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