Hajj Scandal: Kazmi, Swati Sent Packing

trendpk: In a move desperately awaited by the victims in particular and the public in general, Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani dismissed two federal ministers: Hamid Saeed Kazmi, Minister for Religious Affairs, and Azam Khan Swati, Minister for Science & Technology over Hajj corruption scandal.

Minister for Labour & Manpower Khursheed Shah has been appointed as Minister for Religious Affairs, while Federal Education Minister Sardar Assef is given the portfolio of Minister for Science &Technology.

Health Minister Makhddom Shahbuddin is given the charges of defence production.

Secretary Religious Affairs Agha Sarwar Qizalbash has also been replaced by Secretary for overseas Pakistanis Saeed Khan. Qizalabsh has been ordered to report back to the Establishment Division. Hamid Saeed Kazimi and Azam Swati were entangled in a court battle and stand off over corruption charges in Hajj operation.It should be mentioned here that Federal Minister for Science and Technology Azam Khan Swati leveled allegations regarding serious corruption against Federal Minister for Religious Affairs Hamid Saeed Kazmi in alleged corruption in hajj arrangements.

It is pertinent to mention here that there are no allegations of corruption against Azam Swati; however, he was sacked from his ministry for overlooking the directives from the Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, who directed the two to avoid giving statemnets.

More than 60 percent of Afghans suffer from mental problems

KABUL: Scarred by decades of war, social problems and poverty, more than 60 percent of Afghans suffer from stress disorders and mental health problems, officials warned Sunday.

“This is a major problem,” Suraya Dalil, Afghanistan’s acting public health minister, told a ceremony in Kabul on World Mental Health Day. “More than 60 percent of Afghans are suffering from stress disorders and mental problems.”

The picture is particularly grim in parts of the country where government healthcare workers are unable to provide basic services because of Taliban insurgency, she said.

“Extreme poverty, insecurity, violence and gender disparities are the major factors contributing to worsening mental health in Afghanistan.”

The World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed that more than 60 percent of Afghans, mostly women, suffered from psychosocial problems or mental

KP’s HD wastes millions worth of medicines and vehicles

Staff Report

PESHAWAR: The negligence of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s (KP) Health Department (HD) has caused a waste of government hospitals’ medicines and vehicles worth millions of rupees.

According to details, ten years ago medicines, vehicles, surgical instruments and other medical machinery worth millions of rupees had been brought for the basic health units of Chamkani and Phandu areas in the outskirts of Peshawar.

Without being used, all medicines have expired, while vehicles and other medical tools and machinery are out of order.

The officials of KP’s Health Department have claimed that medicines were not used because they were sub-standard; and during flood relief work for flood victims and Swat’s IDPs, the vehicles also became out of order.

After receiving report of the waste, a four member committee headed by the KP Health Minister, Zahir

Beach revellers train crash kills 13 in Spain

CASTELLDEFELS: An express train slammed into a group of young revellers crossing the tracks to get to a beach party in northeast Spain, killing 13 people and injuring 14, officials said Thursday.

“The impact was brutal. The sound was like that of rocks being crushed but it was humans,” one witness to the disaster, named as Andres, told the daily newspaper El Mundo.

The accident happened as about 30 people who had got off a local train at the Castelldefels Playa station, some 25 kilometres (15 miles) south of Barcelona, tried to cross the tracks at around 11:30 pm (2130 GMT) Wednesday.

They were heading to the nearby beach for the annual San Juan festival that celebrates the start of the summer in parts of Spain and which includes bonfires, fireworks and dancing.

A passenger express train travelling to Barcelona from the southeastern city of Alicante then ploughed into the group on the tracks.

“It is a day of sadness and mourning on a night that should be of festivity, of a street party,” the president of the regional government of Catalonia, Jose Montilla, said after visiting the scene.

Analysis of the remains by forensic experts revealed that 13 people were killed, Catalonia”s justice minister, Montserrat Tura, said late Thursday. Authorities had earlier put the death toll at 12.

One of the 14 injured is in critical condition and two others are in serious condition, the Catalonian health minister, Marina Geli, told a news conference.

Activists wounded in Israeli raid land in Turkey: TV

ANKARA: A Turkish plane carrying two activists wounded in an Israeli raid on Gaza-bound aid ships landed at a military base here Wednesday, live television footage showed.

Speaking minutes before the small ambulance plane landed, Health Minister Recep Akdag said it carried two activists — a Turk and an Irish national — wounded in Monday”s raid.

One of the men was seen doing the V-sign with both hands as he was taken out from the plane on a stretcher, wrapped in white sheets and his face barely visible.

Two Turkish military planes carrying a total of 17 other wounded Turkish activists had taken off from Israel and were to land in Ankara later in the evening, Akdag said.

The activists were to be taken to an Ankara hospital for treatment, he added.

All Polish plane crash victims identified: Russia

MOSCOW: The remains of all victims in the plane crash that killed Poland”s president have been identified and will shortly be handed over to Warsaw, Russia”s health minister said Wednesday.

“Tatyana Golikova again expressed her condolences to the Polish people and said that all genetic identification work is complete and all remains are identified,” the minister”s spokeswoman said as quoted by the RIA Novosti news agency.

Russia was preparing to send the remaining 21 bodies back to Poland, the spokeswoman said.

President Lech Kaczynski”s Tu-154 jet crashed while trying to land near the city of Smolensk in western Russia on April 10, killing all 96 people aboard, including many high-ranking Polish officials.

Venus Volcanoes Could Be Alive

Researchers suggest that Venus may still be active for volcanoes eruption as it is one of the few places in the solar system to have experienced volcanism.

Relatively young lava flows have been identified on the planet’s surface by the spacecraft’s infrared instrument. The flows show up as having a different composition to the surrounding surface material.

Researchers estimate that they may have been erupted as recently as 2.5 million years ago – and probably much nearer in time than that. The team reports its assessment of lava flows in the Imdr, Themis and Dione regions of Venus.

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Venus Volcanoes Could Be Alive was first posted on April 12, 2010 at 11:21 am.
Copyright @ A Pakistan News.Com

Conjoined Twins Died In Riyadh

Two-week old conjoined twins born in the Gaza strip died in Riyadh after doctors said their condition was too delicate to operate, a Saudi official said.

Frail health and bacterial infection killed Ritaj and Rittal Abu Assi, Health Minister Dr Abdullah al-Rabeeah announced in a statement published by the official Saudi news agency.

The twins were born in Khan Yunis on March 27 joined at the chest and sharing a defective heart and other organs.

They were sent to the King Abdulaziz Medical City’s special conjoined twins centre on Tuesday for a possible separation operation.

But after examining the twins, doctors said a day later that their organs were too damaged and their health too critical to undertake the operation.

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Conjoined Twins Died In Riyadh was first posted on April 12, 2010 at 11:25 am.
Copyright @ A Pakistan News.Com

MQM Delegation Meets President Zardari

KARACHI: A delegation of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) met with President Asif Ali Zardari here at Bilawal House.

The MQM delegation comprised of Deputy Conveyer MQM Dr. Farooq Sattar, Governor Sindh Dr. Ishratul Ibad, Provincial IT Minister Raza Haroon, Adil Siddique,Wasim Aftab, Health Minister Dr.Saghir, Sardar Ahmad and City Nazim Mustafa Kamal while Interior Minister Rehman Malik assisted President Zardari.

Federal Ministers Farooq Sattar and Rehman Malik talked to media after the meeting. Farooq Sattar said MQM expressed solidarity with President Zardari on the death anniversary of Benazir Bhutto and praised her services for the country. The decision about local bodies system will be taken in upcoming meetings, he added.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik said corruption will be rooted out from the country and decision on local bodies system will be taken according to nation wishes. He said an internal meeting of PPP and MQM will be held in this connection and PPP and MQM will continue work together to strengthen democracy.

Iran’s Pilgrims Banned To Saudi Arabia Over Swine Flu

TEHRAN: Iran has banned pilgrimages to Saudi Arabia during the upcoming Muslim holy month of Ramadan to prevent the spread of swine flu.

Health Minister Kamaran Baghri Lankarani says the measure has been imposed because of possible outbreaks of the disease among pilgrims.

State radio quoted Lankarani as saying Thursday that the high number of pilgrims who come to Saudi Arabia during Ramadan increases the risk of infection.

Iran has registered 145 cases of swine flu, many of them linked to travels to the kingdom. The first case was a 16-year-old Iranian boy who came from the United States with his parents in late June.

About half a million of Iranians travel to Saudi Arabia on pilgrimages every year.

This year, Ramadan starts in late August.