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Indian, Chinese warships SHANGHAI, Nov 14: Indian and Chinese warships commenced the first-ever joint naval exercise off the coast of Shanghai in the east China sea ....more Norway
suspends COLOMBO, Nov 14: In a setback to the Sri Lankan peace process, Norway today said it would suspend its peace brokering role in the country ....more India
and Syria to DAMASCUS, Nov 14: Giving an impetus to their bilateral ties, India and Syria will sign nine agreements ranging from agriculture to information ...more IBM builds super computer based on gaming chip SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 14: International business machines corp. Said on Friday.......more |
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World’s second WASHINGTON, Nov 14: US scientists have created the world’s second known synthetic virus in the record time of 14 days, saying it could ....more Medium
firm mattresses MADRID/LONDON, Nov 14: The popular belief that firm mattresses are the best for relieving back pains has been ....more Developing world faces mounting diabetes risk -WHO GENEVA, Nov 14: An explosion in diabetes cases over coming decades could .....more ‘Palace
of the Republic’ BERLIN, Nov 14: Germany’s Parliament has given the final go-ahead to tear down ....more |
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Indian, Chinese warships commence first ever naval exercises SHANGHAI, Nov 14: Indian and Chinese warships commenced the first-ever joint naval exercise off the coast of Shanghai in the east China sea today, official sources said. The three Indian warships - INS Ranjit, a guided missile destroyer and INS Kulish, a guided missile corvette and INS Jyoti, a replenishment tanker set off this morning from the Shanghai port for the three-and-a-half hours exercise. The Indian warships were later joined by two Chinese warships - ‘Jia Xing’, a frigate and ‘Feng Chang’, a tanker, the sources said, adding the two navies then coordinated their communication links, crucial for the success of the ‘search and rescue’ exercises between the two navies. INS Jyoti, a replenishment tanker would not be part of the exercise. Though the search and rescue exercise may not be militarily significant, senior Indian Navy officers said it was a "good first step" in evolving stronger ties between the navies of India and China in the fast changing global scenario. The Flag Officer Commanding of the Eastern fleet of the Indian Navy, Rear Admiral R P Suthan said the exercise would involve a simulated emergency situation on ships of both sides and rescue efforts that would also involve the use of helicopter. The exercises are also aimed at ensuring the safety of maritime trade and improving coordination in search and rescue at sea, he said. He also said the search and rescue drill assumed added significance as navigation in the south China sea and the neighbouring Malacca Straits has been plagued by sea piracy, a serious issue confronting commercial liners. Defence sources said the first-ever joint naval exercise signals a new phase in bilateral ties, especially military-to-military ties which were nearly frozen in the aftermath of the 1998 Indian nuclear tests. The three Indian warships, all belonging to the Eastern command, arrived in Shanghai on November 10 after concluding friendly port calls at Brunei, the Philippines and South Korea. The exercise also provided the sailors of the three Indian ships opportunity to exchange views on issues of common interest with their Chinese counterparts during their stay in Shanghai. Earlier in the morning, the Commanding Officer of the Shanghai naval base, Rear Admiral Xu Jiwei, held a brief see off ceremony to Rear Admiral Suthan and the crew at the naval base. Xu said the visit of the Indian naval ships has opened a new chapter in the bilateral ties and hoped that the navies of the two great nations would have more chance to interact and improve mutual understanding. Speaking on the occasion, Suthan said the friendly port call by the Indian naval ships to China has been "successful". Both sides exchanged mementos and vowed to step up their bilateral exchanges and cooperation. The Chinese side presented the special commemorative postal cover that was issued to mark the visit of the Indian ships. The decision to hold the joint naval exercise was taken during Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s visit to China in June this year. The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (plan) exercise with the Indian Navy is only its second such Manoeuvre since 1949 when the people’s republic was founded in 1949. Plan had its first naval exercise with Pakistan, also off Shanghai, in late last month. (PTI) |
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Norway suspends peace role in Sri Lanka COLOMBO, Nov 14: In a setback to the Sri Lankan peace process, Norway today said it would suspend its peace brokering role in the country until the power struggle between the leaders of the island nation was resolved. Norwegian Deputy Foreign Minister Vidar Helgesen said they needed "clarity" regarding who was actually responsible for the peace process from the Colombo Government’s side before they could resume their efforts. "Until such clarity is re-established, there is no space for further efforts by the Norwegian Government to assist the parties," Helgesen told reporters here at the end of a three-day visit. He said the talks between the Government and the Tiger rebels could have started even tomorrow, but the political crisis triggered by President Chandrika Kumaratunga sacking of three ministers and suspending Parliament on November 4 cast a shadow over the entire effort. The visit by Helgesen and special Advisor Erik Solheim was originally aimed at reviving talks between the Colombo Government and the Rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), but Helgesen said they failed because of the political uncertainty here. "This is one single impediment that Norway can do nothing about," he said. "So we will go home and wait." "Peace talks could have started tomorrow provided there was clarity about who is holding political authority and responsibility on behalf of the Government to ensure the continuation of the ceasefire agreement and the resumption of peace negotiations," Helgesen said. He also said that Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who revived a peace bid with Tamil rebels in 2001, is effectively "out of the peace process" due to his power struggle with the President. "He would not be able to take decisions and make compromises at the table, so effectively he has said he is out of the peace process." "The Prime Minister can’t take responsibility for the peace process and is unable to give security guarantees," Helgesen said. Wickremesinghe had in turn asked President Kumaratunga to take over the running of the process, a possibility Helgesen put to Tiger supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran yesterday. Helgesen said both the Tamil Tigers and President Kumaratunga promised to uphold the ceasefire which Norway brokered and put into effect from February 23 last year, but warned that it was at risk. "There is not a stable peace in Sri Lanka today...I think, however, that the parties have committed to maintain the ceasefire." "We need to make clear that the ceasefire will be much more difficult to sustain in a political vacuum," he said. "If progress in the political negotiations is made impossible, the ceasefire will become increasingly fragile." (PTI) |
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India and Syria to sign nine agreements DAMASCUS, Nov 14: Giving an impetus to their bilateral ties, India and Syria will sign nine agreements ranging from agriculture to information technology during the three-day visit of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who arrives here late tonight. The two countries have also agreed to upgrade the joint trade committee to Joint Commission during the visit which marked the first substantive bilateral contact after President Bashar Al-Assad came to power three years ago. They will also sign an agreement covering literary activities between Sahitya Academy and the Arab writers union, syria putting the multifaceted bilateral ties on an even keel, official sources told PTI. The wideranging agreements aim to lift the bilateral trade which currently languishes at around $ 130 million, which is low compared to India’s trade ties with the Gulf Arab states, though Syria’s trade turnover with India is higher than its trade with Egypt. Union Commerce Minister Arun Jaitley will be the co-Chairman of the Indo-Syrian Joint Commission while the Syrian side will be led by Minister of Education and Science and Technology Hani Murtada. The two countries also will form a joint business council and captains of Indian industry will visit Syria early next year. The agreement on it may open the doors of opportunity for Indian IT majors here as Syria is on the threshold of an it revolution after the technology-savvy President Bashar Al Assad came to power. In December 2001 some 60,000 people in Syria were connected to internet and a study has said the number of internet users next year would grow at an annual rate of 43 per cent for the next five years. Vajpayee and the Syrian President would also jointly inaugurate a centre for biotechnology in the Damascus University campus set up under collaboration with India. Syria has an ongoing training programme for its scientists in top biotechnology institutes in India. India offers a hand of friendship to Syria at a time when Damascus is facing isolation from the west and when the United States house of representatives and senate have passed the Syria accountability act paving way for more sanctions against the country. (PTI) |
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IBM builds supercomputer based on gaming chip SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 14: International business machines corp. Said on Friday that it has built a supercomputer the size of a television based on microchip technology to be used in gaming consoles due out next year. IBM said the supercomputer, which can perform two trillion calculations per second, is a small-scale prototype of the blue gene/l supercomputer that it is building for the lawrence livermore national laboratory in California. The computer made it onto the top 500 supercomputer list, which is compiled by a member of the university of tennessee’s computer science department. IBM vice president of Technology and Strategy Irving Wladawsky-Berger said that the supercomputer used 1,000 microprocessors that are based on powerpc microchip technology. The powerpc chip is currently used in apple computer INC computers. It is also the technology that will be the foundation of the next generation of gaming consoles from Nintendo Co and Sony Corp, which ibm is working on, he said. He said the chips were less expensive and consumed less power than traditional microprocessors, making it possible to pack the same amount of computing power into a smaller space. Producing the chips in volume for gaming will help offset the costs of building supercomputers, he said. (AGENCIES) |
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World’s second known synthetic virus produced in 14 days WASHINGTON, Nov 14: US scientists have created the world’s second known synthetic virus in the record time of 14 days, saying it could contribute to the reduction of environmental pollution. Craig Venter, who gained fame in the race to decode the human genome several years ago, led the team that developed the virus with funding from the US energy department. The virus was described as a "phage, ... A harmless microscopic life form" that infects bacteria. The phage could help create microbes that can consume carbon dioxide, water pollutants or radioactive toxins before they are released into the environment, energy department officials said. "With this advance, it is easier to imagine, in the not-too-distant future, a colony of specially designed microbes living within the emission-control system of a coal-fired plant, consuming its pollution and its carbon dioxide, or employing microbes to radically reduce water pollution or to reduce the toxic effects of radioactive waste," Energy Secretary spencer Abraham said. Last year, the creation of a synthetic polio virus sparked worldwide alarm over the potential danger of its use in biological warfare. Abraham and venter stressed that the project was proceeding with such ethical and security concerns in mind. (DPA) |
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Medium firm mattresses are the best for back pain MADRID/LONDON, Nov 14: The popular belief that firm mattresses are the best for relieving back pains has been challenged by a Spanish study published by the British magazine lancet. Researchers tested 313 sufferers over three months, concluding that mattresses of medium firmness were the most effective against low-back pain. People using medium mattresses were twice as likely to report improvement than people using firm mattresses, said Francisco Kovacs of the Kovacs foundation in Palma De Majorca. Previous research has shown that three-quarters of orthopaedic physicians recommend firm mattresses to patients suffering from low-back pain. (DPA) |
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Developing world faces mounting diabetes risk -WHO GENEVA, Nov 14: An explosion in diabetes cases over coming decades could compound the problems of health care in the developing world, already battling killer diseases such as aids, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said today. Population growth and changing diets could cause the number of sufferers in the developing world to more than double in 30 years to around 285 million from 115 million at present, the United Nations agency said. "Even as these countries are struggling to address the problems of HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, they must also prepare to deal with the onslaught of diseases that come with changes in lifestyle and ageing," said Dr Catherine Le Gales-Camus, who Assistant Director-General. Diabetes, which is caused by too much glucose in the blood, can lead to kidney failure, blindness and problems of circulation that can result in the amputation of limbs. In a statement marking world diabetes day, the WHO said it was stepping up efforts to help developing countries tackle the increased risk of diabetes through information programmes to raise awareness of the importance of diet and exercise. "Much of the projected increase is preventable through attention to diet and physical activity in the population," Le Gales-Camus added. The number of diabetes cases around the world has jumped to some 170 million from little over 30 million 20 years ago, largely due to unhealthy diets, obesity and lack of exercise. The WHO estimates that it kills around 800,000 people a year. While most diabetics in developed countries will be 65 or over in 2030, in developing countries the majority will be in the 45-65 age range when they should still be able to work, the WHO added. (AGENCIES) |
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‘Palace of the
Republic’ to follow E German BERLIN, Nov 14: Germany’s Parliament has given the final go-ahead to tear down former Communist East Germany’s "Palace of the Republic" - a grim 1970s steel and glass building in central Berlin. Yesterday’s bundestag vote confirms a committee decision last week to fund two-thirds of the 20 million euro (23.4 million dollar) costs of demolishing the structure. East Germany’s Communist palace may have been the hardline state’s propaganda pride but it was also popular with the public, for its cafes and restaurants. It was built atop the site of Berlin’s 16th century Hohenzollern palace - home of Prussia and later Germany’s royal family - which was damaged in World War II and blown up on orders from the Communist party for ideological reasons in 1950. The palace of the republic housed east Germany’s rubber stamp Parliament, the Volkskammer, which had a brief moment of glory in 1990 when its first and last freely elected members swiftly voted for the October 3, 1990 unification after which east Germany ceased to exist. But also in 1990 the palace was discovered to be contaminated with asbestos and was closed. It has since been stripped to a bare skeleton and cleaned and these remains will now be torn. Germany plans to rebuild the Hohenzollern palace - probably for use as a museum - but the country’s current economic problems and budget deficit mean the project will be delayed for at least several years. As an interim solution the site is to be turned into a park. (DPA) |
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Birth-control
pill mulled to contain aggressive LONDON, Nov 14: The Scottish city of Aberdeen is considering feeding contraceptive pills to its estimated 7,000 seagulls, which have gained a reputation for aggression towards residents, The Times has reported. Kevin Stewart, leader of the Scottish National Party group on Aberdeen city council, said contraceptives could be the answer. "It would be no problem getting them to eat the pills. Seagulls are not fussy creatures. They will eat anything and everything," he said. The city has tried removing nests from buildings and towing a rubbish-filled barge out to sea to lure them away from the city, but these measures failed to work. The Times in a report yesterday said a similar proposal put forward by councillors in dartmouth in the southwestern English county of devon was scrapped, because the ministry of agriculture ruled that the contraceptive bait could prove toxic to other animals or birds. Paul Walton, of the royal society for the protection of birds, said he was not opposed to the idea of using contraceptive pills as a means of controlling wildlife populations but he did have concerns. "If the dose is too low it won’t have any effect but if it is too high it will kill the birds," he said. He advocated removing the food supply and the nesting sites that attract the scavengers. (DPA) Kenyan stepmother made boy sleep in chicken coop NAIROBI, Nov 14: Kenyan Police have said they had rescued an 18-year-old boy who was forced by his stepmother to sleep in a chicken coop for the past 10 years. Investigators acting on a tip-off found James Kimathi Mwirigi badly malnourished and scarred from apparent beatings in the central Kenyan district of Meru, a police official said yesterday. "His stepbrother confirmed to us that he has been maltreated. But he is above the age of what is considered a child, so we have to proceed very carefully," the Commanding Police Officer told . Villagers told police that the teenager — thought to be mentally disabled — was denied food and a proper education, while being made to carry out household duties and farm chores. According to neighbours, the stepmother had a reputation for cruelty and was shunned in the village. Police said they were searching for the parents. (AGENCIES) Russia’s Putin urges reforms, no mention of Yukos MOSCOW, Nov 14: Russian President Vladimir Putin, addressing top businessmen for the first time since the arrest and jailing of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, today called for fast reforms but made no mention of the case against the oil tycoon. Putin had initially dismissed calls by industrialists and liberal politicians for talks on the impact on the economy of the case against the major shareholder in oil giant Yukos saying it was a matter exclusively for the Courts. (AGENCIES) Strong earthquake jolts Sumatra JAKARTA, Nov 14: A strong earthquake rocked Indonesia’s southern Sumatra province of Bengkulu today, but there were no immediate reports of casualties or structural damage, officials said. The earthquake, measured 6.0 on the open-ended richter scale, jolted Bengkulu province, 450 kilometres northwest of Jakarta, at 2:43 PM, officials said. An official at Jakarta’s national earthquake centre said he was still unable to issue the complete data about the quake. But at the meteorology and geophysics office in western Ssumatra town of Padangpanjang, an official said the earthquake’s epicentre was in the Indian Ocean, about 300 kilometres west of Bengkulu. It was the latest of several earthquakes to jolt Bengkulu, an Indonesian province notoriously prone to tremors. A powerful earthquake, measuring 7.0 on the richter scale, rocked Bengkulu province in june 2001, killing more than 100 people and causing widespread damage. (DPA) |
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