SocialEyes lets Facebook friends video chat

1 March 2011 - 01H20

Startup SocialEyes on Monday introduced a service that lets people have one-on-one or group video chats with friends from hot online community Facebook.

AFP - Startup SocialEyes on Monday introduced a service that lets people have one-on-one or group video chats with friends from hot online community Facebook.

A test version of SocialEyes made its debut in California at a DEMO conference for technology startups and was made available online at socialeyes.com or apps.facebook.com/socialeyes.

SocialEyes was described by some as a more civilized version of Chatroulette, which randomly connected users in vidchats in a service that became known as a stage for bawdy antics by strangers.

SocialEyes users sign on with Facebook IDs and can connect with known friends or other members of the online community with shared interests.

"SocialEyes takes the social networking experience to the next level by enabling people to connect with their networks and meet interesting people who share common interests through face-to-face communication or via video messages," said startup co-founder Rob Williams.

The San Francisco-based SocialEyes founded by Williams and Rob Glaser has raised $5.1 million in capital, with $600,000 coming from independent "angel" investment and the rest from a round of funding led by Ignition Partners.

"The Internet has brought us all closer, but SocialEyes takes social networking to a whole new level by connecting you face-to-face with people, not usernames," said DEMO executive producer Matt Marshall.

"It completely changes the way we communicate with and meet new people."

President Itno's party wins absolute majority in February elections

Chad's President Idriss Deby Itno's party and its allies won a resounding victory in the country’ general election on February 13 taking an absolute majority of national assembly seats, according to provisional results released Monday.

By News Wires (text)

AFP - The party of Chad's President Idriss Deby Itno and its allies won an absolute majority of national assembly seats in the February 13 general election, provisional results showed Monday.

Yaya Mahamat Liguita, chairman of the National Independent Electoral Commission, said the results showing the Patriotic Salvation Movement (MPS) and aligned parties with 133 of the 188 seats had yet to be confirmed by the constitutional council.

The oil-rich African country's 4.8 million voters faced a choice between Deby's MPS and a fragmented and under-funded opposition of more than 100 tiny parties.

The National Union for Democracy and Renewal headed by Saleh Kebzabo emerged as the biggest opposition grouping with 11 seats.

Turnout was 56.6 percent, Liguita said, and 16 of the parties won at least one seat in the election that tested the opposition's strength against strongman Deby for the first time in nearly a decade.

The MPS won nearly three-quarters of seats in the previous poll in 2002, the results of which were disputed by opposition parties and civil organisations.

Opposition parties including the main Federation Action for the Republic (FAR) boycotted a presidential election in 2006 that re-elected Deby, who seized power in a 1990 coup.

During its absence from the political landscape, the opposition in 2007 signed an agreement under the auspices of the European Union that officially paved the way for a democratic process.

Sandwiched between volatile neighbours Niger and Sudan, Chad is one of Africa's poorest countries, suffering from poverty and internal conflict despite abundant resources of uranium and gold.

It also became an oil producer in 2003 following the completion of a four-billion-dollar pipeline linking its oilfields to depots on the Atlantic coast.

Iran opposition says leaders held

01 March 2011 - 04H23

File photo shows Iranian opposition demonstrators carrying a large green flag during a demonstration in Tehran. Iranian authorities had put opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi and their wives under "complete" house arrest after their supporters staged anti-government protests on February 14, their websites had said.

A combo of two file pictures shows Mehdi Karroubi (L) and Mir Hossein Mousavi. Mousavi and Karroubi and their wives have been arrested and put in a Tehran jail, their websites said Monday in reports swiftly denied by a judicial official.

AFP - Iranian opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi and their wives have been arrested and put in a Tehran jail, their websites said Monday in reports swiftly denied by a judicial official.

The two had been under house arrest after judiciary chief Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani said earlier this month they had committed "treason" and MPs demanded they be hanged.

"Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, and their wives, have been arrested and were transferred to the Heshmatiyeh prison of Tehran," Mousavi's website Kaleme.com reported.

"According to credible sources, the arrest and the transfer to jail is sure but the date when it occurred is still uncertain," Kaleme.com said.

An Iranian judiciary official quickly denied the report, the Fars news agency said.

"A judiciary source has denied the arrest of the chiefs of sedition Mousavi and Karroubi," Fars said, adding that the pair were at home and not in prison.

"They are currently in their homes and are faced only with restrictions to contact suspect elements," Fars said.

Iranian authorities had put Karroubi and Mousavi and their wives under "complete" house arrest after their supporters staged anti-government protests on February 14, their websites had said in previous reports.

Confusion over whether the pair had been arrested or not came after prosecutor general Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejeie in statements earlier Monday warned the opposition movement against plans to hold protests on Tuesday.

"Anyone who acts against the law will be dealt with," the prosecutor general was quoted as saying on the website of state television in reference to a call for protests aimed at demanding Mousavi and Karroubi's release from house arrest.

Mousavi and Karroubi, who lost to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the June 2009 election, maintain that he was fraudulently re-elected and since then have opposed his presidency.

They have led a string of protests in Iran after Ahmadinejad's re-election and their opposition to the president has shaken the Islamic regime and divided the nation's elite Shiite clergy.

On Saturday, their websites posted calls for new protests to take place on Tuesday in Tehran and other provincial cities to press for their release from house arrest.

The call was issued by the Coordination Council of the Green Path of Hope, an umbrella group backing the two leaders who steadfastly oppose Ahmadinejad's government.

The group, which called previous protests on February 14 and February 20, said that more demonstrations would be held on March 15 if Mousavi and Karroubi remained under house arrest beyond March 1.

Officials have branded anyone who supports the two men as "anti-revolutionary."

On Monday the prosecutor general said the opposition movement had now transformed itself from "sedition to anti-revolution."

Tens of thousands of regime loyalists demanded earlier this month that Mousavi and Karroubi be hanged for their rebellion, at a rally organised after Friday prayers in Tehran.

Two days later, Karroubi's website Sahamnews.org quoted him as saying that he had asked to be put on trial in public to defend the rights of the Iranian people in a letter to judiciary chief, Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani.

Organisers of the February 18 rally demanded in a declaration the "harshest punishment to the heads of sedition" and labelled Mousavi and Karroubi as "corrupt on earth" -- a crime punishable by death under Iran's penal code.

The two leaders have regularly managed to issue statements which have freshly fuelled unrest in Tehran.

Earlier this month judiciary chief Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani issued a stern warning to the two men whom he said had committed "treason", saying they had "rebelled against the religious government" and steps were being taken to block their communication networks.

Iranian Admiral: Warship off Syria coast a message of peace

03-01-2011 09:02 BJT

Iranian Admiral, Habi-bollah Sa-yari, says that his country's two navy ships anchored off the coast of Syria was a message of peace, and not an act of aggression within the middle east.

Admiral Habi-bollah Sa-yari, Iranian Naval Commander, said, "I would like to point out that Iran is sending a message of peace and security in the region and, in fact, we are stressing on this message. We stress, as well, that the strategy of the Iranian Islamic Republic is to reinforce our capabilities in order to defend ourselves and we do not have any aggressive intention towards other countries."

The two Iranian warships arrived in Syria on Thursday after they received permission to pass through the Suez Canal. According to an Egyptian News website, authorities agreed on the canal transit after they got an Iranian reassurance that the ships were not carrying any nuclear or chemical materials.

China's National Museum ready to reopen on April 1

03-01-2011 08:54 BJT

After three-and-a-half years, the expansion project of the National Museum of China is winding down. The museum plans to reopen on the first of April and for its first exhibition after reopening, plans to join hands with three major German museums.

The outward appearance of the National Museum hasn't changed much. Three facades of the museum were kept as they originally looked when it was founded in 1959 to mark the tenth anniversary of the founding of the PRC.

The museum nearly triples in size from 65,000 square meters to almost 200,000 square meters. The number of exhibition rooms increased to nearly 50, including an Asia room, Africa room, Europe room and America rooms for international exhibitions.

Photo dated Feb. 16, 2011 shows a bright hall in the National Museum of China. The museum will reopen to the public on the first day of April after more than three years of renovation. [Xinhua]

History will be brought to life through new and multimedia presentations. The Museum has a 3D cinema, a TV studio and a theatre dedicated to performances of intangible cultural heritage.

Photo dated Feb. 16, 2011 shows a bright hall in the National Museum of China. The museum will reopen to the public on the first day of April after more than three years of renovation. [Xinhua]

The multi-functional new facility, which reopens on Tiananmen Square near the Forbidden City, is expected to be a popular hangout for visitors from far and wide.

Discovery astronauts carry out first spacewalk

03-01-2011 09:56 BJT

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Two NASA astronauts from the space shuttle Discovery, have carried out the first of two planned spacewalks.

The spacewalk intends to support maintenance of the International Space Station. It is scheduled to last six-and-a-half hours. Discovery reached the space station on Saturday, for its final mission at the 100-billion US-dollar orbital outpost. The shuttle is scheduled to spend a week at the station, though NASA is considering adding an extra day. NASA is ending its 30-year shuttle program in about six months.

Sister ships Endeavour and Atlantis .. are expected to make their final flights this spring and summer. The US is retiring the program due to high operating costs, and to develop spaceships that can travel to the moon, asteroids, and other destinations beyond the station's orbit.

Two NASA astronauts from the space shuttle Discovery, have carried out the first of two planned spacewalks.

Facebook Like button takes over Share button

By Vadim Lavrusik, Mashable February 28, 2011 -- Updated 1449 GMT (2249 HKT) | Filed under: Social Media

Facebook has released an update to its Like button that changes the button's functionality to that of a Share button.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• After hitting Like, a full story, headline, blurb and thumbnail will be posted to your profile
  
• Facebook has released an update that changes the Like button's functionality
  
• Facebook has slowly stopped developing the Share Button

RELATED TOPICS

• Facebook Inc.
• Internet
• Personal Computers

(Mashable) -- Say goodbye to the Share button because the Like button is taking over.

After months of updates to its Like button, Facebook has released an update that fundamentally changes the button's functionality to that of a Share button. Now after hitting the Like button, a full story with a headline, blurb and thumbnail will be posted to your profile wall. You'll also be given an option to comment on the story link. Previously, only a link to the story would appear in the recent activity, often going unnoticed by users.

Though users may now think twice about hitting the button, given how prominently it will appear on their walls and in their networks' newsfeeds, it should ultimately increase traffic to publishers' websites.

Facebook has slowly been rolling out updates to its Like button and has stopped developing the Share Button. Facebook Spokeswoman Malorie Lucich told us that while the company will continue to support the Share button, Like is the "recommended solution moving forward."

However, Lucich today called it a test, saying "We're always testing new products that incorporate developer feedback as we work to improve the Platform experience, and have no details to share at this time." It's unlikely that the change is just a test, however. Typically such tests from Facebook only affect a small number of users, whereas this change affects all Like buttons.

Perhaps the change was necessary. Because it was never made clear to users that the Like button would function differently than the Share button, many never understood what it meant to click Like on a piece of content. Making the result the same as the Share button could build stronger user expectations, ultimately fashioning a better user experience.

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