Week in pictures: 26 July - 1 Aug :

India-Pakistan row clouds summit :

The prime ministers of India and Pakistan are set to meet on the sidelines of a regional summit in Sri Lanka, amid a worsening political row.
Pakistan has denied allegations its spies helped bomb the Indian embassy in Afghanistan, and there have been renewed border tensions over Kashmir.
The row threatens to overshadow the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (Saarc) summit in Colombo.
Eight nations are meeting to discuss issues including terrorism and poverty.
Leaders from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Bhutan, Nepal and Afghanistan are involved in the talks, along with the Indian and Pakistani prime ministers.

IOC meets amid Beijing concerns :

Olympic organisers are meeting in China six days before the Beijing Games, amid ongoing concerns about air pollution, internet restrictions and doping.
International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Jacques Rogge arrived in Beijing amid a row over internet access for foreign journalists.
Lingering concerns about air quality are also hampering final preparations.
The IOC has also stripped the US 4x400m men's relay team of gold at the Sydney Games in 2000 after a doping admission.
Sprinter Antonio Pettigrew admitted in June that he used banned substances between 1997 and 2003.
And a once-banned Greek athlete has threatened to sue the IOC chief if she is not allowed to compete.
Greek sprinter Katerina Thanou pulled out of the Athens Olympics in 2004 after failing to report for a drugs test - her third missed test - and was banned for two years.
She is now in Greece's Olympic athletic team for Beijing, but Mr Rogge has suggested she could now be barred from competing.

People secures Jolie-Pitt photos :

People magazine has secured the US rights to the first photographs of Hollywood film stars Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's newborn twins.
Pictures of Vivienne Marcheline and Knox Leon, born on 12 July, will appear in its Monday edition.
The magazine's managing editor Larry Hackett said: "They will delight our readers who have followed the growth of the Jolie-Pitt family."
Meanwhile Hello! will publish the first photographs of the twins in the UK.

Talking Shop: Chris Lilley :

Australian comedian Chris Lilley has won a cult following for his high-school comedy Summer Heights High.
The 33-year-old plays three characters in the mockumentary series - troubled Tongan student Jonah, attention-seeking drama teacher Mr G and privileged teenager Ja'mie King.
The show attracted controversy in Australia for its references to bullying and drug use, but went on to win a Logie - the Australian equivalent of a Bafta - for outstanding comedy programme.
As BBC Three shows prepares to repeat the first series this weekend, Lilley talks about the inspiration behind the show, comparisons to Ricky Gervais and pushing the boundaries of comedy.

Wire-walk film omits 9/11 tragedy :

The director of a film about the Frenchman who wire-walked between the Twin Towers in 1974 explains why 9/11 plays no part in his documentary.
When the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center crumbled into a cloud of dust and rubble on 11 September, 2001, one man had as much cause to mourn as any.
That man was Philippe Petit, the French tightrope walker who so audaciously crossed from one to the other on the morning of 7 August, 1974.
That never-to-be-repeated feat has now inspired a feature-length documentary, Man on Wire, in which Petit and his co-conspirators detail the planning and execution of their remarkable coup.
One thing absent from the film, though, is the World Trade Center's eventual fate - a move its British director, James Marsh, calls "an easy choice to make".

Taylor's ill health played down :

Dame Elizabeth Taylor is 'fine' and is soon expected to return home from a 'precautionary' spell in hospital, her publicist has said.
Dick Guttman called reports that the 76-year-old actress is seriously ill as "dramatic, overstated and untrue".
But he declined to give further details about the Oscar winner's condition or where she is receiving treatment.
Mr Guttman added: "At present, she is surrounded by family, friends and fabulous jewels."
Over the last decade Dame Elizabeth has been dogged by a number of health problems which have left her confined to a wheelchair.

Ledger 'brilliant' in last film :

Director Terry Gilliam said replacing Heath Ledger's part with three actors to complete his final film after he died has worked.
Filming of The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus was suspended when the star was found dead in January.
Jude Law, Johnny Depp and Colin Farrell will now appear as Ledger's character, but scenes he had previously filmed will be included in the movie.
"I've seen it and it works and it's great," said Gilliam.

Flatulence joke is world's oldest :

Breaking news about breaking wind: the world's oldest joke is a one-liner about flatulence, researchers say.
Academics have compiled a list of the most ancient gags and the oldest, harking back to 1900BC, is a Sumerian proverb from what is now southern Iraq.
"Something which has never occurred since time immemorial; a young woman did not fart in her husband's lap," goes the joke.
Randy pharaohs, thirsty ox-drivers and barbers also feature in the list.
The oldest British joke dates back to the 10th Century, and uses the traditional question and answer format to suggestively poke fun at Anglo-Saxon men.
"What hangs at a man's thigh and wants to poke the hole that it's often poked before? A key."

NYPD invites citizen crime images :

New Yorkers could soon be able to help fight crime by sending video or photo evidence directly to the city police department's computers.
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said any mobile phone camera images of a crime scene would help an investigation.
Civil rights campaigners hope the new technology will also help expose incidents of police misconduct.
A recent video of a policeman shoving a cyclist to the ground in Times Square has had more than 1m views on YouTube.
The clip on the video-sharing website generated an online discussion about police brutality.
Commissioner Kelly said the new service would be available soon.
"It's a fact of life. Everybody has a camera in their telephones. When people can record an event taking place that helps us during an investigation," he was quoted as saying by Reuters new agency.

Hacker vows to fight extradition :

A Briton accused of hacking into top-secret military computers has vowed to fight extradition to stand trial in the US after losing a court appeal.
Glasgow-born Gary McKinnon could face life in jail if convicted of accessing 97 US military and Nasa computers.
He has admitted breaking into the computers from his London home but said he was seeking information on UFOs.
Mr McKinnon says he will take his case to the European Court of Human Rights after losing the Law Lords appeal.

The power of female blogging :

The message was loud. It was clear. It was simple.
"Take the money."
Spelling it out was Gina Garrubbo, executive vice president of BlogHer, which claims to be the biggest online community for women who blog.
Ms Garrubbo made her comments at Blogher's recent conference in a session that aired concerns mommy bloggers have about selling out by displaying adverts on their sites or testing out products.
"Everyday I talk to Fortune 500 companies and they care. They care about supporting you on your terms. It is your opportunity. Build the business. Write the rules," said Ms Garrubbo.

Remoulding Microsoft for the web :

What is Microsoft for? I ask the question, because I think it's one that the company has been asking itself a lot recently.
Is it a software company? Producing an operating system, and tools like Office.
Or is it a hardware company? Producing games consoles and peripherals.
Perhaps it's a web company? Producing an online ecosystem, such as Live Mesh.
Or is it a server company? Producing Microsoft's Internet Information Server (IIS).

The answer, according to Microsoft, is all four.

Yahoo board wins investor vote :

Yahoo shareholders have voted to re-elect the firm's board after it defended its handling of negotiations with Microsoft over a possible deal.
Chief executive Jerry Yang won the backing of 85% of investors at Yahoo's annual meeting in California.
Some investors had criticised the firm's failure to agree a deal with Microsoft, which had offered to buy the internet firm for $47.5bn (£24.1bn).
During the meeting, one called on chairman Ray Bostock to resign.
Shareholder Eric Jackson of Ironfire Capital - one of 150 investors at the meeting - said Mr Bostock "should do the honourable thing and step down from the board".

He accused the Yahoo boss of overplaying his hand with Microsoft.

Google accused on privacy views :

Google has been accused of "hypocrisy" over its stance on personal privacy.
In court documents defending a lawsuit brought against its Street View mapping tool it has asserted that "complete privacy doesn't exist."
But, points out the US National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) it responded to a Californian politician's concerns about its growth by saying that it "takes privacy very seriously".
"Google's hypocrisy is breathtaking," said Ken Boehm, chairman of the NLPC.

Israel warns on Iran nuclear aims :

Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz has warned that Iran is near a breakthrough in its nuclear programme.
Mr Mofaz accused Iran of pursuing a strategy of buying time in talks aimed at limiting its nuclear ambitions.
The EU and the US have offered Iran a series of incentives to persuade Tehran to stop uranium enrichment or face further sanctions if it does not.
Iran has said it is not yet prepared to give a response to the offer, which expires this weekend.
Mr Mofaz, speaking on a visit to Washington, said that it was "unacceptable" for Iran to become a nuclear power.
"Our estimation is that already by (2009) Iran will reach enrichment capability and as soon as 2010 will have option to reach (uranium production) at military levels," he said, according to the AFP news agency.
"It's a race against time and time is winning," the Israeli minister added.

China: Some Internet sites unblocked at Olympics Press Centre :

BEIJING: Olympic organizers unblocked some Internet sites at the Olympics' Main Press Center and media venues Friday while others remained off limits for journalists covering the Beijinggames.The move falls short of the ``free and unfettered access'' the IOC and Chinese officials had promised for months. However it was an improvement from earlier in the week when sites for the likes of Amnesty International or Tiananmen Square could not be opened.Senior IOC officials met late into the night Thursday with their Chinese counterparts and said they reached an agreement to unblock sites, although the IOC statement said the details were still being formulated.``We trust them to keep their promise,'' the International Olympic Committee said. Kevan Gosper, the press commission head of the IOC, said the IOC and Chinese officials were working toward ``unblocking sites that we believe were unreasonably blocked.'

'Gosper acknowledged full Web access was not possible due to China's authoritarian government and the tight social controls exerted by the Communist Party.``We have always had an understanding, and we haven't necessarily talked about it, that any sovereign government will block pornographic sites and what they might consider subversive, or sites which are contrary to the national interest,'' Gosper said.``I would suggest also that we are not working in a democraticsociety, we're working in a communist society. This is China, andthey are proud to be a communist society. So it will be different.``In terms of all other matters,'' Gosper said journalists andbroadcasters would have the same access as previous Olympics.

No Pakistani in top 20 of world squash ranking :

KARACHI: The Professional Squash Association (PSA) has issued a new ranking list of squash players but no Pakistani could get a place in top twenty players of the world.According to the PSA ranking, Amar Shabana of Egypt retained his first position while Gregory Galtier of France came second and James Volstroop has been placed third.Pakistan number one Aamir Atlas has come down by one grade from 23rd to 24th.Among other Pakistani players, Mansoor Zaman has been ranked 31st, Farhan Mehboob 33rd, Yasir Butt 49th, Shahid Zaman 69th, Khawaja Adil Maqbool 73rd and Majid Khan 75th while Shams-ul-Islam has come on 89th position.

Only eight Pakistani players are included in top 100 squash players of the world.

POA plans events up to Asian Games :

ISLAMABAD: President Pakistan Olympic Association General Arif Hasan said that the POA after consulting with the federations has arranged a plan of various events up to the Asian Games.Talking with the Islamabad Sports Writers Association, General Arif Hasan said that it was his desire to send the maximum number of players in the Olympics for representing Pakistan but it was difficult for the players to qualify for the Olympics compared to the Asian Games.He said that this is very sad that Pakistan could not qualify in boxing for the Olympics and whatever the reasons for its fall all people know.The POA president said that a medal for the hockey team is expected due to better preparation of the team but there are no expectations from the players going on wild card.

Government to buy additional 750,000 tons of sugar from local :

KARACHI: The government will buy additional 750,000 tons of sugar from local market to help sugar mills in avoiding from bank defaults.This was told to Geo News by chairman Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) Abdul Malik.He said that the TCP has so far bought 500,000 tons of sugar from local market and it has been provided time and again to the market to stabilize the prices.He said that the production of sugar was 4,700,000 tons this year while the local consumption is 4,000,000 tons. Thus additional 700,000 tons of sugar has been produced after which there would be no need to import sugar.Previously, the government had abolished 15 per cent duty on export of sugar and imposed 25 per cent duty on its import due to bumper production of sugarcane in the country.

Iran will use its force to defend against enemies: Ahmadinejad :

TEHRAN: Rejecting the two-week deadline for freezing Iran’s nuclear programme by western countries, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Friday that his country will use force against its "enemies" to defend its nuclear drive.The comments came as the western countries on July 19 set a weekend deadline for Iran to respond to an international offer to freeze its nuclear drive.Besides Iran, Russia had also rejected the two-week deadline.Ahmadinejad said without mentioning name of any country that “for them, subjects like the nuclear issue are pretexts. The key reason for the hostility of the enemies in the past 30 years against Iran is that they want us to pull back so that they can say we have given in."But the Iranian people will resist with force against the enemies," state television quoted him as saying.However, it has not been explained in the statement that which type of force iran will use to defend against its enemies.

5 killed, over 15 wounded in Gaza border tunnel explosion :

GAZA CITY: Five Palestinians were killed and more than 15 wounded when a tunnel under the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip collapsed.According to the Palestinian officials at least five Palestinians were killed and more than 15 wounded the Friday night when a tunnel collapsed near border area between Palestinian border Gaza and an Egyptian border town of Rafah.The area's emergency services director Mohahya Hassine told that the accident was perhaps caused by a gas explosion. An Israeli blockade of the poverty-stricken Palestinian territory has been in force since Hamas seized control last year from forces loyal to secular Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.The border town of Rafah has frequently been used as a crossing point for arms and explosives trafficked through underground tunnels, according to Israel.

President Musharraf arrives in Karachi :

Updated at: 2312 PST, Friday, August 01, 2008

KARACHI: President Pervez Musharraf arrived here Friday afternoon on a three-day visit to the metropolis. At the Karachi Airport, he was received by the Sindh Governor, Dr. Ishratul Ebad Khan, and Corps Commander, Lt. Gen. Ahsen Azhar Hayat.

Pakistan, India PMs meeting on sidelines of SAARC summit today :

COLOMBO: Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani will hold an important meeting with his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh today. Both leaders are in Sri Lankan capital Colombo to attend the 15th SAARC summit meeting.Meeting between the Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan is expected to dominate the SAARC proceedings.Ties between New Delhi and Islamabad hit trouble after India blamed "elements" in Pakistan for the bombing of its Kabul embassy last month that killed at least 41 people.

India has the "cleanest" evidence that Pakistan's spy agency, the ISI, was involved in the Kabul blast, a senior Indian official who declined to be identified said in Colombo on Friday. The perpetrators wanted "India out of Afghanistan," the Indian official said, adding Singh would raise the issue with Gilani during their talks. After the embassy attack, New Delhi said the peace talks with Islamabad were "under stress" but the Indian official said that India wanted the dialogue to continue.

"We have to keep dealing with Pakistan," he said.

"We have to draw a clear line of distinction between the Pakistan government and rogue intelligence agencies."

Confidential papers leaked from PPP cell: Ch Shujaat :

ISLAMABAD: President Pakistan Muslim League (Q) Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain said that the second attempt by the government of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) to hijack the ISI is against the interest of the country.In a statement issued from the party office, Cahudhry Shujaat Hussain said that the PPP government had made an attempt in 1994 to overtake the ISI by appointing a retired army general the director-general of the ISI and now tried to get t ... Full Story

Decision to continue operation up to achievement of objectives in Swat :

PESHAWAR: Governor NWFP Owais Ahmed Ghani presided over a high-level meeting in which Corps Commander Lt Gen Mahmood Masood Aslam also present.The meeting expressed the determination that the operation would continue in Swat upto the achievement of objectives.At the meeting, the law and order situation in the province was reviewed regarding operations going on in Swat.

This was said in the meeting that all possible steps would be taken to ensure the security of lives and properties of the peaceful citizens.It was regretted in the meeting that despite continued efforts by the government to make the peace agreement purposeful the extremists were active in grooming terrorism and in result, 61 girls primary schools were destroyed and 17,000 children were deprived of education.Besides, bridges and other official properties were damaged and prominent figures of society, government employees and law-enforcing officials were targeted.These steps reflect the extremists’ objectives for spreading chaos and anarchy in the society.

The determination was reiterated in the meeting to completely fail the extremists’ agenda and to continue the efforts of ensuring peace and prosperity in the country.

IAEA approves India's safeguards agreement :

VIENNA: The 35-nation governing body of the International Atomic Energy Agency has approved the India's safeguards agreement.The Director-General of the IAEA, Mohammed el-Baradei gave the opening statement.The text, said Dr. el-Baradei, "is an Infcirc/66-type safeguards agreement based on the Agency's standard safeguards practices and procedures" for states that are not party to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty.

These agreements "are not comprehensive or full-scope safeguards agreements", he added.Describing the Indian draft as an "umbrella agreement" providing for any facility notified by India to become subject to Agency safeguards in the future, the IAEA DG said he expects to begin implementation of safeguards at new Indian facilities in 2009.Dr. el-Baradei said the "umbrella" nature of the agreement provides for a "more efficient mechanism for ensuring that safeguards requirements can be met". "It satisfies India's needs while maintaining all the Agency's legal requirements".

Middlesex to participate in Twenty20 Champions League :

NEW DELHI: Middlesex, England's Twenty20 champions, will be part of this year's Champions Twenty20 League, Lalit Modi, the IPL chairman, has confirmed. David Collier, the ECB chief executive, informed Cricket Australia, one of the three founding partners of the Champions Twenty20 League, that Middlesex will be participating in the tournament starting September 28, and added that they would be interested in sending two teams for the tournament from next year.

"It's very good news for world cricket," Modi said. "We are extremely happy to have Middlesex on board. This makes the tournament complete in every manner."

Prices of essentials up by 33% for low-income group :

ISLAMABAD: Prices of items of daily use registered an increase of 32 percent in the week ended on July 31 compared to the same period last year.According to figures released by Federal Bureau of Statistics, the price hike surged by 33.57 percent for the low-income group during the week in review.Out of 53 essential items, 23 become expensive while prices of 9 items decline and those of 21 remained stable.