes. She is not speaking currently but there is hope that she would start talking soon. Malala is not on the ventilator as she had a Tracheotomy and is breathing through the tube in her neck. Malala who has movement of her arms and legs also stood with support for the first time after being attacked by the Taliban in Mingora, Swat ten days ago. The medical head of the hospital added that Malala’s infection was still a cause of concern. Malala needs time to recover and needs to be strong enough to undergo reconstructive surgery and her skull bone will need to be replaced either with her own bone or with a titanium plate. The surgery wi...

October 19, 2012 - Updated 1551 PKT From Web Edition KABUL: A huge roadside bomb ripped through a minibus carrying guests to a wedding party in Afghanistan on Friday, killing at least 15 people and wounding 18 others, police said. Most of the victims were women and children in the attack that took place in the northern province of Balkh, in the district of Dawlat Abad around 40 kilometres (25 miles) from the provincial capital Mazar-i-Sharif. "All the victims were civilians and mostly they were women and children," the police spokesman for Balkh, Shir Jan Durrani, told AFP. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but similar attacks are usually blamed on Taliban insurgents fighting to overthrow the Western-backed government of President Hamid Karzai. Taliban attacks tend to be focused in the south and east of the country, with the north escaping the worst of an insurgency that has raged for 11 years since the militants were...

KARACHI: The outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Tuesday defended the attack on Malala Yousafzai, rejecting that she was an innocent girl and labeling her as a US spy. The central spokesman of TTP, Ahsanullah Ahsan, in a detailed statement issued to the media said Malala's date of birth is July 1997 which makes her 15 years four months old today. "Even if no sign of maturity becomes noticeable, this age of the girl marks the end of pre-maturity phase." The statement said: "In Islam and Pakhtun traditions there is absolutely no room for an attack on a woman of pure virtues. But in cases where a woman is seen as a clear sinner who stands in defiance of Shariah, such a woman is not only allowed to be attacked but there is an obligatory instruction for such an action." The TTP spokesman said, Malala Yousafzai was 'a spy who divulged secrets of Mujahidden and Taliban through BBC and in return received awards and rewards from the Zioni...

How many Malalas?     Dr Tariq Rahman Monday, October 15, 2012 From Print Edition After a long time, there is some sign of life among the country’s opinion-makers - and not just the liberals. Does it take an attack on an innocent girl to wake up our collective conscience? Or is even this an evanescent phenomenon? How many more Malalas will it take for our public to change its mind about the Taliban? I saw such a change in public opinion about the Taliban rule in Swat in 2008. Mullah Fazlullah was ruling the valley, and women were being flogged for the least suspicion of immorality. The government of Pakistan had given in and power had been conceded in the name of people’s demand for Shariah. But the Taliban started moving to Buner and the army felt threatened. Soon, media anchors had started talking about action against the militants. Within months the local people were brought to the plains of Mardan and Peshawar and the army moved in to...

Attack on Malala: 25 more held in Swat   October 14, 2012 - Updated 2025 PKT From Web Edition       New   0   0   0 SWAT: Police and security forces have captured 25 more suspects from different parts of Swat for involvement in the attack on Malala Yousafzai and two other girls, Geo News reported Sunday. The suspects were rounded up from Mingora, Sangota and Keel areas of Swat as well as from Malakand Agency. The suspects have been shifted to undisclosed location for investigation.

Malala shifted to Birmingham hospital   October 15, 2012 - Updated 2115 PKT From Web Edition BIRMINGHAM: Malala Yousafzai, the 14-year-old activist who was shot and injured by Taliban in Swat, arrived in Britain and was shifted to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham for specialist care on Monday.

No justice in US military tribunal: KSM October 16, 2012 - Updated 626 PKT From Web Edition GUANTANAMO BAY: Self-proclaimed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed said during a pre-trial hearing at Guantanamo that there was "no justice" in the US military tribunal. Mohammed is accused of orchestrating the hijacked airliner plot that killed 2,976 people on September 11, 2001, while his four co-defendants are charged with providing funding and other support for those who crashed the jets. All five face the death penalty if convicted, but their trial by military tribunal at the US naval base at Guantanamo, Cuba is not expected to start for at least another year. "I don't think there's any justice in this court," the 47-year-old Mohammed - wearing a white turban, his beard dyed with henna - said in Arabic on Monday when asked whether he understood his rights by Judge James Pohl. Pohl ruled on Monday tha...

BEIJING, China (CNN) -- When China's legislature opens its annual session this week, the focus will be on jobs, the economy and social stability. Delegates have begun to gather for China's annual meeting of its National People's Congress. Every year, over 3,000 delegates to the National People's Congress meet in Beijing to review draft laws and vote on government budget and policies. Delegates come from central and local governments, the military and police, including ethnic minority representatives, who typically show up in their traditional costumes. In the past, the NPC has been dismissed as...

Gas demand goes up 10 pc annually Updated at: 0725 PST, Tuesday, March 03, 2009 KARACHI: Demand for gasoline consumption is going up by 10 percent annually here in Pakistan; experts said adding it is necessary to find new oil and gas reservoirs to meet the rising demand. In a report on energy in Pakistan, it is stated that country’s daily gas demand was 4731 mmcfd while locally we produce 4528 mmcfd. Pakistan remain short of 203 mmcfd gas daily while mere 17 percent of the total population have access to gas in country.

NATO secretary general terms Swat deal as Pakistan’s internal issue Updated at: 1228 PST, Tuesday, March 03, 2009 BRUSSELS: NATO Secretary General Jaap De Hoop has said that the Swat peace deal is Pakistan’s internal matter. Talking to media in Brussels, Hoop said NATO forces had no intention to enter Pakistani borders. He said Pakistani routes for NATO supplies still carried importance despite the start of NATO supply to Afghanistan through Russia. Hoop said cultivation of opium and smuggling were becoming major reasons for terrorism in Afghanistan.

Updated at: 1744 PST, Tuesday, March 03, 2009 ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani has advised President Asif Ali Zardari to withdraw the mobile courts ordinance promulgated on Monday. Speaking at the National Assembly session here, Prime Minister said that the ordinance should not have been promulgated. “Now I advise President Zardari under article 89 of the constitution to withdraw the ordinance,” he said, adding that it has violated the sanctity of the assembly.

Updated at: 1315 PST, Monday, March 02, 2009 KARACHI: Karachi Port Trust (KPT)’s cement export terminal constructed at the cost of $12 million went into operation here today. Addressing the inaugural ceremony, Federal Minister for shipping and ports, Babar Khan Ghori said that Pakistan could now export more cement due to the construction of this terminal, as this terminal has the capacity of handling 10 to 12 thousand tons of cement per day. Babar Ghori directed Ports and Shipping DG to work out a plan for the reduction in port charges. Earlier, Lucky Cement CEO, Muhammad Ali Taba said that KPT should cut down its charges because in India and other countries port charges per ton amount to $1, while in Pakistan it comes to $4/5 and this was the reason cement exports facing set back.

Updated at: 1259 PST, Monday, March 02, 2009 SINGAPORE: Oil prices fell in Asian trade Monday on demand concerns after the US economy performed below expectations in the fourth quarter, dealers said. New York's main futures contract, light sweet crude for April delivery, fell 80 cents to 43.96 dollars a barrel. Brent North Sea crude for April shed 75 cents to 45.60 dollars per barrel.

Updated at: 1255 PST, Monday, March 02, 2009 KARACHI: Inter-bank initial interest rate dropped down below 13 percent, as six months’ Kibor stood at 12.85 percent. Money market dealers said that the interest rate of six months’ Kibor during January 1 till to date shrank by 2.83 percent due to existing additional liquidity in the banking system and, therefore, the money market dealers were expecting a cut in interest rate. On the other hand, inter-bank one year T-Bills cut off yield was 13 percent on February 25, which now after the shrink traded at 12.85 percent. Economists said that the banks preferring investment in government securities instead of giving loans to the private sector and avoiding taking any risk. In this backdrop, private sector was also reluctant taking loans at high rate of interest. According to State Bank disbursement of loans to the private sector as against previous year remained 47 percent low.

WASHINGTON -- The "most worrisome" part of the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan has become the havens the Taliban and other insurgents have carved out in neighboring Pakistan, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said. Afghan and U.S. soldiers walk at the site of a suicide attack outside Jalalabad in Nangarhar province Sunday. Gates said the United States had a similar perch in Pakistan when U.S. and Pakistani officials supported Afghanistan's mujahedeen rebels against the Soviet Union in the 1980s -- "and let me tell you, it made a big difference." "I think as long as they have a safe haven to operate t...

Zhao Jiuhe sweeps the floors at his dad's restaurant, chats with customers and waitresses whom he calls "older sisters," and clears the tables. Jiuhe, who can speak some English, says he likes coming to the restaurant with his father. But he is no ordinary 19-year-old. Jiuhe, who suffers from cerebral palsy, could not walk until he was four or talk until he was five. His father started the Beijing eatery, "Hand in Hand," to give his son a chance to improve his life after Jiuhe finished his education at a school for the disabled. "It seems I am running a business, but I am actually taking care of him. His growth at the restaur...

The Bangladeshi army fanned out across the country Monday, hunting down paramilitary troops who fled their barracks in the capital, Dhaka, after a deadly uprising that killed dozens of their superiors. A Bangladeshi woman waits for news of a missing relative at the Bangaldesh Rifles heaquarters in Dhaka. Search crews have now recovered at least 73 bodies from a river, sewers and three mass graves inside the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) paramilitary headquarters, where the rebellion occurred Wednesday. Fifty-one of the dead were confirmed as army officers, the home ministry sai...