At least 11 AI flights cancelled as pilots stay away from work

At least 11 flights of Air India were on Saturday cancelled as a section of its pilots did not report to work to protest reduction in their productivity-linked incentives.

Besides a Kabul-bound international flight from the capital, seven domestic flights to Mumbai, Lucknow, Aurangabad, Pune, Chennai, Srinagar and Indore-Bhopal were cancelled.

In Chennai, two international flights to Colombo and Sharjah and one domestic flight to Madurai were cancelled due to the agitation by executive pilots.

In Kolkata, a flight to Aizawl was cancelled as the pilot reported sick.

However, Air India spokesperson Jitendra Bhargava claimed that flight operations were largely unaffected by the agitation. "Only 11 flights have been cancelled whereas all other flights have taken off since morning," he said.

It was not clear as to how many pilots had not reported for duty as there were claims and counter-claims.

While Bhargava said that only 11 pilots had not reported for duty, representative of executive pilots Captain R.K. Bhalla said that the number of absentee pilots was much higher.

Bhargava said the agitating pilots were expected to meet the Air India management tomorrow in Mumbai to discuss their demands.

Don't withdraw economic stimulus: PM at G20

Pittsburgh: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh concluded his engagements at the G20 Summit in US with a clear victory for India and other emerging economies in getting a greater say in the affairs of the global financial system and its regulation.

The Prime Minister also managed to convince the developed world that the time was not ripe to withdraw the stimulus packages aimed at helping countries - especially the developing and poor economies - overcome the worst economic crisis in eight decades.

"With the rise of Asia, with growth of India, China and Brazil, the economic decision-making has to take into account the views of these countries if it is to have an optimum impact," Manmohan Singh said at a post-summit news conference on Friday night.

"We have agreed that the G20 will henceforth be the premier forum for international economic issues. This is an important development broadening the global governance structure," he said.

"Interdependence in a globalised world means that no country, however powerful it may be, can take on the entire burden of economic adjustment and economic decision-making," he added.

Man held for threatening PM, Sonia Gandhi

Ranchi: A man has been arrested from a Jharkhand village for allegedly issuing threat letters to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Home Minister P Chidambaram, police said on Saturday.

Dhananjay Kumar Mehta was arrested in Narayanpur village of Latehar district, 145 km from state capital Ranchi, on Friday. A pistol, some live cartridges and other documents were found in his possession, the police claimed.

"Mehta issued threat letters to PM, Sonia Gandhi and Chidamabaram in July this year. He was also issuing press releases in name of Abhayji, who is zonal commander of CPI-Maoist (Communist Party of India-Maoist). He got a letter pad of CPI-Maoist printed," a senior police officer told IANS.

"Mehta had called a five-day strike in Palamau region of the state by issuing a press release," the officer added.

The threat letter issued to Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi said, "Both PM and Sonia Gandhi will meet their fate like former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi."

"We are interrogating Mehta to ascertain why he issued such letters and press releases," another police officer said.

Pay Rs 1,000 for spitting in swine flu-hit Pune

Pune: Spitting in public places in Pune can now cost you Rs 1,000 with Pune Municipal Corporation announcing the increased fine in view of swine flu pandemic in the city.

The corporation announced the hike from present Rs 25 to Rs 1,000 with effect from Saturday.

An order issued by PMC commissioner Mahesh Zagde said the measure was taken because the H1N1 virus can "remain alive in sputum for eight to nine hours".

The nuisance detection squads of civic administration would take action against the offender.

The Commissioner issued the order using special powers vested in him under Bombay Provincial Municipal Corporation Act to deal with epidemics.

The virus has so far claimed 61 lives in the city since August 3 with unceasing number of fresh positive cases being reported daily.

Kalavati unwell, may not contest polls

Kalavati may not contest the assembly election in Maharashtra. She is reportedly unwell and is admitted in a hospital.

Babytai Bais, a farmer widow with four children, is expected to be the replacement for Kalavati.

However, Kishore Tiwari, a member of the Vidarbha Janandolan Samiti, on whose ticket Kalavati was slated to contest the polls, has claimed that Kalavati has been under pressure from Sulabh International, an NGO that had helped her.

At the time of declaring that she would contest the polls, Kalavati had said that she agreed to do so to help the farmers who were killing themselves because of wrong government policies.

Kalvati became a household name after Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi narrated her story during the nuclear debate in Parliament. Overnight

, the 48-year-old poor widow from Vidharbha became a centre of media attention. Everyone wanted to know more about her.

2010 Games security: Privately, India's worried

Security commanders and envoys from various Commonwealth nations spent Thursday touring Delhi. The sightseeing

couldn't have been more serious: determining whether venues and stadia will be safe for the 2010 Games.

The 70 delegates visited the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, where the opening and closing ceremonies will be held. They also went to the Commonwealth Games village on the banks of the river Yamuna. 8000 athletes and officials will stay here during the event.

Several nations including the UK and Australia have expressed concerns over security. Earlier this year, the British badminton contingent pulled out from the World Championship at Hyderabad after reports of a possible attack.

The field trip was successful according to the Indian officials in charge. "Some nations had expressed concerns but they were given presentations and they are quite convinced," says G K Pillai, Home Secretary.

But privately, Indian security agencies have plenty to worry about. After a series of racist attacks against Indians in Australia, there are fears of reprisal attacks against the Australian delegation. Security agencies also admit that the venues should have been ready by now, so that drills and checks could begin.

More than 30 heads of state are expected in Delhi for the Games. Part of the challenge will be to fortify not just the capital but other cities as well.

AIDS vaccine successful, says Thailand

Researchers in Thailand announced on Thursday that for the first time, an experimental vaccine has prevented infection with the AIDS virus. Recent failures led many scientists to think such a vaccine

might never be possible.

The vaccine - sponsored in part by the US Army and conducted by the Thailand Ministry of Public Health - cut the risk of becoming infected with HIV by more than 31 percent, in the world's largest AIDS vaccine trial of more than 16-thousand volunteers in Thailand.

"This is a scientific breakthrough," said Dr. Supachai Rerks-Ngarm, director of the project. The trial used strains of HIV common in Thailand. Whether such a vaccine would work against other strains in the US, Africa or elsewhere in the world is unknown, scientists stressed.

Every day, 7,500 people worldwide are newly infected with HIV; 2 million died of AIDS in 2007, the United Nations agency UNAIDS estimates. Even a marginally helpful vaccine could have a big impact.

Supreme Court Justice Ginsburg hospitalized

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was hospitalized Thursday after falling ill in her chambers, the court confirmed.

Ginsburg, 76, felt faint, light-headed and fatigued about 4:50 p.m., around an hour after receiving a treatment for iron deficiency, the court said in a statement.

She was monitored by an in-house physician, who performed blood tests and found her to be in stable health.

Her symptoms improved, though she was taken to the Washington Hospital Center as a precaution at about 7:45 p.m., according to the court statement.

Ginsburg had surgery in February for pancreatic cancer. She termed the removal of her cancer "successful" and was back on the bench 18 days later when the high court resumed oral argumentsGinsburg, who was appointed by President Clinton, has been on the Supreme Court since 1993. She was the second woman appointed to the court..

UN council endorses nuclear curbs

The UN Security Council has unanimously adopted a resolution calling for nuclear disarmament, in a session chaired by US President Barack Obama.

The resolution calls for further efforts to stop the spread of nuclear arms, to boost disarmament, and to lower the risk of "nuclear terrorism".

It was the first time US president had chaired a Security Council meeting.

The resolution comes amid growing concerns among western powers over Iran's nuclear ambitions.

It also comes a day after Mr Obama's debut UN speech, in which he warned of a nuclear arms race.

The resolution adopted on Thursday reaffirms the council's commitment "to seek a safer world for all and to create the conditions for a world without nuclear weapons".

It does not specifically mention countries by name, such as North Korea and Iran, but reaffirms previous Security Council resolutions relating to their nuclear plans.

Iran's nuclear programme has been criticised by the US and five nations who are set to hold talks next week.

Iran says its nuclear ambitions are for peaceful energy purposes, but others fear it is developing weapons.

Also on Thursday, a UN conference on a 1996 treaty banning nuclear bomb tests will begin with a speech by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Her appearance is the first US participation at the biannual conference since 1999 when the US Senate refused to ratify the treaty.

On Wednesday, the first day of the United Nations General Assembly, Iran's plans came under fire.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Iranian leaders were "making a tragic mistake" if they thought the international community would not respond.

UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown warned Iran - and North Korea - that the world would be even tougher on proliferation.

In his speech on Wednesday, President Obama said: "For decades, we averted disaster, even under the shadow of a super-power stand-off. But today, the threat of proliferation is growing in scope and complexity.

"If we fail to act, we will invite nuclear arms races in every region, and the prospect of wars and acts of terror on a scale that we can hardly imagine."

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signalled that Moscow might be prepared to soften its opposition to sanctions against Iran over its nuclear plans.

But the Chinese foreign ministry has said that increasing pressure on Iran would not be effective.

In his speech, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke of countries which undermined the development of other nations under the pretext of preventing arms proliferation.

Mr Obama said he and Mr Medvedev shared the goal of allowing Iran to pursue peaceful nuclear energy, but not nuclear weapons.

China Open to G20 Talks on New Economic Balance

A U.S. drive to build a more balanced global economy gained the qualified support of China on Wednesday in a sign that Group of 20 leaders may be ready to take joint action to prevent future economic crises.U.S. President Barack Obama and other leaders of the G20 major developed and developing countries are due to meet in Pittsburgh on Thursday and Friday, with restoring economic growth and rewriting the rules of finance high on the agenda.

Central to the summit -- the third since the collapse of the Lehman Brothers investment bank a year ago -- will be a U.S. plan to correct the imbalances in the world economy by shrinking surpluses in big exporting countries like China and boosting savings in debt-laden nations that include the United States.

Obama wants a framework of "mutual assessment" whereby the International Monetary Fund makes policy recommendations on rebalancing to the G20 every six months. Analysts believe Obama's plan will meet resistance from Beijing should it pose any risk to China's export-driven economic growth. So far, China is sounding engaged.

After sugar, Pawar warns of rice shortage

Amid shooting prices of sugar, fruits and vegetables during the festive season, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar on Thursday warned of a severe shortage of rice in the days ahead.

Pawar said the shortage of rice would be caused by a dip in production and it could further impact the rising prices.

Already, prices of fruits and vegetables have shot up during the Navratras.

Chandrayaan discovers water on moon:

It could be one of the biggest finds in the history of space research - water on the moon. And proof of this may have come from India's own Chandrayaan satellite before it was aborted. The water appears as a very thin invisible film on moon rocks.

A view from space

The Indian Satellite Research Organisation’s latest toy, the Bhuvan Mapping Service, promises to be better than Google Earth. In reality, however, it’s not even half as good. The first thing anyone does when they use a satellite image is to try and find their house and important landmarks by zooming in. We compared Bhuvan, not with the superior Google Earth but with Google Maps’ satellite view, and tried to locate Business Today’s Delhi office, the Videocon Tower.Bhuvan’s resolution was so poor, that we could barely make out the buildings. We finally identified Videocon Tower through approximation, helped by the light-blue roof of the Jhandelwalan Metro station down the road. On Google Maps, which unlike Bhuvan works on every major browser and isn’t tied to Internet Explorer, we could not only find the building easily, but could also make out individual cars on the road.The biggest drawback with Bhuvan, however, is that it doesn’t work when you want it to work! It didn’t work when we needed to get screenshots for this story (it did so eventually after many hours). Google Maps worked, MSN Live Maps worked, Yahoo Maps worked and so did Nokia Maps on the N97. That said, we are sure ISRO will continue to release more and better information and will work on improving the service. They should start with getting new servers and more bandwidth, because if this is a rough diamond, it needs a lot of work to get to a finished product.

Osama bin Laden warns Americans in tape - website

Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden issued an apparently new audio tape on an Islamist website on Monday, warning the American people over their government's close ties to Israel.
The message, entitled "A statement to the American people", was approximately 10 minutes long and appeared on a website often used by supporters of al Qaeda.
The same website said earlier this month it would soon carry a "present" to Muslims from bin Laden, who is thought to be hiding in the mountainous terrain along the Afghan-Pakistani border, on the occasion of the holy month of Ramadan.
The message comes a few days after the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks carried out by al Qaeda operatives in 2001 in which nearly 3,000 people died in the United States.In his last previous known message in June, bin Laden said U.S. President Barack Obama had planted the seeds of "revenge and hatred" towards the United States in the Muslim world.
Those remarks were issued just before a major speech by Obama who said he sought a "new beginning" between the United States and the Muslim community.

Yamuna starts receding in Delhi

NEW DELHI: The water level in the Yamuna river Monday started receding along its length in the national capital, though it continued to flow abovethe danger mark, an official said."By 9 am on Monday, the water level was 205.22 metres. It is six centimetres lower than the water level recorded at 8:30 am," an official of Delhi's flood control department said. "The water is expected to recede further," the official added. After breaching its danger mark on Sunday, the Yamuna submerged hundreds of shanties and areas in what is generally termed as the "vegetable belt" of the capital. Low-lying areas like Usmanpur, Sonia Vihar, parts of Okhla, Sultanpuri, and Garhi were submerged. Nearly 1,200 people were moved to safer places.At least 17 rescue boats have been put on the job of shifting people to relief camps. A flood warning was sounded in the capital Friday after continuous rainfall pushed up the water level in the Yamuna. Haryana also released over 400,000 cusecs of water into the river upstream. Last year, the water level reached 206 metres, leading to the evacuation of people from slum clusters along the river banks. The Delhi government has said it is fully prepared to tackle any situation. There are several slum clusters along the Yamuna banks and thousands of people live in these low-lying areas.

Boom time for cost accountants

While the world of finance crumbled with recession, some professions within the sector witnessed a boom. The cost and works accountants (CWA)
profession is one of them, claims GN Venkataraman, the newly appointed president of Institute of Cost and Works Accountants of India (ICWAI). According to him, a cost accountant goes beyond books to analyse the actual cost involved in running a firm, manufacturing a product, and so on. "After the recession , there has been a marked increase in the salary of our final year students as compared to previous years," he says. Over the years, CWA as a profession has been lagging behind as compared to chartered accountancy. Venkataraman feels that the reason for this is lack of regulatory support for the profession. "Since the time the institute was established under the act of parliament, there are only 44 products listed to be cost audited. In order to look into the matter and provide regulatory support, the ministry of corporate affairs (MCA) appointed an expert group last year. And that expert group has made 39 recommendations," he says. As the new president, he says, it would be his priority to push for these recommendations. "Under these recommendations, ICWAI has also been asked to develop 20 standards for the profession. To date, we have developed six standards," he informs. The report has also recommended that regulators should move from a compliance oriented framework to a performance management framework with enterprise governance in mind. This shift becomes important in the context of the Satyam fraud, where the government hired a team of CWAs to investigate the fraud.
Talking about a future vision, Venkataraman says that he wants to increase the visibility of CWA as a profession, both nationally and internationally. "Nationally, I want CWAs to be at a level playing field with that of CAs. For this we have asked the government to recognize cost accountants under the definition of 'accountants' under Section 288 of the Income Tax Act. I feel we are equally qualified." To get international visibility, the institute is pressing to get the name changed to the Institute of Cost and Management Accountant. "Globally, CWA professionals are known as cost and management accountants. In fact, the institute was also established by the members of Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA), UK," he says. Besides, he adds that the institute's efforts to develop standards for CWAs have been recognized by the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC), which is a global organization for the accountancy profession. We are trying to convince IFAC to adopt these standards. And in case this happens, members of IFAC would be adopting them, making India the first country to give accountancy standards to the world," he says. When it comes to education, Venkataraman says that the institute has been updating its syllabus in keeping with industrial needs. It is for this reason that the institute is planning to introduce a course for specialization in valuation management.

Google developing software to aid newspapers

Search engine giant Google is developing a technology that will help newspapers in charging money from online readers.In a proposal to the Newspaper Association of America, Google said it is working on a software that would help newspapers to charge money from 'micro-payment', a payment vehicle which would be available both to Google and non-Google properties within the next year.While we believe that advertising will likely remain the same source of revenue for most news content, a paid model can serve as an importance source of additional revenue. In addition, a successful paid content model can enhance advertising opportunities, rather than replace them," the company said.
It said in a statement that it will mitigate the risk of non-payment by assigning credit limits based on past purchasing behaviour and having credit card instruments on file for those with higher credit limits and using proprietary risk engines to track abuse or fraud.
Google would also allow readers to utilise single sign-on capability to access content and manage subscriptions, while publishers would be able to combine subscriptions from different titles together for one price.
At present, there are only two newspapers — Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal that charge readers for content, although both offer some free news content to readers.
The search engine site said that paid content model has two main challenges. First, the content must offer value to users. Only content creators can address this. The second is to create a simple payment model that is painless for users.
However, Newspaper Association of America has asked the companies to provide information on how to generate income from online contents.

Swine flu surge: Karnataka blames pollution, IT employees

Bangalore: With the H1N1 virus claiming 53 lives in Karnataka, the state authorities are blaming frequently travelling IT professionals and pollution in cities like Bangalore for the surge in swine flu cases.
"We are trying our best to control it. But look at the pollution level in cities like Bangalore - it is compounding the problem of swine flu," Karnataka principal secretary (Health) I R Perumal told IANS.
"Pollution and less precaution on the part of IT people have worsened the situation. IT people travel a lot and during the initial days they hardly took any precaution," said Perumal.
In terms of swine flu fatalities, Karnataka is second only to Maharashtra, which has seen 72 deaths from the disease so far.
The health secretary said even companies like Infosys had failed to do their duty in helping people take precaution against the disease, which has affected nearly 700 people in the state.
"They have become conscious, but initially none of these IT guys, even Infosys, took the required precaution. I have information that now they have started conducting regular health checkups of employees," he added.
He said pollution in Bangalore is making respiratory diseases intensify and there are hundreds of cases of pneumonia in the state. Health experts have said people with respiratory problems and pneumonia are at high risk at a time when the H1N1 infection is spreading fast.
"Pneumonia is affecting the swine flu situation. We have experienced some 200-300 pneumonia cases in the last couple of months in Bangalore alone. What can I do? The pollution is so heavy here," the secretary said.
Last year too the IT capital had reported over 300 cases of pneumonia in this season, he said.
Statistics show that the ambient air quality in the Karnataka capital is deteriorating rapidly. The amount of nitrogen oxide, sulphur oxide and suspended particulate matter is much higher in the air and is leading to respiratory problems among people.
With over 2.5 million vehicles plying on the narrow roads of Bangalore, the air quality is definitely worsening gradually. "Look at the number of vehicles," Perumal said.
The health secretary said he had asked all hospitals and IT firms to report to swine flu screening centres if any of their employees was suffering from pneumonia or swine flu symptoms.
"Now, we have roped in 90 private hospitals across the state for the job. As you know, the government has made swine flu treatment free even in private hospitals. We pay Rs 2,000 to these hospitals for treating each swine flu patient and Rs 3,000 extra for conducting the test," Perumal added.
He also said the state government is distributing ayurvedic medicines to help people improve their immune system. "We are trying our best. The chief minister is taking extra care and has asked us to work hard to curb the virus."
Since the first instance was reported in Hyderabad in early May, India has reported nearly 6,000 cases of swine flu. Of these, at least 160 have died.

Now, robot controlled by human brain cells

British scientists are on track to develop a new robot which they claim will be controlled by a blob of human brain cells. According to the 'New Scientist', a team at Reading University, which has already used rat brain cells to steer a simple-wheeled robot, is now trying the same thing with human brain cells.

Yamuna flowing close to danger level

With flood water in Yamuna entering various low-lying areas due to continuous rains, Delhi government has begun evacuating people residing in these localities..

Indian forces fire on Pakistan border - Pakistan

Indian forces fired across the Pakistani border on Friday night after mistakenly believing Pakistani troops had fired rockets into India, a Pakistani security force spokesman said.

Monkey malaria: Is it the next virus?

The study, financed by UK charity the Wellcome Trust, examined the clinical and laboratory features of the P. knowlesi strain of malaria, which until recently was thought to predominantly infect monkeys in Southeast Asia. "Understanding the most common features of the disease will be important in helping make this diagnosis and in planning appropriate clinical management."
The researchers collected data for the study from a group of 150 patients admitted to the Kapit hospital in Sarawak who tested positive for malaria. Using molecular detection methods, the team found P. knowlesi was the most common form of malaria, accounting for more than two-thirds of the cases. Most of those infected with the strain were easily treated with chloroquine and primaquine, two common anti-malarials, but one in ten of the patients developed complications, and two died, the study said.

Maoists blow up rail track in Orissa

The Maoists blew up a railway track and at least four government buildings in Orissa's Sundargarh district. The Maoists blew up a railway track and at least four government buildings in Orissa's Sundargarh district.