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Home , 2002 Morocco Cup, Alex Borg, Asad Durrani, Dinsha Patel, Hajra Masroor, Hamid Ali Mirza

(Being disabled is actually often tougher on the soul than on the body, often because of who think as you do. Peer Zada Waqar Alam,).

Current affairs:

Dec 4: Two Pakistani authors were among the 15 writers long-listed for ’s most prestigious literary prize on Tuesday, with entries spread across the region from Turkey to Japan. Musharraf Ali Farooqi’s “Between Clay and Dust” and Uzma Aslam Khan’s “Thinner Than Skin” were among seven South Asian nominees, also including three from and two from . “Silent House,” an early work from Turkish writer and 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature winner Orhan Pamuk, made the list after appearing in English for the first time. The Man Asian Literary Prize began in 2007 and is given to the best novel by an Asian writer, either written in English or translated into English. The 2011 Man Asian Literary Prize was awarded to South Korean author Kyung-sook Shin for her novel “Please Look After Mom”, a story about a family’s guilty soul-searching after the disappearance of their elderly mother that has gone on to sell more than two million copies.

Dec 4: German Chancellor Angela Markel was re-elected head of her conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) by more than 97 percent of delegates’ votes at two-day party congress. It was Markel’s best results since she took as chairman of the CDU in 2000 and comes as she gears up for fighting for a third term at the helm of Europe’s top economy in elections expected in Sept.

Dec 4: and Korea inked six agreements dealing with modernization of Pakistan Railway, construction of LNG terminal and cooperation in banking sector, signing came during President A.A. Zardari’s state visit to the Republic of Korea. He also held talks with his S. Korean counterpart Lee Myung-Bank after his arrive in S. Korea.

Dec 4: BISHKEK, Kyrgystan: Kaira arrived in Bishkek to represent Pakistan in the 11th SCO Heads of Govt. Council meeting, press release fro Kyrgstan.

Dec 3: Pakistan’s consumer price index (CPI) rose 6.93% in November from a year earlier, the PBS said. The year to year rate in Oct was 7.66%. On a month on month basis, the CPI declined by 0.39% from Oct.

Dec 3: FM Hina Rabbain Khar and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met in Brussels.

Dec 3: KIEV: Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovyoh accepted the resignation of his close ally PM Mykola Azarov and the entire govt.

Dec 3: President A.A. Zardari approved extension of the KP Local Govt. Act 2012 to the Provincially Administered Tribal Area (PATA) under Article 247(3) of the constitution, enabling the establishment of local govt. institutions in PATA.

Dec 3: The co-author of “Three Cups of Tea,” the best selling but disputed tale of an American mountaineer, David Oliver Relin, 49, who built schools in and Pakistan, committed suicide, died Nov 15. Co-author is Greg Mortenson.

Dec 3: the US fined a Chinese state-owned company “Huaxing Construction Co. $3mm after it agreed to plead guilty to criminal charges for exporitn US-made coatings to a Pakistan nuclear plant against US restrictions.

Dec 3: International Day for the person with Disabilities (like me). Dec 2: UAE celebrating its 41st National Day. The (UAE) is situated on the Persian Gulf, bordering , , and . has the largest population in the UAE followed by Abu Dhabi and has the second largest land territory by area of all the emirates after Abu Dhabi. Today, Dubai has become symbolic for its skyscrapers and high-rise buildings and Abu Dhabi’s major attractions are the Sheikh Zayed Mosque – which is the most important architectural landmarks, and the Ferrari World, a Ferrari themed amusement park on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi.

Dec 2: Pakistan’s hockey team recorded their first win of Champions Trophy as they defeated Belgium 2-0 in their 2nd Group B match in . While, created history by defeating Germany for the fist time at the eight-nation tournament 4-1, India remain unbeaten as they downed 4-2.

Dec 2: Anamul Haque became the 3rd youngest Bangladesh to hit a hundred before the home team spun out the WI for their biggest ODI win of 160 runs in Khulna imposing 292-6.

Dec 2: will have to produce the greatest run chase in Test history to beat in the 3rd test at the WACA Ground and claim the top spot in the Test ranking. Set 632 to win after the Proteas were finally dismissed for 569 in their 2nd supported by Amla’s 196 by completing 18th Test . It was only the 2nd time in Test history Australia had been set over 600 runs to win. The previous occasion was Don Bradman’s first Test against England in 1928, when they folded for 66 all out chasing 742 runs. The current record for a successful fourth innings run chase remains 418 by the WI against Australia at ST John’s in 2003.

Dec 2: Pakistan’s Mohammad Asif defeated England’s Gary Wilson in the final to win the IBSF World Championship in Sofia, Bulgaria. Asif, who was unbeaten in the tournament, defeated Wilson 10-8. Asif was the thirid Pakistani to reach the final of the world event and the 2nd one to win it. Before him, Mohammad Yousuf won it in 1994 while, in 2003, Saleh Mohammad was defeated by Pankaj Advani of India.

Dec 1: Kuwaiti citizen casted their vote for the assembly but many parites boycotted the election. The Awazem, Mutair and Ajmans, the biggest three tribes with a population of 400,000 out of 1.2mm people have only one MP in the new elected parliament against average of 17 in previous assemblies. The vote, the 2nd in 10 month and the fifth since mid-2006, came nearly two month after the emir dissolved a pro-govt. parliament following its reinstatement in June by a court ruling. As per Kuwaiti law, the cabinet must resign and a new govt. be formed before the new assembly holds its inaugural session with two weeks. The OPEC member has been rocked by a series of political crises which stalled development despite a huge wealth form oil.

Dec 1: Premier cueist Mohammad Asif reached the final of IBSF World Snooker Championship being held in Sofia, Bulgaria, on Saturday after beating Alex Borg of Malta in the semi-final, according to a private television channel. He won the semi-final by seven frames to one

Dec 1: The country is the world’s fourth-largest producer of cloth and the industry accounts for 60 per cent of export revenue according to official data. But shortages are heaping pressure on Pakistan’s crippled and debt- ridden economy

Dec 1: People around the world observe World AIDS Day on December 1. World AIDS Day is commemorated to raise awareness of the pandemic. The number of people living with HIV rose slightly last year to 34 million, up from 33.5 million in 2010, according to UNAIDS. Since the first case of HIV, AIDS has taken the lives of 30 million people world . Getting to Zero: Zero new HIV infections. Zero deaths from AIDS-related illness. Zero discrimination is the theme of World AIDS Day 2012 Dec 1: Pakistan’s dream start turned into a nightmare as they fell 3-1 to the on the opening day of the men’s Champions Trophy, while Olympic champions Germany held off New Zealand 3-2. Meanwhile Australian were pushed by Belgium as they set after a fifth straight title, while India upset England defeating them 3-1. Remember, Champion Trophy is the toughest tournament of world hockey as it has all the top teams. Introduced by former PHF head, Noor Khan, in 1978, initially only the top six teams qualified for the tournament. However, eight teams played in 2007 and then later in 2011 with the same pattern set to be followed in this year’s edition. Pakistan is the three time winner of CT in 1978, 1980 and 1994.

Dec 1: The new book by television writer David A. Goodman titled “Star Trek Federation – The First 150 Years” is pictured. The book is housed in a plastic pedestal display and with the push of a button a familiar voice to Star Trek fans, George Takei, as “ Hikaru Sulu” introduces the book. The book will be released December 4, 2012. More than 45 years after “Star Trek” took fans boldly into the 23rd century, television writer David A. Goodman has written the first detailed narrative in history-book form of events depicted in the iconic science-fiction TV and movie franchise. The 167-page book, to be published on December 4, connects the dots and fills in many of the black holes of “Star Trek” history as seen in the live action TV series, animated series and movies since 1966.

Dec 1: A law forcing tobacco firms to sell cigarettes in plain packets came into effect in Australia on Saturday in an effort to strip any glamour from smoking and prevent young people from taking up the habit. The new law, the first of its kind anywhere the world, came into force despite a vigorous legal challenge by big tobacco, which argued that the legislation infringed its intellectual property rights by banning trademarks. All cigarettes will now have to be sold in identical, olive-brown packets bearing the same typeface and largely covered with graphic health warnings

Dec 1: At least 15 people dead bodies recovered, including eight Pakistani soldiers, and three people are still missing after being hit by landslides in the Kel are of mountains Kashmir region. In April, 140 Pakistani soldiers were buried when a huge wall of snow crashed into the remote Siachen Glacier base high in the mountains in Kashmir.

Nov 30: Pakistan stocks hit record high for the fourth day. KSE 100-share index surged as high as 16,651.10 in intraday trading and closed at 16,573.86.

Nov 30: Former England cricket Andrew Flintoff came off the canvas to mark his professional boxing debut with a points win over American heavyweight Richard Dawson on Friday. The 34-year-old was floored in the second round of a lively affair but after dominating the other three rounds had his hand rightly raised in victory on a score of 39-38 on the referee’s scorecard.

Nov 30: Former paceman Munir Malik who played three Test matches for Pakistan died. He was 78, made his debut in the famous first Test against Australia in 1959-60 in in which Intikhab Alam took a with his first ball in , that of opener Colin Mcdonald. Little Master also scored an unbeaten 104 to save the match. He also toured England under Javed Burki in 1962 and ended his career with seven .

Nov 30: The mysterious wreckage that fell on some villages in Dadu district of on Wednesday night belonged to Hatf-V (Ghauri) missile, tested by the Army’s Strategic Force Command at the conclusion of its field exercises.

Nov 30: Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves dropped nearly two per cent to $13.575bn in the week ending Nov 23, from $13.814bn in the previous year. Remittances from abroad rose 15.04% to $4.964bn from $4.315bn in the first four month, July to October, of the FY 2012/13. Nov 30: Former Indian Prime Minister , lauded and reviled as a friend of Pakistan, died in a private hospital in the neighborhood of on Friday following complications from a lung ailment. He was 93.

Nov 30: Basmati rice exports during first five months of current fiscal (July-Nov) recorded a steep fall (up to 49%) at 160,000 tons compared to 403,000 tons exported in the same period last year as a foreign exchange reserve through basmati rice plummeted to 152 million dollar during July-Nov compared to $346m in the same period. During this period exporting of non-Basmati rice fetched $188m only as against $360m.

Nov 30: Euro zone jobless rate climbs to record 11.7% Oct. almost one of four out of work in the 17-nation Eurozone and 27-nation EU – against one in five year early. Youth unemployment rate in Eurozone rise to 23.9% and 23.4% in EU.

Nov 30: the conflict in Syria has displaced some 250,000 people in the western city of Homs alone, the UN’s refugee agency said. The SARC estimated that al least 2.5 million people were internally displaced in Syria. UNCHR said number of refugees registered in Surrounding countries had now risen to 465,000.

Nov 30: Yahoo! Said Friday it was ordered to pay $2.7bn by a Mexican court in a lawsuit stemming from allegations of breach of contract and lost profits related to a yellow pages listing service.

Nov 30: The Chances of hitting the UN’s global warming target are diminishing, but the goal can still be met if greenhouse-gas emissions fall by 15% by 2012, scientists said. In the run-up to the 12 day UN talks which opened in Qatar on Oct 26, the World Bank gave a 20% likelihood of a four degree centigrade rise by 2100 and said three degree Centigrade rise appeared likely. The UN Environmental Programme (UNEP) forecast a rise of three to five degree Centigrade. Level of carbon dioxide – the single most important man-made contributor to climate change, rose to 390.9 parts per million in 2011, which is 2.0 ppm higher than in 2010, the World Metrological Organization (WMO) said. From 1990 to 2011, the warming effect of greenhouse gases has risen 30%. has surged in rankings to become the world’s No 1 carbon polluter, china is on track for emissions in 2020 of 14.4 gigatone, or billion tones , of Carbon or its equivalent, whereas, the EU in 2010 were 4.4 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.

Nov 30: Any attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities may lead to it withdrawing from the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Iranian envoy to the IAEA Ali Asghar Soltaniesh said. North Korea was the first country to withdraw from the NPT, in 2003, and has denied IAEA access to its atomic sites. It carried out nuclear tests in 2006 and in 2009. Under the 189-nation NPT, which came into force in 1970, non-nuclear weapons states commit to not develop such arms.

Nov 30: Thousands of Egyptians protested against President Mohamed Morsi on Friday after an Islamist-led assembly hurriedly approved a new constitution in a bid to end a crisis over the leader’s newly expanded powers.

Nov 30: The 46th founding day of the PPP, founded in 1966.

Nov 30: The Obama administration has warned Congress that some of the restriction it has placed on Pakistan can jeopardize US-led campaign against terrorism in Afghanistan and objects to the certification requirement in section 1216. Section 1216 of the recently passed National Defense Authorization Act for US fiscal year 2013 prohibits reimbursement to Pakistan for support during period when Nato supply lines to Afghanistan remained closed and become effective fro the day this act is enacted.

Nov 30: SBP bought Rs545bn worth of govt. paper from commercial banks in a seven day reverse repo to inject funds into the money market. The bid offered amounted RS569.55bn an the rate of return is 9.015. Nov 30: The American solider, army private Bradley Manning, 24, arrested in in May 2010 on accusation that he leaked hundreds of thousands of confidential documents to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks, admitted he turned a prison bed sheet not a makeshift noose that he could have used to kill himself.

Nov 29: The High Court came up with a surprise on Thursday and ordered the federal government to implement decisions of the Council of Common Interests (CCI) and build the much-politicised Kalabagh Dam. “The confers a pre-eminent position to the CCI to formulate and regulate policies for the federation in relation to a number of subjects, including water and power. A decision of the CCI has obligatory effect unless the same is modified by parliament at the instance of the federal government under Article 154(7) of the Constitution,” said a short order issued by LHC Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial after deciding a set of petitions seeking an order for the government to build the dam in the light of CCI’s recommendations.

Nov 29: Pakhtuns make the most of 1.6 million Afghan refugees registered in Pakistan, around 82% while around 70 per cent of them were born and bred as refugees in the country, according to a nationwide survey.

Nov 29: In a historic vote, the General Assembly overwhelmingly voted on Thursday to admit Palestine as a non-member observer state from obsorver, a long-sought victory for the Palestinians and an embarrassing diplomatic defeat for the . The resolution upgrading the Palestinians’ status to a non- member state was approved by more than two-thirds majority — a vote of 138-9, with 41 abstentions. The Vatican is the only other entity in the UN that enjoys the same status. Thursday’s vote came on the same day, Nov 29 that the UN General Assembly in 1947 voted to recognize a state in Palestine, to the jubilation of Jews. The Palestinians rejected that partition plan, and decades of tension and violence have followed.

Nov 28: Google has agreed to acquire Canadian start-up BufferBox, which manages self-service parcel lockers to help consumers avoid missed deliveries, the companies said.

Nov 28: 2012 marked by extreme weather, January-October 2012 was the ninth warmest such period since records began in 1850, the WMO said. The global land and ocean surface temperature for the period was about 0.45 degrees Celsius above the 1961-1990 average of 14.2 C, UN.

28 Nov: US Special Envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan Marc Grossman is stepping down as of Dec 14. A senior State Department official David Pearce will serve as acting representative until a permanent successor is found. Mr. Grossman became the US Special Envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan on Feb 22, 2011. Mr. Pearce is a US Foreign Service with the rank of an ambassador. In 2011, he was the assistant chief of Mission at the US embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. He also served as an ambassador to Algeria.

28 Nov: A renowned eye specialist, Dr. Khan, kidnapped 43 days ago on 16 Oct, has been free after payment of a heavy ransom 8 million. His release raised hopes that a strike by hospital doctors across the province would come to an end, but subsequent developments dampened the optimism. The Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) announced that the strike would continue till the government accepted their demands.

28 Nov: Pakistani stocks hit a record high for the 2nd straight session, surging above 16,500 points. KSE benchmark 100-share index surged to a record high of 16,504.38 during intra-day trading, closing at 16,424.03, up 0.36% or 59.26 points.

28 Nov: Pakistan ‘s Federal Cabinet after three year, approved a draft law to establish a new counter terrorism body named “National Counter-Terrorism Authority Bill (NACTA) 2012” aimed at better coordinating efforts to defeat Taliban and al Qaeda-linked violence. The cabinet also approved the Election Laws (Amendment) Bill 2012. Pursuant to Article 219 of the Constitution as amended under the 18th Amendment, some consequential amendments were required to be made in the representation of the Peoples Act, 1976, and the Senate (Election) Act, 1975, to bring the provisions of the said statutes in conformity with the provisions of the Constitution, which the cabinet endorsed on Wednesday.

Nov 28: The Supreme Court sought replies on Wednesday from the incumbent and former directors general of the Intelligence Bureau on withdrawal of huge amounts of money from IB’s accounts by the PPP governments to buy loyalty of politicians in Punjab and other provinces in 1988-1990 and 2008-09. A bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, Justice and Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed had taken notice of a report which appeared in an English daily on March 14, alleging that Rs270 million had been withdrawn by the PPP government to dislodge the Punjab government in 2008-09.

27 Nov: Global growth is set for a sharp slowdown next year and the eurozone debt crisis “remains the greatest threat to the world economy at present,” the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) warned on Tuesday. The organization slashed its outlook for global growth in 2013 to 1.4 per cent from a previously expected level of 2.2 per cent. Overall the 34-member organization’s economies are expected to expand by 1.4 per cent in 2012 and 2013, and then pick up to a pace of 2.3 per cent in 2014. Unemployment is forecast to rise from 8.0 per cent this year to 8.2 per cent in 2013 before easing back to 8.0 per cent in 2014. Inflation should decline meanwhile, from 2.1 per cent in 2012, to 1.7 per cent next year, and then edge up to 1.9 per cent in 2014.

27 Nov: Pakistan will start shipping to Iran from December under term of a 1-million tone barter deal agreed in August on agreed a price of $300 per tone. The barter deal, first proposed in March with Iran exporting fertilizer and iron ore to Pakistan in exchange for wheat.

27 Nov: Pakistan stocks rose to record high near 16,400 points on Tuesday, KSE benchmark 100-share index surged to a record high of 16,375.36 in intraday trading. It closed at 16,364.77.

27 Nov: Interior Minister Rehman Mailk announced Rs200 Million bounty on providing information on the whereabouts of TTP spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan.

27 Nov: will back a Palestinian bid for enhanced UN Status at a GA vote this week on Thursday Nov 29, the first European country to come out in favor. The draft seeking the status upgrade also calls on the UN Security Council to “Consider Favorably” the Palestinian request for full membership made one year ago. The US has blocked that move at the 15-nation council.

Nov 27: As a result of a big increase in the number of political parties, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has fallen short of election symbols as the registered parties have outnumbered the available symbols. The number of registered parties reached 216 on Tuesday with the addition of another 19. This coincided with the receipt of a communication by the ECP about approval by the president of its summary on election symbols. In 2008 elections, 147 symbols were used. With another 34 symbols approved by the presidency and deletion of eight, as proposed by the ECP, the number of symbols has risen to 173.

27 Nov: World’s first toilet park flushes with success in Korea. The park, located about an hour outside of Seoul in the city of Suwon – otherwise known as the home of Samsung Electronics – centres around a toilet-shaped museum building that was once the home of Sim Jae-duck “Mr. toilet”, founder and first president of the World Toilet Association. 27 Nov: Oscar-winning filmmaker Kathryn Bigelow’s long-awaited movie about the hunt for and killing of is generating Academy Awards buzz, even before its release next month. The director, who won 82nd Academy Awards in 2010 for Iraq war drama “The Hurt Locker,” had extensive access to classified material in the making of “Zero Dark Thirty,” a process that began long before bin Laden’s death in May 2011. The film’s screenplay was written by reporter-turned-screenwriter Mark Boal, who also worked with Bigelow on “The Hurt Locker,” which starred Jeremy Renner as a soldier defusing bombs in war-scarred Iraq.

 French FM Laurent Fabius  Malian PM Sheikh Modibo Diarra.  Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) president Aasim Zia and secretary Asif Bajwaa.  Portugal PM Pedro Passos Coelho.

27 Nov: Malala Yousufzai is number six on US magazine Foreign Policy’s list of 100 top global thinkers in 2012. She is ahead of US President Barack Obama who is number seven. The other three Pakistanis on the list are former Pakistani ambassador to the US, Hussain Haqqani, his wife Farahnaz Ispahani and blogger Sana Saleem. Burmese dissident Aung San Suu Kyi and Myanmar’s reformist President Thein Sein, a former general, top the 2012 list. The Foreign Policy magazine’s Top 100 Global Thinkers list is published annually. It lists people who are believed to have influenced the thinking of the international community in a particular year. In previous years, Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan and current ambassador to the US Sherry Rehman have also been featured in the Top 100 Global Thinkers lists. Others on the list include US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former US president Bill Clinton and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Teyyap Erdogan.

26 Nov: Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak abruptly announced he was quitting politics.

26 Nov: UN talks on a new climate pact resumed in oil and gas-rich Qatar, where negotiators from nearly 200 countries will discuss fighting global warning and helping poor nations adapt to it.

26 Nov: Dr. Joseph Murray, the surgeon who carried out the first successfully kidney transplant in 1954, and later won a Nobel Prize in 1990 for his work in medicine and physiology, died in Boston at the age of 93. More than 600,000 people worldwide have received transplants since Murray’s innovation.

26 Nov: In Brussels, a long-awaited deal on aid to Greece was reached late on Monday, with the euro zone and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) unblocking 43.7 billion euro ($57bn) in loans and agreeing on the need to grant significant debt relief for decades to come

26 Nov: Connecting industrial operations to the internet could lead to significant gains in productivity, potentially worth $10 to $15 trillion globally, a study by General Electric.

26 Nov: A street graffiti artist takes part in the international graffiti event “Meeting of Styles” in Quito (capital of Ecuador). Over 30 graffiti artists from Ecuador, Venezuela, Colombia, Brazil, Canada and the US took part in the event, according to its organizers.

26 Nov: At least 16 people have died after drinking a toxic ought syrup (tyno) in Lahore, forcing authorities to close three pharmacies and a medicine factory, official said. Tyno was manufactured by Ricko Pharma,

26 Nov: The NAB apprised the SC that the real outstanding amount against Turkish power plant ship, Karkey, Karadeniz Elek Trik Uretin, stood at $120 million, an amount which was mutually calcalutated by the authority and the petitioner. The Supreme Court settled a repayment dispute on Monday, directing the National Accountability Bureau to recover $120 million from a 232MW barge-mounted Turkish rental power plant. 26 Nov: The US internet giant Amazon said that it would open a fourth dispatch centre, sited at Lauwin-Planque In the north of France with the likely creation of 2,500 jobs, as it negotiates a tax dispute with the French govt. The facility would improve the handling of orders form customers in northern France but also in Europe and the world, Amazon said.

25 Nov: Michael Schumacher bade an emotional farewell to Formula One after finishing 7th in the Brazilian Grand Prix, bringing down the curtain on his controversial, colourful career after 21 years, seven drivers’ championship triumphs and 91 victories, the 43-year-old retired.

25 Nov: The UN General Assembly designated 25 November as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women in a 1999 resolution inviting governments, international organizations and non- governmental organizations (NGOs) to “organize activities designed to raise public awareness of the problem on that day.” The day harks to the 25 November 1960 assassination of the three Mirabal sisters, who were political activists in the Dominican Republic, on orders of Dominican ruler Rafael Trujillo. This year’s theme, “A promise is A Promise” is a call from the UN to Governments and leaders to translate international promises into concrete national action. Mr. Ban also praised the Assembly’s Third Committee for passing its first-ever resolution on eliminating the harmful practice of female genital mutilation and said he looked forward to its adoption by the Assembly, which would represent “a major step forward in protecting women and girls and ending impunity for this practice.”

25 Nov: BEIJING: China has successfully landed a fighter jet (j-15) on its first aircraft carrier, which entered service two months ago, the country’s official news agency confirmed Sunday. The Liaoning aircraft carrier underscores China’s ambitions to be a leading Asian naval power, but it is not expected to carry a full complement of planes or be ready for combat for some time. Since China’s Liaoning ship formally entered into service on Sept. 25, its crew members have completed more than 100 training and test programs, Xinhua said. China bought the former Soviet navy’s unfinished carrier from in 1998 and spent years refurbishing it.

25 Nov: A postcard, sent July 4, 1943, from Rockford, III, was intended for Pauline and Theresa Leisenring, two Elimira sisters nearly seven decades ago arrived last week at the intended address. Two sisters once lived in the home alsong Bridgman Street in Elmira.

25 Nov: The Rolling Stones made a triumphant return to the 02 Arena stage night in the first of five concerts to make the 50th anniversary of their debut as an American-oriented blue band. Front man Mick Jagger rock the concert.

25 Nov: Cambridge University will open a new centre to study “ technology’ risk to humans”. While Price is co- founding the project together with Cambridge professor of cosmology and astrophysics Martin Rees and Jann Tallinn, one of the founders of the internet phone service Skype.

24 Nov: One of Pakistan’s oldest and most renowned columnistsa Dawn columnist, philanthropist and shipping tycoon, Ardeshir Cowasjee, passed away in Karachi on Saturday at the age of 86. Cowasjee’s weekly columns graced the Dawn newspaper from 1988 to 2011.

24 Nov: Nov 24: Dubai, famed for its mega-projects before it was hit by the global financial crisis, on Saturday announced a plan to open the world’s biggest mall and a park larger than London’s Hyde Park. The ruler of the Gulf desert city state, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, announced the plan for a “new city within Dubai.

24 Nov: The illegal cigarette industry in Pakistan has grown to become on e of the largest tax evaders in Courtney, causing great loss of Rs40bn loss to the national economy. Remember, FBR receives 39% of its Federal Excise Duty (FED) and 3.5% of total tax revenue from the cigarette industry, whereas, the country tax to GDP ration is 3.5%, which is 155th position in the world and one of the lowest in the region. It was informed that around 600bn illicit cigarettes are produced globally. 190bn are counterfeit cigarettes with 20% being produced in China.

Nov 24: An autopsy of the exhumed remains of Turkish president Turgut Ozal, who died in office in 1993, revealed the presence of four poisons, the pro-government daily today’s Zaman reported on Saturday. Mr Ozal became Turkey’s eighth president in 1989. When he died in office aged 69, the cause of death was given as heart failure. He was an ethnic Kurd who was seeking a negotiated solution to the bloody conflict with Kurdish separatists in the southeast when he died, was poisoned.

24 Nov: SEOUL, South Korea: South Korean pop sensation Psy’s “Gangnam Style” became YouTube most-watched video of all time, registering more than 803 million views to overtake “Baby” by Canadian heartthrob Justin Bieber. The 34-year-old rapper has rocketed to fame since his “Gangnam Style” video in which he performs his now famous horse-riding dance – became worldwide hit.

24 Nov: HELSINKI, Finland: Nokia’s long-time imaging chief Damian Dinning has decided to leave the loss-making cell phone maker at the end of this month. Nokia CEO Stephen Elop has replaced already most of the top management since he joined in late 2010.

24 Nov: The latest revelation emanating from the Federal Bureau of Revenue (FBR) is that nearly 600,000 taxpayers have ‘mysteriously disappeared’ from the tax net in the past one year. Only 0.6 per cent of the population pays taxes in Pakistan, as against 4.7 per cent in India, 58 per cent in France and 80 per cent in Canada.

Nov 23: Nigeria will host trade talks among the Developing Eight (D-8) in February as part of efforts to increase business within member states and Africa, Nigeria’s trade and investment minister said.

Nov 23: Minister for Privatisation Ghous Bux Khan Mahar of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q was shown the door on Friday by Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf for reasons not announced.

Nov 23: A fresh row has broken out between India and China over territorial claims in the northeastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh and the Aksai Chin area in eastern Kashmir. In new passports, China’s maps show the two areas as Chinese territory. The potentially oil-rich Paracel Islands, claimed by Vietnam since their troops were forced to leave by China in the 1970s and also claimed by Taiwan, make an appearance on the map, as do the Spratly Islands, part of which are claimed by the Philippines. The disputed Senkaku or Diaoyu islands, at the centre of recent tension between China and Japan are not included in the new document. Relations between India and China have been uneasy — the two countries have dispute over several Himalayan border areas and fought a brief war in 1962.

23 Nov: FBR chairman Ali Arshed Hakeem said that meeting the tax collection target of Rs2.381 trillion depends on the implementation of tax amnesty schemes. FBR senior member said the tax-to-GDP ratio would increase to 13% from 12% if the amnesty schemes were implemented. But Budget-makers had projected a tax-to-GDP ration at 10% if the FBR managed to achieve the original revenue target of Rs 2.381tr, same said by chairman. Only 40pc of registered companies, 25pc association of people, 28pc businessmen and 68pc salaried class were filling tax returns with the FBR, 3.1m potential taxpayers had been identified who would brought the tax through amnesty schemes and at present, only 1.4m filed tax returns.

23 Nov: SAO PAULO, Brazil: Mano Menezes was sensationally sacked as coach five-time world champions Brazil, dealing a hammer blow to the misfiring hosts of the 2014 World Cup. 23 Nov: Disgrace founder Lalit Modi has said he survived three attempts on his life for refusing to fix matches in the cash-rich T20, a new book “Bookie Gambler Fixer Spy: A journey to the Heart of Cricket’s Underworld” written by British Journalist ED Hawkins.

23 Nov: PSO is seeking up to 815,000 tones of fuel for over January and February next year. The company is seeking eight 65,000-tonne cargoes of high sulpher fuel oil (HSFO) and two optional cargoes of the same volume and grade for February delivery, two 55,000-tonne of low Sulphur fuel oil (LSFO) for delivery over January to February, and one optional LSFO cargo for delivery in February.

Nov 22: In an apparent move to woo the farming community in the lead-up to the general election and formalize a barter trade deal with Iran, the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) on Thursday raised the support price for wheat by Rs150 per 40 kilograms to Rs1200, up by 14.3 per cent over the existing price of Rs1050 per 40kg, also allowed export of 400,000 tons of sugar.

Nov 22: The National Electric Power Regulator y Authority (NEPR A) in its Annual Report, 2011-12, has come to conclude that about 3% of GDP growth is being lost due to power shortages due to various reasons. These include lack of integrated energy planning, demand forecasting, and imbalanced energy mix with an undue reliance on costly oil imports, non-utilization of domestic coal and hydel potential, amongst other factors.

23 Nov: Pakistan’s disappointing performance at the International Super Series Hockey continued as they lost 4-2 against England in nine-a-side hockey at the Hockey Stadium and failed to progress to the next round. The defeat was Pakistan’s 2nd loss in the series after they lost to Australia by the same score line on Nov 21. The Champions Trophy will be played after the International Super Series form December 1-9.

22 Nov: : Sri Lanka’s chief justice Shirani Bandaranayake attended the first day of a parliamentary hearing investigating an impeachment motion that accuses her of misusing power and having unexplained wealth, 11 member committee that is probing 14 charges against her. The committee is made up of seven govt. lawmakers and four from the opposition. Irate lawyers broke coconuts, a ritual signifying defiance and opposition to evil forces.

22 Nov: Following up on its earlier ban on night-time and low-rate telephone packages, the PTA has stopped cellophane operators from offering hat room services to users. PTA authorities claimed they had taken the steps on the directives of the SC and insistence of legislators who argued that the services were being misused by the user, especially students. PML (Q) legislator, Nosheen Saeed alleged that the phone companies were promoting immoral activities through such packages.

22 Nov: PPP fails in Senate to put vote for Dual Nationality bill i.e. 23rd constitutional Amendment Bill. Earlier on Tuesday 20 Nov, The PPP-led govt. failed to put the 22nd Constitution Amendment Bill 2012. The 23rd Constitution amendment bill seeking amendment to Article 240 says that” the govt. servants in BPS-20 or equivalent and above” in the service of the federation and all the provinces” shall not hold dual nationality or citizenship of any offering country.” It further says that any govt. servant holding dual nationality” shall renounce the same within thirty days of the coming into force of the Constitution (23rd Amendment) Act 2012.” The 22nd amendment bill seeks amendment to Article 63 of the constitution dealing with the disqualification the Member of Parliament. It not only allows the dual nationals to contest the general election but also nullifies the effect of the recent orders of the SC disqualifying a dozen legislators for possessing dual nationality as it will a retrospective effect form Nov 1, 2007. 22 Nov: Music by Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, Elton John and late singers Whitney Houston and James Brown will be inducted into the 2013 Grammy Hall of Fame, The Recording Academy said.

22 Nov: Japan’s embattled electronics sector suffered another blow as rating agency “Fitch” downgraded industry titans Sony and Panasonic to ‘junk’ status. Fitch said it cut Panasonic by two notches to BB, while it slashed Sony’s rating by three notches to BB-, with both firms given a negative outlook. Moody’s Investors Service has also downgraded France’s top “AAA” rating to “Aa1” citing long-term economic growth outlook negatively affected.

Caracas: capital and largest city of Venezuela.

22 Nov: VIENNA, Austria: More Journalists, 119, have been killed this year while on assignment than any time in the last 15 years, according to the International Press Institute, a Vienna-based media watchdog since it started keeping track in 1997. The previous highest was 110 deaths in 2009. Last year, 102 journalists were killed. Syria was the deadliest country for media to operate in this year, with 36 journalists killed there, a further 16 were killed in Somali, while Mexico, Pakistan and the Philippines remained the next most dangerous countries for journalists.

22 Nov: Pakistan and Iran agreed to continue efforts on the finalization of the agreement on the gas pipeline project despite US opposition, DawnNews reprted. According to the agreement, Iran would provide Pakistan with funds amounting Rs24.25bn in order to lay a 785KM pipeline from the Pakistan-Iran border to Nawabshah in Sindh province. Pakistan and Iran singed a deal in 2010 under which Tehran would supply gas to its eastern neighbor from 2014, with sales reach up to one billion cubic feet (28 million metres) per day by mid-2015. The project envisaged a pipeline, 900KM (560 miles) in length built from Assaluyeh in southern Iran to border with Pakistan. Another 800KM pipeline was also needed inside Pakistan to receive gas from Iran’s south pars field in the Gulf.

22 Nov: , Philippine: Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged Philippine President Benigno Aquino to do more to break up private armed group, after 58 people were killed in the country worst political massacre three year ago when the Ampatuan clan is accused of carrying out the 2009 massacre in their Maguindanao provincial stronghold to stop a rival, Esmaeal Mangudadatu, from running against one of its members in elections the following year. The victims included Mangudadaut’s wife and sister, their lawyer and large group of journalists,

22 Nov: Last day of 8th D-8 Summit on the theme “Democratic partnership for peace and prosperity” began at the President house. The event was opened by the Nigerian President being the outgoing chairperson of the D-8. President Zardari assumed the chairmanship of D-8 as the Nigerian President Goodluck Joanthan handed over the seat to him. The Summit also adopted the organisation’s Charter and D-8 Global Vision. Egyptian Deputy President Mahmoud Makki, Malaysian Deputy PM Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and Bangladesh Advisor to PM for international affair Professors Gowher Rizivi were on behalf of their leaders, while Morsi bowed out of Pakistan prospect visit as the first by an Egyptian head of state in four decade.

The key objectives of the D-8 Charter include promotion and enhancement of joint efforts towards achieving socio- economic development through effective utilization of potentials of D-8 countries, poverty alleviation and improvement of the quality of life in the countries, strengthening economic, social, technical and scientific ties and promoting private sector activity. The next D-8 summit will be hosted by Turkey in 2014.

22 Nov: Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves dropped to $13.814bn in the week ending Nov 16, from $13.845bn in the previous week, the SBP said. Remittances from Pakistanis aboard rose to 15.04% to $4.964bn in the first four months, July to Oct, of the FY 2012-13, from $4.315bn in the same period last year. In Oct, remittances totaled $1.365bn whereas average monthly remittances for July-Oct 2012/13 period comes out to $1.241bn. Nov 21: SBP paid the 7th installment of SDR258.4 million or about $394 million to the IMF. “With payment of 7th installment, Pakistan to-date has paid SDR 1.644bn equivalent US$2.522bn to IMF, since Feb-2012,” next installment is due in February. Pakistan will have to pay SDR 4.14bn ($6.3bn) from February 2013 to Sept 2015.

21 Nov: The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) nominated Shazad G. Dada, M. Hanif Jakhura and Syed Ali Sultan as directors on the Board of the Pakistan Mercantile Exchange Limited (PMEX) for the next term.

21 Nov: Former three time boxing champion Hector “Macho” Camacho was seriously injured after being shot in the neck in Puerto Rico.

21 Nov: Europe has agreed in principle to provide Egypt with 5.0bn Euros ($6.4bn) for rehabilitation needs of its economy mauled badly following the political event of 2011. IMF also to provide a 22-month credit line to Egypt of $4.8bn for the country’s economic rehabilation.

21 Nov: The Sindh High Court (SHC) has issued notice to the PCB, after accepting former Pakistan captain ’s petition that demanded sweeping reforms to the boar and challenged its constitution. Latif, who played 37 Test and 166 ODI for Pakistan, is widely respected for blowing the whistled on the match-fixing in 1995.

Lima: Capital and largest city and economic centre of Peru; located in western Peru; was capital of the Spanish empire in the New World until the 19th century.

Nov 21: Pakistan’s export of textile and clothing rebounded for the 2nd consecutive month after posting a decline for at least one year. In absolute term, export of textile and clothing witnessed a growth of 10.50% in Oct 2012, from a year ago. The growth in exports proceeds in Sept 2012 was 12.91%. Exports of textile and clothing reached $4.392bn in July-Oct period this year, up by 4.78% from $4.192bn. As a result of performance of textile and clothing sector, overall exports also witnessed 4.98% growth in the first four months this year as it stood at $8.202bn this year as against $7.814bn over the corresponding last year.

21 Nov: The sole surviving gunman from the 26 Nov, 2008 attacks, Ajmal Amir Kasab, was executed, nearly four year after 166 people were killed in three-day rampage.

21 Nov: Israel and Hamas agreed on a truce that will take effect on today nigh, ending a week of violence in and around the Gaza strip that killed 140 people. Israel launched its offensive on Nov 14 with the targeted killing of a Hamas military Chief. Since then, 163 Palestinians and six Israelis have been killed.

21 Nov: Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan arrived in to attend 8th D-8 Summit in the first visit to Pakistan by a Nigerian leader in 28 year. Nigeria, with a population of about 167 million, is Africa’s largest oil producer but has a very poor and unreliable electricity supply.

20 Nov: Faiz Ahmed Faiz 28th death anniversary. He died on 20 Nov, 1984.

20 Nov: China said that the US has overtaken the EU as its biggest export market, as the continent’s debt crisis has sent demand sluggish. Chinese customs figures for the first 10 months of this year showed that China’s exports to the US totaled $289.3bn, while shipments to the EU came to $276.8bn. The ASEAN had moved past Japan as Chinas’ third-biggest export market. China shipped $125bn in goods to Japan in the first ten month of this year, compared with $163.9bn to the 10 ASEAN countries, according to custom figure. 20 Nov: KAPISA, NIJRAB BASE, Afghanistan: France ended its combat mission in Afghanistan. France has lost 88 soldiers in Afghanistan and has been the 5th largest contributor to ISAF, behind the US, Britain, Germany and Italy.

20 Nov: Debut author Jamil Ahmed book ‘The Wandering Falcon’ and Journalist and novelist M. Hanif’s book ‘Our Lady of Alice Bhatti’ were among the six writer shortlisted for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature for 2013.

20 Nov: GOMA, Congo: M23 rebels in the Democratic Republics of Congo claimed control of the main city of Goma, a regional capital in the mineral-rich Kivu region, where the two wars that shook the country beginning in 1996, and its airport, as President Joseph Kabila urged people to defend the nation’s sovereignty. The former Belgian colony, know as Zaire under the dictator Mobutu Sese Seko who was toppled in 1997, remains one of the world’s least developed countries despite a wealth of cobalt, copper, diamonds and gold. One of their leader is Bosco Ntganda, a former nicknamed the “Terminator” who is wanted by the IC Court on charges of war crime. Remember, Two wars shook the country in 1996-1997 and 1998-2002 beginning in the Kivu region. Since 1998 more than three million people are estimated to have died from combat, disease and hunger and 1.6 million have been left homeless.

20 Nov: A meeting Tripartite Commission (TPC) was held at Afghan Ministry of Defense, was part of tripartite coordination mechanism and attends by Chief of Army Staff Pakistan, Acting ISAF commander Lieu. General Nicholas Carter and Afghan COGS Gen. Sher M. Karimi.

20 Nov: Pakistani stocks rose above 16,250 points to settle at a record high, supported by a jump in shares of domestic cement companies. The KSE benchmark 100-share ended 0.41 percent, higher at 16,251.79 (Nov 19 16,251.38also record) – the highest ever settlement and within striking distance of the market’s peak of 16,292.45 points reached in intra-day trading 12.

20 Nov: Pakistan had assumed the chairmanship of D-8 countries as the outgoing Nigeria completes its two-year term. Nigeria’s FM Olugbenga Ashiru handed over the chairmanship to FM khar, who represented the country at the 15th session of Council of Ministers, held on the margins of 8th D-8 Summit. (other details are also under mention on their due dates)

20 Nov: President confirmed Pakistan’s ratification of visa agreement b/w Pak and India, signed b/w the two countries on Sept 8, 2012, during a visit of Indian FM the federal cabinet had accorded its approval to sign this agreement during its meeting held on Sept 5, 2012 and approved the ratification of the subject protocol on Oct 31, 2012. The visa will be valid for a maximum of five specified places and shall be for a period not exceeding six months.

20 Nov: The NA unanimously passed a resolution strongly condemning Israeli aggression and killing of innocent Palestinians in Gaza. It also called upon the Myanmar Nobel Peace Winner Aung San Suu Kyi raise her voice for protection of Muslims in Myanmar.

19 Nov: if the pace of the cotton arrivals in the market is any indication, Pakistan is set to reap a bumper crop of 15 million bales during the current harvest, surpassing the record output of 14.8 million bales picked last year.

19 Nov: Colombia’s leftist FARC rebels declared a unilateral two-month ceasefire as they began talks in Cuba with the Bogota govt. on ending Latin America’s longest-running insurgency. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Latin America’s largest rebel group, founded in 1964 and believed to have some 9,200 armed fighters, took arms almost 50 year ago to protest the concentration of land ownership in Colombia. 19 Nov: The UN needs $79 million donors urgently to save millions of Pakistanis affected by monsoon floods and unrest it the northwest, this year monsoon floods in Pakistan killed 480 people and affected more than five million, whereas 1.1 million acres (450,000 hector) of crop affected. The UN estimated a total of $169m is required including $79m for emergency relief. So far it has received only $52m in pledges.

19 Nov: The National Assembly passed a bill with simple majority, which will validate actions taken by former PM Yusuf Raza Gilani b/w his conviction on April 26 and sacking on June 19 by the SC in the contempt of court case. Remember, President issued “Validation Ordinance, 2012” to protect all acts of Yusuf Raza Gilani as PM b/w this period and restrain the court, including the SC, from challenging them. On July 9, the ordinance was presented before the NA in the form of a bill and the standing committee on law and justice unanimously approved it on September 25. Under the 18th Amendment, the president cannot re-promulgate an ordinance that has to be presented before either house of parliament with 120 days. Court has asked the govt. to provide the legal cover to the former PM actions taking during the intervening period.

19 Nov: World Toilet Day, This year, on November 19, events will be taking place to break toilet taboos and highlight the struggle for dignified sanitation for a staggering 2.6 billion people without access to a clean, private toilet and 1.2 billion people (17 per cent of the global population) who practice open defecation. Nearly, 5,400 children die every day due to diarrhea (2nd to pneumonia) or because of unhygienic condition. In 2006, it was estimated that 2.5 billion people did not have access to proper sanitation; in 2008 there was an increase of 100 million people to that figure. That is one in every three people worldwide or nearly 40 per cent of the world’s population without a clean toilet. In of the over a billion people who do not have access to improved sanitation, nearly 700 million defecate in the open. In Pakistan – according to the WHO – of the 173.59 million people, 39.93 per cent defecate in the open. If this trend continues, Pakistan will be able to meet its target of reducing to half the number of people lacking sanitation by 2025, missing the MDG target of 2015 by a decade. In 2006, it was estimated that in Pakistan, the total economic impact of inadequate sanitation amounted to a loss of Rs 343.7 billion or about 3.9 per cent of Pakistan’s gross domestic product (GDP), according to a report by World Bank’s Water and Sanitation Programme. Remember, the average person spends three whole years of their life sitting on the toilet, producing 55 kilograms of excrement and 545 liters of urine a year. (Note: This all was for just information and pledged for awareness)

19 Nov: President Asif Ali Zardari addressed a special session of the Khyber Pakhtunkhawa Assembly – the first time Pakistani head of state has addressed the KP provincial assembly. Upon his arrival in KP, Governor, Barrister Masood Kausar and CM Ameer Haider khan hot received him. He addressed the assembly at the invitation of CM and Speaker KP, Karamatullah Chagharmati.

19 Nov: ALMATY (Largest city and capital of Kazakhistan since 1998): A Russian Soyuz TMA-05M capsule landed on the Kazakh steppe, safely delivering a trio of astronauts from a four-month stint aboard the International Space Station (ISS), named, Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and US Sunita Williams. The expedition 33 crew had spent 125 days aboard the ISS, a $100bn research complex involving 15 countries and orbiting 250 miles above earth, the crew conducted a number of experiments, including tests on radiation levels at the space centre and research into the effects of melting glaciers and seasonal changes on Earth’s ecosystems, NASA said in a statement. Remember, since the retirement of US space shuttles last year, the US is dependent on Russia to fly astronauts at a cost to the Nation of $60m per person.

19 Nov: Pakistan State Oil (PSO) is seeking up to 450,000 tones of gasoline and 25,000 tones of jet fuel for delivery over Dec to March. 19 Nov: YANGON, Myanmar: President Barach Obama visited and met Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and President Thein Sein. He also visited “Shwedagon Pagoda,” a gold-plated spire encrusted with diamonds and rubies that is the spiritual centre of Burmese Buddhism.

19 Nov: A four-day meeting of the Developing-8 (8th D-8 Summit) countries beginning here at the Pak-China Friendship centre today will formulate a strategy to enhance their share in global trade by 15% by 2018 t0 $507bn. It inaugurated by PM Raja Pervez Ashraf. The D-8 countries share in global trade has already increased from $67bn in 2008 to $130bn last year” Secretary of the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) Qazi Said. The event will be attended by leader and representatives from Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria and Turkey. President M. Morsi of Egypt, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono of Indonesia, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran and Goodluck Ebele Jonahthan of Nigeria and PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey will attend the Summit. Malaysia is likely to be represented by its deputy PM and Banglades by its FM. The event will mark the visit to the country by an Egyptian president after four decades and that of a Nigerian leader after 28 years. President Asif Ali Zardari will be chief guest on Thursday. The group was formed in Istanbul 1997 to advance development cooperation among the member nations. They are mainly Muslims states with the exception of Nigeria, which population is roughly divided b/w Muslims and Christians.

19 Nov: On an average, one journalist gets killed in the line of duty every 30 days. Almost 91 journalists have been murdered since 2000 due to which Pakistan has become the 3rd most dangerous country for journalists after Somalia and Syria. This was stated during a seminar titled ‘International Journalist Day’ organized at the National Press Club (NPC).

18 Nov: Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift, Niki Minaj and Clary Rae win 40th American Music Awards (AMAs), also include the tribute to Clark, its creator.

18 Nov: The World Bank warned Sunday that global temperatures could rise by four degrees this century without immediate action, with potentially devastating consequences for coastal cities and the poor. The study said the planet could warm 4.0 degrees Celsius (7.2 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels as early as the 2060s if governments’ promises to fight climate change are not met.

18 Nov: The Formula One title battle between Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso will go down to the wire in Brazil after McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton won the US Grand Prix on Sunday. Championship leader Vettel finished second after starting his 100th career F1 race on pole position while Alonso remained in contention with third place and is now 13 points adrift of the German with one race left. -Photos by agencies

18 Nov: Networking equipment company Cisco system Inc said it will buy privately held cloud networking company Meraki for 1.2bn in cash as part of its cloud and networking strategy.

17 Nov: Japan has signed a MOU with India to promote joint production of “rare earth minerals,” a move which will reduce its reliance on China which controls most of the world’s supply but home to just third of reserves, China last year produced 97% of the global supply of rare earth – a group of 17 elements used in high-tech products including magnets, batteries, LED lights, electric cars, iPods, lasers, wind turbines and missiles.

17 Nov: At least 47 nursery school children were killed when a train smashed into their bus in central Egypt (railway crossing in Manfalut, 356 KM south of Cairo) after a railway signal operator fell asleep. 17 Nov: Bal Keshav Thackerary, on of India’s most polarizing politicians and leader of an influential right-wing Hindu nationalist party, Shiv Sena (Shiva’s Army, formed in 1996) that has dominated politics in the country’s richest city Mumbai for two decades, has died aged 86.

16 Nov: The Hague, Netherland: Appeals judges at the Yugoslav war crime tribunal overturned the conviction of two crotia generals, Mladen Markac and Ante Gotovina, (sentence to 18 and 24) for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed against Serb civilians in a 1995 military blitz.

16 Nov: Egypt’s PM Hesham Kandil, visited the Gaza Strip’s Hamas rulers in the midst of an Israeli offensive there, calling for an end to the operation.

Nov 16: 1st Muharram, new day of New Islamic year 1434 Hijari. Martyr day of Sydena Umer Farooq (R.A).

Nov 16: International Day for Tolerance.

15 Nov: Xi Jinping, 59 succeeded Hu Jintao as China’s leader, assuming the top posts in the Communist Party and the powerful military in a once-a-decade political transition.

Nov 15: Turkmenistan plans to begin production at the world’s 2nd largest gas filed “Galkynysh” next year. One would run to Pakistan and India (TAPI, about 1735km, 1085miles) and the other would cross the Caspian Sea (300 KM trans – Caspian pipeline) en route to the EU. Remember, Turkmenistan’s natural Gas reserves rank fourth in the world behind those of Russian, Iran and Qatar. “Galkynysh, the Turkmen word for renaissance, is better know by its previous name, south lolotan. Turkmenistan currently produces less than its annual capacity of 75 billion cubic meter, also exports gas to Iran and China, plans to increase annual output to 250bcm by 2030.

Nov 15: Pakistan’s trade deficit for the first four month of the fiscal year 2012-13 narrowed by 7% to $6.44bn from the same period last year. Exports rose 5% to $8.203bn during the July-Oct period compared to the same period last year, the bureau said, imports eased to $14.643bn from $14.723bn a year ago. On monthly basics, the trade deficit grew to $1.774bn in Oct from $1.287bn the previous year. Exports totaled $2.016bn in Oct, and imports were $3.790bn.

Nov 15: India’s global rice exports could top 10 million tone in the fiscal year ending next March. Thailand, the world’s No.1 rice exporter, is in danger of losing its top position for the first time since 1983 because of a govt. intervention scheme that has pushed Thai export prices up to uncompetitive levels. Forecast from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) shows that India, which resumed exports in Sep 2011, could take over the No.1 spot from Thailand this year. Pakistan will retain it’s fourth position, Pakistan exports are expected to grow to 3.7 million tone, compared to 3.4 million tones exported in 2011. USAD ranking and forecast for the world 10 top countries are: Thailand (10.6 to 6.5 million tone (MT)), Vietnam (7 to 7.2 MT), India (4.6 to 10 MT), Pakistan (3.4 to 3.7 MT), US (3.2 to 3.3 MT), Brazil (1.3 to 1.2 MT), Cambodia (.86 to .80 MT), Uruguay (.84 to 1 MT), Myanmar (.78 to .70 MT) and Argentina (.73 to .68 MT)

Nov 15: Pakistan has carried out its first execution in four years, authorities hanged M. Hussain in city in central Punjab province, and He was sentenced to death in 2009. It’s was the first execution since the current govt. came to poser in 2008; last one was in November 2008. There are reportedly some 8,000 people on death row in Pakistan — one of the largest numbers of prisoners on death row in the world. On Dec 18, 2007, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution by a wide margin calling for a worldwide moratorium on executions. Nov 14: Maulana Jamaluddin Abdul Wahhab Farangi Mahali, popularly know Jamil Mian, a leading spiritual, literary and political figure of the country, passed away in Karachi on Wednesday at the age of 93. He was known for his enduring friendship with Maulana Hasrat Mohani.

14 Nov: The Federal Cabinet has approved tax amnesty schemes on undeclared income/wealth estimated to generate Rs 256 bn to the national exchequer besides bringing new 3.1 million payers into the tax-net.

14 Nov: According to the World Bank, the size of China’s gross domestic product in the last two decade has risen from $4000bn in 1992 to $7.3 trillion in 2011.

Nov 14: The Foreign Office and Afghanistan’s High Peace Council (HPC) agreed on Wednesday on a number of confidence-building measures to lure Taliban to the reconciliation process, including the release of several detainees currently in the custody of Pakistani authorities and making the ‘safe passage’ for reconcilable fighters functional.

Nov 14: A third of Pakistanis have no access to birth control, a senior UN officer said, as he urged the country to allocate more resources to family planning to slow rapid population growth. Pakistan’s population is growing by 2.05% a year and has reached the 180 million mark, making it the sixth most populous country in the world. Pakistan had its last head count in 1998, which put the population at 132 million.

Nov 14: Toyota announced a global recall of 2.77 million vehicles over water pump or steering problems, in the latest blow to the firm’s reputation after a spate of earlier call backs of 7.43 million vehicles in last month including its Camry and Corolla models.

14 Nov: From boats bobbing on the Great Barrier Reef, to hot air balloons hovering over the rainforest, and the hilltops and beaches in between, tents of thousands of scientists, tourists and amateur astronomers watched as the sun, moon, and Earth aligned and plunged northern Australia into darkness during a total solar eclipse.

14 Nov: The SC of Pakistan dismissed the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) implementation case and withdrew the contempt notice against PM Raja Perviz Ashraf. The court ruling said that its order was implemented in view of the instructions given in Paragraph 178 of the SC’s Judgment dated 16th December, 2009, in the case of Dr Mobashir Hasan.

14 Nov: The Israeli army launched “Operation Pillar of Defence” with the targeted killing of Hamas commander Ahmed Jaabari.

13 Nov: PIA suffered Rs119bn loss last year, SC told.

13 Nov: World kindness Day is observed, it was introduced in 1998 by the World Kindness Movement.

13 Nov: Governor Balochistan Aslam Raisani strikes back, wins assembly trust by securing 46 votes.

13 Nov: “Skyfall,” the 23rd film featuring the British super-spy, pulled in a franchise-reocrd $88.4 million in its US debut, bringing its worldwide total to more than $500 million since it began rolling out overseas in late October.

 Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen.  Dell CEO and Chairman is Micheal Dell.  Harry Poter’s writer Joanne Kathleen Rowling’s latest work “The Casual Vacancy.”  “On the Road,” a novel by Jack Kerouac.  Book about British colonial era in the Indian subcontinent: “A Passage to India,” by E.M Forster and John “Bhowani Junction.”  EU’s special envoy to central Asia Patricia Flor.

13 Nov: Google was ordered to pay Aus$200,000 (US$208,000) in damages to an Australian after jury found the internet giant defamed him by publishing material linking to mobsters. Milorad Trkulja, an entertainment prompter who is now 62, was shot in the back in 2004 in a crime that was never solved. He accused Google of defaming him with material which he said implied he was a major crime figure in Melbourne and has been the target of a professional hit. Interesting to know, he had already won Aus$225,000 from Yahoo in an earlier case on the same matter.

13 Nov: 23-year company veteran Steven Sinofsky, head of Microsoft’s Windows unit, the executive most widely tipped to the next chief executive of Microsoft Corp has left the world’s largest software company. He started his career at MS as Bill Gates’ technical assistant, later overhauled MS’ Office division before he was brought over to manage the release of Windows 7 in 2009. He will be succeeded by Julie Larson-Green, who will head the windows hardware and software division, and Tami Reller, who will remain chief financial officer of the windows unit.

13 Nov: Flamboyant West Indies opener became the first player to hit a six from the first ball of a test match when he launched his big-het against Bangladesh, the ICC said. Remember, the first officially recognized test match commenced on March 15, 1877 and was contested by England and Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). France also became the first western country to formally recognize Syria’s newly formed opposition coalition.

13 Nov: Terror suspect Abu Qatada, who has been dubbed Osama bin Laden’s right hand man in Europe, will be freed on bail after British judge’s upheld appeal against extradition to Jordan. Abu Qatada also known as Omar M. Othman.

13 Nov: the NA passed the Right to free and compulsory Education Bill 2012 unanimously to ensure free and compulsory education to all children of aged five to sixteen years as enshrined in the Article 25-A of the constitution. Any person who establishes or runs a school without obtaining certificate of registration shall be liable to fine which may be extend to two hundred thousand rupees and in case of continuing contraventions, to a fine of 25,000 rupees per day. Parents who would refuse to send their children to schools would be fined with 25000 rupees and three month imprisonment, the bill stated. Person, who employed child for labor would be fined with 50,000 rupees and six month imprisonment.

12 Nov: Novak Djokovic produced a masterful display to end Roger Federer’s reign as ATP Tour Finals champion as the world number one swept to a 7-6 (8-6), 7-5 victory in the final. Remember, Novak Djokovic is winner of the Australian open in January and then he lost in the finals of the French and US Opens. Whereas, Roger Federer, the 17 time Grand Slam champion is the most successful player in the history of the event, having won more titles and recorded more match wins than anyone else.

12 Nov: Pakistan won a seat on the UN Human Rights council, by securing 171 votes. Pakistan has been elected to this important UN body for the third time, Pakistan secured its first victory in 2006 when the council was created by the UN General Assembly. In the new term, Pakistan will serve from 2013 to 2015. After the elections, Masood Khan, the Permanent Representative of Pakistan replies to the reporter’s question.

12 Nov: Barring Honda Civic, City and Suzuki, sales of locally assembled cars plunged by 32.2% in July-Oct 2012-13 as compared to same period of 2011-12. 12 Nov: Overseas Pakistani workers remitted a historic amount of $1.365 billion in October that was 34%, or $347 million, than the amount remitted during the same period of last year, SBP said on Monday, previous highest amount in a month remitted in a single month by overseas Pakistanis was recorded in August, 2011 when they sent an amount of $1.310 billion. Overseas Pakistanis remitted an amount of $4.964 billion in the first four months (July – Oct) of FY 2013, showing a growth of 15% or $649 million when compared with $4.315 in the same period of the last fiscal year with monthly average comes out to $1.241b as compared to $1.78b.

Nov 12: President Asif Ali Zardari singed a bill for setting up the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) to prevent sale of fake, substandard and non-registered medicines and regulate manufacturing, storage, distribution, import, sale and advertising of therapeutic drugs.

12 Nov: Pakistani has reinitiated a move to get Preferential Trade Agreements (PTAs) and Unilateral Market Access with Russian Federation and five Central Asian Republics (CARs) to benefit from the land route transit facility available under the new Afghanistan-Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement (APTTA). CARs included Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan.

12 Nov: China export growth accelerates in sign of recovery. Here are some economic numerical values: China exports rose to $176.6 billion and imports are $143.6 billion with a trade surplus to $32 billion, whereas, inflation remained well under control, dipping to a nearly three-year low of 1.7% in October.

12 Nov: Islamabadis who decided to come to the National Art Gallery’s auditorium were treated to traditional American music by all-women country band “Della Mae” courtesy the US State Dept.

12 Nov: A lone shooter could not have committed the massacre of 16 Afghan villagers blamed a US soldier, a witness testified, Robert Bales, facing a possible court marital, left his base in the Panjwayi district of Kandahar province on the night of March 11 to commit the killings, which included nine children. He allegedly set several of their bodies on fire, before, leaving to US next morning.

12 Nov: The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) said its six member states have decided to recognize the newly formed National coalition of the Syrian opposition as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people. GCC compromises Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE, Oman, Qatar and , GCC chief Abdullatif al-Zayani said in a statement.

12 Nov: SUSONO, Japan: Toyota Motor Cop. Is testing car safety systems that allow vehicles to communicate with each other and with the roads they are on in a just completed facility in Japan. Smart Car technology will be tested on some Japanese roads starting in 2014.

11 Nov: Syria’s deeply divided oppositions has agreed to unite against President Bahsar al-Assad, electing a moderate cleric Moaz al-Khatib, 52, a Damascus moderate who quit Seria) as their new leader in a move hailed by the West a step towards a peaceful political transition.

11 Nov: India has launched a new version of its ultras-low-cost tablet computer, The Aakash 2 tablet (Britain based datawind are makers of the tablet), with a quick processor and an improved battery, on sale to students at the subsidized price of 1,130 rupees ($20). Remember, India has nearly 115 million internet user, third-largest number in the world after China and US.s

10 Nov: Global Action Day for Malala Yousufzai being observed today on a call given by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. Nov 9: Eminent intellectual and writer Zia Mohyeddin’s book “A Carrot is Carrot: Memories and Reflection” was launched.

9 Nov: The govt. launched a four-year literacy programme ‘Waseela-i-Taleem’ under which more than three million children of poor families, especially girls, will get free education.

Nov 9: The payable debt liability of Pakistan Steel Mills exceeded Rs82 billion on Oct 31, up from Rs75bn four months ago, even after getting a Rs14.6bn bailout package from the federal government in July this year

9 Nov: General David Petraus, director of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), has resigned, citing “personal reasons” (and also on revelation of affair with his biographer Paula Broadwell) in his resigning letter to President Barack Obama. Michael Morell, the agency’s long-time deputy director, would serve as acting CIA chief.

9 Nov: NASA has renamed twin satellites, originally known as the Radiation Belt Storm Probes(launched on August 30,2012), to the Van Allen Probes in honor of James Van Allen, the scientist who helped launched the field of magnetospheric science. The Van Allen Probes have turned on and tested all instruments and are beginning their prim science mission: observing the giants belts of radiation around the earth in order to understand what causes them to swell and shrink in response to incoming radiation from the sun.

9 Nov: Senior diplomat Masood Khalid named as an ambassador for Beijing, China.

9 Nov: British to stop financial aid to India by 2015 because of rising economy of India.

9 Nov: Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar as on a six-hour visit to Bangladesh to formally invite PM Sheikh Hasina to a sumit scheduled to be held in Islamabad on Nov 22.

9 Nov: 135th Birthday of Great National Poet of Pakistan Dr. Allama Muhammad Iqbal i.e. “Iqbal Day”. He was born on 9 Nov, 1877. Iqbal books include Bang-e-Dara (Call of the Marching Bell), Bal-e-Jibril (Wings of Gabriel), Zarb-e-Kallem (Powerful Strike): and Persian one include Asrar-e-Khudi (Secrets of the Self), Ramuz-e-baykhudi (Hints of Selflessness), Payaam-e-Mashriq (Message of the East), Zabur-e-Ajam (Persian Psalms), Javed Nama (Book of Javed), Pas Chih Bayad Kard ay Aqwam-i-Sharq (What are We To Do, O Nations of the East?) and Armaghan-e- Hijaz (Gift of Hijaz). As a politician, Allama Iqbal became a member of Punjab Legislative Assembly in 1926. He was active member of Muslim League and put forwarded the idea of as separate country for Muslims of the Indian subcontinent at the 1930 session of the All-India Muslim League in Allahabad. Iqbal’s other achievement include being knighted by British King, George V, in 1922. He also has literary works in English. He wrote Book in English language named The Development of Metaphysics in Persian and Reconstruction of Religious Thoughts in . Apart from having the title of National Poet, he also known as the Shair-e-Mashriq (Poet of the East), Muffakir-e- Pakistan (The Thinker of Pakistan) and Hakeem-ul-Ummat (the Sage of the Nation).

9 Nov: The govt. has banned mobile number portability (MNP), baring cellular phone subscribers from switching over to other networks while retaining the number issued by the first service provider, a new procedure for issuing subscriber identity module (SIM) also deceded.

9 Nov: President Barack Obama will become the first US president visit Myanmar and Cambodia when he travels to the Asian Nations later this month. Obama will meet Myanmar democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and President Thein Sein. Obama would also visit Thailand and meet PM Yingluck Shinawatra, and attend East Asia summit in Cambodia on the Nov 17-20 trip. 9 Nov: UN’s special education envoy and former British PM Gordon Brown arrived in Pakistan on a three-day-long visit. Federal minister for education and Training Sheikh Waqas Akram received him.

9 Nov: BALI, Indonesia: 5th Bali Democracy forum attended by Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who criticize the spending on US election, soaring beyond $2b. Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, South Korean’s President Lee MYung-bak, Australia PM Julia Gillard and Afghan President Hamid Karzai are among other leaders who joined forum.

Nov 8: More than 200 companies from nearly 60 countries, including the United States, China and European countries are participating in the annual show of military hardware organized by Pakistan’s defense production ministry, IDEAS 2012.

8 Nov: Chief Minister Bihar Nitish Kumar said that exchange of delegation can help improve India and Pakistan relation b/w the two neighboring countries on arriving at Jinnah international Airport Karachi with his 12 member delegation.

8 Nov: Jared Lee Loughner, the gunman who shot US congresswomen Gabrielle Giffords in massacre that left six dead in Arizona was given seven life sentences plus 140 year in Jail.

8 Nov: China’s all-powerful and secretive Communist Party officially opened its 18th congress to unveil a new slate of leader who will oversee the world’s second-largest economy for the next decade. Party number two Wu Bangguo declared the congress open inside Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, where more than 2,200 delegates will meet for a week and install Vice President Xi Jinping as the party’s new general-secretary.

8 Nov: Abraham “Bram” Stoker 165th birthday, he was an Irish novelist and short story writer, best know today for his 1897 Gothic novel “Dracula”. He died 20 April, 1912 in London.

8 Nov: Iranian Vice President Ali Saeedlou has cancelled his visit at the eleventh hour in an apparent indication of some underlying unease in bilateral relationship was due in Islamabad on Wednesday on a three-day visit for pushing the challenging Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project and other issues.

8 Nov: RIYDAH, Saudi Arabia: A total of 12 million pilgrims visited Islam’s holiest sites during the annual hajj which took place this year at the end of Oct or for the year long umra, or minor pilgrimage. The pilgrims – including 3.1 million who made the hajj, including 1.7 million abroad, according to official – spent 62b riyals ($16.5b), a rise of 10% over 2011, Al-Hayat newpaper.

7 Nov: Pakistani stocks closed at a record high above 16,200 at 16,218.01.

7 Nov: UNITED NATIONS: The Palestinians took the first step toward raising their status at the United Nations from an observer to a nonmember observer state on Thursday by circulating a draft resolution to the 193 UN member states and asking for their support. Remember; up to 132 Nations recognize “the State of Palestine”. The upgrade status would add weight to Palestinian claims for a state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, territories captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war. Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005.

7 Nov: , Qatar: Pakistan and Qatar agreed to collaborate in energy and trade and discussed formalities for Pakistani importing Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG). President Asif Ali Zardari met Qatar’s PM Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabar Al Thani and discussed bilateral relations. 7 Nov 2012: President Barack Obama won a second four-year term in office as voters handed him a victory over Republican challenger Mitt Romney. Obama won 303 electoral votes, compared to 203 for Romney.

6 Nov: Superstar batsman became the first Indian sportsman to be honored with membership of the Order of Australia.

6 Nov: Canada and India clinched a deal opening the door to Canadian shipment of uranium and other nuclear supplies to the energy-hungry South Asian nation for the first time in nearly four decades. The agreement negotiated during six-day official visit by Canadian PM Stephen Harper.

6 Nov: SYDNEY, Australia: PM Julia Gillard demanded that Pakistan investigate and explain the brutal killing of 21,000 Australian sheep in Karachi. Remember, the shipment of Australia sheep was sent to the port city after being turned away by Bahrain, with Pakistan livestock officials ordering them to be culled over disease concerns.

6 Nov: While this metropolis has many structures dedicated to the structures of materialism and greed, its spiritual centre seems to be the majestic dargah on a hillock in Clifton – the final place of Abu Mohammad Adbullah al Ashtar, better known as Abdullah Shah Ghazi (720 – 773 AD), devotees flock to the dargah to celebrate the 1239th urs (death anniversary) of the Ghazi, from the 20th to the 22nd of the lunar month, this year corresponding to the 6th, 7th and 8th of Nov.

6 November 2012: After a solid year of primaries, campaigning, and election noise, it is finally decision time for America. Republican’s Mitt Romney and Democratic’s President Barack Obama who had replaced G. W. Bush on 20 January 2009, go head to head today as the country casts its vote. Key guide about US Election are: US election are run using an electoral college. The candidate who wins a total of 270 Electoral College votes out of 538 votes becomes president. This is the most expensive campaign in history, and one of the most negative, saw more than $6 billion unleashed by the rival camps. Obama already has around 237 Electoral College votes secured. California (55 electoral votes), New York (29), Illinois (20) and Michigan (16) are all voting Democrat, as well as several smaller states. That means that he only needs 33 extra votes to win. If he takes Ohio, which has 18 electoral votes, he’ll only need to win in two more states. Romney has a steeper hill to climb. He currently has around 206 electoral votes secured, so to have any chance of victory, he needs to take Florida (29) and Ohio (18), as well as Colorado, Wisconsin, and Virginia. Of all the swing states, Ohio is the most important. It has not voted for a loser since 1960. The Obama campaign has spent $57 million on advertising in Ohio, while Romney has racked up a $34 million bill. After Florida, it has been the second most visited state during this campaign.

6 Nov: Australia has offered Pakistan joint venture the development of Thar coal to exploit its energy crises, the ambassador of Australia to Pakistan Peter Heyward said.

“We have a great consumer market and a competent workforce which is fourth largest in the world” said by Farida, the president of IWCCI on the occasion.

5 Nov: Famous Pakistani stage comedian and parody film maker Sikandar Sanam, who was diagnosed with liver cancer, died on Monday.

5 Nov: the much-discussed letter in relation to the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) implementation case has bee dispatched to authorities in Switherzerland. The draft of the letter – seeking to reopen a graft case against President Asif Ali Zardari – constitutes the points upon which both the SC and Law Minister Farooq H Naek had reached a consensus. Remember, earlier, the govt. had contended that the letter could not be written as under the constitution the president enjoyed immunity from prosecution. On Oct 10, after more than 30 months into the NRO saga, the SC had approved the law ministry’s draft of the letter aimed at reopening the graft case against President. The allegations against President Asif Ali Zardari date back to the 1990s, when he and his late wife, former premier were suspected of using Swiss bank accounts to launder $12 million allegedly paid in bribes by companies seeking customs inspection contracts. The Swiss shelved the case in 2008 when Zardari became president and the govt. continued insisting that the president had full immunity. But in 2009 the SC overturned the NRO, a political amnesty that frozen investigations into the president and other politicians, ordering that the case be reopened. The govt. has sought withdrawal of a letter written by former attorney general Mailik Qayyum to his Swiss counterpart Daniel Zappelli on May 22, 2008. (Sorry Mr. Waqar! Being too long but these were necessary details, Monologue)

5 Nov: Pakistan won the 2nd Asia Cup Kabbadi title in an unfinished thrilling final by 40-31 as the Indian team forfeited the tie on a technical objection raised by the hosts on Monday under lights before a full house of nearly thirty thousand spectators

4 Nov: Power Sector looses reached to 45% even after pouring the 1.5 trillion Rs in the power sector in last four years.

4 Nov: VIENTIANE (Laos): PM Raja Pervez Ashraf arrived here to attend the ninth summit of the Asia-Europe Meeting (Asem-9) being held on Nov 5-6. At the Wattay International Airport, he was received by Laos Minister and Pakistan’s envoy in Hanoi (capital of Vietnam) Shahid M. Kiani. Leaders from 49 countries have arrived to attend the summit. Other Prime Minister at the meeting would be:

Laos PM Thongsing Thammavong, Italian PM Mario Monti, European Council chief Van Rompuy, French President Francois Holland, China’s PM Wen Jiabao, Russian PM Dmitry Medvedev, Malaysian PM Najib bin Ton Raza, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Finnish PM Jyrki Katainen and Australian PM Julia Gillard.

4 Nov: WASHINGTON: About 2.7 million viewers watched Sunday’s television premiere of the first movie about the US commando raid that killed Osama bin Laden on May 2, 2011 in abbot bad, named “SEAL Team Six: The Rad on Osama bin Laden” directed by Johan Stockwell. Another feather film about the hund for bin Laden, “Zero Dark Thirty” by director Kathryn Bigelow, who won an Oscar with the Iraq war film “The Hurt Locker” is due for release in cinemas in Jan.

4 Nov: DOHA, Qatar: The opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) (Head is Abdel Basset Sayda) begins a four-day meeting in Doha, where the US will reportedly press for an overhaul of the coalition aiming to topple President Bashar al-Assad. Remember, The SNC has emerged as the interlocutor of the international community since its creation around six months after the March 2011 start of the uprising which monitors say has cost more than 36,000 lives till now.

4 Nov: During his inaugural address to the 6th South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) conference, President Asif Ali Zardari said terrorism can only be defeated if hearts and minds of the people are won over. He said war against terrorism resulted in the deaths of over 40,000 Pakistani’s, while the nation has suffered economic loss of $80 billion. Indian Speaker Meira Kumar called on the president later in the day.

4 Nov: Bishop Tawadros (given name Wagih Sobhy Baqi Suleiman) was chosen as new pope of Egypt’s Coptic Christians. On November 18, Tawadros will assume his new position as spiritual head of the 10% minority of 83- million strong population, becoming the 118th pope in a line dating back to the origins of Christianity and to Saint Mark, the apostle and author of one of the four Gospels, who brought the new faith to Egypt, official news agency MENA reported.

4 Nov: French President Francois Hollande arrived in the Saudi city of Jeddah to his first visit to the oil-rich kingdom, meeting with Saudi Arabia’s king Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Saud.

2 Nov: FBR said it had issued notices to Afridi, Younis, and for evading taxes of 80 million rupees ($825,000), ordering them to pay up within two weeks. Remember, Pakistan’s tax revenues are among the lowest in the world at just 9.8% of GDP in FY 2010-2011, according to ADB, and less than 2% of the population pays tax on their income. Interesting to note, Younis, Afridi and Umar are all in Category ‘A’ of PCB’s central contracts, earning 313,000 rupees ($3,200) in monthly salaries, also get a fees of $4,000 a Test, $3,800 for a ODI and $2,900 for a T20.

2 Nov: PCB authorities have given their support to the idea of hosting day-night Tests, saying they would increase the “product value” of the matches. Remember, ICC last month permitted the day-night Tests, leaving it up to the boards of the two countries involved to decide on the playing and the color of the ball.

2 Nov: Pakistan’s consumer price index (CPI) inflation rose by 7.7% in October from a year earlier, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics said, the year-on-year rate in September was 8.8%. On a month-to-month basics, the CPI increased by 0.4% compared to 0.8% in September.

1 Nov: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced the schedule for the upcoming limited-over series against Pakistan in India. The series comprises two T20 and three ODI matches to be played in Dec-January. The Pakistan national team is scheduled to arrive in India on Dec 22 and the first T20 will be played in Bangalore on Dec 25, followed by 2nd T20 in Ahmadabad on Dec 27. , Kolkata and New Delhi will host the ODI on Dec 30, January 3 and January 6. Team will return to Pakistan of January 7. (Lo bhi mein na tu series bhi kar wa de, hehehehehe)

1 Nov: SEOUL, South Korea: SK’s Samsung Engineering said it had won a $2.48b order (total of 8 order from ADNOC worth of $9.1b) to build plants in Abu Dhabi, under the deal signed Wednesday Oct 31 with the state-owned Abu Dhabi Oil Refining Co. a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), Samsung will build a carbon black (used as pigment and reinforcement material for auto tyres) unit and delayed Coker (used in oil refineries) unit in Ruwais, west of Abu Dhabi, by January 2016.

 Current Head of IMF or IMF Chief, Christine Lagarde,  Dmitry Medvedev is the current PM of Russia.  Current Chief Executive of Apple is Tim Cook.  The founder and CEO of the social network Facebook is Mark Zuckerberg.  Current Chairman of Security exchange commission of Pakistan (SECP) is Muhammad Ali.  ICC current CEO is Dave Richardson.  UN Special Education envoy Gordon Brown, who was prime minister of Britian from 2007-2010.  Microsoft’s Current CEO is Steve Ballmer.  Julia Larson-Green is the president of Microsoft’s Windows division after Steven Sinofsky left the company..  CEO of Google is Eric Schmidt (I just read Google CEO Larry Page on dawn, maybe Eric changed, try to remember both hit which one asked in exam).  Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer.  IMF Managing Director is Christine Lagarde and Deputy Managing Director is Nemat Shafik.  Sony CEO Kazu Hirai.  Top China Search Engine Baidu Inc.  Dr. Abdul Jabbar, the PEMRA (Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority) Chairman.  McDonalds CEO Don Thompson.  Giorgio Napolitano President of Italy.  BBC New Director General George Entwistle. Former BBC DG Mark Thompson, who is due to start as CEO of the New York Times in November,.  AOL Inc CEO Tim Armstrong.  Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) Chairman is Saeed Ahmed Khan.  Thein Sein is current President of Myansmar (Burma).  The commander of NATO (ISAF), General Johan allen.  Secretary General of Arab League is Nabil el Arabi.  Twitter CEO is Dick Costolo.  Greek PM is Antonis Samaras.  Research in Motion (RIM), Manufacture Company of BlackBerry CEO is Thorsten Heins, who replace RIM founders Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis.  NASA current administrator is Charles F. Bolden and Deputy Administrator is Lori Beth Garver.

1 Nov: Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves dropped to $14.333b in the week ending Oct 26, from $14.389b in the previous week, SBP said. Remittaces from Pakistanis abroad rose 9.16% to $3.6b in the first quarter, July to Sep, of the 2012/13 FY, compared with $3.297b in the same period last year. (Note: Foreign Reserves quoted on, weekly,monthly, quartely basics so compare and remember most recent one or at round number at $14 billion. You don’t need to remember Foreign reserves & remittances given below, just compare them with it if you have time otherwise just remember most recent one)

Oct 31: The company behind “Angry Birds” said it would open its first theme park in Asia next year at Haining city in China’s Zhejiang province near Shanghai as it builds on the brand of the hugely popular game, will be the firm’s third theme park after one in Finland and another in Britain. Interesting fact: China has the world’s second-highest number for Angry Birds at 190 million, trailing only the US.

Oct 31: FM Hina Rabbani Khar visited Egypt as a special envoy of the ; she called on President Dr Mohammad Morsi and extended to him an invitation for participation in the D-8 Summit being held in Islamabad on November 22. She also invites President Morsi on behalf of the President to undertake bilateral visit to Pakistan on Nov 23-24. She also held a meeting with her Egyptian counterpart Mohammad Kamel Amr.

Oct 31: Durning an interview on DawnNews, former chief of the ISI General (Retd) said that politicians in the country were corrupt, and at the same time admitted responsibility for creating the Islamci Jamhoori Ittehad (IJI), a political alliance that was allegedly created to prevent Benazir Bhutto’s PPP from winning.

Oct 31: PPP’s Kaira said that the interim set up will take over around March 18, 2013, after the incumbent government completes its five year term. He added that general election will be held no later than 40 days after the interim set takes over, meaning elections will be held by May 10.

Oct 31: Newly-appointed US Ambassador to Pakistan Richard Olson formally assumed the office. He was arrived in Pakistan on Oct 27 (mention below) Oct 31: Pakistan’s Federal Cabinet approved four agreements signed with neighboring India, including a much- anticipated agreement on a liberalized visa regime signed S.M. Krishna by India on 8 September.

Oct 30: The Election Commission plans to finalize by Dec 31 the arrangements for next general election and has directed the relevant institutions to complete the remaining work in this regard.

Oct 31: Mian Israrul Haq swept to victory on Wednesday in the election for the Supreme Court Bar Association and notched up the president’s slot for 2012-13.

Oct 31: The NAB has allowed a Turkish ship-mounted power plant, Karkay, to leave the country after recovering Rs1.65 billion during investigation into the Rs22 billion power projects (RPPs) scam.

Oct 30: James Bond rule the box office, Producers say the new Bond adventure, “Skyfall” has had the 2nd biggest opening weekend in British movie history, taking 20.1 million pounds ($32m) at the U.K. box office. That is the biggest opening weekend for any of the 23 Bond films, an ranks just behind last year’s final Potter movie, “Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows – Part 2,” which took 23 million pound in its first weekend in Britain. “Skyfall” opened this weekend in 25 global markets, taking in a total of &77.7 million b/w Fri and Sunday with stars Daniel Craig as agent 007. It is “ particularly thrilling as the UK is home to James Bond and it being the 50th anniversary year,” producers Michael G Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, said.

Oct 30: Some news about UAE, I wonder! Question about UAE budget would be asked in current affair’s exam but would be informative for your general knowledge: Remember, The UAE is a federation of seven emirates: Abu Dhabi, Dubai, , Ajman, Ras al-Khaimah, Umm al-Quwain and Fujairah. With crude oil reserves estimated at 97.8b barrels, the UAE is OPEAC’s fourth-largest producer. It has population of about eight million people, more than 80% of them expatriates, mostly Asians. The UAE pumps around 2.5 million barrels of oil per day, to which the emirate of Abu Dhabi, also the federation’s capital, contributes more than 90%. The UAE cabinet approved 2013 federal budget, spending was projected at 44.6b dirham ($12.1b), increased by 6.7% on the 2012 expenditure of 41.8b dirham ($11.4b), according to the official WAM news agency. Revenue was also estimated at 44.6b dirham, 7.7% higher than the current year which was projected at 41.4b dirham ($11.3b).

Oct 30: Afghanistan’ s presidential election will be held on April 5, 2014 (Hamal 16, 1993, Afghan solar calendar), month ahead of the final withdrawal of NATO combat troops, a poll official said, candidates must submit their nominations by October 6, 2013.

Oct 30: India’s cricket board said it has secured govt. clearance to host Pakistan for a short tour later this year, invited Pakistan to play three one-dayers and two T20 matches in December-January, the first bilateral contest b/w the arch-rivals in five years.

Oct 30: awoke to scenes of devastation after mega storm Sandy battered the East Coast, flooding parts of , paralyzing transport and leaving millions without electricity. President Barack Obama has declared a “major disaster” in NY. Super storm “Sandy” strengthen on Monday Oct 29, after hundred of thousands moved to higher ground, public transport shut down and stock markets, The NY Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq were closed for Monday and Tuesday, first full trading closure since Sept 11 attacks closed US equity markets for four days in 2001, suffered its first weather-related closure in 27 years in Sept 1985 when Hurricane “Gloria” closed it for a day. Disaster estimating firm Eqecat forecast that Sandy would affect more than 60 million American, a fifth of the population, and cause up to $20 billion (15b Euros) in damage. Americans also badly affected of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. US officials have confirmed between 40 and 50 storm-related deaths, including 18 in New York. President Obama, who returned to Washington on Monday, and his Republican rival Mitt Romney have cancelled all activities related to the Nov. 6 election and are instead focusing on the hurricane.

Oct 30: FM Hina Rabbani Khar address in opening statement at the 14th Session of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Oct 29: Singh named , 59, as a replacement for the 80-year-old foreign minister S.M. Krishna as he attempted to dispel the image of a struggling government, which recently lost its majority. The law ministry went to Ashwani Kumar, a ruling Congress party loyalist. The other newcomers include Rahman Khan who was named as minority affairs minister, Ajay Maken who becomes housing minister and Dinsha Patel who is now mines minister.

Oct 29: Balochistan Minister for Local Bodies Bashardost died of cardiac arrest.

Oct 29: Almost 60 million people braced themselves for any eventuality as Hurricane Sandy began to lash the densely populated US East Coast on Monday, bringing tidal waves and gusty winds while incessant rain drenched cities from Boston to Washington.

Oct 29: Microsoft set out to win over iPhone and Android gadget devotees with Windows 8 Smartphone, new devices that emphasize individualism and unify digital lives in the Internet cloud. MS released its new OS windows 8 for PCs and laptops on Oct 26.

Oct 29: New species of lizard discovered in Australia, the sand dunes outside Perth. Researchers from the Australia National University found the six cm long Ctentous ora, or the Coastal Plains Skink, living in the dunes along the Swan Coastal Plain b/w Dunsborough and Mandurah, south of Perth.

Oct 29: CAIRO, Egypt: Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar departed on a three-day official visit to Cairo where she will meet the top leadership of the newly formed Egyptian government.

Oct 29: Saudi Arabia will build massive Islamic centre complete with a university and a mosque in Afghanistan, an Afghan minister said on Monday, describing the project as “grand and unique”. Estimated a cost up to $100 million, the centre on a hilltop in centre Kabul will house up to 5,000 students. Remember, Faisal Mosque in Islamabad that was also built by oil-rich Saudi Arabia in 1980s, with a capacity of holding 15,000 worshipers at a time.

Oct 29: A bomb attack on the shrine of Sufi saint Hazrat Kaka Saheb on the second day of Eidul Azha, leaving four people dead and 32 others wounded, drew widespread condemnation in ,

Oct 29: An aide to France’s former president was on Monday charged in an illegal political funding scandal known as the `Karachi Affair’, a complex probe into alleged kickbacks on arms deals.

Oct 28: PM Raja Pervez Ashraf returned from Saudi Arabia after performing Hajj. The PM visited Saudi Arabia on Oct 22 as the special guest of King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz on Hajj rituals.

Oct 29: ALGIERS, capital of Algeria: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Algeria, with the political crisis in neighboring Mali a central focus of her scheduled talks with President Abdelaziz Bouteflika. Remember, Algeria shared 1400 KM (850 miles) with Mali. Oct 28: South Africa beat defending champions Pakistan by 37 runs in the final of the Hong Kong Super Sixes tournament at Kowloon Cricket Club in Hong Kong. Pakistan won the toss and elected to field after they were set a target of 143 runs by the Proteas which they could not reach despite Umar Akmal 55 runs and 35.

Oct 27: the head of the Roman Catholic Church in England has written to the Vatican to ask whether it is possible to strip the late BBC presenter Jimmy Savile of papal knighthood (highest award bestowed by the pope reserved for lay people and military, instituted in 1831 by Pope Gregory XVI) because of his role in a sex abuse scandal. Remember, Jimmy Savile, a cigar-chomping former DJ who was one of the BBC’s top presenters of show “Jim’ll fix it”, sexually abused of young girls for decades has thrown the publicly-funded BBC into disarray. Police said some 300 victims had come forward and that they were preparing to make arrest. Jimmy died last year at the age of 84 on Oct 29 last year. The allegation against Savile first emerged in an expose on the rival British TV channel ITV. First head of BBC governing body called the allegation a “tsunami of filth”, and police said Savile was “undoubtedly” one of Britain’s most prolific sex offenders ever.

Oct 27: FRANKFURT, Germany: Germany’s foremost contemporary composer Hans Werner Henze, who died at the age of 86, was a non-conformist both politically and artistically thorough his life, born on July 1, 1926 in Gutersloh.

Oct 27: Pakistan observes Eid-ul-Azha on Saturday.

Oct 27: Richard G. Olson arrived in Pakistan to take up his duties as the new US Ambassador to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Ambassador Olson was sworn in by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as Ambassador to Pakistan on September 24, 2012. His previous assignment was as the Coordinating Director fro Development and Economic affairs at the US Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan fro 2011 to 2012. Olson is a predecessor of Munter who resigned in May 2012.

Oct 26: STRASBOURG, European Parliament: Iranian rights activists, lawyer Narin Sotoudeh and film-maker Jafar Panah won the European Parliament’s Sakharov prize. Nelson Mandela and Kofi Annan are also receiver of this 50,000-euro ($65,000) prize.

Oct 26: DAMASCUS, Syria: Calm followed a night of fierce clashes across Syrian Friday morning after the arm and main rebel force fighting to oust Bahar al-Assad’s regime agreed to down arms for the four-day holiday for Eidul Azha. Remember, the conflict b/w began in March 2011 with pro-reform protests inspired by the Arab Spring, but is now a civil war pitting mainly Sunni rebels against Assad’s regime dominated by his minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shia Islam.

Oct 26: DENPASAR, Indonesia: Construction workers in Bali have discovered what is thought to be the biggest ancient Hindu temple ever fond on the Indonesian island; team believes dates from around the 13th to 15th centuries. Workers found the first stone one meter (yard) underground, which was one meter long, 40cm (16 inches) deep and 40 wide. Remember, the popular resort island is a pocket of Hindu culture in a country with the biggest Muslim population in the World.

Oct 26: India’s veteran Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna announced his resignation Friday in a move that clears the way for a long-awaited reshuffle of PM ’s beleaguered govt. Krishna was appointed FM in 2009 after Singh was re-elected PM. It was his first position in cabinet after having held a host of senior position in the state govt. of Karnataka since the 1960s. He served as the chief minister of the southern state from 1999 to 2004. Oct 25: PSO posted an after-tax-profit of Rs4.2 billion during the first quarter of 2012-13 compared to Rs2.5b the same last year, said CEO and MD of PSO Naeem Yahya Mir. PSO revenue touched Rs325b as compared to Rs279b in the same period last year, representing a growth of 16%.

Oct 25: Pakistan would reduce its sensitive list to only 100 items by 2017 and India will bring its sensitive list down to 100 items by 2013 under South Asia Free Trade Agreement (Safta).

Oct 25: After 15 year of talks, the 157-member, Geneva-based World trade body WTO is expected to confirm Laos (A mountainous landlocked communist state of 6.4 million people in southeastern Asia; achieved independence from France in 1949. Lao capital is Vientiane) as a member on Friday Oct 26, 2012.

Oct 25: PSO is set to buy up to 590,000 tones of oil products for delivery from November to January, about 30% less than it had initially sought.

Oct 25: Energy giant Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani has retained his title as the world’s richest Indian – for the fifth year in a row – with a net wroth of $21b, according to Forbes. London-based steel baron L.N. Mittal follows Ambani as the country’s second richest person, with wealth of $16b, Software firm Wipro’s Chairman Azim Premji is the third richest Indian with wealth of $12.3b.

Oct 24: COPENHAGEN, Denmark: A Danish company hopes to clinch deals with major mobile phone and tablet makers after developing software that enables user to control their devices by moving their eyes. “You can use it for basic control, such as turning to the next page in an e-book, and playing games with your eyes,” CEO and co- founder of The Eye Tribe, Sune Alstrup Johansen.

Oct 24: Wagaha’s border Chacha Pakistani (Not Chacha Cricket) passed away at 90. His real name was Mehar Din.

Oct 24: United Nations born on same day in 1945, 67th birthday of UN.

Oct 24: Defense Secretary General (R) Asif Yasin Mailk has been appointed as new chairman of PIA, The airline running without permanent chairman since September 18 after the resignation of Rao Qamar Suleaman, the former Air Force Chief, while Captain Junaid Younus has been appointed as the Managing Director (MD).

Oct 24: Polio Day observed, recognized to efforts, started by Jones Salik in 1985. Remember, 44% fall in Polio vaccine refusal cases. Pakistan is on of the only three countries where the highly infectious crippling disease remains endemic, along with Afghanistan and Nigeria. There have been 30 confirmed cases of polio in Pakistan this year, 22 of them in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.

Oct 23: Pakistani actress Humaima Malik awarded by South Asian rising star film award at her role in film “Bol” by , She is also selected for the best actress category at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSAs).

Oct 23: SAN JOSE, California: Apple introduced the iPad mini, confidant that a smaller version of its beloved tablet computer will trump lower-priced offerings by rivals Amazon, Google and Samsung.

Oct 23: Advisor to the Petroleum Ministry Dr. Asim Hussain presented his resignation to the office of Chairman Senate. Acting Chairman Senate Sabir Baloch (deputy Chairman) accepted his resignation.

Oct 23: RAFAH, Palestine-Egypt border: The Emir of Qatar Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani entered the Gaza strip for a visit that broke the isolation of it lslamic rulers, Hamas, but disappointed Israel and mainstream Palestinian leaders in the West Bank. It was first trip by a head of state to Gaza since 1999 and the emir was given a red-carpet welcome by Hamas PM Ismail Haniyeh, who declare it historic day for enclave, which backs on to the Mediterranean sea.

Oct 22: Pakistan will join a growing list of central banks that will invest in China’s interbank market as the world’s second-largest economy opens its capital market.

Oct 22: British oil firm BP said that it has agreed to sell its half of Russian venture TNK-BP to Rosneft for $17.1 billion (13.1b euros) and another 12.84% share in the state energy giant raising its total share to 19.75%, BP currently own 1.25%.

Oct 22: Britain held talks with Indian regional leader , ending a 10-year boycott over deadly religious riots in state that left more than 2,000 dead, including three Britons.

Oct 22: A total of 24,200 Pakistani formed the world’s largest “human national flag” in the eastern city of Lahore, smashing a five-year record set by 21,726 people in Hong Kong.

Oct 22: L’AQUILA, Italy: Six Italian scientists and govt. official were sentenced to six years in jail on Monday for multiple manslaughter in a watershed ruling that found them guilty of understanding the risks of a killer earthquake in 2009.

Oct 21: The Catholic Church canonized Kateri Tekakwitha of the Mohawk tribe who died in 1680 making her the first ever Native American saint. Tekakwitha’s name means” one who places things in order.” She was orphaned at a very young age after an attack on her village which left her partially blind. Despite being outcast after embracing Christianity she preached her faith.

Oct 21: Executive coordination committee (ECC) of the PCB has decided to use KooKaburra balls in first-class cricket as well as limited-over contests of the ongoing season.

Oct 21: Veteran Film-maker Yash Chopra, known as India’s king of celluloid romance, died just week after announcing he would not direct any more movies. He was 80, born in 1932 in Lahore. He also produced Indian cinema’s longest-running blockbuster, “Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge” (1995), which marked the debut of his son Aditya as director. “Veer-Zara” 2004 and recently opens in cinema in November “Jab Tak Hai Jaan”.

Oct 21: Former US senator George McGovern, a liberal icon who vowed to end the Vietnam War but lost landslide presidential election to Richard Nixon in 1972, died at the age of 90.

Oct 21: Pakistan All Star XI defeated an International World XI by six wickets in the Second T20 exhibition match to clinch the series 2-0. Nazir hit five boundaries and five sixes in the All stars’ convincing 145-4 in 16.4 over after the International World XI compiled 142-9. The Pakistan All Star XI won the first match by 84 runs on Saturday Oct 20.

Oct 20: In an attempt to set a Guinness world record, about 42,813 Pakistanis gathered at the National Hockey Stadium in Lahore to render in unison the national anthem, smashing the previous best of 15,243 held by India.

Oct 20: AMHERST, NY: US philosopher, secular, Paul Kurtz, a well-known voice for the idea that behavior should be guided by science and reason over religion, has died. He was 86.

Oct 20: BEIJING: Apple opened its biggest Asian store yet in Beijing, with hordes of shoppers descending on the three-floor complex that highlights the growing importance of China to the US tech giant. Shop in WangFujin business district in Beijing covers an area of 2,300 square metres. China is now the second-biggest market for Apple after US. Oct 20: US special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan Mark Grossman arrived Saturday in Islamabad to discuss “all matters of Mutual interest”.

Oct 20: named coach for New Zealand.

Oct 20: Roughly one-third of food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted globally, which amounts to about 1.3 billion tons per year, according to results of a study commissioned by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Oct 19: Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves dropped to $14.319b in the week ending Oct 12, from $14.406b in the previous week, SBP said. Remittances from Pakistani abroad rose 9.16% to $3.6b in the first quarter, July to September, of the 2012/13 FY, compared with $3.297b in the same period last year.

Oct 19: Vetern all-rounder Abdul Razzaq has been fined Rs. 100,000 by the PCB for publicly criticizing Pakistan’s captain .

Oct 19: The govt. of Pakistan needs to take immediate step to protect all those facing risk of attacking including schools, teachers, students and right activists, according to a statement issued by a the Human Rights Watch (HRW).

Oct 19: The SC ruled that the petition filed by Air Marshal (retd) , over the ISI’s distribution of money to a group of politicians, was admissible for regular hearing and ordered the govt. to take legal action against former army chief Aslam Beg and ISI’s former director general Lt-Gen (retd) . Remember petition filed in 1996 by khan requesting the court to look into allegations that the ISI had financed many politicians in the 1990 election by dishing out Rs 140 million to create the (IJI) and stop Benazir’s PPP from coming to power. The petition was based on an affidavit of Durrani.

Important: The SC in its short order ruled that “ there was ample evidence to suggest that the 1990 election was rigged, subjected to corruption and corrupt practices” and that a “Election Cell” maintained by then president supported the formation of the IJI to stop a victory of the PPP. The ruling said Ghulam Isha Khan, Beg and Durrani violated the constitution. SC ordered that govt. to take legal action against them and Younus Habib, former president of the now defunct Mehran Bank.

Oct 19: PM Raja Pervez Ashraf called the verdict “ day of democratic triumph” and vowed to bring the culprits behind the conspiracy to justice.

Oct 19: SEOUL, South Korea: Yahoo Inc’s South Korean operation said on Friday it will quit the country, underscoring its struggle against Inc and local competitors expanding aggressively into mobile advertising and online services. Remember, Yahoo facing problem in last couple of year, Yahoo appointed Google veteran Marissa Mayer as its CEO in July, its third CEO less than a year. Former CEO Scott Thompson resigned over his academic credentials (Sirf humare MNA Ke Fake Degree Nahi hote, hehehehe) and before that, Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang had stepped down as CEO. Yahoo remains one of the world’s most powerful websites, with more than 700 million monthly visitors who use products like its email service and read it news.

There is a sharp deterioration in Japan’s relation with China over a disputed East China Sea island chain.

Oct 18: the govt. has taken a total of $15.63 billion loans and grants from various countries and international donors, excluding disbursements made by IMF. (The documents prepared by the Economics Affairs Division (EAD) showed that the govt. received $13.07 billion loans during March 25, 2008 to July 1, 2012 and $2.56 billion in term of grants. In all Pakistan has obtained 58 different loans worth $3.81 billion from seven countries while 167 loans amounting to $9.25 billion have been taken from eight donor agencies. Pakistan has obtained a total of $2.56 billion in the form of grants which include financial support worth $2.19 form 13 countries and $375.56 million from donor agencies. The UK and USA are the largest donors for Pakistan, and both the countries have not loaned any amount to the country. USA disbursed the highest amount $1.25 billion in term of grants to Pakistan followed by $528.65 million grants by UK. During the period from March 2008 to July 2012, China remained the largest lender to Pakistan ($2.48b), followed by Saudi Arabia ($698.62m) and Janpan ($458.81m). Among the donor agencies, the largest loan of $4.16 billion has been obtained from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and IDB of World bank provided loans worth $2.99 billion.

Oct 17: When Ashton Kutcher replaced Charlie Sheen on the hit comedy “Two And a Half Men,” he also took his place as television’s highest-paid actor, according to Forbes annual survey. Forbes estimated Ashton Kutcher earned $24 million from May 2011 to May 2012.

Oct 17: CAPE CANAVERAL: Astronomers have found new planet, the closest yet outside our solar system and just an astronomical stone’s throw away at four light year, with surface temperature at 1,200 degree Celsius (2,192 Fahrenheit), orbits one of the sun in Alpha Centauri, roughly 25 trillion miles away. It was detected using the HARPS instrument on a telescope at the European Southern Observatory’s La Silla site in Chile.

Oct 17: Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) fell by 67% in first quarter to $87 million during the July-September of 2012-13 compared to $263 million the same period last year. Pakistan’s financial year begins on July 1. The rise of Portfolio investment supported the overall Foreign Private Investment (FPI) which fell by 15% to $183.5 million during the quarter. The overall inflow of FDI during the quarter was $287 million while the outflow was $200m giving a dismal picture of the economy having no attraction for the global investors. Even the normally popular telecommunication sector registered a net outflow of $100.9 million.

Oct 17: The first ever National Voter’s Day was being held today nationwide with various events scheduled to be held at the central, provincial and district offices of Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), reported.

Oct 17: Malala will be considered for Nobel Prize, hope Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie.

Oct 17: Monsoon floods in Pakistan have killed 455 people over the past five weeks and affected more than five million (18, 00 killed and 21 million affected in 2010), more than 260,000 people sought shelter and 1.1 millions acres of crops were affected by the flood, according to the latest figure of govt.’s disaster relief agency NDMA.

Oct 17: International day for the Eradication of Poverty observed sine 1993.

Oct 17: Australian PM Julia Gillard agreed to open negotiations to export uranium nuclear fuel to energy-hungry India after meeting her counterpart Manmohan Singh in New Delhi. Remember Australia doesn’t use nuclear power itself, it is the World’s third-ranking uranium producer and holds an estimated 23% of the world’s reserves

Oct 16: Robert De Niro has been chosen as the 2012 recipient of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival’s Kirk Douglas Award for Excellence in Film, the SBIFF announced on Tuesday.

Oct 16: A $4 million painting “Electric Cord” by Pip Art legend Roy Lichtenstein was returned to its rightful owner, 42 years after it went missing, the FBI said.

Oct 16: LONDON: British novelist Hilary Mantel on Tuesday made literary history by becoming the first woman and the first British author to be a two-time winner of the Man Booker Prize for fiction. Mantel picked up the prize, one of the highest profile awards in English-language literature, for “Bring up the Bodies,” part two of her Thomas Cromwell trilogy, at a ceremony at London’s Guildhall. The 6o year old first won in 2009 with “World Hall”, the first of the historical fiction saga with King Henry VIII’s chief minister as the protagonist.

Oct 16: AMSTERDAM: Seven paintings by artists including Pablo Picasso and Claude Monet that are worth more than a hundred millions dollars were stolen from the Kunsthal museum in Rotterdam, Netherland in the early hours of Tuesday morning. The stolen painting were Picasso’s 1971 “Harlequin Head”; Monet’s 1901 “Waterloo Bridge, London” and Charing Cross Bridge, London”; Henri Matisse’s 1919 “Reading Girl in White and Yellow”; Paul Gauguin’s 1898 “Girl in Front of Open Windo”; Meyer de Haan’s “Self-Portrait,” around 1890, and Lucian Freud’s 2002 work “Woman with Eyes Closed.” The heist is a stunning blow for the private Trition Foundaiton collection (is a collection of multimillionaire Willem Cordia, and his wife, Marijke Cordia-Van der Laan), which was being exhibited as a group for the first time as a part of celebrations surroundings Kunshthal’s 20th anniversary.

Oct 16: HAVANA, Cuba: Cuban citizen will no-longer require an exit permit for foreign travel from January 14, the foreign ministry said Tuesday, the latest in trickle of reforms enacted don the communist-ruled island by President Raul Castro of Cuba who assumed poser in July 2006 when his aging brother Fidel Castro stepped down after 5 decades ruling on the island (after the 1959 revolution), the nation of 11.2 million today relies heavily on the leftist govt. of oil-rich Venezuela for support.

Oct 16: Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari exchanges views with Iranian President, Dr. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during meeting on the sidelines of 12th ECO Summit at Baku in Azerbaijan on Tuesday called for speeding up work on joint projects like the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline, electricity transmission lines and rail and road schemes. FM Hina rabbani Khar, Ambasdassor to Azerbaijan Alamgir Babar and other were there also. “The agreement on export of wheat and rice to Iran is at test case for our barter trade and if successful, it can be replicated in other cases.” Said President. 1000MV Taffan-Quetta power tansmission line, 100MV Gwadar poer supply project, construction of Nushki-Dalbandinb section of Quetta-Taftan highway and upgradation of Quetta-Taffan railway track discussed, new border post at Mad-Pishin and Gabd-Rimdan to connect Karachi and Gwadar with Chah Bahar and Bandar Abbas through costal highway also discussed.

Oct 16: THE HAGUE, Netherland: A strident Radovan Karadzic told the UN Yugoslav war crimes court he should be awarded for doing everthing to avoid war in Bosina and insisted that no one predicted there would be genocide. Remember, Prosecuters say Karadzic, former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic and Mladic acted together to “Cleanse” Bosnian Muslims and Croats from Bosnia’s Serb-Claimed territories after the Collapse of Yugoslavia in 1991. Milosevic died midway through his own trial and war crimes in March 2006. Radovan Karadzic arrested in 2008 in Belgrade after 13 year of run where he practiced as a doctor of alternative medicine. Tuesday is a historic day for the ICTY as it also saw the start of the trial of Croatian Serb rebel leader Goran Hadzic, the last of 161 war crimes suspects to be handed over to the court.

Oct 16: , New Zealand: Former New Zealand captain Martin Crowe has been diagnosed with caner lymphoma.

Oct 16: NEW DELHI: India’s record-breaking batsman Sachin Tendulkar is to be conferred with membership of the Order of Australia, visiting PM Julia Gillard said in New Delhi on Tuesday. “This is a very special honor very rarely awarded to someone who is not an Australian citizen or an Australian national.” Tendulkar has scored a world record Test (15,553) and one-day (18,426) runs and has also compiled an unprecedented 100 international centuries. West Indies battling great in 2009 and former attorney-general Soli Sorbjee is also received the award. Oct 16: BAKU, Azerbaijan: President Asif Ali Zardari urged ECO members to expedite implementation of past agreements for trade liberalization besides cutting down tariff and non-tariff barriers. “We must resolve to operationalise the ECO Trade Agreement from January 1, 2012”, he said while speaking at the 12th ECO Summit here. President also met wit Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the sidelines of 12th ECO Summit. Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar was also present during the meeting. (Remember ECO is originally formed by Pakistan, Iran and Turkey with the name of RCD. Later Iran in 1979 withdraws from RCD and again in 1985 RCD reorganized with the name of ECO)

Oct 16: National Assembly on Tuesday passed a bill for abolition of all discretionary quota in housing schemes in the public sector. “The abolition of Discretionary Quotas in Housing Scheme Bill 2011” was moved by MNA of PML (N) Zahid Hamid.

Oct 16: MUMBAI: glamour couple Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor tied the knot on Tuesday in Mumbai in the most anticipated Indian celebrity wedding of the year. Saif Ali Khan became the new Nawab of the former princely state of Pataudi last year after the death of his famous cricketing father Mansur Ali Khan, known as “Tiger Pataudi”.

16 Oct: Interior Minister Rehman Malik has offered a $1 million bounty for Ehsanullah Ehsan, the central spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, which claimed responsibility for the attack on 14-year-old activist Malala Yousufzai’s life.

16 Oct: TAIPAI, TAIWAN: HTC (Taiwan company founded in 1997) introduces the HTC One*TM X+ smartphone.

16 Oct: World Food Day

Oct 15: The Rolling Stones will rock the stage once again with four gigs in Britain and the Us to mark their 50th anniversary, the legendary British band confirmed Monday. The show will be first live performance by Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts and Ronnie Wood for five years.

Oct 15: SAN FRANCISCO: Yahoo! On Mondy announced it had nabbed another key Google executive, naming Henriue de Castro as Chief operating officer. De castro will report directly to chief executive Marissa Mayer, who came from Google in July to help turn around the struggling Internet pioneer. (Interesting facts: Castro will receive a salary of $600,000 and a one-time retention equity award. Some $18 million will be in the form of restricted stock units and another $18 million in performance-based stock options. He will get a $1 million bonus for leaving Google)

Oct 15: A new cyber espionage tool named “miniFlame”, linked to the Flame Virus (Kaspersky Lab, revealed the virus early year) has been infecting computers in Lebanon, Iran and elsewhere, security researchers said on Monday.

15 Oct: Microsoft Corp on Monday announced that Xbox Music, a digital music service to vie with Apple Inc’s iTunes and Amazon.com Inc’s Cloud Player, will be available in 22 countries for its Xbox game consoles on Tuesday 16 Oct, 2012. The World largest software maker has been trying for years to make the household living room an entertainment hub with its Xbox. More than 67 million units have been sold since 2005. Xbox Music replaces MS digital media brand Zune that struggled to compete with iTunes. MS will offer a free ad-supported music streaming service, and a premium $9.99 subscription service for unlimited, ad-free streaming. The service includes a download-to-own music store 3o million songs in its global catalog, more than iTunes’ library of over 26 million songs, also carries over 70,000 music videos, available only in Xbox console. 15 Oct: BEIJING (Xinhua): Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni and Prime Minister Hun Sen arrived in Beijing on Monday afternoon to bring home the body of Kind-Father Norodon Sihanouk, who died of illness at the age of 90 early Monday morning in Beijing. They were greeted at the airport by Chinese officials, including Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi. Born on Oct 31, 1922, Norodom Sihanouk reigned over Cambodia from 1941 to 1955 and again from 1993 until his voluntary abdication on Oct 7, 2004, in favor of his son, current Kind Norodom Sihamoni.

15 Oct: Kuwait’s ruler Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al Sabah is expected to announce an initiative to launch a US$7.11 billion Asian Food Security Fund on Tuesday 16 Oct, while inaugurating the Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) summit, a Kuwait newspaper reported on Sunday. It is proposal is accepted by the 32 (31 by dawn.com) countries of the ACD, the Asian Food Security Fund would be a major milestone in the food sector in Asia, a continent is home to 4 billion people or 6o percent of the global population.

15 Oct: ISLAMBAD: Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf left here Monday for Kuwait on a three-day visit to lead Pakistani’s delegation to the first ever Asia Cooperation Dialogue Summit being held there from October 15 to 17. The ACD is a Thai initiative and it was launched in 2002 in Bangkok and draws its membership from across Asia. Pakistan is one of its founding members and the ACD has 31 members at present.

Oct 14, YEONGAM: World champion Sebastian Vettel won the Korean Grand Prix in a Red Bull one-two finis on Sunday to take the overall Formula One lead from Ferrari’s Feranado Alonso with four races remaining.

Oct 14: Annual meeting of IMF and World Bank Group held in Tokoyo.

Oct 14: LOS ANGELES: Austrian daredevil Felix Baumgartner made a record-breaking leap from the edge of space Sunday, landing safely in the New Mexico desert after freefalling from more than 24 miles above the Earth by fulfilling Red Bull Stratos mission. The 43-year-old floated down to Earth on a red and white parachute canopy, which he had opened after reaching speeds of more than 700 miles per hour in freefall. Mission control erupted in cheers as Baumgartner made a near-perfect jump fro a capsule hoisted aloft by a giant helium-filled balloon to an altitude of around 128,000 feet. The giant balloon, which holds 30 million cubic feet of helium, is needed to carry the Red Bull Stratos capsule, which weights nearly 1.3 tons, to the Stratosphere. He had taken ore than two hours to get up to the jump altitude. Baumgartner had already broken one record, before he even leapt: the previous highest altitude for a manned balloon flight was 113,740 feet, set in 1961.

Oct 14: Turkmenistan, holder of the world’s fourth-fourth natural gas reserves expect to start constructing a pipeline to export gas to South Asian nations in 2017, a senior govt. official said on Sunday. Turkmenistan in agreed in May to supply natural gas to Pakistan and India via Afghanistan by signing gas sales and purchase agreements with Pakistan’s Inter State Gas Systems and India State-run utility GAIL. It recently held road shows for investors willing to take part in the US-backed, 1,735-Km TAPI (Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India) pipeline. Bangladesh had asked to join the TAPI project, require the official note will be considered by all four govt.

14 Oct: The retired space shuttle Endeavour rolled into its retirement home at a museum early on Sunday, in the conclusion of a slow-motion parade through the narrow streets of Los Angeles. Endeavour arrived at about 10:45 a.m. at Exposition Park, the site of the California Science Center where the shuttle will go on perment display on October 30 inside pavilion. Endeavour flew from 1992 to 2011 ande was built to replace the Challenger. The shuttle is 122 feet (37 meters) long and 78 feet (24 meters) wide and stands 5 stories tall at the tail, which police said makes it the largest object over to move through Los Angeles. Its combined weight with the transporter was 80 tons. The Shuttle will be displayed in a temporary hanger-style metal structure and In 2017, a 200-foot-tall (61 meter) structure will open in which Endeavour will stand vertically. The other remaining shuttles also have found homes. “The Smithsonian in Washington has Discovery at its Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center museum in Virginia. New York City has the prototype shuttle Enterprise at its Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum. And the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral has Atlantis, which the center will move to an on-site visitor’s complex next month. (Note: Also you can see 19 September notes)

Oct 12: Microsoft corp. said on Friday it plans to add Google Inc as a defendant in Germany in one of its patent actions against Google’s phone maker, Motorola Mobility. Remember Google bought Motorola this year.

Oct 12: KARACHI: Pakistan’s foreign exchanges reserves fell to $14.406 billion in the week ending Oct 5, from $14.90 billion in the previous week, the central bank said on Friday. Pakistan reserves have been reduced by debt repayments in recent months, including$109 million repayments to the IMF. Remittances from Pakistanis abroad rose 9.16 percent to $3.6 billion in the first quarter, July to September of the 2012/13 FY, compared with $3.297 billion in the same period last year.

12 Oct: NEW DELHI: A local court in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad on Friday issued an arrest warrant for billionaire Vijay Mallya, owner of debt-ridden Kingfisher Airlines. Company facing crises, earlier this month, Airline remained grounded after employees refused to go back to work. (Note: Arrest later withdrawn)

12 Oct: OSLO: The European Union (EU) won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for its efforts to promote peace and democracy in Europe, an award given despite the bloc struggling with its biggest crisis since it was created in the 1950s. The Norwegian prize committee said the EU was being honored for six decades of contributions “to the advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy and human right in Europe.” The EU grew out of the tremendous devastation of the World War II, fueled by the conviction that ever-close economics ties would make sure that century-old enemies never turned on each other again. It is now make up of 500 million people in 27 nations, with other nations lined up, waiting to join. EU has Currency Euro, the common currency used by 17 of its member. “The EU is a unique project that replaced war with peace, hate with solidarity. Overwhelming emotion for awarding of #Nobel Prize to EU,” Martin Schulz, president of the European Parliament, wrote in tweet.

11 Oct: STOCKHOLM: Chinese writer Mo Yan was named the winner of the Nobel Prize in literature for the year 2012 on Thursday. The Swedish Academy, which selects the winners of the prestigious award, praised Mo’s “hallucinatory realism” saying that it “merges folk tales, history and the contemporary.” Academy said that it was honoring Mo Yan for using “fantasy and reality, historical and social perspectives” to create world reminiscent of William Faulkner and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The prize is worth eight million kronor, or about $1.2 million. Mo Yan is a pen name which means “Don’t Speak”. His real name is Guan Moye and he was forced to drop out of primary school and herd cattle during China’s Cultural Revolution.

11 Oct: COLOMBO: Former Indian captain was on Thursday appointed head of the influential “ICC cricket committee” of the ICC, replacing West Indian legend . Kumble 41 is the world’s third-highest wicket-taker in Tests with 619 scalps, behind Sri Lankan (800) and (708). He also took 337 ODI international wickets. “In Anil Kumble we have a new chairman who has unquestioned experience not only as a player with India but also as an administrator with Karnaktaka State Cricket Association,” ICC President Alan Isaac said. Andrew Strauss, who retired as England captain was also appointed to the committee.

10 Oct: MADRID: Archeologists said on Wednesday they believe they have found the exact spot in Rome where Julius Caesar was stabbed to death on March 15, 44 BC.

Oct 10: Chinese manufacture Lenovo has overtaken US-based Hewlett-Packard (HP) as the largest global vendor of personal computers, according to a survey Wednesday highlighting a struggling PC market. The survey by the research firm Gartner showed Lenovo took over the top vendor spot for the first time with 15.7 percent of the market in the third quarter of 2012, edging HP with 15.5 percent. Gartner said Dell was the number three maker with a 10.5 percent global market share followed by Taiwan’s Acer with 9.8 percent and another Taiwan firm Asus with 7.3 percent.

10 Oct: Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan celebrating his 70th birthday, media reported on Thursday.

10 Oct: Veteran politician and former federal minister Dr Sher Afgan Niazi passed away.

10 Oct: Indian famous singer Jugit Singh 1st death anniversary. He died on 10 October 2011 at the age of 70 years. He was admitted in hospital on 24 September 2011.

10 Oct: World Mental Health Day, is supported by the UN, and is annually held on October 10 to raise public awareness about mental health issues around the world. Mental disorders affect almost 12 percent of world’s population, about one out every four people or 450 million, will experience a mental disorder that would benefit from treatment.

9 Oct: Taliban target 14-year-old teenage rights activist Malala Yousafzai from Swat, two other girls is also injured. She is an outspoken advocate for girls’ education – was shot in the head and neck as she was waited for a school bus on Tuesday in the north western district of Swat. (15 Oct, She sent to UK and treated at the Queen Elizabeth hospital in Birmingham)

9 Oct: Queen of Sindhi music who took Sufi music to the next level of spirituality, was honored with life time achievement award at the KalaHarmi Begum Akhtar Academy of Ghazal in India. She is an internationally acclaimed singer of Sindhi descent who received training from her father Ustaad . She started her career with Radio Pakistan, Hydrebad, in 1973 after which there was no looking back. Parveen has been awarded Pakistan’s Award for in 1982 and the Sitara-e-Imtiaz in 2005.

9 Oct: CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.,: A prototype communication satellite flying as a secondary payload aboard a Space Exploration Technologies Falcon 9 rocket was sent into the wrong orbit because of a problem during launch Sunday evening, officials said Tuesday.

9 Oct: STOCKHOLM: Serge Haroche of France and David Wineland of the US won the Nobel Physics prize on Tuesday for work in quantum physics that could one day open the way to revolutionary computers. The pair, both 68, was honored for pioneering optical experiments in “measuring and manipulation of individual quantum systems,” the Nobel Physics jury said in its citation. “Their groundbreaking methods have enabled this field of research to take the very first step towards building a new type of super-fast computer based on quantum physics.” The laureates will receive their prizes at formal ceremonies in Stockholm and Oslo on December 10, the anniversary of prize founder Alfred Nobel’s death in 1896. The Nobel Foundation has slashed its prize sum to eight million Swedish Kronor ($1.2 million, 930,000 euros) per award, form the 10 million kronor awarded since 2001, due to economics crisis.

8 Oct: John Gurdon (an emeritus professor of developmental biology at the University of Cambridge) attends a news conference after winning the Nobel Prize for medicine in London October 8, 2012. Briton John Gurdon and Japanese scientist Shinya Yamanaka win the 2012 Nobel Prize for medicine or physiology for research which revolutionized understanding of how cells and organisms develop, the award-giving body said on Monday. British scientist John Gordon, awarded the Nobel Medicine Prize, admitted on Monday that ha had done the bulk of the cell programming work for which he was honored half a century ago. He told reporters that his ground-braking work “was essentially to show that all the different cells of body have the same genes. “The work that I did was to test that proposition, In the 1950s we really didn’t know. “The outcome was that they do. That means that, in principle, you should be able to derive any one kind o cell from another because they’ve all got the same genes.

7 Oct: A 132-year-old woman died, in the west Georgian village of Sachino. She was allegedly the oldest person who has ever lived on earth. Antisa Khvichava was born on July 8, 1880, in sachino, where she spent her entire life working at the local state farm and picking tear. In 2010, Georgia govt. celebrated her 130th jubilee.

7 Oct: COLOMBO: Darren Sammy’s West Indies were crowned the new World Twnenty20 champions on Sunday after a 36-run victory over hosts Sri Lank in a dramatic final in Colombo on Sunday. The West Indies, restricted to 137-6 after electing to bat, hit back to bowl Sri Lanka out for 101 and silence a sell-out crowd of 35,000 at the Premadasa Stadium that included President Mahinda Rajapakse. It was the first world title for the West Indies since the 50-over World Cup triumph under Clive Lloyd in 1979, and handed Sri Lnaka their fourth defeat in a major final since 2007.

7 Oct: Niles Henrik David Bohr 127th birthday, he was a Danish physicist who made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum mechanics, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922. He was born on Oct 7, 1885, Copenhagen and died on November 18, 1962 in Copenhagen.

Oct 6: Australian Simon Taufel received his farewell press as he will retire as ICC Elite Panel umpire after Sunday’s World T20 final on 7 Oct. The winner of the ICC Umpire of the Year award for five straight year’s b/w 2004 and 2008, Taufel officiated in 74 tests and 174 one-day internationals. The World T20 final on Sunday will be his 34th T20 international. He said” when I look back, there are many memorable moments. But I can instantly remember the India versus Pakistan game at Mohali during the semifinal as the most exciting one,”

Oct 5: the State Bank announced on Friday another cut in the policy interest rate by 50 basis points to 10 per cent. In August, the SBP had, in a surprise move, reduced the interest rate by 150 basics points amid an improved inflation projection for 2012-13 and for encouraging private investment. Since July the SBP has reduced the rate by 400 basics points. “A consistent deceleration in inflation since May to 8.8 per cent in September 2012 is more than earlier estimates. The likelihood of meeting the 9.5 per cent inflation target for FY13 has increased,” said the policy statement.

Oct 5: COLOMBO: Chris Gayle smashed an unbeaten 75 off 41 balls (also hit 38 off 15 balls) as the West Indies stormed into the World T20 final with a record 74-runs demolition of Australia in Colombo on Friday. The Windies piled up the tournament’s highest total of 205-4 after electing to bat, while Australians found the huge target too hot to handle and folded up for 131 in 16.4 over at the Premadasa stadium in front of 28,000 awe- struck spectators still reeling from the West Indies innings.

Oct 5: Teacher Day.

Oct 4: World Animal Day.

Oct 4: COLOMBO: Sri Lanka beat Pakistan by 16 runs in 1st Semi Final. Sri Lanka made 139and Pakistan 124-7.

Oct 4: Pakistan’s regulator has issued new draft rules for the issuance of sukuk or Islamci bonds, as part of initiatives to boost the Islamic Banking sector in the country. Country also introducing new rules for Takful (Islamic insurance) designed to increase competition. Oct 4: SEOUL: Samsung Electronics reported a record quarterly profit of $7.3 billion, nearly double last year’s figure, as strong sales of high-end TVs and Galaxy Smartphone more than offset reduced orders for chips and screens from Apple Inc, its main rival and leading customer. South Korean group, the world’s leading maker of Smartphone, TVs and memory chips, ramps up its marketing to counter Apple’s new iPhone and other products in a crowded $200 billion global Smartphone market.

Oct 4: NEW YORK: Facebook said Thursday that it now has more than one billion users, in a new milestone for the World’s biggest social network. Co-founder Mark Zuckerberg made an announcement, saying the number is humbling. He called the milestone “unbelievable”. The company also said it has seen 1.3 trillion “like,” endorsements by users, since the company launched the feature in February 2009. It said 219 billion photos were uploaded as of September, Excluding deleted photos; about 265 billion photos have been uploaded since 2005. About 17 billion location-tagged posts were made on the website, Facebook said, and 62.6 million songs have been played 22 billion times since September 2011. The median age of a Facebook user was 22, it said, and the top five user countries were Brazil, India, Indonesia, Mexico and the United States.

Oct 3: The Australian govt. admits the Great Barrier Reef has been neglected for decades after a study showed it has lost more than half its coral cover in the past 27 years. The study said coral cover on the heritage-listed-reef the world’s largest – could have again by 2022 if trends continued. Intense tropical cyclones -34 in total since 1985 – were responsible for much of the damage, accounting for 48 percent, with outbreaks of the coral-feeding- crown-of-thorns starfish linked to 42 percent. The study findings were drawn form the worlds largest ever reef monitoring project involving 2,258 surveys over 27 year.

2 Oct: COLOMBO: India beat South Africa by 1 runs while South Africa chasing India 152-6 bowled out at 151-10 (19.4) in last super eight match. Earlier Pakistan beat Australia by 32 runs. Pakistan made 149-6 after being sent in to bat in the group two super eight match at the Premadasa Stadium, before a five-man spin attack restricted Australia to 117-7. Prolific spinner claimed 3-17, but it was 20-year-old Raza Hasan who was declared man of the match for conceding just 14 runs and taking to wickets in four over of steady left-arm spin.

2 Oct: TBILISI (the capital and largest city of Georgia on Kura River): Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili conceded on Tuesday that his ruling party had lost an election to a coalition led by billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, increasing the chances of a peaceful transfer of power in the former Soviet republic. Ivanishvili said he was confident to become prime minister a partial results put his six-party Georgian Dream on course to win Monday’s 1st Oct parliamentary election. “I believe that Bidzina will make our lives better,” said Nino Kantaria, 42, walking on the Freedom Square in Tbilisi. “

1 October: The state Bank has paid another installment to IMF debt that reduced the debt burden but also cut the size of foreign exchange reserves. The SBP said on Monday that it paid $109.4 million to the IMF which was the fifth such payments that started last year. The bank said it has so far paid a total amount of $1.402 billion to the IMF which had provided about $7 billion under Standby Agreement. The agreement was initially for a loan of $11 billion but Pakistan failed to remain on track suggested by the IMF as a condition to continue providing loans. The agreement was discontinued. The next installment of 258 SDR is due in November. Pakistan hopes to pay back entire loan to the IMF despite a huge current account deficit of $4.6 billion in FY 12.

1 Oct: NEW YORK: California-based Company Google soared past Microsoft in terms of market value Monday to become the second richest firm in the tech world behind apple. Google shares gained 0.96 per cent to end at $761.78, giving the internet giant a market capitalization of $249.1 billion. Microsoft meanwhile fell 0.91 per cent $29.49, translating into market worth of $247.2 billion. Both remain well behind Apple, which shed 1.16 per cent to $659.39, meaning its market cap is just above $618 billion. 1 October: Eric Hobsbawm, the eminent British historian who chronicled the extremes of the 19th and 20th centuries from the Marxist perspective, died on Monday at the age of 95, his daughter said. He was born at 9 June 1917. Hobsbawm is perhaps best known for his 1994 book “The Age of Extremes” on the 20th century, which has been translated into around 40 languages, including Hebrew, Arabic and Mandarin, and he received numerous international prizes.

Info: the 16th April 1853 is special in the Indian history. The day was a public holiday. At 3.30 p, as the 21 guns roared together, the first train carrying Lady Falkland, wife of Governor of Bombay, along with 400 special invitees, steamed off from Bombay to Thane. Ever since the engine rolled off the tracks.

1 October: KARACHI: Pakistan stocks closed higher on Monday after the inflation rate hit a 33-month low, boosting the confidence of investor. KSE benchmark 100-share index ended 0.80 per cent, or 123.91 points, higher at 15,568.73 –a four-year high – on total volume of 135.80 million shares. (Note: also view 18 September stock closing below)

30 September: COLOMOBO: India beat Pakistan (128, 19.4 over) by 8 wickets; India surpassed the modest target in 17 over, thanks to Largely to Kohli’s unbeaten 78 off 61 balls. A sell-out crowd of 35,000 at Colombo’s Premadasa stadium, including Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse, saw India continue their stranglehold on Pakistan in major world meets.

30 September: COLOMBO: shone with bat and ball for the fourth match in a row as Australia stepped closer to the World T20 semi-finals with an eight-wicket win over South Africa. Watson claimed 2-29 and then smashed 70 off 47 balls and adjudged man of the match for fourth consecutive game, as Australia restricted the Proteas to 146-5 and then surpassed the total in the 17.4 over to record their second successive win in group two of the Super Eights.

Pakistan has recorded at least 2,642 sectarian attacks, killing 3,963 people since 1989, according to the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP) database. (Dawn reported)

29 September: World Heart Day.

28 September: COLOMBO: Pakistan beat South Africa by 2 wickets chasing South Africa’s modest 133-6. man of the Match smashed two fours and three sixes in his 32 off 17 balls and Umar Akmal unbeaten 43.

27 September: NEW DELHI: Former India batsman was named as the new chief selector ahead of home Test series against England and Australia, the country’s cricket board announced. The 56-year-old replaced Krishnamachari Srikkanth whose tenure saw India Clinch 50-over World Cup at home. Patil, a member of the 1983 World Cup winning team in England, retired from international cricket in 1986 with 1,588 runs in 29 tests and 1,005 runs in 45 one-day internationals.

27 September: Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves dropped to $14.841 billion in the week ending Sept 21, from $14.863 billion the previous week, the central bank said. According to SBP foreign reserves held by the SBP equal $10,321.8 million while net foreign reserves held by banks (Other than SBP) stood at $4,519.7 million. Pakistan’s reserves have been reduced by debt repayments in August on a $397.2 million loan from the IMF. Remittances from Pakistani abroad rose 17.73 per cent to $13.186 billion in the 2011/12 fiscal year, which ended on June 30, compared with $11.2 billion the previous year.

27 September 2012: Google’s 14th birthday. 26 September: PARIS: An 8.7 earthquake that struck west of Indonesia on April 11 was the biggest of its kind ever recorded and confirms suspicions that a giant tectonic plate is breaking up, scientists said on Wednesday. The quake occurred around 500KM (300m) west of Sumatra in the middle of the Indo-Australian plate, a piece of Earth’s crust that spans Australlia, the eastern Indian Ocean and the Indian sub-continent. The December 26 2004 9.1 quake off Sumatra, whose waves killed a quarter million people around the Indian Ocean, is one such example, But the April 11 event caused no tsunamis because the movement was sideways. Fatalities, too, were few, 10, according to the Indonesian authorities because it occurred under the Indian Ocean.

26 September: PCB accounts frozen over failure to cough up Rs30 million tax money. FBR has seized bank accounts of the PCB to recover withholding tax of Rs30 million. The FBR has recovered Rs18 million for the PCB. Note: Against the annual target of Rs1.952 trillion, the FBR collected Rs1.865 trillion by June 30, 2012 showing a gap of Rs87 billion.

25 September: PALLEKELE: Pakistan bludgeoned Bangladesh out of the World Twenty20 by 8 wickets and successfully reached the Super Eights round with a ruthless display on Tuesday. ’s brilliant 72 and skipper Mohammad Hafeez’s 45 helped take Pakistan past Bangladesh’s challenging 175-6 in Pallekele. The win was achieved with eight balls to spare (18.4 over) as Pakistan wrapped it up with 178-2, joining New Zealand in the next round.

25 Sept: President Asif Ali Zardari addressed to General Assembly of UN on annual GA meetings in New York, USA.

24 September: Nearly on third of Pakistan’s population is poor as the incidence of poverty hovers around 33 per cent, making poverty alleviation a daunting challenge for the present govt. In absolute number 58.7 million people are living below the poverty line in Pakistan out of the total population of estimated 180 million. Balochistan is the poorest of all provinces with 52 per cent population living below poverty line, followed by Sindh with 33 percent, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with 32 percent and Punjab with 19 percent, the report titled” Clustered Deprivation: District Profile of Poverty in Pakistan”, by an Islamabad-based think-tank – Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI).

24 September 2012: KARACHI: Maria Toor Pakay of Pakistan defeated two-time finalist American Latasha Khan in the Southwest Open (WSA) in Tempe, Arizona to win her second WSA title, the 21-year old from South Waziristan won the second title of WSA.s

23 September: Pakistan beat New Zealand by 13 runs in their first Twenty20 Match. Pakistan gave 178/6 runs target, main contribution was of Nasir Jamshed 56 runs, New Zealand made 165/9 in 20 over, Saeed Ajmal got 4 wickets and Nasir Jamshed was Man of the Match.

22 September 2012: BEIJING: China’s top security official has made the first high-level trip to Afghanistan by a senior Chinese leader in nearly half a century, meeting President Hamid Karazai in Kabul, state media Xinhua new agency said Sunday. Zhou Yongkang made the four-hour visit on Saturday, in a secretive trip aimed at shoring up ties b/w the neighbors. Late President Liu Shaoqi, the last senior Chinese official to visit Afghanistan, visited in 1966, Xinhua said.

22 September: the federal govt. on Saturday released Rs 90m for establishing two powers plants in yielding 50MW each, According to the planning commission of Pakistan, the total cost of this project is Rs8.9bn and this is the first time when funds for this project have been released. The project involves generation of electricity by converting the coal found underground in Tharparkar to gas. The project has been deferred since 2009. Foreign aid amounts to Rs5.85bn in the project. In current fiscal year, the govt. has allocated Rs.90m for the project, will enable long delayed work to begin on the two power plants.

22 September: KARACHI: the govt. flushed out liquidity from banks a huge govt. borrowing set new record within two months of the current fiscal year. According to the latest report of the SBP, the govt. borrowed Rs324 billions from scheduled banks b/w July 30 to Sept 7. This was 123 per cent higher than the same period of last year. During FY-12 the govt. borrowed Rs696 billion through banks while it had borrowed Rs 616 billion in Fy-11. The two- month borrowing is record high and is almost 47 per cent of the entire govt. borrowing made in Fy-12. According to SBP, the govt.’s accumulated borrowing from scheduled banks till June2012 was Rs 2.360 trillion against a total borrowing of Rs 1.704 trillion from the SBP.

22 September: US Senate has defeated a bill that would have linked foreign aid to a country‘s cooperation in investigating attacks on US diplomatic facilities. The bill also would have denied aid to Pakistan unless the country released Dr Shakil Afridi. 81 senator opposed Republican Sen Rand Paul’s bill and 10 supported it. US facilities in several countries have been attacked in protest against an anti-Islamic film. Richard Olson nominated Pakistan new ambassador and Robert Stephan for Iraq by Senate of US.

21 September: Youm e ishqa Rasool (PBUH) celebrated in Pakistan officially to condemned and record their protest against the anti-Islamic film “Innocence of Muslims”. 23 people included two policemen killed in protests. (Note: the producer of the film, Nakoula Basselley Nakoula, is reported to be a 55 year-old Egyptian Copt and convicted fraudster, based in Los Angeles and currently out on parole.

20 September: BRUSSEL: European Union (EU), OIC, Arab League, African Union (AU) joint conference condemned anti-Islamic film which is against Muslims Prophet (PBUH) and Muslims belief.

20 Sept: “Khudaya e sukhan”, “Qadir e Kalaam” and “Ubaad Saaz” Poet Mir Taqi Mir 202 anniversary celebrated. He was born in 1723 in Aagra, India and died on 20th September 1810 in Lakhnow, India.

20 September: Pakistan and India signed here on Friday three technical agreements and discussed trade in gas and electricity. The decision taken by Pakistan and India to scale down tariff to a maximum of five per cent and remove all non-tariff barriers (NTBs) by 2020 will lead regional integration, according to an official of the Geneva-based World Trade Organization (WTO). The agreements on redressal of trade grievances, mutual recognition and customs cooperation will facilitate bilateral business mechanism and ease issues relating to certification, Licensing, lab testing, etc. They agreed to reduce the number of items to 100 in the sensitive list before the end of 2017 under the South Asia Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA) on a reciprocal basis. India Commerce Secretary S.R.Rao said the agreements would be implemented in litter and spirit and Pakistan Commerce Secretary Munir Qureshi. India offered Pakistan 500MW of electricity and also offered to export up to five million cubic meters per day of gas for an initial period of five years. Bharat Heavy Electrical Ltd, an Indian public sector company, made an offer to cooperate with the Pakistan government in setting up of 500-2000MV coal/hydro or gas power plants. India expressed its willingness to cooperate with Pakistan in areas of wind and solar energy and offered to help Pakistan Railway in meeting its requirements of up to 100 locomotives (engine).

19 September: Interesting info: The space shuttle Endeavour always had plenty of elbow room while soaring around earth. But to make way for its slow 12-mile (19-km) journey through city streets next month to its final destination at a Los Angeles, California Science Center museum, some 400 trees must fall. The 75 ton spaceship stretches 122 feet (37 meters) in length, measures 78 feet (24 m) from wingtip to wingtip and will stand more than five stories tall, lying on its belly on a special rolling platform that will carry it at an average speed of a mile an hour, the work is estimated to $10 million. Shuttle Endeavour added to fleet after challenger was destroyed by an accidental explosion that killed seven astronauts in 1986, Endeavour has flown 25 missions and logged nearly 123 million miles (198 million KM) in flight during 4,671 orbits.

19 September 2012: NEW DELHI: India test-fired its second –longest-range missile on Wednesday, a defense official said, two days after Pakistan announced its own missile test. The two-stage Agni-IV blasted off from the eastern state of Orissa in the third test for the missile, which first launched in 2010 in a flight marred by technical problems. Its second test last November was declared a success. “The Agni-IV was tested for its full range of 4,000 KM (2,480 miles) and it was a success,” Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) spokesman Ravi Gupta told. Pakistan test-fired a nuclear-capable cruise missile on Monday with “stealth features”.

19 September: Pakistan govt. has announced a national holiday on Friday, 21 September, to protest against the American anti-Islam that has caused an outrage throughout the Muslim World.

19 September 2012: ROME: Italian energy major ENI said on Wednesday it had discovered a major reserve of b/w 300 billion and 400 billion cubic feet of gas some 350 KM north of Karachi in Pakistan. the discovery was made in the Khirtar Fold Belt region close to the ENI-operated Bhit gas processing facility. ENI has been in Pakistan since 2000 and is the country’s largest producer, with average production of 54,800 barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2011.

18 September: Parliamentarians expressed concern on Tuesday, as the country’s total debt crossed Rs12 trillion, that more loans have been taken in the fours years by incumbent govt. than by any other regime since 1985. The special committee on Foreign and Domestic Loans was informed that the country was under of Rs5.02 trillion foreign loans while domestic loans amounted to a huge figure of Rs 7.6 trillion. In 2008 total debt of the country was Rs5.5 trillion and now it has swelled to more than Rs12 trillion, it was Rs2 trillion in 1999.

18 September: BEIJING: Anti-Japanese rallies erupted across China again on the 81st anniversary Tuesday of the Liutiaohu railway bombing incident that triggered the Manchurian incident and led to Japan’s military operation in China before WW II.

18 September: One of the greatest musicians, classical and ghazal singer from the Patiala gharana Ustad Amant Ali Khan was remembered on his 38th death anniversary. He was born on 1932 in Sham Chaurasi, Hoshiarpur, and Punjab. He died at the age of 42 years in Lahore in September 1974.

18 September: World Cup Twenty20 started in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka defeated Zimbawe by 82 runs.

18 September: PM Raja Perviz Ashraf attended the proceeding of contempt of court case in the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) implementation case of writing the letter to reopen a graft case worth $60 million against President Zardari. SC gave the govt. time till September 25 to draft the letter and present it in the court and also exempted PM Ashraf from appearing until next orders.

18 September 2012: PARIS: Paris’s famed Louvre museum opens a new wing of Islamic art in a bid to improve knowledge of a religion often viewed with suspicion in the West. Costing nearly 10 million euros (131 million dollars), it is funded by the French govt. and supported by handsome endowments from Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Kuwait, Oman and Azerbaijan.

18 September: South Korean LG Electronics launched the company’s new Smartphone “Optiums G” in Seoul on September 18, 2012, which will have to compete against flurry of new products from rivals Apple and Samsung who currently dominate the global market. 18 September: KOLKATA: the head of regional Trianamool Congress Pary, , a key partner in India’s ruling coalition says their withdrew support from the govt. and said it’s six minister would resign in protest over a series of economic reforms.

18 September 2012: KARACHI: PIA Chairman Air Chief Marshal (retd) tendered his resignation, he was previously Managing Director PIA, was made a chairman on May 22, 2012 after the he PPP-led govt. removed the then defiance minister from the position of Chairman PIA. Suleman, who was a former chief of , reportedly resigned on account of ill-health, he is from Okara, received his initial training from PAF Public School, Sargodha. Thereafter, he joined Pakistan Air Force Academy, Risalpur, in 1972 and was commissioned in the Pakistan Air Force as a fighter pilot. He commanded the PAF from March 18,2009 to March 18, 2012.

18 September 2012: Pakistani stocks ended higher with increased investor activity, this was the first time in five years that the Karachi Stock Exchange closed above a 15,500 index. KSE benchmark 100-share ended 0.77 per cent, or 118.51 points, higher at 15,517.19, on total volume of 128.67 million shares.

18 September: Cull of 21,268 is continue form last one and half days at PK Livestock and Meat Company in Razzaqbad, Karachi. The Sheep’s are infected and were shipped from Australia to Bahrain but Bahraini authorities refused to accept them and these ships later purchased by some Pakistani people but govt. involvement proved them infected with salmonella and actinomyces bacteria. Australia’s high commissioner to Pakistan, Peter Heyward said that he is surprised and concern about cull of imported Australian sheep over disease fear, despite assurances from Australian diplomats that the animals are safe for human consumption.

17 September: the govt. on Monday formed a high level committee to develop an electronic banking system for prompt and problem free disbursement of pensions to millions of pensioners. The five-member committee, comprising of National Database Registration Authority (Nadra) Chairman Tariq Malik, Governor State Bank of Pakistan Yaseen Anwar, Secretary Finance Abdul Wajid Rana, Auditor General of Pakistan Buland Akhtar Rana, chaired by President and Finance Minister Abdul Hafeez Sheikh also present.

The committee was informed that at average each govt. had taken $2.5 billion foreign loans annually, while it had been b/w $2.6 billion and $2.7 bilion in the early 2000s but since 2008 the average foreign loan obtained by the govt. has been $3.5 billion.

17 September: FBR assigned its Intelligence Wing to reduce tax evasion by 20 per cent before the end of 2013-14. Tax evasion is the difference b/w potential and actual tax collection, where potential being the amount of tax the govt. collects if everyone fully complies with the tax law. Chairman FBR Ali Arshed Hakeem and Director General, Intelligence and Investigation (Inland Revenue), Khawaja Tanveer Ahamd announced after a meeting.

17 September: India plans to launch a space probe that will orbit Mars in November 27, 2013 when the red planet will be closer to earth, K. Radhakrishanan, chairman of Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) told reporters in Bangalore. Remember, In September 2009, India’s chandrayaan-1 lunar probe discovered water on the moon, boosting the country’s credibility among more experienced space-faring nations.

Anders Fogh Rasmussen is NATO current Secretary General, Bujar Nishani is current Albania President. Current British defense Minister is Philip Hammond.

17 September: the govt. has released Rs. 40.10 billion out of the RS.223 billion allocated for social, infrastructural and Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA) projects under the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) 2012-13 until September 14. According to the planning commission of Pakistan sources, an amount of Rs 21.20 billion has been released for 342 projects of Infrastructure development out of Rs 200.90 billion. Similarly, Rs 17.60 billion has been released for 670 projects of the Social sector against the allocation of 146.10 billion. The govt. also released Rs 0.5 billion out of a allocation of Rs 3.0 billion for 68 projects of other sector. An amount of Rs 0.8 billions has been released to ERRA against of Rs. 10.00 Billion. All the releases are exclusive of foreign aid disbursements, the source said.

17 September 2012: ISLAMBAD: Pakistan’s military says it has successfully test-fired a cruise missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. An army statement says the Hatf-VII or Babar missile, which has a range of 700 KM (435 miles), was test-fired, missile has stealth features and can fly very close to the ground.

15 September: QUETTA: A six-member working group of the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearance arrived in Quetta on Saturday. UN team had arrived in Pakistan on Sunday (Sep 9) was to collect data about the ‘missing’ persons. The delegation, comprising Olivier de Frouville, the Chair-Rapporteur, and Osman El Hajje, member, will be accompanied by members of the secretariat of the office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

15 September 2012: The annual ICC ceremony held in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

15 September: KARACHI: Well-Known literary personality and Urdu fiction and drama writer passed away early Saturday. Anthologies of Masroor’s include: ‘Chand ki Doosri Taraf’, ‘Teesri Manzil’, ‘Andheray Ujalay’, ‘Chori Chupey’, Haye ALLAH’ and ‘Charkhay”. She also wrote the script for the 1965 Pakistani film ‘Aakhri Station’. She had been married to Ahmed Ali Khan, who was the editor of Dawn for 28 years, became practically a recluse following her husband’s death in 2007.

15 September 2012: Indian Prim Minster send condolence message to Pakistan on Karachi and Lahore fire incidents.

14 September: Two US Marines were killed and several others wounded late Friday, when 15 attackers dressed as US soldiers, armed with guns, rockets and suicide vests stormed the airfields. Six US AV-8b Harrier fighter jets were destroyed and two significantly damaged. Three coalition refueling stations were also destroyed and six aircraft hangars damaged. The killings came as NATO detailed unprecedented damage costing well into tens millions of dollars in a sophisticated, well-coordinated attack on Camp Bastion, in Helmand, where Britain’s Prince Harry and 28,000 soldiers are deployed. NATO is gradually withdrawing its 112,600 remaining troops. There are currently 68,000 US troops are Afghanistan (at currently in 3rd week of September)

13 September 2012: THE HAGUE: Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s Liberals won a closely contested election, but he faced the prospect of having to form a govt. with his arch-rivals from the Labour party.

13 September: Microsoft has launched its latest offering of the Office suit, the cloud-base Office 365, targeted primarily towards small and medium business with local pricing (6 dollar a month) for Pakistan.

13 September: Supreme Court: taking notice of the financial and administrative irregularities in the operation of PIA, the SC on issue notice to the Chairman of the national carrier Rao Qamar Suleman. The apex court took notice of the situation after a petition was moved by the Transparency International (TI). The report claimed that because of administrative inefficiency, the national carrier suffered the loss of PKR 410 million due to cancellation of 1200 flights b/w August 2011- November 2011. 13 September 2012: KARACHI: Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves rose to 14.828 billion dollar in the week ending Sept 7, from 14.821 billion dollar in the previous week, the central Bank said on Thursday. Pakistan’s reserves have been reduced by debt repayment in August on a 397.2 million dollars loan from the IMF. Remittances form Pakistanis aboard rose 17.73 per cent to 13.186 billion dollars in the 2011-12 fiscal years, which ended June 30, compared with 11.2 billion dollar the previous year.

13 September 2012: Ace film actor and comedian Safirullah passed away (died at 83) after a prolonged illness on Thursday. Lehri, who had won the Nigar award for around a dozen films, and acted in approximately 225 films. Lehri’s first film was 1956’s Anokhi, while his last productin was 1986’s Dhanak.

13 September 2012: Clara Schumann was 193th birthday, born at Leipzig, was a German musician and composer, considered one of the most distinguished pianists of the Romantic err, died 20 May 1896 at Frankfurt.

13 September: the State Bank of Pakistan issued tough regulations to stop money-laundering and combat terrorism financing by making regulation up to international standards. The SBP made anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) regulations more comprehensive by revising the existing regulations of Prudential Regulations on Corporate and Commercial Banking. Most of them already placed and some of them will be effective from Oct 31.

12 September: World Bank’s executive Directors approved two credits totaling 220 million dollars for two projects of the Punjab Government. The 150 million dollar Punjab cities governance improvement project is aimed at realizing the growth potential of five largest cities of the province through strengthening systems for improved planning, resource management and accountability. The additional financing of 70 million dollars for Punjab Land Records Management and Information systems project is meant for further strengthening and expanding better service delivery of land record management throughout province. “ Punjab is leading the way in fusing together the rural and urban development agenda” said Rachid Benmessaoud, WB country director for Pakistan. the province has four cities with population in excess of one million, namely Faislabad (3million), Gujrawala and (2 million each), and Multan (1.7 million). These carry a 0.75 % service charge, and 1.25 per cent interest rate, 5 years of grace period and a maturity of 25 years. (Edward Cook, WB Task Team Leader for the project)

12 September: Minister for Defense Syed Naveed Qamar informed members of the Parliament’s lower house that since March, 2008, PIA has signed only one agreement for purchase of five Boeing 777-300ER aircraft to meet its growing needs and the aircraft would be delivered to Pakistan in the year 2015. Currently, PIA was operating on 38 International and 24 domestic routes with a fleet of 38 aircraft.

11 September 2012: 64th death Anniversary of founder of Pakistan, Great Muslim Leader of Sub-continent Quaid e Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, celebrated through out the country.

11 September: 5th South Asia Economic Summit in Islamabad started more than 114 participants from South Asian countries including Afghanistan are attending the three day session.

11 September: BENGHAZI: the US ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens and three embassy staff were killed in an attack on the Benghazi consulate and a safe house refuge on Tuesday, stormed by Islamist militants blaming America for a film seen as insulting the Holy Prophet (B.P.U.H).

11 September, KARACHI: the has finally approved issuance of the much awaited privately placed term finance certificates (PPTFCs) amounting to Rs82 billion by Power Holding (Private) Limited (PHPL) with the aim of overcoming the circular debt issue prevailing in the energy sector, said an official notification on Tuesday. Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDC) has bought such PPTFCs from PHPL against its outstanding receivables from govt. The company would earn KIBOR plus one percent on investment in the certificates’ semi-annually for the next seven years period s(including grace period of three years), reported OGDC at the Karachi Stock Exchange. Interest payments will start the sixth month of the investment. The principal shall be repaid in eight equal installment starting from the 42nd month of date of transaction, the notice said. The National Bank of the Pakistan executed the transaction on September 10, 2012 as its trustee, it said.

11 September: JS Bank announces acquisition of HSBC Pakistan, the acquisition of HSBC Bank business operations in Pakistan will act as a catalyst in achieving the bank’s growth strategy and position it as one of the key players in the financial sector with the introduction of premium banking and credit cards suits. JS bank is majority-owned subsidiary of Jahangir Siddiqui & Co. Ltd. And currently operates 153 branches in 82 cities with a total asset base of Rs64.53 billion as of June 30, bank rated A+ by Pakistan Credit Rating Agency (PACRA). The Value of the deal is not disclosed yet by both the parties but it is estimated to be worth b/w 40 million and 50 million dollars.

11 September: Nation’s worst Industrial Tragedy in Garment factory in Baldia Town, Karachi named Ali Enterprises swallows at least 258 people, 21 also burnt and died in shoe factory Lahore.

11 Sept: Book on the mission that killed Osama bin Laden “No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission that Killed Osama bin Laden,” the book has been written by a member of the SEALs with the pseudonym of Mark Owen, Penguin publisher Dutton said he used a pen name and changed the names of other SEAL members for security reasons. A co-writer, Kevin Maurer, is the author of four books and was embedded with Special Forces in Afghanistan six times.

11 September, ISTANBUL: Turkey will not hand over Iraq’s fugitive Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, who faces a death sentence against him in Baghdad, and he can remain in Turkey as long as he needs to, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday.

11 September 2012: TIANJIN, China: Chinese Premier Meets PM Ashraf, assures Pakistan of support. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao reiterated the stance of his government of supporting Pakistan’s sovereignty when he met Prime Minister Raja Perviz Ashraf here on sidelines of World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting of New Champions 2012. The first official meeting that was schedule for 25 minutes lasted for 40 minutes. It was agreed that China would support the National Bank of Pakistan to launch the financial bond worth 6.5 billion Renminbi in China.

10 September: Pakistan clinched the three-match Twenty20 series 2-1 but were humiliated by 94 runs in the third and final match here on Monday, shout out for their lowest Twenty20 score of 74 in reply of chasing 169/7. Previous lowest total was 89 against England at Cardiff in 2010. Both teams flew to Sri Lanka early Tuesday for World Twenty20 begins from 18th of this month.

10 September: NEWYORK: Murray ends wait with epic US Open win over Djokovic. History-making Andy Murray ended Britain’s 76-year wait for a men’s Grand Slam champion when he beat 2011 winner Novak Djokovic of Serbia 7-6 (12/10), 7-5, 2-6, 3-6, 6-2 in an epic US Open final on Monday. Murray became Britain’s first major champion since Fred Perry claimed his third American title in 1936, the year the Spanish Civil War started and Franklin D. Roosevelt was re-elected US President. Match was the second-longest US Open final of all time continued for four hours and 54 minutes.

8 September: FM S. M. Krishna signed some agreement with Pakistan included new visa policy and procedure. 7 September: the government has decided to convert tow inefficient thermal power plants in Sindh – Guddu and Jamshoro plants – to coal with 433 million dollar financing to be provided by the ADB (Asian Development Bank). The conversion of the plants would allow the authorities to enhance their production by at least 700MW.

7 September: Currency notes valuing Rs 1.78 trillion and coins worth Rs 6.2 billions are currently in circulation in the country, Minister of Finance, Revenue, Planning and Development Dr Abudu Hafeez Sheikh Friday told National Assembly.

7 September: Pakistan won the second Twenty20 against Australia in a thrilling Super Over finish at the Dubai Stadium here on Friday, taking an unbeatable 2-0 lead in the three-match series. With both tied on 151 runs at the end of 40 fascinating overs in the match, a Super over round was played for the result. Pakistan paceman Umer Gul restricted Australian batsman , Shane Watson and George Bailey to 11-1 befor Umar Akmal and Abudl Razzaq hit the required runs, the winner coming off the last delivery. Pakistan had made 151-4 with M. Hafeez and Nasir Jamshed 45 each and Kamran Akmal (43 ) contributing with the bat. George Bailey led the Australian run chase with a solid 42.

7 September: Former Pakistan football skipper Abdul Ghafoor Majna died. Majna , who nicknamed as the “Pakistani Pele”, represented Pakistan as a midfielder in the 1960s and 1970s. He was skipper of Pakistan team in the 1974 Tehran Asian Games. He also represented Pakistan in the Olympic Qualifiers.

7 September 2012: India foreign Minister S.M Krishna arrived in Islamabad on 3 days visit.

7 September 2012: A new super-earth has been discovered in the habitable zone around the red dwarf star Gliese 163. Astronomers found it using the European Southern Observatory HARPS telescope (or High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher). It has been billed as Gliese 163c, and has a mass of 6.9 times that of Earth and an orbital period of 26 days. It orbits a red dwarf star 49 light years away in the Dorado constellation. On their research announcement the team said that” Gliese 163c could have a size b/w 1.8 to 2.4 Earth radii, its surface temperature might be around 60”C”. Along with their latest discovery the team has also found a larger planet, Gliese 163b, orbiting the star much closer with 9 days period. They also announced that an additional third, but unconfirmed planet, might be orbiting the star much farther away. The new exoplanets were discovered by the European HARPS team led by Xavier Bonfils from the UJF-Frenoble/CNRS-INSU, Institure de Plane ‘Tologie et d’Astrophysique of Grenoble, France. Scientists from France, Germany, Portugal, Switerzaland, and Belgium also took part.

6 September 2012: MUMBAI, Indian-American astronaut Sunita Williams has set a new world record for the Maximum number of spacewalks by a women astronaut. She surpassed Peggy Whiston whose space walks totaled 39 hours and 46 minutes. Sunita notched up 44 hours and 2 minutes, the total number of spacewalks being six. Sunita also holds the record of the longest space flight by a women astronaut, totaling 195 days.

5 September, ISLAMBAD: The state-run Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDC) on Wednesday announced discovery of new reserves in Karak district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which would boost its daily output by about 8 per cent. The country’s total oil production has increased to about 72,500bpd against the total consumption of about 300,000bpd.

5 September: Pakistan beat Australia by 7 wickets in first T20 match in Abu Dhabi. Australia bowled out at 89 runs (19.3 over) 2nd lowest total since 2005. Pakistan chased the target in 15.3 over and Muhammad Hafeez was the man of Match. 4 September 2012: Great Muslim Poet and Musician, Amir Khusroo, 708 Urs starting from 4th September to 8th in New Delhi.

3 September: Labor Day celebrated (First Monday in September in USA and Canada).

3 September, 2012: SHARJAH, Australia beat Pakistan (244-7) by three wickets in the third and final one-day international, taking the three-match series 2-1 here on Monday. Hussey scored 65 for his 39th fifty and Maxwell hit a 38-ball 56 not out to round off a challenging chase of a target of 245 in 47 over spoiling Pakistan’s chances of beating Australia for the first time since 2002. (Other two matches info given under, dated 28 and 31)

1 September 2012: Federal Cabinet unanimously passes bill to increase minority representation and is accepted to be tabled in the next National Assembly session on September 3. If Govt. succeeds in getting to passed in the shape of 23rd Constitution Amendments with a two third majority, minorities’ seats would be increase from 33 to 53 in the National Assembly and Provincial Assemblies. Non-Muslims represent 4.5% of the country’s totals population of 180 million. Therefore, the total number of minorities’ seats will increase from 33 to 53, out of which 16 seats will be added to NA from 10, 12 in the Punjab Assembly from 8, 13 in the Sindh Assembly from 9 and six each in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan assemblies from 3 each. Remember, the 21st Amendment (creation of new provinces) and 22nd Amendment (dual nationality) – are still pending with parliament)

31 August: Pakistan beat Australia by 7 wickets in 2nd ODI at Abu Dhabi leveling the three match series 1-1, Australia 248 and Pakistan 249 (43.3). Opener Nasir Jamshed hit an aggressive 97 to guide Pakistan to a seven- wicket win.

31 August 2012: Maria Montessori 142nd birthday, she was an Italian physician and educator, a noted humanitarian and devout Catholic best known for the philosophy of education which bears her name

29 August: President Asif Ali Zardari arrived in Tehran to attend NAM 16th Summit.

29 August 2012: Andrew Strauss resigned as England’s Test captain and announced his retirement from professional cricket with immediate effect on Wednesday. He played 100 tests for his team and scored 21 centuries.

29 August 2012: Paralympics 2012 set to begin in London till 9 September. More than 4,200 athletes from 165 countries will compete in the 2012 Paralympics Games in London; Games include 20 sports such as cycling, Judo and swimming. A record 2.7 million tickets have been sold for the 2012 Paralympics. The first large-scale games for disabled athletes were held in 1948 in Stoke Mandeville, Buckinghamshire, and the Paralympics’ “spiritual home”.

29 August 2012: A resolution moved by Law Minister Punjab Rana Sanaullah against the formation of the new provinces’ commission was passed in the Punjab Assembly.

28 August: NASA transmitted the first song to be broadcast from Mars on Tuesday, by Grammy-winning US musician will.i.am, as part of efforts to inspire young people to get interested in science.

28 August 2012: SHARJAH, Australia beats Pakistan (198 at 45.1) by 4 wickets in first ODI in UAE with ten balls to spare. Starc (5-42) and (3-19) were the chief wreckers as Pakistan were bowled out for 198 in the 46th over.

28 August 2012: NSAS’s Curiosity rover transmits first ever voice message from another planet. The Mars Rover Curiosity has made history by beaming back to Earth the first audio recording of human voice sent from the surface of another planet. The recording was made by NASA administrator Charlie Bolden, congratulating NASA staff on their achievements.

28 August 2012: MOSCOW, the Mil Mi-38 has set a new world altitude record for helicopters in its class at the 14th Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI) helicopter championships. The Mi-38 reached an altitude of 28,200ft (8,600m) which is a new world record for helicopter in the 10,000kg (22,046lbs) to 20,000kg (44,092lbs) weigh class. The previous record was 27,887ft (8,500m). The Mi-38 was flown by test pilot from the Mil Moscow Helicopter Plant at Drakino airbase near Moscow.

27 August 2012: Pakistan all rounder Muhammad Hafeez has made it to the top of the ICC ODI bowlers list. Pakistan off spinner Saeed Ajmal has been ranked number 3 on the list. Meanwhile Umer Akmal has been ranked 12 on the ODI batsmen list while Misbau-ul-Haq was ranked 27.

The United Nations (UN) established in 24 October, 1945, The Chilean delegation signed its charted in San Francisco. There are 193 member states, including every internationally recognized sovereign state in the world but Vatican City. The UN most prominent position is Secretary-General which has been held by Ban Ki-moon of South Korea since 2007. The UN headquarters resides in international territory in New York, with further main offices at Geneva, Nairobi, and Vienna and has six official languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish. There are six main principal organs of UN and other bodies, which are as follows:

General Assembly (UNGA): is one of the six principal organs of the UN and the only one in which all member nations have equal representation and meets under its president or Secretary General in regular yearly sessions the main part of which lasts from September to December. The first session was convened at 10 January 1946 in the Westminster Center Hall in London and included representatives of 51 nations.

Security Council (UNSC): is charged with the maintained of international peace and security and had its first session on 17 January 1946 at Church House, Westminster. Current permanent home of UNSC is at UN headquarters in New York City. There are 15 members of the SC, consisting of five veto-wielding permanent members and 10 elected non-permanent members for the term of two years. Its basics structure is set out in Chapter V of the UN charter.

Economic and Social Council: have 54 member states, which are elected by the UNGA for overlapping three-year terms. Seats on the Council are based on geographical representation with 14 allocations to African states, 11 to Asian States, 6 to East European states, 10 to Latin America and States and 13 to West European states and other.

Secretariat: provides studies, information, and facilities needed by the UN and have a staff of 44,000 civil servants worldwide.

International Court of Justice: commonly referred as the World Court or ICJ, is judicial organ of UN. It is based in the Peace Palace in The Hague, the Netherlands. ICJ composed of fifteen judges elected to nine year term by the UNGA and the UNSC. Election is staggered with five judges elected every three years.

United Nation Trusteeship Council (which is currently inactive): suspended its operation from 1 November 1994. All territories dispute settled.

Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO): established in 16 October 1945, has its headquarters in Rome, Italy with 191 members states. Jose Graziano da Silva is Current Head. United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF): created on December 11, 1946, headquarter in New York City, awarded Nobel Peace Price in 1965.

World Health Organization (WHO): is a specialized agency of UN and established on 7 April 1948, with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. As of 2012, the WHO has 194 members’ states, including the Cock Islands and Niue.

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA): established in 1957, has its headquarters in Vienna, Austria. The IAEA and its former Director General, Mohamed ElBaradei, were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize that was awarded on October 7, 2005. IAEA’s current Director General is Yukiya Amano.

World Food Programme (WFP): established in 1961 and have 36 member, its headquarter in Rome, provide food , on average, to 90 million people, 58 million of whom are children, world largest humanitarian organization addressing hunger world wide.

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO): is a specialized agency of UN and has 195 members’ states. UNESCO headquarter is in Paris, France.

International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO): established in 1947, has its headquarters in Montreal, Canada. ICAO members are 191 of the UN members and the Cook Islands (is a self governing parliamentary democracy in the South Pacific Ocean in free association with New Zealand. It is composed of 15 small islands whose total area is 250 sq.km (92.7 sq mi). Current Director General of ICAO is Raymond Benjamin.

International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD): established in 1977, has its headquarters Rome, Italy. IFAD are 163 of the UN members. Kanayo F. Nwanze is current director General of IFAD.

International Labor Organization (ILO): established in 1946 (1919), has it’s headquarter in Geneva. Almost all (185 out of 193) UN members are part of the ILO. ILO received Nobel Peace Prize in 1969.

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR): has won Nobel Peace prize in 1954 and 1981 and founded in 1947. Its headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland. Antonio Guterres in current High commissioner from 2005.

World Bank Group (WBG): came into formal existence on 27 December 1945, New York is the headquarter city of WB. All of the 193 of the UN members and Kosovo are its member. Jim Yong Kim is the current president of WB. Agencies of WB are International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), established in 1945. International Finance Corporation (IFC), established in 1956. International Development Association (IDA), established in 1960. International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), established in 1966. Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), established in 1988.

27 August 2012: NRO Case, Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf requested the court that he required at least four to six weeks to resolve the issue. Accepting PM‘s request, the Supreme Court on Monday granted time to him and adjourned the hearing till September 18 in the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) implementation case.

26 August 2012: Indian Actor A.K Hangal died. He did the character of Rahim in film “Shula”.

August 26, 2012: Non-alignment Movement (NAM), a major international grouping of 120 countries (21 observers), 16th summit will held at the OIC Convention Centre in Tehran, Iran, on August 26-31. Senior official meeting” on 26 and 27 august, a “Ministerial Meeting” on 28 and 29 August 2012. The leaders’ summit will take place on 30 to 31 August. Iran will also take as a new President of NAM from Egypt.

NAM was founded in Belgrade in 1961, and was largely a brain child of Yugoslavia’s president, Josip Broz Tito; India’s first prime Minister, Jawarharlal Nehre; Egypt’s second president, Gamal Abdel Nasser; Ghana’s first president Kwame Nkrumah; and Indonesia’s first president, Sukamo.

26 August: India won the ICC Under-19 for the third time, beating Australia by six wickets behind Captain Unumkt Chand’s 111 not out. India 227-4 48.4 overs (Unumkt Chand 111 not out, Smit Patel 62 not out, Joel Paris 1-33), def. Australia 225-8 (William Bosisto 87 not out, 4-54) by six wickets.

25 August 2012: First man on the moon Neil Armstrong died at 82. As commander of the Apollo 11 mission, Armstrong became the first human to set foot on the moon on July 20, 1969. As he stepped on the moon’s dusty surface, Armstrong said:” that’s the one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.” The Apollo 11 moon mission turned out to be Armstrong’s last space flight. The following year he was appointed to a desk job, being named NASA’s deputy associate administrator for aeronautics in the office of advanced research and technology. He left NASA a year later to become a professor of engineering at the University of Cincinnati. The former astronaut lived in the Cincinnati area with his wife, Carol. (Note: Yuri Gagarin, who died in an air crash in 1968, was the first man in space on April 12, 1961) Armstrong’s family praised him as a “reluctant American hero,” saying they hoped his legacy would encourage young people “to be willing to explore and push the limits and to selflessly serve a cause greater than themselves.” Something interesting to know about Armstrong is that he was decorated by 17 countries and received a slew of US honors, but was never comfortable with his worldwide fame and shield away from the limelight.

“I wasn’t chosen to be first. I was just chosen to command and flight. Circumstance put me in that particular role,” he said. Born in Wapakoneta, Ohio, on August 5, 1930, Armstrong had an early fascination with aircraft and worked at a nearby airport when he was a teenager. He received his pilot’s license on his 16th birthday. A US Navy aviator, he flew missions in the Korean War. Armstrong joined NASA’s predecessor agency, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, in 1955. As a research pilot at NASA’s Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, he flew on many pioneering high-speed aircraft, eventually flying over 200 different models, including helicopters, gliders, jets and rockets. He reached astronaut status in 1962, and was assigned as command pilot for the Gemini 8 mission, during which he performed the first successful docking of two vehicles in space.

25 August: 4th Death Anniversary of Poet Ahmed Faraz. He died on 25 August 2008.

24 August, 2012: Kasur – Provincial Minister for Aquaf and Religious affairs Haji Ehsanuddin Qureshi Thursday inaugurated the 254th annual Urs celebrations of Baba Bulleh Shah by lying traditional ‘Chadar’ on his shrine in Kasur, Secretary Aquaf, seniors officers of the Aquaf Dep. and a larg number of devotees were also present. The Aquaf Department has allocated Rs 265,000 for Urs celebrations. (Updated: Urs concluded after three days at 26 August on Sunday)

24 August: Pakistan appointed Mohammad Akram as their bowling coach replacing, Aqaib Jawed, PCB director International cricket Intikhab Alam told media.

21 August: Senior Journalist Shamin-ur-Rehman passed away in Karachi early Tuesday.

18 August: Brahimi to become new Syria conflict envoy UN: Lakhdar Brahimi, a veteran diplomat troubleshooter, will take over from Kofi Annan as the international envoy on the Syria conflict, the UN said. He was Algeria’s forign minister from 1991-93 and later became a UN envoy in Afghanistan before and after the September 11, 2001 attacks, and in Iraq after 2003 invasion. While representing the Arab Leagure, Brahimi helped end the Lebanese civil war in the 1980s, negotiating with Syrian government of the time. UN deputy spokesman Eduardo del buey said Brahimi would ocme to New York “soon” for talks. (Updated: He reached today on 13 September 2012 in Damascus, Syria)

Russia’s UN envoy Vitaly Churkin.

18 August 2012 HYDERBAD: Veteran Indian batsman Vangipurappu Venkata Sai Laxman (WS Laxman) announced his retirement form international cricket on Saturday, saying it was time to make way for the next generation. Laxman, better know by his initials WS, has played 134 tests since his debut in 1996, scoring 8,781 runs at an average of 45.97 with 17 centuries and 56 fifties. He also scored 2,338 runs in 86 one-day international with 6 hundreds, but had not been part of Indian’s limited-over squad since 2006.

17 August, New Spider family found in US caves: WASHINGTON: A team of amateur cave explorers and archeologists has found a new family of spiders in caves and old-growth redwood forests in Oregon and California, US researchers said Friday. Entomologists (a zoologist who studies insects ) at California Academy of Sciences said the spider, named Trogloaptor – or “cave robber” – for its lethal front claws, had such unique evolutionary features that it represented not just a new genus or species, but also new family of spiders. Strong evidence suggesting Trogloaptor was a close relative of goblin spiders.

17 August 2012 KARACHI: the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) through reverse repo open market operation, in treasury bills and Pakistan Investment Bonds, has injected Rs 485.550 billion in the banking system. According to SBP here Friday, the offered amount was Rs 485.550 billion while the rate of return for seven days stood at 9.95% and for 14 days at 10.10 per cent per annum.

16 August on Thursday: Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) attack on a Pakistan military Minhas airbase at Kamra (also attacked by a suicide in 23 Oct,2009), which left 10 people dead, 9 militants and one soldier and damaged at least one Air Force Aircraft.

16 August: A commission for the creation of new province in Punjab was constituted by National Assembly Speaker Dr. Fehmida Mirza – though only 12 out of 14 members of the commission have been notified.

16 August: Great Pakistani Singer and Kawal Ustad ’s 15th anniversary, He died in 1997 on same day.

15 August: Stephen KIporichi, Ugandan athlete received a tremendous welcome on arrival in his country Uganda. He got a gold medal for Uganda after 40 year in London Olympic 2012.

15 August: India also celebrated 65th Independence Day. Pakistan releases 55 fishermen as a “Good Will Gesture” on Indian Independence Day.

14 August: Power subsidies cost exchequer Rs 1.2trn in four year. Prime Minister Raja Perviz Ashraf has said that the govt. has provided Rs1, 200 billion subsidies on electricity over past four years. According to him, the govt. had added more than 3,500 megawatts of electricity in the national electricity network. The govt., he said, had also decided to exploit 175-billion-ton coal reserves in Thar on fast-track basics for electricity generation. He said that the size of the PSDP (Public Sector Development Porgramme) had been increased from Rs 416 billion to Rs 873 billion over the past four decade and remittances had crossed 13$ billon mark. 6 billion will also provide for Kachi canal project. 14 August, 2012: 65th Independence Day is celebrated throughout Pakistan and all around the world by Pakistanis.

13 August: Foreign minister at a meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) agreed on Monday 13 to suspend Syria form the international body, an OIC source said, further isolating President Bashar al-Assad. The move by OIC, a body comprising 56 member states plus the Palestinian Authority that aims to represents Muslims interests on the world stage, it is response to Assad’s suppression of a 17-month uprising.

13 August, 2012: “Party, Party” London Summer Olympics 2012 Closing Ceremony. London bade a flamboyant and madcap farewell to the Olympic Games with a romp through British pop and fashion, bringing the curtain down on more than two weeks of action that ended with America topping the sporting world with 46 gold medals (29 silver, 29 bronze, total 104). The hosts have claimed 29 gold medals (17 silver, 19 bronze, total 65), comfortably beating their Beijing tally of 19. It puts them third in the overall medals table, which United States tops on 46 to China’s 38 (27 silver, 22 bronze, total 87) at the end of 16 days of thrilling action. The closing ceremony featured thousands of athletes and performing volunteers as well as a section devoted to the next summer Olympic hosts, Rio de Janeiro 2016 ( The former capital and 2nd largest city of Brazil: Chief Brazilian port: famous as a tourist attraction). Russia placed 4th (24 Gold, 25 Silver, 33 bronze, total 82). Korea 5th (13 Gold, 8 silver, 7 bronze, total 28). Germany 6th (11 Gold, 19 silver, 14 bronze, total 44). France 7th (11 Gold, 11 silver, 12 bronze, total 34). Italy 8th (8 Gold, 9 silver, 11 bronze, total 28). Hungary 9th (Gold 8, 4 silver, 5 bronze, total 17). Australia 10th (Gold 7, 16 silver, 12 bronze, total 35).

13 August: Pakistan cricket team’s Saeed Ajmal was nominated in three categories for the ICC Awards. Ajmal nominated for ICC ODI player of the year along team mate Shahid Afride. He is also nominated for ICC test cricketer of the year and ICC player of the year. Other Pakistani nominated for Award are Twenty20 captain Mohammad Hafeez for ICC spirit of cricket award and T20 performance of the year ward for his performance against Zimbabwe on 16 September 2011. has been nominated for the ICC emerging player of the year award and Umpire Uleem Dar has been nominated for ICC umpire of the year. The award will be given on 15 September.

August 12: twelve years ago today, Pakistan’s iconic pop princess lost the battle against lung cancer at 35.

12 August: Iran hit by twin earthquakes measuring 6.4 and 6.3, 360 people killed and injured around 3,037 in northwest Iran, northeast of the city of Tabriz, Health Minister Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi said.

11 August, 2012 London Olympics: Mexico beats 5 time world champion Brazil by 2-1 and wins the final of London Football Olympics 2012 in front of a London Games record crowd of 86,162 at Wembleey Stadium.

11 August, London Olympics: Germany won the Olympic title for the second successive time when they beat Netherland 2-1 and becomes hockey Olympic champion.

London Hockey Olympics: India lost their six matches out of six when 3-2 defeat to South Africa condemned them 12th and last place in the tournament. It was the first time that eight-time champions had gone through an Olympics without winning a match.

9 August, 2012 London Olympic: Pakistan bounced back against Korea to win the classification match 3-2 and clinch seventh place at the London Olympics. Remember, Pakistan were win hockey gold in 1960 (in Rome Olympics), 1968 (Mexico Olympic) and 1984(Los Angeles Olympics) “toughest” Olympic final (Los Angeles Olympic). London is their fifth Olympics without a medal. Their last was a bronze at the 1992 Games in Barcelona. Pak 1st match against Spain 1-1, 2nd against Argentina, 3rd against South Africa win by 5-4, 4th against Great Britain lost by, 5th against Australia lost by 7-0, 6th for the seventh-position with south Korea today.

9 August London Olympics: Britain’s Nicolo Adams becomes first women boxer who got Gold medal in Olympics.

9 August, 2012: India test-fires nuclear capable Agni-II Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM) with a strike range of 2000km as part of a user trial by the Army from the wheeler Island off Odisha coast. The 20-meter long Agni-II is a two-stage, solid propelled ballistic missile. It has a launch weight of 17 tones and can carry a payload of 1000kg over a distance of 2000km.

8 August, 2012: In Egypt New Govt. takes the responsibility.

7 August, 2012: Pakistan were annihilated 7-0 by world champions Australia in their last pool match on Tuesday- their worst Olympic defeat – to crash out of the medal race.

6 August, 2012: London: Pioneering British physicist and astronomer Bernard Lovell, who developed one of the world’s largest radio telescopes exploring particles in the universe, has died. He was 98. The University of Manchester, where Lovell was emeritus professor of radioastonomy, said. Lovell was founder of England’s Jodrell Bank Observatory and creator of its massive 250-foot-wide (76-meter-wide) radio telescope that has borne his name since 1987. But three decades earlier, the half-built telescope was I danger of being mothball because it had cost far too much to develop. Lovell credited the ’s Oct 4, 1957, launch of Sputnik, the world’s first articficial satellite, with saving his project. Lovell also led an important World War II research project that developed the world’s first radar system for scanning the ground. The H2S radar technology was used on British Bombers from 1943 onward to identify ground targets at night and low bisibility.

6 august, 2012: President confers Nishan-e-Imtiaz to Air Chief Marshal during a special ceremony owning to his long meritorious services. He also has been decorated with the award of Hilal-i-imtiaz (Military), Sitara-i-Imtiaz (Military) and Tamgha-i-Basalat for his meritorious dedicated services.

Current Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad. French President Francois Holland.

5 August, 2012 on Monday: Curiosity rover lands successfully on Mars (Gale Carter), Red Planet: NASA. Landed on Martian surface shortly after 10:30 p.m. Pacific time on Sunday (1:30 a.m. EDT Monday/05:30GMT) to begin a two year mission seeking evidence the Red Planet once host ingredients for life, NASA said. Mission controls at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory near Los Angeles. The $2.5 billion curiosity project, formally called the Mars Science Laboratory, is NASA’s first astrobiology mission since the 1970-era Viking probes. The landing capped a journey of more than eight months across more than 350 million miles (567 million km) of space since the Mars Science Lab was launched in November 2011 from Cape Canaveral, Florida. It’s also the one-ton mobile lab is the largest rover ever sent to Mars. President Barak Obama described the landing as “an unprecedented feat of technology that will stand as a point of national pride far into the future”.

London Olympic 2012: American Michael Phelps, a swimmer from suburban Baltimore, won his 19th (total 22) Olympic medal, almost all of which are gold and which he was accumulated over three summer games. His haul has beaten the previous record of 18 medals (half of which were gold) won by Larisa Latynina for the Soviet Univon in gymnastics b/w 1956 and 1964.

London Olympic 2012: Britain’s Anislie makes Olympic history with fourth sailing gold (total 5 with one silver), Ainslie overtakes Danish Olympic legend Paul Elvstrom – who won four gold medals b/w 1948 and 1960 – to become most successful sailor in Games. London Olympics 2012: British Cyclist Chris Hoy winning two gold medals in the Velodrome- the fifth and sixth golds of his career – to become the most successful British Olympian ever.

6 August, 2012: Basketball- Britain gets first Olympic win in 64 years by thumbing China 90-58. The only other Olympic victory came in the 1948 London Games.

6 August, 2012: Usain Bolt remains fastest man on the earth after winning the 100 meters in London Olympics 2012. Later, he also wins 200 meter and become first athlete who successfully defend his Olympic 100,200 and 4*100 meters titles.

5 August 2012: Neil Armstrong 82nd birthday celebrated, he was born on 5 August, 1930. He is the first person who stepped on moon on 21 July 1969.

3 August, 2012: Contempt of Court Case 2012 abolished by SC of Pakistan. The Supreme Court on August 3 declared void Sections 3, 7, 8, 10 and 11 of the contempt of court law calling them unconstitutional and illegal

July 31 on Tuesday: Pakistan and USA signed the bilateral memorandum of understanding (MoU) on transit of cargo. USA Charge d’Affaires Ambassador Richard Hogaland and Additional secretary of the Ministry of Defence Farrokh Ahmed signed the agreement on behalf of their govt.

International Olympic Committee (IOC): created on 23rd June 1894 based in Lausanne, Switzerland , created by Pierre, Baron de Coubertin (also 2nd longest serving president from 1896 to 1925, 29 years) with Demetrios Vikeas as its first president. Today its membership consists of 105 active members and 32 honorary members. Current president is Count Jacues Rogge (till 2013) and have Motto Citius, Altius, Fortius (Latin: Faster, Higher, Stronger). French, English and host country’s official language when necessary. First Summer Olympic were held, Greece, in 1896, the first Winter Olympic were in Chamonix, France, in 1924. Until 1992, both Summer and Winter Olympics were held in the same year. The first summer youth Olympic were in Singapore in 2010 and first Winter youth Olympics were held in Innsbruck (Austria city and capital of state of Tyrol) 2012.

July 27, 2012 on Friday: London Olympics 2012 opening ceremony held in London (3rd time).16, 000 athletes from 204 (Pakistan has 39 team member) countries share the thrill of victory and despair of defeat with 11 million visitors in almost 36 games. Olympics will end on 12 august 2012.

(Olympics Games started from The 1896 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the I Olympiad, was held in Athens, Greece, from April 6 to 15, 1896( 241 Athletes from 14 nations participated in 43 events in nine sports at the Games, the US won most Gold medal (11), while host nation, Greece, won the most medal overall (46) as well as the most silver(17), bronze(19), finishing with one less Gold medal than the United States) Athens was unanimously chosen as the host city during a congress organized by Pierre de Coubertin, a French pedagogue and historian, in Paris, on June 23, 1894. The International Olympic Committee (IOC, Demetrius Vikelas, the first president of the IOC, was credited with the successful organization of the 1896 Games) was also instituted during this congress. Interesting to know that the 1900 Summer Olympics, some were already planned for Paris and, except for the Intercalated Games of 1906, the Olympics did not return to Greece until the 2004 Summer Olympic, some 108 years later.)

July 27 on Friday: Rehman Mailk took his oath again as interior minister of Pakistan. He was suspended by SC on June 4 because of issue of dual nationality. He elected without competition from a technocrat seat from sindh.

July 25, 2012 on Wednesday: Indian new president Pranab Mukherjee takes his oath as 13th president of India by the CJ of India.

July 24, 2012 on Tuesday: Ghana’s vice president John Mahama’s swift took oath after Atta Mills dies at 68 before term ends.

July 24: Mariam Sultana, a lecturer at the Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science and Technology (FUUAST) has become the first Pakistani woman to earn a doctorate degree in Extragalactic Astrophysics, which is an emerging branch of Astrophysics. Her research work was” Mathematical modeling of formation of ring structure in galaxies at early evolution of Universie.”

July 22, 2012 on Sunday: Indian former president Pranab Mukherjee Elected India’s 13th President. He won against former lower house parliament speaker P.A. Sagma with huge margin. Pranab will replace the current and first woman president, Pratibha Patil. Whose five-year term ends on Wednesday July 25. The new president will be administered the oath of office by the chief justice of India on 25 july.

July 21: "Oh you who believe! Fasting is prescribed to you as it was prescribed to those before you, that you may learn piety and righteousness" (Quran 2:183)

July 18, 2012 on Wednesday: Former South African President and Great Black leader Nelson Mandela as he celebrates his 94 birthday in Qunu, South Afric, Wednesday, July 18. For much of the world, Nelson Mandela is the epitome of saint. He is called Tata Madiba”. Tata means father in mandela native isiXhosa language.

July 18,2012 on Wednesday: North Korea Kim Jong-un named ‘marshal’ of military and become the head of the country’s 1.2-million strong armed forces. The 29 year old leader promotion places him above six military leaders who hold the rank of vice marshal. He is now Marshal of democratic People’s Republic of Korea, First Sectetary of workers “ Party of Korea, Chairman of the central Army Commission, First Chairman of the National Defence Commission of NK, Supreme Commander of the Korean People’ Army and a presidium member of the central Politburo of the pary.

July 17, 2012 on Tuesday: Final result of election in Libya after 64 years put Liberal Alliance ahead. The national Alliance, led by ex-interim PM Mahmoud Jibril, has won 39 out 40 whereas Muslim Brotherhood gained 17.

Mr. Yaseen Anwar, Current Governor of SBP (Takes charge from October 20, 2011 as 17th Governor of SBP.

July 15, 2012 on Saturday: Pakistan Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf first foreign vist to Saudi Arabia.

July 14, 2012: Aussie speed demon retires from international cricket. He played 216 one-day games for Australia, taking 374 wickets.

July 13, 2012 on Friday: President Asif Ali Zardari’s approval Fakkhurddin G Ebhrahim appointed new ECP for next five years. He’ll be the 24th individual to occupy the post after 12 permanent and 11 acting Chief Election commissioners. He will take over from Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan who was the acting CECP after the retirement of juctice (retd) Hamid Ali Mirza on March 23, this year.

July 12, 2012 on Thursday: President Sign contempt of court bill which was first approved by federal cabinet on July 4 and then

Current Law Minister of Pakistan Govt. is Farooq Naek. Attorney General Irfan Qadir. July 12, 2012: Pakistan Cricket team Sri Lanka tour ended. Pakistan lost the five-match one day series 3-1 and three tests 1-0. They leveled a two match Twenty20 series 1-1. Summary of the tour is as follows:

1st T20, 1st June, Hambantota, Sri Lanka (132/7) won by 37 runs.

2nd T20, 3rd June, Hambantota, Pakistan (122/6) won by 23 runs.

1st ODI, 7th June, Pallekele International Cricket Stadium, Pallekele, Pakistan (135/4) won by 6 wickets (D/L method)

2nd ODI, 9th June,same Stadium, Sri Lanka (280/4) won by 76 runs.

3rd ODI, 13th June at R.Premadasa Stadium, Colombo, Pak (12/2), No result

4th ODI, 16 June, same stadium, Sri Lanka (243/8) won by 44 runs.

5th ODI, 18 July, same stadium, Sri Lanka (248/8) won by 2 wickets.

1st Test, 22nd June 2012, Galle International Stadium, Galle, Sri Lanka (472/10,137/5, Pak 100/10 & 300/10) won by 209 runs.

2nd test, June 20 at Colombo, Drawn

3rd test, July 8 at Pallekele, Match Drawn.

July 10, 2012 on Tuesday: Justice (Retd) Fakkhurddin G Ebhrahim nominated as a Chief Election Commissioner of Pakistan by a parliamentary panal.

July 9, the National Assembly adopted contempt of court bill 2012, the bill will provide a shelter to top government officials against contempt of court proceedings

July 8, 2012 on Sunday: Donors pledged 16 billion Afghan aid In Conference on Afghanistan (hosted representatives of 80 nations) to prevent the country from sliding back in turmoil after foreign Troops depart in 2014.

A record number of Polio cases (198) registered in Pakistan last year.

Karim Massimov, Current Prime Minister of Republic of Kazakhstan.

Largest Library of the World is The Library of Congress with 151.8 millions books and about 838 miles of bookshelves.

Yammer internet startup co-founder and current CEO David Sacks.

Pakistan Current IG Railway is Syed Ibn-Hassan and DC Railway Javed Noor.

July 7, on Saturday: Election helded in Libya after four decade on one-man rule of General Qadafi. Last time election was held in Libys in 1964. Libyans will elect a 200-seat national assembly.

July 6, 2012 on Sunday: the Govt. of France will provide Euros 68.3 millions for the construction of a 48MV jaggran- II Hydro Power Project, which will be built in the upper extent of Neelum River. Aggrement was signed here at Economics affairs division (EAD) by the Additional secretary of EAD, Iftikhar ahmed Rao, ambassador of France, Phillippe Thiebaud and Country Directo of the French Development Agency (AFD), Nicolas Fornage here on Friday. ( With this aggrement , France has now a portfolio of projects amounting to 213 million Euros for the water and energy sector in Pakistan, corresponding to 73 percent of its pledge.

July 5, 2012: An Ariane 5 ascends from French Guiana at sunset Thursday with the Echo Star 17 and MSG-3 satellite payloads into orbit from Guiana Space center in kourou, French Guiana.

July 5, 2012 on Thursday, first NATO truck crossed Chaman border towards Afghanistan after senven month gap turmoil which was started after 26th November attack of USA at salsala check post, which martyred 24 Pakistani soldiers.

July 5, 2012: 2 day foreign secretary level talks from 4 to 5th June, ended on 5rd June 2012 at Thursday b/w foreign secretary of Indian Ranjan Mathai and Pakistani counterpart Jillil abbas Jillani.

July 4, 2012, on Wednesday: announced UW (University of Washington, Anna Gossouo and gordon watts are two of physicist) physicist aided in discovery of new sub atomic particles, believed to be the long sough higgs boson, boson is the key part of the physicist of how the universe works. Boson higgs named after the theorist physicist Peter higgs who imagined and named it half a century ago.

On this discovery, British most favorite and living scientist Steffen Hawking also looses 100 dollar because he bets with Gordon Kane (University of Michigan) that these particles will never discover but it happened contrary to his statements.

July 3: NATO supply resumed after seven month turmoil.

July 4, 2012: Federal Cabinet approved the Toheena-adalat Constitutional amendment bill 2012 on Thursday.

July 3, 2012 on Wednesday: Supreme Court of Pakistan declared that Na Ahal Prime minister ’s all orders are illegal and unconstitutional from 26 April to 19th June 2012.

July 2, 2012 Euro 2012: Spain beat Italy to be crowned champions of Euro 2012. Spain retained their European championship title, beating Italy 4-0 in the Ukrainian capital Kiev, to become the first side to complete back-to- back wins in the competition’s 52-year history.

June 30, 2012 on Saturday: Egyptian President M. Marsi takes his oath.

June 24, 2012 on Sunday: Presidential Ordinance issued to give the legal recognizance of the Previous Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani’s orders from 26 April to 19 June.

June 23, 2012 Saturday: Pakistan New Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf took his oath as a 25 Prime Minister of Pakistan.

June 22, 2012 on Friday: Pakistan National Assembly selected PPP’s Raja Pervaiz Ashraf as a leader of house and prime minister of Pakistan.

June 20, 2012 on Thursday: Chinese astronauts in the orbiting space module Tiangong-1 received the first of its kind email from the earth.

June 20: AJK (The Azad Jammu & Kashmir) presented Rs 49.50 billion budget. June 19, 2012 on Tuesday: Supreme Court of Pakistan disqualified Prime Minister of Pakistan and declared him as illegal and unconstitutional because of contempt of court punishment which he got at 26th April. Yousaf Raza Gillani membership of Parliament dismissed so he was no more Prime Minister of Pakistan form 26 April onward.

June 16, 2012: observes as Father Day (3rd Sunday of June).

June 12, 2012: observes as Children Labor day.

June 9, 2012: Punjab Finance Minister Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman on Saturday presented annual budget of Punjab for the year 2012-12 with total outlay of Rs 782 billion. 20% increase in the salaries of Govt. employees whereas 5% reduction in the salaries of MPAs. Around 125,000 laptops will be distributed to students. Rs 10 billion allocated for energy sector.

June 8: KPK budget worth Rs 303 billion presented.

June 4, 2012 on Monday: Supreme Court suspended Pakistan Interior Ministier Rehman Mailk Senate Membership. Next day he is appointment as an advisor to Prim Minister by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani.

2 June 2012: 60th Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, second largest serving monarch, only five other kings and queen in British history have reigned for 50 years or more. Queen diamond jubilee celebrated from 2nd to 5th June. Queen calls royal Jubilee a “humbling experience”.

June 1, 2012 on Friday: Gov. unveils Rs 2960 billion budget 2012-13 in the parliament presents by Finance Minister Dr. Abdul Hafeez Sheikh. Other statistics about budget which are important are as follows:

Inflation target 9.5 percent

Fiscal deficit of 4.7 percent

National development outlay 873 billion with federal public sector development programme (PSDP) of Rs 363 billion Rs.

Budget allocated to defense 545.389 billions.

787.396 million allocate for IT sector in budget

Revenue collection target 2504 billion rupees

Duty of raw material of 88 medicine reduce from 10 to 5 percent

Sales tax on imports has been standardized on 16 percent from 22 percent to 19.5 percent while minimum tax slab has been fixed to Rs 400,000.

20% adhoc relief package has been proposed for government employees and pensioners.

The total federal receipts are estimated at 3234 billion Rs which are 18.3% percent higher than 2732 billion Rs of outgoing year.

Tax collection of FBR estimated 2381 billion Rupees enhancing tax to GDP ration to 10.1 %. Province would give 1459 billion rupees from federal divisible pool as under 7th NFC award as against 1203 billion rupees during the current financial rupees.

The net federal receipts for the next year are estimated 1775 billion rupees as againt 1529 billion rupees in current year.

The overall fiscal deficit would be 1105 billion rupees which is 4.7 percent of GDP as against 5.5 percent of GDP in outgoing year.

Allocation for BISP increase from 50 to 70 billion rupees.

10 billion have been allocate for export development fund.

Card holder of BISP would get 17% discount of Govt. utility stores

Bachelor and Master degree holders would be provided 40 thousands internship in public and private sectors

Five hundred millions rupees would be spent on higher education for masters and PhD programmes of FATA, Gilligat and Balochistan higher education

Budget Taxation:

Income tax for commercial importers is being reduced from five to three percent, for exporters from one percent to half percent and for suppliers from 3.5 percent to 2.5%.

Withholding tax exemption limit of twenty five thousand rupees on withdrawal of cash from banks in a day is being raised to fifty thousand rupees.

The value of vehicle for the purpose of depreciation rate is being increased from 1.5 to 2.5 million rupees whereas initial rate of new building would be 25%.

GST on tea is being reduced from the existing 16% to 5%.

25% reduction in import duties and taxes on Fuel efficient Hybrid Electric and their batteries.

Budget Development:

Power Sector would get 69 billion rupees besides 115 billion Rs to be spent on WAPDA and electric companies.

Water sector would get 48 billion Rs, social sector 44 billion rupees and FATA, Gilgit Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir would get 37 billion rupees from the development budget. PSDP also includes 16 billion rupees for higher education and 84 billion rupees for transport and communication.

May 31, 2012 on Thursday: Pakistan conducted test of medium range cruise missile Hatf-VIII(Ra’ad).

May 31, 2012: Finance Minister Abdul Hafiz Sheikh shows the Pakistan Economic Survey Report 2011-2012 on Thursday. Some important highlights are as follows:

Growth and Stabilization Govt. achieved a growth rate of 3.7% this year as compared to 3 % last year.

Commodity producing sector growth rate is 3.28 percent against 1.47% last year.

The Minister outlined the three ways of measuring inflation: consumer price index, wholesale price index and sensitive price index. “The average consumer price index this year was 10.8% as compared to last year’s 13.8%. The wholesale price index was 21% last year, but this year it was 11.2%. The sensitive price index was also brought down from 18% last year to 8.5%.” The food inflation on average basics is estimated at 11.1 percent and non- food 10.7 percent, against 18.8 percent and 10.8 percent in the corresponding period of last year. Core inflation is also estimated at 10.4 percent.

Agriculture registered the growth of 3.12% against 2.38% last year.

Industrial sector contains 25.4% of GDP having sub sectors: manufacturing, construction, mining & quarrying and electricity gas distribution.

Per capita real income grew at 2.33% in 2011-12 as compared to 1.33 percent growth in last year. In dollar term it increased from 1258$ to $ 1372 in 2011-12.

Fiscal deficit is recorded at 5.0% during July-March 2012-2 as compared to 5.5% last year.

Tax collection of the FBR was targeted at Rs 1952.3 billion for fiscal year 2011-12. Revenue collections of FBR stood at Rs 1426.0 billion during July-March 2011-12, thereby reflecting 24.0% growth over Rs 1149.8 billion during the corresponding period last year. Among the four federal taxes, the highest growth 33.7% has been recorded in sales tax receipts, followed by customs 17.7%, and direct tax 22.6%. It does not include Rs. 19 billion collected by Sindh province on GST on Services.

31 May, 2012: Our galaxy to hit another in four billion years: NASA. Our galaxy is on a collision course with its nearest neighbor, Andromeda, and the head-on crash expected in four billion year, the US space agency NASA said on Thursday, 31 May. Scientists have long known that Andromeda, also known as M31, is moving toward the Milky Way at a speed of 250,000 miles per hour, or fast enough to travel from the earth to the moon in one hour. Andromeda was first spotted as “a little cloud” by the Persian astronomer Abd-al-Rahman Al sufi in 964.

May 24, 2012 on Thursday: National Assemble Speaker Dr. Fahimida Mirza decided not to send the disqualification of Prime Minister Issue on court verdict to the Election commission of Pakistan.

20 May, 2012: NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization formed at 4th April, 1949) Summit held at Chicago the home town of President Barak Obama. 401 billion dollar needed for 2014-17 after withdrawal of American from Afghanistan. America will give 2/3. (Andra Rasmosar: NATO secretary General)

15 May 2012: President Francois Holland takes his office as a preceded by Nicolas Sarkozy.

May 11: Sa'adat Hasan Manto's centenary. He born on 11 May, 1912 in Ludhyana district, India, died in 1955 in Lahore.

May 8: The Supreme Court issued the detailed verdict in the contempt of court case against Prime Minister Gilani. The verdict, comprising 77 pages, was authored by Justice Nasirul Mulk.

May 7, 2012 on Sunday: President Valadi Mir Puttin takes his oath as a third time President of Russia Federation. April 26, 2012: PM Pakistan Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani Convicted against contempt of court case as a punishment of 30 second up to the rising of court. He also appeared before the court on February 19 and March 13.

April 26, 2012: Visionary day celebrated.

26 April: Also remember with a worst nuclear disaster, Chernobyl disaster: The 1986 nuclear plant accident in Ukraine (Pripyat,Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union, now Ukraine) dated 26 April, 1986, worst nuclear disaster in the history.

Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in Japan dated 11 March, 2011 is another worst event of nuclear mismanagement.

April 25, 2012: Earth day observed.

22 April: Water Day observed since 1993. Realizing the gravity of the situation, experts have described water as “Blue Gold”.

April 20, 2012: BOJHA Air’s Boeing 737-200 Crashes near Islambad, casailuties of 127 people. Remember, In July 2010, An Airblue jetliner crashed into Islamabad’s Margalla hills, killing all 146 passengers and six crew members on board.

April 14, Security committee presents its report in National Assembly on specific relation to USA.

April 8, 2012: President Asif Ali Zardari Vistied India on a private Visit.

April 7, 2012: Between the night of April 6th and 7th in Gahayari Sector, Pakistani Soldiers post hited by avalanche.

20 February: The 20th amendment bill was finally adopted by the senate on Monday, February 20, 2012 but not unanimously as the National Assembly had done last week.

14 February: The 20th amendment adopted by National Assembly (NA), the amendment provides for a strong Election Commission, a pre-election interim set-up and restoration of 28 suspended federal and provincial lawmakers. However the bill was deferred by the senate on February 17 because of various discrepancies between the opposition and the government. The adoption of the amendment by the upper house of parliament has cleared the way for the president to sign the bill which envisages an independent and powerful election commission, setting up of a neutral caretaker regime to hold general elections and restoration of 28 suspended lawmakers.

29 January: Novak Djokovic defeated Rafa Nadal to defend his Australian Open title in the longest grand Slam final ever. The win gave top seed and 2008 champion Djokovic his fifth grand Slam title, after five-hour 53 minutes tussle, before his 25th birthday. The length of the match smashed the previous record of four hours and 54 mintues set when Mats Wilander defeated Ivan Lendl for the 1988 U.S. Open title.

19 January: PM Yusuf Raza Gillani appeared in SC of Pakistan following contempt of court notice in the NRO implementation case.

Success is never certain, but self-doubt, negativity and low expectations guarantee failure. (John F. Murray)