Sunday, November 30, 2008
1:14 PM
Saturday, November 29, 2008
ISI chief not to visit India, FC approves decision
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani chaired a special cabinet meeting today. The meeting, held at the Prime Minister’s Secretariat, was called to discuss the situation prevailing due to the recent incidents of terrorism in Mumbai.The federal cabinet approved the decision that the Director General of the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) will not visit India. Majority of federal ministers participated in the meeting; however, some ministers could not attend the meeting due to being abroad.
Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi, who returned home from India, briefed the cabinet on his Indian visit.
Five U.S. citizens killed in Mumbai attacks: State Dept
WASHINGTON: The State Department said on Friday that five US citizens had been killed in the attacks on Mumbai, India, and that more Americans remained missing."The Department is now able to confirm the deaths of five American citizens.
Consular staff have been in contact with all of the victims' families," Gordon Duguid, acting deputy spokesman, said in a statement.
"The Consulate in Mumbai will continue to work with the Indian Police until all missing American citizens have been accounted for," he added.
Taj Hotel secured as siege over
MUMBAI: Security forces freed the landmark Taj hotel here after an intense night-long firing amid a series of explosions, with three terrorists Smoke and flames billow out of the Taj Mahal hotel moments after the hotel was freed from terrorists.Officials say the death toll in the terrorist attacks on Mumbai has risen to 195 as more bodies have been discovered after commandos ended the siege on a luxury hotel.
Shantaram Jadhav, an official at Mumbai's disaster control office, says 195 people have been killed and 295 wounded.
Jadhav says ``the death toll is likely to rise because there arestill bodies in our vans that are being brought into hospitals.''
The operation to flush out terrorists from Taj Hotel is over, signalling an end to the 62-hour siege by terrorists three of whom were killed this morning in an assault by the elite commandos of National Security Guards (NSG).
However, the NSG is still sanitising the hotel to check if any remaining terrorist or explosive is still in the 400-room hotel, NSG Director General J K Dutt told reporters.
An AK-47 rifle was also recovered from them. "There was lot of shooting. Grenades were lobbed and explosives were used by the terrorists," he said.
On whether all the terrorists have been killed and hotel is now free, he said that it could be ascertained after the combing operation is over.
During the night, terrorists holed out in the hotel engaged in a fierce gun battle with security forces as some places in the first and the ground floors of the 565-room building set afire by terrorists amid explosions in the over 100-year-old heritage complex in the Colaba area.
3 terrorists killed at Taj, operations officially on
NEW DELHI: The 59-hour siege of old Taj hotel ends with the NSG killing three terrorist who were holed up inside. NSG said they would not declare the operation over before sanitising each and every floor."Three terrorists have been killed but we are still continuing our operations," Director General of NSG, J K Dutt, told reporters outside the hotel.
On whether all the terrorists have been killed and hotel is now free, he said that it could be ascertained after the combing operation is over.
During the night, terrorists holed out in the hotel engaged in a fierce gun battle with security forces as some places in the first and the ground floors of the 565-room building set afire by terrorists amid explosions in the over 100-year-old heritage complex in the Colaba area.
Friday, November 28, 2008
Two US citizens killed in Mumbai attacks
WASHINGTON: Two US citizens, Alan and Naomi Scherr of Virginia, were killed in the attacks on sites around Mumbai, their spiritual center announced Friday.
17 foreigners killed in Mumbai attacks
NEW DELHI: At least 17 foreigners died in the militant attacks in Mumbai, according to announcements by officials in India and in the victims' home countries."Three of those killed were Germans, one Japanese national, one Canadian and one Australian," India's Internal Security Secretary M. L. Kumawat said on Friday.
Kumawat said the information was based on reports from commandos who fought gunmen in two Mumbai hotels and a Jewish cultural centre.
The bodies of five Israeli hostages were also recovered later Friday from the Jewish centre after it was stormed by Indian troops, an Israeli diplomat said.
The US State Department in Washington said two US citizens, a father and daughter, were also among those killed in the attacks.
It identified them as Alan and Naomi Scherr and said they were members of the Synchronicity Foundation, a meditation community in Virginia.
In Paris, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said in a statement that two French nationals had died.
The Singapore foreign ministry said Lo Hoei Yen, 28, was killed after she was taken hostage in the Oberoi/Trident hotel.
The previous day a British-Cypriot businessman was named by the British government as among the dead.
Andreas Liveras, 73, was killed hours after he gave an interview describing how he was trapped in the Taj Mahal hotel.
The overall death toll stood at least 130 on Friday evening, but was expected to rise as little information was available about the various scenes of carnage.
More foreign deaths were likely to come to light as the security operation progressed.
Among the injured were victims from China, Oman, the Philippines and several European countries, officials said.
Pakistan to send ISI chief to India
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani on Friday extended Pakistan’s support to India in jointly combating extremism and terrorism and offered to send its intelligence chief to help with Mumbai investigation. Prime Minister Gilani telephoned his Indian counterpart Dr. Manmohan Singh and strongly condemned the acts of terrorism in Mumbai.The Prime Minister expressed sympathy on behalf of the people and government of Pakistan with Indian Prime Minister, Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, people of India and the families of those who lost their near and dear ones in “the unfortunate incidents of barbarism.”
Gilani termed the incident “inhuman and condemnable from all aspects.”
He said Pakistan too was a victim of terrorism and appreciated the fact that Indian Prime Minister was the first one to telephone him after the Marriott hotel blast.
“Dr. Singh told the Prime Minister that preliminary reports point towards Karachi and stressed the need for increased intelligence sharing and cooperation in order to evolve a joint strategy against terrorism and extremism,” PM’s spokesman Zahid Bashir told a foreign news agency.
Dr. Singh requested the Prime Minster Gilani to send Director General of the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) to India for exchange of information in this regard.
The Prime Minister accepted the request and said that after working out modalities by both the governments, the ISI chief will visit India at the earliest, Bashir said.
The Prime Minister also extended his government’s full support for jointly combating extremism and terrorism and also offered help in investigating the incident.
Mumbai militants showed no remorse: commando
MUMBAI: An Indian marine commando who battled militants room to room in a Mumbai hotel said on Friday the guerrillas showed no remorse and fired at anyone who moved.
"They were the kind of people with no remorse -- anybody and whomsoever came in front of them they fired," the black-clad masked commando, who belonged to India's crack Marine Commando Force known as MARCOS, told reporters.
"We could have got those terrorists but for so many hotel guests," he said in Mumbai.
"The bodies were lying strewn here and there. There was blood all over and in trying to avoid the casualty of those civilians, we had to be that much more careful," he said.
"They were the kind of people with no remorse -- anybody and whomsoever came in front of them they fired," the black-clad masked commando, who belonged to India's crack Marine Commando Force known as MARCOS, told reporters.
"We could have got those terrorists but for so many hotel guests," he said in Mumbai.
"The bodies were lying strewn here and there. There was blood all over and in trying to avoid the casualty of those civilians, we had to be that much more careful," he said.
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Capital Talk - 26 November 2008
Imran Khan (PTI) and Syed Khurshid Ahmed Shah (PPP) in this episode of Capital Talk.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Off the Record - 25 November 2008
Ahsan Iqbal (PMLN), Imran Khan (PTI) and Qamar Zaman (PPP) in this episode of Off The Record.
Monday, November 24, 2008
Today's hot news: Toilets
Many of today's Beijing newpapers are covering public toilets: the Beijing government has announced a new policy specifying that toilets in hotels, restaurants and other such facilities should be open to the public, to ensure that you can find a toilet within 8 minutes walk of any place in the city.The lead headlines on the front pages of The Beijing News and Beijing Daily Messenger both announce this new policy.
Other news of the day:
The Beijing government continues banning various websites. Ten porn sites and eight websites offering fake academic degrees were banned yesterday. Meanwhile, on the kosher side of Internet town, three big portal websites, Sina.com, Sohu.com and Tom.com sohu.com expressed their desire to destory porn sites, according to a Beijing Morning Post report. So stuff like this on Tom.com doesn't count as porn. The old farts certainly are getting a little more broad-minded.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Live with Talat - 21 November 2008
Retired Lieutenant Generals Asad Durani, Hamid Nawaz, Moin-ud-Din Haider and Salahuddin Tirimzi in this episode of Live with Talat.
Kaltak - 21 November 2008
Dr Pervaiz Hoodbhoy (Analyst), Irfan Siddiqui (Journalist) and Zaid Hamid (Defence Analyst) in this episode of Kaltak.
Friday, November 21, 2008
Violent: Lindsay and Samantha "punch" and "spit" over ex
The Sun report that Sam lunged at Lindsay "throwing punches" when she saw her dancing with spunky ex Calum Best.
Sam was restrained, but then Lindsay had to be held back as she ran at Sam, "sreaming and spitting".
“Lindsay was having a boogie on the dance floor with Calum," a source told The Sun.
“They were getting pretty close to each other and Sam was nowhere to be seen.
“And then all hell broke loose. Sam came screeching up to Lindsay, screaming blue murder and throwing punches. She went ballistic.
“The pair traded a series of blows before Calum managed to prise them apart. It was a really ugly scene.”
It wasn't over then, either, Lilo was still pretty peed off at Sam, and had another go at her as they left the club.
“Lindsay was furious with what Sam had done," said the source. "She launched herself at Sam in the lobby. She was spitting at her and clawing at her chest. She was fuming.”
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Britney's new album
Want to hear what Britney Spears' new album has got in store weeks ahead of the masses?
If all the hype isn't enough, a prematurely leaked sample mix of six songs from the album 'Circus' has just been posted online, several weeks ahead of the album's release date of December 2.
The songs on the leaked track include 'Circus', 'Out From Under', 'If U Seek Amy', 'Unusual You' and the hot pararazzo-slamming dance floor slammer 'Kill the Lights'.
'Circus' is Britney's seventh studio album. Could it be her best yet?
Britney Spears has announced her sixth studio album, Circus, and it's set for release in late November. The first single from the album is titled 'Womanizer' and was produced by the up-and-coming Atlanta production team The Outsyders. The album release date is November 29 in Australia and December 2 in the US to coincide with Spears' birthday.
Paris Hilton And Benji Madden Split
Paris Hilton and her boyfriend of nine months, Benji Madden, have broken up.
Hilton publicist Alanna McCarthy said on Wednesday that the two "remain very good friends". She wouldn't say more.
Hilton and Madden have been photographed wearing rings with each other's initials. The 27-year-old socialite also joined her boyfriend when he toured with his rock band, Good Charlotte.
The 29-year-old Madden plays guitar, and his identical twin brother, Joel, is the lead singer.
Joel Madden has a daughter with Nicole Richie, Hilton's longtime friend and reality-TV co-star.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Live With Talat 18 Nov 2008
Syed Talat Hussain bring fresh episode of Live With Talat in AAJ TV guests include Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed Chairman(AML), Ahsan Iqbal Sec. Information(PML-N).
Bolta Pakistan 18 Nov 2008
Mushtaq Minhas and Nusrat Javed present another fresh episode of Bolta Pakistan and talk with Rana Sanaullah, Rahmat Ali Razi, Imtiaz Alam, Akram Sheikh.
Capital Talk - 18 November 2008
Brst. Akram Sheikh, Justice Fakhar-un-Nisa Khokhar (Retired) and Justice Tariq Mehmood (Retired) in this episode of Capital Talk.
Off the Record - 18 November 2008
Nabeel Gabool (Minister Ports & Shipping), Saad Rafique (PMLN) and Waseem Akhtar (MQM) in this episode of Off The Record.
Siaysi Log - 18 November 2008
Hina Rabbani Khar (State Minister for Finance), Ahsan Iqbal (PMLN) and Dr Faisal Bari (Economist) in this episode of Siyasi Log.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Bolta Pakistan - 17 Nov 2008
Mushtaq Minhas and Nusrat Javed present another fresh episode of Bolta Pakistan and talk with Maulana Fazal-ul-Rehman, Syed Shahjad Bukhari, Syed Ali Galani, Asad Siddiqui.
Live With Talat - 17 Nov 2008
Syed Talat Hussain bring fresh episode of Live With Talat in AAJ TV guests include Ayaz Mir MNA(PML-N), Waseem Akhter MNA(MQM), Ghulam Fareed.
Kal Tak - 17 Nov 2008
Khawja Saad Rafique (PMLN), Maulana Ata-ur-Rehman (JUI) and Masood Abbas (ANP) in this episode of Kaltak.
Capital Talk - 17 Nov 2008
Sherry Rehman, Mazhar Abbas and Irfan Siddique in this episode of Capital Talk.
4 Man Show - 17 Nov 2008
A new episode of the 4 man Show with Javed Chaudhry,Kamran Khan and Ajmal Niazi.
Monday, November 17, 2008
New Harry Potter 6 Trailer Is Live
They may have pushed the release date from now-ish to next year, but Warners have not left us without some compensation: check out the new trailer for Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince here. A few things are immediately clear from this: first of all, the timeline's all over the place, with the scenes in nothing like chronological order. Secondly, Jim Broadbent looks to have nailed the slightly creepy Professor Slughorn. Thirdly, the book's throwaway reference to a destroyed bridge appears to have been turned into a graphic attack by Death Eaters on the Millenium Bridge. If you are commuting in London soon, you might want to consider another route.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is out on July 17 next year.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Wanda Sykes 'proud to be gay'
Comedian Wanda Sykes says the passage of a same-sex marriage ban in California has led to her be more outspoken about being gay."You know, I don't really talk about my sexual orientation. I didn't feel like I had to. I was just living my life, not necessarily in the closet, but I was living my life," Sykes told a crowd at a gay rights rally in Las Vegas on Saturday.
"Everybody that knows me personally, they know I'm gay. But that's the way people should be able to live their lives," she said.
Sykes, who is known for her feisty and blunt style, said the passage of California's Proposition 8 made her feel like she was "attacked".
"Now I gotta get in their face," she said. "I'm proud to be a woman. I'm proud to be a black woman, and I'm proud to be gay."
Sykes' appearance at the Las Vegas rally surprised organisers. She was in town performing at the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino.
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Focus With Faeza 15 nov 2008
Faeza presents special episode in ARYONE WORLD & talk with Pradeep Magazine(Hindustan Times), Imran Khan(Former Captain), Jhon Bodnar-Cricket Producer.
Off The Record 15 nov 2008
Kashif Abbasi bring fresh episode of Off The Record & talk with Makhdoom Javed Hashmi Leader(PML-N), Qamar Zaman Kaira Fed. Min. Kashmir Affairs.
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Intel launches Core i7 as PC demand softens
November 15, 2008 (IDG News Service) Intel began sales of its high-end Core i7 desktop chips in Tokyo late Saturday night, bringing to market a series of processors that are significantly more powerful than any of the company's current desktop products.
In a move intended to stoke demand among Japanese PC enthusiasts, shops in Akihabara, Tokyo's main electronics district, stayed open past midnight to put the first Core i7 chips on sale. The launch preempted a San Francisco news conference planned for Monday, as signs increasingly point to softening global demand for computers.
"This is a major new architecture for Intel and to be able to launch it here first to the user-community that Akihabara supports is a really exciting thing for us to do," said Steve Dallman, vice president of sales and marketing and general manager of Intel's worldwide reseller channel organization, shortly after the midnight launch. He was referring to the PC hobbyists and gamers who crowd the areas electronics stores in search of components to build their own computers.
"One of the features in the new processor I think they are going to be very excited about is Turbo-mode," he said. "There's also Turbo-tuning, which allows them to go in for the first time and tune 20 different parameters to optimize the performance of the processor."
The 3.2GHz Core i7 965 Extreme Edition is priced at US$999, while the 2.93GHz Core i7 940 and 2.66GHz Core i7 920 are priced at $562 and $284, respectively. Additional versions of Nehalem targeted at other market segments, including laptops, are expected to be released next year.
Several hundred people crowded stores that were open from around 10pm until 1am Sunday morning to check out the new chip and buy it. It was offered alongside compatible motherboards and other components.
"We ran-out of the high-end ones, the 965 processors, and the motherboards above ¥40,000 (US$410)," said Keisuke Kurashi, manager of the Faith store in the electronics district.
Core i7 is the first chip series based on Intel's Nehalem architecture to hit the market. Manufactured using a 45-nanometer process, these chips differ from Intel's existing products in several ways, most notably with the inclusion of an on-chip memory controller and faster links that connect the processor with main memory.
The chips that went on sale late Saturday aren't for the average user.
The first Core i7 processors were designed for systems aimed at gamers and other high-end users, and not the mass market, said Bryan Ma, director of personal systems research at IDC Asia-Pacific.
Despite the challenging economic environment, the release of Core i7 gives Intel a boost by strengthening its desktop product line and will keep the company one step ahead of rival AMD in the high-end desktop space. "They need to stay competitive," Ma said.
The Core i7 launch comes as overall PC demand is weakening in markets around the world. To what extent the new chips will convince buyers to upgrade their systems remains to be seen, and industry observers will be watching closely.
On Wednesday, Intel sent stock markets diving with a warning that it's fourth-quarter revenue will be sharply lower than the company's earlier estimates, signaling that demand for PCs was falling short of expectations. The chip maker also warned that gross margins, a broad measure of the company's profitability, will be lower than expected at 55 percent instead of the previous estimate of 59 percent.
"Revenue is being affected by significantly weaker than expected demand in all geographies and market segments," Intel said in a statement.
Intel said the revised gross margin estimate was primarily caused by lower revenue projections, but also blamed "other charges associated with the weaker-than-expected demand environment."
Those other charges include the cost of excess capacity and inventory write-offs, according to a research note put out by Credit Suisse analyst John Pitzer, who said the slowdown in PC demand will persist beyond December.
"We expect the weaker demand environment to persist into at least 1H09," Pitzer wrote, referring to the first half of next year.
As a result, Pitzer lowered his 2009 revenue forecast for Intel to US$33.8 billion, a decline of 12 percent compared to his 2008 forecast. He also said Intel's gross margin could fall to 50 percent during the first quarter of 2009 due to lower revenue, the cost of carrying excess production capacity, inventory write-offs, and startup costs for Intel's upcoming 32-nanometer process technology.
In a move intended to stoke demand among Japanese PC enthusiasts, shops in Akihabara, Tokyo's main electronics district, stayed open past midnight to put the first Core i7 chips on sale. The launch preempted a San Francisco news conference planned for Monday, as signs increasingly point to softening global demand for computers.
"This is a major new architecture for Intel and to be able to launch it here first to the user-community that Akihabara supports is a really exciting thing for us to do," said Steve Dallman, vice president of sales and marketing and general manager of Intel's worldwide reseller channel organization, shortly after the midnight launch. He was referring to the PC hobbyists and gamers who crowd the areas electronics stores in search of components to build their own computers.
"One of the features in the new processor I think they are going to be very excited about is Turbo-mode," he said. "There's also Turbo-tuning, which allows them to go in for the first time and tune 20 different parameters to optimize the performance of the processor."
The 3.2GHz Core i7 965 Extreme Edition is priced at US$999, while the 2.93GHz Core i7 940 and 2.66GHz Core i7 920 are priced at $562 and $284, respectively. Additional versions of Nehalem targeted at other market segments, including laptops, are expected to be released next year.
Several hundred people crowded stores that were open from around 10pm until 1am Sunday morning to check out the new chip and buy it. It was offered alongside compatible motherboards and other components.
"We ran-out of the high-end ones, the 965 processors, and the motherboards above ¥40,000 (US$410)," said Keisuke Kurashi, manager of the Faith store in the electronics district.
Core i7 is the first chip series based on Intel's Nehalem architecture to hit the market. Manufactured using a 45-nanometer process, these chips differ from Intel's existing products in several ways, most notably with the inclusion of an on-chip memory controller and faster links that connect the processor with main memory.
The chips that went on sale late Saturday aren't for the average user.
The first Core i7 processors were designed for systems aimed at gamers and other high-end users, and not the mass market, said Bryan Ma, director of personal systems research at IDC Asia-Pacific.
Despite the challenging economic environment, the release of Core i7 gives Intel a boost by strengthening its desktop product line and will keep the company one step ahead of rival AMD in the high-end desktop space. "They need to stay competitive," Ma said.
The Core i7 launch comes as overall PC demand is weakening in markets around the world. To what extent the new chips will convince buyers to upgrade their systems remains to be seen, and industry observers will be watching closely.
On Wednesday, Intel sent stock markets diving with a warning that it's fourth-quarter revenue will be sharply lower than the company's earlier estimates, signaling that demand for PCs was falling short of expectations. The chip maker also warned that gross margins, a broad measure of the company's profitability, will be lower than expected at 55 percent instead of the previous estimate of 59 percent.
"Revenue is being affected by significantly weaker than expected demand in all geographies and market segments," Intel said in a statement.
Intel said the revised gross margin estimate was primarily caused by lower revenue projections, but also blamed "other charges associated with the weaker-than-expected demand environment."
Those other charges include the cost of excess capacity and inventory write-offs, according to a research note put out by Credit Suisse analyst John Pitzer, who said the slowdown in PC demand will persist beyond December.
"We expect the weaker demand environment to persist into at least 1H09," Pitzer wrote, referring to the first half of next year.
As a result, Pitzer lowered his 2009 revenue forecast for Intel to US$33.8 billion, a decline of 12 percent compared to his 2008 forecast. He also said Intel's gross margin could fall to 50 percent during the first quarter of 2009 due to lower revenue, the cost of carrying excess production capacity, inventory write-offs, and startup costs for Intel's upcoming 32-nanometer process technology.
Hidden Windows 7 Features Exposed
A programmer has unlocked several still-unfinished features of Windows 7 that Microsoft Corp. has hidden from users who received the alpha build at two recent developer conferences.
Last week Rafael Rivera, a developer for a Virginia-based company that sells secure messaging software to the U.S. government, posted a utility he dubbed "Blue Badge" that patches nine system files in Windows 7, including "explorer.exe" and "shell32.dll." The tool disables the protection scheme that Microsoft added to the alpha to keep eyes off some features that still need work.
The utility's name is a nod to the background color of card keys given to full-time Microsoft employees. According to Rivera's analysis, Windows 7 checks the user's allowed domain and username, then unlocks the features if it decides the user is a full-time worker. Microsoft is currently testing Windows 7 internally.
Rivera's tool lets users access Windows 7's new taskbar -- a feature that Microsoft heavily promoted at the Professional Developers Conference (PDC) in late October -- as well as other unfinished bits of the operating system, including multi-touch gestures and a dynamic desktop slideshow that pulls images from Web-based feeds.
Blue Badge can be downloaded from Rivera's blog in a version suitable for the 32-bit version of Windows 7. A 64-bit edition of the unlocking tool has been delayed, he said Sunday.
Rivera started digging into Windows 7's protection scheme shortly after PDC concluded, and posted his first discoveries two weeks ago.
Windows 7, which Microsoft has repeatedly said will ship in late 2009 or early 2010, has been branded as "Windows Vista, a lot better," by CEO Steve Ballmer . Although only a small number of people have the alpha -- including attendees of PDC and the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC), which wrapped up Nov. 7 -- the successor to Vista will move into public beta testing early next year.
Pirated copies of the Windows 7 alpha leaked to the Internet only hours after it handed out the code at PDC.
Last week Rafael Rivera, a developer for a Virginia-based company that sells secure messaging software to the U.S. government, posted a utility he dubbed "Blue Badge" that patches nine system files in Windows 7, including "explorer.exe" and "shell32.dll." The tool disables the protection scheme that Microsoft added to the alpha to keep eyes off some features that still need work.
The utility's name is a nod to the background color of card keys given to full-time Microsoft employees. According to Rivera's analysis, Windows 7 checks the user's allowed domain and username, then unlocks the features if it decides the user is a full-time worker. Microsoft is currently testing Windows 7 internally.
Rivera's tool lets users access Windows 7's new taskbar -- a feature that Microsoft heavily promoted at the Professional Developers Conference (PDC) in late October -- as well as other unfinished bits of the operating system, including multi-touch gestures and a dynamic desktop slideshow that pulls images from Web-based feeds.
Blue Badge can be downloaded from Rivera's blog in a version suitable for the 32-bit version of Windows 7. A 64-bit edition of the unlocking tool has been delayed, he said Sunday.
Rivera started digging into Windows 7's protection scheme shortly after PDC concluded, and posted his first discoveries two weeks ago.
Windows 7, which Microsoft has repeatedly said will ship in late 2009 or early 2010, has been branded as "Windows Vista, a lot better," by CEO Steve Ballmer . Although only a small number of people have the alpha -- including attendees of PDC and the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC), which wrapped up Nov. 7 -- the successor to Vista will move into public beta testing early next year.
Pirated copies of the Windows 7 alpha leaked to the Internet only hours after it handed out the code at PDC.
Fla. teen accused of stabbing 5 girls after game
STUART, Fla. (AP) — Investigators are searching for a teenage girl they say stabbed five other girls during a melee after a high school football game in southeast Florida.
None of the injuries are life threatening.
The stabbings occurred Friday night after rival high schools in Martin County played each other.
Sheriff's spokeswoman Rhonda Irons says the girls' wounds were in the leg, shoulder, forearm and hand. The girls were taken to a hospital.
Irons says a woman also was arrested in a series of unrelated fights that involved around 30 people outside the Martin County High School.
None of the injuries are life threatening.
The stabbings occurred Friday night after rival high schools in Martin County played each other.
Sheriff's spokeswoman Rhonda Irons says the girls' wounds were in the leg, shoulder, forearm and hand. The girls were taken to a hospital.
Irons says a woman also was arrested in a series of unrelated fights that involved around 30 people outside the Martin County High School.
At Global Finance Talks, 20 Different Agendas
WASHINGTON — With 20 world leaders in town for 24 hours, there wasn’t much time for grand gestures or bold promises at Saturday’s summit meeting on the global financial crisis. But that did not stop the leaders from bringing 20 different agendas, some more ambitious than others.
There was the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, without his glamorous wife, Carla, but with a raft of proposals to “change the rules of the game,” as he said last week after a meeting of European leaders.
There was Hu Jintao, the president of China, heading a delegation of 100 people and wielding a fat checkbook — nearly $2 trillion in foreign exchange reserves — that Beijing could lend to distressed countries.
There was Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain, emboldened by his much-praised response to the banking crisis at home, and fresh from criticizing the proposed bailout of American carmakers in a speech in New York on Friday.
And finally, there was President Bush, the reluctant host in his waning months in office. “The crisis was not a failure of the free-market system,” Mr. Bush said in his weekly radio address on Saturday, trying to dial back expectations. “The answer is not to try to reinvent that system.”
How world leaders approached the Summit on Financial Markets and the World Economy — as Mr. Bush designated the meeting — had a lot to do with how the financial crisis affected their political fortunes.
For Mr. Bush, the upheaval delivered a final blow to an administration staggering under an unpopular war in Iraq and a weakening economy. With President-elect Barack Obama watching from Chicago, Mr. Bush was not even the most sought-after American at the meeting he organized, a meeting that was the idea of Mr. Sarkozy’s. Instead, leaders from Mexico to Turkey lined up to meet two emissaries sent by Mr. Obama.
Mr. Sarkozy, on the other hand, only became president of France last year, after the seeds of the crisis had been planted. His call for greater regulation plays into France’s historical preferences for a robust state role in the market, making Mr. Sarkozy an ideal point man for the effort.
“Sarkozy is in a very strong position of not owning the crisis, as other leaders do,” said Kenneth S. Rogoff, a professor of economics at Harvard. “Like Obama, he can take a more detached view.”
The French leader’s high profile was not without risks. “This was his idea,” said Simon Johnson, a former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund.
Besides Mr. Sarkozy and Mr. Bush were the leaders from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, China, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, and Turkey.
Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, and President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner of Argentina were the only two women in the Group of 20 meeting — and neither, analysts said, brought a very strong hand.
The German economy just slipped into recession, and its government was slow to accept the need to recapitalize its banks, which purchased a lot of toxic mortgage-related assets from the United States.
Argentina, meanwhile, announced it would nationalize $26 billion of private pension funds, raising fears that the government was short on cash and putting Mrs. Kirchner into an economic dog house with foreign investors, who are pulling their money out of the country.
The Russian president, Dmitri A. Medvedev, also came with arguably reduced influence, partly for economic reasons: as the price of oil has plummeted, so has Russia’s economy, its foreign exchange reserves and perhaps some of its political muscle.
None of this has stopped Mr. Medvedev from striking a combative tone toward the United States.
“They let this currency bubble grow in the interests of stimulating domestic growth,” he declared in a recent speech. “They did not listen to the numerous warnings from their partners, including from us. As a result they have caused damage to themselves and to others.”
For Mr. Brown of Britain, the crisis has been a mixed bag. As chancellor of the Exchequer under Tony Blair, Mr. Brown is identified with the economic policies that gave Britain years of growth but some of the same excesses as in the United States.
However, by moving quickly to recapitalize the British banking system, Mr. Brown appeared decisive and won praise from economists. He also stopped, at least for now, a stream of political obituaries suggesting he would soon be ousted by the Tory leader, David Cameron.
On Friday, Mr. Brown was introduced at a breakfast at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York by Robert E. Rubin, the former Treasury secretary, with lavish praise for his role during the crisis.
“Not only the U.K. but the entire world has been very fortunate to have you as a leader,” Mr. Rubin said.
Mr. Brown, smiling broadly, responded that he was “pleased to say that a large number of governments around the world have recognized” that injecting capital into banks is the best way to restore stability.
The prime minister felt confident enough to offer the United States some unsolicited advice, obliquely criticizing proposals supported by Mr. Obama to bail out the Big Three automakers.
Without referring to the companies by name, he warned against calls to save jobs in industries that were facing an irreversible decline in the face of global competition. The right response, he said, would be to say, “We can’t help you keep your old job, but we can help prepare you for your next job.”
To help countries hurt by the crisis, Mr. Brown is pushing for the resources of the International Monetary Fund to be expanded. The fund, he said, should function like an “international central bank.”
The trouble with this idea is that there are only a handful of candidates with enough cash to pour money into the I.M.F. — China, Japan, and oil producers like Saudi Arabia. The Japanese prime minister, Taro Aso, pledged up to $100 billion in additional lending to the fund.
To persuade these countries to increase their contributions would require giving them a larger role in the governance of the fund. And that would mean reducing the influence of Britain and other European countries.
China staked its claim to a significant role in another way: It announced a $586 billion stimulus package a week ago, allowing President Hu to seize the initiative on economic policy.
For leaders of emerging-market countries who have been clamoring for a seat at the summit meeting table, even being here was something of a victory. For the president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, it was partly a simple matter of protocol: Brazil currently leads the Group of 20, which gave Mr. da Silva some say over the agenda.
Beyond that, he has been outspoken about how developing countries are victims of a crisis not of their own making.
“No country is safe,” Mr. da Silva said last weekend, opening a preparatory meeting of finance ministers in São Paulo. “They are all being infected by problems that originated in the advanced countries.”
Pakistan Agrees to I.M.F. Loan
KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistan has agreed to borrow $7.6 billion from the International Monetary Fund to try to avoid an economic crisis, an official said on Saturday.
Shaukat Tareen, Pakistan’s finance chief, said the I.M.F. had agreed “in principle” to the bailout after vetting government plans to tackle Pakistan’s growing budget and trade deficits.
The loan will shore up Pakistan’s foreign currency reserves and help alleviate the prospect of a run on the rupee and a default on international debt.
Steven Lee Myers contributed reporting from Washington, and John F. Burns from New York.
Source: msnbc
Bolta Pakistan 14 nov 2008
Mushtaq Minhas and Nusrat Javed present another fresh episode of Bolta Pakistan and talk with Tariq Mehmood Khan,
Capital Talk 13 nov 2008
Hamid Mir brings a fresh & special episode guests include Senator Kamil Ali Agha Opposition Leader Senate, Humayun Akhtar Former Fed. Min. for Trade and Commerce, Kaehmaia Tariq MNA(PML),
Friday, November 14, 2008
Barack Obama and John McCain to kiss
Barack Obama and John McCain to kiss and make up after bitter campaign; former rivals to meet:
The victor and the vanquished are coming together - President-elect Barack Obama has invited one-time rival John McCain to a sit-down in Chicago on Monday.
"It's well known that they share an important belief that Americans want and deserve a more effective and efficient government, and will discuss ways to work together to make that a reality," Obama transition spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter said in a statement.
