Serena ousts Safina in Australian Open final, takes No.1 ranking

MELBOURNE: Serena Williams thrashed Russia's Dinara Safina 6-0, 6-3 to win her fourth Australian Open title Saturday, bringing her total Grand Slam tally to 10 in one of the most one-sided deciders ever.

The win means the American, seeded second in the tournament, will also take the world number one ranking off Serb Jelena Jankovic.

Williams, 27, utterly dominated third seed Safina, allowing her opponent to win only eight points in the first set on her way to claiming the championship in less than an hour.

The American also won the women's doubles title with her sister Venus on Friday and became the highest ever prize-money winner in women's sport during the tournament.

Safina, contesting her second final in a Grand Slam after losing in last year's French Open decider, narrowly avoided entering the record books as being on the wrong end of the worst drubbing in a final in the tournament's history.

Only Steffi Graf in 1994 and Margaret Smith in 1962 have posted more comprehensive victories in the decider, both winning 6-0, 6-2.

Police arrests Barack Obama's half brother in Kenya

NAIROBI: George Obama, the half brother of U.S. President Barack Obama, has been arrested by Kenyan police on a charge of possession of marijuana.

According police George Obama was arrested on charges of possession of cannabis, known in Kenya as Bhang, and resisting arrest. He is scheduled to appear in court Monday.

He is being held at Huruma police post in the capital of Nairobi.

George Obama, however, denied the allegations while talking to a foreign news channel.

"They took me from my home," he said, "I don't know why they are charging me."

George Obama and the president barely know each other, though they have met before. George Obama was one of the president's few close relatives who did not go to the inauguration in Washington last week.

In his memoir, "Dreams from My Father," Barack Obama describes meeting George as a "painful affair." Barack Obama's trip to Kenya meant meeting family he had never known.

SBP maintains status quo on discount rate

KARACHI: State Bank of Pakistan said on Saturday that 15 percent discount rate would remain unchanged for the fiscal year ending in June.

Announcing monetary policy here in a press conference, Governor State Bank Salim Raza said that decrease in manufacturing and liquidity were major challenges of the country. He said that due to better performances of services and agriculture sectors, economic growth rate was recorded at 3.7 percent.

Raza termed inflation a major threat to national economy saying global economic meltdown also affected Pakistan’s economy.

The central bank raised interest rates by 2 percentage points to 15 percent in November, the same month it signed a$7.6 billion loan with the International Monetary Fund to stave off a balance of payments crisis.

PM assures security, returns to investors

DAVOS: Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani Thursday said Pakistan offered extensive investment opportunities and high returns for foreign entrepreneurs.He invited the foreign businessmen to invest in Pakistan and said the government was in place to ensure safe business environment for the investors."Investing in Pakistan is investing in future," the Prime Minister said while addressing a lunch he hosted for the leading businessmen here on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum.The Prime Minister said Pakistan's sound fundamentals offered the investors an opportunity to explore the country's economic potential in diverse fields.Gilani emphasized the need for more foreign investment coming into Pakistan and benefit from its investor-friendly economic policies.He said Pakistan's liberal economic regime with zero import duty on raw material provided equal opportunities for the local and foreign businessmen. He said Pakistan was though confronting with a number of challenges including economic crisis, however the democratic government was struggling to improve the situation."Despite all the challenges, economy continues to be buoyant and vibrant in Pakistan," the Prime Minister said, adding the country's mineral and work-force resources had the great potential to be fully tapped.He said the government had converged its focus upon the development of agriculture sector to utilize it particularly during the recession phase."It will be just a matter of time that Pakistan will become a regional hub of economic activity," the Prime Minister said.Gilani said the government was taking a number of strategic measures, and mentioned increased trade with Afghanistan and improved regional mechanism with the SAARC countries.He said a deep seaport at Gwadar had been established for greater economic activity among the Central Asian and Asian states.He said the improved economic plan for civil aviation, customs and logistics would substantially enhance the country's trade activities.The Prime Minister said Pakistan had the capacity to join hands with partners in food security, being a major food producing and also the fourth largest milk producer in the world.Prime Minister Gilani said in WTO context, Pakistan would support substantial reduction on tariffs in the developing countries.Earlier, the prime minister who is here to represent Pakistan at the annual World Economic Forum, met Chief Executive Officers of Coca Cola and Metro cash 'n carry group and urged them to bring in more investments into the country.Prime Minister Gilani who is here in the snowy alpine town to seek more investment for Pakistan said his government would assure maximum security to the foreign investors and provide them best possible facilities.The CEO of Coca Cola company Mukhtar Kent said his company plans to invest US$ 200 million in Pakistan and establish plants for preparing concentrated juices, introduce a variety of teas, sports drinks, beverages and other products of international standard.Tuncay Ozilhan, the Chairman of the Metro group in his separate meeting with PM Gilani said his group will open a store in Karachi next month, while more stores at Sialkot and Multan would be opened soon.He said the group had planned more stores, but because of the global financial crisis its plans had to scale down a bit. He hoped the new stores will create more job opportunities in the country. He said the group was concentrating on frozen sea-food and high quality rice as well.

Pakistan Police claims arrest of 3 Indian spies

LAHORE: The police on Thursday claimed to have arrested three Indian spies in Lahore.

Announcing the arrests at a news conference in Lahore, the Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Pervez Rathor said the alleged terrorists were working for Indian external spy agency Research and Analysis Wing (RA&W).

The detainees were identified as Muhammad Fayaz, Muhammad Akram and Shehzad, says the channel.

The arrested spies, according to Rathor, used to provide photographs of important places to the RA&W, while some important buildings were on their target.

"They were also involved in a bomb blast in Lahore in 2006, in which 16 people were injured," Rathor said, adding that they had visited India also.

Pakistan Long march to bring revolution, says Kurd

LAHORE: The lawyers Thursday took out a rally for restoration of the deposed judges, and the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) president Ali Ahmad Kurd claimed that their long march in March will bring a historic revolution in the country.

Addressing lawyers, political workers and members of the civil society during the weekly protest rally here at Aiwan-e-Adal and the Mall, the SCBA chief said the long march would prove a success in the judges’ restoration movement.

He said the lawyers had worked a hard for an independent judiciary in the country, and had even sacrificed their livelihood by the continuing strikes.

He claimed that thousands of people will join the lawyers in the long march and the sit-in protest in Islamabad, and no hurdle will be tolerated.

Kurd also announced to observe complete boycott of the courts throughout the country on March 9, the day of the long march.

Pakistan Its unfair to call Pakistan a fail state: PM

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Thursday said it is unfair to call Pakistan a failed state, saying Pakistan is the most stable country of the region.

Speaking in panel discussion of World Economic Forum, the PM said there is complete democracy in the country and media is free, so the perception of unsuccessful state about Pakistani was unjust and unfair.

He said Pakistan has excellent tie with Afghanistan adding stable Pakistan and Afghanistan is in world’s interest.Gilani said the government would hold talks with only those militants who surrendered before their local tribal elders and pledged to end militancy in tribal areas.

Military operation, he said, was not the only option, saying the government was striving to eliminate root causes of terrorism that are poverty and illiteracy. The Jirga system is successful in Pakistan, Gilani said.

US senate confirms new intelligence chief

WASHINGTON: The US Senate confirmed retired admiral Dennis Blair as new US director of national intelligence.

The Senate approved Blair by voice vote. late Wednesday

Blair last week flatly rejected torture -- which he branded "not moral... not legal... not effective" -- and promised to end special interrogation regimes and refuse the unlawful surveillance of Americans.

Blair indicated major changes are in store for US intelligence agencies, which have been embroiled in controversy over secret prisons, interrogation practices, and warrantless wiretapping of Americans.

Blair told the Senate Intelligence Committee he would welcome independent monitoring of the intelligence community "to prevent abuses and protect privacy and civil liberties of Americans."

However, he refused to say waterboarding, a form of controlled drowning, is torture, because he did not want to put in legal jeopardy intelligence officers who engaged in practices authorized at the highest levels.

"I don't intend to reopen those cases of those officers," he said.

Mitchell meets Palestinian leaders in West Bank

JERUSALEM: President Barack Obama's Mideast envoy turned his attention to the Western-backed Palestinian government in the West Bank on Thursday as rockets thudded into southern Israel and Israeli warplanes attacked new targets in Gaza.

George Mitchell was seen entering Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah and was due to meet later in the day with Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.

He is not meeting with Hamas, the Islamic group that is Abbas' rival and the ruler of the Gaza Strip. The U.S., Israel and European Union have blacklisted Hamas as a terrorist group.

Mitchell held his first round of talks with regional leaders in Cairo and Jerusalem Wednesday to determine the next steps toward reviving peace negotiations following Israel's blistering military offensive against Palestinians.

But a flare-up of violence in Gaza underscored the more immediate priority — shoring up a 10-day-old cease-fire. Palestinians fired a rocket into Israel early Thursday, and residents of the south Gaza town of Khan Younis said an Israeli airstrike there wounded an unidentified man on a motorcycle and five passers-by, among them children walking home from school.

The Israeli military said it targeted the motorcyclist because he was involved in a bomb attack Tuesday on the Gaza-Israel border which killed an Israeli soldier and wounded three others.

On Wednesday Israeli warplanes struck Gaza smuggling tunnels and a weapons factory. There were no reports of casualties.

In Qatar on Wednesday, Hamas' supreme leader, Khaled Mashaal, said the group would not link the opening of crossings to the release of the Israeli soldier.

Hamas wants Israel to free hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Schalit.

Egypt has been exploring the possibility of including some Hamas personnel in a Palestinian Authority presence at the border, but that would require some form of reconciliation between the factions, which remain bitter rivals.

500,000 Iraqi refugees may return in 2009: UN

BRUSSELS: If the security situation in Iraq continues to improve, the number of refugees and displaced people returning to their homes could more than double this year to 500,000, the U.N. refugee agency said Thursday.

After years of extreme violence Iraq is now experiencing markedly improved security, said Daniel Endres, Baghdad representative of the Geneva-based agency.

"Although this security remains fragile, last year we saw a significant return as a result," he told journalists in Brussels.

More than 220,000 Iraqis who fled abroad or were displaced within the country after the U.S.-led invasion returned home in 2008, according to U.N. statistics.

Still, nearly two million remain outside the country, mostly in Syria and Jordan, and an additional 1.6 million forced from their homes by sectarian and ethnic violence are displaced inside Iraq.

Iraqis currently make up the biggest group of asylum seekers in industrialized countries.

But international refugee organizations have been encouraged by the government's recent moves to normalize the situation and encourage returns.

This includes setting up a special army unit charged with evicting militia members and others who moved illegally into homes owned by people forced to flee the violence.

Provincial elections for the ruling councils in 14 of Iraq's 18 provinces will be held on Saturday. They are seen as a dress rehearsal for national elections later this year.

"If everything continues to go well, including elections, property restitution and stability, it's possible that 500,000 people could return in 2009," Endres said.

Despite the drop in violence in 2008, the number of daily attacks remains high, he said.

Pak has vital role in new US strategy: Mullen

WASHINGTON: Chairman US Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen said Thursday Pakistan has a vital role in the strategy being chalked out by new US administration for national security.

While defining America’s national security strategy at a briefing for Washington-based foreign journalists, Mullen expressed his satisfaction on the results of Pakistan Army’s operation in Bajaur tribal agency.

“Some level of stability, no safe havens, reasonable development… nuclear weapons not a significant concern in Pakistan,” said America’s top military official when asked what would constitute success for him in the South Asian region.

The admiral underlined the current situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan as the biggest threat confronting the United States and said that within those two countries, the presence of terrorist elements in Fata was the main cause of concern for Washington.

“And with respect to Al-Qaeda, the biggest concern we have with respect to them is the existence of them in the Fata and Pakistan,” he said.

The United States, he said, wanted to make sure that the safe havens were eliminated and were not recreated in Afghanistan or some other place like Somalia or Yemen.

Admiral Mullen appeared particularly concerned about Afghanistan where he said “the situation… grows increasingly perilous every day”.

The admiral also emphasised the need for developing a regional strategy for defeating terrorism in Afghanistan.