Punjab drug reaction: Death toll surges to 72

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LAHORE: The overall death toll spurred by the reaction of heart medicines at Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC) surged to 72, TrendPK reports Wednesday.

Meantime, Punjab Health Department issued notification regarding the post mortem of the people killed by drug reaction.

The recent death was of a heart patient Bilqis Begum, 50, a resident of Lahore area of Sandah. Her condition worsened this morning at Mayo Hospital.

The police and district administration are going to each doorstep in entire province to collect back the PIC-offered medicines on directives given by Punjab government. Also, the suspicious medicines are being captured from markets as well.

A report on the medicines recovered thus far has been sent to the commissioner.

The provincial government announced recompense money for the bereaved families and sent abroad the medicine samples.

The steering committee set up to probe the issue has termed it a calamity. The committee chairman Khawaja Salman Rafiq said the provincial government was forced to buy medicines from the companies listed by federal government.

He said the plan is being formulated for future purchase of the medicines, adding the suspicious have been taken back from 9,000 patients. TrendPK

PM says no clash with army leadership

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ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani has once again dismissed the impression of civilian government’s clash with military leadership over the memogate scandal, saying that he declared army statements illegal under ‘specific circumstances’, TrendPK reports.

The PM had termed ‘unconstitutional’ and ‘illegal’ the statements of army and ISI chiefs submitted to Supreme Court in memo scandal case.

“I want to rule out this impression being taken from my statement that Mr. Kayani and Mr. Pasha’s affidavits were illegal. I said that under some specific circumstances and now the situation is clear to all,” Gilani said while talking to newsmen at Islamabad airport before leaving for Davos-Klosters, Switzerland to attend annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF).

He was accompanied by Finance Minister Hafeez Sheikh, Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar and Senator Abbas Afridi. TrendPK

Drug reaction: Police, FIA to submit report today

Staff Repot

LAHORE: Authorities have said that a report on deaths in Lahore hospitals caused by suspicious medicines would be presented to Punjab government by this evening, TrendPK reports Wednesday.

The decision emerged at a meeting of police and FIA teams which are investigating into the mystery disease, allegedly spawned by adulterated medicines given to patients at Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC), claiming 73 lives in past three weeks.

Two more patients died on Wednesday.

Meantime, Punjab Health Department issued notification regarding the post mortem of the people killed by drug reaction.

The police and district administration are going to each doorstep in entire province to collect back the PIC-offered medicines on directives given by Punjab government. Also, the suspicious medicines are being captured from markets as well.

Sources said Wednesday’s meeting, attended by police and FIA officials, decided to present its detailed report to Chief Minister Punjab and the health ministry by this evening.

A separate report on the medicines recovered thus far has been sent to the commissioner.

The steering committee has been set up to probe the issue under its chairman Khawaja Salman Rafiq. He said the provincial government was forced to buy medicines from the companies listed by federal government.

He said the plan is being formulated for future purchase of the medicines, adding the suspicious have been taken back from 9,000 patients. TrendPK

Nine dead as Indian bus driver goes on rampage

MUMBAI: An Indian bus driver left at least nine people dead and dozens hurt Wednesday after going on a rampage during rush-hour, smashing into cars and crushing pedestrians, police told AFP.

The rogue driver hijacked the vehicle in a depot and then sped down the crowded streets of central Pune in western India as children headed to school and office employees made their way to work.

The half-hour wrecking spree came to a halt only when members of the public wrestled him from the controls after he rammed into another bus. He has since been detained and interrogated by police.

“He just went berserk. He went on ramming whatever vehicles were plying the road,” the city’s commissioner of police, Meeran Borwankar, told local television.

“Citizens came forward and literally threw children (out of the way). He was in such a dangerous mood. Ultimately he was held (by police) but the damage has been tremendous.”

An officer in the local police control room told AFP that nine people had been killed and 27 injured. Some 40 vehicles were left mangled, with cars damaged and autorickshaws overturned.

“He was a nut-case, he had completely lost his head,” said the officer, who asked not to be named.

“Most of the damage was to parked taxis, private vehicles, cycles and stalls.”

Identified by police as 30-year-old Santosh Mane, he was confirmed as a licensed driver and employee of the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC).

“This is very unfortunate. We are unsure what state of mind he was in when he committed the act,” V.V. Ratnaparkhi, a senior official at the MSRTC, told AFP.

Witnesses described their horror as the bus careened through the streets. The Press Trust of India reported that police fired 10 shots during their pursuit of the vehicle.

“Whoever came in his way, he just rammed into them,” one witness told NDTV television.

Another said: “I was out jogging, there was a noise, I jumped immediately that is why I was saved. This is my second life, I would have been dead.” AGENCIES

Demi Moore seeks help for exhaustion, health issues

LOS ANGELES: Actress Demi Moore is seeking professional help to treat “exhaustion” and “overall health” issues, her spokeswoman said on Tuesday, following her split late last year from husband of six years, Ashton Kutcher.

“Because of the stresses in her life right now, Demi has chosen to seek professional assistance to treat her exhaustion and improve her overall health. She looks forward to getting well and is grateful for the support of her family and friends,” Moore’s spokeswoman said in a statement to Reuters.

The statement follows media reports that Moore was rushed to hospital on Monday night after paramedics were called to her Los Angeles home. Celebrity news website TMZ.com cited substance abuse as the cause, but that could not be confirmed.

Moore’s representatives declined any further comment beyond the written statement.

“Ghost” star Moore, 49, filed for divorce from 33-year-old “Two and A Half Men” actor Kutcher in November 2011, after a San Diego woman went public about a brief fling she had with Kutcher. AGENCIES

Canada education sector toughest job market

OTTAWA: Unemployed workers in Canada’s educational services sector faced the toughest job market in the country in the July-September period, according to a new Statistics Canada repoRT issued yesterday.

For every 10 unemployed workers in education, there was just one vacancy, the agency’s new data on job vacancies in the three-month period showed. The second worst sector was construction where the ratio was 5.1.

The data is not seasonally adjusted to account for layoffs during the summer months but Statscan said the ratio had been high in the education sector for earlier months of 2011 as well.

Of the 10 largest industrial sectors, wholesale trade and health care and social assistance had the lowest ratio, meaning there were fewer job hunters competing for each position.

Canadian businesses had, on average, 248,000 job vacancies in the period with an average ratio of unemployment to vacancies of 3.3.

The national vacancy rate, defined as the number of vacant positions divided by labor demand, was 1.7 percent.

Because Statscan released the job vacancy data for the first time, using a three-month average, there was no historical comparison available. AGENCIES

Irishman makes "billion-euro home" of shredded notes

DUBLIN: An unemployed Irish artist has built a home from the shredded remains of 1.4 billion euros (1.16 billion pounds), a monument to the “madness” he says has been wrought on Ireland by the single currency, from a spectacular construction boom to a wrenching bust.

Frank Buckley built the apartment in the lobby of a Dublin office building that has lain vacant since its completion four years ago at the peak of an ill-fated construction boom, using bricks of shredded euro notes he borrowed from Ireland’s national mint.

“It’s a reflection of the whole madness that gripped us,” Buckley said of what he calls his “billion-euro home.”

“People were pouring billions into buildings now worth nothing,” he said. “I wanted to create something from nothing.”

A wave of cheap credit flowed into Ireland in the early 2000s after Ireland joined the currency zone fuelling a huge property bubble that transformed the country.

The bubble’s collapse since 2007 plunged Ireland into the deepest recession in the industrialised world, forcing the former “Celtic Tiger” to accept a humiliating bailout from the EU and the IMF.

Buckley was given a 100 percent mortgage at the peak of the boom to buy a 365,000 euro home on the far reaches of Dublin’s commuter belt, despite the fact he had no steady income.

He has separated from his wife who lives in the home, which has since lost at least one-third of its value.

Living in his “billion euro home” since the start of December, Buckley is working on adding a kitchen to the living room and hall.

The walls and floor are covered in euro shreddings and the house is so warm Buckley sleeps without a blanket.

Pictures made from notes and coins decorate the walls, including one of a house, made from Irish 5 pence pieces.

“There are houses in Ireland worth less than that,” Buckley quips.

Buckley said he wants Europe’s politicians to solve the euro zone debt crisis without destroying its currency. But if the currency ultimately fails, he will happily use the euro zone’s defunct notes as fodder for future projects.

“Whatever you say about the euro, it’s a great insulator.” AGENCIES

11 miners feared dead in Peshawar

PESHAWAR: At least 11 miners were feared dead after a landslide trapped them in a phosphate mine in northwest Pakistan on Wednesday, officials said.

The incident took place when miners were having lunch inside the mine in the mountainous Tarnawi area, some 45 kilometres (28 miles) northeast of the garrison city of Abbottabad, where US troops shot dead Osama bin Laden last May.

“It was a huge landslide. Eleven of them are trapped and their survival will be a miracle,” Syed Imtiaz Hussain, the top government official in Abbottabad, told AFP.

Hussain said continuous rain was hampering rescue efforts.

Local police said the men who were trapped were poor labourers and that local residents were digging with shovels to help rescue them.

Mines in Pakistan are notorious for poor safety standards.

At least 43 workers were killed last March when explosions triggered a collapse in a coal mine in Pakistan’s southwestern Baluchistan province. AGENCIES

‘World’s cheapest car’ tag backfires for Nano

MUMBAI: When India’s Tata Motors’ Nano went on sale in 2009, the concept of the “world’s cheapest car” in one of the world’s fastest growing auto markets seemed pre-destined for commercial success.

Logically, the strategy appeared faultless — offering an affordable solution to millions of aspirational lower-middle class Indian families wanting to make the social and practical leap from two wheels to four.

But after several years of disappointing sales, it has now become clear that the snubnosed hatchback’s unique selling point — its price — was actually a commercial sticking point.

Rather than embracing the Nano, the status-conscious consumer base that was its prime target has largely shunned the “cheap” tag of the $2,800 vehicle and opted for slightly pricier rivals, or second-hand vehicles costing the same.

“A Nano is always bandied about as a poor man’s car. Nobody wants to be caught with it,” said Punnoose Tharyan, editor of India’s Motown magazine.

Sales are far off the target of 25,000 cars a month, and the Nano plant, with an annual capacity 250,000 units, produces only 10,000 a month, according to R. Ramakrishnan, business head of Tata Motors passenger cars.

“The car didn’t project the right image,” said Indian automobile expert Murad Ali Baig. “Also, for the same cost as the Nano there are quite respectable second-hand cars — with air conditioning.”

The base model, sold without air conditioning which is a disadvantage in India’s searing heat, costs 140,880 rupees ($2,800). The premium version — air conditioning, central locking and power front windows — is 196,959 rupees.

The Nano ran into trouble from the start when a land acquisition row forced Tata to abandon a nearly completed plant and build another, badly delaying production.

There were also safety concerns after a number of cars burst into flames.

Now Tata Motors, which also produces the British luxury Jaguar and Land Rover brands, has gone into damage control mode.

Tata boss Ratan Tata conceded this month that mistakes had been made, which had fuelled the perception of the Nano as a “poor man’s” vehicle.

“Whatever stigma has been attached to it, we will undo,” Tata said, insisting that the Nano had always been intended as an “affordable, all-weather, family car.”

To get sales on track, Tata has given the car a makeover, making it available in more colours, including “champagne gold” and “papaya orange,” and sprucing up the interiors while keeping prices unchanged.

It has also offered a “Tata Nano Happiness Guarantee”, which more than doubles the car’s warranty to four years from 18 months, and throwing in a maintenance contract for just 99 rupees a month.

It is offering “fast-track” financing for buyers wanting loans to purchase the car — with loan approvals in 48 hours. Also, buyers can put down just 15,000 rupees ($300) to drive a Nano out of the showroom.

“Let’s say at first it moved a little slowly in the market place, but now we have understood what the customer requirements are,” said Tata Motors India managing director Prakash Telang.

And Telang remains convinced that the potential Nano market remains as vast as its makers originally predicted.

“Car penetration in India is 10 to 11 per 1,000 people as compared to Western economies where it is as high as about 400 per 1,000 people,” Telang said. “The market will continue to grow rapidly.”

Typical of the buyers Telang has in mind is Dira Singh, who has a wife and two children and recently upgraded from a motorcycle to a shiny blue Nano.

“The Nano was in my budget. It wasn’t costly and that’s why I took it,” Singh said, standing proudly beside the vehicle. “It will protect my family.” AGENCIES

Football: Libya, Niger qualify for African Cup

Nigeria and South Africa were eliminated after a day of drama and confusion.

South African footballers, coaches, supporters and media celebrated after a 0-0 home draw with Sierra Leone believing Bafana Bafana (The Boys) had made it only to discover later that little Niger had topped the table on the head-to-head rule despite a 3-0 drubbing in Egypt.

The eight qualifiers join co-hosts Gabon and Equatorial Guinea, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast and Senegal at the biennial African football showcase during January and February with the final two slots to be filled Sunday.

Although Zambia and Libya failed to score in Copperbelt town Chingola, the 0-0 draw took the home team through as a group winner while the North Africans took one of two places reserved for the best runners-up.

It was a remarkable achievement for the Libyans as fighting between pro and anti-Moamer Kadhafi forces meant the national team played only one of three home fixtures in Tripoli with Mali and Egypt hosting the others.

Only results against first and third-place finishers in four-nation groups count in the battle for the runners-up slots and Libya amassed eight points by taking four each off Zambia and Mozambique.

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