VATICAN CITY (AFP) - The Vatican's top cultural official on Friday hit out at sermons he said were too often dreary and bland and urged Catholic priests not to shy away from spicing up their preaching. Speaking at a conference, Cardinal Gianfranco said preaching in churches "was so dull and vapid ...

LAHORE (INP) - PML-N President Nawaz Sharif has asked Istanbul Transport Authority Director General Dr Harry Brochlor to send a high-level delegation to Lahore as he wanted to introduce Istanbul-like modern traffic system in the Punjab capital and other cities of the country. According to a press ...

PERTH (APP) - Pakistan Saturday termed the US drone attacks inside its territory unjustified saying these were counterproductive and decreased space for creating support against extremists. Our leadership has always condemned these in the strongest terms and unjustified, Foreign Minister Hina ...

PESHAWAR Chief Minister, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Ameer Haider Khan Hoti has requested the Abdul Wali Khan University, Mardan, to review is decision to confer honorary PhD degree in Political Science upon him. Extending his gratitude to the chancellor, vice chancellor and syndicate of AWKU on their ...

SADIQABAD - Local PML-N leaders are allegedly making a full-scale effort to get over Rs 80 million development contracts cancelled as their alleged blue-eyed contractors remained failed in getting these contracts. If the contracts awarded to 100 contractors are cancelled, not only the contractors, ...

SANTO DOMINGO (AFP) - Haitian President Michel Martelly sought to promote his country Saturday as a destination for foreign investment more than for humanitarian aid. "We do not want you to give us money; we want investments... We want effective external support for sustainable development," ...

LAHORE - Public Accounts Committee (PAC-1) Chairman Chaudhry Zaheer-ud-Din while asking the provincial government for ordering the finance department to release funds for the 'scarp tubewells programme warned that it would become difficult to cultivate the wheat crop if the scarps would not be made ...

LAHORE The PML-N has reiterated its previous stance of constituting an independent commission to probe the allegations levelled by former Interior Minister Sindh Dr Zulfiqar Mirza, which were rebutted by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement(MQM) on Tuesday. Deputy Secretary General PML-N Ahsan Iqbal was ...

LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister David Cameron wants a major watering down of proposals from the Independent Commission on Banking (ICB) to ring-fence the retail arms of top banks, over fears it could hurt the economy, the Sunday Telegraph reported. The report, which cited government sources, said ...

WASHINGTON - The United States is moving towards a 'pay-for-performance relationship with Pakistan, linking its security aid to whether Islamabad shows progress to combat the Al-Qaeda and its militant allies, according to an American media report. The classified system was put in place after the ...

OSLO (AFP) - The man behind the deadly twin attacks in Norway on July 22 wants a Japanese psychiatrist to carry out his psychological evaluation, his lawyer was quoted as saying Tuesday. "My client has expressed a wish for a Japanese expert. He believes that a Japanese person will understand him ...

ISLAMABAD - US Ambassador to Pakistan Cameron Munter says Washington has been helping Islamabad in dealing with terrorism and rehabilitation of the flood victims. Now, he said, the United States would take such decisions as could restore peoples confidence in the US. He said this while talking to ...

OUR STAFF REPORTER LAHORE National Fertilizer Marketing Ltd (NFML) Managing Director Brig (rtd) Balal Ahmed Khan has said that he is not being removed, as President Asif Ali Zardari had specially appointed him in the corrupt organization in order to weed out unscrupulous elements so that this ...

ISLAMABAD - The arms license section of the Ministry of Interior will be devolved to provinces till June 30 as a result of the 18th Amendment, however, the federal government wants to retain its powers to issue prohibited bores arms licenses with it and three provinces have agreed over it except ...

SANDRA Bullock wants her son to learn three languages. The actress is keen for 18-month-old Louis to be fluent in French, English and German and is set to enroll him at Le Lycee Francais school when he is old enough. Sandra is desperate for Louis to be multilingual, a source said. Sandra wants the ...

LAHORE - Taking serious view of Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullahs statement against Senator Babar Awan, declaring him (Awan) 'liable to be murdered, Punjab Governor Sardar Muhammad Latif Khan Khosa on Wednesday wrote a letter to Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif asking him to take action against the ...

OKARA - JUI-F Punjab President Rashid Ahmad Ludhianvi has demanded that the nation should be informed about the whole mystery surrounding the Mehran Base and Abottabad incidents which have shaken the confidence of the nation. He said it is a matter of great shame besides having been there a large ...

LAHORE Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has directed Chief Secretary Nasir Mahmood Khan Khosa for taking an immediate action against the unauthorised occupants of Gazetted Officers Residences, located in various areas. In a letter written to Khosa by Secretary to CM Dr Syed Tauqir Shah, the CS has ...

LAHORE (APP) - Federal Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Dr Babar Awan said on Sunday that the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) wanted to remove a slur from law and judiciary and for the purpose it filed a reference for a review of the judicial murder case of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Shaheed. ...

LAHORE A former law minister advised the government on Friday to send a reference to the Supreme Court on the issue of immunity claimed by US national Raymond Davis, the killer of two Pakistanis, and then implement whatever opinion expressed by the apex court. Dr Khalid Ranjha said while talking ...

LAHORE - Punjab Governor Sardar Latif Khosa is much eager to fly kites along with PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif during the upcoming basant festival provided the committee set up for the purpose gives a go-ahead signal. Talking to reporters on Wednesday after inaugurating Tulip Flower Show at Royal Palm ...

LONDON (Reuters) - Amr Moussa, the head of the Arab League, said on Sunday he wanted to see a multi-party democracy emerge in Egypt but could not say how soon that might happen. Speaking to BBC radio, the former Egyptian foreign minister also said that President Hosni Mubarak needed to respond to ...

GEMMA ARTERTON loved 'Black Swan so much she wants to work with Darren Aronofsky but is worried he will think she is too 'mainstream. The 'Tamara Drewe actress cites the directors ballet thriller 'Black Swan as her favourite movie of the last 12 months and has issued an open plea for her to find a ...

ISLAMABAD - Awami National Party leadership has cautioned Pakistan People's Party high command to keep in mind their (ANP) interests in Karachi while striking some fresh deal with Muttahida Qoumi Movement, sources in the government and Awami National Party informed. Sources in ANP further informed ...

ISLAMABAD (APP) Faisal Karim Kundi, Deputy Speaker on Thursday said that the Muslim Ummah was confronting challenges that can be resolved through forging unity among the Muslim countries. He expressed these views while talking to the Ambassador of Iran Mashaallah Shakeri who called on the Deputy ...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US government has proposed listing six types of seals as threatened under the Endangered Species Act because they face hardships due to disappearing sea ice and melting snow packs. Four types of ringed seals that live in the Arctic basin and North Atlantic, as well as two ...

LAHORE-The PPPs women wing President and President Zardaris sister, Faryal Talpur Friday said that party leadership was considering a proposal to appoint diehard party workers as coordinators in various federal government departments to help resolve peoples problems. Addressing office bearers of ...

MOSCOW (AFP) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has proposed to NATO leaders that Europe be divided into sectors of military responsibility to better protect the continent from missile attack, reports said Monday. Medvedev did not go into details over the plan at the NATO summit at the weekend but ...

BEYNOCE wants her next album to be groundbreaking. The singer says shes trying to make her own genre of music. I love to dance, I love to sing, and Im actually in the studio now writing songs and producing, she said. I have a lot of live instruments that Im putting into the tracks to try to change ...

KARACHI - The Sindh Government has planned to approach federal government to make a policy decision to rotate the chairmanship of Wapda among all the four provinces, sources told TheNation on Tuesday. In this regard, Sindh Assembly will take up a resolution today (Wednesday), which was submitted ...