Indian rocket carrying navigation satellite blasts off

SRIHARIKOTA, AP: An Indian rocket carrying the country's second navigation satellite - IRNSS-1B - Friday blasted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre here in Andhra Pradesh.

Exactly at 5.14 p.m., the rocket - Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle-C24 (PSLV-C24) standing around 44.4 metres tall and weighing around 320 tonnes - tore into the evening sky with orange flames fiercely burning at its tail. The space centre is around 80 km north of Chennai.

Space scientists and other invitees at Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) rocket mission control room intently watched the rocket's progress as it escaped the earth's gravitational pull.

ISRO officials are hoping that the agency's crucial space mission will turn out to be a grand success.

The rocket is expected to sling its only luggage, the 1,432 kg IRNSS-1B (Indian Regional Navigational Satellite System), into the space around 20 minutes after the blast-off.

India is expected to have its own satellite navigation system with four satellites in the space before the end of this year, ISRO chairman K.Radhakrishnan told IANS earlier.

According to Radhakrishnan, though the IRNSS is a seven-satellite system, it could be made operational with four satellites. The two more navigation satellites will be launched during the second half of 2014. The first one - IRNSS-1A - was launched July 2013.

India began its space journey in 1975 with the launch of Aryabhatta using a Russian rocket and till date, it has completed over 100 space missions, including missions to the moon and Mars.

Indian rocket carrying navigation satellite blasts off

SRIHARIKOTA, AP: An Indian rocket carrying the country's second navigation satellite - IRNSS-1B - Friday blasted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre here in Andhra Pradesh.

Exactly at 5.14 p.m., the rocket - Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle-C24 (PSLV-C24) standing around 44.4 metres tall and weighing around 320 tonnes - tore into the evening sky with orange flames fiercely burning at its tail. The space centre is around 80 km north of Chennai.

Space scientists and other invitees at Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) rocket mission control room intently watched the rocket's progress as it escaped the earth's gravitational pull.

ISRO officials are hoping that the agency's crucial space mission will turn out to be a grand success.

The rocket is expected to sling its only luggage, the 1,432 kg IRNSS-1B (Indian Regional Navigational Satellite System), into the space around 20 minutes after the blast-off.

India is expected to have its own satellite navigation system with four satellites in the space before the end of this year, ISRO chairman K.Radhakrishnan told IANS earlier.

According to Radhakrishnan, though the IRNSS is a seven-satellite system, it could be made operational with four satellites. The two more navigation satellites will be launched during the second half of 2014. The first one - IRNSS-1A - was launched July 2013.

India began its space journey in 1975 with the launch of Aryabhatta using a Russian rocket and till date, it has completed over 100 space missions, including missions to the moon and Mars.

Malaysian PM in Perth, Australia says search to continue

Perth: The hunt for the crashed Flight MH370 is the most difficult in human history and there is no guarantee that it would be found, Australia said today as Malaysian Premier Najib Razak visited a military base here coordinating multinational search operations for the wreckage.

'We cannot be certain of ultimate success in the search for MH370,' Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said at a
news briefing, standing alongside Najib.

'This is most probably the most difficult search ever undertaken ... but I can assure people that the best brains in
the world are working on this,' he said.

'But we can be certain that we will spare no effort -- that we will not rest -- until we have done everything we humanly can.'

Najib, whose government has come under fire for their handling of the disaster, met search crews at Pearce RAAF
base, before their planes left for today's search in the southern Indian Ocean.

'I'm very confident we will indeed show what we can do together as a group of nations; that we want to find answers,
that we want to provide comfort to the families and we will not rest until answers are indeed found,' Najib said.

Najib thanked Australia and officials involved in search operations of the missing Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200
that mysteriously disappeared from radar screens on March 8 with 239 people, including five Indians, on board.

The two leaders were also updated on the search operations at the air base while meeting thepersonnel coordinating the search.

Former Defence Force head Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, who is coordinating the search, told the two leaders
that the search zones are continually being moved. 'I want to assure you Australia is doing everything it can,' Houston, who is leading the new Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) for the search, told Najib.

'This is one of the most demanding and challenging search and rescue operations, or search and recovery operations, that
I have ever seen and I think probably one of the most complex operations of its nature that the world has ever seen,'
Houston told Najib and Abbott.

Up to eight planes and nine ships were involved in the today's search for the missing plane.

Australian Maritime Safety Authority has determined a search area of about 223,000 square kilometres, 1680
kilometres west north-west of Perth. PTI

Malaysian PM in Perth, Australia says search to continue

Perth: The hunt for the crashed Flight MH370 is the most difficult in human history and there is no guarantee that it would be found, Australia said today as Malaysian Premier Najib Razak visited a military base here coordinating multinational search operations for the wreckage.

'We cannot be certain of ultimate success in the search for MH370,' Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said at a
news briefing, standing alongside Najib.

'This is most probably the most difficult search ever undertaken ... but I can assure people that the best brains in
the world are working on this,' he said.

'But we can be certain that we will spare no effort -- that we will not rest -- until we have done everything we humanly can.'

Najib, whose government has come under fire for their handling of the disaster, met search crews at Pearce RAAF
base, before their planes left for today's search in the southern Indian Ocean.

'I'm very confident we will indeed show what we can do together as a group of nations; that we want to find answers,
that we want to provide comfort to the families and we will not rest until answers are indeed found,' Najib said.

Najib thanked Australia and officials involved in search operations of the missing Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200
that mysteriously disappeared from radar screens on March 8 with 239 people, including five Indians, on board.

The two leaders were also updated on the search operations at the air base while meeting thepersonnel coordinating the search.

Former Defence Force head Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, who is coordinating the search, told the two leaders
that the search zones are continually being moved. 'I want to assure you Australia is doing everything it can,' Houston, who is leading the new Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) for the search, told Najib.

'This is one of the most demanding and challenging search and rescue operations, or search and recovery operations, that
I have ever seen and I think probably one of the most complex operations of its nature that the world has ever seen,'
Houston told Najib and Abbott.

Up to eight planes and nine ships were involved in the today's search for the missing plane.

Australian Maritime Safety Authority has determined a search area of about 223,000 square kilometres, 1680
kilometres west north-west of Perth. PTI

Aligarh students extract bio-diesel from used mustard oil

Aligarh : A group of engineering students from Aligarh Muslim University have succeeded in extracting bio-diesel from refined and used mustard oil, university officials said Tuesday.

Third-year students of the Diploma in Engineering at the AMU Polytechnic designed a bio-diesel extraction plant as part of the recently developed Alternative Fuel and Combustion Engineering Lab, said M. Yunus Khan, assistant professor of mechanical engineering.

The process can help in directly replacing diesel in conventional engines, thereby reducing India's dependence on imported oil and emissions of various pollutants, officials said.

Bio-diesel is a renewable fuel derived from vegetable oil that can be an additive to or entirely replace diesel in engines.

Aligarh students extract bio-diesel from used mustard oil

Aligarh : A group of engineering students from Aligarh Muslim University have succeeded in extracting bio-diesel from refined and used mustard oil, university officials said Tuesday.

Third-year students of the Diploma in Engineering at the AMU Polytechnic designed a bio-diesel extraction plant as part of the recently developed Alternative Fuel and Combustion Engineering Lab, said M. Yunus Khan, assistant professor of mechanical engineering.

The process can help in directly replacing diesel in conventional engines, thereby reducing India's dependence on imported oil and emissions of various pollutants, officials said.

Bio-diesel is a renewable fuel derived from vegetable oil that can be an additive to or entirely replace diesel in engines.

Malaysia narrows criminal probe to crew of missing flight: Report

KUALA LUMPURL: Malaysia is focusing its criminal investigation on the cabin crew and pilots of a missing Malaysia Airlines plane, after clearing all 227 passengers of any involvement, the country's police chief was reported as saying on Wednesday.

National police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said the passengers had been cleared of possible involvement in hijacking, sabotage or having personal or psychological problems that could have been connected to the flight's disappearance on March 8.

'They have been cleared of the four,' he was quoted as saying by state news agency Bernama.

Khalid could not be reached by Reuters for comment and the country's home minister declined to confirm the report.

Malaysian authorities have still not ruled out mechanical problems as causing the disappearance, but say evidence suggests the plane was deliberately diverted from its scheduled route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Investigators believe that someone with detailed knowledge of both the Boeing 777-200ER and commercial aviation navigation switched off the plane's communications systems before diverting it thousands of miles off its scheduled course.

That has turned the focus of investigations onto the two pilots, 53-year-old captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah and his co-pilot, 27-year old Fariq Abdul Hamid.

But the police say their investigation into the men has failed to turn up any red flags. The FBI helped Malaysian authorities analyse data from Zaharie's personal flight simulator but found nothing suspicious.

Search teams in the southern Indian Ocean are in a race against time to locate the plane's black box recorder, which has an expected battery life of around 30 days and may well contain the key to understanding the plane's mysterious disappearance.

'We are focusing on the pilots but we can't get much clarity until we have the black box,' one senior police source told Reuters.

Malaysia narrows criminal probe to crew of missing flight: Report

KUALA LUMPURL: Malaysia is focusing its criminal investigation on the cabin crew and pilots of a missing Malaysia Airlines plane, after clearing all 227 passengers of any involvement, the country's police chief was reported as saying on Wednesday.

National police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said the passengers had been cleared of possible involvement in hijacking, sabotage or having personal or psychological problems that could have been connected to the flight's disappearance on March 8.

'They have been cleared of the four,' he was quoted as saying by state news agency Bernama.

Khalid could not be reached by Reuters for comment and the country's home minister declined to confirm the report.

Malaysian authorities have still not ruled out mechanical problems as causing the disappearance, but say evidence suggests the plane was deliberately diverted from its scheduled route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Investigators believe that someone with detailed knowledge of both the Boeing 777-200ER and commercial aviation navigation switched off the plane's communications systems before diverting it thousands of miles off its scheduled course.

That has turned the focus of investigations onto the two pilots, 53-year-old captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah and his co-pilot, 27-year old Fariq Abdul Hamid.

But the police say their investigation into the men has failed to turn up any red flags. The FBI helped Malaysian authorities analyse data from Zaharie's personal flight simulator but found nothing suspicious.

Search teams in the southern Indian Ocean are in a race against time to locate the plane's black box recorder, which has an expected battery life of around 30 days and may well contain the key to understanding the plane's mysterious disappearance.

'We are focusing on the pilots but we can't get much clarity until we have the black box,' one senior police source told Reuters.

Anti-anxiety drugs, sleeping pills may cause death?

London: If you often pop up anti-anxiety and sleeping pills, beware! A research from the University of Warwick has found that these are linked to an increased risk of death.

The study shows that several anxiolytic (anti-anxiety) drugs or hypnotic drugs (sleeping pills) are associated with doubling the risk of mortality.

Although these findings are based on routine data and need to be interpreted cautiously, the researchers recommended that a greater understanding of their impact is essential.

Scott Weich, professor of Psychiatry at the University of Warwick, explained: 'The key message here is that we really do have to use these drugs more carefully. This builds on a growing body of evidence suggesting that their side effects are significant and dangerous. We have to do everything possible to minimise over reliance on anxiolytics and sleeping pills.'

The study accounted for other factors such as age, smoking and alcohol use, other prescriptions and socioeconomic status.

The study, published in the journal BMJ, tracked 34,727 people for seven-and-a-half years on average from the time that they first received prescriptions for either an anxiolytic or hypnotic drug.

Benzodiazepines were the most commonly prescribed drug class, including diazepam and temazepam.

The study also examined the effects of two other groups of drugs; the so-called 'Z-drugs' and all other anxiolytic and hypnotic drugs.

Many patients received more than one drug over the course of the study, and five percent received prescriptions for drugs from all three groups.
IANS

Anti-anxiety drugs, sleeping pills may cause death?

London: If you often pop up anti-anxiety and sleeping pills, beware! A research from the University of Warwick has found that these are linked to an increased risk of death.

The study shows that several anxiolytic (anti-anxiety) drugs or hypnotic drugs (sleeping pills) are associated with doubling the risk of mortality.

Although these findings are based on routine data and need to be interpreted cautiously, the researchers recommended that a greater understanding of their impact is essential.

Scott Weich, professor of Psychiatry at the University of Warwick, explained: 'The key message here is that we really do have to use these drugs more carefully. This builds on a growing body of evidence suggesting that their side effects are significant and dangerous. We have to do everything possible to minimise over reliance on anxiolytics and sleeping pills.'

The study accounted for other factors such as age, smoking and alcohol use, other prescriptions and socioeconomic status.

The study, published in the journal BMJ, tracked 34,727 people for seven-and-a-half years on average from the time that they first received prescriptions for either an anxiolytic or hypnotic drug.

Benzodiazepines were the most commonly prescribed drug class, including diazepam and temazepam.

The study also examined the effects of two other groups of drugs; the so-called 'Z-drugs' and all other anxiolytic and hypnotic drugs.

Many patients received more than one drug over the course of the study, and five percent received prescriptions for drugs from all three groups.
IANS