Oil rally fizzles as Fed rate hike comments boost dollar

Singapore: Oil prices tumbled in Asia Thursday, cutting short a rally the day before after hints of an interest rate hike in December by the US Federal Reserve boosted the dollar.

Prices rose Wednesday after the US Department of Energy said the country´s commercial crude stockpiles had increased less than expected, suggesting stronger demand in the world´s top oil consuming nation.

But the rebound was punctured after the Fed on Wednesday signalled it could raise rates before the end of the year, expressing optimism for the world´s top economy after "solid" consumer spending and business investment.see full story

Landmine blast kills tribal elder, four others in Quetta

QUETTA: At least five people, including the tribal elder Gul Khan Marri, were killed in a roadside blast when their vehicle hit a landmine in Marwar area of Quetta district, DawnNews reported on Thursday.
Levis sources said that the vehicle of Gul Khan Marri accidentally hit a landmine in the suburb area of the provincial capital.
The vehicle was badly damaged due to the intensity of the blast, killing the tribal elder and his two guards.see full story

Did you know? Kareena Kapoor to wow fans by dancing in a 32kg lehanga

If her recent acting duds weren't enough to weigh her down, Kareena Kapoor decided to shake a leg in a lehanga that was heavier than 30kg for her upcoming film Ki and Ka.Although we can't be too sure if she's weighs even twice of what she wore, we can safely say that the heavy zardozi work on several layers of net didn't keep her from slaying those dance moves, according to The Indian Express.Although the actor did not wear any eastern outfit in the romantic film, she did don the traditional lehenga to please her fans: "Though Kareena sports a completely western look throughout the film, she didn’t want to disappoint her fans and hence went completely Indian for the song in Ki And Ka."Choreographed by Bosco, Kareena shot the song in two days at the suburban studio: "Kareena shot in this heavy lehenga in the scorching heat for over two days and wowed everyone with her ability to maintain her cool despite the challenging outfit and temperature."Although her acting got overshadowed inBajrangi Bhaijaan, Kareena is expected to make a comeback in R. Balki's Ki and Kaalongside Arjun Kapoor.

Italian police hand over APS attack suspect to FIA

ISLAMABAD: Italian police has handed over a man suspected of involvement in the December 2014Army Public School (APS) massacreto the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), security sources said Thursday.Usman Ghani — who hails from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Mardan district — was escorted to Islamabad's Benazir Bhutto International Airport (BBIA) early Thursday by Italian police after being arrested in Italy, the sources said.Ghani is reportedly wanted for his involvement in terrorist activities in Pakistan including the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP)-claimed APS attack in which at least 150 people were killed, over 140 of them being children, they said.After he was handed over to FIA, the suspect has been shifted to the agency's passport cell for investigation, sources added.Ghani hails from Mardan's Dher village.Also read: Army claims arrest of key men behind APS attackIn the deadliest terror attack in the country’s history, over 135 schoolchildren and at least 10 other people were killed when heavily armed militants stormed the army-run school in Peshawar.

Quake toll reaches 267, Nawaz announces relief package

ISLAMABAD: The death toll from the earthquake, that shook northern parts of Pakistan on Monday, has risen to 267 while 1,856 are reported injured across the country.The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) says at least 11,389 houses were damaged in the affected areas with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province being the worst-hit with 220 deaths, 1,656 injured and at least 10,586 houses damaged.see full story

Balochistan can turn into wasteland, experts warn

QUETTA: Water shortage has intensified due to depletion of underground water table in Balochistan and if water recharging points and new dams are not built soon then there is a risk that the province would turn into a wasteland, experts warned on Wednesday. Balcohistan, once a water surplus area with natural lakes, waterfalls and springs, has been facing severe water shortage for the last three decades. Due to climate change and dry spells, underground water level has depleted to 1,000 ft, drying up the ancient ‘Karez system’ that is comprised of a series of wells and linking underground channels that uses gravity to bring ground water to the surface, usually far from the source. The situation has worsened due to installation of over 4,000 tube wells in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan – the largest landmass in Pakistan with an area of 343,000 square kilometres. Experts believe that most parts of the province will run out of water in next 10 to 12 years if the situation persists. see full story

NASA's Space Launch System Design 'Right on Track' for Journey to Mars

For the first time in almost 40 years, a NASA human-rated rocket has completed all steps needed to clear a critical design review (CDR). The agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) is the first vehicle designed to meet the challenges of the journey to Mars and the first exploration class rocket since the Saturn V.
SLS will be the most powerful rocket ever built and, with the agency’s Orion spacecraft, will launch America into a new era of exploration to destinations beyond Earth’s orbit.
Image Credit: NASA/MSFC
(Artist concept updated Oct. 20, 2015)

Last Updated: Oct. 22, 2015

Editor: Jennifer Harbaughsee full story

Tags:  Image of the Day, Journey to Mars

Suspected militants killed in Burraq strike, says ISPR

PESHAWAR: Multiple suspected militants were killed by a drone strike carried out by the indigenously produced 'Burraq' drone on Thursday, said a statement released by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).
The drone strike was carried out in the region of South Waziristan.
“A drone strike by a 'Burraq' drone was carried out in South Waziristan and targeted terrorists’ hideouts,” stated ISPR.
Read: Three killed in military's first drone strike in North Waziristan
It is pertinent to mention that this is the second confirmed drone strike by a Pakistani manufactured 'Burraq' drone.
The armed drone was used for the first time since its development in November 2013.see full story

Tuffam: Tracking Agricultural Water Use on a Smartphone

Tuffam: Tracking Agricultural Water Use on a Smartphone: This fall scientists at the University of Nebraska, with partners at Google, Inc. and the University of Idaho, introduced the latest evol...

Tracking Agricultural Water Use on a Smartphone

This fall scientists at the University of Nebraska, with partners at Google, Inc. and the University of Idaho, introduced the latest evolution of METRIC technology—an application called EEFLUX, which will allow anyone in the world to produce field-scale maps of water consumption.
METRIC processes satellite images to make digital maps, and is currently being used by water managers in 15 states to track agricultural water use. EEFLUX will put this information directly into the hands of farmers by allowing them to check water-use maps in near real-time on any mobile device that has web access.
“The use of satellite imagery provides the means to monitor the agricultural water consumption over every square foot of land surface,“ said Ayse Kilic, a professor in the department of civil engineering and school of natural resources at the University of Nebraska.

That imagery comes from the Landsat satellites, whose thermal band data allows water specialists to measure the amount of water evaporating from the soil and transpiring from a plant’s leaves—a process called evapotranspiration (ET).
This process cools the plant down, so irrigated farm fields appear cooler (bluer) in infrared satellite images. The spatial resolution of Landsat’s thermal imagery, combined with the Landsat data for other spectral bands, allows experts and farmers alike to see water consumption for individual fields.
“With Landsat 7, the Landsat user community began to see the importance of thermal infrared data for water management,” said Jeffrey Masek, Chief of the Biospheric Sciences Laboratory at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “So in 2009 the Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS) was added to the Landsat-8 mission payload.
Water managers can track the effectiveness of various water conservation projects with METRIC because it provides a new level of detail: from field to field, crop to crop, and year to year. Also, Landsat satellites have collected thermal data since 1984 so that water consumption under existing conservation practices can be compared with that occurring more than 30 years ago.
“It’s really helped us from a time–frame perspective,” said Duane Woodward, an engineering hydrologist at the Central Platte Natural Resource District of Nebraska. “1997, for example, was one of the first ET years. We did 2007, 2002, 2011, and now we’re doing 2013. So you really want to look at how its changing year in and year out.”
METRIC was developed by remote sensing analysts Bill Kramber and Tony Morse, from the Idaho Department of Water Resources, who in the early 2000s teamed up with Rick Allen, from the University of Idaho, to develop a more holistic solution to water management.
So far, METRIC’S latest application, EEFLUX, has been introduced to the California Department of Water Resources, the California Water Control Board, and the World Bank. “Having water consumption maps produced quickly on Smartphones has been everyone’s dream,” said Kilic. “In two years time we hope to see all farmers watching their fields from their phones and scheduling irrigations. EEEFlux is making Landsat the evapotranspiration satellite.”

Alison Ogden
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland

Last Updated: Oct. 14, 2015

Editor: Karl Hille

Tags:  Earth, Goddard Space Flight Center, Land, Landsat

See full story 

Russia says getting ‘closer’ to deal with US to avoid Syria clashes

MOSCOW: Moscow and Washington are getting closer to agreeing a deal to avoid clashes between their aircraft over Syria, Russia´s defence ministry said Wednesday, after a third round of talks between the two countries´ militaries.

"Positions became closer on key provisions of the future document," the defence ministry said in a statement to Russian news agencies.

"The procedure for further action by the two sides was agreed," the statement said after a videoconference between the two sides.

Russia and the United States have been making slow progress towards striking a deal on how to stay out of each other´s way in the skies over Syria since Moscow launched its bombing campaign in the war-torn country late last month.See full story

Genral Raheel Shareef is the Tipu Sultan of Pakistan

Genral Raheel Shareef do work like Tipu Sultan The Sultan of Barasageer who clear all Terrorist in past,
now Genral Raheel Shareef also clear the terrorist in Pakistan

NASA Releases Plan Outlining Next Steps in the Journey to Mars

NASA is leading our nation and the world on a journey to Mars, and Thursday the agency released a detailed outline of that plan in its report, “NASA’s Journey to Mars: Pioneering Next Steps in Space Exploration.”
“NASA is closer to sending American astronauts to Mars than at any point in our history,” said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. “Today, we are publishing additional details about our journey to Mars plan and how we are aligning all of our work in support of this goal. In the coming weeks, I look forward to continuing to discuss the details of our plan with members of Congress, as well as our commercial and our international and partners, many of whom will be attending the International Astronautical Congress next week.”
The plan can be read online at:

http://go.nasa.gov/1VHDXxg

The journey to Mars crosses three thresholds, each with increasing challenges as humans move farther from Earth. NASA is managing these challenges by developing and demonstrating capabilities in incremental steps:
Earth Reliant exploration is focused on research aboard the International Space Station. From this world-class microgravity laboratory, we are testing technologies and advancing human health and performance research that will enable deep space, long duration missions.
In the Proving Ground, NASA will learn to conduct complex operations in a deep space environment that allows crews to return to Earth in a matter of days. Primarily operating in cislunar space—the volume of space around the moon featuring multiple possible stable staging orbits for future deep space missions—NASA will advance and validate capabilities required for humans to live and work at distances much farther away from our home planet, such as at Mars.
Earth Independent activities build on what we learn on the space station and in deep space to enable human missions to the Mars vicinity, possibly to low-Mars orbit or one of the Martian moons, and eventually the Martian surface. Future Mars missions will represent a collaborative effort between NASA and its partners—a global achievement that marks a transition in humanity’s expansion as we go to Mars to seek the potential for sustainable life beyond Earth.see full story

More than 70 percent of Russians support Moscow´s bombing campaign in Syria: poll

MOSCOW: More than 70 percent of Russians support Moscow´s bombing campaign against Islamic State in Syria but the danger of getting sucked into a protracted war is not lost on the public, a new poll showed Thursday.

The study conducted just days after President Vladimir Putin secured permission from parliament to launch air strikes in Syria found that most Russians approve of his latest decision to use force abroad.

The launch of strikes in Syria is Russia´s first major military involvement outside former Soviet Union territory since the invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.

Seventy two percent of respondents said they approved of the bombing campaign and 46 percent said they agreed with the decision of the rubber stamp parliament´s upper house to allow Putin to use force abroad, said the independent Levada Centre.See full story

Jewish, Hindu lobbies funded PTI’s rallies in Pakistan: Pervez Rashid

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Senator Pervez Rashid on Thursday claimed that the rallies and public meetings of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) were organised in Pakistan with financial assistance from Jewish and Hindu lobbies in the US.

At a press conference here, Pervez Rashid said PTI spent millions of rupees on its rallies in Pakistan, claiming they were all arranged with the help of dollars coming from America-based Jewish and Hindu lobbies.

He said all the political parties of Pakistan are bound under the law not to receive any funds from foreigners.

Rashid said the ECP was trying to conceal PTI Chairman Imran Khan’s crime of taking funds from foreigners which he used for political purposes. “We have a documentary proof of Imran Khan’s signatures acknowledging receipt of funds,” he added.

The information minister waved in the air documents he held in his hands, saying his claims were based on documentary proof obtained from a US department. He said this file contains names of all the Jewish, Hindu and Sikh firms which ‘sent their donations to the PTI’.

He said PTI spent a massive amount of Rs2.5 million only on the speakers and sound system it used at its rallies.

Rashid said Khan not only kept the ‘funds from foreign firms’ hidden from the ECP but also used them for his protest sit-ins. “Imran Khan hurls allegations at others, he too will have to answer my questions,” he snapped.

The minister went on to say that Khan staged the sit-ins in Islamabad with an aim to stop the scheduled visit of Chinese President to Pakistan. “Imran Khan, you are functioning as a tool for Pakistan’s enemies,” he added.

He said Khan will have to come up with a reply for ‘the rigging he committed to undermine the cause of democracy in the country’.

Rashid added that how was PTI allotted a party symbol in the last general elections despite being in violation of the Political Parties Act.

He pointed out that under the Political Parties Act, all parties are required to submit their accounts including sources of their funds before allotment of election symbols.See full story

Satellites Show Joaquin Become a Category 4 Hurricane

Hurricane Joaquin had become a Category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Wind Scale by 2 p.m. EDT on Oct. 1. At NASA, satellite imagery from NOAA's GOES-East satellite was compiled into an animation that showed the hurricane strengthening. Earlier in the day, NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite saw powerful thunderstorms within, indicating further strengthening.Full story

Terrorism a universal issue, warrants global response: COAS

LONDON: Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Raheel Sharif said on Thursday that no new entities will be allowed to emerge in the war on terrorism.

While visiting the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) and the House of Commons in London, Gen Sharif said that terrorism is a global issue which warrants a global response.

He went on to say that Operation Zarb-e-Azab’s success has had a discernible effect, adding that sleeper cells across country will continue to be pursued.

“We want to finish terrorists and their nurseries and expect the international community to play its part for regional peace.”

The COAS further said that funding of all terrorist organisations has to be checked by all for long term success.

“We are against use of proxies and will not allow it on our soil.”

He added that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) will be a game changer and will bring prosperity in the area.

“Will do everything to make it a success as the whole region will benefit.”full story