Kaka: I prefer Brazilian Ronaldo to Cristiano

Kaka says that Brazil legend Ronaldo was a better player than former Real Madrid team-mate Cristiano Ronaldo.

Ronaldo won numerous individual awards during his career, including the Ballon d'Or in 1997 and 2002, while also winning two World Cups with the Selecao.

'The best player I have ever played with? That's Ronaldo, il Fenomeno,' the AC Milan star told Tiki Taka.

'The other Ronaldo - Cristiano - probably makes my top five but I have seen il Fenomeno do things that nobody else has ever done.'

Kaka then went on to discuss the situation of Mario Balotelli at AC Milan in the wake of recent criticism aimed at the striker.

'Mario is a great guy but he has to understand that he has certain responsibilities,' the midfielder opined. 'That's the case with Milan and with Italy's national side.

'He is an example for a lot of people and he has to understand his status as a role model and learn to deal with it.'

Kaka, 31, has netted once in five Serie A appearances for Milan since his return to the club from Madrid over the summer.

Zidane returns to dark ages

The arrival of Zinedine Zidane in Turin in 1996 was not ideal to say the least. It was a difficult process of adaption and the current Real Madrid assistant manager returns to what was a dark city for the Frenchman.

He was 24, married to Verónica and had a son, Enzo. He decided to live in the city centre, but could not comprehend how it could take months to get his house painted or install French TV.

The city's cold air depressed Zidane, as well as the lack of light and the fact that it got dark at 4 o’clock. At the end of the day he was from Marseille. He led a monastic life and barely went out. Over time he ventured out to the odd restaurant, but little more. He tried to go unnoticed on the streets, dressed in a black tracksuit with the hood over his head. His neighbours recognised him at times with bags of shopping.

At the end of his third season, the Italian press began to speak of Zidane moving to Spain. Giovanni Agnelli wrote: "He wants to leave because his wife is Spanish and she's the one in charge at home". Zizou failed to take a hint and renewed his contract up to 2005.

The former midfielder only has kind words for Juventus. It is where he became inscribed as one of the top five greatest all-time players, he lost his hair and his shyness.

Money matters: K-P govt launches online budget system

K-P Finance Minister Sirajul Haq PHOTO: INP

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has shown initiative by making the details of the provincial budget available online, making it the first system of its kind in Pakistan. 

The provincial finance department launched the online system featuring details of all uplift schemes across the province that will benefit a cross-section of society.

The website was launched during a meeting chaired by Finance Minister Sirajul Haq on Monday. The minister termed the launch a milestone in the country’s history and called it a good omen.

“The website itself is clear proof of the fact that the government officials are now accountable to the public in terms of budget and expenditures,” he said, adding the move will ensure more transparency in financial matters of the provincial government.

“This is one of the major steps towards the E-governance policy in KP that will also help end corruption to a great extent,” he added.

The minister said that the website will also help strengthen the performance of the government departments and promote accountability of the government officials. Haq also said that online complaint system will be launched soon.

Minister for IT Shahram Khan Tarakai congratulated the team over the launch. Earlier, PTI’s central committee member Captain (Retd.) Mian Shahid also called on the finance minister wherein the minister said that the remedy for national issues was not privatisation but that the government needs to take steps to make national institutions result-oriented and functional.

For this purpose, the provincial government has formed working groups in various department for their capacity-building

Choorian, not Waar retains title as Pakistan’s highest-grossing film

So far Waar has collected Rs170 million, compared to Syed Noor's Choorian which grossed a total of Rs200 million. PHOTO: FILE

KARACHI: According to the box office stats collection on Monday, Waar has grossed a whopping Rs168.3 million rupees in its three-week run. But the Bilal Lashari hit is still not the highest-grossing Pakistani film – that title remains with Syed Noor’s Choorian!

Since the release of Waar, there has been much talk of box office collection. Having bagged arecord first day opening, followed by a record-breaking Eid collection and then the biggest first week opening for any film in Pakistan, the Shaan-starrer went on to beat Chennai Express’ records and caused Boss to flop at the local box office. Compared with Choorian, however, Waar is still behind in the box office race.

Syed Noor’s 1998 film Choorian gathered a grand total of Rs200 million and that, too, merely on 20 to 22 screens, whereas Waar was released on 52 screens. Choorian was a well-executed family drama bolstered by excessive marketing done by Shalimar Television Network. The result was a box office sensation.

With the onset of Muharram and Krrish 3 as competition, it is still uncertain whether Waar will become Pakistan’s all-time highest-grossing film by surpassing the Rs200 million mark. However, back-to-back houseful shows on weekdays suggest that there is hope for the Shaan-starrer to surpass Chooriyan.

Troubled project: Iran urges Pakistan to finance own gas pipeline, speed up work

Construction on the Iranian side of the border is almost complete. PHOTO: AFP/FILE

TEHRAN: 

Iran’s deputy oil minister, Ali Majedi, said on Monday that Pakistan must finance its own section of the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline which would enable it to buy gas from the Iran.

Majedi’s remarks come after Petroleum and Natural Resources Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi asked Iran to stump up $2 billion to finish the construction of the pipeline.

The $7.5-billion project launched in 2010 has drawn threats of US sanctions and run into repeated problems, including major financing issues.

“We did not make such a commitment to help Pakistan with $2 billion for the construction of the pipeline,” Majedi said, quoted by Fars news agency.

He argued that based on initial agreements each side “must bring its own share” in financing the project, adding the “Pakistanis need Iran’s gas and they should accelerate their work.”

Construction on the Iranian side of the border is almost complete, but Islamabad has run into repeated problems financing the 780-kilometre section to be built on its side.

Once completed, the project which aims to ease the chronic gas and electricity shortages in Pakistan would allow Iran to export 21 million cubic metres of gas per day.

Last week, Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zangeneh said he had ‘no hope’ for the gas supply deal with Pakistan because of financial problems. Zangeneh’s comments prompted Abbasi to insist the project would be completed and there was ‘no chance to abandon the pipeline project, because we need it’.

Pakistan successfully test fires Hatf IX: ISPR

File photo of NASR, Hatf IX missile. PHOTO: ISPR

Pakistan conducted a successful test fire of the Hatf IX (NASR) missile on Tuesday,Express News reported.

The missile has a range of 60 kilometers and can carry any type of warhead.

Chief of Army Staff Ashfaq Pervez Kayani was present at the test fire, which was confirmed by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).

Pakistan had conducted a successful test fire of Hatf IX on February 11 this year, according to the ISPR.

The test fire in February was conducted with successive launches of two missiles from a state of the art multi-tube launcher.

NASR, with an in-flight manoeuvre capability can carry nuclear warheads of appropriate yield, with high accuracy, said the ISPR’s press release.

NASR has also been specially designed to defeat all known Anti-Tactical Missile Defence Systems.

The first successful test of the short range surface to surface multi tube ballistic missile Hatf IX was conducted in April 2011

China paper blames blind faith of "uncultured" youth for Xinjiang unrest

A file photo of panicked people at the Tiananmen Square. PHOTO: AFP/FILE

BEIJING: Uncultured youth who have been misled by religious forces are a main source of unrest in China’s heavily Muslim region of Xinjiang, its top newspaper said on Tuesday, after the government blamed militants for an attack in central Beijing.

A car ploughed through bystanders on the edge of Tiananmen Square and burst into flames on Monday last week, killing three people in the car and two bystanders. The government called the incident a terrorist attack carried out by militants from the far western region of Xinjiang.

More than 40 people were hurt, and the police have detained five people in connection with the attack for plotting what it said was a holy war.

A front-page commentary in the official Xinjiang Daily accused ethnic “splittists” of ignoring the great changes the ruling Communist Party has brought to the region, saying religious fanatics were distorting Islamic teachings.

“In recent decades, you can see that most people who blindly follow religious  forces are elementary-school, secondary-school or uncultured young people,” said the commentary, signed by a person the paper identified as an ethnic Uighur member of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles in Xinjiang.

“We loathe this kind of ignorant behaviour, and detest these evil spirits.”

Many of the Turkic-speaking Uighurs who call Xinjiang home chafe at restrictions on their culture, language and religion, though the government insists it grants them broad freedoms.

Xinjiang has been the scene of numerous incidents of unrest in recent years, which Beijing blames on the separatist East Turkestan Islamic Movement, even as many experts and rights groups cast doubt on its existence as a cohesive group.

“The authorities really need to take a step back and look at the results of their policies, and whether those are effective, in obtaining what we assume they want to obtain, which is less violence and more harmony,” said Corinna-Barbara Francis, China researcher for Amnesty International.

China has not taken kindly to suggestions that its policies may be more to blame for the unrest than any terror group.

Prominent Beijing-based Uighur economist Ilham Tohti, a longstanding critic of Chinese policies in Xinjiang, told Reuters on Tuesday that state security agents had physically threatened him on Saturday for speaking to foreign reporters.

“I want to kill you,” Tohti said an agent told him in a calm voice, after ramming his car from behind. “I want to kill your whole family.”

Security has been stepped up in Beijing and Xinjiang following the incident on Tiananmen Square.

The main Uighur exile group, the World Uyghur Congress, said that a further 24 Uighurs had been detained recently, warning China risked provoking a backlash.

“The authorities have been stepping up their repression in Uighur areas … using armed men to check them,” the group’s spokesman, Dilxat Raxit, said in an emailed statement.

“If the international community does not take emergency measures to stop China’s provocations and repression, the Uighurs who have no hope will resist and fight back as a matter of survival.