29_page01-city final_Layout 1

More documents

Recommendations

Info

10 The Bengal Post Kolkata Monday November 29, 2010 WORLD Briefly US drone attack kills 4 in Pak Peshawar: A US drone strike in the lawless North Waziristan tribal region in northwest Pakistan killed four suspected militants on Sunday, officials said. The drone struck the house of a suspected militant in Mirali area of North Waziristan Agency, killing four militants believed to be associated with the Haqqani network that often targets US and Nato forces across the border in Afghanistan. — PTI Pak girl mauled to death by dogs Islamabad: A six-year-old Pakistani girl was mauled to death by a pack of dogs in Multan, a media report said on Sunday. Sonia Bibi, was returning home after attending a Madrassa in Multan, in Punjab, when some dogs owned by a local landlord attacked her. The dogs used to guard the poultry farm of the landlord, the News International reported on Sunday. She later succumbed to her injuries in a local hospital. Police, however, tried to give a twist to the incident, saying that the girl was bitten by stray dogs. — PTI US troops kill Iraqi civilian Baghdad: US troops who thought they were under attack killed an Iraqi airport employee on Sunday as he drove near a military convoy on his way to work, officials said. The driver, identified by colleagues as Baghdad International Airport worker Karim Obaid Bardan, failed to heed repeated signals to slow down or turn on his headlights as he neared the military convoy, said US and Iraqi security officials. “As a result, the vehicle was perceived as a threat and a decision was made to engage it with small-arms fire in order to stop it and to protect the convoy from a possible attack,” said Army Colonel. — AP Stampede death toll rises to 351 Phnom Penh: The number of people killed in a bridge stampede during the Cambodian capital’s annual water festival now stands at 351, the social affairs minister said today. The figure, which included 222 females, is four higher than previously announced, while the number of injured stood at 395, said a statement signed by Ith Samheng, who sits on a committee investigating the disaster. It said each of the wounded would receive free treatment and assistance from the Cambodian Red Cross as well as 1,000,000 riels ($244) from the government. — AFP Pak cops break up anti-Taliban rally Islamabad/Lahore: Riot police arrested dozens of people and fired teargas shells and used batons to break up a march organised by a religious group to protest the Taliban bombings in Pakistan, organisers and witnesses said. Several hundred activists from Sunni Muslim groups started the “Long March” from Islamabad on Saturday and planned to go to Lahore, the capital of Punjab province. The Punjab government had banned the rally, fearing it could be attacked by militants. — AFP 6 Filipinos die in Japan bus crash Tokyo: Six Filipino workers were killed and 22 others were injured when a bus collided with a trailer truck in western Japan on Sunday, police said. Six Filipino workers in their 20s and 30s, three men and three women, died in the collision in Mie prefecture, a police official said. Twenty other Philippine workers, including one who had obtained Japanese nationality, and two Japanese were injured, he said. Police arrested the driver of the truck on suspicion that “the trailer bum - ped into the left flank of the bus at a crossing without a traffic light,” he said. — AFP N Korea readies missiles, China seeks talks Yeonpyeong: North Korea has placed surface-to-surface missiles on launch pads in the Yellow Sea, Yonhap news agency said, as the United States and South Korea began military drills and China called for emergency talks. China made clear that the talks would not amount to a resumption of six-party disarmament discussions which North Korea walked out of two years ago and declared dead. South Korea said it would carefully consider China’s suggestion. South Korean President Lee Myung-bak had told a visiting Chinese delegation that Beijing, North Korea’s only major ally which is traditionally reluctant to criticise the reclusive regime, should do more to help. China, which agreed with South Korea that the situation was “worrisome”, suggested the emergency talks for December among North and South Korea, host China, the United States, Japan and Russia. Japan was non-committal. “We want to respond cautiously while cooperating closely with South Korea and the United States,” Kyodo news agency quoted deputy chief cabinet secretary Tetsuro Fukuyama as saying. Beijing has repeatedly urged restraint and fresh talks to defuse tensions. Kyodo quoted a Japanese government official as saying the issues of denuclearisation and Tuesday’s attack on the island of Yeonpyeong had to be separate. “We’ll see what South Korea thinks, but the six-party talks are a place to discuss the nuclear issue, so should they be taking up the issue of the attacks?” Yonhap said North Korea had moved surface-to-air missiles to frontline areas, days after it shelled Yeonpyeong killing four people. The North’s official KCNA news agency warned of retaliatory action if its territory is violated. South Korea’s defence ministry told journalists to leave the island on Sunday because the situation was “bad”. Many residents evacuated earlier said they did not want to return. Officials from South Korea’s defence ministry and the joint chiefs said they could not comment on the Yonhap report. “It is impossible to confirm the report as it is classified as a military secret,” an official said. In Seoul, life carried on normally for the city’s more than 10 million residents, with downtown shopping districts jammed with people despite the freezing temperatures, and cafes decked with Christmas decorations doing brisk business. “I am worried, but not that worried that I need to stay at home,” said Eunhye Kim, an usher showing people from a packed theatre in the capital. “They don’t really want to make war ...there’s no gain for either side.” The exercises, in waters far south of the disputed maritime boundary, are being held in the face of opposition by China and threats of all-out war from North Korea. The chairman of North Korea’s Supreme People’s Assembly will visit China from Tuesday, the official Xinhua news agency said. China has not taken sides in the conflict and declined to blame North Korea, unlike the United States, for the sinking of a South Korean naval vessel in March. “We ask that China make a contribution to peace on the Korean peninsula by taking a more fair and responsible position on South-North Korea ties,” the South Korean presidential Blue House quoted Lee as telling Dai. Washington says the drill is intended as a deterrent after the worst assault on South Korea since the end of the Korean War in 1953. Seoul expects jitters in financial markets to settle in the short term unless North Korea carries out further provocations, Yonhap quoted a senior finance ministry official as saying. The government plans to inject sufficient liquidity in won and dollar trading if local markets suffer from herd behaviour on Monday, Yonhap said. The nuclear-powered carrier USS George Washington, which carries 75 warplanes and has a crew of over 6,000, has joined the exercises and will be accompanied by at least four other US warships, an official from US Forces Korea said. South Korea has deployed three destroyers, frigates and anti-submarine aircraft, Yonhap reported, adding the exercises were being held far south of the disputed area where the artillery firing took place on Tuesday. South Korea’s marine commander on Saturday vowed “thousand-fold” revenge for the North Korean attack. North Korea said that if there had been civilian deaths, they were “very regrettable”, but that South Korea should be blamed for using a human shield. It also said the United States should be blamed for “orchestrating” the whole sequence of events to justify sending an aircraft carrier to join the maritime manoeuvres. — Reuters Fourth blast hits NZ coal mine Greymouth: A fourth explosion in nine days at the New Zealand mine where 29 miners died could significantly delay recovery of the bodies. Large quantities of smoke and flames were seen shooting from the Pike River mine’s vertical ventilation shaft after Sunday’s blast, and officials said coal was on fire. “This smoke has changed, it’s no longer a gas fire, it’s obviously now a coal fire,” said the Pike River chief executive, Peter Whittall. “Where that coal fire is or how big it is, we don’t know.” The mine might have to be temporarily sealed to starve the fire of oxygen, Whittall said. That could seriously delay recovery of the bodies, and Whittall said it was not the preferred option. The explosions have dislodged a lot of coal, “so there’s a lot of fuel in the mine to burn,” he said. The worst-case scenario was that the actual coal seam would start to burn, he said. A gas fire is relatively easy to put out, but a coal fire in a RED RIBBON EXPRESSION seam would be a “very different beast”. Operators still hope to deploy an Australian jetpowered engine to blast nitrogen and carbon dioxide gases and water vapour into the mine. The inert gases would expel oxygen that could fuel more explosions, and would smother the fire. That option may be ready to use on Monday. There were no injuries in Sunday’s blast, and a brief fire involving vegetation around the surface vent was extinguished. People working near the mine entrance � A protester holds a placard at a rally demanding to halt the join military exercise between the United States and South Korea, outside a US naval base in Pyeongtaek, south of Seoul, on Sunday — Reuters were moved away from the area for safety. The 29 miners were trapped by the first blast on November 19 and declared dead after a second, massive blast five days later. A third explosion on Friday was fuelled by methane gas seeping into the mine. Police superintendent Dave Cliff said the latest explosion demonstrated the volatility of the mine environment, which has prevented any rescue workers from entering the mine since the first blast. — Guardian News Service � Indonesian students pose with HIV/AIDS symbols during a campaign in Jakarta on Sunday prior to World AIDS Day. There were 21,770 reported cases of HIV and AIDS in Indonesia in 2010 — AFP Zardari meets Rajapaksa, signs pacts to boost ties Colombo: Sri Lanka and Pakistan on Sunday inked key agreements to boost bilateral relationship as President Asif Ali Zardari met his counterpart Mahinda Rajapaksa in the capital. Zardari, who is the first head of state to undertake a four-day visit to Sri Lanka after Rajapaksa began his second term last week, aims to boost bilateral cooperation and coordinate policies on regional and international issues. Rajapaksa and Zardari held high-level bilateral discussions, presidential officials said. Even as there was no statement from either side immediately at the conclusion of the thirty-minute talks, it was learnt that four agreements were signed during the meeting of the two presidents. Pakistan foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and his Lankan counterpart G L Peiris signed the Visa abolition agreement for holders of diplomatic and official passports. A Memorandum of Understanding on agricultural cooperation and agreement on mutual administrative assistance and cooperation in custom matters were also signed between the officials of the two countries. Another agreement was signed between Pakistan National College of Arts and University of visual and performing arts of Sri Lanka on cooperation on arts and creative studies. Zardari, who arrived on his maiden visit on Saturday, also met Sri Lankan Prime Minister DM Jayaratne on Sunday and pushed for deepening economic and trade cooperation between two countries. — PTI Colombo: Political prisoners from the minority Tamil community, including pregnant mothers and children, have appealed to the Sri Lankan government to release them on bail from the high-security New Magazine Prison in the capital. “Our parents suffered greatly during the war and are still living a life of sorrow just like us. We are also experiencing agony in prison after being held in prison for many years,” they wrote in a letter to the newly appointed justice minister Rauf Hakeem. They expressed hope that there would be a just resolution to their grievances following the end of a three- Koreas may be on the warpath � Missiles placed in Yellow Sea, frontline areas � Seoul says too early to talk about six-party talks � Japan responds to China idea with caution � China made it clear that the talks would not amount to a resumption of six-party disarmament Washington: The Obama administration has told whistleblower WikiLeaks that its expected imminent release of classified state department cables will put “countless” lives at risk, threaten global counterterrorism operations and jeopardize US relations with its allies. In a highly unusual step reflecting the administration’s grave concerns about the ramifications of the move, the state department late Saturday released a letter from its top lawyer to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and his attorney telling them that publication of the documents would be illegal and demanding that they stop it. It also said the US government would not cooperate with WikiLeaks in trying to scrub the cables of information that might put sources and methods of intelligence gathering and diplomatic reporting at risk. The letter from state department legal adviser Harold Koh was released as US diplomats around the world are scrambling to warn foreign governments about what might be in the secret documents that are believed to contain highly sensitive assessments about world leaders, their policies and America’s attempts to lobby them. In the letter, Koh said the publication of some 250,000 discussions which North Korea walked out of two years ago and declared dead � South Korea said it would carefully consider China’s suggestion � China suggested the emergency talks for December among North and South Korea, host China, the United States, Japan and Russia secret diplomatic cables by WikiLeaks, which is expected on Sunday, will “place at risk the lives of countless innocent individuals,” ‘’place at risk on-going military operations,” and “place at risk on-going cooperation between countries.” “They were provided in violation of US law and without regard for the grave consequences of this action,” he said. Koh said WikiLeaks should not publish the documents, return them to the US government and destroy any copies it may have in its possession or in computer databases. The state department said Koh’s message was a response to a letter received on Friday by the US ambassador to Britain, Louis Susman, from Assange and Korea to be ‘careful’ about China talks plan Seoul: South Korea will “very carefully” consider China’s suggestion of emergency talks on North Korea, the foreign ministry said on Sunday. China called for emergency consultations among six governments in moribund talks aimed at ending North Korea’s nuclear programme, adding that they would not amount to a full restart of the negotiations. South Korea’s presidential office said on Sunday it was not the time to discuss the resumption of six-party nuclear talks, Yonhap news agency said. Blue House spokesman Hong Sang-pyo said the subject of the multilateral forum was raised during President Lee Myung-bak’s meeting with Chinese state councillor Dai Bingguo but Lee “made it clear it was not the time to discuss it”, Yonhap said. China on Sunday proposed an emergency meeting of the six parties, not amounting a full restart of the on-againoff-again talks. — Reuters US asks WikiLeaks to halt document release decade civil war last May. “There are about 765 Tamil prisoners including pregnant mothers, infants, crippled persons and the aged being incarcerated with many diseases minus medical facilities. We feel abandoned,” according to the letter quoted in the ColomboPage online. The prisoners asked Hakeem to honour his pledge to intervene to secure the release of political prisoners. “You had promised that you would directly intervene for the release of political prisoners and that you would visit the prison to collect the details of all such prisoners in order to raise this issue in Parliament � Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks, during a press meet — Reuters file photo along with Tamil National Alliance,” they said. International and local human rights watchdogs have repeatedly asked the government to free political prisoners in the country after the end of the civil war in the country in May 2009. They have accused Sri his lawyer, Jennifer Robinson. The department said that letter asked for information “regarding individuals who may be ‘at significant risk of harm’ because of” the release of the documents. “Despite your stated desire to protect those lives, you have done the opposite and endangered the lives of countless individuals,” Koh wrote in reply. “You have undermined your stated objective by disseminating this material widely, without redaction, and without regard to the security and sanctity of the lives your actions endanger.” He said the US government would not deal with WikiLeaks at all in determining what may or may not released. — Reuters Tamil prisoners appeal for release Prisoners expre - ssed hope that there would be a just resolution to their grievances following the end of a three-decade civil war last May Lankan authorities of committing war crimes during a final military offensive against Tamil rebels in the northeastern part of the country, a charge dismissed by the government. The LTTE launched its armed struggle in 1980’s to create an independent homeland for Sri Lanka’s Tamils to protect them from alleged discrimination at the hands of the ethnic Sinhalese majority. Government forces crushed the Tamil Tiger rebels in 2009, ending the LTTE’s quarter-century armed struggle for a separate state. Between 80,000 and 100,000 people were killed in the fighting. — PTI
Briefly Heavy snow hits Chinese airport Shanghai: Overnight snow in most parts of northeast Chi - na brought down temperat - ures to several degrees bel ow minus and forced an airport to shut down twice in a day due to a blizzard, a med ia report said on Sun day. —IANS UAE sets two Guinness records Dubai: A sword-throwing expert and a traditional da - nce troupe have powered the United Arab Emirates to two new spots in the Guin - ness World Records. 18-ye - ar-old Hazaa Sulaiman Al Shehhi set a new world rec - ord for the highest tossed sword, the Khaleej Times reported on Sunday. —IANS Five rare elephants found dead Jakarta: Five endangered Sumatran elephants have been found dead in Indon - esia, and conservationists said on Sunday that they suspect farmers poisoned the animals to stop them from damaging crops. —AP Tiny beaked toad discovered London: Deep within the Colombian jungle, scientists have stumbled upon a bizar - re-looking beaked toad, alo - ng with two hitherto unkn - own species. Tinier than a hu m an thumbnail, the beak - ed toad, with deep purple skin and small blue blotches, was among three new spec - ies of the amphibian. —IANS Dubai to have tallest tower Dubai: The 107-storey tow - er, billed to be the world’s tallest residential building, is likely to be ready by late next year in the city that is also home to the 823-me tre wonder, Burj Khalifa.—PTI Coffee with sugar sparks attentiveness, memory London: A cup of coffee activates attentiveness and memory if it is taken with sugar. University of Barcelona scientists found that taking caffeine and sugar together boosts the brain’s performance — more than taking them separately. The findings come from brain scans carried out on 40 volunteers who were tested after they had coffee with sugar, coffee without sugar, sugar on its own or just plain water, according to the journal Human Psychop harma - cology: Clinical and Experim - ental. “The two substances improve cognitive performance by increasing the efficiency of the two areas of the brain responsible for sustained attention and working memory,” said Josep Serra Grabulosa Of University of Barcelona who conducted the study. It is well known that caffeine is a stimulant which works on the brain and can combat drowsiness and fatigue. —IANS London: Putting an end to the debate over succession, Prince William has hinted that he has “no desire” to become the next monarch, encroaching his father Prince Charles’ role as heir to the British throne. Since his engagement to longtime girlfriend Kate Middleton, there has been a surge in William’s popularity with opinion polls saying that majority of Britons believe the 28-year-old would make a better king than his father. But, royal aides insisted that Prince William has “no desire to climb the ladder of kingship” prematurely, although two recent polls by ICM and YouGov claimed that most people want him to succeed the Queen as the next monarch. The Bengal Post Kolkata Monday November 29, 2010 WORLD Russian cargo plane crash claims 12 in Pak Karachi: A Russian cargo plane crashed in a fireball into a naval residential compound seconds after taking off from the airport of the southern Pakistani city on Sunday, killing at least 12 people — all eight crew members on board and four persons on the ground. The Russian-made Il-76 aircraft, which came from the UAE and was headed to the Sudanese capital Khartoum, crashed near Dalmia area within the cantonment in Karachi at 1.50 am local time. It went down in a part of the naval compound where new apart- STRICT VIGIL ments were being built. The ill-fated aircraft came down two minutes after taking off from the city’s international airport, said Civil Aviation Authority spokesman Pervaiz George. All eight Russian crew members were killed, he said. The bodies of at least four construction workers were found in apartments being built at the site, Geo TV reported. Recovered bodies were badly mutilated and beyond recognition, officials said, adding several people were also injured. Officials said the casualties would have been higher if the plane of Russia’s Sunway Airline had hit several densely populated apartment blocks only a few hundred metres away. Rescue operations at the crash site gathered steam this morning after hundreds of naval and army personnel moved in with heavy machinery to remove the debris and scour the damaged buildings for victims. Several witnesses said they had seen the aircraft on fire before it crashed. “I saw a fireball plummeting to ground,” milk seller Mohammad Raees told Geo TV. “It was so huge and quick. I was terrified. I could not see what it was. I sped up to save my life and after a few seconds I heard a deafening explosion, but thanks to Allah my life was saved and I was not injured.” Footage on television showed the plane in flames as it plunged towards the ground. The aeroplane exploded in a massive fireball after slamming into the naval compound, due to which about 20 buildings were razed or damaged. The crash caused widespread panic among Karachi � A North Korean woman soldier, (R) keeps vigil along the bank of the Yalu River, near North Korea’s Sinuiju town, on Sunday —AP/PTI Hundreds pour into Thailand after clashes in Myanmar Mae Sot: More than 1,000 Burmese villagers poured into neighbouring Thailand on Sunday after renewed fighting between Myanmar’s army and ethnic Karen rebels, witnesses and officials said. About 1,000 villagers escaped to the Thai border town of Mae Sot, adding to 200 who fled late on Saturday when clashes erupted between Myanmar troops and militias from the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) for the second time this month. Fighting broke out in two locations on Nov. 8 and a splinter faction of the Karen group seized parts of the Myanmar town of Myawaddy. More than 12,000 people poured into Mae Sot and five Thais were wounded when rocket-propelled grenades landed on the other side of the border. The clashes underline tensions between the central government and Mya - n mar’s many armed ethnic groups, which have fought for autonomy since independence from Britain in 1948. More than a dozen have tenuous ceasefire de - als with the government. Myanmar’s military rulers have demanded the ethnic militias disarm and join a state-run Border Guard Force but most have resisted and the larger armies are braced for offensives, which could result in heavy casualties. The government denied attempts by several leaders to form political parties to run in the November 7 election because of their refusal to transfer their fighters to the BGF. — Reuters New York: Wary of suffering casualties, the US Army is adding new sophisticated robots to its ranks to handle a broader range of tasks, from picking off Taliban snipers to serving as indefatigable night sentries. While smart machines are already very much a part of modern warfare, the US Army and its contractors are eager to add more, New York Times reported. The machines, viewed at a “Robotics Rodeo” last month at the Army’s training school at Fort Benning, Georgia, not only protect soldiers, but also are never distracted, using an unblinking digital eye that automatically detects even the smallest motion. Nor do they ever Volcano pushes down 1,000-tonne boulder London: An erupting volcano forced a gigantic 1,000 tonne boulder down the mountainside onto a valley floor in Iceland. The huge boulder, standing more than 50 feet high, dwarfs the landscape where it came to rest earlier this year. Clouds of ash spewing from fissures in the volcano “There is no question in Prince William’s mind that the Prince of Wales will be the next monarch,” a senior royal aide told The Sunday Telegraph. “Prince William is aware of the caused travel chaos across Europe for months as flights were grounded and holiday makers were left stranded, reports the Daily Mail. Icelandic photographer Ragnar Sigurdsson spent weeks capturing the dramatic scenes as the volcano continued to erupt. He also flew over the bubbling crater. He captured more than 10,000 images of the volcano as red hot lava was thrown into the air and compiled three book volumes. Sigurdsson, 52, chose to fly into the epicentre of destruction on a mission to record the spectacular wrath of one of nature’s most deadly phenomena. He and geologist co-writer speculation, but he is very thickskinned. He knows his place in the royal family and he considers himself to be very low down the food chain. He has no desire to climb the ladder of kingship before his time.” Royal sources also said that Prince William did not share his late mother's view that he is more suited to the role of king than the Prince of Wales. In an interview to the BBC in 1995, Princess Diana had said that the role of king would bring “enormous limitations” to Prince Charles, and that Prince William may be better suited to succeed the Queen as monarch. “Prince William is enormously proud of his mother and all her achievements, but that is so far off Ari Trausti Gudmundsson have now made a selection from 10,000 of Ragnar’s pictures of the catastrophe. Interest generated by their first two sell out editions of Eyjafjallajokull: Untamed Nature, spurred the duo to add new personal accounts, giving a fresh insight into the drama, in their new third edition. —IANS Let my father become king: Prince William what he thinks. He is very close to his father and incredibly supportive of him and his work as the Prince of Wales,” the newspaper quoted a royal source as saying. “Both of them will let nature take its course. There is no suggestion from anywhere within the institution that a generation will be skip - ped.” According to the polls, only 15 per cent of the public felt that Prince Charles, 62, would make a better king, while 56 per cent preferred Prince William for the top post. Royal aides also confirmed that William, who works as a searchand-rescue helicopter pilot at RAF Valley in Anglesey, North Wales, will not be stepping up his royal duties following his marriage next year. —PTI residents as many people initially thought the explosion was due to a bomb. Fire trucks sprayed foam on the crash site and extinguished the blaze after two hours. The crash was the second this month in Karachi and the third in Pakistan in less than five months. On November 5, all 21 people on board a small aircraft chartered by an international oil company were killed when it crashed shortly after taking off from Karachi. That aircraft crashed within an army ordnance depot. —PTI High-powered laser blast to unblock clogged arteries London: In what could drastically reduce operation time and hospital stays, British scientists have developed a new high-powered laser which they say unblocks clogged arteries in just minutes. The new procedure involved fitting a special catheter or tube to a new laser called the Excimer that blasts tissues into particles so small they can only be seen under a microscope. Trials at University College Hospital in London have proved the procedure a major success as it not only reduced operating times but also dramatically sped up patients’ recovery time. The first two patients were treated at the hospital in July and discharged the next day, instead of spending weeks in hospital, the Daily Mail reported. Around 85,000 people a year have treatment to widen their arteries which have been narrowed by cholesterol, hypertension and diabetes. But the common proce- panic under fire. “One of the great arguments for armed robots is they can fire second,” said Joseph W. Dyer, a former vice admiral and the chief operating officer of iRobot, which makes robots that clear explosives. When a robot looks around a battlefield, he said, the remote technician who is seeing through its eyes can take time to assess a scene without firing in haste at an innocent person. Yet the idea that robots on wheels or legs, with sensors and guns, might someday replace or supplement human soldiers is still a source of extreme controversy. Because robots can stage attacks with little dure to unblock artery can trigger an exaggerated healing response where unwanted tissue builds up on the artery wall, leading to excess scarring and renarrowing of the artery. The small tube, or stent, used to widen the artery can also becomes blocked. At least one in three patients who undergo treatment end up with a new blockage and this puts them further at risk of future health problems. Until now, the only solutions available to doctors were further operations and ultimately complex bypass surgery, which is high risk. But Dr Joe Brookes and his team at University College Hospital found the potential of a laser technology as a revolutionary device to unclog arteries. The radiologist had already pioneered the use of lasers in varicose vein surgery and for treating secondary liver cancer. He says: “It is an incredibly difficult treatment to immediate risk to the people who operate them, opponents say that robot warriors lower the barriers to warfare, potentially making nations more trigger-happy and leading to a new technological arms race. “Wars will be started very easily and with minimal costs” as automation increases, predicted Wendell Wallach, a scholar at the Yale Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics and chairman of its technology and ethics study group. Civilians will be at greater risk, people in Wallach’s camp argue, because of the challenges in distinguishing between fighters and innocent bystanders. It only becomes more difficult WOMAN OF SUBSTANCE � Pakistani officials at the wreckage site in Karachi, on Sunday —AP/PTI � Jordan’s Queen Rania at the opening of the first session of the new parliament, in Amman, on Sunday —Reuters 11 unblock an artery, especially if a patient has a stent. Before, patients had to spend up to ten days in hospital. We are talking about those who are already frail because they may have other serious health problems such as heart disease. And they would be vulnerable to infection.” With the Excimer laser there is no need for further surgery. Instead, the device vaporises tissue in minbloodutes with the help of ultra violet light which delivers short bursts of energy, he said. The light is transmitted through 30 glass filaments which are guided through the blockage in the artery with a special catheter called the Turbo Elite. Once the tissue has been blasted away, normal flow is restored. Another advantage of the laser over traditional treatments is that any remaining particles are abso - rbed into the bloodstream and safely passed out of the body. —PTI Sophisticated robots to assist US army when a device is remotely operated. This problem has already arisen with Predator aircraft, which find their targets with the aid of soldiers on the ground but are operated from the US. Because civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan have died as a result of collateral damage or mistaken identities, Predators have generated global opposition and prompted accusations of war crimes. Automation has proved vital in the wars America is fighting. In the air in Iraq and Afghanistan, unmanned aircraft with names like Predator, Reaper, Raven and Global Hawk have kept countless soldiers from flying sorties. —PTI
Page 1 and 2: BRIEFLY � Actor Gina Lollobrigida
Page 3 and 4: Briefly Debate on AIDS at city hosp
Page 5 and 6: Briefly Shops gutted by fire in Sil
Page 7 and 8: Briefly � Playback singer Sukhwin
Page 9: It is quite symbolical that Chinese
Page 13 and 14: The Bengal Post Kolkata Monday Nove
Page 15 and 16: The Bengal Post Kolkata Monday Nove
Page 17 and 18: Some video games depict and glorify
Page 19 and 20: Little bundles of joy Children had

29_page01-city final_Layout 1

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?