On Wednesday, President Medvedev announced Russia would install its advanced short-range Iskander missiles in the country’s western-most region, Kaliningrad, in order to counter the U.S. anti-missile shield.

Rood said that Medvedev’s announcement was disappointing. However, a Moscow-Washington dialogue on the issue would continue. He said he was going to meet his Russian counterpart in about two weeks to discuss missile defence as well as other topics, including a U.S. proposal to further limit strategic nuclear weapons on both sides.

Moscow has repeatedly expressed its opposition to U.S. plans to deploy ten interceptors in Poland and radar in the Czech Republic, saying it would threaten Russia’s national security.

In 2002, the Bush administration abandoned the Cold-War era anti-ballistic missile treaty. Some experts say that Barack Obama may decide to revisit the plans and cut spending on the shield, which may ease current tensions with Russia.

Poland, however, says the U.S. will continue its strategic partnership in placing elements of its anti-missile defence system in the eastern European country.

A statement from the Polish President and Prime Minister’s offices say U.S. President-elect Barack Obama has already assured the country’s leaders of his intentions. The press office announcement says Obama stressed the importance of the strategic partnership between Washington and Warsaw.

The president-elect also said America’s plans to install parts of its AMD system on Poland’s territory are still in force.

In August, the USA signed an anti-missile defence treaty in which Poland agreed to host U.S. interceptor missiles on its territory.

The Russian Navy now also confirms that the Bulava missile (SS-NX-30), an adjusted model of the Topol-M missile, will undergo final testing in September-October this year, Rossiiskaya Gazeta reports in its weekly edission.

The Dmitrii Donskoy (TK-208) is the only of Russia’s six Typhoon subs, which has been modernized to handle the latest of Russia’s missile, the Bulava. The vessel has been undergoing upgrades at the Sevmash plant in Severodvinsk for the last ten years.

- Tests have been on a high level and with positive results, the vessel’s captain, Arkadii Romanov, says in a letter to Nikolay Kalistratov, head of the Sevmash yard. – The vessel is now ready for tests of the missile complex, he adds, Sevmash.ru reports.

The vessel – the biggest sub in the world – is unique with sheer size and its double hulls. It has a deadweight of 49,800 tons, a length of 172 meters and a width of 23,3 meters. The Dmitrii Donskoy was first put on the water in 1981. It is one of six Russian Typhoon subs, of which only three today remain in service.

The rebuilt vessel can have 20 Bulava missiles on board. That is more than the newest model of the Russian subs. The country’s first fourth generation sub, the Yuri Dolgorukii (Project 955 Borey), can take only 12 of the missiles.

Scientists have successfully activated particle beams within the 27-kilometre long ring and started collecting experimental data.

To watch the launch broadcasted live follow the link.

If the results of the final test are deemed successful, the next launch of the particles will be set on a colliding course.

“It’s a moment when the universe was created, so energy density was much higher. There was an incredible number of particles, most of which though, were not stable. Recreating this density we hope to create these particles too. So we are moving closer to our understanding of the Big Bang,” Pavel Nevsky Senior scientist of CERN Laboratory said prior to the launch.

Concerns denied

The Collider has been described as tampering with nature by some.

Sceptics have filed suits in the European Court of Human Rights to stop the experiment. Concerns are that the Collider might create micro ‘black holes’ that would swallow the planet.

The project’s scientists – some of whom have been getting death threats – have flatly denied the concerns, vowing they took all the necessary safety measures.

This is the fifth operating particle collider in the history of science. The fourth one – The Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) – faced similar fears, when launched in 2000 and proved them groundless.

Seven thousand minds in work

Some 7,000 scientists from 80 countries are operating the LHC in a hope to find a previously unseen kind of particles. Dozens of grand unified theories will be proven true or false.

The most significant of these theories is the Higgs mechanism for generating elementary particle masses. Physicists have long puzzled over how particles acquire mass.

Others deal with issues like quark masses, gravity, symmetry between matter and antimatter, extra dimensions, the nature of dark matter and dark energy, as well as the possibility of time travel.

Hawking doesn’t believe in ‘God particle’

One of the most famous physicists in the world, Briton Stephen Hawking, has bet $100 that the Higgs boson – a hypothetical massive scalar elementary particle, very unstable and thus not yet observed in material world – won’t be observed this time either.

“I think it will be much more exciting if we don’t find the Higgs. That will show something is wrong, and we need to think again,” Hawking said in an interview to BBC radio.

In 1964 Peter Higgs (certain others did it separately at the same period), came up with an idea that there must exist a background field passing through which particles would acquire mass by being dragged through a mediator.

The mediator was dubbed the Higgs Boson, later becoming known as the ‘God Particle’, as it is theoretically everywhere but remains elusive.

According to Hawking, the Collider will increase the energy at which we can study particle interactions by a factor of four, which may lead to discovery of supersymmetric partners to known particles.

“Their existence would be a key confirmation of string theory, and they could make up the mysterious dark matter that holds galaxies together,” he said.

The world’s largest particle accelerator will try to uncover how the universe began in a $US5 BLN experiment that will start on Wednesday. More than 700 Russian scientists, along with some 9,000 others, are involved in the project which is aimed at replicating The Big Bang.

The Large Hadron Collider will fire a beam of protons around a 27-kilometre long tunnel in opposite directions. At near light speed they will be made to collide amid fears that by doing so it might open a high-gravity zone (a.k.a. a black hole), which might threaten the life on Earth.

Scientists hope to find a previously unseen kind of particles. Dozens of theories will be proven true or false.

The Collider was built deep underground near Geneva, Switzerland.

“Innovation has always been a hallmark of Skype, and I want to innovate not only with the products we bring to market, but also with how we bring them to market,” said Silverman. “Scott has an outstanding track record and will be able to help us apply best practices in staying ever more customer-focused and nimble, even while becoming larger.”

Skype is the leader in online communications, revolutionizing the way people communicate through free and easy voice and video calling. The company has grown significantly since it was founded in 2003, and was acquired by eBay Inc. in September 2005. Today, the company has more than 309 million registered users around the world. In Q1 2008, Skype posted total revenues of $126 million, an increase of 61 percent over the prior year, while delivering a fifth consecutive quarter of profitability. Skype announced that since the company was launched in 2003, people around the world have talked to one another for more than 100 billion minutes using free Skype-to-Skype voice and video calls.

“I believe in Skype not only because I’ve been a user since the early days, but also because I’m convinced the opportunities ahead for Skype are tremendous given how the world is changing,” said Durchslag. “Skype combines superior multimedia communications technology with making the world a better place by cost-effectively connecting consumers on a global scale, as well as enabling smaller businesses to grow without the unnecessary fuel consumption, costs and carbon pollution generated by needless travel. It is truly a privilege to join the Skype team and help to build a great company.”

At Motorola, Scott led an 800 person global organization with sites across the U.S., Europe and Asia. He championed delivering simple, rich consumer experiences and building high tier co-created multimedia devices through partnerships he forged with Google, Microsoft, Yahoo!, and Kodak. Prior to Motorola, Scott was involved in Grand Central, a Silicon Valley enterprise software startup funded by Benchmark Capital, and he was one of the early thought leaders on web services as a Managing Director at The Chasm Group. Scott started his career at McKinsey & Company where he served American and Asian technology clients for eight years in their New York and Greater China offices. Scott was elected a partner in only four years and launched or led several international locations. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Chicago and received his MBA from Harvard Business School.

About Skype
Millions of people every day use Skype software to communicate with others through free voice and video calls, as well as instant messages. Skype’s 309 million registered users have made more than 100 billion minutes worth of free Skype-to-Skype calls. Many people also use SkypeOut™ or one of our global subscriptions to save money when calling landlines and mobiles at home and abroad. No longer bound to the computer, Skype conversations can also be had on a broad range of cordless handsets, mobile devices and other Skype Certified™ hardware. We’ve made it easy for Skype users to list and recommend their favorite local businesses to the rest of the community with SkypeFind. And even when you’re fluent in Skype, there is always more to discover: hundreds of third-party developers have created software plug-ins that make Skype even more useful. All of this makes Skype the leading global internet communications company.

Skype is an eBay company (NASDAQ: EBAY), and you can learn more and get Skype at www.skype.com.

Access to a broadband Internet connection is required for Skype and all Skype Certified devices and accessories. Skype is not a replacement for your traditional telephone service and cannot be used for emergency calling.

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