A different world view...

2005-12-06T22:16:00.000Z

PHOTO OF THE DAY: Shuttle Engine Testing
This 1981 photograph shows a space shuttle main engine undergoing a full power level 290.04 second test firing at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. The firings were part of a series of developmental testing designed to increase the amount of thrust available to the shuttle from its three main engines. The additional thrust allowed the shuttle to launch heavier payloads into orbit.

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Image Credit: NASA

2005-12-03T19:30:00.000Z

PHOTO OF THE DAY: A Danish Perspective

This astronaut photograph, taken on February 26, 2003, is centered on the Kingdom of Denmark. The entire region is overlain with deposits of Pleistocene glaciers. Taking advantage of remarkably fair weather over north central Europe for the time of year, the crew of the International Space Station took this panoramic view that extends from the North Sea coast of the Netherlands on the left to the Baltic Sea shores of Sweden on the right. The late-winter landscape has little snow cover except over northeastern Germany, Sweden, and the rugged mountains of Norway. Such images, composed by astronauts, provide unique, synoptic perspectives of the Earth's geography and natural processes.

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Image Credit: NASA

2005-12-02T20:15:00.000Z

INTERNATIONAL: Mulher com primeiro transplante facial recupera bem

A mulher de 38 anos submetida no domingo a um transplante facial inédito na história da medicina está a recuperar bem do ponto de vista clínico, psicológico e imunológico, revelou hoje o cirurgião Jean-Michel Dubernard.

O chefe do Serviço de Transplantes do Hospital Universitário de Lyon (sudeste francês) - que realizou o primeiro implante de uma mão em 1988 e de um antebraço em 2000 - esteve acompanhado pelo chefe do Serviço Maxilofacial do Hospital Universitário de Amiens (norte) ao falar numa conferência de imprensa.

Os cirurgiões verificaram com agradável surpresa, logo na segunda-feira, que a coloração e textura do implante do queixo, boca, nariz e de uma parte da bochecha retirados a uma mulher em estado de morte cerebral encefálica no Hospital Universitário de Lille (norte) - com prévia autorização da família -, ultrapassavam as suas melhores expectativas.

Quando a paciente acordou, após 15 horas de anestesia, Dubernard recordou que a primeira palavra dita foi: «Obrigado».

Retirada a traqueotomia, olhou abismada para a sua nova cara, que pertencera a outra pessoa. Depois, pôde beber um sumo de frutas e café, e comer morangos e chocolate.

Para evitar o risco de rejeição, a receptora, desfigurada pelas mordeduras de um cão de raça labrador, foi sujeita a um tratamento imunológico e a infiltrações de células da medula óssea da doadora, precisou Dubernard.

O professor adiantou que a sua paciente - divorciada e mãe de duas adolescentes - foi posta ao corrente de todos os riscos que enfrentava, por se tratar de uma intervenção sem precedentes: «Um por cento dos transplantados pode vir a padecer de linfomas (cancro), um terço morre, outro terço rejeita o implante e os restantes superam a operação».

Da doadora foram retirados a pele, tecidos subcutâneos, massa muscular, veias e artérias. Como a legislação francesa obriga à restituição digna do cadáver à família, uma equipa de especialistas levou a cabo uma «restauração apreciável», frisou a directora da Agência de Biomedicina do Ministério da Saúde, Carine Canby, também presente na conferência de imprensa.

Candy acentuou que «foram escrupulosamente respeitados todo os protocolos, e tomadas as precauções médicas e éticas que se impunham neste caso», bem como «alertada a paciente para o perigo de se tornar alvo do interesse dos Media».

In Diário Digital / Lusa

2005-12-02T13:06:00.000Z

INTERNATIONAL: Novo endereço na internet

A União Europeia vai ter uma nova morada para as suas páginas da internet, com a terminação «.eu». O novo endereço estará operacional a partir de 7 de Dezembro, anunciou a Comissão Europeia hoje em Bruxelas.

O domínio «eu» (iniciais de European Union) fica, assim, ao mesmo nível dos já conhecidos «.com» ou «.pt» (Portugal), permitindo às empresas, organismos públicos e cidadãos escolherem um nome Internet pan-europeu para as suas páginas «web» e endereços de correio electrónico.

Um período de arranque de quatro meses permitirá aos detentores de direitos prioritários - inclusivamente empresas - apresentarem pedidos de registo de nomes de domínios, desde que estejam estabelecidos na União Europeia.

A partir de 7 de Abril de 2006, o registo abrirá as suas portas aos pedidos do público.

In Expresso, 1Dez05

2005-11-27T18:38:00.000Z

INTERNACIONAL: Prostitutas manifestam-se em Madrid contra perseguição a clientes

Cerca de 200 prostitutas manifestaram-se este domingo em Madrid em protesto contra a ofensiva das autoridades municipais contra os seus clientes.

As profissionais do sexo argumentam que a ofensiva decidida pelo alcaide Ruiz-Gallardón prejudica as suas condições de trabalho.

As prostitutas queixam-se ainda que as medidas decretadas têm afectado as suas receitas, degradando a sua situação financeira e social.

In Diário Digital

2005-11-25T10:46:00.000Z

INTERNACIONAL: voo suspeito fez escala nos Açores

Um voo suspeito de ter sido utilizado para operações clandestinas da CIA para transporte de terroristas fez escala no aeroporto de Santa Maria, Açores, em Novembro de 2003. O avião teve como destino a base norte-americana de Guantánamo, onde os Estados Unidos têm quase todos os elementos capturados no Afeganistão e Iraque suspeitos de pertencerem à Al Qaeda.

A notícia faz hoje a manchete do jornal Diário de Notícias que conta ainda que há 34 voos suspeitos, que passaram por Portugal entre Junho de 2002 e Julho de 2004, e que poderão ter sido utilizados pela CIA, envolvendo rapto, sequestro e transporte de alegados terroristas.

O voo em causa foi operado pela Richmor Aviation, uma companhia criada em 1967, e que é conhecida no mercado pelos serviços que presta à CIA e outras estruturas idênticas dos EUA, informa o jornal.

Entre os 34 voos suspeitos só 15 foram operados pela empresa Richmor Aviation. Os restantes pertenceram à Jeppesen Dataplan, uma outra companhia charter norte-americana, que tem três agentes autorizados em Portugal.

Ao que o Diário de Notícias apurou, quer os voos da Richmor Aviation, quer os da Jeppesen Dataplan que passaram por Portugal tiveram - pelo menos oficialmente - natureza comercial ou semelhante. O que poderá ajudar a explicar a ausência de quaisquer registos a nível governamental.

In Diario Digital

2005-11-24T11:10:00.000Z

PORTUGAL: Perseguição acaba a tiro

Terça-feira, 21h00. Estrada das Neves, em Alcabideche, Cascais. Cinco jovens negros obrigam uma mulher, sob ameaça de um revólver, a entregar-lhe o Volkswagen Golf que conduzia. Nas duas horas que se seguiram, esta viatura foi usada em quatro assaltos a restaurantes.

PSP, GNR e Polícia Judiciária mobilizaram dezenas de efectivos a fim de travarem os assaltantes – que só foram detidos graças a uma barragem policial montada à saída da A5, na zona de Linda-a-Velha. Os cinco suspeitos, com idades compreendidas entre os 17 e os 21 anos, tinham já um vasto cadastro policial. Ontem, com um Volkswagen Golf cinzento nas mãos, lançaram-se numa vaga de assaltos. A primeira paragem foi às 22h40, no restaurante Arcos da Vila, em Vila Fria, Porto Salvo. Em apenas três minutos, a caixa registadora com 400 euros foi arrancada. Um casal que jantava calmamente ficou sem os telemóveis. Dez minutos depois, o alvo foi o restaurante Satélite dos Bifes, em Linda-a-Velha. Com a réplica de um revólver, dois membros do gang voltam a arrancar a caixa registadora. Por esta altura, já a PSP, GNR e a PJ estavam no rasto do grupo. Os cinco assaltantes ainda tiveram tempo para atacar o McDonalds, no Cacém, e a pizzaria Pizza na Brasa, em Sassoeiros, depois das 23h00. Às 23h20, um carro-patrulha da PSP consegue localizar o gang, na Avenida Copacabana, em Oeiras. A perseguição começa aí e prosseguiu, sempre em alta velocidade, em direcção à auto-estrada entre Lisboa e Cascais (A5). O gang conseguiu furar a primeira barreira policial, montada na Avenida do Rio de Janeiro, em Oeiras, chegando mesmo a arremessar uma das caixas registadoras contra a PSP. Já na A5, no sentido Cascais-Lisboa, o gang abalroou duas viaturas civis e escapou em direcção a Linda-a-Velha. Aqui, uma segunda barreira policial consegue, finalmente, travar a viatura em fuga. Os suspeitos saíram do carro. Há tiros de intimidação disparados por agentes da PSP e militares da GNR – e eles renderam-se.

POLÍCIAS JUNTAS CONTRA O GANG

Há meses que os cinco elementos deste gang andavam com as autoridades policiais atrás. E não eram só a PSP e a GNR que os tinham referenciados. Ao que apurou o CM, a Direcção Central de Combate ao Banditismo da Polícia Judiciária andava a reunir provas contra o gang, suspeito da prática de outros assaltos à mão armada, nas comarcas de Lisboa, Cascais e Sintra. Oriundos do Bairro do Pombal, em Oeiras, de São Marcos, no Cacém, e do Bairro 6 de Maio, na Venda Nova, Amadora, os cinco jovens começaram, ainda crianças, no mundo do crime. Apesar de ainda não terem cumprido penas de prisão efectivas, todos passaram já por colégios de reinserção social.

NOITE DE TERROR APREENSÕES

Para além do automóvel usado nos crimes, foi apreendido ao gang um revólver, oito telemóveis, 1370 euros, quatro pares de luvas, três caixas registadoras e duas malas de mulher.

CONDUÇÃO

Na fuga desenfreada às autoridades, os assaltantes puseram em perigo vários condutores. Além de terem passado sinais vermelhos, fizeram várias ultrapassagens irregulares.

TRIBUNAL

O interrogatório aos detidos começou ontem à tarde, no Tribunal de Cascais. Mas a complexidade do caso obrigou ao adiamento do interrogatório para hoje de amanhã.

In Correio da Manha 24Nov2005

2005-11-22T16:44:00.000Z

INTERNATIONAL: Einstein's famous formula turns 100

It is 100 years since Albert Einstein published one of the world's most famous formulas: E=MC², where E stands for energy, M for mass and C the speed of light.

Einstein effectively turned physics and cosmology upside down but many today are still likely to be hard-pressed to explain what it actually means.

One consequence of the equation has been to reveal why atom bombs and nuclear fuel create so much energy from such a small amount of mass.

Einstein's biographer, Professor Arthur Miller, says the formula not only staggered the world, the great genius himself could barely take it in.

"E=MC² says that energy and mass are equivalent to one another.

"Now, when Einstein discovered that equation it absolutely bowled him over because he realised that a very small amount of mass is equivalent to a huge amount of energy, because that small amount of mass is multiplied by a very large number, the velocity of light squared."

In BBC

2005-11-21T18:16:00.000Z

PHOTO OF THE DAY: Bhutan Himalayas

One of the highest mountain reliefs on Earth can be found in the tiny country of Bhutan. Sandwiched between eastern India and the Tibetan plateau, Bhutan hosts peaks that reach between 5,000 and 7,000 meters (16,000-23,000 feet) in height. These mountains are neighbors to Mount Everest, Earth’s highest peak at 8,850 meters (29,035 feet). The impressive Bhutan Himalayas are permanently capped with snow, which extends down valleys in long glacier tongues. Because of weather patterns on each side of the Himalaya and differences in topography, the glaciers on each side of the mountain are distinctly different from one another and are likely to react very differently to climate change.

Understanding how glaciers may evolve is important because mountain glaciers are the proverbial "canary in the coal mine" when it comes to tracking global warming. Along with polar ice, they are the things most sensitive to warming temperatures. On top of being harbingers for climate change, melting glaciers can cause catastrophic floods, making it essential to monitor them regularly. Since most glaciers are remote and hard to get to, remote sensing is crucial to ongoing monitoring.

Full Resolution

Image Credit: NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team

2005-11-21T17:38:00.000Z

INTERNATIONAL: Mulher tentou abrir porta de avião em pleno voo, para fumar

Uma mulher de nacionalidade francesa admitiu ter tentado sábado abrir uma porta de um avião a meio do voo, para fumar um cigarro, noticiou a BBC.

Sandrine Helene Sellies, 34 anos, que tem medo de andar de avião, tomou álcool e comprimidos para dormir antes de embarcar num voo de Hong Kong para Brisbane, Austrália, com a companhia aérea Cathay Pacific.

A mulher foi vista no avião a caminhar para uma porta, levando na mão um cigarro apagado e um isqueiro. Em seguida, começou a tentar forçar a saída de emergência, até ser impedida por uma hospedeira.

A advogada da mulher afirmou que a sua cliente não se lembra do que aconteceu e que esta tem um historial de sonambulismo.

A mulher deu-se como culpada em tribunal por ter colocado em perigo a segurança no avião e condenada a uma multa suspensa de mil dólares, que poderá ser aplicada se cometer qualquer crime nos próximos 12 meses.

In Diario Digital, 21NOV2005

2005-11-17T22:07:00.000Z

INTERNATIONAL:Police: 54 guns found in teen's home

LITITZ, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- Police said Thursday they found 54 firearms and ammunition at the Pennsylvania home of Daniel Ludwig, the 18-year-old accused of killing his girlfriend's parents.

According to a two-page "inventory return" filed Thursday in Lancaster County Court, the search happened Sunday, hours after Michael and Cathryn Borden were found dead in their home.

Listed among the firearms were rifles and handguns. Ludwig lived with his parents in Lititz. His father is a hunter. On the home page of David Ludwig's personal Web site is a link to photos showing him disemboweling a deer.

Police said Ludwig, 18, shot the Bordens to death and fled with their 14-year-old daughter, Kara. The killings apparently happened after an argument over the girl staying out all night with Ludwig, police said.

Ludwig was captured a day later after a high-speed chase in Indiana, nearly 600 miles away. (See map of teens' trail)

In his company was the girl, whom police are treating as a kidnapping victim in the case.

Ludwig is being held without bail in Lancaster County Prison, awaiting a pre-trial hearing next Wednesday. He is charged with two counts of homicide, one count of kidnapping and one count of reckless endangerment.

If convicted, he could face life in prison. The prosecutor in the case said he's still trying to decide whether to pursue the death penalty. (Full story)

The girl has not been charged, and police continue to investigate whether she was kidnapped or willingly accompanied Ludwig.

In CNN.com 17Nov2005

2005-11-17T21:37:00.000Z

SPORTS : New Zealand handed 2011 World Cup

New Zealand will host the 2011 Rugby World Cup after beating Japan and South Africa in an International Rugby Board secret ballot in Dublin.

South Africa were the first to be eliminated, and New Zealand then beat Japan in the second round of voting.

"Winning the right to host 2011 is an enormous honour and privilege but also an enormous responsibility," said NZ rugby spokesman Jock Hobbs.

New Zealand hosted - and won - the first World Cup in 1987.

South Africa did the same in 1995, while Japan were hoping to host the event for the first time.

"I want to acknowledge Japan and South Africa," Hobbs added. "It was a very tough day so we feel their disappointment.

"We thank the IRB councillors and we won't let them down. It's a proud day to be a Kiwi."

New Zealand lost the right host the event with Australia in 2003 after a row with the IRB over stadium sponsorship.

The Kiwis, reportedly way behind the other two in the betting going into the vote, based the bid on the impact New Zealand has made on the world stage while emphasising the popularity of rugby union in the country.

International Rugby Board chairman, Syd Millar, said: "I would like to congratulate New Zealand, a great rugby nation.

"We received three excellent tenders of the highest quality. Any one of the three could have hosted a successful tournament."

Asked about the decision to go for one of the traditional rugby union countries over Japan, Millar told Five Live: "Japan have learnt a lot about themselves and bidding and I think they'll be strong contenders next time."

Japanese Rugby Football Union president, Yoshiro Mori, expressed disappointment over his nation's unsuccessful bid.

"Many people supported our goal of making rugby global," said Mori.

"We did not receive the exact vote but we think that a lot of sympathy was with New Zealand because they weren't able to host the World Cup in 2003.

"All the boys in the meeting were saying that we have to make rugby global, so why do we have to wait for another five or 10 years to make this happen?"

The South African bid, led by former captain Francois Pienaar, was rejected after the first round of voting by IRB members.

Nveleli Ncula, deputy chief executive officer for South African Rugby Football Union said: "We thought we'd done our homework, this has come as a complete shock.

"We thought we'd prepared for every eventuality, we did a very very good job.

"We had the support of the government, and we had very positive responses from the unions but in a secret ballot anything can happen."

In BBC Sport 17Nov2005

2005-11-13T21:18:00.000Z

SPORTS : Eddie Guerrero(WWE) passes away

Eddie Guerrero was found dead in his hotel room in Minneapolis this morning at the age of 38. The only details available is that Guerrero came in yesterday for tonight's scheduled television tapings at the Target Center where he was scheduled in the main event. He was staying at the Marriott City Center hotel in downtown Minneapolis. He had an early wake-up call shortly after 7 a.m. that he didn't answer. Chavo Guerrero, who he was traveling with, called the room and again got no answer. When knocks on his hotel room door went unanswered, security got the door open and Eddie was found dead in the bathroom. The belief at this time is he suffered a heart attack while brushing his teeth. Many have noted the coincidence both of Guerrero passing away in a hotel room, similar to Brian Pillman, in 1997, in nearby Bloomington. Guerrero was one of the best wrestlers of this generation and immensely popular within the industry.

In Wrestling Observer 13Nov2005

2005-11-12T15:05:00.000Z

INTERNATIONAL:Woman with phone glued to ear robs four banks

Proving once again that technology is getting more sophisticated while criminals remain as dumb as ever is a brazen woman who has robbed four Wachovia branches in Northern Virginia since October 12, each time entering the banks unmasked and chatting on her cellphone the entire time. Although police will not disclose the contents of the notes she has passed to tellers, we can infer that the Cellphone Bandit started out using the threat of a bomb or gun and then escalated to brandishing an actual firearm. Police are currently vetting through mobile calls made around the same times/locations as the heists, which may prove successful since at least one of the tellers heard the woman speaking a series of “okay”s. As to why someone might want to chat on the phone during a crime, University of Waterloo sociology professor Fred Desrosches theorized that “maybe because she’s a woman, she feels less secure physically, and by talking to somebody, it makes her feel secure…or, maybe she’s talking to her mother.” So yet another crime has occurred here, folks, an assault on the notion that women can’t be just as cold and depraved in their criminal activity as men.

In Engadget 12Nov2005

2005-10-28T14:19:00.000+01:00

HI-TECH: Inflatable outdoor movie screen with DLP projector and DVD player

Speaking of discount projectors, check out this inflatable outdoor movie screen for sale at Sam’s Club. The SuperScreen LT is an inflatable screen with a 16:9 viewing area just over 10 feet diagonal. It takes less than five minutes to inflate via a built-in blower and includes a DLP projector and a portable DVD player. The SuperScreen LT bundle will cost you about $7,000.

In Luxist 28Oct2005

2005-10-28T13:46:00.000+01:00

ECONOMY : Oil profits off the charts

Yesterday oil companies released their third quarter profits, and they were large. ExxonMobil earned a net income of $9.92 billion, which is the most any U.S. company has earned in a three-month period… ever. Royal Dutch Shell raked in a little over $9 billion itself, while BP earned $6.5 billion, ConocoPhillips $3.8 billion and ChevronTexaco $3.9 billion. Any hardships caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita were offset by the record high price of crude oil, hitting $70/barrel at one point in the third quarter. USA Today reports that while consumer backlash is expected for such high profits during a time when most motorists are being pinched at the pump, the oil companies are stressing that their industry is cyclical and it wasn’t that long ago in 2001 when the combined quarterly profits of these companies totaled less than $10 billion. Aww… poor babies.

In Autoblog 28Oct2005

2005-10-28T13:02:00.000+01:00

HI-TECH: Câmaras digitais de sete marcas com chip defeituoso

A Sony, Canon, Minolta, Ricoh, Fuji, Nikon e Olympus estão há já três anos a instalar nas suas câmaras digitais um chip defeituoso. De acordo com o Wall Street Journal, o referido componente, que converte a luz num sinal eléctrico, pode falhar quando exposto ao calor e humidade, provocando distorções ou a perda de cor nas imagens recolhidas.

Segundo o jornal, os fabricantes estão a par do problema, mas apenas se oferecem para solucioná-lo quando os clientes recorrem ao serviço técnico com uma avaria.

As marcas que instalam o chip defeituoso são alguns dos maiores distribuidores de câmaras de todo o mundo, pelo que o problema pode afectar milhões de unidades, refere o jornal.

A Sony, identificada como produtora do chip por outros fabricantes, deixou de produzir o componente em Março de 2004, porém muitos distribuidores podem ainda tê-lo em armazém.

A empresa japonesa, segundo o jornal, tem-se recusado a avançar com estimativas sobre o número de câmaras que poderão ter instalado o referido chip.

O diário económico norte-americano publica uma lista de alguns dos modelos defeituosos: Sony (Cyber-shot, Mavica, Clie), Minolta (modelos 7i, 7Hi, A1, Xi, Xt, x20, S414, F300), FujiFilm (gama FinePix), Canon (vários modelos Powershot, incluíndo câmaras de vídeo), Nikon (CoolPix SQ, 3100, 57000), Ricoh, e Olympus.

In Diario Digital 28Oct2005

2005-10-18T13:41:00.000+01:00

SPORTS : SOCCER STAR FAILS DRUG TEST

PREMIERSHIP star Abel Xavier was last night facing a life ban after failing a drugs test.

The Middlesbrough and Portugal ace, 32, has already been suspended by world governing body Fifa.

He tested positive following a Uefa Cup game in Greece last month.

But the defender, whose previous clubs include Liverpool and Everton, will deny knowingly taking performance-boosting drugs.

He will claim he merely used an antiviral supplement bought from the US.

It is not yet known what banned substance was found in the routine test after the match on September 29.

Middlesbrough plan to stand by the £25,000-a-week star pending a follow-up test later this week.

Uefa chiefs meet next Monday to discuss his fate.

He has played six times for his club this season but was left out last weekend.

In Daily Mirror 18Oct2005

2005-10-13T14:44:00.000+01:00

HI-TECH:The Yamaha Gen-RYU hybrid motorcycle

Yamaha is dropping no less than 9 world premiere models on the 39th Tokyo Motor Show coming up later this month. Of special note to us is the Gen-Ryu hybrid motorcycle prototype (damn!) which combines the YZF-R6 600cc engine with a high output, high efficiency electric motor. Combine that with some fat wheels and that long wheelbase and you’ve got a machine said to perform and handle like a “1,000cc class machine.” Eco-power not workin’ it for ya? Ok, well consider it has a vehicle-to-vehicle distance warning system, a “cornering light system” for a little night time knee-scraping action, and a noise cancelation system which is said to allow for an intercom, voice navigation, hands-free cellphone calls, and music player — damn impressivereally works! And just for kicks, how about an LCD so you can watch those cagers mouth “what the…” as you roll on by.

In Engadget 13Oct2005

2005-10-12T10:28:00.000+01:00

PORTUGAL CRONIC: Sampaio distingue Kofi Annan

O Presidente da República prestou ontem “uma merecida e sincera homenagem” ao secretário-geral da ONU, atribuindo-lhe a Ordem da Liberdade.

Jorge Sampaio agradeceu a Kofi Annan, que ontem iniciou uma visita de dois dias a Portugal, o apoio prestado no processo da independência de Timor-Leste, que, disse, “não podemos esquecer”.

O Presidente, falando de Annan, salientou “o sentido de independência e a coragem que sempre tem demonstrado, a vigorosa defesa dos direitos humanos, o empenho que colocou na promoção do estatuto da mulher e na igualdade de género, a prioridade que tem atribuído à luta contra a pobreza e a doença”.

E, “para Portugal, a todos estes motivos para louvar a acção do secretário-geral acrescenta-se um que nos é especialmente caro e que quero particularmente destacar: refiro-me, naturalmente, ao papel fundamental de Vossa Excelência no processo que culminou na independência de Timor-Leste”.

Segundo Sampaio, “nesse processo tão atribulado (...) forjaram-se laços de cumplicidade que perduram para sempre”.

Annan, por seu lado, aceitou a distinção como “um testemunho dos laços estreitos” entre Portugal e a ONU. E sublinhou: “A nossa relação é marcada por uma próxima e frutuosa cooperação em muitas áreas, desde o avanço dos direitos humanos aos esforços conjuntos a favor do povo de Timor-Leste e do desenvolvimento de África, particularmente de Moçambique, Angola e Guiné-Bissau”

Além da condecoraçãoKofi Annan receberá hoje um doutoramento “Honoris Causa” pela Universidade Nova de Lisboa, uma distinção proposta por Freitas do Amaral, e que tem também agendado encontrar-se-á com o primeiro-ministro, José Sócrates.

EDUCAÇÃO É 'BEM PÚBLICO'

A educação é, para o Presidente da República, “um bem público de primeira necessidade”, uma vez que pode ajudar no combate à pobreza, à fome, à insegurança e à mortalidade, disse ontem no seu discurso, por ocasição da 33.ª conferência geral da UNESCO, em Paris.

“O que no nosso tempo distingue as sociedades e civilizações e lhes dá perspectivas de futuro e as condena é o seu grau de educação e o lugar que nelas ocupam a ciência, a cultura e a comunicação”, frisou Sampaio, que salientou ainda o papel da Língua Portuguesa e defendeu “uma maior cooperação entre a UNESCO e a CPLP (Comunidade dos Países de Língua Portuguesa) com vista ao desenvolvimento sustentado” do Português.

In Correio da Manha 12Oct2005

2005-09-27T17:09:00.000+01:00

IRELAND NEWS: Weapons witnesses 'IRA-nominated'

The DUP was "shocked" by what it learned in a meeting with decommissioning chief John de Chastelain, Ian Paisley has said.

He said the two church witnesses to disarmament were "IRA nominated" and the party now wants to meet them.

Catholic priest Father Alec Reid and ex-Methodist president Rev Harold Good were not appointed by the government or arms body, said Mr Paisley.

The party said the list of IRA weapons had been "revised and tampered with".

"These are the things that put a very big question over what has taken place," said Mr Paisley.

The DUP is now seeking a meeting with the British government.

It has questioned if the inventory list given by the intelligence services was accurate or "just cobbled together" for political expediency.

Mr Paisley claimed there had been a cover-up.

"We discovered that the witnesses turned up in the presence of the IRA. None of the commission heard from the government who the witnesses were," he said.

"Nor did the government certify them - they were not appointed by the government.

"It was suggested that the commission appointed them. The commission said no... they came and introduced themselves in the presence of the IRA and they said 'we are the appointed witnesses'."

Mr Paisley said he was told some of the IRA's weapons had already gone to dissident republican groups.

A DUP delegation is currently meeting the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC) in Belfast.

Speaking after his party's meeting with the arms body, SDLP chairman Alex Attwood said they felt "more reassured" that what was said in relation to IRA weapons had happened.

"Everybody needs to recognise that these men are nobody's fools," Mr Attwood said.

"Anybody who thinks they can make a fool of what those three men are trying to do and what the witnesses saw happen is very badly misled and misguided."
Mr Attwood said that the issue of loyalist weapons was also raised and the party had encouraged the commission to keep working to bring about a situation where loyalist paramilitaries might act.

Prime Minister Tony Blair said the completion of IRA decommissioning was the result of "a lot of hard work", which was worthwhile if it brought lasting peace.

In his keynote speech to the Labour Party conference in Brighton, he said: "There's a lesson for Northern Ireland - nothing good comes easy."

Earlier on Tuesday, Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain said unionist distrust was "natural", but the IRA's "historic move" brought the return of devolution closer.

Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness is going to the US to brief Irish Americans.

The SDLP, the Ulster Unionists and the Alliance Party have also been holding separate meetings with the general and his fellow commissioners on Tuesday.

'Sceptical and suspicious'

Mr Hain said he could understand Mr Paisley's scepticism, but asked him to respect the integrity of General de Chastelain.

"I wouldn't have expected Ian or the unionists to just bowl over and welcome everything with open arms because they've got a lot of cause to be sceptical and suspicious over the behaviour of the IRA in the past," he told BBC News on Tuesday.

"The IRA have often promised to do things and then reneged on them."

The Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC) reports next month and in January would consider whether the IRA was delivering on its promise to cease paramilitary and criminal activity, Mr Hain said earlier.

Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams has said he understands that Ian Paisley will need space.

"His concern is a process of change and a concern because he has lived and built a career off frightening people and on crisis, a concern that the future isn't going to be good for unionism," he said.

"The future is going to be good for everyone on this island, so we have to give Ian Paisley a wee bit of space."

The White House has welcomed the IRA's move as an "important first step" and the US State Department called on all paramilitary groups, whether loyalist or republican, to work with General de Chastelain to bring about complete disarmament.

Making his report on Monday, General De Chastelain said he had handled every gun and made an inventory of the ordnance, which was in line with estimates provided by the UK and Irish security services.

in BBC.com 27/09/2005

2005-09-27T16:50:00.000+01:00

INTERNATIONAL: Spain jails al-Jazeera reporter

A court in Madrid has jailed former al-Jazeera journalist Tayssir Alouni for collaborating with a terrorist organisation.

The Qatar-based pan-Arab news network said it would appeal against the conviction, which it called "unfair".

Alouni - who protests his innocence - interviewed Osama Bin Laden before the 11 September attacks.

He was sentenced to seven years for acting as financial courier to Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.

A Syrian-born Spanish citizen, Alouni was one of 24 defendants in Europe's biggest trial of Islamic extremists which has ended in Spain.

The suspected ringleader and 16 other defendants received long sentences for crimes related to the 11 September attacks and membership of a terrorist organisation - although not for committing the attacks themselves.

"The verdict is very disappointing and we consider it unfair and we will contact immediately the legal defence team to study the possibilities of appealing it," al-Jazeera director general Waddah Khanfar said in an interview with AFP.

Alouni denied carrying money intended for al-Qaeda members in Afghanistan, saying in his testimony that he was only doing his job as a journalist.

Until his arrest in 2003, he was among al-Jazeera's most prominent and popular correspondents, fronting the network's coverage of the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.

In BBC.com 27/09/2005

2005-09-27T14:49:00.000+01:00

PORTUGAL CRONIC: Aumento do IVA afasta Yahoo! da Madeira

O aumento da taxa máxima do IVA de 19 para 21% afastou o Yahoo! de se estabelecer na Região Autónoma da Madeira, adianta a edição desta terça-feira do Jornal de Negócios.

De acordo com a publicação, esta decisão poderá ter como consequência a deslocalização de mais de 70 milhões de euros de receita fiscal que entrariam nos cofres do Estado se o Yahoo! se registasse em Portugal.

Ainda segundo o jornal, a empresa já comunicou à Sociedade de Desenvolvimento da Madeira que pôs fim às negociações e que decidiu estabelecer-se no Luxemburgo, invocando o aumento do IVA como a razão da mudança de planos.

In Diario Digital 27/09/2005

2005-09-26T16:47:00.000+01:00

IRELAND NEWS: IRA scraps 'all arms'

BELFAST, Northern Ireland-The Irish Republican Army (IRA) has given up its entire arsenal of weapons after more than three decades of armed struggle against British rule, the chief disarmament monitor for Northern Ireland has said.

Retired Canadian General John de Chastelain said Monday that "very large quantities of arms, which we believe include all the arms in the IRA's possession," had been put beyond use.

The general said he and his fellow members on the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning had been provided with estimates in 2004 by the British and Irish security forces on what the IRA arsenal was believed to be.

An inventory of weapons decommissioned was "consistent with these estimates," he told a news conference in Belfast.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair hailed the move by the IRA as "an important development in the peace process and one we have all been waiting for, for a long time."

Analysts say it could help to restart the stalled peace process aimed at ending three decades of violence between the largely Roman Catholic IRA and its splinter groups and mostly Protestant loyalists, who want Northern Ireland to remain part of the United Kingdom. Nearly 4,000 people have died in what is known as "The Troubles."

The decommissioning move by the IRA came two months after the paramilitary group announced it was calling off its armed struggle for a united Ireland and would in future campaign purely politically, pledging also to destroy its weapons.

The arms destroyed included ammunition, rifles, machine guns, mortars, missiles, handguns, explosives and explosive substances, de Chastelain added.

All the weapons were rendered "permanently inaccessible or permanently unusable," the general said.

The IRA allowed two independent witnesses -- a Methodist minister and a Roman Catholic priest close to Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams -- to view the secret disarmament work conducted by de Chastelain and officials from Finland and the United States.

The IRA later issued a statement in which it said the "leadership can now confirm that the process of putting our arms verifiably beyond use has been completed."

De Chastelain, who has overseen the disarmament process under the 1998 Good Friday peace accord and in recent weeks has been in secret locations overseeing the weapons destruction, had earlier Monday given representatives of the British and Irish governments a confidential report on his work.

He said it remained for the commission to address the issue of loyalist arms.

CNN's Senior International Correspondent Nic Robertson said Monday's move was likely to provide an impetus to the peace process, which stalled in 2003 when the IRA refused to allow photographic proof of the decommissioning. (Full story)

But the Rev. Ian Paisley, whose hardline Democratic Unionist Party represents a majority of Protestants, dismissed the IRA moves in advance as inadequate.

The Democratic Unionists had demanded photographs, a detailed record and a Paisley-approved Protestant clergyman to be an independent witness.

The IRA continued to refuse photos and selected two religious witnesses themselves: the Rev. Harold Good, a former president of the Methodist Church in Ireland, and the Rev. Alex Reid, a Catholic priest.

"A witness who was appointed by the IRA is not going to have the same credibility," Democratic Unionist chairman Nigel Dodds told The Associated Press.

The IRA has observed a cease-fire since 1997, but the power-sharing government established under the Good Friday pact collapsed in 2002 after Sinn Fein was unable to get full IRA cooperation on disarmament.

Authorities blamed the IRA for a bank robbery late last year, and said the group was involved in a bar killing early this year that brought the ire of Britain, Ireland and the United States.

In Cnn.com 26/09/2005

2005-09-17T11:48:00.000+01:00

PORTUGAL CRONIC: Soares falha entrega de declaração de rendimentos, diz jornal

A declaração de rendimentos de Mário Soares referente às funções de deputado ao Parlamento Europeu (PE) não foi entregue no Tribunal Constitucional (TC) quando regressou a Portugal, em Junho de 2004, noticia o Correio da Manhã na edição de sábado.

De acordo com o diário, a última declaração entregue é de 1999, quando Mário Soares, antigo PR e actual candidato às próximas presidenciais, foi eleito eurodeputado.

O jornal explica que o assessor de Soares confirmou a situação, classificando-a «lapso», e adiantou que tudo «estará regularizado no início da próxima semana».

In Diario Digital 17/09/2005

2005-09-16T14:43:00.000+01:00

PORTUGAL CRONIC: Carrilho pouco diplomático e arrogante no final de Debate Televisivo

O candidato do PS à Câmara de Lisboa, Manuel Maria Carrilho, foi ontem protagonista de um episódio insólito de falta de diplomacia. No final do primeiro debate televisivo na SIC com o candidato do PSD, Carmona Rodrigues, Carrilho virou as costas ao adversário político quando este lhe estendeu a mão para o cumprimentar. Perplexo com o gesto, Carmona Rodrigues limitou-se a desabafar «ordinário».

Moderado pelo jornalista João Adelino Faria, o debate ficou marcado por uma forte agressividade verbal e sistemáticas trocas de acusações. Logo na sua intervenção inicial, Carmona Rodrigues disse estar a ser vítima «de insultos de carácter pessoal» por parte de Manuel Maria Carrilho, desafiando o candidato socialista a repeti-los «cara a cara». «Quem não tem hábitos democráticos, não consegue ouvir os outros», ripostou o candidato do PS, dizendo que a sua primeira medida, se for eleito presidente da Câmara, «será a de cancelar todos os contratos da autarquia para auto-propaganda».

Carrilho afirmou que «em Lisboa houve um despesismo descontrolado», garantindo que só o estudo prévio do arquitecto Frank Gery para o Parque Mayer terá custado 2,5 milhões de euros. A resposta de Carmona Rodrigues não se fez esperar: «Quem gasta em propaganda é Manuel Maria Carrilho, que espalhou pela cidade mais de 250 'outdoors' muitos meses antes das eleições», argumentando ainda que as despesas da Câmara de Lisboa com publicidade «têm baixado».

Ainda sobre qual dos dois candidatos é o mais despesista, o candidato do PSD fez uma alusão ao preço das obras numa casa de banho do Ministério da Cultura, que terão sido realizadas quando Manuel Maria Carrilho tutelava esta pasta no Governo de António Guterres. Carrilho mostrou-se indignado «com a calúnia» e referiu a Carmona que essa polémica foi a tribunal, tendo saído do processo «completamente ilibado». No entanto, o desfecho jurídico não demoveu Carmona Rodrigues, que insistiu saber a verba gasta na obra.

Carrilho reagiu de imediato, afirmando, com um tom de voz mais elevado, que «o nível da argumentação revela bem o carácter». Os dois candidatos voltaram a trocar acusações graves no final do debate, depois de o socialista ter acusado o candidato apoiado pelo PSD de ter «perdido toda a credibilidade ao prometer empregos pós-eleitorais». Manuel Maria Carrilho disse mesmo que o caso demonstra que se está perante «um verdadeiro mensalão» (caso de corrupção em investigação no Brasil) e que as promessas de Carmona Rodrigues haviam sido feitas aos dirigentes do Partido da Nova Democracia, Manuel Monteiro e Jorge Ferreira.

«Isso é uma calúnia e não lhe admito», reagiu Carmona Rodrigues, contrapondo que o arquitecto Manuel Salgado se afastou da lista de Manuel Maria Carrilho alegando «falta de carácter» da parte do candidato do PS à presidência da Câmara de Lisboa. No final de quase meia hora de discussão o tom não melhorou, com o socialista a garantir: «Se for eleito presidente da Câmara, vou servir Lisboa e não servir-me dela como fizeram Pedro Santana Lopes e Carmona Rodrigues». «Blasfémia, isso não aceito», ripostou o candidato apoiado pelo PSD.

Na discussão de temas como a educação, reabilitação urbana, cultura, construção do túnel do Marquês de Pombal, ou gestão de empresas municipais, o candidato do PS acusou o actual executivo camarário de paralisia. Manuel Maria Carrilho salientou que o executivo camarário concedeu «privilégios inacreditáveis» em termos salariais aos seus principais colaboradores. Na questão da segurança, defendeu a introdução da vídeo vigilância, que Carmona Rodrigues apenas disse aceitar em alguns pontos críticos em termos de segurança.

Carmona Rodrigues atacou depois o Governo socialista pela sua política em relação aos agentes de segurança e aos militares. Contudo, perante a recusa de Carrilho em falar do Governo, o candidato do PSD optou por se queixar da herança que recebeu da anterior câmara PS/PCP ao nível do estacionamento e da degradação das zonas históricas da capital. Carrilho contra-atacou: «Não houve reabilitação urbana na cidade. Houve multiplicação de painéis a dizer que houve reabilitação urbana».

In Expresso 16/09/2005

2005-09-01T21:31:00.000+01:00

IMAGE OF THE DAY:

New Orleans caos after Katrina

2005-09-01T21:04:00.000+01:00

SCIENCE : Study: Ozone layer has stopped shrinking

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The ozone layer has stopped shrinking but it will take decades to start recovering, U.S. scientists reported on Tuesday.

They said an international agreement to limit production of ozone-depleting chemicals has apparently worked, but the damage to ozone has not been halted completely.

An analysis of satellite records and surface monitoring instruments shows the ozone layer has grown a bit thicker in some parts of the world, but is still well below normal levels, the scientists report in Wednesday's issue of the Journal of Geophysical Research.

Elsewhere, the decline in ozone levels has stabilized, said Betsy Weatherhead, a researcher at the University of Colorado at Boulder and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "The observed changes may be evidence of ozone improvement in the atmosphere," she said in a statement.

The experts credited, at least in part, the 1987 Montreal Protocol which was ratified by more than 180 nations and set legally binding controls for on the production and consumption of ozone-depleting gases containing chlorine and bromine.

The prime suspects in ozone destruction are chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, once commonly used in refrigeration, air conditioning and industrial cleaning.

"These early signs indicate one of the strongest success stories of international cooperation in the face of an environmental threat," said NOAA administrator Conrad Lautenbacher.

Weatherhead noted that methane levels, water vapor and air temperatures will continue to affect future ozone levels.

"Even after all chlorine compounds are out of the system, it is unlikely that ozone levels will stabilize at the same levels," she said.

"Chemicals pumped into Earth's atmosphere decades ago still are affecting ozone levels today," said Sherwood Roland of the University of California Irvine. "This problem was a long time in the making, and because of the persistence of these chlorine compounds, there is no short-term fix."

The ozone layer remains so thin that cancer-causing ultraviolet radiation is still getting through.

"This study provides some very encouraging news," said Mike Repacholi of the World Health Organization. "But the major cause of skin cancer is still human behavior, including tanning and sunburns that result from a lack of proper skin protection."

In CNN.com

2005-08-30T14:07:00.000+01:00

IMAGE OF THE DAY:

Hurricane Katrina.

2005-08-29T14:12:00.000+01:00

MUSIC : Green Day has dream night with seven MTV videos awards

MIAMI, Florida (AP) -- Rock was resplendent at the MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday night, as the veteran punk group Green Day took home seven moonmen and newcomers The Killers and Fall Out Boy won one each.

Green Day, who arrived at the venue in the vintage green convertible from their gritty "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" video, won best rock video and video of the year for the clip -- two of their leading eight nominations. They also won the viewer's choice award, best group and several technical categories, losing only to Gwen Stefani's "What You Waiting For?" for art direction.

In recent years, hip-hop and pop have dominated the show, especially in the major categories. Not this year: My Chemical Romance and Coldplay were among the showcase performances, and Kanye West was the only rapper to win an "all-genre" award, with his "Jesus Walks" taking best male video.

"It's great to know that rock music still has a place at MTV," said Green Day lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong.

The Killers won for best new artist. Fall Out Boy won the MTV2 award for their song "Sugar, We're Going Down," beating out artists like Mike Jones, My Chemical Romance and reggaeton star Daddy Yankee.

But Pete Weintz of Fall Out Boy downplayed the "rock is resurgent" angle. "Whatever is going to happen is going to happen organically," he told The Associated Press backstage. "The return of rock doesn't mean anything else is going away."

Before the awards began, MTV dodged two major disasters -- one from nature, the other from the barrel of a gun.

MC Hammer back

The annual bash was briefly overshadowed by Hurricane Katrina, which hit southern Florida on Thursday and killed several people. As the storm passed, a celebratory mood took over the city -- until early Sunday morning, when rap mogul Suge Knight was targeted by gunfire at a Kanye West party.

Knight was shot in the leg and scheduled for surgery at a Miami hospital; his lawyers would not release his condition, which was not expected to be life-threatening.

MTV vowed that neither Katrina nor Suge would affect the ceremonies -- and they didn't.

"The theme of tonight is, anything can happen," proclaimed host Diddy, whose entrance included dancers, pyrotechnics and a cascading waterfall -- a spectacle that rivaled the show's actual performances.

Ludacris managed to turn his hedonistic "Pimpin' All Over the World" into a multicultural Mardi Gras-like extravaganza, complete with steel drummers, African dancers and, of course, around-the-way booty-shaking girls. Miami booty king Luke of 2 Live Crew fame brought a bevy of girls for his cameo appearance. But one of the biggest surprises was MC Hammer, recapturing some of his glory while shaking to his '90s hit, "U Can't Touch This."

Speaking of booty, Eva Longoria of showed hers -- and a lot more -- with a skimpy one-piece pink bathing suit that featured a plunging neckline reminiscent of J.Lo back when she was dating a guy named Puff Daddy.

"Hey Diddy, you said anything goes, and I wasn't going to let a little hurricane prevent me from wearing my bathing suit!" said the "Desperate Housewives" star.

Not to be outdone, Paulina Rubio wore a skintight lace Dolce & Gabbana vintage gown that showed off her thong. She calmly eluded the reaching arm of co-presenter Lil Jon.

Another flashback came in a tribute to Diddy's protege, the late Notorious B.I.G., featuring Diddy "conducting" a string orchestra as the legendary rapper's songs played. Snoop Dogg came out at the end and delivered a verse on the B.I.G. hit "Warning."

Kelly Clarkson's "Since U Been Gone" won two awards, for best female and pop video. Also winning two awards were Missy Elliott, the Gorillaz and Stefani.

The evening's most inexplicable moment may have come from R. Kelly, who remains a chart-topper while awaiting trial on child pornography charges.

On a bedroom set that looked like a scene from a way-off-Broadway play, Kelly deliberately lip-synced highlights of his five-part soap opera infidelity song, "Trapped In The Closet," then debuted a new chapter involving a cheating wife, a cheating husband and his boyfriend.

White carpet arrivals

Some of the night's more decadent moments came during the pre-show arrivals. Lil Jon came by sea on what looked to be a three-story, pimp-my-yacht contraption. The prison-bound Lil' Kim arrived on the white carpet in a Rolls Royce Phantom, though she looked somewhat demure in her low-cut mauve dress -- no pasties or dangling appendages this year from the diminutive rapper.

"I might show some leg," teased the star, who is due to start serving a year-and-a-day sentence in September on a perjury conviction. When MTV personality Sway delicately asked if she had anything to say to fans who "might not see you for a while," Lil Kim said: "You can write me letters."

"Entourage" star Jeremy Piven couldn't help but tease Kim as they presented best rap video, which was won by Ludacris.

"You know, she's about to go to the big house, for lying," he said. "I'd like to place a call to the warden and upgrade your situation."

The much-hyped white carpet was one of one of the Diddy-designed elements of the show. Another was the "Diddy Fashion Challenge" -- in which he vowed to give away $50,000 each to the charities of the best dressed female and male at the event, won by Snoop and Stefani.

Diddy himself was out of the running, though you wouldn't know it -- he made three wardrobe changes in the first half-hour alone.

In CNN.com

2005-08-28T12:44:00.000+01:00

PORTUGAL CRONIC: Pagar e protestar

O ritual é diário para muitos consumidores. Em filas nas lojas ou à espera, de telefone na mão, os clientes não acertam o passo com os fornecedores de serviços. As falhas repetem-se ano após ano e as más práticas sucedem-se.

Segundo a DECO, que todos os anos divulga uma lista com as empresas que são alvo frequente de reclamações, os serviços de Internet e de telecomunicações, o gás ou as vendas agressivas fazem parte de um dia-a-dia conturbado para os portugueses.

As lojas da TV Cabo no Tagus Park, em Porto Salvo (Oeiras), são um dos espelhos desta realidade. Todos os dias, à hora do almoço, as pessoas acotovelam-se e esperam a chamada pelo número de senha. Para muitos, pode ser o início de um longo percurso. Os funcionários, nunca mais de três ou quatro por loja, não têm mãos a medir. E, às vezes, não têm resposta para dar. Pelo menos, a que o cliente espera, a solução do problema.

De acordo com as estatísticas das associações de consumidores, a TV Cabo/Netcabo ocupa lugar cimeiro, no que toca a reclamações, entre as empresas fornecedoras de Internet. A navegação «on line» parece, de resto, ser um problema para os consumidores portugueses: em 2004 houve 699 queixas registadas na DECO e, este ano, já se contavam 528 processos (até 30 de Junho), sempre com a TV Cabo/Netcabo à frente, seguida pela Telepac e pela ONI Telecom.

Ao mesmo tempo, o serviço da Netcabo foi eleito o melhor dos fornecedores de Internet nacionais pelos leitores da revista «PC Guia» pelo segundo ano consecutivo. A contradição explica-se, aparentemente, não pela forma como a Internet funciona, mas por tudo o que envolve o processo de interacção da empresa com o consumidor.

Sérgio Oliveira, gestor de produto de uma empresa de produtos dietéticos, 32 anos, é um dos queixosos que ocupa a «zona cinzenta» que escapa às estatísticas. Como outros clientes, Sérgio ainda não levou o seu caso às associações de defesa do consumidor.

Aos telefonemas que fez para o «call center» da TV Cabo já perdeu a conta. É também um assíduo da loja do Tagus Park. «Falta concorrência a esta empresa. É um problema de monopólio», desabafa, com uma série de facturas na mão. A queixa de Sérgio é simples. Pediu, a 14 de Março, que lhe instalassem o sistema de Internet Netcabo Free. E foi esperando pela activação do serviço. Até hoje. O caso complicou-se quando lhe chegou uma factura a casa de 88 euros, o que não correspondia aos valores do consumo do único serviço que usufruía da empresa, o clássico de televisão (21,40 euros antes da subida do IVA, a 1 de Julho passado). Cobravam-lhe também a anuidade do Netcabo Free (25 euros) e uma quantia relativa à instalação de linha.

Sérgio decidiu pagar apenas o serviço de que fazia uso efectivo. Entretanto, foi pedindo informações sobre a demora inexplicável. Mas aí deparava-se com um novo problema, o do atendimento: «Só me encaminharam para alguém ligado à Netcabo ao fim de cinco chamadas. E disseram-me, depois, que o problema era do meu computador, da placa de rede». Mas não era. Passado algum tempo, explicaram-lhe que poderia ser uma outra incompatibilidade. Entretanto, só este mês lhe regularizaram a situação da factura excedente. O serviço de Internet é que nem vê-lo.

Queixas diversas

Versões como as de Sérgio Oliveira confirmam-se em algumas queixas apresentadas na DECO a propósito de outro serviço de Internet da TV Cabo, o «ZZT». O tempo que medeia entre o pedido e o uso efectivo do serviço pode ultrapassar vários meses, com cobranças efectuadas antes do cliente ter acesso à Internet.

Ao ouvir o desabafo de Sérgio Oliveira, outros clientes que partilharam a espera na loja são lestos a apresentar os seus casos. Ora o problema é a factura - um dos presentes queixava-se de «subtotais» acrescentados ao valor fixo que paga, todos os meses, pelo seu consumo de Internet - cuja valia teima em não bater certo com o que muitos dos beneficiários do serviço contam, ora é a dificuldade que têm de transferir os serviços quando mudam de residência, como contava, desiludido, outro cliente, que espera há oito meses pela reactivação do serviço na sua nova casa. Um serviço que, por sinal, continuaram a cobrar-lhe.

Um outro caso ligado à cibernáutica é o de Sérgio Monteiro, um empregado de mesa de 30 anos. Em Dezembro, alterou o seu tarifário de Internet, cobrado a cada meia hora de utilização, para um fixo, a 22,50 euros por mês. Ia à loja do Tagus Park pela terceira vez para tentar resolver um mal-entendido na factura. «De cada vez que peço a mudança de tarifário, as facturas que recebo a seguir ao pedido vêm erradas durante quatro, cinco ou seis meses», explica.

Já tinha passado pela mesma situação há três anos. Só que, desta vez, muniu-se de um contrato para fazer a mudança de tarifas. Acontece é que as contas continuaram a ser cobradas segundo o tarifário anterior. Resultado: como o pedido de transferência de tarifário não foi alterado no sistema informático - de acordo com o que lhe disseram na loja -, Sérgio recebeu uma factura que ultrapassava os 1000 euros ao fim de poucos meses. Ligou para a TV Cabo para regularizar a situação e garantiram-lhe, tanto ao telefone quanto ao balcão da loja, que estavam a tentar regularizar o assunto. Porém, cortaram-lhe o serviço, televisão incluída.

In Expresso,26 Agosto 2005

2005-08-28T12:26:00.000+01:00

HI-TECH:Cellphone kills Nigerian man while plugged into wall charger

A man in Nigeria was electrocuted and killed when he answered his cellphone while it was charging: “electricity flowed into the cell phone unrestrained and the young man was thrown to the ground with a heavy thud.” He was then apparently dead upon arrival at the nearest hospital.

In Engadget

2005-08-28T12:18:00.000+01:00

HI-TECH:GM will launch self-driving car in 2008

This will totally give new meaning to the term auto-pilot: GM will be launching a vehicle with an actual self-driving system in its 2008 Opel Vectra. That’s right — think KITT, people, but without the smarmy voice (well, we assume, anyway). It will be able to pilot itself even in heavy traffic at up to 60 mph, which is more than we can say for most of our friends, really. It’ll be using lasers, a video camera and a sophisticated computer brain to recognize signs and detect obstacles. Let’s hope the OS it uses is, um, extremely stable.

In Engadget

2005-08-26T15:48:00.000+01:00

IMAGE OF THE DAY:

School children enact the life of Hindu God Krishna during Janamashtami celebration in Ahmadabad on Wednesday, August 24, 2005. Janamashtami or the birth anniversary of Lord Krishna will be celebrated on August 27.

2005-08-21T21:35:00.000+01:00

HI-TECH: Bluetooth helps Saudis break taboos

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) -- The restaurant, like all Riyadh eateries, has taken precautions to prevent its male and female diners from seeing or contacting each other.

Circular white walls surround each table in the family section, open only to women alone or women accompanied by close male relatives. Other male diners are on lower floors.

Yet despite the barriers, the men and women flirt and exchange phone numbers, photos and kisses.

The rest of this news is in this link from CNN.

2005-08-21T20:44:00.000+01:00

PORTUGAL CRONIC:Portugal plea for aid on wildfires

LISBON, Portugal (AP) -- Portugal has asked the European Union for help in fighting massive wildfires after more than 50 blazes burned through forests and farmland across the country.

Conditions had deteriorated to a point where Portuguese authorities could not cope without external help, Interior minister Antonio Costa told reporters late Saturday.

"This is one of the worst years we've had for fires recently," Costa said. "We cannot overlook the serious effects of the drought we're undergoing and help is now needed."

Two Canadair firefighting planes were expected to arrive in Portugal from France on Sunday afternoon to help fight the 24 fires still ablaze.

Portugal's worst drought in years has helped the flames spread. So far, 11 firefighters and four civilians have been killed in this year's fires, while 50 houses have been completely destroyed.

The most serious fire was in the Pampilhosa da Serra region, in the district of Coimbra, 196 kilometers (122 miles) north of Lisbon. Although the fire had seemingly been extinguished last Wednesday after burning for five days, the flames flared up again on Friday, forcing several villages to be evacuated.

So far, 30,000 hectares (74,130 acres) of the region's 39,000 hectares (96,369.00 acres) have been destroyed, and 200 firefighters, 74 firetrucks and 25 firefighting planes and helicopters were battling the flames in the area.

Overall, about 2,900 firefighters helped by 795 firetrucks have fought blazes in Portugal. More than 200 police officers were also expected to arrive in the fire-stricken areas in the country's northern and central regions to help evacuate villages, block or reopen roads and ensure access for firetrucks and ambulances.

High temperatures and strong winds, which rekindled several fires on Saturday, were also forecast for Sunday and the coming days. Weather conditions meant 16 of Portugal's 18 districts were at the highest possible risk for fires, weather services said.

Portugal's summer wildfires have so far burned through 140,000 hectares (345,940 acres), already more than the total area burned last year, officials said.

Last year's fires burned 129,652 hectares (320,370 acres) and in 2003 -- the worst for wildfires in the last two decades -- the blazes burned 425,000 hectares (1,050,175 acres).

In CNN 21Aug2005

2005-08-21T13:44:00.000+01:00

INTERNATIONAL: Steve Jobs,the next governor of California?

Could it be Stevie J. vs. the Governator in next year’s California gubernatorial race? We always figured the only political office he’d ever settle for would be “God”, or perhaps, “Supreme Deity,” but the San Francisco Chronicle reports that “Democratic actvists” have been whispering about the possibility of Steve Jobs running for governor of California in the 2006 election (of course, they’re also talking about a Robin Williams candidacy, so take this as you will). He’d definitely have the Mac fanatic vote all locked up if he decides to run, but it’s hard to imagine His Steveness dealing with something as chaotic and disorderly as California’s political system.
In Engadget 21Ago2005

2005-08-21T13:26:00.000+01:00

PORTUGAL CRONIC: Assessor detido pela PSP

Um assessor da ministra da Educação, Maria de Lurdes Rodrigues, foi ontem detido pela PSP de Lisboa, na Avenida 24 de Julho, por ter sido apanhado a conduzir com uma taxa de álcool elevada.

Alberto Praxetes Correia, que tem o estatuto de assessor principal, foi submetido ao teste de alcoolemia – e acusou 2,43 gramas de álcool por litro de sangue, cerca de cinco vezes superior ao máximo permitido por lei. O assessor de Maria de Lurdes Rodrigues foi mandado parar, pelas 09h30 de ontem, no âmbito de uma gigantesca operação levada a cabo pela Divisão de Trânsito (DT) da PSP de Lisboa em vários pontos da capital. Segundo fonte policial, conduzia um Mercedes, no sentido Cais do Sodré-Alcântara. “Os agentes ordenaram-lhe que saísse do carro e ele acedeu a fazer o teste de alcoolemia. Mas no fim reagiu mal: exibiu um cartão de funcionário governamental e ameaçou os agentes”, disse ao CM a mesma fonte policial. Alberto Praxetes Correia recebeu, de imediato, voz de detenção – por ter acusado uma taxa de álcool de 2,43 gramas de álcool por litro de sangue. O máximo permitido pelo Código da Estrada é 0,49. Taxas superiores a 1,2 são consideradas crime. O assessor foi notificado para comparecer na segunda-feira de manhã no Tribunal de Pequena Instância Criminal, em Lisboa. Arrisca uma pena de prisão até um ano, remível a multa, e à apreensão da carta por um período mínimo de três meses.
In Correio da Manha 21Ago2005

2005-08-17T13:40:00.000+01:00

HI-TECH: Gamepark XGP handheld game console

Gamepark is a company that apparently only releases products that are anagrams involving the letters G, P, and X, for on the heels of their GPX2 media player comes the XGP game console. It looks a little bit like the bastard child of a PSP and a Sidekick, so if you happen to own both of those devices, you might consider breeding them and seeing if you can make one of these.

In Engadget

2005-08-16T14:31:00.001+01:00

INTERNATIONAL: Cell phone could have led to death of tourist on Great Wall

A mobile phone could have led to the death of a 25-year-old Greek tourist who was struck by a bolt of lightening on the Great Wall near Beijing.

"Mobile phones in use can induce lightning strikes," said an employee surnamed Wang with the management office at the Simatai section of the Great Wall.

She said yesterday that the Simatai section of the wall was equipped with lightning rods that are supposed to protect people from being struck, but "it was possible" that the tragedy was caused by the mobile phones the Greek woman and her male companion had on them. The 30-year-old Greek man was slightly injured.

Wang said, "We usually advise tourists to turn off their mobile phones in stormy weathers."

Last year, 10 tourists seeking shelter from the rain in a beacon tower at Juyong Pass, another section of the Great Wall, were also struck by lightning when one of them was using a mobile phone. Fortunately, no one was seriously injured.

Experts warn that in stormy weather, tourists should turn off their mobile phones in open areas, and stay away from lakes, ponds, trees, wire poles and pavilions, which are often hit by lightening.

The latest accident occurred just after noon on Friday. Medical workers reached the spot just over an hour later and found the woman already dead.

A local villager selling souvenirs on the Great Wall said there was only a little rain in the morning, but it developed into a thunderstorm around noon.

"The thunder roared and lightning flashed, with strong winds and heavy rain," he recalled. "We all rushed down the hill for fear of being hit by a bolt of lightening."

The employee with the management office said they stopped selling tickets for the wall at about 12:30 pm because of the thunderstorm.

In China Daily 15 / 08 / 2005

2005-08-11T12:35:00.000+01:00

HI-TECH: Mopah : the iPod powered scooter

The Mopah scooter actually uses your iPod’s unique serial number as its key, and won’t power on unless it’s docked. It rolls when you roll, turning you into a portable DJ. We know you wanna go out and buy one, but you can’t — unless you find an angel investor to help Michael Tseng to commercialize his senior thesis project. For more information go to this website : http://www.myanalogreality.com/

In Engadget

2005-08-10T20:16:00.000+01:00

INTERNATIONAL: Cash machine fraudsters caught

AN EAST European gang face jail after stealing more than £200,000 in a cash machine cloning scam that police fear is costing Britain’s banks at least £1 million a week.

The three Romanians and one Chechen asylum-seeker were arrested at a hotel in South Wales, where they had built a device designed to fit over the fascia of a cash dispenser outside a Cardiff supermarket. The device included a “skimmer”, which copied the information on the card’s magnetic strip, and a tiny camera that transmitted a moving image of the customer’ s PIN being entered on the keypad.

Dozens of similar scams have been recorded in recent months from Bristol to Tyneside, conducted mainly by East Europeans. According to the Association for Payment Clearing Services, cloning cost £61 million last year, an 85 per cent increase on the previous year, making it Britain’s fastest-growing serious crime. This year the figure is expected to exceed £100 million.

Police in Cardiff had a lucky break when they were alerted by a hotel manager who suspected that four of his guests were involved in a big drugs deal.

A spokesman for the Cathedral Hotel, where the men were arrested, said: “Usually when people stay for the weekend they unpack, change and go out for the night. These four men were coming in then going straight back out.”

Instead of drugs, officers who searched the men’s rooms found the components of fake cash machines and two laptop computers that contained card and PIN details of 129 accounts, mainly from Essex, East London and South Wales.

DC Paul Giess, the investigating officer, said: “The false fascias were to be made to order to fit different machines. We found all the components they would have needed and even the soldering iron.”

Cardiff Crown Court heard that three of the men — Lucian Carabgeac, 32, Ivan Grosu, 23, and Florin Vornicu, 31 — are illegal immigrants from Romania. The fourth, Rulan Ashan, 19, is a Chechen asylum-seeker. They are believed to have been based in London but travelled to Cardiff. Vornicu had given a different name when first brought before the court and had entered Britain on a forged Latvian passport.

Steve Donoghue, for the prosecution, told the court that the men could have made up to £200,000 from the scam. He added: “This was a sophisticated operation to take money from ATM cash machines. The prosecution cannot say what role each of them played in the conspiracy but we say they were all in it together. There is also evidence of other people being involved because a car was seen speeding away from the hotel.” The four men admitted conspiring to steal money from clearing banks. Judge David Morris adjourned sentence until next week.

Since it began five years ago, cash machine fraud has swiftly increased in sophistication, staying one step ahead of the banks’ attempts to control it. In a recent case in Whitley Bay, Tyneside, fraudsters jammed other cash machines in the area so that customers were forced to use a cloned Nationwide machine.

In June, members of another Romanian gang were convicted in London after they cloned 1,233 cards and made more than £640,000.

The gangs always stay close to the cloned cash machine to make sure that no one interferes with it. In November last year Andy Harper, a shop manager, was withdrawing money from a Barclays cash machine in Brislington, Bristol, when he noticed that the fascia was loose.

He pressed “Cancel” and then pulled the false fascia off. As he was walking back to his car he was attacked by three men who wrestled it off him and made their getaway.

The criminal gangs behind such a sophisticated scam sometimes make elementary mistakes. Police in Southend are searching for three men and a woman of “Eastern European” appearance who forgot to wipe the digital memory card before putting it in a camera inside a fake fascia.

The pictures showed them posing with waxworks at Madame Tussauds. A spokesman for Essex Police said: “We don’t know who these people are but we have ruled out Gary Lineker, John Travolta and Nicolas Cage from our inquiries.”

In Times online 05 August 2005

2005-08-09T21:54:00.000+01:00

HI-TECH:Massive ID Theft Ring Uncovered

Officials at Sunbelt Software, a Clearwater, Florida-based vendor of anti-spyware tools, say the company stumbled upon a massive ID theft ring that is using a well-known spyware program to break into and systematically steal confidential information from an unknown number of computers worldwide.

The operation was discovered last week during research Sunbelt was doing on a spyware program belonging to a particularly dangerous class of browser hijacking tools called CoolWebSearch (CWS), according to Sunbelt's president, Alex Eckelberry.

CWS programs are extremely hard to detect and remove, and are used to redirect users to Web sites that use spyware tools to collect a variety of information from infected computers.

The CWS variant being researched by Sunbelt turned infected systems into spam zombies and uploaded a wide variety of personal information to a remote server apparently located in the U.S. That server holds a "treasure trove of information" for ID thieves, Eckelberry says.

Sunbelt's research showed that the information being uploaded to the remote server included chat sessions, user names, passwords and bank information, he says. The bank information included details on one company bank account with more than $350,000 in deposits and another belonging to a small California company with over $11,000 in readily accessible cash, he says.

Many of the records being uploaded also contained EBay account information, he says. Among the highly personal bits of information Sunbelt was able to retrieve from the server were one family's vacation plans, instructions to a limo driver to pick up passengers from an airport, and details about one computer user with a penchant for pedophilia.

Sunbelt officials did not say how they accessed the material. But the existence of a large file that the company said it retrieved from the remote server was confirmed by Computerworld. Sunbelt says the file contained user names, addresses, account information, phone numbers, chat session logs, monthly car payment information, and salary data.

"It's one of the most egregious things we have ever seen," says Eckelberry. "We know this kind of data is out there, but this is the first time we actually have the data that the criminals are using."

Information gathered from infected computers is uploaded to the remote server and stored in highly organized files that appear to be accessed by multiple ID thieves, Eckelberry says. The files grow to anywhere from 10MB to 20MB in size before they are refreshed with new information, he says.

The FBI has been contacted and is working on the case, Eckelberry says. In addition, Sunbelt has contacted some of the individuals and banks whose data has been logged to warn them of the compromise.

The domain of the remote server appears to have been registered in China, although the server itself is located in the U.S., Eckelberry says. "We are working to get that server taken down."

He declines to offer more details.

A spokesperson for the FBI could not be reached for comment.

Sunbelt's discovery brings home the seriousness and scope of the growing ID theft problem, says Pete Lindstrom, an analyst at Spire Security in Malvern, Pennsylvania.

"I think this stuff is much more significant than the notification of [compromises] by credit card companies," Lindstrom says. That's because the credit card industry as a whole has better controls in place to detect and prevent abuses resulting from such compromises than individuals, he says.

"This stuff hits home because it's personal. It's like taking something out of your home," Lindstrom says. "Each and every one of these accounts can be compromised, and it hurts someone."

Jaikumar Vijayan, Computerworld

Monday, August 08, 2005

2005-08-09T21:20:00.000+01:00

IMAGE OF THE DAY:

2005-08-09T20:05:00.000+01:00

Hey guys...
I'm sorry but last couple of weeks have been insane around here with loads of stuff to do and so i didn't had the time to see and collect news to put in here.
I apreciate all of you that emailed me asking about when i would start again posting news and i'm happy that you guys like my work.
For all of you my thanks and hope that you keep enjoying this blog.

Take care :)

2005-07-22T14:39:00.000+01:00

HI-TECH:Numark busts out iDJ dueling iPod mixer!!!

Numark will be announcing tomorrow the iDJ mixing console for iPod as part of their summer 2005 product lineup — a two-channel mixer that accepts all iPod models with bottom connectors and breaks out their controls into its dedicated interface. Both channels sport a 3-band EQ and gain control, and the unit’s got dedicated mic and phono/line inputs for bringing in additional signals. It’s also rocking some USB connectivity, enabling it to converse with your portable rig as a music-loading base. What we don’t yet know is the price, but y’know, if you’ve already shelled out for two iPods it’s probably not gonna break the bank either way.
We’re looking at $399.00 retail/$249.00.
In Engadget 22July2005

2005-07-20T13:19:00.000+01:00

HI-TECH:Trinity College Dublin to host prestigious science festival
The BA Festival of Science, a leading science festival worldwide, will be hosted in Trinity College this year, it was announced today. It has been 48 years since the festival was last hosted in Ireland. Visiting a different city every year the BA Festival aims to bring the public together with 300 speakers and representatives from the world of science, engineering, technology to help foster a greater understanding of the value and significance of scientific endeavour. 3,000 people are expected to attend the festival this year in Trinity College Dublin, which takes place from September 3 to September 10. The festival is organised by the BA (British Association for the Advancement of Science), and this year its main sponsors are the Department of Education and Science, Trinity College Dublin and the Discover Science and Engineering Programme, funded by the Department of Enterprise, Trade & Employment. Speaking at the launch of the festival’s programme of activities in Trinity College, Micheál Martin, Minister for Enterprise Trade & Employment, said: “As Ireland continues its transition to a knowledge-based economy, so science, engineering and technology are becoming vital instruments in enterprise activity. “Events such as the BA Festival are crucial in conveying the serious message of how important science and engineering are to Ireland’s continued economic prosperity, but in a way which is fun, engaging and exciting.”
In The Irish News Online 20July2005

2005-07-19T20:21:00.000+01:00

IMAGE OF THE DAY:

Hurricane Emily menaces Mexico's Yucatan peninsula in this July 16, 2005 image from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Terra satellite.

2005-07-19T20:00:00.000+01:00

HI-TECH:UK tests infrared HOV-compliance cam

As has been pointed out on numerous occasions since the London terror attacks, there are a lot of surveillance cameras in the U.K. And now the country can add at least one more to that list, as the Department of Transport begins testing a system designed to monitor compliance in highway HOV lanes. Using the Cyclops Image System developed by U.K. company Laser Optical Engineering, infrared cameras mounted on overpasses can scan the inside of a vehicle, and face-detection software can determine the number of passengers inside. Laser Optical claims a 95% accuracy rate with the system. As for British subjects worried about yet another eye in the sky tracking them down, there’s no need for too much concern just yet — there are only two HOV lanes in the entire country, which somewhat limits the opportunities for deployment of the Cyclops.
In Engadget 19July2005

2005-07-14T14:11:00.000+01:00

SPORTS: Zimbabwe sex row athlete jailed

A judge in Zimbabwe has sentenced a leading youth athlete to four years in prison for competing in female events, after being found to be a man.

Samukeliso Sithole, 18, won seven gold medals in women's competitions in 2004.

The athlete had claimed to be a hermaphrodite - with both male and female sex organs - but in court, admitted to being a man.

Six witnesses - including two doctors - said at last week's hearing, the athlete was a man.

"I am very sorry," Sithole told the court in the central town of Kwekwe.

Pregnancy fears

The athlete was charged with impersonation and causing psychological damage to fellow athletes.

Sithole was initially released while awaiting trial earlier this year because the court could not decide whether to remand the athlete in a men's or women's prison.

But in May, Sithole was found guilty of stealing from a boyfriend and sent to a male prison.

In February, the champion athlete claimed to have periods and feared becoming pregnant. Sithole said the male organs became enlarged after a traditional healer took revenge after not being paid for treatment last year.

In BBC News 14 July 2005

2005-07-14T13:51:00.000+01:00

ENTERTAINMENT: Harry Potter and the Vatican enforcer

Pope condemned ‘subtle seduction’ of tales of wizardry.

HARRY POTTER has come under attack from soul-sucking dementors and basilisks, but he faces his most formidable adversary yet in the form of the Pope.

A letter written by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, before he was elected Pope in April, condemns the boy wizard as a potentially corrupting influence on children.

The Cardinal, then the late Pope John Paul II’s “enforcer” as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, revealed his views in a letter to the author of Harry Potter — Good or Evil?, a book published in Germany. The Cardinal appeared to sympathise with Gabriele Kuby’s thesis that Harry Potter corrupts the young, distorting their understanding of the battle between good and evil. “It is good that you enlighten people about Harry Potter because those are subtle seductions, which act unnoticed and by this deeply distort Christianity in the soul before it can grow properly,” he wrote.

The Cardinal, who had been sent the book by Kuby, encouraged the writer to send her work to another member of the Church who had made an announcement on behalf of the Vatican praising J. K. Rowling’s books. Mgr Peter Fleetwood, a British priest who helped to draft an official document on New Age phenomena in 2003, said that the Harry Potter books were moral stories that taught children about the importance of making sacrifices to overcome evil.

“I don’t think that any of us grew up without the imaginary world of fairies, magicians, angels and witches,” he told a conference at the Vatican. “They are not bad or a banner for anti-Christian ideology.” Rowling, he said, was Christian by conviction and in the way she wrote.

Austen Ivereigh, a spokesman for Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’ Connor, the Archbishop of Westminster, said that the Pope’s comments were strongly worded but that Catholics were not bound by them.

“This was evidently Cardinal Ratzinger’s view when he wrote that letter,” he said. “As Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith he never issued an authoritative document on the subject so there is no question of Catholics . . . needing to take a single view. Personally I think they are a great read.” Harry Potter has a history of upsetting Christians. A pastor in New Mexico included the stories in a book-burning ceremony. Jack Brock, a priest from the Christ Community Church, said: “God says in Deuteronomy that witchcraft is an abomination. Whatever God hates, I hate."

In The Times Online 14 July 2005

2005-07-13T19:56:00.000+01:00

HI-TECH:More Cellphones in Portugal that owners!!

Alright my friends...i know i posted not long ago some news that in the US there were more cellphones that landlines.
Its something amazing...but after what i heard on the Tv now...forget that one...it's nothing compared with this one.And this one has a nice touch...some people say even a personal touch ;) but ok.
In Portugal today there are more cellphones that owners.So each person has more that 1 cellphone for them.
Its amazing that this happens...and even more when everyone knows that the country is going throw a major crisis.
Only in Portugal....

2005-07-13T11:16:00.000+01:00

SPORTS: RAFA BENITEZ-MAKING US PLAY NOW IS AN INSULT !!

RAFAEL BENITEZ believes his European champions have been insulted by the order to defend their trophy in the first qualifying round.

And the Liverpool manager wants his team to take out the frustrations of such a massive slur on minnows TNS, by blowing them out of the Champions League in tonight's first leg at Anfield.
There is still simmering resentment on Merseyside that the team which so gloriously won the competition in May, now has to scrabble around in the opening stages with the no-hopers.

It was a nonsensical decision by UEFA, which serves only to disrupt Liverpool's pre-season, and extends the campaign ridiculously for a squad of players many of whom will be playing in the World Cup finals in 12 months' time.

Benitez has found it hard to contain his anger over the issue. But now his side must begin their bid in the middle of the cricket season, he wants them to get on with it.

"Yes, it is something of an insult. All of us are of the same opinion about us having to go into the Champions League at this stage - but we can't change it now," he said.

"I was surprised that they decided we must join the competition so early. It doesn't make sense. But we are here, we are down to play and there is nothing we can do but get on with it.

"It can be a difficult game for us. We have only trained for a week, and they will be taking it very seriously because it is their biggest game of the season. But I want us to go out there and try to win the tie in this first leg.

"If we can get some goals we can finish the tie and, if it is possible, that is what I want. We will be looking to score the goals at Anfield, when we have a big crowd and an intimidating situation that they have never been in before."

Anfield is, in fact, sold out for this game, which makes it the biggest in TNS history. Benitez recognises that such a scenario will help them be pumped up for the tie, and creates a danger.

But at the same time he knows that a comprehensive victory tonight will make the second leg academic, allowing him to play a reserve team in that leg, and give his international players an extra two weeks of pre-season training. It leaves him with a dilemma over team selection, and approach to the game.

"These sort of ties can be tricky, I have had them before when I was manager of Valencia," he said.

"We played a Turkish side and an Israeli team at home in the first leg and were expected to do well, but they come to your ground and defend aggressively, to make it hard.

"Then you have to play strong in the second leg where you get a little more space. But we want to get it finished if we can, so I will have to look at the team selection. Our international players have only been back a week, and I will have to consider whether they are ready. We have to be careful with them, because they have no fitness under their belts, and that can be a dangerous situation against a motivated team."

Benitez knows that with many of his side likely to be playing for a gruelling 12 months, he must protect them as much as possible, and there is a real concern about the season starting so early.

But he believes he must try hard as a manager to give them the best possible chance to get through the season uninjured and relatively fresh, by building up his squad and rotating the players.

"There can be real repercussions from starting like this, but you have to protect your squad. It depends on how you use the players, and manage their appearances," he said.

"First you need a squad that lets you rest players, you needs two players in every position. Then you have to use them in different games. The key is keeping the condition of the players. If they have matches all the time, then they cannot train, and their condition is lost.

"You have to keep them down to one match a week when you can, so they can train and stay fit.

"If they have condition, then they can last out the season."

Benitez has one other interesting dilemma.

He knows that if he selects Milan Baros it will cup-tie the Czech striker for European competition...and make him less attractive to potential buyers. Baros has only one year remaining on his contract, and can escape on a free next summer - which means Liverpool need to sell him now, if they are to cash in.

That, Benitez admits, is a difficult position.

"Baros depends on the players around him. You choose your best team on the night, and my idea is to have a team good enough to win," he said.

"We have other striking options, but I have to pick a team to win."

In Daily Mirror 13 July 2005

2005-07-11T13:24:00.000+01:00

HI-TECH:More Cellphone lines than landlines in the US !!!

The FCC just released a report confirming that as of late last year the number of cellphone lines in the U.S. officially surpassed the number of landlines.At the time of the survey there were 181.1 million cellphone lines versus 177.9 million landlines (and it’s not clear if they’re counting VoIP lines from companies like Vonage) but the shift towards wireless is undeniable.

2005-07-10T18:14:00.000+01:00

INTERNATIONAL:Lufthansa checks out biometric tickets !!

BERLIN (AP) — The German airline Lufthansa has started testing tickets encoded with passengers' thumbprint data in hopes of speeding up check-ins without compromising security.

The 14-day trial started Monday with Lufthansa employees trying out the system, spokesman Thomas Jachnow said. If all goes well, the airline wants to roll it out in 2006.

Though people will still be able to check in for flights using the "classic system," the voluntary use of biometric data would make the process quicker, Jachnow said.

Passengers would get tickets encoded with their thumbprint data, then check themselves in by placing their thumbs on a machine. Frequent fliers would have their thumbprint data encoded on their frequent flier cards instead of their tickets, Jachnow said.

The German government is also starting to make use of biometric data in travel documents and will start issuing passports embedded with facial data in November. A fingerprint will be added in March 2007.

In USA Today 10 July 2005

2005-07-10T16:02:00.000+01:00

Director Stone making 9/11 film

Oliver Stone is to direct a film starring Nicolas Cage as one of two police officers trapped in rubble after the 11 September attacks on New York.

Oscar-winning actor Cage will play Sgt John McLoughlin, who was trapped following the collapse of the twin towers with officer William J Jimeno. Paramount Pictures said it expects to release the film in 2006. "It's an exploration of heroism in our country - but it's international at the same time in its humanity," Stone said. More than 2,700 people died when hijacked planes collided with New York's World Trade Center on 11 September 2001. Officers McLoughlin and Jimeno are said to be the last two men rescued, and the film will focus on their families and those who rescued the men, Paramount said. "I feel someone had to tell the story of the people who were in the Trade Center before and after it collapsed," said Sgt McLoughlin. "It needs to be told how this horrific tragedy brought Americans and the world together to help those in need." The film will not be the first to focus on the events of 11 September 2001. Several independent movies including 2002's The Guys, in which Anthony LaPaglia played a fire captain who lost eight men in the Twin Towers' collapse, have been about the attacks. Stone has won best director Oscars for Platoon and Born on the Fourth of July. Cage recently starred in National Treasure and was also in Adaptation, City of Angels and Moonstruck.

in BBC News 10 July 2005

2005-07-06T13:10:00.000+01:00

IT'S LONDON FOR 2012 OLYMPICS

LONDON will host the 2012 Olympics, it was announced in Singapore today.

Cheers broke out in offices around the country as the news was announced and a massive party attended by at least 11,000 people began in Trafalgar Square.

IOC President Jacques Rogge made the announcement that the jubilant capital had beaten Paris in the final round of the voting to cap a stunning victory against the odds-on favourites.

London also made history in becoming the only city to have ever hosted the games three times, an honour it was vying with Paris to achieve.

2005-07-05T14:59:00.000+01:00

India on high alert after terror attack on holy site

Attackers armed with explosives and automatic rifles stormed India’s most bitterly disputed religious site today, prompting a nationwide security alert for fear of an eruption of communal violence.

At least five assailants were killed in a gun battle with security forces lasting two hours after they attacked the perimeter of the heavily fortified compound at Ayodhya where a medieval mosque was torn down in 1992 by Hindu hardliners seeking to build a temple there.

One of the men reportedly blew himself up with explosives strapped to his body while a sixth casualty was believed to be a bystander caught in the crossfire.

The attack pushed Ayodhya, the most notorious tinderbox of Hindu-Muslim conflict since independence, back into the headlines after several years of relative calm.

The destruction of the Babri mosque 13 years ago sparked some of the worst religious rioting ever seen in India in which more than 2,000 people died.

The most recent violence over Ayodhya flared in 2002 when a train carrying Hindu activists returning from a rally in support of building the temple there was set alight, killing nearly 60 people. The incident was followed by anti-Muslim pogroms across Gujarat in which at least 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were burned, hacked and beaten to death.

Hardliners, however, have not let up in their campaign to build a temple on what they claim is the birthplace of the Hindu god, Ram. Hindu nationalist leaders immediately blamed the attack on Islamic militants linked to the Kashmir struggle and called for a nationwide strike, sparking fears of a violent backlash against Muslims.

The Government said it was too early to know who the attackers were, but major cities were put on high alert and police deployed to religious sites.

Police said the men had travelled to Ayodhya in an Ambassador taxi they had picked up at the railway station while posing as tourists. Closer to the site, they threw the driver out of the car and took over the vehicle, driving it up to the complex where a jeep filled with explosives was used to blow up the perimeter wall.

Questions are being asked today how the armed men had been able to get so close to the site without being apprehended. Ayodhya is guarded at all times by thousands of police and paramilitary soldiers, and the site has multiple barricades where every worshipper is frisked before being allowed in. Security rules are so tight that even pens, pencils, lighters and matchboxes are prohibited.

Prominent Hindu hardliners were quick to jump on the incident. Lal Krishna Advani, the hawkish leader of the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), who nearly lost his leadership recently in a botched attempt to reinvent himself as a secularist, returned to form with a fiery call for protest. The Ram temple has long been the BJP’s cause célèbre but with varying degrees of public support.

"To attack the Ram Janbhoomi, the holiest shrine of the Hindus, is a very serious thing and there should be an equal reaction," he said in Delhi. Mr Advani was at Ayodhya with the mob that tore down the Babri mosque in 1992, having previously toured the country in a Ram chariot calling for the erection of a Hindu temple on the site.

On a recent visit to Pakistan he said that day had been the saddest of his life but today he declared that the Ram temple issue was once again "centre stage."

Hindu nationalists are still fighting their claim to build a temple at the site through the Indian courts where the case was referred after authorities blocked construction for fear of fanning the fire of religious strife.

Hindu right-wingers claim that the Babri mosque was itself build on the site of a Hindu temple demolished by Moghul invaders, giving Hinduism the pre-eminent claim to the site. That claim has been supported by Indian archaeologists but Muslims dismiss its relevance, saying there is no evidence that the site is indeed Ram’s birthplace as they claim.

In Times Online 5 June 2005

2005-07-05T14:47:00.000+01:00

Christian Vieri signs for AC Milan!!!

In a suprise and shocking move, the powerful italian striker C.Vieri signs a 2 year deal with AC Milan.
To who was not following the news in the last couple of days, Inter Milan released Vieri in a free transfer early this week,allowing this way that the striker decided his own future. With loads of clubs going after the striker it became a big suprise the decision made by this of just signing for the eternal rival of Inter.

2005-07-04T21:51:00.000+01:00

Deep Impact - A Success!!!

After 172 days and 431 million kilometers (268 million miles) of deep space stalking, Deep Impact successfully reached out and touched comet Tempel 1. The collision between the coffee table-sized impactor and city-sized comet occurred at 1:52 a.m. EDT

"This mission is truly a smashing success," said Andy Dantzler, director of NASA's Solar System Division. "Tomorrow and in the days ahead we will know a lot more about the origins of our solar system."

At the moment the impactor was vaporizing itself in its 10 kilometers per second (6.3 miles per second) collision with comet Tempel 1, the Deep Impact flyby spacecraft was monitoring events from nearby. For the following14 minutes the flyby collected and downlinked data as the comet loomed ever closer. Then, as expected at 2:05 a.m. EDT, the flyby stopped collecting data and entered a defensive posture called shield mode where its dust shields protect the spacecraft's vital components during its closest passage through the comet's inner coma. Shield mode ended at 2:32 a.m. EDT when mission control re-established the link with the flyby spacecraft.

The goal of the Deep Impact mission is to provide a glimpse beneath the surface of a comet, where material from the solar system's formation remains relatively unchanged. Mission scientists expect the project will answer basic questions about the formation of the solar system, by offering a better look at the nature and composition of the frozen celestial travelers known as comets.

The University of Maryland is responsible for overall Deep Impact mission science, and project management is handled by JPL. The spacecraft was built for NASA by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corporation, Boulder, Colo.

in NASA's Website
http://www.nasa.gov/deepimpact

2005-07-01T14:17:00.000+01:00

BATMAN BEGINS review

A new restart of the "Batman" franchise under the helm of "Memento" Director Chris Nolan and more in tone with the early "Batman: Year One" style comics. As a boy a young Bruce Wayne watched in horror as his millionaire parents were slain in front of his eyes, a trauma which led him to become obsessed with revenge but his chance is cruelly taken away from him by fate. After disappearing to the East where he seeks counsel with the dangerous but honorable ninja cult leader known as Ra's Al-Ghul, he returns to his now decaying Gotham City overrun by organised crime and dangerous individuals manipulating the system whilst the company he inherited is slowly being pulled out from under him. The discovery of a cave under his mansion, and a prototype armoured suit leads him to take on a new persona, one which will strike fear into the hearts of men who do wrong - he becomes, Batman. In the new guise, and with the help of rising cop Jim Gordon, Batman sets out to take down the various nefarious schemes in motion by individuals such as mafia don Falcone, the twisted doctor/drug dealer Jonathan 'The Scarecrow' Crane, and a mysterious third party that is quite familiar with Wayne and waiting to strike when the time is right.

2005-07-01T14:05:00.000+01:00

SOCCER NEWS:Real Madrid sign Uruguayan Duo !!

Real Madrid have announced the signings of Uruguayan pair Pablo Garcia(right photo) and Carlos Diogo(left photo).

Osasuna’s Garcia has signed a four-year deal, while Diogo, who plays for River Plate, has signed on for five years.

Both players will be presented to the media next week, and will take part in the club’s July tour of the United States, China, Japan and Thailand.

The former Atletico Madrid, Milan and Venezia player Garcia is regarded as a tough tackling midfielder who picked up 18 bookings last season, while Diogo plies his trade at right-back, but can also play in the centre of defence.

2005-07-01T13:30:00.000+01:00

A simple blood test to detect breast cancer !!

LONDON: A team of scientists has developed a simple blood test, which can detect breast cancer even before the symptoms appear.

According to a study published in the journal of Breast Cancer Research, the invention could make possible timely treatment of the disease by locating it before a tumour has developed, thus averting the need for surgery and reducing the expenses incurred on the treatment.

"The earlier breast cancer is detected, the easier it is to treat, so methods that can catch breast cancer at its earliest stage are to be encouraged," the Daily Mail quoted Dr. Sarah Rawlings, Breakthrough Breast Cancer's policy manager, as saying.

The test could be out by a general physician and would work by measuring the presence of certain genes which indicate cancer has already started to develop, even though no changes can be seen on an X-ray or an MRI scan.

The technique can successfully identify cancer in at least 82 percent of women who have breast cancer and the success rate is similar to mammograms, the current screening method used to detect cancer in post-menopausal women.

"It's likely to take many years before such a blood test becomes widely available. Women over 50 should continue to attend their NHS breast screening appointments," Dr. Rawlings concludes.

In The Times of India

2005-07-01T12:41:00.000+01:00

Portugal does it again!!!

According to text bellow from a portuguese newspaper, former participants of the rurallitty show 'Celebrity Farm' will be candidates to city halls. Excluding Gonçalo da Câmara Pereira who as already been in politics and Avelino Ferreira Torres who is still president of Marco de Canavesses, Elsa Raposo is a former model/not so good TV presenter/fashion entreperneur who is running to Cascais, the most wealthy, rich and famous 'city' (Cascais is by option considerered a Village) of Portugal.

"Quinta" fabrica candidatos para as eleições autárquicas

Gonçalo da Câmara Pereira, Elsa Raposo e Avelino Ferreira Torres aproveitam popularidade que conquistaram no programa e aceitam dar a cara nas próximas eleições Tino de Rans resistiu ao convite

Gonçalo da Camara Pereira, Elsa Raposo e Avelino Ferreira Torres, concorrentes do programa "Quinta das Celebridades", da TVI, vão ser, ao que tudo indica, candidatos a presidentes de Câmara nas próximas eleições de Outubro. O fadista, caso o PPM (Partido Popular Monárquico) se apresente sozinho às eleições em Lisboa, será o cabeça de lista, enquanto Elsa Raposo o rosto monárquico à Câmara de Cascais, se o Directório Nacional do partido der o aval, como se prevê.

Já Avelino Ferreira Torres, actual presidente da Câmara Municipal do Marco de Canavezes, concorrente na primeira edição da "Quinta", candidata-se à Camara de Amarante e as sondagens dão-no como favorito. O caso Tino de Rans é ligeiramente diferente. O terceiro classificado da "Quinta das Celebridades 2"também revelou ao JN ter sido convidado por um partido político a uma câmara do Norte, mas recusou a proposta.

Os convites vêm provar a tese de que não é só o dinheiro a compensar a participação nos "reality shows". A popularidade que se conquista pode também transformar-se em oportunidades até para ingressar na política, ou então reforçar a carreira.

Gonçalo da Câmara Pereira apesar de não ser um novato na política, pois já foi candidato à Câmara de Portalegre e integrou a lista de Santana Lopes à Câmara de Lisboa, reconhece que o efeito "Quinta" ajudou muito na popularidade que tem. Hoje, quando sai à rua é muito mais conhecido pelas pessoas."É claro que o programa me deu uma maior visibilidade e hoje e toda a gente me cumprimenta", referiu.

Na sua opinião, uma das pessoas que maior dividendo retirou da "Quinta" foi Avelino Ferreira Torres. E Gonçalo explica porquê "Ele tinha a imagem pública de um homem violento, tinha acabado de protagonizar aquele episódio do famoso pontapé por causa do árbitro e julgo que aproveitou o concurso para mostrar outra vertente da sua personalidade".

Gonçalo está convencido que a ida de Ferreira Torres para a "Quinta" teve como objectivo "dar a conhecer o lado humano, pois isso seria útil para a sua candidatura em Amarante".

Tino, o ex-presidente da Junta de Freguesia de Rans, admite que o programa permitiu ganhar maior popularidade, sobretudo junto das crianças pois, segundo disse, "hoje todos me conhecem, até as crianças dos infantários sabem quem é o Tino".

Apesar de reafirmar que "tem a política no sangue e será político sempre", Tino parece ter resistido aos convites para se envolver de novo na luta autárquica. "Fui convidado por um partido político muito antigo para me candidatar a uma Câmara, mas não aceitei, porque às vezes é preciso dizer não". Garante, que não pretende aproveitar-se do programa para mudar de vida e a propósito disso referiu "já ter voltado ao trabalho e consequentemente à sua actividade de calceteiro". Até José Sassetti, o engenheiro da "Quinta" será candidato à Câmara de Salvaterra de Magos.

Agostinho Santos in Jornal de Notícias

2005-06-29T16:40:00.000+01:00

Nanotechnology: Your visa to a better future

At Velbionantech, a little-known Bangalore-based company, researchers are working on path breaking projects that - if successful - might dramatically reduce the need for heart surgery or for kidney stone operations.

It is working on designing nano-chips, which will deliver a drug exactly to the affected area in the body.

So, one project aims to develop a chip which when injected into the body will head towards the kidney and remove stones.
Another - even more ambitious project - aims to develop a nano-chip that will move into the heart and reduce the fatty tissues that cause arteriosclerosis.

Though this dream is still a long way from reality, nanotechnology is creating waves in different sectors. It is being used in many consumer products.
For example, today's clothes are offering intelligent services like Grasim’s and Van Heusen’s "Icetouch" that keeps the body five degrees cooler; Van Heusen also has "Oxyrich" shirts that release “power-packed oxygen ions" and Arrow shirts are promoted as "unstainable" clothes.

For that matter, even LG and Samsung are selling nanotech-based refrigerators and air-conditioners. There are even more exotic products being lined up.

Nanotechnology is the new cutting edge tool that is helping scientists work at the molecular level. Nano-materials are a thousand times smaller than the diameter of a human hair. The building blocks of all products are atoms. If we rearrange the atoms then we get different products.

Say for example rearranging the atoms of coal will give us diamonds. Nanotechnology will help scientists work on atoms at a finer level, helping us get more advanced products.

This technology has the potential to change the world around us in unimaginable ways. Soon, it will impact every aspect of our lives from medicine to computers to the energy we require to the cars we drive and so on.

2005-06-29T13:17:00.000+01:00

Corrupt German ex-minister took £1m bribes on arms sales

GERMANY’S former spy chief and junior Defence Minister confessed that he accepted bribes on arms sales to Saudi Arabia.

His trial on charges of tax avoidance, bribery and corruption is expected to implicate senior politicians and threatens to embarrass the political class during the general election campaign.

Ludwig-Holger Pfahls, 62, referring to a €1 million (£665,000) backhander for his help in an arms deal, said: “I really cannot explain how this slip-up came to pass.”

A further €500,000 was paid for his help in the sale of tanks to Saudi Arabia in the 1990s. “I would like to stress that I would have supported these deals in any case,” he said. He claimed in court that the bribes were transferred to his account by Karl-Heinz Schreiber, an arms dealer whose extradition is sought from Canada.

Herr Pfahls’s defence team has asked to call as witnesses Helmut Kohl, the former Chancellor, and Wolfgang Schäuble, the former head of the Christian Democrat parliamentary group. They will be asked to testify about the approval of the Saudi deal. Both men play important roles in the election campaign of Angela Merkel, the Christian Democrat leader who is well placed to topple Gerhard Schröder, the Chancellor, in September.

The trial threatens to open a debate on alleged corruption at the heart of Germany’s conservative political elite. Some of the profits from arms deals in the early 1990s flowed back to Germany as party donations to the Christian Democrats.

Herr Pfahls was a member of the Bavarian Christian Social Union, the sister party of the Christian Democrats. Thanks to the patronage of Franz Josef Strauss, then the Bavarian prime minister, Herr Pfahls became chief of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution — the German equivalent of MI5 — in his 40s.

He was promoted to junior Minister in the Defence Ministry because Herr Strauss wanted an ally in place to ensure a regular flow of contracts for the Bavarian-based arms industry.

After leaving the Defence Ministry, Herr Pfahls worked for a while as South-East Asia representative of DaimlerChrysler. Then, tipped off that prosecutors were closing in on him, he disappeared.

On July 3, 1999, Herr Pfahls flew to Hong Kong where he had arranged to surrender to German police. Somewhere in the Hong Kong transit area he disappeared. Detectives later found that he had booked seven simultaneous flights to different destinations and had become virtually untraceable.

There were sightings in Bali, Beijing and London. Former security service colleagues apparently spread stories that he had died in Asia. Finally, tired and running out of money, Herr Pfahls allowed himself to be caught in France last year.

In return for a full confession, Judge Maximillian Hofmeister is willing to hand down a sentence of only about 27 months in jail, much of which has been served on remand.

But the question is how far Herr Pfahls is willing to go: he has so far admitted only to the bribes, which are documented and difficult to deny. The arms pay-off network, however, ran very deep and, if newspaper reports are to be believed, could implicate senior politicians.

In Times online June 29,2005

2005-06-29T12:36:00.000+01:00

Incrivel !!! Bloco de Esquerda cria mais uma paródia em Portugal....

Workshop do Bloco de Esquerda explica como fazer «boicotes», «ocupar espaços públicos», «resistir a uma agressão policial» e como agir numa manifestação.

Num acampamento destinados aos jovens, o Bloco de Esquerda tem no menu um workshop, no mínimo, original. Chama-se «técnicas de desobidiência civil». A ideia é ensinar aos mais novos o «básico» para puderem estar preparados para o futuro. Sobretudo, para as futuras manifestações que a comunidade estudantil promete para os próximos tempos.

Os jovens do Bloco de Esquerda reúnem-se no próximo mês de Julho. O nome «técnico» deste workshop está incluído num programa «artístico».

José Soeiro do Bloco de Esquerda explicou ao PortugalDiário que esta actividade «consiste basicamente em ensinar as técnicas de desobediência civil». Aprender a fazer «boicotes», «ocupação de espaços públicos», «como se comportar numa manifestação» e «como resistir a uma agressão policial» serão alguns dos temas abordados. E necessários para os dias de contestação que correm.

A desobediência civil é «uma forma de luta utilizada desde o tempo de Ghandi», diz José Soeiro, e recorda que em Portugal tem sido utilizada pelos jovens universitários, nomeadamente «no combate às propinas, quando os estudantes invadiram vários senados nas universidades».

Segundo os manuais dedicados ao assunto, «a desobediência civil corresponde a uma tradição de violação não violenta e pública da lei, concebida para chamar a atenção para leis ou políticas injustas».

Este tema está incluído nos «workshops artísticos» que integram o acampamento do Bloco, e é já o segundo ano em que o curso é ministrado.

Na senda da irreverência característica do Bloco de Esquerda, um workshop em desobediência civil é «obrigatório» para ingressar nas fileiras da contestação.

in Portugal Diário 2005/06/26 | 09:07 || Sara Marques

2005-06-28T17:35:00.000+01:00

AMD sues INTEL for monopoly abuse!!

Giant computer chipmaker Intel is being sued by Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) for anti-competitive practices.

The lawsuit covers x86 microprocessors, used to run PC operating systems, including Microsoft Windows, Solaris and Linux systems.

AMD said its lawsuit alleges that Intel has coerced customers away from dealing with AMD, and is based on evidence obtained from 38 companies.
AMD filed its case in a federal court in the US state of Delaware on Monday.

2005-06-27T16:35:00.000+01:00

File-sharing suffers major defeat

The US Supreme Court has ruled that file-sharing companies are to blame for what users do with their software.
The Supreme Court judges were expected to rule in favour of the file-sharers because of legal precedents set when video recorders first appeared, but the final result was really a big suprise to all.

We just have to wait and see where all of this is going now....

2005-06-27T16:22:00.000+01:00

Argentina Vs Brazil in the Confederations Cup final!!

Argentina booked their place in the Confederations Cup final by beating Mexico 6-5 on penalties after the tie ended 1-1 after extra time on Sunday.

Carlos Salcido put Mexico ahead after 104 minutes before Luciano Figueroa equalised six minutes later.
Argentina will now meet long time rivals Brazil in Wednesday's final in Frankfurt.

It will probably be a great soccer match...don't loose it if you can :)

2005-06-27T15:51:00.000+01:00

Praise the new NBA Champions!!

San Antonio became the new NBA champion on Thursday 23 of June of 2005.
At Game 7, San Antonio was stronger that Detroit and brought the title back to Texas!
Tim Duncan was considered MVP ( Most Valuable Player ) of the finals and true is that he was the big factor in this 7th game.
"Manu"Ginobili was the player he was during all this year making big shots and some impressive dunks!
Detroit was a great team but not good enough this year to become bi-champions!
Good luck next time Pistons!
Congratulations Spurs :)

2005-06-23T18:10:00.000+01:00

Thought of the day:

"...Time to put together what they say
although it wouldn't matter anyway..."

2005-06-23T13:25:00.000+01:00

a brand new day...and "flashy" news...nothing that can suprise even the most distracted person in Portugal.
It was published today in a newspaper ( Correio da Manha ) that our political class doesn't pay as the common people do.
If they screw up in traffic(4 example)...they just have to show a paper to the cops...and they can go free without punishment.
Indeed this is a country where its good to be friends of the ones with power.

2005-06-23T07:07:00.000+01:00

Welcome everyone to my blog.

I'll try to give u guys a little bit of my view of the world....everyone see's it with their on eyes and because of that different variables create different point of views.
Hopefully it will create a good debate in some subjects.
I plan 2 talk about local news,international news,sports and others.

Hold on to your seats...you're about to take the journey of your lifes :)

Cheers!!