WORLD IN FOCUS (June ‘July 2013)

News From National & International Press  

National

June 16: Despite below 2,000 l itre per animal yield in the country, Pakistan became the fifth largest milk producing country in the world with 35.6 billion litres (natural contents) of milk per year.

June 17: Punjab Finance Minister Mian Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman presented the deficit budget for FY 2013-14 with a layout of Rs. 931.65 bn.

June 17: The Sindh government unveiled its budget for the financial year 2013-14 with a total outlay of Rs. 617.21 billion against estimated receipts of Rs. 559.57 bn.

June 17: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Finance Minister Sirajul Haq presented in the provincial assembly a Rs. 344 billion budget for the next financial year, with a deficit of Rs. 10.7 bn.

June 17: Malala Yousufzai became the first signatory of a new worldwide petition calling for urgent action to ensure the right of every child to safely attend school.

June 18: The Nawaz Sharif government changed 13 federal secretaries while contracts of some 100 officials will be cancelled.

June 18: Director General Immigration and Passport, Zulfiqar Cheema, was appointed as inspector general (IG) of the National Highway and Motorway Police (NH&MP).

June 18: President Asif Ali Zardari, on the advice of the Prime Minister, approved and signed the Supreme Court Judges (Leave, Pension and Privileges) (Amendment) Order, 2013 entitling the Judges of the Court to use two official cars.

June 18: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) directed the government to give a special allowance of 20% on running basic pay to all federal government employees as it was granted to the officials of the ministries and divisions from March 2013.

June 18: A suicide bomber blew himself up at a funeral in Shergarh area, killing 29 people including Imran Mohmand, a PTI member of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly.

June 19: Governor of Balochistan Muhammad Khan Achakzai administered the oath of office to three members of the provincial cabinet. The ministers taking the oath were Sardar Sanaullah Khan Zehri (PML-N), Nawab Muhammad Khan Shahwani (NP) and Abdul Rahim Ziaratwal (PkMAP).

June 19: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) nullified an amnesty scheme introduced by the former government in its last days, giving duty and tax concessions on illegally imported and smuggled vehicles.

June 19: The University of Gujrat signed an agreement with the University of Oklahoma’s Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication.

This is the first such programme in Punjab, and one of the eight university-level partnerships across Pakistan currently being supported by the US Mission’s Public Affairs Section.

June 19: Shoaib Suddle, the Federal Tax Ombudsman took charge as the Federal Ombudsman.

June 19: Muhammad Uzair, a seven-year-old student from Lahore, was awarded as the Youngest Microsoft Certified Professional (MCPs) in the world by Microsoft Foundation.

June 20: Security forces hoisted the national flag at the historic Bagh Markaz in Tirah Valley, marking a wipe-out of militants from their stronghold.

June 20: Balochistan’s Rs198.4 billion deficit budget for the financial year 2013-14 was presented.

June 20: The Canada Pakistan Business Council (CPBC), which honours distinguished individuals who have served the community and contributed to building societies, gave this year’s, prize to Ms Souriya Anwar President SOS Children’s Villages Pakistan.

June 20: The PML-N government imposed an immediate ban on all recruitments in the federal government besides seeking a review of all appointments made during the last five years.

June 21: In an overarching verdict, the Supreme Court ruled that the government had no legal authority to levy and charge 17 per cent general sales tax (GST) from June 13 without approval by the National Assembly.

June 23: Ten foreign climbers and a Pakistani guide and cook were killed as gunmen wearing the uniform of paramilitary Gilgit-Baltistan Scouts stormed into the base camp of Nanga Parbat, one of the world’s highest mountains, in the scenic Himalayan valley of Bunar Das in Gilgit-Baltistan.

June 23: Prime Minister withdrew the law ministry’s portfolio from Zahid Hamid.

June 24: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif announced in the National Assembly that the government would try the former general for subverting the constitution twice.

June 24: The European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid Department (ECHO) provided €3 million to the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) to work with partners to combat malnutrition among women and children affected by emergencies in Pakistan.

June 25: The Peshawar High Court directed the federal government to hold inter-ministerial committee meeting of the ministries concerned for formulating a policy to block blasphemous and other objectionable contents on social media including Facebook.

June 26: The government informed the Supreme Court that though the previous PPPP government had written a letter to the Swiss authorities in compliance with the court order, it also sent a second secret communication to a law firm requesting for an official confirmation about the Swiss authorities’ inability to revive $60 million graft cases against the president.

June 26: The government put former president retired Gen Pervez Musharraf on trial for subverting the constitution.

June 27: President Asif Ali Zardari administered oath of office to Riaz Hussain Pirzada as a federal minister.
With his induction, the size of the federal cabinet has gone up to 28′ 17 ministers, eight ministers of state, two advisers and one special assistant to prime minister.

June 27: The Lahore High Court suspended the verdict of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) in which it had declared the amnesty scheme for vehicles as illegal.

June 28: Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation surrendered the skiing resort of Malam Jabba in Swat to Tourism Corporation of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

June 28: Punjab’s acting Inspector General of Police Khan Baig was posted as IGP. Mr Baig has been working as acting inspector general of police since May 25.

June 28: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) attached the bank accounts of PIA, Capital Development Authority (CDA) and Islamabad Electric Supply Company (IESCO) for non-payment of taxes.

June 28: National Assembly’s former speaker Dr Fehmida Mirza announced joining the Pink Ribbon Movement to become the beacon of hope for breast cancer survivors in Pakistan.

June 30: British Prime Minister David Cameron urged Pakistani leadership to be uncompromising with terrorists and pledged more support for their counter-terrorism measures.

June 30: The government appointed Tariq Bajwa as Chairman Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) with immediate effect.

June 30: Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) signed and Exchange of Instrument of Ratification document on the bilateral agreement on ‘Transfer of Sentenced Prisoners’ .Arshad Jan Pathan, Charge d’ Affaires, Embassy of Pakistan, Abu Dhabi signed the document on behalf of the government of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. The agreement will be effective from 30th of July 2013.

Jul 01: The government decided to allow those Afghan refugees whose proof of registration (PoR) cards expired on June 30 to stay in Pakistan.The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) officials said that the Ministry of States and Frontier Regions had assured the agency that these people would continue to be protected as refugees even after the expiry of their registration cards.

Jul 01: The Mahkain Punjabi Adbi Board gave nine awards on the books written in different categories in 2012-13 for the promotion of Punjabi language and literature.

Jul 01: The Sindh government issued a notification for the total imposition of the local bodies system all over the province under the Sindh Local Government Ordinance-1979.

Jul 02: Hasham Riaz Shiekh, a special assistant to President Zardari, and the son of president’s close friend Ahmed Riaz Shiekh, quit his office.

Jul 03: The newly-appointed chairman of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), Tariq Bajwa, took charge of the office.

Jul 03: The Punjab University awarded a PhD degree to Jahangir Badr. His subject was ‘Political Leadership of Pakistan: a case study of Benazir Bhutto.’

Jul 03: The government reconstituted the board of directors of the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA). The new board comprises prominent businessmen Aslam Khaliq, Mian Mohammad Mansha, Naseer N.S. Jaffer, Arif Habib, Sarfraz A. Rehman and Imran Khan. Aviation Secretary Mohammad Ali Gardezi and Finance Secretary Dr Waqar Masood Khan are ex-officio members of the board.

Jul 05: China and Pakistan set their sights on developing a transport link through rugged mountains and troubled lands. A broad agreement for the Pak-China economic corridor was among eight pacts signed following a meeting in Beijing between Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.The 2,000km transport link was described as a ‘long-term plan’ to connect Kashgar in northwestern China to the port of Gwadar in Pakistan.

Jul 05: Pakistan and China signed eight documents envisaging cooperation in various sectors for further strengthening already strong economic and technical ties between the two countries. An ambitious and long-term project approximately costing $18 billion would entail building 200-kilometre-long tunnels for the Pak-China Economic Corridor.

Jul 05: The University of Health Sciences was again declared the second best medical university of Pakistan in Quality and Research Based Ranking 2013.

Jul 05: The government notified Ayub Sheikh as the new Chairman of the Employees Old-Age Benefits Institution (EOBI).

Jul 06: Fourteen members of a family were killed and three others critically injured when a speeding train hit a motorcycle rickshaw at an unmanned level-crossing near Khanpur village in Sheikhupura District.

Jul 06: The government appointed Abdul Rauf Chaudhry as Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO) for a period of four years.

Jul 07: In recognition of his work in the field of science, the largest Malaysian university, ‘Universiti Teknologi Mara’, has named its Research Institute of Natural Products after Professor Atta-ur-Rahman. It will now be called ‘Professor Atta-ur-Rahman Institute for Natural Product Chemistry.’

Jul 08: The Abbottabad (Osama bin Laden) Commission’s 336-page classified report was revealed by Al Jazeera.

Jul 08: Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry recused himself from the bench hearing an appeal against post-arrest bail granted to retired General Pervez Musharraf by the Islamabad High Court (IHC).

Jul 08: The UAE authorities handed over Tauqir Sadiq, the fugitive chief of the Oil and Gas Regularity Authority (Ogra), to a team of officials of the National Accountability Bureau.

Jul 08: The Punjab government appointed Addl. IG Ahmad Raza Tahir, as the head of Special Branch, Punjab.

Jul 10: President Asif Ali Zardari’s chief security officer Bilal Sheikh was killed in a suspected suicide attack near Guru Mandir, Karachi.

Jul 10: The European Union Observer Mission ruled out suspicion about rigging in the elections and involvement of intelligence agencies in the process. It described this year’s elections as better organised than the 2008 polls.

Jul 10: Nine more ministers were inducted into the Sindh cabinet, making the total strength of the cabinet 16. Besides, two advisers, not part of the cabinet, were also sworn in, making the advisers strength five.

Jul 10: The British government confirmed that the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) leader Altaf Hussain wrote a letter to the then Prime Minister Tony Blair in September 2001, calling for the abolition of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan’s premier spy agency.

Jul 10: Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif ordered immediate cancellation of notification issued by former Premier Raja Parvaiz Ashraf on March 15 just one day before his exit, allowing the transportation of around 4 million cft legally and illegally cut timber from Diamer, Gilgit-Baltistan.

Jul 11: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif made a ‘morale-boosting’ visit to the headquarters of the beleaguered Inter-Services Intelligence.

Jul 11: Pakistan’s first female Jirga was set up to win justice for women in the face of immense discrimination.

Jul 11: Punjab Advocate General Shahid Karim, who was appointed by the caretaker government, resigned from the post.

Jul 12: Malala Yousufzai, the teenaged activist shot at by the Taliban in Swat in October last year, celebrated her 16th birthday with an impassioned appeal to world leaders not to relent in the fight against ‘illiteracy, poverty and terrorism’.

Jul 12: Islamabad High Court (IHC) ordered Islamabad police to register a case against former President Gen (R) Pervez Musharraf for Lal Masjid operation.

Jul 12: Muhammad Arshad Rafiq was posted as chief executive of the Lahore Electric Supply Company (Lesco) in place of Muhammad Saleem.

Jul 14: The Pakistani Taliban have set up camps and sent hundreds of men to Syria to fight alongside rebels opposed to President Bashar al Assad, militants said, in a strategy aimed at cementing ties with Al Qaeda’s central leadership.

Jul 14: The army’s women paratroopers made history by jumping from a helicopter. The first batch of 24 women officers completed their three-week basic airborne course. Captain Sadia was the first lady officer to jump from an MI-17 helicopter and make history. Captain Kiran Ashraf was declared the best paratrooper. Jul 15: The Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis was merged with the Ministry of Human Resource Development.

International

June 16: Kuwait’s top court ordered the dissolution of parliament and called for fresh elections. The Constitutional Court made its ruling after throwing out opposition challenges to changes to the electoral system decreed by the emir.

June 17: Egypt’s president appointed 17 new provincial governors, including seven members of his Muslim Brotherhood.

June 17: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad warned that European powers would ‘pay the price’ if they sent weapons to rebel forces seeking to topple him.

June 18: Britain and the US shocked Pakistan and its allies at the 23rd regular session of the United Nations Human Rights Council’s (UNHRC) general debate in Geneva when the two countries showed open support for nationalist leader Mehran Marri, Balochistan’s representative to the UN.

June 18: At the end of two days of talks in Northern Ireland, the G8 leaders called for agreement on a transitional government in Syria ‘with full executive powers, formed by mutual consent’.

June 18: Britain laid off more than 4,400 soldiers in a third wave of military job cuts intended to help tackle a budget deficit.

June 18: The Taliban and the US announced that they would hold talks on finding a political solution for ending nearly 12 years of war in Afghanistan as the Taliban opened an office in Doha, Qatar.

June 18: Jordan’s King Abdullah II endorsed a treaty with Britain expected to pave the way for the extradition of radical cleric Abu Qatada who has resisted deportation for the past decade. The king’s decision comes a week after parliament approved the treaty.

June 18: Afghanistan will send a team to Qatar for peace talks with the Taliban, President Hamid Karzai said, as the US-led Nato coalition launched the final phase of the 12-year war with the last round of security transfers to Afghan forces.

June 19: President Barack Obama renewed his call to reduce US and Russian nuclear stockpiles and to confront climate change, a danger he called ‘the global threat of our time’.

June 19: Smog levels in Singapore from Indonesian forest fires hit the highest level on record as the air pollutant index breached the ‘hazardous’ level.

June 19: Britain’s Supreme Court quashed sanctions against an Iranian bank penalised over its alleged links to Iran’s nuclear weapons programme, saying that Bank Mellat had been arbitrarily singled out.

June 19: The American Medical Association (AMA) officially recognised obesity as a disease, a decision with profound consequences in the life of ‘fat’ people.

June 19: Afghan President Hamid Karzai said his government would not join US peace talks with the Taliban until they were led by Afghans and would suspend negotiations with the United States on a troop pact.

June 19: War and other crises drove one person from their home every 4.1 seconds last year, the UN refugee agency said, pushing the number of people forcibly displaced to a two-decade high of 45.2 million.

June 19: Much of Bangkok could flood within the next two decades if global warming stays on its current trajectory, as sea levels rise and cyclones intensify, the World Bank said in a new report.

June 20: India launched a wide-ranging surveillance programme that will give its security agencies and even income tax officials the ability to tap directly into e-mails and phone calls without oversight by courts or parliament.

June 20: Kyrgyzstan’s parliament voted not to renew the lease of its Manas airbase after 2014 to the United States, which uses it to ferry troops and equipment for the coalition military campaign in Afghanistan.

June 21: Italy’s Mount Etna, the Hill Forts of Rajasthan and the Namib Sand Sea were among the natural wonders and cultural jewels granted World Heritage status by Unesco at its annual meeting. Other entrants into the coveted list include the Mountains of the Pamirs in Tajikistan and China’s Tianshan range.

June 21: President Barack Obama nominated Jim Comey as director of the FBI. Comey, 52, a former deputy attorney general under former president George W. Bush, is best known for facing off against White House officials over the legality of a National Security Agency (NSA) eavesdropping programme.

June 23: Western and Arab opponents of Bashar al-Assad met in Qatar to tighten coordination of their stepped up support for rebels battling to overthrow the Syrian president.

June 23: The US administration filed espionage charges against Edward Snowden who leaked secret surveillance documents to media outlets.

June 23: The golden boy from Gaza, Mohammed Assaf, was announced the winner of Arab Idol. Later the 23-year-o1d student showed himself to be a poet as well as an outstanding singer.

June 23: US Secretary of State John Kerry urged a greater role for India in Afghanistan and climate change as he sought to revive stuttering cooperation between the world’s two largest democracies.

June 24: An Italian court sentenced Silvio Berlusconi to seven years in jail and banned the former premier from public office after convicting him of paying for sex with an underage prostitute and abuse of power.

June 24: Flash floods and landslides in northern India killed at least 1,000 people in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand, the chief minister of the state said, and with thousands missing or stranded, the toll is expected to rise.

June 25: Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the ruler of Qatar for 18 years, transferred the ‘reins of power’ to his son.

June 25: Major government and news media Web sites in South and North Korea were shut down after anonymous hackers attacked them on the 63rd anniversary of the start of the 1950-53 Korean War.

June 25: ‘Pride and Prejudice’ novelist Jane Austen looks set to replace Charles Darwin as the new face on Britain’s 10-pound note. The outgoing governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King, made the suggestion, after the bank recently confirmed that it will replace 19th-century social reformer Elizabeth Fry with wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill on the five-pound note.

June 25: Czech President Milos Zeman appointed left-wing economist Jiri Rusnok as prime minister, in a step likely to prolong political turmoil.

June 25: Taliban gunmen and bombers using fake NATO identification attacked an entrance to the Afghan presidential palace in the heart of Kabul.

June 26: Australia’s former leader Kevin Rudd ousted Prime Minister Julia Gillard as Labour chief in a dramatic ballot, deposing the country’s first female premier.

June 26: The US Supreme Court struck down a law that defines marriage as between a man and a woman only and allowed gay couples to get all the benefits.

June 27: After two years as a runner-up, Oprah Winfrey was named the most powerful celebrity by Forbes, heading the six women and four men who make up the top 10.

June 28: The US Senate passed a bill that will allow millions of illegal immigrants to become American citizens when it becomes law. The bill enjoyed a strong bipartisan support in the Senate.

June 28: A long-awaited international treaty linked to copyright law which is expected to boost hundreds of millions of blind or visually impaired people’s access to books was signed in the Moroccan city of Marrakesh. 800 delegates from the World Intellectual Property Organisation’s (WIPO) 186 member countries reached a compromise on facilitating the transcription of published works in special formats such as Braille and their cross-border exchange.

June 30: Thailand’s Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra became the first woman to head the kingdom’s defence ministry in a cabinet reshuffle. As defence minister Yingluck claims a seat on Thailand’s defence council which appoints army top brass.

June 30: China agreed to hold formal talks with Southeast Asian nations on a plan to ease maritime tensions as the Philippines accused it of causing ‘increasing militarisation’ of the South China Sea.

June 30: Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into law a bill punishing people for homosexual ‘propaganda’.

July 01: Australia’s new cabinet was sworn in with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd naming a record number of six women and switching focus to the economy ahead of upcoming elections.

July 01: British Prime Minister David Cameron signed a strategic cooperation agreement as well as $1.0 billion in deals with Kazakhstan during his first visit to the energy-rich ex-Soviet state. Cameron and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev also unveiled an oil and gas processing plant on the shores of the Caspian Sea.

July 02: An unmanned Russian carrier rocket, Proton-M, exploded after takeoff at the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, releasing tonnes of highly toxic fuel into the air.

July 03: Belgium’s King Albert II announced his abdication in favour of his son, saying that after two decades at the helm of the tiny country he felt too old and frail to continue.

July 06: A driverless freight train carrying tankers of petroleum products derailed at high speed and exploded into a giant fireball in the middle of a small Canadian town, destroying dozens of buildings and leaving an unknown number of people feared missing.

July 06: North and South Korea held rare talks on re-opening a joint industrial zone seen as the last remaining symbol of cross-border reconciliation.

July 06: Nobel Peace laureate Mohamed ElBaradei was chosen as premier to help lead Egypt out of a deepening crisis.

July 07: Radical Islamist cleric Abu Qatada, who has been for more than a decade a thorn in the side of British authorities, was flown out of Britain even though they never convicted him of any crime.

July 07: Algeria and the European Union signed a memorandum of understanding to develop energy cooperation.

July 08: A Beijing court sentenced China’s former minister of railways Liu ZhiJune to death, with a two-year reprieve, for bribery and abuse of power.

July 08: Pope Francis chose the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa for his first trip outside Rome.

July 08: Fifty-three loyalists of Egypt’s ousted president were killed while demonstrating against the last week’s military coup, triggering an uprising call from the Muslim Brotherhood.

July 08: The devastating floods that hit central and Eastern Europe last month cause up to $4.5 billion (3.5 billion Euros) in losses for the insurance industry.

July 08: Syria rebel prime minister Ghassan Hitto announced his resignation, nearly four months after his appointment.

July 08: Stung by the removal of the flag and plaque of the Islamic Emirate from their ‘political office’ in the Qatari capital of Doha, Taliban negotiators have stopped visiting the office, dashing hopes for an early resumption of the peace process.

July 09: A 75-year-old Palestinian businessman is on a $10 million mission to boost Arabic on the Internet, Where it accounts for less than 1 per cent of websites despite being spoken by one in 20 people worldwide. If Talal Abu Ghazzaleh, owner of the education and professional services firm Talal Abu-Ghazzaleh Organisation (TAG-Org), has his way, the end of this year will see the launch of Tagipedia, a free online Arabic encyclopaedia with a million entries.

July 10: The Indian Supreme Court ruled that lawmakers should be thrown out of office if they are convicted of a serious crime.

July 12: US Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano resigned to take up a job in academia.

July 13: Razia Sultana, a teenager from a village in Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut district, was awarded the United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education’s Youth Courage Award.

July 13: Bhutan’s main Opposition People’s Democratic Party won 32 seats in the 47-member national assembly in voting.

July 13: Turkey’s highest court allowed a Kurdish couple the right to name their daughter ‘Kurdistan’, a word historically banned because it was considered seditious.

July 13: Boasting its own artificial sun and a floor area three times that of the Pentagon, the ‘world’s largest building’ has opened in southwest China. The towering 100-metre (330-foot) high New Century Global Centre, which is said to be big enough to hold 20 Sydney Opera Houses, recently opened its doors Chengdu. The complex, which Chinese officials say is the world’s largest standalone structure, is 500 metres long by 400 metres wide, offering 1.7 million square metres of floor space.

July 15: A Bangladeshi court sentenced an elderly top Jamaat-i-Islami leader Ghulam Azam, to 90 years in prison for masterminding atrocities during the 1971 independence war.

July 15: Afghan lawmakers passed a bill to give the country’s controversial electoral complaints watchdog more power and independence for the upcoming elections.

July 15: ‘The Cuckoo’s Calling’, a debut detective novel published in April, was not a huge commercial success, but it got great reviews. Its author was J. K. Rowling who wrote it under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith.

SPORTS

Jun 16: World No. 3 Roger Federer clinched his first title of the season when he battled back from a set down to beat Russia’s Mikhail Youzhny and win the Halle Open.

Jun 18: Australia, Iran and South Korea reached the 2014 World Cup but Uzbekistan narrowly failed to book their place.

Jun 23: India added the Champions Trophy title to the World Cup they won two years ago after seeing off England by five runs in a dramatic Champions Trophy final at Edgbaston.

Jun 23: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif appointed Punjab’s former caretaker chief minister and senior journalist Najam Sethi as the acting chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).

Jun 25: Pakistan’s Asad Rauf and New Zealand’s Billy Bowden were dropped from the Elite Panel of umpires following the annual review.

Jun 26: Syed Tahir Fawad Shah was elected as new president of the Punjab Touch-ball Association in place of Rai Altaf.

Jun 26: Drayson Racing Technologies has broken the world land speed record for a lightweight electric car. Its Lola B12 69/EV vehicle hit a top speed of 204.2mph (328.6km/h) at a racetrack at RAF Elvington in Yorkshire.

Jun 28: The National Games took off in a big way at the Pakistan Sports Complex under the main theme of ‘Unity through Sports’ .National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq declared the Games open while former hockey Olympian Qasim Zia lit the flame.

Jun 29: The International Basketball Federation (FIBA) suspended the membership of the Pakistan Basketball Federation (PBF).

Jun 29: The International Cricket Council announced that World Test Championship will have its inaugural edition in England during June and July in 2017 while the second edition will be held in India in 2021.

Jun 30: Katie Ledecky broke Janet Evans’ 25-year-old meeting record to claim the women’s 1500 metres freestyle at the US National Championships, and becoming the second fastest American of all time in the event. Ledecky finished in 15:47.15 and was ahead of compatriot Kate Ziegler’s 2007 world record of 15:42.54.

Jun 01: Brazil won their third Confederations Cup title.

Jun 04: Pakistan Army lifted the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy after finishing with a whopping 325 medals as the National Games came to a close. Pakistan Navy earned 55 medals as they edged Punjab into second place with Balochistan being awarded the fair play trophy.

Jun 04: Chairman of selectors Iqbal Qasim relinquished his post.

Jun 04: The PCB dissolved the national selection committee erstwhile headed by Iqbal Qasim.

Jul 04: The 3rd Summer Youth Olympic Games will be hosted by the city of Buenos Aires in 2018, International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Jacques Rogge announced.

Jul 05: Parvez Rasool became the first Kashmiri cricketer to be selected for India after he was named for a limited-over series against Zimbabwe.

Jul 05: Novak Djokovic defeated Juan Martin Del Potro in the longest Wimbledon semi-final in history that was played for over four hours and 43 minutes.

Jul 06: Marion Bartoli, whose power game bothered Sabine Lisicki as much as any of her notable eccentricities, won her first Grand Slam title.

Jul 07: Andy Murray beat Novak Djokovic to become the first Briton to win the Wimbledon men’s singles title since 1936.

Jul 07: Pakistan-born cricketer Sikander Raza, who recently made his debut against Bangladesh in a home series, has been named in the 16-member Zimbabwe squad, led by Brendon Taylor.

Jul 07: Americans Bob and Mike Bryan beat Ivan Dodig and Marcelo Melo to win the Wimbledon men’s doubles title and become the first pair to hold all four Grand Slam titles simultaneously in the Open era.

Jul 07: Hsieh Su-wei became the first Taiwanese player to win a grand slam title when she and Peng Shuai beat Ashleigh Barty and Casey Dellacqua in the Wimbledon women’s doubles final.

Jul 08: The elections of Punjab Swimming Association were held in which Shaan Lashari who is an ex-captain of the Punjab water Polo team was elected as its president.

Jul 08: Daniel Nestor and Kristina Mladenovic beat top seeds Bruno Soares and Lisa Raymond to win the Wimbledon mixed doubled title.

Jul 10: Pakistan-born leg spinner Fawad Ahmed officially became an Australian citizen, the same day the first Ashes Test against England started in Nottingham.

Jul 11: Teenage Australia debutant Ashton Agar fell agonizingly short of becoming the first Test match No 11 to score a century as he frustrated England with a record-breaking 98 on the second day of the Ashes opener at Trent Bridge.Together with fellow left-hander Phil Hughes (81 not out), Agar shared a 10th wicket Test record partnership of 163 to take Australia to 280.

Jul 12: India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni dragged his side to a pulsating one-wicket victory over Sri Lanka in the final of the tri-nation series at Queen’s Park Oval.

Jul 15: Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) appointed Tahir Zaman as the coach of the team in place of Hanif Khan. Akhtar Rasool, meanwhile, remains the manager and head coach.

Jul 15: Former captain Moin Khan was installed as the new chief selector of Pakistan Cricket.

Jul 15: Shahid Afridi made one of the most remarkable comebacks in international cricket when he claimed the second best figures for a bowler in ODIs. He got 7 wickets for just 12 runs.

Economy

June 17: Bangladesh approved a trade agreement with the United States as it comes under intense pressure from Washington to improve labour rights following a series of factory disasters.

June 17: A British Pakistani Master Tailor Arshad Mahmood produced a suit that he claims to be one of the world’s most expensive tailor-made suits priced at $129,000. The suit is made of 22-carat gold stitching, a gold waistcoat and diamond-encrusted gold and diamond buttons.

June 18: The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan doubled the minimum premium limit for group life insurance required for certification of an appointed actuary of a life insurer.

June 18: Swiss lawmakers refused to vote on a deal with the United States exposing US tax dodgers with assets in Swiss banks.

June 19: The Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) announced a gas and condensate discovery over its exploration well Wafiq X-1 located in Sanghar.

June 21: Russian oil giant Rosneft and Chinese state firm CNPC signed a $270 billion deal to supply China with oil over 25 years.The agreement between Russia, the world’s largest energy producer and China, the world`s largest energy consumer, is one of the biggest deals in the history of world oil industry and was signed by Rosneft chief executive Igor Sechin and CNPC head Zhou Jiping in the presence of President Putin.

June 21: The State Bank slashed the policy interest rate by 50 basis points to 9 per cent.

June 25: France’s Total signed an outline deal to invest in facilities to export gas from Cyprus, which wants to exploit its reserves rapidly to help it emerge from financial crisis.

June 25: The percentage of Pakistan’s population that lives below the poverty line has increased to 36.79 per cent in 2013 against 29.76 per cent in 2004-05, according to a report issued by the Social Policy and Development Centre (SPDC).

June 26: US Agency for International Development (USAID) Administrator Dr Rajiv Shah announced the Pakistan Private Investment Initiative (PPII).

June 26: Balochistan Chief Minister Dr Abdul Malik Baloch announced to establish Balochistan Investment Board and holding international donors conference to end speculation about the law and order in the province.

June 27: The National Assembly passed the new federal budget.

July 03: No intervention by the State Bank of Pakistan allowed the US dollar to cross the Rs.100-threshold for the first time in the inter-bank market.

July 04: Pakistan and the International Monetary Fund agreed to a $5.3 billion bailout package. An additional $2bn request will be considered by the IMF Executive Board on September 4.

July 05: Pakistan Capital Markets Day 2013 was held at the London Stock Exchange.The purpose of the event was to facilitate dialogue between London-based and global investors with the Pakistani companies.

July 06: China and Switzerland signed a free trade agreement (FTA), Beijing’s first in continental Europe, in a deal that comes against a backdrop of trade tensions between the Asian giant and the European Union (EU).

July 09: The European Union filed a dispute with Russia over vehicle imports at the World Trade Organisation, the first such challenge to Moscow since it joined the trade body almost a year ago.

July 10: Pakistan received record $14 billion remittances from overseas Pakistanis during the fiscal year 2013.

Everyday Science

June 17: A Chinese supercomputer, Tianhe-2, a supercomputer developed by China’s National University of Defence Technology, was announced to be the fastest in the world overtaking a US machine which now ranks second. The device achieved processing speeds of 33.86 petaflops per second on a benchmarking test.

June 18: A dim, lightweight dwarf galaxy, known as Segue 2, on the outskirts of the Milky Way may be the smallest in the known universe. It consists of just 1,000 stars held together by a clump of dark matter.

July 06: Based on data from NASA’s Kepler spacecraft, scientists had predicted there should be one Earth-size planet in the habitable zone of each red dwarf, the most common type of star.

July 07: The experimental Solar Impulse plane, powered by the sun, completed a transcontinental trip across the United States.

July 09: Thanks to a protein that continuously delivers oxygen to their tissues, octopuses live as comfortably in the tropics as they do in the Antarctic. Now it turns out that the protein, hemocyanin, has different genetic properties in different climates.

July 11: A Boston-based designer created a throwable device fitted with three panoramic cameras. As the Squito, as it is known, is thrown from one person to another, the built-in cameras take multiple airborne photos over the full course of the trajectory.

July 12: NASA scientists discovered a blue planet that possibly rains glass, orbiting a star 63 light years away, marking the first time an exoplanet’s true colour has been determined. Astronomers making visible-light observations with NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope spotted the planet HD 189733b which is one of the closest exoplanets that can be seen crossing the face of its star.

Obituaries

Jun 16: Former West German international Heinz Flohe, who was a member of the squad that won the 1974 World Cup, has died aged 65.

Jun 19: Minnesota write Vince Flynn, 47, the author of 14 thrillers and mysteries that reached the New York Times best-sellers list, died.

Jun 20: James Gandolfini, the Emmy Award-winning actor who shot to fame on the HBO drama ‘The Sopranos’ as Tony Soprano died. He was 51.

Jun 23: A prominent Lahore-based stage comedian, Shaukat Ali, popularly known as Nashila, died at the age of 65.

Jul 02: Princess Fawzia Fuad, a daughter and sister of Egyptian kings and the first wife of the last Shah of Iran, died in Alexandria.

Jul 03: Former Romanian Prime Minister Radu Vasile, who mediated a violent miners’ protest in 1999 and hosted Pope John Paul II during the first visit by a pope to a Christian Orthodox country, died aged 70.

Jul 08: Lo Hsing Han, a notorious crony of Myanmar’s former junta, dubbed by the US the ‘Godfather of Heroin’ after decades as a global drug trafficker, died aged 80.

Jul 08: Renowned Sindhi fiction writer Sundri Uttamchandani, 89, passed away in Mumbai, India.

Jul 10: Former World Kabbadi Federation president and adviser to the prime minister on sports Ali Muhammad Khawja died. He was 82.

Jul 12: Legendary Bollywood actor Pran Krishan Sikand, popularly known as only Pran, died in Mumbai. He was 93.

Jul 15: Former International hockey umpire Rashid Ali Khan died. He was 63.