ProHostGold News Blog

Iran has started the process of enriching uranium to 20% in defiance of the West, Iranian state media says.

The process was begun at the Natanz plant in the presence of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors, al-Alam state television reported.

The move came after Western powers stepped up pressure for international sanctions against Iran.

The US and its Western allies say Iran is trying to develop a nuclear weapon – a charge Iran denies.

Iran currently enriches uranium to a level of 3.5% but requires 20% enriched uranium for its Tehran research reactor, which is meant to produce medical isotopes. A bomb would require uranium enriched to at least 90%.

Enriching to 20% would take about one year, using the 2,000 centrifuges at the underground Natanz facility, experts say.

But moving from 20% to 90% would take only six months and only require between 500 and 1,000 centrifuges.

Iran insists its nuclear programme is entirely peaceful and designed to provide civilian power.</p

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Toyota has recalled thousands of its hybrid Prius cars sold in Japan last year due to a brake problem.

It was unclear if the recall would be extended to Prius cars sold outside Japan.

The company filed papers at Japan’s transport ministry about the recall of the 2010 model on sale since May.

Company president Akio Toyoda, already dealing with damage to its reputation in the wake of other problems, is due to hold a news conference shortly.

Toyota has already recalled about 8 million vehicles with faulty accelerator pedals or floor mats. </p

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Toyota has recalled thousands of its hybrid Prius cars sold in Japan last year due to a brake problem.

It was unclear if the recall would be extended to Prius cars sold outside Japan.

The company filed papers at Japan’s transport ministry about the recall of the 2010 model on sale since May.

Company president Akio Toyoda, already dealing with damage to its reputation in the wake of other problems, is due to hold a news conference shortly.

Toyota has already recalled about 8 million vehicles with faulty accelerator pedals or floor mats. </p

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Toyota has recalled thousands of its hybrid Prius cars sold in Japan last year due to a brake problem.

It was unclear if the recall would be extended to Prius cars sold outside Japan.

The company filed papers at Japan’s transport ministry about the recall of the 2010 model on sale since May.

Company president Akio Toyoda, already dealing with damage to its reputation in the wake of other problems, is due to hold a news conference shortly.

Toyota has already recalled about 8 million vehicles with faulty accelerator pedals or floor mats. </p

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

The family of a Haitian man says he has survived four weeks under rubble since the devastating earthquake that struck on 12 January.

Doctors said the 28-year-old man was dehydrated and wasted. His brother told the BBC someone had given him water during his 28-day ordeal.

The BBC’s Matthew Price spoke to the man’s mother in the capital Port-au-Prince and said she was very emotional.

The man is being treated at a field hospital at the airport.

More than 150,000 people were killed in the earthquake, with 1.5 million left homeless, but it is estimated less than 140 people were pulled alive from the rubble in Haiti’s capital.

‘Not impossible’

Our correspondent says the man’s mother broke down while discussing her son’s apparent rescue and said she had not seen him since the quake.

"He was quite dehydrated and wasted, so there are certain things that suggest it’s true"

Dr Dushyantha Jayaweera

Haiti quake: Survivors’ stories

The man is thought to have been pulled out from under the rubble of a building in Port-au-Prince on Monday.

Doctors said he was dehydrated and malnourished, and that his condition suggested he had been trapped for a long time.

Dr Dushyantha Jayaweera, of the University of Miami field hospital, told Reuters TV: "It is unusual but not impossible.

"He was quite dehydrated and he was wasted, so there are certain things that suggest that it’s true."

Dr Jayaweera described the man’s condition as "reasonable".

"He’s still sick, he cannot talk to anybody, but we are very optimistic with the condition of the patient."

Meanwhile, a Haitian judge has begun questioning 10 American missionaries accused of trying to take out of the country 33 children they claimed were orphaned by the quake.

Many of the children were later found to have parents.

The group’s lawyer, Aviol Fleurant, said after proceedings on Monday: "Many of the parents who had the opportunity to speak out declared, in good faith, to have given their children to the Americans."

He also said that the Americans – who are mostly from the state of Idaho – had had the necessary documentation to take the children from the country.

Five of them have spoken to the judge, and the rest are expected to appear at a hearing later this week.

The leader of the group, Laura Silsby, was confident they would all be freed.

"I am trusting God to reveal all truth, and that we will be released and exonerated of charges," she said.

The case has raised fears in Haiti that traffickers would take advantage of the quake chaos to abduct children.</p

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Handheld devices could soon have pressure-sensitive touch-screens and keys, thanks to a UK firm’s material that exploits a quantum physics trick.

The technology allows, for example, scrolling down a long list or webpage faster as more pressure is applied.

A division of Samsung that distributes mobile phone components to several handset manufacturers has now licensed the "Quantum Tunnelling Composite".

The approach could find use in devices from phones to games to GPS handsets.

In January, Japanese touch-screen maker Nissha also licensed the approach from Yorkshire-based Peratech, who make the composite material QTC.

However, as part of the licensing agreements, Peratech could not reveal the phone, gaming, and device makers that could soon be using the technology to bring pressure sensitivity to a raft of new devices.

Quantum mace

The composite works by using spiky conducting nanoparticles, similar to tiny medieval maces, dispersed evenly in a polymer.

None of these spiky balls actually touch, but the closer they get to each other, the more likely they are to undergo a quantum physics phenomenon known as tunnelling.

Tunnelling is one of several effects in quantum mechanics that defies explanation in terms of the "classical" physics that preceded it.

Simply put, quantum mechanics says that there is a tiny probability that a particle shot at a wall will pass through it in an effect known as tunnelling.

Similarly, the material that surrounds the spiky balls acts like a wall to electric current. But as the balls draw closer together, when squashed or deformed by a finger’s pressure, the probability of a charge tunnelling through increases.

The net result is that pressing harder on the material leads to a smooth increase in the current through it.

There are a number of ways to make switches or screens pressure-sensitive, such as using mechanical switches.

However, the QTC approach is particularly suited to making thin devices. Pressure-sensitive QTC switches can be made 70 micrometers thick – about the thickness of a human hair.

QTC is better than switches based on so-called "conducting polymers", because they conduct no electricity until they are pressed, leading to better overall efficiency.

Samsung Electro-mechanics has now incorporated the QTC into the navigation switch familiar on smartphones – in addition to the up, down, left, right and centre button, the up and down functions are pressure-sensitive.

This is useful for scrolling more or less quickly through, for example, a long list of emails.

"That same model can be used in many other ways, like in games: to control how hard I want to jump or run for example," said Peratech’s chief executive Philip Taysom.

"Electronics are being given the ability to sense something that we take for granted, which is how much we’re touching and applying force," he told BBC News.

Further applications that Peratech is involved with include robotics. While much work has gone into giving robots sensitivity to pressure and touch in their fingers, Mr Taysom said there can now be a push to create robots whose whole surface – rather like humans themselves – is pressure-sensitive.</p

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

By Reevel Alderson
BBC Scotland’s Home Affairs Correspondent

An inquiry is to begin to discover how many victims of human trafficking there are in Scotland.

The investigation, launched by the Equality and Human Rights Commission Scotland (EHRC) will be chaired by Baroness Helena Kennedy QC.

It will also report on whether the Scottish government is meeting its international obligations to protect victims.

But police have found hard facts about trafficking difficult to establish.

The inquiry, which will report late next year, will take written and oral evidence from around Scotland in an attempt to identify the extent of human trafficking.

It will particularly focus on women brought to Scotland to work in the sex industry.

Baroness Kennedy said: "This inquiry is about making a reality of people’s human rights and serving those whose rights have been violated.

"There have been no convictions for trafficking offences in Scotland compared to more than 100 convictions in the rest of the UK"

Morag Alexander
EHRC Scotland Commissioner

"We will consider whether recommendations on prevention, prohibition, prosecution and protection are necessary – and ensure human rights are at the centre of Scotland’s anti-trafficking policy and practice.

"It is impressive that Scotland is taking the lead on this issue by holding an inquiry."

The commission said that although the problem was not unique to Scotland, co-operation between agencies and organisations working in the area made it easier to study.

Morag Alexander, EHRC Scotland commissioner, said human trafficking was one of the most extreme abuses of human rights.

"There is a suspicion that Scotland has a disproportionate share of the human trafficking trade, and some have expressed concern that there have been no convictions for trafficking offences in Scotland compared to more than 100 convictions in the rest of the UK," she said.

"This inquiry will examine whether these concerns are well founded."

Reluctant witnesses

But Graeme Pearson, former head of the Scottish Crime and Drugs Enforcement Agency (SCDEA), said that when police investigated anecdotal evidence of sex-trade trafficking, they found very few victims.

"The evidence is very thin on the ground," he told BBC Scotland.

"A lot of claims made by special interest groups and voluntary organisations is anecdotal, and when police drill down they find very little hard evidence."

He said that even when there had been arrests, it was difficult to secure convictions in the courts, often because witnesses were reluctant to give evidence.

The inquiry will also look at whether trafficking for sexual exploitation is treated merely as an asylum and immigration matter or a human rights issue.

Recent decisions in the European Court have made it clear governments must be proactive in dealing with human trafficking to ensure the protection of victims.</p

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

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Michael Jackson’s former doctor has been charged with involuntary manslaughter by prosecutors in Los Angeles, it has been confirmed.

Dr Conrad Murray is expected to deny the charges in court later. He faces up to four years in prison if convicted.

Photographers and news cameras have begun to gather at the Los Angeles International Airport Courthouse in anticipation of his appearance.

Jackson died at his home last June at the age of 50.

His death was ruled as homicide, mainly caused by the anaesthetic Propofol.

A cocktail of drugs – including sedatives Midazolam and Diazepam, the painkiller Lidocaine and the stimulant Ephedrine – were also detected in his body, a coroner confirmed.

The prosecutors allege that Dr Murray "did unlawfully, and without malice, kill Michael Joseph Jackson".

Members of Michael Jackson’s family have gone to the court where Dr Murray is expected to arrive shortly.

Legal fight

Dr Murray had been hired to be Jackson’s personal physician last spring as the singer prepared for his comeback concerts in London.

"We’ll make bail, we’ll plead not guilty and we’ll fight like hell"

Ed Chernoff
Lawyer for Dr Conrad Murray

Profile: Dr Conrad Murray

He told police he had been giving Jackson Propofol as part of his treatment for insomnia, according to an affidavit made public in August.

But he has always maintained he did not prescribe nor administer anything that should have killed the singer.

After a week of speculation over the manslaughter charge, Dr Murray had been expected to surrender to authorities last Friday.

But a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles district attorney said the office had decided to delay action until Monday.

The statement came after several days of negotiations, where Dr Murray’s lawyers tried to arrange for him to surrender to prosecutors in an attempt to avoid him being handcuffed and arrested.

Speaking before the charges were filed, the physician’s defence lawyer, Ed Chernoff, said the doctor was prepared for the legal battle ahead.

"We’ll make bail, we’ll plead not guilty and we’ll fight like hell," he said.</p

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Michael Jackson’s former doctor has been charged with involuntary manslaughter by prosecutors in Los Angeles, it has been confirmed.

Dr Conrad Murray is expected to deny the charges in court later. He faces up to four years in prison if convicted.

Photographers and news cameras have begun to gather at the Los Angeles International Airport Courthouse in anticipation of his appearance.

Jackson died at his home last June at the age of 50.

His death was ruled as homicide, mainly caused by the anaesthetic Propofol.

A cocktail of drugs – including sedatives Midazolam and Diazepam, the painkiller Lidocaine and the stimulant Ephedrine – were also detected in his body, a coroner confirmed.

The prosecutors allege that Dr Murray "did unlawfully, and without malice, kill Michael Joseph Jackson".

Members of Michael Jackson’s family have gone to the court where Dr Murray is expected to arrive shortly.

Legal fight

Dr Murray had been hired to be Jackson’s personal physician last spring as the singer prepared for his comeback concerts in London.

"We’ll make bail, we’ll plead not guilty and we’ll fight like hell"

Ed Chernoff
Lawyer for Dr Conrad Murray

Profile: Dr Conrad Murray

He told police he had been giving Jackson Propofol as part of his treatment for insomnia, according to an affidavit made public in August.

But he has always maintained he did not prescribe nor administer anything that should have killed the singer.

After a week of speculation over the manslaughter charge, Dr Murray had been expected to surrender to authorities last Friday.

But a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles district attorney said the office had decided to delay action until Monday.

The statement came after several days of negotiations, where Dr Murray’s lawyers tried to arrange for him to surrender to prosecutors in an attempt to avoid him being handcuffed and arrested.

Speaking before the charges were filed, the physician’s defence lawyer, Ed Chernoff, said the doctor was prepared for the legal battle ahead.

"We’ll make bail, we’ll plead not guilty and we’ll fight like hell," he said.</p

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.