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Quake diplomacy Has Pakistan missed a rare opportunity to bring the Kashmir dispute much nearer to an ultimate settlement by refusing to accept the Indian offer of helicopters immediately after the October 8...		A potential catalyst On November 1, 1755, an earthquake of a magnitude of 9 struck Europe’s Iberian Peninsula and destroyed the city of Lisbon. Churches collapsed upon thousands of worshippers who were celebrating the All Saints Day....
English for you An advertisement enticing you to join an academy for acquiring skills in English language often appears in the newspapers. It shows a yelling young man leaped up in the air with a guitar in his hands....		A week in Kashmir The morning of Oct 24 was chillier than what it was 12 days ago. Once again, I was heading towards Kashmir with three truckloads of relief items....
Difficult task ahead Since October 8, 2005, we have been counting our dead and evacuating the injured and marooned people from the quake-affected mountains of Azad Kashmir and the NWFP....		Professional Response The enormity of the October 8 earthquake affecting Azad Kashmir and parts of the NWFP could not be acknowledged immediately mainly because of the vastness of the affected areas and many difficulties of accessibility because of land slides....
Those were the days Prophetically, it seems, I told our hotel manager in Naran in mid-July that I didn’t think we’d be back. And three months later, with long stretches of the Kaghan Valley Road...		The most lovable bug One of the greatest inventions of the last century was the automobile. Well all right, it was created in the last few years of the century before that, but the car...
The placebo effect It would be interesting to take into consideration a situation where saline solution (salt water 0.9 per cent) injections alleviate or end the pain of patients who believe they’re receiving a potent painkiller....		The city of the yellow devil The immigration officer at JFK airport entombed in his glass cubical, apparently oblivious to my presence, was gazing suspiciously into his crystal ball which was flashing my identity, my past and...
Highway or no way Folks it’s motorway time. Again. After an absence of nearly four months, as Willie Nelson would put it, I was back on the road again. I must admit that I am in love with the Islamabad-Lahore motorway....		Rafi Pir’s passion for drama AT last Rafi Pir’s plays are available to us in print, though it is only a fraction of what he had produced during his lifetime. However, something is better than nothing....
The invalid UN Resolution Neither the Palestinians nor the Arabs have ever accepted the resolution for the partition of Palestine. They considered it to be invalid and of no effect....		Hot Seat A voracious reader, film-maker and connoisseur of the finer aspects of movies, and a music buff, former senator Jawed Jabbar, renowned for his eloquence, has much to say about all three of his pet interests....
Pakistan draws first blood A match which had fluctuated so wildly that it might have been tipped in advance by the Mirror’s city desk finally went to Pakistan three quarters of an hour after lunch on the final day....		It was more in the head As I wrote in the curtain-raiser to the series last week, Pakistan had to play real bad cricket to lose. Luckily for them, they did not do that....
An incomprehensible inquiry HAVING written extensively about the earthquake tragedy in the last few weeks, it is time for me to get back to the main course, which has been, and will always be, hockey....		Punch and Judy show Bill Keller got punched by Judy Miller, his former reporter. As the executive editor of the New York Times, calling itself the world’s most “influential newspaper”, Keller is seen as the most puddingheaded man going today, thanks to Judy....
MOSAIC:Veggies boost brain functions Consuming folate rich leafy green vegetables and citrus fruits slows down the decline in brain function and memory skills related to aging, states a recent issue of American Journal of Clinical Nutrition....		Newsmaker Twenty years after his last visit to the US when his dashing wife, Princess Diana, charmed American hearts, Prince Charles recently paid another visit there with his new wife, Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwell....
Health Interactive QMy father is about 56-years of age. He is hypertensive and diabetic. He is on Insulin 70/30 and on anti-hypertensive treatment. He is overweight and has been having hip-joint pain and backache on walking short distances or on standing....		From Here, There, and Everywhere MARRAKESH: Indian film director Yash Chopra and actor Saif Ali Khan pose during a photo session at the 5th Marrakesh International Film Festival in Marrakesh, Morocco....
On the Hotseat I wish to draw your attention to the Hotseat of September 25, 2005, where some factual errors have occurred. This is not to doubt the credibility of Ms Khushbakht Shujaat or...		From the scrapbook This rare two-rupee note has ‘Government of Pakistan’ written on it, as well as Reserve Bank of India. This is not a case of misprint. It was part of the currency...