Toll hits 87 as 4 more killed in Karachi

Updated at: 0541 PST,  Friday, August 06, 2010  KARACHI: With a military operation looming in the anarchy-ridden Karachi, daily life started returning to normalcy on Thursday; however, four more people were killed, taking the death toll to 87 since Monday, Geo News reported. Three days after Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM)’s MPA Raza Haider’s murder, tension still prevailed in some areas, particularly Qasba Colony, Aligarh Colony, Bukhari Colony, Banaras, Kati Pahari, Peerabad, Mominabad and Orangi Town. By and large, complete calm was witnessed and no major incidents were reported as public and private life started returning to normalcy. However, pickup driver Mehmood Yaqoob, 35, was shot dead in Faqir Colony in the Mominabad police precincts. The victim was said to be a resident of Orangi Town, and police registered FIR No 514/10 against unidentified culprits. Similarly, Allah Wasayo, 35, was gunned down near Khyber Masjid in the Paposh Nagar police precincts. The culprits took the victim’s mobile phone and Rs 1,500 cash before escaping. Separately, a middle-aged man was fired at in Yousaf Goth, Orangi Town. Iqbal Market SHO Haji Liaquat said the unidentified victim had sustained an injury to his abdomen and was taken to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital where he breathed his last. In another incident, a body in a gunny bag body was found in a taxi near the Saba Cinema in the New Karachi locality. However, there was a dispute over jurisdiction between the Surjani, New Karachi Industrial Area and Ayub Goth police. Incidents of firing and arson were also reported from different parts of the city. Miscreants set ablaze the furniture market in the Sultanabad locality after resorting to indiscriminate firing. Fire tenders reached the site after almost an hour since they were delayed due to intense firing in the area. Around 20 shops were completely burnt before the fire could be brought under control. In Buffer Zone, a dozen carpet and garments shops were damaged in Iran Shopping Centre, while a roadside hotel was also set ablaze. In Orangi Town, a wood store was torched in Sector 111/2, while three houses in Raees Amrohi Colony; intense firing was also reported in various parts of the town. Separately, a teashop was torched in the Shadman locality, while a container trailer in Liaquatabad; three other shops and more than 12 pushcarts were also burnt in separate localities. Due to fear, sparse traffic was witnessed on the roads, while thin attendance at educational institutions and government and private offices. Most areas of Orangi Town remained tense as the town echoed with intense firing all day. On the other hand, police carried out search operations in various parts of Gulistan-e-Jauhar to rescue an alleged MQM activist who was abducted by unidentified people; however, the law enforcers could not recover the man. Meanwhile, citizens in different localities were faced with difficulties due to closure of markets, shops and petrol and CNG stations, as well as lack of transportation on the city’s roads; however, some shops and petrol and CNG stations remained opened to sell petrol, diesel and CNG at double prices.

Zardari urges world for aid to flood affectees

Updated at: 0627 PST,  Friday, August 06, 2010  LONDON: President Asif Ali Zardari has urged the international community to extend substantial assistance for the flood victims of Pakistan. He was talking to British Home Secretary Theresa May who called on him Thursday. Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Qamar Zaman Kaira, Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir, Secretary to the President Malik Asif Hayat and other senior government officials also attended the meeting. President Zardari thanked the 10-Downing Street for extending financial assistance of five million pounds and said keeping in view the magnitude of floods and devastation caused by the natural calamity, more international support was required on emergency basis. While discussing visas’ issue, the president said in the context of difficulties being faced by Pakistanis in obtaining UK visas, there was a need to streamline the process particularly for students and businessmen. May assured Zardari of getting in touch with relevant authorities in Pakistan to address the visa issues. Pakistan’s High Commissioner to the UK Wajid Shamsul Hassan proposed for signing a bilateral agreement for abolishing visas on diplomatic and official passports. May appreciated Pakistan’s efforts in fight against terrorism and the sacrifices laid by the people of Pakistan and the security forces in combating terrorism in the region. Zardari emphasised the need of international support in the field of economic development particularly for creating employment opportunities for the youth. He also called for supporting Pakistan for enhancing trade by providing access to Pakistani goods in international markets, like the European Union.

Chinese Doctors remove babys third leg

Hindu Man Marries A Dog

Wanna Stop Global Warming? Eat Bugs.

Insects release a miniscule trace of greenhouse gas compared to traditional livestock. (Photo: Sukree Sukplang/Reuters)

Arnold van Huis, an entomologist at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, is convinced that the solution to cooling our planet’s ever-warming climate is to put humanity on a diet.

Atkins? South Beach? Jenny Craig?

Try "The Firefly Fast," "The Caterpillar Cleanse," or "The Stinkbug Slimdown."

Those names are jokes, but the theory is van Huis's, and he’s not making fun. In fact, no less a body than theU.N. Food and Agriculture Organization is formally considering his proposal.

The cultivation of livestock such as cows, pigs and sheep accounts for two-thirds of the world's farmland and generates 20 percent of all greenhouse gases, reports The Guardian.

"There is a meat crisis," van Huis told the Guardian. "The world population will grow from six billion now to nine billion by 2050 and we know people are consuming more meat. Twenty years ago the average was 20kg, it is now 50kg, and will be 80kg in 20 years. If we continue like this we will need another Earth."

The climate killer in a meat diet is methane.

Emitted mostly by cows—yes, that’s via burps and farts—the gas is 23 times more harmful for the ozone layer than carbon dioxide.

But a world with less methane isn't the only value of an insect diet.

According to the Guardian:

The insects also produce 300 times less nitrous oxide, also a warming gas, and much less ammonia, a pollutant produced by pig and poultry farming.

For his part, van Huis is fairly realistic about getting the Western world to cannonball onto the bug bandwagon.

"Most of the world already eats insects,” van Huis told the Guardian, referring to the fact that 80 percent of nations dine on at least some form of bug. "It is only in the western world that we don't. Psychologically we have a problem with it. I don't know why, as we eat shrimps, which are very comparable."