Population Growth and Development Prospects for Pakistan
Since its founding Pakistan has exhibited a continuously high rate of population growth. When measured by population size it has moved from the thirteenth largest country in 1950 to the seventh largest country in 1996 (Table 1). Today Pakikan exhibits the highest rate of growth among the world's largest countries, and according to some projections will become the third most populated country in the world by the year 2050 [United Nations (1998)]. Given the country's present resources, this magnitude of population growth has serious implications for the social and economic well-being of the people of Pakistan. A staggering statistic shows that the area now constituting Pakistan which had only 16.6 million people at the turn of the century, will surpass the 150 million mark by the new millennium (less than a year away).
Safe motherhood in South Asia: current status and strategies for change.

 Already large, the population of South Asia is growing rapidly. Stable and high levels of fertility along with declining mortality have built a population in which approximately 45% of the total is younger than 15 years old. Women in South Asia comprise almost one-third of the world's female population. The average woman in the region marries young and begins to bear children shortly thereafter. While fertility has been declining in most of India and Bangladesh, and is already relatively low in Sri Lanka, levels of fertility have not declined dramatically in Nepal and Pakistan. Contraception is used at moderate levels in India and Bangladesh, but almost not at all in Nepal and Pakistan. Contraceptive use rates in the region, with the exception of Sri Lanka, remain far lower than the average of less developed countries which is 45%. Female life expectancy in South Asia does not exceed that of males by very much and is lower than that of males in Bangladesh, Maldives, and Nepal. High levels of maternal mortality and excess mortality among females during the postneonatal period and between ages 1 and 5 are principal reasons for the situation. Gender differentials in mortality in South Asia are explained followed by consideration of health, fertility, and women's status, and strategies needed to promote safe motherhood.

Creating the Virtual Universe
Simulation software is important to our understanding of the universe. The intrinsic multiphysics aspects are spiced with a range of temporal scales and spatial scales, both of which cover more digits than are available in the standard hardware. This, together with the intrinsic chaotic nature of many physical processes, poses quite a challenge. To meet this challenge, researchers developed the Astronomical Multipurpose Environment (AMUSE). Instead of writing a suite of multiphysics solvers from scratch, AMUSE's developers coupled existing solvers for each physical ingredient. The result is a highly inhomogeneous collection of dedicated solvers with a homogeneous protocol that scales to supercomputers.