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Junior World Cup Hockey to be held in Malaysia ISLAMABAD: The Junior World Cup Hockey Tournament will be held next month in Malaysian city Johor Bahro and Singapore.The tournament will be co-hosted by Malaysia and Singapore and in all 20 teams will participate in the event to be played from June 7 to 21.The Pakistan Hockey Federation has announced a 20-member national team for taking part in the Junior World Cup.As per chairman selection committee Hasan Sardar, Shafqat Rasool will lead the national team. he will be deputized by Abdul Haseem Khan.Included among other players are goal keepers Imran Shah and Imran Butt, full backs Muhammad Ateeq, Kashif Ali and Amir Shahzad, half backs Muhammad Irfan, Fareed Ahmad, Muhammad Rashid, Mohsin Bilal and Sibtain Raza, forwards Waqas Sharif, Abbas Haider, Muhammad Zubair, Inayat Ullah, Muhammad Rizwan, Muhammad Taufeeq, Hassan Akhtar and Azlan Khan. Officials Khursheed Mohammad Junaid (chief coach), Ahmed Alam (goalkeeping coach), Danish Kaleem...

LONDON: A woman was jailed for seven years on Friday for falsely imprisoning her three daughters-in-law from Pakistan who she treated as "slaves and dogs" and subjected to regular beatings. Naseebah Bibi, 63, would not allow them to leave the family home in Blackburn without her permission, One of her victims told detectives she was forced to work on an industrial sewing machine day and night for 13 years.Bibi was convicted last month of falsely imprisoning Nagina Akhtar between 1993 and 2006, Tazeem Akhtar from 2001 to 2003 and Nisbah Akhtar between 2005 and 2007.All three women were brought to Britain following arranged marriages to Bibi's three sons and had little contact with the outside world. The jury heard they were treated as "slaves and dogs" and subjected to beatings and abuse on arrival.Nagina told the court that Bibi struck her with a brush handle and slapped her across the face whenever she disobeyed her. Sisters Nisbah and Tazeem also gave evidence...

KABUL: Authorities in Afghanistan said Friday that troops had killed 53 militants in an upsurge of violence across the war-torn country that also left 11 Afghan soldiers and civilians dead.The heaviest battle was early Thursday when Afghan and US-led troops came under heavy fire from militants while on patrol in southern Zabul province, the US military said."The combined forces returned fire and requested air support, killing 35 and wounding 13," it said in a statement. The remaining militants fled, and the wounded were treated and taken into Afghan army custody, it said. The military did not say whether the militants were suspected Taliban but fighters from that group operate in Zabul and other southern provinces. It was impossible to independently confirm details of the clash in Zabul's Daychopan district, which borders Pakistan's Baluchistan, where extremist militants have bases.Afghanistan is gripped by an insurgency led by the Taliban, who were in government bet...

TEHRAN: Gunmen attacked Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's election campaign centre in the southeastern city of Zahedan on Friday, a day after a deadly mosque bombing in the city blamed on Washington. State-run news agency said gunmen on motorbikes opened fire at the centre, wounding three people including a child who needed surgery for stomach wounds.The early evening attack came a day after a suicide bomber killed 25 people and wounded 125 others in an attack on a Shiite mosque in Zahedan, restive capital of Sistan-Baluchestan province bordering Afghanistan and Pakistan. Sistan-Baluchestan deputy governor Jalal Sayah told the news agency that the bombers of the Shiite Amir al-Momenin mosque were "hired by America and the agents of the arrogance" -- a reference to Washington. But Washington rejected the claim. "We condemn this attack in the strongest possible terms," State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said. "We do not sponsor any form of terrorism ...

JAKARTA: A 5.2-magnitude quake struck the Molucca Sea off the Indonesian coast Saturday, seismologists said. The quake hit at 3:12 am (1912 GMT Friday), 112 kilometres (70 miles) west-northwest of Ternate at a depth of 35 kilometres, the USGS said. No tsunami warning was immediately issued. Indonesia sits on the Pacific "Ring of Fire," where the meeting of continental plates causes high volcanic and seismic activity.

SAO PAULO: Authorities said heavy rains have caused a dam to rupture in northeastern Brazil, stranding nearly 3,000 people in a region where floods have killed 53 people and displaced more than 415,000.Officials say they launched an overnight rescue operation using five helicopters to aid nearly 600 families stranded by Wednesday's dam break in Piaui state.Piaui civil defense department spokeswoman Vanize Lemos said Thursday that 150 families have been rescued. She said some residents climbed trees and rooftops after a river rose 16 feet (5 meters).Heavy rains have battered northern and northeastern Brazil since April, causing floods and mudslides in a region extending from the Amazon rain forest to the Atlantic Ocean.

JAKARTA: Rescuers searched for survivors Friday after a wooden boat packed with Afghan migrants sank off western Indonesia, killing at least nine people and leaving 11 others missing, the navy said.More than a dozen Afghans have been found alive in the Malacca Strait, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) from land, said Al Muhfid, a navy second lieutenant. Most were plucked from the choppy waters by fishermen immediately after Thursday's accident.The Afghan men, including several who were badly hurt, told authorities they had flown from Afghanistan to Malaysia, where human traffickers offered to help them get by boat to Australia, where they hoped to start a new life.But nine hours into the journey, as they were nearing Indonesia's coast of Sumatra to refuel, they encountered a dark, thick haze triggered by land-clearing forest fires. They slammed into a fishing platform, putting the boat off balance."Just then, they were hit by high waves and the boat capsized," said Muhfi...

ROME: Fire broke out Friday on an Italian ferry carrying more than 500 people to Sicily and all the passengers were taken by lifeboat to another ferry and a coast guard vessel, officials said.Five passengers, including a pregnant woman, were taken to a hospital as a precaution.The fire continued to rage in the car hold as the vessel was towed toward Palermo, the Sicilian capital, Sicily's fire department said.The vessel Vincenzo Florio, traveling from the mainland port city of Naples to Palermo, was 25 miles (40 kilometers) from its destination when the fire broke out in the car hold."They knocked on the door of the cabin and told us to get on deck," passenger Stefano Friscia told Sky TG 24 television. "It was hard to breathe, the whole ship filled with smoke and they ordered the lifeboats lowered."The 526 passengers were taken onto the coast guard ship that came to the rescue and the other ferry, said Palermo port official Cosimo Seminara.Most of the 35 crew me...

WASHINGTON: The White House says the relationship between the United States and the Muslim world is "in need of substantial improvement."President Barack Obama is scheduled to deliver a speech on that relationship in Cairo on Thursday. He has said he plans to discuss the United States' outreach to Muslims around the world and contributions of Muslims in the United States.White House press secretary Robert Gibbs says the president believes improving the relationship will take more than one speech. He says the president's visit to Turkey in April, as well as his meeting this week with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, are all part of his efforts to reach out to the Muslim world.

SINGAPORE: US Defence Secretary Robert Gates pressed Myanmar's military rulers Saturday to free pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and reopen dialogue with the opposition.

SYDNEY: The United States has made a new request for Australia to accept a group of detainees from Guantanamo Bay for resettlement, a government spokeswoman said on Saturday. The request is the first by President Barack Obama's administration, which plans to close down the detention camp in Cuba within the next year. Media reports have said the request involves a group of Uighurs from China's largely Muslim western province of Xinjiang. Beijing has reportedly been pressing Washington to return them to China, but U.S. officials have expressed concerns about their likely treatment there.Earlier requests for resettlement in Australia late last year by former president George W. Bush's administration we returned down by Canberra in January on "national security and immigration" grounds. A spokeswoman for Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith confirmed the new request had been received. "The Australian government will consider this request on a case by case ba...

LONDON: More than 20,000 Tamil civilians were killed in the final days of Sri Lanka’s military operation to eliminate the Tamil Tigers, a British newspaper reported. Sri Lanka’s authorities say their forces stopped using heavy weapons on April 27 in a no-fire zone where an estimated 100,000 Tamil civilians were sheltered and blame civilian casualties on rebels hiding among the civilians, the London-based paper said. Citing confidential UN documents it acquired, the daily said the civilian death toll in the no-fire zone soared from late April, with around 1,000 civilians killed daily until May 19. That was the day after Vellupillai Prabhakaran, leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), was killed. The final civilian death toll could be more than 20,000, said the paper. That figure is three times the official count. In fact, ‘‘higher’’, a UN source was quoted as saying by the paper. ‘‘Keep going.’’

HAVANA: Cuba criticized Microsoft on Friday for blocking its Messenger instant messaging service on the island and in other countries under U.S. sanctions, calling it yet another example of Washington's ``harsh'' treatment of Havana.The technology giant recently announced it was disabling the program's availability in Cuba, Syria, Iran, Sudan and North Korea to come into compliance with a U.S. ban on transfer of licensed software to embargoed countries.The move ``is just the latest turn of the screw in the United States' technological blockade against the island,'' a technology writer said in an article published by state youth newspaper Juventud Rebelde.

SINGAPORE: The United States and China need to cooperate on security matters and maintain transparent military ties, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said here Saturday. "It is essential for the United States and China to find opportunities to cooperate wherever possible," Gates told a high-level security forum in Singapore."This includes maintaining a defence relationship marked by consistent and open channels of communication and contact," he said. "Likewise, it is essential that we are transparent -- both to each other and the rest of the world -- about our strategic goals, political intentions, and military development." China's support is widely seen as crucial to resolving the North Korean nuclear crisis because it is one of the few states with an influence on the isolated Stalinist regime in Pyongyang. The United States, China and other UN Security Council members have been studying possible sanctions against North Korea over its second nuclear...

SINGAPORE: A top Chinese army official called on North Korea to move to denuclearisation and asked all regional parties to stay calm after the isolated state's nuclear test this week. "Our hope is that all parties concerned will remain cool-headed and take measures to address the problem," MaXiaotian, deputy chief of general staff of the People's Liberation Army, told a meeting of Asian defence ministers in Singapore on Saturday. "Our stand on the issue is consistent. We are resolutely opposed to nuclear proliferation. Our view is that the Korean peninsula should move towards denuclearisation." South Korea has said an increasingly aggressive North may be preparing fresh moves after Chinese fishing boats were spotted leaving a disputed sea border dividing the peninsula.

SINGAPORE: South Korean defence minister Lee Sang Hee said on Saturday Seoul would work to resolve relations with North Korea peacefully, but urged the United Nations to take action after the North's nuclear test this week."We urge the United Nations Security Council and international community to take active measures against North Korea's wrongdoings," Lee told a defense meeting in Singapore. "Our government will work to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue peacefully, through consultation with members of the six-party talks and the international community."

SINGAPORE: Japan would not initiate any hostilities against North Korea, but is ready to defend itself, its defence minister said Saturday amid international tensions over Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions.Defence Minister Yasukazu Hamada, speaking at a high-level security forum in Singapore, said Tokyo would be transparent with its military hardware purchases in order to prevent any misunderstanding with neighbours. "We have mentioned that North Korea is a threat because of what has happened in the past, but unless there are other countries moving to us, we will never start an action as such," Hamada told delegates at the annual Shangri-La Dialogue on security. "In Japan, we have various and numerous constraints and internationally, we have also made clear that we do not use force in order to resolve conflict situations," he said. He told the forum Tokyo was looking at a range of weapon procurements including the F-22 fifth-generation fighter aircraft, but stressed...

TEHRAN: Iran executed in public three men convicted of involvement in a deadly mosque bombing in the southeast of the country, the news agency reported on Saturday. "Three people convicted of being involved in the recent terrorist bombing in Zahedan were hanged in public on Saturday morning," the news agency said, adding that the execution took place near the mosque where the bombing took place. A provincial official said on Friday that the people behind the bombing were hired by the United States, an accusation Washington rejected.

SRINAGAR: "Acts of terrorism" by Taliban extremists in Pakistan are un-Islamic, a hard-line Muslim politician campaigning for Kashmir's independence from India said Saturday.Referring to Thursday's spate of bomb attacks in Pakistan's northwestern cities, in which 15 people were killed, Syed Ali Geelani told reporters that, "such attacks are forbidden in Islam as innocents are killed. "Islam is a religion of peace and such attacks defame the religion," said the 79-year-old Geelani, who supports a two-decade insurgency against India's rule over half of Kashmir.Geelani, who heads a hard-line faction in the region's main separatist alliance, the Hurriyat (Freedom) Conference, called on the Taliban to lay down their arms and hold peace talks with Pakistan's government. "Taliban leadership needs to give up violence and adopt peaceful means to get their demands addressed," Geelani said, warning that killings of "innocent people c...

ATHENS: More than 1,000 Muslim immigrants and rights advocates marched peacefully through central Athens Friday to protest a police officer's alleged defacement of an extract of the Quran during an identity check on an Iraqi man. Immigrant groups and human rights organizations held the rally a week after a similar demonstration degenerated into clashes with police, leaving 14 people injured, dozens of cars smashed and 46 people arrested. There were no disturbances as the crowd marched to Parliament, chanting ``God is Great'' and holding up banners saying ``Stop racist attacks.'' The protesters want police to apologize for the incident last week in which they say an officer tore and stomped on an extract of the Quran during an identity check for Muhammad Attiq. Police say they are investigating the allegation. Attiq has filed a lawsuit against the officer. Dozens of police deployed to prevent possible clashes with far-right protesters gathering nearby for a separate...

SAN FRANCISCO: A US weapons lab on Friday pulled back the curtain on a super laser with the power to burn as hot as a star.The National Ignition Facility's main purpose is to serve as a tool for gauging the reliability and safety of the US nuclear weapons arsenal but scientists say it could deliver breakthroughs in safe fusion power."We have invented the world's largest laser system," actor-turned-governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said during a dedication ceremony attended by thousands including state and national officials."We can create the stars right here on earth. And I can see already my friends in Hollywood being very upset that their stuff that they show on the big screen is obsolete. We have the real stuff right here."NIF is touted as the world's highest-energy laser system. It is located inside the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory about an hour's drive from San Francisco.Equipment connected to a house-sized sphere can focus 192 laser be...

NEW YORK: Angelina Jolie suffered a minor injury on the set of her new movie Salt which saw her being taken to hospital.Usmagazine.com reports that the star was filming the thriller in New York's Long Island when she got a scratch on her face and bumped her head. She was performing a stunt when the incident happened.The star was then taken to hospital, but her manager told website TMZ that she would be fine and Sony, the studio behind the film, issued the following statement."This morning, while filming an action sequence during production of her new movie Salt, Angelina Jolie sustained a minor injury," it read. "As a precautionary measure, Ms. Jolie will be taken to the hospital and examined. Production on the film has resumed."Following her hospital visit, the actress is said to have returned to the set and continued shooting.