Uzbekistan

A laboratory in the UAE has built what it says is the world’s first Arabic-speaking robot which could soon go into mass production to serve as staff in shopping malls.
Ibn Sina, named after the 11th century Islamic philosopher and scientist commonly known in English as Avicenna, was designed by a team at UAE University in the city of Al Ain, which is part of Abu Dhabi emirate.
“It is the world’s first Arabic-speaking conversational humanoid robot,” Nikolaos Mavridis, assistant professor of computer science at the university who led the team, said in an interview.
“He enables us to do research and he is also quite an educational tool because the students love to do projects on him.”

[Mod note: For preaching you may join QL Muslim Group not on the main forum]

Dear All

I thought I would wish you a pleasant and successful 2009, filled with
great dreams. My thanks to all those who have sent me emails this past
year........

I must send my thanks to whoever sent me the one about rat [Let's not get blocked by the Telco] in the glue
on envelopes because I now have to use a wet towel with every envelope that
needs sealing. Also, I now have to scrub the top of every can I open for the
same reason.

I no longer have any savings because I gave it to a sick girl (Penny Brown);
who is about to die in the hospital for the 1,387,258th time.

I no longer have any money at all, but that will change once I receive the
R15, 000 that Bill Gates/Microsoft and AOL are sending me for participating
in their special e-mail program....

Britain is condemned today in a highly critical UN report for breaching basic human rights and "trying to conceal illegal acts" in the fight against terrorism.

The report is sharply critical of British co-operation in the transfer of detainees to places where they are likely to be tortured as part of the US rendition programme. It accuses British ­intelligence officers of interviewing detainees held ­incommunicado in Pakistan in ­"so-called safe houses where they were being tortured".

LTTE has increasingly made it's immpression amongst a lot of terrorist organizations as the pioneers of suicide bombing and use of advanced war technology. The acts of terror committed by the LTTE over last about 25 years have been a crime against humanity. The only saving grace for the LTTE is that they have desisted from being recognised as a religious outfit and have maintained the stand along socio-economic and developmental lines. I'am in no way trying to imply that they are commendable but just mentioning it as a very important differentiator. Most of the terrorist organizations are predominantly religious movements or having religion as the core for binging in change. Below is the current List of Designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations as per US department of defense.

To find the real reasons behind conflicts and wars in this world, you need to follow some or all of four things: Money, blood, power or natural resources (usually oil or natural gas but it can be cobalt like in the Congo).

Oil is behind the conflicts in Darfur, Somalia and other similar places.

The war in Afghanistan was never about finding bin Laden. It was about uniting Afghanistan into a single government so a pipeline could be constructed to bring a million barrels a day from areas north of Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Russia to markets.