Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Iran moves closer to nuke warhead capacity

VIENNA -Iran pressed ahead Monday with plans that will increase its ability to make nuclear weapons as it formally informed the U.N. nuclear agency of its intention to enrich uranium to higher levels.
Alarmed world powers questioned the rationale behind the move and warned the country it could face more U.N. sanctions if it made good on its intentions.
Iran maintains its nuclear activities are peaceful, and an envoy insisted the move was meant only to provide fuel for Tehran's research reactor. But world powers fearing that Iran's enrichment program might be a cover for a weapons program were critical.
Britain said the Islamic Republic's reason for further enrichment made no sense because it is not technically advanced enough to turn the resulting material into the fuel rods needed for the reactor.
France and the U.S. said the latest Iranian move left no choice but to push harder for a fourth set of U.N. Security Council sanctions to punish Iran's nuclear defiance.
Even a senior parliamentarian from Russia, which traditionally opposes Western ambitions for new U.N. sanctions, suggested the time had now come for such additional punishment
Konstantin Kosachev, head of the international affairs committee of the State Duma — the lower house of parliament — told the Interfax news agency that the international community should "react to this step with serious measures, including making the regime of economic sanctions more severe."
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had already announced Sunday that his country would significantly enrich at least some of the country's stockpile of uranium to 20 percent. Still, Monday's formal notification was significant, particularly because of Iran's waffling in recent months on the issue.
Western powers blame Iran for rejecting an internationally endorsed plan to take Iranian low enriched uranium, further enriching it and return it in the form of fuel rods for the reactor — and in broader terms for turning down other overtures meant to diminish concerns about its nuclear agenda.
Telling The Associated Press that his country now had formally told the International Atomic Energy Agency of its intentions, Iranian envoy Ali Asghar Soltanieh said that IAEA inspectors now overseeing enrichment to low levels would be able to stay on site to monitor the process.
He suggested world powers had pushed Iran into the decision, asserting that it was their fault that the plan that foresaw Russian and French involvement in supplying fuel from enriched uranium for the Tehran research reactor had failed.
"Until now, we have not received any response to our positive logical and technical proposal," he said. "We cannot leave hospitals and patients desperately waiting for radio isotopes" being produced at the Tehran reactor and used in cancer treatment, he added.
The IAEA confirmed receiving formal notification in a restricted note to the agency's 35-nation board made available to The Associated Press.
Iran's atomic energy organization informed the agency that "production of less than 20 percent enriched uranium is being foreseen," said the note.
"Less than 20 percent" means enrichment to a tiny fraction below that level — in effect 20 percent but formally just below threshold for high enriched uranium.
At the same time, the note indicated that Iran was keeping the agency in the dark about specifics, saying the IAEA "is in the process of seeking clarifications from Iran regarding the starting date of the process for the production of such material and other technical details."
On Sunday, Iranian officials said higher enrichment would start on Tuesday.
At a news conference with French Defense Minister Herve Morin, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates praised President Barack Obama's attempts to engage the Islamic Republic diplomatically and chided Tehran for not reciprocating.
"No U.S. president has reached out more sincerely, and frankly taken more political risk, in an effort to try to create an opening for engagement for Iran," he said. "All these initiatives have been rejected."
Morin said France and the U.S. agreed that there was no choice but "to work for new measures within the framework of the Security Council" — a stance echoed by Israel, Iran's most implacable foe.
Tehran's enrichment plans are "additional proof of the fact that Iran is ridiculing the entire world," said Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak. "The right response is to impose decisive and permanent sanctions on Iran."
Although material for the fissile core of a nuclear warhead must be enriched to a level of 90 percent or more, just getting its stockpile to the 20 percent mark would be a major step for Iran's nuclear program. While enriching to 20 percent would take about one year, using up to 2,000 centrifuges at Tehran's underground Natanz facility, any next step — moving from 20 to 90 percent — would take only half a year and between 500-1,000 centrifuges.
Achieving the 20-percent level "would be going most of the rest of the way to weapon-grade uranium," said David Albright, whose Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security tracks suspected proliferators.
Soltanieh declined to say how much of Iran's stockpile — now estimated at 1.8 tons — would be enriched. Nor did he say when the process would begin. Albright said enriching to higher levels could begin within a day — or only in several months, depending on how far technical preparations had progressed.
Apparent technical problems could also slow the process, he said.
Iran's enrichment program "should be like a Christmas tree in full light," he said. "In fact, the lights are flickering."
While Iran would be able to enrich up to 20 percent, a senior U.S official told the AP that the research reactor would run out of fuel before enough material was produced. He asked for anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the issue.
Britain's Foreign Office said the "enriched uranium could not be used for the Tehran Research Reactor as Iran does not have the technology to manufacture it into fuel rods."
Legal constraints could tie Iran's hands as well. A senior official from one of the IAEA's 35 board member nations senior official said he believed Tehran was obligated to notify the agency 60 days in advance of starting to enrich to higher levels.
The official asked for anonymity because he was not authorized to comment on the issue.
The Iranian move came just days after Ahmadinejad appeared to move close to endorsing the original deal, which foresaw Tehran exporting the bulk of its low-enriched uranium to Russia for further enrichment and then conversion for fuel rods for the research reactor.
That plan was welcomed internationally because it would have delayed Iran's ability to make a nuclear weapons by shipping out about 70 percent of its low-enriched uranium stockpile, thereby leaving it with not enough to make a bomb. Tehran denies nuclear weapons ambitions, insisting it needs to enrich to create fuel for an envisioned nuclear reactor network.
The proposal was endorsed by the U.S., Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany — the six powers that originally elicited a tentative approval from Iran in landmark talks last fall. Since then, however, mixed messages from Tehran have infuriated the U.S. and its European allies, who claim Iran is only stalling for time as it attempts to build a nuclear weapon.
Iran has defied five U.N. Security Council resolutions — and three sets of U.N. sanctions — aimed at pressuring it to freeze enrichment, and has instead steadily expanded its program.

Maoist torch vehicles in Bihar

Chitab (Bihar), Feb 8 (ANI): A group of Maoists set ablaze a truck and tractor on Monday in Bihar''s Chitab village that falls under the Sherghati Police Station.



The Maoists resorted to this arson, at the villagers'' refusal to pay the ''taxes'' levied by the ultras.



Incidentally, this incident took place during the 72-hour shutdown call given by the Maoists since Sunday in four states - Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Orissa.



Villagers blamed a group of Maoists for the incident.



"Around 50 of the armed Maoists had come and after doing all this, they ran towards the river," said a villager.



The Maoists gave this call as a mark of protest against the Union Government''s operation to track them down.



The 72-hour-shutdown comes ahead of Tuesday''s meeting of Chief Ministers of Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa and West Bengal, to be chaired by Union Home Minister P Chidambaram in Kolkata to chalk out a decisive, joint operations plan to counter the Maoists. (ANI)

Top 30 + Command Prompt Commands for Windows 7

Do you know Windows 7 command prompt offers access to more than 180 command line functions? If your answer is negative, it's not a big surprise. The use of command prompt has considerably declined over the years. We know most of you prefer to use the graphical user interface. Windows 7 command prompt commands have similarity with classic MS-DOS, but the command prompt is not MS-DOS. Windows 7 command line commands allow you to automate processes, create batch files and perform troubleshooting tasks and much more. There are some really command prompt commands that can make you life easier with Windows 7

Before moving to the commands let me tell you easily command prompt in Windows 7 as in other versions of Windows OS. Go to all programs >Accessories> Command Prompt. Alternately you can straightaway type cmd in the search box and press enter.
1. Arp

Using the command you can change the or display entries in the ARP cache.
2. imagex

The command deletes all the resources associated with a mounted image that has been left out.
3. FastOpen

With this command you can add any program's hard drive location to a special list stored in memory. This potentially improves the launch time of any program by removing the need for MS-DOS to locate the drive.
4. Assoc

This command displays or changes the file type associated with a particular file extension.
5. Attrib

It's a handy command for changing the attributes of a single file or a directory.
6. At

This Command Prompt command can be used to schedule other commands and programs to run at specific dates and times.
7. Append

This command allows programs to open files in another directory, as if it was located in the current directory.
8. Bootcfg

This command is used to build, modify, or view the contents of the boot.ini file, a hidden file that is used to identify in what folder, on which partition, and on whichhard drive Windows is located.
9. Convert

This is a handy Command line command that converts FAT or FAT32 formatted volumes to the NTFS format.
10. Xcopy

With this command you can copy one or more files or directory trees from one location to another.
11. Graphics

In order to load a program that can print graphics you can use this command
12. Cmstp

It helps to installs or uninstalls a Connection Manager service profile.
13. Bcdedit

This command is used to view or make changes to Boot Configuration Data.
14. Clip

With this command you can redirect the output from any command to the clipboard in Windows.
15. Find

The find command is used to search for a specified text string in one or more files.
16. Finger

The finger command is used to return information about one or more users on a remote computer that's running the Finger service.
17. Dism

It is a command that starts the Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool (DISM). The DISM tool is used to manage features inWindows images.
18. Echo

This command is used to show the messages from within script or batch files. The echo command can be used to turn the echoing feature on or off.
19. Expand

It is used to extract a single file or a group of files from a compressed file.
20. Break

It sets or clears extended CTRL+C checking on DOS systems
21. Robocopy

Using this command you copy the files and directories from one location to another. The robocopy command is superior to the more simple copy command, as it supports many more options. This command is also called Robust File Copy.
22. Tsdiscon

To disconnect a Remote Desktop session use this command
23. Goto

It is a command used in a batch or script file to direct the command process to a certain labeled line in the script
24. Ipconfig

The ipconfig command is used to display detailed IP information for each of the network adapter utilizing TCP/IP. The command can also be used to release and renew IP addresses on system config to receive them using DHGP server
25. Nslookup

The nslookup is most commonly used to display the hostname of an entered IP address. The nslookup command queries your configured DNS server to discover the IP address.
26. Relog

The relog command is used to create new performance logs from data in existing performance logs.
27. Takeown

This command allows you to regain access of the files that has been denied access by administrator while reassigning ownership of the file.
28. Taskkill

Taskkill command can terminate a running task. This process is equivalent to end process in WIndows Task Manager.
29. Tracert

This is a great command for command sends Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) Echo Request messages to a specified remote computer with increasing Time to Live (TTL) field values and displays the IP address and hostname, if it is available in the router interfaces between the source and destination.
30. Winrs

It winrs command is used to open a secure command window with a remote host.
31. Winsat

It starts the Windows System Assessment Tool. The program assesses various features, attributes and capabilities of a computer running Windows
32. Wmic

The wmic command starts the Windows Management Instrumentation Command line (WMIC), a scripting interface that simplifies the use of Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) and systems managed via WMI

Ex-Sri Lanka Army chief Sarath Fonseka arrested

Sri Lanka's defeated opposition presidential candidate General Sarath Fonseka was arrested by the army on Monday night, and will be court martialled for military offences committed while he was in service, a fortnight after he suffered defeat at the hands of incumbent Mahinda Rajapaksa.

59-year-old Fonseka, the former Army Chief credited with the annihilation of the LTTE, was arrested along with his media secretary Senaka de Silva while on work at their office in Colombo. Defence Spokesman Major General Prasad Samarasinghe said that Fonseka was taken into custody by the Army and will "face court martial proceedings for military offences committed during his service."

The arrest comes in the wake of reports that Fonseka could face a military court on charges of conspiring to overthrow the government and plotting to kill Rajapaksa. A fortnight earlier, Fonseka - a retired four-star general who served the Sri Lankan Army for nearly four decades - suffered defeat at the hands of Rajapaksa in the high-stakes presidential elections.

Opposition leaders said the army men "forcibly took away General Fonseka while he was having a discussion with three other senior opposition leaders. Fonseka's office was cordoned off by heavily armed troops who blocked reporters and photographers from entering the building and taking pictures.

An aide of the former Army Chief said that "Fonseka and de Silva were told in clear terms to cooperate with the military police". "I heard one of the officers telling Fonseka that he is being charged for criminal conspiracy," he said.

Sunday Times newspaper had yesterday said that the Rajapaksa-led government, which alleged soon after the presidential poll verdict that the former military chief had plotted to kill the President, has consulted its top legal counsel on trying Fonseka in a fast-track court martial.

Earlier this month, Rajapakse sacked a dozen senior military officers whom the defence ministry said were a "direct threat" to national security. Hours before his arrest, Fonseka had assured the family members of former armymen, who were either sacked or arrested by the government, that he will stand behind them during troubled times.

Assam school children devise urine battery

You can now beat load-shedding by… er… shedding some load.

Three Class VIII students have devised a urine battery that they claim would go a long way in countering power cuts in rural areas. They study in Vivekananda Kendra Vidyalaya at Tingrai in eastern Assam’s Tinsukia district.

The 9 volt battery costs as little as Rs 2000 to make and can power three bulbs for four hours with 1 litre of urine. If the lights start dimming, all the battery needs is, more urine to energize the bulbs.

Partha Sonowal and Momin Khan and Shyam Murari began working on the concept last year. On December 25, they succeeded in making the battery functional.

Theirs was one of the most magnetic exhibits at school-level science show organized by the Assam Science Technology and Environment Council (ASTEC) at the Assam Engineering Institute here. The exhibition concluded on Sunday.

“Like all conventional batteries, we had ours charged initially with sulfuric acid. We drained it to fill it up with urine to ensure a steady supply of electricity,” the boys’ Guwahati-based mentor Kanak Gogoi told Hindustan Times. Gogoi is an innovator, and among his products include an air-driven car and electricity generating speed-breakers.

The ammonia content in urine helps run the battery, Gogoi added.

“On the surface, the battery isn’t much of a novelty,” said Partha, 13. “But it is a viable and inexpensive option in rural areas where people either cannot afford to frequently buy or do not have easy access to distilled water.”

If Partha and his friends want rural India not to waste urine, two girls from Hawajan Higher Secondary School at Kolabari in Sonitpur district have provided an alternative to politically-charged sugarcane – and pricy sugar – for those with a sweet tooth.

Class IX students Santana Borah and Bijaylaxmi Barua, both 14, have produced molasses from Musa balbiciana, a variety of indigenous banana locally called bhimkol. Their product has been sent to Regional Research Laboratory (RRL) at Jorhat in central Assam for further research.

“Our process is somewhat crude in scientific terms. We hope RRL will standardize a process to help poor villagers get a sweetener that’s much cheaper than sugar and molasses from sugarcane,” said Santana.

Molasses is a viscous byproduct of the process to make sugar from sugarcane or sugar beet.

“The quality of molasses produce from bhimkol depends on the maturity of the banana variety, the amount of molasses extracted and the method of extraction,” said Bijaylaxmi.

The duo’s technique involves soaking thin strips of the banana – the ratio is 1 kg banana in 1 liter water – and extracting the juice from the mixture. The juice is then boiled thrice for crystallization of molasses.

"We had organised this exhibition to bring out young scientific talents, particularly in small towns and semi-urban areas. We did not expect the children to be so innovative, some of their products worthy of being patented," said ASTEC director SN Choudhury.