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Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Automakers go green with eco-friendly cars

By Rachel Kelly, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 03 June 2009 2045 hrs

Japanese couple consider a hybrid car

SINGAPORE: Governments, companies and individuals worldwide are gaining interest in issues related to climate change, and becoming more environmentally aware. And this is taking business down a new path.

Japanese car maker Toyota announced on Wednesday it will be leasing 200 plug-in hybrid cars by the end of the year in Japan to boost sales of green cars.

Over in the US, President Barack Obama has just signed a new bill aimed at increasing gas mileage and decreasing green house gas pollution for all new trucks and cars sold in the US.

The move will force US car makers to dramatically boost the efficiency of cars and trucks by 2016.

The programme begins with car models made in 2012.

Meanwhile, China has already announced plans to become the world's largest producer of electric cars, with US$1.5 billion ($10 billion Yuan) package for research and development.

Cash rebates of up to US$8,800 will also be on offer for electric car purchases.

Over in Japan, the major car brands have been picking up speed when it comes to hybrid vehicles. They want to tap into the growing popularity of hybrid cars.

Just last month, Nissan saw orders for its eco-friendly cars jump 30 per cent on year.

Toyota has received pre-sales orders of more than 80,000 vehicles for its remodelled Prius hybrid.

Interest in green vehicles in Japan may have been boosted by the government's new tax incentives for low-emission cars.

This is a growing trend worldwide, with more countries offering tax incentives for such cars and imposing emission caps.

And soon, owning a green vehicle will move from being a trend to a must. - CNA /ls

From ChannelNewsAsia.com; see the source article here.

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Automakers go green with eco-friendly cars

By Rachel Kelly, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 03 June 2009 2045 hrs

Japanese couple consider a hybrid car

SINGAPORE: Governments, companies and individuals worldwide are gaining interest in issues related to climate change, and becoming more environmentally aware. And this is taking business down a new path.

Japanese car maker Toyota announced on Wednesday it will be leasing 200 plug-in hybrid cars by the end of the year in Japan to boost sales of green cars.

Over in the US, President Barack Obama has just signed a new bill aimed at increasing gas mileage and decreasing green house gas pollution for all new trucks and cars sold in the US.

The move will force US car makers to dramatically boost the efficiency of cars and trucks by 2016.

The programme begins with car models made in 2012.

Meanwhile, China has already announced plans to become the world's largest producer of electric cars, with US$1.5 billion ($10 billion Yuan) package for research and development.

Cash rebates of up to US$8,800 will also be on offer for electric car purchases.

Over in Japan, the major car brands have been picking up speed when it comes to hybrid vehicles. They want to tap into the growing popularity of hybrid cars.

Just last month, Nissan saw orders for its eco-friendly cars jump 30 per cent on year.

Toyota has received pre-sales orders of more than 80,000 vehicles for its remodelled Prius hybrid.

Interest in green vehicles in Japan may have been boosted by the government's new tax incentives for low-emission cars.

This is a growing trend worldwide, with more countries offering tax incentives for such cars and imposing emission caps.

And soon, owning a green vehicle will move from being a trend to a must. - CNA /ls

From ChannelNewsAsia.com; see the source article here.

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Anti-piracy pup sniffs out 35,000 illegal DVDs

Time is GMT + 8 hours

Posted: 3-Jun-2009 20:26 hrs

Irish Labrador Paddy walks with his handler in Putrajaya last year. Paddy, a DVD-sniffing anti-piracy dog, has uncovered a huge cache of 35,000 discs in Malaysian warehouses, many destined for export to Singapore, industry officials have said.

A DVD-sniffing anti-piracy dog named Paddy has uncovered a huge cache of 35,000 discs in Malaysian warehouses, many destined for export to Singapore, industry officials said on Wednesday.

The black Labrador helped enforcement officials who carried out raids last week in southern Johor state which neighbours Singapore, the Motion Picture Association (MPA) said in a statement.

Paddy was given to Malaysia by the MPA to help close down piracy syndicates who churn out vast quantities of illegal DVDs. The dog is specially trained to detect chemicals in the discs.

"Paddy led enforcement officers on a successful weekend operation to shut down the supply lines of pirated movie DVDs in the Malaysian state of Johor," the MPA said in a statement.

"Post-raid investigations revealed that two of the targets were actively involved in exporting pirated DVDs to Singapore," it added.

The raids carried out by officials from the MPA and Malaysia's trade and consumer affairs ministry shut down six warehouses storing pirated products, it said.

The MPA said just-released titles such as "Terminator Salvation", "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian", "Angels and Demons" and "Star Trek" were among the movies seized.

"This is a clear signal to the pirates that we will not waver in our efforts to shut them down," said Mohamad Roslan Mahayudin, director-general of enforcement with the Malaysian ministry.

"We are glad to hear that Paddy's skills are being put to good use against the large, organised network of pirates involved in exporting illegal pirated DVDs to Singapore," said Mike Ellis, the MPA's Asia-Pacific managing director.

The MPA said its member companies lost 6.1 billion dollars to worldwide piracy in 2005. Of that lost revenue, about 1.2 billion dollars came from piracy in the Asian region. — AFP

From TODAYOnline.com – Wednesday, 03-Jun-2009

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Anti-piracy pup sniffs out 35,000 illegal DVDs

Time is GMT + 8 hours

Posted: 3-Jun-2009 20:26 hrs

Irish Labrador Paddy walks with his handler in Putrajaya last year. Paddy, a DVD-sniffing anti-piracy dog, has uncovered a huge cache of 35,000 discs in Malaysian warehouses, many destined for export to Singapore, industry officials have said.

A DVD-sniffing anti-piracy dog named Paddy has uncovered a huge cache of 35,000 discs in Malaysian warehouses, many destined for export to Singapore, industry officials said on Wednesday.

The black Labrador helped enforcement officials who carried out raids last week in southern Johor state which neighbours Singapore, the Motion Picture Association (MPA) said in a statement.

Paddy was given to Malaysia by the MPA to help close down piracy syndicates who churn out vast quantities of illegal DVDs. The dog is specially trained to detect chemicals in the discs.

"Paddy led enforcement officers on a successful weekend operation to shut down the supply lines of pirated movie DVDs in the Malaysian state of Johor," the MPA said in a statement.

"Post-raid investigations revealed that two of the targets were actively involved in exporting pirated DVDs to Singapore," it added.

The raids carried out by officials from the MPA and Malaysia's trade and consumer affairs ministry shut down six warehouses storing pirated products, it said.

The MPA said just-released titles such as "Terminator Salvation", "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian", "Angels and Demons" and "Star Trek" were among the movies seized.

"This is a clear signal to the pirates that we will not waver in our efforts to shut them down," said Mohamad Roslan Mahayudin, director-general of enforcement with the Malaysian ministry.

"We are glad to hear that Paddy's skills are being put to good use against the large, organised network of pirates involved in exporting illegal pirated DVDs to Singapore," said Mike Ellis, the MPA's Asia-Pacific managing director.

The MPA said its member companies lost 6.1 billion dollars to worldwide piracy in 2005. Of that lost revenue, about 1.2 billion dollars came from piracy in the Asian region. — AFP

From TODAYOnline.com – Wednesday, 03-Jun-2009

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Chinese researchers create pig stem cells

Posted: 03 June 2009 1700 hrs

Chinese researchers create pig stem cells

PARIS: Chinese researchers said on Wednesday they had created versatile stem cells from pigs, a groundbreaking achievement that could open up new paths for combatting human disease.

Doctors led by Lei Xiao, of the Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, took adult cells taken from a pig's ear and bone marrow and reprogrammed them so that they became so-called pluripotent stem cells.

These are cells that, like the coveted stem cells found in embryos, can differentiate into any type of cell in the body.

It is a technical exploit because until now, no-one has been able to achieve reprogramming using somatic cells -- cells that do not come from sperm or eggs -- from a hooved animal.

But the main interest lies in fundamental medical research, as it offers the hope of using the pig as a test bench for disease and a source of transplant material, Xiao said.

The pig is close to the human in many biological functions and with some organs that are similar in size.

"We could use embryonic stem cells or induced stem cells to modify the immune-related genes in the pig to make the pig organ compatible to the human immune system," he said in a press release.

"Then we could use these pigs as organ donors to provide organs for patients that won't trigger an adverse reaction from the patient's own immune system."

Another possibility would be to modify genes in lines of pig stem cells so that they replicate flaws in human genes that cause diabetes and other diseases, he suggested.

The modified stem cells could then be used to generate pigs with the same disorder, thus providing researchers with a model on which to test new therapies.

The Chinese team tucked a basket of reprogramming genes inside a virus to infect the adult cells and return them to their naive, versatile state.

Tests on the cells showed they were capable of differentiating into the three fundamental layers of tissue in an early embryo.

The paper is published in the Journal of Molecular Cell Biology.

Work on similar lines is being carried out on human cells, first achieved in 2007 by Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University.

- AFP/yt

From ChannelNewsAsia.com; see the source article here.

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