Dunya TV

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• Rain turns weather pleasant in Lahore, Faisalabad
• Khoso orders release of Rs 20b to end power loadshedding
• 2 more die in China from new bird flu virus
• Miscreants blow up gas pipeline in Naseerabad
• Venezuela closes border head of election
• Egypt's revolutionary cleric suspended over sermon
• US safety board probes case of texting pilot
• North Korea could test fire missiles at any time: US
• Election 2013: Today is last date for filing appeals
• Khoso orders steps to cut power outages
• Thatta: Shirazi Brothers quit PPP
• PML-N finalises NA candidates from Lahore
• 6-year-old accidentally shot by 4-year-old: Police
• Qaeda admits it is backing Syria rebels
• Red meat increases heart disease risk

Rain turns weather pleasant in Lahore, Faisalabad Posted: LAHORE (Dunya News) - Light rain in most parts of the country including Lahore, Faisalabad and Islamabad turned weather pleasant.Rain coupled with strong winds lashed Faisalabad and Lahore, while Islamabad also received light rain on late Tuesday.Pakistan Meteorological Department forecasted more rains in most areas of the countries during next 12-hours.

Khoso orders release of Rs 20b to end power loadshedding Posted: ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – Prime Minister Mir Hazar Khan Khoso on Tuesday directed the Ministry of Water and Power to take immediate measures to improve power situation and use all available resources to end electricity loadshedding.He ordered to release Rs 20 billion immediately to ensure fuel supply to thermal power plants to overcome the power outages across the country.The Prime Minister expressed concern over the present situation and desired that there is a visible improvement in the situation which is possible through better management and resource mobilization.

2 more die in China from new bird flu virus Posted: BEIJING (AP) - The number of confirmed cases of human infection in China had risen by four to 28 by Tuesday evening.The first cases of H7N9 were announced last week. All have been reported in Shanghai and three eastern provinces.Citing health authorities, Xinhua says there has been no sign of human-to-human transmission. Health officials believe people are contracting the virus through direct contact with infected fowl.Some cities have suspended sales of live poultry.

Miscreants blow up gas pipeline in Naseerabad Posted: NASEERABAD (Dunya News) - Unidentified miscreants blew up an 18-inch diameter gas pipeline, suspending the gas supply to various areas including Karachi and other part of the province.Gas supply was suspended to Uch power plant causing a reduction more than 525 megawatts of power generation.Many areas of the country deprived of electricity.The Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) team of Shikarpur reached the site to repair damaging gas pipeline.Law enforcement agency along with police team also came on the spot. They cordoned off the entire area and started efforts to arrest outlaws.

Venezuela closes border head of election Posted: CARACAS (AFP) - Venezuela on Tuesday stepped up security and closed its borders earlier than usual ahead of Sundays presidential election after acting President Nicolas Maduro claimed former US officials hatched a plot to kill him.Interior Minister Nestor Reverol said a strict control of movements was imposed along land borders with Colombia and Brazil that will last until 1030 GMT on Monday, one day after the election to replace late leader Hugo Chavez.The government usually shuts down the borders closer to election day. In last Octobers presidential election between Chavez and opposition leader Henrique Capriles, the borders were closed a day before the vote.Reverol said the measures were imposed after intelligence services found elements that generate violence who hope to use our territorys border to create a climate of destabilization.Maduro, who is favored to win this weekends election against Capriles, claimed last week that Salvadoran hitmen had entered the country as part of a plot backed by two former US officials and El Salvadors right-wing to assassinate him.Reverol said operations would be launched in the coming hours to catch the suspects.Salvadoran President Mauricio Funes ordered an investigation into whether right-wing lawmaker Roberto DAubuisson was involved in the plot. DAubuisson has dubbed the claim a lie.On election day, the Venezuelan interior minister said, some 125,000 security forces will operate under a special security and patrol plan in more than 13,600 polling stations.Security was reinforced at power stations and telephone lines as well as underwater fiber optic cables to prevent any sabotage during the election, Reverol said.Authorities said 17 people, including employees of the state-run National Electricty Corp., were caught sabotaging the power system to create blackouts. Maduro has claimed that the opposition was planning to shut down the national power to disrupt the election.Earlier in the day, Maduro and Capriles signed separate pledges to recognize the election results.Addressing thousands of government workers in front of the Miraflores presidential palace, Maduro used a red pen to put his signature on a document drafted by the National Electoral Council at his request.I will respect the results that the people decide on Sunday, April 14. I swear before God, I swear before the people, I swear in the memory of Hugo Chavez, the late leaders chosen successor said.Capriles, who signed a similar pledge before he lost the October 7 presidential election to Chavez, put his signature on a different document during a rally in northeastern Venezuela.The opposition has accused the electoral council of being biased towards the acting presidents campaign and failing to censor it for using state resources for Maduros candidacy.

Egypt's revolutionary cleric suspended over sermon Posted: CAIRO (AP) - A Muslim cleric who led prayers for protesters in Tahrir Square during the uprising against ousted President Hosni Mubarak and subsequent protests says he has been suspended by a ministerial decree following a citizens complaint about his criticism of the current Islamist president.Sheik Mazhar Shahin told The Associated Press he was informed on Tuesday of the suspension and an investigation into his comments.An aide to the religious endowments minister, who issued the order, didnt return calls seeking comment. The ministry oversees mosque preachers.Shahin read to the AP the complaint against him accusing him of acting like a TV station or opposition paper and deepening divisions by criticizing President Mohammed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood. In a recent sermon, Shahin warned against Brotherhood control over state institutions.

US safety board probes case of texting pilot Posted: WASHINGTON (AP) - The pilot of a medical helicopter that ran out of fuel and crashed, killing four people, was distracted by text messages when he should have been conducting pre-flight checks, U.S. accident investigators said Tuesday.The case juxtaposes old issues of pilot decision making with a 21st-century twist, distraction by portable electric devices, said National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Deborah Hersman. The board was meeting to determine the cause of the August 2011 accident in the Midwest state of Missouri and to make safety recommendations.The case is the first fatal commercial aircraft accident investigated by the board in which texting has been implicated. It underscores the boards worries that cellphones and other distracting electronic devices are a growing factor in accidents and incidents across all modes of transportation planes, trains, cars, trucks and even ships.The pilot, James Freudenberg, 34, exchanged 20 text messages, mostly with a coworker, over a span of less than two hours before the helicopter crashed into a farm field a little over a mile from an airport where he hoped to refuel, documents made public by board show.Most of the messaging was with an off-duty female co-worker with whom he had a long history of frequent, intensive communications, and with whom he was planning to have dinner that night, said the boards Bill Bramble.Freudenberg missed several opportunities to see that the helicopter was low on fuel before he began the first leg of the mission, including apparently failing to conduct a pre-flight check and to look at the crafts fuel gauge.Three of the messages were sent and five were received while the helicopter was in flight, although not in the final 11 minutes before it crashed, according to a timeline.Freudenberg also exchanged text messages as he was reporting by radio to a company communications center that the helicopter was low on fuel. The helicopter was on the ground at the time waiting for the patient, who was being transferred from one hospital to another, and a nurse and a paramedic to board.Although the pilot was not texting at the time of the crash, it is possible the messaging took his mind off his duties and caused him to skip safety steps he might have otherwise performed, said experts on human performance and cognitive distractions. People cannot concentrate on two things at once; they can only shift their attention rapidly back and forth, the experts said. But as they do that, the sharpness of their focus begins to erode.People just have a limited ability to pay attention, said David Strayer, a professor of cognitive and neural science at the University of Utah. Its one of the characteristics of how we are wired.If we have two things demanding attention, one will take attention away from other, he said. If it happens while sitting behind a desk, its not that big of a problem. But if you are sitting behind the wheel of a car or in the cockpit of an airplane, you start to get serious compromises in safety.In October 2010, two Northwest Airlines pilots overflew their destination of Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport by 100 miles (160 kilometers) while they were engrossed in working on flight schedules on their laptops.A text message, especially one accompanied by an audible alert like a buzz or bell, interrupts a persons thoughts and can be hard to ignore, said Christopher Wickens, a University of Illinois professor emeritus of engineering and aviation psychology. If the subject of the email is especially engaging, or especially emotional, that also makes it hard to ignore, he said.The helicopter was operated by a subsidiary of Air Methods Corp., the largest provider of air medical emergency transport services in the U.S. The companys policies prohibit the use of electronic devices by pilots during flight.Freudenberg apparently did not check the amount of fuel on board the helicopter before taking off from the companys base in St. Joseph, Missouri, even though he had been briefed that the aircraft would be low on fuel because it had been used the night before for training exercises. He radioed that he had two hours of fuel shortly after the helicopter was airborne.But when the helicopter landed less than 10 minutes later in Bethany, Missouri, to pick up the patient, Freudenberg radioed the communications center again to report that the copter was lower on fuel than he had initially thought. He estimated he had about 45 minutes worth of fuel, which investigators said they believe was a lie intended to cover up his earlier omissions. In fact, the helicopter had 30 minutes of fuel left, they said. Federal Aviation Administration regulations require 20 minutes of reserve fuel at all times.Freudenberg opted to continue the patient transfer to a hospital in Liberty, Missouri, changing plans only enough for a stop at an airfield 32 minutes away for fuel. The helicopter stalled and crashed about a mile from the airfield.

North Korea could test fire missiles at any time: US Posted: WASHINGTON (Web Desk) - The Obama administration calculates it's likely North Korea may test fire mobile ballistic missiles at any time, based on the most recent intelligence showing Pyongyang probably has completed launch preparations, a U.S. official said Tuesday.The administration believes a test launch could happen without North Korea issuing a standard notice to commercial aviation and maritime shipping warning them to stay away from the missile's path, according to the official, who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the information.He cautioned most of the information comes from satellite imagery, so it's impossible to reach a definitive conclusion because the United States has no means to gather information on the ground.We hope they issue a notification, but at this point we don't expect it. We are working on the assumption they won't, the official said.He said the launch could be imminent, but also cautioned that the United States simply doesn't know. The official, along with a Pentagon official, said that the United States has been able to keep satellites over the suspected launch area for most of the past week.The United States thinks the missiles remain at a point about halfway down the eastern coast of North Korea and are about 10 miles inland.Imagery has been impeded by some bad weather, which means there is less than perfect knowledge about what is happening on the ground. But based on what the United States has seen, the belief is that the missiles have received their liquid fuel and are ready for launch.After any launch, U.S. satellites and radars in the region would be able to calculate the trajectory of missiles within minutes and quickly conclude whether they are on a test path headed for open ocean or potentially headed for land areas such as Japan.The United States and Japan would then have to decide whether to try to shoot the missiles down, the officials said.

Election 2013: Today is last date for filing appeals Posted: ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – Today (Wednesday) is the last date for filing of appeals against decisions of the returning officers, rejecting or accepting the nomination papers.The Election Tribunals will take decisions on appeals up to 17th of this month.Last date for withdrawal of candidature is April 18. The Election Commission of Pakistan will publish the revised list of the contesting candidates on April 19. Polling for general elections will be held on May 11.

Khoso orders steps to cut power outages Posted: Prime Minister Mir Hazar Khan Khoso on Tuesday directed the Ministry of Water and Power to take immediate measures to improve power situation and use all available resources to ensure power generation is optimized so that minimum load shedding is carried out in the country.While chairing a high level meeting to review the power generation plants, Khoso said that all necessary measures should be taken to ensure the power installations‚ transmission lines and power installations are fully secured throughout the country. No installation should be left unattended and a security plan should be submitted spelling out detailed arrangements for their protection.The Additional Secretary‚ Ministry of Water and Power Arshad Mirza informed the Prime Minister that the immediate cause of increase in load shedding was disruption of gas supply to Uch Power Plant because of sabotage.The Prime Minister was told that load shedding in urban areas was 10-12 hours whereas in the rural and far flung areas it extended from 16 to 18 hours.The Prime Minister expressed concern over the present situation and desired that there is a visible improvement in the situation which is possible through better management and resource mobilization.The Prime Minister also directed that new gas reservoirs be identified for provision of supply of gas to Thermal Power Plants to improve generation‚ fuel mix and reduce cost of electricity.

Thatta: Shirazi Brothers quit PPP Posted: THATTA (Dunya News) - Shirazi Brothers have been influential in the local politics for the last two decades.They also swept the 2008 elections in the area from the platform of PML-Q but later joined PPP.After being ignored during the awarding of party tickets, Shirazi Brothers have announced to quit PPP and contest elections as an independent group from seven NA and PA constituencies.Meanwhile, Malkani Group has also announced to join Shirazi brothers.

PML-N finalises NA candidates from Lahore Posted: LAHORE (Dunya News) - The names selected by PML-N to contest the general elections from NA seats from Lahore city include, Hamza Shahbaz Sharif (NA-119), Nawaz Sharif (NA-120), Pervez Malik (NA-123), Khawaja Saad Rafique (NA-125), Khawaja Ahmad Hassan (NA-126 and Shahbaz Sharif will contest from NA-129.According to the sources, the PML-N would announce names of candidates from Lahore during next 24 hours.

6-year-old accidentally shot by 4-year-old: Police Posted: TOMS RIVER, New Jersey (AP) - A 4-year-old child brought a gun outside his home and shot a 6-year-old neighbor in the head, seriously wounding the older child when the weapon discharged as they played together, authorities said Tuesday.The child got the .22-caliber rifle from inside his home in this southern New Jersey town and it discharged accidently around 6:40 p.m. Monday, county prosecutor Joseph Coronato said during a news conference. The wounded child was about 15 yards (13.71 meters) away from the younger one at the time.The younger childs mother then called emergency services to report the shooting, Coronato said.The shooting comes amid a national debate over gun control laws in the wake of a school shooting in Connecticut in December that left 20 young children and six educators dead.The wounded child was hospitalized in serious condition and further details on his injuries were not disclosed. The younger child was not hurt.Coronato declined to provide specific details on the shooting, citing the ongoing investigation, and said it was too early to know whether anyone would be charged in the case. He would not say who owned the gun or speculate on how the 4-year-old got the weapon.Police Chief Michael Mastronardy called the shooting a tragic incident that has affected the whole community.Right now, were keeping this child in our prayers, and I ask everyone to do the same, he said. The shooting occurred in what neighbors say is a quiet residential area, at a home near the edge of a cul-de-sac.Im sad for the children involved and their families, but Im angry with whoever owns that gun and allowed a little child to get hold of it. A 4-year-old cant load a gun, said Debi Coto, who lives a few doors down from where the shooting happened. She said the families of the two children involved had not lived in the neighborhood for too long, and she did not know them well.

Qaeda admits it is backing Syria rebels Posted: DAMASCUS (AFP) - Al-Qaeda in Iraq admitted on Tuesday to long-held suspicions it is behind jihadists fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, as Washington said it was mulling new ways to drive him from power.The mainstream rebel Free Syrian Army kept its distance from the jihadists, insisting its alliance with the key opposition fighting force was purely tactical and that its goal was a democratic Syria.The Al-Nusra Front is simply a branch of the Islamic State of Iraq, the head of the Al-Qaeda in Iraq front group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, said in a recording posted online.Describing Al-Nusra leader Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani as one of our soldiers, he said the two groups would merge under the banner of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant.Baghdadis comments came a day after an Al-Nusra-style suicide bombing in the heart of Damascus killed at least 15 people and wounded 146. They also came after Al-Qaedas global chief, Ayman al-Zawahiri, urged rebels to fight to establish an Islamic state in Syria, in an audio message posted on the Internet on Sunday.Al-Nusra, which announced its creation in a January 2012 video, is a magnet for foreign fighters seeking to take part in the insurgency against Assads regime.Washington already blacklisted Al-Nusra as a terrorist organisation in December, citing its close links to Al-Qaeda fighters who led the insurgency against US forces in Iraq before their withdrawal at the end of 2011.The mainstream rebels of the FSA have struck a careful balance between Al-Nusra and its Western critics, mindful of the jihadists effectiveness as a fighting force on the ground.We dont support the ideology of Al-Nusra, FSA spokesman Louay Meqdad told AFP on Tuesday. There has never been and there will never be a decision at the command level to coordinate with Al-Nusra. The situation on the ground is what has imposed this.Al-Nusra has said it is seeking an Islamic state in Syria after Assads overthrow, but Meqdad insisted: No one has the right to impose on Syrians what shape their state will take.Syrians will go to the polls to choose their leaders, he said. Our goal is clear -- to bring down the regime and establish a democratic state.The New York Times reported last month the CIA was helping Arab states and Turkey to boost arms shipments to Syrias rebels, in a move to try to prevent the weapons ending up in the hands of extremists.Asked on Tuesday if the United States was stepping up its military options in Syria, US Secretary of State John Kerry said such moves would be part of our discussions this week in Washington.Kerry also said he would meet with the Syrian opposition in London, in remarks to journalists shortly before he left Israel for the British capital.We will be discussing various means about having an impact on President Assads calculations about where the battlefield is going, the top US diplomat said.We are left with no choice but to try find ways to get him to think differently about what lies in the future.In March, France and Britain called for an easing of an EU arms embargo to allow shipments to the rebels to shift the balance of power on the ground. But in the face of opposition from EU partners, France has since backtracked, saying it is still undecided.Meanwhile, the United Nations said that aid operations for hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees had reached breaking point in the face of a massive funding shortfall, amid fears the numbers fleeing the conflict could triple.And a UN team of inspectors charged with investigating two alleged incidents of the use of chemical weapons in Syria were blocked in nearby Cyprus after Damascus withdrew permission for it to deploy.I appeal to the government of Syria to extend its full cooperation and to allow the mission to proceed, UN chief Ban Ki-moon said.Syrian authorities said Monday they rejected the terms of the investigation as proposed by Ban, voicing fears of a repetition of the UN probe into alleged weapons of mass destruction in Iraq in the run-up to the US-led invasion of 2003.

Red meat increases heart disease risk Posted: LONDON (Agencies): A compound that is abundant in red meat and is added as a supplement to popular energy drinks has been found to promote atherosclerosis - or the hardening or clogging of the arteries, a new study has revealed.The study showed that the bacteria living in the human digestive tract metabolize the compound carnitine, turning it into trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO), a metabolite that in a previous study was found to promote atherosclerosis in humans.Further, the research found that a carnitine high diet promoted the growth of the bacteria, which metabolize carnitine, compounding the problem by producing even more of TMAO.The research team led by Stanley Hazen, M.D., Ph.D., Vice Chair of Translational Research for the Lerner Research Institute and section head of Preventive Cardiology and Rehabilitation in the Miller Family Heart and Vascular Institute at Cleveland Clinic, and Robert Koeth, a medical student at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University tested the carnitine and TMAO levels of omnivores, vegans and vegetarians, and examined the clinical data of 2,595 patients undergoing elective cardiac evaluations.They team examined the cardiac effects of a carnitine-enhanced diet in normal mice compared to mice with suppressed levels of gut microbes, and discovered that TMAO altered cholesterol metabolism at multiple levels, explaining how it enhanced the problem.The researchers found that increased carnitine levels in patients predicted increased risks for cardiovascular disease and major cardiac events such as heart attack, stroke and death, but only in subjects with concurrently high TMAO levels.While carnitine occurs naturally in red meats, including beef, venison, lamb, mutton, duck, and pork, its also a dietary supplement available in pill form and a common ingredient in energy drinks.The study has been published in the journal Nature Medicine.

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