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WWDC 2015 Keynote: iOS 9, Apple Music, and Everything Else You Can Expect

2015-06-08T17:58:00.001+05:30

It's that time of year again. Thousands of Apple fans, partners and developers will descend upon San Francisco's Moscone centre to participate in a week-long conference where they will get a chance to learn new techniques and pry new secrets directly out of Apple engineers and designers. Most people don't even know that WWDC is a week-long event, because all the attention is on one small part of it: the opening keynote.

Apple CEO Tim Cook and the usual phalanx of high-ranking company officers will take to the stage on Monday morning (10:30pm IST) to talk about the company's successes and unveil what they've been working on for the past year. WWDC is a software-focused event but that hasn't stopped Apple from launching new products and sharing massive strategy updates in years past.

This year, Apple is widely expected to talk about improvements to the Apple Watch experience, a music streaming service born out of its acquisition of Beats, and of course, refreshed versions of iOS and OS X. Here's what we know so far:

Apple Music
The music streaming service born out of the acquisition of Beats last year will finally be launched at WWDC 2015. Apple will be hoping to take on Spotify, Rdio and Pandora, amongst other players. Subscription-based music streaming has become increasingly popular, as opposed to Apple's long-held model of selling tracks to its users through the iTunes Music Store.

If rumors are accurate, Apple might be planning to deemphasize its iTunes branding in favor of Apple Music. Beats users will be transitioned to the new offering, which is expected to be offered at $10 (approximately Rs. 641) per month. A three-month free trial period has also been rumored. Apple could be relying on high-profile music industry hires and a focus on playlists curated by humans, rather than algorithms, to differentiate itself. The app will use existing iTunes accounts and will come preinstalled on millions of new devices as well as be baked into the next iOS update, giving the company a huge readymade potential audience.

The Apple Music service will not be available in all countries at the same time, so Apple will have to discuss how it will manage users' existing iTunes libraries, content stored on devices, and content only available for streaming. The much-neglected iTunes Radio could consequently receive a makeover, positioning it as an alternative for those who don't have access to Apple Music.

iOS 9
Apple's operating system for iPhones and iPads has been receiving regular yearly updates, so this year will be no different. However, after two splashy releases, Apple is reportedly going to downplay new features and instead focus on security, stability and interface improvements. Interestingly, devices older than three years might receive the iOS 9 update, and Apple is said to have addressed criticisms that iOS 7 and 8 made them slower. At least one security update that will make jail breaking more difficult is also reportedly in the works.

In keeping with its love of consistency, Apple will reportedly retool the entire iOS interface with its new San Francisco typeface. San Francisco debuted with the Apple Watch and was designed for high-density LCD screens. At least one other specific touch has been reported - a new Siri screen with the colored waveform pattern first seen on Apple's smart watch.

Apple Maps could receive a major overhaul to further address criticisms that it still lacks functionality compared to Google Maps, but it isn't clear whether things such as public transport directions will be available for cities worldwide or remain a US-centric feature. Apple might even launch cross-platform Apple Maps apps.

OS X v10.11
Apple's desktop OS will most likely be given a formal name, and could also be overhauled with the new San Francisco typeface. It will likely absorb some of the same UI and app improvements as iOS. Apple could add a Control Centre panel to OS X, with music playback controls, shortcuts, and quick toggles similar to the panel introduced in iOS 7.

Apple Watch OS
As the company's newest platform, the Apple Watch will undoubtedly be the subject of much attention. Apple is expected to give developers new tools to create native apps, and will give them improved access to the device's sensors and other capabilities.

Proactive
This fascinating rumor points to an overhauled iPhone assistant called Proactive, combining aspects of Spotlight search, Siri, push notifications, and new machine-learning capabilities to help draw causal relationships between bits of information such as calendar appointments, restaurant bookings, news clippings, contacts and map pins.

iMessage and keyboard
Apple's cross-device messaging protocol could receive minor usability enhancements such as per-contact read receipt toggles, improved sharing, and better synchronization. There will also be improvements to the stock iOS keyboard, such as a fix for the persistent UI ambiguity presented by the Shift key.

Hardware
If Apple uses its June WWDC event to talk about hardware, it is usually with the purpose of giving developers time to adapt to it so that there is wide support before new products go on sale. Initial rumors that a completely overhauled Apple TV with its own App Store, Siri integration and a touchpad remote would launch have now been quashed, though there might be some announcements related to a future launch. On the other hand, Apple might highlight third-party devices that tie in to its Home Kit automation platform.

Another product that Apple is widely considered to be preparing is a 12-inch "iPad Plus". Apple might not specifically talk about it, but there could be mentions of split-screen multitasking and multi-user support for iPads in general, which would be most useful on such a device.

Apple debuted a non-clickable Force Touch track pad with its ultrathin MacBook earlier this year, and has since updated the MacBook Pro line to include it as well. The upcoming iPhone 6 successor is also purported to have an equivalent pressure-sensing touchscreen. Apple might not disclose anything concrete, but could still give developers hints and tools to start creating apps that would take advantage of this new functionality.

Xiaomi Launches 16000mAh and 5000mAh Mi Power Banks in India

2015-05-31T17:24:00.000+05:30

Xiaomi India on Thursday launched its 16000mAh power bank and 5000mAh Mi Power Bank portable chargers, priced at Rs. 1,399 and Rs. 699 respectively. The power banks will go on sale from June 9.

Announced via the company's Facebook page, the power banks feature anodised aluminium finish like the ones seen in other power banks released by the firm. It is worth mentioning that Xiaomi introduced its 16000mAh Mi Bank in November last year in China.

Notably, the company started selling the 5000mAh Xiaomi Mi Power Bank via its Mi.com portal in US, UK, France, and Germany earlier this month. The firm already has a 5200mAh Mi Power Bank available to buy at a price tag of Rs. 799.

The 16000mAh power bank features two USB 2.0 ports, one Micro-USB port and gives 5.1V/3.6A max output. Measuring 145×60.4×22mm, the power bank weighs 350 grams and delivers a conversion rate of up to 93 percent. According to the company, the portable charger can offer 3.5 full charges for Xiaomi Redmi Note 4G, which is backed by a 3100mAh battery.

The 5000mAh Mi Power Bank features one USB 2.0 port and one Micro-USB port. Measuring 125×69×9.9mm, the power bank weighs 156 grams and delivers a conversion rate same as the 16000mAh version. A per the company's claims, the portable charger can offer 5.1V/2.1A output and one full charge for Xiaomi Redmi Note 4G.

The company Facebook page also talks about a voting contest taking place on the company website. Users would have to vote for one of the two power banks, which they want to see going on sale first on June 9 - voting ends on Tuesday.

Earlier this month, Xiaomi launched the Mi 10000mAh Power Bank in China, a slimmer version of the firm's 10400mAh portable charger that was launched last year. The batteries housed inside the Xiaomi 10000mAh power bank are manufactured by LG and Panasonic, says the firm.

How to Download and Install Android M on Your Google Nexus Device

2015-05-31T17:13:00.001+05:30

Android M, the latest version of the world's most popular mobile operating system, was announced at Google I/O 2015 on Thursday. Android M is still some time away from being ready for rollout - the launch to consumers is expected in Q3 of this year - the preview version for developers is now available.

This version of the OS is not ready for most people and we strongly suggest that you do not try installing this on your primary device as there is a good chance that there are bugs to iron out at this stage. If you have a spare Nexus device that you want to try the Android M preview on, then you can go ahead and follow the steps described later in this article. Before you do that, it's vital to take a full backup of your Android smartphone.

Android M preview is currently available on just four devices - Google Nexus 5, Google Nexus 6, Google Nexus 9, and Google Nexus Player.

Here's how to manually download Android M preview and install it on your Google Nexus devices.

Download and install the latest Android Studio Preview on your Windows computer. This installs the ADB and Fastboot programmes, which can be accessed through the command terminal on your PC.
Add the SDK folder to the PATH by following these steps:
Right click My Computer and click on Properties.
Click on Advanced System Settings.
Click on System Properties > Advanced > Environment Variables.
In the Window, select Path, then click on Edit, and then type in the name of the directory where you installed the SDK, and remember that each entry is separated by a semi-colon.
Enable USB debugging on your device. First, go to Settings > About Phone > Software information.
Tap Build number seven times.
Go to Settings > Developer options. Tick USB debugging.

Download the correct factory image for your device.

Android M for Nexus 5

Android M for Nexus 6

Android M for Nexus 9

Android M for Nexus Player

Extract the image on your computer.
Connect your device to your computer over USB.
Start the device in fast boot mode.

The easiest way to do this is to hold a key combination while powering up the device. For Nexus 5, hold the volume up, volume down and power buttons while powering on the device. The full list of key combinations for different devices is here.

You can also boot into fast boot mode using the ADB tool: With the device powered on, go to the command terminal and execute the following: adb reboot bootloader

If needed, unlock the device's boot loader through your computer using the command terminal and executing: fast boot oem unlock

Open a command terminal and navigate to the unzipped system image directory.

Execute flash-all.bat, which was a part of the unzipped image file. This script installs the necessary boot loader, baseband firmware(s), and operating system. For this to work, you need to have added the folder where ADB and Fast boot are installed to the system's path as described in step 2.

When this is done, Google recommends that you lock the boot loader for security. You can do that by booting the device in fast boot mode while still connected via USB, and using the command terminal to execute: fast boot oem lock.

That will install Android M preview on your Nexus device. Android M will receive monthly OTA updates until the final version ships, according to a report, so you won't have to repeat this complicated process again. We still recommend that you just wait a while until the OTA update arrives on your device, unless you want to stay on the bleeding edge of smartphone OS development.

Android M: Top New Features in the Next Major Android Release

2015-05-29T16:28:00.002+05:30

Google on Thursday at its eighth I/O annual developers' conference, held at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, revealed the next version of Android operating system dubbed Android M alongside announcing a new standalone service called Google Photos, which will store photos and videos for free.

The Mountain View company also released the new Android M developer preview, just like how Android Lollipop was released as Android L at last year's I/O conference. Similarly, the official name of the new OS version will only be revealed at the time of the next Nexus device launch, expected in October. Google also stressed that for Android M, the company has focused on improving the core experience of Android and has made some changes to the fundamentals of the platform apart from fixing several bugs. During the Google I/O keynote, the company also revealed that this time it will provide a clear timeline for Android M Developer Preview for testing and feedback to the preview build.

Here are biggest changes to Android that Google has introduced with Android M.

App Permissions
One of the biggest additions that Android M brings to the Android platform is the revamped app permissions. The company, as rumoured previously, announced increased user control of app permissions in the M release. Android M also changes existing permissions system by breaking down user permissions into specific categories, and having apps ask the user for permission at the time access to a feature is required.

This changes how apps handle permissions, with apps now prompting requests for permissions when running, which means popups will flash in the right context and let users grant permissions for specific features. Additionally, users can manage all their app permissions in settings. The company has advised developers to design their apps in a way that they prompt permission requests in context, and even account for permissions that are not granted. "As more devices upgrade to M, app permission behavior will be a critical development flow to test," writes Google.

Now on Tap
With Android M, Google Now gets a major revamp with the Now on Tap feature. It brings a major overhaul to how Google can provide contextual information within an app itself. It works within any app and automatically searches the context present on the screen by just long pressing the home button.

The Now on Tap search (see below screenshot) is different from conventional search as it presents cards with data and actions. Google gives an example of a texting app where you receive a text from a friend asking about dinner at a new restaurant - now you can ask Google Now to search about the new place without leaving the app. The company wants developers to implement App Indexing for Google Search to let users discover and re-engage with apps through Now on Tap.

Web Experience
Google at I/O 2015 also revealed a new Chrome feature that will change the Web experience for Android users, called Chrome Custom Tabs. Instead of embedding a Web view in an app, developers can enable a Google Chrome overlay on top of the active app.

This overlay or Custom Tab will give users the convenience of Chrome's power and security along with their saved settings and passwords. The feature will become available on a stable version of Chrome for Android sometime in Q3 2015.

App Links
The next improvement in the latest Android M release is intended towards handling Web links. This means Google wants its OS to easily handle links between apps with its Android M release. Until now, clicking a link within an app prompted a popup message asking user to open it within the app or to open it in a Web browser. Instead, with Android M, developers can have the operating system verify whether a link should open within an app or open via a new one. Google details that developers can add an auto Verify attribute to their app manifest so that users can be linked deep into the native app without any disambiguation prompt.

Mobile Payments
Google was rumored to be working on its new Android Pay mobile payment system for a long time and the company made it official at the I/O conference. The company revealed that Android Pay was developed on its work with Near Field Communications (NFC) in Android Gingerbread (v2.3) and Host Card Emulation in Android KitKat (v4.4). Android Pay will allow users to pay via their Android smartphones in stores or even in Android Pay partner apps. The new system will securely store details of credit cards, loyalty cards, and other payment-related data on the device. Google did not reveal the timeline of Android Pay's roll out but said it would be available on Google Play for download soon.

Fingerprint Support

Fingerprint scanning technology on smartphones has been around for some time; though has been limited until now to select OEMs and their individual implementations. Google with its Android M release wants it to change and has added fingerprint APIs for developers to add into their apps. Google believes that native fingerprint support enhances the Android Pay feature that will allow users to confirm the purchase with their fingerprint. Apart from Android Pay, the feature will allow users to sign-in or authenticate themselves on apps, as well as on websites via Google Chrome.

Power Management
Every year we see Google coming up with a new feature in its latest Android release to improve upon battery usage. Last year it was Project Volta and this year Google is coming up with a new feature called Doze. The company believes that the new feature will make Android devices smart about managing power. With Android M release, the OS will realise via tracking motion detection whether the device has been left unattended for a while. Following this, Android will limit or 'exponentially' back off background activity of an app with the purpose of extending battery life. The best example of this can be the Twitter app which keeps on adding new tweets on top for the user to see only to use more data or Wi-Fi thus affecting the battery life. This will change with Android M.

New RAM manager
Google is also bringing a new RAM manager that will offer more details about memory usage than just readouts for running apps. The new RAM manager in the Android M Developer Preview will be available in Settings > Apps. The manager will now show users how much memory recent apps are eating up and will rate them "good" and "average". Much like before, it will show individual app information. This new feature will let users recognize the most memory-hungry apps installed on the system and can help them to get rid of them.

Adoptable Storage Devices
We already know that Google for several reasons forgoes an SD card slot for its Nexus range of devices. However, the Adoptable Storage Devices feature might be the first sign that Google is changing its strategy to add some more space into the device 'smartly.'

With Android M, Google is adding the Adoptable Storage Devices feature which will treat external storage devices such as SD cards as internal. In order to do this, Google wants you to format your micro SD card adding encryption which will make it only work on your device. The company will then let you use your micro SD card on stock Android devices either as a portable storage or an internal storage. If the latter, users can then choose to store apps, app data, and other data on the SD card. As for external storage devices like USB drives, the new feature will let users assign as portable storage, and use it with the native file manager and get notifications for quick actions on the drive.

New App Drawer
The Android M Developer Preview also brings redesigned app drawer. With Android M, the app drawer along with widget picker will scroll vertically instead of sideways in previous generations. The color design and icons looks similar to Android Lollipop.

Auto Backup and Restore for Apps
With Android M, Google will also be bringing what may be one of the most useful features for users often migrating between devices or formatting their smartphones - auto backup and restore for app data. With Android M, users will get their all apps backed up automatically to Google Drive - specifically settings and app data less than 25 MB in total.

The company confirmed that the automatic backups will occur every 24 hours and will not count towards the user's personal Drive storage share. Interestingly, the data of the app is uploaded to the user's Google Drive account after encryption. The feature would allow people signing into their Google account on new Android devices, or on a device after a factory reset, to recover all their app settings and app data once they reinstall their apps and sign-in.

USB Type-C Support
Google at I/O 2015 also announced that Android M will support USB Type-C ports. While this is great in terms of reversibility, and that with new Android devices with the port built-in users will never have to worry about which way their cable is facing, it also adds some other features. Since the standard allows for transfer of power, video, and audio in both directions, users can rely on just one port for their A/V needs, and, also charge other devices - this last was emphasized by Google at the announcement as well. With the new USB standard, users will also be able to charge their Android devices 3-5 times faster than earlier. Alongside, Android M will also get USB support for Midi devices.

Much like Android L, the new Android M Developer Preview includes an updated SDK with tools, system images for testing on the official Android emulator. It will be available for testing on Nexus 5, Nexus 6, Nexus 9, and Nexus Player devices.

2015-05-29T00:25:00.000+05:30

Nasa's New Horizons Spacecraft Sends Back Fresh Images of Pluto

2015-05-28T13:35:00.001+05:30

Nasa's New Horizons spacecraft, on way to meet Pluto, has taken fresh images of the mysterious planet that reveal more detail about its complex and high contrast surface.

The images were taken from just under 77 million kilo meters away, using the Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) on New Horizons.

"As New Horizons closes in on Pluto, it is transforming from a point of light to a planetary object of intense interest. We are in for an exciting ride for the next seven weeks," said Jim Green, Nasa's director of planetary Science.

Pluto rotates around its axis every 6.4 Earth days and these images show the variations in Pluto's surface features during its rotation.

A technique called image DE convolution sharpened the raw, unprocessed pictures beamed back to Earth.

"These new images show us that Pluto's differing faces are each distinct; likely hinting at what may be very complex surface geology or variations in surface composition from place to place," added Alan Stern, New Horizons' principal investigator.

These images also continue to support the hypothesis that Pluto has a polar cap whose extent varies with longitude.

The astronomers will be able to make a definitive determination of the polar bright region's iciness when they get compositional spectroscopy of that region in July.

The images New Horizons return will dramatically improve in coming weeks as the spacecraft speeds closer to its July 14 encounter with the Pluto system, covering about 750,000 miles per day.

Following a January 2006 launch, New Horizons is currently about 2.95 billion miles from home.

The spacecraft is healthy and all systems are operating normally.

Security Enthusiasts May Revive TrueCrypt Tool After Mysterious Shutdown

2014-05-30T16:43:00.003+05:30

A team of security experts may seek to restore and improve a popular computer encryption system after its developers mysteriously shut it down, claiming "unfixed security issues," a leader of the effort told Reuters on Thursday.

TrueCrypt, one of a number of programs that encrypt all of a user's hard drive, had gained popularity after fugitive former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden praised it and law enforcement officials complained of their inability to crack it.

The software's code has been publicly available for years, but its developers have not spoken publicly and their true identities are unclear. After Snowden's revelations, supporters contributed some $70,000 to an effort to verify the security of the code.

TrueCrypt had passed the earliest testing, so it shocked many technologists Wednesday when the TrueCrypt website announced it would discontinue encryption support and urged users to move to rival software.

"WARNING: Using TrueCrypt is not secure as it may contain unfixed security issues," the notice said."You should migrate any data encrypted by TrueCrypt to encrypted disks or virtual disk images."

Speculation has mounted over the cause of the reversal, with some suggesting that the developers had tired of the decade-long project and others guessing that U.S. authorities had demanded a back-door key from the programmers, as happened with anonymous email provider Lavabit.

As that debate raged Thursday, an audit team funded by the $70,000 was preparing to announce that it would continue its quest to determine the security of TrueCrypt and would seek to fix legal issues with the license to the code, said Matthew Green, a Johns Hopkins University cryptography professor helping lead the effort.

If the license issues are resolved, the group could continue to develop and improve the software, though Green said "we're not going to commit to a fork yet." A fork is a split in development, where code can be steered in a new direction.

God particle: What is the Higgs Particle and what it does?

2012-07-04T16:36:00.000+05:30

Scientists at the CERN research centre have found a new subatomic particle that could be the Higgs boson, the basic building block of the universe.

Joe Incandela, spokesman for one of the two teams hunting for the Higgs particle told an audience at CERN near Geneva: "This is a preliminary result, but we think it's very strong and very solid."

What is the Higgs Boson?

The Higgs is the last missing piece of the Standard Model, the theory that describes the basic building blocks of the universe. The other 11 particles predicted by the model have been found and finding the Higgs would validate the model. Ruling it out or finding something more exotic would force a rethink on how the universe is put together.

Scientists believe that in the first billionth of a second after the Big Bang, the universe was a gigantic soup of particles racing around at the speed of light without any mass to speak of. It was through their interaction with the Higgs field that they gained mass and eventually formed the universe.

The Higgs field is a theoretical and invisible energy field that pervades the whole cosmos. Some particles, like the photons that make up light, are not affected by it and therefore have no mass. Others are not so lucky and find it drags on them as porridge drags on a spoon.

Picture George Clooney (the particle) walking down a street with a gaggle of photographers (the Higgs field) clustered around him. An average guy on the same street (a photon) gets no attention from the paparazzi and gets on with his day. The Higgs particle is the signature of the field - an eyelash of one of the photographers.

The particle is theoretical, first posited in 1964 by six physicists, including Briton Peter Higgs.

The search for it only began in earnest in the 1980s, first in Fermilab's now mothballed Tevatron particle collider near Chicago and later in a similar machine at CERN, but most intensively since 2010 with the start-up of the European centre's Large Hadron Collider.

What is the Standard Model?

The Standard Model is to physics what the theory of evolution is to biology. It is the best explanation physicists have of how the building blocks of the universe are put together. It describes 12 fundamental particles, governed by four basic forces.

But the universe is a big place and the Standard Model only explains a small part of it. Scientists have spotted a gap between what we can see and what must be out there. That gap must be filled by something we don't fully understand, which they have dubbed 'dark matter'. Galaxies are also hurtling away from each other faster than the forces we know about suggest they should. This gap is filled by 'dark energy'. This poorly understood pair are believed to make up a whopping 96 percent of the mass and energy of the cosmos.

Confirming the Standard Model, or perhaps modifying it, would be a step towards the holy grail of physics - a 'theory of everything' that encompasses dark matter, dark energy and the force of gravity, which the Standard Model also does not explain. It could also shed light on even more esoteric ideas, such as the possibility of parallel universes.

CERN spokesman James Gillies has said that just as Albert Einstein's theories enveloped and built on the work of Isaac Newton, the work being done by the thousands of physicists at CERN has the potential to do the same to Einstein's work.

What is the Large Hadron Collider?

The Large Hadron Collider is the world's biggest and most powerful particle accelerator, a 27-km (17-mile) looped pipe that sits in a tunnel 100 metres underground on the Swiss/French border. It cost 3 billion euros to build.

Two beams of protons are fired in opposite directions around it before smashing into each other to create many millions of particle collisions every second in a recreation of the conditions a fraction of a second after the Big Bang, when the Higgs field is believed to have 'switched on'.

The vast amount of data produced is examined by banks of computers. Of all the trillions of collisions, very few are just right for revealing the Higgs particle. That makes the hunt for the Higgs slow, and progress incremental.

What is the Threshold for Proof?

To claim a discovery, scientists have set themselves a target for certainty that they call "5 sigma". This means that there is a probability of less than one in a million that their conclusions from the data harvested from the particle accelerator are the result of a statistical fluke.

The two teams hunting for the Higgs at CERN, called Atlas and CMS, now have twice the amount of data that allowed them to claim 'tantalising glimpses' of the Higgs at the end of last year and this could push their results beyond that threshold.

CERN experiments observe particle consistent with long-sought Higgs Boson

2012-07-04T16:34:00.002+05:30

Geneva: One of the two independent teams at the world's biggest atom smasher said today that it has found strong evidence of a new subatomic particle that looks like the one believed to give all matter in the universe size and shape.

Here's what CERN had to say on the development:

At a seminar held at CERN today as a curtain raiser to the year's major particle physics conference, ICHEP2012 in Melbourne, the ATLAS and CMS experiments presented their latest preliminary results in the search for the long sought Higgs particle. Both experiments observe a new particle in the mass region around 125-126 Gev

"We observe in our data clear signs of a new particle, at the level of 5 sigma, in the mass region around 126 GeV. The outstanding performance of the LHC and ATLAS and the huge efforts of many people have brought us to this exciting stage," said ATLAS experiment spokesperson Fabiola Gianotti, "but a little more time is needed to prepare these results for publication."

"The results are preliminary but the 5 sigma signal at around 125 GeV we're seeing is dramatic. This is indeed a new particle. We know it must be a boson and it's the heaviest boson ever found," said CMS experiment spokesperson Joe Incandela. "The implications are very significant and it is precisely for this reason that we must be extremely diligent in all of our studies and cross-checks."

"It's hard not to get excited by these results," said CERN Research Director Sergio Bertolucci. " We stated last year that in 2012 we would either find a new Higgs-like particle or exclude the existence of the Standard Model Higgs. With all the necessary caution, it looks to me that we are at a branching point: the observation of this new particle indicates the path for the future towards a more detailed understanding of what we're seeing in the data."

The results presented today are labelled preliminary. They are based on data collected in 2011 and 2012, with the 2012 data still under analysis. Publication of the analyses shown today is expected around the end of July. A more complete picture of today's observations will emerge later this year after the LHC provides the experiments with more data.

The next step will be to determine the precise nature of the particle and its significance for our understanding of the universe. Are its properties as expected for the long-sought Higgs boson, the final missing ingredient in the Standard Model of particle physics? Or is it something more exotic? The Standard Model describes the fundamental particles from which we, and every visible thing in the universe, are made, and the forces acting between them. All the matter that we can see, however, appears to be no more than about 4% of the total. A more exotic version of the Higgs particle could be a bridge to understanding the 96% of the universe that remains obscure.

"We have reached a milestone in our understanding of nature," said CERN Director General Rolf Heuer. "The discovery of a particle consistent with the Higgs boson opens the way to more detailed studies, requiring larger statistics, which will pin down the new particle's properties, and is likely to shed light on other mysteries of our universe."

Positive identification of the new particle's characteristics will take considerable time and data. But whatever form the Higgs particle takes, our knowledge of the fundamental structure of matter is about to take a major step forward.

A new particle could be Physics' Holy Grail

2012-07-04T16:33:00.000+05:30

Aspen (Colorado): Physicists working at CERN's Large Hadron Collider said today that they had discovered a new particle that looks for all the world like the Higgs boson, a long sought particle that is a key to understanding why elementary particles have mass and indeed to the existence of diversity and life in the universe.

"I think we have it," said Rolf Heuer, the Director General of CERN in an interview from his office outside of Geneva. His words signaled what is probably the beginning of the end of the longest most expensive manhunt in the history of science and, if scientists are lucky, could lead to a new understanding of how the universe began.

Dr Heuer and others said that it was too soon to know for sure whether the new particle, which weighs in at 125 billion electron volts, the heaviest subatomic particle yet, fits the simplest description given by the Standard Model, the theory that has ruled physics for the last half century, or whether it is an imposter, a single particle or even the first of many. The latter possibilities are particularly exciting to physicists since they could point the way to new deeper ideas, beyond the Standard Model, about the nature of reality.

Joe Incandela, of the University of California, Santa Barbara, and spokesperson for one of two groups reporting data, Wednesday called the discovery, " very, very significant. It's something that may, in the end, be one of the biggest observations of any new phenomena in our field in the last 30 or 40 years, going way back to the discovery of quarks, for example."

Here at the Aspen Center for Physics, a retreat for scientists that will celebrate its 50th birthday Saturday, bleary-eyed physicists watched their colleagues read off the results in a webcast from CERN. That was a scene that was duplicated in Melbourne, Australia, where physicists had gathered for a major conference, to Los Angeles to Chicago to Princeton, New York City, London, and beyond, everywhere that members of a curious species have dedicated their lives and fortunes to the search for their origins in a dark universe.

DMK protest against Tamil Nadu govt: Kanimozhi, Stalin court arrest, 50,000 party cadres to follow

2012-07-04T13:57:00.001+05:30

Chennai: Arterial roads in Chennai are blocked and traffic is being diverted in many places as DMK cadres are pouring out all over Tamil Nadu to court arrest as part of the opposition party's jail bharo or fill jails protest against what it calls the AIADMK's "repressive regime" and "political vendetta." Senior party leaders and about 50,000 DMK workers are reportedly protesting outside government offices in the state.

Here is this fast-developing story in 10 points:

1) DMK chief M Karunanidhi's son MK Stalin and daughter Kanimozhi have courted arrest. Kanimozhi, in a bright red sari, smiled and waved as she was led away in a bus by policewomen.

2) Kanimozhi, who is out on bail in the 2G case, has taken permission of the court to join the agitation from Saidapet. Stalin, who is the party treasurer, courted arrest in his constituency Kolathur.

3) Speaking after courting arrest, Ms Kanimozhi blamed the AIADMK for "indulging in vindictive politics from day one". "This is DMK's answer to AIADMK's vendetta politics. DMK leaders are being arrested without any proof. This is not a moment for soul searching by DMK. This is time for soul searching by the public and the press," she said.

4) Other senior leaders will court arrest too in 22 locations in Chennai. Former Union Minister Dayanidi Maran will court arrest outside Chennai's Ezhilagam.

5) Mr Karunanidhi, who is 90 and is not participating in the protests, has reportedly instructed all party leaders not to seek bail when they are arrested. They are all expected to be released by this evening.

6) Traffic has been thrown asunder. Three arterial roads - Panagal Building in Saidapet that connects the Airport and Guindy Industrial estate to Mount Road, the DMS complex almost in the heart of Mount Road and the Ezhilagam and War Memorial along Radhakrishnan Road or the Marina Beach Road - were blocked from 9 am till noon. Traffic movement is however slowly resuming here now. Traffic has been diverted at Chennai's Kamarajar Road, Greenways Road and RA Puram. Traffic disruptions are also being reported from Arcot Road, Rangarajapuram, Nandanam and Saidapet.

7) Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, the main target of the DMK's ire, is not in Chennai. She is away in Ooty.

8) Mr Karunanidhi said yesterday, "The "fill the jails" protest will be held in a great manner ... we are confident about it. The government is also confident about that." He added that around 50,000 party members had agreed to participate in the agitation that is being held to condemn the continuing arrests of former DMK ministers and other party members.

9) The last two years have been turbulent for the DMK. It lost the Assembly elections, key leaders like A Raja and Kanimozhi were put behind bars in the 2G case, and ever since the J Jayalalithaa-led AIADMK took over, many senior DMK leaders and hundreds of party workers have been put in jail on land grab charges.

10) The ruling AIADMK government denies the allegation of political vendetta made by the DMK and claims that all arrests have been made on the basis of genuine complaints.

US school puts itself up for sale on eBay

2012-07-03T16:23:00.000+05:30

Langhorne (Pennsylvania): Forget magazine drives and candy sales. A cash-strapped high school near Philadelphia hopes to raise money by auctioning itself on eBay.

The starting bid of just under $600,000 for Learning Center in Langhorne, Pa., is designed to offset steep budget cuts. A tongue-in-cheek listing describes the alternative school for at-risk teens as "pre-owned" and "slightly used."

The winner won't own the facility, which is part of the Neshaminy School District. But he or she will get a plethora of goodies, including a naming opportunity, a free large pizza, a personalized school coffee mug and the chance to deliver a speech at graduation

Learning Center Principal JoAnn Holland says she hopes the auction idea will draw the attention of a wealthy benefactor. Bidding ends Wednesday.

"I know it's crazy," Holland said in a statement. "But with the good The Learning Center does, it's crazier not to do it."

The idea came from recent graduate Casey Young, who knows a bit about unusual auctions: His dad, a writer, tried to sell their family on eBay in 2003. The ad was eventually yanked because the company prohibits selling human beings, but the stunt received a lot of publicity.

"We did it as a lark," father Steve Young told The Associated Press on Monday. "Casey seems to have turned this into something that will result in something positive."

Pope fires Slovak bishop in rare show of authority

2012-07-03T16:20:00.000+05:30

Vatican City: Pope Benedict XVI fired a 52-year-old Slovak bishop for apparently mismanaging his diocese in a rare show of papal power over bishops that could have implications for US sex abuse cases.

Usually when bishops run into trouble - either for alleged moral lapses or management problems - they are persuaded by the Vatican to resign. But Benedict has become increasingly willing to forcibly remove bishops who refuse to step down, sacking three others in the past year alone.

His willingness to do so raises questions about whether he would take the same measures against bishops who covered up for sexually abusive priests. So far he has In the most notable case to date, Benedict fired Bishop William Morris of Toowoomba, Australia, last year after he called for the church to consider ordaining women and married men.

He also removed a Congolese bishop for management problems in his diocese and an Italian one in May for similar reasons.

On Monday, the Vatican said Benedict had "relieved from pastoral care" Bishop Robert Bezak of Trnava, Slovakia.

No reason was given, but Italian news reports suggested administrative problems were to blame, and Slovak news reports quoted Bezak as saying he thought his criticism of his predecessor may have had a role.

Bishops normally hand in their resignation when they turn 75 years old, their customary retirement age.

The exercise of the pope's ability to fire a bishop has important implications, particularly concerning bishops who mishandle pedophile priests.

In the face of U.S. lawsuits seeking to hold the pope ultimately responsible for abusive priests, the Holy See has argued that bishops are largely masters of their dioceses and that the pope doesn't really control them.

The Vatican has thus sought to limit its own liability, arguing that the pope doesn't exercise sufficient control over the bishops to be held responsible for their bungled response to priests who rape children.

The ability of the pope to actively fire bishops, and not just passively accept their resignations, would seem to undercut the Vatican's argument of a hands-off pope.

"If the pope can fire a bishop, that implies he's their supervisor," said Nick Cafardi, a U.S. canon lawyer and former chairman of the U.S. bishops' lay review board that monitored clerical abuse. "This will invite more lawsuits attempting to sue the pope in American courts."

Jeffrey Anderson, who is seeking to hold the Holy See liable for a case of an abusive priest in Oregon, said the Vatican was trying to have it both ways.

"They will remove, using their canon laws and their own protocols, bishops, priests and clerics for any reasons - for theological or any other reasons - but when it comes to sexual misconduct, they never use those same standards," he said.

Even the most well-known case, that of Cardinal Bernard Law, ended when Law offered his resignation after the sex abuse scandal exploded in his Boston archdiocese 2002.

Law subsequently was named archpriest of one of the Vatican's basilicas in Rome, St. Mary Major.

That said, things may be changing: The Vatican's sex crimes prosecutor, Monsignor Charles Scicluna, warned in February that bishops could face possible church sanctions for malicious or fraudulent negligence if they fail to follow the Vatican's rules on handling sexually abusive priests.

katrina kaif hot pics

2012-07-03T16:02:00.000+05:30

Cost to protect US secrets doubles to over $11 billion

2012-07-03T15:54:00.000+05:30

Washington: The federal government spent more than $11 billion to protect its secrets last year, double the cost of classification a decade ago - and that is only the part it will reveal. The total does not include the costs incurred by the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency and other spy agencies, whose spending is - you guessed it - classified.

John P. Fitzpatrick, head of the Information Security Oversight Office, which oversees the government's classification effort and released the annual report, said that adding the excluded agencies would increase the spending total by "less than 20 percent." That suggests that the real total may be about $13 billion, more than the entire annual budget of the Environmental Protection Agency.

The costs include investigations of people applying for security clearances, equipment like safes and special computer gear, training for government personnel, and salaries for officials who review documents for classification and declassification.

Spending on secrecy has increased steadily for more than a decade, driven in part by the expanding counterterrorism programs after the 2001 terrorist attacks, but also by the continuing protection of cold war secrets dating back decades. The total cost for 2001 was $4.7 billion, the oversight office said.

The spending report, showing an increase of 12 percent from 2010, comes at a time of intense public debate over secrecy and leaks of classified information. Six prosecutions of government officials for disclosing classified information to the news media have occurred under the Obama administration, and two new leak investigations are under way.

The antisecrecy group WikiLeaks set off a furor in 2010 and 2011 by obtaining and releasing hundreds of thousands of confidential United States government documents, including diplomatic cables. Both Republican and Democratic leaders of the Congressional intelligence committees have denounced recent leaks to the news media for damaging national security and have called for a crackdown.

But some independent experts say the ballooning classification system is the problem, sweeping huge quantities of unremarkable information in along with genuinely important secrets.

Steven Aftergood, who directs the Project on Government Secrecy for the Federation of American Scientists, said the classification of the amounts spent by the intelligence agencies on classification, for example, was unnecessary.

"To me it illustrates the most important problem - namely that we are classifying far too much information," he said. "The credibility of the classification system is collapsing under the weight of bogus secrets."

Costs are driven up in part by the slow pace of declassification, which has slowed drastically since a push in the 1990s. Many documents from the 1960s remain classified, and agencies still regularly go to court to defend their secrecy in the face of Freedom of Information Act lawsuits.

In May, a judge ruled that the C.I.A. could continue to withhold from the public one of five volumes of its official history of the Bay of Pigs operation, in which the agency trained Cuban exiles to invade Cuba in 1961 in a disastrous attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro.

The C.I.A. has also spent years fighting lawsuits seeking the release of files on agency officials who oversaw an anti-Castro group that clashed publicly with Lee Harvey Oswald, the assassin of President John F. Kennedy.

But Mr. Fitzpatrick of the oversight office said there can be valid reasons for keeping decades-old secrets.

"Everything is more complicated than it seems," said Mr. Fitzpatrick, who worked in several intelligence agencies before taking his current position. "It could be the name of a source, a method of collection that's still in use, or an agreement with a foreign government that still needs to be protected."

Air India pilots end strike

2012-07-03T15:44:00.000+05:30

After 58 days, Air India pilots have finally ended their strike, soon after the Delhi High Court had asked all striking pilots to end their strike within 48 hours.

The court had also said that the 434 pilots on strike must submit letters to the management indicating their willingness to get back to work.

The Delhi High Court had asked the management to “sympathetically consider” reinstating the 101 pilots who had been sacked during the strike for calling in sick or not showing up to work.

The national carrier’s strike has cost the government close to Rs 600 crore.

Pilots are on strike because they believe their seniority and training is not being protected by the management. In 2007, Air India was merged with the domestic national carrier, Indian Airlines. Pilots from the former believe they are senior, and object to training offered to Indian Airlines pilots for the Boeing Dreamliner, for example.

Nitish gets senior BJP leader to switch sides, creating new stress-test for BJP

2012-07-03T12:55:00.000+05:30

Patna:

An important member of the BJP in Bihar has switched sides - he has joined Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal (United). Sanjay Jha was sworn into Mr Kumar's party at the chief minister's residence in Patna.

In the crossover lies a new pain-point for Mr Kumar's party and the BJP, which together run the Bihar government, but have been attacking each other lately. At the heart of their dispute lies Mr Kumar's hostile relations with BJP leader and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. Without naming him, Mr Kumar has ruled out supporting Mr Modi if the BJP decides to field him as its candidate for Prime Minister in 2014. Mr Kumar's party is an important member of the BJP-led coalition, the NDA.

Mr Jha, who joined the chief minister's party today was close to senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley and his party's Sushil Kumar Modi, who is the Deputy Chief Minister in Bihar. He was nominated by the BJP to the Bihar Legislative Council, and has in the past served as a mediator between the two ruling parties. BJP leaders worry that his move will be aped by several others within its ranks.

Mr Jha is widely expected to contest the Lok Sabha election in 2014 from Darbanga - the current MP from there is the BJP's Kirti Azad.

In a sign of their close ties, the chief minister visited Mr Jha's village of Araria Sangram three times in the last one year. Mr Jha has considerable weight among Brahmin voters in the state. Earlier this year, when he organised Bihar Diwas - a celebration of the state - in New Delhi, he did not invite any BJP leaders to the event. The event had only Bihar Chief Minister as speaker.

Tribunal rules against telcos in 3G roaming case

2012-07-03T12:53:00.000+05:30

A telecom tribunal on Tuesday ruled against telecom companies offering 3G roaming mobile services where they do not have a licence. The tribunal gave a split verdict where a judge termed spectrum sharing pacts within a single telecom circle among telecom operators as illegal.

The chairman of the Telecom Disputes Settlement Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT), Justice S.B. Sinha, said that the department of telecommunications (DoT) should send out fresh notices to the telecom operators, while another judge on the tribunal called for an immediate end to the pacts.

The tribunal has also asked the telcos to appeal to a higher court.
Leading operators like Bharti, Vodafone and Idea had entered into an agreement with one another to offer 3G mobile services in circles in which they could not succeed in getting spectrum in an auction held last year.
Following that, the DoT had issued notices to the telecom firms on December 23, directing them to stop their 3G roaming agreements with immediate effect as the pacts were illegal, and had sought their response within 24 hours. Similar notices had also been issued to Tata Teleservices and Aircel, which had also entered into similar agreements to offer services in six circles. However, the latter two operators have already discontinued the arrangement.
Following this, the telecom companies moved the tribunal.

The December 23 decision had come after the unanimous view of telecom regulator Trai, the law ministry and the DoT that such roaming agreement was in violation of the telecom licences. Even the sector regulator Trai had termed the existing agreement among operators for offering pan-India 3G services, despite not having spectrum in all the circles, as violation of licence norms, a charge rejected by the industry.

Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal, too, had ruled that such roaming agreements are in violation of license norms and the operators cannot be allowed to offer services like this.

5 reasons rupee may be back at 50/$ by March

2012-07-02T20:17:00.000+05:30

After posting its biggest percentage jump against the dollar in three years on Friday, the Indian currency was on Monday trading marginally higher at 55.57 to the dollar.

The rupee has lost 24.64 per cent against the dollar over the past year, and is on course to log its worst quarter in at least 17 years, Reuters data showed.

A ballooning current account deficit and the ongoing euro zone crisis is weighing heavily on the currency.

Rating agency Crisil, however, says there is a 66 per cent chance that the rupee will appreciate to around 50 per dollar by March-end 2013.

Here are five reasons it gives:

1. The key underlying assumptions, Crisil says, include the initiation of some domestic policy measures to revive growth, no further worsening of expectations of growth and inflation, and an easing of current account deficit due to softening of crude and commodity prices– all of which would improve investor appetite.

2. On the global front, some improvement in the Euro zone situation towards the first quarter of 2013 is assumed, Crisil says. These factors should improve investor sentiments and stimulate the return of capital inflows.
3. Crisil says an improved risk appetite of the foreign investors would lead them to consider the opportunity India offers, with assets in India being cheaper due to correction in prices and a sharply depreciated rupee.

4. The difference in growth rate that India maintains with the West and the other emerging markets, along with the new measures announced by the Reserve Bank on June 25 aimed at attracting foreign capital inflows will improve India’s chances.

5. The agency, however, has also warned that there was a 33 per cent chance that the local currency may settle at 55-57 levels by March 2013, assuming a status quo in domestic policy setting and no change in the euro zone problems, with the ongoing global turbulence continuing

Power slowly returns as US heat wave drags on

2012-07-02T15:14:00.000+05:30

Washington: Utility crews made slow progress on Monday in restoring electricity to millions of households amid a record-setting heat wave in the eastern United States that showed no sign of abating soon.

Temperatures shot back into the 100-degree Fahrenheit (38 Celsius) range in many areas on Sunday, prompting the National Weather Service to warn of the prospect of severe thunderstorms including large hail and damaging winds.

"Cities from St. Louis, Missouri, to Washington DC are forecast to approach or break daily record high temperatures for yet another day and there may be more all-time records broken," said AccuWeather, a private weather service.
Several million households made do without electricity two days after powerful thunderstorms knocked out power lines in nine states, notably in the mid-Atlantic region.

At least 14 people died in Friday's storms, according to US news media, in Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, Ohio, Kentucky and the District of Columbia.

Pepco, the utility that serves Washington and some of its suburbs, said it may be a full week before service is restored to all its customers by teams of linemen that included reinforcements from as far as Oklahoma and Florida.

"The devastation is extensive and while we expect to have the vast majority of customers restored by the end of day Friday, restoration for some customers may extend into the weekend," said Pepco regional president Thomas Graham.

The situation got so bad that neighbouring Canada has offered its helping hand, saying it was sending about 200 power restoration specialists to the Washington metropolitan area.

Canadian public utility Hydro One said the Canadians will start in the Washington, Baltimore and Virginia areas as early as Tuesday.

"Hydro One crews have a long standing history of assisting neighbouring utilities when help is needed the most, and this time is no exception," company vice president Len McMillan said in a statement.

Meanwhile, authorities in Washington put out a hyperthermia alert, saying the heat index -- which is the thermometer reading adjusted to take humidity into account -- in the afternoon was 101 F degrees.

"Cooling centers" remained opened in many urban areas as refuges for those -- notably the elderly -- unable to cope without air conditioning, and at least one major supermarket chain gave away free ice to all comers.

The District of Columbia's emergency management agency suggested going to a movie or a museum in order to beat the heat. "Bottom line is, stay (as) hydrated and cool as possible," it said on its Twitter feed.
In Baltimore, Maryland, the local Baltimore Gas and Electric utility said it had deployed 1,000 trucks to restore power to 306,000 customers in and around the major port city.

Storm debris was gone from major highways in the region, but downed branches and trees still littered secondary routes.

Responsible for the extreme early-summer weather has been a high pressure area parked over the southeastern United States -- the same slow-moving weather system blamed for a fatal wildfire in Colorado earlier in the week.

Firefighters supported by water bombers managed over the weekend to contain much of the Waldo Canyon inferno that killed three people, destroyed nearly 350 residences and left many hundreds homeless.

Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper, speaking on Sunday on CNN, said it felt as if the worst was over. "But we also know that Mother Nature will be fickle out here," he added. "We're keeping ourselves very alert."

President Barack Obama visited Colorado on Friday to see the devastation firsthand and to praise "the courage and determination and professionalism" of those fighting the flames.

life at munnar

2012-07-02T15:09:00.000+05:30

Munnar is a hill station in Kerala and in southern India. Munnar is located on the Western Ghats, situated in the Idukki.
The name Munnar is believed to mean "three rivers", referring to the town's strategic location at the confluence of the Madhurapuzha, Nallathanni and Kundaly rivers. The town has shared a strong cultural link with Tamil Nadu.

The Munnar town is in Kannan Devan Hills ( KDH ) Village in Devikulam taluk and is the largest panchayat in the Idukki district having an area measuring nearly 557 km².
The nearest major railway stations are at Ernakulam and Aluva (approximately 120 km by road). The nearest airport is Cochin International Airport, which is 140 km away.

Alternative route for Sethusamudram project not feasible: Government tells Supreme Court

2012-07-02T14:54:00.000+05:30

New Delhi: The government today told the Supreme Court that a high-level committee in its report has suggested that an alternative alignment other than the mythological Ram Sethu for the Sethusamudram project was not economically and ecologically feasible.

However, Solicitor General Rohinton Nariman submitted before a bench comprising justices H L Dattu and C K Prasad that the Union Cabinet was yet to consider and take a decision on the report prepared by the committee headed by eminent environmentalist R K Pachauri.

The bench gave the government eight weeks' time to apprise it about the future development of the project.

Nariman said that the Pachauri committee considered the issue of alternative alignment but concluded that it was not "economically and ecologically feasible".

In its report, the committee dealt with the issue of risk management and arrived at a finding that an oil spill would cause risk to the ecosystem.

The case relating to Ram Sethu came under judicial scrutiny due to a batch of petitions filed in the apex court against the ambitious Sethusamudram project, whose execution allegedly could damage the mythological bridge.

The Sethusamudram project is aimed at constructing a shorter navigational route around India's southern tip by breaching the mythological Ram Sethu, said to have been built by Lord Rama's army of monkeys and bears to the demon king Ravana's kingdom of Lanka.

As per the Sethusamudram project, the shipping channel is proposed to be 30 metres wide, 12 metres deep and 167 kilometres long.

UN designates Western Ghats as world heritage site

2012-07-02T14:51:00.000+05:30

New York: India's 1600-km long Western Ghats mountain chain, which has forests older than the Himalaya mountains, has been added to list of world heritage sites by the United Nations.

The Western Ghats mountain chain is recognised as one of the world's eight "hottest hotspots" of biological diversity. The chain's forests, which are older than the Himalaya mountains influence the Indian monsoon weather pattern.

The mountain chain, which starts at the border of Gujarat and Maharashtra and runs through the states of Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala ending at Kanyakumari, was added to the World Heritage list by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).

A historic opera house in Germany, a border town and its fortifications in Portugal, and 18 interconnected lakes in Chad are some other sites that have been added to the list.

The Margravial Opera House Bayreuth in Germany, which was built in the 18th century, is considered a masterpiece of Baroque theatre architecture. It is the only entirely preserved example of its type where an audience of 500 can experience Baroque court opera culture and acoustics authentically, as its auditorium retains its original materials.

The border town of Elvas and its fortifications in Portugal, was also added to the list, as the site represents the largest bulwarked dry ditch system in the world. While Elvas contains remains dating back to the 10th century, its fortification began when Portugal regained independence in 1640.

The World Heritage Committee meets once a year, and is responsible for the implementation of the UNESCO World Heritage Convention, which defines the kind of natural or cultural sites which can be considered for inscription on the World Heritage List.

Pakistan says Mumbai attackers were helped by 40 Indians: Report

2012-07-02T14:47:00.002+05:30

Islamabad: Days after terror suspect Zabiuddin Ansari's revelations about the Mumbai attacks being controlled and facilitated from Karachi, Pakistani authorities have claimed 40 Indian nationals were involved in the terrorist incident.

"Our information is that there were at least 40 Indian nationals who helped the attackers. We want India to come clean on this," an unnamed official of Pakistan's Foreign Office was quoted as saying by The Express Tribune.

Pakistan will "push" India to share details of the recent arrest of Ansari alias Abu Jundal when the Foreign Secretaries of the two countries meet in Delhi this week, the report said.

The two-day talks between the Foreign Secretaries, beginning on July 4, are expected to be dominated by Ansari's arrest and subsequent claims by Indian authorities, the report further said.

The Foreign Office official said Pakistan will ask India to share details of Ansari's arrest.

"India has yet not shared anything with us about this arrest," the official said.

Pakistan had been saying that the Mumbai attacks would not have been possible without help from Indian nationals, he claimed.

The official further claimed Indian authorities had "always been reluctant to give us the full picture" of the investigation into the Mumbai attacks.

"When a Pakistani judicial commission visited India to collect evidence, it was stopped from cross-examining the witnesses," he claimed.

Pakistan could take "decisive action" if it is provided details of the investigation, the official claimed.

"We cannot act on hearsay," he said.

Indian officials have maintained that an agreement finalised between Delhi and Islamabad before the commission's visit made it very clear that the panel would not be allowed to cross-examine witnesses.

Ansari, an Indian national, was arrested after being deported from Saudi Arabia.

Indian officials have said that Ansari was travelling on a Pakistani passport.

Ansari has confessed to investigators that he was in a control room in Karachi from where the 10 terrorists who carried out the Mumbai attacks were controlled, Home Minister P Chidambaram has said.

Pakistani authorities arrested seven suspects, including Lashkar-e-Taiba operations commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, after the Mumbai attacks but their trial has stalled for over a year now.

Revolt in Japan ruling party, government keeps majority

2012-07-02T14:46:00.002+05:30

Tokyo: Japanese political heavyweight Ichiro Ozawa, one of the key figures behind the ruling party's rise to power, led dozens of lawmakers out of the party on Monday, but the government will retain its majority in the powerful lower house of parliament.

Indeed, the departure of Mr Ozawa, 70, and his followers could put Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda in a better position to consolidate control on his fractious party and cut deals with the opposition, whose help he needs to pass laws since they control the upper house, which can block bills.

"I'm sure Noda has the champagne on ice. He'll be happy to see the back of Ozawa," said Jeffrey Kingston, director of Asia studies at Temple University's Japan campus.

"Ozawa has a lot of baggage and has just been a headache for the party and Noda in particular."

Mr Ozawa, known as the "Shadow Shogun" for his backroom deals, and his followers quit over a plan to double the sales tax to 10 per cent in three years.
The proposal, aimed at curbing ballooning public debt, was passed by parliament's lower house last week with the help of the opposition. But 57 lawmakers in Mr Noda's Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) voted against it, with 15 others abstaining or absent.

Forty lower house members and 12 in the upper chamber - many of them rookies - will resign from the DPJ, an aide told reporters. That would bring down the ruling party's numbers in the 480-member lower house to 249 from 289.

However, Kyodo news agency said later the number had been revised to 50 in total after two lower house MPs said they would not leave the party.

Mr Ozawa, whose smaller party merged with the then-opposition Democrats in 2003, has argued the planned tax hike violates campaign pledges made when the Democrats swept to power three years ago, promising to curb the powerful bureaucracy and cut wasteful spending before raising taxes.

Many people are also wary of raising the tax at a time when Japan's recovery from last year's triple blow of a big earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis is not yet assured.

But Mr Noda, a former finance minister, has insisted it is vital to get Japan's fiscal house in order and find ways to fund the bulging social welfare costs of a fast-ageing population.

"Noda said he risked his political career to raise the sales tax hike, so he did. His message was that he didn't really care about the party more than he cared about raising the sales tax," said Koichi Haji, chief economist at NLI Research Institute.

"I think the (main opposition) Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) will cooperate in passing through the sales tax hike bills and other budget-related bills through parliament," he added. "This is a positive step forward."

OZAWA'S CLOUT FADING

Japan has suffered a string of credit downgrades in the past two years largely because of its failure to make progress in tackling its debt, already twice its annual economic output and the worst among advanced industrialised countries.

So the tax plan's approval in the lower house marks a milestone for a nation long trapped in a cycle of revolving-door governments and policy gridlock.

Mr Ozawa's defection could well make it easier for Mr Noda to cooperate with the LDP and its one-time partner, the New Komeito party, in getting the legislation through the upper house.

"We can keep the main scenario that tax and social security reform bills will be cleared at the upper house as well," said Kyohei Morita, chief economist at Barclays Securities Japan.

Mr Ozawa, a strategist and master of backroom deals during his four-decade political career, has long been a paradox.

Fans have seen him as a reformer for advocating a bigger global role for Japan and the reduction of bureaucrats' control over policies. Critics paint him as an old-style schemer.

Mr Ozawa was a rising star in the LDP before he bolted in 1993, setting off a chain reaction that briefly ousted the conservative party. He then devoted the next two decades to creating a viable alternative.

But he has suffered setbacks in recent years, including being forced to resign as DPJ leader over a funding scandal before its historic victory in 2009, a win some credited him with orchestrating. He then lost a party leadership race in 2010 and last year, his favoured candidate was defeated by Mr Noda.

Many analysts see his influence now waning, one reason being a generational shift in political circles and voter distaste for the old style politics he came to symbolise.

"Ozawa knows what people want to hear ... (but) it's a popular message by an unpopular man," Mr Kingston said.