Take That announce first tour since Robbie reunion

LONDON: Take That will perform with its original line-up for the first time in 16 years, the boyband confirmed Tuesday as they revealed plans for their inaugural tour since Robbie Williams rejoined.
The British five-piece will play four nights at the City of Manchester Stadium in the group’s home town in June before four mammoth shows at London’s Wembley Stadium.
Band member Gary Barlow promised fans a big show but was keen not to reveal too much.
“We’ve got a little bit of a theme but we’re not going to give that away now,” he said.
“It will be a big production show. We're looking forward to coming up with big ideas for it to be a spectacular again.”
In the British Isles, Sunderland, Birmingham, Cardiff, Dublin and Glasgow will all play host to the reformed band before they head off to Europe.
The stars will play Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Hamburg, Dusseldorf and Munich as well as appearing at Milan’s famous San Siro stadium.
The group disbanded in 1996 after six years together, but reunited in 2005 to huge success in terms of record sales and concert tours.
Their last tour, “Circus Live” in 2009, became the fastest-selling of all time in Britain.
Williams, who acrimoniously left the band in 1995 to embark on a hugely successful solo career, rejoined in July of this year after patching up his differences with chief songwriter Barlow.
“I’m really looking forward to it,” the singer said.
“When I left I didn’t think I would ever say I’m really looking forward to dancing and rehearsing.
“The first time around there was a lot of power struggles with everybody. This time there just isn’t.” — AFP

Amnesty calls for Pak probe over Balohistan violence

ISLAMABAD: Rights group Amnesty International called on Pakistan Tuesday to investigate the alleged torture and killing of more than 40 political leaders and activists in Balohistan.
Amnesty said the cases have occurred in the last four months against a backdrop of increasing political unrest and Pakistani military activities in the southwestern province which borders Iran and Afghanistan.
Violence has surged this year in Balohistan and human rights activists have raised concerns about an increase in targeted killings in the province.
“The Pakistani government must act immediately to provide justice for the growing list of atrocities in Balohistan,” said Sam Zarifi, Amnesty International's Asia Pacific director.
“Baloh political leaders and activists are clearly being targeted and the government must do much more to end this alarming trend.”
Amnesty warned that bullet-ridden bodies of those who have been abducted, many showing signs of torture, are increasingly being found across Balohistan whereas previously bodies of the missing were rarely recovered.
Victims' relatives and activists often hold Pakistan's security forces and intelligence agencies responsible.
Amnesty said a previously unknown group, Sipah-e Shuhada-e Balohistan, has also claimed responsibility for some of the killings.
“The Pakistani government must show that it can and will investigate the Pakistani military and Frontier Corps, as well as intelligence agencies, who are widely accused of playing a role in these incidents,” said Zarifi.
Amnesty warned that the rise in disappearances and bodies being dumped has aggravated political tensions and led to reprisal killings by Baloh groups.
On August 14, gunmen shot dead at least 16 people in Balohistan. Amnesty said 17 people —all from Punjab province —were killed and that the Balohistan Liberation Army claimed responsibility.
In response to the report, Pakistan said it was working to implement a package of political and economic reforms, which was unveiled last November in a bid to grant the province more independence and boost wealth creation.
“The democratic government is trying its best to protect human rights as enshrined in the constitution,” said foreign ministry spokesman Abdul Basit.
There was no immediate comment from the military.

Pakistan to play Hong Kong in Asian Games opener

LAHORE: Pakistan will play its first match against Hong Kong on November 17 in the opener of 16th Asian Games at Guangzhou, China.

The hockey event of the Games will commence from November 15-25 with ten teams divided in two pools.

Pool A comprises South Korea, China, Malaysia, Singapore and Oman, while Pool B features Pakistan, India, Japan, Bangladesh and Hong Kong.

The Green Shirts will play their second match against Japan on November 18, third against India on November 20 and fourth and last pool match against Bangladesh on November 21.

India and Japan pose the real threat for Pakistan in an otherwise easy group but they will be up against it after facing severe criticism for their woeful performances at this year’s World Cup and Commonwealth Games.

Classification matches and semi finals will be played on November 23, while position matches and final match will be played on November 25.

Iran injects fuel into first nuclear reactor

TEHRAN: Iran began loading fuel into the core of its first atomic power plant on Tuesday, moving closer to the start up of a facility that leaders have touted as defying of international efforts to curtail the country's nuclear ambitions.
The Russian-built nuclear power plant in Bushehr has international approval and is supervised by the UN's nuclear agency. However, the UN security council has slapped four rounds of sanctions against Iran over a separate track of its nuclear program its efforts to refine uranium, which could eventually be used to create material for a weapon.
''Today, we witnessed an important development in the start up process. After fuel is injected into the heart of the reactor, the reactor door is closed. Then, it will take one or two months to reach a 40 or 50 per cent nominal power,'' Vice President Ali Akbar Salehi told a press conference broadcast on state TV. ''We hope the reactor will produce electricity by mid February.''
When the 1,000 megawatt plant was originally received the fuel in August, Salehi predicted it would produce electricity by November, but a leak in a storage pool delayed the process for months _ the latest setback for a reactor first commissioned in the 1970s.
The US recently withdrew its long-standing opposition to the plant after Russia satisfied concerns over how it would be fueled and the fate of the spent fuel rods.
Under a deal signed in 2005, Russia will provide nuclear fuel to Iran, then take back the spent fuel, a step meant as a safeguard to ensure it cannot be diverted into a weapons program. Iran has also agreed to allow the UN's nuclear agency to monitor Bushehr and the fuel deliveries.
Worries remain, however, over Iran's program to enrich uranium for nuclear fuel since the process can also be used to create weapons grade material, something Iran says it has no interest in doing.
The United States claims that the fuel deal with Russia shows Tehran does not need to enrich its own uranium, but Iran maintains it will build other nuclear power plants and has to have its own fuel source.
Iran is already producing its own nuclear fuel _ uranium enriched to about 3.5 per cent. It also has started a pilot program of enriching uranium to 20 per cent, which officials say is needed for a medical research reactor.
Weapons grade material has to be enriched to 90 per cent.
The Bushehr project dates backs to 1974, when Iran's US-backed Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi contracted with the German company Siemens to build the reactor. The company withdrew from the project after the 1979 Islamic revolution toppled the shah and brought hardline clerics to power.
In 1992, Iran signed a $1 billion deal with Russia to complete the project and work began in 1995.
Under the contract, the Bushehr nuclear power plant was originally scheduled to come on stream in July 1999 but the start up has been delayed repeatedly by construction and supply glitches.
Moscow has cited technical reasons for the delays, but Iranian officials have sporadically criticized Russia, some calling Moscow an ''unreliable partner.''
Russians began shipping fuel for the plant in 2007 and carried out a test-run in February 2009.
The Bushehr plant overlooks the Persian Gulf and is visible from several miles (kilometers) away with its cream-colored dome dominating the green landscape.
Soldiers maintain a 24-hour watch on roads leading up to the plant, manning anti-aircraft guns and supported by numerous radar stations. – AP

Iraq court sentences Tareq Aziz to death

BAGHDAD: Iraq's supreme criminal court sentenced former deputy prime minister Tareq Aziz to death on Tuesday, the first death sentence handed down against the long-time international face of the Saddam Hussein regime.
“The supreme criminal court issued an execution order against Tareq Aziz for his role in eliminating religious parties,” state television reported.
It said that the court also ordered death sentences against two other top Saddam lieutenants, former interior minister Saadoun Shaker and Abid Hamoud, the executed dictator's secretary.
All three were sentenced for their role in a crackdown on Shiites, which followed a 1982 assassination attempt against Saddam in Dujail, a mainly Shiite town north of Baghdad, the court's spokesman Mohammed Abdul Saheb said.
“The order was for the crackdown on religious parties which took place in the 1980s,” Abdul Saheb told AFP.
There was another bigger crackdown against Iraq's Shiite majority community following a 1991 uprising against Saddam.
By law, the death sentences have to be confirmed by the presidential council before being carried out.
Aziz's Jordan-based son Ziad told AFP that the death sentence against his father proved the revelations made about the Iraqi state by the whistleblower website WikiLeaks.
“The decision was an act of revenge against anybody and anything related to the past,” he said.
“It proves the credibility of the information published by WikiLeaks...This verdict is a disgrace,” said Ziad, who has lived in Amman with his family since 2003.
WikiLeaks published 391,832 classified US military documents on Iraq on Friday which its founder Julian Assange said showed the war was “a bloodbath on every corner” with numerous reports of abuse of detainees by Iraqi forces, often supported by medical evidence.
“My father had nothing to do with religious parties,” Ziad said, referring to the court verdict.
“He himself was a victim of a religious party, Al-Dawa,” currently led by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
Ziad was referring to a grenade attack against his father in a university in Baghdad in April 1980 as he delivered a speech. He was wounded in the attack.
“When did the court have the time to study the verdict? They did not listen to the defence. What kind of justice is this?” he asked.
Of the three former top officials sentenced to death on Tuesday, the urbane Aziz was by far the most prominent figure.
In 2009, he was jailed for 15 years for the 1992 execution of 42 Baghdad wholesalers and separately given a seven-year term for his role in expelling Kurds from Iraq's north. He pleaded not guilty on all counts.
Among Saddam's few surviving top cohorts, Aziz turned himself in to US forces in April 2003, days after the fall of Baghdad.
Named foreign minister in 1983 and then deputy prime minister in 1991, Aziz exploited his mastery of English to put a gloss on Saddam Hussein's murderous regime for two decades.
As Saddam's principal spokesman, the bespectacled Aziz -- the only Christian in the dictator's inner circle -- was a recognisable figure internationally whose rise was attributed to unswerving loyalty to his master.
Aziz's family has repeatedly called for his release from custody, saying the 74-year-old was in poor health suffering from heart and respiratory problems, high blood pressure and diabetes.
In September, Ziad Aziz said the Iraqi government wanted his father to die in Baghdad's Kadhmiyah jail and had shown no compassion for his declining health. – AFP

Indonesia tsunami sweeps away 10 villages: official

JAKARTA: Ten villages on a remote island chain in Indonesia have been swept away by a tsunami triggered by a powerful undersea earthquake, a disaster official said Tuesday.
At least 23 people have been killed and scores more remain missing after the 7.7 magnitude quake struck late Monday, setting off waves as high as three metres (10 feet) in the Mentawai islands west of the island of Sumatra.
“Ten villages have been swept away by the tsunami,” National Disaster Management Agency spokesman Agolo Suparto told AFP.

Paul the ‘psychic’ World Cup octopus dead

BERLIN: Paul the octopus, who shot to fame during this year’s football World Cup in South Africa for his flawless record in predicting game outcomes, has died, his aquarium in Germany said Tuesday.

“Management and staff at the Oberhausen Sea Life Centre were devastated to discover that oracle octopus Paul, who achieved global renown during the recent World Cup, had passed away overnight,” the aquarium said in a sombre statement.

“Paul amazed the world by correctly predicting the winners of all Germany’s World Cup clashes, and then of the final,” said Sea Life manager Stefan Porwoll.

“His success made him almost a bigger story than the World Cup itself... We had all naturally l, with the box he plumped for being deemed the likely winner.

His astonishing ability made him a global media phenomenon. His later predictions were carried live on rolling news channels in Germany.

But the art of football predicting became a dangerous job for the English-born clairvoyant.

He was slammed in the British press for treason after tipping Germany to beat his “home country” which they duly did, 4-1.

He then fell offside with bitter German fans who threatened to turn him into sushi after he correctly predicted a semi-final defeat for the Mannschaft against Spain.

Stung by Paul’s “treachery” at picking Spain over Germany in a semi-final, some sections of the 350,000-strong crowd watching the game on giant screens in Berlin sang anti-octopus songs.

The honour of Paul’s mother was also called into question in the stands, and Paul’s home aquarium received death-threat emails saying “we want Paul for the pan.”No less an authority than Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luiz Rodriguez Zapatero called for octopus bodyguards.

And Spanish Industry Minister Miguel Sebastian called for the creature to be given an “immediate” free transfer to Spain to “ensure his protection.”Paul’s fans need not despair too much at his death. The aquarium has already been grooming a successor, to be named Paul like his mentor.

Paul’s body is now in cold storage while the aquarium decides “how best to mark his passing.”

“We may decide to give Paul his own small burial plot within our grounds and erect a modest permanent shrine,” said Porwoll.

“While this may seem a curious thing to do for a sea creature, Paul achieved such popularity during his short life that it may be deemed the most appropriate course of action.” – AFP

Richard Holbrooke phones President Zardari

ISLAMABAD: US Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke on Tuesday telephoned President Asif Ali Zardari and discussed matters relating to the recently held Pak-US Strategic Dialogue.
They also discussed the struggle against militancy and extremism, the regional security situation, reimbursements of Coalition Support Fund arrears and reconstruction.
Rehabilitation efforts for the flood affected people also came under discussion. — APP

Asian pay TV to lose 2 billion US dollars to piracy: survey

HONG KONG: Piracy is expected to cost the Asian pay-TV industry more than two billion US dollars this year, a survey released Tuesday said, a problem that could ultimately “kill” the region's cable business.
The Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (CASBAA) said the cost of piracy could rise to 2.1 billion US dollars this year, a 7.5 per cent increase from last year's 1.9 billion dollar shortfall.
“This is a very disturbing problem and frankly it has the potential to kill the industry,” John Medeiros, CASBAA's deputy chief executive, told a press briefing at an annual industry conference in Hong Kong.
He criticised Asian governments for their “lax approach” in combating the growing problem, which usually entails illegal tampering with pay-TV hook-ups in homes and businesses to steal legitimate connections.
“We would like to see governments in Asia take a more proactive approach in educating consumers and restraining them from engaging in piracy,” he added.
Medeiros said the figures do not include revenues lost to Internet piracy.
He also warned about the spread of new piracy techniques including so-called “Dreamboxes”, which can decrypt cable and satellite TV signals.
“It's fair to say we're concerned about the spread of the problem,” he added.
Governments across the region lose at least 262 million US dollars annually in total in taxes from lost industry revenue, the survey added.
The worst-hit countries include Thailand, Pakistan and the Philippines, which are expected to lose 87 million dollars, 63 million dollars and 38 million dollars this year respectively, the survey said.
Medeiros described China as a “piracy incubator” due to huge pay TV demand in a country where cable is heavily restricted.
About 363 million homes in Asia subscribe to pay TV services, ahead of North America where pay TV reaches 121 million homes, according to industry research released at the conference.
But penetration rates in Asia lag other regions with cable TV reaching about 50 per cent of homes compared with about 88 per cent in North America and 62 per cent in western Europe. – AFP

Pakistan ranks 34th in global corruption index: TI

BERLIN: Pakistan dropped to 34th from 42nd in the ranking of global corruption index, a Transparency International report showed.
Afghanistan remains the world's second most corrupt country, and Iraq is not far behind. The annual report of TI found Somalia to be most corrupt country, followed by Afghanistan tied with Myanmar, and then Iraq.
Denmark, New Zealand and Singapore tied for first place as the most principled nations.
Of the 178 countries surveyed about public sector corruption, nearly three quarters fell below an index score of five on a scale where zero is the most corrupt and 10 is the least.
The group said Tuesday the overall results show that greater efforts must go into strengthening governance across the globe.