Friday 22 June 2012

At last year’s Paris Air Show,

At last year’s Paris Air Show, some of the hottest aircraft were the autonomous unmanned helicopters—a few of them small enough to carry in one hand—that would allow military buyers to put a camera in the sky anywhere, anytime. Manufactured by major defense contractors, and ranging in design from a single-bladed camcopter to four-bladed multicopters, these drones were being sold as the future of warfare at prices in the tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
In May, at a different trade show, similar aircraft were once again the most buzzed-about items on display. But this wasn’t another exhibition of military hardware; instead, it was the Hobby Expo China in Beijing, where Chinese manufacturers demo their newest and coolest toys. Companies like Shenzhen-based DJI Innovations are selling drones with the same capability as the military ones, sometimes for less than $1,000. These Chinese firms, in turn, are competing with even cheaper drones created by amateurs around the world, who share their designs for free in communities online. It’s safe to say that drones are the first technology in history where the toy industry and hobbyists are beating the military-industrial complex at its own game.
Look up into America’s skies today and you might just see one of these drones: small, fully autonomous, and dirt-cheap. On any given weekend, someone’s probably flying a real-life drone not far from your own personal airspace. (They’re the ones looking at their laptops instead of their planes.) These personal drones can do everything that military drones can, aside from blow up stuff. Although they technically aren’t supposed to be used commercially in the US (they also must stay below 400 feet, within visual line of sight, and away from populated areas and airports), the FAA is planning to officially allow commercial use starting in 2015.
What are all these amateurs doing with their drones? Like the early personal computers, the main use at this point is experimentation—simple, geeky fun. But as personal drones become more sophisticated and reliable, practical applications are emerging. The film industry is already full of remotely piloted copters serving as camera platforms, with a longer reach than booms as well as cheaper and safer operations than manned helicopters. Some farmers now use drones for crop management, creating aerial maps to optimize water and fertilizer distribution. And there are countless scientific uses for drones, from watching algal blooms in the ocean to low-altitude measurement of the solar reflectivity of the Amazon rain forest. Others are using the craft for wildlife management, tracking endangered species and quietly mapping out nesting areas that are in need of protection.
To give a sense of the scale of the personal drone movement, DIY Drones—an online community that I founded in 2007 (more on that later)—has 26,000 members, who fly drones that they either assemble themselves or buy premade from dozens of companies that serve the amateur market. All told, there are probably around 1,000 new personal drones that take to the sky every month (3D Robotics, a company I cofounded, is shipping more than 100 ArduPilot Megas a week); that figure rivals the drone sales of the world’s top aerospace companies (in units, of course, not dollars). And the personal drone industry is growing much faster.
Why? The reason is the same as with every other digital technology: a Moore’s-law-style pace where performance regularly doubles while size and price plummet. In fact, the Moore’s law of drone technology is currently accelerating, thanks to the smartphone industry, which relies on the same components—sensors, optics, batteries, and embedded processors—all of them growing smaller and faster each year. Just as the 1970s saw the birth and rise of the personal computer, this decade will see the ascendance of the personal drone. We’re entering the Drone Age.

Tuesday 19 June 2012

Federal Cabinet stands dissolved: PPP

Federal Cabinet stands dissolved: PPP
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan People’s Party has convened its parliamentary party meeting for Wednesday in the wake of Yusuf Raza Gilani’s disqualification as Prime Minister by the Supreme Court today.
PPP General Secretary, Jehangir Badar, flanked by Qamar Zaman Kaira and Raja Pervez Ashraf, announced this while addressing a press conference here on Tuesday after the PPP held its Central Executive Committee.
When asked whether the Federal Cabinet still exists or not, Jehangir Badar confirmed that the Cabinet stood dissolved after the disqualification of Gilani. “Anywhere in the world wherever the PM is gone the Cabinet is gone,” he said.
Qamar Zaman Kaira said PPP has its reservations over the Supreme Court’s judgment, however, he advised the party workers to observe patience and not to engage in any sort of protest.
He said the PPP will decide its future course of action after holding consultations with its coalition partners.
Raja Pervez Ashraf said, the democratic process would continue without interruption and PPP would continue to play its positive role in the greater interest of the country.
He said the CEC authorized President Asif Ali Zardari to finalize as to what line of action PPP will follow in future. “He (President Zardari) will do everything that is in the interest of the country, its parliament and democracy,” he added.
Earlier today, the Supreme Court disqualified Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani as the prime minister with effect from April 26, 2012 in its verdict in NA Speaker’s ruling case.
“Yousuf Raza Gilani is disqualified from membership of parliament from April 26, the date of his conviction. He has also ceased to be the prime minister of Pakistan,” said chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry said.
“The Election Commission shall issue a notice of disqualification and the president is required to take necessary steps to ensure continuation of democratic process,” he added.


Read more: http://vusolutions.com/#ixzz1yGMt8Pxq

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Tuesday declared Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani ineligible to hold office, Express News reported. The court said that he had been ineligible since April 26.

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Tuesday declared Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani ineligible to hold office, Express News reported. The court said that he had been ineligible since April 26.
He has been declared ineligible to be prime minister ever since the verdict in the contempt case had been announced.
The Election Commission of Pakistan, following the court order, issued the notification of Gilani’s disqualification.
Gilani will not be a member of parliament following the verdict, and his name was also removed from the Press Information Department website.
“Yousaf Raza Gilani is disqualified from membership of parliament from April 26, the date of his conviction. He has also ceased to be the prime minister of Pakistan,” said Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, reading the order.
“The Election Commission shall issue a notice of disqualification and the president is required to take necessary steps to ensure continuation of democratic process,” he added.
(Read a copy of the short order here)
Express News reports that Gilani can appeal against the verdict within 30 days.
Former Election Commission secretary said that after the Supreme Court verdict, Gilani has been disqualified for five years, and added that he also cannot hold any official post in the party.
Khyber-Pakhtunkwa Assembly session was adjourned for five minutes in protest of the Supreme Court’s verdict.
Following the verdict, all federal cabinet ministers stopped using the security protocol assigned to them. National flags were also removed from their vehicles.
The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) also held a meeting after the verdict was announced, during which the party decided to accept the Supreme Court’s verdict.
‘No candidate from PML-N for PM post’
Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, while talking to the media, said that Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) will not present any candidate for the post of the prime minister.
He added that the Supreme Court gave this verdict in the petition filed by PML-N which demanded Gilani’s disqualification.
“If he [Gilani] had supported the Constitution and the judiciary, and had not protected a beneficiary of the NRO, then Pakistan would not have been seeing this day,” Sharif added.
Supreme Court hearing
Earlier, concluding his arguments in the Speaker’s ruling case, Attorney General Irfan Qadir said that the immunity provided to Gilani cannot be taken away anyone but the Parliament and that he was not answerable to any court.
Qadir was told to wrap up his arguments by 11am today.
Speaking before a three-member bench of the Supreme Court hearing the petitions filed against the speaker’s ruling in the prime minister contempt case, AG Qadir said that the petitions were being politicised and that the Supreme Court’s autonomy will be questioned if it hears such petitions.
The judicial bench observed that being an attorney general, Qadir should assist the court proceedings, rather than defending a party.
The attorney general also said that the contempt of court law was made in the colonial era when the sub-continent was operating under the British rule.
Earlier, Qadir had said that the judges who announced the verdict of the contempt case against Gilani were “more inclined towards disqualifying him” than deciding whether it was a contempt case or not.
He had said the parliament has the right to reject court’s decision if it decides against the Speaker’s ruling.
The attorney general had also presented a resolution of the parliament before the bench, which stated that the parliament had confidence in the speaker, Dr Fehmida Mirza’s decision.
Justice Khilji Arif Hussain had observed that the job of the court was to interpret law and that it will continue doing so “no matter what anyone thinks”.
The chief justice had said that the court respected the parliament and that they should do their job while the court does its own.
AG Qadir had said that if the court takes a decision against the Speaker’s ruling, then it will create a conflict between institutions. Justice Chaudhry replied saying that there is no conflict between institutions.
The attorney general had read out an article written by a judge of the Indian Supreme Court that stated that people are free to criticise the judges and discuss about them. Justice Arif had interrupted him and had said that he should discuss the case than wasting the court’s time.
The petitions, including those filed by PML-N and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), had challenged the speaker’s ruling and demanded prime minister’s disqualification after he was convicted of contempt by the apex court.

Thursday 14 June 2012

Yesterday we hosted a Startup Lab workshop on Google Analytics best p

Yesterday we hosted a Startup Lab workshop on Google Analytics best practices for our portfolio companies. Josh Knox, Google Analytics Global Operations Manager, recommended five steps on how to approach the tool: setting strategy, designing key actions, implementing tracking, refining data, and optimizing for insights.
  1. Setting strategy: stakeholders across business units should identify goals, set key performance indicators, and set targets. For example, a community site may want to create ongoing engagement around local events. A key performance indicator could then be visitor loyalty, measured by targeting a 50% rate for repeat visits.
  2. Designing key actions: businesses need to determine which website elements and actions need to be measured to capture the site’s performance. Key website actions include anything from form submission and checkout to search or social actions.
  3. Implementing tracking: the basic Google Analytics code snippet covers basic tracking for pageviews, geographic location, browser types, etc. However, richer tracking for events, e-commerce, or social plug-ins require additional integration. Spending the effort to set up goals and funnels can help you identify bottlenecks in your web flows.
  4. Refining data: this step focuses on ensuring data is clean and organized for processing. It involves confirming that all key actions have been tagged properly, thinking about account permissions, integrating dashboards with other Google products, and creating easy-to-consume reports.
  5. Optimizing insights: Lastly, there is the optimization piece that is usually forgotten. There are various features, such as custom alerts, dashboards, and multi-channel funnels, that can help reveal insights about your website.
Thanks to the over 30 portfolio companies who attended at the Startup Lab or remotely via livestream. Tomorrow we’ll be back at the Startup Lab to talk about “YouTube for Marketers” — if you’re at a portfolio company, please sign up to be reminded of upcoming events!

BISP’s Rs 70bn should be spent on electricity projects’

BISP’s Rs 70bn should be spent on electricity projects’
LAHORE: Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has said that the federal government should spend allocations like Rs 70 billion of the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) on electricity projects. 

Talking to a delegation of students from various educational institutions, at his Minar-e-Pakistan tent office, Shahbaz said that due to criminal negligence of corrupt and incapable rulers, Pakistan was facing a severe energy crisis, but the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), after coming into power, would steer the country out of darkness and towards an era of light and prosperity. 

He said the people of Punjab had given the PML-N an opportunity to serve them and “protecting their rights is our foremost duty and responsibility”. staff report

Man kills girlfriend over marriage refusal

Man kills girlfriend over marriage refusal
LAHORE: A 22-year-old employee of a private airline was killed and her uncle shot and injured by her boyfriend over refusal of a marriage proposal, in the Liaqatabad police precincts on Thursday.

The victim was identified as Rabia, a resident of Bhatti Colony, Liaqatabad. Victim’s brother, Shahbaz Ahmad, told the police that Raheel, a resident of Gujranwala, who works in a private cellular company, wanted to marry his sister. 

However, the family refused. The accused nursed a grudge and plotted to kill her. On the day of incident, as Rabia reached the doorstep of her house along with her uncle, Raheel came on a bike and opened fire on them. The injured were rushed to a hospital, where Rabia succumbed to her injuries, while the condition of her uncle is said to be critical. 

Muggers kill middle-aged man: Two muggers shot dead a 40-year-old man on offering resistance during a robbery bid in the Barki police limits.

The victim was identified as Majeed, a labourer by profession. Police said the victim was on his way home when two motorcyclists tried to mug him on gunpoint. Majeed offered resistance, on which the muggers shot him dead. The police removed the body to the morgue and registered a case. staff report

NA passes budget amid ruckus

ISLAMABAD: Amidst the rowdy scenes triggered by the opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), the National Assembly passed the federal budget for financial year 2012-13 by adopting amended finance bill 2012 in just 10 days of its presentation.

The PML-N up in arms against the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) government again created hullabaloo in the House and tried to intercept the proceedings by pointing out the quorum, however, government seemed well-prepared to foil the attempt of the opposition and succeeded in getting the budget passed in just 10 days on Thursday contrary to scheduled date of approval, which was June 24.

The opposition side also made the work of the government easy when it didn’t present cut motions, the prerogative of the opposition under parliamentary traditions and even persuaded the JUI-F to withdraw its cut motions. The opposition party looked in an aggressive mood, however, both sides refrained from engaging in physical brawl that happened at the time of the presentation.

The PPP also lined up some of its members in front of Federal Finance Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh as protective wall to stop the opposition members from approaching Shaikh.

However, the PML-N side kept taunting Sheikh when he presented the budget by dubbing him “crony of Musharraf and agent of IMF” and even tore apart the copies of the agenda of the House and threw it at the finance minister.

The floor of the hall in front of the speaker’s dice was littered with the torn copies of the agenda as the PML-N kept on throwing it at the finance minister.

The PML-N members lodged their protest in intervals as at the beginning of the session they tried to disrupt the proceedings by pointing out the quorum, which was completed. Later, the PML-N members stormed into the House and gathered before the dice of the speaker when the House took up the demands for grants and supplementary budget.

It, later, went out of the House after remaining and protesting for almost one hour. They again attempted to disrupt the proceedings by pointing out the quorum, which again failed when the treasury side was present in sizeable number in the House. Under the amended finance bill, the National Assembly speaker and Senate chairman have been entitled to enjoy suitable security on the government expense for the whole life. Earlier, the National Assembly approved all the 134 supplementary demands for grants and appropriation of over Rs 2 billion for the year 2011-12. It also approved 151 demands for grants of 40 ministries.

Following the approval of the budget and passage of the resolution, endorsing the ruling of the NA speaker on prime minister’s disqualification, the House was prorogued for indefinite period.

SLAMABAD: Experts speaking at a seminar held at Institute of Policy Studies here told the audience that Pakistan has ‘oil’ for 200 years - but in the form of coal. Coal becomes oil when the former is liquefied with the help of latest technology, they further said.

ISLAMABAD: Experts speaking at a seminar held at Institute of Policy Studies here told the audience that Pakistan has ‘oil’ for 200 years - but in the form of coal. Coal becomes oil when the former is liquefied with the help of latest technology, they further said. 

The seminar, titled “Energy Crisis and Coal Reserves in Pakistan: Potential, Problems and Prospects”, cited corruption, nepotism and poor governance as the main reasons behind the country’s failure in the energy sector. They called for drastic measures, such as focus on large-scale mechanised coal mining, to produce various forms of energy from it.

The speakers included former minister for petroleum and natural resources Usman Aminuddin; former secretary water and power Mirza Hamid Hasan and IPS Tawanai Programme Chairman Khalid Rahman, DG Masud Dahir, MilleZum Consult CEO and IPS Tawani Programme Steering Committee Member Ameena Sohail.

“We are a nation sitting over the second largest reserves of coal in the world but still facing the worst energy crisis merely because of cumbersome practices, lack of vision and poor planning,” Usman Amin lamented. He said that 25 percent of global energy needs are being met through coal while it was being used to produce 41 percent of total electricity produced around the world. Despite having the second largest coal reserves of 184 billion metric tonnes in the world after the US, not a single unit of electricity was being produced in Pakistan through coal unfortunately, he deplored.

Citing the oft-quoted apprehensions regarding the quality of the coal in Pakistan he underscored that South Africa was meeting 94 percent of its energy requirements through coal while the quality of its coal was lesser than the coal in Pakistan. “The technology has developed to the extent that any quality of coal may be processed and brought into use for various purposes. It is not that the coal is of no value; in fact the people occupying and influencing the power corridors have made the whole nation hostage to vested interests,” he stressed.

He revealed that Pakistan has no energy security plan and there exists no mechanism at the Planning Commission or any other state body to forecast oil prices in the world. He claimed that the international oil prices will cross $200 mark in 2013-14 increasing the financial burden on the national exchequer manifold to meet its oil demand and nobody was thinking where this money would come from!

He told the participants that as the nation was faced with rising oil prices and increasing gas shortages, it was likely to see even grimmer tomorrow and the only answer lies in exploring the opportunities in its indigenous resources; coal being at the top of them.

Referring to recent efforts for utilising Thar Coal through under-ground gasification as being in the experimental stage, he opined that the technology was in a pilot stage in the US since 1960s and there were 14 major drawbacks of this technology out of which the American experts have been able to address only six so far. “There are other proven processes and technologies employed around the world which need to be taken into consideration,” he said.

He also referred to gel fuel made from molasses which was the second major fuel source in Africa and can be easily made available to the poor masses of Pakistan as the country was rich in sugarcane production and there was dearth of sugar mills producing large quantities of molasses as a by-product. He further said that investors in the energy sector across the world were working in more hostile conditions than in Pakistan but the main reason of their pulling out the country were inconsistency in policies and failure of the authorities to provide an enabling environment for business.

Mirza Hamid Hassan, who was chairing the session, said that there was need for developing mechanised mining infrastructure and the coal so acquired has to be brought into multiple uses. “The whole debate about coal is with reference to power generation, while the potential of this natural resource is much more than that,” he said.

Pakistan Picture



Wednesday 13 June 2012

Student visa for USA

The U.S.A. issues different types of visas to temporary visitors, including students. As a full-time student, you would receive an F-1 or M-1 visa. Most students fall under the F1 category. The temporary visas are also known as non-immigrant visas. 
The spouse and children would receive F-2 or M-2 visas.
The "F" visa is for academic studies, and the "M" visa is for nonacademic or vocational studies.
Procedure
1) Get your passport made. Follow this link for detailed information regarding how to obtain your passport.
2) Once an academic institute has accepted you for admission to full-time study, they will send you a document known as the I-20 form, which is extremely necessary for the application for a student visa. This form I-20 contains information about how much financial responsibility you will need, what is going to be the duration of your studies, etc.
3) You may need to show the proof of financial support if you or your parents are going to fund your studies in USA. A bank letter may be necessary. You might want to find out from your embassy about the types of documents they may accept regarding the proof of financial support.
Get an "Affidavit of Support" form from the U.S. Embassy or Consulate if the studies are going to be sponsored by your relatives or others who are currently in USA. Complete this form with information about your sources of financing (letter of sposorship), and submit it along with your other documents. The embassy may require a letter from the bank that holds the funds.
4) Obtain all the necessary documents mentioned on this page. Now, you are ready to go to the U.S. Consulate for a visa interview. If your visa is rejected twice, you may need to apply by mail.
Documents required for obtaining the visa

A nonrefundable application fee (You should find out the exact amount before going to the consulate and carry exact change if possible). 
An application Form OF-156, completed and signed. Blank forms are available without charge at all U.S. consular offices. 
A passport valid for travel to the United States 
One photograph 1 and 1/2 inches square (37x37mm) for each applicant, showing full face, without head covering, against a light background; and 
For the "F" applicant, a Form I-20A-B. For the "M" applicant, a Form I-20M-N. 
[These forms are sent by the institutions where you have applied and upon acceptance they send you these forms.] 
Sponsorship letters 
Student visa applicants must establish to the satisfaction of the consular officer that they have binding ties to a residence in a foreign country which they have no intention of abandoning, and that they will depart the United States when they have completed their studies.
Maintaing Visa Status After Arrival
If a student on a F-1 visa is not able to complete their studies by the expiration date on the I-20 form, they must apply to the school's Foreign Student Advisor for an extension 30 days before expiration. Extensions are normally granted for academic and medical reasons so long as there have been no violations of visa status.
It is possible to transfer schools after arrival on an F-1 visa. You will need to notify your current school of the transfer and obtain an I-20 form from the new school. You will complete the student certification section of the I-20 and must deliver it to the foreign student advisor at the new school within 15 days of beginning attendance at the new school.
If you are changing majors at your current school, you do not need to notify the INS. If you are changing degree programs (e.g., from a bachelors degree to a masters degree program), however, you will need to get a new I-20 and submit it to the foreign student advisor within 15 days of beginning the new program.

Islamabad

Islamabad the new capital of Pakistan is a well planned modern city with large public buildings, attractive parks wide boulevards, newly built beautiful Shah Faisal Mosque and well laid out shopping centres. The Rawal Dam is a popular picnic spot. There are top and medium class hotels and motels as well as a camping site.

karachi

Karachi is the capital of the Sindh province. It is a bustling centre of commerce and industry, a big port and the largest city of Pakistan with a population of over seven million. It has an International Airport which is a major link on all east and west air routes. Karachi has sunny beaches at Sandspit, Hawks Bay, Paradise Point and Clifton. It has a lot to offer, including the National Museum, the Hill Park, a golf course, a squash complex and modern medical facilities.

LAHORE

1305 km (811 miles) to the north-east of Karachi, just about 1.5 hours flight by PIA, is Lahore, "the city of gardens" and the capital of the Punjab. It is an ancient town, rich in historical monuments, including some of the finest specimens of Muslim architecture -- the Badshahi Mosque of Emperor Aurangzeb, the Wazir Khan Mosque, the Shalimar Gardens of Emperor Shahjahan, Emperor Jehangir's Mausoleum and the Royal Fort of Akbar with its fabulous Hall of Mirrors. Lahore is considered to be the cultural capital of Pakistan because of its numerous colleges, places of learning, sports activities, frequent stage plays etc. The Museum in Lahore is considered to be the best in the sub continent. It houses the statue of fasting Buddha beside a host of priceless relics. The Horse and Cattle Show is an annual event held at the Fortress Stadium every spring. It is a pageant of equestrian sports, folk dances, music and tattoo parades. Lahore is at its best in spring and autumn.

Sunday 10 June 2012

SLAMABAD: After June 8, 2004, another transit of Venus (Movement of the plant, Venus, in front of Sun) would occur at early morning of June 6,2012.


SLAMABAD: After June 8, 2004, another transit of Venus (Movement of the plant, Venus, in front of Sun) would occur at early morning of June 6,2012.
The rare transit could be observed from the time of sunrise till 9:50 am (PST), an official of the Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) informed APP.
SUPARCO would also monitor the event, he added. This would be the last event of the 21st century, as the next event of this kind would occur after 105 years, in December 2117.
The citizens have been cautioned by Suparco not to look at the sun without wearing proper eye-shielding material as a solar filter during the transit of venus. Otherwise, such a practice may yield to permanent blindness.

MADRID: A Swiss adventurer took off Tuesday into the night skies above


MADRID: A Swiss adventurer took off Tuesday into the night skies above Madrid and headed for Rabat on the world's first intercontinental flight in a solar-powered plane. Bertrand Piccard, 54-year-old psychiatrist and balloonist, piloted the Solar Impulse plane, a giant as big as an Airbus A340 but as light as an average family car, on the daring voyage from Europe to Africa.
As he guided the experimental plane almost silently aloft from Madrid-Barajas airport at 5:22 am (0322 GMT), a red light could be seen disappearing into the moon-lit sky. An onboard camera relayed pictures of the Spanish capital's quiet streets stretched out below the aircraft, which has 12,000 solar cells in the wings turning four electrical motors.
Helped by a tailwind, Piccard gradually piloted the plane towards 3,600 metres (11,800 feet) as he headed to Seville in southern Spain. He was then to cross the Gibraltar Strait at 8,500 metres (28,000 feet), enter Moroccan airspace over Tangiers and land in Rabat-Sale some time after 11 pm (2200 GMT). All that, without using a drop of fuel.
Each of the motors on the carbon-fibre plane charges 400-kilogram (880-pound) lithium polymer batteries during the day, allowing the aircraft to carry on flying after dark. Piccard, who made the world's first non-stop round-the-world balloon flight in 1999 together with Briton Brian Jones, took over the controls from project co-founder Andre Borschberg, a 59-year-old Swiss executive and pilot.
Borschberg flew a first leg from Payerne in Switzerland, landing in Madrid on May 25. Organisers said the trip, 2,500 kilometres (1,550 miles) overall, is timed to coincide with the launch of construction on the largest ever solar thermal plant in Morocco's southern Ouarzazate region. The voyage also is intended as a rehearsal for the plane's round-the-world flight planned for 2014.
The aircraft made history in July 2010 as the first manned plane to fly around the clock on the sun's energy. It holds the record for the longest flight by a manned solar-powered aeroplane after staying aloft for 26 hours, 10 minutes and 19 seconds above Switzerland, also setting a record for altitude by flying at 9,235 metres (30,298 feet).

RABAT: A solar plane landed late Tuesday in the Moroccan capital Rabat after flying across the Strait of Gibraltar from Spain on the world's first intercontinental flight in a plane powered by the sun.

RABAT: A solar plane landed late Tuesday in the Moroccan capital Rabat after flying across the Strait of Gibraltar from Spain on the world's first intercontinental flight in a plane powered by the sun.
Bertrand Piccard, a 54-year-old psychiatrist and balloonist, landed Solar Impulse at 11:30 pm (2230 GMT) at Rabat Sale airport where he was welcomed by officials of the Moroccan Solar Energy Agency (MASEN). (AFP)

TOKYO: A Japanese research agency has dropped a controversial public relations campaign aimed at educating women about nuclear safety that compared radiation to the screaming voice of an angry wife.

TOKYO: A Japanese research agency has dropped a controversial public relations campaign aimed at educating women about nuclear safety that compared radiation to the screaming voice of an angry wife.
The Japanese Atomic Energy Agency devoted a page on its website to an effort to "make the hard words used in the nuclear power industry" more easy to understand, particularly for women.
The page, which included a cartoon of an angry, fist-waving wife and her cowering husband, compared the wife's yell to radiation. It continued the metaphor by saying that the women's increasing agitation could be compared to "radioactivity", while claiming the wife herself was comparable to "radioactive material".
The webpage, first published in 2010, was dropped on Monday after the agency received dozens of complaints.
"I have no idea why this page suddenly attracted people's attention, but we would have deleted it earlier had we known about this page," said Yusuke Uehara, a spokesman for the government-affiliated agency which conducts nuclear research, including work on safety.
"This discriminates against women, which is inappropriate."
All 50 of Japan's operable nuclear reactors remain offline after a series of meltdowns and hydrogen explosions at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant forced evacuations and renewed scrutiny of Japan's policy towards atomic energy.
Tokyo Electric Power, the operator of the Fukushima plant, said last month that the radiation released in the first days of the Fukushima disaster was almost 2-1/2 times the amount first estimated by safety regulators.
The accident was the world's worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986.
The "radioactive wife" cartoon had been created by a group of six women who live near Tokaimura, site of a 1999 nuclear accident at a uranium reprocessing plant. (Reuters)

NEW YORK: The space shuttle Enterprise - named after the spaceship in Star Trek - ach NEW YORK: The space shuttle Enterprise - named after the spaceship in Star Trek - achieved lift-off on Wednesday when it was hoisted by a crane onto a floating museum in New York's Hudson River.

NEW YORK: The space shuttle Enterprise - named after the spaceship in Star Trek - ach
NEW YORK: The space shuttle Enterprise - named after the spaceship in Star Trek - achieved lift-off on Wednesday when it was hoisted by a crane onto a floating museum in New York's Hudson River.

Cheers and thunderous applause erupted from the crowd of New Yorkers and tourists who turned out to see the retired spacecraft moved to its new home atop the flight deck of repurposed World War Two aircraft carrier now named the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum.

"Beam me up, Scotty!" a man in the crowd shouted as a crane lifted the shuttle off a barge onto the museum, repeating a catch phrase from the popular science fiction television show.

"It's part of our history," said New Yorker Cameron Fisher, 21.

The crowd grew quiet and the air was filled with the creaking of the crane and beating of a helicopter circling overhead as the shuttle rose 230 feet (70 meters) into the air.

"It inspires people to see what human ingenuity can achieve," said British tourist Kirsty Rushen, 35.

Earlier Wednesday, as the shuttle, strapped to a barge, made its way up the Hudson River and past the Statue of Liberty, crowds ranging from small children to elderly couples strained for a glimpse of the craft.

"Did you see the shuttle?" said a police officer running up to his uniformed colleagues like an excited child.

APRIL FLIGHT OVER CITY

For a shuttle that never made it into space, Enterprise has had quite a journey. In April, crowds of tourists and New Yorkers watched in awe as Enterprise flew over the city piggy-backed on a Boeing 747 Jumbo jet.

Enterprise drew more crowds on Wednesday on the banks of the Hudson to watch the NASA spacecraft make its final approach to its new floating home on Manhattan's west side.

Despite never flying in space, Enterprise holds a special place in American history, having been the first of NASA's space shuttles. In 1977 it was released in mid-air from a Boeing 747 for a series of gliding and landing tests at Edwards Air Force base in California prior to the first shuttle flight in 1981.

Enterprise was originally going to be named Constitution in honor of the bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution. But a fierce letter-writing campaign by Star Trek fans convinced the White House to name it Enterprise after the fictitious spaceship that Captain Kirk and Mr Spock flew to the front lines of an intergalactic battle with the Klingons on the popular TV show.

Experts say Enterprise captured the hearts and minds of many by embodying the best of American ingenuity.

In April last year NASA announced it would retire its space shuttle fleet to locations in New York, Virginia, California and Florida. It decided that Discovery would take Enterprise's place at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Virginia and that Enterprise would be brought to New York.

Since its joy ride over the city in April, Enterprise has been kept in a protective tent at JFK International Airport. On Saturday, the 171,000-pound (77,564-kg) Enterprise was lifted by crane onto a barge, a process that took about three hours.

Pulled by a tugboat, it toured Queens and Brooklyn on Sunday, passing by Coney Island and traveling under the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge before docking in Port Elizabeth, New Jersey.

Officials at Enterprise's new home, the Intrepid Museum, which itself is a repurposed former World War Two aircraft carrier, expect the space shuttle to be a major attraction for years to come.