Monday, January 21, 2002		Lens on IT

Microsoft's Xbox special edition is unveiled at Xbox Conference 2002 in Tokyo . Microsoft Corp said it will launch its Xbox videogame console in Japan on February 22 for 34,800 yen ($263) with a starting lineup of 12 games and a smaller controller for the Japanese market.

National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation (MeSci) Director Mamoru Mohri, Japan's first astronaut, gives "certificate of employment" to Asimo, Honda Motor Co.'s walking humanoid robot that can recite programmed phrase, during a ceremony to mark hiring of Asimo as an interpreter in the Tokyo museum. Honda rented Asimo for 20 million yen ($1,50,000) a year to the museum which will conduct research on its compatibility and how the staff accept it as a colleague as well as its upgrading, MeSci said. 

A little girl stands by the ruins of a Kenyan cyber cafe burned down in a recent rent-related tribal fight within the sprawling Kibera slums of Nairobi. Up to 7,00,000 persons scratch out a hand to mouth existence in East Africa's biggest slum where many hope that presidential and parliamentary elections due late this year may usher in new leaders to tackle rising poverty

Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee watching the control room and demonstration of various parameters and real time data after the inaugural function of northern region unified load despatch and communication (ULDC) system in New Delhi.

Pedestrians cross a street at Taipei's bustling Kuanghwa Market district, a bazaar-like warren of computer shops where consumers haggle over the latest motherboards, microprocessors and tech gadgets. Taiwan manufactures much of the world's personal computers, mostly on behalf of the U.S. and Japanese brands, and has chosen to enter the giant mainland China market under their own brand name.

— Reuters photos