Spooks want govt to block out Skype

Intelligence agencies have asked the government to consider blocking Skype as operators of the popular global VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) engine are refusing to share the encryption code that prevents Indian investigators from intercepting conversations of suspected terrorists.

    The Cabinet Committee on Security has accepted in principle the recommendation but has not set a date for initiating action. The urgency to track Skype calls stems from the fact that terrorists — as the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai showed — are increasingly using VoIP services. The shift to VoIP has been prompted by the growing ability of intelligence agencies to intercept mobile and other calls.
    Like the BlackBerry service, VoIP operators send their signals under a specific code which makes it difficult for others to decipher. Sources said Skype has shared its encryption code with the US, China and other governments but is refusing to accept similar Indian requests.
    Since Skype is not registered here, Indian authorities have been forced to mull the drastic option of blocking its gateways here. This, however, may not be entirely effective as Skype can route traffic through other service providers. The agencies say blocking the gateways will at least serve as a signal to local service providers against carrying traffic from Skype or any other similar service provider who does not share the encryption code with the government.
    Sections 4 and 5 of the Telegraph Act gives government the right to grant licence for any kind of telephony and also the right to intercept. Last year, government amended Section 69 of the Information Technology Act to empower itself to take over servers of Net and telecom service providers and demand the encryption code. This may still be no remedy against recalcitrant overseas service providers who usually have their servers abroad.
    Last year, the government had a similar run-in with Canada’s Research in Motion, BlackBerry makers and service providers, and the UAE-based satphone operator Thuraya.
VoIP Decoded
Analog voice signals (the kind heard on phone) are converted to digital format, compressed into IP packets and transmitted over Internet For this, VoIP systems employ audio codecs (programs) which encode speech as digital audio VoIP thus turns a standard Internet connection into a way to place free phone calls, bypassing phone network
sourcr:timesofindia

90-year-young Cong veteran gets poll ticket

 Five years ago, when Satgonda Revgonda Patil knocked on the doors of the Congress for a ticket from the Shirol assembly constituency in Kolhapur district, he was politely told that he was too old to make the cut. Patil was then 85.

    A month ago, the farmer, now 90, made a fresh attempt. This time, not only was he offered a ticket, he got what was tantamount to a red carpet welcome. So what had changed between 2004 and 2009? Ironically enough, the presence of a newly minted, youth-promoting politician called Rahul Gandhi.
source:timesofindia

Typhoon Ketsana (Ondoy)

 

 

source:boston

Fernando Alonso

Renault Formula One driver Fernando Alonso, left, of Spain signs his autograph at the paddock of the Suzuka Circuit in Suzuka, central Japan, Thursday, Oct. 1, 2009. The Japanese Grand Prix is scheduled for Sunday, Oct. 4.

Indira Gandhi Peace Prize

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Mohamed ElBaradei (R) receives the Indira Gandhi Peace Prize from India's President Pratibha Patil during a ceremony at the presidential palace in New Delhi September 30, 2009. Iran broke a transparency law of the U.N. nuclear watchdog by failing to disclose much earlier a nuclear plant being built for uranium enrichment, ElBaradei said in a televised interview.

Jurassic Jewels: Hundreds of dino eggs found in Tamil Nadu

Geologists in Tamil Nadu have stumbled upon a Jurassic treasure trove buried in the sands of a river bed. Sheer luck led them to hundreds of fossilized dinosaur eggs, perhaps 65 million years old, underneath a stream in a tiny village in Ariyalur district.

    Researchers from the Salem-based Periyar University found clusters of eggs of what they believe to be the most aggressive Carnosaur and the docile, leaf-eating Sauropod at Sendurai village.While Carnosaurs were large predatory dinasaurs, Sauropods were long-necked, herbivores which grew to enormous heights and sizes.

    That dinosaurs once roamed the area was known from the fossils found there on earlier expeditions. But this is the first time that hundreds of nests embedded with hundreds of clusters of dinosaur eggs have been unearthed in the district.

    Located on the highway between Chennai and Tiruchi, the Ariyalur and the neighbouring Perambalur geological sites nestle in the northern plains of the Cauvery river. The place is a veritable museum of ancient organisms, dating back to 140 million years. Ever since a British couple—the Wines—collected 32 boxes of “strange stone objects’’ in 1843, the Ariyalur region has drawn geologists from across the world for its rich fossil presence and diversity. Scientists have found the tiniest marine algae or the nano fossils besides the rare shell-like bivalve, gastropoda, telecypoda and brachiopoda in the geological sites spread across 950 sq km in Ariyalur and Perambalur districts.

    “We found several clusters of spherical eggs of dinosaurs.Each cluster contained eight eggs,’’ says Dr M U Ramkumar, geology lecturer at Periyar University. The eggs were 13-20 cm in diameter and were lying in sandy nests which were of the size of 1.25 metres.

    In the 1860s, a British geologist first recorded the presence of bone remains of dinosaurs in Ariyalur. Over a century and a half later, the egg of a dinosaur was found in a cement factory. Volcano may have wiped out dinos
source:timesofindia

60th China anniversary

China's President Hu Jintao stands on a limousine to inspect the military parade near Tiananmen Gate at celebrations to mark the 60th China anniversary in Beijing, China, Thursday, Oct. 1, 2009. China celebrated its rise to a world power over 60 years of Communist rule Thursday, staging its biggest-ever parade of military hardware with over 100,000 marching masses in a display that stirred patriotism and some unease. (AP Photo)