Google Recognises Palestine

Internet search behemoth Google has recognised Palestine’s upgraded United Nations status, placing the name “Palestine” on its search engine instead of “Palestinian Territories,” the US company said, raising the ire of Israel. The domain name www.google.ps, Google’s search engine for the territories, now brings up a homepage with “Palestine” written underneath the Google logo.

In November last year the UN general assembly upgraded Palestine to the status of non-member observer state by a vote of 138 votes in favour, 9 against and 41 abstentions.

Palestinian authorities have since begun to use the “State of Palestine” in diplomatic correspondence and issued official stamps for the purpose. The google recognition took effect this week, Google spokesman Nathan Tyler said in a statement :: Read the full article »»»»

Australian Scientists Bring EXTINCT Gastric Brooding Frog Back From Extinction

A frog that can swallow its eggs, brood its young in its gut and give birth through its mouth. The gastric Brooding Frog has been extinct for more than 30 years ago, but the extraordinary amphibian is about to be un-extinct.

In a world first, a team of Australian scientists has taken the first major step in bringing it back to life. They have successfully reactivated its DNA and produced a viable embryo.

The scientists located a frozen carcasses and have been able to recover tissue from the Gastric Brooding Frog. Using a technique known as SCNT, somatic cell nuclear transfer – creating a clone embryo with a donor nucleus – they implanted the long-dead cell nucleus from the extinct species into a fresh egg from related frog :: Read the full article »»»»

Europeans Fine Microsoft $700 Million Over Lack of Browser Choice

The technology behemoth that is Microsoft has been fined more than $AU700 million for failing to offer it’s OS users a choice of different internet browsers in Europe.

The company was found to have breached its own 2009 commitment to introduce a pop-up screen offering users a choice of browser, rather than just Internet Explorer. The pop-up was introduced as part of an earlier European Union competition case, but was dropped in a Windows 7 update in early 2011.

Microsoft claims the omission was simply the result of a “technical error”. The tech-behemoth was fined 561 million euros – $AU711 million – taking the total cost of its regulatory troubles in Europe to 2.15 billion euros – $AU2.75 billion – since 2002.

The European Commission, which acts as competition regulator across the 27-member European Union, said it found Microsoft broke its undertaking between May 2011 and July 2012. The Commission said it takes such settlement commitments very seriously :: Read the full article »»»»

Manning’s First Day in Court

Last weekend marked Bradley Manning’s 1,oooth day of incarceration, today was his second day in court, truly a week of milestones.

Without trial and gagged since May 2010, the US Army private is accused of providing secret documents to WikiLeaks, and today he finally got his day in court – well first day – he also managed to squeeze out a few words.

Manning pleaded guilty to 10 charges of misusing classified material he felt “should become public,” he has however denied a dozen charges of aiding the enemy.

Private First Class Bradley Manning, 25, entered a guilty pleas at today’s pre-trial hearing, prior to his court martial, which is set to begin on June 3, in a case that centres on the biggest leak of government secrets in US history.

In September last year, Manning’s attorneys filed a motion to dismiss all charges with prejudice, arguing that Manning has been unable to obtain a speedy trial. The motion claimed that the then 845 days he’d spent in pre-trial incarceration was much longer than periods that the Court of Appeals had previously found to be facially unreasonable. The U.S. military requires a trial within 120 days :: Read the full article »»»»

UPDATED! PRISONER X

A suicide …or was it a murder? It was certainly never officially reported! UPDATE! 16 February 2013: Claims that suspected Australian Mossad operative Ben Zygier was secretly jailed before his death in prison have brought to a head years of resentment at the way Israel’s security services use court gag orders to suppress sensitive information from the media.

As the world now knows, the Prisoner X case was the subject of a court order issued in 2010 that was extreme. There was to be no public discussion, mention or hint of ‘Prisoner X’, ‘Mister X’, ‘cell number 15 in Ayalon Prison’, the conditions there or ‘anything about that cell’. The judge also ruled that any mention or hint of the very existence of the gag order was an offence.

My sources told me that it was “all hands on deck” for Mossad and Israel’s internal security service Shin Bet. Their intelligence had told them that the mainstream Israeli media would most likely grudgingly abide by the court gag order, and that the main task for censors would be to “pull down” the work of bloggers who would be posting links to our story.

It did not work out quite like that.

Minutes before the program aired in Australia on Tuesday night, Israel’s Haaretz newspaper defied authorities by posting the Foreign Correspondent promo on its website. The prime minister’s office reacted immediately :: Read the full article »»»»

Rare Photograph of Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Unearthed

A rare photograph showing the mushroom cloud from the Hiroshima atomic bombing in two distinct parts, one above the other, has been discovered in the city. The black-and-white picture is believed to have been taken about half-an-hour after the bombing on August 6, 1945, around 10 kilometres east of the hypocentre.

“The existence of this shot was always known in history books, but this is the first time that the actual print has been discovered,” a curator at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum said. ”A shot showing the mushroom cloud split into two like this is very rare.”

The photo was found among articles related to the atomic bombing now owned by Honkawa Elementary School in Hiroshima city.

The best-known photographs of the aftermath of the bombing were taken from the air by the US military. An American B-29 bomber the Enola Gay dropped the atomic bomb nicknamed Little Boy, turning the western Japanese city into a nuclear inferno and killing an estimated 140,000 in the final chapter of World War II.

Three days later another atomic bomb – Fat Man – was dropped on the city of Nagasaki, claiming the lives of another 70,000.

source: afp