LA Fire Started by Boy With Matches

Santa Clarita, October 31: A boy playing with matches started a fire in north Los Angeles County that consumed more than 38,000 acres and destroyed 21 homes last week, authorities said Tuesday.

The boy, whose name and age were not released, was interviewed a day after the Buckweed Fire was sparked October 21, said sheriff's Sgt. Diane Hecht. "He admitted to playing with matches and accidentally starting the fire," said Hecht said in a statement.

The boy was released to his parents, and the case will be be presented to the district attorney's office, Hecht said.

The 60-square-mile fire began in an area near Agua Dulce and quickly spread by fierce desert winds. It was among more than a dozen major wildfires that killed 14 people and blackened 809 square miles from Los Angeles to the Mexican border.

Authorities arrested five people for arson during that period, but none have been linked to any of the major blazes.

US values ties with India more than Pakistan

Press Trust of India
Last Updated: October 31


Washington, October 31: United States has said that broad-based partnerships between America and India are critical and more important than those with Pakistan, as New Delhi is growing as a potential power with a global influence.

"The US-India strategic potential is very, very profound," Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defence for South and South East Asia James Clad told online journalists and bloggers during a conference call from the Pentagon.

While India's sometimes contentious neighbour, Pakistan, continued to search for Osama bin Laden and help wage the global war on terrorism, Clad explained, the US-Indian relationship was more important in the long run.

"India simply must, as a long term consideration, matter more for us than Pakistan," Clad has been quoted as saying in the American Forces Press Services.

"India is seen as a potentially a power with global reach," Clad said.

"It's been slow in coming - I think it will be slow in coming in the future - but it is steady. The trend lines are unmistakable," he said.

Clad said India was on a major course to ramp up its military infrastructure with a multi-billion budget at the ready to purchase, among other equipment, 126 multi-role combat aircraft.

"It is the largest external-announced defence procurement budget in the world. And people are obviously interested in this," he said, adding that 52 US defence corporations, including Boeing, Lockheed-Martin, Ratheon, Honeywell and General Electric, had all set up offices in India.

Referring to the recent visit by the USS Nimitz to Chennai, Clad said the visit had been an enormous success and had been greeted with great interest by the local people.

The US Navy also recently refurbished its former USS Trenton and presented it as a gift to the Indian Navy, he said.

"This is a substantial vessel which has been very well received in Indian naval circles," he said.

"You hit a golf ball on the Bangalore golf course, and that ball, unless you're careful, is going to go right through a window of IBM, which is right next to Infosys, which is an Indian firm staffed by Indian-Americans who are also listed on the New York Stock Exchange. So it's a much bigger relationship," he said.

"The relationship with India is now more comprehensive in trade, information technology, movement of its peoples," he said, adding that there were two million Indian-Americans now living in the United States.

The US, Clad said, should embrace the opportunity to assist and advise the country.

"It's about maintaining a type of equilibrium, about accepting India's rise into a type of maturity and power and prowess. We're coming into something that's naturally there. It's like a seat which is already at the table, and we're sliding into it," he added.

YouTube has competition now

Los Angeles, October 30:NBC and Fox are set to launch an advertising-supported online video site that hosts programming from varied entertainment companies in a bid to seize viewers from Google Inc.'s YouTube, the broadcasters said.

A test version of the site, Hulu.com, goes online Monday, with plans to premiere a final version in a few months, company officials said.

The site, developed by News Corp. and NBC Universal, a unit of General Electric Co., offers free viewing of full-length films and TV episodes, supported by advertising.

It will host programming from the two networks, as well as TV shows and films from Sony Corp. and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc.

``Consumers identify with shows and films,'' rather than networks, Hulu chief executive Jason Kilar said. ``When you aggregate great content together, it makes things easier for the user.''

Hulu's debut comes amid tensions between entertainment companies and popular online video sites, such as YouTube, where unauthorized clips from shows often appear.

Viacom Inc., which owns Comedy Central, MTV, VH1 and many other cable channels, is suing YouTube for $1 billion, claiming massive copyright infringement of clips from popular shows, including ``The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.'' YouTube has said it follows copyright laws by removing protected video upon request.

NBC Universal's CEO Jeff Zucker, speaking Monday in New York at an event sponsored by the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, said he didn't see Hulu as a direct competitor to YouTube, saying the two sites are ``really two separate things.''

``Hulu is about quality, premium video,'' Zucker said. ``It's safe haven for advertisers. Advertisers want to know where they're placing their ads. It's a lot easier to place your ad in an episode of 'The Office' than it is on the cat on the skateboard.''

Hulu will legally offer hundreds of episodes of current shows such as NBC's ``30 Rock'' and Fox's ``The Simpsons,'' as well as older shows such as ``Lou Grant'' and ``Lost in Space.''

Its movie offerings will consist of films that have already been edited for television broadcast, which will contain short ads online in the places where they would appear on TV.

The shows will be available at Hulu.com, as well as on distribution partner Web sites such as AOL, MSN, MySpace, Yahoo and Comcast.

It will also provide viewers with tools that let them embed full episodes on their own blogs, Web sites or personal profile pages. Users would also be able to select short clips from shows, such as Jay Leno's monologue on ``The Tonight Show,'' and e-mail a link to the content to friends.

The services give Web users unprecedented flexibility to legally republish copyright content, observers said.

``The technology they've put together on this short notice is not only adequate, it's also better than most of what else is out there,'' said James McQuivey, a TV and media technology analyst for Forrester Research. ``I think they have moved a couple of steps forward compared to their competitors in the industry.''

Hulu will offer some premium content not available on NBC or Fox's own Web sites in a move at odds with some other networks that have tried to direct viewers to their own online content.

Walt Disney Co.'s ABC, for instance, sells downloads of its shows on Apple Inc.'s iTunes but streams free episodes mainly on ABC.com.

McQuivey said Hulu's model could be preferable to advertisers, who generally favor strategies that make popular content widely available.

``Advertisers want more opportunity to put ads next to prime-time hit shows,'' he said. ``If they had kept the content on NBC.com or Fox.com, it would have limited the number of people who would see it.''

But McQuivey said Hulu faces a number of challenges, such as the expense of hosting content and delivering it to a potential audience of millions.

Those expenses will only grow as the site finds itself having to offer content in high definition to make it look better on large-screen televisions, McQuivey said.

Couple 'dead' serious about selling house

Wexford, Pa., October 30: It's the deal of a lifetime.

Bob and Ricki Husick of Pittsburgh are offering anyone who buys their home a full refund when they die.

The Husicks have been trying to sell their suburban home for almost a year, but have failed to do so in the current shaky market.

Some area homeowners have lowered prices, offered free trips and tried a variety of other gimmicks, but the Husicks came up with their own unique incentive.

The couple have no heirs and built the house in 1993. They want $399,900 for the four-bedroom, 3 1/2-bath home, which is located about 20 miles north of Pittsburgh.

Under the Husicks' offer, the buyer would get the sale price back when they die.

Wait, there's more: If the buyer agrees to care for the couple in old age, he could also inherit their retirement home in Arizona.

``Why not go for the works? So if we're worth $2.5 million, you get it all,'' said Husick, 55.

Fancy buying a meteorite, anyone?

Asian News International - Text
Last Updated: October 29, 2007


London, October 29: In what is being branded "the first sale of its kind", some of the world's most famous meteorites were sold at a New York auction house on Sunday.

While an iron meteorite from Siberia fetched 60,000 pounds, a US mailbox hit by a meteorite in 1984 sold for 40,000 pounds.

"The results were stronger than anticipated with a near-perfect result," the BBC quoted Bonhams meteorite specialist Claudia Florian as saying after the sale.

She also said that Bonhams hoped to sell the unsold lots "in the next several days".

Some of the 54 lots of "fine meteorites" sold at the auction house fell to Earth thousands of years ago, and only one out of them is documented as having made a fatal impact.

It is said that the Valera Meteorite, which hit a field in Venezuela in 1972, killed a cow.

"It's very rare to have a meteorite actually impact a living being... so now that particular meteorite is considered to be collectible," Florian told the BBC's Radio Five Live before the sale.

She also revealed that this piece was sold for 1,300 dollars.

With a price estimate of 1.1m dollars, the piece de resistance for the sale appeared to be the "Crown Section" of America's famous Willamette Meteorite, discovered in Oregon in 1902. It, however, did not sell.

Israel tightens closure on Gaza, cuts fuel supplies

Indo Asian News Service
Last Updated: October 30, 2007


Tel Aviv, October 30: Israel has threatened to sever its economic and infrastructural ties with the Gaza Strip if rocket attacks from the area continued, a day after it began curbing fuel supplies to the impoverished coastal salient.

Further tightening its closure of the Strip, it also closed its Sufa border crossing with the southern Gaza Strip, one of two crossings that had remained open during the past months for the passage of humanitarian aid.

The only outlet now remaining open to humanitarian aid is the southern-most Kerem Shalom crossing, a military spokeswoman said Monday.

But only hours later Attorney-General Menahem Mazuz nixed a plan to curb electricity to the enclave, saying such a step could contravene a promise not to cause a humanitarian crisis in the Strip.

At a meeting on the issue in his office, Mazuz said that while Israel had the right to sever commercial and economic ties with the Strip - which it last month declared a 'hostile entity' - the plan to cut off electricity needed to be re-examined.

To cut supply of petrol and diesel

Israel began Sunday reducing its weekly supply of petrol to Gaza by 15 percent and of diesel by 13 percent.

It also planned to cut electricity by one percent - or 15 minutes each day - to those areas in the Strip from where the rockets are fired.

The electricity cut would have little impact and was meant mainly as a 'signal' to the radical Islamic Hamas movement ruling the Strip, said Shlomo Dror, the spokesman for the defence ministry body charged with coordinating government policy with the military.

Israel however would not touch the supply of crude diesel to Gaza's main power plant, which used up some 1,740 litres a week, he said.

'We are sending a signal to the Palestinians. We tell them that the tendency is to go to a disengagement,' Dror told DPA.

'Israel won't keep supplying all that they want, when they fire Qassams at us. So Israel is saying, this equation mustn't exist.'

He said Israel decided to close the Sufa crossing after it came under daily rocket and mortar attacks, along with other border crossings.

Closing it was 'also a very clear signal' to Hamas. 'Hamas itself sits and fires at the crossings. If it fires at the crossings, it will pay the price. It will have to explain to the people why no food is entering Gaza that day,' said Dror.

EU urges restraint

European Commissioner for External Affairs Benita Ferrero-Waldner said in Jerusalem she was 'concerned' over the tougher sanctions, warned against 'collective punishment', and urged Israel to 'show restraint', and the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said closing the crossing enhanced the 'vulnerability' of Gaza's 1.5 million inhabitants, many of whom rely on food hand-outs.

Riyad Malki, the spokesman for the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas-appointed 'caretaker' government in the West Bank, called the sanctions 'unacceptable', but denied Abbas was suspending his talks with Israel over them.

But Israel's Highest Court of Justice late Sunday rejected a petition by human rights groups against the sanctions. It did order the Israeli state to submit an argument as to why the sanctions should not be prevented within five days.

An Israeli soldier and three Palestinians, among them two Hamas militants and a civilian, were killed in gun battles in the south and north of the Strip, as Israeli troops penetrated the areas to act against the rocket launchers.

A WFP spokeswoman in Jerusalem, Kirstie Campbell, acknowledged both Kerem Shalom and Sufa 'have been under sustained mortar and rocket attacks from Palestinian militants'.

But she warned that the remaining crossing of Kerem Shalom lacked the capacity to meet Gaza's daily needs of basic foods. While Sufa had the capacity to let through about 100 trucks a day, Kerem Shalom had about half that, she said.

She said some 70 percent of Gaza's non-refugee population, to which WFP is tending, lived on less than $1.2 per person per day, up from 55 percent in June, when Israel suspended all non-essential commerce with Gaza after Hamas' violent take-over of the Strip.

She said three-quarters of all Gazans now relied on monthly food parcels handed out by the WFP and other bodies.

Price of MIT professor's '$100 laptop' hits $200

Boston, October 30: A computer developed for poor children around the world, dubbed 'the $100 laptop,' has reached a milestone: Its price tag is now $200.

The One Laptop per Child Foundation, founded by MIT Professor Nicholas Negroponte, has started offering the lime-green-and-white machines in lots of 10,000 for $200 apiece on its Web site (http://laptopfoundation.org/participate/givemany.shtml).

Two weeks ago, a foundation executive confirmed recent estimates that the computer would cost $188, which was already higher than the $150 price tag in February and $176 in April.

The laptops are scheduled to go into production next month at a factory in China, far behind their original schedule and in quantities that are a fraction of Negroponte's earlier projections.

It is unclear when the machines will be ready for customers, as the Web site said version 1.0 of the software that runs the machine will not be ready until Dec. 7.

Foundation spokesman George Snell declined comment on the pricing or release schedule.

When Negroponte said he could produce the laptops for $100, industry analysts said it had the potential to shake up the PC industry, ushering in an era of low-cost computing.

He hoped to keep the price down by achieving unprecedented economies of scale for a start-up manufacturer, and in April, he told Reuters he expected to have orders for 2.5 million laptops by May, with production targeted to begin in September.

But that has not panned out. So far the foundation has disclosed orders to three countries -- Uruguay, Peru and Mongolia. It has not said how many machines they have ordered.

Wayan Vota, an expert on using technology to promote economic development who publishes olpcnews.com, a blog that monitors the group's activities, estimates orders at no more than 200,000 laptops.

"One-hundred dollars was never a realistic price. By starting with an unrealistic price, he reduced his credibility selling the laptop," Vota said.

Negroponte, a charismatic technologist who counts News Corp chief Rupert Murdoch and Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim among his friends, has attracted a lot of attention for the foundation.

He has met with leaders around the globe and promoted the introduction of computers into classrooms in the most impoverished regions of the world. As he has done that, big technology companies have boosted spending on similar efforts.

The laptop features a keyboard that switches languages, a video camera, wireless connectivity and Linux software.

Microsoft Corp is trying to tailor Windows XP to work on the machine and recently said it is a few months away from knowing for sure whether it can accomplish that task.

The display switches from color to black-and-white for viewing in direct sunlight -- a breakthrough that the foundation is patenting and may license next year for commercial use.

The laptop needs just 2 watts of power compared with a typical laptop's 30 to 40 watts and does away with hard drives. It uses flash memory and four USB ports to add memory and other devices.

Earlier this year the foundation teamed up with Intel Corp, which is developing a rival machine. The two may work together on a second-generation laptop. This first machine runs on a microprocessor developed by Intel rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc.

Airbus in talks with AI for selling 12 superjumbo A-380s

AOL India Editorial
Last Updated: October 30, 2007


New Delhi, October 30: European aircraft maker Airbus Industrie is in talks with flag carrier Air India for sale of up to 12 superjumbo A-380 planes, as it looks for a greater presence in the world's fastest growing civil aviation market.

Flanked by Chief Operating Officer John Leahy and Airbus (India) President Kiran Rao, Airbus Chief Executive Officer Tom Enders said his company hoped to expand its relationship with India, which he termed as the 'fastest growing (civil aviation) market'. Leahy told reporters that Airbus was holding talks with Air India for sale of about 10 to 12 A-380 aircraft.

So far, only Kingfisher Airlines among Indian carriers has placed orders for purchase of A-380s, delivery of which will begin from 2010-11.

Earlier this month, Singapore Airlines became the world's first airline to have inducted the superjumbo in its fleet.

"If orders are placed within the next couple of months, Airbus will be able to start delivery of aircraft by 2011-12," Leahy said.

The long range aircraft can enable an airline to fly to Delhi-Los Angles or Delhi-New York non-stop. The Airbus COO said he hoped to see the A-380 in Indian skies 'in the near future and not in distant future'. Rao, while emphasising on the growth of Indian civil aviation market, said that the company had so far sold more than 100 aircraft this year among its seven customers.

The estimate was that India would require 1,100 aircraft worth $105 billion in the next 20 years, he said and added that the company was also focusing on the country's cargo market which was also growing manifold.

Airbus Industrie's relation with India is not limited to sale of aircraft, and the company has extended cooperation in the Information Technology sector, set up a training service institute in Bangalore and entered into a partnership with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), which builds 50 per cent of doors for Airbus A-320 planes.

"We have business relations with Tata and Wipro as well," Enders said, adding, "You ain't seen anything so far. More partnerships in India can be seen."

Though globally the positive thing was that civil aviation market was growing, he said this did not make the company complacent about the continuous challenges faced in the sector like increasing aviation fuel prices and protecting the environment.

"But for us challenges mean opportunities to improve more and more," said Enders, who is on his first visit to India.

With an excellent base available in the country, the Airbus Chief Executive said he was 'confident and optimistic' that cooperation can be expanded further and both sides can benefit from this relationship. Rao said so far no part of A-380 was manufactured from India but 'design work' for the long haul aircraft was going on. He, however, refused to elaborate further.

UN: Try or Release Enemy Combatants

The Associated Press
Last Updated: October 29, 2007


UNITED NATIONS (AP) - A U.N. human rights expert is calling on the United States to prosecute or release suspects detained as ``unlawful enemy combatants'' and to move quickly to close the Guantanamo Bay prison camp.

Martin Scheinin, the U.N.'s independent investigator on human rights in the fight against terrorism, said in a report released Monday that he's concerned about U.S. detention practices, military courts and interrogation techniques.

He urged the U.S. government to end the CIA practice of extraordinary rendition, in which terrorism suspects are taken to foreign countries for interrogation.

Scheinin said he was also concerned about what he termed ``enhanced interrogation techniques reportedly used by the CIA,'' saying that under international law ``there are no circumstances in which cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment may be justified.''

The U.S. military defended the current process. ``Unlawful enemy combatants held at Guantanamo are afforded more due process than any other captured enemy fighters in the history of warfare,'' U.S. Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon, a Defense Department spokesman on Guantanamo, told The Associated Press. ``We will enforce the law as spelled out in the Military Commissions Act of 2006.''

Gordon, who said appropriate officials will review the report, added that the U.S. will move cautiously on Guantanamo.

``While we have stated our desires to close Guantanamo, it would be irresponsible to release these dangerous men into the general population,'' he said.

Scheinin, a law professor from Finland appointed by the Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Council, issued a preliminary report after visiting the United States in May. His final report was issued on Monday, coinciding with the report to the U.N. General Assembly's human rights committee.

Scheinin expressed regret to the committee that he couldn't interview detainees at Guantanamo in private.

Scheinin also welcomed his recent invitation by the U.S. government to Guantanamo to observe proceedings before military commissions.

In the report, Scheinin called for the abolition of the military commissions which were established in 2001 by President and declared unlawful by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2006 because they were not authorized by Congress. Congress responded by passing the Military Commissions Act of 2006.

Scheinin said the offenses in the 2006 law - including terrorism, wrongfully aiding the enemy, spying and conspiracy - ``go beyond offenses under the laws of war.'' He argued that the offense did not apply at the time of the alleged acts by detainees, and maintained that the commissions are applying criminal law retroactively in violation of international law.

Due to various concerns, Scheinin recommended the abolition of the commissions. ``Wherever possible, ordinary civilian courts should be used to try terrorist suspects,'' he said.

Scheinin also recommended that the U.S. government abandon ``the categorization of persons as `unlawful enemy combatants,''' calling it a ``a term of convenience without legal effect.''

The report called on the ``United States to release or to put on trial those persons detained under that categorization.''

While acknowledging the need to bring those accused of war crimes to justice, Scheinin emphasized that ``the chance of ensuring a fair trial diminishes over time.'' He added that ``the detention of persons for a period of several years without charge fundamentally undermines the right of fair trial.''

Scheinin called on the U.S. to lift restrictions that prohibit Guantanamo Bay detainees to seek ``full judicial review of their combatant status.'' The U.S. prohibition violates the International Covenant's prohibitions on arbitrary detention, the right to a judicial review which could grant freedom, and the right to a fair trial within a reasonable time, he said.

He urged ``determined action'' to move toward Bush's goal of closing Guantanamo.

Scheinin said he has been advised that up to 80 detainees will be tried by military commissions, and that the U.S. wants to return the rest to their countries of origin or to a third country. He said the U.S. and the U.N. should work together to resettle detainees in accord with international law.

Da Vinci's 'Last Supper' Goes Online

MILAN, Italy (AP) - Can't get to Milan to see Leonardo Da Vinci's masterpiece ``The Last Supper?'' As of Saturday, all you need is an Internet connection. Officials put online an image of the ``Last Supper'' at 16 billion pixels - 1,600 times stronger than the images taken with the typical 10 million pixel digital camera.

The high resolution will allow experts to examine details of the 15th century wall painting that they otherwise could not - including traces of drawings Leonardo put down before painting.

The high-resolution allows viewers to look at details as though they were inches from the art work, in contrast to regular photographs, which become grainy as you zoom in, said curator Alberto Artioli.

``You can see how Leonardo made the cups transparent, something you can't ordinarily see,'' said Artioli. ``You can also note the state of degradation the painting is in.''

Besides allowing experts and art-lovers to study the masterpiece from home, Artioli said the project provides an historical document of how the painting appears in 2007, which will be valuable to future generations of art historians.

Although there appeared to be problems with the Web site late Saturday, it was accessible earlier in day.

The work, in Milan's Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, was restored in a painstaking effort that wrapped up in 1999 - a project aimed at reversing half a millennium of damage to the famed artwork. Leonard painted the ``Last Supper'' dry, so the painting did not cleave to the surface in the fresco style, meaning it is more delicate and subject to wear.

``Over the years it has been subjected to bombardments; it was used as a stall by Napoleon,'' Artioli said. The restoration removed 500 years of dirt while also removing previous restoration works that masked Leonardo's own work.

Even those who get to Milan have a hard time gaining admission to see the ``Last Supper.'' Visits have been made more difficult by measures to protect it. Twenty-five visitors are admitted every 15 minutes to see the painting for a total of about 320,000 visitors a year. Visitors must pass through a filtration system to help reduce the work's exposure to dust and pollutants.

``The demand is three or four times higher, but we can't accommodate it because of efforts to preserve the painting,'' Artioli said.

Tokyo Car Show

A model poses with Mitsubishi Fuso's concept commercial vehicle "Canter Eco-D" at its unveiling during the 40th Tokyo Motor Show in Chiba, east of Tokyo October 25, 2007. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon (JAPAN)



A model poses with Volkswagen's "Space Up" concept car during the 40th Tokyo Motor Show in Chiba, east of Tokyo October 25, 2007. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon (JAPAN)



A model shows Yamaha Motor's concept electric motorcycle "Bobby", during the 40th Tokyo Motor Show in Chiba, east of Tokyo October 25, 2007. The two-wheeled gadget can fit in the trunk of a car or be stored on a balcony with its collapsible design. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon (JAPAN)



Employees of Toyota Boshoku demonstrate its concept product the "Personal Relaxation Seat", during the 40th Tokyo Motor Show in Chiba, east of Tokyo October 25, 2007. The relaxation seat consists of a personal visual and sound system, aroma diffuser, ventilated and air-conditioned canopy and physical condition sensor. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon (JAPAN)



A model shows an electronic plug from Mitsubishi Motors Corp.'s i-MIEV sport electric concept vehicle during the 40th Tokyo Motor Show in Chiba, east of Tokyo October 25, 2007. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon (JAPAN)

The Leopard's been let loose

Indo Asian News Service
Last Updated: October 27, 2007 01:18:07

wire photo
Los Angeles, October 27: Apple has released a new operating system for its ever more popular Mac computers.

he upgraded OS 10.5, nicknamed Leopard, was released Friday and includes some 300 improvements including a 'time machine' that tracks and resurrects lost data, and improved video-conferencing abilities.

he eagerly awaited system was delayed by several months while the company's engineers worked on developing the iPhone.

ival Microsoft, whose software powers 90 per cent of the world's computers, released its newest operating system, Vista, in January.

The release came just days after Apple announced record-breaking sales of its Mac computers, which analysts attributed to a 'halo effect' from the success of its iPod music players and iPhones.

Now, walk while you work!

The Associated Press
Last Updated: October 27, 2007 02:38:03
Grand Rapids, Mich. October 27:A number of employers apparently are willing to let their workers walk. Steelcase Inc. says many companies have expressed interest in its newest product, which combines an office workstation with a treadmill so workers can burn calories while earning a paycheck.

The nation's largest office furniture maker will begin taking orders for its Walkstation beginning Nov. 19.

``What we have done is taken science from the lab to a product that could potentially help millions and millions of people,'' Walkstation developer James Levine told The Grand Rapids Press for a story published Thursday. ``I think it's the next iPod. Everybody is going to want one.''

Levine, a researcher at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., who has spent the past 15 years studying energy expended during daily activity, collaborated on the Walkstation with Steelcase.

He approached staff members of the Grand Rapids-based company with the idea while they were doing research at the renowned medical facility. Within a month, a prototype was built that combined a height-adjustable workstation produced by Details, a Steelcase subsidiary, with a treadmill from the company's fitness area.

The final product, which will sell for about $4,000 and be the first product of Details' new FitWork line, incorporates a specially designed treadmill by St. Louis-based True Fitness Technology Inc.

The quiet-running treadmill is designed to offer a user a low-impact slow stroll rather than a sweat-inducing run-walk. It operates at a maximum speed of 3.5 mph instead of a more typical 10 mph.

Walking regularly, even at a slow pace, can improve a person's health, said Steve Glass, a fitness expert who is a professor of movement science at Grand Valley State University.

``How hard you work to burn calories isn't as important as burning those calories from the standpoint of long-term health,'' Glass said.

Levine said his research has shown that a sedentary lifestyle is unnatural. The key to fighting obesity and many other health problems is to keep people from spending their days desk-bound.

``Over the last 150 years, we've become chair-imprisoned. We are behind a screen all day at work. We are in a car or bus getting to and from work. And in the evening, we are in a chair watching television or surfing the Internet,'' Levine said. ``We've gone from being on our legs all day to being on our bottoms all day.''

Investors flock to friendly Bihar

Indo Asian News Service
Last Updated: October 27, 2007 00:42:05


Nitish Kumar

Patna, October 27: Once shunned by investors, economically backward Bihar is metamorphosing into an investment-friendly state, attracting funds worth Rs. 370 billion (over $9 billion) in the past two years.

Bihar Industries Minister Gautam Singh said that big industrialists have been showing keen interest after Chief Minister Nitish Kumar initiated some measures to develop the state's infrastructure.

'Bihar will attract investors in large numbers. The state is poised for development,' Singh told IANS.

'In less than two years, the state government led by Nitish Kumar had cleared 76 proposals for projects worth Rs. 370 billion,' state industries department principal secretary Vijay Raghavan said here Friday.

Most of the investments are in the power, sugar and cement sectors. Raghavan said proposals cleared by the state government include setting up of 14 ethanol plants, four each for maize processing and cement manufacture and three power plants.

Last week, Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani visited Patna and made it clear he was keen to invest in Bihar, which he said must develop for India as a whole to prosper.

'Bihar has a big potential for investment,' Ambani said here Friday after a meeting with the chief minister. 'We will to do something for the state's development.'

In the past one year, he is the fourth big industrialist to explore investment possibilities in the state.

Tata group chairman Ratan Tata, Mahindra & Mahindra group vice-chairman Anand Mahindra and Bharti group chairman and managing director Sunil Bharti Mittal have carried out investment reconnaissance in the state.

Raghavan admitted the value of investment proposals might be small for developed states, but it was an achievement for Bihar.

'This is the indication of a positive beginning. We hope more investments will flow into the state in the coming months,' he said.

'The state government has already given the go-ahead to a number of projects and is in the process of acquiring lands for the purpose. If these industries come up, they would provide direct employment to 90,000 people and indirect employment to nearly 500,000 people across the state.'

After coming to power in November 2005, the Nitish Kumar-led government had initiated measures to build the state's infrastructure, including roads, bridges and power, to attract investors. But more has to be done to develop infrastructure in rural areas.

The government has also prepared a land bank to make land available to investors.

Major threats to world and its people unresolved: UN

Last Updated: October 27, 2007 01:43:03

Indo Asian News Service
New Delhi, October 27: Major threats to the world such as climate change, the rate of extinction of species, and the challenge of feeding a growing population are among the many that remain unresolved, and all of them put humanity at risk, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has warned.
The warning comes in UNEP's Global Environment Outlook: Environment for Development (GEO-4) report released Friday.
GEO-4 salutes the world's progress in tackling some relatively straightforward problems, with the environment now much closer to mainstream politics everywhere. But despite these advances, there remain the harder-to-manage issues, the 'persistent' problems.
Here, GEO-4 says: "There are no major issues for which the foreseeable trends are favourable."

Cuts needed
On the urgent issue of climate change, the report says the threat is now so urgent that large cuts in greenhouse gases by mid-century are needed. Negotiations are due to start in December on a treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol, the international climate agreement that obligates countries to control anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions.
Although the protocol exempts all developing countries from emission reduction commitments, there is growing pressure on some rapidly industrialising countries -- now substantial emitters themselves -- to agree to emission reductions.

Overall crisis
GEO-4 says the world faces an overall crisis that includes climate change, extinction rates, hunger, problems driven by growing human numbers, the rising consumption of the rich and the desperation of the poor. The effects of this crisis are shown in decline of fish stocks, loss of fertile land through degradation or dwindling amount of fresh water available, for example.
The report says climate change is a "global priority", and the response to it demands political will and leadership. Yet UNEP finds "a remarkable lack of urgency", and a "woefully inadequate" global response.
Several highly polluting countries have refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. GEO-4 says: "Some industrial sectors that were unfavourable to the Protocol managed successfully to undermine the political will to ratify it."

Required changes
"Fundamental changes in social and economic structures, including lifestyle changes, are crucial if rapid progress is to be achieved," the report points out.
On the issue of water supply, GEO-4 warns that irrigation already takes about 70 percent of available water, yet the world will have to double food production by 2050. 'The escalating burden of water demand will become intolerable in water-scarce countries."
Water quality is declining too, polluted by microbial pathogens and excessive nutrients. Globally, contaminated water remains the greatest single cause of human disease and death.
In developing countries some three million people die annually from water-borne diseases, most of them under-five-year-olds.

Hundered times faster
GEO-4 says current biodiversity changes are the fastest in human history. Species are becoming extinct a hundred times faster than the rate shown in the fossil record. Of the major vertebrate groups that have been assessed comprehensively, over 30 percent of amphibians, 23 percent of mammals and 12 percent of birds are threatened.
Yet meeting humanity's growing demand for food will mean either intensified agriculture -- using more chemicals, energy and water, and more efficient breeds and crops -- or cultivating more land. Either way, biodiversity suffers.

Premature deaths
The report says environmental exposure causes almost a quarter of all diseases. More than two million people worldwide are estimated to die prematurely every year from indoor and outdoor air pollution. It points out that some of the progress achieved in reducing pollution in developed countries has been at the expense of the developing world, where industrial production and its impacts are now being exported.
According to GEO-4, unsustainable land use is causing degradation, a threat as serious as climate change and biodiversity loss. It affects up to a third of the world's people, through pollution, soil erosion, nutrient depletion, water scarcity, salinity, and disruption of biological cycles.

GEO-4 was prepared by about 390 experts and reviewed by more than 1,000 others across the world.

Decisions that individuals and society make now will largely determine the future of humanity and of the planet, the report says. 'Our common future depends on our actions today, not tomorrow or some time in the future.'

As talks fail, Turkey planes reconnoitre Iraq border

AOL India Editorial
Last Updated: October 27, 2007 08:20:04



Sirnak (Turkey), October 27: Turkish military planes scoured the Iraqi border for Kurdish rebel camps Saturday, army sources said, after diplomatic talks in Ankara to avert a major cross-border operation into northern Iraq failed.

Turkish-Iraqi talks collapsed late Friday after Ankara rejected a series of proposals by Iraqi Defence Minister General Abdel Qader Jassim to tackle Kurdish guerrillas based in northern Iraq as insufficient.

Officials told Reuters that no further talks were planned and the Iraqi delegation, which had aimed to dissuade NATO member Turkey from launching a major incursion against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) guerrillas, was leaving Saturday.

Turkey has massed up to 100,000 troops, backed by fighter jets, helicopter gunships, tanks, and mortars, on the frontier before a possible offensive against about 3,000 PKK rebels using Iraq as a base from which to carry out deadly attacks in Turkey.

The United States, which was also represented at the talks, opposes a major incursion, fearing it could destabilise Iraq's relatively peaceful north and, potentially, the wider region.

The PKK took up arms against Turkey in 1984 with the aim of creating an ethnic homeland in the south-east. More than 30,000 people have been killed in the conflict. In recent years, the party has pushed for greater cultural and political rights.

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan took a swipe at Western countries Saturday for not helping Turkey fight the PKK, criticising what he called an approach of "your terrorist is good, my terrorist is bad".

"We want to see our Western friends by our side in our fight against terror," he told a conference in Istanbul. "Those who overlook terrorism are in cooperation with terrorism."

Erdogan-Bush meeting

Erdogan, meanwhile, played down comments by Turkey's top general that the military was waiting for Erdogan to meet US President George W. Bush in Washington on November 5 before launching a major incursion.

General Yasar Buyukanit was quoted by Turkish media Friday as saying the meeting was very important and the military would hold off until Erdogan returned before making a potential move.

Senior Turkish diplomats say Erdogan has given Washington and Baghdad a limited time to show concrete results or witness steps being taken against the PKK. The meeting in Washington will be the last chance, they told Reuters.

Any major offensive, expected to involve ground and air forces, would first have to be approved by the government.

"I don't know what will happen before the American trip," Erdogan said Friday. "We are in a sensitive state all the time."

But under growing public pressure, Erdogan has repeatedly said Turkey will not tolerate any more attacks from the PKK, which has killed about 40 people in the last month.

Army sources told Reuters Saturday that military planes were running reconnaissance trips along the mountainous border to take photographs of PKK camps in northern Iraq. Helicopters were patrolling villages and soldiers were sweeping for mines.

In the south-eastern city of Sirnak Saturday, about 1,000 people demonstrated against the PKK, which in its latest major attack killed 12 soldiers and said it took eight prisoners. Security was tight, with sharp-shooters on rooftops and village guard militiamen present.

"For every 12 martyrs, 12,000 more Turkish martyrs are born," chanted the protesters, who came from all over the province.

The military has already carried out as many as 24 limited operations into northern Iraq against the PKK but no major land incursion, Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Cicek said Friday. Turkish helicopter gunships and F-16 jets have attacked PKK positions inside Iraq in recent days.

Analysts doubtful

Analysts question whether a major military offensive into northern Iraq would be successful, as past ones have failed to dislodge the PKK, whose members are also in Turkey.

Ankara had given Iraq a list of leading PKK members based in northern Iraq and demanded that Baghdad hand them over and shut down their numerous camps.

But the central Iraqi government has little control over the semi-autonomous Kurdish northern Iraq, which is run by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).

The KRG, run by Masoud Barzani, says it has no control over the PKK, considered a terrorist organisation in the United States, Turkey and the European Union.

Barzani has vowed to fight any Turkish incursion.
By Thomas Grove.

'Bush personally wanted top Briton at UN sacked'

Asian News International - Text
Last Updated: October 27, 2007 10:33:02



London, October 27: A former US diplomat has claimed President Bush had personally pushed for the sacking of Lord Malloch-Brown from the UN because he was "anti-American".

According to a new book written by John Bolton, Washington's former UN Ambassador, Bush had asked incoming UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon to oust Lord Malloch-Brown from the post of UN Deputy Secretary-General, the highest UN post ever held by a Briton.

Malloch-Brown is now a junior foreign office minister, reports the Daily Mail.

The revelation seems to point to America's unhappiness with Lord Malloch-Brown, who caused a rumpus in July by declaring that Britain should distance itself from the United States.

According to Bolton, Bush met Ban informally on October 17 last year, told him to "get rid of the (senior) staff" and to appoint his own team when he took over at the start of 2007.

The American president reportedly specifically asked Ban to "get rid of Malloch-Brown", calling him "anti-American", Bolton reports.

Ban did not renew Lord Malloch-Brown's contract, and, within months, he was given a peerage and named foreign office minister for Africa, Asia and the United Nations in Gordon Brown's first appointments as prime minister.

Bolton clashed repeatedly with Lord Malloch-Brown while serving as the US Ambassador at the UN headquarters - a job he says Lord Malloch-Brown lobbied to stop him getting.

"This petty bureaucrat obviously saw himself as floating above UN member governments, rather than recognising he was a mere international civil servant," Bolton writes.

Bolton, a Baltimore fireman's son who rose to become a leading voice of the Republican Right, and served as UN ambassador in 2005-2006, bristles at what he sees as the condescending attitude of British diplomats.

"Many Brits believed that their role in life was to play Athens to America's Rome, lending us the benefit of their superior suaveness, and smoothing off our regrettable colonial rough edges," Bolton writes.

"Jones-Parry (Britain's Permanent Representative at the UN) was obviously of that ilk," he says.