Saturday, December 3, 2011

TOP NEWS FROM PAKISTAN: Bad start for Pakistan in Champions Trophy

TOP NEWS FROM PAKISTAN: Bad start for Pakistan in Champions Trophy: AUCKLAND: Australia made a stuttering start to their Champions Trophy defence with a 3-2 win over Spain Saturday, while Pakistan squande...

Bad start for Pakistan in Champions Trophy

AUCKLAND: Australia made a stuttering start to their Champions Trophy defence with a 3-2 win over Spain Saturday, while Pakistan squandered the opportunity for an upset victory over Great Britain.
In the Pool A match, Pakistan went down 2-1 to Great Britain in a hard-fought match marked by committed defence from both teams.
Captain Mohammad Imran, who converted a penalty corner to put his side ahead after 31 minutes, said Pakistan created numerous chances in the attacking quarter but failed to capitalise on them.
“We played well but unfortunately we missed our chances and we’re working on that,” he said.
Britain were more clinical in the second half, taking all three points through second half goals to Mark Pearn and Richard Mantell.
However, Pakistan team manager Khawaja Junaid said the Green Shirts, who shocked Australia 4-3 in Perth last month, showed they were making progress.
“We are still in the tournament… we played good hockey and we are not demoralised,” he said.
England were runners-up to Australia at last year’s event and, because the tournament in Auckland is a lead-up event for the Olympics, its players form part of a combined British team this year.
In another match of the same pool, two goals from inspirational skipper Jamie Dwyer helped hot favourites Australia down the committed Spaniards.
Dwyer admitted the Kookaburras, chasing an unprecedented fourth straight Champions Trophy, failed to live up to their billing as the world’s top-ranked team and raging favourites to claim Olympic gold at the London Games.
“We were very passive, we should have been a lot more aggressive and we allowed their ball carriers too much time and space,” the four-time world player of the year said.
“We definitely didn’t play to our potential and we’re probably lucky to get the result in the end. There’s no real excuses.”
Spain peppered the Australian goal as they dominated the opening skirmishes but a well-taken short-range goal from Dwyer against the run of play put the reigning champions ahead after 10 minutes.
The Spaniards, who have only beaten Australia three times in 22 Champions Trophy clashes, hit back 15 minutes later when an off-balance Jorge Dabanch stayed on his feet long enough to fire a shot past goalie Andrew Charter.
Eduard Tubau shot Spain into the lead two minutes later, when he split the Australian defence to again beat Charter.
The Kookaburras wrested control of the second half, with Dwyer netting the equaliser just after the break and a penalty corner conversion from Desmond Abbott sealing the win.
Spain coach Daniel Martin said the performance was a confidence booster for the Beijing silver medallists as they look to bounce back from disappointing recent results.
Pool B matches
The Netherlands beat South Korea 2-0 and Olympic champions Germany defeated host New Zealand 2-1.
New Zealand captain Dean Couzins said the Black Sticks paid the price for defensive lapses.
“I don’t think we played as well as we should have,” he said.
“Germany did well to create a bit of pressure, but if you look back at the two goals they scored, we would be a little disappointed with that, and the softness of the corners we gave away.”

TOP NEWS FROM PAKISTAN: Veena Malik’s photo causes fury

TOP NEWS FROM PAKISTAN: Veena Malik’s photo causes fury: ISLAMABAD: Veena Malik, a Pakistani actress who posed in the nude for an Indian magazine with the initials of Pakistan’s intelligence ag...

Veena Malik’s photo causes fury

ISLAMABAD: Veena Malik, a Pakistani actress who posed in the nude for an Indian magazine with the initials of Pakistan’s intelligence agency on her arm, has triggered fury across this conservative nation.
The photo on the website of FHM India, in advance of its publication in the magazine’s December issue, has been lighting up social network website Facebook and Twitter since earlier this week.
Many here anticipate a backlash.
Malik has broken Pakistani social and national taboos in the past. She is a target for conservative ire and a heroine to some Pakistani liberals.
Conservative cleric Maulana Abdul Qawi declared on Aaj TV on Saturday that the latest controversy was a ”shame for all Muslims.” Farzana Naz, interviewed by the same channel on the streets of Lahore, said that the actress had ”bowed all us women in shame.”
Twitter commentator Umair Javed however called on Pakistanis to ”make copies of the picture and bury it in your backyard. This way, our grandkids will know there were some amongst us who lived free!”
Asked by reporters whether Pakistan would ”pursue the matter” legally, the country’s Interior Minister Rehman Malik said Saturday, ”First, let us see whether it is real or fake.”
Malik for her part says that the photo at the root of the current uproar was published in violation of her agreement with FHM India.
In an interview with Pakistani Geo television broadcast Saturday, Malik acknowledged having been photographed for a ”bold but not nude shot.” She said the editor of the magazine had promised that he would cover most of the photo with the ISI initials.
Malik said that the photo was intended to poke fun at the Indian fear of Pakistani spies: ”Whatever happens (in India), people say ISI is behind that.”
Malik said she would ”probably” take a legal action against the magazine for violating terms and condition.
Magazine editor Kabeer Sharma said Malik did all with her full consent.
”We have all the record(s),” he told the Pakistani television station. ”Veena was very excited about that ISI idea.”
Malik does most of her work in India. The entertainment sector there is booming, while Pakistan’s is relatively moribund. Her ties to India have landed her in controversy in the past.
During a much-publicised talk show appearance early this year, she lashed out her nemesis Abdul Qawi, who criticised her for having a scripted love affair with an Indian actor on an Indian reality show.
”What is your problem with me?” an angry Malik demanded of the scholar, who had accused her of insulting Islam.

Tariq Khosa refuses to head commission on memogate

ISLAMABAD: Former Director-General of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Tariq Khosa has refused to head a one-man commission to investigate the memo scandal, DawnNews reported on Saturday.
The commission was set up by the Supreme Court.
Khosa, who has also served as inspector general of Balochistan police, is a brother of Justice Asif Saeed Khosa and Punjab Chief Secretary Nasir Khosa.
Earlier, former law minister Babar Awan had questioned Khosa’s nomination at a press conference by saying that he was a brother of the Punjab chief secretary and a judge of the Supreme Court.
But those who worked with Khosa called him an ‘upright’ man and a ‘clean’ government officer.
The scandal erupted when US citizen of Pakistani origin, Mansoor Ijaz, accused Pakistan’s former ambassador to the United States, Husain Haqqani, of masterminding an alleged memo sent to a senior US military official asking for help to rein in the Pakistani military after the American raid that killed Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad in May.
Haqqani denied the allegation and resigned from his position of ambassador in the wake of the controversy.