RAMADI, Iraq: Twin attacks in the western Iraqi city of Ramadi on Wednesday killed 23 people and wounded 30, including the governor of Anbar province, the city's main hospital said.

The first attack struck near a security checkpoint at a road junction leading to the governorate offices in the centre of the Anbar provincial capital at around 9:30 am (0630 GMT).

A separate bombing 30 minutes later at the entrance to the governorate building some 200 metres (yards) away hit the convoy of governor Qassim Mohammed Abid as it was leaving, wounding him.

“The latest toll is 23 dead and 30 wounded,” said a doctor at Ramadi General Hospital, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“The governor is wounded. American forces came and took him for more treatment.” The US military did not immediately confirm that its troops took Abid to a US-run hospital when contacted by AFP.

A source at the hospital said that, after the first attack took place near the provincial headquarters, the governor came out from his office to inspect the damage. It was then that the second attacker struck.

One of the attackers was a man working as a bodyguard for the governor, Al Iraqiya state television reported. Police said that governor Mohammed seemed to be the target of at least one of the attacks.

Wednesday's attacks mirrored coordinated bombings in Ramadi on October 11, when 19 people were killed and more than 80 wounded.

At the time, a bomb went off at midday (0900 GMT) close to the offices of the provincial governor in a civilian car park, speeding the arrival of firemen and police.

A second car bomb then exploded, leading police to seal off the area, which was littered with body parts.

Shortly afterwards at Ramadi General Hospital, where victims had been rushed for treatment, a suicide bomber struck.

Ramadi, 100 kilometres (65 miles) west of Baghdad, was a key insurgent base in the aftermath of the US-led invasion of 2003.

Anbar, Iraq's biggest province, became the theatre of a brutal war focused on the cities of Fallujah and Ramadi, while several towns along the Euphrates river valley became insurgent strongholds and later safe havens for fighters.

But since 2006, local Sunni tribes have sided with the US military. Daily violence has dropped dramatically as Al-Qaeda fighters have been ejected from the region.

Although attacks have dropped markedly across the country compared to last year, violence remains high by international standards.

And while November saw the fewest deaths as a result of violence of any month since the invasion, December has seen higher death tolls, notably as a result of December 8 bombings in Baghdad that killed 127 people. –AgenciesLINK

KARACHI – Pakistan has released as many as 100 Indian fishermen as a goodwill gesture, reviving hope among the national fishermen community for the same response from the Indian authorities towards its held seamen. The fishermen were released from District Jail Malir, Karachi on the order of Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani as a goodwill gesture. The Indian fishermen were to be released last Wednesday but authorities said they had been forced to delay this because New Delhi had failed to make timely travel arrangements for the detainees and their release order was halted on the request of Indian government just 30 minutes before their freedom. Committee for the Welfare of Women Prisoners Legal Aid Office headed by Justice (r) Nasir Aslam Zahid is bearing travel expenses of the released fishermen who have also been given Rs200 Indian currency notes each. On Friday, two buses carried the Indian fishermen from the jail in Karachi to Lahore where they were expected to arrive Saturday (today) and be handed over to Indian authorities at the Wagah border post on the same day. A total 529 fishermen are still in Pakistani prisons and on Friday one of them died of cancer. Chief Medical Officer of Landhi Jail Dr Mazhar Memon told TheNation that Sarkan Sona, 80, was arrested on March 2009, while entering into Pakistani area of sea along with others. He was admitted to the jail hospital just two months after his detention as he was suffering from tuberculosis, and later he had been shifted to Civil Hospital where he was diagnosed with cancer and expired. The authorities said his body would be handed over to the Indian authorities after fulfilling the legal formalities. India still has to hand over the body of a Pakistani fishermen, Noor Alam, 60, who died during his detention in Jam Nagar prison a week ago. It bears mentioning here that the released Indian fishermen were arrested three years ago by Maritime Security Agency for entering Pakistani territorial waters illegally. They were sentenced to three years under Foreigners Act. It is to be noted that exchange of prisoners had been taking place between the two countries, but the process was halted following last year’s Mumbai attacks. The Pakistani authorities as well as bodies of fishermen hope that such goodwill gesture would also be adopted by the Indian government. India in 2007 released 10 Pakistani fishermen while 165 were released in 2005LINK

ISLAMABAD – All the major political players have geared up their efforts to clear the impediments in the way of Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Reforms so that the task of constitutional amendment could be accomplished in the second half of January 2010, background interviews with the leaders of main political parties and sources revealed.
The sources aware of the deliberations of the committee meeting informed TheNation that now the members of Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Reforms was discussing the contentious issue of constitutional reforms and once the members would evolve consensus on it then the only hurdle in the way would be the renaming of NWFP as besides both Q and N Leagues, Jamiat-i-Ulema-i-Islam of Fazlur Rehman was against renaming of NWFP as Pakhtoonkhawa.
The sources in Pakistan People’s Party said that there were no difference whatsoever on scrapping of 17th Constitutional Amendment or Article 58(2)b and the only contentious issues were the level of autonomy to be offered to provinces and renaming of NWFP.
The sources said that now Pakistan Muslim League has taken upon itself to play a lead role in bringing the parties on some common ground on the issue of renaming of NWFP and working out differences on the provincial autonomy.
The sources in PML-N informed that the meeting of Fazl with PML-N President Mian Shahbaz Sharif was part of the move to take all the stakeholders onboard who have reservations on renaming of NWFP as Pakhtoonkhawa.
The meeting of Awami National Party (ANP) Federal Minister Ghulam Ahmad Bilour with Mian Nawaz Sharif in Lahore was also on the same issue as Bilour was tasked by his party president Asfandyar Wali Khan to convince PML-N leadership on the issue.
The sources in ANP said that as Ghulam Ahmad Bilour was considered to have very cordial relations with Mian brothers so he was tasked by party President Asfandyar Wali Khan to convince him on renaming of NWFP as Pakhtoonkhawa or some other name mutually acceptable to all stakeholders in the province, a source in ANP informed.
The sources said that after having a word with ANP leadership, PML-N Quaid Mian Nawaz Sharif would be meeting the NWFP chapter of his party on today (Saturday) to reach at some conclusion regarding renaming of NWFP.
The sources in the party disclosed that most likely the PML-N leadership would come up with something concrete on the issue after Saturday meeting of the party in Islamabad.
The sources in the PML-N disclosed that at present besides Pakhtoonkhawa the names of Afghania, Khyber and Abbaseen were under consideration and efforts were underway to evolve consensus of all the concerned parties on any of these names.
The sources further said that the issue of provincial autonomy was currently under review of the committee and hopefully the matter would be resolved in first week of January while the renaming of NWFP is likely to be settled by that time.
If both these hurdles would be removed by the first week of the January the proposed constitutional reforms agenda would be tabled before the Joint Sitting of the Parliament to be summon in the next half of January.LINK

LAHORE – Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has said that the Quaid-i-Azam wanted to make Pakistan an Islamic, democratic and welfare state but we did not come up to his expectations. He called upon the government to arrange recovery of Rs 193 billion written-off loans from the defaulters and utilise this amount in the development works. He was addressing a special function organised by Nazria Pakistan Trust in collaboration with Tehrik-e-Pakistan Workers Trust at Aiwan-e-Karkunan Tehrik-e-Pakistan on the 133rd birth anniversary of the Quaid. NPT Chairman and Editor-in-Chief The Nation Majid Nizami presided over the function. Shahbaz said Pakistan would not have appeared on the world map had there been no Quaid-i-Azam. He said a nation that resorted to self-accountability never failed. The objective of the creation of Pakistan was to provide equal economic opportunities to all. The Quaid never wanted the poor to die of hunger and poverty, he added. He said no dictator could dare to occupy power by force if we had followed the path shown by the Quaid. Our failures are many while successes are only a few during the past 63 years. However, he expressed his optimism that the dark days are likely to decline soon. The nation has heard two good news; one the amicable NFC Award and the other the Supreme Court verdict against NRO. NFC Award is the second important document after 1973 Constitution for which he congratulated the people of Punjab for showing the sacrifice spirit for the smaller provinces. He said the verdict against NRO has established that the nation did not want corrupt practices. It could have been a scar on the face of Parliament if it had approved the NRO, he said and added there is no conflict on NRO among government institutions. The list of written-off loans has been presented to the Supreme Court and if loans are received with fines, it will be equal to Rs 3-4 billion to be spent on people. Shahbaz warned there would be a conflict between the rich and the poor if we did not use the resources judiciously. The revolution is sure to come if we allow a particular class to possess the national wealth and resources, and the children of the poor would continue to suffer for lack of treatment. He said no nation could prosper on foreign aid nor could it survive. LINK

There was a time when the physician was like a god to his patient. His word was gospel not to be flouted. No longer so. It is partly the trust deficit between them that has eroded their relationship. At the root is the commercialisation of the medical profession.

Once monetary considerations determine a doctor’s decisions, the results can be disastrous. Instances of deaths due to medical negligence are legion.

When it was more assertive in playing its regulatory role, the state would routinely correct many aberrations in public services before matters reached the brink. But today the growing empowerment of the private sector has prompted the government to shy away from its responsibility of protecting citizens’ rights and checking excesses by private facilities. Its vulnerability stems from its failure to get its own dysfunctional institutions in running order.

In a milieu where it is acceptable to look the other way and condone corruption and profiteering, the public is the sufferer especially if private entrepreneurs gain a monopoly.

In this scenario it is no less than a miracle to see individuals who are prepared to swim against the tide and correct the wrongs. That is how one would see the small group of medical professionals — preponderantly women — who joined hands four years ago to form the Karachi Bioethical Group (KBG).

Speaking candidly about the need for health professionals to regain public trust and re-establish their credibility, the KBG stresses the need for their actions to be ‘grounded in ethics and morality’ and their conduct to be ‘guided by a personal sense of integrity and professionalism.’ They have bravely decided to combat the ‘rampant commercialisation that is rapidly turning medicine into a business enterprise.’

One outcome of their exercise to translate their commitment to these principles into action is a paper titled Ethical Guidelines for Physician Pharmaceutical Interaction. In a nutshell the document exposes the unethical practices of physicians who become willing partners in the pharmaceutical industry’s unscrupulous marketing strategy aimed at boosting sales by influencing the physicians’ judgment in prescribing medicines.

Whether they are cheap giveaways such as coffee mugs and free samples of drugs, or bigger offers involving the financing of lavish conferences and holidays for the health professional and his family, the net result is the same.

As the first step, the KBG document adopts an institutional approach requiring hospitals and academic organisations to discourage one-to-one interaction between individuals and the pharma industry.

Individual doctors are asked to reject offers of gifts while the drug industry is required to send what it wishes to give to a common pool in every hospital where a bioethical committee could decide how the funds would be used with transparency being observed at every stage.

The KBG is to be commended for taking up this issue which is fast assuming the form of a social evil while bringing a bad name to the medical profession. But will the endeavours of the 27-member group see positive results?

The guidelines do not focus on private practitioners although stories about the favours some of them receive from drug manufacturers are shocking. A KBG spokesperson explained that the group had agreed that private practitioners should be addressed at a later stage. It had to make a beginning somewhere and it is easier to start at the institutional level because hospitals can draw up rules and enforce them.

Making a distinction between an ethical principle that must be observed by an individual voluntarily and a law that is enforced legally, the KBG says it wants to create awareness among doctors that the medical profession is regarded above all other professions as ‘a moral enterprise based on a covenant of trust.’

The KBG’s idea is to start a debate within the medical community on an issue that affects many but is not talked about sufficiently. Some major private hospitals have ethics committees to look into patients’ and doctors’ complaints. But the pharmaceutical companies’ role that leads to corruption of doctors does not figure.

The KBG feels that all hospitals should have such committees that should display sensitivity to patients’ rights. The positive development is that the KBG says it is striving to take as many hospitals on board as it can and also mobilise doctors through presentation in medical conferences and on a personal level.

There are many laws on the statute book — the leftovers of yesteryears, such as the Drug Act of 1976 — which could be used by the authorities to check wrong practices. Thus the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) is mandated to cancel the licence of professionals guilty of malpractices. But it is not doing so. Hence the KBG’s activism. Given the PMDC’s past performance, can one be faulted for not reposing confidence in it? After having mobilised the medical practitioners and winning their cooperation, the KBG hopes to initiate this thought process within members of the pharmaceutical industry as well. Thus it eventually expects an open dialogue with the drug companies to enlist their cooperation as the next stage of the KBG campaign.

The doctors in the KBG want to revive professionalism in medicine and give the doctor-patient relationship an ethical underpinning. May they succeed in their mission. This is the need of the hour, especially at a time when the moral image of a medical practitioner appears to have lost its glow. The young medicos of today are thrown into the deep side of commercialism that robs them of their idealism from the start.

Postscript: The medical students I wrote about last week learnt their lessons in ethics from their ideological moorings. Dr Mohammad Sarwar, founder of the Democratic Students Federation, it was pointed out to me, did not abandon his activism after graduation as I wrote. He carried his ethical principles to his medical practice and the Pakistan Medical Association which emerged as the main source of dissent against military rule in the Zia period.LINK

WASHINGTON: The United States has members of its intelligence services in Pakistan but it has no troops, US Special Envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke said on Tuesday.

‘We have members of our intelligence services in every country in the world,’ Mr Holbrooke told PBS Television when asked if the United States had troops in Pakistan.

‘No members of the American military or CIA are in Pakistan, is that what you’re saying?’ he was asked.

‘I only said there are no American troops in Pakistan,’ said Mr Holbrooke.

The interviewer — Charlie Rose — then asked: ‘So there may be CIA people and special operations people?’

Mr Holbrooke responded by confirming that the US had members of its intelligence services in every country in the world and then quickly added: ‘But this is not a replay of another war (Vietnam) and another part of the world 50 years ago or 40 years ago. We are not doing what you’re alluded to.’

Earlier on Tuesday, Britain’s Guardian newspaper reported that US Special Forces have conducted multiple clandestine raids as part of a secret war inside Pakistan’s tribal areas where Washington is pressing to expand its drone attacks.

In his interview to PBS, Mr Holbrooke not only owned US drone attacks but also said that they had played a key role in eliminating Al Qaeda and Taliban leaders.

When asked how he would evaluate using drones in Pakistan with the risk of civilian casualties, Mr Holbrooke reminded the interviewer that ‘some of the most dangerous people in the world who were alive and posing the most serious threats imaginable to the United States and Pakistan at the beginning of this year are not alive today’.

Baitullah Mehsud and the director of Al Qaeda’s external operations were among those killed in the US drone attacks. The head of Al Qaeda’s external operations was killed only two weeks ago, he added.

‘These are very important moves forward. Al Qaeda has been under the most intense pressure, and we are working very closely on the Pakistanis on that,’ said Mr Holbrooke.

Asked if the Pakistanis were refusing to take on the Haqqani network, he said: ‘Let me just put it this way. We’ve had the highest level set of American visitors in Pakistan of any country in the world in the last few months.’

The people who visited Islamabad during this period included the US military chief Admiral Mike Mullen, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, National Security Advisor James Jones, Centcom chief Gen David Petraeus and the head of the US and Nato forces in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, said Mr Holbrooke, adding that they made ‘unpublicised’ regular visits to the Pakistani capital.

‘And the sum total of impact you’ve had on the Pakistani government is what?’ he was asked.

‘To be determined. I’m not going to try to give a grade to a work in progress,’ said Mr Holbrooke.

Asked if the United States had made progress in convincing Pakistan to act against the Haqqani group, he said: ‘Yes, absolutely.’

While discussing why the Pakistani military was reluctant to go after the Haqqani group, Mr Holbrooke said: ‘If you look at the Pakistani military’s activities today and compare them with the beginning of the year, there has been a huge change.’

Operations against the militant, he noted, had also helped the military improve its image at home. ‘The Pakistani military is much more popular in Pakistan today than they were in the beginning of the year. They went back into Swat and retook it from the Taliban.

They went into South Waziristan, which is one of the hearts of the insurgency,’ he added. ‘But are they prepared to go further and go more north?’ he was asked.

‘I’m going to leave that to General Kayani and the military for several reasons — it’s their country, it’s a question of military resources, and it’s a military issue which I don’t think should be discussed in publicLINK.’

WASHINGTON: The United States has members of its intelligence services in Pakistan but it has no troops, US Special Envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke said on Tuesday.

‘We have members of our intelligence services in every country in the world,’ Mr Holbrooke told PBS Television when asked if the United States had troops in Pakistan.

‘No members of the American military or CIA are in Pakistan, is that what you’re saying?’ he was asked.

‘I only said there are no American troops in Pakistan,’ said Mr Holbrooke.

The interviewer — Charlie Rose — then asked: ‘So there may be CIA people and special operations people?’

Mr Holbrooke responded by confirming that the US had members of its intelligence services in every country in the world and then quickly added: ‘But this is not a replay of another war (Vietnam) and another part of the world 50 years ago or 40 years ago. We are not doing what you’re alluded to.’

Earlier on Tuesday, Britain’s Guardian newspaper reported that US Special Forces have conducted multiple clandestine raids as part of a secret war inside Pakistan’s tribal areas where Washington is pressing to expand its drone attacks.

In his interview to PBS, Mr Holbrooke not only owned US drone attacks but also said that they had played a key role in eliminating Al Qaeda and Taliban leaders.

When asked how he would evaluate using drones in Pakistan with the risk of civilian casualties, Mr Holbrooke reminded the interviewer that ‘some of the most dangerous people in the world who were alive and posing the most serious threats imaginable to the United States and Pakistan at the beginning of this year are not alive today’.

Baitullah Mehsud and the director of Al Qaeda’s external operations were among those killed in the US drone attacks. The head of Al Qaeda’s external operations was killed only two weeks ago, he added.

‘These are very important moves forward. Al Qaeda has been under the most intense pressure, and we are working very closely on the Pakistanis on that,’ said Mr Holbrooke.

Asked if the Pakistanis were refusing to take on the Haqqani network, he said: ‘Let me just put it this way. We’ve had the highest level set of American visitors in Pakistan of any country in the world in the last few months.’

The people who visited Islamabad during this period included the US military chief Admiral Mike Mullen, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, National Security Advisor James Jones, Centcom chief Gen David Petraeus and the head of the US and Nato forces in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, said Mr Holbrooke, adding that they made ‘unpublicised’ regular visits to the Pakistani capital.

‘And the sum total of impact you’ve had on the Pakistani government is what?’ he was asked.

‘To be determined. I’m not going to try to give a grade to a work in progress,’ said Mr Holbrooke.

Asked if the United States had made progress in convincing Pakistan to act against the Haqqani group, he said: ‘Yes, absolutely.’

While discussing why the Pakistani military was reluctant to go after the Haqqani group, Mr Holbrooke said: ‘If you look at the Pakistani military’s activities today and compare them with the beginning of the year, there has been a huge change.’

Operations against the militant, he noted, had also helped the military improve its image at home. ‘The Pakistani military is much more popular in Pakistan today than they were in the beginning of the year. They went back into Swat and retook it from the Taliban.

They went into South Waziristan, which is one of the hearts of the insurgency,’ he added.
‘But are they prepared to go further and go more north?’ he was asked.

‘I’m going to leave that to General Kayani and the military for several reasons — it’s their country, it’s a question of military resources, and it’s a military issue which I don’t think should be discussed in public.LINK’

BAIKONUR: Three astronauts from Japan, Russia and the United States blasted off early Monday morning amid harsh weather conditions for a Christmas voyage to the International Space Station.

The Soyuz rocket blasted off on schedule from Russia’s Baikonur cosmodrome in the barren Kazakh steppe at 3:52 am carrying Soichi Noguchi of Japan, US astronaut Timothy Creamer and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kotov.

Rain and then sleet poured down onto the sparse Central Asian landscape, quickly blanketing the site in a thick layer of ice, weather conditions which nonetheless helped create a breathtaking backdrop for the launch.

As the rocket surged skywards from the launch pad, the fire from the boosters turned the inky night sky a searing white, bathing the area around the launch site in an almost supernatural glow for more than a minute.

The launch was the first manned night time mission undertaken during the long and frigid winter months here at the historic cosmodrome that helped launch the space race when it propelled Yuri Gagarin into orbit almost half a century ago.

The Soyuz successfully reached its designated orbit to applause and cheers from the assembled crowd of observers and family members, and is due to dock with the ISS on Wednesday at 2254 GMT, just two days before Christmas.

‘A spectacular launch. Great Christmas present. A crew that is facing a very challenging expedition once it arrives on the station a couple of days from now. A great way to finish the year,’ NASA spokesman Rob Navias told AFP.

The crew will now spend six months in orbit, during which time they will celebrate Christmas and ring in the new year, and they have promised to hold holiday festivities onboard the station, handing out gifts to one another.

Several onlookers even remarked that the rocket, draped in lights prior to liftoff, resembled a Christmas tree, adding to the already festive mood surrounding the expedition.

Indeed, much of the attention leading up to the launch has been focused on the lighter side of the voyage – Noguchi’s promises to prepare ‘space sushi’ for the crew and Creamer’s plans to update his Twitter page from the ISS.

Creamer, who holds a masters degree in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is a self-described ‘tech guy’, took the time to ‘tweet’ one last message before the launch.

‘Just to share: now on the van 2 suit up. Thk u all 4 your well-wishes. Will tweet soonest. Happy & Safe holidays to all!’ he posted as his final message before lift off.

But putting aside talk of high cuisine in high orbit and passing Santa Claus’ sleigh on their way to the station, the expedition has several serious technical goals.

Their biggest Christmas present to the ISS will be the delivery of a new viewing platform for the station, which will provide a 360 degree view of the heavens and bring the station another step closer to completion.

‘The main aim of the expedition is to first of all deliver the final US connecting element, ‘Tranquility Node Three’ and a multi-windowed viewport called the ‘Cupola’ to the station,’ Navias explained.

‘That will set the stage for the completion of assembly and the beginning of the utilization of the station for science capability.’

The ISS, which orbits 350 kilometres above Earth, is a sophisticated platform for scientific experiments, helping test the effects of long-term space travel on humans, a must for any trip to distant Mars.

A huge new solar array was installed earlier this year to provide more power which, together with a newly installed European laboratory and a hi-tech Japanese lab, Kibo, has significantly boosted the station’s capabilities.

The Soyuz is set to become the sole means of reaching the ISS for a few years as the United States is due to take its aging shuttles out of commission in 2010.

The team was to replace Frank De Winne of Belgium, Robert Thirsk of Canada and Roman Romanenko of Russia, who returned to Earth on December 1 after spending six months on board the ISS whose capacity was doubled in May from three to six astronauts.LINK

COPENHAGEN: The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) tried to bring together the various Himalayan countries (India, China, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh) on one platform at the recently concluded COP 15, although it has not been easy given their history of conflicts instead of cooperation.

Pakistan is a member country and its villages in Chitral and the Northern Areas face increasing threats from climate change in the years to come.

They are particularly vulnerable to glacier outburst flooding and river/stream flooding as snow and ice melt faster than before.

ICIMOD’s attempts to draw attention to this remote region have resulted in some positive actions and on Tuesday ICIMOD and the government of Finland announced that they had signed an agreement (dated 15th December) on a collaborative project to establish a regional flood information system in the Hindukush-Himalayan region.

Finland is providing a maximum of 2 million euros over three years (2009-2012) for the project which will be implemented by ICIMOD in close collaboration with the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and the six regional partner countries.

The long-term goal is to minimise the loss of lives and livelihoods by providing timely warning of floods and thus reduce flood vulnerability in the region, which includes the Indus river basin.

The project aims to develop a regional framework for cooperation on sharing flood data and information amongst participating countries. It will also establish a flood observation network in selected river basins.

The technical capacity of partner organisations on flood forecasting and communication aspects will be enhanced, and resources provided to procure the necessary equipment for rainfall and flow measurements at selected sites.

The incidence and intensity of water-related hazards and disasters are expected to increase in the Himalayan region as a result of climate change leading to more frequent and damaging cycles of floods and drought. ICIMOD is also planning to conduct a “climate impact assessment” in the Himalayan region.

According to Andreas Schild, the director general of ICIMOD, the Himalayas now face the same challenge, so everyone has to cooperate in the face of climate change.

“We tried to create awareness about the relevance of these mountain systems in the global community. They are early warning systems of climate change and affect the water availability for the people living downstream.”

Millions of people depend on the water of the Himalayas and we need to understand the changes in ice, snow and precipitation in the years to come. He called upon the Himalayan countries to join forces to study the regionLINK

ISLAMABAD: Six out of 14 compressors being imported by Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) to save the Qadirpur Gas Field from declining gas pressures have arrived at the Karachi Port and are expected to reach the site by end of this month, OGDC spokesman told Dawn on Saturday.

‘OGDCL will install 14 compressors as interim relief to maintain the declining pressures from the field,’ said Basharat A. Mirza, adding that the remaining compressors are expected to arrive early February next year.

He said that the project would cost around $38 million $20 million on the purchase of 14 compressors from Houston-based Company M/s Valerus and their installation at Qadirpur field would cost $18 million.

In the recent board meeting, the OGDCL management informed that the installation of compressors would be completed by June 2010.

The meeting was informed that the gas flow from Qadirpur field was on the decline and if the compression systems were not installed the gas in pipelines would start flowing back due to low pressure in the wells.

The meeting was informed that these compressors were being installed for a period of around 2-3 years and after that large compressors from another OGDCL field Pirkoh would be installed at Qadirpur field.

It was informed that the project had been delayed due to litigation with a Pakistani firm Petrosin after the Chinese company M/S China Petroleum won the tenders in 2006.

However, sources in the petroleum ministry said that Managing Director SNGPL Rashid Lone had doubted that the project would be completed in next six months.

‘Only procurement of installation material would take between six to eight months as they are not readily available in the country,’ sources quoted Mr Rashid to have said.

Mr Lone also told the ministry that the delay in installation of compressors may put the financial burden of Rs340 million on Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited.

‘The SNGPL would have to install its own compressors at Bhong field to inject gas in the system and avoid backflow,’ he had told the ministry officials.

The OGDCL spokesman said that some specific equipment also needed to be installed along with these compressors. ‘We will borrow the equipment from other exploration companies like Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) and it is a common practice in the up-stream sector,’ he added.LINK

BEVERLY HILLS: ‘Up in the Air,’ starring George Clooney as a man who fires people for a living, earned six Golden Globe nominations on Tuesday, including best drama, as Hollywood's awards season got down to business.

‘Up in the Air’ had the most nominations, followed by musical ‘Nine,’ with five, including for best musical or comedy. Science-fiction action adventure ‘Avatar’ and director Quentin Tarantino's World War Two fantasy ‘Inglourious Basterds’ were nominated for four awards, including best drama.

Rounding out the movies nominated for Golden Globes, one of Hollywood's most-watched awards shows, were Iraq war movie ‘The Hurt Locker’ and urban drama ‘Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire.’

Joining ‘Nine’ in the category for best movie musical or comedy were cooking movie ‘Julie & Julia,’ box office sensation ‘The Hangover,’ relationship film ‘The Hangover’ and Sundance hit ‘(500) Days of Summer.’

The Golden Globes are given out in January by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and are seen as a key indicator of which movies will compete for the world's top film honors, the Oscars, in March.

Among nominees for best actor in a film drama were Clooney, whose character in ‘Up in the Air’ is forced to contemplate his own life, Jeff Bridges playing a down-and-out country singer in ‘Crazy Heart,’ Colin Firth as a man considering suicide in ‘A Single Man,’ Morgan Freeman playing Nelson Mandela in ‘Invictus’ and Tobey Maguire for ‘Brothers.’

Nominations for best actress in a drama went to Sandra Bullock for football film ‘The Blind Side,’ veteran Helen Mirren for ‘The Last Station,’ Emily Blunt in ‘The Young Victoria,’ Carey Mulligan with ‘An Education’ and newcomer Gabourey Sidibe in ‘Precious: Based on the Novel Push By Sapphire.’ -Reuters LINK

ISLAMABAD: Former Attorney-General Malik Qayyum on Tuesday denied all allegations against him in the Haris Steel Mills scandal and said he will challenge the accusations in court.

Qayyum had his testimony recorded in the accountability court through a proxy.

Malik Qayyum alleged that such allegations were part of a concerted effort to defame him. Qayyum had been accused of receiving 20 million rupees as bribe.

Sharifuddin Pirzada, also accused of being paid 10 million rupees in bribe money, explained that he had charged $100,000 and three million rupees as professional fee. Pirzada said that he also charged 100,000 rupees to appear at every hearing and denied the charges of accepting bribes.

The federal minister for parliamentary affairs, Babar Awan, excused himself from appearing in court due to personal commitments. However, talking to the media in Islamabad, Awan alleged that the accountability court’s notification to summon him was illegal and the court had no jurisdiction in the matter. Babar Awan had been accused of receiving 35 billion rupees as bribe in the Haris Steel Mills scandal. — DawnNewsLINK