Sindh:CNG stations shut for 48 hours

KARACHI: All CNG stations in the province of Sindh including this mega-metropolis city have been closed for 48 hours from 9.00 A.M. in the morning on Wednesday, Geo News reported.
Earlier, Sui Southern Gas Company officials had announced that CNG stations all across Sindh will be shut down for two days from tomorrow (Wednesday) morning at 9.00 A.M. to Friday morning at 9.00 A.M. Last week also the company had suspended supply of CNG to the all the stations in Sindh for two days due to what they said low pressure of gas from the source i.e. the gas fields.
Meanwhile the coaches, buses, taxis, rickshaws, motorists as well as the commuters are facing great difficulties due to frequent suspension of gas supply to CNG stations. The vehicle owners complain that they have to wait for hours in long queues for getting their gas cylinders re-filled and even those fortunate who succeed in their efforts cannot keep their vehicles running during 48 hours of break that cause thinning out of the public transport on roads, who are forced to travel hanging around or even sitting at the rooftops of jam-packed mini-buses and coaches. Besides, traders and shopkeepers also grumbled that frequent interruptions in transport facility due to non-availability of CNG hampering their business activities and causing losses owing to less shoppers and less sale.

Bike riding banned in Islamabad Red Zone for 24 hours

ISLAMABAD: The government has banned motorcycle riding in the Red Zone area of the capital for 24 hours, Geo News reported.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik said that the ban would be applicable from 12:00 AM Wednesday to 12:00 AM Thursday in Islamabad’s Red Zone.
Malik announced that offices of interior and foreign ministries and district administration would remain opened.

Avastin misses key data point in brain cancer study

ZURICH: Swiss drugmaker Roche's cancer drug Avastin failed to make a statistically significant difference to survival rates of patients with a common form of brain cancer in a late-stage study, the company said on Saturday.
The Phase III AVAglio study presented at the Society for Neuro-Oncology congress in Washington on Saturday showed Avastin, combined with radiation and chemotherapy, reduced the risk of cancer worsening or death, the Basel-based drugmaker said in a news release.
But the drug did not reach statistical significance in overall survival, a key data point. Further data are expected next year, Roche said.
"The interim results for overall survival (OS), the other co-primary endpoint, did not reach statistical significance," the company said in the statement.
Earlier data from the study published in August showed Avastin significantly extended progression-free survival of people with an aggressive form of brain cancer.
Avastin is Roche's third-biggest seller and is approved to treat several types of cancer, including breast, kidney, colorectal and ovarian cancers.

New SARS virus linked to bats

PARIS: A novel strain of the deadly SARS virus that sparked a health scare this year is closely related to a virus found in Asian bats, according to a study published on Tuesday.
Scientists in the Netherlands said they had sequenced the genetic code of a viral sample taken from a 60-year-old man whose death in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in June triggered fears that Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) was returning in a new guise.
The new strain, called HCoV-EMC/2012, is part of a viral family called coronavirus, but in a specific category called betacoronavirus.
Its closest known cousins are a strain found in lesser bamboo bats (Tylonycteris pachypus) and another found in Japanese house bats, Pipistrellus abramus.
"The virus is most closely related to viruses in bats in Asia, and there are no human viruses closely related to it," said Ron Fouchier of the prestigious Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam.
"Therefore we speculate that it comes from an animal source," he said, noting that Pipistrellus bats are present in Saudi Arabia and neighbouring countries.
An epidemic of SARS erupted in China in 2002, eventually claiming around 800 deaths in some 30 countries.
Bats were linked with a novel strain of SARS found in 2005. Hong Kong researchers found a natural "reservoir" of it in Chinese horseshoe bats.
Two other men have also fallen sick in the latest SARS episode.
One is a Qatari man who had been in Saudi Arabia and is being treated at a hospital in London.
There is 99.6-99.7 percent similarity between his strain and the virus sequenced in the Netherlands, said Fouchier in a press release.

HIV infections fall, UN says ending AIDS 'feasible'

LONDON: An end to the worldwide AIDS epidemic is in sight, the United Nations says, mainly due to better access to drugs that can both treat and prevent the incurable human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes the disease.
Progress over the past decade has cut the death toll and helped stabilize the number of people infected with HIV, the U.N. AIDS program said in its annual report on Tuesday.
"The global community has embarked on an historic quest to lay the foundation for the eventual end of the AIDS epidemic. This effort is more than merely visionary. It is entirely feasible," UNAIDS said.
Some 34 million people were living with HIV at the end of 2011, the report said. Deaths from AIDS fell to 1.7 million in 2011, down from a peak of 2.3 million in 2005 and from 1.8 million in 2010.
Worldwide, the number of people newly infected with HIV, which can be transmitted via blood and by semen during sex, is also falling. At 2.5 million, the number of new infections in 2011 was 20 percent lower than in 2001.
"Although AIDS remains one of the world's most serious health challenges, global solidarity in the AIDS response during the past decade continues to generate extraordinary health gains," the report said.
It said this was due to "historic success" in bringing HIV programs to scale, combined with the emergence of new combination drugs to prevent people from becoming HIV infected and from dying from AIDS.
"The pace of progress is quickening - what used to take a decade is now being achieved in 24 months," said Michel Sidibé, executive director of UNAIDS. "We are scaling up faster and smarter than ever before. It is the proof that with political will and follow through we can reach our shared goals."
TIMELY TREATMENT
Since 1995, AIDS drug treatment - known as antiretroviral therapy - has saved 14 million life-years in poorer countries, including 9 million in sub-Saharan Africa, the report said.
Sub-Saharan Africa is the most severely affected region with almost one in every 20 adults infected, nearly 25 times the rate in Asia, there are also almost 5 million people with HIV in south, southeast and east Asia combined.
Some 8 million people were being treated with AIDS drugs by the end of 2011, a 20-fold increase since 2003. The United Nations has set a target to raise that to 15 million people by 2015.
"Scaling up HIV treatment to 15 million people ... is feasible and has the crucial triple benefit of reducing illness, reducing death, and reducing the risk of transmission," said Manica Balasegaram of the charity Medecins Sans Frontieres.
But he said the pace must be stepped up "so that every month more people are started on life-saving HIV treatment than the month before".
Scientific studies have shown that getting timely treatment to those with HIV can also cut the number of people who become newly infected with the virus.
UNAIDS said the sharpest declines in new HIV infections since 2001 were in the Caribbean and in sub-Saharan Africa - where new infections were down 25 percent in a decade.
Despite this, sub-Saharan Africa still accounted for 71 percent of people newly infected in 2011, underscoring the need to boost HIV prevention efforts in the region, UNAIDS said. Of the 1.7 million AIDS-related deaths in 2011, 1.2 million were in sub-Saharan Africa.
HIV trends are also a concern in other regions, it said.
Since 2001, the number of new HIV infections in the Middle East and North Africa was up more than 35 percent from 27,000 to 37,000, it said, and evidence suggests HIV infections in Eastern Europe and Central Asia began increasing in the late 2000s after being relatively stable for several years.

Charlie Chaplin hat and cane net more than $62,000

ANGELES: Charlie Chaplin's iconic bowler hat and cane were auctioned off for $62,500 this weekend.
The hat and cane, trademark of Chaplin's Little Tramp character, were in "remarkable condition" and had been estimated to go for between $40,000 and $60,000 at the sale by auction house Bonhams on Sunday. But when it went under the hammer, the sale price hit $62,500 the auctioneers said.
Legend has it that Chaplin came up with the tramp persona and wardrobe spontaneously one rainy afternoon in February 1914, seizing various wardrobe items in a communal male dressing room at a Hollywood studio.
These included baggy trousers from actor Fatty Arbuckle, size 14 shoes which he had to wear on the wrong feet to keep them from falling off, the hat belonging to Arbuckle's father-in-law, and a mustache intended for another actor.
The 32-inch (81-centimeter) bamboo cane is inscribed "CCLT 36" in black ink, a reference to the Little Tramp, Chaplin's signature character.

Bieber sweeps American Music Awards with big wins

LOS ANGELES: Canadian pop star Justin Bieber swept the American Music Awards on Sunday, topping strong competition from Rihanna and Nicki Minaj, and sending newcomers British boybands One Direction and The Wanted home empty-handed. Bieber, 18, won all three categories in which he was nominated, including the night's biggest award, artist of the year, over Rihanna, Katy Perry, Maroon 5 and Drake.
"This is for all the haters who thought that maybe I was just here for one or two years, but I feel like I am going to be here for a very long time," Bieber said on stage, dedicating his first win of the night to his mother, Pattie Mallette, who accompanied him after his widely reported split from girlfriend Selena Gomez.
"It's hard growing up with everything going on, with everyone watching me. I wanted to say that as long as you guys keep believing in me, I want to always make you proud," Bieber said at the end of the night.
Bieber, who also won favorite pop/rock male artist and favorite pop/rock album for "Believe," took to a bare stage to sing an acoustic stripped-down version of his latest single "As Long As You Love Me" before livening up the show with Nicki Minaj for "Beauty and a Beat."
The American Music Award nominees and winners are voted online by fans, and the awards are handed out during a live three-hour broadcast featuring performances by artists.
R&B singer Rihanna, 24, and rapper Minaj, 29, led the nominees going into Sunday's awards with four apiece.
Minaj won favorite rap/hip hop artist and rap/hip hop album of the year for "Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded." The singer, known for her extravagant on-stage performances, sang her latest hit "Freedom" in a winter wonderland-themed set.
Rihanna came away with one win. She couldn't make the show because she is in Berlin, midway through a seven-day tour across seven cities around the world promoting her upcoming "Unapologetic" album.
Canadian pop singer Carly Rae Jepsen, 26, picked up the coveted new artist-of-the-year award over One Direction, Australian artist Gotye, indie-pop band fun. and rapper J. Cole. She performed her hit "Call Me Maybe."
"I am floored," the singer said, thanking Bieber along with her fans in her acceptance speech.