Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Nigeria imposes curfew on Abuja

 
Burning vehicles in police HQ car parkThe police HQ attack was an embarrassing strike at the very heart of the security establishment
Related Stories

A curfew has been imposed on Nigeria's capital, Abuja, following recent attacks by Islamist militants, meaning nightclubs, beer parlours and cinemas must close early.

They must shut by 2200 local time (2100 GMT) and public parks that admit children should close by 1800.

Two weeks ago, eight people were killed when the Islamist sect Boko Haram attacked the police HQ in Abuja.

On Sunday, its fighters bombed a beer garden in Maiduguri, killing 25.

This is the group's most deadly attack to date - later on Sunday, it killed another 10 people with a car bombing in the city.

The group, which usually targets the north-eastern state of Borno, around Maiduguri, says it is fighting for Islamic rule, and campaigns against all political and social activity associated with the West.

Abuja city's administration said it has also banned parking of vehicles on two roads where most government offices are located.

"These measures are necessitated by the need to ensure adequate security of lives and property in the federal capital territory [in light of] the prevailing security concerns," the city's spokesman said in a statement.

The BBC's Naziru Mikailu in Abuja says beer gardens are busy after work at the weekends and the curfew is likely to prove unpopular.

After a lull, Boko Haram's attacks have intensified in the last nine months.

In May, it staged attacks at the inauguration of President Goodluck Jonathan.

The group's trademark has been the use of gunmen on motorbikes.

Dozens of people have been killed - mostly security officers and politicians but also a Christian preacher and Muslim clerics who have criticised Boko Haram.

The sect's leader Mohammed Yusuf and several hundred of his supporters were killed by security forces in Maiduguri in 2009 after the group attacked police stations.

This article is from the BBC News website. � British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-africa-13961332

science iPad iPhone New iPhone iPad 2 Gossip

Oregon engineers roll out cheaper, less wasteful solar cells with inkjet printer

Oregon engineers roll out cheaper, less wasteful solar cells with inkjet printer It looks like the push to turn the inkjet printer into the next great manufacturer of solar cells has found another proponent in a team of engineers at Oregon State University. That group of resourceful researchers claims to have created the world's first "CIGS solar devices with inkjet printing," thus giving birth to a new production process that reduces raw material waste by 90 percent. CIGS (an acronym for copper, indium, gallium, and selenium) is a highly absorbent and efficient compound, especially suited to creating thin-film solar cells. The team has used inkjet technology to pump out a CIGS ink with an efficiency of five percent, and a potential efficiency of 12 percent; apparently enough to produce a "commercially viable solar cell." Unfortunately, the group has yet to announce plans to bring the ink to our desktop printer -- so much for that backyard solar farm. Full PR after the break.

Continue reading Oregon engineers roll out cheaper, less wasteful solar cells with inkjet printer

Oregon engineers roll out cheaper, less wasteful solar cells with inkjet printer originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Jun 2011 01:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceOregon State University  | Email this | Comments

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/29/oregon-engineers-roll-out-cheaper-less-wasteful-solar-cells-wit/

Gossip technology financial news news headline news science

Fee move for non-Scots students

students in lectureEnglish students tend to gravitate towards the universities of Edinburgh and St Andrews
Related Stories

The Scottish government is expected to confirm that university students face fees of thousands of pounds a year.

But the charge will only affect students from the rest of the UK (RUK).

In an announcement at Holyrood later, Education Secretary Mike Russell is expected to reiterate that Scots will continue to pay no fees at all either before or after graduation.

Charges were among proposals for university funding in an official discussion paper released last year.

But ministers did not advocate this option. Taking inspiration from Burns' poetry, First Minister Alex Salmond said "the rocks will melt with the sun" before he would bring in tuition fees for Scots.

RUK students coming here could face charges of about £6,000 a year under the proposal floated by ministers a few months ago.

Yet the preferred option is to legislate for a capped variable fee.

That option is attractive because English students tend to gravitate towards the universities of Edinburgh and St Andrews and to a lesser extent to Glasgow and Aberdeen.

Newer less well known universities such as Queen Margaret in Edinburgh and University of the West of Scotland in Paisley would be unlikely to attract enough RUK students to make a significant difference to their balance sheet.

A key objective of the expected charge is to help buoy the finances of Scottish universities.

There is concern about the future funding gap for Scottish universities as some English universities almost triple their fees to up to £9,000 a year.

A second objective is to stop a potential flood of "fee refugees" to Scotland seeking to escape the university fees in other parts of the UK.

RUK students currently pay almost £1,800 a year in Scotland (more if they are studying medicine).

There is a question mark over how much money the increased charges will raise. South of the border there has been much publicity and resentment in some quarters over the outline plan to charge Scots nothing but charge others thousands of pounds.

This is believed to be one reason why the number of English applicants to Scottish universities slumped by 15% this academic year.

It is uncertain whether as yet the education secretary has established a way of bringing in charges for students resident in the EU outside the UK.

Their numbers have greatly escalated in recent years as word spread that they pay no fees in Scotland.

In his announcement the education secretary may also give more information about the review of university governance which he announced earlier this month.

This article is from the BBC News website. � British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/uk-scotland-13951685

technology financial news news headline news science iPad

2,000 children 'groomed' - report

Breaking news

The first national study of street grooming of children has found more than 2,000 victims of systematic sexual abuse.

Figures show a quarter of offenders were Asian but the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) said the data was not reliable enough to draw conclusions.

Peter Davies, head of Ceop, warned against focusing on ethnicity alone.

Victims were not getting the support they needed in most of the UK, he said.

This article is from the BBC News website. � British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/uk-13957129

headline news science iPad iPhone New iPhone iPad 2

NVIDIA announces GeForce GTX 580M and 570M, availability in the Alienware M18x and MSI GT780R

We know you're going to be shocked -- shocked! -- to hear this, but NVIDIA's gone and refreshed its high-end line of GeForce GTX cards. The GTX 580M takes the place of the GTX 485M, and NVIDIA's bragging that it's the "fastest notebook GPU ever," capable, we're told, of besting the Radeon HD 6970M's tesselation performance by a factor of six. The new GTX 570M, meanwhile, promises a 20 percent speed boost over the last-generation 470M. Both 40-nanometer cards support DirectX11, OpenCL, PhysX, CUDA, 3D Vision, Verde drivers, Optimus, SLI, and 3DTV Play. As for battery life, NVIDIA's saying that when coupled with its Optimus graphics switching technology, the 580M can last through five hours of Facebook, but last we checked, that's not why y'all are shelling out thousands for beastly gaming rigs. You can find the 580M in the Alienware M17X and M18X (pictured) starting today, though you might have to wait a week or so for them to ship. Meanwhile, the 570M is shipping in the MSI GT780R as you read this, and you'll also find the 580M in a pair of 3D-capable Clevo laptops: the P170HM3 and the SLI-equipped P270WN. Handy chart full 'o technical details after the break.

Continue reading NVIDIA announces GeForce GTX 580M and 570M, availability in the Alienware M18x and MSI GT780R

NVIDIA announces GeForce GTX 580M and 570M, availability in the Alienware M18x and MSI GT780R originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 28 Jun 2011 09:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/28/nvidia-announces-geforce-gtx-580m-and-570m-availability-in-the/

technology financial news news headline news science iPad

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Syria's ambassador to UK summoned

Related Stories

Syria's ambassador in London has been summoned to the Foreign Office after claims a diplomat had been intimidating Syrians living in the UK.

The Foreign Office said ambassador Sami Khiyami was called to see its Middle East director Christian Turner.

The move came after media reports that Syrians who took part in demonstrations received phone calls and home visits.

It is understood police have received no complaints about intimidation in the UK by members of the Syrian embassy.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: "Mr Turner made clear our strong concerns about the media allegations that a diplomat at the Syrian embassy has been intimidating Syrians in Britain.

"Any such activity would amount to a clear breach of acceptable behaviour. If such claims were substantiated, the Foreign Office would respond swiftly and appropriately."

This article is from the BBC News website. � British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/uk-13950948

financial news news headline news science iPad iPhone

VIDEO: Rebels seize Gaddafi arms bunker

Libyan rebels capture a major complex of underground weapons bunkers from Col Muammar Gaddafi's forces in the west of the country.

This article is from the BBC News website. � British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-africa-13949937

New iPhone iPad 2 Gossip technology financial news news