The IPL during its three-day workshop in Bangkok that concluded Monday took some important decisions, including the re-auction of all players for the fourth season. But some influential members of the Governing Council and team owners have opposed the move.

Looks like It will take off soon in a decent way with the launch of the new movie ‘Madagascar 3′.

The former Spice Girls star had earlier made a cameo in ‘Ugly Betty’ and also offered her voice for the hit kids show ‘Spongebob Squarepants’. She will be starring alongside Ben Stiller and David Schwimmer.

The only catch is that users of the service need to have an open profile with Google that includes personal contact data.

Once those conditions are met, the user can access the service at the Google Labs. Typing in “New York” will yield a list of friends in the user’s social network who have posted items from the Big Apple. Settings can be altered so that only postings from close friends and acquaintances are included in the “social graph.”

Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus suggested the “social business” project to the company, which normally focusses on trendy, expensive sportswear for people who want to project a sporty image.

Snatches of cellphone conversations – some never heard before – between the gunmen and their controllers in Pakistan, as well as video footage of the police with Kasab was aired on Sunday in a preview of the documentary by narrator Fareed Zakaria in his programme on CNN. One of the tapes of Kasab’s interrogation points to how he got involved with the Lashkar terror group:

Kasab: He said, “These people make loads of money and so will you. (Inaudible) We’ll have money, we won’t be poor any more. Your brothers and sisters can get married. Look at these guys living the good life. You can be like them,” he said.
Unidentified Male: “Your dad said this?
Kasab: Yes. So, I said, “Fine, whatever.”
Unidentified Male: What does he do for a living?
Kasab: He used to sell yogurt and potato snacks in the street.
Unidentified Male: How much did they give you? Did they put it in your account?
Kasab: There is no account. They gave it to my dad.
Unidentified Male: How much did they give him?
Kasab: I don’t know. Maybe a few hundred thousand.

A conversation between another young terrorist with his handler was also aired on the show. Locked in a bathroom at Mumbai’s Trident Oberoi hotel, another Pakistani terrorist named Fahadullah knew the end was near. He was out of food, water, energy and ammunition, and could hear the steady stream of police gunshots getting closer. He and nine other terrorists were winding down from a gruesome, 36-hour killing spree through the city, and he was talking on the phone to a handler far away in Pakistan.

“You mustn’t let them arrest you, remember that,” the controller insisted. “Fahadullah, my brother, can’t you just get out there and fight?”
“I am out of grenades,” Fahadullah weakly offered.
“Be brave, brother. Don’t panic. For your mission to end successfully, you must be killed. God is waiting for you in heaven.”

The Gujarat government has directed hotels to take thumb impressions of all guests and keep a copy of their identity cards.

Security personnel have also been deployed to check vehicle movement in the city.

“We will tell the hotel people to take thumb impression of the customers. This is a new thing. The staff can come to the police station and we will tell them how to implement this. If they do not implement it, the department will take the required action,” said M.H Vasani, a police inspector.

Shamita’s voluntary exit will be aired on the reality show Saturday.

“I am just so excited about Shilpa’s wedding. Family comes first for me, so I couldn’t help but come out of the show to be with her,” Shamita told IANS.

“It has come to the attention of government of India that the embassy of the People’s Republic of China in New Delhi and the Chinese consulates in Mumbai and Kolkata are issuing visas on a separate piece of paper `stapled’ to the passport (rather than pasted as is the usual practice), to certain categories of Indian nationals on the basis of their domicile, ethnicity and/or place of issue of the passport. Such paper visas stapled to the passport are not considered valid for travel out of the country,’‘ said the advisory.

Despite official protests by India, China has continued to issue stapled visas for people with origin in Arunachal Pradesh and J&K. India had officially protested against the practice after news broke out that some Kashmiri businessmen and students were being given stapled visas.

“All Indian citizens intending to travel to the People’s Republic of China are advised that before making any travel arrangements they should first ascertain from the Chinese embassy or consulate, as the case may be, whether the visa being issued to them will be affixed to the passport or will be in the nature of a stapled paper visa, so that they are not inconvenienced or put to any financial loss later on this count,’‘ the advisory further said.

Owner of the yacht ‘‘ANDRANA’‘, Pignol and a US national Malcolm Russell Williamson who were on board, are being questioned by Customs and Immigration officials, the sources told PTI. Pignol said they had set sail from Oman and were on their way to Madagascar before they landed near Kochi due to rough seas and bad climatic conditions. The yacht was seized from near the Port administration building at nearby Wellington Island.

“We believe that India holds tremendous potential for the Michelin group in terms of establishing a world class manufacturing facility,” said Prashant Prabhu, president, Michelin Africa-India-Middle East.

The rise in demand for automobiles has prompted several Indian and foreign tire makers to invest in the country. These companies are betting not only on the increasing demand in the local market but also want to use the low-cost manufacturing base in India for exporting tires.

The information may not be easy to dismiss as Hersh points to the fear that extremists in Pakistan’s military establishment – even apart from the threat of a Taliban takeover – might grab control of some of the nuclear facilities in the country. He states in his article that Washington has been “negotiating highly sensitive understandings with the Pakistani military’‘ to prevent such a scenario. “These would allow specially trained American units to provide added security for the Pakistani arsenal in case of a crisis. At the same time, the Pakistani military would be given money to equip and train Pakistani soldiers and to improve their housing and facilities – goals that General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the Pakistan Army chief, has long desired,’‘ he states, adding that the secrecy surrounding the understanding was because of growing antipathy for the US in Pakistan.

Hersh goes on to state that the ongoing consultation on nuclear security between Washington and Islamabad intensified after the announcement in March of President Obama’s “so-called Af-Pak policy’‘ which called upon the Pakistan Army to take more aggressive action against Taliban enclaves inside Pakistan. A Pakistan official close to President Asif Zardari with whom Hersh spoke is said to have reacted angrily to the US interest in Pakistan’s arsenal saying that even if there was a military coup, nobody would give up the control on nuclear weapons.

This official, according to Hersh, wondered why the US was not worried about India’s arsenal. “Because India is your friend, and the longtime policies of America and India converge. Between you and the Indians, you will `f…’ us in every way. The truth is that our weapons are less of a problem for the Obama Administration than finding a respectable way out of Afghanistan,’‘ the official said. Pakistan on Monday dismissed the report saying that it was “nothing more than a concoction to tarnish the image of Pakistan and create misgivings among its people’‘.

The 10-year-old accompanied his mother on a Save The Children trip to Clay County in Kentucky, where half of the American kids live below the poverty line.

Kumar, currently president and managing partner of KaiZen Innovation, was nominated assistant secretary of commerce and director general of the United States and Foreign Commercial Service in the US Department of Commerce, the White House announced Thursday.

Beating a good 4,000 other competitors, Puru Pratap Singh’s doodle is based on the theme ‘My India – Full of Life’. Singh is a Class 4 student of Gurgaon, the commercial hub adjoining the national capital.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik had said in October that India was responsible for the rising wave of terrorism in Balochistan province. Gilani said Pakistan wanted good relations with all its neighbours and desired the resumption of the composite dialogue process with India, adding that dialogue was the only way forward.

He said no military operation is currently underway in Balochistan and that the ongoing operation in Southern Waziristan will soon end.