US announces 165-mn dollars extra aid for Pak

September 19th, 2009 UTAH - Restaurant manager Jason Hargett was attending a charity golf event when he made a last minute decision to participate and discovered they were holding a contest: Get a hole-in-one, win a million dollars. Hargett and five other players at the Mark Eaton Classic charity golf event in Utah who hit the ball closest to the hole on a par 3 were allowed to participate in a one-in 45,000 chance to win the hole-in-one contest.

September 17th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - The United States has provided 970 million dollars in aid to Pakistan since the PPP-led Government came to power and not three billion dollars as claimed by US Ambassador Anne Patterson, a Pakistani Finance Ministry official has said. The statement of US Ambassador to Pakistan, Anne Patterson, about giving 3 billion dollars assistance to the Zardari Government even surprised the top economic managers of the country.

September 12th, 2009 WASHINGTON - US President Barack Obama's date with his wife Michelle on May 30 in New York reportedly incurred 11,648.17 dollars in extra security costs. According to U.S.

August 28th, 2009 LAHORE - Pakistan Finance Minister Shaukat Tareen has said Islamabad would receive only the half of the actual monetary assistance promised by the United States, as a huge amount of money is likely to be deducted for administrative costs. In an interview to the Financial Times, Tareen urged the Obama administration to channelise the assistance through Pakistani agencies to avoid the high intermediation charges.

August 12th, 2009 MELBOURNE - Victoria Premier John Brumby today announced that the State Government would put an additional 120 full-time police officers on the streets to help make the Victorian public safer. "Today I am announcing that our Government will fund $47 million for a net increase of 120 additional police to give Chief Commissioner, Simon Overland the flexibility he needs to deploy even more police to trouble spots," an Australian High Commission press release in New Delhi quoted Brumby, as saying.

August 4th, 2009 NEW DELHI - A high school student in Tannin municipality falsely accused his tutor of pinching 5,000 yuan from his school bag to avoid attending extra classes. The China Daily reports, the boy called the police last week alleging theft by the tutor.

July 10th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The US House of Representatives has approved an aid bill authorizing the 1.519 billion dollars being given to Pakistan as assistance during the current fiscal year. Similarly, the Senate Appropriations Committee also approved its own version of the bill which would provide Pakistan 1.57 billion dollars in aid in 2010, The Nation reports.

June 29th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A study on US presidential campaign donations has revealed that President Barack Obama had more than 3.7 million donors compared with 827,000 who donated to his opponent John McCain. According to researchers at Brigham Young University, Obama had a substantial lead over McCain in small donors (200 dollars or less), and he also led in the number of individuals who gave exactly or near the legal limit of 4,600 dollars, the Sun Times reports.

June 26th, 2009 LONDON - Corona Extra has been voted the world's favourite beer in a new poll. The Mexican-brewed lager - usually served with a segment of lime - topped the list of more than two million Facebook users, reports The Sun.

June 18th, 2009 MELBOURNE - The Kevin Rudd Government has smashed the annual record for VIP jet flights, handing taxpayers a three million dollars bill in the process. New figures show VIP aircraft activity last year was up to 10 per cent more than the previous year, The Daily Telegraph reports.

June 16th, 2009 Melbourne, June 16 (ANI): A judge has allowed a British bank worker, who was given almost double her salary by mistake for three years, to keep the excess amount. Natasha Keenan, 36, has also been allowed to retain the 40,000-dollar overpayment she has already received.

June 13th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Senator Ted Kennedy was paid nearly two million dollars last year as an author's advance for a new autobiography. Grand Central Publishing, a division of Hachette Book Group (USA), has paid in advances for his yet untitled autobiography.

June 3rd, 2009 ISLAMABAD - US special envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke on Wednesday said the United States is seeking an extra 200 million dollar in emergency aid to help Pakistanis displaced by a military offensive in the northwest against the Taliban. "Today, the president has asked me to inform you and your government that he has requested the Congress of the United States to allocate an additional 200 million dollars," The News quoted Holbrooke, as saying.

May 20th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The United States has decided to send emergency aid of 110 million dollars to Pakistan for thousands of people rendered homeless by the ongoing military operation against the Taliban in the Swat Valley. The US State Department has ordered the release of an immediate fund of 100 million dollars.

May 19th, 2009 MELBOURNE - Air passengers may soon be charged for using the loo, as part of cost-cutting efforts. Fines for overweight passengers and steps to make people carry their own luggage to the plane are among other options being considered by low-cost carriers to counter flagging profits.