Mercury was alive with volcanoes

While it seems like a geologically dead planet today, early in its history tiny Mercury may have been a caldron of volcanic activity, Nasa scientists said on Wednesday.

Data from the US space agency’s car-sized Messenger probe’s latest close encounter with the planet nearest the sun on Oct. 6 is helping to settle a debate dating back to the 1970s over the role volcanoes played in Mercury’s history. Messenger sent back images showing extensive and deep lava flows on the surface, including hardened lava more than 2 km deep filling a crater 100 km in diameter.

The unmanned spacecraft also detected a so-called “wrinkle ridge,” a long geological feature on Mercury’s surface about 600 metres high apparently caused by contraction of the planet as it cooled, the scientists said.

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Undisputed Champion

Viswanathan Anand retained the world title with a 24 move draw against Russian Vladimir Kramnik in the penultimate game of the 12-game World Chess Championship final in Bonn on Wednesday. The Indian, playing with white pieces, took an unbeatable 6.5-4.5 lead to retain the title.

The game opened in a Sicilian Najdorf as Anand was expected to go for a draw. Kramnik was looking to thwart all such attempts to force a win and take it to the 12th game and then force a tiebreaker to decide a winner.

Needing just half a point, Anand drew after 24 moves as Kramnik failed to find a win despite trying to complicate the game.

Anand earlier won three games — the third, fifth and sixth — and lost the 10th game in a match that looked one-sided till Kramnik brought back some life with a win in 10th game.

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Atiyah expounds on ‘Mind, Matter and Mathematics'

Renowned mathematician Michael Atiyah touted the practical benefits of his field during a lecture at the American University of Beirut (AUB) on Monday, arguing that it is more useful than philosophy in terms of explaining the relationship between the external world and the human mind.

Atiyah made the remarks during a talk titled "Mind, Matter, and Mathematics" at the invitation of AUB's Center for Advanced Mathematical Sciences (CAMS).

Atiyah said that mathematics offers a more in-depth view of the relationship between the external world and the human mind than philosophy since it builds on its findings of the ex ternal world.

Photo by Mohammed Zaatari "Mathematics is extracted from the physical world but re fined by the human mind and then employed in the physical world in ways that are useful to the physical world … Mathematics lies in the human brain,"

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Patna youth hijacks bus in Mumbai, shot

It was just another crowded, peak-hour bus journey for Mumbaikars on board the No 332 BEST bus on Monday morning.

Until one of the passengers — 25-year-old Rahul Raj — pulled out an iron chain and a gun, attacked the bus conductor, and began indiscriminate firing, yelling he wanted to take revenge on Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray .

Thackeray’s MNS loyalists recently set Mumbai and other parts of the country— on fire, attacking candidates from other states appearing for a railway examination in Mumbai.

Forty minutes later, the police cordoned off the area and Rahul, who came to the city three days ago from Bihar, was shot dead.

The police stormed the bus after he refused to surrender. Maharashtra’s Deputy Chief Minister R.R. Patil justified the police action: “If anyone uses bullet, obviously he would get a bullet.” Political leaders from Bihar, including Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Union ministers Lalu Prasad and Ram Vilas Paswan met the prime minister and demanded a judicial probe.

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Chrysler plans to cut 25% salaried jobs

Chrysler LLC, now in merger talks with General Motors, will eliminate 25 per cent of its salaried workforce, or about 4,300 jobs, starting next month to help trim costs as sales slump.

The cuts will be completed by year’s end, the Auburn Hills, Michigan based company said on Sunday in an e-mailed statement. More “organisational and restructuring” changes are coming, Chrysler said, without giving details.

Sunday’s retrenchment plan builds on payroll slashing moves this week by GM and Chrysler, whose 25 per cent US sales slide this year is the most among major automakers.

Chrysler is ending 1,825 jobs at two sport-utility vehicle plants, while GM said it would chop more than the 5,000 salaried jobs already targeted.

“Chrysler and General Motors have to do whatever is possible to stem the outflow of cash from the organization,” said Dennis Virag, president of Automotive Consulting Group in Ann Arbor, Michigan. “It’s not surprising that drastic actions are being taken because these are drastic times.”

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Dubai-based company fires Indian staff

The global financial crisis has claimed more victims in India. Dozens of employees of a Dubai-based company have lost their jobs as the company has put its expansion plans on hold.

The Indicaa Group, which trades in scrap metal and is run by an Indian, had recently hired management graduates, mostly from small towns across India, to work at its overseas offices.

According to estimates available with the candidates, about 120 persons were offered jobs. At least 40 of those hired were from north India.

“The hiring was done from three centres: Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai. People from all over the country had applied,” said Anurodh Gupta, a candidate from Ghaziabad, who had undergone training in Ludhiana on October 6 and 7.

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India Over The Moon

Ending days of tension caused by heavy rains, Chandrayaan-1, India’s maiden moon mission, took off as planned in a textbook launch from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, about 80 km north of Chennai, on Wednesday morning.

“It is a historic moment for India. We have started our journey to the moon and the first leg has gone perfectly well,“ Dr G. Madhavan Nair, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation, said soon after the take-off at 6.22 am.

“Our baby is on way to the moon,” said the Chandrayaan project director, Mr Mylswamy Annadurai.

The indigenously built PSLV-CII rocket weighing 1380 kg is carrying a variety of precious payload. It was placed in the earth orbit 18.2 mins after the blast-off and is expected to reach the lunar orbit on November 8.

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Japan will loan $1billion for metro in Chennai

The first beneficiary of the coming together of the “samurai” and the “swami” will be the Chennai metro, for which Japan will give a $1 billion loan.

Japan will also extend a soft loan of $4.5 million over three years as part of the first tranche of funding for the 1,469-km Mumbai Delhi western freight corridor from Jawaharlal Nehru Port near Mumbai to Tughlaqabad near Delhi.

The move to invest in the southern city as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrived here Tuesday on a three-day visit to Japan is certain to give a fillip to bilateral relations. Indian officials openly acknowledge they owe the Taro Aso government in Japan a “debt of gratitude” for unreservedly backing the NSG waiver for India in Vienna.

Chennai’s connection to Japan stems not just from superstar Rajnikanth, whose films are dubbed in Japanese and hugely popular here. This country is also the major donor to war-torn Sri Lanka and Afghanistan, where New Delhi has huge stakes.

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Cabbies held for NRI’s kidnap, murder

Nine days after Gurgaon police found an unidentified body on National Highway-8 and later learnt it was that of an NRI businessman, Delhi Police today arrested two persons for the kidnap, robbery and murder of K T Shameer.

The 39-year-old cloth merchant from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, was abducted from outside IGI Airport by private cabbies late October 10 evening. He was robbed and the body thrown in the bushes on Delhi-Jaipur highway, near Manesar. Shameer, whose business trip to India began on October 7, had arrived that evening (October 10) from Ahmedabad on a Spice Jet flight (SG-218).

Palam police today arrested Manish, 24, and Monu, 25, from Sanjay Gandhi T-point when the duo was returning from Haridwar. A third accused, one Anil, is still absconding, Joint Commissioner of Police (Operations) Amulya Patnaik said. “They were interrogated and were found involved,” Patnaik said.

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World leaders prepare for summits on finance reform

World leaders lined up a series of summits on reforming global finance as South Korea on Sunday became the latest country to shore up troubled banks.

The summits, announced following talks between US President George W.Bush and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, are the latest fruit of efforts to coordinate an international response to the crisis.

However, there were already signs of rival visions for the summits, with European leaders pushing for a radical overhaul of the global financial architecture while the US president said the foundations must be preserved.

"As we make the regulatory and institutional changes necessary to avoid a repeat of this crisis," Bush told Sarkozy and EU commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso in the talks Saturday, "it is essential that we preserve the foundations of democratic capitalism – the commitment to free markets, free enterprise and free trade.

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Fresh snowfall, rains lash Jammu and Kashmir parts

Upper reaches of Kashmir experienced fresh snowfall while plains witnessed continuous rains bringing sharp fall in the temperature affecting the normal life. Roads were flooded with water and drains choked across the city and its outskirts.

Since last evening Srinagar and almost all parts of Kashmir witnessed heavy rains affecting normal life. With the rains, the temperature recorded a decline and traffic and pedestrian movement was affected due to water logging and blocked drains in Srinagar city and many other areas.

Fresh snowfall was experienced in the upper reaches of Karnah, Lolab, Sadhna Top, and Zed Gali in the north besides tourist resorts of Gulmarg, Sonamarg, Pahalgam and Yusmarg. Gulmarg today witnessed season’s third snowfall. These places may witness more snow in coming the two days,” MET officials said.

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Reliance in talks with Best Buy for cash and carry join venture

Reliance Retail is in talks with US electronics durables retailer Best Buy for a cash-and-carry (wholesale) joint venture (JV) in India. When Reliance had launched its retail venture, it had said that cash-and-carry would be an important business area for Reliance Retail.The company has, however, not been able to rollout its wholesale stores yet. If talks with Best Buy materialise, the JV company would be engaged in durables wholesale trade.

Additional details of the possible JV could not be ascertained. When contacted a Reliance Retail spokesperson declined to comment.

A senior executive of Reliance Retail said, “The cash-and-carry (wholesale) model is in sync with the company’s policy to strengthen its B2B (business-to-business) model.” The B2B model emphasises sale of products in bulk to relatively smaller vendors.

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‘Ram Sethu not integral part of Hindu religion’

The government on Tuesday contended before the Supreme Court that the mythological Ram Sethu is not an “essential and integral” part of the Hindu religion.

In a written submission to the court, the UPA government has said, “It has not been proved undoubtedly to be the belief of the Hindu community that Lord Ram did not himself break the bridge. Nor has it been established that whatever remains of the Ram Sethu as a piece of worship is an essential and integral part of the Hindu religion.”

During the last hearing on July 30, the court had asked the government to explore an alternative route and had also asked the government to give details on the “religious significance” of the Ram Sethu.

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Bush critic Krugman wins economics Nobel

US Economist Paul Krugman, a wellknown critic of the Bush administration for policies that he argues led to the current financial crisis, won the 2008 Nobel prize for economics on Monday.

The committee said the award was for Krugma's work that helps explain why some countries dominate international trade.

A prominent economist who writes columns for the New York Times, Krugman is a professor of economics and international affairs at Princeton University.

Krugman, speaking by telephone to a news conference, said: "I rushed to take a shower so that I could take part in the press conference. I called my wife and my parents. I've not yet managed to get myself a cup of coffee," he said. But lack of caffein did not stop him offering an ad-hoc diagnosis of how the world economy was faring. "We are now witnessing a crisis that is as severe as the crisis that hit Asia in the 90's. This crisis bears some resemblance to the Great Depression."

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Alphonsa is first Indian woman Catholic saint

“She suffered herself to heal the suffering of others.” This is how Pope Benedict XVI poignantly described Kerala’s Sister Alphonsa while declaring her a saint at a canonisation ceremony at St Peter’s Square at the Vatican on Sunday. Saint Alphonsa became the first Indian Catholic woman to be so anointed.

Around 25,000 people of Indian origin as well as a large delegation from India watched the ceremony, which began at 12 noon (India time) and culminated at 2.40 pm. Alphonsa is the first woman saint of the Indian Church, which claims 2,000 years of history.

[In a speech after the ceremony, the Pope also made sharp references to the antiChristian violence in India and asked its perpetrators to “renounce these acts” and work to build a “civilisation of love”, reports PTI.]

Sister Alphonsa’s “heroic virtues of patience, fortitude and perseverance in the midst of deep suffering remind us that God always provides the strength we need to overcome every trial,” the Pope said, addressing thousands of Christians from around the world.

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And Quiet go the Festive Flames- Normal turnout for Dussehra

Dussehra celebrations on Thursday saw a maximum crowd come out to see the effigies of Ravana, Kumbhakarna and Meghnad being set ablaze. Firecrackers lit up the Delhi sky at sundown, as families watched under heavy police cover. The Ramlilas had seen a smaller turnout for the first nine days following the blasts last month.

Satish Verma, joint military secretary of the Indraprastha Volunteer Board, said more than 80,000 people had come to see the final day of the Ramlila. “Today we saw a normal turnout, a turnout that we have come to expect at the Shri Dharmik Lila grounds. The last few days had seen a sharp drop in footfall.” The grounds saw a high security cover as political figures such as Vice President Hamid Ansari, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Lieutenant Governor Tejendra Khanna among others came to see the Dussehra celebrations.

Prabhat Dayal brought his three-year-old son especially to see the Ramlila procession that winds through the Chandni Chowk, Nai Sarak and Sitaram Bazar area before reaching the Ramlila grounds. “The savari is an integral part of the Ramlila experience in Old Delhi,” he said.

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Twin bombs go off in Baghdad as Negroponte wraps up visit

Bombs exploded outside the Iraqi capital's tightly guarded Green Zone on Tuesday as US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte wrapped up a visit focusing on a controversial military pact.

Two powerful explosions went off in quick succession at a time of heavy traffic.An Iraqi security official said a soldier and six civilians were wounded in the attack on the edge of the Green Zone.

Inside the zone, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told reporters an agreement was "very close," but nothing was final. However, there were "new ideas and new language" on a mutually acceptable deal with the US, he said.

"This needs some bold political decisions now," he added.

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Indian Space Research Organisation hopes tricolour on moon by October 28

Indian Space Research Organisation scientists are sitting pretty, preparations done and fingers crossed. The rocket PSLV-C11 is ready, the satellite Chandrayaan 1 is ready as well, and the country is waiting for the launch of what will be the first Indian step towards the moon and beyond.

Scientists are confident they will be able to launch India’s first mission to the moon — mainly an orbiter but also a 30-kg moon impact probe piggyback satellite — that is expected to hit the moon’s surface and unfurl the Indian flag between October 22 and 28. The only worry is that the north-eastern monsoon is expected to be more severe than usual. But Isro chairman Madhavan Nair was on Monday gung-ho about India’s entry into the elite club of space-faring nations.

Speaking exclusively to this newspaper, Dr Nair called upon the nation’s scientific community to rise to the opportunity and come up with innovative science studies by going to Venus, Mars, and other planets and their satellites in the solar system.

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Jetlite returns passengers with valid tickets from Srinagar airport

The passengers flying by the Jetlite airways had to face a tough time when the Jetlite staff available at the Srinagar airport did not allow them to board the flight on tickets issued by the same counter airways counter.

Due to indefinite curfew relatives and friends accompanying the passengers urged the Jetlite authorities for the Xerox copy of the same ticket so that they could reach home safely, which according to the DC Srinagar was to be treated as curfew pass. Earlier the Jetlite authorities refused to provide the Xerox of the ticket but later on issued a temporary ticket for the passenger which according to them was valid.

An eyewitness told The Kashmir Times, “That none of the passengers was allowed to check in at the airport which caused a mess at the Jetlite counter. And unfortunately all of the passengers had to call back their relatives or friends to get back the main ticket.”

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Glory in Africa

With Indian Air Force helicopter gunships kning hundreds of rebels and infantry combat vehicles punching through rebel positions, India's largest-ever deployment of soldiers on foreign soil has taken on a muscular new turn in the heart of Africa.

The Democratic Republic of Congo's internal conflict - whose resolution is a test case of strong global intervention - has led an Indian brigade under the United Nations mission (known by its French acronym MONUC) to rework its peacekeeping strategy from a velvet glove to an iron fist.

The first signs of the changed Indian posture were visible late September in Masisi in the collapsing eastern province of North Kivu, the epicentre of the conflict between rebels and government troops.

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United States Congress okays Nuclear Deal

The India-US civil nuclear deal is finally done, with the US Senate giving a resounding 86-13 approval to the historic accord visualised by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and US President George W. Bush over three years ago.

The Senate approval, allowing resumption of nuclear commerce with India, four days after an equally emphatic 298-117 endorsement from the House of Representatives, clears the way for President Bush to sign it into law, possibly later Thursday.

Mr Bush, who had hoped to seal the accord when Dr Singh visited him at the White House a week ago, had made the India deal a “very, very high priority” of his administration even in the midst of America’s great financial crisis.

US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, who led efforts to secure passage of the deal with numerous meetings and endless phone calls to legislators, is expected to carry the deal package to New Delhi Saturday.

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