London: Prince William, second-in-line to the throne, will be first British king with proven Indian ancestry, DNA analysis has revealed. The DNA analysis of saliva samples taken from the Duke of Cambridge’s relatives have established a direct lineage between the 30-year-old prince and an Indian housekeeper on his mother Princess Diana’s side. It is his only non-European DNA and means he will become... 

Islamabad: In one of his first decisions after assuming charge, Pakistan’s new Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has changed the name of his office. “Prime Minister Mr Muhammad Nawaz Sharif has decided to rename the Prime Minister’s Secretariat as Prime Minister’s Office with immediate effect,” said a brief statement issued by the premier’s media office. Nasir Mahmood Khosa, a senior... 

Beijing: As Chinese Premier Li Keqiang made a “successful” visit to India despite recent border stand off, an influential state-run daily here took a dig at US saying Washington should not feel “jealous” over close Sino-Indian ties. The ruling Communist Party’s mouthpiece ‘People’s Daily’ also said India would not harm its ties with China to further US’ strategic interests. “Li... 

DHAKA: Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, editor & publisher of Weekly BLITZ appeals to His Excellency Kim Jong Un, to please consider of releasing Kenneth Bae so he may get back to his family in USA. Choudhury, who himself is in prison now with a plotted case, has asked BLITZ people and his family members -who went to meet him in prison (Dhaka Central Jail) recently, to send this message through Weekly... 

ISLAMABAD: Nawaz Sharif, poised for a record third term as Pakistan Prime Minister after his party’s emphatic victory in the landmark General Election, has sought “warmer ties” with India and said his government would devise a national policy to tackle the problem of terrorism. “We will contact every party for the purpose of forming our policy on terrorism,” Sharif said during... 

LONDON: A wide selection   of Punjab and Sikh related artifacts are set to be auctioned on May 21st by British Auction House Mullocks. The highlight of the sale is an early watercolor of Baba Deep Singh Ji fighting Afghan forces, dating from the 1880s, it’s expected to fetch 400 – 600 GBP. According to the Auction house the painting came from the collection of General Roberts who served... 

KARACHI: The chief of the Pakistan People’s Party Bilawal Bhutto would not be present in Pakistan on the election day.

Bilawal has already left the country and would not be addressing any party rallies or meetings due to threats to his life. Central party leader Taj Haider on Friday confirmed that consensus had been reached in the party and that, in the wake of serious threats to Bilawal’s... 

Gurmukh Singh: WHITE Canada is fast changing its colours as visible minorities — Asians, Blacks and others — are outgrowing the white population. According to projections done for Citizenship and Immigration Canada, 60 per cent residents of the Greater Vancouver area by the year 2031 will be non-whites. Daniel Hiebert of Vancouver-based University of British Columbia, who is an expert on immigration... 

ISLAMABAD: General (retd) Pervez Musharraf on Thursday escaped from the premises of the Islamabad High Court after the cancellation of his bail application by Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui in the judges detention case. Immediately after the bail cancellation, police tried to reach the former military ruler but he was escorted by his personal security, fleeing in his bullet-proof black four-wheeler. A... 

Sohail Choudhury: Dhaka: With a plotted case, BLITZ editor was arrested on 8th November 2012. His bail was moved with the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s court, later with the COURT of the District Judge and failing to get bail at last with the High Court bail petition was submitted. With many pleas his hearing is being delayed. For, the sections that Salah Uddin Choudhury faces are absolutely bailable.... 

BOSTON: Two bombs ripped through the crowd at the finish line of the Boston Marathon on Monday, killing three people, causing several amputations and injuring more than 100 in what a White House official said would be handled as an “act of terror.” It was the worst bombing on US soil since security was tightened after the attacks of September 11, 2001, and US President Barack Obama promised... 

MUZAFFARGARH: Pakistan former External Affairs Minister Hina Rabbani Khar, who was recently in news for her love affair with Bhttu-Zaradari son Bilawal Bhutto, was asked to submit Nikah Nama by the Returning Officer for filing of her nomination papers. Hina along with her father Malik Noor Rabbani Khar appeared before the court of Abdul Rehman Bodla to submit her papers. During the question-answer... 

ISLAMABAD: Former military dictator Pervez Musharraf on Wednesday said he was “proud” of the Kargil operation and blamed the political class for squandering away a military victory. Replying to queries at a press conference in Karachi – his first since returning from self-exile on Sunday – he asserted that “a military victory was turned into a political defeat”. Gen. Musharraf’s... 

Islamabad: Bilawal Bhutto has left for Dubai after a tiff with his father, President Asif Ali Zardari, over the affairs of the PPP, leaving the party without its star campaigner for Pakistan’s general election. It may be mentioned here that Bilawal has discordant ties with father Zardari since the later started opposing to his (Bilawal’s) love affair with Pakistan External Minister and stunning... 

KARACHI: Ending four years of self-imposed exile, Pakistan’s former military ruler Pervez Musharraf returned home on Sunday to take part in the May 11 general elections despite a Taliban death threat. Mr. Musharraf, 69, landed Jinnah International airport in Karachi by a chartered Emirates flight from Dubai. Police officials said he will be directly taken out of the airport to his ultimate destination... 

Recently, the online world has been crowded with petitions to bring the infamous honcho of the Mumbai crime syndicate, Dawood Ibrahim, to justice. People across India have begun signing a petition online, aiming to send 100,000 appeals to the President of India to bring Dawood Ibrahim, the brains behind the 1993 mayhem in Mumbai, back to India for a formal trial. It has been 20 years since the deadly... 

Islamabad: Pakistan’s parliament today passed a resolution condemning the hanging in Delhi last month of Afzal Guru and demanded the return of his body to his family. India reacted strongly to the resolution with Minister for External Affairs Salman Khurshid saying, “This shows Pakistan’s unhealthy interest in matters of our country.” “Pakistan should restrict themselves... 

OTTAWA: Canada issued a record number of visitor visas in 2012 with almost 1 million visas approved, Jason Kenney, Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, and Maxime Bernier, Minister of State for Small Business and Tourism, announced today. ““The Government is committed to attracting an increasing number of visitors to Canada as part of our plan to grow the Canadian economy... 

Lausanne: IOC leaders have dropped wrestling for the 2020 Games in a surprise decision to scrap one of the oldest sports on the Olympic program. The IOC executive board decided today to retain modern pentathlon — the event considered most at risk — and remove wrestling instead from its list of core sports. The IOC board acted after reviewing the 26 sports on the current Olympic program.... 

I arrived in Delhi on January 22nd at the invitation of the distributors of the film of my novel Midnight’s Children. The plan was to visit four cities, Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata and Mumbai, culminating in the Mumbai premiere of the movie on January 31st. The day before I was due to travel to Kolkata we were informed that the Kolkata police would refuse to allow me to enter the city. If I flew... 

Sao Paolo, Brazil: A fire swept through a popular nightclub in the southern Brazilian city of Santa Maria, killing at least 220 people early Sunday, officials said. The death toll was expected to climb as firefighters continued to pull bodies from the Kiss nightclub, Col. Adilomar Silva, the regional coordinator of civil defense said. Most of those killed appeared to have died of smoke inhalation,... 

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court in Pakistan on Tuesday ordered the authorities to arrest Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, according to reports. The court on Tuesday ordered the PM’s arrest during a hearing of a power projects case. The court also ordered the arrest of 16 persons, including the premier and former finance minister Shaukat Tareen, and asked the authorities to present the PM in court... 

Washington: In the wake of the shocking assault and gang-rape of a young woman in New Delhi that got India a lot of negative play in the media in America, the US has offered to help India strengthen public and private organizations working to combat violence against women. “Our goal is, whether it’s in India or anywhere else, to help strengthen all of the public and private organizations... 

ISLAMABAD: THE son of former Pakistani Prime Minister and slain leader Benazir Bhutto was expected to launch his political career last night with a speech in the family’s ancestral home town on the fifth anniversary of his mother’s assassination. Benazir Bhutto, twice elected prime minister, was assassinated after an election rally in Rawalpindi, the headquarters of Pakistan’s army,... 

WASHINGTON: The mass killing on Friday at a Connecticut school put renewed pressure on U.S. President Barack Obama and other Democrats to reverse their years of caution about gun control laws and address the easy availability of firearms. The scenes from Sandy Hook Elementary – of children running from a school where a lone gunman killed at least 20 children and six adults were certain to stir... 

AMRITSAR: Prominent human rights activist of the Asian continent and former Pakistan Minister Ansar Burney using the World Human Rights Day occasion, has appealed his countrymen to shed their hatred for Sarabjit Singh, an alleged Indian spy on death row in Pakistan. “My appeal on this day to people on both sides of the border is not to view prisoners like Sarabjit with hatred. People of this... 

LAHORE: The USAID’s team visited the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) to listen to business community’s point of view on issues hampering Pak-India trade through Wagah. The USAID (the United States Agency for International Development) is presently working on updating its Wagah Border Assessment Study with a view to catering the expected surge in overland trade between India and Pakistan. The... 

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan human rights activist Ansar Burney is willing to take custody of the body of Lashkar-e-Tayiba terrorist Ajmal Kasab who was hanged in Pune’s Yerawada jail on Wednesday morning. Burney told Rediff.com, “Kasab has been punished for what he has done, but after his execution he should be treated like a normal human being.” “I have requested his parents to approach... 

Dhaka: Bangladesh today demanded a formal apology from Pakistan for the genocide committed by its troops during the 1971 liberation war, but Islamabad said it’s time to carry forward ties “burying the past”. During a meeting with her Pakistani counterpart Hina Rabbani Khar, Foreign Minister Dipu Moni said “Bangladesh expects an apology from Pakistan for the genocide carried out by their... 

WASHINGTON: Indian Americans have welcomed the re-election of President Barack Obama saying his administration has delivered and victory is good for the community and India both. “Obama’s victory is very good for the Indian American community and India,” Thomas Abraham, founder president of Global organisation of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO has said. “The Asian American community,... 

Mississauga(Canada): In an ongoing effort to deter people from using marriages of convenience to cheat their way into Canada, Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) introduced a new regulation that requires certain sponsored spouses live in a legitimate relationship with their sponsor for two years or they risk losing their permanent resident status. “There are countless cases of marriage fraud... 

by Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury: Even at this time, when Imran Khan’s Tehreek-e-Insaf Pakistan [TIP] is continuing to blossom as a mentionable political force in Pakistan, the Western media still are continuing to see him as “sex symbol and cricket legend”. Imran, who ruled the sport of cricket from Karachi to Kolkata to Lord’s, is in contention to become the next President... 

TORONTO: Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper will visit India next week to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other Indian leaders. Yahoo News, India reported on Wednesday. Harper’s November 3-9 visit will be his second to India, and will include trips to Agra, New Delhi, Chandigarh and Bangalore. During his previous India visit Harper visited Golden Temple in Amritsar (see... 

by Mukesh Aurora: Most of the lonely tourists in the Asian cities, along with some of the adventure-hunting couples, surf through the internet to find authentic and validated information on the juicy nightlife in various cities as well as information on massage, escort, outcall service, karaoke, cocktail lounge, bar, pub and places of sexual rendezvous and adventures. Though there are thousands of... 

YUDHVIR RANA: AMRITSAR: In yet another step to improve Indo-Pak ties, Islamabad has started finalising modalities to declare the historical town of Hasan Abdal, a pilgrim centre for Sikhs, as holy city. Legend has it that the town was visited by Guru Nanak and his hand print is visible on a rock where Gurdwara Panja Sahib was built. The gurdwara is frequented by Sikhs from around the globe throughout... 

BIRMINGHAM: An ambitious project to start a bus service, traveling nearly 6,500 km from Mirpur, in the Pakistan-administered Kashmir to Birmingham has been announced. Mirpur, located in the north-east of PaK, at the foothills of the Himalayas, has a large expatriate community in Birmingham and the city is therefore often referred to as ‘Little England or Little Birmingham.’ After commissioning... 

ISLAMABAD: Supreme Court of Pakistan on Thursday disqualified interior minister Rehman Malik along with 11 other lawmakers for violating the Constitution by holding dual nationality, saying the interior minister cannot be considered “sagacious” and “righteous” as he had submitted a “false declaration” in 2008. A three-judge bench headed by chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry issued the order... 

LONDON: Prince William’s office says its lawyers will go to court in France on Monday in a bid to stop further publication in that country of topless photos of William’s wife Kate. St. James’s Palace says lawyers will seek an injunction against Italian media group Mondadori, which publishes France’s Closer and Italy’s Chi gossip magazines. The palace also will seek damages from the publisher. Last... 

Badal (Sri Muktsar Sahib): Punjab Chief Minister Mr Parkash Singh Badal today said that in order to strengthen the ties between India and Pakistan, the state government would make all out efforts to start cultural exchange programs with the other side of the border. Talking to the media persons after presiding over a felicitation function of Pakistan’s Federal Minister Mr. Mian Manzoor Ahmad Wattoo...