Russia to enhance its troops in southern region.

Russia will enhance the defense capabilities of its troops deployed in the country's "southern region," including the Black Sea Fleet, a deputy defense minister said. Gen. Vladimir Popovkin said after thoroughly analyzing "the outcome of the South Ossetian conflict," the Defense Ministry had proposed an array of measures to strengthen its troops in the country's southern region, as well as the Black Sea Fleet.
He said the Ground Forces would be provided with new multiple rocket launching systems and reconnaissance assets, while supplies of arms and military equipment would be generally increased.
In the Air Force, the modernization of MiG-29 Fulcrum fighters and Su-25 Frogfoot ground attack planes and Mi-28H Night Hunger helicopter gunships is to be completed and new warplanes (including Su-27SM, Su-30MK-2) and combat helicopters (including Ka-52, Mi-28N, Mi-24M, and Mi-8MTB5) will be supplied.
The Air Defense Forces will be provided with new Pantsir-S surface-to-air missile systems.
Popovkin said naval units would be supplied with new Lada Project 677 diesel-electric submarines, modernized versions of the Varshavyanka-class submarine, and Bal-U mobile coastal missile systems.
The Russian Navy dismissed last month media reports claiming that its Black Sea Fleet, based in Ukraine, had been put on alert and was preparing to urgently go to sea.
Russia's Black Sea Fleet currently uses a range of naval facilities in Ukraine's Crimea as part of a 1997 agreement, under which Ukraine agreed to lease the bases to Russia until 2017.
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko announced last summer that Ukraine would not extend the lease of the base in the Crimean city of Sevastopol beyond 2017, and urged Russia to start preparations for a withdrawal.
Russian media previously reported that Moscow was also looking at possible naval facilities in Yemen, Syria and Libya, among other countries. Russian military officials are also on record as saying Moscow could build up its presence in the Mediterranean to make up for the possible loss of Sevastopol.

Persian New Year-Nowruz

Nowruz, or the "new day", marks the start of the Persian solar calendar and falls on the vernal equinox, which is this Friday. It has been celebrated in Iran and other parts of Asia for thousands of years. At Nowruz you eat a huge meal with your family, and then for the next 12 days the whole country shuts down as everyone visits their relatives. At every stop you have to eat from their Nowruz table - that almost always means sweets."
The table is the symbolic centre of the Nowruz celebrations. On top of a beautiful tablecloth are laid auspicious objects to bring health, prosperity and luck, including apples, garlic, vinegar, berries and the aforementioned wheatgrass. Just before the moment of the equinox, family members - each wearing at least one new piece of clothing - gathers round the table. At the minute when the sun crosses the equator they say a prayer while passing rice and coins from hand to hand to, again, bring prosperity. After wishing each other a happy new year they tuck into the sweets, washed down with glasses of black, sugary tea.
Every Persian meal starts with naan-o-paneer-o-sabzi - sprigs of fresh herbs such as dill, mint, flat-leaf parsley and coriander, alongside small cucumbers, spring onions, radishes, walnuts and sheep's cheese - all waiting to be rolled in strips of flat bread and eaten. After 12 days of visiting family, the whole of Iran, weighed down with stoves for tea, kebabs and rice, heads out to picnic, throw out the bad luck (and wheatgrass) and bask in the spring. If it's not possible to get out into the countryside, the patches of grass at the centre of roundabouts are regularly commandeered.

Woman behind the design of One Laptop Per Child computer has a new project: a screen that combines TV,computer display & electronic paper.

The woman behind the design of the innovative One Laptop Per Child computer has a new project: a screen that combines a TV, computer display and electronic paper. Dr Jepsen has a new venture, Pixel Qi, which spun out of OLPC as an attempt to try and commercialise the innovative screen technology sported by the organisation's XO computer. And it's first major product is certainly ambitious: a computer screen that can switch between a traditional display and electronic paper. Speaking at the O'Reilly Emerging Technology conference in San Jose, Dr Jepsen confirmed that the company's new 3T system will be a screen that can switch between three different modes.
First, it has a full colour screen equivalent to current computer displays; at the other extreme, it acts as an extremely low-power, higher-definition 'paper' that's readable in sunlight and similar to Amazon's Kindle. As well as these two modes, it also has an in-between state that is low power but able to cope with video.
The real motivation behind the scheme is to reduce the amount of power that the screen uses – allowing people to use the smallest amounts of power when they are simply reading on their screen. This vision, she said, drove her work at One Laptop Per Child and could be crucial for lowering the overall energy footprint of computers.
As a result of that pioneering work, OLPC helped open up the netbook market – small, low-cost, low power laptop computers which have now become one of the fastest-growing areas of the under-fire computer industry.
"Last year, before the economic crisis started to happen, the analysts predicted we'd ship about 8 million netbooks."
"That didn't happen because of the crisis, but we rounded out the year selling not 8 million, but 17 million units. And netbooks are predicted to shift about 50 million units this year." She also hinted at another innovative – a low powered television set that can display high definition video but can run without being plugged in. "We've had a lot of pull," she said. "People want TV even if they don't have power.. an HDTV that's under 10W and can be human-powered. We've figured out a way to do that."

UK's first electric supercar

It is faster out of the blocks than a V12 Ferrari and can do 0-60mph in four seconds. It will go more than 140mph and can be fully charged up over lunch. But the first British electric supercar is not being built by one of the world's great car companies. It has instead been knocked up in a few months in a Norfolk garage from off-the-shelf parts mostly available on the web.
An A-team of British motorsport engineers was commissioned by Ecotricity wind power company chief Dale Vince last August to "blow the socks off Jeremy Clarkson and smash the stereotype of electric cars".
All have worked for Lotus and between them have developed nearly every car that a generation of petrolheads has swooned over - such as the McLaren F1, Lotus Elan, the Corvette 2R1, the Jaguar XJR15 and the De Lorean. The project leader was director of engineering, and all six problem-solve for the world's top motor sport teams. "The brief was to prove to middle England that electric cars can be quick to develop, beautiful to look at, cheap to run, and run entirely on wind power," said Vince.
The team went on to eBay, and found a second-hand Lotus Exige which they pulled apart. Seven months later, the car, which still has no name, is raised on blocks in the Norfolk garage but is just a few weeks away from full testing.
The consensus is that no large auto company could have developed anything so fast or for the £200,000 budget. "Ford would have taken years and it would have cost millions of pounds," said Ian Doble, project leader.

Hydropower Generation in Pakistan

China will provide technical assistance to Pakistan for hydropower projects on the model of the Three Gorges Dam, which is one of the largest hydropower complexes in the world.While the installed hydropower capacity is of 6,493 MW, enormous potential exists to exploit this unlimited indigenous resource of energy. According to estimates, it is economically possible to generate some 34,000 MW additional hydropower, and 150 sites for projects of cumulative capacity of 20,000 MW have been identified. Pakistan has total installed power generation capacity of 20,456 MW. However, dependable or de-rated capacity is in the range of 14,000 to 16,000 MW during the year, due to a variety of factors, whereas demand for electricity is increasing at an average annual rate of over eight per cent. Thus , there is gross power shortage at national level, demand being projected to around 22,000 MW by the year 2010.

To meet surging demand, an additional 4,000 MW generating capacity, all based on gas and oil, will be created by December 2010, in private as well as in public sector, besides another 325 MW nuclear power plant to be commissioned by then. In contrast, only 516 MW hydropower is expected to add to the system.
In fact, the share of hydroelectric power generation in the overall energy mix is persistently decreasing--from 57 in the1980s to 42 in the1990s to current 32 per cent of the total installed capacity. The good news is that the government plans to increase it to the level of 20,000 MW by 2017. As a result of recent restructuring, the Pakistan Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda), re-named as Water Resources and Power Development Authority, is focusing on implementing multipurpose water projects, including medium and mega hydropower generation projects, either reservoir-based or run-of-the-river type.
In addition to expediting various on-going hydropower projects and rehabilitating/modernising the operational power stations, WAPDA has recently embarked upon a series of new hydropower projects. Hydropower projects of cumulative capacity of 419 MW are scheduled to go on stream during the period 2009-2010. These are Allai Khwar 121 MW, Khan Khwar 72 MW, Duber Khwar 130 MW, all located in Kohistan area, and Jinnah 96 MW to be located on Jinnah Barrage. In addition, NWFP has commissioned Malakand III hydropower project, of 81 MW capacity, which is expected to achieve commercial operation shortly.
There is a long list of the new projects being implemented or to be launched by WAPDA. The Chinese contractors have commenced construction of 47-km long network of tunnels for the 969-MW NeelumJhelum hydropower project, whereas tenders for various works of Diamer Basha Dam project, designed for an installed power generation capacity of 4,500 MW, have been invited. Also, Wapda has launched Golen Gol 106MW hydropower project to be constructed in Chitral. Construction of Kurram Tangi Dam project (hydropower generation of 83 MW) is planned to re-commence soon. Construction of the Akhori Dam project is on cards, having a power generation capacity of 600 MW. Likewise, design and engineering work on Keyal Khwar project of 122 MW capacity has been undertaken.
Feasibility studies related to another eight hydropower projects are in progress being conducted by the consultants appointed by Wapda. These projects, expected to complete by 2017, would have an installed capacity of about 12,000 MW and would require $16.7 billion to construct. It may take two years to finalise studies enabling Wapda to launch the projects Kohala hydropower project on the Jhelum River in the AJ&K will have a capacity of 1,100 MW, whereas Bunji hydropower project (Gilgit) will generate 5,400 MW on its completion. Dasu of 3,700 MW capacity is a run-ofthe-river scheme, 69-km downstream Diamer Basha Dam. Lower Palas Valley of 621 MW and Lower Spat Gah hydropower project of 610 MW are proposed to be located at Patan, Kohistan. The remaining projects are Phander (Gilgit) 80 MW, Basho (Skardu) 28 MW and Lawi (Chitral) 70 MW. In addition, pre-feasibility or initial studies are being conducted for Thakot hydropower of 2,800 MW and Patan of 2,800 MW, both proposed on Indus River, and Harpo of 33 MW near Skardu.

The success of Microfinanace

The success of microfinance programmes as agent of poverty alleviation is well known. Enthusiasts can point to repayment rates of over 95 per cent, the high participation of women, associated improvements in the health and education of children, and the potential for the macrocredit system to become financially sustainable in the long-term.
The success of microfinance has been marred by severe criticism of high interest rates, exploitation of women borrowers, unchanging levels of poverty and a failure to cater effectively the target groups. The very poor individuals are often described as high risk as they cannot offer collateral and have no stable source of income.
Loan repayment is one of the major challenges to microfinance, given that a poor repayment culture has plagued numerous microfinance initiatives. The causes of default in microcredit can be divided into four main categories. These are organisational, household/financial, group dynamics, geographical location and environmental degradation/haphazardness.
High repayment rates are insufficient to drive the microfinance revolution. High interest rates are seen as necessary for generation of profitability and for reduced reliance of microfinance institutions (MFIs) on external funding.
Different studies show that the poor are extremely sensitive to increases in interest rates, which results in a reduced demand for financial services. Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund provides loans for microcredit to different organisations like the Rural Support Programme networks and other NGOs at six per cent interest rate.
Lending microcredit organisations give loans to the poor at the interest rate of 22-28 per cent. Many organisations are suggesting interest rate hike from 28 to 32 per cent which is not feasible. The total administrative and other costs of Rural Support Programme Networks and other NGOs ranges between 2—4 per cent only. Apart from six per cent interest on microcredit loan, PPAF provides free training and other opportunities including infrastructure facility through the same microcredit lending programmes.
According to the World Bank, another 90 million people all around the world have again become poor. In Pakistan, about 70 per cent live below the poverty line. In the prevailing situation, an increase in the interest rate can be more harmful to borrowers.
Studies in India, Kenya and the Philippines have found that the average annual return on investments by micro businesses range from 117 to 847 per cent. If they are so lucrative, why are not businesses sustainable? These and other studies have shown that failures are because of high inflation rate, surging food prices, lack of training and high interest rates.
Capitalising micro-businesses is one piece of the solution, but without a wider, holistic effort, this kind of credit will mainly benefit the entrepreneurs and slightly less poor who are able to develop business plans and make them work.
Additionally, microcredit models often fail to build borrowers’ capacity to do anything but develop a market analysis and basic business plan. A large number of the poor especially women are marginalised within their communities and even their families, and lack confidence and experience in trying something new.
They have responsibility not only for contributing to family income but to caring for children and the ill, collecting water and fuel wood, preparing their family’s meals, maintaining the home and any number of assorted family responsibilities. If the bigger picture of workload and marginalisation is not addressed in a significant way throughout the microcredit lending process, women will continue to struggle with an impossible burden.
Microcredit lending institutions should think about a new approach for improving the microcredit system. Small loans with lower interest rates and surrounding conditions, will give more sustainable help to the poor to start a simple business.
Microcredit unleashes the entrepreneurial spirit. Simply to survive, the poor rely on their own ingenuity. When given an opportunity to succeed, they do it with a determination to break the vicious cycle of inherited misery.

Billionaire Club

The business magazine has published a list of billionaire; according to this report the financial crisis has hit the billionaire as well. The billionaire list shrank by nearly a third. The Bill Gates, the Microsoft Legend have lost $18 billion from last year's list, but he still owner of $40 billion and stood on top. Warren buffet and Carlos slim stood on second and third positions with $37billion and $35billion of assets respectively, they have lost $25billion in the previous year.

The Forbes list includes the names of assets owner who possesses more than of one billion US$. In the last year the Billionaire Club was consist of 1,125, now it has shrank to 793 billionaires. The Financial Crisis destroyed $1.4 trillion in wealth of the billionaire.

For the entire list of billionaire from Forbes click the link below or click here :

http://www.forbes.com/2009/03/11/worlds-richest-people-billionaires-2009-billionaires_land.html

Future of mobile phones

No more than 10 years ago the mobile was purely a device for making voice calls. Now it is a camera, music player, organiser and texting device in addition. This is only the start of an evolution over the next 20 years that will turn it into our trusted and indispensable companion in life. The mobile has changed beyond recognition over the last 20 years but that is just the start of things to come in the next two decades.
It is predicted that on a typical day it will start working even before you wake. Because it knows your travel schedule it can check for problems on the roads or with the trains, and adjust the time it wakes you up accordingly, presenting you with the best route into work. Mobiles will continue to get steadily better, with higher resolution touch-screens, speech recognition that really works and much greater memory and storage capabilities.
Running on these mobiles, and also on home and wide-area networks will be increasingly intelligent software, able to learn behaviour, predict needs and integrate with a growing number of databases, such as transport updates from major providers.
So instead of the train company sending you a text to tell you of delays, it will send it to your mobile, which will analyse it in conjunction with your travel plans and modify those plans if needs be.
This evolution will be a slow but steady progress, as each few years mobiles get slightly better, intelligent software evolves and the various providers of all the necessary input data, such as transport organisations and shops, gradually make the data available in formats that become increasingly useful.

Bluetooth Mobile Phone Spying

Ultimate Bluetooth Mobile Phone Spy is what one can use his mobile phone for espionage wire tapping. What is your partner up to? What are your colleagues at work talking about? What's your boss saying about you? What is the person next to you on the bus texting? The very latest technology and programs to allow you to spy on any bluetooth enabled device, mobile phone, or laptop - this technology covers them all. Everyone heard of the government wiretapping scandal, now you can use the same technology by purchasing the E-Stealth Ultimate Mobile Phone Spy 2009 Platinum Edition. Just download the software and then it works on all types of phone like aLL phones. Samsung, Motorola, Nokia, Ericsson, Blackberry, iPhone. This will work in all countries, on all networks. The beauty is that you can find with home your business associates, and friends have been in contact with. Whether you are suspicious of an affair, or would just like information that will help progress your career, you can now do all of the following using your mobile phone, and the person you are targeting will not suspect a thing. view contacts list, read text messages (sms), view calls made / calls recieved, set the target phone to call you whenever it makes or receives a call, view photos, many more functions, have complete power, dominate anyone's phone, all the above information can easily be downloaded to your phone, make calls via the phone you have targeted. Once the target phone has been remotely set you do not need to be in Bluetooth range to listen into calls.

Cultivation of Jatropha for Bio-diesel in Afghanistan to discourage poppy.

Most of the foreign exchange of Pakistan is consumed by the import of fuel. The annual demand for diesel is about 10 million tons, a large portion of which is imported. President Asif Ali Zardari has recently set up a committee to formulate a proposal for 50 per cent reduction in diesel imports by alternative sources of energy. Jatrophoa offers great prospect to offset the impact of import of diesel and as alternate for import of fuel. Jatropha, known as ‘Ratanjyot’ or ‘Jangli Errund’, is a small shrub three to five meters in height. The fruits are bi-lobed capsules, ovoid green, and in cluster of 7-10, which on ripening turn yellow or dark coloured.
A comparative study has proved that among non-edible oil plants, Jatropha curcas is one of the most important plants for production of bio-diesel. It is also a sustainable option among bio-energy crops largely grown in most parts of the tropical and subtropical countries on marginal and non-productive lands.
India has already cultivated Jatropha curcas on 500,000-600,000 hectares. British Petroleum (BP) has invested 32 million pounds sterling in a joint venture with the British bio-fuel firm D.I. Oils to further expand Jatropha cultivation and production. About 80 oil extraction units and several local micro-refineries provide bio-diesel on small scale for running local tractors, irrigation pumps, jeeps and village power generators etc.
China has cultivated Jatropha on two million hectares and plans to grow it on another 11 million hectares. Similarly Myanmar plans to plant it on several million hectares, and Philippines on 50,000 hectares. To discourage cultivation of poppy in Afghanistan, Americans have provided saplings of Jatropha with the offer to buy bio-diesel from it. The US intends to plant Jatropha over one million hectares in Afghanistan.
In Africa, Jatropha is also being cultivated in various countries with that purpose in mind. In southern Egypt, the desert area has been converted into greenbelt by large scale planting of Jatropha. In South Africa, the Emerald Oil International (Pvt.) Ltd. has initiated a bio-diesel plant in Durban, which will produce 100,000 tons of bio-diesel per year and plans to import Jatropha curcas oil or its seeds for oil extraction from African states.
The jatropha plant produces nuts after two to three years. The economic yield, however, stabilises after 4-5 years and continues to produce seeds for 50 years. The nuts of Jatropha possess high oil content between 35 and 40 per cent. These plants yield about 1-3 tons of seeds per acre, depending upon the soil condition and management techniques. In well managed areas, one acre of Jatropha produces about 0.45 to 0.6 metric ton of oil. The oil has triglycerides, which when chemically treated with lower alcohols in the presence of catalyst results in fatty acid esters, which possesses striking resemblance with petroleum derived diesel and is called bio-diesel. From 4kg oil approximately one liter of biodiesel can be produced.

Internet Explorer and MS Window 7

Internet Explorer has been added to the list of Windows 7 components that users can remove from the OS. In earlier versions of Windows, users could disable, but not actually unload the browser. In addition to IE8, that list also includes: Windows Media Player; Windows Media Center; Windows DVD Maker; Windows Search; Handwriting Recognition (through the Tablet PC Components option); Windows Gadget Platform; Fax and Scan; and XPS Viewer and Services (including the Virtual Print Driver).

Solar Lights

In present era we are facing energy crisis. Environmentalists are crying for green technologies. But Sun sends each day 10,000 times more energy than required by the earth duelers.

The good news is that some companies like IKEA are coming out with green products especially green lighting. IKEA revealed a year ago that solar-powered products are going to be available in its stores, and soon the announcement will come to fruition. You've seen the types before - lights designed for outdoor use that harness the energy of the sun. What's great is that IKEA is offering a variety of styles for people to choose from. There are posts, globes, chains, paper lanterns and lamps among the first wave of IKEA solar-powered lighting which will be available within a couple of weeks or so in stores.
The devices are all equipped with rechargeable batteries that store the energy harnessed from the sun during daytime. At night, the devices switch on their LED lights consuming a lot less energy than incandescent lights, so the power harnessed lasts longer. The products are now showcased in IKEA's web site, if you want to take a look at what you'll get in a few weeks' time.