World News // Current

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FRIZZI TOONS

Editorial Cartoons by Donn Frizzi

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Germany calls for ban of neo-Nazi sites abroad

BERLIN — Germany's Justice Minister is calling for Internet service providers in the U.S. and elsewhere to remove... more

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Murdoch Tabloid Hacked Into Cell Phones Of "Hundreds Of Celebrities And Politicians"

Britain's most senior policeman ordered an inquiry Thursday into claims that journalists from a tabloid owned by media mogul... more

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Japanese Dentists practice on robot patient

Trainee Japanese dentists now have a way to avoid causing pain and damage if they mix up their molars - by practising on a robotic patient.

The robot, called Simroid, has sensors in its teeth and body which feed back on how well the dentist is doing. Movements such as blinks and muffled gurgles are designed to show normal patient responses such as fear, discomfort, pain and tension - without putting any real person’s mouth at risk.

“I made this robot so that students can understand patients’ feelings,” said Professor Naotake Shibui of the division of pediatric dentistry at the Nippon Dental University Hospital in Tokyo.

“Then they become a dentist who doesn’t just concentrate on technique but also understands the patient. Everyone is a little afraid when they come to the dentist, and we should appreciate that,” he told BBC World Service’s Digital Planet programme.

Sensors in the robot’s teeth trigger red lights to illustrate when a drill has gone too far.

However, the robot, which is designed to look like a female, has sensors in other areas on its body too, to provide feedback about the patient’s whole experience.

“The whole training session can be recorded and you can review it anytime you want,” he added. “We can stop the video and tell our students, ‘you had a red light because you touched the patient here’.”

The robot has also been designed so that when it speaks, it does so with the open-mouthed series of grunts familiar to anyone who has sat in the dentist’s chair with a mouthful of foam.

Dr Shibui, who has been working on the project for two years, said that treating the robot as a real patient was essential to training.

“Actually talking to the patient makes you understand their feelings,” he said.

A new version of the robot, Simrod II, is now being worked on by the same companies that created the first - a combination of J Morita WFG, Nissin Dental Products and Kokoro Company.

Simroid II will have an improved response, automatic voice recognition and speech synthesis.Trainee Japanese dentists now have a way to avoid causing pain and damage if they mix up their molars - by practising on a robotic... more

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Web site for unwanted goods seeks to raise funds for schools, environment & charities for free

A bake and yard sale veteran, Falmouth, Maine, resident Carolyn Gillis decided to take school fundraising to a higher level. She... more

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18 hours ago

Third day of 'cyber attacks' hit S Korea

South Korea is experiencing a third wave of suspected cyber-attacks - co-ordinated attempts to paralyse a number of major... more

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19 hours ago

Australian town bans bottled water sales

Residents of a rural Australian town hoping to protect the earth and their wallets have voted to ban the sale of bottled water, the first community in the country — and possibly the world — to take such a drastic step in the growing backlash against the industry.

Residents of Bundanoon cheered after their near-unanimous approval of the measure at a town meeting Wednesday. It was the second blow to Australia's beverage industry in one day: Hours earlier, the New South Wales state premier banned all state departments and agencies from buying bottled water, calling it a waste of money and natural resources.

"I have never seen 350 Australians in the same room all agreeing to something," said Jon Dee, who helped spearhead the "Bundy on Tap" campaign in Bundanoon, a town of 2,500 about 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of Sydney. "It's time for people to realize they're being conned by the bottled water industry."

First popularized in the 1980s as a convenient, healthy alternative to sugary drinks, bottled water today is often criticized as an environmental menace, with bottles cluttering landfills and requiring large amounts of energy to produce and transport.

Over the past few years, at least 60 cities in the United States and a handful of others in Canada and the United Kingdom have agreed to stop spending taxpayer dollars on bottled water, which is often consumed during city meetings, said Deborah Lapidus, organizer of Corporate Accountability International's "Think Outside the Bottle" campaign in the U.S.

But the Boston-based nonprofit corporate watchdog has never heard of a community banning the sale of bottled water, she said.

"I think what this town is doing is taking it one step further and recognizing that there's safe drinking water coming out of our taps," she said.

Bundanoon's battle against the bottle has been brewing for years, ever since a Sydney-based beverage company announced plans to build a water extraction plant in the town. Residents were furious over the prospect of an outsider taking their water, trucking it up to Sydney for processing and then selling it back to them. The town is still fighting the company's proposal in court.

Then in March, Huw Kingston, who owns the town's combination cafe and bike shop, had a thought: If the town was so against hosting a water bottling company, why not ban the end product?Residents of a rural Australian town hoping to protect the earth and their wallets have voted to ban the sale of bottled water,... more

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19 hours ago

Mexico accused of torture in drug war

The Mexican army has carried out forced disappearances, acts of torture and illegal raids in pursuit of drug traffickers, according to documents and interviews with victims, their families, political leaders and human rights monitors.

From the violent border cities where drugs are brought into the United States to the remote highland regions where poppies and marijuana are harvested, residents and human rights groups describe an increasingly brutal war in which the government, led by the army, is using harsh measures to battle the cartels that continue to terrorize much of the country.

In Puerto Las Ollas, a mountain village of 50 people in the southern state of Guerrero, residents recounted how soldiers seeking information last month stuck needles under the fingernails of a disabled 37-year-old farmer, jabbed a knife into the back of his 13-year-old nephew, fired on a pastor, and stole food, milk, clothing and medication.

In Tijuana, across the border from San Diego, two dozen policemen who were arrested on drug charges in March alleged that, to extract confessions, soldiers beat them, held plastic bags over their heads until some lost consciousness, strapped their feet to a ceiling while dunking their heads in water and applied electric shocks, according to court documents, letters and interviews with their relatives and defense lawyers.

The officers were detained at a military base for more than a month.

Mexican officials acknowledged that abuses have occurred in the fight against traffickers but described the cases as isolated. In some instances, drug traffickers may be accusing the army of torture and other human rights violations as propaganda and to deflect attention from the government's efforts to dismantle their operations, the officials said.

"I know that the armed forces are not acting inappropriately, although there have been some cases," said Interior Minister Fernando Gómez Mont, who is responsible for coordinating security operations across Mexico. "The government honestly believes that. There is no incentive for abuse."The Mexican army has carried out forced disappearances, acts of torture and illegal raids in pursuit of drug traffickers,... more

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Australia town bans bottled water

The small Australian town of Bundanoon has become the first place in the country, and possibly the world, to ban the sale of... more

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22 hours ago

Hagenbeck Zoo Welcomes Baby Elephant

Photographs of an unnamed baby elephant and his mother - named Thura - at the Hagenbeck Zoo in Hamburg, Germany on Wednesday, July... more

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Australia town bans bottled water

A rural town in Australia has voted overwhelmingly to ban the sale of bottled water over concerns about its environmental impact.... more

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FRIZZI TOONS

Editorial Cartoons by Donn Frizzi

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1 day ago

North Korea Suspected in Cyber Attack on United States

A widespread computer attack that began July 4 knocked out the Web sites of the Treasury Department, the Secret Service and other... more

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1 day ago

Zardari to relinquish some key presidential powers: Report

LONDON: In a significant move, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari has agreed to relinquish some key powers like appointment of... more

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Pakistan created and nurtured terrorists, admits Zardari

ISLAMABAD: For the first time, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has admitted that militants and extremists were "created... more

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1 day ago

N. Korea believed behind cyber attacks

South Korean intelligence officials believe North Korea or pro-Pyongyang forces in South Korea committed cyber attacks that... more

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Thin-looking Kim Jong Il makes rare appearance

A thin-looking Kim Jong Il made a rare public appearance Wednesday as North Korea paid solemn respects to his father, the... more

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"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" Premieres in London

Photographs from the world premiere of the film "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" at the Empire Leicester Square... more

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SOUTH KOREA TO SPEND $85 BN ON CLEANTECH

South Korea most known for semiconductor memory chips in the MP3 player, USB stick or Computer, now turning to Cleantech and... more

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China president hurries home from G8 after rioting

China's president cut short a G8 summit trip to rush home Wednesday after ethnic tensions soared in Xinjiang territory, and the government flooded the area with security forces in a bid to quell emotions in the wake of a massive riot that left 156 dead.

Two helicopters dropped leaflets appealing for calm among the Xinjiang capital's 2.3 million residents a day after running battles in the streets involving Han Chinese and minority Muslim Uighurs waving bricks, steel pipes and cleavers.

A Foreign Ministry statement said "given the current situation in Xinjiang," President Hu Jintao cut short a trip to Italy for a Group of Eight meeting later Wednesday to return home. It was not known if he would travel to Urumqi, about four hours by air west of Beijing.

After an overnight curfew, streets were calmer Wednesday, but residents showed cell phone and video camera footage of the earlier chaos, reporting neighbor-on-neighbor violence and pointing out bloodstains.

Uighurs say the riots that started Sunday — put down by volleys of tear gas and a massive show of force — were triggered by the June 25 deaths of Uighur factory workers killed in a brawl in the southern Chinese city of Shaoguan. State-run media have said two workers died, but many Uighurs believe more were killed and said the incident was an example of how little the government cared about them.

Many of the Turkic-speaking group believe the Han Chinese, who have flooded into the rugged, rapidly developing western region in recent years, are trying to crowd them out. The Han Chinese say the Uighurs are backward and ungrateful for all the economic development and modernization.

They also complain that the Uighurs' religion — a moderate form of Sunni Islam — keeps them from blending into Chinese society, which is officially communist and largely secular.

In one of the biggest Uighur neighborhoods Wednesday, residents crowded around reporters to complain about how mobs of Han Chinese men stormed into their neighborhoods and assaulted them.China's president cut short a G8 summit trip to rush home Wednesday after ethnic tensions soared in Xinjiang territory, and... more