Second T20: Pakistan beat NZ by 7 runs

DUBAI: Pakistan has beaten New Zealand by 7 runs in the second Twenty20 international at Dubai Stadium here on Friday.

Women flock to see first female football game in West Bank

Al Ram, West Bank (CNN) : The Faisal al Husseini football stadium was packed, two hours before kick off, with a noisy sea of Palestinian flags and white hijabs.

Football matches are always a big deal in the West Bank, but this game was more significant than most. 10,000 women had flocked to the stadium, on the outskirts of East Jerusalem and a mere few meters from the separation barrier that snakes around the West Bank, to watch a historic football match few would have believed possible just a few years ago: the Palestinian women's national team were to play Jordan in their first ever home international.

Both teams gave laps of honor before the start of the game to mark an occasion that is rare in the Middle East. Football is hugely popular amongst women in the region but the development of the game has largely been held back by a social conservatism that disapproves of women playing what are deemed 'men's' sports.

In Kuwait, attempts to set up a women's national team was met with outrage in the country's parliament. The move was halted after Waleed al Tabtabae, a hard line Islamist MP who chairs a committee charged with weeding out 'phenomena strange to society' decided that a women's football team was 'un-Islamic'.

"Committee members expressed their indignation...and total rejection of the idea of the women's football team on the grounds that football is not suitable for women," Tabtabae told the Kuwait Times.

The UAE has only this year launched its own national team. A handful of teams exist in Saudi Arabia, although they are confined to the more liberal university campuses and have to be played in front of small, women-only crowds. In Iran women are banned from attending football matches and have to wear the hijab when they play, even in tournaments abroad.

The Palestinian team has had its own, unique problems to deal with. Set up in 2003 at Bethlehem University, Israeli movement restrictions meant it was impossible to practice on the West Bank's sole grass pitch in Jericho. Instead, they had to train on a concrete handball court and play against local boy's teams.

The only way the national team could play was to travel to nearby Jordan, but that created its own problems as it was difficult for players from Gaza to get permission to leave. Since the 2007 Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip, it became even harder for women to take part.

But the hardest part was convincing the families, both Christian and Muslim, in conservative strongholds like Nablus and Jenin to allow their daughters to play football.

"At first it seemed weird, women playing football in our society because it has a male mentality," said Honey Thaljieh, the team's 25-year-old captain when I interviewed her in 2007. "Some families had problems sending their daughters to play football, some still face problems."

Yet two years on they have a Futsal league (an indoor version of the game), a national stadium to play in and a string of international tournaments to attend. The team even attempted to qualify for the 2011 World Cup, but narrowly missed out on reaching the second round.

"We go to the villages now and tell them [the parents] that it is not forbidden to play. Most of the team is now Muslim," explained Rouqaya Takrouri, the 45-year-old national team manager, who hoped the Jordan match would spur a new recruitment drive, inspiring some of the thousands of female spectators to believe they could play football too. "We are talking to every woman now. We send out letters that say: 'Now is your time.' Last year we had six clubs, now we have 14."

For Thaljieh the match was particularly poignant. Since captaining the team she has fought for recognition within her own community, dedicating her life to the women's game by vowing not to get married or start a family until she retires, a controversial move in Palestinian society.

As the game has grown, Thaljieh has become something of a symbol for women's rights in the region and has been feted by everyone from Cristiano Ronaldo to FIFA president Sepp Blatter who presented Thaljieh with FIFA's inaugural development award at the FIFA World Player Gala earlier this year.

Standing pitch side, she couldn't hide her smile when asked just how far she thought the game had come in two years.

"It is still difficult sometimes," she admitted. "But this has broken all the rules for women here. This was a big event to get both women and men together in Palestinian society. In a way, today was like a marriage between the Palestinians."

To put the match in context, as many as 16,000 people crammed in to watch Palestine and Jordan play. When the US women's team last played at home, a 1-0 victory over Canada in New York last July, just 8,433 fans turned up.

But not everyone in attendance was there for football. Outside several thousand men who couldn't get in clambered on to surrounding rooftops, others scrambled up nearby wire fences, whilst some even crowded on top of a parked bus. Although a different type of union was on their minds. "All these men are here to see the women and I'm here to see the chicks too," admitted Abdullah Alawad, a 20 year old architecture student. "Maybe the girls are here to see the guys too," he added rather hopefully.

The game itself was a surprisingly tetchy affair, with two players stretchered off after being on the receiving end of several crunching tackles, much to the anger of the Jordanian team's (male) coach. His mood wasn't helped when Palestine won two dubious penalties.

A late Jordanian equalizer secured the 2-2 draw they deserved. But for the women watching, the result was less important than the game itself. After the final whistle both sets of players hugged and embarked on another lap of honor in front of an ecstatic crowd.

"We want to prove that we are better than the men at football," explained Asala el Wazeer, an 18 year old student who stood with her friends in the crowd. "It has taken us years to get to this point. We are very proud of the [Palestinian] team."

In a way, she was right. Palestine had played Jordan in the first ever men's international exactly one year previously. They only managed to score once. But for Thaljieh, held aloft on the shoulders of her team mates in front of a crowd that included the Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Dr. Salam Fayyad, the match sent a powerful message to the outside world.

"This is important and shows the world that we don't care about the barriers and the checkpoints," Thaljieh shouted over the noise. "We have shown the world that we can fight, but that when we fight, we fight through peaceful play."

Yusuf Islam, aka Cat Stevens, on tour after 33 yrs

Islam disappeared from the music scene in 1977

LONDON:  British folk singer Yusuf Islam takes the stage on Sunday on his first full tour since 1976, when he was still known as Cat Stevens and was famous the world over for hits like "Wild World" and "Morning Has Broken."

Now 61, Islam is about to seal his gradual comeback to the world of pop music after disappearing from the scene altogether following his conversion to Islam in 1977.

He has made sporadic stage appearances around the world in recent years, recorded a new pop album "An Other Cup" in 2006 and followed it up with "Roadsinger" earlier this year.

The singer said his recent recordings had encouraged him to embark on his first tour in 33 years.

"Thirty-three years is a long time, and I suppose I never imagined that I'd be going back on tour again," he told Reuters at Elstree Studios in London where he has been rehearsing for his four-date tour.

"But things change and when I started to make music again and making records the yearning came to ... do it for real. When you're live it's that much more vibrant, and you're that much closer to the audience ... You can't beat that kind of music."

Being on stage was an important antidote to recording, Islam said, noting the technological advances since his chart-topping heyday in the early 1970s.

"Everything has become a bit more digitalized. It's a cut-and-paste job now, you can do it on a laptop.

"The real material stuff and the physical stuff has become so kind of virtual that it's not real, quite simply, and that's why the road thing, getting on the road, is so important because it's real," he said in an interview.

New York trial for 9/11 suspects

New York:  Alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is to be sent from Guantanamo Bay to New York for trial in a civilian court, the US has confirmed.

Attorney General Eric Holder said he would be transferred from the US prison camp in Cuba with four other suspects.

Mr Mohammed has admitted planning the 9/11 attacks, the US military says.

The move is part of US President Barack Obama's effort to close Guantanamo, but some relatives of 9/11 victims say they oppose a federal court trial.

Responsibility for the case will go to the Southern District of New York, with proceedings taking place near Ground Zero.

The five men have until now been facing prosecution at US military commissions in Guantanamo. The government had faced a 16 November deadline to decide how to proceed in their cases.

Speaking in Tokyo ahead of Mr Holder's announcement, Mr Obama said Khalid Sheikh Mohammed would face "most exacting demands of justice".

Deadline looming

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has been described by US investigators as "one of history's most infamous terrorists".

They say he has admitted being responsible "from A to Z" for the 9/11 attacks.

Believed to be the number three al-Qaeda leader, he was captured in Pakistan in March 2003.

He told a pre-trial hearing at Guantanamo in December 2008 that he wanted to plead guilty to all charges against him.

But intelligence memos released earlier this year revealed he had been subjected to harsh interrogation techniques including water-boarding on multiple occasions since his capture - potentially rendering some evidence inadmissible.

The other four men - the two Yemenis, a Saudi and a Pakistani-born Kuwaiti who have shared hearings with him at Guantanamo Bay - are also accused of helping plan and finance the attacks.

The decision to try them in a New York court appears to be part of Mr Obama's efforts to close Guantanamo by 22 January 2010.

His administration says it will try some detainees in US courts and repatriate or resettle others who are not perceived as a threat.

However, questions remain over the fate of those assessed as dangerous but who for legal reasons could not be prosecuted in a US court - prompting suggestions that the deadline will slip.

And, says the BBC's Jonathan Beale, some families of those who died in the 9/11 attacks have already voiced strong opposition to any attempt to try their alleged architect in New York.

BBC iPlayer launches Wii channel

The BBC iPlayer is relaunching on the Nintendo Wii in the form of a dedicated Wii channel on 18 November.

Only consoles with a broadband connection in the UK will be able to run the channel.

To get the service, Wii owners will be able to download it for from the console's online shop.

The BBC iPlayer has been on the Wii since April 2008 but many console owners reported problems with the original interface.

The iPlayer is also available on Sony's PlayStation 3 console.

The BBC is not the only broadcaster to experience difficulties with bringing its catch-up service to games consoles.

Sky launched the Sky Player on the Xbox 360 in October but Microsoft temporarily suspended the service almost straightaway due to "unprecedented levels of simultaneous demand".

Erik Huggers, direct of Future Media and Technology at the BBC, said that the evolved Wii service was an improvement on the old BBC iPlayer system, describing it as a "faster, high quality and improved viewing experience".

According to research company Chart Track GfK there are almost six million Wii consoles in British homes.

The catch-up radio and television service is also launching in trial, or beta, form on the Freesat TV platform later in November.

British broadcaster Channel 4 has concentrated on making its on-demand service 4OD more accessible on the internet.

In October it announced that it would be showing entire programmes free of charge on YouTube.

Updated: Details on Microsoft's New Search Partnership With Wolfram Alpha

Wolfram Alpha's API sees big pickup, may just change how we look at a search engine

We've been following Wolfram  for since its introduction as this search engine promises to open search to dramatically new realms, such as math and the sciences. Located in Champaign, Illinois, Wolfram Research produces Wolfram Alpha. Founded by Stephen Wolfram, Ph.D, the company's past works have included Mathematica and Wolfram Workbench, utilities commonly employed by college students and researchers.

Wolfram Alpha returns answers to complex questions like plots of mathematical functions, geometric shapes, nutritional information, and more. Previously, these results had been offered solely through Wolfram's search engine site. There had been some recent chatter that Wolfram was working on APIs for other search engine firms to use, but the results remained unrevealed -- until now.

Microsoft and Wolfram Research just announced that Microsoft's Bing search engine will bring the Wolfram API onboard to provide richer search results. Wolfram's blog describes, "Wolfram

Alpha provides immediate, unbiased, and individualized information, making it distinctly different from what has traditionally been found through web search. By using Wolfram

Alpha, Bing recognizes the complementary benefits of bringing computational knowledge to the forefront of the search experience... By using our API, Bing will be able to seamlessly access the tens of thousands of algorithms and trillions of pieces of data from Wolfram

Alpha, and directly incorporate the computations in its search results."

The Wolfram team relates a humorous story of Stephen Wolfram presenting the engine to Microsoft's senior executives. Stephen Wolfram typed in the query "2^2^2^2^2" and a number popped up. Semi-retired founder and former CEO Bill Gates inquired, "What, is that right?"

Mr. Wolfram replied, "We do mathematics!

And that they did, finding that the result is indeed correct. The Wolfram team writes, "Microsoft continues to pepper us with questions to this day, reflecting its continued enthusiasm in Wolfram

Alpha."

The deal is not an exclusive one, however, so those hoping to see Google+Wolfram aren't out of luck just yet. We caught up with Wolfram's publicist, John Ekizian. While he told us he couldn't discuss financial details of the deal with Microsoft, he was more than happy to clarify the question of exclusivity. He states, " We have talked to everybody in the business about using our API, and then we'll have more announcements about whose using. But no, there's no exclusivity with Microsoft."

He says Microsoft was the first to jump on the deal, though. Asking him about the direction he sees the company's search endeavors going in, he plugged both the API (and partners), Wolfram's own site, and the company's iPhone app, stating, "I think its a little bit of everything. Its a great complement to search. Therefore its the perfect API. But also, we've had a lot of traction on the actual website and our iPhone app has been doing incredibly well. We've been on the top grossing apps and on the hot apps and we've only been out about three or four weeks with the iPhone app."

For now, you can go to Bing and test out the feature for yourself. Microsoft suggests using it to search for health information, such as body-mass index (BMI), nutrition information, to plot math equations, or to look up geometric information like "pyramid".......update

We spoke early this afternoon with Wolfram's Schoeller Porter who leads Wolfram's developer relations program and works more closely with the technical aspects of the API.

We began by asking some questions about how Wolfram collects all of its data. Mr. Porter explained that some data is internal, other from reputable sources (government data, etc.). However, with all information, before it can be entered into the search engine it must undergo "curation" -- named after museum preservation. Describes Mr. Porter, "It's a process to help ensure that we're providing quality data to our customers."

Next we inquired about whether Wolfram had plans for a Android OS (Google) or Blackberry (RIM) version of its popular iPhone app. Mr. Porter said that the various platforms are indeed being looked at and that the main limitation was screen size. The iPhone app sends queries to the API, which Mr. Porter describes as a "restful API" and gets information back to display. Mr. Porter said that the iPhone was first targeted due to its "large and vibrant market."

One interesting thing Mr. Porter mentioned was that Microsoft was Wolfram's customer (and not the other way around). This may cast a bit of light on the business arrangement between the pair, which is being kept closely guarded.

We closed with discussing the future of Wolfram Alpha, which seems bright. Mr Porter states, "Wolfram Alpha will continue to grow in scope of information and depth."

Newly assertive Japan to test Obama

TOKYO: President Barack Obama has arrived in Tokyo, the first stop on his four-nation tour of Asia.

Obama arrived at Tokyo's Haneda Airport Friday after a stopover at a U.S. military base in Alaska, where he addressed American troops.

He was to meet with Japan's Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama later Friday evening and hold a news conference. Before leaving for an economic summit in Singapore, Obama also was scheduled to greetJapanese Emperor Akihito and deliver a policy speech on Asia. After Singapore, Obama is to visit China and South Korea.

Alavi Foundation: Complaint comes at delicate time for US, Iran

The US government Thursday moved to seize the assets of the Alavi Foundation – including a New York skyscraper and four mosques. The Justice Department says the Alavi Foundation funnels money to the Iranian government for its nuclear program.

New York:  The US government moved Thursday to seize four mosques and a skyscraper owned by the Alavi Foundation, an Islamic nonprofit organization in New York that federal prosecutors say is a front for the Iranian government.

The move comes at a delicate moment for US-Iranian relations. There have been signs of some diplomatic thawing between the two nations. Recent negotiations about Iran's nuclear program – which the US fears could be used to produce nuclear weapons – resulted in a compromise deal that would allow Iran's nuclear fuel to be enriched outside the country.

Iran, however, has so far not endorsed the deal, leading to renewed calls for tougher sanctions against the Islamic Republic. Moreover, Iran has charged three American hikers arrested over the summer in Iran with espionage.

The new effort by federal prosecutors to cast an Iranian nonprofit as an arm of the Iranian government could fray relations further.

The forfeiture action is part of an investigation into the Alavi Foundation, which the government says has sent millions of dollars to Iran's Bank Melli. In March, the US Treasury Department called the bank a key fundraising arm for Iran's nuclear program.

The timing of the development probably had nothing to do with the current dynamic in US-Iranian relations, Michael Rubin, an Iranian expert at the American Enterprise Institute, told the Associated Press. "It's taken ages dealing with the nuts and bolts of the investigation. It's not the type of investigation which is part of any larger strategy."

The original lawsuit filed in 2008 sought to seize Assa Co.'s 40 percent interest in the 36-story New York skyscraper. The Justice Department alleges that Assa, which is headquartered in Britain's Jersey Islands, is also a front for Bank Melli.

Thursday's filing is an amendment to that original lawsuit. It seeks to seize the remaining 60 percent of the skyscraper, which is controlled by Alavi, as well as properties in New York, Maryland, Virginia, Texas, and California controlled by Alavi – including four mosques.

Alavi President Farhsid Jahedi was also arrested last year and accused by Justice Department prosecutors of illegally destroying documents. The case is pending.

A lawyer for the group said it will fight the move in court and that Alavi Foundation is not linked to the Iranian government.

6 hurt in suicide bombing near US base in Afghanistan

KABUL: The Taliban is claiming responsibility for a suicide bombing attack that wounded at least six people near Camp Phoenix, a logistics support base for U.S. forces just outside Kabul.

NATO said the suicide bombing occurred at 8 a.m. (0330 GMT) Friday. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told foreign news agency the attack was carried out by a car suicide bomber and targeted an international military convoy.

Abdul Ghafar Sayed Zada, chief of criminal investigation for Kabul police, said three civilians and three foreigners were injured.

10 dead, 30 hurt in Peshawar suicide blast

PESHAWAR: Bombs tore through security offices in Peshawar on Friday, killing at least 10 people and injuring more then 30.

Majority of the schools have been closed and papers scheduled today have been postponed.

According to reports, a suicide bomber traveling in a car was trying to reach intelligence agency office at Kyber Road. When stopped at security check post by security officials, he blew up himself. The loud explosion heard throughout the city after the blast with huge clouds of smoke spewing into the sky and debris littering the ground. The building was almost destroyed.

IG Police Malik Naveed said it was a suicide blast in which 10 people including security men were killed and more then 30 wounded. The injured were rushed to Lady Reading Hospital and Combined Military Hospital as emergency has been imposed in local hospitals.The Khyber Road has been closed for traffic and area has been sealed.