‘Pay £5,000 a day and you can meet Tony’: Four top Labour MPs trapped in TV sting By Glen Owen Labour has been plunged into a cash-for-access row after three former Cabinet Ministers were secretly filmed discussing how they could help a fake lobbying company – with one boasting that he was a ‘cab for hire’ for £5,000 a day. In the most damaging revelations, ex-Transport Minister Stephen Byers claimed that he managed to save ‘hundreds of millions of pounds’ for one company by using his influence with his successor Lord Adonis over a rail franchise. Mr Byers also claimed … Continue reading Four top Labour ‘Big Brother supporter type’ MPs trapped in TV sting!

Masters, not friends —Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur The countries that survive on arms, hand-outs, cheap oil and aid from other countries for their survival cannot possibly be defiant or discourteous to those on whose largesse they depend Civilised life is well nigh impossible without interaction between human beings and it is this activity that accords them the status of social animals. The social part survives only as long as the relationship is that of equals and is in no way demeaning and degrading. Once dignity and self-respect is removed from the equation, the social disappears and only the animal remains. … Continue reading Masters, not friends

The price of pain —Andleeb Abbas The government had merrily been declaring that all the terrorists have been nailed and had blown the horns for victory celebrations. The recent bomb blasts are a harsh reminder that dealing with just the symptoms and not the root causes of the problem will always have a short-term impact of a lull before the storm You are better dead than alive. This is perhaps the most apt description of the state of affairs for many unfortunate people in this country. Whether it is bomb blasts by religious fanatics or extravagant abuse of official privileges … Continue reading Bomb blasts by mullahs and extravagant abuse of official privileges by ‘VIPs’ is not Pakistan

Dilemmas of counter-terrorism —Dr Hasan-Askari Rizvi The perspective of Islamic parties and the political right that expresses varying degrees of sympathy for the Taliban has seeped into other sections of society that either do not blame the Taliban for the violence or attempt to rationalise their behaviour There is good and bad news from Pakistan. The threat of the Pakistani Taliban entrenched in the tribal areas has been significantly neutralised in Swat and South Waziristan by the security operation launched by the army, the air force and the paramilitary forces. If Pakistan’s security forces continue to challenge them in the … Continue reading Dilemmas of counter-terrorism in Pakistan

Indian insignia on Punjab police ad dawn.com IGP Tariq Saleem Dogar said the insignia faux pas had hurt feelings of patriotic people, including police personnel. – APP (File Photo) LAHORE: An advertisement released by Punjab police seeking people’s cooperation in combating terrorism carried the insignia of Indian Punjab police to the embarrassment of many. The advertisement which appeared in several national dailies showed three lions standing back to back on top of the small insignia, clearly indicating its Indian origin. The base of the insignias of police in Pakistan and Indian Punjab is the same. The difference is that the … Continue reading REVENGE? Indian insignia on Pakistan police ad

We shall overrun Posted by Nadeem F. Paracha on 03 20th, 2010 | Comments (39) The young, urban, middle-class Pakistani’s manifesto: 1. Asif Ali Zardari is the devil incarnate. 2. The Pakistan Army is the saviour. 3. The Taliban are resisting American imperialism. 4. We hate American foreign policy unless it suits us. We are against American imperialism if it means we have to ditch the Taliban as that would be against the aspirations of our founding father, Mohammed Bin Qasim. We will no longer shop at Marks and Spencer because they are somehow connected to Israel. However, that does not … Continue reading Zionist Hinduism In Pakistan!

Teflon tiger By Irfan Husain dawn.com Nawaz Sharif has a remarkable ability to retain the image of a clean, mainstream leader despite such a tarnished record. –Photo by APP Pity the poor tiger: hunted to the brink of extinction, it now has to suffer the indignity of having its image expropriated by the likes of Nawaz Sharif and his faction of the Pakistan Muslim League. With Musharraf setting up his own All Pakistan Muslim League, there are now so many clones of this tired brand that the voter can be excused for being confused. Sheikh Rashid has his own one-man … Continue reading To some its like finding your only worthwhile leader is GAY!

Walking with the Comrades By Arundhati Roy dawn.com Arundhati Roy finds a quiet moment to herself during a punishing visit to the forest where she became the first journalist/writer to break the taboo of of interviewing Maoist guerrillas in their lair. Last month, quietly, unannounced, Arundhati Roy decided to visit the forbidding and forbidden precincts of Central India’s Dandakaranya Forests, home to a melange of tribespeople many of whom have taken up arms to protect their people against state-backed marauders and exploiters. She recorded in considerable detail the first face-to-face journalistic “encounter” with armed guerillas, their families and comrades, for … Continue reading Arundhati Roy interviewing Maoist Terrorists in India

Scientists have released video of an expedition under 600 feet of ice sheet in the Arctic, previously thought unable to sustain life.  The team sent a camera beneath an ice sheet in what they suspected would be a fruitless attempt to discern how inhospitable and dead the location was, but found that life existed far beyond what they had previously expected possible. A NASA team launching a remote camera was shocked when suddenly a mysterious shrimp-like creature known as a Lyssianasid amphipod swam in front of the camera and perched itself on the device’s tow cable.  The creature was three … Continue reading NASA Scientists Discover Life that Cannot Exist on Earth!

Imagine for a moment the universe in its entirety.  Though it is impossible to truly understand how vast its scope is, the feeling it elicits as we stare into the obsidian formless blanket of light and think about how big it is, is it truly impossible to look into it and feel anything but insignificant?  The nihilistic feeling that mankind does not matter because it is so small and insignificant seems a limited understanding of worth, regardless of personal beliefs dealing only with the objective observations accepted about our world and the universe. The Earth currently has 6.5 billion people … Continue reading Look at the Stars, Are we not Significant?