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An official selection at the 2009 Berlin International Film Festival and shown at the 33rd Festival des film du monde Montreal (Montreal World Film Festival), Chan di Chummi (Kiss the Moon) is a revealing documentary about the lives of transsexuals in Pakistan. In the opening scene, script writer and director Khalid Gill says that as a child he was mystified by the transsexuals and he has tried to demystify them in the film. Shot beautifully in Lahore, Chan di Chummi is a probing but compassionate portrayal of the sub-culture of transsexuals in Pakistan. I left the theatre with a heavy heart after seeing the film and couldn’t help but think that despite the discrimination and prejudice against them, these transsexuals are just like any other human beings. Why did we fail to treat them as such? Why did we always dwell on the biological differences and not consider their emotions and feelings? Gill has succeeded admirably in his ‘passionate attempt to forge intimate contact with the tra...

Sunday, October 25, 2009 BERLIN: A surgeon of Vietnamese birth was appointed to the German government Saturday, the first person of non-European origin to serve as a minister in Berlin.Philipp R'sler, who was born 36 years ago in Vietnam and adopted as a nine-month-old baby by a German couple, becomes health minister in the government of conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel.A rising star in the liberal Free Democrat party (FDP), R'sler was until now the German state of Lower Saxony's minister for the economy and deputy premier.A heart and chest surgeon by training, Roesler, will have his work cut out as he seeks to get the German health system back on a sound financial footing. He was the FDP's point man over the past three weeks in negotiating a government programme for health reform with Merkel's Christian-Democrats.The reform is expected to lead to higher health insurance premiums as the government struggles to keep the system viable.Adopted from a Vietnamese o...

Sunday, October 25, 2009 WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama has declared swine flu a "national emergency" as the United States reels from millions of cases of infection and more than 1,000 deaths. The emergency declaration, which was made public Saturday, lets doctors and nurses temporarily bypass certain federal requirements so they can better handle a spike in influenza A(H1N1) patients. The declaration comes just days after Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius warned that demand was outstripping supply of vaccine for the novel flu strain. "The 2009 H1N1 pandemic continues to evolve," Obama said in the declaration. "The rates of illness continue to rise rapidly within many communities across the nation, and the potential exists for the pandemic to overburden health care resources in some localities."US officials however said the declaration was not issued due to any specific development, but rather as a pre-emptive measure. As Americans waited for more vac...

Sunday, October 25, 2009 CAIRO: Britain became the latest European country to join the furor over burka, an outfit covering the whole body from head to toe, after a college banned a Muslim student from entering the class over the wearing. “We do require all students of Burnley College to have their faces visible when at the college,” principal John Smith told media on Saturday, October 24.“We are determined to maintain the highest standards of teaching and learning in Burnley College.“It is not possible to maintain this essential full communication of the face of any student is not fully visible,” he said.Shawana Bilqes was barred by the college from enrolling for the Access course for an HE Diploma. The 18-year-old Muslim student was sent a letter by the college rejecting her enrollment.“I tried to compromise but they wouldn't,” Bilqes said. “The college sent me a letter to say I could continue with my course if I stopped wearing the veil.” The college defended its decision to ba...

Sunday, October 25, 2009 LONDON: Protesters marched through London on Saturday to demand a British military withdrawal from Afghanistan -- among them a serving soldier facing court martial for refusing a second tour of duty there.Police said "around 5,000" people took part in the demonstration from Hyde Park to Trafalgar Square, while a spokesman for organisers Stop The War Coalition put the figure at 10,000.Among those on the march was Lance Corporal Joe Glenton, 27, a member of the Royal Logistics Corps who has served in Afghanistan before, but now is facing a court martial for refusing to return."It is distressing to disobey orders, but when Britain follows America in continuing to wage war against one of the world's poorest countries I feel I have no choice," he said in a statement issued before the protest.Britain has 9,000 troops in Afghanistan as part of an international coalition following the US-led invasion in 2001. Most are deployed in southern Helman...

Sunday, October 25, 2009 CAIRO: At least 25 people were killed and 55 others hurt in a collision between two passenger trains on Saturday in Giza southwest of the Egyptian capital, witnesses and police said. "The total has risen to 25 dead and 55 injured and may become worse," a police official at the scene told media. A security services official said: "The trains were travelling on the same track. One ran into the other as they headed towards Upper Egypt." Witnesses initially gave a death toll of 15 and estimated the number of injured people and 24.The crash took place in Al-Ayyat area of Giza, 40 kilometres (25 miles) from Cairo, when one train stopped unexpectedly and another one also heading south from the capital ploughed into it from behind, the security official said. The first train, heading to Sayum, 100 km (65 miles) south of Cairo made an unscheduled halt but the second, on a southbound journey from Cairo towards Assiyut, 400 km (250 miles) from the cap...

Sunday, October 25, 2009 WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama spoke with his Russian and French counterparts Saturday, rallying support for a deal to end the crisis over Iran's nuclear program, as they urged Tehran to accept the offer. Obama made Saturday-morning calls to Russia's Dmitry Medvedev and France's Nicolas Sarkozy during which all three men "affirmed their full support" for a recently offered deal, the White House said. Under the plan Russia and France would produce enriched uranium for Tehran in exchange for assurances the Islamic Republic will not seek a nuclear weapon. The three leaders also "discussed the importance of all parties accepting the proposal so that implementation can begin as soon as possible," Washington said. The conversations came a day after Iran ignored a Friday deadline to respond to the offer, saying it would make its decision in the next week. Iran's envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Ali Asghar Solt...

Sunday, October 25, 2009 JAKARTA: Indonesia briefly issued a tsunami warning on Saturday after a powerful earthquake struck the eastern part of the country, but the meteorology agency later lifted the alert.Officials were still checking for possible casualties or damage after the quake struck in an area of the Banda sea southeast of the Maluku islands.The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake struck at 11:40 p.m. (1440 GMT) and measured magnitude 7.0.Its epicentre was located 232 km (144 miles) northwest of Saumlaki and 366 km southeast of Ambon at a depth of 138.5 km.The U.S. Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, also said that the earthquake did not have the potential to trigger a tsunami in the Indian Ocean due to its depth.In Papua, further east, Metro TV reported people panicked and fled to the hills after the quake, while in Ambon, in Maluku, people fled their homes fearing further aftershocks. "We felt the quake in the hotel. But people who live in a one-storey house probably did...

Saturday, October 24, 2009 BUDAPEST: Tens of thousands of visitors attended the international sausage-making contest, the biggest attraction of the 13th Sausage Festival, held in Bekescsaba (175 km southeast of Budapest) on Saturday, organiser Zoltan Ambrus said. A record number of 420 teams demonstrated their sausage-making skills in a huge tent on an area of 10,000 square metres. Some of the participating teams arrived from abroad, for instance the United States, Britain, Germany, Italy and practically all of Hungary's neighbours. All teams were given the same raw materials, but they brought their own seasonings, and this is where the personal touches counted. Some of the more popular spices included salt, paprika, garlic and caraway seeds.

Saturday, October 24, 2009 KENNEBUNKPORT: Shiloh Pepin, a girl born with a rare condition often called "mermaid syndrome," has died. She was 10.Maine Medical Center spokesman John Lamb said Shiloh died at the hospital Friday afternoon. She had been hospitalized in critical condition since last week.Shiloh was born with sirenomelia, meaning her legs were fused from the waist down. She had no lower colon or genital organs and only one partially working kidney. Doctors told her parents that she would likely survive for only hours, maybe days.Some children who have survived sirenomelia have had surgery to separate their legs, but Shiloh's circulatory system made that challenging because crisscrossing blood vessels would have been severed.Her story has been featured on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and other national TV programs.

Saturday, October 24, 2009 RIYADH: A Saudi court on Saturday convicted a female journalist for her involvement in a TV show, in which a Saudi man publicly talked about sex, and sentenced her to 60 lashes.Rozanna al-Yami is believed to be the first Saudi woman journalist to be given such a punishment. The charges against her included involvement in the preparation of the program and advertising the segment on the Internet.Abdul-Rahman al-Hazza, the spokesman of the Ministry of Culture and Information, told a US-based news agency he had no details of the sentencing and could not comment on it.In the program, which aired in July on the Lebanese LBC satellite channel, Mazen Abdul-Jawad appears to describe an active sex life and shows sex toys that were blurred by the station. The same court sentenced Abdul-Jawad earlier this month to five years in jail and 1,000 lashes.The man's lawyer, Sulaiman al-Jumeii, maintains his client was duped by the TV station and was unaware in many cases h...