News Snippets
• The Rajasthan and Kerala governments have banned cell phones on school and college campuses with immediate effect. "The information technology revolution has brought cyber crime to the campuses,' said Kerala education minister, E T Mohammad Bashir.
• Amateur radio operators provided vital communication links in India in the aftermath of the tsunami disaster. They helped many victims re-establish contact with their families. There was a breakdown in communications in the disaster-affected areas because land and mobile telecommunication infrastructure was damaged and the networks were congested with unprecedented number of call attempts.
• Duber Mauriola, a Peruvian journalist who runs a small radio station in Huancamba near Peru's border with Ecuador, was kidnapped by local people. Mauriola's captors accused him of supporting exploration by Britain's Monterrico Metals Plc, which is investing $370 million in the Rio Blanco copper mining project in Huancamba. Local people fear the mine will destroy their livelihood.
• "Bush monkeys', a portrait of George Bush Junior, which uses monkeys to form his image, was banished from a New York art show