Mila

Earth Hour

A combination photo shows the Intercontinental hotel on West lake before (top) and during (bottom) Earth Hour in Hanoi March 27, 2010. Earth Hour, when everyone around the world is asked to turn off lights for an hour from 8.30 p.m. local time, is meant as a show of support for tougher action to confront climate change.

Earth Hour

Blogger Buzz: Support Haiti Disaster Relief

Blogger Buzz: Support Haiti Disaster Relief

Iran proclaims new success in uranium enrichment

TEHRAN, Iran – President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claimed Thursday that Iran has produced its first batch of uranium enriched to a higher level just two days after it said it began the process, showcasing new advances in its controversial nuclear program.Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reiterated to hundreds of thousands of cheering Iranians on the anniversary of the 1979 foundation of the Islamic republic that the country was now a "nuclear state," though he insisted that Iran had no intention of building nuclear weapons.

It was not clear how much of the enriched material had actually been produced.

The United States and some of its allies accuse Tehran of using its civilian nuclear program as a cover to build nuclear weapons but Tehran denies the charge, saying the program is just geared towards generating electricity.

"I want to announce with a loud voice here that the first package of 20 percent fuel was produced and provided to the scientists," he said, referring to the recently begun process of enriching Iran's uranium stockpile The document, relying on onsite reports from International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors, also cited Iranian experts at the country's enrichment plant at Natanz as saying that only about 10 kilograms — 22 pounds — of low enriched uranium had been fed into the cascade for further enrichment.

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apple computer

The new Apple iPad. ABI Research said Tuesday that Apple's iPad highlights the "real start" of a tablet computer market that should grow more than tenfold to reach about 57 million devices sold annually by 2015.

Britain discloses secret data on detainee abuse

LONDON – Britain was forced by an appeals court Wednesday to reveal a long-secret description of how a former terrorism suspect was beaten, shackled and deprived of sleep during interrogations by U.S. agents.

Ethiopia-born British resident Binyam Mohamed was arrested in Pakistan in 2002, and says he was tortured there and in Morocco before being flown to Guantanamo Bay and charged with plotting with al-Qaida to bomb American apartment buildings.

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day


Saint Valentine's Day[1] (commonly shortened to Valentine's Day[1][2][3]) is an annual holiday held on February 14 celebrating love and affection between intimate companions.[1][3] The holiday is named after one or more early Christian martyrs named Valentine and was established by Pope Gelasius I in 496 AD. It is traditionally a day on which lovers express their love for each other by presenting flowers, offering confectionery, and sending greeting cards (known as "valentines"). The holiday first became associated with romantic love in the circle of Geoffrey Chaucer in the High Middle Ages, when the tradition of courtly love flourished.

Modern Valentine's Day symbols include the heart-shaped outline, doves, and the figure of the winged Cupid. Since the 19th century, handwritten valentines have largely given way to mass-produced greeting cards.[4]In the 1969 revision of the Roman Catholic Calendar of Saints, the feastday of Saint Valentine on February 14 was removed from the General Roman Calendar and relegated to particular (local or even national) calendars for the following reason: "Though the memorial of Saint Valentine is ancient, it is left to particular calendars, since, apart from his name, nothing is known of Saint Valentine except that he was buried on the Via Flaminia on February 14."[15] The feast day is still celebrated in Balzan (Malta) where relics of the saint are claimed to be found, and also throughout the world by Traditionalist Catholics who follow the older, pre-Vatican II calendar.In India, in past Valentine's Day has been explicitly discouraged by some of the Hindu fundamentalists, mainly the Shiv Sena, the Bajrang Dal and the Vishva Hindu Parishad.[44][45] Since 2001 there has been each year violent clashes between shopkeepers dealing in Valentine related items and Shiv Sena die-hards, who oppose it as "cultural pollution from the west".[44][46] Especially in Mumbai and surrounding areas Bal Thackeray and others sent out signals before the day warning people not to have anything to do with Valentine.[47] Those who violate this are dealt with harshly by baton-holding brigands of Shiv Sena who lurk in public places especially parks, chasing young people holding hands and others suspected to be lover.In Mexico, Guatemala and in El Salvador, Valentine's Day is known as "Día del Amor y la Amistad" (Day of Love and Friendship). Although it is similar to the United States' version in many ways, it is also common to see people do "acts of appreciation" for their friends.[37]

In Brazil, the Dia dos Namorados (lit. "Day of the Enamored", or "Boyfriends'/Girlfriends' Day") is celebrated on June 12, when couples exchange gifts, chocolates, cards and flower bouquets. This day was chosen probably because it is the day before the Festa junina’s Saint Anthony's day, known there as the marriage saint, when traditionally many single women perform popular rituals, called simpatias, in order to find a good husband or boyfriend. The February 14's Valentine's Day is not celebrated at all, mainly for cultural and commercial reasons, since it usually falls too little before or after Carnival, a major floating holiday in Brazil — long regarded as a holiday of sex and debauchery by many in the country[38] — that can fall anywhere from early February to early March.