Sethi gets Pakistan Big 4 status in ICC

LAHORE: Pakistan made extraordinarily significant gains at the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) annual meeting in Melbourne on Thursday, says a press release.

Of the three major concessions that PCB Chairman Najam Sethi was able to secure was the ICC’s willingness to grant Pakistan the fourth rank (‘Big Four’) after the ‘Big Three’ in terms of the percentage of revenue to be received from the ICC in the next eight years from broadcasting and other rights on ICC fixtures. The concessions include ICC’s confirmation to Pakistan for the award of presidential position with effect from June 2015.

“The PCB had organised itself and planned to get maximum advantage for Pakistan cricket from an extremely precarious position. We have accomplished all our objectives. And I am positive that in the times to come Pakistan Cricket shall greatly benefit from what PCB has been able to obtain for it today,” Sethi said while speaking from Melbourne.

It may be mentioned that Sethi had promised massive achievements for Pakistan after taking over the PCB charge. Talking to the Geo News programme, Aaj Kamraan Khan Key Saath, Sethi promised more good news.

Model Town tragedy: Sanaullah, Shah granted 4 days to record statements

LAHORE: Former Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah and former Principal Secretary Tauqir Shah appeared before the tribunal formed to probe the Model Town tragedy on Thursday.

Sanullah and Shah requested to be provided four days to record their statements before the inquiry tribunal. The one-member inquiry tribunal headed by Justice Ali Baqir Najafi granted Sanaullah and Shah four days to record their statements.

Justice Najafi said Sanaullah and Shah should record their statements by Monday, adding that they could be summoned again if the need arose.

The inquiry tribunal resumed its probe into the tragedy on Thursday. Sanullah, Shah along with Chief Secretary Punjab and Inspector General Police Punjab appeared before the tribunal.

The former provincial law minister was surrounded by parliamentarians, lawyers and PML-N workers when he arrived to appear before the tribunal.

Iraq attacks kill 33 as 2014 death toll tops 4,000

BAGHDAD: Attacks across Iraq killed 33 people on Wednesday, the latest in a months-long surge in violence that has left more than 4,000 people dead this year.

The shootings and bombings struck in Baghdad and restive parts of the north and west, leaving dozens more wounded, security and medical officials said.

The protracted spike in bloodletting has fuelled fears that Iraq is slipping back into the all-out conflict that plagued it in 2006 and 2007, when a brutal sectarian war left tens of thousands dead.

In the deadliest attack, a suicide car bomb exploded in north Baghdad, killing at least 16 people and wounding 50 others, security and medical officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Elsewhere in and around the capital, six people were killed in multiple attacks, while three others died in the northern provinces of Kirkuk and Nineveh.

Also in north Iraq, a series of 11 bombings in the ethnically mixed town of Tuz Khurmatu killed five people, four of them members of the same family, and wounded 11.The blasts targeted homes belonging to ethnic Turkmen.

The town, which is also populated by Arabs and Kurds, lies in a stretch of territory that Kurdish leaders want to incorporate into their autonomous region over the objections of the central government.

Insurgents often exploit poor communication between Arab and Kurdish security forces to carry out attacks in the area.

Van falls deep down ravine, 4 killed at Shangla

SHANGLA: At least four persons were killed and five sustained injuries as a passenger van plunged down a deep ravine at Sakargah on Saturday here, Geo News reported.

Sources said that the ill-fated passenger van on way from Shangla to Batgram went out of control due to high speed skidded deep down a ravine at Sakagah that killed four persons, while five sustained injuries.

Local people and rescue teams shifted the bodies and the injured to the nearby hospital.

Militant attack in Afghanistan kills 4 policemen

KABUL: Officials say a militant attack on a security post in eastern Afghanistan has killed four policemen.

The Khost provincial government says in a statement Thursday that two members of the national police and two border police died in the attack the previous night in Ali Shir district.

It says three militants were killed in the battle and one was captured.

The deputy police chief for Khost, Yaquob Khan, says the battle for the post lasted two hours. He says the attackers were from the Haqqani network. (AFP)

Car bomb outside Nairobi police station kills 4

NAIROBI: Police in Kenya´s capital intercepted a suspicious car at a traffic light Wednesday and were taking the occupants in for questioning when the car exploded, killing four people, including two police officers, officials said.

The car exploded just outside a police station´s main gate in central Nairobi, turning the car into an unrecognizable heap of twisted metal.

David Kimaiyo, the inspector general of police, said two officers were killed, along with two other people.

Terror warnings have been a constant in Kenya in recent months, particularly after September´s attack on Westgate Mall killed at least 67 people. Most of the small-scale attacks and explosions are blamed on al-Shabab, the militant group in Somalia that has vowed revenge attacks in Kenya because Kenyan troops moved into southern Somalia in 2011.

Patrick Kimiti was close to the car when it exploded. "I was just tossed up immediately and when I landed, I lay on the ground. There was so much dust. People were screaming. Cars were skidding and making U-turns," he said.

Kenyan authorities this month have been carrying out an extensive sweep of Nairobi´s ethnic Somali neighborhoods, making thousands of arrests and deporting more than 100 people to Somalia.

Somali Kenyans say they know that further police clamp-downs will follow attacks such as Wednesday´s car bomb blast. (AP)

4 dead, including gunman, at Fort Head: officials

FORT HOOD: A gunman opened fire Wednesday at Fort Hood in an attack that left four dead, including the shooter, law enforcement officials said.

One of the officials, citing official internal Justice Department updates, said 14 others were hurt. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release information by name.

A U.S. law enforcement official said reports circulating within the Justice Department indicate the shooter died of what appears to be a self-inflicted wound. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is still ongoing.

The Texas Army base was the scene of a mass shooting in 2009. Thirteen people were killed and more than 30 wounded in what was the deadliest attack on a domestic military installation in history.

The Army said on its official Twitter feed that the post was still on lockdown. Injured people were being treated at the post's Carl R. Darnall Medical Center and other local hospitals.

Outside the base, some relatives of soldiers waited for news about their loved ones.

Tayra DeHart, 33, said she had last heard from her husband, a soldier at the post, that he was safe, but that was hours earlier.

"The last two hours have been the most nerve-wracking I've ever felt. I know God is here protecting me and all the soldiers, but I have my phone in my hand just hoping it will ring and it will be my husband," DeHart said.

In Chicago, President Barack Obama vowed that investigators will get to the bottom of the shooting, seeking to reassure the nation whose sense of security once again has been shaken by mass violence

In a hastily arranged statement, Obama said he and his team were following the situation closely but that details about what happened at the sprawling Army post were still fluid. He said the shooting brought back painful memories of the 2009 attack.

Obama reflected on the sacrifices that troops stationed at Fort Hood have made - including during multiple tours to Iraq and Afghanistan.

"They serve with valor, they serve with distinction and when they're at their home base, they need to feel safe," Obama said. "We don't yet know what happened tonight, but obviously that sense of safety has been broken once again."

The president spoke without notes or prepared remarks in the same room of a steakhouse where he had just met with about 25 donors at a previously scheduled fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee. White House officials quickly pushed tables to the side of the room to make room for Obama to speak to the nation.

 

Two explosions in Karachi hurt 4

KARACHI: Two explosions took place in a seminary and a mosque located in Gulshan e Iqbal and Gulshan e Hadeed respectively, injuring at least four people including children.

According to police, the first incident took place in Gulshan e Iqbal block 6 where bomb went off near NIPA Chowrangi that left one person injured.

Police said that the militants tried to enter the seminary, however, the guard succeeded to stop them after which militants left the bomb outside the seminary and managed to flee.

Police and Rangers personnel put the security cordon following the incident. Bomb Disposal Squad said that 1 kilogram explosive material was used in the blast.

In Gulshan e Hadeed, a planted bomb exploded outside the Mosque, leaving two children wounded.

IAF's Super Hercules plane crashes near Gwalior, 4 commandos killed

GWALIOR: At least four commandos were killed as an Indian Air Force's newly-acquired C-130J Super Hercules special operations aircraft crashed near Gwalior, officials said.

The plane, carrying an unknown number of people, crashed 72 km west of Gwalior on the Madhya Pradesh-Rajasthan border.

Four commandos have been killed as reported so far and rescue operations are underway.

India had signed a $1.2 billion contract with the United States in 2008 for buying six C-130J planes. The IAF has plans to place a follow-on order for six more.

The Super Hercules planes are operated by 15 countries including the air forces of the US, the UK, Australia, Canada, Denmark and Italy.

IAF had landed the C130J at the world's highest airstrip in northeastern Ladakh on August 20, 2013