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Kabaddi World Cup: US beat Pakistan 41-39
Civil Aviation CBA union banned, offices closed
US hails Pakistan move to normalize trade with India
Syria troops kill 20 despite peace deal
11 killed in attacks on Iraq security forces
Most US troops out of Iraq by mid-December: general
UK soldier killed in southern Afghanistan
Palestinians urge UN action against Israel
Storm kills 11 in Oman
Djokovic powers up his game with quick Basel win
Ivanovic, Petrova through to Bali semifinals
Querrey beats Tsonga to reach Valencia quarters
Golf: Bayron leads by three in Malaysia
Squash: David earns shot at revenge
Imran pained at jail sentence for Pak cricketers

Kabaddi World Cup: US beat Pakistan 41-39

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Pakistan kabaddi team suffered a loss against United States in their opening match of Kabaddi World Cup in Ludhiana. The American team won the match by 41-39. Pakistan will face Sri Lanka in their next match on November 9.

Civil Aviation CBA union banned, offices closed

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The ban was carried out on the orders of Director General Civil Aviation Authority Air Marshal Khalid Chaudhary. The DG has also directed all airports managers to close the offices of CBA union. The CBA Union’s head office at Allama Iqbal International Airport has also been sealed in this regard. The DG has also ordered to take all immunities back from the CBA union members, and ordered them to join their duties from Friday. The CBA union and CAA employees have been on protest for last two days for acceptance of their demands.

US hails Pakistan move to normalize trade with India

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The United States on Thursday hailed a move by Pakistan toward normalizing trade relations with India, saying it is a "very, very big deal" that could open up great economic opportunities. Pakistani Information Minister Firdous Ashiq Awan said in Islamabad on Wednesday that the federal cabinet had unanimously approved India as a most-favored nation (MFN). However, US officials said they understood that the Pakistani cabinet had approved a negotiated path to reach MFN -- a move they still described as a major development. "We don t yet have most-favored nation status," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters. "We have a decision unanimously approved by the Pakistani cabinet to open a path for full normalization of trade relations with India" as the commerce ministers of both countries agreed in Delhi in September, Nuland said. "This is a very, very big deal, very important, could lead to really great economic opportunities for both India and Pakistan," Nuland said. It "sets the kind of example" that other countries in South and Central Asia should follow toward building an integrated regional economy that Washington has pushed under its "New Silk Road" project, she said. Washington has sought to put Afghanistan at the center of such a project in a bid to ensure the war-torn nation becomes peaceful and prosperous in the long term. "We would like to see the opening of trade relations because this will bring prosperity to everybody, break down old barriers," Nuland said. "We really applaud Pakistan and India for taking this concrete step to improve their relations. It s the most tangible thing that they ve done yet," she said. "And our hope is that the process of normalization in both directions, including getting eventually to full MFN, continues and that there is a reduction in non-tariff barriers by India," she added. The United States has long sought to defuse tensions between India and Pakistan, both nuclear armed nations that have fought three wars since independence from Britain in 1947.

Syria troops kill 20 despite peace deal

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Syrian troops killed 20 civilians and arrested dozens on Thursday, a rights watchdog said, a day after Damascus pledged to withdraw its forces from protest hubs under a deal with the Arab League to end months of bloodshed. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the victims fell in various neighbourhoods of the flashpoint protest city of Homs, in central Syria, where government forces reportedly used heavy tank-mounted machineguns. As activists called for mass demonstrations on Friday to test the government s commitment to the peace blueprint, the largest opposition group held talks in Cairo with Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi to voice its concerns. "We told the secretary general of our fears that the regime will not keep its promises," said Samir al-Nashar, a member of the opposition Syrian National Council. Arabi briefed them on the peace plan, which also calls on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to engage in a national dialogue with his opponents, said Nashar, adding that the SNC does not want talks but for Assad to quit. "We are not talking about a dialogue. We offered to engage in negotiations to move from a authoritarian regime to a democratic regime. And we ask that Bashar al-Assad resign." The SNC is the largest and most representative Syrian opposition grouping. On Wednesday it urged the Arab League to freeze Syria s membership in the 22-strong organisation and recognise it as the sole representative of the opposition. Assad s opponents are sceptical about the regime s readiness to rein in a brutal crackdown that the United Nations says has cost more than 3,000 lives since mid-March. London and Washington said that despite Damascus s agreement to the Arab League plan after weeks of prevarication, they still believed Assad must heed the demands of anti-government protesters and step down. Hours after Syria agreed to the Arab plan its security forces pressed on with the crackdown. Twenty people were killed in several flashpoint neighbourhoods of Homs, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, after an earlier toll spoke of nine dead. Gunfire continued to explode across the city, which was pounded during the day with heavy machineguns mounted on tanks, according to activists. Security forces also arrested "more than 80 people at dawn in Deir Ezzor (eastern Syria) and neighbouring districts," the statement added. Under the hard-won deal announced at Arab League headquarters in Cairo on Wednesday, the Syrian government pledged to remove troops from all protest centres although no timetable is given. Damascus also agreed to release people arrested since the anti-regime protests erupted in mid-March and to engage in a national dialogue with the opposition.

11 killed in attacks on Iraq security forces

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The attacks come amid fears that security may worsen after the departure of US forces from Iraq. The roughly 34,000 American soldiers still in the country are to leave by year s end. Two roadside bombs exploded near a police special forces checkpoint in the Karrada district of central Baghdad about 6:45 pm (1545 GMT), killing five people, including four police, and wounding 10 others, among them five police, an interior ministry official said on condition of anonymity. A medical source at Ibn Nafis hospital in Karrada meanwhile said it had received the bodies of three people killed and seven people who were wounded in the bombings. On Thursday morning, a suicide bomber and a car bomb targeted anti-Qaeda militiamen near Baquba, north of Baghdad, killing five people and wounding 26, an army officer and a doctor said. The suicide bomber detonated his explosives about 9:15 am (0615 GMT), as Sahwa (Awakening) militiamen gathered near an Iraqi army base to pick up their salaries, a colonel in the Baquba operations command said. A car bomb exploded about 10 minutes later in a nearby parking area as emergency workers arrived at the scene, said the colonel. The attacks killed four Sahwa members and a soldier, and wounded 26 other people -- four ambulance drivers, six civil defence employees and 16 Sahwa members, the officer said. Dr Firas al-Dulaimi of Baquba General Hospital gave the same toll, saying the hospital had received the bodies of three people killed and admitted 28 wounded from the attacks. Two of the wounded later died. The Sahwa are made up of Sunni tribesmen who joined forces with the US military against Al-Qaeda from late 2006, helping turn the tide of the insurgency. Also on Thursday, a policeman was shot dead by unknown gunmen at his home in Mosul in north Iraq, while two other police were wounded by a roadside bomb that targeted their patrol in the city, a police lieutenant said. Violence has declined nationwide since its peak in 2006 and 2007, but attacks remain common. A total of 258 people were killed in October, according to official figures.

Most US troops out of Iraq by mid-December: general

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The "vast majority" of remaining US troops in Iraq will be out by mid-December as the American military s withdrawal picks up pace, a US general said Thursday. Less than 34,000 troops remain in Iraq after reaching a peak of 170,000 in 2007 during a buildup ordered by former president George W. Bush, said Major General Thomas Spoehr, deputy commanding general for the US force in Iraq. "As I look at the plan, I think it s clear to me that by the time we get to about mid-December or so, the vast majority of the US forces in Iraq -- we plan to have them withdrawn from Iraq by that time," he said via video link from Baghdad. Under a 2008 security pact, the United States has to pull out all troops by the end of the year. Negotiations for a possibly smaller post-2011 force of a few thousand faltered over the question of legal immunity for American soldiers. The withdrawal of troops and equipment represented an "immense" logistical effort, with about 1,650 trucks traveling up and down the country on any given day, Spoehr told reporters. The general compared the undertaking to the famed "Red Ball Express" during World War II, when allied forces rushed supplies by truck to combat troops advancing toward Germany after the D-Day landing. "I will tell you that right now, as we sit here, we are deep in the midst of this. So there are trucks and planes and people moving very quickly at a high rate of speed throughout Iraq to execute our commitments," Spoehr said. But he added that the withdrawal would be carried out in a "measured way" to guard against potential insurgent attacks as the troops depart. US officers have therefore decided not to divulge details of the planned withdrawal as information released previously about base closures appeared to have prompted attacks, according to Spoehr. US forces, which once operated out of 505 bases during the height of the "surge" of additional troops in 2007, now have only 12 bases left in the country. Most troops will be leaving by air with truck convoys carrying equipment to neighboring Kuwait.

UK soldier killed in southern Afghanistan

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A British soldier has been killed in an insurgent attack in southern Afghanistan. Britain s defense ministry says a soldier from the 2nd Battalion the Mercian Regiment was shot dead while on patrol in the Nahr-e Saraj district of Afghanistan s Helmand Province. It did not name the soldier but said Wednesday his family has been informed. The ministry said the death brings to 384 the number of British military personnel who have died while serving in Afghanistan since the start of operations there in October 2001.

Palestinians urge UN action against Israel

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The Palestinians urged the UN Security Council on Thursday to take action against Israel for accelerating settlement construction and "illegally hijacking" Palestinian tax revenue in retaliation for their new membership in UNESCO. Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian UN observer, warned that if Israel s actions aren t stopped immediately, the volatile region might see further "escalations and provocations." Palestine won its first major international endorsement on Monday when the Paris-based United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization voted to grant it full membership, a decision that immediately led to a cutoff in funding from the United States and Canada. Israel retaliated by announcing construction of 2,000 new apartments in east Jerusalem, where the Palestinians want their capital, and temporarily suspending the transfer of millions of dollars in Palestinian tax revenue that it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority. "The bottom line is we want the Security Council to react to this latest escalation and provocation with a view of stopping it and containing it," Mansour said, adding that it would welcome a council statement or resolution. The UNESCO vote came as the Security Council is considering an application for full UN membership by the Palestinians. The council s committee on admissions was meeting Thursday afternoon to record positions of the 15 members so that a report can be prepared for consideration by the committee on Nov. 11.

Storm kills 11 in Oman

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Eleven people, including two children, have been killed in flash floods caused by heavy rains that have hit Oman over the past three days, the Arabian Peninsula state s police announced on Thursday. "Eleven people died in several of the sultanate s provinces when their vehicles were swept by heavy rains as they drove through valleys," state police said. Five bodies, including those of a six-year-old and a 10-year-old, were found on Thursday. One body was found on Wednesday while the remaining five were recovered Tuesday, when the storm began. The police issued a warning urging "maximum caution," as heavy rainfall continued Thursday over the southern city of Sadh, where the storm had destroyed some houses, boats and cars. In June 2010, 16 people were killed when a Cyclone Phet hit the Gulf state. In 2007, Cyclone Gonu tore through Oman, killing at least 49 people and causing damage estimated at $3.9 billion.

Djokovic powers up his game with quick Basel win

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Novak Djokovic crushed Lukasz Kubot 6-2, 6-4 as the top seed at the Swiss Indoors showed on Thursday that his untouchable form is rapidly returning after six weeks out with injury. Djokovic, who had to struggle in his opening match over three sets, was absolutely untroubled by the Polish qualifier ranked 64th in the world, going through to the quarter-finals in just 54 minutes. "Today was a really comfortable match," said the world number one. "I felt good on court. I m happy to be playing better. "This was the goal, I expected that I would struggle with rhythm after not playing for six weeks. But I have no complaints with my game. "It was a good performance and I ll try to do better tomorrow." Champion in 2009 and a losing finalist against Roger Federer in 2010, Djokovic will now face in-form Florian Mayer, who followed up a third-round upset of Rafael Nadal in Shanghai with a 6-3, 6-1 defeat of Ivan Ljubicic. "I m surprised by this win, but I have so much confidence from beating Nadal. I know on my best game I can defeat anyone," said the 22nd-ranked Mayer. Djokovic lifted his impressive 2011 record to 66 wins and three defeats as he won again after overcoming a back injury that he called the worst of his career. "I m not 100 percent and to be honest I don t expect to get there this week, I would be surprised if I did. I only started serving a few days before my first match and I could tell I was lacking rhythm on second serve. But it was getting better today. "I need to stay positive and increase the rhythm and intensity of each match." Japan s Kei Nishikori continued his Shanghai momentum after a run to the semifinals in China. The 21-year-old, who stands as Asia s best-ranked player with a 32nd ranking, easily overcame Italian Andreas Seppi 6-3, 7-6 (7/4). The week ended early for American James Blake, with the 31-year-old exiting at the hands of Mikhail Kukushkin 6-3, 6-4.

Ivanovic, Petrova through to Bali semifinals

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Defending champion Ana Ivanovic of Serbia set up a semifinal against Nadia Petrova of Russia after winning her opening match at the Tournament of Champions on Thursday. Ivanovic beat fourth-seeded Roberta Vinci of Italy 6-3, 6-3. Earlier, Petrova knocked out second-seeded Peng Shuai of China 6-4, 6-3. Both winning players needed treatment as they embarked on the last tournament on the WTA calendar. Ivanovic had a foot problem, while Petrova s neck was hurting. "It was a bit sore, but actually when I was moving it was feeling better," Ivanovic said. "Every time I would sit and then stand up from the bench, that s when it was the sorest." Ivanovic made a fast start, jumping out to a 4-0 lead, and though Vinci managed to get back to 4-2, the Serbian put away the first set with a powerful forehand. The former French Open champion broke three times in the second set to claim victory in 1 hour, 10 minutes. Ivanovic was given one of two wild cards for the tournament, which also features the six highest-ranked players who have won a title during the season but did not qualify for the WTA Championships. Peng was given the other but fell in the opening round to Petrova, who lost her serve four times in the match but managed to break seven times. The 25-year-old Peng had won both her previous matches against Petrova this year in three sets.

Querrey beats Tsonga to reach Valencia quarters

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The American player secured his first back-to-back ATP match wins since June to leave Tsonga relying on his performance at next week s Paris Masters to clinch one of the final three places for the season-ending event in London. Tsonga would have moved up one spot to No. 6 with a win over Querrey at the City of Arts and Sciences, but his serve deserted him in the second set as the 116th-ranked American broke twice to reach the quarterfinals. Juan Monaco won his second-round match 6-3, 6-1 over Fabio Fognini, while 2010 finalist Marcel Granollers also reached the last eight.

Golf: Bayron leads by three in Malaysia

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Jay Bayron tamed a tough back nine as his rivals faltered to lead by three shots after a first round five-under-par 65 at the $60,000 Sabah Masters on Thursday. Bayron, who boasts a string of high finishes on this year s ASEAN PGA Tour, tops the leaderboard ahead of Filipino compatriot Anthony Fernando and Thailand s Tanatchan Puaktes. Marlon Dizon of the Philippines is a stroke further back. The pre-tournament favourites are all in the hunt with Malaysian Nicholas Fung and his countrymen S. Sivachandran and Airil Rizman carding 70s. Indonesia s top golfer Rory Hie shot a 71. Thailand s Wisut Artjanawat, winner of last month s Palembang Musi Championship, returned a 72 at Sutera Harbour Golf & Country Club. "I don t know how I did it but I played the back nine in four under without any bogeys. It is a really tough back nine. The par-four 18th is 499 yards." said Bayron, yet to taste victory on the ASEAN PGA Tour. "I am not stressed about not having won yet. I just need to stay patient," added the 32-year-old, who sunk six birdies and dropped one shot.

Squash: David earns shot at revenge

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World champion Nicol David earned a chance of potential revenge when she reached the quarter-finals of the World Open in defence of her title here on Thursday. David s 11-7, 11-6, 11-7 win over Nour El Sherbini, the 16-year-old world junior champion, brings a repeat encounter with Kasey Brown, the much improved sixth-seeded Australian who beat her at the US Open in Philadelphia in August. The Amsterdam-based Malaysian won with an impressively creative display, showing how she has added stroke-playing ability, especially with volleys and tight drops, to her supremely athletic game. Earlier, Brown also beat a developing young Egyptian as she earned her chance to beat David again. But her victory over Raneem El Weleilly, the 22-year-old former world junior champion, was a difficult test of her temperament as the match went the full distance. Brown s ability to apply pressure by taking the ball early and recovering fast to the central court position only just prevailed, in an excellent contrast of styles, by  4-11, 11-7, 11-4, 6-11, 11-8. El Weleilly s ability to conjure magical winners threatened to turn the match around when she came from 2-9 to 8-9 in the decider, until Brown suddenly killed off the revival. She did that with a perfectly weighted return of serve, which was boasted off the side wall for a clean winner, and then with a forehand drive that died on a perfect length. "I was trying to push forward and not let her into it, but some of the time it was getting a bit nervy there," said Brown. "I have had a good run since the US Open, and I have to thank my coach Rodney Martin a lot for that. So I feel ready to play Nicol again."

Imran pained at jail sentence for Pak cricketers

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Former Pakistan captain Imran Khan on Thursday said he was pained to hear that three of the country s cricketers were being jailed for fixing parts of a Test match against England. Pakistan former Test captain Salman Butt, 27, received 30 months, fast bowler Mohammad Asif, 28, received one year in jail and 19-year-old Mohammad Aamer was jailed for six months. Butt and Asif were found guilty on Tuesday of deliberately bowling three no-balls during the Lord s Test in August 2010 as part of a "spot-fixing" betting scam uncovered by Rupert Murdoch s now-defunct News of the World. Aamer and players s agent Mazhar Majeed, sent down for 32 months, had already pleaded guilty to involvement in the scam. "It is painful to listen (to) the news as a former Pakistan cricketer and I feel really sorry for their families," Khan, who was on a political meeting to the United Arab Emirates said. "In a way I also feel sorry for these cricketers because they are from Pakistan where there are massive corruption cases against president (Asif Zardari) and they must have thought crime pays," said Khan, who now heads his political party -- Tehrik-e-Insaaf (Movement for Justice). "The verdict is a wake-up call for Pakistan cricket and from now on we should be ultra careful and, like we did in the past, should never allow the corruption to set in," said Khan, who led Pakistan to their only World Cup win in 1992. Khan criticised the previous cricket boards for sweeping the matter under the carpet. "We should not hide behind the justification that it (fixing) happens in international cricket. It does happen, but Pakistan should set its house in order first and anyone involved should be punished," said Khan. "I always felt sorry for Aamer," said Khan, himself a fast bowler. "He may have been influenced by the atmosphere around him, secondly he was the best young fast bowler and for the fact that he came out with a confession," said Khan.

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Thursday 3 November 2011

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