No official Celebrations of Independence Day on Saturday as the country tries to cope with devastating floods.

Flood-hit Pakistan cancels Independence Day events Pakistan curbs Independence Day

Flood survivors are on the move and gathering in camps in Pakistan

Pakistan's president has directed that there should be no official celebrations of Independence Day on Saturday as the country tries to cope with devastating floods.

Asif Ali Zardari will instead spend the day touring affected regions in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab provinces.
He has been heavily criticised at home for not taking a more direct role.
The region's worst flooding in 80 years has affected 14 million and killed 1,600, according to the UN.
Flood levels are expected to surge even higher along parts of the already dangerously swollen Indus river, with the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) saying "major peaks" were expected next week in Punjab and Sindh provinces.

Low-key
Mr Zardari has been bitterly criticised by opposition politicians and the media for pressing ahead with his European tour last week as the country was devastated by the floods.
'Further devastation'

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is scheduled to arrive in Pakistan on Saturday and will hold talks with officials and visit flood-affected areas the following day.
Villagers scramble for aid in Bassera, Pakistan, 13 Aug The UN predicts billions of dollars will be needed in the long-term
The UN on Wednesday launched a $459m (£294m) appeal for emergency aid but says billions will be needed in the long-term.
The president welcomed Mr Ban's visit, Mr Babar said, adding that "the colossal damage to life, property, livestock and infrastructure was so huge that it could be faced only with the concerted efforts of the people of Pakistan and the support and assistance of the international community".



He spent Thursday visiting affected areas in Sukkur in Sindh province, and has said that although he will still visit Russia next week, he will stay only a few hours instead of the scheduled two days.
His spokesman, Farhatullah Babar, said in a statement on Friday: "President Asif Ali Zardari has directed that in view of the floods, no Independence Day celebrations will be held in the Presidency this year.
"He will spend the day with the flood-affected people in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab."
The BBC's M Ilyas Khan in Islamabad says there will be no special official gatherings or flag-raising ceremonies. Special parades at military corps headquarters will not take place and official buildings will not be specially lit.
The annual gathering and civic awards ceremony at the president's house will also not take place. Major firework, cultural and music shows will be cancelled.
Our correspondent says people will still be free to celebrate the public holiday as they see fit but such celebrations may be low-key this year as the mood is sombre. He says it is unlikely many objections will be raised to the president's move, with many appreciating that ostentatious festivities would be inappropriate.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani vowed that "every single penny" of aid would be accounted for.
Medics in a relief camp in southern Punjab told the BBC the main challenges they faced were gastroenteritis, diarrhoea and skin infections.
But they are also increasingly worried about malaria, which is being worsened by all the stagnant water.
BBC World Service's Newshour will broadcast a one-hour programme on the Pakistan floods, hosted by Lyse Doucet from Karachi, at 1200 GMT on Saturday 14 August.

Police had suspected serial killer Elias Abuelazam in custody twice in the past month, both within hours of when stabbings were reported, Video.

Before arrest, police had serial killer suspect in custody
By the CNN Wire Staff
August 13, 2010 -- Updated 1546 GMT (2346 HKT)

Atlanta, Georgia (CNN) -- Police had suspected serial killer Elias Abuelazam in custody twice in the past month, both within hours of when stabbings were reported, but say he hadn't been linked to the bloody attacks at the time.
Abuelazam, 33, is suspected of slashing victims in three states and killing five of them. He arrested last Sunday on a traffic charge and July 29 for giving alcohol to a minor, according to authorities and court documents. He was released both times.



After his August 5 traffic stop in Arlington, Virginia, police arrested him after learning that he had an outstanding warrant for assault. They found a knife and hammer in his car -- both weapons authorities think were used during a string of knifings in Michigan, Virginia and Ohio.
One of those attacks happened in Virginia just hours after Abuelazam was released.
Police say he had not been linked to the stabbings, which began in May and continued until last weekend, at the time of the arrests. Family members of the victims told CNN that they don't blame officials for not holding him.
Abuelazam, an Israeli citizen living legally in the United States, was arrested Wednesday night at Hartsfield Jackson International Airport in Atlanta. He was trying to board a flight to Israel when he was taken into custody, police said.
Most of Abuelazam's suspected victims were black. While federal officials were saying late Thursday that it was too soon to give a motive, Leesburg Police Chief Joseph Price said he believed the suspect was targeting African-Americans.
"For our community ... when you look at our demographics and you look at the victims here, my belief is he selected the victims in Leesburg based on the color of their skin," Price said.
Abuelazam also was cited by police in Michigan. He was fined $125 for providing alcohol to a minor on July 29, the same day as an early-morning stabbing was reported in the area.
Abuelazam agreed Friday in an Atlanta court to be sent back to Michigan to face charges.
The arrest ended an intense manhunt for the suspect police say knifed at least 18 people.
A tip led Michigan police this week to a market where the suspect worked, said Prosecutor David S. Leyton, of Genesee County, Michigan. After talking with employees, police watched surveillance video to determine whether he matched the physical description of the attacker.
In Louisville, Kentucky, authorities learned he had bought a $3,000 ticket from Atlanta to Tel Aviv, Israel, paid for by his uncle.
The man was traveling on an expired Israeli passport but was in the United States legally, a federal law enforcement official involved in the investigation said.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials said they arrested Abuelazam at 10 p.m. ET as he attempted to board a Delta flight bound for Tel Aviv. A Homeland Security official told CNN that the National Targeting Center had found his name on the passenger list.
Authorities have said the same person is responsible for three recent attacks in Leesburg, the stabbing deaths of five people and wounds to nine others in the Flint, Michigan, area, and a stabbing Saturday that wounded a man in Toledo, Ohio.
Fourteen of the victims were in Michigan and most of them were African-American, police said. Flint is a majority African-American community. In majority-white Leesburg, two victims were black and one was Latino.
Stephanie Ward, a sister of one of the victims in Flint, said she couldn't understand why someone would kill her brother, Arnold Minor.
"Why? That's what we all want to know. How could you do that?" she asked.
Several of the victims were developmentally disabled, police said.
Abuezalem once worked at North Spring Behavioral Healthcare, in Leesburg, Virginia, the center confirmed Friday.
"His employment at North Spring ended in 2008," North Spring CEO Scott Zeiter said in a written statement. "We understand that he may be a suspect in certain crimes committed in 2010. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the victims and their families."
The Michigan attacks began May 24, with the most recent taking place August 2. The three attacks in Virginia occurred Tuesday, Thursday and Friday of last week.
The Michigan victims ranged in age from 17 to 60, authorities said. All of the victims were men, and in two cases they were people with special needs.
The suspect is said to have approached victims who were walking during the early morning hours, asking for directions or other assistance to lure them close to his car, police said. Sgt. Bill Wauford of the Toledo Police Department said the method of attack in the Ohio case matched that described in the Michigan incidents.
The five Michigan fatalities have been identified as David Motley, Emmanuel Dent, Darwin Marshall, Frank Kellybrew and Minor.
"We ought to remember the victims in all of this," Leyton said. "You have real people who have died and real families who have been torn apart. Our heart goes out to them."
Investigators said more charges are expected.

little relief is in sight. The brooding, granite clouds menace almost daily, erupting into more downpours that top up rivers just as they recede.

Little relief in sight for flood-ravaged Pakistan
By Dan Rivers, CNN August 13, 2010 -- Updated 1218 GMT (2018 HKT)

Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- Two weeks into the catastrophe engulfing Pakistan, little relief is in sight. The brooding, granite clouds menace almost daily, erupting into more downpours that top up rivers just as they recede. The meteorological office is issuing new floods warnings, and people are clinging onto life by their fingernails, in an agonizing wait for help.
We have seen a good cross section of this disaster and aid is conspicuous by its absence in many parts. It's not due to a lack of effort by charities and the government -- in many places they are simply unable to reach those most in need.
In some cases, the aid agencies have in turn become victims of this crisis: the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies showed us their warehouse in Nowshera, which remains under a meter of flood water -- $15 million worth of supplies going nowhere fast.

The U.S. Army has sent four Boeing CH-47 Chinook helicopters from Afghanistan to help ferry aid in and people out. As I write, they have plucked more than 3,000 people from danger and delivered 146 metric tons of aid, but it is a tiny fraction of the 6 million people the United Nations says are in need of emergency help.

Impact Your World: How you can help
The problem for authorities is that this is a dynamic disaster -- moving, changing, evolving and growing. What started as flash floods in the Swat Valley has spread to much wider inundations in the Punjab and Sind.
Food prices are spiraling. We visited one market in Nowshera where tomatoes, onions and other basic staples have doubled in price. The U.N. is concerned this could get worse with 150,000 square kilometers underwater, much of it fertile, arable land --- the breadbasket of the country has been wrecked.

Pakistan's ambassador to the U.N., Abdullah Hussain Haroon, told a meeting this week the floods may knock 1 percent to 1.5 percent off GDP growth this year and that more people have been displaced than in the 2004 tsunami. Maurizo Giuliano, a spokesman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said the cost will run into billions of dollars.

The disaster is having political consequences, too. President Asif Ali Zardari is having his "(Hurricane) Katrina moment," according to Mosharraf Zaidi, a Pakistani journalist and former adviser to the British Department for International Development.
Zardari has been criticized for going ahead with a planned trip to Europe, including a widely reported visit to the family chateau in France, while the death toll spiraled back home.
This may have been a political miscalculation. His spokesman has defended the trip, saying it was a triumph, an opportunity to drum up much-needed aid, but critics argue that even if he could have generated practical help, he should have been with his people.
Zaidi said it sent a message to the people: "Good luck with the floods, see you later. That's the last kind of message you want a democratically elected government to be sending; it defeats the very kind of politics that the PPP tries to run with in the country."Instead, the unedifying symbolism of "Mr. Ten Percent" -- a nickname coined by his critics in reference to his alleged corruption; he spent 11 years in jail amid corruption allegations but was never convicted and always maintained his innocence -- inspecting his castle in France has been seized on by the opposition.
Now the president is playing catch up, with impromptu visits to the flood-hit areas.
For the Pakistan army, the Swat Valley was well-known terrain: last year, soldiers finally retook this area from the Taliban. Now they have a different challenge on their hands -- in the past two weeks, Islamist charities with alleged links to terrorist groups are here, handing out food.
"The government is not working properly that is why the people are working on their own self," said a man with one charity who did not want to be named. "We are joining hands with those people (the flood victims)."



It is a point that resonates here. The army spent weeks trying to crush the extremists who had occupied Swat. Now they are back under a different guise.

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Beauty in politeness: Miss Universe Japan Maiko Itai prepares for her big moment, Photos.

Beauty in politeness: Miss Universe Japan Maiko Itai prepares for her big moment Japan's latest candidate aims to maintain the country's incredible run of success in Miss Universe
By Robert Michael Poole 13 August, 2010


Maiko Itai on the balcony of her Omotesando training office

Miss Universe Japan has been one of the most successful entrants in recent years in the Miss Universe competition, run by Donald Trump since 1996. With one semi-finalist, two runners up and one winner since 2003, it's no wonder eyes are on this year's contestant, Maiko Itai, as she prepares for the final on August 23 in Las Vegas, Nevada in the United States.

CNNGo caught up with her during training shortly before the 26-year-old flew out for her final preparations.

From the office to a Vegas stage
Plucked from obscurity as a civil servant in her home prefecture of Oita, Kyushi, southern Japan, the rise of Maiko Itai has caught the imagination of many in Japan. The tomboyish Itai worked in the education section of her local government offices. But it turns out the story is a little more complicated, and fascinating, than first meets the eye.

Having studied Portuguese, history and art at an international university in Tokyo, lived in Portugal and traveled around Europe, Itai admits this year the change to her lifestyle has been dramatic. "On the outside it might look like I've changed, but in my mind there is no change" says Itai. "Since I was born I'm moving along one line following my passions, many things happened and it's not a straight line, I made many curves, but it's still my road."

Born in the small southern town of Usuki, Itai says of her youth, "I was always playing outside with boys, I was really active and often told I was a tomboy". Oita prefecture has had a relationship with Portugal since Christian missionaries visited over 400 years ago, and this inspired Itai to explore outside of Japan. "I wanted to study languages, so I majored in Portuguese language and culture. I also became really interested in architecture and there was a department of history and art so I could get a qualification as a curator," she recalls of her five-year stint at Tokyo's Sofia University.


As part of course she was offered an opportunity to study in Aveiro, Portugal, which she did for one year. "I could make so many friends from all over the world because in Aveiro there were many students from other foreign countries, mainly in Europe but also Brazil and East Timor and I could communicate with them, many in English so I learned English then."

She also took the opportunity to broaden her horizons further, visiting Spain, Belguim, Luxembourg, The Netherlands and England. "In London people are very stylish, there are many theaters and I like to go to museums, so I really liked it there. But I want to go to Brazil next because I'd like to see the architecture masterpieces of Oscar Niemeyer in Rio de Janeiro and Brasilia."

At the time Itai was harboring ambitions to become a museum curator. But she found Tokyo's competitive scene difficult to break into and took a full-time job at a Portuguese restaurant in Tokyo. "I could use my knowledge and skills just a little bit and I was also interested in food culture but I moved back to my hometown in April of last year. Back in the countryside I had not so many choices but I wanted to work and I had to, so I applied for the government job. It was interesting because I have never worked as a city servant, and I could see what is happening about education in my hometown."
Browsing the Internet one time she found the application for Miss Universe Japan, and with no previous experience in modeling, she took a chance. "The deadline was the next day so I couldn't think about it, I just thought I'd do it. I had to send in two pictures, one full body and one from bust-up, my measurements and then write something like "why do you want to be Miss Universe Japan".

That was September 2009 and having won the Japan pageant in March 2009, she then returned to Tokyo and embarked on rigorous training including "walking, posing, hair and make-up lessons, speech lessons, English." She says, "The biggest change for me is my appearance, it's completely different. I have to learn to get to know how to express my personality using my body. For example, since I won the final I have to gain weight to become more curvy, I have to eat the right things. At city hall I didn't put so much make-up on my face and I'm not used to express my personality outside in public but now I have to, it's interesting but difficult."
Expert training from Ines Ligron

Trained by French expert Ines Ligron, who established the Miss Universe Japan Organization in 1998, Ligron's advice has been the key to Japan's success in recent years, prompting many to wonder what the secret is. "She is very emotional and her power has a strong impact," says Itai. "I really like the Japanese character that I have, but maybe I was too careful about things around me. She told me I have to be more lively regarding emotions and be more honest. I think the beauty of Japanese is that we never forget to be polite and that's a beautiful thing I think, I don't want to lose that, but she gave me some spice!"

With just days to go before flying out, Itai admits. "I'm a little bit nervous, but I'm looking forward to going, I'm imagining that I can meet 82 other representatives from all over the world and that must be exciting," before playfully adding, "I don't know how many suitcases I have to bring!"

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