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Diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and recovering from a grenade attack, Iraq war veteran Ian Newland wanted to pursue a business degree after his discharge from the Army last year. What he didn’t want to have to do was set foot in a classroom.

And thanks to the Internet, he doesn’t have to.

The world of online higher education has given thousands of vets like Newland — and active-duty soldiers — the opportunity to work at their own pace.

“Being online, I can work on my college work at 3 a.m. if I’m feeling rambunctious,” said Newland, 28, who often does homework when he can’t sleep.

Online education is increasingly attractive for military veterans, according to Denver-based Jones International University, a Web-exclusive institution accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. About 350 current or former soldiers are pursuing a degree at Jones, three times the number last year. The university has a total of 2,000 students.

“Being fully online, we go to wherever that service member goes,” said Bruce Ricketts, vice chancellor for military programs for JIU, which has pursued military students. Some students keep up with their classes from Iraq and Afghanistan. “A deployment doesn’t mean that your education necessarily has to stop,” Ricketts said.

Other universities with online programs that accommodate service members and veterans include American University, the University of Phoenix and Troy University, according Eduventures, a research and consulting firm specializing in higher education.

Jim Selbe, assistant vice president for lifelong learning at the American Council on Education, said about 50 percent of active duty service members receiving tuition reimbursement from the Department of Defense are taking online courses.

In fiscal year 2007, Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force personnel took more than 710,000 online and traditional courses, according to the council’s most recent data.

Richard Garrett, program director and senior research analyst at Eduventures, said an estimated 10.5 percent of students at schools nationwide are enrolled in online programs.

Newland, who grew up on a farm northeast of Dayton, Ohio, was wounded while serving with the 26th Infantry Regiment out of Germany on Dec. 4, 2006. An insurgent threw a hand grenade through the gunner’s hatch of his Humvee on patrol in Adhamiyah, northeast of Baghdad.

Spc. Ross McGinnis, a 19-year-old from Knox, Penn., dove on top of the grenade, taking the brunt of the explosion and shielding other soldiers. McGinnis was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Newland said about 40 pieces of shrapnel hit his legs, arms and face. He suffered a brain injury, short-term memory loss, stuttered and started seeing words backward, as if he was dyslexic.

Newland returned to the States and found out about Jones International University after Sentinels of Freedom, a San Ramon, Calif.-based nonprofit that serves severely wounded soldiers, awarded him a four-year scholarship, placed him in a home in Denver and got him a job at a realty company where he handles phone calls in the information technology department.

Newland said he still limps, uses a cane and had to learn to type with only one hand. Initially, getting an online education seemed far-fetched, given his limited background in computers.

“Yesterday, I wrote three papers and took around 50 phone calls,” he said. “Plus, I’m reading about four textbooks at a time.”

Mike Conklin, executive director of Sentinels of Freedom, said taking online courses is often the best way to go when disabled soldiers leave the military. Some have been blinded, others paralyzed, and others have full-time jobs.

“All of these guys have reasons for why the classroom is not where they want to be right away,” Conklin said.

Newland, who is married and has two children, said the flexibility of being able to write papers on renewable energy sources and space exploration while working allows him to spend more time with his family.

“I could do it after I came home from work,” Newland said about his course work, “but I’d be sacrificing something else.”

A powerful earthquake struck waters off eastern Indonesia early Monday, briefly generating tsunami warnings for coastlines within 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) of the epicenter.

Thousands of people in nearby coastal towns fled homes, hotels and hospitals in panic, but there were no immediate reports of serious damage or injuries.

The U.S. Geological Survey put the quake’s magnitude at 7.5 and said it struck 54 miles (135 kilometers) from the nearest city, Gorantalo, located on Sulawesi island. It was centered 13 miles (21 kilometers) beneath the sea and was followed by two strong aftershocks.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said the temblor had the potential to generate a destructive tsunami along coasts within 600 miles (1,000 kilometers).

But even after local officials lifted the tsunami alert, frightened Sulawesi residents were refusing to return to their homes.

Gusnar, the deputy governor of Gorantalo province, told el-Shinta radio he had been in touch with district chiefs and there were “no reports of serious injuries or significant damage.” Like many Indonesians, he goes by only one name.

Robert Bano, a Gorantalo resident, said the massive quake shook homes for more than two minutes and sent many people fleeing their homes, some, like him, with crying children.

Some guests streaming from Paradiso Hotel were so afraid they fainted, the official news agency Antara reported.

A witness in the city of Poso said patients from at least one hospital were evacuated.

Indonesia is prone to seismic upheaval due to its location on the so-called Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an arc of volcanos and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.

In December 2004, a massive earthquake off Indonesia’s Sumatra island triggered a tsunami that battered much of the Indian Ocean coastline and killed more than 230,000 people — 131,000 of them in Indonesia’s Aceh province alone.

A tsunami off Java island last year killed nearly 5,000.

With the exports getting affected as a result of the current liquidity crunch, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) has suggested a slew measures for dealing with the problem.

Ficci secretary general Amit Mitra told FE, “Initially the exports were growing by 28-29%, and then it fell to 12-14% in September. In October, it has become negative (-15%)”. Mitra said in case of gems and jewellery sector, the situation is more serious since the sector is import intensive and the riding dollar is inflating import bill. Nearly $5 billion out of the total $19.7 billion (over a quarter) of India’s gems and jewellery exports typically go to the US. Another sector which has been hit is engineering goods.

As per Ficci, some of the measures required to boost exports are that credit flow should continue with least disturbance. Of late, the industry sources are facing some change in attitude of banks in disbursing credit to the corporates. The banks should be advised not to adopt any ‘unduly overcautious approach’ so that there is no practical difficulty for firms.

There should be a restoring of ‘duty drawback rates’ for employment intensive sectors such as textiles/garments, leather and footwear, handicrafts, carpets to the level existing before September 1. The refunds from the excise department should be made in seven days instead of current 90 days. Apart for this, the credit lines for the good credit worthy companies should be made available. There should be mechanism that should be evolved for refunding state/local levies and duties.

In view of the prevailing ’sense of fear and apprehension’ among exporters on possible default by US/European buyers, Export Credit Guarantee Corporation (ECGC) needs to retain and expand its exposure to importers of these countries.

Mitra added that unless the growth rate picks up back to 28-30%, the industrial growth will continue to suffer as it can be seen in the form of the low Index of Industrial production (IIP) figures for August(1.3%) and September (4.8%).

The volume of spam on the Internet plunged by about two thirds this week after two US internet service providers cut the internet connections of a company that was using its servers to disseminate billions of unwanted email messages, internet security firms said Friday.

Symantec said the number of spam messages had fallen by some 120 billion per day, to around 60 billion. However it warned that many of the spam spewers would probably find new routes to distribute their messages and that the respite was likely only temporary.

Nevertheless the success was greeted as a sign of the validity of the new anti-spam approach that traced the messages back to a Silicon Valley company called McColo, which rents out servers to clients. After researchers identified the company they also contacted its two major internet access providers, Hurricane Electric and Global Crossing, which promptly cut its internet connection.

The report identifying McColo was published anonymously by the ad-hoc team of researchers who said that among other things, McColo reportedly enabled its customers to control vast networks of hijacked computers to send spam and take payments for fake anti-virus software. McColo at one time hosted up to 40 Web sites with child pornography, the report said.

“We got the report, and it looked pretty damning,” said Benny Ng, director of infrastructure at Hurricane Electric, of Fremont, California. “They were a client of ours, and we turned them off.”

In a joint statement issued here,business Leaders from G-20 countries have come together to provide a five-point agenda for political leaders at the summit at Washington DC.

Commenting on the subject, the Director General of CII (Confederation of Indian Industry), Chandrajit Banerjee said the joint statement is a first step towards greater coordination among the industry members across the globe to evolve strategies and find solutions to the global crisis.

He said that industry needs to work with the government across countries to address concerns while using the global platforms to share thoughts for making industry competitive through innovative measures like re-training, strategizing and improving productivity to capitalize on policy measures the governments may announce to address the global slow down.

The current meltdown can be adequately addressed only through a partnership between the government and industry.

In the joint statement, to which CII is a signatory, issued here, the industry leaders said the Summit in Washington DC, represents an historic opportunity to begin the work of restoring confidence and economic stability. They urged the leaders to forge a strong international commitment to work together in support of growth and prosperity.

Industry and Business from the G-20 countries have in the joint statement identified five broad principles to guide the political leaders in their deliberations:

1)Stabilizing Financial Markets and Ensuring a Continued Flow of Credit to the Economy. Affirm the Plan of Action announced by the G-7 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors on October 10, including the commitment to support efforts to help affected emerging economies and developing countries.

2)Rebuilding Global Economic Growth. Consider the appropriate mix of monetary and fiscal stimulus, balancing the need for short-term stabilization and long-term sustainability. Agree on actions to increase the economic resilience and growth potential of our economies by increasing the quality of public finances and by accelerating structural reforms.

3)Promoting Economic Growth Through International Trade and Investment. Arrest any drift towards protectionism by agreeing to a freeze on the imposition of any new trade and investment barriers for goods and services, and intensify efforts to conclude successfully the WTO Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations.

4)Reforming the Financial System. Identify the root causes of the current financial crisis and develop regulatory and institutional proposals, both domestically and internationally, to address deficiencies. The G-20 work plan should build on ongoing work by international organizations such as the Financial Stability Forum and the International Monetary Fund, and should preserve the benefits of open and innovative markets.

5)Cooperation and Coordination. Commit to close cooperation on all these issues and coordinate your actions to the maximum extent possible.

The signatories to the G-20 Statement by International Business Leaders include:

Australia Industry Group, Business Roundtable (United States), Busines Council of Australia, BUSINESSEUROPE - the Confederation of European Business, Canadian Council of Chief Executives, Confederation of British Industries, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Confederation of Italian Industry (Confindustria), Consejo Mexicano de Hombres de Negocios, Federation of German Industries (BDI), Federation of Korean Industries (FKI), Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren), Movement des Entreprises de France (MEDEF) and United States Chamber of Commerce

Business leaders have agreed to meet during the next few weeks to provide further views and explore ways that the business community can assist the governments in preventing future crises and restoring global economic stability and prosperity.

Space shuttle Endeavour’s seven astronauts climbed aboard their spaceship on Friday for the start of a 15-day mission to remodel the International Space Station for an expanded crew.

Liftoff was scheduled for 7:55 p.m. EST/0055 GMT on Saturday from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

NASA plans to double the size of the space station crew from three members to six next year. The shuttle carries two new sleeping compartments and a water recycling system that will enable the crew to purify urine and other wastewater for drinking.

“We did blind taste tests of the water,” said NASA’s Bob Bagdigian, the system’s lead engineer. “Nobody had any strong objections. Other than a faint taste of iodine, it is just as refreshing as any other kind of water.”

“I’ve got some in my fridge,” he added. “It tastes fine to me.”

Delivery of the $250 million wastewater recycling gear is among the primary goals of NASA’s 124th shuttle mission. Meteorologists predicted a 70 percent chance the weather would be suitable for launch.

If the shuttle lifts off on time, it would arrive at the space station on Sunday. Astronauts will then spend 11 to 12 days making home improvements.

In addition to the sleep chambers and the water recycler, Endeavour carries the station’s first refrigerator, new exercise gear, and perhaps most important for a growing crew — a second toilet.

“With six people you really do need to have a two-bathroom house. It’s a lot more convenient and a lot more efficient,” said Endeavour astronaut Sandra Magnus, who will take over as a space station flight engineer from Greg Chamitoff.

Chamitoff has been aboard the outpost since the last shuttle flight in June.

SHUTTLE SUPPLIES DRYING UP

Reusing water will become essential once NASA retires its space shuttles, which produce water as a byproduct of their electrical systems. Rather than dumping the water overboard, NASA has been transferring it to the space station.

But the shuttle’s days are numbered. Only 10 flights remain, including a final servicing call to the Hubble Space Telescope. NASA is preparing to end the program in 2010, after which Russian Soyuz spacecraft will be the only way to ferry crew to the space station.

“We can’t be delivering water all the time for six crew,” said space station flight director Ron Spencer. “Recycling is a must.”

NASA expects to process about six gallons (23 liters) of water per day with the new device. The goal is to recover about 92 percent of the water from the crew’s urine and moisture in the air.

The wastewater is processed using an extensive series of purification techniques, including distillation — which is somewhat tricky in microgravity — filtration, oxidation and ionization.

The final step is the addition of iodine to control microbial growth, Bagdigian said.

The device is intended to process a full day’s worth of wastewater in less than 24 hours.

“Today’s drinking water was yesterday’s waste,” Bagdigian said.

Google is pushing its voice-recognition technology to Apple’s iPhone first, before devices running its own Android mobile platform.

The New York Times offered photographs of Google employees Vic Gundotra and Gummi Hafsteinsoon using an iPhone for a voice search. The free application was expected to be available on Apple’s App Store on Friday. Google reportedly will soon offer the technology for other devices, presumably including the T-Mobile G1, which uses Android.

“This is an expansion of types of applications Google has already been developing,” said Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence. “Google has GOOG411, which is the underlying technical engine. They also have a voice-search client for the BlackBerry which is limited to maps. So this is an evolutionary step.”

Inside Google Voice Search

Here’s how it works: The iPhone user asks a question, such as “Where’s the closest Burger King?” or “How wide is the Grand Canyon?” The user’s voice is converted to a digital file and transmitted to Google’s servers.

Google Search then serves up the results — in a matter of seconds if the user has a fast wireless network, the Times reports. The search results always include any local information.

“The question with these types of technologies is how good is the speech recognition? It’s getting much better, and that’s why Google feels this is the right time to introduce this,” Sterling said. “Google has confidence now that voice recognition is good enough to open it up to the full Web search as opposed to the much more structured search on GOOG411.”

Google is playing catch-up, in a sense. Yahoo and Microsoft already offer a voice-recognition option for mobile phones. Microsoft’s Tellme service offers users information in specific categories, such as movies, maps or directions. Yahoo offers voice services through its oneSearch platform.

“In one sense this is new, but it’s not new, because Yahoo and Microsoft have been doing versions of voice recognition — and so has Google — for some time,” Sterling said. “A company called Dial Directions was the first to formally introduce voice search for the iPhone, but it was limited to selected local sites through the Safari browser.”

Building a Killer App

Could voice recognition be the next killer app for mobile? The market is growing at breakneck speed. Voice-recognition technology sales topped $1 billion in 2006 for the first time. Datamonitor expects that number to swell to $2.6 billion by 2009.

The market is heating up — and going global. Voice-recognition software maker Nuance Communications earlier this month acquired Austria-based Philips Speech Recognition Systems for $96.1 million. Philips develops speech-recognition solutions in 25 languages.

Voice recognition on the mobile phone is still not completely accurate, and may not see mainstream use until it improves. But Sterling said it is ever-improving and thinks Google’s voice search will be a popular mobile-phone feature.

Specifically, he sees the new Google application for the iPhone as most useful when a user might need to call directory assistance or do a simple search, but can’t do it safely on a keyboard while driving. Another benefit is the ability to enter potentially long search queries that would be difficult to type. But accuracy is still a factor.

“This is an evolutionary step in the whole realm of voice search,” Sterling said. “So far it has not proven to be the killer app for mobile, but it’s getting there and it’s very useful in selective situations.”

The US dollar can no longer claim to be the sole world currency, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Thursday before a weekend summit on the global financial crisis that has its roots in the United States.

“I leave for Washington tomorrow to explain that the dollar, which at the end of World War II was the only world currency, can no longer claim to be the sole world currency,” Sarkozy said.

“The world changed. We are in the 21st century and the French view is that we cannot continue into the 21st century with a system (established) in the 20th century,” he said.

“What was true in 1945 cannot still be true today. “It is not a question of courage; it is a matter of good sense to look at things as they really are.”

Leaders from the Group of 20 developed and developing countries meet in Washington on Saturday to discuss the financial crisis that has now begun to cut growth sharply worldwide.

Created in 1999, the G20 countries account for 85 percent of the world economy and about two-thirds of its population, with its leaders hoping to hammer out Saturday a common approach and understanding of the crisis.

Sarkozy, who also holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, has said several times that the Washington meeting should tackle currency issues, alongside efforts to improve the transparency and regulation of the financial markets.

Since the end of World War II, the US dollar has effectively been the world’s reserve currency, used across the board and thereby giving the United States immense influence in the global economic system.

Following in the footsteps of Nintendo’s popular “Wii Fit,” the video game publisher known for the “Madden” football games is jumping into fitness software targeted mostly at women.

Electronic Arts Inc. on Thursday announced a new line, EA Sports Active, that runs on the Nintendo Wii console and aims to complement, not compete with, Nintendo’s “Wii Fit” exercise title.

Peter Moore, president of EA Sports, called the new brand, whose first title launches next March, a “somewhat radical departure from the normal game experiences we provide customers.”

EA’s sports audience has been mostly young men, who have flocked to football, soccer, basketball and hockey titles to make the company the world’s dominant player in sports video games.

But to stay competitive with rivals such as Activision Blizzard Inc., whose success with games like “World of Warcraft” and “Rock Band” seems to be weathering the recession, EA needs to continue to expand its audience.

The company’s new brand seeks to take advantage of the popularity of the Nintendo console and of exercise games. While the “Wii Fit” is already enormously popular, Moore, a former physical-education teacher, said EA’s sports software will run people through an exercise routine with a more Western approach than the Japanese company’s product.

“Wii Fit” includes activities like running, skiing as well as yoga, and it emphasizes balance as well as fitness. EA’s products will include exercises like running and lunges, as well as simulations of sports such as tennis.

The games use straps to attach the Wii’s controller and “nunchuk” attachment to a player’s body, so the fitness routines can be performed without holding the controls. It also includes a resistance band. Titles in the line will cost about $60, the same as a regular video game.

Carmaker Honda Siel Cars India on Wednesday slashed the price its eco-friendly sedan, Civic Hybrid, to Rs 13.36 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi) from Rs 21.50 lakh earlier for a limited period, till December this year.

“There was a huge response from customers, who wanted to buy the car, but they were unable to do so because of the high import duty cost. As our priority is to popularise the technology, we have decided to cut the price for a limited period,” HSCI Vice-President (Marketing) Jananeswar Sen told a news agency.

He said that part of the cost would be borne by the company and a limited number of units would be imported during the offer period.

Till last month, the company sold 60 units of the ‘Civic Hybrid’.

Sen said HSCI, which is constructing its second plant in Tapukara in Rajasthan, is having a review of its investment plans keeping in mind the current market slowdown.

“We have already invested Rs 600 crore in the first phase out of the committed Rs 1,000 crore at the plant. The remaining amount is supposed to be invested for car assembly, which we are reviewing now,” he said.

The company was analysing the market situation before going ahead, Sen added.

He, however, said the company’s plan to roll out its hatchback ‘Jazz’ by mid next year is on track.