Toyota Etios LIVA Launched

Toyota Motor's Indian unit expects to sell more than 100,000 Etios sedans and hatchbacks in 2012, Sandeep Singh, deputy managing director of Toyota Kirloskar, said.

"With Liva we will now be a complete manufacturer in India, offering a full range of products including the luxury SUV Prado... Liva is a very useful stylish and dynamic car," Toyota Kirloskar Motor Managing Director Hiroshi Nakagawa told reporters here.

The company had earlier deferred its launch from April to June. The decision was taken to reduce the long waiting period resulting from the overwhelming response received for the Etios, it added.

"Keeping the target customer in mind a slew of youthful and fun filled activities have been lined up as a part of the marketing campaign. The show stopper is the TV ad campaign, which will feature music composed by the music maestro A R Rahman," the statement said.

The concept vehicles of Etios and Etios Liva were first unveiled at Auto Expo last year in Delhi and later travelled to across the country with the 'Toyota Q-World' reaching out to more than one lakh prospective customers, Toyota said.

"The Etios has been very well received by our customers across the market. We have delivered more than 20,000 cars as on date," Toyota Kirloskar Motor DMD Marketing Sandeep Singh said.

Toyota Etios, starting at Rs 4.96 lakh, has got a big response and the company has already delivered over 20,000 Etios to customers with around 10,000 units more on booking list. The company expects Liva to get an even better response. Toyota has followed a topdown approach in India after launching its bigger vehicles like Camry sedan and expensive SUVs like Prado and Land Cruiser before rolling out Etios and now Liva.

It has enjoyed fair success so far with major models like Innova and Fortuner being segment leader netting over 50% market share in the segments. The expansion in portfolio and overall sales will help Toyota expand its used car business. Maruti sells 20-22% of its new cars from its used car business True Value and Toyota plans to reach the same level by 2013 from its U-Trust business.

The company will launch used car business in 15 outlets by the end of this year and expand its sales network to over 150 dealerships. Toyota Kirloskar is a joint venture between the Japanese carmaker and the Indian Kirloskar group.

China opens world's longest sea bridge

Three of the bridges – including the two longest ever built – are part of the Beijing-Shanghai High Speed Railway which made its first commercial trip earlier today. The Jiaozhou Bay bridge, which is the world's longest over-water bridge at 26.4 miles, also opened today. This bridge connects the port city of Qingdao to the suburban Huangdao on the other side of the bay. China, with the world's largest population, deals with often-crippling transportation congestion issues, so the government has spent billions of dollars in recent years to alleviate these issues.


“It is a magnificent and very advanced bridge,” Li Qun, the local Communist party secretary, said at the bridge's opening ceremony, according to the Telegraph. “It is another stepping stone in the city's smooth and rapid development.”

Cost figures for the Jiaozhou Bay bridge, which is expected to carry 30,000 cars a day, vary widely: State-run CCTV reported that the cost was more than 10 billion yuan ($1.5 billion) and the Xinhua news agency put the cost at $2.3 billion, and some estimates have put the cost at more than $8.8 billion.

For that cost, the Jiaozhou Bay bridge is seriously sturdy. The Guinness Book of World Records announced that "the earthquake- and typhoon-proof bridge ... is designed to withstand the impact of a 300,000-ton vessel."

Although the bridge will be free to use for the next month, government officials indicated that they plan to eventually charge a toll of 50 yuan ($7.70). The bridge has six lanes, is about 110 feet wide, and officials estimate that it will halve the journey from Qingdao to Huangdao to about 30 minutes.

The Jiaozhou Bay bridge is the sixth longest bridge ever built, and breaks the record for world's longest over-water bridge by more than 2.5 miles, beating the United States' Lake Pontchartrain Causeway in Louisiana.

The Beijing-Shanghai High Speed Railway, is a project that began in 2008, and, in making that trip in under four hours, more than halved the previous 10-hour run time of a parallel train. It cost approximately $33 billion to build and is expected to carry 80 million passengers a year, doubling the route's capacity.

In building the railway, the Chinese government constructed three large over-land bridges: the 102-mile long Danyang–Kunshan Grand Bridge, the 71-mile long Tianjin Grand Bridge and the 30-mile Beijing Grand Bridge – the first, second, and fifth longest bridges in the world respectively.

Eleven of the world's 15 longest bridges are located in China.

Manmohan ignored ruling on CAG's rights

In questioning the propriety and legality of the Comptroller and Auditor-General holding a news conference on its 2G report, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh ignored not only past precedents but also a court ruling upholding the CAG's right to do so.

In his interaction with a group of editors on Wednesday, Dr. Singh criticised the press meet held by the CAG in early January after the report on 2G spectrum irregularities was tabled in Parliament. He said: “It [has] never been in the past that the CAG has held a press conference. Never in the past has the CAG decided to comment on a policy issue. It should limit the office to the role defined in the Constitution.”

But a 2005 judgment of the Madras High Court, upholding the right of CAG and its functionaries to brief the media on the contents of reports prepared by them and presented before the relevant Legislature, leaves no ambiguity on this count.

In P.G. Narayanan vs CAG (W.P.No.23408 of 2004 [2005] RD-TN 714), the High Court dismissed the contention of the petitioner, an MLA belonging to the ruling AIADMK, that the Tamil Nadu Accountant-General had ‘misused his authority' by going to press on an audit report pertaining to the State. The court noted that the CAG had stated in his affidavit “that specific instructions have been given by him to all the Accountant-Generals (Audit) of the States to explain the salient features of the Audit Report to the Press to make the public know about the same after the Audit Report is placed before the respective Legislative Assemblies.”

The veiled criticism by the Prime Minister of the institution of the CAG reflects the unease within the government over the recent CAG reports raising questions of serious irregularities in several deals. The example of the CAG report on the telecom spectrum policy, which gave different estimates for the notional loss to the exchequer on the 2G front, illustrates the point best.

Besides questioning the correctness of the CAG in interacting with the media, Dr. Singh raised two other issues related to the institution. The Prime Minister said the CAG had no jurisdiction to examine issues on policy matters and also contended that the supreme audit institution of the country should take into account the ‘uncertain' environment under which the government is compelled to take decisions.

“We live in a world of uncertainty and ex-post whether it is the Comptroller and Auditor-General, whether it is a parliamentary committee then they analyse post facto. They have a lot more facts which were not available to those who took the decision … We take decisions in a world of uncertainty and that's the perspective I think Parliament, our CAG and our media must adopt if this nation is to move forward.”

CAG sources declined to respond to the Prime Minister's comments. But speaking to The Hindu in the past, they rejected the allegation that the 2G report went beyond their mandate in any way.

Light trails are produced by faithful carrying candles as they walk past the Cathedral during a Corpus Christi procession in Brasilia, Brazil, Thursday, June 23, 2011. Corpus Christi is a Catholic observance which celebrates the Body of Christ. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

12 Indian foods that cut fat

You don't have to acquire a taste for olive oil, seaweed or soya to maintain a low-fat, healthy diet. Indian cuisine can be healthy too, if it's cooked with oil and ingredients that take care of your heart and health.

Ayurveda suggests you include all tastes — sweet, sour, salty, pungent, bitter and astringent — in at least one meal each day, to help balance unnatural cravings. Here are 12 foods that can help you lose weight and gain health:

Turmeric : Curcumin, the active component of turmeric, is an object of research owing to its properties that suggest they may help to turn off certain genes that cause scarring and enlargement of the heart. Regular intake may help reduce low-density lipoprotein (LDL) or bad cholesterol and high blood pressure, increase blood circulation and prevent blood clotting, helping to prevent heart attack.

Cardamom : This is a thermogenic herb that increases metabolism and helps burn body fat. Cardamom is considered one of the best digestive aids and is believed to soothe the digestive system and help the body process other foods more efficiently.

Chillies : Foods containing chillies are said to be as foods that burn fat. Chillies contain capsaicin that helps in increasing the metabolism. Capsaicin is a thermogenic food, so it causes the body to burn calories for 20 minutes after you eat the chillies.

Curry leaves : Incorporating curry leaves into your daily diet can help you lose weight. These leaves flush out fat and toxins, reducing fat deposits that are stored in the body, as well as reducing bad cholesterol levels. If you are overweight, incorporate eight to 10 curry leaves into your diet daily. Chop them finely and mix them into a drink, or sprinkle them over a meal.

Garlic : An effective fat-burning food, garlic contains the sulphur compound allicin which has anti-bacterial effects and helps reduce cholesterol and unhealthy fats.

Mustard oil : This has low saturated fat compared to other cooking oils. It has fatty acid, oleic acid, erucic acid and linoleic acid. It contains antioxidants, essential vitamins and reduces cholesterol, which is good for the heart.

Cabbage : Raw or cooked cabbage inhibits the conversion of sugar and other carbohydrates into fat. Hence, it is of great value in weight reduction.

Moong dal : The bean sprouts are rich in Vitamin A, B, C and E and many minerals, such as calcium, iron and potassium. It is recommended as a food replacement in many slimming programmes, as it has a very low fat content. It is a rich source of protein and fibre, which helps lower blood cholesterol level. The high fibre content yields complex carbohydrates, which aid digestion, are effective in stabilising blood sugar and prevent its rapid rise after meal consumption.

Honey : It is a home remedy for obesity. It mobilises the extra fat deposits in the body allowing it to be utilised as energy for normal functions. One should start with about 10 grams or a tablespoon, taken with hot water early in the morning.

Buttermilk : It is the somewhat sour, residual fluid that is left after butter is churned. The probiotic food contains just 2.2 grams of fat and about 99 calories, as compared to whole milk that contains 8.9 grams fat and 157 calories. Regular intake provides the body with all essential nutrients and does not add fats and calories to the body. It is thus helpful in weight loss.

Millets : Fibre-rich foods such as millets - jowar, bajra, ragi, etc - absorb cholesterol and help increase the secretion of the bile that emulsifies fats.
Cinnamon and cloves: Used extensively in Indian cooking, the spices have been found to improve the function of insulin and to lower glucose, total cholesterol, LDL and triglycerides in people with type 2 diabetes.

Astronomers discover earliest ever black holes

June 16 (IANS) Scientists from prestigious Yale University of the US have discovered the earliest black holes ever detected, a statement from the university said Thursday.
The scientists published in their paper that the earliest giant black holes ever detected were found hidden from view by their host galaxies.
'This finding tells us there is a symbiotic relationship between black holes and their galaxies that has existed since the dawn of time,' said Kevin Schawinski, a Yale astronomer, who contributed to the discovery.
According to Schawinski, only the most high-energy X-rays were detected, meaning the black holes must be hidden behind large quantities of dust and gas from their host galaxies.
'This explains why they were so difficult to find,' he said.
The team used a technique called 'stacking' in order to detect the incredibly weak signals emitted by the galaxies' central black holes, the farthest of which are 13 billion light years from Earth. Because of their great distance, astronomers see these black holes as they existed less than one billion years after the Big Bang.
The universe is currently estimated to be about 13.7 billion years old.
'The astronomers focused on more than 250 galaxies, which had previously been detected by the Hubble Space Telescope and which they thought were good candidates for harbouring black holes at their centers,' the official university statement said.
'They then piled multiple images taken by the orbiting Chandra X-Ray Observatory on top of each other, essentially multiplying the weak X-ray signals created by the black holes as they devoured nearby gas and dust,' it read.
Theorists, including Yale cosmologist Priyamvada Natarajan, used the observations to determine that even these earliest black holes appear to grow and evolve along with their host galaxies, which is similar to what astronomers have observed in the nearby universe.
'These observations indicate that extremely massive black holes already existed as early as 700-800 million years after the Big Bang, which suggests that either they were born massive to start with, or they experienced rapid growth burst,' Natarajan said.
'Either scenario tells us much more than we previously knew, which is very exciting,' she said.
Other authors of the paper include Ezequiel Treister (University of Hawaii and Universidad de Concepcion from Chile), Marta Volonteri (University of Michigan) and Eric Gawiser (Rutgers University).

18 babies dead at one hospital in 48 hours

A shocking case of 18 infant deaths has come to light from Kolkata's BC Roy Hospital. And that too, in less than two days.

The figure was released by the Chief Minister's office today.

The tragedy at BC Roy Hospital may have gone unnoticed but for the death of nine-month-old Aryan Gazi this morning. Angry relatives trashed the hospital and attacked doctors who they say were negligent.

"I begged the doctors to help my son, I fell at his feet. But the doctors didn't listen. I was crying... my son died," said Hannan Gazi, Aryan's father.

The doctors, however, deny allegations that there has been negligence on the hospital's part.

The Superintendent of the B C Roy Hospital, D Pal told PTI the babies who had died were either pre-mature or suffering from septicemia or low-birth weight problems. The medical institute is considered to be the largest referral paediatric hospital in the eastern region.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is also the Health Minister of West Bengal. She has ordered an enquiry.

"I have come to know that the babies were brought to the hospital at the last stage and that the cause of death was not enteric disease. I have ordered a probe and asked the authorities to submit a report to me," Ms Banerjee said.

The medical institute is considered to be the largest referral paediatric hospital in the eastern region.

Franklin not among NZ Cricket's contracted players

New Zealand (AP) — Allrounder James Franklin's productive season with the Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League failed to save his place in New Zealand Cricket's list of 20 contracted players released Friday.
Franklin was among seven players included last year who did not receive new central contracts on the 2011-12 list.
The 30-year-old Wellington allrounder was named man of the match for his unbeaten 45 off 23 balls and his 2-35 as Mumbai beat the Kolkata Knight Riders to finish third in this season's IPL. But his moderate performances for New Zealand, including at April's World Cup, cost him a central contract for next season.
Veteran medium pacer Daryl Tuffey, fast bowler Brent Arnel, allrounder Grant Elliott, wicketkeeper Gareth Hopkins, opening batsman Tim McIntosh and off-spinner Jeetan Patel also failed to retain their contracts.
Wicketkeeper Reece Young, batsman Rob Nicol, young fast bowler Trent Boult and left-arm spinner Luke Woodcock were among players added to the list. Batsman Daniel Flynn and allrounder Neil Broom returned after missing out on contracts last year.
"Seven changes to the contracted list highlights the fact that there are a number of quality cricketers contesting for the top 20 contracts," selection manager Mark Greatbatch said. "That kind of competitiveness is good for our cricket.
"There is a good mix of experienced players and promising talent in a list that recognizes strong domestic performances as well as good international form."

Indian-origin 'manslaughter' surgeon in Australia brutally attacked in prison

An Indian-origin neurosurgeon in Australia who pleaded guilty to manslaughter was brutally assaulted by four inmates in Sydney's jail, a court has heard.

Suresh Nair is being sentenced over an incident in 2009 in which he failed to help a female escort he had hired as she lay dying from a cocaine overdose, which he helped to administer.

Nair told the court that four inmates in Silverwater jail had attacked him while in custody after news of the incident broke, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.

Nair said he suffered multiple facial fractures including a broken jaw and broken teeth. He said he had also lost partial sight in one eye and was now without feeling in his left cheekbone because of a severed nerve sustained in the attack.

He said he had experienced 'a kind of mental breakdown' after the assault.

"It was raining outside and I thought it was going to flood in Silverwater jail. I have never experienced anything like that before," Nair said.

Nair had been briefly put into protective custody after the incident

Nair, giving evidence at Sydney's Downing Centre District Court as part of his sentencing, also repeatedly expressed remorse for the woman who had lost her life 'as a consequence of his behaviour'.

Dr Charlie Teo, AM, a pioneering brain surgeon at Prince of Wales Hospital, earlier said in court that his former colleague Nair had a good character and was 'very remorseful' about what he had done.

'Coke Studio India will take you in a trance'

The eager anticipation is almost over as Coke Studio India hits television screens on Friday evening and singer Richa Sharma said the popular event will give musicians a chance to create their music live on stage.
"India's version of Coke Studio will see more variety as India has a number of languages and music from various states of India can be heard on this stage," Sharma said. While Indian fans appreciate the music of Pakistan, Pakistani singers also love to sing Indian tunes and they do so in many of their live performances, because of the variety of music that India has, she said.
Richa Sharma will sing Punjabi songs with south Indian singers and said she opted to sing for the show because of the musical freedom it offers.

"Unlike reality shows, where we go on stage and sing our Bollywood songs for a limited three minutes, Coke Studio gives us an opportunity to create our music live on stage and enjoy ourselves," she said.
Richa also appreciated the work of Leslie Lewis, who is the music director of the show, saying he gives singers their freedom to sing songs their way. "It’s like he gives us a canvas and we are free to fill colours in it," she says.
Richa said Coke Studio is so magical that the stars of music performing in the show even sang for hours, not realising the time. "There was a time when we started recording at 4 pm and kept jamming till 3:30 am because we were enjoying the jam session way too much."
The show that was launched in Delhi earlier this week, with musical performances by Kailash Kher, Richa Sharma, Shankar Mahadevan and others, is all set to give Indian music aficionados their high for every weekend starting 7:00 pm on MTV.
Coke Studio will aim at creating a fusion of sorts by bringing together singers and musicians from different genres and places on one stage. It will see musicians from the north jam with their southern counterparts and sufi and folk jam with Bollywood.
While Coke Studio gives big music names a chance to step out of their restricted genres and play with various established and upcoming artistes from other genres, it gives an opportunity to young upcoming talents to jam with puritans of music. Singers such as Shankar Mahadevan, Kailash Kher and Richa Sharma will play with Assamese and Tamil singers and upcoming bands such as Advaita will jam with the music industry’s bigwigs.
Coke Studio comes to India after the show completed three successful seasons in Pakistan and is in its fourth season there. The concept started in Brazil, but gained popularity among Indian fans after its Pakistan version. While Pakistan's Coke Studio is a rage among Indian music lovers online, it has created curiosity and excitement among Indian music fans as to what kind of jam sessions does Coke Studio @ MTV have in store.
Meanwhile, the Facebook page of Coke Studio @ MTV has kept the excitement high by releasing trailers, sneak peeks, pictures and also organising chats with the music stars for fans. These activities have kept the music fans waiting, and the day is finally here when music fans get their first sound of the guitar's jugalbandi with the sarod and the dholak's taal with the drums. Listening to Coke Studio will take music fans in a trance, is what Richa Sharma says.

Hundreds donate blood on World Blood Donor Day

The mega blood donation camp, titled 'A Drop to Life', jointly organised by THE TIMES OF INDIA.com and Shubham Hospital, in association with the Indian Medical Association (IMA), Varanasi branch and Red FM, received overwhelming response on Tuesday.

Hundreds of people queued to donate their blood voluntarily in two sessions, which were organised at Sigra and Khajuri branches of Shubham Hospital to mark the World Blood Donor Day. While huge turn out of denizens was witnessed at Sigra branch, the highlight of the day was special contribution and encouraging response from hospital staff and doctors of Shubham Hospital.

The mega blood donation camp began with voluntary blood donation of Dr Prashant Singh of Shubham Hospital, who also motivated other people to donate blood on the occasion. Later, a number of people including professionals, businessman, doctors and bank employees also volunteered for blood donation.

Joining the list of blood donors were Ashish Verma, station head, Red FM. A total of 72 units of blood was collected in the mega camp. The collected blood would be stored in the IMA blood bank, which would be later used for general public.

Meanwhile, a group of 47 young people also donated blood at the blood bank of Sir Sunder Lal Hospital, Banaras Hindu University (BHU).

Two is better than one - LG Optimus 2X reviewed

Introduction

When a phone makes the Guinness Book of World Records, people are bound to sit up and take notice. The LG Optimus 2x holds the record for the world's first dual core smart phone. It's also the first twin core powered device to arrive on Indian shores. Powered by the NVidia Tegra 2 the Optimus 2x boasts of a formidable feature set. Naturally, expectations are sky high. Does it live up?

Packaging and Content

LG has really stepped up their packaging and the device is very neatly presented. It includes an USB based wall charger, which also doubles as the USB cable. It also includes a nice case made of felt-like material that cleans the device as it is taken out of the case.

Hardware and Styling

At 139 grams and 10.9mm, the LG Optimus is not the most slender smartphone on the market, when compared to lightweights such as the Sony Ericsson Arc and the Samsung Galaxy S II. But in no way is it a large device like the HTC Desire HD.

The build quality of device feels very premium with its construction predominated by high quality plastics.

The back of the device houses the 1500mAh battery and the 8-megapixel-image sensor. The back is covered with a rubberized plastic which gives the device a premium feel.

The front of the device welcomes the user with a glossy 4.1 -inch IPS screen (800x480) with four touch based Android keys.

The top of the device holds the HDMI port, which is covered with a neat flip-out mechanism. On the bottom end of the device is placed the USB port, which also doubles as a charging port.

On the whole, the build quality of the device is first class and matches the iPhone top to toe, but design wise it feels quite mundane and boring. It feels somewhat like a large shiny brick but is pretty comfortable to hold.


Interface

The Optimus 2x is powered by Android, just like its sibling the Optimus, but unfortunately it is running the dated 2.2 Froyo build. LG also opted to jazz up things with their custom UI which, in our opinion, does not add very much besides visual pizazz. The interface is laced with a neat looking weather widget, a calendar widget and the icons are redesigned.

We have noticed a disturbing trend in the field of Android skinning, as most manufacturers opt to redesign Android in the mold of the iOS, in an attempt to mimic the icons found on the iPhone. LG is no different and the icons look very much like those found on the iOS.

The main problem with the LG UI is that in its attempt to spruce up things it ends up as a major resource hog, making the interface slow. While swiping between the home screens we faced constant lags and the Optimus 2x did not feel like a dual-core processor powered device. Undoubtedly the UI is to blame, as the US variant, which ships without the LG UI, has received accolades for its speed.


Multimedia

The Optimus 2x is billed as a multimedia beast and luckily, in-spite of the laggy UI, it performs splendidly.

It comes loaded with a host of features such as 8-megapixel camera with 1080p video recording capabilities, an extremely vibrant 4.1inch display, Dolby audio support, 8GB of internal memory and a HDMI port.

In our testing, the camera shot sharp images but the flash had a tendency to overcook the images. In comparison to the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc, the images contained many artifacts and a lot of noise.

As far as the 1080p recording went, the device performed decently and for the most part matched up to the Xperia Arc camera, which shot at 720p. But under low light situations, the Xperia's Exmor-R technology showed its worth and though the videos of the Optimus 2x were of a higher resolution, the color saturation and overall stability of the videos were better on the Xperia Arc.

As far as audio went the built in audio player blasted tunes enhanced by the Dolby technology.

The in-built Android player also came with equalizer settings, which is an enhancement over the stock Android audio experience. For once, the LG enhancements worked in favor of the device. There was no noticeable difference in the sound quality with the bundled headphones, but the moment we engaged our Bose puppies the channel shifts were apparent.

Even the loudspeakers were pretty loud and clear - coupled with two speakers, it gave a neat stereophonic effect to the sound.

LG has also bumped up the screen for the Optimus 2x, which provides an enhanced contrast ratio and is very bright. Interestingly LG manufactures the 'Retina Display' for Apple but have not managed to catch up on the pixel density battle. The iPhone is still sharper and has slightly better contrast ratios, but all that happens in a smaller 3.5inch display.

LG recently announced the Optimus Black which has their latest 'NOVA Display' but for some odd reason they did not include it in their current flagship device.

The device is DLNA enabled, which meant we could stream our content to DLNA, powered HDTVs. This trend is catching on and the incoming Samsung Galaxy S 2 will also feature similar functionality.

HDMI mirroring was seamless and we could play games easily.

PC Sync and Market

As with all Android Phones, PC sync is quite painless thanks to Google's clever cloud computing strategy. All that one has to do is insert one's sim card in the Optimus 2x and sync it with one's Google account. Even the built in social networking app syncs all Twitter, Facebook and MySpace feeds but unfortunately we don't get a social aggregator which would integrate phone contacts, email and social networks all in one.

The onboard email application does a brilliant job of syncing email although this is true of all Android devices.

We also get dedicated Facebook, Twitter and MySpace apps for the Optimus 2x. However, these are not very different from the standard Android apps.

Essential Apps

Unlike the Vanilla Android experience found on the Samsung Nexus S, the LG Optimus 2x is loaded to the teeth. The sheer number of apps borders on bloat-ware.

LG has graciously included a Car Mode, which offers a 'Windows phone' like tile interface providing quick access to all major functions of the device such as phone, messaging, email and handsfree mode. This is a neat touch as many people use their devices while driving (we advise against this!) and touch screens are notorious for being difficult to use with a single hand. The large screen provides quick access to all functions. We have seen this feature before in the Google Nexus devices and, ideally, it's meant to be used in conjunction with a car dock but we are guessing many people are going to use it anyway.

LG has included the F-secure antivirus and it's a pretty good thing to have as the Android malware situation is slowly exploding into a Windows like situation. One should note that the anti-virus is a massive resource hog while it scans.

Besides Android Market, LG has provided its own app Advisor which basically helps users in selecting applications. But in no way does this app offer different content from the Android market.

Polaris Office provides brilliant document editing capabilities and it also doubles as a file manager. It handles all the Microsoft Office formats easily.

The Video player supports various video codecs such as DivX, XviD, and Mpeg-4. But unfortunately some .Avi files don't work properly. The mirror app facilitates HDMI mirroring.

Performance

The hype around the Optimus 2x mainly involves its lightning fast NVidia Tegra 2 processor. But all is not good as currently most of the software available on Android Market is not optimized for the dual core processor.

In daily use, the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc felt snappier in comparison to the Optimus 2x. The much heralded dual-core 2x performance was mysteriously missing. This is not to say the phone was slow - in-fact it was quite fast: just not twice as fast as a single core Android phone and in the case of the Xperia Arc it was struggling to keep up.

In the Quadrant test the device scored a blistering 2479 which eclipsed the Xperia Arc's score by more than 1000 points. More interestingly, in comparison to the Acer Iconia Tab it scored poorly as the Iconia smashed the Optimus 2x by more than an 1100 points. Currently all these benchmarks are subjective as they are not optimized for dual core processors.

In the Linpack test, the device scored in 35.73 MFLOPs in 1.3 seconds which was pretty impressive considering the next best Xperia Arc scored 37.93 MFLOPs in 2.21 seconds.

In the BrowserMark test, the Optimus 2x disappointed as it only managed to score 42436 while the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc was not far behind at 41076.

In the Benchmark Pi test, the device calculated Pi in 700 milliseconds which beat the Xperia Arc by a good 400 milliseconds.

Overall call quality was extremely impressive. Calls were loud and clear. Battery life was, sadly, fairly average as the phone struggled to last a day. Our usage involved constant Wi-Fi use, a few calls; web browsing, and a bit of the Wi-Fi hotspot functionality. We can hope for a Gingerbread upgrade, which might elevate the performance and battery issues.

Bangladesh plans special force to protect tigers

Bangladesh is setting up a special force to save the critically endangered Royal Bengal Tiger and other animals.

The 300-member force will be deployed mostly around the Sundarbans mangrove forests, one of the last refuges of the tigers.

The decision came months after they seized three tiger skins and a large quantity of bones, the biggest haul of illegal tiger parts in decades.

The Sundarbans forests stretch between Bangladesh and India.

Around 400 tigers still live in the area.

Until now poaching has not been considered as the chief threat to the tiger population in Bangladesh.

But the arrest of a poacher with tiger skins and bones earlier this year raised fears that an organised poaching group was operating in the mangrove forests.

Officials admitted they did not have enough manpower, resources and training to counter the poachers, who they said were using increasingly sophisticated techniques to trap the tigers.

Minister of Environment and Forests Hasan Mahmud said that the setting up of the new wildlife force was long overdue.

"The forest department staff in Bangladesh need more training, because now the poachers are very sophisticated," he said.

"Their sophistication has been increased but the sophistication of the forest department has not been increased over the last couple of years. So, we have to train them and we have to equip them."

Most of the money to set up the new Wildlife Crime Control unit will come from the World Bank loan of $36m (£21.8m).

The new force will also tackle a growing trade in the illegal trafficking of wild animals.

Recently, officials seized a number of protected wild animals from people who were keeping them illegally.

Earlier this month, customs officers at Bangkok airport in Thailand found hundreds of freshwater turtles and crocodiles packed in suitcases on a flight from Bangladesh.

The incredible shrinking shopping baskets

A host of familiar grocery products are getting smaller while their price stays the same. Why?

Tough times might be weighing heavily on UK shoppers, but one burden, at least, is becoming lighter: their shopping trolleys.

With the cost of getting products onto the shelves rising higher and higher, some suppliers are reducing the size of their wares while maintaining the same retail price.

Imperial Leather soap is the latest item to shrink. Manufacturer PZ Cussons said it was reducing the size of its bars from 125g to 100g, citing a steep rise in the cost of ingredients like palm oil, to avoid a hike in the amount charged to customers.

In February, Cadbury's Dairy Milk bars went down from 140g to 120g - the equivalent of two chunks - while the recommended retail price remained unchanged.

At the same time, Toblerone bars became one triangle shorter to ensure the Poundland chain could carry on selling them for £1, blaming "increases in cost bases".

To producers, it is a rational business strategy. To consumer advocates it has all the hallmarks of a rip-off.

But what both sides could agree is that the trend offers an insight into the psychology of shopping.

At its heart lies the question of why it makes better business sense to reduce the size of products rather than simply charge more at the till.

Certainly, there is little doubt that manufacturers have had their margins squeezed by rising commodity prices.

Cadbury said it cut the size of Dairy Milk to ensure it was still offering "a very affordable treat" even though the cost of cocoa beans has more than doubled in five years.

On the London futures market, cocoa was trading at around £896 a tonne in April 2006. By April 2011 the price was close to £2,000 a tonne.

Likewise, speaking after the announcement that Imperial Leather bars would be shrinking, PZ Cussons' finance director Brandon Leigh said shoppers would always resist price rises more than size reductions.

"The price point has become more important than the size of the product," he added.

"Consumers only have a certain amount of money in their pockets and are paying more for fuel and other items, so I'm sure they would rather this than the price going up.

A 2010 report by the BBC's Watchdog programme suggested that some firms had been less forthcoming about size reductions, keeping their size dimensions and packaging unchanged.

Martyn Hocking, editor of the consumer magazine Which?, argues that the tactic is more about befuddling the shopper than providing what they want.

"We think this an underhand way of raising prices," he says.

"If the price doesn't change and the packaging looks identical, consumers are going to believe they're buying the same thing."

So are manufacturers really correct to say that customers would rather get less than pay more?

Dr Sheila Keegan, a chartered psychologist and business consultant, believes it is probably true that shoppers are more resistant to price hikes.

However, she suggests this is more to do with the fact that the increases are more noticeable.

Moreover, she points out that most consumers simply do not have the time or inclination to closely inspect the weights and measurements of their purchases every time they visit the supermarket.

It really, really annoys consumers when suppliers aren't upfront”

"We don't buy rationally," she says. "We're more likely to think about how much something costs than about what we're getting for our money.

"We tend to shop on an adaptive, habitual basis - we buy what we've bought before. Life's too short to go around comparing everything. I suspect most people wouldn't notice [a size reduction]. For a supplier, of course, that's very useful."

At the same time, producers may realise that offering their customers less will scarcely win them a vote of approval - but they argue that they need to respond somehow when the price of raw materials is on the rise.

Entrepreneur and former Apprentice contestant Saira Khan says that shoppers will appreciate these pressures and believes Cussons did the right thing by being open about its move.

However, she warns that brands will face a backlash if they try to sneak smaller products onto the market in the hope that no-one will notice.


"What's important is that manufacturers are honest about it - it really, really annoys consumers when suppliers aren't upfront."

In what are tough economic times for many, smaller bars of soap and chocolate may not be the biggest concern to many shoppers.

But, regardless, those lighter shopping baskets will mean a heavier burden on our purses and wallets.

Laser is produced by a living cell

A single living cell has been coaxed into producing laser light, researchers report in Nature Photonics.

The technique starts by engineering a cell that can produce a light-emitting protein that was first obtained from glowing jellyfish.

Flooding the resulting cells with weak blue light causes them to emit directed, green laser light.

The work may have applications in improved microscope imaging and light-based therapies.

Laser light differs from normal light in that it is of a narrow band of colours, with the light waves all oscillating together in synchrony.

Most modern forms use carefully engineered solid materials to produce lasers in everything from supermarket scanners to DVD players to industrial robots.

The new work, by Malte Gather and Seok Hyun Yun at the Wellman Center for Photomedicine at Massachusetts General Hospital in the US, marks the first time the phenomenon has been seen in a living system.

The pair used green fluorescent protein (GFP) as the laser's "gain medium", where light amplification takes place.

GFP is a well-studied molecule, first isolated from jellyfish, that has revolutionised biology by acting as a custom-made "torch" that can light up living systems on command.

In the new work, cells derived from human kidney cells were genetically engineered to produce GFP.

Bathed in light
The cells were then placed one at a time between two tiny mirrors, just 20 millionths of a metre across, which acted as the "laser cavity" in which light could bounce many times through the cell.

Upon bathing the cell with blue light, it could be seen to emit directed and intense green laser light.

The cells remained alive throughout and after the process. The authors note in an accompanying interview in the journal that the living system is a "self-healing" laser; if the light-emitting proteins are destroyed in the process, the cell will simply produce more.

"In cellular sensing, we may be able to detect intracellular processes with unprecedented sensitivity," they said.

"For light-based therapeutics, diagnosis and imaging, people think about how to deliver emission from an external laser source deep into tissue. Now we can approach this problem in another way: by amplifying light in the tissue (itself).

Venezuela's wildlife conservation sees mixed results

Young crocodiles cry plaintively for their mother as they are hooked in a trap and pulled, splashing franticly, from the water.

But their mother is nowhere to be seen.

These one-year-old Orinoco Crocodiles are part of a captive breeding programme designed to put the brakes on their slide towards extinction.

The Orinoco Crocodile (Crocodylus intermedius ) is the biggest in South America, present only in Venezuela and Colombia.

Researchers measure population by the number of adult females and say there are now around 100 in Venezuela, far fewer in Colombia.


"In the 1930s and 1940s they were over-exploited for their skin," said Omar Hernandez, director of Venezuela's Science Development Foundation.

"Now people are eating these crocodiles, they're hunting them for their meat."

The breeding programme, which each year sees around 200 young crocodiles released into the rivers of Venezuela's Llanos, or Great Plains, takes place on a private reserve about six hours drive from the capital Caracas.

Stalled programmes?
Over the years, state-run national parks have proved ineffective at preserving wildlife and the task fell to private ranchers who kept reserves and created ecotourism lodges.


The challenge is for productive farming to co-exist with conservation programmes
But now these reserves are an endangered species themselves.

Since 2006, three of the four farms which hosted biological research programmes have been expropriated by President Hugo Chavez's government, to the dismay of environmentalists.

"There is no way of knowing what is going on inside those farms now," says Mr Hernandez.

"At El Frio ranch, there was a crocodile breeding programme but we hear it is now closed and we don't know what is happening."

The expropriation of El Frio ranch was controversial. One of the biggest farms in the country, covering more than 60,000 hectares (nearly 150,000 acres), it was taken over by government troops in 2008.

It now goes by a different name - the Marisela Socialist Production Company.


Agricultural production has diversified on this ranch, officials say
My requests for permission to visit the ranch went unanswered by the Ministry of Agriculture but the government says the site, once a huge cattle ranch, now produces rice, beans, sorghum and maize as well as meat.

Large farms were traditionally the property of foreign investors or wealthy Venezuelan dynasties, often remaining in the hands of the same family for years.

That made them a natural target for President Chavez and his socialist Bolivarian Revolution which has a policy of redistribution of wealth.

Preservation
There are no official figures on how much agricultural land has been expropriated since 2005. Some estimates put it at about 2m hectares (nearly 5m acres).

But those who have benefited are grateful.

"Thanks to God, the revolution and Hugo Chavez, we grow our own maize, rice, oranges and papaya," said Miguel Angel Tovar, a former shoe shop assistant who was given 15 hectares of land after the government expropriated a large cattle ranch from the British company The Vestey Group.
And at another expropriated farm, ecological programmes are continuing.

El Cedral, a 53,000 hectare ranch, keeps 90% of its land as a nature reserve while still raising cattle for meat and buffalo for dairy products.

Its ecotourism lodge remains open and continues to attract bird watchers who come to see the more than 300 species found at the ranch.

"Food production here is done in a responsible way. The land isn't given over to crops, the cows are not injected with steroids, they eat grass, it's very natural," says local guide Ramon Arbuja.

Attempting to show that preservation and production can live side by side, El Cedral is running a pilot programme alongside the Vietnamese government to investigate the use of fish as a pest control in rice paddies.

The approach at El Cedral seems to suggest that all is not lost for the wildlife of Los Llanos, but neither is its future guaranteed.

Facebook - Beginner’s tips for the social network

If the internet was a global village, Facebook would be its marketplace. Almost everyone meets here and those who aren’t there yet look set to join.

Once you get past all the status updates and links, pictures and videos, Facebook is, essentially, a comment posting and relaying machine. Novices need to be sure not to let themselves get scared by the commotion and be sure to protect their data.

Following are a few tips about what the network can do, how to control the information flood and how to protect your personal data.

The box with the question: “What’s on your mind?” encourages users to regularly post status updates. It’s also possible to upload photos and videos. And, should anyone anywhere online click on the “Like” button with its thumbs—up icon, Facebook immediately adds that site as a link on their profile.

“Facebook is a form of communication. You can easily repeat things there,” says Annette Schwindt, who has written on the subject and is something of a Facebook expert.

The homepage’s live stream is the central element. Consider it a personal news ticker. It’s not just seeing comments that friends have made about the ongoing football game, or who has posted vacation photos. If you’ve identified yourself as a fan of a medium, brand or band, you’ll find information about your interest there.

“I can effectively tailor the news for myself,” says Schwindt.

Taking in acquaintances past and present, it’s easy to quickly gather 100 or 200 Facebook friends. But that can get confusing. If it’s order you want, it’s best to sort those friends into lists (under Accounts/Edit Friends). Here you can also set who sees what information about you, depending on whether a friend is a business contact or a relative.

If it’s important to discuss matters among a small circle, then a user can make use of the relatively new group functions, whether it’s for a bowling club or a class reunion.

“The groups are perfect for communicating with a limited number of users,” says a Facebook spokeswoman.

The company no longer limits itself to its own network. Users can bundle their email, text messages and chatting into one mailbox, for which they get a mail address with the ending @facebook.com. That allows them to stay in touch with people who eschew Facebook.

Facebook has also kept itself open to software developers who want to offer their own programmes. Games, like the simulation Farmville, are always popular. So are puzzles. But experts say be careful, since many of these applications demand access to your personal data.

Facebook handles a lot of personal data, making protection all the more important. The company insists it does not sell information. But it is very curious to gather up as much as possible from its users: newcomers are urged to let the system search their email programmes for possible Facebook friends.

But the company also uses those addresses to find non—members to invite to join. Johannes Caspar, a data protection official with the German city—state of Hamburg thus advises never passing out professional contacts on Facebook. Nor should a business smartphone ever be synchronized with Facebook.

Remember that it is not necessary for your contacts to see everything about you. Caspar recommends thinking about settings and limiting access to your profile whenever possible.

Facebook routinely changes its interface, which has often annoyed users. Schwindt recommends checking blogs about Facebook to keep up to date. Facebook itself also offers some sites devoted to helping users keep track of changes.

Six-day Cochin Flower Show kicks off at Marine Drive

The 26th edition of the Cochin Flower Show, organised by the Ernakulam district Agri-Horticultural Society, began at the Marine Drive here on Wednesday. V.J. Kurian, Chairman, Spices Board, inaugurated the show.

It is indeed a visual delight for the visitors as many varieties of flowers and evergreen plants create a splash of colours. Roses dominate the over 8,000 varieties of flowers and plants on display. These include marigold, chrysanthemum, petunia, rosetta orange, and various other varieties of flowers and over 250 varieties of bonsai plants. A major attraction is the fresh flower arrangement spread over more than 10,000 sq ft.

Another highlight of the show is the exhibition of the Mediterranean variety of Italian ornamental flowers and the sale of saplings of these flower plants.

Italian flowers
A Bangalore-based company has put up an exhibition of Italian flowers categorised by colours. Flowers are categorised into red (Pintado, Leopardi, Guapo, Morgan, Masairosso); purple (Ticotico, Viola); white (Emotion, Special, Aladino); pink (Cipro,Chanson); yellow (Basilio, Boccacie) and bi-colour (Pigalle, Botticelli, Mozart Bernini, Alibaba).

Being a Kannadiga, Rajan, who manned the stall, had some difficulty in communicating with the visitors. But they had the language of colours to communicate.

A printed material elaborating the method to be followed in planting and the fertilizers to be used are also given to the buyers.

Children, however, might find the flightless Australian bird Emu exhibited at the show more attractive.

Sethumadhavan, owner of Grant Seed Nursery, Nenmara, has been a constant presence at the show for the last 10 years.

“There is a great demand for flower seeds and over the years we have built up a dedicated customer base that keeps in constant touch regarding the planting and nurturing of flowers and plants,” he said.

Bio-bin
Kudumbasree members exhibiting the bio-bin system for waste treatment under the Clean Kochi project promoted by the Kerala Builders Forum are also active at the show.

A picture museum with photographs arranged under more than 10 categories attract the visitors.

There are about 90 commercial stalls at the show. Nurseries from across the State, members of the Agri-Horticultural Society, and individual members are participating in the show.

Besides, the Kerala Books and Publications Society, the Cochin Port Trust and the Cochin Shipyard are also participating.

Cultural evenings
Film actor Bhama inaugurated the cultural events organised as part of the show. There will be cultural events and musical shows after 6 p.m. on every day of the show.

The show will be open between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. The entry rates are Rs.20 for adults and Rs.10 for children. The rate for adults will be Rs.30 after 4 p.m. The show will conclude on Monday.

Spanish police website hit by Anonymous hackers

The website of Spain's national police force has been briefly knocked offline by hacker collective Anonymous.

The attack on the site was carried out in retaliation for the arrest of three Spanish men the police claimed were 'core' members of the group.

The hackers managed to keep www.policia.es offline for about an hour from 2130 GMT on 12 June.

Spanish authorities would not confirm that Anonymous was behind the attack, saying only that the site was offline.

However, a statement was posted on a website linked to Anonymous, claimed responsibility for the hack, which it called #OpPolicia.

The group said it had used a distributed denial of service attack (DDoS) which bombards a target website with so much data that it becomes overwhelmed.

A spokesman for the Spanish police said the cause of the outage had not yet been established.

"A website can collapse if too many people try to access it at once. I cannot confirm the link with the Anonymous group," said the spokesman.

In its statement, Anonymous said the DDoS attack was a "direct response to the Friday arrests of three individuals alleged to be associated with acts of cyber civil disobedience attributed to Anonymous."

The group said DDoS attacks were a legitimate form of peaceful protest. Some of its members are thought to have carried out similar attacks on Turkish government websites to protest against net censorship.

Anonymous also denied that the men arrested were part of the "core" of Spanish members of the group.

74 p.c. of online users fear hacking of social networking account

Online users in the country today are more scared of their social networking account being hacked as compared to loss of personal data in the cyber world, a Microsoft India study said.

About 74 per cent of the respondents said they worry about hacking of their social networking account as opposed to loss of personal data, which accounted for just 16 per cent and credit card fraud (five per cent), the study said.

The survey was hosted on Microsoft India’s ‘Windows and Me’ Facebook page and received responses from over thousands of consumers, it said.

About 50 per cent of respondents said they spent close to five hours on the internet daily.

Connecting with people online emerged as the favourite activity, with 40 per cent people saying they spend this time on social networking sites.

Other key activities included research (with 35 per cent) and entertainment (22 per cent).

The study revealed that nearly one—fourth of the participants (over 23 per cent) said they have been victims of cyber attacks.

Of this, 67 per cent people said they had suffered loss of personal data, followed by 19 per cent users witnessing e—mail account hacking.

“The large number of cyber attacks has also led to people becoming more aware about online security threats and thus realising the need for online security and anti—virus solutions,” the study said.

While the study found that almost 90 per cent Indians have an anti—virus installed on their PC, however, majority of the users (62 per cent) felt their job is done once they install an anti—virus on their PC.

This reflects that the Indian consumers are still are not completely aware of the repercussions of cyber attacks, the study said.

“Consumers are becoming increasingly aware about security threats they are exposed to in the online environment and are looking for security solutions that work in the back—end and let them enjoy their online world without any worries or interruptions,” Microsoft India Director (Windows Client, Consumer and Online Business).

Citigroup to offload 1.4% stake in HDFC for Rs 1,350 crore

Citigroup has decided to reduce its stake in India's top mortgage lender Housing Development Finance Corp to about 10 percent from 11.4 percent now via stock market deals, two sources with knowledge of the transaction said on Monday.

The book for the stake sale is likely to be launched later on Monday, the sources told Reuters. They declined to be named as the matter is not public yet.

The stake to be sold by Citi is valued at about Rs 1,350 crore (USD 301 million) as per the current HDFC share price.

A spokesman for Citi in India declined to comment, while officials at HDFC could not immediately be reached.

People sweat as humidity, mercury rise across north India

After a pleasant break on Sunday, mercury again soared across north India with people sweating under hot and humid condition.

In the national capital, mercury climbed two places from yesterday to reach 39.5 deg C, which was normal for the season, but it was 77% humidity which made the afternoon uneasy for people. The pre-dawn reading was 27.5 deg C, a notch below normal.

Weatherman has forecast partly cloudy condition and thundershowers at some places in city tomorrow, with mercury oscillating between 39 deg C and 25 deg C.

In the plains of Punjab and Haryana, maximum temperature shot above normal at many places with Hisar being the hottest at 41.6 deg C, closely followed by Amritsar where the high was 41.5 deg C.

Delhi satellite city Gurgaon also braved a hot day as mercury climbed to 40.5 deg C. However, in Chandigarh, the day-reading was two notches below normal at 37 deg C.

Meanwhile, in Uttar Pradesh, a few districts witnessed rains and dust storms as around 150 thatched houses in different villages of Meerut collapsed and electric supply was disrupted due to snapping of wires.

There was also no respite for people in Lucknow, Allahabad and Varanasi where the maximum was 40 deg C each with humidity levels of above 65%.

Rajasthan continued to bake under severe heat wave with Vanasthali being the hottest in the region with a day-reading of 44 deg C and it was followed by Bikaner where the maximum was 43.6 deg C. The maximum in Jaipur was 42 deg C, but the city received light showers this evening. Dholpur recorded a rainfall of 27 mm.

World's first womb transplant planned

London: With the help of a groundbreaking new medical procedure, a businesswoman in Europe is all set to become first person in the world to have her womb transplanted into her daughter.

If the procedure is successful then, Eva Ottosson, who runs a lighting business in Nottingham, could donate her uterus to her 25-year-old daughter Sara.

Doctor’s hope that if the transplant is successful Sara, who was born without reproductive organs, could become pregnant and carry a child in the same womb from which she herself was born.

It is being hoped the complex transplant operation could take place as early as next spring in Sweden, where doctors in Gothenburg have been assessing suitable patients for the revolutionary procedure.

Mats Brannstrom, who is leading the medical team, said a womb transplant remained one of the most complex operations known to medical science.

“Technically it is lot more difficult than transplanting a kidney, liver or heart. The difficulty with it is avoiding haemorrhage and making sure you have long enough blood vessels to connect the womb,” the Telegraph quoted him as saying.

Celeb diets breakdown

Celebrities go to great lengths to look good. And, their quickest way to get an enviable figure is by following a fad diet. But, these diets are perhaps a step too far. “These diets do more damage than helping with weight loss. Besides, it’s not possible for anyone to follow them for a long period wi
thout permanent ill-effects,” says nutritionist Jyoti Arora. “A diet is supposed to balance your nutrition intake but such diets limit that. So you do lose weight but it’s never permanent,” adds nutritionist Ritika Samadar. Here we list out five such diets that might have worked for these celebrities but they surely won’t do you any good.
The raw food diet
Actor Demi Moore swears by this diet in which you have to substitute 75% of your daily diet with raw fruits and veggies
The Verdict: Though rich in nutrients, there will be indigestion, liver and kidney problems as digestive system is not used to raw foods.

The juice diet
A detox-style diet, which has fans such as actor Gwyneth Paltrow was created by Dr. Alejandro Junger. It consists of two liquid meals a day and a solid one in between.
The Verdict: No proteins, carbs, or fats mean you will feel tired very fast and lose much needed muscle weight.

Cabbage soup diet
Followed by actor-model Liz Hurley, all you can eat in this diet is cabbage soup, and lots of it
The Verdict: The low nutrient value diet can cause long term harm. Plus, you will put a lot more weight on once you break the diet.

The baby food diet
Singer Cheryl Cole was on this diet before her ill-fated US X-Factor debut. You have replace two meals daily with baby food liquidised with two litres of water.
The Verdict: You end up consuming just 600 calories a day, which is too low for adults.

The cookie diet
Reality star Kim Kardashian tried this diet where specially made proprietary cookies are consumed to control hunger pangs. You can eat six each day: 500 calories.

Filipino named world's shortest man

Measuring just 59.93 cm, Junrey Balawing, a Filipino who turned 18 today, was declared the world's shortest man, taking over the title from a tiny Nepali.
Son of a Filipino blacksmith, Balawing stopped growing when he was a toddler.

Junrey Balawing reacts after he was officially declared "the world's shortest living man" by the Guinness World Records at Sindangan Municipal Hall in Sindangan township, Zamboanga Del Norte province in Southern Philippines on June 12, 2011, on his 18th birthday and coincidentally the Philippines' Independence Day.

AcYut 4,Humanoid by BITS Pilani team wins international honour

AcYut 4,Humanoid developed by BITS Pilani team wins international honour
Continuing its winning streak, AcYut 4, the humanoid developed by students of BITS Pilani has won prizes at both Robocup Iran 2011 and Robogames 2011 held in Tehran and San Francisco respectively. At these events, AcYut 4 displayed advance technical abilities and motor abilities in both autonomous and non-autonomous categories.


The team from BITS Pilani comprised Akash Gupta (Team Leader, III Year B.E. Mechanical), Tushar Agrawal (II Year, B.E. Computer Science), Apoorv Shrivastava (I Year, B.E. Mechanical), Deepak Gopinath and Dhairya Seth (Both I Year, B.E. Computer Science).Speaking about the competitions and AcYut 4′s performance, Akash Gupta says, “We are extremely happy with AcYut 4′s performance at Robocup Iran and Robogames. With an autonomous nature, AcYut 4 has a skeletal structure close to a human being due to the combination of a walking algorithm and an image processor. We have achieved these motor abilities using a six inertial measurement unit that detects external forces and allows the humanoid to balance its actions based on the environment.”
At Robocup Iran 2011, AcYut 4 successfully walked three meters, detected the white finish line autonomously and returned to the starting point. Competing with 35 humanoids from across the globe, AcYut 4 was the only humanoid robot that completed the task.
In San Francisco at Robogames 2011, AcYut 4 participated in two different categories of tasks. In the autonomous category, AcYut 4 had to identify a weightlifting bar and walk with it for 30 cm. The second part of this task involved AcYut lifting the weight bar above its head and walk another 50 cm. In the non-autonomous (freestyle) category, the humanoid had to demonstrate getting up from a lying position and walking at various speeds.
Built with two embedded microprocessors, AcYut functions with a processing power of 1.72 GHz. The microprocessors are assembled in a unique structure that allows one of the two processors to process images so that the humanoid can detect objects of various shapes and colours. The observed data is then processed with the help of a second microprocessor in the form of data packets that allow motor movements of the humanoid.

Windies restricted to modest total

Spinning a web:Amit Mishra, imparting serious revolutions to the ball, had the West Indian batsmen in all sorts of trouble, much to the delight of his captain Suresh Raina
Port of Spain: Amit Mishra, operating with craft and control, held centre-stage as India restricted the West Indies to 240 for nine in the second ODI of the five-match Digicel series at the Queen's Park Oval here on Wednesday. The leg-spinner scalped four.

Munaf Patel, operating to an off-stump line, seaming the ball and brining about subtle changes in pace and length in the end-overs took out three batsmen. Just when one expected the host to put the foot on the accelerator, the West Indies collapsed from 175 for two in the 36th over to 197 for seven in the 44th.

The Caribbeans scored a brisk 76 runs for the loss of a wicket in the first two sets of Power Plays that concluded in the 15th over. Then, the West Indies lost considerable ground in the batting Power Play — taken between overs 42 to 46 — cobbling together just 20 runs for the loss of three wickets.

Skipper Darren Sammy (22 not out) displayed some fight in the end-overs in the company of tail-enders.

Although there was turn for the spinners, the ball was coming on to the bat more. Mishra impressed with his control, flight and spin. Essentially relying on his leg-spinners and mixing them with the odd wrong-un, he tormented the West Indies batsmen.

Opener Kirk Edwards lunged forward, more in hope than conviction, as a flighted, turning delivery kissed the edge. Mishra angled one into Kieron Pollard from slightly wide off the crease. The right-hander, missing a sweep, was caught in front for a naught.

Mishra was imparting serious revolutions on the ball and Dwayne Bravo's brave intentions only resulted in finding a fielder at long-off. Moments later, Carlton Baugh inside-edged a googly.

Harbhajan Singh, often bowling from round-the-wicket, failed to make an impression. The experienced off-spinner might have sought to deny batsmen width outside the off-stump and cramp them on the leg-side. But on a pitch offering spin he could have operated to a more direct and attacking off-stump line from over-the-wicket.

Once again, Ramnaresh Sarwan donned the role of an anchor. Yet — even if his job was to hold the innings together — Sarwan should have done better than make 56 from 90 deliveries. He is not bringing into play his wrists well enough to work the ball into the empty spaces. Sarwan's innings concluded on a disappointing note when he was picked up at deep square-leg off a Munaf full toss.

During the phase when the West Indies dominated, Lendl Simmons (53) and Marlon Samuels (36) found themselves in the thick of things. Samuels on-drove Suresh Raina with poise. He then launched into a rousing cover-drive off Mishra before skipping down to loft Yusuf over the long-on ropes. The off-spinner, however, struck in the same over by luring Samuels with a delivery well outside the off-stump.

But then, Simmons gave his wicket away when he, charging down, perished to a leg-side wide from Pathan; ‘keeper Parthiv Patel pulled off the stumping.

The West Indies was off to a rather bright start after with openers Kirk Edwards — he held on to his place with Darren Bravo making way for Pollard — and Simmons putting on 57 in 12.1 overs with some bright stroke-play.

The threat of rain later in the day and the prospect of early moisture in the wicket might have influenced Raina's decision to bat. Gradually, the opener pair upped the tempo.

For a change, the Indian fielders were chasing leather. Surviving an early chance — bowler Munaf could not quite latch on to a booming drive — Edwards opened out with a few powerful blows. None more emphatic than a mighty six over long on. Given their difference in height — Edwards is much taller than Simmons — the Indian bowlers were forced to bowl at different lengths as well. Then Mishra provided the break-through.

UN nuclear watchdog refers Syria to Security Council

The UN nuclear watchdog is to report Syria to the Security Council over its alleged covert nuclear programme.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) voted to rebuke Syria on claims of an undeclared nuclear reactor.

The alleged structure, which Syria has maintained was a non-nuclear military site, was destroyed by Israel in 2007.

The IAEA's move comes as international pressure mounts on the UN Security Council to censure Syria over its lethal crackdown on protests.

European nations on Wednesday presented a separate draft resolution to the Council condemning Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime.

Desert site

At the IAEA meeting at its headquarters in Vienna, 17 countries voted for and six against, including Russia and China.

Diplomats said that overall 11 countries of the 35-member board of governors abstained and one country was absent from the vote.

Israel bombed the desert site of the alleged reactor - near Deir Alzour in the country's remote north-east - in September 2007.

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The reactor there was built for the express purpose of producing plutonium for possible use in nuclear weapons”

Glyn Davies
US Ambassador to IAEA
The IAEA began investigating the allegations in June 2008, but Syria has refused to co-operate and, with the exception of a one-off visit, has not allowed UN inspectors to Deir Alzour or related sites to verify the US claims.

Thursday's motion was proposed by the US and its Western allies who had asked the IAEA's governing body to find Syria in "non-compliance" with its international obligations.

According to AFP news agency, US Ambassador Glyn Davies told the closed-door assembly: "Syria's apparent attempt at constructing a covert, undeclared plutonium production reactor, a reactor with no credible peaceful purpose, represents one of the most serious safeguards violations possible."

He said the intentions of the structure at Deir Alzour were clear and that a resolution was the only responsible course of action.

"The reactor there was built for the express purpose of producing plutonium for possible use in nuclear weapons."

'Regrettable'

Syria's ambassador to the IAEA called the agency's move "regrettable" but pledged that the country would honour its obligations.

"I think Syria has always been committed to its obligations and to its duties and I think we will continue to do so," Bassam Al-Sabbagh said after the meeting.

Syria is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which gives it the right to enrich its own fuel for civil nuclear power, under inspection from the IAEA.

But it has also signed a safeguards agreement with the IAEA under which it is obliged to notify the UN's nuclear watchdog of any plans to construct a new nuclear facility.

The last country the IAEA referred to the Security Council was Iran, in February 2006.

The Security Council has the power to impose sanctions, a move it has taken in the case of Iran no less than four times.

Gruesome accident on TN highway claims 22 lives, two survivors Karthikeyan Hemalatha

Charred bodies tumbled out of the burnt bus as rescuers tried to look for survivors in the wee hours of Wednesday. Most of the bodies were charred beyond recognition. In one of the most gruesome accidents on Tamil Nadu's accident-prone highways, a Pollachi-bound KPN Travels' luxury sleeper bus lost control while trying to avoid two trucks racing ahead on NH 4 at Avalur, 100 km from Chennai and fell into a 10-foot ditch.

The bus, carrying 23 passengers, swerved to the left and its silencer and diesel tank rammed a culvert before the vehicle fell into the ditch and caught fire at about 10.45 pm on Tuesday. One passenger had a miraculous escape as he broke open a glass window of the air-conditioned bus and came out before it exploded.

Police confirmed that 22 people, including seven women and a 10-year-old boy, died in the accident that took place at Avalur which falls within Vellore district but close to Kancheepuram. "The accident occurred in a jiffy giving passengers, fast asleep in the bus, little time to escape," pointed out DIG HM Jayaraman. "The bus lost control and hit a culvert before falling into the ditch and exploding, leaving behind only two survivors, the driver and one passenger," he told TOI. As the bus turned on its left, the bus driver, 51-year-old Nagarajan, managed to jump out. As for Karthikairaja, his quick thinking in breaking open the glass window and jumping out helped him escape. But his desperate attempts to pull out his wife before the bus exploded failed. She was among those charred to death.

The bus driver, Nagarajan, who jumped out of his seat seconds before the bus burst into flames, was taken to the accident spot early on Wednesday. He told the police that he lost control of the bus while attempting to avoid hitting two speeding trucks ahead. "Most passengers rolled off their beds when the bus fell into the ditch after hitting the culvert. I jumped out of my cabin and tried to help people. But there was a huge explosion. I was helpless," he said. He then jumped into a bus going on the highway and surrendered before the Vellore North Police. Nagarajan suffered a swelling under his right eye and minor bruises. Police have filed a case of rash and negligent driving, and culpable homicide, not leading to murder against Nagarajan. He has been detained in the Vellore police station. The two trucks have been seized and the drivers detained for questioning.

Fire service personnel and policemen rushed to the spot, but it was too late. They could find just one survivor. The bus driver had fled the spot. Regional Forensic Science laboratory deputy director Dr P Ravishankar, investigating the cause of accident, said the bus must have been travelling at a high speed when the accident occurred. "This is obvious error in judgement. The bus driver miscalculated the space and grazed the side of the lorry," he said. The forensic team say there atleast 200 litres of fuel would have gushed out of the diesel tank killing almost all passengers instantly. "It did not look like a progressive fire," said assistant deputy director A Pari, who was also a part of the investigation team.

Locals joined rescuers in helping to pull out the charred bodies from the skeletal remains of the bus. The burnt bodies were dumped into 16 plastic bags and taken to the mortuary at the Wallajah government Hospital in Vellore district. Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa announced solatium of Rs one lakh to the kin of those killed. Expressing her condolence over the death, Jayalalithaa announced Rs 50,000 to those injured.

Indian Painter MF Hussain Dies at 95

Millions of art lovers around the world were on Thursday mourning for M.F. Husain, indisputably one of India’s greatest, most flamboyant and internationally recognised artists , who died in a London hospital following a heart attack. He was 95 and is survived by six children including four sons and two daughters.

Husain reportedly suffered a “silent” heart attack in Dubai recently but had recovered and was said to have been in good spirits. It was not clear when exactly he came to London but sources said he normally spent the summer in London. As he felt unwell, he was admitted to the Royal Brompton Hospital where he died at 1.30 a.m. on Thursday plunging the art world into gloom.

The burial will take place at a private funeral here on Friday. The decision not to take the body to India was taken in deference to his wishes that he would like to be laid to rest wherever he died.

Husain had been living in Dubai and London after he was forced to leave India in 2006 in the face of a vicious campaign of harassment and intimidation, including death threats, by right-wing Hindutva groups over his artistic depiction of Hindu deities. His exhibitions were vandalised and a number of legal cases, accusing him of hurting religious sentiments, were slapped on him. When he did not respond to summons from a district court in Haridwar, his properties were attacked and an arrest warrant was issued against him.

Qatar nationality

Last year, in a rare gesture, the State of Qatar gave him nationality. Faced with the prospect of arrest and further harassment if he returned to India, Husain accepted Qatar nationality, describing it as an honour. But he insisted that India would always remain his “home” regardless of where he lived physically.

There has been widespread criticism that successive Indian governments, including the Congress(I)-led UPA administration, failed to protect his right to artistic freedom.

“It is an indictment of those in power in India that the country's greatest artist died in exile. It is like Picasso dying in exile. For all their claim to secularism it is a shame that they couldn’t defend him against a mob of right-wing fanatics,” eminent economist Lord Meghnad Desai, an admirer and personal friend of Husain, told The Hindu.

The famously bohemian artist whose refusal to wear shoes became his signature trademark was credited with putting Indian art on the world map. His own work routinely fetched millions of dollars in the international market. Only recently, one of his paintings fetched Rs. 2.32 crore at an auction at Bonham’s in London.

Born on September 17, 1915 in Pandharpur, Maharashtra, Husain lost his mother when he was only one and a half years old. His father remarried and moved to Indore where he went to school. In 1935, he moved to what was then Bombay and joined Sir J.J. School of Art. As a young struggling artist he painted cinema hoardings and first came to limelight in the 1940s. He quickly made his mark as one of the pioneering spirits behind India’s fledgling avante garde movement and joined the Progressive Artists' Group, led by F.N. Souza.

Husain made his international debut in 1952 with a solo exhibition at Zurich and soon established a worldwide reputation becoming one of India’s highest paid painters. Owning his work became a mark of social status. The first state recognition came his way in 1955 when he was awarded the Padma Shri. In 1973, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan and in 1991, the Padma Vibhushan. He was nominated to the Rajya Sabha in 1986.

Reputed for his free creative spirit and his sense of adventure, Husain experimented with cinema, making his first film “Through the Eyes of a Painter” in 1967 which won a Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. He also made two Hindi films, “Gaja Gamini” with Madhuri Dixit who he described as his muse; and “Meenaxi: A Tale of Three Cities”. He also did a series of paintings inspired by Madhuri Dixit signing off as “Fida”, an Urdu word for “devoted”.

Husain, easily recognisable in his flowing beard and white hair, was a familiar figure in London’s art circles and remained active until his last days.

Tributes poured in as news of his death spread. Industrialist and Labour peer Lord Swraj Paul described him as a “great Indian and a great human being”.

“He made India proud and in his death the country has lost a great soul,” he said.

The Indian High Commission described Husain’s death as “an immense loss to millions of his admirers across India, the U.K. and the world”.

“We mourn his passing away. In his death, the world of art has lost a person of prodigious talent who had opened up new horizons for other painters,” it said, in a statement.

Kawasaki Ninja 650R drives into India

Japanese bike major Kawasaki on Wednesday rolled out its Ninja 650R bike into India. Ninja 650R has been priced at Rs. 4.57 lakh (ex- showroom at Delhi).
The on-road price would be below Rs. 5 lakh. The premium sports bike has been launched in a tie-up with Bajaj Auto Limited (BAL). BAL already has three other bikes - Pulsar 220, Avenger 220 and Ninja 250 R - in the probiking category.

This bike will be assembled at the company's Chakan Plant. Bajaj has set itself a target of 240 bikes for the first year. More Ninja family models could also be on the cards. Bajaj and Kawasaki are studying the feasibility of a 400cc and a 1000cc Ninja in the near future.

On the reason to launch 650R in India, Kawasaki Motors Managing Director (Designate) Yoshiro Segawa, said, "Many customers had expectations for a new product. The purpose of Ninja 650R is to establish the presence of the Kawasaki brand as a premium sports model in India."

2012 London Olympics torch design revealed

The 2012 London Olympics organisers unveiled Wednesday the golden torch that thousands of runners will use to carry the Olympic flame 8,000 miles (13,000 kilometres) to the opening ceremony.

The flame will burn from a triangular aluminium tube made of a mesh stamped with 8,000 holes -- one to represent each torchbearer.

The torch's shape symbolises the three times that London has staged the Games, in 1908, 1948 and 2012.

The torch, unveiled at London's Saint Pancras train station, has been created by designers Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby.

London 2012 chairman Sebastian Coe said: "The torch that carries the Olympic flame during the Olympic torch relay is one of the most recognisable and significant symbols of an Olympic Games.

"Members of the public right across the UK are busy nominating inspiring people to be torchbearers and I am thrilled we have a beautifully-designed, engineered and crafted torch for them to carry.

"Integral to the design are the 8,000 circles, a lasting representation of the torchbearer stories of personal achievement or contribution to their local community that will be showcased with every step of the relay."

The torch's journey will start in Land's End, the southwesterly tip of mainland Britain, and travel as far as the outer reaches of Scotland.

The flame will arrive from Greece on May 18, 2012 and the relay will continue for 70 days until the opening ceremony of the Games on July 27, 2012.

Organisers want many of the torchbearers to be aged 12 to 24.

There will be no international relay after the chaos caused by human rights protesters demonstrating against China's hosting of the 2008 Games, although the relay may incorporate a stop in Dublin.