statement
last month turkmenistan unveiled landmark kilometre mile
pipeline to supply turkmen gas to energy hungry china
the move came amid an eight month interruption in gas shipments to russia that
raised questions on moscow sway in the energy rich state with turkmenistan
seeking closer relations with china and iran
the central asian state and russia sealed new gas accord to resume supplies in
december
japan pm names deputy kan as new finance minister
tokyo jan afp
japan prime minister yukio hatoyama said wednesday he had picked his deputy
naoto kan as finance minister replacing year old hirohisa fujii who is
resigning for health reasons
hatoyama said he had accepted fujii resignation
it matter of his health it can be helped he told reporters
fujii was hospitalised on december suffering from high blood pressure and
fatigue after months of wrangling over the national budget
basketball nba results and standings
washington jan afp
results and standings after tuesday national basketball association games
tuesday january th results
charlotte chicago
indiana orlando
washington philadelphia
milwaukee new jersey
dallas detroit
denver golden state
memphis portland
phoenix sacramento
la lakers houston
eastern conference
atlantic div pct gb
boston
toronto
new york
philadelphia
new jersey
central div pct gb
cleveland
milwaukee
chicago
detroit
indiana
southeast div pct gb
orlando
atlanta
miami
charlotte
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
wednesday january th schedule
new jersey at atlanta pm
washington at cleveland pm
toronto at orlando pm
boston at miami pm
golden state at minnesota pm
new orleans at oklahoma city pm
detroit at san antonio pm
houston at phoenix pm
memphis at utah pm
la lakers at la clippers pm
all times are eastern
afp
militant attack in indian kashmir summer capital police
srinagar jan afp
suspected muslim militants on wednesday opened fire in the main market area of
indian kashmir summer capital srinagar killing at least one police officer
and sending residents ducking for cover
police said one or two gunmen had taken up positions in city centre hotel
which was quickly surrounded by heavily armed members of the security forces
we are trying our best to evacuate people police officer at the scene told
afp three civilians were reported injured in the fighting
local resident joginder singh said the gunmen appeared to be directing their
fire at paramilitary camp near the hotel in srinagar busy lal chowk
district
pro pakistan militant group jamiat ul mujahedin said it was behind the
assault
three of our men have launched fidayeen suicide attack in lal chowk the
group spokesman jameel ahmed told afp by telephone from an undisclosed
location
the last such attack in the city was staged by militants in october during
which two gunmen who stormed paramilitary camp in srinagar were killed and
three soldiers wounded
wednesday assault came as indian kashmir chief minister marked his first
year in office by pledging to slash the security force presence in the revolt
hit muslim majority region if militant violence continued its recent downwards
trend
incidents of unrest in kashmir wracked by muslim separatist insurgency for
two decades were down by about percent last year police say india last
year responded by pulling out some troops from the himalayan region
kashmir is divided into indian and pakistani controlled zones and has been the
trigger for two wars between the south asian rivals since their independence
from britain in
earlier wednesday suicide bomber had killed three pakistani soldiers near the
demarcation line with india in kashmir the latest in spike of attacks in the
pakistani administered zone
the bombing occurred one day after pakistani president asif ali zardari had
visited the area fault line that has distracted pakistani attention from an
expanding taliban menace along the afghan border
the attacker detonated his explosives outside barracks in tarar khal
southeast of muzaffarabad the capital of pakistani administered kashmir
the separatist insurgency in indian kashmir has left more than people
dead since
tennis monfils overcomes injury to join gasquet in quarters
brisbane australia jan afp
third seeded frenchman gael monfils overcame shoulder injury and tenacious
florent serra to make his way into the quarter finals of the brisbane
international on wednesday
serra played some inspired tennis to push monfils right to the limit before
appearing to tire in the decider and allow his higher ranked countryman to run
away with the match
monfils was forced to call for the trainer at the end of the first set and had
his shoulder heavily strapped during the time out
the injury seemed to take its toll as serra opened up lead at the start of
the second but monfils fought back and took the set to tiebreak before
running away with the third
pulled my muscle bit last week he said of his shoulder injury
last week did lot of weights and it been hurting me for some time
decided today to come on the court without tape and think that was
mistake
monfils said he was happy with how he had served despite the pain
two three shots after the serve it hurt little bit he said
will take some anti inflammatories or painkillers work on it ice it and
hopefully tomorrow it will be much better
he will now play american james blake in the quarter finals after the veteran
american outlasted another frenchman marc gicquel earlier in the day
gicquel had three match points in the third set tiebreak but was unable to
convert any of them as blake secured win
richard gasquet earlier beat australian qualifier matthew ebden on an
outside court and will now take on top seed andy roddick in the last eight
gasquet whose controversial doping ban saw him miss much of dominated the
first set but he had to withstand fightback from the australian and admitted
later he had become too complacent
it was comfortable first set but after led with break
played badly was too confident he said
played better in the first round against jarkko nieminen but this match was
not the same it was not centre court he had nothing to lose and had
everything to lose against him
he said he was looking forward to the clash with roddick
it good for me to be in quarter final for the first tournament and to have
player like andy to play gasquet said
have lot of respect for him because he been in the top for long
time he one of the best players in the world
urgent japan pm names deputy kan as new finance minister
tokyo jan afp
japan prime minister yukio hatoyama said wednesday he had picked his deputy
naoto kan as finance minister replacing year old hirohisa fujii who is
resigning for health reasons
national hockey league results
washington jan afp
national hockey league results and standings after tuesday games
tuesday january th results
toronto florida
new jersey dallas
washington montreal
boston ottawa
pittsburgh atlanta
calgary nashville
chicago minnesota
phoenix edmonton ot
vancouver columbus
anaheim detroit
eastern conference
atlantic division
new jersey
pittsburgh
ny rangers
ny islanders
philadelphia
northeast division
buffalo
boston
ottawa
montreal
toronto
southeast division
washington
atlanta
tampa bay
florida
carolina
western conference
central division
chicago
nashville
detroit
st louis
columbus
northwest division
calgary
colorado
vancouver
minnesota
edmonton
pacific division
san jose
phoenix
los angeles
dallas
anaheim
note overtime losses ot are worth one point in the standings and are
not included in the loss column
wednesday january th schedule
tampa bay at buffalo pm
ny islanders at colorado pm
calgary at minnesota pm
dallas at ny rangers pm
toronto at philadelphia pm
st louis at san jose pm
all times are eastern
afp
alert
japan pm says to replace finance minister with deputy prime minister kan
eurozone industrial prices rise in november eu
brussels jan afp
eurozone industrial production prices rose by percent in november in
retreat from an upwardly revised percent recorded in october official eu
statistics showed on wednesday
across the nation european union as whole which also includes britain and
eastern industrial powerhouse poland the prices rise was pegged at percent
down from the previous month similarly revised percent
compared to one year earlier november industrial producer prices dropped by
significantly less severe percent in the euro area and by percent across
the full bloc
key energy sector prices rose in november by percent and percent in the
two zones compared to october with the annual fall also sharply contracting
to percent and percent respectively
meanwhile an index of eurozone industrial new orders for october compared with
september also released by the eurostat agency showed fall of percent
after percent rise in the last set of published figures
suicide bomber kills four pakistan soldiers in kashmir
muzaffarabad pakistan jan afp
suicide bomber killed four pakistani soldiers on wednesday near the
demarcation line with india in kashmir the latest in spike of attacks in the
pakistani administered zone
the bombing came day after president asif ali zardari visited the area
fault line that has sparked two wars with india and distracted pakistani
attention from an expanding taliban menace along the afghan border
the attacker detonated his explosives outside barracks in tarar khal
southeast of muzaffarabad the capital of pakistani administered kashmir
it was suicide attack the target was the army barracks we have collected
evidence and body parts of the attacker which proves that it was suicide
attack police official irfan masaood kishvi said
sardar khurshid another senior police officer in the area said can confirm
that four soldiers were martyred and wounded in the blast
kashmir was split into two in the bloody aftermath of independence from british
rule over the subcontinent in nuclear rivals india and pakistan each
control part of the mountainous land but both claim the region in full
wednesday attack was the fourth suicide bombing in pakistani kashmir since
june on december bomber killed seven people outside mosque in
muzaffarabad and analysts warn that the taliban are extending their reach
militants have killed more than people across pakistan since july
until recently concentrating attacks in the northwest the neighbouring tribal
belt and cities rather than the northern mountains and the east
the elected leader of pakistani kashmir raja farooq haider condemned the
attack in tarar khal and blamed taliban linked extremists
the terrorists have attacked the pakistan army and the entire kashmiri nation
condemns this attack he told afp confirming the death toll of four dead and
wounded
foreign hand is involved in all these incidents these people are not coming
across the line of control but from our western borders he said
islamists say their campaign which has become deadlier over the last year is
to avenge military offensives and pakistan unpopular alliance with the united
states in the eight war against the taliban in neighbouring afghanistan
on new year day one of pakistan worst bombings killed people at
volleyball match in key pro government area of the northwest
the attacks show militants are trying to maximise pressure on the authorities
after an october army operation dislocated the pakistani taliban from its
stronghold in the tribal district of south waziristan
if they are coming from let say these tribal areas then perhaps the
underlying assumption may be that they want to expand their activities to build
greater pressure said security analyst hasan askari
the united states is putting pressure on pakistan to do more to eliminate
taliban and al qaeda linked militants along its border with afghanistan but the
pakistani military still eyes india as the primary threat to the country
the whole focus of the world is on pakistan regional peace is linked with the
resolution of the kashmir dispute and peace can only come if the issue is
resolved zardari said tuesday
the bulk of pakistan armed forces are based in the east of the country
although tens of thousands of troops have been waging offensives against taliban
strongholds on the afghan border in recent years
relations between india and pakistan deteriorated drastically after the november
attacks on mumbai which new delhi blamed on pakistani militants and
accused official agencies of abetting
india has accused pakistan of arming and funding militants waging the insurgency
in kashmir although islamabad denies all charges
iraq approves oil deals paves way for massive investment
baghdad jan afp
iraq has approved all pending deals with foreign energy firms over oil fields
auctioned last year paving the way for more than billion dollars in
investment the oil ministry said wednesday
the nine contracts which will be officially signed soon will dramatically ramp
up iraq oil output in the coming seven years and could make it one of the
world biggest crude producers providing much needed revenue for country in
dire need of rebuilding
all of the contracts have been agreed by the cabinet oil ministry spokesman
assem jihad told afp
more than billion dollars will be invested by these companies
jihad said the government had introduced what he described as minor legal
amendments to the contracts but declined to specify what changes had been made
he said the oil ministry had received official documents from anglo dutch giant
shell malaysia petronas japex of japan and angola sonangol giving their
assent to the changes
once the ministry receives similar documents from firms working on three other
fields we will set date to hold ceremony for all the companies to put down
their final signatures
jihad said the latter group of companies which include russia lukoil and
gazprom and china cnpc had already voiced their approval over the telephone
it the ceremony will be soon and the companies will start work immediately
after signing he added without giving specific date
the companies want to start work as quickly as possible they are very
enthusiastic
iraq awarded seven contracts in december auction of oil fields
including the rights to extract crude from the massive majnoon and west qurna
reservoirs
those were in addition to three contracts handed out at an earlier auction in
june two of those contracts have yet to be officially signed however
the successful companies will be paid fixed fee per additional barrel of oil
extracted and not share of the profits
the deals could increase iraq projected oil output to million barrels of
oil per day from current production of around million bpd providing cash
influx to country that relies on oil sales for percent of government
income
but security and dilapidated infrastructure remain key obstacles to baghdad
achieving that target
iraq has the world third largest oil reserves behind only saudi arabia and
iran with an estimated billion barrels
poland snares suspected russian spy report
warsaw jan afp
poland abw counter espionage service has snared suspected russian spy who
spent years in the country and fronted as businessman newspaper reported
wednesday
the man presumed to have worked for moscow gru military intelligence was
detained in february or march but the case was kept under wraps the daily
dziennik gazeta prawna said
investigators refused to elaborate
we have begun legal moves against man suspected of espionage prosecutor
office spokesman zbigniew jaskolski told afp adding that charges were due
soon
dziennik gazeta prawna said the individual had lived in poland for decade
spoke fluent polish and ran business selling sights for hunting weapons
he avoided contact with the russian embassy and instead sent the information he
gathered directly to his moscow handlers it said
the newspaper said that during raid on the man home abw agents discovered
equipment for the secret transmission of information
it claimed that the man detention may have been reason behind the kremlin
april axing of gru chief general valentin korabelnikov
warsaw and moscow intelligence services were allies until poland broke from
the crumbling communist bloc in
poland joined nato in and its ties with russia have often been rocky in
recent years
renegade afghan police chief captured police
herat afghanistan jan afp
afghan security forces have captured former local police chief who defected to
the taliban and fought for them wearing police uniform and using stolen weapons
an official said wednesday
violence elsewhere across the country wednesday killed two children policeman
and four taliban linked rebels authorities said while the nato led force
reported multiple injuries in an incident in eastern nangarhar province
so far we have multi afghan civilian casualties we know that nine isaf service
members were wounded and that afghans were wounded sergeant jeff loftin an
international security assistance force isaf spokesman told afp
the nationality of the isaf soldiers was not yet known and there were no
further details of the nature or exact location of the incident
the renegade police officer mohammad qasim deserted his post as police chief
of violence plagued district in southwestern farah province early last year
taking with him some officers as well as uniforms weapons and vehicles
he and his men joined militants to fight afghan and western forces in bala blok
district farah deputy governor mohammad younus rasouli said
when he was captured on tuesday night qasim was wearing afghan police uniform
and using government weapons and police vehicles against the government
rasouli said
seven other people most of them former policemen were also captured with
qasim he said
under multi billion dollar internationally backed programme afghanistan is
rebuilding its security forces with numbers now around for the army and
police
the security forces have been fighting taliban led insurgency side by side
with more than foreign troops deployed under us and nato command
despite strict vetting process some recruits have turned on their foreign
colleagues raising questions about the selection process the brief training
period and the rush to make up numbers
on november policemen killed five british soldiers in the southern province
of helmand one of the most violent regions of the country
as the insurgency escalates foreign troop numbers are set to rise to
over the course of this year with experts predicting more battles and higher
casualty rate on both sides
two children and policeman were killed when roadside bomb tore through
police vehicle in eastern nangarhar province on wednesday the interior ministry
said in statement
the children were caught in the blast as the police vehicle hit the device it
said
ten other people all civilians were wounded in separate bombing in the
province of khost an official there said
four militants were also killed in an operation by afghan and foreign forces in
the northern province of kunduz overnight an official said
football african nations cup warm up ghana malawi
lobomba swaziland jan afp
result of african nations cup warm up match between qualifiers ghana and
malawi late tuesday
ghana malawi
oil prices drop stay near dollars
london jan afp
oil prices fell on wednesday as stronger dollar offset rising demand for
heating fuel caused by cold weather in the northern hemisphere analysts said
new york main futures contract light sweet crude for delivery in february
was down cents to dollars barrel
brent north sea crude for february delivery shed cents to dollars in
early london trading
positive market sentiment from the continued cold weather across the us and
europe was partly offset by firmer us dollar said analysts at commonwealth
bank of australia
stronger us unit makes dollar denominated oil more expensive to holders of
other currencies dampening demand and leading to lower prices
cold weather in the united states and europe had been driving prices higher
because of strong demand for heating fuel
but independent oil analyst ellis eckland said the us cold snap is easing up
the cold weather is definitively adding to oil demand but the american weather
looks like it is going to ease up so it slightly bearish for oil he said
rallying no action against german driver after spectator death
buenos aires jan afp
german driver mirco schultis will not be prosecuted over the death of female
spectator during the opening stage of the dakar rally at the weekend judicial
source confirmed on wednesday
prosecutor walter guzman has decided not to take action against schultis because
the victim was standing in non authorised sector
race implies certain type of conduct with the risks that that brings and
the spectator was in non authorised zone and where anyone could reasonably
imagine what could happen said guzman
schultis vehicle came off the track and smashed into the spectators who
are believed to have strayed from designated safe viewing area near the town
of rio cuarto around km from buenos aires on saturday
the victim sonia natalia gallardo who suffered serious head pelvic and
stomach injuries in the incident died in cordoba hospital while four others
were hurt
schultis dropped out of the race after the accident
indonesia keeps overnight rate steady
jakarta jan afp
indonesia central bank wednesday left its benchmark overnight interest rate
unchanged at percent and indicated it would likely remain at that level at
least until june
bank indonesia predicts inflationary pressures to remain mild during the
first half of the year acting governor darmin nasution said after monthly
rate review meeting
bank indonesia maintained its forecast that inflation will likely rise to
between four and five percent this year
the central bank has held the rate steady since august to foster the domestic
economy recovery while inflation remains under control
inflation eased to percent last year the lowest in decade from
percent in
analysts said the decision to keep the key overnight rate steady was expected
but predicted hike before the middle of year
we still believe that the risk of far higher inflation from keeping rates low
for too long is much greater than the threat to the economic upswing from moving
rates up too early report from capital economics said
we expect first hike in march and see the bi policy rate climbing to eight
percent by end
it said inflation would reach the top end of the four to six percent target
range by the middle of the year
dow jones newswires contributed to this story
key obama ally dodd will not seek senate re election reports
washington jan afp
us senator chris dodd key democratic ally of president barack obama will
announce wednesday his retirement at the end of the year in fresh blow for the
party us media reported citing party sources
dodd the powerful and embattled chairman of the us senate banking committee
will announce he will not run for re election at press conference in his home
state of connecticut according to the washington post which reported the story
late tuesday on its political blog
earlier tuesday democratic senator byron dorgan also announced he would not
seek re election in november
the democrats when joined by two independents currently hold exactly the
senate seats needed to overrun republican procedural roadblocks and several
other obama allies face tough campaigns as well
the retirement of dodd pre empts what republican foes had seen as
winnable battle for his senate seat in november when the opposition party aims
to reduce the crucial vote majority
democratic sources told political news outlet politico that dodd announcement
would allow connecticut attorney general richard blumenthal to run in his place
giving the democratic party what they described as stronger nominee in race
regarded by many as toss up
he totally in top national democrat said about blumenthal candidacy
