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Waqas Dar

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Blog Entries posted by Waqas Dar

  1. Waqas Dar
    ISLAMABAD: The student of Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan, Mashal Khan, was shot three bullets and the one who fired them has been identified, but not yet arrested. This was stated in a report presented by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police in the Supreme Court.
    The cartridges collected from the site have been sent to Peshawar, the police report added.
    So far 36 people have been arrested in the case, out of which nine were employees of AWKUM.
    The hearing was held by a three-member bench under Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar on Thursday. The KP police presented its report during the hearing.
    The additional advocate general of KP told the court a Joint Investigation Team has been formed again, which now includes officials from Inter-Services Intelligence, Military Intelligence and Federal Investigation Agency.
    Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar adjourned the case for the next 15 days.
    A few days ago, AWKUM superintendent along with another employee of the university and a student were sent to prison on judicial remand. They were present before a judicial magistrate, where they denied the charges levelled on them. However, the court sent them to prison on judicial remand till May 4.

    Read: Mashal murder case: AWKUM superintendent sent to prison on judicial remand 
    Mashal Khan, who was a student of journalism at AWKUM, was lynched by an enraged mob on the university premises on April 13. The mob killed the students over charges of blasphemy.


  2. Waqas Dar
    SEOUL/WASHINGTON: South Korea and the United States agreed on Thursday on "swift punitive measures" against North Korea in the event of further provocation, as a North Korean official vowed it would push ahead with nuclear and missile tests to counter US "hostile acts".
    As a standoff escalated over North Korea's nuclear weapons and long-range ballistic missiles, South Korea said the deployment of a US anti-missile defence system was moving ahead effectively a day after angry protests against the battery and fierce opposition from China.
    "The two sides pledged that in the event of additional strategic provocation by the North to swiftly take punitive measures including a new UN Security Council resolution that are unbearable for the North," the South's presidential office said after its national security adviser, Kim Kwan-jin, held a phone call with his US counterpart, H.R. McMaster.
    The United States and North Korea have stepped up warnings to each other in recent weeks over the latter's development of nuclear weapons and missiles in defiance of UN resolutions.
    The North Korean threat is perhaps the most serious security challenge confronting US President Donald Trump. He has vowed to stop the North from being able to hit the United States with a nuclear missile and Vice President Mike Pence last week stressed that the "era of strategic patience" was over.
    Though it has warned "all options are on the table", Trump's administration said on Wednesday it aimed to push North Korea into dismantling its weapons programs through tougher sanctions and diplomatic pressure, and it remained open to talks.
    Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats described North Korea as "an urgent national security threat and top foreign policy priority".
    The US signal of a willingness to exhaust non-military avenues came as the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier group approached Korean waters, where it will join the USS Michigan nuclear submarine.
    North Korea, which conducted its biggest ever artillery exercise to mark the 85th anniversary of its military's creation on Tuesday, says it needs to develop weapons to defend itself from US aggression.
    A North Korean official speaking on CNN said the country would not be influenced by outside events.
    "As long as America continues its hostile acts of aggression, we will never stop nuclear and missile tests," said Sok Chol Won, director of the North's Institute of Human Rights at the Academy of Social Sciences.
    North Korea's official Rodong Sinmun newspaper said it was "entirely because of the US" that global denuclearization had not materialised.
    "So US officials should know this clearly and feel responsible, not play with their beaks thoughtlessly," it said.
    BOTTLES THROWN AT MISSILE DEFENSE SYSTEM
    South Korea on Wednesday moved parts of a US "Terminal High Altitude Area Defense" or THAAD missile defence system to its deployment site, on what had been a golf course, about 250 km south of the capital, Seoul, signalling a faster installation of the system.
    Several hundred South Korean villagers protested near the site, hurling water bottles at vehicles moving the parts in.
    The top US Commander in the Pacific, Admiral Harry Harris, said on Wednesday the THAAD system would be operational "in coming days", bolstering the ability to defend the US ally and the 28,500 US troops stationed there.
    South Korea's Defence Ministry, asked if the THAAD unit would be undergoing trials, said the deployment had progressed further than it and the United States had earlier indicated.
    "No, not a trial operation. The capability that's been deployed by the United States and South Korea now means that if North Korea provokes, it is a capability that can respond," ministry spokesman Moon Sang-gyun told a briefing.
    A photograph taken of the site showed a THAAD interceptor on the back of a mobile launcher erected and pointed skywards on the green lawn as a military transport helicopter hovered nearby.
    The United States and South Korea agreed last year to deploy THAAD to counter the North Korean threat.
    But China, which says the system's advanced radar can penetrate deep into its territory and undermine its security, is adamant in its opposition.
    The influential Chinese tabloid, the Global Times, run by the Communist Party's official People's Daily, denounced THAAD, saying it undermined China's effort to ease tensions in the peninsula.
    "South Korea must pay the price for its arrogance. Seoul, by turning the peninsula into a powder keg together with the North, is playing with fire," it said.
    The front-runner in South Korea's May 9 presidential election has called for a delay in THAAD deployment, saying the new Seoul administration should make a decision after gathering public opinion and more talks with Washington.
    Moon Jae-in, who is leading in opinion polls, said on Thursday if the North conducts another nuclear test, "dialogue between the two Koreas will be practically impossible for a very long time, and considering the single five-year presidency, it will be difficult to improve ties."


  3. Waqas Dar
    MUMBAI: Popular Indian actor Vinod Khanna passed away on Thursday.
    According to sources, the artist was suffering from cancer. He was 70 years of age at the time of his death.
    He is survived by his wife, three sons and a daughter. 
    Read more: Shocking pictures of Vinod Khanna in weary condition go viral
    Earlier in the month, pictures of the veteran Indian actor went viral on the internet, leaving fans in shock. 

    The actor debuted in 1968 with "Man Ka Meet" and is best remembered for his performance in films like "Mere Apne", "Mera Gaon Mera Desh", "Imitihaan", "Inkaar", "Amar Akbar Anthony", "Lahu ke Do Rang", "Qurbani", "Dayavaan" and "Jurm".
    He was last seen in Shah Rukh Khan-starrer 2015 film "Dilwale".
     
     


  4. Waqas Dar
    It is always said that Katrina Kaif has a soft corner for Salman Khan.
    Katrina Kaif who was introduced in the Bollywood industry by Salman Khan actually seems a huge fan of him.

    Katrina Kaif talks about working with Salman Khan again in Tiger Zinda Hai after a gap of five years.
    While speaking to Indian media when Kaif was asked how is it working with Salman, the actress replied, "I have known Salman for so many years now. After shooting with him for a long time, you miss his flamboyance and his fun side. He has a great sense of humour and flamboyance. He has a way of living life, where a great energy buzzes around him. It comes as a force and flood when you come back to the set with him. He has an amazing aura and warmth around him."

     
    Katrina is currently working with Salman Khan in Tiger Zinda Hai which is directed by Katrina's best friend Ali Abbas Zafar.
    Salman and Katrina have worked together in films like Ek Tha Tiger, Partner, Yuvvraaj, Maine Pyaar Kyun Kiya? among others.
    She is teaming with Khan after a gap of five years for Tiger Zinda Hai.



  5. Waqas Dar
    During an operation conducted Thursday morning, 29 Indian fishermen were arrested near Pakistan’s coast for violating the maritime boundaries.
    Five boats were also seized alongside the Indian fishermen, a spokesperson of the Pakistan Maritime Security Agency (MSA) said.
    The detained Indian fishermen have been handed over to the Docks Police.
    Last month, nearly 100 Indian fishermen were taken into custody for fishing illegally in Pakistan’s sea boundaries. In addition, 19 boats were also held during the MSA’s raid.
    While fishermen from both India and Pakistan are routinely involved in this arrest-and-release game, many of them often remain forgotten in prison despite having served their sentences. This is due to poor diplomatic relations between the two countries.
    Pakistan in January released 219 Indian fishermen as a "goodwill" gesture, while 18 Pakistani fishermen arrested in India reached Karachi on March 4.


  6. Waqas Dar
    SRINAGAR: Suspected militants attacked an army garrison in Indian occupied Kashmir (IoK) on Thursday, killing three soldiers and two officers amid an uptick in violence in the restive region.
    The incident occurred just a day after Indian authorities in the area ordered internet service providers to block 22 social media services including Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp for a month to maintain "public order".
    Indian army spokesman Rajesh Kalia said two attackers were also killed during the pre-dawn assault in Kupwara district near the de facto border that divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan.
    Search operations were in progress to see if more attackers were hiding.
    Aasiya Andrabi arrested in Srinagar
    The authorities arrested Dukhtaran-e-Millat (DeM) chairperson, Aasiya Andrabi from her residence in Srinagar late Wednesday night.
    A DeM spokesperson in a statement issued in Srinagar said that Aasiya Andrabi was arrested by the police from her residence at Soura in Srinagar, last night.
    “A contingent of police along with SHO Soura raided the residence of Aasiya at around 11:30 pm and arrested her,” added the spokesperson.
    Read more: India blocks social media in occupied Kashmir
    Roughly 500,000 Indian soldiers are deployed in Kashmir, which has been divided between India and Pakistan since the end of British rule in 1947. Both claim the territory in its entirety.
    Anti-India sentiment runs deep in the Kashmir valley, one of the world´s most heavily militarised spots where most people favour independence or a merger with mainly Muslim Pakistan.
    Clashes between rebels and government forces have become more frequent since the killing of a popular rebel leader, Burhan Wani, by Indian security forces last July which sparked widespread unrest.
    In September, 19 Indian soldiers were killed in an attack on the Uri army base, which India blamed on Pakistan-backed militants and which pushed tensions to dangerous levels.
    Wednesday´s move to block social media was the first time the government took such a step, although it regularly blocks the mobile internet signal in the volatile valley.


  7. Waqas Dar
    MOSCOW:  Speaking at the sixth Moscow Conference on International Security, Pakistan’s Defence minister Khawaja Muhammed Asif said the region's peace and stability will remain at stake if the Kashmir issue is left unresolved. 
    Discussing the Kashmir issue, Asif said that if left unresolved, it has the potential to threaten the peace and stability of the entire region. 
    “The Kashmir issue must be resolved in accordance with the UN resolution,” the defence minister said. “I must share that all peace overtures and sincere efforts made by Pakistan are not being reciprocated.”  
    He stressed that it is the responsibility of the world community to address some of the long-standing conflicts of the world. “India continues to stay away from any plausible diplomatic approach for the resolution of Kashmir issue.”
    Expressing his views on the situation in the Middle East, the minister termed the United States’ attack on Syria as 'external interference.'
    Read more: Khawaja Asif slams term “Islamic terrorism” at Munich Security Conference
    “Russia must play its part to stabilise the situation in Afghanistan,” he said while talking to his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu.
    Asif said that polarised societies are breeding grounds for terrorism. “From Palestine to Kashmir, we have a history of suppression and denial of basic human rights,” he said.
    “Extremists garner support by exploiting polarisation - so there is a need to develop stronger counter-narratives, based on interfaith harmony, economic equality, cross-cultural mutual respect, to deny extremists that space,” the defence minister stated. 
    Read more: Pakistan not the property of any religion or sect: Khawaja Asif
    The minister stated that Pakistan does not believe in any distinction between terrorist outfits. Talking about the Operation Radd-ul-Fasaad, he said the remaining terrorists are being combed out through the operation.  


  8. Waqas Dar
    BEIRUT: Explosions were heard near Damascus International Airport in the early hours of Thursday, a monitoring group said, without specifying the cause.
    "The blast was huge and could be heard in Damascus," said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
    Read more: Three dead in Israeli attack on Syria military camp
    Earlier on April 23, an Israeli attack on a Syrian camp for pro-government forces killed three fighters near the Golan Heights on Sunday, an official from the forces said.
    The official told AFP that two fighters were also wounded in the attack on the Al-Fawwar camp near Quneitra in southwestern Syria, adding that it was unclear whether the damage was inflicted by an air strike or shelling.
    The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group confirmed the early Sunday attack but had no further details.
    Israel´s army on Friday said it targeted positions inside Syria in retaliation for mortar fire that hit the northern part of the Golan Heights.
    Syria´s official news agency SANA said Israel had struck a Syrian army position in the province of Quneitra on the Golan plateau, "causing damage".
     
     
    This is a developing story and will be updated as more information is received. 


  9. Waqas Dar
    Do you like slow motion videos? Well, who doesn’t?
    Slow motion videos are the new craze that has taken over the internet.
    Various things happening in the slow motion give mesmerizing visuals which are interesting to watch.
    The Slo Mo Guys are famous on the YouTube for filming and destroying all sorts of thing in slow motion.
    Recently, the team had a two-hour-long live stream, where they destroyed a whole bunch of stuff in the California desert. 
    Here's a short highlight clip where you can watch the happenings in slow motion.
    Check it out!

     


  10. Waqas Dar
    Weather in Pakistan is forecasted to remain dry for the next 24 hours, the Met Department said on Thursday.
    Karachi's current temperature is recorded at 26° Celsius, while the sky is partly cloudy. Humidity in the air was registered at 77%.
    Highest temperature forecast by the Met Department is set at 33° Celsius, while strong winds of 18 km/h are blowing inwards from the country's South Western areas.
    For the next 24 hours, Kashmir and adjoining mountainous areas are expected to have strong winds and light rain, with thunder and lightning. The same is forecasted for Malakand, Mirpurkhas, FATA, and Gilgit-Baltistan for the next 48 hours.
    Strong, dusty winds are anticipated in Hyderabad and Mirpurkhas.
    On Wednesday, highest rainfall was recorded in Parachinar in 27 mm, while highest temperatures were registered in Shaheed Benazirabad at 45° Celsius, Sukkur at 44° Celsius, and Larkana, Sibi, Jacobabad, and Dadu all at 43° Celsius.


  11. Waqas Dar
    LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz leader Hamza Shahbaz Sharif, on Thursday, alleged that Pakistan Tehreek-e- Insaf chief Imran Khan lied about a bribe offered to him to remain silent on the Panam Leaks case.
    "Khan is perplexed and he is lying. We will take this up against him in court," Shehbaz said commenting on the PTI chief's claim that the government offered him Rs 10 billion for keeping mum on the Panama Leaks case.
    "Khan should either validate his claim by sharing proofs or be ready for legal proceedings against him," the PML-N leader said.
    Read more: Maryam says 'fears for Imran's fate in hereafter'
    Reacting to Imran Khan's claim on Wednesday, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's daughter Maryam Nawaz said that she "fears for the fate of PTI chairman in the hereafter."
    The PTI chairman, while speaking to a gathering at Shaukat Khanum Hospital a day ago, had alleged that he had been made an offer in the Panama Leaks case.
    "Just imagine how much money he offered me to be silent. Rs10 billion...  If he can offer me this much money, just imagine how much he would offer to others. That is why if we don't maintain public pressure this issue then after two months it will be dragged to next year," Khan said.


  12. Waqas Dar
    VIENNA: It's not only in life that humans leave their mark on Nature. In death, our decomposing corpses alter the chemistry of precious soil, scientists warned on Wednesday.
    Whether our bodies are buried or cremated, they leach iron, zinc, sulphur, calcium and phosphorus into ground that may later be used as farms, forests or parks.
    They are essential nutrients, but human funerary practices mean they are being concentrated in cemeteries instead of being dispersed evenly throughout nature, according to new research.
    This means that in some places the nutrients may be over-concentrated for optimal absorption by plants and creatures, while lacking in others.
    Furthermore, human bodies also contain more sinister elements, such as mercury from dental fillings.
    "Chemical traces of decomposed bodies can frequently be very well distinguished in soil," said Ladislav Smejda of the Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague, who took part in the unusual probe.
    "These traces persist for a very long time, for centuries to millennia."
    The effects will become more pronounced as more and more dead bodies are laid to rest, Smejda said in Vienna, where he unveiled the research at a meeting of the European Geosciences Union.
    "What we do today with our dead will affect the environment for a very, very long time," he said.
    "Maybe it is not such a problem in our current perspective but with an increasing population globally it might become a pressing problem in the future."
    Smejda and a team used X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy to analyse soil chemicals in graves and ash "scattering gardens".
    Pushing up daisies

    Using animal carcasses, they also measured the theoretical impact of an ancient practice called "excarnation", whereby the dead are left out in the open for nature to take its course.
    In all three cases, the ground contained "significantly" higher concentrations of chemicals compared to the surrounds, Smejda said.
    If there had been no cemeteries, human remains, like those of animals, would be distributed randomly for the nutrients they release to be reused "again and again, everywhere," the researcher told AFP.
    But concentrating them in certain places "is something that can be regarded as not natural. It's a human impact, we are changing natural levels," he said.
    Now the question is: "Can we come up with a better idea (of) how to distribute these necessary elements across wider landscapes?" Smejda added.
    "Certainly there is a potential to invent, to develop and to put into practice... new ways of human burial or new treatments that could be more environmentally friendly, more ecological."
    He conceded this was a "taboo" topic for many, with funerary customs deeply rooted in culture and religion.
    "It's a very complex matter and we are just at the start of this discussion, I think."


  13. Waqas Dar
    Oil prices dipped on Thursday, weighed down by a general sentiment of globally bloated markets, though traders said that prices seemed to have found support around current levels.
    US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures CLc1 were trading at $49.34 per barrel at 0137 GMT, down 28 cents, or 0.56 percent from their last close. WTI has lost around 8.5 percent in value from its April peak.
    Brent crude futures LCOc1, the international benchmark for oil prices, were at $51.58 per barrel, down 24 cents, or 0.46 percent, from their last close. Brent is almost 9 percent below its April peak.
    Traders said that the falls in recent weeks were a result of a realization that global oil markets remained oversupplied, despite efforts led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Russia to cut output by 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) during the first half of the year in order to tighten the market and prop up prices.
    "It is clear that the world has plenty of oil in stock, making OPEC's life that much harder ahead of its June production cut rollover date," said Jeffrey Halley, senior market analyst at futures brokerage OANDA in Singapore.
    While the United States reported a drop in its commercial crude oil stocks on Wednesday, albeit from near-record highs, its gasoline inventories surged as refiners produced more fuel than the market could consume.
    Still, with an expectation that OPEC would lobby for an extension of the production cuts to cover all of 2017, analysts said there was support for prices around current levels.Reuters technical commodities analyst Wang Tao said that "Brent oil looks neutral in a range of $51.30-$52.32 per barrel."
     


  14. Waqas Dar
    LONDON: Marine Le Pen's performance in France's presidential race cheered Brexit supporters, but many fear the likely winner Emmanuel Macron will play hardball in Britain's negotiations on leaving the European Union.
    EU leaders are relieved at the prospect of a victory for Macron, a pro-European centrist, in a run-off on May 7 against eurosceptic far-right leader Le Pen.
    But for commentators on all sides of the political divide in Britain, Macron spells bad news for Prime Minister Theresa May as she embarks on Brexit talks after her own expected re-election in June.
    "Emmanuel Macron would be bad for Brexit and Theresa May," said the eurosceptic Daily Telegraph newspaper, which is close to May's Conservatives.
    "French presidential favourite Macron may drive hard bargain in Brexit talks," said the left-leaning Guardian.
    May formally notified the EU on March 29 of Britain's intention to end its 44-year-old membership, following the shock referendum vote for Brexit last June.
    In order to curb mass migration into Britain, she intends to pull Britain out of Europe's single market, while still pressing for access for British firms.
    But several EU leaders have warned Britain cannot "have its cake and eat it".
    Macron dedicated a chapter to Europe and its benefits in his election manifesto, and on Brexit, said he would defend the integrity of the single market.
    "All companies who have access to it must be subject to the same rules," he said.
    In a rare honour for a presidential candidate, Macron met May in London in February, where he promised "a fair execution of Brexit protecting French and European interests".
    But he told a rally of expatriate voters afterwards: "The best trade deal for Britain... is membership of the EU."
    Macron as the enemy

    The Financial Times daily laid out several reasons why Macron as president "could make matters a good deal tougher for the British in Brexit talks".
    "He is a convinced European" who will likely offer few concessions -- particularly on access to the single market for Britain's dominant financial services sector.
    "Some analysts believe that as a former Rothschild banker, he will want to do everything possible to maximise Paris's position as a financial centre after Britain?s departure," the FT said.
    Others take a more emotive view.
    "I see Macron as the enemy," said Nigel Farage, the former leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) who was a key player in the Brexit vote, and now backs Le Pen.
    "He wants Brussels to be even stronger, and I can't see that it's in our interests when the Junckers and others are all lining up to try and punish Britain," Farage told LBC radio, referring to European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker.
    Simon Tilford, deputy director of the Centre for European Reform, acknowledges that "on the face of it, it looks bad".
    "Macron has taken quite a tough line on the whole issue of Brexit, arguing that the EU needs to take a tough line with Britain in order to set an example to other countries that might be tempted to follow a similar route," he told AFP.
    "Whereas Marine Le Pen has expressed understanding for the British position."
    However, he said "a tough line is not necessarily bad for Britain if it forces Britain to compromise and to be more honest about the trade-offs it faces".
    He added: "From a European perspective, Britain has absolutely no incentive, or no interest, in the kind of political instability, or even chaos, that could follow the election of Marine Le Pen."


  15. Waqas Dar
    RIYADH: The Saudi coast guard fired on an unmanned boat rigged with explosives, thwarting an attack on one of the kingdom´s oil terminals that authorities on Wednesday blamed on Yemeni Huthi rebels.
    The boat, sent from a small island off the Yemeni coast, was targeting a petroleum products distribution terminal run by Saudi oil giant Aramco when it was intercepted on Tuesday, the interior ministry said in a statement carried by the SPA state news agency.
    "The boat was spotted when it departed from a small island in Yemeni waters and gained speed after entering Saudi waters," the ministry said.
    After determining that the boat was unmanned, a coast guard unit opened fire on its engine and stopped it 1.5 miles (2.8 kilometres) from the terminal in the southern region of Jazan, the statement said.
    The boat was loaded with "strong explosive material," it said.
    The ministry vowed to foil all "terrorist attempts" against the kingdom and to "reach those behind them from the Huthi militias."
    It accused the rebels of "threatening the security of waterways and offshore installations with explosive-laden boats and naval mines."
    Saudi Arabia is leading an Arab coalition that in March 2015 launched a military campaign against Iran-backed Yemeni rebels in support of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi.
    Huthi rebels aided by renegade troops loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh repeatedly fire missiles across the borders with the kingdom, but this is the first attempt of kind to target an oil installation.
    In August, the rebels claimed to have hit an Aramco facility with a missile, but the oil company said all its installations were operating as normal.
    Two Saudi sailors were killed in a rebel "suicide" boat strike on a frigate patrolling off the Yemeni coast in January, the coalition said at the time. The rebels said they hit the ship with a guided missile.
    More than 7,700 people have been killed in the past two years of fighting in Yemen, the UN says.


  16. Waqas Dar
    Women who manage to conceive after surviving childhood cancer may encounter treatment-related pregnancy and labor complications if they got radiation for their malignancies, a recent study suggests.
    Female cancer survivors who got abdominal radiation are more than three times more likely to develop diabetes during pregnancy as their peers who received different tumor treatments, the study found. After radiation, these cancer survivors are also more than twice as likely to develop anemia during pregnancy.
    Survivors of Wilms tumors, a rare type of childhood kidney cancer, had more than three times the risk of high blood pressure during pregnancy when their treatment included abdominal or pelvic radiation.
    When they didn’t get radiation, however, female cancer survivors didn’t appear to have any greater risk of labor complications than women who never had cancer, the study also found.
    “It is reassuring that the majority of women who survived childhood cancer and who became pregnant are not at increased risk of developing specific adverse labor complications compared to the general population,” said lead study author Raoul Reulen of the Center for Childhood Cancer Studies at the University of Birmingham in the UK.
    Survival from childhood cancer has improved dramatically in recent decades, and roughly four in five kids diagnosed with tumors survive at least five years, researchers note.
    “It is important that women who have been treated for childhood cancer and who want to become pregnant or are pregnant are aware of the specific treatments (e.g. radiotherapy, chemotherapy) they received as a child and discuss the potential implications of the treatment on the pregnancy with their obstetrician,” Reulen said by email.
    For the study, researchers examined data on a total of 2,783 singleton pregnancies among 1,712 childhood cancer survivors. All of the women were diagnosed with tumors by age 14.
    Women were typically around 29 years old when they delivered their babies. The majority of them had survived leukemia, central nervous system tumors or Wilms.
    A total of 1,183 women received any radiation as part of their cancer treatment, and 205 of them had abdominal radiation.
    Women who got abdominal radiation were 46 percent more likely to have elective cesarean deliveries compared to the general population of pregnant women who didn’t have childhood cancer. Cancer survivors who didn’t have abdominal radiation were 39 percent more likely to have elective cesareans.
    Emergency cesarean rates were similar regardless of cancer history.
    While the study wasn’t a controlled experiment designed to prove whether or how radiation leads to pregnancy complications, it’s possible radiation causes kidney damage that contributes to anemia and elevated blood pressure, or increases the risk of diabetes by harming the pancreas, the authors note.
    One limitation of the study is that researchers lacked records on the doses of radiation or chemotherapy patients received, and they also didn’t know the site of radiation for some survivors.
    Still, the study offers fresh insight into pregnancy complications that may follow childhood cancer, said Dr. Daniel Green of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.
    “We already knew about pregnancy related hypertension after abdominal irradiation, and about diabetes (but not pregnancy related diabetes) after abdominal irradiation,” Green, who wasn’t involved in the study, said by email. “We did not know there was an increased risk for anemia during pregnancy.”
    Ideally, cancer survivors should consider these risks before trying to conceive, said Dr. Kutluk Oktay, director of the Innovation Institute for Fertility Preservation in New York.
    “Cancer survivors should seek preconception evaluation from maternal fetal specialists before attempting pregnancy,” Oktay, who wasn’t involved in the study, said by email.


  17. Waqas Dar
    High-tech dating of mastodon remains found in southern California has shattered the timeline of human migration to America, pushing the presence of hominins back to 130,000 years ago rather than just 15,000 years, researchers said Wednesday.
    Teeth and bones of the elephant-like creature unmistakably modified by human hands, along with stone hammers and anvils, leave no doubt that some species of early human feasted on its carcass, they reported in the journal Nature.
    Discovered in 1992 during construction work to expand an expressway, the bone fragments "show clear signs of having been deliberately broken by humans with manual dexterity," said lead author Steve Holen, director of research at the Center for American Paleolithic Research.
    Up to now, the earliest confirmed passage of our ancestors into North America took place about 15,000 years ago. These were modern humans -- Homo sapiens -- that probably crossed from Siberia into what is today Alaska, by land or along the coast.
    There have been several other claims of an even earlier bipedal footprint on the continent, but none would take that timeline back further than 50,000 years, and all remain sharply contested.
    The absence of human remains at the California site throws wide open the question of who these mysterious hunters were, as well as when -- and how -- they arrived on American shores.
    A genetic link

    One possibility that can be excluded with high confidence is that they were like us. Homo sapiens, experts say, did not exit Africa until about 80,000 to 100,000 years ago.
    But that still leaves a wide range of candidates, including several other hominin species that roamed Eurasia 130,000 years ago, the authors said.
    They include Homo erectus, whose earliest traces date back nearly two million years; Neanderthals, who fought and co-mingled with modern humans across Europe before dying out some 40,000 years ago; and an enigmatic species called Denisovans, whose DNA survives today in Australian aboriginals.
    In a companion analysis, Holen and his team argue that -- despite rising seas 130,000 years ago due to an inter-glacial period of warming -- the overseas distances to the Americas were within the capacity of human populations at the time.
    Intriguingly, in light of the new find, recent studies have also shown a genetic link between present-day Amazonian native Americans and some Asian and Australian peoples.
    The picture that emerges "indicates a diverse set of founding populations of the Americas," said Erella Hovers, an anthropologist at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who did not take part in the new study.
    As for the early humans who carved up the bones at the Cerutti Mastodon site in San Diego, named for the paleontologist who discovered it, they likely died out, leaving no genetic trace in modern North Americans, the authors conjectured.
    Previous attempts to accurately date artefacts at the site fell short.
    Then, in 2014, co-author James Paces, a researcher with the US Geological Survey, used state-of-the-art radiometric methods to measure traces of natural uranium and its decaying by-products in the mastodon bones, which were still fresh when broken by precise blows from stone hammers.
    Not-so-new New World
    The prehistoric butchery, he determined, took place 130,000 years ago, give or take 9,400 years, and was may have sought to extract nutritious marrow.
    "Since the original discovery, dating technology has advanced to enable us to confirm with further certainty that early humans were here signficantly earlier than commonly accepted," said co-author Thomas Demere, a paleontologist at the San Diego Natural History Museum.
    To strengthen the case, researchers set up an experiment to reproduce the stone-age food prep tableau unearthed from "Bed E" of the excavation site.
    Using stone hammers and anvils similar to those found, they broke open large elephant bones much in the way pre-historic humans might have done. Certain blows yielded exactly the kind of strike marks, on both the hammers and the bones.
    The same patterns, further tests showed, could not have emerged from natural wear-and-tear, or from the deliberate crafting of the tools, called flaking.
    "This is a very old technology," said Holen. "We have people in Africa 1.5 million years ago breaking up elephant limb bones in this pattern, and as humans moved out of Africa and across the world they took this type of technology with them."
    There remain nonetheless big holes in the narrative of human migration to the Americas, Hovers said, commenting in Nature.
    "Time will tell whether this evidence will bring a paradigm change in our understanding of hominin dispersal and colonisation throughout the world, including in what now seems to be a not-so-new New World," she wrote.


  18. Waqas Dar
    MATIARI: Over 20 shops and a hotel were gutted after a fire erupted at a timber market in Bhitt Shah, Matiari district in Sindh, police said.
    The blaze erupted late on Wednesday night which engulfed several shops and a hotel in Bhit Shah's timber market.
    However, firefighters timely sprang into action and doused the fire. Fortunately, no loss of life was reported in its wake.
    The reason as to how the blaze erupted was yet being found out, officials said.


  19. Waqas Dar
    Jonathan Demme, the Oscar-winning director of "The Silence of the Lambs" whose four-decade career spanned a staggering array of work from romantic comedy and rock music to hard-hitting documentaries, died Wednesday. He was 73.
    Demme passed away in New York surrounded by his family after a battle with cancer, his publicist announced. He will be laid to rest in a private funeral.
    He remains best known for the smash-hit 1991 horror-thriller starring Anthony Hopkins as serial killer Hannibal Lecter and Jodie Foster as FBI agent Clarice Starling. The movie was box office gold and a dazzling critical success.
    It swept the 1992 Academy Awards, winning five Oscars including best picture, best actor for Hopkins and best actress for Foster.
    "I am heart-broken to lose a friend, a mentor, a guy so singular and dynamic you'd have to design a hurricane to contain him," Foster wrote in a statement.
    Hopkins said he was shocked. "He was one of the best, and a really nice guy as well who had such a great spirit. Every day being with him was a high five."
    The director's success with "Silence of the Lambs" gave Demme the commercial springboard to direct "Philadelphia" in 1993, a ground-breaking Hollywood blockbuster that won Tom Hanks his first Academy Award for playing a gay lawyer fired for contracting HIV and fighting for justice.
    Critics say the movie changed the way Hollywood portrayed the AIDS crisis and revolutionized mainstream film's portrayal of gay and lesbian characters.
    Grandest of men

    Demme's most recent feature film was the less well received "Ricki and the Flash," starring Meryl Streep as a divorced mom who ditches her family to follow her dream of rock-n-roll stardom before a crisis compels her to return.
    "Jonathan passed away early this morning in his Manhattan apartment, surrounded by his wife, Joanne Howard, and three children," Demme's publicist said in a brief statement. He died from complications from esophageal cancer.
    His death prompted warm tributes for a deeply respected director, praised for his compassion and creativity, as well as recognized for highlighting causes such as the plight of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, and impoverished Haiti.
    "Jonathan taught us how big a heart a person can have, and how it will guide how we live and what we do for a living," Hanks said. "He was the grandest of men."
    Streep said Demme had been "a big-hearted" man who fully embraced "people in need -- and of the potential of art, music, poetry and film to fill that need."
    Born on February 22, 1944 on Long Island, New York, Demme went to high school in Miami and briefly studied chemistry at the University of Florida in the hope of becoming a veterinarian.
    It was after flunking science that he turned to writing movie reviews and got a publicity job at a film company. He later met director Roger Corman, who asked if he could write a screenplay.
    "I fell backwards into it almost," he said of his career in an interview with National Public Radio in 2007.
    Documentary love

    Demme directed a total of 20 feature films and 12 documentaries, not to mention innovative concert movie "Stop Making Sense" and music videos, chalking up a raft of writing and production credits. Much of his work had a political or social edge.
    Besides thrillers, romantic comedies and a farce about the wife of a mobster, his real love was for documentaries. Subjects included Nelson Mandela, former president Jimmy Carter, and Bruce Springsteen.
    "I'm not really in the business of making fictional films and I'm drawn to ones that I consider to be special and exciting in a certain way, and in the meantime I'll be perfectly happy just to make documentary after documentary," he told NPR.
    But there were also flops.
    His 1998 movie "Beloved" starring Oprah Winfrey and based on the Toni Morrison novel about a slave visited by the spirit of her dead daughter, bombed.
    There were also lackluster reviews for his 2004 remake of "The Manchurian Candidate" starring Streep and Denzel Washington, set in the 1990-1991 Gulf War.
    In 2013, the Americans For Immigrant Justice charity announced that it was honoring Demme with an award for decades of tireless work on behalf of Haitian refugees and vulnerable immigrants.
    In place of flowers, Demme's family requested donations to the Florida-based charity.


  20. Waqas Dar
    KARACHI: Two suspects were killed in an alleged encounter with police while a suspected robber was gunned down by restaurant shop owner in Karachi late Wednesday, besides arrest of over two dozen others.
    Police, on an intelligence tip-off, conducted a search operation in Kalakot, Sangoline and Nawaline areas of Lyari late this night, officials said. The suspects opened fire on the law enforcers during the operation.
    In retaliation, two suspects, Ameen alias Danny and Adnan, were killed, while one of their accomplice, Shehzad alias Shakar, managed to flee.
    The deceased suspects were said to be involved in a grenade attack which left around 17 people wounded a few days ago.
    Meanwhile, house-to-house searches were conducted in Shah Rasool Colony and Neelum Colony, in which 11 suspects were held, said SP Clifton Asad Malhi.
    A mugging attempt was foiled in FB Area, when owner of a restaurant opened fire on two muggers while they were robbing citizens of their valuables, said SP Gulberg Bashir Brohi. Consequently, one of the muggers was killed, while the other fled. The deceased was identified as Sohail Abbas.
    Seven street criminals were held in different raids in Shah Lateef Town, Tipu Sultan Road, Shahrah e Noorjehan and Khawaja Ajmair Nagri areas, police said. Officials also claimed to have seized weapons and looted valuables from arrested suspects.
    Ittehad Town police nabbed a gang war suspect, seizing explosives, ball bearings, battery and detonator from him.
    A law enforcement agency rounded up a suspected target killer, said to be affiliated with a political party, from Surjani Town.
    Four more street criminals were arrested from near Gulshan Chowrangi, police said.


  21. Waqas Dar
    LAHORE: Reacting to Imran Khan's claim that the government offered him Rs10 billion for keeping mum on Panama Leaks case, Maryam Nawaz, daughter of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, on Wednesday said that she "fears for the fate of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman in the hereafter".
    The PTI chairman, while speaking to a gathering at Shaukat Khanum Hospital a day ago, had alleged that he had been made an offer in the Panama Leaks case.
    "Just imagine how much money he offered me to be silent. Rs10 billion...  If he can offer me this much money, just imagine how much he would offer to others. That is why if we don't maintain public pressure this issue then after two months it will be dragged to next year," Khan said.
    Reacting to the claim, Maryam Nawaz criticised Imran Khan for his budging stance regarding the "offer".
    In her tweet, she noted that the PTI chief at times says that he was made the offer by an aide of Punjab CM Shehbaz Sharif, while on others he says it was Hamza Shehbaz's friend who offered the huge sum to his affiliate in Dubai.
    "I fear for this man's Hereafter!" the first daughter said in her tweet.


  22. Waqas Dar
    Danish playmaker Christian Eriksen netted a superb 30-yard goal as Tottenham Hotspur downed Crystal Palace 1-0 on Wednesday to keep their Premier League title hopes alive.
    Leaders Chelsea, who beat Tottenham 4-2 in the FA Cup semi-finals on Saturday, went seven points clear by beating Southampton on Tuesday, but Spurs' win trimmed the gap back to four points.
    "It was unbelievable -- a very good performance," Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino told Sky Sports at Selhurst Park.
    "It was good to get the three points and be alive in the race for the title. The challenge is to keep going."
    Eriksen struck in the 78th minute and Arsenal also left it late, Robert Huth's 85th-minute own goal giving Arsene Wenger's men a 1-0 win that left them four points off the Champions League places.
    Palace had won six, drawn one and lost one of their previous eight league games and had the best of the first half against Spurs, Christian Benteke working Hugo Lloris and Andros Townsend firing over.
    Pochettino took decisive action at half-time, sending on Son Heung-Min and Moussa Sissoko in place of Mousa Dembele and Victor Wanyama.
    Palace lost Mamadou Sakho to a potentially serious injury in the 57th minute, the in-form centre-back, who is on loan from Liverpool, stretchered off after twisting his left knee.
    "He has hyperextended the knee," said Palace manager Sam Allardyce, whose side remain 12th.
    "It is certainly serious enough to keep him out for who knows how long. We won't know until we diagnose it, but if it is ligament (damage), it may be the end (of his loan spell)."
    Dele Alli scored a glorious goal for Spurs at Selhurst Park last season, but he squandered a good chance shortly before the hour, volleying wide from Kyle Walker's right-wing cross.
    Eriksen came to the rescue with 12 minutes to play, gathering Harry Kane's pass and arrowing a glorious shot into the bottom-left corner to secure an eighth successive league win.
    Hope for Middlesbrough

    Huth's unwitting intervention allowed Arsenal to prolong the momentum from their dogged 2-1 win over Manchester City in the FA Cup semi-finals on Sunday.
    On a subdued night, and in front of many empty seats at the Emirates Stadium, Arsenal went closest to breaking the deadlock in the first half with an Alexis Sanchez shot that cannoned back off the crossbar.
    Wenger threw on Danny Welbeck, Olivier Giroud and Aaron Ramsey in the second half, ditching the back-three system he has been using of late.
    Victory looked likely to elude the hosts until five minutes from time when Nacho Monreal's shot took a huge deflection off Huth and looped over Kasper Schmeichel in the Leicester goal.
    The win lifted Arsenal one place to sixth, four points behind fourth-place Manchester City and three points below fifth-place Manchester United.
    Arsenal have played the same number of games as City and United, who meet in the Manchester derby on Thursday.
    "Leicester were hard to break down, but we were patient and did not give away any chances," said Wenger, whose side visit Spurs in the north London derby this Sunday.
    "Every win gives you a little more momentum.
    "I don't have a preference for the Manchester derby. We don't have to look much at the others. We just have to look after ourselves. The target is clear for us."
    The evening's other game also ended 1-0, Marten de Roon's eighth-minute goal seeing off bottom club Sunderland to give Middlesbrough a glimmer of hope in their battle for survival.
    It was Boro's first win in 17 league games and took them to within six points of safety with four games to play, while Sunderland remain 12 points adrift of the survival threshold.


  23. Waqas Dar
    Borussia Dortmund fought back to stun bitter rivals Bayern Munich 3-2 on Wednesday to reach the German Cup final and shatter the Bavarian giants' dreams of the double.
    A brilliant strike from Ousmane Dembele 15 minutes from the end settled the semi-final tie at Munich's Allianz Arena which had seen Dortmund trail 2-1 at half-time.
    "This is the biggest moment of my career with Dortmund. It's hard to come to Munich and get a win," beamed Dembele, 19, who only joined Borussia for the start of the season.
    The result is a dramatic turn-around for Thomas Tuchel's Dortmund who were hammered 4-1 by runaway leaders Bayern in Munich in the Bundesliga just three weeks ago.
    "We came from 2-1 down and still won - that's crazy," beamed Tuchel.
    "We had completely written off our 4-1 defeat in the league. We played well for 20 minutes and then we let it slip.
    "After the break, we kept improving and improving, from the 60th minute we were very good. We certainly had a bit of luck too."
    The loss is a disaster for Bayern's coach Carlo Ancelotti following the Bavarian giants' Champions League quarter-final exit at the hands of Real Madrid.
    The cup exit in Munich leaves Bayern winless in their last five games following back-to-back losses to Real, plus draws with Mainz and Leverkusen in the league.
    Ancelotti's Bayern are eight points clear in the Bundesliga with four games left.
    However, their dreams of repeating last season's league and cup double, under Ancelott's predecessor Pep Guardiola, are over.
    "I think it's too early to talk about the season, we're still trying to win the Bundesliga," said Ancelotti when asked about the down-turn in fortunes this April.
    "We're disappointed, we had our chances to go 3-1 up.
    "This is not a good moment, but we have to focus on the Bundesliga."
    In a repeat of last year's final at Berlin's Olympic Stadium, which Bayern won in a penalty shoot-out, Marco Reus put Dortmund ahead after 19 minutes following a mistake by Munich's Javi Martinez.
    The Spanish international's lazy back pass was snapped up by Dortmund midfielder Raphael Guerreiro, whose snot hit the post and Reus drilled the rebound.
    Martinez made amends by equalising with a header nine minutes later before Mats Hummels put Bayern 2-1 ahead at half-time.
    Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang made it 2-2 on 69 minutes when he headed home a superb Dembele cross.
    That paved the way for the French teenager to hit the winner with a curling left-foot shot to break Bayern's hearts.
    "That is a huge disappointment," said Bayern's stunned captain Philipp Lahm.
    "You could see when it was 2-2 that we really wanted to reach the final. We didn't play well in the first 15 minutes, but then we improved. First, we have to absorb this setback."
    Dortmund will play in a fourth consecutive final on May 27, when they face Eintracht Frankfurt, who reached the final on Tuesday with a penalty shoot-out win over Borussia Moenchengladbach.


  24. Waqas Dar
    RAWALPINDI/PESHAWAR: Pakistan Army conducted air strikes in Khyber Agency leaving several militants dead, who were trying to sneak into the country from Afghanistan late Wednesday, the Inter Services Public Relations said.
    The air strikes, which came as part of the ongoing operation Radd-ul-Fasaad, were conducted on credible intelligence regarding movement of terrorists from Nangarhar, Afghanistan into Khyber Agency's Rajgal valley, the ISPR said in a statement.
    The strikes were conducted in Sattar Kalay and Narai Nau areas of the tribal agency.
    As a consequence, scores of militants were killed, while few were also wounded, it said. The wounded and survivors were forced to flee back.
    Several militant hideouts were also destroyed in the targeted strikes, the ISPR added.


  25. Waqas Dar
    PARIS: Edinson Cavani celebrated his new contract with his 45th goal of the season as holders Paris Saint-Germain demolished an inexperienced Monaco 5-0 to reach next month's French Cup final against Angers.
    Julian Draxler prodded PSG ahead on 26 minutes at the Parc des Princes and Cavani, who on Tuesday signed an extension through to 2020, swiftly doubled the lead as Unai Emery's side dominated their understrength opponents.
    Safwan Mbae bundled into his own net just after half-time and Blaise Matuidi tapped in a fourth before Marquinhos rounded out a resounding victory in the final minute.
    PSG thrashed Monaco 4-1 at the start of the month to lift their fourth straight League Cup title and are chasing a third successive sweep of the domestic trophies in France.
    However, Monaco lead the reigning champions on goal difference with a game in hand in Ligue 1 -- Leonardo Jardim's team also face Juventus next week in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final.
    With the Portuguese prioritising Europe and Saturday's league clash against Toulouse, Andrea Raggi and Valere Germain were the only regulars to start for Monaco in the French capital.
    Abdou Diallo forced Alphonse Areola into an excellent save to his right with a header on 20 minutes, but the floodgates opened for PSG once Morgan De Sanctis gifted Draxler the opening goal.
    Monaco's 40-year-old reserve goalkeeper spilled a straightforward effort from Angel Di Maria, allowing Cavani to nip in and divert the ball across goal for Draxler to slot home.
    The Uruguayan continues to edge closer towards Zlatan Ibrahimovic's 50-goal haul from last season. He moved to within five of the Swede's total with a lovely flick to steer a pass from Di Maria into the far corner.
    The Argentine winger, whose poor form had seen him linked with a move to China in January, has been a revelation since the turn of the year and nearly added a third as his teasing low cross bounced back off the post.
    Mbae compouded Monaco's problems when he turned another Di Maria delivery into his own net on 51 minutes, while Matuidi was the beneficiary of the former Real Madrid and Manchester United star's unselfishness as he turned in a fourth two minutes later.
    Marquinhos swept in a fifth after Maxwell's drive hit Matuidi and dropped invitingly into the Brazilian's path and PSG will now fancy their chances of landing a record 11th French Cup title.
    On Tuesday, Angers reached the final for the first time in 60 years -- and just the second in club history -- after a 2-0 home win over Guingamp.
    Thomas Mangani struck in the first half at a packed Stade Raymond Kopa and goalkeeper Alexandre Letellier saved Jimmy Briand's 88th-minute penalty, before Karl Toko Ekambi struck in stoppage time.


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