Iran has launched its first domestically made satellite into orbit, state media reports. TV commentary said Monday’s night-time launch from a Safir-2 rocket was “another achievement for Iranian scientists under sanctions”. The satellite was designed for research and telecommunications purposes, the television report said. Iran is subject to UN sanctions as some Western powers think it is trying to build a nuclear bomb, which it denies. Tehran says its nuclear ambitions are limited to the production of energy, and has emphasised its satellite project is entirely peaceful.
All UK homes should have access to broadband and faster download speeds by 2012, the government has said. An interim report on the UK’s digital future also looked at plans for public service broadcasting. Prime Minister Gordon Brown said digital technology was as important today as “roads, bridges and trains were in the 20th Century”. But the Conservatives said the report promised “no new action”. The Lib Dems said it was a “complete damp squib”.
The Ofcom-backed code of practice has won pledges from net firms to give more information about line speeds. Net firms covering 95% of the UK’s broadband users have signed up to the voluntary scheme which comes into force on 5 December. Over the next six months Ofcom will monitor net firms to ensure they live up to their promises. The code of conduct was drawn up in response to research that suggested consumers were confused by adverts that promised broadband speeds that few consumers could achieve. Almost a quarter of people do not get the speed they expect, according to early results from Ofcom research, which is due to be published in full in 2009.
A British doctor volunteering in DR Congo used text message instructions from a colleague to perform a life-saving amputation on a boy. Vascular surgeon David Nott helped the 16-year-old while working 24-hour shifts with medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) in Rutshuru. The boy’s left arm had been ripped off and was badly infected and gangrenous. Mr Nott, 52, had never performed the operation but followed instructions from a colleague who had. The surgeon, who is based at Charing Cross Hospital in west London, said: “He was dying.
Mobile internet use is growing while the number of people going online via a PC is slowing, analyst firm Nielsen Online has found. Some 7.3m people accessed the net via their mobile phones, during the second and third quarters of 2008. This is an increase of 25% compared to a growth of just 3% for the PC-based net audience – now more than 35m. It also found that the mobile net audience was younger and searched for different things.
European telecoms chiefs have backed plans to make it cheaper to access data while on a mobile phone abroad. The measures will slash the cost of sending a text while abroad and reform the way phone operators charge for data calls made when customers roam. The changes to charges are due to come in to force across the EU’s 27 member nations from July 2009. Some nations and industry groups said the changes could mean higher charges for other services. “We want to avoid so-called bill shock, when someone gets back from a holiday and gets a nasty surprise,” said Luc Chatel, French minister for industry and consumer affairs.
CITATION for Mahabir Pun Ramon Magsaysay Award Presentation Ceremonies Nangi Village, where Mahabir Pun was born, rests high in the Himalayan foothills of western Nepal. Here and in surrounding Myagdi District live the Pun Magar, whose men have soldiered for generations across the globe as Gurkhas. Yet, their worldly careers have done little to change their sleepy homeland, so far from the traffic patterns that knit together the rest of the world. Indeed, Nangi is seven hours’ hard climb from the nearest road. No telephone lines have ever reached it.