LONDON, Mar 6:A large number of music files of the late ‘king of pop’ Michael Jackson were allegedly stolen from record company Sony Music by computer hackers, sources familiar with the case said yesterday. Sony Music, a unit of Sony Corps, signed a deal with Jackson’s estate in 2010, the year after the ‘Thriller’ singer’s death, to release 10 albums covering previously unreleased material and his back catalogue. (agencies)

UNDATED, Mar 6: Black and Latino students across the United States are far more likely to be suspended than white students – and far less likely to have access to rigorous college-prep courses, according to a sweeping study released
today by the US Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights.
The trove of data, collected from 72,000 schools serving 85 percent of the nation’s students, revealed tremendous disparities in the public school experiences of minority and white students.
Some of the most striking findings involved discipline: one in five African-American boys – and one in 10 African-American girls – was suspended from school during the study period, the 2009-10 school year.
Overall, African-American students are 3-1/2 times more likely to be suspended or expelled than their white peers. And 70 percent of students arrested or referred to law enforcement for disciplinary infractions are black or Latino, the study found. Other researchers have found that students who are repeatedly punished by being barred from campus are far more likely to drop out.
Academic opportunities also vary widely by race. Among high schools that serve predominately Latino and African-American students, just 29 per cent offer a calculus class and only 40 percent offer physics. In some school districts, those numbers are even more glaring. In New York City, for instance, just 10 percent of the high schools with the highest black and Latino enrollment offer Algebra II.
US Education Secretary Arne Duncan was careful to say that his department is ‘not alleging overt discrimination in some or all of these cases.’
(agencies)

WASHINGTON, Mar 6: Scientists claim to have developed a new tool to accurately measure nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas emitted during agricultural production.
An international team, led by Queensland University of Technology, says that the new state-of-the-art statistical approach would greatly improve estimates of global nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions by up to 65 per cent.
Prof Richard Conant, who led the team, said: “Nitrous oxide contributes substantially to total global greenhouse gas emissions and in some countries it’s a big part of total emissions.
“We’re providing a tool that has significantly improved the accuracy of measuring N2O. Our hope is that this information will enable developing countries that lack detailed measurements to keep better track of N2O emissions.”
Prof Conant said agriculture was responsible for about 20 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions globally, mostly from nitrous oxide from fertilisers, and methane generated by livestock. “CO2 still has the biggest effect on climate change. Nitrous oxide is more potent but there isn’t as much of it,” he said in a university release.
Prof Conant said the researchers, who analysed the proportion of fertiliser lost as nitrous oxide, used ground- breaking data on N2O emissions and found that the United States, Europe, East Asia and Japan accounted for nearly 50 per cent of global N2O emissions while Africa and Russia contributed 13 per cent of global N2O emissions.
The scientists said their research would help developing countries become more efficient in agriculture and increase food security, the ‘Global Change Biology’ journal reported.
“In agriculture, producers generally have been trying to increase yields and productivity, but we haven’t thought as much about externalities in terms of nitrogen pollution and greenhouse gases,” Prof Conant said. (PTI)

WASHINGTON, Mar 6: Asserting that the US faced tough threats from the American recruits of al Qaeda, a top Obama Administration has said the government has “clear authority” to kill its citizens abroad who are believed to be holding a terrorist threat.
“Given the nature of how terrorists act and where they tend to hide, it may not always be feasible to capture a United States citizen terrorist who presents an imminent threat of violent attack,” US Attorney General Eric Holder, said.
“In that case, our government has the clear authority to defend the United States with lethal force,” Holder said in his remarks at the Northwestern University School of Law, in Chicago.
Holder said the argument by some that the US President is required to get permission from a federal court before taking action against a US citizen who is a senior operational leader of al Qaeda or associated forces is not accurate.
“Due process” and “judicial process” are not one and the same, particularly when it comes to national security, he said, adding that the Constitution guarantees due process, not judicial process.
The Attorney General said the unfortunate reality is that US will likely continue to face terrorist threats that at times originate with its own citizens.
“When such individuals take up arms against this country—and join al Qaeda in plotting attacks designed to kill their fellow Americans—there may be only one realistic and appropriate response. We must take steps to stop them—in full accordance with the Constitution.
“In this hour of danger, we simply cannot afford to wait until deadly plans are carried out and we will not,” he said.
Holder said any such use of lethal force by the US will comply with the four fundamental war principles governing the use of force—the principle of necessity that requires that the target have definite military value, the principle of distinction that requires that only lawful targets may be targeted intentionally, the principle of proportionality of use of force and the principle of humanity that requires use weapons that will not inflict unnecessary suffering.
“These principles do not forbid the use of stealth or technologically advanced weapons. In fact, the use of advanced weapons may help to ensure that the best intelligence is available for planning and carrying out operations, and that the risk of civilian casualties can be minimised or avoided altogether,” Holder said. (PTI)

KABUL, Mar 6: Encased in a head-to-toe burqa, the image depicts a distraught woman slumped on a cement stairwell, the work of Afghanistan’s first street artists who use graffiti to chronicle violence and oppression.
The female-male duo surreptitiously spray-paint the crumbling and dilapidated walls of buildings in the capital Kabul, abandoned and destroyed during 30 years of war that still rages today. Talking of her woman on the steps, Shamsia Hassani, 24, said: ‘She is wondering if she can get up, or if she will fall down. Women in Afghanistan need to be careful with every step they take.’ The sombre depictions of Afghan women on Kabul’s rutted streets offer rare public insight into their lives, still marred by violence and injustice despite progress in women’s rights since the Taliban was toppled over a decade ago. In an abandoned textile factory, Hassani spray-painted a wall with six willowy figures in sky-blue burqas, who rise out of the ground like ghosts. ‘In three decades of war, women have had to carry the greatest burdens on their shoulders,’ Hassani, who also works in the faculty of fine arts at Kabul University, told Reuters. Her friend and fellow artist Qasem Foushanji, 25, said he avoids images he describes as cliche, such as the Taliban, but wants to produce socially political art about aspects of Afghan life that ‘make people go nuts, like women being beaten’. His works include a huge red heart flanked by bones, with the words ‘the positive anger’ spray-painted across it in English.
The pair, taught how to spray-paint at a workshop in Kabul two years ago, hope their graffiti will gradually bring art back to Afghanistan, where cultural development has been severely hindered by turmoil. ‘People were too busy trying to feed their families and art was shelved,’ said Hassani, whose family comes from Kandahar, the Taliban’s birthplace. Like millions of Afghans fleeing violence, Hassani grew up in neighbouring Iran as a refugee. ‘We can develop our culture with art, but not suddenly, and not alone. For a country that’s undergone so much pain and war, it will take time,’ she said, sporting a dark overcoat and a head scarf the shade of blue she uses in her paintings. (agencies)