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Faster, cheaper chip developed BERKELEY, Nov 23: A new semiconductor transistor so small that a single ...more
Jaswant hopes to forge better understanding with Japan HONG KONG, Nov 23: External Affairs Minister Jaswant ...more |
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Sharif’s
daughter KARACHI, Nov 23: KARACHI, Nov 23: The daughter of deposed Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif today pleaded for her father’s life and ...more I did it for the kids: SAO PAULO, Nov 23: A Brazilian priest caught with 11 kilos of cocaine hidden ..more Development without pollution possible, says World Bank WASHINGTON, Nov 23: Developing countries, including India and China,..more |
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Development without pollution possible, says World Bank WASHINGTON, Nov 23: Developing countries, including India and China, are slowly but surely moving towards a greener environment without compromising on their developmental activities, a World Bank study has said. Factories in many developing nations are today run cleaner than a decade ago and total emissions are actually falling in some areas where industry is growing rapidly, the study entitled greening industry - new roles for communities, markets and Governments said. In India, 60 factories met international pollution standards in 1999 — the same as in China. In Pakistan it was two while Japan topped with 1,542 against 210 in the United States and 90 in Canada, the report said. Development and industrial pollution are not immutably linked... We are convinced that developing countries can build on the new model to reduce industrial pollution significantly, even if they grow rapidly during the coming decades, author of the study and bank economist David Wheeler said. Significantly, a survey of pulp mills in India, Thailand, Bangladesh and Indonesia shows that state-owned plants make far less effort to abate pollution than their private counterparts. Like state-owned industries, said the report, family owned firms seem likely to be more pollution intensive and less compliant with environmental standards then publicly traded firms. (PTI) |
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Faster, cheaper chip developed BERKELEY, Nov 23: A new semiconductor transistor so small that a single computer chip can hold 400 times more of the devices than before could help lead to significantly faster and cheaper chip technology, scientists said yesterday. Chenming Hu, a Professor Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley, said the tiny transistor was much smaller than any other ever developed. "It’s a new world record," Prof Hu said of the prototype, dubbed "finfet". Details of the invention, which was funded by the US defence advanced research project agency, will be unveiled next month at the international electronic devices meeting in Washington. The Berkeley breakthrough, announced in a news release, changed the design of the "gate", or switch, on the transistor which controls the flow of electric current in electronic devices. While previously this gate was a flat conductor that controlled only one side of the passage through which the current flows, the berkeley team has redesigned it as a fork-shaped prong straddling both sides of the passage. This gives much better control and reduced current leakage, meaning the transistor can be made much smaller. Prof Hu said the finfet’s gate is 18 nanometers long, or about the width of 100 atoms. While far too small to be viewed by the naked eye, it is visible through a scanning electron microscope. Prof Hu said it was already about ten times shorter than the standard semiconductor transistor now used by the industry. And he hoped to cut the finfet’s length by another half in future. The new transistor could help extend the success of the electronics industry, which has profited by making transistors ever smaller over the past three decades and delivering cheaper, better and faster computer "brains" for electronic products. (REUTERS) |
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Jaswant hopes to forge better understanding with Japan HONG KONG, Nov 23: External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh hoped to forge better understanding with Japan during his four-day visit from today, first by an Indian leader after Tokyo imposed economic sanctions following last year’s Pokhran nuclear tests. I expect that my visit will promote better understanding and appreciation of our views, interests and concerns, Singh, now on a day’s visit to Hong Kong, told PTI. We look forward to working with Japan to build a cooperative partnership into the new millennium, he said. Singh, who is the first Indian External Affairs Minister to visit Japan since 1995, said his visit is essentially aimed at carrying forward New Delhi’s contacts with Tokyo. My visit to Japan is aimed at carrying forward our dialogue with Japan. I expect to discuss with the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Japan issues of bilateral, regional and global interest. We value our relations with Japan. We share with Tokyo historical and civilisational links. Japan is also India’s second largest trading partner and fifth largest investor, Singh pointed out. During his talks with Japanese leaders including Premier Keizo Obuchi, Singh is expected to cover not only nuclear non-proliferation issue, but the whole gamut of India-Japan relationship which suffered a setback after Japan imposed sanctions on India. Japan wants India to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). PTI correspondent in Tokyo reports that Singh begins his official visit with a full fledged session tomorrow with Obuchi. He will later hold talks with with his host, Japanese Foreign Minister, Yohei Kono. Singh will also meet separately Defence Minister Tsutomu Kawara and Trade and Industry Minister Takashi Fukuya. Japanese officials earlier had said they expected an institutionalised forum for consultations between the two countries on defence and security issues. If realised, that will be an innovative development in the India-Japan relationship. Singh will also visit Obuchi’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) headquarters and meet Chairman of LDP General Affairs Council Yukihiko Ikeda, also a former Foreign Minister. Observers see this as an unorthodox gesture on both sides which they say might develop into a party-level contact between BJP and LDP. (PTI) |
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Sharif’s daughter pleads for his life KARACHI, Nov 23: The daughter of deposed Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif today pleaded for her father’s life and called on international human rights groups to monitor his trial. My innocent father does not deserve hanging or any punishment because he has not committed any crime. I know he is innocent, the whole of Pakistan knows he is innocent, Marryam Nawaz, 25, told AFP. Sharif has appeared before an anti-terrorism court in Karachi facing accusations of treason and conspiracy to murder and could be sentenced to death if convicted. The former Premier met his wife, two daughters and a grand daughter in prison yesterday, the first time he has seen his family since he was ousted in a military coup last month. I appeal to the international community and human rights bodies to monitor the case, Marryam said. He is an honest person, a patriot and a great father. But allah knows the truth and will do justice to us. He is almighty. She said her father’s health seemed to be worsening. We were upset to see him as he has lost nine to 11 kgs, she said. His health is visibily deteriorating but he was in high spirits with high morale. That was quite encouraging for us. (AFP) |
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I did it for the kids: Brazil priest SAO PAULO, Nov 23: A Brazilian priest caught with 11 kilos of cocaine hidden beneath his cassock told police he was trafficking the drugs to save a struggling Day Care Centre, local media said yesterday. Police caught father Jorge Saliba trying to board a flight from Sao Paulo to Amsterdam in what the priest said was his fifth international drug run. Saliba said each delivery paid 30,000 dollars, money that he said went to a Church-sponsored Children’s Day-Care Centre in Sao Paulo’s poor urban neighbourhood of Freguesia Doo, the news wire agencia Estado said. Brazil, while not a major drug-producing nation, is sometimes used as a way station by smugglers trying to get drugs to rich markets. In a federal probe underway here, a long list of prominent officials were implicated last week in drug-trafficking, including a well-known university professor and the former president of a local soccer team. (REUTERS) |
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