Colgate warns about Counterfeit Toothpastes

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Colgate-Palmolive Co. on Thursday said counterfeit "Colgate" toothpaste that may contain a toxic chemical had been found in discount stores in four U.S. states.

"There are indications that this product does not contain fluoride and may contain diethylene glycol," the company said in a statement.

Colgate-Palmolive said it does not use, nor has ever used, diethylene glycol as an ingredient in its toothpaste anywhere in the world. The chemical, known as DEG and sometimes illegally used as an inexpensive sweetener and thickening agent, is commonly found in solvents and antifreeze.

The Colgate-Palmolive announcement comes less than two weeks after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned consumers to avoid any toothpaste made in China after inspectors found DEG in tubes sold at two stores.

The health regulator also issued an import alert, with the aim of preventing all toothpaste from three companies in China that make the brands found to contain DEG from entering the United States.

Colgate-Palmolive said the counterfeit toothpaste was found in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland. It can be recognized because it is labeled as being manufactured in South Africa, and the company does not import toothpaste to the United States from South Africa.

The packaging also contains several misspellings, Colgate said, adding that it was working closely with the FDA to help identify those responsible for the counterfeit product.

DEG-contaminated toothpaste has also been seized in Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Panama and Nicaragua. It was found in cough syrup in Panama that led to the deaths of at least 100 people last year.

The FDA issued its alert about Chinese toothpaste after seizing a batch of Cooldent found to contain 3 percent DEG. Inspectors found the toothpaste at a Dollar Plus store in Miami and at a store called Todo a Peso in Puerto Rico.

Brands seized earlier included Cooldent, Clean Rite and Oralmax that are usually found at discount retailers such as so-called dollar stores, the agency said.

The FDA identified products by Goldcredit International Enterprises Ltd., Goldcredit International Trading Co. Ltd., and Suzhou City Jinmao Daily Chemicals Co. Ltd as containing DEG.

Goldcredit International Enterprises is a unit of JiangsuXingda Stationery Group, a manufacturer of glue and office supplies. Suzhou City Jinmao Daily Chemicals also makes soap and pet products.

The FDA on June 8 said it was not aware of any U.S. reports of poisonings from DEG-tainted toothpaste, but said the chemical has a "low but meaningful risk of toxicity and injury," especially to children and people with kidney or liver disease.

Colgate, which also makes dish soap and pet food, was minimally impacted earlier this year when it recalled two products manufactured by a Canadian company whose goods were found to contain contaminated wheat gluten imported from China, blamed for the deaths of at least 14 pets.

- Mumbaikar

(Source: Yahoo News!)

Alcatel-Lucent employee data missing

While surfing the net, I came across this interesting news. I sincerely appreciate the honesty of this company, even though its a market sensitive news and given the fact that the news wouldnt have reached to public if wished. I am thrilled to see the transperancy the company has in its dealings. I hope this theft doesnt really affect any employee of Alcatel.

MURRAY HILL, N.J. – May 17, 2007 – Alcatel-Lucent was informed on May 7 by one of the company’s vendors that a computer disk containing personal information could not be located. The information contained on the computer disk included name, address, Social Security number, date of birth and salary data of Alcatel-Lucent U.S.- paid employees who worked for Lucent and their dependents, and Lucent retirees and their dependents. There was no information regarding customers or their accounts, and the disk did not contain credit card numbers, bank account numbers or password information.

The disk was prepared by Hewitt Associates for delivery by UPS to another of the company’s vendors, Aon Corporation. It appears that the disk was either lost or stolen between April 5 and May 3. Although we do not have information that any of the personal information has been misused, as a precaution the company has asked the U.S. Secret Service to investigate and has reported the incident to state and local law enforcement officials. The company also has launched an internal investigation and is working closely with law enforcement officials.

“We recognize that we have a responsibility to carefully protect this type of information and deeply regret this loss,” said Frank D’Amelio, chief administrative officer for Alcatel-Lucent. “We are taking steps to try to prevent this from happening in the future. In the meantime, we will provide information and assistance to our employees and retirees to help them minimize any potential risk this incident could create for them.”

Today the company sent an email regarding this incident to its employees and is preparing a printed mailing to employees, retirees and their dependents to inform them of what has happened. The company is providing information on its web site where employees, retirees and dependents can get more information, including suggestions on actions they can take to protect themselves against identity fraud.

In addition, Alcatel-Lucent is arranging to provide the individuals at risk with identity theft protection and credit monitoring for one year free of charge. Credit monitoring services will include unlimited online access to a credit report and score, monitoring of all three national credit bureau reports, email alerts to inform individuals of key changes to their credit report, and fraud resolution and assistance. More information on this can be found at the company’s web site at www.alcatel-lucent.com or by calling 1-866-795-8756, which will be available between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. Eastern time Monday through Friday.

Click here to visit Alcatel website for more details

- Mumbaikar

(Source: www.alcatel-lucent.com)

42 Indian weddings in Canada: Same guests

Toronto: Canadian immigration officials have discovered 42 wedding albums, submitted by 42 different Indians applying for citizenship, in which the guests in the photos were identical.

"You'd have to believe that 42 weddings had the same guests," said Mendel Green, president of Green and Spiegel, an immigration law firm.

All the weddings had supposedly taken place at the same wedding venue in Chandigarh, India.

"Yes, people have brought fake photos to us," said Ravi Jain, a partner with Green and Spiegel. "We have seen people posing in the photos. We have seen the same wedding halls, the same guests over and over again."

Liberal MP Roy Cullen said many Indo-Canadians have expressed concern over this abuse of the system, the Toronto Sun reported.

"They are telling me it is becoming like an epidemic and it is being seriously abused and so sometime back I spoke with former immigration minister Monte Solberg. I suggested to him, and I am soon going to write to his successor Diane Finley, that immigration rules could be amended to issue spousal visas on a probation of say three to five years and if at the end of this period the couple is still in marital relationship, they should be given permanent landed status."

In addition to people getting legal immigration status with these phoney marriages, Jain said Canadian immigration officers have also started "over-scrutinising all family class applications, genuine marriages."

Statistics show about 60,000 Canadians marry overseas each year and file international spousal sponsorships. About 15 per cent are rejected by the Canada Citizenship and Immigration department. In the case of India, the rate is 23 per cent.

Click here to track the original story on Economic Times

- Mumbaikar
(Source: Indiatimes News, Economic Times)

Another take over by Mallaya's UB Group

MUMBAI: Liquor tycoon Vijay Mallya-promoted United Spirits today said it had acquired Scottish whiskey maker Whyte & Mackay for 595 million pounds (nearly Rs 4,819 crore).

The company informed the Bombay Stock Exchange that it had acquired 100 per cent of Whyte and Mackay.

"The potential for premium Scotch whiskey in India is enormous and, with the acquisition of Whyte and Mackay, we now have a strong portfolio of international recognised brands that we will immediately introduce into the Indian market and use our strong distribution muscle fully to our advantage," United Spirits Chairman Vijay Mallya said.

United Spirits will have access to global distribution and can look forward to exporting brands from India, he said.

W&M has popular brands liked Whyte & Mackay Scotch Whiskey, Highland Malt, Isle of Juara Malt Whiskey, Glayva Liquer and Dalmore Single Highland Malt, John Barr, Mackinlays, Cluny and Claymore.

The Scottish whiskey maker had recorded a sales of nine million cases in the last 12 months and sales of 66 million cases for the year ended March 31, it said, adding W&M has a bulk Scotch inventories of 115 million litres.

It has four different malt whiskey distilleries in Scotland with another state-of-art bottling facility in Grangemouth.

With this acquisition, United Spirits will have consolidated sales of 75 million cases per annum, it added.

The company said finance for the acquisition was arranged and provided by ICICI Bank and Citibank, and they were advised by UBS, ICICI Bank and Standard Chartered.

Citigroup was the adviser of Whyte & Mackay in the deal.

This is the latest in a series of acquisitions that the UB Group had undertaken in recent years, including that of Shaw Wallace for Rs 1,300 crore in 2005, and more recently French winemaker Bouvet Ladubay, a subsidiary of Champagne Taittinger, for 15 million dollars last year.

Source: Indiatimes News !

- Mumbaikar

Alycia Lane is a buzzword !

Alycia Lane is one of the most searched word in google as per Zeitgeist report. It certainly makes everyone curious on why it is so. Here is my attempt to find it out.

As per NYPOST, May 1, 2007-- FOXY Philadelphia TV reporter Alycia Lane is in hot water after a series of private e-mails and saucy snapshots she sent to handsome NFL Network anchorman Rich Eisen were intercepted by his wife.

Suzy Shuster, a sideline reporter for ABC's college football broadcasts, hit the roof when she discovered seven e-mails and several bikini photos sent by Lane - who works for CBS affiliate WKYW-TV and is recently divorced - to an account she and her husband, Eisen, share. That had Shuster firing off to Lane a scathing letter, a copy of which was obtained by Page Six.

A seething Shuster wrote: "Boy, do you look amazing in a bikini . . . congrats! Whatever you're doing, (Pilates? yoga?) keep doing it - it's working for you. Anyway, sorry but those seven e-mails you sent to my husband, Rich, well, oops, they came to the e-mail address we both use from time to time, but no worries, I'll forward the beach shots as well as the ones of you dancing with your friends on to his main address. Do you have it?"

(click here to track original full story on NYPOST)

For those who don't know, this is more about Alycia Lane from CBS03 official Site ---

Lane joined CBS 3 in September, 2003, where, in addition to anchoring, her early experience as a street reporter was quickly put to use with her live coverage of the Atlantic City casino garage collapse in addition to much of Philadelphia’s wild weather that season including tornados, floods and hurricanes.

In 2004, she was the first reporter to speak one-on-one with Luzaida Cuevas, the mother of Delimar Vera, the six-year-old girl who was snatched from her crib days after her birth and raised by her kidnapper. Later, during the 2004 Presidential Election, Lane obtained exclusive interviews with First Lady Laura Bush, Lynne Cheney, and Teresa Heinz Kerry.

Lane showed her versatility by anchoring live from Jacksonville, Florida during the Eagles fated appearance at Super Bowl XXXIX. She was also featured in Home Field Advantage, a news series that profiled Eagles players at home. In addition to her news role, she has also hosted
CBS 3’s annual Best of Philly specials and its Holiday Traditions special for which she won a local Emmy Award in 2005.

Before coming to Philadelphia, Lane had been weekend anchor and reporter for WTVJ-TV, the NBC station in Miami, Florida. She joined that station in September, 2001, quickly distinguishing herself with her coverage of the impact of September 11th on the region, from the hunt for suspected terrorists to her in-depth reports on the backlash felt by Florida’s Muslim community. Her major assignments there also included Hurricanes Michelle and Isadore and the investigation into the anthrax attack on the National Enquirer tabloid publisher American Media. Previously, Lane was a reporter for WSVN, the FOX affiliate in Miami where she covered the Elian Gonzalez story.

Lane was also an anchor/reporter for cable news station News 12 in New York, covering the shooting death of Amadou Diallo by New York City police among other stories. As a result of one of her investigative pieces there, she is credited with helping to free a wrongly accused man from prison.

She began her career as a Washington-based reporter for KSNT-TV in Topeka, Kansas while completing her Master’s Degree in Broadcast Journalism from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. Lane, who is fluent in Spanish, received her undergraduate degree from the State University of New York at Albany in Spanish Language and Literature, graduating with honors.

Active in the community, Lane volunteers her time locally to support the Susan G. Komen Race For The Cure held each Mother’s Day in Philadelphia and has also been instrumental in bringing the message of early detection of breast cancer to the Spanish-speaking community as moderator of the first Latinas For The Cure workshop in 2004.

Lane, who is of Puerto Rican heritage, is a member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. A native of Long Island, New York, she now resides in the historic Society Hill section of Philadelphia.

(Click here to visit cbs3.com to get some more facts!!)

-Mumbaikar

Source: Google Zeitgeist, Google, cbs3.com, nypost.com

TCS to manage Glaxo data

MUMBAI: TCS, India's largest software company, has signed a deal with UK-based Glaxo-Smithkline to set up a support centre in Mumbai for the pharmaceutical company's global drug development programme.

The multi-million dollar contract will help Glaxo analyse reams of patient and drug data it will generate while conducting clinical trials of its new drugs across the globe.

Click here to track this story and more on Times of India

To do the job, the software company will employ a team of highly skilled professionals, including pharmacologists, PhDs in life sciences, post-graduates in pharmacy, and individuals with a life sciences' background and experienced in clinical-data management and programming.

TCS will also help Glaxo in preparing regulatory reports based on biostatistical analysis of the data. The job for Glaxo is the third such assignment TCS has bagged in the clinical trial outsourcing space. Earlier, TCS won similar jobs from Danish Novo Nordisk which specialises in diabetic drugs and US-based Elli Lilly.

In the clinical research space (CR), companies like Pfizer set up their own captive centre which manages all its clinical studies. Then firms like Global CRO run global operations conducting clinical trials on behalf of pharmaceutical companies.

Lastly, firms like TCS only manage the data generated by clinical trials. Says J Rajagopal, executive V-P, life sciences and healthcare, TCS: "Coupled with our experience in drug development programmes and skills in project management we can leverage our IT skills to provide a scalable model Glaxo."

(Source: Times of India)

-Mumbaikar

Japan to give India Rs 69.16 bn as loan

Japan will grant a loan of Rs. 69.16 billion (about 185 billion yen) to fund India's 11 developmental projects in power transmission, environment, forestry, water supply and sewerage, urban transport and port sectors.

A part of its official development assistance (ODA) to India, the loan has increased by 18.93 per cent in 2006 over the previous year, an official statement by the union finance ministry said on Friday.

Click here to track this story and more on Times of India

“The rate of interest would be 1.3 per cent per annum for general projects, except for the Vishakapatnam port expansion project and Bangalore distribution upgradation project, for which the rate of interest would be 0.75 per cent per annum,” the statement said.

The loan repayment period would be 30 years for general projects, and 15 years for other projects

(Source: Times of India)

-Mumbaikar

Microsoft Vista Outsold XP

Sales of Vista during the first month that the newest Windows operating system was available to consumers were more than double the sales that Windows XP racked up in twice the time, Microsoft Corp. said.

Click here to visit PCworld.com to track the original story !!

Microsoft sold over 20 million Vista licenses in its first month, the company said. That compares to the first two months of XP sales, which reached 17 million licenses.

The figures didn't impress one expert. "I would be more surprised if that weren't true," said Richard Shim, an analyst with IDC. "Back when XP launched, the cards were really stacked against XP. We were just coming off the bubble bursting and the PC market was in a trough."

In addition, there are a lot more PC users now than when XP launched so Vista sales should naturally be better, he said.

The 20 million Vista licenses include software sold to PC makers, upgrades and the full packaged product sold to retailers from January 30 to February 28, Microsoft said.

While Microsoft didn't break out Vista sales by version of the product, anecdotally, users appear to prefer the premium version. Dell Inc. customers are "overwhelmingly" choosing the premium version of XP, a Dell spokesman said in the Microsoft statement. IDC expected that because PC makers have been making more powerful machines in order to support the full Vista experience and they're often selling such PCs without a price premium, Shim said. That's encouraging end users to choose the more robust systems along with the premium version of Vista, he said.

The most important test for Vista, however, will come next year after enterprises have had the time to carefully examine whether or not to upgrade to Vista soon, Shim said. "The question is, does that [sales record] continue and what happens when the commercial market begins to adopt," he said.

(Source: PCworld, Google News)

-Mumbaikar

Is Vonage using patented technology by Verizon?

A federal judge dealt a blow to Vonage Holdings Corp. that sent its stock reeling on Friday, when he agreed to bar the company from using Internet phone call technology patented by Verizon Communications Inc.

Vonage said it was confident its customers would not experience service interruptions, but investors sent its shares down nearly 26 percent.

U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton said he would delay signing the order for two weeks to give Vonage time to try to convince him to stay the injunction while it appeals the entire patent infringement case. "I will sign the injunction at the time I rule on the stay," Hilton said at a hearing.

Hilton agreed with Verizon that it would suffer irreparable harm if he allowed continued infringement of the Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) technologies that allow consumers to make calls over the Internet.

He rejected arguments by Vonage that the harm to Verizon, the No. 2 U.S. telephone company, was outweighed by other factors, including the public interest.

"I don't think it's going to kill Vonage," said Albert Lin, an analyst at American Technology Research. But he said the legal costs and management distractions were disruptive.

Vonage has been public for less than a year, and its stock has lost value consistently since its initial public offering at $17 a share in May. It reached a new low Friday, closing down $1.05 at $3 per share on the New York Stock Exchange.

Vonage said the patent battle was far from over and the company would vigorously defend itself.

"Despite this obvious attempt by Verizon to cripple Vonage, the litigation will not stop Vonage from continuing to provide quality VoIP service to our millions of customers," Vonage chief executive Mike Snyder said in a statement.

OPERATING CHALLENGES

Vonage has previously said it is working on redesigned technologies to avoid infringing Verizon's patents.

"It should likely continue as an independent company, but their operating challenges will have increased," said Stanford Group analyst Clayton Moran, who also warned that Vonage's subscriber growth could slow.

A jury on March 8 found Vonage had infringed three patents owned by Verizon. The jury said Vonage must pay $58 million plus 5.5 percent royalties on future sales.

"They could not have been commercially successful if they had not taken these patents we have and put them into their technologies," Dan Webb, an attorney for Verizon, said at Friday's hearing on the injunction request.

Webb also cited documents Vonage filed with the court under seal, saying an injunction would cause "enormous business difficulties" for Vonage. Webb said the Vonage filings suggested that Vonage "can't live with an injunction because of the way their technology is designed."

Vonage's chief lawyer, Sharon O'Leary, declined to comment on the sealed documents.

"We will get the stay, either through the district court or the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals," O'Leary told Reuters outside the court.

One patent lawyer told Reuters Vonage has a chance of winning an appeal, but it was crucial to get a stay of the injunction.

"A one-and-a-half to two-year injunction, even if they win on appeal, could be very significant to Vonage," said John Rabena, a partner with the firm Sughrue Mion.

(Source: Yahoo News, Reuters)

-Mumbaikar

France puts secret UFO archive on Web

The saucer-shaped object is said to have touched down in the south of France and then zoomed off. It left behind scorch marks and that haunting age-old question: Are we alone? This is just one of the cases from France's secret "X-Files" — some 100,000 documents on supposed UFOs and sightings of other unexplained phenomena that the French space agency is publishing on the Internet.

Click here to track original story on Yahoo News!!

France is the first country to put its entire weird sightings archive online, said Jacques Patenet, who heads the space agency's UFO cell — the Group for Study and Information on Unidentified Aerospace Phenomena.

Their oldest recorded sighting dates from 1937, Patenet told The Associated Press in an interview Friday. The first batch of archives went up on the agency's Web site this week, drawing a server-busting wave of traffic.

"The Web site exploded in two hours. We suspected that there was a certain amount of interest, but not to this extent," Patenet said.

The archive includes police and expert reports, witness sketches (some are childlike doodlings), maps, photos and video and audio recordings. In all, the archive has some 1,650 cases on record and about 6,000 witness accounts.

The space agency, known by its French initials CNES, said it is making them public to draw the scientific community's attention to unexplained cases and because their secrecy generated suspicions that officials were hiding something.

"There's always this impression of plots, of secrets, of wanting to hide things," Patenet said. "The great danger would be to leave the field open to sects and charlatans."

He said many cases were unexplained lights in the sky. "Only 20 to 30" could be classified as "Objet Volant Non Identifie" — UFOs that appeared to be physical objects, leaving "marks on the ground, radar images," he said.

Even Charles de Gaulle, France's wartime hero who became president, got the UFO bug.

"In 1954, there was a wave of sightings of phenomena in France, and it went up to the highest levels of state. Gen. de Gaulle himself assigned ... an aide and told him, 'Look into this for me, study it to see if something needs to be done,'" Patenet said.

That year, there were hundreds of sightings over several months, but generally there are 50 to 100 reported each year.

Only 9 percent of France's strange phenomena have been fully explained, the agency said. Experts found likely reasons for another 33 percent, and 30 percent could not be identified for lack of information.

Other cases were impossible to crack. The most baffling were labeled "Class D aerospace phenomena" — which the agency defines as "inexplicable despite precise testimonies and the (good) quality of material information gathered." Some 28 percent of sightings fall into this category.

Patenet singled out the January 1981 case of the saucer-shaped object that a witness said he saw land in Trans-en-Provence, a village inland from the French Riviera.

Some 8 feet across, the zinc-colored object made a whistling noise as it landed. The witness later drew a picture: It resembled a wok with a lid and legs.

"The machine stayed a few seconds on the ground and then left very quickly but it left marks that were analyzed and allowed us to determine that the ground had been heated up, that the object must have weighed several hundred kilos (pounds), and that surrounding plants underwent biological changes," said Patenet.

"So something really happened. It really defies analysis," he said.

The agency said everything in the archive would be published, except for psychological reports about witnesses and their names.

Most of the time, witnesses were sincere about what they saw, Patenet said.

"Very few look for publicity because they fear most of all that they will not be taken seriously."

Still, there were frauds.

In 1979, in Cergy-Pontoise outside Paris, a man showed up at a police station claiming his friend had been abducted by a UFO — a bright light that appeared on the road and swallowed up his car. Several days later, the man purportedly reappeared in a field, emerging out of a sphere of light.

Investigators went so far as to test the man's blood for signs that he had recently experienced weightlessness — and they found none. The agency labeled it a hoax.

Some cases took years to unravel. In 1985, two farmers near the Atlantic coastal city of Royan saw a burning object drop into a field nearby.

Experts initially concluded that it was part of the propulsion device of a recently launched satellite. Eventually they realized it was a piece of German World War II ordnance that spontaneously exploded four decades after the war.

Among the unexplained cases, one of the most perplexing concerned a 1994 Air France flight. While flying over the Paris region, the crew noticed a large brown-red disk hovering on the horizon and constantly changing shape. The case "has never been explained to this day, and leaves the door open to all possible hypotheses," the agency wrote.

So, do we have neighbors out there, after all?

"I don't have an answer to that," said Patenet. "Even if there is such a planet, given the size of the universe, what is the probability that two civilizations ... will meet or come across each other? I really don't know. It's very complicated. It's incalculable."

(Source: Associated Press, Yahoo News)

-Mumbaikar

DiCaprio, Winslet together in a new movie

Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, who played ill-fated lovers in the 1997 smash hit "Titanic," are reuniting for a drama about postwar disillusionment, the DreamWorks movie studio said on Friday.

"Revolutionary Road" will be directed by Winslet's husband, British filmmaker Sam Mendes, who won an Oscar for directing 1999's dysfunctional family drama "American Beauty."

The DreamWorks project, based on the 1961 novel by Richard Yates, revolves around a suburban couple caught between their hopes for a life of art, culture and sophistication and the everyday drudgery of boring jobs and domesticity.



"Revolutionary Road" is considered a master work of modern American literature, and was named one of the top 100 novels of all time by Time magazine.

In "Titanic," DiCaprio's working-class character fell in love with a wealthy socialite played by Winslet aboard the doomed ocean liner that sank in the icy North Atlantic in 1912.

It became the highest-grossing movie of all time, raking in more than $1.8 billion in global ticket sales, and made DiCaprio and Winslet household names.

Both DiCaprio and Winslet were nominated for Oscars this year, for thriller "Blood Diamond" and drama "Little Children," respectively. DiCaprio has earned three Oscar nominations and Winslet five.

(Source: Google News, Reuters)

Click here to read original Story on Reuters.co.uk

-Mumbaikar

Apple into your living rooms

The small silver box with a white Apple logo costs $US299 ($NZ427) and can store up to 50 hours of video, 9000 songs, 25,000 photos or a combination thereof. It is available this week at Apple's online store, retail stores, and also from resellers.

Apple TV has garnered some positive early reviews, including one by Wall Street Journal technology columnist Walt Mossberg, who said the wireless box was easy to install and simple to use.

A remote control lets user watch movies or TV shows bought from Apple's iTunes store, view photo slide shows, or listen to music.

One of the chief complaints is that the Apple TV does not - at least for now - record TV shows, which means it cannot replace digital video recorders like the TiVo.

Over the past year, TV networks and movie studios have increasingly made their shows available online. That spurred a flurry of gadgets and services that connect the PC to the TV - including those from Microsoft Corp, Sony Corp and TiVo Inc - but none has emerged as a clear winner.

"It's Apple's first major foray into the living room," said Shannon Cross, an analyst at Cross Research. "I expect many more products to come that expand Apple's reach beyond this initial Apple TV."

Apple TV works with the iTunes digital jukebox that runs on either Macintosh or Windows computers, and with the integration of the two, gives users access to more than 400 movies, 350 TV shows in near-DVD quality, more than 4 million songs, 5000 music videos and myriad podcasts and audio books.

The company hopes the the burgeoning amount of content sold on iTunes, which has fueled sales of the Apple's leading iPod digital music player, can also spur sales of Apple TV, Macs and other Apple products, analysts said.

But some critics say the market for consumers interested in shifting media from the PC to TV is still small.

Apple co-founder and Chief Executive Steve Jobs debuted the Apple TV to a gathering of Macintosh software developers in September, saying at the time the growing mix of Apple products would put it squarely in homes, cars and consumers' pockets.

Waiting in the wings is Apple's much anticipated iPhone, a sleek device that integrates e-mail, a full web browser, an iPod, instant messaging and phone services. Apple has said that device, starting at $US499, will ship in June.

Apple TV synchronizes with one computer and content downloaded from iTunes is transferred to the 40-gigabyte hard drive in the device for direct playback on high-definition TVs. Users can link the box, about 8 inches square and an inch tall, to as many as five other computers.

While iTunes is by far the largest online store for digital content, Apple TV also offers a limited ability to stream other content from the web, such as film trailers and song previews.

Analysts expect Apple to expand selectively the amount of content that users can stream straight from the internet. Video-recording ability also is likely down the road.

"This is a new product in a new ecosystem for them," said Gartner analyst Mike McGuire of the Apple TV. "They don't want it to look like just another streaming experience."

However, McGuire, who plans to buy an Apple TV, noted that it was unlikely Apple would permit users to watch grainy homemade YouTube video clips on a high-definition TV.

"Why would I want to sully my new LCD TV with some mildly amusing video somebody shot with their camera phone?" he said.

With Apple TV, analysts said it's now a bit easier to fathom where the famously secretive company is going as content becomes ever more digitized and the PC and the TV merge.

"We now have some more visibility about where Apple is going with four 'spheres' - PCs, music, phones soon, and video next year," wrote Bear Stearns analyst Andy Neff in a February note on Apple.

(Source: Stuff.co.nz, Reuters, Google News)

Click here to track the original story on Stuff.co.nz

-Mumbaikar

248-dimension maths puzzle solved

An international team of mathematicians has detailed a vast complex numerical "structure" which was invented more than a century ago.

Mapping the 248-dimensional structure, called E8, took four years of work and produced more data than the Human Genome Project, researchers said.

E8 is a "Lie group", a means of describing symmetrical objects.

The team said their findings may assist fields of physics which use more than four dimensions, such as string theory.

Lie groups were invented by the 19th Century Norwegian mathematician Sophus Lie (pronounced "Lee"). Familar structures such as balls and cones have symmetry in three dimensions, and there are Lie groups to describe them. E8 is much bigger.

"What's attractive about studying E8 is that it's as complicated as symmetry can get", observed David Vogan from the Massachussetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US.

"Mathematics can almost always offer another example that's harder than the one you're looking at now, but for Lie groups, E8 is the hardest one."

Professor Vogan is presenting the results at MIT in a lecture entitled The Character Table for E8, or How We Wrote Down a 453,060 x 453,060 Matrix and Found Happiness.

Fundamental force

Conceptualising, designing and running the calculations took a team of 19 mathematicians four years. The final computation took more than three days' solid processing time on a Sage supercomputer.

Lie groups were invented by the Norwegian Sophus Lie
What came out was a matrix of linked numbers, which together describe the structure of E8. It contains more than 60 times as much data as the human genome sequence.

Each of the 205,263,363,600 entries on the matrix is far more complicated than a straightforward number; some are complex equations.

The team calculated that if all the numbers were written out in small type, they would cover an area the size of Manhattan.

In addition to facilitating further understanding of symmetry and related areas of mathematics, the team hopes its work will contribute to areas of physics, such as string theory, which involve structures possessing more than the conventional four dimensions of space and time.

"While mathematicians have known for a long time about the beauty and the uniqueness of E8, we physicists have come to appreciate its exceptional role only more recently," commented Hermann Nicolai, director of the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (the Albert Einstein Institute) in Germany.

"Yet, in our attempts to unify gravity with the other fundamental forces into a consistent theory of quantum gravity, we now encounter it at almost every corner."

Click here for original story on BBC News

(Source: BBC News)
- Mumbaikar

Virtual Tour of Airbus A380

The Airbus A380, the world's largest passenger plane, successfully landed in two U.S. airports in New York and Los Angeles on Monday. One was carrying 550 people. The other had only a crew onboard. And both attracted worldwide attention.

The plane is so big and so expensive, the company that makes it staged the flights to prove it can actually deliver its promised product on time.

Airbus experienced a two-year delay in actually getting the vehicle to market, and wiped out $6.61 billion of its forecast profits in the process.

It was an expensive lesson, costing 10,000 jobs and forcing the closure of six of its European plants.

But while it's sold 160 of the giant jets to 15 countries worldwide, so far no major carrier in North America has taken a flyer on the massive machine.

And with competitor Boeing said to be working on its own version of a big rig, Airbus is looking to get a foothold while it still has the early lead.

So what is it like inside this jumbo-est of jumbo jets?

Here's a look as provided by Airbus itself.

The basics

The plane is 239-foot-long, has wing spans the size of a football field, seats up to 550 passengers (or more than 800 if it's only built for economy class), holds 309,987 litres of fuel, cruises at 900 kilometres an hour and flies some 8,000 nautical miles.

Depending on how it's configured, each vehicle costs about US$300 million.

Leg room

With the danger of blood clots on long haul flights becoming increasingly important and comfort onboard increasingly becoming a thing of the past, the plane's creators wanted to concentrate on making room for passengers to stretch out.

It claims the top part of its double decker aircraft is 190 centimetres wider than any of its competitors, while the main deck boasts an extra 20 centimetres of space.

The cheap seats are slightly bigger, too, measuring 2.5-3.8 centimetres more in economy class.

Because of its size, the aisles are wider so when you have to take that bathroom break you won't have to squeeze by anyone.

Overall, the average A380 has fewer rows of seats and more floor space spread over two floors.

The manufacturer claims it used eight different mock-ups and asked 1,200 men and women around the world billed as 'frequent travellers' what they wanted to see in a plane. One of the major complaints was a lack of leg room.

Atmosphere

This is a little harder to judge, because a lot depends on the specific plane and what's ordered in it. There's the usual entertainment systems available on board.

But for those who want to go all out, there's said to be room for a bar, a beauty parlour and even stores on board, so you could literally go shopping as you fly from one destination to another.

Also possible for those willing to spend the money: a gym, a casino and double beds for when you get tired of it all.

Most planes won't have these amenities of course. And chances are you wouldn't be able to afford the ticket if they did.

Lighting

It's an old complaint about planes that the light is either too bright and shines right in your face or too dull and you can't quite see anything. Airbus promises its monster plane has mood lighting that automatically adjusts for time of day. It also says its windows are bigger so you can enjoy the view a lot better.

Fuel consumption

This one's based totally on comparisons that may be tough to imagine. The plane is said to consume about four litres of fuel per passenger for every 130 kilometres it flies. Airbus claims given its size and the number of people onboard, it's actually as fuel efficient as a filling up an "economical family car."

And you thought your gas bill was high.

The noise

Another big airline complaint is the noise you hear both inside the plane and when you're listening to it fly overhead. It's one of the things that killed the Concorde.

Airbus says its plane is much quieter than others of smaller size, causing less disruption for those onboard and in the neighbourhoods it flies over.

"Although it's the largest commercial airline in the sky, it's quiet and fuel efficient, claims Paul Haney of Los Angeles World Airports. "That means less noise and lower emissions."

Overhead luggage

The bane of many passengers' existence. Getting that carry-on stuffed into the little space with everyone else's bags is never fun. The A380 can be designed so there's more space - or the upper bins can be removed entirely to create the sense of even more room.

Getting on and off

Forget David Spade and his contemptuous 'bye bye'. Because the plane is so massive, Airbus claims it has more entrance and exit points, allowing passengers to get on and off the vehicle faster. That's supposed to mean the plane can be turned around faster at an airport, allowing more flights to take off sooner.

Click here for original Story on CityNews.com

Take a virtual tour inside A380 on Airbus.com

(Source: Airbus, Google News, Citynews)
-Mumbaikar

Is Google launching a mobile?

Rumors abound that Google plans to launch a mobile phone, reportedly code-named "Switch," with the look and feel of a BlackBerry but with better Internet capabilities.

But in all the commentary from news agencies, blogs, gadget sites, analysts, investors, and reportedly Google's own operation's chief for Spain and Portugal, there haven't been many compelling reasons given as to why Google would enter the mobile phone market. It's a highly cutthroat business.

Just ask Taiwan's BenQ. The company tried to revitalize Siemens' mobile phone operations, but one year and $1 billion later it gave up. It's not hard to see why Nokia and Motorola gained market share against most of their rivals last year. But even their stock prices have suffered, because fierce price competition for handsets hurt their profitability.

Still, the idea of a Google phone is compelling, and great fun to read about. There are even pictures of the rumored device, including one at gadget site Gizmodo.com. The picture shows a flat-screen mobile phone, purportedly designed to work like a BlackBerry.

Another, altogether different design can be found at Engadget.com, but authors on the site cast doubts about whether the photo--or the phone--is real.

The Engadget picture comes from a forum member on Mobileburn.com, who goes by the online name of Madnezz and claims he filled out an online survey about a Google phone developed by Samsung Electronics.

If you click that link, note that beside Madnezz's name is a picture of his online persona, or avatar: a boy covering his mouth and laughing as if he's done something naughty. Could that be all this really is, some rumor and speculation, thrown together with a few tall tales to stoke the flames?

If nothing else it's excellent publicity for Google, especially if the company is coming out with some new mobile phone applications soon. Rumors of a Google phone have been around at least since last December, when it supposedly planned to team up with Taiwan's High Tech Computer to make the device.

But the commentaries have been mostly about rumors, and they lack a good motive for such a move. Google makes software, not hardware, and rumors that it was developing a PC a few years back turned out to be wrong--it was simply making software for PCs.

Some say Google wants to make something like Apple's iPhone, but called the gPhone instead. The easy answer to that theory is that almost everyone wants to make something like Apple's iPhone, so Google would be entering a crowded copycat business. That doesn't sound like Google. Sure, Apple jumped in the phone business, but it already made hardware, and it had to defend its music player business as those functions moved onto phones.

Even worse, if Google makes its own handset it will become a competitor to companies like Samsung, which are preloading Google software on their own phones. These companies have other choices for mobile search, including Yahoo and Microsoft, and Google would risk losing some valuable preloading partners.

Another theory says that Google wants to make a low-cost device to increase Internet usage around the world. But it is already part of one such group, the One Laptop Per Child Project. Besides, mobile phone makers are already slashing the cost of Internet-ready phones with developing markets in mind.

Google has said only that mobile applications are important to the company, and declined further comment on the speculation. The head of its operations in Spain and Portugal, Isabel Aguilera, told the Spanish news site Noticias.com last week that Google has been exploring the idea of a phone and that some of its engineers have spent time working on one. It's not exactly a smoking gun; Google is famous for encouraging its engineers to spend a portion of their time on experimental projects, many of which never see the light of day.

The company also posted a job advertisement recently, saying it was "experimenting with a few wireless communications systems." But in the end the evidence for a Google phone is thin at best. Indeed, the Wall Street Journal reported Saturday that all the phone talk is misguided, and that Google is really developing new software for mobile phones, albeit more sophisticated than what it has developed before.

(Source: Google News, PCworld, engadget, Gizmodo, washingtonpost)
-Mumbaikar

Potter star refuses for final films

Harry Potter star Emma Watson has reportedly refused to sign up for the last two instalments in the series, despite being offered £2m per film to reprise her role as Hermione Granger.

The 16-year-old is said to be tired of her playing Harry Potter's know-it-all pal and wants to try new projects. Matters were not helped last week when a stalker followed her into school and managed to talk to her before being warned off campus. Watson has since been assigned a private bodyguard.

Daniel Radcliffe, currently drawing rave reviews in the West End revival of Equus, confirmed earlier this month that he had signed on the dotted line to play the boy wizard for the final two movies. It is thought that Rupert Grint, who plays Ron Weasley, has also agreed to see out the series.
It seems to have been Grint himself who sparked off the speculation about Watson's future. The News of the World yesterday quoted him as saying that Watson had drifted apart from him and Radcliffe in recent months, despite the trio having made five films together.

The fifth instalment in the saga based on JK Rowling's books, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, is due in UK cinemas in July. The sixth, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, should arrive the following year. No date has been set for the release of the final film, with Rowling's novel only due to hit booksellers on July 21.

(Source: Yahoo News!)

-Mumbaikar

How to Track Your Stolen Gadgets Over the Web

Friends, Is your any USB device stolen or lost? Do you want to track it where it is?
Here is a good article I came across on Yahoo Tech! Thought of sharing with you. Click here to track this story on Yahoo by it's original author Christopher Null !!
This guy is rocking. Thanks Christopher for this wonderful article. It will help a lots of users like me. You Bet !!!

Reader Denise writes: I'm trying to find out about the free software that can be downloaded to MP3 players that helps recover the device if stolen. It sort of works like Lojack.

I went on a hunt for such software and turned up GadgetTrak, which basically does exactly what Denise is talking about. Check it out: You sign up for an account on GadgetTrak's website (it's free), then register your devices on the site. You can register any USB device that has storage: So not just an MP3 player, but a thumbdrive, camera, PDA... just about anything that shows up as a drive in Windows.



For each device, you download agent files created specifically for that piece of hardware, which GadgetTrak creates for you. Then copy the files to the USB device, and you're finished. If you report on the GadgetTrak website that a device has gone missing, it will begin tracking that device whenever it is plugged into a computer. How? The agent files attempt to launch an autorun file whenever the device is plugged in, which activates the tracking mechanism (and sends you an email). If the autorun isn't launched, either because the PC has autorun disabled or it was canceled by the user, the device attempts to entice the new user to launch the agent tracker manually by naming the executable "passwords.exe."

I gave it a spin with a USB thumbdrive and it works pretty well. Autorun didn't come up on the test PC I was using as the "thief's" computer (for reasons I won't bore you with), but when double-clicking the passwords.exe file, I was quickly greeted with an email about the location of the drive. What's the catch? With a free account you only get the IP address of the PC the device is plugged into. You have to pay $12 (or slightly less if you buy in bulk) for a one-year subscription for each device you'd like additional data for. The pro data includes the PC name, the user name on that PC, and the city and postal code of the PC's location, all of which would definitely be helpful if a device were stolen.

(Source: Yahoo Tech, gadgettheft.com)
-Mumbaikar

Microsoft Vista: Missing Drivers & Security Holes

A modern operating system like Windows Vista includes millions of lines of code. Thousands of workers toiled for years to develop Microsoft's newest product which means all the more potential for bugs. Although Vista has already been on the market for a few weeks now, negative reports have actually been relatively mild. A few hiccups are clearly audible, however. "The biggest problem is missing drivers," says Axel Vahldiek from Hanover-based c't magazine. Without those programmes, generally provided by hardware makers, peripheral devices either cannot function properly or will not work at all. The problem isn't just limited to older or exotic hardware: the GeForce 8800 graphic chip supports the DirectX 10 graphics interface used by Vista and is found on fast, high-end graphics cards. Yet Nvidia still hadn't managed to make a driver available by the end of February. The website for the market leader in graphics chips has long offered a beta, or preliminary, version of the driver. Vahldiek warns against using such beta drivers, however: "They do not ever work error-free." Relying on them can lead to data loss, he says.

Another problem with Vista is related to security: In the view of the German Federal Agency for Security in Information Technology (BSI) in Bonn, the current discussion surrounding Vista's account administration function, User Account Control (UAC), is particularly interesting, says Thomas Caspers, an expert on operating system security. The discussion was given a jolt by Polish security expert Joanna Rutkowska, who publicized a hole in the system. UAC is designed to require administrator access to install new software. That means increased security at first. Yet, according to Rutkowska it also means that games downloaded off the internet are also granted full rights. From a technical point of view, this is completely unnecessary. If malicious code is hidden in the game, then it has a clear path to the computer.

Passwords are effective only for keeping curious lay users from accessing the computer. Little more than a bit of determination is needed to crack the access passwords on Windows Vista. Elcomsoft, a Russian firm, is for example offering software to perform just that job - ostensibly for users who have forgotten their password. Anyone in possession of a Vista version with the BitLocker encryption programme should use it. The software makes files encrypted with BitLocker unreadable even if an intruder gains access to the computer using the Elcomsoft programme.

All in all, however, the problems with Vista more closely resemble "growing pains" than serious flaws. Vista does not assign standard rights to many antivirus programmes to access all folders, Vahldiek explains. Yet if a virus scanner cannot check through certain parts of the computer that might potentially contain bugs, it is not performing its duty. In such cases manual configuration is required. Still, no major problems have as yet turned up for Vista. Peter Knaak, computer expert for the German consumer testing organization Stiftung Warentest in Berlin presumes that some vulnerabilities will start showing up for Vista in the coming weeks and months. He therefore recommends waiting until Microsoft releases Service Pack 1 for Vista before making the switch. Service packs are a collection of updates to iron out a large group of individual problems.

No date has been provided as yet for Service Pack 1, says Microsoft spokeswoman Irene Nadler. What is certain is that Microsoft will release security-related updates on a regular basis via the Update function built into Windows.

Click here to track the original story on www.playfuls.com

Experts are reporting on a potential security hole in Windows Vista: its speech recognition system. It could be used to send commands to remote computers from over the internet - in theory, at least. According to Thomas Caspers from the German Federal Agency for Security in Information Technology (BSI) in Bonn, it remains unclear whether talking malware will end up being an amusing side note or, in certain scenarios, a genuine threat. The BSI suspects it will be the former, and is not yet recommending specific countermeasures.

DVD dead in three years?

The association backing the Blu-ray next-generation storage format aims to oust the DVD as the leading storage format within the next three years, according to Australian IT.

The Blu-ray format offers up to five times more storage capacity than DVDs, but is contending against rival format, HD DVD, for the next-generation storage crown. The latter format has the advantage of cheaper discs, players and burners.

Every Sony PlayStation 3 games console is fitted with a Blu-ray drive, enabling the console to double as a Blu-ray player. The number of PlayStation 3s sold in Japan and North America in December hit 1.84-million and Sony plans to launch a further million in Europe in the next week. As a result of this, Blu-ray already exceeds HD DVD in the number of players sold and with a total of 5.2-million Blu-ray discs having been sold, it won’t be long before it outstrips HD DVD in this area too.

Although many film houses in Europe and Asia will continue to use HD DVD because it is cheaper and simpler, five out of the eight big Hollywood studios support only Blu-ray in comparison to the one studio (Universal), which supports only HD DVD.

Click here to track original story on iafrica.com

Want to know more about Blu-Ray?? Here it is from Wikipedia
The name Blu-ray Disc is derived from the blue-violet laser used to read and write this type of disc. Because of this shorter wavelength (405 nm), substantially more data can be stored on a Blu-ray Disc than on the DVD format, which uses a red, 650 nm laser. Blu-ray Disc can store 25 GB on each layer, as opposed to a DVD's 4.7 GB. Several manufacturers have released single layer and dual layer (50 GB) recordable BDs and rewritable discs.[1] All supporting studios have either already released or have announced release of movies on 50GB discs.

Blu-ray Disc is similar to PDD, another optical disc format developed by Sony (which has been available since 2004) but offering higher data transfer speeds. PDD was not intended for home video use and was aimed at business data archiving and backup.

Technical Specifications:
1. About 9 hours of high-definition (HD) video can be stored on a 50 GB disc.
2. About 23 hours of standard-definition (SD) video can be stored on a 50 GB disc.
3. On average, a single-layer disc can hold a High Definition feature of 135 minutes using MPEG-2, with additional room for 2 hours of bonus material in standard definition quality. A dual layer disc will extend this number up to 3 hours in HD quality and 9 hours of SD bonus material.

Blu-ray Disc / HD DVD comparison
Main article: Comparison of high definition optical disc formats
The primary rival to Blu-ray Disc is HD DVD, championed by Toshiba, NEC Corporation, Microsoft, and Intel. HD DVD has a lower disc capacity per layer (15 GB vs 25 GB). However the majority (70%[29]) of Blu-ray titles are in 25 GB single layer format while almost all (over 90%[30]) HD DVD movies are in 30 GB dual layer format. In 2007 only 46%[31] Blu-ray movies were released in 25GB Discs so far (03/2007). The Blu-ray Disc version of the Adam Sandler movie Click was released on October 10, 2006 as the first ever dual-layer release. Sony's goal is to use 50 GB dual-layer discs to store up to nine hours of HD video content. Alternatively, studios releasing movies on Blu-ray Disc can choose to use VC-1 or H.264/AVC instead of MPEG-2 as an alternative way to put four hours of high-definition content on a (single layer) BD.

In terms of audio/video compression, Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD are similar on the surface: both support MPEG-2, VC-1, and H.264 for video compression, and Dolby Digital (AC-3), PCM, and DTS for audio compression. The first generation of Blu-ray Disc movies released used MPEG-2 (the standard currently used in DVDs, although encoded at a much higher video resolution and a much higher bit rate than those used on conventional DVDs), while initial HD DVDs releases used the VC-1 codec. Due to greater total disc capacity, the Blu-ray Disc producers may choose in the future to utilize a higher maximum video bit rate, as well as potentially higher average bit rates. In terms of audio, there are some differences. Blu-ray Disc allows conventional AC-3 audiotracks at 640 kbit/s, which is higher than HD DVD's maximum of, 504 kbit/s. Nevertheless, Dolby Digital Plus support is mandatory for standalone HD DVD players at a maximum of 3 Mbit/s, while optional for BD players with support at a bitrate of 1.736 Mbit/s.[32]

Both HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc support the 24p (traditional movie) frame rate, but technical implementations of this mode are different between the formats. Blu-ray Disc supports 24p with its native timing, while HD DVD uses 60i timing for 24p (encoded progressively, replacing missing fields with "repeat field flags"). Decoders can ignore the “flags” to output 24p.[33] There is no impact on picture resolution or storage space as a result of this, as the HD DVD format uses the same video information — it simply adds notational overhead.

Currently, five Hollywood studios exclusively support Blu-ray Disc: Columbia Pictures, MGM, Disney, Lionsgate and 20th Century Fox (Columbia Pictures and MGM are owned by Sony Pictures). Four Hollywood studios support both Blu-ray and HD DVD: Paramount Pictures, DreamWorks, Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema (the former two are owned by Viacom, and the latter two by Time Warner). Two Hollywood studios exclusively support HD DVD: Universal Studios and the Weinstein Company.

(Source: iafrica.com, wikipedia)

-Mumbaikar

Pizza for $1,000 ! See Video

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York restaurateur has cooked up the world's most extravagant pizza -- a $1,000 (516 pound) pie topped with six kinds of caviar and fresh lobster.

Nino Selimaj, who runs six pizza restaurants in the Big Apple, on Wednesday unveiled the Luxury Pizza, a 12-inch (30-cm), thin crust topped with caviar, lobster, creme fraiche and chives. Cut into eight, it works out at $125 a slice.
Click below to know more about (Source: Wikipedia)
1. Caviar
2. Lobster
3. Creme Fraiche
4. Chives

"I know this won't be for everyone but there are people in New York who can afford it and once tried, they'll be back for more. It is delicious," said Selimaj, who moved to New York from Albania about 29 years ago.

"Sure, some people will say it is just a publicity stunt but I have researched this for over a year and think there is a demand. I have already sold one," he told Reuters.

Selimaj said Nino's Bellissima in Manhattan, the only one of his restaurants to offer the dish, needs 24 hours notice for the gourmet dish because it orders the caviar in advance.

"But where better to experiment with pizza than in New York where people love their pizza?" he asked.

If diners are still hungry after the Luxury Pizza, they can always head over to nearby restaurant Serendipity, which sells a $1,000 ice-cream sundae called Golden Opulence that is covered in 23-karat edible gold leaf.
(Source: Reuters, Yahoo News!)

Click Here to watch Video!!

- Mumbaikar

Student claims to find mouse in chips

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - A middle school student's claim of finding a mouse inside a bag of Frito-Lay barbecue potato chips purchased at a school lunch line appears credible, Lewis-Palmer School District 38 officials said Thursday.

The eighth-grade boy opened the bag of chips during a lunch period Wednesday, district spokeswoman Donna Wood said. A vice principal and the principal of the school interviewed the student's parents and other children who were sitting at the table, and determined the incident did not appear to be a prank.

Frito-Lay is investigating and the district has temporarily pulled all chips from its vending machines and lunch lines, Wood said.

A message left by The Associated Press at Frito-Lay's Colorado Springs office was not immediately returned.
(Source: Yahoo News, Associate Press)

Click here to track the story on Yahoo News!

-Mumbaikar

Scented Uniforms for Police !

AHMADABAD, India - Soothing rose or tangy lemon? If all goes according to plan, people in the western Indian city of Ahmadabad should find themselves confronted by those two scents by the end of the year when they are stopped by police.

The city's police department is working with a team of designers to provide 8,000 officers with new uniforms that will be made with specially scented, lightweight fabric designed to keep the police officers sweet smelling and sweat free.

"We think that by end of the year, you will notice a new fresh look when you are intercepted by one of our men," said J. Mahapatra, the city's police commissioner.

Ahmadabad is brutally hot for half the year and its policemen, especially those directing traffic, can spend as many as eight hours a day outdoors.

It also doesn't help that a large number of the country's policemen are said to be overweight, a result of long work hours, poor eating habits and high stress.
(Source: Yahoo News)

-Mumbaikar

Japan's Horie found guilty

Takafumi Horie, the 34-year-old Internet entrepreneur who rattled corporate Japan with his celebrity lifestyle and brash takeover bids, was found guilty and sentenced to two years and six months in jail on Friday for his role in a securities fraud at his former company Livedoor.

The sentence handed down by the Tokyo District Court contrasted with punishments typically meted out to Japanese executives convicted of white-collar crimes, who often receive suspended sentences after pleading guilty and showing remorse.

A dropout from the prestigious University of Tokyo who used savvy marketing and an aggressive string of acquisitions to expand Livedoor's market value to a peak of $6 billion, Horie had called the charges "malicious" and blamed his chief financial officer for the accounting mess.

Prosecutors had sought a four-year jail term.

Horie, wearing a dark suit and a gray tie, stood while the verdict was given and then sat with a stoney expression while flipping through documents.

He is expected to appeal the sentence.

The trial drew intense media attention in Japan, where opinions of the T-shirt-wearing, Ferrari-driving Horie were divided even before his arrest.

Horie's attempt to buy a baseball team in 2004 and his takeover battle with a larger media group a year later won him admirers among youth but annoyed conservative business leaders.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, another maverick, tapped Horie to run in a 2005 national election as a poster boy for economic reform, though Horie failed to win a seat.

The author of a dozen advice books such as "How to Make 10 Billion Yen" and "The Easy Way to Build a Money-Making Company" claimed he relied so heavily on advisers that they came to dominate his company.

"I never studied accounting," Horie testified in November.

"A management book I read said to leave that to specialists, so that's what I did."

Four other Livedoor executives including the CFO, Ryoji Miyauchi, have pleaded guilty in the case.

Horie must also contend with lawsuits from shareholders over the $5 billion in market value shed by Livedoor following his arrest, which sparked a share sell-off that swamped the Tokyo Stock Exchange's computer system, keeping it on shortened trading hours for three months.

Livedoor lost its Tokyo Stock Exchange listing last April after its share price sank to just 94 yen (80 cents).

The trial centered on problems with Livedoor's 2004 earnings.

Prosecutors charged that Horie had pressured aides to raise the company's interim recurring profit forecast using gains from the sale of Livedoor stock held in a Hong Kong-based investment fund, a violation of accounting rules.

After the stock sale failed to raise earnings as planned, Horie then signed off on a plan to book phony sales to allied firms to make up the difference, the prosecution said.

The funds were "set up for the purpose of evading the law," presiding judge Toshiyuki Kosaka said in handing down the ruling. "At that point, the prosecution's case was proven."

Horie had said he had only pushed managers to improve Livedoor's underlying business, not to fudge the books.

In another high-profile corporate scandal that gripped Japan, Yoshiaki Tsutsumi, once dubbed the richest man in the world, was sentenced in 2005 to 30 months in jail, suspended for four years, for insider trading and falsifying financial statements at his Seibu Railway group.

Visit Yahoo News for full coverage of this Story !!!

- Mumbaikar

NYSE stocks up

U.S. stocks finished higher on Thursday after healthy earnings from Bear Stearns Cos. Inc. eased concerns about subprime lending problems spreading to other companies and the wider economy.

Bear Stearns, Wall Street's leading underwriter of mortgage-backed securities, said quarterly earnings rose, beating analysts' estimates, and noted that problems with risky mortgages were largely contained. Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. made similar comments a day earlier.

"Everybody was so hopped up with the subprime lending stuff. But the economy is doing OK, and I still think the market in the long run will have a halfway decent year," said Victor Pugliese, director of listed equity trading at First Albany Corp. in San Francisco.

The Dow Jones industrial average (^DJI - news) rose 26.28 points, or 0.22 percent, to 12,159.68. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index (^SPX - news) gained 5.11 points, or 0.37 percent, to at 1,392.28. The Nasdaq Composite Index (^IXIC - news) advanced 6.96 points, or 0.29 percent, to 2,378.70.

WELLS FARGO GAINS, CBOT JUMPS

Financial stocks, which were among the hardest hit in a sell-off on Tuesday, rose for a second day. Shares of Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE:WFC - news), the No. 5 U.S. bank, gained 1.3 percent, or 45 cents, to $34.10 on the New York Stock Exchange, while shares of Countrywide Financial Corp. (NYSE:CFC - news), which like Wells Fargo made mortgages to subprime borrowers, rose 3.1 percent, or $1.08, to $35.47, also on the NYSE.

In other merger news, Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq:CSCO - news) said it will buy online videoconferencing company WebEx Communications Inc. (Nasdaq:WEBX - news) for $2.9 billion. Cisco shares dipped 0.2 percent, or 4 cents, to $25.81, while shares of WebEx rose 22 percent, or $10.18, to $56.38. Both trade on the Nasdaq.

Stocks pared gains and briefly turned negative after former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, speaking in Florida to the Futures Industry Association, warned that problems in the market could spread into other sectors.

Also, economic data before the opening somewhat dimmed hopes for an interest-rate cut by the Federal Reserve any time soon. The report showed the U.S. Producer Price Index, a gauge of wholesale inflation, jumped 1.3 percent in February, well above the gain of 0.5 percent that economists were expecting. Excluding food and energy, core PPI rose 0.4 percent.

On Tuesday, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported that the proportion of mortgages in the initial stages of foreclosure rose to the highest rate on record. Stocks fell about 2 percent that day.

Trading was light to moderate on the NYSE, with about 1.51 billion shares changing hands, below last year's estimated daily average of 1.84 billion, while on Nasdaq, about 1.81 billion shares traded, below last year's daily average of 2.02 billion.

Advancing stocks outnumbered declining ones by a ratio of about 8 to 3 on the NYSE and by about 3 to 2 on Nasdaq.
(Source: Yahoo News, Reuters)

-Mumbaikar

Airbus workers to strike

Tens of thousands of workers at Airbus are expected to walk off the job Friday in a highly unusual show of Europe-wide union power against plans by the struggling aircraft manufacturer to slash 10,000 posts.

Trade unions predict tens of thousands of staff at all Airbus sites in Europe will down tools and hold protest meetings to increase pressure against the company's "Power8" restructuring scheme.

Such co-ordinated Europe-wide protests organised by trade unions are highly unusual.

In Hamburg, Germany, the powerful IG Metall union said it expected 10,000 demonstrators to converge on the city centre. An earlier day of protest in France on March 6 brought 12,000-15,000 people into the streets of Toulouse, southwest France, where Airbus is based, and unions there were expecting similar support.

In Britain, the Transport and General Workers' Union expected several thousand people to back a demonstration in Chester, near a factory at Broughton in Wales.

And in Spain, two unions, the CCOO and the UGT, have called on 9,000 workers at seven sites to protest.

Unions here issued a joint statement condemning "this restructuring plan which will have dramatic consequences but is not justified."

One union source objected in particular to "jobs being cut when work in hand is overflowing."

The protests are set against campaigning for a presidential election in France in which unemployment is a hot subject.

The company says that the crisis is "extremely serious" and that it can no longer delay making cost savings. But there is concern among analysts over whether the Airbus parent company, the aerospace group EADS, and Airbus will in fact be able to implement the full plan.

The cuts, together with the total or partial disposal of six sites, are intended to save 5.0 billion euros (6.6 billion dollars) by 2010 and pull the company out of a crisis caused by delays to the A380 superjumbo program, seen as critical to Airbus' bid to catch up with US rival Boeing.

EADS last week published results revealing a first-ever operating loss at Airbus of 572 million euros (752 million dollars) in 2006 in contrast to a profit of 2.3 billion euros in 2005.

But the group is also assuring customers and investors that it does not face an imminent cash crisis.

Announcement of details of the restructuring on February 28 came as campaigning in the presidential election in France in April and May intensified and amid tension between French and German interests over where cuts should fall.

It was also followed by signs of bickering between French and German unions.

Brokers Goldman Sachs, issuing a recommendation to its clients to buy shares in EADS, suggested on Monday that the "reduced" expectation for EADS "provides both a suitable backdrop for negotiations about Power8 with unions and politicians, especially in France."
(Source: Yahoo News, AFP)

-Mumbaikar

Dying woman loses marijuana appeal

SAN FRANCISCO - A woman whose doctor says marijuana is the only medicine keeping her alive can face federal prosecution on drug charges, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.

The ruling was the latest legal defeat for Angel Raich, a mother of two from Oakland suffering from scoliosis, a brain tumor, chronic nausea and other ailments who sued the federal government pre-emptively to avoid being arrested for using the drug. On her doctor's advice, Raich eats or smokes marijuana every couple of hours to ease her pain and bolster her appetite.

The latest legal twist once again highlighted the conflict between the federal government, which declares marijuana an illegal controlled substance with no medical value, and the 11 states allowing medical marijuana for patients with a doctor's recommendation.

The Supreme Court ruled against Raich two years ago, saying medical marijuana users and their suppliers could be prosecuted for breaching federal drug laws even if they lived in a state such as California where medical pot is legal.

Because of that ruling, the issue before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was narrowed to the so-called right to life theory: that the gravely ill have a right to marijuana to keep them alive when legal drugs fail.

Raich, 41, began sobbing when she was told of the decision that she was not immune to prosecution and said she would continue using the drug.

"I'm sure not going to let them kill me," she said. "Oh, my God."

The three-judge appeals panel said that the United States has not yet reached the point where "the right to use medical marijuana is 'fundamental' and 'implicit in the concept of ordered liberty.'"

However, the court left open the possibility that Raich, if she was arrested and prosecuted, might be able to argue that she possessed marijuana as a last resort to stay alive, in what is known as a "medical necessity defense."

"I have to get myself busted in order to try to save my life," Raich said.

One of her physicians, Frank Lucido, said in an interview last year that Raich would "probably be dead without marijuana." Lucido, of Berkeley, was not immediately available for comment Wednesday.

Leaders in the medical marijuana movement said they would continue fighting.

"This is literally a matter of life and death for Angel and thousands of other patients, and we will keep fighting on both the legal and political fronts until every patient is safe," said Rob Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project.

New Mexico is poised to become the 12th state to allow medical marijuana under a bill lawmakers approved Wednesday. Gov. Bill Richardson, a strong supporter of the measure, is expected to sign it.
(Source: Associated Press, Yahoo News!)

Marijuana as wonder drug (Source: Boston.com)

A NEW STUDY in the journal Neurology is being hailed as unassailable proof that marijuana is a valuable medicine. It is a sad commentary on the state of modern medicine -- and US drug policy -- that we still need "proof" of something that medicine has known for 5,000 years.

The study, from the University of California at San Francisco, found smoked marijuana to be effective at relieving the extreme pain of a debilitating condition known as peripheral neuropathy. It was a study of HIV patients, but a similar type of pain caused by damage to nerves afflicts people with many other illnesses including diabetes and multiple sclerosis. Neuropathic pain is notoriously resistant to treatment with conventional pain drugs. Even powerful and addictive narcotics like morphine and OxyContin often provide little relief. This study leaves no doubt that marijuana can safely ease this type of pain.

As all marijuana research in the United States must be, the new study was conducted with government-supplied marijuana of notoriously poor quality. So it probably underestimated the potential benefit.

This is all good news, but it should not be news at all. In the 40-odd years I have been studying the medicinal uses of marijuana, I have learned that the recorded history of this medicine goes back to ancient times and that in the 19th century it became a well-established Western medicine whose versatility and safety were unquestioned. From 1840 to 1900, American and European medical journals published over 100 papers on the therapeutic uses of marijuana, also known as cannabis.

Of course, our knowledge has advanced greatly over the years. Scientists have identified over 60 unique constituents in marijuana, called cannabinoids, and we have learned much about how they work. We have also learned that our own bodies produce similar chemicals, called endocannabinoids.

The mountain of accumulated anecdotal evidence that pointed the way to the present and other clinical studies also strongly suggests there are a number of other devastating disorders and symptoms for which marijuana has been used for centuries; they deserve the same kind of careful, methodologically sound research. While few such studies have so far been completed, all have lent weight to what medicine already knew but had largely forgotten or ignored: Marijuana is effective at relieving nausea and vomiting, spasticity, appetite loss, certain types of pain, and other debilitating symptoms. And it is extraordinarily safe -- safer than most medicines prescribed every day. If marijuana were a new discovery rather than a well-known substance carrying cultural and political baggage, it would be hailed as a wonder drug.

The pharmaceutical industry is scrambling to isolate cannabinoids and synthesize analogs, and to package them in non-smokable forms. In time, companies will almost certainly come up with products and delivery systems that are more useful and less expensive than herbal marijuana. However, the analogs they have produced so far are more expensive than herbal marijuana, and none has shown any improvement over the plant nature gave us to take orally or to smoke.

We live in an antismoking environment. But as a method of delivering certain medicinal compounds, smoking marijuana has some real advantages: The effect is almost instantaneous, allowing the patient, who after all is the best judge, to fine-tune his or her dose to get the needed relief without intoxication. Smoked marijuana has never been demonstrated to have serious pulmonary consequences, but in any case the technology to inhale these cannabinoids without smoking marijuana already exists as vaporizers that allow for smoke-free inhalation.

Hopefully the UCSF study will add to the pressure on the US government to rethink its irrational ban on the medicinal use of marijuana -- and its destructive attacks on patients and caregivers in states that have chosen to allow such use. Rather than admit they have been mistaken all these years, federal officials can cite "important new data" and start revamping outdated and destructive policies. The new Congress could go far in establishing its bona fides as both reasonable and compassionate by immediately moving on this issue.

Such legislation would bring much-needed relief to millions of Americans suffering from cancer, AIDS, multiple sclerosis, arthritis, and other debilitating illnesses.

Lester Grinspoon, an emeritus professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, is the coauthor of "Marijuana, the Forbidden Medicine."

Jolie in Vietnam to adopt boy

HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam - Angelina Jolie arrived in Vietnam late Wednesday night, where she plans to adopt a 3-year-old boy. Airport security officials told a photographer working for The Associated Press that Jolie was whisked into a car with dark windows and driven away.

The actress was expected to attend an adoption ceremony with Vietnamese officials in Ho Chi Minh City on Thursday morning, according to adoption officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk about the matter.

After she receives the child, Jolie will meet with U.S. consular officials, who must review the adoption before a passport can be issued for the boy.

If all goes according to plan, Jolie could bring the child home by the weekend, officials said. A message left early Wednesday for a Jolie representative in Los Angeles wasn't immediately returned.

The boy has been living at the Tam Binh orphanage on the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City since he was abandoned at a hospital as an infant, according to adoption officials.

Shortly after he arrived at the orphanage, the Tam Binh staff tried unsuccessfully to locate the boy's birth parents. The boy is healthy, friendly and a little bit shy, they said. He gets along well with other children and loves to play soccer.

Jolie filed adoption papers as a single parent, because she and her partner, Brad Pitt, are not married.

They have three children: 5-year-old Maddox, adopted from Cambodia; 2-year-old Zahara, adopted from Ethiopia; and another daughter, Shiloh, who was born to the couple in May.

The pair made a surprise visit to the Tam Binh orphanage at Thanksgiving, when they were spotted cruising around Ho Chi Minh City on a motorbike.
(Source: Associated Press, Yahoo News)

-Mumbaikar

Human Voice Works Like a Jet Engine

Researchers have discovered an unlikely link between patterns of airflow in a jet engine and how the human larynx produces sound.

The basics of voice production are well known: The nerve cells fire triggering the muscles to bring the vocal cords together. The interaction between air and vocal cords causes the cords to vibrate, generating sound.

If this were the only mechanism involved in producing sound, every person’s voice would sound mechanical, but the specifics of how airflow affects sound production and quality is the reason each voice is different, said Sid Khosla, lead author of a study detailed in the March issue of the journal Annals of Otology, Rhinology and Laryngology.

Vortices—areas of rotational motion that look like smoke rings— eventually break down into turbulent motion that can produce sounds in jet engines.

“We were wondering if vortices produce additional sound in the larynx,” Khosla told LiveScience. Turns out that in the larynx vortices form sound by interacting with the structures above the vocal cords.

These vortices, Khosla said, have been presented in mechanical models and mathematical models, but no one up to now has been able to describe them or look at them in an animal model. Khosla and colleagues have done so, studying dogs.

“The canine larynx is the closest to the human larynges that we know,” Khosla said.

Understanding how sound develops in this new model could benefit people with vocal problems.

“Currently, when surgery is required to treat voice disorders, it’s primarily done on the vocal cords,” Khosla said. “Actually knowing there are additional sources that affect sound may open up a whole new way for us to treat voice disorders.”
(Source: Live Science)

-Mumbaikar

Railway Budget 2007-2008

Railway Minister Lalu Prasad in his pro-poor Railway Budget for 2007-08 presented in the Lok Sabha on Monday announced major relief for passengers by cutting fares across the board.

1. The minister cut passenger fares cut by 4 per cent for sleeper class rail travel.
2. Lalu Prasad also kept the freight rates unchanged.
3. AC Ist class fares reduced by 6 per cent in lean season and by 3 per cent in peak season.
4. Re 1 cut in daily non-suburban train fares.
5. For AC two-tier, the busy season reduction is 2 per cent and lean season 4 per cent.
6. He also lowered fares for all classes of high capacity new design reserved coaches which would be 4 per cent for AC three-tier and AC chair car in busy season and 8 per cent in lean season.
7. In sleeper class, the fare-reduction would be 4 per cent in all seasons.
8. The railway minister announced that discounts for the busy season shall be applicable in popular trains throughout the year.
9. Superfast charge on second class tickets has been reduced by 20 per cent from Rs 10 to Rs 8, he said.
10. Prasad announced introduction of tourist ticket in Mumbai suburban services with facility for unlimited travel.
11. He brought down charges for e-tickets booked on the Internet.
12. The railway minister also cus petrol diesel freight rates by 5 per cent.

Check this as well.

Following are the highlights of the Railway Budget:

2006-07: Review of Performance and Revised Estimates

Record breaking performance in the first nine months of the year 2006-07
Freight earnings register growth of 17%. Incremental loading of 59 MT likely to be achieved
Growth in Passenger Earnings, Other Coaching Earnings and Sundry Earnings 14%, 48% and 11% respectively
Gross Traffic Earnings register an unprecedented growth of 17%
In Revised Estimates Passenger Earnings, Other Coaching Earnings, Freight Earnings and Sundry Earnings expected to be Rs 17,400 cr, Rs 1,726 cr and Rs 42,299 cr, Rs. 1,695 cr respectively
Gross Traffic Revenues projected at Rs 63,120 cr are 16% higher than the previous year and 5.5% higher than the Budget Estimates
Cash Surplus before dividend expected to be Rs 20,000 cr
Net Revenue expected at Rs 14,870 cr and Net surplus after payment of dividend expected at Rs 10,627 cr
Operating Ratio likely to be 78.7% - best ever for IR and one of the best in world Railways
Year end fund balances likely to increase from Rs 12,000 cr in 2005-06 to Rs 16,000 cr
Return on capital set to reach historic level of 20%
In spite of reduction in Passenger fares, the losses in passenger business expected to come down
2007-08: Initiatives taken for improvement in Freight Business

Target for freight loading kept at 785 Million Tonnes (MT) in 2007-08
Mission 200 MT - Railways' target higher share in transportation of Cement and Steel - 200 MT each by 2011-12
Mission 100 MT - container traffic target of 100 MT by 2011-12
Planning for Triple-stack container trains on diesel route and double-stack container trains on electrified route
Railways offer to run Merry-go-round systems of power plants
Upgradation of Freight terminals handling more than 15 rakes per month.
22.9 tonnes and 25 tonnes axle-load freight trains to run on more routes
Production of wagons of higher axle-load and payload to commence
Wagon manufacturers to be encouraged to design wagons with higher payload and new technology
Majority of air-brake trains to be examined in accordance with premium CC or premium end-to-end examination system
Implementation of Unit Exchange Maintenance for rolling stock to improve productivity
Zonal Railway to engage independent marketing agencies for exploring further possibilities in freight business
Initiatives in passenger business:

800 more coaches to be attached in popular trains
Plan to provide cushioned seats in unreserved second class coaches
Increase in unreserved second class coaches from four to six in every new train � Efforts will be made to increase unreserved second class coaches in existing trains also.
Facility for reservation of lower berths for senior citizens and women above 45 years traveling alone
Increase in provision of special coaches (SLRD & SRD) for Physically challenged passengers
Vendor coaches for sections frequented by milk and vegetable vendors and other retail sellers
More convenient, comfortable and high capacity new design passenger coaches will be manufactured
Concession of 50% in second class for candidates appearing for main written examination conducted by SSC and UPSC
Facilitating travel by passengers

Countrywide Train Enquiry call centres � Common Tel. No. 139
Pilot project for providing hand held terminals to TTEs in reserved coaches to update PRS with onboard vacancies for giving reservation to passengers at ensuing stations without delay
Expansion of reserved ticketing facilities
PRS counters to be opened at premises of Post-offices and Defence organizations to be operated by them
e-ticketing services through State Government's e-services, Petrol pumps, Bank's ATMs etc.
Expansion of Unreserved Ticketing facilities
UTS counters to be increased to 8000 in the next 2 years
6000 Automatic Ticket Vending Machines to be installed and linked to UTS in metropolitan cities in the next 2 years
Coupon system for ticket distribution to be extended to Kolkata and Chennai
Pilot project on Central Railway for issuing suburban tickets through multi-purpose smart cards
Passenger Amenities at Stations

300 more stations to be developed as modern stations.
Year 2007 declared 'Cleanliness Year' - Special campaign to ensure cleanliness in station complexes, passenger trains, railway lines, waiting rooms etc.
11th five-year plan � Railways' new profile

Target of 1,100 MT freight loading and 840 crore passengers in the terminal year of 11th Plan.
Focus would be on doubling transport capacity and reducing unit cost of transportation by increasing volumes.
Short-term strategy- investing in low cost high return projects for eliminating bottlenecks and ensuring intensive asset utilization
Mid and long-term strategy � twin pronged approach of network expansion and modernization and technical upgradation
Public-private partnerships projects will play an important role.
Construction of Eastern and Western Dedicated Freight Ccorridors at a cost of Rs 30,000 cr will commence from 2007-08 for completion during the 11th plan.
Pre-feasibility surveys for East-West, East-South, North-South and South-South Corridors
Most of the metre-gauge lines will be converted into broad-gauge by the end of this five-year plan.
High speed Passenger Corridors to be constructed to run trains at more than 300 km/hr speed.
Expansion of suburban services through completion of MUTP Phase-1 and initiating MUTP Phase-2 through joint funding
Efforts to provide air-conditioned suburban trains in Chennai, Kolkata and Mumbai and escalators at important stations
The production of rolling stock will be doubled compared with previous plan. Production of high-horse power and energy efficient locos to be increased.
Manifold increase in investment in IT to increase earnings, ensure effective utilization of human and physical resources and facilitate long-term policy decisions
Commercial portal to be developed over next 3 years for better yield management
Integrated time bound implementation of all FOIS modules by 2010.
ERP package for workshops, production units and select Zonal Railways
Railway Safety

Number of rail accidents has decreased despite substantial increase in volume of traffic
Majority of Special Railway Safety Fund works will be completed by March, 2007. Balance to be completed by March, 2008.
Testing of Anti-Collision Device in last stages
General Managers empowered to sanction subways costing up to Rs 50 lakhs on unmanned level crossings for reducing accidents.
Production of improved crashworthy coaches will be increased.
Railway Security

Number of trained dogs will be increased in the existing dog squads.
Door frame and hand held metal detectors to detect explosives being installed in many sensitive divisions and CCTV, smart video cameras etc for sensitive stations
8,000 vacancies will be filled in the RPF on all India basis.
Jagjivan Ram Railway Suraksha Bal Academy (Lucknow) has been recognised as Centralized Training Institute.
Staff Welfare

Per-capita contribution to Staff Benefit Fund will be increased from Rs 30 to Rs 35 per year.
Condition of Railway Staff colonies to be improved
50 room rest houses will be built near the Railway hospitals in the four metropolitan cities for stay of relatives of the patients.
An extensive training programme will be launched to inculcate market and customer oriented approach in frontline staff.
A committee has been constituted to improve promotion prospects of Group 'D' employees.
Previous service tenure of ex-servicemen and central government employees recruited by Railways, will be added to their existing service tenure in the Railways while calculating eligibility for post retirement complimentary passes
Organisational and Human Resource Development

Training of Railway employees and officers to be reoriented towards changing economic and competitive environment
Institutions of GMs, DRMs, CAOs (Construction) to be strengthened and empowered for development as business units, profit centres and project units respectively.
Railway Staff College, Vadodara will be renovated as heritage building
A Railway chair will be established at IIM/Ahmedabad for research in railway infrastructure and management
Special Recruitment Drives

95% of the vacancies of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes have been filled through special drives and 75% of backlog in the promotional quota has been cleared.
Action is being taken to fulfill the stipulated 27% quota of the OBC candidates.
Passenger Services

8 new Garib Raths to be introduced
New Trains : 32 pairs
Extension of Trains : 23 pairs
Increase in Frequency : 14 pairs
Annual Plan 2007-08

The Annual Plan of Rs 31,000 cr is the largest ever Annual Plan so far, which includes:
� Support of Rs 7,611 cr from General Revenues.

� Internal Generation of Rs 17,323 cr.

� Extra Budgetary Resources of Rs 5,740 cr.

The thrust of the annual plan is to maintain the high growth in traffic, by focusing on early completion of works for throughput enhancement on high traffic density routes, improvement of traffic facilities and enhancing sectional capacity.
v High Density Network to be made suitable for running of Heavy Axle load trains

v Enhanced line capacity planned for on busy routes by implementing IBS, Automatic Signaling etc.

v Increase in speed of trains through fly-overs, bypass, yard redesign etc. at busy junction stations, will be built and will be modified

v 200 Diesel, 200 Electric engines and 11,000 wagons to be produced

Outlay on project related Plan heads : New Lines Rs 1,610 cr, Gauge conversion Rs 2,404 cr, Electrification Rs 300 cr, Metropolitan Transport Projects Rs 722 cr.
Outlay on Safety related Plan heads : Track renewal Rs 3,360 cr, Bridges Rs 597 cr, Signal & Telecommunication works Rs 1,597 cr, Road over/under bridges Rs 551 cr and manning of unmanned level crossings Rs 500 cr.
Important Targets : New Lines 500 kms, Gauge Conversion 1800 kms, Doubling 700 kms.
Rs 2,725 cr required for four National Projects
Other Important Announcements

New Electric Loco works to be set up at Madhepura.
Wagon Bogie Complex to be set up at Dalmia Nagar.
Shortfall of rolling stock bogies to be met by setting up of Joint venture company with Kerala Government at Alleppey.
Railways emerging International image

Railways to impart training to railway personnel of African countries
Chairman Railway Board elected as first chairman of Asian Railway Association and also as first non European President of International Railway Union (UIC )


Proposals relating to freight rates and passenger fares

Freight Business

No across the board increase in freight rates
Highest class 220 reduced to 210
Freight rates of diesel and petrol to come down by about 5 per cent
Minerals and Ores (iron-ore, lime-stone and dolomite) - reduction in classification from class 170 to 160
Wagon load class rates for commodities up to class LR1: reduced from class150 to class120
Schemes Announced/ Modified

Commodity based freight policy-exclusive package for cement traffic
Dynamic Wharfage and Demurrage rates - reduction in wharfage rates and relaxation in loading/unloading free time at select terminals.
Discounts up to 40% on incremental loading of bagged consignments in open wagons in empty flow direction.
Discount of 20 per cent during lean season and 15 per cent during peak season under Two Leg Freight Discount Scheme for covered wagons in up and down directions.
Distance between unloading points in Two Points Rake Scheme to be increased from 200 to 400 kms during lean season.
Facility for loading less than block rakes under Empty Flow Direction Scheme.
Empty Flow Discount extended to all commodities except coal, coke and iron ore.
Empty Flow Direction Freight Discount will be given at 30 per cent throughout the year for traffic lead of more than 700 kms.
Passenger Business

Reduction in passenger fares.
Fares of second class in non-suburban ordinary passenger and non-superfast mail/express trains reduced by one rupee per passenger
AC First Class : 3% reduction in busy season , 6% in lean season
AC-2Tier Class : 2% reduction in busy season, 4% in lean season
Reduction in fares for all classes of high capacity new design reserved coaches :
AC3-Tier & AC CC: 4% reduction in busy season and 8% in lean season
Sleeper Class: 4% reduction in all seasons
Above discounts for busy season shall be applicable in popular trains throughout the year.
Superfast charge on Second Class tickets reduced by 20 per cent (from Rs. 10 to Rs. 8).
Tourist ticket to be introduced in Mumbai Suburban Services with facility for unlimited travel.
Charges for e-tickets booked on the internet reduced.

(Source : Rediff)
-Mumbaikar