Taliban pulled from Medal of Honor game

Electronic Arts has given in to protests and pulled the ability to play as Taliban fighters from its upcoming Medal of Honor video game.
The game, which is being released for the PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on Oct. 12, is set in the early stages of the current Afghanistan conflict. It was to allow gamers to fight as Taliban against U.S. and allied troops in its online multiplayer mode, a feature that sparked criticism from some military officials and families of soldiers who have died in Afghanistan.
Critics said allowing people to play as the enemies in a current conflict would be insensitive to the families of soldiers who have died.
The Redwood City, Calif.-based company relented Friday and said it will cosmetically change the feature so that players will instead control generically named fighters.
Because the heartbeat of Medal of Honor has always resided in the reverence for American and allied soldiers, we have decided to rename the opposing team in Medal of Honor multiplayer from Taliban to Opposing Force, executive producer Greg Goodrich said in a statement on the game’s website. While this change should not directly affect gamers, as it does not fundamentally alter the gameplay, we are making this change for the men and women serving in the military and for the families of those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice this franchise will never willfully disrespect, intentionally or otherwise, your memory and service.
Gamers were divided on the change. Some criticized the company for setting the game in a current conflict in the first place. I just do not feel right knowing I am buying a game about a current war going on to loin sic the pockets of EA executives with money, said one gamer in a Gamespot forum.
Others were critical of the company for backing down. What a contradiction of what this game means, wrote a gamer. This whole time they were preaching about realism and they can’t even say who the enemies are. Many gamers also accused the media of practising a double standard. Films such as last year’s The Hurt Locker set during the conflict in Iraq can win best-picture awards while video games dealing with similar topics evoke controversy. EA president Frank Gibeau commented on that trend in August. At EA we passionately believe games are an art form, and I dont know why films and books set in Afghanistan dont get flak, yet games do, he told the Develop-Online website. Whether its Red Badge Of Courage or The Hurt Locker, the media of its time can be a platform for the people who wish to tell their stories. Games are becoming that platform. The new Medal of Honor game is a reboot of the long-running series, which was created by film director Steven Spielberg and saw its first release on the original PlayStation in 1999. All of the games in the series have taken place during the Second World War, with the new game representing the first time a new setting has been used. The switch to using Opposing Force brings Medal of Honor closer to another successful war game franchise, Activision’s Call of Duty. The most recent game in that series, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 released a year ago used fictional Middle Eastern characters in its multiplayer mode also named OpFor. Japan’s Konami drew similar criticism last year over Six Days in Fallujah, a game it planned on developing in conjunction with Iraq war veterans. The company dropped plans for the game just over a month after announcing it.

Iran’s Ahmadinejad calls on Palestinians to fight on

TEHRAN: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad urged Palestinians to keep up their armed struggle against Israel a day after Israeli and Palestinian leaders agreed to continue talks on a U.S.-backed peace deal.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who hosted in Washington the first session of talks between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, voiced confidence that this latest attempt to bring peace to the region could succeed where so many others have failed.

Ahmadinejad said that the talks, seeking to end a conflict that has boiled for six decades, would once again fail. He criticised some Muslim leaders for not providing all-out support to the Palestinians in their revolt against Israel.

“The Palestine’s issue cannot be resolved through talks with the enemies of the Palestinian nation. Resisting is the only

More American think Obama is a Muslim

WASHINGTON: Nearly two years after Barack Obama’s election as U.S. president, a growing number of Americans misidentify his faith as Muslim, according to a new poll released Thursday.

Despite Mr. Obama’s attendance in church and his repeated public statements about his Christian faith, nearly one in five respondents on the survey said they believed he is a practitioner of Islam, while only 34% of Americans correctly identified him as a Christian, down sharply from a year earlier.

The poll was conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

Meanwhile, the percentage of people who say they are unsure what religion Obama practices has risen to 43%, from 34% a year ago.

The poll found one third of conservative Republicans believe Mr. Obama is a Muslim, a figure that has nearly doubled. But the president’s faith was incorrectly identified by rising

Gilani sets up NDMC to oversee relief efforts

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani said on Thursday, while presiding over the National Disaster Management Council (NDMC) meeting that he will supervise rehabilitation work himself, and announced the formation of the National Oversight Disaster Management Council (NODMC) which will transparently collect funds for the flood affected people.

“I myself supervise the relief and rehabilitation process for the flood victims to get it done in a transparent manner,” said PM Gilani in the NDMC meeting.

The meeting was presided over by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and attended by all the chief ministers, Prime Minister of Azad Kashmir, Chief Minister of Gilgit-Baltistan, Chairman of NDMA and heads of organisations concerned.

PM Gilani assured that qualified and talented people will be appointed by the NODMC, their names will be announced

Five swept away in flood-hit Muzaffargarh

Five swept away in flood-hit Muzaffargarh Staff Report

MUZAFFARGARH: Five people were swept away by the floodwater after the roof of their house collapsed in Muzaffargarh District on Thursday.

Hundreds of homeless people of flooded Muzaffargarh continued to arrive in Multan.

Despite the tall claims of the Punjab government, displaced flood victims have been living in miserable conditions in various parts of the city.

Most of the flood victims are staying at Multan railway station with no proper arrangements for food or shelter by the local administration.

Speaking to a SAMAA correspondent, a flood victim said that the food being provided by the local people during Sehr and Iftar is not sufficient to meet the requirement of hundreds of people. SAMAA

ANP condemns killing of Ubaidullah Yousufzai

Staff Report

KARACHI: ANP leader Shahi Syed on Saturday urged his party’s activists to keep a close eye on the enemies of Pakhtun community.

His call came hours after unknown gunmen shot dead a senior ANP worker Ubaidullah Yousufzai in Karachi.

Expressing grief at the death of Ubaidullah Yousufzai, Syed said he doesn’t want to accuse anyone of killing, but people are aware of the elements, who don’t want to see peace in Karachi.

The ANP leader also appealed to ANP workers to maintain calm.

Meanwhile, he demanded the immediate arrest of the killers of Ubaidullah Yousufzai. SAMAA

Afghan bus hits roadside bomb, 20 dead: governor

HEART: Twenty civilians were killed and another 27 injured when a crowded bus hit a Taliban-style roadside bomb in southwestern Afghanistan early Wednesday, an official said.

The bus was travelling on a highway in the Delaram district of Nimroz province when the blast occured, provincial governor Ghulam Dastgir Azad said.

“The roadside bomb struck a civilian bus this morning. Twenty civilians were killed and another 27 have been injured,” he told media.

“The bomb had been planted by the enemies because this morning a coalition convoy was supposed to cross the area,” he said, referring to NATO forces.

“Coalition forces helped us to evacuate the injured.”

Civilian casualties in the war in Afghanistan are largely caused by Taliban attacks, according to surveys.

Roadside bombs are the Taliban”s main weapon in the war, now approaching the end of its ninth year.

Bomb blast kills eight Afghan civilians

GHAZNI: A bomb tore through a mini van in central Afghanistan Monday, killing eight civilians including women and children, police said.

The blast from an improvised bomb, a device widely used by the Taliban in their attacks on security forces, killed the civilians in Andar district in the troubled central province of Ghazni.

“The bomb was planted by the enemies, the Taliban to target security forces. But it struck a civilian car and killed eight civilians,” Mohammad Idris, a provincial police official told foreign news agency. Women and children were among the dead, he said, but could not give exact figures.

PML-N workers stage rally to support Shoania wedding

MULTAN: The activists of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) held a demonstration at the Multan Press Club in a show of support for Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik and Indian tennis star Sania Mirza ahead of their planned marriage on April 15.

The demonstrators said that love would finally prevail no matter what the enemies did. They were chanting slogans of “Welcome Welcome Sania, Shoaib welcome”

They were of the view that Sania would be the daughter-in-law of entire Pakistan after her marriage with Shoaib.

In addition, the protestors slammed the registration of an FIR against Shoaib and seizing of his passport.

Purpose Day

TrendPK.com This is genius. So many great lines that I couldn’t choose my favourite if I had to. A couple stand out, though: I know we didn’t treat you well, we didn’t understand/Because if we’d known what a pain in the ass it’d be, we’d have let you keep Afghanistan. Also, Enemies [...]

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