Monday, March 5, 2001		Lens on IT

Shula, the mother and Sa'ar, the brother of 16-year-old Ofir Rahum, who was killedon January 17, lays flowers at his grave which is designed in the form of a computer screen and keyboard at the Ashkalon graveyard . A Palestinian woman suspected of using an Internet chatroom to lure the Israeli teenager to his death intended only to kidnap him, her lawyer said on Sunday. Israeli security forces arrested the woman, Amani Mona, on January 20, two days after 16-year-old Ofir Rahum's bullet-riddled body was found at the end of a trail of blood along a West Bank road.

Chinese visitors use 3-D glasses to view a photograph on a computer at the China High-Tech Exhibition in Beijing. The exhibit is jointly sponsored by the Ministry of Science and Technology and the People's Liberation Army. The government has funded over 6,900 hi-tech development projects and decided to put another 15 billion yuan ($ 1.8 billion) into the field within five years.

Sandia National Laboratories researcher Doug Adkins takes a close-up view of the mini-robots he and Ed Heller are developing, in this undated photo. At 1/4-cubic inch and weighing less than an ounce, they are possibly the smallest autonomous untethered robots ever created.

Sega Corp promotion girl Misaki Sato shows off one of five humanoid robots, C-BOT, at an unveiling in Tokyo . The C-BOT can communicate emotions via a digital display face on its head and communicate via a cell phone. The new robot goes on sale in May at 3,980 yen ($34). The C-BOT series of robots are equipped with emotion circuits, and are capable of expressing joy, love, sadness, anger, and fun. 

A visitor does a virtual test drive with the new Beetle 2.3 at the Geneva car show. The new model of Volkswagen's Beetle comes with a five cylinder engine. 

— Reuters photos