MISSION UNACCOMPLISHED

IF you’ve ever seen large-scale deforestation, especially of the rainforest, and seen it close up when it’s just happened, you feel you’re in the aftermath of an armoured battle. The scale of the destruction stuns you: cleared ground which seems to be everywhere smoking, burning tree stumps flickering like huge candles. It feels as if some giant beast has torn off a great lump of the landscape and savagely consumed it, leaving bits of it bleeding behind.

Serious deforestation has been going on for more than 30 years across the tropical zones of the world, starting in Amazonia and gathering speed, spreading to Indonesia and then to West Africa.

The effect has been staggering: rainforests, which provide us with so much, from oxygen production to carbon storage, once covered 14 per cent of the Earth’s surface; now they cover about 6 per cent, and the devastation is continuing.

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Besttoolbars Adds Support of Latest Browsers to the Add-On and Toolbar Framework

Besttoolbars added support for Internet Explorer 9, Mozilla Firefox 13, and Google Chrome 19 to its Toolbar and Add-on Frameworks. With this support developers get the ability to build Add-ons and Toolbars fully compatible with the latest versions of these popular browsers.

Today many users update their browsers within a few days after a release, and with a simplified browser update process, the transition to the new browser version is very easy. According recent global statistics, Internet Explorer 9.0 takes 15.5 % of the market share, while its previous version 8.0 had only 14%. That means that more than half of Internet Explorer users are using the latest version.

Supporting the latest browser versions is crucial for Add-ons and Toolbars since it is very common for browsers to add new features or change/remove old features, causing Add-ons to function improperly or not function at all.

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Nanoparticles could solve mystery of Moon’s topsoil

A stunning discovery of nanoparticles inside bubbles of glass in lunar soil could solve the mystery of why the Moon’s surface topsoil has many unusual properties, according to a scientist.

Marek Zbik, from Australia’s Queensland University of Technology’s science and engineering faculty, said scientists had long observed the strange behaviour of lunar soil but had not taken much notice of the nano and submicron particles found in the soil and their source was unknown.

Zbik took the lunar soil samples to Taiwan, where he studied the glass bubbles without breaking them, using a new technique for studying nanomaterials — called synchrotron-based nano tomography — to look at the particles.

Nano tomography is a transmission X-ray microscope which enables 3D images of nanoparticles to be made.

“We were really surprised at what we found,” Zbik said. “Instead of gas or vapour inside the bubbles, which we would expect to find in such bubbles on the Earth, the lunar glass bubbles were filled with a highly porous network of alien-looking glassy particles that span the bubbles’ interior,” a Queensland statement said.

“It appears that the nanoparticles are formed inside bubbles of molten rocks when meteorites hit the lunar surface. Then they are released when the glass bubbles are pulverised by the consequent bombardment of meteorites on the Moon’s surface,” Zbik said.

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Pak troops again open fire along LoC

After a brief lull, Pakistan Rangers violated the ceasefire for the fifth time since June 13 targeting Indian forward posts along the Line of Control (LoC) in the KG sector of Poonch district today morning. No troops were injured. Pakistani troops targeted Indian posts with small and medium arms. Official sources said that firing lasted for nearly an hour.

“Around 10 am, Pakistani troops again resorted to unprovoked and unwarranted firing in the KG sector. They used small arms fire that lasted around 15 minutes,” Jammu-based Defence PRO Col RK Palta said.

The Indian Army said it exercised restraint to de-escalate the situation.

“Since this time their fire was ineffective, we didn’t retaliate in a bid to de-escalate the situation,” said Col Palta. He denied reports of air space violation by Pakistan in the KG sector this morning.

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Dhindsa unlikely to impose new taxes in Punjab budget

The budget of the SAD-BJP alliance to be presented tomorrow is expected to be a lacklustre affair. Finance Minister Parminder Singh Dhindsa is neither likely to impose any new taxes nor is he preparing to give any major relief. The state government is likely to step down from the promises made by it in the manifesto prior to the Assembly elections earlier this year.

The line adopted by the SAD-BJP alliance is that with the Model Code of Conduct in place on account of the Dasuya bypoll scheduled for July 11, no major announcement can be made. Also, with the fiscal deficit likely to shoot up further, the government is in no position to make any announcements regarding new sops. It is learnt that Dhindsa is just going to announce continuation of the existing sops.

The BJP is strongly against the imposition of any taxes for the urban areas. The party has also opposed the levy of tax or cess on sewerage, water and electricity. The SAD, which has a rural mass base, is in no mood to withdraw subsidy to the farmers in the form of free electricity, etc.

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Deserted by allies, BJP firm on contest

With an important NDA partner Shiv Sena today declaring support for UPA presidential candidate Pranab Mukherjee and another key ally JD(U) showing signs of doing the same, an embarrassed BJP has been left with little option but to back former Lok Sabha Speaker PA Sangma in the presidential election.

Despite desertions by its allies, the BJP is firm that it will not allow the President’s post to go uncontested, although it is now evident that Mukherjee is far ahead in the race.

There is no official word from the BJP, but party insiders said senior leader LK Advani had got in touch with AIADMK supremo J. Jayalalithaa and BJD chief Naveen Patnaik, who had proposed Sangma’s candidature, and asked them to take the lead in canvassing support for the former Speaker as an Independent candidate.

The BJP was forced to change its strategy for the presidential election after NDA allies like Shiv Sena, JD(U) and the Akali Dal, were not enthused about pitting a candidate against Pranab Mukherjee. Well aware that a candidate proposed by the NDA would not find ready acceptance, Advani asked Jayalalithaa and Patnaik to be more proactive in mustering support for Sangma.

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Pak SC disqualifies PM Gilani

The Pakistan Supreme Court on Tuesday declared that Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani stood disqualified since April 26 and ceased to be the premier since that date. The court also asked President Asif Ali Zardari to take steps for continuity of the democratic process, an apparent reference to the election of a new prime minister. Gilani was elected Prime Minister in March 2008 and has remained in that office longer than any other elected leader in the country’s history.

Capping nearly 30 months of bitter feud between the judiciary and the government, a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry held that Gilani, 60, “ceased” to be the Prime Minister from April 26 this year.

Gilani was then convicted and sentenced for not obeying court orders to reopen graft charges in Switzerland against President Zardari.

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