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NEW DELHI, India; The wounds of partition festered again this week in India, resulting in the banning of a book and the expulsion of a respected politician. Protesters burn an effigy of Jaswant Singh over his book; the former foreign minister was ousted from his party. The home state of the father of Indian independence, Mahatma Gandhi, forbade the sale and circulation of a new book it says spews revisionist history about the birth of secular but predominantly Hindu India and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
Written by Jaswant Singh, a former federal minister and senior member of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the book calls Mohammed Ali Jinnah, considered by Indians the architect of the partition, a great man who is wrongly demonized. Jinnah went on to become the first governor general of Pakistan.
In "Jinnah: India, Partition and Independence," Singh absolves the Pakistani leader as the man responsible for dividing the subcontinent, suggesting instead that it was another beloved independence leader, Sardar Patel, who played a major role. "The book wrongfully portrays the fateful partition of our nation," the Gujarat state government said in a statement. " Such a brainchild has no historic background at all. In the larger interest of society, the state government has decided to impose a ban on the book." The BJP accused Singh of deviating from the party's "core ideology".
"We always respect freedom of expression but can never compromise our ideology," Sidharth Nath Singh, a party spokesman, told CNN. "You just can't eulogize Jinnah and accuse Sardar Patel instead." Singh, a widely respected politician known for his moderate views within the ranks of a conservative party, found it appalling that freedom of expression was threatened in the world's largest democracy.
"The day we start banning books, we are banning thinking," Singh told reporters.
He defended his work and said he did not understand the objection to his writings about Patel, who, as India's first home minister, banned the Hindu revivalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the mother organization of the BJP, after the assassination of Gandhi in 1948.
"I don't know which part of the core belief I have demolished," Singh said. source: cnn.com

A group accused of plotting attacks in Egypt for the Lebanese Islamist group Hezbollah has gone on trial in Cairo.
The 22 defendants in court deny spying on ships in the Suez Canal and plotting attacks on holiday resorts popular with Israelis in Sinai.
At least one defendant said he had been tortured. Another four are on the run and being tried in their absence. Hezbollah's leader has admitted one of the men was an agent for the movement but denied any plan to harm Egypt. Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said the Hezbollah member was tasked with smuggling weapons to Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip. The 26 men - two Lebanese, five Palestinians and 19 Egyptians - are charged with spying for a foreign group and planning attacks against tourists and shipping in the Suez Canal. They are also accused of sending operatives into the occupied Gaza Strip to help Palestinian militant groups there. 'Revenge'
As the charges were read out, several of the accused reportedly shouted: "We live and die as Egyptians. We will never betray our country." At least one of the accused said he had been tortured while in Egyptian custody, Reuters news agency reported, adding that he had been referred for medical checks. A lawyer for the men said the charges against them were "absolutely not true". "There was never any question in this case of a plot for the assassination of figures inside Egypt," said the lawyer, Montaser al-Zaiat.
Hezbollah has said the charges are politically motivated and in revenge for the movement's stance on Egypt's support for the Israeli blockade of Gaza.
Hezbollah supports Hamas - the Islamic movement which controls the coastal enclave - and has strongly criticised Egypt for not opening its border with Gaza to relieve the Israeli-imposed blockade on the territory. The trial has been adjourned until October.source: bbc.com

Blog fans in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, saw PittGirl as their masked superhero -- a comedian and local commentator who jibed the mayor without reserve and ranted freely about her hatred of pigeons.
Virginia Montanez says she was fired because she revealed her identity as a local blogger. But despite her effort to keep her real name secret, people started to figure out who PittGirl was.Feeling pressure to take control of her identity before someone else outed her, PittGirl on Wednesday posted pictures of herself on her blog and introduced readers to her real-world self: Virginia Montanez, a 35-year-old married mother of two who worked in the nonprofit sector.
"My friends and family call me Ginny," she wrote on her blog. "But you can continue to call me Your Majesty, because I've grown accustomed."
On Thursday morning, Montanez was fired from her job because of her online persona, she said.Montanez's and other online coming-out stories highlight the complicated way people view anonymity on the Internet and the high stakes that come with trying to keep up an online persona.
The reasons people want to be anonymous online vary. Political whistle blowers fear retribution; employees want to separate the personal from the professional; artists want their work to stand up without an attached biography; and some writers like Montanez take on a sort of Everyman quality by keeping their real names off their posts.source: cnn.com

THE OVAL, LONDON, England -- England regained the Ashes with a 197-run victory over Australia on the fourth day of the fifth and deciding Test to spark scenes of joyous celebration at The Oval on Sunday.
Strauss and his men hold the Ashes aloft after completing a 2-1 series win over Australia. Michael Hussey scored a defiant 121 to hold up the home side, who had been strong favorites after setting Australia a near-impossible 546 for victory.
But he was the last wicket to fall, caught by Alastair Cook at short leg off the bowling of Graeme Swann to give England a 2-1 series victory with two matches drawn.
England had regained the Ashes on home soil in a classic series in 2005, but the world's top-rated Test team won them back in Australia 18 months later.
Australia had been 80 without loss overnight, but England kept plugging away as wickets fell at regular intervals. Swann took four wickets for 120 in a marathon spell and paceman Steve Harmison claimed three wickets. There were also two decisive run outs, with Andrew Flintoff throwing down the wicket to send back Australian captain Ricky Ponting for 66. It was the key dismissal and a fitting end to Flintoff's international Test career as he retires at the end of the match. The other run out involved Michael Clarke, Australia's leading run scorer in the series.source: cnn.com

Comedian Dan Antopolski has won a prize for the funniest joke of this year's Edinburgh Fringe.
The funnyman, who has previously been nominated for the Perrier award, picked up the trophy from TV channel Dave.
Nine comedy critics sat through thousands of jokes before choosing 27 for viewers to vote on.
The winning joke was a one-liner from 36-year-old Antopolski's show Silent But Deadly - "Hedgehogs. Why can't they just share the hedge?"
The Londoner proved popular with critics and viewers and another of his jokes made the top 10 list.
The Top 10 jokes were judged to be:
• 1) Dan Antopolski - "Hedgehogs - why can't they just share the hedge?"
• 2) Paddy Lennox - "I was watching the London Marathon and saw one runner dressed as a chicken and another runner dressed as an egg. I thought: 'This could be interesting'."
• 3) Sarah Millican - "I had my boobs measured and bought a new bra. Now I call them Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes because they're up where they belong."
• 4) Zoe Lyons - "I went on a girls' night out recently. The invitation said 'dress to kill'. I went as Rose West."
• 5) Jack Whitehall - "I'm sure wherever my dad is; he's looking down on us. He's not dead, just very condescending."
• 6) Adam Hills - "Going to Starbucks for coffee is like going to prison for sex. You know you're going to get it, but it's going to be rough."
• 7) Marcus Brigstocke - "To the people who've got iPhones: you just bought one, you didn't invent it!"
• 8) Rhod Gilbert - "A spa hotel? It's like a normal hotel, only in reception there's a picture of a pebble."
• 9) Dan Antopolski - "I've been reading the news about there being a civil war in Madagascar. Well, I've seen it six times and there isn't."
• 10) Simon Brodkin (as Lee Nelson) - "I started so many fights at my school - I had that attention-deficit disorder. So I didn't finish a lot of them."
The judges sat through an average of 60 comedy performances each before creating a shortlist of 27 jokes.
More than 3,000 comedy fans voted, with almost 18% choosing Antopolski's one-liner.
Antopolski said: "I'm delighted to get the prize. Although I have won things before at the Fringe, this definitely means the most to me and that it should unite my loves of hedgehogs, comedy and Dave makes this prize very special."
The judges also listed some of the worst jokes at this year's Fringe.
• Carey Marx - "I'm not doing any Michael Jackson jokes, because they always involve puns about his songs. And that's bad."
• Frank Woodley - "I phoned the swine flu hotline and all I got was crackling."
• Alex Maple - "Michael Jackson only invented the moonwalk so he could sneak up on children."
• Phil Nichol - "She's got a face like a rare Chinese vase - minging."
• Alistair McGowan - "I've just split up from my girlfriend, which is a shame, because it was a long-standing arrangement. Perhaps if we'd sat down a bit more..." source: bbc.com

BERLIN, Germany (CNN) -- After bagging three gold medals and setting two world records at the Berlin world championships, Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt told CNN he didn't expect to be so successful.
Bolt received a commemorative slab of the Berlin Wall as he celebrated his world championship success.
"I didn't see this coming," Bolt told CNN's Frederik Pleitgen. "I guess it's competition. I keep telling people competition is good for the sport. I had to be at my best, and I was at my best."
During the championships, Bolt smashed his own 100 meter world record with a time of 9.58 seconds. In the 200 meters, Bolt took gold in a phenomenal 19.19 seconds, shaving just a tenth of a second off the mark he set in winning the competition at the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing. He also nabbed a third gold in the 4 x 100 meter relay on the penultimate day of the championships on Saturday, running the third leg for Jamaica. "My secret's just hard work and dedication," Bolt told CNN. "I'm really dedicated to being a champion. I want to be a legend, so I have to work really hard." Bolt told a cheering crowd at a news conference in the German capital, "I will never forget being here." He told CNN he has been training for this ever since 2007, when he suffered defeat at the Osaka world championships. He and his coach analyzed that performance, and he went back and worked on some aspects of his sprinting, he told CNN.
How much faster can he go? "I don't know," Bolt, who celebrated his 23rd birthday on Friday, told CNN. source: cnn.com

A man suspected of murdering his wife near Los Angeles has been found dead in a motel room in the Canadian province of British Columbia, police say. Ryan Jenkins, 32, had been the subject of a massive manhunt after the naked body of Jasmine Fiore, a 28-year-old former model, was found in a suitcase. He had reported his wife missing, and then disappeared himself. His boat was was found near the US-Canada border. Police said it was unclear how long Jenkins' body had been in the motel.
Fiore and Jenkins were married in March
Sgt Duncan Pound of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police says investigators were alerted after police had responded to a call about a dead person at the Thunderbird Motel in Hope, east of Vancouver. "Preliminary evidence suggests that he took his own life," said Sgt Pound.
A police source in California said that Jenkins had hanged himself and was identified by his fingerprints. Mangled body Jenkins had been taking part in the show Megan Wants a Millionaire. Described as an investment banker, Mr Jenkins was one of several wealthy young men trying to win the affections of a young woman in the show.
Jasmine Fiore was found dead 10 days ago
The TV channel VH1 cancelled the series after he was identified as a suspect. Ms Fiore had no connection with the show, but she and Mr Jenkins had married in Las Vegas in March. Her mangled body was found in a suitcase in a metal rubbish bin in Buena Park, south of Los Angeles, on 15 August. She was identified by a serial number on her breast implants. After several days of searching, police found Jenkins' boat more than 950 miles (1,500km) north of Los Angeles - in the town of Point Roberts on the Canadian border."We continue to believe that Mr Jenkins was solely responsible" for the murder, said a spokeswoman for the Orange County District Attorney's Office in California, after his death was announced. source: bbc.com

Some classified sections of a CIA report into the torture of US terrorism suspects are due to be made public. US newspapers claim they will reveal the use of mock executions and an electric drill to frighten detainees.
A heavily-censored version of the 2004 internal CIA review was released last year. A US federal judge ordered an edited version to be released on Monday, after a legal challenge by the American Civil Liberties Union.
Lawyers for the US Justice Department and the CIA have been scrutinising the report since June to determine how much of it can be made public. Classified sections
The CIA inspector general's review of the detention and interrogation of terrorism suspects was written in 2004. It was first made public last year but in an almost meaningless form, because so much remained classified, the BBC's Daniel Sandford reports from Washington.
Parts of the contents page were obscured, and all of the introduction and the conclusions withheld.
One page was completely black apart from references to "enhanced interrogation techniques" and "the waterboard technique", our correspondent adds. The US has banned harsh interrogation methods, including death threats. source: bbc.com

A new picture of Fidel Castro has been published in a state-run newspaper, apparently showing Cuba's ailing former leader in much better health.
Mr Castro, 83, was dressed more smartly than in other recent photos, wearing a white shirt rather than a tracksuit. Later he appeared on television for the first time in 14 months, chatting to Venezuelan students, in a meeting which reportedly took place on Saturday. He has not been seen in public since undergoing an operation in 2006. Mr Castro stepped down and his younger brother, Raul, took over his various offices. Since then he has undergone a series of major intestinal operations, although the state of his health and whereabouts remain state secrets.
Neatly combed
The photograph in Juventud Rebelde, the Communist Youth newspaper, showed Mr Castro talking to Ecuador's left-wing President, Rafael Correa.
There was speculation that Fidel Castro's health had deteriorated significantly at the end of last year in the run-up to the 50th anniversary of Cuba's revolution, says the BBC's Michael Voss in Havana. But his health does appear to have visibly improved in recent months, our correspondent adds. In the latest photograph Mr Castro appears stronger: his greying, almost white hair is neatly combed back and even his trademark beard appears to have grown a little.
He remains an influential figure behind the scenes in Cuba and publishes regular editorials in the state-run media. Occasional photographs of him are published, usually showing him greeting visiting dignitaries. source: bbc.com

A Malaysian model, who was set to become the first woman caned in the southeast Asian country for drinking beer in public, was inexplicably spared her sentence Monday, her father said.
Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno was inexplicably spared her sentence for drinking beer in public. Authorities had picked up Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno, 32, from her father's house Monday morning and were taking her to a prison in the eastern state of Pahang when the van turned around and brought her back."They sent her back to the house. They said the top official asked them not to bring her to Kuala Lumpur," said Kartika's father, Shukarno Abdul Muttalib.It was not immediately known whether authorities had dropped the sentence or postponed it. It was also not clear who had ordered Kartika returned.
"Now I am frightened and I am going to the police station to make a report," the father said. "I don't want them to say that Kartika ran away when they came here. I want them to know she was returned."Kartika refused to get out of the van until her release had been confirmed in writing.Don't Miss
Model says she feels regret, shame
An Islamic, or sharia, court in the eastern state of Pahang had fined Kartika -- a Muslim -- $1,400 (5,000 Malaysian ringgit) and sentenced her to six strokes with a rattan cane for drinking at a hotel bar two years ago.Kartika, a 32-year-old part-time model and mother of two, was visiting Malaysia from Singapore at the time.She pleaded guilty, paid the fine, and wanted her caning to be carried out in public.
She said she lost her job as a nurse in Singapore and took up modeling to support her husband in raising their children. Her 7-year-old son has cerebral palsy; her 5-year-old daughter, a heart condition."I want to move on. This case has been hanging over me for a long time," she told CNN last week.On Monday morning, Kartika hugged her children, bade a tearful goodbye to the throngs of people gathered at her father's house, and boarded the van.
She was to be taken to a prison on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur. The caning would have been carried out within seven days after that, making her the first woman to be caned in Malaysia under sharia law.source: cnn.com

Thousands of residents of Athens' northern suburbs have spent the night away from their homes as wildfires continue to threaten the area.
At least six major blazes are reported to be still out of control, and strong winds have been fanning the flames.
As the fires raged for a third day, they burnt dozens of homes and large areas of forest near the Greek capital. To the north, the town of Marathon, with important archaeological sites, was said to be encircled by fires.
More than 90 fires are thought to have started since Saturday and more than 37,000 acres of land have been burnt. While no casualties have been reported, a regional Athens governor, Yiannis Sgouros, has called the fires an "ecological disaster".
'Begging for help' AT THE SCENE
Malcolm Brabant, BBC News, Drafi, Athens
In leafy suburbs like Drafi, barely a tree has been left standing. A once beautiful green valley has been turned into a giant ash bowl. But almost all the expensive houses somehow survived.
We had to leave our modest home just before dawn as fire raced up the hill, but the flames stopped at the back garden wall. Many residents have similar narrow escapes to recount.
But the biggest casualty has been the environment. The loss of so much foliage is going to have an enormous negative impact on air quality in Athens. The wooded hillsides on the outskirts of the capital acted as its lungs and air conditioning units, providing much needed oxygen and cooler air.
Brabant flees home as fires rage Almost the entire population of Agios Stefanos, 23km (14 miles) north-east of Athens, fled on Sunday by vehicle or on foot. But others refused to leave, carrying out a desperate defence of their homes with garden hoses, buckets, and shovels, the BBC's Dominic Hughes reports from Athens. source: bbc.com

At least nine people are reported to have been killed in north-west Pakistan in a suspected US missile strike. One or two missiles targeted a compound in the village of Dande Darpa Khel in the tribal region of North Waziristan, Pakistani officials said. The village is believed to be frequented by associates of an Afghan Taliban leader, Jalaluddin Haqqani.
There have been dozens of such drone strikes in the past year in the restive region, which borders Afghanistan.
Residents of the main town in the region, Miran Shah, reported hearing a huge blast which shattered windows and blew out doors, said the AFP news agency. Officials said some people had also been wounded in the attack. The US military does not routinely confirm drone attacks but the armed forces and the Central Intelligence Agency operating in Afghanistan are believed to be the only forces capable of deploying drones in the region.
Pakistan has been publicly critical of drone attacks. The government says that they fuel support for the militants. Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, is though to have died in a similar drone strike on 5 August. But some Taliban elements have denied he is dead.
source: bbc.com

Three technology heavyweights are joining a coalition to fight Google's attempt to create what could be the world's largest virtual library.
Amazon, Microsoft and Yahoo will sign up to the Open Book Alliance being spearheaded by the Internet Archive.
They oppose a legal settlement that could make Google the main source for many online works. "Google is trying to monopolise the library system," the Internet Archive's founder Brewster Kahle told BBC News.
"If this deal goes ahead, they're making a real shot at being 'the' library and the only library."
Back in 2008, the search giant reached an agreement with publishers and authors to settle two lawsuits that charged the company with copyright infringement for the unauthorised scanning of books.
In that settlement, Google agreed to pay $125m (£76m) to create a Book Rights Registry, where authors and publishers can register works and receive compensation. Authors and publishers would get 70% from the sale of these books with Google keeping the remaining 30%.
Google would also be given the right to digitise orphan works. These are works whose rights-holders are unknown, and are believed to make up an estimated 50-70% of books published after 1923. Comments on the deal have to be lodged by September 4th. In early October, a judge in the Southern district of New York will consider whether or not to approve the class-action suit. In a separate development, the US Department of Justice is conducting an anti-trust investigation into the impact of the agreement.
'Open access'
Critics have claimed the settlement will transform the future of the book industry and of public access to the cultural heritage of mankind embodied in books. The Internet Archive scans around 1000 books a day at 30 cents a page
"The techniques we have built up since the enlightenment of having open access, public support for libraries, lots of different organisational structures, lots of distributed ownership of books that can be exchanged, resold and repackaged in different ways - all of that is being thrown out in this particular approach," warned Mr Kahle. source: bbc.com

A Michael Jackson film built around rehearsal footage shot before his death will be released in a limited two-week run worldwide, Sony Pictures has said.
The distributor added it had brought forward the release date of This Is It by two days, anticipating huge demand.
The film, directed by Kenny Ortega - the choreographer of Jackson's planned shows at London's O2 arena - offers a behind-the-scenes look at preparations.
This Is It will be released in cinemas on 28 October. "This film is Michael's gift to his fans," Ortega said. It would give them a "very private, exclusive look" into the world of a "creative genius", he added.
"For the first time ever, fans will see Michael as they have never seen him before, this great artist at work. "It is raw, emotional, moving and powerful footage that captures his interactions with the This Is It collaborators that he had personally assembled for this once-in-a-lifetime project." source: bbc.com

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Brad Pitt gets top billing in Quentin Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds," but Austrian actor Christoph Waltz may have turned in the most memorable performance as a Nazi "Jew Hunter."
Christoph Waltz attends a special screening of "Inglourious Basterds" in New York. Waltz, a 52-year-old veteran of German television, was hardly known outside of Europe, until now.
Tarantino, insisting on actors with geographic origins similar to their characters, chose Waltz to play a complex and unforgettable villain: Nazi Col. Hans Landa.
Landa mixes charm, humor and intelligence with great cruelty and opportunism as he travels through Tarantino's unpredictable screenplay.
Waltz calls Landa "one of the great villains in dramatic literature."
His performance earned Waltz the best actor award at the Cannes Film Festival, but the actor credits the writer for creating a "multifaceted and layered" character.
"It's what Quentin [Tarantino] has written, and let me tell you, that's plenty," Waltz said. "Because I could still be sitting there trying to figure out what else is in there. And it's bottomless."
The opening scene of "Inglourious Basterds" is itself a short film in the style of a spaghetti western, starring Waltz as "The Jew Hunter."source: cnn.com

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Former Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge says he successfully countered an effort by senior Bush administration officials to raise the nation's terror alert level in the days before the 2004 presidential vote.
Ex-Homeland Security Chief Tom Ridge says he was pushed to raise the terror alert before the 2004 election.
"An election-eve drama was being played out at the highest levels of our government" after Osama bin Laden released a pre-election message critical of President George W. Bush, writes Ridge in his new book, "The Test of Our Times."
Attorney General John Ashcroft and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld strongly advocated raising the security threat level to "orange" -- even though Ridge believed a threatening message "should not be the sole reason to elevate the threat level."
The former Pennsylvania governor also writes that he saw no reason for the move, which he now calls a bad idea, because additional security precautions had already been taken in advance of the election.
"We certainly didn't believe the tape alone warranted action, and we weren't seeing any additional intelligence that justified it. In fact, we were incredulous," Ridge said of the push. "... I wondered, 'Is this about security or politics?'" Watch panelists discuss Ridge's allegations »
The idea that an attack might take place had been discussed, he says. "But at this point there was nothing to indicate a specific threat and no reason to cause undue public alarm. ... It also seemed possible to me and to others around the table that something could be afoot other than simple concern about the country's safety."
In the end, the threat level was not raised.source: cnn.com

The Chelsea building society has revealed it has lost £41m as a result of mortgage frauds by some of its buy-to-let borrowers.The frauds are the main reason for the society staying in the red, with overall losses of £26m in the first half of the year. Last year, the Chelsea lost £39m, the largest annual loss yet recorded by any building society. Its finance director has now joined its chief executive in agreeing to resign.
"The society has been through a difficult period and reporting a loss in the first half of the year is disappointing," said Stuart Bernau, the Chelsea's chairman and interim chief executive. "However, the underlying performance is strong, even though we have had to make provision for impairment and fraud losses."
The Chelsea explained that the fraudulent loans it had discovered were mainly among buy-to-let loans made between 2006 and 2008. It said the frauds were mainly due to "the artificial inflation of property values by third-party professionals involved in the transactions".
Experts have now combed through all the society's mortgages, searching for actual or suspected frauds, and have come to the conclusion it has lost £41m.
The society said it was now trying to recover the money "vigorously."
The Chelsea stopped making any new buy-to-let, sub-prime, self-certification or commercial loans at the end of last year.
The Chelsea is the fourth largest building society in the UK, with 606,000 savers and 34 branches. Mortgage arrears and falling house prices led the Chelsea to write off a further £12m in the first half of 2009, in addition to the money set aside for the mortgage fraud.
Its directors said the society was "comparatively well-placed" to deal with the problems of potential further losses and the difficulty of attracting savers, amid fierce competition from other societies and banks.
But the directors said they would "continue to review the strategic options available to the society", a phrase often used by managements when they are considering seeking a buyer or a merger partner. source: bbc.com

Usain Bolt broke his own world record in the 200 meters as he completed the sprint double at the world championships in Berlin in sensational style.
Bolt crosses the line in the 200m final in a world record 19.19 seconds.
The remarkable Jamaican took gold in 19.19 seconds, shaving just over a tenth of a second off the mark he set in winning the 200m at last year's Beijing Olympics.
Bolt also smashed his own 100m world record with a 9.58 seconds clocking in claiming gold in the shorter sprint on the second day of the championships.
Bolt, who celebrates his 23rd birthday on Friday, made a fine start and was well clear of the field coming around the bend, clearly pushing to the line as he eyed his old mark of 19.30 seconds.
Alonso Edward of Panama claimed a fine silver in 19.81 seconds with Wallace Spearmon of the United States taking the bronze in 19.85 seconds.
Bolt will bid to emulate his triple gold medal tally from Beijing in the sprint relay for Jamaica in the final day of the championships on Sunday.
Earlier, Jamaica's gold rush in Berlin continued with victory for Melaine Walker in the women's 400m hurdles.source: cnn.com

People with conditions such as HIV, TB and malaria should not rely on homeopathic treatments, the World Health Organization has warned.
It was responding to calls from young researchers who fear the promotion of homeopathy in the developing world could put people's lives at risk.
The group Voice of Young Science Network has written to health ministers to set out the WHO view. WHO TB experts said homeopathy had "no place" in treatment of the disease. There is no objective evidence that homeopathy has any effect on these infections Dr Nick Beeching, Royal Liverpool University Hospital
In a letter to the WHO in June, the medics from the UK and Africa said: "We are calling on the WHO to condemn the promotion of homeopathy for treating TB, infant diarrhoea, influenza, malaria and HIV. "Homeopathy does not protect people from, or treat, these diseases.
"Those of us working with the most rural and impoverished people of the world already struggle to deliver the medical help that is needed. "When homeopathy stands in place of effective treatment, lives are lost."Dr Robert Hagan is a researcher in biomolecular science at the University of St Andrews and a member of Voice of Young Science Network, which is part of the charity Sense About Science campaigning for "evidence-based" care. He said: "We need governments around the world to recognise the dangers of promoting homeopathy for life-threatening illnesses.
"We hope that by raising awareness of the WHO's position on homeopathy we will be supporting those people who are taking a stand against these potentially disastrous practices."
'No evidence'
Dr Mario Raviglione, director of the Stop TB department at the WHO, said: "Our evidence-based WHO TB treatment/management guidelines, as well as the International Standards of Tuberculosis Care do not recommend use of homeopathy."
The doctors had also complained that homeopathy was being promoted as a treatment for diarrhoea in children. But a spokesman for the WHO department of child and adolescent health and development said: "We have found no evidence to date that homeopathy would bring any benefit. "Homeopathy does not focus on the treatment and prevention of dehydration - in total contradiction with the scientific basis and our recommendations for the management of diarrhoea."
Dr Nick Beeching, a specialist in infectious diseases at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital, said: "Infections such as malaria, HIV and tuberculosis all have a high mortality rate but can usually be controlled or cured by a variety of proven treatments, for which there is ample experience and scientific trial data. source: bbc.com

LONDON, England (CNN) -- The case of South African athlete Caster Semenya has sparked worldwide interest following reports that she will be tested by sporting officials to determine whether she is male or female.
Semenya celebrates her gold, which came just hours after the IAAF called for a gender test on the athlete.
The 18-year-old won gold in the 800 meters race Wednesday but she may be forced to return the medal if she fails a gender-verification test imposed by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF).
According to media reports, the IAAF are testing to see whether Semenya has a rare genetic disorder that means she has female genitalia but male chromosomes.
This condition, known as intersex, is commonly referred to as hermaphroditism. (Some support groups say that the term "hermaphroditism" can be inaccurate and offensive, as it implies that someone is both fully male and fully female, which is a physiologic impossibility.)
According to the Intersex Society of North America, (ISNA) intersex is a "general term used for a variety of conditions in which a person is born with a reproductive or sexual anatomy that doesn't seem to fit the typical definitions of female or male."
"For example, a person might be born appearing to be female on the outside, but having mostly male-typical anatomy on the inside," a statement on the society's Web site says. source: cnn.com

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- At least two people were killed and 20 injured in a bombing in southern Baghdad on Friday morning, an Interior Ministry official told CNN.
Crews clear debris from the twin bombings of the ministries of finance and foreign affairs in Baghdad.
more photos » The bomb exploded in a market in Dora district, the official said. The market is usually crowded in the morning with poor farmers selling their produce. Residents in the area have complained to CNN about lax security after the market was repeatedly struck by bombings in recent months.
The attack follows a series of bombings on Thursday that left four dead and dozens injured in Babil province south of Baghdad. The five blasts struck crowded streets within one hour.
At least 100 people were killed and more than 500 wounded Wednesday in six explosions in the capital, which included two massive suicide truck bombs that targeted Iraqi ministries.
In one attack, a truck bomb exploded outside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The blast blew through the front of the building, sending some vehicles flying and leaving others in mangled twists of metal in the area, which is just outside the restricted International Zone, also known as the Green Zone. Another truck bomb went off outside the Ministry of Finance building.
Eleven high-ranking security officials from the Iraqi army and police were detained for investigation Thursday. suorce: cnn.com

Relatives of those who died in the bombing of a US plane over Lockerbie voiced anger as the man convicted of the attack was welcomed home in Libya. Crowds in Tripoli greeted Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, after he was freed from prison on compassionate grounds.
The son of Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi called his release a courageous step by Scotland and Britain. But there was angry reaction from families of those killed in the bombing and from US President Barack Obama.
Most of the 270 people who died when Pan Am Flight 103 blew up over Lockerbie in 1988 were Americans. Miliband attacks Megrahi welcome US powerless as bomber freed Bomber release: What now? Mr Obama said Megrahi's release, eight years into his life sentence, was "a mistake".
He said his administration had told the Libyan government that Megrahi, who has terminal cancer, should not receive a hero's welcome and should be placed under house arrest.
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said the sight of Megrahi being welcomed in the Libyan capital was very disturbing for the families of those who died in the bombing.
"Obviously the sight of a mass murderer getting a hero's welcome in Tripoli is deeply upsetting, deeply distressing," he told the BBC. source: bbc.com

Scientists have developed a quick and simple way to diagnose endometriosis, without requiring surgery. All that is needed is a small sample of womb lining, taken in a similar way to a smear test, that can be checked for the presence of nerve fibres. According to the Human Reproduction journal, this can predict with nearly 100% accuracy the condition's presence. Endometriosis is a common problem where cells that usually line the womb are found elsewhere in the body. It affects about two million women in the UK, most of whom are diagnosed between the ages of 25 and 40. As well as causing pain and discomfort, it can also lead to infertility. If other doctors can confirm this test, this might become the standard way of diagnosing endometriosis Professor David HealyPresident-elect of the International Federation of Fertility Societies Conventionally, doctors use laparoscopy to diagnose endometriosis.
This involves the woman being booked into hospital for the invasive "keyhole" surgical procedure carried out under general anaesthetic. Laparoscopy itself can be associated with complications and can harm a woman's fertility. source: bbc.com

Authorities in the western Indian state of Gujarat state have banned a controversial book on Pakistan's founder Mohammed Ali Jinnah.
The book has been written by Jaswant Singh, an expelled leader of the Hindu nationalist main opposition party BJP. The BJP government in Gujarat said it banned the book for its "defamatory references" to Vallabhbhai Patel, India's first home minister. The late Mr Patel is a political icon in his home state of Gujarat. Described often as the "Iron Man of India", Mr Patel played an important role in the country's independence and the integration of the different states in the Indian Union.
"The book has been banned because it contains defamatory references regarding Vallabhai Patel who is considered as the architect of the modern India," a statement by the Gujarat government says.
Jaswant Singh's book is a serious academic exercise, one long overdue. A serious political party should have space for that Pratap Bhanu Mehta, analyst
"It is a bid to defame Patel by distorting historical facts. So, the state government has decided to ban the book with immediate effect for wider public interest." Jaswant Singh said he was "saddened" by the banning of the book in Gujarat. "The day we start banning books, we are banning thinking," he said. Jaswant Singh book examines the role of Congress party leader and the country's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, and Mr Patel in the partition of India in 1947. He writes that Mr Patel was "far off the mark" in many ways with his projections about the division and future of India. The book was released earlier this week and immediately created a controversy. source: bbc.com

MySpace will acquire the popular music discovery service iLike that allows users listen to and share music across social networks.
iLike reportedly turned down an offer from rival Facebook, where it is the top music application. The company has 55 million registered users and has been prominent on most social networks apart from MySpace.
"The iLike acquisition advances our relentless pursuit of innovation," said MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta. "Music entertainment is an important piece of people's lives," he told reporters in a conference call.
In a statement, iLike president Hadi Partovi said: "I'm enthusiastic about what this combination will mean for our users, artists, advertisers, and our staff. "We are beginning an exciting new journey together." The terms of the deal were not disclosed but the blogosphere has reported that iLike was sold "fairly cheaply" at about $20m (£12.4m). MySpace has been working to overhaul its business into one more focused on global music and entertainment. source: bbc.com

A reality TV contestant is wanted for questioning in connection with the death of his ex-wife, a former swimsuit model whose nude body was found stuffed into a suitcase. Jasmine Fiore's nude body was found in a suitcase near a trash bin behind an apartment complex. 1 of 2 According to police, 28-year-old Jasmine Fiore, who lived in Los Angeles, California, was last seen alive Friday in San Diego at a poker game with Ryan Alexander Jenkins. ''We believe that perhaps he might have information that would be beneficial to the investigation,'' Lt. Gary Worrall of the Buena Park Police Department said Wednesday on HLN's Nancy Grace. Authorities said Jenkins reported Fiore missing Saturday night to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. Earlier that same day, a body was found in a large suitcase inside a trash bin behind an apartment complex in Buena Park, just outside Anaheim in Orange County. Watch why police want to talk to model's ex-husband »
On Monday, the body was identified as Fiore. While the cause of death has not been confirmed, a preliminary coroner's report indicates she was strangled.
Jenkins, who appeared in two VH1 reality TV shows, "Megan Wants a Millionaire" and "I Love Money 3," may have headed back to his native Calgary, Alberta, police say.
He and Fiore reportedly had been married a few weeks before getting the union annulled.
"Given the fact that he has some celebrity status, we're quite certain that he has been made aware of the media frenzy regarding this case,'' Worrall said.
''And we have made some attempts to get in touch with him.''

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose disputed re-election triggered a political crisis in the country, has unveiled his list of cabinet ministers. For the first time in the 30-year history of the Islamic republic it includes three women. Mr Ahmadinejad was sworn in for a second term on 5 August after a disputed poll in June. Lawmakers are expected to begin voting on the proposed 21-member list at the end of the month. Under the proposed list, women would head up the country's health, social welfare and education ministries. The nominees for the respective posts are Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi, Fatemeh Ajorlou and Sousan Keshavarz. source: bbc.com

The veteran Israeli entertainer Dudu Topaz has hanged himself in his prison cell, officials say. He was arrested in June and accused of plotting attacks on TV executives who had reportedly turned down his ideas. He denied any involvement.
The 62-year-old Topaz was a household name in Israel, but in recent years his career had been on the wane. A statement from the prison services said Topaz was found hanging in the shower of his cell. Paramedics were unable to revive him. Three other people were arrested in connection with the alleged attacks on TV executives earlier this year. It was not the first time Topaz had courted controversy. In 2003, on a TV show, he bit the arm of a Latin American soap opera star. And in 1995 he broke the glasses of a TV critic who had given his show a bad review. source: bbc.com

A 14-year-old boy allegedly beaten at a boot camp in China for young Internet addicts was in critical condition Thursday, less than three weeks after a youth at a different camp died, Chinese state media reported.
People sit at a wireless cafe in Beijing, using their laptop computers.
Internet use has skyrocketed in China, especially among teens. And Chinese parents have turned to hundreds of training camps that offer to wean their children -- mostly teenagers -- from excessive Internet use.
There are at least 400 private rehabilitation clinics or camps in the country, according to a recent survey by the China Youth Internet Association, adding that China has 10 million teenage Web addicts. But the Chinese Ministry of Health says none of the private rehab clinics are legally registered. The parents of Pu Liang, the injured teen, had sent him to a camp called the Anti-traditional Education Training Center on August 4 near Chengdu, capital of the southwestern province of Sichuan, Chinese media reported.
Pu allegedly was beaten three times between August 4 and August 11. Police discovered the boy in solitary confinement last week and he was taken to a hospital, according to media reports.
His parents accused a counselor at the camp and Pu's peers of repeatedly hitting him, Chinese media said, adding that particular camp has been closed. "He is suffering from water on the lungs and kidney failure," Pu's father, Pu Shiwei, told the publication China View on Wednesday. "All injuries were done by the people at the camp." The training center denied that a counselor beat the youth, contending Pu was hit by other campers because he couldn't get along with them, China View reported.
Authorities in Zhongjiang county, where the camp is located, said they detained the counselor after a report of alleged abuse from the parents of another child. The man who established the military-style camp, Wu Yongjing, admitted to the BBC that youngsters were sometimes subjected to "physical punishment." "Physical punishment is an effective way to educate children -- as long as it can be controlled," he said in an online story Wednesday.
The injured youth's mother told Chinese media that her son "got addicted to online games and frequented Internet cafes ... at the end of last semester, my son said he didn't want to go to school." The mother, Li Shubing, saw an ad for the training camp and hoped her son could be helped, she told China Daily. The parents signed a contract with the center and paid 5,000 yuan (about $730), she said. In a separate incident, 15-year-old Deng Senshan died after his parents sent him to a summer training camp for his Internet addiction, according to Chinese news agency Xinhua. That camp was in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. source: cnn.com

The first-ever video advertisement will be published in a traditional paper magazine in September.
The video-in-print ads will appear in select copies of the US show business title Entertainment Weekly.
The slim-line screens - around the size of a mobile phone display - also have rechargeable batteries. The chip technology used to store the video - described as similar to that used in singing greeting cards - is activated when the page is turned. Each chip can hold up to 40 minutes of video.
The first clips will preview programmes from US TV network CBS and show adverts by the drinks company Pepsi. VIDEO TECHNOLOGY
Screen uses liquid crystal display (LCD) technology Each is 2.7mm thick with 320x240 resolution Can store 40mins of video Battery can be recharged via mini-USB
Rechargeable battery lasts up to 70 mins Developed by LA-firm Americhip
They will appear in 18 September editions of the magazine distributed in Los Angeles and New York. It's believed the new technology will cost much more than normal print ads.
However, BBC correspondent Rajesh Mirchandani said that in an increasingly competitive market, advertisers have realised that it is more important than ever to create attention for their product. He likened the technology to the Daily Prophet - a newspaper with moving pictures described in the Harry Potter books. It is not the first time that publishers have experimented with digital technology in magazines.
Last year, for example, men's lifestyle magazine Esquire published the first using e-ink technology, with a cover that flashed in alternating patterns. E-ink is the technology used in the Sony Reader and Amazon Kindle electronic books. Americhip, the developer of video-in-print, has also created magazine technology that appeals to various senses, including smell.
source: bbc.com

South African teenager Caster Semenya won the women's 800 meters gold medal at the World Athletics Championships in Berlin, just hours after the sport's governing body asked for the 18-year-old's gender to be verified.
Semenya celebrates her gold, which came just hours after the IAAF called for a gender test on the athlete.
Semenya crushed her rivals by streaking away to secure victory in a time of one minute 55.45 seconds -- the best time in the world this year.
Defending champion Janeth Jepkosgei of Kenya took the silver with Briton Jennifer Meadows claiming bronze. However, the race was run amid controversy following the announcement by the International Amateur Athletics Federation (IAAF).
"The gender verification test is an extremely complex procedure," said IAAF spokesman Nick Davies -- who revealed the question of Semenya's gender was first raised after her astonishing African junior championship displays. "In the case of this athlete, following her breakthrough in the African junior championships, the rumors, the gossip were starting to build-up," Davies added to reporters. There have been precedents in such cases, the most famous being that of Polish athletics great Stella Walsh, who won Olympic gold in the 100 yards at the 1932 Olympics and silver in the same event in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.source: cnn.com

KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Under the menacing threat of violence from the Taliban, Afghans headed to the polls on Thursday in the war-ravaged nation's second-ever national election. Burqa-clad women display ID cards as they queue to vote in Kandahar on Thursday.
1 of 4 more photos » In parts of the capital Kabul, where recent calm was shattered by a series of bloody attacks leading up to election day, the streets were eerily empty early in the day, save extra security checkpoints. At midday, NATO's International Security Assistance Force reported "Kabul is calm."
The Taliban has vowed to disrupt the voting, and the risk may have been too high for some Afghans to venture out to vote. The government ordered a ban on media coverage of incidents of violence in an effort to "ensure the wide participation of the Afghan people."
Thousands of NATO and Afghan soldiers provided security at the polls and more than 30 observer groups -- domestic and international -- were on hand to monitor the voting. Watch an election monitor in Kabul discuss what's being examined »
But in other parts of Afghanistan that have been largely spared the daily drumbeat of car bombs, assassinations and whizzing rockets, voters lined up to cast their ballots.
Pajhwok, an independent Afghan news agency, reported brisk turnout in western Herat province, which borders Iran. source: cnn.com

Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi is set to learn whether he will be allowed to return to Libya.
Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill is likely to announce his release on compassionate grounds, the BBC revealed last week.
Megrahi, 57, who has served eight years of a life sentence for killing 270 people in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight, has terminal prostate cancer.
Some 189 Americans were among those who died in the airliner explosion.
Mr MacAskill has been under intense pressure from the US government to keep Megrahi behind bars, with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton saying his release would be "absolutely wrong".
Earlier, a letter from seven US senators including Edward Kennedy and John Kerry had urged the Scottish Government to block Megrahi's bid for release.
Brian Taylor BBC Scottish political editor Scottish ministers must hope discontent is primarily aimed at the option of prisoner transfer and not the more likely avenue of compassionate release. That, I would suggest, is likely to be a tough sell.
US opinion may simply find it difficult to understand why a man convicted of involvement in the death of 270 people, including US citizens, has been released. Read Brian Taylor's blog
Mr MacAskill said on Wednesday he had informed families and other interested parties that he had reached his decision on the applications for compassionate release and a prisoner transfer. He will announce his decision at 1300 BST at the Scottish Government's ministerial headquarters in Edinburgh.
A spokesman for the administration insisted the decision had been reached "on the basis of clear evidence and on no other factors".
BBC correspondent Peter Hunt said Megrahi was described as having only months left to live.
"Given this prognosis, it's thought that the perpetrator of Britain's biggest terrorist atrocity - who two days ago abandoned his appeal against his sentence - has now spent his last night in a Scottish jail. "It's expected he will be allowed to return home to die," he added.source: bbc.com

UTTAR PRADESH, India (CNN) -- On World Population Day this year India's new health and welfare minister came out with an idea on how to tackle the population issue: Bring electricity to every Indian village so that people would watch television until late at night and therefore be too tired to make babies.
Could the remote control be a birth control method?
1 of 2 That statement raised eyebrows across this vast country -- but what are the realities and reactions from families who make up the second largest population in the world?
At 80-plus years old Omar Mohammed has never heard of population control.
He lives in India's most populous state Uttar Pradesh and has certainly done his part in contributing to India's burgeoning population.
"Now you see I have 24 children, 13 boys and 11 girls," Omar says.
Omar believes only God can decide how many children you should have. He lifts his hands to the sky and says: "This is His command. It's not my doing, it's His doing."
On the other hand there's the Arora family in the capital city of Delhi. They have two children.
"You can't even get enough water or electricity now. So its advisable that people have only two children and then they should stop having more kids." mother Anjana Arora says.
The Aroras know a little something about population issues; their daughter was given the official title of India's one billionth citizen when she was born in 2000.
With family planning and free contraceptive programs the Indian government has long tried to encourage families to have only two children.
Overall government statistics show the birth rate is coming down. The numbers show 14 of India's 35 states have reached the two child per family target.
But the push is failing in other states, especially in villages and among the poor and illiterate where the fertility rate is as high as 3.5 children per woman. source: cnn.com

Jamaica's Usain Bolt remains on track for a World Championships sprint double after easing into the 200m semi-finals in Berlin's Olympic Stadium.
Bolt, fresh from winning the 100m, won his second-round heat in 20.42 seconds.
Britain's Marlon Devonish and Ireland's Paul Hession also qualified after Tyson Gay pulled out with a groin injury.
In the 400m, defending champion Jeremy Wariner and Olympic champion Lashawn Merritt sauntered into the semi-finals by comfortably winning their heats.
Gay's withdrawal from the 200m before the first round had already increased Bolt's chance of repeating his Beijing double, with the semi-finals scheduled for Wednesday at 1825 BST and the final on Thursday.
Bolt looked tired in his morning heat and, despite cruising through the first 100m, the 22-year-old was forced to up his pace to ensure he qualified first in a time of in 20.70.
But he seemed far more relaxed in the second round and cruised to victory after a few hours' sleep in between races.
606: DEBATE What a man. Charisma, personality, the build of a superhuman, his banter to the camera before the gun... downtownchris
"I think the 100m took a lot more out of me than it did in Beijing," said Bolt. "I wasn't in the best of shape, like I was in Beijing, but a good night's sleep should make sure I'm OK.
"I got three hours sleep after my morning heat and that was enough for me." source: bbc.com

South Korea's Yang Yong-Eun's historic victory over Tiger Woods in the U.S. PGA Championship ensured he became the first Asian-born male winner of a major and prompted an excited reaction across the world of golf.
Yang Yong-Eun became the first Asian-born male to win a major after his victory in the U.S. PGA Championship.
more photos » The 37-year-old was two shots adrift of overnight leader Woods but kept his cool to card 70 to the American's 75 to win by three on the final green at the Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minnesota.
South Korea's president, Lee Myung-bak got up before sunrise to watch Yang become the first player to defeat Woods at a major in which the American held a lead entering the last round and his office confirmed he telephoned Yang to offer his congratulations.
"I woke up at dawn today to watch the broadcast, and you played in a calm manner," Lee is reported by South Korean media to have said to Yang in the call.
"You have enhanced our people's morale by winning the major title for the first time as an Asian."
A handful of Asian players have just been edged out in the majors with Taiwan's Liang-Huan Lu finishing a shot behind Lee Trevino at the 1971 British Open while compatriot Tze-Chung Chen was runner-up to Andy North at the U.S. Open in 1985.
Reiko Takekawa, a writer for the Japanese publication Sports Graphic Number admitted that despite the progress in the women's game it is a real boost for the men's game in Asia.
"We all think it's much, much more difficult for the men. We figured something like this wouldn't happen for another five or 10 years," he told the PGA Web site. source: cnn.com

An Australian radio show on which a teenager revealed she had been raped has returned to the airwaves.
DJs Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O'Neil resumed their breakfast show with an apology, saying the segment had been a "disaster from start to finish".
It featured a 14-year-old strapped to a lie detector and quizzed about her sexual history by her mother. She said she had been raped as a 12-year-old.
Some sections of the show will now be pre-recorded, broadcaster 2Day FM said.
The programme will also be subject to a seven second delay, allowing producers to cut away from any offensive or inappropriate material.
'Distressed' The DJs had been off the air since 3 August, shortly after the original segment aired.
The teenage girl was strapped to a polygraph machine as her mother - who had volunteered to be on air - quizzed her, despite her daughter's claims that she had already been told about an assault two years earlier.
Sandilands was accused of further insensitivity when, after the revelation, he asked: "Right, and is that the only sexual experience you've had?"
Co-host O'Neil put an end to any further discussions when she realised the conversation had crossed a line. source: bbc.com

"Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better" -- Albert Einstein
This galaxy, as seen by Hubble, is 50 million light years away. The new telescopes promise even sharper images.
1 of 3 (CNN) -- It may not be possible to travel back in time, but seeing stars and galaxies as they looked millions or even billions of years ago is no problem thanks to telescopes, the closest thing we have to time machines.
Now, astronomers are holding their breath to see what they'll observe and discover with a new generation of huge telescopes set to be built around the world.
Peering ever deeper into space and further back in time, the powerful devices will be able to show what the universe was like when it was just a few hundred million years old and emerging from a period of total darkness after the Big Bang.
"[We'll be] looking at the first generation of stars forming in the universe, which is kind of a cool idea: The time when the lights went on in the universe. There was no light before that time," said Daniel Fabricant, associate director of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
His institution is one of several research organizations and universities developing the Giant Magellan Telescope, to be built in Las Campanas, Chile, by 2018. source:cnn.com

The 33m-high KLSLV-1 is South Korea's first space rocket
South Korea is preparing to launch its first rocket into space.
The two-stage vehicle, which has been developed with the assistance of Russia, will blast off from the Naro space complex, 475km south of Seoul.
The rocket, named the Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1 (KSLV-1), will seek to place in orbit a 100kg satellite.
The event will be monitored by rival North Korea, which has been criticised by the international community for pursuing its own rocket programme.
Earlier this year, the North announced that it had successfully orbited a satellite of its own; but the claim was dismissed by the US, Japan and South Korea who called the April flight a cover for a test of ballistic missile technology.
The KSLV-1 launch is scheduled to take place between 0740 and 0920GMT.
The rocket is 33m long and weighs some 140 tonnes. Its Russian liquid-fuelled first-stage is said to produce 1,700 kilonewtons of thrust at launch.
The second stage, which burns a solid fuel, was produced by South Korean engineers. It is intended to generate 80kN of thrust and is designed to place the Earth observation satellite into its final orbit.
South Korea wants to develop an advanced space programme to compete with other Asian space-faring nations - China, Japan and India.
It has already launched 10 indigenously produced satellites on other countries' rockets.
In April last year, Seoul sent its first astronaut into space aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket.
Yi So-Yeon spent 11 days on the International Space Station (ISS), carrying out experiments for the government and industry. source: bbc.com

Sony Entertainment has announced it is reducing the price of its PlayStation 3 games consoles.
In Europe the price has been lowered to 299 euros, in the US to $299 and in the UK to £249.99.
Sony made the announcement at a press conference ahead of the 2009 games convention - Games Com - in Cologne.
It also announced it was ending production of its current PlayStation 3 console in favour of a new lighter, slimmer model with a 120GB hard drive.
Growth of the PlayStation 3 has been slow compared to previous launches, which critics put down, in part, to an expensive price tag compared with its rivals, Microsoft's Xbox 360 at £149 and the Nintendo Wii at £169.
Speaking at Games Com, Sony Entertainment's head, Kaz Hirai, said the change in price for existing PlayStation 3 stock would happen immediately and that the new slim-line PS3 would be available from the first week of September.
"It has the same features and functionality [as the old PS3], but now it is 32% smaller, 36% lighter and consumes 34% less power," he said.
Mr Hirai said Cologne's Game Con was now the third major date for the games industry, ranking up alongside E3 in Los Angeles and the Tokyo games show.
Sony said there were now more than 23.7m PS3 installed worldwide, with just over 10m of those in Europe. Comics reader
Sony also said it was expanding its catch-up TV service - which includes the BBC iPlayer.
It announced it was about to launch a video delivery service, via the Play Station Network, that would allow PS3 or Play Station Portable (PSP) users to rent or purchase movies - both blockbuster and local market - in either standard or high definition.
That service goes live in the UK, France, Germany and Spain this November and rolls out across Europe throughout 2010.
The event also provided a first look at a new digital reader for the PSP - called Digital Comics - that will allow users to read Spiderman, Fantastic 4 and other DC comics on their portable, along with a range of graphic novels.
However, the new motion Sony Controller - which made its debut at the E3 Expo in Los Angeles in June this year - was not on show, with Sony saying people will have to wait until the Tokyo games show in September before it gets another public viewing. source: bbc.com

BANGKOK, Thailand (CNN) -- John Yettaw, the American convicted in Myanmar of illegally entering the country to visit pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, left Thailand Wednesday, authorities and government officials said.
John Yettaw is shown this past weekend sitting inside a van at a military airport in Bangkok, Thailand.
Although the Thai Foreign Ministry and immigration police confirmed his exit from Bangkok, his destination was not immediately known.
Yettaw, a diabetic, had arrived to Thailand from Myanmar on Sunday aboard a military plane and then taken to a hospital for observation.
Yettaw, a 53-year-old former military serviceman from Falcon, Missouri, was sentenced last week for a May 3 incident when he swam, uninvited, to the house of Suu Kyi and stayed for two days.
U.S. Sen. Jim Webb obtained Yettaw's release on Saturday in Myanmar. There Webb met separately with both Suu Kyi and Myanmar's top official, junta leader Senior Gen. Than Shwe.
"He was not a well man," Webb said without elaborating about Yettaw. "He had a medical emergency this morning when they read him his orders of deportation."
Webb, who chairs the East Asia and Pacific affairs subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was the first member of Congress to visit Myanmar in more than a decade. He also was the first U.S. official to meet with Than Shwe. source: cnn.com

Presidential elections in Afghanistan must be accompanied by major reforms in governance and aid, a leading international agency has warned.
Oxfam said that despite massive investment a third of Afghans still faced hunger and poverty.
The warning comes a day before presidential elections which the Taliban have vowed to disrupt.
Meanwhile fresh violence erupted in Kabul as troops exchanged fire with armed men who stormed a bank building.
The Taliban, which has vowed to disrupt to elections, claimed it was behind the raid, but the authorities warned that the incident could simply be a bank robbery.
AFP news agency quoted a police spokesman as saying that three of the attackers had been killed.
On Tuesday more than 20 people were killed in attacks across the country, including a suicide blast in Kabul.
The government has asked the media not to report on violence on poll day to avoid deterring people from voting. source: bbc.com

Pakistan's army has arrested a man it believes to be the chief spokesman for the country's Taliban, officials say.
Maulvi Omar was a spokesman for the Tehrik Taliban Pakistan (TTP), one of the main Taliban groups in the country.
He was reportedly picked up in the Mohmand tribal area close to the border with Afghanistan, while travelling in a car with two associates.
Mr Omar is said to have been a key aide of Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, thought to have been killed recently.
Pakistani officials say they will produce Mr Omar before journalists later on Tuesday.
"A very, very important militant has been arrested," Maj Fazal Ur Rehman told the AFP news agency.
Despite that statement, correspondents say Maulvi Omar's importance has diminished in recent weeks because of army advances in his stronghold of Bajaur, in north-western Pakistan.
His arrest came as a senior Pakistani army officer said that it would take months to prepare an offensive against the Taliban in South Waziristan, where they are strongest. source: bbc.com

A study has shown that having a particular gene variant causes some macaque monkeys to drink more alcohol in experiments.
The gene, known as the corticotrophin releasing factor (CRF) gene, is an important part of how we respond to everyday stress.
Sometimes it can become overactive and lead to stress-related problems such as anxiety, depression and alcoholism.
The findings may eventually lead to new treatments for alcoholism.
Writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the scientists found that some monkeys with the gene variant drank more alcohol, possibly to relieve their anxiety.
In particular the "T" form of the gene was associated with increased voluntary consumption of alcohol in drinks equivalent to the strength of strong beer.
Some were drinking "well over the limit, maybe up to four or five drinks in one hour. They're not drinking it because it's tasty, it smelt like rubbing alcohol". suorce: bbc.com

The recent closure of 32 privately owned radio stations and a proposed law to punish "media crimes" are signs that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is moving to quash criticism of his government, according to a recent U.S. intelligence report.
A group of pro-Hugo Chavez rioters beats Venezuelan journalists in downtown Caracas on August 13.
1 of 3 Chavez's government is "moving forcefully to silence critics," said the unclassified U.S. analysis prepared by the Open Source Center, a government intelligence center.
The relationship between privately owned media in Venezuela and the leftist Chavez have never been rosy. Chavez has accused private television stations of supporting his brief ouster in 2002, and the president was a driving force behind denying a license renewal in 2007 to one broadcaster he said cooperated with the opposition.
But the decisions this month by the Chavez government to close 32 radio stations and two television broadcasters and to support legislation that would create prison sentences for people who commit "media crimes" have created a new level of scrutiny from outside Venezuela.
"The media crimes bill is the most blatant example of the government's steady encroachment on media freedom in an effort to establish a media monopoly and stifle freedom of expression," said the unclassified intelligence report, dated August 3.
The Venezuelan government denies that the media crimes law and the closure of the radio stations are related, and maintains that each initiative was grounded in Venezuelan law.
"As usual, much disinformation has shaped the debate surrounding these developments," the Venezuelan Embassy said in a fact sheet about the developments.
At the same time Chavez was extolling these two measures, supporters of his government attacked the Globovision television studio, one of few remaining networks that gives a voice to the opposition.
In the August 3 attack, more than 30 members of a pro-government party threw tear gas at the studio and injured three people.source: cnn.com