USI (United States Of India)

Tokyo: Pre-empting North Korean attack risk in wake of the heightened tension over Korean peninsula, Japan has deployed Patriot missiles near capital Tokyo, officials said.

Why India is the historic father of Higgs Boson project :

The discovery of a new subatomic particle, possibly the Higgs boson considered "a key to the cosmic riddle", has put the spotlight once again on Satyendra Nath Bose, the Indian Bengali scientist from whose surname the word 'boson' is derived.

"India is like a historic father of the project," said Paolo Giubellino, spokesman of the Geneva-based European Organisation for Nuclear Research (also known as CERN), which conducted the experiments to find the elusive 'God' particle.

Bose (1894-1974), a physicist from Kolkata (erstwhile Calcutta) and a contemporary of German scientist Albert Einstein, did path-breaking work on quantum mechanics in the early 1920s, using maths to describe the behavioural pattern of the bosons -- one of the two families of fundamental particles that the universe is classified into.

The other family of fundamental particles -- fermions -- is named after Italy-born American physicist Enrico Fermi.

Bose worked with Einstein in the 1920s, providing the foundation for Bose-Einstein statistics, and the Bose-Einstein condensate. He is also acknowledged as the person who laid the foundation of quantum statistics.

However, Bose never won the Nobel Prize, even though in later years the award was given several times for research on bosons.

"He laid the base though his work. He definitely deserved the Nobel Prize. Definitely," said Archan Majumdar, an astro-physicist at SN Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences here.

"However, at the same time, some kind of historical justice has also been done. His name has been immortalised in bosons," Majumder told IANS.

"And while it is always good to recognise past achievements, it does not take the sheen away from the present successes. What the CERN scientists have done is great. It's a great leap forward in the fundamental research and knowledge of human civilization," he said.

Milan Sanyal, director of Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, though delighted at the discovery, rued the fact that while the Higgs (named after British physicist Peter Higgs) in Higgs boson was in upper case, the boson was in lower case.

"I shall write to CERN on this. It is not a complaint. But I will point it out. I have already received many emails and calls on this. I don't want to shoot any letter now as they are celebrating. But I shall write to them soon," Sanyal assured IANS.

However, he said scientists of his institute had collaborated with Geneva-based European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) for the crucial Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiments.

"On 26 August last year, we signed three memoranda of understandings with CERN, one of which was on CMS," he said. Five faculty members from the institute were part of the core CMS team. "Besides, we have 10 PhD students who are part of the project," he said.

Netanyahu to Putin: Iranian nukes pose "grave danger":

BEIJING, June 26 -- Russian President Vladimir Putin is in Israel for a day-long visit, which focuses on Iran, regional situation and bilateral relations.

As it prepares for Moon and Mars missions, ISRO is planning to hive off production of communication satellites and polar satellite launch vehicles (PSLV) to the industry.

SEOUL: South Korea's Samsung Electronics, the world's largest smartphone maker, said on Monday it expects to have sold 10 million of its newest Galaxy S3 model by the end of July, two months after its launch.

Russia denies supplying gunships to Syria

LAGOS, Nigeria - Members of the Islamist sect Boko Haram stormed a prison in northern Nigeria on Sunday and freed 40 inmates, the police said, in the latest of a string of attacks by the group.

BEIJING: At least four people have been killed and over 100 others injured in the 5.7-magnitude earthquake which has struck a remote mountainous area in southwest China, leaving a trail of destruction.

Moscow: Rescue teams have located the wreckage of a Turkish jet, shot down by Syrian forces two days ago, a media report said on Sunday.

WikiLeak`s Assange seeks political asylum in Ecuador

London: In a dramatic move to block extradition to Sweden, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, on Wednesday sought sanctuary inside the Ecuadorian embassy here and applied for political asylum in the South American country.

In Ecuador capital Quito, Ecuador foreign minister Ricardo Patino told reporters: ''Ecuador is studying and analysing the request''.

Last week, Assange lost his final bid to block his extradition to Sweden to face allegations of s*x offences when Britain's Supreme Court dismissed his appeal to re-open the extradition case.

The court had ruled that Assange should not be extradited until June 28. Assange, 40, has been on conditional bail and is sought to be extradited to Sweden to face allegation of s*x offences, which he denies. His lawyers had argued before the Supreme Court that the European arrest warrant against him was ''invalid''.

Facebook buys face recognition technology startup Face.com

Facebook on Monday said it has bought a startup specializing in software that lets computers recognize people's faces in digital images.

Toronto: India is keen to accelerate economic ties with Canada as both countries are working on a number of bilateral agreements that will boost trade and investment between them, External Affairs Minister SM Krishna said on Monday.