TopNews

Frankfurt - Italian essayist Claudio Magris, 70, was picked Thursday as winner of one of Europe's most prestigious annual culture prizes, the 25,000-euro
(34,750-dollar) German Book Trade Peace Prize.

Magris, a professor of German, has written a stream of books about 20th century history, has translated many German authors into Italian and writes newspaper columns.

Lahore, June 18 : As several posts are lying vacant in the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) due to officials resigning from their respective posts, the PCB chief Ijaz Butt is reportedly to be placing his favourites in different chairs in the board.

It has been learnt that several lucrative posts such as those of chief selector, media director, marketing director and chief financial officer (CFO) have already been allocated to Butt's people in the board as additional charges.

New Delhi, June 18 : A Chinese woman was caught with high tech devices while taking an exam for a driver's licence, when a receiver fell out of her mouth due to nervousness.

Huang, from Quanzhou, Fujian province, was found by a test supervisor to be writing on her test paper without looking up at the computer screen to see the questions.

Suspicious, the supervisor approached the woman.

Finding the supervisor near her, the woman became nervous, and the receiver fell out of her mouth.

According to the China Daily, she also had a tiny camera hooked up to her shirt, along with a walkie-talkie and receiver.

Kuala Lumpur, June 18 : An opposition MP has expressed surprise that local banks are still refusing to honour cheques written in Tamil, the Malaysia Nanban reports.

Seremban MP John Fernandez, who is from DAP, said on the contrary, cheques written in Malay, English and Chinese languages were accepted by the banks.

He said he had received numerous complaints from his constituents and was wondering why banks were not giving due recognition to the Tamil language.

Abu Dhabi Marine Operating Company (Adma-Opco) has announced that it has inked $402 million engineering procurement and construction (EPC) pact for the Integrated Gas Development project - Habshan Platform (HAP) with National Petroleum Construction Company (NPCC).

According to sources, Integrated Gas Development is an initiative of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) to process and supply the gas to meet growing needs and development plans of Abu Dhabi.

The sources further added that Adma-Opco portion entails the challenging offshore portion of gas production by drilling additional gas wells and processing platform at Umm Shaif for gas dehydration.

Paris - In an effort to aid its ailing newspapers, the French government is offering adults between the ages of 18 and 24 a free one-year subscription to their favourite broadsheet or tabloid, the daily Le Figaro reported Thursday.

"Trade unions foresee 200,000 subscriptions with a potential of reaching 750,000 young adults," Culture Minister Christine Albanel said.

The measure will cost the government some 5 million euros (7 million dollars) a year.