A man who sexually assaulted an 84-year-old widow in a "terrifying" attack in her own home 24 years ago has been told he will be jailed.

The court heard on the evening of 11 July 1987 Toms broke into the woman's home in Ammanford through a kitchen window.

Toms, who had lived around 150 yards from the pensioner, was questioned about his movements as part of house to house inquiries but gave an alibi, the court heard.

He was arrested late last year for a public order offence and his DNA taken.

Mr Spackman said fluid had been left on a bed sheet by the attacker in 1987 but it was not sufficient for a full DNA profile.

Advances in technology had made that possible in 2004 and the result was placed on the National Police Database.

Following Toms arrest last year a match was made and his finger prints also matched those found by the kitchen window.

In mitigation James Jenkins said Toms had not committed any offences before or since the attack.

He said: "The defendant can't explain why he did this."

His wife, brother and employer all submitted references on his behalf.

Mr Jenkins said Toms was genuinely remorseful and added: "He knows he will face a substantive prison sentence."

Judge Keith Thomas said he would rule how long Toms would spend in jail when the sentencing hearing resumed on Friday.

Toms was remanded in custody.

Originally Published On: www.bbc.co.uk – Original Article Here

Jun 13, 2011
| Finanzas<!– | 0 comentarios –>

Facebook ya tiene 15 millones de usuarios en España, lo que la convierte en la red social con más seguidores del país por delante de Tuenti, con 10,8 millones de usuarios, informó este lunes la compañía.

Desde su traducción al castellano en 2008, cuando solo tenía un millón de perfiles, la red social ha experimentado un gran crecimiento.

La compañía fundada por Mark Zuckerberg considera que con estos datos ya se puede decir que una de cada tres personas en España accede a Facebook de “forma habitual”, aunque un perfil creado no tiene por qué ser sinónimo de uso constante. La compañía no ofrece datos en este sentido (conexiones diarias o semanales).

Originally Published On: www.noticias.com – Original Article Here

A dictionary of the extinct language of ancient Mesopotamia has been completed after 90 years of work.

"It's like looking through a window into a moment from thousands of years in the past," he told the BBC World Service.

The dictionary was put together by studying texts written on clay and stone tablets uncovered in ancient Mesopotamia, which sat between the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers – the heartland of which was in modern-day Iraq, and also included parts of Syria and Turkey.

And there were rich pickings for them to pore over, with 2,500 years worth of texts ranging from scientific, medical and legal documents, to love letters, epic literature and messages to the gods.

"It is a miraculous thing," enthuses Dr Finkel.

"We can read the ancient words of poets, philosophers, magicians and astronomers as if they were writing to us in English.

"When they first started excavating Iraq in 1850, they found lots of inscriptions in the ground and on palace walls, but no-one could read a word of it because it was extinct," he said.

But what is so striking according to the editor of the dictionary, Prof Martha Roth, is not the differences, but the similarities between then and now.

"Rather than encountering an alien world, we encounter a very, very familiar world," she says, with people concerned about personal relationships, love, emotions, power, and practical things like irrigation and land use.

The ancient Greeks, Romans and Egyptians are far more prominent both in the public consciousness and in school and university curriculums these days.

But in the 19th Century it was Mesopotamia that enthralled – partly because researchers were looking for proof of some of the bible stories, but also because its society was so advanced.

"A lot of the history of how people went from being merely human to being civilised, happened in Mesopotamia," says Prof Stolper.

All sorts of major advances are thought to have their earliest origins there, and – crucially – Mesopotamia is believed to be among three or four places in the world where writing first emerged.

The cuneiform script – used to write both Assyrian and Babylonian, and first used for the Sumerian language – is, according to Dr Finkel, the oldest script in the world, and was an inspiration for its far more famous cousin, hieroglyphics.

Its angular characters were etched into clay tablets, which were then baked in the sun, or fired in kilns.

This produced a very durable product, but it was very hard to write, and from about 600BC, Aramaic – which is spoken by modern-day Assyrians in the region – began to gain prominence, simply because it was easier to put into written form, researchers believe.

With the dictionary now finally complete, "there are mixed emotions", says Prof Roth.

"As someone who has been so deeply engaged every day of the last 32 years with this project, there is a sizeable chunk of my scholarly identity that feels like it is going to be missing for a while," she told the BBC World Service.

"It's a great achievement and a source of pride," adds Prof Stolper.

"It was like a living thing that grew older and changed its attitudes, that made mistakes and corrected them.

Now that it's done, it's a monument, grand and imposing, but at rest".

But those involved most closely in the dictionary, are also the first to stress its limitations.

They still do not know what some words mean, and because new discoveries are being made all the time, it is – and always will – remain a work in progress.

Prof Stolper for one says he is stepping aside; any future updates or revisions would be best done by "fresh minds" and "fresh hands", he believes.

The entire dictionary costs $1,995 (£1,230; 1,400 euros), but is also available for free online – a far cry from the dictionary's low-tech beginnings.

Turning philosophical, Dr Finkel reflects on the legacy of our own increasingly electronic age, where so much of what we do is intangible.

"What is there going to be in 1,000 years' time for lunatics like me, who like to read ancient inscriptions – what are they ever going to find?" he asks.

"They will probably say that there was no writing – it was a dark age, that people had forgotten it, because there may be nothing left."

Originally Published On: www.bbc.co.uk – Original Article Here

Jun 13, 2011
| Finanzas<!– | 0 comentarios –>

Originally Published On: www.noticias.com – Original Article Here

Climate warming since 1995 is now statistically significant, according to Phil Jones, the UK scientist targeted in the "ClimateGate" affair.

By widespread convention, scientists use a minimum threshold of 95% to assess whether a trend is likely to be down to an underlying cause, rather than emerging by chance.

If a trend meets the 95% threshold, it basically means that the odds of it being down to chance are less than one in 20.

Last year's analysis, which went to 2009, did not reach this threshold; but adding data for 2010 takes it over the line.

"The trend over the period 1995-2009 was significant at the 90% level, but wasn't significant at the standard 95% level that people use," Professor Jones told BBC News.

"Basically what's changed is one more year [of data]. That period 1995-2009 was just 15 years – and because of the uncertainty in estimating trends over short periods, an extra year has made that trend significant at the 95% level which is the traditional threshold that statisticians have used for many years.

"It just shows the difficulty of achieving significance with a short time series, and that's why longer series – 20 or 30 years – would be a much better way of estimating trends and getting significance on a consistent basis."

Professor Jones' previous comment, from a BBC interview in Febuary 2010, is routinely quoted – erroneously – as demonstration that the Earth's surface temperature is not rising.

The dataset that Professor Jones helps to compile – HadCRUT3 – is a joint project between the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia (UEA), where he is based, and the UK Met Office.

It is one of the main global temperature records used by bodies such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

HadCRUT shows a warming 1995-2010 of 0.19C – consistent with the other major records, which all use slightly different ways of analysing the data in order to compensate for issues such as the dearth of measuring stations in polar regions.

Shortly before the UN climate summit in Copenhagen, Phil Jones found himself at the centre of the affair that came to be known as "ClimateGate", which saw the release of more than 1,000 emails taken from a CRU server.

Critics alleged the emails showed CRU scientists and others attempting to subvert the usual processes of science, and of manipulating data in order to paint an unfounded picture of globally rising temperatures.

Subsequent enquiries found the scientists and their institutions did fall short of best practice in areas such as routine use of professional statisticians and response to Freedom of Information requests, but found no case to answer on the charges of manipulation.

Since then, nothing has emerged through mainstream science to challenge the IPCC's basic picture of a world warming through greenhouse gas emissions.

And a new initiative to construct a global temperature record, based at Stanford University in California whose funders include "climate sceptical" organisations, has reached early conclusions that match established records closely.

Originally Published On: www.bbc.co.uk – Original Article Here

Published June 1st, 2011 – 11:33 GMT

The Qatari Football Association has recently presented a lucrative offer to Barcelona’s coach Pep Guardiola. If the 40 year old tactician accepts the offer he will earn €36 million annually for taking charge of the Qatari national football team between the years 2013-2022.

Guardiola revealed earlier this season that his tenure at Camp Nou is nearing its end. The former Spain international is widely expected to leave the Catalans once his contract expires in the summer of 2012.

The Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Bin Ahmad Al Thani, reportedly sees the ex-midfielder as the perfect man to help take Qatari football to the next level, and is willing to pay him a huge salary for his efforts.

Guardiola previously enjoyed a spell as a player in Qatar at Al Ahly Doha from 2003 until 2005, and has maintained an excellent relationship with several Qatari officials ever since. He was also one of the ambassadors for the tiny nation’s successful 2022 World Cup bid.

Source: www.yallafinance.com

Originally Published On: www1.albawaba.com – Original Article Here

Jun 3, 2011
| Finanzas<!– | 0 comentarios –>

El portal de Internet de compras
colectivas con descuento Groupon ha presentado una declaración de inscripción
ante la Comisión de Valores y Bolsa de Estados Unidos (SEC por sus siglas en
inglés) para sacar a bolsa un número aún no determinado de acciones con las que
espera captar en principio hasta 750 millones de dólares (518 millones de
euros).

Según informó la compañía en un comunicado
remitido a la SEC, la oferta pública inicial de Groupon incluirá acciones
ordinarias de clase A, aunque aún no se ha determinado ni la cantidad de títulos
que se ofrecerán en bolsa ni el rango de precio de la oferta.

Originally Published On: www.noticias.com – Original Article Here