Pakistani bomb toll rises to 28

The death toll from a suicide bombing that targeted Pakistan’s top security official rose to 28, the country’s information minister said.

Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao was left spattered in blood but only slightly injured in the attack Saturday in Charsadda, a town near his home village in North West Frontier Province. No one took responsibility for the bombing, which occurred just after Mr. Sherpao completed a speech to a rally of his political supporters.

But suspicion inevitably fell on Islamist militants who have repeatedly targeted top Pakistani officials, including President Pervez Musharraf, for supporting the U.S.-led war on terror.

“It is a challenge to stop terrorism, and we are fighting it with full commitment,” Information Minister Mohammed Ali Durrani said.

Suicide bomb injures Interior Minister, kills 12 others

A suicide attacker detonated a bomb as Pakistan’s interior minister finished speaking at a meeting in the country’s northwest on Saturday, killing at least 12 people and wounding the official.

Security guards blocked the attacker as he tried to approach Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao at the public meeting in Charsadda, an intelligence official said. The attacker detonated the bomb moments later.

Pak’s first Sikh traffic warden

A 25-year-old practising homeopath has become the first Sikh to be appointed as a traffic warden in Pakistan.Gulab Singh, who hails from the holy town of Nankana Sahib, the birthplace of Guru Nanak, joined the service in the rank of a Sub Inspector on Wednesday and within two days has become a sort of local celebrity in Lahore where he is posted.

Singh, who has a doctorate in homeopathy, was flooded with greetings from a number of motorists and even children who forced their parents to stop the car so that they could meet him.

“Since Thursday, I have been getting greetings, such as ‘Sat Sri Akaal, Jo Bolay So Nihal’ and ‘Ballay, Ballay’ from car and bus drivers, motorcyclists and children. Lahoris are really very loving people and these are unforgettable moments for me,” said Gulab Singh.

Pakistan stops play satirising burqa

Irate Islamist lawmakers persuaded the Pakistan government to stop a theatre group staging a satirical play about the burqa, the all-covering head-to-toe garment worn by conservative Muslim women.

“Burqavaganza” was played earlier this month during an arts festival in Lahore, regarded as Pakistan’s cultural capital, and home to some of the most liberal and most puritanical parts of the Muslim nation’s society.

“The burqa is part of our culture. We can’t allow anyone to ridicule our culture,” Culture Minister Sayed Ghazi Gulab Jamal told the National Assembly. The minister announced that the government had barred the play, which had already ended its run in Lahore, from being performed in other Pakistani cities.

Veiled female parliamentarians and Islamist lawmakers cheered Jamal and thumped desks in approval, while trading barbs with women from both the ruling party and liberal opposition parties.

Described by critics as a romp, the play sought to highlight the impact of the veil on society, by showing how wearers use it as a way to hide what they want to keep private. In the play, young men and women wore the burqa to go out on secret dates, and it featured a character called Burqa bin Badin. The play also showed a burqa-clad married couple put to death for making love in public.

Illegally Smooched!

The infamous kiss between Hollywood star Richard Gere and actress Shilpa Shetty at a public function in Delhi earlier this month has landed the two in legal trouble.

A Jaipur court on Thursday issued arrest warrants against the duo for their public kiss, which had evoked strong protests in several cities.

At a function, held as a part of the ongoing Seena Taan Ke campaign by the Truckers Corporation of India Foundation (India’s largest surface transport organisation) to reduce unsafe sexual practices among the trucking community, Gere hugged and kissed Shilpa during the event.

The act by Gere and Shilpa hasn’t gone down well with most of the Indian audience, and they demand an apology from both the actors.

Also present on the show was Bollywood actor Sunny Deol, who joined hands with Gere and Shilpa to instill in truckers a sense of pride in their work, raise their self-esteem and encouraged them to adopt healthy behaviour.

Source: IBNLive

World Cup Final :: Australia vs Sri Lanka

History will repeat itself this Saturday when Austraila go head to head with Sri Lanka in a struggle to grab the 2007 World Cup.

Yesterday, Glenn McGrath and Shaun Tait struck it rich as Australia stormed into a fourth successive ICC CWC final with a crushing seven-wicket win over South Africa. South Africa were dismissed for 149, their lowest-ever ICC CWC total as Tait finished with 4-39 while man-of-the-match McGrath took 3-18.

Australia then raced to the target with more than 18 overs to spare despite losing Adam Gilchrist and skipper Ricky Ponting early in the innings.

Pakistan Army Revamp: Northern, Southern, Central Commands to be Setup

Pakistan is creating three new army commands to improve the operational efficiency and working of its land forces. The Northern, Southern and Central Commands that are being created will be responsible for the administrative arrangements of the corps falling under their respective commands, said a Pakistan Army official.

The official said while the establishment of the Northern and South Commands have been finalised, the Central Command would be raised shortly.

Pilot survives Pakistan military jet crash

A Pakistan Air Force (PAF) pilot survived Wednesday when his French-built Mirage fighter plane crashed in Pakistan’s central Punjab province. The pilot ejected safely when the aircraft on a routine mission went down near the town of Jhang, PAF spokesman Wing Commander Tariq Mehmood said.

Authorities have begun an inquiry into the crash that did not cause any apparent damage on the ground. It was the fourth jet fighter lost by the PAF this year, with two crashing due to technical failure and one going down after hitting a bird.

On March 13, one of the two pilots was killed when a dual cockpit F-7 plane crashed near a military airfield in the south-western city of Quetta.

Source: M&C News

First Pakistani woman conquers North Pole

Pakistani woman Namira Salim won laurels for her country when she hoisted the green-and-white Pakistani flag at the North Pole on Saturday morning.

Namira, who also awaits her space flight during the next couple of years, is the first Pakistani to reach the top of the world - the geographic North Pole.

“It is a great honour to represent my country as the first Pakistani citizen at the Geographic North Pole during the ‘International Polar Year’,” Namira said. “As I hoist the national flag at the pinnacle of our planet; I convey a universal message of peace and to assert to the global community that Pakistani nation is peace loving and tolerant nation.”

Sri Lanka in the World Cup 2007 Final!

Sri Lanka 289/5 (50 overs) // New Zealand 208/10 (41.4 overs)

SRI beat NZL by  81 runs

Hail the Sri Lanka cricketing heroes! They are in the final. Led brilliantly by Mahela Jayawardena and given 100 per cent and more by his team mates, the Lankans had New Zealand by the jogular and strangled them to defeat by 77 runs to enter the 2007 World Cup final in the semi-final at the Sabina Park in Jamaica.

Jayawardena’s superb century and unplayable spin bowling by spin sensation Muttiah Muralitharan 4 for 31, supported by Tillekeratne Dilshan 2 for 22 and Sanath Jayasuriya2 for 57 that nailed the coffin for New Zealand with the Lankans being the pall bearers.

Mahela Jayawardena was man of the match.

A magnificent unbeaten 115 by marvellous Mahela Jayawardena which was studded with 10 fours and 3 sixes in 109 balls took Sri Lanka to a massive 289 for 5 in their semi-final against New Zealand. Jayawardena started painfully and allowed the Kiwi bowling look unplayable.

Sunday & Olympus FACE of 2006 - More than a face!

We have received countless mails about the recent Sunday & Olympus FACE of 2006 contest held by Daily Times where one of the front-page models, Neha, was judged the winner.

Could someone please explain to us how come these images published by the Sunday Magazine (Daily Times) celebrate the FACE of 2006?

If nothing else, the latest photoshoot of our (navel-show-off) model, Neha, leave little to our imagination and prompts us to think if the organizers and workforce at Sunday Magazine were so drunk or high that they publicized the campaign as FACE of 2006 when it should very well have been BODY of 2006!

Perhaps, we should inquire from their Chief Editor, Mariam Mushtaq (mariam@dailytimes.com.pk) and their Fashion Editor, Moeen Pal (moeenpal@dailytimes.com.pk) as to what is the success funda behind this campaign.

Good or Bad, Acceptable or Vulgar… You decide!

All images courtesy of Sunday Magazine (Dailytimes, Pakistan)

Woman commandos prepare to storm rebel madrassas

While the Pakistan government has decided to relocate Jamia Fareedia and Jamia Hafsa madrassas, both affiliated with Islamabad’s Red Mosque (Lal Masjid), to the city’s outskirts, sources say President General Pervez Musharraf is preparing to use an all-women commando unit to break the occupation of Jamia Hafsa by armed female students. The sources say the paramilitary police had been put on standby as ministers and senior army officers worked on plans to raid the Lal Masjid and two associated madrassas — the Jamia Hafsa and the Jamia Fareedia — in the heart of the federal capital.

Pressure has been mounting on President Musharraf to move against the activists after they mounted a Taleban-style campaign to impose Shariah in Islamabad. There are believed to be 3,000 armed female students inside a children’s library and the Jamia Hafsa, and a further 5,000 armed men inside the Jamia Fareedia.

Groups of burqa-wearing female students have raided alleged brothels, video shops and barber shops, denouncing them as “un-Islamic” indicators of the country’s moral decadence under Musharraf.

Yeltsin dies of heart attack

Former president Boris Yeltsin, who brought down the Soviet Union and led Russia through a traumatic introduction to democracy and capitalism, died yesterday aged 76 of a heart attack.

Yeltsin, who had long been unwell, died at 3.45pm in Moscow. He will be buried tomorrow in Moscow, the Kremlin said.

Western leaders hailed the man who led Russia from 1991 to 1999 through an epic but chaotic struggle to shake off the legacy of totalitarian Soviet rule. But Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet president, paid a mixed tribute to his successor.

“I offer my deepest condolences to the family of a man on whose shoulders rested many great deeds for the good of the country and serious mistakes – a tragic fate,” Gorbachev said.

President Vladimir Putin immediately phoned Yeltsin’s family to offer condolences, the Kremlin said.

Source: Bahrain Tribune

AAJ TV issued notice by PEMRA

The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) has served a show-cause notice on Aaj TV, a private television channel, for airing news, talk shows and other programmes on the current judicial crisis and threatened it with closure.

The authority has also sought an explanation from the chief executive officer of the television channel in person within three days to avoid a legal action.

In a notice issued here on sunday, it said that the TV channel had violated the Pemra Ordinance in its news, talk shows and programmes on an issue pending with the Supreme Judicial Council. It also said that the channel had also failed to produce a no-objection certificate (NOC) from the external publicity wing of the ministry of information and broadcasting which was required for the processing of short-term uplinking licence.

Pemra has also warned all private TV channels not to air programmes casting aspersions on the judiciary and “integrity of the armed forces of Pakistan,” besides contents which were likely to encourage and incite violence or contained anything against maintenance of law and order or which promoted anti-national or anti-state attitudes.

Source: DAWN

Snake venom may have killed Woolmer

The former Pakistan cricket coach Bob Woolmer may have been drugged with snake venom, according to the police who are investigating his death. A friend of the family said Gill Woolmer has been informed that her husband was probably subdued by a “natural toxin” which left his body by the time of the forensic examination.

Neil Manthorp, a respected South African cricket commentator, said in the Daily Mail, an English tabloid: “I spoke to Gill and her sons Russell and Dale two days ago. The boys both said police had told their mum the toxicology results are inconclusive.”