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LAHORE: Killer Dengue continues to plague the city and on Saturday seven people including three women lost their lives to the virus, Geo news reported. The toll now stands at 195 in Punjab while 175 of the deaths have taken place in Lahore.

According to sources, 312 new cases of Dengue have been confirmed which has increased the numbers of patients to 14,760 in Punjab while 12,761 in Lahore. 14,448 patients have been cured from the virus so far.

Indonesian experts said that it is crucial to develop awareness among people and how they can protect themselves from the virus.

They also said that nurses and paramedical staff also need to be trained so that they can handle the patients properly.

 KABUL: A father desperately searches for his son, who has been sent on a suicide bomb mission. After losing everything, he ends up homeless and insane on the dusty streets of Kabul.

Tragedy can seem all too common in war-torn Afghanistan, but fortunately, this time, the story of Yacoub is not true.

Instead it is the center of a movie, one of 50 screened during the first Autumn Human Rights Film Festival. The event provides a central Asian stage for directors from Afghanistan and abroad who are tackling human rights issues, and a window for the public to explore challenges many have faced themselves.

"This film festival is special compared to other festivals I have attended, because it's about human rights," said Homayun Morowat, the Kabul-born director of the film about Yacoub, An Apple from Paradise.

The festival takes place at the tenth anniversary of the start of the U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan, a time when the human rights achievements and abuses of the last decade are in sharp focus.

Amnesty International said on Wednesday the Afghan government and its international supporters have failed to keep many of the human rights promises they made to the Afghan people.

But media freedoms are still better than in almost all the surrounding countries, according to the Press Freedom Index compiled by Reporters Without Borders, making the Afghan capital a logical choice to host a central Asian film festival.

Organizers say the festival has been years in the planning and the dates chosen were practical, not political.

"This event is not related to any political issues, and we started to plan it three years ago," said Malek Shaf'ii, the chief executive of Afghanistan Cinema Club.

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Instead he said they fixed on the human rights theme because over 90 percent of movies and documentaries made by Afghan independent film makers touch on human rights problems.

"Human rights issues are one of the biggest challenges for Afghanistan," Shaf'ii told Reuters in the heavily-guarded French Cultural Institute in central Kabul, where many films were shown.

Afghanistan struggles with desperate poverty and three decades of war that has killed thousands of civilians and maimed or traumatized tens of thousands more. There are also strict restrictions on women, who traditionally have limited rights.

"The first step we can take to improve human rights is just let the people know the problems and challenges, and we are doing this to make a connection between film makers and the public audience," Hassan Zakizadeh, a festival spokesman said.

The film festival, which includes 32 Afghan movies and 18 from other countries, lasts seven days, with screenings in a downtown cinema and a auditorium at the French Cultural Center.

For Morowat, who now lives outside Afghanistan, the making of his film -- which features a despairing father, an innocent son, a corrupt police system and a holy site occupied by gamblers -- helped lift his sadness at the fate of his homeland.

"Now I am relaxed as the experiences are transferred to my audience," he told Reuters after the show. (Reuters)

 BEIJING: Top-ranked Caroline Wozniacki was knocked out of the China Open quarterfinals by Flavia Pennetta of Italy 3-6, 6-0, 7-6 (2) on Friday.

Wozniacki was two points from victory when leading 30-0 in the final game of the third set, but Pennetta won the game and then the tiebreaker.

"I did my best today, but it just wasn't good enough," the Dane said. "I had my chances and didn't take them."

Pennetta will face 11th-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska, who advanced after Ana Ivanovic retired with back pain while trailing 6-3, 3-2.

Also, Monica Niculescu of Romania rallied to beat Maria Kirilenko of Russia 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.

In the men's tournament, third-seeded Tomas Berdych reached the semifinals by routing Fernando Verdasco 6-1, 6-0.

Berdych, like top-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, is still in the running for one of the four remaining spots at the season-ending ATP World Tour Finals in London.

Also, Ivan Ljubicic defeated Mikhail Youzhny 7-6 (4), 6-7 (4), 6-2.

 KARACHI: State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Saturday cut its key policy rate by 150 basis points to 12 percent for the subsequent two months, citing a decline in inflation and government borrowings, it said in a statement.

The central bank said it cut its policy rate by 150 basis points as it was "taking some comfort from declining inflation and high probability of meeting the FY12 inflation target together with a need to support private sector credit and investment growth."

In September, annual consumer inflation was 10.46 percent, compared with 11.56 percent in August, and 13.77 percent in July, mainly due to a high base effect, which is to last through December. Although inflation had risen month-on-month by over one percent.

However the central bank said there was a high probability that Pakistan would meet its target of average inflation at 12 percent for 2011/12 fiscal year.

This was the first monetary policy announcement after the government of Pakistan ended its $11 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan programme on Sept. 30.

It is also the second rate cut in fiscal year 2011/12 (July-June).

SBP raised rate by 50 basis points in November 2010, and held it steady until it slashed it by 50 basis points to 13.5 percent on July 30, also exceeding analyst expectations.

The decline in government borrowing from the central bank was also one of the reasons for the rate cut, the SBP said.

According to provisional data, the outstanding stock of government borrowings was 1,051 billion rupees ($12 billion) on Sept. 30, lower than the agreed limit of 1,155 billion rupees ($13.22 billion) for the fiscal year 2011/12. (Reuters)

 ISLAMABAD: Two leaders of PML-N Chaudhary Waqar Khan and Sardar Iqbal have joined Pakistan People's Party (PPP), Geo News reported.

This they announced in a press conference here on Saturday. They were flanked by PPP leaders Jahangir Badar and Faryal Talpur.

Chaudhary Waqar said it had become too hard to go with PML-N therefore he and his friend Sardar Iqbal decided to join PPP, adding that they would live and die for PPP now.

It is to be noted here that Chaudhary Waqar Khan is the cousin of PML-N leader Chaudhary Nisar Ali Khan.

 KABUL: The Kabul government on Saturday demanded that Washington increase pressure on Pakistan to act against insurgents using its soil to attack Afghanistan, saying Afghans were running out of patience.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai held talks with US regional envoy, Marc Grossman, in Kabul just days after President Barack Obama warned Pakistan there were "some connections" between its intelligence services and extremists.

"The Afghan president asked Grossman to put more pressure on Pakistan so that future meetings with them should bring a positive result," one official at the presidential palace told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan, long mired in distrust, have recently deteriorated with Kabul alleging that the murder of its peace envoy Burhanuddin Rabbani was hatched in Pakistan and carried out by a Pakistani.

Kabul accused Islamabad of hindering the investigation and also claimed to have foiled an alleged plot in Pakistan to assassinate Karzai.

The palace quoted Grossman as promising that the United States will "continue putting pressure on Pakistan to take practical steps forward".

Karzai said further meetings with Pakistan "should bring positive results, because after all these suicide attacks and terrorism the people of Afghanistan are losing thier patience," added the statement.

US embassy spokesman Gavin Sundwall told AFP that Grossman was on a tour of the region to discuss preparations for international conferences on Afghanistan's future in Istanbul and Bonn later this year.

"That's what he met President Karzai about this morning," Sundwall said.

Washington has stepped up calls on Islamabad in recent weeks to break ties with the Al-Qaeda linked Haqqani network, blamed for last month's 19-hour siege on the US embassy in Kabul.

On Thursday, Obama accused Pakistan of "hedging its bets" in "having interactions with some of the unsavory characters who they think might end up regaining power in Afghanistan" after US-led foreign troops leave.

"And there is no doubt that there's some connections the Pakistani military and intelligence services have with certain individuals that we find troubling," he added.

Islamabad denies links between the Haqqanis and its intelligence services.(AFP)

 KARACHI: PML-F chief Pir Pagara has threatened to quit the government if ministries in Sindh were taken from his party, Geo News reported.

Pagara said his party had entered into an agreement with President Zardari and not Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah. Pagara added that the CM was holding several portfolios and the government would be in trouble if the PML-F left.

On Friday differences emerged between coalition partners over the allocation of ministries in Sindh. PML-F leaders were informed by the CM that their portfolios would be given to MQM who had recently announced its return to the government.