Tag: Despite

ISLAMABAD - Despite resistance from his economic managers and cabinet ministers, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani on Thursday decided to revert the recently-announced increase in petrol prices, calling it a political decision.
A source who attended the prime minister's meeting with parliamentary party heads told Pakistan Today that Federal Finance Minister Abdul Hafeez Shaikh in his one-hour long briefing to participants defended the hike in POL prices, saying it was almost

PERTH - Serbian world number three Novak Djokovic is confident his heavy playing schedule at the end of 2010 will not hinder him as the new season gets under way.
Djokovic only had a couple of weeks off at the end of last year, after leading Serbia to a historic Davis Cup win over France in early December. Speaking after a 3-0 win for Sebia over Kazakhstan at the mixed-teams Hopman Cup on Sunday, Djokovic admitted the short break was not ideal preparation for the Australian Open

PERTH - Former world number one Justine Henin made a winning start in her latest comeback on Saturday but the Belgian could not prevent her team losing to Australia at the mixed-teams Hopman Cup.
In her first match since suffering a serious elbow injury when losing to compatriot Kim Clijsters at Wimbledon last June, the world number 12 was too good for the 129th-ranked Alicia Molik, winning their women's singles match 6-4, 6-4.
The result gave Belgium a 1-0 lead in the

LOS ANGELES - Tiger Woods has once again ended a calendar year as golf's top earner, despite suffering a pay cut of $48 million after losing his swing and his marriage and failing to win a single tournament.
The American world number two, who celebrated his 35th birthday on Thursday, topped Golf Digest magazine's annual list for 2010 with overall earnings of $74.2 million. Of that, only $2.29 million came from tournament purses with the rest accumulated off-course through

KARACHI - Despite a poor macroeconomic environment and heightened credit risk, Islamic banking in the country continued to go from strength to strength during July-September 2010.
Though showing some decline in overall performance indicators, Islamic banks are expected to be facilitated in managing their asset-liabilities by the post quarter tender for Government of Pakistan Ijarah Sukuk (GIS) amounting to Rs 80 billion.
This was revealed by the State Bank of Pakistan

SEOUL - A wary South Korea stayed on guard against North Korea on Tuesday, with jet fighters and warships deployed, a day after the communist state backed off from threats of attack over a live-fire exercise.
Washington and Seoul expressed scepticism at another reported concession by Pyongyang - an agreement to reopen its nuclear sites to UN inspectors. Hours after the South defied North Korea's threats and staged Monday's artillery exercise near the disputed sea border, the

LAHORE: According to Pakistan Electric Power Company (PEPCO) reports power shortfall reduced to zero megawatts on Friday and Saturday but even then citizens experienced a one-hour power outage in the morning and one in the evening.
Lahore Electric Supply Company (LESCO) gave an old excuse saying that only commercial feeders were shut down and domestic users on those feeders had to face load shedding. More than 50 percent feeders in the city were commercial and a large number of

YEONPYEONG ISLAND - South Korea vowed on Saturday to go ahead with a live-fire drill on a border island bombarded by North Korea last month, despite the North's threat to strike back hard.
"There is no change in our stance with regards to the live-fire exercise," a defence ministry spokesman told AFP. On Yeonpyeong, focus of the latest flare-up which has sparked regional alarm, propaganda balloons were launched Saturday -- but no artillery shells.
The one-day firing training

ISLAMABAD: The US has been urging India to engage Pakistan in talks on bilateral issues, but the latter has not been receptive on this count citing "no follow-up action" by Islamabad against the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks, revealed a diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks.
A diplomatic cable sent by the US embassy in New Delhi to Washington DC on June 29, 2009 quotes former US National Security Adviser James Jones asking the former Indian army chief General Deepak

KARACHI: Despite the hike in discount rate, the benchmark index underwent a massive surge during the week as it gained over 261 points. The average volume was 165 million, significantly greater than the average daily volume for the current year.
The KSE-100 ended Friday at 11,407 level, gaining a weekly 2.3 percent to close at the highest level since July 10, 2008. Average daily volumes rose by 150 million, showing a weekly boost of 27 percent. The index ascent was inexorable as

GUANGZHOU: Ali Ahmad Fazel returns to Afghanistan Sunday confident in his dream of becoming a professional golfer despite finishing last at the Asian Games, a massive 194 shots off the lead.
The diminutive 19-year-old fired a 40-over-par 112 on Saturday's fourth and final round, a marked improvement on his opening 58-over par round of 130.
His closing card read an eye-watering 467, well off the winning 273 posted by South Korea's gold medallist Kim Meen-Whee.
"My goal

ISLAMABAD: Shoppers were seen thronging markets throughout the capital, proving all gloomy prophecies predicting that the buyers would stay away from the markets because of an increased inflation rate and the floods wrong.
A day before the festival of Eidul Azha, a large number of women flocked to the markets to buy bangles, clothes and shoes for their kids and themselves.
Jinnah Super, Super Market, Karachi Company, G-10 Markaz and Aabpara Market were amongst those which

KARACHI
The KSE 100 index closed 46 points down, despite the precedent set by positive corporate results and decent trading volumes in the previous trading sessions.
A short break was expected before continued progression towards the 11,000 mark, given the KSE-100's unabated expansion of 2.3 percent during the last four trading sessions. The index touched its peak level of 10,748 in the opening hours of the trading session, but selling pressure subdued the impetus of buying

ISLAMABAD: Perturbed over the inclusion of civil nuclear deal in Pakistan's agenda for the Pak-US strategic dialogue, the Obama administration asked the government in Islamabad not to raise the vital issue during the parleys prior to the commencement of the dialogue but Pakistan would still bring up the issue.
"Owing to its concerns over nuclear proliferation, the US told Islamabad days before the commencement of the strategic dialogue that any discussions on the Pak-US nuclear

LAHORE: Pakistan's rice export is likely to fall by approximately 0.6 million tons this year due to the loss of crops in the wake of the heavy floods the country has endured. But exporters are hopeful that higher rice prices on the global markets will compensate for the reduction in the output.
Pakistan, the world's fifth-largest rice exporter, will likely export some 4.0 to 4.2 million tons of rice in 2010-11 as compared to 4.6 million tons rice shipped in 2009-10.