Mind Soup

PC WORLD : Saudi Arabia has ordered the suspension of Research in Motion's BlackBerry service as of Friday, as it does not meet current regulations, according to the country's telecommunications regulator. The suspension will cover all services, including e-mail and instant messaging, said an official from the Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC), who requested not to be named. He did not specify what were the current local regulations that BlackBerry did not comply with. The CITC has meanwhile instructed three mobile service providers in the kingdom to discontinue the BlackBerry service, the official said. These are Etihad Etisalat, which uses the brand name Mobily, Saudi Telecom Company (STC) and Zain Saudi Arabia. The operators had been asked over a year ago to ensure that the BlackBerry service complied with local rules, he said. RIM's BlackBerry service has come under scrutiny from regulators in other countries as well. BlackBerry's s...

MIND SOUP :  India's Minister for Human Resource Development Kapil Sibal unveiled on Thursday a prototype tablet computer which is expected to revolutionize the computer industry. Indian minister holding the device. (Photo Credits: AFP) Five years in development, this prototype was produced by a student project with a bill of material adding up to $47, a price that the minister wants to bring down to $35. This device may have primitive features, but for a price like that, it promises to increase the competition on computer production between the major companies. This prototype promises a Linux -based operating system with an internet browser, PDF reader, wi-fi, 2GB RAM, USB slots, video conferencing, Open Office (the free version of Microsoft 's Office) and multimedia content viewers and interfaces. However, this device does not include a hard disk or a storage system. Files will be stored on removable memory cards, just like mobile phones and digital...

AFP:  Manchester United 's fans in Malaysia erupted in astonishment and anger on social media Thursday after clerics warned Muslims against wearing the team's famous jersey with its "devil" emblem. Manchester United and the rest of the English Premier League are hugely popular in Muslim-majority Malaysia, where conservative religious leaders said the jersey was un-Islamic and should be banned. Social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook were flooded with comments from fans in the Southeast Asian nation. "Maybe the religious leaders are just fans of Liverpool?" quipped one supporter on Twitter. "Why this become an issue after Manchester United has won the title for 11 times? They haven't been watching the matches all this while?" said Sharifah Shahidah, a die-hard Manchester United fan of two-decades standing. "What am I gonna do with all my Man Utd jerseys? And my sons' jerseys?" Sharifah, a Muslim mother of two a...

The sun is reduced to a ring of gold against the black sky as the Moon slips between it and Earth. This solar eclipse yesterday lasted for 11 minutes and eight seconds, setting a record that will not be beaten until December 23, 3043. A Chinese couple watches the solar eclipse over Zhengzhou, in the country's central Henan province The skies over Hongdao, China, where the spectacular 'ring of fire' could be seen.  The eclipse was annular, meaning the Moon blocked most of the Sun's middle This image show a total solar eclipse which passed over Europe and the Middle East, and into India.  The Moon's umbra can be clearly seen as a black disc, approximately 63 miles across Such events, which only blot out the middle of the Sun, are known as annular eclipses. They occur about 66 times a century and can only be viewed in the narrow band on the Earth’s surface below their path. Yesterday’s light show began in Africa before crossing the Indian Ocea...

The world's tallest building has been opened with a dramatic fireworks ceremony in the Gulf emirate of Dubai. The Burj Khalifa was revealed to be 828m (2,716ft) high, far taller than the previous record holder, Taipei 101. Known as the Burj Dubai during construction, the tower has been renamed after the leader of Dubai's oil-rich neighbour, Abu Dhabi. Last month, Abu Dhabi gave Dubai a handout of $10bn (£6.13bn) to help it pay off its debts. Construction of the Burj Dubai began in 2004, at the height of an economic boom. Clad in 28,000 glass panels, the tower has 160 floors and more than 500,000 sq m of space for offices and flats. The tower also lays claim to the highest occupied floor, the tallest service lift, and the world's highest observation deck - on the 124th floor. The world's highest mosque and swimming pool will meanwhile be located on the 158th and 76th floors. Technical challenges The opening ceremony, held 1,325 days after excavation wo...

If you feel like laughing your ass off, watch this :P

School buses in Japan School buses in India Can you spot the difference?

The difference between the poor countries and the rich ones is not the age of the country. الفرق بين البلدان الفقيرة والغنية لا يعود إلى قدمها في التاريخ This can be shown by countries like India & Egypt, that are more than 2000 years old and are poor. فمصر والهند يفوق عمرها 2000 عام وهي فقيرة On the other hand, Canada, Australia & New Zealand, that 150 years ago were inexpressive, today are developed countries and are rich. أما كندا واستراليا ونيوزيلندا لم تكن موجودة قبل 150 سنة بالرغم من ذلك هي دول متطورة وغنية. ولا يمكن رد فقر او غنى الدول إلى مواردها الطبيعية المتوفرة. The difference between poor & rich countries does not reside in the available natural resources. Japan has a limited territory, 80% mountainous, inadequate for agriculture & cattle raising, but it is the second world economy. The country is like an immense floating factory, importing raw material from the whole world and exporting manufactured products. لليابان مس...

Ramadan 2009 around the world - Photo Gallery On August 21st, hundreds of millions of Muslims started fasting for a month. They started to abstain from eating or drinking from dawn to dusk. They stand for hours in prayers each night to remember their Lord and express their gratitude to Him, seek His forgiveness and aspire to come closer to Him.On September 20th, the month of Ramadan ended welcoming Eid el Fitr. Vendors selling food for breaking fast wait for their customers during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan in Jakarta August 31, 2009. Muslims around the world abstain from eating, drinking and sexual relations from sunrise to sunset during Ramadan, the holiest month in the Islamic calendar. (Reuters, Enny Nuraheni) A Muslim man rests inside a mosque as he wait for iftar (breaking fast) in Dhaka August 29, 2009. Muslims around the world abstain from eating, drinking and sexual relations from sunrise to sunset during Ramadan, the holiest month in the Islamic calendar. (Re...

Brazil, Australia, France and Italy Switzerland, Japan, Korea & Lebanon India, Greece, Vietnam & Spain

"The story of Jamal Malik, an 18 year-old orphan from the slums of Mumbai, who is about to experience the biggest day of his life. With the whole nation watching, he is just one question away from winning a staggering 20 million rupees on India's "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" But when the show breaks for the night, police arrest him on suspicion of cheating; how could a street kid know so much? Desperate to prove his innocence, Jamal tells the story of his life in the slum where he and his brother grew up, of their adventures together on the road, of vicious encounters with local gangs, and of Latika, the girl he loved and lost. Each chapter of his story reveals the key to the answer to one of the game show's questions. Each chapter of Jamal's increasingly layered story reveals where he learned the answers to the show's seemingly impossible quizzes. But one question remains a mystery: what is this young man with no apparent desire for riches really doi...

Mother Sushma holds her daughter Lali at their residence in Saini Sunpura, 50 kilometers (31 miles) east of New Delhi, India. The baby with two faces, two noses, two pairs of lips and two pairs of eyes was born on March 11 in a northern Indian village, where she is doing well and is being worshipped as the reincarnation of a Hindu goddess, her father said. (AP Photo/Gurinder Osan)