Unique Dogs that have ear Width

Dogs as trained animals, of course you already knew it. But you know if the dog also had some kind of super wide ears, so interesting to see. and perhaps from some of these images will make you smile hehehe

Source : uniknya.com, riz-news.blogspot.com, August 2011

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Unique pictures of Animals Sleep

As we know all living creatures need sleep, animals must also hehehe, well in this article I will share pictures of unique, when the animal fell asleep.

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Apple using 'bogus' patents to make Android more expensive, says Google

Google lawyer accuses rival companies including Apple, Oracle and Microsoft of running an anti-competitive strategy to stifle innovation and push up prices

Google has accused iPhone-maker Apple of using 'bogus patents' to make Android phones more expensive. Photograph: Kimberly White/Reuters/Corbis

Google has accused Apple, Microsoft, Oracle and "other companies" of trying to make Android smartphones more expensive to consumers by running a "hostile, organised campaign" against it by using "bogus patents" acquired from the bankrupt Canadian company Nortel and their existing patent holdings.

Its chief legal officer, David Drummond, alleges that the companies are effectively imposing a "tax" to push up the price of Android devices. "Microsoft and Apple have always been at each other's throats, so when they get into bed together you have to start wondering what's going on," Drummond wrote in a blog post.

But Microsoft has hit back, with its general counsel Brad Smith claiming on Twitter that Microsoft invited Google to bid jointly for the Nortel patents – and was turned down. Representatives from Apple and Oracle declined to comment.

Drummond alleges that the rival companies are using an "anti-competitive strategy [which] is also escalating the cost of patents way beyond what they're actually worth" and using them to stifle innovation.

Drummond writes that "in this instance we thought it was important to speak out and make it clear that we're determined to preserve Android as a competitive choice for consumers, by stopping those who are trying to strangle it".

He asserts that: "Microsoft and Apple's winning $4.5bn (£2.7bn) for Nortel's patent portfolio was nearly five times larger than the pre-auction estimate of $1bn. Fortunately, the law frowns on the accumulation of dubious patents for anti-competitive means – which means these deals are likely to draw regulatory scrutiny, and this patent bubble will pop."

A consortium including Microsoft, Apple and RIM won the bid for the Nortel patents, which cover a number of communications technologies, against a consortium of Google and Intel. Google had made a preliminary bid of $900m before the auction, but was eventually outbid despite having large reserves of cash.

Drummond says: "A smartphone might involve as many as 250,000 (largely questionable) patent claims, and our competitors want to impose a 'tax' for these dubious patents that makes Android devices more expensive for consumers. They want to make it harder for manufacturers to sell Android devices. Instead of competing by building new features or devices, they are fighting through litigation."

Microsoft has sued HTC, Motorola, Samsung and Barnes & Noble, claiming that their use of Android infringes patents that it holds, while Apple has filed a number of similar suits asserting patent claims against other companies.

HTC has admitted that it is paying Microsoft a set amount for each Android device it sells. The amount has not been disclosed but it believed to be between $5 and $15.

Apple recently won a ruling in the US that HTC infringes patents covering the iPhone. And Oracle is currently suing Google in a multi-billion-dollar lawsuit alleging that Android infringes copyright relating to its Java programming language, acquired through the purchase of Sun Microsystems.

Google launched its Android mobile operating system at the end of 2007, with the first phones appearing about a year later. It makes it available for free to handset makers, unlike companies like Microsoft which charges around $15 per handset using its Windows Phone software.

Android phones have exploded in popularity, making more than a third of all smartphones sold around the world. The platform has displaced the former leader Nokia, which is abandoning its Symbian operating system in favour of Windows Phone. Apple and RIM have their own mobile operating systems which they do not license.

Google has been hampered by a lack of intellectual property in wireless telephony, which has exposed it to patent-infringement lawsuits from rivals such as Oracle.

Drummond says Google is looking to strengthen its patent portfolio; it recently bought more than 1,000 patents from IBM. It is also in talks to buy InterDigital, a key holder of wireless patents valued at more than $3bn, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The most valuable patent that it uses covers its "PageRank" search algorithm used for organising its search results: it has an exclusive license on that from Stanford University, where Sergey Brin and Larry Page developed it. Though the PageRank patent is now available for licensing, Google has the rights to determine who can license it.

Patent acquisitions are expected to accelerate, with IBM and Kodak often mentioned as shopping intellectual property on the market.

Source : www.guardian.co.uk

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Second moon may have collided with our moon, say scientists

Artist's impression of a hypothetical collision between the moon and a companion moon. Photograph: Martin Jutzi/Erik Asphaug/Nature

The remnants of a second moon that orbited the Earth billions of years ago may be splattered across the far side of our moon, scientists claim.

The two moons are believed to have been created at the same time and followed a similar path to the moon we're familiar with today, but after tens of millions of years of peaceful co-existence, the two appear to have crunched together in a gentle collision that left the smaller, just a third of the size, spread across the larger like a cosmic pancake.

Researchers put forward the idea after computer simulations found that a collision with a second, sibling moon in Earth's early history might solve the longstanding puzzle of why the two faces of the moon differ so dramatically.

While the near side, which always faces the Earth, is low-lying and relatively flat, the far side is high and mountainous, with a crust tens of kilometres thicker.

The idea builds on what planetary scientists call the "big impact" model of the moon, in which a planet the size of Mars slammed into the Earth in the early days of the solar system and knocked out a vast shower of rocky debris, which later coalesced as the moon.

"The impact produced a disc of debris around the Earth and from this disc we got the moon, but there is no reason why only one moon would be formed," Martin Jutzi at the University of Bern in Switzerland told the Guardian.

Jutzi and his colleague, Erik Asphaug at the University of California in Santa Cruz, decided to simulate what might happen if a second moon was created from the rock and dust that fell into orbit around the Earth.

Computer models showed that a sister moon roughly 1,200km in diameter could have accompanied the larger moon around the Earth for tens of millions of years. But as the two moons' orbit moved further away from Earth, the balance of forces became unstable and they collided.

A high-speed impact would have punched a giant crater into the moon and kicked a shower of rock into space, but if the two bodies met at less than three kilometres a second, the smaller moon would have splatted onto the surface of the larger and stayed there. The study appears in the journal, Nature.

"A slower collision doesn't produce such intense shockwaves and causes much less damage than a high-velocity collision," Jutzi said. "It's kind of a gentle collision that doesn't form a big crater. The smaller moon gets more or less pancaked onto the larger moon."

If Jutzi is right, the impact thickened the moon's crust on the far side, creating the highlands and forcing subsurface magma to the opposite side. "It wouldn't matter where the impact happens, because after the collision, the moon would reorient itself so that the material left from the impact was on the far side," Jutzi said.

While speculative, scientists hope to find ways of testing the idea. The smaller moon would have formed before the moon we see today, so rock samples from the far side of our moon should be older than rocks collected from the near side.

Another approach under consideration is to compare Jutzi and Asphaug's simulations with details of the moon's internal structure, gleaned from lunar maps drawn up by Nasa's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, and high-resolution gravity maps of the moon, which will be obtained next year by Nasa's Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission.

In an accompanying article, Maria Zuber, a geophysicist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said the study raised "the legitimate possibility that, after the giant impact, our Earth perhaps fleetingly possessed more than one moon. Furthermore, significant remnants of this long-departed member of the Earth-moon collisional family may be preserved today on the lunar far side."

The moon shows only one face to the Earth because its centre of mass is slightly off-centre – around 2km closer to our planet than the geometric centre. There is no dark side of the moon, though much of the surface spends 14 days in daylight and 14 days in darkness.

Last year, Ian Garrick-Bethell and Francis Nimmo at the University of California, Santa Cruz, published an alternative explanation for the different thicknesses in the moon's crust that suggested tidal forces rather than an impact were responsible.

"The fact that the near side of the moon looks so different to the far side has been a puzzle since the dawn of the space age, perhaps second only to the origin of the moon itself," said Nimmo. "One of the elegant aspects of [this] study is that it links these two puzzles together: perhaps the giant collision that formed the moon also spalled off some smaller bodies, one of which later fell back to the moon to cause the dichotomy that we see today."

Source : www.guardian.co.uk

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Bank of England to keep rates on hold

LONDON | Thu Aug 4, 2011
(Reuters) - A darkening economic backdrop and the threat of further market turmoil have raised the possibility that the Bank of England's next move might be to loosen monetary policy rather than tighten it.

The majority view is that the Bank will sit on its hands this month, but a surprise monetary easing from the Swiss National Bank on Wednesday suggests nothing can be ruled out.

All economists polled by Reuters expect the central bank to keep rates at 0.5 percent at 12 p.m., but around one in four believe a second wave of quantitative easing (QE) will be needed at some point.

August marks one of the four months when the Bank publishes updated growth and inflation forecasts in its quarterly inflation report, and these months have historically proven the trigger for changes in policy. Moreover, the run-up to the meeting has been dominated by a cluster of surprisingly weak data.

Britain's economy barely grew in the second quarter following six months of stagnation, and data from the United States and the euro zone suggest a global slowdown is becoming entrenched.

Former Bank rate-setter Sushil Wadhwani said on Tuesday that the main issue facing policymakers was whether to ease policy now or wait for another month.

"If I were on the committee, for the first time this year I would be voting for more QE," he told Fathom Consulting's Monetary Policy Forum.

WOULD MORE QE WORK?

Britain's coalition government, elected last year on a deficit-fighting mandate, has made clear that the ball is in the Bank of England's court should further economic stimulus be required.

But it is far from certain that another wave of gilt purchases -- which accounted for almost 99 percent of the Bank's first QE programme -- would have the desired effect.

Gilt yields have fallen to a series of record lows this week with 10-year bonds paying little more than 2.7 percent, a drop of more than 1 percentage point since mid-April.

"With gilt yields at such incredibly low levels, doing more QE in the form of gilt purchases just doesn't stack up," said David Owen, chief European financial economist at Jefferies.

"If they do decide to do more stimulus, they would probably do something more targeted, but I don't think it will be a decision taken this month," he added.

UK interest rates have stood at a record low 0.5 percent for more than two years -- already the longest period of inertia since World War Two. Money markets are not pricing in any realistic chance of a rate rise until the second half of 2012.

The Bank bought 200 billion pounds of assets, mainly government bonds, with newly created money between March 2009 and February 2010 in an attempt to reduce borrowing costs and boost the supply of credit.

For the past few months, the Bank's nine-member Monetary Policy Committee has been split three ways, with arch-dove Adam Posen voting for more stimulus and hawks Spencer Dale and Martin Weale voting for a 25 basis points rate rise.

There is a strong chance this month that Dale and Weale will join the pack voting for the status quo and at least one other member -- possibly Paul Fisher -- ally with Posen in voting for more quantitative easing.

Inflation, currently running at more than double the BoE's 2 percent target, appears to be close to a peak and forward-looking indicators suggest price pressures could ease sharply over the coming year.

How each member has voted will not be known until minutes to the policy meeting are published in two weeks' time.

($1 = 0.609 British Pounds)

Source : uk.reuters.com

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Governments, IOC and UN hit by massive cyber attack

IT security firm McAfee claims to have uncovered one of the largest ever series of cyber attacks.

It lists 72 different organisations that were targeted over five years, including the International Olympic Committee, the UN and security firms.

McAfee will not say who it thinks is responsible, but there is speculation that China may be behind the attacks.

Beijing has always denied any state involvement in cyber-attacks, calling such accusations "groundless".

Speaking to BBC News, McAfee's chief European technology officer, Raj Samani, said the attacks were still going on.

"This is a whole different level to the Night Dragon attacks that occurred earlier this year. Those were attacks on a specific sector. This one is very, very broad."

Dubbed Operation Shady RAT - after the remote access tool that security experts and hackers use to remotely access computer networks - the five-year investigation examined information from a number of different organisations which thought they may have been hit.

"From the logs we were able to see where the traffic flow was coming from," said Mr Samani.

"In some cases, we were permitted to delve a bit deeper and see what, if anything, had been taken, and in many cases we found evidence that intellectual property (IP) had been stolen.

"The United Nations, the Indian government, the International Olympic Committee, the steel industry, defence firms, even computer security companies were hit," he added.

China speculation

McAfee said it did not know what was happening to the stolen data, but it could be used to improve existing products or help beat a competitor, representing a major economic threat.

"This was what we call a spear-phish attack, as opposed to a trawl, where they were targeting specific individuals within an organisation," said Mr Samani.

"An email would be sent to an individual with the right level of access within the system; attached to the message was a piece of malware which would then execute and open a channel to a remote website giving them access.

"Once they had access to an organisation, they either did what we would call a 'smash-and-grab' operation, where they would try and grab as much information before they got caught, or they sometimes embedded themselves in the network and [tried to] spread across different systems within an organisation."

Mr Samani said his firm would "not make any guesses on where this has come from", but China is seen by many in the industry as a prime suspect.

Jim Lewis, a cyber expert with the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, was quoted by the Reuters news agency as saying it was "very likely China was behind the campaign because some of the targets had information that would be of particular interest to Beijing".

"Everything points to China. It could be the Russians, but there is more that points to China than Russia," Lewis said.

However, Graham Cluley - a computer-security expert with Sophos, is not so sure. He said: "Every time one of these reports come out, people always point the finger at China."

He told BBC News: "We cannot prove it's China. That doesn't mean we should be naive. Every country in the world is probably using the internet to spy.

"After all, it's easy and cost-effective - but there's many different countries and organisations it could be."

Mr Cluley said firms were often distracted by the very public actions of LulzSec and Anonymous, groups of online activists who have hacked a number of high-profile websites in recent months.

"Sometimes it's not about stealing your money or publicly leaking your data. It's about quietly stealing your information, which can have a very high political, military or financial value.

"In short, don't let your defences down," he added.

Source : www.bbc.co.uk

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Sir Alex Ferguson coy over Dimitar Berbatov's Manchester United future

Dimitar Berbatov's future at Manchester United was cast into doubt by cryptic comments from Sir Alex Ferguson. Photograph: Chris Trotman/Getty Images

Sir Alex Ferguson has cast doubt over the future of Dimitar Berbatov at Manchester United after appearing to suggest that the Bulgarian could leave the club.

Ferguson made the admission after his reserve side's 8-2 defeat in a charity match against Marseille in Monaco on Tuesday evening. A French television journalist asked the United manager if Berbatov could play with Paris St-Germain, who are interested in signing the striker. "Yes," a smiling Ferguson replied. "Absolutely, no problem."

The French club are reportedly willing to pay £18-£20m, which would help United to recoup some of the £50m they have spent so far this summer on Ashley Young, David de Gea and Phil Jones.

Berbatov was United's top scorer last season and, alongside Carlos Tevez, the joint winner of the Premier League's golden boot, but Ferguson appears to have lost trust in the Bulgarian's ability to influence the more important matches. The club-record £30.75m signing from Tottenham Hotspur was not even on the substitutes' bench for the Champions League final against Barcelona in May, a decision that devastated him to the point he did not even leave the Wembley dressing rooms.

Nonetheless, Ferguson's statement represents a considerable change of direction for the champions, who have maintained all summer that Berbatov is not for sale and can still play a significant part in their attempt to win a 20th league title next season.

David Gill, the United chief executive, said at the weekend that the club had never considered moving on the Bulgarian. "Everyone has been talking about Berbatov from the outside, saying he wants to leave or that we want him to leave, but we don't want him to go. We want him to stay. He scored 20 goals last season, so there is no desire on our behalf to see him go."

Gill also said nothing sinister was to be drawn from the fact Berbatov was the only player at the club in the final year of his contract not yet to be offered an extension. "People keep telling me he's in the final year of his contract but there is an option on the club's side to extend Dimitar's contract by another year. We can do it whenever we want, there are no conditions around it and that means, in effect, he has two years to go."

It also makes Berbatov more valuable in the market if PSG, who have a £37.7m deal in place for Palermo's Javier Pastore that would smash the French transfer record, are serious about adding him to their new-look side.

Ferguson also attempted to brush off the latest speculation about Wesley Sneijder, saying it was "just all the newspapers" when he was asked about the possibility of signing the Holland international from Internazionale.

United have been trying to play down the matter for weeks, repeatedly informing reporters they are not interested in the player, but a deal is actually in place providing Sneijder agrees to lower his financial requirements.

Ferguson was quoted in one Sunday newspaper saying: "If he [Sneijder] wants to come, he must accept our contract offer. If not, we have other options in mind. We're done talking." The United manager has since denied saying such a thing but this is, in fact, the accurate and latest position.

Source :www.guardian.co.uk

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Cesc Fábregas back in training but doubts over Arsenal future remain

Cesc Fábregas has had to sit out Arsenal's pre-season fixtures so far as he continues his recovery from a hamstring injury. Photograph: Ian Kington/AFP/Getty Images

Cesc Fábregas is back in training with Arsenal as he steps up his recovery from the hamstring injury that has kept him out of the club's pre-season fixtures but his future in north London remains in some doubt.

Arsenal's next friendly is against Benfica on Saturday, yet it is unclear whether Fábregas will fly out with Arsène Wenger's squad on Friday. The Catalan's lack of match action may mean that Wenger decides he should continue his rehabilitation at the club's London Colney training base.

Fábregas wants to move to Barcelona, with his boyhood team interested in the 24-year-old rejoining them after he departed for Arsenal in 2003, although Wenger repeatedly suggested during last weekend's Emirates Cup that Fábregas could recommit to Arsenal. Fábregas will take part in Thursday's official club photo-shoot.

Carl Jenkinson has vowed to challenge Bacary Sagna for the right-back's first-team starting berth. The 19-year-old, who signed this summer from Charlton Athletic, said: "I'd like to think I'm quite an ambitious person so I want to get into that starting XI and I want to stake my claim to be a first-team regular. It's up to me to work hard and impress whenever I can.

"Obviously there are going to be opportunities in pre-season, and in training every day so I'm looking forward to working hard and doing as well as I can in an Arsenal shirt. Bac's a really nice guy, very friendly and I'm sure it will be good for us both – him to be pushing me and me pushing him. It's always healthy in a team environment to have that competition, and hopefully we can bring the best out of each other."

Arsenal's young centre-back Kyle Bartyley has signed a two-year contract extension that will keep him at the club until 2014.

The 20-year-old FA Youth Cup-winner made a combined 32 senior appearances on loan at Rangers and Sheffield United last season but to date has played only once for Arsenal's first team, in a Champions League tie with Olympiakos in 2009.

"If I'm honest, I don't think I was anywhere near the level to play for Arsenal last season," he told the club's website. "But I've come back, I feel really strong and I feel that I am ready now. I am a little bit different to the other centre-backs.

"I like the physical side of the game and I see myself as a leader. If Arsène decides that he wants me in the first team then that will be fantastic."

Source : www.guardian.co.uk

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World's Most Amazing Animals

Really all animals are very amazing and each one is very unique and different in their own way. Animals that might seem fairly mundane that we encounter often we might not think of as the world's most amazing animals and yet they might surprise you with your capabilities. For example a cat can hear ultrasonic noises that mice make and that are two high pitches for humans or even dogs, while a Squirrel can fall from 100 feet and survive!
Amazing though they are, these are still not the world's most amazing animals, and the abilities of some creatures are simply astonishing. Here we will look at some of the world's most amazing animals and what they can do that sets them apart.

Dirrocoelium Dendeiticum: Starting off with this type of parasitic flatworm, this is one of the world's most amazing animals and so unusual that it almost seems like science fiction. What makes it so amazingly unique is it's ability to control the mind of ants. Yes, at one stage in its life cycle this flat worm will be eaten by an ant, at which point it will travel up to its brain and latch onto the motor cortex giving it complete control of all the ant's movements. During this phase, the flat worm will then use this ability to steer the ant onto the tip of a blade of grass to be eaten by a cow so that it can breed inside the cow's stomach. At once fascinating and disconcerting, and certainly one of the world's most amazing animals.

Gigantic Octopus: The gigantic octopus is so much one of the world's most amazing animals that it has actually become the thing of legend. The gigantic octopus has never been found in its entirety, but single tentacles have. Bigger than the already impressive colossal squid and other large sea creatures, it is believed that this is the 'Kraken' of legend and capable of sinking large boats.

Whales: Whales are impressive and some of the world's most amazing animals due to their size first and foremost because of their huge size, as the biggest animals on Earth. But perhaps even more amazing is the fact that they can communicate through a layer of the sea that allows their whale song to travel over great distances - over hundreds of miles. Almost like telephone, or more like internet, for whales.

Tardigrade: The tardigrade, sometimes referred to affectionately by scientists as the 'water bear', is a microscopic creature that apparently walks with the gait of a bear - which isn't what makes it one of the world's most amazing animals. That honour goes to the fact that this creature can live in incredibly hostile and uninhabitable conditions - including in deep space - and abandoned for ten days in space they were found to be able to survive with no oxygen, no light and no nutrients of any kind. On Earth they are also one of the world's most amazing animals in terms of hardiness and can survive without food for three decades!

Sarcosuchus: Sarcosuchus is no longer one of the world's most amazing animals as it is now sadly extinct. However most people who learn about this animal are still startled and have no idea of its existence. This is a type of crocodile that lived during the reign of the Dinosaurs that was so huge it could go toe-to-toe with a Tyrannosaurus Rex and would regularly eat them. Imagine that - a crocodile the size of a bus!

Turritopsis Nutricula Jellyfish: Finally, this type of jellyfish is one of the world's most amazing animals for having discovered the holy grail - this creature is genuinely immortal. By returning to its child-form, the 'pollyp', it is able to rejuvenate all of its individual cells. Of course it can still die from illness or by being killed by predators - but naturally it will never die of old age. Pretty amazing…

source : www.worldsmostunique.com

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20-million year-old ape skull found in Uganda

(Reuters) - Ugandan and French scientists have discovered a fossil of a skull of a tree-climbing ape from about 20 million years ago in Uganda's Karamoja region, the team said Tuesday.

The scientists discovered the remains on July 18 while looking for fossils in the remnants of an extinct volcano in Karamoja, a semi-arid region in Uganda's northeastern corner.

"This is the first time that the complete skull of an ape of this age has been found. It is a highly important fossil," Martin Pickford, a paleontologist from the College de France in Paris, told a news conference.

Pickford said preliminary studies of the fossil showed that the tree-climbing herbivore, roughly 10-years-old when it died, had a head the size of a chimpanzee's but a brain the size of a baboon's, a bigger ape.

Bridgette Senut, a professor at the Musee National d'Histoire Naturelle, said that the remains would be taken to Paris to be x-rayed and documented before being returned to Uganda.

"It will be cleaned in France, it will be prepared in France and then in about one year's time it will be returned to the country," Senut said.

Uganda's junior minister for tourism, wildlife and heritage said the skull was a remote cousin of the Hominidea Fossil Ape.

Source : uk.reuters.com

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Internet Explorer users have lower IQ says study

Internet Explorer users have a lower than average IQ, according to research by Consulting firm AptiQuant.

The study gave web surfers an IQ test, then plotted their scores against the browser they used.

IE surfers were found to have an average IQ lower than people using Chrome, Firefox and Safari. Users of Camino and Opera rated highest.

The report has sparked anger from IE supporters, who have threatened AptiQuant with legal action.

Researchers gave over 100,000 web surfers a free online IQ test. Scores were stored in a database along with each person's web browser data.

The results suggested that Internet Explorer surfers had an average IQ in the low eighties. Chrome, Firefox and Safari rated over 100, while minority browsers Opera and Camino had an "exceptionally higher" score of over 120.

AptiQuant stressed that using IE doesn't mean you have low intelligence. "What it really says is that if you have a low IQ then there are high chances that you use Internet Explorer," said AptiQuant CEO Leonard Howard.

The findings have been treated with scepticism by Professor David Spiegelhalter of Cambridge University's Statistical Laboratory: "They've got IE6 users with an IQ of around eighty. That's borderline deficient, marginally able to cope with the adult world.

"I believe these figures are implausibly low - and an insult to IE users."

However, Mr Howard said he didn't feel threatened by a lawsuit: "A win in a court would only give a stamp of approval and more credibility to our report."

Source : www.bbc.co.uk

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Italy approves draft law to ban burqa

Law moves country closer to joining France, Belgium and parts of Spain in outlawing face-covering in public

Under the new Italian law wearing a niqab would be illegal. Photograph: Julien Warnand/EPA

An Italian parliamentary commission has approved a draft law banning women from wearing veils that cover their faces in public.

The draft, which was passed by the constitutional affairs commission on Tuesday, would prohibit women from wearing a burqa, naqib or any other garment that covers the face in such circumstances. It would expand a decades-old law that for security reasons prohibits people from wearing face-covering items such as masks in public places.

Women who violate the ban would face fines, while third parties who force women to cover their faces in public would be fined and face up to 12 months in jail.

Italy is the latest European country to act against the burqa. France and Belgium have banned the wearing of burqa-style Islamic dress in public, as has a city in Spain. The Belgium law cited security concerns.

The Italian law was sponsored by Souad Sbai, a Moroccan-born member of Silvio Berlusconi's conservative Freedom People party, who said she wanted to help Islamic women integrate more into Italian society.

"Five years ago, no one wore the burqa [in Italy]. Today, there is always more. We have to help women get out of this segregation ... to get out of this submission," Sbai said in a telephone interview. "I want to speak for those who don't have a voice, who don't have the strength to yell and say, 'I am not doing well.'"

The spokesman of an Islamic group said banning the Islamic veil "is unjust and touches individual liberty".

"This topic continues to be a sort of criminalisation and media dramatisation. In Italy, there aren't even 100 women who wear the niqab, and not even one who wears the burqa," Roberto Hamza Piccard, spokesman for the Union of Islamic Communities in Italy, was quoted by the news agency Ansa as saying. He said such a ban would isolate devout Muslim women, who would not be able to leave their homes.

Ansa said the main opposition party voted against the law. The draft will be forwarded after the summer recess to parliament, where Berlusconi's governing coalition has a narrow majority.

The preliminary approval was welcomed by lawmaker Barbara Saltamartini, vice-president of the Freedom People party caucus in the lower house.

"Final approval will put an end to the suffering of many women who are often forced to wear the burqa or niqab, which annihilates their dignity and gets in the way of integration," Saltamartini said.

Source : www.guardian.co.uk

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Frank Lampard: England have little chance of winning 2014 World Cup

England may have been handed a favourable qualifying group for the 2014 World Cup, but Frank Lampard believes that even if the team reach the finals in Brazil they will have little chance of winning. Montenegro, Poland and Ukraine are the principal hurdles in Group H, but the England midfielder thinks that winning the trophy in the home of the five-times champions is likely to be a challenge too far.

"It will be very difficult for an English team to win it over there," said Lampard, speaking as Chelsea's pre-season tour of the Far East ended in Hong Kong. "In their own back yard, with the strongest teams in the world there, and the climate. But what a great challenge it will be for whatever team that goes over there."

The draw in Rio de Janeiro on Saturday also placed Moldova and San Marino in England's group, with the qualification matches to start in September 2012 and finish in October 2013. With Fabio Capello due to stand down after Euro 2012, a new manager will lead England. The nine European group winners will go to Brazil, while the eight best runners-up will go into two-leg play-offs in November 2013 to decide Europe's final four qualifiers.

Lampard will be 36 by the time the finals start, and while he hopes to still be involved with England then, he admits he may not be able to hold off the next generation of players. "I take every year as it comes. It will be difficult, but it's great to see young players coming through, to see the Jack Wilsheres and the Josh McEachrans getting their chances, and I'd hope to be involved for as long as possible. I'd certainly be happy if I was there, but I can't call that one."

Having previously stated that he would never voluntarily retire from the national side Lampard, who has battled injuries in recent seasons, appeared to leave that option open. "It is my sentiment [not to retire], but you don't know, do you? There may be a time when, maybe for your own benefit and your own career as a player, you feel you have to come out of it like Paul Scholes did [and retire]. So whether that's ever an option I don't know, but at the minute I want to give everything, and I want to give it on all fronts. I can't say what will happen in the future."

The England delegation endured high tension towards the end of the draw, as England and Spain were the final two teams to be drawn, meaning one of them would be placed in Group I with France. The retired Brazilian Ronaldo brought respite to England by delivering them into Group H, leaving the reigning world champions to face the winners from 1998.

Laurent Blanc, France's head coach, expressed his dismay that they had been seeded in Pot 2 after group-stage exits at the most recent World Cup and European Championship. "I don't understand why France is in the second group," he said. "Why are Greece, Norway and Croatia ranked higher?"

Finland, Georgia and Belarus make up Group I, the only pool with five teams, and Blanc said Spain's strengths would not be a surprise. "Spain is the world champion. Barcelona won the Champions League. I know everything about them but the qualifiers start after 2012. I've got time to improve my team."

Wales were the first team to be drawn in the European section and they were soon joined in a difficult-looking Group A by Scotland, Serbia, Croatia, Belgium and Macedonia. Gary Speed, the Wales manager, was in Rio and said afterwards: "I'm happy to have got another home nation side. It adds to the interest and we know their strengths having played against them in May [in the Carling Nations Cup]."

Scotland's manager, Craig Levein, who stayed at home, was also looking at the positives. "The draw could have been a lot worse and with every draw like this there will be a lot of homework to be done on our opposition. I am not going to try and make predictions at this early stage."

Northern Ireland face a daunting task in Group F, with Portugal, Russia, Israel, Azerbaijan and Luxembourg, while the Republic of Ireland are also in a tough group, with Germany, Sweden, Austria, the Faroe Islands and Kazakhstan.

The draw took place at the Marina da Glória against the background of a barely concealed spat between Ricardo Teixeira, the head of the Brazilian football federation and the World Cup organising committee, and Pele.

Brazil's president, Dilma Rousseff, appointed Pele as an honorary World Cup ambassador to ensure the world's most famous player was not excluded from the tournament in his own country. Asked on Friday why he was only involved at a late stage, Pele said "I would not go to a party I was not invited to", although the organising committee released a statement later claiming that he had been invited in April but declined by email.

source : guardian.co.uk

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Calorie counts on menus 'prompt healthy choices'

Putting calorie information on menus encourages healthy eating - but only in a limited way, a review of the scheme in the US shows.

Researchers quizzed customers before and after a law was passed in New York in 2008 forcing restaurants to display the nutritional information.

The study by the NY Health Department showed one in six used the information - with most reducing their intake.

It comes as UK restaurants are introducing a similar scheme.

A total of 32 firms signed up to displaying calorie information in UK outlets, including fast food chains McDonald's and KFC, as part of the government's "responsibility deal" set out earlier this year.

The initiative saw a host of voluntary agreements established in the fields of alcohol, physical activity and health at work as well as food.

And the New York experience has suggested calorie information could have a benefit.

Researchers surveyed more than 7,000 people in 2007 and another 8,500 in 2009 at 168 locations covering 11 of the top food chains in the city, the British Medical Journal's website reported.

Some 15% reported using the labels and these customers purchased 106 fewer calories than customers who did not use or see them.

However, overall there was no significant change in average calorie consumption before and after as some people were consuming more calories in 2009.

This was partly explained by changing practices at some of the restaurants. For example, energy consumption increased by nearly a fifth at Subway where large portions were heavily promoted.

'Great example'
Researchers said it was important if the scheme was going to be more of a success that education campaigns be set up to improve awareness.

Dr Susan Jebb, a nutrition expert from the Medical Research Council, who has advised the government on its strategy, said she would expect calorie information to have more of an impact in the UK.

"We are much more used to looking at front-of-pack labelling in supermarkets so I would expect more people to use calorie information than the one in six in New York.

"But this study also illustrates the importance of how the restaurant or food chain acts. It is going to require a combination of factors to make a big difference."

A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said: "This is a great example of how calorie labelling can influepeople make and lead to a healthier diet."

Beatrice Brooke, of the British Heart Foundation, added: "One in six meals in the UK is eaten away from home so it's essential we know what's in the food we're buying in restaurants and cafes.

"The New York research shows us just how valuable calorie labelling in fast food restaurants can be."

Source : www.bbc.co.uk

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NASA probe poised for launch to Jupiter

The planet Jupiter is seen in this image released by NASA, November 24, 2010, which is a composite of three color images taken on November 18, 2010 by the Gemini North telescope in Hawaii. The composite image shows a belt that had previously vanished in Jupiter's atmosphere which is now reappearing. Scientists see thermal emission arising from the tops of Jupiter's clouds, with the hottest emissions coming from the deepest atmosphere and signifying regions with minimal overlying cloud cover. The region inside the white box is the South Equatorial Belt with an unusually bright spot, or outbreak.
Credit: Reuters/NASA/JPL/UH/NIRI/Gemini/Handout
By Irene Klotz
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida | Thu Jul 28, 2011 2:08pm BST
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - A NASA satellite was hoisted aboard an unmanned Atlas 5 rocket at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Wednesday in preparation for launch next week on an unprecedented mission to the heart of Jupiter.
The robotic probe called Juno is scheduled to spend one year cycling inside Jupiter's deadly radiation belts, far closer than any previous orbiting spacecraft, to learn how much water the giant planet holds, what triggers its vast magnetic fields and whether a solid core lies beneath its dense, hot atmosphere.
"Jupiter holds a lot of key secrets about how we formed," said lead scientist Scott Bolton, with the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas.
Scientists believe Jupiter was the first planet to form after the birth of the sun, though exactly how that happened is unknown. One key piece of missing data is how much water is inside the giant planet, which circles the sun five times farther away than Earth.
Jupiter, like the sun, is comprised primarily of hydrogen and helium, with a sprinkling of other elements, like oxygen. Scientists believe the oxygen is bound with hydrogen to form water, which can be measured by microwave sounders, one of eight science instruments on Juno.
Jupiter's water content is directly tied to where -- and how -- the planet formed. Some evidence points to a planet that grew in the colder nether-regions of the solar system and then migrated inward. Other computer models show Jupiter formed at about its present location by accumulating ancient icy snowballs.
LARGER THAN SISTER PLANETS
However it grew, Jupiter ended up with a mass more than twice all its sister planets combined, giving it the gravitational muscle to hang on to nearly all of its original building materials.
"That's why it's very interesting to us if we want to go back in time and understand where we came from and how the planets were made" -- which Juno can help NASA do, Bolton said.
Juno's journey to Jupiter will take five years. Upon arrival in July 2016, Juno will thread itself into a narrow region between the planet and the inner edge of its radiation belt. The solar-powered probe will then spend a year orbiting over Jupiter's poles, coming as close as 3,100 miles above its cloud tops.
Only an atmospheric probe released by Galileo, NASA's last Jupiter spacecraft, has come closer, though that spacecraft was able to relay data for only 58 minutes before succumbing to the planet's crushing pressure and intense heat.
Juno's electronic heart is protected in a vault of titanium, but it too will fall to the harsh Jovian radiation environment after about a year. Juno's last move will be to dive into the planet's atmosphere to avoid any chance of contaminating Jupiter's potentially life-bearing moons.
Juno's launch is scheduled for August 5. The spacecraft was built by Lockheed Martin Astronautics of Denver, Colorado. The mission, the second in NASA's lower-cost, quick-turnaround New Frontiers planetary expeditions, will cost $1.1 billion.

Source : uk.reuters.com

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Magnificent England destroy India's resistance to take second Test

England's five-wicket hero Tim Bresnan, right, celebrates taking the wicket of Harbhajan Singh with Kevin Pietersen. Photograph: Tom Shaw/Getty Images

India's claim to be the foremost Test match side in the world lay in tatters in Nottingham on Monday evening. Defeat, by a huge margin of 319 runs with more than a day to spare – by a country mile the most humiliating they have suffered at the hands of England – followed their 196‑run loss in the first Test at Lord's. In the aftermath of that it was said they were slow starters and would pick up the pace.

A reassessment might be in order now, for this was little short of slaughter. England, who have not lost any of eight Test series and only four of 29 matches in more than two years since Andy Flower has been in full charge of the team, lead by two matches to nil in the four‑match series and have their eyes firmly on the official No1 ranking. Only the most fervent Indian optimist, of which there are many, will believe that their team can recover from this.

England had begun the day in the ascendant, already with a lead of 379, almost certainly secure enough in itself, but added a further 103 in 19 overs in the morning, with Tim Bresnan making 90, thus setting India a notional 478 to win. They did not have a chance, for the new ball has proved dangerous throughout the game and England had the extra pace to exploit it. Inside 26 overs, two of the galácticos were gone for single figures, Rahul Dravid to Stuart Broad and VVS Laxman castled by an irresistible delivery from Jimmy Anderson and India were 55 for six, with Bresnan, the indefatigable Yorkie dreadnought, bustling in on Yorkshire Day, having dismissed the India captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, first ball to stand on the verge of following Broad with the second hat‑trick of the match. It did not happen but Bresnan still managed to take five for 48, his best Test figures, and with his robust batting ensured that a few cats have been set among the selectorial pigeons when it comes to the third Test in Birmingham which begins a week on Wednesday.

Bresnan has now played eight Tests and won them all, a 100% record bettered in the game's history only by the West Indian Eldine Baptiste, who played in 10 winning sides.

Only Sachin Tendulkar, batting flawlessly for two and a quarter hours while things tumbled around him, showed the technique and resolve to cope. But having made 56 he misjudged Anderson and was lbw offering no shot, the seventh time that the bowler has dismissed Tendulkar, just one behind the eight of Muttiah Muralitharan.

Beyond that Harbhajan Singh, in the middle of Broad's hat‑trick and preventing Bresnan's on Monday, threw the bat for 46, made with such vigour at times that it raised eyebrows as to the state of the damaged stomach muscles that prevented him from bowling during the England mayhem.

India, should they need it, can console themselves with the knowledge that they have twice been beaten by a team of astonishing depth and resilience. Twice Dhoni was won an important toss this series and put England under pressure and twice England have responded. On Friday, as the ball swung and seamed under leaden skies, they found themselves 88 for six, before Broad and the lower order rescued them. Then, on the second day, in better conditions, when Dravid's brilliance had helped take India to 267 for four, a lead already of 46, Broad conjured up his hat‑trick in a spell of five wickets at no cost. It shattered India. Thereafter, they were not in the game as England battered an inadequate attack into submission. In four innings now India have a top score of 288.

India now need desperately to regain some equilibrium but it is hard to see whence it will come. Virender Sehwag is expected to arrive in England on Tuesday but he has only one game against Northamptonshire this week in which to prepare.

The recovery of Zaheer Khan, should he get over his hamstring strain, will help but is not a game changer, and Gautam Gambhir, who in any case did not appear unusually discomfited in the nets before the game, ought to have recovered from his bruised elbow.

On the other hand, Harbhajan, taker of more than 400 Test wickets, has had such a miserable series with the ball – two for 287 thus far – that there is a strong case for him making way for the leg‑spinner Amit Mishra. On Monday, Yuvraj Singh suffered a nasty blow on his left index finger, from Bresnan, that may cause further problems. It is not just mentally that they are battered and bruised.

As with Lord's, though, England have not escaped the match entirely unscathed. The shoulder wrenched by Jonathan Trott while in the field on the second day had eased sufficiently for him to bat, and he now has a week of intensive treatment in which to get fit again with any replacement likely to be either Ravi Bopara or the new Lions captain, James Taylor, who has a chance to impress this week.

Monty Panesar would be a top‑class replacement for Graeme Swann should his injured hand not recover. But the pace bowling goes round in circles. Never give a sucker an even break, said WC Fields, but that is what Chris Tremlett's back and hamstring niggle has done with Bresnan. Anderson is the second‑ranked bowler in the world, Broad's comeback speaks for itself, and Bresnan has taken his first Test five-for and contributed 101 runs. Who would want to call that one?

Source : www.guardian.co.uk

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