Saturday, July 29, 2006
(CBS News) JERUSALEM Israel on Saturday rejected a request by the United Nations for a three-day cease-fire in Lebanon to get in supplies and allow civilians to leave the war zone.
Avi Pazner, a government spokesman, said Israel already has opened safe corridors across Lebanon for such shipments and that Hezbollah guerrillas were blocking them to create a humanitarian crisis.
Thursday, July 27, 2006
Unfettered Letters
It has been impossible to turn on TV or read your newspaper without seeing pictures of innocent Lebanese civilians being wounded, killed or made refugees by the war.
The media has gone a long way to make Hezbollah the victim and Israel the perpetrator.
The fact that Hezbollah invaded Israel, killing eight soldiers and kidnapping two, meant that Israel had to respond and that war was inevitable.
The whole scene was scripted by Syria and Iran to get their lackey Hezbollah to do their dirty work. The total destruction of Israel has been the aim of Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria and Iran.
PC World's Techlog - Intel's Fast Core 2 Duo is Officially Official
Monday, July 24, 2006
On Wednesday, US president George W Bush vetoed a bill — passed the previous day by the Senate — that would have greatly expanded government funding for stem cell research. The reactions were mixed but in every case sharp. Bill Frist, the Republican majority leader, said history would liken Bush to those who had imprisoned Galileo and scoffed at the idea of electricity. Others, mainly the ultra-conservative, praised him; ‘Must we kill to advance medicine?’, read one newspaper headline.
IndianExpress.com :: Why Bush is opposed to stem cell research
On Wednesday, US president George W Bush vetoed a bill — passed the previous day by the Senate — that would have greatly expanded government funding for stem cell research. The reactions were mixed but in every case sharp. Bill Frist, the Republican majority leader, said history would liken Bush to those who had imprisoned Galileo and scoffed at the idea of electricity. Others, mainly the ultra-conservative, praised him; ‘Must we kill to advance medicine?’, read one newspaper headline.
Sunday, July 23, 2006
| By Stan Beer | |
| Saturday, 22 July 2006 | |
| Coming from a base of zero against a 80% market share holder such as iPod was always going to be a monumental task. Microsoft's strategy of pitting like against like will make it an impossible one. The so-called iPod killer, code-named Zune, looks to be simply a me too effort from an IT company that is flailing in all directions trying to find ways to spend its huge pile of excess cash to buy itself into new markets. Noting that Apple's formula for success appears to be working very well these days, Microsoft is spending resources on developing its own hardware division. Instead of just mouses and keyboards, Microsoft now produces games consoles, web cams and soon Wi-Fi music players. |
Saturday, July 22, 2006
Travel agency offering spacewalk for $15 million
Business has already sent a trio of voyagers into space as tourists
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle
It's all about the view.
Space Adventures Ltd., the Virginia-based travel agency that arranged for the first spaceflight by a paying tourist, made a new offering Friday to its well-heeled clients: a spacewalk.
Zidane Headbutt Video’ tops Google Search | |
| The World Cup is over, but Zinedine Zidane’s head butt in the final between France and Italy continues to make headlines around the world. Not only did Zidane win the player of the tournament award, he also topped the Google Zeitgeist search list last week with the term ‘Zidane Headbutt Video’. Zidane’s infamous head butt beat other popular search terms like ‘xbox’, ‘israel news’ and Lebanon as last week’s biggest gainers. |
Microsoft confirmed Friday that it will sell a music and entertainment product later this year under the brand name "Zune," the first of a family of devices designed to compete head-to-head with the dominant Apple iPod.
Saturday, July 15, 2006
Bloggers on the Mid-East crisis | The Sunday Telegraph
AS Israel launches major offensives and goes toe to toe with militants on two fronts the conflict inevitably has spilled into the blogosphere.Bloggers, some of them posting from the affected areas, have captured the panic, anger and sorrow that the violence has unleashed.
Friday, July 14, 2006
For the first time since Tuesday's serial bombings in Mumbai, the Indian government has pointed a finger at its long-time rival. | ||
Thursday, July 13, 2006
BetaNews | Microsoft, Yahoo Bridge IM Networks
Microsoft and Yahoo have followed through on a promise made nine months ago to enable interoperability between the companies' instant messaging networks. Beginning late Wednesday, customers will be able to beta test the functionality by registering their accounts.
The effort, announced in October, was expected to be complete last quarter, but Microsoft developers said they had to try a number of different technical methods to make it work. The Redmond company still considers the interoperability to be in beta, and adjustments will be made before the feature is available to all users.
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
-- Mozilla was poised Wednesday to release the anxiously awaited beta test version of its Firefox 2.0 Web browser.
Mozilla said in a written statement Tuesday that some patience might be required due to last-minute tweaking; however, the tech media was abuzz with tidbits about the system that is a major competitor with Microsoft's ubiquitous Explorer.
Firefox 2.0 is said to have enhanced security features, Web-page recovery and spell check for various Web forms.
Saturday, July 08, 2006
A terrorist plot to attack New York train tunnels was thwarted before the men, one believed to be Canadian, could travel to the U.S., authorities said yesterday.
Eight suspects, including an al-Qaida loyalist arrested in Lebanon and two others in custody elsewhere, had hoped to pull off the attack in October or November, U.S. federal officials said.
"It was never a concern that this would actually be executed," said Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. "We were, as I say, all over this." [read more]
Friday, July 07, 2006
WASHINGTON, July 7 — President Bush said again today that North Korea should renounce its missile ambitions, and he said he was fairly confident the United States could have intercepted a North Korean rocket if it had been headed for America.
"Google is definitely a verb," said Dan Reynolds, a 35-year-old salesman at YES Computers in Northampton. "Google has become like a secondary brain for a lot of people. If you want quick info on something, that’s what you do. You google it." [read more]
$145 billion tobacco suit reversed
The Florida Supreme Court overturned an unprecedented $145 billion class-action punitive damages award against tobacco companies Thursday but upheld many of the jury's factual findings, leaving the door open for plaintiffs to sue again."We unanimously conclude that the punitive damages award is excessive as a matter of law," the court concluded in its 79-page opinion. [read more]
Thursday, July 06, 2006
| North Korea defends missile tests, vows to continue the launches |
| North Korea on Thursday acknowledged that it had test-fired missiles and vowed to launch more, threatening to take even stronger action if opponents of the tests put pressure on the country. The further show of defiance by Pyongyang came amid intense diplomatic jockeying by the United States and its allies to prod the U.N. Security Council to take stern action against the North's seven missile tests on Wednesday. The North Korean Foreign Ministry, in a statement made through the state-run Korean Central News Agency, insisted that the communist state had the right to test its missiles and argued the weapons were needed for defense. [read more] |
NATHU LA, ON THE INDIA-CHINA BORDER --
Indian and Chinese officials officially opened a high Himalayan border pass linking the two countries Thursday, 44 years after it was shut by a brief war between the two Asian giants.
The opening of the Nathu La pass was the latest in a string of measures India and China have taken in recent years to improve ties and end decades of mutual suspicion rooted in a 1962 border war.
The 4,300 meter-high (14,000-foot) mountain pass, once part of the famed Silk Road, lies between India's northeastern state of Sikkim and China's Tibet region.
Sikkim's chief minister, Pawan Kumar Chamling, and the Chinese-appointed leader of Tibet Champa Phuntsok cut the ribbon opening the pass to the cheers of the gathered dignitaries, soldiers and traders from both sides. [read more]
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
USATODAY.com - N. Korean missile launch 'huge bad news' in Asia
SEOUL — North Korea's defiant launch of missiles Wednesday rattled its neighbors in northeast Asia, dismayed sympathetic governments in China and South Korea and strengthened the hand of a hard-liner seeking to become Japan's next prime minister.
VOA News - Brain-Damaged Victim Regains Speech After Almost 20 Years
He has been called a 'medical miracle.' A 42-year-old man from the southern state of Arkansas has regained some ability to speak and move after 19 years of being in what doctors call a state of 'minimal consciousness'.
Tuesday, July 04, 2006
China's 1st train from Beijing to Lhasa completes 4,000-km journey
President Hu Jintao called the railway a "miracle" of engineering, but it has drawn criticism from advocates of Tibetan autonomy who say the train will bring tourists and migrants who threaten Tibet's cultural integrity.
China's first train from Beijing to Lhasa completed its 4,000-km (2,500-mile) journey on Monday (July 3) evening - capping three days of official propaganda about the rail link binding isolated Tibet to the rest of China.July 4 (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil traded near an eight-week high in London after Iran rejected U.S. and European demands to suspend nuclear research and U.S. gasoline prices rose on holiday demand.
Western calls for Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment are unreasonable, said Ali Larijani, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, according to Agence France-Presse. Iran, the world's fourth-largest oil producer, has until July 12 to stop the work or face United Nations sanctions, the Associated Press reported yesterday, citing diplomats it didn't identify.
``I would be surprised if anybody is expecting a resolution'' by that date, said Gerard Burg, a minerals and energy economist with National Australia Bank Ltd. in Melbourne. ``That, combined with the peak demand in the U.S.,'' may be enough to send prices higher. [read more]
Monday, July 03, 2006
Asteroid to make close encounter with Earth
AN ASTEROID up to half a mile wide was due to have brushed past the Earth early today, approaching almost as close as the Moon. [read more]
| 'Superman' soars, but 'Devil' dressed for success
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While the much-hyped "Superman Returns" led the holiday pack with $52.2 million from Friday to yesterday, Meryl Streep's "The Devil Wears Prada" finished an unexpectedly strong second with $27 million. "Prada," in which Streep plays a wickedly villainous and abusive fashion editor, was widely expected to earn only half that much. But the story struck a chord - particularly with women, who comprised 80% of the audience. [read more] |
