Pakistan Health

Hundreds of fat Thais have taken to sticking lettuce seeds in their ears in the firm conviction that it will help them lose weight. The Yan Hee Polyclinic, run by Supote Samritvanitcha, instructs obese patients that if they press the seeds in their ears 10 times before meals, it will kill their hunger. The hard seeds are taped near a nerve pressure point in the ear in a system similar to acupuncture but without its risk of infection.

Hundreds of fat Thais have taken to sticking lettuce seeds in their ears in the firm conviction that it will help them lose weight. The Yan Hee Polyclinic, run by Supote Samritvanitcha, instructs obese patients that if they press the seeds in their ears 10 times before meals, it will kill their hunger. The hard seeds are taped near a nerve pressure point in the ear in a system similar to acupuncture but without its risk of infection.

Masked assailants attacked the office of an aid group in a rugged Pakistani town, killing two people and setting five vehicles on fire at the compound before fleeing, police said. The shooting at the Aga Khan Foundation office occurred late Saturday in Chitral, an isolated town about 150 miles northwest of the capital, Islamabad, a Chitral police official said. Four men opened fire on the office with assault rifles, killing two workers -- a security guard and a driver, both local residents.

Potentially deadly counterfeit drugs produced in Karachi's teeming back streets are threatening Pakistan's health care system, already beset by poor conditions and a lack of money. Capsules of "penicillin" made from chalk, metal "pills," contaminated injections and bottles of vitamin solution containing fungus are prevalent, but they find their way into public health programs.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Sunday that the floods ravaging Pakistan are the worst disaster he has witnessed, and urged the international community to speed up delivery of food, medicine and shelter to millions of people — many of whom have yet to receive anything. The Pakistani government and international relief organizations have been overwhelmed by the scale of the disaster, which has killed more than 1,600 people and damaged or destroyed more than 722,000 houses from the country's mountainous northwest to its central agricultural heartland and the flatlands of Sindh province in the south.

President Bush said Tuesday that he will ask Congress for more than $3 billion in aid for Pakistan, a staunch ally in Washington's war on terrorism. Half the money is earmarked for military aid, but Bush said Pakistan would not be getting the F-16 fighter jets it has sought for 13 years.

In recent weeks, an uncomfortable paradox has been exposed. While the world's attention was riveted on the possibility of Saddam Hussein passing weapons of mass destruction to terrorists, it was our close ally in the war on terrorism, Pakistan, that was the world's leading proliferator of nuclear weapons technology. North Korea, Iran and Libya all developed nuclear weapons programs with the help of Pakistan.

It is before dawn, and Abdul Sattar Edhi and his wife are trying to brighten the darkness of one of the world's poorest cities. Rolling off his rope cot, Edhi walks into the next room to bathe the body of a small boy, found dead in the gutter and brought here by police. Later his wife, Bilquis, appears from another room to wash and wrap an old woman's thin corpse in white shrouds and send it to a nearby mosque for funeral prayers. Soon the 61-year-old Edhi is at his cluttered desk.

OUR MISSION: The President's speech reaffirms the March 2009 core goal: to disrupt, dismantle, and eventually defeat al Qaeda and to prevent their return to either Afghanistan or Pakistan. To do so, we and our allies will surge our forces, targeting elements of the insurgency and securing key population centers, training Afghan forces, transferring responsibility to a capable Afghan partner, and increasing our partnership with Pakistanis who are facing the same threats. This region is the heart of the global violent extremism pursued by al Qaeda, and the region from which we were attacked on 9/11.

Once in a while, Sath Mohammed smiles. On this day it happens as the 11-year-old describes his beloved sport, Afghan wrestling. The thought of it brings a look of delight to his face. He reaches an arm into the air as if to grab an opponent. Then he moves a leg--or what is left of it--and his face goes blank. For a moment, he had forgotten that he lies in bed No. 9 under a crudely lettered sign that reads "Bomb Blast Victim" and will never wrestle again.