Petrol Price Rise By Rs 5 | Hike in Petrol Price | Petrol Price rises


New Delhi, May 14 (IANS) Indian oil marketing companies will raise the price of petrol by Rs.5 per litre, the steepest hike of 8 percent, from Saturday midnight.

According to officials, the three state-run companies will increase the price in a move which is expected to go towards plugging the losses suffered due to sale of subsidised domestic fuel.

In Delhi, petrol was being sold for Rs.58.37 per litre, while it was Rs.63.08 per litre in Mumbai till Saturday.

In June last year, the government had allowed oil companies to set the price of petrol as per the market situation, following which they had raised the price of petrol by Rs.3 per litre.

Then another substantial price rise took place in December 2010, when companies had hiked the price by Rs.3 per litre.

The last time price hike was in January, when oil companies had raised the price by four to two percent. However, they are still losing about Rs.8 per litre of petrol.

Since then, there has been steady increase in the international prices, with the Indian crude basket priced at $113.09 per barrel Friday. The average of the previous fortnight from April 16-30 stood at $119.4 per barrel.

The last time the monthly average was above $100 level was in August 2008, when the crude basket price was calculated at $113.05 per barrel. Read more

Let not new tech emerge from India, China: Obama to Americans

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama wants America to stay way ahead in the global race for clean energy innovation and wants his country to make sure that new technological breakthroughs do not take place in countries like India and China.

In his address to the workers at an Allison Transmission plant in Indiana, Obama said there is growing realisation across the world that clean energy technology is the way to the future.

"We're in a competition all around the world, and other countries -- Germany, China, South Korea -- they know that clean energy technology is what is going to help spur job creation and economic growth for years to come," Obama said.

This is why, he said, "we've got to make sure that we win that competition".

Obama has time and again told Americans to tighten up in education and innovation to keep intact their lead over rapidly advancing countries like India and China.

"I don't want the new breakthrough technologies and the new manufacturing taking place in China and India," asserted the US President.

He said rather he wants all those new jobs generated in the US with American workers, American know-how, American ingenuity.

"We're going to have a lot of jobs in the service sector because we're a mature economy, but America's economy is always going to rely on outstanding manufacturing, where we make stuff, where we're not just buying stuff overseas but we're making stuff here, and we're selling it to somebody else," he said.

"This is also where a clean energy economy is being built. This is the kind of company that will make sure that America remains the most prosperous nation in the world," Obama said. read more

Sony removes data posted by hackers

 
TOKYO: Sony said today about 2,500 customers' names and partial addresses stolen by hackers had been discovered posted online as it struggled to recover from the biggest-ever Internet security break-in.

"The website was out-of-date and inactive when discovered as part of the continued attacks on Sony," US-based Sony Electronics said in an online statement.

The data belonged customers, mostly Americans, who had entered a 2001 product sweepstake, the company said.

The company "immediately took the website down, and we are aggressively removing any residual links to the list", it said, without giving further details on the site.

An attack by hackers last month resulted in the theft of names, email addresses and possibly credit card information from more than 100 million accounts using Sony's online platforms.

The company later said its Sony Online Entertainment platform was also hit.

Sony said it would offer US PlayStation Network and Qriocity users free membership for 12 months in a deal that would include a $1 million per user insurance policy against identity theft.

It added that it was working to make similar programmes available elsewhere.

The breach is a blow for Sony as it focuses on pushing content such as games and music through hardware platforms including game consoles, smartphones and tablet computers amid competition from Apple's iTunes and App store.

Sony in Japan also said Saturday that it is unlikely to meet its self-imposed deadline to restore the PlayStation Network and other online services.

Sony shut down the network and the Qriocity music streaming service on April 20 to investigate the hack and secure them from future attacks, and said last Sunday that it would begin restoring them within a week.

But it said Saturday: "The company is taking time to strengthen the protection and coding of data, in addition to building necessary surveillance functions for actualising higher security.

"The company will resume the services in stages in different regions after assuring the safety of customers," it added in a statement. read more

Air India employee commits suicide in Delhi

New Delhi: A 46-year-old security official with Air India committed suicide by hanging himself on Saturday.
This happened inside a house within the Air India colony in Vasant Vihar locality in South Delhi.
They say the deceased Mahendra Kapoor was under depression. read more

Osama compound was a command center: official

Washington: The compound in Pakistan where US forces killed Osama bin Laden was an "active command and control center" where the al Qaeda leader remained in strategic and operational control of the organization, a senior US intelligence official said on Saturday.
The official, who released five video clips of bin Laden taken from the compound in Abbottabad, said the information retrieved by US forces represented the largest trove of intelligence ever obtained from a single terrorism suspect.  read more.

phone as thin and flexible as a credit card




Toronto: Canadian researchers have invented a plastic smartphone which is as thin and flexible as a credit card and changes its shape depending on where it is stored.
Dubbed PaperPhone, this smartphone, with its 9.5-cm diagonal thin film flexible display, is a forerunner of paper-thin handset and tablets of the future, according to the researchers.
On this ultra-thin smart phone, users don't need a touch screen or buttons to make a call, play music, zoom Google maps or flip through e-books. Rather, commands are triggered by bending its corners, or rolling its right edge backward or forward. Bending it in different ways triggers different commands in its sensors.

Researchers say it does everything a smart phone does, like store books, play music or make phone calls.
Because of its flexible form of the display, it will be much more portable that any current mobile device and will shape with your pocket because it senses its shape.
"This is the future. Everything is going to look and feel like this within five years," according lead researcher Roel Vertegaal.
"You interact with it by bending it into a cell phone, flipping the corner to turn pages, or writing on it with a pen." With the invention of these ultra-thin smart phones, offices in future will not require paper or printers as users will be able to store and interact with documents on larger version of these mobile devices, say the researchers.

"The paperless office is here. Everything can be stored digitally and you can place these computers on top of each other just like a stack of paper, or throw them around the desk," says Vertegaal who is director of University Human Media Lab at Queen's University in Kingston.
The researchers have also developed a wearable computer that bends to wrap around your wrist. Once you remove it, you can use it as a notepad, says Vertegaal.

"It knows what shape it's in. It knows it's no longer on your arm. Now you're using it as a notepad, so it changes its functionality to be a notepad," the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation quotes him as saying.
Calling it a game-changing technology, he says it will five to 10 years to mass market it.


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Slip in gold prices an added incentive to buyers this Akshaya Tritiya

New Delhi, May 6 (IANS) There was a huge rush for gold Friday, with buyers thronging jewellery shops after prices of the precious metal dipped by around Rs.500 per 10 gm, coinciding with the auspicious occasion of Akshaya Tritiya.

The Akshaya Tritiya festival is one of the two most auspicious days of the year to buy gold. Hindus believe they can get lasting prosperity by buying precious metals on the day. The other festival is Dhanteras before Diwali in October or November.

'The response is just overwhelming, we are catering to a huge rush at all our showrooms across the country. The mood is upbeat, It seems that those who had not even planned have also turned up today looking at the dip in the prices,' Balram Garg, managing director and chief executive of the Delhi-based PC Jewellers' Group, told IANS.

'With such a demand, we expect the business today to rise by 30 to 40 percent as compared to Akshaya Tritiya last year,' he added.
Gold, which was retailing at Rs.22,300 per 10 gram a day before, fell to Rs.21,800 Friday. Silver prices too slipped to Rs.56,000 per kg compared to Rs.60,000 Thursday.
'There is more demand for the daily-wear and lightweight jewellery but people who are interested in investments are buying gold coins,' said Garg.

Shops are also offering freebies and discounts to attract more and more customers.
'We are offering one gold coin with the purchase of diamond jewellery worth Rs.25,000 and half grams of gold with purchase of Rs. 40,000 worth gold jewellery,' Garg added.
'We have had a pre-booking of almost Rs.10 crore in 17 showrooms of ours across the country.' Read more

Samsung overtakes Nokia in Western Europe market: IDC

HELSINKI: Samsung Electronics rose to No. 1 spot in the Western European cellphone market in the first-quarter, overtaking long-term market leader Nokia on its home turf, research firm IDC said.

Samsung's sales rose 5 percent year-on-year in the region, with market share rising to 29 percent, while Nokia sales dropped 10 percent, and its market share slipped to 28 percent, IDC said on Thursday.

Labourer held for killing father-in-law

New Delhi, May 6 (PTI) A 23-year-old labourer, who allegedly bludgeoned his father-in-law to death for some money three months ago, was arrested here, police said today. Lallu Pasi, who was on the run, was apprehended from Nihal Vihar yesterday when he came there to take his wife Rekha with him, V Renganathan, Deputy Commissioner of Police (West), said. Pasi had allegedly murdered his father-in-law Heeral Lal on February 11. He had come to Delhi in search of job three years ago and later got married to Rekha. "Pasi was not going to work and his family was suffering from financial crisis. Rekha complained to her father who beat him up over this several times," Renganathan said. On February 11, Lallu went to borrow some money from Lal, who gave him Rs 150. Pasi saw notes of Rs 500 in Lal''s inner pocket and hatched a plan. "He arranged liquor and cooked fish at his home and invited Lal. Both had liquor and when he noted that Lal was inebriated, he took him out. He pushed him and threw stones over his head and his body. After that he took Rs 4000 from his pocket but left Rs 24 to avoid any suspicion," Renganathan said. He went back home and from the next day, started searching for Lal. He was very much present at the time of locating the body, identifying it and performing last rites.

However, investigators got suspicious over the "abnormal" behaviour of Pasi. "He ran away from his house. Later on family members of the deceased also suspected Pasi but they thought he was upset over the death of his father-in-law," he said. read more.

Over 7.45 lakh MP girls to get Rs 900 crore under Govt scheme

Bhopal, May 6 (PTI) More than 7.45 lakh girls will get Rs 900 crore under the Madhya Pradesh Government''s much-touted `Ladli Laxmi Yojana'' after the National Saving Certificates (NSCs) purchased in their name matures, officials said today.Under the scheme meant to improve the social and economic status of the girl child, the Government, at the birth of a baby girl, buys an NSC worth Rs 6,000 in her name.The NSC purchases are made for the next four years.The girl will get Rs 1.18 lakh when she attains the age of 21 years under the scheme. Besides, the girl child enrolled under the scheme is entitled to get money at different stages for education, they said.So far, the Government has purchased NSCs worth Rs 250 crore and this amount will multiply to Rs 900 crore on maturity, the officials said.This scheme was launched by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan four years back. According to political observers, it has helped the ruling BJP to retain power in the Assembly elections of 2008.

HP unveils new series of workstations

MUMBAI: Hewlett Packard (HP), today unveiled a range of workstations targeted at sectors like medical imaging, animation, banking and financial services as well as manufacturing.

"We expect inquiries to come from sectors where data, graphics and number-crunching play an important role. Booming sectors, including that of digital content creation, manufacturing, architecture, engineering and construction are demanding computing systems that guarantees optimum performance and reliability," HP's Country Manager, Anurag Gupta, told reporters here while unveiling its new Z210 CMT and SFF workstations and 8460w, 8560w and 8760w EliteBook Mobile Workstations.

The workstations are also equipped with new technologies to help reduce energy usage and carbon footprint. They also incorporate the HP Carbon Footprint Calculator, which allows users to see how they can reduce their environmental impact and costs of computing.

"These workstations are powered by the latest Intel Xeon processors of the E3 1200 family. This processor's greatest innovation is how it incorporates the central processing unit and graphics engines on the same die," Intel South Asia's Director of Sales and Marketing, R Ravichandran, said.

HP's mobile workstations are certified by independent software vendors to run the most demanding professional applications, helping ensure reliable performance for mobile power users, according to an official release.read more

Motorola smartphone to recognise your fingerprint

LONDON: It's a phone, a laptop, a PC and recognises its owner by his fingerprint. Motorola's ATRIX is being marketed as the world's most powerful smartphone packed full of tech wizardry "any aspiring spy can be proud of".

The ATRIX smartphone can be plugged into a range of docks that convert it into a laptop, personal computer, media centre, or a sat-nav, the Daily Mail reports.

It is the first smartphone to operate with fingerprint recognition to ensure it can only be activated by the genuine owner.

The owner swipes his finger on the touchscreen a number of times when the smartphone is fresh out of the box for it to identify him as the authorised user.

From that point on, every time he touches the power button it will recognise the fingerprint and approve operation.

Motorola spokeswoman Nicola Shenton said: "This really is the ultimate smart phone for gadget fans packed full of tech wizardry and features that any aspiring spy would be proud of."

There is an eye-catching 'lapdock', which looks like a slimline laptop but has no computer processor. Here the phone sits in a cradle while the dock is used like a normal laptop.

A second dock turns the phone into a home computer. It connects the handset to a screen via a cable, while it has a number of USB ports and Bluetooth wireless links to a full-size mouse and keyboard.

The ATRIX software, called 'Webtop', then allows the keyboard, mouse and screen to be used as a full-size computer, including the sort of internet browser normally found on a home PC.

The ATRIX has a dual core processor, which allows for fast operation, two antennae for simultaneous downloading and uploading from the web, plus a large on-board memory.

Other benefits include a four-inch high-definition screen, a five mega-pixel camera and a video camera on the front for video calling.

Jeremy Marks, of Spymaster, the leading professional suppliers of security equipment, said: "This type of technology offers consumers a new level of security surpassing anything we have seen before on a smartphone."

Some websites are offering the handset only, without any Sim card, for 435 pounds.read more

Nokia's Chennai unit crosses 500 million-mark in handset-production

NEW DELHI: Mobile handsets manufacturer Nokia Thursday said its manufacturing plant in Chennai has crossed production of 500 million handsets thus reaching a milestone for the company's manufacturing operations in India and globally.

"We have created a unique record across the world. This is not only a proud moment for us at Nokia, but a major highlight in India's young and rising electronics manufacturing industry," said Prakash Katama, director, Chennai factory operations, Nokia India .

"This achievement only proves that with the right kind of organisation focus, employee contribution and government support, India can deliver world-class manufacturing standards and set new benchmarks," he added.

The handsets manufactured here will go to over 100 countries covering six continents.

"The milestone was achieved in five years of its operations, marking Chennai's ramp-up among the fastest globally," the company said in a statement.

The company also said that the 500-millionth phone, a Nokia C3 will be signed by the company's brand ambassador and bollywood actor Shahrukh Khan and will be made available for auction to consumers through the company's website.

Nokia will match the amount raised through the auction, and the total amount will be donated to charity.

The company also announced that all the employees at its Chennai manufacturing facility will be gifted with a Nokia C3-00 as a gesture of appreciation for contributing towards achieving this milestone.

Nokia was the first global telecom company to set up a plant in India to produce mobile phones by starting the Chennai facility in January 2006. The company has since grown from a 550-member workforce to a strong 8,000-plus workforce.
Capital adequacy ratio (CAR) improved to 15.4 percent YoY from 13.4 percent year ago, with tier-1 capital ratio at 10.9 percent as against 8.5 percent in FY 2010.

Review: Acer Iconia dual-screen laptop



New York: There's an amusing trend among gadget makers: They keep trying to improve their products by adding a second screen. All too often, this is less like adding a second patty to a hamburger and more like adding a second neck hole to a sweater. It does more harm than good.

The most recent example is Acer Inc. with its $1,200 Iconia laptop. Closed, it looks like a regular laptop. Open it up, and you'll find no keyboard, but two 14-inch, touch-sensitive screens facing each other.
If that sounds weird, well, it's no less weird in use. It's a bit of a mystery why this product ever made it from concept to store shelves, though there are some tantalising hints.

On a desktop PC, having multiple screens is almost like having one big screen - more meat in the hamburger. But on the Iconia, the second screen replaces the keyboard and touch pad. You can't use a laptop without those things, so the Iconia has a virtual keyboard and touch pad appear on the lower screen.

But if the lower screen is taken up by a keyboard and touch pad, what is it good for? It's not like we've gained any screen space. Only by making the keyboard disappear can you use the screen to display content.
There are other ways to use that second screen well. There just aren't that many examples of it on the Iconia.
What am I talking about? Imagine that instead of a keyboard that always shows the same keys, there's a surface that changes according to your needs, displaying controls relevant to what you're doing.

For instance, the Iconia includes player software that shows video on the top screen and such controls as volume on the lower one. That's smart. In another example, you can change how the virtual keys are labelled on the keyboard if you switch between languages - quite helpful for the bilingual household.

The Social Jogger application, which comes pre-installed, contains the germ of a good idea: It can show feeds from Facebook and Flickr on the lower screen while you surf on the upper one. But as soon as you want to type a Facebook entry, Social Jogger has to move to the upper screen to give room for the keyboard. Awkward.
It's easy to imagine how better software could take the Iconia a lot further. Leaving aside the difficulty of typing on a flat glass surface, I'd love to be able to customise a keyboard to get rid of the Caps Lock key and rearrange other keys. It would be great to have touch-enabled video editing software designed for the dual-screen setup, with playback on the top screen and controls on the bottom one.
That kind of setup works for the Nintendo DS handheld game machine, the only successful dual-screen device that I can think of. Many more have been sunk by the difficulty of adapting software for two screens.
In 2010, Microsoft Corp. killed a prototype of a dual-screen device that opened like a book. A startup called Entourage brought out an e-reader device based on the same idea that year, and I found it quite disappointing. The first Barnes & Noble Nook e-reader had two screens, one above the other, and was confusing to use. Barnes & Noble went with one screen for the follow-up model.

More recently, Kyocera launched a dual-screen phone, the Echo. In her review, my colleague Rachel Metz found the premise intriguing, but the execution flawed.
The same verdict could be passed on the Iconia. Making good use of two screens is hard and places a lot of demands on the software. It has to give predictable answers to questions like: If you click on something, where does it open? Which screen should I be looking at right now? How can I move content or windows between the screens? The Iconia doesn't have those answers.

Acer says the Iconia is "ideal for anyone who prefers the familiar computing environment of Microsoft's operating system." The company also recommends it for business use.
I'd only recommend it for that very small group of people who are comfortable typing on glass and want to play with something unique.

The Iconia costs about $400 more than an equivalent conventional laptop. That's not a lot, if you consider that most models that are as strange as the Iconia never leave the lab, or at most get to grace a display case at a trade show. Acer showed some real guts in putting this one into mass production. read more

Geelani calls for funeral prayers for Osama

Srinagar: Hardline Hurriyat Conference leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani has asked people to hold funeral prayers on Friday for Osama bin Laden, the founder of al Qaeda who was shot dead in Pakistan on May 2 by a US Navy team.
Geelani has appealed to Imams and people to hold funeral prayers in absentia for bin Laden after Friday prayers tomorrow afternoon, a Hurriyat spokesman said in a statement.
Terming him a 'martyr', Geelani said bin Laden was not just one person but "he represented a thinking which opposed foreign occupational forces".

"His heart bore the pain of the entire Muslim Ummah (community). He gave up his life of comfort to fight for their cause," the statement said.
The separatist leader said he wanted to participate in the funeral prayers but he has been placed under house arrest by the police since early this morning.
Geelani appealed to people to pray for the liberation of Kashmir, Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan from the occupation of forces. read more

Dead man comes alive before post-mortem

Raipur: His wife was inconsolable, his relatives were mourning his sudden death. So, when 32-year-old Vijay Kumar Ratre 'came alive' and tried to jump out of the ambulance while being taken for post-mortem, the atmosphere changed from one of gloom to incredulous joy.

It all started with the Tikrapara police station here getting several calls from local residents that a dead body was floating in a pond in Lalpur area since several hours.

"Two policemen reached the pond and saw Ratre's wife and family members crying, and some locals consoling them for his premature death," said Lal Umed Singh, additional superintendent of police, Raipur
Amid mourning and emotional scenes, the policemen managed to fish out the body of Ratre, a labourer, with the help of locals. They called an ambulance to send his body for post-mortem at Bhimrao Ambedkar Government Medical College and Hospital.

"As soon as Ratre was put in the ambulance, he got up and tried to jump out from the vehicle. A crowd of about 100 people, who had gathered at the spot, burst into celebrations," the police officer said.
"It was a very unusual event that the police witnessed."

Apparently, Ratre was under the influence of alcohol and was not aware of what was happening around him.
A police officer said that the policemen who were handling the case should have "applied brain before calling an ambulance as he was just unconscious".

But for a section of people who watched the developing events, it was a "miracle".
"Ratre had surely died, everyone was convinced, even the policemen. His body was not moving and responding, it was a miracle witnessed by over 100 people. I am seeking his blessings because he is not an ordinary person now," said Dilip, 21, a local.

Japan company keen on funding TN wind energy project

CHENNAI: A Japanese agency has shown interest in funding the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board's (TNEB) Rs 4,000 crore project to improve wind energy evacuation in the state. Although power managers are apprehensive that the project may be delayed due to the current crisis in Japan, they say that it would solve many of the problems in transferring wind power smoothly into the grid.

Today, flowing wind power into the grid is a challenge. Up to 10% of the power is lost due to difficulties in bringing wind power to the grid.

As part of the project, there will be an exclusive transmission corridor for wind power alone. TNEB plans to link the wind corridor along with the main power plants in the locality. Wind energy will be transmitted to these stations and from there to the rest of the state. "The representatives of Japanese International Cooperation Agency has shown interest in funding the projects. Now the process is going through the proper channel," said an official.

According to the proposed plan, service stations will be installed in wind generating stretches including Kayathar, Theni and Aralvaymozhi. "The service stations in Kayathar and Tirunellvelli have been constructed. We will have to start work in Theni, Udumalpet and other areas," said a senior TNEB official.

So far, the government has been concentrating on wind energy generation, but not on evacuation. "The TNEB has written to the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy to set right this issue," said the official.

The state of Tamil Nadu has a wind energy capacity of over 5,000 MW. But the actual generation fluctuates wildly. On some days wind generation touches 2,000 MW and on some it drops to zero. "Due to this we have a permanent tie up with captive power plants for power purchase. Even if we do not buy electricity from them we have to pay," said the official.

Hence on some days when there is sufficient power purchase, TNEB does not use the wind energy, even if it is 1,000 MW. "The wind generators get unhappy when we do not buy the power from them. But they can always sell it to private players through the open access scheme," said the official.  read more

Robots may soon get their own Internet

LONDON: It seems robots are poised to have an equivalent of the Internet and Wikipedia, thanks to the efforts of some European scientists.

They are currently developing a project called RoboEarth, which will let robots exchange and store information what they discover about the world, reports the BBC.

RoboEarth will be a place that robots can upload data to when they master a task, and ask for help in carrying out new ones.

The researchers hope it would allow robots to come into service more quickly, armed with a growing library of knowledge about their human masters.

The idea behind RoboEarth is to develop methods that help robots encode, exchange and re-use knowledge, said Markus Waibel from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich.

"Most current robots see the world their own way and there's very little standardisation going on," he said.

Most researchers using robots typically develop their own way for that machine to build up a corpus of data about the world.

This made it very difficult for roboticists to share knowledge or for the field to advance rapidly because everyone started off solving the same problems, according to Waibel.

By contrast, RoboEarth hopes to start showing how the information that robots discover about the world can be defined so any other robot can find it and use it.

RoboEarth will be a communication system and a database, he said.

In the database will be maps of places that robots work, descriptions of objects they encounter and instructions for how to complete distinct actions.

Waibel has likened the project to Wikipedia.

"Wikipedia is something that humans use to share knowledge, that everyone can edit, contribute knowledge to and access. Something like that does not exist for robots," he said.

It would be great, he said, if a robot could enter a location that it had never visited before, consult RoboEarth to learn about that place and the objects and tasks in it and then quickly get to work.

RoboEarth is likely to become a tool for the growing number of service and domestic robots that many expect to become a feature in homes in coming decades.

The EU-funded project has about 35 researchers working on it and hopes to demonstrate how the system might work by the end of its four-year duration.

LG hikes monitor prices | Monitor Price Rise | Increase in Monitor Prices

NEW DELHI: LG Electronics India has announced price hike on its monitors owing to the constant escalation of input costs.

According to LG, with increase in price of LCD and LED panels in the international market, the company intends to hike its monitor prices in the India market. The impact of the price hike would be seen in all LG monitors staring from 15.6 to 23 inches (LCD, LED, and monitor TV) by at least 3 per cent to 5 per cent depending upon the model.

Commenting on the same, Dr Y V Verma, COO, LGEIL said, "We have always believed in providing our customers with products at best prices. Now, due to continuous increase in panel prices internationally, it has become imperative for us to consider the price hike in India. Though we have been absorbing the panel cost which contributes approximately 70 per cent of a finish set cost for the past three months but it will become difficult to avoid this change in the market prices."

The new prices will be applicable from 1st May 2011 onwards.

Considering the current scenario, the panel price increase trend will continue till September 2011 and would impact the overall set prices. read more

Pakistan must end activities of terrorist groups: Manmohan after Osama bin Laden's death

NEW DELHI: India on Monday termed Osama bin Laden's killing as a "decisive blow" to al-Qaida even as it voiced serious concern over terrorists finding sanctuary deep inside Pakistan and pressed Islamabad to arrest perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attacks.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and senior ministers P Chidambaram and S M Krishna came out with separate statements hours after US President Barack Obama announced that 54-year-old Osama, the most wanted terrorist in the world, was shot dead in a US operation in Abbotabad, 120 km from the Pakistan capital early today.

They asked the international community not to let down its united effort to combat terrorism and eliminate the safe havens and sanctuaries provided in the neighbourhood.

The Prime Minister described Osama's killing as a "significant step forward " and hope that it will deal a decisive blow to al-Qaida and other terrorist groups.

He said the "international community and Pakistan in particular must work comprehensively to end the activities of all such groups who threaten civilised behaviour and kill innocent men, women and children".

The killing of the global terrorist "deep inside Pakistan" underlines India's apprehension that terrorists belonging to different organisations find sanctuary in that country, said Chidambaram.

"We take note with grave concern that part of the statement in which President Obama said that the fire fight in which Osama Bin Laden was killed took place in Abbotabad 'deep inside Pakistan'.

"This fact underlines our concern that terrorists belonging to different organisations find sanctuary in Pakistan," he said.

The minister said the perpetrators of Mumbai terror attack, including the controllers and handlers of the terrorists, continue to be sheltered in Pakistan.

"We once again call upon the Government of Pakistan to arrest the persons whose names have been handed over to the interior minister of Pakistan as well as provide voice samples of certain persons who are suspected to be among the controllers and handlers of the terrorists," he said.

He said that the US had reason to go after Osama and bring him to justice.

"After the September 11, 2001, terror attack, the US had a reason to seek Osama bin Laden and bring him and his accomplices to justice," the statement said.

Terming Osama's killing as a "victorious milestone" in the global war against terrorism, Krishna said the world "must not let down" its united effort to eliminate the safe havens that have been provided to terrorists in its neighbourhood.

"This operation brings to closure an almost decade-long search for the head of the al-Qaida," he said.

Asserting that the struggle must continue "unabated", Krishna said, "The world must not let down its united effort to overcome terrorism and eliminate the safe havens and sanctuaries that have been provided to terrorists in our own neighbourhood. read more

Osama bin Laden Dead | Bin Laden Dead | Obama pictures


WASHINGTON: In the dark of the night, someone held up an iPad which read the final score in translucent capital letters: OBAMA 1 OSAMA 0. It was past midnight on a cool spring night, and the crowd first trickled in, then surged, to the gates of the White House the moment news of Osama bin Laden's death broke. ''USA, USA'' they chanted waving the star-spangled banner; then "Hey, Hey Goodbye" to the man who came to epitomize evil for Americans. Osama bin Laden was dead; long live Barack Obama.

A similar crowd had gathered near Ground Zero in New York, where bin Laden's diabolical plan had seen terrorists plunge two airplanes into the twin World Trade Center towers, killing nearly 3000 people, and bringing America to its knees. But the United States had stood up, and now had its foot on the head of the key perpetrator after a daring commando operation half the world away. Retribution had been obtained. Or as their President said on television a few moments ago, "Justice had been done."

This was America's World Cup moment, a time for sheer joy and relief, matching the famed end of the World War. A cowardly, despicable, hated enemy had been hunted down and killed in the true western way.

Inside, the man who presided over the Washington's stunning intelligence coup and special action comeback had just retired for the night. But he couldn't have helped hear the chants of support outside. Stricken with political and economic crisis just days before, with critics doubting his very birth in the US, he had suddenly won a new lease of life. Not just his fortune, but the kismet of the United States could turn. It was America's 'gotcha' moment.

In his ten minute national TV address, just three hours after a team of US Navy Seals nailed bin Laden in a hail of gunfire, Barack Obama did not hesitate a moment from taking direct, personal credit. ''Today, at my direction, the United States launched a targeted operation against that compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan...'' he intoned, after saying how ''I directed Leon Panetta, the director of the CIA, to make the killing or capture of bin Laden the top priority'' soon after taking office. There was no mistaking who he thought had gotten the job done even if the bullets were fired by Navy Seals.

But the bragging right was tempered with grace. Soon after nailing America's public enemy # 1, he had phoned his predecessors Bush and Clinton, to inform them of the deed done. In the moment of triumph, he reaffirmed that the ''The United States is not –- and never will be -– at war with Islam.''

''Our war is not against Islam. Bin Laden was not a Muslim leader; he was a mass murderer of Muslims. Indeed, al Qaeda has slaughtered scores of Muslims in many countries, including our own. So his demise should be welcomed by all who believe in peace and human dignity,'' Obama said.

Critics and supporters were one in hailing the moment as a ''political game-changer,'' both for Obama and for America. The Presidential elections are still some 18 months away, but there is already chatter of an Obama shoo-in for a second term. There is also talk of drawing down U.S troops from Afghanistan, which many Americans are demanding, and accelerating the political process. At home, the achievement strengthens Obama's hand in making difficult choices to set right the economy.

At a broader international level, America's pride and honor, seen to have diminished in the decade after 9/11, is on track to being restored. ''This is America; We get the job done,'' grated Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who was the New York Senator during 9/11, warning terrorists that ''you cannot hide from us, you cannot wait us out.''

Both Obama and Clinton were less charitable about Pakistan, although they acknowledged intelligence cooperation from the country now widely seen as a terrorist cesspool and sponsor. There was no thanks; just the barest acknowledgment of cooperation from its dodgy civilian government. Clinton very pointedly said the U.S was with the people and government of Pakistan, and the exclusion of the Pakistani military and intelligence establishment was loud and clear. read more
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