$3.3m aid for frogs, others

 

The threatened species on the list would benefit from a $3.3 million (2.4 million euro) aid award, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) said Thursday.

 

The conservation fund Save Our Species (SOS), set up by the IUCN, the World Bank and others, has announced it is to allocate the cash to more than 20 projects.

 

SOS is involved in the protection of the Cross River Gorilla and Black Rhino in Africa and the Snow Leopard in Pakistan.

 

Asia s Spoon-billed Sandpiper and Madagascar s Golden Mantella Frog are also on its list.

 

The body is meanwhile working to re-introduce the Philippine Cockatoo to its native land.

 

“By implementing on the ground conservation action, the projects (that) SOS select help protect entire habitats which both people and wildlife depend on,” said SOS director Jean-Christophe Vie.

 

The body was established in 2010 by IUCN, the World Bank and the GEF (Global Environment Facility) with more than $10 million funding to help protect threatened species.–AFP
 

Kashmir – key milestone for Indo-Pak growth: Shankar

TrendPK.com

NEW DELHI: Indian Congressman and the former member of Indian parliament Mani Shankar described Kashmir issue being the biggest milestone to be surpassed if the two countries want serious progress on other sectors, reports TrendPK.

He said all the other longstanding issues would automatically come to logical and easily attained solution as soon as both the countries become able to unravel Kashmir dispute.

Addressing newsmen at Karachi Press Club, Shankar said two countries showed sincere readiness to some extent and became able to resolve Kashmir row through strings of dialogue during the times of former President Musharraf. “Process of dialogue was underway as long as Musharraf stood clang to the power,” he mentioned.

According to their nature, all the disputes need only love, affection and seriousness to get unstitched, Shankar observed, making it clear that war cannot become answer to any dispute. TrendPK

Pneumonia bug evolves to evade vaccine: study

 

Bugs that cause childhood pneumonia and meningitis have evolved to evade vaccines by swapping bits of their genome with other bacteria, according to a study published Sunday.

 

The findings, published in Nature Genetics, show how quickly these life-threatening pathogens can disguise themselves with borrowed genetic decoys, and how hard it is for medicine to keep up.

 

Diseases caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae are thought to kill over a million young children around the world each year.

 

Vaccines that protect against these so-called pneumoccoccal infections are designed to recognise a material on the outer surface of a bacterium s cell called polysaccharide.

 

Each of over 90 kinds, or “serotypes”, of these bacteria have a different polysaccharide coating.

 

In 2000, a vaccine that targeted seven serotypes proved highly effective when introduced in the United States. The same formula — which also prevented transmission from children to adults — was adopted in Britain.

 

Over time, however, the vaccine worked less well, so researchers led by Rory Bowden at the University of Oxford set out to discover why.

 

Combining cutting-edge genetic analysis with epidemiology, which examines how disease spreads, they found that the deadly pathogens escaped detection by swapping genes with other, slightly different, bacteria.

 

Remarkably, the exchanged genetic material came from precisely that part of the genome responsible for making the cell s coating — the area targeted by the vaccine.

 

The bacteria, in other words, had kept their virulence intact but changed their outward appearance.

 

“Imagine that each strain of the pneumoccoccus bacteria is a class of schoolchildren all wearing the school uniform,” explained Bowden.

 

“If a boy steals from the corner shop, a policeman — the vaccine — can easily identify which school he belongs to by his uniform.”

 

But if the boy swaps his sweater with a friend from another school, Bowden continued, the policeman will no longer know where to look and the thief, like the bacteria, will escape.

 

The researchers identified several such “recombined” serotypes resistant to the vaccine, and one in particular that had spread across the United States from east to west over several years.

 

They also observed — for the first time outside a laboratory — that the bugs were able to swap several parts of their respective genomes at once.

 

“This is of particular concern, as recombination involving multiple fragments of DNA allows rapid and simultaneous exchange of key regions of the genome within the bug, potentially allowing it to quickly develop antibiotic resistance,” the researchers said.

 

In both the United States and Britain, the original vaccine has now been replaced with a new one that targets 13 rather than seven of the telltale serotypes.

 

But the scientists caution that the bacteria will continue to morph into new forms.

 

“The current vaccine strategy … is extremely effective,” co-author Bernard Beall, a scientist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, said in a statement.

 

“However, our observations indicate that the organism will continue to adapt to this strategy with some measurable success.”
 

Fire near Reno burns several homes; 10,000 flee

RENO, Nev.: Firefighters were able to stop the progress of a fast-moving brush fire near Reno Thursday, but not before the wall of flames burned several homes and forced about 10,000 people to evacuate their neighborhoods.

Reno Fire Chief Michael Hernandez said more than 230 firefighters were battling the blaze, which was still uncontained and had grown to nearly 6 square miles late Thursday. It was eerily similar to another unusual winter fire that destroyed 30 homes in southwest Reno two months ago.

“Several” homes had been destroyed before nightfall Thursday, Hernandez said. He said he didn’t know the exact number but told reporters “the news is not good.”

There were no immediate reports of any deaths or injuries.

A Reno television station reported at least 10 homes had burned since the fire of unknown origin broke out shortly after noon along U.S. Highway 395.

Washoe County officials declared a state of emergency, and Gov. Brian Sandoval followed with a statewide declaration.

By nightfall, the fire had burned to the city’s southern outskirts. Flames were visible 10 miles away in the downtown casino district.

“It’s moving at a very fast rate,” Washoe County sheriff’s Deputy Armando Avina said. “The winds are extremely powerful in this area.”

Winds that had gusted to 82 mph died down after nightfall and rain started falling, much to the delight of fire crews. The flames were stopped at Galena High School, where Vice President Joe Biden spoke Thursday before the fire forced him to leave early.

The strong winds coming across the Sierra ahead of a winter storm had delayed Biden’s visit, and he was two hours late to give the speech at the school on the south end of town.

With the smell of smoke in the air, Biden told the audience about 25 minutes into his address that he was cutting his remarks short.

Meanwhile, about 300 students were evacuated from Pleasant Valley Elementary School, and deputies went door to door asking people to leave their homes in Pleasant Valley, Old Washoe Valley and Saint James Village, Avina said.

Erika Minnberry, 28, said she didn’t become concerned at first because smoke from the fire appeared far enough away.

“Probably 30 minutes later, it was up to our house because of the high winds,” she said. “I felt pure survival adrenaline. When we drove away, the smoke was so thick, we could barely see ahead of us. Now I feel anxiety. I couldn’t find my two cats at the time and I hope they’re OK.”

KRNV-TV reported that 10 homes had burned, including a half dozen in the Washoe Valley Estates neighborhood. The Reno Gazette-Journal reported explosions could be heard in the area.

Firefighters were concentrating on using crews and trucks to protect homes in the path of the flames, Hernandez said.

He estimated firefighters had saved about 1,000 structures and said another 80 to 120 firefighters were expected to arrive to help before midnight.

“To say we are in the thick of battle is an understatement,” he told reporters.

Hernandez said the fire was “almost a carbon copy” of a huge wild fire on the edge of the Sierra foothills that destroyed 30 homes in southwest Reno in November. It burned about 3 square miles and also forced the evacuation of 10,000 people.

“It is a wind-driven event and a combination urban-wildland fire,” he said.

As with the November fire, which was sparked by downed power lines, strong winds and dry conditions helped fuel the latest blaze, Hernandez said. The Reno area had gone a winter-record 56 days without any precipitation until light snow fell earlier this week.

“There’s a lot of dry trees,” Avina said. “We’re battling with Mother Nature and these winds.”

A gust of 122 mph was recorded Thursday atop Slide Mountain, which is between the fire and Reno at the Mount Rose ski resort.

More wet weather was forecast Friday, and snow was forecast Friday night. But high winds were expected to continue, with gusts up to 40 mph.

About 2,300 homes in the area were without power Thursday night.

Thomas Young, 48, a freelance writer, said he had just gotten out of the shower at his Pleasant Valley home when the power went out. Draped in only a towel, he looked out a window and saw his barn on fire and flames up to his backyard.

“Right away the flames went up a power line, and I said, ‘We have to get out of here,’” Young said. “We put two dogs and two kids in the car and drove away about three minutes later. Unfortunately, I think my house is burned down from what I saw.”

The flames, up to 40 feet high, raced through sage brush, grass and pines in an area where small neighborhoods are dispersed among an otherwise rural landscape. Washoe County animal services officials were helping round up horses and other livestock for evacuation.

A five-mile stretch of U.S. 395 was closed as heavy smoke reduced visibility to zero.

Trooper Dan Lopez said the highway was closed from the south end of Reno at Mount Rose Highway, or state Route 431, to the north end of Washoe Valley near the Bowers Mansion. Northbound traffic was being rerouted back to Carson City about 15 miles to the south.

The State Patrol said the highway would remain closed through the night. AGENCIES

Oprah Winfrey Shares Her Wisdom

TrendPK.com: Oprah Winfrey has been on television for over 25 years, but made her first appearance at the Television Critics Association press tour as the creator of OWN, the Oprah Winfrey Network. Her mandate for programs is to encourage people, with the philosophy she’s brought to The Oprah Winfrey Show over the decades.

“After The Color Purple, I learned that God can dream a bigger dream for you than you can dream for yourself,” Winfrey said. “I try to live in that space that is the universe’s dream for me, the bigger dream. As you heard me say to Barbara Walters, my prayer is: use me. I see myself really as a messenger for a message that is greater than myself. The message is: You can. You can. You can. You can do and you can be and you can grow and it can get better and it doesn’t matter where you were born or who your mother was or how many doctorate degrees you did have or your family had or your father had. It doesn’t matter. You can. You can do.”

Your OWN Show has contestants competing to get their own show on OWN. Will it be the spiritual talk show or Zach Anner’s travel show for people in wheelchairs? Our America with Lisa Ling explores issues of transgenders, drug addicts and sex offender camps in the forest.

“My goal in my lifetime is to really help people to understand that we’re all as human beings to evolve,” Winfrey continued. “So the evolving of consciousness is really what I’m about but I’m not telling people that’s what it is. All of us are here to become more of who we are, of who you really were born to be. Every single one of us in this room has that. That is how we are all equal, because I was born to be who the creator intended, whether you believe in the creator or not. Whatever you believe put you here, you were born to perform the highest expression of that coming. That is my goal as my personal self and it is also my goal to help other people see that in themselves. I fully understand that this platform that I have been given is a gift.”

She’s not preaching about OWN though. Part of the philosophy is to just BE positive, not to force positivity on people. “The whole network is about encouraging people, for the most part, to live with an open heart. It’s about opening yourself to all that is possible for you and extending yourself in grace and gratitude for what you have. There is a spiritual thread to it. I don’t think it’s wise for us to go around announcing we’re the spiritual channel. There are many different ways to assert the nature of what is good without calling it good TV, without calling it spiritual, labeling it that.”

Winfrey has learned her lesson. There’s no doubt that she has changed people’s lives, both hands on and just through broadcasting issues on her show. She can’t take credit for that though.

“One of the things that makes me not anxious but accepting the challenge at this time is that I’ve learned a lot from my mistakes. Being on the air for the past 25 years, I’ve learned a lot about myself, like all of us and our jobs. You learn from what worked and what didn’t work. I made a big mistake about 10-12 years ago of calling what we were doing on television ‘Change Your Life TV.’ That came out of a natural organic process for me, meaning that whenever I would meet people, people would always say to me, ‘Oprah, you changed my life.’ I started to try to hear that and not just dismiss it. I said, ‘What actually changed in your life?’ People would tell me the various things. ‘I went back to school, got a degree. I stopped beating my kids because of you. I left a bad marriage. I was abused.’ I came back to my team and said maybe there’s something to this Change Your Life thing. We started a new season calling it that and felt immediately the pushback from some of you probably in this room.”

One of the television critics actually put it in perspective for Winfrey. “I appreciate good criticism. I don’t appreciate criticism that’s just done from somebody who hasn’t done their research and isn’t looking at it from an objective analytical point of view. My thing is if you’re going to tell the story, tell the whole story. I read one critic that did a really nice analysis of who was I to try to change somebody’s life. In reading that passage, I thought there’s some truth to that. Who am I to say that I’m actually changing your life? What I realized was that’s not for me to say. That’s for somebody else to say. That’s a big lesson I learned. Don’t go around telling people you’re going to change their lives. Let them tell you if that’s what their experience was. Having learned that lesson, I’m moving forward now and wanting to create television that we feel is meaningful and mindful.”

Winfrey won’t buy into the polarizing television of extreme news and reality TV debauchery. OWN could stand out in the cable listings. “All the divisions between the right and left and red and blue, most people are in the middle. Most people are really good. Most people are really, really good. When I started The Oprah Winfrey Show and we were going to be syndicated around the country, I felt pretty confident that show would be successful. Being in this space right now, I know that going forward, it’s really only going to get better and there are enough people, there’s a critical mass of people, we haven’t found them all, who want something better, who want better programming. I know that’s true. I see them every day.”

Taylor Swift’s First CoverGirl Ad Revealed!

Looks like Taylor Swift has something new to croon about. Though the news broke back in April that the singer would be the newest face of CoverGirl, fans have had to wait to see shots from the star’s ad campaign for the brand’s nature-inspired cosmetics line — until now.

“I’m really excited for people to discover the new NatureLuxe line from CoverGirl!” Taylor said in a release. Not surprisingly, the fresh-faced country star proved herself to be as easy, breezy, beautiful as expected.

Peshawar: Blast rocks mosque in Salman Khel, kills 4

A bomb blast has rocked a mosque in the area of Salman Khel near Badh Bir, Peshawar, Dunya News reported on Friday evening.
According to the sources the blast occurred during the Isha prayers in a mosque in Salman Khel while many members of the Peace Jirga were also present in the mosque at the time of blast. Sources have revealed that more or less three hand grenades were thrown into the mosque.The magnitude of the blast was so immense that its voice was heard in a large surrounding area. The security agencies cordoned-off the area soon after the blast and restricted the movement of people near the mosque. According to the police sources, the nature of the blasts is yet to be identified.
On the other hand rescue teams reached the mosque and started the rescue operation and shifted the injured to the nearby hospitals. According to reports, four people have been killed in the blast while the injured have been shifted to the Lady Reading Hospital Peshawar.
Earlier 67 people died while more or less 100 got injured when a suicide blast ripped through a mosque in Darra Adam Khel during Friday prayers. Tehreek-e-Taliban has claimed the responsibility of the blast.
The blast occurred in a mosque of Akhorwal, an area of Darra Adam Khel, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. According to an eye witness, it was a suicide blast and the bomber blew himself up before the gate of the mosque. Whereas, companions of the bomber, who were outside the mosque, opened fire. The mosque was totally destroyed while nearby houses and buildings were been damaged in the blast. Relief activities were started immediately after the unfortunate incident and the injured were shifted to hospitals of Peshawar and Kohat. At least 50 injured were shifted to the Lady Reading hospital in Peshawar.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Information Minister Iftikhar Hussain confirmed that it was a suicide blast. He said that war against militants will be continued till the menace of terrorism is uprooted. He further said that these attacks can not demoralize us.Senior Minister Bashir Bilour said that suicide attackers cannot be Muslims or even human beings. He also condemned the blasts that claimed the lives of innocent people.

Pakistan to walk tightrope on Afghan peace

kABUL: Pakistan will need to walk a tightrope to secure its interests in US-backed reconciliation efforts in Afghanistan, at risk of being sidelined by the Taliban and the Kabul government, analysts say.

British and US newspapers have been awash with reports on the nature of peace efforts needed to end the nine-year Taliban insurgency and allow the 150,000 US-led NATO contingent in Afghanistan to withdraw.

The Taliban have denied any talks are taking place, and Afghan and Pakistani experts on insurgent groups dismiss such reports as as Western propaganda.

But Pakistan is determined to ensure that an allied government is in power in Kabul once the United States and its allies have withdrawn their troops from from Afghanistan.

Washington and Kabul agree there can be no peace in Afghanistan without cooperation from Pakistan, which has repeatedly offered

Aussie athlete sent home for bad behaviour

NEW DELHI: An Australian athlete has been sent home from Delhi for disciplinary reasons, Australian Commonwealth Games Association boss Perry Crosswhite has revealed.

Speaking at a press conference at Delhi international airport as hundreds of members of the team were leaving India, Mr Crosswhite refused to reveal the name of the athlete sent home or the nature of their bad behaviour.

“I’m not going to tell you [who it was]. It was a matter between our team and ourselves,” he said.

He said the athlete was sent home “a few days ago”.

Mr Crosswhite also revealed Delhi police were investigating a separate incident at the athletes’ village involving a washing machine being thrown out of a multi-storey apartment.

Local media is reporting that the incident at the athletes’ village was sparked after the Australian cricket team lost its second Test

Briton killed in Pakistan linked to failed NY bomber

DERA ISMAIL KHAN: A British man killed by an air strike in Pakistan had ties with the would-be Times Square bomber, a Pakistani intelligence official said on Wednesday.

The official, who declined to be named, told Reuters the Briton, Abdul Jabbar, had also been in the process of setting up a branch for the Taliban in Britain.

“He had some links to Faisal Shahzad but the nature of the ties are not clear,” the official said, referring to the Pakistani-born U.S. citizen who was sentenced to life in prison in the United States for trying to ste of a car bomb in New York’s busy Times Square. AGENCIES

Next Page »