UK Border Force seizes heroin worth millions

LONDON: Millions of pounds worth of heroin woven into hand-made rugs and carpets was discovered by Border Force officers in a consignment being shipped from Peshawar in Pakistan via Abu Dhabi.

Border Force officials became suspicious of the 46-piece consignment at Manchester Airport after a sniffer dog alerted its handler to one of the carpets. After investigations officers have found over 50 kilograms of heroin woven into the carpets. The seizure has shocked the border and customs officials who have said that the smugglers are becoming more and more sophisticated in their methods and can go to any length for their heinous purposes.

The drugs were discovered on April 24th but the examination of the consignment continues. Following the discovery two people were arrested on suspicion of drug importation offences in London by the National Crime Agency’s (NCA) Border Policing Command. Both are believed to be Pakistan, a source told Geo.

According to Border Force officials the haul is among the largest drug seizures made at the Manchester Airport. The Border Force has termed the seizure a result of impressive vigilance and hard work of the officers given the lengths criminals go to avoid detection.

If the sniffer dog had not spotted the carpet then, officers fear, the streets of Britain would have seen millions of Pounds worth drugs on the streets. The source said that the drugs are believed to have been coming from Afghanistan via Pakistan.

2-legged Washington dog charms millions with video

VANCOUVER: A dog in Washington state has no rear legs, but he can balance enough to run on only his front legs, as millions of people have seen in a YouTube video.

Duncan was born with deformed rear legs that were amputated to remove the dead weight.

The 9-month-old boxer belongs to Amanda Giese and Gary Walters, who run a nonprofit animal rescue called Panda Paws Rescue out of their home in the Clark County community of Felida.

The Columbian reports the couple took Duncan to Rockaway Beach on the Oregon coast in March and took the video of Duncan racing across the sand and chasing sticks.

Giese says they initially tried to fit Duncan in a special wheelchair, but he hated it and can do without it.

Karachi fire gutted goods worth millions

KARACHI: The fire erupted on the first floor of the Rainbow centre in Saddar early morning on Friday here gutted goods worth millions before it could be controlled, Geo News reported.

Fire Brigade on information initially sent two fire tenders and later two more were called to control the spreading fire that soon engulfed as many as eight shops before it could be doused after one and a half hour struggle.

Hundreds of millions with tropical diseases lack treatment

PARIS: At least 1.4 billion people worldwide require treatment for a group of "neglected" tropical diseases and almost two-thirds are going without adequate medical care, eradication campaigners said on Wednesday.

Ailments including intestinal worms, elephantiasis and river blindness-lumped together as "neglected tropical diseases" (NTDs)-mostly affect poor people living in remote rural areas, slums or conflict zones.

A new report from the World Health Organisation, released in Paris on Wednesday and supported by billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates, found that 700 million people received some form of treatment for NTDs in 2012.

But many did not complete a full course of drugs, while hundreds of millions received nothing at all.

"We still need diagnostics and we still need drugs," Gates said at the launch of the WHO progress report dubbed "Uniting to Combat NTDs".

The list of NTDs also includes Guinea worm, blinding trachoma, bilharzia, leprosy, Chagas disease and visceral leishmaniasis (black fever).

The diseases are carried by parasites and bacteria that tend to spread in dirty, cramped living conditions with polluted water and poor sanitation.

They "shackle more than a billion people of the world and most of them are women and children," said WHO chief Margaret Chan.

Many of the diseases are treatable and avoidable, yet they kill, impair and disable millions every year.

More than 800 million children live in areas where worms are "intensively transmitted" and are assumed to be infected. That has an impact on their nutrition, education and general health.

"Funding shortfalls and constrained human capacity in many endemic countries continue to limit the scale-up of drug delivery," the report said.

The report said progress was gradually being made, with the pharmaceutical industry donating nearly 1.35 billion doses of treatments last year.

The World Bank Group will commit $120 million (87 million euros) for NTD treatment in low-income African countries, it said in a statement, while a group of donors announced on Wednesday they would give a similar amount to combat intestinal worms in poor communities.