Pakistan hopes to sign cut-price gas deal with Qatar

Pakistan hopes to sign cut-price gas deal with Qatar

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will send officials to Qatar this month aiming to sign a liquefied natural gas (LNG) deal at a discount to help alleviate its power supply crisis, a Pakistani official said.

 

There have been widespread public protests in Pakistan recent years over frequent power cuts due partly to a lack of fuel.

 

Islamabad had hoped to address the problem with natural gas piped overland from Iran but that project remains stalled by U.S. sanctions against Tehran. It is now looking to much more expensive LNG to alleviate its power problems.

 

"Qatar wants to sell at a market price and Pakistan is looking to get a discount," the official said. "We expect the deal to be signed this month for an amount of 3.5 million tonnes per year."

 

He said Pakistani energy officials would fly to Doha in late February hoping to convince Doha to sell them about 5 percent of Qatar's annual LNG output at below international market rates.

 

LNG currently trades in the Asian spot market at nearly $20 per million British thermal units LNG-AS.

 

Qatar, the world's leading LNG producer, is not known for offering discounts. Qatar has the capacity to produce up to 77 million tonnes per year of the super-cooled gas.

 

In the past Doha has refused to sell discounted gas even to Arab Gulf allies and surging demand over the last few years has given producers the upper hand in contract talks.

 

Pakistan has also not yet built a terminal to import LNG. (Reuters)

NZ 179-3 at tea on day 1, 1st test vs. India

NZ 179-3 at tea on day 1, 1st test vs. India

AUCKLAND: Kane Williamson and Brendon McCullum made half centuries in an unbroken fourth-wicket partnership that lifted New Zealand to 179-3 at tea Thursday on the first day of the first cricket test against India.

 

Williamson was 79 not out and unbeaten on McCullum 71 at the end of the second session after combining to revive New Zealand, which had been 30-3 in the 18th over.

 

India was still in charge at 54-3 at lunch, but Williamson and McCullum swung the first day in New Zealand´s favor by adding 125 in the 27 overs in the middle session.

 

Williamson made the best of a reprieve shortly after lunch when he was dropped at slip with New Zealand at 76-1.

 

He now has a century and five half centuries in his last seven innings.

 

India gained a valuable early advantage when they won the toss and, with it, the chance to bowl first on a heavily-grassed wicket which promised lavish assistance to fast bowlers.

 

It seemed to deliver that promise when Ishant Sharma, bowling first change, captured two wickets in his opening spell as New Zealand tumbled to 30-3.

 

Sharma dismissed Hamish Rutherford for 6 with the fifth ball of his first over and returned to claim the vital wicket of Ross Taylor for 3 in the 18th over.

 

Taylor, who scored centuries in each of New Zealand´s three tests against the West Indies in December, had loomed as the danger man for India.

 

In between those dismissals, Zaheer Khan trapped Peter Fulton lbw for 13 and New Zealand was lurching toward disaster when Williamson came to the wicket, quickly followed by McCullum.

 

The New Zealand captain had hoped to give his bowlers the chance to bowl first and his worst fears about the opposing scenario seemed to have been realized when he was asked to bat, at No. 5, half an hour before lunch.

 

But Williamson had begun an unflappable resistance to the India bowlers and McCullum, heartened, joined him in a stand which steadily wrested the initiative in the match to the home team.

 

It was not only that the pair resolved to sell their wickets dearly but that they scored steadily, then quickly on a wicket which should have favored the bowlers.

 

They caused first surprise, then bemusement among the India bowlers, some of whom lost their lengths and provided the Kiwi batsmen with easy scoring opportunities.

 

The Indian seamers either bowled too short, allowing Williamson to play his array of scoring shots square of the wicket, or too full and were driven down the ground. India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who had been on the offensive throughout the first session, was forced in the second to scatter his field to save runs.

 

Williamson reached his half century from 79 balls with three fours and two sixes and McCullum from 86 balls with nine boundaries. (AP)

Egypt army chief Sisi says will run for president: report

Egypt army chief Sisi says will run for president: report

CAIRO: Egyptian army chief Field Marshal Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has said he will run for president, a Kuwaiti newspaper reported on Thursday.

Al-Seyassah quoted Sisi as saying that he had no alternative but to meet the demands of the Egyptian people for him to run in the elections, which are due within six months.

In July, Sisi toppled Egypt's first freely elected president, Mohamed Mursi, after mass protests against his rule.

Mursi and his Muslim Brotherhood movement accuse Sisi of staging a coup and undermining democratic gains made since a popular uprising ousted autocrat Hosni Mubarak in 2011. (Reuters)

US tight-lipped on drone attack cutback reports

US tight-lipped on drone attack cutback reports

WASHINGTON: Department of State Wednesday talked around the reports that US has agreed to scale down drone strikes to near zero as Islamabad was zeroing in on a peace negotiation with Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Media reported

 

“I did see the report, of course, which I know many of you may have read. We’re naturally not going to discuss alleged specific operational issues. We talked about this a little bit yesterday”, said State Dept spokesperson Jen Psaki during a daily press briefing.

 

She said that the issue of whether to negotiate with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) was an internal matter for Islamabad.

 

“We would, of course, refer you to them on what is happening on the ground regarding those details in those reports”, said she replying to a media person.

 

She did not give out any details despite repeated calls from the journalists attending the briefing.

 

US newspaper, Washington Post reported on Tuesday that the US had cut back sharply on drone strikes in Pakistan after the Islamabad government asked for restraint while it seeks peace talks with the Pakistani Taliban.

 

The Post quoted a U.S. official as saying, "That's what they asked for, and we didn't tell them no." The newspaper said there had been a lull in such attacks since December, the longest break since 2011.

 

The newspaper said the Obama administration indicated it would continue carrying out strikes on senior al Qaeda officials if they were to become available or to thwart any immediate threat to Americans.

Cancer cases 'set to rise by half by 2030': UN

Cancer cases 'set to rise by half by 2030': UN

PARIS: New cases of cancer will rise by half by 2030, reaching 21.6 million per year compared to 14 million in 2012, the UN said on Monday in a global analysis of the scourge.

 

Cancer deaths, meanwhile, will likely rise from 8.2 million to 13 million per year as the world's population grows and ages and more people adopt risky lifestyle habits, said the report compiled by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).

 

It took aim at Big Tobacco, saying its sales drive was "inextricably linked" to a likely surge in lung cancer.

 

Released on the eve of World Cancer Day, the report was compiled by more than 250 scientists from over 40 countries. It is the first such overview in six years.

 

World Health Organisation (WHO) Director General Margaret Chan, whose agency oversees the IARC, said the overall impact from cancer would "unquestionably" hit developing countries the hardest.

 

These nations are already grappling with poverty-associated cancers caused by infection or disease, she said.

 

Added to that will be cancers blamed on more affluent lifestyles -- high tobacco and alcohol use, eating processed foods and not exercising enough.

IARC director Christopher Wild said the focus should be on prevention.

 

"The particularly heavy burden projected to fall on low- and middle-income countries makes it implausible to treat our way out of cancer, even the highest-income countries will struggle to cope with the spiralling costs of treatment and care," he said.

 

Cancer overtook heart disease as the number one cause of death in the world in 2011.

 

New cases will likely rise to 19.3 million in 2025, with 11.4 million deaths, said Wild. By 2035, new cases would number about 24 million per year.

 

The report found a slight gender bias: 53 percent of cancer cases and 57 percent of deaths were among men.

 

In men, cancer most often attacked the lungs (16.7 percent) followed by the prostate (15 percent), colorectum (10 percent), stomach (8.5 percent), and liver (7.5 percent).

 

For women, cancer was most common in the breast (25.2 percent), colorectum (9.2 percent), lung (8.7 percent), cervix (7.9 percent) and stomach (4.8 percent).

 

There were also regional imbalances: more than 60 percent of the world's cancer cases and 70 percent of deaths occurred in Africa, Asia and Central and South America, said the World Cancer Report.

 

Measured as a proportion of the population, however, high-income countries in North America and western Europe as well as Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand, had higher figures.

 

Cancers of the breast, colorectum and prostate were more typical of the industrialised world, said the report, and those of the liver, stomach and oesophagus more common in low-income countries.

China bears brunt of new cases

 

Almost half the new cases diagnosed in 2012 were in Asia, most of them in China, said the report. Europe had nearly a quarter of cases, the Americas about a fifth, and Africa and the Middle East just over eight percent.

 

But when it came to deaths, Asia's share jumped to more than 50 percent and that of Africa and the Middle East to nearly 10 percent, while the Americas' share shrank to under 16 percent and that of Europe to 21.4 percent.

 

Cancer is typically diagnosed at a more advanced stage in less developed countries, and treatment is less readily available, said the report.

 

Globally, lung cancer was the biggest killer with 19.4 percent of the total, followed by cancer of the liver with 9.1 percent and stomach with 8.8 percent.

 

The report said lung cancer was "inextricably linked to the global tactics of tobacco companies aiming to expand their sales."

 

A smoking "epidemic" was evolving in poor countries, it said, "potentially impeding human development by consuming scarce resources, increasing pressures on already weak health-care systems, and inhibiting national productivity."

 

The report said the total, annual economic cost of cancer to the world was estimated at about $1.16 trillion in 2010, "yet about half of all cancers could be avoided" through prevention, early detection and treatment.

 

Prevention includes vaccination against hepatitis B and the human papillomavirus, which can reduce cancers of the liver and cervix, the promotion of physical activity to counter obesity -- thought to be a factor in bowel and breast cancer, and tougher anti-tobacco campaigns.

Prince plays London living-room gig

Prince plays London living-room gig

LONDON: When Prince came to London a few years ago, he played more than 20 nights at the vast O2 arena. This time, he played a suburban living room to a dozen people.

 

The enigmatic star flew into London on Tuesday at the start of a still-evolving string of dates in support of forthcoming album "Plectrum Electrum," recorded with all-female trio 3RDEYEGIRL.

 

Details remain scarce, but Prince said he hoped to play "iconic" venues along the lines of music club the Bag o' Nails — where Jimi Hendrix once played — storied rock venue Electric Ballroom and Ronnie Scott's jazz club.

 

"We'll work our way up, if people like us, to bigger venues," Prince said.

 

His first stop was the East London home of British soul singer Lianne La Havas, who met Prince last year while she was touring the United States.

 

In her cozy living room in front of a crackling fire, the band played two acoustic tracks of what Prince called their "funky rock 'n' roll," including the newly released single "PretzelBodyLogic."

 

The tracks on the new album were developed during epic jam sessions at Prince's Paisley Park studios near Minneapolis.

 

"We've been together for over a year and it's perfect," said Prince, who sipped a mug of strong tea with honey as he chatted to La Havas, her housemates and three journalists. "The more we play, the more fun it is, and addictive it is."

 

Drummer Hannah Ford said the band sometimes jammed for 12 hours or more — interspersed with games of ping pong.

 

"A lot of the time we didn't even know we were recording for an album," she said. "We were just jamming and vibing off one another."

 

Prince said he hoped to record the band live during their stay in London, as well as buying "some clothes — and some tea." (AP)