Too young to withstand the shock

Mizan and Masum are cousins: too young to understand what took away their mothers late Saturday night.
Mizan, 11 months old, and Masum, 18 months old, are now too exhausted to cry for their mothers. They were leaning against their fathers' shoulders like statues.
Both depended on mother's milk.
Almost a week had gone by since their mothers went to work at Tazreen Fashions factory in Ashulia and did not return.
Mizan's mother Mitu's body was lined up among other bodies at Nishchintapur Primary School ground Sunday morning while Masum's mother Mahfuza is missing.
Mahfuza is presumed to be among the 53 dead whose bodies were charred beyond recognition. The unidentified were buried in Jurain graveyard.
Mitu and Mahfuza had been working at Tazreen for the last two years. They married Saddam Hossain and Abdul Jabbar, brothers.
The widowers were wandering from one end to the other of Nishchintapur village yesterday looking blankly and holding their sons close to their chests.
Ruins and wreckage of the burnt factory are what they now roam around in gloom and despair in search for help.
"We do not know how we will lead the rest of our lives with the motherless kids," said Saddam, "We have to work for survival without anyone to take care of our poor sons."
The brothers came from Bhurungamari of Kurigram looking for livelihoods in the capital more than half a decade ago and got jobs as garment workers in Nishchintapur of Ashulia on the outskirts of the capital.
Jabbar married Mahfuza around six years ago while Saddam took Mitu as wife five years ago. They had been living in the same neighbourhood ever since.
"My son is missing his mother and has stopped eating…he refuses to go to anyone else," said Saddam, adding, "I am now penniless… I had to spend all my money to take my wife's body to Rangpur for burial…I can't afford to feed him."
"I can neither leave my son with anyone nor can I go to work," said Saddam, who works at a nearby garment factory.
Jabbar said his son too has stopped eating as Mahfuza used to feed her son and play with him during breaks while at work.
"What do we do now?" he said.
At least 111 garments workers perished at the factory Saturday night in the worst industrial fire in the country.

RMG fire safety largely ignored 15 fire service teams begin countrywide inspection to find out ill-equipped factories

The government yesterday launched a nationwide drive to identify readymade garment factories with dismal safety system, five days into the nation's deadliest industrial blaze in Ashulia.
Fifteen teams from fire service inspected 73 garment factories in Ashulia and found that one-third of the factories did not have sufficient fire safety measures and security for workers.
The issue of workers' safety in factories has come up strongly following the devastating fire that killed at least 111 workers at Tazreen Fashions in Ashulia on November 24.
It was found that the factory neither had any emergency exits nor adequate fire safety measures. And fire-fighting equipment on its different floors had not been used during the fire accident.
Moreover, the eight-storey factory had the permission to have only three floors.
The teams comprised of 70 officials would inspect as many factories as possible between November 29 and December 2, said M Abdus Salam, director of Fire Service and Civil Defence (administration and finance), who led the drive with the help of police.
He said they would submit a report to the home ministry on Monday with recommendations for taking punitive measures against factories with dismal safety system.
Salam said they might recommend cancellation of fire service licence of noncompliant factories.
The fire service will then send mobile courts led by executive magistrates to noncompliant factories to penalise them for their failure to ensure workers' safety.
Salam said they did not find any factory without fire safety system, but many of the factories did not fully comply with the directives of fire service.
Those factories did not organise monthly fire drill or arrange training for workers and staff. Fire extinguishers were not even refilled in many factories, he said.
The 15 teams are asked to inspect at least five factories a day.
During the drive, they checked whether the factories had adequate fire-fighting equipment, emergency fire exits and evacuation arrangements, and if they trained workers to tackle fire incidents.
Salam said his team inspected five factories in Zirabo and found that two factories -- Shapr Dyeing and Printing Industries Ltd and Loresk Fashions Ltd -- did not have adequate fire-fighting equipment.
The validity of fire-fighting equipment at the two factories had expired and the workers had not been given training to use them, he said.
Sources said the owners and officials of the two apparel plants had fled their factories sensing the presence of the inspection team.
"We did not find them in their factories," said Salam.
Mokter Hossain, deputy director of the Industrial Police in Ashulia, said they accompanied the fire service teams to the factories.
In the meantime, a committee probing Saturday's fire incident found that Abdur Razzak, production manager at Tazreen Fashions, had been the main culprit for so many deaths in the deadly blaze.
"Though the fire alarm went off, the production manager did not allow the workers to get out of the factory," said Salam, also member of the probe committee formed by the home ministry.
In their statements, the survivors of the fire alleged that Razzak had misled the workers saying it was a regular drill, not a fire incident.
"As a result, the workers could not get out on time and got trapped in the fire," said Salam.
He also said the team was yet to talk to the factory owner and officials, as they were not available.
Also, the labour and employment ministry had moved to form a taskforce to supervise safety measures in garment factories, labour secretary Mikail Shipar told a parliamentary body.
“The taskforce will be composed of representatives from the government, garment owners and workers and headed by the minister or the state minister,” Mikail told reporters after a meeting of the parliamentary standing committee on the labour and employment ministry.
He said the taskforce would visit at least 20 factories every month to see if the plants were complying with safety regulations.
The labour secretary also said the labour directorate on November 27 filed cases with labour courts against Delowar Hossain, managing director of Tazreen Fashions.
“The owner simply cannot shirk his responsibility,” Mikail said.
Israfil Alam, chief of the parliamentary body, told reporters that the committee had recommended stern actions against those responsible for the deadly fire.
The lawmaker said the committee did not want to make any comments pointing fingers to any people. “It is under investigation and we believe the truth will come out through investigation.”
Meeting sources said the committee members were annoyed by the absence of Labour Minister Rajiuddin Ahmed Raju and State Minister Monnujan Sufian.
AHM Anwar Pasha, executive magistrate of Dhaka district, said if a factory does not have any fire-fighting equipment then its owner could be sent to jail for six months to three years along with fines under the Prevention and Extinguishment of Fire Act 2003.
If a factory with fire-fighting gears fails to use the equipment in case of fire its owner will face jail up to six months along with fine, Anwar Pasha told The Daily Star.
Queried about his department's failure to inspect every factory seeking renewal of fire licence, fire service Director Abdus Salam said, "It's not possible for our officials to ensure proper inspection at every factory during renewal of fire licence, as the number of inspectors is very poor compared to that of factories."
Five days into the deadly fire at Tazreen Fashions, the garment makers yesterday decided to form a high-powered committee to ensure upgrade of fire safety apparatus at RMG production units.
Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association said it would soon form a taskforce and set a time limit for the garment owners to upgrade fire safety measures at their factories.
“If the owners do not upgrade fire safety measures, the taskforce will shut down their plants,” BGMEA President Shafiul Islam Mohiuddin said.
Meanwhile, some 300 people among who were university students, journalists and artists joined a protest outside the BGMEA building in the city's Karwan Bazar yesterday to demand justice for the victims of the fire incident.

US birth rate falls to record low

The US birth rate hit a record low last year, led by the decline in child-bearing among foreign-born women, according to a Pew study.
The overall US birth rate decreased by 8% between 2007-10, and by 6% among US-born women, found the data.
The rate fell sharpest for those hardest hit by the recession: 14% among foreign-born women and 23% among Mexican immigrant women in particular.
The 2011 rate was the lowest since 1920, when such records began.
Previous research by Pew concluded that states with the largest economic downturn from 2007-08, were most likely to have experienced fertility declines.
Foreign and US-born Hispanic women have experienced the largest fall in household wealth since 2007.
But increased access to contraception for Latino women may also be playing a part in the falling birth rate, according to the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health.
Foreign-born mothers continue to give birth to a disproportionate share of the nation's newborns.
Last year there were 3.95 million total US births, according to the preliminary data from Pew Research Center.
The overall US birth rate was 63.2 per 1,000 women of child-bearing age.
It peaked in 1957 during the Baby Boom years, reaching 122.7 per 1,000 women.

UN upgrades Palestinians' status

The UN General Assembly has voted to grant the Palestinians non-member observer state status - a move strongly opposed by Israel and the US.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told the assembly the vote was the "last chance to save the two-state solution" with Israel.
Israel's envoy to the UN said the bid pushed peace process "backwards", while the US said the move was "unfortunate".
The assembly voted 138-9 in favour, with 41 nations abstaining.
Hundreds of Palestinians celebrated on the streets of Ramallah, in the West Bank, after the result was announced.
'Birth certificate'
"Sixty-five years ago on this day, the United Nations General Assembly adopted resolution 181, which partitioned the land of historic Palestine into two states and became the birth certificate for Israel," Mr Abbas said shortly before the vote in New York.
"The General Assembly is called upon today to issue a birth certificate of the reality of the State of Palestine," he said.
The Israeli ambassador to the UN, Ron Prosor, said "the only way to reach peace is through agreements" between the parties, not at the UN.
"No decision by the UN can break the 4,000-year-old bond between the people of Israel and the land of Israel," he said.
Opponents of the bid say a Palestinian state should emerge only out of bilateral negotiations, as set out in the 1993 Oslo peace accords under which the Palestinian Authority was established.
Speaking after the vote, the US ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, urged the Palestinians and Israel to resume direct peace talks and warned against unilateral actions.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the vote "unfortunate and counter-productive", saying it put more obstacles on the path to peace.
"By going to the UN, the Palestinians have violated the agreements with Israel and Israel will act accordingly," said the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Twitter.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also called for more talks, saying the resolution underscored the need to resume meaningful peace negotiations.
The UK abstained from the vote, as did Germany. The Czech Republic, the Marshall Islands and Panama were among the nations voting with the US and Israel.
In the West Bank, crowds celebrated the vote by waving flags and chanting "God is great!"
"For the first time, there will be a state called Palestine, with the recognition of the entire world," Amir Hamdan was quoted as saying by the Associated Press news agency.
"Today the world will hear our voice," he added.
Symbolic milestone
The Palestinians are seeking UN recognition of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, the lands Israel captured in 1967.
While the move is seen as a symbolic milestone in Palestinian ambitions for statehood, the "Yes" vote will also have a practical diplomatic effect, says the BBC's Barbara Plett, at the UN.
It would allow the Palestinians to participate in debates at the UN and improve their chances of joining UN agencies and bodies like the International Criminal Court.
Last year, Mr Abbas asked the UN Security Council to admit the Palestinians as a member state, but that was opposed by the US.
Mr Abbas was much criticised by many Palestinians for remaining on the sidelines of the conflict earlier this month in Gaza and efforts to achieve a ceasefire with Israel.
His Fatah movement, based in the West Bank, is deeply split from the militant Hamas movement which governs Gaza.
Gaza's Prime Minister Ismael Haniyeh said in a statement sent to the BBC that Hamas' "support for the UN bid is based on the 'rule of non-recognition of the occupier'... and the right of Palestinians to return to their homeland".

Meherpur transport owner leader shot dead

Unidentified criminals shot dead a joint secretary of Meherpur district bus owners' association at Gangni upazila of Meherpur Thursday night.
Sahiduzzaman Beltu, 40, was also an executive member of Gangni upazila Awami League unit, reports our Khustia correspondent.
In protest of the killing, the ruling party activists in Gangni put barricade on Kushtia-Meherpur highway on Friday.
Mizanur Rahman, officer-in-charge (OC) of Gangni Police Station said a group of seven to eight criminals went to Sahiduzzaman's two-storey building at Banumdi bazaar area around 9:15pm.
The criminals called Sahiduzzaman from the road through cell phone, said the OC quoting Sahiduzzaman’s servant Biplob.
The OC said Sahiduzzaman must have known the miscreants as he came out and took them in his house.
At one stage of talking, one of the criminals opened fire on Sahiduzzaman. He died on the spot, the OC added.
None of the Sahiduzzaman's family member was in the house during the incident.

BSF kills cattle trader in Lalmonirhat

Indian Border Security Force (BSF) shot dead a cattle trader at Gotamari border in Hatibandha upazila of Lalmonirhat Thursday evening.
The BSF members also took away the body, reports our Lalmonirhat correspondent.
The deceased was an Indian citizen, BSF informed the message to BGB
around 10:30 am on Friday morning, BGB official said.
Sources in the Gotamari Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) camp said the BSF personnel shot the man around 11:30pm when he and four other cattle traders went Bangladesh territory and was returning with a consignment of cattle through the border.
One of the cattle traders was shot dead by BSF, while rest other traders ran away from the spot.
Maj Ruhul Amin, the second in-command of BGB-31 confirmed the killing.

Space Tramp Free-floating planet

Not all planets are content to dutifully circle a star. A new rogue planet has been spied roaming free among a pack of young stars about 115 to 160 light-years from Earth.
It's not a planet in the conventional sense, because it doesn't orbit a star. Yet it's between four and seven times the mass of Jupiter, well within planetary size range. The object appears to be a young, cold planet in a cluster of about 30 stars moving together called AB Doradus, astronomers report in the December Astronomy & Astrophysics. The free-floating planet is the closest to Earth yet discovered, scientists say.
“It's quite a nice discovery probably the clearest example of a planetary mass object that's very young like this,” says astrophysicist Philip Lucas of the University of Hertfordshire in England, who was not involved with the study.
Other potential free-floating planets have been detected before, but their ages weren't as well known. Astronomers couldn't be sure the objects were planets and not brown dwarfs, failed stars too small to sustain fusion reactions in their cores.
The newfound object, dubbed CFBDSIR2149, lies in the southern constellation Dorado. Scientists estimate the planet is between 20 million and 200 million years old, based on the assumption that it was formed around the same time as the stars that it accompanies.

It's There Too Carbon at the core

A tiny fraction of carbon helps account for the oddly light density of Earth's iron core, a new computer simulation finds.
Though the core is only 0.1 percent to 0.8 percent carbon, the iron ball is the largest reservoir of carbon on the planet, the study authors said.
An impenetrable 1,790 miles (2,890 kilometers) below the planet's surface, the core is a compelling mystery. The density of pure iron is heavier than the core's observed density, which is calculated from seismic and laboratory studies.
Even though the bulk of the core is iron, scientists have surmised it must contain a small amount of lighter elements such as oxygen and sulfur. Using computer simulations, researchers from the University of California, Davis, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing tested whether Earth's most common element, carbon, also hides in the core.
"We knew the density of the core, and we knew that metal iron and nickel alone couldn't account for that density," said Qing-Zhu Yin, UC Davis geology professor and study co-author. "You need something lighter."
Previous estimates of the carbon content of the core have differed by a factor of 20, Yin wrote in the study.
In the computer model, carbon was one of the major missing light element candidates; others included silicon, oxygen, phosphorus, magnesium, hydrogen and nitrogen. An accurate knowledge of carbon's influence can help pinpoint the exact timing of the core's formation.

Did You Know? What is the Rio Hamza?

t is name of an underground river that flows 4 Kilometres below the Amazon.
THE Amazon basin covers more than 7 million square kilometres in South America and is one of the biggest and most impressive river systems in the world. But it turns out that - until now - we have only known half the story.
Brazilian scientists have found a new river in the basin - around four kilometres underneath the Amazon River. The Rio Hamza, named after the head of the team of researchers who found the groundwater flow, appears to be as long as the Amazon but up to hundreds of times wider.

Share on

---

Lust For Warmth Cozy penguin huddle

Greed is good for penguins that huddle together to avoid Antarctica's icy weather.
According to a new study, penguin groups can maximize everyone's heat when individual birds act selfishly, huddling in ways that keep them toastiest.
"Even if penguins are only selfish, only trying to find the best spot for themselves and not thinking about their community, there is still equality in the amount of time that each penguin spends exposed to the wind," study researcher Francois Blanchette, a mathematician at the University of California, Merced, who normally studies fluid dynamics, said in a statement.

Source: Live Science

Light & Genetics Neurons from Stem Cell

Researchers and patients look forward to the day when stem cells might be used to replace dying brain cells in Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative conditions. Scientists are currently able to make neurons and other brain cells from stem cells, but getting these neurons to properly function when transplanted to the host has proven to be more difficult. Now, researchers at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute have found a way to stimulate stem cell-derived neurons to direct cognitive function after transplantation to an existing neural network.
The study was published November 7 in the Journal of Neuroscience.
"We showed for the first time that embryonic stem cells that we've programmed to become neurons can integrate into existing brain circuits and fire patterns of electrical activity that are critical for consciousness and neural network activity," said Stuart A. Lipton, M.D., Ph.D., senior author of the study. Lipton is director of Sanford-Burnham's Del E. Webb Neuroscience, Aging, and Stem Cell Research Center and a clinical neurologist.
The trick turned out to be light. Lipton and his team -- including Juan Piña-Crespo, Ph.D., D.V.M., Maria Talantova, M.D., Ph.D., and other colleagues at Sanford-Burnham and Stanford University -- transplanted human stem cell-derived neurons into a rodent hippocampus, the brain's information-processing center. Then they specifically activated the transplanted neurons with optogenetic stimulation, a relatively new technique that combines light and genetics to precisely control cellular behavior in living tissues or animals.

Source: Science Daily

Nano Converter Power from light and heat

A University of Texas at Arlington physics professor has helped create a hybrid nanomaterial that can be used to convert light and thermal energy into electrical current, surpassing earlier methods that used either light or thermal energy, but not both.
Working with Louisiana Tech University assistant professor Long Que, UT Arlington associate physics professor Wei Chen and graduate students Santana Bala Lakshmanan and Chang Yang synthesized a combination of copper sulfide nanoparticles and single-walled carbon nanotubes.
The team used the nanomaterial to build a prototype thermoelectric generator that they hope can eventually produce milliwatts of power. Paired with microchips, the technology could be used in devices such as self-powering sensors, low-power electronic devices and implantable biomedical micro-devices, Chen said.
"If we can convert both light and heat to electricity, the potential is huge for energy production," Chen said. "By increasing the number of the micro-devices on a chip, this technology might offer a new and efficient platform to complement or even replace current solar cell technology."
In lab tests, the new thin-film structure showed increases by as much at 80 percent in light absorption when compared to single-walled nanotube thin-film devices alone, making it a more efficient generator.
Copper sulfide is also less expensive and more environment-friendly than the noble metals used in similar hybrids.
In October, the journal Nanotechnology published a paper on the work called "Optical thermal response of single-walled carbon nanotube-copper sulfide nanoparticle hybrid nanomaterials." In it, researchers also say also found that they could enhance the thermal and optical switching effects of the hybrid nanomaterial as much as ten times by using asymmetric illumination, rather than symmetric illumination.
Coauthors on the Nanotech-nology paper from Louisiana Tech include Yi-Hsuan Tseng, Yuan He and Que, all of the school's Institute for Micromanufacturing.
"Dr. Chen's research with nanomaterials is an important advancement with the potential for far-reaching applications," said Pamela Jansma, dean of the UT Arlington College of Science. "This is the kind of work that demonstrates the value of a research university in North Texas and beyond."
Chen is currently receiving funding from the U.S. Department of Defense to develop nanoparticle self-lighting photodynamic therapy for use against breast and prostate cancers. In 2010, he was the first to publish results in the journal Nanomedicine demonstrating that near infrared light could be used to heat copper sulfide nanoparticles for photothermal therapy in cancer treatment, which destroys cancer cells with heat between 41 and 45 degrees Celsius.
Next month, the Journal of Biomedical Nanotechnology will publish Chen's work successfully coupling gold nanoparticles with the copper sulfide nanoparticles for the photothermal therapy. Such a material would be less costly and potentially more effective than using gold particles alone, Chen said.

Technicolor research and development centre

An engineer performs a demonstration of a drone used to previsualise camera effects during the press conference inaugurating the new Technicolor research and development centre in Cesson-Sevigne near the central western city of Rennes in France on November 22. Photo: AFP

Nokia litigates against Blackberry-maker over patents

Young IT professionals, with the help of sanitation experts will go for an intensive brainstorming and programming marathon session to develop innovative IT applications to tackle the poverty in Bangladesh.
More than 150 participants, mostly IT experts and university students have already registered to participate in the two-day Sanitation Hackathon from November 30, 2012 at the Ruposhi Bangla hotel in Dhaka.
The event is being organised by Water and Sanitation Program of the World Bank.
This intensive coding marathon is aimed at finding innovative IT solutions to address the lack of access to basic sanitation by 2.6 billion people in the world. The Sanitation Hackathon follows last year's Water Hackathon which was organised by the World Bank.
The overall goal of the Sanitation Hackathon is to form a community of IT professionals and sanitation experts that will collaborate in future to address challenges in the sanitation sector.
Lack of access to basic sanitation causes the death of approximately 4,000 children a day and billions of dollars in economic losses. Using new technology like data maps, mobile games, SMS services, crowd sourcing and opening up data can also help to solve various other development problems.
Registration form and details are available at its website www.hackathonbd.com.
The Sanitation Hackathon will take place simultaneously on the same
weekend in Lahore, Jakarta, Cape
Town, Dakar, Lima, Manila, Dar es Salaam, Pune, various locations in
North America, Hartford, Helsinki and London.

Samsung Galaxy products infringe Apple patent: Dutch court

A Dutch court ruled on Wednesday that some of Samsung Electronics' Galaxy smartphones and tablets infringe an Apple patent in the latest round of the two firms' worldwide battle.
The court ordered Samsung Electronics to pay Apple damages, determined by how much profit it has made from the sales.
The patent dispute concerns the Android operating system versions 2.2.1 to 3.0 used on Samsung's Galaxy tablets and smartphones, the court said.
Samsung and Apple, the world's top two smartphone makers, are locked in patent disputes in at least ten countries as they vie to dominate the lucrative mobile market and win over customers with their latest gadgets.
Samsung, the world's top maker of smartphones, infringed Apple patents to make its smartphones and tablets, a US trade panel judge said in a preliminary decision issued last month.
Samsung won a court case last month in the Netherlands, when a Dutch court ruled the company did not infringe an Apple patent by using certain multi-touch techniques on some of the Samsung Galaxy smartphones and tablet computers.

Microsoft CEO defends its innovation record, financial results

Microsoft Corp Chief Executive Steve Ballmer defended his company's record on innovation and financial performance at the annual shareholders' meeting, but conceded that he should have moved faster to get into the booming tablet market dominated by Apple Inc's iPad.
Bill Gates, co-founder and now chairman of the world's largest software company, was one of the first to champion tablet-sized devices more than 10 years ago, but Microsoft failed to come up with a product that worked as well as the iPad. Gates was silent throughout the meeting, attended by about 450 shareholders.
"We're innovating on the seam between software and hardware," said Ballmer, asked why his company had fallen behind rival Apple. "Maybe we should have done that earlier."
A month ago, Microsoft launched the Surface tablet - its first own-brand computer - but has not revealed sales figures.
In the tablet market, "we see nothing but a sea of upside," Ballmer said, an acknowledgement that until now Microsoft has effectively had zero presence in the tablet market.
"I feel pretty good about our level of innovation," he added.
Ballmer said smartphones running Microsoft's new Windows software were selling four times as much as they did at this time last year. Microsoft has never given sales numbers of Windows phones, primarily made by Nokia, Samsung and HTC.
Windows currently has 2 to 4 percent of the global smartphone market, according to various independent data providers. Its overall market share will not likely grow in proportion to its own sales, given that sales of other smartphones - mostly running Google's Android system - are also growing quickly.
Ballmer, flanked by Gates and Chief Financial Officer Peter Klein, was asked by several shareholders to explain Microsoft's lackluster share price, which has been stuck for a decade, and has been outperformed by Apple and Google Inc stock in recent years."I understand your comment," he told one shareholder. He went on to explain that Microsoft had "done a phenomenal job of driving product volumes" and was focusing on profiting from that growth.
He suggested that whether investors recognized that value at any given time was out of his hands.
"The stock market's kind of a funny thing," he said, adding that Microsoft had handed back $10 billion in dividends and share buybacks to investors in the last fiscal year.
Several shareholders at the meeting in Bellevue, an upscale suburb of Seattle, complimented the executives on how they had grown and managed the company.
Microsoft's shares rose almost 18 percent during fiscal 2012, which ended in June of this year, compared with a 3 percent rise in the Standard & Poor's 500.
Despite such fluctuations, Microsoft's shares stand around the same level they did 10 years ago.

Facebook nixes rumours on copyright shift

Facebook is telling its users to ignore rumors spreading on the social network that they need to post a statement to protect their copyrights of their comments and other materials.
"There is a rumor circulating that Facebook is making a change related to ownership of users' information or the content they post to the site," Facebook said in a "fact check" notice on its website Monday.
"This is false. Anyone who uses Facebook owns and controls the content and information they post, as stated in our terms. They control how that content and information is shared. That is our policy, and it always has been."
The notice came after the copyright notice went viral -- suggesting that a posted statement was needed to protect copyrights on Facebook. The hoax had been around in the past but resurfaced after Facebook announced changes to its privacy policies last week.
Users began repeating these posts, which stated, "In response to the new Facebook guidelines I hereby declare that my
copyright is attached to all of my personal details, illustrations, comics, paintings,
professional photos and videos, etc...
This will place them under protection of copyright laws."
Warnings about the so-called "chain letter hoax" were issued as far back as June from the security firm Sophos and others.
And noted technology blogger Robert Scoble poured scorn Monday on those falling for the trick, saying on his Facebook page: "If you are posting about copyright on Facebook and you haven't done your research you are an idiot."

Neutrino - gate keeper of the Universe

Out of the hundreds of elementary particles floating around in the Universe, surprisingly the elusive neutrino holds clues to some of the most profound questions in astronomy. These chargeless, near-massless, structureless particles zipping around at nearly the speed of light have lately been in the headlines for violating the cosmic speed limit of 300,000 kilometers per second. Neutrinos (Italian for “little neutral ones”) come in three “flavors”: electron neutrino, muon neutrino, and tau neutrino.
The number of neutrinos moving freely throughout the Universe since the Big Bang is staggering, about 300 million in every cubic meter. The Sun and supernovae (exploding stars that have reached the end of their life) are the primary sources of neutrinos reaching us. Every second over 500 trillion solar neutrinos enter every square meter of the Earth's surface exposed to the Sun. By the time you finish reading this paragraph, about trillion neutrinos will pass through your body. But don't panic, they are inert and harmless; just “little bits of spin-energy that have got detached,” according to astrophysicist Arthur Eddington.
Why should we care about these furtive particles? Strange as it may seem, the intrinsic properties of neutrinos make them an influential player in the field of cosmology. They carry a wealth of information of great cosmic significance, about the high-energy events that produced them, deep secrets of the cosmos from distant galaxies and the remote past. They are essential in understanding what happened in the briefest moments after the Big Bang. They can tell us why the Universe contains more matter than antimatter. If they have mass, even if it is miniscule, it will be the dominant form of matter in the Universe.
Neutrinos act as telescopes and allow us to take a peek into the interior of the Sun. They are critical in understanding stellar evolution and dynamics of supernovae where heavy elements are produced. They are living witnesses of star birth and their violent death. Just like red shift and cosmic microwave background radiation, neutrinos have a tale to tell about the Universe of which they are part. Detection of neutrinos, therefore, is crucial if we want to have a handle on all of these and other aspects of cosmology.
It is notoriously difficult to detect these snippets; it is like looking for a needle in a giant haystack. Absence of charge makes them unresponsive to electromagnetic interaction. Lack of internal structure (no quarks) prohibits them from taking part in strong interaction. They cut through the Earth unhindered and move off to outer space. Only a slab of lead several light years thick will be able to stop these ephemeral particles. They announce their presence only through weak interaction associated with the radioactive break-up of a nucleus.
Occasionally neutrinos do interact with matter making it possible to capture a few of them if the detectors are large enough. Also known as “neutrino telescope,” the detector is a huge tank filled with large amount of liquid such as chlorine-rich cleaning fluid or heavy water. The liquid increases the chances for particle interaction. The detectors must be placed deep underground, beneath a mountain or inside a mine, so that only neutrinos can reach them. All other particles coming from outer space that could befuddle the detectors are blocked by the thick layers of overlying rocks.
The earliest detector built in 1967 is buried nearly a mile deep in a gold mine at Homestake, South Dakota. It was expected that out of the trillions of neutrinos that will reach the detector, the capture rate would be at least one per day. After more than two decades, it was found that on the average it trapped only one neutrino every three days. A more recent detector buried in a nickel mine in Sudbury, Canada revealed that the neutrinos on their way to the Earth can change flavor. The Homestake detector was tuned for only one flavor, the electron neutrino; hence the low count rate.
Clearly, the problem of detecting neutrinos is of immense proportions. We still have “miles to go” before we can say we are on the verge of solving the neutrino puzzle. However, the detection in 1987 of more than the expected number of neutrinos from a supernova explosion 168,000 light years away by underground telescopes in Japan and Ohio has infused new life into neutrino physics. Physicists are now more than ever inspired to build some of the most sophisticated detectors to find and unmask the guise of this gate keeper of the Universe.

The mobile computer boom

Analysts and industry pundits forecast that the notebook market, which has been growing faster than the desktop market for the past three years, is expected to overtake the desktop market by Q4 FY2011-12. A fall in prices, large deals from governments and institutions, and demand from consumers and sectors such as education are expected to help the notebook numbers.
According to both IDC and Gartner, Q3 FY2010-11 saw notebook volumes rise, and for the first time a million-plus notebooks were sold in India in a single quarter. The research agencies put the notebook numbers at around 1.11 million. As per Gartner, desktops grew by 5 percent in Q3 FY2010-11 whereas notebooks grew by 41 percent as compared to the same quarter last year.
“The last quarter has been historic in many ways,” states Gopal Swaminathan, Director, Sales and Marketing, Intel India. “I remember in 2006 we were striving hard to do a million mobile processors in India for the entire year. The market has grown nearly four times for notebooks. The demand is driven by all sectors and a very buoyant consumer market, which is preferring mobile computers.”
Enterprises in India, both small and big, are in the midst of a technology refresh cycle. “Notebook numbers are helped by the fact that many SMB and enterprise entities are replacing their desktops with notebooks,” says Rajeev Mehta, MD, Zest Systems, Delhi.

Entry-level notebook prices have dropped below the Rs. 25,000 mark; this has helped break the ice with new customers. Acer, which has driven new price-points in notebooks for nearly a decade, created a new price bracket of Rs. 20,000 with its e-machines brand. Explains S Rajendran, CMO, Acer India, “For every thousand-rupee bracket in the sub-Rs. 25,000 market, you are creating a new set of aspirants who want to buy a computer, or who are willing to buy a notebook instead of a desktop.”
The drop in notebook prices has been helped by the drop in the prices of the building blocks that make a notebook. According to Display Research, which tracks key components such as LCD screens, the average price difference between mobile and desktop TFT screens was down to 2 percent in Q2 FY2010-11 from around 16 percent in 2008. Even in hard disk drives and memory, the price difference is less than 20 percent now—three years ago it used to be nearly double. “It’s simple. With notebook volumes growing, the prices of the components are also bound to come down,” points out Rajesh Khurana, Country Manager, India and Saarc, Seagate.
All this has resulted in a noticeable change in a number of large government tenders; these were traditionally for desktops, or notebooks plus desktops, but now they are mostly for notebooks. For example, the Kerala IT Schools tender, which was originally drafted for 20,000 notebooks and 50,000 desktops, was changed to an all-notebook order. The first tender for 15,000 netbooks and 12,000 notebooks was opened in early November. The next round is for 50,000 notebooks, and is expected to be completed around early February 2011.
Similarly, 17 states have earmarked purchases that will end up in the sale of almost 6,00,000 notebooks to the government and education sectors over the next nine months.
Credit needs to be given to the PC vendors who tried to grow the market by introducing niche products and models targeting specific user communities. In addition, vendors have been positioning notebooks as a fashion accessory, and investing in promotional campaigns with fashion brands and events. HP was a sponsor of Miss India 2010, and Dell launched a series of notebooks with shades matching the colors of nail-polish maker OPI.
“The launch of multi-color models complemented by aggressive promotions and discounted bundling schemes augmented consumer PC spend, especially in the portables segment,” comments Sumanta Mukherjee, Lead PC Analyst, IDC India. “Vendors have been quick to introduce new models that appeal to a young generation of PC buyers who are purchasing notebooks.”
Despite the home desktop market getting a new lease of life with the introduction of all-in-one PCs a year back, the volumes are said to be far from inspiring. Vendors have noted that notebooks are being purchased in place of the traditional multimedia home desktop. “Many first-time buyers are comfortable buying notebooks, especially young urban couples who are sharing a notebook at home,” says Amar Babu, Managing Director, Lenovo India.
Vishal Tripathi, Principal Research Analyst, Gartner India, predicts that in the second half of 2011 the Indian PC market will witness more notebooks being shipped than desktops. “In 2010, the ratio between notebooks and desktops for the first two quarters was 34:66; by Q3 FY2010-11 it had become 40:60. In India many first-time buyers are buying a notebook as their first PC. With value products and competitive prices, vendors are able to meet the expectations of price-sensitive buyers, and this is accelerating the growth of notebooks.”

Arafat's remains exhumed

The remains of Yasser Arafat have been exhumed, Palestinian officials say, as part of an investigation into how the Palestinian leader died.
Swiss, French and Russian experts will take samples to establish whether his death, at a military hospital in Paris in 2004, was the result of poisoning.
France began a murder inquiry in August after Swiss experts found radioactive polonium-210 on his personal effects.
Arafat's medical records say he had a stroke resulting from a blood disorder.
His widow, Suha, objected to a post-mortem at the time, but asked the Palestinian Authority to permit the exhumation "to reveal the truth".
Sealed tomb
Arafat's body lay in a stone-clad mausoleum inside the Muqataa presidential compound in the West Bank city of Ramallah. The mausoleum was sealed off earlier this month.
Palestinian officials told the Associated Press that the remains were taken from the mausoleum to a nearby mosque, so that Palestinian doctors could take samples from the bones.
With the body removed from the tomb, the scientists will each take samples and then go to their respective countries to carry out tests for polonium-210 and possibly other lethal substances.
It is believed that the investigation could take several months.
Before the exhumation, the head of the Palestinian committee investigating Arafat's death, Tawfik al-Tirawi, said no journalists would be allowed to observe the exhumation.
"Because [of the] sanctity of the symbol and the sanctity of this event, [the exhumation] should not be permitted to be in front of the media," the former Palestinian intelligence chief said.
A reburial ceremony, with full military honours, is expected to take place later on Tuesday.
Many Palestinians continue to believe Arafat was poisoned by Israel, which saw Arafat as an obstacle to peace and had put him under house arrest. Israel has strongly denied any involvement.
TV documentary
Arafat, who led the Palestine Liberation Organisation for 35 years and became the first president of the Palestinian Authority in 1996, fell violently ill in October 2004 inside the Muqataa.
Two weeks later he was flown to a French military hospital in Paris, where he died on 11 November 2004, aged 75.
In 2005, the New York Times obtained a copy of Arafat's medical records, which it said showed he died of a massive haemorrhagic stroke that resulted from a bleeding disorder caused by an unknown infection.
Independent experts who reviewed the records told the paper that it was highly unlikely that he had been poisoned.
A murder inquiry was launched by French prosecutors in August after an investigation by al-Jazeera TV, working with scientists at the Institute of Radiation Physics (IRA) at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland, found "significant" traces of polonium-210 present in samples taken from Arafat's personal effects, including his trademark keffiyeh headdress.
In some cases, the elevated levels were 10 times higher than those on control subjects, and most of the polonium could not have come from natural sources, the scientists said.
But the institute also said that Arafat's symptoms - as described in his medical records - were not consistent with polonium poisoning.
The former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko died of exposure to polonium-210 in London in 2006. The UK authorities have accused Andrei Lugovoi, an ex-KGB officer, of poisoning his tea.

Zia Trust Graft Case: Lawyer warned over time petition

A Dhaka court on Tuesday warned BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia’s lawyer saying that they would not be given any more time in Zia Charitable Trust graft case.
Judge Md Zahirul Haque of Senior Special Judge's Court warned lawyer Masud Ahmed Talukder as he came up with time petition for eighth time.
Earlier, Khaleda also the opposition leader in Parliament, skipped the court for seventh times showing different reasons.
The court also fixed January 1 for the next hearing of the case as the lawyer told the court that they would not file any more time petition in future.
Today the court was scheduled to decide whether the charges against Khaleda and three others will be taken into congnisance in the case.
The other accused are Harris Chowdhury, former political secretary of Khaleda; Ziaul Islam Munna, assistant private secretary (APS) of Harris; and Monirul Islam Khan, APS of former Dhaka city mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka.
Earlier on October 1, another court fixed the date for passing an order on whether it will accept charges against Khaleda Zia and three others in the case.
On August 8, 2011, the Anti-Corruption Commission filed the case with Tejgaon Police Station, accusing four people including Khaleda, for abusing power in raising funds from unknown sources for the trust.
Among the accused, Harris is on the run.

Aggrieved workers block highway for 30 minutes

The readymade garment workers who lost 111 colleagues and relatives during Saturday's fire, blocked the Dhaka-Tangail highway for half an hour since Tuesday morning.
The workers have been demanding the punishment of the owners of Tazreen Fashion Ltd, the garment factory, where the tragedy occurred Saturday evening.
Over 1,000 workers carrying black flags under the banner of 'Ghoshbag Garment Workers' sat on the highway around 11:00am when police barred them from going towards the fire-devastated building.
Police resisted the agitating workers at Nishchintapur as Home Minister Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir was visiting Tazreen Fashion Ltd, the scene of the occurrence, where 111 workers died during Saturday's fire.
A heavy traffic jam was instantly created as the demonstration halted traffic movement on the highway, witnesses said.
Traffic movement resumed around 11:30am when police opened the road for the workers after the home minister left the place.
Earlier around 9:45am, the aggrieved workers staged demonstration and brought out processions on Ashulia-Jamgarah road.
At least 57 bodies were charred beyond recognition as the fire raged through the eight-storey factory on Saturday evening.
The 18 units of fire service toiled more than 11 hours to put out the blaze.
The charred bodies were kept at Dhaka Medical College morgue and samples were collected from the bodies for DNA test on Monday.
The unidentified bodies will be buried today at the Jurain graveyard in the capital.

Ensure workers safety, PM tells businessmen

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Tuesday urged the businessmen to ensure the safety of workers while setting up industries and factories.
"When you set up buildings, do not block any waterbody," the PM said adding "The fire that raged though the Ashulia garment factory Saturday evening could not be doused immediately due to absence of any water source near the factory."
She was inaugurating the fifth textile fair 'Texbangla 2012' at Ruposhi Bangla Hotel in the capital.
Bangladesh Textile Mills Association organised the three-day fair.
A number of committees have been formed to investigate the Ashulia garment fire incident that killed 111 workers and the committees were asked to submit their reports immediately, the prime minister said.
"Action will be taken on the basis of those reports," she said.
In her speech, the prime minister said special economic zones will be launched at the seven divisions gradually so that the foreign investors can invest more.
About maritime boundary with Myanmar, she said the government will invite tenders to explore oil and gas in Bay of Bengal soon.
She also hoped that the maritime boundary issue with India will be resolved by 2014.
Finance Minister Abul Mal Abdul Muhith and outgoing president of Federation of Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industries Abul Kalam Azad were, among others, present on the occasion.

Suranjit's APS gets temporary bail

A Dhaka court on Tuesday granted bail to Omar Faruque Talukdar, the sacked assistant private secretary (APS) of former railways minister Suranjit Sengupta till the first day of a vacation court.
The court will go on annual vacation from November 29 till December 31.
Judge Mohammad Zahirul Haque of the Senior Special Judge's Court of Dhaka passed the order after Faruque surrendered before the court seeking bail in the case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).
On April 15, Faruq was sacked and Railway General Manager (East) Yusuf Ali Mridha and Dhaka Division Security Commandant Enamul Huq were suspended in connection with the railwaygate scandal.
Former railways minister Suranjit Sengupta announced this at a press conference five days after the seizure of Tk 70 lakh from the microbus of his APS by BGB members on April 9.
The vehicle was on its way to Suranjit's Jigatola residence in the capital with Faruq, Mridha and Enamul on board, and the amount was reportedly part of the bribe money collected from the prospective job seekers.
Sources had earlier told The Daily Star that the driver, Ali Azam Khan, drove the vehicle into the BGB Pilkhana headquarters having been refused Tk 5 lakh as share of the amount.
The minister's press conference also came hours after Mridha told a two-member probe body in a written statement that he along with Faruq and Enamul was going to Suranjit's house that night.
Earlier on April 11, Faruq deposited Tk 70 lakh in his account with Mercantile Bank's Dhanmondi branch.
Suranjit, who became minister of the newly-formed railway ministry in December last year, has been facing serious criticism over the scam.

Court orders confiscation of Destiny properties

A Dhaka Court on Tuesday ordered the Anti-Corruption Commission to confiscate all the movable and immovable properties of Destiny Group.
Destiny Group Chairman Mohammad Rafiqul Amin, his wife Farah Diba, Destiny 2000 Limited Chairman Mohammad Hossain and all the associate organisation of group including its Tree Plantation Project will come under the order.
Judge Mohammad Zahirul Haque of the Senior Special Judges' Court of Dhaka passed the order after the anti-graft body filed two separate petitions before the court seeking its permission in this regard.
ACC Deputy Director Mozahar Ali Sarder and its Assistant Director Toufiqul Islam filed the petitions.

Food stamp menu ideas for Newark Mayor Cory Booker Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2012/11/21/food-stamp-menu-ideas/#ixzz2DFSJ4xi8

Newark Mayor Cory Booker says he plans on living on food stamps for at least a week after receiving a challenge on Twitter.
Booker is a vegetarian, yet creating a meal on food stamps will still require that he make some lifestyle adjustments--while adding in a dash of creativity.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the average monthly food stamp benefit was $133.26 per person in New Jersey in fiscal year 2011. While he won't have the more expensive meat products to buy, the busy mayor won't be able to purchase convenience foods either.  When you're on food stamps you're not allowed to buy prepared items: no fast food, deli sandwiches, for example.
Based on that, Booker will have have to focus on making meals at home with a pretty limited shopping list. Here are a couple of menu ideas for Newark's mayor as he prepares for his challenge.
Burritos
Burritos are easy to prepare, and stuffed with healthy items like fresh vegetables, beans and rice, they offer a high-protein meal at a minimum cost.   You can add sauteed vegetables, like carrots, onion or bell peppers --or when time permits cook up a little tofu or add in roasted vegetables.
Recipe: Avocado and Bean Burrito
Casseroles
Casseroles are a great way to prepare a balanced meal ahead of time from items that are relatively inexpensive, such as soups, pastas and frozen vegetables.  Best of all, it's one of those meals that keep in the refrigerator until you're ready to eat it again. Be creative and use all major food groups.
Recipe: Cauliflower Casserole
Soup
Soups go a long way on a limited budget. Not only does it warm the body on chilly days, it's another great meal that can be made ahead of time, frozen, and then pulled out again when you're ready to eat it. Add ingredients you purchased for other dishes, like carrots and onions.  Fresh greens, such as kale and spinach can be added during reheating to add a healthy kick.
Recipe: Kale and White Bean Soup
Recipe: Vegetable Bean Soup
French Toast
Being on food stamps doesn't mean denying yourself a treat.  French toast is best made with stale bread, which is always a bargain at the store.  It can be dressed, like our recipe below that calls for Mascarpone cheese, but that can be substituted for cheaper cream cheese or honey-sweetened yogurt.  Don't have maple syrup?  Try sprinkling sugar on fruit slices to add sweetness some sweetness.


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2012/11/21/food-stamp-menu-ideas/#ixzz2DFSJ4xi8

Hezbollah leader warns rockets would rain down on Tel Aviv in future war

BEIRUT –  Lebanon's Hezbollah group would fire thousands of rockets into Israel in any future war and target cities in the country's heartland, the group's leader said Sunday.
Sheik Hassan Nasrallah's warning came days after an eight-day Israeli offensive against Gaza ended with a truce. Nasrallah said Gaza militants had won "a clear victory" against Israel with their rocket bombardment.
Hezbollah, like Hamas and other Gaza militant factions, maintains a rocket arsenal and regularly threatens to use it. It fought an inconclusive 34-day war with the Jewish state in 2006 that left 1,200 Lebanese and 160 Israelis dead.
The Gaza war marked the first use by Palestinian factions of a longer ranged Iranian-made rocket, the Fajr-5. It caused no casualties but did trigger air raid warnings in the heartland cities of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, which, unlike cities closer to the Lebanese and Gaza borders, have not experienced any sustained missile attack since Iraqi Scuds were fired in the 1991 Gulf War.
Hezbollah fired at least one long-range rocket ineffectually in the 2006 war. But Israeli intelligence now believes the militant group has the capability to strike anywhere in the country, although Israel now deploys air defense systems designed to counter the threat.
In the Gaza conflict, Israeli aircraft launched some 1,500 strikes on targets linked to the Palestinian territory's Hamas rulers and other groups, while Gaza militants fired roughly the same number of rockets into Israel.
Nasrallah said in a speech in Beirut that the Fajr-5 attacks "shook Israel." He asked: "How is it (Israel) going to stand thousands of rockets that will fall on Tel Aviv and other areas if it launches an aggression against Lebanon?"
Nasrallah spoke via a video link from a secret location to tens of thousands of supporters in Beirut who gathered to mark Ashoura, the annual Shiite commemoration of the 7th-century death of Imam Hussein, the Prophet Muhammad's grandson.
Hezbollah fired nearly 4,000 rockets at Israel during the 2006 war and is believed to have upgraded its arsenal since then. Nasrallah did not say how many missiles and rockets his group possesses, although in the past he said they have more than 20,000. Israel estimates the number at several times that.
"The battle with us is going to be all over occupied Palestine," the black-turbaned Nasrallah said. "From the border with Lebanon to the frontier with Jordan to the Red Sea."
"The Israelis should listen well to me. From Kiryat Shemona to Eilat," Nasrallah said referring to a northern Israeli town near the border with Lebanon to the southern resort town of Eilat on the Red Sea.
Since the 2006 war ended, both Israeli and Hezbollah officials have been warning each other that the next battle between the two groups will be more destructive.
Some Israeli generals had spoken of the "Dahiya doctrine," named after the Beirut suburbs considered a Hezbollah stronghold where Israel turned dozens of buildings to piles of debris in 2006.
In August, Nasrallah said Hezbollah will transform the lives of Israelis to "hell" if Israel attacks Lebanon, adding that the group would not hesitate to hit targets that would leave tens of thousands of Israelis dead.
Hezbollah was created in 1982, weeks after Israel invaded Lebanon. Israel withdrew in 2000 to a border drawn by the U.N., but Lebanon says Israel still occupies a slice of its territory.

FROM : foxnews.com

Egypt Mursi crisis prompts shares dive

Protests against the president's decision have continued in Cairo, while the Muslim Brotherhood is planning rallies backing him later.
Trading was suspended for 30 minutes as shares slumped in the first session since the president's announcement.
But the slide continued as soon as share dealing resumed.
Renewed clashes broke out in Cairo on Sunday morning between protesters and security forces in a street leading to Tahrir Square. Trails of tear gas could be seen in the square itself.
Stones were thrown close to the US embassy, but because concrete blocks had been erected in the area the situation was less tense than before, Mena news agency reported.

Twenty-two rights groups signed an open letter which said the president "has dealt a lethal blow to the Egyptian judiciary" and demanded that the decree should be revoked immediately.
Opposition politician Mohamed ElBaradei had earlier complained that the president had "usurped all state powers and appointed himself Egypt's new pharaoh".
But the president's measures have also prompted his supporters to come out on to the streets and there were clashes on Saturday as pro-Mursi demonstrators tried to disrupt an emergency Judges Club meeting.
The Muslim Brotherhood, which backs Mr Mursi's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) party, has called for further demonstrations in support of the decree after sunset.
The Islamist movement has called for a one-million-man march to be held at Abdin Square on Tuesday.


FROM :  BBC NEWS

Dhaka Bangladesh clothes factory fire kills more than 100

The blaze broke out late on Saturday in the multi-floor Tazreen Fashion factory in the Ashulia district on the outskirts of the capital Dhaka.
Some people died after jumping from the building to escape the flames.
It is unclear what caused the fire, which started on the ground floor trapping many victims in the factory.
Officials suspect an electrical short circuit might have caused the disaster.
Firefighters managed to contain the blaze on Sunday morning.
Fatal fires are common in Bangladesh's large garment manufacturing sector, and the BBC's Anbarasan Ethirajan in Dhaka says Western companies are likely to renew pressure on the local businesses to improve safety.
In a separate development, at least 13 people died when a flyover under construction collapsed late on Saturday in the south-eastern city of Chittagong, police said.
The authorities are investigating both accidents.

 Anxious wait
Initial reports said eight people had been killed in the factory fire, but the scale of the disaster became clear when rescue workers entered the building on Sunday.

"We resumed our search this morning and found the bodies lying on different floors of the factory building," Brigadier General Abu Nayeem Mohammad Shahidullah of the Dhaka fire brigade told AFP news agency.

Later reports said that 120 people had died, but the number of fatalities was then lowered to at least 112. A number of people are believed to be missing.
The fire started on the ground floor - which was reportedly used as a warehouse - and quickly spread through the building.
Senior fire department official Mohammad Mahbub told the Associated Press news agency that the factory had no fire exit on the outside of the building.
"Had there been at least one emergency exit through outside the factory, the casualties would have been much lower," he said.
The factory owner denied the allegations that the building was unsafe to work in.
"It is a huge loss for my staff and my factory. This is the first time we have ever had a fire at one of my seven factories," Delwar Hossain told AFP.
Police and soldiers were deployed to keep the situation under control as thousands of anxious relatives of factory employees gathered at the scene.
"Where's my son?" cried Sabina Yasmine. She said she saw the body of her daughter-in-law, who died in the fire, but her son was missing, AP reports.

Relatives of the factory's workers gathered at the scene - desperate for news about their loved ones

She expressed fury at the factory owners, who she blamed for the fire.
Fatal fires are common in Bangladesh's large garment manufacturing sector.
Lax safety standards, poor wiring and overcrowding are blamed for causing several deadly factory fires every year.
In December 2010, a wiring problem led to a fire in another clothes factory in the same industrial zone, leaving at least 25 people dead.
There are around 4,500 factories in Bangladesh, employing more than two million people.
Clothes account for up to 80% of Bangladesh's $24bn (£15bn) annual exports.
UK Foreign Office Minister Baroness Warsi said she was "shocked and saddened to learn of the tragic loss of life".

Is the toilet seat really the dirtiest place in the home?

Would you chop your vegetables on your toilet seat? I think pretty much all of us would say No. But maybe we should think again.
Dr Chuck Gerba, professor of microbiology at the University of Arizona, studies how diseases are transferred through the environment. This involves swabbing household items and measuring how many bacteria - and what sort - develop.
He particularly looks for faecal bacteria such as E.coli and staphylococcus aureus.
His studies have found that on the average toilet seat there are 50 bacteria per square inch.

Continue reading the main story

A new benchmark

The toilet seat is now regularly used as a unit of dirt.
"Now hear this! Your cellphone is as dirty as a toilet seat," writes the New York Post.
"Which? found that the keyboards at its London offices contained up to five times more germs than a toilet seat," reports the Daily Mail.
"Keyboards can carry more than 200 times as many bacteria as a toilet seat," says USA Today.

"It's one of the cleanest things you'll run across in terms of micro-organisms," he says. "It's our gold standard - there are not many things cleaner than a toilet seat when it comes to germs."

We should be more worried about other household items, it seems.
"Usually there are about 200 times more faecal bacteria on the average cutting board than on a toilet seat," he says.
In the kitchen it doesn't necessarily get there through actual contact with faeces. It comes via raw meat products or the viscera from inside of the animal, where a lot of the faecal bacteria originate.

FROM : BBC NEWS

ADHD treatment 'may reduce risk of criminal behaviour'

Earlier studies suggest people with ADHD are more likely to commit offences than the general population.
Providing better access to medication may reduce crime and save money, experts and support groups say.
Researchers say the benefits of the drugs must be weighed against harms.
In the UK 3% of children have a diagnosis of ADHD, with half of them continuing to have the condition in adult life.
People with the disorder have to deal with problems with concentration, hyperactivity and impulsiveness.
Estimates suggest between 7-40% of people in the criminal justice system may have ADHD and other similar disorders, though in many cases the condition is not formally recognised.

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

We want people to have personal choice...no one is trying to force people to take drugs”

Prof Philip Asherson Psychiatrist

Researchers from the Karolinska Institute looked at data from over 25,000 people with ADHD in Sweden.

Less impulsiveness They found people with ADHD were more likely to commit crime (37% of men and 15% of women) than adults without the condition (9% of men and 2% women).
The study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found when people took their medication they were 32-41% less likely to be convicted of a crime than when they were off medication for a period of six months or more.
Dr Seena Fazel, an author of the study and from Oxford University, says medication may reduce impulsive choices and may enable people to better organise their lives - allowing them to stay in employment and maintain relationships.
Co-author Prof Paul Lichtenstein says: "It is said that roughly 30 to 40% of long-serving criminals have ADHD. If their chances of recidivism can be reduced by 30%, it would clearly affect the total crime numbers in many societies."
'Personal responsibility' Prof Philip Asherson, a psychiatrist and president of the UK Adult ADHD network, who was not involved in the study says: "We want people to have personal choice and personal responsibility - no-one is trying to force people to take drugs."
He points out it costs £100-£300 a month to provide medication for someone with ADHD, and taking into account the costs of unemployment and the criminal justice system, these would "vastly outweigh" the costs of medication, he says.
The authors caution that the side effects of the drugs used, such as Ritalin, must be taken into account.
"There are of course a lot of people with ADHD in the population who are not involved in crime.
"But for some people with the condition - if you don't treat them, they will try to treat themselves with street drugs," says Andrea Bilbow, founder of the National Attention Deficit Disorder Information and Support Service, Addis.
"A referral to specialist adult services can cost £1,500 - compare this with the amount of money you can save if you keep people out of prison - it's a no brainer."
'Better support' The researchers looked at a variety of crimes - from petty crime to violent crime, finding a reduction in all of these when people took medication.
They acknowledge when offered medication, individuals may also get more attention from other support services - this could contribute to the reduction in criminal behaviour.
Prof Sue Bailey, president of the Royal College of Psychiatry, welcomes the study saying it "reminds us in an era of psychological therapies that medication can have a positive impact too".
The authors of the study point out ADHD can exist alongside other conditions such as conduct disorders, calling for further work to untangle the contribution these may make to criminal behaviour.
They feel the Swedish findings are applicable to the UK and much of Western Europe where rates of ADHD in children and the medication prescribed are broadly similar.

Second coronavirus death reported

The WHO said three fresh cases had also been reported bringing the total to six.
All are linked to either Saudi Arabia or Qatar. However, one man has been transferred to the UK for treatment.
Doctors say the virus does not appear to readily spread from person to person.
Both reported deaths were in Saudi Arabia.
Coronaviruses are a group of viruses ranging from the common cold to the Sars (severe acute respiratory syndrome) virus. They infect a wide range of animals.
In 2002 an outbreak of the Sars coronavirus killed about 800 people after it spread from Hong Kong to more than 30 countries around the world.
The WHO is still trying to work our where the infection came from. Studies show that the virus it is closely related to one found in some species of bats.
It said in a statement: "Until more information is available, it is prudent to consider that the virus is likely more widely distributed than just the two countries which have identified cases."
FROM :  BBC NEWS

Namib Desert beetle inspires self-filling water bottle

NBD Nano aims to mimic the way a beetle survives in an African desert to create a self-filling water bottle capable of storing up to three litres every hour.
The insect harvests moisture from the air by first getting it to condense on its back and then storing the water.
Using nature as an inspiration for technology, known as biomimicry, is increasingly widespread.
NBD Nano, which consists of four recent university graduates and was formed in May, looked at the Namib Desert beetle that lives in a region that gets about half an inch of rainfall per year.
Using a similar approach, the firm wants to cover the surface of a bottle with hydrophilic (water-attracting) and hydrophobic (water-repellent) materials.
The work is still in its early stages, but it is the latest example of researchers looking at nature to find inspiration for sustainable technology.
"It was important to apply [biomimicry] to our design and we have developed a proof of concept and [are] currently creating our first fully-functional prototype," Miguel Galvez, a co-founder, told the BBC.
"We think our initial prototype will collect anywhere from half a litre of water to three litres per hour, depending on local environments."

FROM :  BBC NEWS