Happening News

Major solar storm headed to Earth

2012-01-23T21:13:00.001-08:00

This handout image provided by NASA, taken Sunday night, Jan. 22, 2012, shows a solar flare erupting on the Sun's northeastern hemisphere. Space weather officials say the strongest solar storm in more than six years is already bombarding Earth with radiation with more to come. The Space Weather Prediction Center in Colorado observed a flare Sunday night at 11 p.m. EST. Physicist Doug Biesecker said the biggest concern from the speedy eruption is the radiation, which arrived on Earth an hour later. It will likely continue through Wednesday. It's mostly an issue for astronauts' health and satellite disruptions. It can cause communication problems for airplanes that go over the poles. (AP Photo/NASA)

The strongest geomagnetic storm in more than six years was forecast to hit Earth's magnetic field on Tuesday, and it could affect airline routes, power grids and satellites.A coronal mass ejection - a big chunk of the Sun's atmosphere - was hurled toward Earth on Sunday, driving energized solar particles at about 5 million miles an hour (2,000 km per second), about five times faster than solar particles normally travel, the center's Terry Onsager said."When it hits us, it's like a big battering ram that pushes into Earth's magnetic field," Onsager said from Boulder, Colorado. "That energy causes Earth's magnetic field to fluctuate."

The Solar Dynamics Observatory captures an M8.7 class flare in a handout photo released by NASA January 23, 2012.

REUTERS/NASA/SDO/AIA/Handout

This energy can interfere with high frequency radio communications used by airlines to navigate close to the North Pole in flights between North America, Europe and Asia, so some routes may need to be shifted, Onsager said.It could also affect power grids and satellite operations, the center said in a statement. Astronauts aboard the International Space Station may be advised to shield themselves in specific parts of the spacecraft to avoid a heightened dose of solar radiation.

SDO's AIA instrument at 171 Angstrom shows the current conditions of the quiet corona and upper transition region of the Sun as seen in a handout photo released by NASA January 23, 2012.

REUTERS/NASA/SDO/AIA/Handout

In this handout from the NOAA/National Weather Service's Space Weather Prediction Center, shows the coronal mass ejection (CME) erupting from the sun late January 23, 2012. The flare is reportedly the largest since 2005 and is expected to affect GPS systems and other communications when it reaches the Earth's magnetic field in the morning of January 24. (Photo by NOAA/National Weather Service's Space Weather Prediction Center via Getty Images)

The space weather center said the geomagnetic storm's intensity would probably be moderate or strong, levels two and three on a five-level scale, five being the most extreme.

Text Courtesy : Reuters

Source:
http://in.news.yahoo.com/photos/major-solar-storm-headed-to-earth-1327375802-slideshow/#crsl=%252Fphotos%252Fmajor-solar-storm-headed-to-earth-1327375802-slideshow%252Fsolar-storm-photo-1327375749.html

New, darker portrait of legendary American

2012-01-19T22:12:00.001-08:00

BANGKOK (AP) — Forty-five years after vanishing into a jungle without a trace, "Silk King" Jim Thompson remains a daily presence in Thailand: shoppers crowd his elegant stores and the American expatriate's antique-rich residence is one of the capital's top tourist attractions.

Credited with the revival of a now booming silk industry, Thompson attained legendary status, enhanced by a bon vivant lifestyle at a time when Thailand was still truly exotic -- and by his mysterious death. But little has been known about Thompson's intensely political, darker side -- his freelance backing of Asia's insurgencies, clashes with Washington's Cold War warriors and his connections to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, which to this day reportedly refuses to release his complete file.

It's the cloak and dagger stuff, rather than the glitz and glamor, that's the focus of a recent book "The Ideal Man: The Tragedy of Jim Thompson and the American Way of War" by Joshua Kurlantzick, an author on Asian affairs with the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations.

The book provides no new clues about Thompson's vacation walk into a Malaysian jungle in 1967 from which he never returned. Numerous theories, which still continue to pop up from time to time, range from having been eaten by a tiger to abduction by U.S. intelligence agents.

But Kurlantzick says he uncovered a trove of other information from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, departments of Defense and State and other U.S. government agencies through the Freedom of Information Act as well as unclassified material available, but mostly untapped, in the National Archives.

From this, emerges a portrait of Thompson as a U.S Army officer in the Office of Strategic Services, forerunner of the CIA, who stood ardently behind America's immediate post-World War II policy of championing democracy and ridding the world of colonialism. He believed Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh was a nationalist who should be supported, and almost worshipped Pridi Banomyong, Thailand's pro-democracy statesman.

But Washington executed an about-turn and began to back assorted Asian strongmen and the French in colonial Indochina — "a scurvy race" he called them — on grounds that it was fighting the greater menace of Communism. Thompson became disillusioned and angry.

He was devastated when Pridi was ousted in a coup followed by the killings of many of his followers and a succession of thuggish leaders from the military, which remains a powerful force in Thai politics to this day.

"I wanted to use Jim to broaden the story to Thailand's relations with the United States, and to explore this whole generation of those who had come out of the OSS in World War II and then were pushed out by the Cold War," Kurlantzick said in an interview.

Scion of a wealthy East Coast establishment family, educated at Princeton University, James H. W. Thompson dabbled in architecture and partied in New York before volunteering for the army. A wartime marriage to a beautiful debutante ended in divorce. Serving with distinction in North Africa and Europe, he was about to parachute into Thailand with an OSS team when the war ended.

In Thailand, Thompson became deeply involved with Lao, Cambodian and Vietnamese insurgents who used the country as a base in fighting the French, helping to supply weapons and serving as a go-between, often acting without approval from headquarters. Although discharged in 1946, Kurlantzick says Thompson continued to "serve as a de facto intelligence officer," useful to all sides until the radical shift in U.S. policy when he and other colleagues in the OSS found themselves on the "wrong side."

"Jim was an idealist, a romantic, an anti-imperialist and there was no more idealistic time than just after the war," the book quotes a one-time U.S. diplomat, Rolland Bushier, as saying.

America's secret entry into the war in Laos in the early 1960s finally destroyed his vision of "an America that used its power to build democracy in the region, that could distinguish between local grievances and global communism, and that inspired Asians as a liberator, not as a new colonizer."

Like a number of like-minded Americans at the time, Thompson was investigated by the FBI for suspected "un-American activities," and "although Thompson once had been extremely valuable to U.S. intelligence, the agency finally put out a 'burn notice,' on him, warning all employees to stay away from him," the book notes.

By this time, he had started The Thai Silk Company, reviving a largely moribund industry, helping thousands of poor villagers in the process and introducing Thai silk to the world. Dinners at his traditional Thai home, filled with antiques he had collected, became a must-do for visiting celebrities, diplomats, spies and journalists, many of whom described them, and Thompson's personality, as unforgettable.

A number of those who knew him personally have recalled a more optimistic, upbeat individual than portrayed in the book, and almost certainly it isn't his politics which is now remembered by most.

"Jim may have disappeared decades ago but he remains alive today through the legacy of his great silk products, the help his company still gives poor rural folk and through the preservation of Thailand's rich artistic heritage," says William J. Klausner, president of The James H. W. Thompson Foundation, which serves as caretaker of his residence-museum and promotes Thai culture.

Kurlantzick says Thompson was a "multifaceted, generous and foresighted man, but he was in some ways too idealistic, bordering on the naive and it became his downfall in many ways."

Toward the end, aged 61, Thompson felt the hopes of his generation had been dashed, the old Asia he loved was fast becoming too Westernized, and the most passionate love affair of his life, with the wife of an American diplomat, had ended. Like other expatriates, he could never go home again, and yet sensed that he would never become truly Thai.

Perhaps, the book suggests, the real tragedy befell Thompson before his disappearance.

Source:
http://in.news.yahoo.com/darker-portrait-legendary-american-055633210.html

Musharraf may delay return to Pakistan, blames crisis

2012-01-19T22:11:00.001-08:00

LONDON/KARACHI (Reuters) - Former Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf said on Thursday he may delay his planned return home later this month, blaming the country's current instability.

Musharraf, who seized power in a 1999 coup and has been living in Dubai for almost three years, said he was awaiting recommendations from members of his All Pakistan Muslim League party back home.

"Once those recommendations come, I'm going to examine them and then make a decision whether I should return or delay my return," Musharraf said during a visit to London.

Musharraf addressed a rally via video in Pakistan's biggest city and commercial hub, Karachi, last week to announce his plan to return between January 27 and January 30 and take part in parliamentary elections due by 2013.

"There is a serious political and administrative crisis brewing up in Pakistan. It has certain implications as far as my return to Pakistan is concerned," Musharraf told a news conference.

Tension continues to mount against Pakistan's unpopular civilian government which faces pressure from the military over a mysterious memo seeking U.S. help to avert an alleged planned coup last year.

Some media reports said Musharraf, who faces the threat of arrest in Pakistan on charges that he failed to provide adequate security to former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto before her assassination in 2007, will seek Saudi help in obtaining guarantees that he will not be detained.

Musharraf resigned and left the country after his allies lost a parliamentary election in 2008 and the new coalition government threatened him with impeachment. His popularity had plummeted after he became embroiled in a row with the judiciary and briefly imposed a state of emergency in 2007.

(Reporting by Adrian Croft in London, Faisal Aziz in Karachi and Amena Bakr in Dubai; Editing by Nick Macfie and David Stamp)

Source:
http://in.news.yahoo.com/musharraf-advised-delay-return-pakistan-102518553.html

22 crore Aakash tablets needed: Govt

2012-01-18T22:40:00.001-08:00

New Delhi: The demand for the world's cheapest tablet has gone up as the government has said that it will require an additional 22 crore units of the Aakash tablet.

PTI quoted Additional Secretary, HRD Ministry, N K Sinha saying, "Initially, we bought one lakh Aakash tablets but we need 22 crore more tablets in the coming years as per the Ministry of Human Resource."

"To manufacture Aakash in such large numbers, fresh tenders will be released again and other companies along with Datawind will also get a chance," Sinha told PTI.

Last year, DataWind, the Canadian company that is manufacturing Aakash, delayed delivery of the tablet to 2012.

A spokesperson of Datawind said, "People who have booked the Aakash tablet online will get its delivery in January.” The spokesperson, however, didn't cite any reason for the delay. Earlier the company had said that the Rs 2,500 Aakash tablet will be delivered within seven days of online booking.

DataWind initially said that the Aakash tablet will be available to students only through colleges and schools. However, later it started online booking of Aakash for everyone including students. Besides, DataWind have given only 10,000 Aakash tablets to the government for distribution in schools and colleges of the initial 1 lakh proposed.

There are two versions of the tablet. The original Aakash tablet comes with much lower specifications and is priced at Rs 2,500. Its cousin — named as UbiSlate, is comparatively powerful and is priced at Rs 2,999.

UbiSlate will be powered by Android 2.3 and will have a resistive touchscreen, Cortex A8-700 MHz processor and graphics accelerator HD video processor, 256 MB of RAM and 2 GB of internal memory. Other specifications are - one standard USB port, 3.5 mm audio jack, a 7 inch display with 800 x 480 pixel resolution, resistive touchscreen, GPRS and WiFi support.

On the other hand, the 7 inch screen bearing Aakash tablet has Android 2.2 operating system, Arm11 — 366 Mhz processor, 2100 battery, WiFi and will have support for 3G modem. The price difference between the Aakash and UbiSlate is because the commercially available product will include a cellular modem, allowing it to deliver web access anywhere there is a cellular connectivity, and also to function as a mobile phone. Notably, Internet access on both the tablets across mobile networks will be priced at Rs 99 for 2GB. (With inputs from The Mobile Indian)

Source:
http://in.news.yahoo.com/22-crore-aakash-tablets-needed--govt.html

Congress releases manifesto in Punjab, promises sops to industry

2012-01-18T22:38:00.001-08:00

Chandigarh, Jan 16 (ANI): Ahead of the upcoming assembly polls in Punjab, the Congress party is promising help to the industry and the unemployed, if elected to power.

In its election manifesto released on Sunday, the party assured that it would provide electricity and speedier clearances to the firms.

"900 units of our industry have left Punjab. Nobody is coming. Why? One of the reasons is that out of a week, the industry does not get power for three days. We are guaranteeing power. Now till our power is available, we will buy that power from the national grid and we will give it because this is the basic requirement for the industry," said former Chief Minister and Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee President Captain Amarinder Singh.

"Secondly, any new company that wants to enter Punjab has to acquire 14 different clearances from the government. We are doing away with that. We are saying you do self-certification and anything anywhere is required, we are bringing it around into a single window clearance system," Singh added.

Singh, who served as the chief minister of Punjab from 2002 to 2007, also raised the issue of graft while releasing the Congress manifesto and termed the SAD government as corrupt.

"Corruption has been rampant in the state. Since Independence, perhaps this has been the corruptest government at every district. People are feeling the pressure. Nowhere can you go in Punjab, nobody can go and get any work done without paying money. I think the upper level and the Chief Minister downwards should be looking at it. This whole government is corrupt, ministers are being thrown out. You all know who is corrupt and who is not corrupt. On the other side, at the lower level, we want a vigilance commission which functions as a vigilance commission and not as a political tool in Badal's hands," he added.

Punjab is one of five states due to hold elections this year. As per the schedule announced by Election Commission, the state assembly poll in Punjab would be held on January 30.

In Punjab, the main battle is expected to be between the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)- Bharatiya Janata Party alliance and the Congress party. Sukhbir Singh Badal, the Deputy Chief Minister of Punjab and son of chief minister Parkash Singh Badal, heads the SAD. (ANI)

Source:
http://in.news.yahoo.com/congress-releases-manifesto-punjab-promises-sops-industry-075235911.html

Capt Amarinder Singh says Parkash Singh Badal did not support development

2012-01-18T22:37:00.001-08:00

Amritsar, Jan 19 (ANI): As the political battle intensifies in poll-bound states, Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee President Captain Amarinder Singh has slammed state Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and questioned claims of development made during his tenure.

"I have always been saying that whether he can show even one thing of development, if any, has happened." Singh told the media here on Wednesday.

Earlier, Singh accused Sukhbir Singh Badal of 'bribing' the party rebels to go against the Congress.

Singh went on to warn the rebel candidates of serious consequences if they did not heed the Congress party line.

"Unfortunately, Sukhbir Singh Badal has paid money to many of our rebel candidates. The conduit for carrying this money, I say again, has been the vigilance department. Whether Mr. Saini agrees or does not agree it is his business, but we know that and we have already informed the Election Commission. As far as settling the row with the rebels in concerned, it is subject to discipline," he said.

"If they withdraw their nomination papers in a day or two...otherwise, they will be expelled from the party. This time, the party has taken a very stringent view in Delhi, that for five years they will be out, and for the next five years, they will have a cooling off period, they will be given no jobs. So ten...they will have to sacrifice for few hours of pleasure," he added.

Punjab is one of five states due to hold elections this year. As per the schedule planned by Election Commission, the state assembly poll in Punjab would be held on January 30.

In Punjab, the main battle is expected to be between the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)- Bharatiya Janata Party alliance and the Congress party. Sukhbir Singh Badal, the Deputy Chief Minister of Punjab and son of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, heads the SAD. (ANI)

Source:
http://in.news.yahoo.com/capt-amarinder-singh-says-parkash-singh-badal-did-054819916.html

Gujarat HC upholds appointment of Lokayukta by Governor

2012-01-18T22:36:00.001-08:00

Ahmedabad, Jan 18 (PTI): The Gujarat High Court on Wednesday upheld the appointment of a Lokayukta by the Governor, dismissing the Narendra Modi government's petition against the decision.

Justice V M Sahai, who was given the task of hearing the petition challenging the appointment of a Lokayukta following the split verdict of a division bench, said: "I could not agree with Justice Sonia Gokani of the division bench on the points of difference, which were referred to me."

In his verdict, he said: "I concur with the views of my brother judge Akil Kureshi." Kureshi had upheld as "constitutional" the appointment of a Lokayukta, an office created to check corruption in government.

"Hence, the government petition is dismissed", the court said.

Gujarat Governor Kamla Beniwal had appointed retired Justice R A Mehta to the post of Lokayukta on August 25 last year. The post had been lying vacant for eight years prior to that.

Chief Minister Modi had gone all out to oppose the appointment of Lokayukta by the Governor for "bypassing the state government". The government had challenged the appointment the very next day in the High Court and had also unleashed a political campaign against the Governor.

Earlier, on October 11, a division bench of the High Court had given a split verdict on the appointment issue. While Justice Kureshi had upheld the decision of the Governor, Justice Gokani had quashed the warrant of appointment issued by the Governor terming it to be unconstitutional.

Source:
http://in.news.yahoo.com/gujarat-hc-upholds-appointment-lokayukta-governor-000000391.html

Rahul Gandhi accuses Mayawati of ill governance

2012-01-09T22:21:00.001-08:00

Ballia, Jan 10 (ANI): Accusing Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati of ill governance, Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi said that the former has failed to develop the state and would not be able to do so in the future.

Addressing a gathering here, Gandhi asked: "Have you ever seen Mayawati visiting any village in the state in the last five years? Has she ever sat with a family in the village and dined with them? She has never connected with the people in the state."

"Have you seen her drinking the same water that you intake in your village? How does she plan to develop the state without being connected with its people? She has developed magical elephant in Lucknow that eats public money," Gandhi said.

He also accused the Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav of keeping mum on the entire reservation issue.

"Have any previous chief ministers in the state spoken openly or done anything about reservation? When Mulayam Singh Yadav got to know that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is about to talk on reservation, he chose to remain silent. Even he did the same when mediapersons asked him to say on the same issue (reservation)," said Gandhi.

Gandhi further urged the people of the state to vote for change by casting their vote for the Congress party.

"We promise to change Uttar Pradesh. The people of state has wasted 22 years believing in other parties, this time we will change the face of the state and work for the benefit of its people at large I urge that give a chance to the youth in our party to work for your welfare," he said.

Uttar Pradesh will elect a new 403-member state assembly in March, and the poll results are expected to broadly indicate trends for 2014 general elections. (ANI)

Source:
http://in.news.yahoo.com/rahul-gandhi-accuses-mayawati-ill-governance-054541437.html

UP polls: Noida authorities yet to get orders for covering Mayawati's statues

2012-01-09T22:18:00.001-08:00

Noida, Jan 9 (ANI): As the deadline for the Election Commission's directive to cover the statues of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati and her party symbol, the 'elephant', erected at parks and other public places across the state in recent years draws near, Noida State Development Authority officials are in a fix as they are yet to receive orders in this regard.

"No letter of permission has been received from the administration. We have not got any letter. We are a construction agency, we are conducting a meeting right now and when we get our orders we will cover all the statues," said Arvind Trivedi, Manager, State Development Authority.

"That is the order of the state government. If they ask us to cover the statues, we will cover them. If they don't want to cover them, we will not wrap them," he added.

Ahead of assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, the Election Commission decided to cover the statues of Chief Minister Mayawati and her party symbol, the 'elephant', erected at parks and other public places across the state in recent years.

Last year, Mayawati had inaugurated the 33-acre park named after B. R. Ambedkar in Noida.

The park was built at a cost of Rs. 650 crores, and has statues of elephants, B. R. Ambedkar, Kanshi Ram and Mayawati. (ANI)

Source:
http://in.news.yahoo.com/polls-noida-authorities-yet-orders-covering-mayawatis-statues-120029658.html

Mayawati will meet same fate like Saddam Hussein, says Azam Khan

2012-01-09T05:25:00.001-08:00

Lucknow, Jan 8 (ANI): Senior Samajwadi Party leader, Azam Khan on Sunday said Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Mayawati would meet the same fate like Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein.

Khan slammed Mayawati for misusing funds to erect statues of herself and her party symbol, elephant.

"The elephants and the statues of Mayawati are now being covered. When we had seen the fall of Saddam Hussein's statue then it was also covered. We do not know what the future holds but when the statues of Mayawati, which she believes stands in the heart of the people, will fall then a good time for the state would start," said Khan.

Chief Election Commissioner of India, S.Y. Quraishi had ordered to cover the statues of Mayawati and her party symbol elephant, which are placed in numerous parks and memorials built by the government in Lucknow and Noida, before the seven-phase assembly elections begin in the State on February 4.

Quraishi's decision came after a slew of complaints from opposition parties. (ANI)

Source:
http://in.news.yahoo.com/mayawati-meet-same-fate-saddam-hussein-says-azam-123302828.html

Aarushi case: Rajesh Talwar to remain on bail till Feb 4

2012-01-09T05:22:00.001-08:00

New Delhi, Jan 9 (ANI): The Supreme Court on Monday ruled that Noida-based dentist Dr. Rajesh Talwar, the main accused in the murder of his teenage daughter Aarushi and domestic help Hemraj, would remain on bail till February 4 and face trial.

On Friday, the Supreme Court had rejected a separate petition filed by the Talwars, requesting it to overrule the verdict of the Ghaziabad court that ordered the CBI to make them the main accused in the case.

The apex court refused to intervene but said that its decision did not reflect any judgement on their alleged involvement in the teen's death.

The investigation in the case was initially carried out by the Uttar Pradesh Police, which had arrested Aarushi's father on May 23, 2008.

Rajesh Talwar was granted bail in 2008 after the CBI had filed a closure report on the twin murder case citing insufficient evidence. The court, however, rejected the closure report and asked them to face trial in the case.

Aarushi, 14, was found murdered under mysterious circumstances in her parents' Jalvayu Vihar apartment in Noida, May 16, 2008. Their domestic help Hemraj's body was found on the flat's terrace a day later. (ANI)

Source:
http://in.news.yahoo.com/aarushi-case-rajesh-talwar-remain-bail-till-feb-090701409.html

Bhagvad Gita faces legal ban in Russia

2011-12-19T04:58:00.001-08:00

Moscow, Dec 17 (IANS) Bhagvad Gita, one of the most sacred Hindu religious texts, is facing a legal ban and the prospect of being branded as 'an extremist' literature across Russia, with a court in Siberia's Tomsk city all set to deliver its final verdict Monday in a case filed by state prosecutors.

The final pronouncement in the case will come just two days after Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was here for a bilateral summit meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev from Dec 15 to 17.

The case, which has been going on in Tomsk court since June this year, seeks to get a Russian translation of 'Bhagvad Gita As It Is' written by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), on the Hindu religious text banned in Russia and declaring it as a literature spreading 'social discord', apart from rendering its distribution on Russian soil illegal.

In view of the case, Indians settled in Moscow, numbering about 15,000, and followers of the ISKCON religious movement here have appealed to Manmohan Singh and his government to intervene diplomatically to resolve the issue in favour of the Hindu religious text, an important part of Indian epic 'Mahabharat' written by Sage Ved Vyasa.

The ISKCON followers of Russia have also written a letter to the Indian Prime Minister's Office in New Delhi seeking immediate intervention, lest the religious freedom of Hindus living here be compromised.

'The case is coming up for a final verdict on Monday in Tomsk court. We want all efforts from Indian government to protect the religious right of Hindus in Russia,' Sadhu Priya Das of ISKCON and a devotee of a 40-year-old Krishna temple in central Moscow, told IANS.

The court, which took up the case filed by the state prosecutors, had referred the book to the Tomsk State University for 'an expert' examination Oct 25 this year.

But Hindu groups in Russia, particular followers of the ISKCON, say the university was not qualified, as it lacked Indologists.

The Hindus had pleaded with the court that the case was inspired by religious bias and intolerance`from a majority religious group in Russia, and have sought that

their rights to practice their religious beliefs be upheld.

The prosecutor's case also seeks to ban the preaching of Prabhupada and ISKCON's religious beliefs, claiming these were 'extremist' in nature and preached 'hatred' of other religious beliefs.

'They have not just tried to get the Bhagvad Gita banned, but also brand our religious beliefs and preachings as extremist,' Das said.

In fact, the ISKCON devotees have taken up the matter with the Indian embassy in Moscow too, apart from writing to the Prime Minister's Office in New Delhi, for an early diplomatic intervention, before things get worse and the court passes an adverse verdict banning the 'Bhagvad Gita' and Krishna consciousness teachings.

In the Nov 1 letter, addressed to Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister Pulok Chatterji, ISKCON's New Delhi branch Governing Body Commissioner Gopal Krishna Goswami, said the prosecutor's affidavit claims Lord Krishna 'is evil and not conforming to Christian religious view'.

Goswami also urged Singh to accord priority to the matter during his Moscow stay and to take it up with the Russian authorities.

Indian diplomatic corps officials at the embassy here, who were unwilling to be named, told IANS that they have been following up the case since the time it was brought to their notice earlier this year and that they had also taken up the matter at the appropriate levels in the Russian government to get the case either withdrawn or get the defence to fight the case to obtain a favourable verdict.

Officials at the Indian Prime Minister's office, who are part of the Indian delegation accompanying Singh, confirmed the case and the letter they received from ISKCON in this regard to IANS.

'This matter is receiving the highest attention and the Indian embassy officials in Moscow have been instructed to follow up the case with the Russian authorities,' they said.

Source:
http://in.news.yahoo.com/-bhagvad-gita--faces--extremist--branding--legal-ban-in-russia.html

Chidambaram had no role in fixing spectrum pricing: Sibal

2011-12-10T05:30:00.001-08:00

New Delhi, Dec 10 (IANS) Communications Minister Kapil Sibal Saturday strongly refuted accusations by Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy that P.Chidambaram as finance minister had a role in fixing the entry fee for new players and hence should be prosecuted in the spectrum scam.

Sibal said Chidambaram was being maligned by the opposition, although he as finance minister had not played any role in issuing letter of intents (LoI) to new players or fixing the entry fee at Rs.1,650 crore.

'It is preposterous to suggest that P.Chidamabaram had any role in fixing the entry fee or issuing the LoIs,' Sibal told reporters here adding that Chidambaram had in fact recommended for an increase in entry fee, which was not agreed by A.Raja.

Swamy has sought to make Chidambaram a party in the spectrum case, saying the decision on spectrum pricing was taken in 2008 jointly by him and then communications minister A. Raja, who is lodged in Tihar Jail since Feb 2.

A special CBI court has allowed Swamy to again depose before it as a witness to prove his claim of the home minister's alleged complicity in the spectrum scam.

Department of Telecommunications, under Raja's tenure, had issued LOIs on Jan 10, 2008. This too, Sibal said was done without the knowledge of Chidambaram.

'There was no meeting between the Finance Minister and A.Raja prior to Jan 10, 2008 on this issue,' said Sibal.

He added that the CBI had in fact found nothing wrong with Chidambaram's conduct during his tenure as finance minister.

'Therefore any attempt by the opposition to foist any culpability on P.Chidambaram is not only irresponsible but is yet another desperate attempt to make the institution of parliamentary democracy disfunctional,' Sibal said.

'P.Chidambaram is a valued colleague and has discharged his responsibilities without fear or favour and absolute integrity and devotion,' he said.

Want Poonam Pandey to strip on your mobile?

2011-12-06T07:49:00.001-08:00

Model Poonam Pandey is best known for her stripping promise to the Indian cricket team during the World Cup. She now takes her stripping fame worldwide by signing up for a strip poker game to be available in many mobile platforms

Poonam has tied up with a US-based mobile gaming company and her game will be available for Android and iOS platforms

Commenting on her decision to strip for a mobile game, she said, “Yes, I have signed a contract with an American company. It is like the famous Teen Patti card game. They will first show my video when the game starts. As the player starts clearing various levels of the game, I will start stripping. I don't mind stripping, but to what stage I will be doing it, I can't say that now.”

While Poonam Pandey fans would like to brush up their poker skills before this game reaches app stores, Poonam is a bit hesitant to go all the way

On whether or not she would completely strip, Poonam says, “However, reaching the level where I will have to strip fully may be really tough."

Poonam chuckles, adding, “I am excited because I will be exposed to such high-profile international gaming for the first time and it will help me reach out to my fans worldwide.” Her technical assistant, Micky added, “It is like gambling, just that there is no money involved here one one gets enticed by Poonam's visuals.”

http://in.movies.yahoo.com/photos/want-poonam-pandey-to-strip-on-you-mobile--1323077499-slideshow/want-poonam-pandey-to-strip-on-you-mobile--photo-1323077375.html

World's first sex school opens in Austria

2011-12-01T05:52:00.001-08:00

London, Dec 1 (IANS) While many people may think it's an activity which should be best learned behind closed doors, an enterprising Swedish schoolmistress thinks otherwise.

Ylva-Maria Thompson has opened the world's first international sex school for teaching the art of being better lovers, the Daily Mail reported.

The Austrian International Sex School in Vienna offers 'hands on' lessons in seduction for 1,400 pounds a term. The 'headmistress' says anyone over the age of 16 can enrol at 'the world's first college of applied sexuality'.

Students of the course are expected to stay in a co-ed dormitory block where they're expected to practice their 'homework'. By the end of their course, they are awarded a qualification.

The school head said: 'Our core education is not theoretical, but very practical. The emphasis is on how to be a better lover.

'Sexual positions, caressing techniques, anatomical features. And we teach people hands on.'

School's spokesperson Melodi Kirsch exuded confidence that the school would be a great success.

The school, however, has already turned controversial in Austria with it raunchy advertisments showing a couple making love having already invited ban by Austrian TV.

Source:
http://in.news.yahoo.com/worlds-first-sex-school-opens-austria-035815296.html

Facebook hit with unsolicited porn, violent videos

2011-11-17T02:20:00.001-08:00

By Alistair Barr

REUTERS - Facebook Inc said on Tuesday that it is investigating a rash of unsolicited graphic images that hit some users' accounts this week.

The images, Internet links and videos depicting pornography and violence have hit some people's Facebook newsfeeds in recent days.

"We experienced a coordinated spam attack that exploited a browservulnerability," Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes said in a statement emailed to Reuters. "Our efforts have drastically limited the damage caused by this attack, and we are now in the process of investigating to identify those responsible."

Facebook does not know yet who was behind the attack and a motive was not clear, Noyes added during an interview with Reuters.

Facebook users were tricked into pasting and executing "malicious" javascript in their browser URL bar, which led to them unknowingly sharing the content, Noyes explained.

Facebook engineers have been working to reduce this browser vulnerability, he added.

Facebook and other "Web 2.0" sites are easy targets for such attacks because they pull in a lot of content from outside sources, according to Paul Ferguson, senior threat researcher at Trend Micro Inc.

"It seems every other day there is some new Facebook 'threat,' but this is just the new reality of Web 2.0 and social networking," Ferguson said. "It is 'low-hanging fruit' for criminals."

(Reporting by Alistair Barr in San Francisco and Jim Finkle in Boston, editing by Gerald E. McCormick and Matthew Lewis)

Source:
http://in.news.yahoo.com/facebook-hit-unsolicited-porn-violent-videos-193601769.html

Europe crisis can affect Indian economy: Pranab

2011-11-14T10:18:00.001-08:00

Kolkata, Nov 13 (IANS) Emphasising that he will not hesitate to take harsh measures to control sovereign debt and fiscal deficit of the country, union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee Sunday said the financial crisis in Europe is likely to affect the Indian economy.

He also said that taking into account the current global economic scenario, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate will be less than the targeted nine percent at the end of this fiscal.

'I am worried and disturbed because I do not want the situation where sovereign debt would be too high and fiscal deficit unmanageable,' Mukherjee said at a programme organised by industry body Assocham here.

He said the financial crisis in Europe was likely to create adverse impact on the country's economy.

'The lesson we can draw from the experiences in Europe is that leaving the golden path of fiscal regulation and control will not help the existing economy, particularly the economy of big countries like India,' he said.

'We have to come back to fiscal consolidation,' he stated. 'We have to be taught... and I can assure you that as a finance minister, I will not hesitate to take the taught decisions at an appropriate time,' Mukherjee said.

Source:
http://in.finance.yahoo.com/news/Europe-crisis-affect-Indian-ians-736641471.html

Nokia announces launch of Lumia family phones

2011-11-14T10:16:00.001-08:00

New Delhi, Nov 14 (IANS) Finnish mobile handset manufacturer Nokia Monday announced the launch of Nokia Lumia family of smartphones based on Windows Phone in India.

The Nokia Lumia 800 and Nokia Lumia 710 will be available in select retail stores across key cities and towns in mid-December. Both devices will be available for pre-order starting early December.

Lumia 800 is equipped with floating glass display, 16 GB internal user memory, an 8 megapixel camera with dual LED flash, and 512 MB programme memory.

Lumia 710 has a 5 megapixel camera with LED flash and 512 MB RAM.

The global price of both the models are $580 (approx Rs.29,000) and $380 (approx Rs.19,000), respectively.

'Consumer research shows that Nokia Lumia offers the only truly differentiated experience in smartphones and we are enhancing that with signature Nokia capabilities,' said D. Shivakumar, managing director, Nokia India.

'The Lumia family, on the back of strong Symbian enhancements in Belle, positions us strongly to consolidate our lead in the Indian smartphone market,' he added.

These phones deliver functions such as Nokia maps and drive, which delivers a full-fledged personal navigation device with free, turn-by-turn navigation voice guided navigation in 50 languages including Hindi and dedicated in-car-user-interface.

Maps for 100 countries and 750 cities in India are available on Windows Phone Marketplace, free to download on Nokia Lumia devices only

Nokia Music and the all new MixRadio a free, global, mobile music-streaming application that delivers hundreds of channels of locally relevant music.

These services will be available in India in the first half of 2012.

Nokia also unveiled a complete, made over look for its retail network. More than 5,000 of its top retail outlets selling the Nokia Lumia range across the country will sport a new identity.

The rebranding elements include a strong visual experience including 3D and 2D in-store branding and a live device environment across all stores.

Source:
http://in.finance.yahoo.com/news/Nokia-announces-launch-Lumia-ians-1446702171.html?x=0

Facebook privacy changes may soon require user consent

2011-11-14T10:14:00.001-08:00

On Sunday 13 November 2011, 3:39 PM

London, Nov 13 (ANI): Facebook will soon require its users' consent before making any changes to the social networking site that results in exposing their profiles and activities to a wider audience.

The social network earlier announced alterations to its members' settings without asking for consent.

According to a Wall Street Journal report, the social networking giant is now changing its policy after an investigation by the US Federal Trade Commission.

The report suggested the site has also agreed to privacy audits by an independent organisation over the next 20 years.

However, it said the FTC does not prescribe how consent should be obtained, the BBC reports.

"Facebook has historically been extremely resistant to transparency in its own operations, so we welcome measures that would force the company to obtain express consent of its users," said the London based advocacy group Privacy International.

"However, it seems likely that the FTC's demands will only present a temporary obstacle in the path of Facebook's ambitions to collect its users' information," the firm added.

The FTC's intervention is being linked to the Washington-based campaign group, Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), that filed a complaint in December 2009 claiming that privacy setting changes "violate user expectations, diminish user privacy and contradict Facebook's own representations".

EPIC noted that the website's users, security experts and others had voiced opposition to the change. (ANI)

Source:
http://in.finance.yahoo.com/news/Facebook-privacy-changes-soon-ani-1070119740.html

Man tries to hurl shoe at Musharraf

2011-11-05T03:59:00.001-07:00

ISLAMABAD: A man tried to throw his shoe at Pervez Musharraf when he was addressing a gathering in London, a media report here said Saturday. It was the second such attempt on the former Pakistan president.

The attempt was made when Musharraf was addressing the Kashmiri community in Luton, reported Geo News. Security personnel promptly caught hold of the man and took him out of the venue.

Another man raised slogans against Musharraf. This is not the first time that an attempt was made to throw a shoe at Musharraf.

In February this year, a man threw a shoe at Musharraf when he was addressing a gathering in Britain. The shoe didn't hit the former military dictator.

Musharraf ruled Pakistan for nine years after taking power in a bloodless coup in 1999. He stepped down in 2008 and left Pakistan. He now lives in London.

An Iraqi journalist, Muntazar al Zaidi, threw his shoes at US president George Bush in 2008, sparking a string of copy-cat attacks.

Later, shoes were tossed at Indian Home Minister P. Chidambaram, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.

Source:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/pakistan/Man-tries-to-hurl-shoe-at-Musharraf/articleshow/10616911.cms

The truth about Ash’s pregnancy

2011-11-04T06:24:00.001-07:00

Aishwarya’s publicist rubbishes tabloid, Mumbai Mirror for fabricating stories of a possible C Section. Here's the truth

This is in regard to the article published by Mumbai Mirror dated 2nd November 2011 titled, “Bachchans pick Marol hospital for New B”. Coincidentally, this is the same publication that earlier carried another piece on Ash, titled ‘Pregnant Pause’ which stated that Mrs Aishwarya Rai Bachchan was incapable of conceiving due to some ailment. While the paper has taken a 360-turn, Ash’s agents accuse the publication of now trying to insinuate that there is a possibility that Ash has pre-decided the date of her delivery.

Here are lines from the article in Mumbai Mirror, followed by the joint-quote from Aishwarya and Seven Hills Hospital’s spokesperson:

1: Says source, “There is a possibility of Aishwarya going in for a C Section delivery 11.11.11.”
Spokesperson’s response: “Yet again, ridiculously insinuating such an esteemed and respected family would actually turn nature’s course for such blind sensationalized beliefs. There is a limit to time and again attributing such regressive remarks like marrying her off to a tree or actually planning delivering her baby just for the sake of a sensational journalism. How can journalism allow for such irresponsible reporting with regards to such intimate and personal decisions in a lady’s life. Excitement and curiosity aside, how can we allow for this to go on and on- this is disgusting….as a woman, as I am sitting on the 3rd of November and if by the will of God and nature’s turn, she does end up delivering on the date mentioned, will this fictitious bit of article remain with her for the rest of her life? And as an international public icon, is this what she will be tagged with for the rest of the life? This is not what she needs to go through at this happy moment in her life.”

2. “Every time Aishwarya makes a trip to the hospital extra precaution is taken to safeguard her privacy says a source. The sonography section is barricaded and curtains drawn to keep away other curious patients, revealed our source.”
Spokesperson’s response: “This is the most ridiculous remark from a fictitious source– when have women been on a stage when sonographies are done in any hospital and on any woman."

3. “Well-placed sources at the hospital revealed that the gynecologist especially comes for Aishwarya’s appointment at 7.30 am, usually before other patients start trickling in.”
Spokesperson’s response: “This is totally false and baseless.”

4. “However we cannot ever predict a baby’s arrival, so we have booked the room from the 10th to the 15th, added the source.”
Spokesperson’s response: “Who is this source to have booked a room on the first place?”

Commenting on this article, Dr. Pai, Head of Radiology and Vice President, Seven Hills Hospital says, “The report published in a daily tabloid in regards to Mrs. Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s delivery at Seven Hills has taken me by surprise. The information and details are a figment of someone’s imagination. 7.30 am appointments and a C SECTION for the 11th as declared in the news piece have no resemblance to the truth and such stories only put the medical fraternity in bad light. It may be added that a sonography is a personal procedure and is not performed in open wards hence it would not be different for any patient; each is entitled to their privacy. Twisted details mislead the people of this country to believe and follow what a writer may see has good ‘masala’ newsprint.”
Adds Aishwarya’s publicist, “It is unfortunate that such false and fabricated news is being created to influence minds. Such articles as the lead in a daily go against the basic responsibility of print reporting and show case misinformation that could effect the huge following into believing that such wonderful moments of ones lives as a gift of life are open to personal preferences. As a lady, I would feel that we should provide a more responsible attitude to such misinformed articles.”

Source:
http://in.movies.yahoo.com/news/the-truth-about-ash%E2%80%99s-pregnancy.html

BMW 6-Series coupe launched in India‎

2011-10-19T09:42:00.001-07:00

The all new, third generation, BMW 6 Series Coupé offers enhanced comfort and elegant design while taking sporting performance to the next level . With a choice of class-leading diesel and petrol engines, combined with an all new chassis, the new BMW 6 Series Coupé offers dynamic performance while ensuring maximum efficiency.

BMW has launched the 2012 6 Series Coupe in India. The 6-Series coupe is the hard top version of the convertible that was launched in March this year.

Market introduction with three engine variants: BMW 650i Coupe with eight-cylinder power unit (300 kW/407 hp), BMW 640i Coupe with a six-cylinder in-line petrol engine (235 kW/320 hp), BMW 640d Coupe with a six-cylinder in-line diesel engine (230 kW/313 hp).

All engine variants combined with an eight-speed Sport automatic transmission as standard equipment; BMW EfficientDynamics measures that have no peer in the segment (including Auto Start-Stop function and ECO PRO mode for the BMW 640i Coupe and BMW 640d Coupe); optimised efficiency combined with a significant 30 kW, 35 kW and 20 kW power increase over predecessor models (BMW 650i, BMW 640i and BMW 640d, respectively).

Captivating aesthetics, top-class performance, an exclusive interior and exceptionally innovative equipment features give the third-generation BMW 6 Series Coupe “dream car” its credentials.

Newly developed suspension; only car in the segment available with Electric Power Steering and optional Integral Active Steering; Driving Experience Control as standard equipment, Dynamic Damper Control and Adaptive Drive optional.

First car in the segment with Adaptive LED Headlights for low and high beam, including cornering function, fog lamps and rear lights also implemented with LED technology.

Standard BMW iDrive control system with free standing control display; unrivalled range of BMW ConnectedDrive features, including the latest generation of BMW Head-Up Display (with high-definition, full-colour-spectrum graphics); also available: Active Cruise Control with Stop & Go function, lane change warning, lane departure warning, rear-view camera, Surround View, Speed Limit Info, BMW Night Vision and Parking Assistant.

Driving pleasure tailored to individual preferences by virtue of unique equipment options, including comfort and sports seats, active seats, seat ventilation, exclusive Nappa leather, ceramic applications, and a newly developed, model-specific Bang & Olufsen high-end surround sound system.

The hearts of sports car aficionados with an eye for luxury and innovative technology will beat a little faster at the sight of the new BMW 6 Series Coupe.

The new BMW 6 Series Coupe impresses with its irresistible design and inspires with even sharper driving dynamics than its predecessor, noticeably optimised by virtue of its comfort features and added space.

In its own attractive manner, it combines superior sportiness with exclusive touring comfort and 460 litres of luggage space.

Source:
http://in.news.yahoo.com/photos/bmw-6-series-coupe-launched-in-india--1319001991-slideshow/bmw-photo-1318999190.html#crsl=%252Fphotos%252Fbmw-6-series-coupe-launched-in-india--1319001991-slideshow%252Fbmw-photo-1318999162.html

India thrash England again in huge win

2011-10-18T01:26:00.001-07:00

New Delhi, (AFP): World champions India rattled England once again with bat and ball to win the second one-dayer by eight wickets on Monday and take a 2-0 lead in the five-match series. Seamer Vinay Kumar returned with his best international figures of four for 30 as a lacklustre England were shot out for 237 in good batting conditions at the Ferozeshah Kotla ground in New Delhi.

Virat Kohli then smashed an unbeaten 112, his seventh one-day century, and Gautam Gambhir made 84 not out as the under-strength hosts surpassed the modest target under lights in the 37th over.

Tempers flared in the second session between England's fielders and India's batsmen, forcing the umpires to intervene on at least three occasions.

India, depleted by the absence of seven World Cup-winning stars due to injury or poor form, will wrap up the series if they win the third match in Mohali on Thursday. The hosts had won the first game in Hyderabad by 126 runs last Friday.

A series win will help Mahendra Singh Dhoni's men make amends for the disastrous tour of England recently where they were blanked 4-0 in the Test series before losing the one-dayers 3-0.

Kevin Pietersen's 46 was the top score for England as wickets tumbled at regular intervals after captain Alastair Cook won the toss and elected to bat on an easy-paced pitch. Fast bowler Tim Bresnan gave England a lifeline when he removed both openers, Parthiv Patel and Ajinkya Rahane, by the seventh over to make India 29-2.

But Delhi team-mates Kohli and Gambhir delighted some 30,000 home fans with an 209-run winning partnership to take India home. England had made a disastrous start, losing openers Cook and Craig Kieswetter before a run had been scored.

Cook slashed the fifth ball from Praveen Kumar to point, while Kieswetter edged Vinay to Kohli at slip in the second over. The shackles were broken when Praveen conceded 17 runs in his third over as Jonathan Trott smashed three consecutive fours and Pietersen also helped himself to a boundary.

Trott made a fluent 34 with seven fours when he was caught behind off Vinay to reduce England to 48-3 by the 10th over. Ravi Bopara helped Pietersen add 73 for the fourth wicket before India hit back by removing both batsmen in the space of four deliveries.

Bopara was leg-before to off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin for 36 and Pietersen was caught behind chasing a wide ball from seamer Umesh Yadav.

Samit Patel and Jonathan Bairstow carried the total past the 200-run mark from a shaky 121-5, adding 86 for the sixth wicket before both fell in quick succession. Patel (42) was trapped leg-before by Yadav and Bairstow holed out in the deep off Ravindra Jadeja after making 35.

Source:
http://cricket.yahoo.com/cricket/news/article?id=item/2.0/-/story/cricket.yahoonews.com/india-thrash-england-again-huge-win-20111017/

Obama begins campaign-style jobs tour in key states

2011-10-17T21:42:00.001-07:00

MILLERS CREEK, N.C. (Reuters) - President Barack Obama sought on Monday to turn up the heat on Republicans for blocking his jobs bill as he started a campaign-style bus tour across states vital to his 2012 re-election chances.

Hitting the road again, this time in North Carolina and Virginia, Obama struck a populist tone and argued that Congress should pass at least parts of his $447 billion jobs package that was defeated as a whole last week.

"We're going to give members of Congress another chance to step up to the plate and do the right thing," Obama told a cheering crowd at the airport in Asheville, North Carolina, the starting point for his three-day trek in a black armored bus.

As Senate Democrats prepared to force a vote this week on one of Obama's jobs proposals, which would give states money to employ teachers, the president mocked the Republicans who had blocked his original bill.

"Maybe they just couldn't understand the whole all at once. So we're going to break it up into bite-size pieces so they can take a thoughtful approach to this legislation," he said.

The president's strategy is to force Republicans to accept his proposals or be painted as obstructionists getting in the way of economic recovery as campaigning for the November 2012 presidential and congressional elections heats up.

"I need you to give Congress a piece of your mind," he told about 2,000 supporters packed into a high school gymnasium in Millers Creek, in the foothills of the Blue Ridge mountains.

"Tell them what's at stake here. There are too many of our fellow Americans hurting and you can't stand by and do nothing. Now is the time to act," he said.

Republicans saw Obama's jobs package as laden with wasteful spending and counter-productive tax hikes for wealthier Americans who tend to be entrepreneurs and job creators.

Their disagreement has extended the deadlock that brought the United States to the edge of sovereign default in August when Democrats and Republicans failed to agree on deficit cuts as part of a deal to raise the U.S. debt ceiling.

That impasse makes it unlikely that any major steps to spur hiring will be passed before the 2012 election, when Obama will be judged for his economic stewardship.

TOUGH ROAD IN 2012

The White House billed Obama's trip -- his second bus tour through small-town America since he visited the rural Midwest in August -- as a chance to reconnect with ordinary citizens.

His itinerary spans two traditionally conservative states he won in 2008 but which polls show he is in danger of losing in his bid for a second term. North Carolina is also site of the Democratic presidential convention next summer.

But the White House said the bus tour was official business with all costs covered by taxpayers, not from Obama's campaign coffers.

Onlookers lined the streets in front of gas stations, fast-food restaurants and shopping malls as Obama's bus, with dark-tinted windows and red and blue flashing lights, led a long motorcade across the green, rolling hills.

Some cheered and snapped photos with their cellphones but a few turned their thumbs down as the string of vehicles passed, and others held protest signs including one reading: "No more massive government spending programs. They don't work."

The bus tour is taking place well over a year before the election, during a period when incumbent presidents generally are spending their campaign time raising money.

Obama's focus on retail politicking at this stage suggests he realizes he has a tough road in 2012 and has to start early to hammer home his message that Republicans are refusing to join with him in finding ways to fix the U.S. economy.

In Millers Creek, Obama derided the jobs plan Republicans presented last week as an attempt to roll back environmental standards and Wall Street regulations without having the wealthy pay any more taxes to help those struggling.

But Brendan Buck, a spokesman for House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, said the Republican ideas that would require a balanced budget, promote foreign trade and push offshore energy exploration would have a more meaningful jobs impact than the "sugar high" of Obama's recommended stimulus.

Buck also questioned why Obama was on the road and not working with lawmakers to find compromise. "This bus tour looks a lot like the kind of political game the president has said the American people are tired of," he said.

At a Southern barbecue restaurant where Obama stopped for lunch, diners expressed mixed views of the Democrat's record.

"This isn't 'Obama Country' but I voted for him once and I'll vote for him again," said Howard Ward, 76, a retired textile manager. "He's doing the best he can with jobs. But it's going to be very close in this state in 2012."

An elderly woman sitting nearby shook her head as she ate a barbecue chicken sandwich. "He hasn't done anything to fix the economy. He doesn't deserve a second chance," she said.

(Additional reporting by Laura MacInnis, Thomas Ferraro and Steve Holland; Editing by Will Dunham and Cynthia Osterman)

Source:
http://in.news.yahoo.com/obama-begins-campaign-style-jobs-tour-key-states-231527041.html

BlackBerry outage could accelerate shift to iPhone

2011-10-17T21:39:00.001-07:00

By Jim Finkle and Ashley Lau

REUTERS - John Stuart has been chained to his BlackBerry for years, first as a systems manager for Wall Street bank Morgan Stanley and then as chief information officer for Beverly Hills Wealth Management.

But this week, Stuart ordered an iPhone from Apple Inc, ending his 7-year relationship with BlackBerry maker Research in Motion.

His move highlights how even security-conscious banks and IT managers, who have been among RIM's most loyal customers, are starting to defect, lured by improvements in rivals that challenge the BlackBerry's much-vaunted safety features.

"RIM has always been at the top of their game when it comes to device management. Apple has caught up," Stuart said.

The BlackBerry has been losing ground in the business market to the iPhone and, to a lesser extent, devices running Google Inc's Android software, as companies gradually allowed their employees to choose their own mobile devices.

This week's massive BlackBerry network outage, which spanned four continents, is likely to speed up RIM's decline, analysts said.

Many banks already allow employees to choose their devices and the BlackBerry outage is likely to push more in that direction, according to Julie McNelly, an analyst with Aite Group, who advises financial institutions on data security.

"The barn door is already open. Most of the horses are already gone," she said. "This could potentially accelerate the process."

The BlackBerry used to own the corporate market because companies believed RIM was best at protecting enterprise data and prevent the theft of corporate secrets.

The outage highlights RIM's Achilles heel: the fact that all BlackBerry messages are routed through its own data centers means information is more secure, but it also creates a single point of potential failure.

Messages sent through phones from Apple and other vendors do not travel through any central network, so they do not have that same weakness.

While that has meant rival phones were less secure in the past, many security experts say the iPhone has caught up to the BlackBerry, thanks to improvements in Apple's latest iOS software. And for Android phones, a proliferation of third party security software have also helped.

"In most ways, iOS is at least as secure as BlackBerry, namely in malware prevention, exploit prevention, etc.," said Charlie Miller, principal research consultant with Accuvant and a highly regarded expert on mobile security.

He said the BlackBerry is still superior in data encryption and manageability, but added that "reliability obviously is a problem recently for Blackberry."

CONSUMERIZATION

Apple is a big winner when workers get to pick their own phones, a trend known as the consumerization of IT. The iPhone 4S hit store shelves on Friday and thousands of people lined up around the world to get it.

Companies can save money when they let employees buy their own phones and pay their own monthly bills. All IT managers have to do is install software that makes it possible for employees to securely access corporate networks.

At Credit Suisse, which only started this year to open its network to Apple and Android devices, about one-third of its 25,000 BlackBerry users have already switched phones.

That has saved the European bank millions of dollars, according to Stephen Hilton, Credit Suisse's global head of technology infrastructure services.

"We are seeing very rapid adoption of this 'consumer technology' platform," Hilton said. "I suspect this (outage) would be another reason why people may reconsider."

An Aite Group poll of 402 wealth managers conducted before the outage found that 45 percent would choose an iPhone or iPad, compared to 14 percent for a BlackBerry.

A survey released this week by Enterprise Mobile Device Management, sponsored by Intel Corp's McAfee Inc, found that 44 percent of iPhone users were "completely satisfied" with their device, compared with 34 percent for Android smartphones and 16 percent for BlackBerries.

"It's a tough situation to be in," Forrester Research analyst Christian Kane said of RIM. "Nobody is going to necessarily stop supporting a device over an outage. But it doesn't do any favors for RIM," said Kane, who helps big companies decide how quickly they should open up their mobile networks.

It's a mark of the inroads that rivals have made into the corporate market when this week's BlackBerry outage was shrugged off by many on Wall Street.

One finding of an informal Reuters survey of more than 25 financial firms was that a lot of people simply were not bothered by the service interruption, compared to the panic that ensued when the BlackBerry went down in April 2007 and again in February 2008.

Wells Fargo said some people saw intermittent disruption to some services; at least two regional banks and one investment bank also said problems were irregular at best and limited to only some employees.

One Wall Street banker said he would not have even noticed had his firm's IT department not said something.

"We allow and support a broad range of mobile devices, and expect we will continue to do so. These devices have been stable for a long time, and while we are not happy about the recent outage, we have no immediate plans to discontinue use of the product," a spokeswoman for JPMorgan Chase & Co said in an e-mail.

It is hard to estimate BlackBerry's corporate market share as RIM does not give out much information. But its share of the global smartphone market fell to 11.7 percent in the second quarter from 13.0 percent in the first quarter, according to estimates from Gartner analyst Ken Dulaney.

In contrast, Android's share rose to 43.4 percent from 36.4 percent, and Apple's rose to 18.2 percent from 16.9 percent.

(Reporting by Jim Finkle in Boston and Ashley Lau in New York; Additional reporting by Ben Berkowitz and Paritosh Bansal; Editing by Tiffany Wu and Richard Chang)

Source:
http://in.news.yahoo.com/blackberry-outage-could-accelerate-shift-iphone-204934760.html