NY’s LaGuardia airport reopens after bomb scare

NEW YORK: Authorities temporarily closed one of the terminals at New York's busy LaGuardia airport on Saturday morning and took a man into custody after discovering what turned out to be a fake bomb in his bag. Most of the airport's main terminal was closed at 5:30 a.m./0930 GMT and travelers were allowed to return about 3 1/2 hours later.

Jack Kelly, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, said the terminal's Concourse C, where the man was taken into custody, would remain closed until a crime scene investigation had been completed.

Kelly described the suspect as emotionally disturbed and said his bag contained batteries and wires. A police bomb squad was called in and local media reports described the bag's contents as a fake bomb that was not dangerous.

Officials of the Port Authority, which operates the New York City's three major airports, were working with affected airlines to reroute some travelers. -Reuters

Pak cruise into World Junior squash semi-finals

KARACHI: Pakistan’s Aurangzeb Mehmund and Maria Toor secured their places in the semi-finals of the men’s and women’s competitions at the World Junior squash championships after wining their respective quarter-finals at the Indian Squash Academy in Chennai.

Aurangzeb shocked Frenchman Lucas Serme 8-11, 11-9, 7-11, 11-8, 11-8 in the 93-minute match.

The 16-year-old Aurangzeb will now face Malaysia’s Ivan Yuen in the semi-final.

Another Pakistani, Farhan Zaman, seeded eighth, failed to pull an upset and lost his quarter-final against fourth seed Egypt’s Andrew Wagih Shoukry 8-11, 7-11, 8-11.

Meanwhile, Maria Toor overpowered Egypt’s Kanzy Emad El-Defrawy 6-11, 11-4, 11-9, 8-11, 11-8 in 47 minutes.

In semi-finals, Maria faces another Egyptian 13-year-old Nour El Sherbini who produced the biggest shock in women’s quarter-finals when she defeated second seed Heba El Torky 7-11, 11-8, 9-11, 13-11, 11-8 in 61 minutes.—PPI

Microsoft on verge of Yahoo search deal

SAN FRANCISCO: Microsoft Corp. appears to have finally locked up rival Yahoo Inc. in a long-awaited Internet search partnership aimed at narrowing Google Inc.’s commanding lead in the most lucrative piece of the online advertising market.

The details of the Microsoft-Yahoo alliance are expected to be announced Wednesday, according to The Wall Street Journal and a technology blog affiliated with the newspaper, All Things D, which both cited undisclosed people familiar with the discussions.

Both Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft and Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo declined to comment late Tuesday.

Microsoft has an added incentive to unveil the terms of the partnership within the next day because its annual meeting with analysts is Thursday. It would make sense for Microsoft to use that forum to explain its rationale for the Yahoo alliance, said Brigantine Advisors analyst Colin Gillis.

Based on the published reports, the deal may not be as far-reaching as many investors envisioned.

Yahoo won’t get any cash payments in advance from Microsoft, according to the reports. That development could disappoint investors. Yahoo Chief Executive Carol Bartz had pledged she would join forces with Microsoft only for ‘boatloads of money.’

Instead, it appears the two companies will split the revenue generated from the search ads on their Web sites. The reports indicated that Yahoo will handle the ad sales and customer service while Microsoft’s technology will power the search results and identify the appropriate commercial results to display.

Microsoft, the world’s largest software maker, has been courting Yahoo for several years in hopes of expanding its share of the lucrative online search market.

After being repeatedly rebuffed, Microsoft launched an unsolicited bid to buy Yahoo in its entirety. With co-founder Jerry Yang at the helm, Yahoo put up such staunch resistance that Microsoft withdrew its last offer of $47.5 billion, or $33 per share, nearly 15 months ago.

Yahoo shares have been sagging ever since, although they have been rising in recent weeks in anticipation of a Microsoft search deal. The stock gained 22 cents to close Tuesday at $17.22, then climbed another 17 cents in extended trading.

Microsoft is counting on Yahoo’s search engine, which ranks No. two with a worldwide market share of eight per cent, to pose a more formidable challenge to Google, which holds 67 per cent of the global audience, according to the most recent data from research firm comScore Inc. In the United States, Google’s share is 65 per cent compared to roughly 20 per cent for Yahoo.

Despite spending billions to upgrade its search engine, Microsoft still held just a three per cent share worldwide and eight per cent in the US As part of its latest improvements, Microsoft renamed its search engine Bing. It’s unclear whether Yahoo will be required to promote the Bing brand on its highly trafficked Web site as part of a deal with Microsoft. — AP

Obama sees ‘beginning of the end’ of recession

RALEIGH: The United States may be seeing ‘the beginning of the end of the recession,’ President Barack Obama said on Wednesday, as the world’s biggest economy combats its worst slump in decades.

‘It’s true that we’ve stopped the freefall. The market is up and the financial system is no longer on the verge of collapse,’ Obama said. ‘So, we may be seeing the beginning of the end of the recession.’

Speaking at a town hall in North Carolina, where unemployment is around 10 per cent, Obama cautioned: ‘that’s little comfort if you’re one of the folks who have lost their job and haven’t found another.’

He also questioned the cover of the current edition of Newsweek magazine, which pronounced that ‘The Recession is Over.’

‘I bet you found that news a little startling. I know I did,’ Obama said.

The United States is now losing jobs ‘at nearly half’ the rate of when he took office in January, he added in defending his plans to stimulate the economy.

In an attempt to prod the economy back to recovery, Obama signed a 787-billion-dollar stimulus package in February aimed at ending the worst US economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

The US economy has been in recession since December 2007, according to the economic panel accepted as the arbiter of business cycles.

The economy suffered a 5.5 per cent pace of decline in the first quarter, on the heels of a 6.3 per cent slide in the fourth quarter of 2008. But many forecasters are expecting growth to resume in the second half of 2009.

The US Federal Reserve this month raised its outlook for 2009 and 2010 economic output, projecting a rebound in the second half of 2009 that would leave the contraction for the year at between 1.0 and 1.5 per cent.

For 2010, the new Fed outlook saw growth in a range of 2.1 to 3.3 per cent, slightly better than its forecast from April.

The government’s first estimate for gross domestic product in the second quarter to June 30 is to be released on Friday. The consensus forecast by private economists is for a 1.5 per cent rate of decline. —AFP

US$ 2.4 million Revitalisation of Forodhani Park in Zanzibar’s Historic Stone Town Completed

Zanzibar, 29 July 2009 – The US$ 2.4 million restoration of Forodhani Park in Zanzibar’s Historic Stone Town has been completed by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC).

The revitalisation project has transformed the heavily used park – one of the last open spaces in this densely populated World Heritage Site – and upgraded social and recreational amenities in the historic Park. Works included the restoration of the walkways, landscape improvements, infrastructure upgrading including lighting, sewage, drainage and civic amenities and the rehabilitation of the seawall fronting the Park.

The Park, once the location of the main port and a landing point for the former Sultans of Zanzibar has remained a central meeting place for civic discourse, leisure and entertainment.

In the last decade, stresses caused by the popularity of the Park took a toll. It was clear that an important part of the patrimony of Stone Town was in need of revitalisation. The rehabilitation project was first proposed by the Trust in 2001 as part of a programme for comprehensive seafront rehabilitation in Stone Town. It was intended to be a logical extension of the work already completed by AKTC in Kelele Square. Following meetings between President Amani Abeid Karume and His Highness the Aga Khan, agreements for the restoration of the Park were signed.

The Trust has been active in Zanzibar since 1989, successfully completing the restoration of the Old Dispensary, now renamed the Stone Town Cultural Centre, and the old Customs House, as well as the rehabilitation of Kelele Square. Eleven buildings in Stone Town – many of them on the point of collapse – were restored as part of a programme to show the building and restoration techniques needed to preserve this World Heritage Site. The Trust has also worked with the Government and international partners – such as the Government of Sweden and the Ford Foundation – to provide training workshops on conservation practice and traditional construction methods for craftsmen, building professionals and Government officers.

The creation of an Indian Ocean Maritime Museum is also proposed. The Museum will showcase the maritime cultures of the Indian Ocean, including the display of naval vessels and other artefacts that illustrate the history of the commercial and cultural contacts between Africa, the Middle East and the Indian sub-continent.

The restoration of Forodhani Park is intended to be part of a larger seafront rehabilitation programme, encompassing: construction of the seawall; underground infrastructure including water, storm and sewer lines; and, the creation of a pedestrian promenade, including planting, street lighting and street furniture along the sea side.

Police catch al-Qaida-linked group member

ISLAMABAD: Police officials said Saturday they had arrested a member of an outlawed, al-Qaida-linked group that was suspected of involvement in the 2002 beheading of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.

Rao Shakir, a purported member of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, was arrested on the outskirts of Islamabad late Friday, a police official said.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.

Lashkar-e-Jhangvi is a banned Sunni Muslim militant group linked to both the Taliban and al-Qaida and has been blamed for killing scores of minority Shia's across Pakistan.

Its members have been accused of attacks against Westerners in Karachi, including Pearl's killing and the September 2008 truck bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad.

The group is also believed responsible for two failed assassination attempts against Pakistan's former military ruler, Pervez Musharraf, as well as for several suicide bombings, including one that targeted a bus of Pakistan's premier spy agency, the ISI.

Another investigator, who also spoke on condition of anonymity for the same reason, said police were questioning Shakir over five bombings.

He said authorities believe he is also responsible for facilitating other terrorist attacks and that he provided safe houses for militants.

Pearl was abducted from Karachi in 2002 while researching a story on Islamic militancy. His remains were later found in a shallow grave on eastern outskirts of the city. -AP

Four NATO troops killed in Afghan insurgency

KABUL: Following the bloodiest month for foreign troops stationed in Afghanistan, foreign officials announce the death of four more US-led soldiers in the war-ravaged country.

Senior US military officials in Kabul confirmed that three American troops were killed on Saturday when a roadside explosion ripped through an army convoy in the troubled southern Kandahar Province.

More than two hundred foreign soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan this year.

A Saturday statement by the French military confirms that a French soldier was also killed in deadly clashes with Taliban militants north of Kabul. Two other soldiers were wounded in the clashes.

Deaths among US-led NATO troops have also soared this year, particularly in the insurgency-hit southern and eastern provinces where deadly fighting is ongoing.

Seventy-four foreign troops -- including 43 Americans -- have so far been killed in militant attacks across Afghanistan during the five past weeks.

July was the deadliest month for international forces since the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.

Indian reply to Pak dossier received

ISLAMABAD: Spokesman Foreign Office of Pakistan has confirmed receipt of Indian replies to the questions regarding Mumbai attacks forwarded by Pakistan.

According to a statement issued here on Saturday, the FO spokesman Abdul Basit said India has handed over the replies to Pakistan High Commission.

He said Indian documents will be handed over to the concerned officials for their examination.

According to sources, the new Indian foreign secretary Nirupama Rao handed over the replies to the Pakistan Deputy High Commissioner.

Meanwhile, Indian Home Minister P Chidambaram talking to Indian media said Pakistan had sought more information regarding Mumbai attacks which has been provided to Pakistan.

Pakistan smashed again by Sri Lanka

DAMBULLA: Pakistan’s poor batting performance against Sri Lanka continued in the second One-day International when they were beaten again, by six wickets this time, here at the Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium on Saturday.

Sri Lanka is now leading the five-match series 2-0 as they had won Thursday's opening match at the same venue by 36 runs..

Chasing an easy target of 169 runs, Sri Lanka completed their second successive victory in 43.4 overs after they lost their four wickets on 74.

Chamara Kapugedera and Thilan Samaraweera with a 95-run fifth wicket unbeaten stand took their team to victory with 338 balls left.

Kapugedera made an unbeaten 67 with eight fours and a six while Samaraweera was 38 not out.

Veteran batsman Sanath Jajyasuriya scored 30 from 33 balls with five fours.

For Pakistan, seamers Abdul Razzaq and Mohammad Aamer and leg-spinner Shahid Afridi took one wicket each.

Earlier, Pakistan, sent in to bat by Sri Lankan captain Kumar Sangakkara in overcast conditions, never recovered after losing a wicket off the first ball of the match and were bundled out for 168 runs in 47 overs.

The 26 extras sent down by the Sri Lankan bowlers, including 18 wides, were the highest contributor in Pakistan's dismal batting.

Pakistan's gamble to play two 19-year-olds, Nasir Jamshed and Umar Akmal, in place of senior batsmen Mohammad Yousuf and Misbah-ul Haq did not pay off.

The tourists were reduced to 128-9 before the last pair of Mohammad Aamer (24 not out) and Saeed Ajmal (16) gave the top order a batting lesson by adding 40 runs.

Pakistan captain Younus Khan, who made 23, was the only other batsman to pass 20.

Debutant Umar, younger brother of the team's wicket-keeper Kamran Akmal, made a promising 18 during a fourth-wicket stand of 32 with Younus when he was caught behind off Angelo Mathews.

Shahid Afridi threw away his wicket with a wild slog off Muralitharan that was skied to deep mid-wicket.

Opener Jamshed was dismissed off the first ball of the innings when he chased a wide ball from Nuwan Kulasekera into the safe hands of Mahela Jayawardene at second slip and former captain Shoaib Malik was trapped leg-before by Thushara before he had score.

Pakistan were struggling at 87-7 before Abdul Razzaq (17) and Umar Gul (14) put on 38 for the eighth wicket to lift the total past the 100-run mark.

For Sri Lanka, left-arm seamer Thilan Thushara finished with 3-33 and off-spinner Muralitharan claimed 2-41 while Angelo Mathews, Nuwan Kulasekara and Sanath Jayasuriya took one wicket each.

The third match will be played at the same venue on Monday.