Tribal elders in a Pakistani village where a suicide car bomber killed nearly 100 people insisted Saturday that residents will keep defying the Taliban, even as the bloodshed laid bare the risks facing the citizens’ militias that make up a key piece of Pakistan’s arsenal against extremism.
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LAHORE
THE Punjab University (PU) administration has unearthed a financial scam in which over Rs 6 million were paid as ?advance? to some teach
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Pakistan News
ISLAMABAD: The record of making the highest score at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) has been held by India.
As per details, India set this record in 2004 when they made 705 runs for the loss of seven wickets in the first innings of the Sydney Test against Australia.
In this innings, Little Master Sachin Tendulkar remained not out on 241 while VVS Laxman scored 178.
The second highest score at the SCG was made by Australia, who scored 659-8 against England in 1946.
Pakistan?s highest score at this ground is 360 which was made twice ? first in 1973 and later in 1977 ? against Australia.
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LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-N Chief Nawaz Sharif Saturday urged the people to stand together against corruption and inaction just like they did before for becoming an atomic power and restoration of judiciary.
He expressed these views during the meeting of provincial organizing committee in Lahore.
?Democracy and inaction cannot work hand in hand nor any civilized and democratic society pardons an act of corruption,? Nawaz Sharif asserted, adding ?the need of the hour is that the government should take up the challenges with due solemnity.?
He said the internal and external enemies have caused massive damage to the country.
The PML-N chief also called for accountability of those who got their loans waived as well as the ?murderers? of Akbar Bugti.
He stressed that the country?s affairs be carried out not by a single person but with mutual consultation.
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ISLAMABAD: Ten of the power generation units of Tarbela Power House have been shut down due to shortage of water while 380 megawatts are being generated with the help of 4 units.
According to WAPDA sources, 10 out of 14 power generation units of Tarbela Power House had to be closed down due to rainless season and shortage of water in River Indus.
Only four units are operating at the moment, producing 380 MW electricity.
The total power generation capacity of Tarbela Power House is 3,478 MW.
The shutting down of 10 power generation units will cause a major power crisis. Karachi, Faisalabad, Multan, Lahore and areas adjacent to Tarbela Power House will be directly affected by the power crisis.
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Pakistan laid on heavy security on Saturday for a boxing tournament, the country’s first international sporting event since militants attacked the Sri Lanka cricket team’s bus last March.
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The death toll in a volleyball game attack in northwest Pakistan Friday has topped 90. The government may face increased pressure to target militants who slipped out of South Waziristan, where the government has conducted an offensive, and north into neighboring areas.
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Pakistan News
DHAKA: The 15-man Indian team arrived here on Saturday to participate in the three-nation cricket tournament in Bangladesh.
Captain Mahindra Singh Dhoni said that he would try new players in the tournament.
Besides hosts Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka will take part in the three-nation tournament beginning from January 4.
India?s world record holder Sachin Tendulkar is not in the team as he withdrew himself from the event, for taking a rest.
Dhoni said that he would try new players to introduce the new talent at national level.
Regarding Tendulkar, he said that he is the asset for the team but he would avail chance for doing new experiences in Tendulkar?s absence.
Dhoni said that indeed the new players would be provided chance but winning the tournament would be his top priority.
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QUETTA: Nine miners were killed as a result of explosion occurred after gas filled the space in the coal mine in Marwar coal field some 80 kilometers from Quetta.
According to rescue sources, the dam fire gas entered one of the coal mines in Marwar coal field causing the blast and killing 9 miners and injuring several others.
The blast was so powerful that it destroyed the equipment placed outside the mine, eyewitnesses said.
The bodies and injured were taken to nearby hospital.
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PARIS (by Raza Chaudhry): UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador Madanjeet Singhhase has thanked “Jang Group” for publishing analysis report at the start of the New Year on Pak-India relations as part of ?aman ki asha? ? Jang Group?s joint initiative with the Times of India for peace between the two nations.
?May I wish you and your families a very happy New Year 2010, with the message contained in my two interrelated articles in The Hindu: ?The economic dimension of national security? (September 21, 2009) and ?South Asian agenda for Jammu and Kashmir? (December 29, 2009),? Madanjeet Sainghhase said.
In the first piece the focus is on transport infrastructure and a common currency for South Asia that, like the euro, would become the anchor of economic and political stability and incrementally increase the trade and commerce between the SAARC countries.
Like the European Coal and Steal Community that laid the foundation of the European Union, projects such as a ?peace pipeline? of natural gas from Iran across Afghanistan and Pakistan to the Indian subcontinent, would create areas of SAARC cooperation.
In the second article, the UNESCO Goodwil Ambassador said, he has ventured to anticipate that in case the “quiet diplomacy” succeeds in making the Line of Control between India and Pakistan “just lines on a map”, it would be the first step towards applying the ?four point? solution under consideration in Kashmir, to South Asia as a whole.
Essentially my submission, especially to the young people of South Asia, is that at this critical crossroads of history they must unite and look forward towards the future of peace and progress instead of looking backward and stymied in the rut of communal divisiveness, intolerance and violence.
Skeptics may not believe, but communal fanatics can be sidelined in a secular configuration of South Asia’’s unity in diversity; the European visionaries foresaw that the Basque in Spain, the Italian Catalan, and the Irish IRA terrorists could be reduced to nonentities under the secular umbrella of the European Union.
Barely six months before the Berlin wall crumbled, I recall asking the West German Ambassador in Washington if East and West Germany would ever unite. ?Not in my lifetime!? he was convinced. But the scenario radically changed and he hosted a grand reception to celebrate the historic event. In our fast moving globalized world miracles do happen.
Hence, I am optimistic that sooner or later we in South Asia, too, shall breach the wall of distrust created by vested interests in India and Pakistan and march in step with ASEAN, African, Latin American, and Gulf countries that are already going ahead to introduce common currencies in their regions.
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