Month: February 2008
Raga Ratnam Junior – Manodharmam round – Performance by Shilpa Murali
Excerpts of a performance by contestant Shilpa Murali for the Manodharmam round of AMRITA TV Raga Ratnam Junior competition.
Raga Ratnam Junior – Manodharmam round – Performance by Amal Shaju Jose
Excerpts of a performance by contestant Amal Shaju Jose for the Manodharmam round of AMRITA TV Raga Ratnam Junior competition.
Raga Ratnam Junior – Jugal Bandhi round performance by Arjun B Krishna
Excerpts of a performance by contestant Arjun B Krishna for the Manodharmam round of AMRITA TV Raga Ratnam Junior competition.
UAE faces 2 weeks of net, phone disruption
UAE faces 2 weeks of net, phone disruption
Dubai: Residences and offices in the United Arab Emirates face up to two weeks of Internet and international call disruption following damage to two undersea cables in the Mediterranean Sea late last week.
Telecom services provider Etisalat said Sunday it has been informed by India-based Flag Telecom, operator of one of the cables, Flag Europe-Asia, that it will take at least two weeks to repair.
Flag is part of Reliance Communications. The operator of the other cable, Sea-ME-We-4, has said that it would carry out repair work Feb 8.
Large areas in the Gulf plunged into Internet and telephone blackout after the two intercontinental cables were damaged off the coast of Alexandria in Egypt last Wednesday.
The situation got worse when another cable, Falcon, 56 km off Dubai on the UAE-Oman segment, also operated by Flag, was damaged Friday.
Though the third damage did not affect Etisalat, it disrupted the services of UAE’s other telecom services provider, Du.
According to local media reports, Flag has said that a repair ship would arrive at the location of the third damaged cable in the next few days, but so far bad weather has prevented the vessel from setting off from Abu Dhabi port.
In message posted on its website, Flag has stated that that it has arranged part of the restoration capacity via terrestrial route between the landing stations in Al Khobar and Jeddah in Saudi Arabia.
Additional capacity was being restored on alternative routes for customers who have requested ad hoc restoration service.
Source: http://www.manoramaonline.com
After gale force winds it’s chill time
After gale force winds it’s chill time
By Emmanuelle Landais, Staff Reporter GULF NEWS Published: February 03, 2008, 00:45
Dubai: After a weekend battered by gale force winds, residents can breathe easy with less winds but still cold climate.
The weather will be cool and calm over the rest of the week with no rain forecast.
Light and breezy weather will continue over the next four days with temperatures wavering between 12C and 19C maximum in the daytime.
The rest of the week will continue to chill residents with cold temperatures, according to a forecaster at the Dubai Meteorological Office.
“It will be a little hazy in the afternoons but it will stay cool and fine,” he said.
Sunday will be slightly hazy again and breezy in the afternoon. The maximum temperature will be 13C on Sunday in the daytime and will only peak to 19C later on in the week.
“Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday will be fine but cold in the morning,” he said. The lowest temperature will be 12C on Wednesday morning.
“Most of the week will remain quite cold,” he added.
High winds experienced over the weekend which knocked trees down and limited visibility on some main roads have died down and generally no strong winds or shamals are expected in the coming few days.
Despite sandy tracks people were seen jogging at Safa Park.
Ditch plastic to save cash and the environment
Ditch plastic to save cash and the environment
By Binsal Abdul Kader, Staff Reporter GULF NEWS Published: February 02, 2008, 21:30
Abu Dhabi: Prices of plastic shopping bags have increased by 200 per cent forcing retailers to look for ways to minimise their costs, Gulf News has learnt.
Several retail chains in the country said that they are looking for ways to minimise the use of plastic bags.
“Apart from environmental degradation, the price rise of plastic bags make an additional cost which could be shared with the customers if alternative arrangements can be made,” said a spokesperson for one of the largest retail chains in the region.
Some markets are even ready to reduce prices of goods for customers if they start using their own re-usable jute or cloth bags.
“There has been a 200 per cent increase in plastic bag prices in the past one-and-a-half years. The average price has increased from Dh3 per kilo to Dh9 per kilo,” said V. Nandakumar, corporate communication manager of EMKE Group, which runs Lulu hypermarkets.
He said that their 47 outlets in the country consume about 100 tonnes of plastic bags a month. “If we take the case of our about 69 outlets in the Gulf region, the consumption goes up to 150 tonnes a month.”
The millions of dirhams spent by each outlet on the environmentally damaging bags could be shared with customers, he said.
He disclosed the group’s plan to initiate such a step. “We are planning awareness campaigns against plastic bags in cooperation with various official agencies,” said Nandakumar.
Al Maya supermarkets in Dubai said they are also planning an awareness campaign against plastic bags.
Its director, Kamal Vachani, said people are more serious about pollution caused by plastic bags and their use has gone down.
Several awareness campaigns are being carried out against the use of plastic bags.
Dubai Municipality and the International Association for Human Values recently announced the Green Shopper awards, which will reward stores that take steps to reduce use of plastic bags.
Shaikh Khalifa welcomes Hamdan, Maktoum
Shaikh Khalifa welcomes Hamdan, Maktoum
WAM Last updated: February 02, 2008, 23:47
Al Ain: President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan on Saturday underscored his good wishes for the decision by His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, to appoint Shaikh Hamdan Bin Mohammad Al Maktoum, as Crown Prince of Dubai, and Shaikh Maktoum Bin Mohammad Al Maktoum, as Deputy Ruler of Dubai.
Shaikh Khalifa expressed his appreciation while receiving Shaikh Hamdan and Shaikh Maktoum in the presence of General Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, in Al Ain on Saturday.
Shaikh Khalifa welcomed Shaikh Hamdan and Shaikh Maktoum who paid him a courtesy call on the occasion of their appointment to their new posts, and wished them success in shouldering their national responsibilities and discharging their new assignments for the sake of their country and its people.
Shaikh Hamdan pledged to put all his potential and capabilities in the service of the wise leadership of the UAE and its people.
He vowed to be loyal and faithful to Allah, the President and the Vice-President in carrying out his national duty in line with their sound directives to further achieve the hopes and aspirations of the UAE people.
Shaikh Khalifa hosted a lunch banquet in honour of Shaikh Hamdan and Shaikh Maktoum.
The meeting and the banquet were attended by a number of shaikhs and senior officials.
Meanwhile, the new appointments were unanimously welcomed by business and sports officials in the UAE.
A cross-section of business leaders who talked to Gulf News on Saturday said they were confident the new generation would take Dubai to new heights of success and prosperity. Similar sentiments were expressed by the sporting fraternity.
Scientists create ‘no tears’ onions
Scientists create ‘no tears’ onions
WELLINGTON (AFP) – Scientists in New Zealand and Japan have created a “tear-free” onion using biotechnology to switch off the gene behind the enzyme that makes us cry, one of the leading researchers said Friday.
The discovery could signal an end to one of cooking’s eternal puzzles: why does cutting up a simple onion sting the eyes and trigger teardrops?
The research institute in New Zealand, Crop and Food, used gene-silencing technology to make the breakthrough which it hopes could lead to a prototype onion hitting the market in a decade’s time.
Colin Eady, the institute’s senior scientist, said the project started in 2002 after Japanese scientists located the gene responsible for producing the agent behind the tears.
“We previously thought the tearing agent was produced spontaneously by cutting onions, but they proved it was controlled by an enzyme,” he told AFP from his home outside Christchurch.
“Here in New Zealand we had the ability to insert DNA into onions, using gene-silencing technology developed by Australian scientists.
“The technology creates a sequence that switches off the tear-inducing gene in the onion so it doesn’t produce the enzyme. So when you slice the vegetable, it doesn’t produce tears.”
Eady said that by stopping sulphur compounds from being converted to the tearing agent and redirecting them into compounds responsible for flavour and health, the process could even improve the taste of the onion.
“We anticipate that the health and flavour profiles will actually be enhanced by what we’ve done,” he said.
“What we’re hoping is that we’ll essentially have a lot of the nice, sweet aromas associated with onions without that associated bitter, pungent, tear-producing factor.”
The breakthrough has caused ripples overseas, following an international symposium in the Netherlands and after the trade journal Onion World featured Eady’s work on the front cover of its December issue.
Eady, who has several model onion plants at the institute, said despite the excitement about the prospect of “no tears” onions in every home, it would be 10 to 15 years before this happened.
“This is an exciting project because it’s consumer orientated and everyone sees this as a good biotechnology story,” he said.
“I’m more interested in sustainable production and the onions we are working on must be capable of being grown in an efficient manner.
“We have a burgeoning population to feed, and with climate change and other challenges, available resources are being reduced.
“The gene silencing system can also be used to combat virus diseases, and biotechnology in general can help us produce more robust crops.”
Soft drinks up risk of gout: Study
Soft drinks up risk of gout: Study
PTI
LONDON: It has long been considered as a disease of the rich. But, no more. Gout can affect all those who have a sweet tooth, according to a new study.
A team of international researchers has carried out the study and found that high consumption of sugar-loaded soft drinks and fruit juices substantially ups the risk of gout which is a painful joint disease.
According to the team, the risks associated with these fizzy drinks are worse than hard liquor.
“This is the first study and a very large one, linking the commonly consumed products to this common disorder. We’ve found that if you have high consumption of fructose, your gout risk is doubled. And that’s due to easily available sugary beverages,” lead researcher Hyon K Choi of the British Columbia University was quoted by the British media as saying.
The researchers came to the conclusion after following more than 46,000 men aged above 40 with no previous history of gout over a period of 12 years – the participants’ intake of soft drinks, fruits and fruit juices was monitored.
The team found that the risk of developing gout was 85 per cent higher among men who drank two or more cans of soft drinks daily than those who consumed less than one a month – this is greater than the risk linked to drinking spirits.
Men who consumed large amounts of fruit juice or fructose-rich fruits, such as apples and oranges, also had a higher risk of the condition. However, those who drank diet soft drinks showed no extra risk.
“These findings support the importance of recommending a reduction in fructose intake in patients with hyperuricaemia and gout in order to reduce the risk of gout,” according to co-researcher Gary Curhan of the Harvard Medical School.
The results of the study have been published in the British Medical Journal .
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