National Party leads in Balochistan local government polls

QUETTA: According to unofficial results pouring in from the far-flung parts of the province, National Party (NP) is leading in the Balochistan local government elections held on Saturday amid tight security, Geo News reported.
On the other hand Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) followed by independent candidates is right behind the NP.
There were 18,000 candidates competing over 4,168 seats in 32 districts of the province.
Six million ballot papers were printed for this purpose.
Local government elections were on party basis Polling stated at 08:00 AM and continued without any break till 05:00 PM in Quetta, Sibi, Dera Murad Jamali, Jaffarabad, Mastung, Chagai, Chaman, Pishin, Hub, Sui, Dera Bugti, Khuzdar, Barkhan, Gwadar, Panjgur, Turbat, Killa Abdullah, Killa Saifullah, Ziarat and other areas.
According to details 2,507 candidates have already been elected unopposed.
All political, nationalist, and religious parties such as PML- N, PML, PPP, National Party, PMAP, BNP, BNP-A, ANP, JUI –F, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Hazara Democratic Party, and Mutahidda Qaumi Movement (MQM) fielded their candidates, while Jamhoori Watan Party, and Haq Na Tawar boycotted the local bodies (LB) polls.
Five thousand seven hundred and eighteen polling stations were setup for the LB elections.
Keeping in view the security situation, strict measures were adopted for the polls and more than 54,000 personnel from FC, police, Levies, and Balochistan Constabulary were deployed in the province to keep the law and order situation under control.
Except for minor incidents no major clashes was reported form anywhere across the province.
Unofficial results have started pouring in.

PM launches Rs100bn business loan scheme for youth

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Saturday criticized Pakistan People's Party founder and former premier Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto for his policy of nationalization, which he said damaged Pakistan.
"Had there been no nationalization policy, Pakistan would have prospered," he said and added that he was worried about unemployment amongst thee youth in the country before election as there was nobody to help them.
Addressing participants of Youth Program, the prime minister said that he had initiated youth loan scheme keeping in view their agony. He added that the youngsters could take the country's economy to new heights.
He said that Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto nationalized the biggest institutions, inflicting losses to national economy. The prime minister said that his government was pondering to privatize PIA and other some institutions running on losses.
The PM further said it was not the job of government to run shops or factories rather it should serve people and ensure their security of life and property.
He said earlier loans were available for the rich it was only his government that initiated the revolutionary scheme to provide loans to the youth.
Nawaz regretted that no previous government had bothered to look after the 110 million youth of the country and it was only the PML N government that took the decision to bring them into national mainstream.
Noting the examples of Korea and Malaysia, he said small and medium enterprises played key role in the countries and hoped he would be able to replicate the same in Pakistan by launching the scheme.

England staring at defeat after day 3 of second Test

ADELAIDE: Mitchell Johnson shattered England´s hopes of a series-levelling win in the second Test with one of the great Ashes bowling spells as Australia took an iron grip on Saturday.
Johnson reprised his man-of-the-match performance in the 381-run first Gabba Test win with a destructive seven for 40 that strong-armed England out of the game and Australia onto the cusp of a two-nil series lead with three Tests to play.
Australia, who declared at 570 for nine, once again skittled the Ashes holders cheaply for 172.
England have yet to score beyond 180 after being dismissed for 136 and 179 in Brisbane.
By third day stumps, the home side had built their overall lead to 530 runs although they lost Chris Rogers (2), Shane Watson (0) and Michael Clarke (22) along the way.
David Warner was in line for his second century of the series on 83 with Steve Smith not out 23 in Australia´s 132 for three. (AFP)

HIV returns in two US men after bone marrow transplants

NEW YORK CITY: Signs of HIV have returned in two American men who appeared to have briefly eradicated the virus after bone marrow transplants for cancer, US doctors say.
Experts said the discovery is a disappointment to efforts to find a cure for the human immunodeficiency virus behind AIDS, but offers important new clues in the hunt for the disease's elusive hiding places.
Only one person is believed to have been cured of HIV. American Timothy Brown, who suffered from leukemia, received a bone marrow transplant from a rare donor resistant to HIV and has shown no sign of the virus for six years.
"The return of detectible levels of HIV in our patients is disappointing, but scientifically significant," said Timothy Heinrich, a physician-researcher in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.
"Through this research we have discovered the HIV reservoir is deeper and more persistent than previously known," he said in a statement sent to AFP.
Dr Heinrich first shared the news with fellow researchers at an international AIDS conference in Miami, Florida on Thursday.
Both HIV-positive men received bone marrow transplants as treatment for a kind of blood cancer known as Hodgkin's lymphoma, one in 2008 and the other in 2010.
About eight months after their operations, HIV was no longer detectable.
The patients stayed on antiretroviral therapy for while, but decided to cease taking the drugs earlier this year.
In July, doctors announced early, encouraging results: one patient appeared HIV-free after being off the drugs for seven weeks and the other for 15 weeks.
But signs of HIV soon returned. They were found in the first patient 12 weeks after stopping therapy, and in the second patient 32 weeks after stopping therapy.
"Both patients have resumed therapy and are currently doing well," Heinrich said, adding that the patients do not wish to be identified in the media.
He said it was important to share the results with fellow researchers, because they signal "that there may be an important long-lived HIV reservoir outside the blood compartment," and current methods of probing for tiny signs of HIV may not be precise enough.
"We have demonstrated HIV can be reduced to undetectable levels by very sensitive research assays, and the virus persists," he said.
Unlike Mr Brown, these patients' bone marrow transplants did not come from donors that carried a genetic resistance to HIV by lacking a CCR5 receptor, so they were not afforded protection against the virus by that mutation.
The two men received transplants from donors with the CCR5 receptor, which acts as a gateway allowing HIV to penetrate the cells.
Researchers had hoped that by continuing to treat the men with antiretroviral drugs during the transplant process and afterward, the medicine might have prevented the donor cells from becoming infected.
Instead, it appears the virus was undetectable in the blood but lurked elsewhere in the body, allowing it to return once repressive drug therapy was stopped. (AFP)

'Fast and Furious' star died from trauma, thermal injuries

LOS ANGELES: "Fast and Furious" star Paul Walker died of "traumatic and thermal injuries" in a fiery car crash, coroners said Wednesday, as the franchise's makers said they were shutting down production at least temporarily.
Walker, 40, was killed Saturday when he was in the passenger seat of a red Porsche sports car driven by his friend Roger Rodas in the Californian city of Santa Clarita, north of Los Angeles.
Rodas died of "multiple traumatic injuries," according to preliminary autopsy results, while Walker´s cause of death was listed as the "combined effects of traumatic and thermal injuries."
The results of toxicology tests are still pending, and could take six to eight weeks, the LA County Coroner´s office said.
Meanwhile makers of the blockbuster film franchise announced they have shut down production of "Fast and Furious 7" following Walker´s death.
"Right now, all of us at Universal are dedicated to providing support to Paul´s immediate family and our extended ´Fast & Furious´ family of cast, crew and filmmakers," said a statement cited by industry journal Variety.
"At this time we feel it is our responsibility to shut down production on Fast & Furious 7 for a period of time so we can assess all options available to move forward with the franchise."
Shortly before the crash Walker had been at an event to raise money for victims of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines for Reach Out Worldwide (ROWW), a non-profit disaster relief group the actor founded.
The actor was taking a Thanksgiving break from filming the seventh "Fast and Furious" movie, which had been scheduled for release in July.
The filmmakers added: "We are committed to keeping ´Fast & Furious´ fans informed, and we will provide further information to them when we have it. Until then, we know they join us in mourning the passing of our dear friend Paul Walker."

Pakistani stocks hit yet another high of 24,870.55 points

KARACHI: Continued institutional support catapulted Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) to cross the psychological barrier of 25,000 points on Friday.
The benchmark KSE-100 Index closed at yet another high of 24,870.55 points after gaining 69.86 points.
According to dealer banks remained in limelight throughout the session.
Among the star performers, National Bank of Pakistan, rose by 2.68 percent to finish at Rs55.89, while Bank Al-Falah Ltd jumped by 1.78 percent to close at Rs25.76.

14 missing persons produced in Supreme Court

ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – Fourteen missing persons reached Supreme Court premises amid tight security on Saturday.
Additional Defense Secretary said that all of the fourteen missing persons were located and brought today to court. He said all of them were living a free life, adding that their identities were kept confidential due to security reasons.
An in-camera hearing of Supreme Court will be held shortly where statements of missing persons will be recorded.
The undeclared detainees arrived in two cars with faces being covered to hide their identities.
Earlier on Friday, the Supreme Court ordered Defense Minister Khawaja Asif to produce 14 of the 35 missing persons before the court on Saturday.
The court expressed dissatisfaction over the report submitted by Khawaja Asif. According to report, Khawaja Asif said that not even a single missing person was under the custody of army, adding that there were different categories. Missing persons were detained in internment centers, he added.
Mr Asif said two persons out of 35 died in custody due to natural causes while two were in internment centre. Eight undeclared detainees were in Afghanistan while three were residing in North Waziristan.
Seven others could be produced before the court but they cannot be categorized as missing persons, he added.