Iran, U.N. envoy hold talks ahead of Geneva meet

Iran has held talks with Lakhdar Brahimi, U.N. and Arab League envoy on Syria, who is set to jointly hold talks with American and Russian officials in Geneva on Friday.

Mr. Brahimi’s meeting with William Burns, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State, and Mikhail Bogdanov, Kremlin’s West Asia envoy, has generated speculation that a plan to defuse the Syrian crisis that is jointly engineered by Moscow and Washington, is in the works.

Late on Wednesday, Iran’s visiting Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi met Mr. Brahimi at Cairo. Iran’s Press TV reported that the two discussed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s roadmap for peace and Iran’s six-point plan to settle the unrest in Syria.

Rebels

Mr. Assad on January 6 had proposed a conference with the opposition, but insisted on the exclusion of the western-backed “rebels” and Jihadists, with al-Qaeda affiliation, in the dialogue. He stressed that the proposed talks were meant to write a constitution, which would come into force once the draft was approved during a national referendum. He also proposed the formation of an interim government and an initiative for reconciliation.

Iran has supported Mr. Assad’s plan, and Russia has stressed that the presidential proposals “must be given consideration”.

Russian Foreign Ministry officials hoped that the Geneva meet would yield a solution based on last June’s Geneva Communiqué and the President’s proposals.

The agreement had called for the formation of a transitional government, but did not seek Mr. Assad’s exit.

Resistance

The Russian and Iranian positions are expected to encounter resistance from the U. S. which has already rejected Mr. Assad’s plan.

Separately, without mincing words, Mr. Brahimi also trashed the Syrian initiative. Speaking to BBC, he said “what has come out is very much a repeat of previous initiatives that obviously did not work... it’s not really different and perhaps is even more sectarian and one-sided.

“The time of reforms granted magnanimously from above has passed. People want to have a say in how they are governed and they want to take hold of their own future.”

An indelible memory

A photo recently found at a school in Hiroshima city shows the mushroom cloud from the Hiroshima atomic bombing split in two. It is believed to have been taken about half-an-hour after the bombing on August 6, 1945, from a location some 10 km east of the hypocentre. Though its existence was known, the original print had never been found.

Google’s Schmidt on a ‘private’ visit to N. Korea

Google’s chairman Eric Schmidt — the highest-profile U.S. executive to visit North Korea — wants a first-hand look at North Korea’s economy and social media during his private visit that began on Monday

His visit has drawn criticism from the U.S. State Department as it comes only weeks after a controversial North Korean rocket launch; it has also prompted speculation about what the businessman hopes to accomplish.

Mr. Schmidt arrived with former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, who has travelled more than a half-dozen times to North Korea over the past 20 years.

Mr. Richardson, speaking ahead of the flight from Beijing, called the trip a private, humanitarian mission.

The trip was planned well before North Korea announced its plans to send a satellite into space, two people with knowledge of the delegation’s plans told The Associated Press.

Mr. Schmidt, a staunch proponent of Internet connectivity and openness, is expected to make a donation during the visit, while Mr. Richardson will try to discuss the detainment of a U.S. citizen jailed in Pyongyang, members of the delegation told AP.

Google now has offices in more than 40 countries, including all three of North Korea’s neighbours — Russia, South Korea and China, another country criticized for systematic Internet censorship. — AP

Tablet that gives a unique horizontal experience at a relatively cheap price

Tablets entering the Indian market, and indeed locally manufactured ones as well, can no longer pride themselves on being Ice Cream Sandwich-enabled (ICS) commercially available ones. The entry of the Google Nexus 7, which runs on the latest version of Android (Jelly Bean), has seen to that.

The Bangalore-based EAFT Technologies’ D90T model doesn’t bank on the ICS but seeks to deliver a 9.7-inch cornucopia of hardware with an almost budget-like price tag of Rs.16,999.

In the case of indigenous manufacturers one is never sure what stock experience to expect. Like most tablets, D90T comes with a glossy black bezel display but it is ringed by a dull grey band, made up of rigid plastic. In the back, the device is covered with a white-grey plastic chassis that feels inexpensively made — but does not flex when one holds it.

The tablet itself is horizontally built, with the camera and power button on the top ridge and longer edge respectively. On the right edge, there are the volume buttons and connectors for its charger, HDMI, micro-SD and headphones.

This dizzying orientation confuses initially and becomes frustrating when snapping pictures but could be passed off as a differentiating factor. The D90T weighs a hefty 609 gm (compared with Samsung Galaxy Tab’s 565 gm.) and comes with a 9.7’’ IPS (In-Plane Switching) glass screen.

While the IPS technology keeps touch-reaction times short and the sun glare away, there are a few minor build issues. The display can give a little, causing the screen to ripple if one presses it hard.

Active downloaders

will be happy

Inside D90T, you will find a dual-core Cortex A9 CPU clocked to 1.6 Ghz when running on one core, 1GB of RAM and 8GB of onboard storage. The good news for active downloaders, however, is that the device comes with a microSD slot which supports up to 32 GB of expandable memory. It also packs in Bluetooth 4.0 and Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n/.

D90T also comes with a 2 megapixel front-facing and rear-facing camera and also a speaker embedded on the lower right ridge. The camera isn’t really useful for anything but Google+ Hangouts and the like but it certainly gets the job done. Photography enthusiasts should probably stay away — but who buys a tablet for its camera?

There is a 3G service aboard, but only through external USB dongles.

The device boasts a 1024 X 768 IPS display. While the screen clearly isn’t 216 ppi, text and images look clear and crisp on the 9.7’’ screen. Not Retina display quality, but not too far off. Performance, however, isn’t exactly zippy.

While the Cortex processor is no slouch, there are a few notable delays while switching from the home screen to the gallery and back. This problem is only compounded when one takes into account the performance of Android’s ICS, compared with the ‘buttery’ Jellybean which vastly improved the touch response and smoothness of the general Android system.

Apps. open quickly

Most applications, however, open smoothly and quickly and 3D gaming in particular seems optimised for the tablet’s chipset — steady frame rates held throughout testing. The device’s specifications boast good battery life, eight hours of continuous video playback, which is more like six hours if the brightness is turned up to 75 per cent or more.

In general though, the amount of power drain relatively predictable, users will not find themselves continuously reaching for the charger!D90T isn’t just a decent, nearly 10’’ tablet, it is great when one considers the price tag (the limited launch offer comes at Rs. 14,999). Its competitors in the 10’’ space are all in the Rs. 25,000-Rs. 40,000 category, and it has enough bells and whistles on the hardware level to make it feel that it should be more expensive than it is.

If the Ice Cream Sandwich operating system puts you off, however, this isn’t for you. At this point, D90T delivers functionality and a unique ‘horizontal’ experience.

A ‘Black Beauty’ from Red Planet

A Martian meteorite containing 10 times more water than average could unlock clues to the Red Planet’s evolution from a warm, wet past to its current cold and dry state, scientists said on Thursday.

The new meteorite, designated NWA (Northwest Africa) 7034 and nicknamed ‘Black Beauty’, is a dark, fist-sized rock that landed in the Sahara Desert in 2011. Unlike most Martian meteorites, it is thought to be from the planet’s surface, not deeper inside, and to date from a crucial time in its evolution.

“Many scientists think that Mars was warm and wet in its early history, but the planet’s climate changed over time,” lead author Carl Agee, whose study was published in the U.S. journal Science Express told space.com.

Scientists believe NWA 7034 was formed from lava from a volcanic eruption on Mars around 2.1 billion years ago that cooled and hardened on the surface of the planet, possibly with the help of water.

“Perhaps most exciting is that the high water content could mean there was an interaction of the rocks with surface water either from volcanic magma, or from fluids from impacting comets during that time,” said co-author Andrew Steele. “It is the richest Martian meteorite geochemically and further analyses are bound to unleash more surprises.”

The abundance of water molecules in the rock — about 6,000 parts per million, 10 times more than other known meteorites — suggest water activity persisted on the Martian surface at that time, known as the Amazonian epoch.

More than 100 Martian meteorites have been discovered on Earth to date. — AFP

Black Beauty meteorite may reveal secrets of... by euronews-en

Barack Obama signs fiscal cliff bill.... with autopen

U.S. President Barack Obama, on Wednesday, signed into law the fiscal cliff bill that extends lower tax rates permanently on annual household income under $450,000 and postpones automatic spending cuts for two months.

“We received the bill late this afternoon, and it was immediately processed. A copy was delivered to the President for review. He then directed the bill be signed by autopen,” a senior White House official said. An autopen or signing machine is a device used for automatic signature.Called the “American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012,” the bill makes permanent the temporary rates on taxable income at or below $400,000 for individual filers and $450,000 for married individuals filing jointly.

Unemployment benefits:

It also permanently indexes the Alternative Minimum Tax exemption amount to the Consumer Price Index and extends emergency unemployment compensation benefits and Federal funding for unemployed workers for one year.Among other things, it continues current law Medicare payment rates for physicians’ services furnished through December 31, 2013, and provides a postponement of the Budget Control Act’s sequester for two months.

Harry Truman is believed to have been the first U.S. President to use the autopen as a way of responding to mail and signing checks.

Gerald Ford was the first President to openly acknowledge his use of the autopen.On May 26, 2011, Mr. Obama became the first President to use an autopen to sign a bill into law.While visiting France, Mr. Obama authorised the use of an autopen to create his signature which signed into law an extension of three key provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act. Republicans have opposed the use of autopen by Mr. Obama, questioning its constitutional validity.

The White House has, however, defended the use of autopen.

Iran claims two more U.S. drones

Iran has captured two miniature U.S made surveillance drones over the past 17 months, Iranian media reported on Wednesday.Several drone incidents over the past year have highlighted tension in the Gulf as Iran and the United States flex their military capabilities in a standoff over ran's disputed nuclear programme.

The lightweight RQ11 raven drones were brought down by Iranian air defence unit in separate incidents in August 2011 and November 2012, Rear Admiral Amir Rastegari told Fars news agency. "Much of the data of these drones has been decoded by the Army's jihad and research center," he said, without elaborating. Manufactures by AeroVironment, the RQ11 Raven has a range of 10km and is used by the U.S. military for low-altitude surveillance.

Iran said on Dec 4 that it had captured a U.S intelligence ScanEagle drone in its air space over the Gulf in the previous few days,but tha U.S said there was no evidence to support the assertion.

Iran claims 'capture' of US drone by afpenglish