David Blaine: “Dive of Death”

Magician David Blaine performed a dramatic ‘Dive of Death’ in Central Park earlier tonight, and lived. Read about it below and see photos and a video.

David Blaine

David Blaine is as much a showman as a magician, but I believe he bills himself as a magician. He’s kind of Harry Houdini Lite. Very lite. He’s stunts usually consist of public spectacles in public places.

In 2003, he stayed in a transparent box suspended over the Thames River in London for 44 days. In 2002, he stood on top of a 27 metre pillar behind the New York Public Library for 35 hours. In 2006, he lived in an acrylic sphere underwater for a week in front of the Lincoln Center. In 2000, he sat inside a block of ice in Times Square for 61 hours.

Every time I hear about one of his stunts, I always wonder where he goes to the bathroom. I’m sure they have something worked out for that.

His exhibitions all seem to be endurance tests as much as anything else and this latest one was no exception. Today he ended his latest stunt. He hung upside down in Central Park for 60 hours.

Yeah, it was not real interesting to watch. However, he always ends them with a grand finale and this was no different. He ended his upside down hanging with a two-hour television special. You might wonder how he could draw standing upright out for two hours. Well, the special was interspersed with pre-recorded footage of Blaine doing other things, like talking to people.

Then, finally, right at the end was the spectacular coup de gras. He plunged 13.4 metres in what has been billed as the ‘Dive of Death’. Following the dive, dangling from the cable he was attached to, he started ascending and disappeared into the night sky above Central Park’s Wollman Rink. Ta-Da!

And he lived to tell about it …. and do another stunt on another day.

David Blaine - Photos

Haider Ali - Pakistan’s unsung Paralympic Medalist

Haider Ali one of Pakistan four athletes who were participating in the Beijing Paralympic Games this year. Haider Ali has been featured earlier where he was a gold medalist in Kuala Lumpur Asian Paralympic Games and this time around he bagged a bronze medal in the Long Jump when he tied the World Record with Tunisian Farhat Chida at 6.44 meters, the only reason he ended with a bronze was the fact that the net aggregate [PDF Result] placed him in second place as one of his preliminary jumps was declared void

Haider participated in three other events of which he missed out on medal rankings for the Discuss Throw when he came forth [PDF Result]

This achievement actually took place a week back on the 9th but it seems the people have quickly forgotten this achievement due to the hovering gloomy political clouds upon us. Let us all take a step back and lend this young man a standing ovation for a great achievement, may his achievement inspire other sportsmen and women to make our country proud

Our President

This is what our president wrote in Quaid's Tomb diary!!!

Photo reveals rare okapi survived poaching onslaught

A set of stripy legs in a camera trap photo snapped in an African forest indicates something to cheer about, say researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society. The legs belong to an okapi—a rare forest giraffe—which apparently has survived in the Democratic Republic of Congo's Virunga National Park, despite over a decade of civil war and increased poaching.

"This is the first time this species has been captured on film in this park. Known to occur in the park from the early 1900s it had not been seen here for over 50 years. Two years ago sightings of dung and other tracks were made in the park by a team of pygmy trackers who knew Okapi sign. It is very encouraging to see that this animal has survived," said WCS researcher, Deo Kujirakwinja, who organized the recent camera trap survey. "Many animals have suffered in this park as a result of the ten years of insecurity in the region, so it's encouraging to see that the okapi has survived."

Measuring up to 8 feet in length and standing up to 6 feet at the shoulder, the okapi has striped legs that give the animal a superficial resemblance to a zebra. It is, in fact, a close relative of the much larger giraffe. The animal's current range occurs in the Ituri Forest in northern DR Congo. They are classified as Near Threatened by the World Conservation Union (IUCN) and are at risk primarily from habitat destruction.

The photograph was taken during some field surveys of the northern forests of the Virunga Park, an area that has been little visited historically because of the density of the forest and its remoteness. This region has also been the hideout of a rebel group (ADF – Allied Democratic Front) who have been battling the government of Uganda unsuccessfully for over 20 years. They have been hiding in Congo for many years now and it is only recently that it has become safe to enter this part of the park. Funded by the USFWS, these surveys aimed to assess the impact of the war on the fauna and flora of this region. Preliminary results indicate that many antelope species are at low density but that some species such as chimpanzees have survived fairly well.

"The recent evidence that okapis still exist in the Virunga National Park is a good indication that large wildlife can rebound in areas impacted by unrest and poaching," said Dr. Andrew Plumptre, director of WCS's Albertine Rift Program.

World Trade Center

The World Trade Center in New York City, United States (sometimes informally referred to as the WTC or the Twin Towers) was a complex of seven buildings in Lower Manhattan, mostly designed by Detroit-based architect Minoru Yamasaki and engineer Leslie Robertson and developed by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. It was initiated in 1960 by a Lower Manhattan Association created and chaired by David Rockefeller, who had the original idea of building the center, with strong backing from the then-New York governor, his brother Nelson Rockefeller.^[2] The World Trade Center, New York, like most World Trade Centers located around the globe, belonged to the family of World Trade Centers Association. Prior to its destruction, Larry Silverstein held the most recent lease to the complex, the Port Authority having leased it to him in July 2001.^[3] The complex, located in the heart of New York City's downtown financial district, contained 13.4 million square feet (1.24 million m²) of office space, almost four percent of Manhattan's entire office inventory at that time.^[4]

Best known for its iconic 110-story twin towers (101 usable floors, eight engineering-only "service" floors on top of a lobby which was six stories high and 80') the World Trade Center was beset by a fire on February 13, 1975 and a bombing on February 26, 1993.

All seven original buildings in the complex were destroyed during the September 11, 2001 attacks. Three of the buildings collapsed: One World Trade Center (1 WTC, the North Tower), Two World Trade Center (2 WTC, the South Tower), and 7 World Trade Center (7 WTC). The Marriott World Trade Center (3 WTC) was crushed by the collapses of 1 WTC and 2 WTC. 4 World Trade Center (4 WTC), 5 World Trade Center (5 WTC), and 6 World Trade Center (6 WTC) were damaged beyond repair and later demolished. Three buildings not part of the complex were also destroyed: St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church was destroyed by the collapse of 2 WTC. The Deutsche Bank Building was damaged beyond repair by the explosions and collapse of 1 and 2 WTC; and Borough of Manhattan Community College's Fiterman Hall was damaged beyond repair by the collapse of 7 WTC; these are currently being deconstructed.

On Letterman, Obama Discusses Palin ‘Phenomenon’

Senator Barack Obama appeared on CBS’s “The Late Show With David Letterman” on Wednesday. (Photo: Jeffrey R Staab/CBS, via Associated Press)

Have you heard? It’s “silly season in politics.”

Or so Senator Barack Obama told David Letterman during an appearance on the “Late Show” on Wednesday night. It was Mr. Obama’s way of brushing off a day that has been fraught with talk of pigs and lipstick — not exactly the narrative the Obama campaign was hoping for.

Mr. Obama also acknowledged all the media attention that has been focused on Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican vice presidential candidate, saying that “there’s no doubt that she’s been a phenomenon.”

“I mean, you know, as somebody who used to be on the cover of Time and Newsweek, you know,” Mr. Obama began before Mr. Letterman interrupted: “Those were the days.”

“Those were the days,” Mr. Obama agreed. “I had a recent offer with Popular Mechanics,” he said to laughter.

But the Illinois senator wasn’t about to spend the entire interview poking fun at himself. He fit in a few talking points as well:

Ultimately what we’ve seen over the last week is a concession on the part of the McCain campaign that this election is going to be about change. You’ll recall, you know, for the last two years, we’ve been talking about needing to change how Washington works, how the country is managed and people were saying, ‘No, it’s about experience, experience, experience,’ and over the last week and a half I think they recognized that, no, the American people want something fundamentally different and for a good reason. Because when you travel, it doesn’t matter whether you’re here in New York City or a tiny hamlet somewhere in the Midwest, what you find is people are just having a tough time right now. The economy is not working for middle class families, incomes have gone down, people don’t have health care, you’ve got foreclosures all across the country, and so people want something different, and whoever makes the better case that we have had enough of the last eight years, we need something fundamentally new, whoever makes that case to the American people will be the next President.

9/11

The September 11 attacks (often referred to as 9/11) were a series of coordinated suicide attacks by Islamic extremists belonging to the al-Qaeda movement upon the United States on September 11, 2001. On that morning, terrorists affiliated with al-Qaeda hijacked four commercial passenger jet airliners.^[1][2] The hijackers intentionally crashed two of the airliners into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, killing everyone on board and many others working in the building, causing both buildings to collapse within two hours, destroying at least two nearby buildings and damaging others. The hijackers crashed a third airliner into the Pentagon. The fourth plane crashed into a field near Shanksville in rural Somerset County, Pennsylvania, after some of its passengers and flight crew attempted to retake control of the plane, which the hijackers had redirected toward Washington, D.C. There are no known survivors from any of the flights.

Excluding the 19 hijackers, 2,974 people died in the attacks. Another 24 are missing and presumed dead. The overwhelming majority of casualties were civilians, including nationals of over 90 different countries. In addition, the death of at least one person from lung disease was ruled by a medical examiner to be a result of exposure to dust from the World Trade Center's collapse, as rescue and recovery workers were exposed to airborne contaminants following the buildings' collapse.

The United States responded to the attacks by declaring a War on Terrorism, launching an invasion of Afghanistan to depose the Taliban, who had harbored al-Qaeda terrorists, and enacting the USA PATRIOT Act. Many other nations also strengthened their anti-terrorism legislation and expanded law enforcement powers. Stock exchanges closed for almost a week, and posted enormous losses upon reopening, especially in the airline and insurance industries. The economy of Lower Manhattan ground to a halt, as billions of dollars in office space was damaged or destroyed.

The damage to the Pentagon was cleared and repaired within a year, and a small memorial was built on the site. Rebuilding the World Trade Center site has proven more difficult, with controversy over possible designs as well as the pace of construction. Construction delays, revised cost estimates, security concerns, and public criticism have all lead to significant changes and delays to the final plans in rebuilding the complex.

Muslim sprinter wins Olympic sprint dressed head to toe in a hijab

Sprinters have long been squeezing their muscular frames into the most eye-wateringly skimpy, tight and revealing costumes imaginable.

But one female athlete at this year’s Olympics is bucking the trend for bulging lycra and naked torsos.

In 2004, Bahrain's Ruqaya Al Ghasara, a devout Muslim, was the first athlete to ever take part in an Olympics wearing a hijab.

Enlarge

Bahrain's Roqaya Al-Gassra powers to victory in her 200m sprint heat today

Today, Al Ghasara won her heat of the women’s 200m sprint at the Bird's Nest stadium - despite being clothed head to foot.

Al Ghasara finished first followed by France's Muriel Hurtis-Houairi and Sri Lanka's Susanthika Jayasinghe.

Admittedly, Al Ghasara 's hijab is a rather sportier version of the traditional dress.

Clinging to her body as she powers down the track the hijab completely covers her head, arms and legs.

Known as a Hijood - or hijab combined with a sports hood - the costume was specially designed for Al Ghasara by an Australian sports clothing company.

It allows Muslim athletes to compete while still adhering to the strict modesty required of their faith.

Al-Gassra prays as she celebrates winning her 200m heat

Al Ghasara, who was the Bahrain flag-bearer at last week’s opening ceremony, jas said the Hijood has improved her performance.

'It’s great to finally have a high performance outfit that allows me to combine my need for modesty with a design made from breathable, moisture-controlled fabric,” she said.

'It’s definitely helped me to improve my times being able to wear something so comfortable and I’m sure it will help me to give my best performance at Beijing.

'I hope that my wearing the hijood sports top will inspire other women to see that modesty or religious beliefs don’t have to be a barrier to participating in competitive sports.'

In 2004 Al Ghasara defied objections from fundamentalists in her village to take part in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, running in the 100 metres.

And in 2006 she won the women’s 200m final at the 2006 Asian Games in Doha, making her the first Bahraini-born athlete to win a major international athletics gold medal.

Egypt indexes drop as Goldman Sachs report hits OT

CAIRO, Sept 7 (Reuters) - Egypt's stock indexes declined on Sunday, led by a 2.77 percent dip in heavyweight Orascom Telecom ORTE.CA(ORTEq.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) after Goldman Sachs downgraded it, citing continuing operating difficulties in Pakistan and Algeria.

Orascom Telecom shares ended at a fresh year closing low of 47.65 Egyptian pounds ($8.81), helping drag the benchmark CASE 30 index .CASE30 0.7 percent lower to 8,342.25 points. The Hermes index .HRMS lost 0.78 percent to 723.28 points.

"The Goldman Sachs report had an impact," said Teymour el-Derini of Beltone Financial. "OT took the market down."

Goldman Sachs dowgraded OT on Friday to "neutral" from "buy" and cut its price target to 65 pounds from 100. The news had helped pull OT's GDR shares down 5.68 percent on Friday, dealers said.

Overall on Sunday, Egypt's broader CIBC index .CIBC was 0.02 percent lower at 404.74 points as local investors dominated trade.

But a surge in real estate developer Talaat Moustafa TMGH.CA helped temper market losses, gaining 12.58 percent to 6.71 pounds as it continued to recover from declines after the firm's former chairman was charged in a murder case last week.

Traders said investors were returning to the stock after the company said last week it had replaced its chairman and would meet all its project obligations on time.

"To an extent, nothing worse can happen to the stock now," said Mohamed Tawfiq of Delta Rasmala Securities.

Market heavyweight Orascom Construction Industries OCIC.CA(OCICq.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) also gained, adding 2.11 percent 363 pounds as traders engaged in bargain hunting. The shares are well below a year closing high of 485 pounds set in April.

But several other big caps slipped lower, with investment bank EFG-Hermes HRHO.CA(HRHOq.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) losing 3.16 percent to 47.52 pounds. Telecom Egypt ETEL.CA(ETELq.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) dropped 4.34 percent to 15 pounds, and dealers said it was following OT lower. ($1 = 5.4061 Egyptian pounds) (Writing by Cynthia Johnston)

Women tortured and buried alive in Baluchistan

The Balochistan Police have registered cases against the four people accused of burying five women alive, under the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA), after new evidence established that the girls were first severely beaten with clubs and then injured with sharp blades of a farm tractor before they were buried.

The arrests of more politically connected tribesmen is also expected within the next two days, as the police gets more evidence of their direct involvement in this crime against humanity. Meanwhile, members of the Jirga, who had held a court (Jirga) a night before burying the girls in the desert sand, are said to have quietly disappeared from their houses. They had come to know that Balochistan Police were after them. The police were also looking for those people who had decided to subject those girls to such inhuman violence, which is unheard in the honour killing cases in Pakistan.

This is the first case of its nature that blades of a tractor were used to injure the girls, which shows the barbarity of the murderers. These sharp blades were also used to push bodies of the girls inside the ëgraveí while they were bleeding profusely because of the serious injuries caused by the sharp blades of the tractor.

Talking to The News, top Police Cop Tariq Khosa confirmed that new clauses in the FIR were added under the ATA against the accused. Khosa said the perpetrators had actually committed a crime against the whole of Pakistan, as everybody was shocked to know how those girls were brutally tortured before they breathed their last. The criminals used tractor blades to further torture and injure them. Khosa said the registration of cases under the ATA would also greatly help the law enforcement agencies working on the case to get speedy justice as this barbarian act had terrorised the whole nation.

Meanwhile, information collected from different sources revealed that after being captured by their relatives in Usta Muhammad, where the girls had gone to marry before a court, they were brought back to their homes in Baba Kot to decide about their fate.

A small Jirga was held the same night in which some powerful tribesmen, having political clout, decided to give maximum punishment to them so that others would learn a lesson from their sorry tale.

It was, therefore, decided that the girls should not be merely gunned down according to the traditional mode of killing in such cases of honour. Someone came out with the barbaric idea that the girls should first be beaten severely with clubs, slaps, fists, kicks. Another one suggested something more cruel saying that they should also be made to stand before a farm tractor with its front blades swinging fast.

Thus, the whole act was done as it was conceived in the meeting. The girls were taken out of their detention in the open and made to stand before the farm tractor with its blades swinging. The man sitting on the driverís seat used the sharp blades on the frightened girls whose skulls got fractured due to full swing of the blades. The girls fell on the ground almost half conscious because of the injuries on the head and on the body. Someone then opened indiscriminate fire on them.

While the girls were lying on the ground, profusely bleeding, the tractor driver again used the sharp blade to distort their faces and pushed blades into their bodies. The same blades were then used to drag and push their blood-soaked bodies towards the ditch in which the bodies were once again pressed with full force of the blade so that they were not uncovered in case there was rain or swift winds.

The same tractor blades were then used to fill the two-foot deep grave with stones and sand. The same people came again the next day to rebury the bodies after some hunters, who had walked past the place where those girls were buried, reported that they saw some wild animals of the desert eating the body of a girl. These murderers again used the tractor to push the bodies inside the same grave and finally pressed it to the level of the ground.

Pakistan fury over 'US assault'

Tension in Pakistan's north-west has increased in recent months

Pakistan has summoned the US ambassador to protest at an alleged cross-border raid which officials say killed at least 15 villagers in the north-west.

A number of civilians were reported killed in the raid, which Pakistan says was a violation of its sovereignty.

Correspondents say the raid appears to have been the first ever ground assault by foreign forces based in Afghanistan.

US-led and Nato forces said they had no reports of any such incursion. Border tensions have risen in recent weeks.

The BBC's Syed Shoaib Hasan in Islamabad says US aircraft have carried out air strikes in the region, but a ground assault would be unprecedented.

It is not clear who the target of any attack might have been.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said Pakistan would not allow any foreign power to carry out attacks on its territory.

He was speaking hours after his motorcade was hit by sniper fire near the capital, Islamabad. Senior government officials say he was not in the car at the time.

'Act of aggression'

Pakistani military and political officials say ground troops brought in by US-led coalition helicopters launched the attack in the South Waziristan tribal area near the Afghan border early on Wednesday morning.

Locals say soldiers attacked with gunfire and bombs. Women and children were among those reported killed.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Sadiq said a "very strong protest" had been delivered to the ambassador, Anne Paterson.

"The ambassador said that she would convey it to her government," he said.

The army called the attack an act of aggression which undermined the fight against militancy.

North West Frontier Province (NWFP) Governor Owais Ahmed Ghani, who is in administrative charge of the tribal areas, called the attack "cowardly".

"At least 20 innocent citizens of Pakistan, including women and children, were martyred," he said in a statement.

There is mounting US pressure on Pakistan - a key ally in the "war on terror" - to crack down on militants, who use the border region to launch raids into Afghanistan.

The Afghan government and Nato say the border region is a haven for al-Qaeda and the Taleban. Pakistan says it is doing all it can to curb militancy.

On Monday, Pakistan's military suspended its operations against Taleban militants in the neighbouring Bajaur tribal area.

The government said this suspension of fighting was to respect the fasting month of Ramadan.

Taleban spokesman Maulvi Omar welcomed the announcement, but he said militants would not lay down their arms.

In pakistan first Ramadan would be on 2nd September Tuesday

Sighting Reports

August 30, 2008 (Saturday):

No sighting reports are expected on August 30. However, Nigeria has claimed to see the moon on Saturday.

Maulana Sultan Alam (MCW member) from Karachi Pakistan reported: Not Seen
I tried to sight the moon in Karachi but not sighted, it was partially cloudy and polluted. On my request, members of personal moon-sighting committees of our institute (Jamia-tur-Rasheed) and my friends tried to sight the moon at 23 places all over Pakistan, but result was nil. Nearly, all reporters are religious scholars. They tried at these places, weather was different at different places :Karachi (at 5 places), Tando-Allah yar, Peshawar, Multan, Pishin, Malakand, Hyderabad, Shorkot, Sargodha, Sheikhopura, Muzaffarabad, Swabi, Badeen, Battal, Abbotabad, Kohat, Quetta. Gujranwala, Mansehrah.
Note: It was certain that the crescent would not be sighted anywhere in Pakistan tonight because moonset occurred before sunset and conjunction was after nearly 6 hours of sunset. In spite of these facts, we tried to sight the moon only to increase the trust of common people upon the Science of Moon-sighting and because the people becomes confused due to the 29th day according to the Ummul-Qura calendar.

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