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The age of public collaboration over the Internet is still only in its infancy, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales told AFP in an interview. The 42-year-old web guru, in an effort to show Wikipedia’s impact thus far, referenced a recent trip to a slum in India where he “met this young man on the street who told me that he had used Wikipedia to pass his 11th grade exams.”

“Wow, that’s really cool, right? We’ve had some impact, even in such a place where I’m talking to this guy, and there’s mud streets, and cows, and it’s really quite a different environment from London.”

Wales’s popular online encyclopedia allows anyone with an Internet connection to make entries and edit content.

Speaking on the sidelines of an awards ceremony in London, Wales said: “We’re really just at the beginning, still, of collaborative efforts.”

“In video, right now, we’re still back in many ways in the Web 1.0 era,” he said, referring to the age before so-called Web 2.0, the peer-sharing model of the Internet of which Wikipedia is almost the definitive example.

“If you look at almost everything on YouTube, it’s individuals doing videos, either funny cat videos, or drunk girl videos seem to be quite popular there,” he said with a smile.

“What we haven’t seen yet in video is large-scale collaborative projects.”

Off the top of his head Wales suggested a 90-minute collaborative web video created by interviewing people from all around the world, giving their views on the war in Iraq.

He joked: “This isn’t going to be that popular, frankly, a 90-minute movie with people talking about Iraq — it’s going to have a small audience. This can’t be produced in the old-fashioned way. It’s totally possible now.

“That’s just one dumb idea of mine, right? Imagine what we could get if we could get 100,000 people thinking about collaborative video efforts to create documentary films, or comedy, or art, or who knows what.

“So, I think we’ve still got a long way to go.”

He acknowledged collaboration has its limits, noting that if “we said we want to write a novel about loss, and redemption, probably not so much public collaboration, that’s really an individual vision and a view of the world.”

“But for basic factual information, I think having an open public dialogue and debate and democratic process, seems to be very powerful.”

Wales also warned that major steps had to be considered to stop governments abusing ordinary people’s personal information, which is increasingly stored in vast computer databases.

He described potential government misuse of private citizens’ data as a “concern.”

“One of the interesting things to really think about is how, as we’re using the Internet, we leave an enormous digital footprint everywhere,” he said.

“And not just the Internet, but cell phones, everything else. I’m assuming, if anybody really cares enough, my movements all around the planet are pretty trackable by somebody.

“That’s something most people don’t think much about, and they don’t think much about it because, frankly, no one cares what most people are doing.”

He said, however, that as computing power increases, “we need to really think about what are the political controls we need to have in place to prevent governments from abusing that kind of information.”

Wales’s remarks come after a report last month which warned that European governments are rapidly eroding civil liberties in a bid to gain “unfettered” access to individuals’ personal data in the name of tighter security.

The document by Statewatch, a non-profit online civil liberties monitoring group, criticised the EU for viewing data protection and judicial scrutiny of citizens’ private information as “obstacles” to law enforcement.

American economist Paul Krugman won the 2008 Nobel prize for economics for bringing together analysis of trade patterns and where economic activity takes place, the prize committee said on Monday.The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said the prestigious 10 million crown ($1.4 million) prize recognised Krugman’s formulation of a new theory to answer questions driving world-wide urbanisation.

“He has thereby integrated the previously disparate research fields of international trade and economic geography,” the committee said in its statement.

Krugman is a professor of economics and international affairs at Princeton Univesity in the United States.

The economics prize, officially called the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, was established in the 1960s and is not part of the original group of awards set out in Alfred Nobel’s 1895 will.

The troubled British mortgage lender Bradford & Bingley will be nationalized and sold off in parts, with Spanish banking giant Santander SA taking over its retail deposits and branch network, British media reported Monday.

Treasury officials and financial regulators held talks over the weekend on the future of the mortgage lender. Bradford & Bingley spokesman Tony McGarahan said an announcement would be made before the stock market opened Monday but the company would not comment Sunday on the media reports.

Britain’s Press Association reported late Sunday that Spanish banking giant Santander would take over Bradford & Bingley’s retail deposits and branch network. The agency quoted an unidentified Santander spokesman, who did not offer details on the deal.

The British government is likely to take on the bank’s toxic loans and fold them into Northern Rock, a mortgage lender nationalized by the British government in February, the BBC and other media reported. The BBC said the Treasury will then try to sell the company’s 200 branches and savings business to other banks.

Bradford & Bingley specializes in so-called buy-to-let mortgages for rental properties, now considered one of the most volatile parts of Britain’s troubled housing market. Investors who took out loans to buy apartments and rent them out now find the value of their property has fallen and that rental income does not cover their mortgage payments.

Bradford & Bingley said last week it was cutting 370 jobs as a response to the worsening economy but that was not enough to save the institution.

The bank’s shares have plunged from around 300 pence at the start of the year to 20 pence (32 U.S. cents) Friday, amid fears that it is overexposed to Britain’s falling housing market.

The country’s biggest mortgage lender HBOS PLC has already fallen victim to the credit crunch, and was taken over by rival Lloyds TSB PLC in a $21.85-billion deal on Sept. 18.

The property Web site Rightmove reported last week that house prices in Britain fell for the fourth consecutive month in September, and another respected survey showed that home sales in Britain fell to a 30-year low in August.

Average house prices across the country fell 1 percent in September to 227,438 pounds ($419,357). New listings per real estate agent dropped to the lowest level for September that the index has ever recorded.

Pakistan’s army says its troops fired warning shots when two foreign helicopters crossed the Afghan border and the helicopters returned fire before re-crossing the frontier.

The U.S.-led coalition has confirmed that two American helicopters came under fire on Thursday, but denies that its aircraft crossed the border or fired back.

A Pakistani military issued a statement insisting the helicopters passed over one of their border posts and were “well within” Pakistani territory when the troops fired what it called “anticipatory warning shots.”

It said it was in contact with NATO’s headquarters in Kabul and that the issue was being resolved.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Pakistani troops fired at American reconnaissance helicopters patrolling the Afghan-Pakistan border Thursday, heightening tensions as U.S. steps up cross-border operations in a region known as a haven for Taliban and al-Qaida militants.

Two American OH-58 reconnaissance helicopters, known as Kiowas, were on a routine afternoon patrol in the eastern province of Khost when they received small arms fire from a Pakistani border post, said Tech Sgt. Kevin Wallace, a U.S. military spokesman. There was no damage to aircraft or crew, officials said.

“They did not cross the border and they did not fire back,” Wallace said.

U.S. forces and Pakistan’s military “are working together to resolve the matter,” a NATO statement said.

The U.S. has stepped up attacks on suspected militants in the frontier area, mostly by missiles fired from unmanned drones operating from Afghanistan. The incursions — especially a ground raid into South Waziristan by American commandos Sept. 3 — have angered many Pakistanis.

On Wednesday, Pakistan’s army said it had found the wreckage of a suspected surveillance drone in South Waziristan, but denied claims by Pakistani intelligence officials that troops and local people shot down the aircraft.

Pakistan’s military spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said Pakistan’s military was awaiting a full report from Afghanistan on Thursday’s shooting, but that Pakistani units had “very clear” orders not to fire across the border.

“We are getting it investigated,” he said.

In Washington, a U.S. official said the U.S. coalition in Afghanistan immediately demanded an explanation from Pakistan, the official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record.

Pakistani civilian leaders have condemned the cross-border operations by U.S. forces, which have been authorized by President Bush, while the army has vowed to defend Pakistan’s territory “at all cost.”

“We will not tolerate any act against our sovereignty and integrity in the name of the war against terrorism,” Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told journalists Wednesday. “We are fighting extremism and terror not for any another country, but our own country. This is our own war.”

Pakistan’s tribal areas have become a breeding ground for Taliban and al-Qaida militants, who are launching attacks inside Pakistan but also across the border into Afghanistan, where the levels of violence have reached record heights since the ouster of the Taliban from power in the U.S.-led invasion in 2001.

More than 4,600 people — mostly militants — have died this year in insurgency-related violence in Afghanistan, and the levels of violence in the eastern Afghanistan are 30 percent higher compared to the same period last year, officials say.

In other violence, a remote-controlled bomb struck a police vehicle Wednesday in Spin Boldak district of Kandahar province, killing two officers, said provincial police chief Matiullah Khan.

The Bush administration warned Wednesday that North Korea would isolate itself from the world community if it backtracks and reactivates the plant that once provided plutonium for an atomic test explosion.

North Korea barred U.N. nuclear inspectors from its main nuclear reactor on Wednesday, and within a week, it plans to reactivate the plant that once provided the plutonium for the explosive test two years ago, the chief U.N. nuclear inspector said. The North ordered the removal of the U.N. seals and surveillance equipment from the Yongbyon reactor, a sign it is making good on threats to restart its nuclear program.

“We believe that for the North Koreans to do so, it would only deepen its isolation,” Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said.

U.S. diplomats are talking this week with other nations bargaining with the North during this week’s gathering of the United Nations General Assembly. Rice sees her Russian counterpart later Wednesday.

“Everyone knows what the path ahead is. The path ahead is for there to be agreement on verification protocol so that we can continue along the path of denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. The North Koreans know that and so we’ll continue working with our partners on what steps we might need to take,” she said.

U.S. negotiator Christopher Hill will meet later this week with his Japanese and Chinese counterparts, a State Department spokesman, Robert Wood, said in Washington.

The Bush administration remains convinced the current diplomatic approach is the best way to deal with the nuclear situation, Wood said.

White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said North Korea’s actions run counter to the “six-party talks,” the process by which North Korea agreed to pursue nuclear disarmament in exchange for diplomatic concessions and aid. Beyond the U.S. and North Korea, the other parties in those talks are South Korea, China, Russia and Japan.

“We strongly urge the North to reconsider these steps and come back immediately into compliance with its obligations,” Johndroe said.

Rice said those talks are not dead.

“By no means,” she told reporters. “We’ve been through ups and downs in this process before. I think the important thing is that this is a six party process and that means there other states that are carrying the same message to North Korea about their obligations.”

Coming amid reports that that leader Kim Jong Il suffered a stroke, the nuclear reversal has fueled worries about a breakdown of international attempts to coax the North out of its confrontational isolation with most of the rest of the world.

North Korea officials have “informed the IAEA inspectors that they plan to introduce nuclear material to the reprocessing plant in one week’s time,” said a statement citing Mohamed ElBaradei, the chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The statement said he told the IAEA board that — acting on a North Korean request — his inspectors removed all agency seals and surveillance equipment from the reprocessing plant and its immediate area, in “work that was completed today.”

North Korea had agreed in February 2007 to begin dismantling its nuclear program in exchange for aid and other concessions.

Scientists began disabling its reactor in November, and in June blew up the Yongbyon cooling tower in a dramatic show of its commitment to the pact. Eight of the 11 steps needed to disable the reactor were completed by July, North Korean officials said.

But later that month, Washington made an additional request: detailed verification of the process, including soil samples and interviews with scientists. The U.S. pinned one of its concessions — removing North Korea from its list of nations that sponsor terrorism — on verification. The process has since stalled.

Myanmar’s junta on Tuesday freed 79-year-old journalist and activist Win Tin, the longest-serving political prisoner in the military-ruled nation.

“I will continue with politics as I am a politician,” Win Tin told people gathered at his friend’s house near the notorious Insein prison in Yangon.

Win Tin has been detained by the junta since 1989.

“According to the law, I should be have been released three or four years ago,” said Win Tin, who was dressed in his blue prison-issue outfit.

His release was part of an amnesty announced in state media today for 9,002 prisoners ahead of elections promised for 2010, although only a few of those freed are believed to be political prisoners.

Win Tin, a member of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party, vowed to continue his struggle against the junta.

“I do not accept this constitution,” he said, referring to a military-backed charter passed in a heavily-criticised referendum in May this year.

“So, I have to continue with politics as I cannot accept this constitution. What kind of politics? To finish military rule.”

NLD spokesman Nyan Win welcomed the release of Win Tin and said three more of their members had been released today.

Human rights watchdog Amnesty International said in a report in August that 2,000 political prisoners were behind bars in Myanmar.

The most prominent is Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been detained for most of the last 19 years.

The death toll due to heavy rains and flooding over the weekend across India shot up to 173 with the air force rescuing a revered Tibetan spiritual leader, officials said Sunday.

Most of the casualties were reported from India’s most populous northern state of Uttar Pradesh with 110 people dead in rain related accidents, revenue secretary Balwinder Kumar said in state capital Lucknow.

Further north, in the tourist state of Himachal Pradesh, state officials said 46 had died due to heavy rains lashing the state.

In eastern Orissa, 17 people were washed away and 2.4 million people left homeless after four rivers burst their banks and flooded villages, senior official Ajit Kumar Tripathy said Sunday in state capital Bhubaneswar.

In Uttar Pradesh, Kumar said incessant rains and strong winds triggered house collapses which killed many victims.

Further north, rains felled trees and severed power lines in Himachal Pradesh, blocking roads and bridges and cutting off electricity to houses, Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal said.

Indian air force helicopters, dropping food, medicines and supplies to affected people, also ferried the Karmapa Lama, who heads the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism, to safety, Dhumal said.

The Karmapa Lama — Ugyen Trinley Dorje — ranks only behind the Dalai Lama and Panchen Lama in the Tibetan spiritual hierarchy.

Another helicopter dropped food and other essentials to 45 trekkers including 25 foreigners stranded in the high altitude Lahaul valley, he added.

Sudha Devi, a senior Himachal administration official said at least 150 tourists had been evacuated from the snow covered 13,050 feet (3,977 metres) high Rohtang Pass on Sunday.

Meanwhile, in eastern Orissa state, about 266,000 people were evacuated to safer places after heavy rains and water overflowing from brimming dams inundated large parts of the state, Tripathy said.

“According to initial reports, 1,849 villages in coastal Orissa are under water,” he said.

Indian Air Force helicopters dropped food packets to people in the worst affected districts of Cuttack, Puri, Jagatsinghpur and Kendrapara, he added.

Officials said many of the 17 deaths in the state were caused by the collapse of flimsy homes.

AstraZeneca’s cancer drug Iressa should be considered as a first-line therapy for non-smoking Asian patients who develop a common type of lung cancer, researchers said on Monday.Iressa was once viewed as a likely blockbuster for AstraZeneca but a 2004 study showed that it only helped a small proportion of lung cancer patients. It is sold mainly in Asia and worldwide sales in the first half totalled $125 million.

Asia has a relatively high number of lung cancer patients who are non-smokers, a significant proportion of whom develop a form of cancer known as adenocarcinoma.

For these patients, Iressa should be considered as first-line treatment, rather than being reserved for use only after standard chemotherapy has failed, according to Tony Mok of the Chinese University in Hong Kong.

He presented results of a 22-month study involving more than 1,200 non-smoking lung cancer patients who had never received chemotherapy to the annual meeting of the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) in Stockholm.

The results showed that Iressa was better tolerated and resulted in a greater likelihood of response than a conventional chemotherapy regimen of carboplatin and paclitaxel.

Iressa, known generically as gefitinib, is in a class of drugs known as epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitors.

A lorry-load of beer destined for football fans at the Windsor Castle pub in Britain was mistakenly delivered to the castle of Queen Elizabeth II after which the pub is named, it was reported Thursday.A lorry carrying 12 barrels of lager turned up at the gates of Windsor Castle, near London, but royal staff had no record of the order.

They called the pub with the same name in nearby Maidenhead where the delivery was keenly awaited to quench the thirst of fans watching the England versus Croatia World Cup qualifier Wednesday.

‘It was a silly mistake - these things can happen. The barrels did eventually arrive, about three hours late, so there was no problem,’ said Misko Coric, the pub landlord.

‘We have received mail for the royal household here before but I think this is the first time they have received anything meant for us,’ he said.

The queen, known to be a fan of the fizzy soft drink Lucozade, will not have been amused, Coric added.

Russia on Tuesday submitted a draft resolution in the UN Security Council calling for an arms embargo against the former Soviet republic of Georgia, a senior Russian official said.

‘Georgia has been arming very aggressively in the past few years,’ Russia’s UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told reporters.

‘The military budget of the country has grown over the past six years by 50 times … and we believe it was put to very bad use as they attacked South Ossetia (on Aug 8),’ Churkin said.

‘It should be in the interest of the members of the Security Council to introduce such an arms embargo against Georgia,’ he added.

Russia fought a five-day war with Georgia over the two breakaway provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia of the former Soviet republic.

The conflict ended following a French brokered peace plan that stipulated pulling out of Russian troops from Georgian territory, among others.

Russia’s relations with the West have been at the lowest after it recognised Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent nations. It also established formal diplomatic ties with the two breakaway regions Tuesday.

The Russian decision to recognise the two provinces has been widely condemned by the international community.