Geo News 23rd May 2012 - Latest Geo updates 23rd May 2012 Live
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Geo News Pakistan
KARACHI: Owing to tense situation in the metropolis, University of Karachi on Tuesday announced postponement of all the scheduled papers for Wednesday, Geo News reported.
Sindh Board of Technical Education (SBTE) has also postponed papers scheduled for Wednesday across the province. The papers will now be held on May 28.
Meanwhile, according to official communiqué issued from office of Vice Chancellor, Qauid-e-Awam Engineering of University, all the papers scheduled for Wednesday have been postponed.
KARACHI: Board of Intermediate Education Karachi (BIEK) on Tuesday announced postponement of the scheduled papers of ongoing Intermediate examination on Wednesday at all its exam centers.
The postponed paper would now be held on May 30.
Meanwhile, Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE) Hyderabad has announced postponement of the scheduled paper of ongoing Intermediate examination on Wednesday at all its exam centers.
The postponed paper would now be held on Saturday, May 26. (PPI)
Geo World
HANOI: Nine people have been killed after an explosion triggered a series of rockslides at a limestone quarry in Vietnam's northern port city of Hai Phong, officials said Tuesday.
Six men were killed after explosives used for quarrying the stone were accidentally detonated sparking a landslide, an official at the site told.
"The (dead) men were buried by tonnes of rock. Another four are currently in very serious conditions," the official from the Cuong Thinh Mineral Processing and Exploitation company told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Three more men were killed in a second rockslide on Monday some 500 metres (yards) away from the earlier accident, the official added.
The mine produces limestone used in construction.
Deadly accidents are quite common in illegal or private mines in the communist country, where labour and safety regulations are often disregarded. (AFP)
BAGHDAD: A dust storm shut Iraq's airport on Tuesday, an Iraqi Airways official said, a day ahead of key talks between world powers and Iran on the Islamic republic's controversial nuclear programme.
"There are no take-offs or landings ... because of bad weather," the official told on condition of anonymity.
The closure began at about 8:00 am (0500 GMT), the official said, adding that four departing flights had been delayed so far.
It was unclear when the airport would reopen, or if attendance of the nuclear talks would be impacted by the closure. Iran's chief negotiator Saeed Jalili arrived in Baghdad Monday.
The talks, set for Wednesday, are to be held between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States plus Germany. The first round of talks was held in mid-April in Istanbul.
The Baghdad talks are also the latest example of Iraq pushing to host a variety of events to present itself to the world as a relatively stable country that is no longer rife with violence. (AFP)
GEO Business
SAN FRANCISCO: Google closed Tuesday its $12.5 billion deal for Motorola Mobility, a key manufacturer of smartphones and other devices that puts the Internet giant in head-to-head competition with Apple.
"The acquisition will enable Google to supercharge the Android ecosystem and will enhance competition in mobile computing," the California-based Internet giant said in a statement.
Chief executive Larry Page said Google was acquiring "a great American tech company, with a track record of over 80 years of innovation."
The completion of the deal dubbed "Googorola" follows approval by Chinese, US and European regulators, amid concerns on restrictions for Android, a Google-created free operating system for mobile devices.
Conditions from China's Ministry of Commerce included Google keeping its Android software for smartphones and tablet computers free and open for at least five years.
Regulators in the US and elsewhere have stressed that they will be watching to make sure that the Mountain View, California-based company does not use Motorola Mobility to obtain an unfair advantage in the market.
Google acquires 17,000 patents with the purchase of Motorola Mobility and has been strengthening its patent portfolio in the fight for dominance in the booming smartphone and tablet market.
The Android system snagged 51 percent of the US mobile phone operating system market in the three months ending in March, according to comScore, while Apple's operating system had 30.7 percent.
But in the global tablet market, Apple's iPad outmuscled its Android-powered rivals in early 2012, according to research firm IDC.
Some analysts have said Google may be content with the patent portfolio, and sell the handset and other hardware operations.
But Page's comments suggest Google will move headfirst into devices.
"The phones in our pockets have become supercomputers that are changing the way we live," he said.
"It's a great time to be in the mobile business, and I'm confident that the team at Motorola will be creating the next generation of mobile devices that will improve lives for years to come."
Charles Golvin of Forrester Research said he expects little change in the smartphone market because Google and Motorola already have Android phones.
"I expect more impact in tablets... that fully exploit the latest innovations in hardware and software," he said.
Greg Sterling of the website Marketing Land said the deal "could result in some exciting new products," including "interesting, new Internet-access devices that aren't phones," such as the previously announced "Google Glasses."
Google said it will run Motorola Mobility as a separate business unit that will be a licensee of Android, the Google operating system for mobile devices.
"Android will remain open," the company said.
Heading the unit will be "long-time Googler" Dennis Woodside, who will take over from Sanjay Jha, who led the company through this acquisition.
Woodside, who has overseen integration planning for the acquisition, previously served as president of the Americas region for Google.
"Motorola literally invented the entire mobile industry with the first-ever commercial cell phone in 1983," Woodside said.
"Thirty years later, mobile devices are at the center of the computing revolution. Our aim is simple: to focus Motorola Mobility's remarkable talent on fewer, bigger bets, and create wonderful devices that are used by people around the world."
Motorola Mobility was created in 2011 when US-based Motorola Inc. split the company into a mobile devices unit on the one hand and a government and public safety division known as Motorola Solutions on the other. (AFP)
ISLAMABAD: The electricity shortfall on Tuesday further jumped to 5,500 MW as total generation was recorded as 11,164 MW against the demand of 15,664 MW during the last 24 hours.
According to report on daily power generation and load-management position, the hydel generation stood at 3,559 MW, WAPDA thermal 1,440 MW and IPPs 6,165 MW.
As many as 720 MW power was supplied to the Karachi Electric Supply
Company (KESC), the report said.
The power demand has also surged by 2,000 MW this year as compared to last one. (APP)
GEO Sports
JAIPUR: Kolkata Knight Riders co-owner Shah Rukh Khan has been served a summon by the Rajasthan police over a complaint alleging that the actor was seen smoking in public on April 8 in Jaipur during a match.
This was during the IPL match between the Rajasthan Royals and Kolkata Knight Riders. The court has asked the actor to be present for hearing on May 26.
The complainant had moved court on April 9, a day after the IPL match, alleging that despite a ban on smoking in public, the actor was smoking in front of thousands of cricket fans. He said the act sent out wrong signals as the actor is idolised by his young fans.
LONDON: Britain's military is to take charge of London's airspace for the first time since 1945 as part of the huge security operation set up to police the Olympic Games, The Times reported on Tuesday.
Civilian controllers will still be responsible for guiding the 500,000 extra guests into the capital's airports, but will be under the overall supervision of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) for the first time since World War II.
The MoD is expected to create a zone of secure airspace which is restricted by the military, and will work out of a military-civilian control centre in Hampshire, south England, according to the report.
"It's their operation, with their controllers and their procedures," Paul Haskins of the National Air Traffic Services (Nats) told the newspaper.
"Nats is providing them the equipment in order for them to operate the facility," he added.
The MoD is expected to create a zone of secure airspace which is restricted by the military, according to the report.
British police on Monday confirmed some 12,500 officers would be deployed daily during the Olympic Games in the country's largest ever pre-planned policing operation.
A 40,000 strong security force is to guard the Games - which start on July 27 - at a cost of #553 million ($877 million, 662 million euros).
The MoD and armed forces will provide around 13,500 personnel, who will work alongside police and more than 16,000 private security guards and unpaid volunteers.
Security chiefs are believed to be preparing for a range of threats including a "lone wolf" terrorist, riots or cyber-attacks.
Geo Entertainment
LOS ANGELES: New action movie "Battleship" collided with Iron Man, The Hulk and the rest of "The Avengers" this weekend at movie theater box offices, and the super heroes came out on top.
"Avengers" from Walt Disney Co's Marvel Studios added an estimated $55.1 million to its U.S. and Canadian ticket sales and held the No. 1 box office spot for the third straight weekend, according to studio forecasts on Sunday.
The strong performance left big-budget "Battleship," which launched in theaters on Friday, drifting in second place with $25.3 million. Final figures will be released on Monday.
Since it opened overseas in late April, "Avengers" has dominated movie theater box offices worldwide. Global sales for the film that unites a squadron of Marvel super heroes in a battle against evil reached $1.18 billion through Sunday, making it the biggest Disney release ever, the studio said.
Steady interest in "The Avengers" likely took business from "Battleship," an effects-filled $209-million production inspired by a Hasbro board game. Ahead of the weekend, box office forecasters projected at least $30 million for "Battleship" in its North American (U.S. and Canadian) debut.
"We're disappointed obviously, there are a lot of factors going into this including the juggernaut 'Avengers' ... it's taking a big chunk out of the marketplace," Nikki Rocco, president of domestic distribution at Universal Pictures, told Reuters.
"As a studio, it's not a disaster but as a domestic opening, it's softer than we could have hoped for ... the (audience) attention span is unfortunately altered when you have a juggernaut like 'Avengers,'" Rocco added.
The movie stars Taylor Kitsch and Alexander Skarsgard as Navy officers engaged in a battle at sea against alien invaders. The U.S. Navy provided ships and crew members for the film.
Universal Pictures released "Battleship" overseas weeks ago. International sales since the April 11 debut reached $226.8 million through Sunday, the studio said. Combined, global ticket sales for "Battleship" stand at $252.1 million.
In third place for the weekend, comedian Sacha Baron Cohen's satire, "The Dictator," earned $17.4 million domestically over the weekend. The movie opened on Wednesday last week, and its five-day total came in at $24.4 million.
"We're ecstatic about that result. It's a fantastic start for us and we couldn't be more pleased ... for us to think we could beat 'Borat,' that was a pretty high goal ... hopefully we have a shot getting to 'Borat' numbers based on the opening," Anthony Marcoly, president of international distribution at Paramount, told Reuters.
OPPRESSIVE LEADER
In the film, the irreverent Cohen, whose first film "Borat, Cultural Learnings of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" earned $128 million during its run in U.S. and Canadian theaters, again plays for laughs in "The Dictator.
This time Cohen portrays an oppressive leader of a fictional north African country. The movie cost $65 million to produce and Baron Cohen has been capturing headlines with high profile publicity stunts in the United States, London, Germany and Cannes, ahead of the film's release.
Marcoly added that they will be pushing the film into Southern Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and Asia this summer, focusing on its comedic value in those markets, rather than Baron Cohen's star status.
"Dark Shadows," a horror comedy starring Johnny Depp, ended its second weekend in domestic theaters in fourth place, falling from the No. 2 spot last week. The movie pulled in $12.8 million, for a total of $50.9 million to date.
In fifth place, comedy "What to Expect When You're Expecting" took in $10.5 million. Based on a popular pregnancy advice book, the movie stars an ensemble cast including Jennifer Lopez, Cameron Diaz and Chris Rock as soon-to-be parents.
Lions Gate, Alcon Entertainment and Phoenix Pictures produced the movie with a budget in the high $30 millions, reducing their risk with partnerships and foreign pre-sales.
Universal Pictures, a unit of Comcast Corp, released "Battleship." Lions Gate Entertainment Corp released "What to Expect." "Dark Shadows" was distributed by Time Warner Inc's Warner Bros studio. Paramount Pictures, a unit of Viacom Inc, released "The Dictator." (Reuters)
CANNES: The Cannes film festival took time out from the movies to raise money for Haiti on Friday night, with Sean Penn at the helm pleading the humanitarian cause at a celebrity gala.
"Okay, room. Haiti is watching us tonight like you cannot believe," Penn told the black-tie crowd who had paid up to $100,000 for a table at the "Carnival in Cannes", just steps from the famous red carpet.
Three people paid $100,000 each in an auction to accompany Penn on a three-day trip to Haiti where the actor, a two-time Academy Award winner, has been active since the country's devastating 2010 earthquake.
In an expletive-laden yet impassioned speech, Penn exhorted guests to give generously and not turn their backs on Haiti. Celebrities included members of the Cannes jury - actors Ewan McGregor and Diane Kruger and designer Jean Paul Gaultier.
Ben Stiller and Chris Rock, voice stars of animation blockbuster "Madagascar 3" also attended, and designer Giorgio Armani, an event sponsor, made an appearance at the event co-hosted by model Petra Nemcova and "Crash" director and screenwriter Paul Haggis.
President of the Cannes jury four years ago, Penn was named "Ambassador at Large for Haiti" by new President Michel Martelly this year. In the days following the earthquake, Penn started the J/P Haitian Relief Organization with a goal of getting displaced people back into permanent homes.
"There's this very tangible success story that Haiti can be that could be a domino effect throughout the world," Penn told a news conference on Friday.
It was only the third time in its 65-year history that Cannes has lent its name to a fundraising cause, but this time the gala for Haitian relief was not tied to any festival film. In the 1980s it helped raise funds for the Pasteur Institute and in the 1990s for a Venice opera house destroyed by fire.
Penn said the event came together after Thierry Fremaux, the festival's general delegate, "called and asked how he could help".
Rebuilding Haiti will depend on private funding and collaboration between donors, Penn said, citing the non-profit groups of Nemcova and Haggis - the Happy Hearts Fund and Artists for Peace and Justice - both of which have focused on schools.
WINNING BID
Penn lashed out at the media, however, for parachuting into Haiti but then not following through to keep reporting on the zone during its rebuilding.
"It's not only celebrities that just went for the day. It's the whole ... world. It's the entire media. It's all of you," he told the press. "The reason people get Haiti fatigue is because they never committed in the first place."
Singer Lyle Lovett gave a short concert before Haitian band RAM performed and waved the country's blue and red colors on what was Haitian Flag Day.
Martelly, elected president in 2011, appeared on pre-recorded video from Port au Prince, playing the piano, singing and calling Penn "a friend and an inspiration for our country."
Haggis, who took his first trip to Haiti two years before the quake, tried to incite higher bidding on the auction items, announcing a "Golden Globes Weekend" package would also include a date with the Scottish actor Gerard Butler, whom he pulled up on to the stage, to the actor's embarrassment.
A man suddenly leapt up, yelling: "100,000 euros without Gerard Butler!" to seize the winning bid.
Speaking at the news conference, Haggis said the world had largely washed its hands of Haiti throughout its troubled history.
"Honestly, until the quake, no one really gave a damn about Haiti," said Haggis, adding: "Like Sean said, 'Give these people a shot that they've never had'." (Reuters)
GEO Health
LONDON: An 83-year-old British man who has donated blood 57 times has shown further altruistic concern by giving up a kidney to a stranger, making him the oldest Briton to do so, according to a kidney donation charity.
Nicholas Crace, a former charity director from the leafy English county of Hampshire, decided to donate a kidney to Britain's National Health Service following the death of his wife in 2011, when he found he had more time for voluntary work.
"I've had an easy, comfortable life... I thought it was about time I paid back some of my good fortune. I was fit, I had no dependents and plenty of time," Crace told Reuters.
Crace decided to donate a kidney because he was too old to give blood or bone marrow and was surprised to discover that not only was he the oldest living Briton to donate a kidney but also that he had the kidneys of a 40-year-old. "I think I probably chose my parents carefully," he joked.
Almost 7,000 British people are waiting for a kidney andaround 300 die each year waiting for one, according to Britain'sGive A Kidney charity.
Altruistic kidney transplants have taken place in Britainsince 2007, and Crace is one of nearly 100 people to havedonated a kidney to a stranger since then
LONDON: Scientists have mapped the complete genetic codes of 21 breast cancers and created a catalogue of the mutations that accumulate in breast cells, raising hopes that the disease may be able to be spotted earlier and treated more effectively in future.
The research, the first of its kind, untangles the genetic history of how cancer evolves, allowing scientists to identify mutational patterns that fuel the growth of breast tumors, and start to work out the processes behind them.
"These findings have implications for our understanding of how breast cancers develop over the decades before diagnosis in adults and might help to find possible targets for improved diagnosis or therapeutic intervention in the future," said Mike Stratton, who led the research team.
Breast cancer kills more than 450,000 women a year worldwide and is the most common cancer among women, accounting for 16 percent of all cases, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
A study last year by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation in the United States found that global breast cancer cases have more than doubled in just three decades, from 641,000 cases in 1980 to 1.6 million cases in 2010 - a pace that far exceeds global population growth.
"This is the first time we've been able to delve fully into breast cancer genomes in such a thorough way," said Peter Campbell, head of cancer genetics and genomics at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Cambridge, where the studies were led.
The work had given scientists "a full panoramic view of the cancer genome" and helped them identify "mutational patterns rather than individual mutations in specific genes", he added.
DNA MUTATIONS
"We've known for many years now that all cancers are due to abnormalities of DNA...that occur in every single cell of the body over the course of a lifetime," said Stratton.
"But although we've known that, it's remarkable how rudimentary our knowledge is about what the processes are that cause these abnormalities, these mutations in our DNA."
Stratton's team sequenced the genomes of the 21 breast cancers and catalogued all the mutations. They found five major processes that cause one letter of code to be changed to another letter. Genetic code comes in four DNA letters, A,C,G and T.
Stratton said one of the most exciting findings was that one of these processes is characterized by small pockets of massively mutated regions of the genome.
This sudden "storm" of mutations is often seen in breast cancers, he explained in an audio briefing.
While his team don't fully understand the process behind these storms, they think it may be down to components of the cell whose normal function is to edit, or mutate, DNA.
"What we believe...is that sometimes in normal cells...this stops functioning properly and over-functions. It causes too many mutations and the accumulation of those mutations pushes the cell along the line to become cancer."
The team found that these and other mutations accumulate in breast cells over many years, initially slowly, but picking up greater momentum as genetic damage builds up.
By the time the breast cancers are large enough to be diagnosed, they are made up of a number of genetically related families of cells, with one family dominating the cancer, Stratton explained.
Mark Walport, director of the Wellcome Trust which helped fund the work, said the results showed how scientists are starting to see the landscape of mutations in breast cancer "in something approaching its full complexity".
"As this work continues, we can hope to understand how breast cancer develops and thus how it might be treated more effectively," he said in a statement. (Reuters)
GEO Amazing and Interesting
TOKYO: A Japanese man astonished the people by eating 32 boiled eggs in one minute.
The 33-years old Takeru Kobayashi also holds the world record for hot dog eating for six years.
NEW DELHI: At least 430 people, mainly children, have died from an outbreak of encephalitis in a deeply neglected region of the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, officials said on Saturday.
K.P. Kushwaha, chief paediatrician at the BRD Medical College in the state's hardest-hit Gorakhpur district, said it was one of the worst outbreaks of encephalitis in the impoverished region, which borders Nepal.
"The situation is grim and the epidemic is worse than previous years and with so many patients there are no empty beds at the hospital," Khuswaha said.
"We count such cases since January but most of these casualties have occurred since July."
He said more than 2,400 patients have been admitted to government hospitals in the region so far this year of which at least 430 have died.
"Until Saturday, 336 children and 94 adults have died," Kushwaha told from the overcrowded hospital where patients were lying two to a bed.
He said 262 patients were undergoing treatment in the state-run facility.
"Everyday between 30 and 40 patients are being brought in for treatment," he said.
Some 215 people, a majority of them children, succumbed to encephalitis in Gorakhpur last year while the death toll from the disease in 2005 was more than 1,400 in Uttar Pradesh.
Eastern parts of Uttar Pradesh are ravaged by encephalitis each year as malnourished children succumb to the virus, officials say.
Encephalitis causes brain inflammation and can result in brain damage. Symptoms include headaches, seizures and fever.
Health experts say 70 million children nationwide are at risk of encephalitis.
Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state, has been struggling for years with an encephalitis prevention programme, vaccinating millions of children against the virus. (AFP)
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