blog for all

Saif ready to go wild with Bipasha Basu and Katrina Kaif in Abbas Mustan's Race

2008-02-06T03:42:00.000-08:00

He is eager to show the world what he can do. After racing Nascar in Ta Ra Rum Pum he is ready to rock and race the duo hottie Bips and Katrina in ''Race''.
Abbas-Mustan's ''Race'' is an edge-of-the-seat thriller. It features sexy hotties ready to oblige the audience - Bips and Katrina. These hotties were eagers to avoid their charming but nagging boyfriends John and Salman for a long time. Both had their eyes on this Sharmila look alike Saif the man. Saif is now sexier that ever. And, Bips just cannot wait to get a hold of him. Katrina is also having an eye candy on him.
If you are ecstatic with Saif's new look for Tashan, wait till you see him in ''Race''. The mother of all ''flirting'' men Saif is ready to take you to higher dimension in this new thriller.

Kangana Ranaut goes wild in search of Romantic love – the lover has finally arrived and provising her completion of joy

2008-02-06T03:41:00.000-08:00

She is hungry for love. She is obsessed with sexual passions. She is Kangana Ranaut ready to grab the man of her choice. He is fed up of short-term lovers that come and go on the fly.
Her lover is finally there, sources from Bollywood say. She is happy with her romance and is ready to settle. The man of her choice is still a mystery but never the less she is happy like never before.

Semi-nude scene of Sonali Kulkarni turned Jimmy Shergill off – he was eager to kiss Nandana Sen

2008-02-06T03:39:00.000-08:00

Jimmy Shergill got turned off in Anand Rai’s Stangers because of the seminude Sonali Kulkarni. He was eager to kiss Nanda Sen. Nandana was worried about how far Jimmy will go during the liplock.
Anand Rai justifies his lead actor, "Though I had explained the scene, I understand that actors sometimes are not comfortable doing intimate scenes on screen. When I set out to make the film, I was clear that my film was about relationship. Therefore a kissing scene with Nandana or the semi-nude scene of Sonali Kulkarni, though important for the emotional turmoil the character goes, I was always flexible for options and pointers from the star cast."

Tanushree turning a lesbian?

2008-02-06T03:38:00.000-08:00

She is very vocal about it. She does not need a boyfriend. She is happy with other women in her life and men just friends. “Such unwanted controversies have always disturbed me, more so since I didn''t have a clue about what they were about. I don''t have a boyfriend. I don''t need one.” Says the hottie.
The rumor zones are rampant with controversies about her sexual preferences. She is fueling these more with statement like this one.

Kim Sharma goes wild and sexy

2008-02-06T03:36:00.000-08:00

According to Internet rumor zone Kim Sharma has mood swings. If one can catch her in the right time, miracle can happen. The Bollywood hottie is well known for her sexy postures. These postures dowes not obey any norms when the time is right. Catch Kim in the right mood, you will be amazed what she can offer. Many Bollywood directors are eager to catch Kim in the right mood so that the shoot goes well.
Kim is playful, innocent and has a great love for animals. She is an amazing cutie that brings glamour to shows, individuals and her fans

Sahil tried his best but Tanushree shied away from it

2008-02-06T03:34:00.000-08:00

The man tried his best. But the Bollywood hottied shies away from strangers that tries to grab her and perform lip locked smooch.
Sahil Khan is a sad man today. His lifetime desire of kissing the Bengali beauty did not materialize. He says "I''m not that lucky. I would have loved to kiss Tanushree.”
He got his chance in Rama-the Saviour, a Tarzan kind of a movie with Tanushree Dutta. He tried to turn the romance bulb on but Tanushree posed as if she is lesbian.
Sometimes it upsets Shahil. What a lie – she is not lesbo – she just avoided his mouth.

Sexy pole dance and strip tease – I am better than Britney, Pussycat Dolls or J Lo's videos : Sexy Bollywood bombshell Sherlyn Chopra

2008-02-06T03:33:00.000-08:00

She drops her clothes without hesitation. She tries to please her fans with every curve of her body. She wears see-through to tease men and women. She is the sexy glamdoll of Bollywood.
Sherlyn Chopra is upset about her video getting censured by the Censure Board of India. “I had it all – the jaw dropping sexy pole dance and strip tease… I sizzled better than Britney, Pussycat Dolls or J Lo's” she says.
Confident Bollywood hottie eager to go nude in public says "People will be able to catch it on a late night show of MTV or Channel V or maybe on an International channel."

Native Indians must learn to leave Sania alone – a correct decision by Asia’s number one not play in India

2008-02-06T03:32:00.000-08:00

When you have great player like Sania from your own turf, it is better to encourage her rather than try to find fault in everything she does. Sania has decided avoid playing India for now till native Indians learn to respect her as a player.
"I am not playing in Bangalore Open. I have been advised by my manager not to play (there) because a lot has been happening in the past few months," Sania says.
She took the decision based on her past experiences in India. It is a good reply for those who has nothing else to do but create controversies around Sania.

The underemployment changing to increasing unemployment – the US depression becoming more intense

2008-02-06T03:31:00.002-08:00

The US economic depression is real. No one wants to accept it. they do not even agree that there is a recession. The reason is not self denial. The reason is something else. Classical text book economics is struggling to understand that there can be an economic depression even with full employment.
Let us look at the reason of the economic depression. Since 1980, America deprived its middle class by exporting jobs, allowing illegal immigration, bring in H1b well paid technicians from India and other countries. The rich became richer and poor became poorer. People dipped into their credit cards and their home equity to pay their bills. This is known as underemployment driven economic depression. It took twenty eight years for the depression to become reality.
The underemployment is now changing to increasing unemployment – the US depression is becoming more intense.

Sharp fall in ISM service index confirms US depression

2008-02-06T03:31:00.001-08:00

This is no recession. This is pure and simple depression. The service side of the economy has almost stopped. The service side constitutes 90% of the economy and is falling sharply.
The manufacturing weakness dominated the economic stagnation for decades. But now finally the economy has gone into deep depression, as people just cannot pay their mortgages. The cost of gasoline, healthcare and higher education has plagued the economy for a long time. People are giving up using their credit cards and are just not caring to repay loans.
The grim faces in the financial institutions is scary. 70% of the staffs in banks and financial institutions will be laid off this year. The last hit will be healthcare staff and education including.
The unemployment rate rise very rapidly. But more importantly, the employers are asking employees to work half time for half pay increasing underemployment – the root cause of this depression

American Federation of Teachers using automated phone call systems to spread Hillary Clinton’s message invading cell phone and individual privacy

2008-02-06T03:30:00.000-08:00

Shame on the American Federation of Teachers and Hillary Clinton. Shame on the special interest groups that use technologies to invade personal life, privacy, and more.
As a University professor I never expected this. I received a phone call in my cell phone. First it is blocked message and says ‘unknown call’. I was hesitant to pick it up. I do not provide my number to anybody and everybody. I thought it must be someone I know or deal with and he or she must be calling from a blocked phone.
I picked up the call. It was shocking to know that the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) is calling. There was no real person. It was an automated calling system. It said here is a message from a friend and started playing Hillary Clinton’s plead for my vote for her.
I understand how AFT got my number. I was a union member before when I taught as adjunct faculty in a state university. First, they did not update their list. I am no longer their member since I do not teach in the same university.But more importantly I did not provide my cell phone number to them to hear political special interest messages especially on my cell phone. It cost me money to hear anything on my cell phone. When will AFT and other special interest groups learn to respect individual privacy?
Shame on AFT. Is this is what educators are teaching our students in colleges and universities?

Lay off in Indian IT sector accelerates – TCS terminates thousands of employees

2008-02-06T03:29:00.002-08:00

With the American economy in deep trouble, Indian IT sector is in trouble. The higher Rupee against dollar and virtually no additional demand has made Indian IT employees redundant.
A sharp rise in the value of rupee against dollar and the slowdown in the US economy have made a chilling effect is the Indian IT body shops like TCS, Wipro and Infosys who call themselves software companies.
Secretly TCS has shown the door to most of its software engineers. Accortding to TCS official version, employees with experience of two years and above across the company who were unable to meet the performance requirements of TCS are asked to look for other jobs commensurate with their abilities. In reality TCS and others do not have new orders from US. They plan to lay off tens of thousands of employees in the next six to nine months.

Fed up with MNS, 200 members join Shiv Sena

2008-02-06T03:29:00.001-08:00

MUMBAI: Around 200 members of Raj Thackeray's Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) on Wednesday joined Shiv Sena in presence of Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray. The MNS members, who are fed up with the anti-north Indian stance adopted by Raj, joined the Sena at a function held at Bal Thackeray's residence Matoshree in suburban Bandra, Sena secretary Vinayak Raut said. Asked about the Sena's stand on the current political scenario in the backdrop of violence over Raj Thackeray's remarks against north Indians, Raut said, "This is a fight between Samajwadi Party and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, not between Maharashtrians and north Indians." These MNS workers got fed up with the ongoing battle and left the party, he said

Bill Clintons’s strategy now is to win the super delegates by hook or crook - the Clinton machine ready to rig the election with sweet talk

2008-02-06T03:27:00.000-08:00

The Democratic party faces the biggest challenge in its life time. The Clinton machine cannot win the election through the voting process. They want to rig American presidential election by influencing and arm-twisting the super delegates.
The top Democratic officials are now worried that there is a corrupt match fixing game plan in play. The process is simple. You vote for me and I will get you what you need. Obama is an new rookie in this game of corrupt career politics. He is slow in promising goodies to super delegates.
This will just hurt the Democratic party. John McCain will be the choice of all who do not special interests.

Sensex ends 864.13 points up

2008-01-23T11:03:00.002-08:00

MUMBAI: Sharp correction opened up the door of opportunity for investors to enter value stocks at attractive lower levels. Interest rate cuts in the US came as a confidence booster for the wounded bulls who shot back in action to take indices further higher.

BSE’s Sensex ended at provisional 17,594.07, up 864.13 points or 5.17 per cent. It touched a high of 17,997.11 and low of 16,951.03.

NSE’s benchmark Nifty closed provisionally 320 points or 6.51 per cent higher at 5218.25. It touched a high of 5,328.05 and low of 4,891.60.

It was the day for the midcap stocks as BSE Midcap Index outperformed rest of the market to close 8.15 per cent higher at 7,789.31.

Sterlite Technologies (up 41.88%), Peninsula Land (41.05%), Ispat Industries (30.56%), Ansal Infrastructure(30.24%), Mahindra Life (27.50%), Dena Bank (27.16%) and JP Hydropower (26.75%) were the major gainers in the midcap space.

Sensex Gainers were Reliance Energy (up 16.76%), NTPC (13.24%), Satyam Computers (10.25%), Bajaj Auto (8.59%), State Bank of India (8.56%) and Reliance (8.48%).

Market breadth turned negative on the BSE with 1302 advance and 1398 declines.

Egypt 'won't force Gazans back'

2008-01-23T11:03:00.001-08:00

Egypt has said it will not use force to send back Palestinians who crossed from the Gaza Strip in large numbers after parts of the border were breached.
Foreign ministry spokesman Hosan Zeki said the border would be closed again when all the Palestinians had returned.

Earlier Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said he had let the Gazans in.

Tens of thousands have surged in to buy food and other supplies made scarce by an Israeli blockade - aimed at stopping rocket attacks from Gaza.

Egyptian police took no action to stop people crossing but Israel urged Egypt to restore security.

Map of the Egypt-Gaza border area
The blockade imposed last week eased slightly on Tuesday to allow some fuel and medicines through, but Israel has now reimposed the fuel restrictions.

We want to buy rice and sugar, milk and wheat and some cheese

Ibrahim Abu Taha,
Gaza resident

Eyewitness: Drama at border
In pictures: Border breached
Gaza diary: Day One

Israel and the US have expressed concern about the events at the Egyptian border, and Israel fears weapons could be smuggled into Gaza.

Mr Zeki said Egypt was trying to contain the situation but had "great understanding" of the people of Gaza and their need for basic supplies.

People had packed into cars and donkey carts or crossed the border on foot when it was breached.

President Mubarak said he had told his troops to "let them come to eat and buy food and go back, as long as they are not carrying weapons".

GAZA BLOCKADE
17 January: Israel seals border following rise in rocket attacks
20 January: Gaza's only power plant to shuts down
22 January: Israel eases restrictions
22 January: Egyptian border guards disperse Palestinian protest against closure
23 January: Border wall breached

The BBC's Heba Saleh in Cairo says Egypt has little choice but to welcome the influx, as there is deep public sympathy for the Palestinians.

Egypt can only hope Israel will ease its restrictions, she adds.

A total of 350,000 Gazans crossed the Egyptian border, Israel's Haaretz newspaper reported.

Hamas has not taken responsibility for breaching the border but quickly moved in to police it, the paper said, confiscating seven pistols from a man returning to Gaza.

Haaretz quoted one Gazan, Mohammed Abu Ghazel, as saying he had crossed the border three times with cigarettes which he had sold for five times the price he bought them.

"This can feed my family for a month," he said.

Talks offer

The BBC's Tim Franks in Rafah on the Gaza-Egypt border says it will be difficult for the Egyptians to reseal the border on their own, and Hamas has very little incentive to co-operate.

EGYPT-GAZA BORDER
12km (7.4 miles) long
Egyptian side patrolled by 750 soldiers under 2005 agreement with Israel
Border crossing terminal south of town of Rafah
PA control of terminal under EU supervision collapsed after Hamas takeover of Gaza in June 2007
Border closed almost continuously since

Gaza's rocket threat to Israel
'Wartime' on Israeli border
Profile: Gaza Strip

Palestinians have broken through the border before, in 2005, and it was quickly resealed with barbed wire, but reports say that on this occasion two-thirds of the border wall was destroyed.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniya has called for urgent talks with Egypt and his Palestinian rival, President Mahmoud Abbas, on border crossings.

"We do not want to control everything, we are part of the Palestinian people," Mr Haniya said, apparently in response to an offer from Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayad to control Gaza's borders - so far rejected by Israel.

Hamas has controlled Gaza since last June.

In recent months the border has been mostly sealed, in an understanding between Israel and Egypt.

Bird flu scare: Almost half of WB hit

2008-01-23T10:59:00.004-08:00

KOLKATA: Bird flu has spread to almost half of West Bengal with Cooch Behar and Hooghly being added on Wednesday to the list of districts affected by the disease even as the authorities said they may have to raise the target of culling 20 lakh chicken.

Death of chicken was also reported from Howrah, bordering Kolkata.

Even in the already affected districts of Nadia and Murshidabad districts, more blocks have reported the disease, local administration officials said.

"Samples of chicken sent from Cooch Behar and Hooghly districts to the High-risk Security Disease Laboratory (HSDL) in Bhopal yesterday tested positive," Animal Resources Development Minister Anisur Rahaman said on Wednesday.

Nine districts -- Birbhum, Murshidabad, South Dinajpur, Burdwan, Nadia, Bankura and Malda Cooch Behar and Hooghly -- out of 19 in the state have so far fallen prey to avian flu.

"Steps are being taken to officially notify both districts as bird flu affected for the next course of action including culling," Rahaman said.

‘The samples which tested positive were from Dinhata in Cooch Behar district and Balagarh in Hooghly district. There was, however, no case of humans beings being affected’, the minister said.

The target of culling, set at 20 lakh spread over seven days, was also likely to be raised, he said.

The daily target now was three lakh with 600 teams on the job from today, he said.

Embattled Italy PM backed by MPs

2008-01-23T10:59:00.003-08:00

Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi has won a first vote of confidence in the lower chamber of parliament.
As expected, the Chamber of Deputies voted by a majority of 51 to keep the centre-left coalition.

But all eyes are on the Senate, where the loss of a small allied party has cost Mr Prodi his majority. A vote there has been set for Thursday.

Mr Prodi has been urged to resign before then - including by the country's president.

The crisis was sparked by the withdrawal on Monday of the centrist Udeur party - and its three seats - from Mr Prodi's ruling coalition, costing the prime minister his Senate majority of one.

'Reprieve'

Udeur party leader and former justice minister, Clemente Mastella, pulled out after being forced to quit last week following his implication in a corruption inquiry.

Three other senators, including the former Prime Minister, Lamberto Dini, urged Mr Prodi to quit on Wednesday to avoid holding the Senate vote.

Polls suggest a snap election could see a Silvio Berlusconi comeback

The BBC's Christian Fraser in Rome says the lower house vote was a reprieve for Mr Prodi.

Our correspondent says there are always shifting loyalties in Italian politics and plenty of phone calls are no doubt being made to try to muster support - but it looks increasingly unlikely the prime minister can win in the Senate.

Silvio Berlusconi, the conservative former prime minister who was beaten by Mr Prodi in 2006 elections, wants to see the premier defeated in the Senate.

This would trigger calls for snap elections, which polls suggest Mr Berlusconi's centre-right Forza Italia party could win comfortably, our correspondent says.

He says the other more likely option, favoured by President Giorgio Napolitano, is a caretaker government capable of bringing all these different sides together to force through much needed electoral reforms, before a future election is held.

Forced annulment of marriage keeps Saudi couple apart

2008-01-23T10:59:00.001-08:00

RIYADH: Two years ago, a knock on Fatima and Mansour al-Timani's door shattered the life they had built together.
It was the police, delivering news that a judge had annulled their marriage in absentia after some of Fatima's relatives sought the divorce on grounds she had married beneath her.

That was just the beginning of an ordeal for a couple who — under Saudi Arabia's strict segregation rules — can no longer live together. They sued to reverse the ruling, publicized their story and sought help from a Saudi human rights group.

But the two remain apart and Fatima said she is considering suicide if her recent appeal to King Abdullah does not reunite her with her husband. "Only the king can resolve my case," Fatima told The Associated Press by telephone. "I want to return to my husband, but if that is not possible, I need to know so I can put an end to my life."

Fatima's case underscores shortcomings in the kingdom's Islamic legal system in which rules of evidence are shaky, lawyers are not always present and sentences often depend on the whim of judges.

The most frequent victims are women, who already suffer severe restrictions on daily life in Saudi Arabia: They cannot drive, appear before a judge without a male representative, or travel abroad without a male guardian's permission.

Recently, the king did intervene and pardon another high-profile defendant — a rape victim who was sentenced to lashes and jail time for being in a car with a man who was not her relative.

The two cases have brought Saudi human rights once again into the international spotlight, revealing not only the weakness of the kingdom's justice system, but the scant rights of Saudi women.

Nine killed, 75 injured in bomb blast in Iraq

2008-01-23T10:56:00.000-08:00

BAGHDAD: At least nine people were killed and 75 wounded when an unoccupied building blew up in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Wednesday, just as police arrived to investigate a tip that weapons were inside, police said.

Women and children were among the victims, police said, but it was unclear if they were on the street outside the building at the time or if the explosion had damaged nearby houses.

Witnesses described the blast as one of the biggest explosions ever heard in ethnically and religiously mixed Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, and said a huge plume of smoke rose above the largest city in northern Iraq.

Brigadier-General Abdul Kareem al-Jubouri, head of the operations room in the Mosul police command, said police had been tipped off that a large cache of explosives and weapons were in the building.

"It seems that when the insurgents discovered that police and army forces had reached the building, they detonated (the explosives)," Jubouri said.

Police had appealed for heavy equipment to help free people possibly trapped by debris, Jubouri said.

Mosul is the capital of Nineveh province, one of Iraq's northern regions where US and Iraqi forces this year have launched offensives against Sunni Islamist Al-Qaida fighters who are most often blamed for large-scale bombings in Iraq.

The offensives were carried out after Al-Qaida militants were squeezed from former strongholds in western Anbar province and areas around Baghdad by security crackdowns last year.

In another attack in northern Iraq, a suicide car bomb killed seven people and wounded 16 others about 40 km (25 miles) from the city of Kirkuk, police said.

Despite persistent bombings in northern Iraq, violence has fallen sharply across the country, with overall attacks down by 60 percent since last June.

US and Iraqi officials credit the deployment of an extra 30,000 US troops and the growing use of mainly Sunni Arab neighbourhood police units in areas where local citizens turned against Al-Qaida for the drop in violence.

US soldiers, backed by attack aircraft, killed 20 suspected Al-Qaida fighters in raids in northern Iraq over the past two days, the US military said.

In the biggest operation, US ground troops seeking an Al-Qaida network leader near the Diyala provincial capital Baquba called in air support after encountering a number of militants who took up "fighting positions".

"Responding in self-defence, the ground force called supporting aircraft to engage the hostile force, killing 10 terrorists," the US military said in a statement.

Another three were killed in a nearby building and weapons caches including machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades, roadside bombs, artillery and mortar rounds and other ammunition were also found, the military said.

Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad, and Mosul have become the two biggest headaches for US and Iraqi security forces battling Al-Qaida, which the military calls the greatest threat to security in Iraq.

India against French move to honour Taslima

2008-01-23T10:55:00.001-08:00

NEW DELHI: India has opposed a French government move to present a prestigious award to controversial Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen in New Delhi during the upcoming visit of President Nicholas Sarkozy.

Nasreen, who has been kept in virtual confinement somewhere in Delhi, was named as recipient of Simone de Beauvoir Award by the French government on January 9.

Sensing that she would not be able to travel out of India to receive the award named after famous writer Beauvoir, France had proposed to honour her during Sarkozy's two-day visit to New Delhi from Friday.

The Ministry of External Affairs, however, has conveyed to the French government that it disfavours such a move, sources said.

The government, wary of repercussions, has cited the recent violence here over her writings as the reason for disfavouring such a conferment, the sources said.

Widespread violence was witnessed in West Bengal a few months back after some radical Islamists demanded that she be thrown out of the country for hurting the sentiments of Muslims through her writings.

The government has said she was free to travel outside the country to receive the award given to her for her writings on women's rights.

Responding to the announcement of the award, Nasreen had said over phone from an undisclosed location that she felt "honoured".

"This honour coming on Beauvoir's 100th birth anniversary gives solace at this period. More because I am honoured in France for my writings and views while facing harassment in Bangladesh and India," she had said.

A Modi temple in Gujarat

2008-01-09T02:15:00.000-08:00

Love him - rather worship him - or hate him, Gujarat's larger than life Chief Minister Narendra Modi cannot be ignored. In fact, there is a small temple dedicated to him.
There is a full-size photograph of Modi at the temple that came up about two years ago at the entrance to Bhojpara village of Vankaner sub-district in Rajkot district.
Full Coverage: Gujarat Assembly Polls Let us all salute Narendra Modi'
The small temple was built by about 110 families of snake charmers who had been living a nomadic life in that area of Saurashtra.
"We were living in tents on the outskirts of Bhojpara two years ago, where Modi's government allocated land to us and we have now got our own houses," Nathusing, a community elder, told a Gujarati newspaper.
"Earlier our children used to spend time catching snakes or scorpions, now they are going to school," he said.
Grateful for this help, the community reveres him as nothing less than a god and congregates for prayers at the temple twice a day, the report said.
Modi's demigod status, which was enhanced after last month's election victory in the state, has also inspired a fan to pen a "Modi chalisa" on the lines of the Hanuman chalisa, a 40-verse salutation to the Hindu deity.

Delhi highly unsafe for NorthEast women: Report

2008-01-09T02:14:00.000-08:00

Almost half the women sexually harassed in the Indian capital and its neighbourhood are from the NorthEast, the NorthEast Support Centre said in its report on Wednesday. Two sisters from Manipur who were molested and beaten up last weekend were only the latest victims from the region. Madhu Chandra, the man behind the Northeast Support Centre and Helpline, a help centre dedicated to youth from the northeast living in Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR), said they were flooded with complaints related to sexual harassment. `It`s been just three months since we launched the Northeast Support Centre and we have received more than 10 reports of sexual harassment,` Chandra said. `From what we have researched and according to media reports, we have found that nearly 50 percent of the cases of sexual harassment are targeted at women from the northeast.` The Delhi-NCR region has nearly 85,000 people from the northeast. More than 4,000 northeastern youth take admission to various undergraduate and other courses in Delhi University every year. Chandana Saikia from Assam who graduated from Delhi University and is now working in a public relations firm in the capital said that even after seven years of staying in this city, she didn`t feel safe or secure. `Every other day we keep hearing of cases of molestation and sexual harassment in Delhi. Although I take all of this in my stride, my parents back at home are always worried and give me panic calls if they can`t get through my phone,` Saikia said. `But despite giving everyone an impression that nothing scares me, I am always on my guard. Even after seven years of staying in the capital, I don`t feel at home here,` she added. Similarly, Lara Subba from Manipur, who lives with her friend in north Delhi, said she doesn`t feel secure in the capital at all and constantly feels threatened. `The other day I and my friend were coming in a rickshaw when two men started following us, calling us `chinkies` and passing lewd remarks. Scared, I started screaming at the top of my voice, which made them change their route,` Subba said. `Just because we look different and wear more Western outfits, people think that they can take us for granted. That`s why we usually stick together, with people from our own community.` In May 2005, a 19-year-old Delhi University student from the northeast was raped by four men in a moving car after dragging her from a roadside eatery in south Delhi`s Dhaula Kuan area. The sensational case made headlines for days. In September last year, there was a huge outcry when three northeastern girls were molested in the Delhi University campus. Then in December, the Northeast Support Centre received a complaint from a girl from Manipur working as a receptionist in a private company in Gurgaon that her boss molested her in the office. Similarly, a minor northeastern girl in Gurgaon is still suffering after she was molested three times in December by her house owner. Ranjana Kumari, director of the Centre for Social Research and president of Women Power Connect (WPC), said this issue is more prevalent in the northern belt because of the mindset of the men. `In the northern belt, the mindset is such that the men believe they can control women physically. That`s why they can`t stand the freedom of sexuality that men and women in the northeast enjoy,` Kumari said. `There`s no way out of this problem but for women to take charge of these issues. In this regard, we will be observing a National Shame day across the country, hopefully coinciding with the Women`s day March 8, to tell people that women must be respected.` D C Srivastava, the Deputy Commissioner of Police, north Delhi, however, said that in the past year-and-a-half, they have registered just two cases of sexual harassment against northeastern women. `The number of such cases is not that high,` he said. The reason for this, according to Chandra, is that victims of sexual or any other kind of harassment hesitate to lodge an official complaint with the police. `Staying so far away from home and not wanting to get into any complicated situation, most complainants who come to us hesitate to approach the police and lodge a First Information Report (FIR),` Chandra said. `When we tell them that we are not here to replace the police, but help facilitate smoother communication with them, they leave the case at that. That`s why most of the crimes go unreported and the accused goes scot-free. This is a major hurdle that we are facing,` Chandra said.

ICC replaces Bucknor, way cleared for Perth Test

2008-01-09T02:12:00.000-08:00

The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Tuesday announced steps to facilitate the smooth running of the remainder of the Test series between India and Australia.
The governing body will replace umpire Steve Bucknor with Billy Bowden for the third Test, scheduled to start in Perth on January 16. Bowden will stand with Asad Rauf, who was originally appointed for the Test.
The pair will also officiate in the final Test at Adelaide as scheduled.
ICC chief referee Ranjan Madugalle will travel to Perth to help match referee Mike Procter and the two captains re-establish an atmosphere of goodwill and mutual respect.
The ICC also confirmed that it has received an official notification from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) of its appeal against the finding that Indian off-spinner Harbhajan Singh was guilty of making a racist remark to Australian all-rounder Andrew Symonds.
A Code of Conduct Commissioner will be named to hear the appeal, though it’s unlikely that the hearing will take place before the third Test. According to the Code of Conduct regulations, Harbhajan, who had received a three-Test ban, may continue to play pending the verdict of the appeal.
The BCCI had asked for the removal of Bucknor from the third Test, but ICC Chief Executive Officer Malcolm Speed said in a statement that the umpire “was not replaced due to any representations made by any team or individuals” but “in the best interests of the game and the series.”Pawar thanks ICC
Chennai Special Correspondent writes:
BCCI’s Working Committee, which met in New Delhi late on Tuesday, said India’s tour of Australia would continue but would be reviewed by the Board “continuously.”
BCCI president Sharad Pawar earlier appreciated the ICC for replacing umpire Bucknor for the third Test. He told reporters: “We had appealed to the ICC to review the performance of the umpires in the last two matches and take appropriate action. I’m grateful that the ICC has taken this decision and removed him [Bucknor].”
He denied the cash-rich BCCI had exerted any pressure on the ICC. Said Mr. Pawar: “Let me make it clear that it is the prerogative of the ICC whether ‘A’ or ‘B’ should be appointed or should continue or discontinue as an umpire. So it is solely an ICC decision. Our request was only that they should review the performance of the umpires.”
The Board chief was also pleased that Harbhajan could now play in Perth. “Malcolm Speed had made it clear that there was no problem in Harbhajan playing and he would play in the next match against Australia,” he said.
Mr. Pawar added: “We have contacted Mr. Speed and he made it clear that in principle, ICC is going to appoint a Commissioner [Code of Conduct].” Hogg charged
On a day of developments, Australian spinner Brad Hogg was charged under Level 3 of the ICC Code of Conduct for alleged verbal abuse of India skipper Anil Kumble and vice-captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni during the second Test.
An ICC press release said the preliminary date for hearing has been set for January 14 in Perth under match referee Procter.
Board Treasurer N. Srinivasan, reading out a statement, said, “The BCCI is of the categorical view that the matter will have to be finally resolved and the unfair allegation made against an Indian player be set aside.”

Kumble rested for practice match, Dhoni to lead Team India

2008-01-09T02:10:00.000-08:00

Indian captain Anil Kumble on Wednesday announced that Mahendra Singh Dhoni will lead Team India in the practice match against Australian Capital XI, which starts in Canberra tomorrow. The announcement came after the team arrived in the Australian capital earlier in the day, amid controversy surrounding India’s tour Down Under. Speaking to the media, Kumble said that he would rest for the practice match. While Kumble was speaking to the media, news came in that the ICC has appointed New Zealand High Court judge John Hansen as Commissioner of Appeal to hear Harbhajan’s 3-Test ban case.Commenting on the Harbhajan ban issue, the skipper said that he was sure Bhajji never made that remark. The team is now waiting for the Jan 14th hearing, he added. Members of Team India have openly come out in support of Harbhajan.“It’s important to move on. Cricket is larger than life,” Kumble said. “We are thankful to BCCI for backing us on this serious issue,” he added.
Kumble further said that the practice match would be a good chance for players to strike form.The Indian team was scheduled to leave for Canberra immediately after the Sydney Test, but decided to stay back after the umpiring and racism controversy during the second Test put the tour in jeopardy.

ICC asks Cricket Australia to rein in Ponting & Co

2008-01-09T02:08:00.000-08:00

Melbourne, Jan 09: The ICC has urged Cricket Australia to rein in Ricky Ponting`s men in the light of all-round criticism of their on-field behaviour during the ill-tempered second Test against India. ICC CEO Malcolm Speed said CA needs to take notice of the criticism being directed at its team by the public, former players and commentators. "The team is being criticised, members of the team are being criticised and they need to to be aware of that -- they need to respond to that," Speed was quoted saying in a newspaper. "All national teams should play cricket in the right spirit. We need to be clear what that means," he said. Speed said he was relieved that the replacement of umpire Steve Bucknor prevented an international crisis. "We could have gone in banging the table and playing `who blinks first`, we could have turned what is already an international incident into an international crisis." "What we have elected to do, and we have given some serious thought about this, is to take one of the issues out of play," he said. Speed said the Sydney Test was played in an atmosphere riddled by racism claims, player behaviour issues and umpiring controversy, but expressed confidence that after Bucknor`s replacement and roping in of Ranjan Madugalle to work with the two captains, the unprecedented crisis would tide over. "There was unhappiness about the umpiring, we put a new umpiring team in place. And we start again from the umpiring perspective in Perth and, hopefully, focus on the matters on the pitch rather than exacerbating the crisis," he said.

Bosses beware: You are being appraised

2008-01-09T02:06:00.001-08:00

Mumbai: Instead of complaining about bosses on the sly after annual performance appraisals, corporate employees can now actually rate their employers.
In many organisations, the realisation has dawned that it is not just employees who need to be evaluated but also their bosses. The annual appraisal in Indian companies is usually conducted between January and April.
Traditionally, the feedback about employees and their performance is a one-way traffic - bosses appraising subordinates. But not anymore. Several organisations have adopted and implemented a two-way system of appraisal.
This, however, is not just a method to enable employees to vent their frustrations about their immediate superiors. "It is intended to be a team building and team strengthening process," said Robin Lloyd, vice-president and general manager, Lionbridge India, one of the largest manufacturers of credit cards in India.
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"Our company is a big believer of this method of appraisal but it is not considered a cribbing exercise for employees," Lloyd told IANS.
A multinational corporation like IT major Adobe believes superiors are not perfect, just as their employees are not perfect. "There could always be different types of impressions that different subordinates have on a single superior," Aparna Ballakur, Adobe director for human resources (HR), told IANS.
The two-way appraisal method could help identify and create a new generation of leaders from existing staff, she pointed out.
Mumbai-based HR consultancy firm GlobalLogic's assistant vice-president for human resources Iti Kumar said the company has also implemented the two-way appraisal method.
"At all levels, we have devised a different kind of feedback method for our employees. It is carried out round the year, not just before the annual appraisal period," Kumar said.
He said that if employees are not "empowered to appraise their superiors, the managers or bosses tend to become insensitive to the needs of the juniors and the team suffers".
In some organisations, employees are afforded varying levels of anonymity to ensure truthful feedback over their immediate superiors and prevent vendetta by the latter. Experts believe that the method goes a long way in helping the superior officer understand his or her own weaknesses at the workplace and adopt remedial measures with help from the company.
A growing number of companies are resorting to the reverse appraisal method as they are plagued by a high percentage of employee turnovers in recent times. They are applying three major methods like survey, questionnaire and one-to-one with the employee.
A survey among the employees helps find out the managerial, administrative, professional and general leadership qualities by which subordinates can assess their bosses.
Some organisations use questionnaires where employees submit their anonymous feedback on various questions within the leadership dimension of their reporting manager.
Based on the leadership feedback, the HR department prepares a scorecard, which is shared with the concerned manager, who in turn devises a concrete plan to improve his performance, as desired by his juniors.
In the one-to-one method, the manager meets with subordinates on a regular basis to understand the challenges faced by the employee during his routine duties.
The discussions are followed up by the manager drawing up action plans for resolving the issues raised by the employees.
AppLabs, a software company, follows a more open and interactive "skip method".
The employees and boss get together in a room and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of their team leader in the presence of a senior HR person. But this could have disastrous results too.
"We use this method to ascertain the confidence levels of both the employees and the boss," Makarand Teje, CEO, AppLabs, told IANS.
Maersk India Pvt Ltd follows an "upward feedback method", which is de-linked from the annual appraisal process. The purpose is not to assess but to provide valuable feedback.

Bhutto's death stokes regional rivalry

2008-01-09T02:05:00.000-08:00

KARACHI, Pakistan - When vast crowds paid their last respects to Benazir Bhutto before her burial, angry mourners from her native Sindh province chanted separatist slogans: "We don't want to be part of Pakistan!"

Although Bhutto, a two-time prime minister and leader of the country's biggest party, was an icon of Pakistani nationalism, her violent death in the heart of Punjab province has laid bare bitter regional rivalries in a nation carved out of the subcontinent after British colonial rule ended 60 years ago.
Many among the ethnically distinct peoples in Pakistan's three minority provinces harbor deep resentment toward the most populous province of Punjab, which dominates the government, military and allocation of federal resources.
Aside from bubbling tensions in Sindh, Pakistan is grappling with outright separatist rebellion in the deserts of Baluchistan, as well as escalating militancy in the North West Frontier province near Afghanistan.
A breakup of the federation is unlikely, but Bhutto's slaying touched a particularly raw nerve as she was the third Pakistani prime minister from Sindh to have died a violent death. The Islamic nation's first premier, Liaquat Ali Khan, was shot dead in 1951, and her father Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was executed in 1979 for allegedly conspiring to kill a rival.
All three died in Rawalpindi, the garrison city of the Punjabi-dominated army — a fact not lost on the thousands who gathered for Benazir's funeral at her ancestral home, where she was buried beside her father. Bhutto herself had also claimed elements of the Punjabi-dominated ruling party were seeking to kill her, claims that it denied.
"After all this they are asking us to calm down ... why should we?" asked Pir Bakhsh Jhakrani, a messenger in his 50s living in Larkana, the Bhutto clan's stronghold. "Those ruling the country should stop conspiring against Sindh if they want to keep the country intact."
Bhutto's death on Dec. 27 sparked the worst unrest in Pakistan in years — most of it focused in Sindh where ethnic nationalists have been calling for more power since the rule of Islamist military dictator Gen. Zia ul-Haq, under whose rule Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was convicted and killed.
"We will only stay in Pakistan which must be a democratic, secular Pakistan where we are an equal partner in state affairs," said Qader Magsi, chairman of the Sindh Taraqi Pasand Party, or Sindh Progressive Party.
Secessionist sentiments remain strongest in neighboring Baluchistan, Pakistan's biggest and poorest province, where the army is deployed to fight ethnic rebels who often attack energy infrastructure — much of the natural gas piped into homes in Punjab originates here.
Sardar Attaullah Mengal, chief of Baluchistan National Party, alleged the rebels were motivated by torture and abduction of young men by government forces.
"Baluchistan has been made a colony of Punjab and Baluchis will never accept living in Pakistan as a colony," said Mengal, a former chief minister of the province. "Punjab will have to give rights to Baluchistan and other provinces on the basis of equality if they have to live in Pakistan. Any other status lesser than that is not acceptable."
Ethnic Pashtuns who live in areas bordering Afghanistan where they are the majority — mostly in the volatile northwest — also said the political balance must shift.
"Pakistan cannot run the way they are running the federation: that Pakistan is Punjab and Punjab is Pakistan," said Asfandyar Wali Khan, president of the Awami National Party, Pakistan's largest Pashtun nationalist group.
Still, few citizens even in the three minority provinces want outright separation from Pakistan. Memories of the country's last painful division are still fresh.
It was under the presidency of Bhutto's father that eastern Pakistan splintered off into today's Bangladesh in the early 1970s after a humiliating military defeat by India. His charismatic rule during that time spawned the political legacy that carried over to his daughter.
Quetta photo shop owner Asadullah Baluch, 28, said his people just want more autonomy.
"If Baluchistan is given control over its resources and the province is allowed to participate in national affairs, and the province is given representation in the establishment and foreign services, this conflict will end," he said.
Rasul Bakhsh Rais, a political scientist at the Lahore University of Management Sciences, said Islamic militancy rather than ethnic movements posed the biggest threat to the federation.
Pro-Taliban militants have grabbed control of lawless, semiautonomous tribal regions such as South and North Waziristan, where the U.S. fears al-Qaida is regrouping. They have also challenged the government's authority further inland in the North West Frontier Province.
"Ethnic nationalists can be negotiated with and many of their demands for sharing power and allocating resources are legitimate. These can be settled," Rais said. "But the Taliban are using force to threaten the border regions of Pakistan."

Supreme Court to Hear Arguments Challenging Voter ID Law

2008-01-09T02:04:00.000-08:00

One thing the caucus-goers in Iowa last week and the voters Tuesday in New Hampshire have in common is that none of them had to present a photo-identity card to election workers in order to vote.
Sure, each of the record-breaking voters in both states had to offer some proof that they were properly participating — but pulling out a valid state-issued ID was not part of the process. That would not have been the case had these early election days been contested in Indiana.
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court will hear arguments challenging the Hoosier State’s controversial 2005 voter ID law. It’s the highest-profile Republican v. Democrat case to reach the high court since the infamous 2000 Bush v. Gore lawsuit that effectively decided that year’s presidential race.
This case doesn’t have as much at stake, but has still managed to inflame the passions of political partisans even during this primary season.
The law was passed on a party-line vote by a Republican-controlled legislature and signed into law by Governor Mitch Daniels — also a Republican.
Those in favor of it argue that the law is necessary to help prevent election fraud at the polls. They also note that the Indiana law is one part of a nationwide trend since the controversial Florida ballot counting in 2000 to maintain and improve the integrity of the election process. And they say that the law effectively combats bloated voter registration lists that could be ripe for abuse.
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"The Indiana Voter ID Law establishes reasonable, long-overdue election-security reform in a State highly vulnerable to in-person election fraud," the state’s solicitor general wrote to the high court.
Conversely, opponents of the law say it has the potential to unfairly and illegally disfranchise 43,000 Indiana residents who do not or can not obtain a valid government-issued identification card. They say that those who will be negatively impacted are mainly senior citizens, the poor, the homeless, the disabled, minorities and people who live in the state’s handful of urban areas.
Critics also question the necessity of the law, which they call the most draconian in the country, pointing out that at no point in Indiana’s history has anyone been charged with fraud at an election poll.
"[T]he Legislature took no steps to curtail the problem which it actually had some evidence —absentee voting-related fraud," wrote attorneys for the petitioners in this case. The state contends such a history isn’t necessary to justify the law.
Those opposed further contend that it will be too much of a burden for some of these Indiana residents to get a valid ID for the purpose of voting. They argue that the time and expense of getting a state ID is a "daunting process" and cite generalized examples of people who had problems working with the State’s Bureau of Motor Vehicles.
But the state questions the legal standing of the petitioners and wonders "how onerous can the law be if a major political party, two seasoned candidates and four substantial political-interest groups cannot find even one person injured by it?"
Underlying the arguments in this case is the racial context that has raised the sensitivities of those mindful of past "reform" laws that were improperly used to prevent minorities groups from exercising their electoral rights.
The petitioners write that "the history of voting in the United States is replete with examples of sinister efforts to disfranchise voters which were accepted by courts that refused to look behind the assertion of an innocent purpose."
Joining this refrain in amicus briefs are the NAACP and a group of historians who liken the law to the notorious poll taxes.
In response, Indiana rejects any claims of malicious motives behind the legislation.
"The voter ID law represents a reasonable, non-discriminatory exercise of elections clause authority that, just as the founders envisioned, takes account of ‘change in the situation of the country’ and advances the agenda of election modernization," the state wrote.
To that final point, Republican Sens. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Robert Bennett of Utah and Kit Bond of Missouri wrote a brief to the court in support of Indiana’s law, arguing that it comports with the federal "Help America Vote Act" passed in 2002. Twenty-six Republican members of the House of Representatives also added their names to the brief.
The trial court consolidated the legal challenges and ruled that the petitioners, including the Indiana Democratic Party, had standing to bring the case.
But that court also determined that the law was reasonable, finding that it did not create a severe burden on the right to vote. A divided Seventh Circuit affirmed the ruling, concluding in part that because the number of people disfranchised by the law was small, the state’s action was justified.

People stil love pirates

2008-01-09T02:01:00.003-08:00

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End scored a hat trick for the billion-dollar Disney franchise Tuesday at the 34th Annual People's Choice Awards, becoming the third film in the series to be named Favorite Movie and, incidentally, the first to win for Favorite Threequel.
Johnny Depp, in turn, was named Favorite Male Movie Star for the third straight year, and costar Keira Knightley got the nod for Favorite Female Action Star.
There was a new top duo in town this year, however: George Clooney and Brad Pitt in Ocean's Thirteen shared the award for Favorite Onscreen Match-Up, proving that a little male bonding goes a long way.
Meanwhile, Reese Witherspoon won for Female Movie Star and Matt Damon's quiet yet ruthless determination in The Bourne Ultimatum beat out Depp's more flamboyant tactics for Male Action Star honors.
The Johnny to Witherspoon's June, Joaquin Phoenix, was named Favorite Leading Man, and Drew Barrymore captured the Favorite Leading Lady title.
But while the list of honorees was business as usual for the fan-driven kudosfest, for which "the People" voted online for their faves based on nominations compiled by a market research firm, the show itself was a major departure.
In light of the ongoing writers' strike, producers and CBS scrapped the usual ceremonial proceedings for more of a retrospective-style format—a major twist for the People's Choice Awards. Or, really, for any awards show.
Host Queen Latifah was responsible for both the banter (which mostly consisted of delivering various lines in either an affected falsetto or in her booming jazz voice) and for announcing all the winners that could be squeezed into the two-hour broadcast.
"The thing about the People's Choice Awards that's different from everybody else is it's the people's choice," Latifah, who gamely donned a black evening gown for the occasion, said. "So as much as we actors and writers and everyone are dealing with the writers' strike and supporting the Writers Guild, you can't disrespect the people who keep us working—and that's the people.
"Ten million people logged on and voted for everyone, so out of respect for them," the show had to go on.
Of course, there wasn't time to pass out all 35-plus trophies, but the decision of who to include on camera probably coincided with whoever was able to tape an acceptance speech ahead of time.
And many of those available took the opportunity to acknowledge the strike that has turned awards season on its head.
"There is a strike with our writers going on and, as all actors know, we're nothing without our writers. But we're also nothing without our audience," Witherspoon said in thanking the fans for voting and in encouraging them to check out the upcoming Four Christmases with Vince Vaughn. She taped her speech from the set of the holiday comedy.
Phoenix chose to make a statement without saying a word, flipping through cue cards that read, "I'm speechless without the writers...Seriously...But in my own quiet way, I want to thank the millions of fans that voted for me for Favorite Leading Man."

Microsoft Buys Fast, Plays Catch-Up

2008-01-09T02:01:00.002-08:00

Ever lagging in the lucrative business of Internet search and related ads, Microsoft (MSFT) is dipping into its cash reserve to buy a Norwegian company it hopes will create a new flank in its bid to chip away at Google's market dominance. Microsoft said Jan. 8 it is purchasing Fast Search & Transfer for $1.23 billion, paying a 42% premium for technology to compete in the expanding market for corporate search software.
Fast sells search engines that let companies comb through the gobs of digital information they generate these days, a capability where Microsoft's current search arsenal comes up short. Using Fast's software, employees can find operational data stored in the vast array of folders and databases on their corporate servers. The technology is also used to let consumers sift through online product catalogs more quickly; retailer Best Buy (BBY) used Fast's software to improve the search engine on its Web site this past holiday season.

Sarkozy in Love

2008-01-09T02:01:00.001-08:00

PARIS -- Does the president of a 21st-century democratic nation have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? Or is he sworn to some kind of secular celibacy . . . at least in appearance? The French media gossip mill has been grinding over Nicolas Sarkozy's romantic life ever since the recently divorced president met Carla Bruni at a dinner party in the home of PR wizard Jacques Ségala in mid-November. Today, as the nation totters between the high price of gasoline and the threat of terrorism -- the 30th edition of the Paris-Dakar rally was canceled because of credible threats from al Qaeda in the Maghreb -- 650 journalists of over 40 different nationalities yesterday gathered for the president's first press conference, craning necks and cupping ears to get the first official echoes of a forthcoming "I do."
The President and Carla on Christmas holiday, 2007.
Rosalyne Febvere of French international TV channel France 24 popped the question. Complimenting the press for its exquisite patience in waiting until the second question to interrogate him about his private life, the president replied frankly and logically. He has deliberately chosen to break with the longstanding "lying" in this domain. A president has neither more nor less right than his fellow citizens to the pursuit of happiness. He and Carla Bruni chose to be open without flaunting their relationship. Yes, they did take her 5-year-old son to Disneyland near Paris. "How original," mocks the president. "If the photos are shocking, don't send photographers." In Egypt in December, they visited the pyramids. "How original," exclaims the president. "If you don't want to instrumentalize it, don't send photographers." He concluded: The relationship with Carla "is serious." But it's not up to the Journal de Dimanche, the paper that reported a wedding for Feb. 8 or 9, to set the date. You'll probably hear about it after it's done, he said.
Are they going to elope? I don't think so! Even in these days of a snug European Union, a president wouldn't marry out of his country. But isn't it touching to see the eternal French values of sensual love honored, with variations, at the summit of the state, in the persons of a first-generation Frenchman with origins in Hungary and Thessaloniki, and an Italian Frenchwoman whose family moved to France to escape threats from the Brigata Rossa?
French media, like alcoholics, take their first potshot at President Sarkozy every morning before breakfast. They snoop, snap, splash every bit of gossip they can get their hands on, and then accuse the president of "le people-ization" of political life. "People," in English in the French text, means gossip about stars, or "people." As millions of disappointed wannabes can testify, a person can't become a "people" unless the media consent.
As a quick review of postwar presidents will confirm, Nicolas Sarkozy is closer to the romantic lead than many of his predecessors. And as he rightly observed, their private lives were covered with a veil of "hypocrisy." The press, the secret service and the betrayed wives knew. When the citizens finally knew -- when François Mitterand's illegitimate daughter Mazarine Pingeot appeared with her mother at the funeral -- opinion-makers led the public in a chorus of oohs and aaahs. How chic of them -- wife, mistress, children and journalists -- to hide this from us all these years, and how super chic of them to display it now, on this solemn occasion. It would be too boring to tick off the turpitudes of all those stuffy-looking heads of state.
The difference is that Nicolas Sarkozy's love life looks sexy. His second wife, Cécilia, former Schiaparelli model but no empty-headed clothes horse, was rather coldly elegant and, in the past few years, looked sad and lost her dazzle, though she was no sexless first lady. Carla Bruni, whose high cheekbones echo Cécilia's and suggest a possible fascination with his Hungarian origins, has not one but a whole series of reputations that would make a 19th-century Englishwoman blush.
Carla Bruni is the liberated woman that feminine magazines have glorified for decades. That kind of freewheeling, unashamedly hearty sexual appetite and success has been the role model ever since . . . well, ever since Simone de Beauvoir, whose nude photo (back view) is on the cover of this week's Nouvel Observateur. It dates from her fling with Nelson Algren. The staid priestess of feminine independence, the dry companion of philosophical guru Sartre, went head over heels in love with Algren, offering to be his doormat and who knows what else.
President Sarkozy offered Carla Bruni a pink heart-shaped diamond. She offered him a Piaget watch. The president, looking like any French father, was photographed in Petra with Ms. Bruni's son Aurélien perched on his shoulders. A lawyer for the boy's father, philosophy professor Raphaël Enthoven, has warned media to respect the child's privacy. Two years ago Bruni separated from Mr. Enthoven, who was formerly married to Justine Lévy, the daughter of pop-philosopher Bernard-Henri (or as everyone calls him BHL), who is married to the actress and singer Arielle Dombasle.
So what else is new? Power has always sought beauty, which has always been attracted to power. (One of the more far-fetched of the many conquests of this possible future first lady was, reportedly, former Socialist PM Laurent Fabius . . . which she denies.) Recomposed families are all right for the common people. Why should they be denied to Mr. Sarkozy? And what exactly explains the mixed feelings provoked by the undisguised romantic adventures of a charming young president?
It's the shattered dream of romantic purity that haunts our modern age. The secret hope of perfect love, virgin, innocent, immutable. Somewhere in the corner of every heart lies the wild hope of escaping from our hard-won freedom to love and lose, to try and try again, expose our intimacy, and retrieve it, hopefully unsullied. We want one love, now and forever.
And if the couple on the wedding cake can't spin in eternal fulfillment, we have expected our presidents to maintain the illusion. Shall we blame Nicolas Sarkozy for smashing that illusion? Why not just wish him well in his new life.

Microsoft bids $1.2B for Norway's Fast

2008-01-09T01:53:00.000-08:00

SEATTLE - Microsoft Corp. said Tuesday it agreed to buy a Norwegian search company for $1.2 billion, aiming to shore up its search technology for businesses against competition from Oracle Corp. and IBM Corp.
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Microsoft's cash offer of 19 kroner ($2.97) per share for Fast Search & Transfer ASA represented a 42 percent premium over the stock's Jan. 4 closing price.
Fast, a 10-year-old company based in Oslo, is one of the biggest enterprise search players. Its technology, like those of competitors Autonomy Corp. and Endeca Technologies Inc., helps workers inside a business locate data kept in a tangle of different types of files and databases.
It could, for example, find benefits information posted on a company intranet, an annual report from five years ago buried in a folder on a file server, the name of a colleague with a certain expertise or figures from software that tracks customer relationships.
Beyond that, Fast and its high-end competitors let programmers at big businesses build custom applications, such as powerful industry-specific search engines or Web sites that display content generated dynamically by searches behind the scenes. For example, Best Buy Co.'s Web site uses Fast technology to refine product searches by different criteria, like manufacturer or size, based on available inventory.
In 2007, Fast's share price sank after accounting problems and a restructuring that took a big bite out of earnings. In the third quarter, Fast posted a loss of more than $100 million.
Jeff Raikes, president of Microsoft's business software division, said in a conference call that Microsoft was fully aware of the accounting issue and that its depressed stock price did not factor into the decision to buy.
"We looked at a variety of companies in the marketplace," Raikes said. "We feel very strongly that Fast has the best team of people, the best technology."
Microsoft has its own stable of enterprise search technology, including a search server product and the search function built into its Sharepoint collaboration platform.
Raikes described Fast's products as more sophisticated and able to perform more-detailed searches, sift smartly through more types of files and handle more documents — billions, instead of millions.
"It's our belief that this is a very hot, fast-growing area," Raikes said. "We believe it will be for workers tomorrow what Internet search is for consumers today."
Forrester Research analyst Ken Poore called the buyout "a big deal." In an interview, Poore said Microsoft's search strategy has been weak, leaving the software maker trailing behind not only big players like Fast, but also Oracle and IBM, who have been investing in the technology in recent years.
"By going out and acquiring Fast, in my opinion, they've kind of leapfrogged" IBM and Oracle, Poore said.
Jim Murphy, an analyst for AMR Research, said the acquisition was made in large part to protect Microsoft from encroaching competitors. He speculated that the high purchase price was driven by competing bids — perhaps including Oracle, who, along with SAP AG, doesn't want to see its own customers paying for a third-party tool to search its database.
While Microsoft and Fast executives focused mainly on business search in comments Tuesday, Fast also has roots in the consumer Web. Its search engine, AlltheWeb.com, was folded into Yahoo Inc. through an acquisition.
Just last year, Fast launched a Web advertising network to challenge Google Inc.'s dominance in the very lucrative ad arena.
Microsoft would not say how its own Web search and advertising business, which lag far behind Google's in terms of traffic and revenue, will benefit from the acquisition.
According to a statement, Microsoft will make a formal offer next week. Fast's board of directors and shareholders representing 37 percent of outstanding shares have already signed off. The deal is expected to close in the second quarter, pending further shareholder and regulatory approvals.
Microsoft shares fell $1.16, or 3.4 percent, to close at $33.45. Shares of Fast leapt ahead $5.45, nearly 41 percent, to close $18.80 on the Oslo stock exchange.

Bhutto's son admits inexperience

2008-01-09T01:52:00.000-08:00

LAHORE, PAKISTAN -- He may be the world's only national political party leader who is still a teenage college student. Or whose breathless female fans plead that he not be assassinated "because he's so hot."On Tuesday, 19-year-old Bilawal Bhutto Zardari surfaced for his first public appearance since he was anointed the titular head of the Pakistan People's Party, or PPP, which his mother, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, led before she was killed in a gun and bomb attack Dec. 27.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari
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Bhutto inquiry gains leeway
Composed and articulate, the reedy, bespectacled college student defended his backroom appointment, despite his youth and inexperience, and asked the media to respect his privacy while he completed his undergraduate degree at Oxford University."Politics is . . . in my blood, and although I admit that my experience to date is limited, I intend to learn," Bhutto Zardari told reporters during a brief news conference at a London hotel. "However, my immediate priority is to return to Oxford to continue my studies."He added that he was "only too willing to give time to talk to journalists, and I should like to continue a good relationship, but in moderation. . . . When I am at Oxford, I hope that I can be left alone."That may be a tall order now that the world's attention is upon him, as well as the burden of history and the expectations of so many fellow Pakistanis. Although life was never completely normal for Bhutto Zardari as the eldest child of an internationally famous figure who hobnobbed with the world's elite, it will certainly never be the same.His appointment by party officials Dec. 30 as joint head of the PPP, along with his father, threw into sharp relief the propensity toward dynastic politics that pervades South Asia. In India, three generations of the Nehru-Gandhi family have held the nation's premiership, with a fourth-generation scion being groomed to continue the tradition. Leaders in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka bear illustrious surnames. Bhutan is ruled by a king. So, until recently, was Nepal.Bhutto Zardari's role in the party will be a ceremonial one at least until he finishes his studies, with his father, Asif Ali Zardari, acting as regent in the meantime.But thrusting such a major, and potentially dangerous, responsibility on him raises difficult questions about what the future holds for a youth who only a few years ago was devouring Buffy the Vampire Slayer comic books bought for him by his adoring mother."He'll have to grow up very quickly now," said Shafqat Mehmood, an analyst here in Pakistan and a friend of Benazir Bhutto.Her son inherits a family mantle stained heavily with blood. The PPP was founded by Bhutto's father, a onetime president and prime minister of Pakistan who was hanged by a usurping military dictator. One of her brothers died under mysterious circumstances, and the family believes he was poisoned; the other was killed in an ambush by Pakistani police. Bhutto was the target of deadly attacks before the one that claimed her life.In her will, she named her husband, Zardari, as head of the party. But the PPP is so closely identified with her side of the family that the party's core officials, apparently at Zardari's suggestion, picked as co-chairman their only son, who promptly added "Bhutto" to his name to emphasize the continuation of the pedigree."It was recognized at this moment of crisis the party needed a close association with my mother through the bloodline," Bhutto Zardari acknowledged at his news conference. "Also, it was important to give hope to the new generation of Pakistanis who were looking not just at the elections [Feb. 18] but beyond."Installing the teenager as the PPP's standard-bearer was an astute move in a society where loyalty to personalities and ruling families trumps loyalty to organizations and institutions, analysts said. The powerfully emotional symbolism of a Bhutto at the head of the party is impossible to underestimate. It can unify disparate elements and sets the seal of authenticity on the main PPP, versus breakaway factions headed by disaffected members.As a fresh young face, Bhutto Zardari can also offset some of the suspicion and hostility surrounding his father, who has been dogged by corruption charges and who was nicknamed "Mr. 10%" for his alleged taste for bribes when his wife was prime minister.But keeping control of the PPP firmly within the family drew plenty of criticism from those who noted the irony in a party whose late leader insisted to all who would listen on the need for democracy in Pakistan."This is not democracy. This is a dynasty system. The Bhutto family holds the power," complained Lahore resident Muhammad Iqbal, 27, a few days after Bhutto Zardari's elevation was announced.On Tuesday, the party heir defended his appointment by the PPP's executive committee. "It wasn't handed on like some piece of family furniture," he said. "They asked me to do it and I did."For Bhutto Zardari, whose formative years have been spent mostly outside Pakistan, grief over the loss of his mother is now compounded by the difficulties of life in a harsh and possibly perilous spotlight.At Oxford, he had tried to keep a lower profile by using the name "Bilawal Lawalib," the fake last name being his first name spelled backward. There is no anonymity now, not when journalists pore over every word in his Facebook profile to glean an insight into his likes and dislikes, or when others gossip about a photo showing him acting up in put-on devil horns next to a young blond. Being a regular 19-year-old is hardly an option anymore.

N.H. Primary to Shape White House Race

2008-01-08T04:33:00.000-08:00

Only five days after the Iowa caucuses opened the presidential race, New Hampshire took its turn Tuesday shaping an electric Democratic contest and a mystifying Republican one. Bidding for victory were a surging Barack Obama and a field full of would-be “comeback kids.”
In a sign of these fast-moving times, the nation’s first primary offered Obama a chance to become the clear favorite for the Democratic presidential nomination while John McCain and Mitt Romney competed head to head in a Republican race that could sink the aspirations of one of them.
Paradoxically, the struggle for primacy in the Democratic and Republican campaigns was, to an outsized degree, in the hands of independents who make up a large share of the voters here and by definition are not loyal to either party.
That was an opportunity for McCain, a GOP iconoclast who won New Hampshire against establishment pick George W. Bush in 2000, and for Obama, pressing hard to build a constituency broader than his party. But it also was a complication because they were dipping into the same nonaligned pool.
Even so, polls indicated Obama had pulled ahead of Hillary Rodham Clinton as she fought to write a “comeback kid” story to rival that of her husband, Bill, in 1992. The difference: His second-place finish in New Hampshire sparked his revival. As the presumptive national favorite until she finished third in Iowa, Hillary Clinton needed a win to get her equilibrium back.
In a northern New Hampshire hamlet tradition, voters of Dixville Notch and Hart’s Location cast the first 46 ballots of the primary season - half for Democrats and half for Republicans - at midnight, hours before the 6 a.m. EST opening of polling stations statewide. Polls close at 8 p.m.
Combined results from the two spots showed Obama with 16 votes, Clinton 3, John Edwards 3 and Bill Richardson 1. On the Republican side, McCain received 10 votes, Mike Huckabee 5, Ron Paul 4, Romney 3 and Rudy Giuliani 1.
Campaigns spared no effort to get out the vote. Clinton’ campaign was mobilizing more than 6,000 volunteers to knock on doors and nearly 300 drivers. Romney said his state headquarters, his “machine shop,” had made 100,000 phone calls.
About 45 percent of the state’s 828,000 registered voters were unaffiliated, more than double the percentage in Iowa, and they can vote in either party primary.
Oddly, it was the 71-year-old McCain who seemed to gather more energy as a brutal day of campaigning unfolded Monday. Obama, ignoring medical advice to rest his ragged voice, flubbed a line to comical effect (”The time for come has change!”) while Clinton let her emotions nearly spill over.
Conceding the rhetorical advantage to the first-term Illinois senator, the second-term New York senator and former first lady said her opponent was untested in times that require her firm grasp of policy. “What is the substance here?” she demanded. “You know, where is the reality?”
Aides have urged her to show more passion and emotion, and, coincidentally or not, she did so by nearly breaking down during a restaurant appearance. Eyes welling up and voice quavering, she declared the campaign “is very personal for me. It’s not just political.”
At Jack’s coffee shop in New London, which has separate bathrooms for men, women and politicians, Obama said he didn’t see the video of his opponent tearing up. “I know that this process is a grind, so that’s not something I would care to comment on,” he said.
Clinton later told Fox News Channel, “We have gone through years of male political figures who have done everything from cry to scream,” and people know she is cool under fire. “But I also want them to know I’m a real person.”
McCain fed off his crowd’s energy - flat in the morning, buzzing and boisterous as the day wore on. The Arizona senator’s seven-rally bus tour was called “Mac is Back,” meaning he was back looking for victory in the state that supported him eight years ago, and his campaign was back from the near-dead.
“No, no, no,” he said when AP asked if long days like these wear him out. “When you see that kind of crowd, it pumps you up. … It’s a certain excitement that will never happen again in my life.”
Lest anyone take that to mean this was his swan song, he added: “If I’m a president running for re-election, it wouldn’t be the same as this.”
Edwards, a former senator from North Carolina, hoped Clinton would be sufficiently weakened Tuesday to give him an opening and, to that end, he aimed his barbs at her instead of the front-runner. He again portrayed her as an agent of the status quo.
“The candidate, Democrat or Republican, who has taken the most money from drug companies is not a Republican,” he told a crowd in Lakeport. “It’s a Democrat, and she’s in this race.”
Romney rallied at a packed school hall in Bedford and sought advantage by predicting a repeat Obama blowout on the Democratic side.
The former Massachusetts governor cast himself as the Republican best able to take on Obama, tying the Illinois senator to the sort of European socialism he once said Clinton embodied.
“He’ll be talking about taking it in a sharp left turn, following in the path of the Europe of old with big brother and big government and big taxing and that won’t sell,” Romney said. “And I’ll be talking about following in the footsteps that Ronald Reagan did.”
McCain held a statistically insignificant lead over Romney in late polls. Obama had a clear advantage over Clinton in surveys and Edwards trailed both, with Richardson, the New Mexico governor, in the rear.
Iowa GOP winner Huckabee campaigned vigorously in New Hampshire in the final days but without expectations of victory. He, former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson and one-time national poll leader Giuliani looked to later contests.
—

Afghan Bomb Kills 2 Coalition Soldiers

2008-01-08T04:32:00.000-08:00

A roadside bomb killed two soldiers from the U.S.-led coalition in eastern Afghanistan, and a suicide bomber on a motorcycle attacked a border police patrol in the south, killing a policeman, officials said.
Clashes and another roadside bomb left nine people dead elsewhere.
In the eastern blast, one other U.S.-led coalition soldier was wounded when the roadside bomb hit their vehicle Monday in Kot district of Nangarhar province, the coalition said in a statement. The military originally announced that two soldiers were wounded but later said one of the wounded had died.
The troops were responding to a call from the local police who had discovered another explosive device nearby, when the second bomb exploded, the statement said.
The nationalities of the dead and the wounded soldiers were not released. The majority of the troops in that area are American.
A suicide attacker in the south, meanwhile, attacked a border police patrol Monday, leaving a policeman dead and four other officers wounded in Spin Boldak district of Kandahar province, said Gen. Abdul Raziq, the border security police commander.
In neighboring Helmand province, police discovered and tried to defuse a remote-controlled bomb in Nad Ali district, but it exploded, killing two policemen and two civilians, said provincial police chief Mohammad Hussain Andiwal. Four other civilians were wounded.
In the Zhari district of Kandahar, three Taliban militants were killed in a battle between police and NATO troops on Sunday, the Interior Ministry said. Another militant was detained in the operation, it said.
In neighboring Uruzgan province, a clash between NATO troops and Taliban insurgents near Tirin Kot, the provincial capital, left two civilians dead and five others wounded on Friday, the alliance said in a statement.
The violence followed a roadside bomb attack on NATO’s International Security Assistance Force soldiers, the statement said.
One child was among the dead, while three were among the wounded, the statement said.
No soldiers were hurt, the statement said.
Civilians are often caught in the line of fire during fighting between the Taliban and international forces or during airstrikes by foreign troops because insurgents hide among civilian homes.
President Hamid Karzai last year pleaded repeatedly with NATO and the coalition to coordinate more closely with their Afghan counterparts to prevent civilian casualties.
Last year, insurgency-related violence left more than 6,500 people dead - a record number - including nearly 900 civilians, according to an Associated Press tally of figures from Western and Afghan officials.
—
Associated Press writer Noor Khan in Kandahar contributed to this report.
© 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Bomb Kills Sri Lankan Minister

2008-01-08T04:30:00.000-08:00

A Sri Lankan government minister was killed Tuesday in a roadside bombing near the capital being blamed on Tamil Tiger rebels, the military said. The blast killed another person and wounded 10.
D.M. Dassanayake, who held the position of nation-building minister but was not a member of the Cabinet, died in a hospital after his car was caught in the explosion in the Ja-Ela area, about 12 miles north of Colombo, military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara said.
“We have still not arrested anybody but the suspicion is on the LTTE,” Nanayakkara said, referring to the rebels by the initials of their movement’s formal name, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
Rebel spokesman Rasiah Ilanthirayan did not answer calls for comment.
The killing, which came days after the government officially pulled out of a cease-fire with the rebels, appeared certain to intensify an already raging civil war along front lines between the government-controlled south and the insurgents’ de facto state in the north.
“The minister was critically injured and was in a very serious condition even when he was brought here so the doctors immediately took him for an operation but unfortunately he died,” said Dr. Dharmawardena Guruge, a physician at the hospital where Dassanayake was taken.
“He had injuries all over the body and there were head injuries,” he said.
One other man was also killed, Guruge told an AP photographer, and the blast wounded another 10.
Tamil Tiger rebels often target top political or military officials.
In April 2006, a female suicide bomber failed to kill Army Commander Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka, who was critically wounded but resumed work after treatment. The following December, Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa escaped a bomb attack without injuries.
The last successful assassination was in June 2006, when the rebels killed Maj. Gen. Parami Kulatunga, the third highest-ranking military officer, in a bomb attack.
The rebels have been blamed for an increase in the number of attacks in the Colombo area in recent months. Last Wednesday, rebels were accused of planting a bomb that exploded near a bus transporting wounded soldiers through the heart of the capital. The blast killed four people - a soldier and three civilian bystanders.
Soon after, Sri Lanka’s Cabinet officially withdrew from a 2002 truce that had all but collapsed over the past two years as escalating violence killed some 5,000 people.
In the days since, a new wave of violence across the main battle zone in the north killed 85 people - 81 rebels and four soldiers - according to the military.
It was not possible to independently verify the military’s claims because the fighting took place deep in the jungles of the north, where access is restricted. Both sides often inflate casualty figures for their opponent, while underestimating their own.
More than 70,000 people have been killed since the rebels began fighting in 1983 for an independent state for the ethnic Tamil minority, claiming discrimination by the Sinhalese majority.

Nicole Kidman Is Pregnant Says by Publicist

2008-01-08T04:29:00.000-08:00

Nicole Kidman is pregnant, her publicist confirmed Monday. The 40-year-old actress and her husband country singer Keith Urban “are expecting a baby,” publicist Catherine Olim said in a brief statement. “The couple are thrilled,” Olim said.
The baby would be the first for Kidman and Urban. She already has two adopted children with ex-husband Tom Cruise.
Kidman recently confided to Vanity Fair that she had a miscarriage early on in her relationship with Cruise, leading them to adopt.
Kidman won an Oscar for her role in the 2002 film “The Hours.”
Urban, a singer and guitarist raised in Australia, won a Grammy in 2006 for best male country vocal
© 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Bucknor sacked, Harbhajan can play in Perth Test

2008-01-08T04:26:00.000-08:00

Team India heaved a sigh of relief as controversial West Indies umpire Steve Bucknor will not be officiating while Harbhajan Singh can play in the third Test against Australia in Perth starting Jan 16, the top International Cricket Council (ICC) official announced here Tuesday.
In a hurriedly convened press conference at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed said that Billy Bowden of New Zealand would replace West Indies’ Bucknor, an Elite Panel umpire. Pakistan’s Asad Rauf will join Bowden in Perth.
Speed said that some people would be unhappy with ICC’s decision at India’s insistence to remove Bucknor.
“I can understand that people will take that view,” he said. “It is an extraordinary set of circumstances and we want to take some of the tension out of the situation.”
The move comes a day after the Indian cricket board drew the ICC’s attention to the horrendous umpiring mistakes that cost India the Sydney Test Sunday.
Umpiring was one of the two issues India were unhappy with following that match, along with the three-Test suspension imposed on off-spinner Harbhajan.
The off-spinner was Sunday suspended for three Tests after he was found guilty of racially abusing Australia’s Andrew Symonds in Sydney by allegedly calling him a “monkey”.
India have appealed against the ban, and a fresh hearing is to be held.
But Speed could not say when that hearing would be held. He was hopeful it would occur before the next Test, starting Jan 16.
If the hearing on Harbhajan’s ban was not held before the start of the third Test, the Indian off-spinner would be eligible for the match in Perth, Speed said. The ICC chief executive was hopeful India’s tour would continue, but could not guarantee that.
Speed said the ICC needed to take a “pragmatic view” towards the issue, and needed to be “flexible” to resolve the crisis.
He was confident Bucknor, 61, would umpire again at Test level. Speed said match referee Ranjan Madugalle, the former Sri Lankan captain, would be appointed as a mediator between the Australian and Indian sides.
Meanwhile, a racism hearing against Australian spinner Brad Hogg will also go ahead, after the Indians alleged he called captain Anil Kumble a “bastard” in Sydney. Hogg’s hearing will be held some time before the third Test by match referee Mike Procter.
Speed said Procter and an ICC-appointed code of conduct commissioner would re-hear the Harbhajan case, with the witnesses to be called again.

Indian cricket board happy with ICC decision

2008-01-08T04:25:00.002-08:00

The smiles were back on the faces of the Indian cricket board officials Tuesday as they hailed the decision of the International Cricket Council (ICC) to replace controversial umpire Steve Bucknor and to suspend the three-Test ban on Harbhajan Singh.
Harbhajan is now eligible to play the third India-Australia Test starting in Perth Jan 16, unless the appeal against the ban is heard before then and the decision goes against him again.
New Zealand’s Billy Bowden will replace Jamaican Steve Bucknor in Perth. Bucknor’s erroneous decisions contributed in a big way to India’s defeat during the second Test at Sydney.
“It (replacing Bucknor and fresh hearing on Harbhajan) was the prerogative of the ICC and they have done it. Our request to the ICC was to review it and they have done it. We are happy with it,” said Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Sharad Pawar.
“We are happy with this decision and welcome it. This is not someone’s win or anyone’s defeat. This is cricket’s victory,” said BCCI vice-president Rajiv Shukla.
Pawar also said that a decision on the Indian team’s further schedule in Australia would be discussed in a working committee meeting later Tuesday and would be conveyed to the captain and the team manager in Sydney, where the team is staying till further instructions.
The Indians had demanded the removal of Bucknor from the third Test and also wanted the ICC to revoke the ban on Harbhajan. With Bucknor replaced and the ban on Harbhajan suspended, the Tour can continue on schedule.
The Indian team is now expected to leave for Canberra Wednesday morning.
Shukla added: “We never said the tour will be called off. We have very good relations with Cricket Australia (CA) and will also continue doing it in future. We also don’t have any problem with the Australian team.”
The ban on Harbhajan followed an allegation by Australian all-rounder Andrew Symonds that the Indian cricketer had hurled racial abuse at him. Harbhajan and Sachin Tendulkar - the only other Indian present within earshot - have denied the charge and a fresh hearing is to be held

Bhandarkar’s ‘Fashion’ runs into casting trouble

2008-01-08T04:25:00.001-08:00

Queer are the ways of showbiz. After getting the female leads Priyanka Chopra and Kangana Ranuat in place, Madhur Bhandarkar’s casting for “Fashion” is in trouble.
The male lead, requiring a charismatic star to play a prominent costume designer, remains “un-cast despite months of efforts”, sources say.
Reason? No major star in Bollywood is willing to play a gay designer even “if it is only make-belief”. The director has approached several marquee names, but they have all recoiled in horror and laughed off Bhandarkar’s offer.
It is an instant replay of the situation with Rituparno Ghosh some years ago when he had approached Akshay Kumar to play a gay man’s character.
Bhandarkar is at his wit’s end, “This a strange situation. None of our actors wants to play a challenging role. I don’t know what to do, probably settle for a new theatre actor.”
A young actor, Jay Karla, had played a gay character in Bhandarkar’s “Page 3″. Not much has been heard of him since then. Many years ago, Kalpana Lajmi had offered Shah Rukh Khan the role of a eunuch in “Darmiyaan”. Arif Zakaria, who took over the part, faded out from the scene.

Bipasha sacrifices holiday for Bengali film

2008-01-08T04:23:00.000-08:00

Actress Bipasha Basu has sacrificed her annual holiday to complete shooting for her Bengali debut film “Sab Choritra Kalponik” being directed by Rituparno Ghosh.
“Bipasha has sacrificed her annual holiday to accommodate this film,” an emotional Ghosh said. “I want to make a film that does her proud. I genuinely believe that we haven’t seen even the tip of her talent.”
The movie casts Mumbai star Bipasha and Ghosh’s favourite leading man Prosenjeet in the lead.
“I’ve been so involved with Nandigram that I haven’t really been able to devote time to anything else. The Bengali project with Bipasha happened because I had the script ready for a long time and I wanted to work with Bipasha. She was keen and so was I.”
The filmmaker met Bipasha just once for the project. “But she’s all for it. The character requires her to play a Bengali NRI returning to her roots in Kolkata. So her accented Bengali will do fine. In fact, a lot of the film’s space is taken up by the debate between English and Bengali.”
The most interesting aspect of the project is the fusion of magic realism with marital intimacy. “In the sense, this movie will be in the same genre as ‘Doshor’ where Prosenjeet and Konkona Sen played an estranged couple.”
Ghosh told Bipasha that she was actually his discovery.
“Well, in a way. You see I was the judge in her first beauty contest in Kolkata, which was organised by Aparna Sen’s magazine. I chose her as the autumn beauty. So I guess, I should get some credit for where she is today.”

Bipasha, Koena celebrate their birthday

2008-01-08T04:22:00.000-08:00

Two Bengali beauties in Bollywood turned a year older Monday.
Bipasha rang in her birthday with beau John Abraham in Goa.
“I’ll spend my day tanning on the beach and trying to swim. I’ll also be visiting a spa. And of course, I’ll be gorging on delicious Goan food. My birthday is the high point of a divine holiday that I am enjoying.”
But Bipasha’s celebrations don’t end there. “We’re coming back Tuesday to celebrate again with my parents and close friends. Like she does every year, my mom will cook all my favourite dishes, including gajar ka halwa.”
Koena Mitra is looking forward to her friends making the day special for her. “I know Tanushree Dutta has planned something. But I don’t know what it is,” she giggles.
Friend Tanushree is “enormously” excited by Koena’s birthday. “She’s my best friend and naturally I’ve plans. We will go to her house (in Mumbai) and crash after a wild party. During the day, we have little surprises planted for her all over her house.”

Now a catfight between leading ladies of ‘Bigg Boss’

2008-01-08T04:21:00.000-08:00

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“Big Boss”, the Indian version of Channel 4’s reality show “Big Brother”, is whipping up similar spice - a catfight between the leading ladies.
Rupali Ganguly, who had played the “cry baby” in the Sony TV show, has accused co-star Kashmera Shah, who played the “mean woman”, of being “bossy and judgmental”.
Rupali, who recently started shooting her first serial after “Bigg Boss”, was appalled by Kashmera’s suggestion that she played the ‘cry baby’ on the show.
“Who is she to talk about what I was doing there? I can’t talk for others she has named in her interview. But speaking for myself, every tear that I shed on ‘Bigg Boss’ was genuine. I came out of the experience wounded and cringing. And if I hadn’t been eliminated, I’d have probably jumped the wall and fled.”
In a recent interview about her “Bigg Boss” housemates, Kashmera said “Rupali should have been herself… the fact that she would cover up all her faults by crying was also very frustrating.”
To compound her woes, Rupali came out of the show to find her father, renowned director Anil Ganguly, seriously ill. “From then on, it has been a whirlwind of hospitals, anxieties and prayers. Fortunately, my father is out of danger. And I’m back to work. My father is not cut out to be part of Bollywood’s rat race, or to deal with the star system. He now helps me with the ad agency that I own.”
She no longer cries at the drop of a hat like she used to in Sony TV’s reality show “Bigg Boss”, the Indian version of Channel 4’s “Big Brother”. Actress Rupali Ganguly, the ‘cry baby’ in the serial, has grown up.
“But you’ve to understand that I had never been away from home, always a papa’s pet. Suddenly, I was thrown among all these people like Kashmera and Rakhi who were far more in-charge, women of the world. I had no choice, but to deal with the situations in the best way possible. And if tears were the solution, it had to be,” Rupali explains.
Looks like Rupali has grown up. She does not cry as she used to in “Bigg Boss”. “You have to understand that I have never been away from home and has always been a papa’s pet. Suddenly, I was thrown among these people like Kashmera and Rakhi Sawant in the reality show, who were more in-charge, women of the world.”
She started shooting for a new serial “Ek Packet Ummeed” this week. “It’s something new for me from the same people, who produced my last serial ‘Sarabhai versus Sarabhai’. Actually, I lost a lot of time because I was waiting for another season of Sarabhai to start. But I’m glad I’m doing ‘Ek Packet Ummeed’ with actors like Neena Kulkarni and Sulabha Deshpande. The whole idea of being an actor is to grow and make my parents proud.”
Rupali’s father was livid when she played the “Bad Woman” in the medical saga “Sanjeevani”. “To him, my role of the scheming Simran was that of an out-and-out vamp, a cross between what Bindu and Padma Khanna were. It was only later when people told him they liked me in the serial that he forgave me.”
But Ganguly has realised she isn’t cut out for being catty in soaps or on a reality show. “In ‘Ek Packet Ummeed’, I play a very positive character. It’s about a family of strangers, people who stay together in a hostile city. The tagline ‘Bin Rishton Ke Rishte’ says it all.”
Tell her she is the Shabana Azmi of the small screen and Rupali is delighted. “I’ve been told that I resemble her. I saw her at a play and she was smiling at me. I almost burst into tears. But I had the presence of mind to say hello to Shabana.”

Anurag Basu casts mentor Mahesh Bhatt’s son in film

2008-01-08T04:20:00.000-08:00

Filmmaker Anurag Basu has a new mission on Ground Zero. He is directing “Suicide Bomber”, a film about the July 2005 London bombings, with his ex-mentor Mahesh Bhatt’s son Rahul in the lead.
For Basu, whose victories include battling a terminal illness,”Suicide Bomber” is a new challenge after the “absolutely exciting and original” film, “Gangster”.
Recalling his painful parting with the “Bhatts”, Anurag says, “My equations with Mahesh Bhatt is not what he shares with those who work for him. I never assisted him and I am not related to him. He has seen my work on television and he gave me a break in ‘Saaya’. The producer in me was dormant all the time. With “Metro…”, I was an on-line producer and an executive producer with UTV. This wasn’t possible with the Bhatts. I was only a director there. Maybe, in a couple of years, I’ll turn a full-fledged producer. Even now I consult him on the phone.”
“Suicide Bomber” is Anurag’s most realistic film to date. He feels Rahul Bhatt is perfect as the “bomber”. “Bhatt saab didn’t force me to cast Rahul. We had thought of casting him in ‘Murder’ and ‘Gangster’,” Basu explains. “But he wasn’t suitable for those films.”
“I love working with new actors. I love moulding them to my own vision. With established actors, you have to first make them unlearn and then make them learn. My discovery Kangana Raut had a great actor in her. I just helped her bring it out.”
Would Kangana star in “Suicide Bomber”? “It’s a hero-oriented subject. I don’t want to waste Kangana. When I started writing “Suicide Bomber”, I thought I’d do it myself. Then, I realised all my knowledge about the London bombings was what I managed to gather from the Internet. I thought Mahesh Bhatt would be able to handle the subject far better. He is working on the script.”
“Life in the Metro” was Anurag’s homage to that feeling called love. “Making ‘Gangster’ wasn’t an easy experience. But while making it, I felt god was giving me courage and the inspiration to do the kind of work I believe in. He’s making up for the pain he gave me. There’re some episodes in ‘Life in a Metro’ taken from my own experiences. One of the stories is from a play I staged in college.”
Since almost the entire industry wants to work with him now, how important are the stars to Basu? “When I write a script, I want to film it immediately. But it is not possible for stars to give you dates immediately. That’s how Shiney Ahuja came into “Gangster”. I had planned to cast Sanjay Dutt, who didn’t have immediate dates. With “Metro…” I was lucky. Everyone, I approached said yes. The schedule was finalised in a month.”
Anurag had first cast his “Gangster” pair Shiney and Kangana. “The rest of the cast just followed, Konkona (Sen Sharma) being the last of the cast. It’s a little tough to direct so many different actors. However, shooting wasn’t as difficult as coordinating dates. We had a ball once the dates were in place. Fortunately, no one except one actor had a problem with the dates.”
Anurag had a problem with Irrfan Khan’s dates. “He had to shift locations for the Daniel Pearl film he’s doing with Brad Pitt.” Now that the industry wants to work with Anurag, who would he like to work with? “Govinda,” comes the reply. “I think he’s hugely talented.”

Raje named BJP’s CM candidate for Rajasthan

2008-01-08T04:18:00.000-08:00

The crisis in Rajasthan’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) seems to have blown over with new state party chief Om Prakash Mathur Monday declaring that Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje would be the party’s candidate for the post in the next elections.
“The central leadership of the party has directed that the forthcoming assembly polls would be led by present Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje and she would be the future chief minister,” Mathur said here. He was addressing BJP workers at a function to felicitate him on his appointment as the state unit chief.
Rajasthan, which has 200 assembly seats, is slated to go to the polls in November.
“We have got around 10 months for the polls and I request everyone to vow that the party should return to power with more than 120 seats, that we have now in the assembly,” he said.
“I want every party worker to reach to the masses and inform them about the policies, decisions and developments carried out by the Raje government,” he said.
Raje, who also participated in the function, dismissed media reports about the crisis in the state party unit and resentment over appointment of Mathur. She said: “We are all one and united to contest the next assembly polls to return to power. We will win more than 120 seats,” Raje said.
There were reports that Raje was unhappy with the appointment of Mathur as state chief. However, the crisis came to an end after Raje met BJP national president Rajnath Singh a couple of days back in Delhi.

CAT results to be out Tuesday

2008-01-08T04:16:00.000-08:00

The results of the Common Admission Test (CAT), considered a gateway to the premier Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), will be declared Tuesday.
The examination conducted by the IIMs was held Nov 18 last year. The fate of over 200,000 aspiring business management students will be decided Tuesday.
According to an IIM-Ahmedabad official, the result will be declared after 3 p.m. Tuesday and students can check their score on the IIM websites. They can also access the result in a dedicated website called www.examresults.net.
Apart from the six IIMs, over 70 business schools across the country take the CAT score into account to give admission to students.
For those who took the exam, it means some nail-biting hours till the results are declared.
“I am confident but a little nervous too. I want to study MBA in one of the top three IIMs (Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Kolkata) and everything depends on the CAT score,” Pintu Das, a student from Kharagpur in West Bengal, told IANS over telephone

Sensex touches 21,000-pts level for the first time

2008-01-08T04:15:00.000-08:00

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For the first time the Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark, Sensex crossed the 21,000 level in early morning trade on Tuesday on heavy buying by funds.
Scaling a new peak, the Sensex spurted 264.88 points to touch 21,077.53 points in the first five minutes of trade.
Similarly, the wide-base National Stock Exchange’s Nifty also hit 6327.65 points, up 48.55 points, as most of the index related shares traded higher.

Bucknor sacked, Harbhajan can play in Perth Test

2008-01-08T04:00:00.000-08:00

10 programming languages, 10 projects, 12 months

2008-01-08T03:59:00.000-08:00

Hello, I’m Sandy and I’m a programming languages junkie. From since I was a young nerd, I enjoyed playing with them, and to some degree I still do. As I get older and more serious about programming, through, I try not to get as subjective about them as I once was, or worse yet, attached to a particular technology too much. Sadly, I found such attitude to be rare, and good objective language evaluations hard to find, especially ones that would cover which disciplines which language is good for, except the obvious ones (like Perl for text processing). A good craftsman knows what tool to use for which tasks, this is pretty much established knowledge, even through some variation of opinions certainly exists. Yet in programming, other factors tend to play a major role in choosing the tool - large corporations support (if the project is a commercial one, or if you want to be useful in your work), personal taste, hype surrounding the language, ease of use etc.That said, as my 2008 blogging / programming project I want to make such an evaluation, or at least a draft of it. My schedule is very tight now, so it might be my only extra-curricular blogging/programming activity, so it better be good. The analogy between programming language and craftsman’s tools may or may not be right, but the experiment seems interesting to me anyway - throughout this year, I will try to build 10 practical applications in 10 different programming languages - 100 programs total. Of course, I won’t manage to write 100 projects of a significant size in one year, neither will I get a good understanding of any of the languages I’ll use for such a short period (not counting those that I’ve already played with before). Anyway, what I surely can do, is to get a good sense of which language feels like, how comprehensive are the standard libraries (having not much time this may be crucial) etc. I may also check out how the language affects the way you can solve a problem in a direct comparison. That’s why I want the 10 program ideas to be really interesting, doing useful and fun stuff, not just dry calculations or simple algorithmic problems. One nice example I saw other people did when doing such comparisons on a smaller scale was a ray tracer, and this is really nice - it combines some number crunching, file handling, graphic file formats handling etc. and the end result is a nice picture, so writing it gives some satisfaction.Here is where your help comes in - I need suggestions which languages to choose, and what projects to work on. Well, to be sincere, my languages list is pretty much set, and it probably will look like this:C++ with Boost / other third-party librariesLisp (SBCL?)Python (I always was a Ruby guy)FactorJScheme (PLT?)ErlangHaskellOCamlSmalltalk (Squeak?)I pretty much like this selection, but feel free to make any suggestions you like, I’m not exactly sure about the C++ part, but it may be a good reference point. Anyway, I’m much less sure about the projects list, besides the ray-tracer example the only thing that comes to my mind right now is a simple unit-testing framework, which is a great test for the language expressiveness and can be bootstrapped rather quickly. So, I’m waiting for your suggestions, and even if no-one will give any, I will try to post the complete list and maybe some first results in a few days.

Rupee near 10-year high against dollar

2008-01-07T23:11:00.000-08:00

The rupee came off from near its 10-year higher levels but still ended strong by five paisa at 39.29/30 against the US dollar on expectations of heavy allocation of foreign funds in near future in IPOs and smart recovery in the equity markets.In active trade at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market, the local unit opened steady at 39.33/35 a dollar from Friday's close of 39.34/35 a dollar.Later, it improved further to intra-trade high of 39.20 a dollar just near its previous 10-year high of 39.16 a dollar attempted on November 7, 2007.But, intervention by the apex bank at the rupee's higher levels weighed on the domestic currency and it fell back to settle the day at 39.29/30 a dollar, still higher than last close. The closing was also near a decade high.It had ended at 38.90 a dollar on February 19, 1998. The rupee garnered 14 paisa or 0.36 per cent in last three straight sessions.Dealers attributed smart rally in the rupee despite weak Asian stock indices to expectations of heavy capital inflows in the Initial Public Offerings (IPOs), including Reliance Power, later this month.Good resultsAnticipation of good Q3 corporate results to be announced this weekend also had a sentimental impact on the rupee. Smart recovery in the benchmark, Sensex, which finished up by nearly 126 points, also later aided the rupee sentiment.Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India fixed the reference rate for the US currency at Rs 39.28 per dollar and for the single European unit at Rs 57.80 per euro. The rupee premiums on forward dollar ended lower on fresh receiving by exporters. The benchmark six-month forward dollar premiums payable in June closed at 27-1/2 - 29 paise, down from 34 - 35-1/2 paise on Friday and the far-forward maturing in December ended lower at 47 - 49 paise from Rs 54 - 56 paise previously.Cross currency tradeIn cross-currency trades, the rupee made a further headway against major currencies like the British sterling, the euro and the Japanese yen.The Indian unit hardened against the sterling to finish the day at Rs 77.53/55 per pound from overnight close of Rs 77.78/80 per pound and also improved further against the single European currency to Rs 57.72/74 per euro from last close of Rs 57.83/85 per euro.Similarly, the rupee edged up against the Japanese yen to Rs 35.96/98 per 100 yen from previous close of Rs 35.99/36.01 per 100 yen.

Tata’s small car price may not be $2,500

2008-01-07T23:04:00.000-08:00

All indications point towards an upward revision by at least 25%. That is, your friendly neighbourhood small car is likely to cost Rs 1,25, 000 or more.

Tata Motors, the country’s third largest automobile maker, has announced the launch of its keenly awaited small car with a price tag of just Rs 1 lakh or $ 2500, but all indications are that the firm will have to stretch the price tag up by at least 25 percent.
High raw material costs are said to be pushing up the price of Tata group honcho Ratan Tata’s dream project – the Rs 1-lakh small car.
Tata’s are reportedly putting pressure on suppliers to lower prices. Media reports said suppliers are also opposing any more downward revision of prices.
Tata Motors plans to launch the small car in the summer of 2008, but its plant in Singur in West Bengal itself has been embroiled in a controversy over land acquisition.
Meanwhile, what is troubling Tata’s suppliers is the choppy raw material prices. Domestic demand is also easing, making life miserable for them. So suppliers, it seems, are not keen on the Tata order unless they are able to derive some sort of assurances on volumes as well as prices, reports said.
Tata Bearings, Tata Toyo Radiator, Tata Johnson Controls, Tata Yazaki and Tata Ryerson, which are group firms, will be in the line-up of suppliers for the small car apart from firms like Sona Koyo Steering Systems, Kinetic Engineering and Bosch Chassis Systems.
Tata Motors also will use raw materials like reengineered plastics to help cut costs of the small car. Welding is another area which Tata eyes to cut costs. Tata Motors plans to do this with some high quality adhesives available in the markets, reports said.Tata Motors has reportedly asked them to be ready to take on orders for about 3 lakh units.The calculation behind this is simple: 2 out of 3 cars sold in India are small cars. That is exactly why Tata Motors has already pumped in an estimated $450 million for the small car. And this has caught the attention of none other than Renault and Nissan Motor Co’s chief Carlos Ghosn. Ghosn wants to study the feasibility of a $3,000 car. And if media reports are any indication he can only do it in collaboration with an Indian carmaker.Ghosn is not alone now in keenly following Tata Motor’s small car project. Bajaj Auto, Toyota, Honda Motor Co. Fiat, Volkswagen have also been fascinated by the idea that they are all pursuing it, albeit with a high level of secrecy.They very well know that it would be more difficult to meet emission standards than building the low cost car. And that is the challenge their teams have been assigned to crack. Safety is another vital area of concern.Tata Motors is keen to cut not only raw material costs but also packaging as well as transportation-related costs. That is why the company has been asking its suppliers to set up their units near the Tata Motors plant. Tata Motors sees about 10% reduction in costs through this alone, though it remains to be seen how this works out.There have been other concerns as well. A Rs lakh car can be a traffic nightmare for a city like Mumbai and some civic officials have already mooted the idea of regulating small car’s entry in such places. Though these are legally untenable arguments, the traffic woes will only mount in most of India’s crumbling cities

Suzuki takes up Tata’s Rs 1-lakh car challenge

2008-01-07T23:01:00.000-08:00

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Suzuki Motor Corporation, 54% owner of India’s largest carmaker Maruti Udyog, is developing a 660cc engine and a new low-cost small car platform from scratch to counter the Tata Motors Rs 1 lakh car. With it, Suzuki hopes to provide the most formidable competition to date to Ratan Tata’s dream project.
Being developed under a blanket of secrecy at its headquarters in Hamamatsu in Japan, the car will roll out of Maruti’s Gurgaon plant by the end of 2008—around the same time that Tata Motors plans to launch its new small car. “We are working on a mini car which would be lower than 800cc in engine capacity,” Maruti’s director, sales & marketing Shuji Oishi confirmed to FE.

Suzuki believes it will be able to price the car in the same bracket as the Tata small car. Tata Motors managing director Ravi Kant has admitted that his company’s car may be priced higher than the Rs 1 lakh target due to increasing raw material costs. “The Tata car would be higher than Rs 1.25 lakh. Our car would be priced competitively but the price won’t be Rs 1 lakh,” Oishi said.
The Suzuki and the Tata cars will be the first sub-800cc cars in the Indian market. The Suzuki car will offer over 50 bhp power with a 660cc petrol engine. In comparison, the Tata small car is expected to offer 30 bhp with a 700cc petrol engine. The 796cc Maruti 800 offers 37 bhp, while the Alto 800 offers 47 bhp.
While the Suzuki vehicle will be a geared, front-wheel driven car, the Tata car has an ungeared (continuous variable transmission) engine at the back powering the rear wheels. “Our car will be far more fuel-efficient than any car in the segment,” Oishi said. Maruti 800, currently India’s most fuel-efficient car, offers a mileage of 18-20 km a litre.
Suzuki Motor recently launched its mini car Cervo in Japan, which is powered by a 660cc engine offering 54 bhp. Its turbo-charged variant offers 60 bhp, more power than the Alto and the Maruti 800 and nearly the same as Wagon R’s 64 bhp. Cervo meets Japan’s 4-star emission standards and exceeds the 2010 fuel economy standards by about 10%. Japan imposes concessional duty on cars up to 660cc engine capacity to promote use of small, fuel-efficient cars in the country.
As a result, Suzuki, the largest small car player in Japan, has several mini cars (up to 660cc) such as the Alto Lapin, the MR Wagon and the Twin in the domestic market

Maruti to hike car prices by Rs 4K-12K in January

2008-01-07T22:57:00.000-08:00

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NEW DELHI: Maruti Suzuki India, country's largest carmaker will hike prices of its vehicles across different models between Rs 4,000 and Rs 12,000 next week. The company, which has started its week-long annual plant shutdown, will announce the quantum of increase in prices when it reopens the plant on January 2, sources said. A Maruti Suzuki India official said: "The management has taken a decision formally just before the plant shut-down to hike prices by 2-3 per cent across different models."

India still top IT offshore destination

2008-01-07T22:56:00.000-08:00

Bangalore, December 26: India’s position as the global hub for IT off shoring and outsourcing remains undisputed. Despite the emergence of other locations across the world, newer delivery centers are expected to come up in the near future within the country for IT services. For starters, it has been BPO services that are moving into tier 2 and 3 cities and it is now expected that IT services will follow suit, though at a slower pace. According to Partha Iyengar, head of research-India, Gartner,. “There will be a bigger hub and spoke model within India than outside,” he added.Many companies are looking at starting new IT services centres in locations like Kochi, Bhubaneswar, Mangalore and Coimbatore. The reasonable spread of engineering colleges across the country is also helping the IT services companies to tap into these tier 2 locations. The primary reason for these companies to move into locations is the lower attrition rate and costs. Typically, IT professionals in these locations remain within a particular company for a longer period of time. Gartner has analyzed that India remains the undisputed leader in offshore services, but increasingly countries such as China, Russia and Brazil are providing credible alternatives.

India Auto Expo to drive past all milestones

2008-01-07T22:51:00.000-08:00

NEW DELHI: The ninth Auto Expo will be the largest automotive show in Asia covering a floor size of over 1.2 lakh square metres with 10 hangers and seven state pavilions and over 2,000 participants. Around 20 new vehicles are expected to be launched by 45 domestic and foreign automobile manufacturers during the eight-day event. While there will be a host of participation from all continents in the automotive field, different governments are also putting up their pavilions with the US and Canadian governments participating for the first time at the Indian Auto Expo. As India turns into one of the hottest manufacturing hubs for small cars and commercial vehicles, its new status will be reflected in the expo. There will be more than a dozen heads of global automotive organisations heading for the expo this year. The Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers’ (SIAM) director general Dilip Chenoy said, “While automobile CEOs have been regulars at the expo in the past, for the first time we are expecting CEOs of top automotive bodies like the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA), the German Association of Automotive Industry (VDA) and the Centre for Automotive Research (CAR) from the US that will participate and explore business opportunities in India.” For the regular visitors, there will be some real bonanza in the form of an iI0 and Santro from Hyundai Motor India which will be up for grabs in a lucky draw on each entry ticket. There will also be a fashion show for cars with both new launches and the existing line-up hitting the ramp. SIAM has also constructed a floating pavilion with transparent flooring and walls on a waterbody at the venue in Pragati Maidan to accommodate the larger number of automobile makers. American major General Motors and indigenous utility vehicle major Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) will be showcasing their products and sharing space with other car makers on this pavilion. However two major Japanese car makers Toyota Kirloskar Motor India and Nissan Motors are not participating in the bi-annual event

Delhi to get its second airport soon

2008-01-07T22:47:00.000-08:00

Home > Economy & Business > Industry

Delhi to get its second airport soon
New Delhi, January 4: DELHI IS all set to join the league of cities like New York, London and Shanghai that have more than one airport. The much-needed second airport in the National Capital Region will be called Taj International Aviation Hub and would be located at Greater Noida, 60 km from the Indira Gandhi International Airport near Gurgaon. The Union Cabinet on Thursday formally approved the construction of the airport, but it is yet to be decided who will build it. A GoM (group of ministers) has been constituted to decide that. The GMR Group, which is currently running the IGI airport, may get the contract for the new airport as well, provided its bid is not below 90 per cent of the highest bidder for the new airport. "All other issues pertaining to the construction of a new airport in Greater Noida have been agreed in principle by the Union Cabinet," a civil aviation ministry official said. The airport, to be spread over 1,500 hectares, will be located at Jevar on the Taj Expressway connecting Delhi and Agra.Hindustan Times

All eyes on Tata's Rs 1 lakh car

2008-01-07T22:44:00.000-08:00

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Around noon on January 10, the massive Tata Motors pavilion at the Pragati Maidan would be the place to be, if you are a chronicler of history or an industry specialist or just a plain automotive enthusiast. At that time Ratan Tata will take the covers off the Tata people's car which has been dominating mindspace both inside and outside the industry for its sheer concept and execution since the better part of a decade. The obvious need to provide a more stable, safe and protective set of basic transportation at an affordable price point to the Indian masses who prefer to be astride a two-wheeler was what got the Tata car project going in 1997. The genesis for this car took in a lakh as inspiration, one hundred thousand rupees being the target selling point and the team went to work, conjuring up an all weather car with seating for four and with a modicum of performance allied to low operating costs. Earlier it was perceived that the car would be go down the same route as some microcar makers had shown, bare bones basic and almost akin to a four-wheeled autorickshaw. However all that changed midway through the project when Tata decided, in the face of zealous skepticism and also the apparent living in denial allegations from other more illustrious car makers that such a car could even be thought of at the price point outlined. Out went an easy approach to doing a four-wheeled autorickshaw and in came strong design and processes which went beyond prevailing thought. Reinventing the manufacturing process (and minimizing that as well) was one mantra to meeting the rigid six figure price point while innovative product design and packaging brought its own worth to the table. A third aspect—as important as meeting the price and mission objective—was getting component makers to also question and challenge all prevailing work and design approaches and come out with practical solutions that were logical, contemporary and effective without being overly complex. What will be revealed on January 10 will be a properly designed and built car which could have been done by any other car maker in the world but they shied away from this. Credit the team led by Ratan Tata for sticking doggedly to their task and beavering away for almost a decade to come up with what promises to be the most cost effective people's car in the history of the automobile. On this count itself India has shown the way forward and while many lived in outright skepticism of this, only know is there grudging recognition form the majority behind the viability of such a car. Of course strong praise has come forth from none other Renault's Carlos Ghosn, the man who knows all about value engineering and cost shredding. Ghosn has been the first within the international automotive world to have seconded Tata's concept and given it the ultimate accolade by announcing a rival to it! Yes, Auto Expo 2008 will be notable for the spate of small cars and small car announcements from domestic and global players. The Tata people's car will dominate mindspace but there will be strong stuff from many other OEMs as well. Fiat Auto will be showing off its small car skills with the Grande Punto and Linea saloon which will get an Indian-premiere at the expo on January 9. Both these models will be made in India later in 2008 but the interesting bit is that Fiat would also be bringing in its Cinquecento city car and the Bravo as CBUs in the second quarter of the year. Alfa Romeo is already mentioned but the bigger story on the Italian front would be an announcement of the Prancing Horse getting ready to gallop in India.

Tata's Rs 1 lakh car: Power to the people

2008-01-07T22:43:00.000-08:00

On January 10, the Tata Group will unveil the People’s Car, based on the 1998 concept. Even as you read this, Mr Tata is busy inspecting the microcar models himself at the Pune plant and giving all the Tata Motors managers involved in the project the heebie-jeebies. “A truck with all models to be displayed at the Auto Expo has already reached New Delhi,” says a source at the plant. Expect the reaction to be even more dramatic than what happened after the Indica launch. For one, the auto industry will come out of denial. With only a few days to go before Ratan Tata pulls the wraps off what is to be the world’s most effective automobile, there will be no place to hide and ignore this segment. Some say it will be called ‘Jeh’ (the first three letters of Jehangir RD Tata’s name) but there is another school that seems to suggest that it will be called ‘Miracle’. But the names aren’t important. What is important is that Tata’s People’s Car will change the Indian transportation scenario as decisively as Maruti 800 did in 1984.

Internet Basics: A Blog Is Like Aunt Mabel

2008-01-02T03:03:00.001-08:00

Ever tell something to Aunt Mabel? She's the one who, no matter what you tell her, everyone else knows about it before you've had time to get home. She's like the main entrance to the universal grapevine.

That's what a Blog is like (except a Blog is intentional and desired).

Blog is short for Weblog. Say you're going on a trip to New Zealand and normally you'd keep a journal to record the day's events. But Aunt Mabel isn't coming with you, so how can you quickly and easily keep everyone in the loop?

Simple. Use a Blog. How does it work?

* You go to your website (or some other website that's equipped for generating a Blog)

* You set up a new Blog (e.g., "My Trip To New Zealand").

* You create a new entry (e.g., "Day 1 - Heading to the Airport") and type whatever you want into a webpage form. This is your chance to philosophize, or rant or rave, or just give the facts. Whatever you want.

* When you're done your entry, you submit the form and instantly your Blog entry is on the Internet where anyone who knows where it is can read it.

* Then the next day, or whenever you want, you create another entry, and another, and another. They just line up one after the other, with the most recent entry at the top (just like Aunt Mabel who always has the most recent news on the tip of her tongue).

So a Blog is a quick and easy way to get your info out to everyone.

And that's why a Blog is like Aunt Mabel.

Tips to Avoid Internet Scams

2008-01-02T03:01:00.000-08:00

1 ) How do you recognise a Scam?

Usually a scam offers a lot of money in a short space of time for a small fee. You must must pay something to make hundreds of thousands. The job that you will be offered will be easy, not requiring any previous internet experience and it will require a maximum of only two hours work a day.

You will be given descriptions of the glamorous lifestyle you will lead in a short time. Exotic foreign holidays will be yours , and expensive cars, a bigger house, and a permanent end to the hated day job.

This income will be achieved usually through recruiting other unsuspecting people into the program as your sub- affiliates , who will generate passive income for you.

2) Are there any genuine Internet jobs?

Nobody wants an employee by their computer in another part of the world performing routine tasks such as placing advertisements, typing etc. when you can get someone who is local just as offline businesses do.

Genuine jobs can be applied for on the internet in the usual way through filling out application forms, sending off c.v.'s/resumes. These jobs are usually offline.

3)What can you do if you are scammed?

Usually nothing. Scammers are clever. They demand fees which are not big - usually less than $100. In this way they do not attract the attention of the Police who have more urgent crimes to deal with. However, bigger scams are stopped by the Police when large sums of money are involved.

4)What can you do to avoid Internet Scams?

Be careful. Anyone can have a website under a false name and false postal address. Anybody can start an internet business for a short time and swindle money. Then disappear only to open up again under another name on another website.

What characterises a genuine website?

A genuine website does not offer money for nothing. It has a clear contact address There are products or services for sale.

A useful site to visit if you have suspicions about any opportunity is http://www.scamfreezone.com It contains many articles about the more popular scams.

If you are scammed, there is little point in approaching the Police unless the sums of money are big. Instead learn from the experience and educate yourself about scams so as not to make the same mistake twice.

Tips for Working at Home

2008-01-02T03:00:00.000-08:00

The wonders of the Internet and mobile phones make working at home far easier than in the past. Commuting , long hours and wasted time at the endless round of meetings can become a nostalgic memory.
However, working at home requires discipline. Images of watching day-time TV or pottering around the garden must be put aside. Self-employed people must keep focused on setting up the business and sticking to deadlines.

Remember, you have not said goodbye to the boss. Your customers become your new boss with similar whims and demands.

Essential tips for working successfully at home are:

Don’t become self-employed unless you are prepared to be very organised. Whether keeping records or chasing debts, the burden is on you to succeed. If you don’t do these things, your competitors will!

Get proper office space where you can work undisturbed. Avoid the living room.

Buy a good quality PC and printer. This will ensure good presentation and save on reliability.

Have good quality stationery, business cards and other branded material. You will be judged on them.

A good chair and proper lighting will prevent back and eye problems.

Tax assessment is often best left to a good accountant, especially for the newly self-employed. It will often save tax too.

And finally, don’t neglect insurance and pension provision. Remember the reason you choose self-employment was to enhance your quality of life – not to create a retirement nightmare in the future.

With all this planning to do, don’t forget to enjoy it. Good luck!

Adsense Tips, Layout Optimization Tricks for Higher CTR

2008-01-02T02:59:00.000-08:00

Google Adsense is perhaps the easiest way to attract advertisers from across the globe to your blog. Just submit your blog to Google for approval. If Google likes what it sees, it will place contextual ads linking to products likely to appeal to the readers. Each time a reader clicks a link, the advertiser pays Google a small fee, and Google splits that with you.

The next interesting question - How to Make Money with Google Adsense ? Here are The best Google Adsense Tips and Tricks for making more money (profit) from Google adsense program.

a. Strictly follow the rules mentioned in Adsense policies. You will always earn more revenue from Adsense by playing it clean.

b. Never modify the Google Adsense HTML code.

c. Don't ask your friends or visitors to click on your Google ads. Do not include incentives of any kind for users to click on ads. Don't label the Google ads with text other than "sponsored links" or "advertisements.".

d. Don't click on your own ads - Google is much smarter than you think. You should not reload your pages excessively. If you are testing your website layout with Google adsense, follow some precautions. Or you can use the unofficial Google Adsense Sandbox Tool that is accessible from Firefox, IE and other browsers to see what kind of Google ads will be served based on content (website address URL) or keywords.

e. Don't place ads in pop-up windows, error pages or even empty pages.

f. Don't start a "adsense asbestos" or "home equity loan rates" website merely to make money from accidental clicks (accidence). You will never make money out these "made-for-adsense-only" websites. Instead, write on topics what you are passionate about. Don't waste your money on high-paying adsense keywords lists.

g. For short articles, CTR is best when ads are placed just above the content

h. For long articles, CTR improves if ads are placed somewhere in middle of the content - visitors read the long content and then they are looking for more resources.

i. Use Text Ads instead of Image Ads as users get more options. If you still want to display image ads, consider ad formats that support image ads - Choose either the 300x250 medium rectangle or the 160x600 wide skyscraper - or both, if you display multiple ad units on a page.

j. Google Ads without background color and borders always perform better. Make the border color and background color same as your page background color.

k. Always put ads above the main fold. Make sure that the ad unit with the highest clickthrough rate is the first instance of the ad code that appears in the HTML. Since the first ad unit is always filled before the rest, you want to make sure that ad unit is located in the best placement on your page.

l. Try setting the ad link URL color to a lighter shade. If your text is black, you may make the adlink as light gray.

m. Go Wide - The large rectangle is the best paying adsense format (336x280) - The Google Adsense Publisher team also feels that the best formats are the wider ones - the ad formats that contain the widest individual ads. Try using the 336x280 large rectangle, 300x250 medium rectangle, or 160x600 wide skyscraper.

n. Placing images next to ads or above ads does help in attracting user attention.

o. Blend AdLinks with other navigation links or place horizontal adlinks at the top of your webpage. AdSense publishers are permitted to click on link unit topics on their web pages, provided that they do not click on any Google ads on the resulting page.

p. Organize an Adsense Party for your friends and colleagues - Request them to navigate your website, watch their activity - it will provide vital clues about which regions on your website draw more user attention. Try putting ads near those areas. (Thanks Darren)

q. You can put upto 3 adsense units on a page. Try putting a large skyscraper on the right navigation sidebar of your website. That area is close to the browser scrollbar. You can also add 2 AdSense for search boxes, 1 adlink unit and 1 referral button per product (i.e., 1 AdSense referral button and 1 Firefox plus Google Toolbar referral button).

r. The first few lines of your content are an important factor for determining what Ads are served on your webpage. That's the right place to put keywords in bold (strong or &ltb> tags) or header tags (h1, h2, etc).

s. Always select the setting to open Google Adsense search box results in a new browser window, so you won't lose your visitors. Click the Open search results in a new browser window checkbox and this add target="google_window" to your form tag.

t. Maximum people think the search box is on the top right corner. So you know where to put it.

u. Don't syndicate full content. If people can read everything from the newsreader window itself, why would they visit your website where your ads are.

v. Use URL channels to determine performance of individual pages. I track my most popular pages with Google Analytics, Statcounter and create a channel for each of the URL. You can even track Adsense Clicks with Analytics

w. For low CTR pages, try changing titles or adding more content to get better focused ads

x. Block low paying advertisers with Filters. Why to loose a visitor for 0.01 cents. Use Overture or Google Adwords Keywords tool to discover keywords that are less popular with advertisers.

y. The AdSense for search Top Queries report shows you what your users are looking for, by listing the 25 most common searches conducted through your AdSense for search boxes. Use this report to identify additional topics to add to your site, or to keep track of your most sought-after information. Focus and improve that content.

z. Not everyone has a RSS reader. Use RSS to Email services like FeedBlitz, Bloglet or Rmail to let users subscribe to your blog by email.

Remember, you are the best judge when it comes to choosing ad formats. Even Google doesn't offer the best advise always. For instance, in the visual heat map, Google suggests that webmasters are best served by positioning ads on the upper left-hand side of a Web page. But on the Google homepage, you will find ads on the far right.

Related Links
Display only relevant Google Ads in Blogs
Google Adsense Layout Tips for Maximum Clicks
Guide for Google AdSense Publishers

AdSense is one of the best tools you can use to draw dollars to your site. Remember that there is no easy way to make money on Adsense... it takes a lot of work. Adsense publishers on blogspot.com can integrate Adsense directly from Blogger Interface.

Google: the chainmail version

2008-01-02T02:39:00.000-08:00

I have been working with chainmail, and metal working in general, for nearly 5 years now. I picked it up when I started college. My first major in college was history, and I was going to focus on the Middle Ages because of my fascination with the medieval period. After I changed majors to Computer Science, my hobby remained medievalism.

I have apprenticed under a blacksmith and learned some general metal working techniques. But I could not build my own forge then, so I turned to chainmail, which is a "cold" metal craft. Now I can take a bag of rings with me anywhere I go, and any time I have free time, I can work on whatever my current project is.

The crafting of chainmail is a relatively inexpensive hobby -- for the cost of a single videogame I can have enough chainmail supplies to last me months. The best part is that is requires very little thought most of the time, so you can multitask; watch TV, or movies, or even browse the web while working on chainmail.

A while back I was wanting to try my hand a chainmail inlay, but I did not have a design in mind. Most people make a chainmail shirt that has some dragon, or rampant lion design on it. I wanted to make something more unique. After a few weeks of thinking about this, I realized that I could use the Google logo.

I started construction in late April 2007, my plan was to only work on it while on my lunch break, or other downtimes. But I soon realized it would take me years at that pace. And the opening of our new office area was going to happen later in the summer. So I began to work on it whenever I was not actually doing my job. I spent around 4 to 5 hours a day every weekday weaving the banner.

BlogRankings.com

Pocono Rentals for Ski Enthusiasts

2008-01-02T02:36:00.000-08:00

It's that time of year when skiers are flocking to the Poconos Mountains of Pennsylvania to test the powder on several slopes. Those who wish to make a weekend of it or even a week of it, usually stay at some of the Pocono rentals located nearby.

These homes, cabins and chalets are perfect for those wishing to ski as well as those looking for a cozy, romantic setting with roaring fireplace within the famed Hideout resort area. Most of the vacation rentals offer many amenities like modern kitchens, Jacuzzis, pool tables and cable TV. So, even though you're up in the mountains, you still have all the comforts of home.

5 Items Your Blog Sidebar Must Have

2008-01-02T02:30:00.000-08:00

Here are the five items your sidebar has to feature prominently, in priority order:

RSS Feed Link - Where do you look for the feed link when you see a new blog? Where is your blog feed link? Yes, as an additional location have the feed link under each post, but you absolutely have to have it in your sidebar, above the fold. Bonus points for doubling up both a text link and the traditional RSS graphic button.
Email subscription option - At least half my subscribers sign up via email. Putting an email form, or at least a link, could well boost your subscriber count by a large percentage.
Flagship Content - To get a flavor for what a blog is about we will look to see what there is to read. You need flagship content, cornerstone, ever green or whatever you want to call it. Put your best stuff, or popular links, right in the sidebar with a title that lets readers know what they are.
About snippet - When I read a new blog I want to know what the blog is about, who it is by and why I should care. I particularly like when I can put a face to the name. Link through to your full about page.
Categories - Yes, I have put categories last, but they are important if done correctly. Best to use category names that beg to be clicked, mean something to the reader and even better also contain some searchable phrase. Consider how many categories called “misc” or “other” you see!

It could be you do have some of these things in your top navigation, which is great if they are prominent, I would just argue the sidebar is where you expect to find them. Just don’t hide them in your footer.