Medicine reaction: 26 dead in Lahore

TrendPK.com
LAHORE: Another 12 people Saturday succumbed to their mysterious disease spawned by the reaction of medicines, raising the overall death toll to 26.

Meantime, the probe committee formed to identify the mysterious disease could not reach any consequence even after two days.

The probe committee head Dr. Azhar said the Secretary Health has been requested to form a team to inspect the manufacturing and packing processes of the concerned medicine factories producing the suspicious medicines.

The most of the patients were admitted to Punjab Institute of Cardiology, after they had consumed blood-thinning medicines. Later on, they developed the mysterious disease.

According to sources, the disease killed as many as 20 people as yet; but, Punjab Health Department denies any such report.

Proff. Dr. Javed Akram, Principal Allama Iqbal Medical College Lahore said the most of the patients had beforehand undergone bypass surgery.

According to Dr. Afzal Shaheen, MS Jinnah Hospital, the people in the mysterious disease have symptoms of low count of platelets and white cells along with marks on the body. Some patients also bleed from various parts of t heir body.

Special arrangements have been made for the patients at the hospital. TrendPK

Floods drown Asia’s rice bowl

HANOI: Massive floods have ravaged vast swathes of Asia’s rice bowl, threatening to further drive up food prices and adding to the burden of farmers who are among the region’s poorest, experts say.

About 1.5 million hectares (3.7 million acres) of paddy fields in Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos have been damaged or are at risk from the worst floods to hit the region in years, officials say.

In Thailand, the world’s biggest rice exporter, where 237 people have died in the floods, about one million hectares of paddy — roughly 10 percent of the total — have been damaged, they say.

Heavy rains in Laos and Cambodia have also led to big losses in recent weeks, and experts say flood waters have now drained into Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, a key global rice producer, making it the latest to be inundated.

Further west, flooding of rice and other farmland in Pakistan’s arable belt has cost that country nearly $2 billion in losses.

“The whole region will now suffer from rising food prices as potential harvests have now been devastated. The damage is very serious this year and it will be some time before people can resume normal lives,” Margareta Wahlstrom, the United Nations chief of disaster reduction, said in a statement.

The flood damage comes on top of worries about the impact on global rice prices of a new scheme by the Thai government to boost the minimum price farmers receive for their crop.

Vietnam meanwhile is the world’s number-two rice exporter and the Mekong Delta in southern Vietnam accounts for half the country’s production.

“The upstream waters have begun to drop slightly but here they are rising three to five centimetres (1.2 to two inches) daily,” said Duong Nghia Quoc, director of the agriculture department in Dong Thap province.

Dong Thap and neighbouring An Giang, which abut Cambodia, have been the worst affected in the delta.

The UN, citing government sources, says 11 people have died, more than 20,000 homes are flooded and 99,000 hectares of rice are at risk in Vietnam.

“Agricultural production is seriously affected this year by the floods that were, in fact, worse than our forecasts,” said Vuong Huu Tien, of the flood and storm control department in An Giang, where thousands of soldiers have been mobilised to reinforce dykes and help residents reach safer ground.

In Cambodia, more than 330,000 hectares of rice paddy have been inundated, of which more than 100,000 hectares are completely destroyed, said a senior official at the Ministry of Agriculture.

Ngin Chhay said the “big loss” was likely to affect this year’s rice surplus, which was expected to reach some three million tonnes.

Cambodia, where more than 160 people have been killed in the floods, exports only a fraction of total rice production but the crop accounts for about 7.5 percent of gross domestic product.

Laos, one of Asia’s poorest nations, has also suffered, according to reports in state-controlled media there.

Tropical storms which struck since June killed at least 23 people in the country and damaged more than 60,000 hectares of paddy, the reports said.

In late September more crops suffered after a dam on a tributary of the Mekong released water to lower its rain-swollen levels, the Vientiane Times reported.

Vo Tong Xuan, a Vietnamese rice expert based in the Mekong Delta, said a major contributor to this year’s floods has been the unusually heavy rains in Thailand and Laos, which drain down through the Mekong.

Experts say the delta’s expanding system of dykes adds to the problem. They “prevent water circulation in some places but provoke floods in others,” said Bui Minh Tang, a weather forecaster.

Vietnam News, the communist state’s official English-language daily, reported that the lost rice crop in Dong Thap province alone was worth $2.7 million.

“The floods have seriously affected life and production of the farmers in our district, notably because of a shortage of drinking water and electricity,” said Vu Tien Quang, who belongs to a farmers’ association in the province. AGENCIES

China’s first aircraft carrier starts sea trials

China s first aircraft carrier started sea trials on Wednesday, a step that will likely boost concerns about the country s naval ambitions amid ongoing disputes with its neighbors over territorial waters.

The carrier left Dalian port in northeast Liaoning province early on Wednesday, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. The test run had been expected.

Xinhua said the first sea trial was in line with the schedule to rebuild the carrier, with China spending the best part of a decade refurbishing the former Soviet aircraft carrier Varyag after it was towed from Ukraine in 1998. The report cited unnamed military sources.

China officially acknowledged a month ago that it is rebuilding the carrier and said the refurbished ship would be used for research and training a strong indication it plans to build carriers of its own.

China s carrier ambitions have sparked concern among neighbors amid heightened tensions over territorial disputes around Taiwan and in the South China Sea.

Over the past year, China has seen a flare-up in territorial spats with Japan, the Philippines and Vietnam and seen its relations strained with South Korea all of which have turned to Washington, long the pre-eminent naval power in Asia, for support.

Xinhua said refitting and test work would continue on the carrier when it returns from its short sea trial.

The Varyag, yet to be officially renamed, was towed from Ukraine as an empty shell without engines, weapons systems or other crucial equipment. It has been under construction for the better part of a decade.

Defense experts say China plans up to four carriers in all, with preparations under way at a Shanghai shipyard.

No time period for the trial was given by Xinhua, but a statement posted on the website of the Liaoning Maritime Safety Authority said “all vessels will be barred from entering” a small section of the sea off Dalian on August 14.

There had been earlier online reports in China that the test was set to start last weekend, but it may have been delayed by a tropical storm that swept through the area.

 

18 countries, including China, boycott Nobel Prize ceremony

Several governments have declined invitations to attend Friday’s ceremony to award imprisoned Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo the Nobel Peace Prize, the Norwegian Nobel Commission said Tuesday.Several governments have declined invitations to attend Friday’s ceremony to award imprisoned Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo the Nobel Peace Prize, the Norwegian Nobel Commission said Tuesday.

The committee said China and 18 other countries have decided not to be represented for various reasons. It noted that number has tripled from six weeks ago. The countries joining China in its boycott include Russia, Ukraine, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Venezuela, Cuba, Colombia, Tunisia, Iraq, Iran, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Serbia, Pakistan, Egypt, Morocco and the Philippines. The 58 countries who have embassies in Oslo were invited to attend. China strongly objected to Liu’s win last October and levelled more criticism Tuesday, calling members of the Nobel committee clowns who are interfering in China’s judicial affairs.

The 54-year-old writer and academic was jailed in December 2009 to serve an 11-year term for subversion. He was detained just days before the publication of what has turned out to be an explosive political document, Charter 8, which he co-wrote. Charter 08 calls for an end to one-party rule and the introduction of democratic reforms in China. It was signed, via the internet, by thousands of people, some of them Communist Party officials. No one is expected to be on hand to accept the award on behalf on Liu. Geir Lundestad, the committee’s secretary, said there will be an empty chair and a portrait of Liu on the podium during the ceremony in Oslo.

Rice Yield May go Down by 3pc

Rice prices may go up by 3 percent for the rice generation may decline in the next one and a half year owing to the worst flooding that hit the country this year.

Pakistan, Vietnam, Philippines and Thailand are the only countries that produce good rice catering to around 3billion people around the globe.
The massive destruction wrought by the floods affected countrys yield hugely.

ASEAN leaders gather as turbulence buffets region

HANOI: Southeast Asian leaders meet Thursday with their region assailed by currency tensions, territorial disputes and pressure to act on troublesome neighbour Myanmar’s looming elections.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Vietnam’s capital Hanoi also takes place against a backdrop of increasingly assertive behaviour by China which has put the region on edge.

The gathering of the 10-member ASEAN bloc shifts gear Saturday when it widens into the 16-nation East Asia Summit, also taking in Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand.

Talks mooted between Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and his Japanese counterpart Naoto Kan are in doubt after the two nations became embroiled in their worst diplomatic row in years, centred on a disputed East China Sea island chain.

A meeting scheduled for Friday between the economic

China, Pakistan big threats to India’s security: Army Chief

China and Pakistan remain two major threats to India’s national security, Indian Army chief General VK Singh said on Friday.
In a clear indication that India is worried, Gen Singh said although the border with China was stable at present, the armed forces could not take any chances. He said there might be uncertainty about a conventional war with China but skirmishes were certainly possible.
The army chief stressed on the need for substantial conventional war fighting capabilities to defend the country. Interestingly, the army chief’s comments come even as Defence Minister AK Antony is in Vietnam attending the ASEAN defence ministers’ meeting which is also being attended by China.We have a risen China, both economically and militarily. Although we have CBMs on place, although we have a very stable border, yet we have a border dispute, said Gen Singh.All out conventional war may be highly uncertain, nevertheless skirmishes can occur. We should have a great amount of conventional capability to function in a conventional conflagration and yet be prepared to function in a nuclear backdrop, he added.

Suicide car bomber kills 8 in west of Baghdad

BAGHDAD: A suicide car bomber struck a police patrol west of Baghdad Sunday and killed eight people, most of them civilians standing in line outside a post office to collect the monthly stipend for the country’s poorest, police officials said.

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Suicide car bomber kills 8 in west of Baghdad

Former Enemies US, Vietnam Now Military Mates

By Margie MasonCold War enemies the United States and Vietnam demonstrated their blossoming military relations Sunday as a U.

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Former Enemies US, Vietnam Now Military Mates

China, Vietnam, Iran win UNESCO heritage honours

PARIS: World culture body UNESCO added 15 sites to its top heritage list this weekend, including an imperial palace in Vietnam, temples in China, an Australian penal colony and a historic bazaar in Iran.

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China, Vietnam, Iran win UNESCO heritage honours

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