30 September 2016

Europe's comet probe Rosetta ends 12-year mission with crash

In this photo provided by the European Space Agency ESA Rosetta’s OSIRIS wide-angle camera captured this image of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko at 02:17 GMT from an altitude of about 15.5 km above the surface during the spacecraft’s final descent on Friday, Sept. 30, 2016. The image scale is about 1.56 m/pixel and the image measures about 3.2 km across.
After 12 years of hurtling through space in pursuit of a comet, the Rosetta probe ended its mission Friday with a slow-motion crash onto the icy surface of the alien world it was sent out to study.
Mission controllers lost contact with the probe, as expected, after it hit the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko at 1039 GMT (6:39 a.m. EDT) Friday, the European Space Agency said.
"Farewell Rosetta, you've done the job," said mission manager Patrick Martin. "That is space science at its best."

Dueling truths follow Indian raid in Pakistani Kashmir

In this Sept. 24, 2016 file photo, an Indian Border Security Force soldier looks at the Pakistan side of the border through a binocular at Ranbir Singh Pura, about 35 kilometers (22 miles) from Jammu, India. In New Delhi, they say that highly trained Indian soldiers slipped across the de facto border and into Pakistani-controlled Kashmir in a daring nighttime raid, killing anti-India militants preparing to launch attacks. In Islamabad, they say that only one Indian soldier made it across the border, and he was captured, with Pakistani forces easily driving back the other Indians, who retreated as soon as they encountered resistance. The dueling tales of courageous forces serve politics on both sides of the border, with powerful forces in each country able to proclaim their courage in the face of aggression.
In New Delhi, they say that highly trained Indian soldiers slipped across the de facto border and into Pakistani-controlled Kashmir in a daring nighttime raid, killing anti-India militants preparing to launch attacks.
In Islamabad, they say only one Indian soldier made it across the border — and he was captured — with Pakistani forces easily driving back the other Indians, who retreated as soon as they encountered resistance.

A timeline of comet probe's 12-year space odyssey

A model of orbiter Rosetta hangs from the ceiling in a conference room at the European Space Agency ESA in Darmstadt, Germany, Friday, Sept. 30, 2016. Rosetta will be impacted on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on Friday, marking the end of the twelve years lasting Rosetta mission.
The European Space Agency's comet-chasing probe Rosetta is performing a final maneuver Friday that will end its 12-year mission with a crash-landing on the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

Here's a look at key moments during the mission:
March 2, 2004: Europe's unmanned probe Rosetta takes off from Kourou, French Guiana, after a series of delays, including an abandoned January 2003 launch window because of a rocket problem.

India says it has struck militants across Kashmir frontier

Members of the Pakistani Civil Society Forum chant slogans during a demonstration for peace and condemning the raising tension between Pakistan and India, in Lahore, Pakistan, Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2016. Pakistan's defense minister says its nuclear-armed rival India will "disintegrate" when Kashmir gains independence. Khawaja Muhammad Asif said that Pakistan will continue to extend moral support to the people of the disputed Himalayan region, which is split between Pakistani and Indian control but claimed in its entirety by both.
India said Thursday it carried out "surgical strikes" against militants across the highly militarized frontier that divides the Kashmir region between India and Pakistan, in an exchange that escalated tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbors.
Pakistan dismissed the reports that India's military had targeted "terrorist launch pads" inside the Pakistan-controlled part of Kashmir. Islamabad said instead that two of its soldiers were killed in "unprovoked" firing by India across the border.

28 September 2016

BlackBerry, once a phone innovator, to stop making its own

In this Tuesday, March 3, 2015, file photo, Blackberry's Executive Chairman and CEO John Chen speaks during a presentation at the Mobile World Congress wireless show in Barcelona, Spain. On Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2016, BlackBerry announced plans to stop making its signature smartphones internally, signaling a strategic shift for a company that built its reputation on innovative smartphone technology. "We believe that this is the best way to drive profitability in the device business," Chen said in a statement Wednesday.
BlackBerry plans to stop making its signature smartphones internally, signaling a strategic shift for a company that built its reputation on innovative smartphone technology.
Rather, all development for BlackBerry-branded phones will be left to BlackBerry's partners, which will license BlackBerry's technology and brand, while the Canadian company concentrates on growing its software business.

Pakistan says India will 'disintegrate' when Kashmir is free

In this Friday, April 25, 2008 file photo, Pakistani Petroleum Minister Khawaja Mohammed Asif, right, shakes hands with his Indian counterpart Murli Deora after their joint news conference in Islamabad, Pakistan. Pakistan's Defense Minister says its nuclear-armed rival India will "disintegrate" when the people living in disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir got independence from New Delhi. Khawaja Muhammad Asif said Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2016 that Pakistan will continue to extend moral support to Kashmiri people in their struggle.
Pakistan's defense minister on Wednesday said India will "disintegrate" when Kashmir gains independence, in a sign of mounting tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals.
Khawaja Muhammad Asif told The Associated Press that Pakistan will continue to extend moral support to the people of the disputed Himalayan region, which is split between Pakistani and Indian control but claimed in its entirety by both.

Baby born with DNA from 3 people, first from new technique

Scientists say the first baby has been born from a controversial new technique that combines DNA from three people — the mother, the father and an egg donor.
The goal was to prevent the child from inheriting a fatal genetic disease from his mother, who had previously lost two children to the illness.
The birth of the boy is revealed in a research summary published by the journal Fertility & Sterility. Scientists are scheduled to present details at a meeting next month in Salt Lake City.

27 September 2016

India says Pakistan believes terror will bring territory

Sushma Swaraj, Minister of External Affairs for India, speaks during the 71st session of the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters, Monday, Sept. 26, 2016.
Pakistan continues to believe terrorist attacks will allow it to obtain territory it covets in Jammu and Kashmir, India's foreign minister said Monday.
In her speech before the U.N. General Assembly, Sushma Swaraj also rejected accusations made by Pakistan's prime minister from the same podium last week that India violates human rights, calling them "baseless."

25 September 2016

India to ratify Paris Agreement on climate change

In this Nov. 30, 2015 file photo, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses world leaders at the COP21, United Nations Climate Change Conference, in Le Bourget, outside Paris. India's leader says his country will ratify the Paris Agreement on climate change early next month. Modi said Sunday that his government will ratify the agreement Oct. 2, coinciding with the birth anniversary of India's independence leader Mohandas Gandhi.
India's prime minister said Sunday that his country will ratify the Paris Agreement on climate change early next month.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said his government will ratify the agreement Oct. 2, coinciding with the birth anniversary of India's independence leader Mohandas Gandhi, who believed in a minimum carbon footprint. Modi made the announcement at a meeting of his Bharatiya Janata Party's leaders in the southern Indian town of Kozhikode.

China begins operating world's largest radio telescope

In this Saturday, Sept. 24, 2016 photo released by Xinhua News Agency, an aerial view shows the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) in the remote Pingtang county in southwest China's Guizhou province. China has begun operating the world's largest radio telescope to help search for extraterrestrial life.
The world's largest radio telescope began searching for signals from stars and galaxies and, perhaps, extraterrestrial life Sunday in a project demonstrating China's rising ambitions in space and its pursuit of international scientific prestige.
Beijing has poured billions into such ambitious scientific projects as well as its military-backed space program, which saw the launch of China's second space station earlier this month.

23 September 2016

India trying diplomacy in dealing with rival Pakistan

In this May 27, 2014 file photo, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, left, walks to shake hand with his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif before the start of their meeting in New Delhi, India. Even with his own officials saying the Sept. 18, 2016 attack on an Indian military base was launched by Pakistan-based militants, Modi is relying on diplomacy more than saber-rattling. In large part, this is because Modi and Indian forces already must defuse the massive and relentless anti-India protests that have swept its portion of Kashmir, triggered by the killing of a young rebel leader in July. In a speech at the U.N. General Assembly on Sept. 21, Sharif strongly criticized India's suppression of protests in Kashmir, calling for an independent inquiry into killings there and a U.N. fact-finding mission to investigate what he called India's "brutalities."
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has long been known for his hard-line stance on Pakistan. It was a major part of the campaign that swept him to power.
But even with his own officials saying a recent attack on an Indian military base was launched by Pakistan-based militants, Modi is relying on diplomacy more than saber-rattling.
In large part, this is because Modi and Indian forces already must defuse the massive and relentless anti-India protests that have swept its portion of Kashmir, triggered by the killing of a young rebel leader more than two months ago. The unrest has led to a clampdown by security forces that often left the Kashmir Valley under curfew, with schools, universities and businesses shut through the summer tourist season.

22 September 2016

Ghana professors campaign for removal of new Gandhi statue

A statue of Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi in Accra, Ghana, Thursday, Sept. 22, 2016. Professors at a university in Ghana's capital are campaigning for the removal of a new statue of Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi.
Professors at a university in Ghana's capital are campaigning for the removal of a new statue of Indian independence leader Mohandas Gandhi.
The petition, delivered Thursday to the University of Ghana's governing council, takes issue with what the professors call Gandhi's "racist identity" and controversial references to Africans in his writings. Launched online on Sept. 12, the petition has garnered more than 1,250 signatures.

19 September 2016

Pressure builds on India gov't to retaliate against Pakistan

Indian students hold placards and stand near a formation of flowers that read "tribute to brave martyrs" as they pay tribute to the Indian soldiers killed in the Sunday attack on army base in Indian-controlled Kashmir early Sunday, at a school in Ahmadabad, India, Monday, Sept. 19, 2016. Suspected rebels using guns and grenades sneaked into a crucial army base in Indian-controlled Kashmir early Sunday and killed at least 17 soldiers in the deadliest attack on a military base in the disputed Himalayan region in recent years, the army said.
India's prime minister came under increasing pressure Monday from within his own party, as many in the country demanded a strong response to a deadly weekend attack that the government blames on Pakistan-based militants.
But amid the calls for revenge, many analysts warned that a military response would be extremely dangerous, and that diplomatic and trade restrictions were far more likely.

18 September 2016

17 soldiers killed in attack at Indian army base in Kashmir

An Indian army soldier guards the army base which was attacked by suspected rebels in the town of Uri, west of Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Sunday, Sept. 18, 2016. Suspected rebels using guns and grenades sneaked into a crucial army base in Indian-controlled Kashmir early Sunday and killed at least 17 soldiers in the deadliest attack on a military base in the disputed Himalayan region in recent years, the army said.
Suspected rebels using guns and grenades sneaked into a crucial army base in Indian-controlled Kashmir early Sunday and killed at least 17 soldiers in the deadliest attack on a military base in the disputed Himalayan region in recent years, the army said.
Four rebels were killed as the soldiers returned gunfire after the surprise assault before dawn on the base, located near the highly militarized Line of Control dividing Kashmir between India and Pakistan.

17 September 2016

Bombing in northwest Pakistan mosque kills 24, wounds 28

A Pakistani child who was injured in a suicide bombing is treated at a local hospital in Khar, Pakistan, Friday, Sept. 16, 2016. A suicide bomber attacked a Sunni mosque in northwest Pakistan on Friday, killing dozens of worshippers and wounding many others, officials said. Several children were also among those killed or wounded in the deadly attack.
A suicide bomber attacked a Sunni mosque in northwest Pakistan on Friday, killing at least 24 worshippers and wounding 28 others, officials said. Several children were also among those killed or wounded in the deadly attack.
A breakaway Taliban group later claimed responsibility for the bombing.

16 September 2016

Police arrest rights activist in Indian-controlled Kashmir

Police have arrested a prominent rights activist in Indian-controlled Kashmir a day after he was barred from leaving India to travel to Geneva to participate in a session of the United Nations' Human Rights Council, police and family members said Friday.
Police picked up Khurram Parvez from his home in the region's main city Srinagar late Thursday night.

13 September 2016

This device can read the pages of a book without opening it

In this Monday, Sept. 12, 2016 photo, Barmak Heshmat poses outside his office at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass. Researchers at MIT have come up with a technology that can read the pages of a book without opening the cover, a development that could help museums better analyze antique books and ancient texts.
Leave it to the great minds at MIT and Georgia Tech to figure out a way to read the pages of a book without actually opening it.
A team of researchers from the two institutions pulled it off with a system they developed that looks like a cross between a camera and a microscope.
They said it could someday be used by museums to scan the contents of old books too fragile to handle or to examine paintings to confirm their authenticity or understand the artist's creative process.

US flies bombers over S.Korea in show of force against North

U.S. B-1 bomber, center, flies over Osan Air Base with U.S. jets in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2016. The United States has flown nuclear-capable supersonic bombers over ally South Korea in a show of force meant to cow North Korea after its fifth nuclear test and also to settle rattled nerves in the South.
The United States on Tuesday sent two nuclear-capable supersonic bombers streaking over ally South Korea in a show of force meant to cow North Korea after its recent nuclear test and also to settle rattled nerves in the South.
The B-1B bombers, escorted by U.S. and South Korean jets, were seen by an Associated Press photographer as they flew over Osan Air Base, which is 120 kilometers (75 miles) from the border with North Korea, the world's most heavily armed. The bombers were likely to return to Andersen Air Force Base in Guam, without landing in South Korea.

12 September 2016

The Latest: US Open champ Wawrinka notes 9/11 in victory

Stan Wawrinka, of Switzerland, left, and Novak Djokovic, of Serbia, pose for a photo before playing in the men's singles final of the U.S. Open tennis tournament, Sunday, Sept. 11, 2016, in New York.
The Latest on the U.S. Open (all times local):

8:45 p.m.

U.S. Open champion Stan Wawrinka took time out at the end of his victory speech to remember the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

"It's been a big battle on the court ... four hours," Wawrinka told the crowd in Arthur Ashe Stadium after defeating No. 1-ranked Novak Djokovic 6-7 (1), 6-4, 7-5, 6-3. "But I just want to remember what happened 15 years ago."

The Swiss Wawrinka's statement on court followed that of American Bethanie Mattek-Sands, who won the women's doubles title with Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic, and appeared to choke up during her victory speech, telling the crowd: "It's a special day today here for everybody in New York."

11 September 2016

Woman in iconic V-J Day Times Square kiss photo dies at 92

Iconic WWII Times Square kiss
The woman in an iconic photo shown kissing an ecstatic sailor in Times Square celebrating the end of World War II has died. Greta Zimmer Friedman was 92.
Friedman, who fled Austria during the war as a 15-year-old, died Thursday at a hospital in Richmond, Virginia, from complications of old age, her son, Joshua Friedman, said.
Greta Friedman was a 21-year-old dental assistant in a nurse's uniform when she became part of one of the most famous photographs of the 20th century.

Samsung urges consumers globally to stop using Galaxy Note 7

In this Sept. 8, 2016 photo, a Samsung Electronics' Galaxy Note 7 smartphone is displayed at the headquarters of South Korean mobile carrier KT in Seoul, South Korea. Samsung Electronics recommended South Korean customers to stop using the new Galaxy Note 7 smartphones, which the company is recalling worldwide after several dozen of them caught fire. The South Korean technology giant in a statement on its website Saturday, Sept. 10, 2016, advised local users to visit the company's service centers to receive rental phones for temporary use.
Samsung Electronics is urging consumers worldwide to stop using Galaxy Note 7 smartphones immediately and exchange them as soon as possible, as more reports of the phones catching fire emerged even after the company's global recall.
The call from the South Korean company, the world's largest smartphone maker, comes after U.S. authorities urged users to switch the Galaxy Note 7 off and not to use or charge it during a flight. Several airlines around the world asked travelers not switch on the jumbo smartphone or put it in checked baggage, with some carriers banning the phone on flights.

Norway-Facebook-Napalm Girl story

The cover to Norway's largest circulation newspaper, Aftenposten, displayed in Oslo Friday Sept. 9, 2016. Editor-in-chief and CEO, Espen Egil Hansen, wrote an open letter to founder and CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, accusing him of threatening the freedom of speech and abusing power after deleting the iconic picture from the Vietnam war, taken by Associated Press photographer Nick Ut, of a young girl running from a napalm attack. The Pulitzer Prize-winning image by Nick Ut is at the center of a heated debate about freedom of speech in Norway after Facebook deleted it from a Norwegian author's page.
Facebook on Friday reversed its decision to remove postings of an iconic 1972 image of a naked, screaming girl running from a napalm attack in Vietnam, after a Norwegian revolt against the tech giant.
Protests in Norway started last month after Facebook deleted the Pulitzer Prize-winning image by Associated Press photographer Nick Ut from a Norwegian author's page, saying it violated its rules on nudity.

10 September 2016

Muslim pilgrims begin hajj, but this year without Iranians

Muslim pilgrims make their way at the Grand Mosque in the Muslim holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, Friday, Sept. 9, 2016. Muslim pilgrims have begun arriving at the holiest sites in Islam ahead of the annual hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia.
Close to 2 million people from around the world began performing the first rites of the Islamic hajj pilgrimage on Saturday, which calls for entering into a state of physical and spiritual purity and circling the cube-shaped Kaaba with their palms facing upward in supplication and prayer.
Notably absent this year are Iranian pilgrims. Last year, some 64,000 Iranians took part in the hajj, but disputes with the Saudi government prompted Tehran to bar its citizens from taking part this year.

12 dead, 16 hurt in explosion and fire at Bangladesh factory

Firefighters work to put out the fire at a packaging factory in Tongi industy area outside Dhaka, Bangladesh, Saturday, Sept. 10, 2016. A boiler exploded and triggered a fire at a packaging factory near Bangladesh's capital.
A boiler exploded and triggered a fire at a packaging factory near Bangladesh's capital, leaving at least 12 people dead and 16 others injured on Saturday, officials said.
Several bodies were recovered from the five-story Tampaco Foils Ltd. factory in the Tongi industrial area outside Dhaka, fire official Mohammed Rafiquzzaman said. A doctor on duty at the Tongi Hospital said nine bodies were in the mortuary as officials waited for family members to identify them.

9 September 2016

Adam Selman takes the runway from sunrise to sunset

Model and acid attack victim Reshma Querishi has her make up and hair done before walking the runway for the Archana Kochhar collection during Fashion Week in New York, Thursday, Sept. 8, 2016.
New York Fashion Week kicked off in earnest on Thursday, with highlights including a colorful journey from sunrise to sunset by Adam Selman, and an emotional appearance by an acid attack survivor from India, walking the runway to send a message of courage to other survivors of such attacks in her country.
SUNRISE TO SUNSET, VIA ADAM SELMAN
There were lots of shiny beads, little white sneakers, and attractive bare backs crossed only by the skimpiest of straps on Adam Selman's whimsical runway Thursday, a colorful journey from sunrise to sunset.

7 September 2016

Frenchwoman who got world's 1st face transplant dies at 49

In this Feb. 6, 2006 file photo, Isabelle Dinoire, the woman who received the world's first partial face transplant with a new nose, chin and mouth, in an operation on Nov. 27, 2005, addresses reporters during her first press conference since the transplant at the Amiens hospital, northern France. The 38-year-old woman was mauled by a dog, leaving her with severe facial injuries that her doctors said made it difficult for her to speak and eat. Dinoire who received the world’s first partial face transplant has died, 11 years after surgery that set the stage for dozens of other transplants around the world.
Isabelle Dinoire, a Frenchwoman who received the world's first partial face transplant, has died more than a decade after a complex and daring operation that set the stage for dozens of similar transplants worldwide. She was 49.
Her life with a new face was a miracle to many, but was also marred by infections, kidney trouble and hypertension linked to her treatment. In announcing her death Tuesday, the Amiens University Hospital in northern France said Dinoire's experience "illustrates perfectly the high stakes of face transplants."

4 September 2016

Pope declares Mother Teresa a saint and model of mercy

Nuns walk past a giant portrait of Mother Teresa hanging on the facade of the building of Missionaries of Charity, the order set up by Mother Teresa, in Kolkata, India, Saturday, Sept. 3, 2016. For many of the poor and destitute whom Mother Teresa served, the tiny nun was a living saint and as Pope Francis prepares to declare her a saint just two decades after her death, people touched by her life in the eastern Indian city where she lived and worked for close to 50 years are filled with pride.
Pope Francis declared Mother Teresa a saint on Sunday, praising the tiny nun for having taken in society's most unwanted and for having shamed world leaders for the "crimes of poverty they themselves created."
Francis held up Mother Teresa as the model for a Catholic Church that goes to the peripheries to find poor, wounded souls during a canonization Mass that drew an estimated 120,000 people — rich and poor, powerful and homeless — to a sun-filled St. Peter's Square.
"Let us carry her smile in our hearts and give it to those whom we meet along our journey, especially those who suffer," Francis said in his homily.

2 September 2016

Workers strike across India to protest economic reforms

Indian workers participate in a rally during a nationwide strike called by trade unions in Hyderabad, India, Friday, Sept. 2, 2016. The strike has been called against government's alleged anti labor policies. Activists also demanded higher minimum wages and provision of social security for workers from unorganized sectors.
Millions of public sector workers across India went on strike Friday to protest economic reforms, saying the government's plan for raising the country's minimum wage for unskilled workers did not go far enough.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government says the reforms, including opening some sectors to private and foreign investment, are needed to boost growth.