Pakistan has warned it has “other options” if NATO forces continued to violate its sovereignty by incursions into Pakistani territory. “The NATO has twice violated our sovereignty in this week when its gunships intruded and fired missiles in Pakistani villages across Afghanistan borders in hot pursuit to target Al-Qaida and Taliban leaders slipping into Pakistan from Afghanistan,” Gilani told the National Assembly here Friday.

“This is violation of our sovereignty which is unacceptable,” he said adding that besides diplomatic channels, the government is mulling ‘other options’ to block it. He did not elaborate. “I want to assure you and the whole nation through this House confirms that if intrusion into Pakistan’s security is made, we will think of other options,” said the Prime Minister responding to a point of order raised by members from Balochistan Abdul Qadir Baloch.

The Prime Minister said Pakistan could in no way tolerate collateral damages by strikes inside Pakistan and will not allow anyone to interfere into our sovereignty and security. “If you do not explain it, compensate it or apologise it, we may consider other options too,” Gilani categorically warned.

“We are a responsible nation. Like civilised states, we took up the matter in Brussels and they apologised,” he told the House adding he also told Senator John Kerry that Pakistan has intelligence, defence, political and economic cooperation with the US.

The PM said Pakistan’s cooperation in war against terrorism should not be understood that we should compromise our integrity and sovereignty. “This is our war also as we too are victim to terrorism. But, we are also a nuclear power and a responsible nation and reacted responsibly,” he added.

He said when defence and intelligence cooperation exists there, and “if you have credible and actionable information, you are supposed to share it with our intelligence and defence and it is not rational that you strike inside Pakistan,” he commented.

“You had been in army, we are in politics. Like a responsible nation, we have responded to this strike diplomatically and I assure you if intrusion was made into Pakistan’s sovereignty, we will think of other options,” he said.

Earlier in separate meetings with visiting CIA chief Leon Panetta, Pakistan’s top civil and military leadership conveyed similar message. Panetta called on President Asif Zardari, Prime Minister Gilani and Army Chief Gen. Ashfaq Pervez Kayani made it clear that foreign intrusions were intolerable.

Female sexual dysfunction, which is claimed to affect up to two thirds of women, is a disorder invented by the pharmaceutical industry to build global markets for drugs to treat it, it is claimed today.

Drug companies have invested millions in the search for a female equivalent of Viagra, so far without success. But while doing so they have stoked demand by creating a buzz around the disorder they have created, according to Ray Moynihan, a lecturer at the University of Newcastle in Australia.

Corporate employees worked with medical opinion leaders, ran surveys aimed at portraying the problem as widespread and helped create the diagnostic instruments to persuade women that their sexual difficulties deserved a medical label. But sex problems in women are far more complex than they are in men, encompassing lack of desire, lack of arousal and lack of orgasm and the drug industry's narrow focus is failing them.

Moynihan, who first investigated the drug industry's role in female sexual dysfunction a decade ago, says it illustrates a wider problem about the creation of new diseases, and the widening of existing boundaries for treatment with designations such as pre-diabetes, pre-hypertension and pre-osteoporosis, for which the latest treatments are aggressively promoted.

In his new book, Sex, Lies and Pharmaceuticals, which is previewed in the British Medical Journal, he says: "Drug marketing is merging with medical science in a fascinating and frightening way. Perhaps it is time to reassess the way in which the medical establishment defines common conditions and recommends how to treat them." In 2005, Pfizer, makers of Viagra, funded a survey, which showed 63 per cent of women had sexual dysfunction and that testosterone and Viagra might be helpful. In 2006, Procter and Gamble, makers of a testosterone patch for women, sponsored a survey showing one in 10 postmenopausal women had hypoactive [low] sexual desire disorder (the company sold its drug business in 2009). In 2008, Boehringer Ingelheim, makers of flibanserin, which is claimed to boost the female libido, sponsored a survey which also showed one in 10 women was in need of help.Efforts by the companies to meet the need have subsequently foundered.

Pfizer pulled Viagra from the market for women after trials showed it had no greater effect than placebo. Procter and Gamble's testosterone patch was rejected in 2004 in the US, over fears it raised the risk of cancer and heart disease and Beohringer Ingelheim's drug, flibanserin, was rejected by the US Food and Drug Administration in June on the grounds it had failed to deliver the agreed benefits while carrying the risk of serious side effects.

Moynihan warns that although the drugs have so far failed, more are in the pipeline and claims that "the drug industry shows no signs of abandoning plans to meet the unmet need it has helped to manufacture". A spokesman for Pfizer said: "We currently have no plans to develop medicines for FSD." — The Independent

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Indian sentenced to life in Oz for killing brothers
Melbourne: A 22-year-old student from Punjab was on day sentenced to life imprisonment by an Australian court for murdering two Indian brothers, who were sharing a flat with him in Perth, over a 310-dollar rental bond dispute. Jagdeep Singh was sentenced by the Perth Supreme Court Justice John McKechnie to life in prison with a minimum 20-year term after he pleaded guilty to killing Navdeep Singh (20) and Kawaldeep Singh (19) on February 11. — PTI

Fonseka moved to prison
Colombo: Sri Lanka's ex-Army Chief Sarath Fonseka has been sent to a prison after being court-martialled to serve a 30-month rigorous jail term, but his defiant supporters dismissed any chance of the war hero making a plea to President Mahinda Rajapakse. The 30-month sentence after a court martial on charges of corruption in defence deals was ratified by the President and subsequently Fonseka was transferred to the prison from his detention centre at the naval headquarters. — PTI

Explosions rock Nigerian capital
Abuja: Three explosions rattled Nigeria's independence day festivities today, one of them at the venue of the president's celebration, killing at least seven people in the capital. The explosions came after Nigeria's main militant group sent a warning that there is "nothing worth celebrating after 50 years as the people of the Niger Delta have had their land and resources stolen. — PTI