Deposed Pakistan judge heads for protest rally :

ISLAMABAD (AFP) — Pakistan's deposed chief justice left his Islamabad home on Tuesday to join a "long march" calling for the government to reinstate him and other judges sacked by President Pervez Musharraf.
Hundreds of lawyers pumped their fists in the air and chanted "Go Musharraf go!" and "Here comes the lion!" as Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry set off for the city's airport in a convoy of vehicles, an AFP photographer witnessed.
Chaudhry, who was sacked by Musharraf under emergency rule in November, will fly to Lahore and then drive to the central city of Multan as part of a caravan of vehicles before addressing lawyers from across the country.
The lawyers are due to hold a major protest in Islamabad on Thursday.

Khan must be questioned over nuclear blueprints: ex-inspector :

WASHINGTON (AFP) — A former arms inspector said on Monday the United States and the UN atomic watchdog must be allowed to question Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan to learn if he sold blueprints for an advanced nuclear weapon to Iran or North Korea.
Khan, the father of Pakistan's atomic bomb who was placed under house arrest for overseeing a network that sold nuclear weapons' secrets and equipment, is suspected of spreading plans for an advanced nuclear warhead in a new report by former UN arms inspector David Albright.
After details of the report appeared in US newspapers, Albright said in a television interview there was a danger that Khan might be released without having to answer questions about the sensitive blueprints, which show how to build a warhead compact enough to fit on a ballistic missile.
"Khan may be released from house arrest. And we may never get to the bottom of this," Albright told CNN television.

'Musharraf should be hanged' : Nawaz Sharif :

Pakistan Muslim League-N Chief Nawaz Sharif steps up his verbal attacks against Pervez Musharraf, suggesting that he should be hanged.

"We asked you to quit with honor after the election but you didn't," Sharif told the thousands of protesting lawyers, referring to Musharraf, who overthrew him in a 1999 coup, Reuters reported."Now people have given a new judgment for you ... they want you to be held accountable," he said in the early hours of Saturday.

The crowd, officially estimated at up to 20,000, chanted "hang Musharraf" as it listened to the two time former prime minister's fiery speech."Is hanging only for politicians?" asked Sharif, referring to former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the father of Benazir, hanged by then military dictator, Zia-ul-Haq, in 1979.

China Mobile to further invest $ 800 mln in Pakistan :

BEIJING, June 19 (APP):China Mobile,

the world largest telecommunication organization will make further investment amounting to $ 800 million in Pakistan. This was stated by President of China Mobile Wang Gian Zhuo during a meeting with Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir here on Thursday.
China Mobile has already made an investment of $ 800 million in Pakistan.
Wang said that besides making further $ 800 million investment, he would also pursue many internationally acclaimed telecommunication organizations like Sony-Erricson to take part in the development of telecommunication in Pakistan.
He said the Pakistan has great deal of opportunities for Foreign Investors as it offers equal level playing fields for both foreign and domestic investors.
The President of China Mobile said that he had recently held very fruitful meeting with the Pakistani leadership and was impressed about the incentive Pakistan is offering for the Foreign Investors, particularly for Chinese Investors.

Musharraf: I will not leave Pakistan :

For the first time since growing demands for him to step down, beleagured Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has spoken out saying he will not leave Pakistan.
In an interview to Pakistan's Channel Five, Musharraf said that he has three options: to remain seated and watch the situation, to quit the office without completing his agenda or initiate the agenda of his reforms.Musharraf then added that it was not in his nature and training to be a mere spectator and leave things unfinished, saying that he will not leave Pakistan. Speaking instead of his future plans, Musharraf said he would spend his time playing golf, reading and writing books.

"I will not go out of Pakistan. I will play golf, read books and can think about writing books," Pervez Musharraf said.

Yousuf Raza Gilani warns Kabul against incursions :

Pakistan's Premier warns Afghanistan against cross-border attacks on militants, saying no one can meddle in the country's affairs.

"We will neither interfere in the internal affairs of any country, nor will we allow anyone to interfere in our affairs," Yousuf Raza Gilani told private ARY-OneWorld television.The Prime Minister made the remarks on Sunday, reacting to comments made earlier in the day by Afghan President Hamid Karzai who pledged to hit back 'Pakistani militants' hideouts across the border.Karzai said his country had a right to do launch cross border attacks out of "self-defense."Pakistan, however, has strongly opposed any foreign military action on its soil, saying it would amount to a violation of its sovereignty.Gilani said such statements will not help in the normalization of relations between the two countries, adding that Islamabad wanted "friendly" ties with Kabul.Karzai has repeatedly accused the Pakistani government of failing to prevent insurgents active in the tribal zone from slipping into Afghanistan.

Natasha Paracha is new Miss Pakistan World :

Natasha Paracha, the 23-year-old graduate from the University of California at Berkeley replaced Mahleej Sarkari who created quite a stir last month when she called Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf a hunk and expressed a desire to date him. But she needn't have tried so hard to get attention because of late, the Miss World Pakistan pageant is creating enough controversy on its own, thanks to its very existence.
All objections apart, the beautiful Natasha Paracha from Islamabad was crowned Miss World Pakistan 2008 this weekend. She beat Pakistani girls from all over the world and will apparently now be representing her country at various international pageants.

Aishwarya Rai to play Benazir Bhutto ?

UTV is planning to produce a film top lining Aishwarya Rai as former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, for which writer Neelesh Misra (Alibaug) has been asked to pen a script.

June 10, 2008 (Sawf News) - UTV is planning to produce a film top lining Aishwarya Rai as former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, for which writer Neelesh Misra (Alibaug) has been asked to pen a script.
According to Zee, the producers are in talks with the Bhutto family and the PPP government in Pakistan.
Misra told reporters recently that he has been offered the project but has yet to take up the offer.

Sarkar Raj not to release in Pakistan :

ISLAMABAD: The worst fears of the Bachchan fan here have come true, with the Pakistan Film Censor Board refusing permission on Tuesday to screen Sarkar Raj in local cinemas.

Stopping the film’s Friday release in its tracks, the censor board said the film focused on terrorism and violence and was apparently aimed at building the image of “an anti-Pakistan extremist politician, Bal Thackeray”.

Mohammad Anees, spokesman for Ever Ready Pictures, the importers of the Bollywood film, said the customs authorities released its prints after they were shown documents carrying government permission for its import.

“However, as we approached the censor board in Islamabad on Tuesday morning with the prints, we were told the board members had already seen the movie (available in CD shops of the federal capital) and decided against granting permission for its screening,” Anees said.

Benazir Bhutto's niece may try Bollywood :

Islamabad(IP): Slain former Pakistani premier Benazir Bhutto's writer-social activist niece Fatima Bhutto may soon add another feather to her cap if she agrees to take up a role in a bilingual docu-drama by an Indian filmmaker.

Fatima, who turned 26 last month, has been approached by documentary filmmaker Ahsan Hyder for his film Breaking Free, which is likely to be shot in New Delhi, New York and New Zealand.

Fatima and her stepmother Ghinwa have often hinted that they believe Benazir or her widower Asif Ali Zardari had a hand in the killing of her father Murtaza Bhutto.

If Fatima gives her nod, she will star opposite Bollywood star Emraan Hashmi, who was recently in Pakistan to promote his film Jannat.

I'd like to work with Aamir Khan: Mehreen Syed :

The contingent of Pakistani models in Indian films is growing. First there were Meera Khan and Sana Nawaz . Now there's model Mehreen Syed, who will feature in Sanjay Chauhan's (who had penned the dialogue for Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Maara) period film set in Rajasthan in the 1940s, followed by Shashi Ranjan's romantic drama.

Dear mom

She says, people have mistaken perceptions about Pakistan. Models and actresses there are as talented as those in India, it's just that we don't have the right platform.
Besides Muscat, where she's walked the ramp for designer Hassan Shehryar , Syed has also worked in Paris and Milan. She says, I m a Syed. Humare yahan agar ladki kaam karna chaahe toh maarne-kaatne ki naubat aa jaati hai. Not many Indian directors know how to present a girl in the right manner. Why can't Indian directors make films with Pakistani girls, which are not just about kissing and wearing skimpy clothes? - Mehreen Syed

Wateen brings ‘Ramchand Pakistani’ to the Silver Screen :

ISLAMABAD: After raving reviews at the Tribeca Flim Festival, Wateen brings ‘Ramchand Pakistani’ to the big screen in a nationwide launch.
The internationally acclaimed movie is based on a true story about a Pakistani Hindu father and son who were imprisoned in India after wandering across the border from their village in Pakistan, says a press release issued here Thursday.

According to Mr. Tariq Malik, CEO Wateen, “With entertainment being one of the fastest growing, global industries, and the Pakistani media scene is undoubtedly one of our most important resources and deserves strong appreciation. Wateen is honored to be able to support such an exceptional production that has put Pakistan into the limelight. The critical acclaim received at the Tribeca Film Festival is a significant milestone for our entertainment industry and is a significant contributor towards the promotion of our artists to the rest of the world.”

The man Osama Bin Laden was looking for :

"The world is looking for me, and I was looking for you,"

this is what Al-Qaeda chief, Osama Bin Laden had once said to Hamid Mir, a renowned Pakistani television journalist.
Mir's first interview with the world's most wanted man was a huge news for the media across the globe.
"Before 9/11 when I interviewed Osama, I was soon invited by the CNN's Larry King on his famous television show. Larry asked me about Osama's personality, and I replied I wasn't impressed at all. Osama has no convincing power and is soft-spoken, but his deputies told me that their leader is a very brave fighter,'' Mir says.
This interview with the CNN, Mir says, made him the 'most wanted man' for Osama.
Somehow, Mir had a second encounter with Osama.
According to Mir, Osama was more interested in meeting Mir than he was.
Al-Qaeda chief had been watching the Larry King's show involving me, Mir says.
"On my second interview with him the first thing Osama asked me was that he was going to impress and convince me with his arguments," the Pakistani scribe says.
With America's keen interest in Osama, and all that what is associated, or, may be associated with him, Mir was again invited to Larry King show.
Larry asked Mir what Osama had said to him in his second encounter?
"The world is looking for me, and I was looking for you. I had been watching your interview with CNN's Larry King," according to Mir these were Osama's words.
Mir says that he was not at all impressed with the arguments put forth by Osama, adding that he is very soft-spoken and has a voice that one does not normally associate with gun-wielding warriors.
However, Mir says: "All those close to Osama I met told me that he is a great and brave fighter, and those watch him fight in the battle-field become his life-long and die-hard fans."
Mir, the Executive Editor, Northern Region for Geo Television, Pakistan was one of the participants in a three-day international conference on the 'Role of Media in Peace-building and Conflict Prevention' held in Bonn.
About the local Talibans and the tribal conflict in Pakistan along the Afghan border, Mir says that much needed to be done to eradicate poverty, illiteracy and backwardness.
"Today we have more suicide bombers in Pakistan than there are in the Middle East. It is all because of illiteracy, injustice and poverty," Mir says.
Asked what was the solution to the tribal conflict and violence related to it in Pakistan, Mir had this toi say: "Justice, literacy and equality".
During the recent emergency imposed by Pakistani President, Gen Retd. Pervez Musharraff, Hamid Mir's famous television show 'Capital talk' was taken off air by the authorities but after the new government took over some restrictions on media have been lifted.

47 dead, 100 missing in Congo boat accident :

Twenty-seven people are known to have survived, said Mathieu Modeste Bella, district commissioner of North Ubangi province in the far north of the central African country.The boat was carrying at least 182 passengers, mostly merchants but also women and children, Bella said. It sank Tuesday night after it left the Congo town of Mobayi Bongo, 700 miles northeast of Congo's capital, Kinshasa. It was navigating the Ubangi river, headed for the Central African Republic, which shares a border with Congo. Bella said 47 bodies had been recovered. "The rest of the passengers, more than 100, have disappeared," Bella said. "We do not know what happened to them."Because of bad roads, many people in the area prefer to take small boats even if they do not know how to swim. KINSHASA, Congo - At least 47 people died when a motorized boat sank on a river in Congo, and more than 100 people are missing, a district official said Friday.

Math study finds girls are just as good as boys :

WASHINGTON - Sixteen years after Barbie dolls declared, "Math class is tough!" girls are proving that when it comes to math they are just as tough as boys. In the largest study of its kind, girls measured up to boys in every grade, from second through 11th. The research was released Thursday in the journal Science.

Parents and teachers persist in thinking boys are simply better at math, said Janet Hyde, the University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher who led the study. And girls who grow up believinHyde and her colleagues looked at annual math tests required by the No Child Left Behind education law in 2002. Ten states provided enough statistical information to review test scores by gender, allowing researchers to compare the performances of more than 7 million children.The researchers found no difference in the scores of boys versus girls — not even in high school. Studies 20 years ago showed girls and boys did equally well on math in elementary school, but girls fell behind in high school."Girls have now achieved gender parity in performance on standardized math tests," Hyde said.g it wind up avoiding harder math classes.

Hand predictions on fingers :

“It’s not just the lines on your hand,but the shape and texture of your palms and your fingers, that predicts your stress level, vitality and well-being,” says Manju Maitra, who has been practising palmistry for the last five decades.
So, while a pink palm indicates a healthy and well-adjusted person, a red-handed person probably has too much energy and gets angry easily. On the other hand, a white palm is a symbol for general ill-health and weakness. According to palmistry, people with smooth hands rarely lose their temper, and those who have lines deeply etched on their palms tend to be worrisome, high strung and emotional.

Sugar export banned, duty abolished on import :

ISLAMABAD: Government has banned the export of sugar in order to control the rising prices of the commodity while duty on its import has been abolished.The decision was taken at a meeting of Economic Review Committee held here under the chairmanship of Federal Finance Minister, Naveed Qamar.The meeting informed that 2.5 million tonnes of wheat was being imported and if required more will be imported in future.

17 blasts in Indian city Ahmedabad kill 26, injure 50 :

AHMEDABAD: Twenty-six persons were killed and 50 others injured in 17 blasts that hit Ahmedabad city of India on Saturday.According to Indian media, the first blast occurred at 6:45 PM in Bapunagar, Ahmedabad followed by series of explosions in Mani Nagar, Sarkhej, Esanpur, Haksar, Narol Circle, Naroda Patiya and Hatkashwer areas.The Indian Interior Ministry put the number of blasts at 12 but the Indian media said there were 17 blasts in wh ... Full Story

Apple CEO Jobs' life not in danger, NYT reports :

LOS ANGELES - Apple Inc CEO Steve Jobs, who has been dogged by investor concerns about his health, does not have recurrent cancer or a life-threatening health issue, The New York Times reported on Saturday.
"While his health problems amounted to a good deal more than 'a common bug,' they weren't life-threatening and he doesn't have a recurrence of cancer," journalist Joe Nocera wrote in a column.
Nocera said he spoke to the Apple CEO about his health.

‘300’ director brings ‘Watchmen’ to Comic-Con :

SAN DIEGO - Zack Snyder is standing inside a 9,000-pound, tanklike metal pod in the center of the crowded Comic-Con floor. He nonchalantly points out the features of the Owl Ship, a real-life version of the flying vehicle from the award-winning graphic novel “Watchmen.”
“The Owl Ship’s got to have an eight-track,” Snyder says. “There’s also a coffee maker. That’s really important to the Owl Ship.”
Snyder, whose adaptation of the graphic novel “300” grossed more than $200 million, says directing “Watchmen” isn’t a job he would have sought, but it’s one that suits him fine: Staying true to a beloved story that dismantles the superhero archetype.

Busch nets near wire-to-wire win at Kroger 200 :

Kyle Busch led all but three laps Saturday night to win the Kroger 200, his sixth NASCAR Nationwide Series victory of the season.
Busch’s win is Toyota’s 15th in 22 Nationwide races, but the first event since NASCAR’s mandate Wednesday to cut down the horsepower in Series engines knocked 15 horsepower out of Toyota’s engines. NASCAR changed the parameters after rival teams complained, even though Toyota was within the rules.
Busch also won the event at O’Reilly Raceway Park in 2004.

Fuel costs fail to drive down Hummer passion :

The soaring cost of feeding a vehicle that swallows a gallon every dozen miles is only part of it. Environmentalists, who've always had it in for owners, are winning mainstream converts. General Motors, which presided over Hummer's transition from a badge of military bravado into a symbol of driveway excess, is looking to sell.
But tonight there's no apologizing or self-pity in the ranks of Hummer die-hards. They're here to goad machines that can top 5 tons over boulders the size of Smart cars, through stewpots of mud obscuring who-knows-what and across obstacle courses of stumps, logs and stones — it's "like riding a slow-motion rollercoaster," one says.
Maybe mega-SUVs are going the way of dinosaurs. Hummer sales have dropped 40 percent this year. But these beasts and the men and women who love them certainly don't behave like endangered species.
"I told my wife when we bought this, 'Honey, we're investing in steel and rubber,' says William Welch, a Philadelphia surgeon who, cigar clenched between his teeth, offers a guided tour of his lovingly tended jet-black H1.
"If it was $10 a gallon," he says, "we'd still be out there."
One with the HummerCars are much more than transportation to Americans. In a country where life revolves around the car, you are what you drive.

3 swimmers dead, 3 missing in ocean off N.Y :

NEW YORK - Three swimmers drowned and three were missing Saturday in two days of treacherous ocean currents at Long Island and New York City beaches, authorities said. At least three more had been rescued.
The missing included a 10-year-old girl who had been playing in the waters off Coney Island. A 10-year-old boy who was with her was rescued, police said.
Some authorities said the spate of swimmers being swept away seemed unprecedented. In the Long Island community of Long Beach, where two people drowned and another disappeared, Police Lt. Bruce Meyer said he "cannot recall there ever being back-to-back situations like this."

Woman gives birth to 18th child in Canada :

ABBOTSFORD, British Columbia - A woman has given birth to her 18th child in British Columbia, making her the province's most prolific mother in 20 years.
Proud dad Alexandru Ionce said Saturday that his 44-year-old wife, Livia, gave birth on Tuesday. Their daughter Abigail weighed in at 7 pounds, 12 ounces.
"We never planned how many children to have. We just let God guide our lives, you know, because we strongly believe life comes from God and that's the reason we did not stop the life," said Alexandru Ionce.

The couple immigrated to Canada from Romania in 1990 and now lives in Abbotsford, British Columbia. Their 17 other children range in age from 20 months to 23 years old.
Ionce said he did not know if the couple would have more children. The family now has 10 girls and eight boys.
"We would have liked a boy to be even," he said. "We thank God all of them are healthy and happy."
Ionce said the family has received calls from Germany, Romania and England, as well as from media outlets across Canada.

Wildfire threatens homes near Yosemite Valley :

MIDPINES, CALIF. - A wildfire threatened several hundred homes near the main entrance road to Yosemite National Park, authorities said.
Cheryl Goetz, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, said the 1,000-acre fire was burning in steep, rugged terrain along both sides of the Merced River.
The Mariposa Sheriff's Department is warning residents of the town of Midpines to prepare to evacuate. Midpines is Highway 140, the thoroughfare to the west entrance of Yosemite National Park.