Melbourne, Feb 22: Cricket Australia has warned Andrew Symonds of a possible ban from the Indian Premier League (IPL) if he decides to boycott next month's Pakistan tour because of security fears, Australian media reported Friday.

Just hours before he became Australia's richest cricketer in the IPL auction on Wednesday night, Symonds declared that he would opt out of the tour, even if CA ruled Pakistan safe to visit next month.

At the request of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PC, the tour has been delayed until March 29 and cut to just three Tests with a hope that tensions in Pakistan will calm down in wake of this week's elections.

While Symonds softened his stance Thursday, claiming the door was 'ajar', the CA seemed in no mood to be kind to the star all-rounder and warned that he would be in breach of contract if he ignored the advice of CA and the Australian Cricketers' Association (ACA), a view which captain Ricky Ponting shared, the Herald Sun reported Friday.

Symonds would have to be given permission by CA to join the multi-million dollar league - a stipulation the IPL has endorsed - that would be extremely unlikely. Some senior CA officials said privately last night that a dangerous precedent would be set if Symonds had his own way.

CA spokesman Peter Young, however, refused to talk specifically about Symonds, who continues to infuriate the board officials.

But Young outlined the process that would await the all-rounder if he were the only Australian to boycott the trip on unfounded safety and security fears.

'Setting Andrew Symonds aside, that's a hypothetical question because at the moment he is telling us playing for Australia comes first,' Young said Thursday.

'There are 25 players that have signed contracts to play for Australia. Under the terms of that contract, they are required to play cricket for the nation as and where we want them.'

Young further specified that if an Australian player decides to take a break from national duties to take out time to play for any other team, he has to follow certain guidelines as mentioned in the contract.

'If players want to take leave from CA and effectively take time out to play for a second employer, (they) are required to go through a process as spelt out in the memorandum of understanding.

'It would lead them and their second employer to signing an overseas club playing agreement. The player needs our permission before the player can go and do that,' he said.

However, Symonds said Thursday that he would wait until late next month before making a call.

'The door is ajar, but you know where I stand on it,' Symonds said. 'At the time that happens, I'll have to make a decision that I have to stand by.'

Skipper Ponting is of the view that his teammate would find himself in trouble if he decides to pull out of the Pakistan tour.

'It's a difficult question. I think it would be some sort of breach of his CA contract, I would imagine,' said Ponting.

'Whether it's unfair or not, we have all signed off on it.'

A CA and ACA delegation will head to Canberra within weeks to seek further advice from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade on whether to tour Pakistan next month or not.

Source: http://www.aol.in/cricket/story/2008022204049012000011/index.html

HOBART, February 26: Sachin Tendulkar has not been in the best of touch in the ongoing tri-series, but the master batsman said he was not concerned about "overreaction from too many brains" about his form.

Tendulkar, who has scored 191 runs from eight innings so far, said he was hitting the ball well and his confidence level has not gone down.

"I scored in the 30s twice against Sri Lanka and 40-odd against Australia. I failed only in the last three innings. It is a case of too may brains working (over my form)," he said after hitting a sizzling 54-ball 63 in India's seven-wicket victory over Sri Lanka on Tuesday.

"I am all right and hitting the ball well. I am confident and the team is confident. The normal tendency is people get carried away because of more expectations. People should not react more than what is necessary," he added.

Tuesday's win ensures that India face Australia in the best of three finals starting in Sydney on March 2 and Tendulkar emphasised the need for the top order to fire if they have to turn the tables against the world champions.

The top order has been the Achilles' heel for India, largely annulling the fine show by the young bowlers so far in the series.

"We have to ensure that we do not lose early wickets against Australia. Only then we have a chance to beat them.

"We have to plan our strategies for the finals. Brett Lee has been bowling well, I think we have to work out how to tackle him."

Tendulkar said the team is confident of doing well against the Australians.

"We were down 51 for four (in the last match) and the boys came back fantastically to come closer to the target and score nearly 300."

He was all praise of the young bowlers who have been spot on in the series so far.

"They have doing a good job. Today also, we thought the pitch would do something early in the Lankan innings but it turned out to be an easy wicket. The young pacers bowled at the right areas and bundled them out for a paltry score."

On his "uncharacteristic" dismissal while trying to hit Muttiah Muralitharan inside out, Tendulkar said he played the shot on earlier occasions against the same bowler but was done in this time by the lack of spin in the delivery.

"I picked his (Murali's) doosra. I thought of hitting it inside out over the extra cover. Because of the hardness of the pitch, the ball did not turn much and I was holed out," he said.

Source:TOI

NEW DELHI: India has successfully test fired its first-ever undersea nuclear capable ballistic missile off the eastern coast of Vishakhapatnam, catapulting it to the select band of five countries equipped with the technology.

The missile K-15, with a range of 700 kms, was test fired from a pontoon immersed in the sea at 1258 hours.

"The test firing was successful," sources said, as DRDO awaited the final evaluations from warships in the sea.

The test was done from a submerged pontoon as India does not have a submarine capable of firing such missiles, official sources said.

Chief Controller of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) S Prahlada had said recently that it would need just one test to ratify the missile, which would form the main armament of the country's indigenously made nuclear submarine.

Source:TOI

Hobart, Feb 26: An all-round performance helped India beat Sri Lanka by seven wickets in a must-win encounter here Tuesday and seal their place in next month's finals against Australia in the Commonwealth Bank Triangular Series.

Pacers Praveen Kumar and Ishant Sharma bagged four-wicket hauls while Sachin Tendulkar (54 balls, 10x4s) and in-form Gautam Gambhir (89 balls, 5x4s) each scored 63 to ensure that India won with ease. Gambhir and Rohit Sharma (3) remained unbeaten till the end.

Praveen, who took his career-best haul, and Ishant first helped bundle out Sri Lanka for 179 in 47.1 overs. Then Tendulkar rediscovered his form and raised 102 runs with Gambhir for the second wicket to take India to 180 for three wickets and win with 17.4 overs to spare in front of a small crowd at the scenic Bellerive Oval.

The best-of-three finals will be played March 2, 4 and 7.

India's win meant the last match of the league phase, between Australia and Sri Lanka in Melbourne Friday, will be of academic interest only.

India ended their league engagements with 17 points from eight matches while Australia had earlier ensure their entry into the finals with 26 points from seven matches.

Even if Sri Lanka, who have only six points from seven matches, beat Australia with a bonus point, it will take their points tally only to 11.

It was almost a cakewalk for India in Tuesday's match. The only failure of the day was Robin Uthappa (11, 13 balls, 1x4), who was promoted to open the innings with Tendulkar, replacing Virender Sehwag who was dropped again.

Uthappa's dismissal brought Tendulkar and Gambhir together and they never looked in any sort of difficulty as they virtually toyed with a six-man bowling attack.

They played their strokes freely as the Sri Lankans looked despondent, as if they knew they were not going to win after their batsmen had failed again.

Yuvraj Singh also came good with 36 (35 balls, 4x4s, 1x6) and was involved in a 51-run third-wicket stand with Gambhir.

Earlier, Praveen bagged his first wicket in ODIs, the prized scalp of Kumar Sangakkara (33, 42 balls, 4x4s), and went on to dismiss captain Mahela Jayawardene (3), Chamara Silva (0) and Muttiah Muralitharan (13) to hasten the fall of Sri Lanka after they were put in to bat by toss-winning India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

Uttar Pradesh's Praveen, playing only his third match, finished with excellent figures of 10-2-31-4.

Praveen's pace partner Ishant, the find of the ongoing tour, bagged his second four-wicket haul. For Sri Lanka, Chamara Kapugedera was the top scorer with a fine 57 (86 balls, 4x4s) - the lone half-century of the innings.

Sanath Jayasuriya (34, 44 balls, 2x4s, 1x6) and Sangakkara chipped in with useful contributions, but crucially, the rest of the batsmen failed.

After lanky Ishant castled opener Dilruwan Perera cheaply, Sangakkara and former captain Jayasuriya joined hands to add 57 for the second wicket. They batted for 10.5 overs also scored at a good rate of 5.26 runs per over.

Then Praveen got into the act to cripple the Sri Lankan top order with three wickets in three successive overs, getting rid of the cream of the batting.

In the very next over, left-arm pacer Irfan Pathan added to Sri Lanka's miseries by inducing an edge from the dangerous Jayasuriya to wicketkeeper Dhoni as he tried to play the hook. It was Dhoni's 100th career catch in his 104th ODI.

Kapugedera and Lasith Malinga (12) defied the Indian bowlers for 13 overs to add 46 for the eighth wicket and then the 21-year-old right-hander added a crucial 40 for the ninth wicket with Muralitharan that made the total look somewhat respectable, though inadequate to challenge India.

Source: http://www.aol.in/cricket/story/2008022602589012000009/index.html

Lalu Prasad Yadav have taken over as Minister of Railways on May 23, 2004 and now at the helm of affairs of the Indian Railways.

Initiatives of market oriented tariffs, asset utilisation and competition in container movement are attributable to Mr Lalu Prasad. In recognition of his initiatives, Mr Lalu Prasad has also been ranked as the second best minister in the current cabinet.

Lalu Prasad Yadav was born in family of poor farmers in Phulwaria, Gopalganj district, Bihar and his first political step was his active involvement in the elections of the Patna University Students' union.

Source:TOI

NEW DELHI: Railway Minister Lalu Prasad announced a cut of Rs 50 in passenger fares for express trains in his fifth and last budget for this Lok Sabha, on Tuesday.

He cut fares for all classes of travelers on majority of trains, hitting directly at competition from the low-cost airlines.

Lalu Prasad announced a cut in first-class A/C fares by 7% and A/C II tier by by 4%. Second class fares have been cut by Re 1 for tickets beyond 50 kms. Ten Garib Raths and 53 new mail and express trains have also been introduced in this year's Budget.

Passenger fare concession for senior woman citizens would be increased to 50% from 30% at present for all classes of travel, the minister announced.

The Railway Minister also reduced rail freight rates for petrol and diesel by five per cent in a move to help the government stem rising inflation and woo voters ahead of elections due by May 2009. Much of the budget centered on modernizing rail infrastructure, which needs a major overhaul to keep pace with a fast-growing economy.

Extended concessions for students include free monthly season tickets for girl students up to graduation and for boy students up to 12th standard. At present, free monthly season tickets for second class travel between school and home are provided to girl students up to 12th standard and boy students up to 10th standard.

Several new concessions were also announced for rail travel in the Railway Budget 2008-09. These include extension of the scheme of free monthly season tickets for students, concession for senior lady citizens, concession for Ashok Chakra Awardees and for AIDS affected persons.

Ashok Chakra awardees will now be provided facility to travel in Rajdhani and Shatabadi trains on card passes. For AIDS patients, a concession of 50% has been announced in second class passenger fares for travel to nominated ART centres for treatment.

Rajiv Gandhi Foundation and Indian Railways will collaborate in running a Mother-Child Health Express of seven coaches on a pilot bases for providing medical facilities to the mother and the child. This train will be run by railways at concessional fares and would have facilities like delivery operation room and child health centre.

Source:TOI

Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav’s focus seems to have been on steeling up the railways, quite literally. Even though he has predictably reduced fares of both AC and 2nd class and the freight rates on petrol and diesel, the first look at his budget seems to suggest that the focus has been on improving things for the railways' cash cow- the freight business.

However, there seem to be some signs of a slowdown. While freight earnings are expected to beat the budgeted amount for the current financial year, the targets for all other heads have been retained at the budgeted amounts. In fact, in percentage terms, the growth of 14% in passenger earnings so far is trailing the 15% plus target set for passenger earnings in the budget last year.

The slowdown is also evident from the budgeted estimates for the year 2008-09. The budgeted increase in freight earnings over revised estimates of 2007-08 is just about 10.4%, the budgeted increase in passenger earnings is 8%. Even the much touted Operating Ratio is being targeted at 81.4%, much above the operating ratio of 76.3% achieved in this financial year. The estimate for working expenses has been kept 20% higher on account of higher provision for depreciation reserve fund, pension fund and a Rs 5000 crore provision for anticipated recommendations of the sixth pay commission. Even the cash surplus next year is estimated to be at Rs 24, 873 crore, below the Rs 25,000 crore achieved this year.

He has reported yet another stellar financial performance with higher cash profits and yet another improvement in the critical operating ratio to 76%.

He has used the Railway Budget to announce schemes to replace the current railway wagons with stainless steel ones. Along with all this, he has promised to give the people of India a much better signaling system, high density networks, tickets on mobiles, electronic sign boards on trains, electronic display of arrival times inside trains, more Garib Raths among other measures. He has announced the usual concessions for girl students, lady senior citizens, AIDS patients but that is unlikely to cost the railways a lot.

Passengers will also be provided with Green Toilets’ on key trains that will stop the dumping of night soil on railway tracks. He proposes to introduce a smart card based ticketing system and upgrade several important railway stations to the next level.

That the focus of the Railway minister is on increasing load carrying capacity is evident from the focus on adding new wagons and replacing the current ones with more efficient ones. New 22.9 tonne load axle wagons will be developed as compared to existing 20.3 tonne load carrying capacity wagons). These wagons are also expected to be lighter and more such wagons are expected to be attached to a train.

Efforts to increase capacity are also evident from passenger coaches. The minister pointed out in his budget speech that the Railways is now manufacturing sleeper coaches of a new design that can accommodate 9 more berths. The fares of these newly designed coaches have been cut by 2%.

On the whole, switching over to these new wagons is expected to enhance load carrying capacity of a typical train by 22 -78 %. Apart from this, Lalu has proposed development of new container depots, a new wagon lease plan to help the railways meet the target of freight loading of steel, cement and coal. Public private partnership schemes are to be launched for developing world class stations, rolling stock and other logistics.

The minister has also proposed a Information Technology Vision 2012 that aims at using IT to focus on improvement in operational efficiency and better service.

To protect passengers he has promised to extend anti-collision devices to all trains and phased deployment of fire safety systems on trains. CCTV and metal detectors are also proposed to be installed on railway stations.

The Rail minister has also set ambitious targets for freight loading-the mainstay of the Railways financial performance. He has set a target of loading an extra 310 million tonnes of freight in the next four years. For the year 2008-09, the freight loading target has been kept at 850 million tonnes and revenue from freight earnings is expected to go up to Rs 52,700 crore.

Gross Traffic receipts from both passenger as well as freight business are expected to increase 12.6% over the revised estimates for year 2007-08. The growth in gross traffic revenues in 2007-08 is 16% higher than the previous year; the budgeted increase last year was just about 12.8%. So, that target has been convincingly overtaken by the railways.

Source:http://budgetwithet.economictimes.indiatimes.com/Budget_08_Steeling_up_the_railways/rlyarticleshow/2816856.cms

NEW YORK: Yahoo Inc said on Tuesday it will launch a service called Yahoo Buzz which will use consumers' voting to uncover the most popular content from sites across the Internet and bring them to Yahoo's homepage, one of the Web's most trafficked destinations.

The service, currently in trial, measures consumer votes and search patterns to identify interesting and timely stories and videos from large news sources as well as niche blogs.

It said the top stories will be given primary editorial consideration for feature placement on Yahoo.com. Yahoo said it was an example of the Internet company's move to open up the site to more third-party publishers and make it more social and relevant to its users.

The company said as the Buzz evolves it will form the basis for an open system of publishers, advertisers and users which will offer syndication and revenue opportunities.

Source:http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Yahoo_users_to_create_Buzz_with_favourite_content/articleshow/2817077.cms

MUMBAI, February 25: The India cricket board on Monday hit out at the Australian cricket team for indulging in sledging and provoking the Indians, saying such behaviour by the hosts was unnecessary and not good for the game.

"The way the Australians are behaving is not good (for the game). They should not sledge our team members. It's not necessary," said BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah.

Shah was reacting to the happenings during the Sydney tri-series tie on Sunday in which Aussie all-rounder Andrew Symonds provoked young Indian fast bowler Ishant Sharma for which the latter was docked 15 per cent of his match fees by ICC match referee Jeff Crowe.

"They (Aussies) should restrain from such things and not get into another problem", the BCCI official said. But he did not comment on the complaint lodged by Indian manager Vimal Soni about the Aussies' behaviour with the match referee.

Shah defended Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni for his comments after Sunday's loss to Australia wherein the wicketkeeper had asked the senior players to start delivering the goods.

"He's the captain and whatever advice he (Dhoni) wants to give (to his teammates) he can give," the BCCI secretary said.

Shah also said the World Cup under-19 team which has reached the semi-finals in Kuala Lumpur would be protected from being distracted by franchises eager to recruit them for the April 18-June 1 Indian Premier League.

"We don't want any distraction for our cricketers and the board will decide which team they will go to," he said.

The World Wide Web (commonly shortened to the Web) is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet. With a Web browser, a user views Web pages that may contain text, images, videos, and other multimedia and navigates between them using hyperlinks. The World Wide Web was created in 1989 by Sir Tim Berners-Lee, working at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland. Since then, Berners-Lee has played an active role in guiding the development of Web standards (such as the markup languages in which Web pages are composed), and in recent years has advocated his vision of a Semantic Web. Robert Cailliau, also at CERN, was an early evangelist for the project.

The Internet, sometimes called the "Information Superhighway", is a worldwide, publicly accessible series of interconnected computer networks that transmit data by packet switching using the standard Internet Protocol (IP). It is a "network of networks" that consists of millions of smaller domestic, academic, business, and government networks, which together carry various information and services, such as electronic mail, online chat, file transfer, and the interlinked web pages and other resources of the World Wide Web (WWW).

Uniform Resource Locator (URL), still known as Universal Resource Locator, is a technical, Web-related term used in two distinct meanings:

* In popular usage and many technical documents, it is a synonym for Uniform Resource Identifier (URI);
* Strictly, the idea of a uniform syntax for global identifiers of network-retrievable documents was the core idea of the World Wide Web. In the early times, these identifiers were variously called "document names", "Web addresses" and "Uniform Resource Locators". These names were misleading, however, because not all identifiers were locators, and even for those that were, this was not their defining characteristic. Nevertheless, by the time the RFC 1630 formally defined the term "URI" as a generic term best suited to the concept, the term "URL" had gained widespread popularity, which has continued to this day.

HTML, an initialism of HyperText Markup Language, is the predominant markup language for web pages. It provides a means to describe the structure of text-based information in a document - by denoting certain text as links, headings, paragraphs, lists, and so on - and to supplement that text with interactive forms, embedded images, and other objects. HTML is written in the form of tags, surrounded by angle brackets. HTML can also describe, to some degree, the appearance and semantics of a document, and can include embedded scripting language code (such as JavaScript) which can affect the behavior of web browsers and other HTML processors.

HTML is also often used to refer to content of the MIME type text/html or even more broadly as a generic term for HTML whether in its XML-descended form (such as XHTML 1.0 and later) or its form descended directly from SGML (such as HTML 4.01 and earlier).

By convention, html format data files use a file extension .html or .htm.

A hyperlink, is a reference or navigation element in a document to another section of the same document or to another document that may be on a (different) website.
Embedded link

An embedded link is a link embedded in an object such as hyper text or a hot area. Example: The first word of this sentence is an example of an embedded link.

Hot area

A hot area (image map in HTML) is an invisible area of the screen that covers a text label or graphical images. A technical description of a hot area is a list of coordinates relating to a specific area on a screen created in order to hyperlink areas of the image to various destinations, disable linking via negative space around irregular shapes, or enable linking via invisible areas. For example, a map of the world may have each irregular shaped country hyperlinked to further information about that country. A separate invisible hot area interface allows for swapping skins or labels within the linked hot areas without repetitive embedding of links in the various skin elements.

A Web search engine is a search engine designed to search for information on the World Wide Web. Information may consist of web pages, images and other types of files.

Some search engines also mine data available in newsgroups, databases, or open directories. Unlike Web directories, which are maintained by human editors, search engines operate algorithmically or are a mixture of algorithmic and human input.

CD-ROM (an abbreviation of "Compact Disc read-only memory") is a Compact Disc that contains data accessible by a computer. While the Compact Disc format was originally designed for music storage and playback, the format was later adapted to hold any form of binary data. CD-ROMs are popularly used to distribute computer software, including games and multimedia applications, though any data can be stored (up to the capacity limit of a disc). Some CDs hold both computer data and audio with the latter capable of being played on a CD player, whilst data (such as software or digital video) is only usable on a computer (such as PC CD-ROMs). These are called Enhanced CDs.

Although many people use lowercase letters in this acronym, proper presentation is in all capital letters with a hyphen between CD and ROM. It was also suggested by some, especially soon after the technology was first released, that CD-ROM was an acronym for "Compact Disc read-only-media", or that it was a more 'correct' definition. This was not the intention of the original team who developed the CD-ROM, and common acceptance of the 'memory' definition is now almost universal. This is probably in no small part due to the widespread use of other 'ROM' acronyms such as Flash-ROMs and EEPROMs where 'memory' is the correct term

Multimedia (Lat. Multum + Medium) is media that utilizes a combination of different content forms. The term can be used as a noun (a medium with multiple content forms) or as an adjective describing a medium as having multiple content forms. The term is used in contrast to media which only utilize traditional forms of printed or hand-produced text and still graphics. In general, multimedia includes a combination of text, audio, still images, animation, video, and interactivity content forms.

Multimedia is usually recorded and played, displayed or accessed by information content processing devices, such as computerized and electronic devices, but can also be part of a live performance. Multimedia (as an adjective) also describes electronic media devices used to store and experience multimedia content. Multimedia is similar to traditional mixed media in fine art, but with a broader scope. The term "rich media" is synonymous for interactive multimedia. Hypermedia can be considered one particular multimedia application.

Video on demand (VOD) systems allow users to select and watch video and clip content over a network as part of an interactive television system. VOD systems either "stream" content, allowing viewing in real time, or "download" it in which the program is brought in its entirety to a set-top box before viewing starts. The latter is more appropriately termed "store and forward". The majority of cable and telco based VOD systems use the streaming approach, whereby a user buys or selects a movie or television program and it begins to play on the television set almost instantaneously.

Nowadays, the term often encompasses a broader spectrum of delivery devices, referring not only to set-top-boxes but also computers, mobile phones and indeed any system that can receive on-demand audio-visual content over a network.

Internet radio (also known as e-Radio) is an audio broadcasting service transmitted via the Internet. Broadcasting on the Internet is usually referred to as webcasting since it is not transmitted broadly through wireless means. The term e-Radio suggests a streaming medium that presents listeners with a continuous "stream" of audio to which they have no control much like traditional broadcast media. It is not synonymous with podcasting which involves downloading, nor does e-Radio suggest "on-demand" file serving. Many Internet radio "stations" are associated with a corresponding traditional (or "terrestrial") radio station or radio network. Internet-only radio stations are independent of such associations.

Internet radio services are usually accessible from anywhere in the world-for example, one could listen to an Australian station from Europe or America. This makes it a popular among expatriates and listeners with interests that are often not adequately served by local radio stations (such as progressive rock, ambient music, anime-themed music, classical music, and stand-up comedy). Internet radio services offer news, sports, talk, and various genres of music-everything that is available on terrestrial radio stations.

MSN TV (formerly WebTV) is the name of both a thin client which uses a television for display (rather than a computer monitor), and the online service that supports it.

The product and service were developed by WebTV Networks, Inc., a company purchased by Microsoft Corporation and absorbed into MSN (the Microsoft Network). While most thin clients developed in the mid-1990s were positioned as diskless workstations for corporate intranets, WebTV was positioned as a consumer device for web access.

The WebTV product is an adapter that allows a television set to be connected to the internet, primarily for web browsing and e-mail. The setup includes a web browser, cord or wireless (i.e. bluetooth or IRDA) keyboard and connection to the Internet (i.e. using modem, ADSL, cable, PLC).

While WebTV does not allow as much functionality as a computer-based browser, it is a low-cost alternative to a traditional computer connection to the Internet.

It should be noted that the term web TV is also used concerning TV transmissions over the Internet, usually by streaming.

A blog (a portmanteau of web log) is a website where entries are commonly displayed in reverse chronological order. "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.

Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs. Most blogs are primarily textual, although some focus on art (artlog), photographs (photoblog), sketchblog, videos (vlog), music (MP3 blog), audio (podcasting) are part of a wider network of social media. Micro-blogging is another type of blogging which consists of blogs with very short posts. As of December 2007, blog search engine Technorati was tracking more than 112 million blogs

itizen journalism, also known as public or participatory journalism, is the act of citizens "playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information," according to the seminal report We Media: How Audiences are Shaping the Future of News and Information, by Shayne Bowman and Chris Willis. They say, "The intent of this participation is to provide independent, reliable, accurate, wide-ranging and relevant information that a democracy requires." Citizen journalism should not be confused with civic journalism, which is practiced by professional journalists. Citizen journalism is a specific form of citizen media as well as user generated content.

In a 2003 Online Journalism Review article, J. D. Lasica classifies media for citizen journalism into the following types: 1) Audience participation (such as user comments attached to news stories, personal blogs, photos or video footage captured from personal mobile cameras, or local news written by residents of a community), 2) Independent news and information Websites (Consumer Reports, the Drudge Report), 3) Full-fledged participatory news sites (OhmyNews), 4) Collaborative and contributory media sites (Slashdot, Kuro5hin), 5) Other kinds of "thin media." (mailing lists, email newsletters), and 6) Personal broadcasting sites (video broadcast sites such as (KenRadio).

Dan Gillmor, former technology columnist with the San Jose Mercury News, is one of the foremost proponents of citizen journalism, and founded a nonprofit, the Center for Citizen Media, to help promote it. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's French-language television network has also organized a weekly public affairs program called, "5 sur 5", which has been organizing and promoting citizen-based journalism since 2001. On the program, viewers submit questions on a wide variety of topics, and they, accompanied by staff journalists, get to interview experts to obtain answers to their questions.

It is becoming increasingly difficult for women to work night shifts at BPOs. There have been cases of harassment while commuting to work and at office. And to top it all, heading back home in the office cab is fraught with risk. The rape and murders of a BPO employee in Pune last year and in Bangalore two years before that show exactly what women workers are up against. Another BPO worker had acid thrown in her face when she objected to a cab driver's advances. The Supreme Court has acknowledged these dangers by allowing the prosecution of a former Hewlett Packard director on Thursday, holding him responsible for the rape and murder of a BPO employee. A lot still needs to be done before women working late nights can breathe easy and no quick solution appears in sight. Is it safe for women to work night shifts?

Source: TOI

Set Name of the player Availability Bidding Price Team

A MS Dhoni (Ind) Entire tournament $1.5 million Chennai
A Shane Warne (Aus) Entire tournament $450,000 Jaipur
A Adam Gilchrist (Aus) Entire tournament $700,000 Hyderabad
A Shoaib Akhtar (Pak) From April 27 $425,000 Kolkata
A Mahela Jayawardena (SL) Entire tournament $475,000 Mohali
A Muttiah Muralidaran (SL) Entire tournament $600, 000 Chennai

B Anil Kumble (Ind) Entire tournament $500,000 Bangalore
B Glenn McGrath (Aus) Entire tournament $350,000 Delhi
B Mohammad Yousuf (Pak) Withdrawn - -
B Harbhajan Singh (Ind) Entire tournament $850,000 Mumbai
B Sanath Jayasuriya (SL) Entire tournament $975,000 Mumbai
B Kumar Sangakarra (SL) Entire tournament $700,000 Mohali

-
C Ricky Ponting (Aus) Not in ’08 $400,000 Kolkatta
C Brett Lee (Aus) Not in ’08 $900,000 Mohali
C Andrew Symonds (Aus) Not in ’08 $1.35 Million Hyderabad
C Michael Hussey (Aus) Not in ’08 $350,000 Chennai
C Daniel Vettori (NZ) Until May 5 $625,000 Delhi
C Matthew Hayden (Aus) Not in ’08 $375,000 Chennai
C Brendan McCullum (NZ) Until May 5 $700,000 Kolkata
C Jacob Oram (NZ) Until May 5 $675,000 Chennai

D Stephen Fleming (NZ) Entire tournament $350,000 Chennai
D Graeme Smith (SA) Entire tournament $475,000 Jaipur
D Herschelle Gibbs (SA) Entire tournament $575,000 Hyderabad
D Chris Gayle (WI) Until May 16 $800,000 Kolkata
D Shoaib Malik (Pak) From April 27 $500,000 Delhi
D Shahid Afridi (Pak) From April 27 $675,000 Hyderabad
D Younis Khan (Pak) From April 27 $225,000 Jaipur
D Mohammad Asif (Pak) From April 27 $650,000 Delhi
D Jacques Kallis (SA) Entire tournament $900,000 Bangalore
D Zaheer Khan (Ind) Entire tournament $450,000 Bangalore
D S Sreesanth (Ind) Entire tournament $625,000 Mohali

E Dinesh Karthik (Ind) Entire tournament $525,000 Delhi
E A B deVilliers (SA) Entire tournament $300,000 Delhi
E Mark Boucher (SA) Entire tournament $450,000 Bangalore
E Parthiv Patel (Ind) Entire tournament $325,000 Chennai
E Kamran Akmal (Pak) From April 27 $150,000 Jaipur
E Tatenda Taibu (Zim) Entire tournament $125,000 Kolkata

F Albie Morkel (SA) Entire tournament $675,000 Chennai
F Ajit Agarkar (Ind) Entire tournament $350,000 Kolkata
F Shaun Pollock (SA) Entire tournament $550,000 Mumbai
F Irfan Pathan (Ind) Entire tournament $925,000 Mohali
F Scott Styris (NZ) Entire tournament $175,000 Hyderabad
F Farveez Maharoof (SL) Entire tournament $225,000 Delhi
F Tillakeratne Dilshan (SL) Entire tournament $250,000 Delhi
F Cameron White (Aus) Entire tournament $500,000 Bangalore
F Yusuf Pathan (Ind) Entire tournament $475,000 Jaipur
F Joginder Sharma (Ind) Entire tournament $225,000 Chennai

G Ramnaresh Sarwan (WI) Until May 16 $225,000 Mohali
G Simon Katich (Aus) Entire tournament $200,000 Mohali
G Justin Langer (Aus) Not in 08 $200,000 Jaipur
G Gautam Gambhir (Ind) Entire tournament $750,000 Delhi
G Robin Uthappa (Ind) Entire tournament $800,000 Mumbai
G S Chanderpaul (WI) Until May 16 $200,000 Bangalore
G Ashwell Prince (SA) Withdrawn - -
G VVS Laxman (Ind) Entire tournament $375,000 Hyderabad
G Wasim Jaffer (Ind) Entire tournament $150,000 Bangalore
G Rohit Sharma (Ind) Entire tournament $750,000 Hyderabad
G Loots Bosman (SA) Entire tournament $175,000 Mumbai
G Mohammad Kaif (Ind) Entire tournament $675,000 Jaipur
G Suresh Raina (Ind) Entire tournament $650,000 Chennai
G Manoj Tiwary (Ind) Entire tournament $675,000 Delhi
G Chamara Silva (SL) Entire tournament $100,000 Hyderabad
G David Hussey (Aus) Entire tournament $625,000 Kolkata

H Nathan Bracken (Aus) Entire tournament $325,000 Bangalore
H RP Singh (Ind) Entire tournament $875,000 Hyderabad
H Murali Kartik (Ind) Entire tournament $425,000 Kolkata
H Makhaya Ntini (SA) Entire tournament $200,000 Chennai
H Lasith Malinga (SL) Entire tournament $350,000 Mumbai
H Chaminda Vaas (SL) Entire tournament $200,000 Hyderabad
H Ramesh Powar (Ind) Entire tournament $170,000 Mohali
H Umar Gul (Pak) From April 27 $150,000 Kolkata
H Dale Steyn (SA) Entire tournament $325,000 Bangalore
H Dilhara Fernando (SL) Entire tournament $150,000 Mumbai
H Ishant Sharma (Ind) Entire tournament $950,000 Kolkata
H Piyush Chawla (Ind) Entire tournament $400,000 Mohali
H Munaf Patel (Ind) Entire tournament $275,000 Jaipur
H Nuwan Zoysa (SL) Entire tournament $110,000 Hyderabad

Note:
SETs A to D: Marquee players based on their skills, recent performance and availability
SET E: Wicketkeepers
SET F: All-rounder
SET G: Batsmen
SET H: Bowlers

Source:http://cricket.indiatimes.com/News/News/IPL_bid_Who_got_whom/articleshow/2797922.cms

February 20: One day of drama at the IPL auction might well change cricket forever. One important fall out could be the end of the zonal system. Delhi takes great pride in claiming Ishant Sharma as a home boy, but now so will Kolkata. Dhoni is a hero in Jharkhand, but he'll be cheered with equal gusto by his 'home' crowd of Chennai.

And the presence of foreign players could open up some interesting possibilities: if Harbhajan Singh is bowling to Andrew Symonds in Hyderabad, whom will the crowd cheer for? Truly, the game will never be the same again.

But that's in the future. On Wednesday, it was a huge sale, with no discount. When the hammer came down for the prize catch of the day, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the blow could be heard all the way to Ranchi. The Indian ODI and T20 captain was scooped up by the Chennai Super Kings for an unbelievable US $1.5 million or Rs 6 crore. In stark contrast, Australian captain Ricky Ponting barely rose above his base price of Rs 1.3 crore, ending up with the Rs 1.6 crore that Kolkata offered.

Following Dhoni, as far as Indian players went, was the latest fast bowling sensation, Ishant Sharma. The Delhi lad won the second-highest price as Shah Rukh Khan's Kolkata, on the urging of former Indian skipper Ganguly, grabbed him for Rs 3.8 crore after a tough fight.

In the cut-throat talent hunt, patriotism and racism, so shrill a month ago, were forgotten. Australia's Andrew Symonds who had made himself very unpopular with his racism allegations was bought by Hyderabad for Rs 5.4 crore, well over Harbhajan's Rs 3.4 crore. As Lalit Modi of IPL put it: "We always knew Symonds would be welcome in India."

As the auction progressed, the bids came in faster, higher and stronger, in keeping with the spirit of an Olympic year. Irfan Pathan's high of Rs 3.7 crore from Mohali was just about topped by Sanath Jayasuriya's Rs 3.8 crore from Mumbai. But then the Brothers Pathan were the richest family at the end of the day after Jaipur bagged the lesser-known Yusuf for as much as Rs 1.9 crore.

The huge media contingent in a room adjoining the packed auction area was treated to an announcement every 30-45 minutes, provoking gasps and mirth. Each team had a strategy drawn up after a series of meetings and with the inputs of former and present cricketers.

Bangalore, for example, didn't bother to bid too hard for Dhoni - had they done so they would have had to pay their skipper Rahul Dravid a further 15% by virtue of his 'icon' status - while they were hell bent on securing the services of Test captain Anil Kumble and beat back Delhi and Hyderabad to do so.

It is not as if Dravid will not get his due. He turned a dollar millionaire when Bangalore bid for and got South African all-rounder Jacques Kallis for Rs 3.6 crore, just as Ganguly got his thick slice of the pie with Ishant's huge take as did Sachin Tendulkar when Mumbai bought Jayasuriya.

Each of the teams went in for a wicketkeeper (except Chennai which bought two and Mumbai which bought none), a share of the all-rounders, three to four fast bowlers and surprisingly some spinners too, disproving the theory that the slow men have no place in the shortest form of the game. Muthiah Muralitharan (Chennai), Daniel Vettori (Delhi) as also Kumble and Harbhajan all received bids of Rs 2 crore or more, the only exception being Shane Warne, with Jaipur picking the Australian playboy for the reserve price of Rs 1.8 crore.

However, what would have pleased the BCCI, the body behind the IPL, is the fact that although the likes of Mike Hussey - Mr Cricket himself - and Glenn McGrath found themselves without a bid in the first round, the Indians in the fray did well - be it youngster Robin Uthappa who was bought by Mumbai for Rs 3.2 crore, Rohit Sharma (Rs 3 crore, Hyderabad) or Manoj Tiwary whom Delhi went all out for, paying Rs 2.7 crore. Even the relative veterans Mohd Kaif (Rs 2.7 crore, Jaipur) and Gautam Gambhir (Rs 2.9 crore, Delhi), found themselves in great demand.

Overall, while the younger T20 players were chased, the older ones were not ignored. For every Cameron White who got picked there was a Jayasuriya. If Australian David Hussey, an out-and-out T20 player made the grade, so did Dravid and Ganguly, who had dropped out of the T20 World Cup in South Africa. It was only among the faster men that youth had the edge. If the youngest of the lot, Ishant, led the price war, Brett Lee followed close behind with Rs 3.6 crore and R P Singh completed the story when Hyderabad bid a cool Rs 3.5 crore for him.

Dravid and Ganguly were in effect also the main cricket representatives around for the bid. Mukesh Ambani may not have been present - his brother-in-law Nikhil Meswani did his bidding - but there was still enough money going around. Vijay Mallya of Bangalore and N Srinivasan of Chennai were the owner-faces of industry, while Preity Zinta (Mohali) and Shah Rukh Khan provided the glamour. A landmark day for Indian domestic cricket which just went global in every way possible, starting with the dollar bids.

Source: TOI

MUMBAI: Mahendra Singh Dhoni's parents have urged him to forget about the cash from his bumper Indian Premier League (IPL) contract and concentrate on cricket.

The Chennai franchise of the money-spinning Twenty20 tournament lavished a $1.5 million per year contract on the dynamic wicketkeeper-batsman at a player auction in Mumbai on Wednesday.

Dhoni topped the bidding at the glitzy auction, which also saw Australia all-rounder Andrew Symonds go as the second most expensive pick at $1.35 million. "He should keep his feet firmly on ground," Dhoni's father Pan Singh and mother Devki Devi told a newspaper's website.

"It's no doubt a matter of pride but more than the monetary aspect, it is important that he lives up to the expectations of his fans, supporters and the country."

The teams will pay the winning bid to the player annually. The contracts are for a three-year period and are guaranteed by the Indian cricket board.

Nearly all of the world's top players will participate in the 44-day league, which will feature 59 matches among eight franchises. The tournament gets underway on April 18.

Source:TOI

PRISTINA, Kosovo — The province of Kosovo declared independence from Serbia on Sunday, sending tens of thousands of ethnic Albanians streaming through the streets to celebrate what they hoped was the end of a long and bloody struggle for national self-determination.

Kosovo’s prime minister, Hashim Thaci, left, shaking hands with President Fatmir Sejdiu in Parliament on Sunday. More Photos »
Kosovo’s bid to be recognized as Europe’s newest country — after a civil war that killed 10,000 people a decade ago and then years of limbo under United Nations rule — was the latest episode in the dismemberment of the former Yugoslavia, 17 years after its dissolution began.

It brings to a climax a showdown between the West, which argues that Serbia’s brutal subjugation of Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian majority cost it any right to rule the territory, and the Serbian government and its allies in the Kremlin. They counter that Kosovo’s independence is a reckless breach of international law that will spur other secessionist movements across the world.

As Albanians danced in the streets and fired guns in the air in the capital, Pristina, international reaction was sharply divided, suggesting that the clash between the principles of sovereignty and self-determination was far from resolved.

Britain, France and Germany were expected to be the first recognize the new nation as early as Monday, while other nations, fearing separatist movements within their own borders, have said they will refuse. Russia demanded an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council to proclaim the declaration “null and void,” but the meeting produced no resolution.

The United States and additional European Union member states were expected to recognize Kosovo’s independence in the coming days.

President Bush, speaking in Tanzania, said the United States would continue to work to prevent violence in Kosovo, while reaching out to Serbia. He said that resolving the conflict in Kosovo was essential to stability in the Balkans and that “the Serbian people can know that they have a friend in America.”

In declaring independence, Kosovo’s prime minister, Hashim Thaci, a former leader of the guerrilla force that just over 10 years ago began an armed rebellion against Serbian domination, struck a note of reconciliation. Addressing Parliament in both Albanian and Serbian, he pledged to protect the rights of Kosovo’s Serbian minority. “I feel the heartbeat of our ancestors,” he said. “We, the leaders of our people, democratically elected, through this declaration proclaim Kosovo an independent and sovereign state.”

Kosovo, a desperately poor, predominantly Muslim landlocked territory of two million, has been a United Nations protectorate since 1999, policed by 16,000 NATO troops. Its unemployment rate is about 60 percent and average monthly wage is $250.

Electricity is so undependable that lights go out in the capital several times a day. Corruption is rife and human trafficking threatens to entrench a lawless state on Europe’s doorstep.

Ethnic Albanians from as far away as the United States poured into Pristina over the weekend, braving freezing temperatures and heavy snow to dance in frenzied jubilation. Beating drums, waving Albanian flags and throwing firecrackers, they chanted: “Independence! Independence! We are free at last!”

A 100-foot-long birthday cake was installed on Pristina’s main boulevard.

In an outpouring of adulation for the United States, the architect of NATO’s 1999 bombing campaign against Serbian forces under President Slobodan Milosevic, revelers unfurled giant American flags, carried posters of former President Bill Clinton and chanted, “Thank you, U.S.A.” and “God bless America.”

Hundreds of people, many waving Albanian flags, celebrated in Times Square. Revelers in cars drove in circles around the area, leading chants whenever they passed the crowds gathered on the sidewalks.

That spirit of exaltation contrasted sharply with the despair, anger and disbelief that gripped Serbia and the Serbian enclaves of northern Kosovo. In Belgrade, Serbia’s capital, as many as 2,000 angry Serbs converged on the United States Embassy, hurling stones and smashing windows.

In the Kosovo Serb stronghold of Mitrovica, a grenade was thrown at a United Nations building, the police said. No one was injured.

Vojislav Kostunica, the prime minister of Serbia, which has regarded Kosovo as its heartland since medieval times, vowed that Serbia would never recognize the “false state.”

In an address on national television on Sunday, he said Kosovo was propped up unlawfully by the United States and called the declaration a “humiliation” for the European Union. The Serbian government has ruled out using military force in response, but was expected to downgrade diplomatic ties with any government that recognized Kosovo.

Demonstrations were planned for Monday in Serbian enclaves across Kosovo. Serbs said they were under orders from Belgrade to ignore the independence declaration and remain in Kosovo to keep the northern part of the territory under de facto Serbian control, raising questions about Serbia’s long-term aims.

At the Security Council, Russia argued that the proclamation violated the 1999 resolution that established the United Nations mission in Kosovo. “Our position is that the declaration should be disregarded by the international community and declared null and void,” said Vitaly I. Churkin, Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations.

Skip to next paragraph
Enlarge This Image

Dimitar Dilkoff/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
People in Pristina gathered in the streets to celebrate. Some waved flags, danced in jubilation and fired guns in the air. More Photos >

Multimedia
Graphic
Steps Toward Self-Determination
Photographs
Kosovo Declares Independence
Audio Slide Show
Endgame in Kosovo
Related
Times Topics: Kosovo | Serbia
Enlarge This Image

Marko Drobnjakovic/Associated Press
Police officers in Belgrade, Serbia, carried away an injured colleague during clashes outside the United States Embassy. More Photos >
But Alejandro D. Wolff, the deputy American ambassador, said, “In our view, this declaration is logical and consistent and completely in line with” the 1999 measure.

Secretary General Ban Ki-moon pleaded with all parties “to refrain from any actions or statements that could endanger peace, incite violence or jeopardize security in Kosovo or the region.”

The Security Council agreed to a request by Russia and Serbia to hold an open meeting on Monday that will be addressed by the Serbian president, Boris Tadic.

Kosovo’s declaration followed nearly two years of United Nations-sponsored negotiations between it and Serbia. Those talks failed, as did a Security Council effort in December to resolve Kosovo’s future.

The European Commission, the European Union’s executive branch, appealed for calm, while NATO’s secretary general, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, said the alliance would respond “swiftly and firmly against anyone who might resort to violence.”

Kosovo’s sovereignty remains severely circumscribed, making it reliant on the international community. NATO still provides international security, while the European Union has agreed to send an 1,800-strong police and judicial mission to help run the territory after the United Nations leaves.

Ulrich Wilhelm, the spokesman for the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, said Germany would decide what to do on Monday.

Kosovo played a central role in the collapse of the Yugoslav federation built by the Communist strongman Josip Broz Tito, who died in 1980. Albanian nationalism erupted in Kosovo in 1981, leading to bloody clashes.

In the 1980s, Mr. Milosevic used Serbs’ enormous sense of grievance that their ancestral heartland was now dominated by Muslim Albanians to come to power in Serbia. By 1989, he had abolished Kosovo’s autonomy, fired tens of thousands of Albanians from their jobs, suppressed Albanian language education and controlled the territory with a heavy police presence.

Ten years ago, Mr. Milosevic’s forces moved against the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army, killing a guerrilla leader and his family at their compound. As violence escalated, NATO intervened in a 1999 bombing campaign, causing hundreds of thousands of Albanians and Serbs to flee.

An estimated 10,000 civilians were killed in the 1998-99 conflict, many of them Albanians, while 1,500 Serbs died in revenge killings that followed.

For the ethnic Albanians who make up 95 percent of Kosovo’s population, independence marks a new beginning.

“Independence is a catharsis,” said Antoneta Kastrati, 26, an Albanian from Peja, who said her mother and older sister were killed by their Serbian neighbors in 1999. “Things won’t change overnight and we cannot forget the past, but maybe I will feel safe now and my nightmares will finally go away.”

In Mitrovica, a 70-year-old Serbian engineer who would give only his first name, Svetozar, said: “I will stay here forever. This will always be Serbia.”

Kosovo’s declaration created immediate ripples in the former Soviet Union, where small, Russian-backed separatist areas — one in Moldova and two in the republic of Georgia — have existed since the early 1990s. Two of them — Abkhazia and South Ossetia in Georgia — announced their intention to seek recognition as independent states.

Conversely, several of the European Union’s 27 member states — including Spain, Greece, Cyprus, Slovakia and Romania — oppose recognizing Kosovo because they fear encouraging secessionist movements within their own borders.

In Brussels, officials were drafting a statement for a foreign ministers’ meeting on Monday. Senior European Union officials said they expected it to acknowledge Kosovo’s independence declaration without explicitly endorsing it.

The declaration of independence raises the prospects of a new constitution and emblems of nationhood, including a new flag bearing a map of Kosovo topped by six stars.

But in a sign of how hard it will be to forge the kind of multiethnic, secular identity that foreign powers have urged, the distinctive two-headed eagle of the red and black Albanian flag, reviled by Serbs, was everywhere Sunday, held by revelers, draped on horses, flapping out of car windows and hanging outside homes and storefronts across the territory.

Source:http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/18/world/europe/18kosovo.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&hp

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Pakistanis voted Monday for a new parliament in elections shadowed by fears of violence and questions about the political survival of President Pervez Musharraf -- America's key ally in the war on terror.

The vote was delayed six