Today in Picture

Potter star used to crack crime :

A wanted poster featuring Robbie Coltrane is being used by police in New Zealand to try to catch a teenage burglar who resembles the actor.
Detectives stressed the Cracker and Harry Potter star is not suspected of any crimes, but said the thief looks like a 16-year-old version of him.
The poster has been distributed to homes in the Christchurch area of the South Island.
New Zealand law bans the publication of pictures of juvenile criminals.
Below the heading 'Wanted' is the picture of Coltrane, underneath which are the words 'Active burglar in this neighbourhood'.

Nigerian advises against 86 wives :

Nigerian Mohammed Bello Abubakar, 84, has advised other men not to follow his example and marry 86 women.
The former teacher and Muslim preacher, who lives in Niger State with his wives and at least 170 children, says he is able to cope only with the help of God.
"A man with 10 wives would collapse and die, but my own power is given by Allah. That is why I have been able to control 86 of them," he told the BBC.
He says his wives have sought him out because of his reputation as a healer.
"I don't go looking for them, they come to me. I will consider the fact that God has asked me to do it and I will just marry them."
But such claims have alienated the Islamic authorities in Nigeria, who have branded his family a cult.

Eat kangaroo to 'save the planet' :

Switching from beef to kangaroo burgers could significantly help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, says an Australian scientist.
The methane gas produced by sheep and cows through belching and flatulence is more potent than carbon dioxide in the damage it can cause to the environment.
But kangaroos produce virtually no methane because their digestive systems are different.
Dr George Wilson, of the Australian Wildlife Services, urges farming them.
He says they have a different set of micro-organisms in their guts to cows and sheep.
Sheep and cattle account for 11% of Australia's carbon footprint and over the years, there have been various proposals to deal with the problem.

Sub to make deep Caribbean dive :

Scientists are set to explore the world's deepest undersea volcanoes, which lie 6km down in the Caribbean.
Delving into uncharted waters to hunt for volcanic vents will be Autosub6000, Britain's new autonomously controlled, robot submarine.
Once found, the life, gas and sediment around the vents - the world's hottest - will be sampled and catalogued.
The research will be carried out by a British team aboard the UK's latest research ship, the James Cook.
"We are heading out on two expeditions, each close to a month long, to map the full length of the Cayman Trough," said team leader, Dr Jon Copley of the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton (NOCS).
Dr Copley explained that the Cayman Trough, which lies between Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, is a product of the Caribbean tectonic plate pulling away from the American plate.
"It is the world's deepest volcanic ridge and totally unexplored," the Southampton-based researcher told BBC News.
Along with Autosub6000, the researchers will also rely on Isis, the UK's deepest-diving, remotely operated vehicle to scan the deep.

Hi-tech thieves target Olympics :

The volume of junk e-mail messages with an Olympic theme spiked prior to the opening ceremony, said Symantec.
The malicious messages try to trick people into visiting fake sites or opening booby-trapped e-mail attachments, say other firms.
Some messages falsely claim users have won an Olympic lottery and encourage them to respond to claim their prize.

"The Beijing Olympics is gearing up to be one of the biggest events of the year and hackers and spammers will see it as a massive opportunity to compromise the unwary," said Con Mallom, a spokesman for Symantec.
Symantec said the messages in the spam it had seen related to the games ran the gamut of modern security threats.

Ex-Thai PM fails to attend court :

The ousted Thai Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, has failed to appear before a Bangkok court on corruption charges, amid rumours he has fled to the UK.
Thai media quoted several sources saying that Mr Thaksin and his family were already in London and would issue a statement later.
He was due back in the Thai capital on Sunday after a court allowed him to attend the Olympic Games opening.
Mr Thaksin is on bail, facing a string of trials at Thailand's Supreme Court.
Mr Thaksin's wife, Pojaman, is also on bail pending an appeal after she was sentenced last month to three years in jail for tax fraud.
It was the first of several cases against Thailand's former first family.

Musharraf was advised to resign two months ago: Zardari

ISLAMABAD: Expressing confidence that the ruling coalition would succeed "110 per cent" in its move to impeach President Pervez Musharraf, PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari has said he had advised the embattled leader through a "common friend" to resign two months ago but he paid no heed. "Through a common friend, General Durrani, I had advised President Musharraf to resign two months back. But the President gave no reply," Zardari said. The PPP ... Full Story

Pakistan, China Friendship Group to be set up in Parliament: PM Gilani

Updated at: 0644 PST, Monday, August 11, 2008 BEIJING:: Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani has announced the establishment of Pakistan, China Friendship Group soon in parliament to enhance exchange of parliamentary delegations, and further boost their economic partnership. It will help promoting people-to-people contact, particularly at the youth level through elected representatives.

He made the announcement while addressing students of Urdu Department of three major universities in Beijing before returning home yesterday. The universities are: Peking University, Tsingua University and Foreign Studies University of China. The students met the Prime Minister at State Guest House under the leadership of Tang MingSheng, Director of Centre for Pakistan Studies. Chairman PPP Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Bakhtawar Bhutto, Asifa Bhutto, Rehman Malik and Secretary General PPP Jahangir Badar were also present on the occasion.

Suicide bomber killed in hospital attack :

PESHAWAR: A suspected suicide bomber and his other associate were killed in a suicide attack in front of private hospital located in Gulbahar colony of Peshawar here on Monday.The blast could be a suicide attack, the police said. Injured person was immediately shifted to the hospital. Police said damage or casualties remained low as blast took place early in the morning and there was not much rush around the hospital.

Charge-sheet against Musharraf strong and voluminous: Sherry

ISLAMABAD: The charge-sheet against President Pervez Musharraf is strong, voluminous and powerful indictment of his systematic misrule and usurpation of Parliament’s powers, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Sherry Rehman said on Sunday. Briefing the media after meeting of the joint committee for preparation of impeachment motion, the Minister said that now public sentiment against Pervez Musharraf is so strong that even his own party has begun to say he should not use Article 58 (2)b.

“No one wants to be counted on the wrong side of democracy in this historic battle,” she said, adding that draft of the impeachment motion and charge-sheet will be completed within a couple of days. She said the meeting went very well and committee briefly discussed the points of charge-sheet, but those can not be disclosed before time. Ms Rehman said, after passage of the impeachment resolution from four Provincial Assemblies, it would finally be tabled on the floor of National Assembly.

She maintained that members of PML-Q were constantly in contact with the ruling coalition as they too want to strengthen the democratic process in the country.

City in China's west locks down after bombings :

KUQA: Soldiers with machine guns guarded the sidewalks and police yelled at residents who tried to leave their homes, hours after officers battled bomb-tossing assailants in the second daring attack in a week in China's restive Muslim territory. The attackers launched a series of pre-dawn bombings Sunday in the rugged Xinjiang region, far from the Beijing Olympics, despite tightened security for the games. The violence, which police say killed 10 assailants and one security guard, also came just days after a militant Islamic group linked to al-Qaida issued a new warning it would strike during the Olympics.

No group has claimed responsibility for Sunday's attack in Kuqa county, and police have not released any evidence that a terrorist organization was involved. But tensions in Xinjiang have been simmering for decades between the Muslim minority Uighur people and the Han Chinese who are about 90 percent of the nation's population.

Exports up 29%, imports 38% :

KARACHI: The country’s exports rise by 29 percent and imports 38 percent in the first month of the current fiscal compared to the corresponding period last year, according to the figures released by the Federal Bureau of StatisticsThe exports were recorded at Rs1.90 billion in the period under review against Rs1.47 billion last year. The imports stood at Rs3.54 billion compared to Rs2.57 billion last year.Similarly, the trade deficit rose to 1.64 billion from Rs1.10 billion last year.

ICC delegation arrives in Islamabad :

ISLAMABAD: The International Cricket Council (ICC)’s task force delegation has arrived here late Sunday to review the security measures taken by Pakistan to hold ICC Champions’ Trophy.Director Operations of Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Zakir Khan and Pakistan’s Event Manager of Champions’ Trophy Ahmed Farooq welcomed the delegation.Delegation includes Chief Executive of ICC Haroon Logart, ICC’s General Manager Operations David Richardson, Tom Harrison, Media Manager Brian Margate and Event Manger Campbell Jimmy.ICC Delegation would hold meetings with interior ministry officials tomorrow.

KSE-index ends current week at two years’ lowest :

KARACH: And Another week at the Karachi Stock Exchange comes to an end with political instability and economic concerns taking their toll. The market fell to its 23-month low of 9678.However the market showed recovery in the last two days due to institutional buying and closed on Friday at 9909 points, down by 3 percent compared to last week.Average daily volumes rose to 112 million shares whereas volumes in futures stood at 14.7 million shares. Investors are likely to keep a close watch on the moves for impeachment by the coalition and its consequences for the market.

Rashid Qureshi terms allegations on President “baseless” :

ISLAMABAD: Presidential spokesman Retd. Major General Rashid Qureshi late Sunday denounced the allegations of corruptions leveled against President Musharraf and termed them “Baseless”.President Musharraf did not misappropriate U.S aid mounting millions of dollars, which was released in connection with war on terror, and that President’s record is transparent and no one can blame him, he told foreign news agency.

Presidential spokesman said that we have kept record of every penny received in form of U.S aid to fight against terrorism and it could be produced any time for accountability.Earlier, PPP co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari in his interview to a UK based newspaper, disclosed that his government would investigate the appropriation of American aid given for supporting the war on terror. Zardari said the Army was only receiving about a quarter of the $1 billion annual funds from the US.

The army was only getting 250-300 million dollars and that the loss of the remaining 700 million dollars was not something to be taken lightly. He added that the official explanation was that the money had gone towards budget support and his party was actively looking for the money.Rashid Qureshi said that President Musharraf would not step down instead he would face impeachment process.

Violence in Georgia is unacceptable: Bush

Violence in Georgia is unacceptable: BushNEW YORK:

US President Bush on Monday criticized Russia’s harsh military crackdown in the former Soviet republic of Georgia, saying the violence is unacceptable and Russia's response is disproportionate. The United States is waging an all-out campaign to get Russia to halt its retaliation against Georgia for trying to take control of the breakaway province of South Ossetia.Bush expressed grave concern about the disproportionate response of Russia and strongly condemned the bombing outside of South Ossetia." He said he did so directly to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who's here for the Olympics, and by phone to Russian President Dmitri Medvedev.On Sunday, Vice President Dick Cheney told Georgia's pro-American president that "Russian aggression must not go unanswered, and that its continuation would have serious consequences for its relations with the United States," Cheney's office reported.