Piracy costs CD, DVD makers Rs.5 Billion annually

• Increasing sales of pirated CDs, DVDs and other software has led to manufacturers in the national capital losing around Rs.5 billion annually.
• According to the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham), pirated sales of these products is also leading to an annual revenue collection loss of about Rs.1.5 billion (Rs.150 crore) for the states of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana.
• It estimated that the Indian entertainment industry loses over Rs.160 billion (Rs.16,000 crore) annually because of counterfeiting and piracy.
• The chamber said piracy could hurt the revenue generation of original manufacturers in Delhi and its neighbouring region to the extent of over Rs.15 billion in the next five-seven years as the purchasers of pirated products, between in the age group of 18-25 years, was growing at a significant pace.

So people what do u think, will u stop downloading movies from the net or will u stop renting pirated movies ? I think most of us will continue with the piracy business as it is profitable for us and more convenient but then this practice is illegal. But do we even care about that ? What is a practical solution to this problem, does anyone have even a slightest clue???

One job lost in every 10 seconds in the world

• In December, companies across diverse sectors have announced at least 115,000 job-cuts, a figure which translates into an average of more than 8,200 people being laid off a day or about six every one minute.

• More than 30,000 jobs were lost in the first week of December itself. But in the following seven days, the number nearly trebled to touch about 85,000, with the U.S. being accountable for more than one-third of the layoffs. The country has already seen a shocking 5,33,000 job losses in November alone.

• some of the major companies who have been laying off people too much:

1. Bank of America-plans to axe 35,000 jobs in the coming months
2. Sony -16,000 layoffs
3. Rio Tinto- all set to trim its headcount by 14,000.
   

I think lesser jobs will mean lesser incomes leading to lesser expenditures leading to lesser market demand, resulting in widening losses and yet widening crises. This was on a macro scale, on micro scale...a good management is always characterized by long sighted vision for future....the crises was born because management of various such affected organizations went on to make quick money and indulged themselves in the subprime fraud and now later repenting...these job cuts are short cut quick recovery trick with long & wide negative impact on themselves. But these company heads are also not that stupid that they will not think about long term effect but I wonder what could it be that they are planning to curb this problem???

Read the story: Ant & Grasshopper

An Old Story:

The Ant works hard in the withering heat all summer building its house and
laying up supplies for the winter.

The Grasshopper thinks the Ant is a fool and laughs & dances & plays the
summer away.

Come winter, the Ant is warm and well fed. The Grasshopper has no food or
shelter so he dies out in the cold.

Indian Version:

The Ant works hard in the withering heat all summer building its house and
laying up supplies for the winter.

The Grasshopper thinks the Ant's a fool and laughs & dances & plays the
summer away.

Come winter, the shivering Grasshopper calls a press conference and
demands to know why the Ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed
while others are cold and starving.
NDTV, BBC, CNN show up to provide pictures of the shivering Grasshopper
next to a video of the Ant in his comfortable home with a table filled
with food.

The World is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be that this poor
Grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?

Arundhati Roy stages a demonstration in front of the Ant's house.

Medha Patkar goes on a fast along with other rasshoppers demanding that
Grasshoppers be relocated to warmer climates during winter .

Amnesty International and Koffi Annan criticize the Indian Government for
not upholding the fundamental rights of the Grasshopper.

The Internet is flooded with online petitions seeking support to the
Grasshopper (many promising Heaven and Everlasting Peace for prompt
support as against the wrath of God for non-compliance).

Opposition MPs stage a walkout. Left parties call for 'Bengal Bandh' in
West Bengal and Kerala demanding a Judicial Enquiry.
CPM in Kerala immediately passes a law preventing Ants from working hard
in the heat so as to bring about equality of poverty among Ants and
Grasshoppers.

Lalu Prasad allocates one free coach to Grasshoppers on all Indian Railway
Trains, aptly named as the 'Grasshopper Rath'.

Finally, the Judicial Committee drafts the ' Prevention of Terrorism
Against Grasshop

Finally, the Judicial Committee drafts the ' Prevention of Terrorism
Against Grasshoppers Act' [POTAGA], with effect from the beginning of the
winter.

Arjun Singh makes 'Special Reservation ' for Grasshoppers in Educational
Institutions & in Government Services.

The Ant is fined for failing to comply with POTAGA and having nothing left
to pay his retroactive taxes,it's home is confiscated by the Government
and handed over to the Grasshopper in a ceremony covered by NDTV.

Arundhati Roy calls it ' A Triumph of Justice'.

Lalu calls it 'Socialistic Justice '.

CPM calls it the ' Revolutionary Resurgence of the Downtrodden '

Koffi Annan invites the Grasshopper to address the UN General Assembly.

Many years later...

The Ant has since migrated to the US and set up a multi-billion dollar
company in Silicon Valley,

100s of Grasshoppers still die of starvation despite reservation somewhere
in India,

.AND

As a result of loosing lot of hard working Ants and feeding the
grasshoppers, .
.
. India is still a developing country…!!!

Attack on Kasab's lawyer's house

Two days after lawyer K B N Lam moved an application in a session's court expressing his willingness to defend arrested Pakistani terrorist Mohammad Ajmal Kasab in a court, two unidentified men vandalized his Breach Candy home on Wednesday morning. It is the third time an advocate willing to represent Kasab was targeted.

Asked why the lawyer was not given protection, ACP Patil said, "We didn't know where he lived. But now we will give him adequate protection.''

"We don't suspect the role of a political party,'' said a senior police officer explaining that party members usually come in hordes. "We are probing the matter and based on the version of two servants at the house, we are getting sketches of the two attackers made,'' he said, adding that a case of trespass and mischief has been registered.

These are the lawyers who have volunteered to appear for Kasab in court:

- P Janardhanan: A former associate advocate-general of Maharashtra, Janardhanan was one of the lawyers in the Ramesh Kini murder case

- KBN Lam: Has been a barrister at London's famous Lincoln's Inn and currently teaches law at Government Law College and K C Law College

WITHDRAWAL

A couple of lawyers initially expressed willingness to fight for Kasab but later withdrew in the face of protests

- Ashok Sarogi: Shiv Sena activists protested outside Sarogi's home and he had to give in writing that he would not appear for Kasab; he said he had only stated that Kasab had the right to be represented by a lawyer. Sarogi has represented gangster Abu Salem earlier

- Mahesh Deshmukh: Offered to be Kasab's lawyer but subsequently withdrew

Pray to god that there should be more terror strikes…

Yes I may sound naive but that’s the position we are into. Unfortunately though. But I have started praying that there should be more terror strikes, on western world though. Having said that I want to clear a point that I don’t want to hurt the sentiments of westerners and I very much value life. But there is logic behind what I am proposing.

The logic is based on a premise that we are living in a civilized, diplomatic and hypocrite world. And these are the points, which I am going to elaborate in coming few lines.

With civilized world I mean that we are living in a 21st century world where it’s not that convenient to rage a war or raid any other country, unlike 18th or 19th centuries. So now a day if there is a terror attack on India so we cannot straight away go on a war with the country so what if everybody knows who is sponsoring it or is behind it. Besides that we being poor countries cannot possibly afford a war, that to of the extent of a nuclear one. And there are many more complications, these being the major ones. So one way we can derive solace is through the fact that we can say “ we live in a civilized world so we cannot go on war with other countries, particularly with our neighbor. After all we were taught at school to Love Thy Neighbors.”

Coming to the diplomatic aspect of my premise. We are a diplomatic society. Everybody is honing his diplomatic skills with the terror attack. America is being diplomatic in a way that it doesn’t want to remove the forces (Pakistani) from the western front (of Pakistan), and at the same time it can’t be insensitive towards India. After all America is the “big daddy” of war against terror. So it is playing it safe, in India they (Americans) are crying foul against terrorism and swearing to destroy it all ends up. And at the other moment they are just about pampering Pakistan to keep forces on the western front.
Indian politicians are polishing their diplomatic skills by appeasing Indian public through forceful speeches, but delivering none!

Now finally coming to the last and the most tricky part, hypocrisy.
We are a hypocrite society as well. India has been facing terrorist attacks for the last 25 years but it took only 9/11 to make terrorism such hoopla. And 13/12, 13/5, 7/11, 26/11…etc are nothing but water on a duck’s back. If it is a 9/11 then a nation is free to attack another country, but if it’s 26/11 then it’s just another day in the history.

Now that’s the reason why I pray to god that there should be more terror attacks on western world because only then they can realize what actually is a terror attack. And what it takes to live in a traumatized atmosphere. And only then they can attack yet another country, finishing this war on terror for once and all. (Remember India is a weak country it cannot fight it’s own battle!)

So dear netizens if you truly want to live without fear of terror attacks pray for one. Just this time on America with our trusted neighbour’s hand in it, so that America can go all out to demolish the epicenter of terror from this world and reincarnating our poor mother!

Caution!!!

So we have had alot of political news and Delhi news so I thought of posting something non political today. This is an email which I received today and I thought of sharing it with you.

1) Don't put your mobile closer to your ears until the recipient
Answers, Because directly After dialing, the mobile phone would use its maximum signaling Power, which is:
2watts = 33dbi. Please Be Careful. Please use left ear while using Cell (mobile), because if you use the right one it may affect brain Directly. This is a true fact from Apollo medical team.

2) Do not drink "APPY FIZZ". It contains cancer causing agent.

3) Don't eat "Mentos" before or after drinking "Coke" or "Pepsi" because the person Will die Immediately as the mixture becomes cyanide.. Please fwd to whom u Care .

4) Don't eat "Kurkure" because it contains high amount of plastic if U Don't believe burn kurkure n u can see plastic melting. Please forward To all!!!!!!!!! !!
News report from Times of India

5) Avoid these tablets they are very dangerous
* D cold
* Vicks action- 500
* Actified
* Coldarin
* Cosome
* Nice
* Nimulid
* Cetrizet-D
They contain Phenyl- Propanol -Amide PPA. Which Causes strokes, and these
Tablets are banned in U.S.

6) Cotton Ear Buds... (Must read it)
Please do not show sympathy to people selling buds on roadside or at
Signals.....
Just wanted to warn you people not to buy those packs of ear buds you
Get at the roadside. It's made from cotton that has already been used
In hospitals.
They take all the dirty, blood and pus filled cotton, wash it, and bleach it
And use it to make ear buds. So, unless you want to become the first
Person in the world to get Herpes Zoster Oticus (a viral infection of
The inner, middle, and external ear) of the ear and that too from a
Cotton bud, DON'T BUY THEM!

If you know any such toxic products please share with us.

Violent films making teenagers more aggressive

• A survey conducted by Samir Parikh among 1,000 students in private schools of New Delhi and in the suburban towns of Gurgaon and Noida reveals that as a large number of children in the 14-17 age group watch violent movies, they might be getting more aggressive.

Some facts of the survey:

1. Boys - 79 per cent - enjoy watching violent movies, while 34 per cent of girls also love seeing such action-oriented films.
2. 44 per cent of boys said they have the urge to hit or harm someone, while the figure was 32 per cent for girls.
3. 35 per cent of boys feel that showing some force or bullying someone is important to make friends like them more. Around 24 per cent of girls agree with this.
4. 31 per cent of boys said they know of someone being threatened or injured with a weapon in school while the figure is 22 per cent for girls.
5. 53 per cent of boys said they felt safer when they are with their own gang or group in school. This is true for girls, too. About 45 per cent of girls said they feel protected in school if they are part of a group.
6. The survey says feelings like physically harming someone score quite high among teenagers. "But it is not clear whether they actually act out their urge in harming someone."
7. Many children shared their feeling of not wanting to go to school as they feel unsafe. This could also be because of bullying by others or the fear that they could be harmed.

Is this really happening because of violent movies only or is there something else also. The kind of video games one play or is it peer pressure to perform in an aggressive nature. Is it that that boys feel more masculine after showing aggressive behavior only? Or is it true only in metros ? What is it that is actually making such young teenagers become so aggressive, is it lack of parental attention or stress or what??? Somebody needs to address this problem and come out with a solution otherwise god forbids that day isnt far where carrying guns will be normal to school or hurting people becomes "COOL"....

40% of newly elected MLAs crorepatis and many of them with criminal records.

• Crorepati candidates have won 40% seats in the elections from a total of 629 seats across the states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Mizoram and Delhi. Fewer than 3% candidates, with assets less than Rs 5 lakh, have triumphed, shows the report prepared by Association for Democatic Reforms as part of the New Election Watch campaign. ADR is a collective of more than 1,200 NGOs and citizens groups working for electoral reforms.

• The average Delhi assembly MLA of 2008 is worth Rs 2.86 crore. There isn't much to choose financially between the average BJP (Rs 2.8 cr) and the Congress (Rs 2.7 cr) MLA. Interestingly, the average asset of the six BSP MLAs in Rajasthan works out to a whopping Rs 3.45 crore.

• In Delhi, 31% of crorepatis with assets above Rs 5 crore emerged successful whereas no candidate with less than Rs 5 lakh won. The contrast is sharper in Chhattisgarh where 50%, or every second contesting crorepati with assets more than Rs 3 crore, prevailed. In comparison, among candidates with kitties of less than Rs 5 lakh, only 2% were victorious.

• There is a clear link between high finance and the chance of bagging a seat, say experts. "We found that the more money you have, better the chances of winning,'' says Anil Bairwal, national coordinator of ADR. Well-known activist Nikhil Dey illustrates the point. "The trend shows polls are almost a game of kaun banega crorepati. If you compare the figures with last time's elections, you will find assets have increased by an average of Rs 1 cr in five years of holding office,'' he says.

• A party-wise analysis shows the Congress fielded 121 crorepati winners and the BJP 110 in these polls. The candidates' declarations can be taken with a pinch of salt. In Rajasthan, for instance, an MLA with less than Rs 1 lakh assets owns a high-end car. "The study is based on their declarations and they may be lower than the actual assets,'' says Bairwal, whose study also concludes that the number of MLAs with criminal records has gone up since the 2003 polls.

• In Delhi, for instance, compared to 2003, the number of MLAs with criminal records has gone up from 24 to 27. That means now, 40% of newly-elected MLAs in the 69-seat Delhi assembly have criminal records.

• As per the affidavits, a total 549 candidates with criminal records contested in these elections. Of them, 124 won. That's about 23%. While MP has a maximum of 54 such MLAs, Rajasthan is second with 30, Chhattisgarh 11 and Mizoram 3.

• That deep pockets and crime go hand-in-hand is shown by Rajasthan, where the nine MLAs with serious criminal charges against them are all crorepatis.

• In Delhi all MLAs in current assembly are either lakhpatis or crorepatis. There are a total of 46 crorepatis. Congress has 24, BJP 19 and the BSP 2. One is an Independent. In MP, 12 crorepati MLAs do not have PAN numbers.

• 12 Delhi MLAs with asset declaration of more than Rs 1 crore said they own no vehicle.

If this is the fact of our politics then its high time that all of us should at least vote so that people having criminal records are not elected. And I seriously cant understand why people with criminal records are allowed to even contest. Further why media doesn publicise all these facts before elections? Crorepatis coming to power is good or bad that is very subjective I guess but mostly crorepatis winning shows that there is corruption somewhere exisiting and it is ruling.....

No honking on New years Day in delhi

• January 1 will be observed by the traffic police as No Honking Day in the capital.

• As part of the drive taxi, auto and Blueline drivers will be educated at length on the ills of honking without purpose. Road shows will be held at important intersections, where the problem is acute.

• Police officials say honking is one of the major contributors towards road rage in the capital. The decibel levels on Delhi roads are way higher than the safe limit of about 60 dbs, posing a major threat to public health and well-being.

• ‘‘We are going to talk to each driver and tell them about the health problems caused by horns and the resultant noise pollution. When the driver is convinced, a sticker about the no-honking campaign will be pasted on his vehicle,’’ said Ravi Kalra, founder president of The Earth Savers Foundation, the NGO behind the initiative.

This is a nice idea to promote something good for the environment and the public too. The govt. should come up with more of these kind of ideas which can be followed by public easily and conveniently and then later make it a habit. Why not come up with the idea of working for full office hours honestly by the govt. officials at least for a day in a month. I guess this will double the output given by govt. officials if they start working honestly even for a day in a month.

Lawyer refused to represent Kasab

• Advocate Dinesh Mota who was assigned to represent Kasab refused to represent him while appearing in courtroom of additional chief metropolitan magistrate N N Shrimangale at Esplanade and said: "I will not appear as legal aid for Kasab even at the risk of my `sanad' (licence to work as a legal aid lawyer) being cancelled.''

• He later said: "I felt so relieved that I don't recall the magistrate's exact words but he was kind enough not to urge me to change my mind. I was ready for whatever action against me.''

• "This was the first time I faced this kind of situation in my 10 years as a legal aid advocate. I refused to appear for some 1993 blast accused but I appeared for Tariq Parveen. I have been asked to appear as legal aid lawyer for several cases of arms recovery, even murder cases and recently in a case of false alarm raised in a jail fight between inmates. But, in one murder case, I failed to rescue the accused as there was direct evidence against him,'' he said.

The law provides for a fair trial and an advocate. But in Kasab's case where every lawyer of Mumbai has decided not to take up his case will result in delay of his hearing. This in turn will delay the judgment and this will be not fair to the people who want to see him getting punished. In my opinion this is a very clear case and even if a lawyer represents him he has no chance of getting him aquitted so why not take up his case and get over with it. Because justice delayed is justice denied and this is what is happening.

UNSC bans Lashkar front Jamaat-ud-Dawa

A committee of the United Nations Security Council has placed sanctions against Pakistan-based Jamaat-ud-Dawa, a front organisation for Lashkar-e-Toiba, declaring it a terrorist organisation. The committee has also added four Lashkar leaders - including Hafiz Muhammad Saeed - to list of people facing sanctions for ties to al-Qaeda or the Taliban.

Mumbai terrorist Kasab to be produced in court on Thursday

•Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Rakesh Maria said Ajmal was likely to be produced in a magistrate's court at the Esplanade court house in south Mumbai.

•The police said there were 12 cases registered in connection with the November 26 attacks and they could seek the custody of the arrested terrorist Ajmal in all the cases.

•"We have booked Ajmal under sections like murder, attempt to murder, waging war against the nation, conspiracy and relevant sections of the Arms Act and Explosives Act," Maria said.

Suspected Bomb scare Police in Delhi's CP

•A bomb scare in Connaught Place late Wednesday night sent security forces into a tizzy after a suitcase was found in an autorickshaw that was intercepted by Delhi Police.

•An NSG team rushed to the site and carried out a controlled explosion to scan the suitcase in which some papers and a bottle containing a liquid were found, said police. Later, they ruled out the presence of any explosive in the suitcase.

•Senior police officers said that from the driver's description, the men seemed to be Africans. According to earlier reports, electronic safes were also found but police didn't open them instantly suspecting them to be explosive devices. The auto was taken to a vacant plot on Baba Kharak Singh Marg opposite state emporia. The area was cordoned off using metal barriers as a precautionary measure.

•A senior police officer said: ``The auto was intercepted as a part of routine procedure but the moment the men saw the cops they jumped out from the other side and just melted in the crowd.''

•Cops are even suspecting it to be a case of drug smuggling and black dollar scam.

WWII bomb found, 2000 evacuated

•Police say 2,000 people have been evacuated after a huge, unexploded World War II bomb was found in the centre of the southwest Polish city of Wroclaw. According to authorities the bomb weighs 1 ton.

•Unexploded bombs from World War II are still found frequently in Poland more than 60 years after the conflict ended.

Sweden cleanest, Saudi dirtiest: UN Index

•Sweden does the maximum to tackle greenhouse emissions while Saudi Arabia does the least, according to a barometer published on Wednesday by watchdogs at the UN climate talks here.

•But the annual "Climate Change Performance Index" placed Sweden only fourth on its list, for no prizes were allotted for the top three places.

•The benchmark is derived from 12 national indicators, based on the emissions level, emissions trend and climate policy.

•Sweden's fourth place was followed by Germany, France, India, Brazil, Britain and Denmark.

•The bottom 10 were listed in descending order as Greece, Malaysia, Cyprus, Russia, Australia, Kazakhstan, Luxembourg, the United States, Canada and Saudi Arabia.

•The Climate Change Performance Index compares 57 states that together emit more than 90 percent of the world's annual output of carbon dioxide (CO2), the principal greenhouse gas.

•The benchmark is derived from 12 national indicators, based on the emissions level, emissions trend and climate policy.

40% of Delhi MLAs aren't graduates

•Of the 67 MLAs whose educational records are available, 27 don't have a bachelor's degree.

•The academic credentials of the new-look Delhi Assembly may appear low by modern standards, but these are better than the city's own educational profile. According to an NSSO report of 2004-05, only 20.8% of Delhiites are graduates.

•Sixteen of the new MLAs 23% of them have a postgraduate or higher degree. And education is one area where BJP seems to have defeated Congress hands down. Of the 23 MLAs from the party, 14 (60% of them) are graduates.

•In fact by far the most educated of the lot is Ghonda MLA Sahab Singh Chauhan, former chief whip of BJP who has two masters' degrees one each in English and Hindi as well as a BEd and an LLB to boot.

•Despite senior leaders of both parties stressing that "commitment to the people and not education'' is what it takes to become a people's representative, the conviction is often absent in the candidates' own affidavits. There have been numerous attempts to use words such as BA, BSc, BCom in cases where the final examination had not been cleared to create an illusion of having obtained the degree. Shoaib Iqbal, Lok Janshakti Party MLA from Matia Mahal, is a "BA (second year)'' from Zakir Husain College. Chandni Chowk's Congress MLA, Prahlad Singh Sawhney, wrote he had done "BA (second year)'' from Gwalior University while Delhi Cantonment's BJP MLA Karan Singh Tanwar's educational qualification columns reads "BSc (hons) second year in Maths from Delhi University.''

Essar Oil to open its petrol pumps next month

•The company would reopen all its 1,250 retail outlets by January. We have already made operational 830 petrol pumps so far,” an Essar Oil spokesperson said.

•The company started shutting down its outlets in March after a sharp rise in global crude prices. Now that the margins on petrol and diesel have turned positive after steep fall in crude prices, the company has started opening its retail outlets.

•However, the Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) has no such plans for reopening its 1,432 petrol pumps. The company had shut its all retail outlets around March this year after crude price went northwards.

Declare Jamaat-ud-Dawa a terrorist outfit: India to UN

•India on Tuesday urged the UN Security Council to declare Jamaat-ud-Dawa, a front of the Pakistan-based Lashker-e-Taiba (LeT), as a terrorist outfit.

•Jamaat-ud-Dawa is the public name of LeT, which was banned in 2002. India and the US have said that the LeT and its leaders were involved in the Mumbai terrorist attacks.

•Referring to the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism, which India tabled in 1996, the Indian minister of state for external affairs E Ahamed said this needs to be adopted immediately to provide a framework of international law against terrorism

Paul Krugman -"........world of zero interest rates ..."

Paul Krugman (Noble Prize winner for Economics)- "The scenario I fear is that we'll see for the whole world the equivalent of Japan's lost decade in the 1990s, that we'll see a world of zero interest rates and inflation and no sign of recovery and it will just go on for a very, very extended period,".(8th Dec 08)

Amsterdam to close many brothels, marijuana cafes.

• Prostitution was legalized in the Netherlands in 2000, formalizing a long-standing tolerance policy.
  

• Marijuana is technically illegal in the Netherlands, but prosecutors won't press charges for possession of small amounts. Coffee shops are able to sell it openly.
  

• The measures announced Saturday would affect about 36 coffee shops in the centre itself —a little less than 20 percent of the city total

Removal of India from Google Earth

The PIL, filed by Mumbai-based lawyer Amit Karkhanis, has demanded removal of images of the country from Google Earth.

Google making the internet costlier for others and costing taxpayers about $7 billion a year.

• Google has been charged with using 21 times more bandwidth than what it pays for, thus making the internet costlier for others and costing taxpayers about $7 billion a year.

• Google in defence says that the report has been authored by someone being paid by phone and cable companies like AT&T, Verizon and Time Warner to be "a full time Google critic."

• The study estimated that Google has used 16.5 per cent of all US consumer internet traffic this year and it is estimated to grow to 25 per cent in 2009 and 37 per cent in 2010.

• However, the company's payment to fund the US consumer broadband internet segment is estimated at $344 million for 2008, which is just 0.8 per cent of the US consumer's flat-rate monthly internet accesscosts of $44 billion.

• "Thus, Google's 16.5 per cent share of all 2008 US consumer bandwidth usage is about 21 times greater than Google's 0.8 per cent share of US consumer bandwidth costs -- on an implicit about 6.9 billion dollar subsidy of Google by US consumers," Cleland wrote in the study.

India ranks third in rape cases

• According to the data, 18,359 rape cases were registered in India in the first three quarters of this year while in the US, 93,934 and in South Africa 54,926 rape cases were registered respectively.

• The lowest number of rape cases were registered in Jordan (78), Latvia (260), Bulgaria (403) and Finland (596).

• Altogether 44,159 cases of different sex offences were registered across India in the said period. In such cases too, India stands third after England and Germany where 62,100 and 47,070 cases were registered respectively.

• Four other countries where the numbers of sex offences were high include Canada (26,044), Australia (17,516), Sweden (7,924) and Argentina (3,473).

• According to the data, the incidence of various crime per one lakh population in India are -- murder (3), sex offences (4), rape (1.7), serious assault (24.6) robbery and violent theft (2.1), breaking and entering (8.2) and theft of motor cars (7.8).

Musharraf figures in the "Ten Worst Dictators" in the world for the first time

• Musharraf ranks seventh in the list issued by Parade magazine, preceded by Kim Jong Il of North Korea, Omar al-Bashmir of Sudan, Than Shwe of Burma and Hu Jintao of China, Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi of Libya. He is followed by Saparmurat Niyazov of Turkmenistan, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and Teodoro Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea.
• President Fidel Castro of Cuba and King Mswati III of Switzerland had been among the ten worst dictators in the world last year but they are considered better than the 10 Worst this year.

A British report says that following the attack, India has slipped to a list of the 20 most dangerous places to visit on Earth.

• India has been listed along side countries like Pakistan, Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Mexico, Thailand and South Africa in this list.
• Chechnya, Jamaica, Sudan, Colombia, Haiti, Eritrea, Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, Burundi, Nigeria, Zimbabwe and Lebanon have also been named among the 20 most dangerous places to visit on Earth.

MARCOS - “Fight a militant like a militant”.

• In April 1986, the Indian Navy mooted a plan for a special force, which would be able to conduct reconnaissance, raids and even counter-terrorist operations in a maritime environment. Three naval officers were sent for training with the US Navy SEALS and further training was conducted with British Special Forces. These three naval officers formed the nucleus of the Indian Marine Special Force (IMSF) that was formally raised in February 1987.
• The strength of the unit is a closely guarded secret. However, sources say the number could be close to 2,000 personnel. Currently, there are three main groups attached to the three naval commands - Mumbai (West), Cochin (South) and Vizag (East).
• Officially known as the Indian Marine Special Force, the unit was raised in 1987 out of the naval divers to lead amphibious operations. The personnel volunteering for the force have to undergo a rigorous two-year training, by the end of which only 10-25 percent of the enrolled commandos remain.
• Marcos have gained a fearsome reputation among terrorists who refer to them as the 'Dadiwali Fauj' (Bearded Army) since they are the only non-Sikh personnel allowed to grow beards, 'Jal Murgi' (Water Hens) for the speed in which they carry out assault from the water and 'Magarmachh' (Crocodiles) for their amphibious capability.
• The govt. spends Rs.8 crore per MARCO.