Auction set for William and Kate sweet dispensers
March 29, 2011 by Trend PK
Filed under World News
VIENNA: If you’ve ever wanted to eat sweets disgorged from the chests of royalty, your time has come.
PEZ, the Austrian company whose candy dispensers are known around the world, has created a special pair in the likeness of Prince William and his fiancee Kate Middleton ahead of next month’s royal wedding.
Fans of the royal couple or of Pez figurines can submit offers on the eBay for Charity auction platform from April 7 to 17. Proceeds will go to a charity supported by the couple, the company said on Tuesday.
PEZ makes around 80 million dispensers and 4.6 billion sweets a year, but unlike other popular models the William and Kate figurines will not dispense sweets through their mouths.
“The whole head bends back,” the spokeswoman said.
The smiling figure of Kate wears blue while William dresses in black with a red tie.
“The figure of Prince William has a lot more hair than in real life,” the spokeswoman said. AGENCIES
UN says Pakistan floods worse than 2004 tsunami
SUKKUR: The United Nations said Monday that massive floods in Pakistan had affected 13.8 million people and eclipsed the scale of the devastating 2004 tsunami, as anger mounted among survivors.
The Pakistani government and UN officials have appealed for more urgent relief efforts to cope with the worst floods in more than 80 years, with President Asif Ali Zardari due to return home after a heavily criticised European tour.
The entire northwestern Swat valley was cut off at the weekend as were parts of the country”s breadbasket in Punjab and Sindh.
“This disaster is worse than the tsunami, the 2005 Pakistan earthquake and the Haiti earthquake,” Maurizio Giuliano, a spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said.
He said the 13.8 million affected outstripped the more than three million hit by the 2005 earthquake, five million in the tsunami and the three million affected by the Haiti earthquake.
The United Nations estimates 1,600 people have died in Pakistan”s floods.
About 220,000 were killed by the December 26, 2004 tsunami in Southeast Asia.
Martin Mogwanja, the UN humanitarian coordinator in Pakistan, called on relief operations “to be massively scaled up”.
“Millions of people have suffered and still there is more rain and further losses are feared. I appeal to the world to help us,” Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told reporters.
Pakistan”s meteorological office forecast only scattered rain in the next 24 hours and said the intensity of monsoon showers was lessening.
But with floods sweeping south, thousands of people are fleeing into cities to seek safety as heavy rains continued to lash the province of Sindh and water levels rose further in the swollen Indus river.
Hundreds of farm workers were stranded on a bridge in the highway town of
Karampur in northern Sindh, camped out with utensils and bedding while the road beyond lay flooded and the main Indus highway blocked, a reporter said.
“We wanted to go to a safer place but we can”t move,” said Dodo Khan, 50, an agriculture worker.
“Our village is submerged in water. We fled to save our lives. We thought we would get relief goods but we got nothing.
“We haven”t eaten for three days. My younger son, who is just five years old, is crying with hunger.”
Gnawing on a piece of onion, the child winces at the bitter taste, crying and visibly unable to swallow.
Survivors have for weeks lashed out at authorities for failing to come to their rescue, piling pressure on Pakistan”s cash-strapped administration straining to contain Taliban violence and an economic crisis.
Thin and frail, Mahi Bacchi, 45, cried: “We voted for this government. We made Asif Ali Zardari our ruler but we don”t know why he is so unconcerned.
“We are here without food and water. Our children are sick but no one comes from the government to help us.
“Please send vehicle and take us out. We are in grave danger. There is water on one side and hunger on the other,” she said.
Zardari has spent August in France and Britain, courting massive criticism from the political opposition and intelligentsia for not returning at a time of national disaster. One protester threw a shoe at him in England.
The United Nations estimated that up to 500,000 people are homeless and 1.4 million acres of agricultural land destroyed in central Punjab province, but said damage was worst in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
The OCHA spokesman Giuliano said that even donkeys were being used to access parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa inaccessible by other means and warned that the risk of water-borne diseases persisted.
Authorities in the Punjab district of Muzaffargarh issued a red alert and ordered people to evacuate as water entered the city from breaches in canals.
“The situation is very serious. We are totally helpless. That”s why we asked people to move to a safer place,” local official Farasat Iqbal said.
An overloaded army boat evacuating people in the Punjab town of Jampur capsized Sunday and 30 people are missing, said a local official.
At least 14 people, including three children, were killed as flash floods destroyed homes in the the northwestern Hangu district. In the lawless Khyber district on the Afghan border, 150 houses were destroyed in floods.
Swedish climber dies on K2: officials
GILGIT: A mountain climber from Sweden plummeted to his death while climbing the world”s second highest mountain, K2 in the Himalayas of northern Pakistan, local officials said.
Frederik Ericsson was trying to conquer 8,611-metre (28,251-feet) peak but fell 1,000 metres and was buried under heavy snow, a senior government official in the town of Shigar said.
“I have issued his death certificate after his guide told police that he died,” said the official, Zamir Hussain.
“He died some four days back,” Hussain added.
Police in Shigar also confirmed the death.
Ericsson”s Austrian climbing partners said last week that they believed he had died after falling near the summit.
He was climbing with Austrian Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner, who narrowly missed a bid to be the first woman to conquer all 14 of the world”s 8,000-metre peaks.
According to his website, Ericsson was attempting to ski the world”s three highest peaks: Mount Everest, K2 and Kanchenjunga on the border between Nepal and China.
Updates on his site indicated the climbers had had warm conditions on K2 in recent days.
K2 is regarded by climbers as far more dangerous and difficult to scale than Mount Everest, the world”s highest peak, and has a rate of deaths to successful summit attempts almost five times as high.
Italian climbers Achille Compagnoni and Lino Lacedelli were the first to scale K2 on July 31, 1954. Between then and 2007, there have been 284 successful ascents and 66 fatalities.
heinz fischer
April 25, 2010 by Trend PK
Filed under World News
The Austrian President, Heinz Fischer, has won a second six-year term in office in a landslide election.
The veteran Social Democrat politician gained almost 79% of votes cast for the largely ceremonial post, according to preliminary official results.
The controversial far-right candidate Barbara Rosenkranz won 15% of the vote while Rudolf Gehring of the small Christian Party was third with 5.44%.
Turn-out was low by Austrian standards at just under 49%.
That figure was expected to rise slightly once postal votes were counted.
Mrs Rozenkranz, who is married to a man who was a member of a banned far right-wing party, 
was never expected to win this election.
But many Austrians were outraged at her nomination. In the past, she has criticised Austria’s anti-Nazi laws, saying they go against the freedom of speech.
Pakistan”s arrest of Taliban leader threatens peace talks: Afghan officials
April 10, 2010 by Trend PK
Filed under World News
KABUL: Senior Afghan officials are now criticizing as counterproductive the arrest in Pakistan this year of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the No. 2 Taliban official. Its main effect, the Afghan officials say, has been to derail Afghan-led efforts to secure peace talks with the Taliban, making that peace ever more remote.
According to Washington Post, senior Afghan officials in the military and presidential palace accuse Pakistan of orchestrating the arrest of Baradar and others to take down Taliban leaders most amenable to negotiations.
Pakistani officials flatly deny that they intended to derail Taliban talks. Such an allegation, one of Pakistani intelligence official said, is a “slur on us.”
Armless woman sews with feet
April 10, 2010 by Trend PK
Filed under World News
BEIJING: Every day, Liu Jianming sets up shop on a street corner in southwest China and sews. Her embroidered designs are painstakingly created – with her feet.
Liu was born without arms but has been a seamstress since she was a teenager, the Austrian Times reported.
She can”t afford a shop, so Liu works from a corner in the city of Kunming Yunnan. She creates embroidered pictures and accepts any sewing jobs she can find.
“I”m quite proud of my work,” she told the Austrian Times. “People are always skeptical that the creations are all my own work when they first see them – but once they”ve seen me threading a needle then they lose all doubt.”
Liu said that now she was getting older it was getting harder to sew.
“I still don”t have any problem using my feet to sew – the problem is my eyesight is not as good as it used to be and it”s hard to see the thread,” she said.
Liu”s achievement places her among many people who not only transcended a disability – but also excelled.
In the last century, another woman born without arms became an acclaimed artist.
Mary Belle de Vargas drew, painted, typed – and sewed – with her feet. Although the Louisiana woman”s health was frail, she graduated from college and served on several local arts organizations until her death in 1946. De Vargas was 44 years old.
Listverse website lists extraordinary, or “differently abled,” people that includes Stephen Hawking, Helen Keller, Ludwig van Beethoven and blind athlete Marla Runyan.
Von Trapp Family
Von Trapp Family,Sound Of Music:the ABC Family had finally decided to launch the film of Sound Of Music together with the Von Trapp Family Singers with Julie Andrews who plays Maria and Christopher Plummer as the Capt. Von Trapp as its lead stars.Korvettenkapitän Georg Ludwig Ritter von Trapp headed the Austrian singing family portrayed in the heavily-fictionalized musical The “Sound of Music”. Indeed this is a great movie for all the family.
Von Trapp Family was first posted on December 28, 2009 at 12:10 pm.
Von Trapp Family,Sound Of Music
December 28, 2009 by Trend PK
Filed under World News
TrendPK.com Von Trapp Family,Sound Of Music:the ABC Family had finally decided to launch the film of Sound Of Music together with the Von Trapp Family Singers with Julie Andrews who plays Maria and Christopher Plummer as the Capt. Von Trapp as its lead stars.Korvettenkapitän Georg Ludwig Ritter von Trapp headed the Austrian [...]
FM Qureshi Discusses Relations With Counterparts
NEW YORK: Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi spent a busy day at the United Nations on Tuesday, meeting with his counterparts from various European, Central Asian and African countries on advancing bilateral relationships in economic and diplomatic fields.
In a meeting with the Tajik Foreign Minister Hamrokhon Zarifi, the top Pakistani diplomat, who is accompanying President Asif Ali Zardari to UN General Assembly session, discussed the situation in Afghanistan and the recent elections in that country.
They discussed prospects of bringing 4000MW electricity from Tajikistan to Pakistan with the Tajik diplomat reiterating his country’s desire to supply electricity to Pakistan as it has surplus power.
Foreign Minister Qureshi underlined the need for starting negotiations on free trade agreement as a framework to bolster commerce between the two countries.
Qureshi and Austrian Foreign Minister Michael Spndelegger also discussed bilateral relations. The foreign minister briefed his Austrian counterpart on Pakistan’s successful anti-terrorism efforts in Swat.
He reiterated Islamabad’s call for getting greater access to the robust European market, saying expansion in trade will help spur economic growth and bring employment to people. The foreign minister said Pakistan is pleased that the European Union has agreed to start negotiations on the subject.
Meanwhile, Qureshi said, Pakistan wants to avail GSP facility.
Foreign Minister Qureshi also had a meeting with an Italian parliamentary delegation led by its former foreign minister and exchanged views on UN Security Council reforms.
The Italian parliamentarians were appreciative of Pakistan’s efforts in fight against terrorism and expressed their support for Islamabad’s desire for greater access to the European market. The members of the delegation said they see Pakistan as a prospective and attractive investment destination.
Meanwhile, the Pakistani foreign minister and his Egyptian counterpart Ahmed Aboul Gheit also exchanged views on expanding bilateral economic cooperation and agreed that the joint ministerial commission should meet at the earliest.
The Egyptian diplomat extended an invitation to Shah Mahmood Qureshi to visit Cairo at his earliest convenience.
Discussing growing level of Egyptian investment in Pakistan, Gheit said Egyptian entrepreneurs see Pakistan as a lucrative investment destination.
Qureshi briefed the Egyptian foreign minister about Pakistan-India relations and the situation in Afghanistan.
FM Qureshi Discusses Relations With Counterparts was first posted on September 23, 2009 at 7:05 pm.
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