Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Pakistan remains among top 10 'failed states'

Pakistan remains among top 10 'failed states': Report
 
















Pakistan remains among top 10 'failed states'

28 Jun 2009, 1447 hrs IST, IANS

WASHINGTON: Pakistan, split in the middle with terrorist attacks and facing an economic crisis, remains among the top 10 failed states, says an index prepared by the renowned Foreign Policy journal.

The country, placed ninth among all countries last year in terms of its overall achievement, has improved its position only by a notch - it is placed 10th in the index for 2009 published in the July-August issue of the journal.

The annual exercise, now in its fifth year, is carried out by the journal and Fund for Peace, an independent research organisation.

The ranking is done on the basis of the following factors: demographic pressure, refugees/internally displaced persons (IDPs), group grievance, uneven development, economic decline, delegitimisation of the state, public service, human rights, factionalised elites and external intervention.

The top 10 failed states in the latest list are: Somalia, Zimbabwe, Sudan, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Afghanistan, Central African Republic, Guinea and Pakistan.

India is placed 87th among the 177 countries under study, with its score showing an improvement over the previous year. But its neighbours fare badly in this ranking, with Sri Lanka placed 12th, Bangladesh 19th and Nepal 25th.

At the other end of the spectrum, the bottom 10 in the list are the top achievers: Norway, Finland, Sweden, Switzerland, Ireland, Denmark, New Zealand, Australia and the Netherlands.

Foreign Policy noted that it is "a sobering time" for the world's most fragile countries, what with the global financial meltdown, natural disasters, and government collapse.

"Yemen may not yet be front-page news, but it's being watched intently these days in capitals worldwide. A perfect storm of state failure is now brewing there... Many worry Yemen is the next Afghanistan: a global problem wrapped in a failed state.

"It's not just Yemen. The financial crisis was a near-death experience for insurgency-plagued Pakistan, which remains on IMF life support...All indications are that 2009 will bring little to no reprieve," the journal said.
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Monday, June 29, 2009

World's 15 Most Highest-Paid Sportsmen

World´s 15 Most Highest-Paid Sportsmen

No. 15 Alex Rodriguez (Tie for Postion #11)
$32 million
A-Rod earns little off the field these days but makes the cut thanks to his historic 10-year, $275 million contract he signed with the Yankees after the 2007 season. The deal paid A-Rod $27 million last year and is worth $32 million this season. He also got $1 million in January as part of the $10 million signing bonus in the deal. 

No. 14 Lewis Hamilton (Tie for Postion #11)
$32 million
Hamilton is often compared to Tiger Woods for his breakout performance at an early age as a black athlete in a predominantly white sport. Hamilton won the 2008 Formula One World Championship by a single point and became the youngest driver to win the title at 23. Last summer, Reebok inked Hamilton to a multimillion- dollar deal to be a "global brand ambassador." 
No. 13 Oscar De La Hoya (Tie for Postion #11)
$32 million
Boxing´s Golden Boy hung up his gloves after one last mega-fight in December against Manny Pacquiao that earned De La Hoya $30 million. He retires with the record for all-time pay-per-view buys of 14.1 million and PPV revenue of $696 million. 
No. 12 Shaquille O´Neal (Tie for Postion #11)
$33 million
Shaq experienced a renaissance on the court this year returning to the All-Star game where he shared the MVP Award with former teammate and nemesis Kobe Bryant. Off-the-court Shaq continues to pile up sales of his low-cost Shaq and Dunkman brands of shoes, which now top 75 million pairs since he launched the first line in 1996. Shaq has reached a new audience through Twitter where he has 1.2 million followers. 
No. 11 Roger Federer (Tie for Postion #11)
$33 million
Federer cemented his position as the greatest tennis player ever when he won his 14th Grand Slam title and completed a career Grand Slam by winning the French Open this month. Federer also passed Pete Sampras in October to become the all-time leader in career prize money and has earned $48 million since turning pro in 1998. 
No. 10 Dale Earnhardt Jr.
$34 million
Earnhardt was chosen as Nascar´s most popular driver for a sixth straight year in 2008 despite winning only one race during the past two seasons. His merchandise sales were twice the total of any other driver. Earnhardt´s biggest personal sponsorship deals are with Adidas, Chevrolet, Polaris, Wrangler and Nationwide Insurance, which he added this year. 
No. 9 Valentino Rossi
$35 million
The Doctor won his eighth World Championship in 2008 after two straight years of falling short of the title. The biggest star in motorcycle racing earns $16 million annually from his contract to ride for Yamaha and his earnings more than double when you count licensing income, bonuses and endorsement deals with the likes of energy drink Monster. 
No. 8 Manny Pacquiao (Tie for Postion #6)
$40 million
Pac-Man hogged the boxing spotlight over the past year with victories in two blockbuster fights against Oscar De La Hoya in December and Ricky Hatton in March that combined generated more than $100 million in pay-per-view revenue in the U.S. A member of Time magazine´s 100 Most Influential People, Pacquiao plans to run for political office when his
 days in the ring are over. 
No. 7 Phil Mickelson (Tie for Postion #6)
$40 million
Playing second fiddle to Tiger Woods has proven very lucrative for the world´s second-ranked player. His most lucrative deal is with Callaway, which signed Mickelson to a five-year extension this year. Other sponsors include Barclay´s, Exxon, KPMG and Rolex. Mickelson has won $54 million in prize money during his career, third all-time behind Woods and Vijay Singh. 
No. 6 LeBron James (Tie for Postion #6)
$40 million
The NBA´s MVP led the Cleveland Cavaliers to the league´s best record and had a playoff performance for the ages this year, but his team was bounced from the playoffs by the Orlando Magic in the Conference Finals. His free agency next summer has teams maneuvering to get under the salary cap in hopes of signing King James. The Cavs can offer the biggest contract under NBA salary rules, but James might go in search of a bigger market.
No. 5 David Beckham
$42 million
Becks is far from the best player on the pitch, but he is still the most famous which is why companies like Adidas, Giorgio Armani and Motorola pay him millions for his endorsement. Beckham spent five months on loan this year playing for AC Milan before his planned return to play for the Los Angeles Galaxy in July when the MLS season is half over. 
No. 4 Kimi Raikkonen (Tie for Postion #2)
$45 million
Formula One´s highest-paid driver finished a disappointing third in the World Championship standings last year after winning the title in 2007. This year has been even worse for the Iceman who sits in 10th place in the current standings. Ferrari resigned Raikkonen in September to a one-year contract extension keeping the Finn behind the wheel for Ferrari through 2010. 
No. 3 Michael Jordan (Tie for Postion #2)
$45 million
MJ retired as a player for the third and presumably final time six years ago, but he is still the most famous athlete in the United States. The Jordan Brand is approaching $1 billion in sales for Nike which turned Jordan into a marketing phenomenon. Jordan is on the short list of potential buyers for the Charlotte Bobcats where he is head of basketball operations and a minority owner. 
No. 2 Kobe Bryant (Tie for Postion #2)
$45 million
Bryant secured his place among the NBA´s all-time greats when he won his fourth NBA title with the Los Angeles Lakers in June. The Black Mamba´s popularity is at its zenith as his No. 24 jersey is the top seller in the U.S., Europe and China. Bryant pads his $21 million Lakers salary through endorsement deals with Nike, Upper Deck, Activision and VitaminWater. 
No. 1 Tiger Woods
$110 million
Woods has earned almost $900 million in prize money, endorsements and appearance fees during his 13-year professional golf career and next year is poised to become the first athlete to earn $1 billion during a career. Woods racked up more than twice the earnings of any other athlete over the past 12 months despite being sidelined for eight months after knee surgery thanks to lucrative endorsement deals with Accenture, Gillette and Nike as well as a thriving golf course design business.
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Hillary Clinton saying the truth



Hillary: "We also have a history kind of moving in and out of Pakistan. Let's remember here. The people we are fighting today, we funded twenty years ago and we did it because we were locked in trouble with Soviet Union they invaded Afghanistan and we didn't want to see them controlling central Asia and we went to work. It was president Regan in partnership with congress led by democrat’s who said you know what? Loving! Pretty good idea! lets deal with the ISI in the Pakistani military lets go recruit Mujahidin, that’s great, lets get some to come from Saudi Arabia and other places importing their WAHABI brand of Islam so that we can go to beat the Soviet Union and guess what? They retreated, they lost billion of dollars and it led to the collapse Soviet Union. So there is a very strong argument which is presence a bad investment in Soviet Union but lets be careful what we saw because we were harvest. So we then left Pakistan! we said OK fine you deal with the Stingers that we left all over your country, you deal with the mines that are along the border and by the way we don't want to do any thing with you actually we were functioning you. So we stopped dealing with the Pakistani military and with ISI....."
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Footage of a teenage girl dying on the street in Tehran



Footage of a teenage girl dying on the street in Tehran has helped to rally anti-government protesters inside Iran and around the world.

Neda, who is thought to have been no older than 16, bleeding to death.

A message posted with the original footage on YouTube alleges she was intentionally shot in the chest.

"I am a doctor, so I rushed to try to save her," the video's poster said.

"But the impact of the gunshot was so fierce that the bullet had blasted inside the victim's chest, and she died in less than two minutes.
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Thursday, June 25, 2009

Bodies of Air France captain, steward found

CNN) -- Search crews have recovered the bodies of the flight captain and a steward from the Air France flight that crashed off the coast of Brazil.
A Brazilian diver floats on wreckage of Flight 447 earlier this month. The search for more debris continues.

A Brazilian diver floats on wreckage of Flight 447 earlier this month. The search for more debris continues.

The two flight members are among the victims that have been identified, Air France said in a statement Thursday.

About a dozen victims have been identified among roughly 50 bodies recovered from the crash of Flight 447, which killed 228 people on June 1, authorities in Brazil said this week.

Crews continue to search for bodies, wreckage and flight-data recorders that apparently rest deep on the ocean floor. Data from the recorders may be crucial in helping investigators determine what caused the plane to crash. Video Watch more wreckage recovered from crash »

Autopsies conducted on some of the 50 bodies found so far show they suffered broken bones, including arms, legs and hips, Brazilian authorities have told French investigators, according to Paul-Louis Arslanian, head of the French accident investigation board.

Such injuries suggest that the plane broke apart in midair, experts have said.

Asked about that theory, Air France Chief Executive Pierre-Henri Gourgeon told France's RTL radio this week that he would not go that far.

"What I know is that the investigators would like to know the causes of death," Gourgeon said. "That knowledge of causes of death will better clarify what exactly happened. Were the victims killed before the impact, or during impact?"

Searchers have found dozens of pieces of debris in the water and think they know the general location of the wreck, but Arslanian said this week that there is a chance the entire aircraft may never be found.

Air France plans to pay relatives of the victims an initial compensation equivalent to about $24,500, or 17,500 euros, for each victim, Gourgeon has said.

The airliner said this week that it has been in touch with about 1,800 relatives of the people who died when the Airbus A330 crashed, but that it has been difficult tracing the relatives of all 228 victims

"The modern world is different and we often have only a cell phone, and as you can imagine, this cell phone is unfortunately in the aircraft," Gourgeon said. "So we probably (will put in) more hours to access all the relatives."

The company is also providing families with counseling, he said.

The were 32 different nationalities present on Flight 447.

Source: CNN
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Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Ten reasons why Team India crashed out of ICC -Twenty20 World Cup 2009

 
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1) Complacency - There seemed to be an air of 'nothing-can-go-wrong' in the team's approach. They appeared to feel all along that the Cup was rightfully theirs and that no other team had the fire power to gun them down. That they lost to both the West Indies and England, two of the less formidable teams in the draw, indicated a sense of false superiority which did not result in runs on the board or wickets in the bag.
 

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2) Sehwag's unavailability - Despite a star-studded line-up, India had no other batsman who could scare the wits out of the opposition bowlers quite like Virender Sehwag does. Yuvraj Singh is India's batting hero in this version of the game, but the task proved too much even for him, in the absence of the Sultan of Multan, whose shoulder injury cost India dear..
 
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3) Wrong team selection - India bungled by playing an extra bowler in a batsman oriented format of the game. As a result, there was not enough ammunition in the late middle order to test the opposition seriously enough. Dinesh Karthik should have played instead of Ravinder Jadeja in the match against England. Yusuf Pathan and Rohit Sharma could have bowled spin along with Yuvraj Singh to fill the breach. Ishant Sharma could have been dropped in favour of Praveen Kumar whose swing bowling was suited to English conditions. RP Singh should have played all the matches, given that he was the highest wicket taker in the IPL, and the in-form bowler in the team!
 
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4) Fielding lapses - In the match against the West Indies especially and also on some other occasions, misfielding hurt India badly. Two clear boundaries went through the legs of the fielders against the Windies, and could have made the difference in a close match. More over, India's field placing was such that the slower fielders in the team found the ball coming towards them on more occasions than did the best fielders. Ishant Sharma and Zaheer Khan were
 
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5) Easy early matches - A factor that Team India could not do anything about, given their top-seeded billing! They had Bangladesh and Ireland for company in their group and found them to be easy meat. But the lack of serious opposition at that stage meant that they had to suddenly up the ante against better teams in the super-league, which they could not manage!
 
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6) Jadeja's dilemma - By pushing green-horn Ravinder Jadeja up the order the team management exposed him to some accurate and hostile bowling from the England pacers in the crucial tie at Lords. Jadeja is a talented player and had claimed two key wickets with his left-arm spin earlier in the match but he appeared to be overawed by the occasion and could not really handle the pressure. In a match that India lost by just 3 runs, Jadeja's 22 off 30 balls was surely a match-losing effort.
 
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7) Short-pitched challenge - The manner in which the West Indian fast bowlers, followed by their English counterparts, tested India's top order with short-pitched bowling was revelatory. Rohit Sharma, Gautam Gambhir and Suresh Raina just could not get going and were tied down and then forced to find ungainly ways of hitting out or getting out while facing the bouncy stuff. India's top order has seldom looked as ruffled as it did in this tournament. Perhaps a realization that the conditions in England are such that they require pure cricketing shots in the first few overs may have done the trick
 
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8) Dhoni was out of sorts - Captain cool, MS Dhoni kept wickets reasonably well, and marshalled his forces to the best of his ability, but his batting was a let down. Even in the match against England when he and Pathan almost chased down the target, he could not really get the big shots going. His bat seemed to have lost its potency, for his shots simply lacked the explosiveness that they are known for.
 
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9) Media trouble - Another factor was surely the off-the-field distraction especially the manner in which the Sehwag issue was dealt with.. The media flayed the present Captain's attitude for the first time ever and the foolhardy attempt at displaying a sense of camaraderie by presenting the whole team at a Press conference was most bizarre.
 
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10) Too much cricket - The current Indian team plays all around the year and big matches obviously lose their aura for the players when so much cricket is played. This was the World Cup after all, but from the look of them, Team India could well have been playing any other international series. Gautam Gambhir, who has been the most prolific scorer in world cricket in the past one year, looked totally jaded, and exemplified the mal-effects of excessive international cricket. Fans of the Indian team are distraught and shocked at their early exit from the ICC World Twenty 20. Let's see if the team can re-group from here and win back our admiration in the coming months.
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Monday, June 22, 2009

Shahrukh Khan (Maloon) Gustakhe Rasool



Are you Shahrukh Khan's fan?

Time to slap on his face!!!





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We are the Champions (Alhamdullilah)

Pakistan: We are the Champions (Alhamdullilah)



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In Lahore
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In Karachi
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In Karchi, big TV Screen
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In Islamabad

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Invite your mail contacts to join your friends list with Windows Live Spaces. It's easy! Try it!
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