Watches Jailed China Nobel winner asks wife to collect prize

Jailed China Nobel winner asks wife to collect prize


Protesters drink champagne as they celebrate jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo winning the Nobel Peace Prize during a demonstration outside the China liaison office in Hong Kong October 8, 2010. (REUTERS/Bobby Yip)
BEIJING (Reuters) - Jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo has asked his wife to travel to Norway to pick up his Nobel Peace Prize, she told Reuters on Tuesday.

"Xiaobo told me he hopes I can go to Norway to receive the prize for him," Liu Xia said by telephone from her house where she is under virtual house arrest.


Protesters drink champagne as they celebrate jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo winning the Nobel Peace Prize during a demonstration outside the China liaison office in Hong Kong October 8, 2010. (REUTERS/Bobby Yip)
"I think it will be very difficult," she added, when asked if she thought the government would allow her to go.

Liu Xia said the government had not yet explicitly told her she would not be allowed to go to Norway. The prize will be formally bestowed on Dec. 10 in Oslo.

China said on Tuesday that giving the Nobel Peace Prize to a jailed dissident showed a lack of respect for its legal system, in further criticism of an award that has stirred tensions over human rights.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Lincoln Fast)
coppied by http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/10/12/worldupdates/2010-10-12T140903Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-521331-2&sec=Worldupdates

Exited French transport slowed by strike

French transport slowed by strike


Sarkozy's pension reform has triggered a showdown with unions that sunk a previous effort 15 years ago [REUTERS]
French workers are staging a one-day strike against the government's plans to raise the retirement age, in what is the fourth major action against the reforms in a month.

Rail, sea port and flight workers went on strike across the country on Tuesday, while the Paris metro was slowed to a minimum.

Up to half the flights at Orly Airport and a third of flights from Charles de Gaulle-Roissy in Paris are expected to be cancelled, although airlines had already re-booked many passengers ahead of the strike.

The action, which comes a day after the French senate voted to raised the country's official minimum retirement age from 60 to 62, is threatening to turn into a showdown between the unions and Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president.

This time, the unions have threatened to stretch Tuesday's strikes past the usual 24-hours.

High turnout expected

The unions have called nationwide protest marches later in the day, and say they are expecting millions of people to turnout.

Three prior protests have attracted crowds numbering in the hundreds of thousands but have not halted Sarkozy's pension reform plan.

"The government is taking the risk of a radicalisation of the movement," Francois Chereque, head of the powerful CFDT union, said. "There will be a very big turnout today."

Sarkozy faces re-election in 2012, and his opinion poll ratings are at all-time lows. David Assouline, an opposition leader, accused Sarkozy of trying to provoke a "showdown" and bring unions "to their knees".

Monday vote, which came in at a narrow The 174 to 159, shut the door on the most controversial aspect of the reform package, which Sarkozy's administration hopes to pass by the end of the month.

The senate also voted to raise the minimum age to receive a full state pension from 65 to 67.

Strike will halt train and air transportation

While two-thirds of the high-speed TGV trains were expected to be cancelled, those running between Paris and London are set to operate normally.

The oil industry and education workers have also joined in the strike.

Employees at France's biggest oil port, Fos-Lavera, have now halted work for 15 straight days, and the education ministry predicted that more than a fourth of the country's elementary and pre-kindergarten teachers would strike on Tuesday.

One poll of around 1,000 people published in the newspaper Le Parisien found that 69 per cent of the respondents supported the new strike, while 61 per cent supported a "continuous and lasting" one.

Like other European governments looking at austerity measures, France faces a yawning deficit and a need to improve its finances if it hopes to retain a AAA credit rating, enabling the country to borrow money at a lower interest rate.

The reform bill has already been approved in its entirety by the lower house of France's parliament, the National Assembly. The senate is now voting on it piece by piece.
Coppied by http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2010/10/20101012051949142.html

Enjoy China rails on about Norway and dissident's Nobel

China rails on about Norway and dissident's Nobel


Beijing, China (CNN) -- China on Tuesday stepped up criticism of Norway and the awarding of the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize to Liu Xiaobo, a leading Chinese dissident.
Liu is serving an 11-year prison term after repeatedly calling for human rights and democratization.
"The Norwegian Nobel committee's decision to give Liu the Nobel Peace Prize will damage bilateral relations. There is reason for every Chinese person to be unhappy," Ma Zhaoxu, spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said at a news briefing.
"We already made our position clear. Since reform and opening up, China has made remarkable progress," Ma said. "By giving a convicted person the Nobel Peace Prize, they show no respect for China's judicial system."
"It not only disrespects China, but also reveals their true intentions. If you try to change China's political system from the outside, or if they are trying to stop Chinese people from moving forward, that is obviously making a mistake," he added.
Video: China censors Nobel coverage Video: Wife of Nobel Prize winner detained Video: Liu Xiaobo wins Nobel Peace Prize
Liu was sentenced in 2009 for inciting subversion of state power. He is the co-author of Charter 08, a call for political reform and human rights, and was an adviser to the student protesters at Tiananmen Square in 1989.
Asked about Liu's wife, Liu Xia, Ma responded: "I do not know who you are talking about. I am not familiar with this person."
Liu Xia remains under house arrest in Beijing and has been banned from talking to friends or media, Liu Xiaobo's lawyer said. She is trying to visit the attorney to discuss an appeal to her husband's sentence.
"She is negotiating with the police on the terms of the visit," Shang Baojun, the lawyer, told CNN. "The issue of an appeal is not if, but when and how."
Shang confirmed that Liu Xia said her husband wanted her to go to Oslo to accept the award in December, but he is not optimistic about the prospect.
"It's way too early to think about her Norway trip, considering she can't even leave her house," he said.
Liu Xia briefly re-gained phone access Tuesday, talking to Shang and several friends, as well as a few media outlets, from a new mobile phone after police broke her old one. The new number has been disconnected again, her friends tweeted Tuesday evening.
Coppied by http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/10/12/china.nobel.reaction/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

Watch From Labor Strikes to Logo Strikes

From Labor Strikes to Logo Strikes

Article by WorldNews.com Correspondent Dallas Darling.
"The strike is the weapon of the oppressed, of men capable of appreciating justice and having the courage to resist wrong and contend for principle." -Eugene Debs speaking to striking engineers and firemen during the Pullman Railroad Strike of 1887

"Ugh! Hideous and cheap looking. I will never shop there again." -Just one of tens of thousands of online comments when Gap revealed their new logo

When thousands of people went online protesting GAP's new logo claiming they would go on strike and boycott the clothing chain, it parodied an earlier era regarding America's Labor Movement. In 1911, a fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company in New York City killed 146 garment workers, many of whom were young Jewish women. They were unable to escape due to the factory doors that had been locked, either to hold workers at their machines or to prevent government inspectors from entering. As the fire raged, the young women leaped to their deaths from the eighth- and ninth-story windows. What followed was the Uprising of the Twenty Thousand, a massive general strike in New York City by shirtwaist workers.(1)

Clara Lemlich, a "wisp of a girl, still in her teens," offered the resolution that turned the walkouts from several shirtwaist factories into a general strike. She remarked, "I am a working girl, one of those who are on strike against intolerable conditions. I am tired of listening to speakers who talk in general terms."(2) Most of the young strikers, between the ages of 16 and 25, battled physical and sexual harassment while marching, along with beatings and mass arrests. Yet, after three months the Uprising of the Twenty Thousand led to the basis for better working conditions, new building codes like fire escapes, and a greater interest in unionization and labor activism.

Another labor strike at a shipping port led by the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) centered around the right of workers to assemble and to practice free-speech. When authorities in Everett, Washington arrested 400 striking and picketing dock workers, a national call for assistance did not go unheard. James Rowan from Seattle was sent to organize a solidarity campaign. When he stood up to speak in public, Rowan was arrested. A free-speech fight ensued.(3) As more workers arrived by ferryboat to build-up the free-speech forces, they were immediately surrounded, arrested and imprisoned. In one battle, private security forces shot striking workers killing 5 and wounding 27.(4)

Even though the labor leaders of the IWW were put on trial for murder-which was typical for those who supported the American Labor Movement, and which the victims of State and corporate security forces were treated as the instigators-the attempt to suppress and extinguish the freedom of assembly and speech backfired. In a highly publicized trial, the IWW's achieved acquittals or dismissals of charges. This in turn, fueled the determination for other workers to seek long-sought basic reforms and rights. In the years that followed, the Everett Massacre, as it was called, produced numerous gains for the freedoms to strike and picket and for the right to publicly speak about workplace abuses and injustices.(5)
Coppied by http://article.wn.com/view/2010/10/12/From_Labor_Strikes_to_Logo_Strikes/?section=TopStoriesWorldwide&template=worldnews/index.txt

Watches Toxic sludge spill could happen elsewhere, campaigners warn

Toxic sludge spill could happen elsewhere, campaigners warn



A photo the WWF says was taken of the Hungarian spill site in June, showing "a damaged and clearly leaking sludge pond wall.
(CNN) -- Shocking safety lapses exposed by the deadly Hungary toxic sludge spill could be repeated at thousands of industrial sites around the world unless regulations are tightened dramatically, campaigners have warned.
With eight people dead so far and hundreds of villagers evacuated near an aluminium plant at Ajka, 160 kilometers (100 miles) west of Budapest, experts said they believed the spillage of 1,000,000 cubic meters of toxic red sludge from a ruptured dam was a disaster waiting to happen.
The WWF on Monday published a photo taken, the environmental pressure group said, in June and showing one of the pools of sludge -- a by-product of the process to turn bauxite ore into aluminium oxide -- clearly leaking, indicating that the disaster three months later could have been avoided.
Were you affected by the spill? Share your story
The aluminum company, MAL Co., said in a statement Saturday it had performed extensive maintenance work and renovations in the past decade and had followed safety regulations. The company was also now working to construct dams and defense lines in an attempt to minimize damage, it said.
Video: Exec arrested in Hungary toxic mud spill Video: Toxic mud shatters dreams, investments
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On Monday, investigators arrested the company's chief executive Zoltan Bakonyi on charges of public endangerment and harming the environment.
Greenpeace said it would be some time before the full effects of the disaster were known. "We're very concerned by this. Regionally it's a huge disaster," Bernhard Obermayr, the environmental campaign group's campaigns director for central and eastern Europe, told CNN.
"Villages near the spillage won't recover from this. The sludge is highly toxic, containing arsenic and mercury, both of which can cause cancer and affect the body's nervous system. Those chemicals go into the ground water and will spread throughout the whole Danube region. At least 50 tons of arsenic have entered the eco-system we believe."
Obermayr added that there were thousands more toxic hot spots throughout central and eastern Europe, China, Africa and Latin America. "We've seen what can happen with a big disaster like Hungary, but globally, in emerging economies, disasters are happening all the time that are not reported. There is a constant leakage of dangerous chemicals from mining sites -- not just one big bang like this."
In the European Union, he said, industrial safety stan
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Watch News Science Science funding crisis Military research should bear brunt of science cuts, say leading scientists

Military research should bear brunt of science cuts, say leading scientists
Senior academics say science cuts should focus on military research projects, including finding a replacement for Trident

Missile tubes on a Trident nuclear submarine. The scientists want all Britain's nuclear weapons placed in secure storage. Photograph: Murdo Macleod/Guardian
Military research projects, including plans to replace the Trident nuclear weapons system, must bear the brunt of science funding cuts if Britain is to stay at the forefront of scientific research, academics have told the prime minister.

Thirty-six scientists and engineers, including seven Royal Society fellows and one Nobel laureate, have today written to David Cameron raising concerns over the future of British science if civilian research is cut while defence research is spared.

The government spends £8bn on scientific research, of which more than £2bn is earmarked for Ministry of Defence projects at facilities such as the Atomic Weapons Establishment in Aldermaston. The nuclear weapons lab will play a central role in developing a successor to Trident if ministers decide to go ahead with a replacement.

"Of particular concern is the fact that world class research into health and global environmental problems is under threat, while the government continues to fund the multi-billion pound research programme at the Atomic Weapons Establishment," the authors write in the letter, which is published today in the Guardian.

"Our view is that current MoD funding is not only disproportionate, it also includes expenditure on programmes which are of minimal benefit or counterproductive to the UK's security," the letter adds. The authors call for Britain's nuclear warheads to be placed in secure storage and the successor to Trident scrapped to free up funds for civilian science research.

The letter, signed by Professor Alastair Hay, an expert in chemical and biological weapons at Leeds University, Sir Harry Kroto, who won the Nobel prize for chemistry in 1996, and the mathematician Sir Michael Atiyah, continues: "We believe that any cuts to public science spending should predominantly come from cuts to the Ministry of Defence's research and development."

The letter comes a week after the prime minister told the Conservative party conference in Birmingham that he would take "no risks with British security" and stressed his commitment to renewing the Trident nuclear missile system. In the letter, the scientists urge ministers to "shift their priorities so that science and technology can contribute to tackling the real threats to the UK's present and future security."

The scientists concede a need for extra funding on some defence-related issues, including research into ways of monitoring arms control agreements, non-violent conflict resolution and strategies for "tackling the roots of conflict and insecurity".
coppied by http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/oct/13/military-research-science-cuts-scientists

Watches Photography experts amazed at world's first lensman's pioneering technique

Photography experts amazed at world's first lensman's pioneering technique
Analysis of Joseph Nicéphore Niépce's work reveals baked lavender oil method used in first ever camera images

Joseph Nicéphore Niépce's View from the Window at Le Gras - thought to be the world's first photograph, taken in 1826 from the window of a French farmhouse. Photograph: AP
The grey, blurred images are not exactly easy on the eye, but they are three of the world's very first photographs and, it will be announced today, were made using a range of techniques including one previously undiscovered method.

Scientists will admit that they are having to rewrite the reference books for one of photography's true pioneers, Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, the man widely acknowledged as the world's first photographer.

New analysis of three of the finest examples of Niépce's work, part of the national collection of photographs at Bradford, has astonished researchers.

They have always been hugely regarded but normally described as simple etched plates of pewter, created using a process that involved bitumen. Now,the Guardian can reveal, fresh technical analysis by Dusan Stulik and Art Kaplan at the Getty Conservation Institute in Los Angeles has shown them to have been made by different photographic processes developed by Niépce. The most eye-opening is a plate called Un Clair de Lune which uses a chemical process not previously discovered; one that involved baking lavender oil to create the image.

The revelations shed new light on the early development of photography and raise Niépce's contribution even higher.

Stulik called the discoveries hugely significant. "This is something completely new in the history of photography. My eureka moment was finding that the plate was not an etched plate – we spent some time not believing what we were seeing.

"To see the whole range of experiments is absolutely amazing."

Philippa Wright, the National Media Museum's curator of photographs, recalled: "There was a moment when Dusan was looking down the microscope and he literally stopped breathing." Stulik added: "I did start breathing again."

The revelations will be made at a two-day conference on Niépce in England at the National Media Museum today and tomorrow where 120 delegates will gather from 10 countries to hear in full why the plates were brought to England and what happened to them afterwards.

The conference will hear details of recent advancements in scientific, art historical and conservation research and the three plates will be on display out of their frames – probably for the last ever time – so they can be looked at front and back.

Stulik said the research conclusions meant that even more respect is due to the French inventor, that he truly was the world's first photographer. "Our findings are shining a different light on the early history of photography than has been previously described in literature.
Coppied by http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/oct/13/photography-photography