PARIS - French researchers said on Wednesday they had invented a hydrogen fuel cell as a backup power source for mobile phones, thus easing dependence on an electricity supply to charge the gadget.

The miniature fuel cell uses a hydrogen-filled cartridge about the size of a small cigarette lighter, according to the press presentation made by the researchers at the Atomic Energy Commission (CEW).

The gadget, designed to be carried in a belt pouch, has been in gestation since 2005 with a semi-conductor group, STMicroelectronics.

The cartridges are being developed by the company Bic, which makes pens, lighters and razors.

The product is designed to be part of a “hybrid” system in which the phone first draws on the conventional battery for its power and then taps into the fuel cell if needed.

Each cartridge gives the equivalent of three to five recharges of the traditional battery.

It is due to reach the market in early 2010, according to STMicroelectronics executive Igor Bimbaud, who declined to give its price. - AFP/ra

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NEW DELHI : Indian police arrested four Kashmiri rebels after a shootout with officers in the heart of the capital New Delhi, reports said.

The four rebels belonged to the Jaish-e-Mohammad militant group, one of many battling Indian rule in disputed Kashmir, the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency reported quoting police.

Three of the men arrested were Kashmiris while the fourth was identified as Shahid Gaffoor, a resident of Sialkot in Pakistan, PTI also said.

Grenades, detonators, revolvers, three kilograms (6.6 pounds) of high grade RDX explosives, 10,000 US dollars, and 50,000 rupees (1,110 dollars) were recovered from the four, the Hindi news channel Aaj Tak reported.

Police received a tip-off three militant Kashmiris would meet a contact about 1.5 kilometres (about a mile) from Connaught Place, a commercial and business hub in the capital, reports said.

The trio arrived in New Delhi by train from the troubled region on Sunday.

Counter-insurgency officers closed in on the men as they arrived but the militants opened firing with automatic weapons, PTI said quoting police.

The officers fired several rounds before arresting them, the report said.

Television footage showed the area littered with empty cartridges and broken glass.

“Nobody was injured in the shootout which lasted for about 15 minutes,” Joint Commissioner of Police Karnal Singh told PTI.

The militants were being interrogated, another police official, Alok Kumar, told the news agency.

The Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed is one of the two groups blamed for the attack on India’s parliament complex in December 2001.

That attack nearly sparked India’s fourth war with Pakistan but both sides were pulled back from the brink through diplomatic efforts spear-headed by the United States.

Muslim rebels launched an armed separatist insurgency against New Delhi rule in Kashmir in 1989, a conflict that has included attacks on Indian targets outside the disputed region. - AFP/ch

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