McDowell beats Mahan in Ryder rematch

Graeme McDowell of Northern Ireland plays a shot on the 19th hole during the third round of the World Golf Championships - Accenture Match Play Championship at The Golf Club at Dove Mountain on February 21, 2014 in Marana, Arizona. PHOTO: AFP

MARANA: 

Graeme McDowell made a stunning comeback for the third day in a row Friday, beating Hunter Mahan in 21 holes to reach the World Golf Championships match play quarter-finals.

McDowell, the 2010 US Open champion from Northern Ireland, won the 17th and 18th holes to square the match, sank a 19-foot par putt on the 20th hole and then sank a 14-foot birdie putt on the last hole to advance.“I genuinely thought I was done this time. I didn’t think there was any way back,” McDowell said. “Nine lives have been used up and then some.”

McDowell has played 58 holes and never led in any match until the final hole.

“I’m not embarrassed, but I just feel like I’m robbing these guys,” he said.

Mahan, the 2012 Match Play winner and 2013 runner-up, staged a rematch of his epic 2010 Ryder Cup singles showdown with McDowell, who beat the American three and one at Celtic Manor to clinch the trophy for Europe. South African Ernie Els hit a wedge shot two feet from the cup at the 18th and made the putt to defeat 2013 PGA Championship winner Jason Dufner one up and book a last-eight match against rising US star Jordan Spieth, a two and one winner over countryman Matt Kuchar. 

Olympics: First doping shocks hit Sochi Games

German biathlete Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle tested positive for banned substances. PHOTO: AFP

SOCHI: The first doping cases to hit the 2014 Sochi Games emerged Friday after a double gold-medal winning German female biathlete and an Italian bobsledder tested positive for banned substances.

German biathlete Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle, who has won two gold medals at previous Olympic Games, confirmed she had tested positive, describing it as the “worst nightmare you can imagine”.

Meanwhile, the Italian Olympic Committee said Italian bobsledder William Frullani had tested positive for a banned substance and had already been kicked out of the Sochi Games.

The news that a well known athlete as Sachenbacher-Stehle has failed a doping test has caused shock waves in Germany, which for years has prided itself on its tough anti-doping fight.

“I cannot explain how this positive doping test came about,” Sachenbacher-Stehle said in a statement, adding that she had had all her dietary supplements tested in a laboratory.

Reports said that the positive test — carried out on February 17 — may have come about due to contamination from imported energy bars.
“I am living through the worst nightmare that you can imagine,” she added.

“I can only assure everyone that I have never knowingly taken a banned substance and will do everything to clear this up so there are no questions,” she added.

Frullani, 34, tested positive on February 18 for the banned substance dymetylpentylamine. He has been replaced in the Italian four-man bobsleigh team by Samuele Romanini.

The German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) said in a statement that both Sachenbacher-Stehle’s ‘A’ and ‘B’ samples had tested positive for the stimulant methylhexanamin.
It said she appeared before an IOC disciplinary commission, has now been excluded from the German team and was leaving Sochi immediately.

“Every doping case is a great disappointment. But it is also proof that the control system works,” said Germany’s chef-de-mission Michael Vesper.

Sachenbacher-Stehle, 33, spent most of her long career as a cross country skier before switching last season to biathlon, which mixes both cross country skiing and shooting.
It was as a cross country skier that she won gold in the 4×5 km relay in the Salt Lake City Games of 2002 and then gold in the team sprint in Vancouver 2010.

Sachenbacher-Stehle already hit controversy at the Turin Olympics of 2006 when she and several other athletes were given a five-day ban from competition due to excessive levels of haemogloblin.

She argued that the finding was due to a genetic condition and not due to doping.

At Sochi, her best results were fourth place in the women’s mass start and also fourth place in the mixed relay.

She had announced Thursday that she had not been included in the women’s biathlon relay Friday.

“It is sad for all of us and a shock,” the head coach of Germany’s national cross country team Frank Ullrich told AFP’s German sports subsidiary SID.

Her brother Josef told the mass-circulation daily Bild: “She has nothing to reproach herself for. She despises this (doping) and would never dope.”

The last Winter Olympics in Vancouver 2010 produced only one positive doping test in the course of the Games.

Olympics chiefs believe they are winning in the fight against doping, after the Salt Lake City Games of 2002 and the Turin Games of 2006 produced seven positive tests apiece.

The IOC, which oversees drug testing at the Olympic Games, is carrying out almost 2,500 drug tests at Sochi 2014 with an extra emphasis on out-of-competition tests.

IOC medical commission chairman Arne Ljungqvist earlier in the Games warned athletes that a new 10-year period of storing samples and increasingly sophisticated methods meant there was nowhere for cheats to hide.

“The message to athletes is that if you cheat and if we don’t find you now, we may find you later. But we will certainly find you sooner or later,” he said

Social media: Security experts raise flags over WhatsApp

Buyout: $19b is the amount Facebook will pay to buy the WhatsApp messenger. PHOTO: PUBLICITY

WASHINGTON: 

The Facebook deal for WhatsApp drew attention for its whopping price tag, but has also brought out fresh criticism over security for the billions of messages delivered on the platform.

WhatsApp, which is to be acquired for $19 billion, says on its website that ‘communication between your phone and our server is fully encrypted’.

The company warns users to be aware that when they send messages, the recipient’s device may not be secure. But it says it does not store any chat history and that messages are wiped off its system after delivery.

Yet security researchers and others point out that there may be vulnerabilities in the system used by some 450 million people globally.

Paul Jauregui, at the security firm Praetorian, said in a blog post on Thursday that WhatsApp security and encryption are not ideal, citing vulnerabilities in the way it handles SSL, the secure socket layer protocol for communications.

“The group’s mobile security test picked up on several SSL-related security issues affecting the confidentiality of WhatsApp user data that passes in transit to back-end servers,” Jauregui said.

“This is the kind of stuff the NSA (National Security Agency) would love. It basically allows them — or an attacker — to man-in-the-middle the connection and then downgrade the encryption so they can break it and sniff the traffic. These security issues put WhatsApp user information and communications at risk.”

Jauregui noted that Praetorian would need authorisation from Facebook and WhatsApp to do a more thorough security evaluation.

He added that it would be “not very difficult” to patch the security flaws.

Meanwhile in Germany, the data commissioner in the state of Schleswig-Holstein, said in a statement this week the deal raises serious privacy concerns and that WhatsApp does not comply with European data protection rules.

The official, Thilo Weichert, said in a statement that people should opt out of WhatsApp for more ‘trusted services’.

Headhunting: Lucky Cement goes out on a limb to recruit foreign graduates

Lucky Cement, one of the companies that will participate in the British Council’s initiative. PHOTO: FILE

KARACHI: Rarely does an employer go out on a limb for recruitment of entry-level management staff in a job market that is already flush with fresh graduates.

But foreign graduates, especially those who studied in the United Kingdom, seem to be in a league of their own when it comes to their employability.

No wonder that a dozen leading corporate entities from Pakistan are going to visit the UK to hire Pakistani students who are about to graduate from leading British universities.

With the help of the British Council Pakistan, these blue-chip companies will visit three campuses and meet students from as many as 18 universities.

“Our objective is to create a link with students who are about to graduate from UK universities,” said Chaudhry Furqan Aftab, who serves as senior manager for talent at Lucky Cement, one of the companies that will participate in the British Council’s initiative.

“We’ll meet career councillors of these universities and hand over our company literature and brochures to students at subsequent career fairs,” he said, adding the three fairs will take place on the campuses of Brunel University (February 24), the University of Warwick (February 25) and the University of Manchester (February 26).

Other universities whose students have been invited to take part in the three fairs include the University of Oxford, University of Reading, Royal Holloway, University of London, University College London, Kingston University, Loughborough University, Aston University, Bristol University, Coventry University, University of Sheffield, Manchester Metropolitan University, Cardiff University, University of Leeds and University of Salford.

“Lucky Cement is a rapidly expanding company in need of new talent,” Aftab said while referring to its recent acquisition of ICI Pakistan and joint ventures in Iraq and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Lucky Cement is part of the Yunus Brothers Group, which has interests in textiles, cement, construction, real estate, energy, and commodity trading businesses with an
annual turnover exceeding $750 million.

Aftab said the company will send two managers to the UK to represent Lucky Cement at the fairs. “The starting salary is roughly Rs35,000-Rs40,000. We’ll only short-list candidates during our four-day visit,” he said, adding that he expects to find suitable candidates for about a dozen entry-level jobs at Lucky Cement.

The company aims to hire UK graduates in fields of finance, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, electronics engineering, marketing, brand management, human resources and legal departments.

Corporate results: Murree Brewery puts in a strong show

The Rawalpindi-based company saw its revenues increase by 19% to Rs2.1 billion in the period under review compared with Rs1.7 billion it grossed in the corresponding period of FY13. CREATIVE COMMONS

KARACHI: Murree Brewery boosted its profits by more than a fifth due to a strong performance by its liquor division in the six-month period ended December, 2013.

One of the subcontinent’s oldest public companies, Murree Brewery posted an after-tax profit of Rs360 million or Rs15.62 per share during the first half of fiscal year (FY) 2014, up 23% compared to Rs292 million or Rs12.69 per share it earned in the corresponding period of the last fiscal year.

The Rawalpindi-based company saw its revenues increase by 19% to Rs2.1 billion in the period under review compared with Rs1.7 billion it grossed in the corresponding period of FY13.

“There is some volumetric growth but their profits were mainly driven by the liquor division, which performed well,” said Zeeshan Afzal, Senior Manager Research at Topline Securities. The liquor sales increased by 30% during the first half of FY2014 to reach Rs1.7 billion, which is 80% of the total sales.

Though the growth rate for gross margin remained almost the same in the six-month period, the analyst said it grew by 29% in the July-September quarter and by 37% in the October-December period.

Established in 1860 to cater to the demand of British officers, Murree Brewery is the oldest enterprise running in the country – its shares were traded on the Calcutta Stock Exchange as early as 1902.

The Pakistani beverage company sold its franchise rights to an Indian entrepreneur last November who will sell Murree’s brands in India.

Minister’s media talk: Govt wants to make some changes in IP gas pipeline contract

“We are committed to completing Iran-Pakistan (IP) gas pipeline, but desire to make a few changes in the contract with Iran,” said Federal Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Shahid Khaqan Abbasi CREATIVE COMMONS

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan wants to make some changes in an agreement with Iran on the gas pipeline project amid risk of US sanctions.

“We are committed to completing Iran-Pakistan (IP) gas pipeline, but desire to make a few changes in the contract with Iran,” said Federal Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Shahid Khaqan Abbasi while talking to the media here on Friday.

He was speaking after a contract signing ceremony for the award of exploration licences and petroleum concession agreements for eight blocks to Oil and Gas Development Company, Pakistan Petroleum Limited and Mari Petroleum Company.

Abbasi said the government had not yet talked about liquefied natural gas (LNG) prices with Qatar, but the country would start importing LNG from November this year.

He declared that the government was open and ready to allow any investor and sector to start LNG import in order to end the longstanding energy crisis, which was inflicting significant losses to the economy.

Warning of a $10 billion loss if LNG import was halted, he said the country was facing an annual loss of $1 billion compared to furnace oil prices.

India has signed an LNG deal with Australia at $18 per million British thermal units (mmbtu).

Energy blocks

In the eight blocks awarded on Friday, the companies have agreed to invest a minimum of $49.58 million. Apart from this work commitment, they will spend at least $30,000 per year in each of the blocks on social welfare schemes. Total area covered by the blocks is 16,117.09 square kilometres.

The Ministry of Petroleum has already signed 12 exploration licences and petroleum concession agreements for exploration of hydrocarbon reserves in different blocks.

Abbasi said they were giving high priority to the exploration and production sector in an effort to exploit and develop hydrocarbon resources that would bridge the gap between demand and supply of oil and gas.

Since the current government took over in June last year, according to Abbasi, 73 wells have been dug and 17 discoveries made.

These discoveries will add 130 million cubic feet of gas per day (mmcfd) and 3,553 barrels of oil per day (bpd) to existing production. So far, 45 mmcfd of gas and 1,924 bpd of oil have been added.

Moreover, in existing fields, production has increased by 184 mmcfd and 5,962 bpd. Last week, country’s oil production reached 84,374 bpd – the highest in its history.

Abbasi stressed that these efforts would bear fruit as more hydrocarbon reserves would be tapped over the next few years. He expressed the hope that new licences and agreements would not only stimulate investment in the petroleum sector, but would also bridge the gap between energy demand and supply.

Liquefied petroleum gas: SSGC vindicates JJVL

Transportation charges billed to JJVL were Rs351 million against the bid proposal’s Rs312 million, the SSGC letter said. PHOTO: FILE

KARACHI: Pakistan’s largest liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) producer Jamshoro Joint Venture Limited (JJVL) has paid Rs21.116 billion over the amount it first proposed in the project bid to extract LPG  from Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) pipeline system.

SSGC told the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) that the actual billed amount under the related heads of royalty, shrinkage and transportation was more than the amount proposed in the bid by the company, according to a letter.

In the letter to FIA Director Zaheer Ahmed, who is investigating the project on orders of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, the SSGC calculated amount for ten years — from 2004-05 to 2013-14.

The apex court struck down the project in December 2013 after finding irregularities in the way the contract was awarded to the Associated Group, JJVL sponsors. It also ordered FIA to investigate the project and determine if JJVL received undue benefit.

JJVL has since then filed a review petition.

The SSGC letter, dated February 19, a copy of which is available with The Express Tribune, says that the royalty amount billed to JJVL was Rs16.844 billion, whereas as per the bid proposal, it should have been Rs9.223 billion.

Similarly, the gas shrinkage amount paid by JJVL was Rs18.607 billion during the ten years. If the calculation criteria proposed in the bid were to be used, this would have come down to Rs5.152 billion.

Transportation charges billed to JJVL were Rs351 million against the bid proposal’s Rs312 million, the SSGC letter said.

This basically vindicates JJVL from cheating SSGC into paying less for the rights to extract LPG.

A JJVL official said that the implementation agreement was negotiated with SSGC over a period of many months. “Unlike what people have been made to believe, the SSGC squeezed a very favourable agreement for itself,” said the official.

The letter is part of the FIA investigation and will be made a part of court record, the official said.

LPG has a minuscule 1% share in Pakistan’s energy mix. Yet, that share has been fiercely fought for by local and multinational companies.

In its judgement, the Supreme Court said right benchmark was not used to calculate the royalty payments. JJVL extracts LPG from SSGC system against a price of gas and a royalty, which makes up for the gas utility’s profit.

The court declared that the royalty was to be calculated on Saudi Aramco’s contract price plus the freight cost, which means the imported cost of LPG. But JJVL paid royalty on the basis of the highest producer price prevailing in Pakistan, causing a loss of over Rs22 billion to the government, according to the apex court.

JJVL says it never agreed to the royalty formula that would use the import cost of LPG, which was expensive than that produced in the country. Doing so would make its product expensive.

Any link with imported LPG would not just have increased JJVL’s cost but would have also opened doors for import of the fuel. The LPG market was deregulated in 2000-2001