|
|
|
|
|
Militants attack women’s college bus, hospital in Pakistan; 23 killed
US lawmaker: Snowden may have links with Chinese intelligence
Moderate cleric Rowhani is Iran Prez
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Defiant protesters in Turkey to stay put
N Korea vows again to build up nuke deterrent
Now, balloons in stratosphere to beam Internet to Earth
‘Tweet’, ‘geekery’ make it to Oxford Dictionary
|
|
Militants attack women’s college bus, hospital in Pakistan; 23 killed
Islamabad, June 15
Fourteen students of Sardar Bahadur Khan Women's University, a Deputy Commissioner and four Frontier Corps personnel were among the dead. Four militants were also killed by security forces, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan told reporters in the federal capital this evening. Over 35 persons were injured in both attacks and 35 hostages were freed by security forces at the hospital, Khan said. One suspected militant was also captured at the hospital, he said. The banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi claimed responsibility for both attacks, BBC reported. LeJ spokesman said the attacks were carried out in retaliation for a raid by security forces against the group in which a woman and children were killed. A powerful blast ripped through a stationary bus within the campus of Sardar Bahadur Khan Women's University at the Brewery Road today afternoon. Students and faculty members were waiting to go home when a bomb planted in the bus went off. Several girls sustained severe burn injuries as the explosion triggered a fire. Footage on television showed flames and black smoke emerging from the bus, which was reduced to a blackened heap of metal. About an hour after the attack on the bus, a blast occurred inside the Bolan Medical Complex while casualties were still being brought in. Several armed militants inside the hospital then began firing indiscriminately. Several senior civil and police officials, including the police chief and Chief Secretary of Balochistan, were inside the hospital and Quetta Deputy Commissioner Abdul Mansoor Kakar was killed in the firing, Geo News channel reported. — PTI Jinnah’s historic residence destroyed
A historic 121-year-old building used by Pakistan's founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah in Balochistan was destroyed after militants targeted it with bombs and gunfire that triggered a blaze The militants of the Balochistan Liberation Army targeted the Quaid-e-Azam Residency in Ziarat, a holiday resort located near the provincial capital of Quetta The explosions and gunfire triggered a blaze that was extinguished after four hours A policeman was killed in the shooting |
||
|
US lawmaker: Snowden may have links with Chinese intelligence
Washington, June 15 "There's a lot of reason for suspicion," Republican Congressman Peter King told MSNBC. Snowden, an American citizen, is currently hiding in Hong Kong. The US has launched a criminal investigation against him for allegedly leaking the secretive American programme. "First of all, the fact that he transferred money to China; that he had studied Chinese; that his girlfriend had some connections to China; that, of all countries in the world, he went to China and he arranged to have the papers released on the same weekend that President Obama was meeting with the President of China and why he's still in China. What is Chinese intelligence doing with all of this?" King said. — PTI Microsoft, Facebook release details of NSA data requests
American tech giants - Microsoft and Facebook - have disclosed the number of requests they had received from the National Security Agency to reveal details, including internet usage of their consumers Facebook said in the past six months of 2012 its requests totalled between 9,000 and 10,000 Microsoft's total was about 32,000 accounts over the same six month period ending December 31, 2012 |
||
|
Moderate cleric Rowhani is Iran Prez Tehran, June 15 Rowhani, 64, a former top nuclear negotiator who has championed more constructive engagement with world powers, won outright with 18.6 million votes, or 50.68 per cent of those cast. Announcing Rowhani's win, Interior Minister Mohammad Mostafa Najjar said 36.7 million people, or 72.7 per cent of the electorate, had voted yesterday. Over 50.5 million Iranians were eligible to vote for a successor to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was constitutionally barred from standing again after serving two consecutive terms. Rowhani's tally was enough to ensure there would be no run-off against the runner-up, Tehran Mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, who was in distant second place with 6.07 million votes. Current nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, was third with 3.17 million. The withdrawal of the sole reformist from the race had left the field open for Rowhani to win the votes of both moderates and reformists and establish a large lead over his divided hardline opponents. — AFP
|
||
|
Defiant protesters in Turkey to stay put Istanbul, June 15 Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's offer to halt the redevelopment of the Gezi Park that first ignited the protests was presented as a major concession but after conferring all night, the protesters said their movement was about something bigger than a conservation struggle. "We will continue our resistance in the face of any injustice and unfairness taking place in our country," the Taksim Solidarity group, seen as most representative of the protesters, said in a statement. "This is only the beginning." The decision looked set to inflame tensions a day after Erdogan offered to halt the Gezi Park redevelopment until a court ruled on its legality, his first conciliatory gesture yet in a bid to end the biggest challenge of his Islamist-rooted government's rule. — AFP
|
||
|
N Korea vows again to build up nuke deterrent
Seoul, June 15 An editorial in Pyongyang's ruling party daily, the Rodong Sinmun, said: "reckless" war exercises by the US and South Korea could spark a nuclear war at any moment. "As long as the US and South Korean puppets continue with nuclear threats, we will strengthen nuclear deterrence through every possible means," it said. — AFP |
||
|
Now, balloons in stratosphere to beam Internet to Earth
Christchurch, June 15 Eighteen months in the works, the top-secret project was announced today in New Zealand, where up to 50 volunteer households are already beginning to receive the Internet briefly on their home computers via translucent helium balloons that sail by on the wind 12 miles above Earth. Google is working on the plan codenamed as 'Project Loon'. While the project is still in the very early testing stages, Google hopes eventually to launch thousands of the thin, polyethylene-film inflatables and bring the Internet to some of the more remote parts of the globe, narrowing the digital divide between the 2.2 billion people who are online and the 4.8 billion who aren't. If successful, the technology might allow countries to leapfrog the expense of installing fiber-optic cable, dramatically increasing Internet usage in places such as Africa and Southeast Asia. "It's a huge moonshot, a really big goal to go after," said project leader Mike Cassidy. "The power of the Internet is probably one of the most transformative technologies of our time." The so-called Project Loon was developed in the clandestine Google X lab that also came up with a driverless car and Google's Web-surfing eyeglasses. Google would not say how much it is investing in the project or how much customers will be charged when it is up and running. The first person to get Google Balloon Internet access this week was Charles Nimmo, a farmer and entrepreneur in the small town of Leeston who signed up for the experiment. Technicians attached a bright red, basketball-size receiver resembling a giant Google map pin to the outside of his home. In a successful preliminary test, Nimmo received the Internet for about 15 minutes before the 49-foot-wide transmitting balloon he was relying on floated out of range. The first thing he did was check the weather forecast because he wanted to find out if it was a good time for "crutching" his sheep, or removing the wool around their rear ends. Nimmo is among the many rural folk, even in developed countries, who can't get broadband access. After ditching his dial-up four years ago in favour of satellite Internet service, he has gotten stuck with bills that sometimes exceed $1,000 a month. "It's been weird," Nimmo said of the Google Balloon Internet experience. "But it's been exciting to be part of something new." In recent years, military and aeronautical researchers have used tethered balloons to beam Internet signals back to bases on Earth. Google's balloons would be untethered and out of sight, strung out in a line around the globe. — AP Narrowing the digital divide
While ‘Project Loon’ is still in the very early testing stages, Google hopes eventually to launch thousands of the thin, polyethylene-film inflatables and bring the Internet to some of the more remote parts of the globe If successful, the technology might allow countries to leapfrog the expense of installing fiber-optic cable,
dramatically increasing Internet usage in places such as Africa and Southeast Asia The first person to get Google Balloon Internet access this week was Charles Nimmo, a farmer and entrepreneur in the small town of Leeston who signed up for the experiment.
|
||
|
‘Tweet’, ‘geekery’ make it to Oxford Dictionary
London, June 15 According to the dictionary, "tweet" is now a posting on the social networking service Twitter as well as its more traditional meaning: a brief high-pitched sound. "This breaks at least one OED rule, namely that a new word needs to be current for 10 years before consideration for inclusion," said the OED's chief editor John Simpson. "Crowdsourcing", "flash mob", "geekery" and "dad dancing" also earned a place in an OED now containing 823,000 entries. "Crowdsourcing" is defined as the practice of obtaining information or services by soliciting input from a large number of people, typically via the Internet and often without offering compensation. A "flash mob" is a large group of people organised by means of the Internet, or mobile phones or other wireless devices, who assemble in public to perform a prearranged action together and then quickly disperse. Watchers of "The Big Bang Theory" hit US TV show will recognise "geekery". It's meaning has been updated from a rarely used term for bizarre circus acts in favour of an obsessive devotion to or knowledge of a particular subject or pursuit and also the state of being a geek or "geekiness". Other more worthy terms, such as "fiscal cliff", "e-reader" and "fracking" also make appearances alongside an alarm bell for fathers of brides at the height of the wedding season. — Reuters Worthy terms
Many other terms, such as ‘fiscal cliff’, ‘e-reader’ and ‘fracking’ also make appearances alongside an alarm bell for fathers of brides at the height of the wedding season.
|
Washington Melbourne Kuala Lumpur
|
||||||
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | E-mail | |
Moderate cleric Hassan Rowhani was declared Iran's new President today, the Interior Minister said, in an outright election victory that ends eight years of conservative grip on the top office.
