RAWALPINDI: At least a man was killed and 29 others were injured, when a powerful explosion occurred in Chauhar Chowk of Rawalpindi, Geo News reported Thursday.

The ambulances and relief teams rushed the injured to the nearby hospitals. Emergency has been announced in all the hospitals of the city.

The blast was so powerful that it was heard far and wide and it destroyed at least five vehicles.

The blast occurred at a time when the market was overcrowded and people were leaving for their houses.

SACRAMENTO: California's controller will start paying many of the state's bills with IOUs as soon as Thursday after lawmakers failed to close the state's worsening budget deficit, adding a new measure of indignity to a state sinking deeper into dysfunction.

Lawmakers' failure to act on Tuesday, the end of the fiscal year, also widened California's deficit from what already had been a whopping $24.3 billion — more than a quarter of its general fund.

HELD AL-QUDS: Israeli forces killed hundreds of Palestinian civilians and destroyed thousands of Gaza Strip homes in attacks that amounted to war crimes, Amnesty International charged Thursday, in the first in-depth human rights group report on the recent war in Gaza.

Amnesty called on Israel to publicly pledge not to use artillery, white phosphorus and other imprecise weapons in densely populated areas. And it urged Gaza's militant Hamas rulers to stop rocket fire against Israeli civilians — attacks it also described as war crimes.

Kambakkht Ishq While shooting Kambakkht Ishq together in Los Angeles, Akshay Kumar and Sylvester Stallone bonded like buddies.

In the film, Akshay plays a stuntman who acts as a body double for Hollywood stars like Stallone and Brandon Routh. During the few action sequences Akshay and Sly shot together in LA, they chatted for hours about many things including their injuries, fitness and healing.

Reports say Stallone talked about his knee injury while Akshay discussed his back problem.

KARACHI: In the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for Test batsmen, Younus Khan is in number-one position and will be aiming to become the 25th batsman in history to reach the 900-point mark.

The 31-year-old right-handed batsman is just 20 points short of becoming the second Pakistan batsman after Mohammd Yousuf to achieve the rare distinction.

Younus had first gone to the top of the batting chart after scoring 313 against Sri Lanka in Karachi in February before regaining the number-one position from Shivanarine Chanderpaul of the West Indies in May.

NEW DELHI: United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi Thursday said India is wants to build bilateral cooperation with Pakistan.

She said also spoke in favor of strengthening people-to-people to contact between the two countries.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's army has deployed troops to a stretch of the Afghan border to stop Taliban militants fleeing a major U.S. offensive in southern Afghanistan, a spokesman said Thursday.

Nearly 4,000 U.S. Marines plus 650 Afghan forces moved into Afghanistan's Helmand province early Thursday to take on the Taliban in one of their strongholds.

Pakistani and US officials have expressed concern the American troop build up in southern Afghanistan could push the militants across the poorly guarded and mountainous border into Pakistan.

WASHINGTON: The United States imposed Wednesday sanctions on an Al-Qaeda backer and three leaders of the Pakistan-based Islamist group Laskhar-e-Taiba, believed behind last year's Mumbai attacks.

The US Treasury said it was imposing an assets freeze on the four, identified as Fazeel-A-Tul Shaykh Abu Mohammed Ameen Al-Peshawari, Arif Qasmani, Mohammed Yahya Mujahid, and Nasir Javaid.

Ameen Al-Peshawari allegedly provided assistance, including funding and recruits, to Al-Qaeda and the Taliban militia currently fighting to regain control of Afghanistan.

WASHINGTON: US employers shed 467,000 jobs in June, pushing the unemployment rate to a fresh 26-year high of 9.5 percent, the Labor Department reported Thursday.

Analysts had expected a smaller number of 365,000 job losses, but a higher unemployment rate of 9.6 percent. The jobless rate in May was 9.4 percent.

The agency revised its estimates for May to show fewer job cuts -- 322,000 instead of 345,000. But the April figure was revised from a loss of 504,000 to 519,000 jobs.

SINGAPORE: The Asian Youth Games are underway in Singapore. China tops the medals table with six golds, followed by South Korea and Japan after the second full day of the competition.

China took on hosts Singapore in boys under-14 football. The hosts trailed early when China's captain Peng Yan struck in the 26th minute.

Peng doubled China's lead with a rasping right-foot shot from the edge of the area less than ten minutes later.

ISLAMABAD: As much as 80 per cent Pakistani public has said Taliban have posed serious threat to the stability of county, according to a survey report.

An organization by the name World Public Opinion (WPO) has said that 68 per cent people of Pakistan have expressed satisfaction over the ongoing military operation against Taliban in Swat Valley while 70 per cent public have extended their sympathies for the government of Pakistan in connection with military offensive.

ANNANDALE, Va. – President Barack Obama wanted to put a human face on his plans to overhaul health care, and a Virginia supporter did just that Wednesday.

Fighting back tears, Debby Smith, 53, told Obama of her kidney cancer and her inability to obtain health insurance or hold a job. The president hugged her — she's a volunteer for his political operation — and called her "exhibit A" in an unsustainable system that is too expensive and complex for millions of Americans.

NEW DELHI: Ahead of the meeting between Indian and Pakistani leaders in Egypt mid-July, India Wednesday said it is not “afraid to talk” to Pakistan but wants Islamabad to take “concrete and visible action” against the perpetrators of the Mumbai carange before deciding on resuming the dialogue.