Baby Girl - New Addition in Bachan Family

Mumbai: Aishwarya Rai Bachan is now mother of a cute girl. The birth was took place at 0945 hrs local time in Seven Hills Hospital, Andheri, Mumbai.

According to Abhishek both mother and daughter are fine and healthy.

Aishwarya Rai Reached Hospital

Birth is expected in few hours. Aishwarya has reached Seven Hills Hospitals, Mumbai.

The nurses strike issue is over.

How Punjabi lost its linguistic individuality

This thick issue of the quarterly literary magazine of Urdu is not supposed to have anything related to Punjabi language and literature but it has something very interesting about Punjab and Punjabis in a research article on a major poet of last century Yaas Yagana Changezi written by Haider Tabatabai, an Indian scholar. Thank God Yagana was not a Pakistani, particularly in the period of the late General Ziaul Haq, otherwise he would have met death like that of Salmaan Taseer or Z.A. Bhutto. He wrote something sacrilegious which was published by Maulana Majid Daryabadi, a great scholar who also rendered the Holy Quran into English. On the publication of those verses, Yagana’s house was ransacked by Sunni and Shia Muslims of Lucknow and he took refuge in the house of another literary giant Masud Hasan Rizvi Adeeb. Yagana’s unpublished work was put on fire and one day he was humbled by the Lakhnavi pucca Muslims. His face was blackened, he was put on a donkey and was forced to parade throughout the city. That was Yaas Yagana Changezi a senior contemporary of Josh Malihabadi and contemporary of Aziz Lakhnavi, Nawab Jaffar Ali Khan Asar, Allama Iqbal and many other stalwarts of Urdu literature.

Yaas was also known as Ghalib Shikan … both belonged to Taimuri tree. Born in Azimabad, Yaas was settled in Lucknow, the hub of Urdu literary activities … a tradition established after Lucknow and Awadh got freed themselves from the Delhi government. The decision of the British government to introduce majority language Hindi as a medium of instruction with the status of second official language side by side Urdu till the only medium of instruction in UP provoked the Muslims of not only UP and Bihar but also of other provinces, particularly Punjab, which now started leading the Urdu movement and Muslims as well many non-Muslim Punjabis devoted their creative energies for the promotion of Urdu. They extended their support to those whose mother tongue was Urdu or more than 16 dialects of the language mainly Purabi. Incidentally, the Punjabi competitors were leading ahead of other provinces which caused a jealousy in Urdu-speaking areas and they did their best to ridicule the Urdu language used by Punjabis and every Punjabi writer of Urdu was ridiculed. Even Allama Iqbal was not spared who had attracted fame and acceptance from every nook and corner of India. But Yaas Yagana and even Piarey Sahib Rasheed, a great poet of Marsia, ridiculed Iqbal.

Haider Tabatabai in his above-mentioned article quotes how Yaas spelt Iqbal’s name as Ik-bal and the line was
In Punjabi (or for that matter in Urdu Ik-bal means a child). About Piarey Sahib Rasheed after listening verses from Iqbal in Urdu he ridiculously said, now please recite your Urdu poetry?

This sort of relationship between Punjabis and UP wallas is not yet over and the reason was genuine. The Urdu dailies, weeklies and literary monthlies published from Punjab were far ahead of their counterparts coming out from other Urdu areas. From Iqbal to Faiz the Punjabis were again far ahead of poets of other areas. In the field of fiction Krishan Chander, Saadat Hasan Manto, Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi and Rajinder Singh Bedi were well appreciated in Urdu areas. In other forms of literature almost the same was the position and even after partition Quratul Ain Haider had to write in Adab-i-Lateef. These voices from Punjab were much more powerful than the voices from the heart of Urdu-speaking areas. The Urdu people could not realize the democratic rights of other languages, cultures and nationalities even after partition and the first victim of their wrath was Bengali and second was Sindhi. And the last but not the least was Punjabi. Some of Punjabi writers demanded that Punjabi should be made medium of instruction in Punjab at primary level and they included Maulana Zafar Ali Khan, Hameed Nizami (the founding editor of daily Nawa-i-Waqt), Dr. Muhammad Baqir, Maulana Abdul Majeed Salik, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi and many others.

With that demand even the Punjabis like Maulana Salahuddin Ahmad and Dr. Syed Abdullah openly opposed the demand and the first thing they did was that they suggested to the writers in the south Punjab that they should claim that their dialect Multani was an independent language and they should oppose the Punjabi demand. Moreover, the first thesis on this subject in which doctorate was granted by the Punjab University was about the relations of Urdu and Multani written by the late Dr.

Mehr Abdul Haq under the guidance of Dr. Syed Abdullah in which it was specially pointed out that Multani and Sindhi had more commonalities than Multani and Punjabi. After that Urdu scholars based in Karachi started vigorous campaign in favour of Multani and at a later period Seraiki, which was imported from Sindh during early period of Z.A. Bhutto’s government. Ziaul Haq unofficially gave a full language status to Seraiki and now the political expediencies may hit hard the single-language province Punjab…the logical end of the carelessness of the Punjabis, specially the intelligentsia which somehow picked up the idea of cultural and linguistic superiority or inferiority from Sheerani’s “thesis Urdu is the developed form of Punjabi”.

The current issue of Muasir contains translation of some of the verses of Mian Muhammad Bukhsh by Dohrra writer Dr. Tahir Saeed Haroon. There are many special sections on prose and poetry writers including Quratul Ain Haider, Maulana Rumi, Mushfiq Khwaja, Asad Muhammad Khan, Tehseen Firaqi, Shabnam Shakeel, Sarmed Sehbai, Nazeer Naji and Faisal Ajmi. It also includes a travelogue by Salma Awan and now an original Punjabi verse by Mian Muhammad and its translation in Urdu.

Shania Twain not only lost husband, but also voice

“I figured mentally that I would never sing again,” the five-time Grammy Award winner told Winfrey

LOS ANGELES: Country singer Shania Twain said on Tuesday that she was so shattered by the collapse of her marriage that she feared she would never sing again.

In her first TV interview in five years, Twain told Oprah Winfrey that she became “an emotional mess” when she found out in 2008 that her best friend and her husband had fallen for each other.

“I figured mentally that I would never sing again,” the five-time Grammy Award winner told Winfrey. Twain said she not only lost her husband, but her producer and co-writer when she split with in Robert John “Mutt” Lange.

“I hadn’t written a song without this man in 14 years….How do I even get started?,” she said in an interview won The Oprah Winfrey Show.

Twain, whose 1997 album “Come on Over” was a huge crossover hit, revealed that she also suffers from dysphonia, an ailment where the muscles squeeze the voice box.

“My fears and anxieties throughout my whole life have been slowly squeezing my voice,” Twain told Winfrey. “I was losing it slowly and progressively.”

Twain chronicles the demise of her 14-year marriage and her fight to get her voice back in a new book “From This Moment On” and a documentary series “Why Not?” that debuts on Sunday on Winfrey’s cable TV network OWN.

She also announced on Tuesday that she would be attending the Country Music Association festival in Nashville in June – and handed out passes to Winfrey’s studio audience.

In her memoir and TV documentary, the Canadian singer recounts how she grew up poor and witnessed her step-father physically abuse her mother on a regular basis only to see them both die in a car accident, leaving Twain to raise her siblings.

Twain called her husband’s betrayal “a trigger crisis,” and “the straw that broke the camel’s back of something that had already been building.”

Eventually, Twain found solace with Frederic Thiebaud, the husband of the woman who was once her best friend. The two married on Jan 1.

World’s newest oldest man turns 114 in Japan

Jirouemon Kimura smiles on his 114th birthday at his home in Kyotango, western Japan. The Kyoto resident who became the world's oldest man earlier this month, turned 114 on Tuesday.

TOKYO: The world’s oldest man said on his 114th birthday Tuesday that his longevity was a mystery even to himself, but noted that his motto was not to worry and always be thankful.

Jirouemon Kimura celebrated at home with a breakfast of grilled fish with steamed rice and red beans, a traditional meal on special occasions in Japan.

Kimura become the world’s oldest man earlier this month when the previous title holder Walter Breuning of the U.S. state of Montana died, according to the Los Angeles-based Gerontology Research Group.

”It is indescribable. I am really honored,” Kimura said in a birthday interview with officials in Kyoto, western Japan.

Kimura, born in 1897, lives with the 82-year-old widow of his eldest son and the 58-year-old widow of a grandson. He eats three meals a day and is still able to walk with the help of a walker.

Asked about the secrets of his longevity, Kimura said: ”It is my own interpretation. But maybe this is due to some unknown forces of nature.”

Kimura was a postal worker in his younger days and he and his wife, who died many years ago, had seven children, five of whom survive.

Kimura’s family has continued to grow over the years, and his own children and their offspring gave him 14 grandchildren, 25 great-grandchildren and 11 great-great-grandchildren.

Japan’s population is aging faster than any other in the world. The government said the number of its citizens who are at least 100 years old rose 10 per cent to 44,449 in 2010. The number of Japanese who are 65 and older hit a record 29.4 million in 2010.

Dealing with disaster

JAPAN is currently wading through the debris of the recent earthquake and tsunami. One of the world’s largest economies and a technologically advanced nation, Japan boasts nearly flawless earthquake-proof structures and a highly efficient tsunami early warning system.

What lessons do the Japanese natural disasters hold for a country like Pakistan? A cursory glance would suggest that the occurrence of a disaster of lesser magnitude could simply erase our coastal areas from the map. Some facts leading to such a doomsday conclusion are mentioned as follows.

The Indian Ocean doesn’t have a single tsunamograph to receive accurate data on any approaching tsunami. Tide gauges installed in Pakistan are not effective enough to issue timely warnings. The time lag between receiving a warning and evacuation could be fatally small and result in disastrous ramifications.

Pakistan’s coast has hardly any scientifically developed tsunami evacuation plans in the public knowledge. Some isolated, localised drills were undertaken through international support agencies, but their efficacy is yet to be tested. Also, the simulation of real-time disaster through mock evacuations is little more than playing a video game. An actual disaster may make short work of all arrangements.

Communities settled along the approximately 1,100km long coast are scantly aware of tsunami risks in their areas. Many would not even imagine that a peacefully subsiding wave may be followed by a mightier one.

Coastal communities, especially those in tiny islands and convoluted creeks, have neither elevated ground nor enough time to escape the tides and are therefore exposed to the risk of being interred in a watery grave should a tsunami strike. Similar would be the fate of thousands of others on fishing voyages, who normally remain incommunicado for several weeks.

Coastal communities are virtually bereft of gadgets to receive early warnings. Many would know about the tsunami only when it is too late. They have hardly any awareness of the measures required to escape the jaws of death. Seldom is anyone aware of the natural warning signs of an approaching tsunami.

The institutions responsible for disaster response are in a shambles. The recent floods exposed the capabilities of disaster management authorities at the provincial and district levels. Communities’ evacuation becomes an administrative nightmare during disasters.

Karachi — the largest city — is located on the coast and the present infrastructure and land-use pattern may trigger a disaster of immense proportions. The city’s managers don’t seem to have learnt from the experience of narrowly escaping passing cyclones in recent years. Other densely populated coastal districts and towns such as Jiwani, Gwadar, Pasni, Ormara, Sonmiani, Badin and Thatta are in the same slumber of ignorance and can be caught unawares if any disaster struck the coast.

The gravity of the risk could be judged from the fact that there are four major faults around Karachi and along the southern coast of Makran. The Makran Subduction Zone, having the potential of generating earthquakes, is among the least studied subduction zones in the world. Normally, an earthquake of over 8.0 on the Richter scale could generate a fatal tsunami in the area.

With most current structures in violation of building codes, a jolt of such magnitude would raze a city like Karachi. Any tsunami in the zone would barely allow seven to 15 minutes for communities to escape on the Makran coast. It may, however, take more than an hour to reach Karachi’s coast and cause decimation, if the preceding earthquake and ensuing chaos leaves any neighbourhood standing.

The vulnerability of Pakistan’s coast to a tsunami cannot be ruled out. In fact, tsunamis are not an alien phenomenon for Pakistan’s coast. On Nov 28, 1945, a great earthquake off Pakistan’s Makran coast generated a destructive tsunami in the ocean. Cyclones are another potential threat to Pakistan’s coast. There is empirical evidence of increased frequency and intensity of cyclones. According to a report (A Review of Disaster Management Policies and Systems in Pakistan), the coastal areas of Sindh are most vulnerable and exposed to cyclones. Historically, the Sindh coast experienced four major cyclones in a century. However, in the period between 1971 and 2001, 14 cyclones were recorded. This sufficiently indicates the severity of the risk.

Pakistan’s coast is, however, blessed with a unique natural shield of mangrove forests to protect against ferocious cyclones and tsunamis. This marvel of nature has a unique root system that can absorb up to 80 per cent of wave energy. No man-made structure can compete with this natural bulwark against disaster. Japan spent $1.5bn to erect the world’s largest sea wall in the city’s harbour at Kamaishi, yet the city was submerged by surmounting tides.

Research carried out after 2004’s tsunami shows ample evidence that those shorelines with mangrove forests suffered lesser damage during the tsunami. Imprudence, however, knows no bounds and Pakistan is at the verge of losing this protective fence. Mangrove cover along the coast has shrunk to a third of its spread in the 1970s, adding to the risk of disaster.

From satellite-activated early warning systems to elevated ground, Pakistan needs an amalgam of technology, preparedness and proper disaster planning to deal with any future natural disaster. The most rewarding investment would be in community-based risk management. It includes creating awareness in communities about the natural signs of disaster, identifying and developing escape routes and elevated ground and training volunteers on how to manage disasters.

RIO - A Box Office Hit

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LOS ANGELES: Audiences flocked to theaters to see tropical bird comedy “Rio,” knocking fellow kid-flick “Hop” off its perch to score the best debut weekend of the year, industry data showed.

The 3-D cartoon, about pet macaw Blu – voiced by “Social Network” star Jesse Eisenberg – who bolts from chilly climes to the beaches of Rio de Janeiro with the bird of his dreams, raked in a cool $40 million in the Friday-to-Sunday period, according to box office tracker Exhibitor Relations.

The film scared off the debut of “Scream 4,” the latest in director Wes Craven’s irony-drenched horror-comedy franchise, which took the second spot with $19.3 million.

Easter romp “Hop,” the real-action-animation hybrid about the wayward son of the Easter Bunny and which had spent two weeks at the top, earned another $11.2 million at the weekend for a domestic total of $82.6 million.

The weekend estimates showed “Soul Surfer,” starring Anna Sophia Robb as a churchgoing teenage surfer who returns to the ocean after losing an arm in a shark attack, hanging ten in fourth spot with $7.4 million.

“Hanna,” a thriller about a teenage assassin raised in the wilds of North Finland, and which debuted last week in second spot, slipped three place to fifth, where it earned $7.3 million.

“Arthur,” the Russell Brand-starring remake of the 1981 Oscar-winning hit about an irresponsible but lovable billionaire, earned $6.9 million in sixth place.

Horror flick “Insidious,” in which a family finds itself living in a haunted house, picked up $6.8 million for seventh place. Made for a paltry $1.5 million, the film has pulled in an impressive total of $36 million over three weeks.

Jake Gyllenhaal’s critically acclaimed sci-fi thriller “Source Code,” about a government experiment to find the bomber of a commuter train, took eighth spot, with $6.3 million.

Film icon Robert Redford’s latest film “The Conspirator,” a historical drama about the men behind Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, came in at just ninth place, in limited release with $3.9 million, although its average sales per theater were among the highest of the weekend.

Rounding out the top 10 was “Your Highness,” a knights-and-princess adventure starring Danny McBride, James Franco and Natalie Portman, whose week-to-week sales plunged 58 percent, to just under $3.9 million.

Water crisis deepens as river flows decline

Wheat ready for cropping near River Chenab.

ISLAMABAD: The shortage of water has reached alarming proportions and during the ongoing Kharif season there could be a shortfall of up to 50 per cent.

Sources in the Indus River System Authority (Irsa) told Dawn that because of the current rain, the temperature in Northern Areas was not rising, stopping the melting of snow and causing reduction in river flows.

Reports of large amounts of water ‘going missing’ mysteriously was adding to the problem.

Inflows at Mangla dam dropped from 28,000 cusecs to 25,000 cusecs on Sunday. Flows in the Kabul River also reduced to 13,000 cusecs while inflows at Tarbela came down to 21,000 cusecs.

The sources said that Irsa was releasing 45,000 cusecs from Mangla dam. The met office has forecast that temperature in Northern Areas will not increase during the current month.

Irsa sources said the water storage in Mangla dam would be fully utilised by April 15 while Tarbela dam has already reached its dead level.

The sources said that about 12,000 cusecs of water had been reported missing between Besham to Tarbela each day while another 15,000 cusecs remained unaccounted for between Tarbela and Chashma Barrage, which means that more than 25,000 cusecs was being lost a day.

The sources said that Irsa had been asking Wapda to investigate the water loss and submit a report to Irsa, but nothing had been done so far. They said river flow at Besham was recorded at 32,000 cusecs on Sunday but only 21,000 cusecs reached Tarbela.

They said that about 300,000 cusecs had been lost since March 15 between Besham and Chashma which translates into a loss of 0.6 million acre feet. As a result, Tarbela dam has reached its dead level and from Monday only run of the river water would be released from Tarbela dam.

US report points to Pakistan’s ‘culture of impunity’

WASHINGTON, April 8: A US government report on Friday identified extra-judicial killings, disappearances and torture as major human rights violations in Pakistan.

The US State Department`s 2010 human rights report noted that last year the Pakistani government initiated an investigation into an Internet video showing men in military uniforms apparently committing extra-judicial killings.

But “a failure to credibly investigate allegations, impose disciplinary or accountability measures, and consistently prosecute those responsible for abuses contributed to a culture of impunity”.

Other problems identified in the report include poor prison conditions, instances of arbitrary detention, lengthy pre-trial detentions, a weak criminal justice system, insufficient training for prosecutors and criminal investigators, a lack of judicial independence in the lower courts and infringements on citizens` privacy.

The report also noted that harassment of journalists, some censorship and self-censorship were still practised in Pakistan. There were also some restrictions on freedom of assembly.

Corruption was widespread within the government and lower levels of the police force and the government made few attempts to combat the problem. Rape, domestic violence, sexual harassment, honour crimes, abuse and discrimination against women remained serious problems. Religious freedom violations, as well as violence and discrimination against religious minorities continued.

Child abuse and exploitative child labour were also reported. Widespread human trafficking, including exploitation of bonded labourers by land owners; forced child labour; and commercial sexual exploitation of children remained problems, as did lack of respect for worker rights.

During 2010, a new law to increase protection against sexual harassment was passed, and more than 40 ministries and departments incorporated the new code of conduct into their policies, although women`s rights groups sought more effective implementation.

The minister for minorities took an active role in assisting victims of religiously motivated attacks on Christians and Ahmadis and was eventually killed.

The government allocated four reserved Senate seats for religious minorities, one from each province; and police freed more than 1,000 bonded labourers.

During the year extra-judicial killings from 2009 came to light, including in September a video posted on the Internet of men in military uniforms executing six young men in civilian clothes. The young men were shown blindfolded and lined up with their hands tied behind their backs.

On October 8, Chief of Army Staff Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani ordered the establishment of a board of inquiry to determine the identities of the uniformed personnel seen in the Internet video. “By the end of the year, the military had not publicly announced the conclusions of its investigation into the video, and no one had been held accountable,” the report noted.

Days after this video surfaced on the Internet, another video emerged showing men in military uniforms beating prisoners in a remote location. The report noted that human rights groups had blamed the army for more than 200 extra-judicial killings in the Swat region during the past year.

Mass graves were reported in Kukarai village and in areas between the villages of Daulai and Shah Dheri.

Approximately 2,600 suspected militants were detained in Swat during the military`s operational phase, but none of them was charged or produced before a court. An additional 2,800 cases were lodged against suspected terrorists after the military operation in Swat concluded, but they also were not brought before a court of law.

Misuse of antibiotics makes cure difficult

LAHORE, April 8: Medical experts have said irrational use of antibiotics and self-medication aggravates the disease symptoms and creates resistance in bacteria which makes the treatment more difficult.

They said this while addressing a seminar organised at the Institute of Public Health (IPH) on ‘Combat Drug Resistance, No Action Today No Cure Tomorrow’ here on Friday.

Punjab Health director-general Dr Muhammad Aslam Chaudhry, IPH dean Prof Farkhanda Kokab, National TB Programme manager Dr Darakshan Badar, Dr Shahid Iqbal, Dr Abdul Rashid, WHO representative Dr Babar Alam and former IPH dean Dr M.A Sufi addressed the seminar.

They emphasised the need to create awareness among the masses as well as the doctors’ community for rational use of antibiotic.

Dr Darakshan Badar said the surge in tuberculoses cases in Punjab was due to the fact that many patients either gave up their treatment or did not complete the eight-month course of treatment.

She said the incomplete TB treatment not only enhanced the sufferings of patients but also created problems for doctors in the treatment.

She advised the TB patients to ensure regular use of medicines without any break to get rid of the disease.

Dr M.A Sufi stressed upon the masses to adopt Islamic teachings and hygienic principles. He proposed to launch an anti-spit campaign to eradicate tuberculoses from society.

Dr Shahid Iqbal said that only quacks could not be blamed for unnecessary and excessive use of antibiotics but qualified doctors were equally responsible for this practice. He urged upon the doctors not to prescribe antibiotics on the insistence of patients or any incentive given by pharmaceutical companies.

He advised the people to avoid self-medication and consult a qualified physician for the treatment of any disease. Suitable medicines, right dose at a right period and quality of medicine are necessary for curing the disease.

Dr Iqbal disclosed that at least 60,000 medicines were registered in Pakistan while only 2,000 medicines were registered in America.

Prof Abdul Rasheed said the health education and awareness were equally important for the people and health experts, adding that there should be a regulatory body for manufacturing and sale of medicines.

Dr Aslam Chaudhry said that consolidated efforts were needed to check the irrational use of antibiotics.

He said the excessive or irrational use of antibiotics created not only medical problems but also enhanced the financial burden on the family of the patient.

Japan Coping with Disaster

Japanese firemen search for bodies in Minamisanriku, Myagi province, two weeks after a massive earthquake and tsunami ravaged northeastern Japan.

When calamity struck

Miki Endo, was hit by the tsunami that engulfed Mainichi Shimbum a small city at the Miyagi Coast, while she was screaming on the radio, something of urgency. This young 25-year-old worker at the Crises Management Department was alarming villagers about the tsunami, ensuring that her voice be reached as far and beyond as possible, for as long as possible.

“Please run away fast” and she kept on doing it until it struck her. It wasn’t in vain; she saved more than 7,000 lives that day, by giving her own. One of them was Harris Mathura who was visiting the Coast for business. He said “I heard her voice throughout the way as I quickly packed and fled the Coast within minutes. If it wasn’t for her I would have been dead by now.”

The city was one of the hardest hit along the Miyagi Coast. Of the 17,000 residents, 10,000 are feared to be dead, but the 7,000 who survived owe everything to Endo. Mathura advocated that Endo stayed at her post, repeating her warning, until the wave struck.

One of the blogger’s described it as:
“Miki Endo did not let go of her microphone, even during the very moment the black waves of the tsunami engulfed the city, so that every last villager could hear her warning call. One co-worker told Miki’s mother, that he saw Miki being swept away by the tsunami wave.”

If there’s any comfort at all to be taken in the awful catastrophe in Japan, it is in these stories of true heroism. Like those 50 workers at the Fukushima nuclear reactor, who have stayed at their posts, fighting to avoid a meltdown while the entire region is evacuated. There are many other stories from Japan that are evident of heroism amongst the nation, from a school sports teacher who saved the children in just eight minutes; to those who are still helping the community by working day and night in search of those who have been lost or displaced.

“These heroes will and must be remembered for keeping the nation together, even though we seemed to be losing something as precious as lives; we have realised we are a nation that can best survive any disaster.” Harris Mathura boasts with pride.

State of Pakistanis in Japan:

One of the victims of the tsunami was from Pakistan. Jam Alam Afridi who is the Press Consular in Japan said that, “His dead body has been sent back to Pakistan” and “there have been no other casualties or unknown displacements of Pakistanis in Japan.”

He said the Consulate has been very vary of the situation and had immediately launched a helpline for Pakistani residents in all the prefectures throughout Japan. The consulate has also been helping dispatch volunteers in difference prefectures. The volunteers are not only helping find displaced Pakistanis but also are helping the Japanese community in the post-tsunami troubles.

“There were around 30 Pakistanis in the Fukushima prefecture, who have been evacuated while there is no Pakistani in the danger zone now”

As revealed by another senior embassy official in the Visa Office; currently, there are approximately 11,000 Pakistanis residing here in Japan according to official estimates. This includes roughly 1,000 Pakistanis who are undocumented or illegal.

Demographically, the overwhelming majority are males within the age bracket of 35-45, belonging to Gujranwala, Gujrat, Sialkot and Karachi. Most are engaged in reconditioning vehicles while a fair number own restaurants, Halal food outlets and carpet shops. A significant number are also working in the white collar sector. The remainder are either working in factories/industrial units and scrap yards or are simply unemployed.

Japan comprises of 47 prefectures. Reflecting census figures of 2008 and adjusting for proportional increase, 90 per cent are largely concentrated in the Kanto region on Japan’s largest island of Honshu. The areas ravaged by the earthquake and tsunami were mainly Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima, lying to the north of Honshu and revealing a total of only 200 Pakistanis at best. Almost all citizens have been accounted for. Some have opted to relocate within Japan while others have chosen to visit family in Pakistan. There are still other individuals who have decided to stay and rebuild their lives.

As for the nuclear threat, “we do have a contingency plan. We have also adopted a wait and see approach, analyzing news reports and briefings by the local Foreign Office. Furthermore, most embassies are still functioning here,” revealed the officer from the Visa department.

Displaced and fatalities in Japan

A large clean-up and restoration project remains in place across the northeast of Japan following widespread devastation and the loss of more than 27,000 lives. The world community continues to raise aid for the civilians in Japan, whose lives were devastated by this massive earthquake and deadly tsunami that followed shortly after on March 11.

The images that we still see in the papers and the television are of utter destruction and seem to have blatantly left a deep emotional impact across the globe. And about 30 days after the disaster, the situation of the affected areas remains just as critical. About 500,000 people were evacuated from affected areas and are housed in temporary shelters, where the need for food and clean water remain dire. Volunteer groups from all over the world have helped the evacuees and vow to continue their support throughout the crisis.

How are Japanese coping with the crisis?

It’s needless to say how people of Japan are coping with the crisis, considering it is an emotional time for the nation who is suffering from the second massive disaster in its history at a global level. It is however, as astounding to see the courage and audacity of Japan as a nation that has not dazed a little in terms of morality and forthrightness.

Yushiao Aso is a pastor at a local church in Tokyo and he says that there are families who have lost their homes and individuals who have lost their families, but all of them have shown immense patience. In the refugee shelters “there are many people living together who have lost one thing or the other in their lives, but they all live like families.” There are missing children with no parents and those injured do not look good, but people are coping with the disaster with integrity and lesson. There is an immense energy among people that has brought them closer to God. They take it as a disaster sent by God, and fear Him even more now.

Ever since the nuclear threat, there has been an immense global fear but according to Pastor Yoshio, “the winds are directed from parts of the Pacific Ocean towards Hawaii and the Hawaiians fear the pollution and radiation more than us,” he chuckled. When the winds change direction however, there are fears in Tokyo and everyone in the city wears a breathing mask as a standard measure while there have been rumours of water and food contamination that have led people to change their entire lifestyles very swiftly. “We still get to eat fish and imported rice, something that is a major part of our cuisines.”

Stress has been evident, as Daniel Kahl a freelance reporter and lecturer in Tokyo puts it, “We already have a very difficult situation here. Even though the condition has settled down pretty much in the affected areas, the foreigners have been under great stress and most of them have gone back to their countries. What’s not appreciated however is the unnecessary hype that foreign media journalists have been creating since day one of the disaster, regarding the condition of people and social order.”

There is massive confusion among the citizens because of these sensationalised reports that have spotlighting everything between nuclear threats to people stealing food. As far as the nuclear situation is concerned, there have been conflicting reports from different authorities ever since the threat triggered. This has palpably increased stress among crowds about the nuclear situation.

The Fukushima situation has prepared the world for a new challenge, but what’s most important to focus on at the moment is the fact that we need more professional expertise on nuclear crises management all over the world. International nuclear experts have dived in with all their proficiency into this problem, and if this is still a challenging threat, then the whole world needs to look a little deeper into this nuclear-quandary.

The 50 TEPCO professionals in the Fukushima plant who have been risking their lives to protect the world from a nuclear calamity should not be taken for granted. As the latest reports reveal, these nuclear engineers plugged the leak this Wednesday, as they stemmed the flow of radioactive water into sea using mixture of sawdust, newspaper, concrete and a type of liquid glass. Whatever is the future of this nuclear threat, the lessons should not be ignored.

We saw Japan recover from a nuclear disaster and become an economic and technological challenge for the world to compete with. Yet another disaster has not yet shaken the Japanese people enough for them to lose hope. As a society, Japan has survived before, and it will survive again.

‘Superbug’ found in New Delhi water

NEW DELHI, April 7: Urgent global action is needed to prevent the spread of a multi-drug-resistant ‘superbug’ after it was found in water supplies in the Indian capital, doctors said in research published on Thursday.

The study in The Lancet medical journal said that New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase 1 (NDM-1) producing bacteria were found in 51 out of 171 samples taken from water pools and rivulets and two out of 50 tap water samples in the city.

NDM-1, first identified in 2009, is a gene that enables some types of bacteria to be highly resistant to almost all antibiotics. Positive samples included those collected in and around the commercial and business hub of Connaught Place and the Red Fort area.

“International surveillance of resistance, incorporating environmental sampling as well as examination of clinical isolates needs to be established as a priority,” the team from Cardiff University in Britain wrote.

Mohammed Shahid, from the Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College and Hospital in India’s northern Uttar Pradesh state, added that potential for a wider, international spread of the superbug was “real and should not be ignored”. “Coordinated, concrete, and collective efforts are needed, initially to limit widespread dissemination, and finally to combat this emerging threatening resistance problem,” he said.

The researchers conducted the study in September and October last year, soon after warning that the superbug could be spread by foreign nationals coming to India for medical treatment.

At the time, the Indian government dismissed the research as scaremongering and criticised the naming of the bug after the Indian capital. But the World Health Organisation later called for monitoring after cases of infection were reported around the globe.

Ricky Ponting steps down as Australian captain

The 36-year-old, who is expected to be replaced by Michael Clarke, resigned as the Australian skipper but will continue as a batsman with the team.

SYDNEY: Ricky Ponting, the most successful captain in 134 years of test cricket, resigned as the Australian test and one-day skipper on Tuesday but will continue as a batsman with the team.

The 36-year-old, who has led Australia in one day internationals since 2002 and tests since 2004, has been under increasing pressure after an Ashes defeat to England and a quarter-final exit as defending champions at the World Cup.

“Today I’ve decided to stand down as captain of the test team and the one-day team as of now,” he told a news conference at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG).

“The main reason for me is I think it’s the right time, I wanted to make sure that I gave the next captain every opportunity I possibly could to make sure he has as much experience going forward in the next couple of big events that we will play.”

“I will continue to play and am available for both the one day and test teams,” he said earlier in a statement.

While Ponting’s batting record brooks no argument, his captaincy has often been criticised as Australia has declined as a force in world cricket, with three Ashes series defeats to England in particular damaging his reputation.

Australia went to the World Cup as double defending champions but returned home after defeat to India in the last eight, their unbeaten run of matches in the tournament having been ended at 34 by Pakistan in the group stage.

On his return to Australia at the weekend, Ponting acknowledged the pressure on him and said he would consider his position before the squad to tour Bangladesh was announced on Wednesday.

Ponting bucked a poor run of form to hit a defiant century in the quarter-final defeat to India in Ahmedabad, which will only have increased his determination to continue playing international cricket.

Michael Clarke, who stood in for the injured Ponting in the final Ashes test and for the one-day series against England that followed it, is expected to replace his mentor as skipper.

Australia will play three one-dayers in Bangladesh next month with trips to Sri Lanka and South Africa scheduled for later in the southern hemisphere winter.

Radiation spikes in seawater by stricken Japan plant

A baby undergoes a screening test for signs of nuclear radiation as he sleeps on his mother's back at a health center in Yonezawa. Tokyo residents were warned not to give babies tap water because of radiation leaking from a nuclear plant crippled in the disaster that devastated northeast Japan

TOKYO: Radioactivity levels are soaring in seawater near the crippled Fukushima Daiichi plant, Japan’s nuclear safety agency said on Saturday, two weeks after the nuclear power plant was hit by a massive earthquake and tsunami.

Even as engineers tried to pump puddles of radioactive water from the power plant 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo, the nuclear safety agency said tests on Friday showed radioactive iodine had spiked 1,250 times higher than normal in the seawater just offshore the plant. A senior official from Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, Hidehiko Nishiyama, said the contamination posed little risk to aquatic life. “Ocean currents will disperse radiation particles and so it will be very diluted by the time it gets consumed by fish and seaweed,” he said. Despite that reassurance, the disclosure may well heighten international concern over Japanese seafood exports. Several countries have already banned milk and produce from areas around the Fukushima Daiichi plant, while others have been monitoring Japanese seafood. The prolonged efforts to prevent a catastrophic meltdown at the plant have also intensified concerns around the world about nuclear power. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said it was time to reassess the international atomic safety regime. Radioactive water was found in buildings housing three of the six reactors at the crippled plant. On Thursday, three workers sustained burns at reactor No. 3 after being exposed to radiation levels 10,000 times higher than usually found in a reactor. The crisis at the nuclear plant has overshadowed the massive relief and recovery effort from the magnitude 9.0 quake and the huge tsunami it triggered on March 11 that left more than 27,500 people dead or missing in northeast Japan. The U.S. Department of Energy said on its website that no significant quantities of radiological material had been deposited in the area around the plant since March 19, according to tests on Friday. Nishiyama said Japanese agencies were trying to work out ways of “safely bailing out the water so that it does not get out into the environment, and we are making preparations.” He initially said the high radiation reading inside reactor 3, where the workers were injured, could indicate damage to the reactor. He later said it could be from venting operations to release pressure or water leakage from pipes or valves. “There is no data suggesting a crack,” Nishiyama said. Reactor number 3 is the only one of the six that uses a fuel mixture of plutonium and uranium. Plutonium is the most deadly radioactive isotope. On Friday, Nishiyama chided plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) for not following safety procedures inside the turbine building.

FOUR VOLATILE REACTORS

More than 700 engineers have been working in shifts to stabilise the plant and work has been advancing to restart water pumps to cool their fuel rods. Two of the plant’s reactors are now seen as safe but the other four are volatile, occasionally emitting steam and smoke. However, the nuclear safety agency said on Saturday that temperature and pressure in all reactors had stabilised. When TEPCO restored power to the plant late last week, some thought the crisis would soon be over. But Lingering high levels of radiation from the damaged reactors has hampered progress. At Three Mile Island, the worst nuclear power accident in the United States, workers took just four days to stabilise the reactor, which suffered a partial meltdown. No one was injured and there was no radiation release above the legal limit. At Chernobyl in Ukraine, the worst nuclear accident in the world, it took weeks to “stabilise” what remained of the plant and months to clean up radioactive materials and cover the site with a concrete and steel sarcophagus. Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said on Friday the situation at Fukushima was “nowhere near” being resolved. “We are making efforts to prevent it from getting worse, but I feel we cannot become complacent,” Kan told reporters. “We must continue to be on our guard.”

NORMAL RADIATION RANGE

In Tokyo, a metropolis of 13 million people, a Reuters reading on Saturday morning showed ambient radiation of 0.22 microsieverts per hour, about six times normal for the city. That was well within the global average of naturally occurring background radiation of 0.17-0.39 microsieverts per hour, a range given by the World Nuclear Association. An official at the Science Ministry, however, confirmed that daily radiation levels in an area 30 km (18 miles) northwest of the stricken plant had exceeded the annual limit. But experts say it is still below levels of exposure from medical X-rays. The Japanese government has prodded tens of thousands of people living in a 20 km-30 km (12-18 mile) zone beyond the stricken complex to leave. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said the residents should move because it was difficult to get supplies to the area, and not because of elevated radiation. Kazuo Suzuki, 56, who has moved from his house near the plant to an evacuation centre, said neighbours he has talked with by telephone say delivery trucks won’t go to the exclusion zone because of radiation worries. “So goods are running out, meaning people have to drive to the next town to buy things. But there is a fuel shortage there too, so they have to wait in long queues for gasoline to use the car.” In Japan’s northeast, more than a quarter of a million people are in shelters. Exhausted rescuers are still sifting through the wreckage of towns and villages, retrieving bodies. Amid the suffering, though, there was a sense the corner was being turned. Aid is flowing and phone, electricity, postal and bank services have resumed, though they can still be patchy.

Elizabeth Taylor

the violet, almond-shaped eyes, the creamy skin, the pouty lips and raven hair. Of course, there were her Oscars, iconic roles and many husbands, too, but Taylor is indeed most renowned for her beauty.

Flowers placed by fans on Elizabeth Taylor's star at the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Hollywood, California.

Elizabeth Taylor: classic beauty in every sense

‘‘As a child, she was eerily beautiful — she never had a child’s face, and as a woman, she was unmatchably beautiful,’’ InStyle fashion director Hal Rubenstein said.

LOS ANGELES: Elizabeth Taylor was the antithesis of today’s Hollywood fashion icon, who is eager to be seen as an everywoman. She was always dressed like a movie star: hair done, makeup on and lots of jewelry. Never would you see Taylor in jeans and a T-shirt.

And while she was famous for her Oscars, iconic roles and many husbands, she was most renowned for her beauty — the violet, almond-shaped eyes, creamy skin, pouty lips and raven hair. She died Wednesday at 79 from congestive heart failure.

‘‘She was incredibly beautiful, funny, smart, charming and super-glamorous,’’ said designer Michael Kors. ‘‘In today’s world, people who combine all of those attributes with a big life in the public eye and a big talent are few and far between. One of a kind means just that — there is just one.’’

The public saw her mature from a young curly haired tomboy in ‘‘National Velvet’’ to the sultry ‘‘Cleopatra.’’ Yet no matter the time, place or role, her glamour was consistent, and that was inspiring to women, even if they could never quite replicate it.

‘‘Every quality that we consider classically beautiful, she had,’’ said Amy Keller Laird, beauty director of Allure. ‘‘She was sexy and girlish at once, she had both those qualities all through her life.’’

In 1951, Taylor showed off her legendary 19-inch waist in a strapless dress with a bodice top, full tulle skirt and delicate flowers at the neckline designed by Edith Head. InStyle fashion director Hal Rubenstein said the outfit was the ‘‘blueprint for prom dresses of the ‘50s.’’

She had the same influence on lingerie styles after she wore a lace-trimmed slip in ‘‘Butterfield 8.’’ And black kohl eyeliner was all the rage after ‘‘Cleopatra.’’

Somehow, she even made caftans stylish in the ‘70s, Rubenstein said with a laugh.

Rubenstein said he had the pleasure of meeting her a few times. ‘‘As a child, she was eerily beautiful — she never had a child’s face, and as a woman, she was unmatchably beautiful,’’ he said.

In person, the most striking thing about her was her impeccable features, but her broader appeal, the one the world saw in photographs, was her overall glamour, he said.

‘‘When she walked into a room, she just had the most amazing presence about her,’’ added designer Elizabeth Emanuel, who is best-known as Princess Diana’s wedding dress designer but who also made several looks for Taylor, including caftans. ‘‘She was just incredible.’’

The big studios trained her to always step out the door as glamourpuss Elizabeth Taylor: She wore the role of movie star all the time, and she didn’t apologize for it.

‘‘She was an incredible beauty and she had an awareness of her own beauty. Even those we think are great beauties today play it down and speak modestly — there’s always something they don’t like and they apologize for it, but she never did,’’ Rubenstein said. ‘‘She was aware of her gifts and truly appreciated them.’’

He also noted that Taylor made sure any and all of her suitors, from boyfriends and husbands to reporters, knew that she liked gifts and that she expected them. After all, one of the most important diamonds of all time, a 69-carat stone, was a gift from husband No. 5 and 6, Richard Burton. It is now known as the Taylor-Burton Diamond.

Taylor not only owned many pieces of statement jewelry — unlike today’s starlets, who borrow them — but she’d wear them often instead of storing them. That goes back to the movie-star thing.

At the Oscars in 1970, she asked costumer Head to create a gown that would show off her necklace, ending up in a blue gown with a very low V bustline.

‘‘Elizabeth Taylor was a style icon who always followed her own unique and daring fashion vision,’’ said Jamie Cadwell, director of the Diamond Information Center, a trade organization. ‘‘Her love of jewelry was unsurpassed, and women everywhere continue to be inspired by her incredible collection.’’

In her clothes, Taylor had a preference for draping, said Emanuel.

Her longevity as a style influencer is proven by the longtime success of her fragrance collections launched with Elizabeth Arden. White Diamonds, which followed 1980s-era Passion and was one of the original celebrity perfumes, has been a beauty-counter best-seller for 20 years.

The fragrances will continue, according to a company statement. ‘‘Our best tribute to Elizabeth Taylor will be to continue the legacy of the brands she created and loved so much,’’ said chairman and CEO E. Scott Beattie.

‘‘White Diamonds is still one of our readers’ favorite fragrances. The fact that hers has stood the test of time, even though every hot celebrity has a fragrance, says a lot about her as a beauty icon,’’ said Allure’s Laird.

Liz Taylor: the most blessed and cursed of actresses

LOS ANGELES: Elizabeth Taylor, who died on Wednesday, was one of the last of the classic movie stars and a template for the modern celebrity.

A violet-eyed film goddess, her sultry screen persona and stormy personal life brought her enduring fame and glamour.

“My Mother was an extraordinary woman who lived life to the fullest, with great passion, humour, and love,” her son, Michael Wilding, said in a statement.

“We know, quite simply, that the world is a better place for mom having lived in it. Her legacy will never fade, her spirit will always be with us, and her love will live forever in our hearts.”

“We have just lost a Hollywood giant,” said Elton John, a long-time friend of Taylor. “More importantly, we have lost an incredible human being.”

Elizabeth Taylor was the most blessed and cursed of actresses, the toughest and the most vulnerable. She had extraordinary grace, wealth and voluptuous beauty, and won three Academy Awards, including a special one for her humanitarian work.

She was the most loyal of friends and a defender of gays in Hollywood when AIDS was new to the industry and beyond. But she was afflicted by ill health, failed romances (eight marriages, seven husbands) and personal tragedy.

“I think I`m becoming fatalistic,” she said in 1989. “Too much has happened in my life for me not to be fatalistic.”

Her more than 50 movies included unforgettable portraits of innocence and of decadence, from the children`s classic, “National Velvet”, and the sentimental family comedy, “Father of the Bride”, to Oscar-winning transgressions in “Who`s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” and “Butterfield 8”. The historical epic “Cleopatra” is among Hollywood`s greatest on-screen fiascos and a landmark of off-screen monkey business, the meeting ground of Taylor and Richard Burton, the “Brangelina” of their day.

She played enough bawdy women on film for critic Pauline Kael to deem her “Chaucerian Beverly Hills”.

But her defining role, one that lasted past her moviemaking days, was “Elizabeth Taylor” ever marrying and divorcing, in and out of hospitals, gaining and losing weight, standing by Michael Jackson, Rock Hudson and other troubled friends, acquiring a jewellery collection that seemed to rival Tiffany`s.

She was a child star who grew up and aged before an adoring, appalled and fascinated public. She arrived in Hollywood when the studio system tightly controlled an actor`s life and image, had more marriages than any publicist could explain away and carried on until she no longer required explanation. She was the industry`s great survivor, and among the first to reach that special category of celebrity _ famous for being famous, for whom her work was inseparable from the gossip around it.

The London-born actress was a star at age 12, a bride and a divorcee at 18, a superstar at 19 and a widow at 26. She was a screen sweetheart and martyr later reviled for stealing Eddie Fisher from Debbie Reynolds, then for dumping Fisher to bed Burton, a relationship of epic passion and turbulence, lasting through two marriages and countless attempted reconciliations.

She was also forgiven. Reynolds would acknowledge voting for Taylor when she was nominated for “Butterfield 8” and decades later co-starred with her old rival in “These Old Broads”, co-written by Carrie Fisher, the daughter of Reynolds and Eddie Fisher.

Taylor`s ailments wore down the grudges. She underwent at least 20 major operations and she nearly died from a bout with pneumonia in 1990. In 1994 and 1995, she had both hip joints replaced, and in Feb 1997, she underwent surgery to remove a benign brain tumour.

In 1983, she acknowledged a 35-year addiction to sleeping pills and pain killers. Taylor was treated for alcohol and drug abuse problems at the Betty Ford Clinic in Rancho Mirage, California.

Her troubles bonded her to her peers and the public, and deepened her compassion. Her advocacy for AIDS research and for other causes earned her a special Oscar, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, in 1993.

As she accepted it, to a long ovation, she declared: “I call upon you to draw from the depths of your being _ to prove that we are a human race, to prove that our love outweighs our need to hate, that our compassion is more compelling than our need to blame.”

The dark-haired Taylor made an unforgettable impression in Hollywood with “National Velvet”, the 1945 film in which the 12-year-old belle rode a steeplechase horse to victory in the Grand National.

Critic James Agee wrote of her: “Ever since I first saw the child … I have been choked with the peculiar sort of adoration I might have felt if we were in the same grade of primary school.”

“National Velvet”, her fifth film, also marked the beginning of Taylor`s long string of health issues. During production, she fell off a horse. The resulting back injury continued to haunt her.

Taylor matured into a ravishing beauty in “Father of the Bride” in 1950, and into a respected performer and femme fatale the following year in “A Place in the Sun”, based on the Theodore Dreiser novel, “An American Tragedy”.

The movie co-starred her close friend Montgomery Clift as the ambitious young man who drowns his working-class girlfriend to be with the socialite Taylor. In real life, too, men all but committed murder in pursuit of her.

Through the rest of the 1950s and into the 1960s, she and Marilyn Monroe were Hollywood`s great sex symbols, both striving for appreciation beyond their physical beauty, both caught up in personal dramas filmmakers could only wish they had imagined.

That Taylor lasted, and Monroe died young, was a matter of luck and strength; Taylor lived as she pleased and allowed no one to define her but herself.

“I don`t entirely approve of some of the things I have done, or am, or have been. But I`m me. God knows, I`m me,” Taylor said around the time she turned 50.

She had a remarkable and exhausting personal and professional life. Her marriage to Michael Todd ended tragically when the producer died in a plane crash in 1958. She took up with Fisher, married him, then left him for Burton. Meanwhile, she received several Academy Award nominations and two Oscars.

She was a box-office star cast in numerous “prestige” films, from “Raintree County” with Clift to “Giant”, an epic co-starring her friends Hudson and James Dean. Nominations came from a pair of movies adapted from work by Tennessee Williams: “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” and “Suddenly, Last Summer.”

In “Butterfield 8”, released in 1960, she starred with Fisher as a doomed girl-about-town. Taylor never cared much for the film, but her performance at the Oscars wowed the world.

Sympathy for Taylor`s widowhood had turned to scorn when she took up with Fisher, who had supposedly been consoling her over the death of Todd. But before the 1961 ceremony, she was hospitalised from a nearly fatal bout with pneumonia and Taylor underwent a tracheotomy.

The scar was bandaged when she appeared at the Oscars to accept her best actress trophy for “Butterfield 8”.

To a standing ovation, she hobbled to the stage. “I don`t really know how to express my great gratitude,” she said in an emotional speech. “I guess I will just have to thank you with all my heart.” It was one of the most dramatic moments in Academy Awards history.

“Hell, I even voted for her,” Reynolds later said. Meets Burton:

Greater drama awaited: “Cleopatra”. Taylor met Burton while playing the title role in the 1963 epic, in which the brooding, womanising Welsh actor co-starred as Mark Antony. Their chemistry was not immediate.

Taylor found him boorish; Burton mocked her physique. But the love scenes on film continued away from the set and a scandal for the ages was born. Headlines shouted and screamed. Paparazzi, then an emerging breed, snapped and swooned. Their romance created such a sensation that the Vatican denounced the happenings as the “caprices of adult children”.

The film so exceeded its budget that the producers lost money even though “Cleopatra” was a box-office hit and won four Academy awards. (With its $44 million budget adjusted for inflation, “Cleopatra” remains the most expensive movie ever made.)

Taylor`s salary per film topped $1 million. “Liz and Dick” became the ultimate jet set couple, on a first name basis with millions who had never met them

Notable films of Liz Taylor

The following are the notable films in which actress Elizabeth Taylor played leading roles.

• 1942: “There’s One Born Every Minute” – her first movie, aged nine.

• 1943: “Lassie Come Home” – she played Priscilla.

• 1943: “Jane Eyre” – minor role, film starring Orson Welles.

• 1944: “The White Cliffs of Dover” – with young Roddy McDowall

• 1944: “National Velvet” – horseriding movie, starring Mickey Rooney.

• 1946: “Courage of Lassie” – second dog film, aged 14.

• 1951: “A Place in the Sun” – with Montgomery Clift.

• 1951: “Quo Vadis” – with Peter Ustinov.

• 1954: “Beau Brummell” – with Ustinov again.

• 1958: “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” – with Paul Newman.

• 1959: “Suddenly, Last Summer” – with Katherine Hepburn.

• 1960: “Butterfield 8” – best actress Oscar.

• 1963: “Cleopatra” – first movie with Richard Burton.

• 1963: “The VIPs” – again with Burton.

• 1966: “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” – with Burton. best actress Oscar.

• 1967: “The Taming of the Shrew” – with Burton.

• 1967: “Doctor Faustus” – with Burton, played Helen of Troy.

• 1967: “Reflections in a Golden Eye” – with Marlon Brando.

• 1967: “The Comedians” – with Burton.

• 1968: “Boom!” – with Burton.

• 1969: “Anne of the Thousand Days” – with Burton.

• 1972: “X, Y and Zee” – with Michael Caine.

• 1972: “Under Milk Wood” – with Burton.

• 1980: “The Mirror Crack’d”1981: “General Hospital” – soap opera character.

• 1992: “The Simpsons” – as herself, and voice of Maggie.

• 1994: “The Flintstones” – as Pearl Slaghoople in animated movie.

Film icon Elizabeth Taylor dies

LOS ANGELES, March 23: Hollywood legend and violet-eyed beauty Elizabeth Taylor, famed as much for her glamorous but stormy love life as for her five-decade Oscar-winning film career, died on Wednesday aged 79.

Taylor, arguably the last great star of Hollywood’s golden era, died six weeks after being admitted to Los Angeles’s Cedars-Sinai hospital with congestive heart failure, a condition she had struggled with for years.

“My mother was an extraordinary woman who lived life to the fullest, with great passion, humour, and love,” said her son Michael Wilding, adding she was surrounded by her children when she died.

Taylor won two Academy Awards for best actress, including in the 1966 classic “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” one of many films she played opposite Richard Burton. The Welsh-born actor was one of the great loves of Taylor’s life.

BHAGAT SINGH: Street play, demonstration remember Bhagat Singh

LAHORE: Scores of passers-by joined civil society activists in watching ‘Chipen Ton Pehlan’ staged near Shadman Chowk on Wednesday in connection with the 79th anniversary of Bhagat Singh’s martyrdom.

Written by Davinder Daman and directed by Huma Safdar, the one-hour street play was arranged by Punjab Lok Rahs.

Reviving the old tradition of Nukar Theatre, the play portrayed Bhagat Singh’s struggle against British imperialism.

The cast included Punjab University Mass Communication Department students Hammad Afzal (Bhagat Singh), Adil Aziz (Boga sweeper), Adnan (advocate Pran Nath Metha) Mohsin Ali Danish (jailer Akbar Khan), Tayyab and Akmal (jail officials) while Sobia Zaidi and Huma Safdar performed choreography.

At nearby Shadman Chowk roundabout, civil society activists held a demonstration under the umbrella of Institute for Peace and Secular Studies.

Carrying placards, the demonstrators joined by Labour Party Pakistan activists demanded that the Shadman Chowk be renamed after Bhagat Singh who was hanged there on March 23, 1931. They also raised slogans like `Inqilab Zindabad,’ Bhagat Teray Khoon Se Inqilab Aaey Ga,’ and ‘Amriki, Arab Samraj Murdabad’.

They also informed Evacuee Trust Property Board Chairman Syed Asif Hashmi that the Punjab government had been approached in 2001 that Bhagat Singh should be recognised as one of the heroes of independence movement and Shadman Chowk be renamed after him, but no action was taken.

Mr Hashmi assured the demonstrators that he would take up the matter with federal and Punjab governments. He said that a block in the ETPB offices would be named after Bhagat Singh on Thursday.

The ETPB would also give award to a Sikh on the occasion of Baisakhi every year who would have contributed to the cause of independence.

Also, the Punjabi Language Movement observed the death anniversary of Bhagat Singh at its Shama Chowk office on Wednesday.

Movement convener Chaudhry Nazeer Kahut said the Quaid-i-Azam made no secret of his sympathies for Bhagat Singh and other freedom fighters in the Lahore prison.

“Jinnah sahib in his speech in the Central Assembly on Sept 12, 1929, said `the man who goes on hunger strike has a soul. He is no ordinary criminal, who is guilty of cold blooded, sordid wicked crime’.

“It is clear that Jinnah Sahib considered Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev freedom fighters. If the father of the nation admires a freedom fighter, how can we ignore him? Why not Serdar Bhagat Singh be declared the hero of independence movement in our history and text books?

“After partition of Punjab, creation of Pakistan and freedom of India, where do Punjab’s heroes of independence movement like Rai Ahmed Khan Kharral and Bhagat Singh stand? Why discriminate Bhagat Singh and other Punjab’s heroes of independence?” asked Kahut.

Allama Iqbal was Bhagat Singh’s favourite revolutionary poet. It was Maulana Zaffar Ali Khan who for the first time floated the title of Shaheed for Bhagat Singh.

Bhagat Singh was hanged in Lahore. He demanded that a statute of Bhagat be installed there and the Qadahfi Stadium also be renamed after him.

Japan disaster dead, missing toll tops 18,000

Trucks carrying relief supplies drive a road amid the rubble at Onagawa town, Miyagi Prefecture, northeastern Japan, just one week after the earthquake and resulting tsunami.

TOKYO: The number of people confirmed as dead or listed as missing by Japan’s national police agency topped 18,000 on Saturday, eight days after the massive earthquake and tsunami struck.

There were fears of a far higher death toll from the disaster that wiped out vast residential areas along the Pacific coast of northern Honshu island.

The national police agency said 7,197 people had been confirmed dead and 10,905 officially listed as missing — a total of 18,102 — as of 9:00 am Saturday (0000 GMT) as a result of the March 11 catastrophe.

Hopes of finding many more survivors amid the rubble have diminished amid a cold snap that has hit Japan’s northeast, covering much of the disaster area in snow earlier this week.

The death toll has surpassed that of the 7.2-magnitude quake that struck the western Japanese port city of Kobe in 1995, killing 6,434 people.

The March 11 quake is now Japan’s deadliest natural disaster since the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake, which killed more than 142,000 people.

The latest police figures for people missing do not include local reports from along the tsunami-hit coast of vast numbers of people unaccounted for.

The mayor of the coastal town of Ishinomaki in Miyagi prefecture said Wednesday that the number of missing there was likely to hit 10,000, Kyodo News reported.

On Saturday, public broadcaster NHK said that around 10,000 people were unaccounted for in the port town of Minamisanriku in the same prefecture.

Quake shifted Japan away from Korea: scientists

The Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASSI) said the Korean peninsula moved east up to five centimetres (two inches) while Japan shifted some 2.4 metres (7.92 feet) east.

SEOUL: The massive earthquake that devastated northeastern Japan has shifted the country more than two metres away from the neighbouring Korean peninsula, scientists said on Thursday.

The Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASSI) said the Korean peninsula moved east up to five centimetres (two inches) while Japan shifted some 2.4 metres (7.92 feet) east.

Consequently, the distance between the countries increased by more than two metres, the institute said.

The disputed Dokdo islands, also claimed by Japan where they are known as Takeshima, relocated furthest, moving five centimetres east, as the islands in the Sea of Japan (East Sea) are relatively closer to the epicentre.

The southwestern port of Mokpo drifted 1.21 centimetres.

“We are closely monitoring to see whether the shift was temporary or perpetual,” a KASSI spokeswoman told AFP.

“But don’t worry. You will never feel the change anyway,” she said.

According to NASA, the 9.0 magnitude earthquake also shortened Earth’s day by just over one-millionth of a second and shifted the Earth’s axis by about 6.5 inches

Global fears mount as Japan takes desperate steps to cool reactors

Braving snow, rescue workers search for survivors in the rubble of tsunami-stricken town of Minamisanriku in Miyagi Prefecture, five days after a devastating earthquake and tsunami slammed northeastern Japan.

TOKYO: Operators of a quake-crippled nuclear plant in Japan again deployed military helicopters on Thursday in a bid to douse overheating reactors, as US officials warned of the rising risk of a catastrophic radiation leak from spent fuel rods.

While officials were scrambling to contain the nuclear crisis with a patchwork of fixes, the top US nuclear regulator warned that one reactor cooling pool for spent fuel rods may have run dry and another was leaking.

“We believe that around the reactor site there are high levels of radiation,” Gregory Jaczko, head of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, told a US House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing.

“It would be very difficult for emergency workers to get near the reactors. The doses they could experience would potentially be lethal doses in a very short period of time.”

Health experts said panic over radiation leaks from the Daiichi plant was also diverting attention from other threats to survivors of last Friday’s 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami, such as the cold weather and access to fresh water.

The head of the world’s nuclear watchdog, meanwhile, said it was not accurate to say things were “out of control” in Japan, but the situation was “very serious”, with core damage to three units at the plant, around 240 kms north of Tokyo.

The latest images from the plant showed severe damage to some of the buildings after several blasts.

A stream of gloomy warnings and reports on the Japan crisis from experts and officials around the world triggered a swoon in global financial markets, with the Japanese yen surging to all-time highs against the dollar and all three major stock indexes slumping on fears of slower worldwide growth.

Japanese Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda on Thursday blamed speculation for the yen’s surge and repeated his warning that he would closely watch market action.

Japan’s Nikkei average slumped on opening on Thursday, and was down nearly 3 percent at 0125 GMT.

G7 finance ministers will hold a conference call later on Thursday to discuss steps to help Japan cope with the financial and economic impact of the disaster, a source said.

Japan’s nuclear agency said radiation levels at the plant “continued to fall”, but the government, in a sign that it was overwhelmed, appealed to private companies to help deliver supplies to tens of thousands of people evacuated from around the complex.

“People would not be in immediate danger if they went outside with these levels. I want people to understand this,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told a news conference, referring to people living outside a 30-km exclusion zone.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) officials said bulldozers attempted to clear a route to the reactor so fire trucks could gain access and try to cool the facility using hoses.

Company officials also said they had high hopes of getting limited power to the facility to help pump water needed to cool reactors and the spent fuel rods that have been overheating.

High radiation levels on Wednesday prevented a helicopter from dropping water into the No. 3 reactor to try to cool its fuel rods after an earlier explosion damaged the unit’s roof and cooling system.

Another attempt on Thursday appeared to be partially successful, with two of four water drops over the site hitting their mark.

The plant operator described No. 3 — the only reactor at that uses plutonium in its fuel mix — as the “priority”. Plutonium, once absorbed in the bloodstream, can linger for years in bone marrow or liver and lead to cancer.

If cooling operations do not proceed well, the situation will “reach a critical stage in a couple of days”, said an official with the government’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.

The situation at No. 4 reactor, where the fire broke out, was “not so good”, TEPCO added, while water was being poured into reactors No.5 and 6, indicating the entire six-reactor facility was now at risk of overheating.

“Getting water into the pools of the No.3 and No.4 reactors is a high priority,” Said Hidehiko Nishiyama, a senior official at Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Administration.

“It could become a serious problem in a few days,” he said.

Stock Exchange Resists Calls To Halt Trading

Panic over the economic impact of last Friday’s massive earthquake and tsunami knocked $620 billion off Japan’s stock market over the first two days of this week, but the Nikkei index rebounded on Wednesday to end up 5.68 per cent.

The Tokyo Stock Exchange and the Financial Services Agency plan to keep the stock market open despite calls for a halt to trading, mainly from foreign financial institutions, the Nikkei business daily said.

TSE President Atsushi Saito said the exchange “will continue to provide investors with an opportunity to trade”, calling it “an important piece of social infrastructure”.

International Frustration

In another sign of international frustration at the pace of updates from Japan, Yukiya Amano, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said he would fly to Japan on Thursday to get first-hand information.

Several experts said the Japanese authorities were underplaying the severity of the incident, particularly on a scale called INES used to rank nuclear incidents. The Japanese have so far rated the accident a four on a one-to-seven scale, but that rating was issued on Saturday and since then the situation has worsened dramatically.

France’s nuclear safety authority ASN said on Tuesday it should be classed as a level-six incident.

At its worst, radiation in Tokyo reached 0.809 microsieverts per hour on Tuesday — 10 times below what a person would receive if exposed to a dental x-ray. Early on Thursday, radiation levels were barely above average.

But many Tokyo residents stayed indoors. Usually busy streets were nearly deserted. Many shops and offices were closed. One bank, Mizuho , said all its automatic teller machines in the country had crashed but it doubted that it was connected to the quake or power cuts.

TOBACCO: 1 Billion Users

LAHORE, March 4: At least one billion people around the world use tobacco in various forms and of them some five million die annually. About 7.5 million people die due to high blood pressure while 2.6 million owing to obesity.

This was stated by Dr Sania Nishtar, who was delivering a guest lecture on the fourth day of the Pakistan Urban Forum 2011 at Alhamra Hall here on Friday.

She said health problems had increased due to expansion of cities and there was a dire need of reforms in the health sector.

Of tobacco users, some 2.8 million save their lives because they also take fruits and vegetables. She said some 2.6 million tobacco users die due to increasing cholesterol level, while 5.8 million lose their lives due to diabetes.

Dr Nishtar stressed that people should change their lifestyle and improve healthcare facilities.

She stressed overhauling of reforms in the healthcare sector at the level of governance, micro economic, tax, financial, civil services and public management and anti-corruption.

She said five different healthcare systems were running in Pakistan that benefited only 26 per cent of population whereas rest of them consulted the private sector.

She said only 2.9 per cent share of the GDP was allocated for the health sector that was obviously very low.

Maximum funds should be allocated for the healthcare sector besides ensuring their transparent utilisation, she said.

King’s Speech Wins best-picture & 3 other Oscars

LOS ANGELES: ”The King’s Speech” was crowned best picture at ceremony, with the monarchy drama leading as expected with four Oscars and predictable favorites claiming acting honors.

Colin Firth earned the best-actor prize, and same movie also won the directing prize for Tom Hooper and the original-screenplay Oscar for David Seidler, a boyhood stutterer himself.

Natalie Portman won best actress as a delusional ballerina in ”Black Swan.”

The boxing drama ”The Fighter” claimed both supporting-acting honors, for Christian Bale as a boxer-turned-drug-abuser and Melissa Leo as a boxing clan’s domineering matriarch.

”I have a feeling my career’s just peaked,” Firth said. ”I’m afraid I have to warn you that I’m experiencing stirrings somewhere in the upper abdominals which are threatening to form themselves into dance moves.”

Among those Portman beat was Annette Bening for ”The Kids Are All Right.” Bening now has lost all four times she’s been nominated.

”Thank you so much. This is insane, and I truly, sincerely wish that the prize tonight was to get to work with my fellow nominees. I’m so in awe of you,” Portman said.

Network censors bleeped Leo in the US for dropping the F-word during her speech. Backstage, she jokingly conceded it was ”probably a very inappropriate place to use that particular word.”

”Those words, I apologise to anyone that they offend. There is a great deal of the English language that is in my vernacular,” Leo said.

Bale joked that he was keeping his language clean. ”I’m not going to drop the F-bomb like she did,” he said. ”I’ve done that plenty of times before.”

But the Oscars, being a global affair, were telecast elsewhere in the world with Leo’s words uncensored. Viewers who watched the show on Star Movies, a major channel available throughout Asia, heard the F-word loud and clear.

British-born Hooper, a relative big-screen newcomer best known for classy TV drama, took the industry’s top filmmaking prize over Hollywood veteran David Fincher, who had been a strong prospect for his Facebook drama ”The Social Network.”

The prize was presented by last year’s winner, Kathryn Bigelow, the first woman to earn a directing Oscar.

”Thank you to my wonderful actors, the triangle of man love which is Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush and me. I’m only here because of you guys,” Hooper said, referring to his film’s male stars.

Leo’s win capped an unusual career surge in middle age for the 50-year-old actress, who had moderate success on TV’s ”Homicide: Life on the Street” in her 30s but leaped to big-screen stardom in her late 40s, a time when most actresses find good roles hard to come by.

In disbelief when she took the stage, Leo said, ”Pinch me.” Hollywood legend Kirk Douglas, who presented her award, obliged with a little pinch on her arm.

Bale earned the same prize his Batman co-star, the late Heath Ledger, received posthumously two years ago for ”The Dark Knight.” At the time, Bale had fondly recalled a bit of professional envy as he watched Ledger perform on set like a whirlwind as the diabolical Joker while the film’s star had to remain clenched up as the stoic, tightly wound Batman.

”The Fighter” gave Bale his turn to unleash some demons as Dicky Eklund, a boxer whose career unraveled amid crime and drug abuse. Bale delivers a showy performance full of tics and tremors, bobbing and weaving around the movie’s star and producer, Mark Wahlberg, who plays Eklund’s stolid brother, boxer Micky Ward.

The screenplay win capped a lifelong dream for ”King’s Speech” writer Seidler, a boyhood stutterer born in London in 1937, a year after George took the throne. Seidler, who overcame his own stutter at age 16, had long vowed to one day write about the monarch whose fortitude set an example for him in childhood.

Seidler thanked Queen Elizabeth II, daughter of King George, ”For not putting me in the Tower of London for using the Melissa Leo F-word.” The film includes two scenes where the king spouts profanity in anger to help force out his syllables.

The Oscar for adapted screenplay went to Aaron Sorkin for "Social network" a chronicle of the birth of Facebook based on Ben Mezrich’s book ”The Accidental Billionaires.” ”The Social Network” also won for musical score for Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, and for film editing.

The sci-fi blockbuster ”Inception,” which came in with eight nominations, tied with ”The Kings Speech” with four Oscars, all in technical categories: visual effects, cinematography, sound editing and sound mixing.

”Inside Job,” an exploration of the 2008 economic meltdown, won for best documentary, which proved an uncommonly lively category this time.

The Oscar buildup featured speculation about whether Banksy, a mystery man of the street-art world, might show up for his awards entry, “Exit Through the Gift Shop.” If he was at the Oscars, he did not declare himself.

But it was the topic on most people’s minds the last two years, the economy, that resonated among Oscar voters. “Inside Job” director Charles Ferguson subjected Wall Street players, economists and bureaucrats to a fierce cross-examination to depict the economic crisis as a colossal crime perpetrated on the working-class masses by a greedy few.

“Forgive me, I must start by pointing out that three years after our horrific financial crisis caused by financial fraud, not a single financial executive has gone to jail, and that’s wrong,” Ferguson said.

“Toy Story 3,” last year’s top-grossing release and a contender for best picture, won the fourth-straight animated-feature Oscar for Disney’s Pixar Animation unit. Pixar has produced six of the 10 Oscar recipients for animation since the category was added, including “Finding Nemo,” ”WALL-E” and last year’s winner, “Up.”

It was an odd backdrop for a Pixar win, the Oscar ceremony using visual effects to present the award in front of a re-creation of Far Far Away, the fairy-tale realm of Disney rival DreamWorks Animation’s “Shrek” movies. The original “Shrek” won the first Oscar for feature animation, but unlike the durable “Toy Story” franchise, the “Shrek” series finished with a critical dud, last year’s “Shrek Forever After.”

Reuniting voice stars Tom Hanks and Tim Allen, “Toy Story 3″ was the latest follow-up to the 1995 film that launched today’s era of feature-length computer animation.

The Oscar for foreign-language film went to Danish filmmaker Susanne Bier’s “In a Better World,” a saga of two broken families that centers on two teenage boys struggling with violence at school and plotting revenge.

The Lewis Carroll update “Alice in Wonderland” won the first prize of the night, claiming the art direction Oscar. It also won for costume design.

The show opened with co-hosts Anne Hathaway and James Franco inserted into a montage of scenes from best-picture nominees, built as a series of dream sequences reminiscent of “Inception.” The footage included such guests as Morgan Freeman and last year’s Oscar co-host Alec Baldwin.

Franco started off telling Hathaway how beautiful she looked. Hathaway shot back, “You look very appealing to a younger demographic, as well.”

Muddy island Appeared Offshore

The close view of newly appeared mud volcano near Hingol shows oozing of Methane gas.

Hingol, Balochistan: A soft muddy island appeared a few kilometers offshore in Hingol on the Makran coast, Balochistan on November 16, 2010. The Director General, Geological Survey of Pakistan (GSP) dispatched a team of earth scientists to investigate the sudden appearance of this white mud dome, about three kilometres offshore near the Kund Malir beach.

The island is 90 metres high with a span of approximately three kilometers.

Before the upsurge of sludge, local fishermen reported high tides near the coast and several boats were trapped due to the emergence of this mud volcano from nowhere. Another island of similar nature was also reported to have appeared 12 years ago. That island disappeared into the sea after four months. It is inferred that this mud dome which is given the name of Khizr, will also disappear with passage of time when methane and other gases are released from this structure.

The image shows white hot muddy sludge on the top of the island.

The pictures taken by GSP earth scientists during their field investigations shows the eruption of white hot muddy sludge on top of the island. The ejected material is a sludge of fine solids, hydrate-bearing sediments suspended in acidic water and hydrocarbon fluids.

This mud dome seems to be formed by geo-excreted liquids and methane gas when hot water mixes with mud and surface deposits. Mud volcanoes are associated with subduction zones and the Makran coastal area is in close vicinity of triple junction where three major tectonic plates – namely Eurasian, Arabian and Indian plates meet.

Mud volcanoes are not true magmatic volcanoes.They are like steam-vents erupting pressurised gases and the strength of their eruption is quite diverse. It may be a result of a cone-like structure created by pressurised mud diaper or salt dome, which breaches the earth’s surface or ocean bottom.

Mud volcanoes along tectonic subduction zone may be indicative of petroleum products. These mud domes tend to start out as small bulges in the earth which develop into cones.

The bulge is created by a build-up of pressure underneath relatively plastic rock. Areas of increased tectonic activity are frequent sites for mud volcanoes. More than 80 active mud volcanoes have been identified on the Makran coast; there are about 10 locations in Hingol and Hinglaj area having clusters of mud volcaones.

One of the highest and biggest mud volcanos in the world, Chandragup – means moon volcano – is located in close proximity. It is 125 metres high and more the 450 metres wide. Such type of mud volcanoes are associated with active subduction zones and tectonic forces and large sedimentary deposits create these geological formations.

Mud volcanoes sometimes temporarily emerge due to earthquakes but the mechanism by which earthquakes trigger changes in submarine mud extrusions are not completely understood.

An earthquake may have resulted in mud flow and release of methane and hydrogen sulfide gases which can cause the volcano to flare. On 28 November, 1945 during M8 great Makran Earthquake, which also generated a tsunami, a light was reportedly seen over the Chanay mountain in the direction of Hinglaj and fell on the sea, burning for about three days in two parts. Interestingly enough, an earthquake of 5.1 magnitude was recorded the in the area on the 16th November, 2010.

The geological field investigation for the emergence of Arabian Sea Sapt Island (ARSSI) revealed that the island is located 17 km from the Wad Bandar and 3.2 km from the Chadman coast. The island is spread over an area of 0.8 Sq. km and its height is 35 meters above sea level. There are five vents on the island which are still active and erupting mud with pressure. Methane gas emitted out from the vent-2 is highly flammable while vent-3 mostly reacts after four minutes with sound and pressure and mud is flown in the air up-to 15 meters.

Azerbaiijan and its Caspian coastline are home to nearly 400 mud volcanoes. While mud volcanoes found in Andaman Island, India; Taman Peninsula of Russia and Kerch Peninsula and Ukarine are sometimes used for recreation, this is not advisable with Makran coast mud volcanoes due to the unpredictability of ongoing seismic activity and sudden eruptions.

Pakistan among top 10 nations in human development improvement

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has been ranked 10th among the countries in term of human development improvement by the United Nations Development Programme’s 20th Human Development Report 2010.

Those among the 135 countries that improved most in Human Development Index (HDI) terms over the past 30 years were led by Oman, which invested energy earnings over the decades in education and public health.

The other nine “Top Movers” are China, Nepal, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Laos, Tunisia, South Korea, Algeria and Morocco. Remarkably, China was the only country that made the “Top 10” list due solely to income performance; the main drivers of HDI achievement were in health and education.

The UNDP report said that in Pakistan, between 1980 and 2010, the HDI value increased by 58 per cent (average annual increase of about 1.5 per cent).

“With such an increase Pakistan is ranked 10 in terms of HDI improvement, which measures progress in comparison to the average progress of countries with a similar initial HDI level”, it added.

Pakistan’s life expectancy at birth increased by more than nine years, mean years of schooling increased by about nine years and expected years of schooling increased by almost 4 years.

Pakistan’s Gross National Income (GNI) per capita increased by 92 per cent during the same period. The relative to other countries in the region, in 1980, Pakistan, India and Bangladesh had close HDI values for countries in South Asia.

However, during the period between 1980 and 2010 the three countries experienced different degrees of progress toward increasing their HDIs states the Report.

The Report introduces the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), which identifies multiple deprivations in the same households in education, health and standard of living.

The average percentage of deprivation experienced by people in multidimensional poverty is 54 per cent.

The MPI, which is the share of the population that is multi-dimensionally poor, adjusted by the intensity of the deprivations, is 0.275.Pakistan’s “HDI neighbors”, India and Bangladesh, have MPIs of 0.296 and 0.291, respectively.

Myths and mysteries: The 13 crystal skulls: Who made them & why?

Intriguing, mysterious and eerie, they are real works of art. The crystal skulls have been of great interest to archaeologists and anthropologists who are curious about their existence and purpose. Why would so much work and time be spent on perfecting a human skull made out of one of the hardest substances known to man after diamonds, rock crystal? The cutting of which requires great expertise and precision and the carving and polishing of which is equally time-consuming? In other words, why a skull?

It is not something that one finds in ancient paintings or carvings, which have all sorts of deities and exotic creatures of fantasy and folklore. Why would anyone want to carve a skull out of clear or milky quartz?

Anyhow, humans are a strange and complex species to say the least and have been around for thousands of centuries so one never knows what they might have been up to in the past. But what some scientists and sceptics say about these skulls is that they were probably made in the 1800s, as the tools used or required to do such work were not available to the civilisations of the past.

But then there are many that still claim these specimens to be the channels of ancient knowledge and were made for a very special reason. To delve a little into the mystery of the crystal skulls, let’s see how they were discovered and the legends attached to them.

Many perfect skulls were found in parts of central and South America and Mexico. Mainly believed to be of Mayan or Aztec origin, there are believed to be 13 of these skulls made and then later scattered all over the globe. They were part of rituals and ceremonies and are supposed to hold knowledge regarding the history of the human race and civilisation. The first and the most famous is the Mitchell Hedges skull discovered by the archaeologist in 1927 during an archaeological dig at an ancient Mayan site in the tropical jungle of Yucatan also known as Belize.

After burning 33 hectares of thick forestation, the area revealed a huge stone pyramid, walls of a city and an amphitheatre, which could seat thousands of spectators. The site was called ‘Lubaantun’ or ‘The Place of the Fallen Stones’. The story goes that when Mitchell Hedges returned to the site after three years, his daughter Anna Mitchell was with him and she discovered the skull under the ruins of an alter.

The story was later refuted as it came to light that Anna had not accompanied her father on that expedition but that Mitchell Hedges had bought the skull at an auction held by Sotheby’s in London. However, Anna stuck to her story till she died at the age of 100 in 2007. Anna claimed that she had several dreams regarding ceremonies and rituals performed by the ancient Mayans whenever the skull was in her bedroom at night.

She also gave the skull for scientific examination to Hewlett Packard. The findings were quite puzzling. The skull had been carved with diamonds and then smoothened with a solution made out of silicon sand and water. But the strangest part was that the entire workings were done against the “axis” of the crystal. This means that whenever a piece of crystal or quartz is cut, it has to be done according to the axis formed by the molecular structure of the rock. Going against it would shatter the entire piece. So how was this done in the first place?

Then we have the other skulls found in other sources. There is the British skull and the Paris crystal skull. They are said to have been bought in the 1890s by mercenaries in Mexico. One is at the London’s

Museum of Mankind and the other is at the Trocadero Museum of Paris.

The Mayan and the Amethyst skull were bought to the United States by a Mayan priest. They were found in Guatemala and Mexico. They were both tested and were found to have also been cut against the axis of the rocks. Then we have MAX, the Texas skull, which was in the possession of a Tibetan healer, Norbu Chen, who gave it to Carl and Jo Parks against a debt.

It was only after Jo found out that the skull was of archaeological interest worldwide that she took it out of her closet and had it examined by an expert. It was indeed found to be ancient. Another crystal skull enthusiast Joke Van Dieten Maasland has a smoky quartz crystal skull, which was discovered in 1906 during the excavation of a Mayan temple in Guatemala. Joke states that the skull has healing powers and helped heal a brain tumour in a book she has written titled, Messengers of Ancient Wisdom.

The skull is named E.T. because it has a pointed head and an exaggerated jaw with an overbite, which makes it look like it an alien-shaped head.

The rose quartz crystal skull is very much like the Mitchell Hedges skull and was found near the border of Honduras and Guatemala. Its lower jaw is movable just like the above mentioned one.

The Aztec skull that is at the Museum of Man in London has been said to move on its own inside its glass case and museum staff seem uncomfortable around it. The Sha-Na-Ra, Jaguar Man and Rainbow skulls have all been unearthed at ancient sites according to researchers.

Are these skulls really the ancient showcases of human wisdom and hold powerful knowledge or as scientists say, just clever fakes? But the only thing is that a “fake” is a replica of the original. And whoever made these bafflingly mysterious crystal skulls and for whatever purpose, has left a big question, the answer to which is really not ‘crystal’ clear.