Pakistan's ruling coalition will face a defining moment for its possible breakup on Monday after the three-day talks on the judges' issue in London ended in deadlock.

    After the talks, the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) failed to reach a deal on restoring the judges sacked by President Pervez Musharraf last year under a state of emergency.

    Earlier, the two coalition parties had held talks on the issue in Dubai and failed to bridge their differences.

    The PML-N pledged unconditional reinstatement of the judges through a single resolution, while the PPP maintained that the reinstatement of the judges should be part of a package of constitutional amendments.

    The PPP and PML-N won the Feb. 18 elections and formed a coalition government, putting the judges' issue top on the agenda.

    The PML-N, led by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, set May 12 as the deadline for reinstating the judges after the two sides failed to meet the first deadline set on April 30.

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Pakistan Cricket Board`s (PCB) decision to ban Shoaib Akhtar for five years and then open a month-long window for the controversial quickie to play for Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League (IPL) has amused several former cricketers. Fast bowling great Wasim Akram says that the drama surrounding Akhtar would make a good script for a Bollywood comedy. We at Zeecric.com bring to you the views of fiery pacer of yesteryears on the pugnacious Rawalpindi Express.

The former Pakistan captain says the PCB`s decisions on Akhtar were `baffling` and would make a `good Bollywood comedy.`

“First you ban him and then you suspend it to facilitate something. After that, Naseemsaab (Naseem Ashraf, PCB chairman) and Shoaib are on TV, a politician mediates to sort out the matter and then, Naseemsaab drops his case. I think a good Bollywood director can make a hit comedy film.”

“And Shoaib should eventually join politics. He will really do well there,” he added.

Akram says the publicity-hungry Akhtar will be all fired up while playing in IPL.

“Once Shoaib sees the crowd and, of course, the babes around, I think he`ll be able to perform. It will take him just a couple of games to get fit and since he has to bowl just four overs in a match, he doesn’t need much fitness,” he said

Akram said the PCB`s ways and means were ridiculous, and slammed Akhtar for using political help to weave his way out of the mess he had landed himself in.

Toyota Motor Corp., the world's second-largest automaker, said fourth-quarter profit dropped more than analysts estimated and forecast earnings this year will fall 27 percent due to a stronger yen and U.S. sales slump.

Net income fell 28 percent to 316.8 billion yen ($3 billion) in the three months ended March from 440 billion yen a year earlier, Toyota said in Tokyo today. That was lower than the 375.2 billion yen median of six analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Sales rose 3.8 percent to 6.57 trillion yen.

Toyota, Honda Motor Co. and Mazda Motor Corp. all predict profit will drop this year as the yen's gains against the dollar erode the value of sales in North America. Chief Executive Officer Katsuaki Watanabe forecasts sales of Corollas, Avalons and other vehicles in the U.S. to drop 6.4 percent amid a ``severe business environment.''

``The slowdown in the U.S. really hit Toyota,'' said Koichi Ogawa, chief portfolio manager at Daiwa SB Investments Ltd. in Tokyo, which oversees $28 billion in assets. ``The market has yet to hit bottom.''

Profit Drop

The carmaker predicts annual net income to drop to 1.25 trillion yen in the year started April 1, from a record 1.72 trillion last year, it said today. The stronger Japanese currency will probably trim 690 billion yen from operating profit, it added.

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White House Spokeswoman Dana Perino says tensions between Russia and Georgia are high, and she makes clear the administration feels most of the fault lies with Moscow.

"The Russian government has taken what we would call provocative actions which have increased tensions with Georgia over its separatist regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia," she said.

Perino says Russia downed an unmanned Georgian spy plane last month in Georgian air space, a charge Moscow has denied.  She also points to an increased Russian military presence along the administrative border separating Georgia and Abkhazia.  And she points to Moscow's withdrawal from sanctions imposed on Abkhazia by a group of former Soviet republics.

Both of the Georgian separatist regions are considered pro-Russian.   Perino makes clear that instead of pushing their separatist ambitions, Moscow should act as a mediator between the separatists and the government in Tblisi.

"These steps have significantly and unnecessarily heightened tensions in the region and run counter to Russia's status as a facilitator of the UN friends process of Abkhazia," she added.

All this comes amid word of a possible increase in ties between Russia and the self-declared separatist government in Abkhazia.  A Russian newspaper quotes a leading separatist official as saying Moscow should take over security responsibilities in that breakaway region.

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Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar, who landed in New Delhi last evening, has expressed his gratitude to Bollywood star and Knight Riders' owner Shahrukh Khan for his support during the past few months when he faced an inquiry and subsequently suspended from international cricket.

Shoaib was hired by Shahrukh for "Knigh Riders", but wasn't able to play following his suspension by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB). As per IPL rules, a cricketer can't play in the League if he is banned by his country's cricket board.

Only two days ago the PCB had temporarily lifted the five-year ban on Shoaib.

"I am grateful to the people of India for embracing me, especially (team owner) Shah Rukh Khan who supported me. Eden Gardens is like my home ground. I am looking ahead to be there soon," the Dawn quoted Shoaib as saying in New Delhi.

He added: "I am happy to be in India. I am looking forward to play in the IPL and play my role for my team."

Shoaib admitted that he would have to train hard and acclimatize with the conditions though he had visited the country late last year. "I have not played cricket for four months. I have to acclimatize with the conditions and train hard. I want to do my bit for my team,

With its boundless optimism about the transformative potential of science, the Festival of Britain was the atomic age brought to the South Bank. This is more than a metaphor; scientific accuracy was woven, quite literally, into the very fabric of the buildings. As a fascinating new exhibition at the Wellcome Collection shows, many of the festival’s distinctive furnishings and wallpapers were the result of a characteristically Fifties collaboration between designers and some of the leading scientists of the day.

The Cambridge physicist Helen Megaw led this project to bring the microscopic beauty of crystalline structures into the aesthetic and commercial world of dresses, ties and carpets. “I am constantly being impressed by the beauty that crops up,” she wrote in 1946 of her work probing the structure of molecules through X-ray crystallography. “I would like to suggest not merely that designers should look through it for new ideas, but that they should select a few of the best which would be utilisable without substantial alteration, apply them to appropriate fabrics, and give such pattern its correct name.”

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It’s a fortnight since the Indian Premier League (IPL) began and the descriptions have ranged from it being a carnival and an extravaganza, a tamasha and a money-making exercise. But one third of the way into the competition, there is little doubt that the IPL has caught the imagination of the public at large.

The very fact that it is perhaps the main subject of discussion not only among cricket fans, but also among those not normally interested in the game underscores this. Various opinion polls have focused on the large number of women followers among the millions of TV viewers and also significant according to the pollsters is that IPL has scored over Shah Rukh’s newly-inaugurated game show Kya Aap Panchvi Paas Se Tez Hai.

The cricket has ranged from the exciting to the predictable though not too many matches have gone down to the wire. Yes, there have been surprise results and this is shown in the points table, where the lesser fancied Rajasthan Royals, no doubt inspired by Shane Warne’s presence and leadership qualities, are in the running for a place in the semis, while Deccan Chargers, Mumbai Indians and Bangalore’s Royal Challengers, who were all highly rated on the eve of the tournament, are all languishing in the bottom half.

The tournament has also helped explode some myths about the Twenty20 game. Oh sure, it has rained fours and sixes but that is to be expected when the duration is so limited. The point I want to emphasise is that the bowlers have not exactly been willing slaves just there at the batsman’s bidding.

It may still be a batsman’s game (which version of cricket is not?), but there is a place for the bowlers in Twenty20. For example, we were given to understand that a total of around 200 would be par for the course in an innings going by what we saw in the World Cup in South Africa last year. But in a format supposed to be devised of, by and for batsmen, this hasn’t been the case. In the first 19 matches, 200-plus totals have been notched up only seven times.

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A passport problem for Pakistani artists is forcing Bollywood composer Pritam Chakraborty to rush to Lahore to record a song with Atif Aslam for the upcoming film “Kismat Konnection”. “I need to urgently record a song with Atif for Aziz Mirza’s ‘Kismat Connection’, but he is suddenly having problems with his passport. So he can’t come to Mumbai, I’m flying down to Lahore to record the song with him,” Pritam, who composed music for films like “Life…In a Metro”, told IANS.

Despite all the talk of amity, solidarity and free-flowing cultural exchanges between India and Pakistan, artists from the neighbouring country seem to be finding it hard to obtain permission to come to Mumbai to record songs.

Pritam has consistently and tellingly used Pakistani voices - the latest being Atif in the “Race” track “O jaan-e-jaana”.

He doesn’t mind making the trip to Lahore because he has more business to mix with the pleasure of visiting Pakistan.

“I’ve never been to Pakistan. And ‘Jannat’, which has my music, is being premiered in Pakistan later this month. So it would be mixing business with pleasure.”

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Pakistani leaders are holding a final round of talks Wednesday on stalled plans to reinstate deposed judges, in a dispute that is threatening the coalition government.

Asif Ali Zardari and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif are meeting in Dubai to work out disagreements on how to reinstate judges ousted by President Pervez Musharraf. The talks are a last-ditch effort in hopes of salvaging a mutual promise to reinstate the judges before an April 30 deadline.
Zardari's Pakistan People's Party wants to link reinstatement to constitutional reforms, among them, narrowing the powers of top judges, including chief justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry.

But Mr. Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party wants the judges reinstated unconditionally. He warned Tuesday the fate of the coalition could depend on this issue.

A senior official, Sadiqul Farooq, from Mr. Sharif's PML-N party says the party may pull its ministers from the cabinet if the judges are not reinstated on time. However, he said the party will remain in the coalition.

Recent talks between representatives of both sides in the Gulf emirate, where Zardari is visiting his children, have failed.

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Representatives of Zimbabwe's presidential candidates are set to meet the electoral commission to review the results of the disputed election.

Officials say the results, which have still not been published more than four weeks after the vote, will be announced once they agree on the final figures.

Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai has said he beat President Robert Mugabe outright.

The MDC says 15 of its supporters have been killed in post-election violence.

More than 200 of its activists were arrested during a police raid on its Harare headquarters on Friday.

MDC lawyers say they have been denied access to them and have filed an urgent High Court appeal for them to be freed.

"They have been detained while police are trying to find suitable charges against them," MDC lawyer Alec Muchadehama told the AFP news agency.

The police say they are looking for suspects involved in political violence but the MDC says those arrested had fled their homes after attacks by ruling party supporters.

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