News World

new generation of computerised dashboard device

2010-01-21T19:19:00.000-08:00

New generation of computerised dashboard devices that will bring Internet access to the driver's seat. New Generation Technology will access this Facility wow.
The Wi-Fi-enabled gadgets, which are being developed by technology companies such as Intel and Google in conjunction with car manufacturers, will allow drivers to compose voice-activated e-mails on the move, call up restaurant reviews as they reach their destination and use 3D maps to navigate while their passengers watch movies.
The devices will go on display at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week.
However, motoring organisations have warned the so-called "infotainment" systems will distract drivers and increase the risk of accidents.
Duncan Vernon, from the road safety team at the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, acknowledged that sat-nav systems could help motorists, but warned that too much gadgetry was dangerous.
"All drivers have to navigate when they are behind the wheel, and technology such as sat-navs can help drivers do this when used appropriately," the Scotsman quoted Vernon as saying.
"But there is a serious potential for distraction, and related crashes, resulting from visual display entertainment systems unrelated to and unnecessary for driving. Most of us would be shocked if we saw a driver reading an encyclopaedia or texting behind the wheel, and rightly so. When behind the wheel, a driver's primary task is to drive," Vernon added.
Edmund King, AA president, said: "We must accept that technology is evolving and will not go away. But in general terms we think that the internet should be reserved for the cyber-highway rather than cause distractions for drivers on the real highway."
Neil Greig, director of policy and research for the Institute of Advanced Motoring, said: "The impact of these devices on driving standards has not been sufficiently examined. Therefore it must be a basic requirement that the new interactive technology only works when cars are stationary

Wait wait wait This technology commingggg....

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Making the most of three days in Hong Kong

2009-11-02T18:30:00.000-08:00

Many travelers to Asia find themselves with a layover in Hong Kong, a thriving metropolis of seven million people where East collides with West. Reclaimed by China in 1997 but still a melting pot of international commerce, Hong Kong is awash in gleaming highrises and blinking neon signs touting some of the biggest names in business.

Related sites : http://www.sapnatourandtravels.com/

Karadzic's advisers say he will come to court

2009-11-02T16:58:00.000-08:00

Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic said he would appear before the Hague war crimes tribunal on Tuesday after boycotting his trial since it began last week, but only to argue for more time to prepare.
Karadzic, who denies 11 charges including genocide for the Srebrenica massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys during the 1992-95 Bosnian war, has refused to attend so far but said in a letter to the court he would do so on Tuesday.
"I hope we will be able to find a solution which will lead to not only an expeditious trial, but a fair one," he said in the letter released on Monday.
He is representing himself. Earlier, one of Karadzic's legal advisers, Marko Sladojevic, stressed his client would need 10 more months to prepare and that he was likely to refuse a court-appointed lawyer to represent him.
Tuesday's hearing will consider options that include continuing the trial in Karadzic's absence, assigning legal counsel, seeking outside advice, or adjourning to allow assigned counsel time to prepare.
"I think the court now has to make a decision and appoint a lawyer for him," said Axel Hagedorn, a Dutch lawyer representing the victims' group Mothers of Srebrenica.
Alexander Knoops, a professor of international criminal law at Utrecht University, has said the court should enter a compromise with Karadzic to allow him more time to prepare.
Judge O-Gon Kwon repeated his warning that Karadzic should attend the trial or have counsel appointed for him.
"We advise him to consider this carefully prior to making his oral submissions tomorrow," the South Korean judge said.
"HUMANITY'S DARK CHAPTERS"
In Karadzic's absence prosecutors continued with opening statements and spent the afternoon discussing the Srebrenica genocide, Europe's worst atrocity since World War Two.
Accusing Karadzic of responsibility for one of "humanity's dark chapters", prosecutor Alan Tieger said Karadzic ordered Bosnian Serb forces to capture the Muslim enclave of Srebrenica to crown his efforts to "cleanse" eastern Bosnia of non-Serbs.
"He knew that men were being killed, he covered up the mass expulsions and the murders and continues to do so to this day, and the only regret he had about the entire operation was that some Muslim men got away," Tieger said.
In video film shown to the court, Tieger showed a Bosnian Muslim man forced to call out to his teenage son that it was safe to surrender to the Bosnian Serbs. Both father and son were later found dead in a mass grave, he said.
He said the killings demanded a high degree of planning and the list of those who knew about the plans was long. As well as supreme commander Karadzic, it included Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic, also indicted for war crimes and still at large.
The charges against Karadzic also include the 43-month siege of Sarajevo, which killed an estimated 10,000 people.
(Additional reporting by Yvonne Bell and Suzan Yucel in The Hague and Ivana Sekularac in Belgrade; editing by Andrew Roche)

Riva new Electric car

2009-11-02T16:56:00.000-08:00

When the entire automobile industry is racing towards the age of electricity, the Reva Electric Car Company is leading from the front as it prepares to launch two new models - Reva NXR and NXG. The Reva Electric Car Co. has joined forces with Bannon Automotive, a new electric car company in Freeport, New York, to assemble the three-door plug-in hatchback NXR at a site in the Syracuse area.

www.sapnatourandtravels.com

Yogini of the sky

2009-11-02T16:55:00.001-08:00

New York, Nov. 1 -- For director Mira Nair, making a film on a legendary aviatrix who died in 1937 is personal.
Her latest film is also her most ambitious: Amelia, which releases in the US on Friday, is her first biopic, and shot across Canada and southern Africa. So what could this Indian-born director have in common with the subject of the film, Amelia Earhart, an American icon and the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic? In an interview in New York, Nair said: "I felt an affinity because like me she too came from a small town.
Like Atchison, Kansas, I came from Bhubaneshwar, Orissa and like her I wanted to see the world. I remember when I was eight years old, the first aerodrome came to Bhubaneshwar and we used to run to the airfield and see the Fokker Friendships land and I knew one day I'd be on that plane.
And that was her small town dream as well." For Nair, who has gained acclaim for films like Salaam Bombay!, Monsoon Wedding and The Namesake, Amelia is her most expensive, if not expansive, film so far.
The film cost nearly $20 million and that means the director, who has always enjoyed critical success, needs box office success as well. That is making her somewhat nervous.
"The fact that it's a huge commercial endeavour certainly means that it should have a commercial response, it should make its money. So I did feel the pressure of making a film that would make a difference, that would take people on a journey.
" She describes the experience as a sort of ballet, and a "dance with money" in which she was part "poet" and part "horse-trader". Other than the personal connection to the story of Earhart, Nair was also attracted to her biography.
"I felt that if she were to walk into a room today, she'd still be considered a deeply iconoclastic modern woman, utterly modern - someone who created her own rules and lived by them." As part of her modernity, she could be credited with having created the first-ever pre-nuptial agreement, Nair claimed.
In this film, Nair has had to work with the most high-powered starcast - two-time Academy Award winner Hilary Swank (as Amelia Earhart), Richard Gere (as her husband, G.P. Putnam), and Ewan McGregor (as her lover, Gene Vidal). For Nair, working with Swank, who won Oscars for Boys Don't Cry and Million Dollar Baby, was a breeze.
"As interested as I became in Amelia, I was even more interested in working with Hilary Swank. She's such a consummate actor, she's a total spiritual daredevil.
She learnt to how to fly to become Amelia!" Swank returned the compliment during the red carpet premiere of the film at Manhattan's Paris Theatre. "I think Mira's a very special person and like Amelia she makes no apologies for her strengths.
" This is also a film where a large portion of the cinematography focuses upon the vistas observed from a cockpit, another first for Nair. But the filmmaker nearly always uses Indian elements in her films, almost as a talisman.
And she does it here again in depicting Earhart's final journey, attempting to circumnavigate the globe, an attempt that ends in her death (her craft, a Lockheed Electra, disappeared over the Pacific Ocean and her body was never found). Nair brings her to Kolkata during the last legs of her journey.
"I recreated Dum Dum in South Africa. Dum Dum was part of my childhood, but also the monsoon.
She was trapped by nature in Calcutta. It was not so much to get India into the film, it was much more to show that despite the force of nature, she had to go on.
It was also to show her recklessness, that scene.".

Obama calls on Karzai to combat corruption

2009-11-02T16:50:00.000-08:00

Washington, Nov 3 (DPA) US President Barack Obama called on Afghan President Hamid Karzai Monday to being a 'new chapter' for his country by initiating reforms and cracking down on corruption.
Obama telephoned Karzai after he was declared the winner in the presidential election to offer congratulations but also to urge him to get serious about improving the government, fighting corruption and speeding up the training of Afghan security forces.
'The proof is not going to be in words, it's going to be in deeds,' Obama said at a meeting with Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt.
Afghan elections officials on Monday named Karzai the winner after his challenger, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah, dropped out of the run-off election scheduled for this weekend, alleging the outcome would not be fair.
Karzai's re-election was hampered by allegations of fraud in the first round of voting Aug 20. Karzai had initially captured more than 50 percent of the vote for an outright victory. But he fell below that threshold after fraudulent ballots were tossed out, forcing him - under US pressure - to agree to a run-off against Abdullah.
The White House said that Karzai's victory was legitimate even though the election process was ridden with problems.
'Although the process was messy, I am pleased to say the final outcome was determined in accordance with Afghan law, which I think is very important,' Obama said.
The problematic electoral process has raised questions about Karzai's legitimacy at a time when Obama is reviewing the administration's policy in Afghanistan and needs credible leadership in Kabul. Earlier this year there were reports that Karzai had fallen into disfavour within the Obama administration because of the widespread corruption in his government.
'President Karzai has been declared the winner of the Afghan election and will head the next government of Afghanistan,' White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said. 'So, obviously, he's the legitimate leader of the country.'
The Obama administration was concerned about an alliance with a government headed by someone viewed by the Afghan people as an illegitimate leader. Obama is weighing whether to send up to 40,000 additional troops to Afghanistan to step up the fight against the Taliban

Blast in Rawalpindi kills 35

2009-11-02T16:49:00.000-08:00

A suspected Taliban suicide bomb killed at least 35 people in the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi on Monday, officials said, as the government announced a reward for the capture, dead or alive, of the group's leaders.
Pakistan Taliban militants are being squeezed out of their strongholds near the Afghan border by a massive army offensive, but have retaliated by stepping up bomb attacks and raids on urban targets.
The army offensive is being closely watched by the United States and other powers embroiled in neighbouring Afghanistan, as the border area has become a sanctuary for insurgents from both countries as well as foreign al Qaeda militants.
Monday's blast came as the Pakistan government announced rewards worth $5 million for information leading to the capture, dead or alive, of Pakistan Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud and more than a dozen other militant leaders.
The attack in Rawalpindi, a large sprawling city that twins the smaller, administrative capital of Islamabad, took place in an area that is home to the army headquarters as well as some hotels.
Last month militants launched a brazen attack on the army headquarters, taking dozens of people hostage before commandos stormed the building and rescued them.
Officials said many of Monday's victims were elderly people who had gathered at a bank to withdraw their pensions. The military said four soldiers were among those killed.
"It was a huge blast. Smoke is rising from the scene," Nasir Naqvi, who runs a travel agency near the site of the blast, told Reuters.
Two suspected militants were later killed by a second bomb that exploded during a routine vehicle check in the eastern city of Lahore, police said. They said 15 people were wounded by the blast, three seriously, including several police officers.
Last week, in the deadliest militant attack in more than two years, more than 100 people were killed and scores more wounded when a car bomb detonated in a crowded market in the northwest frontier city of Peshawar.
WANTED, DEAD OR ALIVE
The announcement of the bounty on Hakimullah's head was made through newspaper advertisements as security forces zeroed in on his Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (Taliban Movement of Pakistan) strongholds in South Waziristan.
"These people are definitely killers of humanity and deserve exemplary punishment," read the front-page advertisement, with photographs of Hakimullah and seven senior lieutenants, in The News.
"Help the government of Pakistan so that these people meet their nemesis," the ad said.
A reward of more than $600,000 each was announced for Hakimullah, who is regarded as violent and brutal, and his top aide Wali-ur-Rehman, believed to be more thoughtful and canny.
The same amount was offered for Qari Hussain Mehsud, Hakimullah's cousin who is known as "the mentor of suicide bombers".
The trio spoke last month to a group of journalists in Sararogha, a major Taliban base in South Waziristan, but have not been sighted since.
Security forces have captured Kotkai, the birthplace of Hakimullah and hometown of Hussain, in the Waziristan offensive, and on Sunday the military said it was on the outskirts of Sararogha and Makeen, also strongholds of Hakimullah.
Government forces had captured Kaniguram and Karama, two hubs for Uzbek militants, military spokesman Major-General Athar Abbas told a news conference on Monday.
In a related development, the United Nations on Tuesday announced it had raised a security alert for the Northwest Frontier Province and Federally Administered Tribal Areas -- which include Waziristan -- ordering all non-essential international staff to leave.
The security situation has also hit the stock market, with the Karachi exchange index falling 3.1 percent on Monday.
"The market started on the lower side today but the slide accelerated following the bombing in Rawalpindi," said Khalid Iqbal Siddiqui, director at brokers Invest and Finance Securities.
(For more Reuters coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan, see: http://www.reuters.com/news/globalcoverage/afghanistanpakistan)
((Reporting by Zeeshan Haider and Faisal Aziz; Writing by David Fox; Editing by Alex Richardson))

Pakistan offers $5 mn for information on Taliban leaders

2009-11-02T16:45:00.000-08:00

Islamabad, Nov 2 (IANS) The Pakistan government Monday offered a reward of $5 million for information on the country's Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud and 18 of his associates.
The reward is for information on Tehreek-e-Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud and his associates who have vowed deadly attacks across the country in retaliation over US drone strikes.
The rewards were offered in a government advertisement on the front page of The News daily and flashed on Pakistani television channels overnight.
'Anyone who captures these people dead or alive or provides concrete information, the government will award them a cash reward,' The Nation quoted the advertisement as saying.
'The banned Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP) terrorists are daily involved in deadly activities and because of their activities innocent Muslims are going to the valley of death,' it added.
The largest rewards of 50 million Pakistan rupees each were offered for Mehsud, senior leader Wali ur-Rehman Mehsud and Qari Hussain Mehsud, also described as a master trainer of suicide bombers.
Eleven commanders had rewards of 20 million rupees each and rewards of 10 million rupees each were on offer for five others.
Pakistan has been hit by a string of terror strikes since Oct 5 that has left over 200 people dead. The worst terror attack took place in Peshawar Oct 28 when over 105 people were killed in a massive bombing in a crowded market.
The army has stepped up its offensive against the Taliban in South Waziristan and has been able to wrest control over some of the areas.

Shiloh Pepin Has Died

2009-10-24T19:44:00.000-07:00

This is just the saddest. Shiloh Pepin, who was born with a rare condition often called "mermaid syndrome," swam off to the big ocean in the sky yesterday afternoon. Shiloh was only 10 years-old.
The Associated Press says Shiloh checked into the Maine Medical Center last week and was hospitalized in critical condition.
Shiloh was born with both of her legs fused together. Shiloh had no colon or genital organs, and only one partially working kidney. Usually, children born with sirenomelia get their legs surgically separated, but Shiloh never did because blood vessels in her circulatory system would have been cut.
Shiloh appeared on Oprah just last month where she talked openly about her condition. Shiloh even threw Oprah a few "O, please" faces whenever she was asked some dumb questions. Those of you that have seen the documentaries about her on the Discovery know that she really loved life and didn't take any shit.
May Shiloh rest in peace.

Maruti rides on festive sales, posts Rs 570 cr profit

2009-10-24T19:42:00.000-07:00

Boosted by good festive season sales and robust exports, the country's largest car maker, Maruti Suzuki India, today reported a nearly two-fold jump in its net profit at Rs 570 crore for the second quarter of FY'10.The company had a net profit of Rs 296.12 crore in the same period a year ago.It is investing Rs 150 crore to hike production capacity at its Gurgaon facility by up to 90,000 units through de-bottlenecking and modernisation."During the quarter, we had good festival season sales and response to our new models were good. Moreover, we also saw robust exports," Maruti Suzuki India Managing Director and CEO S Nakanishi told reporters here.MSI's net sales grew by 46.67 per cent during the quarter ended September 30, 2009, at Rs 7,049.58 crore, against Rs 4,806.26 crore in the same period last year. PTI

US drone strike kills 24 in Bajaur

2009-10-24T19:28:00.000-07:00

A US drone attack on a militant hideout in Damadola in Bajaur killed 24 people, three foreigners among them, on Saturday.
Officials said 12 people were wounded in the attack on an underground hideout in Chohetra, 14km north of regional headquarters Khar. ‘I heard two loud explosions when a meeting of the Taliban was in progress,’ a local resident Hazrat Gul said.
According to an official of the political administration, two relatives of the militant ‘commander’ in Bajaur, Maulvi Faqir Mohammad, were among the dead.
Sources said Maulvi Faqir had left the meeting only a few minutes before the attack.
Assistant Political Agent Mohammad Jamil said the pilotless plane fired at least two missiles at the hideout.

Pakistan’s nuclear assets in safe hands: FO Spokesman

2009-10-24T19:21:00.000-07:00

Lahore, Pakistan:- The Foreign Office Spokesman, on Indian concerns over the safety of Pakistan’s nuclear assets, has said that such remarks are evidently self-serving and integral to India’s efforts to seek unilateral advantage at the cost of regional strategic stability by its feverish militarization and working on dangerous military doctrines.
“Pakistan has refrained from commenting on India’s own record on nuclear safety and security and its overt and covert endeavours to build its WMD programmes,” the spokesman said in a statement.
Instead of finger-pointing, India should accept our proposal for promoting regional strategic restraint regime and work with Pakistan to promote strategic stability in South Asia, the statement added.
The Spokesman said suggestions in this regard were made to the Indian Foreign Secretary at the recent meeting of the two foreign secretaries in New York. “It is also time that India stop its opportunistic propaganda against Pakistan,” the Spokesman said.

US drone attack kills 25 militants in Pakistan

2009-10-24T19:17:00.000-07:00

At least 25 militants, including six foreigners, were killed and several others injured today when a US drone targeted a compound in Pakistan's Bajaur region where top Taliban commanders were holding a meeting.The compound attacked by the drone belonged to a close relative of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan deputy chief Maulvi Faqir Mohammad.Officials of Bajaur Agency's political administration said a meeting of the local Taliban 'shura' or council was being held in the house in Damadola area. twenty-five militants died in the strike. The dead included Faqir's son-in-law and nephew and two top militant commanders.Faqir Mohammad left the compound about 10 minutes before the strike occurred at about noon, TV news channels reported.The strike destroyed several underground bunkers built by the militants and damaged nearby houses. -PTI

Pak military helicopter crashes in Bajaur, 3 killed

2009-10-24T19:13:00.000-07:00

A Pakistani military helicopter crashed today in the restive Bajaur tribal region, killing three persons and injuring several others.The Mi-17 transport helicopter went down in Nawagai area of the semi-autonomous Bajaur Agency, officials were quoted as saying by TV news channels.The officials said three persons on board the helicopter were killed.Local residents said they had seen smoke rising from the site of the crash. The cause of the crash could not immediately be ascertained.The helicopter crashed hours after a US drone attack in Damadola area of Bajaur Agency killed 25 militants, including six foreign fighters, and injured several others.The pilotless plane targeted a compound where members of the local Taliban 'shura' or council were holding a meeting. The compound belonged to a close relative of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan deputy chief Maulvi Faqir Mohammad, whose son-in-law and nephew were killed in the strike. -PTI

Bomb scare at Lucknow station

2009-10-24T19:11:00.000-07:00

A telephone call that a bomb had been planted at a railway platform in Charbagh Station here today sparked panic and sent police into a tizzy.The call turned out be a hoax as a thorough search by police of the entire station yielded nothing, SHO Charbagh (Government Railway Police) Shyama Kant Tripathi said.A person telephoned the police control room in the evening saying a bomb had been planted at platform number four, he said.The bomb disposal staff, which was immediately summoned, and police scanned the entire area but no bomb was found, the SHO said."It was a hoax call," he said. - PTI

After Raje, BJP removes West Bengal unit chief

2009-10-24T19:10:00.000-07:00

The West Bengal BJP chief had to step down today for poor performance of the party in the Lok Sabha polls, a day after Vasundhara Raje bowed to pressure from the central leadership and quit as Leader of Opposition in the Rajasthan assembly.West Bengal BJP President Satyabrat Mukherjee resigned from his post to abide with the party decision to remove all unit heads in states where the party had performed badly in the Lok Sabha polls, party sources said. His resignation was accepted by Rajnath Singh.Mukherjee has been replaced by Rahul Sinha, who was nominated as the West Bengal state unit president of the party by Singh today.However, the party leadership maintains that new state unit presidents are being appointed as country-wide organisational elections are on to elect office-bearers from block level upwards. - pti

Russian airliner lands safely after damage report

2009-10-24T05:31:00.000-07:00

A Russian airliner with 279 people aboard landed safely today in the Russian capital following reports of possible damage to its landing gear, an airport spokesman said.Oleg Pesko, chief of the Vnukovo Airport press centre, said the the Vladivostok Avia Airbus A-330 made a non-emergency landing at Vnukovo Airport shortly before 1630 IST with no injuries.Airport workers in the Pacific coast city of Vladivostok earlier reported finding pieces of aircraft tire on the runway after the Airbus took off.Pesko said that Vladivostok Avia would investigate whether it was the Airbus' tires that had been damaged."It's still unknown whether the problem was with this Airbus or not," he said. "The airline will find out after a special examination."He said that the airport's emergency services were on alert during the landing.

Russian airliner lands safely after damage report

2009-10-24T05:28:00.000-07:00

Money, muscle fare well in assembly elections

2009-10-24T05:22:00.001-07:00

Money and muscle power seem to have fared better in the recently held elections as voters have sent a staggering 50 per cent of crorepatis and over 36 per cent of candidates with criminal background to the three state assemblies.An analysis by National Election Watch (NEW) shows the number of legislators, who have assets of over a crore, voted to power in Maharashtra is 184 or 63.89 per cent of the 288-seat house. In 2004, there were 108 crorepati MLAs.Voters elected 35 crorepatis or 58.33 per cent to the 60-seat house in Haryana this time. There were 47 millionaires in the 2005 assembly in Haryana and 17 such MLAs in Arunachal Pradesh in 2004. -PTI

Devotees take holy dip in Ganga on Chhath puja

2009-10-24T05:19:00.000-07:00

Lakhs of devotees today took a holy dip in the river Ganga here on the occasion of Chhath puja.Devotees offered prayers to the Sun God at Dashaswamedh, Rajendra Prasad, Sheetala, Kedar and Assi ghats.In view of the heavy rush of people, heavy deployment of police and paramilitary forces has been made at all the ghats and temples, a senior police official said.Ahead of the festival, a massive cleaning drive was launched in the city and a number of sacred kunds and water bodies cleaned.Besides ghats and water bodies, waste was also collected from various colonies in the city, B K Singh, senior health officer, Varanasi Nagar Nigam said. PTI

Gold up by Rs 55; Silver ready surges by Rs 200

2009-10-24T05:18:00.002-07:00

Gold prices today rose by Rs 55 to Rs 16,230 per 10 gram in the bullion market here on heavy buying by stockists and investors in line with firming global cues.Meanwhile, silver ready spurted by Rs 200 at Rs 27,550 per kg and weekly-based delivery by Rs 140 to Rs 27,440 per kg.Marketmen said the yellow metal rose to near record level in the domestic market as investors were seen shifting funds from melting equities to rising bullion, considering it a safe haven to park their money.The demand for the precious metal also picked up on heavy buying by retail customers for the ongoing marriage season.Besides, they said, the precious metal, which moves in tandem with the global market, rose as gold recorded handsome gains overseas. -PTI

India-Benin ink key pact to boost bilateral ties

2009-10-24T05:18:00.001-07:00

India and the West African nation Benin have inked a key pact to boost bilateral ties and set up a joint commission to deepen multi-sectoral co-operation to consolidate their trade relations.Indian Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor, who ended his three-day visit here, yesterday signed a bilateral agreement -- covering political, economic, scientific, technical and cultural co-operation -- with his counterpart Jean Marie Ehouzou.The two ministers also signed the minutes of the first meeting of the joint commission set up to boost multi-sectoral bilateral co-operation to expand and consolidate their trade ties.Tharoor also flagged-off a Benin railways train with Indian locomotive. He also met with Beninois President Boni Yayi, who expressed his gratitude to India for making efforts to boost bilateral cooperations. -pti

India Infoline Q2 net up 44.27 pc to Rs 58 cr

2009-10-24T05:17:00.001-07:00

Domestic brokerage firm India Infoline today said its consolidated net profit rose by 44.27 per cent to Rs 58 crore for the second quarter ended September 30, over the same period last year.Total income rose to Rs 313.6 crore in the latest quarter, against Rs 276.6 crore in the same period last fiscal, India Infoline said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.On a standalone basis, the company has reported a net profit of Rs 35.43 crore in the latest quarter ended September 30, up 9.93 per cent from Rs 32.2 crore in the same period corresponding fiscal.

ROME FILM FEST: THE CONTENDERS

2009-10-16T21:10:00.000-07:00

The following 14 films are up for the Marcus Aurelius best film prize at this year's Rome Film Festival. - ALZA LA TESTA by Alessandro Angelini, with Sergio Castellitto, Gabriele Campanelli, Anita Kravos and Giorgio Colangeli; - L'UOMO CHE VERRA' by Giorgio Diritti with Claudio Casadio, Alba Rohrwacher, Maya Sansa; - VIOLA DI MARE with Valeria Solarino and Isabella Ragonese. - UP IN THE AIR by Jason Reitman with George Clooney and Vera Farmiga; - TRIAGE by Danis Tanovíc with Colin Farrell and Paz Vega; - THE LAST STATION by Michael Hoffman with Helen Mirren; - AFTER by Alberto Rodriguez with Guillermo Toledo and Tristan Ulloa; - BROTHERHOOD by Nicolo Donato with Thure Lindhardt and David Denick; - CHAQUE JOUR EST UNA FETE by Dima El Horr with Hiam Abbass, Manal Khader and Raia Haidar. - DAWSON ISLA 10 by Miguel Littin with Pablo Krog, Benjamin Vicuna and Cristian De La Fuente; - PLAN B by Marc Berger; - QINGNIAN by Geng Jun ; - LES REGRETS by Cedric Kahn with Valeria Bruni Tedeschi; - VISION by Margarethe Von Trotta. photo: Farrell with Tanovic reading Scott Anderson's book Triage

DSB bank given until Monday to sell itself

2009-10-16T21:09:00.000-07:00

Struggling independent bank has been given until 9am on Monday to sell itself or face bankruptcy.
The bank had previously been given a deadline of midday by Amsterdam district court after administrators brought in earlier in the week applied to have it declared bankrupt.
The bank's owner Dirk Scheringa urged the court to give DSB an extension, saying a potential US financial services company was intereted in a takeover.
Leaving the court, Scheringa told reporters: 'We are still alive, but it will be tough. We have to work really hard for 48 hours. The takeover candidate is extremely serious.'
Savings
Earlier it emerged the five big Dutch banks all declined to be involved in a rescue package.
DSB is on the point of collapse because thousands of clients withdrew some €600m in savings following a campaign by customers who claim they have been oversold mortgages and insurance.
Around 100 DSB workers gathered outside the court to support Scheringa, a former policeman who went on to create a financial empire. DSB was granted a banking licence four years ago.
More on thisFees of up to 80% common in credit insurance Insurance agents warned about DSB MPs demand answers from finance minister DSB in hands of administrators DSB boss took millions from 'his' bank

Work stoppages hit trains from Hat Yai to north, northeast

2009-10-16T21:02:00.000-07:00

Seven fuel trains travelling from Nakhon Sawan province also suspended service, as did another three free shortrange commuter trains travelling from Nakhon Ratchasima to other northeastern provinces.
The labour union of the local operation in Hat Yai district, which announced the suspension, said all trains travelling to Hat Yai station would be inspected, and then be "stopped" from continuing their runs if they failed to pass standard maintenance checks.
Union leader Wirun Sakaekhum said his union's act was not a strike, but merely a temporary suspension of service. "We are following a fresh regulation of the State Railways of Thailand, which was issued in the wake of a derailment on October 5. No locomotives in fully operational readiness are allowed to be used," he said.
Wirun said out of 11 locomotives operated by the Hat Yai station, four were in "incomplete condition" while a safety system attached to the seven others needed repairs. The Vigilance system is a warning device that sends alerts to drivers who might be sleeping on the job, he explained.
"The Hat Yai labour union cannot tell now how much repair work will take place, and cannot say how long the suspension of service will continue, but all the work will be completed as soon as possible," he added.
He said the Hat Yai union was pledged new equipment and budget for new locomotives and various repair work in an agreement in December 2002, but was never given anything.
Members of the union and rail workers later gathered at the Hat Yai station in the afternoon and burned an effigy of SRT governor Yutthana Thabjaroen.
In Nakhon Ratchasima, train 419, which gives free rides following government policy, stopped service, forcing passengers to travel by buses or to wait for hours for the next train after they found out that the other two free trains were also delayed. Their suspension from service was then announced. Station manager Somsak Tianpholkrang said the local train union told him that the locomotives for the free trains were not "fully ready" for use.
A source with the Transport Ministry, which supervises SRT, said the suspension of train services was aimed at unseating SRT governor Yutthana. Yesterday's work stoppage was the third strike in the past two years.-->

Norway Seeks More Cooperation, Less Tension With Russia

2009-10-16T09:25:00.000-07:00

Russia's re-investment in its northern defenses poses no problems for Norway, which will continue to improve military and political channels of cooperation with Moscow, said Jonas Gahr Støre, Norway's foreign minister. "There is no tension between the Norwegian and the Russian militaries, and 15 years of Norwegian-Russian cooperation has removed any tension," Støre told Norwegian public broadcaster NRK. The Norwegian government estimates that Russia has spent between $12 billion and $15 billion modernizing and strengthening its Murmansk-centered northern defenses since 2004. "Norway will, of course, continue to closely monitor Russia's military efforts, but we cannot see that this in any way changes the good relations between Norway and Russia," Støre said. Gen. Sverre Diesen, who stepped down as commander of Norway's defense forces at the end of September, warned that the government needs to invest more in providing an adequate level of funding to ensure the credibility of its High North Defense Plan (HNDP). Gen. Harald Sunde took over as head of Norway's defense forces on Oct. 1.
"Our High North defense can be stronger with more funding. We need a battalion of enlisted soldiers in the region to guarantee that the advanced equipment that we have can be used," said Diesen, who suggested that future government defense reforms should include a shift from a conscription-based to a more professional military.
The level of Norwegian-Russian cross-border security cooperation has strengthened significantly since 2007. Col. Ivar Magne Sakserud, the head of Norway's Border Defense Department, visited Russia's Rybachiy peninsula on Oct. 1, becoming the first Norwegian military officer to be granted permission to enter this "closed area," which includes strategic military facilities, including Murmansk and Arkhangel.
"This vote of confidence proves that the relationship and cooperative climate between Norway and Russia is very good," Sakserud said.
The expanding contacts, both formal and informal, between key military branches of both militaries was evident in September, when the Norwegian Navy frigate KNM Otto Sverdrup visited Murmansk, the Northern Fleet's main base, to participate in the Barents Rescue 2009 exercises, which also involved military and civilian agencies from Sweden and Finland.
Meetings between Coast Guard, Border Guard and Land Forces from the two countries are currently running at two to three a year, with the most recent high-level meeting taking place Oct. 12 between Vice Adm. Nikolay Maksimov, the commander of Russia's Northern Fleet, and Lt. Gen. Bernt Brovold, the commander of the Norwegian Defense Force's new National Joint Headquarters in Bodø, which opened in Norway's Arctic region in August.

Karzai questions vote fraud panel

2009-10-13T19:19:00.000-07:00

President Hamid Karzai has expressed concern about the investigation into election fraud in Afghanistan.
In an interview on US TV, Mr Karzai said the resignation of an Afghan member of the UN-backed panel "cast serious doubt" on its work.
Mr Karzai said that fraud was likely to have taken place in the August vote, but called it "good and fair".
He leads the preliminary count but the panel's findings - due imminently - could force the vote to a second round.
The election has been mired in controversy since it was held in August, with accusations that fraud was committed on a huge scale.

But supporters of Mr Karzai's nearest rival in the poll - Abdullah Abdullah - alleged that Mr Karzai was behind the sudden resignation of the Afghan panel member.
The interview came a day after Mustafa Barakzai quit the UN-backed Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC), which is investigating irregularities.
The panel is due to rule in the next week on the outcome of its findings.
"I am not going to say the Electoral Complaints Commission is illegitimate," Mr Karzai told ABC network's Good Morning America.
But he added: "That resignation has cast serious doubt on the functioning of the commission.
"I hope it should do everything now to remove those suspicions and to remove any other stigmas and to prove it is impartial and fair and not dictated to by foreign elements and government," he said. Mr Barakzai, a Supreme Court judge, had alleged that foreigners were "interfering" in the panel's work and Afghans had little input in its key decisions. He was one of two Afghans on the five-member UN commission.
A deputy campaign manager for Abdullah Abdullah said the resignation was politically motivated.
"Barakzai's resignation has a direct connection to Karzai. It was Karzai's idea," Saleh Mohammad Registani told the Associated Press news agency.
"Karzai is trying to bring the work of the ECC into question."
'Worthy of praise'
Mr Karzai conceded that some irregularities must have taken place but insisted that the elections were a success. "There were irregularities, there must have also have been fraud committed," he said.
"But the election was good and fair and worthy of praise not of scorn which the election received from the international media, which makes me unhappy, which makes me angry," he said.
He warned: "We must not turn an election, a victory for Afghan people, into a nightmare for the Afghan people."
Mr Karzai also said that he was "fully behind" new Nato commander Gen Stanley McChrystal and his emphasis on protecting Afghan civilians.
A recount of a sample of suspect ballots is almost complete, the UN said on Sunday. About 10% of votes cast in August are being audited.
But on Monday the ECC once again altered its formula for counting the contested votes.
Mr Karzai leads preliminary results with about 55% of the vote, considerably ahead of former foreign minister Dr Abdullah, who has 28%.
There would be a second round run-off if neither secures 50% of ballots cast.
In an interview with Reuters on Monday, Dr Abdullah softened his stance on the outcome of the elections adding that he would be amenable to a place in a unity government.
In Tuesday's interview, Mr Karzai said that for the past seven years, he had been known as "a man who brings inclusiveness".
"The unity of [the] Afghan people is paramount here and we will continue to strive for that," he said.

UK PM 'to send 500 more to Helmand'

2009-10-13T19:15:00.000-07:00

Gordon Brown is expected to announce that Britain is to send an extra 500 military personnel to Afghanistan.
The UK has about 9,000 soldiers in the country, the second-largest contingent after the US, but there have been calls for increases in Nato troop levels.
To date, there have been 221 deaths among UK forces there and the PM has faced some calls to bring troops home.
Mr Brown will address MPs at 1230 BST, after the first prime minister's questions of the parliamentary session.
'Right strategy'
He will begin his statement with a sombre tribute to British forces, reading out the names of the 37 servicemen who have died in Afghanistan since the last prime minister's questions in mid-July.
It is believed that Mr Brown will agree to the deployment of 500 more British troops but with some caveats.
The BBC's defence correspondent Caroline Wyatt said: "The prime minister will want assurances from military chiefs that the extra troops will be properly equipped.
"He'll also expect Britain's NATO partners to follow suit by offering more forces themselves."
British forces have been in Afghanistan since October 2001. More than two-thirds are stationed in the southern province of Helmand, a Taliban stronghold.
Last week Mr Brown's spokesman said: "We have always said that more troops would have to be subject to a number of criteria - the feasibility of sending the right equipment, the right strategy internationally, and particularly this issue of 'Afghanisation' which the president and prime minister talked again about yesterday, and obviously proper burden-sharing."
In his speech to the Conservative Party conference, leader David Cameron pledged to send more troops to Afghanistan to speed up the training of Afghan soldiers.
The Liberal Democrats have claimed the Afghan mission is "failing" and called for a new strategy and "a political surge" rather than more troops.

Related Sites : www.study-uk.info

Senate panel passes health bill

2009-10-13T19:10:00.000-07:00

A Senate committee has approved a bill to reform US healthcare, a key step in President Barack Obama's attempt to overhaul the system.
Senators voted by 14 votes to nine to pass the bill, with one Republican joining Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee in voting in favour.
Senator Olympia Snowe became the first Republican to back the proposals.
The reforms, intended to cut costs and make insurance more affordable, are Mr Obama's top domestic priority.
The president welcomed the committee's decision, calling it a "critical milestone".
"We are closer than ever before to passing healthcare reform but we are not there yet," he said. "Now is not the time to pat ourselves on the back... It is time to dig in further and get this done."
'Miles to go'

Obama welcomed the progress made so far on the billAnnouncing her decision to break with her party on Tuesday, Senator Snowe said: "When history calls, history calls."
However, the moderate Republican said it did not necessarily mean she would support later versions of a bill.
"There are many, many miles to go in this legislative journey," she said. "My vote today is my vote today. It doesn't forecast what it will be tomorrow."
The panel's bill, which was drafted after weeks of at times bitterly bipartisan debate, sets out a 10-year $829bn (£525bn) plan to cut health costs and provide affordable health insurance to most Americans.
US HEALTHCARE No universal coveragePrivate health insurance available through employer, government or private schemesUS spends some 16.2% of GDP on healthcare, nearly twice average of other OECD countriesUS Census Bureau estimates some 46m people do not have health insurance - includes 9.2 million non-citizens and 18 million people who earn over $50,000 a yearMedicaid: federal-state programme for low income groupsMedicare: for people 65 years old and above and some younger disabled people
Q&A: Healthcare reform Healthcare around world Senator Charles Grassley, the senior Republican on the panel, criticised the legislation and predicted that the bill would move "leftward" as it progressed through Congress.
"This bill is already moving on a slippery slope to more government control of healthcare," he said.
The finance committee's bill must now be combined with a bill drafted by the Senate Health Committee before going to the full Senate for a vote.
It is not guaranteed to pass, as it needs all the Democrats, two independents and one Republican to vote in favour.
'Public option'
Mr Obama argues that all Americans are entitled to insurance coverage, that rising costs must be tackled and that private insurers must not be able to deny coverage or end it when someone becomes seriously ill.
ANALYSIS Paul Adams, BBC News, WashingtonOn the long, tortuous road towards reform of America's healthcare system, this was a decisive moment. Several members of the Senate Finance Committee called the vote historic. The Washington Post this morning reported that not since Theodore Roosevelt proposed universal healthcare in 1912 has any such bill come this far. After months of debate, the committee's chairman, Max Baucus, looked delighted and relieved. In the end, those in favour of the bill won comfortably. This was due in part to a Democratic majority, but also to the support of Senator Olympia Snowe, who became the first Republican to back any of the bills proposed this year.
But this is not the end of the process. There are many more legislative hurdles to overcome before it becomes law. In the meantime, debate will continue to rage. A long congressional slog still lies ahead, correspondents say, but Mr Obama's push for healthcare reform has gone further than attempts in the 1990s by President Bill Clinton, which never got beyond all the committees.
All the different versions of the bill produced by House of Representatives and Senate committees are broadly similar in the scope of their reforms:
toughen regulations on health insurers mandate all Americans to get insurance offer subsidies to the less well-off and set up health insurance exchanges for people without employer-sponsored coverage, to help them choose between different options. Lawmakers are divided, however, over whether there should be a new government-run insurance scheme - the so-called "public option".
The finance committee's bill is the only one not to include a public option, an element advocated by Mr Obama and some Democrats as the means of creating competition between insurers.
Last week, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office concluded that the finance committee's bill would result in reducing the federal deficit by $81bn and mean some 94% of eligible Americans would have insurance coverage.
However, Republicans say the final draft which will be voted on is likely to be very different and more expensive than this version. They say the proposed reforms are too costly and represent too much government intrusion into healthcare.
At the weekend, the private insurance industry issued a study that said the plans could mean policies end up costing people hundreds, if not thousands, more dollars.

Walk to remember

2009-10-13T18:57:00.000-07:00

Its been over two years since Onward Jackson died after a courageous battle with Alzheimer’s disease. In that time, his children, Johnnie and Marianna, have done their best to honor him by making T-shirts in remembrance of him and donning them for each annual Memory Walk.This year was no exception.The Jackson siblings were joined by several friends and hundreds of others affected by the disease in making the 1.6-mile Memory Walk on Saturday morning.The walk, held by the Eastern North Carolina Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association, started at the Redmen’s Lodge on East Third Street at 10 a.m.
Before the walk, in its fourth year, co-founder Emily Albera gave a brief, heartwarming speech thanking everyone involved. Albera, whose mother battled Alzheimer’s for 18 years before dying in 2005, said, “It’s no longer about my mother. It’s about all of you people that have been affected.”Albera’s mother’s lengthy struggle with the debilitating disease inspired Albera and her mother’s daytime caretaker, Isabel Wilder, to start the charity walk.Wilder, a caretaker with Maxim Healthcare, said Albera’s mother, Emily, made significant strides in recovering her memory and basic skills.“I couldn’t believe how she turned everything around,” Wilder said.When Wilder took over the daytime care of the elder Albera, she said, the Alzheimer’s-stricken woman “didn’t know anything.”After the elder Albera died, Wilder decided to begin an annual Memory Walk, and she got the younger Albera involved.“I tried hard to get it going and let people know about this disease,” Wilder said.Wilder’s mother-in-law also died from the disease, and her father-in-law is battling it.Speaking from personal experience, she said, “Some (with Alzheimer’s) need help. A lot of them have family members that are not informed.”And therein lies the purpose of the walk, Wilder said.An annual Memory Walk allows people to share their stories and take advice from the experts in the field.Before the walk Saturday morning, Dr. Muhammad Usman Saeed, a clinical assistant professor with the Department of Psychiatric Medicine at East Carolina University, gave an informational, 10-minute speech about the disease and what is being done to combat and prevent it. Beaufort County Sheriff Alan Jordan followed up Saeed’s speech with some details about a wrist-tracker recommended for individuals stricken with Alzheimer’s or dementia.“Please tell your loved ones they don’t have to suffer in silence,” he said.

Storm dumps record amount of rain on Bay Area

2009-10-13T18:34:00.000-07:00

The long dry spell of summer and fall ended with a vengeance today as record-breaking rain and lashing winds tromped into Northern California, sending cars smashing into each other, flooding roads and downing power lines all over the region.
As the afternoon commute began, a big rig turned over on the eastbound Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, forcing the closure of all lanes headed to the East Bay. Earlier in the day, a fatal head-on collision involving three cars shut Highway 1 at Devil's Slide near Pacifica for nearly three hours.
In all, there were more than 200 serious accidents on Bay Area roads even before the evening drive time began, according to the California Highway Patrol.
Angus Gavin's didn't count in those statistics - but try telling that to him. He had just pulled into a parking spot at Hyde and Green streets in San Francisco in his Chevrolet pickup at about 2:30 p.m. when he looked up and saw a three-story-high eucalyptus tree coming down.
"I thought I was imagining it," the 30-year-old contractor said. "I was debating if I should stay in or get out, and I just sat there. So I got lucky."
Lucky meant his car got a cracked windshield and some dents as the tree slammed onto the hood. Not so lucky was the empty Toyota sedan parked in front of Gavin: Its roof was caved in.
The accident brought the cable car Powell-Hyde line to a halt, stacking the cars up until the roadway was cleared at 4 p.m.
On the freeways, drives took nearly twice as long as normal.
"Any time we have a big storm that comes in like this, we'll have these kinds of incidents. That's just the way it is," said CHP Officer Shawn Chase, who spent the day dashing from crash to crash. "The oil left from the summer comes up in the roadway, people don't slow down, and all you need is one person sliding into another and you get a chain reaction."
People who slogged along the roads to get to San Francisco International Airport found their flights delayed by as much as three hours because of the weather.
The National Weather Service posted a rare storm warning, predicting possible hurricane-force gusts of up to 75 mph for San Francisco, San Pablo and Suisun bays and for the western part of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.
Rainfall totals, fed by the remnants of a Japanese typhoon, were impressive. The 2.43 inches that San Francisco received by 4 p.m. obliterated the previous mark for any day in October - 2.29 inches, set in 1969. It's also more than 10 percent of what the city normally receives during an entire year.
"This rain is just sort of a blanket over everybody, and a fire hose in some places," said forecaster Diana Henderson of the National Weather Service. "And we've got quite a bit more rain to come today."
The high-water mark by late afternoon was set in Ben Lomond in the Santa Cruz Mountains, which had received 9.14 inches. Elsewhere, 5.63 inches had fallen in San Rafael, 3.14 in Concord, 3.79 at the Oakland Museum and 2.04 in San Jose.
Downed power lines knocked out electricity to more than 89,000 customers of Pacific Gas and Electric Co., said utility spokesman Joe Molica. Service had been restored to nearly three quarters of them by 1 p.m., he said.
Backed-up drains and gutters caused flooding on streets throughout the area. The CHP briefly shut down portions of Interstate 280 in San Francisco and Daly City and southbound Highway 101 near Lily Street in the city.
"The minor flooding is everywhere, and that's not that unusual given the first storm of the year," Chase said.
Many cities were making free sandbags available to residents. In San Francisco, about 400 had been handed out by lunchtime.
Maria Zuno, 56, was loading bags into her minivan at the city corporation yard on Cesar Chavez Street so she could rush home to South San Francisco and block off the entrance from her garage to the house. Rainwater started flooding the garage in the middle of the night, she said, and by the time she woke up more than an inch was covering the floor.
"I was surprised that the water came in so early," she said. "The storm was bigger than we thought it would be."
Golden Gate Park was spanked smartly by winds straight off the ocean, sending branches flying and trees bending over crazily. Marx Meadow flooded so completely it looked like a lake.
In the Santa Cruz area, emergency officials kept a wary eye on hillsides burned nearly nude by the summer's wildfires, and dozens of residents in the community of Davenport were asked to evacuate until the rains subside. Without vegetation to hold the soil, mudslides were considered possible.
About the only folks happy to see the bad weather were ski resort operators in the Sierra, where as much as a foot of snow was expected to fall by the end of the day. Wind gusts up to 100 mph were punishing the most remote peaks of the mountain range, but no damage was reported by afternoon.
The weather service said the rain was expected to continue into tonight, then taper off to showers Wednesday. Once the storm clears out, the long-range outlook is for dry weather through the weekend. related website www.study-us.info

Liquid Water Recently Seen on Mars?

2009-10-12T19:20:00.000-07:00

Strange globs seen on the landing strut of the Phoenix Mars lander could be the first proof that modern Mars hosts liquid water, a new paper reports.
Images from the robotic craft show what appear to be liquid droplets growing, merging, and dripping on the lander's leg over the course of a Martian month.

What's This? SHARE Digg StumbleUpon Reddit RELATED Mars Water Discovered, "Tasted" by Lander -- A First Snow Falling on Mars "Seen" by NASA Lander "My Mars" by Ray Bradbury Phoenix landed near Mars's north pole last May, and several "self portraits" taken to assess the craft's health show material spattered on the legs.
This substance is probably saline mud that splashed up as the craft landed, study leader and Phoenix co-investigator Nilton Renno of the University of Michigan told National Geographic News.
Salt in the mud then absorbed water vapor from the atmosphere, forming the watery drops, Renno said.
The water can stay liquid even in the frigid Martian arctic because it contains a high amount of perchlorates, a salt "with properties like the antifreeze used to melt snow here in Michigan," said Renno, who will present the work next month at the 40th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference.
Finding liquid water under these conditions carries possible implications for Mars's habitability, the scientists say.
Dripping And Shrinkage
Renno admits that the images showing droplets are not high enough resolution to examine small details.
He also notes that instruments on board Phoenix meant to look for liquid water near the surface didn't find anything.
But he and his team are convinced that what they are seeing matches the behavior of liquid water.
"As it cooled down toward the end of the mission and we're seeing the formation of frost everywhere, the drops almost disappear," he said.

Water Found on the Moon

2009-10-12T19:18:00.001-07:00

nce man first touched the moon and brought pieces of it back to Earth, scientists have thought that the lunar surface was bone dry. But new observations from three different spacecraft have put this notion to rest with what has been called "unambiguous evidence" of water across the surface of the moon.The new findings, detailed in the Sept. 25 issue of the journal Science, come in the wake of further evidence of lunar polar water ice by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and just weeks before the planned lunar impact of NASA's LCROSS satellite, which will hit one of the permanently shadowed craters at the moon's south pole in hope of churning up evidence of water ice deposits in the debris field.The moon remains drier than any desert on Earth, but the water is said to exist on the moon in very small quantities. One ton of the top layer of the lunar surface would hold about 32 ounces of water, researchers said."If the water molecules are as mobile as we think they are — even a fraction of them — they provide a mechanism for getting water to those permanently shadowed craters," said planetary geologist Carle Pieters of Brown University in Rhode Island, who led one of the three studies in Science on the lunar find, in a statement. "This opens a whole new avenue [of lunar research], but we have to understand the physics of it to utilize it."Finding water on the moon would be a boon to possible future lunar bases, acting as a potential source of drinking water and fuel.Apollo turns up dryWhen Apollo astronauts returned from the moon 40 years ago, they brought back several samples of lunar rocks.The moon rocks were analyzed for signs of water bound to minerals present in the rocks; while trace amounts of water were detected, these were assumed to be contamination from Earth, because the containers the rocks came back in had leaked."The isotopes of oxygen that exist on the moon are the same as those that exist on Earth, so it was difficult if not impossible to tell the difference between water from the moon and water from Earth," said Larry Taylor of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, who is a member of one of the NASA-built instrument teams for India's Chandrayaan-1 satellite and has studied the moon since the Apollo missions.While scientists continued to suspect that water ice deposits could be found in the coldest spots of south pole craters that never saw sunlight, the consensus became that the rest of the moon was bone dry.But new observations of the lunar surface made with Chandrayaan-1, NASA's Cassini spacecraft, and NASA's Deep Impact probe, are calling that consensus into question, with multiple detections of the spectral signal of either water or the hydroxyl group (an oxygen and hydrogen chemically bonded).Three spacecraftChandrayaan-1, India's first-ever moon probe, was aimed at mapping the lunar surface and determining its mineral composition (the orbiter's mission ended 14 months prematurely in August after an abrupt malfunction). While the probe was still active, its NASA-built Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) detected wavelengths of light reflected off the surface that indicated the chemical bond between hydrogen and oxygen — the telltale sign of either water or hydroxyl.Because M3 can only penetrate the top few millimeters of lunar regolith, the newly observed water seems to be at or near the lunar surface. M3's observations also showed that the water signal got stronger toward the polar regions. Pieters is the lead investigator for the M3 instrument on Chandrayaan-1.Cassini, which passed by the moon in 1999 on its way to Saturn, provides confirmation of this signal with its own slightly stronger detection of the water/hydroxyl signal. The water would have to be absorbed or trapped in the glass and minerals at the lunar surface, wrote Roger Clark of the U.S. Geological Survey in the study detailing Cassini's findings.The Cassini data shows a global distribution of the water signal, though it also appears stronger near the poles (and low in the lunar maria).Finally, the Deep Impact spacecraft, as part of its extended EPOXI mission and at the request of the M3 team, made infrared detections of water and hydroxyl as part of a calibration exercise during several close approaches of the Earth-Moon system en route to its planned flyby of comet 103P/Hartley 2 in November 2010.Deep Impact detected the signal at all latitudes above 10 degrees N, though once again, the poles showed the strongest signals. With its multiple passes, Deep Impact was able to observe the same regions at different times of the lunar day. At noon, when the sun's rays were strongest, the water feature was lowest, while in the morning, the feature was stronger."The Deep Impact observations of the Moon not only unequivocally confirm the presence of [water/hydroxyl] on the lunar surface, but also reveal that the entire lunar surface is hydrated during at least some portion of the lunar day," the authors wrote in their study.The findings of all three spacecraft "provide unambiguous evidence for the presence of hydroxyl or water," said Paul Lacey of the University of Hawaii in an opinion essay accompanying the three studies. Lacey was not involved in any of the missions.The new data "prompt a critical reexamination of the notion that the moon is dry. It is not," Lacey wrote.Where the water comes fromCombined, the findings show that not only is the moon hydrated, the process that makes it so is a dynamic one that is driven by the daily changes in solar radiation hitting any given spot on the surface.The sun might also have something to do with how the water got there.There are potentially two types of water on the moon: that brought from outside sources, such as water-bearing comets striking the surface, or that that originates on the moon.This second, endogenic, source is thought to possibly come from the interaction of the solar wind with moon rocks and soils.The rocks and regolith that make up the lunar surface are about 45 percent oxygen (combined with other elements as mostly silicate minerals). The solar wind — the constant stream of charged particles emitted by the sun — are mostly protons, or positively charged hydrogen atoms.If the charged hydrogens, which are traveling at one-third the speed of light, hit the lunar surface with enough force, they break apart oxygen bonds in soil materials, Taylor, the M3 team member suspects. Where free oxygen and hydrogen exist, there is a high chance that trace amounts of water will form.The various study researchers also suggest that the daily dehydration and rehydration of the trace water across the surface could lead to the migration of hydroxyl and hydrogen towards the poles where it can accumulate in the cold traps of the permanently shadowed regions.By Andrea Thompson

NASA found 99% pure water ice on Mars

2009-10-12T19:12:00.000-07:00

NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has revealed sub-surface water ice that may be 99 percent pure, halfway between the North Pole and the equator on the Red Planet.“We knew there was ice below the surface at high latitudes of Mars, but we find that it extends far closer to the equator than you would think, based on Mars’ climate today,” said Shane Byrne of the University of Arizona, a member of the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, or HiRISE, which runs the high-resolution camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.“The other surprising discovery is that ice exposed at the bottom of these meteorite impact craters is so pure,” Byrne said.“The thinking before was that ice accumulates below the surface between soil grains, so there would be a 50-50 mix of dirt and ice. We were able to figure out, given how long it took that ice to fade from view, that the mixture is about one percent dirt and 99 percent ice,” he added.Scientists used several instruments on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, or MRO, in quick succession in detecting and confirming highly pure, bright ice exposed in new craters, ranging from 1.5 feet to 8 feet deep, at five different Martian sites.In August 2008, the orbiter’s Context camera team examined their images for any dark spots or other changes that weren’t visible in earlier images of the same area. Meteorites usually leave dark marks when they crash into dust-covered Mars terrain.The HiRISE team, which bases its operations at the UA Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, followed up in September 2008 by taking high-resolution images of the dark spots.“We saw something very unusual when we followed up on the first of these impact craters, and that was this bright blue material poking up from the bottom of the crater. It looked a lot like water ice. And sure enough, when we started monitoring this material, it faded away like you’d expect water ice to fade, because water ice is unstable on Mars’ surface and turns directly into water vapour in the atmosphere,” Byrne said.A few days later that September, the orbiter’s “CRISM” team used their Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars and got the spectral signature of water ice exposed in one of the impact craters, further clinching the discovery.How far water ice extends toward the equator depends largely on how much water has been available in the Martian atmosphere in the recent past.“The ice is a relic of a more humid climate not very long ago, perhaps just several thousand years ago,” Byrne said.

Moob Blast - For water

2009-10-11T05:52:00.000-07:00

spacecraft named LCROSS fired a 2-ton rocket casing into the heart of darkness on the moon early Friday morning, blasting out two fresh craters inside a larger one in search of hidden reservoirs of water.

The impact did not send the high plume of moon rocks and dust into the sunlit lunar sky as scientists had expected, but instruments aboard the spacecraft did record a sudden bright flash of light and the spectral lines of sodium and other as yet unidentified chemicals.
It also appeared that as LCROSS soared over the first new crater, it flew right through a high plume of vapor from the impact, mission scientists said.
"The spacecraft flew beautifully," said Anthony Colaprete, the LCROSS mission's chief scientist. "We saw the crater, we saw the flash and we looked deeper and deeper into the crater's shadow, but if there's water there, we'll have to see what the data tells us."
Like every NASA venture into space, the ultimate success of this one will be known after all the instrument data is analyzed. And there's plenty of it, for the Hubble Space Telescope and five other orbiting spacecraft from Japan, India and the U.S. were all training their instruments and optics on the event. Telescopes at 20 major astronomical observatories from New Mexico to Hawaii were also part of the mission's observing campaign.
Precision navigation
The flight itself was a remarkable feat of precision space navigation by engineers and scientists at the NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, where the mission was designed, built and controlled. And it gave the scientists their first-ever chance to explore material that has lain hidden beneath the moon's surface for billions of years.
At 7:30 p.m. Thursday LCROSS - the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite - aimed its Centaur rocket casing at the target deep inside a lunar crater 60 miles wide named Cabeus. So precise was the mission control team's aim that the Centaur hit just about 1,500 feet from the exact center of its 12-mile-wide assigned spot, and it dug an impact crater that may be 60 feet wide and 13 feet deep.
And when the brilliant plume failed to rise from the permanently shadowed crater, Michael Bicay, science director at the Ames center, speculated that the Centaur might have hit solid bedrock rather than the mix of smaller rocks and sand the scientists had expected.
Colaprete, however, suggested later that the debris from the crash might have spread out widely inside the shadow instead of rising above it - depending on its composition.
The predicted impact time was 4:3o a.m. Friday, and it came only one minute later, after LCROSS controllers, led by project manager Daniel Andrews, sent the Centaur rocket speeding to the target from 25,000 miles away at 5,580 mph. It was quite a piece of tricky space navigation.
After the Centaur's impact, LCROSS, its "shepherding satellite," was less than 375 miles above the moon's surface. And four minutes later the LCROSS satellite itself plunged on schedule into the same wide crater to make a smaller impact crater of its own.
Cabeus, the broad target crater, lies just above the moon's South Pole, where for 10 years scientists have been seeing evidence that rich deposits of hydrogen lie there - either as hydrogen alone, or as molecules of hydrogen and oxygen known as hydroxyls -or better yet, as deeply frozen water ice that has remained solid for billions of years in craters that have never seen any light at all.
Where's the water?
And that's precisely what this mission has been all about: to find out whether immense quantities of water do in fact lie beneath the moon's dry and lifeless surface. The moon has been bombarded ceaselessly by meteors and comets ever since it formed, and since comets typically contain large amounts of water, mission scientists reason that water indeed should be detected when they finally analyze the mountains of data from all the instruments in orbit and on the ground.
"There's water down in that crater, and we're going to dig some of it up," Colaprete had said at a newsconference Thursday. And on Friday, without speculating, he still insisted the odds are good that the cryptic data will ultimately show there is water on the moon.
LCROSS was launched from Cape Canaveral in June as a kind of hitchhiker aboard another spacecraft called the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, and the LRO has been orbiting the moon ever since on an independent mission to map the moon's entire surface. It was flying right over the impact sites Friday and will continue gathering data from them on every orbit.
Ames officials had opened the guarded space center to the public on Thursday, and hundreds of space enthusiasts gathered in the frigid open for the night, entertained by free moon movies, informed explanations, and images of the LCROSS experiment projected on a giant screen.
When the debris plume was barely visible instead of spectacularly bright, the crowd - with some in sleeping bags and tents - was disappointed and many grumbled.
"It was fun to hang out with my friend Dylan, but it's kind of like I got up at 3 in the morning for nothing," said Bobby Howie, 9, of San Mateo.
Read more: www.ankindia.com

The Nobel Prize Awarders

2009-10-11T03:06:00.001-07:00

The Nobel Prize Awarders
Who selects the Nobel Laureates? In his last will and testament, Alfred Nobel specifically designated the institutions responsible for the prizes he wished to be established: The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for the Nobel Prize in Physics and Chemistry, Karolinska Institute for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, the Swedish Academy for the Nobel Prize in Literature, and a Committee of five persons to be elected by the Norwegian Parliament (Storting) for the Nobel Peace Prize. In 1968, the Sveriges Riksbank established the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economics in Memory of Alfred Nobel. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences was given the task to select the Economics Prize Laureates starting in 1969.

The Nobel Peace Prize for 2009

2009-10-11T03:04:00.000-07:00

The Nobel Peace Prize for 2009
The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 is to be awarded to President Barack Obama for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples. The Committee has attached special importance to Obama's vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons.
Obama has as President created a new climate in international politics. Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play. Dialogue and negotiations are preferred as instruments for resolving even the most difficult international conflicts. The vision of a world free from nuclear arms has powerfully stimulated disarmament and arms control negotiations. Thanks to Obama's initiative, the USA is now playing a more constructive role in meeting the great climatic challenges the world is confronting. Democracy and human rights are to be strengthened.
Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future. His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world's population.
For 108 years, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has sought to stimulate precisely that international policy and those attitudes for which Obama is now the world's leading spokesman. The Committee endorses Obama's appeal that "Now is the time for all of us to take our share of responsibility for a global response to global challenges."
Oslo, October 9, 2009

Obama says Nobel Peace Prize is "call to action

2009-10-11T03:03:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON/OSLO (Reuters) - Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday in a stunning decision that honored the first-year U.S. president more for promise than achievement and drew both praise and skepticism around the world.
The bestowal of one of the world's top accolades on Obama, who has yet to score a major foreign policy success after nearly nine months in office, was greeted with gasps from the audience at the announcement ceremony in Oslo.
Describing himself as surprised and deeply humbled, Obama said he would accept the award as a "call to action" to confront the global challenges of the 21st century.
"I do not view it as a recognition of my own accomplishments but rather an affirmation of American leadership on behalf of aspirations held by people in all nations," he said in the White House Rose Garden.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee praised Obama for "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples," citing his fledgling push for nuclear disarmament and his outreach to the Muslim world.
Obama, a Democrat who took office as the first black U.S. president in January, has been widely credited with improving America's global image after the eight-year presidency of George W. Bush, who alienated both friends and foes with go-it-alone policies like the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
But critics called the Nobel committee's decision premature, given that Obama has achieved few tangible gains as he grapples with challenges ranging from the war in Afghanistan and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to nuclear standoffs with Iran and North Korea.
Obama, told of the prize in a pre-dawn call from his press secretary, now also has the burden of living up to its expectations.
The president, who will travel to Oslo to receive the award on December 10, plans to donate the prize money of 10 million Swedish crowns -- roughly $1.4 million -- to charity, the White House said.
LITANY OF UNRESOLVED PROBLEMS
Obama, 48, has struggled with a litany of foreign policy problems bequeathed to him by Bush, while taking a more multilateral approach than his predecessor.
Obama acknowledged that while winning a prize dedicated to peace, he was commander-in-chief of a country in two wars. "We have to confront the world as we know it," he said.
He won the award on the same day he was convening his war counsel to weigh whether to send thousands more troops to Afghanistan to turn the tide against a resurgent Taliban.
His troubles at home include a battered economy and a fierce debate over healthcare reform that have chipped away at his once-lofty approval ratings and a Republican opposition that has moved well past the honeymoon phase.
"One thing is certain -- President Obama won't be receiving any awards from Americans for job creation, fiscal responsibility, or backing up rhetoric with concrete action." Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele said in a statement.
But Obama is still widely seen around the world as an inspirational figure.
"Very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future," the Nobel committee said in its citation.
LAST SLAP FOR BUSH?
Some analysts saw it as a final slap in the face for Bush from the European establishment, which had resented what they saw as his arrogant "cowboy diplomacy" in world affairs.
U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters the prize could stimulate diplomacy.
"We think that this gives us a sense of momentum when the United States has accolades tossed its way rather than shoes," he said.
Crowley's remark was an apparent reference to a December 2008 incident in which an Iraqi reporter hurled his shoes at Bush and called him a "dog" at news conference, both grave insults in the Arab World.
While the award won praise from statesmen such as Nelson Mandela, Mikhail Gorbachev and Jimmy Carter, all Nobel laureates, it was also attacked in some quarters as hasty and undeserved.
Afghanistan's Taliban mocked the award.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, speaking to Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location, said it was absurd to give a peace award to a man who had sent 21,000 extra troops to Afghanistan, and Obama "should have won the 'Nobel Prize for escalating violence and killing civilians.'"
Despite declining U.S. public support for the war, Obama is considering a request for at least 40,000 more troops from his top commander, who says otherwise the mission could fail.
Nobel Committee Chairman Thorbjoern Jagland rejected suggestions from journalists that Obama was getting the prize too early. "We hope this can contribute a little bit to enhance what he is trying to do," he told a news conference.
Obama is the fourth U.S. president to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize after Carter won in 2002, Woodrow Wilson picked it up in 1919 and Theodore Roosevelt was chosen for the 1906 prize.
TOO HASTY?
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki called the award premature, but at the same time contrasted Obama with the Bush administration.
"The decision in this connection was hasty and the granting of this prize was premature," Mottaki told the semi-official Mehr news agency. "If this prize serves as an element of encouragement for the practical negation of the previous U.S. administration's war-mongering and unilateral policies with an orientation on a just peace we would not oppose it."
Liaqat Baluch, a senior leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami, a conservative religious party in Pakistan, called the award an embarrassing "joke."
But chief Palestinian peace negotiator Saeb Erekat, expressed hope Obama would help achieve Middle East peace.
Lauding Obama, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said, "His commitment to work through the United Nations gives the world's people fresh hope and fresh prospects."
While many Americans voiced pride, some were puzzled.
"It would be wonderful if I could think why he won," said Claire Sprague, 82, a retired English professor as she walked her dog in Manhattan's Greenwich Village. "They wanted to give him an honor I guess, but I can't think what for."
Obama's former Republican presidential rival John McCain said Americans should be pleased for their president, but also insisted he now has "even more to live up to."
The committee said it attached "special importance to Obama's vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons," saying he had "created a new international climate."
On other pressing issues, Obama is still searching for breakthroughs on Iran's disputed nuclear program, on stalled Middle East peacemaking and the fight against climate change.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he looked forward to working with Obama on peace efforts, a day after Israel's foreign minister said there was no chance of a peace deal for many years.
(Additional reporting by Oslo newsroom, Washington bureau, Kamran Haider in Pakistan, Mohammed Assadi, Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza; Mark Denge in Nairobi, Jason Webb in Spain; Editing by Frances Kerry) related sites www.study-us.info

Barack Obama Novel Winner

2009-10-11T03:00:00.000-07:00

The last thing Barack Obama needed at this moment in his presidency and our politics is a prize for a promise.
Inspirational words have brought him a long way - including to the night in Grant Park less than a year ago when he asked that we "join in the work of remaking this nation the only way it's been done in America for 221 years - block by block, brick by brick, calloused hand by calloused hand." (See pictures of Obama in Grant Park.)
By now there are surely more callouses on his lips than his hands. He, like every new President, has reckoned with both the power and the danger of words, dangers that are especially great for one who wields them as skillfully as he. A promise beautifully made raises hopes especially high: we will revive the economy while we rein in our spending; we will make health care simpler, safer, cheaper, fairer. We will rid the earth of its most lethal weapons. We will turn green and clean. We will all just get along. (See pictures of eight months of Obama's diplomacy.)

So when reality bites, it chomps down hard. The Nobel Committee cited "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples." Some of those efforts are faulted by his critics - those who favor a missile shield for Poland or a troop surge in Afghanistan or a harder line on Iran. But even his fans know that none of the dreams have yet come true, and a prize for even dreaming them can feed the illusion that they have. (See the top 10 Obama-backlash moments.)
Maybe the prize will give him more power, new muscle to haul unruly nations in line. But peacemaking is more about ingenuity than inspiration, about reading other nations' selfish interests and cynically, strategically exploiting them for the common good. Will it help if fewer countries come to the table hating us? To a point. But it's a starting point, not an end in itself.
At this moment, many Americans are longing for a President who is more bully, less pulpit. The President who leased his immense inaugural good will to the hungry appropriators writing the stimulus bill, who has not stopped negotiating health-care reform except to say what is nonnegotiable, whose solicitude for the wheelers and dealers who drove the financial system into a ditch leaves the rest of us wondering who has our back, has always shown great promise, said the right things, affirmed every time he opens his mouth that he understands the fears we face and the hopes we hold. But he presides over a capital whose day-to-day functioning has become part travesty, part tragedy; wasteful, blind, vain, petty, where even the best-intentioned reformers measure their progress with teaspoons. There comes a time when a President needs to take a real risk - and putting his prestige on the line to win the Olympics for his hometown does not remotely count.
Compare this to Greg Mortenson, nominated for the prize by some members of Congress, whom the bookies gave 20-to-1 odds of winning. Son of a missionary, a former Army medic and mountaineer, he has made it his mission to build schools for girls in places where opium dealers and tribal warlords kill people for trying. His Central Asia Institute has built more than 130 schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan - a mission which has, along the way, inspired millions of people to view the protection and education of girls as a key to peace and prosperity and progress. (See an interactive guide to Obama's first 100 days as President.)
Sometimes the words come first. Sometimes it's better to let actions speak for themselves.

related sites www.study-us.info

Obama: Nobel Peace Prize ‘a call to action’

2009-10-11T02:57:00.000-07:00

President Barack Obama said Friday he was surprised and humbled to win the Nobel Peace Prize and would accept it as a "call to action" to work with other nations to solve the problems of the 21st century.
Nobel officials said their stunning pick was meant to build momentum behind Obama's initiatives to reduce nuclear arms, ease tensions with the Muslim world and stress diplomacy and cooperation rather than unilateralism.
The president will donate the entire $1.4 million prize to charity, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said, but hasn't decided yet which organizations will share the windfall.

Obama said he planned to travel to Oslo to accept the prize.
"I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many transformative figures that have been honored by this prize," he said. "I will accept this award as a call to action, a call for all nations to confront the challenges of the 21st century."
Many observers were shocked by the unexpected choice so early in the Obama presidency, which began less than two weeks before the Feb. 1 nomination deadline and has yet to yield concrete achievements in peacemaking.
Some around the world objected to the choice of Obama, who still oversees wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and has launched deadly counter-terror strikes in Pakistan and Somalia.
Obama said he was working to end the war in Iraq and "to confront a ruthless adversary that directly threatens the American people and our allies" in Afghanistan.
Vote of confidenceMembers of the Norwegian Nobel Committee said their choice could be seen as an early vote of confidence in Obama intended to build global support for his policies. They lauded the change in global mood wrought by Obama's calls for peace and cooperation, and praised his pledges to reduce the world stock of nuclear arms, ease American conflicts with Muslim nations and strengthen the U.S. role in combating climate change.
Aagot Valle, a lawmaker for the Socialist Left party who joined the committee this year, said she hoped the selection would be viewed as "support and a commitment for Obama."
"And I hope it will be an inspiration for all those that work with nuclear disarmament and disarmament," she told The Associated Press in a rare interview. Members of the Nobel peace committee usually speak only through its chairman.
The peace prize was created partly to encourage ongoing peace efforts but Obama's efforts are at far earlier stages than past winners'. The Nobel committee acknowledged that they may not bear fruit at all.
"Some people say, and I understand it, isn't it premature? Too early? Well, I'd say then that it could be too late to respond three years from now," Nobel Committee chairman Thorbjoern Jagland said. "It is now that we have the opportunity to respond — all of us."
Star power?In Europe and much of the world Obama is lionized for bringing the United States closer to mainstream global thinking on issues like climate change and multilateralism. A 25-nation poll of 27,000 people released in July by the Pew Global Attitudes Project found double-digit boosts to the percentage of people viewing the U.S. favorably in countries around the world. That indicator had plunged across the world under President George W. Bush.
At home, the picture is more complicated. Obama is often criticized as he attempts to carry out his agenda — drawing fire over a host of issues from government spending to health care to the conduct of the war in Afghanistan.
U.S. Republican Party Chairman Michael Steele contended that Obama won the prize as a result of his "star power" rather than meaningful accomplishments.
"The real question Americans are asking is, 'What has President Obama actually accomplished?'" Steele said.
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Vote: Is Obama deserving of the prize?
Drawing criticism from some on the left, Obama has been slow to bring troops home from Iraq and the real end of the U.S. military presence there won't come until at least 2012.
In Afghanistan, he is seriously considering ramping up the number of U.S. troops on the ground and asking for help from others, too.
"I don't think Obama deserves this. I don't know who's making all these decisions. The prize should go to someone who has done something for peace and humanity," said Ahmad Shabir, 18-year-old student in Kabul. "Since he is the president, I don't see any change in U.S. strategy in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan."
Too early?Obama has said that battling climate change is a priority. But the U.S. seems likely to head into crucial international negotiations set for Copenhagen in December with Obama-backed legislation still stalled in Congress.
Former Polish President Lech Walesa, who won the prize in 1983, questioned whether Obama deserved it now.
"So soon? Too early. He has no contribution so far. He is still at an early stage. He is only beginning to act," Walesa said. related sites www.study-us.info

Obama’s Nobel Prize ‘Premature’: US Press

2009-10-11T02:53:00.000-07:00

US President Barack Obama’s surprise win of the Nobel Peace Prize has been met with skepticism from American media, with some condemning the award as deeply ‘politicized’.
"It's an odd Nobel Peace Prize that almost makes you embarrassed for the honoree," the Washington Post said in an editorial on Saturday, October 10.
Obama was granted the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 on Friday for his “extraordinary” efforts in international diplomacy and hastening nuclear disarmament.
"A more suitable time for the prize would have been after those efforts had borne some fruit," the Post commented.
"It is no criticism of Mr Obama to note that, barely nine months into his presidency, his goals are still goals."
The mass-circulation daily noted that the prize came at a time when a hot debate is raging in the US over the Afghan war.
“The Obama administration announced a probable delay in its plan to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; and Israel's foreign minister told the world that the Middle East peace Mr. Obama has been promoting is not coming soon.
“The Nobel Committee's claim that Mr. Obama has "created a new climate in international politics" is about as realistic as last week's "Saturday Night Live" parody skewering the president for failing to deliver, already, on a series of campaign promises.”
The Los Angeles Times questioned whether Obama deserves the prize.
"Excessive praise can be unwelcome and embarrassing," the daily said.
"We endorsed him for the job, and we greatly prefer him to his predecessor. But it's difficult to see why he deserves the peace prize so soon after taking office.
“The Nobel committee didn't just embarrass Obama, it diminished the credibility of the prize itself."
Premature
The Wall Street Journal received the Obama’s Nobel Prize with “bemusement”.
“The Nobel Peace Prize awarded to President Obama yesterday was greeted with astonishment as much as any other emotion, even among many of his admirers.
“Our own reaction is bemusement at the Norwegian decision to offer what amounts to the world's first futures prize in diplomacy, with the Nobel Committee anticipating the heroic concessions that it believes Mr. Obama will make to secure treaties that will produce a new era of global serenity.”
The newspaper said Obama himself was amazed with the prize, which came less than ten months in office and having been inaugurated only 12 days before Nobel nominations were due in February.
Describing himself as surprised and deeply humbled, Obama said he would accept the award as a "call to action" to confront the global challenges of the 21st century.
"I do not view it as a recognition of my own accomplishments but rather an affirmation of American leadership on behalf of aspirations held by people in all nations," he said.
Obama, the first black president in US history, has been widely credited with improving America’s global image after the eight-year presidency of George W. Bush.
But critics called Obama’s Nobel Prize premature as he has achieved few tangible gains, citing the Afghan war, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and nuclear standoffs with Iran and North Korea.
The New York Times said the Nobel Prize was an implicit condemnation of Bush's presidency.
"Americans elected Mr. Obama because they wanted him to restore American values and leadership -- and because they believed he could," The Times said.
"The Nobel Prize, and the broad endorsement that followed, shows how many people around the world want the same thing."

related sites : www.study-us.info

Obama's Nobel Prize Win Puts Him in the Company of MLK

2009-10-11T02:51:00.000-07:00

President Barack Obama was as shocked as everyone else that he won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. "After I received the news, Malia walked in and said, 'Daddy, you won the Nobel Peace Prize, and it is Bo's birthday!' And then Sasha added, 'Plus, we have a three-day weekend coming up.' So it's good to have kids to keep things in perspective," Obama quipped at the top of a statement he made in the White House's Rose Garden this morning.Then he grew serious about the honor that caused many to question whether he deserves it so early into his presidency:"To be honest, I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many of the transformative figures who've been honored by this prize -- men and women who've inspired me and inspired the entire world through their courageous pursuit of peace. But I also know that this prize reflects the kind of world that those men and women, and all Americans, want to build -- a world that gives life to the promise of our founding documents....And that is why I will accept this award as a call to action -- a call for all nations to confront the common challenges of the 21st century." SOURCE: White House Press Office

RIL directors’ claim a breach of trust: ADAG

2009-10-11T02:46:00.000-07:00

Anil Ambani Group has alleged that RIL directors' claims of not having approved the Ambani family MoU and actions of their Chairman Mukesh Ambani, who signed the pact, were in breach of criminal trust and fiduciary duties.
Fighting a legal battle on supply of gas, Anil Ambani group firm RNRL even questioned the locus standi of directors of Reliance Industries to file individual affidavit saying they were not parties to the case and had not taken permission of the court to file the same.
"If the MoU was not known, it is not understood as to how the corporate governance committee (to which the directors were members) worked out the basis and details of demerger, which were entirely based on the MoU," Anil Ambani Group firm RNRL said in rejoinder to the affidavits filed on Saturday.
Six directors on the board of RIL had on October 6 filed separate affidavits in the Supreme Court saying the board had not "accepted and approved the contents of the memorandum of understanding (between Mukesh and Anil Ambani) dated June 18, 2005" that provides for division of natural gas from KG-D6 between firms run by the two brothers.
If the statements made by the directors in affidavits to the Supreme Court were true then "the actions of Mukesh Ambani on one hand and the directors and members of the Corporate Governance Committee on the other would clearly amount to breach of fiduciary duties and criminal breach of trust," RNRL said in its rejoinder.
On RIL's contention that RNRL would make an astonishing profit of Rs 350,000 crore by selling the gas to affiliate power firms at market rates, the Anil Ambani Group firm said electricity tariff was either regulated or subject to competitive bidding.
"The cost of inputs for generation of power as well as price for sale of power is fully regulated and, therefore, it would not be possible for RNRL to sell gas at a price which would result in a profit of Rs 350,000 crore," RNRL said.
It, however, did not directly respond to RIL allegation that RNRL, under the family MoU, intends to source gas from RIL at USD 2.34 per mmBtu and sell it at market rates which can be higher than even the government approved price of USD 4.2 per mmBtu.
"The scheme of demerger contemplates that RNRL will undertake the business of supply of gas. It is highly dishonest on the part of the respondent (RIL) to raise this argument and in law it should not be of any concern to the respondent as to what profit the resulting company would make from the demerged business," RNRL said.
RNRL said RIL is bound by its commitment to sell gas to RNRL at USD 2.34 per mmBtu.

OBAMA WINS NOBEL PEACE PRIZE

2009-10-11T02:43:00.000-07:00

US President Barack Obama has won the 2009 Nobel peace Prize for his extraordinary efforts in strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation among people. “Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future,” the Norwegian Nobel committee said. “His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world's population.” Obama's name had been mentioned in speculation before the award but many Nobel watchers believed it was too early to award the President. The committee said it attached special importance to Obama's vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons.
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“Obama has as President created a new climate in international politics. Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play.”Obama would formally receive the award on him on December 10. There were a record 205 nominations for this year's prize. The laureate wins a gold medal, a diploma and 10m Swedish kronor ($1.4m). It is for the third time that s sitting US President has peace prize. Apart from Obama the others are Theodore Roosevelt in 1906 and Woodrow Wilson in 1919. Former president Jimmy Carter has won the award in 2002, while former vice president Al Gore shared the 2007 prize with the UN panel on climate change.

J&K an integral part, India tells Pak

2009-10-11T02:37:00.000-07:00

Pakistan has raised the Kashmir issue at a UN committee saying the "decolonisation agenda" of the world body would be incomplete without resolution of the problem, drawing a strong reaction from India which asserted that the state is its integral part. Speaking at a special committee of the General Assembly that addresses the issue of decolonisation, Amjad Hussain B Sial, Pakistan's deputy permanent representative to the UN, asked the international community to support the Kashmiri people's "right to self-determination".
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"The decolonisation agenda of the United Nations would be incomplete without resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir issue," he said. "Negation of the right to self-determination breeds discontent, ignites conflicts and threatens peace and security. Unfortunately, South Asia and Middle East have witnessed it directly," Sial said. Countering the claims made by Sial, senior Indian diplomat Anupam Ray, exercising his 'right to reply', said that Kashmir is an integral part of India. "Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India and participates in the democratic process of India," Ray said. The Indian side maintained that Kashmir remained a bilateral issue. "It has always been a bilateral issue and should not be addressed in multilateral fora," Ray noted. Ray expressed regret that Pakistan had reverted to "language of the past" and was "not addressing the crying need of the hour, which is dismantling the infrastructure of terrorism and tacking the perpetrators of terrorism". Sial, in his speech yesterday, claimed that Kashmir was not an integral part of India. "The Security Council and the UN, in several resolutions, have recognised it as disputed territory," he said, adding that the final solution should be made in accordance with the "will" of the people expressed through "free and fair plebiscite" conducted by the United Nations. Insisting that Jammu and Kashmir remained an "international issue", Sial said Pakistan "reserves the right to refer this issue at the UN as necessary". The senior Pakistan diplomat also reaffirmed Islamabad's pledge to work through peaceful means to resolve its differences with New Delhi on the Kashmir issue, which is imperative for durable peace, stability and progress in the region. The Special Committee on Decolonisation was created in 1962 by the UN General Assembly to support and monitor a resolution passed in 1960 that declared that all people have a right to self-determination.

Naxalism is greatest internal security threat: PM

2009-10-11T01:36:00.000-07:00

Mumbai: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday described naxalism as the greatest security threat to India. Speaking on the last day of campaigning in Maharashtra Assembly Elections, Dr Singh insisted on the need to analyse causes that breeds naxalism. Naxal problem arises due to lack of pace in development, the PM said, adding that there is certainly a need to look at the causes of alienation, particularly those of tribals. No group of individuals can take law in their hands, the PM asserted, adding that the government is not in favour of using Armed Forces against Naxalites. However, he said that there was no credible information regarding Naxalites having any terror links.
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There is no proposal for declaring Naxalites as terrorists, the PM declared, adding they are banned and covered under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. He further expressed government’s readiness to talk with Naxalites and terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir if they abjure violence. ‘Effective measures' against Maoists The Indian government is determined to take "effective measures" against Maoist guerrillas, Dr Singh announced. Asked about the beheading of a police officer by the rebels in Jharkhand, Manmohan Singh said the "evil designs" of the Maoists were well known. "The government is aware of their evil designs. We will take effective measures to counter them." He added that there was no credible information that the Maoists were linked to external forces. "There are always rumours afloat. But there is no credible intelligence pointing in that direction." ‘Pak involved in 26/11/ attacks’ Prime Minister Manmohan Singh demanded that Pakistan should try and punish those who masterminded the Mumbai terror attack last year.
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PM postpones visit to Kashmir for opening railway lineTalking to reporters, the PM said that diplomatic pressure from India and the international community had forced Pakistan to admit for the first time that its nationals were involved in the terror assault that killed some 170 people. "They should investigate all those who are involved (in that attack) including Hafiz Saeed, Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed. There should be a fair trial which will result in proper punishment being given to them. We have not lost hope." The Prime Minister said: "For the first time Pakistan admitted that it (attack) had its origins in Pakistan, the conspiracy leading to the tragedy in Mumbai was hatched in Pakistan, that citizens of Pakistan were involved. Pakistan had never before agreed to this... So there is some progress

'Very wet' cold snap coming as school holidays end

2009-10-08T04:16:00.000-07:00

Another cold snap is forecast to hit the country this weekend with farmers and drivers being warned to take care.
The MetService has issued several severe weather warnings ahead of the snow storm, with heavy snow forecast to fall as low as 200 metres in Canterbury and Marlborough and 600m in the Central North Island tomorrow. www.study-newzealand.info
The timing was terrible with families returning home at the end of school holidays, WeatherWatch.co.nz head weather analyst Philip Duncan said.
Strong southerly winds on Saturday could create blizzards on the Desert Road and motorists should have alternate routes in mind in case of road closures, he said.
"We're advising motorists to be aware of the conditions before setting out as snow may close state highways in both islands during Friday and Saturday".
Conditions in the North Island were not forecast to be as bad as last Sunday when a snow storm closed State Highway 5 between Napier and Taupo, stranding hundreds of travellers.
However, conditions would be "very wet" and at higher altitudes "very snowy", Mr Duncan said.
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Like last week the weather was caused by a cold southerly moving up the South Island, while a large low pressure system crosses the North, he said.
The MetService has issued road snowfall warnings for Arthurs Pass, Porters Pass, Lewis Pass in the South Island and the Desert Road and Rimutaka Hill Road in the North.
The last cold snap wiped out hundreds of newborn lambs and farmers are being advised to consider moving stock to lower levels or sheltered areas this weekend.
Police are urging motorists to drive to the conditions and be prepared.
The end of the school holidays would see many travelling long distances home, Canterbury traffic manager Inspector Al Stewart said.
" Check the weather and road conditions before you leave so you can change your plans and route if necessary."
People should also check their vehicles had good tyres and a full tank.
"There are many roads and passes in our district which are quite remote and susceptible to snow and ice.
"There are often quite long distances between refuelling stations and places to get advice."
Mr Stewart urged divers to slow down when necessary, keep windows clear, not overtake in risky situations an d pull over to let faster vehicles past.
Drivers should get plenty of sleep and take regular breaks to combat fatigue, he said.
"Eat sensibly and ensure you remain hydrated, but avoid large meals as they can make you drowsy."
- NZPA

Egypt to call Palestinians to sign pact in October

2009-10-08T04:15:00.001-07:00

The exiled leader of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas said Egypt would present it and its rival Fatah faction with a reconciliation pact to be ratified next month.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak
Damascus-based Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal told reporters after "very positive" talks with Egyptian officials in Cairo on Monday that Egypt would table a plan to be presented to Hamas and its rival Fatah group of President Mahmoud Abbas.
"(Egyptian intelligence chief Omar) Suleiman told us that the Egyptians will be working on the final draft for the reconciliation plan which will have at its heart the Egyptian proposal and they will call on all Palestinian factions for a national meeting in October to ratify the pact," Meshaal said.
Abbas has also visited Cairo recently and discussed the reconciliation proposal with Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak.
Egypt has been mediating for over a year to heal the split between Fatah and Hamas, ahead of presidential and parliamentary elections slated for next year.
Egypt last week suggested delaying Palestinian elections to allow more time to work out a power-sharing deal between the two rival groups. Elections are legally due on January 25, 2010 but no firm date has ever been published for the next ballot.
A senior Fatah official has said his movement would accept a delay, though others said that would be conditional on a deal with Hamas by the end of October.
Fatah administers the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Hamas rules Gaza -- the two territories where Palestinians want to establish their future state following a peace deal with Israel.
A dispute over the mutual detention of hundreds of each groups supporters has also blocked progress in the talks.
"We heard a clear Egyptian commitment to provide a specific mechanism to release the detainees," Meshaal said, without elaborating.
Reuters

World Bank to invest $215 mln in African internet

2009-10-08T04:14:00.000-07:00

The World Bank unveiled its $215 million Central African Backbone programme on Tuesday, to bring reliable, high-speed, low-cost internet access to the region for the first time.
Despite being the fastest-growing telecoms market in the world, Africa's broadband growth has been hamstrung by costly international bandwidth and patchy national infrastructure, impeding development and deterring investors.
Cameroon, Chad and the Central African Republic will take part in the initial $26.2 million phase, the World Bank said.
Congo-Brazzaville, Equatorial Guinea, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Niger, Nigeria, Sao Tome and Principe, and Sudan can also participate in the programme.
The 10-year programme is being supported through a partnership between the World Bank Group and the African Development Bank.
"Ultimately, our goal is to develop regional and national broadband backbones and significantly reduce the cost of ICT services in Central Africa," Mohsen Khalil, Director of Global Information and Communications Technologies at the World Bank Group, said in a statement.
In Africa, there are 10 undersea cables either under construction or in the planning stages, which could push down international bandwidth rates and increase the number of broadband users.
U.S.-based advisory firm AfricaNext Investment Researchexpects Africa's broadband market to grow more than fourfold in five years to 12.7 million users from 2.7 million in 2007.
This growth will be facilitated by new submarine cables and national networks due to launch this year and next, and the emergence of wireless technology such as EVDO and WiMax.
But Africa's fixed-line operators are already seeing a lot of customers moving to mobile networks due to lower prices and, according to telecoms advisory firm Delta Partners, this will propel mobile broadband to explode in the continent.
Currently, 1 gigabyte of international connectivity in Africa is $15-$30 depending on the country, Delta Partners said.
Separately on Tuesday, the International Telecommunication Union said mobile broadband penetration rates still low in many African countries and other developing nations.
Reuters

Zimbabwe seeks friendly Western ties: Mugabe

2009-10-08T04:13:00.000-07:00

President Robert Mugabe said on Tuesday Zimbabwe wanted friendly relations with Western countries who have been critical of it in the past.

Robert Mugabe at the opening of the Parliament of Zimbabwe
Mugabe, in power since independence from Britain in 1980, also reiterated a call for sanctions against Zimbabwe to be lifted.
"Our country remains in a positive stance to enter into fresh, friendly and cooperative relations with all those countries that have been hostile to us in the past," he said at the opening of parliament.
Mugabe has long been a pariah in the West, blamed by critics for plunging his country, once the bread basket of southern Africa, into poverty through mismanagement and corruption.
He has accused his Western foes of ruining the economy through sanctions in retaliation for a policy of seizing white-owned farms for landless blacks. Those countries say the sanctions only target him and close associates.
His government has also been criticised for human rights abuses, including repression of opponents and the media.
After long negotiations, Mugabe formed a unity government with opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai in February to try to end a decade-long political crisis.
"Our re-engagement with the EU bloc is gathering momentum. However, as our inclusive government re-engages the Western countries, we expect those countries that have imposed illegal sanctions, which have hurt our people and continue to hurt our economy...to remove them," Mugabe said.
Call for unityThe fragile coalition between Mugabe's ZANU-PF party and Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) is threatened by policy differences, the slow pace of reforms and feuding over state jobs.
On Tuesday opposition MDC parliamentarians applauded Mugabe when he called for unity among Zimbabweans in a conciliatory speech.
"Together let us build the bridges of amity, forgiveness, trust and togetherness," Mugabe said.
Analysts said Mugabe's comments were mild compared to his previous fiery, anti-West speeches at previous parliament openings.
"It was a departure from his conventional style and the speech appeared to be balanced and level-headed. The tone was quite impressive and is in synch with that of national reconciliation. Maybe he wants to reconcile polarised relations," said Eldred Masunungure, a political science lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe.
MDC MPs booed and jeered Mugabe's speech to parliament last year as they accused him of stealing a violent election run-off.
Foreign aid donors and investors remain reluctant to put money into Zimbabwe until further progress has been made towards democratic reforms.
Government officials say the new session of parliament will consider amendments to the Mines and Minerals Act and a bill governing the operations of the central bank.
Mugabe said on Tuesday that the government would pass a law on the mining sector soon. This would address concerns raised by an earlier draft that would have given locals control of mining operations owned by foreign companies.
"The Mines and Minerals Amendment Bill, which should be finalised during this session, will seek to strengthen the relationship between government and the mining houses," Mugabe said.
Several mining firms, including the world's two biggest platinum producers, Anglo Platinum and Impala Platinum, have retained operations in Zimbabwe but largely put new projects on hold, fearing the mines could be taken over by the state.

Mahatma Gandhi's Johannesburg house

2009-10-08T04:08:00.000-07:00

The government has expressed disappointment over a French company snapping up Mahatma Gandhi's Johannesburg house through Sotheby's auction firm, but said it will continue efforts to acquire the heritage property through a public sector company."The matter concerns national sentiment and I will leave no stone unturned to acquire the historic property and declare it a national monument," Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal said.Coal India Ltd, under the control of the Coal Ministry, had approached the owners of the house where the father of nation lived a century ago, for acquiring the property."The Ministry, through CIL had approached the sellers of the house and was ready to pay any amount they wished for. Negotiations were on but unfortunately, despite giving a month's deadline, they did not contact us," Jaiswal said.He said CIL board had taken a decision that its employees would part with a day's salary towards a fund for acquiring the house. "I have already announced to give my one month's salary besides making efforts for arranging more funds."Voyageurs du Monde, a Paris Stock Exchange listed company, has bought 'the Kraal', located at the leafy suburb of Orchards in Johannesburg at a price believed to be almost twice the asking price of US $377,029.

Russia's new frigates for Indian Navy

2009-10-08T04:05:00.000-07:00

Russian shipyards in Moscow have launched full scale construction of three more KRIVAK class stealth frigates to be armed with anti-ship version of BrahMos cruise missiles for the Indian Navy.The three new warships would be delivered to India in 2011-2012, a Russian official said.The new frigates of Project 1135 have been christened as INS Teg (Sabre), Tarkash (Quiver) and Trikand (Bow) by President Pratibha Patil by a special decree and are follow up order by India under a US $1.6 billion deal signed in 2007."The hulls of the three frigates are ready and are on the launching berth. Equipment has been loaded on two frigates and first of these would be launched later this month," the Yantar Naval shipyard said in a statement.Earlier, Russia's St Petersburg based Baltiisky Zavod shipyard had built INS Talwar, INS Trishul and INS Tabar.

US budget deficit hits record high of $1.4 trillion

2009-10-08T04:01:00.000-07:00

The federal budget deficit tripled to a record $1.4 trillion for the 2009 fiscal year that ended last week, US congressional analysts said.The Congressional Budget Office estimate, while expected, is bad news for the White House and its allies in Congress as they press ahead with health care overhaul legislation that could cost $900 billion over the next decade.The unprecedented flood of red ink flows from several factors, including a big drop in tax revenues due to the recession, $245 billion in emergency spending on the Wall Street bailout and the takeover of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Then there is almost $200 billion in costs from President Barack Obama's economic stimulus bill, as well as increases in programs such as unemployment benefits and food stamps.The previous record deficit was $459 billion and was set just last year.The Obama health plan would be "paid for" with new revenues and curbs in spending. But the overhaul effort would eat up tax increases and spending cuts that could be used to bring the deficit down.Obama has attributed the nation's dismal fiscal situation to the financial and economic crises he inherited. White House Budget Director Peter Orzsag is overseeing the administration's efforts to tackle the soaring deficit next year."As part of the fiscal 2011 budget, we will be putting forward proposals that return us to a fiscally sustainable path and that have lower deficits in the out-years," Orszag said in a recent Associated Press interview.The huge deficits have raised worries about the willingness of foreigners to keep purchasing Treasury debt. The administration promises that once the recession is over and the financial system is stabilized, it will move forcefully to get the deficits under control.Economists worry that the deficits could place upward pressure on interest rates in future years as the government has to offer higher rates to attract investorsRepublicans pounced on the bad news."This new CBO data makes it clear that our children and grandchildren will end up buried under a mountain of debt if we continue taxing, spending and borrowing at these dangerous levels," House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said. "How many alarm bells have to be set off before Washington Democrats get serious about tackling dangerous budget deficits?"Economists say the best measure of the deficit is to compare it with the size of the economy. On those terms, the 2009 deficit reached almost 10 percent of gross domestic product, a level not witnessed since World War II.The White House says it wants deficits in the next few years to stabilize at or below 3 percent of GDP. But by the White House's own estimates released in August — which predicted deficits averaging about 4 percent through the rest of the decade — it would take several hundreds of billions of dollars in new taxes or spending curbs to just get the deficit down to 3 percent of GDP.Those steps would easily exceed the efforts under way now to pay for Obama's health care plan. For example, bringing the 2014 deficit back in line with Obama's goals would require about $240 billion in deficit-closing steps in that year alone — near the amount of revenue that would flow from the expiration of former President George W. Bush's tax cuts.Such steps would almost certainly force Obama to break his promise to limit tax increases to the wealthy.Other budget experts predict higher deficits that would require even more painful steps.History has not been kind recently to presidents who tackle the deficit. President George H.W. Bush lost re-election in 1992 after violating his "no new taxes" promise. His successor, Bill Clinton, lost control of Congress in 1994 after pushing through a deficit-reduction plan laden with tax hikes.Still, Democrats controlling Congress acknowledge they have no choice but to tackle the problem — even if they inherited it from George W. Bush."It should be remembered that fiscal year 2009 began during the Bush administration, which left in its wake the worst recession since the 1930s, including a sharp plunge in revenues," said Rep. John Spratt Jr., D-S.C., chairman of the House Budget Committee. "But today's figures send us the latest alarm. As the economy stabilizes and starts to recover, we will have to turn our focus back to deficit reduction."

NASA to bomb the moon

2009-10-08T03:51:00.000-07:00

NASA is planning to bomb the moon's south pole first thing Friday morning despite protests from critics. But it is not as bad as it sounds. The space agency will actually crash a centaur rocket into the surface of the moon to try and see how much water or ice is under the dust and rocks on the moon's surface. This bombing mission carries a price tag of 79 million dollars

visit www.study-us.info

Kabul blast a 'heinous act': Karzai

2009-10-08T03:50:00.000-07:00

Afghan President Hamid Karzai strongly condemned the bomb blast outside the Indian Embassy in Kabul on Thursday, saying it was "heinous act of terror" planned to kill innocent civilians. "This heinous act of terror was an obvious attack on civilians and the perpetrators of this attack and those who planned it are vicious terrorists who kill innocent people for their malicious goals," he said in a statement. Karzai extended his heartfelt condolences and sympathies to the families of the victims. A Presidential House spokesman said Karzai had ordered the security agencies to probe the incident. A suicide car bomb today exploded outside the Indian embassy in Kabul, killing at least 12 people and injuring 83.

Games preparations: Delegates expected more

2009-10-08T03:48:00.000-07:00

Will Delhi pass the Games test this time? That's what many are asking as delegates from 71 member countries of the Commonwealth are inspecting the 2010 Games venues in Delhi on Thursday.But the delegates don't seem to be impressed with the preparations. "We expected India to do a lot more," says one delegate.Concerned about the preparations, Mike Fennell, President of the Commonwealth Federation, is due to meet the Prime Minister on Thursday. He met Sports Minister MS Gill on Wednesday.Fennell, who has managed stay unnoticed in New Delhi for the past two days, is also a part of the delegation. The delegates are going to different venues, including Thyagraja Stadium, Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, National Stadium, SPM Stadium, and a couple of others. They have already finished inspecting the Games village. The media is only being allowed to visit two of the venues - Thyagraja Stadium and the Games Village. It's just a year to go for the Games and there has been considerable concern over the construction of the games venues lagging behind. NDTV had reported recently on how even the Comptroller and auditor general had expressed concerns over some of the venues not being completed in time. The organising committee of the Delhi Games says the work will be completed in time but the Commonwealth Games Federation is worried. As of September 30, only 64 per cent of the work is complete.Fennell had written a letter to the organising committee warning that India's preparations for the games were behind schedule and had in fact asked the Prime Minister to intervene. And while delegates inspect different venues, it is a harrowing day for most Delhi commuters as the traffic police have advised motorists to avoid routes near the Games venues from 8am to 7pm because of traffic diversions. The roads to avoid are Prithviraj Road, Raisina Road, Ashoka road, Lala Lajpat Rai Marg, among others.

IAF to deploy choppers in Naxal-hit areas

2009-10-08T03:45:00.000-07:00

Hindon: The IAF on Thursday said it will deploy its commando units to defend its helicopters and men on board in Naxal-infested areas, but made it clear that they would not carry out any "rambo-style" operation against the Maoists. IAF chief Air Chief Marshal P V Naik told reporters here that the Garud special forces would be present in the helicopters flying in Maoist-hit areas for rescue operations and would defend their personnel and equipment by warding-off attacks by Naxals on them.
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"It is not a free for all like 'rambo' that we will go and fire in the countryside. The helicopters operating for casualty evacuation will be mounted with guns and the Garud force will man them," Naik said on the sidelines of the 77th Air Force Day parade here.
Related Stories
IAF not a rag-tag air force, says Naik
Air power display dominates IAF’s 77th anniversaryAsked about the IAF request to the government to allow opening of fire in self-defence, he said the Cabinet Committee on Security will decide the matter. "I want to reiterate that I am totally against armed forces -- Army, Navy and Air Force -- being used in internal situations. We are meant to defend threats from across the border," he said. Naik, however, said, "If the states requires any help we are always there to give it in terms of casualty evacuation and insertion (of security forces)." Bureau Report

Jaya Prada joins Rahul-for-PM chorus

2009-10-08T03:44:00.000-07:00

New Delhi: Their parties are not on the best of terms, but actress-turned-Samajwadi Party MP Jaya Prada wishes to see Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi as the country's prime minister. "It is good to see Rahul Gandhi active in politics; he is working hard to understand the ground realities and problems of people; and we (the people of India) would like to see him as the country's prime minister," Prada told a news service in an interview.
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Asked if that was the view of her party as well, she said, "It is not about my view or the party view, good work has to be recognised and everyone is seeing his (Rahul Gandhi's) efforts." She is currently in Maharashtra campaigning for the upcoming state Assembly polls there. Prada, 47, who first entered Parliament as a Rajya Sabha MP in 1996 at the age of 34, is not as impressed with the work of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government at the Centre. "The UPA Government talks more and works less. Most of its schemes look impressive on paper while they are not implemented properly at the grassroots level even in Congress-ruled states," she said. Prada herself is a second-time MP from the Rampur constituency in Uttar Pradesh, a state that forms the base of the Samajwadi Party but where it did not fare well in the April-May General Elections. It was during the General Election that ties between her party and the Congress nosedived. The number of Samajwadi Party MPs from the state went down to 22 from a tally of 28. "We have not fared badly, we have an impressive number of MPs in the state and in future we will work hard and bounce back with a majority in the 2012 assembly elections," Prada said. When asked about the Congress tally going up to 21 in Uttar Pradesh in 2009 compared to just nine in 2004, she said the public was angry with the performance of the Mayawati government and also fed up with the sectarian agenda of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and therefore they voted for the Congress. However, she added saying, "Now, people are realising that the Congress is not in a condition to form a government in the state and they will vote for Samajwadi Party in future". The Rampur seat once used to be a Congress stronghold in the state. She was recently reported to have been frightened to tears while touring her constituency during floods. "I was touring my constituency to know the problems of the people and their sufferings made be sad. I had been working for them, but a lot has to be done," Prada. Asked about the controversy during the Lok Sabha Elections when former Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan made unsavoury allegations against her, she said: "Everyone from the party supported me except him.
"I was hurt by what all happened, but I don't carry any bitterness against him. I have always considered him my brother." Born in Rajahmundry in Andhra Pradesh, Prada entered politics in 1994 after joining the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) at the invitation of NT Rama Rao. But now she is firmly entrenched in the Samajwadi Party and is satisfied with her second innings as Lok Sabha MP. "I feel great, this is the verdict of the people for a person who has worked for them. Also, it is the recognition of the work of a woman politician who has performed against all odds," Prada said. IANS
New Delhi: Their parties are not on the best of terms, but actress-turned-Samajwadi Party MP Jaya Prada wishes to see Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi as the country's prime minister. "It is good to see Rahul Gandhi active in politics; he is working hard to understand the ground realities and problems of people; and we (the people of India) would like to see him as the country's prime minister," Prada told a news service in an interview.
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Asked if that was the view of her party as well, she said, "It is not about my view or the party view, good work has to be recognised and everyone is seeing his (Rahul Gandhi's) efforts." She is currently in Maharashtra campaigning for the upcoming state Assembly polls there. Prada, 47, who first entered Parliament as a Rajya Sabha MP in 1996 at the age of 34, is not as impressed with the work of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government at the Centre. "The UPA Government talks more and works less. Most of its schemes look impressive on paper while they are not implemented properly at the grassroots level even in Congress-ruled states," she said. Prada herself is a second-time MP from the Rampur constituency in Uttar Pradesh, a state that forms the base of the Samajwadi Party but where it did not fare well in the April-May General Elections. It was during the General Election that ties between her party and the Congress nosedived. The number of Samajwadi Party MPs from the state went down to 22 from a tally of 28. "We have not fared badly, we have an impressive number of MPs in the state and in future we will work hard and bounce back with a majority in the 2012 assembly elections," Prada said. When asked about the Congress tally going up to 21 in Uttar Pradesh in 2009 compared to just nine in 2004, she said the public was angry with the performance of the Mayawati government and also fed up with the sectarian agenda of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and therefore they voted for the Congress. However, she added saying, "Now, people are realising that the Congress is not in a condition to form a government in the state and they will vote for Samajwadi Party in future". The Rampur seat once used to be a Congress stronghold in the state. She was recently reported to have been frightened to tears while touring her constituency during floods. "I was touring my constituency to know the problems of the people and their sufferings made be sad. I had been working for them, but a lot has to be done," Prada. Asked about the controversy during the Lok Sabha Elections when former Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan made unsavoury allegations against her, she said: "Everyone from the party supported me except him. "I was hurt by what all happened, but I don't carry any bitterness against him. I have always considered him my brother." Born in Rajahmundry in Andhra Pradesh, Prada entered politics in 1994 after joining the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) at the invitation of NT Rama Rao. But now she is firmly entrenched in the Samajwadi Party and is satisfied with her second innings as Lok Sabha MP. "I feel great, this is the verdict of the people for a person who has worked for them. Also, it is the recognition of the work of a woman politician who has performed against all odds," Prada said. IANS

Taliban claim Kabul blast, say Indian embassy was target

2009-10-08T03:33:00.000-07:00

Kabul: The Taliban have claimed responsibility for Thursday's suicide car bomb in the Afghan capital, saying their target was the Indian embassy. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said in a statement posted on the group's Web site that the attacker was an Afghan man who blew up his a sporty utility vehicle laden with explosives just outside the embassy. Earlier, Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao had said the suicide attack in the Afghan capital Kabul was directed at the Indian embassy. A suicide bomber today blew up his car outside the compound of the Indian embassy in the Afghan capital killing at least 12 people and leaving 83 wounded, including three ITBP jawans, in a fiery blast that had all the hallmarks of Taliban.
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"I believe that the suicide bomb was directed against the embassy because the suicide bomber came up to the outside perimeter wall of the embassy in a car loaded with explosives, obviously with the aim of targeting the embassy," Rao had said. "All the personnel inside the embassy building at that time are safe. Three of our personnel from the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), who were guarding the perimeter wall of the embassy have been slightly injured because of shrapnel from the bomb blast. But there has been no loss of life," she added. "I have spoken to India's Ambassador to Afghanistan Jayant Prasad and he has informed me that all the members of our embassy (officers and staff and personnel) are safe. The intensity of the blast was more or less similar to the one that occurred outside our embassy in Kabul in July 2008," Rao said. The powerful blast, which occurred at 0827 local time (0927 IST), blew up the mission watch tower, destroyed vehicles and left a trail of death and destruction with Indian Ambassador Jayant Prasad also insisting, "Indian embassy was the target." The Indian Ambassador said that the suicide bomber failed to breach the embassy's security perimeter and, "No mission staff or Indian had been killed in the attack." The blast had the same intensity as the explosion that rocked the premises on July 7 last year, he added. This was the second attack on the Indian mission here as last year a suicide car bomber had rammed the front wall of the Indian embassy, killing 60 people in the strike blamed on Taliban militants linked to Pakistan's intelligence service ISI. more details www.marketmantra.in

Lunar Missions Detect Water on Moon

2009-09-25T18:58:00.000-07:00

Scientists analyzing information from three lunar missions have found clear evidence of water on the moon. Information gathered from three space vehicles, including India's Chandrayaan-1, found small amounts of water present in particles that make up the moon's soil. The studies will be published in Friday's edition of the journal Science.Researchers say water molecules were found by analyzing data from the three probes which were equipped with NASA instruments designed to map the moon's mineral composition. Scientists say the evidence suggests that larger amounts of water may also be present in colder parts of the moon such as craters at the lunar poles.The findings overturn long-held beliefs that the surface of the moon was dry, potentially paving the way for scientists to one day set up a permanent research base on the moon. Next month, NASA's Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite will deliberately crash a satellite into the moon's southern pole in an attempt to detect water and ice.

G-8 is dead, long live G-20

2009-09-25T18:51:00.000-07:00

Ahead of the official Pittsburgh communiqué’s release, the White House leaked on Thursday that the Group of 20 would permanently replace the Group of 8 as the world’s premiere economic coordinating body.
This amounts to a recognition of the new-found economic clout of emerging economies ranging from India to China, South Africa to Brazil, and marks a historic shift in the way the world is run.
It also fulfills a long-standing demand of countries like India. Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao had said on the eve of the G-20 summit of the need for the global financial system to reflect “ground realities”.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is known to have often privately complained about being invited as an observer to the G-8 countries. This meant India and other emerging economies were excluded from the core decision-making meetings. It was a view, he found, that was shared by Chinese leader Hu Jintao.
While the G-8 countries represent roughly 60 per cent of the world’s GDP, the newly-added 12 emerging economies now represent a fifth of the world’s wealth. Crucially, however, they provide as much as two-thirds of new GDP growth.
As US President Barack Obama, host of the present Pittsburgh summit, has repeatedly noted, on the key problems affecting the global economic system, the solutions are impossible without the emerging economies.
But the G-20 will have to accomplish things. Says US foreign policy analyst Daniel Twining, “The G-20 is not only a reflection of the new world we live in — it is also a sort of proving ground for India, China and other emerging powers that they can corral and build international coalitions.”

Pranab to don a priest's mantle during Durga Puja

2009-09-25T18:46:00.001-07:00

SURI (WB): Far from the hurly-burly of politics, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee plays another role at this time of the year - a priest

Union Finance Minister, Pranab Mukherjee and Congress MP, Deepa Dasmunshi (C) along with former Mayor of Kolkata, Subrata Mukherjee(L) at a puja pandal in Kolkata. (PTI Photo)
www.hindufestivals.org
worshipping Goddess Durga. Mukherjee worships the Goddess at Miriti, his ancestral village near Kirnahar in Birbhum district, 200 km from Kolkata. "The puja is around 100 years old. Pranab's grandfather late Jangaleswar Mukherjee started the puja," said Goutam Roy, who has been looking after puja arrangements for the last couple of years. "After him, Kamadakinkar Mukherjee, father of Pranab Mukherjee continued it. Pranab babu does the same," he said. Mukherjee himself performs the puja on Mahastami puja, the second day of the four day festival, with thousands of people including villagers, party workers, and family members visiting Miriti.

Shed mindset of using terror as state policy, PM tells Pak

2009-09-25T18:44:00.001-07:00

Ahead of Indo-Pak Foreign Ministers meeting in New York, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said India seeks to normalise relationship with Pakistan but it should shed its mindset of using terror as an instrument of state policy against New Delhi and take action against those involved in the Mumbai terror attacks.
He made it clear that there was no change in India's stand on Pakistan since the Sharm-el-Sheikh talks with his counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani, a position he has made clear in Parliament.
"India's message is that India seeks to normalise its relationship with Pakistan. But the only obstacle is that it should shed its old attitude of using terror as a state policy," Singh told a press conference winding up his two-day trip to Pittsburgh where he attended the G-20 Summit.
"We have supplied our material and evidence for them to carry out investigation. Although the tragedy took place in India, the conspiracy took place in Pakistan. Pakistan has admitted to this. We want them to bring to book the culprits involved in the November 26 attacks," he said.
Singh recollected that he has already said that if Pakistan took proper action India would move the extra mile to normalise relations.
The Prime Minister's comments come as Foreign Ministers of India and Pakistan are set to meet tomorrow during which Islamabad's action against terror emanating from its soil will be discussed.
Singh said India and Pakistan are neighbours and they have an obligation to move as neighbours.
Asked how he looked forward to moving ahead with the relations with Pakistan after the Sharm-el-Sheikh episode, Singh said "If you read my statements in Parliament, I have explained the Government's position and I think there is no change on this."
Asked about a report by US General Stean McChrystal that India was doing good work in Afghanistan but it could lead to instability in the region, he said: "I think to my knowledge there US and other European powers are appreciative of the role played by India in Afghanistan.
"We have not supplied any arms, we are also helping them in construction and financing of projects in power health and education sectors. Untill today we have committed USD 1.5 billion in Afghanistan.
"Not only people of Afghanistan is appreciate but Europe and American leaders are of the same view. As far as Afghanistan is concerned, I agree that we have to sail in these difficult waters," he said.
Iran should fulfill its obligations as NPT signatory: PM
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said Iran should fulfill all its obligations as a signatory to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT), while it also enjoys rights under that agreement.
Answering a question on US, Britain and France threatening sanctions against Iran for secretly pursuing uranium enrichment facility, Singh told a press conference here that Iran issue did not come up during the G-20 Summit.
"Our position is that Iran as a signatory to the NPT has all rights to peaceful use of atomic energy and also should carry out its obligations," he said.

PM Manmohan Singh, US President Barack Obama with other leaders at the closing of G-20 summit. (AP)

2009-09-25T18:40:00.000-07:00

PM Manmohan Singh, US President Barack Obama with other leaders at the closing of G-20 summit.

Teenager Akmal helps Pakistan survive Tonge scare

2009-09-23T17:57:00.002-07:00

West Indies' little-known paceman Gavin Tonge grabbed four wickets, but failed to stop Pakistan from posting a five-wicket victory in the Champions Trophy here on Wednesday.
Pakistan were reeling at 61-4 following Tonge's incisive opening spell, but teenager Umar Akmal helped his side surpass a 134-run target with a responsible 41 not out in the day-night match on a lively track.
Tonge finished with 4-25 off 10 overs in only his third one-dayer.
The under-strength West Indies were also well-served by wicket-keeper Chadwick Walton, who took four catches.
Tonge struck in his opening over when he bowled Imran Nazir and then had Kamran Akmal, Shoaib Malik and Mohammad Yousuf caught behind to put pressure on Pakistan.
Yousuf (23), dropped on one by Darren Sammy in the slips off Tonge, and Malik (23) looked set to put Pakistan in a comfortable position before falling in the space of seven runs.
Man-of-the-match Akmal, 19, also survived a nasty blow on his fingers off a Tino Best beamer in the later part of his knock, but kept his cool under pressure. He hit six fours.
Shahid Afridi, leading in his first one-day international, remained unbeaten with 17. He added 58 crucial runs for the unfinished sixth wicket with Akmal.
Pakistan will now clash with arch-rivals India in their next match at Centurion on Saturday. Defending champions Australia are the other team in Group A, with the top two sides making it to the semi-finals.
Teenage paceman Mohammad Aamer and Umar Gul earlier grabbed three wickets apiece to restrict the West Indies to a small total.
Left-arm seamer Aamer, 17, finished with an impressive 3-24 in only his sixth one-day international, while paceman Gul bagged 3-28 as the West Indies failed to last their quota of 50 overs.
Lower-order batsman Nikita Miller top-scored with a gutsy 51 for his maiden half-century in one-day internationals. He smashed one six and six boundaries in a 57-ball knock.
Sammy (25) and Devon Smith (18) were the others to reach double-figures in a dismal performance after the West Indies elected to bat.
The West Indies were in danger of falling below the 100-mark when they are struggling at 47-7 before adding 86 for the last three wickets, thanks to Miller and Sammy.
The West Indies are without key players Chris Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Dwayne Bravo following a contract row between the players and their cricket board.
Aamer struck with his sixth delivery when he held a return catch to dismiss Dale Richards. He kept pressure on the batsmen with a lively pace, taking two more wickets.
There was no respite from pace for the inexperienced West Indies as Aamer was brilliantly backed by Gul. Off-spinner Saeed Ajmal was the other notable wicket-taker with 2-16.

New Mantra for Indian Cricketers: Eat, Play, Love!

2009-09-23T17:57:00.001-07:00

India's first match at the Champions Trophy on Saturday is also the biggest, at least as far as the fans are concerned. It's Pakistan versus India, after all.
So Coach Gary Kirsten has given the Indians some basic self-help instructions. Julia Roberts is in Pataudi shooting Eat, Pray, Love - a movie based on the best-selling book of the same name. Gary Kirsten's version for India's Men in Blue: Eat, Play, Love.
Players have been asked to eat well, because the Coach says acid in the body can lead to fatigue, irritability and over sexuality. The Indians have also been asked to love themselves, quite literally. Coach Kirsten says going without sex can lead to a significant drop in testosterone levels, and that means reduced aggression and competitiveness. So sex is a must, even if it means going solo.
More instructions on self-reliance: the team has been told to take responsibility for its performance, and to stop blaming others.
The captain of the English cricket team says his team's strategy for success doesn't resemble India's. At a press conference in South Africa, Andrew Strauss laughed, "With regards to sexual habits, I don't think that's come up in any of our dossiers! And I don't think it's likely to! I don't know, I am not sure.."
Not everyone's coach thinks Eat, Play, Love apparently.

President's son gets Congress ticket, sitting MLA rebels

2009-09-23T17:48:00.000-07:00

President Pratibha Patil's son Rajendra Shekhawat has finally got a Congress ticket for the Maharashtra assembly polls. Sources say he will contest from Amravati.
The decision comes despite much discontentment in the party over election tickets for sons and daughters of senior leaders. Shekhawat's is one of 159 names that Congress president Sonia Gandhi has now cleared; others include sons of Vilasrao Deshmukh, Vilas Muttemmwar, Narayan Rane and Patangrao Kadam, and the daughter of Sushil Kumar Shinde.
Shekhwat's ticket was the biggest challenge for the Congress high command, because Sunil Deshmukh, the sitting MLA from Amravati, is a minister and also a two-time winner. Deshmukh has now turned rebel and will contest against Shekhawat.
"I am disappointed with the Congress leadership. I thought good sense would prevail. It appears there was a lot of pressure from Rashtrapati Bhawan," he said after the announcement.
Deshmukh has been the Amravati MLA for 10 years now. He has been credited with a lot of work in the constituency.
Earlier in the day, a disturbed Deshmukh told NDTV, "The only reason for him to get ticket is that he is the son of an influential family. I will be a sad and shocked man if Congress doesn't nominate me." Comments Post your comments
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Have sex, play better: Kirsten to Team India

2009-09-23T17:45:00.001-07:00

Jo’burg: India’s South African coach Gary Kirsten offered an interesting advice to the country’s cricketers, urging them to boost their sex lives, which he feels would spur their on-field performances!
The secret document circulated among players by coach Gary Kirsten and mental conditioning expert Paddy Upton, is believed to have extensively explored the benefits of sex.
It came as India take on arch-rivals Pakistan in their first Champions Trophy match in Centurion on Saturday.
"Yes it (sex) does, so go ahead and indulge," the document said, before detailing the benefits of a good sex life.
"From a physiological perspective, having sex increases testosterone levels, which cause an increase in strength, energy, aggression and competitiveness," the document said.
"Conversely, not having sex for a period of a few months causes a significant drop in testosterone levels in both males and females, with the corresponding passiveness and decrease in aggression."
The document quotes a professor and sports scientist at the University of Cape Town, Tim Noakes as saying that "sex was not a problem, but being up till 2:00 am, probably having a few drinks at a bar while trying to pick someone up, on the eve of a game, almost always was."
The option of "going solo" is also fine, if no partners were available, according to the document.
"If you want sex but do not have someone to share it with, one option is to go solo whilst imagining you have a partner, or a few partners, who are as beautiful as you wish to imagine," the document said.
"No pillow talk and no hugging required. Just roll over and go to sleep."
Enforced celibacy may also affect performance, the advice said.
"You may experience that your mind spends more time focusing on the fire in your groin than on good sport practice, preparation and sleep," the document said.
Besides sex, the document also stresses on the importance of being aggressive on the field from the start, self-improvement and healthy eating.
Kirsten wants the team to take note of their diet and remain healthy at all times of the year.
“For a team on tour most of the time, cricketers need a balanced & healthy diet. You are not an average man, so chose your food cleverly,” added the Indian coach.
Hailing Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar as a 'living example', the South African has asked his team to raise the bar and take their games and lives to greater heights by taking on more responsibility.
"Raise the bar, take our games and lives to even greater heights. Shift from blaming others to taking responsibility," the charter states.

Have sex, play better: Kirsten to Team India

2009-09-23T17:45:00.000-07:00

US can’t fix world problems alone: Obama

2009-09-23T17:40:00.000-07:00

United Nations: US President Barack Obama in his debut address to the United Nations General Assembly said that the global community was failing its people and that fixing all troubles was not "solely America's endeavor."
"In an era where our destiny is shared, power is no longer a zero-sum game. No world order that elevates one nation or group of people over another will succeed. That is the future America wants," Obama said in his address, which was keenly watched by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.
Telling the leaders of the countries present that the time has come for the world to move in a "new direction", Obama said: "Our work must begin now."
Sounding distressed over the issue of terrorism, he said "Extremists sowing terror in pockets of the world. Protracted conflicts that grind on and on. Genocide and mass atrocities. More and more nations with nuclear weapons. Melting ice caps and ravaged populations. Persistent poverty and pandemic disease."
The President added, "I say this not to sow fear, but to state a fact: the magnitude of our challenges has yet to be met by the measure of our action."
Obama remarked that a special envoy to Middle-East peace had been appointed and reiterated that America was for the peaceful existence of Israel and Palestine side by side.
Asserting that failure of action on the nuclear proliferation issue will only give a boost to a nuclear arms race, he said that America was committed to nuclear disarmament.
He told the international community that the US would ensure the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan by 2011 and added that USA was even responsibly ending the war in Iraq.
Lauding the achievement in global warming, the President stated that his nation had invested USD 80 billion in climate change and become a leader from being a mere bystander.
On the global crisis, Obama claimed, “We worked with G20…..and spent over two trillion dollars” to combat recession. Besides he proudly told the Assembly that America had spent USD 20billion in the global food initiative to ensure food security.
Talking to the United Nations, he said, “We have reengaged the United Nations..we have paid our bill…we fully embrace the Millenium Development Goals.”

Pakistan accuses India of sponsoring terror in Swat

2009-09-23T17:35:00.000-07:00

Islamabad: Pakistan on Wednesday again appeared to be speaking in twin voices. While on one hand, the Prime Minister and President of that country said that they want to resume dialogue with India and improve ties, on the other hand, Interior Minister Rehman Malik has accused New Delhi of promoting terrorism in his country.
"Yes, it is true. The terrorists arrested from Swat and tribal areas of the country have confirmed Indian involvement in terrorist activities in Pakistan," Online news agency quoted Malik as telling a private TV channel.
The remarks come on the heels of separate statements by President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on the need for improved ties with India and for resuming the subcontinental dialogue process that New Delhi suspended in the wake of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks that have been blamed on elements operating from this country.
Those statements were seen to be setting the tone for the meetings in New York later this month of the foreign secretaries and later of the foreign ministers of India and Pakistan on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session.
"Pakistan has retaliated with full force whenever India started the blame game against us," Malik said, adding: "Pakistan had offered unconditional support to India after the Mumbai attack but our sincere efforts to bring the culprits of this incident to justice are not being replied constructively."
At a meeting with former US president Bill Clinton in New York on Monday, Zardari said the resumption of the subcontinental composite dialogue was in the best interests of the region.
Zardari also reiterated that Pakistan was determined to prevent its territory from being used against any other country.
On his part, Gilani said on Tuesday that Pakistan wants good relations with all neighbouring countries, including India, on the basis of equality.
Addressing a large gathering at the Multan circuit house, Gilani said Pakistan wishes to resolve the water and Kashmir disputes with India through negotiations.
He also stressed that the two nuclear powers should decide to move forward and focus on the well-being of their poverty-ridden people, adding this will pave the way for a socio-economic revolution in the region.
Gilani comments come a day after it was announced Monday that with Pakistan arresting suspected Mumbai attacks mastermind Hafiz Saeed,
Indian External Affairs Minister S M Krishna will hold talks with his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi in New York on September 27 to review Pakistan's action against the 26/11 terrorists.
The Foreign Ministers' meeting will be preceded by talks between India's Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao and her Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir in New York on September 26.
IANS

全球金融中心指數公布深圳首次上榜位居第五

2009-09-23T03:01:00.000-07:00

【中國窗】訊 (記者譚建偉)倫敦金融城22日公布的第六期全球金融中心指數(Global Financial Centres Index GFCI)顯示,倫敦在全球金融中心城市排名第一,紐約其次,香港和新加坡分別位于第三和第四｡深圳金融中心首次上榜就表現出極强的競爭力,位居第五,領先于上海(第10)和北京(第22),成爲中國內地城市中排名最爲靠前的金融中心｡
全球金融中心指數每年公布兩次,由倫敦金融城委托英國咨詢公司Z/Yen統計製作,對全球各大金融中心的競爭力進行排名｡該項指數是根據對全球金融服務業專業人士進行的網上調查結果,結合公開發布的有關競爭力的各種指數(如,瑞士世界經濟論壇公布的"全球國家競爭力指數"),綜合計算分析得出｡自2007年3月第一期全球金融中心指數公布以來,受到了金融界的普遍關注,目前已經成爲世界各大金融中心競爭力最爲權威的排名｡
最新一期指數的一個顯著特徵是,在金融危機影響下,歐美金融中心競爭力與排名的普遍下降和亞洲金融中心的崛起｡與前五期指數相比,除倫敦和紐約保持前兩位外,芝加哥､波士頓､蘇黎世､法蘭克福等歐美金融中心名次均明顯下滑｡從指數得分和排名來看,亞洲金融中心受金融危機影響很小,香港､新加坡､深圳､東京和上海五座亞洲城市進入排名前十位｡
倫敦金融城在報告中盛贊深圳金融中心在指數中取得的令人矚目成績和排名,指出深圳之所以第一次進入排名就位列前五,一方面是由于深圳金融中心競爭力的提升,另一方面也得益于在問卷受訪者當中,深圳被認爲是香港的"天然夥伴",在問卷調查中受到"亞洲地區受訪者的大力支持"｡ Related website http://study-hongkong.info

70 health and fitness courses

2009-09-23T02:58:00.000-07:00

SERIES of workshops promoting health and fitness will be held islandwide to encourage 'wellness for everyone'.
Organised by People's Association and key players in the health and wellness industry, some 70 workshops will be held around Singapore from this month till January.
They will focus on three 'wellness pillars', namely eating healthy, being active and thinking positive which aims to help one achieve a better quality of life through various dimensions of wellness.
The key players that will be involved include the Obstetrical and Gynaecological Society of Singapore (OGSS), National Parks Board (NParks) and Health Promotion Board (HPB).
Such workshops and courses offer participants opportunities to make more friends while keeping oneself in tiptop shape, both physically and mentally, said PA.
It added that participants could enjoy tremendous improvement to their quality of life with the positive effects of friendships built through the courses.
Mental wellness is advocated through workshops on intellectually-stimulating games such as Sudoku, Contract Bridge, Mahjong, Scrabble and Weiqi to help keep one's mind agile.
There is also a Gardening workshop organised by the PA and NParks for the therapeutic pleasures.
Apart from attaining mental well-being, staying physically active also becomes much easier with several exciting options such as the Walking Meditation classes for the multi-tasking professionals or Kangoo Jumps Clinic, using Swiss-engineered Kangoo shoes, for low-impact and fun workouts.
There are also breakfast workshops on organic bread including naan and Tibetan bread to encourage healthy eating.
The PA will also launch Supermarket Tours to teach the public how to read food labels and make healthy choices whilst shopping.
Dr Fatimah Lateef, Adviser to Marine Parade GRC Grassroots Organisations, will launch the Women's Health Series at Sheraton Hotel on Saturday to kick off the series.
http://studysingapore.info

See Iran as a 'friend'

2009-09-23T02:56:00.001-07:00

NEW YORK - IRANIAN President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad urged President Barack Obama to see Iran as a potential friend instead of a threat before addresses both leaders will give to the UN General Assembly on Wednesday.
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American hikers
WHEN asked about the three American hikers, Mr Ahmadinejad said they broke the law by illegally entering Iran. Nevertheless, Mr Ahmadinejad said he will ask the Iranian judiciary to treat the case with 'maximum lenience'.The Iranian leader did not elaborate on what that might mean for the fate of the three Americans. Families of the imprisoned hikers have said they hope Mr Ahmadinejad's visit to New York might yield a breakthrough in the case.
... more
Protesters' deaths regretful
MR AHMADINEJAD said he regrets the deaths of protesters in the violence that followed his country's disputed presidential elections, but denied that his government had any role in the killings.Mr Ahmadinejad said those who died were 'not at fault'. He instead said the responsibility lies with Iranian opposition politicians and with 'European and American politicians' who he said fuelled the violence.
... more
not building nuclear weapons
HE REITERATED explicitly that Iran is not building nuclear weapons.'I hope that Mr Obama will move in the direction of change,' Mr Ahmadinejad said. At another point he said, 'The sources of insecurity around the world need to be discussed.' The US, Israel and the EU fear that Iran is using its nuclear programme to covertly develop nuclear weapons. But Teheran says the programme serves purely civilian purposes and asserts its right to enrich uranium for use in nuclear power plants to generate electricity.
... moreThe Iranian leader also said in a wide-ranging Associated Press interview Tuesday that he expects 'free and open' discussion of nuclear issues at a meeting next week with six world powers, but stressed that his country would not negotiate on its own nuclear plans.
He sought to open a wider nuclear dialogue with the West, and said the onus should be on the US and other major nuclear powers to give up their weapons and to expand opportunities for all countries to make peaceful use of nuclear power.
Speaking to AP reporters and editors just hours after arriving in the US, Mr Ahmadinejad said he will seek a quick resolution to the case of three American hikers jailed in Iran.
He dismissed last week's US shift away from a planned long-range missile shield in Europe, meant to guard against an Iranian strike, as 'a respectful way of buying out' Russian objections.
'I heard Mr Obama saying the next threat is Iran. Iran is an opportunity for everyone,' Mr Ahmadinejad said.
The Iranian leader said Mr Obama is not the first US president to believe Iran is a threat and said the president should read up on history 'to see what the fate is of viewing these problems from this perspective'. 'Historically, whoever made friends with Iran saw a lot of opportunities,' Mr Ahmadinejad said.
The Iranian president's remarks on those and other issues in an hour-long interview at his New York hotel appeared designed to present his country as open to a broad international dialogue and to soften Iran's image as a rogue nation bent on spreading its Islamic revolution.
Mr Ahmadinejad is in New York to address the General Assembly on Wednesday. Mr Obama is also speaking Wednesday.
Mr Ahmadinejad remained soft-spoken and almost completely still in his chair as he fielded questions on a wide range of controversies rankling Iran's relationship with the West. He would occasionally nod or offer a small smile, particularly when he appeared pleased with a point he had made, but the Iranian leader never gestured or raised his voice. A few questions prompted an animated flurry of conversation in Farsi among members of his delegation before he gave a response that was translated into English. -- AP

Post-grad course in aviation

2009-09-23T02:53:00.000-07:00

NEW post-graduate programme in aviation management is now available - the latest in a growing number of tertiary courses that help cement Singapore's status as a training centre for the industry.
For a start, the Auston Institute of Management and Technology (AIMT) which is partnering Coventry University and Emirates Aviation College in the intiative, plans to offer 30 places a year, with potential to take this up to 150.
The 18-month part-time course for working adults, which was launched on Thursday, has attracted interest from potential students around the region, such as Australia, Thailand and Hong Kong.
It is targeted at executives and managers across the industry, as well as non-aviation professionals. The course will have three intakes each year, with plans for an initial intake of 30 students.
AIMT hopes to eventually take in 120-150 students a year.
The programme comes on top of the existing courses already offered by the universities, polytechnics and aviation training schools here, which churn out about 1,350 graduates each year. Related website http://studysingapore.info

China’s Hu, Japan’s Hatoyama Agree to Extend Thaw in Relations

2009-09-23T02:36:00.000-07:00

Sept. 22 (Bloomberg) -- China’s President Hu Jintao and Japan’s new Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama agreed to push for closer ties between the two erstwhile enemies at their first meeting in New York.
“I hope and am convinced China-Japan ties will develop more actively, and enter a new phase,” Hu said yesterday, congratulating the Japanese leader on his election victory last month. Hatoyama’s Democratic Party of Japan ended six decades of Liberal Democratic Party power, years that were often marked by frosty relations with China over Japan’s war record.
Hatoyama has urged closer ties with Japan’s Asian neighbors, and suggested to Hu the idea of an East Asian Community, modeled on the European Union. China and Japan agreed to work together to resolves differences that include disputes over energy resources in the East China Sea.
“I said we should make it a sea of fraternity instead of a sea of disputes,” Hatoyama said after meeting Hu on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.
Hu agreed that the two countries should work toward friendship and cooperation, and that officials should begin negotiations on an agreement. Hu also invited Hatoyama to a Japan, China, South Korean summit in Beijing by December.
Hatoyama urged Hu to work on promoting public support for an accord with Japan.
Hu welcomed Hatoyama’s stance on history of Japan’s aggression during the World War II, according to Japanese government officials who briefed reporters. Hatoyama told Hu his administration will honor a 1995 statement in which Japan apologized for Japan’s aggression.
Hatoyama told reporters in August he won’t visit Yasukuni Shrine, where war criminals are enshrined among the dead, and will ask his Cabinet members to refrain from making visits.
Former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s annual visit to Yasukuni shrine from 2001 to 2006 aggravated bilateral ties. Relations with China had already been on the mend as none of Koizumi’s successors made the visits.
Bumpy diplomatic relations haven’t halted economic ties between China and Japan. Trade between Asia’s two biggest economies rose 13 percent to $266.3 billion in 2008, according to the Japan External Trade Organization.

Related website : www.study-japan.info

Japan's new government stands by whaling

2009-09-23T02:34:00.000-07:00

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) – Japan's new government urged Australia on Tuesday to help prevent violent attacks by activists on Japanese whalers as it stood by the country's traditional support for whaling, an official said.
Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada met his Australian counterpart Stephen Smith on the sidelines of this year's UN General Assembly.
Okada was appointed last Wednesday when Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama was sworn in at the head of his new center-left government after winning the country's elections.
The victorious Democratic Party of Japan formed a coalition government with two small parties under Hatoyama, ending half a century of almost uninterrupted rule by the country's conservative Liberal Democratic Party.
"During the meeting, our minister called for Australia's cooperation against groups like Sea Shepherd (Conservation Society), which resort to violent action," a Japanese foreign ministry official said.
Smith stopped short of replying to the request, only saying Australia wants to resolve the dispute through dialogue to avoid straining relations.
"Our minister did not clearly state that the new Japanese government supports whaling, but I understand that his remarks were quite in line with the stance held by our previous cabinet on the subject," the official said.
Anti-whaling nations led by Australia and New Zealand, as well as environmental groups, have attacked Japan for its annual whaling expeditions, including in Antarctic waters, criticizing them as cruel and unnecessary.
Japan hunts whales by using a loophole in the 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling that allows whales to be killed for "lethal research," and Tokyo often accuses western critics of insensitivity toward its culture.

Who gets the jam as Japan cuts road tolls?

2009-09-23T02:33:00.000-07:00

At 6.05 on Saturday morning somewhere outside Tokyo everyone on the road began to feel majestically stupid. We wiggled awkwardly in our seats, delicately avoided eye-contact with other dupes and fiddled with air-conditioner settings that needed no adjusting.
All of us, burying our shame beneath iPod driving mixes and bags of chocolate raisins, knew exactly why we were sitting in the Great 2009 Tomei Expressway Jam. Like sailors we had been lured on to the rocks by two Sirens of the 21st century: economic stimulus and a sexy television newsreader.
“Leave your bed now and embrace the thrill of the open road — this chance will not come again for years,” the latter purred seductively. “Your epic highway adventure will cost you substantially less than it did two months ago,” oozed the stimulus Siren.
Both had a point. This week’s once-in-a-decade confluence of three Japanese national holidays guaranteed a binge of domestic travel, with the local media egging everyone to join. It was clear before any of us turned the ignition key that most of the lunacy would be road based. Japan’s new Government has extended indefinitely a scheme that removes much of the cost of its ruinous motorway tolls, and the Japanese are suckers for a bargain.
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BACKGROUND
Bite the bullet: Japan by train
When good subsidies turn very, very bad
Six numbers you need to know Japan
By breakfast time, 10,000 freshly washed, gleaming cars (including mine) were ranged in a stagnant, fume-belching motorcade extending from the outskirts of Tokyo to the foot of Mount Fuji. Across Japan, motorway traffic turned solid and the Sirens cackled.
Conspiracy theory seeped with carbon monoxide through the air vents. Who benefits from this madness? Certainly not the environment, which is expected to receive another 8.4 million tonnes of CO2 from Japanese exhausts every year if tolls remain low. And probably not the economy, which relies heavily on goods moving quickly along the roads.
The only conceivable winners are businesses with exposure to people driving much, much more than they used to. For Toyota and Honda, the jollies may take years to work through. But for tyre-makers, the lucre is far more immediate. It is the sort of twist that must bring a smile to the face of Yukio Hatoyama, Japan’s new Prime Minister, whose vast family wealth comes courtesy of Bridgestone, the world’s biggest tyre company.
A cheesy idea
Before much longer, for the sake of its future billing in the G7 show, Japan will have to come up with a plausible set of answers to the question “what is wrong with Switzerland?”. At first glance, for a disturbingly large proportion of Japanese, the question is rhetorical: the Swiss and Switzerland seem ideal.
The Swiss are conservative, stable, instinctively neutral and wealthy. They respect precision ball bearings, babbling brooks, snow-capped mountains and bearded old men who carve things from wood. Just like the Japanese, the Swiss make terrible wine, build first-class industrial robots and watch in resigned torment every year as their ski slopes groan under the weight of badly dressed foreigners.
The problem is that Japan’s politicians and business leaders have begun seriously contemplating the glühwein and cowbell approach to life. They wonder if Japan really needs to pursue growth or should stop where it is and be satisfied. If China’s rise is really so irresistible, and Japan is losing competitiveness as quickly as it seems, these patriarchs now reason aloud, what would be so bad about curling up in a role akin to Switzerland’s? Nobody would call on them to make big decisions, millions of tourists would visit for the clean air and mineral spas and they could be left alone to make brilliant robots and carve things out of wood.
The tiny snag with this is that it would be a diabolical betrayal of every Japanese person under 30. Slow Swissification may seem lovely to some, but it is a death sentence for everything Japan has puffed and panted to be since the Second World War. It may be hard to come up with reasons to despise the Swiss, but to trade in electronics for Emmental must be wrong.
On yer bike
In common with 3,000 other motorists, I briefly pulled out of the Great Tomei Expressway Jam to enjoy the Ebina motorway services. The extra-long weekend had brought out a fine collection of loonies, mostly on motorbikes. The gangs had organised themselves into tribes relating to their favourite bike-based film. One rather portly lot were in full Quadrophenia gear, while another was clearly modelled on the Hell’s Angels gang from Clint Eastwood’s Any Which Way But Loose. But the joint prize for effort went to six couples who had to perfection the look of Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday, and two elderly gents who had poured themselves into the skin-tight fatigues of the 1970s television police drama CHiPs.
But Japan can be confident it has not yet turned Swiss. There was a barbed wire fence round the motorway services, but no wannabe Steve McQueen making his great escape to neutral territory.

Al Gore praises China, Japan climate leadership

2009-09-23T02:30:00.000-07:00

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) – Former US vice president and environmental activist Al Gore on Tuesday hailed China and Japan for providing global leadership in tackling climate change.
Speaking at a special UN summit on climate change, the Nobel laureate praised statements made by both Chinese President Hu Jintao and Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama.
"I think that China has provided impressive leadership," Gore told reporters.
Predicting that China would take further action if global negotiations on a new treaty succeed, Gore said: "I think the glass is very much half full with China.
"It's not widely known in the rest of the world but China in each of the last two years has planted two and half times more trees than the entire rest of the world put together," he said.
Chinese President Hu Jintao said that the world's largest developing economy was ready to slow down emissions by a "notable margin." But he said emissions would be measured in terms of China's growth and did not provide a figure.
The United States has led rich nations in demanding that China and other developing nations commit to action in a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, whose requirements on rich states to cut emissions expire in 2012.
Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, making his first international appearance since his center-left government took charge, confirmed to the summit that the world's second largest economy would ramp up its commitments.
He pledged that Japan would cut emissions by 25 percent by 2020 compared with the 1990 level, a goal far more ambitious than the previous government's eight percent.
Gore described Hatoyama's speech as "terrific" and said he was "encouraged by his pledge to step up assistance for developing nations.
"Japan, along with the European Union, has provided tremendous political leadership over the past decade in keeping the world on track toward progress involving the climate crisis," he said.

Details on how Japan's dolphin catches work

2009-09-23T02:27:00.001-07:00

Dolphin slaughters in Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture, have drawn strong protests from animal rights groups, their supporters and foreign media over what they call the brutality of the traditional hunt.
In addition, animal activists are warning of the potentially dangerously high levels of methyl mercury in dolphin meat. Methyl mercury was behind deadly Minamata disease in Japan in the 1950s and '60s.
Meanwhile, fishermen and the government question why slaughtering dolphins is considered brutal when cows, chickens, fish and other edible animals meet the same fate.
How are dolphins hunted, killed and eaten in Japan? Is eating them really dangerous?
Here are some basic questions and answers:
How many dolphins are caught in Japan and where are they hunted?
According to the Fisheries Research Agency, 13,067 dolphins were caught in 2007. Of them, 10,218, or 78 percent, were caught in Iwate Prefecture, 1,623 in Wakayama, 885 in Hokkaido, 254 in Miyagi and 87 in Okinawa.
The amount has been decreasing in recent years. It was 13,751 in 2006, down from 16,012 in 2005. Iwate has always accounted for about 80 percent of the catch.
The Fisheries Agency sets a quota for each prefecture. Dolphins do not fall under the purview of the International Whaling Commission, said Hideaki Okada of the Fisheries Agency.
How are dolphins caught?
In Taiji, fishermen herd them into a small cove by banging iron pipes and then harpoon them. They also take some dolphins alive for sale to aquariums.
Elsewhere in Japan, fishermen hunt them in coastal waters.
On Sept. 9, fishermen in Taiji caught about 100 bottlenose dolphins and 50 pilot whales in their first seasonal hunt. They planned to sell 40 to 50 dolphins to aquariums and released the rest amid international criticism. The whales were slaughtered. What the fishermen will do in their next hunt remains to be seen.
Facing international criticism, will the Fisheries Agency change its stance on catching dolphins?
Probably not. The agency allows fishermen to catch dolphins to keep the animals' numbers from increasing or decreasing too rapidly, according to Okada.
He also rejected the argument that dolphin slaughters in Taiji are brutal.
"We think killing dolphins is no different from killing cows and pigs. We will reconsider how to kill dolphins if killing methods are a problem," Okada said.
What happens to captured dolphins?
About 99 percent are slaughtered for food. The rest are sold to aquariums in and outside Japan, Akio Usagawa, chairman of the Taiji International Friendship Association, said.
Only in Taiji are dolphins caught alive, according to Yasushi Shimamura of the Resource Management Division of the Wakayama Prefectural Government.
Where is dolphin meat eaten in Japan?
Most Japanese have never eaten dolphin meat, although elderly people are likely to have eaten whale. Many would be surprised to learn of the custom of eating dolphin meat in some rural areas of Japan.
No official data showing places of consumption is available, but Dolphin Fisheries Cooperative official Shiro Sato in Iwate said most of the dolphins caught there are transported outside the prefecture.
A Taiji Fisheries Cooperative official, who declined to be named, said the meat is consumed both inside and outside Wakayama Prefecture.
Dolphins are also eaten in eastern Shizuoka Prefecture, although no local fishermen reportedly catch dolphins these days.
In Ito, eastern Shizuoka, fishermen caught dolphins for hundreds of years, which is why people there are accustomed to eating the meat even though the animals have not been caught there since 2004, according to dolphin meat dealers in eastern Shizuoka.
Yoshihide Suzuki of Samasa Suisan, a fish wholesaler based in Numazu, eastern Shizuoka, said his company buys dolphin meat from Iwate. The company sells seafood to fish retailers and supermarkets.
How is dolphin meat cooked and how much does it cost?
Masahiko Yamazaki of Nagahama Suisan, a fish retailer in Ito, said dolphin meat is typically stewed with miso, carrots and devil's tongue ("konnyaku"). Grilling dolphin steaks in soy sauce is also popular, he said.
The retail price of dolphin meat is between ¥100 and ¥200 per 100 grams, he said.
How much mercury does dolphin meat contain and how dangerous is it?
The amount of accumulated methyl mercury differs depending on the kind of dolphin, but the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry says that the levels in general don't pose any immediate danger to ordinary consumers, although pregnant women or women who may get pregnant soon are advised not to eat it often.
According to research conducted by the ministry, which checked 9,700 fish of 400 different types in the early 2000s with assistance from the Fisheries Agency and local governments, "ishi-iruka," or harbor porpoise, the type of dolphin caught in Iwate, Hokkaido and Miyagi prefectures, and which accounts for 96 percent of dolphins caught in Japan, have lower levels of methyl mercury than several other fish commonly eaten by Japanese people, such as "kuro-maguro," or Pacific bluefin tuna, and "kinmedai," or splendid alfonsino.
According to a 2005 ministry study, the methyl mercury level of harbor porpoises was 0.37 parts per million.
Meanwhile, the mercury level of "bando-iruka," or bottlenose dolphins, was much higher at 6.622 ppm.
The ministry recommends that pregnant women or those likely to become pregnant soon should not eat bottlenose dolphin meat more than once every two months, in amounts of 60 to 80 grams.
Then why do some experts and animal activists argue eating dolphin meat is dangerous and that it shouldn't be sold?
They point out that accumulated methyl mercury in dolphin meat exceeds "the provisional regulatory level" of 0.3 ppm set by the health ministry for fish and shellfish in general, based on a 1973 notice to local governments and municipalities.
According to the 2005 study, the level of methyl mercury in bottlenose dolphin meat was particularly high at 22 times the advised level. In Wakayama Prefecture, 320 bottlenose dolphins were slaughtered in 2007, according to the Fisheries Research Agency.
However, health ministry official Haruki Deguchi said the 1973 notice does not apply to dolphin meat because individuals rarely eat it often and the ministry has already publicized information concerning how much and how frequently it should be eaten.
With the notice, the health ministry has requested local governments to take measures urging retailers, wholesalers and fishermen not to sell sea animals containing methyl mercury higher than 0.3 ppm because consumption over a long period of time could cause health problems such as Minamata disease.
I can't trust the Japanese government. Is there any advice from a third party?
The Japan Consumers' Cooperative Union, the nation's largest cooperative organization, advises consumers not to eat the meat of dolphins, whales, tuna, shark and deep-sea fish more than twice a week, in amounts of 100 to 200 grams each time, because they contain relatively high levels of mercury, according to the co-op's Web site.
It specifically points out that dolphin meat "contains particularly high levels of methyl mercury" and advises consumers "to enjoy eating them only on very rare occasions."
Why are pregnant women in particular advised not to eat dolphin meat?
According to a 2005 warning by the health ministry, fetuses cannot easily eliminate methyl mercury, whereas adults and children can.
Women who breast-feed should not be concerned because their milk contains very tiny amounts of mercury, according to the release.
Will the health ministry change its regulations on dolphin meat consumption because of criticism by international animal protection groups?
Probably not. The ministry says no regulation changes are urgently required.
"The criticism does not affect the health risk of residents in Japan. We do not have to change our stance just because animal protection groups say something," Kenji Urakami of the ministry's Standards and Evaluation Division said.

'Konkatsu' marriage activity businesses booming

2009-09-23T02:23:00.000-07:00

Whatever you may have thought about former Prime Minister Aso Taro, what were called gaffes were most often his simple-minded verbalization of what a lot of Japanese still think. Typical of this was an address he made shortly before the recent national election to a group of university students.
He was asked by one student if financial fears weren’t a major reason for people to get married later and thereby contributing to the falling birthrate. Aso in his usual forthright style said that he reckoned young people without money should indeed wait to get married, because it would be difficult for their partners to respect them otherwise.
Forget about love and all that soppy stuff! Alas poor Taro, he was seldom politically correct.
But financial fears about the future do indeed appear to be one of the major reasons why people are taking longer to get married. If you track the birthrate and the financial condition of Japan over the last 10 years, the correlation is very close. Fundamentally, the bottoming out and slight recovery of the fertility rate over the last three years to 1.37 kids per couple appears to be due to the improvement in the economy during the period 2005 through 2007—allowing some lag for people to gain confidence about their futures and dream of having a happy family.
Granted, there may be other reasons for the lower birthrate, but they don’t track so closely as does the economy.
However, after three relatively strong years, the Lehman Shock of last year caused reality to bite hard again, and now many young people not only face the depressing prospect of low salaries (according to NHK, more than 80% of those under 35 years old now make LESS than 2 million yen a year!) but also fear even keeping the unfulfilling jobs they already have. As their lives are impacted, I’m pretty sure that the birthrate will take another dive again from next year.
These financial fears are well founded. In fact, it costs about 30 million yen to raise and send a child to school (until they graduate from university) these days, which is about as much disposable income as many families can expect to earn in their lifetimes if the mother is a full-time housewife. You want two kids? Well forget about it—you need to either be rich or living out on a farm under the same roof as your parents and your foreign wife (statistically an Asian wife, if you’re a farmer boy).
But not having the confidence in one’s financial future doesn’t stop you from being lonely, and this seems to be the case with many young and middle-aged people in Japan. As a result, the dating business is booming.
But these days it’s dating with a purpose—to get married, not the old-fashioned idea of joining with friends to have fun and see where it goes (that activity is called a “gokon“).
The new performance dating is called “konkatsu” or “kekkon katsudo,” meaning “marriage activities” and comes from a term coined from a 2008 book by sociologist Masahiro Yamada—the same guy who came up with the cute term “parasite singles.” With “konkatsu,” he was referring to a growing number of singles who are not making enough money to provide a decent future for their mate, and thus those wanting to get married are having to focus on financial and emotional preparation.
Sounds desperate doesn’t it? And to a certain extent it is—but the connotations of inadequacy don’t seem to impact the ongoing popularity of “konkatsu” parties. Indeed, as some commentators have remarked, since the term “konkatsu” derives from the term job hunting (“shushoku katsudo“), it seems to connote the same resignation of getting results that one might normally reserve for job hunting.
So as a result, it’s somehow become trendy to be slightly desperate and determined. Although as one matchmaking owner says, it appears that the most enthusiastic marriage seekers still tend to be women in their late 30s who are sensitive to their biological clocks ticking away.
I thought the “konkatsu” trend would quickly hit its peak at the end of last year, when several TV dramas on Fuji and NHK showed the situation of aging singles (typically cast as women in their late 30s and men in their early 40s) becoming more obsessed with getting married so as to not grow old alone, or to miss the chance to have kids before it is too late. But in fact, rather than dying off as so many other fads in Japan do, this one appears to be gaining pace.
According to a Nikkei report, a 2007-2008 survey by Tokyo University’s Institute of Social Science reckons that older singles rely less on friends and networking to find a mate and turn more to professional matchmaking services such as “konkatsu” party organizers. The 2005 census statistics have 47% of men aged 30-34 still being unmarried and 32% of women. You can be sure that the 2008 number is at least as high.
“Konkatsu” is a growing business. After the popularity of the “konkatsu” TV dramas, leading matchmaking company Zwei said it had a 20% jump in inquiries and its membership has now risen to around 40,000. Zwei had sales of 4.4 billion yen in 2008, and a net profit of 321 million yen, up 9% over last year. This may not sound like a lot, but Zwei is spending large sums on advertising and clearly is on a roll recently. Their share price has surged 40% in the last six months. I saw them advertising on a rail-side hording today, alongside parent company Aeon.
There are literally thousands of companies getting in on the “konkatsu” act. One company that I spoke to in Shinjuku said that they have 20,000 members, about 1/3 of whom show up to parties every month. Indeed, they have members who have subscribed for five years or more and who still regularly attend parties but who remain unmarried. I felt like asking them “What’s the point?” but that wouldn’t have been polite.
Anyway, the average fee per party is 5,000 yen for men and 3,500 yen for women, and since this company like many others uses regularly booked venues multiple times a week, a well-rehearsed master of ceremonies, and modest drinks and finger food, its costs are low and profits high. They seem to be doing well—although they were complaining about increasing competition.
So is “konkatsu” working? Well, there were 726,000 marriages in 2008, up about 6,000 over the year before. However, given that 2008 was a leap year, in fact this represents just two day’s worth of extra marriages—not a statistically meaningful amount. My guess is that the dating bit will continue, but the reality of peoples’ financial situations means that marriage rates and eventually fertility rates won’t improve until the economy does. Related website : www.study-japan.info

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama addresses the Summit

2009-09-23T02:22:00.001-07:00

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama addresses the Summit on Climate Change at United Nations headquarters in New York on Tuesday.

Thieves net Y6.7 million in 2 burglaries

2009-09-23T02:21:00.001-07:00

TOKYO —
Thieves made off with safes containing a total of 6.7 million yen in two burglaries early Wednesday, targeting a supermarket in Kanagawa Prefecture and a restaurant in Aichi Prefecture, police said. In Kanagawa, the roof and walls around the employees’ entrance of a supermarket in the city of Ebina were smashed apparently by heavy machinery equipment and a safe containing about 2.7 million yen was found to have disappeared, police said.A nearby resident reported to the police around 3:20 a.m. that what appeared to be the arm of a piece of heavy machinery equipment was sticking out of the supermarket building. The arm is about 4 meters long. A truck was also found nearby.The resident saw several people with dark-colored knit hats and masks driving away from the site, the police said.In Aichi, meanwhile, an alarm went off at around 3:15 a.m. at a restaurant in the city of Nisshin, and security guards found a safe containing about 4 million yen missing from the employees’ break room.The safe was 35 centimeters in width and 45 cm in length, weighing about 30 kilograms. The back door of the restaurant had been forced open, police said.

Jewish groups urge theater to cancel Fassbinder premiere

2009-09-23T02:15:00.001-07:00

The planned German premiere of a play by late filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder has drawn strong protests from German Jewish groups, who say the piece reinforces stereotypes.

The Central Council of Jews in Germany urged director Roberto Ciulli not to forge ahead with Rainer Werner Fassbinder's play "The Garbage, the City and Death," saying the piece was anti-Semitic.
Ciulli rejected the demand. "This is not an anti-Semitic piece, but one that addresses the subject of anti-Semitism," he said, stressing the "autonomy of theatric art." He stressed that the play would premiere, as planned, on October 1 at his theater in the western Germany city of Muelheim. It is slated to be one of three works by Fassbinder to be shown in a three-hour evening performance set.
Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: The play presents cliches, some Jewish leaders say
Play staged in New York, Tel Aviv
The play has never been performed in Germany, but has been staged in New York, Tel Aviv and European cities.
Jewish groups said the play revived stereotypes of Jews, with one main character being a "rich Jew" who amasses great wealth through property speculation. In the piece, the man regularly visits a prostitute, whose father was a Nazi during the Third Reich and co-responsible for the decimation of Jews.
The prostitute becomes an object for the Jew's revenge; her murder is ultimately covered up by the police. Murder, brutal homosexuality and sexual and psychic perversions are all part of the play, which was written in 1975.
The "usual cliches"
The Central Council of Jews said the play presented characters "as stereotypes burdened with the usual cliches," and said the piece should not be staged "out of respect for the small number of Holocaust survivors and the millions who died."
Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Fassbinder was known for his shocking works
The play was originally scheduled to be performed in Frankfurt in1985, but was cancelled when protestors and members of the Central Council of Jews - wearing concentration camp prisoner garb - stormed the stage, rejecting the presentation of a Jew as murderer. Another attempt to stage the play in Berlin 13 years later was likewise abandoned.
This is not the first time works by the late Fassbinder have unnerved audiences. The writer and director is known for his socially critical works, and is most famous for his film "The Marriage of Maria Braun." He died in 1982 at the age of 37 from heart failure related to drugs.

Court imposes fine for racist slur against soccer player

2009-09-23T02:11:00.000-07:00

German court has fined a 32-year-old man for a racist poster campaign against soccer player Gerald Asamoah in the run-up to the World Cup in 2006.

The district court in Rottweil sentenced the man to pay a fine of 3,000 euros ($4,400).
"The defendant's point was to defame people of color against those with white skin," said Michael Zange, the chief judge at the district court in Rottweil.
In the run-up to the World Cup, held in Germany in 2006, right-wing extremist posters appeared in Freudenstadt and the Zollernalb district south of Stuttgart comparing Asamoah to an ape. Asamoah, who was born in Ghana, played on the national team, at the time.
A local court in Horb and the Rottweil district court had previously sentenced the defendant to a fine of 1,200 euros. The man, who claimed he was innocent, then appealed to the higher regional court in Stuttgart. In May 2009, it ruled that the previous sentences for insulting the player had been too light and remanded the case back to Rottweil to be reheard as incitement to a hate-crime.
Asamoah currently plays for German Bundesliga first division team FC Schalke 04.

Adidas and Puma bury hatchet after more than 60 years

2009-09-23T02:09:00.000-07:00

Employees of Germany's rival sportswear companies Adidas and Puma symbollically ended the firms' 60-year-old family feud on Monday with a friendly football match to mark the UN-backed Peace One Day initiative.

The game, in which employees of both firms played in both teams, included board chairmen Herbert Hainer of Adidas and Jochen Zeitz of Puma and was played in the small northern Bavarian town of Herzogenaurach near Nuremberg, where both companies maintain their headquarters. Hainer played in attack, while Zeitz was goalkeeper.
The game was meant to bring a symbolic end to one of Germany's most infamous family feuds, which began in 1948 when a row between brothers Rudolf and Adolf Dassler split the family sportswear business, already a major supplier in the field, into two camps. Rudolf founded Puma in 1948, while Adolf, or Adi, Dassler founded Adidas in 1949. Their rivalry divided the Dasslers' home town of 23,000 people, where competing factories were built on opposite sides of the Aurach river.
Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Adidas provides the soccer balls for the World Cup
Skeletons in the sportswear closet
There are plenty of rumors about the cause of the split, including the story that Rudolf had an affair with Adolf's wife Kaethe in 1940. Monday's football match was the first conciliatory gesture between the two companies, even though neither has belonged to the Dassler family for years.
Both companies have become international leaders in the sportswear field, with Puma signing a sponsorship deal with record-breaking sprinter Usain Bolt. For its part, Adidas recently extended its partnership with the football organization UEFA, providing equipment for all international football tournaments until 2017. According to the German financial newspaper Handelsblatt, Adidas is currently the second biggest sportswear manufacturer in the world behind Nike, while Puma is third.

Related website : http://study-germany.info

EU court advisor supports Google's sale of brand-based Internet ads

2009-09-23T02:07:00.000-07:00

An advisor to the EU's highest court says Google's sale of trademark keywords to advertisers does not infringe European Union laws. But France's Louis Vuitton complains the ads link to sites selling counterfeit products.

Despite finding that the US-based Internet search company had not broken European Union laws by selling ads that make use of trademarked terms, Tuesday's non-binding opinion by Advocate General Poiares Maduro said national courts could still take issue with Google's AdWords advertising service.

The case pits Google against French luxury products group Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy (LVMH), which argued that some AdWords advertisements point to the sale of counterfeit products.

"Advocate General Poiares Maduro considers that Google has not infringed trade mark rights by allowing advertisers to buy keywords corresponding to registered trade marks," read a statement from European Court of Justice, the EU's highest court.

When Internet surfers use Google to search for keywords, the world's most popular search engine provides a list of relevant links, as well as advertisements on the right-hand side of the screen, which Google auctions to the highest bidder for a particular search term.

Louis Vuitton has objected to such a practice claiming that it violates its trademark. The advertiser's often less well-known name appears under a heading "sponsored links" next to the well-known brands.

Internet users expect ads

Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: LVMH didn't like seeing its links next to cheap rip-offs
Google "has not committed a trademark infringement by allowing advertisers to select, in AdWords, keywords corresponding to trademarks," Maduro said.

When selecting keywords, no product or service is being sold to the public, he said in the opinion, adding that consumers are aware of the fact that their searches will not provide only a link to the owner's Web site.

Accordingly, Internet users' access to information concerning the trademark should not be limited by the trademark owner, "even if it involves a trademark which has a reputation," the advocate general said.

Google lawyer Harjinder Obhi said the company noted the advocate general's opinion and was waiting for the European Court of Justice ruling, expected to come in a few months.

"We believe that selecting a keyword to trigger the display of an ad does not amount to trademark infringement, and that consumers benefit from seeing more relevant information rather than less," he said in a statement. "We also believe that consumers are smart and are not confused when they see a variety of ads displayed in response to their search queries."

Maduro pointed out that while the search engine is "a neutral information vehicle" applying "objective criteria" in order to generate the most relevant sites to the keywords entered, that is not the case with AdWords, "where Google has a direct pecuniary interest in Internet users clicking on the ads' link."

Consequently, national courts can decide whether content featured in AdWords does indeed violate a country's trademark rules.

The advocate general's opinion is non-binding but is generally followed by European courts.

United Nations meeting features Obama, Gadhafi and a host of pressing issues

2009-09-23T02:02:00.000-07:00

Debate at the 64th annual session of the UN kicks off on Wednesday. Experts say much of the attention will be focused on two prominent and very different leaders - Barack Obama and Muammar Gadhafi.

On the agenda as both the UN General Assembly and the Security Council convene in New York City are issues ranging from climate change and hunger to nuclear proliferation and structural reform of the institution itself.

One of the highlights will be Barack Obama's address to the 192-member Assembly on Wednesday, his first speech to that body since becoming US President.

"I hope we can demonstrate that the United Nations does not have to be just a diplomatic talkshop on First Avenue," US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in advance of Obama's address.

Experts anticipate that Obama will put a clear end to his predecessor George W. Bush's disregard toward the UN as a means of multinational cooperation.

"We expect there will be a new position from the US vis-à-vis the United Nations and that relations will be much more constructive than under Bush," Sven Bernhard Gareis, Professor of Political Science at the University of Muenster, told Deutsche Welle. "As the leader of the world's most powerful nation, he won't allow himself to be constrained, but he will come out in favor of the principle of multilateralism."

But Obama's efforts to turn US policy may be hindered by the man following him on the podium in New York, Libyan President Muammar Gadhafi. He is making his first visit to the UN in his 40-year rule.

Controversy brewing?

Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: The General Assembly opened a week ago, but the tough talk commences on Wednesday
Libya holds the General Assembly's rotating presidency and also currently sits on the UN Security Council as a non-permanent member.

As a head-of-state accused of sponsoring terrorism in the past, Gadhafi is hardly the obvious choice for the role of international mediator. And the hero's welcome recently given in Libya to the mastermind of the 1988 Lockerbie plane bombing, after he was released from a British prison, hardly assuaged skeptics.

Nonetheless, some experts say Libya - and its leader - can play a constructive role in international dialogue.

"The fact that Libya can take over such an office is part of the normal functioning of the world," Gareis said. "There was a lot of protest when Libya took over the UN human rights commission in 2003, but they did the job in orderly fashion. That was a sign that Libya has begun to abide by international rules."

Since the late 1990s, Libya has pursued a course of reconciliation with the West. Gadhafi has consistently opposed al Qaeda, and in 2003, Libya began dismantling its weapons of mass destruction program.

But as the past has shown, the Libyan leader is often good for surprises.

"Gadhafi is predictably unpredictable, so I think we'll see a lot that's unexpected and a lot of provocation," Isabelle Werenfels, a North Africa expert at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, told Deutsche Welle. "There could be a lot of suggestions that are - to put things diplomatically - controversial."

For that reason, Obama advisors reportedly have been working behind the scenes to ensure the UN's scheduling doesn't make the US President and the Libyan leader appear too chummy.

Nuclear disarmament restart

Bildunterschrift: Nuclear disarmament - and not just non-proliferation - is back on the agenda

But Obama and Gadhafi will encounter one another again at the UN Security Council on Thursday. Obama is set to become the first US President to chair a summit of this body and all of the 12 heads of state are expected to attend.

The Security Council gathering, which will focus on nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament, could be the most productive part of the entire UN meeting. Experts say a recent decision by the Obama administration provides an extremely positive signal going into the summit.

"The US discontinuation of its proposed missile shield program in Eastern Europe is a major kick-start for discussions about making the world nuclear-free," Gareis said.

In the past, many UN member states have complained that the body has focused too much on nuclear non-proliferation, particularly where Iran and North Korea are concerned, while ignoring the issue of disarmament among the world's major military powers, including the US, Russia and China.

Change on climate

Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Widespread droughts are just one of the negative effects feared from climate change
Clearly, world leaders are anticipating change from Obama. And they got a preview of how extensive that change could be on Tuesday, when the US President addressed a special UN summit on the subject of climate protection.

"The security and stability of each nation and all peoples - our prosperity, our health, our safety - are in jeopardy," Obama said. "And the time we have to reverse this tide is running out."

Obama said he would discuss measures to phase out fossil fuel subsidies when he met with the heads of the world's leading economies later this week at the G20 summit in Pittsburgh. But he did not propose any major new US initiative on climate change.

Chinese President Hu Jintao told the climate summit that China would work more closely on developing renewable energy. He said the country was ready to slow down emissions by "a notable margin." But he failed to name specific figures.

Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama pledged to give more aid to help developing countries deal with climate change and repeated his intention of reducing Japanese greenhouse gasses 25 percent from 1990 levels by 2020.

The climate summit comes ahead of a major UN climate conference to be held in Copenhagen, Denmark in December.

Author: Jefferson Chase
Editor: Rick Demarest

Related website : http://study-germany.info/

ty ends above 5000, at 16-mth high; HDFC up 5%

2009-09-22T20:00:00.000-07:00

The Nifty maintained its uptrend for the fifth consecutive session and closed above the 5,000 mark for the first time since May 22, 2008 i.e. at 16-month high. The benchmark indices gained over 4% in five days.
Buying in financial, technology, power, pharma, auto and oil marketing companies' shares helped the markets to stay on the higher side throughout the session. Over 0.9% gain in European markets and 0.6% upside in US index futures were also supportive to the indices.
However, selling in oil & gas exploration and select metal stocks capped the gains. Bharti Airtel was down 3%.
The 30-share BSE Sensex closed at 16,886.43, up 145.13 points or 0.87% over its previous close. The 50-share NSE Nifty went up 0.89% or 44.15 points, to settle at 5020.20. The broader indices also followed the same trend, rose 0.7-1%.
The Nifty September futures ended with 2.8 points premium, as per provisional data. The Nifty put-call ratio inched up to 1.81, as Nifty September 5000 Put added 10.4 lakh shares in OI (open interest), September 5100 Call added 7.9 lakh shares in OI and 5100 Put added 5.9 lakh shares in OI.
October series witnessed highest OI at 4800 Put and 5300 Call. Auto, capital goods, power and infra stocks witnessed decent rollovers.
Technical Analyst, Ashwani Gujral advised to take at least 50% of profit. "October Nifty is trading at 20 points premium, put-call ratio is near all-time high. It’s prudent to take at least 50% of your profit and look for any weakness to go short on the market. Because you had a 10% rally from 4,580 up to 5,050 almost. So it’s a 500 points rally, so at least you know you need to take money off the table at least on individual stocks, it’s very difficult to get follow through from here."
Independent Analyst, K Ramchandran said he was pretty cautious on the market. "I believe there are no incremental triggers at this point of time to take the market on a sustainable basis to higher levels. He also said, "Any serious correction will take along with it all the sectors and particularly the high beta stocks which have been buzzing around in the last few sessions www.marketmantra.in

All in the family: Dynasty part of Indian politics

2009-09-22T19:51:00.000-07:00

The love of dynasties seems to unite both the BJP and the Congress in Maharashtra, with several sons and daughters being given tickets for the upcoming Assembly polls. But the ticket that has raised the most eyebrows is that which has been given to President Pratibha Patil's son. He is now set to be the Congress candidate from Amravati.
Rajendra Shekhawat is the second son in Indian history to be fighting elections whose parent is a sitting president. The first one to do so was V Shankar Giri, son of the president VV Giri who fought and won on a Congress ticket from Madhya Pradesh in the early '70s.
Shekhawat is making his electoral debut in style - ensuring the exit of four-time sitting MLA, state Finance Minister Sunil Deskhmukh, from the seat.
CNN-IBN's Face The Nation debated: President's son to fight polls: Is dynasty firmly entrenched in politics now?
To try and answer the question on the panel of experts were Spokesperson Maharashtra Congress, Anant Gadgil; NCP leader, Jitendra Awhad; MP and BJP Spokesperson, Rajiv Pratap Rudy; and Political Editor Hindustan Times, Vinod Sharma.

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