Archive for February, 2007
Tuesday, February 27th, 2007
BEIJING (Reuters) - Scientists in eastern China say they have succeeded in controlling the flight of pigeons with micro electrodes planted in their brains, state media reported on Tuesday.
Scientists at the Robot Engineering Technology Research Centre at Shandong University of Science and Technology said ther electrodes could command them to fly right or left or up or down, Xinhua news agency said.
“The implants stimulate different areas of the pigeon’s brain according to signals sent by the scientists via computer, and force the bird to comply with their commands,” Xinhua said.
“It’s the first such successful experiment on a pigeon in the world,” Xinhua quoted the centre’s chief scientist, Su Xuecheng, as saying.
Su and his colleagues, who Xinhua said had had similar success with mice in 2005, were improving the devices used in the experiment and hoped that the technology could be put into practical use in future.
The report did not specify what practical uses the scientists saw for the remote-controlled pigeons.
source REUTERS.
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Monday, February 26th, 2007
New Delhi, Feb 26: The Supreme Court Monday termed as “a serious matter” the allegation that the CBI had deliberately withheld information on detention of Bofors payoffs accused Ottavio Quattrocchi in Argentina and asked the government to file its reply on this in a week’s time.
“It is a serious matter and we hope the government is also seriously viewing it,” a bench headed by justice C K Thakker observed while directing the Union government to file its reply and status report on the matter within a week.
The bench passed the direction after briefly hearing the petitioner advocate Ajay Agarwal who in an application sought direction to the Centre for filing a status report on the steps taken for the Italian businessman’s extradition.
Accusing the CBI of deliberately withholding the information of Quattrocchi’s detention in Argentina, Agarwal complained that the action of the investigating agency amounted to contempt of court.
He submitted that though Quattrocchi was detained at Iguazu International Airport in Buenos Aires on February six on the basis of a “Red Corner Notice” issued by the Interpol at the behest of the CBI, the investigating agency has avoided any steps to seek his extradition.
Bureau Report
source ZEENEWS.COM
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Sunday, February 25th, 2007
AT&T Named Strategic Information Technology Supplier
for Next-Generation Telecommunications Services
Network Supports GM’s Drive to Integrate and Leverage
Global Resources
AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) today announced that General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM)
has awarded AT&T a five-year global networking contract worth nearly $1
billion. The agreement is one of the largest commercial contracts in AT&T
history.
Under the agreement, AT&T will deliver next-generation telecommunications
capabilities that will enable GM to further integrate its global resources. In
addition, GM named AT&T a strategic information technology supplier to support
its third-generation information technology business model, which is designed
to ensure that GM’s IT suppliers are working as one around the world. In that
role, AT&T will provide network-integration management covering all aspects of
GM’s worldwide telecommunications infrastructure, including voice and data
applications and systems support.
As part of the agreement, AT&T will be responsible for managing the
performance of key regional telecommunications providers around the world in
addition to network management responsibility for participating telephone
companies to drive consistent, uniform IT service delivery and support. In
addition, AT&T will continue to collaborate with GM’s Information Systems and
Services organization to support its global business strategy.
The contract renews and expands an existing strategic global relationship
in which AT&T provides GM with a global Virtual Private Network (VPN)
solution, integrating GM locations around the world. AT&T’s solution supports
a full range of capabilities including local, long distance, global voice
mail, conferencing, high speed Internet access and telecommunications
business-continuity services.
The network, based on Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) technology,
provides a standardized technology infrastructure that will enable GM to
integrate networks, applications and devices and to evolve into a single,
streamlined communications platform based on Internet Protocol (IP) with
consistent standards and capabilities. As a result, employees across the
enterprise will have the same telecommunications tools, such as common voice
mail and conferencing capabilities, and will enjoy the same quality of service
whether they’re sitting in the corporate headquarters in Detroit or in a
manufacturing facility in Australia.
“AT&T’s networking expertise and global reach make it uniquely qualified
to meet the telecommunications needs of a global, multinational company like
ours,” said Ralph Szygenda, group vice president and chief information officer
of General Motors. “This agreement is a strategic step toward strengthening
telecommunications across our global enterprise. It ensures that we have the
basic infrastructure in place to give GM employees anywhere in the world the
ability to collaborate online in real time on engineering, manufacturing,
design and supply-chain. It is expected to enable increased productivity and
collaboration and to maximize GM’s global network.”
“GM’s vision for global integration using an IP-based technology platform
and uniform service standards around the world managed by trusted technology
partners is a bellwether for multinational corporations,” said Ron Spears,
executive vice president of AT&T Global Business Sales. “We are excited to be
a strategic information technology supplier to GM and are anxious to deliver
the benefits of next-generation telecommunications services.”
source ASIANET newswire .
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Thursday, February 22nd, 2007
| London (eCanadaNow) - Britain’s Prince Harry was Thursday said to be “over the moon” about the army’s decision to send him on a tour of duty to southern Iraq later this year.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) announced Thursday that Harry, who is third in line to the throne, will join his Blues and Royals regiment in Iraq as a “long-planned rotation of troops.”
The deployment was expected in May or June of this year.
The 22-year-old prince will be the first member of the royal family to serve in a war-zone in 25 years.
His uncle, Prince Andrew, served as a helicopter pilot in the 1982 Falklands war against Argentina.
The announcement came a day after Prime Minister Tony Blair outlined the first step in a phased withdrawal of British forces from Iraq with the return of some 1,600 troops in the next few months.
Troop levels could fall “below 5,000″ by the end of the summer, from 7,100 at present, said Blair.
However, he stressed that the situation in southern Iraq remained “dangerous” for British troops, even though security responsibility was being transferred to Iraqi forces.
In a joint statement, the MoD and Clarence House royal palace made clear that Prince Harry would carry out a “normal troop commander’s role,” rather than taking on a desk job at headquarters in Basra.
“Whilst in Iraq Cornet Wales will carry out a normal troop commander’s role, involving leading a troop of 12 men in four Scimitar armoured reconnaissance vehicles, each with a crew of three,” said the statement.
“The decision to deploy him has been a military one, made by The Chief of the General Staff, General Sir Richard Dannatt, in conjunction with Cornet Wales’ commanding officer.”
The royal household, and especially Harry’s father, Prince Charles, had been consulted throughout the decision process, the statement said.
It had been Harry’s “express wish” to undertake a “normal tour of duty.”
The statement warned of the dangers of speculating exactly where the Prince would serve.
“Speculation about precisely where Cornet Wales will serve, or the exact details of his role, is potentially dangerous,” it said.
Sources said that during his tour of up to seven months, Prince Harry’s reconnaissance unit, which is known generally as the “eyes and ears” of the army, would be deployed on patrol missions along the Iraqi border with Iran.
Under the withdrawal proposals presented by Blair, the remaining British forces in southern Iraq will move their headquarters from the centre of Basra to the airport on the outskirts of the port city.
Blair said that the British mission in Iraq remained “difficult” and that troops were frequently coming under “intense fire” from insurgents.
A total of 132 British service personnel have been killed in Iraq since the 2003 invasion, with roadside bomb attacks on patrols having risen sharply over the last few months.
Professor Michael Clarke, a war studies expert at King’s College London, said Thursday that Harry’s “celebrity status” could make the situation “more dangerous” for those serving alongside him.
“If the insurgents see a troop and think it might be Harry’s, it might attract further attention. In a sense, his celebrity might be a factor in making the security situation for his troop more dangerous,” said Clarke.
“This case will not be straightforward. The operation they’re in is not so clear. It’s boots on the ground,” said Clarke, comparing Harry’s role to that of Prince Andrew, who was “based on a contained warship.”
But the army, said Clarke, was keen to adhere to its “business as usual ethos.” He was, however, convinced that Harry, whom he described as a “good officer,” would “do the job he is trained to do.”
At the headquarters of the Blues and Royals regiment in Windsor, outside London, fellow-officers said Prince Harry was “over the moon” about going to Iraq with his men.
“It’s a good day for us,” an unnamed colleague of Harry’s told the Press Association. “It’s being portrayed as the regiment going to war with Harry but really it should be the other way round. He’s coming with us because his commanding officer picked him.”
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur
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Wednesday, February 21st, 2007
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Britney Spears has entered a rehabilitation center, her spokesman said on Tuesday, after the troubled pop star’s recent wild ways escalated this weekend to a bizarre incident in which she shaved her own head.
“Britney Spears has voluntarily checked herself into an undisclosed rehab facility today,” publicist Larry Rudolph said in a statement. “We ask that the media respect her privacy as well as those (privacy concerns) of her family and friends at this time.”
Rudolph did not elaborate on the treatment Spears was seeking or where the facility was located — though People magazine and TMZ.com both reported that it was in Los Angeles and that the 25-year-old singer checked in at the urging of family members.
Since her split with husband Kevin Federline in November after two years of marriage, Spears has raised eyebrows with heavy partying, sometimes with celebrity heiress Paris Hilton, and a series of pictures that caught the Grammy-winning entertainer wearing no panties under her short skirts.
This January, Spears posted an impassioned letter to her fans on her official Web site (www.britneyspears.com) in which she acknowledged that her image had taken a beating and pledged to come back “bigger and better than ever.”
But on Friday reports swirled that Spears, a former child star who exploded onto the pop scene as a teenager and has since sold 70 million albums, had entered rehab on the Caribbean island of Antigua, only to drop out 24 hours later.
Later that evening she was spotted at a hair salon in Los Angeles, shaving her own head in pictures that made headlines around the world. She followed that up with a trip to a tattoo parlor and on Sunday night she was photographed heading into a West Hollywood night club wearing an ill-fitting blonde wig.
Her Web site has been taken down and replaced with a message saying that a new one was in the works.
After she filed for divorce, Federline quickly sought custody of the couple’s two young sons Sean Preston and James Jayden, claiming that he needed to “safeguard” them.
Child welfare authorities visited Spears twice in 2006 after she was photographed driving a car with her infant son on her lap, and after Sean Preston fell from a high chair and hit his head. No charges were brought.
Since early in her career, Spears has generated as much attention for her personal life as for her music, including a highly publicized romance and break-up with singer Justin Timberlake.
Spears famously pledged in 1999 to keep her virginity intact until her wedding day but gradually shed that image as she grew in popularity, assuming a more overtly sexual persona known for provocative costumes and stage performances.
source REUTERS.
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Tuesday, February 20th, 2007
The foreign ministers of India and Pakistan vowed today to continue with peace talks following the bombing of a train service linking the two countries claimed the lives of 68 passengers.
Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri, Pakistan’s foreign minister, arrived in Delhi and drove, under heavy security, to the main hospital to talk to victims. Mr Kasuri’s visit came hours after his Indian equivalent, Pranab Mukherjee, had toured the same wards where a dozen Pakistanis - including a baby girl and her parents - are being treated.
At an impromptu press conference outside the hospital, Mr Kasuri said the attack would only add “to the urgency of the need for cooperation” between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.
According to Indian diplomats, the talks, which were to be about the revival of a joint commission on science and education dormant for 24 years, will now focus on the terrorism affecting both countries.
Indian police released the sketches of two men who had apparently leapt from the train minutes before the two bombs exploded on Sunday night. Both had argued with railway police claiming they wanted to go to the western state of Gujarat, not Lahore in Pakistan.
It is becoming increasingly clear that security at Delhi railway station was far from adequate. More than a dozen passengers made it to the Pakistani side of Atari without passports and television channels reported that travel document checks were easily evaded on Sunday night.
Pakistan’s railway minister, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, criticised the Indian authorities, irritating New Delhi by saying he was still waiting for a list of the dead and calling for a joint investigation. He also said that a C-130 transport plane and a special train were ready to bring bodies back to Pakistan.
However Mr Kasuri praised India’s medical treatment and said that Delhi had agreed to share the results of its investigation.
Significantly, Pakistan’s foreign minister referred to the train bombing as “unfortunate criminal activity”, a riposte to Indian analysts who have been quick to see the bombings as the work of Pakistani-based “jihadi” groups.
Speaking to television reporters Mr Kasuri refused to speculate on the identity of the bombers. “Why should I prejudge the investigation that the government of India is undertaking?”
source GUARDIAN UNLIMITED .
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Sunday, February 18th, 2007
| Houston, Feb 18 (PTI) An Indian American professor of electrical and computer engineering at Louisiana State University has claimed to have solved Einstein’s twin paradox, known as one of the most enduring puzzles of modern-day physics.
First suggested by Albert Einstein more than 100 years ago, the paradox deals with the effects of time in the context of travel at near the speed of light.
Einstein originally used the example of two clocks - one motionless, one in transit. The paradox has been described using the analogy of twins: If one twin is placed on a spacecraft traveling near the speed of light while the other twin remains earthbound, the unmoved twin would have aged dramatically compared with his interstellar sibling.
“I solved the paradox by incorporating a new principle within the relativity framework that defines motion not in relation to individual objects, such as the two twins with respect to each other, but in relation to distant stars,” said the scientist Subhask Kak.
In his work, he uses probabilistic relationships to assume that general properties of the universe do not vary by location. His formula completes attempts by others, as well as Einstein himself.
Professor Kak, who hails from Jammu and Kashmir, is currently Delaune Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering and Professor in the Asian Studies and Cognitive Science Programs at LSU, Baton Rouge.
Kak said the implications of his resolution will be widespread, generally enhancing the scientific community`s comprehension of relativity and possibly impacting quantum communications. PTI
source PTI.
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Saturday, February 17th, 2007
New Delhi, Feb 17: UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi laid the foundation stone of a new integrated terminal (Terminal 3) and runway at the Indira Gandhi International Airport here today.
Sonia was accompanied by Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel on the occasion.
In its first phase, the airport will be capable of handling 37 million passengers per annum (mppa). The airport is being designed with an ultimate capacity of 100 mppa.
With the addition of the third runway, one of the longest in Asia, the airport would be capable of handling new generation ‘A380′ aircraft.
It will have 130 check-in counters, 74 aerobridges, automated passenger movers, and a high-speed train connection to the city.
Besides, it will also have 30 remote stands with a potential for parking 200 aircraft and multi-level car parking for 4300 cars.
The two-tier terminal building will feature the departure complex on the upper level and the arrivals on the lower level.
Passengers will greatly benefit as check-in and security clearances will be faster and less obtrusive. For international passengers, more than 70 desks will facilitate emigration procedures.
Besides, passengers will also be able to avail a host of facilities like a wide variety of restaurants, shopping and duty-free complexes and a range of other leisure facilities.
Business travellers will be able to utilise the most modern communication equipment at the business centre and relax or conduct meetings in the executive lounges. The airport will also have a small hotel for passengers.
In 2010, all international and full service domestic carriers will operate from Terminal 3.
Access to the new terminal will be via a six-lane road connecting to National Highway 8. The Airport will also be connected via dedicated Metro line. This line is being part funded by Delhi International Airport (P) Ltd (DIAL).
DIAL is a joint venture company, consisting of GMR Group, Airports Authority of India, Fraport, Eraman Malaysia and India Development Fund. It is working towards the modernisation and restructuring of the Delhi Airport.
It is estimated that the passenger traffic at Delhi airport will rise to 46.2 million per year by 2015 and touch 80 million per year by 2025.
At present, Delhi airport ranks among the world’s worst airports but caters to 11 domestic and 53 international airlines. In 2005-06, it handled 10.47 million domestic and 5.77 million international passengers.
source ZEE NEWS .
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Friday, February 16th, 2007
Karachi, Feb 16 (PTI) Three suicide bombers, having links with al-Qaeda and Taliban, were arrested in this Pakistani port city today following an encounter, foiling their plans to carry out “Iraq-style” attacks, mainly targeting senior officials.
The arrests came as security was put on high alert in Islamabad following intelligence reports that four suicide bombers may try to penetrate into the capital to stage attacks with the help of a local link.
The three men, Shahid, Farhan and Ghani, who belong to Qari Zafar group, were arrested after an encounter in Gulistan-e-Jauhar, one of the most populated areas of Karachi, Superintendent of Police (CID) Fayyaz Khan said.
Three jackets, used in carrying out suicide attacks, along with three bombs, two pistols, one Kalashnikov rifle and some grenades were recovered from their possession, Khan told reporters. PTI
source PTI.
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