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RAWALPINDI: At least 25 people were critically injured, when a powerful explosion occurred in Chauhar Chowk of Rawalpindi, Geo News reported Thursday. The ambulances and relief teams are rushing the injured to the nearby hospitals. The blast occurred at a time when the market was overcrowded and people were leaving for their houses. According to preliminary reports, a motorists ran into the bus near a petrol pump, blowing himself up, injuring various passengers. This is mainly a crowded commercial areas, where buses are routed from here to Peshawar.

source: geo.tv

SINGAPORE: Oil rebounded in Asian trade Wednesday after falling overnight on figures showing declining consumer confidence in the United States, the world’s biggest energy user, analysts said.

New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for August delivery rose 66 cents to 70.55 dollars. Brent North Sea crude for August delivery advanced 75 cents to 70.05 dollars.

Analysts expect the rebound in crude prices, coming mainly on the back of investors looking for an alternative to equities, to be temporary amid fresh worries about US energy demand.

MORONI (Reuters) – An airliner with 150 people on board belonging to Yemeni state carrier Yemenia crashed into choppy seas as it came in to land on the Indian Ocean archipelago of Comoros on Tuesday, officials said.

“The plane has crashed and we still don’t know exactly where. We think it’s in the area of Mitsamiouli. There were 150 passengers on board,” Comoros Vice-President Idi Nadhoim told Reuters from the airport at the main island’s capital Moroni.

A Paris Airport spokeswoman said a Yemenia flight left Paris on Monday morning before landing in Yemen and then taking off for Moroni.

Ibrahim Kassim, a representative from regional air security body ASECNA, said the plane had probably come down 5 to 10 km (3 to 6 miles) from the coast, and civilian and military boats had been mobilized to start searching.

“We think the crash is somewhere along its landing approach,” Kassim told Reuters. “The weather is really not very favorable. The sea is very rough.”

ASECNA — the Agency for Aviation Security and Navigation in Africa and Madagascar — covers Francophone Africa.

The town of Mitsamiouli is on the main island Grande Comore.

“There is a crash, there is a crash in the sea,” said an unnamed official who answered the phone in the Yemenia office in Moroni. He declined further comment.

An airline official in Yemen declined to comment.

COMING TO LAND

Interior Minister Hamid Bourhane told Reuters the army had sent small speedboats to an area between the village of Ntsaoueni and the airport.

“At the moment we don’t have any information about whether there are any survivors,” he told Reuters.

A medical worker in Mitsamiouli said he had been called in.

“They have just called me to come to the hospital. They said a plane had crashed,” he told Reuters.

A United Nations official at the airport, who declined to be named, said the control tower had received notification the plane was coming into land, and then lost contact with it.

Source:yahoo.com

Yemenia, which is 51 percent owned by the Yemeni government and 49 percent owned by the Saudi Arabian government, flies to Moroni, according to flight schedules on its Web site.

Yemenia’s fleet includes two Airbus 330-200s, four Airbus 310-300s and four Boeing 737-800s, according to the site.

The Comoros covers three small volcanic islands, Grande Comore, Anjouan and Moheli, in the Mozambique channel, 300 km (190 miles) northwest of Madagascar and a similar distance east of the African mainland.

A hijacked Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 767 crashed into the sea off the Comoros islands in 1996, killing 125 of 175 passengers and crew.

(Reporting by Ahmed Ali Amir; Additional reporting by Richard Lough in Antananarivo; Pascal Lietout in Paris; Writing by Andrew Cawthorne and David Clarke; Editing by Jon Hemming) source: www.yahoo.com

Pakistan brushed aside Sri Lanka to claim the Twenty20 World Cup title after a comprehensive eight wicket victory at Lords to banish the demons from the 2007 final
Pakistan won their first major title in 17 years when they stunned Sri Lanka by eight wickets in the World Twenty20 final at a sell-out Lord’s on Sunday.

Seamer Abdur Razzaq claimed three wickets as Pakistan bowled and fielded aggressively to restrict Sri Lanka to 138-6, then coasted home easily with eight deliveries to spare.

Shahid Afridi hit an unbeaten 54 off 40 balls, his second consecutive half-century, and former captain Shoaib Malik made 24 not out during a match-winning partnership of 76 for the undefeated third wicket.

Pakistan, runners-up to India in the final of the inaugural World Twenty20 in South Africa two years ago, ended Sri Lanka’s unbeaten run in the tournament with style.

Pakistan last won an offical multi-nation tournament in 1992 when Imran Khan’s team lifted the World Cup by beating England in the final at the Melbourne cricket ground in Australia.

Sunday’s win by Younus Khan’s team gave Pakistanis back home reason to cheer as the cricket-mad nation has been deprived of international tours due to security concerns in the volatile nation.

The International Cricket Council has already ruled out holding World Cup matches in Pakistan in 2011 following the militant attack on the Sri Lankan team in Lahore on March 3.

Pakistani openers Kamran Akmal and Shahzaib Hasan ensured there were no early scares as they put on 48 for the first wicket in seven overs.

Sanath Jayasuriya broke through with his first delivery in the next over when he beat Akmal in the air with his left-arm spin and had him stumped for 37 off 28 balls.

Jayasuriya then took a catch to get rid of Shahzaib off Muttiah Muralitharan for 19, but Afridi and Malik took Pakistan home amid loud celebrations from their fans in the stands.

Sri Lanka were dealt quick blows after captain Kumar Sangakkara won the toss and elected to take first strike on a slow wicket.

The Lankans slumped to 2-2 in the first nine balls and that became 34-4 before Sangakkara himself led the rescue act with a defiant unbeaten 64 from 52 balls.

Sangakkara and Angelo Mathews put on 68 for the unbroken seventh wicket as Sri Lanka plundered 59 runs in the final five overs.

Mathews returned unbeaten on 35 off 24 balls.

Pakistan got off to a sensational start when teenage fast bowler Mohammad Aamir sent back the in-form Tillekaratne Dilshan with the fifth ball of the match.

Dilshan, the tournament’s leading scorer with 317 runs, miscued a pull shot off the speedy left-armer and was caught at backward square-leg by Shahzaib Hasan for zero.

Four balls later, Shahzaib grabbed his second catch at mid-off as Jehan Mubarak skied a leading edge off Razzaq, who shared the new ball with Aamir.

Jayasuriya counter-attacked with a six and four in Razzaq’s second over, but the bowler hit back two balls later as the left-handed veteran edged a ball on to his stumps after making 17.

Razzaq, who replaced the injured Yasir Arafat after ending his links with the rebel Indian Cricket League, struck again in his third over when Misbah-ul Haq dived to his right at slip to remove Mahela Jayawardene for one.

source – indiatimes.com

PAKISTAN POWER TO T20 WORLD CUP GLORY