India must take advantage of the fact that World wants India to grow: PM

After the eight-day visit to the US and Brazil, where he attended the Summits of Nuclear Security, IBSA and BRIC, the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh recently said it to the accompanying journalists while coming back home, “The world want India to succeed and we should take advantage of the situation as we don’t know how long it will last.”
Moreover, Singh also pointed out that the rise of China gives the world many apprehensions while it is not the case with the Indian economy, rather the World wants it grow and succeed in the long-run. However, Singh rightly highlighted the fact that India’s problems are back at home and the country has to tackle those problems first, he added.
The honourable PM expressed his views after being asked about the feedback that he got after meeting one of the most powerful leaders in the world including US President Barack Obama, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Chinese President Hu Jintao in Washington and Brazil in the last seven days.
It has been noted at these summits that the global financial crisis has now shown some signs of recovery but still the momentum needs to be maintained in order to ensure a sustainable growth

Some girls go the DIY route to prom dresses

Kayte Postle's prom dress is deep blue with a shimmery overlay that mimics the night sky.

The skirt touches the ground -- and then some -- and the dress' overall appearance is elegant. But it can't be bought in a store.

Vogue pattern 2788 actually is a wedding dress, Postle explained, as she pinned a few pieces together less than two weeks before the Career and Technology Education Centers of Licking County prom on April 11.

"I just made a little bit of modifications to it," she said.

Homemade prom dresses aren't exactly a spiking trend, Postle said, but the C-TEC senior has been making sun dresses for years, and why not use the senior prom to make a statement?

Her motivation is part originality, part cost and part modesty, she said.

"It's a money-saver, but I'm also getting exactly what I want," she said -- and yes, that includes straps. (She also considered sleeves but decided against it.)

Other teens across the country have different reasoning: For some, making clothes is a creative outlet; for others, inspiration comes from TV shows featuring fashion designers, and a growing number of celebrities launching their own clothing lines have helped build interest in do-it-yourself wardrobes.

"It's a nice feeling when someone asks, 'Where did you get it?' and you can say, 'Well, I made it,'" Postle said.

Annie Henderson, a senior at O'More College of Design in Franklin, Tenn., got her start sewing in 4-H.

Originally from Somerset, Henderson made two of her four homecoming dresses in high school and also has made two prom dresses for high school girls.

"I would say the biggest advantage is probably the price," Henderson said. "The next best thing about that is that you get what you want."

The cost of making a prom dress varies depending on style and fabric, but in general the homemade varieties are a deal compared to their store-manufactured counterparts, said Postle, who estimated her dress cost about $70.

"Seventy dollars for exactly what I want when most dresses are over the $100 mark, that's not too bad," she said.

Henderson said the prom dresses she made were "around the $100 range."

And, of course, there's always the originality factor.

"You don't have to rely on what's in style or what someone else has designed for you," Henderson said. "I know the first year I made one, I made a hot pink dress -- every other girl had a black dress."

Katherine Jenkins portrait in Nutella

KATHERINE Jenkins is often described as sweet, but a Welsh arts student has gone a step further by creating a portrait of the Welsh singer – out of Nutella.

The picture was created especially for Wales on Sunday by Nathan Wyburn, a 20-year-old fine art student from Ebbw Vale, who has become an internet sensation after posting videos of himself on YouTube creating celebrity portraits from food.
Some of the most popular videos that have helped his website receive an astonishing 1.5 million hits include an image of controversial pop star Lady Gaga made out of sugar and a picture of Britain’s Got Talent supremo Simon Cowell made from Marmite and toast.
Other pictures include Gordon Brown in Marmite, KFC’s iconic Colonel Sanders in tomato ketchup and pop star Pink in chocolate syrup.
Nathan, who is in his first year at the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff (Uwic) has always had a passion for art but only decided to experiment with food in the past few years.
He said: “It’s a really fun thing to do and really expressive. I have been interested in art since I was about 12 years old, but the food ideas were only for fun at first. My parents were always telling me not to play with my food, so I decided to go ahead and play with it. It’s fun to do and I’m never bored.”
He has now been approached by Marmite to front its “love it” campaign, and recently re-created guerrilla artist Bansky’s famous Maid in London design on 160 loaves of bread, using six jars of Marmite, in Ebbw Vale town centre for an advert.
He was inspired to first use the spread for the Simon Cowell picture after hearing an interviewer describing the controversial judge as someone “you either love or hate” – the product’s slogan.
Nathan said: “Their PR agency contacted me after seeing the video I made of the Marmite portraits. I am now supporting the love it campaign in the advert. The advert was really fun to do as it was in the middle of town so it was a big attraction and lots of people were commenting on my work. Quite a lot of people said they had trouble just spreading Marmite onto their toast, let alone make a portrait out of it.”
Talking about the Katherine Jenkins picture, which he made with the chocolate and nut spread, he added: “I decided to make it out of Nutella because she’s just so sweet. I used card this time, just to test it out, which was much easier than using the toast.”
He is now helping out at his former primary school, teaching some of the children how to draw and how to be creative with their art.
He said: “I had a good time teaching at my old school. I signed loads of signatures.”
But despite most people being impressed by his work, Nathan says he is used to the odd negative comment.
“People sometimes complain that I am wasting food, but it always gets eaten somehow. The bread we used for the Marmite advert was given to a horse farm for them to eat. But people generally like what I do and I get a lot of positive feedback, which is good,” he said.
Nathan’s work has featured on Blue Peter, where he helped presenters create portraits using food such as bread and ketchup and earned himself a Blue Peter badge.
He now commissions drawings on his website for people who want portraits of their photographs or their favourite celebrities.
Other drawings which feature on his website include tributes to celebrities such as Michael Jackson, Heath Ledger and Marilyn Monroe.
He has also made a video of himself answering questions people post on his website about his work.
He says he has a few ideas about taking his work further and promises to put new videos up on YouTube, but wants to keep it a surprise.
He films and edits the videos to speed up the painting process – which usually takes a few hours – into a few minutes.
Nathan said: “I thought it would be interesting to record myself drawing and put it up online. I did not expect to get 1.5 millions hits, or anything like that. I’m very grateful and it’s just amazing.”

Michener Art Museum's 'Fashion and Accessories trunk show'

Sherry Tinsman jewlery

In the spirit of the exhibition "Icons of Costume: Hollywood’s Golden Era and Beyond", the James A. Michener Art Museum’s Denoon Shop presents a Fashion and Accessories Trunk Show spotlighting regional artisans and their work on Saturday, May 8 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Locally made jewelry, scarves, coats, hats and more are available for purchase with proceeds supporting the Museum and its community programs.

Among the artists featured at this sales event:

-Sherry Tinsman has been a jeweler for over 20 years and works out of her studio in Bucks County. Her handmade silver designs are inspired by nature, featuring distinctive spirals and flowers.

-Illia Barger, renowned colorist and artist known for large-scale murals and sensual paintings of fruits and flowers, designs an environmentally conscious fashion line called Pantaluna. Each piece collages reclaimed 100% cotton T-shirts into one-of-a-kind, American-made wearable works of art.

-Ann Koch of Couture Creations is a self-trained milliner. Her hats incorporate vintage elements and have been selected for the Kentucky Derby Museum's Derby Hat Exhibit.

-Diana Contine of Dakota Moon works in fine silver, gems and beads. Her silver stamped pendants combine themes of bees, dragonflies, celestial motifs and hearts, with gems and stones using an adventurous sense of color and unexpected textures.

-Harshita Lohia of Harshita Designs creates original, colorful graphic patterns on scarves, shawls, tunics and jackets fashioned from silk. Her collection represents her rich heritage and her sensitive way of blending East and West.

-Ilene Pearl Bannwart’s iPearl collection features ladies’ jackets of couture quality and classic styles. She has found her passion in creating styles specifically for elegant, discerning women of all ages and sizes.

Admission to the Fashion and Accessories Trunk Show is free. For more information, call (215) 340-9800 or visit the Museum's website at www.MichenerArtMuseum.org.

Tattoo Model Claims She Has (Not So Sexy) Sexts From Jesse James

 

This lady claims to have sexted with Sandra Bullock's husband.

Jesse James has yet to confirm or deny his relationship with today's most Google-searched tattoo model Michelle McGee. But In Touch is now claiming it has proof the pair at the very least sexted each other. Have we learned nothing from the Tiger Woods scandal? Or at the very least, every other episode of Degrassi: The Next Generation?
The magazine has released images of text messages which McGee claims were sent between her and James (or "Jesse J," as per McGee's caller ID). And while the released conversation dates back to May 25, 2009, the magazine claims to have messages sent as recently as March 14.
As for the content of the released messages, they're decidedly SFW, but here goes:
"Just think'n bout u this morning," writes "Jesse J," who McGee claims is the self-same Mr. Sandra Bullock.
"You need it?" he writes in another text.
"Yup," McGee replies -- though the context of the messages fails to reveal whether the "it" in question is a certain attribute of James' which McGee has previously referred to as his "Vanilla Gorilla."
James married Sandra Bullock in 2005, and has been married twice before, most recently to imprisoned porn star Janine Lindemulder with whom he has a young daughter.
McGee, the face-tattooed model impersonating Katy Perry in the photo above, claims that she and James hooked up while Bullock was away filming The Blind Side in Atlanta, and that they have continued their relationship for nearly a year.

AFP photographers win Asian Human Rights Awards

A large group of Han Chinese walking up a street carrying sticks and shovels in Urumqi in China's far west Xinjiang province.–AFP Photo/ Peter Parks

HONG KONG: Photographers from Agence France-Presse were Saturday awarded the top news and feature prizes at the prestigious Asian Human Rights Awards for outstanding coverage of riots in China's Xinjiang region and acid attack victims in Pakistan.
Beijing-based Peter Parks won the main award in the news category for dramatic images of the aftermath of deadly unrest in the northwestern Chinese region of Xinjiang in July last year.
Parks' photo of an ethnic Han Chinese mob on the streets of the town of Urumqi armed with sticks, knives and baseball bats appeared on front pages around the world.
Parks was also commended for a photo of grieving relatives of victims of the riots, while Beijing-based colleague Frederic Brown received a merit award for coverage of the anniversary of the Sichuan earthquake in May last year.
Bangkok-based photographer Nicolas Asfouri won the top features prize at the 14th annual awards, announced at a ceremony at Hong Kong's Foreign Correspondents Club, for work on assignment in Pakistan.
The head of the judging panel, former Time magazine chief Asia photographer Robin Moyer, said Asfouri's photographs of a lady disfigured in an acid attack were almost impossible to look at but extraordinarily powerful. Asfouri was also commended for a feature on child labor in Pakistan.
AFP's chief Asia photo editor Eric Baradat said it was the third year running the agency's photographers had scooped the top prizes at the awards.
“These awards are welcome recognition for AFP's photographers across the Asian region who frequently put themselves in danger to bring powerful and vital images to the world,” said Baradat.
AFP also won a special judges' award for a body of written features from Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Among the written features commended by the judges were stories about tribal justice and artists living under Taliban rule by Karachi correspondent Hasan Mansoor, a story on modern slavery by Islamabad correspondent Khurram Shahzad, a piece on the persecution of Afghan singers by Kabul correspondent Sardar Ahmad and a story on election irregularities by Emmanuel Duparcq.
This year's awards ceremony was dedicated to the memory of 32 Filipino journalists massacred in an ambush in the south of the country in November last year, the single largest killing of journalists recorded anywhere in the world.
Myrna Reblando, whose husband Alejandro of the Manila Bulletin newspaper was among the dead, accepted a special award in memory of the victims.’

Abraham Lincoln film of 1913 found in US barn cleanup

This photo provided by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences shows director and film star Francis Ford in the role of Abraham Lincoln in a 1913 film that had been lost for 97 years.

CONCORD: In a tale celebrating the romance of movies, a contractor cleaning out an old New Hampshire barn destined for demolition found seven reels of nitrate film inside, including the only known copy of a 1913 silent film about Abraham Lincoln.
''When Lincoln Paid,'' a 30-minute film about the mother of a dead Union soldier asking Lincoln to pardon a Confederate soldier whom she had initially turned in, stars the brother of John Ford, director of ''The Grapes of Wrath,'' ''The Quiet Man,'' and other classics.
''I was up in the attic space, and shoved away over in a corner was the film and a silent movie projector, as well,'' Peter Massie, a movie buff, said of his discovery in the western New Hampshire town of Nelson. ''I thought it was really cool.''
It was the summer of 2006, and the film canisters sat in his basement for a while before Massie thought of contacting nearby Keene State College, where film professor Larry Benaquist thought it was a rare find.
After working with the George Eastman House film preservation museum in Rochester, New York, the college determined that the film, directed by and starring Francis Ford, did not exist in film archives.
In fact, it was one of eight silent films starring Ford as Lincoln; there are no known surviving copies of the others.
''The vast majority of silent films, particularly from the early period, the first decade of the 20th century, are gone,'' said Caroline Frick Page, curator of motion pictures at George Eastman House. ''That's what makes these stories so incredibly special.''
The college, which plans an April 20 film screening, received a grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation to restore it. It took a Colorado lab a year to complete the task.
Benaquist said the images themselves were well preserved, likely because they endured decades of New England winters in the barn, which also was well sheltered by trees. Nitrate film, which was phased out in Hollywood in the 1950s, is highly flammable. The 35 mm film itself had shrunk and the sprocket holes used on projectors were shredded.
''What the laboratory had to do was remanufacture the sprocket holes to a new dimension, make it in strips, adhere it to the image, and then run it through a printing process where they would print it, frame by frame,'' Benaquist said.
Benaquist thinks the film was discovered in Nelson because the town is on Granite Lake, the site of many summer camps through the years. He said there was a boys' camp in the area of the barn and believes the films were shown to entertain the children, then put away and forgotten.
Helping the restoration was Mark Reinhart of Columbus, Ohio, author of ''Abraham Lincoln on Screen.'' He had a crude video copy of the film that had been made from an 8-mm copy and included a few scenes that were missing from the film found in the barn.
The college combined a DVD of the restored film with a DVD taken of Reinhart's film for its final version.
Back in 1913, the film was praised by ''Moving Picture World,'' a weekly trade publication sent to film distributors, as ''a great war drama'' with vivid battle scenes.

Fiat design focuses on Italian innovation

File - Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2010 file photo of an Alfa Romeo MiTo car displayed at the Fiat Style Center in Turin, Italy. The world is still waiting to see what kind of auto design emerges from the alliance of Italy's Fiat and U.S. Chrysler. One thing is clear: there's a lot of Italian flair to draw on, in the person of Fiat's design chief Lorenzo Ramaciotti. Ramaciotti helped design everything from the high-end Ferrari Enzo to the economical Peugeot 407 during his career at independent styling house Pininfarina. Expect some surprises ahead.

TURIN, Italy — The world is still waiting to see what kind of auto design emerges from the alliance of Italy's Fiat and U.S. Chrysler. One thing is clear: there's a lot of Italian flair to draw on, in the person of Fiat's design chief Lorenzo Ramaciotti.

Ramaciotti helped design everything from the high-end Ferrari Enzo to the economical Peugeot 407 during his career at independent styling house Pininfarina. Expect some surprises ahead.
"Italian design can't be repetitive. It must be a design that is a little surprising, with something innovative from one model to the next," said Ramaciotti in an interview in his modest office at Fiat's Centro Stile, decorated with logos of the six Fiat brands whose style he commands.
How much of that Italian flair will seep into the Chrysler's designs is still being worked out, nearly a year after Fiat took a controlling stake in the United States' third-largest automaker. Chrysler has its own design operation, but Ramaciotti would be key partner in any cooperation.
In the Ramaciotti world, cars aren't mere vessels of transport — but an expression of an idea. Fiat is fun and friendly, simple solutions. Alfa Romeo is fast, sporty, attention-grabbing.
"If you have a car that takes you from point A to point B, why not have it be nice? If you are capable, why not?" Ramaciotti asks.
Lancia, which is being twinned with the Chrysler brand, will be the harbinger of Italian design: "Good taste, proportionality, all the elements that we are recognized for," he said. By "we," he meant Italian design, not Fiat.
"Italian automobile design was for many years the beacon for the world. Now it has been weakened. Why? Because we exported our design culture," Ramaciotti said. First to Japan, where Italians designed a lot of cars in the 1970s. Then in Korea, for Daewoo and Hyundai, and now China.
Ramaciotti's first move at Fiat was to bring all of Fiat's brands, except the extremely expensive Ferrari, under one roof. No longer designing cars himself, Ramaciotti oversees the the process — keeping the creative staff on deadline — at Fiat's sprawling 20,000-square-meter (215,280 sq. feet) design center at the Mirafiori plant in Turin.
Ramaciotti has a broad portfolio, six brands under one roof: the flagship Fiat brand, sporty Alfa Romeo, up-market Lancia, luxury Maserati, amped-up Abarth and sturdy Fiat light commercial vehicles. The two companies will share platforms and the first Fiat to return to the U.S. market — the Cinquecento, or 500 — is being rolled out later this year, with a few tweaks aimed at American tastes.
The car will look the same on the outside as the original compact retro-chic three-door hatchback that has charmed Europeans. But the American market required some adjustments: wider seats, cupholders, arm rests, automatic transmissions, and larger license plate holders. Fiat is offering colors, like sand, that are more suited to American tastes than, say, the Italian green-white-and-red striped paint job sold in Europe.
"The general flavor of the car has remained very much Italian," Ramaciotti said. "It has such personality that we think that even the Americans will buy it in the Italian colors.
"Someone who buys a 500 does not buy it just as a means of transport, but because it is cute and European."
Fiat isn't expecting to sell huge volumes of the 500 in the United States — around 50,000 to 80,000 a year — figuring the appeal for the tiny car will mostly be in big cities. But it is the car that relaunched the Fiat brand in Europe. And it will be the Fiat that introduces American drivers to Chrysler's new bosses.
While the tiny 500 will be Fiat's Italian emissary to North America, the zippy new Giulietta, Alfa Romeo's latest launch, is unlikely to make the trans-Atlantic passage. The Giulietta is a hatchback, and Americans have scorned hatchbacks, despite all their practicality, in favor of SUVs and crossovers, Ramaciotti said.
The Giulietta made its debut at the Geneva auto show and will go on sale later this month in Europe. It is the car that is supposed to relaunch the Alfa Romeo brand and give it a new chance after a disappointing couple of years.
But what will go to the United States is the new Compact platform that the Giulietta is built on — a billion-dollar investment that Marchionne wants to squeeze at least one million cars from.
In fact, much of what Fiat contributes to Chrysler will not be visible to consumers in terms of style but in the form of cleaner-burning engines and small-car platforms. In Europe, Fiat expects to take advantage of Chrysler's larger car and minivan platforms.
So far in the alliance, Fiat and Chrysler are maintaining separate design centers. Still, the Fiat and Chrysler alliance is slowly growing more entwined, as evident in the appointment of Lancia brand CEO Olivier Francois to run the Chrysler brand.
The Fiat Design Center has been holding back several new models, waiting for the crisis to abate.
Ramaciotti won't say how many, deferring until April 21, when Fiat presents its new five-year business plan.
Analysts expect Fiat will announce plans for a new Panda in 2011, the next generation Punto, new small vans, sometimes called multi-purpose vehicles or MPVs, possibly based on Chrysler's successful minivan, still known in Europe as the Grand Voyager and in the United States as Town & Country. Fiat may also announce a new Lancia Ypsilon, a new Lancia Delta, as well as mid-size and large sedans, based on Chrysler platforms. And there may be a new flagship car for Alfa Romeo.
"To come out with a new car in such a depressed market means losing 20 percent of sales. The peak, when you theoretically should sell the most cars, is when you present the car. You risk ruining yourself at the best moment," Ramaciotti said.
"On the other hand, you can't rely only on the old lineup of cars, with the old cars for an eternity. It's a difficult choice."

President Zardari to sign 18th Amendment tomorrow

Nawaz Sharif is expected to be present at the ceremony after having accepted the president’s invitation 

 

ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari is set to sign the eighteenth constitutional amendment bill on Monday.
President Zardari has invited PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif at the presidency to attend the bill-signing ceremony, presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar told DawnNews.
Sharif is expected to be present at the ceremony after having accepted the president’s invitation, sources said.
Meanwhile, chief ministers of all four provinces will also be present in the ceremony.
The eighteenth amendment will become the part of the constitution after Zardari signs it on Monday.
Babar said arrangements are being finalised for “a ceremony befitting the historical occasion of reforming the constitution, and ridding it of all undemocratic clauses inserted in it by successive dictatorships.”

Nuclear hazards

Even Obama, who seems to have all the answers to Pakistan’s nuclear programme, has indicated that he does not know what became of a secret $100m grant that the Bush administration gave Pakistan to secure its nuclear stockpile. - Photo by Reuters.

For those in Pakistan who have questions about nuclear security, this past week they should have finally learned to stop worrying and to love the bomb instead. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani assured US President Barack Obama that “appropriate safeguards” were in place to protect the country’s arsenal.

Pakistan declared itself competent in matters of nuclear security, and even offered to share its hard-earned wisdom on how to prevent the trafficking of nuclear materials with the world.

In response, Britain declared itself satisfied with Pakistan’s measures to secure its nuclear weapons. China trumpeted the cause of enhanced nuclear security as the way forward in a world where all countries had the right to use nuclear energy peacefully. And a personage no less than the US president himself assured the world that Pakistan had strengthened port security and taken other measures to prevent future proliferation.

A strategically timed report, titled Securing the Bomb 2010, by Harvard University’s Belfer Centre for Science and International Affairs, offered the only note of dissent. The report states that Pakistan’s stockpile faces a “great threat” from Islamic extremists seeking nuclear weapons and that “there is a very real possibility that sympathetic insiders might carry out or assist in a nuclear theft, or that a sophisticated outsider attack (possibly with insider help) could overwhelm the defences”.

And so the debate about the security of Pakistan’s arsenal continues. But one voice is conspicuously absent from the discussion — that of the average Pakistani citizen. The fact is the conversation about the safety of Pakistan’s nuclear programme has always been between our establishment and that of the United States (and, on occasion, the International Atomic Energy Agency or members of the international community). Despite the fact that Pakistanis themselves are in closest proximity to the country’s nuclear activities, the government and military have not deemed it necessary to engage the public with assurances of safety and security.

Pakistan’s nuclear security debate has always proceeded at international forums. In November 2007, when IAEA chief Mohamed El Baradei warned that the country’s arsenal was at risk, Pakistani security officials held a special briefing for western, rather than local, journalists. The first indication that Pakistan had taken any measures to safeguard its weapons came in February 2008, when Ashley Tellis, an associate of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told the US House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on South Asia that Pakistan’s “strategic assets … are fundamentally safe”. And now we have further assurances in the form of the nuclear policy report that Pakistan presented at the summit in Washington.

The problem with this discussion proceeding at international venues is that the concerns of the global community and those of the Pakistani public do not align. The world is worried about Pakistan’s arsenal or fissile material falling into the hands of terrorists who would attack western targets. Lingering concerns about nuclear proliferation also remain.
No doubt, Pakistanis too should be concerned about these scenarios. But we should also be worried about radiation leaks, nuclear waste dumping, the long-term environmental hazards emanating from storage and waste sites, the socio-economic impact of financing our nuclear programme, and the political and ideological biases of those running the show at the Strategic Plans Division (SPD), which oversees nuclear operations.

Take, for example, the issue of transporting nuclear waste to dumping sites. Pakistan continues to produce fissile material and is adding to its production facilities in the form of a second nuclear reactor, built to produce weapons-grade plutonium, and a third reactor that is still under construction. This increased production will inevitably produce waste, which has to be transported in special container casks designed for spent fuel from nuclear reactors and power plants.

These containers can be transported on trucks or by rail. A severe accident — the collapse of a bridge, a train derailment — could result in the breach of a nuclear cask and the spillage of highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel. Exposure to such a spill could kill dozens of people in the vicinity and lead to more cancer deaths in the future.

Pakistanis are currently unaware of the location of most nuclear waste sites, and certainly do not know the routes utilised to transport nuclear waste across the country. They have no assurances that the concerned authorities are using the appropriate casks of steel and lead, which should be a minimum of five inches thick, during transport. Nor can they be sure that the nuclear material being transported is embedded, as per international regulations, in a clay-like material that is penetrable only by fire.

Finally, they do not know if the government and military have the funds available to clean up a radiation leak in the event of a spent nuclear fuel accident (the US Energy Department has estimated the cost of tackling a radioactive leak to be between $300,000 and $10bn, depending on the location, weather conditions, and other variables).

This is a concern that should be among others playing on the minds of Pakistanis when they hear their leadership’s ambitious nuclear aspirations. Now that Pakistan has offered advanced nuclear fuel cycle services to the world, civil society should start asking tough questions of the SPD about measures taken to ensure nuclear safety within Pakistan, beyond the gambit of terrorism.

Our civilian government should also prepare to answer questions on how — in a time of fiscal crisis, when food inflation and loadshedding are crippling our economy and driving poor Pakistanis to suicide — we are paying for our nuclear programme. Even Obama, who seems to have all the answers to Pakistan’s nuclear programme, has indicated that he does not know what became of a secret $100m grant that the Bush administration gave Pakistan to secure its nuclear stockpile.

If the establishment yearns for nuclear legitimacy, it must have regard for transparency and accountability — certainly, to the international community, but above all, to Pakistanis who have long supported a nuclear Pakistan.