Role of the mysterious microbe in ocean ecology

Role of the mysterious microbe in ocean ecology
An unusual microorganism discovered in the open ocean forces scientists to rethink their understanding of how carbon and nitrogen cycle through ocean ecosystems…
An unusual microorganism discovered in the open ocean may force scientists to rethink their understanding of how carbon and nitrogen cycle through ocean ecosystems. A paper describing the new findings appears in the November 14 issue of the journal Science.
A research team led by Jonathan Zehr, a marine scientist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, characterised the new microbe by analysing its genetic material, even though researchers have not been able to grow it in the laboratory.
Zehr said that the newly described organism seems to be an atypical member of the cyanobacteria, a group of photosynthetic bacteria formerly known as blue-green algae.
"This research has revealed a big surprise about the microbiology of the oceans, and the complex integration of the ocean's nitrogen and carbon cycles," said Philip Taylor, section head in the National Science Foundation (NSF)'s Division of Ocean Sciences, which funded the work.
"The fact that nitrogen fixation in these abundant unicells is decoupled from photosynthesis is intriguing," said Taylor. "This unique adaptation brings up questions about the role of these abundant microbes in the ocean."
Unlike all other known free-living cyanobacteria, this one lacks some of the genes needed to carry out photosynthesis, the process by which plants use light energy to make sugars out of carbon dioxide and water.
The mysterious microbe can do something very important, though: It provides natural fertilizer to the oceans by "fixing" nitrogen from the atmosphere into a form useable by other organisms.
"For it to have such an unusual metabolism is very exciting," Zehr said. "We're trying to understand how something like this can live and grow with so many missing parts."
Earlier research by Zehr's group had revealed surprisingly large numbers of novel nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria, including the one that is the focus of this study, in the open ocean.
Although 80 percent of Earth's atmosphere is nitrogen, most organisms cannot use it unless it is "fixed" to other elements to make molecules like ammonia and nitrate. Because nitrogen is essential for all forms of life, nitrogen fixation is a major factor controlling overall biological productivity in the oceans.
The new microbe is one of the most abundant nitrogen fixers in many parts of the ocean, Zehr said.
New DNA sequencing technology provided by 454 Life Sciences enabled rapid sequencing of the organism's genome. "I had begun to suspect that there was something missing in this organism's genome, and the genome sequencing confirmed that," said Zehr. The results showed that it is missing the entire set of genes needed for photosystem II and carbon fixation, essential parts of the molecular machinery that carries out photosynthesis in plants and cyanobacteria.
"That has multiple implications," Zehr said. "It must have a 'lifestyle' that's very different from other cyanobacteria. Ecologically, it's important to understand its role in the ecosystem and how it affects the balance of carbon and nitrogen in the ocean."
During photosynthesis, photosystem II generates oxygen by splitting water molecules. Because oxygen inhibits nitrogen fixation, most nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria only fix nitrogen at night, or do it in specialised cells. The lack of photosystem II enables the new microbe to fix nitrogen during the day, Zehr said.
But without photosynthesis, it can't take carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and convert it into sugars. So it's not clear how the new microbe feeds itself. Either it has some way of feeding on organic matter in its environment, or it lives in close association with other organisms that provide it with food, Zehr said.
"It would make a perfect symbiont because it could feed nitrogen to its host and live on the carbon provided by the host," he said. Photosystem II is large complex of multiple proteins and chlorophyll molecules, but the team was unable to find any of the genes for the photosystem II core proteins. The genes for photosystem I appeared in the sequencing data, as did genes for both photosystems from the small numbers of contaminating cyanobacteria in the sample.
Zehr said that he plans to continue research on the new microbe and fill some gaps in the present knowledge. Efforts are currently underway to map the microbe's presence in the oceans and determine its global abundance. Zehr is also interested in how its metabolism differs from other known cyanobacteria. If it can be cultured, there may be ways to exploit this organism's unusual.
source:thenews.com

World Twenty20 win is beginning of new era: Inti

Pakistan can translate their title-winning triumph in the World Twenty20 into a forceful showing during the tough tour of Sri Lanka later this summer, their coach Intikhab Alam said on Wednesday.Intikhab told ‘The News’ in an interview that the morale is high in Pakistan camp following a memorable victory in the World Twenty20 final against Sri Lanka at Lord’s on Sunday and his boys are now ready to give a similar performance in the up coming Test series.“Our morale and confidence has received a great boost,” said Intikhab, a former Pakistan captain. “And it is certainly going to help the boys in Sri Lanka,” he added.Pakistan are scheduled to leave for Colombo on June 27 to play three Tests, five One-day Internationals and a Twenty20 game against Sri Lanka during a six-wee-long tour that will end on August 12.It is Pakistan’s first full tour since the away assignment in India in 2007 and will be a litmus test for them as Sri Lanka are regarded as a very dangerous side especially in their own backyard.But Intikhab is confident that his charges will do well in Sri lanka.“It’s very important that we carry on winning,” he said. “The World Cup should be a beginning of a bright era in our cricket and we should translate that success into more such results in the future.”However, Intikhab made it clear that things will not be easy for Pakistan in Sri Lanka.“Sri Lanka is always a tough assignment,” he said. “The playing conditions and the weather with all the heat and humidity can make things really difficult.”When Pakistan toured Sri Lanka the last time in 2006, they won the Test series.This time, however, Pakistan will have to really give their best to repeat that performance against Sri Lanka that will be looking to avenge their World Twenty20 final defeat on home soil.Sri Lanka have been extremely successful in their own backyard in recent seasons with a potent bowling attack bolstered by their spin twins — Muttiah Muralitharan and Ajantha Mendis.And with skipper Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene who are counted among the world’s most prolific batters, their batting line-up looks very dependable.Intikhab, however, said that his team will be in with a good chance in the series.He termed the return of premier batsman Mohammad Yousuf as a huge boost and said that his ‘balanced’ team is capable of delivering the goods in Sri Lanka.“Yousuf’s return is certainly good news for us,” he said. “He will strengthen our batting line-up.”Yousuf was banned last year after he defected to the Indian Cricket League (ICL) but was recalled in the national team earlier this weak after he broke ties with the rebel Twenty20 league.Intikhab said that batters like skipper Younis Khan and Yousuf, Pakistan can look forward to a good showing in Sri Lanka.He pointed out that Pakistan have always played well Murali and Mendis and can do that again this summer.Pakistan broke the M&M code at home earlier this year with Younis scoring a match-saving triple hundred in the opening Test in Karachi.Intikhab said that with the in-form pacer Umar in the side, Pakistan will go into the series with a reliable bowling attack.His team will not get much time to switch from Twenty20 to Test mode, but Intikhab is confident that it will do that without mush fuss.“It’s very important for us to get into the Test mode,” he said. “Test cricket is a completely different ball game. You have to be more patient, more determined to stay on the wicket. Your shot selection has to be really good.“It is tough to just switch from Twenty20 to Test cricket, but I’m confident that the boys will do that because they are hungry for more success.”
source: thenews.com

Maria Sharapova is upset by Dulko at Wimbledon

WIMBLEDON, England – Maria Sharapova won seven straight games during one stretch but let a late lead slip away Wednesday and lost to Gisela Dulko, 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 in the second round at Wimbledon.
Sharapova saved four match points in a wild, 14-point final game. But on the fifth she pushed an easy forehand long, and she was out of the tournament after two rounds for the second year in a row.
The 2004 champion was playing in her fourth event since rejoining the tour last month following shoulder surgery in October. She's ranked 60th but was seeded 24th because of past success at the All England Club.
"This is not an overnight process," Sharapova said. "It's going to take time, as much time as I need on the court, to get everything together. ... Just being here is a wonderful accomplishment."
Dulko, ranked 45th, matched her best showing at Wimbledon by reaching the third round. She had won a total of only three games in two previous matches against Sharapova, but the Argentine repeatedly won points by hitting drop shots, while Sharapova struggled with her serve and forehand.
"I had so many easy balls, and I just made unforced errors from those," Sharapova said. "When I've had those situations before, those balls would be pieces of cake, and today they weren't."
Two-time champion Serena Williams, seeded second, sped into the third round by beating Jarmila Groth 6-2, 6-1. Williams committed only six unforced errors.
Earlier on Court 1, Novak Djokovic eased past Simon Greul of Germany. The fourth-seeded Djokovic won eight straight games after going down 1-0 in the second set to secure a 7-5, 6-1, 6-4 victory.
The Serb threw his racket in anger after being broken to start the second set, and also struggled with his serve in the third. He traded breaks twice with Greul before getting a decisive breakthrough to go up 5-4.
Djokovic will next play No. 28-seeded Mardy Fish of the United States, who matched his best showing at Wimbledon by reaching the third round when he beat Janko Tipsarevic 6-4, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4.
On the women's side, No. 16 Zheng Jie, a semifinalist as a wild card last year, lost to Daniela Hantuchova 6-3, 7-5. No. 8 Victoria Azarenka lost only six points in her six service games and shut out Ioana Raluca Olaru 6-0, 6-0.
No. 10 Nadia Petrova, No. 14 Dominika Cibulkova and No. 26 Virginie Razzano won.
Sharapova and Dulko played the day's first match on Centre Court in warm sunshine, and the new roof remained open for a third consecutive day. Dulko played almost flawless tennis at the start, committing only four unforced errors in the first 11 games.
But leading 3-love in the second set, she began spraying her shots, and Sharapova took advantage to win seven consecutive games.
"It took me a while to get going," Sharapova said. "It's a little too late to start picking yourself up when you're down a set and 3-love."
Sharapova wobbled again in the third set, double-faulting to lose serve and fall behind 2-1 in the final set. She double-faulted twice in a row and lost serve at love to fall behind to stay, 4-3.
With Dulko serving in the final game, Sharapova lost two challenges as she fell behind 40-15. Always at her best under pressure, Sharapova hit a booming return and a feathery drop shot to overcome the first two match points, and her return winner erased another.
But with a point for 5-all, Sharapova pushed a backhand into the net, and she made errors on the final two points as well.
Sharapova fell to 6-1 this year in three-set matches. She finished with nine double-faults and had at least one in every service game in the final set.
"Losses are tough, more here than at any other tournament," the three-time Grand Slam champion said. "But, you know, it puts some perspective into your life. It's all right. I have many more years ahead of me."
source:AP

Frank scoffs at worries about new consumer agency

WASHINGTON – House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank scoffed Wednesday at assertions that a new consumer protection agency would morph into "some out of control entity."
"There is no pattern of overregulation I can see in the consumer area, and I don't see one here," Frank, D-Mass., said at a hearing on the Obama administration's proposals to overhaul financial industry regulation in the wake of high-risk practices that led to the deep recession now under way.
The consumer agency is envisioned as a central component of President Barack Obama's broader plan to usher in a new era of regulations on banks and other financial institutions.
Frank's panel is expected to begin in July to consider legislation that would enact the reforms. While the Democratic majority on the committee will likely endorse the creation of the consumer agency, other pieces of the bill could take longer as some lawmakers question whether Obama's plan gives too much power to the Federal Reserve.
Frank and Democratic Sen. Christopher Dodd, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, said they've promised Obama a bill on his desk by the end of the year.
While Democrats seem to be united on creating a consumer-protection agency, Republicans and industry groups are railing against it. They say there already are enough regulators policing the market and that holding those regulators more accountable would have prevented the current crisis.
Edward Yingling, president and chief executive officer of the American Bankers Association, said in prepared testimony that filling in regulatory gaps and extending supervision to nonbank financial firms "is likely to be quicker and more successful than a separate consumer regulator."
House Republicans were even sharper in their critique. Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, said the government had no business interfering in the types of financial products Americans want to buy.
"Unelected bureaucrats will now decide what mortgages we can have. They can decide what bank accounts we can open. They may even decide whether or not we can be trusted with a credit card," said Hensarling, R-Texas.
Frank said such arguments were unfounded.
"The fear that this will be some out of control entity ravaging the financial sector is unsupported by anything in American history," he said.
Elizabeth Warren, who chairs a congressionally appointed panel tasked with reviewing the financial system, initially proposed creating a consumer-protection agency. She said credit cards and mortgages come with such dense fine print that it is nearly impossible for responsible borrowers to understand.
"The consumer market is broken," she told the House panel.
Dodd, D-Conn., also has spoken out in defense of creating a new regulatory agency, suggesting that its establishment is all but guaranteed.
Less clear is the administration's proposal to task the Federal Reserve with regulating any institution deemed so big or influential in the market that its failure could seriously damage the economy.
Under Obama's plan, a council of federal regulators, including the Fed, would help monitor the market for risk. But the Fed would ultimately be held accountable for ensuring that companies don't make overly risky bets.
Last week, several senators suggested tasking the council of regulators with the job instead and criticized the Fed for its role in the recent crisis.
source: AP

U.S. drones prowl over Pakistan's South Waziristan

U.S. drones prowled the sky over Pakistan's South Waziristan on Wednesday, a day after one of the aircraft attacked a stronghold of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, killing about 70 militants.
The U.S. attack came as the Pakistani army is preparing an all-out assault on al Qaeda ally Mehsud, who has been accused of orchestrating a campaign of bombings in Pakistan, including the 2007 assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.
The push into South Waziristan on the Afghan border looms as the army is finishing off an offensive in the Swat valley, northwest of Islamabad, launched after Taliban gains raised fears for nuclear-armed Pakistan's future.
Pakistan is a vital ally for the United States as it strives to defeat al Qaeda and stabilize Afghanistan, where thousands of extra U.S. soldiers are arriving.
U.S. President Barack Obama's national security adviser, Jim Jones, arrived in Pakistan on a trip that includes stops in Afghanistan and India aimed at following up on the implementation of a new U.S. strategy for the region.
He will meet civilian and military leaders, a spokesman said.
The pilotless U.S. drone strike late on Tuesday, on a funeral for one of six militants killed in a similar strike earlier in the day, suggests closer coordination between the United States and Pakistan.
But Pakistan, which officially objects to such strikes, is unlikely to confirm that in a country where many people are suspicious of the alliance with the United States in its global campaign against militancy.
Intelligence officials said late on Tuesday 45 people had been killed in the drone attack as mourners were leaving the funeral. On Wednesday, they said about 70 people had been killed. A Taliban official said Mehsud had been in the area but was not hurt. Security officials and villagers said the Taliban had sealed off the site.
"Bodies are still lying there and the Taliban are not allowing anybody close while their men are coming and going in vehicles," resident Ghulam Rasool told Reuters by telephone.
Taliban spokesman Wali-ur-Rehman said 65 people had been killed and many would be buried in mass graves.
"Most of the bodies are charred beyond recognition so it's been decided they'll be buried in three graves," he said.
On Wednesday, the militants fired at U.S. drones flying over the remote, mountainous region and at least two turned back, said another resident.
TALIBAN CLAIM KILLING RIVAL
The military has been launching air strikes on Mehsud's bases for more than a week while soldiers have been securing main roads into the region, sealing off his stronghold.
A military convoy, including tanks and armored personnel carriers, headed toward the area on Wednesday, a Reuters reporter in the region said.
Tuesday's drone attacks happened hours after a gunman working as a guard killed a rival of Mehsud who had spoken out strongly against the Taliban chief.
Rehman said the Taliban had killed the rival militant leader, Qari Zainuddin, and warned others not to support the government.
"Whoever extends a hand of support to the government will be targeted the same way," he said.
The killing of Zainuddin, in the North West Frontier town of Dera Ismail Khan, showed Mehsud's reach and would be a setback for government efforts to win over ethnic Pashtun tribal factions for the campaign against Mehsud, analysts said.
Nearly 1,600 militants and more than 100 soldiers have been killed in the Swat offensive, according to the military. There has been no independent confirmation of those casualty figures.
The imminent army operation in South Waziristan has forced about 45,000 people to flee the region and join about two million people uprooted by fighting in Swat and other areas.
The offensive against the Taliban has widespread support among politicians and the public but a fragile civilian government could see that backing evaporate if the displaced are seen to be suffering unduly.
source: reuters

Pakistanis mourn Bhutto a year after killing

GARHI KHUDA BAKHSH, Pakistan -- Hundreds of thousands of supporters of former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto gathered in her home town on Saturday to mark the first anniversary of her assassination.
The anniversary of the killing that sparked days of violence by her supporters, comes as Pakistan faces yet another crisis.
Tension has been rising with India over last month's militant attacks in the Indian city of Mumbai, stoking fears of conflict between the nuclear-armed neighbours.
Bhutto, 54, was killed in a gun and bomb attack in the city of Rawalpindi as she emerged from an election rally just over two months after she had returned from years of self-exile.
In February, the two-time prime minister's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) rode a wave of sympathy to win an election and it now heads a coalition government. Her widower, Asif Ali Zardari, has become president.
Zardari, in a statement marking the anniversary, said the attack on his wife was an attack on the viability of the state and aimed at undermining efforts to build democratic structures and to fighting militancy.
"The tyrants and the killers have killed her but they shall never be able to kill her ideas that drove and inspired a generation to lofty aims," Zardari said.
Security was tight at the Bhutto family's graveyard in the village of Garhi Khuda Bakhsh, in Sindh province. She was buried next to her father, former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who was hanged in 1979 after being deposed in a military coup.
Senior police official Tanvir Odho said 6,000 policemen and hundreds of paramilitary soldiers were

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Bomb-sniffing dogs swept the site and surveillance cameras and walk-through metal detectors been set up. Odho estimated that 200,000 people had gathered.

Jolie and Pitt donate to Pakistan

Hollywood stars Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have donated $1 million to help Pakistanis displaced by fighting, the UN refugee agency says.
More than two million people have been uprooted since the army began fighting Taliban militants in Pakistan's Swat region earlier this year, the UN says.
Ms Jolie has visited Pakistan three times since becoming a goodwill ambassador for the agency in 2001.
The two actors made the donation through their charitable foundation.
Ms Jolie and Mr Pitt - who are partners - have set up the foundation to help counter humanitarian crises.
In 2005, the two visited survivors of an earthquake which devastated parts of northern Pakistan.
They travelled aboard a helicopter carrying food, blankets and plastic sheets.
The quake left more than 73,000 people dead and millions homeless.

source:www.bbc.com

Let's go win it, Pakistan coach tells team

Pakistan coach Intikhab Alam has urged his team not to falter at the last step as it takes on Sri Lanka in the World Twenty20 final at Lord's on Sunday.
"I have told the boys that we can win because we are the best," Alam said ahead of the second consecutive all-Asian final in the world championships of the sport's shortest format.
Pakistan had also made it to the title clash of the inaugural World Twenty20 in South Africa two years ago, but lost the exciting final to arch-rivals India by five runs at the Wanderers in Johannesburg.
Alam, a former Pakistan leg-spinner and captain, said the team was unaffected by what happened in 2007 and was looking to write a new chapter in the country's turbulent cricket history.
"What happened two years ago is behind us," he said. "This is a new beginning. You can't be affected by what happened in the past, that's not how sport is played.
"This team is entirely focussed on the final on Sunday. Having come so far, the boys are very keen to go all the way."
Winning the final will be a huge boost for cricket in Pakistan, who have been shunned by all major cricket-playing nations due to security concerns in the volatile nation.
The International Cricket Council has moved the 2011 World Cup matches out of Pakistan after the Sri Lankan team bus was attacked by gunmen in Lahore on March 3 while on its way to the Gaddafi stadium for a Test match.
Alam, a former Surrey player in English county cricket, said a win on Sunday will bring smiles on the faces of Pakistanis back home.
"They are going through a lot, we have to win it for them," he said. "No one outside Pakistan can imagine what a victory will do for the people at home."
Alam said Pakistan's campaign in the tournament reminded him of the one Imran Khan's side went through on their way to winning the 1992 World Cup in Australia.
"The pattern is almost the same," said Alam, who was also the team coach in 1992.
"We were on the brink of elimination then, but fought back to make the semi-finals, then the final and then win it in Melbourne.
"Here the team has fought back after bad starts and has peaked at the right time."
Pakistan were beaten by hosts England in their first preliminary match before storming into the Super Sixes by thrashing minnows Netherlands.
The mercurial Pakistanis also lost their first Super Eights match against Sri Lanka, but made the semi-finals after winning the remaining games against New Zealand and Ireland.
They booked their path to the Lord's final with a seven-run win over favourites South Africa at Trent Bridge in Nottingham on Thursday.
"It has been a team effort all the way," said Alam. "It is important to perform as a team and peak at the right time and we have done both.
"Younus Khan has been a very good captain and inspires others by personal example. Some others like Umar Gul and Shahid Afridi have also stood out, but the team has performed as a whole."
Gul, who claimed the first ever five-wicket haul in T20 internationals in the match against New Zealand, and off-spinner Saeed Ajmal are the tournament's joint leaders with 12 wickets each, the same as Sri Lankans Lasith Malinga and Ajantha Mendis.
Afridi powered Pakistan into the final with a half-century and two wickets against South Africa.
source:AFP. All rights reserved.

Youssou N’Dour film explores music and Islam

NEW YORK: Pop singer Youssou N’Dour’s 2004 album of Islamic music earned him a boycott by some Muslim fans, but in a new documentary about the album, ‘Egypt,’ he says the music has encouraged a deeper appreciation for Islam.
‘Youssou N’Dour: I Bring What I Love,’ a documentary by Chai Vasarhelyi that opened in New York on Friday, contrasts the enthusiastic response the Grammy-winning album ‘Egypt’ got during a tour in Europe and Asia with its cold reception in his native Senegal, where it was the subject of a boycott.
‘I was frustrated. The music wasn’t speaking to people,’ N’Dour told Reuters about the reaction in his home country.
‘When there’s a break with tradition, or something changes, people can’t accept it right away. It takes a little more time,’ the 49-year-old singer said, speaking in French through a translator.
‘I felt that the album could be a positive contribution,’ he said. ‘My music ... it says that Islam is tolerance and peace.’
The film explores the controversy over the album, following N’Dour on tour and after he won a Grammy for ‘Egypt’ in 2005.
In Europe, N’Dour’s performances of songs like ‘Allah,’performed in the Wolof language with a classical Egyptian orchestra, were met mostly with dancing and standing ovations, and only a few complications.
At a concert in Ireland, N’Dour, who describes himself as a devout Muslim, discovered that audience members were drinking beer. He delayed his performance for a half hour with a plea that it be alcohol-free.
In Senegal, newspapers accused N’Dour — who has collaborated with Bono and Peter Gabriel, and is known for his annual all-night concerts in Paris and New York and at his club in Dakar — of insulting Islam, arguing that pop and religious music should not mix.
When N’Dour joined other members of the Mouride brotherhood, a branch of African Sufi Islam, on the annual pilgrimage to Senegal’s holy city of Touba, he was shunned.
Descendants of Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba, a Muslim mystic, poet and pacifist who founded the Mouride brotherhood in the 1880s, even threatened N’Dour with a lawsuit, though the threat was later called a misunderstanding.
The controversy was largely forgotten after N’Dour, the highest-selling African artist, won his first Grammy for the album. N’Dour went on to perform religious music with one of Senegal’s most famous praise singers.
‘It was also an opportunity to say to our community of religious singers that we all are doing music. We can sing together,’ N’Dour said.
DELAYED AFTER SEPT. 11 ATTACKSIn recording ‘Egypt,’ N’Dour said he was inspired to introduce a global audience to music that ‘praises the tolerance of my religion’ and showcased West Africa’s contributions to Islam.
Mouridism is widely practiced in Senegal and Gambia and counts several million adherents. It focuses on the mystical elements of Islam and emphasizes the role of a spiritual guide, or marabout.
The album’s name is a tribute to Umm Kulthum, the Egyptian singer whose music N’Dour grew up listening to with his father, a devout Muslim and a disciple of Bamba.
N’Dour recorded the album prior to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, in the United States, but delayed its release to avoid any association between the music and the attacks.
‘It has no relationship to 9/11, and I didn’t want to release it then because I didn’t want it to be taken as something that was linked to 9/11,’ he said.By 2004, he said he felt he had waited long enough.
‘Music is part of everything. My religion is also part of everything,’ N’Dour said. — Reuters

Pakistan set for 10million dollar World Cup bonanza

Pakistan set for 10 million dollar World Cup bonanza
Wednesday, June 17, 2009LONDON: Pakistan could earn more than 10 million dollars even if they don't host a single match in cricket's World Cup in 2011, the sport's governing body has indicated.The showpiece event is due to be co-hosted by South Asia's four Test nations - India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh - in February-March 2011.The International Cricket Council took away the 14 World Cup matches from Pakistani soil due to the volatile security situation, but the Pakistan retained its hosting rights.It means Pakistan will still get a hosting fee of 750,000 dollars per match from the ICC - a total of 10.5 million dollars for the 14 games - irrespective of where they are held."Pakistan remains a co-host and retains its host fees for the 14 matches originally scheduled to take place there before the decision to remove the country as a host location for the tournarment," the ICC said in a statement.It added that the other three host nations have agreed to forego hosting fees for the 14 extra matches allotted to them that were originally due to be held in Pakistan, the ICC said."Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka all accepted that if any of those 14 matches were to take place in their countries, then they would not be due any fee for hosting them," the statement said.ICC officials did not rule out the possibility of Pakistan holding its matches in the United Arab Emirates, where it hosted a one-day series against Australia in April-May in Abu Dhabi and Dubai."There are already four host nations," ICC president David Morgan said after a meeting with officials of the four co-hosts in London on Monday on the sidelines of the World Twenty20. "There could be a fifth country hosting matches."The Pakistan Cricket Board, which had sent a legal notice to the ICC after the matches were taken away from the country, appears to have emerged a clear winner.If an off-shore venue is not finalised to host Pakistan's matches, the PCB will still earn millions of dollars for the additional games allotted to India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.Morgan and ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat told reporters after the meeting that the PCB had put legal proceedings on hold till a decision on the venues was reached."This meeting was the first occasion to settle misunderstandings," Lorgat said. "All we did today was to clarify to the PCB that there will be no matches in Pakistan."Morgan added: "We want to ensure Pakistan remains a host nation and we stress the importance of Pakistan as a cricketing nation."The impasse is expected to end when Morgan meets Sharad Pawar, the powerful head of the World Cup organising committee who takes over as ICC president next year, and PCB chief Ijaz Butt in London on June 19."We had constructive discussions (at Monday's meeting) and I will look to follow them through with Mr Pawar and Mr Butt in the coming days so we can identify the best means of coming up with a recommendation on where the matches originally scheduled to take place in Pakistan can be held," Morgan said."What we need to do is to settle this matter as quickly as possible within the ICC family as we need to press on with our preparations for the ICC Cricket World Cup which is less than two years away."Morgan ruled out switching the 2011 World Cup to Australia and New Zealand, the designated hosts of the 2015 event. "We did discuss the possibility of giving the 2011 World Cup to Australia and New Zealand, but that is not an option," he said. "Those two countries will hold the tournament in 2015."
source: thenews.com

Georgia Spurns Russia

Georgia accused Russia on Tuesday of not wanting “witnesses” in Abkhazia after Moscow vetoed a resolution to extend the mandate of UN monitors in the breakaway region. Russia quashed a Western-proposed resolution at the UN Security Council late on Monday designed to buy time to negotiate a long-term plan for the 16-year-old monitoring mission in the Black Sea rebel region. The mandate expired at 0400 GMT on Tuesday. Russia’s UN envoy Vitaly Churkin said the draft resolution was unacceptable as it referred to a previous resolution reaffirming Georgia’s territorial integrity, a reference he said was “political poison” after last year’s Georgia-Russia war. “Our (UN Security Council) partners knew that we would not accept it because Abkhazia does not figure there as an independent state,” a Russian Foreign Ministry statement said. “There is no doubt that the full weight of responsibility for the departure of UN observers and workers from the region... rests with those Western states which for many months now have been demonstrating ideological obstinacy,” it said. Russia recognised Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states after crushing a Georgian assault on South Ossetia last August, and deployed thousands of troops to secure both regions. “Russia does not need witnesses to register the results of the ethnic cleansing,” Georgian Foreign Minister Grigol Vashadze told a news conference in Tbilisi. “For Russia, the main target here was to somehow endanger the legal status of the occupied territories, to somehow achieve legitimisation of the Sukhumi and Tskhinvali authorities, and to give some kind of legitimacy to the occupying armed forces of Russia in Abkhazia and South Ossetia.”

souces: thenews.com










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Bryant, Jackson and the Lakers Add to Their Trophy Collections

Published: June 15, 2009
Kobe Bryant and the Lakers after defeating the Orlando Magic for the championship.
It was the merging of two worlds for Bryant, a fusion of team unity and his Ahab-like obsession with earning his fourth championship ring.
The dogged and almost maniacal twin pursuits ended Sunday. The Lakers found their destination, their 15th N.B.A. championship, after a meandering route. When the final buzzer sounded, they stood with a 99-86 series-clinching victory in Game 5 against the Magic, whose season-long resilience was lost amid Bryant’s efficiency.
With 30 points Sunday, Bryant secured his first finals Most Valuable Player award. The ear-splitting chants of “Beat L.A.” early in the game at Amway Arena were replaced by choruses of “M.V.P.” as Bryant marched to the free-throw line late in the game.
The Champagne-drenched evening ended a seven-year championship drought in which speed bumps had turned into mountains for the Lakers. In the stretch between titles, the Lakers had become burdened by soap-opera story lines: from the trade of Shaquille O’Neal to the retirement and rehiring of Coach Phil Jackson to the disappointing showing in last season’s finals against the Boston Celtics.
Jackson now has 10 titles — 6 from his tenure with the Chicago Bulls and 4 with the Lakers — to surpass the legendary Celtics patriarch Red Auerbach. The titles were flanked by disappointment, and Jackson’s scalp now shows more salt and less pepper, the accumulation of layered trials before another triumph.
Jackson’s hair was covered after the win Sunday by a gold cap, with the Roman numeral X on it. He called the moment “surreal.”
“I wasn’t at the stage of my life where I could get out and do the things that I had done 10 years ago or 15 years ago to push a team,” Jackson said. “And they pushed themselves and I really feel strongly that this is about them. However, having won 10 championships is a remarkable accomplishment, there’s no doubt about it.”
Bryant and Derek Fisher — two cogs that connect the last Lakers championship in 2002 to this one — each have four titles, their redemption arriving a year after they faltered badly against the Celtics.
There was no such cowering against the Magic. In a series defined by comebacks, overtimes and missed opportunities, the clinching game felt anticlimactic.
After Rafer Alston’s 3-pointer early in the third quarter, the Magic was within striking distance, 58-53. Lamar Odom, who had 17 points, responded with consecutive 3s as the Lakers again separated themselves by double digits, a margin they maintained the rest of the game.
Dwight Howard, who legitimized his status as one of the game’s stars during the postseason, had his night largely stymied by the defensive efforts of Pau Gasol.
Howard was humbled by fouls on the defensive end and harassed by Gasol, who finished with 14 points and 15 rebounds, on the offensive end. Howard ended his season quietly with 11 points and 10 rebounds.
The Magic fought back several times this postseason, rallying from a season-derailing injury to the All-Star point guard Jameer Nelson and series deficits against the Philadelphia 76ers and the Celtics. It fell short of the biggest trick of all.
The more Bryant yearned for another ring — perhaps to validate his post-O’Neal legacy — the more it seemed to slip through his grasp.
“It was like Chinese water torture, just keep dropping a drop of water on your temple,” Bryant said of the talk that he could not win a title without O’Neal. “It was just annoying. I would cringe every time. I was just like, it’s a challenge I’m just going to have to accept because there’s no way I’m going to argue it.”
With the title all but secured, Bryant’s emotions came out when he hugged Sasha Vujacic as the Lakers crowded one another during a timeout, their lead at 97-84, with 40.4 seconds left. His hands free from Mickael Pietrus and Courtney Lee, Bryant leaped in the air several times as the buzzer sounded and soon he was holding his daughters Natalia and Gianna.
On Sunday, Bryant made 10 of his 23 shots and all eight of his free throws. In the five-game series, he scored at least 30 points four times.
The Lakers largely shed themselves of Orlando in the first half. There was a brief head-to-head between the former teammates Hedo Turkoglu and Trevor Ariza. Both were given technicals and after a nerve-settling timeout, Ariza’s 3-point shot gave the Lakers their first lead, 42-40, with 5 minutes 9 seconds left in the first half.
Ariza, who ended with 15 points, sank another and scrambled for two steals as part of a 16-0 run that lifted the Lakers to a 56-46 halftime lead.
“They just always had an answer,” Orlando Coach Stan Van Gundy said. “We just couldn’t get over the top.”
Bryant’s series-long scowl was replaced by another look in the first quarter as Orlando raced to a 15-6 lead. He grimaced on the bench and covered his face with a towel after losing the ball on a double team by Rashard Lewis and Lee in a tussle that appeared to bother a nagging finger injury.
Bryant resurfaced immediately with a stepback jumper and a 3-pointer and finished the quarter with 11 points. As the game pressed on, he showed no effects of the early aches.
He embodied the championship path the Lakers took. They were damaged early but finished strong. The Lakers began the postseason in lackluster fashion and struggled against the decimated Houston Rockets in the second round, then gained their swagger as the playoffs wore on, dismissing the Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference finals and, finally, the Magic.
source: nytimes.com

US Birth Hint at Bias for Boys in Some Asians

U.S. Births Hint at Bias for Boys in Some Asians
The trend is buried deep in United States census data: seemingly minute deviations in the proportion of boys and girls born to Americans of Chinese, Indian and Korean descent

In those families, if the first child was a girl, it was more likely that a second child would be a boy, according to recent studies of census data. If the first two children were girls, it was even more likely that a third child would be male.
Demographers say the statistical deviation among Asian-American families is significant, and they believe it reflects not only a preference for male children, but a growing tendency for these families to embrace sex-selection techniques, like in vitro fertilization and sperm sorting, or abortion.
New immigrants typically transplant some of their customs and culture to the United States — from tastes in food and child-rearing practices to their emphasis on education and the elevated social and economic status of males. The appeal to immigrants by clinics specializing in sex selection caused some controversy a decade ago.
But a number of experts expressed surprise to see evidence that the preference for sons among Asian-Americans has been so significantly carried over to this country. “That this is going on in the United States — people were blown away by this,” said Prof. Lena Edlund of Columbia University.
She and her colleague Prof. Douglas Almond studied 2000 census data and published their results last year in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
In general, more boys than girls are born in the United States, by a ratio of 1.05 to 1. But among American families of Chinese, Korean and Indian descent, the likelihood of having a boy increased to 1.17 to 1 if the first child was a girl, according to the Columbia economists. If the first two children were girls, the ratio for a third child was 1.51 to 1 — or about 50 percent greater — in favor of boys.
Studies have not detected a similar preference for males among Japanese-Americans.
The findings published by Professors Almond and Edlund were bolstered this year by the work of a University of Texas economist, Prof. Jason Abrevaya. He found that on the basis of census and birth records through 2004, the incidence of boys among immigrant Chinese parents in New York was higher than the national average for Chinese families. Boys typically account for about 515 of every 1,000 births. But he found that among Chinese New Yorkers having a third child, the number of boys was about 558.
Joyce Moy, executive director of the Asian American/Asian Research Institute of the City University of New York, said that family values prevalent in China, including the tradition of elder parents depending on their sons for support, have seeped into American culture even among younger immigrants, and even when some of the historic underlying reasons for the preference are less relevant here than in China, Korea and India.
“Inheritance in the old country is carried through the male line,” she said. “Families depend on the male child for support.”
Dr. Norbert Gleicher, medical director of the Center for Human Reproduction, a fertility and sex-selection clinic in New York and Chicago, said that from his experience, people were more inclined to want female children, except for Asians and Middle Easterners.
The preference for males among some immigrant Asians may fade with assimilation, experts said. And no one expects it to result in the lopsided male majorities like those in China, where, according to a study published this year in the British Medical Journal, the government’s one-child policy has resulted in the world’s highest sex disparity among newborns — about 120 boys for every 100 girls.
“The patients come in and they all think they owe me an excuse, but the bottom line is it’s cultural,” said Dr. Jeffrey Steinberg, medical director of the Fertility Institutes, a California clinic that began sex-selection procedures in New York in March.
The Fertility Institutes, which does not offer abortions, has unabashedly advertised its services in Indian- and Chinese-language newspapers in the United States.
“Culturally, there are a lot of strange things that go on in the world,” Dr. Steinberg said. “Whether we agree with it, it’s not harming anyone.”
Efforts by clinics to appeal to Indian families in the United States provoked criticism and some community introspection in 2001. Some newspapers and magazines that ran advertisements promoting the clinics, which offered sex-selection procedures, expressed regret at the perpetuation of what critics regard as a misogynistic practice.
source:nytimes.com

Pakistani government orders operation agaisnt Baitullah Mehsud

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has launched a “full-fledged” assault against the Taliban in the lawless northwest tribal belt and will continue until all militants are eliminated, NWFP Governor Owais Ahmad Ghani said on Sunday.
“The government has launched a full-fledged operation in the tribal areas including Waziristan,” he told a press conference in Islamabad. “Operations will continue till the elimination of the militants.”
Owais Ahmed Ghani said the Pakistan Army had been ordered to carry out a full-fledged offensive against the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Baitullah Mehsud and his fighters in South Waziristan Agency (SWA).
“The military and law enforcement agencies have been ordered to carry out a full-fledged operation to eliminate these beasts and killers by using all resources,” Owais told reporters. He didn’t give an exact starting date, but implied that military action had already begun.
Army spokesman Maj Gen Athar Abbas told The Associated Press: “The government has made the announcement. We will give a comment after evaluating the orders.” Over the past five weeks, as Pakistan has pursued an offensive against militants in Swat Valley, rumours have swirled that it had plans to go into South Waziristan tribal region to target the country’s most powerful Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud. -Agencies
Our Khar, Bannu, Wana and Mingora correspondents add: At least, 50 militants, including two commanders, and five children were killed when security forces pounded the hideouts of militants with jet fighters and artillery guns in Bajaur Agency, FR Bannu and South Waziristan Agency on Sunday.
In Bajaur, 20 militants, including two commanders, were killed when jet fighters of the PAF blitzed suspected hideouts of Taliban fighters in Charmang, Sheda Shah, Asghar Killay, Chinar in Nawagai Tehsil, Darra Banda in Salarzai subdivision and Garigal in Mamond, sources told our sources.
Besides 22 militants, five children were also killed and two persons were injured when artillery shells fired by security forces hit houses at Sor Dagi in Salarzai and Garigal in Mamond Tehsil of Bajaur Agency. The civilian deaths caused anguish in the area and forced the people to start migrating from their villages.
Two militant commanders were also among the dead, but the official sources said their names couldn’t be ascertained. There was no word from the Taliban militants about their losses. The sources added that security forces had entered Charmang, a stronghold of the militants in the agency. They took control of the strategically important locations and established positions on the hilltops.
In FR Bannu, 18 militants were killed when security forces targeted their hideouts in Bakakhel and Janikhel areas with artillery from Bannu Cantonment. Official sources said security forces continued the operation against the militants in the troubled semi-tribal areas of Bakakhel and Janikhel on the fifth consecutive day.
Security forces travelling in a convoy shot dead a youth identified as Hakimullah Shah in Doghawara Sorani area. Miscreants fired three rocket from an undisclosed location, one of which landed at the house of Parvez, slightly injuring his mother.
The second shell landed on the ground of the Government Girls’ Primary School, Lalozai, while the third one fell in the fields. The District Police Officer (DPO), Iqbal Khan Marwar, has imposed a ban on the entry of displaced people from Janikhel and Bakakhel areas.
He warned the local people against sheltering or renting out houses to the displaced tribesmen. Police also arrested 10 tribesmen under the 21 Frontier Crimes Regulation and sent them to jail.
In South Waziristan Agency (SWA), eight militants were killed when jet fighters hit hideouts in Makeen and Spinkairaghzai Kot areas early in the day, official sources said. Also, three civilians were killed in a roadside bomb blast in Angoor Adda.
The sources said a container loaded with Nato supplies was on its way to Afghanistan when a roadside improvised explosive device planted by unidentified miscreants went off at 9:00 am near Barmal area of Angoor Adda, completely destroying the truck and nearby parked vehicles. Those killed in the blast included Muhammad Nauroz Wazir, Painda Khan Kharoti and Jan Gul Salyankhel while Saudal Khan and Noor Wali were injured. The injured were taken to the nearest clinic.
The political authorities confirmed the incident, saying that the incident took place in Afghan territory on the Pak-Afghan border.In Swat Valley, two suspected militants were shot dead at Green Chowk of Mingora while a soldier was killed and three others injured during an exchange of fire between the militants and security forces in Kabal Tehsil.
Another soldier sustained injuries when fired at in Kalla Killay in Kabal.Sources said two suspected Taliban militants were gunned down at Green Chowk. “A brief firing took place in the evening and later we came to know that two suspected militants have been killed,” the sources said.
It was learnt that the people could not identify the bodies. Curfew was not relaxed on Sunday in Mingora and other areas of the valley. Troops continued to patrol the streets in the city.The ISPR in a statement said security forces were consolidating their positions in Kabal area. A search operation was launched in Kabal on Sunday. During the process, exchange of fire took place between the forces and militants, resulting in the killing of a soldier, besides injuries to three others.
As the forces were engaged in strengthening their positions in the valley, search and consolidation operation was also being conducted in Godand Banda, Chuprial and Arkot Qilla areas of Matta.
The ISPR said Wenai-Sijbanr road had also been opened besides firming up positions at Ring contour and heights located east of Chuprial. In this area, a huge cache of arms and ammunition had been recovered from tunnels.
Cordon and search operation was being carried out in Matta town, Loi Namal and Koz Shawar in Matta Tehsil. In Matta town, house-to-house search was being carried out to track down the hiding Taliban militants, the ISPR said.
Four improvised explosive devices (IEDs) were recovered between Koz Drushkhela and Sambat areas of Matta. The militants have planted mines and IEDs in parts of Swat valley to inflict human and material loss on security forces.
About the relief activities, the ISPR said three truckloads of rations were distributed among the internally displaced persons (IDPs) in union councils of Sawala Dher, Bakhshali, Garhi Kapora and Jalala. Another two truckloads of relief goods were distributed in Mardan. About 200 displaced families had been shifted from Bisham to Kalam while the IDPs from Kalam were asked to report in Bisham where security forces had made arrangements for their transportation to Kalam.
sources: paktribune.com/news

water vapour confirmed as major player in climate change

Water vapour confirmed as major player in climate change
Water vapour is known to be the Earth's most abundant greenhouse gas, but the extent of its contribution to global warming has been debated. Using recent NASA satellite data, researchers have estimated more precisely...
Water vapour is known to be the Earth's most abundant greenhouse gas, but the extent of its contribution to global warming has been debated. Using recent NASA satellite data, researchers have estimated more precisely than ever the heat-trapping effect of water in the air, validating the role of the gas as a critical component of climate change.
Andrew Dessler, Texas, confirmed that the heat-amplifying effect of water vapour is potent enough to double the climate warming caused by increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
With new observations, the scientists confirmed experimentally what existing climate models had anticipated theoretically. The research team used novel data from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) on NASA's Aqua satellite to measure precisely the humidity throughout the lowest 10 miles of the atmosphere. That information was combined with global observations of shifts in temperature, allowing researchers to build a comprehensive picture of the interplay between water vapour, carbon dioxide, and other atmosphere warming gases.
"Everyone agrees that if you add carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, then warming will result," Dessler said. "So the real question is, how much warming?"
The answer can be found by estimating the magnitude of water vapour feedback. Increasing water vapour leads to warmer temperatures, which causes more water vapour to be absorbed into the air. Warming and water absorption increase in a spiralling cycle.
Water vapour feedback can also amplify the warming effect of other greenhouse gases, such that the warming brought about by increased carbon dioxide allows more water vapour to enter the atmosphere. "The difference in an atmosphere with a strong water vapour feedback and one with a weak feedback is enormous," Dessler said.
Climate models have estimated the strength of water vapour feedback, but until now the record of water vapour data was not sophisticated enough to provide a comprehensive view of how water vapour responds to change in Earth's surface temperature. That's because instruments on the ground and previous space-based could not measure water vapour at all altitudes in Earth's troposphere - the layer of the atmosphere that extends from Earth's surface to about 10 miles in altitude.
AIRS is the first instrument to distinguish differences in the amount of water vapour at all altitudes within the troposphere. Using data from AIRS, the team observed how atmospheric water vapour reacted to shift in surface temperatures between 2003 and 2008. By determining how humidity changed with surface temperature, the team could compute the average global strength of the water vapour feedback.
"This new data set shows that as surface temperature increases, so does atmospheric humidity," Dessler said. "Dumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere makes the atmosphere more humid. And since water vapour is itself a greenhouse gas, the increase in humidity amplifies the warming from carbon dioxide."
Specifically, the team found that if Earth warms 1.8 degrees fahrenheit, the associated increase in water vapour will trap an extra two watts of energy per square meter (about 11 square feet).
"That number may not sound like much, but add up all of that energy over the entire Earth surface and you find that water vapour is trapping a lot of energy," Dessler said. "We now think the water vapour feedback is extraordinarily strong, capable of doubling the warming due to carbon dioxide alone."
Because the new precise observations agree with existing assessments of water vapour's impact, researchers are more confident than ever in model predictions that Earth's leading greenhouse gas will contribute to a temperature rise of a few degrees by the end of the century.
"This study confirms that what was predicted by the models is really happening in the atmosphere," said Eric Fetzer, an Atmospheric Scientist, AIRS data, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "Water vapour is the big player in the atmosphere as far as climate is concerned."
source: www.bbc.com.uk

Pakistan lags behind in Millennium Development Goals

LAHORE: Citing the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) report, SPARC says Pakistan lags behind other South Asian countries in achieving the MDGs by 2015. The MDGs include promoting education for all (EAF). The goal is to achieve Universal Primary Education, and its target is to ensure by 2015 that children everywhere, boys and girls alike, should be able to complete a full course of primary schooling. “A recent report by the independent evaluation group of the World Bank states that Pakistan is far from reaching the Education For All MDG by the target year 2015; thus the problem of child labour would affect the children and country badly,” the report cites. staff report.
source: dailytimes.com.pk

Child Militant new chapter in rights violations

Child militants new chapter in rights violations

The increasing use of children for militancy in the year 2008 added a new chapter to the violation of children’s rights in Pakistan, a report ‘The State of Pakistan’s Children 2008’ states.The annual report by the Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (SPARC) will be made public on the World Day Against Child Labour, which is being marked on Friday (today).The comprehensive 270-page report says the political and economic turmoil in the country adversely affected everyone, but children were the worst off. Almost 30 percent of children under the age of five are malnourished. There are approximately 70 physicians for every 0.1 million people and a mere 1,000 government-run hospitals to cater to the entire population. The report says according to official figures, the number of suicide bombings in 2008 surpassed that in 2007. There were 31 suicide attacks killing 889 innocent people and injuring 2,072 people, including many children. The seven major chapters in the report are on violence, education, health, juvenile justice, disasters, child labour and violence against the media.The report cites a study by the Initiator Human Development Foundation in 2008, saying children studying at religious seminaries also fall victim to sexual violence. Parents from the lower strata of society prefer to send their children to madrassas as compared to formal schooling systems. The study claims seminary teachers sexually abused 21 percent of sample students.The report says about 40 percent schools in the public sector are without boundary walls, 33 percent without drinking water, 56 percent without electricity, 41 percent without lavatories and seven percent without buildings. Considering that a majority of the institutions are located in rural areas with a higher percentage of population residing there, the availability of basic facilities is inadequate. The report says the draft of the Children Protection Bill has been circulating in the corridors of power since 2006 and the same draft is still being reviewed. The draft lays emphasis on setting up national and provincial commissions for the protection of children. It urges that new offences relating to child sexual abuse, child pornography and neglect be added to the child protection laws. It also stresses the need to raise the age when girls can be married from 16 years to 18 years. The report says at any given time, approximately 9,000 to 10,000 children remain in criminal litigation in Pakistan.
www.dailytimes.com

Ocean levels to unleash climate exodus

The consequences of climate change for human security efforts could be devastating’Thursday, June 11, 2009BONN, Germany: Tens of millions of people will be displaced by climate change in coming years, posing social, political and security problems of an unprecedented dimension, a new study said on Wednesday. “Unless aggressive measures are taken to halt global warming, the consequences for human migration and displacement could reach a scope and scale that vastly exceed anything that has occurred before,” its authors warned.“Climate change is already contributing to migration and displacement.“All major estimates project that the trend will rise to tens of millions of migrants in coming years. Within the next few decades, the consequences of climate change for human security efforts could be devastating.” The report, “In Search of Shelter,” was compiled by specialists from Columbia University in New York and the United Nations University, and from a non-governmental organisation, CARE International. It was presented to journalists on the sidelines of the UN climate talks in Bonn, a staging post to an envisioned new global pact for tackling global warming and its impacts. The study swung the spotlight on several regions that, according to projections, will be badly hit by rising sea levels, flood or drought.Rather than a migration from poor countries to rich ones, the exodus is most likely to unfold within poor nations, with a movement mainly from the countryside to cities, thus further burdening urban infrastructure, it said. In central Mexico, where tens of millions of people live, rainfall in some areas could decline by up to 50 per cent by 2080, “rendering many livelihoods unviable and dramatically raising the risk of chronic hunger,” the report said. South Asia faces both short- and long-term threats. Warming will accelerate melting from Himalayan glaciers in springtime, thus heightening the probability of flooding. But glacier shrinkage will eventually affect the flow of major rivers that wind down from the Himalayan foothills. “This has a lot of consequences for agricultural production in one of the world’s most populous regions,” said Charles Ehrhart, climate-change coordinator at CARE.The Ganges Delta, small island states and other low-lying areas, meanwhile, are in peril from rising sea levels. If ocean levels rise by two metres, “9.4 million people would be completely flooded out” in Bangladesh alone, said Ehrhart.A two-metre (seven-feet) rise is seen by most climate scientists as being at the top end of predictions for what could happen this century. In 2007, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) predicted sea levels will rise by up to 59 centimeters (23 inches) before 2100 due the expansion of warmer waters. But this figure does not factor in a partial melting of massive ice sheets in western Antarctica and Greenland, a scenario now identified by more recent research. The new report urged policymakers to develop tools to identify regions and populations at risk of being displaced by climate change. And they said funds mustered to help cope with climate change under the future global treaty must also be directed at poor migrants. The new pact, designed to run from 2012, would chiefly slash emissions from fossil fuels and deforestation that are warming Earth’s atmosphere, affecting weather patterns. The report admits that the definition of a climate migrant is complex, as poverty, a run of bad harvests or civil strife are usually the immediate, and thus most visible, triggers for displacement.
source: www.thenews.com.pk

Benazir Bhutto probe stalled over lack of funds

RAWALPINDI: The United Nations commission appointed to investigate the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has asked the Pakistan government to expedite the release of funds promised by donor countries so that the probe into high profile case could be started, Dawn has learnt.

The commission has described the initial estimate of $4 million for the probe as inadequate and insufficient and has demanded a substantial increase.

The source said Mr Mark Quarterman, the chief of staff of the Benazir Bhutto Commission, had informed Pakistani representative about the UN officials’ meeting with the representatives of donor countries regarding generation of funds for the Commission.

Germany, Japan, Turkey, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kuwait and Saudi Arabia had been identified by the government of Pakistan as the donor countries.

The source said the UN officials had held a meeting with the representatives of the donor countries as they all were invited to ensure the provision of funds but no one from Kuwait and United Arab Emirates participated in the meeting while Saudi Arabia apologized for the participation.

The source said, Pakistani representative informed the foreign office in Islamabad that no one among those, who attended the meeting had made any promise regarding the provision of funds.

Contrary to the previous stance, the UN would request the donors for early provision of financial contributions so that the commission of Benazir Bhutto could start its probe, the source said.

The UN had prepared estimates of US $4 million and asked the government of Pakistan to ensure the early release of funds, promised by the donor countries.

Six members, UN advance technical assessment team headed by Mark Quarterman had already visited Pakistan in April and had held talks with interior advisor Rehman Malik.

The UN advance team had reviewed the security of the UN Investigation commission who is to start probe into the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in a gun-and-bomb attack after a public rally outside Liaquat Bagh Rawalpindi on December 27, 2007.

The Pakistani government had requested the United Nations to establish a commission to probe into the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.
source: www.dawn.com

Role of the mysterious microbe in ocean ecology

Role of the mysterious microbe in ocean ecology
An unusual microorganism discovered in the open ocean forces scientists to rethink their understanding of how carbon and nitrogen cycle through ocean ecosystems…
An unusual microorganism discovered in the open ocean may force scientists to rethink their understanding of how carbon and nitrogen cycle through ocean ecosystems. A paper describing the new findings appears in the November 14 issue of the journal Science.
A research team led by Jonathan Zehr, a marine scientist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, characterised the new microbe by analysing its genetic material, even though researchers have not been able to grow it in the laboratory.
Zehr said that the newly described organism seems to be an atypical member of the cyanobacteria, a group of photosynthetic bacteria formerly known as blue-green algae.
"This research has revealed a big surprise about the microbiology of the oceans, and the complex integration of the ocean's nitrogen and carbon cycles," said Philip Taylor, section head in the National Science Foundation (NSF)'s Division of Ocean Sciences, which funded the work.
"The fact that nitrogen fixation in these abundant unicells is decoupled from photosynthesis is intriguing," said Taylor. "This unique adaptation brings up questions about the role of these abundant microbes in the ocean."
Unlike all other known free-living cyanobacteria, this one lacks some of the genes needed to carry out photosynthesis, the process by which plants use light energy to make sugars out of carbon dioxide and water.
The mysterious microbe can do something very important, though: It provides natural fertilizer to the oceans by "fixing" nitrogen from the atmosphere into a form useable by other organisms.
"For it to have such an unusual metabolism is very exciting," Zehr said. "We're trying to understand how something like this can live and grow with so many missing parts."
Earlier research by Zehr's group had revealed surprisingly large numbers of novel nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria, including the one that is the focus of this study, in the open ocean.
Although 80 percent of Earth's atmosphere is nitrogen, most organisms cannot use it unless it is "fixed" to other elements to make molecules like ammonia and nitrate. Because nitrogen is essential for all forms of life, nitrogen fixation is a major factor controlling overall biological productivity in the oceans.
The new microbe is one of the most abundant nitrogen fixers in many parts of the ocean, Zehr said.
New DNA sequencing technology provided by 454 Life Sciences enabled rapid sequencing of the organism's genome. "I had begun to suspect that there was something missing in this organism's genome, and the genome sequencing confirmed that," said Zehr. The results showed that it is missing the entire set of genes needed for photosystem II and carbon fixation, essential parts of the molecular machinery that carries out photosynthesis in plants and cyanobacteria.
"That has multiple implications," Zehr said. "It must have a 'lifestyle' that's very different from other cyanobacteria. Ecologically, it's important to understand its role in the ecosystem and how it affects the balance of carbon and nitrogen in the ocean."
During photosynthesis, photosystem II generates oxygen by splitting water molecules. Because oxygen inhibits nitrogen fixation, most nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria only fix nitrogen at night, or do it in specialised cells. The lack of photosystem II enables the new microbe to fix nitrogen during the day, Zehr said.
But without photosynthesis, it can't take carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and convert it into sugars. So it's not clear how the new microbe feeds itself. Either it has some way of feeding on organic matter in its environment, or it lives in close association with other organisms that provide it with food, Zehr said.
"It would make a perfect symbiont because it could feed nitrogen to its host and live on the carbon provided by the host," he said. Photosystem II is large complex of multiple proteins and chlorophyll molecules, but the team was unable to find any of the genes for the photosystem II core proteins. The genes for photosystem I appeared in the sequencing data, as did genes for both photosystems from the small numbers of contaminating cyanobacteria in the sample.
Zehr said that he plans to continue research on the new microbe and fill some gaps in the present knowledge. Efforts are currently underway to map the microbe's presence in the oceans and determine its global abundance. Zehr is also interested in how its metabolism differs from other known cyanobacteria. If it can be cultured, there may be ways to exploit this organism's unusual metabolism in biotechnology applications, he said.
--www.nsf.gov

Tourist Attractions in Pakistan

Pakistan is small yet a wonderful place to visit. The word 'Pakistan' means 'Land of the Pure' in Urdu language. This country is specially significant for people who love history, though it has its share of picturesque locations as well.
Some Of The Best Attractions In Pakistan
The Indus Valley Civilization - The Pakistan territory was until 1947 Indian territory and is the house to the ancient Indus Valley Civilization which can be dated back as long as 3000 BC. The two highly significant historical spots, the Harappa (on the banks of the River Ravi) and the Mohenjodaro are situated in Pakistan and are a must-see for any history buff.
The Marakan Coastline - This is a wonderful 754 kilometers stretch of coastline where in 325 BC saw the great warrior Alexander the Great march during the Greek war. It also saw another great leader, General Muhammad Bin Qasim lead his army on the Sindh expedition.
The Silk Road - this is a very popular tourist attraction in Pakistan. This road winds through the Himalayan range, crosses the Indus River and passes through the Hunza and Gilgit valleys. This is now a motorable road which in the ancient days had been used for silk trading.
Karachi - this is the former capital of Pakistan. The city is situated on the Arabian sea and has one of the most beautiful beaches in Asia, the Clifton beach. As it was the capital Karachi has also become a great economic center in the country. It is a great place for shopping as well as for sampling the excellent Pakistani food. While you are in the city, remember to visit the tom of Quai-e-Azam. For children the zoo would make an excellent recreation spot. Tourists can also enjoy boat rides that can hired from the harbor.
Islamabad - this is the capital of Pakistan since 1963. As such this city has been highly beautified to match its importance. The gardens, the wide roads, the beautiful modern architectural designs - everything makes this city a pleasure to behold. Check out the Shah Faisal Mosque which is large enough to host 10 thousand worshipers at one time and the Dama-e-Koh which is one of the finest terraced gardens in Asia.
Lahore - There is a legend saying that this city had established by Prince Ram of the Sita-Ram fame though this is not really backed by historians. This is a city where you can see a perfect blend of the past and present - there are buildings that date from the time of the Mughals, the British and the present day. The overall effect is thoroughly fascinating.
K-2 of the Himalayan range of mountains - the second largest peak in the world, the K2 is situated in Pakistan in the Karakoram Range of mountains. The Pakistan Government encourages mountain climbing and if you are an avid sport person, this would provide you just the right challenge.
Water sports - for those who love water sports, Pakistan has plenty to offer. Visit the rivers Indus, Hunza, Pankora, Swat and Kunhar for as much fun and challenges as you seek. The Pakistan Government has made special arrangements for tourists is these locations.
Rawal Lake - this is one excellent picnic spot that all tourists who visit Pakistan must see and enjoy. The Rawal Lake is man-made and it has been beautified especially for tourists with gardens and exquisite plantation.


source:www.ezinearticles.com

Researchers probe brain's communication infrastructure

By Kate Melville
Washington University School of Medicine researchers are taking the first direct look at one of the human brain's most fundamental "foundations": a brain signal that never switches off and may support many cognitive functions. Their findings, appearing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, are an important step forward in understanding the functional architecture of the brain.
Functional architecture refers to the metaphorical structures formed by brain processes and interactions among different brain regions. The "foundation" highlighted in the new study is a low-frequency signal created by neuronal activity throughout the brain. This signal doesn't switch off even in dreamless sleep, possibly to help maintain basic structure and facilitate offline housekeeping activities.
"A different, more labile and higher-frequency signal known as the gamma frequency activity has been the focus of much brain research in recent years," says study author Biyu He. "But we found that signal loses its large-scale structure in deep sleep, while the low-frequency signal does not, suggesting that the low-frequency signal may be more fundamental."
"What we've been finding is reorienting the way we think about how the brain works," adds co-researcher Marcus Raichle. "We're starting to see the brain as being in the prediction business, with ongoing, organised carrier frequencies within the systems of the brain that keep them prepared for the work they need to do to perform mental tasks."
Neurologists have spent many years exploring the upper levels of the brain's functional architecture. In these studies, researchers typically ask volunteers to perform specific mental tasks as their brains are scanned using fMRI. Such "goal-oriented" tasks might include looking for or studying a visual stimulus, moving an arm or leg, reading a word or listening for a sound. As the subjects perform these tasks, the scans reveal increases in blood flow to different parts of the brain, which researchers take as indications that the brain areas are contributing to the mental task.
In the past decade, however, scientists have realised that deeper structures underlie goal-oriented mental processes. These underlying brain processes continue to occur even when subjects aren't consciously using their brain to do anything, and the energies that the brain puts into them seem to be much greater than those used for goal-oriented tasks.
"The brain consumes a tremendous amount of the body's energy resources -- it's only two percent of body weight, but it uses about 20 percent of the energy we take in," says Raichle. "When we started to ask where all those resources were being spent, we found that the goal-oriented tasks we had studied previously only accounted for a tiny portion of that energy budget. The rest appears to go into activities and processes that maintain a state of readiness in the brain."
To explore this deeper level of the brain's functional architecture, Raichle and others have been using fMRI to conduct detailed analyses of brain activity in subjects asked to do nothing. However, a nagging question has dogged those and other fMRI studies: Scientists assumed that increased blood flow to a part of the brain indicates that part has contributed to a mental task, but they wanted more direct evidence linking increased blood flow to stepped-up activity in brain cells.
In the new study, the researchers took fMRI scans of five patients with intractable epilepsy. The scans, during which the subjects did nothing, were taken prior to the temporary installation of grids of electrodes on the surfaces of the patients' brains. The level of detail provided by the grids is essential clinically for pinpointing the source of the seizures for possible surgical removal, a last resort employed only when other treatments failed.
The results confirmed that the fMRI data she had gathered earlier reflected changes in brain cell activity exhibited in the gamma frequency signal. But she also noticed the persistent low-frequency signal, which also corresponded to the fMRI data. "When we looked back in the literature, we found that a similar signal had been the subject of a great deal of animal research using implanted electrodes in the 1960s through the 1980s," she says. "There were suggestions, for example, that when this low-frequency signal, which fluctuates persistently, is in a low trough, the brain may handle mental tasks more effectively."
"What we've shown provides a bridge between the fMRI work many scientists are doing now and the earlier work involving electrical recordings from the brain that emphasised slow activity," says he. "Bringing those two fields together may give us some very interesting insights into the brain's organisation and function."
www.sciencegoago.com

The cookie diet: What it is

The cookie diet can entice dieters!
Being hungry and craving sweets are two of the main reasons people fall off their diets.
But what if eating cookies and not being hungry was part of your diet plan?

By Kathleen M Zelman
The cookie diet: What it is
Being hungry and craving sweets are two of the main reasons people fall off their diets. But what if eating cookies and not being hungry was part of your diet plan? The cookie diet uses cookies to entice dieters into easy weight loss. After all, what could be more appealing than losing weight while indulging in one of our favourite treats?
But these are not your grandmother's cookies. Instead they're designed to be meal replacements made with fiber, protein, and other ingredients intended to keep you full. They're not nearly as sweet as grandma's, though they're certainly palatable. They contain no drugs or secret ingredients, other than amino acids (the building blocks of protein) and fiber that act to suppress hunger.
How it works
On the cookie diet, there are no decisions about what to eat, but which flavour cookie to eat, and what to have for dinner. It's a relatively mindless diet strategy that has reportedly helped half a million of patients lose weight.
The cookies contain select amino acids thought to suppress hunger, fiber, and other ingredients that digest slowly to help keep you feeling full. Eating four to six of the cookies a day will give you somewhere around 500 calories.
Dinners are simple: Lean protein and veggies, or a light dinner and a salad. The dinners range from a low of 300 to a high of about 1,000 calories each, meaning the diet has a grand total of 800-1,500 calories per day.
Anyone following 800-calorie per day plan is sure to lose weight, but medical supervision is recommended for people following very low-calorie diets (less than 1,200 per day), as they are likely to be deficient in nutrients. Most of the very low-calorie cookie diet plans recommend a daily multi-vitamin to fill in the nutritional gaps.
"One of the greatest motivators to sticking to a diet is when you manage hunger, decrease cravings, and watch the weight come off, and virtually everyone will lose weight at 800 calories," Siegal says.
Evan Bass, a physician, has been following the cookie diet for more than a year and has lost upto 45 pounds.
"The first two weeks were the hardest," he says. "I was tired with no energy for exercise but once I got used to it, I felt great and could be more physically active while eating cookies daily for breakfast and lunch."
He says he loves the chocolate chip cookies, especially when they're warmed in the microwave, and has not grown tired of eating 6-8 cookies a day.
As a result of being on the diet and checking in regularly, Bass says he has seen his health improve, along with his food choices and his commitment to being physically active.
"To maintain my weight loss, I still eat cookies during the week and allow some indulgences on the weekend," he says. "But I keep a close watch on my weight and when it goes up 5 pounds that is my signal to be more vigilant about what I eat and my activity."
What you can eat
The cookies that replace breakfast, lunch, and snacks range from 90-150 calories each. They come in a variety of flavours, including chocolate, banana, blueberry, oatmeal, and coconut. The cookies are convenient, portable, and don't need refrigeration.
On Siegal's medically supervised cookie diet, you have one meal for dinner, consisting of four to six ounces of lean protein with steamed veggies or raw veggies. The meal contributes about 300 calories. Eight daily glasses of no-calorie coffee, tea, water, or other beverages are allowed, but no alcohol, sweets, fruits, dairy, or other foods are recommended.
Dieters using the online cookie diet plans without medical supervision are directed to eat about 500 calories worth of cookies each day, plus a dinner made up of sensible foods. This approach controls daytime calories, but dinner could be a calorie disaster unless it is chosen wisely.
What the experts say
Dee Sandquist, American Dietetic Association spokeswoman says, "the cookie diet is another version of the meal replacement plan, known to be an effective option for some people. For lots of people, decisions about meals are tough, whether at home or eating out, and when you can drink a shake or, eat a cookie or a bar instead of a meal, it simplifies it and helps some dieters stay in control."She emphasises the importance of making wise food choices when following the cookie diet, and recommends that dieters include lean protein, fruits, vegetables, whole grains, healthy fats, and low-fat dairy in the dinner meal, even it if ends up being more than 300 calories.
She also suggests checking the nutrition facts panel to see how many grams of fiber, carbohydrates, protein, and other nutrients are in each cookie, as these numbers vary from plan to plan.
As for the very low-calorie monitored cookie diet plans, critics say 800 calories is below the recommended level for safe and effective weight loss. They say the 800-calorie cookie diet is lacking in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, dairy, and fiber, all of which should be a part of any healthy weight loss plan. Siegal says that his clinical experience over the last 30 years has shown that fast weight loss is safe under a doctor's care, and that any nutrients lacking in the plan are made up for by the daily multi-vitamin.
The weakness in the cookie diet, experts say, is the lack of an exercise plan. Experts recommend that physical activity should be a regular part of everyone's life.
Food for thought
For people who have trouble controlling what they eat, meal replacement cookies can be an excellent way to control calories and lose weight.
Although the idea of a cookie for a meal sounds like a childhood dream, the truth is that it could get monotonous eating cookies every day. And without regular physical activity and guidance to help you make long-term lifestyle changes, lost weight may creep back.
While you'll most likely to lose quick weight on an 800 calorie a day plan, the cookie diets lack a transitional plan to help dieters get back to eating more normally and to maintain the lost weight.
Dietitians recommend that, once you reach your goal weight, you should increase your intake of healthy foods; especially fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, nuts, and low fat-dairy for at least two meals a day, and rely on meal replacements for one meal a day.
www.healthhype.com

Hamas delegation in Egypt for unity talks

At least four Palestinian activists were killed on Monday in a gun battle with Israeli soldiers along the border of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, the deadliest such incident in months, medics said. The incident, which reportedly involved horses, came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was mulling in the face of increasing US pressure whether to ease a crippling blockade imposed on the territory, according to senior officials.The bodies of the four activists killed on Monday had explosives belts around them and two of the bodies were torn to shreds by explosions, the medics said after retrieving the remains.At least another 12 Palestinians were wounded in the fighting near the Nahal Oz crossing with Israel east of Gaza City, they said. The crossing, through which all fuel crosses into the territory, was shut following the clash. An Israeli army spokesman said that troops, backed by tanks and helicopter gunship, opened fire after they saw gunmen on the Gaza side of the border placing explosives near the border fence. The activists arrived in the area in trucks that also transported five horses loaded with explosives. Palestinian witnesses said that some of the gunmen had been riding horses. A military source said that the incident appeared to be an attempt to seize Israeli soldiers, like during a June 2006 attack in which activists seized serviceman Gilad Shalit in a deadly cross-border raid. Shalit remains in captivity and Israel and Hamas have negotiated for months via indirect talks through Egypt on a prisoner exchange that would see hundreds of Palestinians released in return for the soldier. There was no immediate claim for Monday’s attack from any armed Palestinian group in Gaza. Israel has faced growing international calls, including by main ally Washington, to lift the blockade on the impoverished territory where the vast majority of the 1.5 million population depends on foreign aid. Monday’s incident was one of the deadliest since the end of the war that Israel unleashed on the territory in response to rocket fire on December 27 and that ended with mutual ceasefires by Hamas and Israel on January 18. The ceasefires have largely held despite violations by both sides. Since March, Hamas has made a move to halt other groups from firing rockets into Israel, detaining some activists after they violated the ceasefire.Meanwhile, a delegation from the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas arrived in Egypt on Monday for talks on reconciliation efforts with the rival Fatah faction, a security official said. The delegation, which includes former foreign minister Mahmud Zahar, crossed into Egypt from Gaza ahead of the scheduled arrival in Cairo later on Monday of exiled Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal, the official said.The delegation is due to hold talks on Tuesday with Egyptian intelligence Chief Omar Suleiman, the main go-between in the Palestinian reconciliation efforts, the official MENA news agency reported.
source: thenews.com

Turkish European Union bid

Most effective way to promote inter-faith harmony is to not try to suppress their traditions, but to open up opportunities’CAEN, France: US President Barack Obama urged Europe on Saturday to reach out to Muslims around the world as he again disagreed with French President Nicolas Sarkozy over Turkey’s bid to join the European Union. Obama, who was praised this week for a speech seeking a new beginning in Western relations with the Islamic world, was asked about France’s opposition to Turkish EU membership and its ban on Muslim veils in schools. “I’ve said publicly that I think Turkish membership of the EU would be important,” Obama told reporters at a joint news conference with Sarkozy before they attended commemorations for the 65th anniversary of the D-Day landings in northern France.“Now, President Sarkozy, as a member of the EU, has a different view,” he said. “What the US wants to do is just to encourage talks and discussions where Turkey can feel confident that it has a friendship with France, with the United States, with all of Europe and to the extent that it defines itself that it has an opportunity to be a part of that,” he explained. “In all of this, I think that Europe and France have a role to play just as the United States does, to send a signal to Muslims around the world that we welcome and want their participation in a world community that is peaceful, that is prosperous, that is developing in favour of all people.” Sarkozy insisted that he and Obama agreed on the general principle of friendship with Turkey, but said France would continue to oppose Turkish membership of the European Union. “We want Turkey to be a bridge between East and West,” Sarkozy said. “I told President Obama that it’s very important for Europe to have borders. For me Europe is a force of stability in the world and I cannot, allow that force for stabilisation to be destroyed,” he said. Turkey began EU membership talks in 2005, and has begun negotiations in 10 of the 35 policy areas that candidate countries must bring into line with EU rules. France and Germany lead opposition to its membership. If negotiations succeed, Turkey, with 76 million people, would be the first major Muslim country. Albania with 3.6 million people is also a candidate. The two leaders also differed on Obama’s call for powers like France to lift bans on Muslim women wearing religious headscarves in state schools and certain government jobs. “I won’t take responsibility for how other countries are going to approach this. I will tell you that in the United States, our basic attitude is that we’re not going to tell people what to wear,” Obama said.“My general view is that most effective way to integrate people of all faiths is to not try to suppress their traditions, but rather to open up opportunities,” he explained. Sarkozy said he had found Obama’s speech “remarkable” and that he agreed on the need to end what he called the “clash of cultures between East and West”, but again said France would go a different way. “Civil servants must not wear any outward sign of their religion, whether they are Catholics, Jewish, Orthodox, Protestants or Muslims,” he said. “The second thing is a young woman can wear a head scarf provided that’s a decision they took freely and not been forced on them by their family or their entourage,” he said. “France is a country where everybody can enjoy the convictions, but women are respected as is their autonomy.” The Muslim veil is a very sensitive issue in France, where several women’s rights groups attacked Obama’s speech. One feminist organisation called it a “slap in the face for millions of women”.
source:thenews.com

China revies production of JH-17 strike aircraft

China revives production of JH-7 strike aircraft
Monday, June 08, 2009By Kaleem OmarChina is now spending upwards of $ 60 billion a year to modernise its military, with the eventual aim of giving it power-projection capability far beyond its borders. In typical fashion, however, Beijing is not rushing pell mell into this endeavour, but is proceeding with due deliberation one step at a time, so as not to alarm its neighbours. Unlike the United States, China is also not given to throwing its weight about in its dealings with other countries and tends to err, if anything, on the side of caution. Such caveats aside, however, the fact remains that China is becoming stronger and stronger militarily with each passing year and recently announced plans to build its first aircraft carrier battle group. The US has 12 such battle groups, so its going to be a long time before China achieves conventional military parity with America. Such larger issues aside, China has, meanwhile, decided to revive production of its JH-7 strike aircraft. British and French engine manufacturers are vying with each other to provide China with engine technology to support the potential additional production of 170 upgraded JH-7s.First produced in the mid-1990s, the JH-7 met with limited success because the aircraft maker, Xian Aircraft Co., Xian, Shaanxi, China, experienced difficulties in manufacturing the powerplant, the WS9 turbofan engine. The WS9 is a version of the Rolls Royce Spey Mk202 that the company builds under licence.A report in the American weekly military journal Defence News quoted industrial and government sources as saying that China is now planning additional production of the JH-7. According to the report, discussions have been going on with Rolls Royce plc, London, and France’s Societe Nationale d’Etude et de Construction de Monteurs d’Aviation (Snecma), to build engines for the attack aircraft.Jean-Paul Bechat, president of Snecma, was quoted as saying that his company was having regular discussions with the Chinese authorities about the possibility of fitting the M53 engine to a variant of the JH-7 aircraft. The M53 powers the French Mirage 2000 fighter aircraft.Another Snecma official familiar with the Asian market was quoted as saying that discussions with China had so far centred on the technical feasibility of replacing the JH-7’s existing engine with the “slightly more powerful” M53. A Chinese official was quoted as saying that China is building the JH-7. He said the Chinese Navy’s aviation arm is is buying the JH-7. Bringing the JH-7 into widespread service within the Naval Air Force would boost the service’s capabilities, the Chinese official was quoted as saying.A European industrialist was quoted as saying that the People’s Liberation Army’s Naval Air Force could produce an additional 50 to 70 aircraft, and the PLA Air Force may purchase some 100 planes. Some of the planes to be built will be improved variants of the aircraft, dubbed the JH-7A. The JH-7, a two-seat, twin-engine, attack aircraft, is in limited service with the Naval Air Force. According to the Defence News report, the naval JH-7 is equipped with standoff anti-ship missiles and would be used primarily for maritime strike missions.In addition to talks with Snecma, Chinese officials are also discussing the Spey Mk202 with Rolls Royce. Under the terms of a deal concluded in the late 1970s, Rolls Royce has provided several dozen Spey engines to China, with the intention that the Xian Aero-engine Co. was to manufacture the engine under licence as the WS9, says the Defence News report.A source was quoted as saying that discussions with the British company now focus on Rolls Royce providing further support and sub-components to Xian to support a production run of the WS9. Rolls Royce may also provide a number of additional complete second-hand Spey engines. “We have a long standing relationship with China,” Gary Atkins, a Rolls Royce spokesman, was quoted as saying.With regard to the Chinese Spey/WS9, Atkins was quoted as saying, “We have been supporting this project in a number of ways, ever since China acquired a batch along with the manufacturing technology.”According to the Defence News report, there remains considerable political sensitivity surrounding the sale of military equipment to China, which remains subject to a European Union arms embargo, though this covers only weaponry and complete weapons systems.The Snecma official was quoted as saying that since the discussions with Chinese officials had so far been of a technical nature, his company had not sought approval from the French government. He added, however, that if business discussions get underway, Snecma would first have to get French government approval for any sale.“It’s a delicate situation because the European Union imposed an embargo on military exports to China in 1989 which is still in place,” the Snecma official said. He said that any export contracts for this type of engine to China would also have to go through the European Union’s code of conduct for arms exports regulations.The official said that it was likely that China would want to put new engines on the JH-7 in the 2004-2006 time frame, but that these dates were not fixed. China would insist on at least having full repair and maintenance capacity for these engines, he said. Ideally, what they would want “is step by step to reach 80 per cent capacity of building the M53 engine themselves, 10 or 15 years down the road.”Meanwhile, in another development, Russia and China have clinched a deal to have more Su-27SK fighters assembled at a Chinese aviation plant for China’s Air Force.The $ 1.4 billion deal involves a contract for the fighters to be assembled at the Shenyang Aircraft Making Factory in Shenyang, Liaoning province.The contract was signed by Chinese defence officials and managers of Russia’s chief arms exporter, Rosvoorouzhenie. It is not known how many Su-27SK fighters will be assembled under the deal, but the contract reportedly bans the Chinese from exporting any of these jets.A press report said that Ivan Skrylnik, spokesman for Rosvoorouzhenie, refused to give details about the deal, as did Yuri Chervakov, spokesman for AVPK Sukjoi, which develops and manufactures Sukhoi fighters. Both companies are based in Moscow. The Russian government was said to have welcomed the cash deal as it would inject liquidity into Russia’s defence industry and keep employees of AVPK Sukhoi and its subcontractors busy for years.The SU-27SK is an export version of the Russian Air Force’s basic SU-27. The SU-27SK began production in 1991. It has a maximum range of 3,680 kilometres, a maximum speed of 2,125 kilometres per hour and can carry up to eight air-to-air missiles. Though described by Rosvoorouzhenie as an advanced aircraft, the Su-27SK is today not quite in the same class more advanced models, such as the French-made Mirage 2000-5s or modified F-16s operated by the Taiwanese and Japanese air forces, respectively, according to Konstantin Makienko. Deputy head of the Centre for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies (CAST) in Moscow. Paradoxically, the fact that the Su-27SK is inferior to the Mirage 2000-5 and even Sukhoi’s own Su-30MKK fighter could turn into a positive development for AVPK Sukho, Makienko was quoted as saying.“Sooner or later the Chinese will have to upgrade these planes to modern requirements, such as the ability to attack ground targets. This means that Sukho will sign new deals to carry out these upgrades,” Makienko was quoted as saying. Russia and China concluded a $ 2 billion deal in 1996 to have the Shenyang Aircraft Making Factory assemble 200 Su-27SKs from kits provided by AVPK Sukhoi’s Komsomolsk-om-Amur Aviation Production Association, according to CAST figures. China also signed a deal in 1990 to procure 20 Su-27SKs and four Su-27UBK combat/training fighters.In another development, a group of Chinese officials visited Moscow in August 2000 to negotiate the purchase of Russian-built A-50 early warning aircraft. The visit came in the wake of the failure of a similar deal between Beijing and Israel for Phalcon early warning aircraft.The talks focused on an advanced version of Russia’s A-50 early warning and control aircraft, dubbed A-50E, for which the Scientific Production Corporation’s Moscow Scientific Research Institute of Instrument Engineering (MNIIP) has already developed an advanced radar system. An MNIIP official was quoted as saying that the Chinese were interested in buying several A-50E aircraft.The Chinese became interested in buying the A-50E in the autumn of 2000 after then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Baruk sent a letter to then-Chinese President Jiang Zemin in July that year informing him of the Israeli decision to back out of the $ 250 million Phalcon sale. Barak’s decision, which was prompted by heavy American pressure to kill the deal, was made during the US-sponsored peace talks between Israeli and Palestinian leaders at Camp David in July 2000.
source: thenews.com