· Kidnappers left Sahil Saeed 40km away from Jhelum
· High commission describes his recovery as 'fantastic news'

The five-year-old British boy kidnapped on holiday in Pakistan nearly two weeks ago has been found, British officials and his family confirmed today.

Sahil Saeed was snatched from a house in the Punjab region of the country on 4 March, after robbers held his family hostage at gunpoint.

He is believed to have been recovered by police after being dumped by kidnappers in Kharian, about 40km from Jhelum the town in the Punjab province where he was taken.

"Sahil is in police custody," said the boy's grandfather Raja Basharat, speaking to Pakistani media. "God willing, they will bring him to our house. The whole family has gathered here waiting."

Sahil, from Oldham, was on holiday with his father Raja Naqqash Saeed, visiting family in Jhelum, when robbers broke into the house and took the boy away.

The British high commission in Islamabad said today he had been released and was safe, describing his recovery as "fantastic news".

"It brings to an end the traumatic ordeal faced by Sahil Saeed's family," said Adam Thomson, the British high commissioner in Islamabad.

"I would like to praise the high level of co-operation between the UK and Pakistani authorities and in particular I would like to thank the Jhelum police for their role in bringing about the safe return of Sahil."

Rana Sanaullah, the provincial law minister, said there had never previously been so much government effort put into such a kidnapping case. He said that Pakistani intelligence were also involved in the boy's recovery.

Sanaullah added, without explaining further: "He (Sahil) was safe and sound for the last four to five days. It was just a question of (securing) his custody."

Last week Sanaullah had mistakenly announced that Sahil had been recovered, mixing up the case with that of another kidnapped boy.

Raiders had struck as the pair were preparing to take a taxi to the airport for their flight home to the UK.

The kidnappers originally set a deadline of noon the next day for the money to be delivered.

After Sahil was taken, several men – including a taxi driver – were arrested.

His family suffered frustrations during the investigation, after Pakistani authorities said on several occasions they were close to securing the boy's release.

Sahil's mother, Akila Naqqash, begged for the safe return of her son back home in Oldham, telling the kidnappers at one point: "I just want my son back. All is forgiven, I will forgive you."

Naqqash Saeed returned to the UK at the start of last week, despite reports police in Pakistan wanted him to stay in the country as a witness.

Rehman Malik, Pakistan's interior minister, said that Sahil's father Naqqash had left Pakistan last week "against our wishes". He also repeated the allegation that "a family member was involved" in the kidnapping.

Raja Naqqash Saeed, Sahil's father, flew back to the UK last week. It remains unclear why he left Pakistan. The police in Pakistan had said they needed him to remain in the country, as the kidnappers might contact him directly.

Mr Malik indicated that the kidnappers had "let the boy go in a village".

"Obviously the pressure on them (the kidnappers) was very high," said Mr Malik. "All the phones they were using were being monitored,"

Initial reports suggested that the police had received an anonymous phone call telling them where Sahil had been left.

It is understood that the police is currently carrying out a series of raids in order to try to nab the kidnapping gang.

• Pakistan

Saeed Shahguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Gordon Brown's unpopularity is still harming Labour's election chances, according to an ICM poll for the Guardian today. Julian Glover says the gap between the two main parties has grown to nine points.

Our design critic Jonathan Glancey arges that the advent of high-speed rail is the ideal time to rebuild the Euston Arch, the monumental landmark that stood for 130 years outside the London railway terminal.

Schoolchildren are being monitored by CCTV cameras as frequently as inmates in prisons and passengers at airports, according to Salford university researchers. Reporter Jessica Shepherd says schools may be breaking the law.

How might the research currently being undertaken by British scientists change the lives of future generations? Impact is the name of an exhibition opening today at the Royal College of Art in Kensington, west London, which attempts to answer that question. Anthony Dunne, head of design interactions at the RCA, shows us round.

Relations between Israel and the United States are at 35-year low, according to the Israeli ambassador to Washington. His comments came after Israel's announcement - during a visit by the US vice-president, Joe Biden - of plans to build 1,600 homes in occupied East Jerusalem. Ian Black, the Guardian's Middle East editor, looks at Israel's options.

Jon DennisAndy DuckworthTim Maby

PÉKIN, March 16, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- - ACL s'apprête à accueillir l'événement le plus emblématique du secteur aéroportuaire qui se tiendra pour la première fois en Chine continentale La société Airport City Development, ...

LogTen Pro 5.1.10LogTen Pro is a professional pilot logbook solution for mac using pilots of all experience levels. Whether you're a CFI, operate a small charter, fly for a major airline, or just own your own plane, LogTen Pro will provide you with the tools to take control of your flight time.

What was your latest departure time out of JFK last month? How much time did you log on flight number 317 last week? When was the last time you performed the landing in KASE? Is your flight time in the last 28 days within the approved limits? How many days until your next flight review? Medical? LogTen Pro has the answers.

Features:

• iPhone Integration
• Automatic Night Time Calculation
• Powerful Reporting and Printing
• Fast Searching
• Smart Groups
• Flight Journal
• Manage complete databases for Airports, Aircraft, People, and Certificates
• Tools for professional pilots, including: operating capacities, numerous additional time categories and operations, medical and flight review due date tracking, general/day/night currency tracking
• Support for international flight rules
• Display and enter time in either hours decimal or hours and minutes
• Fully Customizable Columns
• Currency tracking
• Powerful SQL Database Engine

WHAT'S NEWVersion 5.1.10:

New and Improved:

• Limits Smart Groups now count scheduled total time for flights with no total time to provide more accurate information for duty limits looking at future flights.
• Improved display of block and on time performance information and added color coding.
• Added delete protection to Aircraft, Types, Places, People and Certificates. You will now be prompted before the delete occurs. This makes delete now works consistently across all the views, just hit “Delete” on the keyboard to delete!
• Added a simplified version of the Summary by Aircraft Type Report
• Added a 14 row version of the Jeppesen report for customers who wish to have it match their existing paper logbook.
• Hobbs and Tach now always show the decimal value.
• Improved calculation of night time to handle long haul flights that depart during the day fly through the night and land the next day.
• Improved display of Smart Groups set to show their value as “Actual – Scheduled” time.
• Improved display of the Available Report Keys window and moved it to the Help menu.

  Bug Fixes:

• Fixed an issue that could prevent the deletion of hobbs times.
• Fixed an issue that could prevent the selection of local time in preferences if a specific timezone had been set.
• Fixed an issue with the display of simulator time on the Swiss reports.
• Fixed the display of the Expiry date of certificates when viewed on the People tab.
• Fixed an issue with the PIC Night time display on the UK CAP407 Report.
• Fixed an issue that could prevent the route data from syncing from LogTen Mobile correctly.
• Fixed an issue that could cause the hobbs out time to change after syncing with LogTen Mobile correctly.
• Fixed an issue that was preventing sorting flights by the “leg” field on the notes tab. This should work correctly now and sorting by date should work as expected. For flights on the same day, with no out times, you can use the Leg field to manually specify the correct order.
• Duplicating a group now also copies the color thresholds.
• Importing data where “Pilot Flying” is set to “No” now no longer adds landings to those flights.
• Fixed an issue that could cause certificates to be out of order when sorted by “Days Remaining”.
• Fixed an issue with exporting to iCal when flights contained non-english characters.
• Fixed an issue that could cause Smart Groups with a single criteria using a Time value, and set to display results as something other than Total time would not display as expected.
• Updated airport data.
• Multi-pilot time entered in LogTen Mobile now syncs correctly to LogTen Pro.
• Row heights for the flights table now adjust correctly when the font size is changed.
• The visual calendar pickers for selecting dates have a bug in Mac OS X that prevent them from working with timezones, they have been removed until Apple resolves this.
• Fixed an issue that could cause the early/late (Now “Arrival”) display to be incorrect if the scheduled time was on a different day than actual arrival time.
• Numerous minor cosmetic and other fixes.

New and Improved:

• Limits Smart Groups now count scheduled total time for flights with no total time to provide more accurate information for duty limits looking at future flights.
• Improved display of block and on time performance information and added color coding.
• Added delete protection to Aircraft, Types, Places, People and Certificates. You will now be prompted before the delete occurs. This makes delete now works consistently across all the views, just hit “Delete” on the keyboard to delete!
• Added a simplified version of the Summary by Aircraft Type Report
• Added a 14 row version of the Jeppesen report for customers who wish to have it match their existing paper logbook.
• Hobbs and Tach now always show the decimal value.
• Improved calculation of night time to handle long haul flights that depart during the day fly through the night and land the next day.
• Improved display of Smart Groups set to show their value as “Actual – Scheduled” time.
• Improved display of the Available Report Keys window and moved it to the Help menu.

  Bug Fixes:

• Fixed an issue that could prevent the deletion of hobbs times.
• Fixed an issue that could prevent the selection of local time in preferences if a specific timezone had been set.
• Fixed an issue with the display of simulator time on the Swiss reports.
• Fixed the display of the Expiry date of certificates when viewed on the People tab.
• Fixed an issue with the PIC Night time display on the UK CAP407 Report.
• Fixed an issue that could prevent the route data from syncing from LogTen Mobile correctly.
• Fixed an issue that could cause the hobbs out time to change after syncing with LogTen Mobile correctly.
• Fixed an issue that was preventing sorting flights by the “leg” field on the notes tab. This should work correctly now and sorting by date should work as expected. For flights on the same day, with no out times, you can use the Leg field to manually specify the correct order.
• Duplicating a group now also copies the color thresholds.
• Importing data where “Pilot Flying” is set to “No” now no longer adds landings to those flights.
• Fixed an issue that could cause certificates to be out of order when sorted by “Days Remaining”.
• Fixed an issue with exporting to iCal when flights contained non-english characters.
• Fixed an issue that could cause Smart Groups with a single criteria using a Time value, and set to display results as something other than Total time would not display as expected.
• Updated airport data.
• Multi-pilot time entered in LogTen Mobile now syncs correctly to LogTen Pro.
• Row heights for the flights table now adjust correctly when the font size is changed.
• The visual calendar pickers for selecting dates have a bug in Mac OS X that prevent them from working with timezones, they have been removed until Apple resolves this.
• Fixed an issue that could cause the early/late (Now “Arrival”) display to be incorrect if the scheduled time was on a different day than actual arrival time.
• Numerous minor cosmetic and other fixes.

REQUIREMENTSMac OS X 10.5 or later.
PRICE$99.00
DEVELOPERCoradine
DOWNLOADS10776
DOWNLOAD NOW (10.1 MB)
More information

The Northwest Airlines pilots who lost their licenses after overflying their Minneapolis destination last year have dropped their appeal, the Federal Aviation Administration said Monday.

Above, Boing Boing debuts the new video from David Byrne with Santigold, "Please Don't," from Here Lies Love, a musical biography of sorts about the late Imelda Marcos. David Byrne explains, We did a photo session for a magazine the other day, and I told the interviewer that on this song, by the time you get to the chorus, she owns it -- she's turned it into a Santigold song. Perfect. There are six of these videos that have been completed for this project. Most, like this one, use news and archival footage to, well, show that every word of the song is true! Most of the lyrics on this one are lifted gently from interviews and quotations -- the "please don't" chorus especially. At some point as first lady, Imelda began to feel that she could help Philippine interests by charming world leaders into seeing things her way. "Handbag diplomacy" she called it -- as she liked to imply that to solve a problem, she could bypass President Marcos and just grab a handbag and hop on a plane with some of her assistants. It sometimes worked! There was, for example, an Islamic-backed insurgency rising in the south of the Philippine archipelago, and she thought that a leader in that part of the world, Qaddafi in this case, might help pull the plug on that support if he saw things her way. Apparently he did -- the funding stopped and the insurrection lost momentum, and she later described him as a pushover, a mama's boy. David Byrne: Here Lies Love, and you can purchase the music and book set here. The album is available in multiple formats (MP3, FLAC, Apple Lossless, and CD/DVD). (thumbnail: portrait of David Byrne by Clayton James Cubitt) Previously:Here Lies Love: New David Byrne project David Byrne turns a building into a musical instrument David Byrne: Playing the Building TV David Byrne's live show: the highlight of the year BB Video: "The People Tree," David Byrne / NASA Project David Byrne's snapshots of UK police posters. Interview with David Byrne BB exclusive: new track from David Byrne + Brazilian Girls (audio ... David Byrne: I was BoingBoing-blocked at Denver airport. David Byrne and Brian Eno's kick ass new album in a million ......

A fossil amphibian has come to light on land owned by FedEx and has been named Fedexia striegeli

Fossil hunters have named a 300m-year-old amphibian in honour of the courier service FedEx, after unearthing the creature on land owned by the company near a US airport.

The remains of the ancient amphibian, which lived 70m years before the first dinosaurs, were recovered in 2004 from a slab of rock near Pittsburgh International Airport by Adam Striegel, an amateur fossil enthusiast on a geology field trip.

Researchers at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh described the creature on the basis of its remarkably well-preserved 12cm-long skull, which survived fossilisation without being crushed.

A group led by David Berman, curator of vertebrate palaeontology at the museum, identified the amphibian as a new genus and species, Fedexia striegeli, in the institution's journal, Annals of Carnegie Museum.

Fedexia belongs to a family of extinct amphibians called trematopidae, which lived at a time when the Earth's climate was in the throes of a dramatic transition. The planet's oceans were increasingly becoming locked up in polar ice, causing sea levels to drop and vast swathes of land to become drier and warmer.

Gradually, some groups of amphibians, including the trematopids, left their mostly aquatic environments and became more adapted to a terrestrial habitat, returning to the water perhaps only to mate or lay eggs.

The remarkable preservation of its skull allowed palaeontologists to identify Fedexia as a trematopid, mainly by a hallmark feature of the group: an elongated external nasal opening.

When it died, what is now Pittsburgh was situated near the equator and experienced huge downpours, making an ideal environment for amphibians to flourish.

"What is particularly amazing about this discovery is that it was made by an amateur who had no prior experience in recognising vertebrate fossils in the rock, a talent that usually takes years to develop," said Berman.

• Fossils
• Zoology
• Evolution
• United States

Ian Sampleguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Not guilty

A UK man accused of posting a Twitter update that was taken as a threat to blow Doncaster airport "sky high" is to face trial, and has changed his plea to not guilty....

The power of collaboration within unified communications

Unite accuses politicians of jumping on anti-strike bandwagon after PM and Lord Adonis condemn walkouts

The political row over the looming British Airways industrial action has escalated with the Unite trade union accusing Gordon Brown of jumping on an anti-strike bandwagon when he called the walkout "unjustified and deplorable".

Responding to the prime minister's attack on the three-day cabin crew walkout due to start on Saturday, the joint general secretary of Unite, Tony Woodley, said: "It's amazing, isn't it, how many people at interesting political times jump on how many bandwagons to condemn workers."

Speaking on the World At One show on BBC Radio 4, Woodley also hit back at the transport secretary, Lord Adonis, over his criticism of the strike. Adonis said he "absolutely deplored" the planned strike by nearly 12,000 cabin crew, who will also stage a four-day walkout from 27 March if there is no deal over staffing cuts.

"For an unelected person who hasn't got a clue about this dispute I think he would have been much better to keep his counsel," Woodley said. "We have got a man here who might be transport secretary but has no industrial experience whatsoever and didn't want to pick up the phone and find out exactly what the problem's about."

Woodley accused BA of seeking a showdown with its largest single group of workers.The airline is planning a revised flight schedule during the strikes.

"This company doesn't want to accept an offer, I feel. It wants a war. It wants to take on our members. I hope I'm wrong but I don't think I'm wrong," he said.

BA's chief executive, Willie Walsh, has said he does not want a strike but Unite and the airline are not close to a deal.

The condemnation of Unite came from both sides of politics. The shadow chancellor, George Osborne, called on Brown to sever the Labour party's financial links with one of its largest donors.

"In the end it's a question of leadership for Gordon Brown. He has to cut off the links with the Unite union, which is a party within a party now for the Labour party," Osborne said.

Adonis rejected this and said the BA strike was an "industrial and not a political dispute".

The Labour MP Jim Sheridan, joint chairman of the parliamentary Unite group, told the World At One that Adonis was "naive" to blame Unite for the dispute. "The prime minister and Lord Adonis and everyone else should just take a step back and have a measured approach to this. These inflammatory comments that Lord Adonis has made are extremely unhelpful, and if the prime minister is saying the same thing then that is extremely unhelpful."

More than 500,000 passengers will be affected by the seven days of strikes. BA has already offered full refunds to anyone booked to travel between 19 March and 31 March.

"I don't want to mislead people, we're not going to be able to operate all of our schedule, that's clear," Walsh told the Sunday Telegraph. "It will be more than 50% but probably won't be more than 70%.

"We are looking to maximise the number of destinations we serve in the interests of our customers. We want to get as many of our customers to their destination as possible."

BA plans to use 1,000 volunteer flight attendants drawn from its workforce of 38,000, and 23 aircraft leased from other operators complete with their own crews. It has said onboard service on many flights will be limited.

Preparations for the strike are under way at Unite, where Woodley is meeting representatives of its cabin crew branch, Bassa, this afternoon. Bassa officials are meeting police at Heathrow today to discuss where to place picket lines. It is understood there are around seven places around the airport site, such as Hatton Cross tube station, where pickets will be allowed to stand.

Bassa last night sent its 12,000 members a critique of the now-defunct BA offer. The offer includes a partial repeal of cabin crew staffing cuts that triggered the strike, alongside a three-year pay deal and a proposal to put new, lower-paid recruits on to a separate fleet of aircraft.

Unite's proposal includes a one-off 2.6% pay cut this year, which matches a similar move by BA's pilots, and the return of about 700 cabin crew to BA aircraft. More than 1,100 cabin crew posts have been removed by BA since November following a voluntary redundancy scheme and a part-time working programme.

"In our opinion it was far from a good offer, some nice words but not much substance," said Bassa.

• Trade unions
• British Airways
• Transport
• Air transport
• Gordon Brown

Dan Milmoguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

RISE OF THE ELDRAZI PRERELEASE – RICHMOND, VIRGINIA

Held one week before each new Magic card set goes on sale, Prereleases provide a way to play in a large-scale event in a low-stress environment. You get to play with the cards before you can buy them, special promotional cards are given out to attendees and the top players can win even more cards. So have fun!

Prereleases are sanctioned by the DCI, which is the governing body for all Magic tournaments – from the smallest local events up to the multi-million dollar Pro Tour. Playing in a sanctioned event means your results are recorded and begin to give you a player rating among the thousands of Magic players worldwide. If you don’t have a DCI number yet, the event staff on site can provide you with one. For many players, Prereleases are a fun and easy way to play in their first sanctioned events.

At Prerelease events, the emphasis is on casual play with a high degree of sportsmanship. You don't need to know the rules well, but you should always be polite and respectful to your opponents. If there is a disagreement, or a question about a ruling, please call a judge.

More information will be posted as it becomes available.

LOCATION
Greater Richmond Convention Center
403 North 3rd Street
Richmond, VA 23219
Get Directions on Google Maps!

Doors Open
9:00 AM

FORMAT

SEALED FLIGHTS
Time: Flights will start as soon as thirty-two (32) players sign up.
Entry Fee: $25.00
Format: Rise of the Eldrazi Sealed. Players will receive six packs of Rise of the Eldrazi to construct a 40-card deck.
Structure: Four rounds of Swiss.
Prizes:
4-0: 10 packs of Rise of the Eldrazi
3-0-1: 7 packs of Rise of the Eldrazi
3-1: 4 packs of Rise of the Eldrazi
2-1-1 or 2-2: 1 pack of Rise of the Eldrazi

TWO-HEADED GIANT
Time: Registration will start at 1 p.m., with the tournament starting at 2 p.m.
Entry Fee: $40.00
Format: Rise of the Eldrazi Sealed. Teams will receive eight packs of Rise of the Eldrazi to build two forty-card decks.
Structure: Four rounds of Swiss.
Prizes:
4-0: 20 packs of Rise of the Eldrazi
3-0-1: 14 packs of Rise of the Eldrazi
3-1: 8 packs of Rise of the Eldrazi
2-1-1 or 2-2: 2 pack of Rise of the Eldrazi

BOOSTER DRAFTS!
Time: Drafts begin as soon as they're filled.
Entry Fee: $15.00 per player.
Format: Rise of the Eldrazi Booster Draft. Players will draft with three (3) packs of Rise of the Eldrazi.
Structure: Three rounds of Single-Elimination.
Prizes:
1st Place: 5 packs of Rise of the Eldrazi
2nd Place: 3 packs of Rise of the Eldrazi
3rd/4th Place: 2 packs of Rise of the Eldrazi

OPEN DUELING
Time: Open dueling will be held all day while supplies last
Entry Fee: $15.00
Format: Players receive one (1) Intro Pack to play against other players.
Structure: Each Open Dueling participant will receive an Open Dueling Results Card to record their matches. When the Results Card is complete, players can return it to the event area to receive one free pack of Zendikar.

SPECIAL GUESTS
Star City Games is pleased to announce that we'll be joined at the Worldwake Prerelease by Pro Tour Historian Brian David-Marshall and Wizards of the Coast R&D Member (and Pro Tour Hall of Famer) Mike Turian! Brian & Mike will be gunslinging with players throughout the day, so bring your decks and be ready to battle!

DIRECTIONS

From South or Richmond I-95 North Bound: Exit #74C Medical College of Virginia stay to the left and take Broad Street, State Capitol, Coliseum Exit. Go West on Broad Street to North 3rd Street. Turn right onto 3rd Street travel ¼ of a block turn right into the Greater Richmond Convention Center's Parking Deck.

From North of Richmond I-95 South/64 East Bound: Exit I-95 to the I-64 East/Third Street Exit #75. Bear right for 3rd Street (Do not go straight on the junction, it will take you to I-64 East). Travel ahead to 3rd and Marshall Streets. The Greater Richmond Center Parking Deck will be on the left.

From West of Richmond I 64 East Bound to I-95 South to 64 East Bound: Interstate 64 East to junction Interstate 95 South to I-64 East/Third Street Exit#75. Bear right for 3rd Street (Do not go straight on the junction, it will take you to I-64 East). Travel ahead to 3rd and Marshall Streets. The Greater Richmond Center Parking Deck will be on the left.

From East of Richmond I-64 West Bound (from Airport): Exit #190 Fifth Street exit. Proceed to Fifth and Jackson Streets. Turn right onto Jackson Street and proceed to Third Street. Turn left onto Third Street travel 3 blocks (to 3rd & Marshall Streets) and turn left into the Greater Richmond Convention Center's Parking Deck.

Not coming from the highway? Use Google Maps for directions to the Greater Richmond Convention Center from anywhere!

MORE INFORMATION
Your question may already be answered in our tournament FAQ. However, if you still have questions, please feel free to email us at events@starcitygames.com or call (540) 767-GAME (4263). We want your experience to be as enjoyable as possible, and will do our best to assist you in any way that we can.

TRADING
While trading is fine, please note that buying/selling cards with anyone except for our authorized dealer(s), or soliciting to do so elsewhere, is strictly forbidden at this event. Failure to obey this rule may result in both the buyer and the seller being removed from the event without refund, and banned from attending future events.

Star City Events also reserves the right to limit the amount of space being occupied by any one individual while trading, and does not allow the use of suitcases, handcarts, luggage carts, etc. to be used for the purpose of transporting excessive amounts of trade stock