Taliban leader arrested in Pakistan - officials

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Jan 3 (Reuters) - Pakistani security agencies on Saturday arrested a senior Afghan Taliban official who had been released from prison in Afghanistan in 2007 in exchange for a kidnapped Italian journalist, intelligence officials said.Ustad Yasar, who headed a Taliban information wing, was arrested in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar, they said."Our security forces raided a house on a tip-off and arrested Ustad Yasar," said an intelligence official who declined to be identified.The official said Yasar had been detained because he was a militant commander and involved in Taliban activities.Yasar was among several Taliban leaders released by the Afghan government in March 2007 in exchange for kidnapped Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo, a Taliban spokesman said at the time.Another Pakistani security official said Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar had sent Yasar to mediate in a dispute between Taliban factions in northwest Pakistan.
Yasar was first arrested in Pakistan in 2005 and handed over to the Afghan government.Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan, both important U.S. allies, have come under strain in recent years over Afghan complaints that Pakistan is not doing enough to stop Taliban insurgents operating from Pakistani soil.Pakistan officially stopped supporting the hardline Islamists after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.Pakistani security forces are battling Pakistani Taliban on its side of the border while Western and Afghan government forces fight the Taliban on the Afghan side.
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New cases of Hepatitis, HIV detected in Peshawar
PESHAWAR, Jan 3 (APP): Frontier Foundation Welfare Hospital has detected more than 1000 new Hepatitis and HIV AIDS cases in NWFP and presently 1600 children are under treatment for various blood diseases particularly Thalassaemia in the hospital.

A spokesperson of Frontier Foundation, Samina Ahmad told APP in an exclusive chat here on Saturday.

She said that Frontier Foundation in collaboration with the Chief Minister Amir Haider Khan Hoti’s Welfare Organization Tanzeem Lisail Wal Mahroom have planned free medical camps all across the Province besides providing free medicines to the needy people.

The mobile laboratories of the foundation conducted 103 blood tests regarding Hepatitis‑B, C and HIV AIDS and Malaria. The specialist doctors of Cardiology, ENT, Pediatrics, Orthopedics and General Medicine personally examined patients and conducted screening tests of around 300 persons, she said, adding that free laboratory tests were conducted and free medicines were distributed among the patients.

Samina said that Frontier Foundation was providing healthy and screened blood to children suffering from thalaseamia, hemophilia and other blood related diseases under treatment in various public and private sector hospitals.

Moreover, she went on to add that the foundation has provided free of cost blood bags to 49,853 patients. She said that currently 100,000 children were suffering from Thalaseamia in Pakistan and every year 5000 new children were added to this figures.

She said that the blood of both the female and male should be tested before marriage in order to protect them from many complications and diseases in future.

Frontier Foundation has planned to hold a total of 87 free medical camps in different districts of the Province in the current financial year, she informed, adding that so far these camps were held in Kohistan, Batagram, Manshera, Abbotabad, Haripur, Chitral, Upper Dir, Swat, Charsadda and Mardan.

Similarly, she informed that 17 free medical camps would be held in Peshawar, five in Nowshera, three each in Upper Dir, Dera Ismail Khan and Bannu, two in Karak, Swabi and Lakki Marwat and one in Tank district.

At the venue of the camps, posters, banners and publicity material regarding Thalassaemia were displayed to create awareness among masses regarding this deadly disease, she told.

Moreover, Samina said that video films from Thalassaemia International Federation were also on the display as part of FF Thalassaemia campaign.

During these camps, Dr. Atif of Frontier Foundation informed the children that Thalassaemia is a genetic blood disorder, transmitted to the offspring from their parents. Due to this disease, hemoglobin, which is contained in every RBC, is abnormally produced so the RBCs are misshapen and are broken down soon after their formation.

This leads to a drop in Hb% and the resulting anemia needs to be treated with blood transfusion, he added.

Moreover, he added that about Thalassaemia, he said, 5‑7 percent of our total population (approx 8‑10 million) are carrying genes of this disorder and are known as Thalassaemia minor. Thalaseamia minor patients do not need blood transfusion themselves but due to a by chance marriage of two such persons, they may give birth to a child with Thalassaemia major, who will need regular blood transfusion for the rest of their life.

He informed that due to a high carrier rate in our society more than 5000 children with Thalassaemia major are born every year in the country. As a rough estimate, he said, at any given time, more than 100,000 Thalassaemia major children may be found in our country, getting halfhearted treatment with infrequent blood transfusions and inadequate iron chelating therapy.

For optimum treatment every Thalassaemic child will need frequent transfusions of screened packed red cells and regular iron chelating therapy which will cost more than Rs. 6,000.
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Pakistan expresses grave concern over attacks in Gaza

ISLAMABAD, Jan. 3 -- Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari Saturday said Pakistan expressed grave concern over the attacks in Gaza and called for cessation of the attacks against unarmed and innocent Palestinians.

Talking to a Special Envoy of Iran Gholamhossein Nozari here at the President's House, Zardari said the attacks were violative of the United Nations Charter.

The News Network International news agency quoted Zardari as saying that the Pakistani government had also urged the international community to bring to end the violence against the Palestinians and promote a peaceful, just and durable settlement of the Palestinian issue in accordance with relevant United Nation Security Council resolutions.

Gholamhossein Nozari delivered a letter from the President of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

He said that the recent attack and blockade of Gaza by Israeli forces had posed a new threat to peace and stability in the region that called for a concerted action by the Muslim countries.

He said the Palestinians particularly in Gaza were facing great hardships due to blockade and the international community must act to alleviate their sufferings.

Gholamhussein Nozari also highlighted the close relations between Iran and Pakistan and the need to translate them in greater economic cooperation between the two countries.

He also renewed the Iranian President's invitation to Zardari to visit Iran, which he said would further cement the close relations between the two countries.
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