Is China a supercomputer threat? (Q&A)

With China expected to officially take the supercomputer performance crown next month, I asked an expert about the state of supercomputing in the U.S. and whether China poses a long-term threat to the United States' current preeminence in supercomputing.

Nvidia announced yesterday that its chips are powering the "Tianhe-1A" Chinese supercomputer that achieved 2.507 petaflops, beating a U.S.-based system that is currently ranked No. 1 on the June Top500 list of the fastest supercomputers in the world. The Chinese system is a unique hybrid design that uses approximately 7,000 Nvidia graphics chips along with 14,000 Intel Xeon CPUs. The graphics chips are what give the system the extra oomph to catapult it into the top supercomputer spot.

I spoke with Jack Dongarra, university distinguished professor at University of Tennessee's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and part of a group from the University of Tennessee, Oak Ridge National Laboratories, and Georgia Tech that recently purchased a hybrid system. It is important to note that Oak Ridge houses the supercomputer, dubbed "Jaguar," cited above that is currently ranked No. 1 in the world based on the Top500 June list: it is not a hybrid system.

Q: Does Oak Ridge have anything analogous to the Chinese hybrid system?

Dongarra: Oak Ridge has a small version of a machine that is hybrid in nature. So, this is an acquisition that just took place...out of a grant from the National Science Foundation. It involved Oak Ridge National Labs, University of Tennessee, and Georgia Tech. But it's much, much smaller than the Chinese system. The machine is in place and testing is being carried out at Oak Ridge. A node has two Intel Westmere chips and three Nvidia Fermi boards. There are 120 nodes in the system.

What makes the Chinese supercomputer so fast?

Dongarra: The Chinese designed their own interconnect. It's not commodity. It's based on chips, based on a router, based on a switch that they produce.

Is that in essence the secret sauce?

Dongarra: It's similar to Cray. Cray's contribution, besides the integration and software, is the interconnect network. They have a very fast interconnect that makes that machine perform very well. Though [the Chinese] project is based on U.S. processors, it uses a Chinese interconnect. That's the interesting part. They've put something together that is roughly twice the bandwidth of an InfiniBand interconnect [which is used widely in the U.S.]

Will the Chinese system in fact take the No. 1 spot on the Top500 list in November?

Dongarra: Yes. I saw the machine. I saw the output. It's the real thing.

Why doesn't Oak Ridge do what the Chinese are doing?

Dongarra: Oak Ridge doesn't have the ability or technology to develop an interconnect or a router. We don't make computers. We buy computers and use them. It's not within our scope or mission to be in the computer design business.

What's your advice?

Dongarra: You have to remember that you have to not only invest in the hardware. It's like a race car. In order to run the race car, you need a driver. You need to effectively use the machine. And we need to invest in various levels within the supercomputer ecology. The ecology is made up of the hardware, the operating system, the compiler, the applications, the numerical libraries, and so on. And you have to maintain an investment across that whole software stack in order to effectively use the hardware. And that's an aspect that sometimes we forget about. It's underfunded. We fund the hardware but we don't fund the other components. The ecosystem tends to get out of balance because the hardware tends to run far ahead of what we can develop in terms of software. We have machines that have a tremendous level of parallelism. We currently have a very crude way of doing programming.

Who would do that?

Dongarra: The research is performed under the auspices of the Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, and the Department of Defense.

Is this a red flag for the U.S.?

Dongarra: Yes, this is a wake-up call. We need to realize that other countries are capable of doing this. We're losing an advantage.

Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-20021122-64.html#ixzz13jPbq2HF

Galaxy may have gobs of Earth-size planets

The giant exoplanet HR 8799b was discovered in 2007 at the Gemini North Observatory. It is slightly larger than Jupiter and might be 10 times more massive. (Artist's Conception/nasa/esa/g. Bacon (Stsci))

Nobody has seen them yet, but scientists now think there are tens of billions of planets the general size and bulk of Earth in the Milky Way galaxy alone - a startling conclusion based on four years of viewing a small section of the nighttime sky.

of Earth-size planets

The giant exoplanet HR 8799b was discovered in 2007 at the Gemini North Observatory. It is slightly larger than Jupiter and might be 10 times more massive.

The giant exoplanet HR 8799b was discovered in 2007 at the Gemini North Observatory. It is slightly larger than Jupiter and might be 10 times more massive. (Artist's Conception/nasa/esa/g. Bacon (Stsci))

The estimate, made by astronomers Andrew Howard and Geoffrey Marcy of the University of California at Berkeley, flows from the logic that the number of small but detectable exoplanets - planets outside Earth's solar system - is substantially larger than the number of big exoplanets in distant solar systems.

In a paper released Thursday by the journal Science, the two report that based on this galactic preference for smaller planets, they think that almost one-quarter of the stars similar to our sun have Earth-size planets orbiting them.

"This is the first estimate based on actual measurements of the fraction of stars that have Earth-size planets," said Marcy, who did his observing with Howard at the Keck Observatory in Hawaii.

Their observations and extrapolations say nothing about whether these Earth-size planets will have the characteristics of Earth: its density, a distance from the sun that is just right for liquid water, the fact that it is a rocky structure rather than a gaseous ball.But Marcy said that with so many Earth-size planets now expected to be orbiting distant suns - something on the order of 50,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 across the universe - the likelihood is high that many are in "habitable zones" where life can theoretically exist.

"It's tantalizing, without a doubt, to think some of those Earths are in habitable zones," Marcy said. "And based on what we know, really, why wouldn't they be?"

Planet-hunting technology allows astronomers to find exoplanets down to the size of super-Earths that are three times the size of our planet. The new conclusion that billions of planets similar in mass (or bulk) to Earth exist in the Milky Way is based on extrapolations of the number of these super-Earths compared with the number of larger exoplanets. Because the finding is not based on firm measurements, Marcy said, "it's a very exciting set of numbers that we have confidence in, but there are yellow flags."

Exoplanet hunters, who found the first planet outside our solar system in 1995, are entering a period of especially heightened and excited discovery. The new assessment from Howard and Marcy, funded by NASA and the Keck Observatory, comes only weeks after two other astronomers published a paper saying they had detected an apparently rocky planet in a habitable zone around a star relatively close to Earth called Gliese 581g.

That conclusion, by Steven Vogt of the University of California at Santa Cruz and Paul Butler of the Carnegie Institution in Washington, has not been confirmed, and some have challenged the discovery, especially a Swiss team that has been a leader in exoplanet research.

But the assessment that Earth-size planets are ubiquitous in distant solar systems is expected to get additional support in February when the scientists operating NASA's Kepler Mission, which is searching for Earth-size and habitable planets, report on what they have been finding.

In a previous paper, the Kepler team reported finding about 350 new candidate planets that they are confirming. Since the first exoplanet was identified, about 500 more, large and small, have been discovered and confirmed.

Most were detected by measuring the minute wobbles of stars caused by the gravitational pull of the exoplanets that orbit them. This technique has been dramatically refined in recent years, and astronomers have been given the long telescope observation times needed for the measurements. The best planet hunters can now, with the use of spectrographs, detect solar wobbles of as little as one meter a second.

The field has also been revolutionized by other increasingly sophisticated methods of detecting exoplanets, especially using the "transit" method, which looks for tiny reductions in the light coming from the star and planets being observed - usually on the order of 100 parts per million. If these one-to-16-hour reductions are observed in a regular pattern over time, then astronomers know a planet is orbiting its sun.

The Kepler Mission is using similar "transiting" to search for Earth-size planets in one small section of the sky. Marcy, who is a member of the Kepler science team, said the orbiting telescope will survey thousands of stars to determine with unprecedented precision how many are circled by exoplanets, and especially by Earth-size exoplanets that might be in habitable zones. The size of the exoplanet can be determined by the amount the brightness of the star decreases when it transits its sun.

"This is an extraordinarily exciting time in exoplanets and distant Earths," Marcy said. "Think of it: We know that Aristotle was once at a cafe outside Athens drinking ouzo and speculating about whether there are other Earths in the universe. That's a question we're getting much closer to answering."

The 166 solar systems reported on Thursday by Howard and Marcy are within 80 light-years of Earth - the very great distance light travels in 80 years, but a short distance by astronomical measures. "What this means is that as NASA develops new techniques over the next decade to find truly Earth-size planets, it won't have to look too far," Howard said.

Based on their census of those 166 solar systems with sun-like stars at their centers, only 2 percent of exoplanets will be the size of Jupiter, 6 percent the size of Neptune and 12 percent "super-Earths." This progression led to the conclusion that 100 sun-like stars would be orbited by 23 planets sized between half of an Earth and two Earths.

Samsung Electronics Forecasts Weak Quarter as Earnings Peak

Samsung Electronics Co. , Asia’s biggest maker of semiconductors, flat screens and mobile phones, said third-quarter profit increased 17 percent to a record, driven by gains in sales of computer-memory chips.  

Samsung Electronics Co., the world’s biggest maker of televisions, memory chips and flat screens, forecast weaker fourth-quarter earnings because of falling prices and the strengthening South Korean won. 

Oversupply of computer-memory chips and the drop in liquid- crystal display prices will persist, the Suwon-based company said in a statement. Samsung, which today reported record third- quarter profit, also said it anticipates “severe” competition in TV prices during the year-end season.

Samsung led technology-related stocks lower in Asian trading as the projections fueled concern the earnings recovery by the region’s export-driven companies is losing steam. Government reports today showed South Korean industrial production slowed and Japanese consumer prices fell, signaling weaker economic growth. 

“The post-recession inventory restocking has been done already, and demand was actually much weaker than people thought in the middle of this year," said Peter Yu, a Seoul-based analyst at BNP Paribas Asia. "A lot of people including Samsung were caught by this discrepancy.” 

Recovery in demand for electronics, which has been “abnormal” this year depends on a turnaround in the global economy, making it hard to predict when spending will increase, he said. 

"We expect increased oversupply and price declines in the memory market, as well we possible further declines in LCD panels," Robert Yi, vice president of investor relations, said on a conference call today. "Combining these with a possible appreciation of the won, we expect the overall fourth-quarter business conditions to be difficult." 

Stronger Won

The won has gained 5.1 percent against the dollar in the past two months, making it the second-best-performing major Asian currency against the greenback during the period, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. 

Samsung fell 2.1 percent to 748,000 won at 1:08 p.m. in Seoul trading, leading a 0.7 percent drop among information- technology stocks on the MSCI Asia Pacific index.

Prices of chips known as dynamic random access memory, which allow computers to run multiple programs simultaneously, will probably fall because of an industry glut and weak personal-computer demand, the company said. Samsung, the world’s second-largest chipmaker after Intel Corp., today reported semiconductor profits tripled in the third quarter. 

The comments echoed those of its nearest competitor, Hynix Semiconductor Inc., whose chief financial officer said yesterday that DRAM prices will probably fall 20 percent to 25 percent sequentially this quarter.

Weak LCD Demand 

Elpida Memory Inc., the world’s third-largest maker of computer-memory chips, will probably miss previous earnings projections as slowing personal-computer demand drives down chip prices, President Yukio Sakamoto said on Oct. 5

In LCDs, Samsung said the company will focus on producing more profitable panels, such as those used in LED and 3-D TV sets, as overall demand remains weak. LG Display Co., the second-largest LCD maker after Samsung, said this month it expects the display industry to turn around in the first quarter of next year. 

Samsung, which competes against Sony Corp. and Panasonic Corp. in the TV market, forecast “severe” price competition in the industry after its digital-media division that assembles TVs posted a loss of about 230 billion won ($205 million). 

Tokyo- based Sony and Osaka-based Panasonic report earnings today.In telecommunications, Samsung said it plans to keep profit margins above 10 percent and focus on expanding its smartphone business after launching the Galaxy S to challenge Apple Inc.’s iPhone. Samsung has sold 5 million units of the handset and aims to sell another 5 million during the rest of the year. 

Profit at the mobile-phone division increased almost 20 percent to 1.13 trillion won in the third quarter after Samsung sold 71.4 million handsets, an increase of 19 percent.Overall third-quarter net income climbed 17 percent to a record 4.46 trillion won, in line with the average of 10 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. 

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Warren Says Technology Can Prevent `Capture' of Consumer Protection Agency

Elizabeth Warren, the special adviser assigned to help set up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, said she is planning to use technology to prevent “capture” of the new agency by the industry it’s being created to oversee.

The regulator will “use supervision and lawsuits to enforce the law” while employing technology to “supplement the cop on the beat by building a neighborhood watch,” Warren said today in remarks prepared for delivery at the University of California at Berkeley. 

“The new consumer agency can develop the tools to level the playing field and discourage capture,” Warren said. “The American people can have not just one but thousands of seats at the table” with the help of technology, she said.

Warren, who planned to meet with technology industry executives and visit Google Inc. during her trip to the San Francisco Bay area, said using “a well-informed population to help expose, early on, consumer financial tricks” could create an additional safeguard against problems such as the documentation lapses that led mortgage-servicing firms to temporarily halt foreclosures. 

“Think about how much sooner attention could have turned to foreclosure documentation -- robo-signers and fake notaries - - if, back in 2007 and 2008, the consumer agency had been in place to blow the whistle before the problem became a national scandal,” she said.

Industry View 

The financial services industry “pushes its views and, as you might expect, the right direction turns out to be the one that is good for the industry,” Warren said. “That’s the industry’s right, but for the American public, those who aren’t hiring lawyers and lobbyists, the field is tilted against them.”

Warren said crowd-sourcing -- in which technology is used to query large groups of people for answers to complex questions -- could be used by the bureau to harness information from consumers.“Imagine scanning a credit agreement and uploading to a website where software can analyze the text,” Warren said. “A consumer could help the agency spot new agreements on the market and customers who could get more information as they make decisions.”

She said the bureau could build on the precedent of the Credit Card Accountability and Disclosure Act, which requires card issuers to give their credit agreements to the Federal Reserve, which posts them on the Internet.

Warren was named in September as an assistant to President Barack Obama and a special adviser to Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner to help shape the consumer agency that will be housed at the Fed.

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-29/elizabeth-warren-says-technology-can-prevent-capture-of-consumer-agency.html

Chinese PM says he will visit India this year

HANOI: Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said he would be visiting India this year in his opening remarks ahead of his meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday. The prime minister responded by saying that he was "extremely delighted" to hear about it.

The 30-minute meeting, also attended by National Security Advisor Shiv Shankar Menon, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma and Secretary-East Lata Reddy as well as four cabinet ministers from the Chinese side, saw Wen talking of the strong sense of history which binds the two countries.

Wen told the prime minister that he had said on many occasions that there was enough space for China and India to grow. "To that I add that there is enough space in the world for India and China to have cooperation."

On this 60th year of the anniversary of India-China diplomatic relations, he said: ""I will be visiting India this year."

The prime minister responded by saying the two had met on 10 occasions in the last six years.

He said he was "extremely delighted" to hear that Wen would be coming. He also said there would be for consensus on key issues to lay the foundation for a very successful visit.

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http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/Chinese-PM-says-he-will-visit-India-this-year/articleshow/6833350.cms

Indo-US counter terrorism will continue: Roemer

New Delhi: As the count down begins for Barack Obama's visit to India, the US says Indo-US counter terror intelligence will continue and the sparring over David Headley will not affect ties between the two countries.

According to CNN-IBN, Timothy Roemer assured that the US will monitor the Pakistan use of American funds and will ensure that it is not directed against India.

Roemer asserted the US President could support India's bid for a permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council. However, Roemer is still non-committal on India's outsourcing concerns.

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Counter terrorism one of the top agenda for Obama in India: White House

Counter-terrorism co-operation between India and the US would be on top of the agenda of President Barack Obama when he travels to Mumbai and New Delhi next week, the White House said on Friday. "Our first stop is a ceremony that commemorates the lives lost on November 26, 2008, in a horrific terrorist attack," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters at his daily news conference.

"We have unprecedented cooperation with the Indian military. We do more exercises now than we have ever before with them. And our relationship on counter terrorism and subjects of the like is tremendously important," he said.

"This will be the subject of some of the talks that the President has with Prime Minister Singh and the subject to the very first stop on the trip," Gibbs said in response to a question.

"This is a rapidly growing region of the world; Asia and India is a rapidly growing -- it’s the largest democracy in the world. Its economy is moving quickly. And our investment -- our partnership is paying benefits in our ability to increase our exports and create -- and support jobs here in America. Both of those will be highlighted by the President on this trip," Gibbs said.

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Army officer completes first-ever base jump in India

New Delhi:  This army officer intercepts and disrupts enemy communications for a living but also loves jumping off high rising buildings.

Lt Colonel Satyendra Verma carried out India's first ever base jump from a 450-ft tall Pitampura TV tower building in the Capital early morning on Friday.

Colonel Verma, who is a professional sky diver, has completed this feat as part of the Army Signal Corps centenary year celebrations.

BASE stands for Building, Antenna, Span (Bridge) and Earth and this advanced form of free fall jump is a major sport around the world.

Verma, with over 1,100 skydivings to his credit, is an experienced BASE jumper and had achieved the feat earlier from the telecom tower in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia and Perrine
Bridge in the US.

It took him more than a year to get the permission for this daredevil act from the owners of the building.

For the jump, the Army had earlier carried out a technical study of the site and found that the feat was possible, given the Pitampura TV tower's location beside the Delhi Development Authority's cricket ground.
   
In this form of extreme, adventure sport, the jumper takes a free fall off the tower, but carries an unopened parachute. As the jumper approaches the ground, the canopy
opens up for a safe landing.

"This sport is attempted only by experienced skydivers to ensure that the jumper completely understands the concept of body positioning in free fall and is capable of immediate and
suitable response to any canopy malfunction," the officers said.

BASE jumping is significantly more dangerous than similar sports such as skydiving from an aircraft and is regarded by many as an 'extreme sport'.

BASE numbers are awarded to those, who have made at least one jump from each of the four categories -- buildings, antennas, spans or bridges, and Earth (such as mountain
cliffs). (With PTI Inputs)

Read more at: http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/army-officer-completes-first-ever-base-jump-in-india-63161?trendingnow&cp

Indonesia battles to aid tsunami survivors

Indonesia battled to deliver aid to remote islands where a tsunami has killed over 400 people, as bodies lay strewn on beaches and buried in debris days after the wave hit.

Disaster response officials believe the final death toll from the huge wave that hit the Mentawai island chain off the west coast of Sumatra Monday could pass 500, with many of the victims sucked out to sea as the tsunami receeded.

Almost 13,000 people are living in makeshift camps on the islands after their homes were wiped out in the wave, which was triggered by a powerful 7.7 magnitude earthquake.

Elsewhere in the disaster-prone archipelago, the nation's most active volcano, Mount Merapi, was spewing lava and ash, threatening residents who may have returned to their homes after an eruption on Tuesday killed 34 people.

"It shot heat clouds at 6:10 am as far as 3.5 kilometres (over two miles) down its southeastern slopes and followed this with ash rain," volcanologist Heru Suparwoko told AFP.He said the heat clouds were "definitely dangerous" for people who had refused to obey orders to evacuate the danger zone on the island of Java or who had returned to tend to their livestock and property.

Some 50,000 people have fled to temporary shelters but officials expressed frustration that many were returned to their homes on the volcano's slopes during the day, despite the threat of another deadly eruption.

"It's very difficult to convince people here that the volcano's threat is serious," health ministry crisis centre head Mudjiharto told AFP.

On the Mentawais, a picturesque destination for foreign surfers but an otherwise poor and neglected part of Indonesia, bodies were being found buried on beaches and even stuck in trees.

Disaster management official Agus Prayitno said the death toll had risen to 408, as hopes dimmed for another 303 still listed as missing after the wave flattened villages and homes."When we flew over the area yesterday (Wednesday) we saw many bodies. Heads and legs were sticking out of the sand, some of them were in the trees," another disaster official Ade Edward said Thursday.

Indonesia initially refused offers of foreign aid but Australia on Thursday announced that Jakarta had accepted a million US dollars worth of assistance for both disasters.The United States and several Asian countries have also offered help.The European Commission released 1.5 million euros (two million US dollars) in aid and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the United Nations stood ready to assist in any way.

"Indonesia is currently addressing a multitude of emergencies, whose cumulative impact is putting local capacity under severe strain," European aid chief Kristalina Georgieva said.The European money will help around 65,000 people in the Mentawais and another 22,000 affected by the volcano.


Bad weather has hampered efforts to ferry aid such as tents, medicine, food and water to the islands by boat from the nearest port of Padang, which is more than half a day away even in the best conditions.Indonesia has dispatched troops and at least five warships to the region but there is believed to be a need for more helicopters and boats to reach the most isolated communities, some of which lack roads and wireless communications.

"Our staff have been waiting in Padang since Monday night to reach the remote area. They are now still in Padang," World Vision emergency response director Jimmy Nadapdap said.President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono visited the area Thursday, having cut short a visit to Vietnam to attend a regional summit, telling distraught survivors that aid was on its way.

Indonesia and foreign donors have spent millions of US dollars on an elaborate tsunami warning system since the 2004 wave which killed more than 168,000 people on Sumatra and nearby islands.But survivors of Monday's disaster said the only warning they received was the roaring sound of the wave itself as it sped towards them shortly before 10 pm.

Many felt the earthquake but a tsunami alert issued minutes later in Jakarta failed to reach the villages in most danger.An official responsible for the warnings dismissed reports that the system was faulty and blamed local authorities on the Mentawais for failing to pass on the alert.

The Indonesian archipelago is studded with scores of active volcanoes and stretches from the Pacific to the Indian oceans, spanning several tectonic plates meeting on a so-called "ring of fire".According to the US Geological Survey, Monday's earthquake was "the latest in a sequence of large ruptures along the Sunda megathrust" including the 2004 quake.

For more on this news visit

http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/indonesia-battles-to-aid-tsunami-survivors-20101029-1774f.html

EU leaders frames eurozone crisis rules

 

Mr Cameron (right) lobbied hard to put the EU budget issue on the agenda

Tough rules for the eurozone, aimed at averting another financial crisis, have been agreed at an EU leaders' summit.The leaders agreed to a permanent fund to help the euro in times of crisis, and to laws giving the EU the power to check national budgets.

EU officials said the eurozone had almost collapsed earlier this year because it lacked such a mechanism.

Germany wants limited changes to the EU treaty to reinforce the changes, but is facing resistance from other countries.

Meanwhile, UK Prime Minister David Cameron won backing for his battle against a 5.9% rise in the EU budget.Germany and France were among 10 nations supporting Mr Cameron's attempt to limit the budget increase to 2.9% - a rise that would still cost UK taxpayers roughly £435m (500m euros).

The meeting will conclude later on Friday.

Treaty question

The BBC's Jonty Bloom, in Brussels, says the new eurozone rules are designed to force a country to put its house in order long before its economic problems threaten the eurozone.Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the EU Council, hailed the summit's achievements, saying: "Today we took important decisions to strengthen the eurozone.

"We recommend a robust and credible permanent crisis-resolution mechanism to safeguard the financial stability of the eurozone as a whole."Under the new rules, EU officials will warn governments about property and speculative bubbles, and will be able to impose stringent fines on countries that borrow and spend too much.

The permanent crisis fund will replace a temporary one, worth 440bn euros, created earlier this year to bail out Greece and support the euro.But Germany has argued that the Lisbon Treaty will have to be amended to make the emergency fund permanent.The current treaty contains a clause banning members from bailing each other out.

"Everybody agreed that there must be a permanent crisis mechanism, and everybody agreed that this must be formed by the member states," said German Chancellor Angela Merkel."Everybody therefore agreed that this will require a limited treaty change."It took almost a decade of hard negotiations and arduous referendums around the EU to ratify the Lisbon Treaty, and many states are reluctant to make a move which could trigger a similar process.

Mr Van Rompuy has been tasked with finding out whether the fund can be set up without each of the 27 member states having to ratify the treaty all over again.The UK says a mechanism to ensure stability in the eurozone is desirable - and that the planned sanctions would not apply to the UK.But all 27 member states' budgets will come under close scrutiny in a "peer review" process.There would be progressive sanctions on countries which overshot the maximum debt level allowed under the EU's Stability and Growth Pact (SGP), which is 60% of GDP.

Sanctions would kick in earlier than is the case under the current SGP, enabling the EU to take preventive action, for example against a country with an unsustainable housing bubble, or with unsustainable debt that undermines its competitiveness.

For More Information on this news visit

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11649448

France's Kouchner slams Bin Laden's 'unacceptable threats'

Kouchner slams Bin Laden's 'unacceptable threats'

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner on Thursday denounced Islamist militant leader Osama bin Laden's threat of new attacks and said France was in a state of "extreme vigilance."

Kouchner was reacting after a taped message purportedly from the Al-Qaeda kingpin said that five French hostages kidnapped in the Sahara had been taken as a warning, and threatened more attacks on French interests.

"The unacceptable threats are not new," Kouchner told reporters, playing down Bin Laden's influence over the North African Al-Qaeda affiliate that carried out September's kidnap of the French nationals in northern Niger.

"Mr Bin Laden has taken this opportunity. It was opportunism. It's not him, it's not Mr Bin Laden who is holding the hostages, it's much more complicated than that," Kouchner said, on the sidelines of a diplomatic meeting in Paris.

Pakistani Taliban executes 3 over "criminal charges

ISLAMABAD, Oct. 28 (Xinhua) -- Pakistani Taliban militants have executed three persons over "criminal activities" in a tribal region near the Afghan border, a Taliban spokesman said Thursday.
The bullet-ridden bodies of three slain men were found in Mohmand tribal agency, an official said.
Two Pakistanis and one Afghan refugee were kidnapped from Shna Ghundai area of Mohmand agency on Wednesday, the official said.

A purported spokesman of Taliban in the region, Sajjad Muhmand, claimed responsibility for the killing of the three abducted men.
He said the slain men were wanted to Taliban for their involvement in robberies, kidnapping for ransom and other heinous crimes.

The militants also attacked a check post manned by members of the local anti-Taliban peace committee volunteers in the area, killing one member and injuring five others.
The members of the peace committee returned fire but there was no report of casualty on part of the militants.
The security forces launched limited operation against the militants in Mohmand two years ago and the army claims to have killed some 500 militants. Nearly 140 members of the peace committee have also been killed in the violence.

Last year the local administration said most areas have been cleared of the militants.
Meanwhile, the Pakistani military helicopters shelled hideouts of the militants in nearby Orakzai tribal region on Thursday and killed 12 militants, security officials said.
The military authorities said on Wednesday that 90 percent of Orakzai agency has been cleared of the militants.

In June, Pakistani forces said they had defeated militants in Orakzai, following an offensive against the Taliban in the region that lasted more than two years.

But Orakzai residents say that not all the Taliban hideouts in the area were wiped out.
The region has also attracted militants looking for a haven from army operations in other parts of the tribal belt, including South Waziristan where the security forces had launched major ground and air offensive in October last year.

Tamil novelist files complaint against director and producer of Endhiran

Chennai: Tamil novelist files complaint against director and producer of Endhiran: Amutha Tamil Nadan, Tamil novelist has filed a complaint with T Rajendran, Chennai city police commissioner against the producer and director of “Endhiran” accusing him of stealing the story and concept of his novel “Jugiba”.

He stated “I had written a small novel ‘Jugiba’ in a magazine called ‘Iniya Udhayam’, in 1996. My novel was repeated in ‘Dhik Dhik Dheepika’ magazine in 2007 with my permission.”

He said further, “Director Shankar and producer Kalanithi Maran stole the raw story from my novel and added ingredients to the film like songs, fights and graphics.”

He had earlier sent a legal notice to the director of the film but not getting any response from him, he had to take the step of approaching the city police commissioner.

Indonesian tsunami kills 272; help finally arrives

Planes and helicopters packed with rescue workers and supplies landed for the first time on Wednesday on remote Indonesian islands that were pounded by a 10-foot (three-meter) tsunami, sweeping away villages and killing at least 272 people.

The first aerial surveys of the region revealed huge swaths of land underwater and the crumbled rubble of homes torn apart by the wave. One lay tilted, resting on the edge of its red roof, with tires and slabs of concrete piled up on the surrounding sand.

Two days after a powerful earthquake triggered the wave, the casualty count was still rising as rescuers and disaster officials finally reached the Mentawai island chain, which was closest to the epicentre and the worst hit. Bad weather had kept them away.

On Wednesday evening, disaster official Ade Edward nearly doubled the estimated number of casualties to 272 dead with 412 missing.

Pak violates ceasefire, opens fire on Indian posts in Poonch

JAMMU: Pakistan on Wednesday violated the ceasefire agreement and opened heavy fire on forward Indian positions in the Krishna Ghati sector of Poonch sector in Jammu and Kashmir, army sources said, adding no casualty or loss has been reported so far.

Sources said the Pakistan troops opened heavy firing from machine guns and fired rockets on the Forward Defended Locations (FDLs) namely Kranti, Kripan and Ravi in Krishnaghati sub-sector along the Line of Control.

The Army spokesperson confirmed the incident and said the Pak troops opened heavy fire using machine guns and RPG rockets on Indian posts in Krihna Ghati sector at around 1530 hrs. He also said the encounter is still on. He however added that Indian side observed restrained to avoid escalation of tension in area.

He said it is clear case of ceasefire violation and has been done to facilitate the pushing the infiltrators into Indian side.

In an earlier ceasefire violation, Pak troops fired on the Indian posts in same sector for an hour in which on army jawan was killed on Oct 24. Pakistani troops had fired on Indian posts in Kerni at Jallas sub-sector along the Line of Control ( LoC) in Poonch district on October 1 and 2. Pak troops also violated ceasefire on September 28 and 29 in the Krishna Ghati sub-sector in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir.

For more information on this news visit

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Pak-violates-ceasefire-opens-fire-on-Indian-posts-in-Poonch/articleshow/6822229.cms

Daughter says appeal may not change death sentence of Tariq Aziz

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

* He did nothing wrong and the trial was unfair, his daughter tells CNN

* Aziz was Iraq's deputy prime minister from 1981 to 2003

* The Vatican released statement on Tuesday

Baghdad, Iraq (CNN) -- The daughter of former Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz says an appeal will probably do nothing to stop her father's death sentence.

"I don't think he has any hope of coming out" of prison, said Zainab Aziz.

Tariq Aziz, one of the best-known faces of the Iraqi government for more than two decades, was sentenced to death Tuesday by the Iraqi High Tribunal for his role in eliminating religious parties during Saddam Hussein's regime.

His family was shocked by the verdict, the daughter told CNN.

The family had no idea he was going to be sentenced Tuesday, Zainab Aziz said from Amman, Jordan.

"Until last week, they were hearing new witnesses in this case," she said, criticizing both the verdict itself and its timing.

"My father served his country for more than 22 years. He delivered himself to the U.S. Army [after the fall of Hussein] because he wasn't afraid. He didn't do anything wrong. He served his country," she said.

"He has been wronged," Zainab Aziz said.

Badi Arif, an attorney who used to represent Aziz, said there is a political motive behind the death sentence.

"Mr. Aziz used to always tell me, 'They'll find a way to kill me, and there is no way for me to escape this,'" Arif told CNN. "But from a legal perspective, this sentence is wrong; this is illegal and this is unexpected."

In March 2009, Aziz was sentenced to 15 years in prison in connection with the 1992 executions of 42 merchants.

Aziz was deputy prime minister from 1981 to 2003, also holding the post of foreign minister for part of that time.

Amnesty International urged Iraq not to carry out the sentences on Tuesday, even as it acknowledged the brutality of Hussein's regime.

The Vatican also released a statement on Tuesday.

"The position of the Catholic Church on the death penalty is known. It is truly hoped therefore that the sentencing against Tariq Aziz not be carried out, precisely to favour the reconciliation and reconstruction of the peace and justice in Iraq after the great suffering it has gone through," spokesman Federico Lombardi said in a statement.

For more information on this news visit:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/10/27/iraq.aziz.sentence/

Corruption survey: Somalia is the worst

Somali government fighters battle militants in Mogadishu last month.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Least corrupt nations: Denmark, New Zealand and Singapore
• Corruption Perception Index published annually by Transparency International
• United States ranks No. 22 on the list of 178 nations; economic rival China at No. 78
• Joining Somalia at bottom of list: Afghanistan, Myanmar and Iraq

(CNN) -- Denmark, New Zealand and Singapore are seen as having the least corruption in the world, according to a just-published global survey.

Somalia is viewed as the most corrupt country.

The Corruption Perception Index (CPI) is published annually by Transparency International, a corruption monitoring organization based in Berlin, Germany."The surveys and assessments used to compile the index include questions relating to bribery of public officials, kickbacks in public procurement, embezzlement of public funds and questions that probe the strength and effectiveness of public sector anti-corruption efforts," said a release accompanying the 2010 CPI.

Countries with the highest scores on the index are viewed as having the least corruption; countries with the lowest scores, the most.

 

Video: Survey ranks world corruption

Denmark, New Zealand and Singapore each scored 9.3 out of a possible 10.

Rounding out the 10 highest scores: 

Finland and Sweden, 9.2; 

Canada, 8.9; 

Netherlands, 8.8; 

Australia and Switzerland, 8.7; and 

Norway, 8.6.

Japan was 17th on the list with a score of 7.8; the United Kingdom 20th (7.6); and the United States 22nd (7.1).

At the bottom of the 178 countries Somalia scored 1.1, just below Afghanistan and Myanmar (1.4) and Iraq (1.5).

Among emerging economic powerhouses, Brazil was 69th on the list with a score of 3.7; China 78th (3.5); and India 87th (3.3).

Overall, Transparency International says of the survey: "These results indicate a serious corruption problem.

"With governments committing huge sums to tackle the world's most pressing problems, from the instability of financial markets to climate change and poverty, corruption remains an obstacle to achieving much needed progress."

SC cancels bail, orders Raju, 5 others back to jail

Satyam scam: SC cancels Raju's bail

NEW DELHI: Former Satyam chief Ramalinga Raju, his brother Rama Raju and four others will soon go back to jail in the Rs 7,000-crore financial fraud case as the Supreme Court on Tuesday cancelled their bail reversing an Andhra Pradesh High Court order directing their release from jail three months ago.

The court, however, asked the trial court to speed up the trial and complete it by July 31 next year, and said that the accused could seek bail if the deadline was not met.

The decisive victory for CBI against odds -- voluminous evidence impeding expeditious completion of trial -- came after a Bench comprising Justices Dalveer Bhandari and Deepak Verma accepted the agency's argument that release of the accused, who had recruited most of the employees who were now witnesses in the case, could allow them to influence the witnesses jeopardising a fair trial.

But, the Bench softened the blow by saying that Raju brothers and V Srinivas, G Ramakrishna, D Venkatapathy Raju and C Srisailam would surrender before court on November 8, so that they could celebrate Diwali with their families.

Asking the trial court to expedite the trial and complete it by July 31 next year, the Bench requested the chief justice of the HC not to transfer the trial judge as that could delay the trial.

To speed up the trial process, it asked additional solicitor general Harin Raval, who appeared for the CBI, not to cite the entire voluminous evidence but those crucial documents to save time of the trial court. Moreover, it also told him to make a list of material witnesses who needed to be examined by the trial court rather than producing all the 400-odd witnesses.

The order came on an appeal filed by CBI challenging an August 18 order of the HC granting bail to Raju and five others on the ground that the huge volume of evidence and large number of witnesses have snuffed out chances of an early conclusion of trial against the accused.

Though the apex court generally does not interfere with the orders of the HC granting bail, the Bench of Justices Bhandari and Verma reasoned for making an exception in Satyam case, one of the worst financial frauds that led to investors lose heavily in the stock market. "We usually do not reverse the bail granted by the HC, but the case is based on exceptional facts," it said.

The CBI had told the SC that most of the probe had been completed but the global nature of the scam was pending verification as it had sent out letters rogatory to six countries including the USA, UK, Belgium and Mauritius, and said the accused were needed to be kept in custody till it got responses.

After cancelling the bail, the SC was careful in adding a footnote -- no part of its order should be treated as dealing with the merits of the case and that the trial court would proceed with the case uninfluenced by its bail cancellation order.

Why Sony Ericsson's PlayStation Phone will Work

 
5 reasons why this communication-cum-entertainment device will be accepted by the masses

People have been gaming on their cell-phones since ages. Many of us can remember the thrill of playing Snake on the monochrome screen Nokias, BrickBreaker on BlackBerrys or even Solitare on a stylus operated Windows Pocket PC phone. But the games on cell-phones were mostly rudimentary and no match to the satisfaction derived from a dedicated pocket gaming console like the Nintendo Game Boy series.

Nokia took the brave step in merging gaming with a cell-phone with their N-gage. Although awing as a concept, these phones didn't really fly off the shelves for many a reasons. It was kinda awkward to use as a phone with the numeric pad placed to the right side, thus restricting input to only one thumb. The first N-gage had a weird earphone placement that gave birth to the humorous "Holding a Taco to your ear" gag.

A year after the N-gage launch, Sony came up with the PSP (PlayStation Portable) whose awesome graphics, premium game titles and better playability made things even worse for the N-gage's acceptance with the pro-gaming crowd. N-gage devices ceased to exist after its second iteration (N-gage QD) in 2008, but the platform continued to reside on their other N-series phones. However, this didn't seem to work either and Nokia announced that the N-gage service will be completely shut down by the end of this year.

Other than Nokia, there have been a few attempts here and there by Sony Ericsson but again they seem amateurish in front of the PSP. Apple capitalized on this dead space by pushing gaming on the iPhone and the iPod Touch. They made fun games that were optimized for using virtual controls on a touchscreen as well as the accelerometer (and now even the gyroscope on the iPhone 4 and the 4th gen iPod Touch). With direct downloading of games from the App Store, and an affordable price on many games, Apple's platform is a hit. 

Many tech gurus on the Internet had been hoping for Sony to come up with a PlayStation phone. A few months ago, we heard that Sony was actually working on one. And today, we saw images of the prototype and details of the device on Engadget. So will this convergence device finally get the attention of serious gamers with dedicated consoles like the Nintendo DS or the PSP? We think there are five things that the Japanese giant has done right with it.

For More Information on this news visit :

http://www.techtree.com/India/Features/Why_Sony_Ericssons_PlayStation_Phone_will_Work/551-113275-899.html

Time's up for the wristwatch?

The wristwatch seems to have had its time, for a study has found that more and more people are preferring instead to rely on newer technology to keep them on track for appointments and meetings. The study by consumer analysts Mintel has revealed that one in seven people says mobile phones and

computers have made traditional watches obsolete; it found 86 per cent still own a wristwatch - even if they no longer rely on it to know the correct time, the 'Daily Express' reported.

The under-25s, who have grown up carrying around mobile phones, are half as likely to own a watch as the older generations, according to the British study.Those young adults who do own a watch, however, are more likely to choose a designer brand and spend a significant amount of money on it - 25 per cent compared to 13 per cent of older people - suggesting fashion is more important to them than time-keeping, the study found.

The study, based on a survey, also found a quarter of Britons were prepared to pay more than 250 pounds for a watch and one in seven more than 1,000 pounds.

Tamara Sender, senior fashion analyst at Mintel, said: "Many consumers have grown up with technology and are just as likely to associate the notion of checking the time with a mobile handset as with a watch."As they grow older this mindset will accompany them. Mobile phone ownership is booming and increased usage by all ages could pose a threat to demand for standard watches in the longterm.

"However, with the popularity of alternative time-pieces, watch manufacturers are focusing on other aspects such as design and the latest technology to keep consumers interested."

For more information on this news visit :

http://www.hindustantimes.com/Time-s--up-for-the-wristwatch/Article1-618413.aspx