ISLAMABAD: Kashmir Solidarity Day will be observed across the country on Tuesday to express solidarity with the people of Jammu and Kashmir. On the occasion, seminars and rallies will be organized in the country’s major cities and towns to ‘highlight Kashmiris’ legitimate cause’ besides urging the world community to play its proactive role in seeking a just solution to the dispute that has become potential threat to peace and prosperity of the entire South Asian region.

A one minute silence will be observed on Kashmir Day at 10:00 am to pay homage to the Kashmiri martyrs who have laid their lives during the ongoing struggle. All the government offices, banks, educational institutions and business centres will remain closed in Pakistan and its administered part of Kashmir.

Rallies and processions will be organised in Azad Kashmir and its all district and tehsil headquarters. A human chain will also be formed at Kohala Bridge, 35 kilometres from the capital city Muzaffarabad. The Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), Islamabad chapter, has also announced to form a human chain at Aabpara to express solidarity with the Kashmiris. “JI Amir Qazi Hussain Ahmed and some Kashmiri leaders will also address the event,” Islamabad JI Amir Syed Bilal. He said the JI had also set up camps across the country in connection with Kashmir Solidarity Day.

Meanwhile, in twin cities Rawalpindi/Islamabad special programmes will be held on the Kashmir Day. A plan to this effect has been given a final shape during a meeting chaired by the district coordination officer Rawalpindi and attended by the officers of civic bodies including the police officials of the city. The DCO has directed the concerned officials to make appropriate security arrangements in this regard.

Besides Pakistan Television and Radio Pakistan, the Rawalpindi Arts Council will hold special programmes which include dramas and other features relating to Kashmir. Some schools have also scheduled to conduct programmes on the day and a walk would be organise in the capital city Islamabad, led by eminent politicians of Pakistan besides Kashmiri leadership hailing from both sides of line of control.

Over the last 18 years, the Pakistani nation has been observing the day every year with traditional zeal and fervour to reassure it’s political, moral and diplomatic support to the people of the state. The All Parties Hurriyat Conference has thanked government and people of Pakistan for extending moral, political and diplomatic support to Kashmiris in their struggle to seek their basic right.

In an interview, Maulana Abbas Ansari, acting Chairman APHC said the Kashmir Solidarity Day being observed in Pakistan would help to promote the cause of Kashmir.

Thanking the government and the people of Pakistan for observing this day on February 5, he said it would strengthen the cause of Kashmir and highlight the Kashmir dispute all over the world. He urged the Indian government to take this issue seriously and come up positively to resolve it for the sake of peace in South Asia.

He said a meeting of APHC Executive Committee and General Council was held on Saturday and decided to hold a seminar on Kashmir Solidarity Day in Srinagar. Besides others, Professor Abdul Ghani Bhat, Shabbir Ahmed Shah, Sheikh Abdul Aziz and Azam Inqilabi would speak on different aspects of Kashmir problem.-SANA

February 4th is marked as the World Cancer day to create awareness about cancer and to encourage its prevention, detection, and treatment. International Union Against Cancer (UICC),a global consortium of more than 280 cancer-fighting organizations in over 90 countries leads this. The purpose of World Cancer Day to aware public through global communications marking, and encourages policy makers in UICC member organizations to make cancer a political priority.

Every year on 4 February, WHO joins with the sponsoring International Union Against Cancer to promote methods to reduce the ratio of cancer. Preventing cancer and raising quality of life for cancer patients are recurring themes. According to World Health organisation Cancer is a leading cause of death around the world. WHO estimates that 84 million people will die of cancer between 2005 and 2015 without intervention.

Theme for 2008 is “children and second-hand smoke exposure” on World Cancer Day. Around 700 million children - almost half of the world’s children - breathe air polluted by tobacco smoke, particularly at homes. UICC has recognized these key objectives of denoting World Cancer Day 2008 a No Smoking Year
1. Raise public awareness through a global media campaign launched by UICC on World Cancer Day 2008 as well as local media coverage together with member organizations adapted for local relevance.
2. Engage member organizations to catalyse changes in smoking behaviour in the environment of children within their communities. Develop adaptable online toolkits and assist UICC members, cancer organizations and health institutes around the world to develop local information, media and advocacy campaigns, and annual surveys.
3. Generate a global movement to increase awareness of the hazards of smoking around children and mobilize individual citizens, schools, communities and coalitions of voluntary associations around local initiatives to catalyse smoke-free environments for children (home, car, day care, schools, grandparents)
4. Subject to funding, initiate sustainable educational pilot projects in 10-20 low- and middle-income countries
5. Develop an internationally recognized “No-smoking environment for children” symbol.
6. Increase the motivation to quit, pointing to resources on the campaign website.
7. Engage support for the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (A/FCTC/COP/2/7), and in particular, with respect to Article 8 (Protection from exposure to tobacco smoke)

In 2008, World Cancer Day aims to send a simple message to parents: “Second-hand smoke is a health hazard for you and your family. There is no safe level of exposure to second-hand smoke. Give your child a smoke-free childhood.” It is estimated that over 40% of all cancer can be prevented. However, dramatic increases in risk factors such as tobacco use and obesity are contributing to the rise in cancer rates, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. A rapidly changing global environment due to globalization of markets and urbanization is leading to rising consumption of processed foods high in fats, sugars and salt, as well as tobacco products; declining consumption of fruit and vegetables; and more sedentary activity levels. As a consequence the burden (incidence) of cancer and other chronic diseases is increasing. Other preventable risk factors include many environmental carcinogens and infections caused by Hepatitis B Virus and Human Papilloma Virus.

Sri Lanka celebrates it independence day anniversary on feb 4. This year it is its 60th anniversery. Sri Lanka received independence from the British government in 1948. The Sri Lankan independence movement was a peaceful political movement to aimed at achieving independence for Sri Lanka from British imperial rule.

ndependence day ceremonies will be held at Galle Face in Colombo under the patronage of His Excellency Mahinda Rajapaksha. The military parades will feature the Armed Forces with the Air Force putting on a spectacular air shot. The Navy, Police and school children will also participate at the occasion. The Maha Sangha, and other religious leaders with Ministers and other Government officials will participate at the grant ceremony. Heads of the Armed Forces and foreign diplomats will also be present.

The British negotiated the island’s dominion status with the leader of the State Council, D.S. Senanayake, during World War II. Senanayake was also minister of agriculture and vice chairman of the Board of Ministers. The negotiations ended with the Ceylon Independence Act of 1947, which formalized the transfer of power. Senanayake was the founder and leader of the United National Party (UNP), a partnership of many disparate groups formed during the Donoughmore period, including the Ceylon National Congress, the Sinhala Maha Sabha, and the Muslim League. The UNP easily won the 1947 elections, challenged only by a collection of small, primarily leftist parties. On February 4, 1948, when the new constitution went into effect (making Sri Lanka a dominion), the UNP embarked on a ten-year period of rule.
Divisions in the Body Politic.

The prospects for an economically robust, fully participatory, and manageable democracy looked good during the first years of independence. In contrast to India, which had gained independence a year earlier, there was no massive violence and little social unrest. In Sri Lanka there was also a good measure of governmental continuity. Still, important unresolved ethnic problems soon had to be addressed. The most immediate of these problems was the “Indian question,” which concerned the political status of Tamil immigrants who worked on the highland tea plantations. The Soulbury Commission had left this sensitive question to be resolved by the incoming government.

After independence, debate about the status of the Indian Tamils continued. But three pieces of legislation–the Ceylon Citizenship Act of 1948; the Indian and Pakistani Residents Act No. 3 of 1948, and the Ceylon Parliamentary Elections Amendment Act No. 48 of 1949–all but disenfranchised this minority group. The Ceylon Indian Congress vigorously but unsuccessfully opposed the legislation. The acrimonious debate over the laws of 1948 and 1949 revealed serious fissures in the body politic. There was a cleavage along ethnic lines between the Sinhalese and the Tamils, and also a widening rift between Sri Lankan Tamils and Indian Tamils.

In 1949 a faction of the Ceylon Tamil Congress (the major Tamil party in Sri Lanka at the time) broke away to form the (Tamil) Federal Party under the leadership of S.J.V. Chelvanayakam. The creation of the Federal Party was a momentous postindependence development because it set the agenda for Tamil exclusivity in Sri Lankan politics. Soon after its founding, the Federal Party replaced the more conciliatory Tamil Congress as the major party among Sri Lankan Tamils and advocated an aggressive stance vis-à-vis the Sinhalese.
Sources:
Country Studies
Wikipedia
About Sri Lanka