Foot bridge collapses in India; 30 feared drowned

A foot bridge spanning a river in northeast India collapsed Saturday, and police said 30 people were feared drowned.

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Police and paramilitary forces rescued at least 28 villagers from the river, senior police officer Kyle Aya said. One later died in a hospital.

Many of the people crossing the bridge when it collapsed were women and children, Aya told The Associated Press.

The swift current was hindering rescue operations, the Press Trust of India quoted police as saying.

The bridge crosses the Kameng River in Arunachal Pradesh state. The region is nearly 370 miles (500 kilometers) north of Gauhati, the capital of Assam state.

It was the second bridge collapse in India within a week.

Last week, 31 people died when a wooden bridge collapsed in the Darjeeling district of West Bengal state. Villagers were hearing speeches from local officials on the bridge, which was built in 1942 and weakened by a September earthquake.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45087603/ns/world_news-south_and_central_asia/

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Saudi woman sentenced to 15 years for Qaida links (AP)

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia ? Saudi Arabia says that a special tribunal has sentenced a Saudi women to 15 years in prison on terrorism-linked charges including aiding al-Qaida cells and insurgents seeking to enter Iraq.

The official Saudi Press Agency says the woman sought to "commit terrorist attacks" in the kingdom, financed anti-state groups with more than 1 million riyals ($266,000) and provided communications equipment. The woman also was convicted of helping issue forged IDs to people seeking to join the insurgency in Iraq.

The report did not identify the women sentenced Saturday or give other details. She also is banned from traveling for 15 years after completing her sentence.

Saudi authorities have cracked down periodically in recent years on groups inspired by al-Qaida.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/terrorism/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111029/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_saudi_terrorism

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Chris Huhne opens new energy research centre



Chris Huhne MP with deputy vice-chancellor Dr Adrian Graves

Chris Huhne MP with deputy vice-chancellor Dr Adrian Graves

Secretary of state for energy and climate change Chris Huhne has unveiled the University of Salford's (UoS) latest research centre for energy and public policy.

The Joule House centre, which was opened yesterday (October 26), by the minister has been part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund to help the university develop its portfolio of business support activity.

It aims to do this by targeting regional organisations from the low carbon and environmental goods and services sector.

UoS deputy vice-chancellor Dr Adrian Graves, said: "The University is establishing a reputation for making a global difference on these crucial issues. Our research and collaborations with major businesses and numerous community groups on energy efficiency reflects the University's commitment to environmental research of the highest standard."

As part of the launch, Mr Huhne toured the historic Joule House, once home to Salfordian physicist James Joule, who gave his name to the Joule unit of energy.

He was also shown how the university is continuing Mr Joule's legacy by meeting with researchers from the university, who are working to make British homes more energy efficient by carrying out research at the university's Energy House, a reconstructed terraced house built inside a lab which launched earlier this year.

As part of the Energy House tour, he was given a demonstration of how researchers scientifically test the latest windows, doors, insulation and other technologies by subjecting them to extremes of temperature and other weather conditions, including rain.

Commenting on the centre, Mr Huhne said: "Keeping homes warm in winter and saving money on energy bills are real life issues for people here in Manchester and up and down the country.

"I am pleased to be able to open this new facility at the historic Joule House. This will add to the already impressive efforts here at the University of Salford to improve the energy efficiency of the nation's housing stock."

Carys Matthews



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Source: http://www.edie.net/news/news_story.asp?id=21180

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Gaddafi son seeks flight to Hague war crimes court (Reuters)

DUBAI (Reuters) ? Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, fearing for his life if captured in Libya, has tried to arrange for an aircraft to fly him out of his desert refuge and into the custody of the Hague war crimes court, a Libyan official said on Thursday.

Details were sketchy and confirmation not available but a picture has built up since his father's grisly killing while in the hands of vengeful rebel fighters a week ago that suggests Muammar Gaddafi's 39-year-old heir-apparent has taken refuge among Sahara nomads and is seeking a safe haven abroad.

Even if he can still draw on some of the vast fortune the Gaddafi clan built up abroad during 42 years in control of North Africa's main oilfields, his indictment by the International Criminal Court at The Hague over his efforts to crush the revolt limits the options open to Saif al-Islam.

That may explain an apparent willingness, in communications monitored by intelligence services and shared with Libya's interim rulers, to discuss a surrender to the ICC, whereas his mother and surviving siblings simply fled to Algeria and Niger.

The Court, which relies on signatory states to hand over suspects, said it was trying to confirm the whereabouts and intentions of Saif al-Islam and ex-intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi, the third man indicted along with the elder Gaddafi.

A source with Libya's National Transitional Council (NTC), which drove the Gaddafis from power in Tripoli in August, told Reuters the two surviving indictees were together, protected by Tuareg nomads, in the rugged wilderness of the "Triangle", close to the borders of Algeria and Niger.

"Saif is concerned about his safety," the source said. "He believes handing himself over is the best option for him."

The younger Gaddafi, once seen as a potential liberal reformer but who adopted a belligerent, win-or-die persona at his father's side this year, was looking for help from abroad, possibly Algeria or Tunisia, to fly out and take his chances at The Hague, where there is no death penalty:

"He wants to be sent an aircraft," the NTC source said by telephone from Libya. "He wants assurances."

COURT SEEKS CONFIRMATION

ICC spokesman Fadi El Abdallah said the court was trying to confirm the NTC comments and work out how to move the suspects:

"It depends where the suspect is and how we can get into contact with him and what would be necessary to bring him to The Hague. There are different scenarios," El Abdallah said.

Some observers question the accuracy of NTC information, given frequent lapses in intelligence recently. Some suggest surrendering to the ICC may be only one option for Saif al-Islam, who may hope for a welcome in one of the African states on which his father lavished gifts.

The African Union, and powerful members like South Africa, grumble about the nine-year-old ICC's focus so far on Africans and some of them may prove sympathetic. Even if arrested on charges relating to his role in attacks on protesters in February and March, Saif al-Islam could make defense arguments that might limit any sentence, lawyers said.

NTC forces, which overran Gaddafi's last bastions of Bani Walid and Sirte this month, lack the resources to hunt and capture fugitives deep in the desert, the source said.

NATO, whose air power turned the civil war in the rebels' favor, could help, he added.

But NATO, whose U.N. mandate is ending now that Muammar Gaddafi is dead, stresses its mission is to protect civilians, not target individuals - though it was a NATO air strike that halted Muammar Gaddafi's flight last week. Even NATO resources would be stretched in the trackless waste of southern Libya.

A captured pro-Gaddafi fighter at Bani Walid told Reuters that the London-educated Saif al-Islam had been in that town, south of Tripoli until it fell earlier this month.

The man, one of his bodyguards, said the younger Gaddafi was "confused" and in fear for his life when he escaped Bani Walid. If he has seen the gruesome video footage of his father's capture, he knows how he may be treated if he remains in Libya.

NTC WANTS TRIAL

Asked what the NTC was doing to cooperate with the ICC, the vice chairman of the Council, Abdel Hafiz Ghoga, noted that the Libyans still hoped to try the suspects themselves:

"There aren't any special arrangements by the NTC," he said. "If Abdullah al-Senussi and Saif al-Islam are arrested inside Libya they will be tried and judged based on Libyan law.

"If they fled and went to countries such as Niger, for example, they will have to be surrendered to the ICC," he adding, noting reports that Senussi had already reached Niger.

Earlier this week, an NTC official said Saif al-Islam had acquired a passport in a false name and was lying low south of Ghat, a border crossing with Algeria through which his mother, sister and two of his surviving brothers fled in August.

Algeria is not a signatory to the Rome treaty which set up the ICC, but might face strong diplomatic pressure to hand over indicted suspects. The NTC has also been pressing Algiers to hand over the other Gaddafi relatives.

Niger, an impoverished former French colony, has said it would honor its commitments to the ICC. The mayor of the northern Niger town of Agadez, a transit point for other fleeing Gaddafi allies, told Reuters Saif al-Islam would be extradited to The Hague if he showed up.

Tunisia, to where other Gaddafi loyalists have fled, is also a signatory to the ICC's conventions.

A member of the Malian parliament who has been in charge of relations with Libya's NTC discounted reports that Gaddafi and Senussi had crossed Algeria or Niger into Mali.

The mystery over their flight has spawned many rumors.

In South Africa, one newspaper said a plane was on standby there to fly north and rescue Saif al-Islam along with a group of South Africans working for him. NTC officials say South Africans may have been among those killed in Sirte last week when Gaddafi was caught and killed.

Defense OPTIONS

Should he end up, like former Yugoslav leaders and others, in a Dutch jail, Saif al-Islam would have no shortage of defenders, though a defense of simply following his father's orders would carry little weight with ICC judges.

An Iraqi lawyer who defended allies of Saddam Hussein in the U.S.-supervised trials in Baghdad said the younger Gaddafi would be entitled to argue that his actions were legitimate acts of defense during an aggressive war by foreign powers.

Though some of the ICC indictment relates to the use of force against unarmed demonstrators before NATO intervened, Badie Arif, who defended former Iraqi deputy prime minister Tareq Aziz, told Reuters: "It was a foreign aggression made by colonialist countries and by NATO ... It is illegitimate and illegal by all international standards."

Geert-Jan Knoops, a Dutch-based international criminal law attorney, said Saif al-Islam could challenge the ICC case on two main fronts -- that it was a political show trial aimed at justifying Western-backed regime change, or by proving there was no evidence of a "political plan" to kill protesters.

A public platform could allow Saif al-Islam to embarrass some of the Western leaders with whom he led a rapprochement in recent years.

His role in promoting reforms, thwarted by domestic opponents, might also be used in his defense, though his angry outbursts against the revolt would enable prosecutors to bolster a case in which they accuse him of recruiting mercenaries to kill protesters as part of a "predetermined plan" with his father and Senussi.

(Additional reporting by Giles Elgood, Peter Apps and Alastair Macdonald in London, Aaron Gray-Block in Amsterdam, Mark John in Dakar, Nicholas Vinocur in Paris, Waleed Ibrahim and Jim Loney in Baghdad, Brian Rohan in Benghazi, Barry Malone and Maria Golovnina in Tripoli and Ibrahim Diallo in Agadez, Niger; Writing by Alastair Macdonald; Editing by Tim Pearce)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111027/wl_nm/us_libya

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Robert Pattinson Talks Breaking Dawn Marriage, Sex Scenes


Congratulations are in order for Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart! They're married! Sort of!

At a press conference in Stockholm, Sweden today, the actor - who is touring Europe alongside Ashley Greene in order to promote Breaking Dawn - joked with reporters about that film's wildly-anticipated wedding ceremony.

"The wedding scene's funny because we used a real priest," Rob said. "So technically we are already married because he did all the things you would do in a normal ceremony."

Twice the Robert Pattinson

Wow. That was fast. Stewart only first confirmed the relationship this month.

After Edward and Bella exchange vows, of course, they get it on via a sex scene that was so raunchy, the film was initially given an R rating. Was the scene as hot to fil as it will undoubtedly look? Not exactly, Pattinson said.

"The set was crazy and you have about 20 people in the room and someone saying things like: 'No, Bella would not have made that noise. Can we do it again?'"

Robert adds that Bella initiates the intercourse, and wonders about the theme of sex overall in the Saga:

"I've never been able to relate to that fear of sex or sexuality. It's funny that all three movies portray sex as something scary and then, when they have sex in the fourth movie, they have a child with really rather devastating consequences. I'm not sure what they are trying to say... never have sex with anyone ever?"

[Photo: WENN.com]

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2011/10/robert-pattinson-talks-breaking-dawn-marriage-sex-scenes/

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Behind the numbers: Samsung passes Apple in phones (AP)

NEW YORK ? For the first time, Samsung Electronics Co. shipped more smartphones in the latest quarter than tech industry darling Apple Inc. On the surface, this may look like a big upset in a world that affords the iPhone maker adulation and outsized expectations. The real reason, however, has more to do with timing and Samsung's variety of offerings and prices.

Apple sold 17.1 million iPhones in the third quarter, 3 million fewer than expected. Samsung, meanwhile, shipped more than 27 million, according to analyst estimates.

So what happened? For one, Apple's latest iPhone, the 4S, didn't come out until the quarter ended, so its sales are not included in the figure. People held back on buying older models in anticipation of the new iPhone, which came out Oct. 14. Apple said it sold more than 4 million units in its first weekend on sale, and that should be reflected in the tally for the current, holiday quarter.

"People were waiting," said Francis Sideco, analyst with the research firm IHS. "We don't see this as a signal that Apple is all of a sudden losing its edge. It's their normal thing. But while they are doing this normal thing, Samsung is (going strong) and they happen to have a really good quarter."

Samsung's quarter was helped by strong sales of its Galaxy phones, though Sideco said the numbers shouldn't lead to the conclusion that the Samsung Galaxy beat the Apple iPhone.

"What beat it is Samsung's lines," Sideco said.

Besides the Galaxy line, Samsung's phones include Conquer, Replenish, Focus and Indulge. IHS estimates that Samsung sold about 40 different models during the third quarter. By comparison, Apple had just two ? the 4 and the 3GS.

Samsung, which is based in Seoul, South Korea, does not disclose the number of phones it ships. IHS, formerly known as iSuppli, estimates that Samsung shipped 27.3 million smartphones in the latest quarter. Jae Lee from Daiwa Securities puts the figure at about 28 million.

Analysts cautioned against reading too much into the numbers, but such comparisons are tempting given the pedestal that Apple is held on and the fact that the rivalry between the two companies has heated up and extended into the courtroom. Apple says the product design, user interface and packaging of Samsung's Galaxy devices "slavishly copy" the iPhone and Apple's iPad tablet computer. Samsung fought back with lawsuits of its own, accusing Apple of patent infringement of its wireless telecommunications technology.

Even as Samsung sold more phones, Apple seems to be making more money on each. That's one of the reasons Apple is now the most valuable tech company in the world, with a market value about three times that of Samsung.

Apple competes on ? and dominates ? the high-end smartphone market. By contrast, Samsung has both cheap and expensive phones available. That means Samsung can appeal to a broader range of customers, but the company has to settle for a lower profit margin on lower-end smartphones.

Sideco called both strategies good. Good, but different.

Apple, which is based in Cupertino, Calif., limits the market it addresses because it is safeguarding its profit margin on the iPhone, said Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi. More expensive phones mean higher margins for the company, which so far hasn't focused on the market for lower-end phones.

"It's part of their plan," Milanesi said. "If they wanted to capture a wider segment of the market, they would go with a lower-end device."

That could come soon. The price cut earlier this month for the iPhone 4 to $99 (down from $199) and the decision to offer now-ancient 3GS for free ? with a two-year service contract ? could mean that Apple is testing the waters in the cheaper market.

"The sales of the $99 iPhone 4 will definitely help widen the addressable market," Milanesi said.

When it comes to the overall mobile phone market, though neither Apple nor Samsung are on top. That honor goes to Nokia Corp. The Finnish company is still the world's No. 1 cellphone maker even though it has fallen behind rivals in the smartphone market. Nokia shipped 16.8 million smartphones during the third quarter, a close third to Apple, according to IHS.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111028/ap_on_hi_te/us_tec_samsung_vs_apple

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Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims join pope, urge peace

In this photo provided by the Vatican newspaper Osservatore Romano, Pope Benedict XVI, right, reads as he travels for a meeting in Assisi, central Italy, Thursday, Oct. 27, 2011. Buddhist monks, Muslim imams, Orthodox patriarchs and Yoruba leaders have flocked with Pope Benedict XVI to the Umbrian hilltown of Assisi to make an interfaith call for peace and insist that religion must never be used as a pretext for war. (AP Photo/Osservatore Romano) EDITORIAL USE ONLY

In this photo provided by the Vatican newspaper Osservatore Romano, Pope Benedict XVI, right, reads as he travels for a meeting in Assisi, central Italy, Thursday, Oct. 27, 2011. Buddhist monks, Muslim imams, Orthodox patriarchs and Yoruba leaders have flocked with Pope Benedict XVI to the Umbrian hilltown of Assisi to make an interfaith call for peace and insist that religion must never be used as a pretext for war. (AP Photo/Osservatore Romano) EDITORIAL USE ONLY

In this photo provided by the Vatican newspaper Osservatore Romano, Pope Benedict XVI, center, leaves a train as he arrives for a peace meeting in Assisi, central Italy, Thursday, Oct. 27, 2011. Buddhist monks, Muslim imams, Orthodox patriarchs and Yoruba leaders have flocked with Pope Benedict XVI to the Umbrian hilltown of Assisi to make an interfaith call for peace and insist that religion must never be used as a pretext for war. (AP Photo/Osservatore Romano) EDITORIAL USE ONLY

In this picture made available by the Vatican newspaper Osservatore Romano, Pope Benedict XVI salutes from the train's window as he arrives for a peace meeting in Assisi, central Italy, Thursday, Oct. 27, 2011. The pontiff has invited Jews, Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims to a pilgrimmage to the Umbrian hilltop town of Assisi where 25 years ago Pope John Paul II, the Dalai Lama and others spent the day praying for peace amid the Cold War. The banner in background reads "Peace". (AP Photo/Osservatore Romano) EDITORIAL USE ONLY

Pope Benedict XVI holds a pre-trip prayer service for the Catholic faithful, in the Pope Paul VI hall at the Vatican Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2011. The pontiff has invited Jews, Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims to a pilgrimmage to the Umbrian hilltop town of Assisi, central Italy, where 25 years ago Pope John Paul II, the Dalai Lama and others spent the day praying for peace amid the Cold War. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Benedict XVI acknowledges cheers upon arrival in the Pope Paul VI hall at the Vatican to hold a pre-trip prayer service for the Catholic faithful, Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2011. The pontiff has invited Jews, Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims to a pilgrimmage to the Umbrian hilltop town of Assisi, central Italy, where 25 years ago Pope John Paul II, the Dalai Lama and others spent the day praying for peace amid the Cold War. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

(AP) ? Pope Benedict XVI joined Buddhist monks, Islamic scholars, Hindus and a handful of agnostics in making a communal call for peace Thursday, insisting that religion must never be used as a pretext for war or terrorism.

Benedict welcomed some 300 leaders representing a rainbow of faiths to the hilltop Italian town of Assisi to commemorate the 25th anniversary of a daylong prayer for peace here called by Pope John Paul II in 1986 amid Cold War conflicts.

One by one, the monks, priests and patriarchs stood up and committed themselves to working for dialogue, justice and peace, and for a more equitable and friendly world.

While the event lacked the urgency and star power of 1986, when the Dalai Lama, Mother Teresa and others came together to pray, Thursday's peace meeting included some novelties. Buddhist monks from mainland China were on hand as were four participants who profess no faith at all ? part of Benedict's efforts to reach out to agnostics and atheists who are searching for truth.

And, unlike the 1986 event and successive ones in 1993 and 2002, there was no time given for any type of communal prayer ? a key element of the previous editions in providing images of the world's great religions praying for peace. Benedict had objected to the 1986 event and didn't attend because he disapproved of members of different faiths praying in the presence of one another.

As a result, his 25th anniversary edition removed any whiff of syncretism, or the combining of different beliefs and practices. After a lunch of vegetarian risotto, salad and fruit, the participants retired to hotel rooms where they could pray individually or nap before returning for some concluding remarks.

In his opening speech, the German-born Benedict noted that in the 25 years since John Paul's peace day, the Berlin Wall had crumbled without bloodshed but that religion is now frequently being used to justify violence. He said it was wrong to demand that faith disappear from daily life to somehow rid the world of a religious pretext for violence, arguing that the absence of God from people's daily lives was even more dangerous.

"The horrors of the concentration camps reveal with utter clarity the consequences of God's absence," said Benedict, who as a young German was forced to join the Hitler Youth.

Traditionalist Catholics condemned the Assisi meeting ? just as they did the one in 1986 ? saying it was blasphemy for the pope to invite leaders of "false" religions to pray to their Gods for peace. The Society of St. Pius X, a breakaway traditionalist group that Benedict has been working to bring back into Rome's fold, said it would be celebrating 1,000 Masses to atone for the damage done by the event and urged the pope to use it to urge others to convert to Catholicism.

The issue is a sensitive one for Benedict, who has railed against religious relativism, or the idea that there are no absolute truths and that all religions are somehow equal. As then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, he issued a controversial document in 2000 in part as a response to the 1986 Assisi event asserting that the fullness of the means of salvation was found in the Catholic Church alone.

That said, at the end of the day Benedict knelt down in prayer in front of the tomb of St. Francis, whose peace-loving message has made Assisi a pilgrimage destination for centuries. Silently standing behind him were the leaders of the other religious delegations.

The Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, said the delegates weren't gathered in Assisi to come to a "minimum common ground of belief."

Rather, he said, the meeting would show the world that through their distinctiveness, different faiths provide the wisdom to draw upon "in the struggle against the foolishness of a world still obsessed with fear and suspicion, still in love with the idea of a security based on active hostility, and still capable of tolerating or ignoring massive loss of life among the poorest through war and disease."

And there was a lot of distinctiveness on hand. Standing on the altar of St. Mary of the Angels basilica, Wande Abimbola of Nigeria, representing Africa's traditional Yoruba religion, sang a prayer and shook a percussion instrument as he told the delegates that peace can only come with greater respect for indigenous religions.

"We must always remember that our own religion, along with the religions practiced by other people, are valid and precious in the eyes of the Almighty, who created all of us with such plural and different ways of life and belief systems," he said.

Thursday's meeting also included Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I and representatives from Greek, Russian, Serbian and Belarusian Orthodox churches as well as Lutheran, Methodist and Baptist leaders. Several rabbis were joined by some 60 Muslims, a half-dozen Hindus and Shinto believers, three Taoists, three Jains and a Zoroastrian.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2011-10-27-EU-Vatican-Peace-Meeting/id-19ed56b8cc5d4b4cbb60e674e1e2ff59

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Are Nokia's Flagship Windows Phones Even Coming to the US? [Nokia]

Nokia's purdy new Windows Phones may be exactly what the platform needs to get a foothold in the US and abroad. But there's a chance we may never see the Lumia 800 or 710 stateside. Wait, what? More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/dCnB4mtHXvY/are-nokias-flagship-windows-phones-even-coming-to-the-us

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Wikinvest Brings Its Investment Portfolio Tracker To The iPad

Wikinvest Already Tracking $1 Billion In Portfolio Assets | TechCrunchWikinvest's realtime portfolio tracker makes tracking a number of brokerage accounts and your investment portfolio easy. The Wikinvest portfolio tracker lets anyone link up their real brokerage accounts to so they can keep tabs on their actual holdings, which are updated automatically every time you make a trade. Today, the startup is launching its free investment portfolio tracking iPad app, Wikinvest Portfolio HD, to enable users to track, analyze and manage all their investments in one place. The app has been built from the ground up for iPad to give investors a high-level view of their investments. Through Wikinvest?s proprietary brokerage import technology, users can import their account information from over 60 of the largest brokerage firms in the U.S.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/eIO90lxw6hg/

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Most powerful US nuclear bomb being dismantled

The last of the United States' most powerful nuclear bombs ? a weapon hundreds of times stronger than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima ? is being disassembled nearly half a century after it was put into service at the height of the Cold War.

The final components of the B53 bomb will be broken down Tuesday at the Pantex Plant near Amarillo, Texas, the nation's only nuclear weapons assembly and disassembly facility. The completion of the dismantling program is a year ahead of schedule, according to the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration, and aligns with President Barack Obama's goal of reducing the number of nuclear weapons.

Thomas D'Agostino, the nuclear administration's chief, called the bomb's elimination a "significant milestone."

First put into service in 1962, when Cold War tensions peaked during the Cuban Missile Crisis, the B53 weighed 10,000 pounds and was the size of a minivan. According to the American Federation of Scientists, it was 600 times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, at the end of World War II.

The B53 was designed to destroy facilities deep underground, and it was carried by B-52 bombers.

Since it was made using older technology by engineers who have since retired or died, developing a disassembly process took time. Engineers had to develop complex tools and new procedures to ensure safety.

"We knew going in that this was going to be a challenging project, and we put together an outstanding team with all of our partners to develop a way to achieve this objective safely and efficiently," said John Woolery, the plant's general manager.

Many of the B53s were disassembled in the 1980s, but a significant number remained in the U.S. arsenal until they were retired from the stockpile in 1997. Pantex spokesman Greg Cunningham said he couldn't comment on how many of the bombs have been disassembled at the Texas plant.

The weapon is considered dismantled when the roughly 300 pounds of high explosives inside are separated from the special nuclear material, known as the pit. The uranium pits from bombs dismantled at Pantex will be stored on an interim basis at the plant, Cunningham said.

The material and components are then processed, which includes sanitizing, recycling and disposal, the National Nuclear Security Administration said last fall when it announced the Texas plant's role in the B53 dismantling.

The plant will play a large role in similar projects as older weapons are retired from the U.S.'s nuclear arsenal.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45031536/ns/us_news-security/

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