To infinity and beyond: New hi-tech £40m space centre will help Britain to conquer the final frontier

Space centre’s opening follows an announcement that the European Space Agency is planning to build a spaceship with the U.S.

A state-of-the-art £40million science centre dedicated to space will be officially opened today.

The International Space Innovation Centre (ISIC) in Harwell, Oxfordshire, is unique in Europe, and will help universities and industry work together to develop and exploit space technology.

Space is seen as a key growth area in the UK where the sector has expanded by 10 per cent in the past decade.

Universities and Science Minister David Willetts, who will conduct the opening ceremony together with the Duke of York, said: ‘The UK space industry is worth an estimated £7.5billion, and to continue this success businesses need the right environment for sustainable growth and innovation.

HP Unveils Pavilion dm4x Equipped With Sandy Bridge CPU

HP hase today announced the arrival of a new laptop to its range the HP Pavilion dm4x which is equipped with Intel’s latest Sandy Bridge processor and Turbo Boost Technology.

The Pavilion dm4x is equipped with a 14 inch screen and is supplied running either Windows 7 Home Premium or Professional, with a number of configuration options available. Allowing you to install one from the choice of three Intel Core i5 and one Intel Core i7 processors. Together with a choice of 4, 6 or 8GB of RAM and a 1GB Radeon HD 6470M graphics card with a choice of storage from 500GB up to 750GB.Other optional extras, include the ability to install both a six and nine cell battery, together with integrated peripherals such as a DVD-RW drive, webcam, Wi-Fi and a Bluetooth option, 3 x USB ports, 1 x HDMI port and 1 x VGA port, too name a few.

The new HP Pavilion dm4x is now available to purchase at $730 for the base model rising to $1078.98 for HP’s recommended system.

Intel to Mass-Produce New 3-D Transistors for Faster, More Efficient Computer Chips

In a move that could remake the microchip industry, Intel announced Wednesday it will start mass-producing the first three-dimensional silicon transistors. The 3-D transistor design, which Intel says will improve efficiency by more than one-third, will be integrated into a 22-nanometer node in an Intel chip called Ivy Bridge.

It’s a major change from the two-dimensional flat transistor structure we all know and love, which has powered every computer chip for the last 50 years. The 3-D switch design and the scale of its production will allow Moore’s Law to advance apace, Intel said.

Moore’s Law holds that the number of transistors that can be placed on a circuit will double every two years, but this places limits on the circuits’ size — a growing problem as engineers cram greater numbers of transistors onto ever-tinier chips. A 3-D switch could allow computer chips to be built like skyscrapers, optimizing space by building upward, and thereby allowing uninhibited transistor growth.

The Tri-Gate transistors consist of a thin 3-D silicon fin that arises vertically from the silicon substrate, Intel explains. Each fin has three gates, one on the top and one on each side, which allows for greater transistor current control. When it’s on, current flow is more efficient, and when the switches are off, the flow of electrons is closer to zero. By contrast, flat transistors have one gate, only on top.

All this leads to greater efficiency, allowing chips to operate at a lower voltage and with lower leakage — Intel claims a whopping 37 percent performance increase over its 2-D chips. Since the fins and their gates are vertical, more transistors can be packed close together. Eventually, designers will be able to make taller fins, aiming for even better performance.

“It will give product designers the flexibility to make current devices smarter and wholly new ones possible,” said Mark Bohr, a senior fellow at Intel.

More than 6 million 22-nm Tri-Gate transistors could fit inside the period at the end of this sentence, according to the company. (If you zoom in, who knows how many could fit!)

The new transistors will be integrated into Ivy Bridge-based Intel Core processors by the end of this year, which consumers will be able to get in 2012, Intel said.

Plenty of other chip designers have been talking about 3-D chips — just last month, we saw a 2-D reprogrammable one designed to behave as if it was a 3-D one. But Intel has taken it a step further by figuring out how to mass-produce them.

It’s technically 3-D because the switches are vertical and horizontal, but the transistors are not stacked, allowing electrons to flow in three dimensions — that’s a holy Grail of microprocessor design. But a new circuit design that allows more transistors on tinier spaces certainly sounds like a major breakthrough.

GoDaddy.com CEO Under Fire for Posting Video of Elephant Hunt in Zimbabwe

Some animal rights activists and animal lovers are outraged at GoDaddy.com CEO Bob Parsons after he posted online a video of himself hunting and killing an elephant, MyFoxPhoenix.com reports.

The “vacation video” shows Parsons in Zimbabwe criticizing the “damage” elephants cause to farmers’ crops, a common complaint in the region.

“Unless elephants are stopped entire crop may be lost,” reads a video caption. “When crops are lost subsistence farmers risk starvation.”

As the hunters wait for elephants to arrive, night falls and a spotlight is shone on an approaching bull elephant. Parsons fires first, killing the elephant. Villagers arrive in chaotic masses the next morning to eat the elephant meat.

On his personal blog, Parsons says that he hunts “problem elephants” because it’s “so helpful for the local residents.” He also explains that he only hunts in regulated areas and that in these areas there is no concern about elephants becoming extinct, according to MyFoxPhoenix.com.

But Twitter is abuzz with people criticizing Parsons’ actions -- some saying they wonder whether the successful businessman was actually helping villagers, and others threatening to take their business elsewhere.

Parsons, whose Scottsdale, Ariz.-based company provides domain and Web hosting services, told MyFoxPhoneix.com Tuesday that he “kind of figured that this might happen.”

“So be it, I'm not ashamed of what I did... All these people that are complaining that this shouldn't happen, that these people who are starving to death otherwise shouldn't eat these elephants, you probably see them driving through at McDonald cutting a steak. These people (in Zimbabwe) don't have that option,” he told the station by phone.

Conflict with humans is the biggest threat to the African elephant, according to the World Wildlife Fund.

"As the elephants continue to raid crop fields, farmers are being killed while trying to defend their fields and elephants are becoming the source of resentment and anger by the local communities," World Wildlife Fund says on its website.

Grey Stafford, director of conservation at the Wildlife World Zoo in Arizona, suggested that people like Parsons with the financial means to do so should get behind nonviolent efforts to alleviate the decades-old human-elephant conflict, such as relocating the animals away from villages.

“The ever expanding human population on a shrinking planet makes these deadly conflicts more likely in the future and while elephants may ‘win’ a few battles, their species most certainly will lose the war unless we humans change our ways fast,” Stafford said.

Virgin territory extends to deep sea

British billionaire Richard Branson’s Virgin Group is signaling that the time has come for its long-discussed deep-sea exploration and tourism venture

Advance word comes in the form of an invitation to a Los Angeles press event on April 5, during which a "major new initiative and challenge" will be announced. "The Virgin brand has reached many places — the seven continents of the earth, up into the jet stream and soon, even into space. There is only one frontier left," the Virgin Group's invitation reads.

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It doesn't take much sleuthing to figure out the general topic. For one thing, once you rule out Earth's land mass, the atmosphere and outer space, the oceans are the only things left. Also, Branson has been talking about a venture called "Virgin Oceanic" (or "Virgin Aquatic") for a couple of years now.

Branson unveiled one part of his underwater ambitions last year, in the form of the "Necker Nymph." That's a a prototype submersible vehicle that's part of a $113,000 weeklong tour package available on Necker Island, the billionaire's vacation spot in the British Virgin Islands. (It's $25,000 for the sub ride, but another $88,000 for the resort stay). The craft was reportedly built at a cost of $670,000 (£415,000).

But that's just the beginning: When Branson discussed Virgin Oceanic with Time back in 2009, he said the venture would send pressurized submarines to depths of 35,000 feet:

"The oceans need exploring — we know nothing about what's going on under 25,000 feet. I have an island called Necker Island, and 15 miles from there is the deepest place in the whole of the Atlantic, the Puerto Rican Trench. It's quite likely that we'll set up a scientific and exploration center on Necker to send out expeditions to explore that trench and other trenches in the world."

Branson also discussed the idea in a WatchMojo video recorded at McGill University. "Besides discovering new species, charting the trenches and finding treasure, we may even find the lost city of Atlantis," he said.

A few other hints worth noting: VirginOceanic.com has been registered by the Virgin folks and is currently password-protected. AlwaysOn, an agency that has done design work for Virgin in the past, has created a Virgin Oceanic logo as well as some visual concepts for a deep-diving submarine. And Virgin's invitation promises that "eminent scientists" will be in on the L.A. press conference next month.

One eminent scientist, University of Washington oceanographer John Delaney, says he's not familiar with Branson or Virgin Oceanic. But he's in favor of any venture that will increase the public's awareness of the oceans as the world's most complex and crucial set of ecosystems. "The real intellectual power, the real emotional power, is in the recognition that we depend on something we don't understand," he told me today.

Delaney has been working for years on a different approach to marine exploration, based on the convergence of telepresence technologies. Just last month, a construction team began the first installation phase of the Ocean Observatories Initiative's Regional Scale Nodes, a network of fiber-optic cables that could eventually send terabytes of data from high-resolution cameras and other sensors under the sea.

"We can only take hundreds of people to the deep ocean, but we can bring the ocean to billions of people," he said.

Delaney has been in deep-sea submersibles plenty of times, and says it's a fantastic experience. But he hopes Virgin Oceanic can add enough scientific and educational context to turn deep-sea observation into a paradigm-shifting phenomenon. "My fantasy isn't to go to these places physically — but to occupy, in a telepresence fashion, entire volumes of this planetary life support system," he said.

Stay tuned in the days ahead for more about Branson's latest adventure, and about Earth's deep-sea frontier.

Japanese Nuclear Panic Rises as Agency Says Radiation Is Leaking Into Atmosphere

Japan -- Dangerous levels of radiation leaking from a crippled nuclear plant forced Japan to order 140,000 people to seal themselves indoors Tuesday after an explosion and a fire dramatically escalated the crisis spawned by a deadly tsunami.

In a nationally televised statement, Prime Minister Naoto Kan said radiation has spread from four reactors of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant in Fukushima state, one of the hardest-hit in Friday's 9.0-magnitude earthquake and the ensuing tsunami that has killed more than 10,000 people, plunged millions into misery and pummeled the world's third-largest economy.

Though Kan and other officials urged calm, Tuesday's developments fueled a growing panic in Japan and around the world amid widespread uncertainty over what would happen next. In the worst case scenario, the reactor's core would completely melt down, a disaster that could spew large amounts of radioactity into the atmosphere.

The radiation fears added to the catastrophe that has been unfolding in Japan, where at least 10,000 people are believed to have been killed and mllions of people have spent four nights with little food, water or heating in near-freezing temperatures as they dealt with the loss of homes and loved ones.

Asia's richest country hasn't seen such hardship since World War II. The stock market plunged for a second day and a spate of panic buying saw stores running out of necessities, raising government fears that hoarding may hurt the delivery of emergency food aid to those who really need it.

In a rare bit of good news, rescuers found a 70-year-old woman alive in her swept-away home four days after the tsunami flattened much of Japan's northeastern coast.

After Tuesday's fire and separate explosion at two reactors in the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, officials just south of the area reported up to 100 times the normal levels of radiation, Kyodo News agency reported. While those figures are worrying if there is prolonged exposure, they are far from fatal.

Tokyo reported slightly elevated radiation levels, but officials said the increase was too small to threaten the 39 million people in and around the capital, about 170 miles (270 kilometers) away. Closer to the stricken nuclear complex, the streets in the coastal city of Soma were empty as the few residents who remained there heeded the government's warning to stay indoors.

Kan and other officials warned there is danger of more leaks and told people living within 19 miles (30 kilometers) of the Fukushima Dai-ichi complex to stay indoors to avoid exposure that could make people sick.

"Please do not go outside. Please stay indoors. Please close windows and make your homes airtight," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told residents in the danger zone.

"These are figures that potentially affect health. There is no mistake about that," he said.

Weather forecasts for Fukushima were for snow and wind from the northeast Tuesday evening, blowing southwest toward Tokyo, then shifting and blowing west out to sea. That's important because it shows which direction a possible nuclear cloud might blow.

The nuclear crisis is the worst Japan has faced since the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II. It is also the first time that such a grave nuclear threat has been raised in the world since a nuclear power plant in Chernobyl, Ukraine exploded in 1986.

Some 70,000 people had already been evacuated from a 12-mile (20-kilometer) radius from the Dai-ichi complex. About 140,000 remain in the new warning zone.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said Tuesday that Japanese officials told it that the reactor fire was in the storage pond -- a pool where used nuclear fuel is kept cool -- and that "radioactivity is being released directly into the atmosphere."

Workers were desperately trying to stabilize three reactors at the power plant that exploded in the wake of Friday's quake and tsunami, after losing their ability to cool down and releasing some radiation. Since the quake, engineers have been injecting seawater into the reactors as a last-ditch coolant.

A fourth reactor that had been shut down before the quake caught fire Tuesday and more radiation was released, Edano said.

The fire was put out. Even though the fourth reactor was shut down, the fire there was believed to be the source of the elevated radiation.

"It is likely that the level of radiation increased sharply due to a fire at Unit 4," Edano said. "Now we are talking about levels that can damage human health. These are readings taken near the area where we believe the releases are happening. Far away, the levels should be lower."

He said another reactor whose containment building exploded Monday had not contributed greatly to the increased radiation. Edano said that reactor, and another, Unit 3, had stabilized but the status of Unit 2 was unclear.

Temperatures in two other reactors, units 5 and 6, were slightly elevated, Edano said.

"The power for cooling is not working well and the temperature is gradually rising, so it is necessary to control it," he said.

Officials said 50 workers, all of them wearing protective radiation gear, were still trying to pump water into the reactors to cool them. They say 800 other staff were evacuated. The fires and explosions at the reactors have injured 15 workers and military personnel and exposed up to 190 people to elevated radiation.

In Tokyo, slightly higher-than-normal radiation levels were detected Tuesday but officials insisted there are no health dangers.

"The amount is extremely small, and it does not raise health concerns. It will not affect us," Takayuki Fujiki, a Tokyo government official said.

Kyodo reported that radiation levels nine times higher than normal were briefly detected in Kanagawa prefecture near Tokyo and that the Tokyo metropolitan government said it had detected a small amount of radioactive materials in the air.

Edano said the radiation readings had fallen significantly by the evening.

Japanese government officials are being rightly cautious, said Donald Olander, professor emeritus of nuclear engineering at University of California at Berkeley. He believed even the heavily elevated levels of radiation around Dai-ichi are "not a health hazard." But without knowing specific dose levels, he said it was hard to make judgments.

"Right now it's worse than Three Mile Island," Olander said. But it's nowhere near the levels released during Chernobyl.

On Three Mile Island, the radiation leak was held inside the containment shell -- thick concrete armor around the reactor. The Chernobyl reactor had no shell and was also operational when the disaster struck. The Japanese reactors automatically shut down when the quake hit and are encased in containment shells.

Olander said encasing the reactors in a concrete sarcophagus -- the last-ditch effort done in Chernobyl -- is far too premature. Operators need to wait until they cool more, or risk making the situation even worse.

The death toll from last week's earthquake and tsunami jumped Tuesday as police confirmed the number killed had topped 2,700, though that grim news was overshadowed by a deepening nuclear crisis. Officials have said previously that at least 10,000 people may have died in Miyagi province alone.

Millions of people spent a fourth night with little food, water or heating in near-freezing temperatures as they dealt with the loss of homes and loved ones. Asia's richest country hasn't seen such hardship since World War II.

With snow and freezing temperatures forecast for the next several days, shelters were gathering firewood to burn for heat, stacking it under tarps and tables.

Though Japanese officials have refused to speculate on the death toll, Indonesian geologist Hery Harjono, who dealt with the 2004 Asian tsunami, said it would be "a miracle really if it turns out to be less than 10,000" dead.

The 2004 tsunami killed 230,000 people -- of which only 184,000 bodies were found.

Rescuers were heartened Tuesday to find one survivor. Osaka fire department spokesman Yuko Kotani says a 70-year-old woman was found inside her house that was washed away by the tsunami in northeastern Japan's Iwate prefecture. The rescuers from Osaka, in western Japan, were sent to the area for disaster relief.

Kotani said the woman was conscious but suffering from hypothermia and is being treated at a hospital. She would not give the woman's name.

The impact of the earthquake and tsunami dragged down stock markets. The benchmark Nikkei 225 stock average plunged for a second day Tuesday, nose-diving more than 10 percent to close at 8,605.15 while the broader Topix lost more than 8 percent.

To lessen the damage, Japan's central bank made two cash injections totaling 8 trillion yen ($98 billion) Tuesday into the money markets after pumping in $184 billion on Monday.

Initial estimates put repair costs in the tens of billions of dollars, costs that would likely add to a massive public debt that, at 200 percent of gross domestic product, is the biggest among industrialized nations.

Yuta Tadano, a 20-year-old pump technician at the Fukushima plant, said he was in the complex when quake hit.

"It was terrible. The desks were thrown around and the tables too. The walls started to crumble around us and there was dust everywhere. The roof began to collapse.

"We got outside and confirmed everyone was safe . Then we got out of there. We had no time to be tested for radioactive exposure. I still haven't been tested," Tadano told The Associated Press at an evacuation center.

"I worry a lot about fallout. If we could see it we could escape, but we can't," said Tadano, cradling his 4-month-old baby, Shoma.

The Dai-ichi plant is the most severely affected of three nuclear complexes that were declared emergencies after suffering damage in Friday's quake and tsunami, raising questions about the safety of such plants in coastal areas near fault lines and adding to global jitters over the industry.

U.S. Lawmakers Consider Ways of Arming U.S. Agents in Mexico After Killing of ICE Agent

U.S. lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are weighing actions to allow U.S. agents working in Mexico to pack heat after a drug gang killed an unarmed U.S. immigration agent and wounded another.

U.S. agents have not been allowed to carry weapons in Mexico since a 1990 agreement. But their safety has been increasingly in jeopardy ever since Mexican President Felipe Calederon declared war on the drug cartels when he took office in December 2006.

"It is essential that the U.S. government conduct a comprehensive threat assessment to protect U.S. government personnel working in Mexico," said Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee. "We must also talk to the Mexicans about their prohibition against U.S. personnel carrying weapons and determine the extent to which security details must be expanded."

A Homeland subcommittee led by Rep. Mike McCaul, R-Texas, is planning a hearing next month to probe the U.S. role in Mexico's war on its drug cartels.

"The Mexican government doesn't allow our law enforcement to carry weapons in Mexico. It seems to me we're assisting them in this war against the drug cartels. Our law enforcement should be armed," McCaul told Fox News. "These two agents were sitting ducks and sitting targets in what was an intentional ambush.

Immigrations and Customs Agents Jaime Zapata and Victor Avila were shot on a federal highway while traveling in the northern state of San Luis Potosi en route to Mexico City on Feb. 15. The area is at the center of a power struggle between two rival drug gangs, the Zetas and the Gulf Cartel. Zapata was killed, the first murder of a U.S. agent in the line of duty of Mexico's drug war.

The Mexican Defense Department said Wednesday that a suspect was detained but provided little additional information.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder attended Zapata's funeral Tuesday in his hometown of Brownsville, Texas. Both vowed to continue helping Mexico in its war against drug cartels battling for lucrative trafficking routes into the United States.

The Homeland Security and Justice Departments formed a joint task force led by the FBI to help Mexico find the killers.

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, told FoxNews.com that she introduced bipartisan legislation in the last session of Congress and on the first day of the current session to give additional tools to DEA, ATF, CPB agents on the U.S. border so that they are prepared with the weapons to confront the violence.

"Officers cannot enforce laws without good equipment," she said.

McCaul said the attack was a "game changer" because the operating assumption for more than 25 years was that drug cartels would not target or kill a U.S. agent.

"I see this assault as a direct assault on the United States and I think the United States needs to respond accordingly," he said.

World says 'tax evasion' not fraud: India

New Delhi:India's attempt to crack down on taxes evaders/black money is being scuppered by the world over mere nomenclature!

With the Opposition parties in India corenring the Congress-led UPA government on black money, a new urgency is being shown by authorities to ensure the guilty do not manage to escape the law.

India has decided to press for removal of distinction between tax evasion and tax fraud which has helped Indians conceal their income in tax havens abroad.

This is part of India's drive to get back the monies abroad.

Sources said that a number of countries have refused to give information on the ground that tax evasion was not an offence under their law but if tax fraud was included they will cooperate.

The point was forcefully made at G-20 meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors in Paris last week end.

Pointing out that different definitions of expressions like "tax evasion" and "tax frauds" leads to problems, Mukherjee said there was a need to harmonize them that countries can exchange information without any hindrance.

"Some countries/jurisdictions differentiate between tax fraud and tax evasion. This difference in perception assists deliberate concealment of wealth for the purpose of evading tax, something regarded as crime all over the world, and impedes effective exchange of information.

"We should encourage countries to remove this distinction in order to help efforts of government authorities in pursuing tax cheats who have parked funds outside the country", he said in his address at the ministerial meeting at the G-20.

The Minister further said that India was in the process of revising its Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) with all the 78 countries which whom it had signed such agreements.

"Revision of DTAA with 10 countries have been completed and many more are in the offing", he said. Revised DTAA will help in seeking banking information about the offenders.

He also raised the issue of ill-gotten money being stashed abroad during his bilateral meetings with French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde and his German counterpart Wolfgang Scheuble.

Mukherjee, who is spearheading the fight against tax evasion at G-20 grouping, said that about 500 tax information exchange agreements have been signed between different countries across the world, a development that would help in the fighting the menace tax evasion and track ill-gotten money.

The Minister also underlined the case for collective action against those countries which refuse to part with tax and banking information essential for tracking slush funds.

Federal Government Charges Up Electric Car Market

The federal government is hitting the gas on incentive programs meant to prop up the Electric car market, raising questions about whether it's appropriate for Washington to continue subsidizing an industry it's already invested in heavily.

As part of that interplay, nine cities across the country are set to receive thousands of free charging stations this year as part of a special program. In Austin, one of the lucky cities, the City Council could vote as early as this week to set the rates for those stations.

If the local utility company has its way, drivers will get a deal -- a $25 flat fee for six months of unlimited charging. The idea is to serve electric car owners, while making prospective buyers comfortable with the technology, potentially inspiring them to buy an electric vehicle of their own.

But the experiment is coming at a cost to taxpayers, who whether they realize it or not are subsidizing several initiatives designed to boost the electric vehicle market -- raising concerns among free enterprisers.

If electric cars are the wave of the future, they say, the industry should be able to attract private investment. If it's not, then the government is throwing away money. And if it's a viable idea but not quite ready for prime time, they worry the government is pushing it out too early, fating the sector to live off a perpetual federal lifeline the way ethanol, sugar and other commodities have done.

"I have never seen an industry that receives subsidies for any period of time like this that didn't fail and then cost taxpayers even more," said David Littmann, senior economist at the Michigan-based Mackinac Center for Public Policy.

The auto industry, government officials and environmentalists are hopeful that electric car technology can take off. The benefits are apparent -- a nationwide electric- or hybrid-car craze would reduce pollution and help wean the United States off foreign oil.

But several barriers remain. A report released last fall from J.D. Power and Associates found that consumers are worried about the relatively short driving range of the vehicles, the amount of time it takes to charge them and the higher retail cost. The first two concerns are more applicable to all-electric cars than hybrid ones. The Nissan LEAF, for instance, takes six to eight hours to charge and has a range of about 100 miles.

"It certainly would not be a car you would be very comfortable driving through West Virginia," the Cato Institute's Patrick Michaels said of the all-battery vehicles. He said the industry is understandably jittery about the new investment.

"If they could easily make money from it without a federal subsidy, they would be there. Obviously, they don't think there's a big demand," he said.

But that's exactly why the government is getting involved -- to incentivize the industry, and consumers, on the front end with the hope of building the groundwork for a bona-fide market that would be good for America's economic and energy security.

The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers has described the Obama administration's support as "critical." The administration has set a goal of getting 1 million electric vehicles on the road by 2015. To advance that goal, the administration also reportedly has included a $7,500 rebate in its 2012 budget proposal for drivers who buy electric vehicles.

"It's a slow process for a few years, but eventually people are predicting that this will really take off," said Carlos Cordova, spokesman with Austin Energy, the local utility company that will operate charging stations in Austin.

Karl Rabago, Austin Energy's vice president for distributed energy services, said the federal aid is critical for getting the market off the ground. He said the subsidies won't be indefinite and expressed confidence that the industry can eventually survive on its own. He said the private sector is eager to step in with investment as soon as it has the confidence it will pay off.

"Customers are just not going to buy these cars until they can look around and say, 'I'm comfortable. I won't feel stranded.' This is the chicken that has to come before the egg," Rabago told FoxNews.com. "This is just government doing what government does best."

The plug-in station program is a $37 million subsidized initiative run by Coulomb Technologies. Fifteen million dollars came from the 2009 federal stimulus, another few million came from the California Energy Commission and the rest came from Coulomb and other sources. Coulomb already sells charging units on its own, outside the program. But through what's known as the ChargePoint America initiative, it plans to deliver nearly 5,000 of them to Austin, Detroit, Los Angeles, Orlando and other cities.

In Austin, the city is getting more than 100 stations -- worth about $700 apiece -- free of charge from Coulomb. Austin Energy and other private companies will front the cost, estimated at about $3,000 apiece, for installing the stations.

Rabago said that if the program were not subsidized, his company could probably afford to get on board, considering the cost of the units. But, he said, "It just makes it a lot easier."

"Utilities are, I think the word is, conservative," Rabago said.

But some worry the government is taking a risk, on behalf of taxpayers, better reserved for venture capitalists, banks and the companies themselves. Littmann said that if and when the technology is at a marketable level, "there's plenty of capital here, and worldwide, and plenty of entrepreneurs to take care of that for expanding demand."

Nick Loris, a research associate at the Heritage Foundation, said he assumes America's vehicle fleet will look a lot different 50 years from now, but that it's not the government's role to promote electric vehicles before they're "economically viable."

Michael Quinn Sullivan, president of Texans for Fiscal Responsibility, said his organization takes a "dim view" of the charging station program in his state.

"Electric cars -- by definition -- shouldn't require a jump start, and neither should their market," he said in an e-mail. "If the people benefiting from the sale of the cars won't invest in the infrastructure to make core-consumers confident about the product, it is troubling taxpayers would be asked to do so. Taxpayer subsidies become a narcotic, and once begun it's hard to wean off."

Obama: Egyptians Won't Permit a Repressive Government to Fill Mubarak Void

The United States can't force out Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, but the Egyptian people will no longer allow unresponsive government without representation or free and fair elections, President Obama said in an interview Sunday with Fox News' Bill O'Reilly.

With that in mind, an orderly but meaningful transition to a new government will reduce the possibility of a radical, anti-American government, the president argued in a pre-Super Bowl XLV interview.

"What I want is a representative government in Egypt and I have confidence that if Egypt moves in an orderly transition process, they will have a government in Egypt that will work together with us" as partners, Obama said from the White House, where he was preparing to entertain about 100 guests for the Super Bowl game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Green Bay Packers.

Mubarak has ruled Egypt with an autocratic fist for decades even as the country has been an ally to the United States. While the embattled Egyptian president has been a reliable partner in upholding the peace accords with Israel and in counterterror efforts, in the past two weeks hundreds of thousands have stormed a central square in Egypt's capital Cairo to protest Mubarak's oppressive rule.

Though the strength and breadth of the demonstrations were unexpected, the United States has quickly moved to convincing Mubarak that it's time for him to step down after the presidential elections scheduled for September, if not sooner.

But any sudden toppling of the Mubarak regime could create major headaches for the United States, particularly if the void permits a group like the radical Muslim Brotherhood, which is negotiating with the current government about leadership changes, to emerge victorious.

Obama suggested he's less concerned about that.

"The Muslim Brotherhood is one faction in Egypt. They don't have majority support in Egypt, but they are well organized and there are strains of their ideology that are against the U.S., there's no doubt about it," Obama said. "But here's the thing that we have to understand, there are a whole bunch of secular folks in Egypt, there are a whole bunch of educators and civil society in Egypt that wants to come to the fore as well. So it's important for us not to say that our own only two options are either the Muslim Brotherhood or a suppressed people."

To avoid such scenarios, Obama said that the U.S. must make sure "that we get all the groups together in Egypt for an orderly transition and the one that is a meaningful transition."

Foreign relations aren't the only matters on the president's mind. In his wide-ranging interview, the president appeared nonplussed about the possibility that the Supreme Court would rule his new health care law unconstitutional.

Repeating remarks he made in his State of the Union address last month -- that he doesn't want to re-fight the battles of the past two years -- Obama nonetheless said he thinks a Florida district judge was wrong to rule against his signature domestic achievement.

"Keep in mind, we've had 12 judges that just threw this case out, this notion that the health care law was unconstitutional," Obama said.

Obama would not speculate on what would happen to the program if the Supreme Court throws out the case, but said he is not prepared to go back to the days when Americans with preconditions couldn't get coverage.

Adding that people want cost controls and security in health care, the president also took issue with suggestions that he has moved to the center after the drubbing Democrats took in the November midterm election. And he rejected claims that the health care law is a far-reach to the wishes of the political left.

Arguing that he hears people who say that they don't want to pay for other people's health care -- which many uninsured don't get until they are in the emergency room -- Obama said, "If you get sick you have a responsibility to make sure you get coverage. There's nothing socialist about that. That's saying to Americans we're going to, each of us, be responsible for our own health care," Obama said.

"In this country there is no reason why when you get sick you should go bankrupt," he added. "The notion that that's a radical principle, I don't think the majority of people would agree with me on."

Answering an unexpected question about what he thinks Fox News could do better, the president said, "The most important thing that the news (can do), whether it's Fox News or MSNBC or whoever, is give people the facts."

"I would say that the news guys try to do a good job, though look let's face it, Fox News has a point of view. There's nothing wrong with that," the president said, arguing that America has "a strong history" of opinion journalism.

In a series of short response questions and answers, the president joked that the worst part of the job is that he has to wear a jacket on Super Bowl Sunday. In reality, however, "the biggest problem for me is being in the bubble, you can't go to the corner, everyone watching every move you make and over time you feel like you're not able to have a spontaneous conversation with folks and that's a big loss."

He added that the biggest challenge he learned being president is that it's tougher than anyone can intellectually grasp.

"You don't understand in your gut until you're in the job ... that everything that gets sent to my desk is what nobody else was able to solve," he said, adding that by the time a problem reaches him, the solution comes really from using his best judgment.

Obama said he doesn't worry whether people hate him because he learned to get a tough skin long before he got to the job.

"The folks who hate you don't know you. What they hate is whatever funhouse mirror image of you is out there," he said.

Asked if he's changed, Obama said he thinks he's the same guy as when he came in, but he didn't argue with assertions from friends and confidants that he's not as light or spontaneous as he was.

"There's no doubt that the weight of the office has an impact, but I will tell you that the longer I'm in this job the more I enjoy it, the more optimistic I am about the American people, the more optimistic I am about the country. There's something about this position that gives you a pretty good vantage point about the country as a whole, and for all the arguing we get into and all the debates between Democrats and Republicans, there's just a sense, a common sense and a decency to the American people that makes me optimistic even on the worst of days."

The president said he was also optimistic for a good Super Bowl.

"Once my (Chicago) Bears lost, I don't pick sides," he said. "I want a great game. These are two pretty evenly matched teams. I think Green Bay is probably a little faster, Steelers got a little more experience. I think the Steelers not having their starting center is something they gotta be a little worried about."

Administration Officials Discussing Various Scenarios for Mubarak Exit

U.S. officials are discussing a number of possible scenarios for Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, with one of them being Mubarak stepping down very soon and an interim government being formed, headed by Vice President Omar Suleiman working with the military to steer Egypt toward elections, officials told ABC News.

"The president has said that now is the time to begin a peaceful, orderly and meaningful transition with credible, inclusive negotiations," said National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor. "We have discussed with the Egyptians a variety of different ways to move that process forward, but all of those decisions must be made by the Egyptian people.”

The comment came after the New York Times published a story reporting that the Obama administration "is discussing with Egyptian officials a proposal for President Hosni Mubarak to resign immediately, turning over power to a transitional government headed by Vice President Omar Suleiman with the support of the Egyptian military."

Mubarak rebuffed the plan, the Times reported, but "officials from both governments are continuing talks about a plan in which, Mr. Suleiman, backed by Sami Enan, chief of the Egyptian armed forces, and Field Marshal Mohamed Tantawi, the defense minister, would immediately begin a process of constitutional reform."

Officials told the Times that the proposal is "one of several options under discussion with high-level Egyptian officials around Mr. Mubarak, though not him directly, in an effort to convince him to step down now."

Bur in response to the Times story, a senior administration official called it "simply wrong to report that there’s a single U.S. plan that’s being negotiated with the Egyptians."

Thousands converge in Cairo to demand Mubarak

Tens of thousands of people flooded into the heart of Cairo Tuesday, filling the city's main square as a call for a million protesters was answered by the largest demonstration in a week of unceasing demands for President Hosni Mubarak to leave after nearly 30 years in power.

Rivers of protesters arrived in Tahrir, or Liberation, Square at checkpoints guarded by protesters and the army, which promised Monday night that it would not fire on protesters.

The announcement was a sign that army support for Mubarak may be unraveling as momentum builds for an extraordinary eruption of discontent and demands for democracy in the United States' most important Arab ally.

"We are not going anywhere until Mubarak leaves," said Mohammed Abdullah, a 27-year-old aviation engineer.

Mubarak, 82, would be the second Arab leader pushed from office by a popular uprising in the history of the modern Middle East.

The loosely organized and disparate movement to drive him out is fueled by deep frustration with an autocratic regime blamed for ignoring the needs of the poor and allowing corruption and official abuse to run rampant. After years of tight state control, protesters emboldened by the overthrow of Tunisia's president last month took to the streets on Jan. 25 and mounted a relentless and once unimaginable series of protests across this nation of 80 million people — the region's most populous country and the center of Arabic-language film-making, music and literature.

Soviet-era and newer U.S.-made Abrams tanks stood at the roads leading into Tahrir Square, a plaza overlooked by the headquarters of the Arab League, the campus of the American University in Cairo, the famed Egyptian Museum and the Mugammma, an enormous winged building housing dozens of departments of the country's notoriously corrupt and inefficient bureaucracy.

Working-class men in scuffed shoes and worn cloth pants stood alongside women in full-face veils who chanted, "The people want to bring down the regime!"

For days, army tanks and troops have surrounded the square, keeping the protests confined but doing nothing to stop people from joining. The guns of many of the tanks pointed out from the square.

Military spokesman Ismail Etman said the military "has not and will not use force against the public" and underlined that "the freedom of peaceful expression is guaranteed for everyone."

He added the caveats that protesters should not commit "any act that destabilizes security of the country" or damage property.

The protests appeared to be better organized on Tuesday. Volunteers wearing tags reading "Security of the People" said they were watching for government infiltrators who might try to instigate violence.

Obama Climate Adviser Browner to Step Down

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama's top adviser on energy and climate matters is stepping down, two White House officials confirmed Monday. The departure of Carol Browner underscores any prospects for a major White House push on climate change, given that such efforts have little chance of succeeding on Capitol Hill.

Browner, a former Environmental Protection Agency administrator under President Bill Clinton, will be leaving the White House just as Republicans in Congress prepare to take on the Obama administration over global warming and the administration's response to the massive Gulf oil spill.

Browner successfully helped negotiate a deal with automakers boosting federal fuel economy standards and requiring the first-ever greenhouse gas emissions standards for vehicles. She also pushed for billions of dollars for renewable energy in the economic stimulus bill.

But the administration fell short on it key domestic priority of passing a comprehensive energy and climate bill to place a firm limit on the pollution blamed for global warming. Just after the November elections, which gave Republicans a majority of seats in the House, Obama admitted the legislation was dead.

One White House official said Monday that Browner was "confident that the mission of her office will remain critical to the president." The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Browner was "pleased" with the clean energy commitment Obama would lay out in his State of the Union address Tuesday and in his budget request.

Scott Segal, an energy lobbyist with Bracewell & Giuliani, said Browner's exit could "be a part of a legitimate effort to pay careful attention to addressing some of the real regulatory obstacles in the way of job creation."

Besides regulations to curb global warming, industry groups -- and Republicans on Capitol Hill -- are questioning a host of EPA rules targeting other air pollutants as job killers that will increase the costs of doing business.

And recently Browner's office had come under scrutiny for politicizing the response to the massive Gulf oil spill. The commission set up by Obama to investigate the disaster said Browner misconstrued on national television the findings of a federal scientific report by saying most of the oil was gone. The White House later said she misspoke.

Browner's office also has been criticized by the presidential panel for editing an Interior Department document in a manner that implied scientists supported the administration's decision to place a moratorium on deep water drilling. The commission found no evidence that the change made was intentional, and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar later apologized for the misunderstanding.

Browner's resignation comes amid a series of high-profile staff changes in Obama's White House.

The president has brought in a new chief of staff, Bill Daley, and is zeroing in on the choice of a new press secretary to replace the departing Robert Gibbs. Senior adviser David Axelrod is leaving the White House to focus on Obama's re-election, and both of Obama's deputy chiefs of staff are also leaving.

Staff members who are considering a change have been told to make their moves now or plan to stay for the remaining two years of Obama's term to ensure continuity.

Yeddyurappa's act immoral but not illegal: Gadkari

Beijing: Accusing Karnataka Governor H R Bhardwaj of foisting cases against B S Yeddyurappa, BJP chief Nitin Gadkari has said the chief minister has not committed any "illegal act" in allotment of plots even though denotifying land in favour of his son was "immoral" and "not proper."

Commenting on Bhardwaj's decision to sanction prosecution against Yeddyurappa, Gadkari, who is in China on a five-day visit, told the Indian media in Beijing that denotification of land is the privilege of the chief minister, which was exercised by many of Yeddyurappa's predecessors.

"Denotification of land is a privilege and the right of chief minister given by law. Nothing is wrong with it. Before Yeddyurappa, (former chief ministers H D) Kumarasamy, Dharma Singh and S M Krishna exercised it several times. The Governor has not taken action against them because they belonged to Congress Party," he said.

"Only thing is that BJP and I personally feel that denotifying land for his (chief minister's) son, though it is a legal decision, on the ground of morality, I think it is not good. It is not proper and immoral I think...," he said.

If it is illegal why the government has not taken action against the previous chief ministers? he asked.

Gadkari alleged the Governor's decision was politically motivated and that he was working under the directives of Congress.

The BJP demands his recall as he has already crossed the limits, he said.

It is total discrimination, Gadkari said, claiming that many number of cases filed against Yeddyurappa are politically motivated.

"They are misusing the institution of Governor and creating problems for democracy in the country. It is unfortunate that the institution of Governor is diluted in such a way that people have lost faith," he said.

Jagan to fast against Krishna water distribution verdict

Former Congress MP Jagan Mohan Reddy arrived in Delhi on Tuesday morning to hold a one-day protest fast to highlight the plight of Andhra Pradesh farmers and oppose the Krishna water dispute tribunal verdict.
Former Andhra chief minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy's son is apparently set to embarrass the Congress yet again by his latest move as he reached the national capital with 1,500 farmers in a special train from Secunderabad.

The former Kadapa MP would sit on a fast at Jantar Mantar. Over half-a-dozen Congress MLAs, who have been loyal to Jagan, would also participate in the hunger strike, while more leaders were on their way to Delhi to join the young leader.

Jagan's fast is to highlight the adverse impact of Krishna water dispute tribunal verdict on Andhra Pradesh and the farmers residing around the Krishna delta.

Jagan and Congress have been at loggerheads ever since the death of his father. He recently resigned as the Lok Sabha Member and quit Congress alleging humiliation by the party high command.

India Starts Looking Beyond Iran for Oil

SINGAPORE – India's largest buyer of Iranian crude is scouting for alternative supplies from the spot market to pre-empt a possible disruption in shipments from Iran after India's central bank closed a longstanding payment route for such transactions.

Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd., which buys more than half of its crude oil from Iran, has issued three spot tenders in as many days, the latest for loading as early as next month.

A motorcyclist filled up his vehicle with petrol in New Delhi, June 4, 2008.he flurry of tenders will likely boost sentiment for the heavier, high-sulfur grades from the Middle East, whose premiums are declining in the spot market due to weak fuel oil margins.

While both New Delhi and Tehran could be hard pressed to find an early resolution, there's greater pressure on Iran, which has been increasingly isolated from its customers due to trade restrictions and sanctions aimed at slowing down its nuclear program.

For now, crude supplies from Iran appear normal, and both countries are trying to hammer out an alternative mechanism to continue trade after the Reserve Bank of India, the country's central bank, last week said all trade-related transactions with Tehran had to be done outside the Asian Clearing Union, used by Indian refiners to pay for Iranian crude.

"But there's no guarantee (that normal supplies) will continue," a senior MRPL executive told Dow Jones Newswires. MRPL had one crude cargo scheduled for loading from Iran on Wednesday.

A senior Indian official Tuesday said Iran has proposed a temporary payment channel through a bank based in Germany and has said that it will continue usual shipments of crude oil to Indian refiners in January.

Although the United Nations sanctions don't ban countries from buying crude from Iran, difficulties in financing such transactions have limited the number of trade partners. This has forced Iran to store large quantities of unsold crude oil in tankers, about 21.7 million barrels as of the end of November, the International Energy Agency said recently.

Iran remains India's second biggest crude supplier after Saudi Arabia.

A slew of spot tenders from MRPL has taken the regional market by surprise because of the prompt nature of deliveries sought by MRPL. Its latest tender seeks 650,000 barrels of high-sulfur crude--the kind it normally buys from Iran--for loading in February, when trade for Middle East crude is moving on to March-loading cargoes.

"It's a question of how many such prompt cargoes are available," said a Singapore-based crude oil trader.

It remains to be seen if other Indian refiners will follow suit in seeking spot cargoes.

Unlike MRPL, which gets more than half its supplies from Iran, other larger Indian refiners are less susceptible to any possible supply disruptions.

"We buy six to eight cargoes from Iran a month. I can't make it up all from the spot market, but we are keeping ready in case of any disruptions," the MRPL executive said. "We can decide to buy some or all of the cargoes being sought."