Venkey On Your Side

Popular social networking websites Facebook and MySpace have come under fire for failing to introduce a help button for children being bullied online.

The outrage comes after rival networking site Bebo adopted the button that allows users to contact trained child protection officers and also provides details of local police and links to 10 other sources of help.

Jim Gamble, from the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (Ceop), criticised MySpace and Facebook for not following the same example of Bebo.

He said there was "no legitimate reason" for not doing so and that social networking sites were raking in money through advertising by attracting children and teenagers to join.

"We applaud that but do not forget while you do that there is a responsibility, a duty of care, to the young and the vulnerable," The BBC quoted him as saying.

He added, "[The button] is tiny and does not take up any significant real estate. The bottom line is there is no legitimate reason for not taking it and placing it on a site."

Sir Hugh Orde, president of the Association of Chief Police Officers, also said: "I can see no reason why other sites would not consider adopting the same approach and would encourage them to embed the Ceop Report button for the benefit of all users."

A Facebook spokesman, on the other hand, explained: "The safety of Facebook users is the top priority for the company, which is why we have invested in the most robust reporting system to support our 300 million users.

"We also work closely with police forces in the UK and around the world to create a safe environment. Our teams are manned by trained staff in two continents giving 24-hour support in 70 languages.

"We look forward to hearing about the experience of Bebo using the Ceop button and will take account of their experience in any future evaluation of our reporting systems."

Source: http://in.news.yahoo.com/139/20091118/854/ttc-facebook-myspace-slammed-for-not-int.html

US-based multinational company Honeywell plans to set up a new technology centre in India with an investment of $34 million.

"The centre will also include labs for process and applications development for other specialty materials technology areas, including fluorine products and nylon materials," the company said in a release.

The centre is expected to employ 100 people in five years, it added. Honeywell will invest $34 million in an existing property to develop the centre at Gurgaon.

"This centre will allow us to conduct development closer to our end customers, while at the same time tapping the recognised engineering talent of India," said Andreas Kramvis, president and chief executive of Honeywell Specialty Materials.

The Chinese foreign ministry on Thursday gave the impression that it was merely interested in the gradual improvement in relations between India and Pakistan but was not trying to interfere with the process.

The indication came from “China hopes for a gradual improvement in the relations between India and Pakistan. As long as it is good for the stability of the region, China will support the relevant moves,” Qin Gang, the spokesman of the Chinese foreign ministry, said at the regulator press briefing on Thursday.

Qin was replying to a question about what China considered its role to be in the India-Pakistan relationship. The question emerged from a part in the joint statement issued by China and United States, which said that the two countries supported improvement of relations between India and Pakistan.

“We believe that India and Pakistan are important countries in South Asia” Qin said and went on to explain that China highly values its own relationship with them.

Qin said there was no talk about the India-US nuclear agreement during the visit of the US president Barack Obama, which ended on Wednesday.

“To the best of my knowledge, this issue was not touched upon during two Presidents discussions,” he said. But he reiterated China’s position saying that the “relevant countries” are free to enjoy the right for peaceful use of nuclear energy as along as they adhered to the objective of non-proliferation.

He did not give a direct reply to a question on whether China had dispute on the land boundary with just one country, India. Qin said that the dispute with India was “more pronounced” but he did not have information about land border disputes with other countries.

This is interesting because the Chinese media reported on Thursday that China has settled its land boundary dispute with Vietnam, It had earlier said that the boundary dispute with Russia has been fully settled.

Qin said China struck to its principal on “common but differentiated responsibilities” among the rich and developing countries on the issue of emissions and climate change. Beijing was involved in fruitful discussions with the United States for resolving the climate problem, but it was not likely to deviate from its stand on the issue, he said.

Source:http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/china/China-wants-improved-Indo-Pak-ties-but-denies-interference/articleshow/5247997.cms

US President Barack Obama has said Israel's approval of 900 extra housing units at a settlement in East Jerusalem could lead to a "dangerous" situation.

Mr Obama told Fox News that additional settlement construction made it harder for Israel to make peace in the region and "embitters the Palestinians".

The settlement of Gilo has been built on land Israel captured in 1967.

The Palestinians have refused to attend peace talks until Israel stops building settlements on occupied territory.

The Israeli government disputes that East Jerusalem is occupied territory, and therefore refuses to include annexed areas as part of any accommodation of Mr Obama's past calls for "restraint" in settlement construction.

Nearly 500,000 Jews live in more than 100 settlements built on occupied territory since 1967. They are illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this.

In the interview with Fox News, Mr Obama stressed that Israel's security was "a vital national interest to the United States", but warned that its policies were complicating his administration's efforts to revive the peace process.

"I think that additional settlement building does not contribute to Israel's security, I think it makes it harder for them to make peace with their neighbours," he said.

"I think it embitters the Palestinians in a way that could end up being very dangerous," he added.

Israeli media said on Monday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had rejected a request from Mr Obama to freeze the work at Gilo.

I think that additional settlement building does not contribute to Israel's security US President Barack Obama

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8366596.stm

Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday asked people not to consider him as future prime minister saying nobody could predict the future.

"Please don't consider me as the future prime minister. Nobody can predict the future and what lay in store. Anybody can become the prime minister," he said interacting with about 1500 students at a college here.

Rahul reacted in this manner when some students referred to him as the future prime minister.

He said the current Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was doing a good job.

Replying to a question on terrorism, the Congress said the country was dealing with the issue in accordance with the law.

Rahul also answered questions on global warming, reservations and other issues.

Source:http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Please-dont-consider-me-future-PM-Rahul-Gandhi/articleshow/5243318.cms

New Delhi: In yet another startling revelation in the ongoing Headley-Rana terror probe, it has come to light that two employees of the Pakistan High Commission in Delhi had helped the two suspected Lashkar operatives during their stay in the city.

Reports said on Tuesday that a High Commission officer had provided David Coleman Headley and Tahawwur Rana with a satellite phone, which they used to make calls to Pakistan during their stay in the national capital.

Moreover, the phone number of Headley and Rana, while they were in India, have been identified as 99212473 and 98208053 respectively.

MEA to probe Headley, Rana visa angle

The revelation came even as the Ministry of External Affairs ordered a probe into how Headley and Rana were provided visas by the Indian Consulate in Chicago.

External Affairs Minister SM Krishna said his ministry was looking into the issue and a probe will be conducted to find out why the duo was issued visas.

Normally, the procedure is that applications are made in the US and approved here in Delhi.

Headley was arrested in the US by the FBI last month for plotting terror attacks to be carried out in India and Denmark.

The duo has visited India on a number of occasions between 2006-09. Apart from staying in five star hotels in places like Delhi, Mumbai, Kochi, Ahmedabad, Pune and Lucknow, Headley and Rana had also stayed with some "private parties" who are being questioned by security agencies.

Bollywood connection

According to the National Investigation Agency (NIA), Headley and Rana closely knew eight Bollywood personalities, including two actresses.

The NIA believes that they were introduced to the film personalities by Rahul Bhatt, son of filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt.

Moreover, police in Pune is now claiming that Headley had even visited the very upmarket OSHO Commune that’s located in city’s Koregaon Park area.

Source: http://www.zeenews.com/news579678.html

While China has blamed New Delhi for trying to provoke Beijing by orchestrating Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama's controversial visit to Arunachal Pradesh, India has rubbished the allegation.

"The Dalai Lama went to southern Tibet at this critical moment probably because of pressure from India. By doing so, he can please the country that has hosted him for years," the People's Daily quoted Hu Shisheng, a researcher at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, as saying.

The report published in China's state-run newspaper Global times even said that India seems to have forgotten the lessons of 1962 war.

"India may have forgotten the lesson of 1962, when its repeated provocation resulted in military clashes warning. India is on this wrong track again...When the conflict gets sharper and sharper, the Chinese government will have to face it and solve it in a way India has designed," Hu said.

Meanwhile, Minister of State for External Affairs, Shashi Tharoor, on Monday denied Chinese charges, pointing out that New Delhi does not deal with the travels of religious figures.

"The Dalai Lama is free to travel anywhere in India... I have not heard the suggestion comes from us as we do not deal with the spiritual travels of spiritual leaders. He has to visit his flock as he sees fit," Tharoor told the India Economic Summit.

He added that he was "sure that the initiative (to visit Tawang) would have come from him".

Tharoor also said that India had been "very generous" by giving over "58,000 business visas" to the Chinese.

"As far as our basic policy is concerned, we would certainly be hesitant to offer employment to a foreigner for a job which could be done by an Indian in India," said Tharoor.

Earlier, addressing the mass at Arunachal's Tawang, Dalai Lama said Beijing's accusations that his visit was anti-China and damaging to India-China relations are "baseless".

"My visit to Tawang is non-political and aimed at promoting universal brotherhood and nothing else," the Nobel Peace laureate had said.

Source: http://sify.com/news/china-says-india-has-forgotten-lessons-of-1962-war-news-international-jljrOccgbae.html

At least 40 world leaders have said they will attend climate change talks in Denmark next month, but there are still fears that there will be few tangible results after preparatory meetings ended with scant progress.

The weeklong talks in Barcelona, which ended on Friday, exposed the divide between rich and developing nations on sharing the burden of proposed cuts in emission of gases believed to cause global warming.

Yvo de Boer, the head of the UN Climate Change Secretariat, said that inviting the world leaders to Copenhagen for the December 7-18 talks could help overcome any unresolved issues.

"My understanding is that 40 heads of state have indicated their intention to be present," he said.

They include Gordon Brown, the British prime minister, and Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, as well as leaders of African and Caribbean nations.

Delegates have suggested that any deal could include a statement of long-term objectives, along with a series of supplemental decisions on technology transfers, rewards for halting deforestation, and building infrastructure in poor countries to adapt to global warming.

'Political deal' row

But developing nations have been angered by suggestions from rich nations at Barcelona that a "political deal" be done in Copenhagen, with another six to 12 months then taken to draw up a legal binding text.

"Developed countries are acting as a brake towards any meaningful progress" Lumumba Stanislaus Di-Aping of Sudan, the chair of the Group of 77 and China, representing poor nations, said.

African nations had boycotted some of the talks on Tuesday in protest at the suggestion.

Al Jazeera's Alan Fisher, reporting from Barcelona, said: "The polar ice caps are receding, Africa is likely to face more droughts, other places will face floods, coastal states are looking at rising sea levels.

"With a legally binding agreement at least a year away scientists are warning every delay makes a solution even harder."

Dessima Williams of Grenada, which was representing small island states which say they risk being swamped by rising sea levels, said that any deal would have to be legally binding.

"Lives and the very existence of whole nations are at stake," she said.

De Boer said that there was too little time to produce a full legal text at Copenhagen.

But he said that the meeting should at least set 2020 emissions goals for all rich nations, agree on actions by the poor to slow their rising emissions, and approve ways to raise billions in funding.

"I believe that the US can commit to a number in Copenhagen," he said.

Slow progress

The US is still to present its position or suggest emissions targets because of the slow progress of climate legislation through congress.

The aim of the negotiations has been to broker an agreement building on the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. Without a new one, there will be no international regulation governing carbon emissions.

Speaking on Friday, Kevin Conrad, the Papua New Guinea delegate at the Barcelona talks, said: "Part of the frustration is that a deal is so close ... all the elements are there.

"But it's absolutely conceivable for senior people to come together and spend a week and clean all this up."

UN scientists say that rich countries must cut carbon emissions by 25 per cent to 40 per cent from 1990 levels by 2020 to prevent the Earth's temperatures from rising two degrees Celsius above its average temperature before the industrial era began 150 years ago.

in depth

Divided over a climate deal
'Climate change a conflict risk'
Malawi's winds of change
Burning issue of Spain's wetlands
Staying in tune with the planet
Haitians face climate despair
India's disappearing coastline
Kenya drought 'has spared no one'
The 'ground zero' of climate change
Central Asian lake under threat

World total CO2 emissions

Since 1751, roughly 315 billion tonnes (metric tons) of carbon have been released to the atmosphere from the consumption of fossil fuels and cement production. (1)

Half of these emissions have occurred since the mid 1970s
The 2004 global fossil-fuel CO2 emission estimate of 7,910 million tonnes of carbon is an all-time high
The 2004 number is a 5.4% increase over 2003

NOTE: This chart shows carbon emissions, not CO2. The atomic weight of carbon is 12 and oxygen is 16. Therefore, the atomic weight of carbon dioxide is 44. Based on that ratio, and assuming complete combustion, 1 kilo of carbon combines with 2.667 kilos of oxygen to produce 3.667 kilos of carbon dioxide.

Source: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2009/11/200911741650511736.html

She is known for her unconventional choices and now US first lady Michelle Obama is setting another precedent by the first presidential wife to appear on a reality TV series. The First Lady will make a guest appearance on the popular series ''Iron Chef America'' which features British cook Nigella Lawson as a judge, reported Daily Mail online.

The episode of the popular series, which pits well-known chefs against each others, has been filmed at the White House and will be aired in the New Year. Many of the ingredients for the meals prepared in the show were chosen from the recently planted White House vegetable garden.

Michelle agreed to take part in the show to promote her campaign of healthy living. During the show, which attracts an audience of 1.5m in the US, she will be seen talking to the chefs about the importance of getting children to eat vegetables.

It is the first time a First Lady, or even a member of the White House staff, has featured in a TV reality show. The move is likely to open up the White House to more criticism over its increasing links to Hollywood.

Last week it was revealed that a list of visitors to the White House in the first nine months of the Obama presidency was peppered with celebrities, including Oprah Winfrey, George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Denzel Washington. PTI KKR VSS.

Source: http://in.news.yahoo.com/20/20091106/388/ten-michelle-obama-to-star-in-reality-sh.html

U.S. President Barack Obama was voted in as America's 44th President one year ago, on a balmy evening on Nov 4th, a decision that was hailed by world leaders, global citizens and a country that was reeling under the after effects of the Bush administration. Though this decision met with disapproval by a fair percentage of detractors, mostly those who had praised John McCain's candidacy as the answer to America's myriad problems, Obama won the hearts of millions of Americans and billions of people the world over, who watched his acceptance speech peppered with liberal (pun unintended) doses of "Yes, we can" with moist eyes and hands on their hearts.

Obama's foray into the public eye was his interview on Oprah, where she was quick to proclaim him as the answer to all the ills and malaises that plagued the country, much before he announced his candidacy to the office of the most powerful man in the world. Seen as an articulate, well-read man who could hold the audience's attention with just one line, Obama's popularity during the Presidential elections was on display not only on traditional media like TV and newspapers, but also extensively felt across the net. There was the Obama fan girl phenomenon on Youtube, the Vote for Obama campaign on Facebook and his own Twitter account, which sees thousands of new followers everyday.

One year after that historic election, Republicans took back two states run by Democrats. Obama followers would say that this is not a reflection of President Obama's policies or the decline of the honeymoon period with American voters. Does President Obama continue to resonate with the American public? The optimism of Obama's aides may not be stretched as evidenced by the huge fan following he commands on the net.

Some of the decisions he's taken while in office like giving aid to Pakistan and the ongoing health reform debate have been widely criticized and questioned, but his popularity doesn't seem to be waning at all. On the contrary, it seems to be on the upswing. His secret mantra is his ability to reach out to people, say experts. He connects with men and women, young and old, domestic and foreign, rich and poor - be it any divide, he's managed to bridge every one, because he listens, even to his detractors. He took to Twitter on his first anniversary to tweet about the messages pouring in, be it congratulatory or criticism. He seems to have understood that there are various platforms on which to connect with people and doesn?t restrict himself to the four walls of the White Office and its dais. And he uses every single one of them to reach out.

He still has a good 3 years left in which he hopes to bring in a lot of reform and bring back the country to its old glory, but that aside, Barack Obama is all poised to go down in history as the net savvy leader of our times.

Source: http://in.news.yahoo.com/242/20091105/1342/twl-obama-the-net-savvy-prez.html

For the beauty and cosmetics industry, it seems but a short leap from Hippocrates' ancient dictum 'Let thy food be thy medicine' to the new-age fad of facelifts through foods and beverages laced with substances like collagen.

This route to beauty has been gaining ground over the last two years and is being accorded the status of a miracle worker. It even goes under the fancy tag of 'nutri-cosmetics'.

Foods that come under this label are also often called internal beauty aids. And the list of such aids is getting longer by the day.

A country such as ours will be the next stop for such products. Currently in some other parts of the world, water enhanced with plant extracts and vitamins is marketed as 'drinkable skin care'. It is purported to moisturise the skin and to improve its elasticity. Other fellow travellers on the bandwagon include collagen marshmallows (to plump the skin), anti ageing jam and "skin treatment infused" gummy bears that supposedly make the skin more elastic.

The new kid on the block is collagen coffee. It is touted as a wrinkle remover. Among the substances being added to foods and beverages for beauty enhancement are pomegranate, green tea, biotin, niacin and Omega-3 fatty acids.

Of course, the cosmetics and beauty industry will try any gimmick to boost revenues. The moot point is whether the addition of collagen and other substances to foods and beverages is simply a gimmick or does it lead to an enhanced and youthful look? And does it have any harmful side effects?

There is no reliable data to either refute or to justify the claims. The beauty industry is not renowned for conducting rigorous clinical trials. On the other hand, nutritional science says that collagen when ingested orally as a food will be reduced by the digestive process into small bits of protein. These small bits of protein do not have any special benefit for the skin. The same inferences seem valid for many of the other nutri-cosmetics.

Some experts believe that the presence of these special substances occurs in mega doses in the internal beauty aids and they feel that this could be harmful for healthy people who are otherwise in good nutritional condition.

The best course of action for healthy individuals looking to preserve their looks past their youth is to stick to a balanced diet and to get regular exercise. Additionally, they need to sleep adequately and follow some methods to de-stress. This time-tested regimen will probably ensure the same results that they expect from the use of the nutri-cosmetics and at far lower costs. The added advantage is that it will certainly be safer!

Source: http://in.news.yahoo.com/48/20091024/1248/twl-mirror-mirror-on-the-wall-which-is-t.html