Editor's note: Jeff Pearlman is a columnist for SI.com. He blogs at jeffpearlman.com.
(CNN) -- The woman started crying.
I didn't expect this, because, well, why would I? We were two adults, standing in a preschool auditorium, waiting for the year-end musical gala to begin, talking summer plans and Twitter and junk fiction and all things mindless parents talk at mindless events. Then -- tears.
"My husband," she said, "doesn't care."
"Uh, about what?" I asked.
The floodgates now open, she told me her husband works from home. But he never drops their daughter off at preschool. He never picks their daughter up at preschool. He never wakes up with their daughter, never puts her to bed, never takes her to a movie or a carnival or a ball game; never comes up with fun daddy-daughter activities. "All he worries about is golf," the mother said. "Sometimes he'll take her to the driving range for an hour. But that's it. ..."
Two days later, by mere coincidence, a different mother cornered me. I was sitting in a pizzeria with my son, Emmett, and daughter, Casey, gnawing on a calzone. The woman, another preschool regular who always seems to be dragging around her kids with the worn look of a chain gang inmate, glanced my way and muttered, "My husband would never do that."
"Do what?" I asked.
"Be out alone with both of the kids at once," she said. "Never."
In case you are wondering, I am that dad. The one who works out of the house. The one who drives his kids to school, packs lunches and pushes swings and arranges play dates and attends teacher conferences and -- generally speaking -- frequently finds himself alone in brightly colored rooms filled with women and tykes.
President Obama talks about fatherhood
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Along with my wife (who, until recently, also worked from home), I wipe snot, clean poop, order time outs and say no -- Really, no! I'm being serious, no! -- to the damned ice cream man and his Satanic siren call. I know all of my kids' friends, and most of their tendencies (Ashley and Emily love dolls, Lucas only wants to talk about Derek Jeter, Tyler digs applesauce).
Hence, I have been sent here today, on behalf of the stay-at-home mothers of the world, to convey to my fellow pops a message of love and hope in this lead-up to Father's Day: Wake the hell up.
Really, wake the hell up. Now. I understand that most of you have 9-to-5 jobs, that you leave tired and come home tired and just wanna chill in front of SportsCenter with a bowl of chips. But, seriously, you have no remote idea: Being a stay-at-home parent is exhausting. At the office, you can hide. You can take lunch. You can pretend you're working while scrolling the Internet for Yankees-Blue Jays and, ahem, Lindsay Lohan news. You have genuine social interactions with folks over the age of, oh, 12. People ask questions about your day -- and listen to the answers.
I envy you, but I sort of pity you. Kids grow. Age 1 turns to age 3, which turns to age 7, which turns to 15 and 18 and 21, all in the blink of an eye. If you're there, as I am, it flies. If you're not there -- if you're almost never there -- it barely exists at all. Which is why I just can't stomach those millions of dads who view their days at home as recovery from work, who'd rather rest than engage, who have no problem with passing the tykes off for more alone time with mom and who, literally, moan to their wives, "You have no idea how hard I work."
For you, I offer these 10 commandments of righteous fatherhood. Pay close attention, because, behind your back, people are pitying your wife:
1. No golf on weekends: Seriously, it's ludicrous. Your spouse is home with the kids all the time, and you think it's OK to take five hours on a weekend day to pursue your own pastime? Selfishness, thy name is Father.
2. Wake up: Literally, wake up. With your kids. On at least one of the two weekend days -- and perhaps both. I know: you wake up early for work. Not even remotely the same thing. Rising alongside the kiddies is hard. And crazy. And (gasp!) sorta fun, if you'd just stop moping.
3. Change diapers: If you have little kids, and you don't know how to change diapers (or, even worse, refuse to change diapers), you're pathetic. That's no exaggeration -- p-a-t-h-e-t-i-c. It's not all that hard, and though the poop sometimes winds up on the fingers, well, uh, yeah. It just does. Wash your hands.
4. Play with dolls and paint your toenails: How many fathers do I know who refuse to get girlish with their girls? Dozens. Dude, put aside the machismo, break out Barbie and slather on some pink polish. You'll make a friend for life -- and nobody else is watching.
5. Do things you don't want to do: It's easy to take the kids to the driving range -- because you want to be there. Now try spending the day having a tea party at American Girl. Or crawling through one of those wormholes at the nearby kiddie gym. Fun? Often, no. But this isn't about you.
6. Order the wife to bug off: I recently met a mother who told me her husband hadn't been alone with their 9-year-old daughter for more than two hours ... ever. Inexcusable. Let your wife do her own thing: relax, take a run, whatever. Entertain your children solo. They don't bite (Note: CNN.com is not liable if your children do, in fact, bite).
7. Surprise! Just once, on a random day without meaning or purpose, show up early at your kid's school/camp/wherever, say "Get in the car!" and take him/her somewhere special. Just the two of you, alone. A movie. A park. A hike. The memory lasts -- I promise.
8. Dishes Don't Clean Themselves (Nor Do Toys): It's amazing how this one works. You pick up a dish, run it under hot water with some soap, rub it down with a towel and place it back on the shelf. Then repeat.
9. Wake up your kid: Not often. But if you want to score big points and create a killer memory moment, walk in Junior's room at, oh, midnight, wake him/her up and go outside for 10 minutes to watch the stars.
10. For God's sake, tell your kids you love them: They never see you, and they'd probably like to know.
Bud, as you read this your wife is expecting little -- and your kids are expecting even less. Pull one out of the blue. Make Father's Day less about you, and all about them.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Jeff Pearlman.
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Showing posts with label Top News. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Top News. Show all posts
Sunday, June 19, 2011
As Arizona fires rage, 7 states face extreme fire risk Sunday
(CNN) -- Firefighters across the southwestern United States on Sunday could face some of the worst weather conditions of the season for battling blazes currently raging across the region.
The National Weather Service has issued a red flag warning for most of Arizona, all of New Mexico, much of north Texas and portions of Oklahoma, Colorado, Kansas and Utah for Sunday. A red flag warning means weather conditions -- mainly high heat, low humidity and strong winds -- pose an extreme fire risk.
"The winds certainly will be very gusty and strong," said Ken Daniel, NWS meteorologist in Flagstaff, Arizona. "Any new fire starts would have the potential to have explosive growth."
The forecast calls for winds of 30 mph or more in some areas, with gusts of up to 50 mph, Daniel said.
There are currently dozens of active wildfires burning in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, according to InciWeb, an online interagency database that tracks fires, floods and other disasters.
Nationwide, wildfires have burned almost as many acres in the first half of 2011 than were recorded by the National Fire Interagency Center for all of 2010. The agency reports on its website that 3.1 million acres in the United States had been ignited by wildfires as of May 31, compared to 3.2 million burned acres cited in the organization's year-end report in November 2010.
One Arizona blaze that started May 29 has mushroomed into a massive wildfire that's scorched more than a half-million acres. A smaller but fast-moving blaze is raging in the southeastern corner of the state.
The latter of the two has emerged as "the number one priority" for firefighters nationwide, according to the chief of the U.S. Forest Service.
"The conditions that we're dealing with here are as bad as we can get," said Tom Tidwell, head of the U.S. Forest Service, of the combination of high temperatures, low humidity, ample "fuel" and strong winds. "It just can't get any worse."
Gordon Van Vleet, a spokesman for the Joint Information Center, said that no cause has been determined for the so-called Monument Fire, which has spread across the Huachuca Mountains and burned 20,956 acres as of Saturday afternoon. He said authorities likely won't state a cause until the blaze is more under control.
"We know where it started and when it started, but (the specific cause) is under investigation," Tidwell said. "When we do have that information, we will share it."
At a press conference, U.S. Sen. John McCain blamed illegal immigrants for starting unspecified fires in the area. The Arizona Republican, however, did not provide evidence to back up the accusation, which prompted rebukes from Latino civil rights leaders.
While a fire at the U.S. Army's Fort Huachuca is 100% contained, according to Van Vleet, the Monument fire was 27% contained as of Saturday afternoon -- an improvement over the 15% figure in the morning, but certainly dangerous given the inordinately dry and windy conditions.
"This has been the number one priority in the country for a couple of days," Tidwell said. "That means this will receive resources before anyone else."
The Monument Fire, just south of Sierra Vista, Arizona, has torched at least 40 homes.
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer has issued emergency declarations for the Monument Fire and another blaze, Horseshoe II, making Cochise County eligible for $100,000 toward response and recovery expenses.
Meanwhile, residents of the eastern Arizona community of Alpine were able to return home, according to fire spokesman John Helmich. The community has a population of about 300, but many more seasonal visitors were forced to leave earlier this month because of the historically large Wallow fire.
The Wallow fire, which burned 500,409 acres, was 38% contained Saturday.
Tidwell said earlier Saturday that he was "very optimistic" that damage from future wildfires could be minimized by thinning forests and clearing out biomass -- which did occur, to some extent, in parts of eastern Arizona. He noted that 3.2 million acres were "treated" nationwide last year.
Sen. John Kyl, R-Arizona, noted that the estimated $64.1 million price for the Wallow fire would more than double after the costs of mitigation efforts to prevent mudslides from the summer monsoons.
"Just think that what we could have done using those funds to treat those forests in advance," Kyl said.
But government budget strains have limited the amount of money going to such efforts. "The only way we are going to get these (forests) thinned is through greater participation of private enterprise," McCain said, adding that the government should try to facilitate such initiatives, including by allowing limited logging in national parks.
"There is simply not enough tax dollars to get the job done without them," McCain said of private companies. Read More..
The National Weather Service has issued a red flag warning for most of Arizona, all of New Mexico, much of north Texas and portions of Oklahoma, Colorado, Kansas and Utah for Sunday. A red flag warning means weather conditions -- mainly high heat, low humidity and strong winds -- pose an extreme fire risk.
"The winds certainly will be very gusty and strong," said Ken Daniel, NWS meteorologist in Flagstaff, Arizona. "Any new fire starts would have the potential to have explosive growth."
The forecast calls for winds of 30 mph or more in some areas, with gusts of up to 50 mph, Daniel said.
There are currently dozens of active wildfires burning in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, according to InciWeb, an online interagency database that tracks fires, floods and other disasters.
Nationwide, wildfires have burned almost as many acres in the first half of 2011 than were recorded by the National Fire Interagency Center for all of 2010. The agency reports on its website that 3.1 million acres in the United States had been ignited by wildfires as of May 31, compared to 3.2 million burned acres cited in the organization's year-end report in November 2010.
One Arizona blaze that started May 29 has mushroomed into a massive wildfire that's scorched more than a half-million acres. A smaller but fast-moving blaze is raging in the southeastern corner of the state.
The latter of the two has emerged as "the number one priority" for firefighters nationwide, according to the chief of the U.S. Forest Service.
"The conditions that we're dealing with here are as bad as we can get," said Tom Tidwell, head of the U.S. Forest Service, of the combination of high temperatures, low humidity, ample "fuel" and strong winds. "It just can't get any worse."
Gordon Van Vleet, a spokesman for the Joint Information Center, said that no cause has been determined for the so-called Monument Fire, which has spread across the Huachuca Mountains and burned 20,956 acres as of Saturday afternoon. He said authorities likely won't state a cause until the blaze is more under control.
"We know where it started and when it started, but (the specific cause) is under investigation," Tidwell said. "When we do have that information, we will share it."
At a press conference, U.S. Sen. John McCain blamed illegal immigrants for starting unspecified fires in the area. The Arizona Republican, however, did not provide evidence to back up the accusation, which prompted rebukes from Latino civil rights leaders.
While a fire at the U.S. Army's Fort Huachuca is 100% contained, according to Van Vleet, the Monument fire was 27% contained as of Saturday afternoon -- an improvement over the 15% figure in the morning, but certainly dangerous given the inordinately dry and windy conditions.
"This has been the number one priority in the country for a couple of days," Tidwell said. "That means this will receive resources before anyone else."
The Monument Fire, just south of Sierra Vista, Arizona, has torched at least 40 homes.
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer has issued emergency declarations for the Monument Fire and another blaze, Horseshoe II, making Cochise County eligible for $100,000 toward response and recovery expenses.
Meanwhile, residents of the eastern Arizona community of Alpine were able to return home, according to fire spokesman John Helmich. The community has a population of about 300, but many more seasonal visitors were forced to leave earlier this month because of the historically large Wallow fire.
The Wallow fire, which burned 500,409 acres, was 38% contained Saturday.
Tidwell said earlier Saturday that he was "very optimistic" that damage from future wildfires could be minimized by thinning forests and clearing out biomass -- which did occur, to some extent, in parts of eastern Arizona. He noted that 3.2 million acres were "treated" nationwide last year.
Sen. John Kyl, R-Arizona, noted that the estimated $64.1 million price for the Wallow fire would more than double after the costs of mitigation efforts to prevent mudslides from the summer monsoons.
"Just think that what we could have done using those funds to treat those forests in advance," Kyl said.
But government budget strains have limited the amount of money going to such efforts. "The only way we are going to get these (forests) thinned is through greater participation of private enterprise," McCain said, adding that the government should try to facilitate such initiatives, including by allowing limited logging in national parks.
"There is simply not enough tax dollars to get the job done without them," McCain said of private companies. Read More..
Torrential rains hit south China, killing 25
(CNN) -- Another round of torrential rains has flooded a once-drought-stricken region of southern China, killing 25 people and leaving 25 missing, authorities said Friday.
The flood has forced the evacuation of about 671,200 people and has affected 10 provinces and municipalities in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs
In Zhejiang province, where the water level has exceeded the historic record set in 1955, officials have raised the disaster alert to the highest level. More than 2,000 soldiers mobilized for the emergency response in the area.
The Ministry of Finance has distributed about 130 million RMB ($20 million) for relief efforts in Hubei and Hunan.
This is the third round of heavy rains in the region this month, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
The last round hit the area June 9, triggering floods and mudslides that left 77 dead and 31 people missing, authorities said.
The Ministry of Civil Affairs estimated losses stemming from the latest flood at 12.85 billion RMB (nearly $2 billion), more than the previous two floods combined.
Read More..
The flood has forced the evacuation of about 671,200 people and has affected 10 provinces and municipalities in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs
In Zhejiang province, where the water level has exceeded the historic record set in 1955, officials have raised the disaster alert to the highest level. More than 2,000 soldiers mobilized for the emergency response in the area.
The Ministry of Finance has distributed about 130 million RMB ($20 million) for relief efforts in Hubei and Hunan.
This is the third round of heavy rains in the region this month, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
The last round hit the area June 9, triggering floods and mudslides that left 77 dead and 31 people missing, authorities said.
The Ministry of Civil Affairs estimated losses stemming from the latest flood at 12.85 billion RMB (nearly $2 billion), more than the previous two floods combined.
Read More..
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Taliban leader's arrest a new blow to insurgents
ISLAMABAD – The capture of the Afghan Taliban's No. 2 commander by a joint CIA and Pakistani team dealt a fresh blow to insurgents under heavy U.S. attack and raised hopes that Pakistani security forces are ready to deny Afghan militant leaders a safe haven.
Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar's arrest in the Pakistani port city of Karachi may also push other insurgent leaders thought to be sheltering on this side of the border toward talks with the Afghan government — a development increasingly seen as key to ending the eight-year war.
Baradar, in his late 40s, was the second in command behind Taliban founder Mullah Mohammad Omar and was said to be in charge of the day-to-day running of the organization's leadership council, which is believed based in Pakistan. He was a founding member of the Taliban and is the most important figure of the hardline Islamist movement to be arrested in the war.
Baradar, who also functioned as the link between Mullah Omar and field commanders, has been in detention for more than 10 days and was talking to interrogators, two Pakistani intelligence officials said Tuesday. One said several other suspects were also captured in the raid. He said Baradar had provided "useful information" to them and that Pakistan had shared it with their U.S. counterparts. They spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.
The White House declined to confirm Baradar's capture. Spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters the fight against extremists involves sensitive intelligence matters and he believes it's best to collect that information without talking about it.
President Barack Obama's administration has vowed to kill or seize Taliban and al-Qaida leaders in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The arrest comes as relentless CIA missile strikes against militant targets in the border tribal region have killed several commanders.
Obama has ordered 30,000 extra troops to southern Afghanistan. On Saturday, thousands of them began a major attack on the town of Marjah in the southern province of Helmand, one of the regions that Baradar is believed to control.
Former members of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan and security experts said the arrest would hurt the Taliban but was far from a decisive blow. They said Baradar would likely be quickly replaced and that local commanders had a lot of autonomy from the leaders based in Pakistan.
Nevertheless, the capture is likely to cause short-term disruption, since Baradar was the day-to-day commander of the Taliban and his successor would not have the same prestige.
"It's a great tactical success that the coalition forces should be pleased with, but by no means is it the beginning of the end," said Will Hartley, an analyst at Jane's Terrorism and Insurgency Center in London. "This will have a noted effect on the short-term ability of the Taliban to operate the way it was. However, it has proved itself a resilient organization."
Pentagon spokesman Col. Dave Lapan said he could neither confirm nor deny that Baradar was captured but said the removal of any senior leader would have "an immediate impact to their operations.'
"But we've seen, too, that they then push successors into their place... How long it takes them to sort of reconstitute depends on the situation."
Afghan analysts in the U.S. said they were closely watching for a stepped-up U.S. effort to capture or kill Jalaluddin Haqqani and his son Sirajuddin, the brutal leaders of the Taliban arm that operates in eastern Afghanistan from bases in northwestern Pakistan.
Pakistan helped create the Taliban and supported the militants' regime in Afghanistan before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, when threats from Washington forced Islamabad to disavow the group.
But Pakistan's spy agencies have long been accused of protecting top Afghan Taliban leaders — many of whom are believed to have fled to Pakistan during the U.S.-led invasion — to use them as tools to counter Indian influence in Afghanistan when the Americans withdraw.
With mounting U.S. casualties in across the border, American officials have pressured Pakistan to target the group's leaders. Security forces here have largely resisted doing so, even while attacking Pakistani Taliban groups blamed for scores of terror attacks.
U.S. and Pakistani officials did not say what led them to Baradar or give details of the raid, triggering speculation that he may have been handed over by Pakistani intelligence officials as part of a trade off in negotiations over the future of Afghanistan or betrayed by other members of the Taliban.
"If Pakistani officials had wanted to arrest him, they could have done it at any time," said Sher Mohammad Akhud Zada, the former governor of Afghanistan's Helmand province and a member of the Afghan parliament. "Why did they arrest him now?"
The arrest could mark a shift in strategy by Pakistan's powerful Inter Services Intelligence agency from protecting or turning a blind eye to the Afghan Taliban to arresting them.
"The Pakistani government have realized that the Taliban is too much of a threat to them, they've decided they've got to draw some red lines for both Pakistani and Afghanistan Taliban," said Michael Clarke, director of the Royal United Services Institute, a military think tank in London. "They decided they need to be seen to take the Taliban on, they need to push them back."
Washington will be hoping that is true.
"It's really evidence of a stronger cooperative effort that's taking place," Sen. John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told CBS' "The Early Show" from Islamabad, where he was on an unrelated visit when news of the capture broke.
Others cautioned it was too soon to say whether the arrest represented a strategic change or was a one-off event aimed at reducing some of the U.S. pressure on the country. Some said they believed it was simply the result of good intelligence work by the United States.
"I think the intelligence comes from the Americans," said Rahimullah Yousafzai, a Pakistani journalist and expert on the Taliban. "They tell the Pakistanis that 'we have to raid some place' and the Pakistanis say 'we will go along with you.'"
The arrest strengthens reports that Karachi is increasingly being used by members of the Afghan Taliban as a base, possibly because their earlier havens close to the border are now the target of about three CIA missile attacks each week.
A chaotic city of 13 million people, Karachi has a large population of Pashtuns, the ethnic group that makes up the Taliban, meaning it is relatively easy for insurgents to hide there.
Taliban expert Michael Semple said Baradar was known as a "pragmatist" who could be prepared to enter into some kind of talks with the United States.
"If he could get guarantees, he would be willing to negotiate," said Semple, who was expelled from Afghanistan in 2007 by President Hamid Karzai for negotiating with midlevel Taliban commanders when he worked for the European Union.
Semple said the arrest could lead to more pressure on Afghan Taliban commanders to negotiate with the Afghan government if they thought that Pakistan was no longer safe. "I think that this will make the other leaders more inclined to negotiate," he said.
From http://news.yahoo.com/
Read More..
Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar's arrest in the Pakistani port city of Karachi may also push other insurgent leaders thought to be sheltering on this side of the border toward talks with the Afghan government — a development increasingly seen as key to ending the eight-year war.
Baradar, in his late 40s, was the second in command behind Taliban founder Mullah Mohammad Omar and was said to be in charge of the day-to-day running of the organization's leadership council, which is believed based in Pakistan. He was a founding member of the Taliban and is the most important figure of the hardline Islamist movement to be arrested in the war.
Baradar, who also functioned as the link between Mullah Omar and field commanders, has been in detention for more than 10 days and was talking to interrogators, two Pakistani intelligence officials said Tuesday. One said several other suspects were also captured in the raid. He said Baradar had provided "useful information" to them and that Pakistan had shared it with their U.S. counterparts. They spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.
The White House declined to confirm Baradar's capture. Spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters the fight against extremists involves sensitive intelligence matters and he believes it's best to collect that information without talking about it.
President Barack Obama's administration has vowed to kill or seize Taliban and al-Qaida leaders in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The arrest comes as relentless CIA missile strikes against militant targets in the border tribal region have killed several commanders.
Obama has ordered 30,000 extra troops to southern Afghanistan. On Saturday, thousands of them began a major attack on the town of Marjah in the southern province of Helmand, one of the regions that Baradar is believed to control.
Former members of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan and security experts said the arrest would hurt the Taliban but was far from a decisive blow. They said Baradar would likely be quickly replaced and that local commanders had a lot of autonomy from the leaders based in Pakistan.
Nevertheless, the capture is likely to cause short-term disruption, since Baradar was the day-to-day commander of the Taliban and his successor would not have the same prestige.
"It's a great tactical success that the coalition forces should be pleased with, but by no means is it the beginning of the end," said Will Hartley, an analyst at Jane's Terrorism and Insurgency Center in London. "This will have a noted effect on the short-term ability of the Taliban to operate the way it was. However, it has proved itself a resilient organization."
Pentagon spokesman Col. Dave Lapan said he could neither confirm nor deny that Baradar was captured but said the removal of any senior leader would have "an immediate impact to their operations.'
"But we've seen, too, that they then push successors into their place... How long it takes them to sort of reconstitute depends on the situation."
Afghan analysts in the U.S. said they were closely watching for a stepped-up U.S. effort to capture or kill Jalaluddin Haqqani and his son Sirajuddin, the brutal leaders of the Taliban arm that operates in eastern Afghanistan from bases in northwestern Pakistan.
Pakistan helped create the Taliban and supported the militants' regime in Afghanistan before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, when threats from Washington forced Islamabad to disavow the group.
But Pakistan's spy agencies have long been accused of protecting top Afghan Taliban leaders — many of whom are believed to have fled to Pakistan during the U.S.-led invasion — to use them as tools to counter Indian influence in Afghanistan when the Americans withdraw.
With mounting U.S. casualties in across the border, American officials have pressured Pakistan to target the group's leaders. Security forces here have largely resisted doing so, even while attacking Pakistani Taliban groups blamed for scores of terror attacks.
U.S. and Pakistani officials did not say what led them to Baradar or give details of the raid, triggering speculation that he may have been handed over by Pakistani intelligence officials as part of a trade off in negotiations over the future of Afghanistan or betrayed by other members of the Taliban.
"If Pakistani officials had wanted to arrest him, they could have done it at any time," said Sher Mohammad Akhud Zada, the former governor of Afghanistan's Helmand province and a member of the Afghan parliament. "Why did they arrest him now?"
The arrest could mark a shift in strategy by Pakistan's powerful Inter Services Intelligence agency from protecting or turning a blind eye to the Afghan Taliban to arresting them.
"The Pakistani government have realized that the Taliban is too much of a threat to them, they've decided they've got to draw some red lines for both Pakistani and Afghanistan Taliban," said Michael Clarke, director of the Royal United Services Institute, a military think tank in London. "They decided they need to be seen to take the Taliban on, they need to push them back."
Washington will be hoping that is true.
"It's really evidence of a stronger cooperative effort that's taking place," Sen. John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told CBS' "The Early Show" from Islamabad, where he was on an unrelated visit when news of the capture broke.
Others cautioned it was too soon to say whether the arrest represented a strategic change or was a one-off event aimed at reducing some of the U.S. pressure on the country. Some said they believed it was simply the result of good intelligence work by the United States.
"I think the intelligence comes from the Americans," said Rahimullah Yousafzai, a Pakistani journalist and expert on the Taliban. "They tell the Pakistanis that 'we have to raid some place' and the Pakistanis say 'we will go along with you.'"
The arrest strengthens reports that Karachi is increasingly being used by members of the Afghan Taliban as a base, possibly because their earlier havens close to the border are now the target of about three CIA missile attacks each week.
A chaotic city of 13 million people, Karachi has a large population of Pashtuns, the ethnic group that makes up the Taliban, meaning it is relatively easy for insurgents to hide there.
Taliban expert Michael Semple said Baradar was known as a "pragmatist" who could be prepared to enter into some kind of talks with the United States.
"If he could get guarantees, he would be willing to negotiate," said Semple, who was expelled from Afghanistan in 2007 by President Hamid Karzai for negotiating with midlevel Taliban commanders when he worked for the European Union.
Semple said the arrest could lead to more pressure on Afghan Taliban commanders to negotiate with the Afghan government if they thought that Pakistan was no longer safe. "I think that this will make the other leaders more inclined to negotiate," he said.
From http://news.yahoo.com/
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Broadcasters see alternate body for radio measurement with suspicion
The creation of an alternative body for radio measurement is being seen with lot of suspicion by broadcasters; following Big FM fell down tremendously on the Media Research User Council (MRUC) for its allegedly 'inappropriate' radio measurement system - the Indian Readership Survey (IRS).
"We have expressed our concerns to The Association of Radio Operators of India (AROI) and are planning to set up a meeting with the radio industry to discuss the modus operandi for carrying out listenership surveys. After the meeting, AROI would be addressing our issues with MRUC and chalk out solutions for the industry," expressed FM COO Harish Bhatia.
As per Fever FM national marketing head Neeraj Chaturvedi, no matter how many issues there are with the IRS data, at the end it is the method which is worked upon. The recall method is followed by them and the maximum recall brands gain mileage, no matter what their listenership and stand in the market is.
Non-availability of RAM in Tier 2, Tier 3 cities acts as a barrier for stations not present in metros.
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"We have expressed our concerns to The Association of Radio Operators of India (AROI) and are planning to set up a meeting with the radio industry to discuss the modus operandi for carrying out listenership surveys. After the meeting, AROI would be addressing our issues with MRUC and chalk out solutions for the industry," expressed FM COO Harish Bhatia.
As per Fever FM national marketing head Neeraj Chaturvedi, no matter how many issues there are with the IRS data, at the end it is the method which is worked upon. The recall method is followed by them and the maximum recall brands gain mileage, no matter what their listenership and stand in the market is.
Non-availability of RAM in Tier 2, Tier 3 cities acts as a barrier for stations not present in metros.
Read More..
About A Quarter of Women Aged Over 35 “Never Had Sex”, Reveals Survey
According to a survey conducted, more than one in every four women aged 35 and above never had sex.
It was also added that issueless women have more orgasms than women who have children. Only 12% of mothers having one kid achieved sexual satisfaction, while those with two kids derived marginally more.
Today’s materialistic life has also added to this, as working women fail to spare even a little time left for love making. It was found that women working part-time have more orgasms (67%) than full-time workers (57%).
Making love is a thing of past for almost 28% of women, according to The Mirror. About 745 women were surveyed who fell into the age group of 35 to 64. Childless women were found to have more orgasms than mums and 41% of them told that it happened most of the time.
About 42% of women that had been polled were struggling against depression, as the research also highlighted the fears about menopause.
Mirror columnist Coleen Nolan said, "So many women are suffering from health problems they don't want to seek help for because they think it's embarrassing. The show will provide a platform to discuss problems they can't talk about with friends".
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It was also added that issueless women have more orgasms than women who have children. Only 12% of mothers having one kid achieved sexual satisfaction, while those with two kids derived marginally more.
Today’s materialistic life has also added to this, as working women fail to spare even a little time left for love making. It was found that women working part-time have more orgasms (67%) than full-time workers (57%).
Making love is a thing of past for almost 28% of women, according to The Mirror. About 745 women were surveyed who fell into the age group of 35 to 64. Childless women were found to have more orgasms than mums and 41% of them told that it happened most of the time.
About 42% of women that had been polled were struggling against depression, as the research also highlighted the fears about menopause.
Mirror columnist Coleen Nolan said, "So many women are suffering from health problems they don't want to seek help for because they think it's embarrassing. The show will provide a platform to discuss problems they can't talk about with friends".
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British Researchers Find Secret To Ageing
British researchers have found the secret to ageing, providing new hope to victims of old age-related problems including cardiopathy.
Scientists from Newcastle University together with German specialists from the University of Ulm reportedly unlocked the secret as to how and why living cells turn old by detecting the biochemical tract involved in ageing.
Researchers said, "The study could lead to a much better chance of making a successful attack on age-related diseases."
The discovery could also provide an justification as to why skin matures and offer hope that novel medicines could be made to deal with diseases like heart problem and diabetes and remove undesirable side-affects from cancer.
But, the researchers stated that it would unlikely offer an elixir of eternal life in the coming time.
Prof. Tom Kirkwood, director of Newcastle University''s Institute of Ageing and Health, said, "Our breakthrough means that we stand a very much better chance of making a successfulattack on age-related diseases while at the same time avoiding the risk of unwanted side-effects like cancer."
For the study, scientists utilized what they called as a complete ''systems biology'' approach involving multifaceted computer modelling and experimentations with genetically modified mice and cell cultures.
They probed why cells turn senescent, which in this state cells blocked dividing and their tissue disclosed physical indications of deterioration, from a failing heart to wrinkling skin.
The outcomes also demonstrated that when an ageing cell finds serious DNA damage that could be caused by general wear from life it sent internal signals to the brain.
These distress signals activate the cell''s "mitochondria", or its tiny energy-producing power packs, to make "free radical" molecules.
This in turn notifies the cell to either to demolish itself or stop dividing which is aimed at avoiding damaged DNA that can lead to cancer.
It also reportedly downplays the role of telomeres that are the defensive tips on the ends of human DNAs, which gradually become shorter as humans age.
"There has been a huge amount of speculation about how blocking telomere erosion might cure ageing and age-related diseases. The telomere story has over-promised and the biology is more complicated, Kirkwood said.
The study has been published by the journal Molecular Systems Biology. (With Input from Agencies)
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Scientists from Newcastle University together with German specialists from the University of Ulm reportedly unlocked the secret as to how and why living cells turn old by detecting the biochemical tract involved in ageing.
Researchers said, "The study could lead to a much better chance of making a successful attack on age-related diseases."
The discovery could also provide an justification as to why skin matures and offer hope that novel medicines could be made to deal with diseases like heart problem and diabetes and remove undesirable side-affects from cancer.
But, the researchers stated that it would unlikely offer an elixir of eternal life in the coming time.
Prof. Tom Kirkwood, director of Newcastle University''s Institute of Ageing and Health, said, "Our breakthrough means that we stand a very much better chance of making a successfulattack on age-related diseases while at the same time avoiding the risk of unwanted side-effects like cancer."
For the study, scientists utilized what they called as a complete ''systems biology'' approach involving multifaceted computer modelling and experimentations with genetically modified mice and cell cultures.
They probed why cells turn senescent, which in this state cells blocked dividing and their tissue disclosed physical indications of deterioration, from a failing heart to wrinkling skin.
The outcomes also demonstrated that when an ageing cell finds serious DNA damage that could be caused by general wear from life it sent internal signals to the brain.
These distress signals activate the cell''s "mitochondria", or its tiny energy-producing power packs, to make "free radical" molecules.
This in turn notifies the cell to either to demolish itself or stop dividing which is aimed at avoiding damaged DNA that can lead to cancer.
It also reportedly downplays the role of telomeres that are the defensive tips on the ends of human DNAs, which gradually become shorter as humans age.
"There has been a huge amount of speculation about how blocking telomere erosion might cure ageing and age-related diseases. The telomere story has over-promised and the biology is more complicated, Kirkwood said.
The study has been published by the journal Molecular Systems Biology. (With Input from Agencies)
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Potential Curative Targets For Childhood Cancer Discovered
Researchers have found potential therapeutic targets for the treatment of neuroblastoma, the most frequent solid tumour in young children.
By analyzing human malignant neoplasm cells in vitro and after xenotransplantation into mice and chicks, a group of scientists, headed by Patrick Mehlen, at Universite de Lyon, France, discovered the protein NT-3 and the cell-surface molecule to which it unites (TrkC).
In the research, NT-3 was found to be expressed at heightened levels in aggressive human malignant neoplasms and to block up the capability of TrkC to persuadetumour cell death by a process called apoptosis.
In vitro analysis of human neuroblastoma cell lines pointed that both declining NT-3 expression and culturing in the company of an antibody, which blocked NT-3 tying to TrkC actuated the cells to go through apoptosis.
More significantly, blocking up the NT-3/TrkC interaction curbed tumour growth and metastasis in both a chick and a mouse xenograft model of neuroblastoma.
The researchers therefore hint that upsetting the NT-3/TrkC interaction might offer a new approach to treating neuroblastoma for which healing options are currently limited. (With Input from Agencies)
From http://www.topnews.in/
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By analyzing human malignant neoplasm cells in vitro and after xenotransplantation into mice and chicks, a group of scientists, headed by Patrick Mehlen, at Universite de Lyon, France, discovered the protein NT-3 and the cell-surface molecule to which it unites (TrkC).
In the research, NT-3 was found to be expressed at heightened levels in aggressive human malignant neoplasms and to block up the capability of TrkC to persuadetumour cell death by a process called apoptosis.
In vitro analysis of human neuroblastoma cell lines pointed that both declining NT-3 expression and culturing in the company of an antibody, which blocked NT-3 tying to TrkC actuated the cells to go through apoptosis.
More significantly, blocking up the NT-3/TrkC interaction curbed tumour growth and metastasis in both a chick and a mouse xenograft model of neuroblastoma.
The researchers therefore hint that upsetting the NT-3/TrkC interaction might offer a new approach to treating neuroblastoma for which healing options are currently limited. (With Input from Agencies)
From http://www.topnews.in/
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