Saurav, a resident of Patparganj in east Delhi, was taking part in the pastry competition at the office cafeteria when he suddenly felt unwell and went to the toilet, police said. “They were all having fun when Saurav went to the washroom around 1.30pm. After he hadn’t returned for a long while, his friends went into the toilet and found him unconscious,” said Satinder Kumar, SHO, Udyog Vihar police station.

It’s not clear whether it was an informal bet among colleagues or an eatsing competition organized by the company. Officials from Nokia Siemens Networking refused to speak on the incident while police said they were investigating the angle. Dr Sushum Sharma, medical advisor at Max Hospital, Gurgaon, said food had entered Saurav’s windpipe which caused the death. “Saurav had stuffed himself with so many pastries so fast that his windpipe was choked. In fact, when we put him on the resuscitation machine, foodstuff was coming out of the windpipe. There was no way air could have passed through to his lungs,” he said, adding that it was difficult to guess how many pastries Saurav had eaten.

The partially convertible rupee ended at 50.02/03 per dollar, 0.7 per cent weaker than 49.66/67 at Tuesday’s close. It hit a low of 50.03 in late trade, its weakest since Oct 27 when it hit a record low of 50.29.

“I still feel there is very good room for the dollar-rupee to go up to 52,” said V. Kumar, chief dealer with State Bank of Travancore.

These numbers very clearly give the lie to claims that local talent is being given short shrift in the job market. The politics of parochialism unleashed by Raj Thackeray and the MNS has become so competitive that every party in the state, from the Shiv Sena to the Congress, has felt compelled to play the sons-of-the-soil card.

On Monday, the Vilasrao Deshmukh government reiterated an old government resolution (GR) seeking to reserve 50% of supervisory positions and 80% of junior-level jobs for locals in units ranging from small to large.

Doctors in Germany say a patient appears to have been cured of HIV by a bone marrow transplant from a donor who had a genetic resistance to the virus.
The researchers in Berlin said the man, who suffered from leukaemia and HIV, had shown no sign of either disease since the transplant two years ago.
But they stressed it was an unusual case which needed further investigation.
Experts said the result may boost interest in gene therapy for HIV.
Berlin’s Charite clinic said the 42-year-old patient was an American living in Berlin, but the man has not been identified.

_________
I am so like freaking happy for people who can actually get cure to this terrible, horrible, obnoxious disease. Its amazing, I praise to the scientists, lab workers, chemists, biologists, they truly work very very hard their whole lives to find cures to the terrible disease. Some people including me say Docs get a lot of money, but if you really look at it, they kill their social lives and study until the age of 40 to reach their potential. By then they are tired, but they go into discovering more for us. Doctors really give up a lot of them for us.

Representatives of the Trinamool, Naxalites, the Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI) and the Association for Protection of Democratic Rights summarily rejected Dunlop chairman Pawan Kumar Ruia’s decision taken in consultation with the CPI-backed Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) and the Congress-backed Indian Trade Union Congress (INTUC). Tapan Dasgupta, leader of the Trinamool Trade Union Congress, said: “Didi (party chief Mamata Banerjee) has asked us to oppose the injustice meted out to workers.”

Ruia, however, claimed the employees supported the agreement. CITU union general secretary Dipankar Roy said, “About 300 workers have communicated to the personnel manager that they are in support of the agreement, preferring it to suspension of work.”

Obama in a statement announced that Pete Rouse will serve as senior advisor, while Mona Sutphen and Jim Messina will serve as deputy chief of staff.

“These individuals are important additions to a team with the experience and ability to help our nation overcome pressing challenges at home and around the world,” Obama said in a statement.

The INS Tabar opened fire on a pirate “mother ship” after it came under attack, a government statement said.

With 882 stations on 14 lines, Tokyo’s amazing subway system is one of the largest — and busiest — in all the world. The system map is a twisted mass of squiggles that resembles a Jackson Pollack painting, and conditions on its trains give new meaning to the word “crowded.” It all had me more than a little nervous as I headed to Tokyo for a business trip.

Announcing the expulsion, BSP national general secretary Satish Chandra Misra said it had been found that Singh had joined the BSP after leaving Congress
in August with some “ulterior motives.”

Singh, who was expelled from the Congress, had started indulging in acts of indiscipline after finding that his plans did not fructify, Mishra said.

“Natwar Singh who had been active in politics and in Congress for a long time was told at the time of joining that BSP was not like any other party”, Misra said adding that he was told that the party attached great importance to discipline as well as faith and dedication towards the BSP movement.

Company sources say the banks are not in a position to provide the amount of money required to run the factory so the workers have been told they will be provided Rs 2000 per month till the company reopens. But sources say it’s unlikely that the company will reopen very soon. Dunlop Board of Directors are meeting on Tuesday and then they will decide what will happen to the other plants.

“The Moon Impact Probe (MIP) is expected to be detached (from Chandrayaan-1) at around 10pm tomorrow,” Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) spokesperson S Satish said. Miniature Indian flags are painted on four sides of MIP. “It will signify the entry of India on Moon,” Satish said. “During its 20-minute descent to the moon’s surface, MIP will take pictures and transmit these back to the ground,” he said. MIP is one of the 11 scientific instruments (payloads) onboard Chandrayaan-1, India’s first unmanned spacecraft mission to Moon launched on October 22.

The spacecraft yesterday reached its final orbital home, about 100 kms over the moon surface after ISRO scientists successfully carried out the last critical orbit lowering operation.

“These people say these cuts will occur in a relatively shorter period of time, such as over the next five or six months,” CNBC said in a report published on its website today. Further, the report noted that Citi would cut expenses by as much as 20 per cent.

“Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit plans to make a dramatic statement on Monday morning about major cut-backs in the struggling firm’s workforce aimed at calming market fears that the troubled financial services giant isn’t taking the steps necessary to address its many ills, which include a bloated cost structure…,” CNBC said quoting people close to the company.

Further, the report attributing to a person close to the firm said, “The object here is for the people to take notice… The exact number is still a moving target but it will be dramatic.” On Friday, the Wall Street Journal had reported that Citi would be handing out pink slips to at least 10,000 employees.

He said such unilateral strikes harmed efforts to win hearts and minds of the people. The US should equip Pakistan with advanced weapons to help its forces fight terrorists more effectively. President Zardari said Pakistan received “no prior notice” of the air strikes and he disapproved of them. “If the casualties are women and children, the sensitivity of its effect increases,” he said.

He said the US “point of view” was that the attacks were good for everybody, while “our point of view is that it is not good for our position of winning the hearts and minds of people”.

Both sides had “informal” discussions last month and expect to schedule formal sessions soon, Lisa Monette, the spokesperson, said and added that Canada signalled its support for India’s re-engagement with the broader nuclear energy community when it backed the suppliers’ group decision.

“India is a responsible democracy that shares with Canada the fundamental values of freedom, democracy, human rights and respect for the rule of law,” she remarked. “India has made substantial non-proliferation and disarmament commitments to achieve the trust of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), which were reiterated in a political statement on September 5.”

Miraculously, he suffered what appeared to be minor injuries. He was later treated and released at Huntsville Hospital.

Its unclear why Romine was lying on the tracks.

Times have changed, and that old address is a black hole for spam. You never check it, and you don’t want to. But your stupid ISP, your stubborn family members and high school buddies insist on sending you important things there.

The penguin – called Pingu – began to lose weight and appeared weak after its bigger relative regularly helped himself to all the fish on offer.

Concerned keepers were forced to remove Pingu from the enclosure, but at just three-weeks-old the penguin was in desperate need of company.

Staff bought a £3.99 toy penguin from the zoo shop which acts as a surrogate sibling to the chuffed chick – who cuddles up to its new friend all day.

Mates: Pingu the penguin chick at the Living Coasts zoo in Torquay who has found solace with a stuffed toy

Pingu – an African penguin whose sex has yet to be determined – was born with its sibling at the Living Coasts attraction in Torquay, Devon.

Chairman of NSFA said that all crew members are safe.

Seema Goyal, wife of captain Prabhat Goyal onboard the ship, is said to have received the information from the company which owns the ship.

Initial reports suggested that the demands of the pirates were met after prolonged negotiations. The Japanese company reportedly paid the ransom to the pirates.

The fire broke out late Friday in the foothill community of Sylmar on the edge of the Angeles National Forest and quickly spread across 2,600 acres — more than 4 square miles — as it was driven by Santa Ana wind gusting as high as 76 mph.

Dozens of homes were destroyed, officials said, and aerial footage from television helicopters showed rows of houses gutted in just in one subdivision.

Fire crews had to abandon a mobile home park that was burning out of control.

“We have almost total devastation here in the mobile park,” Los Angeles Fire Capt. Steve Ruda said of the Oakridge Mobile Home Park. “I can’t even read the street names because the street signs are melting.”

At an evacuation center, Oakridge resident Wendy Vannenberg said the park had about 600 residences, many of them housing senior citizens. The same park had been evacuated during a fire last month.

“Last time I took all of my grandparents’ things. They had brought over them from Germany after World War II,” said Vannenberg, 46. “This time, I didn’t really grab anything. I don’t know why.”

Behind a fireline outside the mobile park, Jo Ordaz, 50, anxiously waited to learn the fate of her three-bedroom home as ash-laden wind gusts flicked branches from trees and rocked parked cars.

Meeting
under the banner of G20, convened by US President George W Bush, the leaders warned that “economic momentum is slowing substantially in major economies and the global outlook has weakened”.

While the Summit pledged to help emerging and developing economies gain access to finance in current difficult conditions, Bush told reporters that the Summit had rejected protectionism and backed an action plan to reform the multilateral financial institutions.

National capital Delhi has 10 billionaires having a cumulative networth of USD 29.53 billion, next only to Mumbai. The city boasts of country’s fourth richest man—telecom czar Sunil Mittal and the richest women—Savitri Jindal— with fortunes worth USD 7.9 billion and USD 2.9 billion, respectively. Apart from Mittal, Delhi houses one more billionaire – Kushal Pal Singh – who has found a place in the top 10, with a networth of USD 7.8 billion.

Meanwhile, pharma major Cipla’s Yusuf Hamied—who is placed at the 26th spot with a net worth of USD 1.06 billion— resides both in Mumbai and London. Further, another city Pune is home to four billionaires, while the country’s IT hub Bangalore houses three. However, when it comes to networth, Bangalore takes the lead with USD 9.43 billion, whereas Pune’s billionaires’ are together worth just USD 4.22 billion.

Others billionaires residing in Mumbai includes Dilip Shanghvi (11), Uday Kotak (19),Chandru Raheja (20), Venugopal Dhoot (25), Subhash Chandra (28), Rajan Raheja (30), Niranjan Hiranandani (35), Hemant Shah (37), Gracias Saldanha (38)and Anand Jain (39). Billionaires from Delhi includes Malvinder and Shivinder Singh (13), Shiv Nadar (15), Indu Jain (17) and Ramesh Chandra (27).

India is officially on the moon. After a couple of tense moments, the Lunar Impact Probe which was launched by the Chandrayaan planted the Tricolour on the moon at 8.31pm.

http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/nov/14chandrayaans-mip-lands-on-moon.htm

“This morning the entire A-32 road and Pooneryn was captured by our security forces,” the president said. “On this occasion, I ask (Tiger chief Velupillai) Prabhakaran to lay down and immediately come for talks. The best thing he can do for the (Tamil) people in the north is to lay down arms and surrender,” he added. The defence ministry described Saturday’s capture of Pooneryn as the “greatest feat against terrorists” along the island’s northwestern seaboard. The ministry said troops were closing in on the town of Kilinochchi, the political capital of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) further south.

The ministry, however, has made repeated claims in recent months that Kilinochchi was about to fall. There was no immediate comment from the Tigers, who had said security forces had moved deep into territory held by them in the northern parts of the country since mid-2007.

It had been exploring other sources of funds in order to avoid stringent IMF conditions but failed to find a deal. Speaking at a news conference in Karachi, Mr Tarin said Pakistan would apply formally for the loan next week. The government stands to receive $4bn this year as part of the 23-month IMF deal, the AFP news agency reports. It will start repaying the loan in 2011.

Akram felt that Hayden’s comments were a result of Aussies’ old habit of bad-mouthing their opponents whenever they lose.

“The thing about the Aussies is that they are sore losers. They get personal when they get beaten. It is all a matter of sour grapes and after going home, they’ve started calling India a third-world country,” Akram was quoted as saying by Mobile ESPN.

Hayden complained it was the host batsmen’s reluctance to face problems with people around the sight screen that led to the Aussies falling behind the over rate.

The comments came at a time when several top Australian cricketers, including Hayden, turned to India to make a quick buck from the cash-rich Indian Premier league (IPL).

“India is a superpower now; it is a hundred years ahead of Australia, which is no more than a village, as compared to India. You don’t blame sight screens for poor over rates. Even Allan Border was critical of Australian tactics on the pitch,” Akram said.

Seeking extension of police custody of Purohit, special prosecutor for Maharashtra ATS Ajay Misar told the court that a witness in Malegaon blast told ATS that Purohit had claimed he had 60 kgs of RDX in his possession which he had got from Jammu and Kashmir.

Purohit gave a portion of the RDX to one Bhagwan who is suspected to have used in Samjhauta Express blast, Misar said. The RDX is also suspected to have been used in Malegaon bomb explosion on September 29 this year, due to which Purohit’s interrogation is necessary, Misar told the court.

“If there is a major strike on this country (the US), it will bear the fingerprints of Al Qaeda,” he warned. Gen Hayden, however, depicted Al Qaeda chief as an extremely frustrated man who spent all his time trying to survive and had no time for guiding his militants. “[Bin Laden] is putting a lot of energy into his own survival, a lot of energy into his own security,” the CIA chief said. “He appears to be largely isolated from the day-to-day operations of the organization he nominally heads.” Capturing Bin Laden, however, remained the US government’s top priority, he added. “His death or capture clearly would have a significant impact on the confidence of his followers – both core Al Qaeda and unaffiliated extremists throughout the world,” he said.

After depicting Pakistan as the hub of all major terrorist activities in the world, the CIA chief also conceded that Pakistan faced a complex situation. “While the problem looks easy from thousands of miles away, it’s extremely difficult up close because of the tribal issues,” he said. “We’ve killed and captured more top Al Qaeda operatives with the support of the Pakistani security forces than anywhere else in the world. What remains unclear is what the end game is,” he added.