Circumnavigating the planet and stopping off wherever you fancy is the ultimate trip – perfect for travellers who want to see it all, or who are just plain indecisive. But booking a round-the-world (RTW) trip can be a complex business. Here is a guide to get you started.
Related article: Tools to plan your itinerary faster
How to do it
The most economical way to circumnavigate the globe is to buy a RTW air ticket that uses one airline alliance. Theoretically, any routing is possible, but knowing how the RTW booking system works will make your trip cheaper. For example, the Star Alliance, a coalition of 27 airlines which fly to 1,185 airports in 185 countries, offers a RTW ticket with a maximum of 15 stops.
There are rules: you must follow one global direction (east or west – no backtracking); you must start and finish in the same country; and you must book all of your flights before departure, though you can change them later (which may incur extra charges).
How long you will need
You could whip around the world in a weekend if you flew non-stop. However, the minimum duration of most RTW tickets is 10 days – still a breathless romp. Consider stock-piling annual leave, tagging on public holidays or even arranging a sabbatical in order to take a few months off work. The maximum duration of a RTW ticket is one year.
When to go
The weather will never be ideal in all of your stops. So, focus on what you want to do most and research conditions there. If a Himalaya trek is your highlight, do not land in Nepal mid-monsoon season; if you want to swim with whale sharks off the coast of Western Australia, be there between April and July. Then accept you will be in some regions at the “wrong” time – though this might offer unexpected benefits (for example, Zambia in wet season means lush landscapes and cheaper prices).
In general, city sightseeing can be done year-round (escape extreme heat/cold/rain in museums and cafes) but outdoor adventures are more reliant on – and enjoyable in – the right weather.
Where to go
The classic (and cheapest) RTW tickets flit between a few big cities, for example London – Bangkok – Singapore – Sydney – LA. If you want to link more offbeat hubs (Baku – Kinshasa – Paramaribo, anyone?), prices will climb considerably. The cost of the ticket is based on the total distance covered or the number of countries visited.
Remember, you do not have to fly between each point: in Australia you could land in Perth, travel overland and fly out of Cairns. Or fly into Moscow, board the Trans-Siberian train and fly onwards from Beijing.
Pick some personal highlights and string the rest of your itinerary around those. For instance, if you are a keen trekker, flesh out a Peru (Inca Trail), New Zealand (Milford Track) and Nepal (Everest Base Camp) itinerary with Brazil (Rio’s a good access point for South America), Australia and northern India.
If budget is an issue, spend more time in less expensive countries. Your daily outgoings will be far higher in Europe and North America than in South-East Asia. Indonesia, Bolivia and India are particularly cheap.
Tips, tricks and pitfalls
Talk to an expert before you book: you may have an itinerary in mind but an experienced RTW flight booker will know which routings work best and cost least – a few tweaks could mean big savings.
Be flexible: moving your departure date by a few days can save money; mid-week flights are generally cheaper, as are flights on Christmas Day.
Think about internal travel: it can be cheaper to book internal flights at the same time as booking your RTW ticket. But, with the global increase of low-cost airlines, you may find it better (and more flexible) to buy them separately as you go.
Be warned: if you do not board one of your booked flights (say, on a whim, you decide to travel overland from Bangkok to Singapore rather than fly it) your airline is likely to cancel all subsequent flights.
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Japan and India eye new currency swap agreement
Japan and India are set to unveil a new currency swap agreement aimed at easing potential short-term liquidity problems.
The pact will allow them to swap their currencies for US dollars and tap into each other's foreign exchange reserves.
The move comes amid increased volatility in both the Japanese yen and the Indian rupee.
Japan's finance minister Jun Azumi was quoted by Reuters news agency, saying negotiations were in the final stages.
The deal is expected to be signed during Japanese prime minister Yoshihiko Noda's visit to India this week.
Analysts said the deal will help both nations stabilise their currencies, especially in the current uncertain global economic environment.
"Emerging economies overall are being shaken by the eurozone sovereign debt crisis," said Tsuyoshi Ueno, a senior economist at NLI Research Institute.
"Currencies in emerging economies get volatile when European banks pull out capital," he added.
"A dollar swap arrangement can help emerging economies as it promises a supply of dollars in an emergency."
The previous currency swap deal between the two nations, signed in 2008, has expired.
The pact will allow them to swap their currencies for US dollars and tap into each other's foreign exchange reserves.
The move comes amid increased volatility in both the Japanese yen and the Indian rupee.
Japan's finance minister Jun Azumi was quoted by Reuters news agency, saying negotiations were in the final stages.
The deal is expected to be signed during Japanese prime minister Yoshihiko Noda's visit to India this week.
Analysts said the deal will help both nations stabilise their currencies, especially in the current uncertain global economic environment.
"Emerging economies overall are being shaken by the eurozone sovereign debt crisis," said Tsuyoshi Ueno, a senior economist at NLI Research Institute.
"Currencies in emerging economies get volatile when European banks pull out capital," he added.
"A dollar swap arrangement can help emerging economies as it promises a supply of dollars in an emergency."
The previous currency swap deal between the two nations, signed in 2008, has expired.
Cancer patients 'relying on charity handouts' for fuel
Cancer patients are relying more on charity handouts as they struggle to pay rising fuel bills, figures reveal.
Macmillan Cancer Support said it had paid out £2,548,563 to 12,669 cancer patients during 2011, up from £1.4m to 7,369 patients five years ago.
The charity wants a government-commissioned independent review of fuel poverty to prioritise cancer patients.
Macmillan's campaign manager, Laura Keely, said it was "shocking" cancer sufferers needed such help.
'Unacceptable reality'
She said: "To feel too scared to put the heating on because of soaring energy bills is an unacceptable reality for thousands of vulnerable cancer patients who feel the cold more and spend long periods of time at home.
"When the charity was established 100 years ago, founder Douglas Macmillan helped cancer patients by handing out sacks of coal to keep them warm.
"It is shocking that a century on, people who are diagnosed with this devastating disease are still relying on charity help to heat their freezing homes."
The charity says 70% of cancer patients under 55 have less income after being diagnosed, often because their illness affects their ability to earn.
But their fuel bills often rise because they are spending more time at home and often feel colder because of their illness.
Research into fuel poverty for Macmillan suggests those on housing benefit and council tax benefit or with a low annual household income are most susceptible to fuel poverty.
Intel and Kraft's iSample vending kiosks study shoppers
A "smart" vending machine that analyses users' age and gender has been launched in the US by Intel and Kraft Foods.
The iSample is being used to offer customers trials of a new dessert.
It allows Kraft to tailor the product to the shopper, and exclude children from the adult-focused promotion.
Intel says it intends to retrofit the technology to existing vending machines to allow companies to study what type of people are buying their products.
The machine uses an optical sensor fitted to the top of the machine to recognise the shape of the human face. A computer processor then carries out a series of calculations based on measurements such as the distance between the eyes, nose and ears.
These are used to determine the sex of the shopper and place them in one of four age brackets. This data is then used to determine what, if any, product the shopper should be served.
"It's actually very quick - it's a fraction of a second," Michelle Tinsley, Intel's general manager of personal solutions told the BBC.
"We have trained the software to do this via machine learning on a bunch of pictures of human faces.
"It does the calculations very quickly right there on the machine - it does not need to go off into the internet or cloud - and then based on that will recognise that you fit a certain demographic."
Trial run
Intel stress that the machine does not take any photographs or video, so there is no footage for hackers to steal or employees to misuse.
Kraft is using the devices to trial Temptations - a jelly-based dessert. The product is marketed as "the first Jell-O that's just for adults", so if the machine detects a child it asks them to step away.
To maximise the opportunity, the firm has picked two busy locations for the initial roll-out: The Shedd Aquarium in Chicago and the South Street Seaport ferry service in New York.
"We only have two iSample machines in the US so far, as this is a test and learn from experience," said Ed Kaczmarek, director of innovations and consumer experiences at Kraft.
Sensors fitted to the top of the machines measure the distance between parts of each consumer's face
"Our ultimate goal is to bring value to both our retailers and our brands by better understanding consumer engagement with our products.
"We can do so much more with the iSample program. Tied to specific marketing campaigns, we can customise the experience in order to reach out to consumers more efficiently."
Studying shoppers
Although this is the first vending machine of its kind that Intel has been involved in, the firm has previously offered its audience impression metric (AIM) software to other clients.
Adidas used it to power a huge video touchwall that displayed the company's shoes to shoppers, selecting which type according to whether they were male or female.
Harley Davidson used a specially created electronic sign in Toronto to track when there were more women in its stores. Motorcycle sales to women were on the rise and the firm wanted to know when it was best to put more saleswomen in its showrooms
Razor-maker Gillette, mobile phone firm HTC, the Venetian Casino in Las Vegas, Citibank and United Airlines have also tested variations of the technology. And Intel says it has only just started.
"We could put in additional information, like if consumers are wearing a logo," said Ms Tinsley. "If a retailer like Kraft wants to know did they smile or not after getting the sample, that would be interesting.
"One thing we are doing right now is we can measure dwell time. So we can tell in an advertising or signage use of this technology, did they look at the screen for a fraction of a second or for 20 seconds.
"And again it's helpful for the advertiser to know of the people who looked at the sign or the ad, how many saw the full advertisement."
Retrofitting
The machine uses a processor designed for PCs that has been tested for outdoor temperature swings
Intel said it did not use its equipment to profile race, but it has had to tweak its code to deal with different ethnicities.
The firm said it had to restrict AIM's initial release to the US and Europe because its accuracy rate for Asians was not high enough. Its engineers subsequently trained a computer with a database of about 15,000 Asian faces until the rate improved.
It said a second version of the software, released in October, now had a 90% accuracy rate for Asians.
But since the code is still not 100% accurate for any race the company said it would not be suitable to be used in vending machines selling age-restricted products such as alcohol or cigarettes.
However, the firm still has high ambitions to extend the machines beyond fruit-flavoured jellies.
"$1bn [£640m] globally is spent on product sampling, so certainly we could provide technologies into that sector, but we see the bigger markets being digital signage as well as intelligent vending," said Ms Tinsley
"I believe today there are about six million vending machines installed. That's why we have been working with existing vending partner in the industry today to ask: 'How can we retrofit those?'
"Because if we only sell into new vending machines this will take forever to adopt.
"We are talking to brands and they say: 'Man if I can see that I advertise a Cadbury milk chocolate bar and then you didn't buy it and you bought something else instead, and I know the demographics of that product, then that is very helpful information.'"
Apple fined by Italy over misleading product guarantees
An Italian watchdog has fined Apple 900,000 euros ($1.2m, £750,000) for its handling of customer guarantees.
The country's Antitrust Authority said Apple had failed to inform shoppers of their legal right to two years' technical support, recognising instead only a one-year standard warranty.
It said the firm's action had led people to pay extra for Apple's own support service, which overlapped in part with the free guarantee.
Apple could not be reached for comment.
The authority said the penalties applied to the iPhone maker's three local divisions - Apple Italia, Apple Sales International and Apple Retail Italia.
It said it had fined the firm 400,000 euros for failing to recognise the length of the statutory guarantee, as set out in Italy's consumer code, either on its website or at point of sale.
It said that a further 500,000 euro penalty was imposed because the firm had gone on to offer its Applecare Protection Plan.
It said the information provided about the service, and the lack of clarification about customers' rights, combined to "induce consumers to sign an additional contract".
The authority added that Apple would have to publish an extract from its ruling on its website, and must add details of the two-year guarantee to its Applecare plan within 90 days.
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Sony Tablet S
Sony has taken it's time to come up with a tablet. In a market flooded with me-too devices, it's probably wise to build something that shows off your strengths. That's what Sony is hoping for with the Tablet S, a device which they claim incorporates all their innovations.
We picked up four of the main features according to us: the shape, PlayStation certification, the DLNA 'throw' feature and the built in universal remote - to try and dissect them. The shape is unique - like a folded magazine. The rounded edge is where you would hold it when you're looking at the screen in portrait mode.
The shape does make it more ergonomic, but since it's not a conventional tablet shape, it may not find favour with everyone. The PlayStation certification means that Sony will make some exclusive games available for the Tablet S, including older PS One games, complete with on-screen PlayStation controller buttons.
While this is good in theory, games made specifically for tablets are still far easier to play. The DLNA 'throw' feature lets you stream content from your network in multiple directions - from a PC to the tablet or from the tablet to a compatible TV. This is not unique nor the first time it's been done.
Plus, Android tablets have several similar DLNA apps available in the Android Market.
The built in universal remote however, is truly unique, very useful, easy to setup and works like a charm. The rounded edge of the Tablet S has a string of (hidden) infrared emitters. A bundled remote app allows you to configure it to work with any TV, DVD player, Blu-Ray player, set top box, media player, air conditioner or game console that accepts infrared commands.
You can also make the tablet 'learn' codes by using the original remote control. Considering that a touchscreen universal remote control device (like Logitech's Harmony 1100) costs about 28,000, this is a good way to enhance the value of the device. The 9.4-inch screen is a new size - about the same as the iPad's 9.7-inch, though has a higher resolution of 1280 x 800.
Brightness & colours on the screen are good, but it falls short of the iPad and Galaxy Tab 750 when compared side-by-side, especially with respect to viewing angles & contrast levels. Accessories are expensive - absurdly so. A screen protector is 1,890. The basic carry case is over 4,000 while the leather carry case is 6,490.
Other foibles include a micro USB that's only for data transfer - it charges using a proprietary port. Plus, it comes with a laptop sized charger, which is large and unwieldy compared to what other high-end tablets have.
Because of the price, the Tablet S will be compared to the iPad 2 and will also lose out on a lot of sales. But it stands a good chance thanks to the built in remote and PS games.
We picked up four of the main features according to us: the shape, PlayStation certification, the DLNA 'throw' feature and the built in universal remote - to try and dissect them. The shape is unique - like a folded magazine. The rounded edge is where you would hold it when you're looking at the screen in portrait mode.
The shape does make it more ergonomic, but since it's not a conventional tablet shape, it may not find favour with everyone. The PlayStation certification means that Sony will make some exclusive games available for the Tablet S, including older PS One games, complete with on-screen PlayStation controller buttons.
While this is good in theory, games made specifically for tablets are still far easier to play. The DLNA 'throw' feature lets you stream content from your network in multiple directions - from a PC to the tablet or from the tablet to a compatible TV. This is not unique nor the first time it's been done.
Plus, Android tablets have several similar DLNA apps available in the Android Market.
The built in universal remote however, is truly unique, very useful, easy to setup and works like a charm. The rounded edge of the Tablet S has a string of (hidden) infrared emitters. A bundled remote app allows you to configure it to work with any TV, DVD player, Blu-Ray player, set top box, media player, air conditioner or game console that accepts infrared commands.
You can also make the tablet 'learn' codes by using the original remote control. Considering that a touchscreen universal remote control device (like Logitech's Harmony 1100) costs about 28,000, this is a good way to enhance the value of the device. The 9.4-inch screen is a new size - about the same as the iPad's 9.7-inch, though has a higher resolution of 1280 x 800.
Brightness & colours on the screen are good, but it falls short of the iPad and Galaxy Tab 750 when compared side-by-side, especially with respect to viewing angles & contrast levels. Accessories are expensive - absurdly so. A screen protector is 1,890. The basic carry case is over 4,000 while the leather carry case is 6,490.
Other foibles include a micro USB that's only for data transfer - it charges using a proprietary port. Plus, it comes with a laptop sized charger, which is large and unwieldy compared to what other high-end tablets have.
Because of the price, the Tablet S will be compared to the iPad 2 and will also lose out on a lot of sales. But it stands a good chance thanks to the built in remote and PS games.
Will Google fight Apple’s Siri with Alfred?
Google recently had acquired the tech company that has developed Alfred, a smartphone app that acts as a "personal assistant" to make recommendations based on your interests and your "context," such as location, time of day, intent and social information.
According to Clever Sense, the company that created Alfred and that is now part of Google, the app uses artificial intelligence technology to sift through the Web's vast amount of data and to recommend restaurants, bars and other real-world places that you might like.
That sounds a lot like Siri, the personal assistant technology that comes built-in to Apple latest iPhone. Siri offers a much broader range of capabilities than those that appear to currently be available with Alfred, allowing users to speak into their phone to manage their calendars, find nearby restaurants and even inquire about the weather.
But Alfred's AI recommendation technology could provide an important building-block that Google could pair with its existing voice-recognition technology to create its own answer to Siri.
Google's head of mobile Andy Rubin famously dissed Siri at the AsiaD conference in October, saying that "I don't believe that your phone should be your assistant."
"Your phone is a tool for communicating. You shouldn't be communicating with the phone; you should be communicating with somebody on the other side of the phone," Rubin proclaimed.
But in the frenetic arms race to develop and provide the most popular smartphone software, Google cannot afford to be missing something that Apple has - especially with some industry observers speculating that Apple's Siri could provide a new paradigm for searching the Web that circumvents Google's search engine (and, importantly, Google's lucrative search ads).
Meanwhile, the tech blog Android and Me reported that another secret Siri-like project, code-named Majel, is in the works at Google and could be released, in some initial form, in the coming months. The technology, named after the voice of a computer in Star Trek , is an evolution of Google's existing voice actions, allowing a phone to understand a user's natural language instead of specific voice commands, according to the report.
Whatever the moniker - Alfred, Majel, or some other name- it looks like 2012 is shaping up to be a battle of the virtual assistants.
Here's what Google has to say about its deal to acquire Clever Sense, financial terms of which were not disclosed:
"The Clever Sense team is at the forefront of developing a recommendation engine that connects the online and offline worlds by delivering personal and sophisticated information to users at the right time, the right place and within the right context. By combining their technology and expertise with our team and products, we'll be able to provide even more people with intelligent, personalized recommendations for places to eat, visit and discover."
According to Clever Sense, the company that created Alfred and that is now part of Google, the app uses artificial intelligence technology to sift through the Web's vast amount of data and to recommend restaurants, bars and other real-world places that you might like.
That sounds a lot like Siri, the personal assistant technology that comes built-in to Apple latest iPhone. Siri offers a much broader range of capabilities than those that appear to currently be available with Alfred, allowing users to speak into their phone to manage their calendars, find nearby restaurants and even inquire about the weather.
But Alfred's AI recommendation technology could provide an important building-block that Google could pair with its existing voice-recognition technology to create its own answer to Siri.
Google's head of mobile Andy Rubin famously dissed Siri at the AsiaD conference in October, saying that "I don't believe that your phone should be your assistant."
"Your phone is a tool for communicating. You shouldn't be communicating with the phone; you should be communicating with somebody on the other side of the phone," Rubin proclaimed.
But in the frenetic arms race to develop and provide the most popular smartphone software, Google cannot afford to be missing something that Apple has - especially with some industry observers speculating that Apple's Siri could provide a new paradigm for searching the Web that circumvents Google's search engine (and, importantly, Google's lucrative search ads).
Meanwhile, the tech blog Android and Me reported that another secret Siri-like project, code-named Majel, is in the works at Google and could be released, in some initial form, in the coming months. The technology, named after the voice of a computer in Star Trek , is an evolution of Google's existing voice actions, allowing a phone to understand a user's natural language instead of specific voice commands, according to the report.
Whatever the moniker - Alfred, Majel, or some other name- it looks like 2012 is shaping up to be a battle of the virtual assistants.
Here's what Google has to say about its deal to acquire Clever Sense, financial terms of which were not disclosed:
"The Clever Sense team is at the forefront of developing a recommendation engine that connects the online and offline worlds by delivering personal and sophisticated information to users at the right time, the right place and within the right context. By combining their technology and expertise with our team and products, we'll be able to provide even more people with intelligent, personalized recommendations for places to eat, visit and discover."
Pope Benedict XVI attacks Christmas consumerism at Mass
Pope Benedict XVI has attacked the commercialisation of Christmas as he held the traditional Christmas Eve Mass at St Peter's Basilica in Rome.
In his homily, he urged worshippers to "see through the superficial glitter of this season and to discover behind it the child in the stable in Bethlehem".
Benedict, 84, used a moving platform to cater for his mobility issues.
The pontiff will deliver his annual Urbi et Orbi (To the City and the World) speech in a few hours.
Meanwhile, Christian pilgrims and tourists from around the world last night converged on Bethlehem for Christmas.
Celebrations culminated in Midnight Mass at the 1,700-year-old Church of the Nativity, built on the spot where it is believed Jesus was born.
About 120,000 visitors were in the Palestinian West Bank town, 30% up on last year, officials said.
Firm message
Christmas Eve Mass in Rome was brought forward two hours to 22:00 local time (21:00 GMT) from midnight - in order to spare Benedict a late night.
Wearing cream and gold vestments, the Pope proceeded slowly up the aisle of St Peter's on his mobile platform.
In his homily, he urged the faithful to focus on the story of Jesus' birth, saying this would help "find true joy and true light".
He also lamented the enduring presence of violence in the world and prayed for those who would spend this Christmas in poverty and suffering.
Even if he is physically more frail now, his message was firm, the BBC's Alan Johnston in Rome says.
In a few hours, the pontiff will give his traditional blessing and message in St Peter's square before tens of thousands of people from around the world.
Reconciliation plea
In Bethlehem, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Fuad Twal, led the Midnight Mass.
He passed through the massive gate in the controversial Israeli security barrier that separates Jerusalem from Bethlehem and arrived in Manger Square, where he was greeted with a bagpipe band.
Patriarch Twal, a Palestinian who is a Jordanian citizen, has expressed concern for Christians in the current upheavals in the Middle East and asked them to support moves towards freedom and democracy.
His midnight homily urged "the return of calm and reconciliation in Syria, in Egypt, in Iraq and in North Africa".
It reads: "O Child of Bethlehem, in this New Year, we place in your hands this troubled Middle East and, above all, our youth full of legitimate aspirations, who are frustrated by the economic and political situation, and in search of a better future."
American visitor Irma Goldsmith told Associated Press: "I watch Christmas in Bethlehem each year on TV, but to be here in person is different. To be in the spot where our saviour was born is amazing."
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas attended the celebrations.
He said: "I wish for the Palestinian people that next year will be the year of implementing peace in the occupied Palestinian lands."
Bethlehem Mayor Victor Batarseh also said he hoped the festivities would bring Palestinians closer to their dream of statehood.
In his homily, he urged worshippers to "see through the superficial glitter of this season and to discover behind it the child in the stable in Bethlehem".
Benedict, 84, used a moving platform to cater for his mobility issues.
The pontiff will deliver his annual Urbi et Orbi (To the City and the World) speech in a few hours.
Meanwhile, Christian pilgrims and tourists from around the world last night converged on Bethlehem for Christmas.
Celebrations culminated in Midnight Mass at the 1,700-year-old Church of the Nativity, built on the spot where it is believed Jesus was born.
About 120,000 visitors were in the Palestinian West Bank town, 30% up on last year, officials said.
Firm message
Christmas Eve Mass in Rome was brought forward two hours to 22:00 local time (21:00 GMT) from midnight - in order to spare Benedict a late night.
Wearing cream and gold vestments, the Pope proceeded slowly up the aisle of St Peter's on his mobile platform.
In his homily, he urged the faithful to focus on the story of Jesus' birth, saying this would help "find true joy and true light".
He also lamented the enduring presence of violence in the world and prayed for those who would spend this Christmas in poverty and suffering.
Even if he is physically more frail now, his message was firm, the BBC's Alan Johnston in Rome says.
In a few hours, the pontiff will give his traditional blessing and message in St Peter's square before tens of thousands of people from around the world.
Reconciliation plea
In Bethlehem, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Fuad Twal, led the Midnight Mass.
He passed through the massive gate in the controversial Israeli security barrier that separates Jerusalem from Bethlehem and arrived in Manger Square, where he was greeted with a bagpipe band.
Patriarch Twal, a Palestinian who is a Jordanian citizen, has expressed concern for Christians in the current upheavals in the Middle East and asked them to support moves towards freedom and democracy.
His midnight homily urged "the return of calm and reconciliation in Syria, in Egypt, in Iraq and in North Africa".
It reads: "O Child of Bethlehem, in this New Year, we place in your hands this troubled Middle East and, above all, our youth full of legitimate aspirations, who are frustrated by the economic and political situation, and in search of a better future."
American visitor Irma Goldsmith told Associated Press: "I watch Christmas in Bethlehem each year on TV, but to be here in person is different. To be in the spot where our saviour was born is amazing."
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas attended the celebrations.
He said: "I wish for the Palestinian people that next year will be the year of implementing peace in the occupied Palestinian lands."
Bethlehem Mayor Victor Batarseh also said he hoped the festivities would bring Palestinians closer to their dream of statehood.
Store makes Christmas tree from cellphones in Vietnam
Southeast Asia is closer to the equator than the North Pole, but an electronics store in Vietnam is ringing in the holidays with a 15-foot Christmas tree made from more than 2500 unusable cellular phones.
Nguyen Trai, a store manager at Westcom Electronics in the southern city of My Tho, says 10 workers spent two weeks building the cellular Christmas tree that he hopes will raise awareness about hazardous waste and promote environmental responsibility.
The glittering, cone-shaped creation has been on display for about two weeks outside the store in southern Tien Giang Province.
Between 700 and 800 people visit daily, Trai told the Associated Press.
"Many of them have taken pictures with the tree," he said.
Cellphones are ubiquitous in Vietnam, where more than 60 per cent of the population is under 30 and hordes of young people flaunt flashy electronics to mark their rising wealth even as the country struggles to contain one of Asia's highest inflation rates.
Although the majority of communist Vietnam's 87 million people are Buddhist, there is a sizable Catholic minority and an enthusiastic general embrace of all things Christmas. The country's two largest cities _ Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City _ are studded with holiday lights all winter long, with bright-eyed teens promenading in Santa hats and yuletide-themed electronic music blaring in sidewalk cafes.
Westcom Electronics plans to auction its cellphone tree next year and donate the proceeds to charity, said store manager Nguyen Trai, adding that staff members are already collecting unusable phones in hopes of erecting an even bigger Christmas ``pine tree'' next year.
There are tens of millions of cellphones in circulation in Vietnam, but it's impossible to know how many used phones are dumped each year because the government doesn't collect such data, said Nguyen Thanh Yen of Vietnam's Environment Administration.
Yen said he welcomed the idea of raising awareness about hazardous waste, but Westcom Electronics has violated Vietnamese law, which requires businesses to seek official permission before using hazardous waste for new purposes.
According to the United Nations Environment Programme, people working in the informal sector collect the majority of "recyclable and reusable waste" in urban areas of Vietnam.
Solid waste management is among the "major environmental burdens" in developed and developing countries across Asia, especially in megacities, the UN says.
Nguyen Trai, a store manager at Westcom Electronics in the southern city of My Tho, says 10 workers spent two weeks building the cellular Christmas tree that he hopes will raise awareness about hazardous waste and promote environmental responsibility.
The glittering, cone-shaped creation has been on display for about two weeks outside the store in southern Tien Giang Province.
Between 700 and 800 people visit daily, Trai told the Associated Press.
"Many of them have taken pictures with the tree," he said.
Cellphones are ubiquitous in Vietnam, where more than 60 per cent of the population is under 30 and hordes of young people flaunt flashy electronics to mark their rising wealth even as the country struggles to contain one of Asia's highest inflation rates.
Although the majority of communist Vietnam's 87 million people are Buddhist, there is a sizable Catholic minority and an enthusiastic general embrace of all things Christmas. The country's two largest cities _ Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City _ are studded with holiday lights all winter long, with bright-eyed teens promenading in Santa hats and yuletide-themed electronic music blaring in sidewalk cafes.
Westcom Electronics plans to auction its cellphone tree next year and donate the proceeds to charity, said store manager Nguyen Trai, adding that staff members are already collecting unusable phones in hopes of erecting an even bigger Christmas ``pine tree'' next year.
There are tens of millions of cellphones in circulation in Vietnam, but it's impossible to know how many used phones are dumped each year because the government doesn't collect such data, said Nguyen Thanh Yen of Vietnam's Environment Administration.
Yen said he welcomed the idea of raising awareness about hazardous waste, but Westcom Electronics has violated Vietnamese law, which requires businesses to seek official permission before using hazardous waste for new purposes.
According to the United Nations Environment Programme, people working in the informal sector collect the majority of "recyclable and reusable waste" in urban areas of Vietnam.
Solid waste management is among the "major environmental burdens" in developed and developing countries across Asia, especially in megacities, the UN says.
New optical device to boost data processing
A new optical device, tiny enough to fit millions on a computer chip, could catalyse faster, more powerful information processing and supercomputers.
The "passive optical diode" is made from two tiny silicon rings measuring 10 microns across, or about a 10th the width of human hair.
Unlike other optical diodes, it does not require external assistance to transmit signals and can be readily integrated into computer chips.
The diode is capable of "non-reciprocal transmission", meaning it transmits signals in only one direction, making it capable of information processing, said Minghao Qi, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at Purdue, the journal Science reports.
"This one-way transmission is the most fundamental part of a logic circuit, so our diodes open the door to optical information processing," said Qi, working with a team also led by Andrew Weiner, Purdue professor of electrical and computer engineering, according to a statement.
Although fibre optic cables transmit staggering amounts of data across oceans and continents, information processing is slowed and the data are susceptible to cyber attack when optical signals must be translated into electronic signals for use in computers, and vice versa.
"This translation requires expensive equipment," study co-author Jian Wang said. "What you'd rather be able to do is plug the fibre directly into computers with no translation needed, and then you get a lot of bandwidth and security."
The "passive optical diode" is made from two tiny silicon rings measuring 10 microns across, or about a 10th the width of human hair.
Unlike other optical diodes, it does not require external assistance to transmit signals and can be readily integrated into computer chips.
The diode is capable of "non-reciprocal transmission", meaning it transmits signals in only one direction, making it capable of information processing, said Minghao Qi, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at Purdue, the journal Science reports.
"This one-way transmission is the most fundamental part of a logic circuit, so our diodes open the door to optical information processing," said Qi, working with a team also led by Andrew Weiner, Purdue professor of electrical and computer engineering, according to a statement.
Although fibre optic cables transmit staggering amounts of data across oceans and continents, information processing is slowed and the data are susceptible to cyber attack when optical signals must be translated into electronic signals for use in computers, and vice versa.
"This translation requires expensive equipment," study co-author Jian Wang said. "What you'd rather be able to do is plug the fibre directly into computers with no translation needed, and then you get a lot of bandwidth and security."
Indian telecoms win reprieve on 3G order
India's telecom operators on Saturday won a reprieve from a government order that they end "illegal" mutual roaming agreements to provide seamless nationwide 3G services, a report said.
The country's telecom tribunal called for a stay on the order until a hearing on January 3, amid an ongoing battle pitting Delhi against the nation's biggest mobile operators.
The pacts that let the operators offer 3G services outside their licensed zones are "in violation of terms and conditions of their licences," the top bureaucrat in the telecom ministry said this week.
But the tribunal's Justice S.B. Sinha ordered that the government "not take any coercive actions against these operators to enforce the order of December 23, 2011," according to the Press Trust of India news agency.
On Friday, India's telecom ministry ordered leading operators including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular to scrap the roaming pacts.
There was no immediate reaction to the stay order from the mobile phone operators, who had approached the tribunal.
In an earlier statement released late Friday, Vodafone India called the government's order "completely unreasonable."
"We will take suitable course of action to protect our and our consumers' interest," the company said.
Third generation, or 3G, allows mobile phone users to surf the Internet, video conference and download music, video and other content at a fast pace.
The Indian government reaped $15 billion from auctioning 3G licences last year. None of the major operators managed to get bandwidth in every one of India's telecom service areas.
Indian telecom companies currently generate only small revenues from data services but they expect the market to grow exponentially as less than 10 percent of the 1.2 billion population has access to Internet at the moment.
India has some 881.4 million mobile and 33.2 million fixed-line subscribers with total teledensity -- the number of telephones per 100 people -- standing at 76, latest government data shows, up from 2.5 in 2000.
The country's telecom tribunal called for a stay on the order until a hearing on January 3, amid an ongoing battle pitting Delhi against the nation's biggest mobile operators.
The pacts that let the operators offer 3G services outside their licensed zones are "in violation of terms and conditions of their licences," the top bureaucrat in the telecom ministry said this week.
But the tribunal's Justice S.B. Sinha ordered that the government "not take any coercive actions against these operators to enforce the order of December 23, 2011," according to the Press Trust of India news agency.
On Friday, India's telecom ministry ordered leading operators including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular to scrap the roaming pacts.
There was no immediate reaction to the stay order from the mobile phone operators, who had approached the tribunal.
In an earlier statement released late Friday, Vodafone India called the government's order "completely unreasonable."
"We will take suitable course of action to protect our and our consumers' interest," the company said.
Third generation, or 3G, allows mobile phone users to surf the Internet, video conference and download music, video and other content at a fast pace.
The Indian government reaped $15 billion from auctioning 3G licences last year. None of the major operators managed to get bandwidth in every one of India's telecom service areas.
Indian telecom companies currently generate only small revenues from data services but they expect the market to grow exponentially as less than 10 percent of the 1.2 billion population has access to Internet at the moment.
India has some 881.4 million mobile and 33.2 million fixed-line subscribers with total teledensity -- the number of telephones per 100 people -- standing at 76, latest government data shows, up from 2.5 in 2000.
Former breast implant kingpin wanted by Interpol
The boss of the defunct French company at the centre of a massive recall of breast implants is wanted by Interpol, but for other reasons.
The international police co-ordinating body has had a "red notice," akin to a global arrest warrant, for Jean-Claude Mas since June.
It was issued at the request of Costa Rica because he's wanted there in connection with a drinking-and-driving incident, Interpol said Saturday in a statement on its website.
Interpol said the red notice has nothing to do with Friday's announcement by the French government that it would pay for 30,000 women to have their silicone breast implants removed over fears they could rupture.
Those implants are just a fraction of the hundreds of thousands produced by French company Poly Implant Prothèse between the mid-2000s and early 2010, when its product was ordered off the market.
A Paris-based plastic surgeon holds a silicone gel breast implant made by French company Poly Implant Prothèse that he removed from a patient because of concerns they are unsafe. (Michel Euler/Associated Press)
Most of the company's implants were exported — about half to South America and a quarter to Western Europe.
So far, no other country has said it will pay for women to have the implants taken out, but Germany has recommended women consult with their doctors about possibly having them removed. The top medical official in Britain, where up to 40,000 women received the implants, said there's no need for worry because authorities have no evidence of a heightened risk of cancer or rupture.
Canada was not among the 65 countries where the products were distributed, Health Canada said earlier this week. Nor was the United States.
At its peak, Poly Implant Prothèse was the world's third-biggest manufacturer of breast implants. French authorities said this week that its products have "a particular fragility" that appears to pose a higher risk of rupture earlier in their life than other implants, and that the silicone gel the company was using is substandard.
France's health and safety agency says more than 1,000 of the implants have burst, and eight women with the implants have developed cancer.
The international police co-ordinating body has had a "red notice," akin to a global arrest warrant, for Jean-Claude Mas since June.
It was issued at the request of Costa Rica because he's wanted there in connection with a drinking-and-driving incident, Interpol said Saturday in a statement on its website.
Interpol said the red notice has nothing to do with Friday's announcement by the French government that it would pay for 30,000 women to have their silicone breast implants removed over fears they could rupture.
Those implants are just a fraction of the hundreds of thousands produced by French company Poly Implant Prothèse between the mid-2000s and early 2010, when its product was ordered off the market.
A Paris-based plastic surgeon holds a silicone gel breast implant made by French company Poly Implant Prothèse that he removed from a patient because of concerns they are unsafe. (Michel Euler/Associated Press)
Most of the company's implants were exported — about half to South America and a quarter to Western Europe.
So far, no other country has said it will pay for women to have the implants taken out, but Germany has recommended women consult with their doctors about possibly having them removed. The top medical official in Britain, where up to 40,000 women received the implants, said there's no need for worry because authorities have no evidence of a heightened risk of cancer or rupture.
Canada was not among the 65 countries where the products were distributed, Health Canada said earlier this week. Nor was the United States.
At its peak, Poly Implant Prothèse was the world's third-biggest manufacturer of breast implants. French authorities said this week that its products have "a particular fragility" that appears to pose a higher risk of rupture earlier in their life than other implants, and that the silicone gel the company was using is substandard.
France's health and safety agency says more than 1,000 of the implants have burst, and eight women with the implants have developed cancer.
Kudankulam, Mullaperiyar to dominate PM's Tamil Nadu visit
The Mullaperiyar Dam row, the stalled Kudankulam project, financial assistance and additional power to the state are some to the issues that are expected to be discussed by Tamil Nadu leaders with PM Manmohan Singh during his two-day visit starting Dec 25.
DMK president M Karunanidhi told reporters Saturday that he will be meeting Manmohan Singh Monday and discuss the Mullaperiyar issue.
He said he will discuss the attacks on Tamils in Kerala and the raising of storage levels in the Dam to 142 ft.
Kerala and Tamil Nadu have been at loggerheads over the dam -- located in Kerala, but under the control of Tamil Nadu and serving the state.
Tamil Nadu is stongly objecting to Kerala's demand of a new dam and reduction in storage level to 120 ft till a new dam is built.
Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa is also likely to meet the prime minister Sunday though it has not been confirmed one.
This is the first time Manmohan Singh is visiting Tamil Nadu after the AIADMK came to power in May. He came here in January to inaugurate the Indian Science Congress.
Jayalalithaa is sore at the central government for not heeding her requests for financial assistance, additional power and kerosene allocation to the state.
Then there is the matter of the Kudankulam project.
India's nuclear power plant operator Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) is building two 1,000 MW atomic power reactors at Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu's Tirunelveli district, around 650 km from Chennai, at an outlay of Rs.13,171 crore.
The first unit was slated to be commissioned in December. However villagers, citing fears for their lives and safety, started their agitation in August and brought all the project-related activities to a standstill.
Tamil Nadu cabinet has passed a resolution urging the central government to stop all works at the project site till the fears are allayed.
Manmohan Singh's comments during his recent Russian visit that the first reactor at Kundankulam would be operationalised in two weeks time did not go down well with Jayalalithaa.
In turn, Jayalalithaa wrote to the prime minister that she was "amazed" to see such comments being made and reminded him of the cabinet resolution.
Meanwhile parties like DMDK and MDMK have announced staging black flag demonstrations during the prime minister's visit.
On Dec 26, Manmohan Singh will participate in the 125th birth anniversary celebrations of mathematician S.Ramanujan organised by The Institute of Mathematical Sciences.
He would then leave for Karaikudi in Sivaganga district to participate in a function at Alagappa University and inaugurate the 100th eye hospital of Vasan Healthcare Group.
DMK president M Karunanidhi told reporters Saturday that he will be meeting Manmohan Singh Monday and discuss the Mullaperiyar issue.
He said he will discuss the attacks on Tamils in Kerala and the raising of storage levels in the Dam to 142 ft.
Kerala and Tamil Nadu have been at loggerheads over the dam -- located in Kerala, but under the control of Tamil Nadu and serving the state.
Tamil Nadu is stongly objecting to Kerala's demand of a new dam and reduction in storage level to 120 ft till a new dam is built.
Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa is also likely to meet the prime minister Sunday though it has not been confirmed one.
This is the first time Manmohan Singh is visiting Tamil Nadu after the AIADMK came to power in May. He came here in January to inaugurate the Indian Science Congress.
Jayalalithaa is sore at the central government for not heeding her requests for financial assistance, additional power and kerosene allocation to the state.
Then there is the matter of the Kudankulam project.
India's nuclear power plant operator Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) is building two 1,000 MW atomic power reactors at Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu's Tirunelveli district, around 650 km from Chennai, at an outlay of Rs.13,171 crore.
The first unit was slated to be commissioned in December. However villagers, citing fears for their lives and safety, started their agitation in August and brought all the project-related activities to a standstill.
Tamil Nadu cabinet has passed a resolution urging the central government to stop all works at the project site till the fears are allayed.
Manmohan Singh's comments during his recent Russian visit that the first reactor at Kundankulam would be operationalised in two weeks time did not go down well with Jayalalithaa.
In turn, Jayalalithaa wrote to the prime minister that she was "amazed" to see such comments being made and reminded him of the cabinet resolution.
Meanwhile parties like DMDK and MDMK have announced staging black flag demonstrations during the prime minister's visit.
On Dec 26, Manmohan Singh will participate in the 125th birth anniversary celebrations of mathematician S.Ramanujan organised by The Institute of Mathematical Sciences.
He would then leave for Karaikudi in Sivaganga district to participate in a function at Alagappa University and inaugurate the 100th eye hospital of Vasan Healthcare Group.
Mobile phones in India will carry radiation tags and health warnings
The Indian Government is enforcing strict norms to control harmful radiations emitted by mobile handsets. According to norms, handset manufacturers will have to display prominently the radiation level emitted from the cell phone.
As the present radiation levels are injurious to health, this new move is expected to benefit over 900 million mobile phone subscribers.
Mobile phones will soon come with radiation tags and health warnings. The mobile subscribers will be the direct beneficiaries of stringent new government norms.
The general consumers are unaware of the harm that mobile phone radiations can cause to them. Mobile handsets emit harmful Electro-Magnetic Frequency (EMF) radiation, which can cause severe health hazards.
The government is looking at educating people about the various ways in which a cell phone can be avoided. It wants to enforce the benefits of hands-free, usage of SMSs instead of voice calls and also issue health warnings for adolescents, children, pregnant women and others who have any kind of medical implants.
The manufacturer will also have to necessarily display the Specific Absorption rate (SAR) value information of the mobile handset on its website along with the handset manual. Also, it will be compulsory to provide information on SAR values to mobile subscribers when they are buying the handset.
All the mobile handsets that will be manufactured or sold in India or even imported from other countries will have to be checked for compliance of the SAR limit. The companies manufacturing handsets in India will be required to self-declare SAR value of each handset.
In case of imported handsets, apart from self-declaration of SAR value, manufacturers will have to specify the SAR information in their documentation and an appropriate authority will verify them.
A final list of SAR values of different mobile phones will be uploaded on the DoT and TEC websites. So far, India along with Europe, Japan, Taiwan and Australia have followed ICNIRP standards, while markets such as the United States, Canada and South Africa follow IEEE standards.
The government also wants the instructions in the consumer handset booklet or user manual to contain five new safety precautions. These include:
• Use a wireless, hands-free system with a low power Bluetooth emitter;
• Ensure that cellphone has a low SAR;
• Keep voice calls short or send text messages instead – an advice that applies especially to children, adolescents and pregnant women;
• Use cellphone when signal quality is good; and finally
• People with active medical implants should preferably keep mobile handsets at least 15cms away from the implant.
As the present radiation levels are injurious to health, this new move is expected to benefit over 900 million mobile phone subscribers.
Mobile phones will soon come with radiation tags and health warnings. The mobile subscribers will be the direct beneficiaries of stringent new government norms.
The general consumers are unaware of the harm that mobile phone radiations can cause to them. Mobile handsets emit harmful Electro-Magnetic Frequency (EMF) radiation, which can cause severe health hazards.
The government is looking at educating people about the various ways in which a cell phone can be avoided. It wants to enforce the benefits of hands-free, usage of SMSs instead of voice calls and also issue health warnings for adolescents, children, pregnant women and others who have any kind of medical implants.
The manufacturer will also have to necessarily display the Specific Absorption rate (SAR) value information of the mobile handset on its website along with the handset manual. Also, it will be compulsory to provide information on SAR values to mobile subscribers when they are buying the handset.
All the mobile handsets that will be manufactured or sold in India or even imported from other countries will have to be checked for compliance of the SAR limit. The companies manufacturing handsets in India will be required to self-declare SAR value of each handset.
In case of imported handsets, apart from self-declaration of SAR value, manufacturers will have to specify the SAR information in their documentation and an appropriate authority will verify them.
A final list of SAR values of different mobile phones will be uploaded on the DoT and TEC websites. So far, India along with Europe, Japan, Taiwan and Australia have followed ICNIRP standards, while markets such as the United States, Canada and South Africa follow IEEE standards.
The government also wants the instructions in the consumer handset booklet or user manual to contain five new safety precautions. These include:
• Use a wireless, hands-free system with a low power Bluetooth emitter;
• Ensure that cellphone has a low SAR;
• Keep voice calls short or send text messages instead – an advice that applies especially to children, adolescents and pregnant women;
• Use cellphone when signal quality is good; and finally
• People with active medical implants should preferably keep mobile handsets at least 15cms away from the implant.
Faster planning with FasterPlan
You don't need to break your back being the sole organiser of an event - take help from the attendees using fasterplan.com - a free event planning tool. You don't need to sign up to start using it; you don't even need to enter an email ID.
Just click start and a 'billboard ' with a URL is automatically created. You can add your notes, select dates and times and add a poll. Once you do this, just share the URL with all the people you're inviting - FasterPlan can also take over the task of inviting everyone if you key in their email IDs - but you don't have to do this (and it's probably better if you don't, given privacy concerns). Every invitee has control over the billboard - to add more text or edit the existing block, to edit the poll and to select a mutually convenient date and time.
Just refresh the page at your end to see what each invitee has changed. FasterPlan automatically recommends the best date and time for your event (based on the common time that everyone has selected).
You can also set an alert - FasterPlan will alert you whenever someone makes changes/additions to a billboard - but you do need to enter your email ID for this. Whatever the case, the URL for your billboard remains constant, and the only thing you need to share to plan your event.
Just click start and a 'billboard ' with a URL is automatically created. You can add your notes, select dates and times and add a poll. Once you do this, just share the URL with all the people you're inviting - FasterPlan can also take over the task of inviting everyone if you key in their email IDs - but you don't have to do this (and it's probably better if you don't, given privacy concerns). Every invitee has control over the billboard - to add more text or edit the existing block, to edit the poll and to select a mutually convenient date and time.
Just refresh the page at your end to see what each invitee has changed. FasterPlan automatically recommends the best date and time for your event (based on the common time that everyone has selected).
You can also set an alert - FasterPlan will alert you whenever someone makes changes/additions to a billboard - but you do need to enter your email ID for this. Whatever the case, the URL for your billboard remains constant, and the only thing you need to share to plan your event.
The value of Google’s Firefox browser deal
Firefox-maker Mozilla recently announced that it had renewed a "mutually beneficial revenue agreement" with Google for at least three more years.
The deal basically means that Google remains the default search engine built-in to the Firefox Web browser, a privilege for which Google pays Mozilla an unspecified fee.
Since Google signed the original deal in 2004, the search giant has introduced its own Web browser, dubbed Google Chrome. And with Chrome now used by one in four Web surfers, speculation had grown that Google might not renew the Firefox licensing deal, depriving the non-profit Mozilla of a vital revenue source (according to AllThingsD, which broke the news of the deal renewal, Google contributed 84 per cent of Mozilla's $123 million in 2010 revenue).
The value of the current Google deal with Mozilla is not being disclosed. Whatever the amount is though, it's safe to say that it represents pocket change to Google, which has $43 billion in cash and short term securities on its balance sheet.
And with Google facing antitrust scrutiny for a variety of business practices, spending a little money to keep a rival browser alive has important PR value.
True, Google doesn't dominate the Web browser market the way it does the search market. But Chrome's market share is growing fast (in September 2009, it had a scant 2.8 percent share). And given the importance of the Web browser as the gateway to online information, Google's newfound status as a browser superpower could provide ammunition to its critics going forward, especially if the browser market were to suddenly consist of only two major players, i.e Google and Microsoft.
Of course, there's no guarantee that Firefox would have disappeared had Google not renewed the deal - Microsoft might well have swooped in as Firefox's new benefactor, becoming the default Firefox search provider in the process.
Still, in some ways Google's Mozilla deal has echoes of a past move by another tech giant that once faced its own antitrust scrutiny: in 1997 Microsoft invested $150 million in Apple, a move that kept the then-struggling Mac maker alive to see another day and seemed designed to soften the criticisms about Microsoft's PC market dominance.
A year later though, the US government went on to sue Microsoft for antitrust violations.
The deal basically means that Google remains the default search engine built-in to the Firefox Web browser, a privilege for which Google pays Mozilla an unspecified fee.
Since Google signed the original deal in 2004, the search giant has introduced its own Web browser, dubbed Google Chrome. And with Chrome now used by one in four Web surfers, speculation had grown that Google might not renew the Firefox licensing deal, depriving the non-profit Mozilla of a vital revenue source (according to AllThingsD, which broke the news of the deal renewal, Google contributed 84 per cent of Mozilla's $123 million in 2010 revenue).
The value of the current Google deal with Mozilla is not being disclosed. Whatever the amount is though, it's safe to say that it represents pocket change to Google, which has $43 billion in cash and short term securities on its balance sheet.
And with Google facing antitrust scrutiny for a variety of business practices, spending a little money to keep a rival browser alive has important PR value.
True, Google doesn't dominate the Web browser market the way it does the search market. But Chrome's market share is growing fast (in September 2009, it had a scant 2.8 percent share). And given the importance of the Web browser as the gateway to online information, Google's newfound status as a browser superpower could provide ammunition to its critics going forward, especially if the browser market were to suddenly consist of only two major players, i.e Google and Microsoft.
Of course, there's no guarantee that Firefox would have disappeared had Google not renewed the deal - Microsoft might well have swooped in as Firefox's new benefactor, becoming the default Firefox search provider in the process.
Still, in some ways Google's Mozilla deal has echoes of a past move by another tech giant that once faced its own antitrust scrutiny: in 1997 Microsoft invested $150 million in Apple, a move that kept the then-struggling Mac maker alive to see another day and seemed designed to soften the criticisms about Microsoft's PC market dominance.
A year later though, the US government went on to sue Microsoft for antitrust violations.
Kim Jong-un hailed 'supreme commander'
New North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has been hailed by state media as "supreme commander" of the country's powerful armed forces for the first time.
The ruling party newspaper Rodong Shinmun also called on Kim Jong-un to lead North Korea to "eternal victory".
State media had been calling Mr Kim "the great successor" after the death of his father Kim Jong-il on Monday.
Mr Kim has little political experience and experts believe senior officials are guiding the transition.
"We declare from our hearts ... we will complete the task of songun (military-first) revolution under comrade Kim Jong-un", the paper said in an editorial.
The "songun" policy prioritises spending on North Korea's armed forces.
Last year, the Swiss-educated Mr Kim was made a four-star general and given senior positions in the government and the Workers' Party.
The announcement comes on the 20th anniversary of the declaration of the late Kim Jong-Il as supreme commander in 1991.
Large crowds have continued to mourn Mr Kim's death in the capital Pyongyang, gathering to bow in front of large portraits of him set up around the city.
Some mourners were reported to be volunteering to clear snow from the streets in advance of the funeral motorcade that is expected to take Mr Kim's body around the city on Wednesday.
"Our general Kim Jong-il went on trips of field guidance for people throughout his whole life, on roads covered with snow, and how can we make his last trip on snow-covered roads?", mourner Jong Myong Hui told AP.
Pyongyang residents were quoted by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) as expressing their appreciation for the state distribution of fish, an order reportedly issued by Kim Jong-il a day before his death.
"Salespeople and citizens burst out sobbing at fish shops in the capital", according to the Rodong Shinmun paper.
The South Korean government confirmed on Saturday that Lee Hee-ho, wife of late South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, will head a delegation to the North next week to express their condolences.
This will not however be an official visit and the South Korean government has issued a travel ban on its citizens in connection with the leader's death, the Yonhap news agency reports.
Thousands rally against Vladimir Putin
Tens of thousands of people have rallied in central Moscow in a show of anger at alleged electoral fraud.
They passed a resolution "not to give a single vote to Vladimir Putin" at next year's presidential election.
Protest leader Alexei Navalny told the crowd to loud applause that Russians would no longer tolerate corruption.
"I see enough people here to take the Kremlin and [Government House] right now but we are peaceful people and won't do that just yet," he said.
Demonstrators say parliamentary elections on 4 December, which were won by Mr Putin's party, were rigged. The government denies the accusation.
A sea of demonstrators stretched along Sakharov Avenue, a few miles from the Kremlin, in sub-zero temperatures.
Rallies were taking place across Russia, with the first big protest in the far eastern city of Vladivostok.
Continue reading the main story
At least 28,000 people turned out in the capital, according to the Russian interior ministry, but rally organisers said the true number was around 120,000.
President Dmitry Medvedev announced political reforms this week, but many demonstrators say it is not enough.
They are demanding a re-run of the poll, which was won by Vladimir Putin's party - but with a much smaller share of the overall vote.
Mr Putin poured scorn on protesters during a recent live chat on Russian TV, calling them "Banderlog" after the lawless monkeys in The Jungle Book, and likening their protest symbol, a white ribbon, to a condom.
However he also said protesters had the right to demonstrate if they kept within the law.
'We're the power '
In Moscow, many protesters clutched white balloons and banners with the slogan "For Free Elections" while some mocked Mr Putin with images of condoms, to the extent that the first speaker, music journalist Artyom Troitsky, dressed himself up as one.
The resolution passed at Saturday's rally built on demands expressed at an earlier rally in Moscow on 10 December.
Another new point was a call for the creation of a new election monitoring body - the Moscow Voters' Association - to investigate ballot-rigging.
Mr Navalny, a prominent anti-corruption blogger who was jailed for 15 days over a street protest just after the elections, greeted the crowd with the words "Greetings to the Banderlog from the net hamsters [internet activists]".
Condemning Russia's leaders as "swindlers and thieves", he listed victims of injustice including imprisoned former tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky and anti-corruption lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who died in custody.
"Who's the power here?" he shouted to cries of "We are" from the crowd.
He promised that the next protest rally would be a "million strong".
Alexei Kudrin, who recently resigned after serving a decade as Mr Putin's finance minister, was booed when he took the microphone to call for early parliamentary elections and urge a dialogue between the Kremlin and the opposition.
"There needs to be a platform for dialogue, otherwise there will be a revolution and we lose the chance that we have today for a peaceful transformation," he said.
An eclectic line-up of 22 speakers were expected at the Moscow rally, with rival opposition figures addressing a crowd which mixed liberals with nationalists
In a video message, Russian rock musician Yury Shevchuk urged protesters to maintain their dignity and avoid "competing in hatred for the authorities"
Billionaire and Putin election challenger Mikhail Prokhorov had been expected to address the rally but stayed in the crowd, saying he had heard presidential candidates were "not supposed to speak"
Another presidential candidate, veteran liberal Grigory Yavlinsky, did speak, and called for a free electoral system.
Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, 80, did not attend after all, sending a message of support instead
Saturday's rally in Moscow ended peacefully, with the last speaker a Grandfather Frost (Russian Santa Claus) figure who wished citizens of a "free Russia" a Happy New Year.
"People were scared before the first big demonstration on 10 December," protester Andrei Luzhin told AFP news agency.
"Now they no longer have fear."
Lack of leader
Some 50,000 people rallied on 10 December, in what was then biggest anti-government protest since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.
In St Petersburg's Pioneer Square the Just Russia party called for a rerun of the parliamentary elections
On Thursday, Mr Medvedev proposed to hold direct elections of regional governors and simplify the procedure for registering political parties, but protesters say the concessions do not go far enough, the BBC's Steve Rosenberg in Moscow says.
However, one of the main problems for the opposition is that there is no single leader able to unite it, our correspondent adds.
Rallies against ballot-rigging were reported across Russia's time zones though none were on the same scale as that in Moscow.
In the Pacific port of Vladivostok, demonstrators carried posters calling for Mr Putin to be put on trial and regional MP Artyom Samsonov said the election results should be cancelled
In the Siberian city of Novosibirsk, a rally of between 800 and 1,500 people passed off peacefully
About 100 people braved a frost of -15C in Orenburg on the border with Kazakhstan
About 500 people rallied in Chelyabinsk in the southern Urals under the slogan "These elections were a farce! We want honest elections"
Several arrests were made in St Petersburg, Vladimir Putin's home city, where two rallies were held, reportedly attended by a total of about 2,500 people.
They passed a resolution "not to give a single vote to Vladimir Putin" at next year's presidential election.
Protest leader Alexei Navalny told the crowd to loud applause that Russians would no longer tolerate corruption.
"I see enough people here to take the Kremlin and [Government House] right now but we are peaceful people and won't do that just yet," he said.
Demonstrators say parliamentary elections on 4 December, which were won by Mr Putin's party, were rigged. The government denies the accusation.
A sea of demonstrators stretched along Sakharov Avenue, a few miles from the Kremlin, in sub-zero temperatures.
Rallies were taking place across Russia, with the first big protest in the far eastern city of Vladivostok.
Continue reading the main story
At least 28,000 people turned out in the capital, according to the Russian interior ministry, but rally organisers said the true number was around 120,000.
President Dmitry Medvedev announced political reforms this week, but many demonstrators say it is not enough.
They are demanding a re-run of the poll, which was won by Vladimir Putin's party - but with a much smaller share of the overall vote.
Mr Putin poured scorn on protesters during a recent live chat on Russian TV, calling them "Banderlog" after the lawless monkeys in The Jungle Book, and likening their protest symbol, a white ribbon, to a condom.
However he also said protesters had the right to demonstrate if they kept within the law.
'We're the power '
In Moscow, many protesters clutched white balloons and banners with the slogan "For Free Elections" while some mocked Mr Putin with images of condoms, to the extent that the first speaker, music journalist Artyom Troitsky, dressed himself up as one.
The resolution passed at Saturday's rally built on demands expressed at an earlier rally in Moscow on 10 December.
Another new point was a call for the creation of a new election monitoring body - the Moscow Voters' Association - to investigate ballot-rigging.
Mr Navalny, a prominent anti-corruption blogger who was jailed for 15 days over a street protest just after the elections, greeted the crowd with the words "Greetings to the Banderlog from the net hamsters [internet activists]".
Condemning Russia's leaders as "swindlers and thieves", he listed victims of injustice including imprisoned former tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky and anti-corruption lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who died in custody.
"Who's the power here?" he shouted to cries of "We are" from the crowd.
He promised that the next protest rally would be a "million strong".
Alexei Kudrin, who recently resigned after serving a decade as Mr Putin's finance minister, was booed when he took the microphone to call for early parliamentary elections and urge a dialogue between the Kremlin and the opposition.
"There needs to be a platform for dialogue, otherwise there will be a revolution and we lose the chance that we have today for a peaceful transformation," he said.
An eclectic line-up of 22 speakers were expected at the Moscow rally, with rival opposition figures addressing a crowd which mixed liberals with nationalists
In a video message, Russian rock musician Yury Shevchuk urged protesters to maintain their dignity and avoid "competing in hatred for the authorities"
Billionaire and Putin election challenger Mikhail Prokhorov had been expected to address the rally but stayed in the crowd, saying he had heard presidential candidates were "not supposed to speak"
Another presidential candidate, veteran liberal Grigory Yavlinsky, did speak, and called for a free electoral system.
Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, 80, did not attend after all, sending a message of support instead
Saturday's rally in Moscow ended peacefully, with the last speaker a Grandfather Frost (Russian Santa Claus) figure who wished citizens of a "free Russia" a Happy New Year.
"People were scared before the first big demonstration on 10 December," protester Andrei Luzhin told AFP news agency.
"Now they no longer have fear."
Lack of leader
Some 50,000 people rallied on 10 December, in what was then biggest anti-government protest since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.
In St Petersburg's Pioneer Square the Just Russia party called for a rerun of the parliamentary elections
On Thursday, Mr Medvedev proposed to hold direct elections of regional governors and simplify the procedure for registering political parties, but protesters say the concessions do not go far enough, the BBC's Steve Rosenberg in Moscow says.
However, one of the main problems for the opposition is that there is no single leader able to unite it, our correspondent adds.
Rallies against ballot-rigging were reported across Russia's time zones though none were on the same scale as that in Moscow.
In the Pacific port of Vladivostok, demonstrators carried posters calling for Mr Putin to be put on trial and regional MP Artyom Samsonov said the election results should be cancelled
In the Siberian city of Novosibirsk, a rally of between 800 and 1,500 people passed off peacefully
About 100 people braved a frost of -15C in Orenburg on the border with Kazakhstan
About 500 people rallied in Chelyabinsk in the southern Urals under the slogan "These elections were a farce! We want honest elections"
Several arrests were made in St Petersburg, Vladimir Putin's home city, where two rallies were held, reportedly attended by a total of about 2,500 people.
New Zealand's Christchurch rocked by earthquakes
A series of earthquakes has shaken the New Zealand city of Christchurch, sending residents rushing from buildings and causing minor damage.
The first 5.8 magnitude quake struck at 1358 local time (0058 GMT), the US Geological Survey said. Another of similar magnitude hit 80 minutes later.
Dozens of people suffered minor injuries but only 19 were admitted to hospital.
It comes 10 months after swathes of the city were destroyed by another quake.
Friday's first earthquake struck 26km (16 miles) north-east of the city at a depth of 4.7km. The second large event, with a magnitude estimated at 5.9, was in almost exactly the same place, the USGS said.
Aftershocks rolled on throughout the afternoon, several of them with a magnitude greater than 5, according to New Zealand's GeoNet.
Buildings were damaged, power supplies cut and the city's airport had to be closed temporarily.
There were rockfalls in some coastal suburbs of the city and the authorities have warned people to stay away from hillside areas.
About 26,000 residents were without power at one point, but by 2200 local time the supply had been restored to all but about 400 customers in the New Brighton area, power company Orion said in a statement.
On its twitter feed, the supplier advised customers in the eastern suburbs to be prepared for intermittent power cuts over the next few days.
Canterbury Civil Defence said there was no need for residents to boil water as the city's water infrastructure was fine.
Sink holes and flooding have been caused by liquefaction in some suburbs
Some shopping centres were evacuated and several supermarkets remained closed on one of the busiest days of the year.
Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker said he was delighted that most of the city's shopping precincts intended to open on Saturday.
"It is very important we bounce back from today's events. For retailers it is one of the biggest trading days of the year and they need to open."
Residents can check for updates on shops and infrastructure on Christchurch City Council's twitter feed and on the earthquake information site run by Environment Canterbury.
'Not again'
Mr Parker said events had left people shaken.
"Psychologically this is a tough one. People are outside buildings on streets weeping, I'm told."
"You can just sense the sense of 'not again, how much longer'," he told the Newstalk ZB radio network.
New Zealand's Prime Minister John Key said he was being kept informed as information from the affected areas comes in. "My heart goes out to the people of Christchurch and Canterbury at this time," he said.
Big potholes have appeared in the roads in the Bexley district.
A Radio New Zealand reporter, Bridget Mills, said in places the tarmac felt "like jelly", and there was fresh flooding caused by liquefaction.
Liquefaction occurs when the soil and sediments lose their strength and stiffness in response to the changes in pressure caused by an earthquake, and temporarily behave like a liquid.
The phenomenon has also caused flooding in the suburb of Parklands.
The earthquake in February killed 181 people and caused up to NZ$20bn ($15.5bn, £9.9bn) in economic losses.
The first 5.8 magnitude quake struck at 1358 local time (0058 GMT), the US Geological Survey said. Another of similar magnitude hit 80 minutes later.
Dozens of people suffered minor injuries but only 19 were admitted to hospital.
It comes 10 months after swathes of the city were destroyed by another quake.
Friday's first earthquake struck 26km (16 miles) north-east of the city at a depth of 4.7km. The second large event, with a magnitude estimated at 5.9, was in almost exactly the same place, the USGS said.
Aftershocks rolled on throughout the afternoon, several of them with a magnitude greater than 5, according to New Zealand's GeoNet.
Buildings were damaged, power supplies cut and the city's airport had to be closed temporarily.
There were rockfalls in some coastal suburbs of the city and the authorities have warned people to stay away from hillside areas.
About 26,000 residents were without power at one point, but by 2200 local time the supply had been restored to all but about 400 customers in the New Brighton area, power company Orion said in a statement.
On its twitter feed, the supplier advised customers in the eastern suburbs to be prepared for intermittent power cuts over the next few days.
Canterbury Civil Defence said there was no need for residents to boil water as the city's water infrastructure was fine.
Sink holes and flooding have been caused by liquefaction in some suburbs
Some shopping centres were evacuated and several supermarkets remained closed on one of the busiest days of the year.
Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker said he was delighted that most of the city's shopping precincts intended to open on Saturday.
"It is very important we bounce back from today's events. For retailers it is one of the biggest trading days of the year and they need to open."
Residents can check for updates on shops and infrastructure on Christchurch City Council's twitter feed and on the earthquake information site run by Environment Canterbury.
'Not again'
Mr Parker said events had left people shaken.
"Psychologically this is a tough one. People are outside buildings on streets weeping, I'm told."
"You can just sense the sense of 'not again, how much longer'," he told the Newstalk ZB radio network.
New Zealand's Prime Minister John Key said he was being kept informed as information from the affected areas comes in. "My heart goes out to the people of Christchurch and Canterbury at this time," he said.
Big potholes have appeared in the roads in the Bexley district.
A Radio New Zealand reporter, Bridget Mills, said in places the tarmac felt "like jelly", and there was fresh flooding caused by liquefaction.
Liquefaction occurs when the soil and sediments lose their strength and stiffness in response to the changes in pressure caused by an earthquake, and temporarily behave like a liquid.
The phenomenon has also caused flooding in the suburb of Parklands.
The earthquake in February killed 181 people and caused up to NZ$20bn ($15.5bn, £9.9bn) in economic losses.
India MPs concern over Lokpal anti-corruption bill
India's opposition parties have expressed their reservations over a new anti-corruption bill.
The Lokpal bill envisages setting up an independent ombudsman with the power to prosecute politicians and civil servants. It will be debated in parliament next week.
Campaigner Anna Hazare has said the bill was "weak and useless" and says he will fast again in protest next week.
A string of major corruption scandals have hit the government's reputation.
Mr Hazare's 12-day anti-corruption fast in August became the focus of a national campaign and put pressure on the government to act on the issue.
Correspondents say the stage is set for a fresh confrontation between the government and Mr Hazare and the opposition over the contents of the new bill.
'Disappointing'
Opposition parties have raised their concerns over a proposal to have a quota for members of minority groups in the powerful anti-corruption body.
The leader of the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, Sushma Swaraj, said the Lokpal bill was "disappointing".
"The move for a religious-based reservation in the Lokpal institution is patently unconstitutional," she said.
The bill, which was tabled in parliament on Thursday, proposes keeping India's top investigation agency, CBI, out of the purview of the ombudsman.
Anna Hazare has promised more protests if the bill does not pass
In other words, the nine-member Lokpal committee - which will comprise the ombudsman - will not have its own investigative agency, a major demand of anti-corruption activists like Mr Hazare and many opposition parties, reports say.
"The government is deliberately keeping the CBI out of the Lokpal to protect corrupt ministers. If the CBI is included under the Lokpal then many ministers have to go to jail," Mr Hazare was quoted as saying by The Indian Express newspaper.
There are also concerns over the proposal that the prime minister should come within the ambit of the ombudsman with some conditions, relating to matters of external affairs and national security.
"This is against the spirit of the Indian constitution. Hence, this bill should not be presented in parliament," said Mulayam Singh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party said.
Mr Hazare has said he will launch an indefinite hunger strike from 27 December and launch countrywide protests if a strong Lokpal bill is not passed during the current parliament session.
A recent survey said corruption in India had cost billions of dollars and threatened to derail growth.
Libya independence: King Idris anniversary celebrated
For the first time in 42 years, Libya is celebrating the anniversary of its independence.
The united Libyan Kingdom was formed on 24 December 1951 under King Idris.
However, after Col Muammar Gaddafi seized power in 1969, only the date of his coup was allowed to be marked.
Celebrations are planned in Tripoli, including lunch for several thousand, served on tables which organisers say could stretch for 2km (1.2 miles) along Tripoli's seafront.
The day's central event will be a march from Martyrs Square to the country's national museum - the former Royal Palace - where there will be speeches.
The rally has begun, with senior members of the Libyan National Transitional Council, including its chairman, Mustafa Abdul Jalil, and interim Prime Minister Abdurrahim al-Keib, expected to be joined by a number of international dignitaries.
Many Libyans remain unaware of the significance of 24 December due to the anniversary not being celebrated under Col Gaddafi's four-decade rule.
Libya has huge challenges ahead, says the BBC's Mark Lowen in Tripoli: building a strong national government, disarming the militias that still wield power here, and promoting reconciliation.
But for one day on Saturday, the party will take priority as Libyans savour this celebration, he says.
Self-healing electronic chip tests may aid space travel
Self-repairing electronic chips are one step closer, according to a team of US researchers.
The group has created a circuit that heals itself when cracked thanks to the release of liquid metal which restores conductivity.
The process takes less than an eye blink to bring the circuit back to use.
The researchers said that their work could eventually lead to longer-lasting gadgets as well as solving one of the big problems of interplanetary travel.
The work was carried out by a team of scientists and engineers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and is published in the journal Advanced Materials.
The process works by exploiting the stress that causes the initial damage in the chips to break open tiny reservoirs of a healing material that fills in the resulting gaps, restoring electrical flow.
Cracked circuits
To test their theory the team patterned lines of gold onto glass to form a circuit.
They then either placed microcapsules 0.01mm wide directly onto the lines or added a thin laminate into which they embedded larger 0.2mm microcapsules.
In both cases the microcapsules contained eutectic gallium-indium - a metallic material chosen for its high conductivity and low melting point.
This device was then sandwiched between another layer of glass and acrylic and connected to electricity.
The researchers then bent the circuit until it cracked causing the monitored voltage to fall to zero.
They said the ruptured microcapsules then healed most of the test circuits within one millisecond and restored nearly all of the measured voltage.
The smaller capsules healed the device every time but were a little less conductive than the larger ones which had a slightly lower success rate. The team suggested that a mix of differently sized capsules would therefore give the best result.
The devices were then monitored for four months during which time the researchers said there was no loss of conductivity.
Safe space travel
The leader of the group said the theory could prove a boon to the space industry.
"The only avenue one has right now is to simply remove that circuitry when it fails and replace it- there is no way to manually go in and fix something like this," aerospace engineering professor Scott White told the BBC.
The research team hope to adapt the process to create longer lasting rechargeable batteries
"I think the real application area that you'll see for something like this is in electronics which are incredibly difficult to repair or replace - think about satellites or interplanetary travel where it's physically impossible to swap out something."
The research is an offshoot of the university's research into extending the lifetime of rechargeable batteries.
The reason current systems fail after repeated use is often because microdamage inside the devices has disrupted the conductive flow of electrons from one end of the batteries to the other.
The team said that if they could solve the problem electric car batteries might last years longer than they do at present, making the vehicles much cheaper to maintain.
Greener gadgets
The group also claimed that the technique had the potential to offer more sustainable consumer electronic devices.
Professor White gave the example of mobile phone buttons that stopped working if repeated use had caused cracks in the circuitry below. He said self-healing systems would extend handsets' lifespans.
When asked whether profit-driven electronics makers would want this he replied: "I believe any company would want to provide their customer with the best performing product and if they don't, then other companies will step into the market to provide it.
"Basically what you see is that electronics are cycled now to give you added functionality.
"Maybe the way to do this is not to physically build new circuits and packages every time, but let's have longer lasting ones.
"Then the redesigns can be more software based or functionality driven, saving us from using up our precious resources by building millions of cellphones every year."
Fairy shrimps threatened after dry autumn
Britain's endangered fairy shrimps are under threat as a dry autumn has affected the ponds they live in, a charity says.
Fairy shrimps are tiny translucent crustaceans, which usually hatch near Christmas.
But charity Pond Conservation says many of their pools may dry out completely.
Another problem is that some "transient" ponds are beginning to hold water permanently, allowing predatory fish to colonise them.
Pond Conservation's Dr Jeremy Biggs said: "With only a handful of sites across the whole of Britain, the future of these beautiful creatures is balanced on a knife-edge."
Continue reading the main story
It is that hoped fairy shrimps (Chirocephalus diaphanous), which are protected by the Wildlife and Countryside Act, will return to their "strongholds" this Christmas in Hampshire's New Forest, on the edge of Dartmoor in Devon, on Salisbury Plain, in parts of the Sussex Weald, as well as in Oxfordshire, East Anglia and South Wales.
They complete their life-cycle during the coldest part of the year, hatching as water returns to their shallow ponds, which dry out in summer.
They reach maturity over winter, then lay eggs, which can survive long periods of drought. The adults die when their ponds dry out in spring.
Dr Biggs said: "They are facing a double-whammy from pollution and changing weather patterns.
"We don't know whether they can survive in their existing habitats, so we have also been making special new seasonal clean water ponds for them to try to increase their numbers.
"We're hoping that by providing more habitat, we will increase their chances of surviving in the British countryside."
He says that, although Britain has half a million ponds, 80% of those in England and Wales are polluted.
Dr Biggs added: "We'd ask people to look out for them on their Christmas day walk, especially if they are walking past small pools in more natural parts of the countryside - in woods, or on heathland, for example."
DIY solar panel maker heads to Africa for charity
In a north London suburban street there is an unassuming wooden door which leads into a garage-cum-workshop which at first glance is remarkable only for a drum kit at one end.
A second glance reveals a bunch of solar panels stacked against the wall and a man, busy breaking them up and reassembling them in a very home-made fashion.
The end result is DIY solar kits that can recharge phones and batteries. They look makeshift but they have the potential to make a huge difference to people thousands of miles away in Kenya.
As the director of KnowYourPlanet, Mark Kragh's day job is to resell solar panels to small businesses and hobbyists.
But in February he will travel to Kenya to distribute specially-made kits he is giving away as charity, and to show local people how to make more.
Solar scrap
For many in Africa there is little access to electricity due to mains power shortages. Infrastructure has not kept pace with the explosion in mobile phone ownership so it is not unusual for people to walk for several hours just to charge their phones.
"Often, charge points are driven by petrol or diesel generators, which are dangerous to operate and of course emit carbon dioxide and other pollutants. A daily phone charge can cost a considerable amount relative to people's wages," said Mr Kragh.
He was inspired by a chance conversation with a friend to experiment with using solar power as an alternative method to charging phones and batteries.
"The project started a few years back when my friend in Senegal asked me if I had any cheap options for solar power for Africa. I told him that PV [photovoltaics] was way too expensive and not a viable option, it required batteries and many other components and he should just forget about it.
"I kept thinking about this, could this really be true? Why could we not use a renewable energy? So I did some research and realised there was an entire community of people who already make solar panels from scrap," he said.
He was also inspired by his grandmother Dr Elisabeth Svendsen, a lifelong charity worker who founded the UK's Donkey Sanctuary.
"She passed away this year but my granny travelled in Africa for 40 years, hands-on with all the good and bad that brought with it. She made a huge impact on the local people's lives and I hope that I will be able to carry on this work in my own way," he said.
Locally sourced
Mr Kragh wants to source as much material as possible in Kenya
The kits he creates are made from solar panels that manufacturers have rejected.
"There are very strict rules," said Mr Kragh.
Slight chips in the corner render the panels useless for traditional solar energy use but perfect for the DIY kits Mr Kragh has designed.
He aims to make them deliberately makeshift, creating a fairly crude circuit of solar panels on plywood.
The panels also require some more sophisticated kit.
"Initially we will bring specialised materials with us such as voltage regulators, UV stable encapsulants, solar cells and PV ribbon," said Mr Kragh.
But over time he hopes to be able to source components locally.
"To start with that would be glass, LEDs, batteries, wood and metal, wires and connectors. A great part of the pilot is simply testing and trying lots of non-solar materials to see what works," he said.
"Our main concern is the intense sun which causes degradation due to the high levels of heat and UV rays," he added.
Armed with a £5,000 grant from charity World in Need, Mr Kragh aims to build at least 1,000 kits when he arrives, training local people along the way so that they can build new ones and service old ones.
The ultimate goal is to create a $1 (64p) solar charger which has at least a five year lifespan.
"We aim to train local people in these techniques to create cottage industries, giving people locally the opportunity to generate income and keep currency in the community, rather than pay European and Chinese manufacturers and distribution chains and retail networks," said Mr Kragh.
And, in case you were wondering about the drum kit in the corner of his garage - it is for letting off steam and celebrating good deals. Come March Mr Kragh will be hoping to sound out a distinctly African beat.
A second glance reveals a bunch of solar panels stacked against the wall and a man, busy breaking them up and reassembling them in a very home-made fashion.
The end result is DIY solar kits that can recharge phones and batteries. They look makeshift but they have the potential to make a huge difference to people thousands of miles away in Kenya.
As the director of KnowYourPlanet, Mark Kragh's day job is to resell solar panels to small businesses and hobbyists.
But in February he will travel to Kenya to distribute specially-made kits he is giving away as charity, and to show local people how to make more.
Solar scrap
For many in Africa there is little access to electricity due to mains power shortages. Infrastructure has not kept pace with the explosion in mobile phone ownership so it is not unusual for people to walk for several hours just to charge their phones.
"Often, charge points are driven by petrol or diesel generators, which are dangerous to operate and of course emit carbon dioxide and other pollutants. A daily phone charge can cost a considerable amount relative to people's wages," said Mr Kragh.
He was inspired by a chance conversation with a friend to experiment with using solar power as an alternative method to charging phones and batteries.
"The project started a few years back when my friend in Senegal asked me if I had any cheap options for solar power for Africa. I told him that PV [photovoltaics] was way too expensive and not a viable option, it required batteries and many other components and he should just forget about it.
"I kept thinking about this, could this really be true? Why could we not use a renewable energy? So I did some research and realised there was an entire community of people who already make solar panels from scrap," he said.
He was also inspired by his grandmother Dr Elisabeth Svendsen, a lifelong charity worker who founded the UK's Donkey Sanctuary.
"She passed away this year but my granny travelled in Africa for 40 years, hands-on with all the good and bad that brought with it. She made a huge impact on the local people's lives and I hope that I will be able to carry on this work in my own way," he said.
Locally sourced
Mr Kragh wants to source as much material as possible in Kenya
The kits he creates are made from solar panels that manufacturers have rejected.
"There are very strict rules," said Mr Kragh.
Slight chips in the corner render the panels useless for traditional solar energy use but perfect for the DIY kits Mr Kragh has designed.
He aims to make them deliberately makeshift, creating a fairly crude circuit of solar panels on plywood.
The panels also require some more sophisticated kit.
"Initially we will bring specialised materials with us such as voltage regulators, UV stable encapsulants, solar cells and PV ribbon," said Mr Kragh.
But over time he hopes to be able to source components locally.
"To start with that would be glass, LEDs, batteries, wood and metal, wires and connectors. A great part of the pilot is simply testing and trying lots of non-solar materials to see what works," he said.
"Our main concern is the intense sun which causes degradation due to the high levels of heat and UV rays," he added.
Armed with a £5,000 grant from charity World in Need, Mr Kragh aims to build at least 1,000 kits when he arrives, training local people along the way so that they can build new ones and service old ones.
The ultimate goal is to create a $1 (64p) solar charger which has at least a five year lifespan.
"We aim to train local people in these techniques to create cottage industries, giving people locally the opportunity to generate income and keep currency in the community, rather than pay European and Chinese manufacturers and distribution chains and retail networks," said Mr Kragh.
And, in case you were wondering about the drum kit in the corner of his garage - it is for letting off steam and celebrating good deals. Come March Mr Kragh will be hoping to sound out a distinctly African beat.
Elephant's sixth 'toe' discovered
A mysterious bony growth found in elephants' feet is actually a sixth "toe", scientists report.
For more than 300 years, the structure has puzzled researchers, but this study suggests that it helps to support elephants' colossal weight.
Fossils reveal that this "pre-digit" evolved about 40 million years ago, at a point when early elephants became larger and more land-based.
The research is published in the journal Science.
Lead author Professor John Hutchinson, from the UK's structure and motion laboratory at the Royal Veterinary College, said: "It's a cool mystery that goes back to 1706, when the first elephant was dissected by a Scottish surgeon."
Continue reading the main story
“
Start Quote
Anyone who has studied elephants' feet has wondered about it. They've thought: 'Huh, that's weird'”
Professor John Hutchinson
Royal Veterinary College
Many people, he said, thought that the structure was a huge lump of cartilage, and over the years its purpose or lack of purpose has been debated.
"Anyone who has studied elephants' feet has wondered about it. They've thought: 'Huh, that's weird,' and then moved on," he added.
But Prof Hutchinson and colleagues used a combination of CT scans, histology, dissection and electron microscopy to solve the puzzle.
The researchers said the structure was made of bone, although bone with a highly irregular and unusual arrangement.
But closer examination also revealed that it showed a strong similarity with an unusual bone that is found in the front feet of pandas.
This bone - which is not quite an extra digit, but does the job of one - helps the panda to grip bamboo, and is called the panda's "thumb" or "sixth finger". Moles too have a bone masquerading as an extra digit, which helps them to dig.
And now, the team says that elephants can be added to the list of species for whom five fingers or toes are not quite enough.
The elephant's five regular toes give it a tip-toed stance
Prof Hutchinson said: "It would have started out as a little nub in the tissue, which may have not even have been bone originally - it could have been cartilage.
"A lot of animals have these structures, cartilaginous lumps, and they sometimes turn to bone with these very different functions in some species."
For elephants, the structure serves a simple purpose: it helps the hefty animals to stand up.
Unlike pandas and moles, which only have the false digit in their front feet, elephants have the bone in all four of their feet.
And although their feet may look like tree trunks, inside the anatomy is more complex.
Their five conventional toes point forwards, giving elephants a tip-toed stance, but the extra "toe" points backwards into the heel pad, adding extra support and helping the heaviest land animal to hold up its bulk.
Evolution example
To find out when and why this strange bone appeared, the researchers examined elephant fossils.
Prof Hutchinson said: "The first elephants appear around 55 million years ago.
The sixth "toe" is an example of how a structure evolved to have a new function
"We looked at early elephants and they had a different kind of foot, which seemed to be quite flat footed and didn't leave much room for this structure underneath.
"The structure seemed to evolved around 40 million years ago, and it seems to have evolved in concert with elephants getting bigger and more terrestrial and having upright feet, with a more tip-toed foot posture."
He added that this was a remarkable case of evolution in action.
He said: "It is a great example of how evolution tinkers and tweaks tissue to provide different functions - in this case to be co-opted to be used like a digit."
For more than 300 years, the structure has puzzled researchers, but this study suggests that it helps to support elephants' colossal weight.
Fossils reveal that this "pre-digit" evolved about 40 million years ago, at a point when early elephants became larger and more land-based.
The research is published in the journal Science.
Lead author Professor John Hutchinson, from the UK's structure and motion laboratory at the Royal Veterinary College, said: "It's a cool mystery that goes back to 1706, when the first elephant was dissected by a Scottish surgeon."
Continue reading the main story
“
Start Quote
Anyone who has studied elephants' feet has wondered about it. They've thought: 'Huh, that's weird'”
Professor John Hutchinson
Royal Veterinary College
Many people, he said, thought that the structure was a huge lump of cartilage, and over the years its purpose or lack of purpose has been debated.
"Anyone who has studied elephants' feet has wondered about it. They've thought: 'Huh, that's weird,' and then moved on," he added.
But Prof Hutchinson and colleagues used a combination of CT scans, histology, dissection and electron microscopy to solve the puzzle.
The researchers said the structure was made of bone, although bone with a highly irregular and unusual arrangement.
But closer examination also revealed that it showed a strong similarity with an unusual bone that is found in the front feet of pandas.
This bone - which is not quite an extra digit, but does the job of one - helps the panda to grip bamboo, and is called the panda's "thumb" or "sixth finger". Moles too have a bone masquerading as an extra digit, which helps them to dig.
And now, the team says that elephants can be added to the list of species for whom five fingers or toes are not quite enough.
The elephant's five regular toes give it a tip-toed stance
Prof Hutchinson said: "It would have started out as a little nub in the tissue, which may have not even have been bone originally - it could have been cartilage.
"A lot of animals have these structures, cartilaginous lumps, and they sometimes turn to bone with these very different functions in some species."
For elephants, the structure serves a simple purpose: it helps the hefty animals to stand up.
Unlike pandas and moles, which only have the false digit in their front feet, elephants have the bone in all four of their feet.
And although their feet may look like tree trunks, inside the anatomy is more complex.
Their five conventional toes point forwards, giving elephants a tip-toed stance, but the extra "toe" points backwards into the heel pad, adding extra support and helping the heaviest land animal to hold up its bulk.
Evolution example
To find out when and why this strange bone appeared, the researchers examined elephant fossils.
Prof Hutchinson said: "The first elephants appear around 55 million years ago.
The sixth "toe" is an example of how a structure evolved to have a new function
"We looked at early elephants and they had a different kind of foot, which seemed to be quite flat footed and didn't leave much room for this structure underneath.
"The structure seemed to evolved around 40 million years ago, and it seems to have evolved in concert with elephants getting bigger and more terrestrial and having upright feet, with a more tip-toed foot posture."
He added that this was a remarkable case of evolution in action.
He said: "It is a great example of how evolution tinkers and tweaks tissue to provide different functions - in this case to be co-opted to be used like a digit."
Church and charity warn on solar
The Church of England and the National Trust have written to the government saying recent policy changes put community solar power schemes at risk.
They fear the changes "signal a retreat" in government plans to move towards localised renewable energy.
This week, the High Court ruled that a plan to halve subsidies for solar panels was "legally flawed", and MPs' committees said it was "panicky".
The church and the charity want a UK target for community energy.
Both organisations have tried to take a leadership role in developing community energy schemes.
They believe this type of project is being unfairly penalised by proposed changes to the feed-in tariff (FiT), the scheme that pays householders and communities a subsidy for producing solar electricity.
Their letter, to Climate Change Minister Greg Barker, is also signed by think-tank Forum for the Future and charitable consultants Carbon Leapfrog.
"I don't think anyone could argue with the fact that the way FiTs were set up created a bit of a market bubble, and economies had to be made," said Patrick Begg, the National Trust's director of rural enterprises.
"But the way the government has chosen to change the models has really shaken confidence - and it's very difficult to be certain that when commitments are made about support for renewables, they're going to stick," he told BBC News.
The letter contrasts the "sudden lurches" in policy and support that the UK has seen with the long-term stability that underpins the success of community-scale solar electricity in Germany.
"Twenty years of solid support has led to 18% of [Germany's] national energy supply now coming from renewable sources, with 45% of schemes owned by co-operatives and farmers," it reads.
"In the UK, this is just 1.5%."
The organisations are urging the government to establish and maintain higher FiTs for community schemes.
Setting an example
The National Trust has about 150 renewable energy projects across the properties it owns, and has set a target of supplying half of its energy needs through renewables by 2020.
Dunster Castle in Somerset is one of the Trust's solar-powered properties
It is particularly concerned that in villages it owns, where communities have come together on insulation projects, enthusiasm for extending into solar power has rapidly waned.
The Church of England, meanwhile, says that about 300 churches have so far invested in solar energy, many spurred by the FiTs.
"It's not always straightforward, but a lot of churches thought it was a good opportunity to get involved, to be a good example to the local community," said David Shreeve, environmental adviser to the CoE's Archbishops' Council.
"The changes could affect the financial implications for churches going ahead."
The extent of support for household and community FiTs is currently unclear, with the government having said it would challenge Wednesday's High Court ruling.
It was planning to drop the subsidy from 43p per kilowatt-hour (kWh) to 21p from 12 December. The cut will probably come, but at a later date.
A consultation on other changes closes today.
Among other things, it proposes toughening the criteria on home insulation necessary to qualify for FiTs - a move that was described on Thursday, in a joint report from the Environmental Audit Committee and the Energy and Climate Change Committee, as likely to deal a "fatal blow" to the UK's domestic solar power industry.
Greenest ever?
Meanwhile, a report from consultants Cambridge Modelling predicts that the changes to FiTs mean it will take longer for solar systems to become competitive with electricity supplied from the national grid.
"In the absence of the changes, small solar photovoltaic installations are set to achieve grid parity by 2019," said Mark Hughes, the organisation's director.
"The changes to the scheme will delay grid parity and extend the need for feed-in tariff support by approximately three years."
Critics have said the cut in solar power support undermines the coalition's claim to be the "greenest ever government".
Mr Begg agreed that it does raise the question.
"The government set out quite a good agenda; and this kind of thing does start to shake our confidence that they are going to make good on their agenda," he said.
In a recent YouGov opinion survey, solar emerged as the UK's most popular energy technology, with 74% of respondents wanting the government to increase the amount in use.
The figure for wind was 56%. Only 16% wanted the use of coal to increase, while 43% preferred a reduction.
Another Soyuz rocket launch fails
Russia's recent poor launch record has continued with yet another Soyuz rocket failure.
This time, a Soyuz-2 vehicle failed to put a communications satellite into orbit after lifting away from the country's Plesetsk spaceport.
Debris is said to have re-entered the Earth's atmosphere near the western Siberian town of Tobolsk.
In August, a Soyuz failure on a mission to resupply the space station led to a six-week suspension of flights.
Friday's rocket was carrying a Meridian-5 satellite, designed to provide communication between ships, planes and coastal stations on the ground, according to RIA Novosti.
It was a Soyuz-2.1b, the most modern version of the rocket that has been in service in various forms since the 1960s.
The failure is said to have occurred seven minutes into the flight. Sources being quoted by the Russian media talk of an anomaly in the rocket's third stage.
"The satellite failed to go into its orbit. A state commission will investigate the causes of the accident," the spokesman of Russia's space forces, Alexei Zolotukhin, was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.
August's botched launch involved a Soyuz-U. An inquiry into that incident eventually traced the problem to a blocked fuel line, again in the third stage of the vehicle. But the U and 2.1b Soyuz variants use different engines in this segment of the rocket, so no immediate parallels between the two incidents can be drawn.
Friday's failure now puts a major question mark against the next Soyuz launch, scheduled for 26 December from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. This flight is intended to put in orbit six satellites for the Globalstar satellite phone company.
And it will raise concern again among the partners on the International Space Station (ISS) that there may be systematic problems in the Russian launch sector.
Following the retirement of the American space shuttle in July, the Soyuz rocket is the only means of getting astronauts and cosmonauts to the ISS. August's failure saw manned flights stand down even longer than the six weeks for unmanned Soyuz rockets, and the hiatus put a severe strain on the operation of the space station.
Russia has experienced a number of launch mishaps in the past 13 months.
On 18 August, the week before the loss of the space station mission, a Proton vehicle failed to put a communications satellite in its proper orbit.
Back on 1 February, a Rokot launch also underperformed with a similar outcome.
And on 5 December last year, a Proton carrying three navigation spacecraft fell into the Pacific Ocean. This particular failure is widely believed to have contributed to the decision of the Russian government to replace the then space agency chief, Anatoly Perminov.
Vladimir Popovkin took over as the head of Roscosmos in April.
The rocket failures come on top of the loss of Phobos-Grunt, Russia's most ambitious planetary mission in decades. It became stuck in Earth orbit after its launch in November and will probably fall back to Earth next month.
Sony's bio battery turns waste paper into electricity
Sony has unveiled a paper-powered battery prototype in Japan.
The technology generates electricity by turning shredded paper into sugar which in turn is used as fuel.
If brought to market, the innovation could allow the public to top up the power of their mobile devices using waste material.
The team behind the project said such bio-batteries are environmentally friendly as they did not use harmful chemicals or metals.
The Japanese electronics giant showed off its invention at the Eco-Products exhibition in Tokyo last week.
Employees invited children to drop piece of paper and cardboard into a liquid made up of water and enzymes, and then to shake it. The equipment was connected to a small fan which began spinning a few minutes later.
Learning from nature
The process works by using the enzyme cellulase to decompose the materials into glucose sugar. These were then combined with oxygen and further enzymes which turned the material into electrons and hydrogen ions.
The electrons were used by the battery to generate electricity. Water and the acid gluconolactone, which is commonly used in cosmetics, were created as by-products.
Researchers involved in the project likened the mechanism to the one used by white ants and termites to digest wood and turn it into energy.
Their work builds on a previous project in which they used fruit juice to power a Walkman music player.
"Using a 'fuel' as simple as old greetings cards - the sort of cards that millions of us will be receiving this Christmas - the bio battery can deliver enough energy to power a small fan," said Yuichi Tokita, senior researcher at Sony's Advanced Material Research Lab.
"Of course, this is still at the very early stages of its development, but when you imagine the possibilities that this technology could deliver, it becomes very exciting indeed."
Eco-friendly
While the battery is already powerful enough to run basic music players, it is still falls far short of commercially sold batteries.
The environmental campaign group Greenpeace welcomed the development.
"The issue that we always have with battery technology is the toxic chemicals that go into making them and recycling batteries is also complicated," John Sauven, executive director of Greenpeace UK told the BBC.
"Any way to provide a greener technology could be a potential magic bullet. So from that point of view this is interesting, and I think it's fantastic that companies like Sony are looking to make the generation of energy more environmentally friendly."
Sony's engineers are not the only ones exploring the concept of paper-based batteries.
In 2009 a team of Stanford University scientists revealed they were working on a battery created by coating sheets of paper with ink made of carbon nanotubes and silver nanowires. They said their work might ultimately lead to a device capable of lasting through 40,000 charge-discharge cycles.
Amazon Kindle to release the Queen's Christmas speech
The Queen's Christmas speech is to be released as a free download for Amazon's Kindle e-book reader following its broadcast.
The retailer secured access to the transcript after approaching the Royal Household with the proposal.
The arrangement is an e-book exclusive although the text will also be made available at Facebook and the Royal Household's official website.
Book industry watchers described the move as a "coup" for Amazon.
In addition to this year's speech Kindle owners will be able to download the Queen's previous Christmas messages dating back to 1952, the year of her accession to the throne.
"The Royal Household is content for other organisations to take this content and make it available on as many other platforms as possible as long as the content is not altered or presented out of context," a spokeswoman at Buckingham Palace told the BBC.
"We would like The Queen's Speech to be broadcast or read as widely as possible, and allowing Kindle to make the text available is just another example of this."
Tech-friendly
The Royal Family has long taken advantage of technology to communicate with its subjects.
In 1878 Queen Victoria tried out Alexander Graham Bell's invention, the telephone. The Queen later wrote in her diary: "A Professor Bell explained the whole process which is most extraordinary."
In 1918 the Monarchy used lithography to reproduce a letter from George V which was then distributed to returning prisoners of war after World War I.
In 1932 King George V made the Royal's first Christmas broadcast via radio. Five years later the Coronation of George VI became the first televised outside broadcast.
In 1957 the Queen made the first live Christmas broadcast on television. Nearly half a century later, in 2006, the speech was podcast for the first time. Then in 2007 it was shown live on YouTube via a dedicated Royal Channel.
This year will mark the 60th Royal message released on Christmas Day. All have involved broadcasts with the exception of 1969 when a written message was released.
Marketing
The arrangement with Amazon marks the first time the speech will have been made available in e-book form.
"Millions of people across the UK, and the world, wait with anticipation to hear The Queen's Christmas broadcast and we're delighted to be able to make transcripts of Her Majesty's annual addresses, past and present, available to download for free in less than 60 seconds," said Gordon Willoughby, director of Kindle EU.
The Queen's e-book has been given a minimalist cover design
Although Amazon is not charging for the service, technology watchers say it may still benefit the firm's bottom line.
"It gives people a reason if they just got a Kindle as a present on Christmas morning to work out how to download an e-book that afternoon," said Stuart Miles, editor of Pocket-Lint.
"If they like the experience they will download more. It's also a great way to turn people into evangelists for the system as they will have a reason to show it off to friends on Boxing Day, potentially leading to more sales for Amazon."
'Smart move'
Book industry watchers were also impressed by the arrangement.
"I think it is an exceptional coup and not surprising for a business like Amazon to do that," said Philip Jones, deputy editor at trade newspaper The Bookseller.
"But I hope that other e-book sellers such as Waterstones and Kobo quickly phone up the Palace so they can compete because it seems an otherwise unfair advantage for Kindle to have. But it's a smart move nonetheless - good for them."
The Royal Household confirmed it was not ruling out similar deals with others.
"We would be happy to discuss a similar arrangements with other outlets," a spokeswoman for the Palace said.
"We have chosen ones that suits us, but if other companies approached us we would be willing to consider those as well."
The spokeswoman added that it was not public information if any members of the Royal Household owned a Kindle or other e-book reader.
The Queen's Speech will be broadcast at 1500GMT on BBC1 on 25 December.
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Calcutta hospital fire: Two more officials arrested
Police in the Indian city of Calcutta have arrested two more officials of a private hospital which caught fire last Friday, killing 90 people.
Vice-president Satyabrata Upadhyay and senior general manager Sanjib Pal of AMRI Hospital were arrested on Tuesday.
Seven officials of the hospital were arrested and charged with culpable homicide over the weekend.
The fire began in a basement and swept through the building. Officials say the hospital flouted safety regulations.
Those already charged include the co-founders of the hospital SK Todi and RS Goenka.
Objections
Police said Mr Upadhyay had given a written assurance to the fire service that the basement would be cleared by 6 December, the BBC's Amitabha Bhattasali reports from Calcutta.
The fire authorities had raised objections that the basement car parking area was being used as a warehouse where highly inflammable materials were stored, our correspondent adds.
The fire began in the basement and spread through the six-storey hospital. Most of the dead were patients.
Police say there was a delay on part of the hospital to inform the fire services about the fire.
Interrogations have revealed that on an earlier occasion, an employee had been hauled up as he had called the fire service to douse a smaller fire in the hospital.
Since then, employees were asked to first report to the senior authorities before calling police or fire services during an emergency.
Survivors of Friday's fire have also said that they noticed the smoke at least 90 minutes before the fire services arrived at the hospital, considered one of Calcutta's most prestigious.
The charges have been denied by hospital authorities.
The government has ordered a judicial inquiry into the incident and cancelled the licence of the hospital.
Vice-president Satyabrata Upadhyay and senior general manager Sanjib Pal of AMRI Hospital were arrested on Tuesday.
Seven officials of the hospital were arrested and charged with culpable homicide over the weekend.
The fire began in a basement and swept through the building. Officials say the hospital flouted safety regulations.
Those already charged include the co-founders of the hospital SK Todi and RS Goenka.
Objections
Police said Mr Upadhyay had given a written assurance to the fire service that the basement would be cleared by 6 December, the BBC's Amitabha Bhattasali reports from Calcutta.
The fire authorities had raised objections that the basement car parking area was being used as a warehouse where highly inflammable materials were stored, our correspondent adds.
The fire began in the basement and spread through the six-storey hospital. Most of the dead were patients.
Police say there was a delay on part of the hospital to inform the fire services about the fire.
Interrogations have revealed that on an earlier occasion, an employee had been hauled up as he had called the fire service to douse a smaller fire in the hospital.
Since then, employees were asked to first report to the senior authorities before calling police or fire services during an emergency.
Survivors of Friday's fire have also said that they noticed the smoke at least 90 minutes before the fire services arrived at the hospital, considered one of Calcutta's most prestigious.
The charges have been denied by hospital authorities.
The government has ordered a judicial inquiry into the incident and cancelled the licence of the hospital.
How penguins 'time' a deep dive
Emperor penguins "time" their dives by the number of flaps they can manage with their wings.
This is according to a new study published in the Journal of Experimental Biology.
It aimed to show how the birds reached the "decision" that it was time to stop feeding and return to the surface to breathe.
Tracking the birds revealed that they flapped their wings, on average, 237 times on each dive.
The study was led by Dr Kozue Shiomi, from the University of Tokyo, Japan.
Dr Shiomi and his team think that the penguins' decision to end their foraging dive and return to the surface is constrained by how much power their muscles can produce after every pre-dive breath. This "flying" motion propels the birds forwards, allowing them to swim quickly through the water, gulping fish.
Using data collected from diving penguins on previous field trips, the team analysed the patterns of more than 15,000 penguin dives.
They studied 10 free-ranging birds and three birds that were foraging through a hole in the ice.
Continue reading the main story
PENGUIN FACTS
Emperor penguins are the largest species of penguin, standing at over one metre tall and weighing an average of 40kg
In the bitter cold, males and females choose mates relatively quickly, pairing off and "flirting" with special neck-stretching displays
The males incubate eggs through the fierce Antarctic winter while females feed themselves up to provide for their chicks in the spring
Timing the penguins' dives revealed that free-ranging birds began their final ascent to the surface about 5.7 minutes into their dive. But penguins diving through the ice hole often dived for longer before performing a U-turn and returning up through the same ice hole.
Examining the acceleration patterns of the penguins as they dived, the team managed to calculate that all the birds used, on average, 237 wing flaps before starting their ascent.
"We suggest", the team concluded in their paper, "that the decision [to return] was constrained not by elapsed time, but by the number of strokes and, thus, perhaps cumulative muscle work."
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