Pak News Wire

BREAKING: Rangers raid CPLC chief’s house in Karachi

<a href="http://tribune.com.pk/story/828393/breaking-rangers-raid-cplc-chiefs-house-in-karachi/"> 				<img alt="" height="120" src="http://i1.tribune.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/828393-chinoy-1422359197-498-160x120.jpg" width="160" /> 			</a> 			KARACHI: In a shocking development, Rangers have raided the house of Citizens-Police Liaison Committee (CPLC) chief Ahmed Chinoy, where they have reportedly recovered a kidnapped boy along with Rs1.5 million, allegedly being given to Chinoy by the boy’s mother for his release.   However, The Express Tribune could not independently verify the reports of the boy’s recovery. According to initial reports, the raid was carried out on a tip-off by the victim’s father. As per the father, his wife was visiting the CPLC chief’s residence in Defence Housing Authority to pay Chinoy the ransom money to get their son released. The Rangers has alleged that Chinoy has links with groups extorting money for ransom, Express News reported. Police has taken Chinoy into custody. However, addressing the media, the CPLC chief said the accusations leveled against him are baseless. “I will address a press conference later in the evening today to prove these allegations false,” Chinoy added.

BREAKING: Rangers raid CPLC chief’s house in Karachi

KARACHI: In a shocking development, Rangers have raided the house of Citizens-Police Liaison Committee (CPLC) chief A...

How Russian spies hid in New York

How Russian spies hid in New York

The men would sometimes say they needed to meet to exchange tickets, but they never seemed to end up actually attending or discussing a spor...

Why milk, bread and toilet paper when it snows?

Why milk, bread and toilet paper when it snows?

Seriously people, is there something about snow storms that makes us want to eat French toast and sit on the toilet?

Nadal stunned at Aussie Open

Nadal stunned at Aussie Open

This time there was no escape for Rafael Nadal at the Australian Open.

Nadal crushed as Sharapova slaps down Bouchard

<a href="http://tribune.com.pk/story/828356/nadal-crushed-as-sharapova-slaps-down-bouchard/"> 				<img alt="" height="120" src="http://i1.tribune.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/828356-nadal-1422349566-105-160x120.jpg" width="160" /> 			</a> 			MELBOURNE: Rafael Nadal’s Australian Open dream lay in tatters Tuesday with the third seed crushed by Tomas Berdych in the quarter-finals, but Maria Sharapova showed who’s boss by slapping down Eugenie Bouchard. The out-of-sorts Spaniard, a 14-time Grand Slam champion, was never in contention against a player he had beaten the last 17 times they met stretching back to 2006. The Czech seventh seed insisted ahead of the match that the imposing statistic meant little and he came out of the blocks firing, winning 6-2, 6-0, 7-6 (7/5) despite a mini Nadal revival in the third set. “I was definitely ready for it and set up my plan pretty well and I stuck with that through those three sets,” said Berdych, who also made the semis last year, losing to eventual champion Stan Wawrinka. His upset win means he will face either Andy Murray or Nick Krygios for a place in the final. Nadal had no excuses, admitting he played “a very bad” match. “I am not very happy because I didn’t compete the way I wanted to compete in the first two sets and that’s something that I don’t like,” he said. “The season is long, beginnings are tough. I need to be ready to accept all the situations that happen and try to be strong.” In contrast to his lacklustre performance, the experienced Sharapova dominated young Canadian pretender Bouchard to set up an all-Russian semi-final with dark horse Ekaterina Makarova. The world number two, who could claim the top ranking from arch-rival Serena Williams if she wins the title, showed her intent by breaking the seventh seed in the first game of the match and never looked back. Billed as a Glam Slam showdown between two of the game’s most marketable women, an intense Sharapova was all business in the crushing 6-3, 6-2 win on a cool, overcast Melbourne day. “She’s been playing so well at Slams, so confident and so aggressive,” said the Russian, gunning for a sixth Grand Slam crown and her first in Australia since 2008. “I just really tried to take that away from her a little bit. I did a great job of that today.” She now faces Makarova, who raced through her match against third seed Simona Halep, thrashing the more-fancied Romanian 6-4, 6-0. In the other women’s quarter-finals, to be played Wednesday, top seed Serena Williams meets last year’s finalist Dominika Cibulkova while her sister Venus takes on teenage American Madison Keys. If the Williams sisters both win, they will face each other across the net at a Grand Slam for the first time since the 2009 Wimbledon final, which Serena won. British sixth seed Murray will have the home crowd against him when he takes on mercurial 19-year-old local Nick Kyrgios in the final last eight clash on Tuesday evening. Sharapova, who also dumped Bouchard out of the French Open semi-finals last year, gave no quarter on Rod Laver Arena, hitting 18 winners and forcing 30 unforced errors from the 20-year-old. “The first two or three balls are so aggressive from her side,” Sharapova said. “I just tried to keep my ground, I knew she was going to go at it and be aggressive.” Makarova, her right thigh heavily strapped, said she was trying to stay grounded and not let the pressure get to her with Sharapova looming. “I need to believe in myself. I’m trying not to really think that it’s semis, that I’m one step from the final, but that it’s just a normal match like always,” she said. “Just go out there and enjoy my game.” Halep came into the match as favourite but her trademark fighting qualities deserted her, with the talented 23-year-old saying she felt stressed by the occasion. “I practised very well in the morning, but I was a little bit too stressed before I started the match,” she said. “It was not really pressure, just a little bit stressed. I don’t know why,” she said.   Like <a href="https://www.facebook.com/EtribuneSports">Sports on Facebook</a>, follow <a href="https://twitter.com/ETribuneSports">@ETribuneSports</a> on Twitter to stay informed and join in the conversation.

Nadal crushed as Sharapova slaps down Bouchard

MELBOURNE: Rafael Nadal’s Australian Open dream lay in tatters Tuesday with the third seed crushed by Tomas Berdych i...

Fans’ gruesome banner

Fans’ gruesome banner

Defense seeks to have charges tossed against Guantanamo prisoner

<a href="http://tribune.com.pk/story/828338/defense-seeks-to-have-charges-tossed-against-guantanamo-prisoner/"> 				<img alt="" height="120" src="http://i1.tribune.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/828338-guantanamo-1422344116-319-160x120.jpg" width="160" /> 			</a> 			FORT MEADE/MARYLAND: A defense attorney on Monday sought the dismissal of charges against a suspected Iraqi al Qaeda commander, accused of plots to assassinate then-president Pervez Musharraf, saying the United States was violating international law and the Constitution by prosecuting him for war crimes. The trial for Abd al Hadi al Iraqi at the Guantanamo Bay military prison in Cuba is an international tribunal but prosecutors are using domestic laws to try him, said defense attorney Air Force Major Ben Stirk. “That’s not the international law of war,” Stirk said in a pre-trial hearing. Hadi al Iraqi is charged with being an al Qaeda commander who led attacks against US and coalition troops in Afghanistan from 2002 to 2004. The Pentagon also accuses him of plots to assassinate Pakistan’s then-president, Pervez Musharraf. His attorneys say charges that Hadi al Iraqi conspired to commit murder were based on US law rather than the international law of war that could protect combatants from criminal liability. Arguing against the defense motion, Assistant US Attorney Mikeal Clayton said a broad definition of the law of war could help militants “mask or shield themselves from liability.” The US Military Commissions Act preserves the defendants’ rights to counsel, to avoid self-incrimination and to be convicted only if there is proof of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, Clayton said. He also said accusations that Hadi al Iraqi, who has been imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay since 2007, conspired to commit acts of terrorism meet international standards for criminal prosecution. Military commission Judge Navy Captain J Kirk Waits did not rule on the motion. Waits touched on a complaint filed against him and a second military judge at Guantanamo Bay by female US military guards who accuse him of sex discrimination. Waits issued a ban in November against female guards touching prisoners. The ban came after Hadi al Iraqi and other detainees complained that being touched by women to whom they are not married violates Islamic religious doctrine. The complaint filed last week said Waits’ order violated federal rules that prohibit gender-based and other discrimination in employment. Waits said he should not need to excuse himself from the case. “My impartiality cannot reasonably be questioned,” he said. Waits is scheduled to hear arguments on the guards issue on Wednesday. The hearing was monitored by closed-circuit television at a media center at Fort Meade, outside Washington.

Defense seeks to have charges tossed against Guantanamo prisoner

FORT MEADE/MARYLAND: A defense attorney on Monday sought the dismissal of charges against a suspected Iraqi al Qaeda ...

Facebook, Instagram goes down; Twitter freaks out

Facebook, Instagram goes down; Twitter freaks out

Japan mulls ISIS hostage strategy

Japan mulls ISIS hostage strategy

Protestors outside Shinzo Abe's residence demand he save ISIS hostage Kenji Goto's life, but the Japanese Prime Minister is also fac...

Chinese mom sells baby for $7,000

Chinese mom sells baby for $7,000

A woman in central China has been prosecuted for selling her newborn baby for $ 7,000, state media reports said, the latest of a string of ...

End of the road for Rafa

End of the road for Rafa

This time there was no escape for Rafael Nadal at the Australian Open. He was crushed by Tomas Berdych in the quarterfinals. But Maria Shara...

Rare predator spotted in river

Rare predator spotted in river

The CEO for the World Wildlife Fund spotted a rare black jaguar in Brazil's Juruena National Park.

Scariest theme park rides on Earth

Scariest theme park rides on Earth

Haris Sohail ‘freaked out’ by supernatural experience

<a href="http://tribune.com.pk/story/828269/haris-sohail-freaked-out-by-supernatural-experience/"> 				<img alt="" height="120" src="http://i1.tribune.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/828269-harissohaill-1422334942-798-160x120.jpg" width="160" /> 			</a> 			NEW ZEALAND: Batsman Haris Sohail was the latest cricketer, following  Australian all-rounder Shane Watson, to insist he felt the presence of a ghost while staying at a hotel on tour, <a href="http://www.foxsports.com.au/cricket/haris-sohail-ghost-encounter-pakistan-batsman-freaked-out-by-supernatural-experience/story-e6frf3g3-1227198147681?from=public_rss&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed&nk=2d884c17663c9715011de32240caa325" target="_blank">Fox Sports</a> reported on Tuesday. Watson famously admitted to being frightened during a stay at Lumley Castle in England on the 2005 Ashes tour, and now it appears he isn’t the only cricketer to have such an otherworldly experience. Sohail was reportedly left traumatised after being woken in the middle of the night by what he insisted was a ghost pushing him, according to <a href="http://www.nzme.co.nz/" target="_blank">New Zealand Media and Entertainment.</a> The cricketer, then allegedly phoned team management who arrived on the scene a short while later to find the 26-year-old with a high fever. The officials managed to find the shaken-up batsman in another room at the Rydges Latimer Hotel in Christchurch. A somewhat incredulous spokesperson for the hotel was forced to insist there was “no active ghost” at the establishment. “It’s hard to believe,” the spokesperson told the NZ Herald. “The Pakistan management told me it was only a nightmare” he added. He further said, the people on the team wanted Sohail to move room. A source close to the team said the cricketer had been unable to train with his teammates because he’s “traumatised” and “pretty freaked out”. Just last year England paceman Stuart Broad admitted he asked to change rooms while staying at the Langham Hotel in London, an infamous ghost hot spot that reportedly has as many as seven supernatural beings staying on the premises, including a German doctor who murdered his wife while on honeymoon before committing suicide. “During the Sri Lanka Test I had to move rooms,” Broad told the Daily Mail last year. “It was so hot in the room I just couldn’t sleep, and all of a sudden the taps in the bathroom came on for no reason,” he also said.” I turned the lights on and the taps turned themselves off.” He added, he ended up asking to move rooms.

Haris Sohail ‘freaked out’ by supernatural experience

NEW ZEALAND: Batsman Haris Sohail was the latest cricketer, following Australian all-rounder Shane Watson, to insist...

Balochistan unrest: Five dead as pickup hits landmine

<a href="http://tribune.com.pk/story/828153/balochistan-unrest-five-dead-as-pickup-hits-landmine/"> 				<img alt="" height="120" src="http://i1.tribune.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/828153-landmine_AFP-1422333115-916-160x120.jpg" width="160" /> 			</a> 			<div>QUETTA:  At least five people, including a retired policeman and a Hindu trader, were killed on Monday when a pickup hit a landmine in Chatter area of Nasirabad district. Two others were injured in the incident. </div> According to Nasirabad District Police Officer Saleem Lehri, a pickup carrying passengers was on its way to Chattar from Dera Murad Jamali when it struck a landmine in Sonwa area. “Five people were killed and two wounded in the landmine blast,” the district police chief confirmed. Police and rescue workers ferried the bodies as well as the injured to the Divisional Hospital in Dera Murad Jamali. The deceased were identified as retired police sub-inspector Mohammed Salah, Hindu trader Lal Chand, Yar Mohammed, Mohammed Ibrahim and Sayed Qurban Shah. The Naseerabad police have started an investigation into the incident. Chatter is one of the troubled areas in Naseerabad district where Baloch militants frequently target power pylons and security forces. However, there were no claims of responsibility for the blast. Published in The Express Tribune, January 27th, 2015.

Balochistan unrest: Five dead as pickup hits landmine

QUETTA: At least five people, including a retired policeman and a Hindu trader, were killed on Monday when a pickup h...