Tag: Crisis

LAHORE - The present economic crisis in the country could be overcome by enhancing power supplies, increasing tax collection, improving governance, reducing internal and external debts and constructing the Kalabagh Dam through mutual consensus, participants of a discussion on the country's economic crisis at the Aiwan-e-Iqbal said on Tuesday. Pakistan Today Editor Arif Nizami, former finance ministers Dr Salman Shah and Sartaj Aziz, former industries minister Jahangir Tareen, former

THE HAGUE - The prosecutor of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon filed his indictment on Monday for the 2005 murder of premier Rafiq Hariri as Beirut's neighbours backed renewed mediation to calm rising tensions.
Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare submitted his long-awaited indictment under wraps, but speculation was rife that it named the Hezbollah militant group in connection with the massive car bombing that killed Hariri and 22 others on the Beirut seafront on Valentine's Day six

DUBLIN - Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen fought for his political life on Monday after his foreign minister announced he would vote against him in a snap party leadership election.
But while Foreign Minister Micheal Martin's challenge raised the stakes for Cowen, the government's chief whip predicted that the revolt against the prime minister would fizzle out and Martin received little support in the press. Cowen's allies were spending the day ensuring support for Tuesday's

BRUSSELS - Divided Belgium headed into political and economic fog on Thursday after leaders of its Dutch and French communities missed a fresh chance at ending three years of instability.
After months of failed efforts to set up a coalition government, the latest bid to sit politicians at the same table flopped Wednesday when the country's powerful Flemish separatists said "Neen", or No, to a fresh compromise bid. The collapse of the much-anticipated negotiations, geared to give

KUWAIT CITY - Kuwait's premier on Wednesday narrowly survived a parliament vote seen as a serious bid to oust him over a police crackdown, but the opposition vowed to keep up their bid to unseat him.
Twenty-five MPs voted in support of Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Mohammad al-Ahmad al-Sabah, a nephew of the oil-rich Gulf state's ruler, while 22 were against him and one abstained, speaker Jassem al-Khorafi said.
"In accordance with the constitution, parliament reaffirms its

CAIRO - Egyptian rights groups said on Tuesday the government's mishandling of sectarian rifts in the country created an environment that allowed attacks such as the New Year's Day church bombing.
The attack, in which a suicide bomber apparently detonated his explosives outside a church killing 21 people, led to three days of rioting and clashes between Copts and police.
It came after two years of mounting sectarian tensions that began with the January 2009 killing of six

ISLAMABAD - The year 2010 saw Jamiat Ulema-I-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) flip-flopping, as it kept trying to tie the two poles together i.e. Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and the religious parties of the country simultaneously.
JUI-F's desire to ride two boats at the same time- pursuing for the revival of Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) while being part of the PPP-led government-and its maneuvers to appease the both, landed the JUI-F where it neither the confidence of PPP nor that of

BELFAST - Anger mounted in Northern Ireland on Thursday as ministers prepared to hold a crisis meeting to discuss why tens of thousands of people have been without water supplies for more than a week.
Doctors warned the continued shortages could spark a public health crisis as engineers struggled to repair thousands of pipes which sprang leaks following some of the coldest weather in the British province for decades.
Some 34,000 people were still without running water on

BRUSSELS - European Union leaders agreed on Thursday to create a permanent financial safety net from 2013 and the European Central Bank moved to increase its firepower to fight the debt crisis that has rocked the euro zone.
But at Germany's insistence, the 27 leaders said the long-term crisis-resolution mechanism, to be added to the EU's governing treaty, could only be activated "if indispensable to safeguard the stability of the euro as a whole". They also decided there was no

PARIS/BRUSSELS: Two leading international financial institutions faulted Germany for aggravating the euro zone crisis by spooking debt markets, but Berlin seems set to get its way at this week's European Union summit.
EU leaders are not expected to announce new measures to ease market concerns about the region's debt, though one source said intense efforts were being made behind the scenes to find ways to inoculate Spain early next year against the threat of contagion. The Bank

ROME: Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi warned members of parliament they risked plunging Italy into the middle of the euro zone's debt crisis if they vote against him in a no-confidence vote due on Tuesday.
Speaking in parliament a day before a showdown that could force him from office and trigger early elections, Berlusconi said his government had kept Italy out of the crisis but that the threat of instability remained. "It is madness to initiate a crisis without any

LAHORE: "Who can you trust if a traffic warden turns out to be a swindler, making good with your valuables including cash and mobile phone while charging you over traffic rules violation," said a truck driver Jahanzaib while talking to Pakistan Today on Wednesday.
HALT! TRAFFIC VIOLATION: Jahanzaib, a driver who works with Cargo United Goods and drives their truck (JU-7577) from Lahore to Karachi, said that late on Tuesday night he entered Lahore and was heading to wards his

JERUSALEM: The Middle East peace process lay in tatters on Wednesday after Washington admitted defeat in its efforts to secure an Israeli freeze on settlement building, the Palestinians' condition for resuming talks.
Speaking late on Tuesday, US officials admitted top-level efforts to coax Israel into imposing new curbs on West Bank settlement construction had gone nowhere, prompting Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas to declare a crisis in peace efforts but backslapping among

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR) is working at the Thar Coal project in order to overcome the energy crises in the country.
Chairman PCSIR Dr Shaukat Pervez stated that PCSIR is also planning to produce gas from coal on a larger scale and work on this project will commence within two weeks. Furthermore, he mentioned that the Institute of Fuel Technology of PCSIR is already producing gas from coal on a small scale.
Designs to produce

LAHORE: The Punjab government informed the Lahore High Court on Tuesday that the federal government was responsible for the sugar crisis as it did not import sugar when its shortage started in 2009.
The Punjab government submitted a detailed report in the court of Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed, taking a plea that there was shortage of 1.1 million metric ton sugar in the country in 2009, out of which the Punjab required 0.75 million metric ton sugar.
The court was hearing a

LAHORE: In a bid to rein in the price of sugar in the province, the Punjab government has decided to acquire 100,000 tonnes of imported sugar from the Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP).
In this regard, Punjab Food Secretary Irfan Elahi has left for Karachi to purchase the requisite sugar stock. Talking to reporters at the airport, Elahi said the provincial government had decided to control skyrocketing price of sugar and he was going to Karachi to make immediate arrangements

LAHORE: The All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) is holding a crucial meeting on energy crisis with the Federal government on Monday. The meeting is scheduled at a time when gas supply to the industry is already in doldrums ahead of the winter season.
The APTMA delegation, under the leadership of APTMA Central Chairman Gohar Ejaz will meet Federal Minister for Textile Rana Farooq Saeed, Federal Minister for Petroleum Naveed Qamar and State Minister for Economic Affairs