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Human egg makes accidental debut on camera

2008-06-23T12:30:00.000-07:00

Human egg makes accidental debut on camera
11 June 2008, New Scientist Print Edition By Linda Geddes

Look closely: this is history in the making. These are the clearest pictures ever taken of what is the starting point of every human life: ovulation occurring inside a woman's body. See the photos

"The release of the oocyte from the ovary is a crucial event in human reproduction," says Jacques Donnez at the Catholic University of Louvain (UCL) in Brussels, Belgium. "These pictures are clearly important to better understand the mechanism."

Observing ovulation in humans is extremely rare, and previous images have been fuzzy. Donnez captured the event by accident while preparing to carry out a partial hysterectomy on a 45-year-old woman. The release of an egg was considered a sudden, explosive event, but his pictures, to be published in Fertility and Sterility, show it taking place over a period of at least 15 minutes.

Shortly before the egg is released, enzymes break down the tissue in the mature follicle, a fluid-filled sac on the surface of the ovary that contains the egg. This prompts the formation of a reddish protrusion, and after a while a hole appears, from which the egg emerges, surrounded by support cells. It then enters a Fallopian tube, which carries it to the uterus.

While there are no immediate medical implications from the pictures, Darryl Russell, who researches reproductive health at the University of Adelaide in Australia, says they are remarkable: "In animals, even when we control hormone levels - allowing us to predict the time at which ovulation will occur - it is very rare to see it in progress."

Read more at: Human egg makes accidental debut on camera

Bhutto killed by suicide bomber

2007-12-27T08:53:00.001-08:00

Bhutto killed by suicide bomber

Pakistan has been plunged into turmoil after former prime minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated.

Britain joined international condemnation of the murder, which looks certain to cause the postponement of elections next month, something many hoped would pave the way for a return to full democracy.

Ms Bhutto was shot moments after leaving a rally of her opposition Pakistan People's Party in the city of Rawalpindi. The gunman then blew himself up.

There were immediate chaotic scenes outside the hospital where she died but calls for restraint from across the world.

Although the attack bore the hallmarks of Islamic extremists, the assassination sparked fury against the regime of President Pervez Musharraf.

Her party described Ms Bhutto as a "martyr". Her long-term political rival, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, described her as a "sister" and pledged to "take the revenge on the rulers".

In Britain, Foreign Secretary David Miliband spoke of deep shock and paid tribute to a leader he said "knew the risks" of her return from exile.

"My thoughts and sincere condolences go to Ms Bhutto's family at this terrible time, as well as to the families of all those who lost their lives in this senseless attack," Mr Miliband said.

"Benazir Bhutto showed in her words and actions a deep commitment to her country. She knew the risks of her return to campaign but was convinced that her country needed her. This is a time for restraint but also unity.

"All those committed to a stable future for Pakistan will condemn without qualification all violence perpetrated against innocent people. In targeting Benazir Bhutto extremist groups have in their sights all those committed to democratic processes in Pakistan. They cannot and must not succeed."

Breaking: Benazir Bhutto Killed In Attack

2007-12-27T08:48:00.000-08:00

Breaking: Benazir Bhutto Killed In Attack
Jane Roh

Outraged supporters of Benazir Bhutto have taken to the streets following confirmation that the Pakistani opposition leader was assassinated today.

Bhutto had just spoken at a campaign rally in Rawalpindi, near Islamabad, and was getting into a car when a gunman opened fire. The apparent assassin then blew himself up. There are conflicting reports on how she was killed. Some witnesses said she had been shot in the neck and chest, while a doctor at the hospital that treated her told the New York Times she had shrapnel wounds but would not confirm she had been directly shot.

At least 15 other people were also killed in the attack, according to various news reports. Bhutto, 54, had ended a self-imposed exile in October after reaching a power-sharing deal with President Pervez Musharraf. Musharraf is wildly unpopular among Pakistan's Islamists and democratic reformists alike, but has been courted by Washington as a necessary ally in the war on terror.

"I found her to be a very, very brave woman with a clear vision for her own country [and] for Afghanistan," said Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who said he'd met with Bhutto earlier today. "We in Afghanistan condemn this cowardice and immense brutality in the strongest possible terms. She sacrificed her life for Pakistan and for the sake of this region."

Karzai has accused Musharraf of accomodating extremists and not clamping down hard enough on al-Qaida and Taliban fighters along their tumultuous shared border.

"Her murderers must be brought to justice and Pakistan must continue the path back to democracy and the rule of law," said Rudy Giuliani, the first presidential candidate to release a statement on the attack. "Her death is a reminder that terrorism anywhere -- whether in New York, London, Tel-Aviv or Rawalpindi -- is an enemy of freedom. We must redouble our efforts to win the terrorists’ war on us."

(President Bush made a brief statement condemning Bhutto's murder from his ranch in Crawford. We are waiting for the networks to air it.)

Bhutto had escaped an attempt on her life shortly after she returned to Pakistan on Oct. 18. That bombing, blamed on Islamic extremists, killed at least 126 and wounded 248.

Musharraf was accused of failing to provide sufficient security for Bhutto. The former prime minister, still incredibly popular in her Pakistan People's Party (PPP), had vowed on her return to protect her country from Islamic extremists and from Musharraf, whom she viewed as a dictator. The two engaged in a tug-of-war over when Musharraf would step down as head of the Pakistani military, which he finally did late last month but not before taking the extraordinary steps of suspending the constitution and imposing martial law.

Bhutto's assassination will undoubtedly exacerbate an already precarious situation in Pakistan. Nawaz Sharif, another former prime minister and fellow Musharraf foe, may step into the void in time for the coming elections, but it is not clear how Musharraf hangs on to power without yet more extraconstitutional measures.

Because Pakistan is a nuclear-armed country within reach of al-Qaida and the Taliban, the ripple effects of this crisis are potentially quite serious. India, also a nuclear power and a rival, has reason for immediate concern if Pakistan destabilizes further. News of her death sent investors running toward gold, a safe-haven commodity.

The White House, which was already agonizing over its relationship with Musharraf, cannot risk chaos in Islamabad and will have to consider direct intervention.

"We will have to devote a lot of effort to make sure things don't" worsen in the region, said Sen. John McCain, speaking to supporters at a campaign stop.

Democratic presidential candidate Bill Richardson, a former U.N. ambassador, called for Bush to break with Musharraf once and for all.

"President Bush should press Musharraf to step aside, and a broad-based coalition government, consisting of all the democratic parties, should be formed immediately. Until this happens, we should suspend military aid to the Pakistani government," Richardson said. "It is in the interests of the U.S. that there be a democratic Pakistan that relentlessly hunts down terrorists. Musharraf has failed, and his attempts to cling to power are destabilizing his country. He must go."

The Politicker has compiled more candidates' reactions, while AP has statements from world leaders.

Source: Breaking: Benazir Bhutto Killed In Attack article in the The Gate

Benazir Bhutto assassinated in Pakistan

2007-12-27T08:46:00.000-08:00

Benazir Bhutto assassinated in Pakistan

Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in a suicide attack on Thursday, just two months after the former premier returned from exile for a political comeback. Bhutt, a two-time former prime minister, had jsut addressed a campaign rally for next month's parliamentary elections when a suicide bomber blew himself up outside the venue, killing her and at least 10 other people.

Girl Okay After Screwdriver Goes Into Head

2007-12-27T07:57:00.000-08:00

Girl Okay After Screwdriver Goes Into Head
A Minnesota family enjoyed a particularly merry Christmas this year, with their 2-year-old daughter home and relatively unharmed less than a week after she stabbed herself in the eye with a screwdriver.

Raw Video: Benazir Bhutto Dies In Suicide Blast

2007-12-27T07:54:00.000-08:00

Raw Video: Benazir Bhutto Dies In Suicide Blast
Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto dies after suicide attack. The former Prime minister had just left a rally where she was speaking.

Benazir Bhutto Killed In Blast

2007-12-27T07:51:00.000-08:00

Benazir Bhutto Killed In Blast
Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto has been killed in a suicide attack.

Plexiglas-like DVD to hold 1TB of data

2007-12-21T14:36:00.000-08:00

Plexiglas-like DVD to hold 1TB of data
A TeraDisc could hold up to 250,000 high-resolution pictures or 40 HD movies
by Lucas Mearian

At the upcoming CES conference in Las Vegas, one company plans to demonstrate the ability to store half a terabyte of data on a DVD disc that is made of a polymer similar to Plexiglas.

Israel-based Mempile Inc. said its TeraDisc DVDs will offer 1TB of storage for consumers in the next few years -- and corporations will be able to use the technology to permanently store data at a fraction of the price of spinning disk and tape, according to Dr. Beth Erez, Mempile's chief marketing officer. Today's high-definition DVDs hold a maximum of 50GB in formats such as HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc.

With 1TB capacity, a TeraDisc could hold up to 250,000 high-resolution photos or MP3s, or about 40 HD movies or 115 DVD movies. While that may seem like an unnecessary amount of capacity for anything but the largest professional needs, Tom Coughlin, a storage analyst at Coughlin Associates in Atascadero, Calif., said HD formats for movie distribution are already four times the current 1080-pixel resolution currently used for consumer HD retail movie distribution. Over the next 10 years, both studio and consumer HD products will multiply by 10 times the current resolution.

"If HD now is 25GB, you can easily have something that's 300GB or larger in the future. So I think we've not reached the limits of resolution that people want in their entertainment devices," Coughlin said.

Another company offering DVD storage is Cambridge, England-based Plasmon PLC, which relies on the same blue-laser technology used by Blu-ray and HD DVD. Plasmon's technology, called Ultra-Density Optical (UDO technology) can write up to 60GB on a proprietary DVD format platter for corporate data archive use. Plasmon sells automated libraries, which can store terabytes of data. Pricing varies, but Computerworld found a 60GB UDO platter for $60 on Pricegrabber.com. Plasmon's road map envisions 240GB discs, and it offers drives for use in automated libraries and stand-alone drives for desktops. The DVDs are available in both first-generation 30GB and second-generation 60GB models.

Similarly, TDK is working on next-generation Blu-ray Disc technology that will offer up to 200GB on a DVD platter.

Mempile's DVD drives will initially retail for between $3,000 and $4,000, and a 700GB platter -- the first model expected out around 2011 -- will sell for $30, according to a Mempile spokeswoman. Until now, Mempile had demonstrated writing and reading data on 100 layers within a .6mm thick substrate material that in total can hold 500GB. The company plans to begin retailing its product next year. Over the next three years, the company expects to increase the disc's thickness to the industry DVD standard of 1.2mm, which will allow it to record 5GB on each of 200 layers, spaced 5 microns apart, for a total of 1TB of capacity. According to a company white paper, the technology road map calls for a 5TB DVD "a few years down the road."

Unlike HD DVDs, which use blue lasers to record and read data off a reflective surface on top of a polymer substrate, Mempile's TeraDisc drives use more powerful red-laser technology to write and read. The Mempile drive has two lasers, one that tracks and one that reads and writes. The drive uses a CD-like system for tracking data in the substrate. Erez said his company's technology writes bits at the molecular level, changing the color of florescent molecules in the Plexiglas-like material to record the data.

Erez said traditional HD DVD technology, which reflects light back to an optical reader, causes signal deterioration and background noise, where writing and reading through a clear substrate offers a cleaner signal that is more efficient for data transfer. "We have no noise in looking at the 200th layer or the second layer or the 10th," Erez said.

Erez said the TeraDisc technology can also be used for network-based backup for archive purposes. Mempile is manufacturing the TeraDisc technology using polymers produced by chemical developer Arkema Inc., which also produces hoses and gaskets for cars and polyethylene packaging for foods, among other things.

Source Plexiglas-like DVD to hold 1TB of data article on ComputerWorld.com

Zuleikha Robinson arrives at the premiere of The Great Debaters

2007-12-21T14:16:00.000-08:00

Zuleikha Robinson arrives at the premiere of The Great Debaters at the Ziegfeld Theater in New York City on Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2007.

Keira Knightly On Sex Scene With James McAvoy

2007-12-21T14:12:00.000-08:00

Keira Knightly On Sex Scene With James McAvoy.

Dirty Dancing on New York's 'N' Train

2007-12-21T14:06:00.000-08:00

Four women in New York gave an impromptu pole dancing show aboard a subway train.

Semi-nude PETA Protestors Packaged For Holidays

2007-12-21T14:03:00.000-08:00

The Toilet Paper Bride

2007-12-21T13:15:00.000-08:00

Orangutan prefers blondes

2007-10-06T14:33:00.000-07:00

Orangutan prefers blondes
Reuters, Fri Oct 5, 2007

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Sibu the Orangutan has miffed his Dutch keepers by refusing to mate with females and showing sexual interest only in tattooed human blondes.

Apenheul Primate Park hoped Sibu would become its breeding male when he arrived two years ago, but orangutans aren't his type.

"He chases them, or ignores them, but he doesn't do what he should do," said a spokeswoman for the park.

Instead, Sibu fancies his female keepers, especially blondes. That, the spokeswoman said, was common for orangutans but Sibu has a fetish for tattoos, harking back to a heavily tattooed keeper who reared him.

"Orangutans have special interests in special subjects. Sibu happens to like tattoos," she said.

The park hasn't given up on Sibu, 31. He showed an amorous interest in a female Orangutan while living in England and keepers hope he will find love when reunited with her in a new enclosure in Chester, England.

Source: Orangutan prefers blondes

Customs find beetles stuffed with cocaine

2007-10-06T14:29:00.000-07:00

Customs find beetles stuffed with cocaine
Reuters, Fri Oct 5, 2007

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Dutch customs officers found 100 dead beetles stuffed with cocaine while examining a parcel from Peru, Dutch authorities said Thursday.

The little drug couriers' bodies had been slit open and filled with a total of 300 grams of cocaine, with an estimated street-value of 8,000 euros ($11,270).

"This is a very striking method of smuggling. We have never seen anything like this before," said government spokesman Kees Nanninga.

Officers decided to open the parcel after scanning it and seeing what appeared to be insects inside.

Source : Customs find beetles stuffed with cocaine

'The complete man' Raymonds to dress women now!

2007-09-05T10:21:00.000-07:00

'The complete man' Raymonds to dress women now!
Staff Reporter, Economic Times, 5 Sep 2007

NEW DELHI: Leading apparel manufacturer Raymond Ltd, which forayed into the premium women western-wear market with the launch of ColorPlus Women on Wednesday, has earmarked investments of Rs 400-500 crore in the current year for capacity expansion.

"We would be investing Rs 400-500 crore in the current year on manufacturing and retailing," Raymond Chairman and Managing Director Gautam Hari Singhania told reporters here.

He said the company had plans to increase the number of its outlets across the country to 1,000 from about 430 at present in the next three years.

Aiming for a share in the Rs 800-crore premium women western-wear market, Raymond launched the ColorPlus Women range of apparels which would be available through 175 points of sale in the next three years.

The company expects revenues to the tune of Rs 150 crore from this segment in the next two-three years. The ColorPlus Women range would include day-wear, sports wear, business wear as well as formal wear.

"ColorPlus Women will vie for a significant part of the Rs 800 crore premium western womens wear market, which is growing at 20 per cent annually," Singhania said.

By the end of the year, Raymond is looking to open five exclusive ColorPlus Women stores as well as 12 lifestyle stores. The brand would be launched in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune and Ahmedabad.

Singhania said Raymond is also mulling introducing a kids wear range under the ColorPlus brand in one year.

Source : 'The complete man' Raymonds to dress women now! article on EconomicTimes.com

India still on priority list for manufacturing: Intel

2007-09-05T10:17:00.000-07:00

India still on priority list for manufacturing: Intel
BS Reporter / New Delhi September 05, 2007

India still remains high on the list of manufacturing sites for Intel - the world's largest chip-maker.

"Manufacturing in India is important for Intel, but the government was slow in coming out with its semiconductor manufacturing proposal and missed the window. We had to commit ourselves to options like Vietnam and China," said Craig Barrett, chairman, Intel, who was here today.

"We don't have any plan to set up a plant here now. We have enough capacity in the current manufacturing plants, and do not need any new plant," he added.

In the absence of a well-documented plan for the semiconductor policy by the government when Intel began its discussions, the chip-maker announced its $2.5 billion investment to build a micro-chip plant in north-eastern China in March. This will be Intel's first semiconductor plant in Asia with the production of chipsets to begin in 2010.

The company is also in "serious talks" with the Indian government government and private companies for rolling out WiMAX infrastructure. "We are a major contributor to base technology, hence WiMAX is also of importance to us," said Barrett who has advised the government to "use the spectrum allocation with the best possible technology and not specific to any technology."

According to a report by research firms Maravedis and Tonse Telecom, India will have 13 million WiMAX subscribers by 2012. French technology major Alcatel has already set up a research and development centre in Chennai to develop WiMAX technology, and trial runs have been on in Baramati, Pune, Delhi and Bangalore.

Barrett was in Delhi to announce the collaboration between Intel’s World Ahead Programme with United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco). Intel has partnered with 16 organisations including NIIT, Educomp Solutions, Fortis Healthcare, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Apollo in India, to provide the progamme their expertise in connectivity, education and medical care.

Source : India still on priority list for manufacturing: Intel article on Business-Standard.com

Bhairavi Desai leads taxi strike in New York

2007-09-05T10:14:00.000-07:00

Bhairavi Desai leads taxi strike in New York
Parveen Chopra, Indo-Asian News Service, New York, September 05, 2007

Fewer taxis were seen on the roads in New York and it was taking longer to hail one as the two-day strike by a section of the city's 13,000 cab drivers started on Wednesday morning. Drivers of yellow cabs -- about 60 per cent of them are South Asian - have been protesting the installation of GPS software and credit card readers by the government.

The strike has been organised by the New York Taxi Workers' Alliance, which claims to represent 7,000 taxi drivers. Advocating the cabbies' cause in the media is the Alliance's executive director, Bhairavi Desai.

Profiled by Time magazine and named by Ms Foundation as one of 10 female role models, Desai's work with the Alliance has gone on for more than a decade, bringing changes to the lives of the cabbies, but often pitting her against the New York establishment.

In 1998, she organised the largest one-day taxi strike in city's history, over low pay and long hours for the drivers. She was able to unite Indian and Pakistani drivers despite the tensions on the subcontinent because of nuclear tests by India and Pakistan.

The history and women's studies graduate from Rutgers University, 36-year-old Desai lives in New Jersey.

While Mayor Michael Bloomberg has downplayed the likelihood of a widespread disruption by the taxi strike, the city has empowered taxis to pick up multiple passengers and the transit system has added some buses.

A rival cabbies coalition, the New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers, has mounted a counterstrike operation. It sent dozens of volunteers to taxi stands at the city's airports and the main rail terminal asking drivers not to join the stoppage.

At issue is a requirement for the installation in each cab of a high-tech system that permits credit card payments, has a touch-screen monitor that lets passengers watch television and follow their ride on an electronic map, and includes a global positioning device, which tracks the cabs' travels. In exchange, the transport authorities agreed to raise fares by 26 per cent.

Drivers, however, have said that the global positioning device and automated system recording each trip are too invasive, and that transaction fees charged by credit card companies eat into their profits. The system can also delay the start of their metres because drivers must log on before every fare, they said.

The drivers also said the TV monitor at the back of their seat heats up after a few hours of use and the constant sound of the television can be disorienting.

Source : Bhairavi Desai leads taxi strike in New York article on HindustanTimes.com

Maguire swaps vows with Meyers

2007-09-05T10:09:00.000-07:00

Maguire swaps vows with Meyers
Staff Reporter, Times Of India, 5 Sep 2007

Maguire and Meyer, who met early in 2003 and have kept their relationship fairly low profile, are parents to 9-month-old daughter, Ruby.

Actor Tobey Maguire tied the knot with his long time girlfriend Jennifer Meyers on Sept 3, 2007 in Kona on Hawaii's Big Island.

The couple swapped vows in front of a small group of family and friends including Leonardo DiCaprio and Lukas Haas.

The thrilled bride couldn’t help gushing about how excited she was for the future.

"Let's just say this is truly the best time of my life," E! Online quoted Meyer, as saying.

"I'm walking on air. I'm getting married, starting a family and have an amazing company," she added.

Maguire and Meyer, who met early in 2003 and have kept their relationship fairly low profile, are parents to 9-month-old daughter, Ruby.

The Spider-Man star had earlier revealed to Parade magazine in April that settling down with his family and having stability in life meant the most to him.

"Growing up the way I did, I had a very serious ambition to make some money, to have some security and comfort in my life," People quoted Maguire as telling the mag.

"I'm at that stage where I have to start thinking about where I want Ruby to grow up and go to school...Even though L.A. is pretty laid-back, maybe it would be a good idea to try a different, less ambitious kind of atmosphere," he said.

Source : Maguire swaps vows with Meyers article on Times Of India

Geetanjali is a drug addict

2007-09-04T07:36:00.000-07:00

Geetanjali is a drug addict
Staff Reporter, Times Of India, 5 Sep 2007, TNN

In the shocking wake of former model Geetanjali Nagpal being found living off the streets in Delhi, a victim of drug abuse and alcohol addiction, BT explores what makes people from the glam world reach this sorry state.

Is it stress and the inability to take fame and success that comes their way at an early age. Or something else?

Fashion photographer Akash Srivastaav, who met Geetanjali Nagpal at a party in Goa in 1997, recalls how he went up to her and said that she looked like model Ediesedwick from the Andy Warhol factory. “She had the aura of pulling you towards her. She laughed and said, ‘Though not as pretty as her.’ I was stunned that she knew what I was talking about as very few at that point had heard about Ediesedwick.”

Fashion in India was all about being pretty and angelic, then. Every model and shoot they would do were about the beautiful side of beauty. “But Geetu, as we called her, was a kind of rebel in fashion. The way she would hold her cigarette or sit, there was a sense of absolute decadence in her right from that time. We called her hateli, a term that signified headstrong, or dimag khiska, because she was wild and totally against the establishment. She didn’t care about anything or anybody. All she wanted was to be in a world of her own which didn’t follow any norm,” said Akash.

He also remembers once when he was about to shoot her, she just disappeared from the studio leaving everyone in a tizzy. Hours of searching led them to beneath a huge table inside the studio, “where madam was cozily sleeping”. Akash added, “During the years that I knew her, she never did drugs, at least not in front of me. She would occasionally drink wine. But there was an edginess in Geetu all the time. She would always say that she is intelligent and never believed in the concept of beauty.”

Delhi photographer Amir Rajpal, who shot Geetanjali Nagpal some 14 years back, remembers her as having lovely eyes, a beautiful body and a very good attitude. He can’t believe the state she is in today.

“She used to hate the sight of people smoking. How could she take to drugs herself? She was such a level-headed girl with no nakhras. God knows what went wrong, but I still can’t believe that the girl lying on a Paharganj street is her.”

Designer Rocky S doesn’t know her, but said, “When models start out early in life and get addicted to a starry life, they automatically gravitate towards destruction. The glamour world is a very high stress job, and to keep it up, at every step they resort to such abuses.” However, Manish Malhotra, who also did not know Geetanjali, refuses to believe that stress could have driven her to such measures. “The decision to ‘do it’ or ‘not do it’ is very personal. I have a lot of stress in my job too, but I don’t even smoke, so why blame it all on stress. Young models must understand that they need to look good, fresh and their job should lead them to enjoy life, not destroy it,” he advised.

Textile revivalist and designer Ritu Kumar does not recollect Geetanjali’s name or face for Noyonika and Sushmita were the leading models then. But she said, “Somehow, what she resorted to seems to be the most unfortunate episodes that could happen to a good model.”

Achala Sachdev, former model and choreographer now, added, “Who knows, maybe she had a drug problem even before she entered the modelling scene. Blaming stress as the reason is so passe. Why don’t young models understand that everyone here wants to make money, fame and enjoy life. Drugs can only add on to the problems.”

Source : Geetanjali is a drug addict article on Times Of India

Biggest War Games In Bay Of Bengal Begin

2007-09-04T07:31:00.000-07:00

Biggest War Games In Bay Of Bengal Begin
NEWSPOST India, Tuesday, 4th September, 2007

Warships from India, the US and three other nations Tuesday began the biggest war games in the Bay of Bengal, aimed at improving inter-operability between their navies, even as the Left parties staged demonstrations against the drill.

Malabar-2007, as the Sep 4-9 exercise is named, features 25 vessels participating in interception and dissimilar air combat exercises, as also surface and anti-submarine warfare, maritime interdiction and VBSS (visit, board, search and seizure) operations to counter piracy and terrorist acts at sea.

Given this vast scope, the operational area of Malabar-2007 stretches from Visakhapatnam on the eastern seaboard to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands that guard the approaches to the Strait of Malacca, considered the world's busiest waterway.

The Malabar series is now in its 13th year. The drill has previously been a bilateral India-US engagement and has been expanded for the first time to also include Japan, Australia and Singapore.

Just as the war games began, veteran Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader Jyoti Basu flagged off a protest march from Kolkata, attacking the UPA for its 'tilt' towards the US.

'The UPA government is trying to turn the country into the American fold which is against the common minimum programme on the basis of which the Left is extending support (to the government),' Basu told party workers.

'This is against the country's independent foreign policy,' he added.

CPI-M general secretary Prakash Karat and his Communist Party of India (CPI) counterpart A.B. Bardhan would lead processions against the drill from Kolkata and Chennai respectively that would converge at Visakhapatnam on Saturday.

The US Navy will have the largest representation during Malabar-2007 with 13 warships, including the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz that generated much heat when it dropped anchor off Chennai in July.

The other vessels include the conventionally powered carrier USS Kitty Hawk, the nuclear submarine USS Chicago, two guided-missile cruisers, and six guided-missile destroyers.

Seven warships, including the aircraft carrier INS Viraat, will represent the Indian Navy. Viraat's Sea Harrier jets and Sea King helicopters, and the Indian Air Force's Jaguar deep-penetration strike aircraft will also be seen in action.

Australia will be represented by a frigate and a tanker, Japan by two destroyers and Singapore by a frigate.

New Delhi has repeatedly sought to allay apprehensions that the drill had military overtones.

'There is no military alignment. It's only an exercise,' Defence Minister A.K. Antony has said of Malabar-2007 that runs Sep 4-9.

'Our armed forces exercise with most of the important countries. Every year this is expanding...India's importance is growing. Almost all countries want to engage with us. It's a good thing. It's a recognition of India's prestige and reliability,' the minister maintained.

China, which has not officially commented on the drill, is known to be unhappy over the event as it is being conducted in the Bay of Bengal for the first time. China has been cultivating naval cooperation with Bangladesh and Myanmar to gain access to the Bay of Bengal. China has also been strengthening military cooperation with Sri Lanka.

Given the Left opposition, the Indian government was at one time known to have considered postponing or even cancelling the drill but the Indian Navy put its foot down, saying the logistics involved made any delay impossible.

Source : Biggest War Games In Bay Of Bengal Begin article on NEWSPOST India

Eurostar sets Paris-London rail record

2007-09-04T07:21:00.000-07:00

Eurostar sets Paris-London rail record
By Chris Bryant, FT.com, September 4 2007

Eurostar recorded a record time of just over two hours on its inaugural journey on a new high speed rail line carrying trains from Paris to the refurbished St Pancras station in London.

The train, travelling at speeds of up to 202mph, took two hours, three minutes and 39 seconds to complete the Paris-London route via the Channel Tunnel, a journey which normally takes two hours and 35 minutes.

It was the first time a train had run on High Speed One, a £5.8bn British high speed rail line, which from November 14 will cut the average journey time between London and Paris by 20 minutes.

Eurostar removed food service trolleys and ran only half-full in its atemtp break to compete journey in two hours, but was thwarted by a speed restriction on the line near Calais.

When regular services from St Pancras begin in November the journey will take a more sedate two hours and15 minutes at a maximum speed of 184mph.

Eurostar hopes the time-saving will help it increase passenger numbers from 8.3m this year to 10m by 2010 and from November passengers will be able to buy through-tickets from stations in northern Britain to the continent.

“Today marks Britain’s entry into the European high-speed rail club,” Richard Brown, Eurostar chief executive, said. “We can now run trains at high speed all the way from the Channel Tunnel to London, making journeys between cities quicker, more convenient – and far greener than flying.”

Eurostar trains currently trundle through south London into Waterloo station at speeds of between 60 and 90 mph.

The new 25-mile section of high speed track allows trains to reach 140mph in tunnels to the east of the City before it emerges at St Pancras in central London, north of the Thames.

“Now the French people can finally forget Waterloo,” Guillaume Pepy, chairman of Eurostar, joked.

London and Continental Railways, the company responsible for the new line, a new £100m station at Ebbsfleet and the refurbishment of St Pancras, hopes it will lead to £10bn of investment in deprived parts of East London.

High-speed domestic services will begin in 2009 cutting the journey time between Ebbsfleet and St Pancras to 17 minutes.

During the 2012 Olympic Games the line will carry high-speed shuttle services between St Pancras and a new station at the Olympic site in Stratford.

“This project is about much more than just transporting passengers from London to the continent,” Rob Holden, LCR chief executive, said. “Its about the creation of a piece of infrastructure that will be a catalyst for the regeneration some of the most deprived areas of Britain.

Source : Eurostar sets Paris-London rail record article on FT.com

Tara enters semifinals

2007-08-30T16:33:00.000-07:00

Tara enters semifinals
Special Correspondent, The Hindu, August 30, 2007

NEW DELHI: Tara Iyer worked her way past Varatchaya Wongteanchai of Thailand 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 in the quarterfinals of the $10,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament at the DLTA Complex here on Thursday.

On a day when the top-seeded Rushmi Chakravarthi and Isha Lakhani went out without a fight, Tara kept the Indian hopes alive along with Ankita Bhambri.

After racing away with the first set, Tara found herself in a spot of bother when she lost the second set despite bouncing back from 1-4 to 4-4.

In the decider, Tara opened well with a break of serve in the first game, but lost her serve in the very next game.

Tara raced to a 5-2 lead but could not close out the match in the eighth game as she uncharacteristically dropped serve at love.

The Thai girl came up with a last-ditch effort as she saved three match points from 0-40 in the ninth game, hitting three spectacular winners in a row including one on serve.

Tara, capitalised on her fourth match point and forced the Thai to hit a backhand long.

In the semifinals, Tara will meet Nungnadda Wannasuk.

The second-seeded Tangphong had pulled out with a back injury on Wednesday itself. Rushmi continued to find qualifier Kyung-Yee Chae a tough nut to crack and lost to her for the second time in successive weeks.

The 29-year-old Rushmi was unable to hit with her usual flair on the fast courts as she was slow to the ball, and the Korean left-hander was far too crafty and consistent while scripting a 6-2, 6-1 win.

Ankita proved too good for the fourth-seeded Isha Lakhani and raced to victory 6-2, 6-1.

It was the 11th win in 13 international meetings for Ankita against Isha.

The gutsy Isha lost her cool early in the match as she could not get a grip over the proceedings and was lucky to get away without being fined for a torrent of abuse that was mainly directed at her own incompetent display.

The results: Singles (quarterfinals): Kyung-Yee Chae (Kor) bt Rushmi Chakravarthi 6-2, 6-1; Ankita Bhambri bt Isha Lakhani 6-2, 6-1.

Tara Iyer bt Varatchaya Wongteanchai (Tha) 6-3, 4-6, 6-3; Nungnadda Wannasuk (Tha) w/o. Montinee Tangphong (Tha).

Doubles (semifinals): Sophia Mulsap-Varatchaya Wongteanchai (Tha) bt Ankita-Sanaa Bhambri 4-6, 7-5, 6-3.

Nungnadda Wannasuk (Tha)-Tara Iyer bt Rushmi Chakravarthi-Sandhya Nagaraj 6-1, 6-4.

Source : Tara enters semifinalsarticle in The Hindu

Nokia introduces new internet services brand

2007-08-30T16:23:00.000-07:00

Nokia introduces new internet services brand
By Ivan Gale, Staff Reporter, Gulfnews, August 30, 2007

London: Nokia announced a new internet services brand called Ovi, featuring gaming, music and navigational services, that will appear on select Nokia devices in the UAE beginning in October.

Following on the success of Web 2.0, or the personalisation of the internet through social networking and file-sharing, Nokia is seeking to bring the internet to its mobile users.

The Finnish mobile phone giant will launch two web portals, the Nokia Music Store and N-Gage, from which users may access music and games, respectively, via PCs and download them to mobile devices. Nokia Maps will offers maps and city guides more directly to compatible mobile devices, while other Internet based services are expected in the coming months.

From a company that once produced rubber boots and now is known as the world's biggest mobile phone maker, Nokia's latest move sends a clear endorsement of the transformative power of the internet.

"Whether you call it Web 2.0 or something else, its clear people are using the internet far beyond its original role," said Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, Nokia's president and CEO, during a press conference in London yesterday announcing the new service.

"Great companies renew themselves as the world changes," he said, "and this world doesn't work the way the old world did."

Featuring a new user interface catering to the latest music, gaming and Internet needs of its users, Nokia will introduce its first Ovi-compatible device, the N81, to the UAE starting in October. When Ovi's music portal launches, Nokia officials confirmed it will include Arabic titles, while an Arabic-language version of Ovi will be released sometime in 2008.

The introduction of a fully-fledged gateway for internet services is a culmination of 18 months of investing in online properties for Nokia. Recently it acquired music site Loudeye, media sharing site twango and mapping service gate5.

It also represents a second effort at gaming. Although Nokia introduced n-gage gaming system on mobile phones since 2003, it underperformed initial expectations. Now, with a more sophisticated suite of hardware and software on its latest N-Series phones, Nokia believes the time is now right to begin a fresh push.

Part of this optimism stems from its own successes, and also from observing the dramatic rise in portable gaming devices.

Kallasvuo said Nokia shipped 80 million converged devices in 2006, and this is expected to climb to 120 million units this year. Meanwhile, he said the global gaming market was 25 billion euros, and more than a third of that came from portable devices.

Source : Nokia introduces new internet services brand article in Gulfnews

All set for GSLV-F04 take-off on Sept. 2; countdown starts today

2007-08-30T16:20:00.000-07:00

All set for GSLV-F04 take-off on Sept. 2; countdown starts today

Chennai, Aug. 31 (PTI): The countdown for the launch of a rocket from Sriharikota, about 100 km from here, carrying India's communication satellite INSAT-4CR, will start today.

"The countdown for the launch will start today afternoon," ISRO sources told PTI.

The 49-metre tall rocket will be launched at 4.21 p.m. from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota, they said.

The GSLV-F04, the fifth in the GSLV series, will put INSAT-4CR into a Geosynchronous Transfer orbit of 170 km perigee and 35,975 km apogee with an orbital inclination of 21.7 degrees, about 16 minutes and 40 seconds after lift off.

"The satellite will carry 12 high-powered KU-band transponders for DTH services, video picture transmission and Digital Satellite News Gathering," the sources said.

The satellite will subsequently be manoeuvred into geostationary orbit using its own propulsion system.

ISRO scientists have taken all efforts to ensure that the vehicle does not meet the same fate of its predecessor, the GSLV-F02, in July 2006, when it had strayed away from its path, forcing scientists to destroy it, 56 seconds after take off.

Source: All set for GSLV-F04 take-off on Sept. 2; countdown starts today appearing in The Hindu

Sony software makes PCs vulnerable, researchers say

2007-08-29T09:05:00.000-07:00

Sony software makes PCs vulnerable, researchers say
By Jim Finkle, Tue Aug 28, 2007

BOSTON, Aug 28 (Reuters) - Software included with high-end memory sticks sold by Sony Corp can make personal computers vulnerable to attack by computer hackers, according to researchers with two Internet security firms.

Sony's MicroVault USB memory stick and fingerprint reader includes software that creates a hidden directory on the computer's hard drive, researchers with Finnish security software maker F-Secure Corp (FSC1V.HE: Quote, Profile, Research) reported on the company's blog on Monday.

Such software that hides itself, which is known as a root kit, leaves room for hackers to secretly infect personal computers, they said.

Software that is installed on such hidden drives is not only invisible to the human eye; some types of computer security software are unable to detect viruses and other types of so-called malware, or malicious software, stored on them.

F-Secure's blog posting said it attempted to contact Sony before alerting the public about the software, but the company had not replied.

Sony spokesman Chisato Kitsukawa said he could not immediately comment on the situation.

On Tuesday, researchers with McAfee Inc. said they had confirmed the vulnerability described by F-Secure.

"The apparent intent was to cloak sensitive files related to the fingerprint verification feature included on the USB drives," said McAfee spokesman Dave Marcus. "However, software creators apparently did not keep the security implications in mind. The application could be used to hide arbitrary software, including malicious software."

This is not the first time F-Secure has found Sony software installing hidden directories on the drives of its customers. In 2005 there was a similar situation involving the electronics maker's digital rights management software, security experts say.

Source : From Reuters article - Sony software makes PCs vulnerable, researchers say

A Virgin Mary-themed urinal? Only in China.

2007-07-31T10:07:00.000-07:00

A Virgin Mary-themed urinal? Only in China.
Tue, 07/10/2007 - 10:43am.

Anyone who has traveled to the Middle Kingdom would agree that the country's public restroom facilities leave a lot to be desired. Well, in Chongqing, a city of 31 million people in south-central China, they've had enough. Not content with the rudimentary squat units found everywhere in China, the city has pursued some innovative ideas that are meant to make the experience not just easier, but a little more fun.

First came round, open air urinals on the city's infamous "Foreigners Street," featuring tiny waist screens that left little to the imaginations of passers-by. Then came news of outdoor sinks, pictured at right, that made the hand-washing experience, um, different. Now comes news that the city has opened the world's largest restroom. The four-story, 1,000-stall facility features TVs, a soothing soundtrack piped throughout, crocodile- and Virgin Mary-themed urinals, and stalls with no roofs for those who prefer to relieve themselves al fresco. Says a local government official:

We are spreading toilet culture.... After they use the bathroom [people] will be very, very happy.

Heyy Babyy: A heady mix

2007-07-31T06:28:00.001-07:00

Heyy Babyy: A heady mix
Smriti Kiran, Friday, July 20, 2007, Sydney

Akshay Kumar and Vidya Balan, cheekily referred to as 'the studly and the soulful' is hardly an onscreen pair that leaps out of the page. But they are shaking it up for Sajid Khan's debut film Heyy Babyy.

If you thought they went together as well as rasam and masala chai, it's not surprising.

Whether it was the onscreen banter, the endless stream of pranks, the crazy onscreen situations they got to enjoy, Bollywood's hot new jodi are ready to make audiences say hey baby.

The tagline may as well tell you that Vidya is the woman who makes the three grown men cry. She did that off screen as well, though through tears of laughter.

It was double the fun for Vidya with a brand new look to enjoy. Comedy is never as easy as it looks, except when you are surrounded by a bunch of comedians.

We are not even talking about their roles in the film where, it must be said Akshay's Arush has met his match with Vidya's Isha, so watch the sparks fly.

Vidya Balan enthralls with new look

2007-07-31T06:26:00.000-07:00

Vidya Balan enthralls with new look
Smriti, Swati, Friday, July 27, 2007, Mumbai

She lured countless people with her on screen simplicity and innocence when Vidya Balan created waves in Parineeta and subsequently Lage Raho Munnabhai she was all but tagged the girl next door.

In her next film, Heyy Baby she looks and acts different and it is designer Manish Malhotra who has helped Vidya evolve.

The timeless charm of Madhubala, the ethereal beauty of Meena Kumari - it was these legends that Vidya Balan was compared to when she first burst onto the screen, an actress who seemed to belong to a time gone by until now.

If old world charm can take you only so far then it's time for a quick makeover which Vidya got in hey baby where she is for the first time cool and contemporary.

"The image or the imagery that Parineeta created was so strong that in spite of the fact that I have done other films, where it has not been completely Indian, people spoke about Parineeta.

"I think in that sense this is going to be, I don't want to call it the next departure but I do feel its really different for me. It works for me. It works for us. So I think it should work for others. It would be a fresh lease of life. At least people will stop telling me you know we want you to look different," said Vidya Balan, Actress.

Now if you want to shift gears altogether, turn the image around. If you are looking to grab some global glam then designer Manish Malhotra is your man.

"I think the character here is basically that she is intelligent, educated. She lives in Australia and she has turmoil in her life. She is not a character that she is wearing short skirts, sexy clothes, bikini and halter tops which Vidya loves wearing. She loves exposure.

"I had to tell her no Vidya no short skirts. I had to beg her for that and she said no I want to wear these hot clothes but we said no. So we worked on the whole look according to the character and that actually is a bit tougher. Simplicity is more difficult to do than ornate stuff," said Manish Malhotra, Fashion Designer.

Well we will know it works when she hits the screen. Fans will whistle and say, what else, Heyy Baby!

Bachchans in Sarkar sequel

2007-07-31T06:24:00.000-07:00

Bachchans in Sarkar sequel
Radhika Iyer, Saturday, July 28, 2007, Hyderabad

Its family bonding at its best, the junior Bachchans and the big B all rolled into one action-packed film that's a sequel to Ram Gopal Varma's hit Sarkar

While shooting for the film at a hospital in Hyderabad, the three took some time off their busy schedules and spent time with cancer patients.

The Bachchan brigade along with director Ram Gopal Varma were shooting at the Kaminini hospital in Hyderabad.

Though the sets remained out of bounds for the media, the stars did spend some time with cancer patients in the hospital

The three will also embark on a world tour together sometime next year.

Dutt sentenced for six years

2007-07-31T06:19:00.000-07:00

Dutt sentenced for six years
NDTV Correspondent, Tuesday, July 31, 2007, Mumbai

Actor Sanjay Dutt has been sentenced to six years in prison for illegal possession of arms in connection with the 1993 Mumbai blasts case.

Last November he had been convicted for the illegal possession of a 9 mm pistol and an AK 56.

While delivering the last batch of sentences in the 1993 blasts trial, Judge Kode said that the actor's possession of these weapons was an imminently dangerous act and that he showed scant respect for the law.

Dutt's bail was immediately cancelled and he was taken into custody right away. He has been fined a sum of Rs 25,000.

He will be kept at the Arthur Road jail. Although he asked for some time to surrender, the prosecution opposed this.

Dutt will now be kept in the same cell as his associate and co-convict Yusuf Nalwalla. However, Dutt's lawyers said that they will appeal in the Supreme Court.

Soon after the verdict was pronounced Dutt asked the judge to be allowed to call his daughter.

Earlier, the judge had refused the probation report of Dutt and other accused Yusuf Nullwala and Kersi Adajania.

Dutt: I honestly thought I would get the benefit of probation. I have to wind up a few things.

Judge Kode: Don't get upset. I have got a duty to do. This is not the final court.

Dutt: You are like family to us.

Judge Kode:This is a momentary thing. You can appeal in a higher court.

He also said that Dutt committed the offence and also made others do so. He further observed that Dutt made Nullwala an offender by making him destroy the weapon.

"Sanjay with folded hands asked the court that considering his past record he should be given a few days to put in an appeal in the SC. However we opposed this plea. The TADA court accepted our argument and rejected his bail plea," said Ujjwal Nikam, Special Public Prosecutor.

Nullwala has been sentenced to five years in prison while Kersi gets two years in jail.

One of the aides of Sanjay Dutt, Russi Mulla who was also accused in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case has been let off by the special TADA court.

Mulla will be given probation on surety of Rs 1 lakh and will be under observation for a year.

The trial in the Mumbai serial blasts case finally came to an end with all 100 convicted being sentenced. The serial blasts on March 12, 1993 had killed 257 people.

'I was offered cash to blow up Kanishka'

2007-05-01T06:13:00.000-07:00

'I was offered cash to blow up Kanishka'
By India Times correspondent, May 1, 2007

TORONTO: A career criminal testifying at the Air India inquiry said he was offered a suitcase full of cash by Sikh militants to blow up the plane but he turned down the offer and instead warned police about the plot months before the bombing in 1985.

Gerry Boudreault testified behind a white curtain as he described a series of 1984 meetings with militants who wanted guns and explosives and were willing to pay him $180,000 to get a bomb on an Air India flight.

Boudreault, whose identity was not released at the inquiry, has previously testified publicly in an unrelated 1994 hearing that he told police in advance about the Air India plot.

Air India Flight 182 exploded and crashed off Ireland on June 23, 1985, killing 329 people.

Despite a criminal record spanning 40 years, Boudreault said he only met with the plotters because he wanted more information to pass on to the police. "I wanted to prevent an airplane from being blown out of the sky".

"They wanted somebody who had access to the plane in Montreal so they could put a bomb on it," he was quoted as saying by Canadian daily Vancouver Sun.

He said they showed him a briefcase full of cash, so he knew they were serious.

He kept the police apprised of developments after each meeting with the militants, he added. One Vancouver officer laughed at him and said "that will never happen," Boudreault said during his testimony.

Boudreault claimed that the police were suspicious of his story, thanks to his criminal antecedents.

"I never claimed to be a white angel," he stated.

Source : 'I was offered cash to blow up Kanishka' article on IndiaTimes.com

Being happy makes you beautiful: Drew Barrymore

2007-05-01T06:07:00.000-07:00

Being happy makes you beautiful: Drew Barrymore
Bureau Report, April 30, 2007

Washington, April 30: Drew Barrymore believes that the secret to being beautiful lies not in looking good, but in being happy.

The ‘Music and Lyrics’ star, who recently topped People magazine’s first 100-strong Most Beautiful list, insisted that happiness is what makes people look good.

“I just think happiness is what makes you pretty. Period. Happy people are beautiful. They become like a mirror and they reflect that happiness,” Contactmusic quoted her, as telling the mag.

Barrymore admitted that though it was “fun” to watch people who are outwardly beautiful, she would rather be around people who made her “laugh and feel good”, rather than someone who only looked beautiful but made others uncomfortable.

"If somebody walks into a room and they're drop-dead gorgeous and sexy, it's really fun to look at. But if somebody is giving of their spirit and they make you laugh and feel good, that's a whole other level of beauty," she added.

Barrymore will now be seen on the big screen opposite Aussie hunk Eric Bana in their new film ‘Lucky You’, which hits theatres on May 4 this year.

Source : Being happy makes you beautiful: Drew Barrymore article on ZeeNews.com

Hrithik is I-T payer no 1; Bachchans do it as family

2007-05-01T05:44:00.000-07:00

Hrithik is I-T payer no 1; Bachchans do it as family
Bureau Report, April 30 2007

Mumbai, April 30: Bollywood star Hrithik Roshan has emerged as the top advance Income Tax payer in 2006-07 while Bachchans have done it as a family.

Hrithik paid a little over Rs 15 crore, Amitabh Bachchan paid close to Rs 14.25 crore while superstar Shah Rukh Khan paid around Rs 14 crore, Income Tax Department sources told reporters here today.

Mumbai film fraternity pays around Rs 400 crore in taxes altogether which includes technicians as well as those attached to other departments engaged in film production, an Income Tax source added.

With Aishwarya joining the Bachchan clan following her marriage with Abhishek, the family has become the top tax payer in Bollywood. The Bachchan family paid around Rs 25 crore in taxes in the year ended March 31, the sources said.

Bachchan's son Abhishek paid around Rs 4.75 crore, Aishwarya around Rs 5 crore while the company AB Corp shelled out about Rs 1.44 crore, they said.

Mumbai region, which topped Income Tax collection in the country, recorded more than 40 per cent growth in 2006-07.

The total income tax collection in MUMBAI region last year was Rs 74,000 crore as compared to Rs 53,000 crore in 2005-06.

Source : Hrithik is I-T payer no 1; Bachchans do it as family article in ZeeNews.com

'I'm marrying Jassi next Year'

2007-04-29T08:01:00.000-07:00

'I'm marrying Jassi next Year'
By Subhash K Jha

After Aishwarya, chances are tv's own dream-girl Mona Singh, a.k.a Jassi might be the next bride- in - wedding from our rapidly relationship-friendly entertainment industry.

Though apni Jassi remains characteristically coy about expressing her love her Man-Everyday Karan Oberoi who sings for the Band Of Boys and now also co-anchors Zee's Antakshari, is gallant enough to stand by his lady-love through her career and other individual impulses.

Says Karan, "We haven't finalized a date yet. But yes, our marriage is definitely on next year. I leave it entirely to Mona. She has Bollywood aspirations. I don't.

For me music everything. And even if the Band Of Boys is reduced to a band of one (me) I'd still continue to sing. When I did a film Kiss Kiss Ko with the Band Of Boys, the others were watching. I was just listening to myself sing."

The reason Mona has been quiet about her relationship with Karan is because her parents had issues about their friendship.

Karan and Mona's parents bonded big-time in Malaysia. "We were shooting for Jassi Jaisi…Koi Nahin. That's when her parents realized I'm not a bad sort. Jassi and I are so alike. And so are our families.

We're both from army backrounds. Our dads are retired army officers. But what really bonds us is our small-town roots. We haven't forgotten where we've come from."

Karan met Mona for the first time during the shooting of Jassi … in Mauritius. "After that we kind of drifted apart, only to be brought together again for the serial. Thank God For Jassi ….But yes, celebrity relationships are endangered by excessive attention."

Which explains why Mona has kept mum about her man. Says Karan, "We in the entertainment business lead fish-bowl lives. But I guess we've to learn to cope with the attention. Patience and mutual understanding always helps."

Will Mona continue to work after marriage? " What she should or shouldn't do after marriage is not for me to decide. What she does with her life beyond her relationship with me is entirely prerogative. She can do as she pleases. And I stand by her in whatever she does."

Karan who met and fell in love with Mona while shooting for the historic Jassi Jaisi…Koi Nahin isn't doing any serials at the moment. "I decided to anchor Antakshari because I love music. And Zee allowed me to host it my way.

I love kids and interacting with them. Besides we've a very enthusiastic team which doesn't think the way the home medium has been lobotomized into thinking."

As for his tenure with the Band Of Boys, Karan says he has just done another music video with them. "We should be out with another album soon. In the meanwhile I'm doing a whole lot of shows."

Source : 'I'm marrying Jassi next Year' article on SantaBanta.com

New name, new career for Bollywood star

2007-04-29T07:20:00.000-07:00

New name, new career for Bollywood star
by Jeremy Page, April 27, 2007

Aishwarya Rai, the Bollywood megastar, is to carry on acting after her marriage last week, breaking the mould for Indian actresses who generally retire after tying the knot.

But in a careful nod to Indian tradition, the former Miss World has adopted the surname of her new husband, Abhishek Bachchan, and decided to live in the Bachchan family home in Bombay.

The decisions were announced by her father-in-law, the 66-year-old screen legend, Amitabh Bachchan, whose own wife, Jaya, largely gave up acting after their marriage in 1973.

They reflect the delicate balancing act Bollywood actresses must still perform to maintain their allure as screen sirens, without offending their deeply conservative fans.

“Jaya and I have insisted that Aishwarya must continue with her acting career. There is no problem or issue with us,” Mr Bachchan senior told The Times of India in his first interview since the wedding.

“They will live with us,” he said. “This decision came voluntarily from both Abhishek and Aishwarya.” He added that his 33-year-old daughter-in-law wanted to use his surname and had already signed her first autograph as Aishwarya Bachchan.

If the new Mrs Bachchan continues her career, as her father-in-law’s comments suggest, it would set a precedent for Bollywood actresses.

For decades they have concealed and delayed wedding plans in order to maintain the illusion that they are single and eligible to play young romantic leads. Once married they typically retire and have children, returning to the screen years later to take on more matronly roles.

But industry insiders say that the new Mr and Mrs Bachchan – dubbed “Abhi-Ash” by Indian media – could exploit their status as Bollywood’s hottest couple by making several films together in the next few years.

The couple are considered India’s equivalent of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie and any film they appear in is almost guaranteed to be a box-office success.

Source : New name, new career for Bollywood star article on TimesOnline.co.uk

Film Industry Champion Valenti Dies

2007-04-26T17:37:00.000-07:00

Film Industry Champion Valenti Dies
by Natalie Finn, 26 Apr 2007

There's a reason why kids under the age of 17 can't see a rated-R movie and why Hollywood almost did away with award screeners a few years ago. Jack Valenti is that reason.

The film industry lobbyist and creator of the modern-day movie rating system died Thursday at his Washington D.C. home due to complications of a stroke he suffered last month. He was 85.

Valenti, who cut his teeth in politics serving on President Lyndon Johnson's staff in the 1960s, assumed the role of president of the Motion Picture Association of America in 1966 and didn't relinquish the position until 2004, when the seemingly tireless champion of copyright protection finally retired.

"Jack was a showman, a gentleman, an orator and a passionate champion of this country, its movies, and the enduring freedoms that made both so important to this world," MPAA chairman and CEO Dan Glickman, who took over when Valenti left, said in a statement. "He also embodied the theatricality of our industry with his conviction, quick wit and boundless energy. In a very real sense, he was the ultimate leading man."

Shortly after joining the MPAA, Valenti did major studios a good turn by doing away with the Hays Code—the 1930s-era set of rules that let studios know what was "morally acceptable" and affected how filmmakers approached onscreen sex and violence for years—and installed a set ratings guide, otherwise known as G, M (which later became PG), R and X.

But while Valenti was an ardent supporter of artistic freedoms, he wanted to keep a tight rein on what was done with those films after they were made, in all their Hays-free glory.

A fierce and outspoken foe of intellectual-property theft, Valenti was an early critic of VCRs, a device that he warned would bring about the end of the film industry, with its seeming capacity for rampant copying.

"I say to you that the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone," he told Congress in 1982.

And although he was wrong about video cassette recorders, which actually helped to revive the industry by allowing movie lovers to take in a film at home, Valenti was no less vigilant in later years when it came to anything he perceived as a threat to creative property rights.

The Hollywood and Washington insider helped get the Digital Millennium Copyright Act signed into law in 1998, seeing it as a necessary piece of legislation to curb the encroaching threat of Internet piracy.

Several years later, Valenti was the driving force behind the MPAA's attempt to bar studios and production companies from passing out DVD screeners, an award season staple and a key way for filmmakers to ensure that industry bigwigs (aka Academy voters) will get a chance to view their movies.

A court injunction overturned the ban in 2004, a major blow against Valenti's largely unshakeable authority during his four-decade tenure.

But while his later years with the MPAA were pocked with controversy, Valenti's legacy is intact.

A former Army pilot who flew more than 50 combat missions during World War II, Valenti was known as a charismatic and personable leader who felt just as comfortable around Hollywood luminaries such as Elizabeth Taylor and Kirk Douglas as he did around D.C. politicos.

The Houston native authored five books about politics and the movie biz, including the recently completed memoir This Time, This Place: My Life in War, the White House, and Hollywood, which is due out in June, and maintained an active public speaking schedule. He had been scheduled to kick off a six-city book tour on June 5.

Valenti is survived by his wife of 45 years, Mary, daughters Courtenay Lynda and Alexandra Alice, son John Lyndon, and two grandchildren.

Source : Film Industry Champion Valenti Dies article on Eonline.com

Sony launches PlayStation 3

2007-04-26T11:17:00.000-07:00

Sony launches PlayStation 3
by Pritika Ghura, New Delhi, April 26, 2007

Sony India announces the launch of PlayStation 3, a computer entertainment system on Thursday in the Capital. This next generation home entertainment gaming console provides high definition quality product which allows consumers to play games, watch movies and videos, listen to music and share photos. This game console also enables one to browse the Net and is 40 times faster than Play Station 2. Priced at Rs 39,990, it aims to tap the growing gaming industry in the country.

Speaking on the occasion, Masaru Tamagawa, managing director of Sony India Pvt Ltd says, "The innovative PS3 system features power technologies and capabilities that have never been brought together in one system, including the Cell Broadband Engine, BD drive and online connectivity as standard features. The result is a breathtaking new interactive world to explore eye-popping multimedia functionality and a fully integrated online experience."

"Other features of Playstation 3 are new SIXAXIS wireless controller that allows gamers to physically turn, twist and bank their controllers to command the on-screen action and the Blue-ray Disc that provides a high definition gaming and movie experience and 50 GB of data capacity for video game developers to store content. This is five times higher than capacity of a DVD," says Tim Stokes, sales and marketing director of Sony India.

Though PS3 has been successfully launched in Europe, North America and Europe, the launch plan in India includes the 60 GB version and region-free gaming, a model slightly different from the one offered in Europe.

Strokes adds that Sony has to keep four things in mind when they launch a gaming console in India -- price, gaming content, investment and timing. "Seeing the boom in Indian economy, we have launched it at the same time when PS3 is being launched in other parts of the world."

As per the NASSCOM figures, the gaming industry in India is worth $45 million, which includes mobile and PC gaming. "It is expected to reach $425 million by 2010," says Jayant Sharma, chairman and CEO of Milestone Interactive Software Limited.

Source : Sony launches PlayStation 3 article on HindustanTimes.com

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO HUBBLE

2007-04-25T06:03:00.000-07:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO HUBBLE
by Alan Boyle, April 24, 2007

Today marks the 17th anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope's "birth" in space, and in a reversal of the usual routine, it's traditional for the Hubble team to give a gift. This time, astronomers are offering a wide-angle panorama of the Carina Nebula - a blazing-hot cosmic cookery that may be much like the environment that gave rise to our own solar system.

"It's one of the biggest and brightest star-forming regions in the sky," Nathan Smith, an astronomer at the University of California at Berkeley, told me Monday. "But this is the first time we've taken a large-scale view with the Hubble Space Telescope."

In fact, the Carina picture is one of the largest panoramic images ever taken with Hubble's cameras - more than 423 megapixels' worth, assembled from 48 frames taken with the Advanced Camera for Surveys.

The finished image shows a 50-light-year-wide inferno where ultraviolet radiation from monster stars carve into the landscape of cool gas and dust. About a dozen of the stars are thought to be at least 50 to 100 times as massive as our sun. One of those stars is Eta Carinae, a popular observational target that is in the last stages of its brief, explosive life. In this picture, Eta Carinae is just one bright blip toward the left edge of the frame. This annotated image helps you locate Eta Carinae and other major features in the panorama.

The winds of radiation from the brightest stars compress the surrounding shells of cold hydrogen gas, sparking a second wave of starbirth. How does this chain reaction work? To figure that out, astronomers color-coded the image, using additional data from the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. Red represents sulfur, green stands for hydrogen, and blue corresponds to oxygen emissions.

Smith, a leader of the research team behind the image, said the new image gave him a clearer picture of what's going on within the nebula. "With a 10 times sharper view, we have a much higher degree of certainty than before," Smith said.

For example, earlier pictures revealed bright linear features coming out of the darker regions of the nebula - and Hubble's sharper image confirmed exactly what those features were.

"We see them very clearly to be jets of ionized gas, coming out of globules of molecular gas and dust," Smith said. "What that signifies is that there's a star being born inside that dark cloud that's ejecting this material. ... It's proof that star formation is occurring there."

Studying the nebula, with Hubble as well as other telescopes, could tell astronomers whether planets are capable of forming amid the harsh conditions seen in places like the Carina Nebula. And the effort also could tell us something about the origins of our own solar system, 4.6 billion years ago.

"There's evidence that our own solar system was exposed to the death of a very massive star when it was young. ... Here we have a laboratory where we see young stars forming right now, right next to massive stars that are going to explode," Smith said. "That gives us a window to the environment where we think our own solar system might have formed."

Today's birthday portrait is just one of the nearly 500,000 pictures taken by Hubble since its launch aboard the shuttle Discovery on April 24, 1990. The Hubble team calculates that the space telescope has made nearly 100,000 trips around Earth, racking up 2.4 billion frequent-flier miles in the process - the equivalent of a trip to Saturn and back.

More than 30 trillion bytes of data have been sent back to Earth over those 17 years. Each day, another 10 billion bytes come back to Earth, and 66 billion bytes of data are transmitted from Hubble's archives to astronomers throughout the world. Hubble's team says all those bytes have spawned nearly 7,000 scientific papers, making the telescope "one of the most productive scientific instruments ever built." This 6.5-megabyte PDF file hits Hubble's high points.

How long will Hubble last? NASA wants to upgrade the telescope one last time, and that final servicing mission is now scheduled to lift off in August or September of 2008. Mission planners figure that should keep Hubble in good shape until 2013. By that time, NASA hopes the James Webb Space Telescope will be ready for launch, with Hubble eased into retirement at the ripe old age of 23.

Who knows? Maybe even then, there'll be some life left in the old telescope. So here's wishing Hubble and its handlers a happy 17th birthday ... and many more to come. For more stunners from space, check out our Space Gallery, as well as the Hubble Web sites maintained by the Space Telescope Science Institute and the European Space Agency.

Source : HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO HUBBLE article on MS NBC

Scientists break worldwide Internet speed record

2007-04-25T06:01:00.000-07:00

Scientists break worldwide Internet speed record
By Mark Raby, April 25, 2007

Tokyo (Japan) - A group of researchers in the Internet2 consortium has set a new record for sending data through the Internet at more than nine gigabits per second.

The team broke the old record of 7.67 Gbps, which was set last December. Using modified protocols, they were able to send data across a 20,000 mile path at a constant rate of 9.08 Gbps.

At this speed, a high definition version of a movie could be downloaded in just a few seconds, instead of over 40 hours on a typical broadband connection.

Source : Scientists break worldwide Internet speed record article on TGDaily.com

Mac hacked through QuickTime flaw

2007-04-25T05:57:00.000-07:00

Mac hacked through QuickTime flaw
Hack-a-Mac contest winner exploited a zero-day bug in QuickTime that could also expose Windows users.
By Joris Evers, April 24, 2007.

The security hole used to breach a MacBook in a hack-a-Mac competition last week lies in Apple's QuickTime media player, the flaw finder said Tuesday.

The vulnerability is related to how QuickTime handles Java, said security researcher Dino Dai Zovi. An attacker can exploit the bug through Safari or Firefox, he said. Initial reports were that the flaw was in Safari, Apple's Web browser.

"It is a vulnerability within QuickTime. Safari and Firefox on Mac OS X are vulnerable," Dai Zovi said. QuickTime is also widely used on Windows machines, so Windows users may also be at risk, he said. "At this time, Firefox on Windows is considered at risk," Dai Zovi said.

Security monitoring company Secunia deems the flaw "highly critical," one notch below its most serious rating. "This can be exploited to execute arbitrary code when a user visits a malicious Web site," Secunia said. Apple's most recent QuickTime security update was in March.

Shane Macaulay, a software engineer and a friend of Dai Zovi's, hacked into a MacBook using the QuickTime security hole on Friday. The computer was one of two offered as a prize in the "PWN to Own" hack-a-Mac contest at the CanSecWest conference in Vancouver, British Columbia.

The successful attack on the second and final day of the contest required a conference organizer to surf to a malicious Web site using Safari on the MacBook--a type of attack more familiar to Windows users.

Apple has declined to comment on the MacBook hack specifically, but spokeswoman Lynn Fox last week provided Apple's standard security comment: "Apple takes security very seriously and has a great track record of addressing potential vulnerabilities before they can affect users," she said.

Further details on the flaw are being kept confidential until Apple patches it. Dai Zovi has submitted the vulnerability to TippingPoint's Zero Day Initiative bug bounty program. TippingPoint, which sells intrusion prevention systems, had offered a $10,000 prize for a Mac zero-day vulnerability to make the CanSecWest contest more appealing to hackers.

"TippingPoint has offered to purchase the vulnerability and I have agreed, payment is pending," Dai Zovi said.

Disabling Java in a browser shields a computer against attacks that exploit the flaw, Dai Zovi said. Macs are vulnerable by default because Apple ships QuickTime with the operating system. Windows users are only vulnerable if QuickTime is installed.

Source : Mac hacked through QuickTime flaw article on CNet News

NASA obtains first 3-D Sun pictures from STEREO

2007-04-24T17:33:00.000-07:00

NASA obtains first 3-D Sun pictures from STEREO
by Bithika Khargarhia, April 24, 2007

NASA on Monday released the first three-dimensional (3-D) images of the sun developed from data transmitted by the twin Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatories, known as STEREO, enabling scientists, for the first time, to see structures in the sun's atmosphere in three dimensions thus helping them to track solar storms more accurately.

STEREO, a pair of solar probes, was launched on a Boeing-built Delta rocket, which lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida on October 25, 2006 to better understand and predict solar eruptions by exploring the sun for the first time in three dimensions. Nearly 90 minutes after the take off, the two spacecraft split off from their launch vehicle and began their respective paths into orbit, one ahead of Earth in its orbit and the other trailing behind.

The STEREO mission is the first to view the sun from two separate vantage points outside Earth's orbit. The pictures, generated by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, will significantly aid scientists' ability to understand solar physics and thereby improve space weather forecasting.

The team of experts created the images from data obtained by the two near-identical observatories that are now orbiting the sun to monitor its Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs). From the perspective of the Sun, the spacecrafts are orbiting 45 degrees apart, providing enough distance to work like a pair of human eyes that can view in three dimensions.

The eruptions, called coronal mass ejections, are a key source of the magnetic disruptions on Earth and are a major component of space weather. These can greatly effect satellite operations, can shut down communications and navigational satellites, affect aircraft and disrupt electricity supplies as billions of tonnes of charged particles are sent streaming into space.

Now, with the breakthrough images obtained from STEREO mission that provide 3-D measurements of the sun and its flow of energy, the science experts would be able to study the nature of coronal mass ejections (CMEs), outbursts that can affect Earth, astronauts and satellites, and why they happen.

"The improvement with Stereo's 3D view is like going from a regular X-ray to a 3D CAT scan in the medical field," said Dr Mike Kaiser, the Stereo project scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. "The main purpose of STEREO is to study solar storms. The sun has been doing solar storms for billions of years, with nobody really caring about until recently.''

Designed and built by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), the $520 million project, STEREO mission uses two nearly identical observatories that act like a pair of human eyes, each picking up data that is correlated with information from observatories on the ground and in low-Earth orbit.

Loaded with scientific instruments, the twin spacecraft, each about the size of a golf cart and weighing some 620km, are measuring solar eruptions from their source, through space and all the way to the point at which they affect Earth's atmosphere.

Scientists of four European countries are participating in the two-year mission: Belgium, Britain, France and Germany. They hope the STEREO mission will glean insight into solar activities such as coronal mass ejections (CMEs), the most violent explosions in the solar system.

The mission is being managed by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. APL will maintain command and control of the observatories throughout the mission, while NASA tracks and receives the data, determines the orbit of the satellites, and coordinates the science results.

Source : NASA obtains first 3-D Sun pictures from STEREO in TheMoneyTimes.com

The HP Mobile Innovations Tour

2007-04-24T17:28:00.000-07:00

The HP Mobile Innovations Tour
by Bharti Adhikari, April 24, 2007

Hewlett-Packard (HP) today showcased a number of innovations revolving around the future of mobile communication in the country.

"HP Mobile Innovations Tour" was focused on the conceptual creations that represent a vision for the 2012 timeframe, where devices will be function-specific and will provide an 'always connected' experience.
With the new innovations, the company is creating and enabling experiences that allow users easy access to information and content when and where they want it, on simple devices.

According to Phil Devlin, Manager of Product Marketing, Mobile Business Unit, Personal Systems Group, HP Asia-Pacific and Japan, "HP's vision of the future of mobility is a world where simple devices inter-operate to deliver a cohesive, 'always connected' lifestyle. Anyone can make the simple complicated - true creativity lies in making the complicated simple."

The gadgets showcased at the "HP Mobile Innovations Tour" include a personal wireless gateway device - in a wearable watch-like form factor; a flexible, portable, personal size display mat; and a thin-client device in a tablet form factor.

The watch wireless gateway acts as the central hub containing the access technologies/radios to enable an 'always connected' experience. It can connect to various devices, including phones, PCs, laptops, etc.

The flexible, portable, personal size display mat is 'always on' and ready to connect to the wireless hub/watch. A larger mat can be used to access services such as games or content better suited for a larger display.

The thin-client device in a tablet form factor is capable of taking on the personality of the user, based on 'personal wireless gateway' information. It's a trend towards Web-based solutions to move content or applications to Internet, shifting devices away from traditional memory-based architecture. The devices resulting from this will be thinner and lighter with longer battery life.

Apart from these, the other innovations showcased include: a digital wallet that displays up-to-the-moment transactions for a wide variety of personal services such as checking credit cards, etc; a pen with multiple options for input; a smart shelf that allows display of information, and serves as a charger for the wireless gateway/watch etc; and a coffee table which when loaded with thin clients turns into a larger display that can be used for collaboration, and also acts as charger base for the device.

With laptops, mobile phones, PDAs, and digital cameras continuing to add more features, options, and wireless technologies, the current mobile environment is getting increasingly complex, and is a key strategic growth segment globally, and in Asia Pacific.

IDC forecasts that the APEJ mobile worker population will increase to 582.5 million or 31.1 percent of the workforce by 2009.

Source : The HP Mobile Innovations Tour article in TechTree.com

Wedding guest, not the best

2007-04-24T17:23:00.000-07:00

Wedding guest, not the best
by Pankaj Vohra, April 22, 2007

The tamasha surrounding the marriage of Abhishek with Aishwarya Rai over the weekend appears to lend credence to the speculation that the Bachchans are dying to become the first family of India. The hype about the “most public private wedding” became overkill and showed the bankruptcy of the media as well as the control that marketing gurus have apparently managed to have over every single dimension of the media. The show put out for fans underlined the fact that Bachchans behaved as if they were shooting yet another film. The sanctity one would have normally attached with the actual wedding ceremony was put in the background.

It is a known fact that the Bachchans, who always lived in the shadow of the Nehru-Gandhis, are keen to break away and establish themselves as the new icons of India. There is nothing wrong in aspiring to be Family No. 1, except that the road to the top has to be through the service of the nation and not by lending one’s name to each and every brand that comes in the way. Amitabh’s name has figured prominently in the speculation over who could be the country’s next President, something that has been firmly denied by him and his close associates. Perhaps, he realises that to get anywhere near the august office, he will have to get support from many major parties other than the Samajwadi Party.

Bachchan has come a long way since he carried two letters written by Indira Gandhi, on persistent requests from family friend Teji Bachchan, to Nargis Dutt and Khawaja Ahmed Abbas urging them to give him a break in films. Abbas cast him in Saat Hindustani and Nargis asked her husband Sunil Dutt to help him out. Recalling his first meeting, Dutt told me some years ago that when Amitabh met him, he asked what his greatest asset was. “My voice,” the young man had answered, at which point Dutt told him that he would cast him in the role of a ‘goonga’ in his film, Reshma Aur Shera. Bachchan was, however, first noticed in Anand and subsequently starred in many films which turned out to be flops. Blitz columnist Krishna used to repeatedly refer to Amitabh as the “Sarkari-made hero”. But with Prakash Mehra’s Zanjeer, there was no looking back for the ‘Angry Young Man’.

But there is another sphere in which Bachchan does not exactly shine: politics. Old timers in the Congress recall that before her death, Indira Gandhi had advised Rajiv that he should never allow “Teji’s son to enter politics”. Indira Gandhi’s advice was probably based on her experience. But Rajiv, who grew up playing with Amitabh, gave him the Congress nomination from Allahabad against H.N. Bahuguna after his mother’s assassination.

Amitabh won the seat convincingly and soon became a power centre within the Congress. But he appeared to have rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. V.P. Singh, for instance, constantly complained against him to Rajiv. Matters came to a head and a reluctant Bachchan resigned after a long meeting with Rajiv. Subsequently, his name (and that of his brother) was also dragged in the Bofors controversy. But nothing could be proved against him or Rajiv. Amitabh swore he would never be in politics again.

But the promise appears to have been shortlived now that he has got drawn into the glamour of politics once again through his close association with Mulayam Singh Yadav, an opponent of the Gandhi family. At one stage, wife Jaya made uncharitable remarks against Sonia Gandhi that a worried Amitabh tried to play down. After legendary poet Harivansh Rai Bachchan died, Rahul Gandhi represented his family at the funeral. But now the break seems to be complete with the Gandhis excluded from the wedding guest list.

Big B has become the Bad B for the Congress, campaigning as he is on TV for his friend Mulayam. Jaya is already an MP on the Samajwadi ticket. It is a matter of time till even Amitabh could be on the political centre stage in some form or the other. It is evident that he may come on the Congress radar very soon and the political rivalry may commence from where political friendship ended many years ago.

Coming back to the Abhishek-Aishwarya wedding, not one known literary figure was invited to the marriage of Harivansh Rai Bachchan’s grandson. The disaffection was pronounced as the Bachchans owe their identity to the Hindi language and the recognition the literary world accorded to the family. It is being pointed out that the wedding had a guest list that, among others, included fixers and the like, while it ignored members of the literary circle. There is also criticism that the Bachchans, synonymous with class at one stage, have allowed their thirst for undue publicity to get the better of them. “The wedding should have been a sombre affair. Look at the dignified way with which Mukesh Ambani celebrated his birthday,” a once close friend remarked.

The show must go on and even an offering to Tirupati was made a public event. But despite the media, the Bachchans will have to do a lot more if they want to become the first family of India.

Source : Wedding guest, not the best article in HindustanTimes.com

Astronomers may have found the first Earth 2

2007-04-24T17:20:00.000-07:00

Astronomers may have found the first Earth 2
By Margaret Munro, CanWest News Service, Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Astronomers have spotted “the first habitable Earth-like planet” outside the solar system, a find so enticing that Canada’s space telescope is being redirected to take a closer look.

The “super-Earth” appears to be 50 per cent larger than Earth and orbiting around a star in a “habitable zone” where temperatures are so balmy that water — the elixir of life — would be liquid.

“We have estimated that the mean temperature of this super-Earth lies between 0 and 40 degrees Celsius, and water would thus be liquid,” says Stephane Udry, of the Geneva Observatory, who leads the European team that reported the discovery Tuesday in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.

The planet, believed to be either rocky like Earth or covered with oceans, is seen as a promising target in the search for extraterrestrial life.

“On the treasure map of the universe, one would be tempted to mark this planet with an X,” says team member Xavier Delfosse of Grenoble University.

Since the discovery in 1995 of the first “exoplanet” orbiting a star other than the sun, more than 200 planets have been found. Most are gas giants on extreme orbits around stars that make them either scorching hot or far too cold to maintain life as we know it.

The Europeans say the new planet is the smallest exoplanet and “most Earth-like” so far. They have deduced that it orbits its star in 13 days and is 14 times closer to its star than the Earth is to the sun.

The scientists found the planet using a super-sensitive planet-hunting machine fitted onto a European telescope in Chile. It detects the tiny changes — or wobbles — produced as planets orbit around stars. The planet’s host star, a red dwarf called Gliese 581, is much smaller and colder than the sun, which means the planet can be close to its star but still be in the so-called “habitable zone,” the region around a star where water would be liquid.

Gliese 581 is among the 100 closest stars to Earth, located 20.5 light-years away in the constellation Libra. This means light takes 20.5 years to travel from Gliese 581 to Earth.

Canadian astronomer Jaymie Matthews of the University of British Columbia cautions there is no evidence so far showing the planet actually harbours water, let alone “extras from Star Trek.” All scientists can say for certain is that the planet appears to exist, and could have a solid surface and habitable temperatures.

But the European evidence is so exciting, Mr. Matthews says, that he and his colleagues have agreed to focus Canada’s suitcase-sized space telescope, known as MOST, on the alien solar system.

“We’re putting it on a stakeout,” says Mr. Matthews, who leads the MOST team and is currently in Vienna. (MOST stands for microvariabilty and oscillations of stars.)

He expects to have the planetary system in the microsatellite telescope’s sights by late next week. “We’ve been working on this for a few weeks,” he said in a phone interview.

Mr. Matthews says it will be possible to look for the “super-Earth” without too big an impact on other MOST projects.

“We’ll be squeezing it into to our regularly scheduled programming. That’s the beauty of having something like MOST. It’s almost like having your own private space telescope in the sense that it’s possible for us to take advantage of these targets of opportunity and adapt very, very quickly.”

With luck, Mr. Matthews says MOST, which has a much clearer view from its orbit above Earth, will be able to actually see the planet orbiting across the face of the star and confirm its existence.

The odds that MOST will be in the right vantage point to observe such a “transit” is about one in 20.
“It’s a long shot,” he says, but well worth taking because the results could be huge.

Source : Astronomers may have found the first Earth 2 article in Canada.com

'Kryptonite' discovered in mine

2007-04-24T17:16:00.000-07:00

Kryptonite is no longer just the stuff of fiction feared by caped superheroes.

A new mineral matching its unique chemistry - as described in the film Superman Returns - has been identified in a mine in Serbia.

According to movie and comic-book storylines, kryptonite is supposed to sap Superman's powers whenever he is exposed to its large green crystals.

The real mineral is white and harmless, says Dr Chris Stanley, a mineralogist at London's Natural History Museum.

"I'm afraid it's not green and it doesn't glow either - although it will react to ultraviolet light by fluorescing a pinkish-orange," he told BBC News.

Rock heist

Researchers from mining group Rio Tinto discovered the unusual mineral and enlisted the help of Dr Stanley when they could not match it with anything known previously to science.

Once the London expert had unravelled the mineral's chemical make-up, he was shocked to discover this formula was already referenced in literature - albeit fictional literature.

"Towards the end of my research I searched the web using the mineral's chemical formula - sodium lithium boron silicate hydroxide - and was amazed to discover that same scientific name, written on a case of rock containing kryptonite stolen by Lex Luther from a museum in the film Superman Returns.

"The new mineral does not contain fluorine (which it does in the film) and is white rather than green but, in all other respects, the chemistry matches that for the rock containing kryptonite."

The mineral is relatively hard but is very small grained. Each individual crystal is less than five microns (millionths of a metre) across.

Elementary clash

Identifying its atomic structure required sophisticated analytical facilities at Canada's National Research Council and the assistance and expertise of its researchers, Dr Pamela Whitfield and Dr Yvon Le Page.

"'Knowing a material's crystal structure means scientists can calculate other physical properties of the material, such as its elasticity or thermochemical properties," explained Dr Le Page.

"Being able to analyse all the properties of a mineral, both chemical and physical, brings us closer to confirming that it is indeed unique."

Finding out that the chemical composition of a material was an exact match to an invented formula for the fictitious kryptonite "was the coincidence of a lifetime," he added.

The mineral cannot be called kryptonite under international nomenclature rules because it has nothing to do with krypton - a real element in the Periodic Table that takes the form of a gas.

Power possibilities

Instead, it will be formally named Jadarite when it is described in the European Journal of Mineralogy later this year.

Jadar is the name of the place where the Serbian mine is located.

Dr Stanley said that if deposits occurred in sufficient quantity it could have some commercial value.

It contains boron and lithium - two valuable elements with many applications, he explained.

"Borosilicate glasses are used to encapsulate processed radioactive waste, and lithium is used in batteries and in the pharmaceutical industries."

Source : 'Kryptonite' discovered in mine article in bbc.co.uk

The Hindu News Update Service

2006-12-06T18:55:00.000-08:00

Bollywood to launch signature campaign in support of Sanjay

Mumbai, Dec. 6 (PTI): The Bollywood today decided to launch a signature campaign on December 12 to express their support to actor Sanjay Dutt who has been held guilty under the Arms Act for possessing weapons used in 1993 serial bomb blasts case.

"We are grateful to Sanjay for his kind deeds and the help he extended to workers in the film industry and hence we are launching signature campaign to express our feelings that the entire Bollywood is with him in this moment of crisis", said Pahlaj Nihalani, film producer and President of Association of Motion Pictures and TV Programme Producers.

The signature campaign would be just for a day at the Film City in suburban Goregaon where members of film industry in various cadres -- spot boys to actors, producers and directors --"will come together to show their support to Sanjay whom they all love", Nihalani said.

"We do not have any intention to interfere with the court's order or influence the judiciary. The idea is to express our support to Sanjay who has in the past helped the film industry workers in whatever way he could", Nihalani said.

"All that I can say is that Sanjay is a nice person, always helpful to others and has already undergone punishment by spending some time in jail and going to TADA court regularly for the last 13 years", Nihalani said.

The film producer further said the entire Bollywood welcomed the verdict to the extent that Sanjay had been exonerated of terrorism charges.

After pronouncing him guilty on November 28, the court gave Sanjay time to surrender till December 19 and would hear arguments before awarding him the punishment.

Check out some wallpapers of Sanjay Dutt aka Sanju baba

Source: The Hindu News Update Service

DNA - After Hrs - The race for dressing up Shah Rukh Khan for KBC hots up - Daily News & Analysis

2006-12-06T18:44:00.000-08:00

The race for dressing up Shah Rukh Khan for KBC hots up
Wednesday, December 06, 2006 23:59 IST

The country’s leading designers give SRK styling tips for his TV comeback.

The race for dressing up Shah Rukh Khan for ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’ is hotting up. We asked some of country’s leading designers to reveal what look they’d like to give King Khan.

Surily Goel
KBC is a very formal show. Unless they are changing the format drastically wherein Shah Rukh could break free and dress in more casual outfit, for the present format I think he is best suited in well cut jackets and suits. Shah Rukh looks great in suits.

Shaina NC
No one can touch Amitabh Bachchan and the way he dressed for the show. For a high profile show like this one, a jacket is a must. He should ideally be dressed in a trendy or classic suit, but the shirt and necktie look that he had in ‘Don’ definitely won’t work here. I can never imagine him in Indian wear, so it is a definite no-no.

Arjun Khanna
I would like to see him in very chic and suave clothes, but definitely not casual wear. I would have also given him Indian wear, not too ethnic but something of a mix with very subtle embroidery. I would want him to experiment and dress up differently for every episode.

Aki Narula
I loved what Amitabh Bachchan wore but for the fact that he stuck to dark colours. For Shah Rukh Khan, I would give him a washed linen suit and Madras check jackets in lighter colours for summer. For winters I would give him darker colours like Olive green and also perhaps a cravat to go with the suit.

Anna Singh
I feel that SRK’s look should not be inspired by what Mr Bachchan wore. SRK should experiment and try his hand at various clothes - more so on semi-formals. Above all, his look should be identifiable and relate to audiences, as KBC is a people’s show.

Source: DNA - After Hrs - The race for dressing up Shah Rukh Khan for KBC hots up - Daily News & Analysis

Ash, Hrithik to face trial for kissing scene : HTTabloid.com

2006-12-06T18:29:00.000-08:00

Ash, Hrithik to face trial for kissing scene
Reuters, Bhopal, December 5, 2006

The kissing scene filmed on Bollywood actors Aishwarya Rai and Hrithik Roshan from the film Dhoom 2 has now come under the scanner of law, as a lawyer has filed a criminal case against the stars, accusing them of obscenity.

Shailendra Dwivedi of Indore, near Bhopal, the capital of central Madhya Pradesh state, said the scene from the movie, titled Dhoom 2, lowered the dignity of Indian women and gave an obscene message to youth.

"Bollywood actors are conveying vulgarity in the society," Dwivedi said. "These films cannot be watched with our families, they are so vulgar at times."

A local court accepted Dwivedi's petition to punish the actors and said it would hear the petitioner on December 11.

The Indian censor board, which certifies all films, released the movie with a "parental discretion" certificate.

A majority of Indians frown upon intimacy in public.

Source: Ash, Hrithik to face trial for kissing scene : HTTabloid.com

Chennai Online News Service - View News

2006-12-06T18:25:00.000-08:00

Sidhu sentenced to three-year RI

Chandigarh, Dec 6: Former BJP MP and popular cricket commentator Navjot Singh Sidhu was today sentenced to three years rigorous imprisonment in a case involving him in death due to road rage 18 years ago.

Giving the quantum of punishment, Justice Mehtab Singh Gill and Justice Baldev Singh of Punjab and Haryana High Court suspended the sentence till January 31 to enable Sidhu file a special leave petition in the Supreme Court, which means he will not go to jail.

Extending similar relief, the court also sentenced the other convict in the case Rupinder Singh Sandhu to three years rigorous imprisonment.

Both of them were fined Rs.one lakh each and were directed to furnish a bail bond on or before December 8.

During the arguments on the quantum of punishment before the Bench, the prosecution demanded the maximum ten-year imprisonment for the 43-year-old former MP while the defence sought leniency saying he should either fined or granted probation.

Sidhu, dressed in a blue suit and turban, was present in the jampacked court during the arguments which lasted two hours. BJP leaders Arun Jaitley, Avinash Khanna, Satyapal Jain and Akali Dal leader Daljit Singh Cheema were present in the court.

Setting aside the order of a lower court acquitting Sidhu and his accomplice Rupinder Singh Sandhu, the Bench had on December 1 held them guilty of culpable homicide not amounting to murder of Gurnam Singh on December 27, 1988 in Patiala after which the first-time MP from Amritsar had resigned from the Lok Sabha.

Sidhu and Sandu were on bail in the case which was granted by the High Court on November 29, 2000 while admitting the appeal against his acquittal.

A flamboyant cricket commentator known for wit and humour dubbed as 'Sidhuism', he had played for India in 51 Tests and 136 one-dayers in a 16-year career. (Agencies)

Source: Chennai Online News Service - View News

» Your Own Linux Distribution » Soft32.com News

2006-11-21T11:39:00.000-08:00

Your Own Linux Distribution » Soft32.com News

That is the name of a Swiss project which will allow users to build customized Linux distributions

The Linux Community offers numerous Linux distributions for all tastes. From small, 50 MB, distributions to one-DVD installations, Linux comes in many different flavors and covers a wide number of features. With such a variety of flavors, users always find it difficult to choose the Linux distribution that fits their needs best.

There is no such thing as a perfect Linux distribution. No matter which one we choose we always find out that there is something else we need and has to be downloaded or there is something useless that is just taking up hard-disk space.

The team behind the Ark Linux project was confronted with lots of users asking for more features, thus violating the project’s policy of simplicity. As a response, the developers launched a completely new company called YOLD (Your Own Linux Distribution).

YOLD specializes in customizing Linux systems to customers’ needs - whatever those needs may be. “No matter whether you’re looking for a customized solution for your in-house desktops or servers, a Linux version to run on embedded devices, or a specially branded Linux distribution to be sold by your business, or a demo Live CD, YOLD can do it.” says the YOLD website.

The team charges about $81 per hour for development, but offers a 50% rebate if the customer chooses to release the work under the GNU General Public License (GPL). Also, a free offer is available for Open Source projects.

Source: » Your Own Linux Distribution » Soft32.com News

» Microsoft to face challenge over Linux licenses » Soft32.com News

2006-11-21T11:34:00.000-08:00

Microsoft to face challenge over Linux licenses » Soft32.com News

Supporters of PC operating system Linux are preparing to counter a recent deal penned by Microsoft Corp which establishes for the first time the principle of paying the software giant for the operating system, whose license requires it to be free.

Microsoft signed a deal with Novell, one of the providers of Linux, in which Novell paid it a lump sum in return for a guarantee that Microsoft would not sue Novell’s clients for what it calls a violation of its own patents in the Linux program.

The prospect of a drawn-out legal battle with Microsoft, an experienced litigator, could push users of Linux into the hands of Novell and away from dominant Linux provider, Red Hat, which does not have such a deal with Microsoft.

Although Linux is free, providers of the system offer the software with packaging, documentation and — most important — installation and maintenance, so any client shift from Red Hat would cost it money.

“Either customers desert Red Hat to go to Novell, to get safety, or Red Hat will be forced into a similar deal with Microsoft,” said Eban Moglen, a professor at Columbia Law School and founding director of the Software Freedom Law Center in New York.

Moglen, one of the pioneers of free software, said Microsoft’s deal skirts the requirements of the GNU General Public License, used by Linux and other free programs, which requires the software to be given away.

He and others have started work on updating the license to close the loophole by saying a promise not to sue, such as the one given by Microsoft, would be automatically applicable to everyone.

That would effectively flip Microsoft’s agreement on its head and guarantee that no one would face a suit from Microsoft if anyone were protected.

“A clause like that would not be difficult to get community agreement on these days,” Moglen said, adding that a change could be ready in weeks or months.

LIABILITY?

Under the Novell deal, in which both companies agreed not sue each other’s clients for patent violation, Microsoft agreed to pay Novell $348 million, while Novell pays Microsoft $40 million, on the basis that Novell has fewer customers.

Microsoft says it has patent rights to some of the technology in Linux, although it has never said exactly what those rights might be or what patents are involved.

Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said if customers bought Linux from anyone but Novell, they could face trouble.

“If a customer says, ‘Look, do we have liability for the use of your patented work?’ Essentially, if you’re using non-SUSE Linux, then I’d say the answer is yes,” Ballmer told eWeek.com recently, referring to the Linux system sold by Novell.

“I suspect that (customers) will take that issue up with their distributor,” Ballmer said, adding that if customers considered doing a directdownload of a non-SUSE Linux version, “they’ll think twice about that.”

Microsoft makes the Windows operating system, for which it charges billions of dollars a year, but Linux has been a thorn in the software giant’s side because it is freely available.

Linux was created, maintained and improved by volunteers working under a license requiring that it be freely available for copying, modification and improvements.

Source: » Microsoft to face challenge over Linux licenses » Soft32.com News

Getting w.Bloggar to work with Blogger Beta

2006-11-07T18:55:00.000-08:00

I signed up for Blogger Beta. Only to find out that none of my posting softwares work. I earlier used to use w.Bloggar, and had been using Windows Live Writer for the last few days. I downloaded w.Bloggar's latest version and tried setting it up with my new Blogger Beta blog. Behold the Beta Gods. It said my username/password didn't match. I realised it was not connecting to the beta interface, but rather to the old Blogger interface. And the old Blogger interface cannot login a Google Accounts username/password.

Being a lazy person, I searched the net first to see if womeone else had come up with a solution. My search yeilded no results. So I tried to play with the w.Bolggar account settings. Luckily, I got it right in the first attempt. Anyways, I decided to share this info with you all. So here is a step by step with screenshots (click on them to enlarge).

Getting w.Bloggar to work with Blogger Beta :
Requirements :

A Blogger Beta blog
w.Bloggar
Internet connection

Instructions :
Step 1 : Fire up the account selection box in w.Bloggar. You can reach it by Clicking on File, Select Account or by pressing F9

Step 2 : Click on the Icon next to the account name.

Step 3 : Selct New

Step 4 : Select "Yes, I want to add it as a new account"

Step 5 : Select Custom from the drop down list and fill in a name for you account. Select Ping if you would like to notify Weblogs or Technorati upon updates. Click Next.

Step 6 : Keep the settings as is. Click Next.

Step 7 : In the Host field type in "beta.blogger.com". (Without the quotes, of course!)

Step 8 : In the Path field type in "/api". (Without the quotes, of course!). Click "Next"

Step 9 : Type in your Google Accounts username/email and your password. Select "Save password" if you would like w.bloggar to remember your password.

Step 10 : Click Finish. You are done.

Do send your comments and feedbacks.

India ranks 24th in Global Hunger Index

2006-10-13T18:59:00.000-07:00

JOSEPH VACKAYIL
Saturday, October 14, 2006

CHENNAI, OCT 13: Hunger and malnutrition continue to haunt India despite green, white and IT revolutions and economic reforms. India is world’s 24th most malnourished country, and in Asia, it has Bangladesh (18th) and Mali (19th) for company among the top 25 malnourished countries in the world. All others are in Africa. What is more alarming is the slowdown and near stagnation of the fall in poverty rates in India since 1992.

According to the Global Hunger Index, prepared by the International Food Policy Research Institute and released in Washington on Friday, India scored 41.23 in the GHI in 1981. There was a substantial fall to 32.73 in 1992. In 1997, it touched 25.73 and continued to remain steadfast at that score even in 2003.

The GHI of IFPRI captures three dimensions of hunger: insufficient availability of food, shortfalls in the nutritional status of children, and child mortality, which, to a large extent, attributes to undernutrition.

The index includes three equally weighted indicators: The proportion of people who are food energy deficient as estimated by Food and Agriculture Organisation, the prevalence of underweight in children under the age of five as compiled by the World Health Organisation, and the under-five mortality rate as reported by Unicef.

The IFPRI report says “in India and Bangladesh, high rates of child malnutrition are main reasons for high GHI values relative to Gross National Income per capita”. Low status of women in the region and their lack of nutritional knowledge are important determinants of high prevalence of underweight in children.

IFPRI researchers have concluded that more educational opportunities for women must be created in South Asia and similar regions to address their inadequate knowledge and low status, which contribute to high child malnutrition rates. The GHI has been calculated for 1981, 1992, 1997 and the latest for 2003. In the latest round, 94 developing countries and 22 countries in transition were ranked.

Unlike in India, there has been significant fall in the hunger index of both Bangladesh and Mali from 35.73 to 28.27 and 31.97 to 28.07, respectively, between 1997-2003.

Read more at : India ranks 24th in Global Hunger Index

Useful tollfree helplines in India

2006-09-08T15:35:00.000-07:00

Airways
Indian Airlines - 1800 180 1407
Jet Airways - 1800 22 5522
SpiceJet - 1800 180 3333

Automobiles
Mahindra Scorpio - 1800 22 6006
Maruti - 1800 111 515
Tata Motors - 1800 22 5552
Windshield Experts - 1800 11 3636

Banks
ABN AMRO - 1800 11 2224
Canara Bank - 1800 44 6000
Citibank - 1800 44 2265
Corporatin Bank - 1800 443 555
Development Credit Bank - 1800 22 5769
HDFC Bank - 1800 227 227
ICICI Bank - 1800 333 499
ICICI Bank NRI - 1800 22 4848
IDBI Bank - 1800 11 6999
Indian Bank - 1800 425 1400
ING Vysya - 1800 44 9900
Kotak Mahindra Bank - 1800 22 6022
Lord Krishna Bank - 1800 11 2300
Punjab National Bank - 1800 122 222
State Bank of India - 1800 44 1955
Syndicate Bank - 1800 44 6655

Cell Phones
BenQ - 1600 22 08 08
Bird CellPhones - 1800 11 7700
Motorola MotoAssist - 1800 11 1211
Nokia - 3030 3838
Sony Ericsson - 3901 1111

Computers/IT
Adrenalin - 1800 444 445
AMD - 1800 425 6664
Apple Computers - 1800 444 683
Canon - 1800 333 366
Cisco Systems - 1800 221 777
Compaq - HP - 1800 444 999
Data One Broadband - 1800 424 1600
Dell - 1800 444 026
Epson - 1800 44 0011
eSys - 3970 0011
Genesis Tally Academy - 1800 444 888
HCL - 1800 180 8080
IBM - 1800 443 333
Lexmark - 1800 22 4477
Marshal's Point - 1800 33 4488
Microsoft - 1800 111 100
Microsoft Virus Update - 1901 333 334
Seagate - 1800 180 1104
Symantec - 1800 44 5533
TVS Electronics - 1800 444 566
WeP Peripherals - 1800 44 6446
Wipro - 1800 333 312
xerox - 1800 180 1225
Zenith - 1800 222 004

Couriers/Packers & Movers
ABT Courier - 1800 44 8585
AFL Wizz - 1800 22 9696
Agarwal Packers & Movers - 1800 11 4321
Associated Packers P Ltd - 1800 21 4560
DHL - 1800 111 345
FedEx - 1800 22 6161
Goel Packers & Movers - 1800 11 3456
UPS - 1800 22 7171

Education
Edu Plus - 1800 444 000
Hindustan College - 1800 33 4438
NCERT - 1800 11 1265
Vellore Institute of Technology - 1800 441 555

Healthcare
Prevent Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
Best on Health - 1800 11 8899
Dr Batras - 1800 11 6767
GlaxoSmithKline - 1800 22 8797
Johnson & Johnson - 1800 22 8111
Kaya Skin Clinic - 1800 22 5292
LifeCell - 1800 44 5323
Manmar Technologies - 1800 33 4420
Pfizer - 1800 442 442
Roche Accu-Chek - 1800 11 45 46
Rudraksha - 1800 21 4708
Varilux Lenses - 1800 44 8383
VLCC - 1800 33 1262

Home Appliances
Aiwa/Sony - 1800 11 1188
Anchor Switches - 1800 22 7979
Blue Star - 1800 22 2200
Bose Audio - 1800 11 2673
Bru Coffee Vending Machines - 1800 44 7171
Daikin Air Conditioners - 1800 444 222
DishTV - 1800 12 3474
Faber Chimneys - 1800 21 4595
Godrej - 1800 22 5511
Grundfos Pumps - 1800 33 4555
LG - 1901 180 9999
Philips - 1800 22 4422
Samsung - 1800 113 444
Sanyo - 1800 11 0101
Voltas - 1800 33 4546
WorldSpace Satellite Radio - 1800 44 5432

Hotel Reservations
GRT Grand - 1800 44 5500
InterContinental Hotels Group - 1800 111 000
Marriott - 1800 22 0044
Sarovar Park Plaza - 1800 111 222
Taj Holidays - 1800 111 825

Insurance
AMP Sanmar - 1800 44 2200
Aviva - 1800 33 2244
Bajaj Allianz - 1800 22 5858
Chola MS General Insurance - 1800 44 5544
HDFC Standard Life - 1800 227 227
LIC - 1800 33 4433
Max New York Life - 1800 33 5577
Royal Sundaram - 1800 33 8899
SBI Life Insurance - 1800 22 9090

Mattresses
Kurl-on - 1800 44 0404
Sleepwell - 1800 11 2266

Investments/Finance
CAMS - 1800 44 2267
Chola Mutual Fund - 1800 22 2300
Easy IPO's - 3030 5757
Fidelity Investments - 1800 180 8000
Franklin Templeton Fund - 1800 425 4255
J M Morgan Stanley - 1800 22 0004
Kotak Mutual Fund - 1800 222 626
LIC Housing Finance - 1800 44 0005
SBI Mutual Fund - 1800 22 3040
Sharekhan - 1800 22 7500
Tata Mutual Fund - 1800 22 0101

Paints
Asian Paints Home Solutions - 1800 22 5678
Berger Paints Home Decor - 1800 33 8800

Teleshopping
Asian Sky Shop - 1800 22 1600
Jaipan Teleshoppe - 1800 11 5225
Tele Brands - 1800 11 8000
VMI Teleshopping - 1800 447 777
WWS Teleshopping - 1800 220 777

Travel
Club Mahindra Holidays - 1800 33 4539
Cox & Kings - 1800 22 1235
God TV Tours - 1800 442 777
Kerala Tourism - 1800 444 747
Kumarakom Lake Resort - 1800 44 5030
Raj Travels & Tours - 1800 22 9900
Sita Tours - 1800 111 911
SOTC Tours - 1800 22 3344

UPS (Uninterrupted Power Supply)
APC - 1800 44 4272
Numeric - 1800 44 3266

Others
Consumer Helpline - 1800 11 4000
L'Oreal, GARNIeR - 1800 223 000
KONE Elevator - 1800 444 666
Indane - 1800 44 51 15
Aavin - 1800 44 3300
Pedigree - 1800 11 2121
Kodak India - 1800 22 8877
Domino's Pizza - 1800 111 123
World Vision India - 1800 444 550
Telecom Monitoring Cell - 1800 110 420

Five killed, 24 injured in blast in Malegaon

2006-09-08T03:15:00.000-07:00

Rediff.com, September 08, 2006 15:36 IST

At least five persons were killed and 24 others injured Friday in a blast outside a mosque in the textile town of Malegaon in Nasik district, 180 kms from Mumbai, police said.

The blast took place Friday afternoon when people were returning after offering the Friday prayers at Nurani Masjid in the heart of the city, police said.

Nashik Superintendent of Police Rajvardhan told reporters that at least five persons were killed in the blast, although the figure could rise further.

They said the blast took place near Bada Kabristan, but added that he would not be able to comment on the nature of the explosion.

Rajvardhan said that people present on the spot have said that there was a possibility of more than one blasts.

Anti-Terrorism Squad sources said that at least two dozen persons were injured, seven of them critically, in the blast at Malegaon.

Income tax laws may soon be easier to understand

2006-09-08T03:11:00.000-07:00

Rediff.com, September 08, 2006 14:45 IST

A government-appointed group to study simplification of laws relating to income tax has recommended removal of redundant provisions and use of simple language for understanding the laws.

The group consisting of Central Board of Direct Tax officials has submitted the 'Report on Simplification of Income Tax Act, 1961' to Finance Minister P Chidambaram and the government will now decide on further action, an official statement said in New Delhi on Friday.

The report combines all existing direct taxes like income tax, wealth tax, fringe benefit tax, etc, into one code 'Direct Taxes Code Bill 2006.'

For better understanding of law, the group has taken recourse to simple language -- minus the usual complicated legalese.

It has made efforts to remove existing anomalies and inconsistencies to enable easy implementation and ensure better compliance.

The concepts of 'previous year' and 'assessment year' have been replaced with 'financial year.'

Chidambaram had announced in his budget speech of 2005 that the Income Tax Act would be simplified and a new Bill would be introduced in Parliament, following which the group was constituted to simplify and rationalise the law relating to income tax.

It is possible to be invisible!

2006-08-01T13:55:00.000-07:00

It is possible to be invisible!
Reuters, London, August 1, 2006

It's unlikely to occur by swallowing a pill or donning a special cloak, but invisibility could be possible in the not too distant future, according to research published on Monday.

Harry Potter accomplished it with his magic cloak. H G Wells' Invisible Man swallowed a substance that made him transparent.

But Dr Ulf Leonhardt, a theoretical physicist at St Andrews University in Scotland, believes the most plausible example is the Invisible Woman, one of the Marvel Comics superheroes in the Fantastic Four.

"She guides light around her using a force field in this cartoon. This is what could be done in practice," Leonhardt said. Invisibility is an optical illusion. Leonhardt uses the example of water circling around a stone.

The water flows in, swirls around the stone and then leaves as if nothing was there. "If you replace water with light, then you would not see something present because the light is guided around the person or object. You would see the light coming from the scenery behind as if there was nothing in front," he said.

The research was published in the New Journal of Physics, as a follow-up paper to an earlier study published in Science.

Intel unveils Core 2 Duo processors

2006-07-29T15:45:00.000-07:00

Intel unveils Core 2 Duo processors
CRN Network, July 27, 2006

Intel Corporation has unveiled 10 Intel Core 2 Duo and Intel Core 2 Extreme processors for consumer and business desktop and laptop PCs and workstations.

Charlotte Lamprecht, director, Digital Home Brand Management, Intel Corporation, said, "The Core 2 Duo processors are simply the best processors in the world. Not since Intel introduced the Pentium processor has the industry seen the heart of the computer reinvented like this."

Ramamurthy Sivakumar, managing director, Sales and Marketing (South Asia), Intel further added, "The Core 2 Duo desktop processor is an energy-efficient marvel, packing 291 million transistors yet consuming 40% lower power, while delivering the performance needed for the applications of today and tomorrow."

The company says that the highly anticipated processor family already has very broad support with more than 550 customer system designs underway - the most in Intel's history. Ultimately, tens of thousands of businesses will sell computers or components based on these processors.

The Intel Core 2 Duo processors are built in several of the world's most advanced, high-volume output manufacturing facilities using Intel's leading 65-nanometer silicon process technology. The desktop PC version of the processors also provide up to a 40% increase in performance and are more than 40% more energy efficient versus Intel?s previous best processor. According to multiple independent review organizations, the processors win more than nine out of 10 major server, desktop PC and gaming PC performance benchmarks.

The Intel Core 2 Duo processor family consists of five desktop PC processors tailored for business, home, and enthusiast users, such as high-end gamers, and five mobile PC processors designed to fit the needs of a mobile lifestyle. Intel Core 2 Duo processor-based workstations will also deliver industry-leading performance for such areas as design, content creation and technical computing.

The processor family is based on Intel Core microarchitecture, designed to provide powerful yet energy-efficient performance. With the power of dual cores, or computing engines, the processors can manage numerous tasks faster. They also can operate more smoothly when multiple applications are running, such as writing e-mails while downloading music or videos and conducting a virus scan.

Consumers and businesses will have the option to purchase Intel Core 2 Duo processors as part of Intel's premier market-focused platforms, which are made up of Intel hardware and software technologies tailored to specific computing needs, including Intel vPro technology for businesses, Intel Centrino Duo mobile technology for laptops, and Intel Viiv technology for the home.

Initial Intel Core 2 Duo processor-based systems are now available from system manufacturers, resellers and integrators, including Intel Channel Partner Program members. Intel Core 2 Duo desktop processor-based systems will be available beginning in early August. Intel Core 2 Duo processor-based notebooks will be available at the end of August. Intel Core 2 Extreme processor X6800 is priced at $999, Core 2 Duo processor E6700 is available at $530, E6600 at $316, E6400 at $224 and E6300 at $183.

Saina Nehwal — female version of Gopi Chand

2006-07-29T10:50:00.000-07:00

Saina Nehwal — female version of Gopi Chand
Stan Rayan, Jul 20 2006

KOCHI: As she enters the court, you can see the respect and fear in her opponent's eyes. Saina Nehwal, Indian badminton's wonder girl, scares the living daylights out of her rivals. A good number of her matches in the Indian circuit last just fifteen minutes and twenty at the most.

Given her awesome performances, one begins to wonder whether she is the female version of Gopi Chand.

"She may be better than that," says Thomas John, the India-born British coach at Gopi Chand's new academy in Hyderabad where Saina trains.

"Watch her, she'll win all the three National titles (sub-junior, junior and senior) this season. And if she works hard, she may win the Commonwealth Games crown in Melbourne next year," predicts Thomas.

But Saina has higher ambitions. "I want to win an Olympic gold," she says.

Given her hunger, she is in the right hands. Her idol Gopi Chand, who shocked the badminton world by lifting the All-England title a few years ago, frequently monitors her training sessions at his academy.

The 15-year-old Saina is already the country's junior champion and a runner-up in the Senior Nationals, losing to Aparna Popat who is World No. 27 and a former Junior World silver medallist.

At the international level, she won the Junior Czech Open two years ago and was a leading member of the Indian team which bagged the Commonwealth Youth Games silver in Bendigo, Australia, last year.

Saina fought well against host Korea's top-seeded Ha Jung Eun in the girls' second round of the Junior Asian championship last year before losing in three games. And she was in the Indian team for the Uber Cup qualifiers, the youngest-ever to do so.

The teen wonder has badminton in her blood. Her parents Harvir Singh, a scientist at the Directorate of Oilseeds Research, and Usha Rani were former State champions in Haryana and it did not take long for Saina to start swinging the racquet.

Working on weaknesses

She moved to Hyderabad seven years ago and was trained by Dronacharya Awardee S.M. Arif for two years till his retirement from the SAI last year.

Unlike many Indian girls, Saina relies on ruthless power to subdue her opponents. She used to be a little suspect in her net play and mobility, but a recent look proved that the Andhra Pradesh star has worked on these aspects.

Having ironed out many of her physical flaws she now has to work on her mental make-up, especially when it comes to the international circuit. Often, after gaining huge leads, Saina has been unable to hang on to them and finish the job.

The Gopi Chand Academy has plans to send her to Holland or Denmark for training soon. That's the best thing that can happen to her career at the moment.

Udit admits Ranjana is his first wife, duo patches up

2006-07-28T16:06:00.000-07:00

Udit admits Ranjana is his first wife, duo patches up
Bureau Report, Zee News

Patna, July 28: Noted Bollywood singer Udit Narayan today admitted for the first time that Ranjana Jha was his first wife as he appeared before the Bihar Women`s Commission. In a clear indication of reconciliation with her husband, Ranjana too stated that she has no problems with his second wife Deepa. Udit, however, avoided taking to media.

Udit Narayan, who had been evading the appearance before the panel, was given 15-day ultimatum by the commission to solve the matter. Today, he gave a written assurance to the Commission that he recognised Ranjana as his first wife.

Udit Narayan had flown to Patna on June 30 for a reconciliation with Ranjana after the commission had threatened to have an arrest warrant issued against him if `meaningful reconciliation` was not achieved.

As Ranjana had told the commission following the meeting that talks were moving in the right direction, it had asked the singer to appear before it. Ranjana after about two-and-a-half hours of talks with Narayan at the airport lounge here on June 30 had told the media that talks had proceeded in the `right direction` and claimed that the singer had accepted her as his first wife.

A high-voltage drama was enacted on April 21 in a posh hotel here when Ranjana staged a sit-in in front of the door of the hotel suite in which Narayan was staying with Deepa Narayan, with whom he is living at present.

The commission had on the basis of the photographs and statement of people who had attended the marriage in 1984 prima facie accepted Ranjana`s claim of marriage with Narayan and had asked the singer to appear before the panel to record his version and also clarify his relationship with Deepa.

Deepa blames media, says it is family matter

While the high-voltage drama between Udit and Ranjana seemed to be dying down, Udit’s second wife Deepa took a U-turn today and blamed the media for “unnecessarily creating troubles for the family over what she termed as “internal matter”. She insisted that she had full knowledge of Udit’s first wife Ranjana before marrying him in 1982.

Deepa said that she has no problems with Ranjana.

Read more at : Zee News - Udit admits Ranjana is his first wife, duo patches up

Suspects in Mumbai Bombings Confess Ties to Pakistani Militants

2006-07-28T15:37:00.000-07:00

Suspects in Mumbai Bombings Confess Ties to Pakistani Militants
By ANAND GIRIDHARADAS and SOMINI SENGUPTA, July 28, 2006

MUMBAI, July 28 — Suspects in the serial bombings on July 11 of the city’s commuter train network have confessed they went to Pakistan for training in arms and explosives, the police in India said today, and at least one has testified that he received instructions from an operative of a banned terrorist organization operating across the border.

The statements by senior police officials represent the first glint of evidence of complicity by the Pakistani-based militant group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, that Indian officials have blamed repeatedly for terror attacks on Indian soil. The chief of the Mumbai police antiterrorist squad, K. P. Raghuvanshi, said today that six of the eight suspects confessed to having gone for military training in Pakistan.

The police have not described precisely how the 8 men are linked to each other or, more importantly, to the blasts, which killed 183 people during the evening rush hour.

The Pakistani Foreign Office spokeswoman, Tasnim Aslam, said by telephone from Islamabad that her government had offered to cooperate with the investigation into the bombings, but had yet to receive evidence from the government in New Delhi. “If they have something, they should share it with us and we will cooperate with them,” she offered, noting that Britain and the United States had turned to Pakistan to help track down terror suspects.

The Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Navtej Sarna, countered that no evidence offered to Pakistan in the past had yielded results.

To what extent today’s revelations will affect the bruised peace process between the two countries remains to be seen. Shortly after the July 11 blasts, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India accused Pakistan of failing to rein in terrorists operating on its soil. The Pakistani president, General Pervez Musharraf, called the accusation “unsubstantiated.”

The senior inspector of the Mumbai police, J. K. Hargude, who interviewed five of the eight suspects, described them as having possible links to Lashkar-e-Taiba. Among them is an apparently influential leader of Lashkar’s local chapter here, Faisal Shaikh, 30, and his younger brother, Muzamil, 23, a software engineer who, the police said, had recently begun to work with the American software company, Oracle.

Faisal Shaikh, the police said, appears to have organized the passage of the others to Pakistan for military training. Muzamil Shaikh, on the other hand, while keen to follow his brother into the radical Islamist group, seems to have had second thoughts after being offered the job at Oracle. He was employed on a contract basis, said a police officer who was part of the interrogations, pending the completion of company training. “He was very hopeful of a good career,” said the police officer, who was not authorized to speak to the news media. Both Muzamil and Faisal traveled to Pakistan through Iran, the police said.

The arrests of the two brothers on Thursday follows the capture of 6 others, including Zameer Shaikh, 31, a keymaker in central Mumbai; Sohail Shaikh, 30, from the nearby city of Pune; and Tanvir Ansari, 32, a doctor and practitioner of the alternative medicine known as Unani.

The police refused to saytoday how the men were connected to each other, or whether they had any direct links with the July 11 bombings.

Clearly, Faisal Sheikh has emerged as their biggest catch. Mr. Hargude said he joined the radical Students Islamic Movement of India by 2001, and resolved, as Mr. Hargude put it, to “do something for Islam.” He first traveled to Pakistan in 2002. He obtained a visa by saying he wanted to visit relatives in Lahore, but ended up meeting a number of extremists, including a Lashkar operative named Azam Cheema.

It was a fruitful exchange, as Mr. Hargude described it: Lashkar plied Mr. Shaikh with $750 to $900 a month through informal money transfer networks, while Mr. Shaikh sent potential Indian recruits for training. Mr. Hargude said all five men confessed to meeting Mr. Cheema between 2002 and 2005 at a training camp near the town of Bahawalpur.

Anand Giridharadas contributed reporting from the International Herald Tribune for this article.

India may decline Negroponte's $100 laptop program

2006-07-27T16:12:00.000-07:00

India may decline Negroponte's $100 laptop program
John Ribeiro

India may not go in for the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) program led by Nicholas Negroponte, which aims to deliver laptops priced at US$100 to school students, according to reports this week in Indian media.

India's education secretary Sudeep Banerjee is reported to have written last month to the country's Planning Commission that the case for giving a computer to every single child is pedagogically suspect, and may actually be detrimental to the growth of creative and analytical abilities of the child, according to a report this week in The Times of India, the country's largest newspaper.

Banerjee was not available to comment on these reports as he is currently "on tour".

In the letter to the Planning Commission, cited by the newspaper, Banerjee wrote that if the Planning Commission has the kind of money that would be required for the OLPC scheme, it would be appropriate to utilize it for spreading secondary education in the country, for which a concept paper has been lying with the Planning Commission for approval since November last year.

"We need classrooms and teachers more urgently than fancy tools," Banerjee wrote. This is a view held by a number of government agencies and nongovernmental organizations (NGO) who hold that the focus on taking technology to India's poor overlooks other key requirements like water, food, and basic education of the country's deprived sections.

The OLPC is a nonprofit organization in Cambridge, Massachusetts, set up to research and develop a $100 laptop that is to be distributed to children through government initiatives. The low-cost Linux laptop initiative was first announced by Nicholas Negroponte, chairman of the OLPC, in January last year, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Negroponte is on leave from his position as director of the MIT Media Laboratory of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

If India backs out of the OLPC project, this will be the second time Negroponte encounters a set back in India. In 2003, MIT Media Laboratory pulled out of Media Laboratory Asia, set up in 2001 in collaboration with the Indian government to take technology to India's rural masses. The Indian government cited differences of opinion over the focus of the lab.

Read more at : India may decline Negroponte's $100 laptop program

Kurukshetra kid fights for life on B'Day : HindustanTimes.com

2006-07-23T02:36:00.000-07:00

5-year-old boy falls into pit in Kurukshetra
Press Trust of India, Kurukshetra, July 23, 2006

As little Prince fights to keep alive more than 40 hours after he fell into a 60-feet-deep pit in this Haryana district, he is unaware that Sunday happens to also be his birthday.

Prince turns five on July 23, his anxious mother Karamjit said as rescuers tried frantically to dig a parallel tunnel to bring out the boy.

"I don't know when this ordeal will end," she said. Prince fell into the one-foot-wide pit on Friday evening while playing with friends

Karamjit said she was anxiously waiting for her son to come back.

It would be like a re-birth for him once he is rescued, said a villager, one of the hundreds who have gathered at the site at Hatheri village near Shahbad town of Kurukshetra to witness the mammoth rescue efforts.

A team of eight doctors is monitoring Prince's health through a closed-circuit TV camera lowered into the pit with a rope.

The doctor in-charge of the medical team said that the boy seemed fine despite being trapped for over 41 hours. He said that the boy was able to eat and drink Sunday morning and that was a positive sign.

With the news of the rescue operation spreading like wild fire, nearly 10,000 people, mostly from adjoining villages, reached the spot.

The police had to resort to mild cane charge to keep people at bay as they tried to get closer to the well where the boy was trapped.

Read more at : Kurukshetra kid fights for life on B'Day : HindustanTimes.com

DNA - Mumbai - Monsoon enters Mumbai - Daily News & Analysis

2006-05-31T12:20:00.000-07:00

Monsoon enters Mumbai
Agencies, Wednesday, May 31, 2006 20:21 IST

MUMBAI/THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The South-West monsoon entered Mumbai with torrential showers lashing the metropolis on Wednesday, injuring six, even as incessant rain continued to pound Kerala and Goa, claiming 11 lives and leaving a trail of destruction.

Heavy rain pelted Maharasthra's coastal Konkan region, where the monsoon was vigorous, hitting train services as weather office predicted more showers in the state.

One person was feared drowned at the Gateway of India in Mumbai.

Three people were injured when lightning struck them and an equal number in a wall collapse in Mumbai where the rains were preceded by gusty wind that uprooted trees and knocked out power at many places.

The monsoon has set over Mumbai, coastal Konkan and parts of South-Central Maharasthra, Deputy Director (Meteorology) Dr C V V Bhadran said in the metropolis.

Konkan and central Maharashtra had widespread rains since last evening with Ratnagiri recording 64 cms. Several trains were left stranded on the Konkan Railway section owing to waterlogging.

Twenty-two fishermen, who ventured into the sea, were reported missing in Kerala where 11 people had perished in heavy rain slamming the state for the past few days.

The fishermen ventured into the sea in two groups on May 25 and 26 from Beypore coast and had not returned to shores so far.

The rains had wreaked havoc in Kerala extensively damaging houses and standing crops and inundating low-lying areas throwing normal life out of gear.

The Kerala government, which sanctioned Rs 6 crore for emergency relief work, announced two-week free rations to those affected by the calamity.

The schools in the state will reopen on June 5 instead of June 1 as most relief camps are set up there.

Showers, accompanied by high-velocity winds, lashed Goa for the fourth day, prompting authorities to shift 300 families living on the outskirts of Margao town to safer places.

Several low-lying areas in south Goa, especially coastal towns, were inundated, prompting evacuation of the marooned, official said in Panaji.

Fishermen were warned not to venture into the sea that was rough due to gusty winds, they said.

Twenty centimetres of rains were recorded in the state since last evening.

Read more at : DNA - Mumbai - Monsoon enters Mumbai - Daily News & Analysis

IBNLive : Move over Sania, Saina is here

2006-05-30T13:25:00.000-07:00

Move over Sania, Saina is here
P Revathi, CNN-IBN, Tuesday , May 30, 2006

There is a new teenage sporting sensation in Indian sports. Move over Sania Mirza as now it is the turn of another Hyderabadi girl to make the headlines.

Saina Nehwal has became the first Indian woman to win a 4-star badminton tournament and her parents Usha and Harvir Singh Nehwal are on cloud nine.

After all their 16-year-old daughter has done what no Indian has done till now.

Saina's win in the Philippines Open saw her parents, both of whom are former badminton players, celebrating.

And now they proudly show off the medals and trophies that their daughter has won till date.

"Saina was was a very different kind of child. At the age of seven-eight months we were worried about her because she was very serious and would never smile. One day, I took her to the badminton court and when she saw a game, she started laughing," her father Harivir Singh says.

Saina's talent was noticed when she was just nine and former all England champion P Gopichand took her under his wing when she was 13.

"I think her achievement is phenomenal because no Indian woman has done it so far. Also to do so when she is just 16 is great. She has got many tournaments to play in future. It is remarkable not only for her but also for Indian badminton," Gopichand says.

Saina's game is simple as she relies on power to subdue her opponents.

It was on display at the 2006 Commonwealth Games when she was part of the team which won the team bronze.

And now her parents want her to go for the biggest prize of them all.

"Determination accha hai uska. Mehnati bhi hai. Woh accha Olympian banegi aur jeetegi (She is very determined and works hard. I want her to win a medal in the Olympics)," her mother Usha Nehwal adds.

At 16 Saina's best is yet to come. She celebrated her birthday just 10 days back and her parents could not have asked for a better gift from her.

Read more at : IBNLive : Move over Sania, Saina is here

Tata Power plans two 1000 mw projects

2006-05-30T13:23:00.000-07:00

Tata Power plans two 1000 mw projects
Gayatri Ramanathan / Mumbai May 31, 2006

Tata Power Company (TPC) is planning to set up two new 1,000 mw imported coal-based projects near Rewas in Maharashtra.

The state government has given approval for the first of the 1,000 mw plants and land acquisition has begun, Adi Engineer, director, Tata Power told Business Standard.

Environmental clearances for the two Rewas plants are also in place. The government is acquiring close to 1000 acres of land for both the plants.

Engineer said that it will take upto three years for commissioning the plant from the time land acquisition is completed. He said that the government expects to complete the acquisition process in the next five to six months.

These power plants are in lieu of the company’s earlier proposal to set up a 1000 mw Vile project which now stands scrapped. Engineer said that the Vile project has been dropped due to logistical problems in the handling of imported coal.

Engineer said that the company was considering its own jetty at the plant site to handle the imported coal. The coal for the plant is being imported from Australia and Indonesia.

Engineer added that the company also has plans of acquiring coal mines in either of the countries and is in talks with some mine owners.

TPC is also planning to set up a 100 mw Diesel Generator sets which have short commissioning period of 10-12 months, as an interim arrangement to meet the peak load shortfall in the Mumbai area, he said.

Engineer said this is part of the company’s plan to expand its power generation capacity to 4500 mw in two to three years time. It is planning an investment of Rs 18,000 crore in capacity expansion. Engineer also said that the company will bid for all the ultra mega power projects.

So far it has received request for qualification documents for the Sasan and Mundra projects in Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, respectively. It has also been pre-qualified for a 280-390 mw open cycle gas turbine peaking IPP project in South Africa, he added.

On the nuclear power front, Engineer said, “The company is geared to step in at the right time. This is part of our medium term plans,” he said. Group chairman Ratan Tata had earlier indicated the Tata group’s interest in setting up nuclear power plants.

On the transmission front, Engineer said “We are bidding for 1100- 1200 km of the Maharashtra and Gujarat stretches of the western grid strengthening for which Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd has issued tenders.”

Read more at : Companies & Industry

Monica agrees to play Sonia- The Times of India

2006-05-30T13:18:00.000-07:00

Monica agrees to play Sonia
Subhash K Jha, Tuesday, May 30, 2006, TIMES NEWS NETWORK

The film, to be directed by Jagmohan Mundhra, will go on floor in September.

After a great deal of deliberation, Italian actress Monica Belluci has finally consented to play Sonia Gandhi in a bio-pic on the latter’s life that Jagmohan Mundhra will direct.

The deal was finalised after the director met Belluci last week. Work is now expected to start by September.

Confirming this from London, producer Sunanda Murli Manohar said, "We were waiting for Monica to hear the script. Her confirmation finally puts a seal on the deal. She's excited about the prospect of playing Sonia Gandhi. The script by Carl Austen has gone through a number of re-drafts and now we're ready to roll."

After Provoked, Mundhra is excited about doing this film. He was so impressed with Monica's performance as a war widow in Mellina, that he was keen on casting her for this role.

"There were rumours that I was thinking of casting Aishwarya Rai or Preity. Preity was a possibility but after I met her at Cannes, she admitted she was wrong for the role. Preity said, 'Just because Sonia Gandhi and I have dimples it doesn't mean I'm qualified to play her.'

Monica was perfect because she physically resembles Sonia." But how will she cope with the Hindi language? "Sonia Gandhi only speaks Hindi in public. My film will be in English and Monica will speak English most of the time," he says.

Ahmed Patel, political secretary to Sonia Gandhi says, "We are not aware of the film. But as far as cooperating with its production is concerned, we will not do it as it is not an official bio-pic."

The rest of the cast is yet to be finalised, especially that of Rajiv Gandhi. "I've heard of a Parsi-British actor called Zubin Warla who has done a lot of theatre. I believe he resembles Rajiv. But I'm open to casting a Bollywood actor too," says Mundhra.

Read more at : Monica agrees to play Sonia- The Times of India

The Hindu : "Da Vinci Code" opens to Rs 3 cr in the first week

2006-05-30T13:16:00.000-07:00

"Da Vinci Code" opens to Rs 3 cr in the first week

Mumbai, May 30 (UNI): " The Da Vinci Code" which opened in India on Friday has grossed Rs 3 crore over four days.

Sony Pictures Releasing India (SPRI) released "The Da Vinci Code" on May 26, across 108 prints and 113 screens in English and Hindi. The Da Vinci Code is the 13th largest opening ever for any Hollywood film in India.

Tamil Nadu and Kerala roll out on June 2 while Andhra Pradesh is slotted for a June 9 release. The film was originally slotted for a May 19 release but was delayed by a week due to issues pertaining to the release of the film in India.

A press release issued here today said "The Da Vinci Code" bowed to a worldwide box office taking of 231.8 million dollers on May 19, 2006 - making it the 2nd biggest worldwide opening for any film. North America opened to 77.1 million dollars while the International markets bowed to 154.7 million dollars. This is also the studio's biggest worldwide opening ever.

Internationally (non North American markets) "The Da Vinci Code" opened on 12,213 screens setting an all-time record for weekend box office in the international marketplace grossing 154.7 million dollars.

Meanwhile, Amod Mehra, trade analyst said the collections of "Fanaa" starring Aamir Khan and Kajol are 90 per cent in the first week.

Read more at : The Hindu News Update Service

IBNLive : 16 school kids drown in Kashmir lake

2006-05-30T13:13:00.000-07:00

16 school kids drown in Kashmir lake
CNN-IBN, May 30, 2006

Srinagar: Sixteen school students drowned when a boat capsized in Wullar Lake in Baramulla district of Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday.

The students belonged to Burn Candle High School in Handwara town of Kupwara district and had gone to the lake in Watlab for a picnic, police said.

There were 25 people on boat. A defence spokesman said naval personnel had rescued a teacher and 12 children.

A group of school children requested a naval sailor to take them for a boat ride in the lake, a defence spokesman said. The sailor sought proper permission but the boat capsized due to excess weight.

As the teacher and rescued children were in a state of shock and removed to a hospital at Sopore, the exact number of students on board the boat could not be ascertained, he said.

Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad expressed grief and sorrow over the death of the school children in the incident.

Read more at : IBNLive : 16 school kids drown in Kashmir lake

DNA - Mumbai - Ahilya Rangnekar regrets taking up dance bar ban issue - Daily News & Analysis

2006-04-14T15:49:00.001-07:00

Ahilya Rangnekar regrets taking up dance bar ban issue
Haima Deshpande, Thursday, April 13, 2006 16:47 IST

MUMBAI: One of the most well-known and vocal votaries of the dance bar ban, Ahilya Rangnekar regrets taking up the issue and extending support to the government on it.

Reacting to the Bombay High Court decision striking down the ordinance, Rangnekar revealed that though shocking, it was expected.

“Lawyers were unwilling to take serious note of our stand. All who I had approached kept telling me that being a woman I should have a compassionate view of the issue. According to them, I lacked compassion. The lawyers felt our stand did not hold much strength as we were fighting to take away the right to work of these dancers,” Rangnekar told DNA.

“The government went back on its word and did not work out a rehabilitation package for the dance bar girls. I regret taking up the issue,” she said.

Refusing to comment on the stance taken by Rangnekar, Dance Bar Virodhi Manch convenor Vidya Chavan stated that the umbrella organisation would approach the Supreme Court. The appeal will be made in a few weeks, revealed Chavan.

Twenty-four non-government organisations (have united under the Dance Bar Virodhi Manch and supported the government’s ban on dancing in beer bars.

Well known names in community service, including Mrinal Gore, Rangnekar, Vidya Chavan and Pratiba Naiithani took their pro-government stance to the streets and urged wider support from society.

The Manch had submitted 1.50 lakh signatures to the Legislative Assembly, insisting on the closure of dance bars. The ban came into effect from August 15 last year.

Said Chavan, “We are prepared with our arguments. When the decision was delayed for so long, we expected this outcome.”

However, Rangnekar felt that there was no point in appealing to the Supreme Court without aggressive and knowledgeable lawyers taking up the issue for the Manch. “It is such a wasted battle,” she said.

Naiithani felt an appeal must be made in the Supreme Court. According to her, since dance bars have emerged as a major social problem, the Manch will try all options to ensure the ban stays in force.

Naiithani felt that since dance bars encouraged prostitution, its activities should be brought within the purview of the Indecent Representation of Women Act.

“After the decision the dance bar owners will become more bold. What was once happening in a hidden manner will now take place openly,” Naiithani said.

On July 21, 2005 the Bill to ban dancing in beer bars was passed unanimously after a marathon debate in both Houses of the Maharashtra Legislature.

Shiv Sena deputy leader and member of the Legislative Council Dr Neelam Gorhe said both Houses must debate on the issue before the Budget session ends on April 21.

“There could be loopholes in the Act banning dance bars. Members of both Houses must bring in necessary changes to plug loopholes. The government must appeal to the Supreme Court,” said Dr Gorhe.

An angry former chairperson of the National Commission for Women, Dr Poornima Advani emphasised that the state government must appeal against the high court order. “It was a mistake on the part of the Maharashtra Government to give the bars licences under the garb of promoting cultural activities. Dance bars have been encouraged by the state government. They are pickup joints and men do not throw cash on the dancers for nothing. Dance bars are derogatory to the dignity of women,” Advani said.

Read more at : DNA - Mumbai - Ahilya Rangnekar regrets taking up dance bar ban issue - Daily News & Analysis

DNA - Mumbai - Ahilya Rangnekar regrets taking up dance bar ban issue - Daily News & Analysis

2006-04-14T15:49:00.000-07:00

Ahilya Rangnekar regrets taking up dance bar ban issue
Haima Deshpande, Thursday, April 13, 2006 16:47 IST

MUMBAI: One of the most well-known and vocal votaries of the dance bar ban, Ahilya Rangnekar regrets taking up the issue and extending support to the government on it.

Reacting to the Bombay High Court decision striking down the ordinance, Rangnekar revealed that though shocking, it was expected.

“Lawyers were unwilling to take serious note of our stand. All who I had approached kept telling me that being a woman I should have a compassionate view of the issue. According to them, I lacked compassion. The lawyers felt our stand did not hold much strength as we were fighting to take away the right to work of these dancers,” Rangnekar told DNA.

“The government went back on its word and did not work out a rehabilitation package for the dance bar girls. I regret taking up the issue,” she said.

Refusing to comment on the stance taken by Rangnekar, Dance Bar Virodhi Manch convenor Vidya Chavan stated that the umbrella organisation would approach the Supreme Court. The appeal will be made in a few weeks, revealed Chavan.

Twenty-four non-government organisations (have united under the Dance Bar Virodhi Manch and supported the government’s ban on dancing in beer bars.

Well known names in community service, including Mrinal Gore, Rangnekar, Vidya Chavan and Pratiba Naiithani took their pro-government stance to the streets and urged wider support from society.

The Manch had submitted 1.50 lakh signatures to the Legislative Assembly, insisting on the closure of dance bars. The ban came into effect from August 15 last year.

Said Chavan, “We are prepared with our arguments. When the decision was delayed for so long, we expected this outcome.”

However, Rangnekar felt that there was no point in appealing to the Supreme Court without aggressive and knowledgeable lawyers taking up the issue for the Manch. “It is such a wasted battle,” she said.

Naiithani felt an appeal must be made in the Supreme Court. According to her, since dance bars have emerged as a major social problem, the Manch will try all options to ensure the ban stays in force.

Naiithani felt that since dance bars encouraged prostitution, its activities should be brought within the purview of the Indecent Representation of Women Act.

“After the decision the dance bar owners will become more bold. What was once happening in a hidden manner will now take place openly,” Naiithani said.

On July 21, 2005 the Bill to ban dancing in beer bars was passed unanimously after a marathon debate in both Houses of the Maharashtra Legislature.

Shiv Sena deputy leader and member of the Legislative Council Dr Neelam Gorhe said both Houses must debate on the issue before the Budget session ends on April 21.

“There could be loopholes in the Act banning dance bars. Members of both Houses must bring in necessary changes to plug loopholes. The government must appeal to the Supreme Court,” said Dr Gorhe.

An angry former chairperson of the National Commission for Women, Dr Poornima Advani emphasised that the state government must appeal against the high court order. “It was a mistake on the part of the Maharashtra Government to give the bars licences under the garb of promoting cultural activities. Dance bars have been encouraged by the state government. They are pickup joints and men do not throw cash on the dancers for nothing. Dance bars are derogatory to the dignity of women,” Advani said.

Read more at : DNA - Mumbai - Ahilya Rangnekar regrets taking up dance bar ban issue - Daily News & Analysis

DNA - Mumbai - Bar one, bar all, says court - Daily News & Analysis

2006-04-14T15:45:00.000-07:00

Bar one, bar all, says court
Anshika Misra, Friday, April 14, 2006 01:40 IST

MUMBAI: In a hard-hitting criticism of the state government’s double standards, the Bombay High Court’s order striking down the ban on dance bars ruled that, “There can be no different standards of morality for the affluent and the rich availing the means of entertainment and any common person who can afford to visit places of entertainment within his reach.”

The HC on Wednesday struck down the ban on dance bars on the grounds that it was discriminatory as it banned all kind of dance performances in dance bars but exempted establishments like three-star and five-star hotels. The objective behind the ban, which came into effect on August 15, 2005, was to prevent dances which are obscene, vulgar or immoral and hence derogatory to the dignity of women and to prevent exploitation of women. In a sharp criticism of the state’s dual morality, the HC noted that, “Activities, which the banned establishments are accused of, are also indulged in the exempted establishments in spite of so-called socially-conscious or responsible strata of society who visit them.”

The state had justified the exemption granted to hotels saying the exemption was not an indirect license to perform dances as in the prohibited establishments, but to conduct performances by people who have acquired skill in Western and Indian classical dance forms.

Other reasons stated were that the exemption was granted with the object to encourage tourism, five-star hotels are a class by themselves and cannot be compared with dance bars, people visiting these hotels stand on different footing and cannot be compared with people who visit dance bars and hotels are conducted by responsible people/managements who are conscious of their social commitments and obligations.

“Using terms like Indian and Western classical dance is of no consequence as the Act and rules recognise no such distinction. All applicants for performance license have to meet the same requirements and are subject to same restrictions,” the HC’s 257-page order stated.

Justices FI Rebello and Roshan Dalvi held that couples dancing together, ice-skating and ballroom dancing are embedded in cultures of our regions. Therefore, banning all kinds of dance performances was not fair.

The state’s argument on exempting hotels that authorities have opportunity to screen and supervise nature of performances in these establishments was also debunked by the HC. “Provisions of controlling obscene and vulgar dances are the same, whether they are in the prohibited or exempted establishments,” it held. The court held that the ban discriminates between artistes—dance girls dancing in dance bars and Tamasha theatre—and discriminates between the viewers visiting dance bars and Tamasha. “The object cannot be achieved so long as Tamashas theatre, three and five-star hotels are allowed to hold dance performances. There can be no different standards of morality,” the HC held.

Read more at : DNA - Mumbai - Bar one, bar all, says court - Daily News & Analysis

DNA - Mumbai - ‘Why must we get 20% less power?’ - Daily News & Analysis

2006-04-14T15:44:00.000-07:00

‘Why must we get 20% less power?’
Prashant Hamine
Friday, April 14, 2006 22:43 IST

MUMBAI: The BJP on Friday demanded the withdrawal of the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) order, directing Mumbaikars to consume 20 per cent less electricity compared to last year.

City BJP president Prakash Mehta said an “international city” like Mumbai could ill-afford to have power cuts.

Moreover, the Centre had assured 250 MWs of power to the state to overcome the power crisis, Mehta said. Therefore, there was no need for such a regulation, he added.

Mehta demanded that the Reliance Energy Limited (REL) be directed to withdraw the notification in its electricity bills asking consumers to pay 100 per cent fine if they consumed more than 300 units per month. Mehta said the party would stage a dharna at Azad Maidan on April 17 to protest against load-shedding.

Meanwhile, MERC Chairman Pramod Deo said the commission order was issued keeping in view the long-term needs of the city. He said there had been no addition to the BEST’s power generation capacity.

Read more at : DNA - Mumbai - ‘Why must we get 20% less power?’ - Daily News & Analysis

DNA - Mumbai - Congress stabs Patil, welcomes dance bar order - Daily News & Analysis

2006-04-14T15:41:00.000-07:00

Congress stabs Patil, welcomes dance bar order
Shubhangi Khapre
Saturday, April 15, 2006 00:50 IST

MUMBAI: The Congress is not very enthusiastic about Deputy Chief Minister and Home Minister RR Patil’s decision to challenge the dance bar verdict in the Supreme Court.

Welcoming the Bombay High Court decision, the alliance partner in the Democratic Front government on Friday said it would be very difficult for the government to explain how dancing in a bar was morally unethical than performing in a five-star hotel.

Congress spokesperson Sanjay Nirupam said, “On behalf of the Congress party I welcome the verdict on dance bar. We have always maintained that the government took a decision in haste without providing any alternative source of livelihood to thousands of workers.”

Patil has maintained that the government’s decision to ban dance bars was taken through political consensus and the Bill was passed in the state Assembly.

Congress leader Hussain Dalwai said, “When Patil took the decision to ban dance bars, he had a limited agenda. His concern was limited to the rich and spoilt children mainly from the cash-rich western Maharashtra, who splurged money, got into all wrong acts and invited AIDS. The home minister never gave a thought to the rehabilitation of thousands of women who depended on dance bars to earn their bread and run their families.”

Another senior Congress MLA who voted in favour of the ban in the Assembly said,

“In principle, nobody can support dance bars. But how can the state government involve in selective moral policing? If a dance bar is unethical and obscene, then what about belly dancing in five-star hotels? The government should apply law uniformly to all, as indicated by the HC.”

Read more at : DNA - Mumbai - Congress stabs Patil, welcomes dance bar order - Daily News & Analysis

Bombing in New Delhi Mosque Injures 13 - Forbes.com

2006-04-14T14:40:00.000-07:00

Bombing in New Delhi Mosque Injures 13
By TIM SULLIVAN , 04.14.2006, 03:24 PM , Associated Press

Two bombs shook New Delhi's main mosque Friday shortly before worshippers gathered for evening prayers, sending terrified people running through the ornate 17th century complex, officials said. At least 13 people were injured.

The explosions came the same day that a series of apparently coordinated grenade attacks by suspected separatist rebels left a bloody trail through the streets of Srinagar, the main city in violence-wracked Indian Kashmir, killing five people and injuring 30 more.

The twin blasts at the Jama Masjid, the imposing red sandstone complex that is the heart of New Delhi's crowded old city, came about an hour before evening prayers.

"People were walking around and suddenly - boom! - there was a bomb," said Mohammed Salaudi, who was inside the mosque when the first explosion took place.

Salaudi said he saw at least three wounded people and other worshippers running in fear.

The blasts occurred within 30 minutes of each other, said Police Chief K.K. Paul, who added they had been caused by "low intensity" improvised explosive devices.

No one claimed responsibility for the bombings, which Sheila Dikshit, New Delhi's top elected official, said had injured 13 people.

Police put New Delhi on high alert, stepping up security at the mosque and across the city, he said.

The first blast went off near a fountain in the mosque's central courtyard where worshippers wash their hands before offering prayers, said Syed Ahmed Bukhari, the chief cleric. It was not immediately clear where the second explosion occurred, although officials said it was in the mosque complex.

Bukhari appealed to people to remain calm.

The Jama Masjid is the main landmark in one of the most crowded parts of Delhi's old city, surrounded by hundreds of shops and houses lining a maze of crowded alleyways.

Less than two hours later, police reopened the mosque complex and hundreds of worshippers streamed through the main gate as night fell and the sound of prayers over loudspeakers echoed across the neighborhood.

Most people stopped near the site of one blast to stare at the red sandstone flooring that covers the mosque courtyard, some of which had turned bluish-black from the blasts.

Half a dozen shoes and flip-flops, some charred from the explosion, lay scattered around, left behind as people scrambled to flee. About 30 feet away, a splotch of red had been circled in white chalk by police, with the notation "BLOOD" in large letters.

"Who would do something like this? What sort of person is this?" wondered Mustafa Iqbal, a trader, who had come for evening prayers, as he looked at the shoes.

In Kashmir, meanwhile, a series of grenade attacks by suspected separatist rebels stunned Srinagar, the region's main city, killing five people and injuring 30 others, police said.

All the dead were civilians - three women and two men who died of their injuries at the city's main hospital, said Mushtaq Ahmad, a police officer.

Security forces fanned out across the city after the first blasts, stopping cars and frisking people as they rushed home.

But the explosions kept coming - there had been at least eight by 8 p.m. - with targets including police patrols, the main bus station and a promenade frequented by tourists and lined with hotels and restaurants.

A local news agency, Current News Service, said four Islamic rebel groups had separately claimed responsibility for the attacks: Jamiat-ul-Mujahedeen, Al-Mansurain, Jaish-e-Mohammad and Islamic Front.

Various Islamic militant groups have been fighting Indian security forces in the insurgency-hit state of Jammu-Kashmir since 1989 to create a separate homeland or merge the Himalayan region into Pakistan.

But even by the standards of Srinagar, a city that long ago grew accustomed to violence, it was a terrifying day.

"Everyone was frightened. By afternoon, we closed down the factory for the day and all the workers went home to their families," said Amjad Khan, who owns a metal factory.

Associated Press Writer Mujtaba Ali Ahmad in Srinagar contributed to this report.

Read more at : Update 6: Bombing in New Delhi Mosque Injures 13 - Forbes.com

Rice Faces Congress on India Nuclear Plan

2006-04-05T14:56:00.000-07:00

Rice Faces Congress on India Nuclear Plan
By LIZ SIDOTI, Associated Press Writer

Wednesday, April 5, 2006(04-05) 13:38 PDT WASHINGTON, (AP) : Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sought to assure a wary Congress on Wednesday that a landmark plan to share nuclear technology with India for its civilian program won't undercut efforts to stop the spread of nuclear weapons.

"Clearly, this agreement does not constrain India's nuclear weapons program. That was not its purpose," Rice told a House committee. "Neither, however, as some critics have suggested, does it enhance India's capability to build nuclear weapons."

In the House and Senate, Republicans and Democrats alike expressed serious reservations over the plan and criticized what they called the Bush administration's failure to explain its details to lawmakers earlier.

"It is my view that this is in trouble here," said Rep. Gary Ackerman, D-N.Y., who supports the plan but criticized how the administration has handled it.

The administration needs Congress to change, or approve an exception to, the law that bans civilian nuclear cooperation with countries that have not submitted to full nuclear inspections. India continues to refuse to sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

Despite concerns, some lawmakers from both political parties indicated they would back the plan because of an overall goal of strengthening the U.S.-India relationship.

"This is a very good bet for our country," said Sen. George Allen, R-Va.

Others weren't swayed.

"I fear that this deal could end up making our world less safe rather than more safe," said Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis.

Rice testified on the plan during back-to-back hearings before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and House International Relations Committee. The administration is pursuing the proposal in part because it sees India as an ally in a region now dominated by China.

Considered a major U.S. policy shift, the plan calls for the United States to share nuclear technology and fuel with India to help power its rapidly growing economy. India, for its part, agreed to allow U.N. inspections of its civilian nuclear reactors. India's nuclear weapons facilities would be off limits.

Critics on and off Capitol Hill contend the plan could dramatically increase India's nuclear arsenal and weaken decades of efforts to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons.

Rice rejected those arguments, saying the plan will help fulfill the energy needs of a country that has been "a responsible actor" with regard to its nuclear technologies.

"Civil nuclear cooperation with India will not lead to an arms race in South Asia," Rice told the Senate panel. "Nothing we or any other potential international suppliers provide to India under this initiative will enhance its military capacity or add to its military stockpile."

Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., the Senate committee chairman and a longtime nonproliferation advocate, praised the plan for allowing more inspections by the U.N. nuclear watchdog. But he also expressed concern that "it would not prevent India from expanding its nuclear arsenal."

In the same vein, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., noted that eight of India's 22 nuclear plants would not be open to U.N. inspectors, "and they will be producing large amounts of nuclear material."

Still, two senior Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Joseph Biden of Delaware and John Kerry of Massachusetts, signaled they were inclined to vote for the agreement, albeit reluctantly.

"It comes down to a simple bet we're making," said Biden, the panel's top Democrat. "It's a bet that India appreciates, as much as we do, that the two nations have the potential to be the anchors for stability and security in the world going into the 21st century."

In both the House and the Senate, lawmakers questioned the relationship between India and Iran. "Iran is the most troubling aspect of this deal," said Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla.

The lawmakers pointed to energy cooperation between the two countries and port calls that Iranian vessels have made on India.

"In whose best interest is this?" asked Sen. Lincoln Chafee, R-R.I. He said it appeared that the United States wanted to change U.S. law simply to impede India's oil and gas relationship with Iran.

Not so, Rice said. The goal of the plan is to create a "strategic partnership" with India on technology, energy and economic issues.

Rep. Tom Lantos, the House committee's top Democrat and a supporter of the plan, warned that India-Iran military cooperation could derail it in Congress. "There can be no equivocation on India's part regarding Iran under its current management," said Lantos, D-Calif.

In a tense exchange with Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., on the same issue, Rice acknowledged that India has some "low-level military-to-military contacts with Iran."

But, she said: "The United States has made very clear to India that we have concerns about their relationship with Iran."

"I just think your words are a bit hollow," Boxer responded. "This deal has to have more checks and balances."

Read more at : Rice Faces Congress on India Nuclear Plan

Oddly Enough News Article | Reuters.com

2006-04-04T15:05:00.000-07:00

India to probe fashion show "wardrobe malfunctions"
Tue Apr 4, 2006 10:48 AM ET

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Outraged officials in largely conservative India will examine video clips to see whether a halter slipping off a top model or another's skirt zip splitting at a fashion show were "deliberate" acts, a state minister said.

Last week, model Carol Gracias's skimpy halter slipped down to her waist showing her breasts to snapping photographers and rolling TV cameras during a fashion show in Mumbai.

This was followed by another sensational "wardrobe malfunction" when former Miss India Gauhar Khan's skirt zip split, revealing her bottom to the media and Mumbai's smart set.

This has not gone well with Mumbai's politicians who have been waging a morality campaign which shut down the city's famous dance bars, making thousands of female dancers jobless.

"If we find that these acts were not accidental, then we will take action against the fashion show organizers," deputy chief minister of Maharashtra state R.R. Patil said late on Monday.

The wardrobe malfunctions at the fashion show caused a sensation in conservative India.

But some fashion designers say wardrobe problems do happen on the catwalk and don't understand what the fuss is all about.

"We don't want everyone to be veiled. We are lucky to live in a free country," fashion designer Narendra Kumar was quoted in The Indian Express Tuesday as saying, adding what happened to Gracias and Khan were "clearly a mistake."

Read more at : Oddly Enough News Article | Reuters.com

Oddly Enough News Article | Reuters.com

2006-04-04T15:01:00.000-07:00

"Loyal" donkeys better than wives, says textbook
Tue Apr 4, 2006 10:28 AM ET

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - A textbook used at schools in the Indian state of Rajasthan compares housewives to donkeys, and suggests the animals make better companions as they complain less and are more loyal to their "masters," The Times of India reported Tuesday.

"A donkey is like a housewife ... In fact, the donkey is a shade better, for while the housewife may sometimes complain and walk off to her parents' home, you'll never catch the donkey being disloyal to his master," the newspaper reported, quoting a Hindi-language primer meant for 14-year-olds.

The book was approved by the state's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party government but has sparked protests from the party's women's wing.

State education officials in Rajasthan, a western state known for its conservative attitude toward women, said people should not be upset by the comparison, the paper said.

"The comparison was made in good humor," state education official A.R. Khan was quoted as saying. "However, protests have been taken note of and the board is in the process of removing it (the reference)."

Read more at : Oddly Enough News Article | Reuters.com

Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone From Yahoo! News

2006-03-21T03:54:00.000-08:00

Child Bride
Posted by Kevin Sites on Mon, Mar 20 2006, 4:55 PM ET

Married at the age of four, an Afghan girl was subjected to years of beatings and torture, finally escaping to discover that within all the world's cruelty, there is also some kindness.

KABUL, Afghanistan - Eleven-year old Gulsoma lay in a heap on the ground in front of her father-in-law. He told her that if she didn't find a missing watch by the next morning he would kill her. He almost had already.

Enraged about the missing watch, Gulsoma's father-in-law had beaten her repeatedly with a stick. She was bleeding from wounds all over her body and her right arm and right foot had been broken.

She knew at that moment that if she didn't get away, he would make good on his promise to kill her.

When I meet her at the Ministry of Women's Affairs I'm surprised that the little girl, now 12, is the same one that had endured such horrible suffering. She is wearing a red baseball cap and an orange scarf. She has beautiful brown eyes and a full and animated smile. She takes one of my hands in both of hers and greets me warmly, without any hint of shyness.

"She looks healthy," says Haroon, my friend and translator. I nod. But she looks older than her years, we both agree. In orphanages — first in Kandahar, then in Kabul — she has had a year to recover from a lifetime's worth of unimaginable imprisonment, deprivation and torture.

In one of the ministry's offices she sits in a straight-backed wooden chair and tells us the story of her life so far. She is stoic for the most part, pausing only a few times to wipe her eyes and nose with her scarf.

Her story begins in the village of Mullah Allam Akhound, near Kandahar.

"When I was three years old my father died, and after a year my mother married again, but her second husband didn't want me," says Gulsoma. "So my mother gave me away in a promise of marriage to our neighbor's oldest son, who was thirty."

"They had a ceremony in which I was placed on a horse [which is traditional in Afghanistan] and given to the man."

Because she was still a child, the marriage was not expected to be sexually consummated. But within a year, Gulsoma learned that so much else would be required of her that she would become a virtual slave in the household.

At the age of five, she was forced to take care of not only her "husband" but also his parents and all 12 of their other children as well.

Though nearly the entire family participated in the abuse, her father-in-law, she says, was the cruelest.

"My father-in-law asked me to do everything — laundry, the household chores — and the only time I was able to sleep in the house was when they had guests over," she says. "Other than that I would have to sleep outside on a piece of carpet without even any blankets. In the summer it was okay. But in the winter a neighbor would come over and give me a blanket, and sometimes some food."

When she couldn't keep up with the workload, Gulsoma says, she was beaten constantly.

"They beat me with electric wires," she says, "mostly on the legs. My father-in-law told his other children to do it that way so the injuries would be hidden. He said to them, 'break her bones, but don't hit her on the face.'"

There were even times when the family's abuse of Gulsoma transcended the bounds of the most wanton, sadistic cruelty, as on the occasions when they used her as a human tabletop, forcing her to lie on her stomach then cutting their food on her bare back.

Gulsoma says the family had one boy her age, named Atiqullah, who refused to take part in her torture.

"He would sneak me food sometimes and when my mother-in-law told him to find a stick to beat me, he would come back say he couldn't find one," she says. "He would try to stop the others sometimes. He would say 'she is my sister, and this is sinful.' Sometimes I think about him and wish he could be here and I wish I could have him as my brother."

One evening, Gulsoma says, when her father-in-law saw the neighbor giving her food and a blanket, he took them away and beat her mercilessly. Then, she says, he locked her in a shed for two months.

"I would be kept there all day," she says, "then at night they would let me go the bathroom and I would be fed one time each day. Most of the time it was only bread and sometimes some beans."

She says every day she was locked in the shed, she wished and prayed that her parents would come and take her away. Then she would remember that her father was dead and her mother was gone.

But Gulsoma had an inner strength even her father-in-law couldn't comprehend.

"When he came to the shed he kept asking me, 'Why don't you die? I imprisoned you, I give you less food, but still you don't die.'"

But it wasn't for lack of trying. Gulsoma said when her father-in-law finally let her out of the shed, he bound her hands behind her back and beat her unconscious. She says he revived her by pouring a tea thermos filling with scalding water over her head and her back.

"It was so painful," she says, dabbing her eyes with her scarf and sniffling for a moment. "I was crying and screaming the entire time."

Five days later, she says, her father in law gave her a vicious beating when his daughter's wristwatch went missing.

"He thought I stole it," she says, "and he beat me all over my body with his stick. He broke my arm and my foot. He said if I didn't find it by the next day, he would kill me."

She crawled away that night and hid under a rickshaw. When the rickshaw driver found Gulsoma, broken and bleeding, he listened to her story and took her to the police. She was hospitalized immediately.

"The doctor at the hospital who treated me said, 'I wish I could take you to the village square and show all the people what happened to you, so no one would ever do something like this again,'" Gulsoma says.

It took her a full month to recover from her last beating. But the fear and psychological trauma may never go away.

"I was happy to have a bed and food at the hospital," she says. "But I was thinking that when I get better they will give me back to the family."

However, Gulsoma says when the police questioned the family, the father-in-law lied and tried to tell them she had epilepsy and had fallen down and hurt herself. But the neighbor who had helped Gulsoma confirmed the story of her beatings and torture.

The police arrested her father-in-law and "husband." They told her, she says, they would keep them in jail unless she asked for their release.

"Everyone was crying when they heard my story," Gulsoma says.

Gulsoma says she stayed at an orphanage in Kandahar, but was the only girl in the facility. Eventually, her story was brought to the attention of the Ministry of Women's Affairs.

Gulsoma was then brought to a Kabul orphanage, where she lives today. She takes off her baseball cap and shows us a bald spot, almost like a medieval monk's tonsure, on the crown of her head where she was scalded.

She then turns her back and raises her shirt to reveal a sad map of scar tissue and keloids from cuts, bruises and the boiling water.

Haroon and I look at each other with disbelief. Her life's tragic story is etched upon her back.

Yet she continues to smile. She doesn't ask for pity. She seems more concerned about us as she reads the shock on our faces.

"I feel better now," she says. "I have friends at the orphanage. But every night I'm still afraid the family will come here and pick me up."

Gulsoma also says that when the sun goes down, she sometimes begins to shiver involuntarily — a reaction to the seven years of sleeping outdoors, sometimes in the bitter cold of the desert night.

She says she believes there are other girls like her in Kandahar, maybe elsewhere in Afghanistan, and that she wants to study human rights and one day go back to help them.

As we walk outside to take some pictures, I ask her if, after all she's been through, she thinks it will be harder to trust, to believe that there are actually good people in the world.

"No," she says, quickly.

"I didn't expect anyone would help me but God. I was really surprised that there were also nice people: the neighbor, the rickshaw driver, the police," she says. "I pray for those who helped release me."

Looking directly into the camera, she smiles as if nothing bad had ever happened to her in her entire life.

"I think that all people are good people," she says, "except for those that hurt me."

Read more at : Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone From Yahoo! News

State to pull the plug on instant, net lotteries- The Economic Times

2006-03-17T12:11:00.000-08:00

State to pull the plug on instant, net lotteriesAdd to Clippings
TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ FRIDAY, MARCH 17, 2006 01:24:14 AM]

MUMBAI: After closing down dance bars last year, the Democratic Front government in Maharashtra now plans to ban instant and internet lotteries in the state. The decision, according to sources, is being taken for ‘social reasons’.

State finance minister Jayant Patil made the assurance in the Legislative assembly after members from both the ruling and the opposition benches demanded government action against internet and online lotteries, which, they said, were “ruining an entire generation”.

Replying to supplementaries on a calling attention notice by Chandrakant Chhajed (Congress) and others on the menace of instant lotteries, Mr Patil said, “If the House so desires, the government would also consider banning all instant lotteries.”

“As of now, these lotteries carry out about 1,500 draws each day. Most of the lotteries are being run by other state governments and hence there are some legal issues involved,” Mr Patil added. He made it clear that the state government had no powers to close down online terminals of lotteries of other states.

He, however, cautioned members that banning lotteries will affect thousands of people across the state whose livelihood depends on the trade. “The members should not come to us to complain that the bread and butter of those engaged in lottery business have been snatched away,” Mr Patil said.

The minister said it was true that the “addiction” to instant lotteries was widespread and “the state government is committed to control the addiction”.lmost all the members who spoke on the issue lamented the ‘side effects’ of the trade. “Young boys from villages queue up from early morning before these lottery centres. Their lives are being ruined,” a BJP MLA said.

Later, Mr Patil told media persons that the decision to ban internet-based and 15-minute draw online lotteries would cost the state exchequer Rs 25 crore. The minister, however, said that daily and weekly draws of online lotteries will continue.

Read more at : State to pull the plug on instant, net lotteries- The Economic Times

TV actor Sanjana Shrivastava, shot in the head - The Economic Times

2006-03-12T10:11:00.000-08:00

TIMES NEWS NETWORK, SUNDAY, MARCH 12, 2006 02:41:42 AM

MUMBAI: An autorickshaw driver found a small-time television actor bleeding from the head at Joggers’ Park in Andheri’s Lokhandwala early on Saturday morning.

She was taken to a hospital in a semi-conscious state and underwent surgery for a bullet injury in the evening.

At the time of filing the report, police were waiting for her to recover to get to the bottom of the mystery.

Twenty-four-year-old Sanjana Shrivastava, who had a bit role in Balaji teleserial Kasautii Zindagii Kay and critically acclaimed children’s film Makdi, left her home at Oshiwara’s Mhada Colony late on Friday night.

The next she was seen was by the auto driver around 2.30 am. He assumed she had been hit by a car and took her to Juhu’s Arogya Nidhi Hospital. It was there that doctors realised — after a CT scan — that there was a bullet lodged in her head.

Read more at : TV actor Sanjana Shrivastava, shot in the head - The Economic Times

NDTV.com - Explosives defused at Byculla in Mumbai - NDTV.com - News on Explosives defused at Byculla in Mumbai

2006-03-12T10:06:00.000-08:00

Miloni Bhatt, Saturday, March 11, 2006 (Mumbai)

A bag full of explosives was found at the Byculla railway station in Mumbai on Saturday morning.

The explosives were found in a school bag inside a toilet at the station.

Soon after the local police was informed, the city's anti-terrorist squad took the bag to a nearby beach where it was defused by the bomb disposal squad.

Material like ammonium nitrate, that's commonly used in the making of explosive devices and was recently used in the Varanasi blasts were recovered.

"We found a parcel at Mumbai's Byculla station. It was hidden on the roof of a public toilet in a water bottle kept inside a schoolbag.

"We have found spare parts for an IED but the materials were as yet unassembled," said AN Roy, Commissioner of Police.

The contents of the bag have now been sent for testing. Investigations are underway as to how the bag got there and for what purpose.

The police say if the material was left undisturbed at the spot, it would not have exploded.

Not willing to take any chances, the railway authorities combed railway stations across the city to ensure no unidentified bags are left around.

Read more at Explosives defused at Byculla in Mumbai - NDTV.com - News on Explosives defused at Byculla in Mumbai

Bryan Adams coming next month

2006-01-22T17:49:00.000-08:00

Bryan Adams coming next month
Special Correspondent, The Hindu

Bangalore: Rock musician Bryan Adams returns to India on a two-city tour in the first week of February.

His concert in Bangalore will be on February 5 at Palace Grounds, the day after the Mumbai show.

Performing along with a band, Bryan Adams will enthral crowds here with non-stop classic hits from his new album, the career-spanning collection, Anthology.

With 10 Grammy Awards, 12 Platinum hits around the world and album sales exceeding 55 million copies, Bryan Adams also holds multiple records for music albums sold in India with number one status across generations and genders, going by music store figures.

Having toured India on two previous occasions, Bryan Adams has a large fan base here. He was in Indian for the first time in 2001 to promote his album Best of Me and followed it up with the India Tour 2004, which included shows in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore.

In India for the third time with his aptly titled Third Time Luck tour, he is expected to sweep his loyal fans off their feet with his greatest hits so far.

Read more at : Bryan Adams coming next month

'Black' bags ten Apsara awards

2006-01-22T17:45:00.000-08:00

'Black' bags ten Apsara awards
Sunday, January 22, 2006

Mumbai, Jan 22: It was a 'Black' night at the second Apsara Film and Television Awards held here last night, with Sanjay Leela Bhansali's tale of relationship between a teacher and deaf-blind student running away with all the honours, bagging ten awards in all, including best film.

Rani Mukherjee bagged the best actress trophy for her portrayal of a deaf-blind girl in `Black', Amitabh Bachchan won the best actor for his role as Debraj Sahai in the same movie, and Sanjay Leela Bhansali won best director. Black also won four awards in the technical category including Best Cinematographer for Ravi Chandran.

Among the award winners were Abhishek Bachchan who won Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Mani Rathnam's `Yuva' and child actor Ayesha Kapoor who bagged the Best Supporting Actress trophy for her portrayal as the young Rani Mukherjee in `Black.'

The Awards, organized by the Film and Television Producer Guild of India took into consideration films released in 2005 and 2004 and also honoured veterans of the film industry for their contribution over the years.

In the music category, Shaad Ali's `Bunty Aur Babli' was the clear winner, winning as many as four awards including Best Music Director for Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, Best Lyricist for Gulzar (Kajra Re), Best Choreography Vaibhavi Merchant (Kajra Re) and Best Singer (Alish Chinai for Kajra Re).

Newcomer Vidya Balan and director Pradeep Sarkar won best debut for `Parineeta'.

Both actor Dev Anand and producer-director B R Chopra were honoured with lifetime achievement awards while media tycoons Pranoy Roy of NDTV and Aroon Poorie of the Today group were also given lifetime awards for outstanding contribution to television. (Agencies)

Read more at : 'Black' bags ten Apsara awards

Pakistan lifts ban on films from India

2006-01-22T17:41:00.000-08:00

Pakistan lifts ban on films from India: Report
The Hindu News Update Service

New Delhi, Jan. 22 (AP): Films from India's prolific Bollywood movie industry _ officially banned for decades in Pakistan but still watched by millions there _ have become legal, a news report said on Sunday.

Pakistan outlawed public screenings of Indian films in 1965, the year the nuclear-armed neighbor countries fought the second of their three wars.

But now, both countries are working hard on a sweeping peace process.

The Times of India newspaper quoted Saeed Rizvi, President of the Pakistan Film Producers Association, as saying the Indian film ban has been lifted.

``The censor board on Friday deleted the words `Indian artiste' and `Indian director' from the guidelines, which had earlier prevented release of films of Indian actors and directors in Pakistan,'' he was quoted as saying.

Authorities in Pakistan could not immediately be reached to confirm the report.

India's Hindi-language film industry, dubbed Bollywood, is the world's largest by viewership and the number of films it churns out each year.

Millions around the world watch the exuberant song-and-dance features, even in countries where Hindi isn't understood.

Even during the ban _ and despite a half-century of bitter rivalry between the two countries _ Indian films are hugely popular in Pakistan. Illicit copies are easy to find.

Pakistani cultural products are legal in India, and Pakistan's poetry, songs and television dramas are widely popular there. Several Pakistani poets and singers are superstars in India.

The first Indian film to be shown in Pakistan with formal permission will be the 1984 romance ``Sohni Mahiwal,'' a joint venture between a Russian and an Indian company, Sunday's newspaper quoted Rizvi as saying.

He said the decision could lead joint Pakistan-India film projects.

``We have wanted this to happen for a long time. With this notification, things definitely look bright or our industry,'' he was quoted as saying.

Read more at : Pakistan lifts ban on films from India

CNN.com - Bolivia's first Indian president sworn in - Jan 22, 2006

2006-01-22T17:26:00.000-08:00

Bolivia's first Indian president sworn in
Leftist Morales vows to 'change history' but 'without vengeance'
Sunday, January 22, 2006; Posted: 4:00 p.m. EST (21:00 GMT)

LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) -- Coca grower-turned-President Evo Morales vowed to end discrimination against Bolivia's Indian majority and lift this Andean nation's poor out of misery by tapping profits from abundant national gas reserves, as he was sworn into office on Sunday.

A fierce critic of U.S. policies who helped lead violent street uprisings that toppled two predecessors, Morales raised a clenched fist in a leftist salute to become Bolivia's first Indian president.

He defiantly declared that his election marks the beginning of the end to hundreds of years of oppression against Bolivia's impoverished Indian majority, recalling that just decades ago Indians had no place on segregated sidewalks.

"I wish to tell you, my Indian brothers, that the 500-year indigenous and popular campaign of resistance has not been in vain," Morales said, promising his government would move to squelch discrimination dating to the Spanish conquest in 1520.

The 46-year-old son of a poor peasant farmer, Morales vowed in his inaugural speech that his socialist government, now embarking on a five-year term, would reshape Bolivia, as he lashed out at free market economic prescriptions, calling them a failure in attempts to end chronic poverty here.

"The neoliberal economic model has run out," Morales loudly declared after taking up the red, yellow and green sash in the colors of the Bolivian flag.

Thousands of Aymara, Quechua and other Indians, many in brightly woolly caps and ponchos, cheered along with leftist sympathizers, miners and students on the cobblestone plaza outside Congress. Firecrackers boomed, and some Indians blew long, wailing notes on cow horns.

Morales recalled past decades of harsh discrimination as something akin to apartheid-era South Africa, adding "Bolivia seems like South Africa" when reviewing some of the most violent chapters of race relations.

Tieless in character with his informal style, the former opposition leader vowed his leftist Movement Toward Socialism would be stubbornly independent, steering clear of any outside influences.

While he has said his government would welcome warm relations with the United States and other nations, he vowed he would not "submit" to any outside powers.

As part of a more nationalistic and leftist agenda, he also said he would move ahead with plans to consolidate control over Bolivia's abundant natural gas reserves and also convoke a constitutional assembly later this year to answer Indian demands for a greater share in power at all levels of society.

Nonetheless, he said his government would rule "with all and for all" and would not seek revenge for the past. He also reiterated promises to respect and protect private property.

Mobbed by supporters as he entered Congress for his inauguration, he wore an open-necked, button-down shirt and a thin brown-and-beige scarf affixed to a dark suit jacket.

Morales is widely seen as part of Latin America's shift toward the political left, but whether he will maintain free-market policies or take a more radical path remained a question.

He held a meeting Saturday with U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Shannon and was to talk Monday with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

"I would like to thank the representative of the United States, Mr. Shannon, for his visit," Morales said. "He visited me in my humble home to express his wishes to strengthen diplomatic relations."

"Starting with the government of the United States and concluding with the [Cuban] government of Fidel Castro, we have international support."

Critics have charged U.S. President George W. Bush with being inattentive to Latin America's tilt to the left this decade while campaigning against terrorism and guiding U.S. military intervention in Iraq. During Bush's presidency, several Latin American nations have elected leftist presidents wary of free-market policies.

Sunday's inauguration attended by 11 national leaders, including left-leaning presidents Nestor Kirchner of Argentina, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil and Ricardo Lagos of Chile.

"Chavez! Chavez!" the crowd shouted uproariously as the Venezuelan, whom Morales said he openly admires, strode past blowing kisses.

Spain's crown prince also attended the ceremony, but Castro, a top invitee, sent his vice president.

Outside, Walter Villarro was among 2,000 of miners dressed in their trademark helmets and black leather jackets who also turned out as unofficial guards in solidarity with Morales. He and other miners are counting on Morales do revive an industry that has been stagnant for years in Bolivia, despite big metal reserves.

"Power is in the hands of the Bolivian people for the first time," Villarro said.

A potentially prickly subject in U.S. relations with Bolivia is the production of coca, the raw material for cocaine.

Poor Bolivians traditionally chew the leaf to combat hunger and the effects of altitude, and Morales has said he wants to expand the acreage allotted for coca in Bolivia while cracking down on the international cartels that traffic the plant.

Shannon has said that any increased cultivation could provide an opening for traffickers to expand.

Outside the inauguration Sunday, Aymara Indian Zenoino Perez, wearing a leather cap adorned with feathers, played a reed flute as about a dozen of the people from his village of Toro Toro far from La Paz.

"We've been discriminated against for 500 years, but now we have Evo and a government that will represent us," Perez said.

Read the full article at : CNN.com - Bolivia's first Indian president sworn in - Jan 22, 2006

25,000 for a cup of coffee

2006-01-21T08:07:00.000-08:00

25,000 for a cup of coffee
Shobha Warrier, Rediff.com January 21, 2006 | Photographs by Sreeram Selvaraj

A dosa for Rs 25,000. And coffee for the same price.

The price may seem unbelievable, but there will be takers because both items on the menu have been prepared by a film star called Madhavan.

The actor displayed his culinary skills while inaugurating Planet Yumm Ascendas, the first 24/7 food mall in the IT corridor of Chennai.

Unlike most stars, he arrived on time, looking at his watch the minute he stepped out of his car. It was 11.30 am, the exact time announced by organisers.

After cutting the ribbon and making visits to the first few stalls in the mall, he stepped behind a hot stove, chef's cap on his head and a spoonful of batter in his hand. He looked ill at ease in his role of Guest Chef, although the experience of acting in films like Nala Damayanthi and Ramji Londonwale must have helped!

Madhavan made not one, but two dosas, and both came out extremely well. The minute they were ready, it was auction time.

The crowd was over-enthusiastic and the price kept climbing, settling finally at Rs 25,000 and paid by Mahalingam from London. Madhavan added another Rs 20,000 to the amount, which was being collected for The Banyan, a home for abandoned, mentally challenged women.

The star's next stop was the Qwiky's Coffee shop, where he made a cup of coffee and autographed the cup. Once again, it fetched Rs 25,000. Madhavan also helped auction a painting by Thotta Tharani for Rs 1 lakh. 45 minutes later, visibly happy, he left the mall. Without stopping for coffee or a dosa!

Read more at : 25,000 for a cup of coffee

Naked News breaking in Japan market | Reuters.com

2006-01-11T13:08:00.000-08:00

Naked News breaking in Japan market
By Julian Ryall, Wed Jan 11, 2006 10:46 AM ET

A view of Naked News' website. Naked News, which features anchors and reporters who disrobe during newscasts, launched its take on current affairs in Japan Tuesday. REUTERS/Handout

TOKYO (Hollywood Reporter) - Naked News, which features anchors and reporters who disrobe during newscasts, launched its risque take on current affairs in Japan Tuesday.

Beneath a banner proclaiming Naked News as "The program with nothing to hide," Sunrise Corp. CEO Takuya Uchikawa described the service as "a unique concept for the Japanese market."

Sunrise, which specializes in sales of goods and services via the Internet, and Naked News owner eGalaxy Multimedia have set a target of 10,000 mobile subscribers in the first year.

"We would not have dared to come to Japan unless we were convinced that there was a definite market, and we now see there is a massive market here, we have a partner that understands that market and the technological skills to provide an enjoyable product," eGalaxy Multimedia Inc. CEO David Warga said.

Since making its debut in Canada in 1999, Naked News has become available via the Internet, television and mobile phones in North America, Australia and Europe.

"We believe there is a huge untapped market for the right kind of information if it was properly packaged," Warga said. "So we created a news-entertainment program in which women, and later men, informed while removing their clothing."

The service initially will be news that is provided for Naked News' existing markets but with Japanese subtitles. The plan is eventually to produce content in Japan that will appeal to a larger percentage of the population.

Another area being tested concerns the degree of nudity of the presenters. Initially, newscasters will strip to their underwear, but Uchikawa indicated that he hopes to be able to see how far Japanese obscenity broadcasting laws can be bent before they are broken.

Canadian-born presenter Lily Kwan has been peeling off her work clothes for five years and described the experience as "liberating."

"I love being able to go out onto the streets and take my clothes off," she said. "While we have been in Tokyo, people have been very surprised to see us with no tops on, but they're very happy and interested in talking to us."

For more details read :Oddly Enough News Article | Reuters.com

Wired News: New Intel Macs Scream, Jobs Says

2006-01-11T11:58:00.000-08:00

New Intel Macs Scream, Jobs Says
By Leander Kahney, 11th January, 2006

SAN FRANCISCO -- Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs took center stage at Macworld on Tuesday to introduce the first Macs based on Intel chips six months ahead of schedule: a speedy, flat-screen iMac and a slim, high-end notebook with a new name -- the MacBook.

Looking trim and fit in his trademark jeans and turtleneck, Jobs told the enthusiastic audience that the new machines are two to four times faster then the Macs they replace, which are based on PowerPC chips from IBM and Motorola.

"These things are screamers," he said.

Both machines are based on Intel's "latest and greatest" dual-core chips, branded the Intel Core Duo, Jobs said. He said each core in the new chips is faster than the G4 or G5 PowerPC chips they replace.

Available in February, the MacBook Pro will replace Apple's high-end PowerBook G4 notebook. Jobs said the new Intel model is four times faster than the PowerBook G4 it replaces. The slim, "1-inch thin" notebook features a 15-inch screen, built-in iSight video-conferencing camera and remote control. It also has a new magnetic power adapter that detaches easily when the power cord is yanked on, preventing accidental falls. The MacBook Pro will sell in two configurations: a 1.67-GHz model for $2,000 and a 2.1-GHz model for $2,500.

The new iMac, available now, has the same features, design and price as the machine it replaces, Jobs said. What's different? The new model delivers two to three times the speed, Jobs said.

To introduce the new machines, Jobs was joined onstage by Intel CEO Paul Otellini, who was jokingly dressed in a "bunny suit" -- the clean-room garb Apple once used to mock Intel's lagging performance. It was a sly joke that got a hearty laugh from the crowd, which seemed more subdued than in recent years.

A witty new Intel advertisement, which claimed Apple was setting Intel chips free from the drudgery of PCs, got the biggest response. Jobs played the ad twice.

The Intel machines are six months ahead of Apple's announced schedule -- previously, Jobs said Intel Macs would debut in June 2006.

Jobs said Apple will transition its entire product line before the end of the year, updating the hardware month by month.

Rick LePage, president of Macworld, said the new hardware looked good.

"The thing that's going to sell like crazy are the new MacBooks," he said. "Apple's going to sell every one of those they can make."

Jobs made no mention of the living-room set-top boxes based on Intel's new Viiv hardware platform, which many pundits had expected.

Earlier in his speech, Jobs said Apple had sold an incredible 14 million iPods during the holiday quarter, and has moved more than 42 million iPods to date.

Jobs also demonstrated a new version of Apple's iLife software suite, which now includes a new iWeb application for building websites and a "photocasting" feature in iPhoto that allows easy and automatic sharing of photographs over the net.

For more details read : Wired News: New Intel Macs Scream, Jobs Says

SignOnSanDiego.com > News > AP News

2005-12-21T15:22:00.000-08:00

Teen pleads guilty after blog confession
Dec 21, 6:28 AM EST

TAVARES, Fla. (AP) -- An 18-year-old passenger who caused a fatal crash by pulling on the steering wheel pleaded guilty to DUI manslaughter after prosecutors discovered a confession on his online blog.

Blake Ranking wrote "I did it" on his blurty.com journal three days after the October 2004 crash that caused a friend's death and left another seriously injured. He had previously told investigators he remembered nothing of the crash and little of its aftermath.

Blake was sitting in the back seat as he and then-17-year-old friends Jason Coker and Nicole Robinette left a party when he pulled the steering wheel as a prank, causing the car to somersault off the road.

His blood alcohol content after the crash measured 0.185, more than double the legal limit.

Robinette, who was driving and had no traces of drugs or alcohol in her system, was seriously injured. Coker lay in a coma at Orlando Regional Medical Center until he died Jan. 11.

"It was me who caused it. I turned the wheel. I turned the wheel that sent us off the road, into the concrete drain ..." Ranking wrote in the blog. "How can I be fine when everyone else is so messed up?"

Ranking later retracted his words, deleting them from the blog and penning an explanation.

"People say I 'contradict' myself since I 'already admitting pulling the wheel.' I didn't 'ADMIT' anything. I went on a guilt trip, and I posted the story that I WAS TOLD . . . Nicole told me I pulled the wheel, I believed her," he wrote.

Still, the confession forced him to lead guilty Monday to manslaughter charges. He could have gotten 15 years in prison, but defense lawyer John Spivey and Assistant State Attorney Julie Greenberg recommended five years in prison, 10 years of probation and a permanent license suspension.

Circuit Judge Mark Hill agreed to impose the sentence Dec. 28.

Greenberg said she had planned to use the blog as evidence, a first for the office covering Lake, Citrus, Hernando, Marion and Sumter counties, but almost certainly not the last.

"Anytime a defendant confesses, that is very relevant and important," she said.

Ranking posted the lyrics to Eric Clapton's "Tears in Heaven" the day of Coker's funeral, but prosecutors said his remorse was not always apparent in his blogs, which included entries railing at Coker's mother because she asked him to stop calling and coming to the hospital.

"He lost the best friend he ever had," Spivey said in Ranking's defense.

Ken Coker, Jason's father, said his family never wanted prison time for Ranking, but they wished Ranking would stop writing about them because they felt the blog was insensitive. He said Ranking would benefit more from psychiatric counseling.

"There's not enough forgiveness in the world," he said.

SignOnSanDiego.com > News > AP News

Tuition teacher held for alleged child abuse

2005-12-17T11:08:00.000-08:00

Tuition teacher held for alleged child abuse
MANJIT KAUR, 17th December 2005

KANGAR: A 10-year-old girl was allegedly punched and slashed, and had a toenail removed and her private parts pinched by her tuition teacher for faring poorly in lessons.

Nor Adilla Syikin, from Taman Kemajuan near here, suffered bruises all over her body as a result of the abuse by the teacher, whom she called “auntie”.

Kangar OCPD Yusof Mohd Diah said police arrested the 54-year-old woman and her 15-year-old daughter at their house in Taman Perlis at 2.30am yesterday and obtained orders to remand them for five days.

The girl’s father Abdul Halim Ibrahim, 43, believed that Nor Adilla was abused on Wednesday night at the teacher’s house.

He said that his daughter, from SK Seri Perlis, had been taking lessons in English and Mathematics from the woman since Year One.

“The teacher contacted me about 8pm on Wednesday to say that my daughter would be staying overnight at her place,” he told reporters at Hospital Tuanku Fauziah on Thursday night.

Abdul Halim, a restaurant cook in Mata Ayer, said his daughter fled from the teacher’s house at 4.45pm on Thursday and ran crying in the rain to her grandmother’s house.

He said that the woman, who gives tuition to 20 pupils, was never a schoolteacher. She performed odd-jobs and worked at a laundry shop, besides tutoring students.

When interviewed, Nor Adilla said she and her friends would be beaten when they could not answer questions and that she suffered the most.

“I was scared of her and dared not tell my parents about her behaviour,” she said.

In Penang, police rescued a 10-year-old girl who had scars on her body believed to have been been caused by boiling water and cigarettes.

Her mother, 36, and stepfather, 26, a video arcade caretaker, were arrested at their home in Jalan Besi here at 10.50pm on Thursday.

It is learnt that the couple, who had only been married for a year, would also cane the Year Four student for the slightest mistake.

The couple's neighbours, who had been turning a blind eye to the abuse for some time, tipped off the police.

Read the full article at : Tuition teacher held for alleged child abuse

Scotsman.com News - Latest News - John Spencer dies of heart problems

2005-12-17T11:03:00.000-08:00

John Spencer dies of heart problems
Scotsman.com, Press Association Ltd, 17-Dec-05 11:07 GMT

John Spencer, the actor who played a tough, dedicated politician who survived a coronary illness to run for vice president in TV drama The West Wing, has died of a heart attack.

Spencer, 58, died after being admitted to a Los Angeles hospital on Friday, said his publicist, Ron Hofmann. He would have been 59 on Tuesday.

He was "one of those rare combinations of divinely gifted and incredibly generous", said actor Richard Schiff, who played Toby Ziegler on the NBC television series. Schiff revealed Spencer had been struggling with health issues but seemed to have rallied.

Spencer played Leo McGarry, the savvy and powerful chief of staff to President Josiah "Jed" Bartlet (Martin Sheen). In a sad parallel to life, Spencer's character suffered a heart attack that forced him to give up his White House job.

Spencer, who also starred in LA. Law as streetwise lawyer Tommy Mullaney, received an Emmy Award for his performance in The West Wing in 2002 and was nominated four other times for the series.

The actor, whose world-weary countenance was perfect for the role of McGarry, mirrored his character in several ways: both were recovering alcoholics and both, Spencer once said, were driven.

"Like Leo, I've always been a workaholic, too," he told The Associated Press in a 2000 interview. "Through good times and bad, acting has been my escape, my joy, my nourishment. The drug for me, even better than alcohol."

Spencer grew up in Paterson, New Jersey, the son of blue-collar parents. With his enrolment at the Professional Children's School in Manhattan at 16, he was sharing classes with the likes of Liza Minnelli and budding violinist Pinchas Zukerman.

As a teenager, he landed a recurring role on The Patty Duke Show as the boyfriend of English twin Cathy. His big break came, playing Harrison Ford's detective sidekick in the 1990 courtroom thriller Presumed Innocent.

His made his feature film debut with a small role in War Games. In recent years, he worked both in studio and independent films, including The Rock, The Negotiator, Albino Alligator, Lesser Prophets and Cold Heart.

Last updated:

Read the full article at : Scotsman.com News - Latest News - John Spencer dies of heart problems

Welcome back, Mr Bachchan

2005-12-17T10:59:00.000-08:00

Welcome back, Mr Bachchan
Sunday, December 18, 2005

The Shahenshah is back.

Superstar Amitabh Bachchan has finally been discharged from Mumbai's Lilavati Hospital on Saturday, where he has been recovering after a successful operation to treat his diverticulitis condition.

Huge crowds of fans surrounded the hospital, many travelling extensively just to get a glimpse of the actor.

Before he was discharged, Bachchan made a memorable appearance on the balcony of his 11th floor hospital room. Accompanying him were son Abhishek, daughter Shweta, wife Jaya and close friend Amar Singh. Industrialist Anil Ambani was seen at the hospital earlier in the morning. Amitabh looked down at the gathered media and fans, and waved -- one of those moments where the whole country collectively breathes a sigh of relief; Amitabh Bachchan is all right.

The fans weren't lucky enough to see Bachchan as he was whisked efficiently and discreetly out of the hospital. Rajesh Jadhav, one of the many who had travelled from far corners of Mumbai, said he was very disappointed. "I came early in the morning, and have been standing here for a long time. It is a once in a lifetime opportunity, to see Amitabh Bachchan recovered. I'm heartbroken that I couldn't see him up close."

But this disappointment is shortlived, and the general feeling is one of great relief.

Welcome back, Mr Bachchan.

Read the full story at : Welcome back, Mr Bachchan
Also read : The scene outside Lilavati Hospital

Oddly Enough News Article | Reuters.com

2005-12-17T10:51:00.000-08:00

BOSTON (Reuters) - Are diamonds really forever?

An anonymous gift-giver left a $15,000 diamond engagement ring to the owner of an unlocked car in western Massachusetts with a typed note hinting at a broken heart.

"Merry Christmas. Thank you for leaving your car door unlocked. Instead of stealing your car I gave you a present. Hopefully this will land in the hands of someone you love, for my love is gone now. Merry Christmas to you," the note said.

The three-diamond ring with a white-gold band appeared on the seat of the man's car at a train station in Westborough, about 30 miles west of Boston, on December 7, police said. Four days later, the man reported it to police.

"This appears to be random," said Westborough Police Lt. Paul Donnelly. "I think there was a search for a car that was unlocked."

The 37-year-old man decided to keep the ring after a jeweler appraised its value at $15,000, police said.

Read the full article at : Oddly Enough News Article | Reuters.com

Saif wasn't drunk, say cops

2005-12-11T00:02:00.000-08:00

Saif wasn't drunk, say cops
Mayank Soni, December 11, 2005

On Friday evening at about 4:45 pm, Saif Ali Khan drove over the foot of a Shakeel Shaikh (13) outside the Bhavan’s ground at DN Nagar, while returning from his rehearsals for the MTV Immies. Shaikh had minor injuries, but was advised a month of bed rest.

Khan (who was at the police station on Friday from 12 am to 1:30 am) says, “I was just returning from the MTV rehearsals when the boy suddenly came in front of my car. I applied the brakes, but the tyre stopped on the boy’s foot. I immediately came out and rushed him to Arogya Nidhi hospital.

He has suffered a hairline fracture. I have taken care of his hospital bill and will also pay for other medical expenses. After seeing that the boy was fine, I myself went and surrendered to the D N Nagar police station at 7 pm. I was not driving fast or anything; it was just an unfortunate accident.”

Shaikh was on his way to pick up his young cousin from the municipal school when the incident occured. “I saw the car stop so went on to cross the road, but suddenly it started and the car’s tyre ran over my left foot.

Seeing me cry out, Saif immediately rushed me to the nearby hospital in his car. Saif stayed for an hour at the hospital. He only left after enquiring about my health. Doctors have said that I have to take bed rest for a month.”

Khan was driving a silver-coloured Lexus. Inspector Pradeep Suryavanshi says, “Khan was released on bail of Rs 5,000. He has been asked to be present in the court on December 12. He was tested for alcohol, but the result was negative.”

Read the full article at : Saif wasn't drunk, say cops

Saif Ali Khan held after his SUV injures boy - Sify.com

2005-12-11T00:01:00.000-08:00

Saif Ali Khan held after his SUV injures boy
Saturday, 10 December , 2005, 16:33

Mumbai: A teenaged boy was injured when an imported sports-utility vehicle driven by Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan hit him at suburban Andheri on Friday evening, police said.

The boy escaped with minor injuries and has been discharged from hospital this morning, police said.

Saif was arrested and later released on bail of Rs 5000 at D N Nagar police station at Andheri in western Mumbai.

Police said the actor was passing by the Bharatiya Vidya Bhawans college at around 6 pm last evening, when his SUV Landcruizer vehicle which he was driving hit a 13-year-old boy, Shakil Sheikh, a nearby resident, who was reportedly attempting to cross the road.

The boy escaped with minor injuries as the vehicle was at a slow speed, police said.

Saif later rushed to injured boy to a nearby private nursing home, where the boy was admitted.

The actor informed the D N Nagar police station about the incident.

Since Saif himself was driving the vehicle, he was made to undergo a medical examination to find out alcohol content in his blood, police said, adding that the report showed that there was no alcohol in the blood.

The D N Nagar police granted a bail of Rs 5000 to Saif at around 1:30 am and asked him to visit the police station in the morning to complete formalities.

when the actor did not turn up, police moved the Andheri court and informed that the actor had not completed formalities regarding the bail.

The court adjourned hearing of the case till December 12. Meanwhile, Saif visited the police station at 4 pm, police added.

Read the full article at : Saif Ali Khan held after his SUV injures boy - Sify.com

HindustanTimes.com: Miss World 2005

2005-12-10T23:39:00.000-08:00

Iceland's Unnur Birna crowned Miss World 2005
Press trust of India, December 10, 2005

Sanya, China : Miss Iceland, Unnur Birna Vilhjalmsdottir, who plans to be a lawyer as well as an anthropologist, was on Saturday crowned as Miss World 2005 in the tropical resort of Sanya in southern China.

Unnur, 21, who describers herself as an "organised, ambitious and good-humoured" person, won the hearts and minds of the judges at the glittering finals of the 55th Miss World contest, held for a record third time in Sanya.

She said her motto is, "You are what you do."

Miss Mexico, Dafne Molina Lona, 23, came runner-up while Miss Puerto Ricco, Inngrid Marie Rivera Santos, 22, was adjudged second runner-up in the two-hour-long gala, seen live by over two billion people worldwide.

Miss India, Sindhura Gadde, who entered the semi-finals, lost to her South Korean rival, Eun-Yong Oh in the contest for selection from the Asia-Pacific region.

This year the Miss World said they had introduced an "innovative" new voting system this year, each contestant will be allocated a number for worldwide short messaging service (SMS) voting or via the Voting Hotline in their particular country.

Six 'Vote For Me' TV specials will present contestants from each continental zone and invite the global television audience to cast votes to determine the top two from each zone to go through to the Miss World Final where the six continental winners will be chosen, Miss World Northern Europe, Miss World Southern Europe, Miss World Asia Pacific, Miss World Africa, Miss World Americas and Miss World Caribbean.

Read the full article at : HindustanTimes.com: Miss World 2005

For more images of Miss World 2005 : Beautiful Women From Around The World : Miss World 2005
For more images of Beautiful Women : Beautiful Women From Around The World

Groom pays for snapping wedlock : HindustanTimes.com

2005-12-10T23:35:00.000-08:00

Groom pays for snapping wedlock
Sanjeev K. Ahuja, December 10, 2005

Gurgaon : A man got it nice and proper for backing out of his marriage at the eleventh hour. His family had to pay Rs 10 lakh in cash and a few post-dated cheques of an unspecified amount after the girl’s family took the matter to the police.

The groom, from Gurgaon’s posh HUDA Sector 14, refused to marry the girl moments before the shubh mahoorat, citing “compatibility problems” on Friday evening.

When his relatives and the bride’s family raised a hue and cry, he went on to offer a “one-month contract marriage” to the girl. This baffled the girl who, too, refused to marry him.

The bride’s family then took the matter to the police and at the police station, it was decided that the groom must compensate the girl. He was asked to bear the entire marriage expense borne by the bride’s family.

Both the groom and the bride are software engineers, working for Pune-based companies. They were engaged on November 4 and their marriage was slated for December 9.

Rohit Nagpal, the groom, started dating her on weekends but found her to be “incompatible”, J.M. Nagpal, his father said.

“She is a nice and intelligent girl but somehow I got a feeling that I was not made for her. I was under acute pressure from my parents as well as from bride side as the date of marriage was nearing in. On the very day of the marriage I delivered my decision that I would not marry her. It was better to face it now than regret for rest of my life,” said Rohit.

On the day of marriage, the bride’s family was awaiting the baraat at a banquet hall when they received a call saying that Rohit had a change of mind. The shubh mahoorat was due at 8.30 p.m. Shocked, the bride’s family and relatives promptly left for the groom’s house in sector 14, where there were heated arguments.

Elderly people from the girl’s family tried to convince the boy. It was then that they got another shock. Rohit was willing to marry the girl only for a month and also wanted a contract to this effect.

“Rohit said he would marry the girl but on a month’s contract during which he would see whether or not he would be able to continue with her,” said a relative of the girl. Soon the girl’s family approached the police and lodged a complaint. Police officials steered the two families to a settlement, whereby the groom’s family was asked to bear the entire expenses of the marriages.

Read the full article at : Groom pays for snapping wedlock : HindustanTimes.com

Sonia visits quake victims in J&K - NDTV.com - News on Sonia visits quake victims in J&K

2005-12-10T23:31:00.000-08:00

Sonia visits quake victims in J&K
NDTV Correspondent, Saturday, December 10, 2005

(Jammu) : Congress president Sonia Gandhi visited Teethwal on the Line of Control on her second day in the earthquake-hit areas of Jammu and Kashmir.

She inspected the relief and rehabilitation work in the region.

Very few national leaders have been so close to the LoC. In fact, all that separated Sonia Gandhi and the people from PoK, was the Kishanganga river.

During her visit to the quake-hit areas in Uri on Friday, Sonia said she was satisfied with the relief work.

"A lot of work has been done, but there is still some work that remains. We must make sure that every individual receives relief. But on the whole I think work has been carried out well," she said.

Boosting students' morale

While most of the people were clamouring for relief, for the children of Teethwal, Sonia Gandhi's visit to their school was a major morale booster.

"It was really good that Sonia Gandhi visited our school. We had never thought that she would come to our school," said a student.

It was the Congress President's second visit to earthquake-hit areas in the state.

Sonia, who spent her birthday on Friday among the quake victims, said she was happy to celebrate her big day in this far more worthy manner.

"Well I thought it would be more worth one and time spending in better way. I came here to listen to the griviences of people," she said.

Keeping the promise

She also said that she had made a promise to come back and review the relief work and that she had kept her promise.

"I had come here on October 9, a day after the earthquake, and I promised that I would come back to inspect the relief work. I made sure that I fulfill the promise before the year-end,'' she added.

It was not only the people of Teethwal who were waiting for Sonia Gandhi, but people across the LoC in PoK also came out to watch her.

Hopefully, the visit will translate into a significant improvement in the distribution of relief.

Read the full article at : Sonia visits quake victims in J&K - NDTV.com - News on Sonia visits quake victims in J&K