Showing posts with label NEWS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NEWS. Show all posts

Sunday, October 19, 2014

Villagers afraid: 18 dead in Pakistan-India fight

Posted By mona 7:02 AM 0  

DHAMALA HAKIMWALA, Pakistan (AP) — Troops trading heavy fire between Pakistan and Indian-controlled Kashmir have plunged civilians on both sides into grief with 18 villagers killed and dozens wounded this week, prompting many to question how two nations committed to a 2003 cease-fire could be targeting civilians while trading blame about who started shooting first.

Iram Shazadi was making breakfast for her family Monday when bullets started whizzing through her dusty Pakistani village of Dhamala Hakimwala — about half a kilometer (quarter mile) from the border with the Indian-administered portion of the disputed Himalayan region. A mortar shell fired by Indian border forces slammed into her home and killed her mother-in-law and two sons, aged 5 and 8.

"I lost my whole world," the injured 30-year-old said Wednesday at a military hospital in Sialkot. She sat crying next to her 6-year-old son, who narrowly escaped the blast.

On the Indian side, farmer Gulshan Kumar spent Tuesday night huddled with his family at home while mortars from Pakistan fell on his village of Chilyari.
"A shell landed in our neighbor's home, killing a 70-year-old woman and her 32-year-old daughter-in-law," Kumar told reporters.
The fighting over the past four nights marks the worst violation of the 2003 cease-fire accord brokered between India and Pakistan after several years of almost-day border battles, officials on both sides say.

While minor skirmishes have been somewhat common over the years, many were shocked that this week's fighting fell over the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha and left civilian casualties — nine in Pakistan and nine in India. The tally includes two women killed early Thursday after fresh fighting erupted overnight, according to Press Trust of India.

Tens of thousands of villagers have fled their homes on both sides since Sunday night, when the violence first erupted along the 200-kilometer (125-mile) border between Pakistan's Punjab province and the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir.

That lower-altitude frontier, guarded by paramilitary border forces, is lined on both sides by agricultural fields and ancient villages that have been there long before Pakistan and India gained independence in 1947 and began wrangling over Kashmir — fighting two of three wars over their rival claims to the mountainous region.

"We have a very serious situation at hand right now," said Shantmanu, an Indian administrator in the area who uses one name.
Panicked villagers on both sides said they were desperate for peace.
"I have been seeing these clashes since my childhood," said 35-year-old Rehmat Bibi in Dhamala Hakimwala, where homes are now pockmarked by bullet holes and streets are largely deserted. "We are living in a state of fear."

The clashes come despite stated desires by both governments on improving ties. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he wanted to engage Pakistan and even invited its prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, to attend his inauguration in May. But relations remain hostile, and in August India canceled talks with Pakistan after its ambassador met with Kashmiri separatist leader
.
Analysts said the civilian tolls took this flare-up to a new level of seriousness.
"At the moment, both sides are digging their heels in, with no meeting of their army commanders scheduled," said defense analyst C. Uday Bhaskar of the New Delhi-based think tank, the Society for Policy Studies.
"We have a new government which wants to show that it means business," Bhaskar said. "The response has been more emphatic than what have we seen in the past five years. This is a matter of concern. Attacking civilians is becoming a new norm."
The U.N. Military Observers Group in India and Pakistan plans to visit the area, the Pakistani military said Tuesday after lodging a protest saying that Indian troops had fired first.
India has also accused Pakistan of starting this week's skirmishes, saying it wants to create a distraction to help separatist militants infiltrate into Indian-controlled Kashmir. Pakistan has repeatedly denied this, saying it gives only moral and diplomatic support to separatist groups who have been fighting since 1989 for Kashmir's independence or its merger with Pakistan.
"We fail to understand why the Indians are targeting Pakistani civilian populations," said Maj. Gen. Khan Javed Khan of the Pakistani paramilitary border force. Indian officials have made similar comments, accusing the Pakistanis of focusing on civilian settlements.
Modi said Wednesday that "everything will be fine soon" but did not elaborate, according to Indian broadcaster CNN-IBN. A top official in his office, however, suggested Indians were feeling "proud" of the forceful response.
"Usually the civilian population is not targeted in this manner," Jitendra Singh said. "Pakistan has taken too long to understand that there is a change in the government in India. They are getting to learn it in a hard way."
Indian-controlled Kashmir is due to hold elections before December, and Kashmir's status — divided between India and Pakistan, while being claimed by both — is a hot-button issue with voters in the mostly Muslim province.
Terrified villagers on both sides say they are fed up with the cycle of violence.
In the Indian village of Regal, four tractors pulled carts carrying dozens of people fleeing Wednesday morning.
"Yet again we are fleeing our homes, leaving behind everything," Darshano Devi said.
Meanwhile, newly married Pakistani villager Baila Mustafa lay wounded alongside her injured husband in Sialkot hospital.
"Please allow us to live with peace," she said.
___
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Woman with cancer plans to take her life in Oregon

Posted By mona 6:42 AM 0  



PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Brittany Maynard will not live to see if her advocacy makes a difference.
The 29-year-old woman expects to die next month. If the brain cancer from which she suffers does not kill her in October, she plans to take advantage of Oregon's Death with Dignity Act and end her own life on the first of November — a few days after her husband's 43rd birthday.
Her birthday is Nov. 19.
"That would have been my 30th birthday," she said in an interview Wednesday. "As of right now, I don't know that I'm going to make it to my 30th birthday, and that's a really difficult thing to process emotionally."
Maynard and her husband, Dan Diaz, uprooted from Northern California and moved north because Oregon allows terminally ill patients to end their lives with lethal medications prescribed by a doctor.
Rather than silently await death in Portland, she has become an advocate for the group Compassion & Choices, which seeks to expand death-with-dignity laws beyond Oregon and a handful of other states.
"It just seemed like something I couldn't turn my back on ethically," Maynard said.
A nationwide media campaign featuring Maynard's story began this week, and it has gone viral.




"It helps me to feel invested in something of worth, something that matters," she said. "Part of what is difficult about becoming so sick is that you lose a lot of your autonomy and your sense of purpose."
Oregon in 1997 became the first state to make it legal for a doctor to prescribe a life-ending drug to a terminally ill patient of sound mind who makes the request. The patient must swallow the drug without help; it is illegal for a doctor to administer it.
More than 750 people in Oregon used the law to die as of Dec. 31, 2013. The median age of the deceased is 71. Only six were younger than 34, like Maynard.
The state does not track how many terminally ill people move to Oregon to die. One of the "frequently asked questions" on the state Public Health Division website is: "How long does someone have to be a resident of Oregon to participate in the act?"
There is no minimum residency requirement, but a patient must prove state residency to a doctor. Some examples of documentation include a rental agreement, a voter registration card or a driver's license.
Maynard said she and her husband were newlyweds actively trying for a family when she learned on New Year's Day that she had brain cancer. By spring, she was given just six months to live.
She said relatives accepted her choice.
"I think in the beginning my family members wanted a miracle; they wanted a cure for my cancer." she said. "I wanted a cure for my cancer. I still want a cure for my cancer. One does not exist, at least that I'm aware of.
"When we all sat down and looked at the facts, there isn't a single person that loves me that wishes me more pain and more suffering."
Barbara Coombs Lee, the author of Oregon's law and the president of Compassion & Choices, said Maynard approached the group in August.
"Our campaign now is to build public awareness, build public support so great that the politicians can no longer deny it," she said.
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Abandoned mines spill orange sludge in Arizona

Posted By mona 6:39 AM 0  

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — A popular tourist attraction in southern Arizona is at risk of being contaminated with orange and brown sludge that spilled from two abandoned mines near Patagonia.
The Trench Camp and Lead Queen mines overflowed late last month because of heavy rainfall caused by Hurricane Odile.

The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality has issued a notice of violation to an Asarco trust that owns the Trench Camp Mine near Patagonia, Arizona. "We've talked to our consultants, and we're gonna do what the state requires us to do," Jay Steinberg, who runs the trust, said Wednesday.
A resident near the town of Patagonia noticed the sludge at the end of September, first at the Lead Queen Mine and later at the Trench Camp one, said Wendy Russell, coordinator for the Patagonia Area Resource Alliance. Both waterways lead to Sonoita Creek, which runs off into Patagonia Lake, the site of the state park.
"This is an ongoing hazard to our community's water supply," Russell said, adding that Patagonia Lake State Park is a tourist attraction. "Folks fish and swim there."
Initial tests showed the water had unsafe levels of pH, but more will be conducted.
The Lead Queen Mine ended operations in the 1940s. Trench Camp closed in the 1960s.
Since then, Arizona has taken Asarco to court to get the company to invest in cleanup efforts at its shuttered mines around the state. The parties settled in 2009, and $2.85 million was allocated to cleaning up Trench Camp and another mine.
Russell said not enough has been done to ensure the sites are free of any toxic materials that could leak into the area's water supply.
"There's been minimal efforts to clean them up, and we just witnessed what happens when they don't get cleaned up properly," she said.
Other parts of the southern part of the state have been affected by the hurricane that damaged the Baja California peninsula. Last month, a copper mine in Sonora, Mexico, spilled into a water supply that leads to the San Pedro River. However, tests revealed the San Pedro River had not been contaminated.





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30-hour ordeal of 400 Saudia passengers ends

Posted By mona 6:30 AM 0  



 Some 400 Riyadh-bound passengers stranded at the Islamabad airport for 30 hours arrived at the King Khalid International Airport (KKIA) on Saturday morning after their plane finally took off from Pakistan.
The Saudia flight SV723 from Islamabad to Riyadh was originally scheduled to depart from Islamabad at 6 p.m. on Thursday.
"The Saudia ground staff at the Islamabad's Benazir Bhutto International Airport announced a delay Thursday night citing technical problems with the aircraft. But the delay extended well beyond the initial few hours," said Shahid Akhtar M. Ayoob, a passenger who is still waiting for his luggage to arrive.
Saudia officials including Abdullah Al-Azhar, spokesman of the Saudi Arabian Airlines, did not respond to several calls and text messages. Asked about the problems faced by the stranded passengers, Ayoob said that his two cousins had also lost their luggage. "We have lodged a formal complaint with Saudia about the missing luggage," he added. Ayoob said that the ground staff had made a mockery of the flight.
"First it was scheduled to leave at 6 p.m. on Thursday, and while we were waiting at the boarding gate, we were told that the flight will leave for Riyadh at 2 p.m. Friday," said another passenger.
"On Friday, the departure of the Saudia flight was pushed to 6 p.m. and then to 9 pm...and then the passengers were later informed that the flight is scheduled for 11 p.m.
on Saturday," said Ehsan Ullah Tarin, whose wife was also on board the same plane. Moreover, the passengers were asked to board the plane twice and were disembarked both times before they finally flew to Riyadh, he noted.

Some women and children became sick and developed symptoms of diarrhea and nausea said another passenger, while complaining about the poor sanitation at Islamabad airport.
Coincidentally, the Internet rating site "Guide to Sleeping in Airports" released its annual list of the "Worst Airports of 2014" on Saturday, with Islamabad airport heading the li

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Monday, September 8, 2014

11 Revelations About Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's Wedding

Posted By mona 3:05 PM 0  

People are still buzzing over the big unveiling of Angelina Jolie's unique wedding dress, which incorporated drawings by her six kids, but that was just one of the big highlights from her highly-anticipated wedding to Brad Pitt. The entire intimate event, held at their chateau in Correns, France, on Aug. 23, was personalized and very family friendly to include their mini "wedding planners" — Maddox, 13, Pax, 10, Zahara, 9, Shiloh, 8, and 6-year-old twins Vivienne and Knox — in the festivities.
Here are 11 things we've learned about the Brangelina nuptials…
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's wedding album appears in this week's People magazine. (People magazine) 
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's wedding album appears in this week's People magazine. (People magazine)

1. It was super kid-friendly. The children weren't only represented on the dress, they all had jobs. "The children chose their roles and their clothes," Angelina, 39, told People magazine, which bought the domestic rights to the wedding appearing in their new issue. Maddox and Pax beamed as they escorted their mom down the aisle; flower girls Zahara and Vivienne joyfully scattered pink rose petals; and Shiloh and Knox were on ring bearer duty and — oops! — dropped one of the Richard Procop-designed wedding bands, causing their parents to crack up during the ceremony. The children even came up with the vows. "They asked us to make promises to each other," the bride said. "It was very sweet what they came up with." And baker Pax made the cake, which was a bit askew due to his liberal use of frosting.
2. There was no music. The guests — and the groom himself — "hummed 'Here Comes the Bride" as she walked down the aisle, Angelina revealed. When the ceremony concluded, the 20 guests again provided the tunes, humming Mendelssohn's "Wedding March."
3. Brad didn't know about Angelina's kid-friendly dress. The Atelier Versace dress — which Donatella Versace said she designed, but Angelina credited to the label's master tailor Luigi Massi — was a secret to everyone. "Brad didn't see the dress until the moment of the wedding," she said, meaning the dozens of drawings (of the bride and groom, zebras, tanks, motorbikes, flowers, and the words "Buttock Fattock") made by their children and sewn in by Massi were a surprise. "I couldn't imagine anyone else making this dress," she added. "He knows and cares for the children and it was great fun putting it together."
4. The guest list included… We all know Jon Voight didn't go, so who were among the 20 guests? Brad's parents, Bill and Jane, and siblings, Doug and Julie, who have families of their own. Angelina's brother, James Haven, was there too — and so was designer Massi, jewelry maker Procop, and their wedding officiant, California judge John Ouderkirk.
Brad's parents, Jane and Bill, were two of the 20 guests invited to the intimate affair. (Getty Images)Brad's parents, Jane and Bill, were two of the 20 guests invited to the intimate affair. (Getty Images)

5. There were several tributes to Angie's mom. Brad, 50, surprised his wife by having a dedication to Marcheline Bertrand, who died of ovarian cancer in 2007, engraved on a stone in the ancient chapel where the couple exchanged vows. Beyond that, the flower ring she wore about halfway down her index finger on her right hand belonged to her mother. And her brother "wore an angel pin from her jewelry box," Jolie said.
Wedding photos also appeared internationally in Hello! magazine. (Hello magazine)Wedding photos also appeared internationally in Hello! magazine. (Hello magazine)6. There were some unusual accessories. Brad Pitt forgot his tie and borrowed the one he wore from one of his sons. Shiloh and Knox, who were ring bearers, wore eccentric hats that they picked out. Shi, who sported a short suit, rocked a top hat, while Knox chose a retro captain's hat.
7. Angelina and Brad recycled. A couple pieces of the bride and groom's wedding attire were "something old." Angelina wore earrings from her jewelry collection while Brad's suit was from his closet.
8. They had a picnic reception. After exchanging vows in their chapel, the group walked over closer to the 35-room main house where they had an alfresco reception among the 1,200-acre property. BBQ was served — and so was the couple's award-winning Miraval rosé. The bride sipped Bosnian rose petal juice. For dessert, Pax's cake was served — along with several flavors of ice cream.
9. It was a no-gift event. Brad and Angelina did not give exchange wedding gifts — nor did they receive any from their guests. In fact, the charitable pair is donating the proceeds of their wedding photos (also run internationally by Hello! magazine), which were distributed by Getty Images, to their Jolie-Pitt Foundation to aid humanitarian causes.
10. The bride's favorite part of the day was… It wasn't saying "I do" or kissing her groom. Angelina said it was, "Seeing how excited the kids were."
The picnic-like reception took place near the 35-room main house on the couple's 1,200-acre French estate. (Splash News) 
 
The picnic-like reception took place near the 35-room main house on the couple's 1,200-acre French estate. (Splash …

11. Even the actress is amused by her honeymoon plans. Days after their nuptials, Angelina headed to Malta where she will soon be directing and starring in By the Sea with her new husband. "We are working together on a drama about grief and finding a way through a difficult marriage," she told People. And, yes, they "find it very funny that it's our honeymoon."
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