Mashriq newspaper July 1st Edition 2011

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17

Manchester's police chief iswaging war on hundreds of'sick note' cops and officerswho can not return to workcould be forced to leave.

The Chief Constable iswriting to 440 Greater Man-chester Police officers whoare on restricted duties be-cause of ill-health, mostlywith stress or bad backs.

Each of the mostly desk-bound officers will be invitedto an interview to discusstheir ailment and encouragethem to return to front lineduties.

They could be offered amedical pension or removedunder a rarely used 'capabil-ity procedure', which testswhether they remain compe-

tent for the job.Mr Fahy told the M.E.N:

We are going to look atevery single case to reviewwhat's involved in the restric-tion and question whether it'sjustified.

GMP has been forced toconsider its position on thehuge number of cops on re-stricted duties because of thesavage government cuts it hasto make. It must axe around3,000 posts to save 134mover the next four years.

In the latest round of cuts,the force announced 270 po-lice posts, mostly in back-upoffice roles, would be axed.

As police cannot be maderedundant, the losses will beachieved trough natural

wastage. This will meansome officers in the affectedposts will be moved into'front line' policing.

Senior officers have graveconcerns that these officers -many of whom will be on re-

stricted duties - may simplybe too over-weight and unfitenough to cope with goingout on the beat or work a se-ries of night shifts as theyhave been in desk jobs foryears.

Ticketless travel arrived inManchester as a bus firm in-troduced swipe cards on 700local buses.

Stagecoach has launchedthe citys first pre-paid smartcard for passengers makingmaking it the largest outsideLondon to have smart tickets.

Hundreds of commutershave already signed up for thescheme and cards are beingswiped 40,000 times a day.

The StagecoachSmartscheme was officiallylaunched by local and re-gional transport ministerNorman Baker during a visitto a depot.

Mr Baker said: I verymuch welcome the intro-duction of this new initia-tive for bus passengers inManchester.

It will make bus travelsimpler and more attractive,cut carbon and encouragepeople out of their cars andon to buses.

Smart ticketing can leadto more efficient, seamlessjourneys for passengers.

I want to see this being

rolled out to all modes ofpublic transport in Englandas quickly as possible andthis announcement fromStagecoach is another posi-tive step towards that.

Stagecoach is the first op-erator to install smartcardtechnology on its nationwidefleet of 7,000 buses outsideLondon. Its London vehiclesalready accept the OysterCard. It means passengersusing a monthly MegariderXtra ticket can have top-uppayments automaticallyplaced on their swipe cardeach month.

The firm also uses thetechnology to record conces-sionary journeys made bypensioners in Manchesterand Lancashire.

Greater Manchesterstransport leaders want to in-troduce their own London-style Oyster smart card thatwill cover all modes of trans-port.

They have submitted abid for funding towards thescheme from the Departmentfor Transport.

Bus firm Stagecoach lead theway with new 'smartcard

Police chief declares war on the sick note culture

Young in US, UKturning to

mobile bankingYoung owners of smart-phones in Britain and theUnited States are increasinglymanaging their finances viatheir phones, checking ac-count balances and viewingtransactions, new researchshows.

Consumer research bymobile web and applicationspecialists Antenna said 40percent of those who ac-cessed the Internet via mobilephones or tablet computers inthe U.S. were using mobilebanking services.

That compared with 25percent in Britain.

The United States wasalso ahead in terms of howmany users were accessingbanking sites via a specificmobile application created bythe bank, as opposed toreaching a mobile site via abrowser on the Internet.

Antenna Chief ExecutiveJim Hemmer told Reutersthat consumers, particularlyyounger ones, had little loy-alty for which bank theyused and therefore the bankscould attract more cus-tomers if they improvedtheir offerings.

"Mobile banking has nowtaken hold," he told Reuters."People want to take care oftheir banking when it makessense to them and not when abranch is open.

Study finds textmessages help

smokers quitSmokers are twice as likely toquit when they get text mes-sages urging them to stick totheir goal of being smoke freecompared with those who re-ceive texts with no motiva-tional messages, a Britishstudy has found.

Experts say the "txt2stop"trial, which is the first suchstudy to verify quit rates usingbiochemical testing, may offera cheap and easy way to im-prove levels of health by in-creasing the number of peoplewho give up smoking.

With rates of smoking ris-ing in many developing coun-tries and tobacco predicted tokill 8 million people a year by2030, the researchers saidtheir findings could be trans-lated into a potentially power-ful public health measure.

"To scale up the txt2stopintervention for delivery at anational or international levelwould be technically easy,"said Caroline Free of the Lon-don School of Hygiene andTropical Medicine, who ledthe study and published it inThe Lancet journal.

She said the scheme mayneed some adaptation, trans-lation into other languages,and local evaluation before itis used in other populations,but added that it is simple,cheap and "likely to be highlycost-effective."

18

Kvitova beats Sharapovato win Wimbledon title

Nerveless 21-year-old PetraKvitova delivered a remark-able performance of confi-dence and power to out-gunfavourite Maria Sharapovaand win the Wimbledon titlefor the first time with a con-vincing 6-3 6-4 victory.

Kvitova, who had neverwon a match on grass beforereaching the semi-finals lastyear, served consistently andmaintained a barrage of pow-erful, attacking ground-strokes to become only thethird left hander to win thewomen's title after AnneJones and MartinaNavratilova.

Kvitova, appearing in herfirst grand slam final, was incontrol of her emotions andher game throughout and de-servedly becomes the firstCzech to triumph since JanaNovotna in 1998.

Sharapova, who won thetitle as a 17-year-old in 2004,had reached the final withoutdropping a set but servedraggedly and the Russianfifth seed had no answers.

"I'm so happy," the tearfulchampion said in an on-courtinterview before blowing a kissto Novotna and Navratilovawatching from the Royal Box.

"I was nervous but I hadto focus on every point."

The Czech looked under-standably nervous as she wasbroken in the opening gamebut hit back immediately tolevel at 1-1.

She continued to make therunning throughout the set,out-serving and out-hittingthe former world numberone, who delivered consecu-tive double faults to lose herservice and slip 4-2 behind.

Kvitova, throwing in theoccasional sliced backhandthat caused Sharapova prob-lems, served out to love.

In her semi-final againstVictoria Azarenka, Kvitovaplayed a convincing first setbut allowed the Belarussianback to take the second soeveryone around CentreCourt waited with batedbreath to see how she dealtwith the pressure of leadingthe final.

Shoaib Malik delighted at

Indo-Pak prospectsFormer Pakistan captainShoaib Malik, dubbed Indiasson-in-law since marryingtennis star Sania Mirza, hewas delighted the rivalsmight soon face each other onthe cricket pitch again. TheInternational Cricket Coun-cils Future Tours Pro-gramme has pencilled inIndia as hosts of Pakistan forthree Tests and five one-dayinternationals in March-Aprilnext year.

The tour remains subjectto clearance from both gov-ernments, but would mark abreakthrough for relationsthat went into free fall afterIslamist gunmen killed 166people in the 2008 Mumbaiattacks that India blamed onPakistan.

The prospect of Pakistantouring India for a cricket se-ries is delightful and I amhopeful it will happen,Malik, who led Pakistan ontheir last tour to India in 2007,said from his home town ofSialkot.

Pakistan tohost England in

UAE in 2012 Pakistan will host England inthree Tests, four one-day in-ternationals and threeTwenty20 matches in theUnited Arab Emirates (UAE)in January and February.

The matches will beplayed at the neutral venuesof Dubai and Abu Dhabi andthe itinerary will be an-nounced soon, a PakistanCricket Board (PCB)spokesman said.

The England and WalesCricket Board (ECB) con-firmed the matches in its ownstatement and also an-nounced the itinerary for fiveone-dayers and a Twenty20.

Klitschko outpoints Haye tokeep all belts in the family

Vladimir Klitschko beatBritains David Haye on aunanimous points decision toadd the WBA heavyweighttitle to his three other beltsand complete his familysdomination of the division.The Ukrainian, whose lighterand smaller opponent tookhim the full 12 rounds despitefighting with a broken toe,was declared the winner 117-109, 118-108 and 116-110 bythe two American and oneSouth African judges. Whiledenied the 50th career knock-out he had hoped for, Kl-itschko now 56-3 hadmore than enough reason tocelebrate with his brother andWBC champion Vitali.

They now hold the WBA,WBC, WBO, IBF and IBObelts between them and haveachieved their lifelong dreamof uniting the division in thefamily. I would have lovedto celebrate my 50th knock-out, said the youngest of thebrothers, at 35, who wastaunted publicly by the trash-talking English showmanHaye in the build-up to the

fight and had promised topunish him. I am still notokay with his behaviour be-fore the fight, added thegiant Dr Steelhammer.

Its definitely disgracefulto the boxing fans, to thesport of boxing, the way theman behaved himself. I thinkthe fight talked for itself. Heconnected a couple ofpunches, I wasnt hurt in any

situation in the fight, addedKlitschko, who said Hayehad been more cautious thanany of the Ukrainians previ-ous opponents that the Britonhad criticised.

We have accomplishedour dream and unified all ofthe best belts in the heavy di-vision. I would call us nowundisputed heavyweightchampions, he said.

Old Trafford rebuildgets green light

Plans for the 32 million ($51million) redevelopment ofOld Trafford cricket groundwere given the go-ahead byEngland Court of Appeal onMonday, paving the way forthe Manchester venue to bein contention to stage anAshes Test in 2013.

A property company saida local authority was wrongto give Lancashire CountyCricket Club permission toredevelop its home groundand asked the court to blockthe plan which includesproposals for the creation of agiant supermarket near theground - and asked the Courtto block the scheme.

But three judges dis-agreed and said the redevel-opment should go ahead.They said they would givereasons for their decision at alater date. Lancashire chiefexecutive Jim Cumbes saidthe decision was one of themost significant events in the

north-west clubs 154-yearhistory and that redevelop-ment was essential to pre-serving the groundsinternational status.

If we dont redevelopthen 150-odd years of historywould have been in danger ofdisappearing, the formerLancashire bowler and AstonVilla goalkeeper added. Withredevelopment, I am confi-dent that Old Trafford cancontinue as an internationalcricket ground. Todays deci-sion means the work can startand we can get the spadesout. Old Trafford opened in1857 and first staged Testcricket in 1884. It was thevenue where England off-spinner Jim Laker took arecord 19 out of a possible 20Australian wickets in anAshes Test in 1956. Theground is close to but separatefrom the home of ManchesterUnited football club that isalso named Old Trafford.

Vladimir Klitschko celebrates with his team after defeat-ing British WBA champion David Haye in a heavyweighttitle unification boxing match.

19

Police have begun testing Olympic ven-ues against all potential terrorist threats,including from Irish dissidents and Is-lamists, the policeman in charge of 2012security said.

Next summer's London Games arepredicted to be Britain's biggest peace-time security operation, and will be po-liced at a severe threat level, thesecond-highest status.

The country faces several potentialthreats, one of the most high-profilebeing from al-Qaeda after Britain's sup-port of U.S. military operations inAfghanistan and Iraq, while dissidentIrish nationalists pose a renewed chal-lenge.

The London Games also coincidewith the 40th anniversary of the MunichOlympics, when 11 Israeli team mem-bers died after being held hostage byPalestinian gunmen.

"I am trying to ensure that we pro-duce 34 venues that are secure, that peo-ple can go in and have a really good time,that people can feel safe inside and theirfocus can be on the sport," MetropolitanPolice Assistant Commissioner Chris Al-lison, Olympic security coordinator, saidfrom his office at Scotland Yard.

"That is at the heart of all our plan-ning, and we'll do everything that weneed around the outside to ensure thathappens."

As well as the 34 venues, police willalso have to make sure street parties andpublic events in the city's parks go aheadwithout disruption.

At a briefing at Scotland Yard onTuesday, Britain's top police officer,Metropolitan Police Commissioner PaulStephenson said that while he is de-lighted with intra-agency progress onsecurity preparations he was not com-placent.

"I want to stress that the summer of2012, for the Metropolitan Police and in-deed the nation and the government,isn't just about the games ... the chal-lenge for the Met in particular is to con-tinue to run policing services here inLondon. And we are going to do that,"he told reporters.

Home Secretary Theresa May, whoalso attended the briefing, said the gov-ernment had set aside a budget of 600million pounds ($960 million) for polic-ing the games but that it was on courseto come in under budget at around 500million.

Former West Indian greatCourtney Walsh has been ap-pointed manager of theunder-19 team for the tour ofUSA starting Friday.

Walsh will manage thesquad, coached by Roddy Es-twick. Former West Indiesopener Stuart Williams is theassistant coach. Kraigg Brath-waite will lead the fourteen-man squad during thefour-match tour.

The West Indies team willdepart for USA on July 6.They will play four 50-overgames against the US under-19 team at the BrowardCounty Cricket Stadium inLauderhill, Florida.

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) said it had given clearance tothe former captain Shahid Afridi to take part in the inauguralSri Lankan Premier League starting later this month.

A senior PCB official confirmed that they had given per-mission for the Sri Lankan authorities to sign on around 10Pakistani players for the league and that list included Afridi,claims Indian Express.

We gave these permissions and clearance for the playersincluding Afridi sometime back. But now when he individu-ally also applies for a no-objection certificate or the Sri LankanorganiSers reconfirm his availability we see no problem in giv-ing him clearance, said the official.

Afridi, who is presently playing for Hampshire in the Eng-lish domestic T20 event, was entangled in a feud with the PCBlast month after the Board revoked his NOC to play for Hamp-shire.

The Board issued a fresh NOC after the all-rounder ap-peared before a PCB disciplinary committee and accepted afine of Rs4.5 million for breaching the code of conduct and alsowithdrew a petition he had filed at Sindh High Court againstthe Board.

Paralympicsmedallist diesin balcony fall

Maxim Narozhny, whowon a silver medal for Rus-sia in athletics at the BeijingParalympic Games, hasdied after falling from hisapartment in a suspectedsuicide, investigators said.

Maxim Narozhnysdeath was shocking newsfor all of us, the deputypresident of the RussianParalympics Committee,Lev Seleznev said. Itsawful. Nothing prepared usfor such a nightmare.

Narozhny, 36, a singleamputee and world and na-tional shot put champion,died in the city of Voronezhin central Russia.

He fell from the balconyof his apartment on thefourth floor and died onthe spot from the woundsreceived, Russias inves-tigative committee said.

The paralympic com-mittee posted a message onits website saying it wasdeeply grieved at the un-timely end of the sports-mans life, while the sportsministry also expressed itssincere condolences.

Security tests begin on London 2012 venuesDominant Djokovic setshis sights even higher

Newly-crowned Wimbledonchampion and world numberone Novak Djokovic will takea leaf out of Rafa Nadal'sbook as he plans to make hisdomination of men's tennis aprolonged one.

The 24-year-old Serb hada spring in his step as re-turned to a sunny All Eng-land Club on Monday to sayhis goodbyes before jettinghome to Belgrade to bask inthe glory of his 6-4 6-1 1-6 6-3victory over Nadal in the pre-vious day's final.

Just one defeat in 49matches this year, eight titlesincluding the AustralianOpen and Wimbledon andthen becoming the firstplayer other than Roger Fed-erer or Nadal to top the ATPrankings since January 2004,it is hard to imagine howthings could get much betterfor Djokovic.

The Belgrade native is al-ready setting his sights evenhigher though.

"I want to improve,"Djokovic told a small groupof reporters after being pre-sented with a cake decoratedin Serbian red, white andblue on the Wimbledon play-ers' lawn.

"The example for me isNadal. A few years ago we allknew how dominant he wason clay but maybe not somuch on the other surfaces.Nobody thought he could getany better but he did.

"Me too, I still consider

myself as a player with some-thing to prove and to im-prove my game."

Djokovic, who effectivelyended Nadal's 56-week stayas world number one on Fri-day when he beat Jo-WilfriedTsonga in the semi-finals,was officially unveiled as the25th player to top the rank-ings when the ATP publishedits list on Monday.

While proud of his newstatus, Djokovic said thetough work was about tobegin.

"I've never been numberone in the world so I don't re-ally know what it feels likeyet," he said. "But I'm goingto experience that in this nextperiod of my career.

"They say it's harder tostay number one than to getto number one. I will see ifthat's true or not but I willdefinitely try to stay there aslong as I can."

Walsh appointed Windies manager

PCB clears Afridi to participate in SLPL Tweet away, IOC tells London

athletesAthletes at next year's Lon-don Olympics can blog andpost comments on Twitter aslong as it is not done for com-mercial purposes, the Inter-national Olympic Committee(IOC) has said.

But any found posting x-rated content could be bootedfrom the Games, it warned.

In guidelines released bythe Australian Olympic Com-mittee (AOC), the IOC "activelyencourages and supports ath-letes ... to take part in 'socialmedia' and to post, blog andtweet their experiences".

Bloggers and tweetersmust, however, restrict them-selves to "first-person, diary-type formats", must notreport on events in the man-ner of journalists and mustensure their posts do not con-tain "vulgar or obscene wordsor images". Dozens of athletesblogged during the lastOlympics in Beijing in 2008,when Twitter was still a rea-sonably new phenomena, butthe uploading of videos wasbanned and pictures re-stricted to prevent copyrightinfringements.

20

"Bridesmaids" actress RoseByrne, who is currently sin-gle, is not interested in get-ting married or havingchildren.

"Marriage doesn't interestme. I have two nephews, so Iget to see how fundamentallya baby changes everything.So for now, the nephews willdo, thank you," femalefirstquoted Byrne as saying.

The 31-year-old also dis-likes the attention which shegets from men.

"I went to a concert in LArecently, to see The National.And this guy tried to hit onme, right there, as the bandwere playing, during a bal-lad. I told him firmly to takehis hands off me and stepaway. I guess he thought Iwas some Australian ex-change student," she said.

Ashmit Patel's stint in Bollywood didn't do much to make hima star. However, after Bigg Boss 4, his linkup with Pakistanistar Veena Malik transformed him almost overnight into ahousehold name.

Recently, when asked about Bigg Boss and the rumours, hetold a leading daily, "Link ups happen e ven when films aregoing to be released. I didn't give it much importance. Theonly thing I didn't like was branding Sara Khan and me as acouple. I genuinely treat her like my sister."

Ashmit Patel was linked to Pakistani actor Veena Malik onthe show and their chemistry got the viewers hooked on.

"I am not dating Veena. She is a very special and importantperson in my life. I haven't explored my chemistry with herafter the show. We have met only few times after the show,"added Ashmit.

He also dismissed rumours of trouble between him andAmeesha Patel. "Ameesha is my sister and everything is ab-solutely fine between us. We don't meet often due to differentwork schedules but we are in constant touch."

Coronation Street actress Michelle Keeganhas announced that she is engaged to pop starboyfriend Max George.

The 24-year-old, who plays Tina McIntyrein the ITV1 soap, confirmed recent specula-tion over the engagement in a message onTwitter.

She wrote: "Hi guys, me and Max ARE en-gaged... He asked a few weeks ago and Ihaven't stopped smiling since. Thanks for all

your lovely messages! :)) X"Her 22-year-old fiance, a singer with the

band The Wanted, is reported to have givenMichelle a 10,000 ring as an extra birthdaypresent when she turned 24 earlier this month.Michelle took him for a tour of the CoronationStreet set in Manchester earlier today, postinga picture on Twitter of him behind the bar atthe Rovers Return where she is usually seenworking as a barmaid on screen.

Veena's an important person in my life: Ashmit

Marriage doesn't interest me

Supermodel Kate Moss mar-ried her rocker boyfriendJamie Hince on Friday in asmall English countrychurch, accompanied by 15bridesmaids.

Moss, 37, and Hince, 42, aguitar player with The Kills,posed for photos outside thechurch in the village ofSouthrop, after the ceremony.

It was the first marriagefor the model, who met Hincein 2007.

Moss wore a sleeveless,full-length, white weddingdress designed by her closefriend John Galliano and cov-

ered in rhinestones, accord-ing to Womens Wear Daily.

Her eight year-old daugh-ter Lila was among the 15bridesmaids, who were alldressed in ivory, media re-ports said.

The couple are expectedto throw a three-day recep-tion and party at the model'shome nearby, according tomedia reports.

Moss began her profes-sional career as an ultra-slim16 year-old and quickly be-came one of the best knownand top-earning models inthe world.

Man gets twoyears for ParisHilton burglary

attemptA man who tried to breakinto Paris Hilton's housewhile wielding two largeknives was sentenced to twoyears in prison.

Nathan Lee Parada, 32,has already spent about 10months behind bars sincebeing arrested at the so-cialite's Los Angeles homelast August.

Hilton posted a photo onher Twitter page of policeoutside her house and a manin handcuffs. She wrote, "justgot woken up to a guy tryingto break into my house hold-ing 2 big knifes (sic)."

Parada was convicted ofone count of attempted first-degree residential burglaryin April after jurors spentless than an hour decidinghis fate. He faced a three-year term.

Actress Lindsay Lohan wasreleased from home deten-tion after spending 35 days ather Los Angeles apartmentfor stealing a gold necklace,authorities said.

A private company thathandles monitoring equip-ment for home detention in-mates removed the electronicankle bracelet from the"Mean Girls" star on Wednes-

day morning, said SteveWhitmore, a spokesman forthe Sheriff's Department.

Lohan was sentenced inMay to 120 days in jail, butthe 24 year-old actress quali-fied for a shorter period ofhouse arrest under programsfor nonviolent offenders andto reduce overcrowding inLos Angeles jails.

Lohan, a former child star,pleaded no contest in May tothe theft of a $2,500 (1,557pounds) gold necklace from aLos Angeles boutique. Shehad walked out of the storewearing the jewellery.

Her once promising Hol-lywood career has been de-railed because of repeatedrun-ins with the law andtrips to rehabilitation to dealwith drug and alcohol prob-lems.

Nevertheless, she is due tostart filming a movie aboutNew York crime boss JohnGotti later this year with co-stars John Travolta and AlPacino.

Kate Moss marries rockerboyfriend Jamie Hince

Lindsay Lohan ends homedetention after 35 days

Michelle Keegan confirms she is to marry Max George

21

Actress Cameron Diaz attends the 'Bad Teacher' Londonphotocall at the Dorchester Hotel in London.

Jennifer Lopez preparingreturn to big screenFollowing her appearance last season on Foxtelevisions American Idol, singer and actressJennifer Lopez is in negotiations for two filmroles, show-business newspaper Variety re-ported recently. Lopez is set to co-starwith Jason Statham in action filmParker and will be part of an ensem-ble cast in the comedy What to Ex-pect When Youre Expecting.

Both films are scheduled to beshot during the gap between sea-sons of American Idol, though it re-mains unclear if JLo plans to returnto the hit reality show. Lopezs lat-est film, The Back-Up Plan, pre-miered in April 2010 and was adisappointment at the box office,grossing less than $40 million. Reputedto be one of Hollywoods best-paid ac-tresses, Lopez has yet to be in a filmthat has reached the $100 millionbenchmark in the US, Varietysaid.

Bullock wants son to be multilingualSandra Bullock wants herson to learn three languages.The actress is keen for 18-month-old Louis to be fluentin French, English and Ger-man and is set to enroll himat Le Lycee Francais schoolwhen he is old enough.

Sandra is desperate forLouis to be multilingual, asource said. Sandra wantsthe best for Louis and she be-lieves this will give him an

advantage later in life. LeLycee Francais - a French-speaking school - is where

Brad Pitt and Angelina Joliesend their children and San-dra thinks it will be perfectfor little Louis. She thinkstheir curriculum is much bet-ter than at other schools. Italso helps that they haveschools in New York, Los An-geles and other major citiesthroughout the world so shecan work and take him every-where she goes, said thesource

Action adventure movie"Transformers: Dark of theMoon" shot to top of the boxoffice on its debut weekendwith one of the highest open-ing takes of the year, pushing"Bridesmaids" down to sec-ond place.

The film, which centresaround a secret spacecraft onthe Moon and stars ShiaLaBeouf, took 10.73 millionpounds over the three-dayweekend, far ahead of the2.01 million taken by Brides-maids, according to ScreenInternational on Tuesday.

Martial arts cartoon com-

edy "Kung Fu Panda 2" wasdown one at No.3, whileschool comedy "Bad Teacher"starring Cameron Diaz was atfour for a second week.

New release "LarryCrowne," a romantic comedystarring Tom Hanks and JuliaRoberts, was at five, with lads'comedy "The Hangover Part

II" down one at six.Superhero"Green Lantern" fell four toseventh spot, just above "X-Men: First Class" whichslipped two places to eight.

Bollywood comedy "DelhiBelly" came in at nine with"Pirates of the Caribbean:Stranger Tides" falling threeplaces to 10.

Age and ailments notwith-standing, Amitabh Bachchancontinues to spin magic bydancing, singing, performingstunts and even riding theoh-so-stylish mean machine the Harley Davidson! ZeeNews reports. No wonder hedoesn`t hesitate before say-ing, bbuddah...hoga terabaap! And he says age is justa state of mind. At 68, themegastar says he did give asecond thought to indulgingin daredevilry for his forth-coming home productionBbuddah...Hoga Tera Baapbut only due to physical com-pulsions not because of alack of will and zeal. I wasvery apprehensive aboutdoing a lot of action. I have had a severe medicalhistory, so I was a little hesi-tant...not because I am unableto do action, but becausethere are certain precautions

that I have to take, Amitabhtold reporters over the phonefrom Mumbai. Every time Ihave to do an action se-quence, the family membershave their antennas up and Iwonder whether I should bedoing it or not because theyall seem like reminders of the

last time I did an action se-quence and got hurt, hesaid, remembering the nearfatal intestinal injury in 1982while shooting an actionscene for Coolie. Nevertheless, Big B agreed togive action a fresh shot -thanks to his daily fitness reg-

imen and improved technol-ogy. Technology has im-proved immensely from theolden day action we used todo. There are many moresafeguards now. So they protect the artistswell. Also the way they shootthe sequence has undergonea sea change...and all of itlooks very dramatic, colour-ful and dangerous, he said.Talking about his daredev-ilry, a high point for the sexa-genarian is riding a HarleyDavidson for the movie,which releases July 1. I waspetrified that I will never beable to ride it. I can`t remem-ber when I rode a bikelast...may be 20-30 years backfor a film. And then, to ride a HarleyDavidson, which is a huge,powerful machine...just tohold the damn thing up re-quires a lot of physical effort.

Singer Beyonce rompedstraight to the top of thealbum charts on Sunday,helped by her headlining per-formance at last week's Glas-tonbury music festival, theOfficial Charts Company said.

Sales of the R&B star'snew release "4" had receiveda timely boost from the expo-sure and acclaim she receivedafter she brought the festivalto a close last Sunday. It givesher a second solo number onealbum.

Adele was unchanged atnumber two with "21" andLady Gaga slipped to thirdwith "Born This Way."

Take That dropped aplace to fourth with"Progress" with anotherAdele album "19" in fifth.

Beyonce's Glastonbury

appearance was not enough,however, to bring success inthe singles chart, with the sec-ond release from her chart-topping album "Best Thing INever Had" debuting inthird.

Harry Potter film fans wait in Trafalagar Square in the hope of getting a ticket to the pre-miere of 'Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows - Part 2' in central London. Harry Potterfans have started to gather in Trafalgar Square in the hope of attending the premiere ofHarry Potter, the last in the series of films.

Age is a state of mind: Amitabh Bachchan

Transformers take box office by storm

Beyonce tops charts afterGlastonbury boost

Harry Potter tocast final spell

with eighth,last film

As the studio behind the HarryPotter films likes to remind us,"It all ends here." "Harry Potterand the Deathly Hallows - Part2," the eighth and final instal-ment in one of cinema's mostsuccessful series, has its pre-miere in London in a week,and experts predict recordscould tumble when it hits the-atres on July 15.

The cast and crew havepromised the most explosivePotter movie yet, even thoughcomputer-generated special ef-fects and action scenes havebeen predominant throughout.

"The last movie is going tobe really, really fast-paced anda load of action in it and it islike a war film," Harry Potteractor Daniel Radcliffe toldReuters in a recent interview.

The final film, the firstPotter instalment to be avail-able in 3D, will revealwhether boy wizard Potterprevails over his evil nemesisLord Voldemort in a classicgood-versus-evil climax, al-though J.K. Rowling's novelsprovide the answer.

22

A leather jacket worn byMichael Jackson for his"Thriller" video sold for $1.8million at an auction on Sun-day to a Texas gold traderwho plans to use it to raisemoney for children's hospi-tals worldwide.

The black and red calfleather jacket with wingedshoulders was one of twoused for the shoot. The otherone, in scuffed condition, isowned by the Jackson estate.

The one sold by Julien'sauction house in BeverlyHills is in better shape and issigned on the sleeve by Jack-son. It was designed by Deb-

orah Landis, the wife of"Thriller" director John Lan-dis. Jackson presented it tothe vendors, Dennis Tomp-kins and Michael Bush, hislongtime costume designers.

Rising metal prices meanAustralias five cent coin nowcosts more to make than it isworth, the government ad-mitted Sunday, but addedthere were no plans to scrapthe little piece yet. The RoyalAustralian Mint in Canberra,which produces the copperand nickel coins stampedwith the native echidna, orspiny anteater, has report-edly complained that they areso expensive to make they

should be scrapped.With the risingprices of metalsand some ofthe ingredi-ents which gointo the fivecent coin,theyve cer-tainly re-ported that itsmore expensiveto make the fivecent coin than five

cents, AssistantTreasurer Bill

Shorten said. Thecircular fivecent coin,which is 75percent cop-per and 25p e r c e n tn i c k e l ,

weighs 2.83grams and has a

diameter of 19.41millimetres. Shorten

said it was too early for thecoin, worth about 5.25 UScents, to go the way of thecopper-based one and twocent pieces which were with-drawn in the early 1990s afterinflation reduced their buy-ing power. He was concernedthat donations to charities,which often receive loosechange, would be affectedand that retailers could reactby rounding up prices, headded.

More virtual livestock looksset to be tradedand petulant fowlhurled at targetsas social gamingtakes hold in thebooming mobilephone market, in-dustry expertssay. Social gam-ing, made popu-lar by titles suchas Farmvilleand AngryBirds, was one ofthe closely fol-lowed topics atlast weeks Com-municAsia tradefair in Singapore,where telecom ex-ecutives meet an-nually to checkon new trends. In-ternet-enabled smart-phones as well as tablets areliberating social gamers fromthe physical confines of home

and office, and more titlesspecifically de-signed forhandheld de-vices are ontheir way. Asia-Pacific smart-phone sales areexpected toreach 200 mil-lion a year by2016, a third ofall mobilephones sold inthe region, ac-cording to tele-c o mc o n s u l t a n c yOvum. Atleast 90 percentof gamers willbe on mobile inthe future,said Jeffrey

Jiang, a director atSingapore-based Touch Di-mensions, which developsgames for various platforms.

Cancer patients are beingprescribed chewing gum tohelp them recover from sur-gery. Doctors at a leadingLondon hospital are advisingbowel cancer patients tochew sugar-free gum aftertheir operations, in order toget their digestive systemsback to normal so they canget better faster.

Studies have found thatpatients undergoing surgerylikely to affect their bowelfunction were fit enough togo home as much as two daysearlier than other patients ifthey chewed gum.

Chewing gum has helpednew mothers recovering fromcaesarean sections, as well aspatients undergoing stomachsurgery, who can suffer frompainful cramps until diges-tion returns to normal, re-search has found.

Now surgeons at Univer-sity College London Hospitalare asking patients booked

for bowel cancer surgery tobring supplies of sugar-freegum with them, to be chewedthree times a day, for an hour,after their operation. Consult-ant colorectal surgeon Alas-tair Windsor said the trial ispart of a programme to findnew ways to help patients re-cover from treatment.

He said many patients un-dergoing many types of sur-gery likely to affect theirdigestive system could bene-fit from bringing gum to hos-pital - but advised them toask their own doctor first.Windsor said: "One of thethings that delays people re-covering from surgery is thatthey get what is called anileas - where the bowel goesto sleep.

Aussie 5 cent coin costing more than its worth

Gaming a big winner insmartphone boom

A revolver belonging to noto-rious US gangster AlCapone sold at a Londonfirearms auction for 67,250.The 1929 .38 Police Positivegun was used by the mobster,full name Alphonse GabrielCapone, during his reign asking of the Chicago under-world in the prohibition era.The Christies Antique Arms,

Armour and CollectorsFirearms sale displayed 209lots dating from the 10th tothe 20th centuries and raiseda total of 634,825. Thissale saw strong internationalinterest from a notable num-ber of new clients, includingthe successful purchaser of AlCapones revolver, HowardDixon, Head of Sale, said.

Scarfacegun sellsfor 67,000in Londonsale

Cancer patients prescribedchewing gum

Jackson "Thriller" jacket sells for $1.8 million

23

Liberal Democrat MPs JohnLeech and Mark Hunter de-livered speeches of assuranceand encouragement to theSyrian community of Man-chester on Sunday at A Dayfor Syria event at the BritishMuslim Heritage Centre inWhalley Range, Manchester.

The event which washosted by the Syrian commu-nity of Manchester was a spe-cial day for people to learnabout Syrian history and cul-ture in light of the recent un-rest and to promoteawareness of the grave situa-tion in Syria.

Mr Leech & Mr Hunterwere invited to talk about theevents in Syria and provideperspective on what wasbeing done by the UK Gov-ernment to pressure the Syr-ian authorities to restrainfrom the use of consistent vi-olence against peacefuldemonstrators. John Leechhas already raised the issue inthe House of Commons withan important Early Day Mo-tion 1949 in support of Syrianprotestors, the condemnationof Bashar Al-Assad and hisregimes violent crackdown

on peaceful demonstrationsand the need for reform in theSyria.

John Leech Member ofParliament for ManchesterWithington said, Any actionneeds to have the full supportof the international commu-nity, such as what we havewitnessed regarding Libya.

We want to see change ina peaceful manner, supportpeaceful demonstrations andthe end of the regime BothJohn Leech & Mark Hunterstressed the importance ofgarnering support from theinternational community andtake measures such as eco-nomic sanctions, allowingmore foreign media to enterSyria, full investigations intothe murders of Syrian citizensat the hands of the Syrian se-cret service, and ultimatelysee change happen in apeaceful manner.

Both Mr Leech & MrHunter were united in hopefor the Syrian constituents intheir constituencies and forthe wider community inSyria and beyond in achiev-ing a real democracy andreal change.

Pointing out that Pakistanhosts the highest number ofrefugees -- 1.9 milliontheU.N. said in a report Mondaythat an estimated 80 per centof the worlds refugees nowlive in developing countriesand yet anti-refugee senti-ment is growing in many in-dustrialized nations.

The 2010 Global Trendsreport of the UN High Com-missioner for Refugees(UNHCR), marking theWorld Refugee Day Monday,urged the richer States to ad-dress the deep imbalance.

Iran and Syria follow Pak-istan with 1.1 million and 1million refugees, respec-tively, the report said.

Pakistan also feels thebiggest economic impactwith 710 refugees for eachdolla of its per capita grossdomestic product (GDP), fol-lowed by the Democratic Re-public of the Congo (DRC)and Kenya, with 475 and 247refugees per dollar of their

per capita GDP respectively. The number of people

forced to flee their homes toescape war or abuse has risento its highest for 15 years, withfour out of five refugees in de-veloping countries, it said.

In absolute terms and inrelation to the size of theireconomies, poor countriesshoulder a disproportionaterefugee burden, the reportadded.

What were seeing isworrying unfairness in the in-ternational protection para-digm, said AntonioGuterres, the UN High Com-missioner for Refugees. Fearsabout supposed floods ofrefugees in industrializedcountries are being vastlyoverblown or mistakenlyconflated with issues of mi-gration. Meanwhile its poorercountries that are left havingto pick up the burden, hesaid.

Overall, the report por-trays a drastically changed

protection environment tothat of 60 years ago when theUN refugee agency wasfounded. At that timeUNHCRs caseload ofrefugees was 2.1 million Eu-ropeans uprooted by the Sec-ond World War.

Today, UNHCRs workextends to more than 120countries and encompassespeople forced to flee acrossborders as well as those inflight within their own coun-tries.

An estimated 43.7 millionpeople are currently dis-placed worldwide roughlyequalling the entire popula-tions of Colombia or the Re-public of Korea or of allScandinavian countries andSri Lanka combined. Of thetotal, 15.4 million arerefugees 10.55 million underUNHCRs care and 4.82 mil-lion registered with the UNRelief and Works Agency forPalestine Refugees in theNear East (UNRWA).

A young Afghan refugee poses at The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugeesregistration centre on the outskirts of Peshawar, Pakistan prior to returning to her homecountry Afghanistan.

Pakistanhosts

highestnumber ofrefugees:

UN

Liberal Democrat MPs unitedin support of the Syrian cause

Former Torypeer jailed for

expenses fiddleA former Conservative peerwas jailed for nine months forfiddling his parliamentary ex-penses. Lord Hanningfield,70, falsely claimed for nearly14,000 pounds for overnightstays in London when he wasnot in the capital.

His expenses-fiddling in-cluded one occasion in Febru-ary 2008 when he wasactually on board a flight toIndia and he was foundguilty of six counts of false ac-counting in May, the PressAssociation reported.

Passing sentence at Maid-stone Crown Court, the judgeJustice Saunders said hewould now be partly remem-bered as a "benefits cheat".

Hanningfield, a formerTory business spokesmanwho served as leader of EssexCounty Council for a decade,showed no emotion as sen-tence was passed. He haslodged an appeal.

He joins four ex-MPs anda fellow member of the Lordsconvicted of dishonestly ob-taining thousands of poundsfrom the taxpayer by makingfalse claims for allowances.

Lloyds will axe 15,000 jobsand halve its internationalpresence, a plan its new bosshopes will save 1.5 billionpounds a year by 2014 andreturn the part-nationalisedBritish bank to health.

Chief Executive AntonioHorta-Osorio, presenting hisoverhaul of the bank onThursday after 122 days incharge, aims to cut throughmiddle management andmake the bank simpler andmore agile. Shares surged asinvestors applauded the plan.

"We have to do this. Thebank has lost money and islosing money as you saw inQ1 and we have to get thisbank back on its feet to sup-port the economy and to getit profitable in order to paytaxpayers' money back,"Horta-Osorio told reporters.

The latest cuts for Lloyds,Europe's seventh biggestbank by market value, willadd to 27,000 job losses al-ready since the 2008 financialcrisis. It employs 103,000staff.

The cost of the pro-gramme will be 2.3 billionpounds, but the savings gar-

nered will allow the bank toinvest an extra 2 billionpounds in its UK retail bank-ing.

Horta-Osorio will cutLloyds' international pres-ence to fewer than 15 coun-tries from 30 now in order tofocus more on domestic retailbanking, where it is marketleader and has historicallybeen far more significant thanits presence overseas.

Lloyds' business outsidethe UK currently includes op-erations in Europe, such asHolland, Germany andSpain, both north and southAmerica and Asia. Horta-Os-orio, a respected Portuguesebanker whom Lloydspoached from rival San-tander UK, declined to saywhich countries Lloydswould leave.

He said he was pleasedwith the bank's 60 percentstake in wealth manager St.James's Place, worth 1 billionpounds, but refused to ruleout if it could be sold.

The Unite trade uniongroup attacked the job cuts,but Horta-Osorio said themove was necessary.

The UK based Tehreek-e-Kashmir has welcomed thedecision of the OIC (Organi-sation of Islamic Conference)to constitute a special com-mission to investigate thegross violation of humanrights in Indian held Kashmir.

It is an important deci-sion taken by the 38th meet-ing of Foreign Minsters of theOIC members countries andit would have very positiveimpacts on the efforts to im-prove human rights situationin Kashmir, MohammadGhalib president Tehreek eKashmir said.

Terming OIC move a sig-nificant step, Ghalib said OICpassed a number of resolu-tion on Kashmir in the pastbut India always put themaside with disdain.

There is need to mount aconsiderable pressure onIndia to respect the senti-

ments of Muslim World byaddressing the concerns withregard to Kashmir, headded.

Ghalib said members offact finding mission, interna-tional human rights bodiesand independent mediashould be allowed to visitKashmir to assess and freelyreport the incidents of humanrights violation in Kashmir.

He further said during 20years strife in Kashmir hadcrippled economic life of thepeople and there is a dire needthat Islamic countries providerelief to people of the violenceridden Kashmir valley.

The Muslim countriesshould severe trade ties withIndia and ban Indian workforces into their respectivecountries if India fails to re-spect and implement OIC de-cision on Kashmir, TeKleader demanded.

OIC decision to set up commission on HR

investigation in IOK welcomed

New Lloyds CEO cuts 15,000jobs in revival plan

Emergency law planned toreverse court

bail rulingThe government will intro-duce emergency legislation tooverturn a court ruling thatwould force police to chargeor release suspects withinfour days of their arrest,policing minister Nick Her-bert told parliament.

Setting up a clash with thejudiciary, Herbert said thejudgement would leave po-lice with "one hand tied be-hind their backs" and affectedaround 80,000 suspects onpolice bail.

The High Court rulingoverturned the systemwhereby police free suspectson bail for extended periodswhile an investigation contin-ues.

The judgement means theclock will be ticking on a 96-hour limit to bring chargeseven when a suspect is out onpolice bail.

"In some cases it willmean that suspects whowould normally be releasedon bail are detained forlonger," Herbert said, addingthat many police forces didnot have enough cells to holdall the suspects.

More graduatesfinding jobs

The number of graduatesleaving university and failingto find work fell slightly tojust under 20,000 last year,with unemployment levelshigher among men thanwomen, official figuresshowed.

Nearly one in 10 gradu-ates (9 percent) were as-sumed to be unemployedafter graduating.

That was down slightlyfrom 10 percent in 2008/9 buthigher than five years agowhen it stood at six percent,according to the figures fromthe Higher Education Statis-tics Agency (HESA).

Unemployment washigher among men thanwomen, with nine percent ofall UK male students out ofwork after 6 months com-pared to six percent ofwomen.

Punjab Governor Sardar Latif Khosa, Secretary General PPP Jahangir Badr, PPP PunjabPresident Imtiaz Safdar Waraich and other PPP leaders attending a seminar in Lahore or-ganized by PPP Punjab to the mark 5th July as Black Day.

24

Jane Baugh becomes new

Trafford mayorCouncillor Jane Baugh waswas sworn in as the new mayorof Trafford last night. Outgoingmayor Councillor Ken Westonformally passed over the chainsof office at the ceremony atTrafford town hall.

The council chamber wasfilled with Councillor Baugh'sclose friends and family, whowatched as fellow councillorspaid tribute to her life in politicsand career in physiotherapy.

Councillor BrendaHouraghan was sworn in asthe deputy mayor with MrsBarbara Cartledge as consort,while Dr Peter Baugh, Coun-cillor Baugh's husband, be-came the mayor's consort.

Following her installation,Councillor Baugh paid trib-ute to the Trafford borough.

She said: "We are lookingforward so much to meetingpeople from all walks of life.We also look forward to rep-resenting Trafford and ex-tolling its virtues outside ourborough. We have so much tobe proud of here.

Reuben brothersbuy Piccadilly

Estate for 130mThe billionaire Reuben broth-ers have bought heritagebuilding Piccadilly Estate,once home to royalty and aprime minister, in London'sexclusive Mayfair district for130 million pounds, theagents for the sale said.

Aldersgate Investment,David and Simon Reuben'sproperty investment com-pany, bought the estate fromreceivership, agents JonesLang LaSalle (JLL) said.

It had belonged to familytrusts advised by property ty-coon Simon Halabi.

"We got to a position(where) we had a group of se-rious parties, so we requestedbids from them and as a resultof that we chose to go withAldersgate Investment ... andthey did the deal very quickly,in five days," Corbett said.

The property had been onthe market since last summer,and Corbett said there hadbeen interest from around theworld, with more than 150parties inspecting it.

Debunking Western mediapropaganda, Pakistan HighCommissioner to the UK hasasserted that his countrysnuclear assets are in safehands and well protectedunder control and commandstructure. Appearing in theBBC Newsnight programme,he said International AtomicEnergy Agency, NATO,Americans, CIA and other or-ganisations have certifiedthat Pakistani nuclearweapons are in safe hands.They are secure and are noteasily accessible. He ap-peared in the programme inthe wake of reports in theAmerican and western mediathat US has plans to take pre-emptive action to stop ex-tremists from getting handson Pakistan nuclear assets.

Responding to a questionthat Pakistan is reportedlyadding 10 to 15 warheads toits nuclear arsenal, the topdiplomat termed it as fictionalscript adding that he had noinformation on the number ofnuclear weapons Pakistan hasor is adding any significantweapons annually.

When asked that Jihadiststalk about Islamic bomb, theHigh Commissioner categor-ically stated that he would

not allude to such a sugges-tion. This is a Pakistanibomb and we do not take Ji-hadists seriously as

they say so many things. Hasan said IAEA which is

the international watch dogauthority on nuclear has al-ready certified that Pakistanis safe and one should notdispute that.

Regarding attack onMehran base last month whichthe questioner attributed to se-curity inadequacies, the highcommissioner responded that9/11 attacks, 7/7 bombings inLondon, and similar incidentsin other places around theglobe would also fall in thesame category.

The High Commissioneralso asserted that US-Pak-istan relations have not wors-ened contrary to what isappearing in the internationalmedia.

Even when PresidentObama was in London re-cently he was told by theBritish Prime Minister DavidCameron that enemy of Pak-istan is our enemy. So whenPresident Zardari metMr.Cameron on Friday, theBritish Prime Minister saidPakistans future is Britainsfuture.

Pak nuclear assets are safeand well protected: Wajid

As part of the Neighbour-hood & Home Watch Na-tional Week, an ImprovingSafety and Reducing Crimeswas organised at the Castle-mere Community Centre,Tweedale Street, Rochdale, inwhich the following organi-sations, Services, agencies,Councillors Irene Davidson,Surinder Biant and membersof the local community tookpart:

Greater Manchester Po-lice, Police Community Sup-port Officers, GreaterManchester Fire & RescueService, Rochdale Metropoli-tan Borough Council,Rochdale Area Watch Associ-ation. Multi Faith Partner-ship, Castlemere CommunityCentre, Rochdale Commu-nity Transport, Daha Look,UK, BME Fire & Safety Edu-

cation Association, Action forPakistan, International, Asso-ciation of Serving the Hu-manity, International, Arabicfor all

Ghulam Rasul ShahzadOBE, who organised theevent, welcomed andthanked everyone and pro-vided the background of theNeighbourhood & HomeWatch Week and the impor-tance of working together toimprove safety and securityfor the people of the Boroughof Rochdale.

He said that if we care forour neighbours, set up HomeWatch Schemes in everystreet and work with the Po-lice, we can save many livesand damage to properties.Because of limited resources,Police cannot be everywhere.

If residents provide them

with the relevant informationabout the commission ofcrimes or anti social behav-iour, Police will gather evi-dence and bring thoseresponsible to justice. Weneed to work together to im-prove the quality of lives ofpeople in our neighbourhood.

Martyn Beaver, GreaterManchester Police, providedthe background to the Neigh-bourhood Watch and themeasures GMP has been tak-ing to improve safety and se-curity of people of theBorough of Rochdale andparticularly in the Milkstone& Deeplish Area.

Mr.Sohail Ahmed JP andthe Chair of the RochdaleCommunity Transport pro-vided information about var-ious routes for buses and alsothe availability of the

Rochdale Community Trans-port whenever peopleneeded these and encouragedthem to use these,

Gary Thomas of theGreater Manchester Fire &Rescue Services provided in-formation about the activitiesof the staff of the GMR&RSi.e. installation of SmokeAlarm, Home Fire Risk As-sessment etc.

He said he was workingvery closely with the BMEFire & Safety Education As-sociation and asked the resi-dents to make the best use ofthe services they are provid-ing.

He said the Fire Stationfrom McClure Road will bemoving to Hamer in January2011, but the quality of theservice will not be affected inany way.

Conference on Improving Safety-Reducing Crime held

A UK-based Kashmiri organ-isation in presenting a memo-randum to the Organisation ofthe Islamic Conference in As-tana, Kazakhstan, has calledfor associating Common-wealth to which both Pakistanand India are members inhelping to resolve the Kash-mir dispute, the core irritant ingood relations between thetwo nuclear armed rivals inthe Indian sub-continent.

Presenting the memoran-dum to the OIC SecretaryGeneral, Prof. EkmeleddinIhsanoglu, at the 38th meet-ing of the Conference Prof.Nazir Shawl, head of the Jus-tice Foundation KashmirCentre, said: The Kashmirdispute continues to be thegreatest irritant between thetwo Commonwealth memberstates, India and Pakistan.

In order to make the ongoing dialogue fruitful, a di-alogue with the Common-wealth could be opened byusing the immense skills anddiplomacy of the OIC, andthe Kashmir Centre London

should be associated withthis effort.

Prof. Shawl, currently inAstana for the Conference,expressed hope that somepractical and actionable ini-tiatives are presented andsubmit the possibility of anconference in partnershipwith the members of the OICKashmir Contact Gro.

We also would like tosubmit the idea of the Organ-isation of the Islamic Confer-ence having partnershipswith other international fo-rums seeking ways to ad-dress issues which surroundKashmir, one such forumbeing the Commonwealth.

While mentioning the lastweeks Indo-Pakistan ForeignSecretarys level meeting inIslamabad, he said alongsidethis development the Euro-pean Parliament has adopteda resolution following theFree Trade Area Agreementwith India; human rightsbeing invoked by the FreeTrade Area Agreement Class34 within the resolution.

UK Kashmiri organisation calls forearly solution to Kashmir dispute

Boris Johnson attends the grand opening of Europe's firstM&M'S World store offering a huge range of exclusiveM&M'S chocolates and merchandise at Leicester Square.

The government plans fur-ther talks with trades unionson pensions reform after thetwo sides met on Wednesdayfor the first time since a walk-out last week by some300,000 teachers and civil ser-vants.

"We have had anotherconstructive meeting todayas part of the ongoing talksthe government has commit-ted to with the TUC (TradesUnion Congress) on publicservice pensions," a Treasuryspokeswoman said.

"This is a genuine consul-tation and further meetingswill take place," she added.

Unions representing pub-lic sector workers have threat-ened further strikes later inthe year over plans to makethem pay more for less gener-ous pensions and retire later.

The current talks are de-signed to set the frameworkfor specific negotiations forstate-employed workers suchas nurses and teachers who

have their own individual in-dustry schemes.

Last week's strikes showunion patience is limited.

Around half of the schoolsin England and Wales closedwhen teachers protested onthe streets over plans to makethem pay more for their pen-sions and work longer.

The Conservative-ledcoalition says that pensionsneed to be overhauled to en-sure the system can cope aspeople live longer. The re-forms are part of governmentplans to effectively erase by2015 a budget deficit thatpeaked at more than 10 per-cent of GDP. The governmentcondemned the strikes lastweek by four unions as pre-mature while talks were stillgoing on.

Protests over austerityhave been relatively muted inBritain compared with otherEuropean nations, but unionshave vowed to take a standover pension reforms.

Government and unions planmore talks on pensions

25

A leading expert on Islamicbrands is highlighting the un-tapped potential in Islamicmarkets which most compa-nies are failing to exploit.

The global Muslim mar-ket is now over 20% of theworlds population at around1.6 billion, and is expected toincrease to 2.2 billion by 2030,situated in those regionswhere Muslims are in the ma-jority, but also in other coun-tries where Muslims are asignificant and growing mi-nority, including those in theWest.

The value of Muslim tradeis assessed as worth trillionsof dollars worldwide.

The Muslim market rep-resents a significant un-

tapped market, says Dr.PaulTemporal, an Associate Fel-low at Sad Business SchoolsExecutive Education Centre,University of Oxford.

These days, when com-panies are facing everstronger competition in es-tablished markets and whilemany companies are rushinginto high profile regions suchas China, India and Brazil,the single biggest market inthe world has been largelyoverlooked. Islamic marketscould present a potentiallygreater opportunity forgrowth with comparativelylittle competition from inter-national or local brands.

While some Westernbrands have been active in

these markets since the90s, there is potential for

other products and servicesto enter these markets. Withrelentless competitive pres-sure elsewhere and manycompanies facing hits to theirbottom line as traditionalmarkets continue to underperform, Muslim marketscould represent a valuableopportunity for many com-panies.

Muslim consumers havebeen underserved to datewith few products tailored totheir needs and wants. West-ern brands often have a ca-chet and are well-liked, butmany of them are not compli-ant with Shariah law and arenot considered to be Halal.

Manchester is Britains fastestgrowing major city, with thepopulation growing by threeper cent in just 12 months.

Some 10,000 peopleflocked to live in the city lastyear, according to officialgovernment figures morethan Birmingham and Liver-pool combined.

The influx, combined with8,000 births and only 3,800deaths, pushed Manchesterspopulation to 498,800. Ex-perts believe that figure mayalready have broken throughthe half-a-million barrier.

Of hundreds of cities andtowns across Britain, onlyCambridge and Durham sawtheir populations rise by

more than Manchester.The influx included 1,600

people who moved from Lon-don to Manchester reversingthe traditional brain drainsouth. Town hall chiefs saidthe statistics reflected Man-chesters growing global rep-utation as a world-class city.

They pointed to the cityspost-IRA bomb regenerationas well as major new devel-opments, including the BBCsrelocation to MediaCity.

The rise in Manchestersinternational standing wasconfirmed by backpackersbible Lonely Planet, who de-scribed it as truly special intheir 2011 guide to Britain.

Sir Richard Leese, leader

of Manchester council, said:A growing population is thesign of a thriving city so it isextremely heartening thatmore people are seeing theattractions of Manchester as aplace to work, live and invest.

Manchester had under-gone a long period of popula-tion decline but the fact thatthis has been reversed in thelast decade is testament to thecitys renewal as a world-class city.

We know there is still ahuge amount of work to bedone to ensure Manchesterreaches its full potential andenlightened ex-Londonersmoving here are very wel-come helpers in that task.

Man who travelledto all 270 Londontube stations inunder 17 hours

Tube fan Marc Gawley hasset a new world record byvisiting all 270 London Un-derground stations in thefastest-ever time.

Marc, 33, a managementconsultant from Denton, cov-ered the famous Londontracks in 16 hours, 29 minutesand 57 seconds.

The time has been con-firmed by Guinness WorldRecords as the quickest ever,shaving 15 minutes off theprevious record set in 2009.The cult feat is known as theTube Challenge and the firstattempt took place in 1959.

Maths whiz Marc used hisdetailed knowledge of Tubetimetables to travel more than200 miles in record time.

He estimates that he ranthe equivalent of a marathonto complete the challenge,which has strict rules.

Challengers must visit all270 stations. They do nothave to get off, but the trainsmust stop at the station.

Marc, a former pupil atManchesters Xaverian Col-lege who studied physics atOxford University, said: Ipity the person who had to gothrough all those videos.

It must have been someof the dullest video footageever in adjudicating a record,but at least Im a worldrecord holder.

Population hits a high as thousands flock to Manchester

Islamic market neglected by global brands

A taste of Italy returned toManchester as thousandsturned out for the annual pa-rade.

The streets were linedthree deep as close to a thou-sand musicians and marcherswalked from Ancoats to thecentre of Manchester andback for the citys biggestever Italian parade.

A pipe band led the pro-cession past ManchesterCathedral and the town halland many people weredecked out in traditional Ital-ian dress.

Organisers opened up thismarch, the 121st in the cityshistory, to five new churches

which saw the numbersswell. Skyellea Kelly, eight, ofEvery Street, Ancoats wastaking part in the march forthe first time.

Her grandmother Sylviais Italian.

Skyellea said: "I got in-volved through my schooland Ive had a really nice day."Her mum, Darrianne Flynn,28, said: "She looks beautifuland so does everything."

The parade included par-ticipants from St Patricksand St Malachy churches inCollyhurst, St Annes Churchand St Michaels Church inAncoats and St PetersChurch in Middleton.

Parade brings a flavourof Italy to Manchester

Pakistani DG Rangers Punjab Maj. Gen. Mian MuhammadHilal Husain presenting sweets to Indian BSF Sector Com-mander Sumeer Singh.

26

Quake-hit Christchurch asksManchester how to rebuild a

city after devastationThe rebirth of Manchester following the IRA bomb isbeing used as a blueprint by a city left devastated by anearthquake.

Experts in Christchurch have asked council leader SirRichard Leese to share his experiences following the 1996terrorist attack. A total of 181 people died when the NewZealand city was hit by a 6.3 magnitude quake in Febru-ary.

Sir Richard was taking part early today in a video con-ference with the mayor of the city and a panel of NewZealand officials.

Sir Richard was approached by New Zealand business-man and one of the countrys biggest investors, StephenTindall, and former Labour politician and New Zealander,Bryan Gould.

Sir Richard who was only one month into his leader-ship of the council when Manchester was bombed saidspeed, strong leadership and a clear vision would be key.He said: "Within 24 hours, we started the process of get-ting the city centre functioning again. On that Sunday wehad Germany playing Russia at Old Trafford and we saidthis game has to go ahead.

Cabbie takesjudge to court

in row over1,370 of fares

A judge involved in a rowwith a cabbie over a fares billof 1,370 has been ordered bya court to pay him the fullamount.

Corin Timson becamelocked in a legal argumentwith Gary Phillips over sev-eral months of fares. MrPhillips told a claims court heferried Mr Timson to workacross the north west on agentlemans agreement thathe would be paid monthly.

Both men were happywith the arrangement untilApril last year, when a dis-pute broke out over Mr Tim-sons outstanding debts.

A gorilla in France is livingwith a zoo manager and hiswife in their home. Digit, a13-year-old female, spendsher days in an enclosure withother animals at a zoo nearLyon. But at night, she goesto stay with Pierre Thivillonand his wife Elianne whoconsider her one of the fam-ily. Digit, who weighs 120kg,even sleeps on the couplesbed. The arrangement started

when Digits mother refusedto breastfeed her and hadstuck. Mr Thivillon says: Itsgoing very well, because wehave a 13-year-old relation-ship with Digit so obviouslywe have created a very strongbond with each other. Digitlies on the bed and plays withsome toys. Initially, Digitsbrother also lived with thecouple but that ended whenhe became too aggressive.

UK mother-in-lawsemail rant is Internet hit

A British womans email rantat her future daughter-in-lawbecame an Internet sensationon Thursday after she ac-cused the bride-to-be of un-couthness and lack of grace.

In a withering messageentitled your lack of man-ners, Carolyn Bourne tookHeidi Withers to task overher failures of etiquette andrecommended she attend afinishing school with utmosthaste.

Ms Withers, a 29-year-oldpersonal assistant from Lon-don who is engaged to MrsBournes step-son Freddie,also 29, was so shocked bythe email that she sent it on toa few friends.

Russian scientists expect hu-manity to encounter alien civ-ilizations within the next twodecades, a top Russian as-tronomer predicted. Thegenesis of life is as inevitableas the formation of atoms...Life exists on other planetsand we will find it within 20years, Andrei Finkelstein,director of the Russian Acad-emy of Sciences Applied As-tronomy Institute, was

quoted by the Interfax newsagency as saying. Speaking atan international forum dedi-cated to the search for extra-terrestrial life, Finkelsteinsaid 10 percent of the knownplanets circling suns in thegalaxy resemble Earth. Ifwater can be found there,then so can life, he said,adding that aliens wouldmost likely resemble humanswith two arms, two legs and

a head. They may have dif-ferent color skin, but even wehave that, he said.

Gorilla lives with zoo manager

Russian scientists expect tomeet aliens by 2031

27

Shoppers pass by the Mulberry flagship retail store on New Bond Street. The luxuryhandbag maker has seen a jump in profits of a staggering 358 percent, and production attheir Somerset factory is being stepped up a further 30 percent to match demand.

A surge in operating costsand decline in new orders hascaused the financial health ofUK companies to deteriorateduring the six months toApril 2011.

That is the conclusion ofthe latest smalland-medium-sized EnterpriseTrends Index, which com-piled the responses of over550 business owners to de-termine the financial andgrowth prospects for UKbusinesses.

Over 75% of respondentssaid that operating costs haverisen over the past six

months, while only 58%countered these rising over-heads by winning new con-tracts during the sameperiod.

Meanwhile, the overallBusiness Health Index fell to0.35 down from the 0.49recorded last November and it seems that bigger com-panies are generally in farbetter shape than small firms.Indeed, while companieswith a turnover of more than3m recorded an averageindex score of 1.67, thoseturning over less than500,000 had an average of -

0.13.Companies in Wales

(index score 1.10), easternEngland (0.91) and the SouthEast (0.64) were found to bethe best performing regionsby the Enterprise Trendsstudy.

Evette Orams, managingdirector of debt collectionagency Hilton-Baird Finan-cial Solutions, which com-piled the research, said thatin spite of the economicgrowth recorded during thefirst quarter of 2011, trad-ing conditions remain chal-lenging.

A third of UK companies re-main unsure how the newBribery Act, which has comeinto force today, will affectthe way they do business.

That is the conclusion of asurvey by software providerSage, which compiled re-sponses from over 1,000small and medium-sizedfirms to determine how thenew legislation will affectBritains small business com-munity.

The survey found that71% of respondents still dontunderstand the act, and howit will change the way theydo business, while 33% ad-mitted they are uncertain ofhow to adapt to the new law.

Furthermore, even thoughthe act has been described asthe toughest anti-corruptionlegislation in the world, halfthe firms surveyed said theyplan to carry on as usual.

The new Bribery Actmakes it a criminal offence toreceive bribes, fail to preventbribery and bribe a foreign

official, and imposes tougherpenalties for the bribing ofother companies.The maxi-mum penalty for committinga bribery crime is now 10years imprisonment, alongwith an unlimited fine.

Samantha Bell, a HR advi-sor for Sage, has advised thatbusinesses potentially sus-ceptible to bribery shouldcarry out risk assessments,and put strict policies andprocedures in place to elim-inate any doubt.

She added: If its veryunlikely that bribery couldhappen in your company,then drawing up and com-municating one simple policyto your employees could beenough.

The key thing is to be ina position where you canshow you have taken ade-quate steps to prevent acts ofbribery from taking place. If abribery claim is made againstyou, doing this can make areal difference to your de-fence.

Over half of Britains smallbusinesses are failing to max-imise the potential of mobileworking, according to a newstudy from Sage.

The studys authors foundthat, of the 1,000 small andmedium-sized business own-ers who submitted responses,only 42% have taken signifi-cant steps towards imple-menting mobile technology.

Furthermore, 44% of re-spondents admitted that theylack understanding of thespecific benefits mobile tech-nology could deliver, withsize proving a major deter-rent.

Forty three per cent of re-spondents said they thoughttheir firm was too small tobenefit, while more than onein four small and medium-sized firms said that theylacked the right infrastruc-ture to even start to utilise

mobile working. Steve Attwell, general

manager for Sages mid-mar-ket and channel division, saidthat while mobile technologymay not be relevant for everybusiness, it can provide realvalue for most sizes of com-pany.

He added: Access to cus-tomer-critical informationand productivity tools any-time, anywhere, can play afundamental role in increas-ing efficiency and enabling asmall business to differentiateitself.

For organisations to stayahead of the curve and capi-talise on the new level of ac-cessibility mobile technologybrings, business owners mustact now and seek advice fromsoftware providers who canhelp them understand how tobest unlock the benefits ofmobile.

More companies are volun-tarily closing subsidiaries in abid to cut costs, with each clo-sure saving up to 20,000 persubsidiary, according to anew study.

Research by commerciallaw firm McGrigors revealedthat the number of voluntaryliquidations undertaken bymembers rose to 3,578 in2010, up from 3,268 in 2009 a 9.5% increase.

According to McGrigors,the primary reason for this in-crease is that businesses areincreasingly looking tostreamline their complex cor-porate structures.

The company added thatmany companies have grad-ually acquired complex cor-porate structures over time through takeovers and or-ganic growth which arenow inefficient.

Paul Sutton, a corporatepartner at McGrigors, saidthat closing a redundant cor-

porate entity can result inimmense cost savings forcompanies, adding thatbusinesses are increasinglylooking to review their corpo-rate structures and activelyreduce administrative costsso they are in better shapegoing forward.

He added: Historic taxplanning may have promptedsome businesses to implementcomplicated legal structures.However, the tax benefits mayno longer justify the ongoingcosts of maintaining thosecomplex structures.

The McGrigors researchalso revealed that the overallnumber of company liquida-tions fell by 16% in the lastyear.

The rise in the voluntaryclosure of subsidiaries maynot sound like a big increase but in the context of a largedrop in overall liquidations,this is an extremely signifi-cant rise, added Sutton

Businessesurged to blowthe whistle on

red tapeBusiness owners have beencalled on to blow the whis-tle on inconsistent and ex-cessive red tape regulationsby a new government initia-tive to support businessgrowth.

Launched last week, theinitiative is part of the gov-ernments Red Tape Chal-lenge to encourageemployers and employees tocome forward with exam-ples where different regula-tors, inspections andconflicting advice is hamper-ing the running of their busi-ness and preventingeconomic growth.

According to the businessminister, Mark Prisk the gov-ernment has already takensteps to reduce the burdenthat regulation places on ourbusinesses, but admittedfurther action is needed.

BoE criticisesgovternments

handling of banks

The government has beencriticised by the Bank of Eng-land for failing to boost banklending to small andmedium-sized firms prompting fresh fears thatlending targets will be missedagain.

According to the Bank ofEnglands latest Agents Re-port, lending to UK busi-nesses fell by 4.9bn overalllast month, with lending tomanufacturing and construc-tion firms showing the great-est decline.

A third of businesses remain uncertainabout new Bribery Act regulations

Financial health of UK businesses in decline

More businesses closingsubsidiaries to cut costs

Over half of small firms are failingto make use of mobile technology

28

The cost of US military actionin Iraq and Afghanistansince 9/11/2001 terrorist at-tackswill run to at least $3.7trillion, a study disclosed.The staggering figure couldreach as high as $4.4 trillion,with the death of up to258,000 people, according toresearch by Brown Univer-sitys Watson Institute for In-ternational Studies. In humanterms, 224,000 to 258,000 peo-ple have died directly fromwarfare - including 125,000civilians in Iraq. Many more have died indi-rectly, from the loss of cleandrinking water, health careand nutrition. Another365,000 have been woundedand 7.8 million have been dis-placed.

In the 10 years since U.S.troops went into Afghanistanto root out the Al-Qaedaleaders behind the September11, 2001 attacks, spending onthe conflicts totalled up to

$2.7 trillion. Those numberswill continue to soar whenconsidering often overlookedcosts including obligations towounded veterans and pro-jected war spending from2012 through 2020. They alsodo not include at least $1 tril-lion in interest payments andexpenses.

The study, Costs of War,brought together more than20 academics to uncover theexpenses of war. It underlinesthe extent to which war willcontinue to stretch the U.S.federal budget and questionswhat has been gained fromthe massive investment.

Catherine Lutz, head ofthe anthropology departmentat Brown and co-director ofthe study, said: We decidedwe needed to do this kind ofrigourous assessment of whatit cost to make those choicesto go to war. Politicians, weassumed, were not going todo that kind of assessment.

Britain to review familyimmigration

rulesBritain is to review the appli-cation of EU human rightsrules that allow immigrantsto bring their families into thecountry, the Home Officesaid .

The review will look athow Britain deals with Arti-cle 8 of the European Con-vention on Human Rightswhich guarantees the rightto a family life. Immigrationis a sensitive topic in Britain,following a surge in the lastdecade, regularly featuringhigh in opinion polls of voterconcerns. The Sunday Tele-graph newspaper reportedthe case of Peace Musabi whofled Burundi seeking asylumin Britain. She was given in-definite leave to remain afterher files were lost and hasnow won permission to bringher three children into Britainunder Article 8.

US Secretary of State HillaryRodham Clinton said that therule of law, political partiesand democratic institutionsmust emerge in the Arabworld if it is to emulate East-ern Europes remarkabletransition two decades agofrom authoritarianism totruly free societies.

In Lithuania for an inter-national democracy confer-ence, Clinton cited the realrisk of Middle East and NorthAfrican nations slipping backinto autocratic old ways. Andshe lamented the latest ac-counts of violence in Syria,with security forces andknife-wielding, government-organized thugs reportedlyattacking protesters in thecity of Aleppo.

Today there are newdemocracies fighting for life,there are vicious autocratsclinging to power, Clintonsaid in a speech at the Com-munity of Democracies

meeting. This is an hour ofneed. And every democracyshould stand up and becounted.

Drawing on the experi-ence of Lithuania and othercountries that opened upwhen the Iron Curtain camedown 22 years ago, Clintonoutlined a series of funda-mentals she said were neces-sary for nations to make thetransition to democracy: in-stitutions rooted in law;equality for all, includingwomen; a free press; eco-nomic opportunity; legiti-mate leaders.

The implicit warning wasthat it is uncertain if the Arabreform movements willtranslate into stable demo-cratic societies.

While Tunisia and Egypttry to find their own formulasfor a new system of gover-nance, the would-be democ-rats of Syria may never gettheir chance.

Scientists warned that wateroff the famed beaches of theIndian holiday state of Goawas unfit for bathing andfishing due to high levels ofbacteria from untreatedsewage.

The National Institute ofOceanography, which isbased in the former Por-tuguese colony, said the levelof faecal coliform bacteria offthe coast of Goa and in itsrivers was higher than the in-ternational benchmark.

For safe bathing and in-ternational standards itshould be 100 CFU (colonyforming units) per 100 millil-itres but now it has touched190 in some areas, said NIOscientist Dr N. Ramaiah.

Ramaiah said coastal wa-ters tested by the scientistswere generally above the

limit, but the problem wasmost acute in the basins ofGoas two main rivers, theMandovi and Zuari.

A colony forming unit isused in microbiology tomeasure the number of viablebacteria. Faecal coliform bac-teria can be a product ofhuman or animal waste butalso storm water run-off orplant material.

Tourism officials ex-pressed alarm at the findings,given the states dependenceon foreign visitors. Around400,000 overseas touristsflock to Goa each year, withits long, sandy beaches amajor draw.

If there is such a phe-nomenon then it is a matter ofconcern, said state tourismdirector Swapnil Naik, whohad yet to see the NIO report.

One of the French boats of a flotilla bound for Gaza with some 40 activists on board pre-tends to leave the port of Pireus near Athens. Greek authorities prevented on July 1 theships of the flotilla from sailing towards Gaza. Their naval forces blocked the path of twoships, American and Canadian, when they attempted to challenge the decision. TheHamas administration in the Gaza Strip on July 3 repeated its calls for Greece to allow theflotilla to set sail for the Israeli-blockaded Palestinian territory.

Clinton outlines road aheadfor Arab democracy

Post-9/11 wars cost USat least $3.7 trillion

Water in Indias famed Goaunfit for bathing

29

President Asif Ali Zardariand the British Prime Minis-ter David Cameron agreed attheir meeting here that bothcountries will continue towork together for fightingmilitancy and for promotingpeace in the region.

The two leaders at theirmeeting at the DowningStreet welcomed the ongoingcollaboration between the UKand Pakistani governments totackle violent extremism andradicalization and agreed toenhance cooperation in sup-port of a comprehensive ap-proach by the Government ofPakistan.

The meeting was also at-tended by Chairman PakistanPeoples Party Bilawal BhuttoZardari. Prime MinisterCameron warmly received

the Pakistani leader on his ar-rival at the Downing Streetand shook hands warmlyoutside the famous number10 door.

Briefing the media,Farhatullah Babar,Spokesperson to the Presi-dent said that Pakistan andUnited Kingdom agreed toprepare a comprehensiveplan of action to intensify co-operation in trade and busi-ness, defence, development,education, health, securityand cultural cooperation.

Both the leaders in theirdiscussion had consensualview that terrorism was theenemy of both Pakistan andBritain and that the twocountries should continue towork together to fight themenace.

Queen Elizabeth opened anew session of the devolvedparliament in Scotland,where the independence-seeking Scottish NationalParty (SNP) has an overallmajority, saying the institu-tion had "truly come of age".

It was the queen's firstvisit to the parliament sincethe SNP won an overall ma-jority in elections in May,paving the way for a referen-dum on independence over

the next five years.Responding to the queen's

speech, SNP leader and FirstMinister Alex Salmond wel-comed her as "the firmest offriends of this parliament,particularly in some of ourearly and difficult years."

"Whatever constitutionalpath that the people of Scot-land choose -- and it is theirchoice to make -- we will as-pire to be, in your words, 'firmfriends and equal partners.'"

Work and Pensions SecretaryIain Duncan Smith called fortighter controls on immigra-tion to help cut unemploy-ment among young Britons,angering the business com-munity and risking a rift inthe ruling coalition.

The demand came fromDuncan Smith, a Conserva-tive who has led the party'sefforts to reduce the numberof Britons living on benefits.

"Good immigration is

managed immigration - itshould not be an excuse toimport labour to take upposts which could be filled bypeople already in Britain,"Duncan Smith said.

"In the short term, control-ling immigration is critical orwe will risk losing anothergeneration to dependencyand hopelessness," the for-mer Conservative leaderadded in a speech he will de-liver to a think-tank in Spain.

Unemployment in Britainis 7.7 percent, but the figurestands at almost 20 percentfor people aged under 24.

Immigration policy is asource of friction within thecoalition. The Liberal Democ-rats have voiced concernsthat planned curbs couldhamper British business.

Business Secretary VinceCable clashed with PrimeMinister David Cameron inApril when Cameron criti-

cised mass immigration.The debate has been fu-

elled by figures this weekthat showed the UK popula-tion grew by 470,000 in 2009-10, taking it to 62.26 million.Net migration accounted foralmost half of the rise.

The government has ar-gued that the country cannotabsorb so many newcomersbecause of the strain it placeson schools and health serv-ices.

The Labour Party held on toa seat in parliament after anelection in one of its Scottishheartlands, seeing off a chal-lenge from the increasinglypowerful Scottish NationalParty.

Labour's Iain McKenziewon with 15,118 votes, whilethe Scottish National Party'sAnne McLaughlin came sec-ond with 9,280 votes. The re-sults were broadcast live ontelevision on Friday.

The election was held inthe constituency of Inver-

clyde, close to Glasgow, afterthe death of Labour MPDavid Cairns in May.

Cairns had won 56 per-cent of the vote at the lastgeneral election in May 2010,with the SNP in a distant sec-ond place.

However, the SNP tri-umphed in polls for Scot-land's devolved parliamentearlier this year and it plansto use this majority to call areferendum on breaking withthe rest of Britain within thenext five years.

Little Britain benefit cheat sent to jailA benefits cheat who pretended to need a wheelchair in a man-ner likened to a sketch from hit comedy show Little Britain hasbeen jailed. Peter Dixon, 48, was handed a four-week custodialsentence, of which he will serve half, after he was filmed walk-ing around despite claiming he needed to use a wheelchair.Preston Crown Court was shown footage of Dixon beingwheeled out of a medical centre and carefully helped into thedrivers seat of a car.

Homeless man charged forcharging cell phone

Police have brought charges against a homeless man in Mainewho helped himself to an outdoor electrical outlet to charge apair of cell phones. A Bangor police officer checking down-town businesses discovered 23-year-old Shaun Fawster charg-ing his cell phones in an outlet hidden behind some flowers.Fawster was charged last weekend with theft of services, aswell as carrying a concealed weapon after the officer found afolding knife tucked underneath his shirt. The Bangor DailyNews says Fawster was later released from jail.

Duncan Smith wants migration curbs to cut jobless

Labour wins Scotland by-electionQueen opens nationalist-ledScottish parliament

UK-Pakistan pledge to work together against militancy

Munira Mirza (C), a Mayoral Advisor on Arts and Culture,poses for a photograph with musicians Zeid Hamdan (L)and Tamer Abu Ghazaleh (R) at the launch of the festival'Shubbak : A Window on Contemporary Arab Culture' inLondon, England. Zeid and Tamer will perform the openingconcert of the Shubbak festival entitled 'A Musical Revolu-tion Into the Arab World'. The Shubbak Arab arts festival,organised by the Mayor of London and sponsored by HSBC,takes place in London and runs from July 4-24, 2011.

30

Two jail inmates facing unre-lated murder convictionshave been allowed to get mar-ried through a mesh fence ata prison visitor center.

Marissa Star Bilotti andIftekhar Murtaza were mar-ried on June 27 at the OrangeCounty Jail in Santa Ana, Cal-ifornia. It was a very happyevent, everyone was veryhappy to realise it, lawyerRichard Herman said.

It was the nicest wed-ding of two people in jail Iveever seen. The original ideawas for the ceremony to be in

the county jails courtroombut officials objected to theplan. It was later agreed toconduct the marriage in thejail visiting area - because it isclosed to normal visitors onMondays.

This was the first timeany one of us recalled two in-mates at the same time want-ing to marry each other,Orange County sheriffs CaptMike Krueger said. Mr Her-man, who is representingBilotti, was the main co-or-dinator of the event, accord-ing to Capt Krueger.

Association of PakistaniLawyers (APL), a team ofPakistani origin Solicitors,Barristers, and Judges in UKhas learnt with great concernthe EDL procession outsidethe private dwelling of Mem-ber European parliamentfrom the North West of Eng-land, Sajjad Karim and hascondemned it and has de-manded an action againstperpetrators of this race hatecampaign.

APL has shown solidaritywith the first Pakistani originmember of EU and con-

demned all intimidating tac-tics of far right extremists todiscourage the tolerant poli-tics of

Documents

Mashriq newspaper July 1st Edition 2011