US Annouces $160mn Pakistan Reading Project on international Litercay Day

ISLAMABAD : The United States announces the lauch of the Pakistan Reading Project to boost the reading skills of 3.2 million pakistani children.

The project will fund improvements in reading instruction  and reading asessment in grades one through five throughout the pakistani public school system.

The international Rescue committee (IRC), which is partnering with regional government and pakistani civil society organizations, will implement this $160 million project in an estimated 38,000 public schools over the next five years.

The lauch of this program on interantional Literacy Day, observed annually on september 8, demonstrares the firm commitment of the United States and its pakistani partners to improving cirtical reading and writing skills.

“The pakistan Reading Project provides pakistani children on opportunity to develop skills which are essential for success in higher education and in the workplace.

Children who do not learn to read in the first few grades of school will struggle to keep up with classromm assignments in later grades,” Gregory Gottlieb, Misssion Director of the US Agency for international Development (USAID) said after the agreement was signed between USAID and IRC.

“IRC is honred to work on such in improvement project which will help improve the quality of education for millions of pakistani children,”IRC chief of party, John Shumaker , said.

Samsung lauches Galaxy Gear smartwatch in Berlin

Samsung lauches Galaxy Gear smartwatch in Berlin
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BERLIN: South Korean electronic giant Samsung on Wednesday unveiled its hotly anticipated smart watch the Galaxy Gear, which allows users to make calls, receive texts and emails and take photos.

JK Shin, head of Samsung mobile division, predicated the Galaxy Gear-effectively a mobile you wear on your wrist. Would become” a new fashion icon through the world” as he launched the device at the IFA consumer electronics fair in Berlin.

The new smart watch has a touch screen of barely more than four centimeters (1.6 inches) in a brushed steel mount and wrist strap in six different colors. Contrary to rumors, it does not have a flexible screen.

Samsung is not  the first company to introduce a watch that connects via wifi to a smart phone, alerting its user to calls, texts and emails. Casio, sonny or pebble already have similar products.

However, with its arch rival Apple still to roll its much rumored” I watch”, and the likes of Microsoft and Goggle not exhibiting at IFA, the south Korean giant has the field more or less to itself to wow the geeks.

Unlike its competition, the Samsung device allows users to make calls without taking their phone out of their pocket. Instead, they can hold their wrist up to their ear and use the built-in speaker and microphone.

The Galaxy Gear will go on sale on September 25 and also has a tiny camera in its wrist strap.

Gadget geeks from all over the world have converged on Berlin this week.

The first two days, Wednesday and Thursday, are reserved for the press. After that will open its doors to the general public form Friday through Wednesday to dazzle hi-tech freaks with the latest state-of-the-art gadgets on 145,000 square meters of exhibition space. (Samsung launches Galaxy Gear smart watch in Berlin)

Seized shark fins dumped in Pacific ceremony

Seized shark fins dumped in Pacific ceremony

MAJURO: The Marshall Islands symbolically disposed of confiscated shark fins at sea. Tuesday n a ceremony witnessed by regional leaders attending the Pacific islands Forum.

The gesture underscored the progress made towards protecting the marine predators since the Marshall’s declared a two million square kilometer (770,000 square mile ) shark sanctuary I 2011, Angelo Villa Gomez from us-based pew charitable trusts said.

Villa Gomez said some commercial tuna fishermen still illegally cut the fins from sharks, even though they earned very little from the practice.

“Fishermen only receive a few dollars (per fin)”, he said “But once they are processed in china and sold in Hong Kongrestaurants, the price can be as high as US$1,500 per kilo.”

The fins that were dumped off the capital Majuro were confiscated from a Chinese long line fishing vessel earlier this year that was fined $125,000. Marshall islands law requires that confiscated fins  be burned or dumped at sea, although villa Gomez said since the theme of this year’s PIF was reducing climate change” we thought it was better not to burn the fins”

The pew group estimates more than 70 million sharks are killed annually for their fins, leaving up to a third of open-water species on the brink of extinction.

Villa Gomez said fins disposed of on Tuesday included ones oceanic white tip sharks, which are “protected in every tuna fishery and is the most vulnerable species of shark”.

In the north pacific, the Marshall islands, Palau , Guam , northern Marianas and there of the four states of the Federated states of Micronesia ban shark fining” The pacific is leading the world in shark protection,” villa Gomez said.

The PIF officially opens on Tuesday evening with a lavish ceremony on the shores of Mauro’s lagoon. (Seized shark fins dumped in Pacific ceremony)

Tsai Ming-Liang strips life to basics in hypnotic film

Tsai Ming-Liang strips life to basics in hypnotic film

VENICE : Taipei-based director Tsai Ming-liang lived up to his reputation as the master of ‘Slow” cinema in Venice Thursday with “Stray Dogs”, the poetic late of a homeless family on the margins of society.

A father…played by actor Lee kang-sheng, a regular in Tsal’s feature films—scrapes out a meager living as a human billboard for luxury apartments in Taipeiwhite his teenage son and young daughter live off supermarket food samples.

The three come together again at the end of each repetitive day to set, wash and sleep.

With extremely long takes and the minimalist dialogue characteristic of “Slow” cinema, “Stray Dogs” explores the toll life on the streets takes on a father who can offer his children little more than basic shelter in an abandoned house and washing facilities in a public bathroom.

Among fleeting scenes capturing simple delights—such as the boy’s attempt to amuse his sister by decreasing up her prized cabbage—the film explores basic needs in depth, lingering extensively on images of urinating or eating.

The result is a college of hypnotic shots bordering on the obsessive.

“In the world I have created, everything stems from an understanding of things as time passes. I have to let things rest and be dtgested,” Makaysian-born Tsai told journalist in Venice where his film in competition for the Golden Lion.

“I feel at a loss when I am faced with the speed modern life imposes on us. I feel being slow is a technique to find one’s way in the confusion,” said Tsai. Whose film “Vive Lamoure’ – another example of slow cinema—won the Lion 1994.

The director, who confirmed “Stray Dogs” would likely be his last film, brushed aside suggestions that the work may not be appreciated by general audiences.

“I see little other than commercial films nowadays in the cinema. People might leam to appreciate slowness,” he said.