W O R L D

‘Expanding universe’ earns US-born trio physics Nobel
Stockholm, October 4
Three US-born scientists won the Nobel Prize in physics today for their studies of exploding stars that revealed that the expansion of the universe is accelerating.



The photo shows a classic type 1a supernova remnant. — AFP

Truck bomb in Somalia kills 70
Mogadishu, October 4
Militants detonated a truck bomb today in front of the Ministry of Education in Mogadishu, killing at least 70 persons, wounding dozens and shattering a relative calm that had prevailed in the Somali capital for weeks. The bomb blew up after coming to a halt at a security checkpoint. It left blackened corpses on the debris-strewn street and set other vehicles alight. Uniformed soldiers were seen dragging the wounded away.

Prez unveils Tagore’s bust at Swiss varsity

President Pratibha Patil with her Swiss counterpart Micheline Calmy-Rey after unveiling the statue of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland on Tuesday. — PTI

Gunmen kill 14 in Quetta
Gunmen killed 14 persons and wounded six in Quetta when they opened fire on a bus carrying Shias belonging to Hazara ethnic community. The police said four assailants riding two motorcycles were involved in the attack. They sprayed bullets from automatic weapons and escaped leaving 14 dead in the bloodbath.

US puts $10 million bounty on Al-Qaida leader in Iraq
Washington: The United States has put the leader of Al-Qaida in Iraq on a terrorism blacklist and is offering a $10 million reward for information on his whereabouts. The State Department said on Tuesday that it has added Ibrahim Awwad Ibrahim Ali al-Badri, also known as Abu Du'a, to its list of specially designated terrorists. The move freezes any assets he may have in US jurisdictions and bars Americans from providing him material support. — AP

Jackson Trial Michael Jackson’s doctor, Conrad Murray (left) attends his trial in connection with the death of the pop star in Los Angeles. Prosecutors in the manslaughter trial of Dr Murray sought to prove on Monday that the physician misled hospital doctors on the day of MJ’s death and was busy on his phone around the time the pop star stopped breathing. — Reuters

 

 

‘Expanding universe’ earns US-born trio physics Nobel

Stockholm, October 4
Three US-born scientists won the Nobel Prize in physics today for their studies of exploding stars that revealed that the expansion of the universe is accelerating.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said American Saul Perlmutter would share the 10 million kronor ($1.5 million) award with US-Australian Brian Schmidt and US scientist Adam Riess.

Working in two separate research teams during the 1990s, Perlmutter in one and Schmidt and Riess in the other, the scientists raced to map the universe's expansion by analysing a particular type of supernovas, or exploding stars. They found that the light emitted by more than 50 distant supernovas was weaker than expected, a sign that the universe was expanding at an accelerating rate, the academy said.

"For almost a century the universe has been known to be expanding as a consequence of the Big Bang about 14 billion years ago," the citation said. "However the discovery that this expansion is accelerating is astounding. If the expansion will continue to speed up the universe will end in ice."

Perlmutter, 52, heads the Supernova Cosmology Project at the University of California, Berkeley. Schmidt, 44, is the head of the High-z Supernova Search Team at the Australian National University in Weston Creek, Australia. Riess, 42, is an astronomy professor at Johns Hopkins University and Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland.

Schmidt said he was just sitting down to have dinner with his family in Canberra, Australia, when the phone call came from the academy.

"I was somewhat suspicious when the Swedish voice came on," Schmidt told The Associated Press. "My knees sort of went weak and I had to walk around and sort my senses out."

The academy said the three researchers were stunned by their own discoveries as they had expected to find that the expansion of the universe was slowing down. But both teams reached the opposite conclusion: far-away galaxies were racing away from each other at an ever-increasing speed. The acceleration is believed to be driven by dark energy, one of the great mysteries of the universe.

The prizes are handed out every year on December 10, on the anniversary of Nobel's death in 1896. — AP

Truck bomb in Somalia kills 70
Qaida-linked group al-Shabab claims responsibility

A car burns at the scene of a suicide attack in Somalia's capital Mogadishu on Tuesday. — Reuters

Mogadishu, October 4
Militants detonated a truck bomb today in front of the Ministry of Education in Mogadishu, killing at least 70 persons, wounding dozens and shattering a relative calm that had prevailed in the Somali capital for weeks.

The bomb blew up after coming to a halt at a security checkpoint. It left blackened corpses on the debris-strewn street and set other vehicles alight. Uniformed soldiers were seen dragging the wounded away.

Ali Muse, the chief of Mogadishu's ambulance service, said at least 70 people died and at least 42 others were wounded. The Al-Qaida-linked group al-Shabab immediately claimed responsibility for Tuesday's attack on a website it uses.

It was the biggest attack in Somalia's capital since al-Shabab withdrew most of its forces in August amid an offensive by African Union forces. The group had been expected to fight back with guerrilla-style attacks, including car bombs. Several car bombs have been defused or exploded before reaching their targets in recent weeks.

Ali Hussein, a police officer in Mogadishu, said the vehicle blew up after pulling up to a checkpoint at the entrance to the Ministry of Education.

Suicide bombings were unheard of in Somalia before 2007 but have become increasingly frequent. Al-Shabab claims allegiance to Qaida, which often uses car bombs and appears bent on gaining a foothold in the Horn of Africa.

Al-Shabab includes militant veterans of the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts who have trained Somalis in tactics like suicide bombs and sniper fire. The group carried out a double suicide bombing in Uganda in July 2010 that killed 76 persons watching the World Cup final on television. Americans of Somali heritage also have joined the group. — AP

Gunmen kill 14 in Quetta
Afzal Khan in Islamabad

Gunmen killed 14 persons and wounded six in Quetta when they opened fire on a bus carrying Shias belonging to Hazara ethnic community.

The police said four assailants riding two motorcycles were involved in the attack. They sprayed bullets from automatic weapons and escaped leaving 14 dead in the bloodbath.

A police official said the gunmen identified Hazara passengers in the bus and forced them to come out and line up before opening indiscriminate fire.

Persian-speaking Hazaras have been the target of several killing incidents in which banned terrorist sectarian outfit Lshkar-i-Jhangvi is allegedly involved.

In a brutal incident on September 20, gunmen lined up 26 Hazara passengers near Mastung and shot them dead in cold blood.