Research from B.J. Zebarth and co-researchers in the area of agriculture and soil science published.

According to recent research published in the Agronomy Journal, "There is increasing use of Italian ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum Lam.) as a green manure in potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) rotations; however, effects of its management on soil N supply to the subsequent potato crop are unknown. Fertilizer N management and plow-down date for a preceding Italian ryegrass crop, 'Lemtal', on soil N supply to a subsequent potato crop, 'Russet Burbank', was determined over 2 yr."

"Application of N at 150 to 188 kg N ha(-1) to ryegrass increased dry matter yield and N uptake of aboveground forage and stubble (i.e., stubble, crown, and large root) tissue. Delaying plow-down from early …

Feds: Pa. shop-owner smuggled ton of banned ivory

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A man who owns a Philadelphia art store has been charged in New York City with smuggling one ton of banned African elephant ivory into the United States.

Federal prosecutors say 68-year-old Victor Gordon surrendered Tuesday in Brooklyn and was released on $1 million bond.

Authorities say Gordon got his ivory from West and Central Africa and smuggled it through New York. They say Gordon …

Santana sets goal of making music that touches souls

While a crowd of more than 300,000 might make some performerssweat like a thief in church, Carlos Santana used it to become aninternational sensation.

Three months before his first album was released in 1969,Santana entered the spotlight with a searing performance atWoodstock, combining blues and rock with the Latin music he learnedat his father's knee.

"Santana," released four months after Woodstock, sold more than1 million copies. So did his next five albums after that. In all,he has released 25 albums, including his newest, "Spirits Dancing inthe Flesh."

Now on tour for "Spirits Dancing in the Flesh," the 43-year-oldSantana says that, despite his …

FORM 8-K: HARVARD BIOSCIENCE FILES CURRENT REPORT

WASHINGTON, April 16 -- Harvard Bioscience Inc., Holliston, Mass., files Form 8-K (current report) with Securities and Exchange Commission on April 15.

State or other jurisdiction of incorporation: Delaware

Regulation FD Disclosure.

On April 15, 2011, Harvard Bioscience, Inc. (the "Company") , in connection with mailing the Notice of Internet Availability of Proxy Materials to shareholders for the 2011 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, made its Proxy Statement and 2010 Annual Report (the "Annual Report") available online at www.proxyvote.com. The 2010 Annual Report is also available on the Company's website at www.harvardbioscience.com. Excerpts from the Annual Report are furnished hereto as Exhibit 99.1 and incorporated by reference into this Item 7.01 in satisfaction of the public disclosure requirements of Regulation FD.

The information set forth in this Current Report on Form 8-K, including Exhibit 99.1, shall not be deemed "filed" for purposes of Section 18 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the "Exchange Act"), or otherwise subject to the liabilities of that section, nor shall it be deemed incorporated by reference in any filing under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Exchange Act, except as shall be expressly set forth by specific reference in such a filing.

Financial Statements and Exhibits.

(d) Exhibits.

Exhibit Number - Title

99.1 - Excerpts from Annual Report

More information can be viewed at: http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1123494/000119312511099206/d8k.htm For any query with respect to this article or any other content requirement, please contact Editor at htsyndication@hindustantimes.com

http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1123494/000119312511099206/d8k.htm

NAVY BLOWS UP MINELAYER.(Main)

Byline: Combined wire services

The U.S. Navy early today scuttled an Iranian ship that was caught sowing mines in the Persian Gulf, and Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger said the United States would tolerate no more mining.

U.S. sailors on Friday placed explosives aboard the 180- foot, 1,662-ton Iran Ajr, towed it to deep waters off Bahrain, and later detonated the charges, sinking the vessel, the Pentagon announced in Washington.

"The ship was sunk in a location where it will pose no hazard to shipping," said Col. Marvin Braman, a spokesman for the Pentagon.

"We're very hopeful that this one episode will be a sufficient warning so that they will stop it, but we are not going to go on the basis of hopes," Weinberger said during a tour of U.S. warships in the gulf.

Weinberger's announcement aboard the command vessel USS LaSalle that the Iran Ajr, flying the Stars and Stripes from its mast, would be blown up was greeted by applause and cheers from about 200 sailors, according to reporters traveling in the Defense Department pool.

Also, Pentagon officials confirmed reports that some of the 26 captured crewmen from the Iran Ajr had divulged the general location of nine mines, and Navy divers detonated one of them, sending a hundred-foot gusher of water into the air.

"We're not going to let that ship go back out and do it again," Weinberger said during his seven-hour tour.

Calling the Ajr's capture "a fair-sized lesson" to Iran, Weinberger said the Navy was "prepared and ready to do whatever is necessary to drive home the lesson that they can't do this with impunity."

The nine mines found on the Ajr's deck, he said, were "proof positive" of charges, denied by Tehran, that Iran has mined international waters in the gulf.

In similar speeches to 620 crewmen aboard the LaSalle, the frigate USS Hawes and the helicopter carrier USS Guadalcanal, Weinberger said President Reagan had asked him to convey his "great appreciation" for their work escorting 11 reflagged Kuwaiti tankers to guard them from Iranian attacks.

Weinberger also criticized Congress for cutting the defense budget and trying to limit Reagan's options in the gulf by imposing a War Powers Act restriction on the U.S. deployment in the region.

The secretary also acknowledged that the escort campaign needs international help and at one point made a brief reference to the Navy's need for "more basing facilities" - apparently referring to the refusal by gulf Arab moderates to allow U.S. forces to operate from their territory.

U.S. forces have been getting more and more international cooperation as the escort operation unfolds, he said, and gulf Arabs are beginning to realize "that you can't get anything out of Iran by being nice to them."

Pentagon officials said Japan has agreed to help with a sophisticated navigational system needed to establish the precise location of mines, and West Germany will replace any U.S. forces shifted from Europe to the gulf.

Still, in a sign of Arab discomfort with the U.S. military presence in the gulf, Weinberger had to fly by helicopter to the warships from the Saudi Arabian port of Dahran because Bahrain, which is much closer to the ships, did not want to be linked to the Ajr incident, officials said.

Meanwhile, the Associated Press reported that the Reagan administration moved to block the shipment of U.S.- made scuba gear and other diving equipment to Iran, suggesting that the devices pose a "direct threat" to shipping in the Persian Gulf.

Commerce Department spokeswoman Patricia Woodward said U.S. sales to Iran of scuba gear and related equipment totaled $83,000 in 1986.

In Tehran, President Ali Khamenei told worshipers at a Friday mass prayer meeting that the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini had asked him "to tell the Iranian people that ... we will respond to America's wicked acts."

The president said Iran's 86-year-old spiritual leader, seldom seem in public in the past year, also told him that Iran would make "no compromise whatsoever" to end the Iran-Iraq war, now in its eighth year.

Iraq announced that its warplanes Friday attacked a "large naval target" in the gulf - its euphemism for tankers carrying Iranian oil - and charged that Iranian artillery had hit the southern city of Basra, killing seven civilians.

Pentagon officials accompanying Weinberger said some of the 26 captured Ajr crew men - who will be freed Saturday in Oman at the entrance to the gulf - provided U.S. forces with the general location of nine mines they had rolled into the water before they were attacked.

The Times of London reported that Navy commandos stormed the ship after the initial attack and fired at Iranian crewmen to stop them from sliding the rest of the ship's mines into the gulf.

State Department sources, meanwhile, said "no consideration" had been given to asking Iran to release Jon Pattis, a jailed Rockville, Md., telecommunications engineer, in return for the seamen. Pattis is serving a 10-year sentence on charges of spying for the CIA.

There was no indication of how many mines have been physically located, but one of them bobbed to the surface Friday, apparently after one of the Navy's giant H-653 mine sweepers passed over it and sliced its mooring cable.

Navy television film released to the press pool showed two Navy divers jumping off a rubber boat and swimming under the 1,000-pound mine to avoid its detonating horns while they fixed an explosive charge to its belly.

The divers swam quickly back to the boat and the craft sped off as the eight-minute timer on the charge ticked down and finally set off the mine, sending a column of water 100 feet into the air.

Weinberger reportedly returned to Saudi Arabia Friday night and was scheduled to go to Bahrain on Sunday for a private meeting with the ruling family.

CAPTION(S):

PHOTO

PHOTO

Chess

THE COUNTRY with by far the highest number of grandmasters percapita is Iceland, which boasts no fewer than nine, from a populationof about 270,000.

This is no accident, for the stimulus famously provided by the1972 Fischer-Spassky match has been followed up by a whole host ofother impressive tournaments. While their first grandmaster, formerFIDE President Fridrik Olafsson, has for many years been the Speakerof the Parliament.

Fridrik is now more or less retired from active chess but he wasnevertheless one of the six Icelanders grandmasters who took partthis weekend in the powerful Chess@Iceland Speed Championship inReykjavik.

It had been provided in advance that the top seeds, Kasparov andAnand no less, would be separated in the two six-player all-play-allpreliminaries. As expected, both won their groups with Kasparovmaking 4.5 /5 ahead of Margeir Petursson 3 and Jan Timman and HelgiOlafsson 2.5; while Anand headed his group with 4/5 ahead ofAleksander Wojtkiewicz 3.5 and Ivan Sokolov 3.

The semi-finals on Sunday saw Kasparov play Wojtkiewicz, who hadqualified for the event by winning a "virtual" qualifier at theInternet Chess Club (http://www. chessclub.com); and Anand versusPetursson. The first games in both matches were drawn but bothheavyweights won the second to set up a meeting in the final.

Although Anand has over the past few years done very badly againstKasparov at a "classical" time limit, he's fared much better atrapidplay and indeed both of these were drawn, as was the first fiveminute play-off before Kasparov won the second to take first place.While these games were all interesting, I've chosen instead Kasparovsvictory against Wojtkiewicz.

Kasparov with 14.hxg5 varied from 14.Bg2 which he himself hadplayed - to crushing effect - against Loek Van Wely at Wijk aan Zeein January. His idea was the most dangerous novelty 15.e5. Faced withsuch a move against such an opponent most players would go down andWojtkiewiczs 17...Nc4?! looks very bad - presumably he should try17...Qxb6 18.Bxf6 Nc4.

20.Nxe6! rocked the black position and although he resigned alittle early it's clear that lines like 26...b3 27.axb3 cxb3 28.Rxd5exd5 29.Be6 Qg6 30.Qd6+ Ke8 31.Qc6+ Ke7 32.Qc7+ Kf6 (if 32..Kxe633.Re1+ wins) 33.Bxg8 Rxg8 34.Qd6+ Kf7 35.Qxd5+ Qe6 36.Qxe6+ Kxe637.h7 Rh8 38.cxb3 are utterly hopeless.

White: Gary Kasparov

Black: Aleksandr Wojtkiewicz

Reykjavik 2000

Sicilian Najdorf

1. e4 c5

2. Nf3 d6

3. d4 cxd4

4. Nxd4 Nf6

5. Nc3 a6

6. Be3 e6

7. f3 b5

8. g4 Nbd7

9. Qd2 h6

10. 0-0-0 Bb7

11. h4 b4

12. Na4 d5

13. Bh3 g5

14. hxg5 hxg5

15. e5 Nxe5

16. Bxg5 Rg8

17. Nb6 Nc4

18. Nxc4 dxc4

19. Bxf6 Qxf6

20. Nxe6 Bh6

21. g5 fxe6

22. Qd7+ Kf8

23. gxh6 Bd5

24. Qd6+ Qe7

25. Qf4+ Qf7

26. Qe5 1-0

On your marks, get set, book! The race for 2012 Olympic tickets begins

The application process for tickets to the London 2012 Olympicsopened at midnight last night, with organisers expecting theofficial website to be the world's third-largest online retailportal, after eBay and Amazon.

Locog, the Games' co-ordinating committee, can only estimate howmany people will apply before the deadline on 26 April. But giventhat 2.5 million registered their interest in tickets in advance,the number of applications for individual events is likely to be inthe tens of millions.

However, organisers have been emphasising that the process is "amarathon and not a sprint", so prospective spectators should notworry about missing out on those Greco-Roman wrestling tickets.

The process is not first-come-first-served; automated ballotswill select tickets at random for oversubscribed events, and thewindow to apply runs until 26 April. There are 6.6 million ticketsfor the Olympic Games available to the British public in total. Andwith 645 sessions for 26 sports taking place at 34 venues across 19days, there is plenty of choice available.

Nevertheless, as the biggest sporting event to ever take place inthe UK, every event is expected to sell out. Even the less glamorousevents such as archery, handball and synchronised swimming are onthe wishlists of tens of thousands of people. The Korean martial artof taekwondo looks set to be a thumping big hit, and there couldeven be hearty cheers of "Britannia rules the waves" as Team GBcompetes in the water polo event at the Olympics for the first timein 56 years.

YOUR 2012 TICKET GUIDE

Where to apply for your tickets

Online at www.tickets.london2012.com or at branches of LloydsTSB. Thomas Cook will be offering a range of "Games Breaks" in whichtickets are included with accommodation, while Jet Set Sports haveall-inclusive packages. Do not buy from anywhere else, as they arenot legitimate vendors.

The most expensive tickets...

The best seats at the opening ceremony will cost 2,012.

...and the cheapest

There are 2.5 million tickets available at 20, covering everysport. Children aged under 16 can "pay their age", so a 12-year-oldonly costs 12. Some events are free: the men's and women'smarathons, the cycling road race, walking races and triathloncycling stage.

Best chance of seeing a British gold

Our highest hopes are with the cyclists, such as Chris Hoy andVictoria Pendleton. But as the velodrome holds only 6,000 people,their events will be massively oversubscribed. Instead, try gettingoff the beaten track and onto a bumpy one - Shanaze Reade is a realmedal contender in the BMX racing, if you are after something a bitdifferent that will not take up too much time, does not need in-depth knowledge of the rules and makes for great viewing.

The BMX arena surrounds an undulating course over whichcompetitors bunny-hop (and crash), and it is right in the middle ofthe Olympic Park in the shadow of the velodrome. The action issqueezed into two-hour sessions over three days and Reade, whocrashed in Beijing and ruined her medal hopes, should featurestrongly.

If you want a cheap option with the prospect of British gold atthe end of it, then the triathlon could provide one of the bestspectacles of the Games. In the course of less than two hours,Alistair Brownlee will swim, cycle and run around Hyde Park and theSerpentine in pursuit of a medal.

Where to see Usain Bolt

Everyone expects the Jamaican sprinter to be in the 100m final on5 August, but as that will be the most coveted ticket in town itwould be wise to apply for the classification heats the day beforeas well. Don't forget that he also runs in the 200m and 4x100m relayevents, so look out for those later in the month.

Not everything is in London

Events outside the Olympic village include football in Glasgow,Cardiff, Manchester, Newcastle and Coventry; sailing in Weymouth,Dorset; rowing in Buckinghamshire's Eton Dorney; mountain biking atHadleigh Farm in Essex; and canoeing at the Lea Valley White WaterCentre in Hertfordshire.

Maximise your chances...

If you really want to see one sport in particular, apply forseveral sessions across different days, especially earlier heats.And if you have your mind set on a specific final, mark yourselfdown for different price ranges. On the other hand, if you are lessfussy about what sports you see, try some of the less hyped ones -such as handball or water polo.

...but don't get carried away

Although people applying for many different sessions are highlyunlikely to get all the tickets they request, it might happen.Therefore work out what you can afford and set a strict budgetbefore diving in - especially as you must have the funds availableto buy whatever tickets you are allocated, and orders cannot bechanged once they have been processed.

How to pay

Only Visa cards will be accepted on the internet. If you do nothave a standard Visa debit or credit card, you can buy a pre-paidVisa card from a bank (you load cash onto the card to spend at alater date). Otherwise, you can apply for tickets using a cheque orpostal order at branches of Lloyds TSB. Payments for successfulapplications will be taken between 10 May and 10 June, but you mightnot be notified of which tickets you have received until 24 June.

If it turns out you can't go...

A third of UK companies are expected to increase flexible workinghours to allow staff to watch the Games. But if you cannot get timeoff or are unable to attend, a re-sale website will allow you totrade tickets at face value. You cannot sell tickets on eBay orother auction websites.

Advice for non-British applicants

If not a resident of the UK or one of the designated Europeancountries, you will be required to apply for Olympic Games ticketsvia your local National Olympic Committee (NOC) from 15 March 2011and Paralympic Games tickets from your National Paralympic Committee(NPC) from 9 September 2011.

Applications for corporate tickets

Only 1 per cent of the tickets will be for corporate buyers, butif you want some for your business you can apply online in the sameway as for public tickets. Prestige Ticketing have exclusive accessto official on-site hospitality packages.

Applications for the Paralympics

These open on 9 September, when 2 million tickets will beavailable.

With 500 days to go, Olympic Park is on schedule

Sport, page 51