One dead, four missing in Philippine landslide: police

One dead, four missing in Philippine landslide: police

One dead, four missing in Philippine landslide: police

Posted: 11 Sep 2010 12:57 AM PDT

MANILA, Saturday 11 September 2010 (AFP) - A landslide triggered by heavy rain killed one person and left four others missing in the southern Philippines, police and rescuers said Saturday.

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Moderate 5.9-magnitude quake strikes Indonesia

Posted: 11 Sep 2010 12:30 AM PDT

JAKARTA, Saturday 11 September 2010 (AFP) - A moderate 5.9-magnitude earthquake struck Indonesia's North Maluku province on Saturday, the meteorology and geophysics agency said, but no tsunami warning was issued.

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Religious tension marks Sept 11 anniversary

Posted: 11 Sep 2010 12:09 AM PDT

WASHINGTON, Sept 11 — Religious tensions are overshadowing the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States where President Barack Obama urged a Christian preacher to abandon a plan to burn copies of the Al-Quran. A day ahead of today's ninth anniversary, a report warned that the United States faced a growing threat from home-grown ...


China cancels Japan talks, warns on sea dispute

Posted: 10 Sep 2010 11:44 PM PDT

BEIJING, Sept 11 — China called off planned talks with Japan over an undersea gas bed dispute and warned that worse repercussions may follow, state media reported today, intensifying pressure over the arrest of a Chinese boat captain. The Chinese Foreign Ministry issued its angry warning after a Japanese court authorised a 10-day extension in ...


Religious tension marks Sept 11 anniversary

Posted: 11 Sep 2010 12:35 AM PDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Religious tensions are overshadowing the anniversay of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States where President Barack Obama urged a Christian preacher to abandon a plan to burn copies of the Koran.


PPP Sarawak targets 50 more branches statewide over next six months

Posted: 10 Sep 2010 11:36 PM PDT

The People's Progressive Party(PPP), which has 40 branches with more than 12,000 members statewide now, is targeting 50 more within the next six months.

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Rights group calls for school security in restive Thai south

Posted: 10 Sep 2010 11:10 PM PDT

BANGKOK, Saturday 11 September 2010 (AFP) - A leading rights group on Saturday denounced suspected insurgent attacks that have disrupted education in Thailand's violent south and warned against unlawful revenge by security forces.

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Flags of honour

Posted: 10 Sep 2010 11:10 PM PDT

An impassioned President Barack Obama warned Americans must not turn on one another over religion, after rows over Islam sparked global fury, nine years after the September 11 attacks.

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Japan says over 230,000 listed centenarians can't be found

Posted: 09 Sep 2010 05:03 PM PDT

TOKYO: More than 230,000 people listed as alive and at least 100 years old in Japan cannot be found, including 884 who would be 150 or older, officials said today.

Japan, famed for its longevity, launched a nationwide survey after a recent string of grisly discoveries -- including a mummified man in his bed and an old woman's remains in a backpack -- sparked alarm over the fate of many elderly.

The cases also triggered soul-searching over elderly people living in isolation, and public outrage at relatives of those missing who have kept their deaths secret in order to keep receiving their pension payments.

The Justice Ministry said that a search of family registries, which are updated based on residents' notifications, found that 234,354 people recorded as at least 100 years old could not be located at their listed address.

Many of those whose whereabouts were unknown may have died as long ago as World War II or in the post-war turmoil, or may have emigrated without their status being reported to local authorities, the ministry said.

The list included 77,118 people who would be 120 years or older today, and 884 who would be at least 150 years old, the ministry said.

The government has instructed regional legal offices to delete the names of people aged 120 or older if their whereabouts cannot be confirmed.

The ministry said the impact on Japan's life expectancy figures would likely be minimal since these are calculated from separate data gathered in home visits by field workers during national census campaigns.

Japan's health ministry reported in July that the average life expectancy was a world-record 86.44 years for women and 79.59 years for men.

Authorities rang the alarm bell over missing elderly when a birthday call by Tokyo officials to a man believed to be 111 years old instead led to a police search that found his three-decade-old mummified skeleton in his bed.

In another case the remains of a Tokyo woman believed to be 104 were found stuffed into her son's backpack, where they had been for more than a decade.

And earlier this month a 58-year-old woman living near Osaka admitted to keeping her father's corpse hidden at home for the past five years.

- AFP

Japan rapid scanning system can digitise book in one minute

Posted: 09 Sep 2010 04:58 PM PDT

TOKYO: Japanese researchers said today they had developed technology to scan a book as fast as a person can flip through it.

A prototype ultra-speed scanner capable of digitising a book in one minute will be built within two years, said the chief researcher of the team at the University of Tokyo's Graduate School of Information Science and Technology.

The "book-flipping scanning" system works with a camera that can take up to 500 photographs per second, enabling it to record about 170 book pages in 60 seconds as a person thumbs through them.

The system adjusts for the distortion caused by the curvature of the moving pages by measuring their three-dimensional forms using infra-red beams, so that the images can be electronically "flattened" to look like the original.

"We believe this is the world's fastest (scanning) system as far as the technologies already published are concerned," said Yoshihiro Watanabe, who leads the research team.

"We are considering using robots to turn the pages automatically and more neatly," he said.

The university researchers teamed up with Japan's Dai Nippon Printing this month to put the technology to practical use, with the aim of building a prototype scanner within two years.

Japanese printing firms are diversifying into e-books, which can be read using handheld devices such as Apple's iPad tablet computer or Amazon's Kindle.

Watanabe said the technology to rapidly capture 3-D images of fast-moving objects could be used in a variety of applications from robotics to industrial and automotive design.

The technology could be used for quality control of industrial products, he said. "You would just scan products that come out of manufacturing lines," he added.

"It could also be used to develop a safer and more comfortable driving system. If mounted on a car, this could take 3-D images of obstacles ahead or dents and bumps in the road to avoid them.

"If loaded into the eyes of robots, they would be able to move much faster than humans."

Video footage of the system can be seen at http://www.k2.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/vision/BookFlipScan/index-e.html

- AFP

 

Australian editor suspended over Facebook comments

Posted: 09 Sep 2010 04:51 PM PDT

SYDNEY: An Australian newspaper editor was suspended today for reportedly saying the killing of a policeman would lift circulation, writing on his Facebook site he would "make the most" of the tragedy.

Matt Nicholls, who became editor of the regional Glen Innes Examiner just three weeks ago, allegedly made the comments on the social networking site after Glen Innes-raised Constable Bill Crews was shot dead in a drug raid.

Crews's father is a retired policeman and his mother works as a pre-school teacher in the close-knit Glen Innes community in the far north of New South Wales state, some 450km (280 miles) north of Sydney.

According to the ABC broadcaster, Nicholls had boasted on his Facebook page that he would capitalise on the policeman's death in Sydney to drum up sales of his newspaper.

One of his posts read "there's nothing better than a death to lift circulation", the Australian Associated Press reported.

Fairfax Media, which owns the Glen Innes Examiner, refused to confirm the wording of the comments but apologised for the remarks as it suspended the 23-year-old editor and launched an investigation.

"The actions of Matt Nicholls were totally unacceptable and we deeply regret any hurt caused to the family and friends of Constable Bill Crews and the Glen Innes community," chief executive of regional publishing Allan Browne said.

"Mr Nicholls has been stood down from his position as editor, effective immediately."

- AFP

 

Iran delays release of detained American

Posted: 10 Sep 2010 11:32 PM PDT

TEHRAN, Sept 11 — Iran has cancelled the planned release today of a detained American woman because the legal process has not been completed, Tehran's prosecutor said yesterday. Iran had said earlier it would release Sarah Shourd, one of three Americans detained near Iran's border with Iraq in July 2009, today. "Because the legal procedure on her ...


Govt open to idea of making ringgit tradeable offshore

Posted: 10 Sep 2010 10:39 PM PDT

The government is open to the idea of making the ringgit, which recently touched a 13-year high, tradeable offshore again, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said today.

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New villagers allowed to utilise soft loan to venture into business

Posted: 10 Sep 2010 10:23 PM PDT

The soft loan provided to new villagers, which has an initial fund of RM100 million, is not solely to help them pay their land premium and renew leasehold but also a form of micro financing to help them venture into business, Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Chor Chee Heung said.

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Obama says Koran burning can badly damage U.S. abroad

Posted: 10 Sep 2010 10:56 PM PDT

WASHINGTON/GAINESVILLE, Fla. (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Friday appealed to Americans to respect the "inalienable" right of religious freedom and expressed hope a Florida Christian preacher would abandon a plan to burn the Koran that could deeply hurt the United States abroad.


China cancels Japan talks, warns on sea dispute

Posted: 10 Sep 2010 10:56 PM PDT

BEIJING (Reuters) - China called off planned talks with Japan over an undersea gas bed dispute and warned that worse repercussions may follow, state media said on Saturday, intensifying pressure in a rift between the two big neighbours.


Terengganu to have special centre for Muslim converts

Posted: 10 Sep 2010 09:37 PM PDT

The Terengganu Islamic Affairs and Malay Customs Council (Maidam) is to set up a special centre for Muslim converts in the state.

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At least 6% growth for Malaysia this year, says Najib (UPDATED)

Posted: 10 Sep 2010 09:07 PM PDT

The country is poised to register at least a 6% gross domestic product (GDP) growth in 2010, fuelled mainly by domestic demand and consumption, while external factors remain somewhat dampening.

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Fire causes massive jam at Penang Bridge

Posted: 10 Sep 2010 09:05 PM PDT

Tenaga Nasional Bhd's high-tension cables caught fire at Km2 of the Penang Bridge at 10am today, causing massive jam on both ways.

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US marks 9/11 anniversary amid Islam tensions (UPDATED)

Posted: 10 Sep 2010 09:04 PM PDT

NEW YORK, Saturday 11 September 2010 (AFP) - Remembrance ceremonies, marred by global tensions over a Florida pastor's threat to burn the Koran, were to take place Saturday in New York and at the Pentagon on the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

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