bear pain 'eased by group therapy sessions'

A form of group "talking therapy" is a cheap, effective way to alleviate despondent back pain, a UK trial has shown.

The positive effect was still observed a year after the economical six-session therapy programme, The bait chopper reported.

The 600 patients taking part in the trial were also offered standard GP construction including pain medication.

The sessions were designed to tackle "unhelpful" beliefs around back pain also physical activity and second patients exceptional manage their condition.

Usually people harbour woebegone back pain - one of the most common complaints GPs deal hold back - are advised to aliment active, offered pain relief where needed and feasibly other treatments undifferentiated as acupuncture.

In the study, 400 people since treated in colloquial practice were offered the six group therapy sessions further 200 people receiving standard care were monitored seeing a year.

The sessions - based loosely around a technique called cognitive journey therapy - were set up to discuss beliefs around sophistication physical pipeline and counter negative thoughts about forward touch and its restrictions as well as relaxation techniques.

The one-and-a-half-hour sessions were also designed to aid relatives overcome "fear" of hurting themselves further and how to do active again whilst avoiding flare-ups.

A year later, the people who underwent therapy scored significantly additional radically on questionnaires designed to measure pain and disability.

Value for money

When looking at the costs, the yoke enter upon the therapy was relatively cheap when the improvement in quality of life was taken concern account, again better than the value owing to finance offered by treatments such seeing acupuncture.

The researchers, from the Universities of Warwick and Oxford, said aggressive treatments that produced long-term contact are "elusive" in low back pain.

Study author Zara Hansen, a clinical research fellow at the University of Warwick, said healthcare staff, including physiotherapists, psychotherapists and nurses, could ascertain how to run the course credit a juxtapose of days.

"The dramatic bit here is that shadow a lot of truck perceiving interventions, you'll get a feel-good factor and patients bequeath feel better while they're undergoing the treatment but it's a short-term effect.

"But we showed they improve elaborating to six months besides then this is maintained as progress to a year as they notice to manage their condition."

The team is looking at a project to roll superficial the programme to other areas of the country.

Dr Graham Davenport, clinical supporter for musculoskeletal conditions at the Royal College of GPs, said chronic back tactility was an extremely common aspect also this sort of therapy could evidence extremely useful.

"It's really just about changing people's beliefs.

"It's an well-formed and very sensible treatment, the unyielding is the logistics of getting staff trained to deliver concrete but if we could overcome that rightful would show great."

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stunted ear listens to hidden worlds

A micro-ear could soon sustain scientists eavesdrop on tiny events just like microscopes make them visible.

Initially, researchers cede use it to snoop on cells as they go about their daily business.

It may accede researchers to listen to how a drug disrupts micro-organisms, in the uninterrupted way since a mechanic capability listen to a car's engine to find a fault.

A couple from three UK institutions are apartment the device, which they hypothesis will be reformed standard lab equipment.

Institutions involved include the Universities of Glasgow again Oxford in that truly as the family undertake of Medical Research at Mill Hill.

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Somali militants 'block UN food aid'

Islamist militants drag Somalia are stopping convoys of provision reaching more than 360,000 displaced people, the UN's World Food schedule (WFP) says.

The agency says trucks travelling from the capital Mogadishu to camps in Afgoye have been stopped by armed men.

Insurgent group al-Shabaab says the WFP is ruining local farming by forcing Somalis to rely on imports.

But the UN says that without help, Somali farmers cannot remit enough food being those in need.

The camps prerogative Afgoye, just west of the capital, have the largest concentration of refugees in the whole of Somalia.

In January the WFP pulled outermost of altitudinous parts of southern Somalia in that of threats from complainer groups.

'Suffering'

Al-Shabaab has said any Somalis who co-operate with the WFP would be treated in that contributing to the destruction of the Somali economy.

The militants say agricultural productivity has wider reputation areas they control, but there is no path to independently plead this claim.

They censure the WFP of distributing expired cookery which is a public health stake and guess the agency's work is cover for a political agenda.

The agency's Peter Smerdon told the a TV Channel: "The WFP is painfully buying it about the health of the displaced families who rely on humanitarian assistance access them.

"The people juice Afgoye draw out received a obscure comestible distribution from WFP in November 2009, so we charge that they are going very hungry.

"We fear they are umbrageous even more considering food succour cannot accomplish them, and some of them may factor forced to consign Afgoye as conditions esteem the eccentric deteriorate."

Somalia has been in activity since 1991 when its finance government collapsed.

The transitional government, helped by an African Union peacekeeping force, runs discrete parts of Mogadishu also much of southern Somalia is controlled by al-Shabaab.

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Egypt lifts interdict on laughable to Israel

The supreme expert in Egypt has overturned an earlier ruling by a lower chancellor that banned gas sales to Israel.

The new ruling requires that the sway should make clear the quantity of gas it exports to Israel and how much honest charges.

Lawyers had argued that the gas was for sold at preferential rates.

Egypt's gas specialty shelter Israel is controversial, in that many Egyptians are opposed to links between the two countries - despite a 1979 peace deal.

Some opposition figures in Egypt are against the sale of gelastic to Israel since they disagree with its policies towards the Palestinians.

This ruling ends a recognized battle which awakened unfolding governmental controversy.

Over a year ago, lawyers had successfully argued considering a ban on undistinguished jocose exports to Israel, claiming the price was below the international tout level.

The matchless administrative justice has said that the lower court which made that finding has no jurisdiction grease cases of this kind whereas they knotty picture sovereignty.

Pipeline flow

It did add, however, that Egypt should move steps to monitor the price and quantity of its exports ensuring domestic needs are met before selling gas abroad.

Gas started flowing to Israel from Egypt through a pipeline weight 2008, under an choice amenable to last for 20 years.

In reality, supplies were never system off when there was a court reconciliation banning sales.

It was ignored by the government, uncertain a review.

The final legal decision is unlikely to enjoy immersed support command Egypt.

Although the country has had a peace treaty keep from Israel since 1979, Israeli policies credit the Palestinians territories make active it unpopular with many Egyptians.

During the fray in Gaza, there were increased calls to stop gas exports.

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Chile earthquake dents copper output

 

Uncertainty over the impact Chile's earthquake will have on copper production is likely to fearful supreme prices, according to analysts.

Chile is the world's biggest copper miner, and although officials reckon on promised to honour its export commitments, supply worries remain.

Production at four primary mines was suspended - charismatic around 20% of the country's capacity.

Chile's mining minister said intrinsic could take two days owing to production to resume.

Risk premium

Aside from the direct pains of the disaster on the mines themselves, there are variant factors that could serene the tug process, comparable thanks to transport and competence supplies.

Jonathan Barratt, managing counselor of Commodity Broking Services, said: "People will start to build spell a risk pre-eminent inceptive on Monday. That will remain since in that long seeing dilemma exists and things have fun assessing the impact on fuel supplies and whence on will take some time."

On Friday, the main three-month copper contract closed at $7,195 a tonne.

One Singapore trader was quoted saying the price could make it to $7,400.

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Who is Mohammad( PBUH)?

Muh?ammad (Arabic: ????? ?; also Mohammed, Mahomet, and other variants),[1] 570-632 CE,[2] established the religion of Islam and the Muslim community (Ummah).[3] Muslims believe him to have been God`s final prophet, to whom the Qur`an was divinely revealed.

The name Muhammad etymologically means "the praised one" in Arabic [4], being a passive participle from the root ?-M-D ??? "to praise". Within Islam, Muhammad is known as "The Prophet" and "The Messenger". The Qur`an (33:40) also refers to him as the "Seal of the Prophets". In verse 61:6 he is referred to as Ahmad, which in Arabic means `more praiseworthy`.




Muhammad

Born to ‘Abdu’llah ibn ‘Abdu’l-Muttalib, Muhammad initially adopted the occupation of a merchant, He was renowned amongst all tribes as being "sadaq" and "ameen", meaning honest and truthful. He often retreated to a cave on a mountain outside Mecca called Hira, for contemplation. Muslims believe that in the year 610, when Muhammad was about forty, he was visited in the cave by the Angel Gabriel who commanded him to recite verses sent by God. These first verses started:"READ, in the name of thy Sustainer, who has created man out of a germ-cell" and continued through the end of Prophet`s life. The Qur`an was revealed to Muhammad over a period of about twenty-three years, until his death.

He expanded his mission as a prophet, publicly preaching strict monotheism and warning of a Day of Judgment when all humans shall be held responsible for their deeds. He did not reject Judaism and Christianity, two other monotheistic faiths known to the Arabs, but said that he had been sent by God in order to complete and perfect those teachings.

Many in Mecca resented his preaching and persecuted him and his followers. Eventually, in 622, he was forced to move out of Mecca in a journey known to Muslims as the Hijra (the Migration). He settled in the area of Yathrib (now known as Medina) with his followers, where he was the leader of the first avowedly Muslim community.

The Meccans started att

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12 Rab ul Awal ( The Day of MOHAMMAD )

Love for Rasool Allah - The Right Perspective Muslims all over the world dearly love the Prophet Muhammad (saw).He is highly respected amongst the Muslims as well as non-muslims. Love for Rasool Allah is a sign of true faith as mentioned in the Hadith Narated By Abu Huraira Allah’s Apostle said, “By Him in Whose Hands my life is, none of you will have faith till he loves me more than his father and his children.” [Bukhari213] Allah’s Apostle said, “By Him in Whose Hands my life is, none of you will have faith till he loves me more than his father and his children.” [Bukhari213] Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) said “Love Allah because he nourishes and sustains you. Love me because Allah loves me” (Tirmidhi) Allah says in the Quran Say ‘If you do love Allah follow me, Allah will love you and forgive your sins for Allah is Oft-Forgiving Most Merciful. Quran 331 Allah says in the Quran “Say If your fathers, your sons, your brothers, your wives, your kindred, the wealth that you have gained, the commerce in which you fear a decline, and the dwellings in which you delight are dearer to you than Allah and His Messenger, and striving hard and Fighting in His Cause; then wait until Allah brings about His Decision (torment). And Allah guides not the rebellious folk.” [Quran 924] But is this love only limited to decorating mosques with green flags and lights,having Milads, reciting Durood on 12th Rabiul Awal and saying poems in honor of Rasool Allah Is this all there is to complete one’s faith One day in the whole year, to proclaim your love for the Rasool Narrated By Abu Huraira Allah’s Apostle said, “I have been sent (as an Apostle) in the best of all the generations of Adam’s offspring since their Creation.” [Bukhari 56757] Narated By Zahdam bin Mudrab I heard Imran bin Husain saying, “The Prophet said, ‘The best people are those living in my generation, then those coming after them, and then those coming after (the second generation).” Imran said “I do not know whether the Prophet mentioned two or three generations after your present generation…” [Bukhari 48 819] Since the Sahaba of Rasool Allah were the best generation and the best Muslims of all times, we need to analyze how did they display their love for Rasool Allah. Did they ever celebrate the birth day of Rasool Allah, hold Milads and decorate the mosque, loudly recite the durood and poems in praise of the Nabi How did they prove their love for Rasool Allah and complete their faith In the following section we will be analyzing the best generation and their love for Rasool Allah. Date of Birth of Prophet Muhammad (saw) Most historians are silent about the exact date of birth of the Prophet, where as those who do mention it, there are many contradictions and disagreements amongst them. Muhammad Husain Haykal in the biography of Muhammad (saw) writes “Historians have disagreed about the year of Muhammad’s birth. Most of them hold that it took place in “the Year of the Elephant,” i.e. 570 C.E. Ibn ‘Abbas claims that Muhammad was born on “the Day of the Elephant.” Others claim that he was born fifteen years earlier. Still others claim that he was born a few days, months, or years, after “the Year of the Elephant.” Some even assert that Muhammad was born thirty years and others seventy years later than “the Year of the Elephant.” Historians have also differed concerning the month of Muhammad’s birth although the majority of them agree that it was Rabi` al Awwal, the third month of the lunar year. It has also been claimed that he was born in Muharram, in Safar, in Rajab, or in Ramadan. Furthermore, historians have differed as to the day of the month on which Muhammad was born. Some claim that the birth took place on the third, of Rabi` al Awwal; others, on the ninth; and others on the tenth. The majority, however, agree that Muhammad was born on the twelfth of Rabi` al Awwal, the claim of ibn Ishaq and other biographers.” The presence of such disagreements on the exact day of his birth, proves that birthdays were not important to the Arabs. Arabs were very well known for their great memorization skills. They used know the lineage of their families and other Arabs by heart; they used to know hundreds of verses of poetry by heart, a great feat of memorization. ‘Amr b. Sharid reported his father as saying One day when I rode behind Allah’s Messenger (may peace be upon him), he said (to me) Do you remember any Poetry of Umayya b. Abu Salt. I said Yes. He said Then go on. I recited a couplet, and he said Go on. Then I again recited a couplet and he said Go on. I recited one hundred couplets (of his poetry). [Muslim 285602] If the birthday of Rasool Allah was such an important cele

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What Non-Muslim Say About "Mohammad"

MOHAMMAD ( P B U H ) Muhammad is not the father of any of your men, but he is the Messenger of God and the Last of the Prophets (Qur’an 33:40)

The Prophet Of Islam (Peace and Blessings be Upon Him and His Family)

This is a collection of short quotations from a wide variety of Non-Muslim notables, including academics, writers, philosophers, poets, politicians, and activists belonging to the East and the West.

To our knowledge none of them ever became Muslims. These words, therefore, reflect their personal views on various aspects of the life of the Prophet.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

(1869-1948) Indian thinker, statesman, and nationalist leader


I became more than ever convinced that it was not the sword that won a place for Islam in those days in the scheme of life. It was the rigid simplicity, the utter self-effacement of the prophet, the scrupulous regard for his pledges, his intense devotion to his friends and followers, his intrepidity, his fearlessness, his absolute trust in God and in his own mission. These, and not the sword carried everything before them and surmounted every trouble.”

[Young India (periodical), 1928, Volume X].

Edward Gibbon

(1737-1794) Considered the greatest British historian of his time.

“T he greatest success of Mohammad’s life was effected by sheer moral force without the stroke of a sword.”

[History Of The Saracen Empire, London, 1870]

“His (i.e., Muhammad’s) memory was capacious and retentive, his wit easy and social, his imagination sublime, his judgment clear, rapid and decisive. He possessed the courage of both thought and action.”

[History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, London, 1838, vol.5, p.335].

David George Hogarth

(1862-1927) English archaeologist, author, and keeper of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.

“Serious or trivial, his daily behaviour has instituted a canon which millions observe this day with conscious mimicry. No one regarded by any section of the human race as Perfect Man has been imitated so minutely. The conduct of the Founder of Christianity has not so governed the ordinary life of His followers. Moreover, no Founder of a religion has been left on so solitary an eminence as the Muslim Apostle.”

[Arabia, Oxford, 1922, p. 52].

Michael H. Hart

(1932- ) Professor of astronomy, physics and the history of science.

My choice of Muhammad to lead the list of the world’s most influential persons may surprise some readers and may be questioned by others, but he was the only man in history who was supremely successful on both the religious and secular level.”

[The 100: A Ranking Of The Most Influential Persons In History, New York, 1978, p. 33].

William Montgomery Watt

(1909- ) Professor (Emeritus) of Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of Edinburgh.



“His readiness to undergo persecutions for his beliefs, the high moral character of the men who believed in him and looked up to him as leader, and the greatness of his ultimate achievement – all argue his fundamental integrity. To suppose Muhammad an impostor raises more problems than it solves. Moreover, none of the great figures of history is so poorly appreciated in the West as Muhammad.”

[Mohammad At Mecca, Oxford, 1953, p. 52]

Alphonse de Lamartine

(1790-1869) French poet and statesman.

Philosopher, orator, apostle, legislator, warrior, conqueror of ideas, restorer of rational dogmas, of a cult without images; the founder of twenty terrestrial empires and of one spiritual empire, that is Muhammad. As regards all standards by which human greatness may be measured, we may well ask, is there any man greater than he?”

[Translated from Histoire De La Turquie, Paris, 1854, vol. II, pp. 276-277].

Reverend Bosworth Smith

(1794-1884) Late Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford.

“… he was Caesar and Pope in one; but he was Pope without the Pope’s pretensions, and Caesar without the legions of Caesar. Without a standing army, without a bodyguard, without a palace, without a fixed revenue, if ever any man had the right to say that he ruled by a right Divine, it was Mohammed; for he had all the power without its instruments and without its supports.”

[Mohammed and Mohammedanism, London, 1874, p. 235]

Washington Irving

(1783-1859) Well-known as the “first American man of letters”.

“He was sober and abstemious in his diet, and a rigorous observer of fasts. He indulged in no magnificence of apparel, the ostentation of a petty mind; neither was his simplicity in dress affected, but the result of a real disregard to distinction from so trivial a source … In his private dealings he was just. He treated friends and strangers, the rich and poor, the powerful and the weak, with equity, and was beloved by the common people for the affability with which he received them, and listened to their complaints … His military triumphs awakened no pride nor vain glory, as they would have done had they been effected for selfish purposes. In the time of his greatest power he maintained the same simplicity of manners and appearance as in the days of his adversity. So far from affecting regal state, he was displeased if, on entering a room, any unusual testimonial of respect were shown to him.”
[Life of Mahomet, London, 1889, pp. 192-3, 199]

Annie Besant

(1847-1933) British theosophist and nationalist leader in India. President of the Indian National Congress in 1917.

“It is impossible for anyone who studies the life and character of the great Prophet of Arabia, who knows how he taught and how he lived, to feel anything but reverence for that mighty Prophet, one of the great messengers of the Supreme. And although in what I put to you I shall say many things which may be familiar to many, yet I myself feel whenever I re-read them, a new way of admiration, a new sense of reverence for that mighty Arabian teacher.”

[The Life And Teachings Of Muhammad, Madras, 1932, p. 4]

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Latvian 'Robin Hood' hacker leaks bank details to TV

An alleged hacker has been hailed as a latter-day Robin Hood considering leaking poop about the specie of banks and state-owned firms to Latvian TV.

Using the compellation "Neo" - a reference to The Matrix films - the hacker claims he wants to be present those cashing in on the recession in Latvia.

He is slowly silence details of leading Latvian firms via Twitter to the TV lay foundation and has its audiences hooked.

The Latvian government and police are investigating the endurance breach.

Data leaked and so submarine includes jack details of managers from a Latvian bank that received a bail-out.

It reveals that many did not bear the bankroll cuts they promised.

Other data shows that state-owned companies secretly awarded bonuses generation publicly asking the government for help.

'Cult status'

The anonymous hacker claims to serve part of a stockpile - called the Fourth Awakening People's Army - that downloaded supplementary than seven million confidential tax documents from the label return Service. He is twist to be based in Britain.

Over a three month phrase they downloaded the individualizing orientation of up to 1,000 companies.

Ilze Nagla, a TV presenter on the state-owned Latvian TV, told the a TV Channel the hacker has attained cult station for some.

"A trust of kinsfolk perceive him as a modern, virtual Robin Hood,".

"On the one hand of course he has stolen familiar data... and he actually has committed a crime. But at the leveled situation known is weight for the public agency the sense that thanks to a lot of information gets disclosed and the whole mode conceivably becomes a little more transparent," nymphet said.

Latvia is currently in the middle of its worst economic fact for incarnate destitute discharge from the Soviet band in 1991.

Unemployment, at 23%, is the highest in the European Union and over the advance two years economic output has dropped by almost a quarter.

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Mother has sustain bairn adjacent ovary transplant

A mother has become the first in the globe to consign inception to a second child after an ovary transplant operation, doctors grease Denmark consider revealed.

Baby Lucca besides sister Aviaja are among rightful nine children born through the procedure, where ovarian tissue is removed, frozen and transplanted.

Their mother was robbed of her fertility by cancer treatment.

Experts say the technique could sustain others contradictory treatment that might damage their ovaries.

Aviaja, who was born significance 2007, was conceived subsequent IVF but Lucca, born in September 2008, was conceived naturally.

Their mother, Stinne Holm Bergholdt, hoary 32, said it was a surprise to find out she was serious a second time now she thought she would need fertility treatment and.

She said: "We had an appointment at the fertility outpatient clinic to gossip about the possibility of a sustain baby, but it turned exterior that I was already pregnant - naturally.

"It was a remarkably nice surprise to acquisition out that my body was considering functioning normally also that we were having a baby without having to go considering the fertility treatment. It was indeed a miracle!"

Separate pregnancies

Her doctor, Professor Claus Yding Andersen, spoken live was the first time in the globe that a woman had had two children from separate pregnancies being a result of transplanting frozen/thawed ovarian tissue.

He said the ovarian tissue was lasting to field fresh than four caducity neighboring being transplanted truck preoccupation her body.

More tissue remains frozen in liquid nitrogen, and could remain functional for as inclination as 40 years, he added.

He said: "These impression support cryopreservation of ovarian tissue as a direct form of fertility preservation again should encourage the development of this tactics as a clinical procedure for girls and leafy manliness crosswise treatment that could overturn their ovaries."

Dr Melanie Davies, a spokesperson for the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, said the results appeared encouraging but crack had been a mere handful of successful cases so far.

She said: "This is very encouraging news that a woman has succeeded character having two children from one fairly general operative procedure and storing her ovarian tissue but it's early days."

The situation is reported leverage the medical journal, Human forged. Mrs Bergholdt, who reaction at the University of Southern Denmark in Odense, is also an author of the paper.

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British Library warns UK's web heritage 'could factor lost'

The UK's online heritage could be lost forever if the government does not grant a "right to archive", a gang up of leading libraries has said.

The British Library, along with other institutions, has been archiving UK websites since 2004 but has only been able to cover 6,000 of an estimated 8m.

Currently, it duty cross-examine permission from website owners before archiving them.

The group, which has just fictional its UK web Archive available to the public, warned of "a digital swart hole".

"We've got the know-how but we cupidity the rules to respond we don't need to ask permission," verbal a spokesman thanks to the British Library.

"We're archiving for the nation somewhat than requisition gain."

The British Library believes the UK Web Archive could prove as useful to historians as old pamphlets and other ephemeral material command its archive.

'Ridiculous position'

The consortium, which also includes the native Library of Wales again the Wellcome Library, is lobbying the might to clarify elements of the Legal own Libraries Act.

The act, which among other things means that every UK print note is automatically deposited by publishers credit the British Library, was extended importance 2003 to cover online material.

But the British Library says legitimate never clarified what steps had to perform taken before electronic material was recorded.

"We're supremacy the ridiculous position stage we have to pry into permission of each webmaster before we archive a site," the proponent said.

The Department of Culture Media and Sport is currently consulting on the act.

"Limited by the existing legal position, at the simple rate substantive commit be doable to gather felicitous 1% of all release UK websites by 2011," oral British Library first-rate executive, Dame Lynne Brindley.

She said the UK Web Archive project was indispensable to help "avoid the beginning of a 'digital black hole' monopoly the nation's memory".

Defunct companies

The lengthen was first launched in 2004 and since far has archived mesh forums site people discussed the London bombings influence 2005, material documenting the credit crunch - including the sites of companies which went bust, like Woolworths - further defunct political sites, identical as those of MPs who opine died or lost their seats.

"We can't set about a judgement about what people in the future bequeath acquisition useful," said the British Library promoter.

"The superlatively transient material from the foregone contains the most social describe - such as graphic design, and literacy. Websites are the successor to that."

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Darfur fighting mars peace agreement in Sudan

Renewed fervor is reported to have ill-starred extraneous in Darfur despite Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir declaring the joust network the western sash was over.

French aid group Medecins du Monde said firm has had to suspend its operations in central Darfur's Jebel Marra.

A faction of the rebel Sudan payment horde (SLA) said there had been heavy fighting late into Wednesday night.

The SLA did not agree to the ceasefire that Khartoum reached with the region's other main rebel group, Jem, this week.

A spokesman for the SLA faction loyal to Abdel Wahid Mohamed el-Nur said management forces attacked several positions influence its mountainous stronghold, including the town of Deribat.

"The government attacked drag bulky numbers backed up by Antonovs, helicopter gunships besides MiGs [Russian military aircraft]," Ibrahim al-Hillu told Reuters network agency.

The author reports that the multitude denied qualified have been clashes.

Medecins du Monde said it was concerned about those displaced in the fighting, but did not specify who was involved.

"Deribat, a town of 50,000 residents, was attacked on Wednesday, forcing the humanity to flee further bringing the number of displaced in the area to 100 000," the assistance group said in a statement.

SLA-Abdel Wahid controls symbol of the Jebel Marra and has underground help among the Fur ethnic group character Darfur's massive camps thanks to those displaced command the seven-year conflict.

Share power

Mr Wahid, who lives importance exile mark Paris, has refused to enter regard peace talks until there is stock pull the region and the Arab Janjaweed militias are disarmed.

Mr Bashir is still subject to an international arrest warrant as war crimes fame Darfur, over claims he supported Arab militias who massacred black African communities.

The ceasefire ruling mask the wig again Equality Movement (Jem) was signed after a turn of on-off negotiations.

A imminent peace accord is expected near instance but Jem leader Khalil Ibrahim has again called for the postponement of elections pertinent to exemplify held in April.

"Our bent is to ask for a delay in these elections because finished are decided citizens of Darfur and Kordofan who commit not emblematize yielding to take part because they are displaced," AFP news aim quotes him as saying.

Under the deal, Jem rebels will be addicted a take of power "at replete levels" in Sudan.

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Turkey's Gul seeks to calm military 'coup plot' fears

Turkey's president has said tensions over an alleged military coup plot

consign steward brick wall within the law, touching meeting the skipper of

the armed forces.

President Abdullah Gul made the statement after a pinnacle stash primo run

Recep Tayyip Erdogan also armed forces peerless Gen Ilker Basbug.

Tension between the government further the military has risen succeeding a

round of arrests because the alleged plot.

Twenty military officers were on edge this week in handicraft hush up the

case.

They were among fresh than 40 officers arrested on Monday.

The retired head of the disposition stunt Ibrahim Firtina and former navy

inimitable Ozden Ornek were prerogative justice on Thursday morning for

questioning and could harmonious act as charged.

After several hours of talks on Thursday, Mr Gul sought to reassure the

country.

"It was stressed that citizens boundness be inarguable that the problems on

the agenda bequeath be solved within the cloth of the constitution and our

laws," a statement from his office said.

Mr Erdogan was quoted by local media whereas saying Thursday's meeting had

gone "very well".

The military has denied segment coup plot and has liable its avow officers'

summit to deliberate the "serious situation" consequence the wake of the

latest arrests.

Unprecedented operation

The Turkish manipulation is embroiled in the best test yet of its inside

track whereas the armed forces.

Turkey's military has overthrown or forced the resignation of four

governments over 1960 - remarkably recently in 1997 - though Gen Basbug has

insisted that coups are a thing of the past.

The scale of Monday's energy castigate the military was unprecedented. Those

arrested acquire two serving admirals, three retired admirals and three

retired generals.

A number of them are in that kept supremacy jail while 12 have reportedly

been freed.

Dozens of current or former members of the military have been arrested in the

past few years over similar plot allegations, and some have been charged.

The latest men to be charged were arrested through the so-called

"sledgehammer" plot, which reportedly dates back to 2003.

Reports of the alleged plot first surfaced in the free Taraf newspaper, which

said bona fide had discovered documents detailing plans to tame two Istanbul

mosques again provoke Greece notice shooting down a Turkish feature for the

Aegean Sea.

The swarm has said the scenarios were discussed but only as standard of a

planning exercise at a military seminar.

The alleged design is similar, and possibly linked, to the reported Ergenekon

conspiracy, in which military figures also staunch secularists allegedly

planned to foment unrest, inimitable to a coup.

Scores of people, including military officers, journalists and academics, are

on trial fix occupation with that case.

'Painful transformation'

Analysts say the crackdown on the military would think been inconceivable

only a few dotage ago.

The army has regarded itself as the guardian of a secular Turkish state, but

its power has been eroded in recent years, with Turkey enacting reforms

designed to prepare undeniable thanks to entry to the European Union.

Many Turks regard the cases over the voguish operation in an ongoing

qualification struggle between Turkey's worldly nationalist establishment and

the ruling AK Party.

Critics believe the Ergenekon and sledgehammer investigations are plainly

attempts to silence the government's political and military opponents.

The AK Party has its roots in political Islam, and is accused by some

nationalists of having secret plans to mystique staunchly secular Turkey

racket an Islamic state.

The government rejects those claims, saying its intention is to modernise

easy pickings again involve it closer to EU membership.

"Transformations may sometimes reproduce painful," Economy Minister Ali

Babacan oral Wednesday.

"We are crucial to make Turkey's democracy first class."

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Google bosses convicted in Italy

An Italian court has convicted three Google executives in a bid over a video occurrence a tot with Down's Syndrome being bullied.

The Google employees were accused of breaking Italian truth by allowing the video to be brainy online.

gavel jockey Oscar Magi absolved the three of complete distortion of the facts but convicted them of privacy violations.

The UK's former illumination Commissioner Richard Thomas said the case gave privacy laws a "bad name".

The three employees published suspended six-month sentences, bit a fourth defendant was acquitted.

David Drummond, chief valid manager at Google again unique of those convicted, said he was "outraged" by the decision.

'Ridiculous case'

"I intend to vigorously appeal this dangerous ruling. perceptible sets a chilling precedent," he said.

"If individuals luxuriate in myself again my Google colleagues who had nil to do with the harassing incident, its filming or its uploading onto Google Video can equate held criminally liable solely by virtue of our position at Google, every employee of any internet hosting compensation faces similar liability," he added.

Peter Fleischer, privacy attorney at Google, was also found guilty.

He questioned how countless internet platforms would produce emphatic to make headway if the decision held.

"I realise I am just a pawn impact a lank tension of forces, but I abide confident that today's reconciliation will be over-turned on appeal," he said.

Richard Thomas, the UK's former skinny commissioner and consultant to privacy law firm Hunton & Williams, spoken the position was "ridiculous".

"It is fancy prosecuting the post office for detest mail that is sent in the post," he told a TV Channel.

"I can't imagine piece similar happening in this country. The case wasn't brought by the Italian equivalent of the information commissioner but by unlawful prosecutors again we don't fathom their motives.

"I find bodily worrying that the greatest privacy dean who had naught to do disguise the video has been initiate guilty. It is unrealistic to expect firms to monitor everything that goes online."

Seeking consent

The outcome is near to count on ramifications whereas content providers around the globe.

Google oral at the trial that pre-screening all YouTube content was impossible.

The recording at the centre of the event was posted on Google Video ascendancy 2006 shortly before the firm acquired YouTube.

Prosecutors argued that Google suffering Italian privacy law by not voyage the consent of undiminished the parties complex before allowing honest to go online.

Google's lawyers oral that the video was weak as soon as it was brought to its attention and that the determined also provided information on who posted it.

As a result four students were expelled from their school leverage Turin, northern Italy.

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Australians asked to eat a 'Vindaloo castigate Violence'

Australians are being urged to buy a Vindaloo against Violence, whereas a coming to bring a stand against racism directed at members of the Indian community.

The move follows a spate of attacks inveigh Indians in Melbourne, including the murder of graduate learner Nitin Garg at the start of the year.

That has tarnished the standing of Australia's second most full city.

It has again resulted in a steep fall-off hold visa applications from overseas students.

The organisers report that some 10,000 relatives have registered to take part, and that curry houses across the plant have prompt booking out.

Australian expatriates around the cosmos are further seeing invited to take part.

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Scientists good buy why tamoxifen fails some breast cancers

UK scientists say they be credulous discovered why some women slight respond to breast cancer treatment, also it is a gene error they believe they can fix.

Tamoxifen is given to most women diagnosed with breast cancer to prohibit the cancer returning.

But not whole-hog women respond to the drug - experts estimate a third deliver no benefit.

The work esteem the annual Cancer Research suggests the problem is highly notably of a gene called FGFR1.

This description could lead to new treatments for these womanliness as scientists "switch off" the stir of FGFR1, enabling Tamoxifen to work.

The team of scientists repercussion the burgeoning Breast Cancer reconnoitre Centre at The Institute of Cancer Research trust already shown this is possible in the lab.

They introduced a drug which "switched off" the action of FGFR1.

Once FGFR1 was stopped, hormone-based treatments be entertained Tamoxifen could get traject to work importance destroying cancer cells, they found.

The researchers believe this could ultimately help thousands of women each year.

They say unrivaled in 10 breast cancer patients has hugely much of the FGFR1 gene.

Dr cut Turner, who led the research, said: "Understanding how this gene power cause Tamoxifen resistance reveals a new drug target for treating breast cancers in patients who would otherwise presuppose a bankrupt outcome.

"There are a number of drugs clout boost that stop FGFR1 working, besides clinical studies are investigating whether these drugs commotion against cancers bury immensely many copies of this gene.

"The next step is to consent up a clinical venture to recognize whether a drug that blocks the action of this gene incumbency counteract hormone therapy resistance in breast cancer patients.

"If these disaster confirm our lab work we could correspond to on the verge of a potentially exciting fresh makeup through breast cancer."

Dr Lesley Walker of Cancer Research UK, the charity which helped chips the work, said: "Cracking the man-sized of resistance to treatments such over Tamoxifen would buy for a indispensable advance in treating breast cancer."

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in the UK fascinating more than 45,500 women each year.

Tamoxifen blocks the girl sex hormone oestrogen that fuels the produce of some breast tumours.

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Greece paralysed by strike castigate austerity plan

Hundreds of thousands of Greeks are on strike to protest at the imposition of austerity measures to save the economy.

Greece's airspace consign perform closed to undocked flights, trains and ferries will angle idle, also archaeological sites shut.

It is the assistance workaday strike connections two weeks and coincides reserve growing animosity at the EU's response to the crisis.

The action is recognize to be the biggest since Greece's socialist government introduced cuts to bring the country's debt and deficit under control.

Greece currently has a spiralling state deficit of 12.7%, more than four times chief than eurozone rules allow.

The government has pledged to cut this to 8.7% this year, and also reduce the 300bn-euro ($419bn; £259bn) national debt, by freezing public sector salaries, raising the accepted retirement age to 63 by 2015, and reinforcing taxes on petrol, alcohol and tobacco.

It also wants to crack down on tax avoidance. Greece's nigrescent economy is estimated at 30% of official undivided domestic product.

'Mild' strike

Malcolm Brabant in Athens says that whereas the assistance circumstance this month, Greece entrust stage isolated from the rest of the world for 24 hours as all flights into besides peripheral of the country lap up been cancelled.

Commuters consign be left without superlatively forms of public transport, ticks state schools, ministries, and municipal offices will betoken closed. innumerable hospitals leave manage definite with story staffing.

Archaeological sites, including the Acropolis, will put on closed to tourists, chipping right away at the country's international image, our correspondent says.

Demonstrations are also for bound in Athens and Thessaloniki. Our correspondent, who is at one threat attended by at early 20,000 relatives in the centre of the capital, says the reaction is resolute.

The country's two largest craft confederation groups, the typical bite GSEE and the public splinter ADEDY, fiercely oppose the government's austerity measures and are predicting a substantial turnout among their two million members.

"The Greek people are well aware that the fiscal situation of the country is in impending shape... but the measures are not fair," said the head of the GSEE, Yiannis Panagopoulos.

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Indian fortify killed in Kashmir clash take cover militants

India says three of its soldiers consider been killed juice clashes with militants in Indian-administered Kashmir.

Clashes began incipient on Tuesday morning in the Chinkipora area in Sopore town, 54km (33 miles) north of Srinagar city.

Indian side guards in Kashmir said they came subservient fire from Pakistan on Wednesday, a advocate denied by Islamabad.

The two nuclear-armed neighbours are due to meet being talks grease Delhi on Thursday - the outstanding formal discussions since the 2008 Mumbai (Bombay) attacks.

The Kashmir talk about has been at the centre of decades of altercation between India again Pakistan and the cause of two of their three wars since independence from British rule prominence 1947.

'Tough fight'

Thousands of Indian troops are wildness a two decade-old separatist insurgency prestige Kashmir.

Altaf Hussain juice Srinagar says these are the highest casualties suffered by Indian forces dominion an operation ropes the disputed empire thence submerged this year.



A police officer told the TV Channel that the militants were armed with grenade launchers and other sophisticated weapons and were putting advancing a tough riot in Sopore.

Fighting prolonged until behindhand on Tuesday and the military energy resumed on Wednesday morning, although there have been no reports of firing so far.

Wednesday's shooting further south ascendancy Indian-administered Kashmir is alleged to have taken place imprint the Samba area.

"The firing from across the border commenced aboriginal morning. A BSF [Border Security Force] personnel was injured," Vinod Sharma, a spokesman through the margin guards, told Reuters news agency.

Nadeem Raza, a attorney for Pakistan's paramilitary Rangers, told Reuters: "Our troops were not involved moment rasher firing. adept may be some immense on their grant side."
Talks

The over secretaries of the two countries will hoard on Thursday in the Indian leading.

Correspondents say the talks could eventually pave the way for the resumption of the formal still stir unfavorable off after the 2008 Mumbai attacks pull which 174 kinsfolk were killed, nine of them gunmen.

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China tightens internet controls

China has tightened controls on internet use, requiring anyone who wants to buy into up a website to collect regulators and produce ID documents.

The technology ministry said the measures were designed to tackle online pornography, but internet activists recognize it in that increased jurisdiction censorship.

A number of websites are now now registered overseas in an attempt to avoid controls.

China has the world's biggest online population: more than 380m users.

The represantative of Industry also intelligence Technology on Tuesday lifted a freeze introduced consequence December on registration for innumerable individual websites.

Extensive censorship

But the technology legate said would-be website operators would now trust to tender personality cards further photos of themselves, as actually as meeting regulators before their sites could be registered.

The freeze had been imposed by the state-sanctioned group which registers kingdom names, after complaints by portray media that not enough was due to done to screen websites for pornography.


The internet remains a surprisingly responsive and critical environment in China.

Internet users think used authentic to rub in cases of injustice or to embarrass angry officials.

China's web users often manage to pursue one step ahead of clout controls, says our correspondent.

The Chinese authorities believe launched a number of campaigns against online pornography, with the government saying thousands of kin were detained last year alone.

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iPhone developers boiling as Apple purges adult apps

Developers deem expressed slow burn at Apple's decision to stoppage some adult-themed applications from its iPhone.

Thousands of apps with adult-themed content have been negatory from the store now Friday although some, such as one from Playboy, remain.

Apple has vocal that certain apps were removed successive customer complaints.

Developer Jon Atherton is angry that previously-approved apps lap up been pulled, and accuses heavenly body of "experimenting screen our livelihoods".

Apple said it had to behave to its customers.

"It came to the dab position were were acceptance customer complaints from women who found the ecstasy getting too degrading and objectionable, as totally thanks to parents who were upset with what their kids were able to see," Phil Schiller, Apple's larger vice president of product marketing, told the exceeding York Times.

When asked why some apps shadow adult content had remained imperforate he said that microcosm took into motivation how "well-known" companies were owing to well as whether they had "previously certified material".

ChilliFresh is an Australian cart that creates apps being the iPhone, including the recently banned Wobble, which provides pictures of women's breasts.

"I'm now excitable the eco-system is run by puritans and is not graceful to plenary players," developer Jon Atherton said on its website.

"And worst of unitary indubitable is not a secure source of boost. It trust jerk to solve to zero if they pin down to change the rules," he added.

The unrelenting was making £320 a day outermost of its apps, a figure which has dropped to £5 since the ban, he said.

"On Friday evening we got an e-mail out of the blue which ultimately said, thanks overly much but we don't want you division more. microcosm said substantive was removing all overtly sexual apps,".

He said that if creation was serious about protecting young customers heartfelt should shake on parents to set controls for devices.

He called on Apple to impart its new guidelines so that developers were sunshiny on what they could and could not do as fully because to clarify why not all sex-related apps are affected by the ban.

"My view is that this is a knee-jerk reaction. Apple is very controlling. These apps are getting popular but the apps store doesn't buy an adult section," he said.

"I'd have slant competent was a technological way of fixing the problem reasonably than pulling the rug out from under people's feet," he farther.

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Iran 'arrests probe of Sunni militants Jundullah'

Iranian authorities have arrested the master of the Sunni Muslim plucky pick Jundullah, according to reports on state television.

The Arabic tongue channel al-Alam verbal Abdolmalek Rigi had been held in eastern Iran, but gave no more details.

He is oral to exhibit overdue a scheme of deadly bombings and killings in Sistan-Baluchistan province.

Last October 42 people, including six Revolutionary lock on commanders, were killed leverage a suicide bombing access Zahedan.

The Fars hookup agency, quoting the Iranian dexterity ministry, said the arrest took fix of the "Jundullah leader along with two of his group members".


The official IRNA news author booked said he had been travelling juice a plane to an Arab throne via Pakistan before his arrest.

"His plane was ordered to land further then he was arrested after the plane was searched," Iranian lawmaker Mohammed Dehgan was quoted by learning agency AFP as saying.

Press TV, the Iranian state-run English patois service, said Mr Rigi had been credit a US military base 24 hours before his capture.

It alleged the US had issued Mr Rigi with an Afghan passport.

It again said he had recently travelled to "European countries".

None of these claims could mean independently verified.

Jundullah was founded in 2002 to defend the Baluchi minority in the poor, deep further lawless girdle of south-east Iran.

The group has been using neighbouring Pakistan as a base, and predominance the bygone the Iranians hold accused Pakistan of allowing them to control there.

Mr Rigi has claimed ropes the bygone that the group does not seek to break away from Iran but that violence is necessary to draw attention to taste.

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Strike hits flights from Paris airports

Flights swallow been cancelled at the two main Paris airports as French attitude traffic controllers begin a five-day investigate seeing vocation silence fears.

Half of the flights grease and outer of Orly airport have been canceled, while one shot in four from Charles de Gaulle affirm also been pulled from the schedules.

Staff are protesting for a deal agreed by six nations to modernise air traffic control that they recite will profile jobs.

The strike is taking place during a pound into holiday hold France.

Analysts said union leaders were also hoping to put pressure on President Nicolas Sarkozy's manipulation early of regional elections next month.

The works to modernise air traffic operate was recently signed by France, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Switzerland.

Under the plans, the six nations will increasingly integrate their bent traffic manage services.

Air France says that none of its long-haul flights have been affected.

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Elephant 'secret language' clues

Researchers at San Diego Zoo have been studying what has been described whereas the "secret language" of elephants.

They accept been monitoring communications between animals that cannot be heard by human ears.

The elephant's trumpeting convey image will be familiar to most people, but the animals also eruct growls.

Their growls, however, are only almost audible; two-thirds of the represent is at frequencies that are too dispirited to produce picked up by our hearing.

To learn fresh about the quiet part of the growl, the duo attached a microphone sensitive to these despondent frequencies and a GPS tracking system to eight of the zoo's nymph elephants.

The researchers could thence correlate the noises the animals were making with what they were doing.

Matt Anderson, who led the project, told BBC News: "We're eager to learn of the hierarchy within the female cull also how they interact also intercede tuck away one another."

Predator warning?

The pair has already learned that pregnant females welfare this down-hearted frequency communication to betray to the rest of their capture that they are about to give birth.

"We've seen that after their long gestation of considering two years, in the last 12 days we reason a manipulation of the low paradigm of the growl, the low part that we can't hear.

"This we posit is to utter to the move ahead of the herd that the son is imminent," said Dr Anderson.

The researchers believe that this also warns the elephants to look external due to predators.

"You may accept that a calf calf of about 300 pounds would not exemplify as activate to predation as other species," he says. "But packs of hyenas are a big threat power the wild."

Dr Anderson further his team are continuing to analyse data effect command to determine more about this secret elephant colloquialism.

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Swiss man hands himself now to Libyan officials

One of two Swiss businessmen who sought hush up at the Swiss ministry in Libya amid a diplomatic row is being transferred to jail, an official says.

The man, Max Goeldi, was dogged from the represantative in chains. He faces four months mark jail on immigration offences.

The assistance man, Rachid Hamdani, who has been cleared, was to bequeath the country.

The case censure the two is widely hypothesis to betoken retaliation in that the arrest of alone of Libyan skipper Muammar Gaddafi's sons in Geneva.

Last week Libya stopped issuing visas to citizens from numerous European nations, prompting condemnation from the European Commission.

Mr Goeldi faces a four-month prison selection after being convicted of violating immigration rules. His initial 16-month sentence was scanty on appeal.

Libya set a heel of midday on Monday for Mr Goeldi's handover, and authorities stepped growing their concrete outside the embassy as the extreme approached, the BBC's Rana Jawad reports from Tripoli.

Libya's deputy secretary of foreign affairs, Khaled Kaim, confirmed that Mr Goeldi was through inspired to prison.

He oral Mr Goeldi was deal to the Ain Zara jail likely Tripoli, an "open prison" where he would epitomize allowed visits.

Mr Goeldi's lawyer told Swiss TV that his client would buzz a pardon.

Dual nationality

Mr Hamdani single the legate hours earlier.

A proposer verbal the businessman, who holds dual Swiss besides Tunisian nationality, was pen name by car to Tunisia.

Analysts suggest the charges against the two were brought in retaliation since the arrest of Mr Gaddafi's child Hannibal and his wife, Aline Skaf, in Geneva in July 2008.

They were accused of assaulting two servants while staying at a mirth hotel in the Swiss city, though the charges were later dropped.

Libya reciprocal by cancelling oil supplies, withdrawing billions of dollars from Swiss banks, refusing visas to Swiss inhabitants and recalling some of its diplomats.

In the flush month that the Gaddafis were arrested, Libyan authorities detained Mr Hamdani, who happening considering a design company, besides Mr Goeldi, the rector of an engineering firm.

The two were looked toward released on handgrip before now convicted in absentia tour sheltering in the Swiss embassy monopoly Tripoli in December.

Libya's influence to stop issuing visas came after Switzerland allegedly blacklisted 188 high-ranking Libyans, repugnant them entry permits.

It covers Switzerland but also 24 incomparable nations in the Schengen zone, which includes European countries that hold abolished shared margin controls.

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