http://espn.go.com/President Barack Obama says that if he owned the Washington Redskins, he would "think about changing" the team name, wading into the controversy over a football nickname that many people deem offensive to Native Americans. Obama, in an interview with The Associated Press, said team names like the Redskins offend "a sizable group of people." He said that while fans get attached to the nicknames, nostalgia may not be a good enough reason to keep them in place. "I don't know whether our attachment to a particular name should override the real legitimate concerns that people have about these things," he said in the interview, which was conducted Friday.An avid sports fan, Obama said he doesn't think Washington football fans are purposely trying to offend American Indians. "I don't want to detract from the wonderful Redskins fans that are here. They love their team and rightly so," he said. But the president appeared to come down on the side of those who have sharply criticized the football team's name, noting that Indians "feel pretty strongly" about mascots and team names that depict negative stereotypes about their heritage. Other professional sports teams have Indian nicknames, including football's Kansas City Chiefs and baseball's Atlanta Braves and Cleveland Indians. Numerous colleges and universities have changed names that reference Native Americans. St. John's changed its mascot from the Redmen to the Red Storm, Marquette is now the Golden Eagles instead of the Warriors and Stanford switched from the Indians to the Cardinal. The Redskins' nickname has attracted a fresh round of controversy in recent months, with local leaders in Washington calling for a name change and some media outlets refraining from using the name. The name is the subject of a long-running legal challenge from a group of American Indians seeking to block the team from having federal trademark protection. Congressional lawmakers have introduced a bill seeking the same goal, though it appears unlikely to pass. Opponents of the Redskins nickname also plan to hold a protest Monday outside the NFL's fall meeting in Washington. Team owner Dan Snyder has vowed to never abandon the name. But NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said last month that the league should pay attention to those offended by the nickname -- a subtle change in position for Goodell, who had more strongly supported the nickname in his previous statements this year. Despite the controversy, an AP-GfK poll conducted in April showed that nationally, "Redskins" still enjoys wide support. Nearly four in five Americans don't think the team should change its name, the survey found. Only 11 percent think it should be changed, while 8 percent weren't sure and 2 percent didn't answer. Obama said he doesn't have a direct stake in the Redskins debate since he's not a team owner. But he hinted that might be part of his post-White House plans. "Maybe after I leave the presidency," he joked. "I think it would be a lot of fun." He added: "I'd probably look at a basketball team before I looked at a football team. I know more about basketball than I do about football."
M WAQAR..... "A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary.Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death." --Albert Einstein !!! NEWS,ARTICLES,EDITORIALS,MUSIC... Ze chi pe mayeen yum da agha pukhtunistan de.....(Liberal,Progressive,Secular World.)''Secularism is not against religion; it is the message of humanity.'' تل ده وی پثتونستآن
Saturday, October 5, 2013
Obama Open To Redskins Name Change
Bangladesh: Wali Khan: He rallied for Mujib, against Yahya

Pakistan: A theatre of war turning on itself
http://gulfnews.com/
By Aamer Ahmed KhanThree attacks within 10 days killing nearly 150 people in Pakistan’s northwest city of Peshawar is an escalation even by Pakistani standards — an escalation in a war that has killed 45,000 civilians over the last 10 years in attacks as random as they were brutal. Coming in the backdrop of the government’s efforts to initiate peace negotiations with Taliban militants, a hugely controversial initiative which seems to have divided Pakistani opinion makers along seemingly irreconcilable lines, these attacks have thrown up questions that go beyond the obvious and all-encompassing label of terror. None more so than the deadly suicide attack on a Sunday mass in one of the oldest churches in the city which killed more than 80, left thousands mourning and a nation stunned at its own inability to stop the bloodbath. Never before has the country’s Christian minority been targeted with such deadly intent. Always a discriminated minority, they have been a silent witness to the country’s steady retreat against hardline Islamist ideologies espoused by a mushrooming array of militant groups. At times, they have fallen victim to Pakistan’s contentious blasphemy laws, but by and large they have gone about their business even as the sphere of social, cultural and religious tolerance around them has continued to shrink. But on September 22, as two suicide bombers positioned themselves among the 400-odd worshippers at the conclusion of the ceremony, this under-2 per cent minority suddenly found itself on the frontline. As Pakistan mourned its latest tragedy analysts went into overdrive, with some arguing there was no reason why the Christian community had been singled out for this outrage. Like their 180 million fellow Pakistanis, irrespective of their caste, creed or religion, they were just caught up in a war that seems to be pushing its boundaries with every passing day. Confirmation of the feeling that anyone and everyone could be a target came with an attack on a bus carrying civil servants a few days later, followed by an attack in the city’s oldest bazaar whose inhabitants shared everything with their attackers — religion, ethnicity and nationality. This is a theatre of war turning on itself. For years, Pakistan has bet on the Taliban as the glue that could bind a fractious Afghanistan together once international troops withdraw from the country. It has sat by and watched the Taliban’s ideological merger with Al Qaida in the hope that the latter would melt away once Afghanistan stabilises, with the Taliban as part of the ruling mix.
Pakistan bottom of the barrel on net freedom: Report



Malala Wins a Rights Award
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Pakistani schoolgirl who survived a Taliban assassination attempt received a human rights award on Friday. The girl, Malala Yousafzai, an education activist, was shot as she traveled to school in northwest Pakistan last October. On Friday in London she was declared the winner of the Anna Politkovskaya Award. Ms. Politkovskaya, a Russian journalist and Kremlin critic who worked to uncover abuses in Chechnya, was killed in 2006. The award is given annually by the group RAW in WAR (Reach All Women in War) to a woman who defends human rights. The group said Ms. Yousafzai, 16, had been chosen “for her courage to speak out when nobody else dared,” for giving a voice to many women and girls and for promoting education for girls.
Malala Yousafzai Named as Top Nobel Peace Prize Contender
http://www.parade.com/Much like Oscar season, the period before the announcement of each year’s Nobel Prize recipients is marked with speculation: Who will win? The much-anticipated news of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner won’t be revealed until Friday, October 11—but one organization, the International Peace Research Institute, has released its short list of favorites for the honor. Topping the list is Malala Yousafzai, the 16-year-old Pakistani activist who rose to international fame when she took on the Taliban and demanded access to school for girls. “Malala would not only be timely and fitting with a line of awards to champions of human rights and democracy, but also sets both children and education on the peace and conflict agenda,” Kristian Berg Harpviken, head of the International Peace Research Institute, said in a statement. Yousafzai was shot in the head by Taliban assassins last October, and has since staged a miraculous recovery. “It feels like this life is not my life. It’s a second life,” she writes in her autobiography I Am Malala, excerpted exclusively in this Sunday’s Parade. “People have prayed to God to spare me and I was spared for a reason—to use my life for helping people.” If Yousafzai is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, she’ll be one of only 15 female recipients and the youngest winner by far (the average age of the previous laureates is 62, and the youngest winner so far is Yemeni journalist Tawakkol Karman, who won the honor at age 32 in 2011). Other top contenders for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, according to the Oslo-based organization that predicts laureates every year, include: Uganda peace advocate Sister Mary Tarcisia Lakot; Russian activists Lyudmila Alexeyeva, Svetlana Gannushkina and Lilya Shibanova; Guatemalan attorney general Claudia Paz y Paz; and Congolese gynecologist and anti-sexual violence activist Denis Mukwege. The Nobel Prize, selected by the Norwegian Nobel Committee, has been awarded since 1901. Previous winners of the peace honor include Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King Jr., and President Barack Obama
Assad: Turkey will pay for backing rebels
The Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, has said Turkey will pay a heavy price for backing rebels fighting against him, and accused it of harbouring "terrorists" who, he claimed, would soon turn on their hosts.In an interview with Turkey's Halk TV due to be broadcast on Friday, Assad called the Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, "bigoted" and said Ankara was allowing terrorists to cross into Syria to attack his army and civilians. "It is not possible to put terrorism in your pocket and use it as a card. It is like a scorpion which won't hesitate to sting you at the first opportunity," Assad said, according to a transcript from Halk TV. "In the near future, these terrorists will have an impact and Turkey will pay a heavy price for it." Turkey shelters about a quarter of the two million people who have fled Syria and has allowed rebel fighters to cross in and out of Syria. Last month, the al-Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant seized Azaz, about 5km from the border with Turkey, and has repeatedly clashed with the local rebel FSA brigades since then. 'Sectarian agenda' Assad accused Erdogan, whose AK Party has its roots in conservative Islamist politics, of having a sectarian agenda. "Before the crisis, Erdogan had never mentioned reforms or democracy, he was never interested in these issues. Erdogan only wanted the Muslim Brotherhood to return to Syria, that was his main and core aim," he said. Assad again denied his forces had used chemical weapons and blamed such attacks on the rebels. Asked whether he expected the Geneva process to accelerate if Syria handed over its chemical weapons, Assad said he saw no link. "Practically these issues are not related. Geneva II is about Syria's own domestic political process and cutting neighbouring countries' weapons and financial support to terrorists," he said.Syrian president tells Turkish TV station that "terrorists" will turn on their hosts "like a scorpion".
What is Postpartum Depression ?
http://www.webmd.com/Postpartum depression (PPD) is a complex mix of physical, emotional, and behavioral changes that happen in a woman after giving birth. According to the DSM IV, a manual used to diagnose mental disorders, PPD is a form of major depression that has its onset within four weeks after delivery. The diagnosis of postpartum depression is based not only on the length of time between delivery and onset, but also on the severity of the depression

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