Space telescope spots odd new solar system

WASHINGTON: Astronomers have spotted a strange new solar system with small "puffy" planets packed in close orbit to their sun.

And an orbiting space telescope has pointed scientists to more than 1,200 other possible exoplanets -- planets outside our own solar system -- the space agency NASA said on Wednesday.

The solar system discovery, published in the journal Nature, is mystifying astronomers for the time being and illustrates just how much variety is possible in the universe.

The team at NASA and a range of universities has named the system Kepler-11, after the orbiting Kepler space telescope that spotted it.

"One of the most striking features about the Kepler-11 system is how close the orbits of the planets are to one another," they wrote in their report.

The star resembles Earth's own sun. But five of the planets orbiting it are packed into a space equivalent to the distance between Mercury and Venus in our own solar system.

And they are bigger and puffier than the rocky inner planets of our solar system, Earth, Venus, Mars and Mercury, the scientists said. However, they are some of the smallest exoplanets ever seen.

"They are much more closely packed ... than any other planetary systems known, including our own," said Jack Lissauer, a scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center in California.

"It is clear that such planets need not resemble the Earth in any way," Jonathan Fortney of the University of California, Santa Cruz, added in a telephone briefing. "The low-mass planets in the Kepler-11 system appear to be more like small Neptunes than giant Earths."

Neptune, Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus are the giant gassy planets that orbit beyond Mars.

LOOKING FOR LIFE

Astronomers have now found more than 500 exoplanets. Most are giant, because they are so far away that only the biggest are detectable.

Kepler, launched in March 2009, is measuring the light from 150,000 stars in the constellations Cygnus and Lyrae. The hope is to find planets about the size and composition of Earth, inside the so-called habitable zone, where it is warm enough for liquid water to exist but not too hot for life.

"We have found over twelve hundred candidate planets -- that's more than all the people have found so far in history," William Borucki of Ames Research Center told a separate news briefing.

"Now, these are candidates, but most of them, I'm convinced, will be confirmed as planets in the coming months and years."

No telescope is powerful enough to directly visualize a planet orbiting another star. Instead, scientists use indirect means to find them.

Kepler measures the light coming from a star. A planet passing in front of the star as it orbits will dim this light just slightly. The researchers can then compute the planet's size and how quickly it is orbiting from this information.

In the latest discovery, the flickering light suggests a system of at least six planets, spinning rapidly around the star. One is orbiting farther out than the other five but they all appear to be made mostly of gas and orbiting in a very flat, circular plane.

Chaos as pro-, anti-Mubarak protesters clash

CAIRO: Supporters of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak clashed violently with opposition protesters on Wednesday after storming their rally in central Cairo, with at least 26 people hurt, witnesses said.

Partisans from both sides threw stones and set on each other with sticks and fists in Tahrir Square, the epicentre of anti-regime demonstrations, a day after the embattled president rejected demands to step down and vowed to stay on to the end of his term.

Fighting took place around army tanks deployed in the square, with stones bouncing off the armour, resultantly, at least 10 people were injured in the first fighting.

Soldiers took cover from the projectiles, and the windows of at least one army truck were broken. Some troops stood on tanks and appealed for calm but did not otherwise intervene.

The clashes occurred just hours after the army urged people to go home and allow a return to normality.

Amid the chaos, Mubarak partisans charged in on camel and horseback.

At least six riders were dragged from their beasts, beaten with sticks and taken away with blood streaming down their faces.

One of them was dragged away unconscious, with large blood stains on the ground at the site of the clash.

Elsewhere, an angry crowd of anti-Mubarak protesters beat at least 10 pro-regime demonstrators with sticks, a second correspondent added.

The worst of the fighting was just outside the world famous Egyptian Museum, which was targeted by vandals last week.

Three opposition groups said in a statement that "members of security forces dressed in plain clothes and a number of thugs have stormed Tahrir Square."

The renewed violence comes despite calls by close ally the United States and other nations for Egyptian authorities to allow anti-government protests to proceed peacefully, with both sides exercising restraint.

Ahmadinejad predicts oil at $150 a barrel

TEHRAN: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad predicted that the price of crude oil will increase in future to $150 a barrel due to "political circumstances" and not market factors.

"The political circumstances are deciding the prices ... not the market ones," Ahmadinejad whose nation is the current president of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) told reporters at a news conference.

"You asked me if I think the prices will increase? Yes the price of oil will increase. I think in a time frame it can reach around 150 dollars (a barrel)," he said without elaborating.

Iran is OPEC's second largest oil exporter.

President Obama on Death of Osama bin Laden

President Obama praises those Americans who carried out the operation to kill Osama bin Laden, tells the families of the victims of September 11, 2001 that they have never been forgotten, and calls on Americans to remember the unity of that tragic day.

FIA gets new boss

ISLAMABAD: Inspector General Police Balochistan Malik Muhammad Iqbal has been appointed Director General of Federal Investigating Agency (FIA) after Waseem Ahmed resigned from the post, Geo News reported.

Earlier, Waseem Ahmad sent his resignation to the prime minister who was in London on a private visit.

Waseem Ahmed has come under severe criticism from the Supreme Court over his performance. In his resignation letter he said: "Some very unusual circumstances emerged between the two state situations, the SC was asking me to quit while the government was insisting to continue".

Angelina visits Tunisian-Libyan border

TUNIS: The U.S. actress Angelina Jolie on Tuesday visited the Choucha camp on the Tunisian-Libyan border as a goodwill ambassador for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the official TAP news agency reported.

She was warmly greeted by refugees of various nationalities when walking through the camp, said TAP.

The actress thanked the Tunisian authorities for their generosity towards the refugees, saying that the current situation calls for the intervention of all parties with a view to alleviate their suffering and make this tragedy known throughout the world.

‘Artificial pancreas’ shows promise in pregnancy

‘Artificial pancreas’ shows promise in pregnancy

LONDON: Scientists have shown how an "artificial pancreas" can help pregnant women with type 1 diabetes and say their finding could significantly reduce cases of stillbirth and death among diabetic expectant mothers.

British researchers used a so-called "closed-loop insulin delivery system" or artificial pancreas, in 10 pregnant women with Type 1 diabetes and found it provided the right amount of insulin at the right time, maintained near normal blood sugar, and prevented dangerous drops in blood sugar levels at night.

"To discover an artificial pancreas can help maintain near-normal glucose levels in these women is very promising," said Helen Murphy of Cambridge University, who led the study.

The experimental artificial pancreas was created by combining a continuous glucose monitor, or CGM, with an insulin pump, both of which are already used separately by many people with type 1 diabetes.

Previous trials in children with the condition found that using an artificial pancreas system at night improved blood glucose control and reduced hypoglycaemia -- when the level of glucose in the blood falls too low.

The bodies of type 1 diabetes sufferers become unable to properly break down sugar and if untreated, bloodvessels and nerves are destroyed, organs fail and patients can die.

Pregnancy can be particularly risky for women with diabetes as hormonal changes make it very difficult to keep blood glucose levels within a safe range, especially at night.

As a result of high blood glucose levels, babies of women with diabetes are five times as likely to be stillborn, three times as likely to die in their first months of life and twice as likely to have a major deformity, the researchers said.

Data from previous studies suggest that pregnant women with type 1 diabetes spend an average of ten hours a day with glucose levels outside recommended targets, said Murphy, whose findings were published in thejournal Diabetes Care.

This increases the risk of birth defects, stillbirth, neonatal death, preterm delivery, oversized babies and other complications.

Type 1 diabetes, an autoimmune disease in which the body destroys its own ability to make insulin, accounts for around 10 percent of all people with diabetes. The more common type 2 diabetes is often linked to bad diet and lack of exercise.

Iain Frame, director of research at the charity Diabetes UK, which part-funded the study, said that although it was a small and early stage trial, the results were encouraging.

"It's a fantastic example of how existing technologies...can be adapted and developed to benefit as many people with diabetes as possible," he said in a statement.

The researchers said more studies were now needed on larger numbers of women to validate their findings, and to see if the system could be developed for use outside of a hospital.

Film and Stage Actress Anjuman Shahzadi Passes away

A Famous Pakistani Film and Stage Actress Anjuman Shahzadi Passes away
Lahore: A Famous Pakistani film and stage drama actress Anjuman Shehzadi no more alive at the age of 38. According to news she was ill and admitted to the hospital one day ago.
According to the doctors she died due to the lungs disease and due to the high level of sugar. Anjuman Shehzadi belongs to Multan and during the last 10 years she started her film careers and plays a many roles.