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Justin Bieber has hit out at "crazy" claims he has fathered a baby son with a fan revealing he has never even met the woman.

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Speaking in detail for the first time about Mariah Yeater's allegation that she took the teen idol's virginity in a 30-second backstage romp, Bieber said: "None of it is true. Never met the woman."

The 17-year-old told NBC's Today show: "I'd just like to say, basically, that none of those allegations are true.

"I know that I'm going to be a target, but I'm never going to be a victim."

Online court records show Mariah Yeater filed a paternity lawsuit against Bieber, 17, on Monday in San Diego Superior Court.

California law keeps paternity matters confidential but Radar Online posted a copy of the lawsuit on its site.

Ms Yeater said she had sex with Bieber after one of his concerts at the Staples Centre in October 2010, according to the posted suit.

However, Bieber explained: "It's crazy. Every night after the show I'm gone right from the stage right to the car, so it's crazy that some people want to make such false allegations."

 
KARACHI: Pakistan's Permanent Representative to the United Nations Abdullah Hussain Haroon called on President Asif Ali Zardari here at Bilawal House on Friday.

Abdullah Hussain Haroon briefed the President about Pakistan's election as non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) as well as the country's re-election to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)Executive Board for a period of four years.

The President said the election of Pakistan as a non-permanent member of UNSC and its re-election to UNESCO Executive Board proved that it enjoys the support of world community and it is not isolated as portrayed by certain people.

The President also appreciated the efforts of Abdullah Hussain Haroon, Pakistan's Permanent Representative to UN.

Abdullah Hussain Haroon thanked the President for the encouragement and reposing confidence in him. (APP)
 
NEW DELHI: Pakistan High Commissioner to India Shahid Malik met Indian Home Minister P. Chidambaram and told him that Pakistan was ready to send judicial commission to India to probe the Mumbai attacks.

The decision to send the judicial commission was made during interior secretary level talks between Pakistan and India.

The Pakistani judicial commission will record statements of the investigating officer of the Mumbai attacks and the magistrate who recorded Ajmal Kasab’s statement.
 
A TWISTED husband laced his wife's food with steroids to transform her into a fat stay-at-home mum.
Sick Dalwara Singh slipped the drug into her dinner — causing her to develop facial hair and break out in spots.

Singh was only caught out when the couple's teenage daughter heard him grinding a pestle and mortar in his bedroom.

His wife then discovered the drugs hidden in a locked cupboard and called in cops.

Singh admitted administering a poison or noxious substance with intent to injure, aggrieve or annoy at Leicester Crown Court yesterday.

But he escaped jail – and was handed a suspended prison sentence instead.

Judge Ebraham Mooncey said he had only narrowly dodged jail, telling him: "You may have been doing it to make her give up her job, gain weight and stay indoors and make her want you and rely on you.

"It was a well-planned exercise and you say you gave her the steroids at least four or five times. It's had a terrible effect on her, causing long-term emotional harm."

The couple had been married for 17 years and have a son and a daughter, aged 15 and 16.

Caroline Bray, prosecuting, said Singh gave his wife the drugs to keep her at home.

She told the court: "He wanted to stop her from going out for walks, because he wanted her to be at home to cook for him and look after the children.

"He said he didn't consider the side effects and intended to stop.

"These steroids have no listed benefits for women and can have permanent masculating effects, although they weren't administered long enough in this case."

David Martin-Sperry, defending, admitted it was a "bizarre" case but said his client was "deeply embarrassed and ashamed".

He said Singh moved out and now lives alone with limited access to his children though he still pays his wife's bills.

He was handed a 12-month sentence suspended for two years and was slapped with a restraining order banning any contact with his estranged wife other than through solicitors or social services.
 
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A US military policeman assigned to a unit in Anchorage, Alaska, was being held Wednesday on suspicion of spying and was expected to face military court charges within days. Spc. William Colton Millay, 22, likely will be charged under the Uniform Code of Military Justice by the end of the week, a spokesman for US Army Alaska told the Army Times. Millay, from Owensboro, Ky., is part of a unit known as the Arctic Enforcers. The unit recently returned from a deployment in Afghanistan. He was arrested Oct. 29 after a joint FBI and US Army Counterintelligence investigation. The US Army Alaska spokesman would not comment on the circumstances surrounding Millay's arrest.

 
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The Istanbul Regional Conference held here on Wednesday adopted a declaration envisaging a broad range of effective Confidence Building Measures to promote a secure and stable Afghanistan in a secure, stable and prosperous region. According to the declaration adopted by 11 ministers besides representatives of 29 neighbouring countries of Afghanistan known as Heart of Asian Countries, they also agreed on a number of CBMs in political and security, economic, educational and cultural fields. The Istanbul Regional Conference jointly hosted by Turkey and Afghanistan also envisages guarantees of territorial integrity, sovereignty and refraining from the threat or use of force to resolve disputes. The participants also discussed guarantees for non-intervention and non-interference in the internal affairs of other states and peaceful settlement of disputes in accordance with international law. The conference was addressed by Turkish President Abdullah Gul, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and representatives of neighbouring and regional countries. According to declaration adopted in the conference, the participants reaffirmed their desire for enhanced cooperation for fighting terrorism, including through exchange of information.

 
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The WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, has lost his high court appeal against extradition to Sweden to face rape allegations. Lord Justice Thomas and Mr Justice Ouseley on Wednesday handed down their judgment in the 40-year-old Australian's appeal against a European arrest warrant issued by Swedish prosecutors after rape and sexual assault accusations made by two Swedish women following his visit to Stockholm in August 2010. Assange, who was wearing a navy blue suit, pale blue tie and a Remembrance Day poppy, remains on bail pending a decision on a further appeal. The judges ruled the issuing of the warrant and subsequent proceedings were "proportionate" and dismissed arguments that the warrant had been invalid and descriptions of the alleged offences unfair and inaccurate. Assange gave no sign of emotion as the judges gave reasons for the decision.

 
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Federal cabinet has given approval to the proposal of giving ‘Most Favourite Nation’ status to India and enhancing trade relations with the neighbouring country. The cabinet met here under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani on Tuesday. The cabinet was given briefing by the Commerce Minister Amin Fahim about the outcome of his recent visit to India. The cabinet also agreed to enhance trade volume with India from $2.6 billion to $6 billion. The meeting said that all the trade agreements with India would be fully materialized.

 
NEW YORK - American news media gave prominent coverage to Imran Khan’s huge anti-govt rally in Lahore on Sunday as signalling a political shift in Pakistan. In a dispatch, The Washington Post said, ‘Tens of thousands of people’ massed to listen to the cricket star-turned-politician in a ‘surprising show of force that could energise calls for anti-govt protests’.
The dispatch said Khan's ‘anti-American, anti-corruption’ rhetoric has made him a populist sensation among elite urban youth.
The turnout stunned many Pakistani analysts, most of whom view Khan as a one-man show with a following far too narrow to dent Pakistan’s entrenched political landscape...
‘But public disillusionment with the US-backed civilian government and unpopular President Asif Ali Zardari is high, and political jockeying ahead of national elections in 2013 is well underway’. Khan’s rally, the Post said, capped a weekend of demonstrations that started Friday when PML-N of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif drew thousands in Lahore to call for the government’s ouster. That was countered Sunday afternoon in Karachi, where devotees of MQM, PPP's coalition partner, thronged streets to display support for the government, it added.
But, the Post said, ‘neither of those rallies was as big or enthusiastic as Khan’s, at which pop stars sang to a dancing, flag-waving crowd from Lahore and beyond. Most immediately, the numbers represent a threat to Nawaz Sharif’s party, whose stronghold is Punjab province’.
‘Khan, like Sharif, is agitating for a widespread protest campaign — what he called a ‘tsunami’ rolling toward the Federal capital — and his ability to drum up a massive turnout is likely to worry the government, which aspires to be Pakistan’s first-ever democratically elected administration to complete its term’, the dispatch said. Imran’s young party workers vigorously employ social media to spread his message, and participants and observers offered play-by-play accounts of the rally on Twitter. ‘Today’s rally shows that the old political configuration is changing. You have to factor in the young, urbanised Pakistan clamouring for good governance’, the newspaper cited Raza Rumi, a prominent commentator, as tweeting.
The New York Times said, ‘The rally represented what supporters and some political analysts said was Khan’s emergence as a serious challenger to the governing PPP and its longtime rival, the Pakistan Muslim League-N’. ‘The size of the crowd that Khan drew in Lahore ... surprised his opponents and made an impression on political analysts’, the Times wrote.
‘Khan, 58, has languished on the political sidelines for years, and his political party, Tehreek-e-Insaf, has no seats in the current Parliament. But his popularity has soared recently as voters, especially younger ones, have grown disillusioned with the establishment parties’.
A survey conducted by an American polling organisation, the Pew Research Center, found in June that Khan had become the most popular political figure in the country. ‘After the crowd gave him a rousing welcome at the rally on Sunday evening, Khan threw out challenges to both Zardari and Sharif on the question of personal integrity, urging them both to disclose their assets or face civil disobedience’. The Times said, ‘Critics and political opponents dismiss Khan as a political nobody and question his judgment and his party’s capacity to mount a serious campaign, let alone to govern.
They say it relies entirely on Khan’s personal charisma and lacks any other substantial figures in its ranks’.
In an interview with The New York Times at his Islamabad residence on Friday, Khan shrugged off the criticism.
‘People confuse two types of politics’, Khan was quoted as saying.
‘One is the politics of movement. The other is traditional power-based politics. Tehreek-e-Insaf is never going to win the traditional way’.
‘Khan opposes cooperating with the US against militants based in the restive northwestern regions of the country near the Afghan border. He says that Pakistan should not send its own forces to conduct action there and should not allow American drone strikes there, either, because of the civilian casualties they cause. He favours a negotiated peace instead’.
‘My message to America is that we will have friendship with you, but we will not accept any slavery’, he was quoted as saying.
‘We will help you in a respectable withdrawal of your troops from Afghanistan, but we will not launch a military action in Pakistan for you’.
The Times wrote, ‘The atmosphere at the Sunday rally was electric. Several famous pop singers warmed up the crowd with music before Khan’s speech, giving the rally the feel of a concert. Women and girls in colourful clothes and sunglasses and young men in Western and national dress filled the audience’.
‘Khan’s speech itself was bit of a letdown to some, wayward and unfocused, but his fans did not mind’.
In the Times interview on Friday, Khan said he expected the Lahore rally to be seen as a test of his political future.
‘Lahore decides what happens in Punjab’, he said.
‘Punjab decides what happens in Pakistan’.
It quoted analysts as saying that drawing a big crowd in Lahore would not necessarily translate into electoral success, but it could propel Khan to the forefront of the political conversation.
‘I think it’s a historic turning point in the country’s politics’, Rasul Baksh Rais, who teaches at the Lahore University of Management Sciences, was quoted as saying.
‘It showed that people are deeply touched with the message of hope and change, and also with the frustration that is written all over Pakistan with the existing political parties’.
He said that after 15 years on the political fringes, Khan may have his moment now.
‘Today, he has been able to get his message across’, Rais said.
‘This is the beginning. And it will result in a big change in a year or two’, he added
 
LONDON: The three Pakistan cricketers convicted of fixing parts of a test match will find out Thursday whether they will spend time in jail for their role in the sports’ most serious corruption scandal in more than a decade.
Judge Jeremy Cooke spent Wednesday listening to mitigating statements from lawyers representing Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Amir and sports agent Mazhar Majeed, all of whom have been connected to a betting scam involving the deliberate bowling of no-balls.

Cooke will mull the case overnight before delivering their sentences at London’s Southwark Crown Court at 10 a.m. (1000 GMT) Thursday.

Former captain Butt and bowler Asif were found guilty on Tuesday of conspiracy to cheat and conspiracy to accept corrupt payments. Amir and Majeed pleaded guilty to the charges before the trial.

The latter charge carries a possible jail term of seven years.

The scandal is cricket’s biggest since South Africa captain Hanse Cronje was banned for life in 2000 for taking bribes from bookmakers.

Majeed declined to name others involved in the scam despite his guilty plea. He told Cooke that he did not instigate the fixes but that the players approached him.

A murky picture of widespread dishonesty emerged Thursday as allegations and counter allegations flew between the players and Majeed during their statements, prompting Cooke to declare his belief that fixing was so common within the Pakistan squad that it was regarded as the norm.


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