Seven LJ men planning high profile killings arrested

MULTAN: Police said Thursday they have foiled a plot to kill the country's prime minister, foreign minister and other senior police, army and government officials by arresting a group of seven militants in central Pakistan’s Bahawalpur district.
Senior police official Abid Qadri said authorities learned about the plot during an initial interrogation of militants, who were arrested late Wednesday after a shootout near a village in the district.
The militants opened fire when police tried to pull the suspects' car over for a routine check, Qadri said. Nobody was wounded or killed in the shooting, but two men managed to escape, he said.
''We have averted several high-profile attacks by arresting these terrorists,'' he told The Associated Press.
The men are all part of Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, which is a banned militant group linked to both the Taliban and al-Qaeda, Qadri said. The group has been blamed for attacking minority Shia worship places and killing Shias across Pakistan.
Some of the suspects arrested Wednesday are believed to have taken part in last year's attack on the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in Multan that killed 12 people, Qadri said.
He did not say how far along the men were in their alleged plot to kill Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and the others.
Qadri said the suspects also had plans to attack a key dam, a bridge and military installations. — AP

Ponting faces blowtorch on return to Australia

MELBOURNE: After enduring two stinging test defeats in India, Ricky Ponting will return home on Thursday with questions about Australia's form and his captaincy ringing in his ears a month before the Ashes start.

The gritty Tasmanian jetted off to India with confident predictions for a big home summer but may feel less bullish after the Australian bowlers were humbled on Wednesday on the way to a thumping seven-wicket loss in Bangalore.

The manner in which Australia capitulated, with maligned spinner Nathan Hauritz being picked off at will amid a generous field placement, prompted groans of despair from Australian commentators.

It also provoked an online roasting from Shane Warne, who questioned Ponting's tactics.

“How the hell can Hauritz bowl to this field?” Warne posted on Twitter. “Feeling for Hauritz, terrible!! What are these tactics? Sorry Ricky, but what are you doing?”
Ponting, as always, remained defiant in defeat.

“The scoreline was pretty flattering for the India team so we have to look at the positives we've created over the last couple of weeks,” he said.

“In saying that, all any of us can do when go back home is play the best cricket we can.”

While Warne predicted an angry Australia would hit back against arch-rivals England on home soil, where they have not lost an Ashes series in 24 years, Ponting's analysis of the positives could well be a quick exercise.

DUBIOUS DISTINCTION

After an emphatic win over Pakistan on neutral turf in England, the Australians crumbled in the return match and were comprehensively outplayed in India to slump to a three-match losing streak, their longest in 22 years.

Vice captain and pin-up boy Michael Clarke managed only 35 runs in four innings against India, while Marcus North cemented his reputation for inconsistency by scoring a breakthrough century in the first innings in Bangalore, only to fail dismally when another knock was required in the second.

Quicks Ben Hilfenhaus and Mitchell Johnson were dogged but ineffective for long periods, while Hauritz's confidence after a difficult series will be shot after his captain admitted he had tried to coach the bowler for more than a year.

The 35-year-old Ponting, who last year earned the dubious distinction of being only the second Australian captain to lose the Ashes to England twice, has talked of returning to England as captain in 2012 to erase his past disappointments.

Disappointed sections of Australia's cricket media have warned him not to get ahead of himself, despite at times appearing the lone bastion of resistance against a younger, more nimble Indian side.

“He's now lost five series, it may be time to say, 'Look mate, we've got Michael Clarke ready to go with a fresh mind, he can be captain and you focus on your batting and try to restore yourself to the level we know you're capable,'” former test bowler Geoff Lawson told local media. -Reuters

Petition in SC for recovery of written-off loans

ISLAMABAD: A petition was filed in the Supreme Court on Thursday requesting that loans written off from 1986 up till now should be recovered.
The petition was filed in the apex court's Lahore Registry.
The petition, filed by Barrister Zafarullah, stated that those who had their loans written off also included the Prime Minister's wife, the Chaudhry brothers, the Sharif family and other influential political and business personalities

Some charges dropped in Indian designer’s NY case

NEW YORK: Prosecutors on Wednesday dropped some of their slate of sex charges against Indian-born fashion designer Anand Jon Alexander, but he’s still fighting allegations of molesting nine would-be models.
Alexander remains convicted in a similar case in California. But one of his lawyers hailed Wednesday’s dismissal of some of the New York charges as a good step for the designer, who says he’s innocent of all the allegations.
“We’re very pleased about (the dismissal) because we think it’s the beginning of a case that’s going to be fought very hard in court,” attorney Adam Freedman said.
Born in India, Alexander – known professionally as Anand Jon – launched a fashion line in 1999 and built it into a high-flying career. He was featured on “America's Next Top Model,” worked with such celebrities as Paris Hilton and Mary J. Blige and was among 20 people profiled by Newsweek in 2006 as up-and-coming players in various industries.
Then sex assault allegations against Alexander began surfacing in 2007. He was convicted in Los Angeles the next year of sexually assaulting seven women and girls, some as young as 14. He was sentenced to 59 years to life in prison.
In New York, he was originally charged with preying on a dozen women after contacting them with offers of modeling opportunities.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office declined to say why prosecutors trimmed three women from the list. On Wednesday, a judge officially dismissed the charges related to those women.
Alexander, 37, has pleaded not guilty to rape and other charges in the New York case. — Reuters