Moms-to-be, beware! Smoking linked to miscarriage

LONDON, Nov 24: Moms-to-be, please note -- if you don't want to risk miscarriage, just quit smoking.

A team of international researchers has carried out a study and found that chemicals in cigarettes change a pregnant woman's body chemistry and distort the results of screening for disability in the foetus, the 'Daily Mail' reported today.

This puts women at high risk of miscarriage as they then have to undergo a further screening test for abnormality, according to the researchers.

According to Imperial College-based Prof Philip Steer, the Editor-in-Chief of the 'British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology' which has published the study, "The findings were further proof of damaging effects of smoking during pregnancy.

"Babies of mothers who smoke during pregnancy are small for gestational age and tend also to deliver earlier. This research indicates smoking may also cause over-estimation of the risk of Down's (Syndrome), thus exposing the mother to a higher risk of an unnecessary amniocentesis."

In fact, the researchers came to the conclusion after analysing the effects of smoking on 2,337 women in the first three months of normal pregnancies. Those who had smoked just a few cigarettes a day came out with a high "false positive" score for an abnormal baby. (PTI)

Howard's party trails behind Labor: opinion poll

MELBOURNE, Nov 24: Australian Labor party is expected to clinch a comfortable victory over Prime Minister John Howard's conservative in the federal elections in which 13.5 million people cast their votes today.

A latest opinion poll, conducted on election eve, shows support for the Labor Party remained relatively steady in the final countdown to the ballot.

Support for Labor stood at 53.5 per cent on a two-party preferred basis, compared to the coalition's 46.5 per cent, the Morgan Poll shows.

Labor has lost one per cent to the coalition since the last Morgan Poll, taken on Wednesday and Thursday, 'The Age' reported today.

The ALP's lead represents a 6.2 per Celt swing to Labor.

However, in the crucial marginal coalition electorates, where Labor needs to win 16 seats, the swing is slightly less at 5.2 per cent, the poll shows.

On primary votes, the count is closer. Labor leads with 43.5 per cent of the vote, compared to the coalition's 41.5 per cent.

While the poll suggests the coalition is poised to lose the election, Howard and Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull are expected to retain their seats.

"John Howard and Malcolm Turnbull should be returned in Bennelong and Wentworth respectively, with the Liberals also a good chance to pick up one, possibly two, seats in Western Australia," pollster Gary Morgan said.

"However, the coalition looks likely to lose a significant number of seats in Victoria and Queensland," Morgan said, adding "Previous research has shown that about one-in-five electors finally decide who to vote for on election day." (PTI)

UNIFAD to provide USD 35 million loan to Pak for microfinance

NEW YORK, Nov 24: A UN agency has announced that it will provide USD 35 million loan to a programme making microfinance services available to about 160,000 people in Pakistan, at least half of them women.

"It is a pivotal time for microfinance in Pakistan," said Nigel Brett, UN International Fund for Agricultural Development’s country programme manager for Pakistan.

"Future growth in this sector will depend partly on microfinance institutions and commercial banks forging successful financing partnerships. This new USD 46 million programme will work to build such partnerships," Brett said.

The IFAD-supported programme will work with small farmers, livestock owners, traders and microentrepreneurs; women and households headed solely by women; and vulnerable rural households living below the poverty line.

IFAD also announced an over USD 14 million project to boost the market value of Bolivia’s millions of llamas, alpacas and undomesticated vicuqas in products like meat, hides and wool-based handicrafts, as well as eco-tourism. The agency will contribute a loan of USD 7.2 million for the initiative.

"The project will give poor rural people better access to financial services and provide them with technical assistance, knowledge and information, so that they can start small businesses," said Roberto Haudry de Soucy, IFAD’s country programme manager for Bolivia.

Bolivia is the poorest country in South America. Although GDP per capita grew during the 1990s, it was insufficient to reduce poverty, inequality and social exclusion, IFAD said. (PTI)

SKorea confirms first bird flu outbreak in 8 months

SEOUL, Nov 24: A bird flu outbreak has struck a duck farm in southern South Korea -- the first outbreak in eight months -- but the deadly H5N1 virus was not involved, the Agriculture Ministry said today.

Quarantine workers have slaughtered about 17,000 ducks at a farm in Gwangju, about 330 kilometres southwest of Seoul, said a ministry official on customary condition of anonymity citing office policy.

The virus that caused the latest outbreak is the H7 type that is "low pathogenic" and does not spread to humans, the official said.

It was the first bird flu outbreak in South Korea since March.

Between November last year and March, seven outbreaks hit poultry farms across South Korea, resulting in the slaughter of about 2.8 million birds. All cases involved the lethal H5N1 virus.

In June, the country declared itself free of bird flu under regulations of the World Organisation for Animal Health, as there were no new outbreaks in the previous three months.

The latest outbreak does not affect South Korea's status as bird flu-free country as it involves a "low pathogenic" virus, the ministry official said.

The deadly H5N1 virus began circulating widely in late 2003, and hundreds of millions of birds have either died or been slaughtered because of the virus. The strain has killed 206 people worldwide, according to the WHO. (AGENCIES)

Grave violations of children’s rights continue in Myanmar: Ban

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 24: UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has said that grave violations of children’s rights, including recruitment by armed groups, continued in Myanmar and asked the military regime to take measures to address the problem.

Although there has been progress in terms of dialogue with the Government of Myanmar and some non-State actors, a new report by Ban finds that State and non-State actors continue to be implicated in grave child rights violations.

The Government had promised that no child under the age of 18 will be recruited in armed forces and the two non-State actors - the Karen National Union and the Karenni National Progressive Party - signed Deeds of Commitment to cease the recruitment and use of children.

But the report documents "patterns of underage recruitment" by the Government, including those involving "poor and unaccompanied street children who are vulnerable to promises of food and shelter."

Other children picked up by the police for not having a national identification card are offered the "choice" of either being arrested or going into the army.

"Also of grave concern are the reliable reports of a number of incarcerated children/minors who have been convicted of desertion and sentenced to prison terms of up to five years," Ban writes, noting that international practice and principles stipulate that children who have been unlawfully recruited or used by armed forces should not be treated as deserters.

The UN, says the report, has received "credible but unverified" reports of rape perpetrated by Government forces and armed groups.

The UN Secretary General asked the Myanmar Government to ensure that all armed groups with which it shares a ceasefire accord are made accessible to monitoring.

He also urged the Government to continue taking disciplinary action against those responsible for aiding and abetting the recruitment of children, and to systematise and institutionalise this disciplinary process.

Ban also recommended that the Myanmar Government allow international and humanitarian organisations access for delivery of humanitarian services, and accept the proposal of the UN refugee agency’s Assistant High Commissioner for Operations for an inter-agency humanitarian needs assessment in the country. (PTI)

Four mountaineers dead in Japan avalanche: Police

TOKYO, Nov 24: Four people have been killed in a massive avalanche at a remote snow-covered mountain in northern Japan, police said today.

Rescuers found three climbers -- two men and a woman -- unconscious in a tent hit by a snow slide today on Mt Kamihorokamettoku in the northern island of Hokkaido.

The climbers were hospitalised but confirmed dead by today morning, said a spokeswoman for the Hokkaio police.

Rescue workers later found a missing man buried under the avalanche on the 1,920-meter mountain. He was also confirmed dead today morning, she said.

Several other people had been buried under the snow slide, but they managed to escape on their own.

The local meteorological observatory had issued an avalanche warning for the area on Thursday and yesterday. (AGENCIES)

Four dead in Shanghai gas station blast

BEIJING, Nov 24: Four people were killed and several others injured in a blast at a gas station in China’s economic hub, Shanghai, today, state media reported.

A cyclist passing by was one of the victims while the identities of three others were now known, Xinhua news agency said.

The explosion also caused injuries to several passengers travelling on a bus, it said.

A witness said several vehicles nearby were damaged.

The gas station, an outlet of China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), is under renovation and the cause of the explosion was not known, the report said. (PTI)

India rejects involvement in criminal activities in Terai region

KATHMANDU, Nov 24: Strongly rejecting the allegations of its involvement in criminal activities in the Terai region, India has expressed its firm resolve to cooperate with Nepali authorities to contain the menace.

''The Government of India and the Governments of the Indian states concerned cooperate actively with Nepali authorities in controlling criminal activities across the open Nepal-India border,'' Indian Ambassador to Nepal Shiv Shankar Mukherjee said in a press statement yesterday.

Mr Mukherjee said the district administrations on both the sides of the border remain regularly in touch in this regard. The meeting of the Home Secretaries of the two countries held in September this year at India's initiative decided to further strengthen this cooperation and take a number of steps, specially in view of the Constituent Assembly polls which were then impending, he said.

''Those decisions are being implemented by Government of India and Governments of concerned Indian states in consultation with the Government of Nepal,'' the statement added.

''While the above reflects the correct position of India's full-fledged cooperation with regard to the law and order situation, the fact remains that situation in the Terai, especially in tackling the law and order situation, is a problem that will have to be dealt with the Government of Nepal because the perpetrators are mostly Nepalis and must be dealt with accordingly,'' Mr Mukherjee said. (UNI)

China commuting more death sentences, Judge says

BEIJING, Nov 24: For the first time in its modern history, China has commuted more death sentences this year than it has carried out, the country's top judge said.

International rights groups estimate that China executes more people than any other country. But Beijing has been slowly reforming the death penalty system after several high-profile wrongful convictions raised public anger.

''The number of death sentences has been gradually decreasing and human rights are being better protected,'' Chief Justice Xiao Yang told a conference on court reform, the China Daily reported.

He gave no figures. The Communist authorities regard the number of executions as a state secret.

But Xiao said so far in 2007 the number of criminals given death sentences with a two-year reprieve, which usually becomes life imprisonment, had exceeded the total of immediate executions.

Capital punishment should be reserved for ''an extremely small number of serious offenders'', the paper quoted him as saying yesterday. ''The judicial reform process has been progressing smoothly, with leniency shown in a growing number of criminal trials.''

Last January 1 the Supreme People's Court took back its power of final approval for death penalties, relinquished to provincial high courts in a crime-fighting campaign in the 1980s.

Up to October, the number of death sentences immediately carried out in Jiangxi province had halved from the same period last year, the president of the provincial high court, Kang Weimin, told the conference.

Among those executed this year was Zheng Xiaoyu, the former head of the food and drug safety watchdog, who was put to death for taking bribes to renew drugs licences. (AGENCIES)

Humans responsible for shortening Universe’s life: Study

LONDON, Nov 24: Even as talks of mankind posing threat to Earth gather pace, a new study revealed that human activities may be shortening the life of the Universe as well.

The startling claim investigates the consequences for the cosmos of Quantum theory. Over the past few years, cosmologists have been studying about the level of subatomic particles to understand the universe.

The study suggests that astronomers may have accidentally nudged the Universe closer to its death by observing dark energy, a mysterious anti gravity force which is thought to be speeding up the expansion of the cosmos.

The strong allegations are made by Lawrence Krauss of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, and James Dent of Vanderbilt University, Nashville, who suggest that by making this observation in 1998 we may have caused the cosmos to revert to an earlier state when it was more likely to end.

"Incredible as it seems, our detection of the dark energy may have reduced the life-expectancy of the universe," The Telegraph quoted Dr Krauss as saying.

The team came to the following conclusion by calculating how the energy state of our universe - a kind of summation of all its particles and all their energies - has evolved since the Big Bang of creation 13.7 billion years ago.

(UNI)

Pictures shot by Indians, Pakistanis attract art lovers

ISLAMABAD, Nov 24: Beautiful moments clicked by Indian and Pakistani photographers are attracting many art aficionados at an exhibition in the Rawalpindi Arts Council.

The three-day exhibition, put together by the India International Photographic Council and Photographic Society of Pakistan, opened yesterday and features 80 shots by 15 photographers from the two countries.

Two pictures one of an old aristocratic woman leafing through an old tattered book with a lantern by her side and another of a haggard woman begging for alms—were the cynosure of all eyes.

Shots of nature by both Indian and Pakistani photographers showed that both the countries have huge potential for tourism. But the images of people were the real show-stoppers, speaking volumes of the problems faced by ordinary people on both sides of the border.

India was represented by by Ashok Vardhan, Gurdas Dua, Aseem Sharma, Himanshu Tewari, Vivek R Sinha, C R Sathanarayana, Shakoor Gulrajani and Umesh Mehta while Pakistan by Saleem Khawar, Mushtaq Cheema, Aftab Ahmed, Sami-ur-Rehman, Nisar A Mirza, Waseem Owais and Syed Nayyer Razvi.

The shots taken by the Indian participants captured the country’s traditional dances, landscapes, historical buildings and different seasons.

Pakistan’s caretaker Tourism Minister Muhammad Ali Asif, who inaugurated the exhibition, said such events could showcase the subcontinent’s natural beauty to the world.

Appreciating the skills of the Pakistani and Indian photographers, Asif said the exhibition is a good way to strengthen ties between the two countries that have a common cultural heritage.

Pakistan is bestowed with natural beauty and Government is trying hard to cash in on it through such events, he said.

The Art Council’s Director, Naheed Manzoor, said "whether it’s the old buildings, mountains of the Himalayas or the city of Lahore, the photographers have immaculately captured nature’s beauty through their lens." (PTI)

Suicide bomb kills 6 schoolchildren

KABUL, Nov 24: A suicide bomb in the Afghan capital Kabul today killed six schoolchildren and wounded three Italians working on an aid project building a bridge, an Interior Ministry spokesman said.

"It was a suicide bomber ... Six schoolchildren coming out from school were killed," said Interior Ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary. "The three wounded Italians aid workers were working on a bridge."

(AGENCIES)