PCB chairman Butt dismisses match-fixing claims

Ijaz Butt, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman, categorically dismissed allegations of match-fixing against his national team players yesterday. Butt added that if any of his colleagues raised the issue of match-fixing, then they were "talking nonsense." In a leaked video recording of an inquiry committee hearing, Intikhab Alam and Aqib Javed, the former coaches of the Pakistan team, raised suspicions about the performance of Kamran Akmal, the wicketkeeper, during their winless tour of Australia earlier this year.

Alam said that he was flabbergasted when Akmal missed a run out of Shane Watson in the Sydney Test and later made suggestions of match-fixing. However, Butt said the International Cricket Council's Anti-Corruption Unit had instigated strict security measures for all international matches. "Nobody is allowed to enter the players' dressing room, only the manager carries a mobile phone with him during international matches and there are several other security measures which they take," Butt said.

Match-fixing is "all media hype and nothing else", he added. The PCB fined and suspended seven cricketers - including Younis Khan, the former captain - on an inquiry committee recommendation for a lack of discipline and the poor performance during the tour of Australia. Butt said he approved all the fines and suspensions. Six players have since appealed. * AP

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Brunch has been around, is some form or another, for more than a century. The word was first mentioned in print in an 1895 edition of Hunter’s Weekly, after making the rounds among university students in Britain. The article, entitled Brunch: A Plea, argued the case for a later, more sociable weekend meal. “By eliminating the need to get up early on Sunday, brunch would make life brighter for Saturday night carousers. It would promote human happiness in other ways as well,” the piece read. “It is talk-compelling. It puts you in a good temper, it makes you satisfied with yourself and your fellow beings, it sweeps away the worries and cobwebs of the week.” More than 100 years later, author Guy Beringer’s words still ring true, especially in the UAE, where brunches are often used to mark special, sociable occasions.

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In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe

Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010

Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille

Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm

Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year

Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”

Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners

TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013

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