2nd edition of Champions league launched

The second edition of the multi-million dollar Champions League Twenty20 was launched here in a glittering function attended by top officials of Cricket South Africa and star players including retired spin wizard Muttiah Muralitharan.

CSA president Dr. Nyoka, secretary Gerald Majola and CLT20 CEO Sundar Raman unveiled the glittering trophy at a city hotel on Tuesday night.

South African players Jean-Paul Duminy, Alviro Petersen, Albie Morkel, Wayne Parnell and Makhya Ntini were also present. Mr. Raman said India will continue to be represented in future by three teams while two teams from Australia and South Africa, the two other founder members, will take part.

“We have a 10-year contract with ESPN Star Sports. The number of matches will remain 23 but regarding the increase in number of teams that is the decision of CLT20 council. Three teams from India, two each from South SAfrica and Australia will take part in future tournaments also. The other teams were on invitational basis,” he said.

China accuses imported milk powder for latest scandal

The latest milk powder scandal in China has taken a new turn with the concerned Chinese dairy saying it was distributing products imported from New Zealand. The New Zealand supplier has claimed its products were “100% safe”.

Synutra International, the Chinese dairy, made the statement after the government ordered a probe into accusations that babies had developed breasts after consuming milk powder sold by it.

Hormonal levels in at least three babies in Hubei province and one in Beijing have risen to the levels of adult women after consuming the milk products, sources said. The Chinese health ministry on Tuesday ordered an investigation into the allegations.

Indian origin Computer scientist claimed to have solved toughest riddle

An Indian-origin computer scientist based in the US claims to have solved one of the world's most complex mathematical riddles.

Vinay Deolalikar, who works with the US multinational information technology corporation Hewlett-Packard in California, believes he has solved the problem of "P versus NP", Daily Telegraph reported Wednesday.

The Massachusetts-based Clay Mathematical Institute has categorised "P vs NP" as one of the seven millennium problems. It is considered the "most difficult" one to be solved.

Gmail revamped

Search giant Google has revamped its email service Gmail. The company has overhauled the contact management tool found inside Gmail.

In a blog post Benjamin Grol, Gmail product manager said "An improved Contacts interface has been the number one requested feature from user feedback."
While the core Gmail experience has been changed significantly since its 2004 launch, the Contacts interface has not seen too many changes. The new version of Gmail's contact manager, which Google says is already in the process of going out to users, brings with it a number of changes and addons.

* Mail, Contacts, and Tasks links have moved to the top left of Gmail.

* Compose mail is now a button rather than a link.

AETN, Network 18 JV to launch History in India

AETN and Network18 have reached an agreement to form a joint venture, AETN-18 India on Wednesday which will now launch History, BIO and other popular AETN channels in the Indian market.

AETN is the fastest growing pay television company in the United States operating two of the top five Pay TV networks - History and A&E, and the number one women's network Lifetime. In addition, History is the number one factual channel in the US since 2009.

The joint venture between Network18 Group with a share of 51 per cent and AETN holding 49 per cent will be based in Mumbai. This venture will be owned by AETN and 'New TV18' eventually. Timelines for the launch of various channels will be announced shortly and all new business operations are subject to regulatory approval. BMR Advisers acted as transaction advisers to Network18 Group.

TRAI sets 2013 as deadline for digitalization in entertainment industry

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Thursday recommended that all analogue signals be phased out by 2013 to allow consumers to watch high quality digital channels of their choice on a-la-carte basis.

Digitization will help companies improve signal quality and offer more interactive and value-added services.

In its recomendation, TRAI said the implementation of the digital broadcast signals should take place in a phased manner starting March 2011 in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai.

Cities with population over one million should be digitalised by December, 2011 while in all other urban areas, including municipal corporations, digitalisation should take place by December, 2012.

Infy to find successor of Narayana Murthy

Infosys Technologies, India's second ranked software exporter, will commence the task of finding a replacement for its chairman and chief mentor NR Narayana Murthy from January next year, a national financial newspaper reported on Monday citing three sources.

Infosys' nominations committee, including ICICI Bank's non-executive chairman KV Kamath and Cornell University professor Jeffrey Sean Lehman, has already begun discussions on the process, the paper reported.

"It has to start at the right time. The normal time for discussing such replacements is around two quarters ahead of the departure of the person, which is what the plan is," the report said quoting a person close to the process.

The software firm has also begun internal discussions on the size and composition of the board to face new challenges, the report said, adding an Infosys spokeswoman declined to comment.

Bharti to buy Telecom Seychelles

Continuing its acquisition spree in the international market, Bharti Airtel on Wednesday said the company will acquire 100 per cent stake in Telecom Seychelles for USD 62 million (about Rs 288 crore).

The acquisition comes on heels of Bharti acquiring Zain Telecom's Africa assets for USD 10.7 billion, for which the deal was closed in June.

"The Board of Directors has approved the acquisition deal on Wednesday morning," said Bharti Airtel CEO (International) and Joint MD Manoj Kohli.

US visa fee hike to be used to develop its Border security

In what could deal a serious blow to Indian tech companies, the US House of Representatives has passed a bill to steeply hike US visa fees for skilled workers to raise $ 600 million in emergency funding to help secure the US-Mexico border.

Senators passed a similar plan last week. But since the House version passed in a voice vote Tuesday is slightly different it will go back to the Senate for final congressional approval before being signed into law by President Barack Obama.

The measure proposes to raise the fees on H-1B visas for companies who have more than 50 per cent of their employees on such visas for highly skilled professionals from $ 320 to $ 2,320. Similarly, the fee on L visas given to multi-national transferees will go up from $ 320 to $ 2,570.

The additional fees from the popular H-1B and L visas programmes would be used to build operating bases and deploy unmanned surveillance drones to better secure the US-Mexico border, one of the rare issues both Democrats and Republicans have agreed upon.

The legislation targets companies that lawmakers say "exploit" US visa programmes. A summary of the Senate version listed Wipro, Tata, Infosys and Satyam as such firms, saying that they fly thousands of employees to the US to work at as technicians and engineers for their clients.

Aamir & Peepli live

Actor-producer Aamir Khan has received 'thank you' letters from over 500 villages named Peepli in the country for making their hamlet famous with his forthcoming production Peepli Live.

"Aamir was surprised when he started getting postcards from different Peeplis thanking him for making the movie. Even he wasn't aware that there were so many villages with the same name," a source close to the actor said.

"The hand-written letters have been pouring in and some people have invited Aamir to visit their village and meet them in person. Touched by the gesture, Aamir has asked his staff to keep all the letters in his archive. He is touched that the villagers made the effort to write to him personally," the source added.

There are over 1,000 Peeplis all over India. The movie is set in Peepli Bhadwai village of Madhya Pradesh.

Indonesia blocks 4,000 porn sites

The Indonesian government on Wednesday announced that it is blocking access to four million pornography sites on the Internet following continuing calls from the public to protect the nation's youth from the dangers of smut.

The censoring is across the board and encompasses any material deemed pornographic, including nudity, explicit sex whether heterosexual or not, sex organs and pornographic symbols.

Indonesia's Communications and Information Minister Tifatul Sembiring said the step taken in conjunction with the holy month of Ramadan, was in line with the country's anti-pornographic laws that were passed on October 30, 2008.

"Right this moment, around 90 per cent of such sites are being blocked, we will carry out the blocking exercise in stages until all are blocked," he told a press conference in Jakarta on Tuesday.

These sites have been blamed by the Indonesian public as the cause of the moral decay currently taking place among young Indonesians.

Tifatul added that the move would be retained even after Ramadan and as long as the anti-pornography laws are in force.

UK scientists find superbug gene

British scientists have found a new gene that allows any bacteria to become a superbug, and are warning that it is widespread in India and could soon appear worldwide.

The gene, which can be swapped between different bacteria to make them resistant to most drugs, has so far been identified in 37 people who returned to the UK after undergoing surgery in India or Pakistan.

The resistant gene has also been detected in Australia, Canada, the US, the Netherlands and Sweden. The researchers say since many Americans and Europeans travel to India and Pakistan for elective procedures like cosmetic surgery, it was likely the superbug gene would spread worldwide.

In an article published online Wednesday in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases, doctors reported finding a new gene, called NDM-1.

Villagers of Mumbai Shore collecting items washed away from sinking vessels

Villagers at Uran have been having a field day, collecting items for their evening tea and snacks. Unfortunately, the items can prove to be very dangerous, as they have been plucked out of an oily sea.

Nine containers from the vessel MSC Chitra washed ashore at Uran yesterday, and villagers wasted no time in rummaging through them. They broke the containers and started taking the tea powder and biscuits from them, little realising that they could be contaminated.

The entire shoreline of Uran was flooded with open tea bags, medicines and biscuit packets swimming in oil. While some containers broke when the high tide lashed the containers against the rocks, others were broken by the villagers looking for some bounty.

US Govt review finds glitch in electronics of Toyota cars

The government’s investigation into complaints of sudden acceleration of Toyota vehicles has found no evidence of flawed electronics in 58 of the vehicles that crashed, federal regulators said Tuesday.

An examination of the crashes also found only one instance in which an accelerator pedal became trapped under a floor mat, and none in which a pedal became stuck or sprang back too slowly, according to a preliminary report to Congress.

Toyota has recalled nearly nine million Toyota and Lexus vehicles worldwide to correct problems involving floor mats and sticky pedals, and lawmakers and some drivers have long suggested that a malfunction in the electronic throttle control system of the vehicles might explain some of the reports of sudden acceleration.

3000 online bank accounts robbed in UK by Cyber attack

In one of the most sophisticated cyber attacks, hackers have robbed nearly 675,000 pounds from about 3,000 online bank accounts in Britain.

The scam was carried out by using a computer virus -- described by experts as the most dangerous malware programme ever created -- that emptied the bank accounts while showing customers fake statements, the Daily Mail reported.

Internet security firm M86 Security, which discovered the scam, said the hackers stole a total of 675,000 pounds from the unnamed British bank.

India's judicial system to be reformed - Moily

India would take measures to improve the quality of the judiciary by reforming the legal education system and making the country the most preferred destination for investors by setting up international arbitration courts with a mandate to dispose off any litigation within a year.

"The Government of India would like to improve quality of the judiciary through reforming the legal education. We need to make India the most preferred destination of investment," Law and Justice Minister M Veerappa Moily said last night.

Moily, a former chief minister of Karnataka and Chairman of the Second Administrative Reforms Commission, said: "any investment above Rs five crore will be decided in commercial courts within a year."

Sahara to face disciplinary actions for placing Queen's Baton replica.

Sahara is in trouble for displaying a replica of the Queen's Baton for the Commonwealth Games in Lucknow on Saturday. The authorities plan to take legal action against company officials for disrespecting the baton, an official said.

After the customary run of the baton, it was taken to Rai Bareli. But some officials of Sahara displayed a replica at Sahara Shahr, the residence of Sahara India chairman Subroto Roy, in Gomti Nagar.

"Legal action would be taken against the Sahara officials for showing disrespect to the Queen's Baton and displaying it without permission," said Lucknow's district magistrate Anil Sagar.

Sonia asks Jaiswal to probe in Boy's death in Kanpur

Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Saturday asked Minister of State for Coal, Statistics and Programme Implementation Sriprakash Jaiswal to make inquiries into the death of an 8-year-old Kanpur boy Aman Khan.

The parents have blamed Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh's security for their son's demise and alleged that he died due to roadblocks erected during the Prime Minister's recent visit to Kanpur.

They claimed they were not allowed to take the shortest route to the hospital to give their son medical treatment on time.

Y.S.R. Jagan Mohan slams state Congress Leadership

Hitting out at the Congress leadership, party MP YS Jaganmohan Reddy on Saturday alleged that Andhra Pradesh's ministers and legislators were being prevented from joining his yatra.

In the first open attack on the leadership since resuming his yatra on Thursday, the young MP claimed that ministers and legislators wanted to accompany him but were being prevented from doing so.

"What crime I have committed? I am asking you if it is justified to ask ministers and legislators not to accompany me," said Jagan, without naming Chief Minister K. Rosaiah, who asked his cabinet colleagues and legislators not to join the yatra.

Google china's license renewed

China has renewed Google's licence to operate in the country, the search giant announced today.

Writing on the company blog, chief legal officer David Drummond said: "We are very pleased that the government has renewed our ICP license and we look forward to continuing to provide web search and local products to our users in China."

Google – which has a 30% market share of Chinese search traffic – recently began directing Google.cn visitors to its uncensored Hong Kong site, saying the new approach ensured it stayed true to a commitment not to censor searches from internet users in China.

Indian vehicle sales will up by 12% by March'11 - SIAM

The Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) is hoping that the passenger car market will witness a 12-13 percent growth in sales for the year ending March 2011.

Due to favourable factors like the rising income, easy access to finance and new launches in the next six months, the increase of cars will hit an all-time high of 22 lakh units.

The current statistics clearly indicate the promising growth of the car market. During the first quarter of 2010-2011, Indian auto market saw a growth of 33 percent as 5.54 lakh units of cars were sold.

Analysis on GSLV-D3's failure complete

Non-availability of liquid hydrogen supply to the thrust chamber of the main engine could have resulted in failure of the third developmental flight of Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle from Sriharikota on April 15, a failure analysis committee has found.

The flight of GSLV-D3 primarily meant for testing of indigenously developed cryogenic upper stage (CUS) had failed to achieve the mission objectives following which ISRO had instituted a two-tier process to carry out an in-depth analysis of the flight performance and identify the causes of the failure and recommend corrective measures.

Murali named Vice Captain for first test against India

Sri Lanka on Friday named retiring spinner Muttiah Muralitharan as the vice-captain and brought back seamer Lasith Malinga for the first Test against India starting on July 18 at Galle.

Muralitharan will be Kumar Sangakkara's deputy in the Galle Test before he quits the longer version of the game.

The selectors also brought back the pace duo of Malinga and Dilhara Fernando, naming them in the 16-member squad, which includes uncapped batsman Lahiru Thirimanne.

The 26-year-old Malinga has played 28 Tests so far, the last being against England in December 2007.

On the other hand, 30-year-old Fernando, a veteran of 33 Tests, is making a comeback since the tour of Pakistan last year.

Sri Lanka squad:
Kumar Sangakkara (captain), Muttiah Muralitharan (vice-captain), Tillakaratne Dilshan, Tharanga Paranawithana, Mahela Jayawardene, Thilan Samaraweera, Anjelo Mathews, Prasanna Jayawardena, Lasith Malinga, Rangana Herath, Dilhara Fernando, Dhammika Prasad, Suraj Randiv, Thilina Kandamby, Chanaka Welagedara and Lahiru Thirimanna.

Harbhajan denied entry into airport in Chennai

India spinner Harbhajan Singh was denied entry into the Anna International Airport for not having a ticket and had to wait for about 45 minutes outside the entry area before finally getting in.

The tweaker arrived at the domestic airport from Mumbai and was taken to International airport from where the Indian cricket team was scheduled to leave for Sri Lanka.

Most of the team members had already arrived in the city, on Thursday.

Instead of joining teammates at a city hotel, Harbhajan preferred to go straight to the International airport and wait for the team.

Telcom Operators will start rolling out 3G services within months of providing airwaves

Mobile Broadband Summit 2010 -- A number of major Indian mobile operators are set to launch their 3G services within weeks of being handed their new airwaves, Nilanjan Mukherjee, president of Reliance Communications Ltd. , said here today in his keynote address at the Mobile Broadband Summit.

Seven privately owned carriers, including Reliance Communications, Aircel Ltd. , Bharti Airtel Ltd. (Mumbai: BHARTIARTL), Idea Cellular Ltd. , Tata Teleservices Ltd. , and Vodafone Essar , won 3G spectrum in the April auction, and will be handed their new airwaves in September.

That will enable them to compete with the two state-owned carriers -- Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd. (MTNL) -- that were handed their 3G spectrum in 2008, and which launched their 3G services more than 18 months ago.

HCL auquires NTS group

HCL Infosystems jumped 5.36% to Rs 118.90 at 09:06 IST on BSE after the company acquired a 60% stake in NTS Group, a leading IT services and solutions provider based in Dubai, involving an investment of about $6.5 million.

The announcement was made after market hours on Thursday, 8 July 2010.

Meanwhile, the BSE Sensex was up 140.02 points, or 0.79%, to 17,791.75

On BSE, 73,361 shares were traded in the counter as against an average daily volume of 72,835 shares in the past one quarter.

ICICI Direct website unavailable on Thursday

A technical snag hit ICICI Direct, the country's top brokerage house, disrupting its online trading services on Thursday.

Investors were unable to log on to their accounts on ICICIdirect.com, a wing of ICICI Securities that offers retail trading and investment services.

When contacted, a spokesperson from ICICI Securities said that "the problem was due to a technical snag and we are trying to address it".

"However, people willing to square-off the open positions were able to execute orders through phone," she added.

In a message to investors on its website, the company said, "ICICI Direct is currently unavailable due to technical issues. We will be available shortly."

ICICI Securities Ltd is the largest equity house in the country that provides end-to-end solutions (including web-based services).

Facebook beats youTube in India

If you thought YouTube and Flickr were the largest video and photo sharing sites in India, it might be time to have your statistics updated.

The world’s largest social networking site, Facebook, has beaten Google’s YouTube and Yahoo’s Flickr, at least in India, to become the largest video and photo sharing site, in terms of unique visitors.

Unique user count for websites is measured using cookies. When a browser, say Chrome or Firefox, visits a website, it checks for the existence of a particular cookie (like a cookie for Facebook). Counting unique cookies gets the unique number of users.

UN recalls envoy from Lanka

The United Nations on Thursday recalled its top envoy to Sri Lanka and closed down an office in Colombo following angry protests against a U.N. panel which was set up to probe allegations of war crime during the country’s civil war.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has slammed as “unacceptable” the failure of the Sri Lankan government to facilitate the normal working of the U.N. offices.

“The Secretary-General finds it unacceptable that the Sri Lankan authorities have failed to prevent the disruption of the normal functioning of the United Nations offices in Colombo as a result of unruly protests organised and led by a Cabinet Minister of the Government,” Farhan Haq, Associate Spokesperson, told journalists.

Draft for National Misson for green India to be finalised soon

The draft of the ambitious green mission to increase the forest cover and enhance eco-system services will be finalised by the month-end and then submitted to the Prime Minister, Union Environment and Forests Minister Jairam Ramesh said on Friday.

“The draft document for the mission will be finalised by this month end and submitted to the Prime Minister,” he told the NGOs at the sixth public consultation organised about the plan at Indian Forest Management Institute here.

‘National Mission for a Green India’ aims to increase the forest cover by 10 million hectares by 2020 and enhance eco-system services at an estimated cost of Rs 44,000 crore.

ISRO launch RH200 successful

ISRO has successfully launched the RH 200 rocket, which had a part of its payload developed by students from Vellore Institute of Technology University (VITU) in Tamil Nadu.

The RH 200 rocket, a technology demonstrator flight, was launched on July 7 from Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS) attached to Vikram Sarabhaio Space Centre, a VSSC release said today.

The payload developed by the VITU students was part of ISRO's initiative of encouraging varsity students as partners in payload development.

Solar Plane can fly non stop round the earth

When the Solar Impulse airplane took off on its pioneering round-the-clock flight on Wednesday, the solar panels spread over a wing similar in size to that of an Airbus generated a tiny fraction of an airliner's power.

Each of the prototype's four solar-powered electric propellor motors produces barely more thrust than the flimsy petrol engine that helped the Wright Brothers make history with the world's first powered flight in 1903.

“We're rather far from commercial aviation,” acknowledged Pascal Vuilliomenet of the Swiss federal institute of technology in Lausanne (EPFL), a technical university that is heavily involved in the solar-powered aircraft.

karnatka LokYukta to be powerful enough to question Govt officials

Days after he almost quit citing helplessness and lack of powers, Karnataka Lokayukta Santosh Hegde has been given more powers.  He can now take up cases without waiting for a complaint.

But there is an all-important rider. The Chief Minister, other ministers, MPs and MLAs have been left out of the purview of these powers.

Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa announced this on Friday, saying that rules would also be amended to allow the Lokayukta to proceed against the Chief Secretary and Principal Secretary.

Apollo Health care to recruit 23,000

The country's leading healthcare firm, Apollo Hospital, today said it plans to hire nearly 23,000 employees in the next 3-4 years to support its Rs 1,800 crore expansion plans.

Apollo will also increase its bed-capacity to 12,000 from the current 9,000 beds by 2015, for which it plans to have a total workforce of 85,000 employees, Group Executive Director (Operations) Sangita Reddy told reporters here.

"Our workforce is growing. We are employing at a rate of 15 per cent per year and currently we have 62,000 team members," Reddy said on the sidelines of a CII event here.

"In the next 3-4 years, we will have 12,000 beds and our workforce will be close to 85,000 employees," Reddy said.

The proposed expansion plan, estimated to entail a total investment of Rs 1,800 crore, will lead to an increase of about 23,000 people in the company's workforce.

The company operates one of the largest hospital chains in the country and currently has 9,000 beds at its hospitals.

Reddy said that the investment on the planned expansion will be around Rs 60 lakh per bed.

UIDAI aims to enrol 60 crore by 4 yrs

With the first phase of UIDAI aiming to enrol 600 million residents of the country into its database in next four years and its possible use in improving the Public Distribution System, the Authority Chairman Nandan Nilekani today said the journey will be “long” and “tough”.

Nilekani expressed satisfaction over the pace of the project and said the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) was on “the right track”.

The Authority which has been set up to provide a unique 12 digit number to each resident of the country aims to roll out the first number between August 2010 to February 2011.

“It is a very complex project and what we are going to do now (issuance of first Aadhaar number) is only a start. We have promised that we will have 600 million enroled in the next four and half years. It is going to be a long tough journey, the former chief of IT giant Infosys said on the sidelines of a function here.

Flood in Punjab & Haryana worsens

Situation in flood ravaged districts of Punjab and Haryana further worsened today as fresh breaches in Hansi Butana canal in Kaithal and Ghaggar in Sangrur district left several villages marooned even as army and other authorities were trying to plug the breaches.

A 15 feet breach occurred in Hansi Butana canal, some four km from Kaithal town in Haryana, inundating around 40 villages badly, officials said.

Two breaches of about 50 to 60 feet have been created due to gushing waters in Ghaggar river at Rasoli and Naiwala villages in Sangrur district of Punjab, flooding some other 50 villages, they said.

RDX recoverd in J&K

At least 75 kg of RDX was recovered from Jammu and Kashmir’s Kishtwar district, police said on Friday.

“This is one of the biggest recoveries of explosives in Jammu and Kashmir,” a Jammu and Kashmir Police spokesman said.

The spokesperson said the recovery was made on a tip that the militants had stocked a huge quantity of ammunition in the mountainous area of Chatroo, about 250 km from here.

About 250 g of RDX is sufficient to blow up a four-storey concrete building, a police source said.

Flood alert in 10 districts of western UP

A flood alert has been sounded in ten districts of western Uttar Pradesh with swelling of Yamuna while water level in Ganga was also rising at many places.

Deputy Secretary of the Revenue Department Raj Raten said that the flood alert has been issued in Muzaffarnagar, Saharanpur, Baghpat, Meerut, Aligarh, Ghaziabad, Gautam Budh Nagar, Hathras and Mathura districts.

According to Central Water Commission (CWC), Ganga is rising in Ballia, whereas Ramganga is rising in Moradabad and Bareilly.

River Yamuna is also rising in Etawah while river Sharda is rising in Paliakalan in Kheri, it said.

Ghagra is also rising in Elgin Bridge (Barabanki) Katarniyaghat in Bahraich and Ayodhya respectively.

Rapti was on the rise in Balrampur, it said.

Woman claims security restrictions caused her child's death

A woman, whose son died allegedly because he could not be taken to hospital in time due to security restrictions during the Prime Minister’s visit here, has written a letter to Congress President Sonia Gandhi asking her to ensure that such incidents do not recur.

Usha Sharma and her husband Tasdud Hussain allege that they were stopped from taking their only child, eight-year-old Aman, who sustained serious head injuries after falling from a height at their home, to hospital by security personnel who had barricaded all major roads for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to IIT here on July 3.

The couple, residents of Shyam Nagar locality, claim that though they requested security persons to allow them to commute through Coca-Cola crossing which had been barricaded to facilitate the Prime Minister’s security cover, they were asked to take a longer route to the nearest hospital.

Aman, a student of Class II, bled to death on his way to the hospital.

In her letter to Ms. Gandhi, written on July 6, Ms. Sharma has requested the UPA Chairperson to make sure that in future security forces do not stop the injured from being taken to hospitals. She has also sought a compensation of Rs 10 lakh.

Additional District Magistrate Shailendra Kumar Singh told that some roads had been closed on July 3 in view of the Prime Minister’s visit to IIT in the city.

An inquiry has been ordered into the incident, he said.

Naxals could Cities

Naxal leaders and bombmakers could develop a capability to strike at urban targets in India, a top US think tank warned, adding it will be important to watch for any indication that cadres are developing the “tradecraft” for urban terrorism.

Stratfor, a body which deals with strategic issues, however said that Naxalism is “fairly contained” in India.

It expressed these views in a report while taking a “closer Look” at the Naxal problem in India, calling it as one of the world¿s longest-running insurgencies.

INSAT 4B suffers power supply problem

Scientists of the Indian space agency are working to fix a power snag that switched off 12 transponders of the INSAT-4B comunication satellite Wednesday night, affecting services of some television channels and telecom operators.

'An expert team is looking at the possibilities of partial utilisation of some of the transponders that were switched off. The team is working to restore the services at the earliest,' S. Satish, director (Publications and Public Relations), Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), told.

There was a power supply anomaly in one of the satellite's two solar panels and six Ku Band and six C-Band transponders of the satellite got switched off, Satish said.

Samsung to Launch dual SIM touch phone in India

Samsung has launched yet another DUAL SIM mobile. Mobile market is growing huge these days and a DUAL SIM phone has become crazier these days. If you are not in need of a Java phone or a phone with OS then this B7722 is worth buying.

This 3G enabled mobile also supports GSM (EDGE) and CDMA as well. A big 3.2 inch touchsreen is present with the TouchWiz UI. Connectivity is taken care by Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP and USB 2.0 as well. No Worries, WI-FI is also present along with a 5 MP camera.

The memory can be expandable up to 8GB using a MicroSD card. All seems to be ok but the price tag is somewhat disgusting. Samsung has announced that the price will be around 420 Euro in the Europe so which means it will be Rs 23, 711 in India. We think it is not that much good to opt this phone by paying this big amount.

Sun Network Kalanithi to buy 37% stakes in SpiceJet

W L Ross and Ishtitmar on Friday converted bonds into equity shares of SpiceJet as Sun TV promoter Kalanithi Maran inches closer to acquire the no-frills carrier.

US-based investor W L Ross, which specialises in distress assets, has converted foreign currency bonds equivalent to nearly 14% stake in SpiceJet while Dubai-based Ishtitmar received a 7% stake on conversion. Both conversions took place at Rs 25 apiece.

Wi-Fi everywhere in India soon

In the next few months, you may see a slew of product launches of wireless broadband devices from phones and laptops to netbooks and iPad look-alikes.

Industry analysts say the auction of basic wireless spectrum is set to open up a new market for wireless broadband devices and services, aimed at making your home and office, always connected.

3G operators are also expected to use both Long Term Evolution (LTE) and WiMax to support their network for voice as well data services.

Six flights diverted due to heavy rain in KozhiKode,Kerala

Six flights coming here from various Gulf cities were diverted to other airports this morning following heavy rains and poor visibility.

Heavy rains lashing the area since last night and the poor visibility caused by dark cloud cover made it risky for planes to land in the Karipur International Airport, airport sources said

While four of the flights were diverted to Ndeumbassery Airport near Kochi one flight each was directed to Chennai and Thiruvananthapuram.

The flights that landed in Nedumbassery were Dubai-Calicut, Doha-Calicut, Jeddah-Calicut and Muscat-Calicut. Sharja-Calicut was diverted to Chennai and Dubai-Calicut to Thiruvananthapuram.

Tension in Srinagar following death of Youth

Angry youths clashed with security forces here in Jammu and Kashmir Saturday following the death of a teenager they allege was killed in a street protest a day earlier.

The young men hurled stones at police and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in several areas including Narwara, Rainawari, Nawa Kadal, Bimina, Batmaloo, Sonawar, Natipora, Abi Guzar and Hari Singh High Street.

Police used batons and tear gas to disperse the mobs, which would repeatedly run into the narrow streets and reappear to again attack the security personnel.

India restricts Zim to 111 in 1st T20

Shaking off the tri-series rust, Indian bowlers showed discipline and restricted Zimbabwe to a meager 111 for nine in the first Twenty20 International at Harare Sports Club on Saturday.

India, who had their reputation at stake after the mauling in the tri-series, gave them a chance to redeem their pride with their bowlers, pacers as well as spinners, at last coming to the party.

Paceman R Vinay Kumar (3/24) was the most successful bowler with three wickets while Ashok Dinda (2/27) and Pragyan Ojha (2/11) accounted for two victims apiece.

Eelam hurts Tamils in Lanka -- Lankan Tamil minister

A Sri Lankan Tamil minister who accompanied President Mahinda Rajapaksa to India says the Tamil diaspora's refusal to give up the Tamil Eelam dream is only hurting his community.

Expatriate Tamils in Western countries who continued to be loyal to the goal of forming an independent state were no way serving the mass of Tamils in Sri Lanka, said cabinet minister Douglas Devananda.

"The fact is there is going to be no Tamil Eelam, now or ever," the minister for traditional industries and small enterprises development told IANS in an exclusive interview. "It remained a dream even when LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran was alive. Today it is like dreaming about a dream.

"Can these Tamils achieve what Prabhakaran failed to?" he asked. "They cannot. But their actions create suspicions in the minds of a section of the government in Sri Lanka. It makes life more difficult for the Tamils."

Infotel, a Mukesh Ambani group company, wins bid for Pan-India BWA license

Mukesh Ambani is back in telecom, and with a bang. Buying up Infotel Broadband, which bid the most in the broadband wireless access (BWA) spectrum auctions and secured 20 MHz of spectrum in every single one of India’s 22 telecom circle, RIL now controls more spectrum than any of the established telecom players, and will pay, per MHz of spectrum, one fifth of what 3G bidders have. 20 MHz at one go is what is needed for efficient network planning as well.

True, Infotel would be offering high-speed data services, and not specifically voice services. Does this mean that it would not offer voice?

Blast in railway Track in TN

Passengers of Chennai-bound Rockfort Express had a miraculous escape on Saturday morning when the driver stopped the train immediately after receiving a warning about a blast on the track near Perani station, 160 km from here.

The blast damaged three feet of tracks and caused a four feet crater, Vellupuram police officials said.

The driver stopped the train 200 feet before the damaged spot, they said, adding that the railway officials at Trichy and Chennai were informed immediately.

Railway Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Pon Manickavel and other officials rushed to the spot. Repair work is on and the traffic is expected to be restored by 9am, the officials said.

Trains coming from southern districts to Chennai were delayed because of the blast.

Rockfort Express, Pearl City Express, Kanyakumari Express, Mumbai-Madurai Express and others were stopped midway. Trains departing from here to Guruvayoor, Puducherry and other places were also delayed.

Google drops certain features from chat App in Gmail

Google had rolled out a spruced up Gmail chat interface that brought along Video Chat, Voice Chat and Group Chat shortcuts in Instant Message window. Later, Google discovered issues with new chat design that impacted small number of Google Apps users and hence pulled back the new chat interface. The video, voice and group chat settings already existed but in the menu at the bottom of each chat window.

On the official Gmail Blog, Josh Teague, User Experience Designer at Google, noted that new chat design in Gmail had caused issues with Google Apps users. Hence the chat design update has been pulled back from Gmail and would be rolled out again next week or so after fixing it.

Just ensure that you've downloaded and installed the Voice and Video chat plugin from Google. Stay tuned to your Gmail Inboxes as the new chat design can drop in any time.

Sony J series Laptops with Touchscreen

Song Vaio J Series PC enabled with touchscreen technology launched with advance PC technology and elegant design. Everything on Sony Vaio J Series PC seems to be designed sensibly to give spacious desktop experience and at the same time gives you best 2.6 GHz high speed and unmatched powerful technology combined with new i series Intel processor.

Best thing about Sony Vaio J Series PC is touchscreen monitor and rest everything else we can assemble in our computer personally. Sony Vaio J Series PC touchscreen is measured at 21.5 inches and integrated with high definition LED technology.

BlackBerry Pearl launched in India.

Research In Motion (RIM) has refreshed its Pearl series. The two new models introduced are the Pearl 9100 and Pearl 9105. Both share the same internal hardware. However, there is one main differentiation on the outside; the 9100 has regular a 20-button half-QWERTY keyboard, while the 9105 has a typical numeric keypad. It is kind of ironic to see a num-pad on a Blackberry, since all of them till date have a QWERTY board. People from RIM said they introduced the 9105 for people who aren't willing to get acclimatized to a full keyboard.

India relieves Visa Norms for Pak nationals

In a move that would provide relief to many Pakistani nationals, the Home Ministry has relaxed norms for granting extension of long-term visa (LTV) to at least four categories staying in India.

Those who qualify for getting exemption from the provisions of Rule 3 of the Passport (Entry into India) Act, 1920, are members of minority communities like Hindus and Sikhs in Pakistan; Pakistani women married to Indian nationals and staying in India; Indian women married to Pakistani nationals and returning due to widowhood/divorce and having no male member to support them in Pakistan; and cases involving extreme compassion.

Indian authorities questioned Headly without any restraints

Indian investigators were given access to LeT operative David Headley aka Daood Gilani for seven days over the course of which they questioned him without any restrictions, the Obama administration disclosed on Thursday, pushing back at reports that Washington was being dodgy in cooperating with India on the Mumbai 26/11 terrorist attack.

However, "to protect the confidentiality of the investigations being conducted by both India and the United States, both countries have agreed not to disclose the contents of the interviews," the US Justice Department said in a statement. Various versions of what Headley told the investigators have appeared in the Indian media, none of which have been officially authenticated by authorities.

Raza earn billions in his painting auction

It's proving to be quite a scorching summer for Indian art. Syed Haider Raza became India's priciest modern artist on Thursday when a seminal work by the 88-year-old sold for a whopping Rs 16.3 crore ($3.49 million) at a Christie's auction in London.

Just two summers back, a work by Francis Newton Souza had set the record for the most expensive piece of modern art by notching up $2.5 million or Rs 10.5 crore. Since then, prices of Indian art had crashed though the fall in contemporary art was much more drastic than the moderns.

Aptly, it's the country's two best-known masters who are making the meltdown seem like a distant memory.

Vodafone India to launch IPhone 4 soon

Now that the iPhone 4 has been officially revealed and is readying itself for launch in U.S., France, Germany, Japan and UK this very month, people in India were left perplexed whether it will ever make it to India any time soon.


With the iPhone 3GS having introduced just a few months ago in India, the launch of a new iPhone model in India looked unlikely. However, since Apple has stopped sales of the iPhone 3G (which was also sold in India alongside the 3GS), it is likely that the iPhone 3GS would take the place of its older brother relinquishing its post to make way for the iPhone 4.

Yahoo! to link Facebook updates to its Users

People can now link their Yahoo! and Facebook accounts to view and share updates, a move that will enable the search engine to reach out to a wide audience in the social networking space with its sites and services.

The partnership between the two online majors, announced in December last year, will help Yahoo! add networking features like status update and news feed from Facebook on its services like mail, messenger, Pulse, News, Sports and Finance services.

Mumbai Airport shows lack of preparedness for rain & power Failure

Flight operations at the city airport were severely affected on Wednesday due to the closure of main runway, coupled with water-logging at terminal 1-C and power cut.

There was a delay of one to one and a half hour across flights at Mumbai airport due to the closure of runway for over an hour, an airport source told .

At the top of it, there was power cut as well as water-logging of newly constructed terminal 1-C which further led to congestion at the airport, the source said.

The Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL) said that the main runway 09x27 was closed for 50 minutes (0810 hours to 0900 hours) to clear glass pieces of runway edge light which were broken by a departing aircraft.

"Due to the closure, there was a long queue of aircraft at the runway awaiting clearance from the ATC," source said.

The source also said that following rains last night, there was water-logging at terminal 1-C leading to the closure of the area.

Chinese regulator approve ABC's plan for IPO

The Agriculture Bank of China on Wednesday earned regulatory approval for what might prove to be the world’s largest initial public offering. The world record is held by another Chinese bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, which garnered $21.6 billion in an IPO in 2006.

ABC faces two challenges in its efforts to raise a large quantum of funds: a depressed market and low ratings by Fitch, which has allotted the lender its second lowest rating of “E”. But bank officials have assured potential investors that the public offering will not be delayed due to weak market situation, which is at a 13-month low. The offering is expected to take place late June or early July simultaneously in Shanghai and Hong Kong.

Govt of India to list 35 PSU in nest 5 Yrs

The government on Wednesday said that it would list 35 public sector companies on stock markets over the next five years.

The move would generate about Rs 1.5 lakh crore in revenues for the Centre.

"In the next five years, we will list 35 PSUs....the government will get almost Rs 1.5 lakh crore as revenue from this listing," minister of state for heavy industry and public sector enterprises Arun Yadav told reporters here at a CII function.

SBI to raise Rs.20,000 Crores

State Bank of India is expected to launch a Rs 20,000 crore rights issue in the second half of 2010/11, Chairman O.P. Bhatt said on Wednesday.

The government's share in the state-run bank's rights issue is likely to be 60 percent, he told reporters.

Bhopal gas tragedy verdict under criticism

The Bhopal gas tragedy verdict has been hitting headlines across the world and angry reactions are coming in from everywhere.

Many see this as a case not just of justice delayed but also justice not delivered. And overwhelmingly, the international media holds the Indian government and judiciary responsible for the travesty.

On Monday, after over 25 years, eight people were convicted for the world's worst industrial disaster and sentenced to two years in prison. One of them died during the course of the trial. The other seven were granted bail. About 20,000 people were killed in the Bhopal gas tragedy of December 2-3, 1984.

Acid attack on a women in Chandigarh

A single mother in Chandigarh was on Wednesday battling serious burn injuries after unidentified men threw acid on her for allegedly having an affair with her employer, police said.

Nisha, 32, who is divorced and lives with her father, was attacked on Tuesday night while she was going to the market on her scooter.

"Some unknown persons chased Nisha, who was going towards a market on her scooter, in a Maruti car. After reaching close to her, they threw acid on her," a police official said.

Nisha was rushed to the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) in a serious condition. She sustained burn injuries on her face, arms, feet and eyes.

"She has a five-year-old daughter, who also lives with her. From the preliminary investigations, it seems her illicit relations with her employer could be a reason behind the attack," the official said.

Nisha was working at a gas agency in Sector 47 for the last eight years.

In her statement to the police, Nisha said that before throwing acid on her, one of the accused said: "Now your relationship with Raman is over."

Another top Cop in Haryana booked on molestation charges

Former DGP Haryana SPS Rathore is not alone in the hall of shame of Haryana Police officers. Now a former Inspector General, MS Ahlawat, has been booked for threatening and molesting a widow in Yamunanagar in 2001 when he was Superintendent of Police (SP) of the area.

For nine years police did not take any action on the complaint. It was only after the woman sat on a protest outside the DGP office last year that an inquiry was ordered. Now police has initiated action against the former IG who retired few months ago.

Napier bridge to be lit up soon

The historic Napier Bridge in Chennai will soon be bathed in ethereal light to accentuate its iconic concrete arches and create the illusion of a floating edifice, thanks to an Australian company.

The Corporation of Chennai is upgrading the nightscape of the south Indian metropolis, including the Promenade and the City Centre. It has engaged the Sydney-based Lighting Design Partnership (LDP) with its local collaborators, GA Architects, to light up Napier Bridge.

The bridge at the mouth of the Coovum river estuary - also known as the Iron Bridge - forms a natural gateway to the famous Marina Beach, which has now been given a facelift.

Another AirPlane disaster averted in Hyderbad

A Hyderabad-bound Jet Airways flight with 36 passengers on board had a close save after the nose wheel of the aircraft broke off while landing at the Raja Bhoj Airport here today, airport sources said.

"The nose wheel of the plane approaching the runway suddenly broke off. However, the pilot managed to land the aircraft safely," said the sources.

The flight, which arrived here at approximately 9 am and was scheduled to take off at 9:35 am, has been cancelled. The passengers were accommodated in other flights, the sources said.

Jet Airways, however, denied that the aircraft's nose wheel broke and said it was a technical snag which delayed the flight.

"A technical snag was reported in the Jet Airways flight 9W 2509 which arrived here from Ahmedabad via Indore and was on its way to Hyderabad via Raipur, following which it was stranded at the Bhopal Airport," a Jet Airways spokeswoman said.

"The aircraft was taken to the parking bay in Bhopal for inspection," she said.

Afghan's Opium is deadliest than their Bullets- UN

A top United Nations official says that the annual number of people killed by Afghan heroin in Western Europe exceeds the total death toll of NATO troops killed in Afghanistan since 2001.

Some 1,800 international coalition troops have been killed in Afghanistan, including 1,100 Americans.

Speaking at an anti-drug conference in Moscow, the head of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, Antonio Maria Costa, said that the world's largest consumer of Afghan drugs is Russia, where more than 70 metric tons of heroin are sold annually.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told the conference that heroin is seen as a "serious threat'' to Russian youth.

India & Lanka signs 7 pacts

India and Sri Lanka on Wednesday inked seven pacts, ranging from security to development, and discussed steps being taken to rehabilitate displaced Tamils, a process which New Delhi wants to be expedited.

During wide-ranging talks here, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa briefed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh about his government's efforts to resettle nearly three lakh Tamils displaced due to the war with LTTE.

Singh is understood to have emphasised on speeding up the process of resettlement and devolution of political powers to ethnic Tamils.

Police Brutality ,a growing menace in India

In a shocking tale, police officers, including a woman constable in Delhi, allegedly asked a woman to strip and have sex with her son, a juvenile accused, inside a police post.

The victim, a resident of Delhi's Mayapuri area, alleges that she and her husband had rushed to the local police station after her two sons were detained by the police on charges of theft.

"While returning home from the Mayapuri police station with my wife, I saw a crowd outside our house. While entering I saw a male and a female cop ransacking the place. When we objected and asked about our sons, the cops started hitting us," said the victim's husband.

Warren Anderson, now refocused on Bhopal issue

Perhaps the biggest fallout of this week's verdict in the Bhopal gas tragedy has been the refocusing of attention on Warren Anderson, and the fact that he has not been tried for his role as the senior-most executive of the company that caused the world's biggest industrial disaster.

Anderson, who was Chief Executive Officer of Union Carbide Corp in 1984, flew into India after the gas leak from a Carbide plant choked Bhopal on the 2-3 of December. He was charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder. Yet, just four days after the tragedy, Anderson flew out of Bhopal on the official plane of Arjun Singh, who was at the time the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh.

Sharad Pawar another victim of IPL

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday demanded resignation of the Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, alleging that he had misled the nation about his interest relating to the Indian Premier League (IPL).

“He should resign forthwith. If (he does) not, we demand stern action against Pawar from Prime Minister (Manmohan Singh),” BJP chief spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters here.

A media report on Friday said Mr. Pawar and his family members had 16 per cent share in City Corporation which was one of the bidders for Pune IPL franchise.

Samsung Galaxy Tab details leaked

After Apple released the iPad, there has been a flurry of activity in the tablets market with many devices like LG'S UX 10, Asus' EeePad  and MSI's Windpad.

Looks like Samsung Electronics too is inching towards making a tablet of its own and images of the same have already been leaked across the Interweb. We are talking about the Galaxy Tab tablet that Samsung tweeted about from its official South African Twitter account.

Another Disaster in Mumbai airport averted

 An air disaster was averted at the airport here early Friday when a flight was cleared for landing while another plane was waiting to take off on the same runway, airport sources said.

A Chennai-bound Spicejet flight with 201 passengers was cleared for take-off just after 1.30 a.m. But the pilot detected a snag and informed the air traffic control (ATC), which asked him to wait until help arrived.

By then, however, the ATC had cleared for landing a Kingfisher Airlines flight from New Delhi. The Kingfisher flight too had about 200 passengers on board, an airport official said.

Nokia launches N900 in India

Nokia's Maemo 5 based tablet, the N900, was available in India via unofficial channels for quite some time now. Seeing the demand for the handset in the grey market, Nokia seems to have thought of bringing in the handset officially to India and that is exactly what it has done today.

Nokia has officially launched the N900 in India. The N900 boasts of an impressive hardware spec sheet that begins right from the processor - an ARM Cortex A8 that provides 1GB of application memory and Open GL ES 2.0 Graphics acceleration support.