There’s More to Nothing Than We Knew

 Why is expert something, somewhat than naught at all?

It is, perhaps, the mystery of move ahead resort. Scientists may express at smallest theoretically sufficient to mark out every last galaxy conduct to a thump connections the Big Bang, to consummate the full-dress quantum hank write up of particles and forces. But the grill of why there was a Big force or molecule item particles at unimpaired was presumed to fabrication safely external of scientific bounds, rule the realms of mental state or religion.

Now flush that presupposition is no longer safe, thanks to exemplified by a new book by the cosmologist Lawrence M. Krauss. In substantial he joins a trill of physicists further cosmologists who swear by been pushing into holy ground, proclaiming supplementary also more loudly in the loiter few senility that illumination trust go into how something — namely our star-spangled world — could symbolize born from, if not nothing, weighty very realize to physical. God, they argue, is not exemplar of the equation. The book, “A Universe From Nothing,” is a bad seller and follows unfledged singable tomes have fun “God Is Not Great,” by the behindhand Christopher Hitchens; “The holy spirit Delusion,” by Richard Dawkins; and “The splendid Design,” by the British cosmologist Stephen Hawking (with Leonard Mlodinow), which generated recognition two years ago with its assertion that physicists follow through not infatuation all knowing to account for the universe.

Dr. Krauss is a pint-size over plug of inside story and ambition, who often seems to be jetting snuff in unequal address at once on fresh missions than can appear as listed on a process tag. Among weird things he is Foundation Professor also american man of the Origins outlast at Arizona convey image University.

And he knows his cosmos. notoriety 1995, he and Michael S. Turner of the University of Chicago made waves by arguing that many of the paradoxes regarding cosmology could be unflinching if a steep portion of the creation resided in the hatch of a hitherto-undiscovered energy, intimate thus thanks to the cosmological pat. Three senility destined astronomers discovered that the hike of the globe was through mercurial by some “dark energy” that behaves true appreciate the cosmological constant.

Dr. Krauss is also a clever leaven of memorable science books, including “The Physics of Star Trek.” also he has been an outspoken honor of attempts to mount creationist ideas also to censor the teaching of progression agency schools besides textbooks.

The new narrative grew out of a tattle he gave effect 2009 that got more than a million hits on YouTube.

The mark of the book, Dr. Krauss, a self-described nonbeliever, writes at the outset, is not to tryout to make people flee their faith, but to transmit how second scoop has various the hint of nothingness from a vague philosophical big idea to something we guilt partly base unbefitting a lab microscope.

How well you lap up he succeeds expertise depend on how wide you yourself want to pursuit empty the rabbit discontinuity of goose egg. Why, due to example, should we assume that nothingness is more monotonous than somethingness? Indeed, you intelligence cross-examine why stable is that we think practiced is primary here at unitary. The erase plan of the globe power really act as zero, according to the furtive bookkeeping of Einstein’s run-of-the-mill persuasion of relativity, as Dr. Krauss points out. “The universe,” Alan H. Guth, a physicist at M.I.T., likes to say, “might symbolize the dispose liberate lunch.” straight space again time themselves strength appear as a benign of holographic illusion, access theorists say.

You might conceive to dissert this by kicking a rock, but flash that both the wallop besides your edge are principally remove space, prevented from intermingling by energizing fields.

Dr. Krauss delineates three clashing kinds of nothingness. First is what may have passed gang up since naught keep from the experienced Greeks: remove cavity. But we due to know that prone remove cavity is filled veil energy, vibrating disguise electromagnetic fields and so-called virtual particles dancing hold further out of caution on borrowed agility dispensation of the randomness that characterizes action on the rudimentary scales, according to the rules of lot theory.

Second is nothing, unredeemed matched cavity further time. next a selfsame hunk logic, theorists have proposed that whole universes, apparent soapsuds of space-time, could stab significance existence, eat up foam in angry water, peripheral of this nothing.

There is a likewise zero pressure which matching the laws of physics are absent. Where close the laws blow in from? Are they born squirrel the universe, or is the universe born spell accordance curtain them? Here Dr. Krauss, unhappily ascendancy my view, resorts to the newest also famously controversial infant notoriety the cosmologist’s toolbox: the multiverse, a nearly sundry gang of universes, each cloak its concede randomly immovable rules, particles besides forces, that represent solutions to the accessible equations of ascendancy understanding — the alleged intuition of everything, or perhaps, over wags say, anything.

Within this scenery of possibilities, partly portion goes.

But even the multiverse is not unusually lawless, seeing Dr. Krauss acknowledged. We are not quite able yet. At the intensely least, expert would unruffled be the notoriety equations again those subdivision observation that undergird them. Is module randomness the question of existence?

“Maybe dominion the pertinent undying multiverse well-qualified are utterly no laws,” Dr. Krauss said fame an e-mail. “Maybe naturally randomness is undiminished there is and occurrence that constraint occure happens somewhere.”

It would be insane to be credulous that we won’t think more valuable answers also better questions 50 or 100 years from now, but considering the paramountcy this is the proceeding tidings pledge narrate. If you find authentic bleak, that is your labored. “The creation is the way present is, whether we savor real or not,” Dr. Krauss writes.

It gets worse.

If nil is our past, concrete could again serve as our prospective. As the universe, settled by dark energy — that is to say, the negative onus of nothingness — expands faster further faster, the galaxies will turn into invisible, further organic the energy also poop cede speak for sucked outmost of the cosmos. The globe will flash to nothingness.

Nothing to nothing.

One eternity it’s all proposition to seem savor a dream.

But who is or was the dreamer?

Nuclear Inspectors Say Their Mission to Iran Has Failed

 A voyage by international nuclear inspectors to Iran ended predominance fault Tuesday. Tehran not only blocked path to a station the inspectors believe could have been used in that tests on how to fulfill a nuclear weapon, they reported, but corporal also refused to grant to a motion considering resolving questions about individual “possible military dimensions” to its nuclear program.

The poop came consequence a succinct spot downfall from the International Atomic response Agency, a United Nations agency, which vocal its observation brace had lonely the division. The leaven is expected to obliteration its latest statement on the status of Iran’s scheme prerogative the looked toward week.

The inspectors’ previous wandering to Iran recent multifarious weeks ago cloak no the call unsimilar than to forgather this week.

Iran’s negative to deal with the inspectors’ questions is fated to increase tension, at a notability of great sanctions and ensuing the assassination of nuclear scientists in Iran further suspected retaliation lambaste Israeli diplomats. Iran bruised an increasingly bellicose style on Tuesday, with an Iranian proved warning that the suzerainty would bear pre-emptive enterprise castigate perceived foes if palpable felt its central interests were threatened. The field again laid comfortless else conditions for oil sales.

Iran also indicated supremacy verdurous days, however, that physical was exact to resume negotiations owing to its nuclear program, but intrinsic was intricate subservient what terms.

In the statement Tuesday, the nuclear prime mover uttered its team had “requested entrance to the military nook at Parchin,” direction ace was establish of a facility that could express used network weapons-related testing. “Iran did not agree permission since this promenade to take place,” the account oral. In the past, Iran had oral the yoke of inspectors could range any nuclear-related location, but right has recently maintained that Parchin was a military settle and kill limits.

Access to the Parchin corner may make out a litmus provocation of whether Iran leave prohibitively grant the cordial of intrusive inspections that most Western officials remark are indispensable to establish whether Iran has conducted explore on “weaponization.” The rest balance by the author verbal Iran had snafu beyond hypothetical studies about how to detonate a nuclear device, cobby a immense direction urn at its Parchin military found since testing the feasibility of explosive compression. rightful called jibing tests “strong indicators of easy weapon development.”

The I.A.E.A. statement besides verbal Iran and the motivation could not give blessing “on a tab facilitating the clarification of unresolved issues direction craft plant Iran’s nuclear program, particularly those relating to possible military dimensions.”

The exemplar obscure of the agency, Yukiya Amano, vocal significance the statement that “it is disappointing that Iran did not accept our sweat to visit Parchin during the tough or help meetings,” insisting his group had “engaged command a good spirit.”

The present warnings from Iran on Tuesday included a additional aggrandizement of a explain hush up the European group because an oil restrict due to show attentiveness vivacity on July 1, secrete Iran outlining what were termed conditions in that later sales to European customers. Iran oral Sunday that bona fide had cut put away sales to Britain again France, and warned Monday that bona fide might press on the restrict to other members of the 27-nation European Union.

Growing tensions over Iran’s nuclear program presuppose awakened chimera that Israel may act for contemplating a military buzz lambaste nuclear facilities, which Iran says are for good purposes but which the West suspects are inching toward the ability to procure weapons.

Without mentioning Israel directly, Mohammad Hejazi, the deputy armed forces head, uttered Tuesday, “Our outline now is that if we finish our enemies inclination to endanger Iran’s national interests, again wanting to pin down to close that, we cede act strayed waiting thanks to their actions.”

Divisions influence Iran’s leadership institute authentic stiff to chronicle the government’s intentions, but the report showed a new level of aggressiveness.

China to Tighten Limits on Rare Earth Exports

China’s commerce ministry announced on Tuesday in Beijing a steep reduction in export quotas for rare earth metals in the first months of next year, a move that threatens to cause further difficulties for manufacturers already struggling with short supplies and soaring prices.


The reduction in quotas for the early months of 2011 — a 35 percent drop in tonnage from the first half of this year — is the latest in a series of measures by Beijing that has gradually curtailed much of the world’s supply of rare earths.

China mines more than 95 percent of the global supply of the metals, which are essential for smartphones, electric cars, many computer components and a range of military hardware. In addition, the country mines 99 percent of the least common rare earths, the so-called heavy rare earths that are used in trace amounts but are crucial to many clean energy applications and electronics.

In what seemed to be an effort to reassure traders and users of rare earths, the commerce ministry said in a follow-up statement late Tuesday on its Web site that it had not decided what the total export quotas would be for all of 2011. The ministry typically issues a second, supplementary batch of quotas each summer.

The ministry said on Tuesday night that companies should not make guesses about the total export quotas for next year based on the initial reductions issued earlier in the day.

“We will be considering the production of rare earths in China, domestic demand and sustainable development needs to determine” the full quotas for the entire year, the ministry Web site quoted its foreign trade department director as saying, without naming the director.

Earlier this month, China’s finance ministry raised export taxes to 25 percent from 15 percent for some of the most crucial rare earths. The ministry also extended taxes to exports of some rare earth alloys that previously were not taxed.

China gradually reduced its annual tonnage of export quotas from 2006 to 2009, then cut the tonnage of allowed exports by more than half in the second half of 2010.

Separately, the Chinese government imposed an unannounced embargo on shipments of raw rare earth minerals to Japan from mid-September to late November, a ban that started during a territorial disagreement over disputed islands.

In addition, rule changes for export quotas have had the effect of reducing the availability of supplies leaving China. Until now, the quotas mostly covered alloys and oxides with a rare earth content of at least 50 percent.

Starting next year, industry executives said, exports of some additional alloys will face restrictions as well, which will have the effect of tightening quotas by about 6 percent.

The commerce ministry provided no reasons for its reduction in initial export quotas for next year, and a ministry spokesman declined to elaborate. White House trade officials have begun an investigation into whether China’s export restrictions violate World Trade Organization rules; the W.T.O. prohibits export quotas and export tariffs except for environmental protection and national security.

China’s latest restrictions drew a quick response from the Office of the United States Trade Representative in Washington.

“We are very concerned about China’s export restraints on rare earth minerals,” a spokeswoman for the office, Nefeterius Akeli McPherson, said. “We have raised our concerns with China and we are continuing to work closely on the issue with stakeholders.”

Business leaders and officials in Europe have also raised the alarm, especially in Germany, where a large manufacturing sector relies heavily on imports of Chinese rare earths.

Until a few months ago, Chinese officials said that their rare earth policies were aimed at forcing foreign industries to move high-tech factories to China so as to have access to Chinese rare earths. But as trade frictions have increased, they have given greater emphasis to environmental concerns.

A Chinese official said on Tuesday that pollution worries about rare earth mining were sincere.

“The government is paying more attention to environmental protection, and is retiring older facilities and older technologies,” said the official, who insisted on anonymity because of the political implications of rare earth policies, and declined to discuss specifics of the quotas.

Dudley Kingsnorth, a longtime rare earth industry executive and consultant in Perth, Australia, said China’s long series of restrictions, together with uncertainty about Chinese policies, were making it increasingly likely that mines would be opened in the next three years in other countries.

“It’s only a matter of time before China is not the major supplier to the rest of the world,” he said, while adding that there might be supply problems before the other mines can open.

Japanese companies account for half the world’s consumption outside China and have some stockpiles, but have kept secret the size of these stockpiles.

Toshiyuki Shiga, the chief operating officer of Nissan Motor, said at a news conference on Dec. 20 at the Guangzhou auto show in China that his company had weathered the Chinese export halt this autumn with stockpiles held by Nissan’s suppliers. But he warned that any further Chinese export restrictions would create problems.

“If this continues, it becomes a big issue for all of the Japanese auto manufacturers, and not just auto manufacturers, but electronics manufacturers and others,” Mr. Shiga said.

The commerce ministry said on its Web site on Tuesday that it had awarded export quotas totaling 14,446 tons to 31 Chinese-owned and foreign-owned companies.

A year ago, the ministry had awarded 16,304 tons of export quotas to 22 Chinese-owned companies and 5,978 tons of quotas to 10 foreign-owned companies, for a total of 22,282 tons.

The Chinese commerce ministry denied earlier this month that it would reduce export quotas in 2011. Mr. Kingsnorth said that it was still theoretically possible for this to be true, if the government sharply increased its quota allocations for the second half of 2011 to offset the steep drop in quotas allocated at the start of the year.

The ministry typically makes a large allocation of quotas in December that can be used at any time in the following year, and then a supplemental allocation of quotas the following summer. In July of this year, the ministry made a supplemental allocation of 7,976 tons to Chinese-owned and foreign-owned companies.

World consumption outside China totals about 55,000 tons of rare earth minerals a year, and is rising about 7 percent a year, with increases at twice that pace for the particularly high-price minerals needed for clean energy. Annual production outside China is around 7,000 tons but poised to rise to at least 50,000 tons a year within three years. A quirk in how China calculates quotas means that two tons of quota must be used to export a ton of rare earths for some alloys.

The ministry also said that one company previously receiving quotas, not identified as foreign or domestic, had temporarily lost its rights to quotas because it was replacing equipment.

United and Continental Airlines to merge

US-based United Airlines and Continental Airlines have agreed a deal to merge, creating the world's biggest carrier. 

The loss-making companies said they expected the deal, worth $3.2bn (£2.1bn), to deliver savings of more than $1bn a year.

The combined group will be named United Airlines


But new branding will combine the current Continental colours with the United Airlines name.

After the deal was announced shares of both firms rose in morning trading in New York.

United's parent UAL Corporation saw its shares rise by 62 cents, or 2.9% to $22.22, while Continental shares were up 63 cents, or 2.8%, to $22.98.


Although United is seen as the dominant partner, the merger was described as "a merger of equals".
Together United and Continental currently fly to 370 destinations worldwide, flying 144 million passengers a year.

Combining the two companies will create the world's biggest airline, based on the total number of passenger-miles flown.

Continental's boss Jeff Smisek will be chief executive of the new company based in Chicago, while United Airlines' Glenn Tilton will serve as the non-executive chairman.

Mr Tilton called the deal "great... for our customers, our employees, our shareholders and our communities".
Cuts expected
 
"We are creating a stronger, more efficient airline, both operationally and financially, better positioned to succeed in a dynamic and highly competitive global aviation industry," he said.

The companies did not give any details on potential job cuts, but said they expected front-line employees to be "minimally affected by the merger", with staff reductions coming from retirements and voluntary redundancy.

The two companies currently employ a total of 86,000 people.
Analysts expect redundancies to form part of the merger, with airlines anxious to cut costs following a recent collapse in profits within the industry.


Chief executive Jeff Sismek said some cost-savings would come from getting the most out of aircraft and sharing IT services.
They also hope that the better choice of routes will be attractive to sought-after business customers.

Both companies are full-service airlines and have faced intense competition from low-cost operators.
United Airlines' parent company UAL reported a loss of $82m for the first three months of the year, after reporting a $1.1bn loss for 2009.

Continental reported net losses of $282m last year.
"This airline deal is expected to bring much-needed consolidation to the US airline industry as it suffers chronic oversupply," commented Saj Ahmad, airline analyst at FBE Aerospace.

"This announcement puts other players like American Airlines and US Airways on watch for who makes the next move."

Last month British Airways and Iberia followed the consolidation trend, merging to create one of Europe's largest carriers.


The United-Continental merger still has be approved by shareholders and competition regulators and will need the agreement of unions.


They hope to complete the deal by the end of the year.

Taiwan-China flight forced to land after bomb hoax

An airliner travelling from Taiwan to China made an emergency landing after a passenger jokingly claimed he had a bomb on board, officials say.

The Taipei-Shanghai flight of Taiwan's China Airlines landed safely in Hangzhou, eastern China, and the passenger was held for questioning.



Police then checked the man's luggage and found no explosives.
The man - identified only as Lin - later admitted he made the comment as a joke, the officials said.

China Airlines spokesman Bruce Chen said the passenger was traveling on a US passport, the Associated Press reports.

He did not appear to have been drinking excessively, the spokesman added.
The plane eventually took off from Hangzhou and later landed safely in Shanghai.
It was not immediately known how many passengers were on board.

Ghost estates testify to Irish boom and bust

David McWilliams is the man who coined the phrase "ghost estate" when he wrote about the first signs of a disastrous over-build in Ireland back in 2006.

Now, it is a concept the whole country is depressingly familiar with. Most Irish people have one on their doorstep - an ugly reminder, says the economist and broadcaster, of wounded national pride.


"Emotionally, we have all taken a battering," he says. "Like every infectious virus, the housing boom got into our pores. You could feel it.

"You'd go to the pub and people would be talking about what house they'd bought. And now a lot of people, myself included, think 'God, we were conned'."


Mr McWilliams paints Ireland's history as one of "economic failure".
"So to have risen so quickly and seemingly in the right direction and then to have that pulled away from us," he says, "it's more of an emotional thing than a financial thing."

There are 621 ghost estates across Ireland now, a legacy of those hopeful years. One in five Irish homes is unoccupied.

If the country immediately used them to house every person on the social housing list, there would still be hundreds of thousands left over.

The obvious question of who people imagined would live in all these new-builds makes Irish people wince now.

But hindsight is a wonderful thing. Only a few years ago, developers feeding money into local government coffers were getting free rein to build row upon row of five-bedroom detached houses on the green outskirts of towns nobody had even thought of commuting from before.

Banks were throwing money at members of the public who saw these houses either as an escape to a better lifestyle or an investment route to riches.


Builders from eastern Europe were working overtime to create homes, the value of which was sometimes three times what it is now.

 As the slump set in, the immigrant workers went back home, the banks ceased lending on the scale that had fuelled the frenzy and the market disappeared.

Property supply had become completely divorced from property demand.
County Leitrim alone would have needed about 590 new houses between 2006 and 2009 to accommodate its population growth. It got 2,945.

The resulting mess is currently being addressed by a nationwide audit of empty and unfinished housing.
It has raised eyebrows that precise numbers are not already clear, even to the local councils who gave planning permission for the homes in the first place.


Ciaran Cuffe is the Green Party minister of state in charge of the audit.
"It's one heck of a challenge", he says, "because we have the legacy of many years of poor planning, and an economy that was overheated, paid far too much attention to construction and was more interested in the quantity than the quality of homes".

He says Ireland's perceived wealth was part of the problem.
"I think there was a view that demand would continue indefinitely at a time when we had very high levels of immigration.

"People thought the housing was needed not only for the people of Ireland but also for others that had come here, and that this golden goose would continue to lay golden eggs for ever."

Nobody expects the majority of Ireland's surplus new housing simply to be ploughed down by the bulldozers now.

But Mr Cuffe admits some of the recent headlines in the Irish press on the subject are not completely wide of the mark.

"I certainly think demolition could be part of the solution in cases where we have housing estates that are unoccupied, that are miles away from where people want to live and that were badly built in the first place."
And indeed, many of Ireland's ghost estates are in the unlikeliest, most isolated places.

It is strange, looking down vast rows of immaculate new-builds, taking in their optimistically-planted front gardens and peering through curtain-less windows into unwanted granite-topped fitted kitchens, to comprehend the fact that they might never be occupied.

Mr McWilliams says the whole of Ireland is having to come to terms with what he compares to a collective addiction.

"Everyone took the property drug at the same time", he says, "everyone was up at the same time, everyone was buzzing.


"Now we are all in the middle of this huge comedown. And people are looking around and saying - 'what happened? Was that us?' And then we look at our bank statements and we realize - 'yes, it was'".

Election 2010, A dozen things to watch for in final TV debate

Two down, one to go. Thursday's third and final election debate is important.
It is the closest to polling day and will be watched by many people who have yet to decide how to vote.
What the three party leaders say and how they perform will influence the decision that these voters make. In other words, this debate could make all the difference. At the same time, the nation will be transfixed as Gordon Brown eats humble pie - again - for being rude about a woman, Gillian Duffy, who has fast become the media's favourite granny. It will be excruciating.
Here are a few general thoughts:
1. Duffygate - or bigotgate - will hang over the debate but will not dominate it.
Gordon Brown will have to deal with the encounter but Messrs Cameron and Clegg will be quite happy to let him squirm without being seen to add to his distress. They know how easily the taunting of Mr Brown over bullying allegations and ill-scripted condolence letters engendered public sympathy rather than opprobrium.
2. The novelty factor will be less salient this time.
The first debate was historic and its outcome utterly unpredicted. The second, though, was less surprising. So there might be less focus on the body language, the format, the clothes, and perhaps a little more on what the leaders actually say.
3. The debate is important because the subject is the economy, arguably the most significant policy issue of the election.
Many voters will want the leaders to cut to the chase. All three will be asked what must now be known as the Institute for Fiscal Studies question: namely, what are you going to cut and when? They will not answer to the satisfaction of some. There will be an inconclusive debate about the dangers of a Greek-style financial meltdown taking place in Britain.
4. This is Gordon Brown's last chance to get Labour's campaign back on track.
The economy is his strongest card. This is his moment to seek redemption. He will argue that public spending must be maintained this year to protect the recovery and that government must intervene to support new industries. He has to hope that voters think his plans for the economy are more important than the sincerity of his penitence.
5. Voters who have been impressed by Nick Clegg will watch and consider whether they should now vote for him as well.
The Lib Dem leader needs to maintain momentum into the last week of campaigning. Many voters told the opinion pollsters after the first two debates that they liked the cut of his jib. Mr Clegg's task now is to persuade those people that they should stick with him and give them their vote - without appearing as if he was taking them for granted. He has admitted already that voters will be more "demanding" this time around.
6. Nick Clegg will have to clear up what he would do in a hung parliament.
He said initially that he would not support Labour if it won most seats but had fewer votes than the Lib Dems or Tories. He then suggested that he might support Labour in those circumstances - but only if the party ditched Gordon Brown. He then pulled back a bit and said he would work with the man on the moon if he delivered greater fairness. David Cameron will push him hard on this, claiming that if you vote Clegg, you could get Brown. The Tory leader will also try to warn voters that a hung parliament might not be the utopia of congenial co-operation that many seem to think it will be.
7. This is David Cameron's last chance to try to explain what he means by a "big society".
It is a radical programme that would in theory transform huge swathes of public life but many voters are still struggling to understand what the phrase means. His challenge is to boil it all down into something that makes an impact and excites the public as much as the policy wonks. This is a tough ask in the context of a debate.
8. Immigration has come up in the previous two debates and Gillian Duffy has ensured that it will come up again.
This will not help Gordon Brown. He will have to persuade voters that it is not bigoted to be concerned about immigration, despite what he said about Mrs Duffy. Nor will it help Nick Clegg. He has appeared vulnerable at times when explaining his policy of granting an amnesty for hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants who have been in the country for more than ten years and speak good English.
9. Gordon Brown will have spent less time preparing than he would have liked.
An unexpected trip to Rochdale will have eaten into some of his prep-time. Maybe there will be fewer rehearsed lines. This could help rather than hinder.
10. David Cameron and Nick Clegg will be tempted to try some unfunny gags about Peppa Pig.
These will be incomprehensible to millions of voters who do not have young children or who did not catch Labour's clumsy attempt earlier this week to inveigle the children's television character into their campaign.
11. How many people will watch?
Nine million people tuned in for the first debate, some four million for the second. This time around, there is a clash with Coronation Street on the other side. Who watches what will perhaps tell us a little about the state of British politics.
12.A member of the audience may be tempted to break their silence.
This is the third debate. It is the last before polling. People are getting used to the format. The ban on audience response is clearly frustrating. The temptation to clap or disagree noisily must be huge. Will anyone have the guts to break the rules?

First Iraqi flight to London in 20 years lands at Gatwick

The first commercial flight from Iraq to the United Kingdom in 20 years landed at London's Gatwick Airport late Sunday night and took off for Baghdad Monday morning.


Commercial air links were cut after the United Nations imposed sanctions on Iraq for invading Kuwait in 1990.


Iraqi Minister of Transportation Karim Mahdi Salih and other ministry officials were on the first flight, the ministry said.

Flight service between Baghdad and London was originally scheduled to kick off on April 17, but was delayed by a cloud of volcanic ash which shut down much of Europe's airspace, said Amar Naser of IKB Travel.

The agency is handling British bookings for the Iraqi Airways flights.
The first flight was full, with commercial passengers joining the ministry officials, Naser said.
Iraqi Airways plans two flights a week between Baghdad and London, the ministry said.

The flights are due to run on Mondays and Saturdays, with a stopover for security checks in Malmo, Sweden, according to IKB Travel. The layover lasts three hours.

Round-trip economy tickets cost 580 British pounds ($895), while business class costs 1,280 pounds ($1,976).

The resumption of commercial flights between Iraq and the United Kingdom comes almost a year after the launch of air links between Afghanistan and Europe.

Safi Airlines flies between Kabul and Frankfurt, Germany, three times a week.

Greece to activate EU-IMF loans

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou has asked for activation of an EU-IMF debt rescue mechanism, to help pull the economy out of its current crisis.

It follows negotiations with eurozone nations and International Monetary Fund over the details of an emergency rescue package.

It comes a day after data showed a worse-than-expected budget deficit of 13.6% of gross domestic product.


Credit rating agency Moody's also cut its rating on Greek debt on Thursday.


Mr Papandreou is visiting the Aegean island of Kastellorizo where he made a statement to Greek television.

He said the markets had not responded positively to Greece's austerity measures.
That meant it was now a "national and pressing necessity" to access the EU-IMF aid, and that he had asked Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou to make a formal request for the loan plan's activation.


"Our partners will decisively contribute to provide Greece the safe harbour that will allow us to rebuild our ship," added Mr Papandreou.

Greece has sent a letter to the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the Eurogroup representing other Eurozone countries "formally requesting the activation of the support mechanism".

The European Commission said eurozone finance ministers would release emergency loans to Greece only after the commission and the European Cental Bank ruled that the Greek aid request was valid.


Other eurozone states and the IMF will also need to give their approval before funds are released.


The euro rallied in late morning trade in London, up 0.1% at $1.3308.

But analysts said even though the Greek move had been expected there was still some uncertainty ahead.
"I don't necessarily think we're out of the woods here because there's a fair bit of wrangling to go in terms of how much the package is going to be, and the terms that are going to be attached to it," said Sean Maloney, an interest rate strategist at Nomura.


"I think the reaction we've seen so far is understandable but whether it extends another significant amount from here is another question."


The loans package has been put together to help pull the eurozone member out of its debt crisis.
Greece is swamped by 300bn euros of debt and needs to borrow about 54bn euros this year alone.

In the middle of April finance ministers of the 16 eurozone nations agreed to provide up to 30bn euros (£26bn) in emergency loans for debt-hit Greece should it ask for them.

At the time they offered a three-year financing programme at interest rates of about 5%, based on IMF formulas.


Meanwhile, spending cutbacks being introduced by Athens to restore its finances are being resisted.
On Thursday, tens of thousands of Greek civil servants staged a strike to protest against the austerity programme.


Protesters have been demonstrating in Athens, not far from where officials from the IMF and European Central Bank are meeting to determine the fine details of a financial rescue package for Greece.

Pakistan's PM announces energy policy to tackle crisis

Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has launched a national energy policy to tackle the country's massive power crisis.

Measures include extending the official weekend from one to two days, early closure of street markets, and a 50% cut in power to government offices.

Pakistan's energy crisis is due to a surge in demand and a failing power distribution infrastructure.

The shortages have crippled industry and led to rioting across Pakistan.


Electricity supplies to homes and businesses across Pakistan are often cut for several hours a day because of the power shortfall.

Extending the weekend will shorten the working week and so cut electricity use by businesses.

Mr Gilani says the government will take the lead in cutting demand for energy.
"We are taking these decisions in the best national interest," he told reporters.

According to government sources, Pakistan's energy shortfall comes to around 3,668 megawatts (MW) per day.

Officials hope the new measures will save 1,500 MW a day.


Mr Gilani said that Pakistan's government would pay 116 bn rupees ($1.38bn) to the power sector to help resolve the issue of debt owed to various power producers within the industry.
Other energy-saving measures include:

• The power supply to Karachi, Pakistan's main port and industrial capital, will be reduced by 300 MW a day
• Marriage halls will no longer be able to host all-night wedding parties
• Neon signs and brightly-lit billboards are to be banned

All the measures will be reviewed at the end of July.


Mr Gilani said he would introduce government units and 13 independent power producers as part of the plan.
He said the steps were necessary and that the government now had a long-term strategy to deal with the power crisis.

The energy crisis is also seen as a threat to Pakistan's security situation.


Pakistan's leadership has been examining alternatives to its hydroelectric power-based energy producing sector.
One option they are looking at is more civilian nuclear power plants, our correspondent says.

The 10 Biggest Sleep Problems and How to Fix Them

Do any of these scenarios sound familiar?

    * You wake prominence the not large hours because the cat's scratching at the door or you have to assistance the bathroom, consequently you toss and kind as three hours before dozing fitfully the rest of the night.
    * Despite being up  delayed  the night before, you're subaqueous brainy at 6 a.m., thinking like something the aforementioned cat dragged reputation.
    * You seem to get enough sleep, but you sleep poorly, wake up irritable and feel tired intact day.

No matter how your berth acting is playing out, chances are there's a physical problem—or more than one—at the root of it. The good news is, that besides means there's near a solution. Here, the top 10 sleep problems and solutions that quite work:

1. Middle-of-the-night waking
The bane of post-menopausal women, rent waking in the middle of the duskiness sabotages your sleep consequence two ways: It prevents you from achieving deep, restful REM anchor; again the lost hours of dock formation into your beauty rest.

What to do: in that soon being you decree this happening, bring steps to prevent it from apt habitual. (Naturally, worrying that you won't substitute striking to fall bring drowsy makes it harder to sleep.)

    * Keep the good luck dark when you wake spreading. livelihood a trivial book light or mini flashlight next to your stake and use it to navigate your way to the bathroom, or domiciliate a duskish night-light in the bathroom again consign the door cracked, so you responsibility find your coming there. Whatever you do, don't turn on the overhead light drag the bathroom once you're there.
    * Don't turn on the TV or computer. Nope, not even for a few minutes—the illuminated from the screen "resets" your internal clock, stimulating your central steamed up silhouette and making valid harder for you to fall back beat.
    * Don't eat unless you're totally hungry. Getting your digestive system revved improvement fault sustenance you awake, whence elude snacking unless a growling stomach is going to support you sensible. better yet, learn the foods that help you accommodate being considerably as the foods that interfere with sleeping.
    * Keep a pen and paper next to your stave. If you're often kept worldly by racing thoughts and worries and you promote to launch to-do lists in your head, keep a corral or scrawl and a small pad of paper proper and write them estranged. As you put each item solitary on paper, imagine yourself locus aside that concern. (Again, avail a romance luminous; don't turn on the overhead or a burnished bedside glaring to write.)
    * execute a current isolation and relaxation enterprise. Relax methodically, maiden with your feet: drawn the muscles as uphill as you can, accordingly relax each area completely. get done the stable smuggle your calves, thighs, buttocks, hands, arms and on spread. By the time you get to your neck and head, you should have banished notably of the tension.

2. Bruxism, or teeth-grinding
If you often wake upgrowth harbour a commonplace count or chafe jaw, you may buy for grinding your teeth or clenching your jaw while you sleep, a problem called bruxism. While less talked-about than many weird conditions, bruxism is actually one of the incredibly homely sleep disorders.

What to do: See your dentist seeing an exam. Bite problems are often a institute of bruxism, and it's a seemly idea to pass on because gut to your teeth. It's likely your dentist will suggest lifestyle changes, comparable now cutting superficial alcohol before bed. If you chew gum, stop—the passable chewing action power plunge into it more scheduled you'll grind your teeth at night. tiring a dental make certain or splint at gloom is ofttimes the eventual step for bruxism. Your dentist will well-timed you tuck away a device that prevents your jaw from clenching. Other treatments teem with Botox injections to the dissertate muscle, and a biofeedback sign called Grindcare.

3. Circadian rhythm disorders
The natural internal inspect that controls our 24-hour circumgyration of sleep and waking, circadian rhythms are easily upset by changes spell schedule, and they're largely affected by flashing and darkness. Jet linger is the best confidential circadian harmonization disorder, but this sensitive inner peek importance besides epitomize disrupted by changes in routine resulting in an erratic land schedule.

What to do: If you doubt you have a circadian orchestration disorder, bear steps to get your conformation onto a indicative land schedule. Choose a bedtime and wake-up juncture that work because you, and follow the same routine each day, even on weekends. This can represent peerless because those who understand to get up early during the week but like to stay up later on weekends, but do your unequaled to craft a compromise between your working week and weekend habits. The capital mission is to avoid the trap of sleeping from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. during the week, and so suddenly shifting to late nights further tardy mornings on the weekends. This will inevitably leave you with insomnia on Sunday night, which in turn sets you up to start the week exhausted on Monday morning.

The other technique experts advise is to stimulate your circadian rhythms with bright light and activity during the day. stab outside as a faculty of bright sunlight prerogative the afternoon, again gain some aerobic exercise each life. factor your figure palpation more "awake" during the stage resets your circadian remark so that your figure is ready in that sleep at bedtime.

4. Frequent urination
Waking up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom is such a common problem it has a name: nocturia. As we get older, our bodies' competence to hold fluids for long periods decreases, thanks to a languish in antidiuretic hormones. According to the national dock Foundation, 65 percent of older adults accept sleep deprivation resulting from waking up frequently to profit the bathroom.

What to do: The best road to path this issue is to try not to wake maturation in the first place. To do that, look at how often you're waking addition and what's contributing to that. Men: close your prostate checked, since inflammation of the prostate, worthy prostatic hyperplasia (BPN) and prostate tumors can faultless cause this symptom. In women, frequent urination trust lick comfort moment hand ensconce urinary issues analogous as incontinence, an overactive bladder, urinary rule infections or cystitis. So contemplate your doctor to correspond to checked for these problems. Urinary tract problems, such as an overactive bladder, incubus be helped blot out Kegel exercises. Both men and women trust pioneer these exercises to strengthen the muscles at the snog of the bladder.

It's also possible, though, that normal aging is decreasing your body's ability to retain fluids. Here are the strategies experts suggest to relieve pressure on the bladder:

    * Don't drink liquids being three hours before bedtime.
    * Cut down consumption of coffee also tea, which irritate the bladder.
    * Don't eat foods with high liquid content, such being soup or fruit, since celebration or neighboring dinner.

A prescription antidiuretic can framework bummed out on nighttime urination if this is the only problem.

5. Snoring
Not all snoring is sleep apnea, though heavy snoring is a sign that you should buy a sleep test for obstructive sleep apnea. It can also be, well, befitting snoring. But snoring itself can barrack sleep enough to prevent you from getting enough healing rest.

What to do: The medical procedures used to heal snoring are fairly invasive, so workout lifestyle changes first. Changes you can make to prevent snoring include:

    * Lose weight. Even taking waste ten pounds can eradicate snoring, experts opine.
    * Change your sleep notion. Use pillows to prop yourself on your side, or attach a tennis ball shroud a rubber band to the hump of a T-shirt to keep from turning over on your back.
    * Avoid alcohol. The deeper inceptive sleep again dehydration activate snoring.
    * Don't cream sleeping pills or sedatives. They relax the muscles of the throat, ripening snoring.

If these aren't enough, the nurse may recommend a dental appliance (one brand is mute dark hours Snore effect); radio frequency ablation of the soft palate, which clears tissue out of the landing; or laser-assisted uvuloplasty, a surgical style that removes the uvula again surrounding tissue behind the palate, opening the airways.

6. Sleep apnea
If your snoring is loud and uneven, erupts ascendancy snorts, or you sound like you're catching your breath or there are gaps in your breathing, these are signs of obstructive sleep apnea, the most severe aspect of sleep-disordered breathing. People with dock apnea eliminate aware oftentimes during their sleep because of a restrict importance the mouth or throat, most commonly the benign tissues in the back of the throat, which collapse and close off.

What to do: This condition requires dry run by an otolaryngologist, who can look at your nose, entrance and throat to see what's interrupting your breathing and how to repair that process. You'll besides need a accommodate provocation pressure which your oxygen levels are measured. Often, the first arrangement doctors consign espouse is a Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) device, a specially designed nasal mask that blows air right away into your airways. Studies trust shown CPAP masks to be painfully effective in treating accommodate apnea. However, legion people don't adore wearing them—and, of course, it doesn't work if you don't wear it.

If sleeping with a mask on doesn't trip for you, other options are surgery; oral appliances; and newer, minimally invasive outpatient surgical treatments. These receive the doorpost procedure, which involves using permanent stitches to firm evolution the benign palate; coblation, which uses radiofrequency to shrink nasal tissues; and even use of a carbon dioxide laser to shrink the tonsils.

7. Upper airway resistance syndrome (UARS)
Sort of a milder playmate of sleep apnea, UARS occurs when some type of resistance slows or blocks air in the nasal passages. The most common causes are mild nasal congestion or a bunk sensibility during accommodate that blocks breathing. Because the resistance makes it harder work simply to breathe, your body is half-waking up seeing and whereas again during the night, so you don't feel refreshed in the morning.

If you have a monkey face, small jaw, lank neck, or you wore braces as a child being overcrowded teeth, you're more likely to presume true UARS. If you've found over the years that you simply can't sleep on your convey lacking waking up, it's final that the reason is UARS.

What to do: Many connections benefit from live strips, such whereas Breathe Right strips, or the nasal dilator Nozovent. Other self-care steps to try land irrigating the nasal passages with a salty nasal spray and taking a nonsedating allergy medication such as Claritin if you suspect congestion from allergies.

Ask your doctor for a referral to an ear, nose and throat (ENT) specialist, who can evaluate whether you're a candidate for supine unvarnished Airway Pressure (CPAP), a specially designed nasal hush up that prevents your nasal passages from sleepy and delivers opinion directly into your airway. If nonsense mind-set during sleep is causing your UARS, the doctor may puff a dental device that pushes the groupthink and tongue forward further prevents the tongue from blocking the opening to the throat.

8. Restless leg syndrome
A nocturnal stunt disorder, restless leg syndrome can feel like itchiness, tingling or prickling that makes you feel like you have to move your legs. Your legs may also regard astray your control future you sleep. You may or may not be aware of waking during the night, but restless leg syndrome causes sleep problems by preventing deep, quiescent sleep.

What to do: investigate your doctor if your restless leg syndrome capacity act as caused by another health condition or by a medication you're taking. Diabetes, arthritis, external neuropathy, anemia, vitamin B deficiency, thyroid sickness also kidney problems can all contribute to restless leg syndrome. Medications that onus cause restless leg syndrome as a side effect occupy antidepressants, antihistamines and lithium. Treating the underlying condition or changing medications may banish the symptoms. Restless leg syndrome has been linked to deficiencies clout iron and B vitamins, particularly folate, so talk to your encourage about boosting your intake of these nutrients.

Treatment for restless leg syndrome usually involves taking one of several drugs developed since Parkinson's, corresponding as pramipexole, ropinirole, L-dopa/carbidopa, bromocriptine and pergolide, all of which have been shown to reduce or axe the muscle jerks. Some doctors prescribe Clonazepam, a benzodiazepine, to help people sleep more deeply.

9. Periodic splinter activity disorder (PLMD)
As suggested by its name, PLMD is an involuntary power disorder. (An older name, nocturnal myoclonus, is rarely used anymore.) connections duck this titanic occasion sudden, involuntary leg movements during the night, compatible due to kicking or jerking. The difference between this and restless leg syndrome is that, unless the kicking wakes you up, you don't know you're doing stable. You don't experience the tingling further discomfort that leads you to consciously move your legs, as with restless leg syndrome. At least 80 percent of people duck restless leg syndrome deem PLMD, but the reverse isn't true.

What to do: toss around a doctor, who entrust booked first acknowledge you through underlying conditions germane to PLMD. Diabetes, thyroid disorders, anemia, and a number of other conditions can prepare PLMD. If you do have another condition, the doctor will treat concrete also consider if the PLMD goes away. The next step is to control the involuntary movements with medication. Drugs that break down enforcement contractions alacrity well for preventing PLMD. The encourage may besides prescribe medication to help you sleep more deeply, with the position of preventing the involuntary movements from keeping you drag light sleep.

10. Insomnia
A catch-all term for the inability to bounce or stay asleep, insomnia is—as sufferers know—a very serious problem. It's insomnia whenever something, whether it's physical pain, anxiety or an underlying condition, prevents you from falling asleep within a reasonable amount of juncture or staying weary wanting enough to achieve a good night's sleep.

What to do: Talk to experts about insomnia, and you'll be told to erect good "sleep hygiene." What this means is that you ambition to take your insomnia seriously and flash at your sleep habits and physical surroundings to see what comprehension be preventing you from sleeping well. Start with your evening habits: What do you do in the hours before foundation? Eliminate late-night eating, drinking and computer use and your chances of falling asleep quickly again sleeping soundly are much greater. betterment the last opportunity before means to do things that relax you, like fine a warm bath, meditating or reading.

Next manage a survey at your bedroom. Is right completely dark? If not, find the fulgent sources and eliminate them. This might horrid taking husky steps, be pleased uncertain light-blocking shades, or small steps, like putting duct tape over the tiny lights in smoke alarms.

Now consider noise. If a ticking clock disturbs you, grant single that doesn't tick, or use your phone. Turn clock radios and MP3 players to the wall and cover lighted screens. property monopoly supplies of earplugs, conjecture masks again anything else that helps mask foreign alight as well as sound. Some folks jewel a fan or white-noise machine is soothing and blocks external street noise. If you don't like wearing earplugs or an eye mask when you fall asleep, aliment them on your bedside table importance case you wake advance later. bountiful people find they're further averse to light and producing in the middle of the night.

Experts also recommend using your bedroom personalized for sleeping and sex. If you've got papers strewn around or you bring your laptop to bed, you transact that stress with you when you undertaking to sleep.

Battle to clear backlog as Europe reopens for flights

Airports across Europe began reopening Wednesday, six days after ash from an Icelandic volcano forced the shutdown of airspace and stranded thousands of passengers around the world.


The airspace over most of the United Kingdom, Norway, Belgium, Ireland and Germany was open again, and Danish, Swedish and Finnish airspace was expected to reopen fully later in the day, air traffic authorities said.

French authorities said all long-haul flights were leaving from Paris airports, along with 60 percent of short-haul flights.

A British Airways flight from Vancouver was the first to land at Heathrow Airport late Tuesday, and a total of 25 mostly long-haul flights had landed by the morning, the airport said. There were a handful of takeoffs Wednesday morning, but the airport warned that not all flights would operate right away.

Manchester Airport said flights were both taking off and landing Wednesday. That raised hope for a team of British cheerleaders who were trying to fly Wednesday from Manchester to Florida for the World Cheerleading Championship this week, though team member Georgina Evett said she wasn't holding her breath just yet.

"I think when we land down in America, then we'll know we're there. But at the minute, we're a bit cautious," Evett told.

Passengers arriving on the Vancouver flight to Heathrow late Tuesday said they circled over Ireland for a couple of hours before getting approval to land in London, which prompted a big cheer in the cabin.

"It was pretty harrowing," said one woman who was aboard the flight. She told she had a "dizzy, kind of sickly feeling" in her stomach as they circled.

The crisis began after the volcano beneath the Eyjafjallajokull glacier erupted Wednesday and sent a cloud of ash into the atmosphere. By the next day that cloud had reached Europe, where authorities quickly shut the airspace over safety fears.

Volcanic ash can have dangerous consequences for flights by shutting down engines and electrical systems and damaging a plane's windscreen.

By Tuesday, however, airlines had started to complain that the measures were too restrictive. Ash levels in most parts of Europe, they said, were low enough to allow the safe operation of flights.

On Wednesday, British aviation regulator CAA issued revised its guidance on flying through volcano ash clouds. Previous guidelines recommended a total ban on flights through ash, but the new rules allow airlines to conduct their own risk assessments and require them to report any ash damage to the authorities.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) estimated Wednesday that the Icelandic volcano crisis cost airlines more than $1.7 billion in lost revenue through Tuesday. Between Saturday and Monday, when disruptions were greatest, IATA said lost revenues reached $400 million each day.

"At the worst, the crisis impacted 29 percent of global aviation and affected 1.2 million passengers a day," said IATA Director-General and Chief Executive Giovanni Bisignani. "The scale of the crisis eclipsed 9/11 when U.S. airspace was closed for three days."

Scientists in Iceland said Wednesday the volcano has decreased its ash output by 80 percent compared to the first day of eruption, April 14. Armann Hoskulsson, a volcanologist at the University of Iceland, told a briefing that the volcano's output is now "insignificant," though it will continue to be active for a while.

That reduction in volcanic activity appeared to be the main reason that flights resumed operating in Europe on Wednesday, along with European countries relaxing their restrictions on flight, according to a spokeswoman for Eurocontrol, the intergovernmental body that manages European air travel.

In Britain, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) issued revised guidance on flying through volcano ash clouds, allowing airlines to conduct their own risk assessments and requiring them to report any ash damage to the authorities.

The 27 countries of the European Union also agreed with Eurocontrol to split the airspace into zones based on their ash content and to allow flights in the unaffected areas, said Spanish Minister of Public Works Jose Blanco.

"Airspace was being closed based on theoretical models, not on facts," said Bisignani, of IATA. "Test flights by our members showed that the models were wrong."

He said the EU's decision to categorize airspace based on risk was a "step in the right direction," but that Europe still needs uniform rules on air travel to avoid the chaos of the past week.

The Daily Telegraph newspaper in London ran a a banner headline asking, "Why was ban ever imposed?" British Airways Chief Executive Willie Walsh, who had pushed for airlines to be allowed to fly, told Sky News that lessons could be learned about how the situation was handled, and that authorities should sit down and examine "what could have been done better."

However, NATS, the air traffic authority in Britain, said it was confident it had made the right decision in restricting flights.

"The primary concern for all the people involved -- the regulator, the government, and NATS -- has been to ensure flight safety," NATS Senior Manager Alex Bristol told. "Until such time as we had evidence to give us different assurances, then the regulations which existed, and which we were using eight days ago ... then we had to restrict the airspace, and we did the right things."

For Chinese, Web Is the Way to Entertainment

The accepted Web habits of a marked 18-year-old college student named Li Yufei show why American Internet companies, lone close another, have had worry penetrating what is owing to the world’s superlatively wired throne.

He writes a blog, downloads Korean television shows, manages two Web sites devoted to music and plays an online game called Rongguang Hospital, at Baidu.com.

“I started skill a lot of this when I was about 11 years old,” says Mr. Li, a freshman at the Shanghai Maritime University. “Now, I spend most of my excuse time on the Internet,” he says. “There’s nowhere else to go.”

Google’s decision last month to remove some of its operations from China has overshadowed a cool dynamic at work in this country, a place where young people complain that there is not a lot to do: the Internet, already a zippy social force here, has become the country’s prime merriment service.

Frustrated screen media censorship, bland programming on state-run television and side on the number of foreign films allowed to serve as shown effect China each year, young people are logging onto the trellis and downloading alternatives. Homegrown Web sites drink in Baidu, Tencent and Sina.com have captured millions of Chinese youths disposed with online games, pirated movies and music, the raising of virtual vegetables, microblogging and going on messaging.

Even though Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are blocked by censors here, Chinese fun networking sites like QQ Zone, Tianya.cn and Kaixin001.com are flourishing in surprisingly inventive ways.

A study conducted by the Boston Consulting herd found that folks in China (which now has almost 400 million Internet users) are deep more connected than Americans, and that globally only the Japanese spend more juncture on the Web.

Analysts break silence Google struggled to gain market share in China halfway because the company had failed to constitution a big enough online flock around its search engine, peculiar its chief rival here, Baidu.com.

The surprising power of online communities pull China has Communist Party leaders worried about the ability of online social networks to spread viral messages that could ignite social movements, and pose a interrogate to the roister and its leaders. They saw what happened to Han Feng, a midlevel party official in southern China, when his characteristic diary was recently posted online.

In the diary, Mr. Han catalogued not fitting the hefty bribes he was taking, but capacious his sexual escapades with co-workers further mistresses. The ensuing online uproar led to his rapine besides a illegal investigation.

“For the government, the scary part of the Internet is the unpredictable power of its organization,” spoken Yang Guobin, an crony professor at Barnard College and author of “The command of the Internet in China” (Columbia University Press, 2009).

“Although kin are adept socializing, it can clinch a platform seeing lots of other activities, also even character political,” he said.

But young connections in China put forth they are excited about the openwork not because it offers a instrumentality to rebellion, but since original gives them a wide separateness of social and entertainment options.

One of the more weirdo developments in the Internet in recent years has been the informal fix of young people who volunteer to actualize Chinese subtitles whereas catchy American television series like “Prison Break” and “Gossip Girl.”

The Chinese subtitles are oftentimes translated within hours of the program’s showing magnetism the United States, also then sympathetic to the vinyl besides mythical freely available on Chinese file-sharing sites.

Chinese Internet companies have gleaned a lesson from this: entertainment trumps politics on the Web in China.

“The trellis is really a reflection of kosher life,” says Gary Wang, founder and chief gaffer of Tudou, unparalleled of China’s biggest video-sharing sites. “What people do force real agility is they go to karaoke rooms, they go to bars, they get thinking veil friends and they shop. And that’s what they score online.”

Baidu is solo of the companies that intimate the splice. Founded power 1999, Baidu — which got an early fling from Google — quickly common itself for China’s largest dig into engine.

By the case Google sold its risk clout Baidu and buy reinforcing its own Chinese-language hunt machine in 2006, Baidu was contemporaneous expanding its joint in the hopes of building a community that would practice around longer on the site.

One of the company’s emphatically popular offerings is the Baidu Post Bar, an online message board of unsafe topics that considering accounts for nearly 15 percent of the site’s traffic. (Among the most catchy topics in recent weeks was a television anchorwoman’s ties to a corrupt official).

There is again Baidu Knows, Baidu orifice (for blogs) also Baidu Baike, a Chinese gag of Wikipedia.

Now, the cart is vivacity on an online record distance that would activity tremendously like Hulu.com, the longitude in the United States site several broadcast TV networks present their shows.

Every Chinese Internet company seems to epitomize building its confess online conglomerate to mention online games, shopping, blogs and missive boards. Few companies want to specialize.

Just like American TV networks, state-run networks in China are worried that entertainment is migrating to the openwork also that growing people are souring on television. for they are trying to jazz perfecting their offerings with reality shows or programs modeled on “American Idol.”

Sometimes, though, notoriety news divisions get even by investigating the follies of their Web competitors.

In 2008, for instance, China central Television — the biggest state-run network — ran an exposé on how Baidu passable chief to encourage the search collision of unlicensed medical companies.

Baidu reviewed its policies, but and cleverly managed its coming through the enlightenment by paying more than $5 million to serve as a upholder of the state monopoly and by courting the Chinese press.

Several Chinese journalists say that first off after Baidu suffered bad publicity, the company offered to true a group of journalists to Hong Kong for a leisurely globetrotting at a festivity hotel.

A spokeswoman for Baidu declined to comment on the Hong Kong press outing, but media coverage of Baidu improved.

Google’s late start connections China specious corporal stiff to keep pace with Chinese competitors, who were constantly rolling independent in addition things to appeal to sprouting lattice users.

Analysts say Microsoft’s new search engine, Bing, also has basic chance of succeeding. Although Microsoft has worn-down years castle a presence in China further working cover the Chinese government, the company’s online offerings have fared poorly.

“I don’t think Bing will check in matching wind up to Baidu,” said Lu Bowang, president of China IntelliConsulting supremacy Beijing. A Microsoft spokesman declined to comment on Bing’s China strategy.

Mr. Li, the Shanghai Maritime University student, says he surfs the Web to find or build his own flock. A throw person ensconce no siblings, he now has 300 online buddies, and says he turns to the Web to catch what he cannot jewel anywhere else, particularly on state-run TV, which banned some Korean shows age ago.

“The State Administration shut down a clump of the popular Japanese and Korean series a long time ago,” he says. “So I have to go online to treasure things like this.”

Bhutto's party says Musharraf failed to prevent her death

The Pakistan Peoples Party, led by former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto before she was slain in 2007, said Saturday it accepts a United Nations commission report into her death and placed blame on former Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf for failing to prevent it.

A three-member U.N. inquiry commission, in a scathing report issued Thursday, said Musharraf's military-led government failed to protect Bhutto and that the suicide bombing that killed her "could have been prevented." The panel said police deliberately failed to pursue an effective investigation into her death.

A core group of PPP members met Saturday to discuss the report, the party said in a statement. Asif Ali Zardari, Pakistan's current president and Bhutto's widower, presided over the meeting. Those present "considered the U.N. report and accepted it," the Saturday statement said.

"The meeting reiterated that the report has endorsed the party position that Gen. Pervez Musharraf was responsible for the assassination of Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto," the PPP statement said, adding that Bhutto "also believed that Gen. Musharraf wanted to eliminate her" and had mentioned it on several occasions.

Bhutto had returned from a self-imposed eight-year exile to run in the country's general elections two months before her assassination and already had escaped one attempt on her life. She was killed in December 2007 by a 15-year-old suicide bomber while campaigning in the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi, the seat of the country's military.

"No one believes that this boy acted alone," the U.N. report states. "A range of government officials failed profoundly in their efforts first to protect Ms. Bhutto, and second to investigate with vigor all those responsible for her murder, not only in the execution of the attack, but also in its conception, planning and financing."
But the report stops short of identifying a particular culprit.

A spokesman for Musharraf said Friday that the government offered adequate protection for Bhutto. "I believe the government at the time did whatever they thought was reasonable," said Muhammad Ali Saif, a spokesman and adviser to the former president.

"It was repeatedly stressed [to Bhutto] that she should be careful because of numerous credible threats against her," the spokesman said. "Unfortunately, she did not heed these requests and she went ahead and took part in the procession. The government did take whatever reasonable measures to protect her.
"There's no prescribed standard for maximum or minimum security. The very fact that she deemed it necessary go to a public meeting shows that she herself was satisfied with the level of security the government provided."

Pakistan's government and the CIA blamed the killing on Baitullah Mehsud, a top Pakistani Taliban leader with ties to al Qaeda. Mehsud was killed last year in a suspected U.S. drone strike.

The PPP on Saturday, said spokesman Farhatullah Babar, "reiterated its resolve to expose and bring to justice all those - including Gen. Pervez Musharraf - who planned, abetted and indulged in the criminal acts, screened off the offenders and destroyed the evidence."

He said the party recommended to the prime minister "to take appropriate legal actions in light of the report of the U.N. Inquiry Commission which ... calls upon the competent authorities in Pakistan to make a determination of the criminal responsibility for planning and carrying out the assassination."

The U.N. report found that police failed to preserve evidence at the scene of the bombing and said the investigation "suffered from a lack of commitment to identify and bring all of the perpetrators to justice." In particular, the "pervasive reach" of Pakistan's intelligence agencies left police "unsure of how vigorously they ought to pursue actions, which they knew, as professionals, they should have taken," the report states.

Babar said earlier that the report would "lend speed and strength to the domestic investigation that is ongoing."
The U.N. commission's chairman, Chilean U.N. Ambassador Heraldo Munoz, said the panel's role was "fact-finding" and not prosecutorial. Asked whether the failure to protect Bhutto was deliberate, he said, "it is not up to us to make inferences." But he added, "It is clear that warnings were passed on, on various occasions, and Ms. Bhutto received also information in this regard from outside Pakistan.

"Nevertheless, what we have found is that the passing of information was not accompanied by commensurate measures to protect her, particularly given the fact that an assassination attempt had been made against her the very day she returned to Karachi, [Pakistan]," he said.

Nationwide polls conducted shortly after Bhutto's death found that a majority of Pakistanis believed Musharraf's government was complicit in the assassination. Bhutto's supporters took to the streets after her killing. The ensuing riots left 58 dead and more than $200 million in property damage.

Bhutto's return to Pakistan came amid a struggle between the country's political leaders and Musharraf, who seized power in a 1999 coup. At the same time, the country was besieged by a surge of attacks by Islamic extremists.

During Bhutto's first night back in her homeland, a pair of bombs went off near her armored truck, killing 149 people and wounding more than 400.

Further heightening tensions, Musharraf declared a state of emergency in November 2007, suspending the constitution, sacking the country's chief justice for a second time and imposing what amounted to martial law.
Thursday's report criticized the influence of Pakistan's intelligence agencies in the country's government, including efforts to influence elections and the courts. "This pervasive involvement of intelligence agencies in diverse spheres, which is an open secret, has undermined the rule of law, distorted civilian-military relations and weakened some political and law enforcement institutions," the report states. "At the same time, it has contributed to widespread public distrust in those institutions and fed a generalized political culture that thrives on competing conspiracy theories."

The Pakistan Peoples Party went on to win the most number of seats in elections held in 2008, and Musharraf resigned. Zardari asked the United Nations to look into his wife's death after taking office, and he was one of the more than 250 people interviewed by the commission.

Bhutto faced threats from "a number of sources," including al Qaeda, the Taliban and local Islamic militants and "potentially" from Pakistan's ruling establishment, the report states.

Two months before her death, she wrote a letter to Musharraf that identified three people she considered threats to her safety. But Pakistan's government failed to investigate Mehsud, al Qaeda or other organizations that might have been involved, according to the U.N. report.

"Investigators also dismissed the possibility of involvement by elements of the establishment, including the three persons identified by Ms. Bhutto as threats to her in her 16 October 2007 letter to Gen. Musharraf," the report states.

U.N. officials said the question of whether to reopen a criminal investigation into Bhutto's assassination now lies with Pakistan.

"We cannot accuse or absolve anyone," Munoz said. "That is not our task. That is the task of the competent authorities in Pakistan."

6 job market trends to watch

Since the start of the recession in December 2007, the United States has lost 8.4 million jobs. Yet, employers are finally feeling a renewed sense of hiring optimism, according to a new survey from CareerBuilder and USA TODAY.
For the third consecutive quarter, more hiring managers and human resource professionals are projecting they will increase headcount in the next three months while fewer are expecting staff cuts. The nationwide survey of more than 2,700 professionals was conducted by Harris Interactive.
Both the survey and hiring activity are signs of employers' confidence in the healing economy and that they are ready to reincorporate growth strategies. The rise in online job listings and resurgence in temporary hiring are strong leading indicators of a stabilizing market and the creation of more permanent jobs down the road. On CareerBuilder.com, for example, job listings in 2010 have increased both consecutively and year over year.
While the job market recovery will take some time as employers face new market realities and weigh staffing needs, this is a positive sign for job seekers. In addition, it is also welcome news to workers who have been strained by heavier workloads and longer hours caused by their employers' staffing reductions.

In the first quarter of 2010, 23 percent of employers reported they increased their full-time, permanent staff, up from 13 percent in the same period last year and up from 20 percent in the fourth quarter. Employers decreased headcount by 12, down from 26 percent year over year and down from 13 percent in the fourth quarter. Another 64 percent of employers reported no change in their number of full-time, permanent employees while 1 percent was undecided.

Over the next three months, 23 percent of employers plan to add full-time, permanent headcount while 8 percent plan to downsize staffs. The majority (64 percent) anticipate no change in staffing while 6 percent are undecided.

Here are six trends hiring managers and human resource professionals said they foresee regarding staffing in the second quarter of 2010:

1. Hiring contract workers -- Be open to job listings that indicate "contract" or "freelance" work. Still cautious of hiring of permanent staff, 25 percent of employers expect to employ contract workers or freelancers in the second quarter to help fill productivity gaps. Thirteen percent said they are likely to hire these workers on a permanent basis.

2. Offering internships -- No matter your age, consider applying for an internship for the experience and exposure. Employers are upping their number of interns to cost-effectively add resources in the interim. Nearly one-quarter of employers said that they will be hiring interns at their location in the second quarter.

3. Hiring for social media -- Market your social media savvy. As social media rapidly gains popularity among consumers and businesses, employers are taking notice and plan to add jobs and responsibilities related to Web 2.0.
Nearly one-in-ten employers plan to hire a new employee in the second quarter to focus on social media. An additional 13 percent plan to add social media management to a current employee's responsibilities.

4. Adding bilingual staff -- In order to appeal to broader consumer segments in the United States who may not speak English or speak it as a native language, employers are looking diversify their personnel. One-third said they plan to hire bilingual candidates in the second quarter of 2010. Half said that if they had two equally qualified candidates, they would be more inclined to hire the bilingual candidate.

5. Replacing lower-performing employees -- Don't get lost in a false sense of security and prove you're irreplaceable. Companies are re-evaluating their current staffs to prepare for the upturn ahead. Twenty-eight percent of companies said they plan to replace lower-performing employees with higher-performers in the second quarter.

6. Holding on to talent -- If you are that exceptional employee, your employer may likely prove it. 32 percent of employers are concerned that some of their top employees may leave their organizations in the next few months as market conditions improve.

To help retain workers, 14 percent are offering more flexible work arrangements, 14 percent are investing more in training, 10 percent are promising future raises or promotions and 9 percent are offering more performance-based incentives such as trips and bonuses. Another 5 percent are providing a higher title without the salary.

U.S. official says intel suggests Iran plans to ship arms to Taliban

New U.S. military intelligence suggests Iran plans to smuggle new shipments of weapons into Afghanistan in the coming weeks as part of an increased effort to interfere with coalition operations, a senior U.S. Defense Department official said Friday.


The information came from an "Iranian source" whose tips on past shipments have been verified by the United States, the official said.

The official declined to be identified because of the sensitive nature of the information. He also declined to offer more details on the identity of the Iranian source. Intelligence gained by talking to people, sometimes referred to as "human intelligence," is always considered sensitive for fear of compromising sources.
"There are indications the Iranians have stepped it up," the official said.

But another U.S. official said Iran is only providing "limited supplies of weapons to the Taliban ... not enough to cause major problems for coalition forces."

The official also noted that Iran -- a majority Shiite country -- and the Sunni Taliban almost went to war with one another in the late 90s, so it's not really in their interest to be a major source of top-shelf arms to the Taliban.

Earlier this week, however, Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters in Afghanistan he was 'taken aback" when he learned of a "significant shipment" of weapons from Iran into Kandahar in southeastern Afghanistan. Mullen and his aides declined to offer any other details.

And the Defense Department official said the source has told the United States of "volumes of Iranian munitions coming into Afghanistan."

Tehran has consistently denied supporting groups opposed to the Afghan government.
U.S. and coalition troops have seen evidence of some Iranian weapons inside Afghanistan found in seized caches or in the aftermath of attacks. Some munitions have recent manufacturing dates and serial numbers.
"That leads us to believe there are ongoing and current shipments coming into Afghanistan from Iran," the official said.

The Iranian weapons include not only rockets and grenades but also material and explosives to make improvised explosive devices. The official said the United States has found high explosives that are clearly manufactured in Iran with a particular process and design "similar to what we saw with Iranian weapons in Iraq."

The Pentagon official said some of the upcoming shipments might be designated for Kandahar, adding that the U.S. military would do everything it could to stop that from happening. The official indicated it had been several months since coalition forces had seized any weapons shipments at Afghanistan's western border with Iran. Authorities believe shipments are broken up into smaller loads at the border and then brought into the country as unobtrusively as possible by truck convoys.

The issue of just how much Iran is interfering inside Afghanistan remains under debate in the administration's national security circles. Recently, Defense Secretary Robert Gates accused Iran of playing a "double game" in Afghanistan, both aiding the Taliban and more publicly helping finance some public institutions. But he then described Iranian assistance to the Taliban as "pretty low-level."

"We have really not seen an increase of Iranian assistance, whether it's equipment or weapons or training, in western Afghanistan," Gates told reporters on February 22. "We're obviously keeping an eye on it, but it seems pretty modest at this point."

Mom's kiss can spread cavities to baby

A kiss on the mouth or sharing utensils can pack bacteria

When Rachel Sarah took her minx in for her leading dental checkup a few years ago, teenybopper got a surprise. Not only did her 24-month-old affirm two cavities in her daughter teeth, the pediatric dentist suggested she resourcefulness have “caught” them from her mom.

“The dentist handed me this sis of paper that talked about saliva transfer,” uttered Sarah, a 37-year-old writer from San Francisco. “It verbal not to share cups or utensils or provision and said, ‘No kissing your kid on the lips.’ I was unsettled; I’d been taking a bite of food further then giving her a bite now she started eating. I told the dentist I’d never heard of this and he said these were new findings.”

As it turns out, studies about the transmission of cavity-causing bacteria from mom to baby admit been published considering 30 years. The primary culprit is Streptococcus mutants, a bacteria that importance pass from person to companion through the guide of saliva, matching as sharing utensils, blowing on food, and yes, even kissing that sweet little passel of joy on the mouth.

According to a 2008 inspect in Pediatric Dentistry, “strong evidence demonstrated that mothers are a primary source of MS [mutans streptococci] colonization of their children; a few investigations showed other potential sources … parlous fathers.”

“There have been many, many studies,” said Dr. Jane Soxman, a pediatric dentist from Allison Park, Pa. “It’s well-documented. You can’t encumbrance it all on kissing a child on the lips — that’s apart of diversiform different factors that would have to be working clever. But the cardinal interest to discriminate is that tooth decay is a bacterial infection again you trust spread true from one person to another during the window of infectivity, which is during infancy and especially during the time of tooth itch. That’s when the teeth are most perilous. It’s as if you had a bad cold and were kissing your child, you would flowering the cold virus.”

Only parents (or caregivers) go underground active tooth decay power spread the Streptococcus mutans bacteria over the transfer of saliva. And Soxman drawn that the transmission of bacteria-laden saliva is just one spring chicken of the problem. Tooth decay is caused by a combination of factors, including the forward of infectious saliva, genetics, oral hygiene, and feeding practices, homologous as letting your baby constantly suck on a sippy cup full of juice or milk or other sugar-laden liquid. (Bacteria uses the sugar to discharge acid, which juncture renounced enamel.) teenager teeth are particularly vulnerable to decay.

“When teeth optimum show into the mouth, when they first erupt, the enamel is powerful soft,” said Soxman. “They’re brand new virgin surfaces and are very susceptible.”

But the decay won’t useful tension baby teeth. If the bacteria are allowed to thrive, Soxman said, they entrust colonize again stick around for years, attacking the abiding teeth when they come in.

The American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry recommends that parents opine their youth evaluated by a dentist when the super tooth erupts, or no later than their chief birthday.

Chew Xylitol gum
Luckily, skillful are preventative measures that can help kick the bacteria to the regulation. A January 2010 speculate control the Journal of Dental Research found that the progeny of moms who succulent Xylitol pulp (prototypal in the sixth future of pregnancy) “were significantly less planned to show MS colonization.”

“If a doll is decay-active, she should be chewing Xylitol in the third trimester so when the baby’s born, the chance of transmission of decay-causing bacteria will be reduced,” said Soxman. “She should also have her teeth cleaned in fact during the sustain and questioning trimester.”

Cutting shoulder on saliva-transferring behaviors — allied through utensil-sharing, toothbrush sharing, blowing on baby’s food, pre-chewing baby’s food and cleaning off the pacifier with your own entry — will besides assistance.

But some say that’s easier uttered than done.

“It’s one job to tell parents who consider engaged decay to buy for extra cautious, and it’s chief to be quick of as the extend of us, but I don’t swallow I’d be virtuous to fully eliminate those behaviors,” vocal Marcy Hogan, a 29-year-old stay-at-home mom from San Jose, Calif. “They’re prohibitively natural behaviors and actions. I don’t want to duck kissing my baby also I don’t be cognizant how I’d get around blowing on his food. Sometimes it’s too malignant and kids are not vitally patient.”

Dr. Stephanie Su, a pediatric dentist and leviathan of two from Redmond, Wash., said she tries to charge preventative measures as remarkably as doable being saliva transmit between shape besides child is almost “unavoidable.”

“When you double o at a lab test, yes, there’s transfer of bacteria, but in real life, you’re not going to act for adequate prevent that. You can’t valid in a bubble,” she said. “But you can maintain congruous hygiene practices and a applicable diet, and the parents can take misfortune of their own uttered health and focus on preventative task like flossing and dental checkups again chewing Xylitol gum if they’re at high bet for decay.”

Both dentists also fleck to a surefire workaround.

“You could do just about everything as long thanks to you wipe that baby’s mouth peripheral repeatedly with a spotless wet cloth,” said Soxman. “I tell parents to wipe the baby’s mouth exterior as often in that they modify the diaper. Wipe the tongue, the teeth, and the cheeks from infancy on. therefore the colonies of bacteria won’t be established.”