Must know Information about Education And Reference, Entertainment And Music And More

The sedition trial of an ailing leader of a banned Hindu rights body, arrested in 2007 after his group organised a rally against alleged marginalisation of ethnic Indians in Malaysia, was on Tuesday postponed to April 28 after he obtained a court order to refer him to a hospital for diabetes treatment.

The non-governmental Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) leader P Uthayakumar, held under the controversial Internal Security Act (ISA), is under trial for sedition for publishing material on a website alleging “ethnic cleansing” of Malaysian Indians.

Uthayakumar, whose trial started today and postponed to April 28, has been in detention for more than a year now after he and his colleagues organised a massive rally on November 26, 2007 complaining of racial inequality in the country.

The ISA detainee wanted a private hospital for treatment of diabetes but the court order referred him to a government medical facility.

Uthayakumar told reporters that he had asked the prison authorities to send him to a private hospital to attend to his swollen left leg but that they had not responded.

“My foot is darkening which shows acute diabetes. It is spreading to my toes. It can be chronic and shows risk of amputation. So today I asked my lawyers to get a court order so that I can get medical attention in a private hospital,” he was quoted by the online media here as saying.

He also said that he had informed the prison authorities that only he and his brother P Waytha Moorthy, now on self-imposed exile abroad, were responsible for Hindraf.

Uthayakumar said the three other lawyers detained with him under ISA - M Manoharan, V S Ganapathy Rao, K Kengadhadran - were mere legal advisers of the group and not involved in its day-to-day operations.

Barack Obama used his first weekly address as U.S. president to provide more details of his proposed US$825 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan that, among other things, will upgrade classrooms, invest in renewable energy and expand broadband Internet access.

Obama stated his intention to invest in these areas during the presidential debates in September and came back to the issue in a December address that he issued as president-elect, but over the weekend he added concrete goals to the plan.

“It’s a plan that will save or create three to four million jobs over the next few years,” he said adding that its more than a plan to boost short-term employment. “It’s one that will invest in our most important priorities like energy and education; health care and a new infrastructure that are necessary to keep us strong and competitive in the 21st century.”

Among the details, Obama said the plan will renovate and modernize 10,000 schools thus creating “state-of-the-art classrooms, libraries, and labs” for 5 million pupils. The plan also hopes to spur students on to careers in science by tripling the number of undergraduates and graduates studying in this area.

Renewable energy is also a focus. The plan will double energy-generating capacity over three years so that 6 million homes are powered by renewable means. He also plans to modernize the electricity grid and install 40 million “smart meters” in American homes.

The plan also aims to accelerate adoption of health IT systems.

“To lower health care cost, cut medical errors, and improve care, we’ll computerize the nation’s health record in five years, saving billions of dollars in health care costs and countless lives,” he said.

But on one aspect of the recovery plan — expanding broadband access — he offered no concrete goals and a supporting document issued by the White House doesn’t mention the word “broadband” once..

The broadband expansion is part of the infrastructure portion of the plan that will also invest in the road network, mass transit, ports and emergency communications system for law enforcement.

“It means expanding broadband access to millions of Americans, so business can compete on a level-playing field, wherever they’re located,” he said without offering any goals.

Obama pledged to spend at least 75 percent of the package in the first 18 months after the legislation is enacted and for all spending to be transparent and detailed in a new Web site.

Iraq’s Cabinet overwhelmingly approved a security pact with the United States on Sunday, ending prolonged negotiations to allow American forces to remain for three more years in the country they first occupied in 2003.

The deal detailing the conditions of the U.S. presence still needs parliamentary approval, and lawmakers could vote as soon as Nov. 24. For Iraqis, the breakthrough was bittersweet because they won concessions from the Americans but must accept the presence of U.S. troops until 2012.

“It’s the best possible, available option,” said government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh. He was referring to the conflict between Iraq’s desire for full sovereignty and control over security and its need for American support and cooperation to achieve that goal.

Al-Dabbagh described the pact — intended to supplant the U.N. mandate expiring Dec. 31 — as an “agreement on the withdrawal of U.S. troops,” and Washington welcomed the Cabinet’s approval.

“While the process is not yet complete, we remain hopeful and confident we’ll soon have an agreement that serves both the people of Iraq and the United States well and sends a signal to the region and the world that both our governments are committed to a stable, secure and democratic Iraq,” said Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the White House’s National Security Council.

There is a good chance parliament will pass the agreement with a large majority, since the parties that make up Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s coalition government dominate the legislature.

The pact was due to be completed by the end of July, but negotiations stumbled over parts pertaining to Iraqi sovereignty and judicial oversight.

Al-Dabbagh said Iraq’s government has received U.S. assurances that the President-elect Barack Obama would honor the agreement, and pointed out that each side has the right to repeal it after giving one year’s notice. Obama, who takes office in January, has said he would pull U.S. combat troops out of Iraq within 16 months of moving into the White House — or May 2010.

Iraq’s neighbors and U.S. adversaries, Iran and Syria, oppose the pact, arguing that the immediate withdrawal of U.S. forces offered the best option for Iraq.

The Iraqi government sought to allay their fears, amending the document to prohibit the Americans from using Iraqi territory to attack neighboring nations.

The Cabinet’s decision was made amid violence, despite a dramatic improvement in security over the past year. Fresh attacks underlined doubts about whether Iraq’s nascent security forces can stand without U.S. military support and training.

Hours after the Cabinet vote, seven people died and seven were wounded in a suicide car bombing at a police checkpoint in Diyala, a turbulent province northeast of Baghdad, according to police Col. Ahmed Khalifa, chief of Jalula police station.

The U.S. military said the attack in Jalula occurred at a police station and that four police and six civilians died. There was no immediate explanation for the discrepancy in the reports.

Earlier Sunday, a roadside bomb killed three people and wounded seven in northern Baghdad, Iraqi authorities said.

Al-Dabbagh said all but one of 28 Cabinet ministers present in Sunday’s meeting, in addition to al-Maliki, voted for the pact. The sole vote of dissent came from Minister of Women’s Affairs Nawal al-Samaraie, a member of the Iraqi Islamic Party, the country’s largest Sunni Arab party.

She said she voted against the pact because she preferred that it be put to a nationwide referendum. She also wanted the U.S. military to free Sunni security detainees not charged with specific crimes, rather than hand them to Iraqi authorities as provided by the agreement.

The Cabinet vote followed Washington’s decision last week to grant a request by al-Maliki for final amendments.

Khalid al-Attiyah, parliament’s deputy speaker, said the changes removed ambiguous language that could have allowed U.S. forces to ignore a timeline for their withdrawal from Iraqi cities by June 30, 2009 and from the country by Jan. 1, 2012. The changes also tightened Iraq’s control over security raids and the arrest of Iraqis.

The agreement is believed to have met Iraqi concerns over its sovereignty and its security needs as it continues to grapple with a diminished but persistent insurgency. It gives Iraq the right to try U.S. soldiers and defense contractors in the case of serious crimes committed off-duty and off-base.

Al-Attiyah said he expected parliament to vote on the agreement by Nov. 24. If parliament approves the deal, President Jalal Talabani and his two deputies must ratify it.

Iraq’s parliament is due to go into recess at the end of the month or in early December because of the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday, when many lawmakers travel to Saudi Arabia on the annual pilgrimage.

Parliamentary speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani canceled all leave for lawmakers and suspended foreign and out-of-town visits to ensure a quorum for the security pact vote, al-Attiyah said.

“I’m optimistic that this agreement will be passed through the Council of Representatives (parliament),” spokesman al-Dabbagh told Associated Press Television News. But he added: “You cannot guarantee 100 percent approval of anything.”

Barring unforeseen developments, the document should receive the support of the 85 lawmakers of the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance, the 54 Kurdish lawmakers and most of the 44 lawmakers in the Iraqi Accordance Front, the largest Sunni Arab bloc.

Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who commands the loyalty of 30 lawmakers, urged parliament in a statement Sunday to reject the agreement “without the least hesitation.” The statement was read by a top al-Sadr aide on Iraq’s al-Sharqiya Television.

Al-Sadr, whose militiamen battled U.S. forces in the past, has threatened to resume attacks on U.S. forces if they don’t immediately withdraw from Iraq. He called for a mass prayer and protest in a central Baghdad square on Friday.

The Cabinet vote came a day after Iraq’s most influential Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, indicated he would not object to the pact if it passes by a comfortable majority in parliament.

This Russian warship left the shipyard 25 years ago and it shows: the electronics consoles look like museum exhibits and its hull carries a thick crust of paint from years of running repairs.

Its shortcomings reflect the Russian navy’s many problems, highlighted again this month by an accident on a nuclear submarine that killed 20 people.

But looks can deceive. Hidden beneath the decks of the Moskva cruiser are 16 “Bazalt” guided missiles, which travel faster than the speed of sound and can strike an enemy aircraft carrier group 500 km (310 miles) away.

The Moskva, flagship of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, symbolizes Russia’s navy: all too easy to dismiss as an aging rust-bucket, it can still pack a formidable punch.

The navy’s capability matters now more than at any time since the Cold War because the Kremlin is using it to project Russia’s new-found confidence far beyond its coastal waters, bringing it face-to-face with NATO warships.

“I believe we are treated with respect,” captain of the Moskva Igor Smolyak told a group of visiting journalists when asked what foreign navies made of his vessel. He was standing in front of a 130-mm cannon at the bow of his ship.

“They treat with respect the flag, the ship and — accordingly — our nation,” he said during the visit in late September.

BUTT OF JOKES

When Russia this year sent its nuclear-powered missile cruiser Peter the Great to Venezuela — the first such maneuvers off the U.S. coast since the Cold War — Washington poked fun.

U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack quipped that it was “very interesting that they found some ships that could actually make it that far down to Venezuela.”

The jokes are not entirely baseless. For years after the Soviet Union ceased to exist, funding for the navy all but dried up. Building new vessels was put on hold and the existing fleet had to languish in port because of a lack of fuel.

The only time the world remembered Russia’s navy was when, as with the sinking of the Kursk submarine in 2000 with the loss of all 118 on board, something went terribly wrong.

Memories of the Kursk disaster were revived on November 8 when 20 people died from gas asphyxiation on board a nuclear submarine undergoing sea trials in the Pacific Ocean.

“We have lost 15 years,” Captain Igor Dygalo, aide to the commander of Russia’s navy said at the Moskva’s mooring in the Ukrainian port of Sevastopol, home port of the Black Sea Fleet.

“Warships are not tanks. They are far more sophisticated and need proper care.”

AGE NO OBSTACLE

But military analysts say what counts with naval power is not the age of the ship but what is inside it.

In the case of the Moskva, — originally called “Slava” or “Glory” when it was launched in 1983 — its officers say its electronics, sensors and weapons have been constantly upgraded.

One of only three missile cruisers of this class in the Russian navy, it bristles with weapons, including anti-submarine bombs, anti-aircraft rockets, six-barreled anti-air Gatling guns, torpedoes and an on-deck helicopter.

“Due to the power of its strike weapons, the Moskva is called ‘carrier killer’ by NATO,” the captain said.

Nick Brown, editor-in-chief of Jane’s International Defense Review, said the age of the Russian fleet did not necessarily mean it could not fight.

“It’s all about how it’s been maintained,” he said in written comments supplied to Reuters. “The U.S. Navy’s oldest Ticonderoga-class cruisers were launched in the early 1980s and they have plenty of life left.”

“I’m not sure that you can say the same about the Black Sea Fleet, because maintenance and upgrade programs have been somewhat haphazard. That’s not to say that the fleet is obsolete by any stretch, it’s still a powerful fighting force.”

KEEN RIVALRY

According to official data, Russia’s Black Sea Fleet now comprises about 50 warships and other vessels, up to 80 planes and helicopters and some 13,000 servicemen.

More, and newer, ships are promised as Russia spends some of the huge cash pile it has built up from years of high oil prices on beefing up its military.

President Dmitry Medvedev has ordered the Defense Ministry to prepare a program of building aircraft carriers and new nuclear submarines, adding that “the money issue is not that important now.”

The officers of the Black Sea fleet know they have to be battle ready because their adversary is getting closer.

In August, the Moskva was put to sea to track NATO vessels which were despatched in the aftermath of Russia’s war with Georgia. NATO said they were delivering aid to Georgia, but Moscow saw them as encroaching on its sphere of influence.

Even in the home port that Ukraine’s government — which wants to join NATO — grudgingly rents to the Russian Black Sea Fleet, Western military power is hard to ignore.

As the Moskva sat at its moorings in Sevastopol, the U.S. navy survey ship Pathfinder, invited to visit by the Ukrainian military, steamed past and headed out to sea.

An electronic dive buddy built by University of Auckland engineering students could help save divers and make scuba diving a much safer sport.

Anatoly Kudryashov and Jenny Xu from the department of mechanical engineering designed a computerised system to automatically adjust a diver’s buoyancy if they get into trouble. They were supervised by associate professor Vojislav Kecman.

“The most important task for a diver while underwater is buoyancy control. Normally this is controlled manually by adding or releasing air in a buoyancy control device, which is worn like a jacket,” Anatoly said.

“To rise in the water, a diver adds air to the buoyancy control device. To sink, air is let out. If the buoyancy is not adjusted correctly, a diver may rise too rapidly or descend too quickly to an unsafe depth, risking serious injury or sometimes death,” Jenny said.

The electronic dive buddy (EDB) attaches to the buoyancy jacket and monitors the diver’s motion while underwater. It automatically adjusts buoyancy if an unsafe depth or velocity is reached. The device also has a ‘cruise control’ feature, allowing divers to automatically maintain a desired depth in the water.

Anatoly, who is in avid diver, couldn’t understand why computer control hadn’t been introduced to scuba diving and decided to tackle the problem as part of his assessment for a Bachelor of Engineering Degree, according to an University of Auckland release.

The EDB prototype was tested in the lab and in a 4.7 metre deep swimming pool.

“Our tests so far have proven the device to work, so the next step is to look at its marketability. As far as I know, a device like this does not exist,” Anatoly said.

How much of an impact can an animal have? How many lives can one cat touch? How is it possible for an abandoned kitten to transform a small library, save a classic American town, and eventually become famous around the world? You can’t even begin to answer those questions until you hear the charming story of Dewey Readmore Books, the beloved library cat of Spencer, Iowa.

This morning, a lot of fashionistas in Delhi will have boarded the flight for Mumbai, and the Mumbai jet set in Delhi will have headed back home. As the curtains come down on the neck-and-neck fashion weeks here - the Delhi Fashion Week and the Wills India Lifestyle Fashion Week - the lights are coming on at the Lakme Fashion Week in the other city.

Designers like Tarun Tahiliani, Lecoanet-Hemant, and Shane and Falguni Peacock, who had shows here, will be joined in Mumbai by one of Indian fashion’s most creative minds - Sabyasachi Mukherjee, who will close the week with a grand finale show - along with dozens of others. The fashion weeks here were marked by everything from a stupendous show by designer Rohit Bal, who surpassed himself in scale and grandeur to a ‘runway malfunction’ involving Bollywood actor Boman Irani to an after- party turning into a brawl.

Boman slips Nobody who has ever tripped on the ramp could have a made a comeback half as graceful as actor Boman Irani did at the Wills Lifestyle Fashion Show on Saturday. While walking on the runway for designer Anita Dongre, he tripped and slid off the ramp, but in the blink of an eye, he jumped back, and continued modelling alongside actress Shabhana Azmi with his usual style and humour.

In fact, he salvaged the situation so effortlessly that most viewers thought the actor, famous for his comic talent, had done it deliberately, as a planned or impromptu addition to the entertainment. However, Boman confirmed that it was a false step.

“Confidence is a part of good acting. I fell off the ramp, but the adrenaline took care of it.

Otherwise, I would have fallen on my face,” he said. Rubbing shoulders with fashion is not new for Boman.

He started his career as a photographer. “From those days, I know the fashion world,” he says.

“So this wasn’t new, but yes, walking on the ramp got my adrenaline rushing.” Fight club At the end of DFW on Saturday, the celebrations got a little too wild at the after-show party.

As the shirts came off a few male models, the DJ asked that they put their clothes back on and a scuffle ensued. Rohit Bal, who was there with his friends, appealed for calm, but got the middle finger.

Bottles flew, and some got hurt. The scene ended with the men in khaki arriving to take control.

A British woman and her 14-year-old daughter have drowned in a flash flood in eastern Spain which has been lashed by torrential rains, officials said on Friday.

The pair had tried to cross a swollen stream on foot near the town of L’Olleria on Thursday after rising flood waters forced them to abandon the car they were travelling in with two other British citizens, a spokeswoman for the government representative in Valencia said.

The flood waters reached between 12 and 16 inches “but they did not correctly measure the force of the stream and they were swept away,” the spokeswoman said. The other passengers in the car were not injured.

The body of the 47-year-old woman and her daughter were only found at around midnight on Thursday, some four hours after they were swept away by the waters.

Women are more virtuous than men, suggests a survey which found that females outscore males on every moral conscience.

The survey into the ethics of more than 20,000 people by Times Online indicated that women are more virtuous than men.

According to the survey of 20,738 Times Online users in 162 countries, women outscore men on every moral conscience.

“This suggests that women are not only more caring and altruistic than men; they may also be more virtuous,” Professor Steare, an analyst, was quoted as saying in the report.

Steare also pointed out that homemakers and those working in healthcare, charity, the arts and the media tend to have female-shaped ethical profiles, with higher levels of social and principled conscience compared with rules compliance.

The survey, conducted by Roger Steare from Cass Business School, showed that the way in which we make ethical decisions changes as we age. As children, we merely abide by the rules; as we grow old, we start to consider the feelings of others and what we believe to be fair.

The transition from moral infancy to maturity is late, however at about the age of 33, the report said. Yet our moral development continues well into our 50s, a finding that caused Professor Steare to note: “Organisations that fail to retain the wisdom and good thinking of older workers are placing themselves at a serious commercial disadvantage.” It suggested that beyond the age of 60 one tends to regress slightly, perhaps as we become more dependent on others and the rules they impose. The ethical profile of the retired people surveyed revealed a “Victor Meldrew mentality” with a very high-principled conscience but low rules compliance, the report said.

Average household heating fuel costs this winter will be 15 percent higher than last year, with heating oil and natural gas users taking the biggest hit due to more expensive crude oil and colder weather than last winter, the government’s top energy forecasting agency said Tuesday.

The cost to heat a U.S. home this winter will average $1,137 which would be up from $986 last year, the Energy Information Administration said in its latest winter forecast.

Heating oil bills for the heating season, which runs from October through March, will be up 23 percent at $2,388. The retail price for heating oil should be $3.89 a gallon, up from $3.31 last winter.

“The projected increase is consistent with higher crude oil prices and projections of lower distillate inventories than last year going into the heating season,” the EIA said.

Households that use natural gas will see an 18 percent jump in heating costs to $1,010, the agency said.

Propane users will see their winter bills rise 11 percent to $1,861 and the nearly one-third of U.S. households that rely on electricity for heat will pay 10 percent more at $947 for the season.