Syria, India among three most dangerous countries for media in 2013

Pakistan ranked fifth with nine casualties during the year. PHOTO: FILE

GENEVA: A total of 126 journalists and other media workers around the world have died on the job this year, the International News Safety Institute said on Friday.

Pakistan ranked fifth with nine casualties during the year and Syria was listed as the most dangerous place to work for the second year in a row.

That was 21 fewer than last year, but INSI said the incidence of kidnappings and disappearances was rising.

The institute, which organises safety courses for reporters and monitors risks in trouble spots, said 19 of the dead had lost their lives in Syria.

At least 18 foreign and 20 Syrian journalists are believed to be missing in the country after being detained or kidnapped there, it said.

The London-based INSI, whose report was officially released in Geneva, did not specify whether these were believed to be held by the Syrian government forces or militants who are known to be responsible for at least some of the deaths.

Overall the Syrian death total was down from 28 in 2012, but abductions of both foreign and local reporters increased, leading many international news organisations to stop sending journalists to cover the conflict.

INSI, founded in 2003 by major world news organisations and professional bodies like the Brussels-based International Federation of Journalists, said the Philippines and India were the next most dangerous countries for the media after Syria, with 13 dead each.

In the Philippines, nine were murdered by unknown assailants and four others died while covering the recent typhoon disaster.

In India, the INSI report said, seven journalists were murdered but none of their killings had been thoroughly investigated. Two were killed while covering communal violence and four died in accidents while on assignment.

In Iraq, 11 journalists have died, 10 of them murdered by armed groups and seven of them in the northern city of Mosul.

Evacuation efforts: US aircraft hit by gunfire in South Sudan

Three US military Osprey aircraft were hit as they headed to Bor. PHOTO: FILE

JUBA: 

US aircraft flown into South Sudan to help with evacuation efforts on Saturday came under fire, wounding four US servicemen, officials said, as fighting in the country escalated.

Three US military Osprey aircraft were hit as they headed to Bor, a rebel-held city in Jonglei state, US officials said, adding to earlier information by a Ugandan official who said one of the impacted aircraft was leaking fuel.

“The damaged aircraft diverted to Entebbe, Uganda, where the wounded were transferred onboard a US Air Force C-17 and flown to Nairobi, Kenya for medical treatment,” an updated Pentagon statement said.

“All four service members were treated and are in stable condition.”

The targeted Bell Boeing V-22 Ospreys are hybrid aircraft with huge rotors on tiltable wings that allow them to take off vertically like a helicopter but resemble a normal plane in flight.

Iran-Pakistan project: Govt may turn pipeline deal into bilateral treaty

International law expert says move will help Tehran and Islamabad avoid looming US sanctions. PHOTO: AFP/FILE

ISLAMABAD: 

Pakistan and Iran may convert their agreement on the gas pipeline project into a ‘bilateral treaty’ to avoid being hit by US sanctions.

Such an option will be discussed at the upcoming meeting of experts from Tehran and Islamabad, sources privy to the development told The Express Tribune.

They said that international law expert Ahmer Bilal Soofi had proposed turning the IP gas pipeline agreement into a ‘bilateral treaty’ as sovereign acts – as opposed to commercial transactions – were beyond the preview of the punitive US curbs.

Islamabad has previously made an unsuccessful attempt to seek a waiver from Washington but the Obama administration had refused to give any assurance in this regard.

Now that the first option of a US waiver has been ruled out, sources said, the two sides might discuss the possibility of converting the gas pipeline project into a bilateral treaty.

During a recent visit to Tehran, Pakistani officials had asked their Iranian counterparts to resolve the issue of possible US sanctions that has led to the delay in the implementation of the project and created hurdles in generating funds.

Already, Pakistan had expressed reservations over possible sanctions on the project due to tensions between Iran and the US.

“We cannot move on with the project unless the issue of possible US sanctions against IP gas pipeline project is resolved,” said an official, citing a message conveyed by Pakistani authorities to the Iranian authorities. For its part, however, Tehran blamed the delay on Pakistan.

The Pakistani side feels that with the US government having already listed the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) as a proscribed entity, its involvement with the project may not only invite US wrath in the shape of sanctions, but can also trigger similar EU curbs.

“Pakistani company Interstate Gas Systems (ISGS) working on IP gas pipeline project may also face US sanctions if it continues to work on the project,” an official said.

An energy expert said Pakistan should have avoided the inclusion of penalty clause, which says Pakistan will have to pay $3 million per day in case it fails to implement the project by December 2014. He said Pakistan should have built the IP gas pipeline project to the border as Iran had done but no progress was made.

“Now Pakistan may also face arbitration by Iran if it does not implement the project,” he said adding that Islamabad had given sovereign guarantee and was therefore bound to implement the project. He said Pakistan should again move a case before the US administration saying that the IP gas deal with Iran was signed before the sanctions and therefore qualified for a waiver.

Sources close to the development said that foreign office was involved in foreign policy with the US and it hoped to get a waiver from possible sanctions but it had failed to get it so far. The foreign office had been pushing during the past regime to move ahead on the IP gas pipeline deal.

According to a report prepared by petroleum ministry, if the furnace oil based power generation is replaced with imported gas, it will result in an annual savings of US$ 2.4 billion. It also said the incremental impact of the price of IP gas will be just 20% in the overall country’s average gas basket price if 750 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) gas is imported

French company implants its first artificial heart in human

The artificial heart weighs 900 grams and costs about 140,000 - 180,000 Euros. PHOTO:AFP

PARIS, FRANCE: France’s Carmat said on Friday it had carried out its first implant of an artificial heart that can beat for up to five years, adding that the operation had gone smoothly.

The implant operation was performed on Wednesday at the Georges Pompidou European Hospital in Paris, the biomedical firm said in a statement. It said that the male patient was awake and talking and he was being monitored in the intensive care unit.

“We are delighted with this first implant, although it is premature to draw conclusions given that a single implant has been performed and that we are in the early postoperative phase”, said Carmat’s CEO, Marcello Conviti.

Heart-assistance devices have been used for decades as a temporary solution for patients awaiting transplants, but Carmat’s bioprosthetic product is designed to replace the real heart over the long run, mimicking nature’s work using biological materials and sensors.

It is aimed at helping the thousands of patients who die each year while awaiting a donor, and reducing the side-effects associated with transplants.

“It’s about giving patients a normal social life with the least dependence on medication as possible,” Alain Carpentier, surgeon and Carmat co-founder, told France 2 television.

Carmat estimates around 100,000 patients in the United States and Europe could benefit from its artificial heart, a market worth more than 16 billion Euros.

“We already had devices of this type but they had a relatively low autonomy. This heart will allow for more movement and less clotting. The study that is starting is being very closely watched in the medical field,” Patrick Nataf, head of heart surgery at Paris Bichat hospital said in a statement.

France’s Health Minister was quick to publicize the operation as a sign of the country’s edge in the field of healthcare.

“This news brings great pride to France,” Marisol Touraine said. “It shows we are pioneers in healthcare that we can invent, that we can carry an innovation that will also bring great hope to plenty of people.”

Among Carmat’s competitors for artificial heart implants are privately-held SynCardia Systems and Abiomed, both of the United States.

“We’re very happy for them and we wish them the best in their pursuit,” said a spokesman for SynCardia, whose artificial heart is the only one approved both in the United States and the European Union and has been implanted over 1,200 times.

The longest a patient has lived with SynCardia’s heart is just under four years.

Three times heavier than a healthy heart

In September, Carmat got the green light from French authorities to test the first human implants of the device on four patients in three hospitals. Earlier this year, it won approval to proceed with human implants in Belgium, Poland, Slovenia and Saudi Arabia.

The Paris patient is the first worldwide to be implanted with the device, Carmat said. The patients selected for the trials suffer from terminal heart failure and the success of the device will be judged on whether they survive with the implant for at least a month.

Conviti told reporters last month that Carmat hoped to finish human trials of the heart by the end of next year and to obtain approval to market them in the EU by early 2015.

The Carmat device, developed by a team of engineers from Airbus parent company EADS, weighs about 900 grams – nearly three times more than an average healthy human heart. It is expected to cost 140,000 to 180,000 Euros in Europe.

It mimics heart muscle contractions and contains sensors that adapt the blood flow to the patient’s moves.

It is powered by external, wearable lithium-ion batteries. Inside the heart, surfaces that come into contact with human blood are made partly from bovine tissue instead of synthetic materials such as plastic that can cause blood clots.

Patients that will be implanted with Carmat’s devices are more likely to be men. Heart failure affects more men than women and the sheer size of the artificial heart means it can fit in 86 per cent of men but only around 20 per cent of women.

But Carmat says it could easily manufacture a smaller version to fit the smaller bodies of women as well as patients in India and China.

Carmat’s shares have risen five-fold since floating on the Paris stock market in 2010, giving the company a market capitalisation of about 436 million Euros

More than collateral: Drone victims - giving names to the numbers

German-Afghan journalist speaks about website identifying every victim of drone strikes. PHOTO: AFP

ISLAMABAD: 

“Collateral damage” – two simple words, used loosely, create a disassociation from the human cost of the US drone programme. Innocent – and often forgotten – lives are lost. In Germany, a young journalist is working to change that and humanise the numbers by giving them back their names. Emran Feroz is about to start up a website listing the names of every single person killed by a drone strike anywhere in the world.

His project called dronememorial.com is driven by a belief that “people in the West do not recognise what daily life in Waziristan and other areas of the world is like when drones are hovering overhead.”

The son of Afghan immigrants, Feroz told The Express Tribune how fortunate he felt to be in Europe while his fellow Afghans were becoming victims of extrajudicial killings under a questionable ‘foreign policy’.

“While people talk a lot about victims of radical religious groups, nobody talks about the fate of drone victims. I want to give them a voice. I want to show everybody as many names as possible, not just some numbers.”

The 22-year-old’s project, though ambitious, is “very simple. It’s a website with only one page – a virtual memorial for all the victims of drone strikes. Let’s be honest, creating such a website isn’t difficult. Many names are already available. So I decided to start with it.”

The site provides a simple list of names and locations of the respective attack.

Feroz saw the need for such a memorial while doing research for stories on the subject. He was never able to find a complete list of the names of those killed. “I was surprised and angry. There are memorials in many cities for victims of terrorism, but there isn’t any memorial for more than 3,000 victims of US drones, not even a virtual one. There are virtual memorials for fictional characters from TV or video games but not for the victims of these cruel attacks which happen somewhere every week. Honestly, this is just sickening and I want to change that.”

Building such a list might be problematic, since names of some of the dead have been concealed. While details on civilians can be gathered with help from local communities and NGOs, others might not be as forthcoming.

“At this moment I don’t know if there is any possibility for me to contact all concerned. Nevertheless, it would be a big advantage to talk with all parties. As a journalist I am not opposed to doing it. I have to talk with as many people as possible,” he said. “Unfortunately, it seems impossible to find out all the names, but that does not mean I shouldn’t try.”

WELSHMAN OUT INJURED AGAIN

Bale misses seventh match

Gareth Bale is suffering with a swollen muscle in his left calf and will say goodbye to the year from within the medical room. It is fair to say the new signing is not having a lot of luck with injuries in his first few months at Real Madrid.

The latest setback is his fifth injury with 'Los Blancos' and since he was presented as a Real Madrid player, he has missed seven games out of the 22 his side has played - 14 in the league, 6 in Champions and 2 in the Cup.

Bale made his Madrid debut in Villarreal on September 14th and a week later he was looking forward to his debut against Getafe when he picked up a muscular injury. He could not play then and also missed the next game against Elche due to a thigh strain.

He reappeared against Atlético, but the time he played took its toll on him and he suffered afterwards with another strain again in his left leg. The Welshman was forced to miss games against Copenhagen and Levante. It soon became clear to all concerned that his muscular problems were caused by a lack of a pre season. To top it all, he then missed the first leg of the cup-tie at Xátiva because of the flu.

Bale did finally manage to play eleven consecutive games with no problems and was able to prove himself and help the team on to some important victories.

Now, this latest injury, which happened during training on Tuesday, has again forced him to miss a game and he will not return until the New Year.

Hitting back: PTA steps up efforts to curb grey trafficking

The newly acquired system has the capability to automatically block the IPs of telecom gateways, which are not in the PTA’s white list. PHOTO: FILE

KARACHI: 

The Pakistan Tele-communication Authority (PTA) seems to have emerged as a powerful and effective regulator in the past couple of months despite critics’ popular opinion about the body not performing up to the standards.

From carefully handling the process of spectrum auction for high-speed mobile internet services to taking practical measures for solving complex issues – grey traffic, illegal mobile SIMs – the telecom regulator has been active on all fronts.

The telecom sector’s regulatory body is using every channel of communication to ensure that its message gets across. It is running an aggressive campaign on radio, television, print and social media to educate the masses about the menace of illegal SIMs and grey trafficking, which is causing over Rs3.5 billion a year in losses to the national exchequer.

The PTA and cellular mobile operators (CMOs) have also started an SMS-based joint service that requests general public to report all illegal calls – international calls appearing as local numbers – to the regulator so it can investigate their source and take proper action. To intensify the campaign, the PTA has also launched a 24-hour complaint centre to receive complaints.

The awareness campaigns are in addition to the grey traffic monitoring equipment that the PTA deployed early October. The newly acquired system has the capability to automatically block the IPs of telecom gateways, which are not in the PTA’s white list – a list of IP addresses, which are clear and not involved in any suspicious activity.

On the other hand, the telecom regulator has also directed and supervised all CMOs to complete the deployment of biometric devices at their customer support centres and franchises in Karachi by November 30 and all over the country by December 20.

Mobile phones without international mobile equipment identity (IMEI) numbers are widely used in criminal activities as well as in grey telephony. According to Dawn, the PTA has asked customs officials to ensure that importers submit the design and IMEI number of cellphones to the regulator before their consignments are cleared.

“As a result of these awareness campaigns, the responses to the PTA’s complaint centre have increased,” said Khurram Mehran, PTA’s spokesperson.

Complaints are helping the telecom regulator to investigate and take action, including joint raids with the Federal Investigation Agency, against the offenders, he said.