News Portal, latest news from around the world.

(WIRED) -- The tributes to Dennis Ritchie won't match the river of praise that spilled out over the web after the death of Steve Jobs. But they should.

And then some.

"When Steve Jobs died last week, there was a huge outcry, and that was very moving and justified. But Dennis had a bigger effect, and the public doesn't even know who he is," says Rob Pike, the programming legend and current Googler who spent 20 years working across the hall from Ritchie at the famed Bell Labs.

On Wednesday evening, with a post to Google+, Pike announced that Ritchie had died at his home in New Jersey over the weekend after a long illness, and though the response from hardcore techies was immense, the collective eulogy from the web at large doesn't quite do justice to Ritchie's sweeping influence on the modern world.

Dennis Ritchie is the father of the C programming language, and with fellow Bell Labs researcher Ken Thompson, he used C to build UNIX, the operating system that so much of the world is built on -- including the Apple empire overseen by Steve Jobs.

CNN's GeekOut blog: Without Ritchie, you wouldn't be reading this

"Pretty much everything on the web uses those two things: C and UNIX," Pike tells Wired. "The browsers are written in C. The UNIX kernel — that pretty much the entire Internet runs on -- is written in C. Web servers are written in C, and if they're not, they're written in Java or C++, which are C derivatives, or Python or Ruby, which are implemented in C. And all of the network hardware running these programs I can almost guarantee were written in C.

"It's really hard to overstate how much of the modern information economy is built on the work Dennis did."

Even Windows was once written in C, he adds, and UNIX underpins both Mac OS X, Apple's desktop operating system, and iOS, which runs the iPhone and the iPad. "Jobs was the king of the visible, and Ritchie is the king of what is largely invisible," says Martin Rinard, professor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT and a member of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.

"Jobs' genius is that he builds these products that people really like to use because he has taste and can build things that people really find compelling. Ritchie built things that technologists were able to use to build core infrastructure that people don't necessarily see much anymore, but they use everyday."

From B to C

Dennis Ritchie built C because he and Ken Thompson needed a better way to build UNIX. The original UNIX kernel was written in assembly language, but they soon decided they needed a "higher level" language, something that would give them more control over all the data that spanned the OS. Around 1970, they tried building a second version with Fortran, but this didn't quite cut it, and Ritchie proposed a new language based on a Thompson creation known as B.

Depending on which legend you believe, B was named either for Thompson's wife Bonnie or BCPL, a language developed at Cambridge in the mid-60s. Whatever the case, B begat C.

(CNN) -- We were running late for a flight from London's Heathrow Airport when it happened. The security official held up his hand, and shouted for his colleague. A lengthy line of travelers offered sympathetic glances. They knew what this meant.

It was time for a pat-down.

But it was not for me; it was for my 4-year-old daughter.

It was her first. Though young, she is an experienced air traveler. She took her first transatlantic flight when she was 6 weeks old. And she knows the rules: When she arrives at airport security, she kisses her stuffed bunny goodbye, and tells him she will see him on the other side of the X-ray machine.

Bunny had to wait a bit longer than usual for their reunion on this occasion. My daughter was selected for a pat-down because, according to the security officer, she had touched the side of the metal detector.

Had I watched her go through, I might have warned her to keep her hands at her sides. But I was busy sampling my infant son's jar of pureed spaghetti and tomato sauce, washed back with a sip of baby milk, under orders from a security officer.

"The same rules apply for everybody at the airport," says a spokesperson for BAA Airports, which operates London's Heathrow. "Some people are selected fairly randomly for an extra search."

Search protocols vary between international airports. Certain guidelines, such as restrictions on liquids, tend to be universal, but security rules differ on a country-by-country basis.

For traveling parents, that can mean the difference between having to taste the breast milk they want to bring on a flight vs. merely holding the liquid under a test strip.

But even with a surprise taste test, staying calm is key. Getting anxious will only make the process more stressful, says travel expert Pauline Frommer, series editor for the Frommer's guides.

"Kids are very sensitive and they pick up that vibe," she says. "What parents need to realize is, it's not going to be as bad as they think."

Even with a pat-down, the airport security process will probably only take about 15 minutes out of a trip. And young travelers can be resilient, often more resilient than their parents.

To my surprise, my daughter submitted happily to her pat-down. She saw it as an adventure, especially when she realized that her parents were standing by during the procedure (per airport protocol).

And many of the world's busiest airports are taking steps to make security more family friendly. In the United States, the Transportation Security Administration is in the process of making pat-downs less likely for children. Passengers who are younger than 12 will be allowed to pass through the metal detector more than once rather than getting patted down immediately after triggering the alarm.

(CNN) -- This latest film from master filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar will be both familiar to his fans and viewed as a departure.

While it boasts a couple of his regular cast of performers (including Antonio Banderas for the first time in 21 years) it is not an original story (as most of his work is) and is instead adapted by the director and his frequent collaborator, brother Augustin, and based on a novel "Mygale" ("Tarantula" in the UK) by Thierry Jonquet.

It's also significantly darker in tone, more subtle, wholly unsentimental and rather more brutal than we're used to getting from Almodóvar.

World famous plastic surgeon Robert Ledgard (Banderas) lives in an isolated compound called El Cigarral, a magnificent mansion shut off from the world by trees, a wall and gates. In the compound's laboratory Robert is experimenting on a new kind of skin, one developed through the gene therapy called transgenesis, an ethically-challenged procedure that has been banned by Robert's superiors.

Using pig cells, Robert has developed a new kind of human skin that can resist disease, fire and puncture but still transmits other sensations, like human touch. He's achieved this by experimenting on humans, in strict violation of every ethical standard and contrary to the instructions of his medical superiors. One of these human subjects, a young and beautiful woman named Vera (Elena Anaya, "Talk To Her"), is his captive in the mansion and is Robert's latest guinea pig.

Vera lives in a sealed room. Her meals and other materials are delivered via dumbwaiter and her only contact with another person is when Robert is transplanting skin on to her or when he enters her room at night to give her some opium to smoke.

Robert lives with a caretaker, Marilia (Marisa Paredes, "All About My Mother," "Talk To Her"), who is his willing accomplice in this macabre medical experiment and acts as a mother figure to him. She makes meals for Vera and is the only other person with whom she has any contact. Marilia also dotes on Robert, whose tireless albeit creepy work was triggered by the death of his wife some years before, the victim of a horrible car crash and subsequent burning, hence the flam-resistant pigskin.

(CNN) -- Imagine if long-term drought were to strike a part of the rural United States, Wyoming say, or Montana.

There would be bank foreclosures as the price of cattle would fall because there was too many of them on the market, families would tragically lose their farms, and grocery lists would be trimmed.

But would people starve, actually waste away until their bodies began to devour themselves?

In Southern Somalia, Djibouti, parts of Ethiopia and in refugee camps in Kenya at the moment, up to 12 million people, basically half a Canada, are facing death.

In Somalia, the people already in crisis number about four million. Mothers, for example, are again making the Sophie's choice of how to share the small resources of remaining food amongst their children.

And the tired old terms to explain it all are again repeated. The cause, we are told, is drought. The "caused by drought" formula is not only lazy journalism. We've heard that song sung so often in the past that it may now make us immune to the famine's claim on us.

Certainly, drought is a trigger of famine. And global warming might be extending the length of droughts. But Amartya Sen, the Nobel Prize-winning economist famously said that no substantial famine has ever occurred in a liberal democracy. I believe Sen is right. Famines occur in places where people are tyrannized over either by governments or, in the case of Southern Somalia, by private armies and militias. They occur in places where even in the lead-up years to famine, farmers are not always able to plant crops with security, without the likelihood that they might be confiscated, or that the village granary will be burned by armies, private and government.

(CNN) -- Word on the cobblestone street is Istria is the "new Tuscany." I disagree. The landscape of this northern part of Croatia is less cultivated. It's less wealthy. And, last I checked, the Renaissance didn't happen here. Plus, "Istria" is still a little-known proper noun and "Tuscany" has moved into adjective territory.

Show me an American suburb and I'll show you a "Tuscan" kitchen, if not an entire foreclosed development named "Tuscan Hills." Earlier this year when Olive Garden -- the strip mall home of endless breadsticks -- wanted to make itself more appealing, it announced it was making over its restaurants in the style of Tuscan farmhouses. Now, I don't know if they serve shark in Tuscany, but the region has certainly jumped it.

That's not going to happen to Istria anytime soon. No, it will continue to hide in plain sight. Right in the middle of Europe. A small peninsula the shape of a crudely drawn heart tucked behind the boot of Italy. Capped by the Alps, bottom dangling in the cartoon blue of the Adriatic sea.

Eventually the tour buses and cookbook authors will arrive en masse, but for now the region is so sparsely populated that sometimes with its raw grandeur and new highways it can feel like an imaginary world in a video game where you build your own civilization.

Turns out civilization has existed in Istria since at least the Bronze Age, when people lived in "gradines," fortified castles built on the tops of hills. Houses and walls from that time are still visible as are the many structures left behind by all those who have ruled this region: The Illyrians, the Romans, the Venetians, the Austro-Hungarians. You name them, and they probably killed people and built churches here.

The Italians controlled the area until 1947 when it was ceded to then-Yugoslavia after the World War II. Now it is part of Croatia.

For the modern invader, Istria comes in two flavors: coastal paradise and rustic hilltop hamlet. Because the region is only about 50 miles wide and 60 miles north to south you can have both in the same day.

(CNN) -- MTV has long since moved away from being a "music channel."

Just as "Video Killed the Radio Star" marked the ending of an era when MTV played its first music video on August 1, 1981 at 12:01 a.m., 30 years later, the success of the network's shows like "The Jersey Shore" have all but eclipsed the video star.

So what's a musician striving to connect with fans and sell records to do?

If you are lucky, you land an appearance on the Video Music Awards.

This Sunday MTV will air the 2011 Video Music Awards (aka the VMAs) live, marking 27 years of a successful annual award show. Last year's VMAs boasted the highest ratings since 2002, bringing in 11.4 million viewers and making it the No. 1 cable telecast of 2010 for the MTV network.

For musicians, the coveted spot has now become the performance slots during the award show. Those selected have been identified as key players within the industry and to be asked has become an honor and acknowledgment of the music that an artist has put out that year.

The musicians and MTV look to secure their audience base not through music videos, but by broadening the guest list, in particular the red carpet, to encompass all those within the MTV lineup from musicians, actors/actresses, celebrities and the reality stars that are the driving force of the network. So don't be surprised when the newest Teen Mom is standing next to the boys from The Buried Life on this year's pink carpet.

Editor's note: As executive vice president of news and production for MTV, Dave Sirulnick oversees MTV's News and Docs department. In 1999 he also took on the role of executive producer of the Video Music Awards and continues to do so annually. Before joining MTV as news producer in 1987, Sirulnick produced segments for CNN.

(CNN) -- In 1984, during the first ever VMAs, I was a 20-year-old Rutgers student.

Watching the show with my roommates from our off-campus apartment, Madonna's wedding gown-clad, iconic performance of "Like a Virgin" made an indelible stamp on me.

I saw what an unexpected, dynamic television performance could do to elevate a show and an artist, and absorbed it all as the VMAs infiltrated pop culture.

I finally made it to the third VMAs, covering the show for CNN. It was a bi-coastal event that year, and I was in New York at The Palladium. Amid a torrential downpour, I stood alongside 40 or so reporters vying to get interviews with artists like Mr. Mister and Pet Shop Boys as publicists tossed swag to keep us happy.

MTV's VJs like "Downtown" Julie Brown and Mark Goodman hosted the show, and Dire Straits took home "Video of the Year" for "Money For Nothing." The cultural impact of the VMAs and the network as a whole was undeniable: MTV was in the middle of transforming the music and entertainment industry. I wanted to be part of that energy, and by 1987, I was.

VMAs have always been a mix of incredible planned performances and unexpected moments. In 2000, we surprised the audience as an army of blond Eminem clones marched into the show as the rapper sang "The Real Slim Shady." In 2003, we reached into our past as Madonna reprised her first VMAs performance. But this time, she was the groom and Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera were rocking the white wedding dresses. In a surprise moment for all of us, they closed their performance with one of the most memorable kisses in pop culture history.

Another big surprise for our team, much to the chagrin of PETA, came in the form of a meat dress in 2010 as Lady Gaga brought her unique sense of style to the stage.

Sometimes the show is all about timing.

For example, in 1995 we had just started an interview outside the show with Kurt Loder and Madonna while the VMAs were still on-air. Our crew caught sight of Courtney Love walking down the street by herself, headed straight toward us. She started yelling, trying to get our attention, and then began throwing her make-up one piece at a time up at Kurt Loder and Madonna. On camera, Kurt said "Courtney is throwing stuff at us." From inside the production truck, the producers encouraged Courtney to join the interview. Courtney stumbled up the stairs and onto the stage, interrupting Madonna, and the rest is VMA history.

(CNN) -- On Oyu Tolgoi -- "Turquoise Hill" -- the biggest business venture in Mongolia is taking shape.

The copper resources aren't new to locals -- after all, for thousands of years locals dug out copper to melt down into things like arrowheads, CNN's Stan Grant reports.

But the massive Gobi Desert copper and gold mine -- a joint venture with foreign mining conglomerates Ivanhoe and Rio Tinto -- is expected to account for one-third of the nation's total economic output by 2020 and boost the average earnings of Mongolia by 60%.

The numbers are staggering. The development phase runs to nearly $5 billion. The mine is projected to produce to 450,000 tons of copper and more than 300,000 ounces of gold. Developers claim there's enough here to mine for the next 50 years or more.