Balloon blast victim dies

LAHORE: A 15-year-old boy, who suffered critical burns along with 40 others when gas-filled balloons exploded on April 21, died at Mayo Hospital late on Friday.

Three children who had suffered three to four percent burns are still under treatment at Jinnah Hospital but their condition is stated to be normal. The injured had been rushed to General, Jinnahand Mayo hospitals following the incident. Mayo Medical Superintendent Dr Amjad Shahzad said Naveed Asghar of Dev Kalan village was referred here from Jinnah Hospital with above 40pc burns and was in a critical condition. He said a team of plastic and surgery department doctors was treating the patient but he succumbed to his wounds. He said Asghar was the only victim received by Mayo Hospital. During a ceremony on Walton Road to inaugurate a new fly over by the chief minister on April 21 near Dev Kalan village, Kamahan Road, several helium-filled balloons had landed in a make shift playground and caught fire when someone touched them with a cigarette, according to initial police inquiries. Jinnah Hospital received majority of the injured and relatives of some of the patients claimed doctors had discharged them in haste. MS Dr Muhammad Rauf denied the allegations saying most of the victims had been discharged after proper treatment. Presently, he said, only three children wereunder treatment at private rooms of the hospital. Dr Rauf said the discharged children had been visiting the health facility for follow-up treatment. On Saturday, he said the doctors called seven children for assessment and cleansing their wounds.

Two brothers re-arrested in Pakistan for cannibalism

Two brothers previously jailed for cannibalism and then released, have been arrested again after police discovered a child's severed head at their home in a remote village in northwest Pakistan. Mohammed Arif Ali was arrested early Monday after neighbors alerted police to a "foul smell" coming from his house in the village of Kahawar Khan in the Bhakkar district of Punjab, district police chief Ameer Abdullah Khan told Media.When they went to investigate, they discovered the decapitated head of an infant next to a burning stove. The head, which is now being examined at a hospital in the nearby village of Darya Khan, looked to be around five days old, Abdullah said Arif Ali was arrested at the scene, while his brother, Mohammed Farman Ali, was apprehended by police hours later on the outskirts of their village. Police said both men confessed to eating human flesh. The brothers were released from prison last year after serving a two-year jail term for similar offenses -- they admitted dismembering a woman's body they had stolen from a graveyard in Darya Khan where they lived at the time. With no explicit law on cannibalism in Pakistan, the two men were convicted of desecrating a dead body and other public order offenses in a case that provoked widespread revulsion across Pakistan.

Foreign investors keen to invest in Pakistan: Dar

Washington: Finance Minister Muhammad Ishaq Dar says foreign investors have shown a keen interest in various sectors of Pakistan with a focus on energy after an improvement in the fundamentals of national economy.

He was talking to representatives of Standard & Poor's and Moody's in Washington. The Minister said the government is taking concrete steps to fill the gap between power production and supply. He said various projects are underway to add power to the national grid.
The Finance Minister said Pakistan's economy is gaining momentum and has successfully completed first two quarterly reviews of International Monetary Fund (IMF). He specifically mentioned privatization of public sector entities through capital market and strategic sale transactions.
Ishaq Dar hoped that Pakistan's GDP is expected to increase from 3.6 to 7 percent and tax to GDP ratio from 8.5 to 13 percent. He said inflation is expected to be contained within a single digit of eight percent. Dar said the stock market has been gaining momentum during the last few months. The representatives of rating agencies appreciated the launch of Pakistan Sovereign Bonds in international market. They also lauded the recent improvement in the economic performance of the government.