Texas tornadoes: 'Eight killed' in Dallas suburbs

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Media captionDallas Sheriff's office Melinda Urbina describes the devastation left by the tornado that passed through Garland and Rowlett

Eight people are reported to have been killed in Texas in new tornadoes, raising the death toll to 26 in a week of storms in several US states.

Five people died when their cars were reportedly blown off a motorway in Garland, near Dallas. Another three bodies were found in nearby towns.

Officials also say Texas and Oklahoma could suffer a "historic blizzard", bringing up to 16in (41cm) of snow.

The storms across the South have been unusually powerful for winter.

Reports from Texas said churches were destroyed, cars mangled and trees toppled across a wide area.

Garland police believed that "winds from a tornado that passed through" the town late on Saturday were the cause of car accidents, Melinda Urbina from the Dallas County Sheriff's office told the BBC.

At least five people were reported dead in the cars.

Ms Urbina said the winds "tossed the cars around", and the vehicles were later found below Interstate 30, about 15 miles (24km) north-east of Dallas.

She also urged local residents to stay off the roads.

Image copyrightAP

Image captionThe National Weather Service confirmed that tornadoes hit several towns in northern Texas on Saturday

Image copyrightGuy Reynolds/The Dallas Morning News via AP

Image captionOne neighbourhood north-west of Dallas suffered heavy damage

Police officers in Garland are now trying to determine whether they were any other casualties at the crash site.

"We're dealing with darkness out here," police spokesman Mike Hatfield was quoted as saying by the Dallas News website.

"All of the street lights and highway lights are out," he added.

Two people were found dead at a petrol station in Copeville, and a third was killed in Blue Ridge, reports in local media said.

The storms have damaged a number of buildings in the area.

Kevin Taylor, a church pastor in Glenn Heights, south of Dallas, described to WFAA how his church began collapsing around him.

"Doors began to turn inward, when I saw that I figured the glass was going to shatter and hit me in the face, so I broke and ran down the hallway and by the time I got just a few feet everything collapsed and went dark and fell on top of me," he said, adding, "by the grace of God I'm here though."

At least 30,000 people were reportedly without power, and there were reports of burst gas lines.

Image copyrightAP

Image captionA twister - followed by lightning - left a trail of destruction in Birmingham, Alabama

The National Weather Service confirmed that several tornadoes had touched down near Dallas and other towns in northern Texas.

The deaths in Dallas come as much of the south-central region of the US has been hit by severe weather in the past week.

• Ten people are now confirmed to have died in Mississippi and six in Tennessee
• Arkansas and Alabama have each reported one fatality
• In Mississippi, where 20 tornadoes hit, officials reported that 56 people had been injured and more than 400 houses destroyed or damaged in storms
• One large tornado reportedly touched land in Mississippi and tore a path more than 100 miles long to Tennessee

While extreme weather in the US before Christmas is not unknown, meteorologists say that unseasonably high temperatures in some areas contributed to the severity of the storms.

Image copyrightAP

Image captionStorms uprooted trees and damaged more than 400 houses in Mississippi

One year ago a tornado hit south-eastern Mississippi, killing five people and injuring dozens more.

A storm on Christmas Day in 2012 which included several tornadoes damaged homes from Texas to Alabama.

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Merry Christmas: 'Tis the season

Children come out after visiting the St. John Cathedral Church illuminated with lights ahead of Christmas celebrations in Peshawar. —Reuters

Preparations for celebrating the festivities of Christmas are at its peak with focus on setting up Christmas trees and its decoration as the main symbol of festivity.

The Christian community decorated Churches and their colonies with lights, colourful posters and Christmas trees to celebrate the occasion.

A barber serves a customer in a Christian colony in Islamabad. —AFP

An illumined view of Christian locality in Islamabad, decorated with colorful light on the eve of Christmas. —INP

The colourful and decorative look of the tree creates more attraction and the members of Christian community decorate the evergreen coniferous tree, real or artificial, as a tradition associated with the celebration of Christmas.

All the major markets across the country displayed the collection of trees in various sizes depending upon the demand of the people who decorate these trees with different ornaments.

An illumined view of Christian locality in Islamabad, decorated with colorful light on the eve of Christmas. —INP

People walk past Christmas decorations displayed in Islamabad. —AFP

An illumined view of Christian locality in Islamabad, decorated with colorful light on the eve of Christmas. —INP

These ornaments include baubles, small bells painted gold or silver, stars of different shapes and sizes, pine cones, apples, candies, tinsel and balloons made from glass, metal, wood and ceramic.

The festivities will commence on midnight with services at all the churches across the country. The Christmas carols will precede the prayers service for peace and solidarity.

The colourful and decorative look of the tree creates more attraction. —INP

A Christmas tree decorated in Christian locality in Hyderabad. —INP

Special prayers for the integrity, solidarity, progress and prosperity for the country will also be offered.

Social functions and family gatherings would be organised later in the day. There will also be visits of old-age houses and orphanages on the occasion.

Security forces have made comprehensive security arrangements on the eve of Christmas and special deployment will be ensured at Churches and public places.

People walk past Christmas decorations displayed in Islamabad. —AFP

An illumined view of Christmas tree near Christian locality in Islamabad. —INP

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Why can't anyone find the panda in this image?

Happy hunting! PHOTO: FACEBOOK/DUDOLF

If you remember playing Where’s Waldo? as a child, then you’ll love playing this puzzle game.

Hungarian artist Gergely Dudas, aka Dudolf, decided to make use of his spare time and drew a puzzle which left thousands confused, baffled and well, puzzled…

Let’s see if you can spot the panda among these cute festive snowmen:

PHOTO: FACEBOOK/DUDOLF

With more than 140k shares, the panda puzzle has gone viral on Facebook and other social media platforms — making headlines everywhere.

Can you spot the snow leopard in the photo?

Christmas is just around the corner which explains why this puzzle got everyone excited for the holidays. Twitter was abuzz with people talking about it.

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Always the woman, never the man

Perhaps, a saner advertisement in our newspapers would have featuredNargis Fakhri firmly clad in a burka or at least a hijab, sitting upright, fawning over her bearded husband toying with his new smartphone. Scratch that. Women should be kept away from newspaper ads altogether. If they are not kept away, they are most definitely being objectified for their looks and we are spreading vulgarity. It is against the ethics of journalism, dignity of women and our cultural norms. But pictures of citizens beheaded by terrorists can be carried in our newspapers. That is kosher. That is okay.

At least that is the message I got from the debate that ensued on social media immediately after an ad appeared on the front pages of some Urdu newspapers. In the visual, Ms Fakhri is lying down in a red dress carrying a phone in her hand. We are now led to believe that somehow this and nothing else jeopardises everything that we stand for — right from our family values to media ethics. But I have a nagging suspicion that the outrage has nothing to do with any of these things. I feel we are outraged because it reminds us of how shapeless and inadequate most of us have become. Then there is the matter of the projection of a woman’s body. I have grown up listening to the clergy’s sermons against the objectification of women in the West. Amazingly, the same rules do not apply to a man’s body. Consider this: even during Ziaul Haq’s time when, in PTV dramas, a woman rescued from drowning in a river was supposed to emerge from the water with her dress and dupatta intact, kabaddi matches with scantily clothed men could be aired on live television. No, a man’s body cannot be objectified. It is somehow a woman’s body that is owned by society and she herself has no say in the matter.

But if it is about religion, then I am really confused. In a Muslim society, as originally envisaged, there is no room for the clergy. Five times a day, Muslims are supposed to relate to God directly. So, the matter of selective collective responsibility in the matter does not arise. I say ‘selective’ because evidently, these cultural sensibilities do not apply in a man’s case. Meanwhile, if this is objectifying women, then so is telling a woman what she can and cannot do. If she is not an object, then society should not be telling her what is good for her. At least not more than what men are told. And here lies the problem. A woman’s objectification will stop only when we start treating her like a person, not an object. And persons usually do have a say in how they are supposed to live. Objectifying a woman for remorseless servitude is no better than objectifying her for her looks. At least she usually has a say in the latter case. Somehow, we have convinced ourselves that our culture and faith revolve around defending a woman against her own will. No faith or culture can and should reduce itself to such parochialism.

As someone who has come across Ms Fakhri’s interviews in the past, I know she is not just a pretty face but a very smart person too. As an American of Pakistani descent, she must think very low of us if she had to rush to her defence and distance herself from the ad. We are better than this. Surely, our culture, family values, faith and professionalism cannot all be about hiding from the fact that women have bodies and minds, too. Need I remind you that in this ad, she is fully clothed. This criticism coming from a society that is pretty used to watching her dancing on cable television in much smaller outfits is highly hypocritical. And, about media ethics, let me remind you that no private media outlet can flourish without advertising. If journalists have the right to be loyal to their profession, so do advertising professionals. I can live with a conservative journalist who has failed to condemn a single atrocity by terrorists. Some people are wired that way. But, since when have our moderates become so parochial?

Published in The Express Tribune, December 25^th, 2015.

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