F1 rivalry revs into America

The title is still up for grabs with Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel, right,
 10 points clear of Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso [EPA]

The Formula One season comes down to this: Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel leads Ferrari's Fernando Alonso by 10 points with two races left, the first at a track neither has driven on before.

The first US Grand Prix since 2007 will be run on Sunday on the new $400m Circuit of the Americas, built a few miles outside of Austin.

With so few points separating Vettel and Alonso from winning a third world title for either driver, learning every nuance in elevation, the straights and the 20 turns in practice and qualifying could make the difference.

"If you do everything perfectly, you will have a chance,'' Alonso said.

"If you make a mistake, you will lose the chance.''

Crunch time

If the title chase isn't decided on Sunday, it will head to the season finale next week in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Vettel and Alonso have spent hours practicing in course simulators. Alonso did two laps on a bicycle on Wednesday and Vettel planned to walk the course on Thursday afternoon.

- aljazeera.com

Di Matteo interested in Falcao

It has been claimed that Chelsea could launch a £48m bid for the Atletico Madrid striker when the transfer window reopens.

Chelsea manager Di Matteo stuck to his policy of not discussing the club's transfer plans when quizzed on Falcao this afternoon but also said: "If you ask any manager, he would have him in his team."

He added: "He is one of the best strikers, probably, in European and world football.

"His ratio of goals per game is quite impressive, not just this season but over the last three seasons, at Porto and Atletico Madrid."

Chelsea are set to lose Nigeria star Victor Moses in January for the African Nations Cup, leaving them short of back-up for Fernando Torres and Daniel Sturridge.

"We're looking at that, because we'll lose Victor and John Obi Mikel for that tournament," Di Matteo said.

"We'll look and see how we deal with it, but for the moment we're okay."

- Telegraph.co.uk

UC Students Protest Fee Hikes

University of California students protested the possibility of Tuition Fee hike on Thursday  despite the passing of Prop. 30 which aims to stop the increase in Fee.

UCSF Mission Bay campus, where the Board of Regents met today, and planned to picket during the meeting. Protestors wanted to "shut down the Regents' vote" on a measure called Professional Degree Supplemental Tuition (PDST), which would implement a fee increase for 61 UC graduate and professional programs.


Gov. Jerry Brown attended the UC regents meeting and tried to convince the regents not to increase the fee this year, especially since Prop. 30 passed giving the state "breathing room" in terms of having extra money.

But at that meeting, the regents said they need $276 million dollars from the state to keep tuition from going up after deep spending cuts. Brown didn't commit to that, and said that wasn't a realistic number.

The governor also attended Tuesday's meeting of the California State University Board of Trustees in Long Beach, where the board agreed to postpone a vote on three new fees at Brown's request.

English Back on the Books for Indonesia's Elementary Schools

The Education and Culture Ministry has done an about-face on a previous plan to scrap English lessons from the nation’s elementary school curriculum.

“English will still be part of elementary school lessons,” said Ibnu Hamad, a spokesman for the ministry, in a release obtained by the Jakarta Globe. “Just as in the 2006 curriculum, English will still be categorized under local subjects. So the school can adjust to use it, as has been going on all this time.”

Previously, a senior ministry official had said the government was in the process of drafting a new curriculum that contained only six subjects: religion, nationalism, Indonesian language, math, art and sport, with English language lessons on the chopping block.

Musliar Kasim, the deputy minister of education and cultural, said it was better for elementary school students to focus on studying the Indonesian language.

“Even kindergarten students are forced to take English courses. To put it bluntly, it is haram [forbidden under Islam]. Feel pity on the children,” he said last month, expressing concern for a course load that he deemed too rigorous.

Ibnu said the new curriculum to be used in the coming academic year would emphasize a balance of attitude, skills and knowledge competencies. The government will give the plan a trial run in some schools by the end of this month.

“One of the characteristics of the 2013 curriculum, mainly for elementary school, is thematic integration,” Ibnu said. “Under this approach, science and social studies will be widely discussed in all subjects. Science will be discussion material of Indonesian language and math [lessons]. Social studies will be discussion material within Pancasila and citizenship [PPKN] lessons, and Indonesian language [lessons].”

The ministry on Sept. 27 announced that science and social studies would be removed from the nation’s elementary school curriculum, a decision that was ultimately walked back.

Charlie Chaplin hat and cane to go under hammer

Charlie Chaplin's iconic bowler hat and cane are to go under the hammer in Los Angeles this weekend, as part of an auction.

The hat and cane, trademark of Chaplin's Little Tramp character, are in "remarkable condition" and are estimated to go for between $40,000 and $60,000 at the sale by auction house Bonhams on Sunday.

Legend has it that Chaplin came up with the tramp persona and wardrobe spontaneously one rainy afternoon in February 1914, seizing various wardrobe items in a communal male dressing room at a Hollywood studio.

These included baggy trousers from Fatty Arbuckle, size 14 shoes which he had to wear on the wrong feet to keep them falling off, the hat belonging to Arbuckle's father-in-law, and a mustache intended for another actor.

The 32-inch (81-centimeter) bamboo cane is inscribed "CCLT 36" in black ink, a reference to the Little Tramp, Chaplin's signature character.

- AFP

Meat bad for morals, says Indian textbook

The pros and cons of meat-eating may be the subject of debate for nutritionists, but one Indian school textbook is clear: a fleshy diet will make you lie, steal and even commit sex crimes.

The unusual moral guidance appeared in a school book for 11-year-olds, purporting to offer education on issues from health and hygiene to sex education and exercise, the NDTV news channel reported.

On a page about non-vegetarians, the book said that they "easily cheat, tell lies, they forget promises, they are dishonest and tell bad words, steal, fight and turn to violence and commit sex crimes".

It also claimed that "it is the waste products which largely produce the flavour of meat", and praised the Japanese for their vegetarian diet -- failing to mention their love of seafood.

The book's marriage advice was also questionable, suggesting women should find a husband between the ages of 18 and 25.

"To get married without a bad name is a dream of every young girl," it said.

NDTV said the text was published by the reputed printing firm S Chand, while the chief of India's Central Board for Secondary Education said books were chosen by individual schools and not monitored for content.

Despite a strong culture of vegetarianism and a religious taboo over beef-eating, Indians are consuming more and more meat as the country's economy grows and consumers become better-travelled.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization last year said Indians' per capita consumption of meat was running at 5.0 to 5.5 kilograms (11 to 12 pounds) a year, the highest since it began compiling records.

- AFP

Children discovered in freezer in French town

French police on Thursday found the bodies of a baby and a small child in a fridge in an apartment where they also discovered the bloodied corpse of their mother, officials said.

"A hunt is under way for the perpetrator of these acts," said prosecutor Matthieu Bourrette, without confirming local newspaper reports from the south-eastern town of Vienne that the suspect is the father of the children.

Authorities found the three-month baby girl and her five-year-old sister in the fridge-freezer. Their 26-year-old mother was discovered in the living room. Bourrette said that the mother “had died a violent death,” adding that an autopsy would be carried out Friday.

The authorities were alerted to the scene by the children’s grandmother on Thursday morning.

- France24.com

Astronomers spot oldest, furthest galaxy

AFP - Astronomers using a complex system of super telescopes have caught a glimpse of what is likely the most distant, and thus oldest, galaxy ever seen -- some 13.3 billion light years from Earth.

The star cluster was observed in its infancy -- as it looked when the Universe was just three percent of its present age, NASA and the European Space Agency announced.

"We see the newly discovered galaxy, named MACS0647-JD, as it was 420 million years after the Big Bang" that created the Universe 13.7 billion years ago, a statement said.

"Its light has travelled 13.3 billion years to reach Earth."

The astronomers, grouped under the joint American-European CLASH project, use the orbiting Hubble and Spitzer telescopes as well as employing massive galaxy clusters as cosmic magnifiers to find distant galaxies.

The process, known as gravitational lensing, allows astronomers to see galaxies that emit light with a brightness weaker than that of a candle on the Moon, thus undetectable directly by telescopes on Earth.

The newly discovered cluster is so small, less than 600 light years across, that scientists believe it may still be in the first stages of galaxy formation.

Our own Milky Way is 150,000 light years across.

"The estimated mass of this baby galaxy is roughly equal to 100 million or a billion suns, or 0.1 to 1.0 percent of our Milky Way's stars," the statement said.

In September, the CLASH scientists said they had spotted the Universe's oldest and furthest galaxy, using the same technique -- the previous record-holding 13.2 billion light years away.

With gravitational lensing, theorised by Albert Einstein himself, astronomers use younger galaxies that lie closer to Earth to magnify older ones lurking in the distance by bending the light they emit.

"This latest discovery has outstripped even my expectations of what would be possible with the CLASH programme," said Rychard Bouwens of the Netherlands' Leiden University, co-author of the study to be published in the Astrophysical Journal in December.

BP receives record $4.5bn in US fines

British energy giant BP said Thursday it had agreed to pay more than $4.5 billion in US fines related to the devastating 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, including a record $4.0 billion to settle criminal claims.

"The aggregate amount of the resolution is approximately $4.5 billion (3.5 billion euros), with payments scheduled over a period of six years," BP said in a statement.

BP said it had agreed a resolution of all criminal claims with the US Department of Justice which includes $4.0 billion to be paid in installments over five years. It said $1.256 billion of the $4.0 billion total were for criminal fines.

It additionally agreed a resolution of all securities claims with US regulator the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which includes $525 million in fines to be paid in installments over three years.

Microsoft's Digits motion: Dance and Talk with Hands

By Bushra Sabir
Technology Correspondent, SAM Daily Times

Microsoft's Digits motion control prototype could lead to an era of computing with gestures rather than a clunky old keyboard and mouse. "This is the future of communications, the future of entertainment, and it is the next generation of collaboration," said futurist James Canton. The long-lived and usually reliable mouse could soon be put out to pasture, as Microsoft unveiled this week a new hand-gesture sensor that could allow users to point with their fingers rather than a cursor. The new Digits prototype is part of an effort to create a mobile device that could transform interaction with a computer interface. This wrist-worn sensor would allow the wearer to control a range of equipment via hand gestures, which could allow it to be an interface beyond the computer screen. Microsoft has been looking at motion control, which has already been adapted for its Kinect for the Xbox 360 game console, as offering an alternative to pressing buttons on a device.

HTC New Launch : Droid DNA

By Bushra Sabir
Technology Correspondent, SAM Daily Times

Smartphone maker HTC on Tuesday announced its newest device, the Droid DNA, a 5-inch smartphone running Android Jelly Bean. The device will be offered exclusively through Verizon Wireless, which began taking preorders on Tuesday. It will be available at retail stores nationwide on Nov. 21 for $199.99 with a two-year contract. "The HTC Droid DNA is the first device with a 5-inch full HD 1920 x 1080 pixel screen so, from a resolution standpoint, it leads the way compared to the Samsung Galaxy S III, Galaxy Note II or the iPhone 5," said Julien Blin, analyst at Infonetics Research.

Japan leads Asia in building cloud economy

TOKYO —

Japan has once again topped the rankings in the Cloud Readiness Index (CRI), an annual study of Asia-Pacific economies’ preparedness for cloud computing by the Asia Cloud Computing Association (ACCA).

In this the second Index, Japan ranked ahead of South Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore, scoring highest in the categories of International Connectivity and Business Sophistication, and equal highest in Data Privacy and Freedom of Information Access. Taiwan finished fifth, just behind Singapore, mainland China ranked 10th, Australia finished in the middle of the table and Thailand and Vietnam tied at the bottom.

The Index tracks the development of the required underlying infrastructure, data regulations, and the business and government environment for cloud computing across leading Asian economies. In a few short years, cloud computing has become an important part of the knowledge economy and is certain to become one of the biggest drivers of economic growth over the next decade.

Research firm Gartner has predicted public cloud services to be worth $109 billion this year, while IDC estimates that by 2015 the cloud will create 14 million jobs worldwide and $1.1 trillion a year in new business revenues. The EU expects the cloud to add as much as 160 billion euros ($206 billion) to annual GDP between now and 2020, which represents more than 2% of GDP growth.

Cloud services have become enabled by the widespread deployment of fixed and mobile broadband networks and the mass availability of smartphones and tablets. Using the cloud, businesses, governments and other organizations can deliver content, databases and applications in a more cost-effective and flexible way.

Cloud providers and customers have also expressed concerns about data portability, vendor lock-in and interoperability. ACCA CEO Per Dahlberg said the Index could become an important tool for governments. The Index can measure their own progress and also their ability to attract foreign investment in cloud services and platforms.

The Index examines 14 countries and markets using 10 different measures, covering regulatory issues such as data protection, infrastructure areas such as broadband and the broader business and government environment.

RIM to unveil new BlackBerry phones on Jan 30

TORONTO —

Research In Motion will hold an official launch event for its new BlackBerry 10 smartphones on Jan 30. The new phones are seen as critical to RIM’s survival. The Waterloo, Ontario-based company said details on the much-delayed smartphones and their availability will be announced at the event.

The announcement comes as the company struggles in North America to hold onto customers who are abandoning BlackBerrys for flashier iPhones and Android phones.

RIM’s current software is still focused on email and messaging, and is less user-friendly, agile and robust than iPhone or Android. Its attempt at touch screens was a flop, and it lacks the apps that power other smartphones. RIM is hanging its hopes on the BlackBerry 10 software. It is thoroughly redesigned for the touchscreen, Internet browsing and apps experience that customers now expect.

Jefferies analyst Peter Misek called it a make-or-break product release and said the date of the launch event suggests a release date in mid- to late February or in March. A full touchscreen device is expected to be released first followed shortly after by a physical keyboard version.

BGC Financial Partners analyst Colin Gillis said the new phones won’t be dead on arrival as some analysts have said because RIM hasn’t lost the corporate market completely.

RIM said last month the new BlackBerrys are being tested by 50 wireless carriers around the world.

Thorsten Heins, who took over as CEO in January after the company lost tens of billions in market value, had vowed to do everything he could to release BlackBerry 10 this year but said in June that the timetable wasn’t realistic. Heins says he can turn things around with BlackBerry 10.

The new BlackBerrys will be released after the holiday shopping season and well after Apple’s launch of the iPhone 5, expected to be Apple’s biggest product introduction yet. RIM’s platform transition is also happening under a new management team and as RIM lays off 5,000 employees as part of a bid to save $1 billion.

RIM was once Canada’s most valuable company with a market value of more than $80 billion in 2008, but the stock has plummeted since, from over $140 per share to around $8. Its decline evokes memories of Nortel, another former Canadian tech giant, which declared bankruptcy in 2009.

Buzz building for U.S. debut of Wii U videogame console

SAN FRANCISCO —

Pre-orders for Wii U have been hot ahead of the Sunday release of the new Nintendo videogame console that the Japanese electronics titan hopes will catapult it to renewed glory. Nintendo is hoping for a repeat of the runaway success it had with original Wii consoles, which lured legions of casual gamers into the videogame world with the introduction of motion-sensing controls.

Promising signs in the market included U.S. consumer electronics chain Best Buy informing people that it was sold out of Wii U consoles for pre-order online but that they could try their luck at real-world stores on launch day. At Internet retail titan Amazon.com, Wii U consoles were being offered at opening prices hundreds of dollars above list prices of $300 for basic models and $350 for deluxe sets.

A grand Wii U event is planned at Nintendo World in New York City’s Rockefeller Plaza on Saturday night ahead of the consoles going on sale there at midnight. Nintendo unveiled Wii U in June, vowing to start a trend in asymmetrical play that lets players using GamePad tablets have different in-game perspectives and roles than those using traditional wand controllers.

Nintendo has shown off a TVii application that lets people use the Wii U tablet-style GamePad controllers to access television programs or video online at services such as YouTube and Netflix. More than 50 games tailored for play on Wii U will be available when the consoles hit the market, according to Nintendo. Titles will include the latest installment in Ubisoft’s blockbuster Assassin’s Creed franchise and a version of beloved Call of Duty from Activision.

Ubisoft’s Wii U lineup includes action, dance, fitness, adventure and sports titles. A ZombiU zombie killing game geared for mature audiences takes an ambitious approach to using the GamePad controller that is a key feature of the Wii U. Ubisoft designers turned the GamePad into a survival kit for players in the horror-action game. Ubisoft hits being tailored to take advantage of Wii U touch-screen controls included the company’s iconic Rayman and the slapstick rabbids.

Kyoto-based Nintendo is counting on the new Wii U to boost the company’s fortunes the way the original Wii console did after its introduction in 2006. Nintendo said it aimed to sell 5.5 million units of the new Wii U by the end of March.

The company has struggled against competition not only from traditional rivals such as PlayStation maker Sony and Microsoft’s Xbox, but also cheap online games that can be downloaded to smartphones and tablet computers.

New Google smartphone sells out

SAN FRANCISCO —

The latest Google smartphone sold out in some countries within an hour of its release. Nexus 4 handsets made by South Korea’s LG Electronics were available at Google’s online Play shop, where stock was quickly depleted and notices posted asking shoppers to leave email addresses to be alerted when more are available.

At a starting price of $299 for smartphones not bound to particular carriers, and therefore unsubsidized by telecom companies, Nexus 4 models were deemed a bargain at half the price of similarly unlocked iPhones from Apple.

Nexus 4 is the new smartphone from Google. With cutting edge hardware, the latest version of Android, and the best Google apps. Nexus 4 puts the world’s information at your fingertips. Reports  indicated that Play sold out of Nexus 4 smartphones in the U.S., Britain, Germany and elsewhere, with people complaining of frustrating experiences at the inundated online shop.

Google  also began selling new seven-inch and 10-inch Nexus tablet computers as well as rolling out the latest version of Android mobile operating system as an over-the-air update to Nexus devices.

Samsung plans no settlement with Apple: executive

SEOUL —

A top Samsung executive said that the South Korean electronics giant had no plans to follow Taiwanese firm HTC in seeking a settlement over its patent disputes with arch-rival Apple. Samsung and Apple are currently embroiled in patent lawsuits in 10 nations including the United States and Germany, accusing each other of stealing design and technology.

HTC, which had been locked in similar suits with Apple around the world, announced that the two companies had reached a deal to end all outstanding litigation and sign a 10-year licensing agreement over patents.

Samsung  the world’s top mobile and smartphone maker was ordered by a US jury in August to pay Apple $1.05 billion in damages for illegally copying iPhone and iPad features for its flagship Galaxy S smartphones. It has appealed the ruling. Since then, two separate rulings by courts in Japan and the Netherlands have dismissed Apple’s claims of patent infringement.

Shin also said that Samsung expected fourth-quarter smartphone sales to be as strong as the third quarter, when its newest Galaxy S3 device became the world’s top-selling smartphone.

Microsoft releases IE 10 browser for Windows 7

SAN FRANCISCO —

The latest version of Microsoft’s web browser is now available to the vast audience using personal computers running on the Windows 7 operating system.

The redesigned browser, Internet Explorer 10, made its debut last month when Microsoft released Windows 8, which makes dramatic changes to an operating system that has been powering PCs for decades. Internet Explorer 10 initially is being introduced Tuesday to Windows 7 users in a preview, or test, mode.

Although Microsoft is staking its future on Windows 8, far more PCs rely on Windows 7. Microsoft says more than 670 million Windows 7 licenses have been sold since its release in 2009. Windows 8 is unlikely to approach that level of usage until 2014 at the earliest, based on analyst forecasts.