Kevin Pietersen will be welcomed back, says Stuart Broad

England Twenty20 captain Stuart Broad says Kevin Pietersen will be welcomed back into the dressing-room.
The 32-year-old batsman was dropped in August for sending "provocative" text messages to opposition players.
But he signed a new four-month contract last week, subject to a "reintegration" period before he plays for the team.
"Once the England management have decided when he's available to return, he'll be welcomed back into the changing room," said Broad.
Pietersen is hoping to return to England duty during the four-Test tour of India, starting later this month.

And Broad brushed aside fears that his return would be opposed by his team-mates.
"The team have no issues with KP coming back if the management decide he's ready to," Broad said.
"It's in their hands at the moment. There are some meetings going on behind closed doors and we're waiting to see the outcome of those.
"But from the team's perspective his integration will be easy.
"Ultimately we're playing cricket and we want guys who will score runs and take catches to help England win. Whatever's happened has happened.
"We pride ourselves on being a strong dressing room and I'm sure that if he came back for India or New Zealand, or whenever it is, that things will be fine within the team."
Rifts between Pietersen and his team-mates surfaced over the summer, with the batsman admitting to issues "in the dressing-room" after scoring a century in the Headingley Test in August.
Two days after Pietersen was dropped over the texts scandal, Broad released a statement denying any involvement in a Twitter account called KP Genius which parodied the South Africa-born batsman.
Broad, who captained England in the World Twenty20, added: "I've not spoken to Kev since the Headingley Test match, but I'd have no problems playing with him or having a beer with him. It's not an issue.
"We know he's a great cricketer, he's won a lot of trophies and has been a really good team-mate for England, certainly ever since I've been playing for them.
"We know that when KP's focused on playing for England and he's happy, he's a really dangerous player."

-  BBC.co.uk

US researchers map carbon emissions at street level

US scientists have developed new software that can accurately measure greenhouse gas emissions down to individual buildings and streets.

The system combines information from public databases with traffic simulations and energy consumption models.

Researchers believe it could help identify the most effective places to cut emissions.

They say it could aid international efforts to verify reductions in carbon.

While the United States has one method of measuring carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases at national level, there is little consistency at city and local level.

Details of the new system are published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.

According to the scientists from Arizona State University this new measuring system, called Hestia, changes all that.

Read More Here

Ireland 'close to oil billions'

Barryroe off County Cork could yield
 280m barrels, Providence says

Ireland is on the verge of securing revenue from oil that could run into billions of pounds.

Providence Resources Plc, an Irish and UK company, has confirmed its Barryroe site, 30 miles off the Cork coast, should yield 280m barrels of oil.

The money generated will depend on the market value at the time of extraction and on licensing arrangements.

Providence chief executive Tony O'Reilly Jr said this was the beginning of an Irish oil industry.

He described it as a huge success story, following decades of exploration around the Irish coast.

"The great news today is that Barryroe is on a path towards development," he told BBC Northern Ireland's Good Morning Ulster.

Mr O'Reilly said more work needed to be done and issues such as taxation revenue, security of supply and jobs needed to be addressed.

But he said: "What we are announcing is the beginning of that (oil) industry.

"We hope there is a renaissance of interest by international companies who need to come to Ireland and help us to exploit our natural resources. We cannot do it alone."

Mr O'Reilly said the oil recovery rate at Barryroe had exceeded expectations and, with oil at about $100 per barrel (77 euros; £62.5) it offered "a lot of value".

Indian toilet scheme wins Geneva global innovation award

A "bio-digester" toilet

AFP - An innovative scheme to provide rural Indian communities with toilets and running water in every house has scooped the first Global+5 award in Geneva.

"It's more than water and sanitation, it's human dignity," said Joe Madiath, head of the Mantra project (Movement and Action network for Transformation of Rural Lives) run by Indian non-governmental group Gram Vikas.

Speaking at the awards ceremony in Geneva late Tuesday, Madiath expressed surprise that a project involving toilets "could lead to such a big prize."

The Global+5 award, created by the Geneva-based Global Journal, is aimed at honouring the "solutions to the most pressing global questions of the next five years."

Based in Orissa in eastern India, Gram Vikas helps to provide "blanket coverage" of toilets and piped running water to communities where 85 percent of the population has no access to a toilet and 99 percent no running water.

So far, the Indian group says it has reached 988 villages, including those in hilly areas lacking electricity, claiming its project has led to a more than 80-percent drop in waterborne disease.

Without such help, "rural communities remain more prone to waterborne diseases and as a result demoralised and unable to defeat the cycle of poverty," it said in a statement.

Lack of basic sanitation is a widespread problem in Indian homes, with census data showing more households in the country of 1.2 billion people have a telephone than a toilet.

Some 47 percent of India's 330 million households have toilet facilities while 63 percent of homes have phone connections -- mostly mobiles.

The award jury, which included World Trade Organization director Pascal Lamy and former Greek prime minister George Papandreou, also praised six other projects nominated for the award.

In particular, they cited the "Discovering Hands" initiative which employs visually impaired women in Germany to detect breast cancer.

The 20 women trained to spot the cancer have a 50 percent better detection rate than traditional methods, the NGO said.

Google launches online 'Cultural Institute' chronicling 20th century

AFP - Google on Wednesday launched its online "Cultural Institute", a digital visual archive of landmark 20th century events and personalities, created in cooperation with 17 museums and institutes from across the globe.

The archives focus on legends like Anne Frank, the young Jewish-Dutch Holocaust victim whose famous diary chronicled her plight; South African freedom icon Nelson Mandela; as well as lesser-known heroes like Jan Karski, a Polish anti-Nazi partisan who brought the Allies early eye-witness testimony of the Holocaust.

Six million archive photographs, documents, texts and films provided by museums including the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Poland, Israel's Yad Vashem World Centre for Holocaust Research or the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory can be accessed at the Google Cultural Institute at www.google.com/culturalinstitute.

"We want to bring all of the cutting-edge technologies that we have -- the services, the products, mapping -- to the cultural sector," Google's Mark Yoshitaka told journalists in the Polish capital Warsaw at the Wednesday launch.

With an initial collection of 42 online themes, the archive is set to expand significantly in the coming years, he said.

"It's a fantastic tool, which lets us cross geographic borders, provide access to museum collection around the clock in several languages. It's a real revolution," said Robert Kostro director of the Museum of Polish History.

"Today, we must use all technologies at our disposal to preserve memory," Piotr Cywinski, director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum said at the launch.

Google's virtual Cultural Institute comes on the heels of the Google Art Project allowing Internet users to explore fine art from around the world with thousands of artworks photographed in extremely high resolution.

Avalanche hits Uzbek mountaineer team

Uzbekistan’s leading mountaineer, Ilyas Tukhvatulin 

Two Uzbek mountain climbers are missing after the country’s national squad was caught in an avalanche in the mountains of Nepal.

The tragedy occurred on October 7 as the team were storming the Annapurna I peak at the open mountaineering world championships.

The search is currently on for Uzbekistan’s top mountaineer and the group’s leader Ilyas Tukhvatulin and team member Ivan Lobanov.

Six other climbers returned to their base camp safely. 

“The helicopter was used today. But no one was found,” Vladimir Bogdanov of the Russian team told Risk.ru by phone. “The avalanche was greater that at Manaslu (in which 21 mountaineers were killed or missing on September 23 this year). The search will continue tomorrow, but the chances are slim.”

Despite being only the tenth tallest mountain in the world, Annapurna I (8047 meters) holds the highest fatality rate among the 14 mountains higher than eight-thousand meters.

As of 2005, the mountain has been successfully conquered only 103 times, with 56 lives lost, mainly due to avalanches.

Russia’s renowned climber Anatoly Boukreev died there in 1997; Italy’s Christian Kuntner in 2005; and Spain’s Inaki Ochoa in 2008.

British singer to become the next space tourist

AdBritish singer Sarah Brightman smiles after a news
conference in Moscow October 10, 2012.

Phantom of the Opera star Sarah Brightman is to pay millions of dollars to become the next space tourist. The singer will join professional cosmonauts on a Russian Soyuz mission and visit the international space station in three years time.
The 52 year old singer will reportedly blast off into space in 2015, Aleksey Krasnov, the head of Roscosmos’ piloted programs said at a news conference in Moscow.
The last space tourist was Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte in 2009. Prior to his visit seven paying customers have made their way to the ISS. Reports say each of them paid at least $20 million for the privilege.
The first space tourist was American millionaire Dennis Tito. He flew into space with a team of astronauts in 2001.
According to Krasnov, the singer who was once married to composer Andrew Lloyd Webber and starred in the original London and New York productions of "The Phantom of the Opera" has already received the approval from the medical commission and can now begin training at Russia’s Cosmonaut Training Centre outside Moscow.
“In July Miss Brightman submitted all the necessary medical and physical parameters [to the medical commission] having proved that she is a suitable candidate ready to undergo a six-month long space-flight training program,” Krasnov said.
Speaking at the news conference Brightman says she plans to release special album chronicling her preparations of the space journey in the coming months. Early in her career Sarah Brightman had a hit with a song called ‘I fell in love with a starship trooper’, her trip into orbit will certainly bring her one step closer.

Rt.com

Mug’s game: Former WBA champ fights off six muggers

Boxing champion Amir Khan

Former WBA and IBF light welterweight champion Amir Khan stood up against an armed gang to defend his car from being stolen, British media report.
On Tuesday night, Khan and his brother, who is also a professional fighter, allegedly got involved in a fistfight with six men in Birmingham, when the gang tried to steal Khan’s £100,000 Range Rover.
The two brothers were on their way back after a night out when a group of men overtook Khan’s ride by blocking their way and forcing the fighters to stop.
Witnesses testified that the Khan brothers easily defended themselves against their attackers.
“One [of the gang] slapped Amir and clipped him on the lip but Amir pulled back and knocked him out cold,” a witness revealed to The Sun newspaper.
“Then five of them went for Amir and Haroon but they stood their ground and these guys got dropped one by one.”
Amir Khan lost his WBA light welterweight belt to American fighter Danny Garcia in a fourth round knockout on July 14, 2012. The 25 year old is now scheduled to take on unbeaten fighter Carlos Molina in December in an attempt to reinstate himself as the top ranked fighter in his division.

iPhone 5 battery issues reported

Apple’s claims to have improved the smartphone owner’s perennial problem of disappointing battery life with the iPhone 5, but problem is still not solved, many coustomers are still claims and disappointing about battery life in iPhone 5.

A coustomer named Holdrege, who reports that his iPhone 5 drains way faster than my two-year-old iPhone 4. Meanwhile, DJleviathan attests that although Apple claims the battery will provide eight hours of constant use in reality it ends up only lasting half that time.

One London-based Orange customer reported that his battery fell from “90 per cent to 10 per cent in eight hours with LTE on, in which time he claims to have only used the internet to check the Fulham scores once or twice.

Apple’s marketing copy claims that the iPhone 5’s custom-built A6 processor is so power efficient that the phone lasts twice as long as the iPhone 4S on a single full charge, despite potential battery punishing features on the new handset such as a larger screen and 4G connectivity.

The company is also currently attempting to deflect criticism of the iPhone 5's Apple Maps mapping solution, which has been found to be riddled with inaccuracies and spelling howlers.

Scarlet (Lunar Chronicles, #2) by Marissa Meyer

Cinder returns in the second thrilling installment of the New York Times-bestselling Lunar Chronicles. She’s trying to break out of prison—even though if she succeeds, she’ll be the Commonwealth’s most wanted fugitive.

Halfway around the world, Scarlet Benoit’s grandmother is missing. It turns out there are many things Scarlet doesn’t know about her grandmother and the grave danger she has lived in her whole life. When Scarlet encounters Wolf, a street fighter who may have information as to her grandmother’s whereabouts, she has no choice but to trust him, though he clearly has a few dark secrets of his own.

As Scarlet and Wolf work to unravel one mystery, they find another when they cross paths with Cinder. Together, they must stay one step ahead of the vicious Lunar Queen who will do anything to make Prince Kai her husband, her king, her prisoner.

How to make travel websites more friendly

According to the latest statistics, in the year 2014 it is expected that at least one billion users around the world will use a mobile device for payments. Obviously travel and hospitality industry just cannot ignore such a market development move.

To keep users of iPhones, Androids, and windows mobile systems on your website and as a result sell more ahead of competitors, travel trade professionals follow their customers by developing the mobile-friendly versions of their websites.

Whether we like it or not, as a matter of fact a number of users accessing the web via mobile increases rapidly, and travel and hospitality services providers need to adapt to the market development. Tourism Review editors come with some of the essential yet basic recommendations in order to make the mobile edition of your website more attractive for potential mobile users.

Getting the very right thing first, it is just not wise to serve your mobile and desktop customers on the same site. The most common option is creating the third level domain in format like m.tourism-review.com, where tourism-review.com – is the main domain for desktop users. Make sure that script for detection and redirection of mobile users is installed on your main domain, to ensure they are redirected to the mobile domain automatically.

Avoid flash and JavaScript. Flash is also a significant issue. It is common that due to safety and other reasons many mobile devices do not support these technologies. So just keep your mobile version in a plain HTML format for your mobile-friendly travel website. It would be better to show to mobile users a bit less media-rich content than he or she will see no page at all.

The same way as on the desktop website version, the content is the king. However for the mobile website version you need to keep your content even briefer and clearer. As far as mobile version of a website is concerned, less is more – a definitely through.

Content should also be unique and informative. You need to keep the focus and initiate a call to action as quickly as possible. In the mobile edition grabbing the reader’s attention right away is “the must”. Also, quite importantly, be sure your headlines are persuasive and original that enable readers to get the point right away.

Making a clear and easy navigation is also a focal point. Smart and practical navigation means prioritizing key areas and important pages of the website for easy access using bigger buttons, smarter colors, fonts etc. Essentially, you have to provide your visitors with distinct and clear ways for getting to your most important content.

Either you follow the above suggestions or not we strongly recommend testing your mobile edition, before launching it. A good tool for checking compatibility across web browsers and devices could be found here: www.w3.org/Mobile/ . Test all levels of your application, not just simple homepage check.

Emme Lopez's Chanel Experience

JENNIFER LOPEZ's four-year-old daughter, Emme, did not need much persuading to go to Chanel's latest catwalk show last week.

"I thought it would be a good idea," Lopez said. "My daughter loves fashion - she's four years old, but she loves clothes and dressing up, like all little girls. And so I thought: 'Oh, wouldn't it be nice to take her to the beautiful Chanel show?' It's always so beautiful, kind of like of like a fantasy life. And I hadn't been to a fashion show in a long time, and when I got there, I forgot that the press can kind of just run up to you."

Emme arrived at the show wearing an estimated £1,400-worth of Chanel accessories - items that helped make the event all the more special, Lopez explained.

"She wore [the outfit] because I wanted her to have something Chanel on her," Lopez told German television show Wetten, Dass this weekend - appearing with Karl Lagerfeld. "She had a little Chanel bag that they gave her, and a little Chanel pin that they lent us."

The Chanel helmer was not too pleased to discover that the treasured items had to be returned: "Lent? They took it back? Oh, that's horrible!"

Facebook's new retail push lets users hit 'buy'

Facebook this week quietly started testing another feature that could help turn the company into an online retail powerhouse.It is called Collections and will help retailers share their products on the social network  and for the first time allow users to click through and BUY products THROUGH Facebook.

The company is allowing seven retailers to share information about products through Collections, which users can then share with their friends. Facebook is testing three different options for users to take action when viewing the products like, collect, and want. Presumably the social media giant will go with whichever of these three draws the most traction.

The big difference here  Facebook is including a buy link for products within a collection, sending people to the sites to purchase products. Facebook isn't charging for this service yet  but presumably it plans to take a cut of all sales that originate on its platform. And the more people share products, the more they're likely to buy.

Facebook is starting the test with seven major retailers: William Sonoma's, Pottery Barn, Neiman Marcus, Limited Brand's, Victoria's Secret, Fab.com, Michael Kors, Smith Optics, and Wayfair.

With this latest move, Facebook is hoping to push into the next frontier of social shopping and capitalize on the power of people sharing products they like with friends. It only seems natural for the company to roll out this service in time for the holiday shopping season.

''The Elves Were Dressed In Strange Karate Suits!''

''THE ELVES WERE DRESSED IN STRANGE KARATE SUITS!''

Rosinkranz, who is employed as a 'psychic' by Iceland's leading construction companies, first saw Elves when he was four. ''I remember them coming out of the rocks,'' he says, ''carrying a little bell. They were dressed in these strange Outfits. I played with them for ages but no one else saw them.''
The Elves that he has seen most recently were dressed in jackets and jeans!
''Clearly,'' says Rosinkranz,''they have evolved.''

They are most highly evolved in Hafnarfjordur   - Iceland's Elf Capital. Something to do with ley lines.And then as the story unfolds, another Boulder was discovered on the Elf Hill so the construction company decided to build around it. So, the two lanes on Elf Hill road became one, in an Elf induced traffic calming scheme. Some neighbours now reckon, however, that what with the council's new lampposts, it's too bright for the Elves. And too noisy.And the people feel that the Elves moved on. With so many boulders out there to choose from, who can blame them?

Supernatural creatures aren't just a problem in Iceland. A road project in Ireland had to be diverted around a Fairy tree. A local storyteller even intimated that the death of an archaeologist and two construction workers on the site were due to a Fairy curse. And in the USA, or New Zealand, when native Americans or Maoris protest at roads being built over ancient burial grounds, governments sit up and take notice. But in Iceland, it is the Main Headline.

By the way Iceland topped the UN Human Development Index of 2008 as the most developed country in the world   -and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation And Development declared, that, per capita, it was the fifth richest Nation in the World. But then, later in September a year later everything went wrong. The financial system collapsed, and the Krona lost half its value in months. Iceland went belly up in bankruptcy.
And Icelanders started to figure out everything all over again, -what being Icelandic actually means.

The truth is that Icelanders truly believe in Elfs. And they even refuse to rule out Trolls and dwarves, too. The Politicians keep quiet about it. Which is surprising. You would imagine they would want to get on with building their roads and shopping centres without someone popping up and saying, ''You can't  -you too near a Elf house.''
And to compliment that, -my own judgement is that it would be suicide for the politicians to claim that Elves don't exist. He wouldn't be re-elected.

Even if they don't believe they keep quiet.
This is Iceland!


Good Night & God Bless

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless

Popular cell phone novels now available in English

TOKYO —

Some of the top-selling books in Japan are cell phone novels. Now, eMobo is the first English-language app to offer this keitai shosetsu trend, to a much broader audience.

Cell phone novels are books written as text messages  one 70-100 word chapter at a time. They’re meant to be read fast or subscribed to like a serial version of a story. Young people love to read and write them. As Wikipedia explains, The cell phone novel is changing reading habit its mobility and convenienc allows readers to read anywhere, any time.

The revolutionary eMobo app is more than a reading and writing tool. It also offers rewards for reading, publishes your stories, provides subscription services to stories, and since it is powered through textnovel.com, the pioneer site that is making these Japanese-style novels popular  just one click on eMobo will display thousands of books available for instant download based on your reading habits. The more you read, the more the app learns what kinds of books you prefer.

A daily sync up with textnovel.com’s ever-growing library database and eMobo brings its users all the cell phone novels they could possibly ever want, eMobo is FREE through Apple’s iPhone app store. To find out more information about the app and to download it free, visit eMobo’s website.

University adapting videogame technology to help physically disabled computer users

TOKYO —

The University of Tokyo Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, in conjunction with Microsoft Japan, has launched trials of new a computer program that utilize Microsoft’s Kinect for Windows technology as a way for physically disabled people to communicate and interact with computers.

For the uninitiated, Kinect is a motion-sensing camera designed for Microsoft’s Xbox 360 console and Windows PCs that tracks users’ body movements and is capable of recognizing voice commands. The technology first became available for Xbox users just under two years ago, with Microsoft heralding a new age of gameplay where “you are the controller”, seeing users flapping around their living-rooms like maniacs to control their video games.

The clever folks at RCAST have put together an incredible new piece of software, known as OAK, that allows severely disabled people to interact with computers. The system is able to recognize both movement and depth of field, meaning that even users whose movement is heavily restricted could potentially operate a computer.

The Kinect unit’s camera has been optimized to focus on key areas of the user’s body, particularly the face, and, along with the use of voice recognition, allows users to communicate their intentions far more freely than before.

So, even though decent Kinect-controlled videogames remain thin on the ground and many game developers are becoming increasingly shy of utilizing the device, it would seem that the technology still has the potential to do a lot of good.

Softbank unveils new handsets compatible with high-speed data communication service

TOKYO —

Mobile communications giant Softbank Mobile Corp unveiled a range of new cell phones for 2012-2013 that will take advantage of the mobile carrier’s high-speed data communication service.

Now that Softbank’s Apple iPhone exclusivity deal has ended, the company is attempting to emphasize the growing importance of its new high speed data transfer service over handsets. In an attempt to fend off increasingly fierce competition from its rivals in the cellphone space, Softbank last week revealed it is to purchase mobile service operator eAccess Ltd to utilize its high-speed LTE data communication network.

The transmission speed of its 4G data communication service is as high as 76 megabits per second. The new range of smartphones, to be launched between this fall and next spring, will support tethering, to allow other devices such as personal computers and tablets to share the phone’s Internet connection.

The company has also announced the launch of a new content-on-demand service providing around 40,000 movies and TV programs via a set-top box connected to a television and an Internet connection.

Another service will enable users to stream around 50,000 multimedia files, including music, to smartphones. Both services are scheduled for launch in December. The company’s rival NTT Docomo is expected to announce similar services next month. 

OCEANUS MANTA watch with improved usability of world time

TOKYO —

Casio Computer Co will release a new OCEANUS watch, the OCW-S2400, from its premium OCEANUS MANTA series. OCEANUS MANTA watches are slim, solar-powered, radio-controlled chronograph watches with elegantly designed full metal cases.

The new OCEANUS OCW-S2400 watch is a flagship model embodying the OCEANUS brand concept of Elegance and Technology, and includes the following features:

—Smart Access: Independently drives the centrally positioned hour, minute, and second hands using separate motors, enabling operation of features at a high level and improving usability of World Time (World Time: displays the current time in 29 cities in 29 time zones around the world).

—Dual Time Display: By placing a big World Time inset dial next to the 3:00 crown, the wearer can simultaneously read both their home time and the world time. City settings for home time and world time can be adjusted using the crown, and wearers can switch easily between both times by pushing a button.

—Dual curve sapphire glass with a non-glare coating on both sides that helps emphasize the beauty of the face design: A face design with a new layout of inset dials also allows for a high level of visibility.

The new models will be priced between 150,000 and 155,000 yen (before tax).

IMF forcasts recession in Spain

The IMF has forecast that the Spanish economy will contract by 1.3 percent next year - more than double its previous predictions. And Spanish regions continute to ask for more funds, as the government prepares to make budget cuts.
The pace of life looks slow in Seville but the same can’t be said for the developing economic crisis in Spain.
The city is the capital of Andalucia - the sixth Spanish region to seek a government bailout.
It wants almost 5 billion euros from an already stretched regional fund.
Europe’s leader have again insisted the euro zone fourth largest ecoonomy won’t need an international bailout.
And Spain’s finance minister, Luis de Guindos, meeting colleagues in Luxembourg, says he’s not under pressure to make more cuts.
Luis De Guindos, Spanish Finance Minister, said, "There was a positive evaluation of Spain’s economic policy and the need to carry out a fiscal adjustment that is sensitive and sensible."
But many Spaniards and the IMF aren’t so confident.
Spain’s latest crisis budget met with protests at the weekend, and the IMF now says Spain will still miss its deficit targets this year and next.
It also expects the economic contraction to be greater in 2013 than the government forecasts.
But market pressure is the key.
Jeremy Batstone Carr from Charles Stanley says investors have already factored in a bailout and that is actually helping them avoid one - for the time being.
He said, "The more likely the markets believe Spain’s formal request for a bailout to be, the lower Spanish bond yields fall, and the less pressure on Spain to take part in a bailout immediately."
Spain’s banking crisis is at the heart of its problems.
And finance ministers from the euro zone agreed, on Tuesday, to a tax on financial transactions, to show they’re prepared to make Europe’s banks pay for their part in the financial crisis.

11 state departments to use new-energy autos

BEIJING, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- A total of 23 electric cars will be used among 11 state organs in a pilot program to promote new-energy vehicles for official use, according to a statement from the Ministry of Science and Technology (MST) on Tuesday.

The 11 departments include the MST, the Government Offices Administration of the State Council (GOASC), the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Land and Resources, the statement said.

An official with the GOASC said that the office will further enhance the proportion of electric cars in government vehicles in order to boost the development of new-energy automobiles.

According to the statement, China Potevio, a hi-tech telecommunications manufacturing enterprise, will be in charge of the operation of the electric cars, including car maintenance, charging facility support and business services.

In June, the State Council, China's Cabinet, issued an outline to promote the application of new-energy cars and develop the country's new-energy automobile industry.

Toyota to recall 7.43 mil vehicles globally over fire risk in power-windows

TOKYO — Toyota Motor Corp said Wednesday it is recalling 7.43 million vehicles globally over a fire risk caused by a power-window defect in models including the popular Camry and Corolla.

The recall is the latest to hit the firm after it called back millions of other vehicles in recent years, which dealt a heavy blow to its once-stellar reputation for safety.

About 2.47 million vehicles will be recalled from the United States, said a spokeswoman for the firm.

Another 2.8 million cars would be recalled from Europe and China while the remainder were spread over the world including Japan, Canada, Australia and the Middle East, she said.

The latest recall comes about two months after Toyota added two models to a controversial 2009 recall launched after floor mats became trapped under the accelerator and were linked to accidents that allegedly caused dozens of deaths.

Toyota’s mishandling of the initial problem and other reports of sudden, unintended acceleration led to the recall of more than 12 million vehicles worldwide, a U.S. congressional probe, more than $50 million in fines from U.S. regulators and public apologies by its chief.

Toyota has since worked hard to regain its reputation for safety, while at the same time suffering from the impact of the economic crisis, a strong yen and the devastating 2011 quake and tsunami.

The Japanese firm managed to regain its position as the world’s number one automaker in the first half of 2012, stealing back the lead from U.S. giant General Motors.

© 2012 AFP

University of Otago increases fees

The university's operating surplus for the year to
 August stood at $13.323 million. Photo / Ross Setford

(New Zealand) The University of Otago has approved a domestic fee increase of 4 per cent for next year as part of efforts to take on what it calls a "perfect storm" of financial pressures.

The increase follows a trend from previous years, with fee increases of 6.3 per cent (including 2.3 per cent to cover GST rising to 15 per cent) last year and 4 per cent for this year.

Otago University's council yesterday voted to raise all domestic fees by the maximum allowable 4 per cent, except for the Master of Business Administration (MBA) course - not subject to the Government's maximum fee movement policy - which was raised by 4.35 per cent. The increases equated to between $184 and $1500 a year per course.

Speaking at the meeting Otago University chief operating officer John Patrick said the fee increase came amid a "perfect storm" of financial difficulty, with flat enrolments, declining income and increasing costs all hitting the university at the same time.

This was outlined in the fee increase proposal by financial services director Grant McKenzie, which showed that additional income next year - including $4.6 million from the fee increases - of $7.2 million would not meet known cost increases, of $12.2 million.

Mr Patrick said this shortfall meant there would need to be cuts.

The university would not be alone in raising fees and the "indication" was that all would raise them by the maximum allowable 4 per cent, he said.

The university's operating surplus for the year to August stood at $13.323 million, which was $344,000 ahead of budget and $5.261 million less than at the same time last year.

Mr Patrick said this was the lowest surplus for the first eight months of the year since August 2003.

Despite the negative financial results the university's balance sheet and lack of debt were a "comfort", he said.

"In my view we are in a really good space for these times of financial stress," he said.

- Otago Daily Times

NYPD Cops Calls Student A 'F**king Mutt'

When we asked Caleb, 15, of Fort Greene, if he'd ever
been stopped and frisked, he responded, "Nah, but
most of my friends have. Only a matter of time, I guess."

In shocking new audio recording of the NYPD performing a stop-and-frisk of a 16-year-old Harlem student, police officers are heard calling the teenager a "fucking mutt," and threatening him with repeated violence.

The profanity-laced clip, obtained by The Nation, exposes extremely racist and violent attitudes held by the three plainclothes officers who stopped the student, named Alvin, simply because he "kept looking back" at them.

In the two-minute recording, Alvin is repeatedly heard asking the officers why they've stopped him, to which none of the officers provide a legitimate answer. Instead, the officers attempt to intimidate him with threats to "break [his] fucking arm" and punch him in the face.

At one point, an officer answers the teenager and tells him he's been stopped because he's a "fucking mutt."

The officers also threaten Alvin with arrest.

The audio calls into question the NYPD's use of stop-and-frisks, which has already received strong criticism from civil rights advocates, community groups, and local politicians, for disproportionately targeting blacks and Latinos in New York City.

In 2011, of the nearly 700,000 people stopped by NYPD, 87 percent were either black or Latino.


A bill coming up before City Council this week calls for an Inspector General to oversee the NYPD, and would empower those who believe they were racially profiled by cops to file lawsuits.

The video, made by Ross Tuttle, also includes interviews with anonymous NYPD veterans who say the department promotes unnecessary stop and frisks on a routine basis.

In June, a teenager named Tyquan Brehon said that by the time he turned 18, he had been stop-and-frisked more than 60 times. The collective experience was so psychologically damaging, Brehon explains he would purposely try to get suspended from school just to avoid contact with police.

- Huffingtonpost.com