allegations of embezzlement by pakistani president asif ali zardari legal
sources here said friday
judge marc trevidic made the request to help him advance his probe into claims
the were killed in may by pakistani agents taking revenge after new
french government cancelled illegal commissions on an arms deal
last month families of victims filed suit in paris against supporters of former
french presidential candidate edouard balladur who was prime minister at the
time alleging they benefited from the deal
in newly elected president jacques chirac cancelled the pay offs which he
believed had funded his rival campaign angering pakistani officers awaiting
their share of the graft according to report commissioned by france state
naval construction firm and leaked last june
the families believe they were deceived by the french state and top ranking
french and pakistani political leaders and that their loved ones were exposed
and killed as result of sordid political funding scandal
one leaked french report on the affair said that the commissions paid to
pakistani figures were ordered by zardari the widower of the assassinated
former prime minister benazir bhutto
zardari nickname in pakistan is mr ten percent owing to graft allegations
and years spent in jail on charges ranging from corruption to murder
in all people were killed on may when suicide bomber attacked
bus carrying french naval engineers from their karachi hotel to where they were
working on the submarines sold to pakistan in the suspect deal
at first officials in both countries blamed islamic radicals at war with the
west for carrying out the attack but french counter terrorism officers have
begun privately to accuse pakistani spies of ordering it
tiger airways rises on singapore debut
singapore jan afp
shares in tiger airways the first asian carrier to be listed in five years
rose more than five percent in volatile singapore debut friday
despite negative sentiment sparked by plans in the us to limit banks shares in
the budget carrier closed at singapore dollars us up eight cents
or percent from its initial public offering price of dollars
the straits times index fell percent to
tiger shares were weighed down by the weak market sentiment amid investor
uncertainty following us president barack obama vow to limit the size and
scope of us banks
the stock fell to an intra day low of dollars and touched high of
dollars share
tiger offered million shares in the ipo raising about million
dollars the ipo was times oversubscribed
the singapore based carrier said funds raised would go mainly towards financing
the carrier expansion plans in asia which is expected to become the world
biggest travel market by
it plans to set aside million dollars from the proceeds to buy new aircraft
tiger wants to expand its current fleet of airbus to by december
as it moves to increase the number of destinations it serves
it is also looking to establish new operating bases as well as repay short term
loans
tiger which began its first commercial flights in september flies from
singapore to destinations across asia including popular holiday spots such as
penang in malaysia and bangkok and phuket in thailand
it has also expanded into australia where it offers domestic flights between key
cities and towns across the continent
the carrier is now percent owned by flag carrier singapore airlines after
the ipo
russian president calls for more active opposition
moscow jan afp
russian president dmitry medvedev on friday called for shake up of the
country political system to promote opposition parties criticising non
existent competition in local government
speaking at meeting including the leaders of all russia registered parties
medvedev called astonishing the fact that almost percent of deputies in
regional councils are members of the ruling united russia party
communists make up two percent of deputies while just russia has one percent
and the liberal democrat party has less than one percent he said
this situation is simply astonishing it shows that our parties primarily the
opposition ones still work very weakly at municipal level medvedev said
real political competition is virtually non existent there
medvedev said he would send draft bill friday to the lower house of
parliament the duma guaranteeing all parties that gain more than five percent
of votes in elections seat in regional parliaments
the ruling united russia party which is led by strongman prime minister
vladimir putin even though he is not card carrying member holds majority of
out of seats in the duma
our political system works it far from being ideal but it works said
medvedev
medvedev address was his latest call for reform in russia coming after
keynote speech in november where he called for russia transformation into
democratic high tech society
analysts have praised medvedev for making sequence of promising statements
since taking office in may but some have criticised him for failing to
translate the ambitious words into practice
us desire to close guantanamo unabashed napolitano
toledo spain jan afp
the united states desire to close its military prison in cuba remains
unabashed even though deadline set by washington to do so has passed us
homeland security secretary janet napolitano said friday in toledo
us president barack obama issued an executive order on january two
days after he took office promising to close the us military prison in
southern cuba within the first year of his mandate
the plan is to still work for closure napolitano told news conference in
the toledo when asked about the passing of the deadline
we have known for some time now that it was not going to be met because
assembling the information about the detainees and moving them out of guantanamo
is very difficult and we have to do it in the right way she added
we have had cooperation from many countries in europe and other continents
but it takes time to do it in the right way that is the intent we will continue
to moving in that direction if it takes longer it takes longer she said
the goal and the intent remain the same and the will to do so is unabashed
napolitano added
some detainees remain at the us military prison in southern cuba including
dozens already cleared for release down from around when obama took office
most have been held without charge or trial
the prison is widely seen as symbol of abuses carried out in the name of
america war on al qaeda and other extremists
but gallup poll published november found almost two thirds of those
questioned were opposed to the detention centre closing and to prisoners being
brought to the united states
napolitano was in toledo to take part in informal meeting of interior and
justice ministers from the nation european union
alpine skiing vonn snaps up cortina super
cortina ampezzo italy jan afp
favourite lindsey vonn raced home in friday super race at cortina ampezzo
as she pocketed her th world cup win
vonn and streaking towards third consecutive overall world cup title won
in min sec to see off swiss fabienne suter and swede anja paerson by
and sec and make it seven wins this season
the double speed events champion who will be out to flatten the competition at
next month winter games in vancouver moved back to the head of the overall
world cup standings ahead of maria riesch whom she left trailing friday
the german could only manage th fully sec behind her rival
vonn tally for the season now stands at four downhills two super successes
and super combined two weeks ago she joined select band of racers who have
won three races in weekend in bagging two downhills and super at haus im
ennstal austria
namibia court unblocks assets in china graft case
windhoek jan afp
namibian court on friday unblocked assets of three suspects arrested in
graft probe involving firm linked to the son of china president hu jintao
all property of the three defendants must be released including their
financial accounts judge collins parker ruled
sisa namandje defence counsel for the three said the assets which the court
blocked last year should be released immediately
the high court order is with immediate effect namandje told afp
deputy prosecutor general danie smal said his team had not yet decided whether
to appeal the ruling
the three suspects were granted bail in lower court last august following
their arrest month earlier as part of the probe into bribery allegations
involving nuctech company headed until by hu son hu haifeng
the three were arrested after the southern african state anti corruption
commission discovered that million us dollar down payment on scanners
had been diverted to firm called teko trading its assets were also frozen
nuctech representative yang fan was granted bail of namibian dollars
us euros while namibian nationals teckla lameck and jerobeam
mokaxwa of teko trading each got bail of namibian dollars
fan is still in prison since his arrest as he could not raise money to pay for
bail
hu son was president of nuctech until when he was promoted to communist
party secretary of tsinghua holdings which controls nuctech and more than
other companies
nuctech has namibian government contract to supply security scanning equipment
in million us dollar deal paid for with chinese loan granted when
president hu visited the country in
all three accused later drew large sums from the teko account with yang taking
million namibia dollars spending it on houses farms and luxury cars
the corruption trial involving the three is expected to start later this year
basketball nba results and standings
washington jan afp
results and standings after thursday national basketball association games
thursday january st results
cleveland la lakers
denver la clippers
eastern conference
atlantic div pct gb
boston
toronto
new york
philadelphia
new jersey
central div pct gb
cleveland
chicago
milwaukee
detroit
indiana
southeast div pct gb
atlanta
orlando
charlotte
miami
washington
western conference
northwest div pct gb
denver
portland
oklahoma city
utah
minnesota
pacific div pct gb
la lakers
phoenix
la clippers
sacramento
golden state
southwest div pct gb
dallas
san antonio
houston
memphis
new orleans
friday january nd schedule
sacramento at orlando pm
dallas at philadelphia pm
milwaukee at toronto pm
miami at washington pm
charlotte at atlanta pm
portland at boston pm
indiana at detroit pm
oklahoma city at memphis pm
new orleans at minnesota pm
la lakers at new york pm
houston at san antonio pm
new jersey at golden state pm
chicago at phoenix pm
all times are eastern
afp
china hits back at us internet criticism
beijing jan afp
china on friday rejected criticism of its internet censorship by us secretary of
state hillary clinton saying it harmed relations as row over google threat
to leave the chinese market escalated
clinton had urged china on thursday to conduct thorough probe into
cyberattacks on google and other us companies and lamented what she said was
beijing increasing efforts to control what its million web users can see
we firmly oppose such words and deeds which go against the facts and are
harmful to china us relations foreign ministry spokesman ma zhaoxu said in
china strongest comments since the google dispute erupted last week
we urge the united states to respect facts and stop using the so called
internet freedom issue to criticise china unreasonably he said in statement
posted on the ministry website
in major policy speech on internet freedom in washington clinton reiterated
us support for single internet where all of humanity has equal access to
knowledge and ideas
she called on china to conduct thorough investigation of the cyber
intrusions revealed by google and for its results to be transparent
the two sides have become locked in spiralling dispute over chinese web
controls sparked by internet giant google announcement last week it would no
longer obey china censorship rules and might pull out of the country
google said the decision was made after it suffered cyberattacks that the
company believes originated in china and appeared aimed at cracking the email
accounts of chinese human rights activists
china government declined to respond to afp requests friday for comment on
possible investigation of the attacks
until friday beijing had generally held fire in the dispute defending its
censorship as necessary and saying foreign firms must comply but refraining
from hitting back at mounting us criticism over its control of the internet
china is believed to employ thousands of people in vast system of internet
censorship dubbed the great firewall of china which polices what the world
largest online population can see and do on the web
beijing regularly invokes the need to stamp out pornography as key reason for
the controls but critics contend its primary purpose is to quell political
dissent or content seen as threatening to communist party rule
google microsoft yahoo and cisco are among the us technology giants that have
been accused of cooperating with the great firewall by acquiescing to
beijing demands
in her speech clinton appeared to call on other companies to follow google
lead and defy china
the private sector has shared responsibility to help safeguard free
expression clinton said
and when their business dealings threaten to undermine this freedom they need
to consider what right not simply the prospect of quick profits
the state department has plans to hold high level meeting next month with
companies that provide network services for talks on internet freedom
google chief executive eric schmidt said the california company would like to
remain in china but could no longer agree to censor results on its web search
engine there
we re in conversation with the chinese government he said after releasing
google quarterly results which saw net profit soar five fold to billion
dollars we made strong statement that we wish to remain in china
we continue to follow their laws we continue to offer censored results said
schmidt while warning that in reasonably short time from now we will be
making some changes there
microsoft on thursday released patch for an internet explorer software hole
through which china based cyber spies allegedly probed the computer systems of
google and other companies
on thursday chinese vice foreign minister he yafei was quoted by state media as
saying the google case should not be linked with sino us relations
ma on friday also urged the united states not to let the dispute upset
relations which are already dogged by range of disputes over trade and
currency issues us arms sales to taiwan and climate change
ma said china hoped both sides would respect each other core interests and
major concerns properly handle differences and sensitive issues to maintain the
healthy and steady development of sino us relations
national hockey league results
washington jan afp
national hockey league results and standings after thursday games
thursday january st results
columbus boston
ottawa st louis
ny islanders florida so
philadelphia ny rangers
carolina atlanta
tampa bay toronto ot
washington pittsburgh
detroit minnesota so
phoenix nashville
chicago calgary
vancouver dallas
los angeles buffalo so
san jose anaheim
eastern conference
atlantic division
new jersey
pittsburgh
ny rangers
ny islanders
philadelphia
northeast division
buffalo
ottawa
boston
montreal
toronto
southeast division
washington
atlanta
florida
tampa bay
carolina
western conference
central division
chicago
nashville
detroit
st louis
columbus
northwest division
vancouver
colorado
calgary
minnesota
edmonton
pacific division
san jose
phoenix
los angeles
anaheim
dallas
note overtime losses ot are worth one point in the standings and are not
included in the loss column
friday january nd schedule
nashville at colorado pm
dallas at edmonton pm
montreal at new jersey pm
afp
fitch boosts its assessment of russia
moscow jan afp
international ratings agency fitch on friday raised its outlook on the russian
economy to stable from negative saying it had greater confidence in
russia financial and economic prospects
the rebound in oil prices recovery in net private sector capital inflows and
economic activity decline in inflation reduction in downside risks in the
banking sector and lower than expected budget deficit underpin our
decision to revise russia rating outlook to stable said edward parker the
head of fitch emerging europe section
the agency which maintained its bbb credit rating on russia noted that the
economy had grown about percent in the second and third quarters last year
which it described as relatively muted recovery since russia had suffered
one of the deepest recessions in the world
it also pointed to healthier public finances with the federal deficit held
to percent of gross domestic product rather than percent as predicted in
late november
the revision of russia outlook to stable reflects our greater confidence
economic and financial stability in russia parker said
tennis disbelieving clijsters confused by open exit
melbourne jan afp
disbelieving kim clijsters was at loss to explain her humiliating defeat to
russia nadia petrova in the third round of the australian open on friday
the th seeded petrova stunned clijsters when she demolished the reigning us
open champion in just minutes
the belgian was shadow of her normal self as petrova totally dominated one
sided match to the dismay of most fans at melbourne park hisense arena and
clijsters herself
you don want this to happen during match especially at grand slam
clijsters said
felt like had really good preparation so that the thing everything
had been going pretty good up until today
clijsters said she had not changed any of her preparation and felt like nothing
was amiss during her warm up on court
very superstitious with my routines and everything so really stick to
that every day she said
ate the same slept the same everything that why it even more
confusing in way as well
from the moment this year australian open began all the talk has been about
the return to grand slam tennis of clijsters and countrywoman justine henin
but while henin scraped through against russia alisa kleybanova earlier in the
day clijsters was blown off court by the powerful russian who scored her first
win over the belgian in five meetings
really tried to focus on winning every single point petrova said adding
that she had been preparing for long three setter
but when broke her again in the second set then realised you know this
is like two set match for me and just started cruising through it
played very well didn give her chance to start playing her game
petrova added
really put pressure on from the first point also was coming up with the
big shots made it very difficult for her
clijsters said she tried to turn things around but she could do nothing to stop
the rot
was just questioning myself just questioning myself out there lot she
said
you don really know why is this all of sudden happening
you just try to stay calm because there were points where really like wanted
to break my racquet into pieces but that not going to help either
at some points was just happy was hitting ball in that how bad it
was
petrova raced through the first set in only minutes with clijsters winning
measly five points in the first six games
the second set was not much better for the belgian world number as the
year old petrova ruthlessly took advantage of her opponent struggles
the loss was sad end to the tournament for the much loved clijsters who came
back to tennis midway through last year after getting married and having baby
she capped her comeback with sensational triumph at september us open then
added the brisbane international to her trophy cabinet in the first week of
petrova has now made the fourth round at the australian open for her third
straight year while it is clijsters earliest exit since she first played in
melbourne years ago and lost in the first round
this is something probably you want to forget as soon as possible clijsters
said
veteran indian film star fury over sexed up biography
jaipur jan afp
acclaimed indian actor om puri friday blasted the publishers of biography
about him written by his wife for highlighting revelations about his past sexual
encounters and relationships
was not upset about the book but was upset with the way it was presented
by the publishers puri told an audience at the jaipur literary festival where
he shared stage with his wife and biographer nandita
puri said the publicity put out before the book launch at the end of last year
had focused entirely on details of his past relationships this then created
media furore during which all the other aspects of his life recounted in the
biography were forgotten
nothing else was discussed only this said the year old actor who has
worked with every major indian director and is best known outside india for
starring roles in films like east is east and my son the fanatic
it was publicity gimmick by the publishers it was mistake on their part
and it was not tasteful he added
the book the unlikely hero tells of the actor unlikely rise to fame from
an extremely deprived childhood and his championing of independent cinema
outside the bollywood mainstream
but its launch was dominated by revelations that he had sex with his maid at the
age of and his long affair with woman named laxmi before he was married
understand om being upset it was no way to introduce his biography said
wife nandita adding that the resulting media storm had heavy impact on their
family
it did affect my sanity and my child was hurt she said while adding that
she had no regrets about the material she chose to include in the book
they were relationships that have contributed to this man she said gesturing
to her husband
it was very difficult as wife to write about it but biography should be
about person in their totality and that means the good and the bad
asia markets tumble on obama crackdown on banks
hong kong jan afp
us president barack obama vow to crack down on wall street reckless big
banks sent shockwaves through asian stock markets on friday with the region
financial centres suffering
investors followed the lead of the dow jones index which suffered its worst
fall of the year after obama said he wanted to put limits on banks to avoid
repeat of the financial crisis that tore into the world economies
tokyo nikkei dived percent or points to while sydney
gave up percent or points to its biggest daily drop since
november
however bargain hunting later in the day pulled some markets off their intra
day lows
hong kong finished percent or points off at the hang
seng had fallen as much as percent by the break
singapore was percent or points down at
obama thursday unveiled plans to limit excessive risk taking and protect us
taxpayers by preventing banks or financial institutions from owning investing
in or sponsoring hedge fund or private equity funds
never again will the american taxpayer be held hostage by bank that is too
big to fail vowed obama
blaming the banks for causing the economic crisis he said my resolve to
reform the system is only strengthened when see return to old practices at
some of the very firms fighting reform
he said he was also galvanised to act when see record profits at some of the
very firms claiming that they cannot lend more to small business cannot keep
credit card rates low and cannot refund taxpayers for the bailout
he vowed if these folks want fight it fight ready to have
his words sent wall street diving percent
president obama proposal to limit us banks risk taking increased
uncertainties leading investors to quickly move to safer assets jung seung
jae an analyst at mirae asset securities told dow jones newswires
the region was dragged lower after wall street fall with taipei closing down
percent or points to and seoul falling percent or
points to
financial groups were heavily hit in taipei cathay financial was down
percent and fubon financial percent lower
and in sydney anz banking group fell percent while the national australia
bank lost percent
seoul kospi saw kb financial group fall percent shinhan financial group
decline percent daewoo securities slide percent
dbs bank in singapore fell cents to united overseas bank declined
cents to and oversea chinese banking corp closed nine cents lower at
in tokyo nomura holdings shed percent
the news capped tough week for asia markets which have been struggling due
to fears beijing is set to tighten credit as it tries to rein in its scorching
economy
those worries were stoked thursday after china said its economy expanded
percent in the december quarter while inflation reached month high
shanghai was percent or points lower at bargain hunting
