Glowing cortex seen as holding secret to
Buddhists happiness

MADISON, WISCONSIN, July 8: Buddhists may have led scientists to the secret of happiness. Research suggests it lies just behind the forehead in the brain’s left prefrontal lobes.

Scientists have found that in experienced practising Buddhists, this part of the brain is consistently "lit up". Persistent activity of the left prefrontal lobes is associated with positive emotions and good mood. In contrast, continuous activity of the right prefrontal lobes indicates negative emotion.

The preliminary findings emerged from research led by Richard Davidson, at the laboratory for affective neuroscience at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. They were highlighted in a magazine article by Owen Flanagan, Professor of Philosophy at Duke University in North Carolina.

Writing in "new scientist", he said the results were "tantalising". The first Buddhist studied showed more left prefrontal lobe activity than anyone Davidson had measured before.

Flanagan said: "We can now hypothesise with some confidence that those apparently happy, calm Buddhist souls one regularly comes across in places such as Dharamsala, India - the Dalai Lama’s home -really are happy. Behind those calm exteriors lie persistently frisky left prefrontal lobes. If these findings are widely confirmed, they will be of great importance."

He said the prefrontal lobes, recently evolved structures, had long been known to play a major role in foresight, planning and self control. They were now also known to be crucially involved in emotion, mood and temperament.

Flanagan did not think it reasonable to suppose that Tibetan Buddhists were born with a "happiness gene" that activated their left prefrontal lobes. A more likely explanation was there was something about Buddhist practice that produced happiness, he said.

Other research suggested Buddhists may control another part of the brain’s emotion system which is normally automatic. The Amygdala, twin almond-shaped structures in the forebrain, acted as a quick trigger that dealt with fear, anxiety and surprise, and also probably helped cause anger. It was known to be extremely hard to override what the Amygdala felt simply by thinking rationally.

But Paul Ekman, from the University of California at San Francisco, had found early evidence that Buddhists who often meditate may be able to tame the Amygdala. He discovered that experienced meditators do not get nearly as flustered, shocked or surprised as ordinary people when subjected to unpredictable sounds - even those as loud as gunshots.

Buddhists also professed to experience less anger than most people, said Flanagan. He said: "Antidepressants are currently the favoured method for alleviating negative emotions, but no antidepressant makes a person happy."

On the other hand, Buddhist meditation and mindfulness, which were developed 2,500 years before Prozac, can lead to profound happiness, and its practitioners are deeply in touch with their glowing left prefrontal cortex and their becalmed Amygdala.’’ (DPA)

Military balance between India, Pak key
for peace: Musharraf

ISLAMABAD, July 8: Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has said restoring balance of conventional and non-conventional forces between India and Pakistan is the key to ensuring peaceful resolution of issues between the two countries. "in its ultimate context, peace in this South Asian region will be through resolution of all political disputes including the Jammu and Kashmir dispute," he said while speaking at a function at a college here. However, before such a peace is achieved through the resolution of political disputes, "we have to ensure that there is no-win situation for the two contenders-Pakistan and India", he said. For that there has to be a balance in conventional and UN-conventional means of power "and this balance must never be disturbed in the interest of the peace in the region," he said.

Pakistan, he claimed, was following the strategy of minimum defensive deterrence, adding, the country was not in the arms race but would maintain such a deterrence at all levels. Musharraf said that to achieve the ultimate peace the two countries would have to reach political resolution of all disputes.

In his address at the college, Musharraf also denied allegations that Pakistan indulged in nuclear proliferation. He insisted that his country’s nuclear arsenal was under tight control and will not fall into the "wrong hands". "Pakistan will never proliferate, Pakistan’s nuclear potential is under very strong custodial control and we have very strong safeguards to prevent its proliferation and its assets going into the wrong hands," he said. he also claimed that Pakistan’s nuclear programme was totally indigenous and in response to the threat faced by the country.

Meanwhile, in his weekly press briefing, Pakistan’s foreign office Spokesman Masood Khan accused India of accelerating arms purchases. Referring to reports of India shelving plans to develop Trishul missile, he said "we are concerned about India’s purchases. We should not have an acceleration of arms purchases in South Asia."

He said the arms purchases went against the spirit of new India-Pak peace process and the India-China "rapprochement."

"This is also contrary to the spirit of dialogue we are initiating. Contrary to recent developments. India’s relationship with China and emphasis there on rapid development of Wepons of Mass Destructions and purchases from Israel and other countries should come to an end," he added. (PTI)

Foreign Secys of India, Pak may hold talks
at SAARC Comm meet

KATHAMDNU, July 8: Foreign Secretaries of India and Pakistan are likely to utilise the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation standing committee meeting here beginning Thursday to hold informal bilateral talks, Nepalese Foreign Ministry spokesman said today. "It is most likely that the Indian and the Pakistani Foreign Secretaries would utilise the opportunity to discuss the bilateral matters on the sidelines" of the SAARC meeting, spokesman Madan Kumar Bhattarai said. Meanwhile, the preparatory committee meeting began its deliberations today on reports submitted by the grouping’s technical committees. It would be followed by the SAARC standing committee meeting to be attended by foreign secretaries of the seven-member grouping. Participants at the Joint Secretary-level preparatory meeting include senior officers of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. R O Wallang, Joint Secretary at the Minister of External Affairs of India, Jalil Jilani, Director General and Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan are among the senior officers participating in the meeting.

Lekhnath Bhattarai, Joint Secretary at the Foreign Ministry of Nepal, is chairing the one-day preparatory committee meeting.

The SAARC preparatory meeting will also discuss the reports submitted by the governing body meet of the SAARC regional centre and approve its budget.

The senior officers’ meeting will, after holding detailed discussions on the SAARC technical committee reports, recommend it to the standing committee for adoption.

The preparatory committee meeting will be followed by the two-day 4th special session of the SAARC standing committee starting on July 10 in Kathmandu. Foreign Secretaries of the SAARC member countries including Kanwal Sibal of India and Riaz H Khokhar of Pakistan will participate in the special meeting.

Nepalese Foreign Secretary Madhuraman Acharya will chair the two day special session of the standing committee. (PTI)

Afghanistan’s Karzai angry over Musharraf comments

KABUL, July 8: Afghan President Hamid Karzai warned outsiders not to interfere in his country’s affairs and said he wanted to speak to Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf about alleged critical comments of the Afghan Government.

The criticism of Pakistan came after reports of cross-border exchanges of fire between Afghan and Pakistani forces and complaints from Afghan provincial authorities that Pakistani troops had intruded.

Karzai said at the weekend he was sending a team to investigate.

"Mr Musharraf...Has made some comments regarding Afghanistan which have become a matter of sadness and regret for me," Karzai was quoted as saying in State-run media on Monday.

"In coming days, I want to speak by telephone with Mr Musharraf for some explanation as to what his intention was."

The Afghan Foreign Ministry says Musharraf, during a recent trip to Europe, questioned Karzai’s influence across Afghanistan, spoke of a power vacuum and said the Government was not representative of all ethnic groups.

"Afghanistan does not interfere in anyone’s affairs and neither does it want others’ interference in its affairs. Afghanistan wants brotherhood, friendship and forgiveness," Karzai said.

Afghanistan and Pakistan have long had occasional disagreements over their porous and ill-defined border, but Karzai’s comments were the most critical of Pakistan since his Government was installed after the fall of the Taliban.

Karzai’s Government is dominated by the Northern Alliance, the former opposition grouping of northern ethnic minority forces that helped US-led troops defeat the Taliban in 2001.

The Government has had problems imposing its rule beyond Kabul. Warlords and regional commanders govern in many parts of the countryside with the help of personal militias.

Afghan officials say a recent spate of attacks on Afghan and international forces and foreign aid workers was organised in Pakistan by remnants of the Taliban and their Al-Qaeda allies.

Pakistan, which supported the Taliban before the September 11 attacks on the United States, has rejected the accusation, saying it does all it can to stop militants crossing into Afghanistan.

Pashtuns, Afghanistan’s largest ethnic group and its traditional rulers, live on both sides of the border and some Afghan officials privately accuse Pakistan of trying to stir up Pashtun animosity towards Karzai’s Government.

Karzai is Pashtun but there have been complaints the community is under-represented in the Government since the defeat of the Taliban, who were mostly Pashtun and drew their support from that group.

Hours after Karzai’s comments were run in Government media about 150 Kabul residents protested near the Presidential palace against Pakistan’s alleged border intrusion.

"Death to Pakistan" the crowd shouted.

The Afghan Foreign Ministry has lodged a complaint with Pakistan over "armed intervention and provocations" along the border and over Musharraf’s comments, State media said.

Pakistan Foreign Ministry Spokesman Masood Khan told a news briefing in Islamabad there had been intermittent fire recently across the Afghan-Pakistan frontier, but it had not reached "an alarming scale".

"There has been no incursion," he said. "We respect the Pakistan-Afghan border." (AGENCIES)

IMF backs new Iraqi banknotes without Saddam’s image

WASHINGTON, July 8: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has welcomed the planned introduction of new Iraqi banknotes, which will be printed without an image of former dictator Saddam Hussein.

A secure domestic currency "represents an important step toward the restoration of economic activity and of a working payments system", said IMF Acting Managing Director Anne Krueger.

The new bills are due to enter circulation on October 15, and old notes will be withdrawn by January 15 next year, the US civilian administrator of Iraq, Paul Bremer, said in a address.

Bremer also appointed an interim central Bank Governor, Faleh Salman, who will work under US authority, but independent of the Finance Ministry, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday. He also approved a 9-trillion-dinar (6.4 billion dollar) budget for the occupied country for the rest of the calendar year.

The budget will be funded by Iraqi oil sales, assets from Saddam’s palaces and money from other Iraqi funds frozen since the 1991 Gulf war, said the post, quoting US officials.

The new bills, which will be printed outside Iraq, possibly by a British firm, will be available in six denominations, ending the current system under which many Iraqis carry large amounts of small bills in plastic bags. (DPA)

Avalanche kills two on Pakistan mountain

ISLAMABAD, July 8: An avalanche killed a Spanish man and an argentine woman on a mountain expedition in remote northern Pakistan, Associated Press of Pakistan reported today.

The official news agency said the avalanche apparently killed the two on Saturday during their descent from the summit of the 8,068-metre (26,470 ft) Gasherbrum-1 mountain.

The deaths were the first reported during the current climbing season in northern Pakistan, which boasts several of the world’s 14 peaks higher than 8,000 metres, including k2, the second highest mountain after Everest.

App said that some 70 foreign climbing expeditions were expected to visit Pakistan’s northern areas this year.

Citing officials, APP said the two climbers who died were part of a larger Spanish-Argentine team. Five members of the expedition were on their way back to Skardu, a town around 300 km (190 miles) northeast of the capital Islamabad. (AGENCIES)

Defence officials dissociate themselves
from report on India

WASHINGTON, July 8: US defence officials today dissociated themselves from the negative things reportedly mentioned in a document about Indian Army, saying it was a "contract report" prepared by several authors and not by the Pentagon. The 153-page report, which put the Indian Army in a bad light was rubbished yesterday by India. the report `Indo-US military relationship: expectations and perceptions’ was written by one Juli A McDonald, but the pentagon officials today said it was prepared by "several authors." It was a contract report on India. It is prepared by several authors, they pointed out. There are also in it many complimentary things about India but the report itself is not prepared by either the Defence Department or by defence officials, they said. India yesterday rubbished the document as "amateurish" and "puerile". Excerpts from the report were published by the ‘outlook’ magazine. An External Affairs Ministry spokesman said the Indian Army was an outstanding and professional force with an excellent track record, proved often in circumstances more challenging than any military in the world has faced. According to the magazine, the report dismisses the national security advisor as "lax and lazy," and the Director General of Military Intelligence as an "increasingly problematic checkpoint." The spokesman also termed as "misleading, selective and inaccurate" the quotes from the US report published by the magazine. The US, he said, has high regards for the Indian Army which was evident in the nature of ongoing Indo-US military exchanges. (PTI)

Doctors defend decision to operate on Bijani twins

SINGAPORE, July 8: Doctors involved in the surgery that led to the deaths of conjoined Iranian twins Ladan and Laleh Bijani today admitted the operation would raise ethical questions, but they maintained their decision to proceed was correct.

"I think that the debate, the argument and the controversies will go on forever and ever," Singaporean neurosurgeon Keith Goh, who led the team of 24 doctors and about 100 medical staff, told a packed news conference at Raffles Hospital after the sisters died.

"But I think that for those of us who were here over the last three days, the time and the commitment ... Is a convincing indication of the belief that the decision was correct."

Having seen and understood how the twins, fused at the head since they were born 29 years ago, had longed to be separated, Goh said other world experts would agree with him and his team that the decision to operate was correct.

Consulting neurosurgeon Benjamin Carson, from the world-renowned Johns Hopkins Children’s Center in the United States, said doctors had gone into the operation knowing there was a 50 per cent chance the twins would die.

"(But) the fact of the matter is that these were individuals who were absolutely determined to be separated," Carson said.

"And the reason I felt compelled to become involved was because I wanted to make sure that they had the best chance." (AFP)

Iranian students vow to defy protest ban

TEHRAN, July 8: Iranian students today vowed to commemorate a violent 1999 attack on a university dormitory tomorrow in defiance of an official ban.

Nervous that the July 9 anniversary may reignite protests against clerical rule which rocked Tehran and other cities for 10 nights in June, officials have banned off-campus rallies, closed some university dormitories and postponed summer exams.

Hundreds of people, including scores of students, are still under arrest after authorities rounded up more than 4,000 people during and after the biggest and most violent pro-democracy protests seen in iran for four years.

"We haven’t obtained any permission for gatherings but there will be some sit-in protests at the universities and some people are going to gather outside the u n building," in Tehran, one student leader told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

Many ordinary Iranians have also pledged to mark the events of July 9, 1999 when hardline Islamic vigilantes fiercely loyal to Iran’s conservative clerics attacked students in a Tehran University dormitory, killing one person and sparking five days of mass protests.

"I’m closing my business and I will go out to show my support for the students," said a hairdresser in Tehran who asked not to be identified.

But with little organisation or leadership for the planned protests and security expected to be tight, most analysts expect any gatherings to be small-scale and quickly dispersed.

"There may be a couple of sporadic protests in the country tomorrow but I don’t think it will become a major thing," said one reformist parliamentarian, who also declined to be named.

"Some ordinary people may come out onto the streets but it will not be tolerated," he said.

Tehran residents have complained that US-based Iranian satellite channels, which played a key role in encouraging people to join last month’s protests, are no longer available, their signals apparently jammed.

Students have criticised moderate President Mohammad Khatami, once the darling of Iran’s student movement, for failing to stand up to hardline opponents who have blocked his attempts to reform Iran’s islamic state.

"On July 9, 1999 Khatami was the most popular figure among students but four years later...Everyone wants him to be tougher and if he can’t do that to resign and stop wasting people’s time," said one student, who declined to be identified.

While championing the democratic right to protest, Khatami has been largely mute on last month’s demonstrations and has praised the actions of security officials to contain them.

The hardline Jomhuri-ye Eslami newspaper on Tuesday said the fact that last month’s "riots" died out without seriously testing Iran’s security forces "proves that the domestic enemies of the system are unpopular and their foreign asters suffer from wishful thinking". (AGENCIES)

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