Geo World

Istanbul conference on Afghanistan begins today

STANBUL: Istanbul conference, an International moot on Afghanistan is beginning today to chart the war-torn nation's future after Western troops depart in 2014 and hand over to Afghan forces. Representatives of 23 countries including 14 regional countries Afghanistan, China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenisan, Uzbekistan and the United Arab Emirates will participate. Germany, France and other Western countries with troops deployed in Afghanistan were sending envoys to participate in the conference. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had planned to attend, but canceled her trip due to private engagements Diplomats will campaign for a stable Afghanistan after the planned withdrawal of international combat forces by the end of 2014. Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar will represent Pakistan in the conference.

Geo Business

 Banks told to keep ATMs full of cash on Eid holidays

  KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has directed commercial banks to ensure that ATMs deliver cash during Eid holidays, Geo News reported Tuesday.

According to sources, SBP has directed all commercial banks to ensure that ATMs are operational to provide service to customers. Sources add that banks have been told not let any complaints arise relating to the non-availability of cash at the ATMs during the five consecutive day holidays on the eve of Eid ul Azha

The directives further make it mandatory for the banks to ensure sufficient availability of cash at the ATMs by posting the concerned staff during the holidays for this purpose.

Earlier during Eid holidays, drawing cash from the ATMs despite sufficient deposits in the accounts was a mere dream for the account holders, as ATMs used to soon run out of cash.

Geo Sports

Butt, Asif found guilty of spot-fixing

LONDON: Pakistan cricketers Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif were found guilty Tuesday of fixing parts of a Test against England in a case that has thrown the credibility of the international game into doubt. Former Test captain Butt, 27, and fast bowler Asif, 28, face jail after a court in London convicted them of deliberately bowling three no-balls during the Lord's Test in August 2010 as part of a "spot-fixing" betting scam. The verdicts are a scalp from beyond the grave for Britain's News of the World tabloid, which uncovered the conspiracy but was shut down by owner Rupert Murdoch this year amid a scandal over phone-hacking. Prosecutors alleged Butt and Asif conspired with British agent Mazher Majeed and Pakistan fast bowler Mohammad Aamer to bowl the no-balls as part of a plot that revealed "rampant corruption" at the heart of international cricket. Butt faces up to seven years in prison jail after the jury at Southwark Crown Court convicted him of conspiracy to obtain or accept corrupt payments, and conspiracy to cheat at gambling. Asif was found guilty of conspiring to accept corrupt payments in a "spot-fixing" betting scam. The 28-year-old was also found guilty by the jury at Southwark Crown Court on a separate count of conspiring to cheat at gambling. The corrupt payment charge carries a maximum sentence of seven years' imprisonment. They are expected to be sentenced later this week. Butt and Asif had pleaded not guilty and they sat in silence in the dock as the jury delivered their verdicts, after spending nearly 17 hours in deliberations over four days. Majeed, 36, and Aamer, 19, were also charged with the same offences but were not standing trial alongside Butt and Asif. Mohammad Aamer pleaded guilty to involvement in a spot-fixing betting scam before the trial of his teammates. Aamer pleaded guilty to conspiracy to cheat and conspiracy to accept corrupt payments at a pre-trial hearing on September 16. In a further twist, Butt's wife gave birth to a baby boy just 30 minutes before the verdict was delivered, his father said by telephone from Pakistan's eastern city of Lahore. Butt already has one daughter. During the three-week trial the jury heard that vast sums of money could be made by rigging games for betting syndicates, particularly in South Asia, and that the problem was theatening the game of cricket. Mazher Mahmood, News of the World's former investigations editor, known as the "fake sheikh" for his disguises, told the court he had approached Majeed pretending to be an Indian businessman. Majeed claimed he had at least six Pakistani players working for him and that it would cost between £50,000 and £80,000 ($78,000 and $125,000) to fix a "bracket", where bets are made on incidents during a given period of play. But the cost of rigging a whole result was far more, at £400,000 for a Twenty20, £450,000 for a one-day international, and £1 million for Test matches, Majeed allegedly told the reporter. The agent was secretly filmed accepting £150,000 in cash from the journalist as part of an arrangement to bowl the no-balls, and recorded allegedly making arrangements with Butt for the no balls. Butt told the court he had ignored his agent's requests to fix games and had no knowledge of the plan to bowl no balls, while admitting that he had failed in his duty to inform cricketing authorities of Majeed's approach. Asif meanwhile said he had bowled a no ball at the exact time the agent had predicted to the News of the World journalist because Butt had told him to run faster moments before his delivery. The team's manager during the fateful tour of England when the scam was uncovered, Yawar Saeed, said Pakistan cricket had been badly tarnished by the case. "I feel very sad because I tried my level best to tell them to keep away from notorious people. They should have understood that and they committed a blunder, and when you commit a blunder, you are punished," Saeed said. "I'm also sad because the country's name has been dragged into this entire controversy. Pakistan is known for its talented players but this case has stained the country's image badly," he added. The case is the worst in international cricket since that of South Africa's Hansie Cronje a decade ago. Cronje was banned for life in 2000 after it was revealed he accepted money from bookmakers in a bid to influence the course of games as well as trying to corrupt his team-mates. He died in a plane crash in 2002. (AFP)

Geo World

 US sanctions Haqqani network commander

 WASHINGTON: The United States took action Tuesday aimed at ensuring that a jailed commander of the militant Haqqani network or his associates never benefit from funds under American jurisdiction.

The State Department blacklisted commander Mali Khan under an executive order signed by President George W. Bush in 2001 in a bid to block funds to suspected terrorists, after a similar move in August against commander Sangeen Zadran.

"All property subject to US jurisdiction in which Mali Khan has any interest is blocked and US persons are prohibited from engaging in any transactions with him," the State Department said.

"This action will help stem the flow of financial and other assistance to the Haqqani network," a group blamed for high-profile attacks on US and Afghan targets, the State Department said.

It said Mali Khan was detained in Afghanistan in a late September raid by Afghan and coalition forces, but State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the sanctions seek to freeze transactions involving him or his associates.

"We want to make sure that... nobody can do business with anybody who has access to his stuff, and/or... if he ever came to a time when he was out of custody, that he shouldn't have any illusions about being able to do business," she told reporters.

Affiliated with the Taliban, the Haqqani network is considered the most dangerous enemy of US troops in eastern Afghanistan. (AFP)

Geo Entertainment

SRK celebrating 46th birthday today

MUMBAI: Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan is celebrating his 46th birthday today. Shah Rukh Khan was born on 02 November 1965. Shah Rukh Khan often referred to as "The King of Bollywood". Khan has acted in over 70 Hindi films. Khan began his career appearing in several television serials in the late 1980s. He made his film debut in Deewana (1992). Since then, he has been part of numerous successful films and has earned critical acclaim for many of his performances. Khan's films such as Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge (1995), Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998), Chak De! India (2007), Om Shanti Om (2007) and Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi (2008) remain some of Bollywood's biggest hits, while films like Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham.(2001), Kal Ho Naa Ho (2003), Veer-Zaara (2004), Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (2006) and My Name Is Khan (2010) have been top-grossing Indian productions thus making him one of the most successful actors of India. In 2008, US journal Newsweek named him one of the 50 most powerful people in the world. Bollywood superstar has been hopping from one city to another promoting his latest film RA One. But for his 46th birthday on Wednesday, the actor says he wants some relaxed time with friends and family.

Geo World

 " US should talk with region before Taliban: Kissinger "

  WASHINGTON: The United States should negotiate first with Afghanistan's neighbors before sitting down with the Taliban over how to end the decade-long war, ex-US secretary of state Henry Kissinger said Tuesday.

In a thinly-veiled critique of White House policy, the elder statesman also said Washington had severely curtailed its ability to reach a settlement in Afghanistan due to unnecessarily telegraphing the departure of US troops.

"I have no objection in principle to negotiating with the Taliban," Kissinger told an audience at a panel discussion at the Woodrow Wilson International Center, a think-tank in Washington. "But for the purpose of ending the war, it's the wrong sequence of events. The first negotiation in my view ought to be with surrounding countries," including Pakistan, India and Iran.

"If there is a negotiation with the Taliban, it should be in the framework of a multilateral regional negotiation," Kissinger said, adding that "extrication from a war like this is extremely difficult."

Kissinger insisted that US leverage would evaporate if it pulls its troops out ahead of a settlement. "If you negotiate while your forces are withdrawing, you're not in a great negotiating position," he said.

But he said the "fundamental political objective" of the Afghanistan war was essentially not achievable within the time frame that Americans have come to accept for US military intervention overseas.

In US wars in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, Kissinger said, "we selected objectives beyond the capacity of the American domestic consensus to support over the period required to implement them."

In Afghanistan, a US withdrawal likely would have a greater effect on Afghanistan's neighbors than on the United States itself, Kissinger said.

He called on the region's nations to take a greater role in reaching an Afghan solution, saying regional powers have a shared interest in preventing Al-Qaeda from regaining a foothold in Afghanistan. (AFP)

Geo Amazing and Interesting

" Police officer sues over bagel sandwich served with hair "

PHILADELPHIA: A police officer is suing a New Jersey delicatessen and its cook, who admitted stuffing body hair into the officer's bagel sandwich in revenge for a traffic arrest. The lawsuit filed by Patrolman Jeremy Merck of the Evesham, New Jersey, Police Department seeks unspecified damages from Good Foods to Go in Marlton, New Jersey, and its cook, Ryan Burke, for an incident that occurred in February 2010. Merck ordered an egg, cheese and turkey bagel and after eating part of it, he found it "was adulterated with pubic, chest or other human hair," the lawsuit said. Merck sought medical help and was checked for communicable diseases at a hospital, his attorney, Bruce Zamost, said on Friday. None was detected. Burke, who served Merck the sandwich, was later charged with aggravated assault, retaliation against a public servant and food tampering. He ultimately served 15 days in jail. According to a police report from the criminal case, "Burke admitted to tearing out hairs from his chest and his pubic area and placing them on Ptl. Merck's sandwich out of anger due to the fines and lawyers fees he had from the prior arrest in 2009." In 2009, Merck charged Burke with traffic offenses. Burke later complained the traffic case cost him $4,400. "Burke admitted that he did not like Ptl. Merck as a result of that incident and expressed that he shouldn't have to see Ptl. Merck at Good Foods to Go," the police report continued. A woman who answered the phone at the headquarters of the restaurant chain declined to comment on reports Burke was fired after the sandwich incident. The restaurant's lawyer, Mark Sander, could not be reached for comment on Friday. Zamost said no trial date has been set for the civil case but it would likely begin next year. (REUTERS)