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Asteroid to fly between Earth and moon
Lahore: Road accident kills brother, sister
Pakistan Railways to privatise three trains
Top US general fired from Afghan training job
Commissionerate system restored in Sindh
US hints it would not object to Brotherhood win in Egypt
Obama to hold White House talks with Iraqi PM
Dont kill civilians, warns Taliban chief
G-20 rejects extra help for debt-strapped Europe
Oil price slides on concerns about Europe
Dollar rises ahead of Greek confidence vote
Djokovic beats Baghdatis in Swiss Indoors quarters
Ferrer beats Davydenko in Valencia quarters
Big-serving Lisicki faces Garrigues in Bali
Motorcycling: Stoner tops Valencia practice

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That s the closest encounter by such a huge rock in 35 years. But scientists say not to worry. It won t hit. The closest approach will occur Tuesday evening Eastern time when the asteroid passes within 202,000 miles (325,000 kilometers) of Earth. Scientists have been tracking the slowly spinning asteroid since its discovery in 2005.

Lahore: Road accident kills brother, sister

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According to police, a speeding Suzuki Mehran hit the ill-fated children and their mother when they were crossing the road, killing four- year-old Manahil died on the spot while 10-year-old Abdur Rehman and their mother Nasira Bibi were injured. The injured were shifted to the nearby hospital where Abdur Rehman succumbed to his injuries. Police have registered a case and arrested car driver Mumtaz Begam.

Pakistan Railways to privatise three trains

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According to the Railway, it has received a satisfactory response from private sector to get Allama Iqbal Express, Millat Express and Farid Express on contract. Sources claim that these three trains would be handed over to private companies. Allama Iqbal Express goes from Sialkot via Lahore to Karachi, Fraid Express goes from Lahore via Pakpatan to Karachi while Millat express runs from Sargodha via Faisalabad to Karachi. Sources told that Allama Iqbal Express is expected to earn Rs 200,000 per day while Farid and Millat express are expected to fetch Rs 700,000 each per day. Pakistan Railways will provide engines, track and bogies, while the rest of the arrangements will be the responsibility of the private stakeholders.

Top US general fired from Afghan training job

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The top US commander in Afghanistan has fired a senior officer from his job as the No. 2 general in charge of training for making inappropriate public remarks about Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his government. Gen. John Allen issued a statement Friday saying that Maj. Gen. Peter Fuller has been relieved of his duties as deputy commander for the Afghan training mission. In a recent interview with the website Politico, Fuller characterized Afghan leaders as erratic, ungrateful and isolated from reality. The interview quotes him as saying Afghan leaders do not recognize fully America s sacrifices on their country s behalf. Referring to President Hamid Karzai s recent remarks that Afghanistan would side with Pakistan if Pakistan should go to war with the United States, Fuller was quoted as calling the comments "erratic," adding, "Why don t you just poke me in the eye with a needle You ve got to be kidding me. I m sorry, we just gave you $11.6 billion and now you re telling me, I don t really care?" Fuller said the Afghans have at times made unreasonable requests for US assistance. "You can teach a man how to fish, or you can give them a fish," Fuller was quoted as saying. "We re giving them fish while they re learning, and they want more fish (They say) I like swordfish, how come you re giving me cod? Guess what? Cod s on the menu today." Fuller also said the Afghans do not understand the extent to which America is in economic distress, or the "sacrifices that America is making to provide for their security." He said the Afghans are "isolated from reality." Allen said the unfortunate comments do not represent the solid US relationship with the Afghan government. "The Afghan people are an honorable people, and comments such as these will not keep us from accomplishing our most critical and shared mission: bringing about a stable, peaceful and prosperous Afghanistan," Allen said. There was no indication whether Fuller will be reassigned or if he would retire. Pentagon press secretary George Little said Defense Secretary Leon Panetta was aware of Fuller s remarks. Little said Panetta has full confidence in Allen s judgment with respect to his decision in this case. Fuller was commissioned a second lieutenant in 1980 after graduating from the University of Vermont with a bachelor of arts in history and political science. He also holds a master s degree in public administration from Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania.

Commissionerate system restored in Sindh

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According to details Sindh reverted to the commissionerate system of 1979 after the local government ordinance lapsed as Pakistan People’s Party and Muttahida Qaumi Movement were unable to reach consensus over Local Government System. With return of the commissionerate system, five old divisions of Sindh and their districts have been retored. According to sources, DCO Roshan Ali Shaikh will take the office of commissioner in Karachi, Ahmad Buksh Nareejo will become commissioner of Hyderabad, Ghulam Hussain Memon Mirpur Khas, Inamullah Dgareejo Sukkur and Aleem Lashari will take the office of commissioner Larkana. Meanwhile, Khanur Khan will be DC Karachi West, Shaukat Jokhiyo DC Malir, Mustafa Jamal Qazi DC Karachi South and Matanat Ali Khan will become DC Karachi Central. The notification in this regard has not been issued yet. With return of the commissionerate system all district councilors, municipal committees and town committees have been retored.

US hints it would not object to Brotherhood win in Egypt

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The newly-appointed special coordinator for Middle East transitions, William Taylor, said that US will be satisfied if the Brotherhood party comes out ahead in a free and fair elections starting this month. "What we need to do is judge people and parties and movements on what they do, not what they re called," Taylor told a forum at the Atlantic Council, a Washington think-tank. In June Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Washington had been in "limited contacts" with the Muslim Brotherhood as part of an effort to adjust to Egypt s political upheaval. But the talks drew ire from some Republican US lawmakers who expressed concern that the Brotherhood would seek to establish Muslim Sharia law in Egypt and North Africa. The region has seen unprecedented change this year in the "Arab spring" movement, notably in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia where longstanding dictatorships were toppled, in large part by people s revolutions. "These revolutions, this movement toward democracy has the ability to repudiate the terrorist narrative," Taylor said. But Cairo was plunged into turmoil this week when the military-controlled transitional government announced plans to take greater control of the formation of a new Egyptian constitution. "I do see it as a problem," Taylor, who visited Cairo last week and met with several military leaders, warned about a possible renewed military power grab in Egypt, adding that such a move would "lead to a bad place -- authoritarian again." Egypt s powerful Muslim Brotherhood and other smaller Islamist parties threatened to bring a million protesters into the streets in opposition of the plan. Taylor said that while he did not meet Muslim Brotherhood officials in Cairo, "I would have," given the opportunity.

Obama to hold White House talks with Iraqi PM

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US President Barack Obama will meet with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki at the White House on December 12, just days before all US troops are due out of Iraq, a US official said Friday. "The two leaders will hold talks on deepening the comprehensive strategic partnership between the United States and Iraq," White House spokesman Jay Carney said in a statement. "The president honors the sacrifices and achievements of all those who have served in Iraq, and of the Iraqi people, to reach this moment full of promise for an enduring US-Iraq friendship," he added. Obama said on October 21 that all American troops will leave Iraq by the end of the year, ending the long war which followed the 2003 invasion ordered by his predecessor, then president George W. Bush. Under a 2008 security pact, the United States must pull out all troops by the end of the year. But negotiations for a possibly smaller post-2011 force of a few thousand faltered over the question of legal immunity for US soldiers. A US general said Thursday the "vast majority" of remaining US troops in Iraq would be out by mid-December as the withdrawal picks up pace. Less than 34,000 troops remain in Iraq after reaching a peak of 170,000 in 2007 during a buildup ordered by 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.

Dont kill civilians, warns Taliban chief

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Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Omar urged his fighters to avoid civilian casualties amid a rising toll of insurgent killing in a message released on the Taliban s website Friday. Omar was also quoted as saying he believed conflicts such as the decade-long Afghan war were resolved by "realisation and understanding," while again urging the immediate withdrawal of all foreign troops from Afghanistan. The United States and other nations fighting the war say combat operations will not cease until the end of 2014, and a substantial training and mentoring mission for Afghan forces will remain after that. "Do not wrongly pester and daunt anyone by the barrel of the gun," the English language statement in Omar s name said. "The mujahedeen have to take every step to protect the lives and wealth of ordinary people." The statement, issued to mark Eid al-Adha or the Feast of Sacrifice, warned of punishments under Islamic sharia law for fighters responsible for civilian deaths. The United Nations says the number of civilians killed in the Afghanistan war in the first half of this year rose 15 percent to 1,462, with insurgents behind 80 percent.

G-20 rejects extra help for debt-strapped Europe

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It took a public berating of Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, and Greece s politics are in upheaval as a result, but the shaky bailout plan appears back on track for now. Investors had been hoping the Group of 20 nations would lend the struggling eurozone a helping hand but the G-20 leaders said Europe needs to help itself first. They said the International Monetary Fund could be beefed up to help more, but not for at least three more months. The debt crisis that rocked the 17-nation currency union for the past two years has reached a new high and now threatens to push the world economy into a second recession. Despite the political firepower at the summit which included the leaders of Europe, China, Russia, Brazil, India and the United States, among others meeting was overshadowed by political turmoil in Greece and worries about Italy, which accepted IMF supervision of its reform efforts. The IMF move was a highly unusual intervention into the affairs of one of the world s leading economies. Europe s own rescue efforts, cobbled together at several crisis meetings last week, left open many important questions, making cash-rich countries like China, Russia or Brazil reluctant to commit more than just words. The lack of detail disappointed markets, with stocks, bonds and the euro falling. Italy s borrowing rates, in particular, hit worrying new highs. With their own finances already stretched from bailing out Greece, Ireland and Portugal and traditional allies like the United States wrestling with their own problems eurozone countries were looking to the IMF to use its financial reserves and rescue experience to help prevent the debt crisis from spreading to its larger economies, such as Italy and Spain. The most likely way the eurozone could still get additional financing is through a special account under the auspices of the IMF, into which individual countries could make payments. Those investments in turn could then be used to boost the currency union s own bailout fund, the €440 billion ($606 billion) European Financial Stability Facility. But German Chancellor Angela Merkel and IMF chief Christine Lagarde both said that at the two-day meeting not a single country made a firm commitment that it would participate. The broader increase of the IMF s resources, which also remained vague, is designed to help countries around the world, not just the eurozone.

Oil price slides on concerns about Europe

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Oil prices slipped Friday after world leaders disagreed on further steps to deal with the European financial crisis. Benchmark crude fell 40 cents to $93.67 per barrel in midday trading in New York. In London, Brent crude rose 30 cents to $111.13 a barrel. Prices fell after leaders of the world s 20 most powerful economies, meeting in Cannes, France, failed to find ways to strengthen the International Monetary Fund. The IMF is expected to be the lender of last resort for Greece and other European nations. Greece is battling massive government debts, and investors fear a default could lead to bank failures across the continent. European leaders are trying to keep Greece s financial troubles from destabilizing the eurozone, but it s unclear whether Greece will follow through with a debt reduction plan that was hammered out last month. Analysts expect eurozone businesses to spend less and the European economy to slow. That will not only cut energy consumption in Europe, it ll shrink energy demand in China and other nations that export consumer goods. "If their economy is in a shambles, then Chinese manufacturing is going to be hit," PFGBest analyst Phil Flynn said. "And that really affects oil demand." China, the world s second-largest oil consumer behind the US, is expected to drive world oil demand growth in coming years. Meanwhile there was some encouraging news in the US, where the economy added 80,000 jobs in October and the unemployment rate fell to 9 percent. In other energy trading in New York, heating oil rose 3 cents to $3.0633 per gallon, and gasoline futures rose 2 cents to $2.6590 per gallon. Natural gas rose 5 cents to $3.83 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Dollar rises ahead of Greek confidence vote

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Turmoil in Greece that could jeopardize Europe s plans for containing its debt crisis also drove the dollar higher. Traders are watching a critical confidence vote taking place Friday for Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou that could determine whether he stays in office. The country s uncertain political future could delay Europe s debt plan and may force Greece into a disorderly default that could hurt the global economy. Papandreou is fighting for his job after his surprise announcement earlier this week that he would put the latest European debt deal to a public vote. He scrapped that plan Thursday following fierce opposition from other European leaders. The euro fell to $1.3749 as of 1 p.m. (1700 GMT), compared with $1.3834 late Thursday. The British pound fell to $1.5970 from $1.6041. In the US, a report that the economy added jobs in October eased fears of a new recession and helped strengthen the dollar. The Labor Department said 80,000 jobs were added in October. The unemployment rate fell to 9 percent from 9.1 percent. The government also said 102,000 more jobs were added in August and September than first reported. "The sharp upward revisions to the September and August reports was what made investors so enthusiastic," said Kathy Lien, director of research at GFT. In other trading, the dollar rose to 78.24 Japanese yen from 78.09 yen, to 0.8884 Swiss franc from 0.8784 Swiss franc and to 1.0192 Canadian dollar from 1.0079 Canadian dollar.

Djokovic beats Baghdatis in Swiss Indoors quarters

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Novak Djokovic fought back from losing the first set to beat Marcos Baghdatis 2-6, 6-2, 6-3 in the Swiss Indoors quarterfinals on Friday. The top-ranked Djokovic had his serve broken twice early on before recovering to seal a victory that took his record against Baghdatis to 6-0, and raised his 2011 record to 67-3. The US Open, Wimbledon and Australian Open champion will play 32nd-ranked Kei Nishikori of Japan in Saturday s semifinals. Nishikori beat Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan, 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 in a match that featured 13 breaks of serve. Djokovic came to Basel having not played since Sept. 18, and was pushed to three sets for the second time in three matches. "It s nothing I didn t expect, but I m winning matches and that is what matters most," Djokovic said. The 59th-ranked Baghdatis broke the top-seeded Serb s serve, and struck six aces in dominating the first set. Djokovic broke through for a 4-2 lead in the second after the Cypriot double-faulted. Djokovic commanded the rest of the match, sealing victory in exactly one hour less than Nishikori s two-hour, 39-minute effort. Neither Nishikori nor 113th-ranked Kukushkin could land half of their first serves, however the 21-year-old Japanese took his first match-point chance with just his second ace. With his three victories in Basel, Nishikori will rise to a career-best ranking and highest by a Japanese man. He had been No. 30 after reaching the Shanghai Masters semifinals last month.

Ferrer beats Davydenko in Valencia quarters

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The defending champion used a combination of speed and deep ground strokes to force Davydenko into costly errors throughout. Ferrer won the first set as Davydenko struggled with his serve early, committing four double faults and repeatedly volleying long. Ferrer broke the former world No. 3 in the fifth game of the second set before saving a late break point to ensure the victory on the indoor hard court. Ferrer will face the winner of the quarterfinal between Juan Carlos Ferrero and Juan Monaco in Friday s late match. Earlier, Spaniard Marcel Granollers beat third-seeded Gael Monfils 7-6 (12), 3-6, 6-4 and will play sixth seed Juan Martin del Potro in the other semifinal. Granollers, last year s runner-up to Ferrer, saved four set points in the first-set tiebreaker. Monfils rallied to claim the second set, but Granollers took the match in two hours and 26 minutes when the Frenchman struggled with his serve late and sent his final forehand wide. Monfils  early exit means he will have to win the Paris Masters to have a shot at qualifying for the ATP World Tour Finals. Del Potro increased his chances of making the season-ending event in London by beating Sam Querrey of the United States 6-2, 7-5. The five players ahead of Del Potro dueling for the final three places have either lost or withdrawn from their matches this week. Del Potro dominated the first set and broke Querrey late in the second before winning the last game to love with his seventh ace of the match.

Big-serving Lisicki faces Garrigues in Bali

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Germany s Sabine Lisicki and Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain will face off in the semi-finals at the Commonwealth Bank Tournament of Champions on Saturday in Bali. Serbia s Ana Ivanovic will play Russian Nadia Petrova in the other semi-final tie in Nusa Dua. The powerful Lisicki served five aces as she saw off Slovakia s Daniela Hantuchova on Friday including one serve that was clocked at 203 kilometres (120 miles) an hour. "It s nice when you hit over 200," the German said. "I was just fighting each and every point and enjoying myself. The crowd was very supportive. I m glad to be back." In the first match of the evening, Garrigues emerged after France s Marion Bartoli retired with an achilles injury in the third set. Bartoli won the first set 6-4, and the second went to a nail-biting tie-breaker, with Bartoli failing to win several match points before she succumbed to injury.

Motorcycling: Stoner tops Valencia practice

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Australia s freshly crowned world champion Casey Stoner topped the times in the first two free practice sessions on Friday ahead of Sunday s season-closing Valencia MotoGP. The Honda rider set the early benchmark with a time of 1min 45.513sec, with team-mate Dani Pedrosa 0.223sec back in second and multiple former champion Valentino Rossi s Ducati in third at 0.315sec. In Moto2, Germany s Stefan Bradl is poised to take the 2011 title as Spaniard Marc Marquez, the only rider close enough in the standings to deny him the championship, is likely to miss the race. Marquez has suffered from vision problems since falling in testing for last month s Malaysia GP and sat out Friday s rain-hit practice. Sunday s race is being staged in the shadow of Italian former Moto2 champion Marco Simoncelli s death a fortnight ago in Sepang.

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Friday 4 November 2011

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