PCB General Body Meeting After a Decade
On Friday Pakistan Cricket Board had its general body meeting after a decade. The first general body meeting was held in 1998 and the there was one more meeting held during the tenure of Touqir Zia in 2000. After that meeting it was fist time 73 members meeting was held in PCB head quarter at Gaddifi Stadium.
There were 53 associate members along with 18 full members and two honorary members present in the meeting. The main purpose of the meeting was to discuss the various maters regarding PCB. There was discussion on board’s financial condition. They also discuss about the options regarding the development of the standard of cricket in Pakistan.
Audit accounts and budget estimates were also discussed in the meeting. PCB chairman Ijaz Butt also highlighted the matter of development of women cricket in Pakistan.
In the meeting there was representative from blind cricket association was also present. They alsp discuss about the improvement in interior Sindh and Baluchistan. It was also decided in the meeting that they should met once or twice in a year to work according to standards. The undeveloped areas should also agree to scroll and development of different area in context of cricket was the main issue of the meeting.
Hafeez Sheikh to present federal budget today
ISLAMABAD: The next budget (2010-11) with total volume of Rs3300 billion will unravel new taxes worth Rs40 to 70 billion, Geo News reported Saturday.
The budget is expected to contain tough taxation measures, including hiking the standard rate of the GST by one per cent to 17 per cent from the existing 16 per cent, abolishing sales tax and income exemptions and increasing excise duty on cigarettes, air conditioners, refrigerators and other items.
Finance Adviser Senator Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh will take oath as finance minister to table the budget today.
The salaries of the government employees will be mounted 20 to 35 percent in the budget for next year. However, defence personnel and paramilitary forces will have no pay raise.
The rate of withholding tax on the imports will be set at 4 to 5 percent in the budget with development budget expected at Rs663 billion; of it, the provinces would be apportioned Rs373 billion and federation to have Rs290 billion.
The provinces would be allocated Rs1036 billion in revenues with fiscal budget deficit expected to stand at Rs680 billion.
Rs442 billion has been set aside for defence. Income tax exemption for salaried class has been augmented from 2 to 3 lakh per annum.
The budget for next fiscal year will have Rs672 billion for payment of debts and markups and Rs221 billion to run the federal departments.
Apple overtakes Microsoft as biggest tech company
SEATTLE: Apple Inc shot past Microsoft Corp as the world”s biggest tech company based on market value on Wednesday, the latest milestone in the resurgence of the maker of the iPhone, which nearly went out of business in the 1990s.
Apple”s shares rose as much 2.8 percent on Nasdaq on Wednesday, as Microsoft shares floundered, briefly pushing its market value above $229 billion, ahead of its longtime rival.
Both stocks ended down after a late-day sell-off, but Apple emerged ahead with a market value of about $222 billion, compared with Microsoft”s $219 billion, according to data.
Apple shares closed down 0.4 percent at $244.11 on Nasdaq, while Microsoft fell 4 percent to a seven-month low of $25.01.
Shares of Apple are worth more than 10 times what they were 10 years ago, as it has profited from revolutionizing consumer electronics with its stylish, easy to use products such as the iPod, iPhone and MacBook laptops.
The last time Apple had a higher market value than Microsoft was December 19, 1989, according to a UK-based news agency.
Microsoft, whose operating system runs on more than 90 percent of the world”s personal computers, has not been able to match growth rates from its hey-day 1990s. Its stock is down 20 percent from 10 years ago.
Apple, which struggled for many years to get its products into the mainstream, resorted to a $150 million investment from the much larger Microsoft in 1997 in order to keep it afloat. At that time, Microsoft”s market value was more than five times that of Apple.
Microsoft still leads Apple in sales. In the latest quarter, Microsoft reported $14.5 billion in revenue compared with Apple”s $13.5 billion.
Cupertino, California-based Apple is now the second-largest company on the Standard Poor”s 500 index by market value, behind energy behemoth Exxon Mobil Corp.
portsmouth nh
May 6, 2010 by Trend PK
Filed under World News
Residents of Portsmouth, NH are being evacuated and a parking garage has been closed and streets closed as a man is reported to be claiming to have a bomb on a bus. Reports are that a suspicious device was found on a bus. The state police explosives disposal unit has responded to the threat. The driver, who police say got off the bus, is being questioned.
Portsmouth police investigate bomb threat on Boston-bound bus.
FBI agents arrived on scene at approximately 12:17 p.m.
Others responding to the scene included the Seacoast Emergency Response Team (SERT), the N.H. State Police bomb disposal unit, an Exeter Police special operations vehicle and a K-9 unit from Dover. At approximately 12:30 p.m. an armored vehicle was also en route from Rye.
As of 12:40 p.m. police had not named a suspect, and are urging people to stay away from the downtown area.
dow
May 6, 2010 by Trend PK
Filed under World News
The Dow was down 59.94 points (0.55 per cent) recouping some earlier losses to stand at 10,866.83 in closing trades.
The Nasdaq composite was down 21.96 points (0.91 per cent) to 2,402.29 and the Standard Poor’s 500 index was down 7.72 points (0.66 per cent) to 1,165.88.
Images of riots in Athens, which killed at least three people, were beamed into the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange, fuelling concerns about a wider eurozone debt crisis.
The fixation on the European situation is unmistakable, as an encouraging employment report from ADP Employment Services passed without any buying interest, said Patrick O’Hare of Briefing.com.
Earlier, payrolls firm ADP said the US economy created 32,000 private sector jobs in April, better than market expectations.
But the positive figures were not enough to calm concerns about the eurozone that were exacerbated by the Greek riots and a warning from ratings agency Moody’s that it could downgrade Portugal’s sovereign debt within three months.
Moody’s said it had placed Portugal Aa2 government bond rating on review for possible downgrade and warned it could be cut by up to two notches because of worsening public finances and weak growth.
Eurozone fears kept the community’s single currency below the $US1.30 dollar, after it hit 12-month lows on Tuesday amid fears that Greece’s debt crisis would spread to other struggling EU economies.
On Tuesday, the Dow fell over 200 points, closing down two per cent, on fears that Spain could see its debt rating downgraded again, forcing it to follow Greece to the IMF and European nation in search of its own bailout loan.
Spain’s Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero dismissed the rumours, as did the IMF, but the fears were enough to knock Spanish stocks down five per cent, creating losses across global markets
GSEB Result 2010 – www.gseb.org
Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board (GSEB)
The Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board or GSEB is a government of Gujarat body responsible for determining the policy-related, administrative, cognitive, and intellectual direction the state’s higher educational system takes.
The GSEB conducts 2 main examinations – The Secondary School Certificate (SSC) exam for Standard 10 and the Higher Secondary (School) Certificate (HSC) exam for Standard 12 students in Gujarat. The Board also holds a Talent Search for students of Std VIII & IX in five major subjects every year.
If you get online result – HSC Result, SSC Result, Gujcat Result, and more give any result here…
Clarke”s not for changing in T20 hurly-burly
SYDNEY: Michael Clarke, leading Australia for the first time in a major international tournament, says he doesn”t feel the need to change his batting style to fit in with the blistering demands of Twenty20.
Clarke, 29, has stepped up to the national captaincy for the World Twenty20 in the Caribbean following Ricky Ponting”s decision to concentrate on Test and one-day internationals.
Clarke”s struggle to come to terms with the frenetic nature of T20 cricket mirrors Australia”s unconvincing efforts to master the shortened format, but he is confident he can make further strides in the third edition of the World T20 which starts on Friday.
The New South Wales right-hander prides himself on his elegant batting technique, honed as a youngster by facing the bowling machine at his father”s indoor centre.
“I think I can definitely still take it up a notch,” he said. “But I can”t walk out there and smack the ball out of the park from the very first ball.
“I know I won”t be successful like that. For me it”s important to play my shots, to use my strengths, my speed, my running between wickets and my energy in the field.
“With the squad we have if we need blokes to walk in there and hit it out of the park, we”ve got a lot of those players. I don”t think I have to do that.”
Afridi set for another rollercoaster ride
KARACHI: Pakistan skipper Shahid Afridi”s roller-coaster international career has reflected the fortunes of his team – brilliant and baffling.
From the time in 1996 when he hit the fastest one-day century off 37 balls against Sri Lanka in Nairobi, Afridi has never been far from the headlines.
A big-match player, the 30-year-old was the player of the tournament for the inaugural edition of the World Twenty20 in 2007 and last year led Pakistan to the title with match-winning performances in the semi-final and final.
“Pakistan are a team in the making at the moment and Shahid Afridi is quite a force in the shorter form of cricket,” said Pakistan Test legend Mushtaq Mohammad.
“He won us the Twenty20 last summer. He is a very positive cricketer and we need somebody to lead Pakistan from the front.”
Afridi, who gave up Test cricket in 2006, inherited the T20 captaincy after former skippers, and star batsmen, Younus Khan and Mohammad Yousuf were banned by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) after the disastrous tour of Australia ended without a single international win for the visitors.
Even Afridi didn”t escape censure.
He was fined 35,000 dollars by the PCB for ball-tampering in a one-day match against Australia in Perth in February, although he appealed saying it was unfair to punish him twice after he was hit with a two-game ban by the International Cricket Council.
Afridi has played 27 Twenty20 internationals, scoring 475 runs with a highest score of 54 not out. He has also taken 37 wickets with a best of 4-11 and a miserly average of 16.32.
Afridi believes his team, who are in Group A for the first round with Bangladesh as well as old rivals Australia in the Caribbean, have the right balance to retain their title.
“I have a well balanced team in batting and bowling, and we have to further lift the standard of fielding. Fielding is crucial in this fastest version of the game and a lot of hard work was done to raise the standard,” said the captain.
“But we have got a lot of firepower in our batting – Misbah-ul-Haq, Abdul Razzaq, Umar Akmal, Khalid Latif and Salman Butt. As we expect spinning tracks, we have good options in Saeed Ajmal, Mohammad Hafeez and myself. In the pace department we have Mohammad Aamer, Mohammad Sami, Mohammad Asif and Abdul Razzaq.”
Afridi also told a website that it was “mission as captain, with the support of players and team management, to keep the team away from any controversy.”
Oil slips on strong dollar, tumbling equities
LONDON: Oil prices fell on Thursday, dropping further away from recent 18-month highs as traders tracked lower stock markets, the strengthening dollar and growing US crude inventories.
New York”s main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in May, dropped 76 cents to 85.12 dollars a barrel, after spiking above 87 dollars on Tuesday.
London”s Brent North Sea crude for May fell 70 cents to 84.89 dollars.
“Crude and products futures are retreating … as the dollar continued to move higher and global equities slipped,” said analyst Addison Armstrong at US-based Tradition Energy.
European shares tumbled Thursday as investors tracked heightened worries about the Greek debt crisis while the eurozone and Britain held interest rates unchanged at record lows.
Prices also took a hit from the strong dollar, which makes dollar-priced oil more expensive for buyers using weaker currencies and therefore tends to dent demand.
The European single currency sank deeper against the dollar on Thursday amid persistent fears about Greece”s ability to overcome a massive debt crisis.
In early morning London deals, the euro tumbled as low as 1.3283 dollars — plumbing depths last seen on March 25.
“Oil prices, pressured by a strong dollar and high US crude stocks, continue to decline for the second day,” PVM analysts said in a note to clients.
Crude fell on Wednesday as traders reacted to rising US crude inventories that suggested weaker demand in the world”s biggest energy-consuming nation.
The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) said American oil inventories advanced by two million barrels in the week ending April 2, more than market consensus expectations for a gain of 1.4 million barrels.
Gasoline (petrol) stockpiles tumbled 2.5 million barrels, while distillates — which include diesel and heating fuel — rose 1.1 million barrels.
Oil briefly hit a fresh 18-month high on Tuesday as the market found support from a batch of encouraging economic indicators in the United States.
New York crude touched 87.09 dollars — the highest level since October 9, 2008.
“The market had gotten ahead of itself when it marched towards 87 dollars,” said Jason Feer, vice president with energy market analysts Argus Media.
“There are no physical reasons why prices should be moving so high,” he added.
Investors were taking a step back from the notion that recent positive economic data would spur stronger oil demand after the larger-than-expected increase in US crude stocks, Feer said.
“Even if people are justified in being so optimistic (about oil demand), there”s an awful lot of spare oil production capacity and refining capacity in the world.”
Stocks, euro slide on Greek fears, jobs data
NEW YORK/LONDON: US stocks slid and the euro fell to near its lowest level against the dollar this year on Thursday on growing doubts about Greece”s ability to resolve its fiscal problems.
In New York the euro was down 0.07 percent at $1.3331 after hitting a low around $1.3282, according to Reuters data. This was near its 2010 trough of $1.3267 set in March on electronic trading platform EBS, which was also its lowest since May last year.
World markets were still under selling pressure even after European Central Bank president Jean-Claude Trichet said Greece was not in danger of defaulting. “I would say that taking all the information I have, a default is not an issue for Greece,” Trichet said. “We are responsible for 330 million people and for 100 percent of the GDP of the euro area. Greece represents 2.5 percent of the GDP of the euro area, but it is obviously an important issue.”
Earlier, the ECB left euro zone interest rates at a record low of 1 percent.
The mood in the euro zone spilled over into stocks worldwide.
MSCI”s all-country world index of global equities was off 0.66 percent, a decline extended in emerging market shares, down 0.84 percent.
At 10:15 a.m. EST (1415 GMT), the Dow Jones industrial average was down 34.46 points, or 0.32 percent, at 10,863.06, while the Standard Poor”s 500 Index was down 5.11 points, or 0.43 percent, at 1,177.34. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 13.33 points, or 0.55 percent, at 2,417.83.
The FTSEurofirst 300 index was down 1.1 percent, after the Nikkei 225 Index had fallen the same amount.
“It is now up to the Greek government to go publicly to the EU and IMF and ask for the cash and the support; the matter cannot be long delayed,” Chris Pryce, Fitch Ratings” senior analyst for Greece, told Reuters in an interview.
RISK AVERSION RISES
US Treasury debt prices rose as pressure on equities continued globally.
The benchmark 10-year US Treasury note was up 4/32, with the yield at 3.85 percent, while the 2-year US Treasury note was up 1/32, with the yield at 1.04 percent. The 30-year US.
Treasury bond was up 3/32, with the yield at 4.73 percent.
Treasuries got a boost on weak jobless claims data. The number of US workers filing new claims for unemployment insurance rose unexpectedly last week, reflecting seasonal volatility, according to a government report on Thursday.
The dollar was up against a basket of major trading-partner currencies, with the US Dollar Index up 0.2 percent at 81.602 from a previous session close of 81.443.
The euro was down 0.07 percent at $1.3331 from a previous session close of $1.3340. Against the yen, the dollar was down 0.32 percent at 93.04 yen from a previous session close of 93.34.
US light sweet crude oil fell 86 cents, or 1 percent, to $85.02 per barrel, while spot gold rose $1.50, or 0.13 percent, to $1149.00. The Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index was down 0.92 percent, at 275.05.
