Sunday, January 25, 2015
Malaysia Airlines site hacked
The official Malaysia Airlines website has been hacked by a group claiming to support Islamist terror group, ISIS.
This tree could heat your home
From a distance this may look like an ordinary tree, but get closer and you will discover it is actually a power generator.
Pluto to get its first close-up
NASA's New Horizons spacecraft is closing in on Pluto and its five moons. Soon we will see what no one has ever seen before: Crisp, clear pictures of the tiny, icy world.
Netanyahu visit continues to stir emotion
White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough says the United States shouldn't wade into Israeli politics -- even if the country's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, plans to weigh in on American policies.
How to bounce back from failure
When other women ask Christine Lagarde about coping with failure -- and they often do -- the head of the International Monetary Fund doesn't mince her words.
Lindsey Vonn gets record 64th World Cup win
The winning machine that is Lindsey Vonn proved unstoppable again Sunday with rivals left trailing in the World Cup super-G at St Moritz.
Ebola vaccine to be tested in Africa
The world is a lot closer to having a real weapon to fight Ebola. Vaccine doses should arrive in West Africa Friday.
COAS hockey cup: PIA, SSGC, NBP register comfortable wins
KARACHI:
PIA, SSGC and NBP won their respective matches on the fourth day of the first Chief of the Army Staff Challenge Hockey Cup at the Army Hockey Stadium in Rawalpindi yesterday.
In the first match of the day, PIA won 4-2 against Police. The airliners started off with a penalty corner goal in the second minute and struck again in the 16th and 32nd minutes through Awais Rehman and Atif Mushtaq to make it 3-0.
Police’s Atif Baig then struck twice to reduce the lead to just one goal which meant that an unlikely comeback was on the cards. However, Rehman scored his second in the 56th minute to make it 4-2 and ensure that PIA lead the charts with three straight wins.
In the second match, SSGC won 2-0 against Navy. Akbar Ali scored the first field goal in the seventh minute to take the lead. Muhammed Sabir then in the 48th minute scored the second goal for SSGC to make it a 2-0 win.
In the last match of the day, NBP defeated Army Junior 5-0.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 26th, 2015.
Like Sports on Facebook, follow @ETribuneSports on Twitter to stay informed and join in the conversation.
Football: Defiant Blatter taunts UEFA
Sepp Blatter has issued a defiant message to his rivals for the FIFA presidency and challenged European governing body UEFA to put up a candidate of its own in the election later this year.
Deadly violence
Several people were killed when peaceful protests turned deadly on the fourth anniversary of Egypt's Tahrir Square uprising. Ian Lee reports.
The mysterious world of ‘lightbombing’
It's 4 o'clock in the morning. Most of Birmingham, the second most populated city in England, is fast asleep. But like a thief in the dead of night, a solitary figure slips through the city's deserted streets. Arriving at a derelict warehouse, he is brandishing what looks like a lightsaber as he makes his way to the roof.
La Liga: Ronaldo suspension worry for Real
BARCELONA:
A suspension for Cristiano Ronaldo is the latest concern for coach Carlo Ancelotti whose Real Madrid side are looking far from the slick machine that strung together 22 straight victories before Christmas.
Ronaldo was the inspiration behind that Spanish record-winning streak but he had one of his poorest matches in a Real shirt in the 2-1 victory over Cordoba.
Ronaldo was unable to make an impact against Cordoba and his frustration saw him lash out against Jose Crespo which the referee missed and then minutes later he was sent off for kicking out at Edimar.
He was quick to apologise on Twitter after the game but he is now likely to be suspended for the next two matches against Real Sociedad and Sevilla but could also miss the derby with Atletico.
Real still lead the La Liga table by a point and have a game in hand. However, they have an in-form Barcelona breathing down their necks, who tore apart Elche 6-0 while Atletico Madrid are also looking strong, four points behind after a 3-1 win over Rayo Vallecano.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 26th, 2015.
Like Sports on Facebook, follow @ETribuneSports on Twitter to stay informed and join in the conversation.
Sharapova, Nadal, Murray march into quarter-finals
MELBOURNE: Maria Sharapova was all business yesterday as she set up a glamourous Australian Open quarter-final with Eugenie Bouchard, as Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray also continued their unrelenting Grand Slam march.
The Russian world number two ended Chinese hopes by swatting aside 21st seed Peng Shuai 6-3, 6-0 as she lifts her game the longer she goes in the tournament.
It hands organisers a dream last-eight clash between two of the most marketable players on tour with Canadian seventh seed Bouchard surviving a mid-match slump to defeat unseeded Irina-Camelia Begu of Romania in three sets.
Sharapova felt that Bouchard, the tour’s most consistent performer at Grand Slams last year who pushed her in their French Open semi-final, would be a big challenge. “She’s been playing incredibly well, confident aggressive tennis. I have a tough match ahead of me,” said the Russian.
The popular Bouchard is widely seen as a future major champion after her semi-final appearance at Melbourne Park last year, a feat she matched in Paris before making the Wimbledon final.
It didn’t go all her way against Begu, who sparked to life in the second set to push the ambitious 20-year-old to a third before winning 6-1, 5-7, 6-2.
Dangerous Romanian third seed Simona Halep also went through, battling past unseeded Belgian Yanina Wickmayer 6-4, 6-2 and will meet Russian 10th seed Ekaterina Makarova.
Makarova blitzed unseeded German Julia Goerges 6-3, 6-2 and has yet to drop a set.
Murray, Nadal march on
Sharapova’s boyfriend Grigor Dimitrov, meanwhile, was defeated by never-say-die British sixth seed Andy Murray, who won the last five games to battle through a pulsating night match on Rod Laver Arena 6-4, 6-7 (5/7), 6-3, 7-5.
Nadal, a 14-time Grand Slam champion, was dominant after a tight first set against power-hitting South African Kevin Anderson, running out a 7-5, 6-1, 6-4 winner and will next play Czech Tomas Berdych for a place in the semi-finals.
The consistent Berdych, who made the final four last year, ended Australian Bernard Tomic’s tournament with a comfortable 6-2, 7-6 (7/3), 6-2 hit-out.
“After a tough period of time for me it’s a fantastic result and I’m very happy with the way I played today,” said Spain’s Nadal, who came into the tournament after a three-month injury layoff. “It was probably my best match here this year so that’s very important for me and very special.”
Berdych has lost his last 17 encounters with Nadal and admitted he would have to be at the top of his game to win. “Whatever I need to do I’m going to be ready for it and will try to fight until the last point,” he said.
Another Australian, teenager Nick Kyrgios, managed to achieve what Roger Federer could not by beating dogged Italian Andreas Seppi 5-7, 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7/5) 8-6.
The 19-year-old becomes the first home-grown quarter-finalist in Melbourne since Lleyton Hewitt in 2005 with a face-off against Murray his reward.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 26th, 2015.
Like Sports on Facebook, follow @ETribuneSports on Twitter to stay informed and join in the conversation.
Defiant Blatter taunts UEFA in re-election race
Sepp Blatter has issued a defiant message to his rivals for the FIFA presidency and challenged European governing body UEFA to put up a candidate of its own in the election later this year.
FA Cup exit: ‘Ashamed’ Mourinho vows Chelsea recovery after shock defeat
LONDON: Jose Mourinho insists Chelsea will recover from their humiliating FA Cup exit against third-tier Bradford because most of his star players missed the fourth-round defeat.
Mourinho suffered one of the most embarrassing defeats of his career as the Premier League leaders squandered a two-goal lead to lose 4-2 at the Stamford Bridge on Saturday.
Chelsea’s first defeat to lower-league opposition since 2008 ended their bid to win all four of the major trophies on offer this season and left Mourinho admitting that he was ashamed of the performance.
However, Mourinho believes most of his players should not carry any scars from the defeat as he made eight changes against the League One side, with Eden Hazard and Cesc Fabregas only featuring as substitutes and Diego Costa left out of the squad entirely.
“Does this affect the next match? I don’t know because many of the players were not directly involved in the game,” said Mourinho.
Abu Dhabi friendly not to blame, says Pellegrini
Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini played down the significance of his side’s midweek trip to Abu Dhabi after they were humbled 2-0 at home by Middlesbrough in the FA Cup.
City decided to take the seven-hour return flight from the Middle East on Friday and the squad were pictured leaving Manchester Airport just 19 hours before kick-off against Middlesbrough.
But Pellegrini refused to accept that the training camp in the UAE had any bearing on the result. “I don’t think so. I don’t agree,” said the Chilean. “You can have your opinion, but I have a different opinion because we had six or seven clear chances to score a goal.”
Tottenham’s cup runs dry as Leicester pounce
Tottenham Hotspur’s hectic schedule caught up with them as they slipped out of the FA Cup in a 2-1 fourth-round home defeat by Premier League bottom club Leicester City.
Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino has rotated his squad freely and did so again with record signing Erik Lamela back from injury and Spain striker Roberto Soldado in attack.
Belgian international Moussa Dembele also started, as did Brazil midfielder Paulinho, but Tottenham were punished for failing to build on their lead as Leicester pounced late on.
“I’m very disappointed because I thought we played well,” Pochettino told the Spurs website. “The problem was we didn’t kill the game. We gave the opportunity to Leicester to stay alive in the game and in the last 10 minutes we lost everything we made in the first 80.”
Other fixtures
Liverpool avoided the fate that befell Chelsea and City but were taken to a replay by Championship club Bolton following a 0-0 draw at Anfield.
Swansea City also fell to lower-league opposition, losing 3-1 at second-tier Blackburn Rovers in a game that saw them have two players sent off.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 26th, 2015.
Like Sports on Facebook, follow @ETribuneSports on Twitter to stay informed and join in the conversation.
Rockets, mortars rain down on Syrian capital: monitor
BEIRUT: Rebels fired dozens of rockets and mortar rounds Sunday at central Damascus, a monitoring group said, making good on a threat of retaliation for deadly air raids by the Syrian regime.
“Rebels launched more than 38 locally-made rockets and mortar rounds at several areas of central Damascus, including Al-Maliki and Mazzeh neighbourhoods, as well as Arnus and Sabaa Bahrat squares,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
“Several people were injured,” the Britain-based group said, without giving a precise casualty toll.
AFP journalists in Sabaa Bahrat square could hear the blasts, while ambulances and fire trucks rushed to the area.
State news agency SANA said the army fired back at the source, blaming rebels in the Eastern Ghouta area, without giving any initial report of casualties or naming the residential areas hit.
The attack comes two days after Zahran Alloush, head of the rebel Jaysh al-Islam (Army of Islam), warned on Twitter that his forces would launch a “rocket campaign against the capital” from Sunday.
“The rockets’ brigade is preparing for a rocket campaign against the capital, which will see rockets rain down every day… in retaliation for the regime’s savage air raids… against our people in the… Eastern Ghouta area,” Alloush wrote.
Government aircraft on Friday carried out a string of deadly raids against rebel-held Hammuriyeh in the besieged Eastern Ghouta area, located east of Damascus.
The Observatory said 56 people were killed, among them six children. Only five of the dead were fighters, said the group close to the Syrian opposition that relies on a network of activists and medics on the ground.
Alloush’s Jaysh al-Islam is the most powerful rebel group in Eastern Ghouta.
Tens of thousands of civilians trapped in the area suffer extreme shortages of food and medicine, activists say.
Syria’s war began as a peaceful revolt demanding democratic change, but later morphed into a brutal civil war after President Bashar al Assad’s regime unleashed a massive crackdown against dissent.
More than 200,000 people have been killed since March 2011, and half the population has been forced to flee their homes.
AFCON hosts in quarterfinals
The latest action and images from the 2015 tournament in Equatorial Guinea.
Big day for Greek voters
The left-wing party Syriza, which has vowed to renegotiate the terms of Greece's multibillion-euro bailout if it wins, has been leading in opinion polls going into the vote.
Technology to Pakistan’s rescue
At this time, in the early days of 2015, Pakistan finds itself in a low growth equilibrium trap. The economy, after growing at the rate of about 3.5 per cent a year for the last half a dozen years, is expected to see a slight improvement. The International Monetary Fund, which is currently assisting the country, expects the rate of growth in the current financial year to inch forward a little and reach a rate higher than four per cent. This is creditable given the number of problems the county confronts. The most important of these, of course, is extremism and associated terrorism.
Following the massacre in Peshawar of almost 150 students and teachers on December 16, 2014, the government has decided to launch a 20-point National Action Plan (NAP) with the aim of ridding the country of this scourge. Implementation of the plan has already begun. As the finance minister revealed, the NAP will cost the government a significant amount of money which was not budgeted and will impact the rate of growth. But this downward pull will be for the short term. If the NAP succeeds in its stated objectives, it will have enormous long-term positive consequences. The most important of these will be the revival of investor confidence in the country’s economic future.
As economists never fail to point out, confidence is by far the most important determinant of economic performance. With terrorism curbed, the country should see the rate of investment climb from the abysmally low 8.6 per cent of the GDP. For the country to achieve a rate of increase in national product of between six to eight per cent, it will need to invest between 28 and 30 per cent of the GDP. It will also need to improve the productivity of investment. This is where technology enters the picture. Before indicating the public policy choices that need to be made to put technology at the service of the Pakistani economy, I will take a brief detour into the history of economic thought.
Pioneers of development economics based their growth models initially on two factors of production. Arthur Lewis, the West Indian economist who went on to win the Nobel Prize, focused on the transfer of workers from agriculture to industry as one important way of increasing economic growth. His model of development was built on two assumptions: there was, he argued, a large surplus of workers in the countryside, working mostly in agriculture. Their productivity was much lower than the labour employed in the urban economy. Simply moving workers from villages to cities and towns would increase output without decreasing agricultural production.
Capital was the other factor of production. This was in short supply in poor countries; to increase it, these economies had to invest much more in the economy. But their savings rates were low. To get these countries out of this vicious cycle, external capital flows were needed. That a two-factor production equation was enough to explain growth in the economies was questioned by the American economist Robert Solow.
Pakistan has missed a number of opportunities to join the high-performing countries of Asia. It did not develop an industrial base that could have produced goods in high demand in the large markets of the developed world. This was what propelled forward the ‘miracle economies’ of Asia. It also missed the opportunity made available by what the American journalist Paul Friedman called the “flattening of the world”. By this, he meant how the well-trained youth in Asia’s populous countries could use the internet to provide services to the increasingly labour-short economies in the developed world. Outsourcing won India and the Philippines rich rewards in terms of generating reasonably well-paying jobs for the young while also earning large amounts of foreign exchange.
The country could catch up employing technology for promoting growth and development. Policymakers must understand how the global production system has changed and will continue to change. To take just one example, Pakistan, using information and other technologies, could enter the supply chain for the large automobile industries of China and India. I will elaborate on this point in later articles.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 26th, 2015.
Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.
Gas in our minds
We are still not clear about why fuel pumps ran dry earlier this month in Punjab and parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and we are still unaware as to what the government has done to ensure that there will not be a recurrence in the days to come.
Neither does our government know much about this. At least this is the conclusion we can make from the statements and actions of our PM and his ministers, some of whom still think it was an attempt to discredit the government, nothing less.
An inquiry committee constituted by the prime minister has blamed the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) for being responsible for the crisis. At the same time, the minister of petroleum has admitted he is responsible. But the minister has also blamed the media, beggars and the public as being behind the crisis.
The Prime Minister, who cancelled his visit to Davos owing to the crisis, has vowed strict action against those who are found guilty. But short of the suspension of four bureaucrats, almost all of whom will soon resume their positions or be reassigned, not much has happened.
Now for a recap: it was a week after the crisis erupted that the government announced that it would take strict measures to address the problem. In this time, while fights erupted at petrol pumps in parts of Punjab, the prime minister decided to go off to Saudi Arabia to inquire after the health of the ailing King.
And when the PM leaves the country, all administrative decisions are simply put on hold. So only once he returned last Saturday did we get the announcement that the secretary petroleum and three other high officials had been suspended. And that action would be taken.
The only action that we saw over the next few days was at petrol pumps across Punjab and parts of KP where people fought to get fuel. Petrol was sold in the black market but the government did nothing to stop any of this. In fact, apart from a couple of policemen at most petrol pumps, there was no effort on the part of the government to instill some order so that fuel supply, even if short, could be distributed in an orderly manner.
But the blame game was on. In a follow-up meeting at his palace in Raiwind, prime minister Sharif’s main concern was not why the crisis occurred in the first place but why it only affected the Punjab province. By this time, the media had started to report on the low reserves of furnace oil stocks.
Some predicted that the petrol crisis would be followed by a power crisis because the scarcity of furnace oil would affect power generation across the country. Mercifully we were spared that, although we are still not clear on what the actual stock position is.
What came next was too good to be believed. Finance minister Ishaq Dar told the media that he believed that the crisis was in fact a deep rooted conspiracy against the government.
Minister for Petroleum Shahid Khaqan Abbasi was more forthcoming when he addressed a press conference and admitted that he was responsible for the crisis as his ministry had not anticipated the huge increase in the demand of petrol across the country. Abbasi claimed that the fuel demand had risen by 30 per cent in a month in Pakistan as international oil prices dipped. Despite assuming responsibility for the debacle, Abbasi never offered to resign nor was he asked to do so by the PM.
Now who do we believe? Dar, our senior most minister who has the charge of one of the most sensitive ministries in the country and should be careful of what he says and when, or the responsible minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, who admitted that it was his ministry’s fault? If we believe one, then the other is lying.
The PM has hinted that millions were made in fuel purchases but we are yet to see evidence or action of this. The issue of circular debt, in which the government pumped billion when it came to power in 2013, has once again resurfaced. No effort is made to fix things. Only to apply cosmetic touches. In other words, we are back to square one.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 26th, 2015.
Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.
Insecure democracy
A large section of the politically aware and active populace of Pakistan expresses disappointment at the performance of the elected government, especially when it comes to the delivery of basic services to people. Such discontent was expressed during the PPP rule (2008-2013) but it seemed to have deepened during the PML-N rule. The non-availability of petrol on top of electricity and gas shortages has increased frustration and anger at the societal level. If these trends are not reversed, the long-term sustainability of democracy will be jeopardised in Pakistan.
This alienation is in sharp contrast to the pro-democracy disposition of the politically aware and active population in 2007-08. By 2007, the civilianised military regime of General (retd) Pervez Musharraf had run aground in terms of governance and political management. General (retd) Musharraf’s political blunders, like the attempt to remove the Chief Justice of Pakistan (March 2007), securing his re-election in October 2007 and, above all, the imposition of the state of emergency on November 3, 2007, shocked the legal community, political parties and other activists. They launched a major protest in support of constitutional and civilian rule, civil, political and economic rights, and participatory governance. There was much optimism about the future of democracy in Pakistan when the elected PPP government assumed power at the federal level in March 2008.
The current disenchantment with elected civilian rule represents a typical dilemma of societies where democratic aspirations repeatedly get frustrated by the poor performance of political leadership. The rulers view their electoral mandate as a licence to advance their self-articulated agendas rather than for addressing the issues that hurt the common person in daily life. Another problem common with such rulers is that they create a personalised and patrimonial governance system, where loyalty is valued more than professionalism and merit.
Pakistan is currently experiencing a dichotomy between the theory of democracy and its operationalisation in terms of governance and political management. Every political leader talks about constitutionalism and democracy. However, once a leader assumes power through an electoral victory, he wants to run the state like a personal fiefdom and does not accommodate those questioning his rule. The other worst-case situation in a democratic system is that a political leader refuses to accept an outcome if democracy delivers a result that is not to his satisfaction. In the first case, we face the tyranny of the majority and in the second case, the political leader decides to oppose the government on every issue and settles differences with it through street agitation.
The political problems in Pakistan relate to the operational side of democracy. There is a serious problem of translating democratic aspirations and principles into concrete policy measures in order to strengthen trust between the ordinary people and the democratic political process. Elections do provide electoral legitimacy to the party in power. However, it is important that the electoral process is generally viewed as fair, free and transparent by most political contestants. If there are serious questions about the credibility of elections, these cannot ensure electoral legitimacy. The widely shared doubts about the credibility of the elections need to be addressed in a judicious manner rather than evading the issue or dismissing it as propaganda. Even if the elections are generally viewed as fair, free and transparent by a large number of political contestants, these do not give a free hand to the ruling party to govern the way it likes till the next scheduled elections.
If an elected government wants to hold on to power for its full tenure, it must ensure that its electoral legitimacy is supplemented by performance legitimacy. The success of the government depends on its performance in office rather than on how much support it enjoys in parliament. The performance of a government is judged on the basis of its concrete policies and administrative measures that ensure physical as well as socio-economic security of the common people. People in general must perceive the government as helpful in addressing their socio-economic problems and personal security issues. Furthermore, the government must ensure transparency in official financial deals and also when it comes to the use of state patronage. The key personalities of the government should not be tainted with major corruption and nepotism scandals and it must be ensured that there is no conflict between the imperatives of state policies and the business and personal interests of those exercising state power.
Pakistan’s federal and provincial governments falter on the performance criteria when it comes to socio-economic development, internal security and transparency, and professionalism. The federal government has found it difficult to cope with the challenges in the civilian domains and has drifted from crisis to crisis. It also has wrong priorities for development work by opting for publicity-oriented construction, road-building and transport projects, and distribution of laptops and loans from banks in dubious schemes ostensibly to help the people. Instead, these resources should have been used to address major economic problems, like the shortages of electricity, gas and petrol, price hike of essential commodities, lack of attention paid to education and healthcare, etc. Another problem pertains to the misuse of state resources and money-making by the power elite.
The non-satisfactory handling of these affairs has alienated the common people from the current elected civilian governance system. With the exception of the direct beneficiaries of this faltering democratic government, dissatisfaction with the existing political arrangements abounds. As the civilian government is unable to adopt a forthright approach towards internal security matters, especially when it comes to dealing with terrorist and extremist groups, the army has grabbed the initiative. This is in addition to its active role in the handling of external security and foreign policy issues. Now the army authorities are prodding the federal and provincial governments to deal effectively with the civilian side of countering terrorism.
The common person’s alienation from and anger against non-performing elected political leaders has made democracy insecure in Pakistan.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 26th, 2015.
Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.
15 dead in protests marking Egypt revolution
Fourteen protesters have been killed in demonstrations marking the fourth anniversary of Egypt's revolution, the country's Ministry of Health said Sunday.
Hamza Ali Abbasi appointed PTI’s culture secretary in Karachi
KARACHI:
Actor Hamza Ali Abbasi has been appointed as culture secretary for the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in Karachi. Abbasi, a former civil service trainee, has been a supporter of PTI for quite some time. He was spotted on many of the party’s sit-ins held last year to overthrow the incumbent Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz government.
The party’s Karachi president, Ali Zaidi, took to his Twitter account to announce that the actor will take on the role of PTI Karachi’s culture secretary and posted a picture of the formal letter.
Meanwhile, the Waar actor, who is open in his support of the PTI and often tweets in favour of the party, has yet to make an official announcement on his social media accounts.
He was recently in the news when Facebook had blocked a post by the actor regarding Charlie Hebdo. Abbasi had posted on his verified Facebook page, which is followed by 1.6 million people, that the social media website had removed his post and warned him after deactivating his profile.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg had later issued an apology on behalf of his team stating that his team may have made a mistake in deleting the actor’s Facebook post regarding the Paris attacks.
The actor who recently turned director with the comedy film Kambakht will also be seen starring in the movie alongside Sheheryar Munawar Siddiqui, Humayun Saeed, Shafqat Cheema and Sohai Ali Abro.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 26th, 2015.
Like Life & Style on Facebook, follow @ETLifeandStyle on Twitter for the latest in fashion, gossip and entertainment.
Miss Lebanon and Miss Israel selfie controversy fuels up
Who would’ve thought that something as basic as a selfie at an international beauty pageant can reignite the political frictions within the Middle East. Two contestants at the beauty pageant, Miss Israel and Miss Lebanon, have already spoken up regarding the controversy regarding their selfie but it seems that the dust will not settle so easily.
The backlash on the social media has been so severe that many people have called for Greige’s title to be revoked after she fraternised with a citizen of Israel, reported Al-Arabiya News.
Defending her actions Greige said on the social media that Miss Israel, Doron Matalon had made repeated attempts to take a picture with her and had effectively photo-bombed the selfie in question.
“From the first day I arrived at the Miss Universe pageant I was very careful not to take any pictures with Miss Israel, who tried repeatedly to take pictures with me,” she said, stated the el-Nashra fan entertainment website.
She further added, “While I was preparing with Miss Slovania and Miss Japan to get our photograph taken, Miss Israel jumped in and took a selfie with her phone and posted it on social media.”
After proclaiming her innocence by explaining the whole incident she said that she hoped her fellow countrymen would support her in the Miss Universe contest.
Miss Israel issued a contradictory statement during an interview with NBC Today stating that she had not photo-bombed her Lebanese counterpart and that it was not a “surprise”.
“I hope for change, and I hope for peace between us; even just for three weeks, even just between me and her,” Matalon said. “That’s what we need to remember: we represent the country and the people, not the government and not the political issues.”
Several news outlets have gone on to describe the selfie in question as a scandal after pictures surfacing on the internet, which showed Miss Lebanon posing with Miss Israel created a furor online.
The photo that has been circulated online shows Lebanon’s Saly Greige surrounded by the beauty queens of Israel, Slovenia and Japan something which has not been well-received in her homeland. The political tension between Lebanon and Israel has been well-documented with any contact with Israelis being considered illegal in the country.
The political tension between the two nations had reached a tipping point in 2006 when Israel engaged in a war against Lebanon’s Hezbollah. The war claimed the lives of more than 1200 people in Lebanon most of whom were civilians whereas 160 Israelis, mainly soldiers were killed.
Donald Trump, who owns the Miss Universe beauty pageant, reportedly told NBC he hopes the controversy doesn’t affect the contestants’ chances at the contest.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 26th, 2015.
Like Life & Style on Facebook, follow @ETLifeandStyle on Twitter for the latest in fashion, gossip and entertainment.
Foods you should eat raw rather than cooked
Food processing, such as cooking, blending, and mashing, affects calorie content and toxicity of food. Pakistanis usually overcook food, which, although beneficial in many cases, kills the nutritional value of a host of food items. As compiled from livingfoods.com, Men’s Fitness and Good Housekeeping magazine, here are seven foods that are best eaten raw.
Nuts
Raw nuts can reduce your risk of blood clots and improve the healthy lining of arteries, but when nuts are roasted or cooked at a temperature higher than 170 degrees, those disease-fighting fats get broken down and do just the opposite: contribute to plaque and cardiovascular disease. You may love the taste of the peanuts in your Kung Pao chicken or the roasted pistachio on your kheer but the cooking process takes away the food’s nutritional value. Comparing roasted and raw cashews, for instance, using the USDA’s National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, shows that roasting ups calories and fat, while lowering magnesium and iron.
Onions
Onions make you cry for a reason. According to a Cornell University study, there are sulphur compounds and cancer-fighting antioxidants in onion juice. But as we know, Pakistanis are fans of fried onions in their food. Be it haleem or tarka for daal, fried onions are a must. Since many of the nutrients in onions are unstable and react fast to heat, high temperatures during frying destroy fat-soluble vitamins, such as Vitamin A and Vitamin E. What’s worse is that when onions cook in oils, they produce carcinogens. Eating onions raw can help protect against lung and prostate cancer.
Bell peppers
One medium bell pepper or capsicum is about 32 calories and packs a stack of vitamin C, about 150 per cent of your recommended daily value, which breaks down if cooked at high temperatures, according to research from the National Institute of Health. In a recent study from Turkey, the effects of grilling on sweet green bell peppers were studied with respect to one particular flavonoid called luteolin. Luteolin is an antioxidant that helps fight age-related illnesses. Prior to grilling, the bell peppers were found to contain about 46mg of this important antioxidant and anti-inflammatory flavonoid. After grilling for seven to eight minutes, about 40 per cent of the luteolin was found to be destroyed. Eating bell peppers raw also helps ward off atherosclerosis, which can lead to heart disease.
Garlic
Chewing raw garlic produces a DNA-protecting compound called allicin. But heating the Pakistani curry staple has been shown to diminish its anticancer properties. One minute of cooking can completely inactivate this enzyme, and when you eat it cooked, you absorb little or none of the protective allicin compound. Sixty seconds of microwave heating and 45 minutes of oven heating both blocked the anti-carcinogenic activity of garlic, and heating for six minutes also suppressed all anti-clotting activity in whole garlic, according to a study published in The Journal of Nutrition.
Coconut
According to research from the Southeast Asian Journal of Tropical Medicine and Public Health, coconuts are one of the most naturally-hydrating foods and have high levels of electrolytes. But you don’t get these hydrating benefits when consuming dried coconut or boxed coconut milk since they are cooked and processed before being packaged — leaving it t be just a high-cholesterol fat source. Also, the American Institute for Cancer Research says that cooking coconut kills its beneficial sodium, potassium, and magnesium. You may want to rethink ordering Thai coconut-based curries and devouring khausuey.
Olive oil
If you’re cooking over high heat, don’t choose olive oil. Olive oil has a lower smoke point, which is the point at which oil literally begins to smoke. When you heat olive oil to its smoke point, the beneficial compounds in oil start to degrade, potentially forming health-harming compounds. The process of heating the oil can cause the fats to become carcinogenic, which means they can cause cancer. Heating causes enzymes to be destroyed, proteins to get denatured, fats to turn toxic, carbohydrates to become caramelised, vitamins, and minerals become less available. Its better we keep the Mediterranean staple to dress salads or for gentle sautéing.
Cooking chocolate
Raw cacao or chocolate is loaded with nutrients that include essential vitamins and minerals, which boost the body’s neurotransmitters and phyto-chemicals that activate the mood-lifting emotion and increase overall well-being. On the other hand, cooked cacao, which is what you’ll find in most chocolate-baked goods, loses its nutritional value. When the oils and fats within the cacao bean are heated, they become toxic. When cooked and consumed in large quantities, cacao acts as a stimulant and agitates the kidneys and adrenal glands. This can cause insomnia, nightmares, waking up in the middle of the night, jitters, and extreme energy shifts. Sorry, brownie enthusiasts.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 26th, 2015.
Like Life & Style on Facebook, follow @ETLifeandStyle on Twitter for the latest in fashion, gossip and entertainment.
Dressing down, looking sharp
KARACHI:
Talking of trends, men working at corporate sectors are progressively leaning towards a business casual style. Ditching the prescribed official attire for semi-formal Polo shirts surely sounds comfortable.
Abdur Rafay Khan, assistant manager, Pantaloons Apparel, a garment firm based in Dolmen Mall, says, “There was a time when wearing a simple crisp plain shirt and pleated regular fit formal pants and a tie to contrast was the ultimate dress code for the average office wear.”
Currently, the notion of the most suitable office wear comes down to embodying ‘comfy’ and ‘stylish’ at the same time. “As time evolved sharp colours, stripes, checks and khakis were the new thing and the slim fit shirts with contrasting fabrics are totally in. The cotton pants or the formal fabric pants have gone pleatless and slim fit,” adds Khan.
Talking about this drift in the making, Ziad Bashir, director, Gul Ahmed, comments “Definitely, work attire has grown trendier and people have started getting well-dressed as the competition has grown. Over time, Pakistan’s corporate division has been truly inspired by the English culture which gave us the edge to keep showing our western-inspired corporate lines at our retail.”
Khan stresses that a new category of semi formals has emerged that maintains a thin line between formal and casual wear: “Slim-fit dull cotton pants and a decent check or stripe shirt and casual cotton jacket is the best option for daily office wear.”
On the same note, Hanif Bilwani, CEO, Bonanza garments, that specifically deals in menswear denotes, “The trend of wearing a suit and a tie to work has declined considerably. People have moved to semi-formal clothing with double pocket shirts and soft collars. The colour trend has also changed. People have now started wearing dark colours to work as opposed to light colours.”
Another category in menswear that has stolen spotlight is ‘sports wear’.
Bilwani adds, “Majority of people have shifted to casual wear at work. Multinationals and private offices are the ones seeing this shift whereas people at banks are still in their formal attire most of the time.”
Bashir attributes this fact, saying, “As youth-oriented places such as school’s colleges, universities and creative offices are getting exposure of dressing, people have started adopting smart casuals at work. For example, dark blue jeans can be worn with a white dress shirt, paired with a blazer.”
How this trend-shift has affected the business of producing formal shirts, Bilwani shares, “The demand for formal shirts is still there but not as much.” However, there has never been a downward trend in the garment business, says Bashir. “What was fashion before has now become the basic today, meaning that market brands are working efficiently on designs and introducing new products to compete with the needs of the trendy.”
As to whether kurtas and short kurtis comply within the limits of semi-formal wear, Khan asserts, “Short kurtas can be included in casual wear and, no doubt, they do provide a connect with ethnic culture but there’s not a boom in their style just yet.”
Bashir concludes, saying that for casual wear, products like men’s tunics that are not actually the length of a kurta but end till the mid thighs are in vogue. He states, “Nevertheless, the Pakistani culture of kurta shalwar and its importance on days like Fridays is strong. That’s the reason we still create formal shalwar kameez or kurta shalwar that people can wear to work and still feel the sense of formal wear.”
Published in The Express Tribune, January 26th, 2015.
Like Life & Style on Facebook, follow @ETLifeandStyle on Twitter for the latest in fashion, gossip and entertainment.