Scientists find a ‘hint of life’ on Saturn’s Moon! Scientists have found evidence that there is life on Saturn’s biggest moon, Titan. They have discovered clues that primitive aliens are breathing in Titan’s atmosphere and feeding on fuel at the surface. The startling discoveries, made using an orbiting spacecraft, are revealed in two separate reports. Saturn’s moon, Titan, pictured using ultraviolet and infrared cameras on board the space probe Cassini. Scientists now believe that the moon could harbour life Data from Nasa’s Cassini probe has analysed the complex chemistry on the surface of Titan  –  the only moon known to … Continue reading Boffin Mullahs say Aliens on Saturns Moon!

Three arrests after mass water fight in London’s Hyde Park ‘got out of control’ A mass water fight in one of London’s biggest parks led to three people being arrested and another ending up injured in hospital, police said. By Andrew Hough telegraph.co.uk The water fight in Hyde Park led to the nearby retail district being closed. Photo: ALAMY More than 1500 people were said to have taken part in the event in Hyde Park on Friday afternoon. Such was the size of the fight, believed to have been organised on social networking sites, that it saw the temporary closure … Continue reading UK Police ‘RADICALISE’ water pistol fighters!

India’s sexpert no substitute for education The rejection of sex education by parliament has left Indians relying on a newspaper column for advice on basic biology Sarika Bansal guardian.co.uk Can oral sex lead to pregnancy? Will daily masturbation make me go bald? If my elbow brushes against a woman’s breasts on a bus, will I be at risk from HIV? These are not questions being asked by innocent pre-teens in a middle-school playground. Rather, they are being posed – and answered – in India’s most widely circulated English-language newspaper. The “Ask the Sexpert” column runs in a daily supplement of … Continue reading Sex in India

Smokers’ Corner: The reactionary republic By Nadeem F. Paracha dawn.com For how long will we keep hiding behind a fragile mask of religiosity and patriotism, a mask that covers our faces every time we confront a situation where our views and actions (especially regarding faith) are questioned? Here’s a question: How come whenever there’s a drone attack (in which most of those killed generally are extremists), or a case of perceived obscenity or blasphemy surfaces, street corners are at once filled with burqa-clad women and bearded men chanting slogans like ‘Death to infidels’? But none of these fine, sensitive Muslims … Continue reading Mullahistan?

By Irfan Husain dawn.com A Pakistani police officer bars a cyclist from entering a street near the Garhi Shahu mosque belongs to minority sect, which was targeted by gunmen last Friday killing nearly 100 worshippers and left many injured, in Lahore, Pakistan on Friday, June 4, 2010. Authorities beefed up security around the mosque to avert any terrorist attempt. – AP Photo A day after the slaughter of nearly 100 Ahmadis in Lahore last week, Britain’s Channel 4 aired a programme on Iraq in its ‘Unreported World’ series. The narrator described the plight of the Christians and other minorities in the … Continue reading Hate and horror in Lahore

By Huma Yusuf dawn.com As the US steps up its campaign against Al Qaeda, it must call for clear diplomatic and security-related agreements with Pakistan. Washington and Islamabad should jointly approach international organisations to monitor and evaluate the methodology of counter-insurgency operations in the tribal areas in an effort to remain transparent and accountable. Such pre-emptive and robust diplomacy would be the only way to ensure that the spirit of Obama’s supposedly revolutionary security strategy is kept alive. – Photo by AP. Recently, US President Barack Obama unveiled a new National Security Strategy. The document was hailed by many as … Continue reading US strategy: next step?

COMMENT: Punjab: the new FATA —Ali K Chishti Sectarian jihadis, who are now transformed into ‘Punjabi Taliban’ through evolution, are concentrated in the economically backward and feudally dominated agrarian areas of Punjab A recent survey puts the number of madrassas all over Pakistan around 28,982. The number was 2,861 in 1988 and 246 in 1947. However, the interior ministry estimates put the number of madrassas at 20,000, with over three million students. Of these, 11,000 madrassas belong to the Deobandi sect. Picking up the queue from my previous piece (‘Jihadi public schools?’, Daily Times, May 26, 2010), concentrating entirely on … Continue reading Punjab: the new FATA

VIEW: Two Nation Theory —Yasser Latif Hamdani For Jinnah and the Muslim League, the Two Nation Theory was not an ideological position etched in stone. It was the restatement of the arguments needed to ensure national status for Muslims in a multinational independent India One of our most persistent national myths — put forward by both the state and its detractors — is that Pakistan was created in the name of Islam. It is said that Pakistan was created with the use of the slogans “Islam in danger” and “Pakistan ka matlab kya, La illaha ilallah”, both slogans which — … Continue reading Two Nation Theory

COMMENT: A fight we must win —Dr Syed Mansoor Hussain Perhaps the secularists’ anguish is tinged by a sense of overwhelming guilt for never having come out openly against the officially tolerated discrimination that the Ahmedis have suffered for all the years that they have been viciously persecuted The recent massacre of Ahmedis in Lahore has brought forth a predictable spate of condemnation. And as time has gone by more people have come out to condemn this atrocity both in the media as well as in the ‘blogosphere’. This rising tide of sympathy and support for the Ahmedi community is … Continue reading A fight we must win

OMMENT: Channelling diplomacy —Shahzad Chaudhry We could not win Kashmir by wars and we could not realise accession of the state through other means. A territorial issue has morphed into a human issue, which essentially was an existential reality even if never stated till recently I must admit I am not too fond of the bureaucracy. I do not know who is. Do not get me wrong, I am frequently impressed with their intellect, grooming, promise and potential; it is in their very distant and deliberately cultivated perch that they exhibit on matters all important that a cold remoteness and … Continue reading Channelling diplomacy