What will be the next Afghanistan after US  Exclusion !

Aisam, Pakistan’s most successful player in Davis Cup history, was in full flow in his singles encounter against Cheuk Wai Hui, beating him in straight sets.

But the day began badly for Pakistan when their number two player Aqeel Khan lost narrowly against Hiu-Tung Yu, the Hong Kong number one, at Victoria Park in Hong Kong.

Aqeel made a slow start to the match, allowing Hiu-Tung Yu to take the first two sets 6-4, 6-2. But just when it seemed that Hong Kong will go ahead in the best-of-five Asia-Oceania Zone tie comfortably, Aqeel bounced back with some solid returns to take the next two sets 6-3, 6-3.

But he ran out of steam in the final set which Yu won 6-3 to take the home team 1-0 ahead in the tie that will conclude on Sunday (tomorrow).

Pakistan bounced back from the setback when Aisam demolished Cheuk-Wai Hui with clinical precision. Aisam, one of Asia’s best tennis players, won the match 6-2, 6-3, 6-4 with an enviable ease to level the scores 1-1 at the end of the first day’s play.

He will return to action on Saturday (today) for the doubles match.

Pakistan were supposed to host the Davis Cup first round tie in Lahore but were forced to surrender their right to host it because of security concerns.

The International Tennis Federation (ITF) decided to relocate the tie to Hong Kong.

Pakistan are hoping to win the match to stay in the hunt for a promotion to Group I for the next year’s Davis Cup competition.

If they beat Hong Kong, Pakistan will meet the winner of the New Zealand-Sri Lanka tie under progress in Colombo.

Results: Pakistan-Hong Kong 1-1; Hiu-Tung Yu (HK) bt Aqeel Khan (Pak) 6-4, 6-2, 3-6, 3-6, 6-3; Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi (Pak) bt Cheuk-Wai Hui (HK) 6-2, 6-3, 6-4.

Gates made the pledge to lawmakers after receiving a letter from Carl Levin, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, who urged the defense secretary to reconsider awarding a possible one billion dollar contract to the firm, now known as Xe, due to allegations of wrongdoing.

“He is looking into it and he takes it seriously,” press secretary Geoff Morrell told reporters.

Gates has told the senator that “he shares his (Levin’s) concerns,” Morrell said.

The letter dated February 25 and released publicly on Thursday notes that the Defense Department is reportedly preparing to give a contract to Xe for “highly sensitive work” to train Afghan national police, despite its controversial record in Iraq and amid fresh allegations of misconduct.

The letter cites a recent Senate hearing on a contract given to a Blackwater affiliate to provide weapons training in Afghanistan.

Levin’s committee heard evidence that alleged that Blackwater may have used a front company for the contract, lied to Pentagon officials in its proposal documents, “misappropriated” government weapons, carried weapons without approval and hired staff with serious criminal records including larceny and substance abuse.

Blackwater’s conduct may have “contributed to a shooting incident that has undermined our mission in Afghanistan,” it added.

The planned defense budget is 532.115 billion yuan (about 78 billion U.S. dollars), a rise of about 37 billion yuan from last year’s defense expenditure, Li Zhaoxing, spokesman for the annual session of the National People’s Congress (NPC), told a press conference.

Defense spending would account for 6.4 percent of the country’s total fiscal expenditure in 2010, the same with last year, he said.

However, Li stressed that the figures would not be final until the budget plan is approved at the NPC annual session due to open in Beijing on Friday.

It is the first time for China’s defense budget growth rate to drop to less than 10 percent in recent years which saw a row of consecutive double-digit increases.

This year’s increased budget will be mainly be spent to support the reform of China’s military and improve its capability to deal with varied threats and complete diversified tasks, Li said.

Part of the money will also be used to raise the living standards of servicemen, he said.

China has always taken the road of peaceful development and keep in line with the defensive national defense policy, Li said.

Taking into account China’s large population, its vast territory, and its long coastline, the country’s defense budget is “comparatively low,” according to the former Foreign Minister.

“China’s defense expenditure in recent years accounted for about 1.4 percent of its GDP,” he said, adding that the ratio was four percent for the United States, and more than two percent for the United Kingdom, France and Russia.

He said China has been continuously raising its military transparency by submitting defense budgets to the NPC annual sessions for approval, issuing white papers every two years on its national defense, and establishing a spokesperson system and websites for its Defense Ministry.

The force of the stampede was so great, it knocked down a gate at the temple compound in Kunda, a small town 110 miles (180kilometers) southeast of Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh state.

About 44 worshippers were injured in the crush of people at a Hindu temple belonging to a popular local religious leader, said Ashok Kumar, a senior government official.

Thousands of farmers and villagers had gathered at the temple around noon to receive free goods to mark the anniversary of the death of the wife of the religious leader, Kripalu Maharaj, said Brij Lal, a local police official.

By late afternoon police had cleared the compound and started the process of identifying the bodies, Kumar said.

Hundreds of people gathered at a nearby hospital for news of their family members.

“She had just wandered in to see what was happening,” said Gudal, a 38-year-old farmer whose 7-year-old daughter, Ranjana, was killed. Gudal, who uses only one name, wept as she spoke.

Deadly stampedes are a relatively common occurrence at temples in India, where large crowds _ sometimes hundreds of thousands of people _ congregate in small areas lacking facilities to control big gatherings.

In 2008, more than 145 people died in a stampede at a remote Hindu temple at the foothill of the Himalayas.

After nine hits, she’s come to be considered a lucky mascot and now all the big filmmakers want to sign her on in 2010. But… this demand is causing Kat more stress than delight, say trade sources.

Tarun Mansukhani wants her for Dostana-2 with Abhishek Bachchan and John Abraham, Imtiaz Ali was considering her for Rockstar opposite Ranbir Kapoor, Ritesh Sidhwani has approached her for Zoya Akhtar’s film opposite Hrithik Roshan and, Kat has already been signed for Farah Khan’s Tees Maar Khan opposite Akshay Kumar.

These filmmakers want to start shooting in April-May-June. Naturally, the actress can’t spread herself thin despite her wanting to be in each of these projects. And right now, Kat must be joining her hands in prayer and hoping that some divine intervention will sort out her dates diary.

Tarun says, “Kat will definitely be in Dostana-2, come what may.” While Ritesh says, “We’re working towards getting Kat in our film for sure.” But Imtiaz is reportedly looking at a new Kashmiri girl opposite Ranbir.

The 78-19 vote on the 30-day extension known as H.R. 4691 came minutes after the Kentucky Republican made a final plea on the floor of the Senate for his colleagues not to borrow the money.

“We can’t do everything we’d like to do,” Bunning said. “We don’t have the money.”

A Department of Transportation official said the president will sign the package Wednesday morning and that 2,000 furloughed transportation workers were being told to return to work in the morning.

The original short-term extension of unemployment benefits needed unanimous consent to pass because Democrats have labeled it an emergency spending measure. Bunning rejected the motion for unanimous consent.

The 78-year-old former professional baseball player had proposed an amendment to pay for the measure by closing a tax loophole used by the paper industry, but the amendment was stricken Tuesday night when a motion to waive a budget point of order against it failed on a vote of 43-53. That meant the Bunning amendment did not get a direct up-or-down vote.

Afterward, Bunning issued a statement deriding the move as “a procedural gimmick.”Bunning, who is retiring at the end of this year, said he didn’t oppose extending the programs — he just didn’t want to add to the deficit. Democrats argued that, because it is an emergency measure, the bill should not be subject to new rules requiring that legislation not expand the deficit — the pay-go rules.

As a result of the Senate’s delayed action, many jobless people were not able to apply for federal unemployment benefits or the COBRA health insurance subsidy as of Monday.

Bunning’s action created a political firestorm. On Tuesday morning, he pushed on the Senate floor for a measure that would have paid the $10 billion tab out of the Democrats’ previously passed $862 billion stimulus bill. He also dared Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to hold a vote to cut off debate on the measure.

The Nevada Democrat rejected Bunning’s motions.

“You have made your point … [but] the majority of the Senate disagrees with you,” Reid told Bunning. The need to extend unemployment benefits is “an emergency. … Our economy is suffering. [There are] long lines of people out of work.”

Reid called Bunning’s legislative maneuvering “terribly inappropriate.”

Maine GOP Sen. Susan Collins sided with the Democratic leader, saying Bunning’s views “do not represent the majority of the Republican caucus.”

House Minority Leader John Boehner, however, defended Bunning.

“He’s got a legitimate argument that he’s making,” said the Ohio Republican. “The Democrats just passed this legislation” requiring bills not to increase the deficit and not even “a week after the president signed [it] into law they want to exempt the first bill that comes across the Senate floor.”

Federal unemployment benefits kick in after the basic state-funded 26 weeks of coverage expire. During the downturn, Congress has approved up to an additional 73 weeks, which it funds.

These federal benefit weeks are divided into tiers, and the jobless must apply each time they move into a new tier.

Had the Senate not acted, the jobless would have stopped getting checks once they ran out of their state benefits or current tier of federal benefits.

That could have been devastating to many of the more than 1 million people who would have been affected this month and nearly 5 million by June, according to the National Unemployment Law Project.

Several other programs were also affected by the legislative spat, including federal flood insurance, satellite TV licensing, and small business loans.

The bill also provides a short-term extension of the Highway Trust Fund, which pays for transportation projects nationwide.

Chief Justice John Roberts issued a three-page order Tuesday, a day before the law becomes official. He concluded the high court should defer to local matters in the federal district of Washington. And he said a separate ballot initiative to overturn the law would give voters a chance to weigh in on the question.

A group of Washington residents had objected to the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Equality Amendment Act, which expands the definition of marriage to include same-sex couples.

Those opponents had argued city residents should have been given a chance to vote on the high-profile issue before the city council passed the measure. They still seek to force a ballot initiative after the law takes effect. Local courts had turned down various lawsuits to block it.

The district’s marriage bureau says same-sex couples can begin applying for marriage licenses Wednesday. However, by law, “three full days must pass between the day of application to the day that the license can be issued,” the bureau, part of the district’s superior court system, says on its Web site, so no marriages would be held this week.

A $35 application fee is waived for couples who are registered domestic partners, although a $10 fee for the license is not, the bureau said.

District of Columbia Mayor Adrian Fenty signed a measure recognizing same-sex marriages as legal in December, after the city council overwhelming passed it. It then had to go through a review period during which Congress had an opportunity to intervene.

The district joins Connecticut, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts and Iowa in allowing same-sex couples to marry.