Karzai invites Gilani to Kabul

Staff Report

KARACHI: Afghan President Hamid Karzai called Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani over telephone on Tuesday evening especially to extend his formal invitation to the later for his first official visit to Kabul in the near future.

The Afghan President that he would like to discuss the whole gamut of bilateral relations between the two countries, during the visit.

The Prime Minister accepted the invitation and expressed confidence that high level contacts would bring the two fraternal countries even closer.

It was decided by the two leaders that their respective foreign ministries would coordinate to agree on the mutually acceptable time-frame of the visit. Trend Pk

Obama pushes India to talk to Pakistan

MUMBAI: U.S. President Barack Obama called on India on Sunday to bolster peace efforts with Pakistan, a country that he said was not acting quickly enough to deal with militancy within its borders.

Obama faces a diplomatic tightrope in fostering ties with India as its economic and geopolitical importance grows while at the same time helping Pakistan with billions of dollars in aid and promoting wider peace in Afghanistan.

“My hope is that over time, trust develops between the two countries, that dialogue begins, perhaps on less controversial issues, building up to more controversial issues,” Obama told a meeting of students at a college in Mumbai.

“There are more Pakistanis who’ve been killed by terrorists inside Pakistan than probably anywhere else,” Obama said.

India blames Pakistan for fostering militants and says elements within the Pakistan

China trade ties unaffected by Nobel prize: Norway

SHANGHAI: Trade and economic ties between China and Norway remain strong, with ongoing negotiations between the two countries for a free trade agreement on track, Norway’s Fisheries Minister said on Friday.

“In trade, and seafood everything is fine. We have a very good relationship between China and Norway both in shipping and in seafood and in many other trade areas,” Lisbeth Berg-Hansen, told Reuters in an interview at the Shanghai World Expo.

Beijing has cancelled several official meetings with Norway after the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo. AGENCIES

9 injured in Spain final bull run

PAMPLONA, Spain: Nine thrill-seeking runners were injured, three by goring, in a dangerous last running of the bulls at Spain’s San Fermin festival, officials said Wednesday.

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9 injured in Spain final bull run

Krishna says Pakistan has to dismantle terror

ISLAMABAD: Indian External Affairs Minister S M Krishna said that in order for India and Pakistan to stride towards bridging the trust deficit between the two countries, Pakistan must dismantle for good the terror instrumentality within the country.

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Krishna says Pakistan has to dismantle terror

Balochistan protests against Habib Jalib’s killing

QUETTA: The entire province of Balochistan including Quetta today erupted with protests against the murder of Secretary General of Balochistan National Party (BNP) Habib Jalib, Geo News reported Wednesday.

The BNP announced 40-day mourning across the province and wheel-jam strike on national thoroughfares.

Following the killing incident, his relatives and activists of BNP arrived at Civil Hospital, took to street, chanting anti-government slogans and blocked Jinnah Road in front of Civil Hospital.

Later on, the party workers transported his body to Governor House, where they were intercepted by the police at GPO Chawk, resulting in clash and scuffles.

Police resorted to tear-gassing to break up the protesting crowd, which a little later, dispersed leaving a panic trail behind in various areas of the city.

The body was taken to residence at Sariab Road.

The party workers and demonstrators protested at jail Road, Hada, Qambarani Road, Sariab Road and Bruri Road causing traffic holdups on roads. Meantime, they ran amok as well.

According to reports pouring in from other areas of the province, various areas including Noshki, Mustong, Khuzdar, Qallat, Dalbadin and Awaran are observing shutter-down and wheel-jam strike.

Quetta-Karachi Road has been shut down in Khuzdar, Mangocher and Qallat and Quetta-Sibbi Road blocked in Kolpur area. Hub is also witnessing absolute lockdown of commercial activity in the city with slim traffic on roads.

The traffic between Hub and Karachi is left almost suspended.

The traffic on Quetta-Hub RCD Road is also suspended tamping down the trade activities to zero with slim attendance at government and private offices.

Unidentified gunmen opened fire on a former senator and the secretary general of Balochistan National Party (BNP) Habib Jalib, leaving him critically wounded near Moosa Colony in Quetta, who succumbed to wounds on the way to hospital.

Indian FM arrives in Islamabad

ISLAMABAD: Indian External Affairs Minister S M Krishna along with eight-member delegation arrive in Islamabad on Wednesday on the invitation of his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi.

Krishna will hold talks with President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani. The formal meeting between the two countries will be held on Thursday. Krishna said that Kashmir issue will be top on agenda during the meeting with his Pakistani counterpart.

It will be the first meeting between Qureshi and Krishna in Islamabad after their meeting in New Delhi at the time of Mumbai attacks in November 2008.

Zardari, Hu Jintao reaffirm strategic partnership

BEIJING: Pakistan and China on Wednesday reaffirmed at the highest level to strengthen strategic relationship between the two countries, increase the level of economic cooperation by an order of magnitude and take concrete measures to further bring their peoples closer.

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First T20 between Pak, Australia today

LONDON: Pakistan will face Australia in the first T20 match of the series in Edgbaston today (Monday).

Shahid Afridi will lead the Pakistani squad. Pakistan are facing Australia for the first time after being defeated in the World T20 semi-finals.

Pakistan completed preparations for two Twenty20 internationals against Australia playing T20 matches against Essex and Northamptonshire and winning both.

The second Twenty20 International between the two countries will be played on Tuesday.

Nadal reclaims Wimbledon crown in style

LONDON: Rafael Nadal reclaimed the Wimbledon men”s singles title on Sunday, putting in a dominating performance to beat Tomas Berdych 6-3, 7-5, 6-4 in the final.

The Spanish world number one was too good for the Czech 12th seed on Centre Court and was rarely troubled as he won his second championship at the All England Club.

In securing his eighth Grand Slam, Nadal went level with Andre Agassi, Jimmy Connors, Ivan Lendl, Fred Perry and Ken Rosewall.

And with Switzerland”s Roger Federer showing signs of weakness, Nadal could easily go on to eclipse their efforts.

Furthermore, the “King of Clay” underlined his mastery on all surfaces by completing his second French Open-Wimbledon back-to-back double, winning both finals in straight sets.

Nadal went into the match with a 7-3 head-to-head lead, having won their last six clashes, all in straight sets.

Undefeated at Wimbledon since the 2007 final, Nadal won the 2008 title by beating Federer in an epic five-set tussle, but could not defend it last year, due to the chronic knee problems that he is still not rid of.

But this was a much more straightforward victory than his extraordinary battle with Federer here two years ago.

Second seed Nadal was tested in the early rounds of the tournament, but upped his game from the fourth round onwards, always having too much for every opponent thrown his way.

Berdych, though, had pulled off the shock of the tournament in beating six-time Wimbledon champion Federer in the quarters, then defeated third seed Novak Djokovic in straight sets to earn his first Grand Slam final appearance.

But he could not reproduce those performances this time, being defeated in two hours and 13 minutes.

Nadal walked away with one million pounds (1.5 million dollars), while Berdych collected 500,000 pounds.

Berdych laid down a statement of intent by serving the first game to love, but his service percentages soon waned, allowing Nadal to get into the points and eventually forge an opportunity to break.

In the seventh game, with the fluffy balls taking the edge off the Czech”s serve, Nadal earned himself three break points with a superb passing shot, and won the game when Berdych shot wide.

Nadal took the next game to love, piling the pressure on the Czech as he served for the set.

The Spaniard had two set points, and though Berdych boomed down an ace, he hit a return into the net to give Nadal the set.

Berdych tried to hit straight back in the first game of the second set, and earned himself a break point. It took Nadal 10 minutes, four deuces and another two break points to see off the challenge and the Spaniard never looked back from there.

The Czech served his next two service games to love, but struggled to make inroads on Nadal”s serve.

Despite the deadlock, both players were sticking to their game plans, with neither player taking a risk on serve and volley tactics.

The set seemed destined to go to a tie-break.

However, serving at 6-5 down, Berdych missed a succession of chipped returns, gifting three set points to Nadal and losing it when he hit a forehand just wide.

In the third set, Berdych had an excellent chance to get back into the match when he got a break point in the third game, but Nadal held his nerve.

As the games went with serve, Nadal served the ninth to love to leave Berdych serving to stay in the final.

The game went to deuce and Nadal had championship point when his opponent missed a forehand, then reclaimed the Wimbledon crown with a passing shot.

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