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| Hillary says Bill now helping her career-magazine BERLIN, Aug 15: New York Senator Hillary Clinton has dismissed rumours of trouble in her.......more Bangladesh
mourns DHAKA, Aug 15: Bangladesh today mourned the 26th anniversary of the assassination of its founding.....more Musharraf’s
election plan ISLAMABAD, Aug 15: Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf’s plans to hold general......more |
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Stem cells from skin grow into brain tissue WASHINGTON, Aug 15: For the first time, researchers have captured from the skin of humans and........more Police
scours Lahore LAHORE, Aug 15: Police swept through this ancient punjab capital today.........more Israeli
forces near GAZA, Aug 15: At least 40 Israeli tanks and dozens of armored vehicles took........more |
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Hillary says Bill now helping her career-magazine BERLIN, Aug 15: New York Senator Hillary Clinton has dismissed rumours of trouble in her marriage with Bill Clinton, saying since her husband stepped down as U.S. President he was now helping promote her career. "Bill is simply fantastic. For one thing he knows more about politics than probably anybody else I know," Hillary Clinton said in an interview in Germany’s Bunte weekly released today, ahead of publication tomorrow. "I always tried to help him and now that he has a bit more time, he makes a great effort to help me with my career," she said. "Just a few days ago he looked at the text of a speech which i wanted to make the next morning and made several very good suggestions for improvement." "He also tells me exactly whom I have to meet, who is important and who can give me further information on a topic," she said. "We have a great partnership but it was like that since the day we met each other over 30 years ago." After eight years living in the White House, Hillary Clinton said the two were enjoying decorating their new homes in Washington and New York to their own taste. "Bill and I are really enjoying being able to hang our pictures where we want to have them and to put our furniture where we like. It reminds us both of the time when we began our life together," she said. But the Senator, who stood by her husband’s side through the scandal over his affair with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky, made it clear who was the boss. "Since he is a citizen of New York and I am the Senator of New York, I am his Senator," she said. (REUTERS) |
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Bangladesh mourns assassination of Mujibur Rahman DHAKA, Aug 15: Bangladesh today mourned the 26th anniversary of the assassination of its founding father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman who led the country’s fight for independence from Pakistan. Thousands of men, women and children thronged the slain leader’s Dhanmandi home-turned-museum to pay their homage by placing wreaths on his potrait. President Shabuddin Ahmed and Chief Adviser of the caretaker Government Justice Latifur Rahman were the first to pay their homage. President Ahmed in a message on the occasion said the tragic death of Mujibur Rehman, popularly known as Bangbandhu, has embossed an uneraseable stigma on our national history, while the Chief Advisor said the memory of the Father of the Nation would remain alive forever. Former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed and her sister Sheikh Rehana, the only surviving daughters of Sheikh Mujibur, were also present. The red and green national flag of Bangladesh flew half mast throughout the country and at its diplomatic missions abroad today as a mark of respect to the founding father. The day was a public holiday in Bangladesh. It was also the first time that Mujibur’s anniversary has been marked at state level without Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League in power. Two Advisers of the caretaker Government also flew down to Tungipara, the ancestral home of Mujibur Rehman where he is buried, to pay homage on behalf of the Government. Sheikh Mujibur was killed alongwith most members of his family in a military coup on August 15, 1975.(PTI) |
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Musharraf’s election plan meets suspicion in Pak ISLAMABAD, Aug 15: Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf’s plans to hold general elections in October next year, three years after his military coup, have been met with deep suspicion in a country versed in the promises of generals. Musharraf yesterday laid out his long-awaited "road map" for democracy in an Independence Day speech, promising to hand over power to civilian rule through elections from October one to 11 next year. But analysts said his speech, while likely to ease some of the international pressure he has been under to announce an election date, has raised as many questions as it answered, chief of which is the role of Musharraf himself and the military in the new parliamentary set-up. Musharraf wore a white Shalwar Kameez and black vest during his speech. "He dressed like a politician and spoke like a populist. A political phase of the military regime has begun," political analyst Mushahid Hussain said. Gone were the commando uniforms and berets of the military man: This was Musharraf the political leader making his debut on the national stage. "It will be a quasi-parliamentary system in which power will rest with the president," said Professor of International Relations of Karachi University Moonis Ahmar. "On one hand, Musharraf claimed he is giving powers to the people at the grassroots level, but he himself is holding all the powerful offices, including President, Army chief and Chief Executive," he said. "Former dictator Zia-ul-Haq promised elections in 90-days in 1977 and ruled this country for 11 years. Musharraf also has long-term plans," said Karachi Bar Association secretary Mahmoodul Hasan. "It appears that centralisation of power will continue to revolve around the President, while future political Governments and Parliament will be nothing but puppets." Columnist Nasim Zehra said the President and his military-led team were trying to build a "guided democracy". "It seems they are trying to combine good management and guided democracy. They have done some clear thinking on both these elements as far as their own understanding is concerned. The real challenge, especially on the political front, will be whether operational politics can match their design of political engineering," she said. Political parties were banned from contesting the local council elections which were held over the past eight months under reforms designed to filter power from the federal Government to the grassroots. "The announcement giving date for polls is welcomed, but he has no right to bring any amendment in the constitution," said Raza Rabbani, Deputy Secretary General of former Pakistan Premier Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party. Business leaders, meanwhile, said no matter what future Musharraf had in mind for himself and the political system, stability was the key to attracting foreign investors. "I am confident that in coming months the investment climate will get friendlier as the general seems determined to chain sectarian extremism and restore democratic institutions," Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry President Ifitkhar Ahmed Malik said. (AFP) |
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Stem cells from skin grow into brain tissue WASHINGTON, Aug 15: For the first time, researchers have captured from the skin of humans and adult mice stem cells capable of growing into brain cells and a range of other tissues. According to experts, the feat offers new hope for treating neurological disorders. It also offers comfort to President George W Bush who last week set limits on publicly funded research using stem cells derived from human embryos, which are destroyed when the powerful cells are extracted. The new research, published in ‘nature cell biology’, bolsters the view that scientists can find alternative and less controversial sources of stem cells, which have the unique power to divide indefinitely before growing into the various tissues and parts that constitute any living being, ‘the toronto globe and mail’ reported. The stem cells harvested at McGill University’s Montreal Neurological Institute have grown into smooth muscle cells, fat cells and brain cells, including neurons - the individual thinking units of the human mind and glial cells, which, among other things, produce the fatty white sheaths around nerve fibers in the brain that speed signals between neurons. "They are beautiful neurons," said molecular biologist Freda Miller. "You kind of look at them and say, this can’t be true. But then you go back and do it 10 times, and you realise it is true." While no one yet knows if these neurons can transmit electrical and chemical signals as they do in the brain, one intriguing aspect of growing them from stem cells found in skin is that scientists could have a vast and easily accessible supply, the mail said. Ronald Worton, CEO and Scientific Director of Ottawa Health Research Institue and head of Canada’s stem cell network, said stem cells that can produce brain cells have been found in the brain itself, but this is the first time they have been grown from stem cells found in skin. "Two years ago," he said, "I would have said this is a big surprise. But then the Dogma used to be that if you were a stem cell in adult bone marrow, you could only make blood cells, or if you were a stem cell in skin, you could only make skin. There’s now enough lab work to say the dogma was wrong." Scientists hope to chemically goad stem cells into becoming replacement tissues for ailing patients, such as insulin-producing cells for diabetics, brain cells that pump out dopamine for parkinson’s sufferers, or cells rich in dystrophin for people with muscular dystrophy, the paper said. Cells beneath the epidermis in the skin’s second layer, the dermis, contain nerve cells that relay sensations such as touch to the brain. Since these cells regenerate after injuries such as burns or gashes, the Montreal Research Group looked for the precursors of these sensory cells, hoping to find the stem cells that produce them. They isolated them first in the nasal passages of mice. But the source was not practical, given the difficulty of extracting enough from a tiny, damp airway. Then they tested their hypothesis with skin from mice and from a human scalp. (PTI) |
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Police scours Lahore for members of outlawed outfit LAHORE, Aug 15: Police swept through this ancient punjab capital today arresting members of a newly outlawed militant Islamic group, shutting its offices and searching for those members who have gone into hiding. The police sweep follows yesterday’s ban on two militant Islamic groups — Sipah-e-Mohammed, a Shiite Muslim group and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a Sunni Muslim group whose leader is believed to be living in exile in neighboring Afghanistan. "We have our orders to close their offices," said Lahore Deputy Inspector of Police Javed Noor. But so far police have not been able to locate either an office or the activists of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, whose workers are blamed for some of the worst acts of religiously motivated violence in Pakistan. But police in the eastern city of Lahore shut several offices of Sipah-e-Mohammed. Police also arrested 24 activists of their activists. "We are looking for Lashkar-e-Jhangvi workers, but we haven’t located them," said Noor. Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf ordered the two militant groups outlawed and threatened to ban others if they propagated hate and violence against rival Islamic sects. (AP) |
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Israeli forces near Bethlehem, gunbattle continues GAZA, Aug 15: At least 40 Israeli tanks and dozens of armored vehicles took positions near the West Bank towns of Bethlehem, Beit Jallah and Beit Sahour, Palestinians said. Palestinian sources in Bethlehem said that despite Israeli forces gathering, a gunbattle continued past midnight between troops and Palestinian gunmen near Beit Jallah and near the Jewish settlement of Gilo next to Beit Jallah. A reporter for the Palestinian News Agency Wafa said that the Israeli forces, including tanks, entered several Palestinian villages near Bethlehem. The villages are classified under the oslo agreements as area B territory, which is under Palestinian civil authority but Israeli security control. However, Israel radio reported that the Israeli army forces did not enter areas under complete Palestinian jurisdiction. Palestinians in Bethlehem said that flares lit the night sky, while the buzz of gunfire could be heard. There were no injuries reported. Israeli military sources told Israel radio that the troop movements would not lead to infiltration into territory under Palestinian control. In a large Israeli army operation, Israeli tanks entered into Palestinian town of Jenin early Tuesday in a retaliatory strike for suicide bombings Israel said were carried out by militants from Jenin. The operation in Jenin was widely condemned and prompted the Palestinian authority to request a United Nations Security Council meeting for international protection forces to be sent to the Palestinian territories. Palestinian security sources told "Palestine Radio" that Israel was in all likelihood planning to attack areas like beit Jallah and Beit Sahour, from which Palestinian gunmen have been firing at Gilo, a Jewish settlement on West Bank territory. Earlier yesterday, the Israeli army seized three Palestinian houses in Beit Jallah, which is under full Palestinian control. The houses were taken as observation points following shooting directed at Gilo throughout Tuesday morning. Yesterday morning, Palestinian gunmen in Beit Jallah began firing on Gilo and nearby Israeli army outposts. Meanwhile, Palestinians in the West bank Bown of Ramallah said that Israeli F16 warplanes flew over the area early Wednesday, while Israeli Apache helicopters hovered over the West Bank towns of Jenin and Tulkarim. The Wafa agency reported that Israeli tanks fired more than 15 shells at Palestinian homes in the West Bank town of Hebron, after Palestinian gunmen and Israeli troops exchanged fire in the area. No injuries were reported. Palestinians said that about nine Israeli tanks moved early today from two Israeli army bases South and North of the Gaza strip town of Rafah on the borders with Egypt, following an exchange of fire between Israeli troops and Palestinians. (DPA) |
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