Geo News 19th May 2012 - Latest Geo updates 19th May 2012 Live
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Geo News Pakistan
WASHINGTON: Dashing Congressman Dana Rohrabacher’s drastic designs, the US Congress on Thursday turned down the bill proposing curbs on American aid to Pakistan, Geo News reported.
Congressman Dana Rohrabacher had pushed the “Pakistan Terrorism Accountability Act of 2012” in the House of Representatives in a bid to straightjacket Pakistan.
Reportedly 335 lawmakers voted “Nay” while 84 said “Yea” for the bill.
It is pertinent to mention that in the rejected bill Rep Rohrabacher had proposed to the US government to provide $50 million each to any American citizen killed “as a result of actions of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI) or support provided by the ISI to other organizations or individuals, including the Haqqani Network.”
He had also demanded that $50 million per victim should be deducted from the US assistance going to Pakistan.
Moreover, in the bill, the Secretary of Defense was also urged to certify every month how many US citizens were killed as a result of support by the ISI to the Haqqani Network and other militant organizations.
Earlier, The Republican congressman, who is also the Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations had also said, “For too long America has funded the Pakistani government, giving it free money, while elements of the ISI and Pakistan’s military operate radical Islamic groups that are actively murdering Americans. Americans will not accept this.”
Previously, he had also introduced a bill demanding the right of self-determination for the Baloch people.
WASHINGTON: US lawmakers — both Democrat and Republican — on Thursday slammed the Obama administration’s request for $2.4 billion in aid for Pakistan, dubbing the country a black hole in which the United States had sunk $24 billion over the past decade.
“Pakistan is like a black hole for American aid,” Gary Ackerman — a top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs panel on the Middle East and South Asia — asserted during a hearing.
“Our tax dollars go in, our diplomats go in, our aid professionals go in, our hopes go in and our prayers go in. Nothing good ever comes out.”
Claiming that Islamabad continued to pursue its national interest at the expense of Washington and its allies, Ackerman maintained, Pakistan continues to shelter, directly support and sponsor terrorists.
Officially acknowledging this indisputable fact might be grossly impolitic, but that doesn't make it less true. American standing in Pakistani public opinion is terrible and getting worse, he said.
Republican Dana Rohrabacher, meanwhile, blasted US support for Afghan President Hamid Karzai who he claimed was taking marching orders from Pakistan. We should cut Pakistan off of every Cent because it has been used for evil purposes, including killing American troops, he said.
However, a State Department official testifying at the hearing suggested that cutting off aid completely would be shortsighted and impulsive.
Our current discussions with the Pakistanis on how best to pursue our common interests will take time to resolve, and it’s not easy right now to provide satisfying answers to some questions, Deputy Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Daniel Feldman stated in written testimony.
[But] the fact of the matter is that we’ve been able to kill more terrorists on Pakistani soil than just about any place else, he said citing President Barack Obama’s words after the death of Osama bin Laden last May. We could not have done that without Pakistani cooperation.
Geo World
TEHRAN: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Thursday he hopes to attend this summer's Olympic Games in London but that the British authorities were reluctant to allow him, state media reported.
"I would like to be beside the Iranian athletes at the Olympic Games in London to support them, but (the British) have issues with my presence," Ahmadinejad said, without offering further explanation.
"The enemies do not want our athletes to win medals, but our young people shall be present at the Olympic Games and, like Arash, give new reasons to take pride in Islamic Iran," he said, quoted by the official news agency IRNA.
In London, Junior Foreign Office Minister Henry Bellingham said invitations to the Olympic Games were issued by countries' sports officials.
Answering a written parliamentary question, he said: "Heads of State and Government are invited to attend the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympics Games by their national Olympic and Paralympic committees.
"It is not yet clear which Heads of State and Government will attend and we do not expect to have this information until closer to the Games."
Meanwhile, spokesmen for both the Foreign Office and Home Office in London declined to discuss "individual cases" but a government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Ahmadinejad was not subject to any official travel ban by Britain.
Relations between Tehran and London are at an all-time low. (AFP)
PARIS: French leader Francois Hollande's new Socialist government ordered a 30 percent pay cut for the president and ministers as it held its first cabinet session on Thursday, several ministers said.
Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault earlier said the top item on the meeting's agenda would be the salary cut, a Hollande campaign promise that the premier said was about "setting an example" for France.
The move was aimed at drawing a clear distinction between Hollande and former president Nicolas Sarkozy, whose salary famously increased by 170 percent to 19,000 euros ($24,000) per month after he took office in 2007.
Hollande, who defeated right-winger Sarkozy in a May 6 vote, on Wednesday unveiled a government of mainly moderate Socialists and longtime allies.
The new line-up met a promise to appoint an equal number of men and women in Hollande's cabinet, a first for France, although most of the senior posts went to men.
It is also a cabinet with little experience -- only five of its 34 members have served previously in government and seven are under the age of 40. (AFP)
GEO Business
ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Finance Dr. Abdul Hafeez Shaikh has said that the upcoming budget will be presented on June 01, adding the government's top priority will be to protect the poor, Geo News reported.
This he said while briefing the parliamentary committee on finance, which met here under the chair of Fauzia Wahab here Thursday.
Dr. Shaikh said overcoming the budget deficit will be second priority of the incumbent government.
The government is considering reducing the number of income tax slabs from 16 to 5 in the next year's budget, the minister said.
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's current account deficit widened to a provisional $3.394 billion in the first 10 months of the 2011/12 fiscal year from $3.081 billion in the first nine, State Bank of Pakistan said on Thursday.
There was a provisional surplus of $466 million in the first ten months of the previous fiscal year, according to data released by the SBP.
The current account had a provisional deficit of $313million in April 2012. The January-March 2012 period had a provisional deficit of $655 million. (Reuters)
GEO Sports
DHARAMSALA: Kings XI Punjab easily defeated Chennai Super Kings by six wickets with 21 balls remaining in the Indian Premier League – V here at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium on Thursday.
Australia’s former wicketkeeper-batsman Adam Gilchrist won the toss and put Chennai into bat and then restricted them to 120 runs for seven wickets in the allotted 20 overs.
Pacemen Parvinder Awana, Praveen Kumar of India and Azhar Mahmood of Pakistan claimed two wickets each.
For Chennai, West Indies all rounder Dwayne Bravo top scored with 48. He hit three sixes and two fours. Later, he also took two wickets for 18 runs.
In reply, Punjab completed the chase in 16.3 overs for the loss of four wickets as Gilchrist made an unbeaten 64 off 46 balls with nine fours and two sixes.
Pakistan’s premier sports tv channel Geo Super showed this low-scoring match live from Dharamsala.
MUMBAI: Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan faced a police probe and a lifetime ban from Mumbai's main cricket stadium on Thursday following a furious late-night row with staff at the ground, officials said.
The actor, who co-owns the Indian Premier League (IPL) team Kolkata Knight Riders, took a group of youngsters including his daughter Suhana onto the Wankhede Stadium pitch after a match on Wednesday night.
A security guard tried to stop the children from playing, leading the multi-millionaire actor to argue angrily for 10-15 minutes before finally giving up and leaving the premises, an AFP photographer witnessed.
"Security officials told him to leave, but Shah Rukh Khan started the brawl," Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) secretary Nitin Dalal told NDTV news.
"He entered the ground half an hour after the game. The officers told him that this was not the right time. He misbehaved and he used foul language."
Dalal said the MCA had filed a police complaint and would ban the 46-year-old cricket-crazy star from future attendance at the Wankhede Stadium.
Speaking outside his Mumbai home on Thursday, Khan denied accusations that he was drunk or behaving illegally, saying he had become angry when officials at the stadium abused him and "physically manhandled" the children.
"They were being aggressive and I became aggressive back," he told reporters, saying the MCA owed him an apology.
MCA treasurer Ravi Savant said the stadium ban on Khan would be "for life".
"He'll not be allowed for any match -- Test match, one-day international or any T20 or IPL matches hereafter. That is what we have decided," he said.
Khan is one of the Bollywood film industry's most popular stars, but his sweaty and dishevelled appearance during the incident was a far cry from the carefully managed image presented through his advertising and acting roles.
The actor was embroiled in another ugly row in January after a female director accused him of assaulting her husband at a late-night party.
Khan has also been summoned to appear before a court in Jaipur later this month after he was seen smoking at that city's main cricket stadium, in violation of anti-smoking laws.
Balbir Punj, a senior leader of India's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, told NDTV that Khan was an icon and public figure who "should know how to behave in public".
He referred to an incident last month that saw Khan detained for questioning by US immigration authorities when he arrival at a New York airport.
"When he was humiliated in America, the entire country stood by him. He should respect others and the law must take its course," Punj said. (AFP)
Geo Entertainment
LOS ANGELES: Whitney Houston's teenage daughter will star in a reality TV show that follows the family of the "I Will Always Love You" singer as they cope with her sudden death earlier this year.
The Lifetime channel said on Friday that Bobbi Kristina Brown, 19, Houston's mother Cissy, the singer's brother Gary, and her manager and sister-in-law Pat Houston would all appear in the show that will air later this year.
"The Houston Family Chronicles", billed as a documentary series, will follow Pat and Gary Houston "as they take on their greatest challenge, supporting and guiding Bobbi Kristina as she faces the world alone, without the one person she relied on the most, her mother," Lifetime said.
Bobbi Kristina is the only child of Houston with her ex-husband Bobby Brown, and she was hospitalized twice for anxiety after her mother was found dead in a Beverly Hills hotel room in February. She is now being raised by Pat and Gary Houston.
Houston, 48, drowned in her hotel room's bathtub in what authorities have said was an accidental death triggered by cocaine use and heart disease. The singer had a history of addiction to cocaine and other drugs.
"The tragic loss of Whitney Houston left a void in the hearts of people all over the world, but certainly none more so than her beloved family," said Lifetime programming executive Rob Sharenow.
"In this series, the multi-generations of the Houston family will bravely reveal their lives as they bond together to heal, love, and grow," he added in a statement.
Pat Houston said she had been developing a TV project for herself for some time but the unexpected death of Houston had affected the direction of the show.
"It is my hope that others will be enlightened as they watch our family heal and move forward," she said in a statement.
Lifetime, whose audience is largely female, said it had ordered 10 hour-long episodes of the series. A premier date has not yet been announced. (Reuters)
MUMBAI: According to Indian media reports a man at the Tulip Star Hotel in Juhu, Mumbai, snatched the Dadasaheb Phalke Academy Award trophy from the hands of Pakistani singer-turned-actor Ali Zafar and ran away with it.
Which raises the pertinent question - was it because he is a Pakistani actor working in the Indian film industry? "In any story of scandal such as this, its not the who, how, where, what and when, which is as important as the 'why'," remarks a Bollywood PR guru.
"If that 'why' can be answered in this sorry scenario too, the riddle can also be solved," he adds. Expressing his sympathies for Ali Zafar, the PR pundit said it was not a new phenomenon as many other celebrities had gone through similar helpless circumstances in huge crowds.
Ali Zafar made his India debut with the successful comedy Tere Bin Laden, and followed it up with another hit in Yash Raj Films' Mere Brother Ki Dulhan co-starring Imran Khan and Katrina Kaif. His last film London, Paris, New York also received critical acclaim.
Some of the other prominent awardees at the 143rd Dadasaheb Phalke Academy Awards included actors Amitabh Bachchan, Tanuja, Vinod Khanna, Ajay Devgn (Singham), Vidya Balan (The Dirty Picture), Waheeda Rehman, Saira Banu - Dilip Kumar, Ram Kapoor and Sakshi Tanwar (Bade Achhe Lagte Hain), Farhan Akhtar (Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara), Prakash Raj, ace journalist Chaitanya Padukone, producer Ekta Kapoor and singer Gurdas Maan.
GEO Health
PARIS: A lack of sleep could make you fat, scientists said on Thursday.
Not getting enough shut-eye may inhibit a hormone which controls hunger satisfaction and boost an appetite-stimulating hormone, said a paper presented to the European Congress on Obesity in Lyon, France.
This, in turn, could increase the sensation of hunger by 25 percent.
"If this translates to a proportional increase in calories, then a person with reduced sleep could eat 350 to 500 calories more per day," said a statement on the research led by Karine Spiegel from the University of Lyon.
A cheeseburger has about 500 calories.
The study compared data from other research projects on obesity and sleep duration. The findings are more pronounced for children and young adults.
"While it might be natural to think that sleeping less (or being awake more) means you use more calories and should therefore lose weight, studies have shown the opposite to be the case," said the statement.
"Interventions as simple as extending the nightly sleep duration in these younger, habitual short sleepers should be explored to prevent obesity."
Six hours are considered a short sleep period in adults and seven to eight hours a healthier one. (AFP)
ZURICH: Swiss drugmaker Novartis said on Thursday it would investigate alleged drug approval irregularities in India after a parliamentary report found the country's regulator colluded with pharmaceutical firms to speed up approval procedures.
"We will investigate the allegations presented in the government's report," Novartis said in a statement.
The parliamentary committee reviewed 39 randomly selected drugs approved by the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO).
In the case of 11, including Novartis' everolimus and aliskiren, it found that "mandatory" Phase III trials - the final stage of testing before a drug is approved - had not been conducted as required.
Specifically, in the case of everolimus, the CDSCO relied on the judgment of non-medical staff rather than seeking the opinion of independent experts, the report said.
Novartis said it followed one global ethical standard for conducting clinical trials worldwide and stood behind the safety and efficacy of its products. (Reuters)
GEO Amazing and Interesting
TOKYO: A Japanese man astonished the people by eating 32 boiled eggs in one minute.
The 33-years old Takeru Kobayashi also holds the world record for hot dog eating for six years.
NEW DELHI: At least 430 people, mainly children, have died from an outbreak of encephalitis in a deeply neglected region of the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, officials said on Saturday.
K.P. Kushwaha, chief paediatrician at the BRD Medical College in the state's hardest-hit Gorakhpur district, said it was one of the worst outbreaks of encephalitis in the impoverished region, which borders Nepal.
"The situation is grim and the epidemic is worse than previous years and with so many patients there are no empty beds at the hospital," Khuswaha said.
"We count such cases since January but most of these casualties have occurred since July."
He said more than 2,400 patients have been admitted to government hospitals in the region so far this year of which at least 430 have died.
"Until Saturday, 336 children and 94 adults have died," Kushwaha told from the overcrowded hospital where patients were lying two to a bed.
He said 262 patients were undergoing treatment in the state-run facility.
"Everyday between 30 and 40 patients are being brought in for treatment," he said.
Some 215 people, a majority of them children, succumbed to encephalitis in Gorakhpur last year while the death toll from the disease in 2005 was more than 1,400 in Uttar Pradesh.
Eastern parts of Uttar Pradesh are ravaged by encephalitis each year as malnourished children succumb to the virus, officials say.
Encephalitis causes brain inflammation and can result in brain damage. Symptoms include headaches, seizures and fever.
Health experts say 70 million children nationwide are at risk of encephalitis.
Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state, has been struggling for years with an encephalitis prevention programme, vaccinating millions of children against the virus. (AFP)
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