News

PuneTimes: The third year of a rare items exhibition in Pune paved the way for a numismatic auction here, which led to a recordbreaking auction of a ten-rupee British-India gold coin for an astounding Rs 1.15 lakh.

This is the highest price paid for a rare Indian coin in the country, according to Mumbai-based Todywalla Auctions, India’s only certified and licensed numismatic auctioneers.

Seventy bidders from across the country participated in the December 18 auction, which was held here during the third national exhibition of the International Collectors’ Society for Rare Items (ICSRI). Numismatic items worth over Rs 16 lakh were auctioned during the one-and-a-half-hour session.

The most-prized item that fetched Rs 1.15 lakh was the ten-rupee gold coin of the British monarch Queen Victoria, issued in 1854 by the East India Company. Another five-rupee coin issued in the same year went for Rs 1.10 lakh. Both the coins were purchased by city-based private collectors.

PuneTimes: Pune airport, which introduced international flights to Dubai and Singapore in December last year, has been witnessing a serious manpower shortage at its immigration counters.

The airport risks being identified as a porous point for entry into and exit from the country. The airport has five arrival and an equal number of departure counters which are used by city police officials attached to the special branch (SB) to verify the validity and genuineness of visas and passports.

The police also examine other travel documents of passengers. Presently, a staff of 22 personnel including two inspectors, four sub-inspectors and 16 constables man these counters in two shifts round the clock.

A senior SB official told TOI that this is against the requirement of 44 staff in the form of one inspector, three sub-inspectors and 18 constables per shift.

The official said that while the police propose to deploy a special police team for immigration-related matters, currently, the team of police officials at the airport lacks thorough knowledge of immigration laws and documents.

Pune Times: Fed up of the tall promises made by your local politician? Now, certain localities in the city have the choice of sending a non-political member as their representative to the municipal corporation.

At least three mohalla committees in the city have decided to field independent candidates for the forthcoming civic elections to be held on February 1.

These mohalla committees are civic-conscious citizens’ groups which are active in their respective areas.

While there are 23 active mohalla committees in the city, the Model Colony Parisar Samiti, Citizens Forum, Ganeshbaug, and the Citizens Forum, B.T. Kawade road, have chalked out a plan to nominate their member for the polls.

Speaking to TOI, Jaywantrao Mohite, president of Model Colony Parisar Samiti, said the committee initiated the move to keep out politics affecting development work in their locality.

Timesof India: Though the Right To Information (RTI) Act 2005 seems to be helping people get vital information, a former section officer in the directorate of sports and youth services has been running from pillar to post to get the desired information despite submitting the required documents.

Ravindra Pathak, who took voluntary retirement in January 2004, told TOI that he had submitted an RTI application on October 18 along with required documents.

“I asked for information about how my retirement benefits were calculated as I suspect that I was given less than my dues. I had also asked about misuse of official car by an official.”

“My application was as per the prescribed format and I had attached the court stamp,” Pathak said. He also took an acknowledgement receipt from a clerk.

However, on November 9, he received a letter from the directorate stating that “as he had not submitted any documents about what information was required, the same cannot be provided.”

BBCNews: Users of Microsoft Word are being urged to be careful as malicious hackers target the word processing software.
Three unpatched bugs in Word have been uncovered in the last few weeks and two are already being exploited by attackers.

The loopholes being exploited allow attackers to create booby-trapped documents that steal information or take over a PC when they are opened.

Microsoft has yet to release patches to fix the bugs in the Word software.

Attack pattern

Information about the latest problem in Word was posted only a couple of days after Microsoft released its latest security update.

Over the last year malicious hackers have taken to releasing code soon after the regularly-scheduled monthly Microsoft security update to give them the biggest chance to abuse it before a patch appears.

So far the latest Word exploit, which revolves around the way the information describing formatting is handled, is only a proof-of-concept flaw but Symantec and McAfee have confirmed that it will work.

Abusing the flaw could allow attackers to take over a PC or run malicious code on a compromised machine.

The latest flaw joins two others that Microsoft has acknowledged are already being exploited in attacks which it describes as “limited and targeted”.

To avoid falling victim it said: “users should always exercise extreme caution when opening unsolicited attachments from both known and unknown sources”.

BBCNews: US politicians have proposed a national wireless broadband network for use by emergency services at times of crisis.
The system, put forward by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), would be built with private companies.

The proposal is a response to the communication problems highlighted during the 11th September attacks and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

At the moment the various US safety agencies use a patchwork of different communication systems to stay in touch.

“Earlier this year, I had an opportunity to hear local public safety personnel recount their experiences on the ground during the tragic events of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita,” said Deborah Taylor Tate, commissioner at the FCC in a statement.

“Their eyewitness accounts underscore how important it is that our nation’s first responders have access to reliable and redundant communications in the event of an emergency, and how much remains to be done before those tools are available.”

BBCNews: A furry robotic seal used for therapy in nursing homes has been honoured by the Japanese government.
Paro is fitted with sensors beneath its fur and whiskers that allow it to respond to petting.

The robot mammal, which flutters its eyes and moves its flippers, won the service prize at the government sponsored Robot Awards 2006.

A giant vacuum cleaner and a feeding machine also received prizes at the ceremony in Tokyo.

The awards were set up earlier this year by the Japanese government to promote research and development in the robotics industry.

A furry robotic seal used for therapy in nursing homes has been honoured by the Japanese government.
Paro is fitted with sensors beneath its fur and whiskers that allow it to respond to petting.

The robot mammal, which flutters its eyes and moves its flippers, won the service prize at the government sponsored Robot Awards 2006.

A giant vacuum cleaner and a feeding machine also received prizes at the ceremony in Tokyo.

The awards were set up earlier this year by the Japanese government to promote research and development in the robotics industry.

BBCNews: Space shuttle Discovery and its seven-member crew have landed safely at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Shuttle managers decided conditions in Florida were good enough to bring the shuttle home at 1732 (2232 GMT), after days of uncertainty about the weather.

The shuttle has been on a 13-day mission to rewire the International Space Station (ISS).

Its safe return concludes Nasa’s third shuttle flight of the year. Five more flights are planned for 2007.

The shuttle gave off twin sonic booms as it descended towards the floodlit runway.

“You’ve got seven thrilled people right here,” Discovery commander Mark Polansky told Mission Control after touching down.

We’re just really proud of the entire Nasa team to put this together, so thank you.”

The team spent eight days rewiring the space station. They also fitted a connecting segment that will allow the platform’s backbone to be extended further in future.

They delivered two tonnes of supplies and dropped off one new resident, American Sunita Williams, and picked up a returning astronaut, German Thomas Reiter.

BBCNews: Christmas is a time for family but it is also a time for playing with new gadgets and toys received during the festive period.
More than $30 billion (£17bn) in consumer electronics is expected to be bought worldwide in the run up to Christmas and mobile phones have broken into the top 10 most wanted children’s presents, according to analysts Deloitte.

Our panel of technology addicts reveal how they will be spending their digital Christmas