Sep
7
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has accused the west of acting provocatively in and around the black sea, where the United States is using warships to deliver humanitarian aid to Georgia.
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Addressing state council meeting in Moscow, he said he has summoned meeting to discuss changes in Russia’s foreign and security policy after the conflict in Georgia. Russia has also accused the u.s. Of ferrying weapons to the Georgian military under the guise of the humanitarian mission and has threatened to inspect all supplies coming ashore.
Sep
3
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Regular, moderate exercise may help improve memory in older people and delay the onset of dementia, a study in Australia shows.
The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, involved 170 participants aged 50 and over who reported some memory trouble but who did not have dementia.
Half engaged in moderate exercise, such as walking, for 50 minutes three times a week, while the others did no exercise.
After six months, the participants were given memory and other tests, including recalling lists of words. Those who exercised fared markedly better than those who did not.
“The trial is the first to demonstrate that exercise improves cognitive function in older adults with subjective and objective mild cognitive impairment,” according to the report.
“The benefits of physical activity were apparent after 6 months and persisted for at least another 12 months after the intervention had been discontinued.”
With the ageing of populations everywhere, an estimated 37 million people worldwide now live with dementia, with Alzheimer’s disease making up the majority of cases, according to the World Health Organization.
That figure is expected to increase rapidly over the next 20 years and researchers are looking for ways to help delay the onset of dementia.
(Reporting by Tan Ee Lyn; Editing by Keiron Henderson)
Sep
1
Students pitch in with sandbagging as Gustav nears
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BATON ROUGE, Louisiana (CNN) — It was dark and hot and everyone was bone tired on Sunday night in Baton Rouge. But they still came, many in truck after truck, to a parking lot on the edge of the edge of the city, all armed with shovels.
Dwayne Nickles, center, loads sandbags into the trunk of his car with Harsha Dissanayake, left.
“Sandbagging — gotta do it,” said Dwayne Nickles, his T-shirt soaked through, grunting as he dug into a massive pile of sand left for those who needed to guard their homes against potential Hurricane Gustav flooding.
Squatting next to Nickles, Louisiana State University student Harsha Dissanayake had too much energy for someone who had spent much of the day at the school medical school helping officials take care of patients.
The 20-year-old moved 10 days ago from Sri Lanka to Baton Rouge, the state capital about 80 miles northwest of New Orleans. When he heard of the impending hurricane, he thought about the miserable experience his country endured during the 2004 tsunami.
“Southern hospitality is real,” he said. “People are so, so nice to me, and they ask me, ‘Did you lose your relatives? What was it like during the tsunami?’ and I feel like they really care. iReport.com: How did you prepare for Gustav?
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“I knew I had to volunteer and do my part to help,” he said.
Dissanayake was, in part, also helping his friend Kenneth De Abrew, also an LSU student. De Abrew had a remarkably cheerful disposition considering he lives on a first floor apartment complex that often floods. See and hear De Abrew talk about his hurricane plans »
“You just have to be ready for it,” he said, laughing. “It’s nature. Actually, it’s kind of exciting!”
He heaved a few bags toward their pile and paused, surveying the dozen sweating people working hard to dig, stuff and seal bags.
“Sandbags actually remind me of bad stuff,” De Abrew said. “They use them in wars to make bunkers.”
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Aug
30
Stocks at the Karachi share bazaar slid a further 2.4 per cent on Friday, recording a sharp plunge of 30 per cent in equity values over the eight months since January this year.
The KSE-100 index clinging to four figures of 9,994 points just four months down the road from its record high at 15,750 on April 18, looked especially gory.
Many stock brokers shook their heads when asked if they were on the sell side. But foreign investors were clearly the panic prone herd.
“Net foreign selling since January stands at $350 million with sell orders flying across trading rooms of brokerages aggregating to a huge $20 million in the past two days”, says Mohammad Sohail at JS Capital.
The sinking value of the rupee which hit the pit at Rs77.15 to a dollar on Friday, weak economic numbers including depletion in foreign exchange reserves and the political wrangling among coalition partners were believed to have prompted Moody’s to issue a note of caution on Wednesday, which foreign funds took as a signal to take to a flight.
Foreigners who had entered the equity market in droves to grab advantage of the previous seven years of the country’s outperformance as one of the best markets in the world, still hold $3 billion worth of stocks and 25 per cent of the free float.
But over the past four months, value of Pakistani equity market has sunk to $41 billion, from $75 billion, reflecting a loss of $34 billion. Converted at the current currency value that worked out to a drain of staggering Rs2.6 trillion! Market capitalisation at close of trading on Friday stood at Rs3.1 trillion.
Tariq Iqbal Khan, chairman and MD of NIT, the country’s largest mutual fund and the manager of the recently constituted “Equity Market Opportunity Fund” of the size of Rs20 billion says, he never sells in a falling market.
He reiterated that the Opportunity Fund had been created to capture value buying for its contributors, which in turn could stabilise the market. He said that the ‘concept paper’ of the Opportunity Fund clearly laid down that approvals had to be sought from the federal government and the SECP and that the Fund could sell “only if it is satisfied that such sale would not in any manner destabilise the market and that it is not detrimental to the basic objective of never acting against public interest”.
Nadeem Naqvi, who recently stepped down as the CEO of AKD Securities to venture into more challenging tasks, asks for a look at the global picture. “Stock markets”, he says “are taking the blow everywhere because both the US and Europe are experiencing sharp economic slowdown; Japan posted negative GDP growth in the last quarter and Indian economy growth has slid from 9 to 7 per cent”.
China is expected to face a meltdown after the glowing economics of Olympics are over. “Due to the global slowdown, inflation is rising and interest rates are likely to edge higher in the future, pushing down asset values including that of stocks all across the world”, says Nadeem.
But for the KSE, he has something cheerful to say. “Historically over the 10 to 15 years, the Pakistani stocks have traded at the forward price-to-earnings (p/e) ratio of 8.5 to 9 times and the equities are now down to a multiple of 6.7 times, which means the downside is limited”.
He, however, adds that the upside too is capped at the index level of 11,000 points, given the political uncertainty, high interest rates, economic worries and the erosion in the value of rupee”.
Several market pundits agreed that the KSE might continue to trade in the range of 9,000 to 11,000 points until the winter this year.
Aug
30
Hundreds of sick Gazans crossed into Egypt after Hamas and Egyptian authorities temporarily opened the Rafah crossing for the first time in weeks.
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Over 600 people left the blockaded Palestinian territory into Egypt through the crossing — the only one that bypasses Israel. The people allowed to cross include hundreds of Palestinians requiring treatement in Egyptian hospitals as well as Egyptian nationals and Palestinians holding Egyptian passports.
Aug
30
Four deposed judges of the Lahore high court were sworn in Lahore.
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The number of the judges of the Lahore high court has also been increased from fifty to sixty. Chief justice Lahore high court justice Syed Zahid Hussain administered the oath. Those who took oath are:
Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, Justice Asif Saeed Khosa, Justice Azmat Saeed And justice Umer Atta Bandiyal Judges of the lahore high court and a large number of lawyers attended the oath taking ceremony.
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Aug
29
Russia says the U.S is provoking the conflict in Georgia for domestic election purposes.
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In an interview with CNN, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said the U.S citizens were in the area during the conflict over south Ossetia and were taking direct orders from their leaders. At the United Nations, Russia and Georgia traded harsh words during an open Security Council meeting.The council also refused to approve a request from representatives of two Georgian breakaway regions, which Russia has recognized as independent states, to address the council.Speaking in Washington, white house spokesperson said the U.S may scrap a civil nuclear pact with Moscow and consider sanctions as punishment for its military action in Georgia.She said the U.S is consulting in its international partners, such as France, Germany and all the other NATO countries in this connection. In Tbilisi, the Georgian parliament approved a resolution calling on the government to cut diplomatic ties with Russia. It called on the government of President Mikheil Saakashvili to declare Russian military forces in Georgia illegal and occupying forces.
Aug
29
Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani says a strategy is being evolved to improve health care system in the country.
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Addressing a function organized by Pakistan pharmaceutical manufacturers association in Lahore he emphasized to focus on local raw material to provide drugs to the people on affordable rates. The Prime Minister stressed the need for taking steps to fight hepatitis as eighteen percent population of the country is suffering from this disease.
Aug
27
The U.S. secretary of state Condoleezza Rice says Israel’s settlement building in the West Bank is not conducive to creating an environment for negotiations.
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Rice reiterated the U.S. position in separate talks with Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. She said anything that undermines confidence between the parties ought to be avoided. Rice also discussed with Abbas for the first time new ideas that could move peace talks forward. Her visit coincided with the release of a report by an Israeli watchdog group saying construction of housing for Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank had nearly doubled since last year.
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Aug
27
The All Parties Hurriyet Conference has strongly condemned the arrest of Hurriyet leaders, continuation of the imposition of curfew and excessive use of brute force against peaceful protestors in occupied Kashmir.
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The APHC leaders, Shabbir Ahmed Shah And Nayeem Ahmed Khan in their separate statements demanded immediate release of all illegally detained Hurriyet Leaders and activists including the APHC chairman, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Syed Ali Gilani and Muhammad Yasin Malik. They expressed concern over occupation authorities’ denial to disclose whereabouts of the detained leaders. Jammu Hurriyet Leader, Muhammad Sharif Sartaj, The President of Jammu and Kashmir democratic forum, Pandit Bhushan Bazaz and the muslIm action committee Jammu said that India would not succeed in stifling Kashmiris’ voice by such undemocratic tactics. On the other hand, India’s leading peace activists in a joint statement condemned the imposition of curfew and other repressive measures in occupied Kashmir urging India to rein in its paramilitary troopers. Signatories of the statement included Arundhati Roy, Aruna Roy, Anand Chakravarti, Goutam Novlakha, Mahaseweta Devi, Medha Patkar, Nikhil Dey, Prashant Bhushan, sanjay Kak and Uma Chakravarti. Reporters sans frontiers (RSF), an international media watch dog, in a statement issued from its Paris office asked India to put an immediate stop to the censorship and violence against the media persons in occupied Kashmir. The statement said that at least 13 journalists were beaten by Indian police on Sunday in Srinagar. Meanwhile, curfew remained in force in all the ten districts of the Kashmir valley for the third day, today. Indian troops resorted to teargas shelling and gunfire to disperse hundreds of protesters, who defying curfew orders, came to the streets in Achabal, Ganderbal and Magam areas. Complete strike was observed in rajouri, Mandi, Surankote, Doda, Bhaderwah, Mandher, Banihal and Kishtwar against the killing of innocent Kashmiris in troops’ indiscriminate firing, yesterday. The troops desecrated a mosque in Hyderpora area, which triggered forceful protests. Three persons including a woman succumbed to the injuries; they received in troops’ firing in Hajan. The occupation authorities did not allow funeral rites for a youth, martyred in troops’ firing in Hajan and permitted only four persons to take his dead body to graveyard.