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Unexplained infertility LONDON, Apr 27: Some women who are unable to have children for unexplained reasons may have a genetic susceptibility ......more Pak
opposition to KARACHI, Apr 27: Pakistan’s political opposition said today that the arrests of hundreds of activists by the ruling military would not stop it.....more Benazir
to cooperate DUBAI, Apr 27: Former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto says she is prepared..more |
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KPs’ Forum protests non-invitation to talks LONDON, Apr 27: An international forum of Kashmiri Pandits has protested against the Centre’s "failure" to ......more Afghan Taliban complains to Pak over refugees ISLAMABAD, Apr 27: Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban movement complained to its main ally Pakistan about the alleged......more UK prisoners send wheelchairs for Indian children NEW DELHI, Apr 27: More than a hundred wheelchairs, refurbished by inmates of a Lancanshire prison, were ........more |
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Unexplained infertility may have genetic cause LONDON, Apr 27: Some women who are unable to have children for unexplained reasons may have a genetic susceptibility to infertility, scientists said today. About one in 10 couples have an infertility problem and are unable to conceive after trying for a year. The causes are varied but in about one fifth of cases the reason is unknown. The failure of an embryo to implant in the woman’s womb is thought to be an important reason for infertility. Scientists at imperial college school of medicine in London believe the size of a gene called MUC 1 could help to explain why an embryo does not implant and may be the cause of unexplained infertility in some women. In a study of 20 women, Professor El-Nasir Lalani and his colleagues found that women with unexplained infertility had a shorter MUC 1 gene than those who had children. "It suggests that this may be a mechanism as to why embryos to not attach to the womb," Lalani said in a telephone interview. Thanks to advances in technology and a better understanding of human reproduction, 90 percent of couples undergoing in-vitro fertilisation produce embryos but only 20 percent successfully implant in the womb. Scientists do not fully understand which factors in the endometrium, or lining of the womb, determine if an embryo will attach but they think MUC 1, which controls a protein found in the lining, could be an important one. Lalani and his colleagues said it was still early days and much larger studies were needed to confirm the link between the size of the gene and infertility in women. But they thought a better understanding of the function of MUC 1 could lead to more successful fertility treatments in the future. "We believe that the association between MUC 1 size and failure of implantation may provide significant insight into a key component of endometrial function and help us develop biological strategies to enhance embryo implantation and successful pregnancies," said John White, who contributed to the research published in the Lancet Medical Journal. Lalani said the size of the gene was known to vary among women of different geographic and ethnic populations, so he was planning a larger study involving women from different parts of the world. "This will enable us to better understand the biological implications of MUC 1 gene size and infertility in a global setting," he added. (REUTERS) |
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Pak opposition to defy May 1 protest ban KARACHI, Apr 27: Pakistan’s political opposition said today that the arrests of hundreds of activists by the ruling military would not stop it pushing ahead with plans to hold a banned pro-democracy rally in Karachi on May one. Political workers said that raids and arrests of activists continued into a second day in Karachi, while reports from other parts of southern Sindh province indicated a similar crackdown elsewhere. Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan, the 83-year-old head of the 16-party Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD), told Reuters that he intended to challenge as unconstitutional an order barring him from Karachi for three months. "Hundreds of our workers have been arrested and detained and (the military) don’t want us to hold the public meeting on May 1," Nasrullah Khan, who was denied entry to the city yesterday and expelled to Punjab province, said by telephone from Punjab. "I am going to challenge (our expulsion from Karachi) in the Supreme Court... We are not going to call off this public meeting." Officials in Sindh province, of which Karachi is the capital, have declined to comment on the number of arrests, but political workers say that it could run into thousands. Some senior politicians, including former Government ministers, have been detained. Others have gone into hiding in the hope they can later appear to take part in the rally. Munawar Hussain Suharwardy, Sindh provincial information secretary of self-exiled former Premier Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), said the clampdown was continuing. "Today the police are still raiding party houses and offices," said Suharwardy, who was not present when police raided his Karachi home four times early yesterday. Moazzam Ali, Karachi co-ordinator for the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, condemned the crackdown. "It has become just like a police state, they never allow any democratic activities," he said. "Obviously, we are very much against it... There is a real crackdown going on in the city." A similar rally planned for the central city of Lahore, the Punjab provincial capital, late in March was blocked after security forces detained thousands of political activists. Military authorities earlier this week warned political leaders not to travel to Karachi for the May 1 event, saying they would be arrested if they did. The ARD alliance, which includes the ppp and the rival Pakistan Muslim League (PML) of ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, called the rally as part of a campaign demanding that the military stand down and immediately restore democracy. Military ruler General Pervez Musharraf, who dislodged the Sharif administration in a coup in October 1999, has banned all public rallies. He has promised to restore civilian rule around October 2002, within a three-year deadline set by the Supreme Court. (REUTERS) |
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Benazir to cooperate with
military DUBAI, Apr 27: Former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto says she is prepared to cooperate with the military regime and give up the idea of launching a movement for its ouster if it agrees to hold talks with the grand alliance of political parties on holding elections in the country. "If the military regime calls upon the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD) to discuss the holding of elections, then a settlement can be worked out (with it)," she said in an interview with The Khaleej Times. Ms Bhutto, who is also the chairperson of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), said people were apprehensive that the military regime would reverse its position on holding elections by October next year as the deadline came closer. There was a feeling that pressure must be maintained on the Musharraf regime to stick to the deadline. "Elections are about the people deciding who should run the country. But if the military has its way, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and the registration authority will decide (the issue). That’s wrong. It means further instability. And our people need stability to prosper and the right leader," she said. Talking about the corruption cases lodged against her when Mr Nawaz Sharif was the Prime Minister, Ms Bhutto said, "it is distressing to see the lengths to which my adversary could go to get me unjustly convicted." The taped conversation between some key functionaries of Mr Sharif’s Pakistan Mulsim League (PML) and judges of the Lahore High Court in a corruption case against her, which came to light recently, showed "I was an obsession with the Nawaz Sharif regime and they put unrelenting pressure on the judge to get me," Ms Bhutto said. On whether there was any possibility of her party bidding farewell to the PML in the grand alliance of political parties with this taped conversation coming to light, the former premier said there was little likelihood of that happening. "The PPP could do with an apology from the PML and assurances that it has learnt the lessons from the past which it will avoid repeating in future," she added. Asked what was preventing her from returning to her country if she was not trying to strike a deal with the military regime, Ms Bhutto said, "I am prevented from coming back due to dictatorship, the usurpation of fundamental human rights, the politically-driven investigations, the specially-constituted accountability courts where extra-ordinary pay rises have been given as a thinly-camouflaged bribe, the continued imprisonment of my husband and father-in-law and the attacks on my party workers and former cabinet colleagues." (UNI) |
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KPs’ Forum protests non-invitation to talks LONDON, Apr 27: An international forum of Kashmiri Pandits has protested against the Centre’s "failure" to invite their representatives to the latest dialogue initiatives on Kashmir and demanded a "separate homeland" within the Valley. "The latest negotiations process on Kashmir initiated by the Government of India shall end in futility if Kashmiri Pandits are not considered central to it and associated (with it) from the very beginning," Sunil Bakshi, general secretary of Indo-European Kashmir Forum, told reporters here yesterday. He said it was "strange" that K C Pant, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission and Centre’s chief negotiator on Kashmir, has invited all militant groups responsible for the violence in the Valley for talks while totally "ignoring" the Pandits who "suffered silently and strove to remain part and parcel of India." He said Pant, in the first round of talks, had invited leaders of National Conference, Congress, BJP, BSP, Left Parties, People’s Democratic Party, Panthers Party, Ladakh Autonomous Hill Council, Imam Khomeini Trust of Kargil, Awami League, Awami Conference, Islamia group and Awami National Conference. "But there was no mention about Panun Kashmir, All India Kashmir Samaj or the Indo-European Kashmir Forum which is an overseas umbrella of Kashmiri Pandits," Bakshi said. Asserting that Pandits were the original inhabitants of Kashmir, he said "we are a natural party to such dialogue..." He said the "Pandits must return to Kashmir but that is possible only when a separate homeland is created for them within the valley, with full political powers in their hands." (PTI) |
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Afghan Taliban complains to Pak over refugees ISLAMABAD, Apr 27: Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban movement complained to its main ally Pakistan about the alleged mistreatment of Afghan refugees in the country. The complaint was made in a letter by Taliban Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmad Muttawakil to his Pakistani counterpart Abdul Sattar yesterday, the Taliban-controlled voice of Shariat radio said. The broadcast, monitored in Islamabad, quoted the letter as saying police in the Pakistani cities of Karachi, Peshawar and Quetta were harassing Afghan refugees there and extorting bribes. It also accused Pakistani border guards at crossing points in the Northwest and Southwest of discriminating between Pashto-speaking and Persian-speaking Afghans entering Pakistan. The Taliban letter asked Pakistan to take steps to end the police harassment. Pakistan, one of the only three countries to recognise the Taliban Government, along with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, played host to more than three million Afghan refugees during the Soviet occupation of their country in the 1980s. Many of the refugees returned to Afghanistan after the Soviet withdrawal but Islamabad says some 1.6 million are still living in the country. About 100,000 Afghans have fled their homeland to Pakistan this year because of continuing conflict between Taliban and its opponents and a severe drought. (REUTERS) |
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UK prisoners send wheelchairs for Indian children NEW DELHI, Apr 27: More than a hundred wheelchairs, refurbished by inmates of a Lancanshire prison, were transported free of charge for special children in Chennai. A UK-based charity -inside out and the British Deputy High Commission in Chennai identified various hospitals and voluntary organisations in need of wheelchairs for underpriviledged children with special needs and with collaboration with British Airways world cargo, executed the project. Highlighting the need for such donations, Elizabeth Herridge of the British Deputy High Commission said, "it is hard to describe the joy on the face of a parent who has, uptill now, been carrying a child, sometimes three miles each way, to a health centre each day for treatment. The project has been a complete success due to the generosity and kindness of british airways world cargo." Some of the organisations that have received the wheelchairs transported for free by the airways are the Spastic Society of India, the Spastic Society of Tamil Nadu, Cheshire Home, Rasa, Pathway orphanage and the Ssha Project at St Andrews Kirk in Chennai. Children at the Andhra Mahila Sabha, an orthopaedic hospital in Chennai have received specially designed wheelchairs, custom made to suit their specific needs. Commenting on the project which entailed volunteer prisoners upgrading chairs donated by the charity, inside out, at a "community workshop," instruction officer of Garth prison, Lancanshire Mr Dave Kellet said, "I cannot stress enough just how successful and rewarding this has been. It has far exceeded our expectations." (UNI) |
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