PM calls for steps to reduce cybercrime

THE RECENT case of the outsourcer who sold British people’s data to hacks at the Sun has so embarrassed the Indian government, that it has been moved to change its wide open protection laws.

According to CIO-Asia, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told a special meeting of software company outsourcers that “stringent punishment” would follow any breach of secrecy, illegal transfers of commercial information and other cyber crimes.

Stung by a recent scandal that rocked India’s booming business processing industry, the government on Tuesday announced that it will tighten laws to prevent cyber crime and ensure data secrecy, an official said.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told a special meeting of software company representatives Tuesday that stringent punishment would follow any breach of secrecy, illegal transfers of commercial information and other cyber crimes.

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1st stem cells from cloned humans that can end rejection problem

Scientists in South Korea have produced stem cells from cloned human embryos and patients’ skin cells.

This could mean the end of the rejection problem - when the body rejects a foreign body after transplantation.

The possible benefits for human health are enormous, offering perhaps cures for such illnesses as Type 1 diabetes, Parkinson’s disease and a host of other conditions.

Exciting thing in this breakthrough is getting over the human body’s rejection of a foreign body. To date, all transplant patients have had to take immunosuppressant drugs (most of which have several undesirable side effects) for the rest of their lives.

These cell lines will enable the study of human disease in cells in the laboratory. The work also moves scientists’ one step closer to the goal of transplanting healthy cells into humans to replace cells damaged by diseases.

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Microsoft unveils Windows Mobile 5.0

Ladies and gentlemen, the wait is over. Microsoft has finally announced Windows Mobile 5.0.

It took them an extra three months but they to unveil the next version of Windows Mobile, their operating system for Smart-phones and Pocket PCs. And it’s not christened Windows Mobile 2005 or even Windows Magneto. Somehow 5.0 sounds more professional.

• Enhanced network support: Support for higher-bandwidth 3G networks, Wi-Fi for the Smartphone platform and improvements to existing Bluetooth support enable more flexibility to integrate mobile phone services across a variety of networks
• Persistent memory storage (retains information even when the device’s battery is depleted)
• Upgraded Microsoft Office software
• Enhanced security
• Push-to-talk and video calling support
• Windows Media Player 10 Mobile
• MSFT support (support for USB 2.0)

Bus driver’s blunder led to Sri Lankan train collision

Fifty persons were killed and forty others injured when an intercity passenger train collided with a bus that tried to dash through a railroad crossing in northwestern Sri Lanka on Wednesday.

The passenger bus, apparently racing another bus, slipped past a barrier and tried to cross a railroad track at Polgahawela, a small suburban town.

According to eyewitness reports, the driver of the bus overtook a line of waiting vehicles, but was trapped in the middle of the railway track.

The driver and the conductor of the bus, who were injured in the accident, were arrested. (more…)