CD 'exposing' Ajit Jogi's son heats up Chhattisgarh politics
NAT28National/Politics/CrimeCD 'exposing' Ajit Jogi's son heats up Chhattisgarh politicsRaipur, Oct 6 IANS A CD that allegedly shows that former Chhattisgarh chief minister Ajit Jogi's son Amit was acquitted in a 2003 murder case because the Congress leader bribed the judge has charged up the political atmosphere in the state, where assembly polls are due to be held by year-end.The CD was released at a press conference here Oct 1 by families of two former Youth Congress members Yahya Dhebar and Abhay Goel, who were sentenced to life imprisonment for their role in the June 4, 2003, murder of Nationalist Congress Party NCP state unit treasurer Ramavtar Jaggi. The Dhebar and Goel families had for years been close to the family of Ajit Jogi, who was the chief minister at the time of Jaggi's murder. The controversial CD shows Ajay Tidke, son of district and sessions court judge B.L. Tidke, claiming that his father acquitted Amit in May 2007 as he was given a bribe of Rs.2.5 million.The Jaggi murder was probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation CBI, which charge-sheeted Amit Jogi as prime accused along with several others as co-accused. However, judge B.L. Tikde acquitted 31-year-old Amit Jogi and convicted the 28 others.The CD has now given the Bharatiya Janata Party, ruling the state, an opportunity to score points against rival Congress leader Ajit Jogi.BJP national spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad rushed to Raipur Oct 2 and told reporters: "I have gone through the CD. It's a very serious issue and the high court should take suo motto cognisance of it."BJP workers as well as anti-Jogi factions in the state Congress have been distributing copies of the CD across the state and screening it at busy squares to derive political mileage.On Saturday, Ajay Tidke lodged a first information report FIR against the Dhebar and Goel families and they responded with a counter FIR against him the next day."Both parties have lodged FIRs against each other. The FIRs are basically about criminal intimidation, not about the authenticity of the CD," Superintendent of Police Amit Kumar told IANS. The Dhebars and Goels met Chief Minister Raman Singh last week and sought a high-level probe into Amit Jogi's acquittal.The BJP youth wing and several smaller parties have also sought appointments with Governor E.S.L Narasimhan to seek his intervention for a high-level probe into Amit Jogi's acquital. --Indo-Asian News Service suj/sh/vt439 Words06101633
2008-10-06 07:00:00Whiz kids morph Britney's picture
ENT7Entertainment/Showbiz/InternationalWhiz kids morph Britney's pictureLondon, Oct 5 IANS Britney Spears is caught in an Internet hoax after computer whiz kids superimposed the singer's face on Tyra Banks' body and passed the images off as the CD cover of her new song “Womanizer”.Contactmusic.com reports that the raunchy pictures show a woman in a black corset-style leotard, brandishing a cane. In another shot, the female is shown placing her cane on a semi-naked man's chest as a snake slithers over his body.But the images have been exposed as fakes by Britney's record label Sony BMG because label bosses have yet to see the photographs themselves, let alone release them online."These pictures have nothing to do with us. We haven't even seen the official cover pictures yet because they have only just been shot. I haven't a clue why someone should do this but there are all sorts of pictures of Britney around. There's a lot of made-up stuff on the internet, too," said a spokesperson for Sony BMG.The photos of former supermodel Banks are the promo shots from a previous run of her reality TV show “America's Next Top Model”. --Indo-Asian News Servicear/dg208 Words05101110
2008-10-05 02:00:00New anti-tumour vaccine shows promising results in mice
Washington, Oct 3 ANI: Scientists and clinicians at Children's National Medical Center in collaboration with University of Iowa researchers have developed a new anti-tumour vaccine for neuroblastoma and melanoma.While conducting a study on mice, researchers found that the vaccine uses the tumour's own protein to induce an immune system response, allowing for a personalized approach to treatment. Developed in the laboratory of Children's National Chief of General and Thoracic Surgery Anthony Sandler, MD, the vaccine and delivery system involves the creation of synthetic microparticles known as "immune stimulatory antigen loaded particles" ISAPs, that consist of tumour antigens proteins from the specific tumour to be targeted, as well as immune stimulatory agents. The ISAPs are detected and engulfed by specialized immune cells and sensed to be immune-stimulating "foreign bodies." The study shows that ISAPs are effective at blocking the growth of tumours in mice by inducing activation of immune cells that then stimulate the immune system to specifically target the tumour whose antigens match those that are loaded in the particles - known as tumour specific immunity. However, the researchers also found that the impact of ISAPs on tumour growth was partially mitigated by an increased presence of regulatory t-cells T-reg when ISAPs are introduced into the body. The researchers believe that T-regs play a key role in how the vaccine impacts tumour growth by suppressing the development of the specific immune cells needed to combat the tumour. By adding a T-reg suppressor such as cyclosphosphamide or anti-CD25 antibody, the scientists were able to have a greater impact on preventing tumour growth using the ISAP approach. "For tumours like neuroblastoma, reduction to minimal residual disease with standard therapies like chemotherapy and/or surgical resection and subsequent treatment with this vaccine could quite possibly cure the patient of the disease in the not too distant future," said Sandler, lead author of the study. "Creation of ISAPs allows us to target our treatments to the specific tumour of interest, a capability that will more effectively combat a wide range of these tumours in a personalized fashion," he added. The study is published in the October edition of the research journal Cancer Immunology, Immunotherapy. ANI
2008-10-03 23:00:00Freebie approach looks to entice Kenyans into HIV tests
INT7International/HealthFreebie approach looks to entice Kenyans into HIV testsBy Michael LoganNairobi, Sep 30 DPA In the small rural village of Eshisiru in Western Kenya, hundreds of women in colourful dresses, many of them surrounded by a gaggle of children, queue patiently in the midday sun. These women are not waiting to draw water from a borehole or to buy food. Instead, they are waiting to be tested for HIV - something that campaigners say is virtually unheard of in Africa.The concept behind the programme that has brought people out in such numbers is very simple: Giving away a long-lasting insecticide-treated mosquito net, a water filter and condoms in exchange for taking the test."The response has been overwhelming," says Peter Cleary, communications director of Vestergaard Frandsen, the private company providing the free pack and funding the testing. "Over 10,000 people showed up on the first day; on the second day we had almost as many."The project, run in cooperation with the Kenyan Ministry of Health and other non-governmental organisations, aims to test 43,000 sexually active people aged 15-49 across Lurambi District.At the moment, less than 20 percent of Kenyans know their HIV status and there are an estimated 1.2 million HIV-infected Kenyans who do not know they carry the virus.You don't have to be a health worker to deduce a person ignorant of his or her status is more likely to spread the disease, and most of the people taking the test acknowledge this."It is important to be tested because if people know their status they are going to change their behaviour," says 30-year-old Sarah Mukoshi, who queued for over two hours before receiving her pack.However, those involved in running the project - many of whom have taken part in previous, less successful testing campaigns for various diseases - are in no doubt the real reason people have turned out is the freebies."They are all saying they came to be tested, but you have to ask yourself why there is such a difference in turnout now," says Louis da Gama of Global Health Advocates.Even experienced campaigners like da Gama are surprised by the demand, but the desire to get a hold of a free mosquito net is perfectly understandable given that malaria is one of the top killers in Africa.Around 90 percent of the one million deaths from malaria each year occur in Africa, largely due to the lack of preventative measures.In Kenya, only 52 percent of all children sleep under a mosquito net. The figure for pregnant women is 37 percent.Considering that according to World Health Organization figures, diarrhoea accounts for up to 7.7 percent of all deaths in Africa, the water filter also is a major draw.So attractive is the free pack that even frail old men and women, not exactly a high risk group for HIV/AIDS, have been showing up to be tested.Part of the apparent success is also down to holding the testing in a central location, thus encouraging everyone to come at the same time and overcoming the stigma of individual testing."Because people are coming in big numbers, nobody is embarrassed," says Christine Amboya, 23, as she is queuing together with her neighbours.For those who do test positive, counselling is immediately available to help deal with the blow of being diagnosed HIV positive."Most people come expecting to be negative because they don't feel sick and are still able to work," says Beatrice Awino, manager of the Eshisiru testing site."They are distraught when they find out they are positive."Also important is the fact that machines are located at many of the sites to test people's CD4 count - the marker which determines the need to begin anti-retroviral treatment.At Eshisiru alone, 40 people tested positive out of 650 in the first two days - slightly below the estimated national infection rate.Of those 40 people, eight had to be put on to anti-retrovirals - made available in advance by the Kenyan Ministry of Health - immediately.However, as successful as the testing programme appears to be in the early stages, it still has to be rolled out across Kenya to help the East African nation meet its goal of having 80 percent of all adults know their HIV status by 2010.Vestergaard Frandsen is only funding the initial 43,000 tests, but from the level of interest being shown in the project, the money to take the project nationwide should not be long in coming.--DPAskp/806 Words30090843
2008-09-30 01:02:09Sanjay Gadhvi to hold screening of 'Kidnap' for Aditya Chopra
ENT11Entertainment/CinemaSanjay Gadhvi to hold screening of 'Kidnap' for Aditya ChopraBy Subhash K. JhaMumbai, Sep 29 IANS Sanjay Gandhvi, who's ready with his latest release "Kidnap", might have parted ways with Yash Raj Films after the successful "Dhoom" series, but the director says he owes it all to the Chopras, for whom he will hold a special screening of his new film. Gandhvi is upbeat about the Imran Khan starrer "Kidnap" and wants to show the film to his mentor Aditya Chopra. "After the screening for the cast and crew I'll hold a special show at Yash Raj Studios for Yashji and Adi. And as a sign of respect I also gave the first CD to them. I am what I am because of them. I go to the Yash Raj office every fortnight to have lunch and hang around. They send me CDs of all their films. I'm in touch with Uday and Aditya," Gadhvi told IANS.Releasing Thursday, the film also stars Sanjay Dutt and Minissha Lamba.Gadhvi's "Kidnap" will clash with Abhishek Bachchan's "Drona", an actor who many feel got a raw deal in "Dhoom 2". Much water has, however, passed under the box office bridge since then and Gandhvi feels that there is room enough during the festive season for two biggies at the box office."We have a four-day weekend starting with Thursday when we're both releasing. And then they're two completely different kinds of films. Earlier, we've had two films on the same day doing well -- 'Gadar - Ek Prem Katha' and 'Lagaan', for example. Besides it's Eid. Everyone releases films on Friday. We're releasing on dry day. We were supposed to release in August but were pushed forward," Gadhvi said. Minissha was cast in Yash Raj's "Bachna Ae Haseeno" after she started shooting for Gadhvi's "Kidnap". "I was at Yash Raj's office once. And Adi asked me how she was. The next thing I knew she was cast in a Yash Raj film," said Gadhvi.After the release of "Kidnap", Gadhvi intends to take a break. "I feel burnt out. I haven't had a break in 19 years. I live with my parents. I've a wife and kids. The children are not brats, fortunately."Gadhvi's father is a Gujarati filmmaker. "He has made two Gujarati films both with music by Kalyanji-Anandji. I grew up in their house with Kalyanji bhai's son Viju Shah. We Gadhvis are a community of storytellers. I hope I've done a good job of it in 'Kidnap'."--Indo-Asian News Serviceskj/ak/dg466 Words29091600
2008-09-29 06:03:10People are skeptical about market: Chairman of Earthstone Group
Mumbai, Sept 25 ANI/Business Wire India: Financial markets are all about confidence in the system and an underlying assumption that system will not fail. But, after the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in USA and Northern Rock in the UK and the bailout of Fannie, Freddie and AIG investors, people have lost confidence in the system. In fact, some people have even started being skeptical, if any system exists at all.Their doubts are not unfounded as the tricky web of Credit Default Swaps CDS and Collateralized Debt Obligations CDO, which are traded privately and no one, including SEC, FED or the US Treasury regulates them.There is an unregulated trillion dollar market which has no system in place to track, follow and regulate the flow of deals and transactions. It all started with the boom in the US real estate market a decade back. The cheap credit fuelled the real estate rally for almost a decade. The innovative Investment Bankers at Wall Street wanted a pie of the action and devised some new innovative instruments like mortgage-backed securities and insured them with Credit Default Swaps.It was a great innovation as home owners got cheap credit hence they kept buying more and more. Mortgage companies then started packing these mortgages as underlying securities and sold and resold them through investment banks.Lehman and Merrill who were initially acting as Investment Banks eventually ended up buying these securities by leveraging with Commercial Banks like UBS. Next, UBS funded securities like these, by innovating Credit Default Swaps insurance in case of a Credit Default which was written mostly by firms like AIG.Everyone thought they were safe. The Mortgage Banks were the most to benefit as they were able to lend more and more and make the spread. Investment Banks made profits in brokering the deal and eventually started making spreads. Some of them even took principal positions in some projects and benefited due to real estate prices going northwards. The liquidity was just too much. It was a classic situation where banks wanted to fund anything which was collateralized by assets and packaged as a product insured by derivatives like CDS.This is where Investment Banks and their thirst to increase their bottom lines came in to the picture practically. When the Prime Lending saturated, they started to hunt Sub Prime Borrowers and mortgage companies who were specialists in Sub Prime lending Sub Prime Lending basically means lending to those who do not have a good credit history, with loan and credit card defaults, who otherwise do not qualify for a loan at prime lending rates.The sub-prime lending market peaked in 2007 with cumulative lending of more than 1.5 Trillion USD. Most of which was funded by mortgage backed securities sold to or through investment banks to commercial banks worldwide including banks in Europe and Japan. Firms like Lehman leveraged 30 times of their asset base. For every one USD assets, they borrowed 30 USD, and the enormous leverage left hardly any room in case of a fall in real estate prices.With the bubble bursting in the US real estate market with more and more borrowers failing to repay and refinance their mortgages, the mortgage backed securities which were collateralized started falling in value; the fair value accounting practices becoming the biggest problem for investment and commercial banks. When the underlying asset starts falling in value, a borrower must top up the margin. Now there were two problems, how to value the asset and how to calculate the Mark-to-Market margins for such securities which always traded privately.For the first one or two quarters, no one really knew how to price them and how to decide on the losses and write them off the books. Investors faced similar problems in understanding the complexity of the whole thing. The likes of Merrill, Citi and AIG raised more than 70 Billion USD during the first phase of the crisis.By the end of phase I, everybody realized it's next to impossible to price them and get the mark-to-market value for them, which means, they're as good as junk and need to be written off 100 per cent, and by doing so firms like Lehman, Merrill and even Morgan had no other choice other than to raise capital or find a merger partner or to go bankrupt! Merrill and Morgan were lucky as the Government came out with a bail-out plan, which if it had come a week earlier, could have saved Lehman.The crux of the problem was that innovative investment banks created a web of derivative instruments which traded privately in a completely unregulated environment. Plenty of leverage for all and sundry with no room for errors relying more on instruments like CDS to cover the risk without actual ownership of the asset or knowledge of the credit quality of the borrower was the heart of the problem.To a great extent the bail-out will help, as it will provide liquidity of non-liquid securities and help banks to get rid of toxic debt paper. It will bring back much needed liquidity in the system, which means banks will start lending again, and that will help stabilize the ailing real estate market.'Confidence' will be 'Restored' in the 'System' and those seating on cash will start participating again, which in turn will help to stimulate global economy. Sovereign Wealth Funds who are seating on cash because of the commodities boom last year and are on the sidelines will be able to pitch in.What the bailout plan really offers banks and financial institutions is a window of liquidity to dump the non-liquid mortgage backed securities which are not trading anymore on the Wall Street. The big problem will be how to price such securities which have always trade privately. This is where the banks may lose more, but at least they'll be able to exit such investments and limit their losses.China has a robust Domestic Capital Market and Institutional mechanism to help the markets recover. The government is pro-active in taking steps to calm investor worries and has enough forex reserves to weather any storm.USA will go through the pains for one or two more quarters but eventually recover. As the confidence returns to the 'System', the likes of Morgan and Citi will be able to raise capital once again. Most of them will want to off-load part of their toxic debt to Fed but will still want to keep a major part of it on their balance sheet as that's where they can have an upside once the real estate market revives.As the bail-out plan is valid for two years, most of them who can raise capital and afford to keep these junk on their balance sheet will want to wait for at least 18 months for a real estate market revival which can give them a huge upside as most of them have already taken the hit. Worst case scenario, they can off load everything to Fed before 24 months in case of no revival, but the expectation of revival will fuel a rally in American markets. European Banks have limited exposure from now on as most of them have already taken huge hits in the past 3 quarters, but the Wall Street bail out plan doesn't offer them anything in particular. Europe will continue to trade in the sidelines.Japan will go through an interim recession as Japanese banks and institutions are the biggest losers in the present crisis and a tricky political situation and lack of government intervention, will slowdown the pace for lending and credit which will slow down the whole economy.Emerging Markets will witness a short term rally but investors will want to sell at every level as they're hit the hardest due to lack of liquidity and are also amongst the most thinly traded markets. Investors will use every opportunity to exit from junk and dud stocks from these markets but the bluechips will be favored again. In short there is no hot money chasing the dud and junk stocks anymore. There will be smart money chasing fewer bluechips, which will result into indices going up but won't result into an all-out rally and boom in capital market in emerging countries. Indonesia is fairly insulated from the present crisis though it's heavily dependent on foreign investors for liquidity in the markets, slow down of foreign investment may impact trading volumes for some time. Coal prices will cool down in short term as demand from India will decrease as financialclosures of major power projects get delayed due to present market conditions, which in turn will depress the commodity driven Jakarta Index.In short there are no free lunches anymore; we all have to work really hard to make every penny in the market.Author is Pankaj Shah, Chairman of Earthstone Group, Indonesia. ANI
2008-09-25 16:00:00Mystery owner of clothes sought
Police investigate the mystery appearance of clothes, a CD player and newspaper on a bench beside the Tay....
2008-09-23 09:00:00Companies joining to push music on memory cards AP
AP - Just as vinyl once gave way to compact discs as the main physical medium for music, could CDs be replaced now by a fingernail-sized memory card...
2008-09-22 06:43:06Jessica Simpson: Country Girl At Heart
Eight years ago Jessica Simpson was a pop star selling millions of albums, but now the native Texan has gone back to her roots to record some country tunes for her new CD "Do You Know." ...
2008-09-20 11:03:17Entertainment, tech cos. to unify digital media AP
AP - Buy a CD or DVD, and it should work on a variety of devices and personal computers....
2008-09-18 06:44:07
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