LAHORE: The Punjab Wildlife Department (PWD) on Tuesday seized 26 cartons of frozen tortoise meat and five tortoise-shell laden bags, the department officials told Daily Times.
The officials said the meat was being smuggled into Islamabad via Motorway. They said they had seized the meat from Sherakot Toll Plaza. They said a case had been registered under the Sections 11, 13, 14 and 15 of the Punjab Wildlife Act (PWA).
They said a Lahore PWD team led by Aga Ezaz Ibrahim on a tip-off had stopped a truck (SLN 4777) near Sherakot Toll Plaza and seized the meat and shells worth Rs 4 million. The team, he said, had arrested Rashid Ashraf and Sajjad Anwar Khan.
The Section 11 of the PWA says any protected animal or game animal found dead or dying or which has been killed or caught otherwise than in accordance with the provision of the act and any meat or trophy thereof shall be the property of the government.
Section 14 of the PWA reads no person shall export or attempt out of Punjab any animal, trophy or meat specified in second schedule except under an export permit granted under this act and if such export be to any country outside Pakistan except through a customs post of exit and subject to any law relating to control on export for time being in force.
Section 15 of the PWA says no person shall as a profession, trade or business, buy, sell or otherwise deal in wild animals, trophies or meat thereof or process or manufacture goods or articles from such trophies or meat, unless he/she is in possession of a valid license, hereinafter called a dealers license, to do so issued by an officer authorised in this behalf.
Wildlife Department spokesman Azhar Khalid said the government had banned trade in the tortoise meat. He said international companies had hired poachers to catch tortoises from across Pakistan. He said the tortoise meat had been smuggled into South Asian countries. “Tortoise meat is in great demand in Thailand and China,” he said, “Tortoise shells are used in traditional Chinese medicines.”
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007%5C12%5C12%5Cstory_12-12-2007_pg13_2
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Moscow ready to lift Polish meat ban
Russia said yesterday it was prepared to lift the two-year embargo on Polish meat exports and take steps to normalise trade ties, ending a dispute that had poisoned relations between Moscow and Warsaw and affected Russia's ties with the European Union.
The final agreement ending the meat ban is to take place next week in the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad during a bilateral meeting of veterinary experts.
"The ban on imports will be lifted after we sign a memorandum next week," Alexei Gordeyev, Russia's agriculture minister, told reporters after meeting Poland's farm minister Marek Sawicki. "We are open to market relations."
Mr Gordeyev said a ban would remain on some products, including poultry after an outbreak of bird flu in Poland.
Politicians in Moscow hailed the agreement as opening the way for restarting negotiations on a strategic partnership pact between Russia and the EU, which have been blocked because of a Polish veto due to the meat ban.
"Now that the problems over meat imports from Poland have been decided there is no basis for Poland to veto the start of discussion," said a senior Russian senator, Vasily Lik-hachev, according to the Interfax news agency. Waldemar Pawlak, Poland's minister of the economy, called the news positive, saying: "We want to have good relations with our neighbours."
Russia began limiting the import of Polish meat in May 2004 after Poland joined the European Union, before imposing a complete ban in November 2005. Russia has also banned the import of Polish vegetables.
Moscow said it was acting for health reasons, citing examples of meat being exported with falsified certificates. Poland cracked down on abuses, and said the ban was a political ploy by Moscow to weaken Poland's position within the EU.
The meat issue is not significant economically. Before the ban only about $70m (£34.2m, €47.59m) of Polish meat was exported annually to Russia, but elimination of the ban will be a public relations success for the new government of Donald Tusk, Poland's prime minister.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/73cd325a-a91e-11dc-ad9e-0000779fd2ac.html
The final agreement ending the meat ban is to take place next week in the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad during a bilateral meeting of veterinary experts.
"The ban on imports will be lifted after we sign a memorandum next week," Alexei Gordeyev, Russia's agriculture minister, told reporters after meeting Poland's farm minister Marek Sawicki. "We are open to market relations."
Mr Gordeyev said a ban would remain on some products, including poultry after an outbreak of bird flu in Poland.
Politicians in Moscow hailed the agreement as opening the way for restarting negotiations on a strategic partnership pact between Russia and the EU, which have been blocked because of a Polish veto due to the meat ban.
"Now that the problems over meat imports from Poland have been decided there is no basis for Poland to veto the start of discussion," said a senior Russian senator, Vasily Lik-hachev, according to the Interfax news agency. Waldemar Pawlak, Poland's minister of the economy, called the news positive, saying: "We want to have good relations with our neighbours."
Russia began limiting the import of Polish meat in May 2004 after Poland joined the European Union, before imposing a complete ban in November 2005. Russia has also banned the import of Polish vegetables.
Moscow said it was acting for health reasons, citing examples of meat being exported with falsified certificates. Poland cracked down on abuses, and said the ban was a political ploy by Moscow to weaken Poland's position within the EU.
The meat issue is not significant economically. Before the ban only about $70m (£34.2m, €47.59m) of Polish meat was exported annually to Russia, but elimination of the ban will be a public relations success for the new government of Donald Tusk, Poland's prime minister.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/73cd325a-a91e-11dc-ad9e-0000779fd2ac.html
The image of our sorrow; Food shortages; The risks of modified foods
Though Chen Shui-bian may be an unpopular president of Taiwan, he has done the right thing by demolishing statues of Chang Kai-shek. There is no place for worshiping tyrants in any democratic country.
Unfortunately, China is not ready to demolish statues of Mao Zedong. Although Mao caused the death of millions of people, many Chinese still regard him as a hero and a god.
Unless they push for demolition of Mao's statues and condemn him for the disastrous Cultural Revolution, the Chinese will have no future. A country that lives under the shadow of such a tyrant will never progress. Without real democracy, another Mao may come to the stage and destroy the whole nation.
Ling Toh Woon, Kuala Lumpur
Food shortages
With reference to your page one article "World food stocks dwindling rapidly, UN warns," (Dec. 18): People are right to be concerned about the rapid food price inflation. Populations are increasing, Indian and Chinese consumers are demanding more meat, and environmental pressures from climate change are starting to harm production around the world.
We are - for the first time in many decades - forced to think about a possibility of food shortages on a global scale, and the pressures on prices are expected to increase even further.
But there are some solutions available to help improve the situation. Plant science technologies, including fertilizers, crop protection and biotech seeds are helping farmers increase yields while also protecting biodiversity and natural resources. Crop seeds that are drought and heat resistant and can deal with greater levels of salinity are being produced in research laboratories at the moment - giving new hope to farmers around the world. Technology is not the only solution to our current and future problems, but it is a proven one.
Howard Minigh, Brussels Chief executive, CropLife International
The risks of modified foods
Mark Schwartz's article "Fear versus Science," (Views, Dec. 15) gives the impression that only the EU is opposed to genetically modified foods. In reality, numerous official and nongovernmental organizations worldwide are strongly opposed to engineered foods and how they are being introduced into the food chain with little or no supervision.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Schwartz's employer, the Department of Agriculture and the Environmental Agency are responsible for protecting American citizens from the real and potential harms of engineered foods. Each has failed to carry out its responsibilities - to the benefit of the biotech industries they are supposed to oversee.
The largest producers of such foods, based in the United States, are minimally regulated and not required to demonstrate the safety of their products.
Schwartz puts the onus on the public to produce "scientific evidence" showing the risk of GM foods.
Space constraints limit the length and depth of this rebuttal, but the Internet contains over 11 pages of links to articles and NGOs pointing out the problems associated with GM technology. Of particular interest is the Union of Concerned Scientists and, for example, one of its scientific papers by Margaret Mellon and Jane Rissler on "The U.S. approach to the regulation of biotechnology products."
It may take a while to prove that foods altered for profit are not healthy or sustainable, or it may not. Right now, no one is absolutely certain what the risks are because there is no adequate research by reliable public or private institutions.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/12/21/opinion/edlet.php
Unfortunately, China is not ready to demolish statues of Mao Zedong. Although Mao caused the death of millions of people, many Chinese still regard him as a hero and a god.
Unless they push for demolition of Mao's statues and condemn him for the disastrous Cultural Revolution, the Chinese will have no future. A country that lives under the shadow of such a tyrant will never progress. Without real democracy, another Mao may come to the stage and destroy the whole nation.
Ling Toh Woon, Kuala Lumpur
Food shortages
With reference to your page one article "World food stocks dwindling rapidly, UN warns," (Dec. 18): People are right to be concerned about the rapid food price inflation. Populations are increasing, Indian and Chinese consumers are demanding more meat, and environmental pressures from climate change are starting to harm production around the world.
We are - for the first time in many decades - forced to think about a possibility of food shortages on a global scale, and the pressures on prices are expected to increase even further.
But there are some solutions available to help improve the situation. Plant science technologies, including fertilizers, crop protection and biotech seeds are helping farmers increase yields while also protecting biodiversity and natural resources. Crop seeds that are drought and heat resistant and can deal with greater levels of salinity are being produced in research laboratories at the moment - giving new hope to farmers around the world. Technology is not the only solution to our current and future problems, but it is a proven one.
Howard Minigh, Brussels Chief executive, CropLife International
The risks of modified foods
Mark Schwartz's article "Fear versus Science," (Views, Dec. 15) gives the impression that only the EU is opposed to genetically modified foods. In reality, numerous official and nongovernmental organizations worldwide are strongly opposed to engineered foods and how they are being introduced into the food chain with little or no supervision.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Schwartz's employer, the Department of Agriculture and the Environmental Agency are responsible for protecting American citizens from the real and potential harms of engineered foods. Each has failed to carry out its responsibilities - to the benefit of the biotech industries they are supposed to oversee.
The largest producers of such foods, based in the United States, are minimally regulated and not required to demonstrate the safety of their products.
Schwartz puts the onus on the public to produce "scientific evidence" showing the risk of GM foods.
Space constraints limit the length and depth of this rebuttal, but the Internet contains over 11 pages of links to articles and NGOs pointing out the problems associated with GM technology. Of particular interest is the Union of Concerned Scientists and, for example, one of its scientific papers by Margaret Mellon and Jane Rissler on "The U.S. approach to the regulation of biotechnology products."
It may take a while to prove that foods altered for profit are not healthy or sustainable, or it may not. Right now, no one is absolutely certain what the risks are because there is no adequate research by reliable public or private institutions.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/12/21/opinion/edlet.php
'It's not a stage thing - it's a movie'
Ithink Sweeney Todd has endured for 150 years because it's a gripping tale," says Stephen Sondheim, creator of the acclaimed musical, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street , which has now been adapted into a movie by Tim Burton with Johnny Depp in the lead role. Talking in London last week, Sondheim says: "It's a tragedy in the classic tradition about someone who goes out for revenge and ends up destroying himself."
The character Sweeney Todd first appeared in a story, The String of Pearls: A Romance , published by Thomas Peckett Prest in 1846. According to legend, Todd would cut his customers' throats, then send their corpses down a chute into the cellar below, where they were chopped up and used as filling for meat pies by his accomplice, the widowed baker Mrs Lovett.
In 1847, Prest's story was adapted into a play, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street . But it was British playwright Christopher Bond's 1973 play Sweeney Todd that first introduced the revenge plot now considered integral to the legend. In Bond's tale, Sweeney loses his wife and daughter after being unjustly sent to prison. He plots retribution against those who wronged him but his murderous impulses soon extend to the whole of society. In 1979, using Bond's work as a template, Sondheim brought the story to a wider audience in the stage musical he wrote with Hugh Wheeler. Making its debut in March 1979, it was unlike anything seen on Broadway before - original, witty and dark, with otherworldly music.
John Logan, who has adapted the musical for the screen, says: "What sets Sweeney Todd apart from other musicals is the solid emotional core. It's a dark but passionate story about a man who's wronged, seeks revenge and, in the process, goes mad. It's also about a woman who's in love with him but can't make a connection with him. And it's about a young girl raised by a brutal stepfather trying to find happiness. All these emotional lines collide in the film and the fact that it's heightened by music and singing makes it all the more lushly romantic."
A film version of Sweeney Todd seemed logical to Sondheim since his musical was inspired by a score from the composer Bernard Herrmann, best known for Vertigo and Psycho . "I've been a movie fan since I was a kid," says Sondheim. "When I was 15, I saw Hangover Square with a Herrmann score. It's a flamboyant Edwardian melodrama about a composer who goes crazy - when he hears certain sounds, he goes out and murders beautiful girls. I remember loving that score and I thought it would be fun to scare audiences and see if I could do it with singing."
Although director Tim Burton is known for his dark macabre films, Sweeney Todd is his first musical. "Tim is a perfect fit," says Sondheim. "In many ways, it's his simplest, most direct film, and you can see that he's telling a story he likes." Burton didn't see the original Broadway production but saw a performance in London while he was a student. "I'm not a big musical fan, but I loved it," he recalls. From the beginning, Burton approached the text as an old horror movie that would juxtapose beautiful but eerie music with dark and haunting images. Asked about their collaboration, Burton pays tribute to Sondheim as "a formidable man, very intelligent and passionate, a genius at what he does. What I respect and feel grateful for is that Stephen can let the story go - he understood that it's not a stage thing, it's a movie."
Sweeney Todd is Burton's sixth film with Johnny Depp, after Edward Scissorhands , Ed Wood , Sleepy Hollow , Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Corpse Bride . Burton explains: "Every time Johnny and I work together, we try to do something different, and singing for a whole movie is not something we're used to. Johnny and I always want to stretch ourselves, and this was perfect outlet for that."
In 2001, before Burton was even contracted to direct Sweeney Todd , he visited Depp at his house in the south of France and gave him a CD of the stage production. Depp recalls: "Tim said, 'I don't know if you've ever heard this. Give it a listen.' I gave it a listen and thought, 'Well, that's interesting.' Then, five or six years later, the big question: 'Do you think you can sing?' 'I don't know,' I told Tim, 'I'll see if I can.' "
In the 1980s, Depp had played guitar in a Florida band, The Kids, although he never actually sang an entire song. "I was the guy who would come in and sing the harmony, very quickly," he laughs. "It would be all of, like, three seconds and then I was out, and I could find my way back to the dark and continue playing guitar."
"I said to Tim, 'I'm going to go into the studio with a pal of mine and I'm going to try and sing the songs, and if I'm close, then we can talk about it, or I'll call you and say, you know what, I can't do it. It's just impossible.' "
It turned out to be possible but not easy. Sondheim writes such complicated music that it made the performers "feel like climbing Mount Everest without oxygen and without Sherpas," says Burton. But although Sondheim was concerned about the musical adaptation, he was just as focused on the performers, as he explains, "I prefer actors who sing over singers who act. That doesn't always do the music good, but it does keep the story going and that's what's is important."
In terms of the story, Depp found the key to Sweeney Todd was to think of him not as a killer but as a victim. He reflects: "Sweeney is obviously a dark figure, but quite sensitive. He has experienced something traumatic in his life, a grave injustice. I always saw him as a victim." Depp also saw Sweeney as "a little slow. Not dumb, just a half-step behind. The rug was pulled out from under his perfect life. The only reason he came back was to eliminate the people who had done him wrong."
Sweeney's favoured instruments are his shiny cutthroat razors, his tools of the trade as a barber. Mrs Lovett - who is played by Tim Burton's wife Helena Bonham Carter - held on to them while he was in prison. Once back in his hands, they become his lifeline and means of revenge. "I serenade them in a song called 'My Friends,' " Depp explains. "These blades are an extension of me, the only love in my life now that my family's gone."
"Johnny's performance is extraordinary," says Sondheim. "Sweeney's desire for revenge and the simmering anger and hurt he feels carry the story forward, and Johnny finds the most remarkable variety within that narrow set of emotions. The intensity is at a boil all the time and he never drops it."
'Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street' opened yesterday in the US and is released in the UK on January 25
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/237796c8-b031-11dc-b874-0000779fd2ac.html
The character Sweeney Todd first appeared in a story, The String of Pearls: A Romance , published by Thomas Peckett Prest in 1846. According to legend, Todd would cut his customers' throats, then send their corpses down a chute into the cellar below, where they were chopped up and used as filling for meat pies by his accomplice, the widowed baker Mrs Lovett.
In 1847, Prest's story was adapted into a play, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street . But it was British playwright Christopher Bond's 1973 play Sweeney Todd that first introduced the revenge plot now considered integral to the legend. In Bond's tale, Sweeney loses his wife and daughter after being unjustly sent to prison. He plots retribution against those who wronged him but his murderous impulses soon extend to the whole of society. In 1979, using Bond's work as a template, Sondheim brought the story to a wider audience in the stage musical he wrote with Hugh Wheeler. Making its debut in March 1979, it was unlike anything seen on Broadway before - original, witty and dark, with otherworldly music.
John Logan, who has adapted the musical for the screen, says: "What sets Sweeney Todd apart from other musicals is the solid emotional core. It's a dark but passionate story about a man who's wronged, seeks revenge and, in the process, goes mad. It's also about a woman who's in love with him but can't make a connection with him. And it's about a young girl raised by a brutal stepfather trying to find happiness. All these emotional lines collide in the film and the fact that it's heightened by music and singing makes it all the more lushly romantic."
A film version of Sweeney Todd seemed logical to Sondheim since his musical was inspired by a score from the composer Bernard Herrmann, best known for Vertigo and Psycho . "I've been a movie fan since I was a kid," says Sondheim. "When I was 15, I saw Hangover Square with a Herrmann score. It's a flamboyant Edwardian melodrama about a composer who goes crazy - when he hears certain sounds, he goes out and murders beautiful girls. I remember loving that score and I thought it would be fun to scare audiences and see if I could do it with singing."
Although director Tim Burton is known for his dark macabre films, Sweeney Todd is his first musical. "Tim is a perfect fit," says Sondheim. "In many ways, it's his simplest, most direct film, and you can see that he's telling a story he likes." Burton didn't see the original Broadway production but saw a performance in London while he was a student. "I'm not a big musical fan, but I loved it," he recalls. From the beginning, Burton approached the text as an old horror movie that would juxtapose beautiful but eerie music with dark and haunting images. Asked about their collaboration, Burton pays tribute to Sondheim as "a formidable man, very intelligent and passionate, a genius at what he does. What I respect and feel grateful for is that Stephen can let the story go - he understood that it's not a stage thing, it's a movie."
Sweeney Todd is Burton's sixth film with Johnny Depp, after Edward Scissorhands , Ed Wood , Sleepy Hollow , Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Corpse Bride . Burton explains: "Every time Johnny and I work together, we try to do something different, and singing for a whole movie is not something we're used to. Johnny and I always want to stretch ourselves, and this was perfect outlet for that."
In 2001, before Burton was even contracted to direct Sweeney Todd , he visited Depp at his house in the south of France and gave him a CD of the stage production. Depp recalls: "Tim said, 'I don't know if you've ever heard this. Give it a listen.' I gave it a listen and thought, 'Well, that's interesting.' Then, five or six years later, the big question: 'Do you think you can sing?' 'I don't know,' I told Tim, 'I'll see if I can.' "
In the 1980s, Depp had played guitar in a Florida band, The Kids, although he never actually sang an entire song. "I was the guy who would come in and sing the harmony, very quickly," he laughs. "It would be all of, like, three seconds and then I was out, and I could find my way back to the dark and continue playing guitar."
"I said to Tim, 'I'm going to go into the studio with a pal of mine and I'm going to try and sing the songs, and if I'm close, then we can talk about it, or I'll call you and say, you know what, I can't do it. It's just impossible.' "
It turned out to be possible but not easy. Sondheim writes such complicated music that it made the performers "feel like climbing Mount Everest without oxygen and without Sherpas," says Burton. But although Sondheim was concerned about the musical adaptation, he was just as focused on the performers, as he explains, "I prefer actors who sing over singers who act. That doesn't always do the music good, but it does keep the story going and that's what's is important."
In terms of the story, Depp found the key to Sweeney Todd was to think of him not as a killer but as a victim. He reflects: "Sweeney is obviously a dark figure, but quite sensitive. He has experienced something traumatic in his life, a grave injustice. I always saw him as a victim." Depp also saw Sweeney as "a little slow. Not dumb, just a half-step behind. The rug was pulled out from under his perfect life. The only reason he came back was to eliminate the people who had done him wrong."
Sweeney's favoured instruments are his shiny cutthroat razors, his tools of the trade as a barber. Mrs Lovett - who is played by Tim Burton's wife Helena Bonham Carter - held on to them while he was in prison. Once back in his hands, they become his lifeline and means of revenge. "I serenade them in a song called 'My Friends,' " Depp explains. "These blades are an extension of me, the only love in my life now that my family's gone."
"Johnny's performance is extraordinary," says Sondheim. "Sweeney's desire for revenge and the simmering anger and hurt he feels carry the story forward, and Johnny finds the most remarkable variety within that narrow set of emotions. The intensity is at a boil all the time and he never drops it."
'Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street' opened yesterday in the US and is released in the UK on January 25
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/237796c8-b031-11dc-b874-0000779fd2ac.html
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