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■ Cellphones
Cop's phone interrupts judge
Indian judges hoping to make an example of a man by jailing him for not switching off his mobile telephone in court got a rude awakening when a policeman's cellphone rang just as they meted out the punishment. The high court in Patna, the capital of the eastern state of Bihar, on Friday sentenced Madhu Kumar, an employee of the state education department, to three days in jail and fined him 1,000 rupees (US$22) for keeping his phone on when attending court last month. But just as the sentence was being read out, the judges were shocked to hear the ringing phone of Rajesh Prasad Paswan, a police officer in the courtroom. The judges ruled the policeman in contempt of court -- the same charge that led to Kumar's jail term.

■ Satellites
Measat chooses Lockheed
Measat, Malaysia's sole commercial satellite operator, has picked US defense firm Lockheed Martin Corporation to launch its third communications satellite in 2005, local media reported yesterday. Binariang Satellite Systems Sdn Bhd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Measat Global Berhad, has signed a US$48.7 million contract with Lockheed-Khrunichev-Energia International Inc and Lockheed Martin Commercial Launch Services Inc for the satellite's launch services. The US$132.5-million satellite, ordered from US aerospace giant Boeing in March, will be launched on a Proton Breeze M launch vehicle from Baikonur in Kazakhstan from May to November 2005, the Bernama news agency said. Measat-3 would serve Asia, Middle East, Eastern Europe, Africa and Australia.

■ Agriculture
Japan's rice crops falter
The Japanese government is preparing to dole out its biggest financial aid package to Japanese farmers in a decade as an unusually cool summer takes its toll on this year's rice yield, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported yesterday. Japan, usually hit by a string of hot, muggy days in late July and last month, has had an unusually cool and cloudy summer that has prompted experts to predict some of the worst rice and vegetable harvests in decades. Private think tank Rice Databank said earlier this month that Japan's staple grain is headed for its lowest yield since 1993, when a poor harvest led to a rice shortage. The report did not specify what the total payout might be. But it was set to be the largest since 1993, when the government funneled ¥460 billion (US$3.9 billion) in aid and extended loans worth some ¥300 billion (US$2.5 billion) to farmers, it said.

■ Microchips
Chip fights forgery, cancer
Malaysia and FEC Inc, a Japanese company, will produce a dust-sized microchip capable of fighting forgery and killing cancer cells, the Star reported, citing Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad. Malaysia has acquired the intellectual rights to the chip, and will jointly produce it with FEC, which was responsible for the design, the Star said, without saying where it got the information. The chip, measuring 0.25mm2, can be embedded in paper and has applications in health care, retail and national security. Production will begin in Japan early next year, and Silterra Bhd, Malaysia's first made-to-order supplier of semiconductors, will be involved later, the paper said. Silterra, set up with a US$1.5 billion investment led by Malaysia's federal government, forecasts revenue will increase 45 percent this year as demand rises for chips used in mobile phones and consumer electronics.

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