Begum Nusrat Bhutto passes away

 DUBAI: Former chairperson of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and first lady, Begum Nusrat Bhutto, died at the age of 82 after protracted illness in Dubai on Sunday.

Begum Nusrat Bhutto was born in Isfahan, Iran on 23 March, 1929. She married the founder of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in 1951. After the death of her husband in 1979, she remained the chairperson of the PPP from 1979 to 1983.

She was allowed to leave Pakistan by the military government of Ziaul Haq in 1982 for London after she was diagnosed with cancer.

She was elected Member of National Assembly (MNA) from Larkana in 1988 and 1993.
Nusrat Bhutto had two sons Mir Murtaza Bhutto and Shahnawaz Bhutto and two daughters Benazir Bhutto and Sanam Bhutto.

The body of Begum Nusrat Bhutto will be brought to Sukkur from Dubai on a chartered flight on Sunday night.

She will be buried in Garhi Khuda Buksh in Larkana beside the grave of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

The Pakistan People’s Party has announced 40-day mourning on the death of its leader.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani announced 10-day national mourning and public holiday on Monday and cancelled all his engagements.

After 350 years, Irish judges throw off their wigs

DUBLIN: Ireland's judges are to end the tradition of wearing horsehair wigs that dates back over 350 years to British colonial rule, the country's Courts Service said Thursday. "A change in Court Rules made today, will end the requirement for judges to wear wigs in court," a statement said. The Superior Courts Rules Committee, chaired for the first time by recently appointed Chief Justice Susan Denham -- Ireland's first female top judge -- approved the court rules change that does away with the requirement for ceremonial wigs to be worn in the Supreme and High Courts. A similar rule change will apply to judges in the Circuit Court after the change is signed into law by Justice Minister Alan Shatter. Wigs have been worn in court as "a matter of rule, tradition and law" since about 1660, the time of the restoration of the English monarchy, and survived Ireland's transition to independence in 1921. (AFP)

New study sees little need for vitamins, cites risks

 WASHINGTON: There is no need for most people to take vitamin supplements and some may even be linked to a higher risk of dying in older women, according to a study published in the United States.

Iron stood out among supplements as a particular concern, while calcium appeared to be linked to lower death risk, said the study in the Archives of Internal Medicine, a journal of the American Medical Association.

With about half of Americans taking vitamin pills of some kind, the study aimed to examine whether the $20 billion supplement industry was having any effect on extending lifespan in an already well-nourished population.

The researchers confirmed their theory -- that supplements were not helping people ward off death. But the reasons for the link to higher risk of overall mortality, or the risk of dying for any reason, were less clear.

"Based on existing evidence, we see little justification for the general and widespread use of dietary supplements," wrote the study authors from the University of Eastern Finland and the University of Minnesota.

"We found that several commonly used dietary vitamin and mineral supplements, including multivitamins, vitamins B6, and folic acid, as well as
minerals iron, magnesium, zinc, and copper, were associated with a higher risk of total mortality."

The US and Finnish researchers examined data from the Iowa Women's Health Study, including surveys filled out by 38,772 women with an average age of 62.

Women self-reported their supplement use in 1986, 1997 and 2004, and data showed their use rose from 66 percent of survey-takers at the start to 85 percent by 2004.

Those who took supplements showed a range of healthy lifestyle factors, and
were more likely than non-supplement users to be non-smokers, eat low-fat diets and exercise.

But in many cases they showed a higher risk of dying than their supplement-free counterparts.

"Of particular concern, supplemental iron was strongly and dose dependently associated with increased total mortality risk," said the study.

On the other hand, "supplemental calcium was consistently inversely related to total mortality rate," meaning that calcium-takers showed a lower death risk, though the same dosage relationship was not visible.

The authors said they could not rule out the possibility that the reason for the higher death rate in iron users could have been due to underlying conditions for which they were taking supplements, and more research is needed.

In the meantime, doctors urged patients to consider the risks of taking supplements unless they are needed to stave off deficiencies.

"We think the paradigm 'the more the better' is wrong," wrote doctors Goran Bjelakovic of the University of Nis in Serbia and Christian Gluud of Copenhagen University Hospital in Denmark in an accompanying commentary.

These findings "add to the growing evidence demonstrating that certain antioxidant supplements, such as vitamin E, vitamin A, and beta-carotene, can be harmful," they said.

"We cannot recommend the use of vitamin and mineral supplements as a preventive measure, at least not in a well-nourished population."

Bjelakovic and Gluud said the only supplement that may be beneficial to older women, and possibly older men, is vitamin D3, if they do not already get enough through their diet or from sun exposure.

"The issue of whether to use calcium supplements may require further study," they added. (AFP)

Punjab government not consulted on two weekly holidays: Sharif

LAHORE: Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif said the provincial government was not consulted over the decision to have two weekly holidays adding that they would not be bound to implement it.

Earlier Punjab law minister Rana Sanaullah said the provincial government was not in favour of two weekly holidays.

Sanaullah added that the provincial government will express its reservations in the council of common interests (CCI).

The federal cabinet in a meeting decided on two weekly holidays in an effort to tackle the energy crisis. The decision will however need to be approved by the CCI before it is implemented in provinces. 

Govt notifies two-weekly off-days

ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Interior has notified two weekly holidays at all the public and private offices taking effect from Saturday (October 15). The notification issued here said, "The selected operational branches of the commercial banks shall, however, continue to work on Saturdays, to facilitate the corporate customers and businesses in their financial transactions." "The Notification shall take effect from first weekend falling after the Cabinet decision i.e. 15th October, 2011." Office are directed to follow 8am-4pm schedule from Monday to Thursday, with 30-minute lunch and prayer breaks at 1pm. Office timings on Friday would be the same with 1.5-hour lunch and Friday prayer break from 12.30pm to 2pm.