Environmental Friendly Town!

Every Building Of It Produces Its Own Electricity!

The Highest Environmental Friendly Building

The manifestations of environmental destructions are so clear now that these seasonal changes have put the survival of mankind into danger. Therefore, human wants to acquire the environmental technology soon for its survival. Research is going on in this direction. The most environmental friendly building has been made in New York. This High Technology building is a Skyscraper. This is situated in Bryant Park Tower Manhattan.

American government has given it a Lead Platinum Certificate. This means that the designing and technology of this building has been certified environmental friendly as per the government of America’s tough standards. It is the second highest building of Manhattan and the first government certified environmental friendly building. It is also called The Bank of America Tower.

This building is decorated with technologies like saving the rain water for afterward usage, recycling of used water, recycling of building material for long term usage, technology of better and minimum usage of energy and such type of glass is used, which not only provides greater benefits from the sunlight but also reduces the affects of sun heat. Modern design, wonderful art of building and all the available technologies have made this building specifically environmental friendly.

 The Solar City

 A full town can only be made environmental friendly, when the residents are agreed on it. The mind of each and every person is scientific and there found uniformity in their struggles.

The residents of Germany have established an example by establishing the Sonnenschiff Solar city, in Freiberg Germany. This town is self-independent in power supply. Modern photo voltaic panels have been installed in every house of it which uses the solar energy. The solar cells installed at the roof of every house benefits in a way that the town now creates four times more electricity than the whole town uses. There are total of 52 houses.

The numbers of buildings for other facilities are additional. Residential and commercial buildings are not only self-independent in creating their own electricity but also environmental friendly due to equipment of modern facilities. There is special arrangement of greenery and tress in the town. Every house has been equipped with the technology of using the solar energy in its totality in winter and summer seasons. There is a mechanism on roofs to recycle the standing rain water to plants and toilets.

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Revolutionary Discovery

The genetic secret of Apple and Wheat has been manifested

Among the most important of human problems, rising population is forefront. Along side the environmental and seasonal changes have spread such a disaster that standing harvest started ruining. Diseases started attacking them and resultantly the real danger of food scarcity came forward. Wheat has ever been the most important food for the whole world and it’s also the oldest human food. Just imagine how human can live without wheat in the world.

This is a genetic era. If genetic code of any living organism would be sought, its breeding and growth could be controlled. The Britain scientist have achieved great success in decoding the genetic code of wheat, which would result in a way that the hardest wheat could be prepared which could cope with the environmental and seasonal changes. It would breed more in less space and likewise the rising population needs could be fulfilled.

Wheat is harvested more than any other grain in the world. The scientists have declared that they are publishing the genetic code of wheat on the internet so that the scientists all over the world could be benefited by this research in order to improve its production in their countries. This is a revolutionary discovery and would prove as a milestone in the field of food.

The team of Neil Hall scientist of Liverpool has discovered this code. They say that the benefits of their research would reveal in the next five years.

Genome or genetic map provides the complete DNA details of any living organism. DNA is a combination of complex molecules which provides complete instructions about the structure and activities of any living organism. When Genome of any living organism has been understood, we get extraordinary information about it, for instance, how it came into existence, how its beginning and growth did happens and how does it die etc.

 

The Wheat entered in the world of genetics a little late. The genetic code of rice was found in 2005, maize in 2009 and of Soya bean in the beginning of last year. The reason for its late entry is that its genetic map is extraordinary bigger and thicker. It is not only bigger than rice and maize but also five times bigger than human genome. For e.g. when one kind of Sugar Wheat was examined, there were 6 copies of the same gene, whereas in majority of living organisms there are 2 copies of the same gene. Now the genetic engineers could easily make such technology by which wheat could be prepared using artificial means.

On the other side, the international team of scientists which included scientists from Italy, France, Newzeland, Belgium and America have discovered the genetic code of Apple. This would help in understanding that which gene is responsible for any characteristic of an apple. It would also be known that which gene is responsible for resistance from diseases and which one is better for growth. Likewise the human control on Apple production and its various characteristics would increase.  Besides other information, gene provides information about its general appearance, health, production, color and taste too.

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Michael Jackson – The King of Popular Music

He passed about 51 years in this world but left behind the amazing tales of familiarity and popularity, regard and disregard and successes which this world will continue to reiterate for unlimited period of time. He was born on 29^th August 1958 and died on 25^th June 2009 in a mysterious way. The every living day of this mysterious artist keeps a unique story. Yes! We are talking about Michael Jackson who started singing in 1964 along with his four brothers. This group was called “Jackson Five”. This childhood period of Michael Jackson is a heart touching tale of hardships.

Whenever on any pleasant morning or cool evening, he saw his same age children were playing different games in the parks, tears used to run out from his eyes, but Michael Jackson got tremendous reward of his tear. He reached such horizons of success and popularity, which many singers even can’t dream of. The selling records of Michael Jackson’s audios and videos are still unbeatable. His name is mentioned in the Guinness Book of World Record under more than one title. One of those titles is “The Most Successful Entertainer of All Time”.

Besides 13 Graeme Awards, Michael Jackson received 17 “No. 1 Singles” awards on his single songs. More than 800 million Records of Michael Jackson has been sold, which itself is a record--- and still his albums are selling in different shapes. Besides being singer, composer, producer, dancer, choreographer, actor and businessman, he was also the social worker. He gave 250 million Dollars in his lifetime to his own established welfare organization “Heal the World” Foundation and to other 39 welfare organizations as a donation.

More than this amount, he donated after collecting from his welfare programs. He also has the honor of the “Highest Pop Star Donator” to welfare organizations. After 80’s his personality remained victimized of several disputes, rumors and scandals. His changing nose pattern and complexion remained the topic of news, sometimes he got the accusation of bad behavior with children, which could not be proved. This disputed prince of the Music World married in 1994 with the daughter Liza of Elvis Presley and in 1996 with a Nurse named Dabby. He had two children with her.

One was the son, whose name he chose “Prince” (which was also the nickname of Michael in his youth). Second one was a girl, whose name was chosen as “Paris”. The third child’s name of Michael Jackson was Michael Jackson II. His nickname is Blanket. He was born in 2002 and his mother is unknown and father is also dubious. However, Michael Jackson said that the child was his own but the mother was rented. After the death of Michael Jackson, his childhood friend Mark Laster opined that “Paris” may be his daughter because her face resembles with that of her own daughter. He claimed that he has given his sperm as a present or donation.

During 2003 and 2005 Michael Jackson started using narcotics to much extent and his weight was started deteriorating quickly. He also remained sometime in Bahrain as a guest with an Arab Sheikh. The rumors of his converting into Muslim have also been spread at that time. In 2006, the news of his financial crisis started coming. During that time he returned to America and started living in a rented palace because his own house was closed due to the accusations of not paying of loans and legal proceedings.

On 25^th June, 2009 at 22 min past 12 his illness news was received on an emergency number of Fire Department in Los Angles. In three minutes ambulance reached his house. According to the medical staff he was not breathing at that time. At 56 min past 12 doctors officially declared him death. This way the story of life of the King of Popular Music ended. But the guesses about his death, the pull and push of his heredity and accusations on various people in respect of his death is still going on.

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1st May: World Labors Day

Labors, Harvesters, Farmers are still deprived of their rights

1^st May is the Word Day of Labors and its decision has also been taken by labors themselves and not by UNO, because by that time UNO didn’t exist. On this day labors all over the world celebrate the memories of 1886 Chicago labors who sacrificing their lives get 8 hours timings approved for themselves. On this day, labors all over the world organize seminars, processions; rallies and meetings to express their resolution that they will continue their struggle until the exploitation system has not been eradicated.

The patient and hard struggle of labors, workers, servants and innocents has been going on for centuries. This tussle is going on since the inception of this world. When for the very first time few powerful people after drawing lines on the earth started claiming their possession and made the weaker, innocent and obedient public their servant by aggravation and cruelty. The class difference in the society started prevailing since then. The powerful and cruel people of that time started taking forceful hard work from them and made them their servant. But in 18^th and 19^th century the labor body started strengthening. This was the period when steam engines and factories were entering into the machine era. The laborers were paid very less amount in lieu of their severe hard work.

Before this time in 1789, the France Revolution had taken place. The ideas of Carl Marks were prevailing. Then in 1883, Carl Marks died. At the same time the laborers were also making their parties. By that time there were neither any fix timings for the laborers nor any law. They had to work late till night. There was no compensation in case of accident or death. New industries were establishing in Europe. Science was also advancing. The network of factories and industries was spreading. The labor body was rising and marching towards Union making. The laborers struggled in Britain, made unions and federations. The laborers also struggled before this time but the work done by Chicago laborers will be remembered till eternity.

Exactly 125 years ago from now, such enthusiastic, revolutionary and dedicated political and labor leaders had been born who for the first time called complete strike and presenting their valuable lives turned the labor movement in the new direction and rose the laborers’ head with pride by sacrificing their blood. This incident occurred in the industrial city of Chicago in America near the famous “Hay” market. The laborers of that time raised their voice against the then authorities, industrialists, factory owners, landlords and money holders that challenged them to listen, “You cruel people we are also humans, give us the right of living too, fix our working hours, raise our salaries and give us livelihood.”

They were shouting to the laborers of the world to get united; they were united without any difference in cast, creed or color and were asking for their rights and demands. The whole industrial city of Chicago was jammed. The Chimneys of Mills and factories had stopped excreting smoke. This was the first time in the history when the hard workers had raised the mutiny flag by their unity and wrote a new chapter by calling the complete strike. Then on 1^st May 1886 in the morning the anonymous journalist while performing his revolutionary duty had written a writing which has now become the part of the history.

“Oh! Laborers! Your fight has been started. The time will take itself the final decision. Step forward to get your demands accepted, for your duty hours, continue your struggle, the authorities will have to bend, victory will be yours, never lose courage, be united, in this lies your survival, your success, keep fighting till the fulfillment of your demands, “

This writing of the journalist had rose additional emotions and they demanded strongly for 8 hours timings and then for the first time 24 hours had been adjusted like that we will do 8 hours work, we will rest for 8 hours and we will pass 8 hours with our family. The authorities, mill owners, money holders didn’t like this slogan and unity of the laborers and they taking the strict action opened fire on them. They wounded the weaponless, peaceful and weaker laborers,

 

The white peaceful flag of the laborers becomes red. The shirt of one of the laborer turned red with the blood. Then they made that red blooded flag their own flag in place of white flag and decided that they will not go to work unless their demands were not fulfilled. Red flag will now be our flag and from then onwards the red flag became the flag of laborers.

At last the authorities accepted the demands of the laborers and likewise for the first time the 8 hours timings were accepted. On this occasion seven prominent leaders of laborers including Fisher, Angeel, Peterson and Spies were brought to trial and 4 leaders were sentenced to death. These leaders went from this world but left their work, name and their movement alive for good. Afterwards, laborers got their many demands accepted by their struggle. The revolution came in Russia in 1917. Laborers got their many demands accepted in Europe. Now the timings in Europe are 6 hours. But still in many parts of the world exploitation with the laborers are going on and there is a need of long and hard struggle like Chicago laborers did by the laborers of that exploited areas in order to get their justified demands accepted by the authorities. UNO also need to play its role in such areas of the world.

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Every 10th Atomic Plant is facing a risk of Earthquakes

Most of countries having Nuclear Reactors do not possess capability dealing with an emergency situation

In Japan, after having the most dreadful earthquake as a result of Tsunami which causes Nuclear crises, have paved way to apprehensions regarding the safety of Atomic Reactors in the world.

According to a recent research many Atomic Reactors in the world are facing the danger of Tsunami or earthquakes and it is doubted that this situation can duplicate itself like Japanese “Foko Shimari Reactor”, which would be more disastrous because the their capability dealing with disasters is far more less than Japan. Be ware that Japan possesses the best capability of dealing with disasters.

According to the research of Maple Craft there are 76 Atomic Plants in Japan, Taiwan, China, South Korea, India, Pakistan and America, located at places which can be affected by Tsunami. In different countries of the world there are 442 Atomic Power Plants, in which every 10^th is facing the danger of earthquake. Be ware that most of these plants are situated in Japan, America, Taiwan, Armenia and Slovenia.

The auditor of Maple Craft Mr. Helen Hoj says that although the Atomic crisis of Japan is the first incident of its type but other countries can face this terrible situation. The Atomic Plants that are situated in the Southern Coastal Line in South Korea, Taiwan, South China, India, Pakistan and America or which are under consideration of installation in these areas are considered sensitive as regard to Tsunami. On the other hand the Atomic facilities of America, Taiwan, Armenia, Iran and Slovenia are likely to be affected by earthquake.

According to the Professor Kath Berahnam of Imperial College London, Japan is the most modern country in regards to technology but they are also facing problem in dealing with the crisis of Atomic Plants. Therefore, apprehension is natural for rather less developed countries for their Atomic Plants situated in dangerous zones. Nuclear safety experts refer to the Russian Atomic Plant situated 30 K.m. away from the Capital of Armenia.

In December, 1988 a powerful earthquake hit in the North West of Armenia, in which 25 thousand people were killed. Next year the Metsamore Atomic Plant had to shut down due the dangers of earthquakes. Although one Plant of this Reactor has been made useless, however, the other is operational. International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA) has been monitoring the safety protocols of this Plant for a decade; however, apprehensions are still present.

According to World Nuclear Association the present Nuclear Plant of Metsamore is a source of apprehension for European Union and neighboring country “Turkey” situated just 16 kms away from the plant. Many bodies are raising voices for shutting down this Reactor, but Armenia who depends much on this plant for the supply of Energy says that it will remain operational until the establishment of an alternate.

In the recent years, the IAEC has recognized the dangers of drastic natural calamities; therefore, they established the International Seismic Safety Centre in 2008. They also reviewed their safety measure after the situation occurred in the Japanese Fokoshima Plant in regards to Tsunami and earthquakes. Be ware that last month rising Atomic crisis due to Tsunami has once again made the arguments start regarding Nuclear Safety. As a result several countries including Italy, Switzerland and Germany have stopped the installation of their Atomic Plants.

Another Nuclear expert James Acton says, the real problem is that we cannot assume the disaster caused by natural or human fault, that’s why it is essential to inspect the designs and safety protocols of every nuclear reactor in the world. In his opinion it is necessary to provide the information and technology to rather less developed countries in order to save the world from Atomic radiation. Be ware that IAEA already provides technical aid to the less developed countries in regards to nuclear safety protocol.

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Actress Sienna Miller not satisfied--Even after phone hack apology

Sienna Miller will sue again The News of the World

The News of the World offers compensation for phone hacking, but Sienna Mill is not satisfied and will sue the paper anyhow.

LONDON — The paper News of the world has offered compensation to Actress Sienna Miller of any justifiable claims and acknowledged eavesdropping the voicemails of public figures. But it has done little effect to stop the scandal which has endangered the goodwill of Britain’s political establishment and Rupert Murdoch’s media empire.

Many celebrities are suing the paper but the lawyer Mark Thomson of Sienna Miller said that Sienna has not dropped her lawsuit against the paper which she accuses of “outrageous violations of privacy” and is awaiting for more information before taking any further action. The actress further accuses that the stated paper is continuously accessing her phone for the last one year and gathering information about her, her family and her former partner Jude Law.

On the other hand News of the world has been accusing their two scoundrel employees for years and who were also jailed in 2007 for eavesdropping and hacking of voicemails crime of royal staff, which includes Prince William and Prince Harry. News of the world has further regret genuinely their past behavior for incepting voicemails. However, Murdoch, the owner of the paper could not stop the critics. John Prescott, the former Deputy Prime Minister, added that until the hacking of voicemails issue is not resolved the government should stop the Newspaper taking full control of satellite broadcaster British Sky Broadcasting Group PLC.

On the other hand the government has approved plans by Murdoch's News Corp.  that if it spin off its Sky News channel as an independent company they are offered to buy the 61 percent of BSkyB it does not already own.

Police found about 3,000 phone numbers after their initial inquiry of phone hacking
Critics of the Newspaper say that there are thousands of people who were victimized by the Newspaper’s rogue reporters but currently paper is facing around 20 lawsuits.

Police has arrested and questioned newspaper’s chief reporter, its former head of news, and forced Andy Coulson, former News of the World editor hired as Prime Minster David Cameron’s communication chief, but not arrested to step down from his job

Four British National Newspapers: The Sun, the News of the World, The Times and The Sunday Times are owned by Murdoch’s News International Ltd. The Wall Street Journal, The New York Post and the Fox Television are their U.S. media outlets, whereas News International is a subsidiary of Murdoch’s News Corporation.

Cricket World Cup 2011 review

The highs and the lows of the 2011 Cricket World Cup. 

Sensational: Kevin O'Brien's innings against England will live long in the memory

What it has proved...
That 50 overs per side on a dry pitch is far and away the best format for a one-day cricket match. The ICC president Sharad Pawar may say this World Cup has been a triumph, and it has been less sterile than the last one in the West Indies, but it has again failed to give the sport’s finest talent the right stage often enough.

There have been far too few interesting matches, the majority of the 49 ending in predictably huge margins, and far too much travelling for all concerned, in far too long a period. But those games - whether high or low-scoring - between evenly matched sides have shown that a 50-over match on a dry pitch can be cricket at its best.

Best run-chase...
Ireland knocking off 328 to beat England - with not only three wickets but five whole balls remaining. What is more, Ireland had been 111 for five off 24.2 overs. Has any one-day international been won from a more hopeless position?

Worst run-chase...
South Africa not even getting close to the 222 they needed to beat New Zealand in the quarter-final and losing by 49 runs.

Bravest innings...
Faced with a baying crowd in Ahmedabad, and calls for his resignation from the Australian captaincy, and handicapped by a left finger that is still a painful mess, Ricky Ponting scored a century.

Related Articles

• India v Sri Lanka: as it happened
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  02 Apr 2011
• Toss sees final start in controversy
  02 Apr 2011
• The final reckoning
  02 Apr 2011
• Final left in balance after Jayawardene ton
  02 Apr 2011

Best individual performance...
Against England, Kevin O’Brien hit 24 off 11 balls from James Anderson, 24 off nine balls from Tim Bresnan, and 21 off 11 balls from Graeme Swann. In all, he hit 113 from 63 balls.
The best way for England to improve as a 50-over team Given the blanket ban on 50-over county cricket by the far-sighted England and Wales Cricket Board, select Kevin O’Brien, of Ireland, and Ryan ten Doeschate, of Holland.
Best Asian XI for a match against the best non-Asian XI...
Based largely on performance in this tournament, and on a typical pitch in this tournament: Sehwag, Tendulkar, Dilshan, Sangakkara (wk/capt), Yuvraj, Mathews, Afridi, Harbajan, Zaheer, Malinga and Muralitharan. 12th man: Hafeez.
Best non-Asian XI...
Based largely on performance in this tournament: Watson, Strauss, Trott, Kallis, de Villiers (wkt), ten Doeschate, K O’Brien, Lee, Vettori (capt), Swann and Steyn. 12th man: Peterson.
Best collective performance...
The umpires. The top handful really are excellent and don’t really need the technology of the Decision Review System, except to prove to everyone how good they are.
A worthy cause...
The ICC has done a commendable job in helping to de-stigmatise Aids, but the sight of a red ribbon on the shoulder of international cricketers has become too familiar. It would be just as worthy to highlight the female infanticide that now goes on in south Asia: India’s latest census reveals there are now only 914 females, even though they live longer, to every 1000 males.
Poignant reminder...
The Taj Mahal in Mumbai - the hotel of the cricket world - is fully functioning again, following the terrifying terrorist attack of November 2008. The Windsor across the park from the MCG in Melbourne, and the Hilton overlooking the Savannah in Port-of-Spain, have had their moments but this is still the place.
In addition to the players enjoying respite from fans outside, cricket administrators have been planning how to make sure no active politician ever becomes ICC president again, after Pawar.
The security is so intense traffic has been banned from the street outside, and the Gateway of India is deserted, but that allows the crows to be heard in the trees surrounding the pool. After the violence, again, birdsong.

Hundreds stage pillow fight in central London

On International Pillow Fight Day, hundreds flocked to Trafalgar Square in central London to bop one another over the head. 

Tom Nizio had come equipped for a fight – with starry pyjama trousers on his legs and a pillow in his rucksack.

"I love this kind of fun," said Mr Nizio, 29, from Acton, west London, surveying the gathering crowd in Trafalgar Square yesterday. "I heard about it on Facebook, and just thought, I've got to have some of this."

He released the pillow from his rucksack and set off on his rollerblades. It was about to begin – the novelty addition to the London season, International Pillow Fight Day.

Organised – sort of – in cities around the world, International Pillow Fight Day can best be described as a global gathering of those who have yet to grow out of pillow fights, with a bit of charity fund-raising on the side.

It is the brainchild of Kevin Bracken and Lori Kufner, who, in 2005 while students at Toronto University in Canada, founded the art group Newmindspace.

International Pillow Fight Day started in 2008, but pillow fighting has always been part of Bracken and Kufner's oeuvre. Indeed, judging by their online "how-to" guide, it can change the world.
"This is a building block of our goal to spread free event culture to every corner of the world.
"Imagine that anywhere on the face of the Earth, there may some day be free, fun, massive public events like pillow fights and interactive art installations on every day of the year.
"Imagine that in the future, we will be united by our drive to live free, fun public lives! That is the era we dream of."
None of which seemed to put anyone off. They had come to Trafalgar Square in their hundreds, in fluffy slippers, dressing gowns, skintight jumpsuits, elephant outfits and other liberal interpretations of the pyjama dress code.
Some had no sensible reason to be here.
"There's not much thought gone into it," said Fredrika Drake, 25, a waitress from Camden, north London. "I just thought – awesome! Fun!"
Others may have thought about it too much.
Josie Colgate, 32, a sales adviser, brandished her pillow and glanced slyly at her boyfriend Sam Hobson, 28, from Maidstone, Kent.
"He's my main target. I don't normally get the opportunity."
The klaxon sounded. Trafalgar Square filled with about 200 swinging pillows and innumerable flying feathers.
All this, in front of smiling Police officers – despite an apparent lack of any official permission.
At the Greater London Authority, the landowner of Trafalgar Square, a Mayoral spokeswoman said tersely: "No permission has been given. We are not providing further comment."
Perhaps unsurprisingly, whoever was "organising" Saturday's pillow fight had adopted the "I'm Spartacus" approach to leadership responsibility.
On the section of the International Pillow Fight Day's website inviting each city's organisers to identify who was hosting their event, the Londoners had simply entered: "We all are."
It fitted the philosophy of the movement's founders, which may appeal to anyone trying to cut through red tape to organise a Royal Wedding street party.
"Never ask permission," Bracken and Kufner have written. "It is very unlikely anybody will say yes. The permit culture we citizens witness in city halls around the world is perhaps the single largest barrier to experiencing the full richness of public life in the cities we live in. Public assembly is a human right."
And money from the £5 "whack n' keep" souvenir pillows was going to raise funds for aid to the tsunami-struck areas of Japan.
Similar scenes were being re-enacted yesterday in about 130 locations, from Adelaide, Australia, to Zurich, Switzerland - via Chisinau, Moldova; Caracas, Venezuela; and Seoul, South Korea.
As for Tom the rollerblading builder, he was last seen charging into the melee offering the closest that anyone came to tactical insight.
"I'm just going to go in and hit anyone who comes in my way."
He vanished into in a cloud of feathers, pillows and pyjamas – the fog of pillow combat.

Rs 100cr riding on Sachin’s 100th international century

Cricketer Sachin Tendulkar during a training session at Eden Gardens in Kolkata. India and Sri......

It’s a Rs 100-crore question. Will Sachin Tendulkar get his 100th international century  in the World Cup semi-final clash between India and Pakistan at Mohali on Wednesday? Bookies, who have already accepted bets of Rs60 crore on Tendulkar scoring a century against Pakistan, expect the figure to cross the Rs100-crore mark by Wednesday.

“The craze surrounding Sachin’s 100th international hundred, especially against Pakistan, has given us a good business opportunity,” said a city bookie, requesting anonymity because the betting business is illegal.
He added that despite the odds going against Tendulkar’s ton, most people are placing bets in his favour.
The odds on Tendulkar scoring a century are Rs 4.5 per rupee bet. But bookies are hopeful of Sachin scoring a half-century — the odds are Rs 1.1 per rupee bet. The lower the rate, the higher the chances of that result taking place.
Not just Tendulkar, bookies feel that neither an Indian nor a Pakistani player would be able to score a century on Wednesday. “That’s because both sides are expected to give 100% in fielding and bowling, thereby restricting runs,” the bookie explained.
The bookies also expect Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir and Yuvraj Singh to score 50 runs and more.
India are favoured to win the match against Pakistan with the odds of 62 paise for every rupee. Pakistan are far behind with a rate of Rs 1.55.
India are also favourites to lift the World Cup and are quoted at Rs 1.62 per rupee bet. Sri Lanka follow closely with a rate of Rs 1.8.
Bookies also expect a record turnover for the India-Pakistan match. “The match is expected to generate around Rs 6,000 crore,” the bookie said. This would be the highest turnover for a single cricket match. The India-Australia match on March 24 had witnessed a business of Rs 2,000 crore.

Protesters clash with police in Mohali

Security personnel guarding the PCA stadium ahead of the Cricket World Cup semifinal match between Pakistan and India in Mohali on Monday.

The security apparatus of the PCA stadium, scheduled to host the World Cup semifinal, was tested here today as pharmacists from the state staged a vociferous protest when the Pakistani team was practicing inside the stadium.

The agitating pharmacists, working on contract, were demanding regularisation of their jobs and had gathered here from various parts of Punjab, police sources said.

The Police used tear gas shells and water canons to control the protesters. One media—person, who was caught in the melee, was hurt.

Dozens of OB vans and camera crew are currently stationed outside the stadium. Prime Ministers of both India and Pakistan and a host of VVIPs are scheduled to come here on Wednesday to watch the match between the traditional rivals.

Police said protesters pelted stones at the cops and damaged some private vehicles.

However, the agitators alleged police high handedness, saying they were holding a peaceful protest in support of their demands 

F.B.I. Casts Wide Net Under Relaxed Rules for Terror Inquiries, Data Show

 John Ashcroft, an attorney general in the Bush administration, loosened F.B.I. rules after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., has not changed policies on F.B.I. investigation rules that were relaxed by the Bush administration in 2008.


WASHINGTON — Within months after the Bush administration relaxed limits on domestic-intelligence gathering in late 2008, the F.B.I. assessed thousands of people and groups in search of evidence that they might be criminals or terrorists, a newly disclosed Justice Department document shows. 


In a vast majority of those cases, F.B.I. agents did not find suspicious information that could justify more intensive investigations. The New York Times obtained the data, which the F.B.I. had tried to keep secret, after filing a lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act.
The document, which covers the four months from December 2008 to March 2009, says the F.B.I. initiated 11,667 “assessments” of people and groups. Of those, 8,605 were completed. And based on the information developed in those low-level inquiries, agents opened 427 more intensive investigations, it says.
The statistics shed new light on the F.B.I.’s activities in the post-Sept. 11 era, as the bureau’s focus has shifted from investigating crimes to trying to detect and disrupt potential criminal and terrorist activity.
It is not clear, though, whether any charges resulted from the inquiries. And because the F.B.I. provided no comparable figures for a period before the rules change, it is impossible to determine whether the numbers represent an increase in investigations.
Still, privacy advocates contend that the large number of assessments that turned up no sign of wrongdoing show that the rules adopted by the Bush administration have created too low a threshold for starting an inquiry. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. has left those rules in place.
Michael German, a former F.B.I. agent who is now a policy counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, argued that the volume of fruitless assessments showed that the Obama administration should tighten the rules.
“These are investigations against completely innocent people that are now bound up within the F.B.I.’s intelligence system forever,” Mr. German said. “Is that the best way for the F.B.I. to use its resources?”
But Valerie E. Caproni, the bureau’s general counsel, said the numbers showed that agents were running down any hint of a potential problem — including vigilantly checking out potential leads that might have been ignored before the Sept. 11 attacks.
“Recognize that the F.B.I.’s policy — that I think the American people would support — is that any terrorism lead has to be followed up,” Ms. Caproni said. “That means, on a practical level, that things that 10 years ago might just have been ignored now have to be followed up.”
F.B.I. investigations are controlled by guidelines first put in place by Attorney General Edward H. Levi during the Ford administration, after the disclosure that the bureau had engaged in illegal domestic spying for decades. After the Sept. 11 attacks, those rules were loosened by Attorney General John Ashcroft and then again by Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey.
Some Democrats and civil liberties groups protested the Mukasey guidelines, contending that the new rules could open the door to racial or religious profiling and to fishing expeditions against Americans.
In 2006, The New York Times reported that the National Security Agency had each month been flooding the bureau with thousands of names, phone numbers and e-mail addresses that its surveillance and data-mining programs had deemed suspicious. But frustrated agents found that virtually all of the tips led to dead ends or innocent Americans.
When the Mukasey guidelines went into effect in December 2008, they allowed the F.B.I. to use a new category of investigation called an “assessment.” It permits an agent, “proactively or based on investigative leads,” to scrutinize a person or a group for signs of a criminal or national security threat, according to the F.B.I. manual.
The manual also says agents need “no particular factual predication” about a target to open an assessment, although the basis “cannot be arbitrary or groundless speculation.” And in selecting subjects for such scrutiny, agents are allowed to use ethnicity, religion or speech protected by the First Amendment as a factor — as long as it is not the only one.
An assessment is less intensive than a more traditional “preliminary” inquiry or a “full” investigation, which requires greater reason to suspect wrongdoing but also allows agents to use more intrusive information-gathering techniques, like wiretapping.
Still, in conducting an assessment, agents are allowed to use other techniques — searching databases, interviewing the subjects or people who know them, sending confidential informers to infiltrate an organization, attending a public meeting like a political rally or a religious service, and following and photographing people in public places.
In March 2009, Russ Feingold, then a Democratic senator from Wisconsin, asked the F.B.I. how many assessments it had initiated under the new guidelines and how many regular investigations had been opened based on information developed by those assessments.
In November 2010, the Justice Department sent a classified letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee answering Mr. Feingold’s question. This month, it provided an uncensored copy of the same answer to The Times as a result of its Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.
F.B.I. officials said in an interview that the statistics represented a snapshot as of late March 2009, so the 11,667 assessment files were generated over a roughly four-month period. But they said they believed that agents had continued to open assessments at roughly the same pace since then.
Some aspects of the statistics are hazy, officials cautioned.
For example, even before the December 2008 changes, the bureau routinely followed up on low-grade tips and leads under different rules. But that activity was not formally tracked as an “assessment” that could be easily counted and compared.
F.B.I. officials also said about 30 percent of the 11,667 assessments were just vague tips — like a report of a suspicious car that included no license plate number. Such tips are entered into its computer system even if there is no way to follow up on them.
Finally, they said, it is impossible to know precisely how many assessments turned up suspicious facts. A single assessment may have spun off more than one higher investigation, and some agents may have neglected to record when such an investigation started as an assessment.
Ms. Caproni also said that even though the F.B.I. manual says agents can open assessments “proactively,” they still must always have a valid reason — like a tip that is not solid enough to justify a more intensive level of investigation but should still be checked out.
But Mr. German, of the A.C.L.U., said that allowing agents to initiate investigations without a factual basis “seems ripe for abuse.” He added, “What they should be doing is working within stricter guidelines that help them focus on real threats rather than spending time chasing shadows.”

Ponting to quit after World Cup: reports

Ricky Ponting's World Cup campaign has been filled with much-publicised frustrations.

Besieged Australian captain Ricky Ponting reportedly plans to retire from international cricket at the end of his team's World Cup campaign.

England's MailOnline website claims in an unsourced report that Ponting - Australia's most successful skipper - will resign if his side loses to India in tomorrow night's quarter-final in Ahmedabad.
The website says Ponting wants to end his career captaining an English county side.
The 36-year-old has come under increasing pressure recently after a string of poor performances with the bat and several shows of frustration.
Ponting has managed just 102 runs at 20.40 at the World Cup, less than half his 358-match career average.
He has not scored a one-day international century in more than a year, his most recent coming when he struck 106 against the West Indies in February 2010 at the Gabba.

Axing talk 'gutless'

Meanwhile, Australian Cricketers' Association (ACA) chief Paul Marsh has lashed out at talk that Ponting could be axed as captain as "gutless" and "irresponsible".
Marsh was seething at a report in the Sydney Morning Herald on Tuesday, citing an unnamed Cricket Australia official as saying there was stiff opposition at boardroom level to Ponting staying in the job.
"We need to be looking at the future. It's time for us to make a change," said the official in comments that reverberated around the Australian camp in India.
Marsh was not impressed, particularly with the speculation coming so close to the India quarter-final clash on Thursday.
"Firstly, if a senior official is going to make such inflammatory comments about our national captain, and one of this country's greatest-ever players, how about having the guts to at least put your name to them," he said.
"Secondly, the team is days away from one of its biggest games in recent memory and now they have to deal with the speculation and discussion surrounding these irresponsible comments.
"I've been scratching my head all day trying to work out why someone associated with CA would make these comments two days before a World Cup quarter-final."
Ponting, who has been captain for nine years, was under pressure even before the World Cup, having earned the dubious distinction of becoming the only Australian skipper to fail to win the Ashes three times.
He has done himself no favours in India, taking a reprimand from the International Cricket Council after smashing a dressing-room TV in a fit of fury after being run out during Australia's win over Zimbabwe.
He was also criticised for angrily throwing the ball to the ground after colliding with team-mate Steven Smith during their victory over Canada, and for failing to walk in Saturday's defeat to Pakistan.
But the team has rallied round the star batsman.
"From my point of view he's the best man for the job, and has been our leader for a long time. He's certainly got the full support of all the team. We love having him as our captain," said Michael Hussey.

Defeat the Libyan regime. And then?

Vehicles belonging to forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi explode after an air strike by coalition forces

In 1975, Muammar Gaddafi told the Italian journalist Mirella Bianco: "When the people takes power it becomes its own government; and at that moment it is I who will find myself in opposition." Now, with British and French combat jets targeting the Libyan regime's murderous campaign to regain rebel-held cities, part of that statement appears prophetic: 42 years after Col Gaddafi seized power, dusk appears to be upon a man Anwar Sadat, Egypt's late president, once described as "100 per cent sick and possessed by the devil".

Libya's anaemic military won't be hard to defeat. From the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, though, we have learnt that the real test of an intervention isn't the defeat of the regime it targets: it is what comes next. There is good reason to fear that the people's own government of which Col Gaddafi spoke won't be much better than the dystopia that preceded it.

Power in Libya's rebel-held regions now lies with a disordered mosaic of tribal patriarchs and mid-ranking military officers who have abandoned the regime for more primordial allegiances.

Eastern Libya's Zuwaya and Misratah tribal chieftains, who enjoyed great power before Col Gaddafi took over, sense an opportunity to seize control of oil revenues. In the west, the Warfala, under pressure from the regime since an abortive 1993 rebellion, see a chance to settle scores.

For the most part, this leadership seems to have a moral compass that points in much the same direction as that of the regime. Tarek Saad Husain, a Benghazi-based rebel commander, warned the residents of Col Gaddafi's home town: "Either you join us, or we will finish you."

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Libya's tribes, moreover, aren't the only ones flying their flags on the streets. Fighters have established an Islamic emirate in Derna, 775 miles from Tripoli, while jihadists trained in Sudan and Afghanistan are said to be fighting alongside tribal rebels.
To make sense of this exceptionally muddy landscape one needs an understanding of Libya's complex political history. Libya has been described as "anti-state": deriving power not through taxation but rents from oil; through the provision of patronage, rather than real institutions; through terror rather than a functional military. The country's armed forces, for example, were only 91,000 strong at their peak in the 1980s – about a third of the number needed, the expert Anthony Cordesman has estimated, to operate its gargantuan equipment stockpiles.
In 1969, when a group of military officers led by Col Gaddafi overthrew King Idris bin Muhammad as-Senussi, they won neither a nation nor a state – and kept it that way.
Libya's Ottoman rulers had left large swaths of the country ungoverned. Italian colonialism brought together Tripolitania in the west, Cyrenaica in the east, and arid central Fezzan, through a ferocious war that ran from 1922 to 1935, and involved the liberal use of poison gas against tribesmen.
Eastern tribes, who played a key role in the struggle against the Italians, won out in the negotiations that led to Libya's independence. King Idris, their figurehead, received the throne as a Christmas Eve gift in 1951.
King Idris was the grandson of Sayyid Muhammad ibn Ali as-Senussi, the founder of a religious order inspired by the fundamentalist Wahhabi order of Saudi Arabia. The Senussi commanded great influence in eastern Libya, where they successfully arbitrated between feuding tribes.
The monarchy soon accumulated unprecedented wealth. In 1953, Britain obtained the rights to station troops in Libya for £3.75 million a year; the United States leased an airbase at $4 million a year. The last nine years of King Idris's rule also saw Libya become the world's fifth-largest oil exporter.
But the boom led to growing income disparities and a surge of migrants into Tripoli. The city doubled in size between 1960 and 1964, creating joblessness and social tensions on a scale the monarchy simply couldn't handle.
King Idris's regime, the scholar Carole Collins has noted, needed "to perform the functions of a national bourgeoisie – to regenerate and reinvest capital, and to develop infrastructure".
Instead, the monarchy, described by the former American diplomat James Akins as "one of the most corrupt in the world", survived by funnelling funds to its clients among the eastern tribes.
Following the coup, Col Gaddafi continued with the system – though his own Qadhafa tribe and its allies became the principal beneficiaries of the patronage system, instead of their eastern rivals.
In return for their loyalty, tribal leaders received benefits such as key jobs and contracts in projects like the £7.5 billion man-made river that sucks water from underground aquifers to feed Libya's cities and farms.
Gaddafi's manifesto, The Green Book, applauded the tribe as a form of "natural social protection". The state, by contrast, was an "artificial political, economic and sometimes military system which has no link to human values".
Luis Martinez, in his book The Libyan Paradox, pointed to the pre-modern regime-building practices of revolutionary Libya. Khuwaylidi al-Hamidi, the chief of police, married his son, Khalid, to Gaddafi's flamboyant daughter, Aisha Gaddafi, and one of his daughters to the ruler's son, Saadi.
The army became the stage on which tribal tensions were played out – just as they had been before the coup.
In 1993, for example, Abdel Salam Jalloud – Libya's long-standing second-in-command and a trusted lieutenant who had, in 1970, been dispatched to offer China £75 million for a nuclear weapon – attempted to seize power.
Mr Jalloud's Magariha tribe backed him, along with the Warfalla and al-Zintan – much the same coalition that is fighting Col Gaddafi today. Intense fighting was seen in the Bani Walid area, 80 miles south-east of Tripoli. But the air force, packed with recruits from Col Gaddafi's Qadhafa, held fast and the regime won.
Eight plotters were executed in January 1997. Later that year, new laws institutionalised collective punishment of tribes through the denial of entitlements as the punishment for rebellion.
Even as Col Gaddafi moved to suppress tribal tensions, though, a new threat was emerging. In the 1980s, he had encouraged thousands of Libyans to join the jihad in Afghanistan, as part of his desire to emerge as a leader of the Islamic world. But when they returned to Libya, they served a different god.
In 1984, Libyan authorities hanged two students alleged to have been members of Islamist groups on the campus of the al-Fateh university in Tripoli; nine more were executed at Benghazi in 1987.
Fighting between the al-Qaeda-linked Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) and regime forces in Benghazi claimed dozens of lives in 1995. In 1996, there was further fighting around Derna and Benghazi. Britain, according to David Shayler, a former MI5 officer, funded the LIFG, to punish Col Gaddafi's support of terrorists in the west. Even though the LIFG was eventually crushed, and, following the events of 9/11, internationally proscribed, the jihadists had gained political legitimacy. In May 2009, thousands attended the funeral of Ali Mohamed al-Fakheri, a high-ranking al-Qaeda member who died in a Tripoli prison.
Libyan Islamists have, worryingly, been winning battles for the first time this year. Last month, jihadists led by rebel military officer Adnan al-Nawisri seized hundreds of weapons and vehicles from depots in Derna and proclaimed what they are calling the Islamic Emirate of Barqa, the ancient name for western Libya.
Abdelkarim al-Hasadi, who fought with Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan, appears to have de facto control of the Derna Emirate. Men like al-Hasadi are certain to get what support al-Qaeda can muster. Osama bin Laden's inner circle includes Muhammad Hassan Qayid, known also as Abu Yahya al-Libi, the younger brother of the LIFG leader Abdul Wahhab Qayid Idris.
For decades, the social conditions for an Islamist insurgency did not exist in Libya. In a 1999 interview, LIFG spokesperson Omar Rashed lamented that Libya's people had not "passed beyond the stage of sentiments to the stage of action".
Paradoxically, the neoliberal economic policies ushered in by Shokri Ghanem, the prime minister, and Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the ruler's son, may have helped just that to happen, by weakening the patronage networks on which the regime was built.
Libya's tribal patriarchs may wish only for a redistribution of the spoils of power, not a revolution.
But many young people see the regime's pro-western policies as the root of their problems and want more fundamental changes.
If the Libyan war drags on, warring tribal factions will seek support where they can find it – and the jihadists will be happy to oblige them.
"War is the father of all things," wrote the Greek poet and philosopher Heraclitus, "the king of all: some it has shown as gods, some as men; some it has made slaves, some free." His lesson is simple: we must beware the consequences not just of defeat, but also of victory.