Geo436.com blog: I’m ready to rejoin Pak team if PCB ensures security

Geo 436 LONDON: British interior ministry has issued a temporary identity card to Pakistan wicketkeeper-batsman Zulqarnain Haider after getting his finger prints here on Tuesday. The card will be valid until final decision in his case.

Sources said that any decision regarding Zulqarnain will now be made by the British interior ministry.

Zulqarnain Haider, who fled from Dubai to London because he said he feared for his safety after being ordered to cooperate with bookmakers, said on Tuesday he was not seeking political asylum.

Zulqarnain told Geo News that he had been interviwed by British police, the border control agency and the International Cricket Council”s Anti-Corruption and Security
Unit.

“The border agency has taken my fingerprints and isued me a temporary stay,” he said.

“I had no intentions of applying for political asylum at this stage and, if the Pakistan government is ready to give me assurance of security for me and my family, I am ready to return to Pakistan.

“I have no issues playing for Pakistan again provided the Pakistan Cricket Board wants me to play.”

Earlier Zulqarnain said he was retiring from international cricket since he and his family were “constantly getting threats”.

He left the team”s hotel in Dubai before the fifth and final one-day international against South Africa.

“I was told to cooperate or I would face lot of problems,” he said.

“This person approached me while I had gone out of the hotel for dinner. He told me cooperate with us and you can make a lot of money.

“He said, ”If you don”t cooperate you will no longer be part of the team and we can make life very difficult for you”.”

Geo436.com blog: Waziristan’s Taliban abduct VC Ajmal: TTP

Geo436 KOHAT: A vital commander of outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan said his outfit is not involved in kidnapping of Ajmal Khan, Vice Chancellor of Islamia College University Peshawar, Geo News reported Tuesday.

Tariq Afridi, Taliban Commander for Darra Adamkhel and Khyber Agency, said this in an interview.

He said the TTP abducted Kohat University of Science and Technology's Vice Chancellor Lutfullah Kakakhel some days back, who was released after demands were met.

He said Lutfullah was released after the government had set free 50 of their accomplices and paid the ransom money.

Afridi said he received reports that Ajmal was lifted by Waziristan's Taliban.

Geo436.com blog: Indonesia awaits Obama homecoming

Geo436 JAKARTA: US President Barack Obama makes a much-delayed homecoming of sorts to Indonesia on Tuesday, seeking to engage Muslims and cement strategic relations on the second leg of his Asia tour.

Obama is flying from India, the world’s largest democracy, to Indonesia, its most populous Muslim-majority nation, mixing diplomatic symbolism with a search for new export markets to boost the lagging US recovery and jobs growth.

The president will return as an adoptive favourite son, after spending four years in Indonesia as a boy with his late mother, though he will have little time for tourism in the middle of a nine-day, four-nation tour of Asia.

Obama, whom Indonesians remember as “Barry”, will hold talks and share an official dinner with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, with economic and security issues topping the agenda.

The next day, Obama will

Geo436.com blog: Couldn’t compromise dignity of country: Hairder

Geo 436 LONDON: Pakistani wicketkeeper Zulqarnain Haider, who disappeared from Dubai on Monday, had appeared in a hotel at Heathrow airport later on the day.

Talking to Geo News, Zulqarnain said he could not compromise dignity of his dear motherland so he decided to leave the national cricket team.

He said that he was receiving life threats in response to his match-winning performance in fourth ODI against South Africa and according to him, someone threatened him to fix 5th ODI through threatening SMS on his cell number.

He, however, ruled out blaming any player being behind the threats, responding to a question that if he might want to name any player of the team.

"I was forced to starving after demise of my mother so I can again face such tough situation," he revealed.

Hero of the fourth ODI against South Africa in Dubai, Zulqarnain Haider said, he believed in Allah, adding that Pakistan was his dear motherland and he could never sell out her dignity.

He dismissed revealing exact location of his whereabouts, saying: "I can assure you that I am safe and sound, not arrested but cannot tell where I am hiding for sake of protection of my life."

Immigration officials in UK proved kind to me and proposed me to hire services of a counselor but I have yet to reach a decision, he said.

However, he was short of money to take legal advice or hire services of a lawyer, according to him. He was not sure of his future.

He looked worried about his family, saying that his family too received threats so he wanted his family to join him in London soon.

Zulqarnain also appealed to government for provision of protection to his family back in Pakistan.

Geo436.com blog: Car bombs in south Iraq kill 28

Geo436 KARBALA: Three car bombings in mainly Shiite southern Iraq, two of which targeted Iranian pilgrims visiting holy cities, killed at least 28 people on Monday, police and military sources said.

The attacks came as Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish political rivals bickering over an elusive power-sharing deal that has left Iraq without a new government for eight months held a first day of all-party talks without a breakthrough.

Twin bombings in the Shiite holy cities of Najaf and Karbala targeting Iranians killed at least 18 people, 10 of them pilgrims from Iran. Police and local officials said the attacks also wounded 58 people, mostly Iranians.

In Karbala, a suicide bomber pulled up his booby-trapped vehicle alongside a bus carrying pilgrims from neighbouring Iran then detonated his payload, police officials said.

The explosion killed 10 people, four of them Iranians, and wounded another 42, hospital officials said.

The bomber struck in the northern part of Karbala through which traffic headed to the city”s tightly-guarded shrines passes on the way down south from Baghdad.

Another car bombing targeted three buses in Najaf carrying Iranian pilgrims, police said. A bomb blast killed eight people, six of them Iranians, and wounded 16 others, said Khaled Jashani, a member of Najaf”s provincial council.

About 1,500 non-Arab pilgrims a day from predominantly Shiite Iran visit the faith”s holiest shrines in Karbala and Najaf as well as in the capital of Iraq, a country with a Shiite majority.

In the southern port city of Basra, a car bomb in a crowded market killed at least 10 people and wounded 30, a military officer said. The attack targeted a popular shopping district full of stores and cafes.

The attacks came as Iraqi Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish political rivals met in the Kurdish city of Arbil, northern Iraq.

Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said last week that the surge of violence, including a hostage-taking by Al-Qaeda gunmen at a Baghdad church which left 46 worshippers dead on October 31, was due to the failure to form a government.

“The attacks and explosions … are due to the constitutional and political vacuum and the delay in the formation of the government, which gave the terrorists the opportunity to attack civilians,” he said.

In two attacks in northern Iraq on Monday, gunmen killed two policemen at a checkpoint near Mosul and an improvised bomb exploded outside a grocery store in Khalis, Diyala province, killing one person and wounding three.

Geo436.com blog: Iran nuke cooperation insufficient: IAEA

Geo436 UNITED NATIONS: The head of the UN nuclear watchdog said Monday that Iran has still not given proof that its atomic program is peaceful and that he is seriously concerned about North Korea”s nuclear work.

Iran again insisted to a nuclear debate at the UN General Assembly however that it is only working on civilian energy. The West has accused Iran of seeking a bomb.

International Atomic Energy Agency chief Yukiya Amano told the UN assembly: “Iran has has not provided the necessary cooperation to permit the agency to confirm that all nuclear material in Iran is in peaceful activities.”

Iran must carry out “full implementation” of IAEA and UN Security Council resolutions which have imposed four rounds of sanctions over Iran”s refusal to halt uranium enrichment.

However Iran hit back in the debate. “Claiming that ”Iran has not provided the necessary cooperation” is incorrect and misleading,” said the Islamic Republic”s deputy ambassador Eshagh al-Habib.

He called the UN Security Council sanction resolutions “illegal.”

Iran is “determined to exercise the inalienable right to nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.” The diplomat added though that Iran is ready to start new talks with the six international powers — Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States — on its nuclear drive from November 10.

“We are waiting to see the goodwill of the other parties and their real intention for meaningful and successful talks,” he said.

Geo436.com blog: Pakistan lose final ODI, series to South Africa

Geo 436 DUBAI: All-rounder Jacques Kallis scored a brilliant half-century and took three wickets to guide South Africa to a commanding 57-run win over Pakistan in the fifth and final one-day international here on Monday.

The 35-year-old scored 83 – one of four half-centuries in the innings – to steer South Africa to an imposing 317-5 before he took 3-30 to dismiss Pakistan for 260 in reply, giving South Africa a 3-2 series win.

Pakistan, hoping to win their first-ever bilateral series win over South Africa, were cruising along nicely with openers Mohammad Hafeez (59) and Shahzaib Hasan (39) gave them a robust 82-run start in their quest for their third best-ever chase in one-day cricket.

But Kallis derailed Pakistan”s innings with a triple strike in as many overs, removing Hasan, Younis Khan (three) and Mohammad Yousuf (three) off 13 balls to make his opponents struggle from 82-0 to 96-3.

As if his batting and bowling were not enough, Kallis took a well-judged catch at long-on off fellow paceman Dale Steyn to dismiss Hafeez in the 23rd over.

Umar Akmal (60) and Abdul Razzaq (39) briefly threatened during their fiery 60-run sixth wicket partnership before South Africa wrap up the innings in the 45th over.

Akmal hit three sixes and one boundary during his 71-ball knock.

The series deciding match, after both teams won two matches each, started on a dramatic note when Pakistan wicket-keeper Zulqarnain Haider went missing from the team hotel and did not come to the ground.

Pakistan Cricket Board later said they will launch an inquiry into Haider”s case after he, without informing team management, reportedly reached London after receiving threats from persons unknown.

It was Kallis who built South African innings after Graeme Smith won the toss and decided to bat.

Kallis propelled the total during his 95-ball innings, adding an invaluable 121 with AB de Villiers (61) for the third wicket and another 61 for the second wicket with Hashim Amla (62).

Kallis, who scored a brilliant 66 in the first match, hit four boundaries before he cut leg-spinner Afridi straight into the hands of Wahab Riaz in the 39th over.

When Kallis reached 81, he completed 11,000 one-day runs in his 307th match. He became the sixth batsmen to score 11,000 or more runs in 50-over format of the game.

India”s Sachin Tendulkar (17598), Sri Lankan Sanath Jayasuriya (13428), Australian Ricky Ponting (13082), Pakistan”s Inzamam-ul-Haq (11739) and Indian Sourav Ganguly (11363) were the others to cross the 11,000-run mark.

Graeme Smith (14) and Amla started at brisk pace to take their team to 37 inside five overs, when Akhtar removed the South African skipper, caught by Afridi.

Amla, when on 23 reached 1,000 one-day runs in 2010, hit eight boundaries and a six to reach his tenth fifty. He hit one more four before holing out to Afridi after his brisk 47-ball knock.

De Villiers hit five boundaries during his 72-ball knock.

Jean-Paul Duminy (59 not out) and Johan Botha (28 not out) put on a rapid-fire 89 off just 65 balls for unfinished sixth wicket stand, as none of the Pakistani bowlers could stop the run-flow, with Akhtar conceding 77 runs in seven overs.

Duminy hit eight boundaries during his 41-ball knock.

The two teams now play the first of two Tests in Dubai from November 12. The second Test starts in Abu Dhabi from November 20.