IGIHE

Category: Science &Technology

  • India to Launch 7 Satellites into Space

    {{India is set to put into orbit seven satellites in a single mission, the country’s space agency says.}}

    They include a satellite built in collaboration with France which will study the world’s oceans.

    It will carry two climate tools developed for analysing ocean current and sea surface heights by the French space agency CNES, reports say.

    The satellites will be launched from Sriharikota in southern Andhra Pradesh state later on Monday.

    The six other satellites include two each from Canada and Austria and one each from Denmark and Britain.

    This is the 23rd mission for India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) – a seven-storey-high, 230 tonne rocket.

    A rehearsal launch from Sriharikota island has been “completed satisfactorily”.

    India plans up to 10 space missions this year and announced plans for an unmanned voyage to Mars.

    In 2008 India successfully launched 10 satellites in a single mission, boosting its capabilities in space.

    The PSLV rocket has so far successfully launched over 50 satellites in space.

    Correspondents say India is emerging as a major player in the multi-billion dollar space market.

    BBC

  • Iran says it has Downed Foreign Spy Drone

    {{Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have brought down a foreign surveillance drone during a military exercise, the official Islamic Republic News Agency said on Saturday.}}

    “We have managed to bring down a drone of the enemy. This has happened before in our country,” the agency quoted war games spokesman General Hamid Sarkheli as saying in Kerman, southeast Iran, where the military exercise is taking place.

    The agency gave no details on who the drone belonged to.

    In Washington, a Pentagon spokesman said he had seen the reports. He noted that the Iranians did not specifically claim that the drone was American.

    In the past, there have been incidents of Iran claiming to have seized U.S. drones.

    In early January Iranian media said Iran had captured two miniature U.S.-made surveillance drones over the past 17 months.

    Several drone incidents over the past year or so have highlighted tension in the Gulf as Iran and the United States flex their military capabilities in a standoff over Iran’s disputed nuclear programme.

    Iran said in January that lightweight RQ11 Raven drones were brought down by Iranian air defence units in separate incidents in August 2011 and November 2012.

  • U.S. Nuclear Waste Tanks ‘Leaking’

    {{Six underground storage tanks at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation along the Columbia River in the US state of Washington have been found to be leaking radioactive waste, but there is no immediate risk to human health, state and federal officials said.}}

    “There is no immediate or near-term health risk associated with these newly discovered leaks, which are more than five miles (8km) from the Columbia River,” Governor Jay Inslee said in a statement released by his office on Saturday.

    “But nonetheless this is disturbing news for all Washingtonians,” he added.

    The seeping waste adds to decades of soil contamination caused by leaking storage tanks at Hanford in the past and threatens to further taint groundwater below the site but poses no near-term danger of polluting the Columbia River, officials said.

    “This certainly raises serious questions about the integrity of all 149 single-shell tanks with radioactive liquid and sludge at Hanford,” Inslee said.

    wirestory

  • Nyamasheke Residents Urged to Embrace ICT

    {{During the launch of ICT literacy and awareness campaign in Nyamasheke District on Friday, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Youth and ICT, Rosemary Mbabazi said that ICT speeds up development.}}

    This event attracted thousands of Nyamasheke residents and many partners in ICT sector like Telecommunication Companies, banks, public institutions and other companies working in ICT sector.

    During the event different companies demonstrated their online and SMS based services they offer to citizens.

    “We’re talking about the development of the private sector; business cannot be developed without using ICT that’s why ICT is crucial in what we do. Using ICT will help us to speed up our development in all sectors,” she noted.

    The purpose of this campaign is to drive the awareness and usage of ICT services, content and applications, to increase the ICT Literacy, educate and train the masses and businesses on the potential of ICT to drive competitiveness, efficiency, transparency as well as civic participation.

    The Mayor of Nyamasheke District, Jean Baptiste Habyarimana commends the Ministry of Youth and ICT for choosing Nyamasheke to host this special event and told the press that Nyamasheke will work hand in hand with different partners they want to develop ICT sector by providing internet connection to public institutions, schools and to business people who want to access it.

  • US Super Fighter F-35 Found Faulty

    {{The U.S. military on Friday grounded the F-35 fighter jet due to a crack in an engine component that was discovered during a routine inspection in California.}}

    The Pentagon said in a statement that it was too early to assess the impact on the fleet of jets designed for use by the Navy, Air Force and Marines.

    The nearly $400 billion Joint Strike Fighter is the Pentagon’s most expensive weapons system. It is currently being tested.

    The program has been beset by cost overruns and various technical problems during development.

    Currently, there are 51 planes in the F-35 fleet.

    CNN

  • Girls Excel in TVET Exams

    {{Out of 17,223 candidates who sat for A level technical and professional Examinations in 2012, about 15,664 candidates representing 99.95% of the total candidates passed and qualified for the award of Advanced Level Certificate in Technical and Professional Secondary Education.}}

    It was noted that there was a slight increase of 0.15% compared to the pass rate of 90.8% in 2011.

    Out of the 15,664 candidates who passed, 7,930 candidates (50.5%) are male, while 7,727 candidates (49.5%) are female.

    In 2012, out of the 17,223 candidates, 548 representing 6.2% were private candidates and among them 348 passed, which represents a pass rate of 50.3% for private.

    There is a remarkable performance of schools in rural districts including Kirehe, Gisagara, Rwamagana, Gicumbi and Kayonza.

    Rwanda Minister of Education Dr. Vincent Biruta commended this improvement seen in general performance and the increased number of female candidates who passed well in TVET examinations.

    He further told the press that there is great opportunity in TVET as regards to self employment among the entire population.

  • Ntawukuliryayo: SIM Card Registration Not For Phone Taping

    {{The Senate President has noted that resgistration of SIM Cards is not necessarily aimed at taping of phones by security Services but a prevention against criminality.}}

    Dr. Dr Jean-Damascene Ntawukuliryayo told IGIHE shortly after registering his SIM Card.

    Members of parliament both lower chambers and senate have registered their SIM Cards as required by all telecom operators to register all their subscribers.

    The registration process countrywide will continue through up to the end of June.

    Dr. Ntawukuliryayo said that they registered their SIM Cards to sensitize other citizens to be a part of the ongoing process adding that people shouldn’t be misled by false information about the program.

    He stressed that the overall objective of registering SIM Cards is not to allow Security Services to tap into people’s conversations.

    “It is rather a protection mechanism which makes it easier to track criminals,” He noted.

    SIM registration will last Six months. It started on 4th February, 2013.

  • Chinese Cyberwarriors Behind Hacking Against U.S.

    {{On the outskirts of Shanghai, in a run-down neighborhood dominated by a 12-story white office tower, sits a People’s Liberation Army base for China’s growing corps of cyberwarriors.}}

    The building off Datong Road, surrounded by restaurants, massage parlors and a wine importer, is the headquarters of P.L.A. Unit 61398.

    A growing body of digital forensic evidence — confirmed by American intelligence officials who say they have tapped into the activity of the army unit for years — leaves little doubt that an overwhelming percentage of the attacks on American corporations, organizations and government agencies originate in and around the white tower.

    An unusually detailed 60-page study, to be released Tuesday by Mandiant, an American computer security firm, tracks for the first time individual members of the most sophisticated of the Chinese hacking groups — known to many of its victims in the United States as “Comment Crew” or “Shanghai Group” — to the doorstep of the military unit’s headquarters.

    The firm was not able to place the hackers inside the 12-story building, but makes a case there is no other plausible explanation for why so many attacks come out of one comparatively small area.

    “Either they are coming from inside Unit 61398,” said Kevin Mandia, the founder and chief executive of Mandiant, in an interview last week, “or the people who run the most-controlled, most-monitored Internet networks in the world are clueless about thousands of people generating attacks from this one neighborhood.”

    Other security firms that have tracked “Comment Crew” say they also believe the group is state-sponsored, and a recent classified National Intelligence Estimate, issued as a consensus document for all 16 of the United States intelligence agencies, makes a strong case that many of these hacking groups are either run by army officers or are contractors working for commands like Unit 61398, according to officials with knowledge of its classified content.

    read more…..http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/19/technology/chinas-army-is-seen-as-tied-to-hacking-against-us.html?hp&_r=0

  • US$ 50,000 Grant to Boost Research in ICT for Healthcare

    {{Carnegie Mellon University in Rwanda (CMU-R) has been awarded a US$ 50,000 Grant from Ricoh Innovations Inc. }}

    The grant is intended to advance research on information and communication technology (ICT) for healthcare in developing countries according to the press release.

    The unrestricted grant will be used to support the research of CMU-R’s Assistant Professor Hedda.

    Schmidtke and Scholar-in-Residence Suzana Brown in the area of ICT for healthcare according to the press release that was released on February 13, 2013 by CMU-Rwanda .

    CMU‐Rwanda has identified ICT for healthcare as a principal research thrust because of the profound impact that advances in this sector can have in developing countries.

    Creative innovations that address the needs of developing countries have the potential for significant impact because of the growing demands on limited expensive medical resources.

    “We are delighted to receive this grant from RII”, stated Bruce Krogh, director of CMU-R.

    He said it makes it possible for their faculty and students to launch new research into ICT innovations that will significantly improve healthcare in developing countries like Rwanda, particularly through the use of mobile technology.

    Dr. Nikhil Balram, president and CEO of RII said that they are proud to support this important research in Rwanda.

    He went on saying that Ricoh Innovations Inc. is working to advance Open Innovation in emerging countries through collaboration between industry and researchers, yielding both technological and academic advances.

    “The research carried out by CMU- Rwanda has the potential to improve the way healthcare is delivered not only in Rwanda, but throughout the world”, said the CEO of RII.

    CMU-Rwanda began offering the Master of Science in Information Technology (MSIT) program in August 2012.

    Clement Munyentwari is one of the students in this program. He told IGIHE that he is happy of the quality of education he is getting from competent professors from USA and Germany.

    He said that all students have been given laptop computers and Android & windows phone to develop mobile applications.

    Isaac MPAGI in charge of brand and communications told IGIHE that the American based university has 25 students from Rwanda and one from Kenya.

    He said that the university will start another Master program in electrical and computer engineering in August and that 60 more students will be admitted.

  • Indian Firm Interested in Rwanda’s Biofuel Devt

    {{Rising costs of fossil fuels, land degradation, climate change and rural poverty are serious threats that have pushed Rwanda to search for alternatives towards economic development.}}

    Among initiatives there was project of producing biofuel which also reduces environmental hazardous.

    Earlier this week, Members of an Indian firm called Karnataka State Biofuel Development Board (KSBDB) have come to Rwanda to discuss biofuel spaces, capacity building, and gold mining as well as addressing challenges of high cost of fuel in Rwanda.

    The Executive Chairman of the Karnataka State Biofuel Development Board, Sri Y.B. Ramakrishna said the soaring prices of crude oil and rapid burning of fossil fuels have led Karnataka to search for eco-friendly and sustainable alternatives for fuel in Rwanda and elsewhere.

    While meeting Rwanda Minister of Agriculture Agnes Kalibata, they noted that they are not investors, but partners to Rwanda who graciously offer valuable and useful knowledge from India.

    However, Kalibata said Rwanda has a lot to share with KSBDB adding that MINAGRI will effectively help their society to adopt biofuel initiatives in Rwanda.