Envelope | SilverScorpio.Com

Powder puts police in lockdown

March 12, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

An envelope containing a white powder substance was enough to close the Lismore Police Station for a short while yesterday afternoon.

Inspector Bill McKenna says the envelope was brought to the station by a person who have received it in the mail.

He says while early investigations indicated the substance was harmless the station had to be decontaminated.

Inspector McKenna says in such circumstances it’s better to leave the package where it’s found and call the police to that location.

“A member of the public received a letter and within that letter was a small amount of white powder and initially they didn’t think anything of it but then they thought they would attend the police station and hand it over,” Insp McKenna said.

“As a result of this, NSW Fire Brigade Hazmat Unit attended and the station was closed for a very short period of time while the scene was decontaminated,” he said.

“I suppose if there is one message that I’d like to give to members of the public is if they do receive any parcels that they consider suspicious that they leave them in situ and then contact police and have us come to their location,” Insp McKenna said.

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Letters by Lawrence of Arabia discovered

September 19, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, Sept 19 (ANI): Fascinating letters written by Lawrence of Arabia have been found years after they were thought to have been burned on a fire.

In the letters, the hero of the Arab revolt in the First World War talks about his love of motorcycles, which led to his death in a road accident in 1935, reports The Telegraph.

Speaking about one of his machines, he wrote: “It’s a heavenly bike, goes like smoke and is as smooth as milk to ride.”

The correspondence – found when an envelope fell out of an old book – will be auctioned on October 1 in Dorchester, Dorset, and could fetch more than 10,000 pounds.

Dorset historian Rodney Legg, who has written numerous books on Lawrence, said: “It’s mysterious how Lawrence managed to balance his finances. He sometimes spent lavishly and at other times wrote letters to friends proclaiming poverty.

“So anything that throws light on the relationship with his banker is quite revealing.” (ANI)

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HNB Garhwal University ~ H.N.B. Garhwal University PG/Diploma Admissions 2009 ~ Garhwal University

July 12, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

HNB Garhwal University ~ H.N.B. Garhwal University PG/Diploma Admissions 2009 ~ Garhwal University

H.N.B. Garhwal University invites applications from the candidates for admission into following Post Graduate and Diploma Courses for the academic year 2009-10.

A. THROUGH ENTRANCE TESTS CONDUCTED BY THE UNIVERSITY:

Integrated 5 Year M.Sc. Biotechnology, 2 year courses in M.Sc. Microbiology, M.Sc. Environmental Science, M.Sc. Remote Sensing and GIS Application, M.A. Mass Communication, M.A. Yoga and Alternative Therapies, Master of Social Work (MSW), L.L.M., B.P.Ed. (1year), LLB (6 Semesters) and BHM & CT (8 Semesters).

B. THROUGH COUNSELING BASED ON MERIT IN ALL INDIA ADMISSION TESTS:

MBA and MBA Tourism based on MAT Score, B. Pharm and MCA based on UKSEE Score, B. Tech based on AIEEE Score and M. Sc Biotechnology based on JNU-DBT Score.

General Information :

(i) For information regarding syllabii of entrance examination, eligibility, age , nature of courses (general or self finance) candidates may visit the University Website www.uttara.in/hnbgu
(ii) The University reserves the right not to run a Course. Mere appearance at the entrance exam does not entitle a candidate for admission into a course unless the stipulated conditions are satisfied .
(iii) Reservation & Relaxation will be applicable as per Government of India and UGC rules.
(iv) Entrance Examinations will be held at Srinagar (Garhwal), Dehradun and Delhi. The University reserves the right to cancel any of the centers and allot nearer centre for applicants of the centre cancelled.
(v) Cost of Application Forms:
· Rs 500/- for General Candidates & Rs 300/- for SC/ST.

Application Forms with Information Brochure can be obtained in person from University Cash Counter, HNB Garhwal University, Srinagar Garhwal and University Sub-Office, Bindal Bridge, Dehradun, Uttarakhand against cash payment or by sending a crossed demand draft drawn on any Nationalised Bank in favor of Finance Officer, H.N.B. Garhwal University, Srinagar (Garhwal) -246 174 (Branch Code 10583) Request for all the application forms by post should be made along with a (30x 25 cm) self addressed stamped envelope bearing postage stamp of Rs 30/- for Registered/Speed Post.

The application forms can also be downloaded from the University website www. uttara.in/hnbgu. Duly filled in such applications can be sent enclosing a DD of Rs 500 & Rs 300. Cheques / Money Orders/ Postal Orders shall not be accepted for the purpose. Incomplete applications and forms received after the last date will be rejected. Duly completed applications should be sent to: Dean Student Welfare (DSW), H.N.B. Garhwal Universit y, Srinagar (Garhwal)-246 174, Uttarakhand

Important Dates:

Commencement of counter sale of Application Forms 15 June, 2009
Last Date of Submission of Application Forms 11 July, 2009
Date of Entrance Exam for Category A 26 July, 2009
Counseling Date for B Category To be intimated by the respective departments
For more info Contact No. 01346-252210, 252175, 252328 /0135-2625694

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Algae may harbour SARS cure

May 21, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, May 21 (ANI): A protein from algae might help in treating Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) infections, suggests a new study.

Researchers from University of Iowa have found that mice treated with the protein, Griffithsin (GRFT), had a 100 percent survival rate after exposure to the SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV), as compared to a 30 percent survival for untreated mice.

GRFT is believed to exert its anti-viral effects by altering the shape of the sugar molecules that line the virus’ envelope, allowing it to attach to and invade human cells, where it takes over the cells’ reproductive machinery to replicate itself.

Without that crucial ability, the virus is unable to cause disease.

“While preliminary, these results are very exciting and indicate a possible therapeutic approach to future SARS or other coronaviral outbreaks,” said Christine Wohlford-Lenane, senior research assistant at the department of pediatrics University of Iowa and the lead author of the study.

GRFT not only stop the virus from replicating, but also prevented secondary outcomes, such as weight loss, that are associated with infection.

“We are planning future studies to investigate prophylaxis, versus treatment interventions with GRFT, in the SARS mouse model in collaboration with Barry O’Keefe at the National Cancer Institute,” she said.

“In addition, we want to learn whether mice protected from SARS by GRFT develop protective immunity against future infection,” she added.

The research was presented at the American Thoracic Society’s 105th International Conference in San Diego. (ANI)

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Novel view of HIV entry could lead to newly designed drugs

May 3, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, May 01 (ANI): It looks like scientists will have to rethink the design of drugs which are meant for blocking HIV from infecting human cells, for a new research has shown HIV doesn’t enter cells in the way that experts had generally assumed it did.

The new research has shown that rather than fusing directly with the plasma membrane at cells’ outer surfaces to release its contents, HIV fusion primarily occurs via smaller, membrane-bound compartments inside of cells known as endosomes.

The discovery suggests that anti-HIV drugs known as fusion inhibitors might be more effective in blocking HIV if they too can do their work inside of cells, where fusion takes place.

“We show that HIV fusion occurs virtually exclusively from endosomes. It appears that it is this path to entry that leads to infection,” said Gregory Melikian of the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

“In order to efficiently block intracellular fusion events, the next generation of HIV entry inhibitors must be able to permeate the cell membrane,” he added.

In the new study, Melikian and his colleagues relied on a series of imaging studies to literally watch as HIV-1, the virus that normally infects humans, enters cells.

Those experiments showed that complete viral fusion occurs not on the cell surface, but in endosomes. While HIV’s envelope sometimes did mix with the cell’s plasma membrane, in those cases delivery of the viral contents did not occur.

“Time-resolved imaging of single viruses and differential blocking of fusion by site-specific and universal inhibitors revealed that HIV-1 co-opts the endocytic machinery to enter into and fuse with target cells,” the researchers said.

“By contrast, fusion with the plasma membrane did not progress beyond the lipid mixing step, suggesting that endosomal entry is the pathway that leads to productive infection,” they added.

The study appears in the May 1st issue of the journal Cell, a Cell Press publication. (ANI)

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Goody begged mum to smother her with pillow

April 22, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, April 22 (ANI): Jade Goody had begged her mother Jackiey Budden to smother her with a pillow to put her out of excruciating pain.

Jackiey revealed that the late 27-year-old made the heart-wrenching plea just days before she lost her battle to cervical cancer on Mother’s Day.

“She wanted me to put a pillow over her head,” the Daily Star quoted Jackiey as telling OK! magazine.

“I really didn’t want to see her go that way. I thought: ‘I don’t want to have to suffocate her without anyone knowing.’

“If she was on a machine, we’d have to turn it off, but when you’ve got cancer you don’t have a machine,” she added.

The grieving mum further revealed that she had been reading her own Mother’s Day card from Jade at the same time when her cancer-strciken girl left her forever.

She added: “I sat by her bed and I saw this envelope with ‘Mum’ written on it. I got it down and I ripped it open, thinking the card was from the boys to their mum and I could read it to her.

“And by the time I’d finished reading it, she had died. Then I realised it was to me from Jade. Jack had put a pen in her hand so he could help her write it. On her last breath, as I was reading it, she flickered. She had heard me reading it.” (ANI)

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TV show exonerates Osama bin Laden

April 12, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

BERLIN (Hollywood Reporter) – A Dutch TV jury has found Osama bin Laden not guilty of the September 11 attacks.

In the conclusion Wednesday night to the show “Devil’s Advocate” on Dutch public broadcaster Nederland 2, the jury of two men and three women, along with the studio audience, ruled that there was no proof bin Laden was the mastermind behind the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in 2001.

The Netherlands, home to “Big Brother” creator Endemol, is known for being on the cutting edge of format-based television. But even for Dutch standards, “Devil’s Advocate,” from Amsterdam production house AVRO, pushes the envelope.

The show features star defense attorney Gerard Spong standing up for some of the world’s worst criminals.

In the latest show, Spong was able to convince the jury that bin Laden’s connection to September 11 was a product of “Western propaganda.” The jury also ruled there was insufficient evidence to prove bin Laden was the real head of terrorist network al-Qaida. The jury did rule, however, that bin Laden is a “terrorist who has misused Islam.”

The show is certain to provide further ammunition in the already heated Dutch debate over immigration and the country’s large Muslim minority. The Netherlands saw a sharp rise in anti-immigration and anti-Islamic sentiment after the 2004 murder of Dutch director Theo Van Gogh by a Muslim extremist.

Spong has been at the center of the debate, supporting legal action against anti-immigrant politician Geert Wilders.

(Editing by Sheri Linden at Reuters)

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Court adjourns verdict on Tytler till April 28

April 9, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

New Delhi, Apr 9 (ANI): A Kakardooma Court on Thursday postponed the hearing on the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) plea for closing the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case against former Union Minister Jagdish Tytler.

The court will hear the arguments from both sides on April 28 and 29.

The court held that all evidence filed pertaining to the case needs to be analysed before taking a decision on the CBI’s final closure report.

During the hearing, the CBI argued that the court did not have the power to take a decision on the investigation done by the agency since the case was related to murder.

However, Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Rakesh Pandit overruled the CBI’s point and fixed the argument on the matter for a later date.

The court has also directed the investigating agency to hand it over the CDs containing the evidence in the case.

During the period of the court hearing, over 500 protesters from various Sikh organisations broke the barricades outside the court and climbed over gates.

The protesters, who were agitated over the CBI’s decision to give a clean chit to Tytler, demanded stringent punishment for him for his alleged role in instigating the riots pertaining to killing of three persons when a mob attacked Gurudwara Pulbangash on November 1, 1984.

They even burnt an effigy of Tytler outside the court premises.

Extra police forces were deployed at the court to maintain law and order.

The CBI, on April 2, had recommended quashing of FIR against Tytler as it did not have sufficient evidence to proceed on the matter. On March 28, the CBI filed the report in a sealed envelope before Metropolitan Magistrate Ram Lal Meena.

Tytler was among the three prominent leaders named in the reports on anti-Sikh riots. Two other leaders named were Sajjan Kumar and the late HKL Bhagat.

The 1984 anti-Sikh riots, which claimed the lives of almost 3000 Sikhs, were triggered by the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984, by two of her Sikh bodyguards. (ANI)

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I will react only after court’s judgement: Tytler

April 9, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

New Delhi, Apr 9 (ANI): Former Union Minister Jagdish Tytler, who will appear in the Kakardooma Court today in connection with the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case, said that he will give his reaction on the issue after the court takes notice of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) report.

Tytler, who had recently been given a clean chit by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), said on Thursday, “I will react only after the court’s judgement.”

However, he failed to give any comment on the possibility of participating in the election from North-East Delhi Lok Sabha constituency, where he has been named as a candidate.

Meanwhile, the Congress party sources clarified that no decision has been taken on his candidature so far.

The court may decide on accepting the CBI closure report against Tytler and ordering the quashing of charges against him or order fresh investigation into the case.

On April 7, the Congress indicated a possibility of reviewing its decision to contest Tytler following a shoe-throwing incident in All India Congress Committee (AICC) headquarter in Delhi.

A Sikh journalist of the Dainik Jagran newspaper threw a shoe at Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram during a press conference at the Congress headquarters to protest against “clean chit” to Tytler.

Tytler was among the three prominent leaders named in the reports on anti-Sikh riots. Two other leaders named were Sajjan Kumar and the late HKL Bhagat.

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Delhi court to decide Jagdish Tytler’s fate today

April 9, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

New Delhi, Apr 9 (ANI): The Kakardooma Court will today decide the fate of former Union Minister Jagdish Tytler in connection with the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case.

The court may decide on accepting the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) closure report against Tytler and ordering the quashing of charges against him or order fresh investigation into the case.

On April 2, Tytler was given a clean chit by the CBI in the case. De-sealing its final investigation report in a court, the CBI recommended quashing of FIR against Tytler.

The CBI counsel told Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Rakesh Pandit that we have filed the cancellation report in the matter and want to close the investigation.

H S Phoolka, counsel for the Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Management Committee, raised objections over the alleged leak of the report to Tytler who had claimed innocence in the case.

On March 28, the CBI filed the report in a sealed envelope before Metropolitan Magistrate Ram Lal Meena.

Tytler was among the three prominent leaders named in the reports on anti-Sikh riots. Two other leaders named were Sajjan Kumar and the late HKL Bhagat.

The 1984 anti-Sikh riots, which claimed the lives of almost 3000 Sikhs, were triggered by the assassination of Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984 by two of her Sikh bodyguards. (ANI)

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Jagdish Tytler gets clean chit in 1984 anti-Sikh riots case

April 2, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

New Delhi, Apr 2 (ANI): Former Union Minister Jagdish Tytler was on Thursday given a clean chit by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case.

De-sealing its final investigation report in a court, the CBI has recommended quashing of FIR against Tytler.

The CBI counsel told Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Rakesh Pandit that “We have filed the cancellation report in the matter and want to close the investigation.”

H S Phoolka, counsel for Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Management Committee, raised objections over the alleged leak of the report to Tytler who had claimed innocence in the case.

The court will hear the matter on April 9.

On March 28, the CBI filed the report in a sealed envelope before Metropolitan Magistrate Ram Lal Meena.

Tytler was among the three prominent leaders named in the reports on anti-Sikh riots. Two other leaders named were Sajjan Kumar and the late HKL Bhagat.

The 1984 anti-Sikh riots, which claimed the lives of almost 3000 Sikhs, were triggered by the assassination of Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984 by two of her Sikh bodyguards. (ANI)

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Delhi court to consider CBI’s report on Tytler’s involvement in 1984 anti-Sikh riots

April 2, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

New Delhi, Apr 2 (ANI): The Kakardooma Court will today consider the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) final investigation report on former Union Minister Jagdish Tytler’s involvement in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case.

On March 28, the CBI filed the report in a sealed envelope before Metropolitan Magistrate Ram Lal Meena.

The CBI is reported to have said that there is no evidence against Tytler, sources said.

Tytler was among the three prominent leaders named in the reports on anti-Sikh riots. Two other leaders named were Sajjan Kumar and the late HKL Bhagat.

The 1984 anti-Sikh riots, which claimed the lives of almost 3000 Sikhs, were triggered by the assassination of Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984 by two of her Sikh bodyguards. (ANI)

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Can Obama push the Pak envelope any further?

April 1, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, Mar. 31 (ANI): US President Barack Obama said the destruction of militant safe havens in Pakistan’s tribal areas could not be achieved without full cooperation from the army and the intelligence, but how far can the US push the Pakistan envelope, asks a BBC analyst.

Recently, three American generals have recently accused elements in Pakistan’s ISI of supporting Taliban and Al Qaeda. The unprecedented attack, he points out, follows the announcement of a new US strategy for Afghanistan.

Charges against the ISI may not be new, but they have never before been made so publicly.

To ensure Pakistan’s support in fighting terror on its border along with Afghanistan, the Obama administration has offered an increase in civilian aid, only with a warning that no ‘blank cheque’ is available for the military if it does not ‘perform’.

Last year, Washington’s suspicions were so strong that it scaled down intelligence sharing with the ISI, especially after accusing it of involvement in the bombing of the Indian embassy in Kabul.

As far as the Islamabad is concerned, it never gave up the idea that in order to defend itself against India, it needs a pro-Pakistan government in Afghanistan.

However, the government in Kabul is full of factions hostile to Islamabad and closely allied with India, and India is expanding its influence in the country, according to the BBC analysis.

This is all the more troubling because Afghanistan has never recognized its boundary with Pakistan.

The Taliban, therefore, can be an asset for the ISI.

“The concept of pressuring Pakistan is flawed. No state can be successfully pressured into acts it considers suicidal,” Ahmed Rashid and Barnett Rubin were quoted by BBC, as saying.

America’s leverage is thus limited: in pushing too much, it may lose even the limited cooperation it has, the BBC analyst concludes. (ANI)

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CBI submits investigation report on Tytler’s involvement in 1984 anti-Sikh riots

March 29, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

New Delhi, Mar 28 (ANI): The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Saturday submitted its final investigation report on the former Union Minister Jagdish Tytler’s involvement in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case.

The CBI has filed the report in a sealed envelope before Metropolitan Magistrate Ram Lal Meena. The court would consider the report on April 2.

However, according to sources, Congress leader Tytler, who has been fielded by his party from the Delhi’s northeast constituency for the coming General Elections, is likely to get a clean chit in the case.

The CBI is reported to have said that there is no evidence against Tytler, sources said

Tytler was among the three prominent leaders named in the reports on anti-Sikh riots. Two other leaders named were Sajjan Kumar and the late HKL Bhagat.

The 1984 Anti-Sikh riots, which claimed the lives of almost 3000 Sikhs, were triggered by the assasination of Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984 by two of her Sikh bodygaurds. (ANI)

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139-year-old envelope fetches record $190k at auction

March 26, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Melbourne, Mar 26 (ANI): A 139-year-old envelope, which is believed to be earliest known airmail item addressed to Australia, has fetched more than 190,000 dollars at an auction.

The envelope, or so-called balloon post cover, was flown out of Paris in 1870 by hot air balloon when Paris was under siege from the Prussian army in the Franco-Prussian war.

It has been bought for by a French buyer for a record price of 190,800 dollars.

NSW manager Danny Jurd of Mowbray Collectables in Sydney said that sale had broken a record for any philatelic item sold in Australia.

He said the envelope is the only one of its kind addressed to Australia, making it the earliest known letter sent here by some form of airmail.

“The balloon post covers themselves are very collectable,” News.com.au quoted Jurd as saying.

“To have one addressed to Australia was the unique part and the rarity of the item,” he added. (ANI)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: air, airmail, ANI, army, auction, Australia, balloon, buyer, Collectables, com, cover, Danny Jurd, Envelope, form, Franco, Franco Prussian War, Franco-Prussian, Hot Air Balloon, item, kind, letter, manager, mar, Melbourne, Mowbray, NEWS, nsw, Paris, part, post, price, Prussian Army, rarity, record, sale, siege, sydney, war

Pluto’s lower atmosphere revealed by scientists

March 4, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Munich, March 3 (ANI): Astronomers have used the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO’s) Very Large Telescope (VLT) to gain valuable new insights about the lower atmosphere of the dwarf planet Pluto.

The scientists found unexpectedly large amounts of methane in the atmosphere, and also discovered that the atmosphere is hotter than the surface by about 40 degrees, although it still only reaches a frigid minus 180 degrees Celsius.

These properties of Pluto’s atmosphere may be due to the presence of pure methane patches or of a methane-rich layer covering the dwarf planet’s surface.

“With lots of methane in the atmosphere, it becomes clear why Pluto’s atmosphere is so warm,” said Emmanuel Lellouch, lead author of the paper reporting the results.

Pluto, which is about a fifth the size of Earth, is composed primarily of rock and ice. As it is about 40 times further from the Sun than the Earth on average, it is a very cold world with a surface temperature of about minus 220 degrees Celsius.

It has been known since the 1980s that Pluto also has a tenuous atmosphere, which consists of a thin envelope of mostly nitrogen, with traces of methane and probably carbon monoxide.

As Pluto moves away from the Sun, during its 248 year-long orbit, its atmosphere gradually freezes and falls to the ground.

In periods when it is closer to the Sun – as it is now – the temperature of Pluto’s solid surface increases, causing the ice to sublimate into gas.

Until recently, only the upper parts of the atmosphere of Pluto could be studied.

By observing stellar occultations, a phenomenon that occurs when a Solar System body blocks the light from a background star, astronomers were able to demonstrate that Pluto’s upper atmosphere was some 50 degrees warmer than the surface, or minus 170 degrees Celsius.

These observations couldn’t shed any light on the atmospheric temperature and pressure near Pluto’s surface.

But unique, new observations made with the CRyogenic InfraRed Echelle SpectrographCRIRES), attached to ESO’s Very Large Telescope, have now revealed that the atmosphere as a whole, not just the upper atmosphere, has a mean temperature of minus 180 degrees Celsius, and so it is indeed “much hotter” than the surface.

In contrast to the Earth’s atmosphere, most, if not all, of Pluto’s atmosphere is thus undergoing a temperature inversion: the temperature is higher, the higher in the atmosphere you look. (ANI)

Filed Under: Science News Tagged With: ANI, Astronomers, atmosphere, author, background, body, carbon, celsius, contrast, Cryogenic, dwarf, Earth, Echelle, Emmanuel Lellouch, Envelope, ESO, European, frigid, Gas, ground, hotter, ice, infrared, inversion, layer, light, March, methane, monoxide, Munich, nitrogen, observatory, orbit, paper, phenomenon, planet, pluto, presence, pressure, rock, size, solar, southern, SpectrographCRIRES, star, sublimate, Sun, surface, system, Telescope, temperature, VLT, whole, world

Annan warns Kenya over delays setting up tribunal

February 25, 2009 By Dinesh Leave a Comment

Delays in setting up a tribunal on post-election violence last year threaten Kenya’s stability, former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Tuesday.

The issue of justice for the killings of at least 1,300 people and uprooting of more than 300,000 is straining the coalition government, established last year to end the worst blood-letting in Kenya since independence from Britain in 1963.

Unity government leaders President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga — whose dispute over the presidential election triggered the crisis — have so far failed to push the creation of a special tribunal through parliament.

That means, under the terms of a government-accepted inquiry, mediator Annan should hand a sealed envelope holding the names of 10 top suspects to the Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) when a March 1 deadline passes.

In a statement, Annan said the failure to create a local tribunal would “constitute a major setback in the fight against impunity and may threaten the whole reform agenda in Kenya”.

He said his panel of “Eminent African Personalities”, which mediated in Kenya’s crisis, remained convinced a Kenyan-owned and Kenyan-led process would be best for the whole country.

He welcomed promises of further efforts by Kibaki and Odinga to win over their supporters in parliament.

“It is the panel’s view that such an effort should be encouraged and carried out within the shortest possible timeframe,” he said.

The legislation setting up the tribunal must meet international legal standards, Annan added, and it should be broadly debated by Kenyans to ensure the process was credible.

The sealed list of 10 suspects who could face any local court — or ICC prosecutors in The Hague — includes prominent politicians and businessmen, Kenyan political sources say.

A rump of rank-and-file legislators have opposed the government’s push to set up a local court, saying it was doomed to go the way of past inquiries and fail to prosecute anyone.

Many Kenyans are frustrated at the government’s lack of progress, and allegations of new multi-million dollar graft scandals in the maize and oil sectors have fuelled the dismay.

A survey released on Monday by pollster Steadman said only 31 percent of those questioned expected the coalition to hold together until the next election due in 2012. A staggering 70 percent listed “none” as the government’s main achievement since it was formed in April 2008.

Only 33 percent thought any political or business leader responsible for organising the violence would ever be convicted.
Daniel Wallis

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Astronomers spot ‘cosmic dust fountain’

February 7, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Feb 6 (ANI): A team of astronomers has literally spotted a ‘cosmic dust fountain’ in the far reaches of space, which is namely a double-star system that displays all the characteristics that are associated with dust production.

The system was found by York, the University of Toledo’s Adolf Witt, and their collaborators.

The double star system, designated HD 44179, sits within what astronomers call the Red Rectangle, an interstellar cloud of gas and dust (nebula) located approximately 2,300 light years from Earth.

One of the double stars is of a type that astronomers regard as a likely source of dust. These stars, unlike the sun, have already burned all the hydrogen in their cores.

Labeled post-AGB (post-asymptotic giant branch) stars, these objects collapsed after burning their initial hydrogen, until they could generate enough heat to burn a new fuel, helium.

During this transition, which takes place over tens of thousands of years, these stars lose an outer layer of their atmosphere.

Dust may form in this cooling layer, which radiation pressure coming from the star’s interior pushes out the dust away from the star, along with a fair amount of gas.

In double-star systems, a disk of material from the post-AGB star may form around the second smaller, more slowly evolving star.

“When disks form in astronomy, they often form jets that blow part of the material out of the original system, distributing the material in space,” York explained.

This seems to be the phenomenon that Witt’s team observed in the Red Rectangle, probably the best example so far discovered.

The discovery has wide-ranging implications, because dust is critical to scientific theories about how stars form.

“If a cloud of gas and dust collapses under its own gravity, it immediately gets hotter and starts to evaporate,” York said.

Something, possibly dust, must immediately cool the cloud to prevent it from reheating.

The giant star sitting in the Red Rectangle is among those that are far too hot to allow dust condensation within their atmospheres. And yet a giant ring of dusty gas encircles it.

“Our observations have shown that it is most likely the gravitational or tidal interaction between our Red Rectangle giant star and a close sun-like companion star that causes material to leave the envelope of the giant,” said Witt.

Some of this material ends up in a disk of accumulating dust that surrounds that smaller companion star. Gradually, over a period of approximately 500 years, the material spirals into the smaller star. (ANI)

Filed Under: Science News Tagged With: Adolf Witt, AGB, amount, ANI, Astronomers, astronomy, atmosphere, blow, branch, cloud, companion, condensation, discovery, disk, dust, Earth, Envelope, example, Feb, fountain, fuel, Gas, giant, gravity, heat, helium, hotter, hydrogen, interaction, interstellar, Labeled, layer, material, nebula, part, period, phenomenon, place, post, pressure, production, radiation, Rectangle, red, ring, something, source, space, spot, star, Sun, system, team, toledo, transition, type, University, Washington, york

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