The International Cricket Council chief executive Haroon Lorgat hopes a report into spot-fixing claims against some of Pakistan's players will be ready soon.


The ICC's anti-corruption is preparing the report, while police carry out a separate criminal investigation.

There is no indication the four players questioned - Salman Butt, Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Asif and Kamran Akmal - are facing suspension at this stage.

The ICC has also stated that Pakistan's tour of England will continue.

"It is the desire of the ICC and the cricket boards of England and Pakistan that the game should continue," ICC president Sharad Pawar said.

Pakistan are due to play Somerset in a tour match from Thursday before playing the first of two Twenty20 internationals against England on Sunday - by which time the ICC hopes to have made its initial report.

"The reputation of the game has been tarnished and it is something we must make right. There is no question that people's confidence will have been swayed," Lorgat said.

"Hopefully we can reach a conclusion by the weekend.

"We are working hard, but it's important to remember that an individual is innocent until proven guilty."

Test captain Butt, fast bowlers Amir and Asif and wicketkeeper Akmal were questioned by police at the team's hotel in London on Sunday following a report that some Pakistan players had been bribed to fix incidents during the fourth Test against England at Lord's.

The allegations centred on three no-balls from Amir and Asif which the News of the World newspaper said had been bowled on purpose at pre-determined times to facilitate betting coups after a "middle man" accepted £150,000 in cash from an undercover reporter.


Click to play
Click to play
Pakistan's team manager Yawar Saeed: "No allegations are true til they are proved"
The man identified as the alleged go-between, cricket agent Mazhar Majeed, 35, has been released on police bail after being arrested on Saturday on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud bookmakers.

Investigators from the ICC's anti-corruption and security unit are already in the UK conducting enquiries of their own as well as "assisting London's Metropolitan Police with their criminal investigation. "

"If any players are found to be guilty, the ICC will ensure that the appropriate punishment is handed out. We will not tolerate corruption in this great game," revealed Lorgat in a statement earlier.

On Monday, the Pakistan team coach left London for Taunton ahead of the match against Somerset. Pakistan are then due to continue their tour with the two Twenty20 internationals and five one-day internationals against England in September.

Test captain Butt - the one-day side is led by Shahid Afridi - boarded the coach with Amir, Asif and Akmal, plus the rest of his team-mates, despite calls from a number of quarters for the quartet to be suspended from the final part of the tour pending investigations.
There were audible, but isolated, shouts of abuse from at least one member of the public after a crowd gathered to watch the players leave London.

If, unfortunately, there is a truth then ruthless actions will be taken

ICC president Sharad Pawar
Somerset chief executive Richard Gould said he expected the team to receive a "warm welcome" on Thursday.

He added: "They have a net session booked in for Wednesday and if they want anything else we will be happy to provide it. This game has been looked forward to by many of our supporters and members and we think they will give the Pakistan team a warm welcome."

Pakistan's team manager Yawar Saeed revealed there were "sober feelings" in the dressing room, but added: "No allegations are true til they are proved."

A gunman has opened fire at random in a street in Slovakia's capital Bratislava, killing six people and injuring 14, local officials say.


Latest reports say four women and two men were killed in the incident, in the Devinska Nova Ves district, on the city's north-western outskirts.

The Slovak daily SME said the attacker was believed to be a drug-influenced 15-year-old boy who shot at neighbours with an automatic weapon.

The shooter's fate is not yet clear.

Police rushed to the scene and sealed off the area, but details of the shooting remain sketchy and the motive for the attack is not yet known.

A three-year-old child was reportedly among the 14 injured taken to hospital.

witnessed at Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) at the very outset of trade week today, as the benchmark 100-index tumbled below 10,000-point level, Geo News reported Monday. The market opened into positive territory; but, the rumors in the winds, relating delay in financing system, pushed the investors to sell their shares, pressing the index to shed over 350 points to below 10,000-point level.

Tags:Pakistani blog, Pakistan business news, Pakistan forex news, Pakistan commodities new,Pakistan Business News, Business Updates, Stock Market, Business,business channel pakistan,pakistan business review,daily times pakistani newspaper,business recorder newspaper pakistan,pakistan latest news,business plus tv pakistan,pakistan business directory,daily waqt newspaper pakistan,Pakistan latest business news by Forex.pk. Breaking business news
and daily top business financial news

The flight recorder from a plane that crashed in China has been found, the state news agency Xinhua said.

At least 42 people were killed after the passenger plane crash-landed in the northern province of Heilongjiang.

Rescuers searched through the wreckage of the plane which had broken in two, as Chinese state television began broadcasting the stories of survivors

These described the panic and terror as the plane tried, but failed, to land safely near the city of Yichun.

"The plane really started to jolt in a scary way - the plane jolted five or six times very strongly," one male survivor told China Central Television from his hospital bed.

A second male survivor told CCTV that he felt a "big jolt" as the plane was coming in to land and heard "big crashes - bam bam bam".

Uncertainties

"After we stopped, the people in the back were panicking and rushed to the front," another man told CCTV.

"We were trying to open the (emergency exits) but they wouldn't open. Then the smoke came in ... within two or three minutes or even a minute, we couldn't breathe. I knew something bad was going to happen," he said.

The vice mayor of Yichun, Wang Xuemei, told CCTV that of the 54 injured, three were in critical condition.

The pilot was one of the survivors of the crash but has not been able to talk yet due to heavy facial injuries.

Xinhua reported that families of the victims waited anxiously at Yichun's Lindu airport. Five of those on board were children but their fate remains unclear.

The Henan Airlines aircraft, with 91 passengers on board and five crew, burst into flames after overshooting the runway at Yichun City's airport.


Henan Airlines operates five Embraer ERJ-190 passenger planes Causes of the crash remain uncertain, but officials at the scene have noted the heavy fog; others have suggested problems with the Brazilian-made Embraer E-190 jet.

A 20-strong team of CAAC officials and technicians have reportedly already left for Yichun City to begin an investigation.

Lindu airport is a small domestic facility that opened only last year.

Henan Airlines is a joint venture between Shenzhen Airlines of China and Mesa Air Group of the US, and is based in Henan province. It was previously known as Kunpeng Airlines.

The BBC's Chris Hogg in Beijing says China has seen a rapid expansion in its domestic airlines in recent years - more than three times as many passengers are flying now as were 10 years ago.

Generally, safety standards have improved, with the last serious accident happening six years ago.

A passenger plane crashed in 2004 into a frozen lake near the northern city of Baotou, killing all 53 people on board. Two people on the ground also died.