Why has Russia changed its stance on Iran's Nuclear Program ?

Updated on : Saturday, July 24, 2010

After 4th round of Russia’s backed sanctions against Iran, the differences are rising between Moscow and Tehran. Russia was considered as a great supporter of Iran against US led alliance campaign for its nuclear program.

How did the Moscow change its stance about Iran’s nuclear program that "….. In a meeting with his ambassadors, Medvedev said we have knowledge that Iran is moving towards the bomb," – the answer may be somewhere in a series of the meetings of Russian President and US President on different occasions and most probably reaching to an understanding and later on “deal” with Washington on various strategic issues regarding Central Asia and Middle East.

Russia is fervently interested in seeking a big share in World Politics likewise in past and Washington-Tehran conflict is giving it that opportunity for the time being. That’s why, Iranian President said in the footage filmed at a gathering in Tehran on July 23, 2010, "We regret that Medvedev has become the mouthpiece for the plans of Iran's enemies,".

Fish talk to each other, researcher finds

Updated on : Sunday, July 11, 2010

WELLINGTON: The undersea world isn't as quiet as we thought, according to a New Zealand researcher who found fish can "talk" to each other.

Fish communicate with noises including grunts, chirps and pops, University of Auckland marine scientist Shahriman Ghazali has discovered according to newspaper reports Wednesday.

"All fish can hear, but not all can make sound -- pops and other sounds made by vibrating their swim bladder, a muscle they can contract," Ghazali told the New Zealand Herald.

Fish are believed to communicate with each other for different reasons, including attracting mates, scaring off predators or orienting themselves.

The gurnard species has a wide vocal repertoire and keeps up a constant chatter, Ghazali found after studying different species of fish placed into tanks.

On the other hand, cod usually kept silent, except when they were spawning.

"The hyopothesis is that they are using sound as a synchronisation so that the male and female release their eggs at the same time for fertilisation," he said.

Some reef fish, such as the damselfish, made sounds to attempt to scare off threatening fish and even divers, he said.

But anyone hoping to strike up a conversation with their pet goldfish is out of luck.

"Goldfish have excellent hearing, but excellent hearing doesn't associate with vocalisation -- they don't make any sound whatsoever," Ghazali said.

He was to present his findings to the New Zealand Marine Sciences Society conference on Wednesday.

Burgers may feed kids' Asthma risk: study

Updated on : Monday, June 07, 2010

SYDNEY: Children who eat three or more hamburgers a week may raise their odds for asthma, a new study suggests.

However, eating the so-called "Mediterranean diet" rich in fruits, vegetables and fish could cut kids' respiratory risk, the researchers say.

"Our results support previous reports that the adherence to a Mediterranean diet, which is characterized by a high intake of fruit, vegetables and fish and a low intake of meat, burger and fizzy drinks, may provide partial protection against asthma in childhood," said lead researcher Dr. Gabriele Nagel, from the Institute of Epidemiology at Ulm University in Germany.

For the study, Nagel's team collected data on about 50,000 children from 20 rich and poor countries. Parents were asked about their children's typical diet and whether they had asthma or not. In addition, almost 30,000 of the children were tested for allergies.

While diet did not appear to influence allergies, it was associated with the risk of asthma and wheeze, the researchers found.

Children in both rich and poorer countries who ate a lot of fruit had lower rates of wheeze.

Eating lots of fish seemed to protect children in rich countries, and a diet high in cooked green vegetables protected children in less developed countries from wheeze, Nagel's group found.

Fruits and vegetables are rich in antioxidant vitamins and biologically active agents, and the omega 3 fatty acids prevalent in fish have anti-inflammatory properties, which might explain these findings, the researchers said.

On the other hand, children who ate a lot of burgers had a higher lifetime prevalence of asthma and wheeze, the researchers found. The finding was especially true for allergy-free children from more affluent countries.

2010 is warmest ever in recorded history: Report

Updated on : Tuesday, May 18, 2010

WASHINGTON: The year 2010 is turning out to be the warmest ever in recorded history, with the first four months reporting an average temperature of 13.3 degrees Celsius, which is 0.69 degrees above the 20th century average.

The combined global land and ocean surface temperatures for the period between January and April were the warmest on record, and April was the warmest individual month ever, America's climate agency has said in its latest report.

The combined April global land and ocean average surface temperature was the warmest on record at 14.5 degrees Celsius (58.1 degrees F).

This is 0.76 degrees Celsius above the 20th century average of 13.7 degrees Celsius, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), said.


The earth's temperature for January-April at 56.0 degrees Fahrenheit (13.3?C), is 1.24 degrees Fahrenheit or (0.69 degrees Celsius) above the 20th century average, it said.

While the global ocean surface temperature was 0.57 degrees C above the 20th century average of 16 degrees and the warmest on record for April, the global land temperature was 1.29 degrees Celsius above the 20th century average of 8.1, the third warmest on record for April.

The report said the warmth was most pronounced in the equatorial portions of major oceans, especially the Atlantic.

Warmer-than-normal conditions dominated the globe, with the most prominent warmth in Canada, Alaska, eastern US, Australia, South Asia, northern Africa and northern Russia.

Cooler-than-normal places included Mongolia, Argentina, far eastern Russia, the western contiguous United States and most of China, it said.

WASHINGTON: The year 2010 is turning out to be the warmest ever in recorded history, with the first four months reporting an average temperature of 13.3 degrees Celsius, which is 0.69 degrees above the 20th century average.

The combined global land and ocean surface temperatures for the period between January and April were the warmest on record, and April was the warmest individual month ever, America's climate agency has said in its latest report.

The combined April global land and ocean average surface temperature was the warmest on record at 14.5 degrees Celsius (58.1 degrees F).

This is 0.76 degrees Celsius above the 20th century average of 13.7 degrees Celsius, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), said.


The earth's temperature for January-April at 56.0 degrees Fahrenheit (13.3?C), is 1.24 degrees Fahrenheit or (0.69 degrees Celsius) above the 20th century average, it said.

While the global ocean surface temperature was 0.57 degrees C above the 20th century average of 16 degrees and the warmest on record for April, the global land temperature was 1.29 degrees Celsius above the 20th century average of 8.1, the third warmest on record for April.

The report said the warmth was most pronounced in the equatorial portions of major oceans, especially the Atlantic.

Warmer-than-normal conditions dominated the globe, with the most prominent warmth in Canada, Alaska, eastern US, Australia, South Asia, northern Africa and northern Russia.

Cooler-than-normal places included Mongolia, Argentina, far eastern Russia, the western contiguous United States and most of China, it said.

Facebook urged to add 'panic button' for children

Updated on : Tuesday, April 13, 2010

LONDON: A British child protection agency said it has pressed Facebook to add "panic buttons" to its pages after the murder of a teenager was linked to the site.

Jim Gamble, chief executive of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP), said the social networking giant did not agree to his demands outright at a meeting in Washington but he felt they were moving in the right direction.

Speaking after a four-hour meeting Monday, Gamble said Facebook was close to "doing the right thing" but urged the website to turn "words into action."

"I felt that at the end of what were lengthy and at times tense negotiation we are able to move towards a position. They are one small step away from doing the right thing," said Gamble.

"I am more optimistic than when I came. They are not saying no, that is very clear. But they were equally direct and they came with their own agenda.

"There is no doubt they are looking to improve their position around child safety and we recognise that. What I am looking for is turning words into action."

The showdown came after controversy in Britain over Facebook's refusal to include a "panic button" on its pages after the conviction of a serial rapist who used the site to lure and murder a teenage girl.

Peter Chapman posed as a young boy to lure 17-year-old Ashleigh Hall to her death in northeast England.

Calls have since grown for the inclusion of the buttons -- which allow youngsters who feel threatened online to quickly contact a number of sources of help, such as CEOP or anti-bullying helplines.

Politicians, police and anti-bullying groups have voiced outrage that the online giant will not bow to demands to include the system.

Gamble said: "In our view they are experts at creating a fantastic online environment but they are not experts in law enforcement, the power of deterrents and the reassurance it brings for mums and dads."

Iran is world's seventh largest cosmetic consumer

Updated on : Monday, April 12, 2010

TEHRAN: Iran has emerged as the world's seventh largest consumer of cosmetics, spending 2.1 billion dollars annually on various beauty products, a local newspaper said on Sunday.

The report quoting a survey conducted by TMBA, a private economic research body, said that Iran accounts for 29 percent of the cosmetics market in the Middle East.

Around 14 million Iranian women aged between 15 and 45 years and living in major cities spend around seven dollars a month per capita on cosmetics, the survey said, without giving a complete breakdown on the nation's spending.

The average monthly salary in Iran is around 600 to 700 dollars.

The survey indicates that the high spending is primarily due to the fact that about half of Iran's around 74 million population is under the age of 30.

The survey, however, is based on estimates and not on precise figures of cosmetics purchased in Iran, the report added.

Iran produces cosmetics, but imports a significant portion of its consumption.

Singapore is best city for Asian expats: Survey Report

Updated on : Wednesday, March 24, 2010

SINGAPORE: Singapore retained its number one spot as the best place to live for Asian expats followed by Sydney, a survey by human resources consultancy ECA International showed Wednesday.

The survey showed Singapore's top ranking was due largely to its infrastructure, health services, low crime rates and better air quality.

Other Asian cities including Hong Kong, Beijing and New Delhi ranked behind Singapore largely because of the poor air quality found in these places, the survey said.

"Air pollution remains a significant problem in a number of Asian locations. New Delhi, Beijing and Hong Kong are amongst the worst locations studied in terms of air quality," ECA International said.

"Health facility provision is also a problem for many parts of the region," it said.

Hong Kong placed eighth in the list of the top 15 best locations, the survey said. Beijing took 100th spot and New Delhi ranked 185th.

Love gets stronger with age: Canadian Researchers

Updated on : Saturday, February 13, 2010

MONTREAL: Older couples are more in love than most and continue to have satisfying sex lives, despite some physiological hurdles, according to Canadian researchers.

Persons older than 65 obtained the highest scores of 119 and 120 points on the Spanier Dyadic Adjustment Scale, which measures couples' happiness, compared to the Canadian average of 114.

"It's a significant difference," said Gilles Trudel, a psychology professor at the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM).

The scale takes into account sexual satisfaction, but also how well couples communicate, function together in general, and their cohesion. Researchers questioned 508 couples all from Quebec and all already pensioners, most aged over 65.

The fact that divorced couples were not included in the study could account for its optimistic results, as this left only results from happy older couples, Trudel admits.

Alternately, he theorized that couples after they retire have much more time to spend together and do things couples do, "like a second honeymoon."

In some cases, retirement can have the reverse effect: with more time on their hands, marital problems that remained latent during many years focused on career or child-rearing suddenly surface.

This is accompanied by anxiety or depression twice as often in the elderly as with younger persons.

Finally, researchers noted a recent, albeit still marginal, phenomenon: old people almost never divorced in the past, but nowadays five-six percent of grey-haired couples split up, at age 70 or older, some of them because their partner fell in love at first sight with another.

And retirees' sex lives are no longer taboo.

"There's a myth" surrounding the sex lives of the elderly. But that stems for some from "imagining, for example, their grand-parents making love, provoking uneasiness" among young people, Trudel suggests.

These interviews were conducted with absolute discretion, which increased their reliability: subjects were asked questions and responded by selecting a button on a computer that recorded their answers anonymously.

Through their research, UQAM's psychologists also offered elderly couples in group sessions some relationship tips such as communicating more, never cutting off your spouse, and sharing feelings.

Most important was to never believe that you know already what a person is going to say and so conclude that listening to them is not important.

Facebook gets more Bing

Updated on : Saturday, February 6, 2010

SAN FRANCISCO: Microsoft said Friday that Bing will power Internet searches for Facebook's 400 million members in an arrangement that returns control of display advertising to the social-networking service.Bing had previously powered online searches on US Facebook pages.Microsoft will provide Facebook users full access to Bing features as part of an "expanded cooperation in search," according to Bing general manager Jon Tinter."You will start to see the fruits of our expanded relationship show up in the Facebook experience over the weeks and months ahead," Tinter said in a blog post.The companies mutually agreed that Facebook will take over selling display advertising posted at the website because it "just made more sense" given the unique nature of the website, according to Tinter.Microsoft's control of display advertising served up at Facebook stretched back to shortly before the US software giant bought a 1.6-percent stake in Facebook in 2007 for 240 million dollars.That arrangement was inked in a contract that was up for renewal. Microsoft launched its new Bing search engine last year.

Almost half Haiti's injured may be children: study

Updated on : Friday, January 29, 2010

WASHINGTON: US researchers said they feared almost half of all those injured by the devastating Haiti quake may be children, urging relief agencies to plan accordingly.

A statistical study by a specialist group at the Children's Hospital Los Angeles and the University of Southern California showed that those hurt in the January 12 quake will likely "include an extraordinarily high number of children, more than 110,000, nearly half of the estimated total."

The study was conducted by Jeffrey Upperman and Robert Neches PhD, who have developed a software tool to help medical service providers plan their responses in the case of disasters and accidents involving children.

Using existing data, the Pediatric Emergency Decision Support System (PEDSS) uses statistical methods to estimate how many of the victims of a disaster may be children and what care they might need.

"Such needs in Haiti are particularly intense, because fully 35 percent of the population is under 15, meaning the estimated total number of injuries (250,000) contains far more children than it would in other areas," the researchers said in a statement.

They stressed that injured children had different medical needs, such as thinner hypodermic needles, the correct doses of children's drugs, and pediatric specialists.

The software works with seven age groups, and applying its program to the population of Haiti it predicted that half of the injured, about 44 percent or 111,000, could be under the age of 18.

It estimated that about 1,000 children aged between six to eight had suffered crush injuries, and calculated how many doses of specific drugs to treat such injuries would be needed.

Beauty is between eyes and mouth of the beholden: study

Updated on : Friday, December 18, 2009

WASHINGTON: Beauty is not so much in the eye of the beholder as in the measurements between the eyes, mouth and ears of the woman being observed, US and Canadian researchers have found.

In four experiments aimed at finding "an ideal facial feature arrangement," US and Canadian researchers asked students to compare color photographs of the same woman's face, in which the vertical distance between the eyes and mouth, and horizontal distance between the eyes, had been doctored using Photoshop.

The features -- eyes, mouth, nose, contour and hair -- remained the same and a woman's face was only compared to her own, never to another's.

Students looked at different pictures of the same woman's face laid out side by side and selected the face they found more attractive.

In all four experiments, they chose the faces with specific proportions that the researchers have dubbed the "new golden ratio."

Two of the experiments tested for the ideal distance between the eyes and mouth as compared to total face length, measured from the hairline to the chin. Both came up with 36 percent as the golden ratio for "the maximally attractive face."

The other two experiments measured both the ideal length and width ratios.

They both confirmed 36 percent as the golden ratio for the length of the maximally attractive face, and 46 percent as the ideal width ratio -- where the distance between the eyes is 46 percent of total face width, measured between the inner edges of the ears.

Happily, the 36/46 percent ratios "correspond with those of an average face", the study said, meaning there's no pressing need to get out the measuring tape and calculator or to rush to the plastic surgeon.

The study looked only at white women. More research is needed to determine if the golden ratios for men's faces, the faces of people of other races, and children's faces, are the same as for the women's faces in the study.

Get online to boost your I.Q.

Updated on : Monday, December 14, 2009

LONDON: Despite worries about the damaging effects of the digital age on brain development, surfing the internet can, in fact, increase IQ and boost memory in adults, scientists have found.

Researchers at the University of California Los Angeles compared the brains of middle-aged participants who rarely used the internet to experienced internet users, as they conducted web searches for an hour each day.

After five days, areas of the prefrontal cortex, which controls the ability to make decisions and integrate complex information, had become significantly more active.

'These areas were fairly inactive at the beginning of our experiment,' says Gary Small,

Professor of Psychiatry and Bio-Behavioural Sciences at UCLA, who led the study. 'But after five days they were as active as regular internet users, showing that brain function can change and improve with internet use very fast. This research demonstrates that average IQ is steadily rising with the advancing of digital culture. The ability to process information fast and multitask without errors is improving too.'

Even dull activities, such as sorting through your emails, can boost decision-making ability.

'Selectively clearing your email in-box on a daily basis can help develop a better ability to sift through large amounts of information rapidly and decide what's important and what isn't,' says Professor Small.

'In this way, we are able to cope with massive amounts of information appearing and disappearing on our mental screens from moment to moment.'

But there is a downside. Prolonged computer use can have a profound effect on the way we think, feel and behave.

'While internet use can enhance information processing and rapid decision-making, excessive use can damage interpersonal skills, lead to attention deficit and reduced ability to form bonding, human relationships,' warns Professor Small.

'It's common sense - if you work all day at a computer, make sure you mix with real people as much as you can after work, rather than using social networking sites on the internet or playing computer games.'

Obama adviser urges caution on extra Afghan troops

Updated on : Monday, November 09, 2009

BERLIN: U.S. President Barack Obama's national security adviser, James Jones, has said there is no guarantee that sending extra troops to Afghanistan would solve NATO's problems, and that they could just be "swallowed up".

In an interview published on Saturday, the German weekly magazine Der Spiegel asked Jones whether he agreed with General Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, that an increase of about 40,000 troops was needed.

"Generals always ask for more troops," Jones said.

"I believe we will not solve the problem with troops alone. The minimum number is important, of course. But there is no maximum number, however.

"You can keep on putting troops in, and you could have 200,000 troops there and Afghanistan will swallow them up as it has done in the past," he said, according to comments published by the magazine's website in English and German.

After weeks of internal deliberations, Obama's advisers are believed to be moving towards a hybrid strategy that would combine greater protection for population centres with more drone and special operations strikes against the Taliban.

The leading options under consideration would add at least 10,000 to 15,000 U.S. troops, but an announcement is expected to be weeks away.

Jones was asked how much longer U.S. forces would remain in Afghanistan, an area of foreign policy that has come under increased scrutiny since the revelation that the Afghan presidential vote in August was heavily tainted by fraud.

"I don't know how long," he said. "But I know our president and other heads of government are pressing for everything to be done to ensure the Afghans assume responsibility."

As of late October, Washington had 67,000 troops in Afghanistan. Other nations, mainly NATO allies of the U.S., have some 42,000 troops in the country.

Jones said terrorist networks were continuing to develop in neighbouring Pakistan.

"The danger from there is growing," he said.

Bad driving may be genetically spurred

Updated on : Friday, October 30, 2009

NEW YORK: Scientists in America found people with a particular fault in their genetic make-up performed 20 per cent worse in driving skills tests than those without.

Three in ten people may carry the affected gene, a team from University of California Irvine said.

The study is published in the journal Cerebral Cortex.

The gene fault affects production of a protein that helps keep memory strong and may be linked to co-ordination. People with the variant also don't recover as well after a stroke.

A driving test was taken by 29 people -- 22 without the gene variant and seven with it.

They were asked to drive 15 laps on a simulator that required them to learn the nuances of a track programmed to have difficult curves and turns. Researchers recorded how well they stayed on the course over time. Four days later, the test was repeated.

Results showed that people with the variant did worse on both tests than the other participants, and they remembered less the second time.

Smoking to kill 6 million in 2010: Research

Updated on : Saturday, August 29, 2009

WASHINGTON: Six million people worldwide will die from smoking-related illnesses next year, according to the annual Tobacco Atlas report from the American Cancer Society.

"Tobacco accounts for one out of every 10 deaths worldwide and will claim 5.5 million lives this year alone," the study said, predicting that current trends indicate that tobacco-related deaths could top 8 million annually by 2030.

"One hundred million people were killed by tobacco in the 20th century," the report said. "Unless effective measures are implemented to prevent young people from smoking and to help current smokers quit, tobacco will kill 1 billion people in the 21st century."

The Tobacco Atlas said that there are 1 billion male smokers worldwide and 250 million female smokers, and that tobacco kills one-third to one-half of those who smoke.

Beetroot juice can increase stamina: study

Updated on : Saturday, August 8, 2009

LONDON: Drinking beetroot juice can increase stamina, allowing keep-fit enthusiasts and athletes to exercise for longer”, according to a research carried out by British researchers.

It stated that a daily glass of the vegetable juice helped men to work out for 16% longer than when they had a regular fruit drink.

The effects are being credited to the nitrates in the juice, which, according to scientists, help the body to use less oxygen. This means that people feel less tired when they are exercising.

Ship of Brown is Still Sinking

Updated : Saturday June 6 , 2009 12:04:49 AM

Say you were Prime Minister of Britain, waking every day to your national media proclaiming your political death, fending off challenges to your authority from a fractured and fractious Labour party and braced against disastrous results in municipal and European elections.

You might think a cabinet reshuffle would be the best way to reassert your authority. You might even dare to dream that a high-profile celebrity appointment to government could, in the parlance of your press advisers, "change the narrative." So you pick up the phone to the country's best-known businessman, star of the U.K. version of The Apprentice.

Thus it is that Alan Sugar - who, like his U.S. counterpart, Donald Trump, uses the catchphrase "you're fired!" - has become an unlikely recruit to the band of Downing Street desperadoes trying to stop Gordon Brown from being fired. Sugar, already a business adviser to the government, will now trade in his existing honorific of "Sir" for the loftier title of "Lord" and become the government's "Enterprise Tsar."

"Having had the pleasure of meeting past prime ministers I can tell you, for what it's worth, that this fellow should stay in place," Sugar told the BBC. His new colleagues were dutifully trotting out that message to anyone who would listen. Alan Johnson, who moved from Health Secretary to Home Office Minister in today's resuffle (and is seen as the leading contender to succeed Brown as Labour leader), said Brown was "the best man" to run the country.

Their tributes came after another cabinet member, James Purnell, broke ranks to express exactly the opposite view. Purnell's resignation as Work and Pensions Secretary, in a surprise move just after European parliament and English local council polling stations closed Thursday night, pushed Downing Street into advancing the reshuffle originally planned to take place on Monday.

Purnell, a rising Labour star, released his resignation letter, which called on Brown to resign for the good of the Labour party. "I now believe your continued leadership makes a Conservative victory more, not less likely. I am therefore calling on you to stand aside to give our party a fighting chance of winning," wrote Purnell.

"One person writing a letter doesn't mean that everyone is collapsing like a pack of cards," said Sugar. "You will always have some people who will jump ship." The businessman hasn't been aboard the Good Ship Gordon for long, but even he must recognize it's listing dangerously. Purnell's resignation followed the departure of his Cabinet colleagues Home Secretary Jacqui Smith and Communities Secretary Hazel Blears, members of a close-knit group of senior women in the Labour party dubbed the "Wags" by mischievous Westminister correspondents.

The word originally stood for "wives and girlfriends," the collective name for the glamorous female camp followers of the England football team, but has now been recast as "Women against Gordon." Like Purnell, Smith and Blears had worked closely with former Prime Minister Tony Blair and were never fully trusted by the faction around his successor.

After the resignations today of two more ministers from the Blair era, the new Cabinet is stacked with Brown loyalists. But they'll have their work cut out shoring up their master. Backbenchers have been collecting names on a petition calling for him to go.

They are holding their fire, as results come in today from the local elections and until the European election outcome is announced on Sunday evening. A meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party on Monday evening promises to be stormy. Nobody know how much more turbulence the Good Ship Gordon can take. [Courtesy TIME]

US Drone Strikes hit 'high-value' Al-Qaeda targets: Special Report

Updated at: 1448 PST, Monday, June 01, 2009

WASHINGTON: US missiles from unmanned drones have eliminated about half of 20 "high-value" Al-Qaeda and other extremist targets along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan, a US newspaper reported Monday.

Citing unnamed US military and intelligence officials, the newspaper said the strikes and Pakistan's ongoing military offensive in the Swat Valley have unsettled Al-Qaeda and its relative invulnerability in Pakistani mountain sanctuaries.

The report did not identify who or what the "high-value" targets were. Although Al-Qaeda remains "a serious, potent threat," the paper quotes a US counterterrorism official as saying, "they've suffered some serious losses and seem to be feeling a heightened sense of anxiety -- and that's not a bad thing at all."

A senior military official said that in the current situation, Al-Qaeda will have to undertake more open communication on cell phones and computers, even if only to gather information on the situation in the region. "Then they become more visible," the official is quoted as saying.

‘Expect unexpected in Pakistan, Ukraine, Russia’: Eurasia

Updated at: 1605 PST, Tuesday, April 28, 2009

LONDON: Pakistan, Ukraine, Russia, Nigeria and Mexico are the places where unexpected political change could have the most impact on world markets in 2009, the Eurasia Group risk consultancy said in a report on Tuesday.

In a special report on the world's top 10 "fat tails", relatively low-likelihood but potentially high-impact events, Eurasia Group identified the chance of a military takeover in Pakistan as the most potentially significant unexpected development that might transform global geopolitics.

Other risks outlined included unrest in Russia, collapse in Nigeria and secularists lashing out in Turkey, almost all made more likely by the impact of the global financial crisis.

"Each of these scenarios remains unlikely," Eurasia Group president Ian Bremmer said.

"None of them represent our "call" for any of these countries. But in each case, the impact of the global economic meltdown, has dramatically increased the likelihood of (such scenarios) occurring from 2 or 3 percent six months ago to 10 to 20 percent, or 30 percent in the case Pakistan, now."

Recent "fat tail" events largely unpredicted by analysts would include post-election violence in Kenya early last year or the August war between Russia and Georgia, both of which had dramatic market impact.

The Effects of Economic Meltdown over Employment

Written by Syed Shahzad Alam : Updated on Sunday, April 19, 2009

The Global Economic Meltdown has foremost and direct reaction over private employment sector. Thousands of jobs are cut down from famous and established multinational companies as their production level dropped down to below 50% of total production capacities.
Before the crisis, unemployment factor already existed but after the crisis, that has deepened its roots in society and major budgetary cut down in different countries have been seen from social sectors and many more actions are expected to be introduced. Tax rates are increasing and facilities are dropping down.
In many Gulf States overseas employees have been discharged and are replaced by local employees. This is resulting to deepen the crisis in countries like Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Srilanka, Philippines and Thailand etc.
In Western Countries, this unemployment is increasing dependency on social aids from government to unemployed person. Simultaneously skilled persons are willing to accept jobs below 1 & 2 level of their last job. This will not only increase frustration but will also lose the pool of talented and skilled workers.
In Pakistan, industries are closing down and particularly textile sector which was back bone of industry and a key participant in exports. For last one and half decades the sector has been severely neglected by government for unknown reasons but it could still be manageable if government pay some attention and provide some facilities demanded by textile sector. Textile Sector has been remained a major source of employment and if it has a revival it can further provide massive employment both in technical and service sectors.
In Pakistan, unfortunately technology based industry has been neglected and major proportion goes to service based industry resulting the less advantage in industry growth due to any new advancement in technology. If this situation is compared to other countries in the region i.e. India, Iran, China and Malaysia then it is the well-known fact that these countries gave equal importance to technology based industry development and service sectors enabling these countries to get benefits of advancement in technology and to move forward in producing hi-tech equipments and capturing newly emerging markets of electronics and micro technologies.
With comparison to other countries the nature of problem in Pakistan has a different shape because of lack of necessary infrastructure. Less production of electricity is badly affecting the minimum level of production in industries and moreover uncertain political condition and worse situation in eastern and western borders are also the main cause of weak economy.