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Indonesian blackout caused by lack of generation capacity A power outage in Indonesia that left about 100 million people without electricity has generated increased energy concerns throughout the nation. Document reveals U.S., Taliban discussed bin Laden assassination According to documents recently declassified by the U.S. State Department, top U.S. and Taliban officials discussed the potential assassination of Osama bin Laden after the bombings of U.S. embassies in 1998.

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One million pilgrims attend open-air mass with Pope The Catholic World Youth Day 2005 concluded with a open-air mass by Pope Benedict XVI at the Marienfeld, about 15 km west of Cologne.

Wikipedia Current Events
The president of Indonesia ordered the national intelligence agency and police to investigate after a power outage left about 100 million people without electricity. The original handwritten manuscript of a paper by Albert Einstein, entitled "Quantum theory of the monatomic ideal gas" (Bose-Einstein condensate), dated December 1924, has been found in the archives of Leiden University's Lorentz Institute for Theoretical Physics. It was considered one of Einstein's last great breakthroughs. Photographs of the 16-page manuscript and a description of how a student stumbled upon it were posted on the institute's Web site.

Gastric bypass surgery performed by remote control

A robotic system at Stanford Medical Center was used to perform a laparoscopic gastric bypass surgery successfully with a theoretically similar rate of complications to that seen in standard operations. However, as there were only 10 people in the experimental group (and another 10 in the control group), this is not a statistically significant sample. If this surgical procedure is as successful in large-scale studies, it may lead the way for the use of robotic surgery in even more delicate procedures, such as heart surgery. Note that this is not a fully automated system, as a human doctor controls the operation via remote control. Laparoscopic gastric bypass surgery is a treatment for obesity.

There were concerns that doctors, in the future, might only be trained in the remote control procedure. Ronald G. Latimer, M.D., of Santa Barbara, CA, warned "The fact that surgeons may have to open the patient or might actually need to revert to standard laparoscopic techniques demands that this basic training be a requirement before a robot is purchased. Robots do malfunction, so a backup system is imperative. We should not be seduced to buy this instrument to train surgeons if they are not able to do the primary operations themselves." There are precedents for just such a problem occurring. A previous "new technology", the electrocardiogram (ECG), has lead to a lack of basic education on the older technology, the stethoscope. As a result, many heart conditions now go undiagnosed, especially in children and others who rarely undergo an ECG procedure.

One million pilgrims attend open-air mass with Pope

The Catholic World Youth Day 2005 concluded today with a open-air mass by Pope Benedict XVI at the Marienfeld, about 15 km west of Cologne.

Benedict XVI

Speaking to some one million pilgrims from about 200 countries the Pope called for a "return to God" . In his sermon, he condemmed the commercialisation of faith and said that "Religion constructed on a 'do-it-yourself' basis cannot ultimately help us".

He announced that the next World Youth Day will be held in Sydney and concluded with short addresses in nine languages in which he called upon the faithful to "walk together in unity".

A journalist working for the German weekly magazine Der Spiegel described the speech this way: "First faith, then morality".

The Pope has been in his native Germany since Thursday. During his visit he met with high ranking politicians, made the first ever visit of a Pope to a German synagogue and spoke to representatives of the Muslim community.

Space shuttle Discovery back in Florida

The Space Shuttle Discovery has returned to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Discovery riding piggyback on a B747

The 109 ton vehicle was flown back from Edwards Airforce Base (AFB) in California on top of a modified Boeing 747 known as the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft. The 3,591 km journey across the United States took 2 days and cost about one million dollars. The Shuttle Carrier Aircraft made pit-stops in Oklahoma and Louisiana before landing in Florida this morning.

On its way back from space, Discovery had to land at Edwards AFB on August 9 because its homebase in Florida reported bad weather.

Inter Milan victorious in Italian Super Cup

Inter Milan won the Italian Super Cup on Saturday for the first time in sixteen years. The match took place at Stadio delle Alpi in Torino, Italy against the Serie A champions Juventus. The cup is the first opportunity to win a trophy in the Italian football season.

Argentinian midfielder Juan Sebastian Veron scored the only goal of the match. He received the assist from Adriano in the sixth minute of the first half of extra time.

Roberto Mancini, coach of Inter Milan, described the match as "tough". Inter now prepare for a preliminary round match of the Champions' League against Shakhtar Donetsk on Wednesday. Serie A, the top division of Italian football, begins on August 27 with Inter being one of the teams favored to win.

Today in History
1485 - The Battle of Bosworth Field decisively ended the Wars of the Roses.

1851 - The first America's Cup was won by the yacht America.

1864 - Twelve European nations signed the First Geneva Convention, which marked the beginning of the Red Cross movement led by Henry Dunant.

1911 - The theft of the Mona Lisa was discovered.

1989 - Nolan Ryan struck out Rickey Henderson, becoming the first major league baseball pitcher to record 5000 strikeouts.

Quote of the Day

By a free country, I mean a country where people are allowed, so long as they do not hurt their neighbours, to do as they like. I do not mean a country where six men may make five men do exactly as they like." ~ Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, Lord Salisbury

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