IPL Issue To be Raised in ICC: Jakhrani, Rumors to tighten-up grip on Ijaz Butt and to bring Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) under the rule of Ministry of Sports were ruled out as Federal Minister of Sports Ijaz Hussain Jakhrani said “we want to improve every sport in Pakistan including cricket, that’s why we would like to work closely with PCB”.
After the meeting with the PCB Chairman Ijaz Butt at National Cricket Academy, Ijaz Jakhrani said that the chairman Standing-Committee Jamshed Dasti should not have used harsh words regarding the leadership of PCB. He said that Indian government is involved for insulting the Pakistani cricketers in IPL-3, and Pakistan would raise the issue in ICC.

Gary Matthews Jr, The Mets will acquire Gary Matthews Jr. and cash from the Angels for Brian Stokes. Matthews, who receives $500K for being traded, is set to make $11MM in 2010 and $12MM in 2011. The Angels will pick up all but $2MM of the $23.5MM remaining on the deal.

Matthews joined the Angels before the 2007 season, signing a $50MM deal. He leaves without much fanfare, as he’s coming off a season in which he combined poor defense with a .250/.336/.361 line. That’s far from the .866 OPS he posted in his 2006 walk year.

The 30-year-old Stokes allowed 72 hits and 38 walks in 70.1 innings last year, striking out 45 for a 3.97 ERA.

MOSCOW: Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and visiting Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh signed an agreement on Monday to cooperate in the peaceful use of nuclear technology after talks in Moscow.

The nuclear deal could significantly widen atomic fuel exports from Russia to India. Further details were not immediately available.

Russia confirmed on Monday it would finally deliver a refurbished aircraft carrier to India, a Kremlin source said, but gave no timing for the much-delayed project which has soured ties with India’s military.

Speaking as Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh held talks with Russian leaders in Moscow, the source said discussions between on delivering the Admiral Gorshkov had been completed.

India, along with China, is one of Russia’s biggest clients for arms sales but New Delhi has been upset in recent years by long delays in the delivery of the refurbished Soviet-era aircraft carrier under a $1.6 billion contract.

“Discussions between India and Russia on the delivery of the the Admiral Gorshkov have been finalised, and the deal will be accomplished,” the Kremlin source told reporters on condition of anonymity. He gave no time frame for the deal and Indian officials were not immediately available for comment.

In July Russian President Dmitry Medvedev took the rare step of publicly scolding the Russian shipbuilder for the delays. Singh met Medvedev for an informal dinner after arrival on Sunday before formal meetings on Monday. He is due to meet Russia’s pre-eminent politician, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin later in the day.

Russia and India, which agreed in October the outlines of a 10-year weapons deal that could be worth at least $10 billion, are building a modern supersonic fighter aircraft invisible to radars like the U.S. F-22 Raptor stealth fighter. Singh may sign weapons orders including a $1 billion deal for 80 Russian Mi-17 helicopters and contracts for fitting Brahmos missiles to Russian-made Sukhoi fighter planes, Indian officials have said.

Russia sees India, a Cold War ally, as an important partner whose influence will expand in Asia, although trade lags far behind Moscow’s economic ties with the European Union and China. It rose to $5.1 billion in the first nine months of 2009 but accounts for just 1.6 percent of Russia’s external trade, according to Russian state figures.

Iran ruled out sending enriched uranium abroad for further processing, but would consider swapping it for nuclear fuel provided it remained under supervision inside the country.
The decision is expected to anger the United States and its allies, which had called on Iran to accept a deal which aimed to delay Tehran’s potential ability to make bombs by at least a year by divesting Iran of most of its enriched uranium. A draft deal brokered by the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), calls on Iran to send some 75 percent of its low-enriched uranium to Russia and France, Iran Rejects Sending Uranium Abroad, where it would be turned into fuel for a Tehran medical research reactor. “Surely we will not send our 3.5 percent fuel abroad but can review swapping it simultaneously with nuclear fuel inside Iran,” Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told. The United States has rejected Iranian calls for amendments and further talks on the deal. President Barack Obama said time was running out for diplomacy to resolve a long standoff over Iran’s nuclear program. Mottaki criticized Washington for pressuring Iran to accept the deal. “Diplomacy is not black or white. Pressuring Iran to accept what they want is a non-diplomatic approach,” he said. Russia and France, which are both also involved in the fuel proposal, also pressed Iran to accept it as is. Tehran faces possible harsher international sanctions and risks even Israeli military action to knock out its nuclear sites. Iran says it needs nuclear technology to generate power but its history of secrecy and restricting UN inspections have raised Western suspicions of a covert quest for atom bombs.

ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari on Monday for the first time disclosed the deal between the PPP government and the international guarantors to give a safe passage to the former President Pervez Musharraf after his resignation from the office of President.

In an informal chat with senior media persons at an Iftar dinner hosted by him at the Presidency, Zardari said he was also part of the deal with local and international guarantors, which provided a safe passage to the former President. “It was unanimously decided in the deal that Musharraf will spend his remaining days playing golf,” he remarked.

Commenting on the role of the international guarantors in the deal, he said that they might have their own interests in the region and therefore they were ‘more than active’. He claimed the PPP had never accepted Musharraf as a legal president of the country, adding that the deal was struck with Musharraf in the “larger national interest”.

The President also suggested the formation of a ‘Truth and Reconciliation Commission’ for lessening the deprivation of provinces and national stability. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) Chairwoman Asma Jahangir would be head the Commission after its approval by the Parliament.

Commenting on the reports about the rampant corruption in the government departments, Zardari said that some people were trying to destabilise the democratic government of PPP, adding that those people were also defaming politicians, To a question, he said his up-coming US visit would not be affected due to the India’s anti Pakistan propaganda.

According to him, those who give anti-politicians statements are enemies of democracy. To a question, the President said that the ‘minus one formula’ would not be successful as long as there is a President like Farooq Laghari in the country.

Minister for Information and Broadcasting Qamar Zaman Kaira, Minister for Water and Power Raja Pervez Ashraf, PPP’s Secretary General Jahangir Badar, PPP’s Information Secretary Fauzia Wahab and senior officials of the Ministry of Information also attended the Iftar dinner.

Michael Jackson’s mother is to get permanent custody of the pop star’s children after agreeing a deal with the singer’s ex-wife, US media reports said on Thursday.

The agreement which averts the possibility of an ugly court case will see Jackson’s former wife Debbie Rowe receive visitation rights to the two children she bore Jackson, Prince Michael, 12, and Paris, 11.

The surrogate mother of Jackson’s third child, Prince Michael II, known as “Blanket”, 7, has never been identified.

Rowe, who earlier this month told a Los Angeles television station she wanted custody of her two children, “will retain her parental rights but she agrees not to make a claim for custody,” NBC News reported.

Rowe will obtain visitation rights for Prince Michael and Paris but would receive no money beyond the spousal agreement already in place reportedly worth some 8.5 million dollars NBC reported.

Quoting unnamed sources, the television network said the two older children now know that Rowe, a former nurse at Jackson’s dermatologist’s office who was married to the singer between 1996 and 1999, is their mother.

“In fact, as a central part of the agreement, they’ll begin to have a relationship with her, now that their father is dead,” it added, noting that a child psychologist would supervise the process.

Although the deal has not been made public, ABC said all parties in the agreement would appear in Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday and that the judge was expected to approve the deal.

Katherine Jackson, 79, was named temporary guardian of her grandchildren at a court hearing in Los Angeles four days after her son’s death on June 25.

A will drawn up by Michael Jackson in 2002 named his mother as the guardian of the youngsters, with Motown legend Diana Ross named as an alternate.

The fate of Jackson’s children was one of the myriad legal tangles thrown up by the singer’s death last month. As well as custody issues, next Monday’s hearing will also address the question of who controls Jackson’s estate.

Meanwhile, the release of Jackson’s autopsy results has been delayed until next week, the Los Angeles County Coroner’s office confirmed Wednesday.

On Tuesday, federal agents and police raided the Las Vegas home and office of Jackson’s personal doctor, Conrad Murray, who has become the central figure in the superstar’s sudden death.

Search warrants filed in the investigation have indicated police are studying possible manslaughter charges against Murray, who is reported to have administered Jackson with a potent anesthetic before his death.