All Entries in the "Biography" Category
Rare hope as hospital rises from ruin in Nowshera
NOWSHERA: When water gushed through Nowshera hospital last month it filled operating rooms and wards, left them clogged with stinking mud and forced patients to leave, whatever their condition. Two doctors evacuating the sick had to be airlifted to safety after getting trapped on the top floor of the district hospital, the main source of health care for 1.6 million people in Pakistan’s impoverished northwest. “Eighty per cent of the hospital staff were affected themselves. The water had destroyed their homes, cars and everything. No one was able to come to hospital,” said the hospital’s chief doctor, Muhammad Arshad. But since the ruin, caused by monsoon-triggered floods which swept across the country, a massive volunteer undertaking has allowed the hospital to reopen, and Arshad now sits smiling on donated furniture in his freshly whitewashed office. The walls that were blackened and buried in mud for a week are now a hygienic white, there are working heart-monitor, X-ray, ultrasound and anesthaesia machines, and the damaged water pipe has been replaced. “When we arrived to rehabilitate the hospital we had no idea where to start, because every corner of the hospital needed immediate attention,” said Arif Mehmood Siddiqui, the administrative head of Pakistan’s National University of Science and Technology, who coordinated the volunteer effort. “What we had was mud and a stinking smell. There was not even a bench to sit on to run a clinic,” he says. Young doctors from Rawalpindi, near Islamabad, arrived with doctors from international aid organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres, army engineers and university staff, to roll up their shirt sleeves and save the hospital. Now, after hard work and donations, the hospital has new mattresses and pillows for all 114 beds, there are new delivery tables for the labour ward and the operating theatres are fully functioning. “We have rediscovered this hospital from the rubble,” Siddiqui said. Once the hospital itself had been saved, however, there were hundreds of flood victims waiting for help – meaning extra doctors were quickly needed. “We ran this hospital for two weeks because the doctors normally on duty were affected themselves. There was a dire need for doctors and medicine and we successfully managed it,” said Rawalpindi doctor Nasir Habib. The World Health Organization estimates that 4.4 million flood victims have received medical treatment since the floods began in late July, but that number only accounts for those who visited health centres that reported their figures. Before the floods, this district hospital, situated close to Pakistan’s militant-riddled tribal areas in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, handled up to 400 patients each day, but Arshad says nearly 700 now come daily. Many of them are suffering from water-borne gastric diseases caused by the month-long floods, which threaten to cause a second wave of death among the 18 million affected nationwide. “Everything is under control, we are ready to fight diarrhoea and can deal with the patient load,” said doctor Fayaz Ahmed, who runs a clinic to counter the diarrhoea epidemic. For Nabila, whose two-month-old daughter was struck with the illness, the work of the volunteers has saved her family. “These doctors have given new life to my daughter. I am so thankful to this hospital which has saved my baby from death,” Nabila said. For Shumaila Khatun, a 29-year-old woman who is due to give birth next month, the reopening of the hospital has brought much-needed relief. “I am really relieved. Now I can give birth to my baby without worry,” she said. – AFP
Speech by Bilawal fuels talk of political career
LONDON: The son of Benazir Bhutto and President Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan is expected to make his first speech Saturday since leaving university in Britain, fuelling talk he is stepping up his political career. Bilawal Zardari Bhutto, 21, is heir apparent to a dynasty whose most famous figure was his mother, Pakistan’s former prime minister and the world’s first Muslim female premier, who was assassinated in 2007. His grandfather, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, founded the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) in 1967 and became Pakistan’s president before being overthrown in a military coup and hanged in 1979. Bhutto was studying at Oxford University when his mother was killed and, at the time, those close to him said he should be left to finish his education before moving into politics in earnest. But now he has finished his history degree at Christ Church, seen as one of the most aristocratic of Oxford’s colleges, speculation is growing about what steps he will now take towards his political destiny. Bhutto, who is already chairman of the PPP, is expected to speak before several thousand of its supporters at an event in Birmingham, central England, alongside his father who is visiting Britain. The PPP has played down its significance, perhaps wary of criticism Zardari is facing that he should return to Pakistan in the wake of catastrophic floods which have killed up to 1,500 people and affected some four million. “Bilawal will be there… most likely I think he will make a speech,” said Waheed Rasab, the PPP’s coordinator in Britain. “The president is going to address the community because since the assassination of Ms Bhutto, every time he’s been to London he’s only seen a handful of people and there was a demand from the community”. But Farzana Shaikh, a Pakistan expert at London international affairs think-tank Chatham House, said the son’s appearance was likely to be seen as an important event by PPP supporters. She added that Zardari, long plagued by corruption allegations, was likely to “attempt to really embed Bilawal firmly within the Bhutto legacy” as well as using the event to boost his own standing, which is flagging in Pakistan. “It’s fair to assume that he’s hoping very much by this gesture… to signal that in fact it’s all change and not just for the better but for the cleaner,” she told AFP. Other commentators suggest that the event will provide an opportunity for the PPP to raise funds from supporters based in Britain. Bhutto could soon be heading back to the country of his illustrious ancestors, despite having spent most of his life outside Pakistan. If he does, he will be closer to fulfilling the role for which he has seemed destined since the day he was born. His mother wrote in her autobiography that, after she gave birth to him, there was celebratory gunfire, drumming and cries of “Jiye Bhutto” (“Long Live Bhutto”) outside the hospital. “The most celebrated and politically controversial baby in the history of Pakistan had been born,” she added. – AFP
Tendulkar’s blood to be used in biography
LONDON : Sachin Tendulkar’s blood is to be used in a special edition of a huge biography of the Indian cricket legend, its publishers said Monday.
Pakistan’s drone dilemma
Strategic dialogue at the ministerial level between Islamabad and Washington, initiated during President Bush’s visit to Islamabad in 2006, has been revived with vigour. The last session was held in Washington in March and the next is due in July in Islamabad. The dialogue is aimed at providing a wider and durable base and inter alia has focused on priority areas like the economy, energy, education, science and technology and agriculture. The optimism associated with this process, however, has fallen short of the efforts. Official circles in Pakistan are wary of the assurances and commitments of the US administration. Several rounds of discussions in the two capitals over the last four years have failed to accomplish or craft the vision of a broad-based long-term and enduring partnership. The reasons include not only time and resource constraints but also lack of mutual understanding and divergent interests. India is yet another factor that has frayed the mutual relationship. The US’s obvious tilt towards India in preference over Pakistan’s interest has denied strong public support, the bedrock for any sustainable and durable relationship. Lack of meaningful action on the proposals and promises made for economic measures, such as establishment of Reconstruction Opportunity Zones (ROZ), Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) and Free Trade Area Agreement (FTA), have frustrated Pakistan. Similarly, bracketing Pakistan with Afghanistan has hurt the sensitivities of public opinion, entirely unhelpful for developing a strong foundation of a mutually supportive relationship. Long-lasting friendships can last only if the emotional and psychological make-up of the nation is reckoned with and policies designed in conformity with its ethos, culture and history. The great sacrifices made by Pakistan and enormous suffering that the nation has endured over the last eight years of the war against terror have remained unappreciated and non-recompensed. To add insult to injury, the CIA based in Afghanistan has been conducting drone attacks in violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty and in total disregard of the government’s protests. US media reports have, however, repeatedly alleged that the drone attacks have tacit understanding and approval of military authorities in Pakistan. Pakistan’s ambassador to the US indirectly confirmed this, in a press briefing on July 2: “Pakistan has never said that we do not like the elimination of terrorists through predator drones.” This duplicity primarily stems from the public reaction to Islamabad’s acquiescence to the drone attacks. The drone attacks have been disproportionate to their objectives, causing avoidable loss of human life and resources. The drone strikes are counter to any move to bring the two partners together. They have remained a sad reminder of US’s lack of concern by a friend also claiming to be a strategic partner. The US’s refusal to stop these attacks or to provide drone technology to Pakistan to meet its security interests and also to carry out attacks with moderation and where absolutely unavoidable, do not meet the spirit of President Obama’s assurance that “America will remain a strong supporter of Pakistan’s security and prosperity, long after the guns have fallen silent.” The US must recognise that no matter what the volume of economic assistance given to Pakistan, it will never inspire any feelings of friendliness and partnership until the recurring drone attacks are stopped in accordance with the national milieu. Drone attacks are reprehensible not only in their violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty but also for the civilian deaths they cause and which are becoming increasingly frequent. So far, 144 drone strikes have been carried out in the tribal areas with 1,366 civilian casualties, according to the US National Counterterrorism Center. These attacks are causing deep hatred of the US and their military value is also questionable. In May 2009, in a testimony to US Congress, US Advisor to Gen. David Kilmulllen, asked the Obama Administration to call off the drone attacks stating, “We have been able to kill only 14 senior Al Qaeda leaders since 2006 and in the same period, killed over 700 Pakistani civilians.” The unkindest cut of all was delivered by President Obama who dismissed Pakistan’s protests against drone attacks: “We cannot tolerate a safe haven for terrorists whose location is known and whose intentions are clear.” These attacks have proved counterproductive, both in military and emotional terms. A US think tank has assessed the impact stating, “Predator strikes have inflamed anti-American rage among Afghans and Pakistanis, including first and second generation immigrants in the West as well as elite members of the security services.” Drone attacks are now broadening the area of concerns. Philip Alston, the UN Human Rights Council’s investigator, in a report to the UNGA has warned that “drone strikes employed to attack target executions may violate international law. The onus is really on the government of the US to reveal more about the ways in which it makes sure that arbitrary executions and extrajudicial executions are not in fact being carried out through the use of these weapons.” The legal and juridical aspects of the drone strikes are not only becoming a subject of scrutiny and denunciation internationally, but domestically too the debate is extending to legal forums. Tehrik-i-Insaaf chairman Imran Khan has moved the Supreme Court to declare the predator drone attacks a war crime and violation of sovereignty of Pakistan. The Lahore High Court, in another case, has asked the government to adopt measures to stop them. Public resentment against these attacks, it is argued, is being exploited by rightist elements to maintain that the US does not wish to see any strong Muslim state and that the US and its strategic partner India are bent on destabilising Pakistan. Whatever the impact of such feelings, there is no doubt that drone attacks have become a rallying cry for militants feeding the flow of volunteers as is evident from the terror strikes and suicide attacks in Pakistani cities. Pakistan must raise the issue of drone attacks in the forthcoming round of the strategic dialogue and firmly state that Pakistan’s role in the war against terror would be in proportion to US compliance with Pakistan’s security interests. The drone issue will determine the future of relations with the US. The sooner the two sides comprehend, better for them. The writer is a former ambassador.
Miss World 2005 Unnur Birna of Iceland
Miss Iceland, Unnur Birna, became her country’s 3rd Miss World after winning the 55th Miss World pageant in Sanya, China, December 10th.
Birna, a 21-year old student of Anthropology with hopes of becoming a Lawyer, won over 101 other contestants from all over the globe in what was one of the longest beauty pageants ever held [...]
Miss World 2006 Tatana Kucharova
Tatana Kucharova
Just after Miss Universe 2006 was over, it was time for Miss World 2006.
Czech Republic came through to win the coveted crown as Miss World 2006, in a glittering and star-studded ceremony at the Sala Kongresowa, Warsaw, Poland.
104 beautiful women including Lebanese first runner-up Anabella Hilal spent the past month touring the Eastern European [...]
Miss World 2007 Zi Lin Zhang
The 1.3 billion population of China was behind Zi Lin Zhang to win the title of Miss World 2007, and that’s exactly what she did at the Miss World event held in Sanya, China. The 23 year old and 5 feet 9 inches tall beauty was born in Shi Jia Zhuang City in Hei Bei [...]
Profile sukhinova kseniya of Miss world 2008
Biography of Ksenia Sukhinova
Ksenia Sukhinova, born in 1987 in Nizhnevartovsk, Russia, is a beauty queen who won the Miss Russia 2007 and Miss World 2008 pageants.
Ksenia, who is a Russian model, won the 2007 Miss Russia pageant on December 14, 2007 in Moscow, where she represented Tyumen. Ksenia surpassed 50 other contestants from all over [...]
Miley Cyrus
Show business is about idolization. As an idol to tweens the world over, singer-actress Miley Cyrus, 15, is riding a huge tidal wave at the pinnacle of her career; this is as it should be. I hope she enjoys it. I guarantee there will be many bumps in the road ahead. One of them, especially [...]
Muhammad Ali Jinnah
Jinnah, Muhammad Ali 1876–1948, founder of Pakistan, b. Karachi. After his admission to the bar in England, he returned to India to practice law. Early in his career he was a fervent supporter of the Indian National Congress and an advocate of Hindu-Muslim unity. Jinnah was a member of the legislative council of [...]
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