Clinton in Australia for security talks

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Australia for talks about the joint mission in Afghanistan, broader security issues, climate change and trade. The chief US diplomat, who travelled to the southern city of Melbourne from New Zealand as she winds up a seven-country tour of Asia, was expected to meet new Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd. Their meetings will pave the way for annual security consultations on Monday that will also involve US Secretary of Defence Robert Gates and his Australian counterpart Stephen Smith. Rudd welcomed Clinton, saying her visit underlined the "enduring nature" of the alliance between Australia and the United States. Australia is the last country on an Asia Pacific tour that has taken Clinton to New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Malaysia, Cambodia, China and Vietnam.

Interpol issues alert over Yemen parcel bombs

The global police agency Interpol issued an alert to help forces in its member states spot disguised bombs of the kind Al-Qaeda sent last week from Yemen using airmail parcel couriers. The so-called "Orange Notice", which will also be made public, contains photographs and technical details of the latest bombs, which were discovered and made safe at airports in Dubai and Britain after an intelligence warning. Al-Qaeda's Yemen-based branch, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has claimed responsibility for sending the sophisticated devices, in which the explosive PETN was packed into printer cartridges and attached to timers. US intelligence believes the parcel bombs, which were addressed to Chicago synagogues but may have been intended to explode in flight, were the work of Saudi militant Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri, thought to be a senior AQAP member.

A credit card for Government employees before Christmas

The Government has planned to introduce a special credit card for Government employees. This programme will be implemented under the mediation of the Cooperatives and Internal Trade Ministry. The Ministry said that the decision to give this relief to Government employees had been taken with the objective of bringing down the cost of living. It has been planned to introduce this credit card before Christmas. The Cooperative and Internal Trade Ministry said that owners of this credit card would be given a 52-day grace period for interest-free purchases. While steps will be taken to fix a small interest ratio it will be made known in the future. A specialty of this is the possibility for the Government employee or his or spouse to use this credit card. The Government's attention has been drawn to extend this credit card facility to Government pensioners and members of recognised Government organisations as well in the future.

Indonesia tsunami: Rescuers battle to reach survivors

  

Some of the villages in the tsunami's path simply do not exist anymore

Indonesian rescue teams are battling to reach an estimated 400 people believed to be missing since a tsunami struck small islands off the coast of Sumatra.

Officials say a 3m-high wave crashed into the Mentawai islands after a quake on Monday, killing at least 154 people.

Rescuers are now in the region, facing bad weather and post-quake aftershocks in villages levelled by the wave.

Indonesia's president is cutting short a trip to Vietnam to visit the islands and oversee the relief operation.

Officials said Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono would fly back from a meeting with regional leaders to help deal with the tsunami aftermath.

He will also be briefed on the rescue effort on Java, where an erupting volcano has caused chaos.

US President Barack Obama, who spent some of his childhood in Indonesia, has spoken of his sadness at the deaths.

"At the same time, I am heartened and encouraged by the remarkable resiliency of the Indonesian people and the commitment of their government to rapidly assist the victims," he said in a statement.

He said the US was ready to help in any way.

Higher ground:

 

At least 10 villages are thought to have been flattened by the tsunami, which was caused by a 7.7-magnitude earthquake late on Monday. 

Waves reached 3m (10ft) high and the water swept inland as far as 600m on South Pagai.

The first images emerging from the Mentawai Islands show empty clearings where homes and buildings once stood, levelled and cleared by the power of the wave.

n the tsunami zone, regional disaster official Hermansyah confirmed that the number killed had risen to 154, and said those who had survived were in urgent need of help.

"They have lost their houses and now need a lot of aid and assistance. There are some tents already arrived here but we still need many more," he told AFP news agency.

Rough seas were making it difficult to ship aid to the Mentawai islands from Padang, the nearest major port on Sumatra. Forecasters say the bad weather is likely to continue in the coming days.

The islands are described as extremely remote, with few roads or functioning telephone lines even before the tsunami hit, making it difficult to make an accurate assessment of the scale of the damage.

One man, a farmer named Borinte from the island of North Pagai, told AFP he had lost his wife and children. He suggested that people living in the path of the tsunami received little or no warning.

"About 10 minutes after the quake we heard a loud, thunderous sound. We went outside and saw the wave coming. We tried to run away to higher ground but the wave was much quicker than us," Borinte said.

"I'm so sorry that I couldn't save my wife and children as I panicked and didn't know what to do. I was swept away as well but I managed to survive by holding onto a wooden plank."

 

Indonesia launched a purpose-built tsunami warning system two years ago which was aimed to be running completely by 2010. Monday's earthquake was one of its most serious tests, but it is unclear whether the western Sumatra area is covered by an operational system. Mr Hermansyah told BBC Indonesian that about 4,000 households had been displaced by the tsunami, and that many people had fled to higher ground.

He said that those displaced needed tents, blankets, food, drinking water and medicine.
The Indonesian Red Cross said it was despatching a team to the islands, and would send 1,000 tents.

The country's vice-president is due to fly to the area with top military and health officials later.
 

On Tuesday, local fisheries official Hardimansyah said most buildings in the South Pagai coastal village of Betu Monga had been destroyed.

"Of the 200 people living in that village, only 40 have been found - 160 are still missing, mostly women and children," Hardimansyah told Reuters news agency.

"We have people reporting to the security post here that they could not hold on to their children, that they were swept away. A lot of people are crying."

The vast Indonesian archipelago sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire, one of the world's most active areas for earthquakes and volcanoes.

More than 1,000 people were killed by an earthquake off Sumatra in September 2009.
In December 2004, a 9.1-magnitude quake off the coast of Aceh triggered a tsunami in the Indian Ocean that killed a quarter of a million people in 13 countries including Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand.
 

 Source: BBC

Runway opens at world's first spaceport

Virgin Galactic's VSS Enterprise made a celebratory flight over the runway

Commercial space travel took a step closer with the opening of the runway at the world's first spaceport in the US state of New Mexico.

The event was marked with a flypast of an aircraft carrying SpaceShip Two.

The vehicle has been designed to take fee-paying tourists on trips to the edge of space and back.

British billionaire Sir Richard Branson - whose Virgin group has backed the venture - said the first passenger trip should take place within 18 months.

The opening of the nearly two-mile (three-kilometre) runway comes less than two weeks after another major step for Sir Richard's Virgin Galactic company: the first solo glide flight of SpaceShip Two.

"Today is very personal as our dream becomes more real," Sir Richard said.

"People are beginning to believe now. I think the drop flight two weeks ago, which went beautifully, I think it made people sit up and realize this is really reality."

More than 300 people have already paid at least $200,000 (£128,000) each for a three-hour flight.

Virgin Galactic's White Knight Two - the jet-powered mothership that will carry SpaceShip Two to launch altitude - appeared at Friday's ceremony at Spaceport America near the Mexican border.

The craft, carrying SpaceShip Two, passed over the spaceport several times before landing on the new runway.

Source: BBC

 Biodiversity is the term used to describe the incredible variety of life that has evolved on our planet over billions of years. So far 1.75m present day species have been recorded, but there maybe as many as 13m in total.(BBC)

Gunmen kill 13 at birthday party in Mexico

Reuters
October 23, 2010 20:41 GMT

By Julian Cardona

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (Reuters) - Gunmen sprayed bullets into a family birthday party in the violent Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez, killing 13 people and wounding 20, authorities said on Saturday.

It was the second massacre at a party this month in Ciudad Juarez, which borders El Paso, Texas, and is one of the world's most violent cities as drug cartels battle security forces and each other over smuggling routes into the United States.

"I threw myself down on the floor and then a lot of other people piled on top of me," a young man who survived the shooting late on Friday told Reuters, declining to give his name out of fear of reprisals.
The celebration was for a boy's 15th birthday, he said.
At least four of the people killed at the house party were teenagers and a 9-year-old boy was among the wounded, officials said.

"A group of heavily armed men arrived in two minivans. At least 10 men burst into the party," Carlos Gonzalez, a spokesman for state prosecutors, told the Reforma newspaper.
It was not clear whether the shooting was related to Mexico's drug war, which has killed more than 6,900 people in Ciudad Juarez alone since early 2008.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon condemned the shooting, saying it caused "deep outrage."
Calderon is under pressure to show the military-led campaign he launched against the powerful drug cartels in December 2006 is working. With the death toll at nearly 30,000 people over the last four years, Washington and foreign investors are on edge as the violence escalates.

On Saturday, a man used buckets of water and a broom to clean the blood-stained patio where the gunmen opened fire.
"I don't know what happened. I was here with my son, who is a boy," said the man, who declined to be identified.

Earlier this month in Ciudad Juarez, gunmen raided a party and killed six people. After that shooting, Calderon flew to the city to inaugurate parks and hospitals as part of the government's plan to increase social spending and rebuild the depressed city.

(Writing and additional reporting by Jason Lange in Mexico City; Editing by John O'Callaghan)

Source: Global Post

FIRE AT NOROCHCHOLAI COAL POWER PLANT UNDER CONTROL

October 24, 2010: The fire that erupted at the Norochcholai Coal Power Plant has been controlled, says Patali Champika Ranawaka, Minister of Power and Energy.
He said that the situation was under control and the work on the plant would be completed on schedule.

Source: Newsfirst.lk

Nigeria arrests rebel's brother

Al Jazeera2010-10-17

Nigerian security forces have arrested the brother of Henry Okah, a former leader of the rebel Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend), over his suspected involvement in deadly bombings in the capital, Abuja on October 1. Charles Okah was taken into custody at his home in the southern city of Lagos on Sunday. He has been accused of helping to fund the twin car bombings that struck during independence anniversary celebrations in the capital Abuja. Henry Okah is alleged to have masterminded the attack that left 12 people dead and dozens of others injured. Charles Okah...

FBI was 'alerted' to Mumbai plot

Al Jazeera2010-10-17

Two wives of an American man convicted for his role in the Mumbai attacks had tipped off the FBI about their husband's suspicious movements well before the assaults in 2008, according to media reports. US authorities had been informed that David Headley was tied to the Pakistani group alleged to be behind the plot, the Washington Post reported on Friday, citing a person close to the case. Headley pleaded guilty in March to a dozen US terrorism charges related to the Mumbai attacks, and to a plot to attack the Danish newspaper that had published cartoons in 2005 that mocked the Prophet Muhammad. In his trial this year, the businessman...

Land mines recovered from Vanni, are mostly produced from Pakistan – Information

Reports states, the large quantity of landmines recovered from the Vanni district are manufactured from Pakistan and America. While the coordinating officials conducted a media briefing in Jaffna involved in excavating land mines gave this information. In the meantime there is meagerness for funds allocations prevailing for land mines excavation in the Vanni district. Due to this reason, the assignments get delayed was stated. The reason for this is due to the curtailments of financial allotments by the European countries including the international sector. Hence the resettlements had got affected was mentioned by him.

 

Students talk outside the University of Istanbul in Turkey on Oct. 11, 2010. (Jodi Hilton/GlobalPost)

Bus fares between Colombo to Jaffna is fixed.

“Lankadeepa” newspaper has published a news item, that the bus fares between Colombo to Jaffna will be decided. The National Transport Commission will decide the bus fares. Accordingly the Super luxury bus rates will be rupees 1035(bus route through Puttalam)

The Super Luxury bus charges will be rupees 1015 (bus route through Kurunagal)

Luxury bus rate Rupees 700(through Puttalam route) Luxury bus payment through Puttalam route will be Rupees 516, and semi luxury bus fares through Kurunagal will be 552 rupees have come as fixed rates.

The new bus rates will be charged according to the fixed rates by the National Transport Commission. Meanwhile the buses engaged in transport services from Colombo to Jaffna, had been authorized to pay rupees 11 lacks to obtain annual road permits.

Sudan rebukes U.N. over border buffer zone plan

Reuters
October 16, 2010 07:02 GMT 

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan's army has rebuked the United Nations over plans to set up a buffer zone along the country's north-south border ahead of a politically sensitive referendum, saying the move was a sign of either ignorance or interference.

U.N. officials told Reuters on Friday the world body was redeploying peacekeepers to hotspot areas along the border because of fears that conflict may erupt in the build-up to a referendum on whether the south should declare independence or stay in Sudan.

"The remarks ... on the deployment of U.N. buffer zone on the border between north and south reflect nothing but ignorance of the facts on the course of events in Sudan or harassment aimed at (Sudan's) stability and integrity," Sudan's army spokesman told the state Suna news agency late on Friday.
Sudan is now less that three months away from the scheduled start of the vote, promised in a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of north-south civil war -- a conflict that left an estimated 2 milling dead and forced 4 million to flee.

The president of the semi-autonomous south Salva Kiir last week told visiting U.N. Security Council envoys he feared the north was moving troops southwards and preparing for war, members of the delegation said.
Washington's ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice on Thursday confirmed Kiir asked for a U.N.-administered 10-mile (16-km) buffer zone along the ill-defined border.

(Reporting by Andrew Heavens)

Source: Globalpost

Sudan rebukes U.N. over border buffer zone plan

Reuters
October 16, 2010 07:02 GMT 

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan's army has rebuked the United Nations over plans to set up a buffer zone along the country's north-south border ahead of a politically sensitive referendum, saying the move was a sign of either ignorance or interference.

U.N. officials told Reuters on Friday the world body was redeploying peacekeepers to hotspot areas along the border because of fears that conflict may erupt in the build-up to a referendum on whether the south should declare independence or stay in Sudan.

"The remarks ... on the deployment of U.N. buffer zone on the border between north and south reflect nothing but ignorance of the facts on the course of events in Sudan or harassment aimed at (Sudan's) stability and integrity," Sudan's army spokesman told the state Suna news agency late on Friday.
Sudan is now less that three months away from the scheduled start of the vote, promised in a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of north-south civil war -- a conflict that left an estimated 2 milling dead and forced 4 million to flee.

The president of the semi-autonomous south Salva Kiir last week told visiting U.N. Security Council envoys he feared the north was moving troops southwards and preparing for war, members of the delegation said.
Washington's ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice on Thursday confirmed Kiir asked for a U.N.-administered 10-mile (16-km) buffer zone along the ill-defined border.

(Reporting by Andrew Heavens)

Source: Globalpost

China's leaders meet to plan economic future

  Paramilitary guards ring the hall where Communist Party central committee members are meeting

China's ruling Communist Party is meeting in Beijing to draw up its next five-year plan for the economy.

The agenda is secret but analysts say that instead of seeking a high rate of economic growth, China's leaders want to close the gap between rich and poor and between coastal and inland areas.

Analysts will also be watching for signs of who will be China's next leader - due to take office in 2012. 

The meeting comes amid renewed scrutiny of human rights in China.

Earlier this week, a letter signed by 23 Communist Party elders circulated calling for an end to restrictions on the freedom of speech. 

The letter described China's censorship system as a "scandal" and an "embarrassment".

Their call came just days after the jailed dissident Liu Xiaobo - a champion for democracy in China - was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

A group of 100 activists in China has now signed a petition calling for his release.

There is speculation that political reform will even be on the meeting's agenda, after Premier Wen Jiabao recently issued a call for openness.

Mr Wen told US broadcaster CNN earlier this month that calls for "democracy and freedom [in China] will become irresistible". 

In August, he said: "Without political reform, China may lose what it has already achieved through economic restructuring."

But in a sign of possible resistance to those calls, China's state media did not report them domestically.

Reshuffle

Such unusually outspoken calls for political reform are the backdrop for this year's four-day Communist Party Congress. 

Details of the meeting of the 300-member Central Committee are usually only released at its close.

State media said President Hu Jintao and Mr Wen are expected to attend the gathering "to discuss proposals for the nation's next five-year development plan" from 2011 to 2015.

China has seen remarkable economic growth in recent years - largely driven by exports.

The BBC's Martin Patience in Beijing says China wants to reduce the gap between the rich and the poor, which has grown in order to prevent strikes and disputes over pay, which have led to social unrest in the past.

Any instability worries the party because it challenges their authority across the country, our correspondent says. 

Analysts will also be watching for signs that Vice-President Xi Jinping and Vice-Premier Li Keqiang - the presumed successors to Mr Hu and Mr Wen - will move closer to power in a reshuffle.

Source: BBC

Iran wants to discuss dates to start nuclear talks

Reuters
October 15, 2010 09:58 GMT 

 

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Iran wants to discuss specific dates for resuming talks with six major powers on its nuclear programme after a European Union offer to meet in mid-November, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Friday.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton proposed Vienna on Thursday as the venue for three-day talks involving the United States, Germany, Russia, France, Britain and China.
"As you are fully aware recently I announced that October or November from our point of view is a good time to restart talks between Iran and the 5+1 (major powers)," Mottaki told reporters during a visit to Brussels.

"It is good news that authorities here are following the matter. This is the way to coordinate some specific, fixed date for starting talks," he said before international talks on supporting economic development in Pakistan and fighting terrorism.
Talks between Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and Germany have been frozen since they broke down in October last year, leading to a toughening of international sanctions.

The United States and its European allies fear Iran's civilian nuclear energy programme is a cover to develop the capability of producing nuclear weapons.
Iran says it needs nuclear fuel-making technology to generate electricity and denies it is developing atomic arms.

Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili wrote to Ashton on July 6, calling for a resumption of talks, and Mottaki said on October 9 that late October or early November was an appropriate time for the talks.
But Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has set conditions for further talks. He says a greater variety of countries should be involved, the parties must say whether they seek friendship or hostility with Iran, and must express a view on Israel's alleged nuclear arsenal.

(Reporting by Justyna Pawlak, writing by Timothy Heritage, editing by Rex Merrifield and Charles Dick)

Canada loses access to UAE base amid airline dispute

Canadian troops are to leave a military base in the United Arab Emirates that supports missions in Afghanistan, amid a dispute over airline landing rights, UAE officials say.

Camp Mirage is believed to be located at al-Minhad Air Base outside Dubai.

The facility is used by Canada and NATO allies as a logistical and supply site.

The base was expected to play a large role in pulling Canadian troops and equipment out of Afghanistan. Canada currently has about 2,900 troops there.

But Canada has said closing its operations at the base will not damage its contribution to Nato's mission in Afghanistan. The country has previously stated that its mission in Afghanistan will end in 2011.

The pullout from Camp Mirage, which could potentially damage diplomatic relations between the two countries, follows years of requests from the UAE to increase the number of long-haul air routes its carriers can operate to Canadian airports.

Canada's access to Camp Mirage was established under a years-old agreement, which expired in June, an official from the Gulf state told the Associated Press news agency.

The agreement was extended through September "in a show of goodwill" as Canada and the Emirates sought to reach a deal that included landing rights concessions, the official said, but negotiations had been unsuccessful.

Canada's main airlines have opposed an increase in flights for UAE carriers, fearing they could lose business as a result.

The base's exact location has never been officially acknowledged by the United Arab Emirates or Canada

 

Source: BBC

 

The inflatables are stitched together at a former hot-air balloon factory.(BBC)

 

 

Oprah Winfrey school abuse: South African matron freed

11 October 2010 Last updated at 15:52 GMT

The school is intended to help children from poor backgrounds

 

The former matron of Oprah Winfrey's school in South Africa has been cleared on charges of abusing girls there.

Virginia Mokgobo had faced 14 charges relating to the sexual and physical abuse of six girls.

Oprah Winfrey has expressed her disappointment at the verdict but said she was proud of the girls for having the courage to testify.

The US talk-show host has said she was herself abused as a child and has campaigned against abuse in the US.

Her Leadership Academy near Johannesburg, was opened in 2007 at a cost of $40m (£25m). 

Ms Winfrey pledged to build the academy after meeting former South African President Nelson Mandela in 2002, and personally interviewed many of the South African girls from low-income families who applied for the initial 150 places at the school. 

The prosecution said it was not intending to appeal against the verdict.

The elite boarding school was also hit by another sex scandal last year.

Seven students were suspended for allegedly harassing a school mate.

Source: BBC

 

A relative of the 33 miners trapped underground in a copper and gold mine reacts after the T 130 drilling machine completed an escape hole for the miners at San Jose mine near Copiapo city, Chile, Oct. 9, 2010. (Ivan Alvarado/Reuters)

Ice "Tsunamis" Detected in Saturn Ring

A simulated image of Saturn created using data from NASA's Cassini orbiter.

Image courtesy NASA/JPL

Victoria Jaggard in Pasadena, California

National Geographic News

Published October 6, 2010

The gravitational pull of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, causes giant, circling "tsunamis" of icy particles in one of the planet's rings, new data suggest. The discovery may solve the 30-year-old mystery of a gap in Saturn's faint, inner C ring.

NASA's Voyager 1 probe—observing Saturn's rings from a single, shallow angle—first recorded a rippling region within the C ring during a November 1980 flyby.

The otherwise regular ripple was interrupted by a gap that seemed to be almost 9.3 miles (15 kilometers) wide, based on radio data. Complicating the matter, later pictures of the C ring showed no large gap.
Now scientists working with NASA's Cassini orbiter have confirmed the gap exists.

Because the ripples and gaps are generally too subtle to discern in Cassini images, the researchers observed the gap largely indirectly, via light shining through the opening as stars passed behind the ring.
"A reasonable analogy is a person walking behind a picket fence and shining a flashlight through," astronomer Phil Nicholson of Cornell University said Monday. "Light from bright stars drifting behind the rings gets blocked by denser regions of particles but passes through the gaps."

The recent Cassini observations taken from several different angles show the opening to be much narrower than previously thought—a mere third of a mile (half a kilometer) wide. Voyager's slantwise perspective, it turns out, had resulted in the gap seeming much wider than it is, Nicholson said during a briefing at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society's Division of Planetary Sciences in Pasadena, California.

What's more, in about half of Cassini's readings the gap becomes a peak, as if something were blocking the view—"like a gap in the fence had been turned into a fence post," Nicholson said.

The new starlight data suggest that, at some angles, spiraling walls of icy particles on either side of the gap line up so that they block the gap from view, he said.
Based on the Cassini data, he added, each peak seems to be "like a tsunami propagating away from an earthquake fault," he said. "If you were standing next to this tsunami, it'd be pretty big"—with each peak just under a mile (1.6 kilometers tall)—"but it's moving pretty slowly, about 250 meters [820 feet] a day."

(See Saturn pictures.)

Titan-Tsunami Connection

Several known gaps elsewhere in Saturn's rings can be explained by tiny moons that orbit inside the rings, carving paths through the particles. But some gaps, like this one in the C ring, are associated with no known moons, making the gaps' origins a mystery. (Related: "'Pinball' Collisions Seen in Saturn Ring.")

As it turns out, the tsunamis' rotations matched the orbital rate of Titan, the researchers realized—circling Saturn once every 16 days. Because of that correlation, the scientists suspect the peaks are results of the C ring's gravitational relationship with the moon.

As Titan orbits Saturn, its gravity likely yanks the section of ring particles that are in resonance with the moon—or moving at the same speed as Titan's gravitational field, explained Larry Esposito, an astronomer at the University of Colorado at Boulder who was not involved in the new research.

"For decades people have said these resonances can [also] open gaps" in Saturn's rings, Esposito said. "This data confirms those predictions."
(Related: "Saturn's Rings as Old as Solar System, Study Says.")

Saturn Tsunami Shines

Although the tsunami feature is normally too small to see in Cassini's pictures, the craft saw it directly for the first time during Saturn's equinox, when the sun's rays hit the rings edge-on, Cornell's Nicholson added. The low angle of sunlight caused the tilted wall to shine like a bright arc in the otherwise dark ring.

(Find out how Saturn's equinox has helped astronomers find new moons, how it made Saturn temporarily "lose" its rings, and more.)

"Think of the sun illuminating gently undulating topography on Earth right after sunrise or just before sunset," he said. "On average there's not much illumination ... but a slope [facing the sun] can look quite bright."
In general, Nicholson said, the new find adds to evidence that Saturn's disk of rings is actually less two-dimensional than once believed.

According to the University of Colorado's Esposito, the finding may not have any major implications for studies of Saturn's rings, but there's no denying "it's an intriguing case."

Source: National Geographic

A primordial black hole, surrounded by sheets of gas, dust, and stars (artist's impression).

Image courtesy NASA/ESA/ESO

Ker Than

for National Geographic News

Published October 8, 2010

Monster galaxies with supermassive black hole hearts released fierce blasts that superheated the early universe, new Hubble observations suggest. The scorching conditions also stunted the growth of smaller dwarf galaxies, the new research shows.

Between 11.7 to 11.3 billion years ago, ultraviolet (UV) light emitted by quasars—enormous galaxies with supermassive black holes at their centers—stripped electrons of cosmic helium, according to observations made with the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) on NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The big bang that created our universe occurred around 13.7 billion years ago.

The electron-stripping process, known as ionization, heated the helium gas from 18,000 to nearly 40,000 degrees Fahrenheit (10,000 to 22,000 degrees Celsius).

(Related: "Immaculate Black Holes Found Near Universe's Conception.")

Warm gas moves faster than cool gas, and the heated helium sped free of the gravitational clutches of so-called dwarf galaxies. Helium, the second most abundant element in the universe after hydrogen, is one of the main ingredients of star formation.

"During this time, dwarf galaxies didn't get fed very well," said study leader Michael Shull of the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Cool Quasars Bulked Up Dwarfs

With Hubble's help, Shull and his team detected a specific wavelength of UV light emitted from distant quasars about 11 billion years ago.

Light emitted from farther away, and thus older, quasars lacked this wavelength, because the light was getting absorbed by neutral helium as well as helium with a single ion—or charged particle. Single-ion helium occurs when one electron is lost.

The helium gas became transparent to the UV light only when the helium became double ionized. By determining when this transition took place, scientists can pin down the start date of the helium-ionization era.

After about 500 million years, the ionized helium in the quasars cooled and slowed enough that dwarf galaxies could begin bulking up again. (See black hole pictures.)

"A lot of them held on to their cores, and they had to wait until this period was done before they could start bringing in gas again," Shull said.

Gas Blasts Occurred on Earth

A similar phenomenon happens to the planets of our solar system, Shull added.

Giant gas planets such as Jupiter and Saturn have enough mass to hang on to hydrogen and helium atoms heated by the sun, but lower-mass planets such as Earth have already lost all of their lighter elements.

For example, Earth's atmosphere contains only traces of helium and hydrogen, created by processes such as radioactive decay. But that gas escapes from Earth into space shortly after the gas's formation, Shull said.

The research will appear October 20 in The Astrophysical Journ

Source: National Geographic

The Semeru volcano in Indonesia. New research suggests that climate change following massive volcanic eruptions drove Neanderthals to extinction and cleared the way for modern humans to thrive in Europe and Asia. (Credit: iStockphoto)

Sri Lanka first in breast feeding

Wehelle PIYATHILAKE-Maharagama special corr 

Sri Lanka was selected as the best breast feeding country according to a survey by South Asia International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN).

A ceremony to mark this was held recently where breast feeding mothers were felicitated at the Sri Lanka Freedom Party Headquarters, T B Jayah Mawatha, Colombo 10.

The ceremony was organized by the Sri Lanka Freedom Party Women's Organization. 

Health Minister Maithripala Sirisena was the Chief Guest. Hundred breast feeding mothers were felicitated and 100 bank accounts were opened for their babies. IBFAN Sri Lanka co-ordinator Amara K Peeris made the welcome speech. 

Minister Sirisena said from 2011, a separate well-equipped room will be allocated for breast feeding mothers in Government and private institutions.

Ministers Pavithra Wanniarachchi, A H M Fowzie and Sumeda J Jayasena, Southern Province Governor Kumari Balasuriya and Ranaviru Seva Adikariya Chairperson Padma Wettewa were present.

The felicitation ceremony organizer was Sri Lanka Nidahas Women's Association Deputy Chairperson and Maharagama Urban Councillor Chandrika de Zoysa. 

Source: Daily News

Indian model and actress Yana Gupta plays a computer game to launch Games On Demand, an internet gaming service in Mumbai, in 2006. (Indranil Mukherjee/AFP/Getty Images)

Has India got game?

By Jason Overdorf - GlobalPost
Published: October 5, 2010 06:35 ET in Asia

NEW DELHI, India and TOKYO, Japan — A line of patient gamers spiraled around the billowing white pavilion for El Shaddai — the first top-tier video game released by India's UTV Software Communications, which debuted at the Tokyo Game Show last month.

As the queue snaked past video screens playing scenes from the game's back story and display cases containing specially designed Edwin jeans “as worn by" the character Enoch in the game, some gamers scoped the storyboards, while others multitasked with handheld devices. At a game convention, you find game addicts.

The mood was mostly curious. Compared with Halo: Reach or Final Fantasy XIV, El Shaddai, designed by Sawaki Takeyasu for UTV's Ignition Entertainment unit, had virtually no hype going into the show. The animated trailer — a must for today's top-end, or AAA, games — would not be showing on a jumbotron at center court, and more than a few of the people waiting to play the old-school, third-person, punch-and-slash adventure had probably stumbled over because they'd stopped giving out badges at the nearby booth for the PlayStation Move.

But that didn't stop El Shaddai, a Cinderella at the ball, from winning fans. At the award ceremony on the final day of TGS, the 200,000-odd visitors voted El Shaddai "Future Game of the Show 2010" — honoring it among the top 10 favorite games showcased at the convention.

Now, for UTV, who invited me to attend TGS as its guest, the question is whether that recognition will pay off in sales. The Indian company — which has shelled out some serious coin to acquire game design firms in the United Kingdom, the United States and Japan, as well as India, over the past three years — has a lot riding on its first AAA game's success.

Building on the reputation and financial wherewithal that the company has built producing and distributing Indian movies and TV shows, CEO Ronnie Screwvala hopes to become a significant player in the global video game business.

That means developing games from UTV's own family of studios, pushing new distribution models and attracting independent game designers who need a Harvey Weinstein-type mover to take their titles to the boardrooms of Sony, Capcom and Microsoft. A big splash out of the gate would draw that kind of attention right away — just at the right time.

"It's very important," Ronnie Screwvala, UTV's 54-year-old CEO, told GlobalPost. "We've got a lot riding on El Shaddai."

Though it has potential, the game business in India is worth a tiny $100 million of the $20-plus billion global market. Moreover, virtually all of that comes from games for mobile phones, and Indian animators and game designers are at least a decade behind their counterparts in America and Japan.

That's why Screwvala is striving to build a global gaming company, rather than an Indian one. The idea is to follow the so-called "Pixar model," with which Apple's Steve Jobs built a $7.5-billion company from a base of a measly $10 million by assembling a small, committed team of in-house directors and animators. But that's easier said than done — especially from India, skeptics say.

"Financially, if we sell a million units [of El Shaddai], it's not a big deal," said Screwvala. "But it's more about, 'Where the hell did you guys come from?' That's the reaction we want from the industry."

Acquiring controlling stakes in Mumbai-based Indiagames, U.K.-based Ignition, and U.S.-based True Games in 2007 and 2008, UTV has pumped $75 million into developing its gaming division — adding more than 400 visualizers, game designers and technology experts at studios in London, Tokyo and Shanghai, as well as Austin, Texas and Gainesville, Fla.

Source: Global Post

Lebanin police fire tear gas at lankan workers

Lebanon police have fired tear gas at a protest by Sri Lankan workers employed in a garment factory there.
The Sri Lankans were protesting in front of their factory complex this morning after talks held to resolve a dispute with Indian workers failed.

Meanwhile, Hemantha Wijeratne, Consular Officer of the Sri Lankan embassy in Jordan said that he would be going to the location to look into the matter.

According to Kingsley Ranawaka, Chairman of the Foreign Employment Bureau, a dispute had arisen between the Sri Lankans and the Indians during a function attended by both parties. There had been a clash and eight Lankans had been injured.

China angry as Nobel Peace Prize goes to jailed dissident

By Kathleen McLaughlin - GlobalPost
Published: October 8, 2010 08:34 ET in Asia

 

BEIJING, China —  The first time her husband went to prison for criticizing the Chinese government, Liu Xia shaved her head. More than 14 years later, her hair is still shorn but her husband, Liu Xiaobo, is no longer just another struggling Chinese dissident.

Liu Xiaobo won the Nobel Peace Prize today, making him the first Chinese winner, and only the second recipient to get the award while in prison. German pacifist Carl von Ossietzky won the prize while in jail in 1935. Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi received the award in 1991 while under house arrest, but not in prison.

Liu, a longtime democracy advocate, was sentenced last year to 11 years in prison for subversion for his role in drafting and distributing online Charter 08, a widely circulated petition calling for human rights and democratic reform in China’s political system.

“I am very thankful to see so many people supporting him,” Liu’s wife said in a telephone interview Friday, as her house became surrounded by supporters and police. “I want to say thanks.”

Liu’s Nobel win is both expected and surprising. He was the odds-on favorite, but prominent Chinese dissidents before him failed to win the Nobel committee’s nod. Liu, 54, was buoyed by a highly publicized nomination from Václav Havel, Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama.

“We ask the Nobel Committee to honor Liu Xiaobo’s more than two decades of unflinching and peaceful advocacy for reform, and to make him the first Chinese recipient of that prestigious award,” Havel wrote in a piece to the International Herald Tribune last month. “In doing so, the Nobel Committee would signal both to Liu and to the Chinese government that many inside China and around the world stand in solidarity with him, and his unwavering vision of freedom and human rights for the 1. 3 billion people of China.”

U.S. President Barack Obama took the lead of the growing international campaign calling for China to release Liu from jail. Obama said Liu "has sacrificed his freedom for his beliefs" and is "an eloquent and courageous spokesman for the advance of universal values through peaceful and nonviolent means," according to AP.

"We call on the Chinese government to release Mr. Liu as soon as possible," said Obama.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel praised the award, calling Liu "a brave man."

Liu did not immediately learn that he had won, Nobel organizers said, and China’s initial reaction was stern. In a terse statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the Nobel committee had violated its own principles by giving the award to a criminal.

The committee sees Liu very differently, extolling his advocacy of free speech and human rights, and saying human rights are essential to peaceful societies.

"For over two decades, Liu Xiaobo has been a strong spokesman for the application of fundamental human rights also in China," said the committee. "The campaign to establish universal human rights also in China is being waged by many Chinese, both in China itself and abroad. Through the severe punishment meted out to him, Liu has become the foremost symbol of this wide-ranging struggle for human rights in China."

The big question now, of course, is what lies ahead. China watchers and Liu’s allies are bracing to see what happens both to the Nobel Laureate and to others in the Chinese political reform arena — a segment increasingly overshadowed by economic development and trade in China’s relationships with the United States and other countries.

China already threatened that giving Liu the prize would harm its relations with Norway, and it is unclear what its abrasive reaction means on a wider scale. But Liu’s friends and colleagues are  thrilled with the news, saying it gives credibility to a movement too often ignored.

“It gives people hope,” said blogger and activist Michael Anti, a friend of Liu’s. “The world is still watching China.”

Mo Shaoping, a signatory to Charter 08, said that first he was proud the Nobel Prize was given to a Chinese person, educated only in China. Moreover, Mo said, the prize recognizes Liu’s long-held belief that political reform in China can be accomplished through peaceful, gradual reforms rather than violence.

“This is an encouragement to people who shared Liu Xiaobo`s point of view,” said Mo.

A translation of Charter 08, available online,  has gathered thousands of signatures around the world.

The Dalai Lama welcomed Liu's award as "the international community’s recognition of the increas

ing voices among the Chinese people in pushing China towards political, legal and constitutional reforms."

The Buddhist leader said: "I believe in the years ahead, future generations of Chinese will be able to enjoy the fruits of the efforts that the current Chinese citizens are making towards responsible governance."

The Dalai Lama said he is encouraged by a recent statement in which Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said that freedom of speech is indispensable for any country and the people’s wish for democracy and freedom is irresistible. The Dalai Lama said reforms "can only lead to a harmonious, stable and prosperous China, which can contribute greatly to a more peaceful world." He called on the Chinese government to release Liu.

The news of the Nobel has sparked renewed interest in Liu's statement issued before his Christmas Day sentencing last year: "I have no enemies, and no hatred. None of the police who monitored, arrested and interrogated me, the prosecutors who prosecuted me, or the judges who sentence me, are my enemies," stated Liu.

"For hatred is corrosive of a person’s wisdom and conscience; the mentality of enmity can poison a nation's spirit, instigate brutal life and death struggles, destroy a society’s tolerance and humanity, and block a nation’s progress to freedom and democracy." Liu said he hoped to "defuse hate with love."

Source: Global Post

An Iraqi army helicopter patrols the skies above Baghdad's Green Zone on Sept. 1, 2010 as top U.S. and Iraqi officials prepare for official ceremonies to delcare an end to U.S. combat missions in Iraq after seven years of war. (Sabah Arar/AFP/Getty Images)

As America's war ends, Iraq's begins

BAGHDAD, Iraq —  American officers occupying Saddam Hussein’s former palace during the 2007 U.S. military surge used to joke about changing its name from Camp Victory to Camp Cautiously Optimistic, or Camp Acceptable Level of Violence.

As Gen. Ray Odierno, who helped to engineer the surge, relinquished command of U.S. forces Wednesday in a ceremony marking the end of the seven-year-long combat mission here as well as his departure, the victory speeches were markedly constrained.

Source: Global Post

Top 10 Billionaires of the World

1. Carlos Slim Helú

2. William Gates III
3. Warren Buffett
4. Mukesh Ambani
5. Lakshmi Mittal
6. Lawrence Ellison
7. Bernard Arnault
8. Eike Batista
9. Amancio Ortega
10.Karl Albrecht

Source: www.forbes.com

Chile rescuers reinforce shaft for miners' escape

Reuters

October 10, 2010 05:53 GMT

By Cesar Illiano

COPIAPO, Chile (Reuters) - Chilean rescuers on Sunday reinforced an escape shaft to hoist 33 miners to freedom two months after they were trapped deep underground in a cave-in, as a stunning survival story that gripped the world nears its climax.

Engineers finished drilling a nearly 2,050 foot-long (625-meter) shaft just wider than a man's shoulders to evacuate the men, and the miners used explosives to make room for a special capsule dubbed "Phoenix" that will hoist them one at a time to the surface.

The rescuers were inserting metal tubes to line the first 330 feet of the duct to strengthen it, and the government expects to start the evacuation on Wednesday in one of the most complex rescue attempts in mining history.

Spontaneous celebrations broke out across Chile on Saturday as news of the drilling breakthrough spread, with horns honking in the capital Santiago and flags waved in towns across a country still recovering from the ravages of a massive February 27 earthquake.

The men's relatives -- who danced, sang, cheered and sobbed when the drill broke through 65 days after the August 5 collapse at the small gold and copper mine in Chile's far northern Atacama desert -- could barely wait.

"I have held back tears until now, but the joy is now too great," said Cristina Nunez, whose husband Claudio Nunez is among the trapped. "I'm so happy he will be with us by my daughter's birthday!"

Among the families is weeks-old infant Esperanza, or "Hope," whose father is trapped miner Ariel Ticona. Ticona's wife, Elizabeth, named the child after the makeshift camp erected at the mine.

Ticona saw the birth on a video sent down a narrow bore hole that served as an umbilical cord to pass water and food to keep the men alive during the ordeal, and yearns to hold his daughter for the first time.

Once the men are winched to the surface, they will be given astronaut-style medical checks in a field hospital set up at the mine. They will then be able to spend some time with their families, before being flown by helicopter to nearby Copiapo to be stabilized at another hospital.

After spending so long below ground in a humid, dimly-lit tunnel, their eyesight will need time to adjust.

"They will come to the surface with their eyes closed and will immediately put on dark glasses which will protect them from the light," Health Minister Jaime Manalich said. "They will keep them on night and day ... until they get used to natural light."

The miners are in remarkably good health, although some have developed skin infections.

The government brought in a team of experts from the U.S. NASA space agency to help keep the men mentally and physically fit during the protracted rescue operation. The men had lost an estimated 22 pounds (10 kg) each in the 17 before they were found.

(Writing by Simon Gardner; Editing by Vicki Allen)