Reception at University of Peshawar, US consulate, iEARN welcome ‘YES students’

PESHAWAR: The US Consulate and the International Education Resource Network (iEARN) arranged a reception at the Peshawar University’s Lincoln Corner on Thursday to welcome six Pakistani students, who recently returned from the US after completing a year of study under the Youth Exchange and Study (YES). US Consulate Public Affairs Officer Michael Abel appreciated the ‘Yes students’ for sharing knowledge on Pakistani culture with a new generation of Americans during their stay in the United States. “We are proud of Pakistani students, who travelled long distances to experience American society firsthand,” he added. YES Project Director Farah S Kalam said under the student exchange programme, a student lives in a foreign country to learn about their language and culture, etc. She said when a student travelled to another country and lived there with a host family, usually unpaid volunteers, and he or she not only experiences the tradition and practices of that country but also shares the same things from his own country. She said people-to-people contacts could dispel stereotypes, establish peace and could obtain first hand information about the culture and people of any country. She added that YES was supported by the US Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs (ECA) that she said was running many exchange programmes, such as FLEX for the Central Asian Students and CBYX for German students. “Students selected under YES programme from South Asia, Middle East and Asia Pacific countries study in the US every year since 2003,” she said, adding that the programme was initially launched in three cities of Pakistan, but had now been expanded to 30 cities. She said the 2006-07 class was successful, and that of the 44 students, 75 percent got 3.5 GPA and 18 received presidential certificates of appreciation for completing over 100 hours of community service, while 15 students were selected to participate in the Youth Leadership Conference in Boulder Colrado. Farah Kalam also said the students shared cultural traditions with Americans and met US officials including state senators, mayors and governors. Saleem Ibrahim of the iEARN said host families in the US were not paid, and were selected under set criteria from smaller and safe towns, so as to ensure that students face no difficulty in praying, fasting and following their religious festivals without any difficulty. He said that under the programme, girls were not accommodated in the families with boys aging 13 and above. Touqeer Shah, a student of Edwards College School in Peshawar, stated that he enjoyed his stay with a Hindu host family in the US. “My hosts used to wake up at around 3:30 am to prepare Sehri for me in Ramazan and tried to avoid eating in front of me when I was fasting.” He added, “I travelled to seven US states and tried to represent Pakistan while interacting with students of other countries. Usama Ahmed from the Kohat Cadet College said his hosts treated him like their own son. He said he visited nine US states and enjoyed meeting and interacting people there. Three other students, Obaid, Mohsin and Nauman, also shared their views regarding their experience during the one-year stay in US. Around 12 students from FATA and NWFP, out of total 58 from Pakistan, will travel to the US for education this year.

The US is Launching Robot Air Attack Squadron for Military Missions in Iraq & Afghanistan. No Pilots at all

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

The airplane is the size of a jet fighter, powered by a turboprop engine, able to fly at 300 mph and reach 50,000 feet. It's outfitted with infrared, laser and radar targeting, and with a ton and a half of guided bombs and missiles. The Reaper is loaded, but there's no one on board. Its pilot, as it bombs targets in Iraq, will sit at a video console 7,000 miles away in Nevada. The arrival of these outsized U.S. "hunter-killer" drones, in aviation history's first robot attack squadron, will be a watershed moment even in an Iraq that has seen too many innovative ways to hunt and kill. That moment, one the Air Force will likely low-key, is expected "soon," says the regional U.S. air commander. How soon? "We're still working that," Lt. Gen. Gary North said in an interview. The Reaper's first combat deployment is expected in Afghanistan, and senior Air Force officers estimate it will land in Iraq sometime between this fall and next spring. They look forward to it. "With more Reapers, I could send manned airplanes home," North said. The Associated Press has learned that the Air Force is building a 400,000-square-foot expansion of the concrete ramp area now used for Predator drones here at Balad, the biggest U.S. air base in Iraq, 50 miles north of Baghdad. That new staging area could be turned over to Reapers. The MQ-9 Reaper Unmanned Aerial Vehicle taxis into Creech Air Force Base, Nev. The U.S. Air Force intends to use the fully man-less vehicle to attack insurgent forces in Iraq. It's another sign that the Air Force is planning for an extended stay in Iraq, supporting Iraqi government forces in any continuing conflict, even if U.S. ground troops are drawn down in the coming years. The estimated two dozen or more unmanned MQ-1 Predators now doing surveillance over Iraq, as the 46th Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron, have become mainstays of the U.S. war effort, offering round-the-clock airborne "eyes" watching over road convoys, tracking nighttime insurgent movements via infrared sensors, and occasionally unleashing one of their two Hellfire missiles on a target. From about 36,000 flying hours in 2005, the Predators are expected to log 66,000 hours this year over Iraq and Afghanistan. The MQ-9 Reaper, when compared with the 1995-vintage Predator, represents a major evolution of the unmanned aerial vehicle, or UAV. At five tons gross weight, the Reaper is four times heavier than the Predator. Its size — 36 feet long, with a 66-foot wingspan — is comparable to the profile of the Air Force's workhorse A-10 attack plane. It can fly twice as fast and twice as high as the Predator. Most significantly, it carries many more weapons. While the Predator is armed with two Hellfire missiles, the Reaper can carry 14 of the air-to-ground weapons — or four Hellfires and two 500-pound bombs. "It's not a recon squadron," Col. Joe Guasella, operations chief for the Central Command's air component, said of the Reapers. "It's an attack squadron, with a lot more kinetic ability." "Kinetic" — Pentagon argot for destructive power — is what the Air Force had in mind when it christened its newest robot plane with a name associated with death. "The name Reaper captures the lethal nature of this new weapon system," Gen. T. Michael Moseley, Air Force chief of staff, said in announcing the name last September. General Atomics of San Diego has built at least nine of the MQ-9s thus far, at a cost of $69 million per set of four aircraft, with ground equipment. The Air Force's 432nd Wing, a UAV unit formally established on May 1, is to eventually fly 60 Reapers and 160 Predators. The numbers to be assigned to Iraq and Afghanistan will be classified. The Reaper is expected to be flown as the Predator is — by a two-member team of pilot and sensor operator who work at computer control stations and video screens that display what the UAV "sees." Teams at Balad, housed in a hangar beside the runways, perform the takeoffs and landings, and similar teams at Nevada's Creech Air Force Base, linked to the aircraft via satellite, take over for the long hours of overflying the Iraqi landscape. American ground troops, equipped with laptops that can download real-time video from UAVs overhead, "want more and more of it," said Maj. Chris Snodgrass, the Predator squadron commander here. The Reaper's speed will help. "Our problem is speed," Snodgrass said of the 140-mph Predator. "If there are troops in contact, we may not get there fast enough. The Reaper will be faster and fly farther." The new robot plane is expected to be able to stay aloft for 14 hours fully armed, watching an area and waiting for targets to emerge. "It's going to bring us flexibility, range, speed and persistence," said regional commander North, "such that I will be able to work lots of areas for a long, long time." The British also are impressed with the Reaper, and are buying three for deployment in Afghanistan later this year. The Royal Air Force version will stick to the "recon" mission, however — no weapons on board.

Scientists ‘must understand climate changes’

Rawalpindi, Carbon dioxide is one of the main contributors to overall climate changes. Everybody has to play its role and agriculture scientists must be ready now and try to understand the importance of climate changes, said Dr. Riaz Hussain Qureshi, Advisor Quality Control Higher Education Commission (HEC). He stated this while addressing the concluding session of two-day International workshop on ‘Carbon and Water Exchanges in Plants under Changing Climate Conditions’ here at Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi (AAUR). Dr. Qureshi said that communities living in various parts of country and the world-over were not fully aware of the consequences of the big role of climate changes in Agriculture. He was of the view that duty of Agriculture Scientists was to create awareness about the climate changes, adding that Pakistan was also a part of globe and changes taking place around the world could impact the country in the long run. “Pakistan’s temperature was going to rise in the years to come, there is a chance that the country might receive more rains, which accompanied by melting of glaciers would create serious problems in the country,” he said, “It is time that we set our cropping patterns according to new requirements,” he remarked, and warned that Pakistan was going to face water shortage. “We have many species of plants, which are growing successfully in deserts like Cholistan and that grow without any protection in very hot and dry conditions. We have to select such type of species, which can survive in these conditions and our planning should be for next 30 to 50 years,” he added. Earlier, in his welcome address Vice Chancellor AAUR, Dr. Khalid Mahmood Khan said, climatic change refers to green house emission and carbon dioxide is main one and we have to reduce it according to Kyoto Protocol. He said although Pakistan is low gases emitting country but still we need to arrest climate changes at this time. He said Pakistan Economy is based on one river Indus and our whole life depends on Indus river system. He further said that water sources are melting down to Indus and if the glaciers are reduce by a large amount or quantity than ultimately we will be felt out no water. So we have to take certain step at this time to overcome this problem, which Pakistan can be, face in future.

Google buys YouTube for $1.65bn

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

(Google is buying video-sharing website YouTube for $1.65bn (£883m) in shares after a weekend of speculation that a deal was in the offing)

The two companies will continue to operate independently, Google said as it announced the news on Monday.

YouTube, launched in February 2005, has grown quickly into one of the most popular websites on the internet.

It has 100 million videos viewed every day and an estimated 72 million individual visitors each month.

(It's pay day for YouTube founders Chad Hurley and Steven Chen)

'Natural partners'

"The YouTube team has built an exciting and powerful media platform that complements Google's mission to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful," Google chief executive Eric Schmidt said in a statement.

He said the two companies were "natural partners" to offer a media entertainment service to users, content owners and advertisers.

• "Our community has played a vital role in changing the way that people consume media"

However, the company will keep operating its own Google Video as a separate operation.

YouTube will retain its brand, and its 67 staff, including co-founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen, will keep their jobs.

"Our community has played a vital role in changing the way that people consume media, creating a new clip culture," said Mr Hurley.

(YouTube has a Google investment to show off)

"By joining forces with Google, we can benefit from its global reach and technology leadership to deliver a more comprehensive entertainment experience for our users and to create new opportunities for our partners."

According to Comscore World Metrix, YouTube's audience has soared from 2.8 million unique users one year ago to 72 million users in August 2006.

(Google's brand won't show on YouTube's website)

Music tie-ups

The announcement came after a day of distribution deals drawn up by the pair.

Universal Music Group has signed a distribution deal with YouTube, which will protect the rights of the music firm's artists.

YouTube also says it has signed a deal with CBS, which will offer short-form video programming, including news, sport and entertainment on YouTube.

(Madonna is one of Warner's headline acts)

Google has also signed distribution deals of its own, with Sony BMG and Warner Music to offer music videos.

The Google deals should enable internet users in the US to view music videos, artist interviews, and other footage from the two firms on Google video for free from this month.

The content is sponsored through a Google advertising-supported revenue-sharing agreement.

Google also said that in addition to the advertising-supported video content, music videos from Warner would be available for purchase as downloads at $1.99 each.