Current News | Daily News | Junt in News | Current Khabar Nama | World News | Just in Dunya | Breaking News | National News | News Post | News Time | News More...

Monday, December 28, 2009

Suicide Bomb Blast occurs in morning procession on MA Jinnah Road Karachi

KARACHI: A powerful bomb blast occurred in the morning procession being taken out in connection with the Yaum-e-Ashur, Geo News reported Monday.
The blast occurred in the front part of the central mourning procession near Denso Hall at Jamia Cloth Market triggering stampede. The security forces are appealing to the people to stay calm.
The ambulances soon arrived on the blast site and injured are being shifted to the nearby hospital. The emergency has been declared in all hospitals of the city.
The organizers stressed that they will complete the route the procession and will end it as per previously set scheduled.
28th December,2009 at 4:30PM - Muharram 10, 1431 A.H.

Dr Qadeer helped NKorea with nukes


North Korea may have constructed a plant to manufacture a gas needed for uranium enrichment in a development that would indicate that Pyongyang had opened a second way to build nuclear weapons as early as the 1990s, The Washington Post reported late Sunday.
Citing a previously unpublicized account by Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan’s atomic bomb program, the newspaper said North Korea may have been enriching uranium on a small scale by 2002, with maybe 3,000 or even more centrifuges.
Pakistan helped North Korea with vital machinery, drawings and technical advice for at least six years, the report said.

The Post said Khan’s account could not be independently corroborated. But one US intelligence official and a US diplomat said his information adds to their suspicions that North Korea has long pursued the enrichment of uranium in addition to making plutonium for bombs.

It also may help explain Pyongyang’s assertion in September that it is in the final stages of such enrichment, the paper noted.

Khan described his dealings with the country in official documents and in correspondence with a former British journalist, Simon Henderson, who said he thinks an accurate understanding of Pakistan’s nuclear history is relevant for US policymaking, the report pointed out.

The Post independently verified that the documents were produced by Khan.

Khan’s account of the pilot plant depicts relations between the two countries’ scientists as exceptionally close for nearly a decade, the paper said.

Khan says, for example, that during a visit to North Korea in 1999, he toured a mountain tunnel, according to the report. There his hosts showed him boxes containing components of three finished nuclear warheads, which he was told could be assembled for use atop missiles within an hour.

His visit occurred seven years before the country’s first detonation, prompting some current and former US officials to say that Khan’s account, if correct, suggests North Korea’s achievements were more advanced than previously known, and that the country may have more sophisticated weapons, or a larger number, than earlier estimated, The Post said.

But Siegfried Hecker, a former Los Alamos National Laboratory director who was allowed to see some North Korean plutonium during a visit to its nuclear facilities in January 2004, said after hearing Khan’s description of the trip he remains unconvinced that the country in 1999 had enough fissile material on hand to make such weapons.

The Post quotes Hecker as saying that Khan may have tried to get himself “off the hook” by implying that his own illicit technical assistance to Pyongyang was irrelevant because “these guys already had nuclear weapons.”
28th December,2009 - Muharram 10, 1431 A.H.

The many faces of Benazir Bhutto

Born to a prominent political family, Benazir Bhutto lived her life in the public eye.

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Death of Benazir Bhutto (Former Prime Minister Pakistan) on dated 27th December,2007

Mischief is afoot, warns Zardari

President Asif Ali Zardari said on Sunday that non-state actors were trying to break up Pakistan and institutions were being

pitted against each other, but vowed that every sacrifice would be made to protect democracy.
Addressing a gathering on the second death anniversary of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, President Zardari warned that anyone daring

to cast an evil eye on democracy would be dealt with severely.
“We have shed our blood for building institutions and know how they have been built. We know what will happen when institutions clash and we

don’t want to see such a day.”
President Zardari said conspiracies were being hatched against the four provinces and the federation of Pakistan.
But all these will be thwarted by the people of Pakistan,” he said.
The president mentioned Iraq and Afghanistan and said: “We know what happens when institutions are weakened. But we are not that weak.”
Mr Zardari said he had faced jail for 11 years and was not afraid of threats. He said some people had been saying that he would leave the



President’s House in an ambulance and would be out by December. “But I want to know how do they know that?”
There were only two places where he could go and these were the President’s House and jail.
“Don’t think that we are weak, or we cannot fight.” He said although some elements were ridiculing his slogan, “democracy is the best

revenge”, he would not eat his words.
President Zardari described Garhi Khuda Bux as the “Karbala of the PPP” and said it was a rallying point for Pakistan People’s Party, but

vowed that “democracy will not be buried here”.
Referring to the situation in Swat and Malakand, the president expressed satisfaction that the national flag was again flying in a region

written off as a lost cause not long ago.
He said there were still a lot of things to accomplish, citing poverty and the Kashmir dispute.
President Zardari mentioned a series of measures taken by him and for which he was being targeted.
He said he was being criticised probably because of carrying forward Ms Bhutto’s mission of democracy.
Was it raising the flag of Pakistan at Garhi Khuda Bakhsh, launching of Benazir Income Support Programme for the women of Pakistan, raising

the slogan of ‘Pakistan khapay’ and to save the federation of Pakistan?” he asked.
People of Pakistan will not let their country turn into Iraq, Afghanistan or Somalia,” he said amid slogans.
The president said he was facing accusations also because of moves to change the name of the NWFP to Pakhtunkhwa, give rights to the deprived

people of Balochistan and stop the plunder of its natural resources, give rights over Sindh’s coal to its people and give the people the

National Finance Commission award after 19 years, that would be announced in Gwadar.
The president announced that a woman would head Gilgit-Baltistan as governor. “Benazir Bhutto is my leader and I am following her path,” he

said.
If serving the 180 million people of the country is a mistake, I will continue doing it.” President Zardari said he had handed over the

command of the National Command Authority to parliament.
“They wanted it to be a joint control, but without anyone asking or telling me I transferred the control to the prime minister.”
“They are not afraid of Asif Ali Zardari, but of democracy.” He said certain sections were not happy with him for going to the United Nations

for a probe into his wife’s death. The UN launched the investigation after the first attack on her in Karachi.
He said it was the decision of the party’s central executive committee to go ahead, but they wanted it done through the government.
He said resolutions had been adopted unanimously by the provincial and national assemblies and the Senate for seeking a UN investigation.
“What is your objection? It has been my loss and that of my children,” he said.
President Zardari said he had taken an initiative to form the Friends of Democratic Pakistan group and presided over its meetings along with

the heads of the United States and the United Kingdom which were attended by representatives of 26 other countries.
“They don’t like my efforts for formation of the Friends of Democratic Pakistan.”
The president recalled former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had faced similar accusations. “What was his crime? That he brought together

a broken Pakistan, gave a Constitution, made Pakistan a nuclear power and espoused the right of the poor to rule this country.”
He said the founder of the PPP had regained land lost to India in the 1971 war and got 90,000 prisoners of war released through dialogue.
“I ousted a dictator from the President’s House through dialogue,” he said.
He said Benazir Bhutto had “carried forward the mission of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, given the country missile technology and struggled against

dictators to bring the country back to the path of democracy”.
President Zardari said objections were raised to his foreign visits and if he stayed home, he was accused of having a “bunker mentality”.
“They want to have their type of hand-made leaders,” the president said and added: “Benazir Bhutto did not embrace martyrdom so that

non-state actors or anyone else could take over democracy.”
He praised party workers and leaders for standing with the parry’s chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and proving that they were not like those

who had ditched Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto.
“No one leaves the PPP. But if anyone does then no one stands by him.”
He said he had protected the party and its workers and if it was a crime, then “hang me”. He recalled that Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had said that

he preferred dying at the hands of a dictator to being forgotten by history.
President Zardari said his party had spoken of avenging the deaths of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Benazir Bhutto, Shahnawaz Bhutto and Murtaza

Bhutto.
He said the problem was that “we cannot change our habits and they cannot change their thinking”.
He said PPP workers had no doubt about his credibility and that he was a saviour of Pakistan.
“Only Bhuttoism will succeed. They will not succeed. Pakistan will progress, provinces will get their rights and the country will move

forward democratically. Elections will be held on time and I will administer oath to anyone who gets the mandate,” the president said.
The gathering offered fateha for Ms Bhutto. A documentary on the slain PPP leaders was also shown.
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari sat on the stage along with Bakhtawar and Aseefa Bhutto.
Thousands of people from across the country flocked to the tomb under tight security. They wailed in grief, but some also lashed out at the

government.
Crowds of men, women and children cried, beat their chests, recited the holy Quran and chanted slogans urging that the government arrest Ms

Bhutto’s killers.
Mourners poured through the gates into the mausoleum, taking flowers and some picking up petals from the grave as souvenir.
“I took some petals from Bibi’s grave because they are blessed,” said Aamna Abro. “I’ll give them to my ailing mother. I believe they’ll cure

her.”
She had traveled about 100kms to make the visit. The president and his three children visited the grave in private on Saturday night.
There were complaints from ordinary people initially held back from entering the mausoleum.
“The government of our own party is preventing us from visiting her grave, which clearly shows they fear for their life,” said Ghulam

Shabbir, 55, carrying a party flag.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani showered her grave with rose petals and prayed with ministers, before paying respects at the tomb of PPP’s

founder.
He said: “The deadline for UN investigation has been extended for a month, after which the facts will be brought before the nation.”--APP/AFP
Sunday 27th Dec,2009 | Muharram 09, 1431 A.H.

Karachi suicide blast

KARACHI: A blast has occurred near Kasba turning in Karachi, the Police reported Sunday.
According to the Chippa sources, several injured, including a girl and rangers personnel, have been rushed to a nearby hospital.
Fire has broken out at the site of the blast. Police said it was a low intensity blast.
Hospital sources said two policemen are among the wounded.

Sunday 27th Dec,2009 | Muharram 09, 1431 A.H.

Muzaffarabad suicide blast



 MUZAFFARABAD: A blast has been reported in Muzaffarbad, Geo News reported Sunday. According to details reaching here, several people have been wounded in the blast.
Sunday, 27th Dec,2009 | Muharram 09, 1431 A.H.

Sunday, December 27, 2009

Swine Flu Vaccine


Anthony Komaroff, M.D., is professor of medicine and editor-in-chief of Harvard Health Publications at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Komaroff also is senior physician and was formerly director of the Division of General Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital. Dr. Komaroff has served on various advisory committees to the federal government, and is an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Question:
I know there have been previous outbreaks of swine flu. Was there ever a swine flu vaccine?
Answer:
Yes. There was a swine flu vaccine about 30 years ago. There may be another released later this year. Here's what you need to know.

The " flu" is caused by influenza viruses. Flu typically occurs during late fall, winter and early spring because flu viruses like cold, dry air.

About 30 years ago, there was an outbreak of flu at Fort Dix, New Jersey, caused by a swine flu virus. This virus had previously infected just pigs, but it developed the ability to infect humans. The government thought that the virus was likely to spread widely, so they developed a swine flu vaccine. Forty million people in the U.S. got the vaccine.

To everyone's surprise, the virus did not spread widely. The reasons are still not understood. Lots of people were vaccinated, but we know now that they didn't really need the treatment.

The current outbreak of swine flu is caused by a different virus (called H1N1) than the swine flu of 30 years ago. Today's swine flu has already spread around the world much more widely than the previous virus. It is still spreading in the northern hemisphere (like here in the U.S.), even though it is nearly summer. This is very different from what happened with the swine flu outbreak in New Jersey 30 years ago.



Many experts think the current virus will cause a new wave of infections in the northern hemisphere as we approach winter, and that the illness will be more severe. For this reason, many experts agree that the world should prepare to immunize people against the new swine flu virus. The World Health Organization, the U.S. Government, and other governments are beginning the process to create a vaccine. A vaccine could be ready by September or October, although it will probably take more time to make enough vaccine to cover large numbers of people.

Deciding whether to immunize large numbers of people will be hard. That's because by the time a decision has to be made, it may not yet be clear how serious the new virus will turn out to be.

It almost surely will not be possible to know if the vaccine against the new swine flu virus will, like the vaccine 30 years ago, cause rare but serious side effects. No leader wants to have to make a decision based on incomplete evidence, but unfortunately, that is likely to be the case.


Muharram 9th processions being taken out in the world



WO JIS NE APNE NANA (SAW) KA WADA WAFA KAR DIYA
GHAR KA GHAR SAPURD-E-KHUDA KAR DIYA
NOSH KAR LIYA JIS NE SHAHADAT KA JAM
US HUSSAIN (RA) IBN-E-HAIDER (RA) PER LAKHON SALAM
Muharram 09, 1431 A.H

Benazir's second death anniversary being observed today


Daughter of the East

27 December 2007 saw the tragic assassination of Benazir Bhutto - one of the most charismatic leaders of all time. You! pays a tribute to this courageous woman...
 

There are certain moments in time that remain frozen on collective memory. People will be able to remember where they were and what they were doing at the exact moment when certain famous personalities died. For example people could tell you exact details of the day Elvis Presley, Marilyn Munroe and Princess Diana died. In the same manner, they can also tell you details on the day certain star status politicians like President Kennedy, Indira Gandhi and Prime Minister Liaquat Ali were assassinated.
Thousands of people, including top PPP leadership and workers have reached Garhi Khuda Bux village, Sindh to observe second death anniversary of their beloved leader and former prime minister Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Shaheed.

The second death anniversary on Sunday 27th December, 2009 is being observed with simplicity in reverence to the Ashura of Muharram-ul-Haram, when Muslims mourn incident of Karbala.


There are certain moments in time that remain frozen on collective memory. People will be able to remember where they were and what they were doing at the exact moment when certain famous personalities died. For example people could tell you exact details of the day Elvis Presley, Marilyn Munroe and Princess Diana died. In the same manner, they can also tell you details on the day certain star status politicians like President Kennedy, Indira Gandhi and Prime Minister Liaquat Ali were assassinated.
Similarly, people recall exactly what happened on the fateful day when Benazir Bhutto was assassinated. People were in denial when news of her death started filtering in on that fate December evening. Even those who didn't agree with her politically, were shocked to hear that one of the icons whose life had been intervened with theirs for decades had been snuffed out by a cowardly attack of terrorism. It was incredible that a woman of such strength and full of life, had been killed by an assassin, but to tell you the truth there was no other way this larger than life figure could have ended her life. She made history in anything she did, and she proved to the world that Pakistan was a country to reckon with, whose women given the chance could rise to great heights and prove their mettle in any field.
People exchanged notes about the life of this political colossus who rose above in the male dominated arena. The people of Pakistan had watched her from the time she was a young newly orphaned slip of a girl dodging various agents to becoming the most respected and known Pakistani politician in the world.
In her 56 years Benazir Bhutto must have faced more than her fair share of problems in her personal as well as her political life. Benazir was born on June 21, 1953, in Karachi into the Bhutto dynasty. She was educated at Lady Jennings Nursery School and then Convent of Jesus and Mary in Karachi, and Rawalpindi Presentation Convent, she was sent to the Jesus and Mary Convent at Murree, passing her O'level exams when she was 15 years old. In 1969 she got admission at Harvard University's Radcliffe College from where she graduated in 1973 with a degree in political science. From there she went to Oxford University, where she was elected to the Standing Committee of the most prestigious Oxford Union Debating Society. In 1976 she graduated in P. P. E. (Politics, Philosophy and Economics).
However, she returned to Oxford in 1976 to do a one-year postgraduate course, where a year later she was elected as the president of the Oxford Union. She returned to Pakistan in June 1977, where she showed interest in the Foreign Service but her father had other plans for her and wanted her to contest the Assembly election. She assisted her father Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto as an advisor, from where he probably sensed that his eldest child was his heir.
Since then Benazir Bhutto's life would never be the same ever again. In July 1977, her father was ousted by his own Army Chief, General Zia-ul-Haq and executed. Reportedly, Benazir Bhutto the young girl sat outside Adiala jail in Rawalpindi all night, silently weeping and praying as her father was taken to the gallows inside, but emerged a strong determined woman who would face the world and fate, no matter what was thrown at her.
Her father was executed, her brothers forced into exile, she herself spent six and half years in jail. Her education and her resilient nature gave her the strength to emerge from this incarceration stronger and more able to tackle what life still had in store for her. She and her family would never be the same, life would never have been the same. A lesser woman would have collapsed under all the stress, but she not only managed to stay afloat but returned to life and politics with a renewed vigour.
Her family looked to her for strength after her father's execution; they found solace in her when her younger and beloved brother Shah Nawaz died under mysterious circumstances in Paris. Her mother, the former charismatic first lady of Pakistan, also sought her eldest child for comfort. She returned to Pakistan in 1986 to fight the elections for the National and Provincial assemblies under General Zia.

On December 18, 1987, Benazir married Asif Ali Zardari in Karachi and had three children - Bilawal; Bakhtwar and Aseefa. But married life nor motherhood could quash her thirst for politicians.

In 1988, she contested the elections after the death of General Zia, and became the first elected prime minister of Pakistan in 11 years. Apart from this, she was the youngest prime minister in Pakistan's history - last but not least she was the first female prime minister of a Muslim country.

Armed with her education at the most prestigious educational institutions in the world, she authored several books, two of which are 'Foreign Policy in Perspective' (1978) and her autobiography, 'Daughter of the East' (1989).

All her life, Benazir Bhutto was the pivot of her family, and later she single-handedly reared her three children. Apparently, family life was extremely important for her, for even as prime minister she had time for her three children, and proved to be a doting and dedicated mother. She kept the Pakistan People's Party intact even during the most difficult times, which earned her the trust and respect of leaders and politicians many years her senior.

She said in an interview with Jason Burke for The Observer that: "Under my leadership, the PPP will bring moderation, democracy and the basics that the nation's poorest need. We represent the underprivileged, the peasants, women, young people, the minorities, all those who have been neglected by elite governments..."

If the people of Pakistan want me there and want to trust me with the leadership of my country it will be a great honour to accept it."

Aware of the threats to her life, she was determined to return to Pakistan, as if to prove that terrorists could not scare her away, for in the same interview she said: "My return will take place irrespective of the dialogue process."

Even after facing an assassination attempt on October 18, 2007 in Karachi as she returned to Pakistan after her exile, she addressed a gathering in Liaquat Bagh in Rawalpindi. Incidentally this was the very spot where Pakistan's first Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan was assassinated in 1951, where five decades later Benazir Bhutto would be killed. Also nearby was the very spot where her father had been executed three decades ago. Only she knows what she felt as she looked around at the sea of people flocking her today, comparing it to the day her father was executed when she waited all alone in an unmarked car outside the wall of the prison.

However, even on this fateful day, aware of threats to her life, Benazir Bhutto braved the public gathering in Liaquat Bagh and gave a speech, despite the fact that her political rival Nawaz Sharif's supporters had been fired upon killing four.

Unaware of the immediate danger to her life, she opened her speech with: "Wake up, my brothers! This country faces great dangers. This is your country! My country! We have to save it."
She was advised by her security people of caution, but while leaving Liaquat Bagh she could not disappoint her supporters, and in her father's style she emerged from the sun roof in her car and waved to the people, when the terrorists attacked, the first one firing three shots and the second one detonating his suicide jacket. Amidst slogans of "Long Live Bhutto!" Benazir Bhutto collapsed in her car and rushed to Rawalpindi General Hospital where shortly she was declared dead: "It's all over. We did everything we could. She didn't make it. Benazir Bhutto has expired."
27th Dec,2009 | Muharram 09, 1431 A.H .