Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Plane crashes while trying to land at Libyan airport

(CNN) -- A plane carrying 104 people crashed while trying to land at Libya's Tripoli International Airport on Wednesday.


The Afriqiyah Airways plane was flying in from Johannesburg, South Africa, when it crashed while attempting to land at the airport in the Libyan capital, an airline spokeswoman said.


She could not say whether there were any fatalities.

"At the moment we have no details of survivors and Afriqiyah Airways will issue further statements when more details can be released in due course," she said.

The plane, an Airbus 330-200, was carrying 93 passengers and 11 crew members. It was at the tail end of its nearly 9-hour-long flight when it crashed.

The British Foreign Office said it was looking into whether British nationals were on board the flight.


At the crash site, workers with surgical masks combed through the smoldering wreckage that spilled over a large area. A wheel lay atop a pile of bags. Two green airline seats sat upright and intact amid burned parts of the aircraft.


Officials recovered the plane's flight data recorder, which investigators use to piece together a flight's last minutes.


The Tripoli-based Afriqiyah (Arabic for "African") operates flights to four continents. The planes in the fleet carry the logo 9.9.99 -- the date when the African Union was formed.


The Airbus that crashed is one of three Airbus 330-200s that the airline owns.

Autos, cops’ mode of transport

Criminals being hauled off by grim policemen in a swarthy jeep marks the climax of so many of our films but in the real life battle between good and evil, the reel-life jeep is in actuality, often, an auto. With the police department under incredible pressure from increasing crime and the need to step up night-patrols in an expanding city, cops now cart the accused to the police station or courts in autos.

Actor Ravi Teja’s brother Bharath Raja, recently accused of drunken driving and a hit-and-run case in Banjara Hills was transported to the Nampally sessions court by auto. Ditto with actor Navdeep, the hero arrested for rash driving. True to his star status though, Navdeep actually tried to coerce the autowallah to take him to a star hotel instead of the police station.


The accused travelling by auto and even bikes is quite commonplace say city dwellers. J. Kalyan, a student leader in Osmania University says, “I was arrested at several agitations and in most cases was taken to the police station by auto. Many of my friends who were arrested were sent to court and the police station in autos as well, as the patrol vehicle was busy elsewhere.”


G. Krishna, another student organisation leader nods, “Whenever I’ve been taken to the police station by auto, the cops say their vehicles are sent somewhere else.” Srikanth N., an engineering student and resident of New Bowenpally was asked to lend the police his car, “A few months ago, there was a theft in our house. The police came on a bike. After they arrested the lady they asked to borrow our car to take her to the station. When we refused, they took her on the bike.”


With only approximately 320 jeeps and patrol four wheelers, every police station is given one patrol vehicle, about five bikes and a police station mobile vehicle. Cops admit that there is a shortage of vehicles to transport the accused. “We had to send Navdeep in an auto as patrol vehicles were busy elsewhere. It is risky but we can’t help it. We have to send them to the police station in whatever vehicle is available that time,” says C.V. Anand, city traffic additional commissioner.


“We use rakshak vehicles for patrolling and we can’t stop patrolling in the night. So, if there is an arrest then, it is a problem. In case of injury, we use the services of EMRI 108 and if it is arrest, we call for an auto,” admits Banjara Hills inspector Iqbal Siddiqui. The cops also maintain that there’s no harm in transporting the accused by auto or bikes. “Why not? We can arrest them and move them to police station in whatever vehicle is available at that time,” says Stephen Ravindra, DCP West Zone.

Young IIT-ian’s Adam PC could beat iPad

Looks like the iPad killer is here at last. Rohan Shravan, 24, an engineering graduate from IIT Kharagpur has designed a tablet PC named Adam which may soon offer tough competition to Steve Jobs’ much-hyped machine.

It has already caught the attention of the world after being unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show and the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Hyderabad-based start-up Notion Ink, Rohan’s company, plans to launch Adam in the market later this year. It will have better features, a longer battery life and will come at a cheaper price than other PCs of its ilk.
Rohan, a whizkid with out-of-the-box ideas, always wanted to do something different. As a child, he loved to fiddle with toys and make his own models. As a techie, he still does the same, but on a higher plane. What motivated him in this instance was the craving for a device that would help him browse the Internet everywhere, anytime.

“So I thought why not a device on which people can use their imagination and develop applications. It took us three years to design Adam,” says Rohan.

He worked on this dream along with five IIT-ians and a management graduate — Rohit Rathi, (co-founder) Sachin Ralhan (co-founder), Mohit Gupta, Anirudh Gupta, Rajat Sahni, and Devanshu Agrawal. The result of the teamwork was Adam.

As the name signifies, it is the first of its kind. The operating system will be open to all. The user interface, the backside track pad, the special Tegra processor, the special never seen before e-mail application, and the swivel camera are all rather unique and will have tech lovers drooling.


“It is not comparable to already existing products in the markets,” says Rohan modestly. “You can probably compare it to the next generation of devices which will hit markets in 2012.”

“Initially, in India people took us lightly, but when they saw the western reception, they suddenly warmed up,” laughs Rohan.


There was also carping and criticism. The team was called a bunch of kids with wild ideas. When Adam made a stir, there were other complaints. “Many criticised us for naming the product Adam and not choosing an Indian name,” he points out. “But tell me which is the Indian name among these? Reliance, Infosys...?”


Notion Ink was part of Rohan’s dream to do his own thing. “I can work for others, but I will not be satisfied,” he says. “Here, I can work for my dreams and employ people. My mother was also an entrepreneur.”


Interestingly, Rohan says his IIT days were not inspiring. “The best college in India is not what it looks like in papers,” he says. “It lacks infrastructure and professors leave for better colleges. I had to cut off myself from daily activities at IIT to follow my ambition.”


He is enthusiastically looking forward to the launch of Adam, but prefers to laugh away the epithet of iPad killer. “Apple has such a big marketing arm that you can never call Adam an iPad killer,” he says.

But then you never know.