Clinton, Obama supporters polarised before Pennsylvania primry

PHILADELPHIA, Apr 18: With tensions running high between Democratic presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama ahead of Tuesday's crucial Pennsylvania primary, the latest debate between them has highly polarised their supporters and opponents.

As analysts rated the performance of Obama below par in the Wednesday's debate, his supporters blasted ABC network for being tough on him, giving opening to Clinton to criticise him and not concentrating on the real issues.

Clinton, who is fighting a tough battle but is still slightly ahead of Obama in Pennsylvania, seemed to be happy and her husband Bill Clinton praised her performance, saying that she was not whining.

The feeling on both sides ran so high that Washington Post television critic Tom Shales descried the performance of moderators as shoddy and despicable but New York Times' columnist David Brooks gave their questioning "A" grade and predicted shortly after the debate that Obama supporters would criticize ABC.

ABC itself received more than 1500 comments within hours of the debate but most of them were negative and criticizing the way the questions were structured.

Analysts say the reason could be that Obama's supporters were more active after they found their candidate under tough questing for the first time.

A liberal advocacy group Moveon.Org sought signature on a petition against ABC network and said it would run an advertisement if 100,000 people signed it.

At campaign speeches yesterday, Obama stressed that real issues were relegated during the debate and was trying to shrug off the critics who called his performance below par.

The questioning was mainly done by the lead ABC news anchor Charles Gibson but what did not go well with the supporters of Obama was that he was assisted by George Stephanopoulos who was Bill Clinton's adviser before he turned to journalism.

Analysts noted that Obama felt uncomfortable several times during 90-minute debate but Clinton appeared more confident and critics say that the moderators structured the questions in a way that the gave advantage to Clinton.

But it is unclear how much and if at all the debate will have effect on the voters' choice though it was watched by record number of 10.7 million people. Nielsen Media Research, which gave the estimates, said the last debate between them was seen by an estimated 9.3 million people.

But all agreed that it was dress rehearsal for what Republicans would throw at Obama should he get Democratic nomination. So far, analysts note, Republicans have not launched any major offensive against either candidate but are allowing the two to damage each other.

What irked Obama's supporters most was the fact that first 45 minutes were spent on examining the controversies in which the two candidates have landed themselves and substantive issues including health care, economy and related subjects came only in the second half.

Another question that made Obama uncomfortable was as to why he does not wear American flag on lapel which, analysts say, indirectly questioned his patriotism.

Obama could not give direct answer and his supporters say whatever he would have said had the potential of being misinterpreted. (PTI)

In last Soviet outpost, space pioneers cling on

BAIKONUR, KAZAKHSTAN, Apr 18: Visiting the Baikonur space cosmodrome deep in the steppes of Kazakhstan is like taking a trip back into Soviet times-and that’s just the way many here want it to stay.

There are no Internet cafes, no advertising billboards and-to hear it from proud residents-none of the social problems that afflict large Russian cities such as hooliganism and xenophobic violence.

A statue of Lenin towers over the main square, large signs hail Soviet glories, such as Yury Gagarin’s first flight into space, and the authorities strive to keep the city as litter-free as in Soviet times.

"I feel more at home here than in Russia," said Vyacheslav Kononenko, head of a rocket assembly workshop. At 59, Kononenko is nearing retirement but is reluctant to move back from this remote region to his native western Russia.

"People know you here. They greet you in the street. It’s not like that in Russia any more," said Kononenko, who has lived in Baikonur for 40 years and likes to go hunting for pheasant in the steppes in his spare time.

Kononenko is used to the harsh temperatures, which can reach 50 degrees Celsius in summer and plunge to minus 40 in winter-and complains there are few young people willing to move here from Russia.

Baikonur, previously Leninsk, was built as a rocket and missile installation from the 1950s in one of the most remote parts of Soviet Union and was shrouded in secrecy for decades.

In its heyday, the city had a population of 110,000 people. But during the economic upheaval of the 1990s and Kazakhstan’s independence from Moscow, many Russians left in a hurry and there are now around 69,000 inhabitants. (AGENCIES)

Some chimps, bonobos 'more related to humans than each other'

NEW YORK, Apr 18: Chimps and bonobos are known to be each other's closest relatives while humans are their next closest cousins, having branched off about four million years ago. But, a new study claims otherwise.

Researchers at the Broad Institute in Boston have sequenced thousands of random snippets of DNA from bonobos and chimps and when they compared these to the matching sequences of the complete chimp and human genomes they found a surprise.

In 453 of their sequences, they discovered that either bonobos or chimps proved to be more closely related to humans than to each other, the 'New Scientist' reported today.

According to the researchers, the likely explanation is that the common ancestor of the three species carried at least two variants of each of these genes. Over time, chimps inherited one of these variants and bonobos the other, and one of them matched the variant inherited by humans.

In a similar way, a woman might share a disease gene with a complete stranger, but not with her brother, as both gene variants were common in an ancestral human population. These anomalous regions thus preserve the ghost of genetics past -- a glimpse of the genes present in the common ancestor.

"Information gets frozen in time, and it doesn't go away. You can actually learn about the process of speciation -- how large the populations were, whether there was genetic exchange," lead researcher David Reich said.

Two years ago, Reich's team showed that ancestral humans probably interbred with the ancestral chimp or bonobo well after their lineages split.

It will soon be possible to work out in which direction the interbreeding went -- or in other words, whether humans, chimps or both are the hybrid species, according to the researchers.

The study has been published in the latest edition of the 'PLoS Genetics' journal. (PTI)

'US allegations of Iran supporting Iraqi insurgency unfounded

UNITED NATIONS, Apr 18: Iran's UN Mission has rejected allegations by US officials that the country is supporting the insurgency in Iraq, calling the claims "unfounded" and "baseless".

The mission cited "false" allegations against Iran by senior US officials including by President George W Bush and at recent US Congressional hearings.

Last week, Gen David Petraeus, the top US commander in Iraq, told Congress that Iranian-backed "special groups" pose "the greatest long-term threat to the viability of a democratic Iraq" in unchecked. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the US will be as aggressive as possible to counter the increase in Iranian support for militias.

Earlier this year, Bush called Iran "the world's leading state sponsor of terror" and said Iran funds militant groups and sends arms to Shiite extremists in Iraq.

In its statement responding to allegations about its relations with Iraq, Iran's UN Mission said yesterday these "allegations are but futile efforts to distract the international community's attention, along with that of the US public opinion".

"Iran stands to highly benefit from stability, security and prosperity in Iraq, as it will immensely suffer from insecurity and instability in that country," the mission said.

Iran issued the statement a week before Iran attends a conference of Iraq's neighbors in Kuwait.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called on Iran yesterday to end its backing for Shia militias. She also told reporters in Washington that she has no plans to meet Iran's foreign minister at the conference next week. (AGENCIES)

Longtime keyboardist for Springsteen's E Street Band dies

NEW YORK, Apr 18: Danny Federici, the longtime keyboard player for Bruce Springsteen whose stylish work helped define the E Street Band's sound on hits from "Hungry Heart" through "The Rising," died yesterday. He was 58.

Federici, who had battled melanoma for three years, died at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre in New York. News of his death was posted late yesterday on Springsteen's official Web site.

He last performed with Springsteen and the band last month, appearing during portions of a March 20 show in Indianapolis.

"Danny and I worked together for 40 years -- he was the most wonderfully fluid keyboard player and a pure natural musician. I loved him very much ... We grew up together," Springsteen said in a statement posted on his Web site.

Springsteen concerts scheduled today in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and tomorrow in Orlando were postponed.

Federici was born in Flemington, New Jersey, a long car ride from the Jersey shore haunts where he first met kindred musical spirit Springsteen in the late 1960s. The pair often jammed at the Upstage Club in Asbury Park, New Jersey, a now-defunct after-hours club that hosted the best musicians in the state.

It was Federici, along with original E Street Band drummer Vini Lopez, who first invited Springsteen to join their band.

By 1969, the self-effacing Federici -- often introduced in concert by Springsteen as "Phantom Dan" -- was playing with the Boss in a band called Child. Over the years, Federici joined his friend in acclaimed shore bands Steel Mill, Dr Zoom and the Sonic Boom and the Bruce Springsteen Band. (AGENCIES)

In Bangkok gridlock, Thai traffic police double as midwives

BANGKOK, Apr 18: When Sergeant Pichet Visetchote transferred into a special division of Thailand's traffic police, he assumed his job would involve handing out tickets -- not, as it's turned out, delivering babies.

The most recent of the 14 babies he has delivered was Rungarun -- whose name means "morning" in Thai -- a girl delivered in a pickup truck that was stuck in one of Bangkok's notorious traffic jams on the way to hospital.

Indeed, officers in Pichet's division have no authority to issue tickets but when Bangkok traffic grinds to a halt, as it does for much of each day, they can slip through on their motorcycles to fix cars, help the sick and deliver babies.

"It's the perfect job," said 37-year-old Pichet. "The police do not only enforce the law, we have a duty to help people."

The Royal Traffic Police Project, one of six traffic police divisions in the capital, was set up in 1993 with a broad mission to help people stranded in the traffic. Over time delivering babies has become its speciality.

Officers in Bangkok have delivered 81 babies over the last 10 years and cleared traffic to escort hundreds of women in labour, police records show.

Pichet holds second place for the most deliveries, coming in behind a fellow officer who has helped with the arrival of 18 babies.

Pichet's deliveries haven't suffered any complications, but he admits he still gets nervous.

His first emergency call came two months after he completed his training, he said, and he found the surgical gloves in his kit bag were so slippery he feared he might drop the baby. (AGENCIES)

Olympics: Japanese temple refuses to host torch ceremony

TOKYO, Apr 18: A Japanese Buddhist temple has pulled out of plans to host a ceremony for the Olympic torch relay because of concerns over Tibet.

Zenkoji Temple, a landmark in Nagano City, which hosted the 1998 Winter Olympics, reversed an earlier decision to host the starting ceremony on April 26, head of the local relay committee, Kunihiko Shinohara, said today.

"We respect the decision by Zenkoji and will change the starting venue," he told reporters.

The temple cited China's "crackdown" in Tibet for the decision, according to Jiji Press news agency.

An official at the temple's secretariat said earlier today that the temple had "fondly accepted the plan" to host the starting ceremony in late autumn when contacted by the city.

The temple rang bells for the opening ceremonies for the 1998 Nagano Games as well as for the 1964 Tokyo Summer Olympics.

"But the situation has changed... Monks here are very concerned" about what happened in Tibet, the temple official said.

"We shared a strong feeling that we are the same Buddhists as Tibetans," an unnamed Zenkoji monk was quoted by Jiji Press as saying.

Zenkoji was built in the seventh century and draws six million visitors every year.

Nagano has already cancelled a public celebration linked to the torch relay due to security concerns.

The early stages in London and Paris were overshadowed by demonstrations against Beijing's crackdown on protests in Tibet. The third stage in San Francisco was drastically curtailed. (AGENCIES)

FBI warns people from opening malicious e-mail

NEW YORK, Apr 18: The FBI has warned computer owners against opening a malicious e-mail that tells the recipients they have been summoned to appear before a grand jury and threatens them with contempt of court if they do not do so.

At first glance, FBI says, the e-mail appears authentic. It contains a court case number, federal code, name and address of a California federal court, court room number, issuing officers' names, and the court's seal.

The spammer directs recipients to click the link provided in the e-mail in order to download and print associated information for their records. If the recipient clicks the link, a malicious code is downloaded onto their computer.

The e-mail also contains language threatening recipients with contempt of court charges if they fail to appear. Recipients are told the subpoena will remain in effect until the court grants a release, FBI says.

As with most spam, the content contains multiple spelling errors, the investigating agency stresses.

FBI has advised recipients to contact the issuing court clerk's office for validation. Subpoenas are generally served in person, by mail or fax, not by e-mail.

"Computer based scams and fraudulent activities are rampant on the internet these days," said James E Finch, Assistant Director of the FBI's Cyber Division.

"People should delete unsolicited e-mail, especially from an unknown sender. If you accidentally open the e-mail, do not click any embedded links, as they may contain a virus or malware which will harm your computer." (PTI)

Museum to organise gala on Indian art and culture

WASHINGTON, Apr 18: A prominent museum of Asian Art here will organise a two-year gala on the Indian art and culture from April 30.

The Smithsonian's Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M Sackler Gallery's fund-raising gala "Celebration of India" will begin with the showcasing of Mughal paintings of 17th century at the National Mall on April 30.

The two exhibitions -- 'MURAQQA: Imperial Mughal Albums' from the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin and 'Garden and cosmos: The Royal Paintings of Jodhpur' -- display India's rich artistic and cultural legacy, organisers have said.

The funds raised at the gala will benefit the galleries by supporting the exhibitions. The inaugural ceremony will be followed by musical performances on santoor and sitar by Roya Bahrami and Alif Laila.

The Ambassador of India to the United States Ronen Sen will attend the colourful ceremony along with the Maharaja of Marwar-Jodhpur, His Highness Gaj Singh II, who is the special guest for the evening.

The Tata Group of India is the corporate chair of the gala.

More than 250 guests from across the globe, including senior government officials, members of Congress, business leaders and leading patrons of the international art world, will have a private viewing of this remarkable collection.

'MURAQQA', on display between May and August, features 86 Mughal paintings and manuscripts commissioned by Emperors Jahangir (1605-1627) and Shah Jahan (1627-1658) from the renowned collections of the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin, Ireland, and Freer Gallery of Art.

The organisers have said that private events for the gala will resume on October 16, with a grand opening of 'India: A Festival of Lights', a multifaceted festival featuring folk music from western Rajasthan, puppet workshops and other public programs that highlight the art and culture of Asia. (PTI)

Self-testing sugar levels 'could harm diabetics'..

LONDON, Apr 18: Diabetics, beware! Self-testing may keep your blood sugar level under control, but researchers have warned that it could cause you more harm than good.

A series of studies published in the 'British Medical Journal' has revealed that people having type 2 diabetes, who regularly self-test their glucose levels, face an increased risk of suffering from tension.

Type 2 diabetes affects millions of people worldwide. It occurs when the body stops producing sufficient insulin to allow enough sugar to be converted into energy. Most sufferers do not need to take insulin.

One study has found that patients who check their blood sugar levels at home are more likely to be anxious and depressed than those who do not, British newspaper 'The Daily Telegraph' reported today.

Regular testing does not lead to improved control of the condition, claims another research.

Dr Maurice O'Kane and colleagues from the University of Ulster carried out the year-long trial which showed that self-testing made no difference in the number of hypoglycaemia attacks -- in which blood sugar falls so low that the brain function becomes affected -- or how effectively glucose levels were controlled.

However, the patients in the self-monitoring group did report higher levels of depression and anxiety.

In a separate study, Dr Judit Simon and colleagues from Oxford University said the extra cost of self-monitoring was unlikely to provide patients with significant health benefits over their lifetime. (PTI)

HSMP migrants who came before
rule changes can stay in UK

LONDON, Apr 18: In what may sound as music to the ears of highly-skilled Indian migrants, Britain has decided to allow such professionals to stay here as it works to implement a high court ruling against immigration rule changes with retrospective effect that could have forced them to leave.

The Home Office will not appeal against an April 8 High Court verdict that said it was "not open to the government to alter the terms and conditions" of Highly Skilled Migrants Programme (HSMP) under which thousands of highly skilled employees, mostly Indians, came to Britain.

All highly-skilled migrants who came here under the HSMP scheme as on November 7, 2006, when the regulation changes were made, can stay until processes are put in place to implement the judgement, the Home Office said.

Some 49,000 highly-skilled people had come to Britain under the HSMP initiated in January 2002 and most of them were facing the prospect of returning home following changes in the immigrations rules brought into force by the government.

The HSMP Forum, representing the highly-skilled professionals, successfully challenged the changes and won a landmark case last week.

"We are happy to take the judge's decision as final and do not intend to waste taxpayers money with an appeal," Lin Homer, Chief Executive of the Border and Immigration Agency, said in a communication to the HSMP Forum's Executive Director Amit Kapadia.

"We are now urgently considering how to give effect to the judgement and will let you know the details as soon as we can," he said. (PTI)

Uncovered: The ‘secret structure’ of music..

NEW YORK, Apr 18: The connection between music and mathematics has always fascinated scholars. Now, 200 years after Greek philosopher Pythogoras discovered the orderliness of music, researchers have uncovered its secret structure.

A team of three music professors has devised a new way of analysing and categorising music that takes advantage of the deep, complex mathematics they see enmeshed in its very fabric, the ‘Science’ journal reported in its latest issue.

The trio-Clifton Callender of Florida State University, Ian Quinn of Yale University and Dmitri Tymoczko of Princeton University-has outlined a method, known as "geometrical music theory", that translates the language of musical theory into that of contemporary geometry.

In fact, the researchers took sequences of notes, like chords, rhythms and scales, and categorised them so they could be grouped into "families". They have found a way to assign mathematical structure to these families, so they can then be represented by points in complex geometrical spaces.

Different types of categorisation produce different geometrical spaces, and reflect the different ways in which musicians over the centuries have understood music. This achievement, they expect, will allow scientists to analyse and understand music in much deeper and more satisfying ways. (PTI)