Security reinforced at embassies after Rome bomb attack

Embassies around the world are taking extra security measures after a mail bomb exploded Thursday at the country’s embassy in Rome.

Italian investigators suspected Thursday’s attacks, less than three hours apart, were the work of anarchists, similar to the two-day wave of mail bombs which targeted several embassies in Athens last month – including those of Chile and Switzerland.

Mail bombs exploded in the hands of employees at the Swiss and Chilean embassies in Rome, seriously injuring two people and triggering heightened security checks at diplomatic missions. Italian police did security checks in all embassies and consulates in Rome after the incidents.

The attacks on embassies followed a bomb scare in Rome’s subway system on Tuesday, during which authorities discovered a suspicious package with wires and powder under a seat. The device turned out to be a fake bomb. Last month, a mail bomb was sent to the Chilean embassy in Athens, but no one was hurt.

Facebooks CEO Zuckerberg named Time Person of the Year 2010

Adding one more feather to the largest social network in the cyber world, Time has selected the founder and CEO of Facebook- Mark Zuckerberg -as its Person of the Year 2010.

Considering his attempts to build up and run the biggest social networking site in the world, which made ground breaking changes to the way people communicate and interact, Time has found him as the most befitting personality for the award this year.

Though, the announcement comes at a point when there are apprehensions about the way Facebook proliferates in the cyber world and the way it handles the private data added to its databases every day, Zuckerberg getting this most coveted honor will help Facebook have some real party time. Time has found that the web service Zuckerberg started while he was just 19, from his Harvard dorm, almost seven years ago, has now stitched together a twelfth of the humanity. If Facebook was a country it would have been third with the population just behind China and India. Responding to the announcement, Zuckerberg said that the award is a real honor and recognition not only for him but also for the efforts of his little team.

In the run to be the Person of the Year 2010, Zuckerberg overtook the Tea Party, Afghan President Hamid Karzai, WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange and the Chilean miners. Well, good day social networking.

Parcel bombs explode at Swiss and Russian embassies

ATHENS: Bombs exploded at the Swiss and Russian embassies in Athens on Tuesday and police found suspect packages at two other embassies in the latest wave of parcel bomb attacks to hit the Greek capital.

Police linked the attacks to Greek leftist guerrillas. Small bomb and gas canister attacks have been frequent in Greece since 2008 when the police killing of a teenager sparked the country’s worst riots in decades.

“A package was handed in at the entrance of the Swiss embassy in Athens today. Checks by our local employees revealed traces of metal,” said Swiss foreign ministry spokesman Georg Farago.

“When the external packaging was removed, the contents burst into flames,” he said, adding that there were no injuries.

Tuesday’s parcel bombs included one outside parliament, addressed to the Chilean embassy. Bombs were also found at the Chilean and

Cheers, tears as rescue shaft reaches Chile miners

COPIAPO: Chilean rescuers finished drilling an escape shaft on Saturday for 33 miners trapped deep underground after a cave-in over two months ago, triggering cheers and tears from relatives on the surface.

Rescue workers jumped for joy as the drill pushed through the last inches (cm) of a nearly 2,050 foot-long (625-metre) shaft they had drilled to free the men, live television footage showed. Family members of the miners ran up the hill above the mine waving Chilean flags.

Relatives and friends hugged and kissed as news spread the shaft was finished, and a bell rang and horns sounded in the tent settlement dubbed ‘Camp Hope’ erected at the mine. Some waved balloons, others sobbed in elation. Champagne corks popped.

“I’m so happy, I’m going to have my son back!” cried Alicia Campos, whose son, Daniel Herrera, is among the trapped.

Trapped for 65 days

India BlackBerry solution needs to pass through trials

NEW DELHI: Any solution provided by Research in Motion, makers of BlackBerry smartphones, must pass through field trials to satisfy India’s security concerns, a senior government source said on Friday.

“We will only accept a solution which will enable us lawful interception of BlackBerry services in the interest of national security,” the source told Reuters.

“The solution, if they come up with it, will have to go through field trials and satisfy our technical experts,” he added.

RIM faces an Aug. 31 deadline to give authorities the means to track and read BlackBerry Enterprise email. AGENCIES

Video shows Chile’s trapped miners in good spirits

COPIAPO: Miners trapped deep in a Chilean mine sent video footage showing them in good spirits as their families filed the first of potentially many lawsuits against the shaft owner.

Excerpts of the 45-minute video showed the men upbeat despite their 21-day ordeal in a hot and dank underground shelter.

“We’ve organized everything really well down here,” said one of the miners, sporting a scraggly beard and pointing to a corner reserved for medical supplies.

“This is where we entertain ourselves, where we have a meeting every day, where we make plans. This is where we pray,” he added in a video aired on Chilean television after it was shown to families of the 33 miners.

About a dozen other miners waved at the mini-camera, which was lowered earlier 700 meters (2,300 feet) below the surface via one of the metal capsules that have been ferrying supplies

Temperature rises to 50 in Sibi

QUETTA: Balochistan’s city of Sibi witnessed the warmest day of this summer on Sunday with mercury rising to 50 degrees Celsius, the Met Office said.

The maximum temperature in Quetta was recorded at 36 degrees Celsius.

According to the Met office, temperature in Dilbandin was recorded at 44 degrees Celsius, Nokandi 45.7, Kalat 30, Khuzdar 40, Lasbela 42, Pinjgor 42.5, Pisni 37, Jewani 38 and Gwadar 40.

The weather in Quetta and Zob will be cloudy while Naseerabad, Makran and Sibi will remain in the grip of hot and dry weather in the next 24 hours, it said.

Saif’s father calls for govt intervention

ISLAMABAD: Mahmood Khan, the father of Saif ur Rehman, has urged the Government of Pakistan to take an immediate step for the release of his son, who he said, is ‘innocent’.

Addressing a press conference here on Sunday, Khan said his son has gone to Chile for study and has nothing to do with any terrorist.

Khan said Saif was called by the US Embassy in Chile for examination of documents and then handed over to police.

The US Embassy in Chile has alleged that traces of TNT explosives were found on Saif’s educational documents. However, he said the Chilean police have failed to prove anything in this regard.

He slammed the Pakistani government for not doing anything to help hi son.

“I will myself go to Chile to fight legal battle for my son,” Khan announced.

Chile Earthquake Earth s Axis

Chile Earthquake Earth s Axis, Strong aftershocks have struck Chile again, rocking the battered town of Concepcion and sending panicked residents fleeing.

Soldiers deployed in the city urged people to evacuate following Wednesday’s temblors and the authorities issued a tsunami warning.

Media correspondent said there was pandemonium everywhere as people rushed to get to higher ground even though the city is quite far away from the sea, making the possibility of a tsunami very remote.

No damage or injuries were recorded in the aftershocks that came as Michelle Bachelet, the outgoing president, called for calm and asked people to stop hoarding supplies and help with relief efforts.

Speaking in the Chilean capital, Santiago, on Wednesday, she said: “We don’t have shortage. There is enough food, so everyone has to remain calm in places where stores are closed.

“We will replenish the stores. Banks are beginning to open … that is to say we will return to relative normality,” she said on national television.

Chile Earthquake Earth Axis

Chile Earthquake Earth Axis, JPL research scientist Richard Gross computed how Earth’s rotation should have changed as a result of the Feb. 27 quake. Using a complex model, he and fellow scientists came up with a preliminary calculation that the quake should have shortened the length of an Earth day by about 1.26 microseconds (a microsecond is one millionth of a second).

Photo of Earth From SpacePerhaps more impressive is how much the quake shifted Earth’s axis. Gross calculates the quake should have moved Earth’s figure axis (the axis about which Earth’s mass is balanced) by 2.7 milliarcseconds (about 8 centimeters, or 3 inches). Earth’s figure axis is not the same as its north-south axis; they are offset by about 10 meters (about 33 feet).

By comparison, Gross said the same model estimated the 2004 magnitude 9.1 Sumatran earthquake should have shortened the length of day by 6.8 microseconds and shifted Earth’s axis by 2.32 milliarcseconds (about 7 centimeters, or 2.76 inches).

Gross said that even though the Chilean earthquake is much smaller than the Sumatran quake, it is predicted to have changed the position of the figure axis by a bit more for two reasons. First, unlike the 2004 Sumatran earthquake, which was located near the equator, the 2010 Chilean earthquake was located in Earth’s mid-latitudes, which makes it more effective in shifting Earth’s figure axis. Second, the fault responsible for the 2010 Chiliean earthquake dips into Earth at a slightly steeper angle than does the fault responsible for the 2004 Sumatran earthquake. This makes the Chile fault more effective in moving Earth’s mass vertically and hence more effective in shifting Earth’s figure axis.

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Chile Earthquake Earth Axis was first posted on March 2, 2010 at 11:30 pm.

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