Robots to help elderly or paint nails

A Japanese elderly care company Asahi Sun Clean employee wearing a power suit, called ‘Muscle Suit’ powered by compressed air stored in an air tank on his back, lifts a fellow worker during a demonstration while auto parts maker NSK demonstrates a cane style navigation ‘LIGHBOT’ robot for elderly and handicaped people, equipped with a laser rangefinder to avoid obstacles, at the annual Internatinal Robot Exhibition in Tokyo on Wednesday. — AFP photo

Pneumatic muscle suits and a walking stick that behaves like a guide dog competed for attention with an industrial robot that can paint fingernails at a huge expo in Tokyo Thursday.

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Posted at 01:03 |  by Unknown

Thai protesters rally on eve of amnesty bill vote

Thousands of protesters rallied in several parts of Bangkok on Thursday on the eve of a key vote on a bill that would grant amnesty to leaders and others involved in often-violent political conflicts that have afflicted Thailand for nearly a decade.

The Senate announced it would move up the vote to Friday from Monday in an attempt to ease rising tension over the bill, which has already passed the more powerful lower house.
‘This is a very urgent issue that can’t wait. We want the (protesters) to know that their voices have been heard,’ Senate speaker Nikom Wairatpanij said, adding that a group of senators have agreed they will vote down the bill.

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Posted at 01:02 |  by Unknown

Musharraf freed from house arrest

Pakistan has freed former president Pervez Musharraf from his months-long house arrest, days after he received bail in a case related to the death of a radical cleric, a prison official said Thursday.

Prison officials were withdrawn on Wednesday night from Musharraf’s home on the outskirts of Islamabad, where he has been held under arrest since April, prison official Wajad Ali said. Musharraf is now free to move around Pakistan, Ali said.

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Posted at 01:01 |  by Unknown

Syrian army pushes back after rebels take arms depot

Forces loyal to president Bashar al-Assad fought rebels in a small town 100 km north of Damascus on Thursday after video footage showed the opposition captured a huge weapons cache.
The looting of hundreds of weapons in the town of Mahin will aid rebels who are based there, halfway between the capital and Homs, two cities where the opposition has tried to take territory during the civil war.
State television said on Wednesday evening that the army was engaging with ‘terrorists’ in Mahin, its usual description for the rebels. An anti-Assad monitoring group said that four rebel fighters had been killed on Thursday.

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Posted at 01:00 |  by Unknown

Calls for Arafat ‘killing’ probe after Swiss poison report

Palestinian officials demanded a global probe into the ‘killing’ of Yasser Arafat on Thursday, a day after it emerged that Swiss forensic tests showed he probably died from polonium poisoning.

With the scientific analysis purportedly showing how the Palestinian leader had died mysteriously, a senior figure in the Palestine Liberation Organisation called for an international inquiry to determine who was behind it.
‘The (test) results proved Arafat was poisoned by polonium, and this substance is owned by states, not people, meaning that the crime was committed by a state,’ said Wasel Abu Yusef of the PLO’s executive committee.

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Posted at 00:59 |  by Unknown