Gillani says his Govt has ‘no problem’ with Musharraf

ISLAMABAD, Apr 26: Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gillani has indicated that he intends to work with President Pervez Musharraf, saying he does not think that his Government "will have any problem" with the former military ruler.

Gillani, who heads the new ruling coalition formed by the Pakistan People’s Party and PML-N, also said he did not believe that Musharraf had any intention of using the President’s controversial powers to dissolve the parliament and dismiss the prime minister.

"He (Musharraf) has been President for eight years. He has willingly doffed his uniform. And he has recently conducted an election, one that has brought pro-democracy forces into power. I don’t think we will have any problem from him," Gillani said in an interview with the Nawa-i-Waqt Urdu media group.

He was replying to a question on the possibility of Musharraf using his powers under the controversial Article 58(2b) of the constitution to dissolve parliament in case the judges deposed during last year’s emergency are reinstated.

"We don’t believe the President has any intention of using the clause," Gillani said. "The people gave us our mandate for the restoration of the constitution. We will have to respect that. And so does the President."

While the PPP has indicated that it is willing to forge a working relationship with Musharraf, PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif has been insisting that the President should quit.

Gillani avoided giving a direct reply to a question on the possibility of PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari becoming Prime Minister after contesting by-elections in June.

"Mr Zardari has every right to contest the election. As far as my office is concerned, I was made Prime Minister by my party. And I will stay with the party," he said. (PTI)

SKorea says it will buy air-to-ground missiles from abroad

SEOUL, Apr 26: South Korea has decided to buy hundreds of cruise missiles capable of striking targets such as North Korea's nuclear sites and command posts, reports said today.

The Korea Times and other newspapers said the air-to-surface missiles would be fitted on 21 new F-15 fighter jets that Seoul has agreed to buy from Boeing between 2010 and 2012.

A spokesman for the Defence Acquisition Programme Administration said the government had decided to secure "top-of-line air-to-ground guided missiles from abroad" instead of developing them locally.

"No decision has yet been made as to the type and supplier for the missiles," he said.

However, reports said some 400 Lockheed-Martin Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles, or other missiles of similar capacity which have a range of 400 kilometres, would be purchased.

The reports came as inter-Korean relations are cooling, with the North cutting off all dialogue with its neighbour, labelling Seoul's new president Lee Myung-Bak a "traitor."

South Korea's new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Kim Tae-Young, said in March that it would be important for the South to find nuclear sites and strike them in case the North was about to use an atomic bomb against it.

The North interpreted these remarks, made in response to a hypothetical question from a lawmaker in parliament, as hinting at a preemptive military strike.

Lee, a conservative who took office February 25, has angered the North by adopting a tougher line on relations after a decade-long "sunshine" engagement policy under liberal presidents. (AGENCIES)_

UN expresses concern over security of its personnel

UNITED NATIONS, Apr 26: Concerned over mounting attacks on its staff, the United Nations has called on member states to take steps to protect the world body’s personnel involved in peace-keeping tasks in various countries.

"There appears to be no safe haven for any UN staff members," Staff Union President Stephen Kisambira said yesterday while paying tribute to 294 personnel killed last year in attacks and accidents.

The dead includes 17 staff members killed in December 2007 bombing of UN office in Algiers, seven staff members who died in a helicopter crash in Nepal last month and four UN military observers killed in July 2006 bombing of an observer post in southern Lebanon.

Besides 152 military personnel, 20 police officers and 75 staffs, all locally recruited, were among those killed in attacks. This included 47 people serving with the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC), 39 with the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) and 34 with the UN Mission in the Sudan (UNMIS).

The latest victim, Mohammed Makki El Rasheed, was shot and killed on 21 April in Darfur while driving a truck of supplies for the World Food Programme (WFP).

Kisambira asked member states to ratify the ‘Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Safety of UN and Associated Personnel-2005’, which deals with safety of personnel involved in delivering humanitarian, political and development assistance in various countries.

The Protocol is not yet in force, as only 11 countries have ratified it. (PTI)

Pregnant Indian women ‘at greater risk of extreme nausea

LONDON, Apr 26: Pregnant women in India are three times more likely to suffer from extreme nausea and vomiting than their counterparts in many western countries, a new study has revealed.

Researchers at Norwegian Institute of Public Health have carried out the study and found that extreme nausea and vomiting vary among pregnant women in different countries, the ‘Scandinavian Journal of Public Health’ reported.

Earlier studies reported that 90 per cent of pregnant women experience some degree of nausea and vomiting, whereas 0.5 to 2 per cent have hyperemesis gravidarum.

"This is one of the largest studies carried out on hyperemesis gravidarum. In contrast to earlier studies we tested the quality of the data and therefore have confidence in our findings," lead researcher Ase Vikanes said.

In fact, the researchers came to the conclusion after analysing 900, 000 first-time pregnancies over a forty year period in Norway. Socio-demographic factors such as marital status, country of birth, education and age in each pregnancy were also studied.

Mothers born in India and Sri Lanka had the highest prevalence of hyperemesis gravidarum, followed by those born in Africa (excluding North Africa) and Pakistan by 3.2 per cent, 3.1 per cent and 2.1 per cent respectively.

The study also found that ethnic Norwegians, North Americans and Western Europeans had the lowest prevalence by 0.9 per cent, 0.9 per cent and 0.8 per cent, respectively.

Maternal age between 20-24 years old, being married, carrying a female foetus or more than one foetus were all socio-demographic characteristics associated with a higher prevalence rate of hyperemesis gravidarum.

"The difference in prevalence of hyperemesis gravidarum related to the mother’s country of birth cannot be explained by differences in socio-demographic characteristics.

"We have to look for other explanations such as genetic factors, a change of diet or a history of infections. This topic needs further research to identify ways to prevent this life-threatening and distressing condition," Vikanes was quoted by the ‘ScienceDaily’ as saying. (PTI)

US soldier's court-martial in death of Iraqi goes to jury

WHEELER ARMY AIRFIELD, HAWAII, Apr 26: A nine-member jury began deciding whether an Army platoon sergeant deliberately shot and killed an unarmed Iraqi man or whether he truly believed the man posed a threat during a dangerous raid on an insurgent hideout in a southern village near Kirkuk.

At least six members of the panel must find Sgt 1st Trey Corrales guilty for him to be convicted on the charge of premeditated murder, which carries a minimum sentence of life in prison.

He is also charged with wrongfully ordering another soldier to shoot the man and planting an AK-47 at the scene to create the impression the victim was holding a weapon.

Corrales, 35, admitted to shooting the man when his platoon busted into a house last year in the village of Al Saheed. The platoon was looking for insurgents they suspected of firing at US helicopters and planting roadside bombs.

But Corrales argued that the killing fell within the rules of engagement governing the use of deadly force. He pleaded not guilty to all three charges.

An Army report said the victim's name was Salih Khatab Aswad, but no one came forward to identify his body and the US military was unable to confirm his identity. An autopsy determined he died of gunshot wounds.

Prosecutors said Corrales planned the killing from the time he received a phone call the night of June 22 ordering his platoon to go after the insurgents. They said he ordered his platoon to kill all military-age males in the target house.(AGENCIES)

Indian child dies after being locked up in school bus

DUBAI, Apr 26: A four-year-old kindergarten student from Kerala died after he was allegedly left for four hours in a locked school van in Abu Dhabi.

Aathish, a KG grade one pupil of Merry Land kindergarten on Muroor Road in Abu Dhabi, boarded the van on Thursday morning and a phone call from the school at 1250 hrs (local time) said he had met with an accident, his father told Gulf News.

"When my wife, father and friends reached Shaikh Khalifa Medical City, the doctors said the child was dead," said Shebin Sreedher who works at Jebel Ali in Dubai.

"He was my only son," he said. Dhanya, the boy’s mother, works for Etihad Airways.

"A hospital report said the cause of the death was unknown, but we came to know from officials that he suffocated," said Mr Sreedher.

"We came to know that he did not alight from the van at the kindergarten. He was put in the van at 0735 hrs (local time) by my father. It is suspected that no staff checked whether the boy alighted from the bus and reached the class," said Mr Sreedher adding, "The driver and attendant might have taken the bus to the parking space and found the boy inside the bus in the afternoon."

A spokesman for the school said the child had taken ill and was absent from classes for three days. He said they were not aware the child had boarded the bus that morning. (UNI)

AAM wants prez candidates to take stand on jobs loss to China

NEW YORK, Apr 26: With the presidential candidates busy campaigning, the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM) has launched its own drive in Indiana to force them to take position on jobs being lost to China and extract promise that they would do something about it.

"China cheats, Indiana loses" is the slogan aimed at the voters especially the blue collar workers who are the worst affected by the manufacturing jobs moving to China.

The campaign aims at exploiting the worries in the minds of the voters as the American economy continues to plummet and prices of food and fuel continue to rise, analysts say.

AAM says its multi-faceted "China Cheats" campaign will continue urging the presidential candidates to speak out and hold China accountable for unfair trade practices that result in job losses. The campaign will run through the May six Indiana primary.

"Voters who care about the economy are the dominant demographic for the primary candidates. The candidate who clearly commits to solving the China crisis is going to win Indiana," said AAM Director Scott Paul.

"China cheats and Indiana loses - more than 45,200 jobs since 2001. China continues to play by different rules than everyone else, and voters in states with big manufacturing job losses like Pennsylvania and Indiana continue to be harmed," he added.

The "China Cheats" ads will appear in seven media markets across the state, including: Evansville, Ft. Wayne, Indianapolis, South Bend, Terre Haute, and two outlets in northwest Indiana. (PTI)

Tough language on Tibet despite China talks offer

BEIJING, Apr 26: Chinese media kept up its tough language on the Dalai Lama today, a day after a surprise offer of talks with his envoys, as analysts expressed caution about whether dialogue would ease tensions in Tibet.

China blames the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, for a wave of anti-government unrest throughout its Tibetan areas, and has vilified him as a separatist bent on independence for Tibet and disrupting the Beijing Olympics.

''It's too early to tell if the meeting will produce results or is just for PR purposes in advance of the Olympics,'' Mary Beth Markey, a vice-president at the International Campaign for Tibet, said in a statement.

In the report announcing the offer of talks, China's official Xinhua news agency softened its language, referring to the Dalai ''side'', rather than the Dalai ''clique'', and rather than demanding he ''stop splittist activities'' as a precondition, said he must take credible moves to do so.

But despite the subtle changes in the English-language report, other arms of China's state media kept up their condemnation of the Dalai Lama, who fled into exile in India in 1959 after a failed uprising against Communist rule.

The People's Daily, the voice of the Communist Party, carried news of the dialogue offer alongside a separate story that said the Dalai Lama was unfit as a Buddhist leader.

''The behaviour of the Dalai clique has seriously violated fundamental teaching and commandments of Buddhism, undermined the normal order of Tibetan Buddhism and ruined its reputation,'' the newspaper said.

The Tibet Daily similarly quoted an official repeating China's position that the Dalai Lama was responsible for the series of protests and was behind a deadly riot on March 14 in Tibet's capital Lhasa, charges the Dalai Lama has denied.

CRACKDOWNS AND CONCESSIONS

''The splittist Dalai clique is the main source of influence over Tibet's stability. It is the biggest hidden trouble in the stable development of Tibet, we vow to carry out a resolute struggle!'' the report said.

Tibet's Government-in-exile, which says the Dalai Lama sent a letter to Chinese President Hu Jintao as early as March 19 offering to send representatives to help calm the situation in Tibet, said it was committed to dialogue.

But in a statement from its base in Dharamsala, India, it said the attacks on the Dalai Lama must stop.

''It is our position that for any meeting to be productive, it is important for the Chinese leadership to understand the reality and acknowledge the positive role of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, rather than indulging in (a) vilification campaign...''

Analysts said carrying out crackdowns and offering concessions at the same time was part of China's strategy.

''All the attacks on him can be seen as pre-negotiation tactics designed in part to bolster domestic nationalism and at the same time to weaken his position in any future talks,'' said Robbie Barnett, a Tibet scholar at Columbia University.

But, he added, because six rounds of dialogue since 2002 between China and the Dalai Lama's envoys had yielded no discernible results, Beijing had used up much of its political capital on the issue.

''It is hard for people to see good intentions behind Beijing's moves,'' he said.

(AGENCIES)

Abbas disappointed after no progress in talks with Bush

WASHINGTON, Apr 26: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he failed to achieve any progress in Middle East peace talks with President George W Bush and was returning home with little to show for his visit.

In an interview with The Associated Press, the Palestinian leader sounded pessimistic yesterday about the prospects of achieving any deal with Israel this year despite a big US push that began five months ago at a summit in Annapolis, Md.

"Frankly, so far nothing has been achieved. But we are still conducting direct work to have a solution," Abbas said.

Abbas said the biggest obstacle is Israel's continued expansion of Jewish settlements on Palestinian-occupied territories.

"We demanded the Americans implement the first phase of the road map that talks about the cessation of settlement expansion," Abbas said, expressing disappointment the US hasn't exerted more pressure on Israel to stop.

"This is the biggest blight that stands as a big rock in the path of negotiations."

Asked for comment, White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said: "President Bush is helping to push the process forward. This wasn't a meeting in which major breakthroughs were expected.

"Ultimately, this is for the Israelis and the Palestinians to come to an agreement. Each party has more to do - and given the serious commitment of the leaders, the president remains confident that defining a state by the end of the year is still possible," he said. (AGENCIES)

Hollywood is on edge ahead of summer movie season

LOS ANGELES, Apr 26: With the summer movie season set to begin with next week's release of comic book movie ''Iron Man,'' Hollywood is holding its breath, hoping for a big start to the lucrative moviegoing period.

Matching last summer's record 4.1 billion DOLLARS box office haul won't be easy, experts said, in large part because of comparisons with the likes of ''Shrek the Third, ''Spider-Man 3'' and ''Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.''

Still, Hollywood is launching a 2008 salvo that includes ''Speed Racer,'' ''The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian'' and ''Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,'' with Harrison Ford reprising his role as the daring adventurer, ''Indy'' Jones.

Yes, the pressure is on for a blockbuster summer season, which runs from May through August and can account for nearly 40 percent of the annual box office. But at least one man is reveling in all the hype: ''Iron Man'' director Jon Favreau.

''I think it's great. You know, my last movie got sucked into obscurity because there was so much else going around it,'' Favreau said, speaking of his 2005 special effects-filled ''Zathura: A Space Adventure.'' The movie earned good reviews but failed to catch fire early in a crowded holiday movie season.

By contrast, ''Iron Man'' makes its debut on May 2 as summer's first major release, and there is little competition in its way.

Based on the Marvel Comics series, the movie stars Robert Downey Jr as a wealthy chief executive and high-tech weapons maker who invents a powerful suit armed with secret technology. His goal: use the armor to kill bad guys and achieve good in the world.

Paul Dergarabedian of Media by Numbers, a Los Angeles-based box office watcher, said expectations for the movie's ticket sales are ''all over the map,'' but he believed it had a good chance to do well. That would be good news for Hollywood.

North American ticket sales are down roughly 3.5 per cent at 2.47 billion dollars so far this year, compared with 2.56 billion dollars at this time last year. Attendance is off 6.5 percent, Dergarabedian said.

''We need summer and we need it now because we are definitely in a downturn,'' he said.

A SUMMER SAMPLING

Following ''Iron Man,'' Hollywood fires off one big-budget movie after another. On May 9, comes ''Speed Racer,'' a family film about a race car driver based on a popular cartoon. Created by ''The Matrix'' filmmakers, brothers Andy and Larry Wachowski, it stars Emile Hirsch and Christina Ricci.

One week later comes ''Prince Caspian,'' another family film set in the magical land of Narnia, where good and evil do battle.

On May 23, ''Indiana Jones'' hits silver screens with Indy (Ford) battling Russians to find a skull with mystical powers.

The new Indiana Jones flick is set 19 years after the treasure hunter's last adventure. Aiming to appeal to young audiences (Ford is now 65 years-old), director Steven Spielberg hired ''Transformers'' star Shia LaBeouf, 21, to play Indy's sidekick.

The comic book movies and other adventures do not stop in May. June features a new version of massive green monster ''The Incredible Hulk'' starring Edward Norton, and Angelina Jolie kicks some butt in ''Wanted.''

By July, Will Smith plays a superhero in ''Hancock,'' and Hollywood's No. 1 alien hunters Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) return to movie screens in ''The X-files: I Want to Believe.''

Batman is back, too, in ''The Dark Knight'' with Christian Bale as the comic book hero and the deceased actor Heath Ledger as his nemesis, the Joker. Fans also have high expectations for ''Hellboy II: The Golden Army.''

While action adventure movies are certain to put people in theater seats, Dergarabedian reckons that comedies will turn out to be the summer season's stars.

''Often comedy gets overlooked as a mainstay of summer,'' he said, noting films like June's ''Get Smart'' based on the popular 1960s TV show and starring Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway.

Other films rolling out the laughs are May's ''The Foot Fist Way'' and ''Sex and the City,'' the film version of the major HBO hit TV show starring Sarah Jessica Parker. June's ''The Love Guru'' has funny man Mike Myers portraying a spiritual leader.

Movies such as ''Kung-Fu Panda'' and Disney/Pixar's ''Wall-E'' look to stir up family crowds, as does ''Kit Kittredge: An American Girl,'' based on the popular American Girl dolls.

Finally, amid all the big Hollywood flicks, don't forget low-budget, independent movies, which include Sundance film festival darlings ''Son of Rambow'' and ''The Wackness.'' (AGENCIES)

Greater wealth tied to lower stroke risk

NEW YORK, Apr 26: For people aged 50 and 64 years, being wealthy seems to protect them against having a stroke, according to new research. After age 65, however, wealth appears to make little difference in stroke risk.

''We confirmed that lower wealth, education and income are associated with increased stroke up to age 65, and wealth is the strongest predictor of stroke among the factors we looked at,'' Dr. Mauricio Avendano, who was involved in the research, noted in a written statement.

''After age 65, the association of education, income and wealth with stroke are very weak, and wealth did not clearly predict stroke,'' said Avendano, of Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

Each year about 780,000 Americans suffer strokes; about 27 per cent of strokes occur before age 65, according to the American Heart Association.

Avendano and co-investigator M Maria Glymour assessed the effect of income (ie, annual earnings), wealth (total of all assets minus liabilities) and education on stroke risk in 19,445 Americans in the ongoing University of Michigan Health and Retirement Study (HRS), which surveys Americans age 50 and older every two years.

All of them were stroke-free when they entered the study in 1992, 1993 or 1998. During an average of 8.5 years, 1,542 people in the study had a stroke.

Avendano and Glymour report in the American Heart Association's journal Stroke that the 10 per cent of people with the lowest wealth had three times the stroke risk at age 50 to 64, compared with those with the highest wealth.

''Lack of material resources themselves, and particularly wealth, appear to strongly influence people's chances to have a first stroke,'' Avendano said. ''From a public health perspective, this would mean that diminishing the large wealth gap at age 50-64 also could help diminish the large disparities in stroke.''

However, as noted, from age 65 on, stroke risk was not significantly different between the two wealth groups for men or women. ''We expected wealth to be a strong predictor of stroke in the elderly,'' Avendano said. Wealth more than income ''comprehensively reflects both lifelong earnings and intergenerational transfers, and increases access to medical care and other material and psychosocial resources,'' Avendano added. ''We were surprised to see that it was not associated with stroke beyond age 65.''

The study also found a greater prevalence of common risk factors for stroke, including high blood pressure, smoking, inactivity, overweight, and diabetes, among the 50- to 74-year-olds with lower wealth, income and education. (AGENCIES)

Scientists take major step forward in knowing how memory works

LONDON, Apr 26: Scientists at Bristol University have taken a major step foward in understanding how our memory works, a breakthrough which they claim could help in restoring the brain in Alzheimer’s patients in the future.

In their experiment, they have been able to prevent visual recognition memory in laboratory rodents by blocking certain mechanisms that control the way that nerve cells in the brain communicate, the ‘Neuron’ journal reported.

According to the scientists, this demonstrates that cellular and molecular mechanisms in the brain have been identified which may provide a key to understanding processes of recognition memory.

"This is a major step forward in our understanding of recognition memory. We’ve been able to show that key processes controlling synaptic communication are also vital in learning and memory," lead researcher Prof Zafar Bashir said.

Added co-researcher Dr Sarah Griffiths, "Nerve cells in the perirhinal cortex of brain are known to be vital for visual recognition memory. Using a combination of biological techniques and behavioural testing, we examined whether the mechanisms involved in synaptic plasticity are also vital for visual recognition memory."

In their experiment, they were able to identify a key molecular mechanism that controls synaptic plasticity in the perirhinal cortex. They then demonstrated that blocking the same molecular mechanism that controls synaptic plasticity also prevented visual recognition memory in rats. This shows such memory relies on specific molecular processes in brain.

"The next step is to try to understand the processes that enable visual memories to be held in our brains for such long periods of time, and why these mechanisms begin to break down in old age," Prof Bashir said. (PTI)