Binyamin Netanyahu flies to US for talks with Barack Obama as killings raise tension in West Bank • Israeli PM defiant on East Jerusalem settler homes • UN chief stresses suffering caused by Gaza boycott Rory McCarthy in Nablus guardian.co.uk, Article history Palestinians carry the bodies of Mohammad Qadus, 15, and Osaid Qadus, 17, during their funeral in the West Bank. Photograph: Abed Omar Qusini/Reuters The Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, will hold talks in Washington on Tuesday with President Barack Obama as tension escalates in the Middle East after a weekend of violence and with little sign of an … Continue reading Netanyahu flies to US to get Christian Fanatics to pressure Obama!

Why everything you’ve been told about evolution is wrong What if Darwin’s theory of natural selection is inaccurate? What if the way you live now affects the life expectancy of your descendants? Evolutionary thinking is having a revolution . . . Oliver Burkeman The Guardian, Article history Epigenetics suggests your lifestyle could affect the lifespan of your grandchildren. Photograph: Zena Hollyway/Corbis The story, still sometimes repeated in creationist circles, goes like this: it is the 1960s, at Nasa’s Goddard Space Flight Centre in Maryland, and a team of astronomers is using cutting-edge computers to recreate the orbits of the planets, … Continue reading Is everything you’ve been told about evolution wrong?

Aakar Patel A few years ago, I was invited to a friend’s house for dinner where one other person was present. This man, who was quite young, was a singer and after dinner performed for about an hour. He sang without music and, given that there wasn’t much of an audience, with feeling and enthusiasm. After he finished he spoke about his life and his work and how he wanted to find work in Bollywood. He was living as a paying guest, which means someone who rents a room in an apartment. He was Kailash Kher, and when he became … Continue reading The singers of Bollywood

Smokers’ Corner: Mice By Nadeem F. Paracha Sunday, 21 Mar, 2010 NFP asks if minorities will ever be treated well enough to not feel like misfits. — File photo Some days ago, while waiting in my car for a traffic signal to turn green, a young kid nonchalantly stuck a flyer under one of the car’s wipers. Usually I throw away such pieces of paper, but this time I decided to take a look at it. It was a flyer advertising a Montessori school called ‘Model Islamic Montessori.’ Once home, I decided to call the school and asked to be connected … Continue reading Pakistan and its minorities

Talks with the Taliban Dawn Editorial The Pakistani intelligence agencies acted on ‘actionable intelligence’ given by outsiders without realising that Afghan Taliban leaders such as Mullah Baradar would also be netted in the raids. – Photo by Reuters. Pakistan Pakistan will be privy to talks with Taliban: Karzai Pakistan will be privy to talks with Taliban: Karzai The former top UN official in Afghanistan has come out and publicly claimed what many have been arguing privately. He has said that the recent arrests in Pakistan of senior Afghan Taliban leaders, headlined of course by that of Mullah Baradar, was a … Continue reading Talks with the Taliban

Made in Pakistan Anjum Niaz dawn.com The immigrants may earn and live in the US, but at the end of the day, they are folks “Made in Pakistan.” — File photo “A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks that others throw at him” is the mantra for making it big, especially on alien soil. Would it not be wonderful if we too could make it ‘big’ and boast a billionaire? I said to myself as I wistfully looked out of the window of my airplane and saw a parked Boeing 747 with the … Continue reading Can’t take the Paki from the Pakistani?

What Punjab CM should learn from Taliban? By Ismail Khan Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif. — APP Photo dawn.com How does it feel caught in the eye of the storm? For nearly seven years, the people of the NWFP and the adjacent tribal regions and the security forces braved bombings and terrorist attacks, laying down their lives and offering unprecedented sacrifices. That was, when terrorists had turned the NWFP and the tribal regions into killing fields, while those living further a field to the east in the Punjab and Sindh were lived a relatively unscathed life. The lull in terrorist … Continue reading Shahbaz Sharif undisciplined student of The Taliban?

F-35 fighter jet silences critics with first vertical landing It’s been hailed as the Pentagon’s priciest arms purchase programme. But yesterday the F-35B fighter jet silenced its critics as it cleared a major hurdle and completed its first vertical landing. Boosted by 41,000lbs of thrust, the plane, which is part of U.S. plans to develop the next generation of military fighter jets, landed smoothly at Naval Station Patuxent River in Maryland, Washington. Scroll down for video clip… Fighter first: The F-35B jet lands vertically at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland, U.S., yesterday Test pilot Graham Tomlinson, in a radar-evading … Continue reading Sexy F-35 fighter jet silences critics!

Defender of the realm: Britain’s £1.2bn submarine – and typically, we can’t afford it… By ANDREW PRESTON in BARROW-IN-FURNESS This is the best submarine in the world. It is virtually undetectable, has reinvented the periscope and sonar, and doubles as a floating GCHQ. It also happens to be British. Its only weakness? At £1.2bn, we can’t actually afford it Astute sits on the shiplift outside the Devonshire Dock Hall in Barrow-in-Furness, ready to be lowered into the dock. The three starboard torpedo tubes are visible on the front of the submarine She could prowl the depths of the oceans without … Continue reading Britain’s £1.2bn submarine!