China has retorted after the United States promised to “take a tougher line” with Beijing in regards to currency and trade. Barack Obama said yesterday that he would make sure unfair advantages were not being given by countries to their currencies against the dollar. US companies have complained that the Chinese Yuan is artificially undervalued to give Chinese industries a price advantage.

A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, Ma Zhaoxu, said the value of the Yuan was “not the main reason” for the trade surplus of China with the United States. He went on to say that the “level of the Yuan is close to reasonable and balanced”, and “accusations and pressure do not help to solve the problem”.

When asked at a meeting with Senate democrats, Obama was asked about the possibility of breaking Chinese ties. He replied that he would make sure that they, along with other countries, abided by trade agreements; but, warned that it would be “a mistake” for the United States to become protectionist. He stated his administration would “make sure that our [the US] goods are not artificially inflated in price” and that China’s goods were not deflated. Trade between the two countries came to a total of US$409 billion last year, with a US gap of US$266 billion .

Diplomatic relations between the two countries have been strained recently over a Taiwanese arms deal, Obama visiting the Dalai Lama and Internet censorship.

Japan’s Nikkei newspaper reported that Toyota is poised to recall 270,000 gas-and-electric Prius vehicles (model ZVW30) sold in the US and Japan between May and December 2009, due to a flaw in the car’s anti-lock braking system.

Crystallex International Corporation (TSX: KRY, AMEX: KRY) is a Canadian corporation engaged in gold mining and exploration. It operates open-pit mines and exploration sites in Venezuela. Its current level of output characterizes it as a junior gold producer.[2]

Quantel is a company based in the United Kingdom and founded in 1973 that designs and manufactures digital production equipment for the broadcast television, video production and motion picture industries. They are headquartered in Newbury, Berkshire.

The name Quantel comes from Quantised Television which is making reference to the process of converting a television picture into a digital signal.

Yoshino (吉野) is a small town in the north of Nanyo, Yamagata Prefecture, Japan. It is made up of two smaller villages, Ogi and Kotaki. As of 2005, the town had a population of 935.

Yoshino is a good example of rural depopulation in Japan. 50 years ago many people were employed in mining and forestry, the population was over 3,600, and the town even had a cinema. However, forestry gradually died out, and in 1974 the mine closed.

The population decreased further in the late 1990s when a major road, National Route 5, was built through Yoshino. A number of houses had to be demolished, and many affected families chose to relocate to nearby towns with more amenities such as Akayu or Miyauchi.

However, the remaining community is close-knit, and in an effort to retain community spirits they have restarted the annual Kumano Shrine festival, and have organised a number of community sports and culture related societies. Ogi and Kotaki both have small elementary schools, but the single junior high school in Ogi closed in March 2009.

Kotaki is the site of the Kuguritaki waterfall (潜り滝).

Jamil Fearrington (born April 20, 1986) is a Danish American football defender who plays for FC Roskilde. He has also represented Denmark internationally at various youth levels.

J. Matha Gowder was an Indian politician and former Member of the Legislative Assembly of Tamil Nadu. He was elected to the Tamil Nadu legislative assembly as an Indian National Congress candidate from Coonoor constituency in 1957, and 1962 elections.

He was also Member of Parliament elected from Tamil Nadu. He was elected to the Lok Sabha from Nilgiris constituency as a Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam candidate in 1971 election.

Glycin, or N-(4-hydroxyphenyl)glycine, is N-substituted p-aminophenol. It is a photographic developing agent used in classic B&W developer solutions.[2] It is a derivative of the amino acid glycine. When fresh, it is typically characterized as thin plates of white or silvery powder, turning brown with age. It is sparingly soluble in water and most organic solvents; it is readily soluble in alkalies and acids.

Glycin is related to 4-aminophenol and Metol. Compared to Metol, glycin has a carboxyl group attached to the methyl group of the Metol. This weakens the reduction potential of the compound and the two developers have markedly different character. Glycin is slower acting, but much longer lasting in solution. Glycin is rarely used as a developing agent today, primarily because it is expensive and manufactured for specialty applications only. In its dry form, it also has limited shelf life compared to Metol and Phenidone.

Glycin can be synthesized by a number of ways. One method is to react p-aminophenol with chloracetic acid in a solvent and purify glycin.

Other uses of glycin can be found in some procedures of analytical chemistry.

Noushka Manuel Kupelian better known by her stage name Lubluba (name variant Lebleba) (born Cairo, Egypt on 14 November 1946) is an Egyptian film actress and entertainer of Armenian origin. She is a close relative of Egyptian actress Feyrouz and entertainer Nelly (real names Perouz and Nelly Artin Kalfayan)

She started as a child actress imitating other actresses including appearances on the Egyptian National Theater promoted by Muallem Sadiq. She was given her first movie role through Egyptian film director and producer Anwar Wagdi and screenwriter / playwright Abo El Seoud El Ebiary in Habeebti Sousou. El Ebiary also chose the name Lubluba after seeing the multi-talented child actress, comedian, dancer and singer Anoushka Kupelian. She married actor and director Hassan Youssef, but they were divorced later on. She never remarried.

Lubluba played a number of varying roles, icluding entertainment artist and as comic with renowned Egyptian comedian / actor / director Adel Emam. The director Atef El-Tayeb gave her two noteworthy roles in Dedd el Hukuma and Layla Sakhina winning many acting prizes for her roles. As she grew, she took on more serious roles.[1] She has played over in 60 different movies.

Agrobacterium tumefaciens is the causal agent of crown gall disease (the formation of tumours) in over 140 species of dicot. It is a rod shaped, Gram negative soil bacterium (Smith et al., 1907). Symptoms are caused by the insertion of a small segment of DNA (known as the T-DNA, for ‘transfer DNA’) into the plant cell,[1] which is incorporated at a semi-random location into the plant genome.

Agrobacterium tumefaciens (or A. tumefaciens) is an alphaproteobacterium of the family Rhizobiaceae, which includes the nitrogen fixing legume symbionts. Unlike the nitrogen fixing symbionts, tumor producing Agrobacterium are pathogenic and do not benefit the plant. The wide variety of plants affected by Agrobacterium makes it of great concern to the agriculture industry[2].

Economically, A. tumefaciens is a serious pathogen of walnuts, grape vines, stone fruits, nut trees, sugar beets, horse radish and rhubarb.