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__NOTOC__ Thursday at the Taipei International Convention Center, the winners of the Gold and Silver Awards were announced at the 2008 16th-annual Taiwan Excellence Awards, an event created to promote products made in Taiwan. They were announced by the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), which also organized the event. This year, 601 products competed for the eight gold medals and twenty-one silver awards. In the ICT category, the competition was especially fierce as 388 ICT products were on display from the IT industry. In to

Police in the United Kingdom are investigating after a bomb exploded in an Exeter restaurant at about 1250 BST. One person (believed by police to be the bomber) was injured, and a second device was found and made safe nearby. The suspect has been named as 22-year-old Nicky Reilly from Plymouth. He has been arrested and taken to hospital. The centre of the city was evacuated by police until about 1900 Local Time (UTC+1). Chief Constable Stephen Otter from Devon and Cornwall Police commented on the incident. He claimed that "the injured man had

A tornado that has caused 28 miles (45 km) of destruction throughout Weld County, Colorado, has killed one and injured 100. The man killed was inside a vehicle that was destroyed in the storm, west of Greeley, which is about 60 miles (97 km) north of Denver. A state trooper says that multiple car accidents occurred on highways throughout the county. U.S. Route 85 was closed after two semi-trailers were flipped over, though the drivers were not injured. Dozens of houses and vehicles were badly damaged by the tornado as it passed through. The to

The Vancouver Whitecaps announced the signing of former Toronto FC defender Chris Pozniak. Pozniak was chosen in the expansion draft by the San Jose Earthquakes and was then traded last March to Chivas USA of Major League Soccer. The contract is pending international clearance. Whitecaps president Bob Lenarduzzi said, "Chris brings a wealth of experience and quality to our back end. The signing of Chris made sense for a number of reasons for both the club and Chris. Chris was looking for a team that would be able to use his services for the ne

The Russian Language edition of Wikipedia was recently dubbed "a top Internet community" of the past year by a professional union of Russian Internet (Runet) scene protagonists, the "Ezhe" (ЕЖЕ). Ezhe ("еже") means "every" in Russian, a reference to regularly updated websites; Ezhe's mascot is a hedgehog because of its similarity with the word "yozh" ("ёж"). Ezhe.Ru is a non-profit "club" community coordinated via a Russian-speaking mailing list; nowadays it comprises more than 500 members — IT professionals, journalists and so on from all ove

A controversial development training course called "Landmark Forum" is cited in religious discrimination lawsuits in United States federal courts in New York and Washington, D.C. The seminars are run by a San Francisco, California-based for-profit training company called Landmark Education. The company evolved from Erhard Seminars Training "est", and has faced criticism regarding its techniques and its use of unpaid labor. The sperm bank and surrogacy company Los Angeles-based Growing Generations is named as a defendant in the New York lawsuit,

The Conservative Party's Edward Timpson has won the Crewe and Nantwich by-election in the United Kingdom with a majority of 7,860 votes. This is the party's first by-election victory in 26 years and party leader David Cameron visited the constituency earlier. Labour Party candidate Tamsin Dunwoody said that the 17.6% swing was a "mid-term blip" and that the people of Crewe and Nantwich will be "watching" Mr. Timpson. However David Cameron proclaimed the result "the end of New Labour" calling the Conservatives' overturning of the 7,000 Labour m

A new study that was recently carried by the online publication PLoS ONE describes the finding of dinosaur tracks on the Arabian Peninsula. The first of the discoveries was of a two-footed tridactyl. These tracks showed that the animal had taken steps with an average length of just over a metre. The tracks were pointing in the SSW direction. The study noted that "west of the tridactyl trackway, 11 subparallel quadrupedal trackways preserve evidence of large and small quadrupedal animals traveling together in a herd." The study also noted that

Borussia Dortmund have hired Jürgen Klopp as their new Head Coach after Thomas Doll resignation after their worst league position in 20 years. Klopp's contract will run until the June 30, 2010. Klopp was the Head Coach for FSV Mainz since 2001 before leaving for Dortmund. "I am delighted to be here. I am honoured", said Klopp. "Now I want to help bring the club back on track." Klopp has high expectations of the club, current players and target signings for the summer transfer window and wants to give the matches of Borussia Dortmund a "recogni

Bangladesh reported its first human case of the H5N1 strain of Avian flu on Thursday. According to a representative of the Bangladesh health ministry, the 16-month old boy initially tested negative for the disease. His virus culture tested positive in tests performed by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The boy is from the capital city of Dhaka in the Dhaka District. "Although there is no farm in the neighbourhood we suspect that he got the illness after his family bought chickens from a farm," said senior health m

David Cameron, the leader of the Conservative Party and UK leader of the opposition today made a speech to the conference of the Scottish Conservative Party. In the speech he addressed the issue of Scottish independence. "I want to be Prime Minister of the United Kingdom - all of it, including Scotland. I absolutely believe we are stronger together, and weaker apart, and I will do anything and everything to keep our two countries as one," he said. "Whether we like it or not, the ugly stain of separatism is seeping through the Union flag," said

Three Gonets satellites have been launched by the Russian Space Forces atop a Ukranian-built Rokot carrier rocket. Lift-off, from site 133 at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Northern Russia, occurred at 15:20:09 GMT this afternoon. The three Gonets satellites will be used to provide store-dump communication services. This is the second launch of modernised Gonets-D1M satellites. They will be operated by Gonets SatCom, an organisation which was previously part of the Russian Federal Space Agency, but which was privatised in 1996. Whilst Gonets is a