Pakistani flood victims face perilous journey home

Rehmad Abbasi was only twenty yards from land. As the heavily-pregnant woman waded with her family through the thick, muddy water, she lost her footing.

Rehmad Abbasi was only twenty yards from land. As the heavily-pregnant woman waded with her family through the thick, muddy water, she lost her footing. When Rehmad silently slipped underwater in front of me it almost seemed deliberate. I expected her to spring up immediately. But the current was deceptively strong. A man standing next to me knew better. He hurled himself into the water towards the spot where Rehmad disappeared. Rehmad's sister and brother risked drowning themselves as they groped blindly, furiously under the water's surface. For thirty seconds all I could see was the frantic splashing of those trying to rescue her. Then, several metes from where she had gone under, the red and white stripes of her dress emerged. Her brother, Altaf, and the man who had jumped in held her up. An elderly man from the local village, Lodran, said in Urdu, "You can see the fear of death on her face. Two people were found drowned right here yesterday. When the waters recede, we will find more." 

Rehmad was wide-eyed and hyperventilating but she was alright. The two men hauled her to shore. When she finished gasping, sobbing took over.  "The water grabbed me. I felt a pain, and then it sucked me under," Rehmad cried, while her 10-year-old son, Sabil, wept on her knee. Her father gently stroked her head and reassured his daughter. "This flood did not drown us," he said calmly. "The government drowned us, and God will take revenge on them for our sake. Please be patient, my dear, and calm down -- God will take revenge." The Abbasi family told me they were desperate to return home to Jacobabad, in the north of Sindh province. They and hundreds of thousands like them who attempt the journey from Lodran to Jacobabad must walk 30 kilometers, navigating stretches of treacherous water, usually without the use of a boat or any shade. Most of those who try to go home find the turbulent waters too great an obstacle and turn back.

Authorities had diverted the floodwaters to spare Jacobabad, home to a military base used by American and Pakistani forces. They succeeded in saving the city center, but the town was surrounded as if by an enormous moat. The floods wiped out the roads to the city. District officials tore up parts of the main railway line to allow the water to spread more evenly. 

The handful of policemen and naval personnel in the area appeared to be overwhelmed or unconcerned by the scale of the problem. Two motor boats fit for about 10 people would be overloaded with many more and precariously ferry people back and forth. About a dozen police officers sat under a tent looking on as Rehmad's drama unfolded. When a man walked into the tent to seek shelter from the heat, one of the policemen sitting in a chair barked at him to leave. I asked the officer what they were doing to help people cross this stretch of water. He said that they were able to manage the crossing by themselves. Rehmad couldn't bear the thought of tackling it again. "I am scared of everything. I am scared of the boats, I am scared of the water. I am 8 months pregnant and I am scared I will have a miscarriage," she said.Altaf disagreed. "We have to go back across," he protested. "Where else will we go? What choice do we have?"

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Posted in Pakistan News

Three civilians killed in firing in Kashmir's Baramulla

Three persons were killed and 14 others injured as security forces allegedly opened fire on a stone-pelting mob that had attacked a senior police officer's convoy in Baramulla district in Kashmir Valley today.

Three persons were killed and 14 others injured as security forces allegedly opened fire on a stone-pelting mob that had attacked a senior police officer's convoy in Baramulla district in Kashmir Valley today.  Police initially used batons to chase away a group of youths who had blocked the Srinagar-Baramulla National Highway at Palhalan in Pattan area, 30 kms from here, police sources said.  The protesters started pelting stones, leading to clashes between the two sides. A convoy of a senior police officer was targeted by the stone pelters, prompting the security forces to open fire, they said.  At least 17 persons were injured in the firing. One of the injured, Feroze Ahmad Malik, died while being shifted to a hospital, Mohammad Ramzan Mir and Noor-ud-Din Tantray succumbed to injuries in different hospitals, they said. The condition of three of the injured is stated to be very critical.  A police spokesman said an inquiry has been initiated into the incident to fix responsibility.

"Senior police officers have taken a serious view of the firing incident and an enquiry has been initiated. Ammunition of the policemen is being checked to fix responsibility," the spokesman said, adding those found involved shall face action as per the law.  Elsewhere in the Valley, people thronged markets for the second day today to prepare for Eid-ul-Fitr to be observed later this week. The hardline Hurriyat faction led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani had called for a break in the ongoing agitation in view of the festivities.  While private and a few public transport vehicles were plying since this morning, Srinagar city and other major towns of the Valley were agog with activity in the afternoon.  Schools and other educational institutions remained closed, while work in government and semi-government offices, banks, courts and other establishments was partially affected.

Traffic jams were witnessed at many intersections in the city as shoppers flocked to shops and bakeries.  Residents of Batmaloo in central Srinagar staged a sit-in in their area demanding removal of CRPF picket.  Senior police officers visited the spot and assured the protesters that their complaints would be looked into, persuading them to call off their 'dharna', police said.  However, a group of youth among the protesters started pelting stones at the security forces leading to clashes between the two sides.  With the fresh deaths, the toll in the ongoing turmoil, which began with killing of a 17-year-old youth during protests in Rajouri Kadal area of the city on June 11, in Kashmir valley has now gone up to 68. 

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Posted in India News

Kidnapped girl reveals new details of her life as a 'domestic slave'

Natascha Kampusch pictured in a German TV studio during the recording of Beckmann, on September 4, 2010.

Natascha Kampusch, the Austrian woman who was held prisoner for eight years in a basement, has revealed new details of her ordeal in an autobiography. In the book, entitled "3,096 Days," Kampusch, who was abducted aged 10 in 1998 while walking to school, describes the relationship she fostered with her abductor Wolfgang Priklopil in order to ensure her survival and the bizarre routines she endured at his hands. The serialization in the UK's Daily Mail newspaper details how Kampusch was locked inside a "hermetically sealed" concrete jail, beaten up to 200 times a week until she heard her own spine "snap" and was manacled to Priklopil while they slept together in his bed. Kampusch escaped in August 2006 aged 18 and now lives in Vienna, Austria. Priklopil, 44, an engineer, committed suicide shortly after her escape.

Penguin, the British publishers of the English version, released a statement on behalf of Kampusch: "I now feel strong enough to tell the full story of my abduction for the first time."  Describing her captor, Kampusch writes: "At 35, he had soft features and neatly parted brown hair. It was only when you observed him for a longer period that you noticed the traces of madness lurking beneath his conservative exterior." During her captivity she was held in a subterranean bunker which was initially equipped with just a bed, toilet and sink. She also recalls her first night in captivity. "I asked him to put me to bed properly and tell me a goodnight story," she writes. "I even asked him for a goodnight kiss. Anything to preserve the illusion of normality. And he played along." Kampusch, now 22, goes on to describe how Priklopil would threaten her, saying: "If you're not good, then I'll have to tie you up."

"He told me my parents had refused to pay a ransom, 'Your parents don't love you at all... They don't want you back... They're happy to be rid of you.'" She also describes the psychological games Priklopil played with her. "In all his visits he talked about the people who'd supposedly 'ordered" my kidnapping and would come and take pictures of me 'and do other things as well'. I lived in constant fear that at any moment a horde of evil men would come into my dungeon and attack me. "And of course my fear of the 'true kidnappers' made the man who had abducted me seem caring and friendly by contrast." Some psychologists have described this relationship as Stockholm Syndrome, a psychological condition when the victim of an abduction identifies with the kidnapper and becomes attached to him or her.

Kampusch recounts how Priklopil ordered her to call him "Maestro" or "My Lord" and to kneel in front of him. He also forced her to shave off her hair and work half-naked as a domestic slave, driving her to repeated suicide attempts. Since her release Kampusch has become a media personality, appearing on television shows around the world. She worked for a while as a television presenter in Austria in 2007. A spokesman for Penguin told CNN: "This is her first autobiography and the most detailed account of her life during captivity." The English version of the autobiography is published on September 13 in the UK.

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Posted in UK News

She ate 181 chicken wings in 12 minutes

gobbled up nearly 181 chicken wings in 12 minutes

The Black Widow of eating contests gobbled up nearly 181 chicken wings in 12 minutes, devouring the national championship record in Buffalo on Sunday. "I'm so happy!" said Sonya Thomas, who ate 4.86 pounds of chicken wings to win the contest, besting world eating marvel Joey Chestnut at the ninth annual National Buffalo Wing Festival. Buffalo, about 300 miles northwest of New York, is said to be the birthplace of the wings, typically fried and covered in tangy vinegar and hot sauce. Chestnut, America's No. 1 professional eater, was favored to win Sunday's competition. He came in second after eating 169 chicken wings, or 4.55 pounds. This was the first time Thomas, of Alexandria, Virginia, and Chestnut, of San Jose, California, faced off in a chicken wing eating contest.

They went at it "neck and neck," said Drew Cerza, the founder of the festival, which was inspired by the 2001 Bill Murray comedy "Osmosis Jones," about a compulsive eater. "They pushed each other really hard," Cerza said.  "Joey is so strong. He's got great jaw strength. But Sonya's so fast with the hand." Thomas, who's 5 feet tall and weights 105 pounds, calls herself the Black Widow because she often defeats bigger male competitors -- Chestnut is 6-foot-2 and weights 230 pounds -- in eating contests.  She set the previous wings record in 2005, when she ate 174 in 12 minutes. She also previously set eating records for oysters, hard-boiled eggs, cheesecake and jalapeno peppers.  She won her first competitive eating event in 2003. he sprightly 43-year-old said she owed Sunday's triumph to her fancy finger work. "Sometimes if I try to chew too much I slow down," she said. "I used my hands more than the mouth." During the public contest, in front of thousands of people, she twirled the wings in her small fingers while quickly tearing off the meat with her teeth and lips.

Her cheeks were covered in a sheen of orange Buffalo sauce by the end. But she said she was still hungry afterward, calling the wings "an appetizer."  About an hour later, she made a guest appearance in the Ridiculously Hot Buffalo Wing Eating Contest and ate 20 more. "The hottest wings!" she said. "I had to drink a lot of water."

Read more at: http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/she-ate-181-chicken-wings-in-12-minutes-49882?cp

Read more at: http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/she-ate-181-chicken-wings-in-12-minutes-49882?cp

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Posted in World News