Venus To Put On Sun Spectacular

Planet Venus is set to move across the face of the Sun as viewed from Earth.

The more than six-and-a-half-hour transit, which starts just after 22:00 GMT (23:00 BST) on Tuesday is a very rare astronomical phenomenon that will not be witnessed again until 2117.

Observers will position themselves in northwest America, the Pacific, and East Asia to catch the whole event.

But some part of the spectacle will be visible across a much broader swathe of Earth's surface, weather permitting.

Skywatchers in UK, for example, will catch the end of the transit at sunrise on Wednesday.

Venus will appear as a tiny black disc against our star, but no-one should look for it without the proper equipment.

Looking directly at the Sun with the naked eye, or worse still through an open telescope or binoculars, can result in serious injury and even blindness.


It is recommended people attend an organised viewing event where the transit will be projected on to a screen; or they can visit one of the many institutional internet sites planning to stream pictures.

Venus transits occur four times in approximately 243 years; more precisely, they appear in pairs of events separated by about eight years and these pairs are separated by about 105 or 121 years.

The reason for the long intervals lies in the fact that the orbits of Venus and Earth do not lie in the same plane and a transit can only occur if both planets and the Sun are situated exactly on one line.

This has happened only seven times in the telescopic age: in 1631, 1639, 1761, 1769, 1874, 1882 and 2004.

Once the latest transit has passed, the next pair will not occur until 2117 and 2125. Most people alive today will probably be dead by then.

The phenomenon has particular historical significance. The 17th- and 18th-Century transits were used by the astronomers of the day to work out fundamental facts about the Solar System.

Employing a method of triangulation (parallax), they were able to calculate the distance between the Earth and the Sun - the so-called astronomical unit (AU) - which we know today to be about 149.6 million km (or 93 million miles).

This allowed scientists to get their first real handle on the scale of things beyond Earth.

The first person to predict a transit of Venus - the 6 December, 1631, event - was Johannes Kepler, but he died before it occurred.

Jeremiah Horrocks, the young English astronomer, was probably the first to record the phenomenon when he and his friend, William Crabtree, made separate observations of the passage on 24 November, 1639.

By the time the transits of 1761 and 1769 came around, they had become major scientific events. Expeditions were despatched all over the globe to get the data necessary to calculate the AU.

One such expedition was undertaken by Captain James Cook, whose epic voyage in the Endeavour took in the "new lands" of New Zealand and Australia.

Modern instrumentation now gives us very precise numbers on planetary positions and masses, as well as the distance between the Earth and the Sun. But to the early astronomers, just getting good approximate values represented a huge challenge.

This is not to say the 2012 Venus transit will be regarded as just a pretty show with no interest for scientists.

Planetary transits have key significance today because they represent one of the best methods for finding worlds orbiting distant stars.

Nasa's Kepler telescope, for example, is identifying thousands of candidates by looking for the tell-tale dips in light that accompany a planet moving in front of its host sun.

These planets are too far away to ever be visited by spacecraft, but scientists can learn something about them from the way the background star's light is affected as it passes through the planetary atmosphere.

And observing a transiting Venus, which has a known atmospheric composition, provides a kind of benchmark to support these far-flung investigations.

But Venus itself will come in for scrutiny. Scientists will be using the event to probe the middle layers of the Venusian atmosphere - its mesosphere.

They will be looking for a very thin arc of light, called the aureole, which can only be seen when Venus appears to just touch the edge of the Sun's disc.

The brightness and thickness of the aureole depends on the density and temperature of the atmospheric layers above Venus's cloud tops.

Observations of the aureole will be combined with data from Europe's Venus Express spacecraft in orbit around the planet to provide information on high-altitude winds.

The Venusian atmosphere experiences super-rotation. That is - the whole atmosphere circles the planet in four Earth days, on a body that turns around just once in 243 Earth days.

Source: BBC News  

Read More

Syria Bars Western Ambassadors

Syria has declared as unwelcome the ambassadors of several Western states, a week after governments around the world expelled its top diplomats.

The US, UK, French and Turkish envoys were among those designated "personae non gratae". Many have already left.

President Bashar al-Assad has blamed outside powers for Syria's divisions.

Meanwhile, the UN has said the Syrian government has agreed to allow aid agencies to enter the four provinces that have seen the most violence.

"This agreement was secured in Damascus with the government there, in writing," John Ging, the director of operations for UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) told reporters in Geneva after a meeting of the Syrian Humanitarian Forum.

"Freedom of movement, unimpeded access for humanitarian action within Syria, is what it's all about now. The good faith of the [Syrian] government will be tested on this issue today, tomorrow and every day," he added.

The UN estimates that one million people are in need of assistance inside Syria, and that the number will likely increase after further assessments.

The UN has been trying for months to get its aid workers into Syria, but with little success, reports the BBC's Imogen Foulkes in Geneva. Visa applications have been delayed or denied, and supplies of aid blocked.

In a separate development, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao, urged the international community to continue to support the peace plan negotiated by the UN and Arab League envoy to Syria, Kofi Annan, Chinese state TV said.

Last week, at least 13 countries expelled top Syrian diplomats in protest at the massacre of more than 100 people, including 49 children, in the Houla area of Homs province. Turkey expelled all Syrian embassy staff.

In what it described as a reciprocal move on Tuesday, the Syrian government announced that 17 diplomats from the US, UK, Switzerland, France, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Bulgaria, Germany and Canada were now considered "personae non gratae".

All Turkish diplomatic staff were also declared unwelcome.

"The Syrian Arab Republic still believes in the importance of dialogue based on principles of equality and mutual respect," a foreign ministry statement said.

"We hope the countries that initiated these steps will adopt those principles, which would allow relations to return to normal again."

The BBC Jim Muir in Beirut says it will be a long time before the Western states are prepared to re-establish diplomatic ties.

Many have already withdrawn their ambassadors on security grounds or for political reasons, our correspondent adds.

US ambassador Robert Ford was called back to Washington in October over fears for his safety, while all British embassy staff were withdrawn in March on security grounds.

France also closed its embassy that month in protest at the "scandalous" repression of dissent by the government.

On Sunday, President Assad told parliament that Syria was facing not an internal crisis but an external war, waged against it because of its support for resistance to Israel.

In his first public comment on the massacre at Houla, in which 108 people were killed on 25 May, Mr Assad said that even "monsters" would not have carried out such an act and it should prompt an end to bloodshed.

Survivors and human rights groups blamed the army and shabiha militiamen allied to the government for the deaths.

Tuesday's diplomatic move by the Syrian government came as activists said at least seven people had been killed in violence across the country.

Four civilians were killed overnight in a "huge military operation" in Kafrouaid, a village in the Jabal al-Zawiya area of the northern province of Idlib, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Troops and pro-regime militiamen backed by tanks were also reported to have stormed the town of Kfar Zita in the central province of Hama, and killed two rebel fighters in the Mediterranean port city of Latakia.

Several villages south-west of the central city of Homs earlier came under intense army artillery- and mortar-fire, leaving three people dead, according to the Local Co-ordination Committees, an activist network.

The UN says at least 9,000 people have died since pro-democracy protests began in March 2011. In April, the Syrian government reported that 6,143 Syrian citizens had been killed by "terrorist groups".

Source: BBC News 

Read More

Deadly Car Bomb Attack Rocks Baghdad

About two dozen people have been killed and scores injured in a suspected al-Qaeda bomb attack in Iraq's capital, Baghdad, officials say.

A suicide bomber reportedly detonated an explosives-packed car outside the offices of the Shia Waqf (Endowment), which looks after Shia religious sites.

More than 60 people were injured by the blast in the Bab al-Muadham area.

Violence has fallen in Iraq in recent years, but militants still frequently attack security forces and civilians.

The latest attack comes less than a week after a series of bombings killed 17 people in Baghdad.

Security officials say it appears to have been carried out by al-Qaeda's Iraqi wing, a Sunni organisation.

They say the explosives-rigged car was parked in a car park near the Shia Waqf building.

The front of the three-storey office reportedly collapsed from the impact of the blast, which also shattered windows in surrounding buildings and damaged cars in the area.

Read More

Prince Philip In Hospital

The Duke of Edinburgh has been taken to hospital with a bladder infection and will miss the rest of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations.

Buckingham Palace said Prince Philip, 90, had been taken to the King Edward VII Hospital in London from Windsor Castle as a "precautionary measure".

A spokesman said the Queen would still go to the Jubilee concert at the palace - being attended by 12,000 people.

The prince will remain in hospital under observation for a few days.

The prince had appeared to be in good health when he accompanied the Queen on Sunday on the royal barge the Spirit of Chartwell, which formed part of the rain-drenched Jubilee river pageant.

He and the Queen stood for most of the 80-minute journey, as they were accompanied by 1,000 boats travelling seven miles down the river to Tower Bridge.

The prince, who had treatment for a blocked coronary artery in December, will miss Monday's concert, the national service of thanksgiving at St Paul's Cathedral on Tuesday.

This was due to be followed by two receptions, a lunch at Westminster Hall and a carriage procession to Buckingham Palace, with a balcony appearance by the Queen and a fly-past.

A palace spokesman said the prince is "understandably, disappointed about missing this evening's Diamond Jubilee Concert and tomorrow's engagements".

The concert will end with the Queen lighting one of 4,500 beacons across the world marking her 60-year reign.

Beacons in some Commonwealth countries including Tonga and Australia have already been lit.

They are being ignited at 22:00 local time in the Commonwealth and British overseas territories - those in the UK, Channel Islands and Isle of Man will be set alight between 22:00 and 22:30 BST.

Source: BBC News 

Read More

Canadian Killer -Luka Magnotta- Held In Berlin

Police in Berlin have arrested the Canadian porn actor wanted for the murder and dismemberment of his lover.

Luka Rocco Magnotta, 29, was reportedly picked up in a cybercafe in Berlin's Neukoelln district.

An Interpol notice says Mr Magnotta is suspected of killing Jun Lin, a 33-year-old Chinese student, in Montreal. Body parts were also posted to political parties in Canada.

He faces charges in Canada of murder and threatening Canadian politicians.

Before his arrest French police said Mr Magnotta had flown to Paris from Montreal.

Investigators say a video posted online, in which a man apparently uses an ice pick to kill another man, is believed to show Jun Lin's murder.

The suspect had reportedly worked as a bisexual porn actor and model.

Multiple accounts of how Mr Magnotta was arrested emerged along with news of his detention.

The German news website Spiegel reported that Mr Magnotta was first spotted by a passenger travelling on a bus from France to Berlin.

The internet cafe owner in Berlin then recognised the suspect and alerted police.

He told the Associated Press that Mr Magnotta came into the cafe to read news reports about himself.

"A colleague recognised him from his photo, because he'd just read the newspaper," he said.

German police Chief Superintendent Stefan Riedlich told CBC News in Canada that Mr Magnotta "was arrested alone" at 14:00 local time on Monday (12:00 GMT).

"There was no struggle," he said.

He will appear before a judge in Germany on Tuesday, CBC reports.

Earlier, police in Paris found items belonging to Mr Magnotta in a hotel room - including pornographic magazines and airline sick bags, French media say.

The hotel is in Bagnolet, an eastern suburb of Paris near the peripherique ring road.

Multiple accounts of how Mr Magnotta was arrested emerged along with news of his detention.

The German news website Spiegel reported that Mr Magnotta was first spotted by a passenger travelling on a bus from France to Berlin.

The internet cafe owner in Berlin then recognised the suspect and alerted police.

He told the Associated Press that Mr Magnotta came into the cafe to read news reports about himself.

"A colleague recognised him from his photo, because he'd just read the newspaper," he said.

German police Chief Superintendent Stefan Riedlich told CBC News in Canada that Mr Magnotta "was arrested alone" at 14:00 local time on Monday (12:00 GMT).

"There was no struggle," he said.

He will appear before a judge in Germany on Tuesday, CBC reports.

Earlier, police in Paris found items belonging to Mr Magnotta in a hotel room - including pornographic magazines and airline sick bags, French media say.

The hotel is in Bagnolet, an eastern suburb of Paris near the peripherique ring road.

Authorities believe the foot and hand sent through the post also belonged to Jun Lin.

The foot was sent to the HQ of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservative Party in Ottawa on 29 May. The hand was found later that day in a parcel addressed to the office of the Liberal Party in Canada's capital.

Police believe Lin was killed on 24 or 25 May, with the video of the murder posted online on 25 May.

Mr Magnotta left the city on an international flight the next day.

The crime scene inside his flat in Montreal was reported to be among the worst city police had ever seen, including a bloody mattress and pools of blood on the floor and in the refrigerator.

Source: BBC News 

Read More

Libya Militia Takes Over Airport

A heavily armed militia has taken over Libya's main airport in the capital, Tripoli, demanding the release of a leader who went missing on Sunday.

Militiamen from the al-Awfia brigade entered the airport with tanks and armoured vehicles and occupied the runway, forcing flights to be diverted.

It is unclear if the group's commander has been kidnapped or is being held for questioning by the government.

The group is refusing to leave until its demands are met.

The BBC's Rana Jawad, who was on the tarmac at Tripoli airport, said that at least two dozen armed militiamen are at the scene.

The brigade has placed a pick-up truck mounted with an anti-aircraft gun underneath each of the six planes on the tarmac, our correspondent says.

She adds adds that the situation is chaotic, although not overtly dangerous at the moment, with reports that the brigade are in negotiations with security officials.

Several trucks carrying Libyan National Army personnel had arrived at the scene, according to our correspondent.

"They are on the runway, in the car park, everywhere," an official told Reuters news agency.

A representative from the brigade's hometown of Tarhouna in western Libya is at the airport to negotiate with the rebels and convince them to give up their action.

Airport sources told the BBC that at least three airlines have cancelled their flights.

Several international airlines have resumed flights to Libya, since the end of the conflict which toppled Muammar Gaddafi.

Libya's interim government took control of the airport in Tripoli this April, taking over from militia fighters who had been providing security in the absence of an official force.

Source: BBC News  

Read More

Four Convicted In Terror Plot Against Danish Paper

A court here convicted four men on Monday of planning a terror attack in December 2010 against the offices of a Danish newspaper. The four men, who denied the charges, were sentenced to 12 years in prison.

The planned attack was intended as revenge for the publication of 12 cartoons, many of them depicting the prophet Muhammad, in 2005, prosecutors said; Jyllands-Posten, the paper that published the cartoons, was the target.

After months of surveillance, Danish police arrested three of the four men — Mounir Dhahri, Munir Awad and Omar Aboelazm — at an apartment in a Copenhagen suburb on Dec. 29, 2010, and Swedish police arrested the fourth, Sahbi Zalouti, at his apartment in Stockholm later the same day.

The lead prosecutor in the case, Gyrithe Ulrich, told the court during the sentencing hearing that there was no doubt the four men were planning to kill a large number of people in the building housing the offices of Jyllands-Posten and another leading Danish newspaper, Politiken, in central Copenhagen that day. “We have a completely concrete target,” Ms. Ulrich said. “They had enough ammunition to at least shoot 122 people.”

During the trial, which began April 13, prosecutors presented recordings of wiretapped phone conversations from Mr. Zalouti’s apartment. “We could hear them planning the attack,” Ms. Ulrich said in an interview.

Prosecutors said they believed the four men received orders to mount the attack from militants in Pakistan, where Mr. Dhahri, a Tunisian citizen, spent considerable time in the two years before his arrest. “We think that the mission was assigned from Waziristan,” Ms. Ulrich said. The other three men are Swedish citizens.

The four men left Stockholm on the day before their arrest in a rental car, and were followed by Swedish Security Service officers, prosecutors said. Mr. Zalouti separated from the group in Sweden, and the others drove on toward Copenhagen; when they crossed into Denmark, Danish security agents took over the surveillance, following the men the apartment in Herlev, a Copenhagen suburb, where the men were arrested the next morning.

The police found a semiautomatic gun, 122 bullets and 200 plastic strips commonly used as makeshift handcuffs in the rented car, and a pistol in the apartment, Ms. Ulrich said.

Denmark has been the target of several attempted terror attacks since the cartoons were published, Ms. Ulrich, but this plot was the most serious. “This time we knew exactly when and where it was going to happen,” Ms. Ulrich said. 

Source: NYTimes

Read More

Zimmerman Returns To Jail After Bail Revoked

George Zimmerman, the neighbourhood watch volunteer charged in the Florida killing of unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin, returned to jail on Sunday after a court revoked his bond and ordered him back into custody.

Zimmerman, who had been free on a $150,000 bond and hiding in an undisclosed location, arrived at the Sanford County jail in a white police mini-van shortly before the 48-hour deadline imposed by Circuit Court Judge Kenneth Lester Jr. on Friday.

The 28-year-old Zimmerman, dressed in jeans and a plaid shirt and accompanied by Seminole County Sheriff’s deputies and his attorney, Mark O’Mara, walked into the jailhouse with his hands cuffed behind his back.

Zimmerman did not respond to shouts from media outside.

O’Mara told reporters Zimmerman was “frustrated” at having to return to jail and that “he has a real concern for his safety any time he has to come out of hiding.”

It was the latest twist in a murder case that has captured global media attention and sparked widespread debate in the United States over guns, self-defence laws and race relations.

Zimmerman is charged with fatally shooting 17-year-old Martin on Feb 26. as the teenager walked through a gated community in Sanford where he was staying with his father.

Police initially declined to arrest Zimmerman, citing Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” self-defense law, but six weeks later a special prosecutor charged him with second-degree murder. Zimmerman has pleaded not guilty and said he fired in self-defence after Martin broke his nose and bashed his head on a side-walk.

On Friday Judge Lester revoked Zimmerman’s bond, posted in April while he was awaiting trial, after prosecutors said he had withheld one of two valid passports and his wife did not tell the court about money donated for his legal defence.

Zimmerman returned to Central Florida, arriving late Saturday evening, O’Mara announced earlier on Sunday in an online statement.

Source: Reuters

Read More

Fatal Shooting At Toronto's Eaton Mall

One person has been killed and seven others injured in a shooting at Toronto's main central shopping centre, Canadian police have said.

Witnesses described scenes of panic after gunfire broke out in the food court of the Eaton Centre.

"A herd of people were just running toward us, screaming, running, freaking out," said one shopper.

Police said two of the injured were in a critical condition and warned that they were still hunting the shooter.

A 13-year-old boy was among those seriously injured.

Officials said a 25-year-old man was pronounced dead at the scene.

As crowds gathered outside, an injured man with two bullet wounds in his chest was wheeled out on a stretcher and rushed away by ambulance.

Toronto police chief Bill Blair described it as a targeted shooting in which bystanders were also hit.

"The nature of the wounds indicate this individual was targeted," he said.

"A lot of innocent people were hurt and a lot of innocent people were put at risk.

"We will be relentless in our pursuit of the individual or individuals that were responsible. We are receiving a lot of co-operation from the people that were present in the food court."

He added: "I believe every Torontonian is shocked and appalled by this crime."

Although some witnesses said they saw a man with a gun, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford told reporters at the scene that it was not immediately clear if the shooter was a man or a woman.

"It's terrible when you hear something like this," said Mr Ford.

"My heart goes out to the families that have been affected by this terrible crime. We have to apprehend this shooter."

Marcus Neves-Polonio, 19, who works in the shopping centre's food court, said he saw a man pull out a gun and start firing. He saw at least two people on the ground.

Erica Solmes, manager of a McDonald's outlet, said she heard about 15 shots before hundreds of shoppers started stampeding for the exits.

Police constable Victor Kwong said at least two people had been trampled in the rush, including a pregnant woman who subsequently went into labour.

Gun ownership in Canada has been subject to licensing since the 1970s, and gun crime has dramatically declined over the years.

The last similar incident in Toronto was in 2005, when a gunman opened fire in a street near to the Eaton Centre and killed a teenage girl.

Source: BBC News  

Read More

Assad Denies Role In Houla Massacre

Syria's President Bashar al-Assad has denied his government's forces had any role in the Houla massacre.

More than 100 people, many of them children, were killed in the attack overnight between 25 and 26 May, most knifed or shot at close range.

Mr Assad described the killings as an "ugly crime" that even "monsters" would not carry out.

Addressing parliament, he blamed "foreign meddling" for Syria's divisions.

"What happened in Houla and elsewhere (in Syria) are brutal massacres which even monsters would not have carried out," he said in the televised address.

"If we don't feel the pain the pain that squeezes our hearts, as I felt it, for the cruel scenes - especially the children - then we are not human beings," he said.

UN investigators have said most of the dead were summarily executed, and eyewitnesses had said pro-government militias had carried out most of the killings.

The massacre has triggered international condemnation and led to several countries expelling Syrian diplomats in protest.

Mr Assad again blamed "terrorists", supported by foreign powers, for fomenting discord and creating "a project of... dissent" inside the country.

He said Syria was "facing attempts to weaken Syria, breach its sovereignty".

The only way to resolve the crisis, he said, was through political dialogue. But he said he would not negotiate with those who, he said, did not represent the will of the Syrian people.

The international peace envoy Kofi Annan, sent by the United Nations and the Arab League, expressed frustration on Saturday that Mr Assad was not turning his words into actions.

He said the Syrian president "must make bold and visible steps immediately to radically change his military posture and honour his commitment to withdraw heavy weapons and cease all violence".

Violence continued on Saturday in Syria where, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights quoted by Agence France Presse, 89 people, including 57 soldiers were killed.

If confirmed, it would be the largest number of casualties the military has suffered in a single day since the uprising began in March 2011.

Source: BBC News 

Read More

Veteran 'Desperate Housewives' Actress -Kathryn Joosten- Dies

Kathryn Joosten, a character actress best known as the crotchety, nosey Karen McCluskey on "Desperate Housewives" and the president's secretary on "The West Wing," has died. She was 72.

Joosten, who had battled lung cancer for years, died Saturday in Los Angeles, her publicist Nadine Jolson said.

Joosten won two Emmy awards for her portrayal of Mrs. McCluskey, the cranky but loveable senior who kept a close eye on her Wisteria Lane neighbours on "Desperate Housewives." The hit show ended its run on ABC last month with a series finale in which Joosten's character passed away. Her character's battle with cancer was a story line in the show.

She also appeared on NBC's "The West Wing" as Mrs. Landingham, the president's trusted secretary. Over the years, she had roles in a number of other popular shows, including a recurring one on "Dharma & Greg" and guest spots on shows including "Ally McBeal" and "Scrubs."

Active in animal rights causes, she appeared with other celebrities at a 2008 news conference in Los Angeles to ask the city to abandon a project for a $40 million elephant enclosure at the Los Angeles Zoo.

Source: CTV 

Read More

Drew Barrymore Marries Art Dealer Will Kopelman

The 'Charlie's Angels' actress -- who is pregnant with her first child -- tied the knot with the art dealer at their home in Montecito, California yesterday.

A source told People.com the Jewish ceremony was "a classic, simple, very pretty, garden-inspired wedding," officiated by the Kopelman family's rabbi.

Among guests were Drew's 'Charlie's Angels' co-star Cameron Diaz, TV host Jimmy Fallon and his wife Nancy Juvonen and actresses Busy Philipps and Reese Witherspoon, the latter accompanied by her husband, Jim Toth.

Drew, 37, wore a Chanel gown for the nuptials, while Will, 34, wore a suit by the same designer, where his father was formerly an executive.

A friend said Drew is happy to be settling down and is "ready for a quieter, more family-oriented life".

Another source told US Weekly magazine:"Drew has found a family that she wants to be a part of, for so long she had the fun friends and career success but always wanted to be part of a close family, like Will's."

Another friend said Drew had decided on a June wedding because she wanted "to get married before the baby comes, but doesn't want to be huge."

Will proposed to Drew during a holiday in Sun Valley, Idaho, in January.

The marriage is Drew's third, after she was wed to Welsh bar owner Jeremy Thomas between March and April 1994 and comedian Tom Green, who she married in July 2001, but filed for divorce from before the end of the year.

In February Drew told how much she was looking forward to becoming a part of Will's family.

She said: "I am as in love with his family as I am with him. Which is an extraordinary sort of gift. You never take that for granted. It really is an absolute blessing. I feel very lucky. They're incredible people."

Source: CTV

Read More

Boats Take To River To Celebrate Queen's Diamond

Revellers in London are getting ready for today's big celebration marking the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.

Up to a million people are expected to flock to the banks of the River Thames to witness what promises to be a theatrical extravaganza, a flotilla of 1,000 vessels.

Queen Elizabeth and her husband Prince Philip will be part of the river pageant, aboard the Spirit of Chartwell, floating along the 11-kilometre route winding through central London.

They will pass under 14 bridges and finish at Tower Bridge. Military boats, D-Day boats, paddle steamers and boats from across the Commonwealth are taking part in the flotilla.

The event is taking place in cool, drizzly weather. Pageant master Adrian Evans said the London Philharmonic Orchestra will be playing Singin' In The Rain as members of the royal family travel down the river.

Up to 50 large screens have been placed along the river for people to view the pageant.

Hundreds of people ignored the persistent rain and camped out overnight to secure prime riverside spots.

The spectacle is a tribute to the Queen's 60 years on the throne and to Britain's past when, for centuries, monarchs used the river as their main highway.

It will a spectacle not seen since the reign of Charles II, who in 1662 threw what some described as the party of the 17th century by staging a 1,000-boat flotilla on the Thames.

The second of four consecutive days of Diamond Jubilee celebrations for the Queen, 86, will also include thousands of street parties across the country.

The party continues Monday with a pop concert in front of Buckingham Palace featuring Elton John, Paul McCartney and Annie Lennox.

Source: CBC

Read More

Pope Says Sunday Is Oasis In Frenetic Society

The pope said traditional family values and Sunday rest were key to escaping the ills of modern society and reached out to divorced people Sunday at a mass to close the World Meeting of Families in Milan.

Welcomed by 850,000 flag-waving pilgrims gathered at Bresso airport, Pope Benedict XVI looked tired but cheerful as he drove through the crowds in his pope-mobile, stopping several times to wave to children and kiss babies.

"Dear families, despite the relentless rhythms of the modern world, do not lose a sense of the Lord's day," the pope said, describing the tradition of resting on a Sunday as "an oasis in which to pause... and celebrate the family."

He lamented the modern-day "utilitarian concept of work, production and the market," which "brings in its wake ferocious competition, strong inequalities, degradation of the environment, the race for consumer goods, family tensions."

Particularly in a period of economic crisis and social unease, families should celebrate Sunday as "the day of man and his values: conviviality, friendship, solidarity, culture, closeness to nature, play, sport," he said.

From a meeting with young pilgrims in Milan's San Siro football stadium to a celebration with thousands in front of the city's multi-spired Gothic Cathedral, the pope has used the family throughout the event as a tool to boost mores that the Church sees as under threat.

"We have been given the task of building church communities that are more and more like families... based on a marriage between man and woman," he told pilgrims gathered together from 154 countries, in a reference to the West's increasing openness to unconventional families.

"Watch over your children and, in a world dominated by technology, transmit to them, with serenity and trust, reasons for living, the strength of faith, pointing them towards high goals and supporting them in their fragility."

For the second time during the trip, Benedict extended an olive branch to divorced believers who feel cast out from the Church. While he insisted they cannot receive the Sacraments, he said more should be done to include them.

Addressing "the faithful who, even though they agree with the Church's teachings on the family, have had painful experiences of breakdown and separation," he said "the Pope and the Church support you in your struggle."

"I encourage you to remain united to your communities, and I earnestly hope that your dioceses are developing suitable initiatives to welcome and accompany you," he added, having earlier said their pain "is the whole community's pain."

Italy's Prime Minister Mario Monti was among those attending the celebration. On Saturday, the pope had said how aware he is of the struggle families face due to the economic crisis, chiding politicians who fail to keep their promises.

He also called for greater acts of charity from ordinary people, suggesting families from rich countries could sponsor families from poorer ones.

The pope will now return to a Vatican embroiled in a scandal, with rumours of bids within the Church to undermine its hierarchy.

The "Vatileaks" scandal, in which hundreds of papal documents were leaked to the media, culminated in the arrest of the pope's personal butler.

The relaxed and festive Church-sponsored World Meeting of Families, the seventh edition of the event, has been a welcome distraction from the turmoil at the Holy See, which has taken its toll on the 85-year-old leader of the Catholic Church.

With the pope in Milan, some of the Swiss Guards who usually protect the Vatican when he is in residence spent the weekend helping out in Italy's northeast, which was hit hard by two earthquakes in recent weeks.

Twenty young guards swapped their colourful traditional Renaissance costumes for civilian clothes and headed to the quake-struck zone to help thousands who have been sleeping in tent camps since the disasters, which killed 23 people.

Source: AFP

Read More

Serbian President Denies Srebrenica Genocide

Serbia's new president has denied genocide took place in Srebrencia, contradicting the international criminal prosecution of Serbian leaders from the Yugoslav wars and angering the Muslim co-president of Bosnia.

Tomislav Nikolic, the rightwinger elected as Serbian president last month, said on Montenegrin television: "There was no genocide in Srebrenica. In Srebrenica, grave war crimes were committed by some Serbs who should be found, prosecuted and punished.

"It is very difficult to indict someone and prove before a court that an event qualifies as genocide."

The former Serbian general Ratko Mladic is on trial in The Hague accused of genocide in Srebrenica. Bosnian Serb forces under his command slaughtered around 8,000 Muslim men and boys after capturing the town, which had been declared a safe haven by the United Nations, towards the end of Bosnia's 1992-95 war. It was Europe's worst atrocity since the second world war.

The Bosnian Serbs' wartime political leader, Radovan Karadzic, is also on trial in The Hague accused of genocide.

Bakir Izetbegovic, who shares Bosnia's presidency with a Croat and a Serb, said Nikolic's comments were insulting to the survivors. "The denial of genocide in Srebrenica ... will not pave the way for co-operation and reconciliation in the region, but on the contrary may cause fresh misunderstandings and tensions.

"By giving such statements Nikolic has clearly demonstrated that he is still not ready to face the truth about the events that took place in our recent past."

Nikolic said he would not attend the annual commemoration of the Srebrenica massacre in July. "Don't always ask the Serbian president if he is going to Srebrenica," he said. "My predecessor was there and paid tribute. Why should every president do the same?"

Both the international criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the international court of justice (ICJ) have ruled that the Srebrenica massacre amounted to genocide.

Serbia wants to join the European Union. A spokeswoman for the EU's foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, said her office would seek clarification of Nikolic's statement but "would like to remind everyone that Srebrenica has been confirmed as genocide by both the ICTY and the ICJ. Srebrenica was the largest massacre in Europe since world war two, a crime against all of humankind. We should never forget and it should never be allowed to happen again."

Nikolic's win over the incumbent president, Boris Tadic, sent a chill through a region that still recalls his last spell in government – as deputy prime minister in a coalition with Serbia's late strongman Slobodan Milosevic when Nato bombed Serbia to drive its forces out of Kosovo during a 1998-99 war.

Nikolic has split from ultra-nationalists, recasting himself as a pro-European conservative and saying he will pursue Serbia's drive for EU membership.

Tadic oversaw the arrest and extradition of Karadzic and Mladic. He pushed an apology for the massacre through parliament and travelled to Srebrenica as part of a drive to foster reconciliation.

Source: The Guardian

Read More

Explosion Strikes Nigeria Church

 A suicide car bomber drove into a north Nigeria church's compound Sunday and detonated his explosives as worshipers left an early morning service, killing at least three people and wounding dozens more, officials and witnesses said.

The bomber targeted the Living Faith church in a neighborhood near the airport in Bauchi, the capital of Bauchi state. The timed blast caught many people outside the church without any cover to protect themselves from the explosion, causing heavy casualties, witnesses said. An initial report from the Nigerian Red Cross said at least three people had been killed and about 30 others wounded in the attack.

However, the number of dead remains unclear. Police and soldiers surrounded the church immediately after the explosion, stopping emergency workers from going inside to collect the corpses of those killed. Witnesses who left the church after the blast said they saw as many as 10 dead.

A spokesman for Nigeria's Federal Emergency Management Agency confirmed the explosion, but gave no details. Police officials could not be immediately reached for comment. An Associated Press reporter saw injured people arriving at a local hospital.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, though the blast comes as Nigeria faces a growing wave of sectarian violence carried out by a radical Islamist sect known as Boko Haram. Boko Haram, whose name means "Western education is sacrilege" in the Hausa language of Nigeria's Muslim north, has been blamed for killing more than 530 people this year alone, according to an AP count. The sect's targets have included churches, often attacked by suicide car bombers.

Boko Haram, which speaks to journalists through telephone conference calls at times of its choosing, could not be immediately reached for comment Sunday. The group has been largely quiet since claiming a suicide car bombing and another attack at offices of the Nigerian newspaper ThisDay on April 26 that killed at least seven people.

Nigeria, a nation of more than 160 million people, is split between a largely Muslim north and Christian south.

Source: WSJ

Read More

Investigation Starts On Cargo Plane Crash In Ghana

An official with Ghana's airport company says that a commission is investigating the circumstances that led to a cargo plane crashing at the country's international airport and then slamming through a fence, killing 10 people.

Doreen Owusu-Fianko, managing director of the company that overseas Ghana's airports, says that they have discounted airport equipment failure as one of the causes, since the airport has the latest navigation equipment.

Officials confirm that 10 people were killed after the plane crossed onto a nearby street, hitting a bus.

Ghana's president visited the four crew members who survived the crash and are receiving treatment at the airport clinic.

Ghana, a nation of more than 25 million in West Africa, has not had a major airplane crash in recent years.

Source: AP

Read More

Storm Pounds Northeast Maryland

A fierce storm tore Friday evening through the town of Bel Air in northeast Maryland, damaging buildings, peeling off roofs, flipping a pickup truck, and felling trees and light poles, officials said.

At least four people were injured, said Dave Williams, a spokesman for the Harford County Volunteer Fire & EMS Association, in an e-mail to CNN affiliate WMAR.

One of the injured was in a car dealership in the Fallston area, which partially collapsed, said Robert Thomas, a public information officer for Harford County. A second structure, a single-family home, was struck by a tree, he said.

Two of the injured were taken to hospitals, he said.

Central Harford County bore the brunt of it: two buildings -- a mobile office trailer and a one-story auto detailing and repair facility in the Fallston area -- were destroyed; more than a dozen homes were damaged, he said.

Search-and-rescue operations were being conducted Friday night in the affected area, which was concentrated within a mile radius of Fallston, which had lost power, he said.

A number of people were freed after becoming trapped, the Baltimore City Fire Department reported on its Twitter page. Bel Air is about 20 miles northeast of downtown Baltimore.

Radar detected a funnel cloud in the area at 6:41 p.m., 11 miles northeast of the town, CNN's weather department said.

Source: CNN News 

Read More

Venezuela Bans Private Gun Ownership

Venezuela has brought a new gun law into effect which bans the commercial sale of firearms and ammunition.

Until now, anyone with a gun permit could buy arms from a private company.

Under the new law, only the army, police and certain groups like security companies will be able to buy arms from the state-owned weapons manufacturer and importer.

The ban is the latest attempt by the government to improve security and cut crime ahead of elections in October

Venezuela saw more than 18,000 murders last year and the capital, Caracas, is thought to be one of the most dangerous cities in Latin America.

The government has been running a gun amnesty in the run-up to the introduction of the new law to try to encourage people to give up their illegal arms without fear of consequences.

One member of the public in Caracas told the BBC: "They're killing people every day. This law is important but they need to do more, they're not doing enough now."

Hugo Chavez's government says the ultimate aim is to disarm all civilians, but his opponents say the police and government may not have the capacity or the will to enforce the new law.

Criminal violence is set to be a major issue in presidential elections later in the year.

Campaign group The Venezuela Violence Observatory said last year that violence has risen steadily since Mr Chavez took office in 1999.

Several Latin American countries have murder rates far higher than the global average of 6.9 murders per 100,000 people.

According to a recent United Nations report, South America, Central America and the Caribbean have the highest rates of murder by firearms in the world.

It found that over 70% of all homicides in South America are as a results of guns - in Western Europe, the figure was closer to 25%.

Source: BBC News 

Read More

Mubarak Jailed For Protest Deaths

An Egyptian court has sentenced ex-President Hosni Mubarak to life in prison for complicity in the killing of protesters during last year's uprising.

The 84-year-old is the first former leader to be tried in person since the start of the Arab Spring in early 2011.

But Mubarak suffered a "health crisis" as he was being transferred to prison, Egyptian state TV reported.

Former Interior Minister Habib al-Adly also got a life sentence, but the acquittal of four aides sparked fury.

Mubarak and his two sons were also acquitted on separate charges of corruption.

Shouting and scuffles erupted in court after the verdict was read out.

Outside the building, Mubarak's sentencing was initially greeted by celebrations from relatives of those killed, according to the BBC's Yolande Knell.

But the joy soon turned into angry shouts and protesters clashed with riot police as the crowd learned that the four senior security officials had been acquitted.

There have been several calls for demonstrations later on Saturday to protest against the verdict.

Immediately after the announcement, crowds gathered in Cairo's Tahrir Square, which was a leading focus in the protests that toppled Mr Mubarak. There were also protests in Suez.

As Mubarak was being transferred from the courthouse to the hospital of Tora prison, near Cairo, state television reported that the former president suffered a "health crisis".

The BBC's Jon Leyne in Cairo says it is difficult to interpret the nature of this particular incident, but adds that Mubarak has had regular health lapses in the past.

Since his trial began last August, he has been held in the International Medical Centre outside the capital, as his lawyer said he was in poor health.

Tora prison is where a number of figures from the former government are serving jail sentences for corruption and reports say Mubarak has now been admitted to the hospital there.

His sons, Alaa and Gamal, are to remain in detention despite their acquittal because they are to go on trial on charges of stock market manipulation.

In his preamble, Judge Ahmed Refaat insisted the 10-month trial had been a fair one.

He spoke of the Mubarak era as "30 years of darkness" and praised what he called "the sons of the nation who rose up peacefully for freedom and justice".

Announcing the verdicts, the judge then said Mubarak and Adly had failed to stop security forces using deadly force against unarmed demonstrators.

Mubarak, who ruled the country from 1981 to 2011, had faced a possible death sentence over the killing of about 850 protesters.

The ruling comes as political tensions are rising in Egypt between the two rounds of voting in a presidential election.

Correspondents say many of Egypt's revolutionaries are bitterly disappointed by the choice they now face - between a Muslim Brotherhood candidate, Mohammed Mursi and Mubarak's last prime minister, Ahmed Shafiq.

The Muslim Brotherhood - the main opposition force under Mubarak's rule - condemned the verdict and urged a meeting between key political forces to discuss the trial's outcome.

A spokesman called for a retrial and said the prosecutor failed to "carry out its full duty in gathering adequate evidence to convict the accused".

But Mr Shafiq said that the verdicts "must be accepted", adding that the rulings would serve as a lesson for future presidents.

The first leader toppled during the Arab Spring was Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia, who was found guilty in absentia of drugs and gun charges in July.

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was killed by rebels in October. Yemen's Ali Abdullah Saleh received immunity from prosecution after handing over power in November.

Source: BBC News 

Read More

Seven Killed In Syria-linked Unrest In Lebanon's Tripoli

 At least seven people have been killed and many injured in the Lebanese port city of Tripoli, in clashes linked to unrest across the border in Syria.

Supporters and opponents of the uprising against President Assad of Syria clashed with rifles and rocket-propelled grenades on Saturday evening.

Tensions in the northern port city have mounted since Syria's uprising began.

Recent months have seen increased clashes between armed Alawite groups and Sunni fighters in the city.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is an Alawite, while the supporters of the uprising against him are mainly Sunni.

In Syria itself, opposition activists reported yet more violence. Two civilians were killed - one during an army raid in the capital, Damascus, and another by gunfire in the city of Homs.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also said rebels had killed six soldiers in the southern province of Deraa and at least eight others in clashes on the outskirts of Damascus

Meanwhile, UN peace envoy Kofi Annan - in Doha for a meeting with Arab League members - warned that Syria was slipping closer to all-out war and said the conflict there was developing an alarming sectarian dimension.

Read More

China Arrests High-level US Spy

A Chinese security ministry official has been arrested on suspicion of spying for the US and passing on state secrets, Hong Kong media reports say.

The man, who was private secretary to a vice-minister in the security ministry, was arrested earlier this year, various press reports say.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declined to comment on the reports.

If confirmed, it would be the third major incident to hit China-US relations in the past few months.

It would also be the highest-level spy case involving China and the US to become public since 1985, when intelligence official Yu Qiangsheng defected to the US.

The official had been recruited by the CIA, local press and Reuters report.

Hong Kong-based Oriental Daily quotes the monthly New Way as saying on 25 May that the official "fell into a pretty woman trap" set up by the CIA.

After the two were photographed in secret liaisons, he was blackmailed and agreed to supply secret information to the US, the reports say.

"The destruction has been massive," a source told Reuters.

The official was arrested between January and March on allegations that he had passed information to the US for several years on China's overseas espionage activities, Hong Kong press and Reuters report.

China's foreign ministry did not respond immediately to a request for comment faxed by Reuters on Friday.

China-US relations have been fraught with tension in recent months, following two high-profile cases.

In March, rising political star Bo Xilai was sacked as Communist party chief in the city of Chongqing, after his police chief fled to the US consulate in the city of Chengdu in neighbouring Sichuan province.

And earlier this month, blind activist Chen Guangcheng left for a new life in New York, after he caused a diplomatic crisis by escaping from house arrest and seeking refuge in the US embassy in Beijing.

It would put further pressure on China's security chief, Zhou Yongkang. Rumours were swirling about his possible downfall in the wake of Mr Bo's sacking, wrote the BBC's Beijing correspondent Damian Grammaticas at the time.

Most China-US spy cases involve industrial espionage. Last year, an Indian-born engineer was found guilty in the US state of Hawaii of selling military secrets to China to do with the B-2 bomber.

In 2003, a US woman who had been recruited to spy on China by the FBI was arrested along with her lover, a former FBI agent, but a judge later dismissed the charges against her.

Source: BBC News 

Read More

Somalia Funding Goes Missing

Large sums of money received by Somalia's interim UN-backed government have not been accounted for, a World Bank report says.

The report, seen by the BBC, is being circulated at talks in Turkey on how to end Somalia's decades of anarchy.

It alleges a discrepancy of about $130m (£85m) in the accounts over two years.

UK foreign minister William Hague told the BBC that an international board to oversee the distribution of aid funds needed to be established urgently.

Somalia's transitional government mandate expires in August when it is due to hand over to an elected president.

Large sums of money received by Somalia's interim UN-backed government have not been accounted for, a World Bank report says.

The report, seen by the BBC, is being circulated at talks in Turkey on how to end Somalia's decades of anarchy.

It alleges a discrepancy of about $130m (£85m) in the accounts over two years.

UK foreign minister William Hague told the BBC that an international board to oversee the distribution of aid funds needed to be established urgently.

Somalia's transitional government mandate expires in August when it is due to hand over to an elected president.

"The details of this need to be finalised with the government of Somalia - and frankly I was hoping it could be done by now, by this conference in Istanbul - if it is not signed here, well then it needs to signed in the next few weeks," Mr Hague told the BBC Somali Service.

Last month, leaders of disparate Somali factions agreed to a timetable that will elect a new president by 20 August, ending the transition period of the interim government.

The Horn of Africa country has had no effective central government since 1991, and has been wracked by fighting ever since - a situation that has allowed piracy and lawlessness to flourish.

Mr Hague said it was important that those at the conference understood that deadlines were met and that the 18,000-strong African Union force in Somalia was properly funded.

"I hope it [the conference] will keep up the momentum, particularly towards a successful and legitimate political process in Somalia, towards making sure that development money can be spent properly and transparently in Somalia... And we'd like to see, of course, the continued success of African Union forces," the UK foreign secretary said.

All Somalia's rival groups have been invited to participate in the Istanbul talks, expect for the Islamist al-Shabab group, which joined al-Qaeda earlier this year.

Despite facing pressure on a number of military fronts, its fighters control much of the country.

In recent months, troops from Ethiopia and the African Union force, as well as pro-government militias, have helped government forces gain territory from al-Shabab but the militants continue to stage attacks in the capital, Mogadishu, and elsewhere.

Source: BBC News  

Read More

French Hunt For Killer Porn Actor

French police are searching for a Canadian porn actor wanted for the murder and dismemberment of his lover.

Luka Rocco Magnotta, 29, is thought to have flown from Montreal to Paris last weekend, say French police officials.

The suspect's alleged victim was Jun Lin, a 33-year-old Chinese student, Montreal police told the BBC.

A hand and a foot were posted to political parties in Ottawa on Tuesday and a headless torso was found behind Mr Magnotta's Montreal flat.

Although results have not yet emerged from forensic tests on the remains, police say they are all but certain the body parts were Jun Lin's.

Interpol issued a Red Notice wanted-persons alert on Thursday for Mr Magnotta.

Canadian police said they suspected he may have left the country based on evidence found during a search of his flat, and a blog post he wrote about how to disappear.

A senior French police official told the Associated Press news agency he was certain that Mr Magnotta was currently in France.

But another French police source told AFP news agency: "French police have no certainty about his presence or not in France."

Jun Lin, from the city of Wuhan, in China's Hubei province, was a student at Montreal's Concordia University. He was reported missing the day before his remains were discovered.

On Tuesday a foot was posted to the Conservative Party's offices, and police intercepted a second parcel, containing a hand, addressed to the Liberal Party's offices.

One of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's political advisers opened the bloodstained box containing the foot.

A video posted online that appears to show a man using an ice pick to kill another man was believed to show Jun Lin's murder, investigators say.

The suspect, also known as Eric Clinton Newman and Vladimir Romanov, had reportedly worked as a bisexual porn actor and model.

Media reports have linked Mr Magnotta to a video posted online in 2010 that showed two kittens being placed in a plastic bag and suffocated, and another of a kitten being fed to a snake.

Police described him as a white male, about 5ft 8in (1.73m) tall with blue eyes and black hair.

Source: BBC News  

Read More

Common Painkillers May Help Prevent Skin Cancer

Commonly used painkiller medications may act as partial shields against skin cancer, according to new research from Denmark.

The study found that people who routinely took non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs known as NSAIDs – which include Aspirin, ibuprofen and naproxen – were less likely to develop some forms of skin cancer than those who seldom used these medications.

For the study, the researchers examined the medical records of more than 18,000 Danes who were diagnosed with skin cancer between 1991 and 2009. Their case histories – including their medication use – were compared to a control group of non-cancer patients.

The analysis, published in the journal Cancer, showed that NSAIDs were associated with a 15 per cent reduction in squamous cell carcinoma, and a 13 per cent drop in melanoma – the most deadly form of skin cancer.

The anti-cancer properties of NSAIDs likely stem from their ability to dampen the activity of so-called COX enzymes, which play a role in inflammation, speculated the lead researcher, Sigrun Alba Johannesdottir of Aarhus University Hospital.

“Previous studies show that elevated levels of these enzymes are found in skin cancer and that they are involved in important steps of cancer development,” she said in an e-mail. “Therefore, inhibition of these enzymes may protect against skin cancer development.”

Even so, popping NSAIDs regularly isn’t the best way to safeguard your skin because these medications can potentially cause serious side effects. Aspirin, for instance, can lead to gastrointestinal bleeding.

But Ms. Johannesdottir hopes the study might provide fresh insights into the development of skin cancer and how it might be prevented.

Source: TheGlobeandMail

Read More

Hipster Thermostat Is Available At The Apple Store

Apple cult members, rejoice: Now you can brag that even your thermostat came from the Apple Store.

As of Wednesday morning, Apple added the Nest Learning Thermostat to the list of products it sells in its online store.

Like most of the items in the Apple store, the Nest Learning Thermostat isn't cheap. It costs about $250, or roughly five times as much as an average thermostat at Home Depot.

But it looks great -- with a sleek round shape and clean interface, and it can do lots of things your regular thermostat can't -- like use artificial intelligence to control the temperature in your house.

It is also compatible with iOS devices, so you can use your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch or Mac to control it.

The Nest Learning Thermostat was conceived by Tony Fadell -- a former Apple employee who is credited with designing the hardware for the iPod. Fadell left Apple in 2008, and started building the Nest Labs company in 2009, after he had an epiphany that a smart, elegant thermostat could help people save money and energy by giving them greater control over the heating and cooling systems in their house.

In an interview with Wired in October, Fadell said that using his company's thermostat can save you up to 30% off your utility bill, and that the pricey gadget will pay for itself in a few years.

The Nest Learning Thermostat has been on the market since the end of 2011, and has received rave reviews from The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and Gizmodo, among others.

It should also be noted that the Nest Thermostat is hardly an Apple exclusive. You can buy it off of Nest's website, or at a good old-fashioned, super un-trendy Lowe's.

Source: LA Times

Read More

Windows 8 Release Preview [Watch Video]

Two months after unleashing Windows 8 upon the world, Microsoft’s back with the latest step toward the release of the company’s next operating system: the Windows 8 Release Preview. The new version was supposed to be released the first week in June, but Microsoft is apparently ahead of its development schedule — though that hasn’t stopped the leaks from coming fast and furious. The Release Preview isn’t nearly the upgrade the Consumer Preview was, but it’s a clear move toward a stable, feature-complete operating system. We got to spend some time with the Release Preview on a Samsung Series 9 laptop, checking out the new features and trying to figure out whether Windows 8 will be equally well suited to touch and non-touch devices.

The basic look and feel of Windows 8 hasn’t changed — even Aero is still present, though it’ll be gone before RTM — but performance has definitely been improved. There weren’t major problems with the Consumer Preview, but it now feels like things move a little smoother and a beat faster, especially as you flip between apps.

Multiple monitor support has been improved, too, and as we flipped through a few screens or disconnected and reconnected a tablet things worked perfectly and automatically. Apps can now be opened and closed on any monitor, and hot corners are extended to all your screens.

Flash is perhaps the most significant new feature in the Release Preview. Microsoft and Adobe worked together to build a stripped-down version of Flash for IE10, which adds some features (like video playback) while skipping over the pieces that typically cause performance and battery life problems. Microsoft is also maintaining a list of sites that are authorized to use Flash on Windows 8, so your experience will certainly vary — YouTube’s allowed but Rdio currently isn’t, for instance. (Full Flash is still available in Desktop mode.)

From a hardware standpoint, we were curious to see how Windows 8 does on a device without touch capabilities. We’d primarily used the Consumer Preview on tablets, and spending some time using a mouse and keyboard showed us how much time Microsoft has spent making the OS work well with any input — there are keyboard shortcuts and hot corners everywhere you look. The company’s also working with Synaptics and other companies on creating software drivers that add some of the Windows 8 gestures to a laptop’s trackpad, so that if you swipe from the right on your trackpad it’ll still bring up the Charms menu. Our device was running an alpha build of the drivers, and there were plenty of bugs and problems, but having the gestures available made it much easier to switch from a tablet to a laptop.

The gestures can be hard to figure out, though, and using Windows 8 is a little clunky until you know them. So we asked Microsoft reps how the company would help new users figure out Windows 8, and the answer was essentially that they’re working on it. Gabe Aul, a director of program management for Windows, said that the company’s research and testing showed that within an hour, most people (intentionally or otherwise) figured out most of the gestures, and even those that didn’t were able to navigate the OS without any trouble.

The other frustrating thing about Windows 8 is how often we’re still forced to jump between the Metro interface and the standard Desktop look, because a setting or an app only ran in Desktop mode. The onus for solving that, of course, lies with developers, who will be called upon to build the Metro equivalents of everything from Notepad to Photoshop to Diablo III. The store expanded today alongside Release Preview, and we got to take a look at a few new apps ahead of time, like drink-making app Cocktail Flow, which gives you a database of beautiful and clever drink recipes. Wikipedia also built a Metro app, which is really beautiful and intuitive — you can also search Wikipedia from anywhere, which is pretty great. The full store just went live today, and there are plenty more Metro apps to wade through in Release Preview; all are currently free, too.

Microsoft’s Bing team also created Sports, Travel, and News apps, Flipboard-like Metro apps that style text for your particular screen, offer big images, and make it easy to flip through a lot of content. The apps look great, with easy sorting by category, news source, or your favorite team. They’re solid examples of how Metro apps should work and look, and should be good examples for developers to follow.

Most of the core apps haven’t really been changed beyond some stability and reliability improvements. The Photos app has a new splash screen, with a big image and icons for your various albums — Windows 8 continues to be all about full-screen content. You can now pin a particular inbox, so you can get notifications for that particular account on the Start Screen. The People app has also been changed a bit, so you can now see a Facebook-style feed of what your friends are up to.

Zune Pass also now comes integrated into the Music app, which adds a nice subscription music service to the device — you get 30 days free when you first install Windows 8. Since Microsoft is clearly phasing out the Zune branding, we can’t help but wonder if this is the Woodstock music service we’d heard about, but at least until E3 it remains a Zune device. You can play Zune music, along with videos or photos, on your Xbox through the Xbox Companion app, though the app’s not installed by default on this version.

Windows 8 Release Preview feels very close to a finished product. Microsoft assured us that there are plenty of surprises left for the final, RTM version of the operating system, but even in its current state it feels like something you could install and use full-time. It’s fast and stable, and with the store open has plenty of new apps for users to explore. There are still some kinks to work out — we don’t ever want to be taken to Desktop unless we go there on purpose — but it’s clear that Windows 8 isn’t far from ready for prime time.

Source: The Washington Post

Related Stories

•  Flavors For Microsofts Windows 8 OS

Read More

Syria Gunmen Shoot Dead 11 State Employee

Gunmen killed 11 workers at a state-owned fertilizer factory in a volatile central Syrian province, activists said Friday, the second execution-style shooting reported in Syria in less than a week.

The shooting near the town of Qusair in Homs province occurred Thursday as the workers were on their way to their jobs in a bus that came under fire, said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

A pro-government Facebook page, the Homs News Network, posted photos of 11 men on the floor of what appeared to be a classroom. It blamed the rebel Free Syrian Army, saying the workers were killed for being state employees. The opposition blamed the government.

Syria has grown increasingly chaotic in recent months, possibly spiralling toward civil war, making it difficult to determine responsibility for much of the bloodshed. The government restricts journalists from moving freely, making it nearly impossible to independently verify accounts from either side.

On Thursday, 13 bound corpses, many apparently shot execution-style, were found in the eastern province of Deir el-Zour near the Iraqi border. The men were believed to be workers for an oil company. It was unclear who killed them.

The uprising against President Bashar Assad’s regime began in March last year with largely peaceful protests calling for reform. A fierce government crackdown prompted many in the opposition to take up arms, transforming the conflict into an insurgency.

The U.N. said in March that more than 9,000 people have been killed during the crisis. Activists put the toll far higher, saying 13,000 have died.

Homs province, where there is significant support for the opposition, has suffered waves of deadly violence. More than 100 people were killed there during a massacre in a cluster of villages known as Houla on Friday and early Saturday. Many of the dead were women and children who were gunned down inside their homes.

The massacre brought immediate worldwide condemnation. The regime and anti-government activists have blamed each other.

On Thursday, Syria claimed up to 800 rebel fighters carried out the Houla massacre, giving its most comprehensive explanation to date of the bloodshed.

The government’s narrative starkly contradicted accounts of witnesses who blamed “shabiha,” the shadowy gunmen who operate on behalf of Assad’s regime. The U.N. also said it had strong suspicions those pro-regime gunmen were responsible for much of the carnage in Houla.

Even if the “shabiha” gunmen were responsible for Houla, however, there was no clear evidence that the regime directly ordered the massacre.

The opposition has called for protests after Friday midday prayers to commemorate the victims of Houla massacre. The government also is noting the killing, calling for special prayers for the victims in mosques across the country.

European countries want the U.N.’s top human rights body to propose a war crimes probe into the Houla killing. Diplomats from the 27-nation European Union are calling for an emergency meeting of the U.N. Human Rights Council to pass a resolution that is stronger than a draft tabled by Qatar, Turkey and the United States.

The current text says “those responsible for serious violations of human rights must be held accountable.”

Three EU officials said the resolution should instead include a call for the U.N. Security Council to consider referring the massacre in Houla to the International Criminal Court. They spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the negotiations.

The 47-nation rights council cannot refer cases to the ICC directly.

In another development, a previously unknown Syrian rebel group said it is holding 11 Lebanese Shiite pilgrims kidnapped on May 22 after crossing into Syria from Turkey on their way to Lebanon.

The group calling itself Syrian Rebels in Aleppo said in a statement obtained by Al Jazeera TV that the hostages are in good health.

The statement included photographs said to be of the hostages and their passports. Al Jazeera, which aired the photos Thursday night, did not say how it obtained the material. Its authenticity could not be independently verified.

The group claimed five hostages were members of the militant Lebanese Hezbollah group and demanded its leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, apologize for saying last week the kidnapping would not change his group’s pro-Assad stance.

It said negotiations for release of the hostages could begin after Nasrallah apologizes.

Source: The Star

Read More

Last Chance To See Transit Of Venus Across Sun

If you happen to glance at the sun in the early evening next Tuesday and notice a black dot moving across it, fear not, that's not dust in your eye or an early sign of glaucoma — it's Venus.

Our nearest planetary neighbour will be passing between the Earth and the sun starting at 6:04 p.m. ET on June 5 and will be aligned in such a way that its passage will be visible with the naked eye. The transit, as it's known, will last about six hours, but in most parts of Canada, it will be visible for only a few hours before sunset.

"The view is best the farther west you go, but, actually, it's pretty good for most of Canada," said Mike Reid, a lecturer in the department of astronomy at the University of Toronto and a public outreach co-ordinator at the university's Dunlap Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics.

The best view of the transit will be in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, but people in eastern Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Philippines, Korea, parts of China and Russia and Pacific nations like Papua New Guinea will also be able to see Venus's entire journey across the sun — although for them it will be occurring the morning of June 6.

Europeans, and people in eastern Africa, the Middle East, India and places in between will have to get up very early to catch a glimpse of the transit. West Africa, Portugal and parts of Latin America and Spain will miss it altogether.

For people on Earth to be able to see Venus transiting the sun, the planet has to cross the plane of Earth's orbit, and that doesn't happen very often: only twice every 100 years or so, in fact.

"Earth orbits the sun slower than Venus. If they both orbited in the same plane, like runners running around a track, then every time Venus 'lapped' Earth, there would be a transit," Reid said.

"However, Venus's orbit is 'tilted' relative to Earth's orbit, so the only way Venus and Earth can line up with the sun is if Venus laps Earth exactly when Venus happens to be passing through the plane of Earth's orbit.

"That only occurs at two points in Venus's orbit (the two points where the ring of Venus's orbit 'punctures' Earth's orbit). The odds of Venus happening to be at one of those two points when it 'laps' Earth are small."

When transits do occur, they occur in pairs, with each transit in a pairing separated by eight years, and then not again until 105.5 or 121.5 years later. The last transit was in June 2004, and after this year's transit, the next one won't occur until December 2117. (Learn why the timing of transits follows this pattern.)

"It's very similar to the reason why we don't see a solar eclipse every time there is a new moon," Reid said. "You'd think that every time the moon comes between Earth and the sun, it would block out the sun, but sometimes, it's a bit above the sun, sometimes it's a bit below the sun."

Mercury also occasionally aligns with the Earth and the sun, and does so more frequently than Venus, but its transits can't be seen with the naked eye, because Mercury is much smaller and farther away from Earth than Venus.

This will be the eighth transit of Venus since the invention of the telescope in 1609. The earliest record of a transit we have is from 1639 (the transit prior to that, in 1631, was known about but not visible in Europe).

The 1639 transit of Venus was documented by a young amateur astronomer in Lancashire, England, named Jeremiah Horrocks (sometimes spelled Horrox) and his friend William Crabtree. Horrocks used his observations to measure the diameter of Venus and to obtain a crude estimate of the distance between the Earth and the sun.

In later years, astronomers, most notably Edmond Halley, refined the method of using transits to estimate the distance to the sun by measuring the differences in how long the transit appeared to take depending on where the observer was located on Earth and applying the principles of the displacement effect known as parallax.

Getting a precise measurement of the distance preoccupied many researchers in the 18th and 19th centuries and was in part the motivation behind Captain James Cook's first expedition to the South Pacific. Cook was tasked with observing the 1769 transit of Venus by Britain's Royal Society and did so from Tahiti.

Today, the distance between the Earth and the sun, referred to as the astronomical unit, is well known and can be measured using radar, and transits have instead begun serving another purpose: they are helping astronomers locate planets outside our solar system, known as exoplanets.

When these planets pass between Earth and the star they are orbiting, they block out some of the light the star is emitting, causing it to dim slightly. By observing the nature of this dimming, astronomers can learn about the planet causing it.

"You look for the same pattern of dimming to repeat over and over again, and you can deduce from that what kind of planet it is, how far from the star it is, whether it's a big planet or a small planet, and now, we're getting to the point where we can measure some elements of the atmospheric composition of the planet," Reid said.

For those who can't get their hands on a pair of glasses, Reid suggests crafting a simple device like a pinhole projector to project an image of the sun onto the ground or another surface. (The Exploratorium science museum in San Francisco suggests a variation on this using binoculars.)

As with the annular eclipse that dazzled millions of people around the world on May 20, the key to viewing the transit of Venus safely is to avoid looking directly at the sun without a protected lens. Sunglasses or ordinary telescope lenses are not enough to protect the eyes.

To be safe, lenses must be treated with something like an aluminized film like Mylar or have a strong filter such as the type found on some welder's glasses. The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada lists a number of safe lens options in a special section of its website devoted to the transit.

Whatever viewing method you choose, the key, says Reid, is to not miss what will be your last chance to see Venus in transit.

"It will not occur again until 2117, so it's worth trying to see it," Reid said.

Source: CBC 

Read More