Weekly EHTASABI AMAL Lahore ھفت روذھ احتسابی عمل لاھور

Internet giant Google Inc. is considering a plan to offer paid cable-TV services to consumers, a move that could unleash a new wave of competition within the traditional TV business. Google has looked at ways to expand a previously announced project to build a high-speed Internet service in Kansas City, Mo., and Kansas City, Kan., adding video and phone service in a mirror of offerings from cable and telecom companies, according to people briefed on its plans. As a result, Google has discussed distributing major TV channels from companies like Walt Disney Co., Time Warner Inc. and Discovery Communications Inc. as part of the video service, though the discussions were exploratory and no final decisions have been made. Enlarge Image In September Google hired a former cable-TV executive, Jeremy Stern, who is spearheading talks with media companies, some of the people briefed on the plans said. A Google spokesman said the company doesn't comment on rumor or sp...

ISLAMABAD: A flurry of contradictory statements by the information minister and the commerce minister in a single day kept the answer to the question unclear: has Islamabad given India the status of the most-favoured nation (MFN) or not? The issue of granting MFN status has been much-hyped in recent days, especially since the prime ministers of India and Pakistan are expected to meet during the Nov 10-11 Saarc summit in Maldives. A cabinet meeting on Wednesday was to discuss the normalisation of trade with India. Information Minister Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan told a crowded press conference that the cabinet meeting presided over by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani had ‘unanimously’ decided to grant India the MFN status to improve trade relations between the two countries. Defending the coalition government’s decision, she said the step was taken in view of national and geo-strategic interests. “All stakeholders were taken into confidence, including our military and defence institutions,”...

Judge sentences Pakistan cricketers, agent to jail By ROB HARRIS el.icio.us LONDON A British judge sent three Pakistan cricketers and an agent to prison on Thursday for their involvement in one of the biggest fixing scandals to tarnish the sport. Former captain Salman Butt received 2 1/2 years, the longest term of the three players. Mohammad Asif was sentenced to 1 year, while 19-year-old Mohammad Amir will serve six months. Agent Mazhar Majeed was sentenced to 2 years, 8 months. All four may be released for good behavior after serving half their terms. The players were found guilty of conspiring with Majeed to bowl deliberate no-balls as part of a betting scam during the test match against England at Lord's last year. Judge Jeremy Cooke told Southwark Crown Court that the offenses were "so serious that only a sentence of imprisonment will suffice to mark the nature of the crimes and to deter any other cricketer, agent or anyone else who considers corrupt activity of this k...

Google revamped its Google+ Android app Monday sprucing up the social network's mobile front door with a cleaner interface, more functions, and a promise of improved battery life. The Android app (now Version 2.1) is available for download at  Android Market . Google's Ben Eidelson  announced the update  on his Google+ account, noting that the app's developers worked closely with the Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) team. "So you'll see the same attention to beauty and simplicity in our new design," he writes. Along with a de-cluttered interface the app features bigger photos in Google+'s image gallery, which now more closely resemble Microsoft's Metro UI with big tiles filling up the screen. In your Circles you can now see a preview of who is in each circle with a lineup of their photos. The posting and hangout screens also received a refresh and new controls, while profiles have been changed to be more navigable and look a little slicker. Another s...

LAHORE: The wife of Pakistan’s former captain Salman Butt gave birth to a baby boy just minutes before her husband was found guilty Tuesday of a “spot-fixing” betting scam during a match against England. The 27-year-old’s father told AFP by telephone from Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore that the baby was born 30 minutes before the verdict — news that was splashed immediately all over Pakistani television stations. “Salman Butt has a baby boy 30 minutes before the verdict came,” his father, Zulfiqar Butt, told AFP, without giving the baby’s name. “It’s a matter of great grief for us that Butt has been found guilty. We hope the Almighty will bring him out of this trouble because these are very difficult times for him and the family,” he added. It is Butt’s first son — he already has a daughter. The former Test captain was convicted at Southwark Crown Court of conspiracy to obtain and accept corrupt payments and conspiracy to cheat at gambling, while fast bowler Mohammad Asif was ...

A suspected drone attack on Sunday reportedly killed as many as six militants, after several missiles were fired on a car in the Datta Khel area of North Waziristan ( Dawn ,  ET ,  AJE ,  AFP ,  CNN ). Pakistani officials reported Friday that up to 13 militants, possibly including Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) commander Taj Gul Mehsud, were killed last week in a drone strike on a compound in Mir Ali ( Reuters ). The rash of strikes recently prompted criticism  this weekend from Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani as well as Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar ( Dawn ,  ET ).  A PPP minister in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, Amjad Khan Afridi, survived an attack by militants on his vehicle Monday, while in Karachi an activist for a party linked to the banned Sipah-e-Sihaba Pakistan (SSP) was killed by unidentified gunmen ( Dawn ,  AFP ,  Dawn ). Elsewhere in the province, a suicide bomber killed two policemen Sunday in Nowshera ( BB...

LAHORE:  Shahbaz Sharif addressed the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) rally in Lahore with an unequivocal demand for President Asif Ali Zardari to resign. The Punjab chief minister said that corruption had reached unprecedented levels and the people of Pakistan were fed up – and that his party would not rest until its ongoing movement against the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP)-led coalition government was complete. Shahbaz was in a fiery mood as he rallied party workers. Evoking anti-government unrest in Egypt earlier this year, Shahbaz said that if Zardari failed to step down, his party would “make sure there is a Tahrir Square in every large city of the country.” He even went as far as asking the crowd to start rationing their food, because, after Moharram, which ends in mid-December, his party would lead a nationwide protest and might have to “live on the roads.” The PML-N, in power in Punjab but in opposition in the centre, called the protest to increase momentum for pop...

Pakistani cricket star-turned-opposition politician Imran Khan drew as many as 100,000 people to a rally in Lahore Sunday, where Khan lambasted the country's leading political figures as well as the United States ( NYT ,  Post ,  AP ,  AFP ,  ET ,  Tel ,  Dawn ,  DT ). Khan called the demonstration part of a "tsunami," and said that, "My message to America is that we will have friendship with you, but we will not accept any slavery." The turnout surprised many politicians and analysts who had previously regarded Khan, whose Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) party holds no seats in the country's parliament, as a marginal figure ( ET ,  Dawn ,  ET ,  Dawn ,  ET ). The rally comes after a much smaller protest Friday, when 2,000 people came out in Islamabad at Khan's urging to protest American drone strikes  in Pakistan ( AFP ,  ET ). And the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), a member of the country's ruling coalition led by the P...