Features

CALIFORNIA – Fierce solar blasts that could have badly damaged electrical grids and disabled satellites in space narrowly missed Earth in 2012, US researchers said on Wednesday.

The bursts would have wreaked havoc on the Earth’s magnetic field, matching the severity of the 1859 Carrington event, the largest solar magnetic storm ever reported on the planet. That blast knocked out the telegraph system across the United States, according to University of California, Berkeley research physicist Janet Luhmann.

“Had it hit Earth, it probably would have been like the big one in 1859, but the effect today, with our modern technologies, would have been tremendous,” Luhmann said in a statement.

A 2013 study estimated that a solar storm like the Carrington Event could take a $2.6 trillion bite out of the current global economy.

Massive bursts of solar wind and magnetic fields, shot into space on July 23, 2012, would have been aimed directly at Earth if they had happened nine days earlier, Luhmann said.

The bursts from the sun, called coronal mass ejections, carried southward magnetic fields and would have clashed with Earth’s northward field, causing a shift in electrical currents that could have caused electrical transformers to burst into flames, Luhmann said. The fields also would have interfered with global positioning system satellites.

The event, detected by NASA’s STEREO A spacecraft, is the focus of a paper that was released in the journal Nature Communications on Tuesday by Luhmann, China’s State Key Laboratory of Space Weather professor Ying Liu and their colleagues.

Although coronal mass injections can happen several times a day during the sun’s most active 11-year cycle, the blasts are usually small or weak compared to the 2012 and 1859 events, she said.

Luhmann said that by studying images captured by the sun-observing spacecraft, scientists can better understand coronal mass injections and predict solar magnetic storms in the future.

“We have the opportunity to really look closely at one of these events in all of its glory and look at why in this instance was so extreme,” Luhmann said.

PARIS – About a million children, double the previous estimate, fall ill with tuberculosis every year, said a study Monday that also gave the first tally of drug-resistant TB among the young.

“Many cases of tuberculosis and multi-drug resistant tuberculosis disease are not being detected in children,” it said.

The team’s computer model, based on population data and previous studies, suggests 999,800 people aged under 15 fell sick with TB in 2010.

Around 40 per cent of the cases were in Southeast Asia and 28 per cent in Africa.

“Our estimate of the total number of new cases of childhood TB is twice that estimated by the WHO (World Health Organisation) in 2011, and three times the number of child TB cases notified globally each year,” said Ted Cohen from the Harvard School of Public Health.

The research, published in The Lancet, coincides with World TB Day, which places the spotlight on a disease that claims some 1.3 million lives each year.

The team estimated that nearly 32,000 children in 2010 had multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB), meaning the strain was impervious to frontline drugs isoniazid and rifampin and was thus harder and costlier to treat.

This is the first estimate of MDR-TB among children under 15, who constitute a quarter of the global population.

Children are at a higher risk of disease and death from MDR-TB, but react well to medication. They are harder to diagnose, partly because smaller children cannot cough up sputum samples needed for laboratory tests.

Reliable estimates are necessary for health authorities to assign resources for diagnosing and treating the infectious lung disease.

Commenting on the study, Ben Marais of the Marie Bashir Institute for Infectious Diseases and Biosecurity in Sydney, Australia, described it as the “most rigorous effort to date” to assess TB and MDR-TB incidence in children.

“Every effort should be made to reduce the massive case-detection gap and address the vast unmet need for diagnosis and treatment,” he said.

The WHO says about 450,000 people developed MDR-TB in 2012 and 170,000 died from it. 

Less than 20 per cent of MDR patients received appropriate treatment, which promotes further spread of the disease.

Nearly 10 per cent of MDR cases are thought to be of the even deadlier XDR (extensively drug resistant) variety which does not respond to a yet wider range of drugs.

A compact city hatchback with a distinctively angular style and slightly raised ride and cabin height, the Kia Soul’s design-led and SUV-flavoured formula have made it the Korean brand’s most instantly recognisable product. A trend-setting and design-led vehicle urban hatchback for practicality, maneuverability and economy, the Soul’s SUV-like design also afford it increased ground clearance and cabin space. Just launched, the second generation Soul doesn’t deviate from the original formula, but is a freshened-up, more stylized and sporty looking successor model, with tightened design lines and dynamics, as well as space, efficiency, equipment and cabin improvements, ready for a host of new competitors.

Funky trendsetter

A competitor to the likes of the Suzuki SX4 and Ford EcoSport, the Soul was soon joined by similarly design-led urban hatch/SUV crossovers like the Mini Countryman, Nissan Juke, Renault Captur and Peugeot 2008. Taking its design leads from the 2012 Kia Track’ster concept, the 2014 Soul cuts a sportier and more purposeful stance, with its bumpers, wheel arches and big footprint putting a greater emphasis on a sense of road-hugging presence and perception of width. Still upright and angular, the new Soul’s design lines seem tighter, and more harmonised, deliberate and reconciled.  Though slightly larger, the new Soul looks more concise and better packaged than before.

Smarter, sportier and more refined, the new Soul’s fascia is more upright and with a wider gaping trapezoidal honeycomb intake, flanked by better incorporated fog lights and topped by vent slats and thin blacked-out “tiger” grille — now decorative rather than functional. Gone are the cut-off headlight bottoms, replaced by smarter units with LED elements. More futuristic from the rear, the new Soul’s vertical lights are incorporated into the more muscular rear fascia, with blacked out surrounds and “floating” body colour panel in between. Youthful and trendy, extensive personalisation options and trims are offered, including four two-tone colour combinations and sporty Red Zone and SUV-like Urban Active packages. 

Refined ride

Powered by the larger more powerful two-litre version of the two petrol engine options, the Kia Soul develops 152BHP at 6,200rpm and 141lb/ft toque at 4,700rpm, which with the six-speed manual gearbox option — as driven — makes it good for 10.4-second 0-100km/h acceleration and a 188km/h top speed, and 7.6l/100km fuel efficiency and 178g/km carbon dioxide emissions on the combined cycle. In terms of on paper headline stats, the Soul 2.0 isn’t far off the 1.6 version for performance and economy, but the difference is, however, more significant on the road, where the larger engine is more willing, flexible and gutsy at real-world mid-range engine speeds.

Smooth and progressive, the Soul 2.0’s engine delivers a timely and confident performance, while the satisfyingly firm six-speed manual shifter slides between ratios easily, when one wants to work the engine hard to eke out its best performance when driving hard through snaking roads or overtaking on the highway. With excellent noise, vibration and harshness (NVH) isolation, the Soul’s drive train is refined and unintrusive, while its light clutch is especially user-friendly on-the-move. However, with such good NVH blocking out drive-train noise nuances, one needed a while to get familiar with the Soul 2.0 manual gearbox version’s biting point, whereas the 1.6 manual had a an instantly intuitive biting point.

Agile and responsive

Keener and more refined than its predecessor, the new Soul increased use of high strength steel construction, yields a 29 per cent increase in torsional rigidity, and along with revised suspension rates and bushes, translates into ride, handling and refinement improvements — and thinner pillars for better visibility. Smooth and firm on straights and well-controlled through corners, the Soul however feels forgiving over imperfections, dirt roads and bumps, and stable on highways. The fuel-saving electric steering has also been sharpened up, with eager on-centre responsiveness and a meaty directness through corners. Revised suspension rates have also improved the Soul’s handling. FlexSteer provides three steering resistance levels but doesn’t seem to alter “feel” in sport mode.

With quick 2.85-turn rack rate and tight on-centre responsiveness, the Soul’s efficient electric steering feels sharp and precise on turn-in and through fast, sprawling and snaking B-roads, and maneuverable on the busy streets of Santiago, Chile. Hustled along narrow lanes with sudden crests, dips and tight corners, the Soul felt agile and maneuverable, with crisp turn-in and eager cornering, while high grip levels felt reassuring to sudden corrections. Almost as agile and eager as a hot hatch rather than quasi crossover hatch-SUV, the Soul’s tight body control and poise were commendably good. Confident and reassuring, one only slightly took note of the increased ride and body height on badly off-camber corners on brisk B-roads and long imperfectly paved high speed sweepers.

Comfort, kit and cabin

With a noticeably m ore premium look and feel to its cabin, the new Soul’s interior door panels, console, dashboard, steering wheel and instrument cluster has been re-designed to be more organic, fluid and user-friendly. Classier than ever inside, the Soul features deep-set gauges, a chunky contoured leather steering wheel, stylishly glossy piano black panels and more use of soft textures for a more up-market feel. Optional heated leather seats feature more supportive bolstering, eight-way electric adjustability. With lower set seats and step-in height, cabin accessibility is improved, and accentuates the new Soul’s generous front and rear headroom, which along with leg and shoulder has been enhanced.

With its tall, upright and space efficient cabin the Kia Sould was even surprisingly well-accommodating for large and tall occupants in the rear, while its usefully and uniformly configured cargo volume expands from a minimum 354- to a maximum 1,367-litres, and features an under-floor storage compartment. Comfortable and practical, the Kia Soul comes with an extensive range of standard and optional kit that includes a panoramic sunroof, lumbar support, heated side mirrors, smart key, Bluetooth and USB connectivity, six-speaker stereo, climate control and front and rear parking sensors. Safety kit also includes front, side and curtain airbags, stability and traction control, ABS and braking assistance.

SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: 2-litre, transverse 4-cylinders

Bore x stroke: 81 x 97mm

Valve-train: 16-valve, DOHC, continuously variable valve timing

Gearbox: 6-speed manual, front-wheel-drive

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 152 (154) [113] @ 6,200rpm

Specific power: 76BHP/litre

Power-to-weight: 121.7BHP/ton

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 141 (191) @ 4,700rpm

Specific torque: 95.5Nm/litre

Torque-to-weight: 153Nm/tonne

0-100km/h: 10.4-seconds

Top speed: 188km/h

Fuel consumption, combined: 7.6l/100km

CO2 Emissions, combined: 178g/km

Length: 4,140mm

Width: 1,800mm

Height: 1,613mm

Wheelbase: 2,570mm

Track, F/R: 1,576 / 1,588mm

Overhang, F/R: 840 / 730mm

Ground clearance: 163mm

Headroom, F/R: 1,006 / 1,003mm

Legroom, F/R: 1,040 / 994mm

Shoulder-room, F/R: 1,410 / 1,390mm

Luggage volume, min / max: 354 / 1367 litres

Fuel capacity: 54-litres

Kerb weight: 1,249kg

Steering: Electric-assisted rack & pinion

Lock-to-lock: 2.85-turns

Turning Circle: 10.6-metres

Suspension, F: MacPherson struts, coil springs gas-charged dampers, stabiliser bar

Suspension, R: Torsion beam, coil springs, gas-charged dampers

Brakes, F/R: 280 x 23mm ventilated discs / 262 x 10mm discs

Stopping distance, 100-0km/h: 42.8-metres

Tyres: 235/45R18

ATHENS – It’s a global health fad with millions of fans in Europe and the United States, and yet in Greece, many people have never heard of “Greek yoghurt”.

Equally surprising in an age when billions are spent on marketing, the term “Greek yoghurt” is basically a quirk of fate.

“What is known abroad as ‘Greek yoghurt’ is called ‘straggisto’ (strained yoghurt) in Greece,” explained Prokopis Ploumbis, a cheese maker in the rural outskirts of Athens.

“The secret lies in the milk,” he adds.

Creamy, rich in protein and low in fat, strained yoghurt made from cow’s milk is increasingly prized by health-conscious consumers, and it has benefited from the growing popularity of the Mediterranean diet in the Western world.

And yet, in terms of marketing, neither the Greek state nor any Greek company had sought to stamp a patent on the product, unlike feta cheese which is now a protected EU term.

No court would have accorded protection for “Greek yoghurt” when the term is not even used in Greece.

It thus lay open for the taking.

Shepherding the crowds 

Sensing an opportunity, Turkish entrepreneur Hamdi Ulukaya was able to make a killing on the American market with his yoghurt company, named Chobani, which comes from the Turkish word for shepherd.

It is also similar to the Greek word for shepherd, and Chobani packages prominently call it “Greek yoghurt” in the United States.

Meanwhile the Greek company that first broke open the US and European markets decades ago, Fage, features “Greek strained yoghurt” in smaller type on its packages.

In just seven years, Chobani’s “Greek yoghurt” has become the best-selling yoghurt brand in the United States, and strained yoghurt now accounts for 35 per cent of the US yoghurt market, from only 4 per cent in 2008.

“Because it was introduced in this country by a Greek company, they called it ‘Greek yoghurt’. It doesn’t matter whether it’s Greek yoghurt or Turkish yoghurt, as long as it’s a good yoghurt,” Ulukaya told Fortune magazine in 2011.

Fage fought back

“Fage is the one that made known to the world the creamy texture of Greek yoghurt, its protein concentration, its rich taste,” said the company’s commercial director Alexis Alexopoulos.

However the 88-year-old Athens-based family company, which exports dairy products to 40 countries, eventually had to concede defeat in the United States.

But it moved to protect its 95 per cent share in the British market.

In British courts, Fage based its argument on the fact that unlike Chobani, its yoghurt is actually made in Greece, and won the case on appeal in January.

Chobani now markets its yoghurt as “strained” in Britain, and “Greek” in the United States.

Fage sells its product in Britain as “authentic Greek yoghurt”.

Cow or sheep?      

Strained yoghurt is also popular in Greece, where it also serves as a key ingredient for staple dishes like tzatziki dip.

But for traditionalists, there is also a significant yearning for non-strained, tangier and more fatty yoghurt made from sheep’s milk.

Yoghurt made from sheep’s milk has 6.5 per cent natural fat, compared to around 2 per cent in cow’s milk.

All over the country there are hundreds of traditional yoghurt-makers catering to the countryside or island markets. 

Many of these products are consumed locally and never reach the big supermarket chains in Athens.

“Greek ewes graze in the mountains and receive no additives in their food,” said Ploumbis, the cheese maker in Vilia, some 60 kilometres (37 miles) west of Athens.

“The best milk comes in the spring. The animals eat hundreds of different plants, it’s an unimaginable richness,” he added, pointing to the valley around the sheep pens, covered in shrubs and almond trees in bloom.

WASHINGTON – Whatever you’re doing this Sunday, wherever you might be, take a moment to reflect on the most popular word in the English language, OK?

It will be 175 years since OK –– or, as some prefer, okay –– first appeared in print, on page two of The Boston Morning Post, then one of the most popular newspapers in the United States.

“I think OK should be celebrated with parades and speeches,” Allan Metcalf, an English professor in Illinois who is the world’s leading authority on the history and meaning of OK, told AFP.

“But for now, whatever you do (to mark the anniversary), it’s OK.”

In his 2010 book, “OK: The Improbable Story of America’s Greatest Word,” Metcalf calls OK “the most frequently spoken (or typed) word on the planet” — used more often than “Coke” or an infant’s “ma”.

Concise and utilitarian, it’s quintessentially American in its simplicity. Etymologically, it has no direct relationship with Latin or Greek or any other ancient tongue.

Oxford Dictionaries, on its website, rejects speculation that OK is derived from the Scottish expression “och aye”, the Greek “ola kala” (it’s good) or the French “aux Cayes,” which refers to a Haitian port famous for its rum.

Rather, it favours a theory –– shared by Metcalf –– that it’s an abbreviation of “orl korrekt”, a derivative of “all correct” from the 1830s when jokey misspellings were all the rage, like Internet memes are today.

NG: ‘no go’

Credit for finding its first use in print goes to Allen Walker Read, a Columbia University professor who died in 2002 after a lifetime interest in OK and another widely used word with four letters that starts with the letter F.

It appeared in the Post in the context of an article concerning the ironically named Anti-Bell Ringing Society, founded in 1838 to oppose a municipal law in Boston prohibiting the ringing of dinner bells.

Society members were en route to New York, it reported, adding cryptically that if they should transit Rhode Island en route home, the newspaper editor in the New England state might well “have the ‘contribution box,’ et ceteras, o.k. — all correct — and cause the corks to fly, like sparks, upward.”

Other abbreviations proliferated at the time, like NG for “no go”, GT for “gone to Texas” and SP for “small potatoes”.

But OK truly entered the national lingua franca in 1840, when spin doctors for Democratic presidential nominee Martin Van Buren, a native of Kinderhook, New York, insisted to voters that it meant “Old Kinderhook”.

‘I’m OK, You’re OK’ 

Today, OK is used “to ask for or express agreement, approval or understanding” or to add emphasis to a sentence, as in “I’m going to stay here, OK?” according to its entry in the Merriam-Webster dictionary.

“I’m OK, You’re OK,” published in 1967, remains one of the best-selling self-help books of all time, while Rodgers and Hammerstein declared Oklahoma in song to be OK! in their eponymous 1943 musical.

There’s also the OK Corral in Tombstone, Arizona — but in this instance, OK stands for Old Kindersley and the infamous 1881 shootout that supposedly took place there but actually occurred down the street.

Internationally, OK has travelled remarkably well on the wings of American popular culture — and found a niche in the digital era, fitting easily into 140-character Twitter and text messages.

Using Google Glass eyewear, in fact, calls for a voice command that begins: “OK, Google Glass”.

“It’s a nice, short abbreviation and it fits abbreviations in other languages,” said Metcalf, the executive secretary of the American Dialect Society who teaches at MacMurray College.

“It’s distinctive, yet easily pronounced and very readily understood... It uses the vowel O, the vowel A and the consonant K — and those are found in almost all languages of the world,” he added.

WASHINGTON – The news media is generating some big news of its own, as a growing number of star US journalists move online, bringing followers and financial backers with them.

Online news sites have been around for years, but in recent months the trend has gained momentum, defying predictions of a troubled media industry.

The latest was the relaunch of FiveThirtyEight, headed by Nate Silver, a statistician and journalist who made his own headlines with his accurate prediction of the 2012 presidential election.

The site, which covers a range of news with a statistician’s eye, is backed by the sports broadcaster ESPN, after Silver left The New York Times with his blog.  

Also joining the fray was The Intercept, a news site backed by tech entrepreneur Pierre Omidyar with an editorial team led by Glenn Greenwald, the former Guardian reporter who broke news with documents leaked by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.

Omidyar has pledged to invest $250 million in his First Look Media, which includes a not-for-profit news operation and a separate technology arm for new media.

The Washington Post’s popular “Wonkblog” columnist Ezra Klein meanwhile left the newspaper to start a news website backed by Vox Media. 

Yahoo wooed television news star Katie Couric and former New York Times tech writer David Pogue. And journalists at The Wall Street Journal-backed tech blog AllThingsD broke off in January to create Re/code, a separate website with support from Comcast’s NBCUniversal.

The new energy in Internet news comes as the entrenched news industry faces deepening financial woes, and the model for online profits remains unclear.

Dying or reviving? 

So is the news business dying or being reborn?

Alan Mutter, a former Chicago newspaper editor who consults for journalism and technology ventures, said that while traditional newspapers are withering, online news sites may be working.

But the digital news business is likely to be “vertical”, covering a segment such as technology, sports or politics, unlike a newspaper, which aims to cover all sectors. Online news can get money from subscriptions, premium content or links to shopping, for example.

“The future of digital publishing is the antithesis of traditional publishing,” Mutter told AFP.

Newspapers try to get a broad audience by offering comics, coupons and recipes, while covering news ranging from local crime to politics to walks on the moon, and online sites are changing that model.

The shift is similar to what happened in retailing, with multi-sector department stores hammered by specialty apparel, housewares or electronics stores.

“Newspapers are basically following a publishing-model mindset that is locked in 1958,” Mutter said.

“They take the same content and put it on a website or put it on mobile and they say they have a digital strategy.”

Low cost of entry

Ken Doctor, a media analyst with Outsell who writes the Newsonomics blog, said it has become easier to launch news sites.

“The technology has gotten much better and cheaper in the past few years,” Doctor said.

“And once you create the content, the social world is able to find new audiences at practically no incremental cost.”

News startups can expand internationally and gain a far larger audience than they would with a local or even national US newspaper, he noted.

“You can ramp up one of these businesses and create a national or international brand for $5 million to $10 million,” Doctor said.

Without the legacy costs of newspapers like printing, distribution and longstanding pensions,  websites can become profitable relatively quickly.

Arab Art Histories—The Khalid Shoman Collection

Edited by Sarah A. Rogers and Eline van der Vlist

Amman: The Khalid Shoman Foundation, 2013, 463 pp

Like both Darat Al Funun and the Khalid Shoman Collection which it covers, this book is firmly grounded in Amman, but at the same time indicative of a regional cultural network with international outreach. Comprising eight major essays, scores of personal reflections and hundreds of images, it tells the story of how the initial efforts of Suha and Khalid Shoman to support local artists, by buying their works, grew into a broadly based institution perched on the cutting edge of contemporary Arab art. In human terms, this story shows that individuals can make a difference if they join forces with others in the pursuit of beauty, excellence and enlightenment.

Editor Sarah Rodgers traces the history of Darat back to Suha Shoman's working relationship with Fahrelnissa, Shaker Hassan, Ali Jabri, Ammar Khammash and many others, and how she realised that what artists needed was not a gallery, "but a home that provided opportunities for research, creativity, and exchange". (p. 27) In Suha Shoman's words, "Arab artists assimilated tradition and modernity, experimented in all medias, and revisited their history." Eventually they created "an art that goes beyond labels or stereotyped definitions. An art that lives". (p. 61)

The most delightful reading in the book is the reflections of some of the many artists who have benefitted from and contributed to Darat and the collection. Each offers a unique definition of the institution, mirroring its openness, value and multiple functions. For Emily Jacir, Darat has been "a regular site of pilgrimage" as she transited between Palestine and elsewhere, offering "an education and exposure to works, writers, and ideas". (p. 63) Mohammad Al Asad posits Darat's creation as an "initial step towards rediscovering and re-establishing the importance of Amman's core". (p. 116) Nada Shabout calls it a "blissful oasis" which provided unparalleled research possibilities back in pre-Internet days when there were few resources on Arab art. Sheena Wagstaff tells how she and Suha Shoman "explored the dream of establishing a programme that would build mutual trust via an open negotiation of respective cultural histories, and most crucially, the identification of shared values", leading to a joint exhibition that travelled between London's Tate Gallery and Darat. (p. 172) 

Sama Alshaibi can't decide how to capture Darat's essence—"support network; forum; educational space; gallery; place to hang out; stage for performance; artist colony; publisher; art collection; production venue; and studio" — finally settling on "my second family". (p. 226) To Najwa Bint Ali, it was "a haven for Iraqi artists… a community of inspiring people". (p. 230) Samia Halabi praises Darat's "uncompromising insistence on quality". (p. 232) Wijdan F. Al Hashemi views Darat as complementary to the Jordan National Gallery, while Pierre Bikai recalls the excavation of the archaeological treasures found in its garden. Tania Tamari Nasir calls Darat an "exquisite venue for celebrating the arts". (p. 284) To Mamdouh Bisharat, it is "a jewel… a private institution with a public spirit". (p. 286) There are many other reflections in English and Arabic.

The essays are more challenging to read not so much because of their theoretical tone, as for the unconventional ideas they propose. In the open-ended spirit of Darat and the collection, the essayists eschew preconceived notions about art history to tell the stories of select artists and pieces in a sociopolitical context. Faisel Darraj focuses on why the "Arab modernity project was in crisis from the outset," while chronicling the role of Arab modernists in the arts. (p. 81) Anneka Lenssen discusses art in relation to its audience, as evidenced in the setting of the café. Kirsten Scheid writes about the Arab body in art — not nude paintings, but how "the vulnerability of the Arab body to international politics" is represented. (p. 252) Saleem Al-Bahloly addresses "how the handling of light, space and frame [in photographs] works to produce intelligible form for some of the problems that have characterised the twentieth century in the Middle East". (p. 255) Ulrich Loock discusses what it means that the "Shomans have built the collection up through their continuous involvement in and with the moments of a present that evinces constant change, rather than from a historical distance." (p. 305) Stephen Sheehi writes about Nicola Saig, "Jerusalem's First Painter", who transitioned from iconography to modern painting. Hassan Khan trains a critical eye on all modern Arab art. 

What remains unstated in this review is the pure pleasure of viewing the art works reproduced in the book. Due to obvious space limitations, some of the images are too small to fully appreciate, but this can be solved by visiting Darat Al Funun's 25th anniversary exhibition, which runs until April 30. "Arab Art Histories" is available at Darat Al Funun or can be ordered at www.ideabooks.nl

Sally Bland

WASHINGTON – Google said Thursday its popular Gmail service would use encryption to thwart snooping, in the latest move by the tech sector reassuring customers following revelations about US surveillance programmes.

“Your e-mail is important to you, and making sure it stays safe and always available is important to us,” Gmail engineering security chief Nicolas Lidzborski said in a blog post.

“Starting today, Gmail will always use an encrypted HTTPS connection when you check or send e-mail.

“Today’s change means that no one can listen in on your messages as they go back and forth between you and Gmail’s servers — no matter if you’re using public WiFi or logging in from your computer, phone or tablet.”

Google has already begun scrambling most of the traffic at its websites as technology firms grapple with moves by US intelligence agencies to spy on what people are doing and sharing online.

And similar moves have been announced by Yahoo, Microsoft and Facebook to use encryption that limits the ability of a third party to read messages or e-mails.

US tech firms have been ramping up encryption since last year’s explosive revelations about the vast surveillance capabilities of the National Security Agency  (NSA) and other intelligence services, based on leaked documents.

Lidzborski said Google’s latest move “ensures that your messages are safe not only when they move between you and Gmail’s servers, but also as they move between Google’s data centres — something we made a top priority after last summer’s revelations”.

Some reports say the NSA had been able to access the data centres of Google and other Web firms.

Experts say encryption generally prevents outsiders from intercepting a person’s messages or documents, but that a persistent effort can gain access through malware or other methods that trick a person into revealing passwords.

Joseph Hall, chief technologist at the Centre for Democracy and Technology, said Google’s move is positive even if it does not protect against every potential threat.

“I’m reluctant to say anything is NSA-proof,” Hall told AFP.

“But I think what Google is trying to do is make sure they come through the front door and not the back door.”

Hall said that Google’s encryption “would make it very difficult” for the NSA or others to tap into e-mail traffic directly.

But he cautioned that the encryption would be only for “transport” and that data may still be unencrypted while sitting on a user’s browser or stored in certain data centres.

Still, he maintained that this encryption is positive because it is “part of a general trend of strengthening the core Internet structure”.

“Unfortunately, this is a case of an American Internet company having to beef up security because of attacks by its own government,” Hall said, while adding that it could be positive for people living in authoritarian regimes.

“If you’re an activist in Syria or and Iranian democracy activist, it will go a long way to making you secure.”

Google’s announcement came a day after co-founder Larry Page condemned US government snooping on the Internet as a threat to democracy.

Page, speaking at the Technology Entertainment Design (TED) gathering in Canada, was sharply critical of the NSA.

“It is tremendously disappointing that the government sort of secretly did all this stuff and didn’t tell us,” Page said.

AMMAN — In his photography exhibition “Orientalism” at Jacaranda Images, prolific Egyptian artist Mohamed Abouelnaga does not attempt to give a clear-cut answer to what the Orient is; instead, he chooses to play on its elusive and enigmatic nature.

Distorted by the subjective image drawn by European orientalists to depict it, the Orient — and Arabs in extension — is now at a struggle to come to terms with what it really is.

“The romanticised Orientalist vision of the East has affected how we view ourselves, to the extent that we have come to believe that depiction and use it to refer to ourselves,” the artist told The Jordan Times.

Abouelnaga’s art emphasises the foggy situation of Arab identity at the moment, stitching layer over layer of cloth over photographs of Arab women on backgrounds inspired by Arabic heritage, such as calligraphy, arabesque patterns and depictions of holy Muslim sites.

“I used many layers that imply a case of constant change and movement. Everything is out of focus,” he explained. “With these Arab revolutions, we find ourselves once again discussing the concept of identity.”

As Arabs delve deeper into this introspective review of culture and being, clarity continues to elude them.

Layers of tulle, silk and paper, and blotches of ink and colour obscure the images in Abouelnaga’s works of mixed media, inviting a meticulous examination of each individual piece that never reaches a satisfying conclusion.

The viewer is left to wonder and debate what the multiple veils hide.

“This Orientalist view has rendered us unable to see the other or ourselves clearly,” said the multidisciplinary artist, who has held exhibitions in the US, Mexico, and several European countries.

Heavily influenced by Edward Said’s writings on Orientalism, Abouelnaga goes on to show that while Western scholars may have created an Orient that has little to do with the peoples living in the East, Arabs themselves are still struggling with their identity and how to define themselves.

“Is there an actual clear idea of what an Islamic or Arab identity is as a whole?” he asked.

In his book on “Orientalism”, Said describes it as “a Western style for dominating, restructuring, and having authority over the Orient”. 

He argues that the West has depicted the Orient as strange, odd, bizarre, exotic and weirdly irrational in contrast with the “rational normality” of Western culture.

The Orient is also feminine, passive and submissive, in opposition to the West’s “masculine” features of activity and domination. 

Out of that conceptualisation, the images of females and nude women persisted in European Orientalist art.

Similarly, the Egyptian artist’s work abounds with depictions of women, but most of them are dressed in more traditional attire.

Abouelnaga’s idiosyncratic style and his depiction of what he perceives as the “New Orientalism” leaves viewers with more questions than answers, out of his belief that Arabs are still trying to come to terms with the aftermath of the latest revolutions.

His work brilliantly depicts “a moment of confrontation” that the Orient is going through to find itself.

But Abouelnaga is optimistic about the future.

“Just like Europe couldn’t easily recover from two world wars to rebuild itself… it will take us time to find answers to questions of identity,” he said.

The exhibition, which is held within the Institut Français’ and Darat Al Tasweer’s jointly organised fourth Image Festival, continues through March 31.

NEW YORK  — In the largest cities in the US, death rates from breast cancer have dropped across the board over 20 years, but far less so for Black women than Whites, according to a new analysis. 

The widening survival gap is likely due to differences in the quality of healthcare and access to it, researchers contend, because health factors alone cannot explain the changes over two decades.

"The advancements in screening tools and treatment which occurred in the 1990's were largely available to White women, while Black women, who were more likely to be uninsured, did not gain equal access to these life-saving technologies," lead author Bijou Hunt, an epidemiologist at Mount Sinai Hospital in Chicago, told Reuters Health in an e-mail.

Past research has examined racial differences in survival for specific cancers and for cancer in general and found at least some could be explained by biology. High blood pressure, diabetes and other health problems that both worsen cancer outcomes and are more common among Blacks have received some of the blame.

Black women are also more likely than Whites to have aggressive breast tumours that don't respond to the most effective treatments. This basic difference in cancer genetics is another reason given for differing survival when it comes to breast cancer.

To assess changes in survival trends on a national level, Hunt and her colleagues looked at mortality rates in the largest US cities at four different time points: 1990-1994, 1995-1999, 2000-2004 and 2005-2009.

They found that during the 20-year span, deaths from breast cancer fell overall — by 13 per cent for Black women and by 27 per cent for White women. While a gap was already present in the early 1990s, it widened considerably with time.

The team's analysis, published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, found that during 1990-1994, the rate of breast cancer deaths was 17 per cent greater among Blacks than among Whites. This steadily increased to 30 per cent, then to 35 per cent and finally to 40 per cent in the last time period they looked at.

The disparity was particularly striking in Memphis, Tennessee, where the rate of breast cancer deaths among Blacks was 27 per cent higher than among Whites in 1990-1994 and ballooned to more than two-fold higher by 2005-2009.

In Los Angeles, the mortality rate among Blacks was 24 per cent higher than among Whites in 1990-1994 and 71 per cent higher in 2005-2009.

Wichita, Kansas, which had no significant differences in mortality rates among Blacks and Whites at the first time point studied, had a two-fold increased rate of deaths among Blacks in 1995-1999, which fell to a 57 per cent greater mortality rate among Blacks by the most recent time point.

Most, but not all, of the 41 cities included in the final analysis saw an increase in racial disparities during the study period. This was not true of New York, however, the largest city included. The disparity in New York was about the same at the first and last time points examined, with an 18 to 19 per cent greater mortality rate among Blacks than Whites, the researchers note.

Several other large cities, including Minneapolis, Miami, Portland and Las Vegas, did not have any significant differences at all in mortality rates between Blacks and Whites at any of the four time periods examined.

The growing gap in breast cancer deaths among Blacks versus Whites was largely caused by a steeper drop in breast cancer deaths among Whites than among their Black counterparts, Hunt and her colleagues point out.

Sixteen states experienced a greater than 20 per cent decrease in the White mortality rate, but a less than 10 per cent decrease in mortality among Blacks, the researchers report.