70 percent of Pakistanis want permanent ban on Facebook: Poll

KARACHI: A new poll has revealed that 70 percent people in Pakistan want a permanent ban on the social networking website Facebook, while another 15 percent support the Lahore High Court's order to ban the website till May 31.

According to the poll, the participants expressed their sheer anger on Facebook for displaying blasphemous drawings of Prophet Muhammad. In the first three days of the poll, which is still running, eight percent participants were of the opinion that a single URL ban was enough, while the remaining seven percent said they did not want ban on Facebook at all.

Shahid Afridi to lead in Asia Cup and England tour

Shahid Afridi has been named Pakistan's Test and ODI captain ahead of a busy summer which takes in the Asia Cup in Sri Lanka and then six Tests, five ODIs, as well as four T20Is, in England against Australia and the hosts. Pakistan's board and selectors also opened the door on a possible return for Younis Khan and Shoaib Malik, two men only recently banned by the board for indiscipline. Another old hand at the indiscipline game, Shoaib Akhtar, has been called up in a 35-man list of probables, which will be culled down before the two events.
Probables: Salman Butt, Imran Farhat, Yasir Hameed, Khurram Manzoor, Shahzaib Hassan, Azhar Ali, Azeem Ghumman, Younis Khan, Shoaib Malik, Umar Akmal, Faisal Iqbal, Fawad Alam, Hasan Raza, Asad Shafiq, Umar Amin, Aamer Sajjad, Mohammad Hafeez, Shahid Afridi (capt), Abdul Razzaq, Yasir Arafat, Umar Gul, Shoaib Akhtar, Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Aamer, Mohammad Sami, Wahab Riaz, Mohammad Irfan, Tanvir Ahmed, Aizaz Cheema, Danish Kaneria, Abdur Rehman, Saeed Ajmal, Zulfiqar Babar, Kamran Akmal (wk), Zulqarnain Haider (wk)

Pakistan wins asian baseball!!

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan won the 9th Asia Cup Baseball Championship by defeating Hong Kong 18-0 in the final here on Monday. Hong Kong, who are ranked 18th in the world, proved to be a wall of sand against Pakistan, ranked 31st in the world. Farooq, Asif, Iftikhar, Sumair, Zaheer and Imtiaz were the key scorers for Pakistan. After the final, Pakistan Federation Baseball (PFB) president Shaukat Javed announced that Pakistan would feature in the forthcoming Asian Games to be held in China in November this year.

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Pakistan balls short on World Cup goals

Twenty years ago, Faqeer Hussain took pride in his work, starry-eyed that the balls he hand-stitched in a grubby backroom in Pakistan were destined for the world's greatest players. Gracing the pitch of World Cups in glamorous Western cities, Hussain saw beyond the grind of his job and dreamed of the beautiful game, and the players he admired but could never hope to meet. A decade ago, 70 per cent of the world's soccer balls were made in the Pakistani town of Sialkot, but footballs that Hussain stitches from leather panels today will be offside at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Outrage in the West over child labour and the onset of machine-made balls mean that the five million balls suppliers are readying for South Africa will be for training and promotional uses only.

I used to take a lot of pride in stitching soccer balls, because the world's best players would play with it but now it's only my job,” said Hussain, 58. As with countless other industries built on labour in developing countries, workers like him are at the bottom of the food chain. He says he gets the equivalent of 80 cents a ball, sold for 10 dollars (840 rupees) to international retailers who in turn make four times the profit. Sialkot gained international celebrity status when it produced the “Tango” ball for the 1982 World Cup inSpain, kicking off a lucrative industry. The town now manufactures sports equipment sold all over the world. For years it has been a beacon of commercial success in Punjab, where unemployment runs high and the Taliban have stepped up recruitment from the morass of disaffected youth in the south of the province.

But recession exacerbated by instability from Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked suicide attacks in the country, a crippling power crisis and a preference for machine-made balls, have hit the football cottage industry. China is where Adidas chose to produce the 2010 World Cup ball -- the thermally bonded “Jabulani”, which means “celebrate” in Zulu and billed on the FIFA website as “the most stable and most accurate Adidas ball ever”. Demand is not even 20 per cent of what it used to be,” admits Zia-ur-Rehman, chairman of the Pakistan Sports Goods Manufacturers and Exporters Association (PSGMEA). “We badly need government support. If it comes only then we would be able to keep the industry kicking,” he said.

London olympics mascot......What were they thinking?

Moulded from steel left over from the last girder on the Olympic stadium, London's 2012 mascots are neither cuddly nor cute but organisers say the gleaming one-eyed metallic forms will strike a chord with children. As the covers were removed by two pupils in front of wide-eyed classmates and LOCOG chairman Sebastian Coe at an east London school a mere javelin throw from the heart of the Games, Wenlock and Mandeville were introduced to the world.

It was the culmination of an 18-month project to come up with an enduring image for the Games and a merchandising gimmick to keep the cash tills ringing as 2012 targets 16 millions ($22.80 million) in revenue from Games memorabilia.

Facebook, now you tube blocked in pakistan

Pakistan has blocked the popular video sharing website YouTube in a bid to contain “blasphemous” material, officials said on Thursday. The blockade came hours after the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) directed Internet service providers to stop access to social network Facebook indefinitely on Wednesday because of an online competition to draw the Prophet Mohammad.

Wahaj-us-Siraj, the CEO of Nayatel, an Internet service provider, said PTA issued an order late on Wednesday seeking an “immediate” blockade of YouTube. “It was a serious instruction as they wanted us to do it quickly and let them know after that,” he told Reuters.YouTube was also blocked in Pakistan in 2007 for about a day for what it called un-Islamic videos.