Top Stories of the Week
Colombia asks Spain to Deport fugitive lawmaker
Colombia asked Spain to deport a fugitive congressman who is wanted for possible links with illegal paramilitaries in a widening scandal involving allies of President Alvaro Uribe.
Eight pro-Uribe lawmakers have been jailed and other army officers, governors and congressmen are under investigation for their suspected ties to paramilitaries, who are accused of atrocities during their dirty war against a rebel insurgency.
Bogota has asked Spanish authorities to send back Rep Jorge Luis Caballero who was among a group of lawmakers ordered detained by the Supreme Court on February 15 as part of its probe into the scandal.
''The foreign ministry has information he is in Spain and Colombia has presented a request to the government that he be deported back to our country,'' Deputy Foreign Minister Camilo Reyes told reporters yesterday.
The scandal intensified just weeks before US President George W Bush was scheduled to visit Uribe, Washington's closest ally in Latin America and a linchpin for US counter-narcotics initiatives in the region.
The Bush administration wants Congress to approve another 3.9 billion dollars in anti-drug aid to Colombia, but some of the Democrats who now control the Congress are concerned about how deeply paramilitary influence burrows into the Uribe administration.
Colombia's Foreign Minister Maria Consuelo Araujo resigned last week after her brother, a senator, was jailed and prosecutors considered investigating her father. Uribe's former security chief was also arrested on charges he aided paramilitaries.
The lawmakers are facing charges they aided, financed or organized illegal armed groups often in exchange for benefiting from paramilitary intimidation and influence at the ballot box.
The paramilitaries were set up in the 1980s by rich landowners to protect themselves from rebels, but more than 30,000 militia fighters have given up their arms in a peace deal with Uribe in exchange for short prison terms.
Labels: international, politics
Samuels in match-fixing scandal
Indian police stunned the cricket world late Wednesday when they accused West Indian all-rounder
Marlon Samuels of dealing with an illegal bookmaker during a recent One-day series in India.
Indian cricket board vice-president Shashank Manohar said the report from the police in central Nagpur, where the alleged incident took place, had been passed on to the International Cricket Council (ICC).
"The ICC and its anti-corruption unit will deal with what is obviously a very serious accusation," Manohar told reporters. "It concerns a foreign player. The Indian board can't take any action."
There was no immediate reaction from the Dubai-based offices of the ICC, but Samuels, 26, denied any wrongdoing.
"I don't do such things man," Thursday's Times of India quoted Samuels as saying. "I have not done anything wrong. The West Indies Cricketers' Association will take up the matter if necessary."
Amitesh Kumar, deputy police commissioner of Nagpur, said Samuels released important team information to the bookmaker during the first One-day international, citing tapped telephone conversations between the pair.
Kumar told reporters on Wednesday that Samuels had five conversations with the bookmaker, identified in the calls as Mukesh Kochar, although there was no evidence money had changed hands.
India won the match against the West Indies on January 21 by 14 runs.
"We have recorded information that Samuels leaked important team information to Kochar from his hotel room in five telephone calls on January 20 and 21," Kumar said.
"We do not have evidence if any financial commitment was made. All I will say is the link between the player and the bookie is a violation of the ICC Code of Conduct for players."
Labels: breaking news, international, sports
Blair says won't quit before funding probe ends
British Prime Minister Tony Blair today said it would be wrong for him to leave office before a police investigation into political party funding ends. ''I don't think that's the right way to do it and I think it would be particularly wrong to do it before the inquiry has even run its course and come to any conclusions. So you'll have to put up with me for a bit longer,'' he told BBC Radio.Blair has been questioned twice as a witness in his Downing Street office by police probing allegations that titles were granted by political parties in exchange for funding in an investigation overshadowing the premier's last months in the office.
Labels: international, politics
Tata Steel bids for Corus acquisition
Jan 31 2007 :
Tata Steel is set to become the world's fifth-biggest steelmaker after winning a bid battle for Anglo-Dutch steelmaker Corus Group by agreeing to pay 6.2 billion pounds ($12 billion).
Britain's Takeover Panel said in an e-mailed statement that after an auction Tata Steel had agreed to offer Corus investors 608 pence per share in cash, topping a final bid of 603 pence from Brazilian Companhia Siderurgica Nacional (CSN).
Both offers were right at the top end of what analysts had thought possible and will now be put to Corus investors, who have no reason not to accept the higher price.
Corus was not immediately available for comment.
The auction process, following a takeover tussle that began in earnest when Tata Steel offered 455 pence per share on Oct.
20, started at the close of trading in London on Tuesday when Corus shares ended 0.5 percent higher at 563 pence. CSN and Tata Steel were keen to buy Corus to become significant players in the consolidating steel industry, where Dutch-based Mittal Steel last year bought Luxembourg's Arcelor to create the world's biggest steelmaker, Arcelor Mittal.
The 608 pence Tata Steel is set to pay values Corus at around seven times its forecast earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) for 2006, well above the multiple Mittal Steel paid for Arcelor which was 4.6 times historic EBITDA.
Ahead of the auction, called last week by the Takeover Panel to bring the bid battle to an end, CSN had the upper hand after it had made a bid worth 4.9 billion pounds ($9.6 billion) or 515 pence per share, accepted by Corus on Dec. 11, hours after it had accepted a 500 pence offer from Tata Steel.
The battle pushed Corus's share price to seven-year highs and pitted 70-year-old Tata group chairman Ratan Tata, from one of India's best-known business families, against Benjamin Steinbruch who at 52 is one of Brazil's most famous executives as chief executive and main owner of CSN.
Ratan Tata has transformed the once-staid Tata group since taking over as chairman in 1991. He has cut the number of companies in the group from over 300, and acquired new businesses with growth potential.
Tata Steel has spent more than $400 million in recent years to buy Singapore's NatSteel and Thailand's Millennium Steel, and other group companies have also made acquisitions outside India.
On Oct 17 2006 Tata Steel announced that it had made a ten billion dollars acquisition offer to Corus Group Plc, the largest steel maker of the UK.
In a statement, the company said it had made an ''indicative non -binding offer to acquire 100 per cent equity'' in Corus Group Plc and discussions in this regard were on with the Borad and Management of the UK company.
Labels: breaking news, international, others
India won ODI series
Jan 31, 2007 :
Sachin Tendulkar hit his
41st one-day century as India beat West Indies by
160 runs to clinch the series 3-1. West Indies, who won the toss, were bowled out for 181 in the 42nd over, Marlon Samuels top-scoring with 55. The tourists on 65-3 in the 15th over, but a 65-run stand between Samuels and Denesh Ramdin (40) saved some face for them. Earlier man of the match and man of the series Tendulkar scored his 41st ton with a single in the last ball of the Indian innings as 107 runs flowed in the last 10 overs. Dhoni was not out on 40 in 20 balls, with 1 four and 3 sixes. Ganguly (68) and Uthappa (28) gave India a quickfire start, with a 47 run partnership in 6.3 overs. Dravid (78) was instrumental in two century partnerships, one with Ganguly and another with Sachin.
Get the score cardLabels: international, sports
Hillary Rodham Clinton
The former first lady acknowledged her plans to take the first step of forming a presidential exploratory committee.
"I'm not just starting a campaign, though. I'm beginning a conversation with you, with America," Clinton says in her web message. She announced that she will be holding live, on-line video conferences with Americans starting Monday.
"Let's talk about how to bring the right end to the war in Iraq, and to restore respect for America around the world," she said.
Clinton's announcement, days after Sen. Barack Obama shook up the contest race with his bid to become the first black president, establishes the most diverse political field ever.
Clinton is considered the front-runner, with Obama and 2004 vice presidential nominee John Edwards as other top contenders. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who would be the first Hispanic president, intends to announce his plans on Sunday. Other Democrats seeking the highest office in the land include Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio). Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) is expected to formally announce his candidacy soon.
With millions in the bank, a vast network of supporters and top status in nearly every poll of
Democratic contenders, Clinton is undertaking the most viable effort by a female candidate to capture the White House. Her creation of a presidential exploratory committee allows her to raise money for the campaign; she already has lined up campaign staff. She is the first presidential spouse to pursue the office; her husband, Bill, served two terms in the White House from 1993-2001.
A polarizing figure since she burst onto the national scene during her husband's first presidential campaign, Clinton engenders strong opinions among voters, who either revere or revile her but rarely are ambivalent.
She often is compared to her husband and found lacking in his natural charisma. Others have criticized her for being overly cautious and calculating when so many voters say they crave authenticity. Many Democrats, eager to reclaim the White House after eight years of President Bush, fret that she carries too much baggage from her husband's scandal-plagued presidency to win a general election.
Labels: international, politics
Indonesian Jet Crash
Bad weather is more likely than a mid-air explosion to have caused the disappearance of an Indonesian passenger plane that vanished more than two weeks ago with 102 people aboard, an aviation investigator said today.
Frans Wenas, head of a government team investigating the case, said aircraft overstress or bad weather, or a combination of both, could have caused the accident.
''The aircraft may have run into an uncontrollable weather situation which got it in an unusual position,'' said Wenas, an investigator from the National Transport Safety Commission.
The airliner may have disintegrated on impact with the sea or due to underwater pressure, he added.
There had been suggestions the 17-year-old aircraft, which vanished from radar screens on New Year's Day, had exploded in mid air, but a study of pieces of the airliner found so far indicated this was probably not the case, he said.
''Looking at the pieces that we have found and where they were located, there are no indications that the plane exploded in the air,'' Wenas said by telephone, adding that the debris recovered showed no signs of burning or of an explosion.
After finding no trace of the plane for more than a week, a fisherman found the tail stabiliser of the Boeing last Tuesday snared in his nets off Lojie Beach on the west coast of Sulawesi island.
No bodies or survivors have been found.
Other small pieces of wreckage have been found in the past few days floating in the sea or washed up on beaches in the area.
Air Marshal Eddy Suyanto, the head of the search mission, said on Monday that a fuel spill in the sea spotted by a search aircraft and believed to be from the doomed jet could provide a new clue.
But the slick rescue workers had not been able to locate the spill when they tried to go to the area to get a sample, officials said.
Fragments of human hair and scalp that might come from passengers were found on Sunday and had been sent for DNA testing. The process could take two or three days.
Suyanto said previously that, considering that parts of the plane found so far were mostly small, a body was unlikely to have survived the disaster in one piece.
Indonesian navy ships assisted by a US oceanographic ship have also been trying to locate the missing plane's fuselage, which could still house the flight recorder that could provide clues to explain the disaster.
The flight recorder is set up to give off a signal for 30 days to aid detection, but it is likely to be very hard to locate in waters as deep as 1,700 metres in the area.
The plane was heading from Surabaya in East Java to Manado in northern Sulawesi when it vanished in bad weather. The plane made no distress call, although the pilot had reported concerns over crosswinds.
Labels: accidents, international
He alone to blame for mistakes
President George W Bush told Americans today ''where mistakes have been made in Iraq, the responsibility rests with me,'' as he unveiled a new war plan that includes an infusion of more than 20,000 extra US troops.
In a remarks prepared for a televised prime time speech, Bush also said the United States would hold the Iraqi government to certain ''benchmarks,'' including passage of oil-sharing legislation, reconstruction and job projects and political reforms. But he set no timetable for achieving these goals.
Labels: George W Bush, international, politics
9/11 hijacker friend to be sentenced
A German court on Monday will sentence a Moroccan friend of the
September 11 hijackers who was found guilty last year of being an accessory to mass murder, the court said today.
Mounir El Motassadeq, a member of a group of radical Arab students in Hamburg who organised the 2001 attacks in which nearly 3,000 people died, faces up to 15 years in prison.
Germany's top appeals court in Karlsruhe had in November found Motassadeq guilty of abetting the murder of 246 passengers and crew who died on four planes that crashed on September 11, 2001.
Lawyers for the Moroccan had demanded the suspension of the first hearing in Hamburg today, at which Motassadeq was present. His lawyer accused the court of being unconstitutional because it was set up specifically for the hearing.
''We are dealing with an extraordinary court which has been formed exclusively for El Motassadeq,'' Ladislav Anisic told German broadcaster N24.
''What is happening here goes against our constitution.'' Motassadeq, 32, is one of only two people convicted of involvement in the September 11 attacks.
The other is Zacarias Moussaoui, a French citizen of Moroccan descent who was sentenced to life imprisonment by a US court in May 2006.
Last November's decision overturned a 2005 ruling which convicted him of belonging to a terrorist organisation while clearing him of abetting mass murder.
Motassadeq's lawyers insist he knew nothing about the plot to fly hijacked planes into the New York and Washington targets.
Labels: accidents, international
German population goes down
Germany, with one of the lowest birth rates in Europe, suffered another drop in population last year as deaths outpaced births and the number of immigrants declined again, the Federal Statistics Office said today.
The population fell by about 150,000 in 2006 to 82.31 million after declining by 144,000 in 2005 to 82.44 million, the office said. The drop in 2006 marked the third time in the last quarter century that Germany's net population shrunk.
The office estimated the number of births in 2006 had fallen to between 670,000 and 680,000, a record low since measuring began in 1946. That was also down from 686,000 in 2005. The number of deaths was steady at between 820,000 and 830,000.
Fewer immigrants came to Germany in 2006 and more Germans left their country. The net gain in immigration versus emigration was down to about 20,000 to 30,000 in 2006 from a net gain of 79,000 in 2005.
Germany's population has been shrinking for more than 30 years and there are 3.3 million fewer Germans than in 1972.
Economists have warned that unless Germany's demographic trend is reversed, Europe's largest economy will go into terminal decline, with pensions and healthcare costs soaring as the average age gets higher and higher.
The government introduced subsidies to working mothers in January with the hope it would raise the birth rate.
Labels: international
Inquiry for Saddam execution recording
United States President George W Bush has told Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki that he supports the investigation to find out the person responsible for taunting Saddam Hussein and recording his execution on a cell-phone camera.
White House spokesman Tony Snow who gave this information yesterday said ''He (Bush) expressed that it was the right thing to do to investigate the taping and behavior at the execution of Saddam Hussein. And the prime minister agreed, and said the political parties were pained at the filming and the release, and they are taking a look at punishing those responsible.'' According to a report from Baghdad, Iraqi authorities are questioning at least two guards suspected of involvement in the taunting and filming.
President Bush and Prime Minister Maliki spoke for nearly two hours and also discussed options for the proposed new US Iraq policy which the President prefers to call a new way forward.
Snow says both men define winning the same way, the establishment of an Iraqi government that can sustain, govern and defend itself.
He is expected to announce that new way forward in a nationwide address sometime at the end of this month.
Labels: George W Bush, international, politics
Reactions on Saddam execution
Leftist parties and Muslims today held demonstrations across Madhya Pradesh dubbing as 'barbaric'' the hanging of former Iraq President Saddam Hussain and burnt US President George Bush in effigy. Police was alerted across the state to keept strict vigil to avert any untoward incident, particularly in view of the Id-ul-Zuha festival on Monday, Inspector General of Police Ashok Soni said.
In the Muslim-dominated Itwara area in the state capital, CPI workers and a group of Muslims held demonstrations separately and burnt effigies of the US President.
At Neemuch town in western Madhya Pradesh, the Centre of Indian Trade Unions, currently
holding its state convention, adopted a resolution condemning the 'barbaric' incident terming it as a frontal attack on the judiciary and sovereignity.
''It showed the extent to which US could go to monopolise on petroleum and other resources across the world'', CITU state General Secretary Badal Saroj said and urged other trade unions to stage protests against American criminal misadventures.
The CITU workers also took out a rally that culminated into a public meeting. CITU National Secretary and former CPI(M) MP Dipankar Mukherjee, in his address, urged the Indian government to take a stern stand against the US onslaught on secular Iraq, a traditional ally of India.
Reports from different districts said Muslims held protests against Saddam's hanging on the eve of Bakrid.
The leader of Russian ultranationalist Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR) Vladimir Zhirinovsky today led a protest rally outside the Iraqi Embassy in central Moscow, to protest former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's execution. ''Dozens of protesters gathered in front of the Iraqi Embassy building, all of them LDPR members,'' a police spokesman told mediapersons.
He said the rally was not sanctioned by the city authorities and it was peaceful and no one was detained. Thirteen State Duma (Lower House of Parliament) members also participated in the rally. The protesters carried flags with the party's symbols and several posters.
Addressing the protesters, Mr Zhirinovsky said Saddam's execution would result in the most negative consequences, since it would stir up another outburst of anti-American sentiments all over the world, particularly in Muslim countries.
Muslims may take it as an attack against the Islamic world, he added.
Labels: international
Saddam Hussein executed
US-backed Iraqi television station Al Hurra said Saddam Hussein had been executed by hanging shortly before 6 a.m.(0830 hrs IST) on Dec 30th 2006.
The former Iraqi president ousted in April 2003 by a US-led invasion was convicted last month of crimes against humanity over the killings of 148 Shi'ite villagers from Dujail after a failed assassination bid in 1982.
An appeals court upheld the death penalty on Tuesday. Iraq's government has kept details of its plans to conduct the execution completely secret amid concerns it could spark a violent backlash from his former supporters.
Arabic satellite channel Arabiya said Saddam Hussein's half-brother Barzan al-Tikriti and former judge Awad al-Bander were also executed by hanging today. Four car bombs targeting Shi'ites in Baghdad and a town south of the capital killed more than 70 people, hours after Saddam Hussein was hanged amid fears of revenge by his Sunni Arab supporters.
In Baghdad, three car bombs exploded in quick succession in the mainly Shi'ite neighbourhood of Hurriya, killing 36 people and wounding 77, an Interior Ministry source said. Police in Kufa, near the Shi'ite holy city of Najaf, said 36 people were killed and 58 wounded by the car bomb at a market packed with shoppers ahead of the week-long Eid al-Adha holiday.
They said a mob killed a man they accused of planting the bomb in the town about 160 km south of Baghdad. The attacks came the same day as Saddam was hanged for crimes against humanity, prompting fears of a violent backlash by his supporters among his fellow Sunni Arabs.
While the attacks may have been a swift response to the execution, such bombings are common in a country where at least 100 people die on average every day in bombings, mortar attacks and death squad killings. Though today's bombings may have been planned independently of the execution.
They were typical of the cycle of sectarian violence that is driving both Shi'ites, Sunni Arabs and others from their homes, increasingly dividing Baghdad and surrounding areas on sectarian grounds. Bombs frequently provoke reprisals from militias, whose practice is to kidnap, torture and shoot their victims, leaving the bodies dumped in places where they will intimidate.
A formerly mixed neighbourhood, Hurriya, where the three car bombs struck on Saturday, has become increasingly dominated by Shi'ites as Sunni Arabs have been driven out by threats and attacks.
Saddam's execution was welcome by Shi'ites and Kurds, who were oppressed under his rule, but many in the once dominant Sunni Arab minority were angry and all sides feared it could spark even more violence.
Labels: breaking news, international
Key powers work on final touches to Iran draft
In last minute negotiations, six key nations scrambled yesterday to reach agreement on a draft resolution imposing sanctions on Iran before a UN Security Council vote Europeans have scheduled for tomorrow.
The resolution demands Tehran end all uranium enrichment work, which can produce fuel for nuclear power plants as well as for bombs, and halt research and development that can make or deliver atomic weapons.
To this end, the measure bans imports and exports of dangerous materials and technology relating to uranium enrichment, reprocessing and heavy-water reactors, as well as ballistic missile delivery systems.
But Russia still wants some changes and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice indicated Washington might offer some also. ''There are some changes that are still to be made to that draft,'' she said of the measure drawn up by Britain, France and Germany.
''We are very supportive of the European Union draft,'' Rice said in Washington but added: ''It's no secret we would have preferred to have this earlier had we been the lone drafter, and of course there might have been other things in it.'' Rice spoke as ambassadors from the United States, Russia, China, Germany, Britain and France held negotiations on Thursday afternoon in New York to decide on the final draft.
In a concession to Russia yesterday, the Europeans deleted a mandatory travel ban and instead told nations to notify a Security Council sanctions panel should any of 12 Iranians involved in the country's nuclear and missile programmes transit through their countries. Their names are on a list attached to the resolution.
The draft also imposes an assets freeze on the 12 people as well as 11 organisations associated with nuclear programmes.
They include the country's atomic energy agency and organizations dealing with Iran's centrifuge programs, its heavy-water research reactor being built at Arak and a pilot uranium enrichment plant at Natanz.
UNANIMOUS VOTE?
The resolution is a reaction to Iran's failure to comply with an August 31 UN deadline to suspend uranium enrichment work and resume negotiations and has been the subject of talks among senior government officials from the six powers since then.
Iran says it is pursuing nuclear power for peaceful means while the West suspects its research is a cover for bomb-making.
The drafters are hoping for a 15-0 vote but the ambassador of Qatar, the only Arab member of the Security Council, said he was still awaiting instructions. ''We are not in favour of any outcome (imposing) sanctions,'' Nasser Abdulaziz al-Nasser told reporters. ''We have to encourage Iran in a positive manner.'' He said the resolution would not stop Iran from pursing its nuclear programme but might encourage it to pull out of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the world's key atomic arms pact.
The resolution is under Article 41 of Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, which makes enforcement mandatory but restricts action to non-military measures.
Labels: international, politics
Honda Motor to produce small car
Honda Motor Company today said it would introduce a small-size vehicle in India and construct a second automobile plant with an aim to produce and sell more than 150,000 units of automobiles in India by the end of 2010.
Mr Takeo Fukui, President & CEO, Honda Motor Company, in his year-end address in Tokyo today, announced a series of initiatives and expansion plans for Honda operations in Japan and across the world.
With reference to the Indian automobile operations, Mr Fukui also said, ''Annual automobile production capacity in India will be doubled to 100,000 units by the end of 2007'', said a Honda press release. The expansion to 100,000 units at Honda Siel Cars India's Greater Noida plant has already begun and is progressing as per schedule.
In his speech he said, Honda would further accelerate its effort to strengthen the core characteristics that make Honda unique in each business area in order to continue creating new value and providing products and services which are beyond customers' expectations.
Dwelling on Honda's estimated worldwide sales for the year 2006, he said, Honda globally expects to achieve all-time record sales in all three product areas. Motorcycles at 12.7 million units (up 3 per cent from 2005), while Automobiles at 3.55 million units (up 5 per cent from 2005) and Power Products at 6.4 million units (up 15 per cent from 2005).
Asia region's -- excluding Japan & China operations -- 2006 automobile sales forecast was 320,000 units (up 4 per cent from 2005, an all-time record for the 4th consecutive year) Asia's 2007 automobile sales plan: 360,000 units (up 13 per cent from 2006). For the motorcycle business, Honda expanded motorcycle production capacity in India, the Philippines and Pakistan in 2006, and also announced further capacity expansion in India and Vietnam in 2007, the release said.
Labels: automotive, international, others
India wins the first Test Match
Leg-spinner Anil Kumble took three wickets as India completed an historic triumph by beating South Africa by 123 runs on the fourth day of the first Test against South Africa at the Wanderers Stadium.
A defiant 97 by Ashwell Prince could not prevent India from achieving their first Test win in three tours of South Africa here on Monday.
Prince and Shaun Pollock, virtually the only South Africans who shone in the match, put on 67 for the seventh wicket, their team's highest partnership of either innings, to delay India's victory celebrations.
The stand was ended by Kumble, who bowled Pollock for 40. Kumble then trapped Andre Nel leg before before bowling Prince when the left-hander went down the pitch and misjudged the flight. Kumble took three for 54.
Labels: international, national, sports
George Bush signed nuclear agreement
Dec 18, 2006, President George W Bush today signed into law the legislation that gives effect to the India-US Civil nuclear agreement, lifting the three-decade-old ban on the export of American nuclear fuel and technology to India.
Several Congressmen and members of the Indian-American community attended the brief signing ceremony at the White House. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was also present.
President Bush, in a brief speech, said the agreement would strengthen the partnership between India and the United States. The relationship had never been more vital, he said.
He said it would help India meet the challenge on the energy front at a time when its economy is on the fast track.
President Bush called Prime Minister Manmohan Singh a trustworthy man and a friend and praised his leadership on this issue.
The legislation is formally called the Henry J Hyde United States- India Peaceful Atomic Energy Cooperation Act of 2006, named after the outgoing Republican chairman of the House foreign relations committee Henry Hyde. The Republican Congressman retired this month after a long spell in the House.
Supporters of the measure say it would help cement the emerging strategic alliance between the two democracies.
Labels: George W Bush, international, politics
Virtual space travel by Google
Web surfers may soon be able to explore the canyons of Mars and experience a virtual flight over the surface of the moon thanks to a deal announced yesterday between Web search company Google Inc and the NASA Ames Research Centre.
The Space Act Agreement is the first in a series of collaborations between the Mountain View, California-based Internet company and the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
NASA and Google said they will work together on a wide range of technical problems and will make NASA's space exploration work, much of which is currently scattered across the Web, more accessible to the public.
One project would let viewers see details of Mars and Earth's moon in a format similar to satellite picture views of the world made popular by applications such as Google Earth.
Eventually, they aim to offer real-time weather visualisation and forecasting, high-resolution 3-D maps of the moon and Mars and real-time tracking of the International Space Station and the space shuttle from the screen of any computer with Internet access, they said in a statement.
Google and NASA first partnered last year to build a new campus at NASA's research centre in Silicon Valley. The deal called for Google to develop up to 1 million square feet (93,000 square metre) of real estate within the Moffett Field research park.
Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Labels: international, others
NKorea nuclear plans hurt its people
North Korea should spend its limited resources on its people rather than developing nuclear weapons, a United Nations envoy for human rights in the communist state said today.
''The military-first policy, particularly this expenditure on arms and nuclear proliferation in the DPRK (North Korea), is regrettable because the money should be spent on human development,'' Vitit Muntarbhorn, a UN special rapporteur, told reporters in the South Korean capital.
He was speaking as international negotiations resumed in Beijing to try to end North Korea's nuclear weapons programme. Pyongyang carried out its first atomic test in October.
Muntarbhorn urged North Korean authorities to stop punishing citizens who have been forced to return to the reclusive state.
Aid groups say tens, perhaps hundreds, of thousands of North Koreans have sought asylum abroad, mostly by fleeing across the northern border into China.
A food shortage brought about by July flooding could increase the flow of refugees, they added.
''It doesn't take much to instruct their officials not to punish those who are sent back to their country of origin. It would nurture political capital for them,'' Muntarbhorn said.
Washington and rights groups have accused North Korea of imprisoning, torturing and executing those who try to flee abroad and are then sent back. Muntarbhorn, a law professor in Thailand, has been in South Korea since last week interviewing North Korean refugees resettled in the South.
He pressed North Korea to allow him to visit the country, to return to bilateral talks with the South and to address the problem of missing Japanese and South Koreans believed to have been abducted by Pyongyang.
Muntarbhorn is to submit a report on human rights in North Korea to the United Nations early next year.
Labels: international
Updates on Princess Diana
A three-year police inquiry into the death of Princess Diana will issue its long-awaited report Thursday amid hopes it would finally halt the speculation about her fatal Paris car crash in 1997. John Stevens, the former head of London's Metropolitan Police, led the investigation of the deaths of Diana, 36, and her companion, Dodi Fayed, 42. They were killed along with chauffeur Henri Paul when their Mercedes crashed in the Pont d'Alma tunnel in Paris on Aug. 31, 1997, while the couple were being chased by media photographers.
Rumors and conspiracy theories continue to swirl around Diana's death, despite a French judge's 1999 ruling that the crash was an accident. An investigation later concluded that Paul had been drinking and was driving at high speed.
Stevens and the Metropolitan Police have refused to discuss the findings of his inquiry, although it is widely expected to conclude that Diana's death was an accident and that Paul was drunk.
from :
Wjla.comLabels: accidents, international
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