Month: September 2009

Mobile usage a rare highlight in music biz

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Denver, September 28: The mobile music landscape is very much a study in good news, bad news.

The bad news is that mobile music has failed to live up to the expectations that the early success of ringtones had inspired. Combined ringtone and ringback tone sales have fallen almost 23 percent so far this year, according to Nielsen RingScan. And Forrester Research analyst Sonal Gandhi estimates that only one-third of U.S. mobile subscribers with music-capable phones use their devices to listen to music.

Apple passes 2 billion app downloads

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New York, September 28: Apple Inc said on Monday that downloads from its iTunes applications store had passed 2 billion and that it now has more than 85,000 apps available for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

It did not say how many of the applications delivered were sold and how many were free. The store has inspired rival stores and helped boost iPhone sales since the summer of 2008.

Apple said it has sold more than 50 million iPhones and iPod Touch devices in 77 countries. AT&T Inc is the exclusive U.S. provider for iPhone.

Polls cast pall over Britain’s ruling Labor

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England, September 28: Opinion polls cast gloom over Britain’s ruling Labor Party on Monday at its last annual conference before a general election which the opposition center-right Conservatives are forecast to win.

Senior Labour figures described their party as the underdog in the election due by next June, but told delegates in the southern English city of Brighton not to give in to defeatism.

Only one in three Labour members of parliament (MPs) believe they will be the largest party after the election, a poll by Ipsos MORI showed.

Banged up, Stanford back in jail after altercation

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Boston, September 28: Allen Stanford, the alleged mastermind of a $7 billion fraud, is back in his jail cell after suffering a mild concussion, broken nose and two black eyes in a prison brawl last week, his lawyer said on Monday.

Stanford, 59, was injured in a fight on Thursday with a fellow inmate at the Joe Corley Detention Facility in Conroe, Texas, and was hospitalized over the weekend.

U.S. guitar maker draws buyers, cult-like following

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Stevensvilla, September 28: Three decades after defying the odds and persuading Carlos Santana to try out his hand-built guitar, Paul Reed Smith’s quest for perfect tone is still reeling in enthusiasts from all over the world.

Despite the world economic downturn, his company has built a new multimillion dollar factory and is looking at multiplying revenues while other instrument makers report declining sales.

U.S. commander offers options for Afghanistan

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Washington, September 28: The commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan planned to offer options for policymakers to try to stem Taliban gains, including sending up to 30,000 to 40,000 additional combat troops and trainers, according to defense and congressional officials.

General Stanley McChrystal hand-delivered his long-awaited request for more troops to U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen and NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe, Admiral James Stavridis, on Friday.

‘SNL’ Newcomer Drops F-Bomb During Season Opener

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New York, September 28: Saturday Night Live” has started the season with a bang.

Newcomer Jenny Slate let an obscene expletive slip during a parody of a talk show by biker women on the season opener of the comedy show. Called “Biker Chick Chat,” the sketch was laden with tough talk from its participants, played by Slate, Kristen Wiig and guest host Megan Fox.

But the most objectionable word was substituted, with rapid-fire comic frequency, with an inoffensive stand-in for that vulgarity.

Then, midway through the sketch, Slate slipped and said the word she meant to avoid.

Government to Intensely Track for H1N1 Shot Side Effects

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Washington, September 28: More than 3,000 people a day have a heart attack. If you’re one of them the day after your H1N1 flu shot, will you worry the vaccine was to blame and not the more likely culprit, all those burgers and fries?

The government is starting an unprecedented system to track possible side effects as mass flu vaccinations begin next month. The idea is to detect any rare but real problems quickly, and explain the inevitable coincidences that are sure to cause some false alarms.

Horrified Zoo Goers Witness Deadly Bear Attack in Germany

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Berlin, September 29: Officials at a German zoo say that a male brown bear attacked and killed a female bear in front of horrified onlookers.

Christoph Langner, the director of the zoo in the northern coastal German city of Stralsund, said the incident occurred on Saturday afternoon.

He said Sunday that zoo officials are still trying to determine why the male, a Syrian brown bear named Balou, attacked the female, Klara.

Zoo spokesman Peter Koslik said that Klara arrived at the zoo two years ago and Balou about half a year later.

Beatles’ Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds dies

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Los Angeles, September 28: THE woman who inspired the iconic Beatles song Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds has died, a charity said.

Lucy O’Donnell was a childhood friend of John Lennon’s son Julian, and the song title was inspired by a picture that he had drawn of her at school.

“That’s Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” Julian explained to his father when he took the picture home.

Many fans believed that the classic 1967 hit, recorded for the Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album, was a thinly disguised paean of praise for the hallucinogenic drug LSD.

Four-winged bird is missing dinosaur link: report

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Tibet, September 28: Chinese researchers have unearthed the fossil of a bird-like dinosaur with four wings in north-eastern China, which they suggest is a missing link in dinosaurs’ evolution into birds.

In a paper in the journal Nature, they said they found the well-preserved fossil of the Anchiornis huxleyi, which roamed the earth some 160 million years ago, in a geological formation in China’s north-eastern Liaoning province.

ITunes passes two billion download mark

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London, Septmeber 28: Apple has claimed downloads from its iTunes applications store had passed two billion and that it now had more than 85,000 apps available for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

It did not say how many of the applications delivered were sold and how many were free.

The store has inspired rival stores and helped boost iPhone sales since the summer of 2008.

Apple said it has sold more than 50 million iPhones and iPod Touch devices in 77 countries.

AT&T Inc is the exclusive US provider for iPhone.

Tajikistan teachers told to trim beards

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Tajikistan, September 28: Teachers aged under 50 in Tajikistan can no longer grow beards but are allowed to give their lessons in gumboots, according to new government guidelines.

“Men over 50 are allowed to have beards no more than three centimetres long, while younger men should be clean shaven,” according to a copy of an education ministry decree widely reported by state-run newspapers.

“As for footwear, it can be anything that fully covers the foot, including galoshes (gumboots),” it added.

Bees attack victims after highway crash

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Turkey, September 28: More than 20 people have been taken to hospital in Turkey after a van carrying bee hives hit a truck, angering the bees who attacked crash victims and rescuers.

Six people were injured in the crash near the south-western Mediterranean resort of Marmaris and around 20 others, including medics and police, were taken to hospital with bee stings.

Professional beekeepers had to be called in to help evacuate the victims, some of whom had to wait for more than an hour to be extracted from among the mangled hives.

Switzerland waits for Roman Polanski extradition request from the US

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United States, September 28: OSCAR-winning director Roman Polanski is in detention in Switzerland after his arrest over a 1977 child sex case in Los Angeles, as his lawyers vowed to fight his extradition to the United States.

The controversial 76-year-old Polish-French director was arrested late on Saturday, as he arrived to receive a lifetime achievement award at the Zurich film festival.

US authorities have been pursuing the director of Rosemary’s Baby, Chinatown and The Pianist for many years.

The Swiss Justice Ministry said it was now waiting for a US extradition request.

5 more succumb to swine flu, including 12-year-old Chandigarh girl

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New Delhi, September 28: Five swine flu deaths including the first in Chandigarh were reported Monday taking the total death toll due to the Influenza A (H1N1) virus in India to 303, health authorities said here.

One death each was reported from Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra. In Chandigarh a 12-year-girl, a native of Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut city, became the first victim in the city.

Acid thrown on Goa transport minister’s car

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Panaji, September 28: Even as the stir against the allegedly fraudulent implementation of high security number plates (HSNP) gathers steam in Goa, unknown people threw acid on the state transport minister’s official car Sunday damaging the number plate.

Transport Minister Sudin Dhavalikar was not in his car when the incident occurred.

World leaders pay tribute to Merkel’s election win

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Berlin, September 28: US President Barack Obama was among the first to call to congratulate German Chancellor Angela Merkel on her victory in the general election. Similar messages continued to flow into Berlin from Germany’s European neighbours and more distant allies Monday.

Merkel secured victory Sunday at the head of a new centre-right coalition that pairs her Christian Democrats (CDU) with the pro-business Free Democratic Party (FDP) as junior partner. The FDP replaces her Social Democratic Party (SPD) partner of the past four years.

Three held for crude bomb blast in Orissa’s Kandhamal

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Bhubaneswar, September 28: Three people were detained in Orissa’s Kandhamal district for their alleged role in a crude bomb blast Sunday, police said Monday.

A man was killed and two people sustained injuries when the bomb they were carrying exploded in Nandagiri village, 56 km from the district headquarters of Phulbani.

“We have detained three people for questioning,” a senior district police official told IANS, adding that the people have been detained after police found four illegally manufactured guns near the site.

P.T. Usha presented Basavashree award

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Bangalore, September 28: Former sprint queen P.T. Usha has been honoured with the Basavashree award for her achievements in and contribution to sports.

The award is instituted by Murugha Math, a well-known religious institution in Karnataka propagating the teachings of 12th century reformer Basaveshwara. The math is situated in Chitradurga, about 200 km from Bangalore.

The math head Shivamurthy Shivacharya Swami presented the award, which carries a cash prize of Rs.100,000 and a citation, to Usha at a function in Chitradurga late Sunday.

Marginal impact of Air India pilots’ stir in Bangalore

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Bangalore, September 28: The agitation by a section of pilots of the national carrier Air India had a marginal impact in India’s tech hub Monday, as only three out of 18 flights it operates daily were cancelled, an airline official said.

“Flights to Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata were cancelled as the aircraft did not land from these cities till afternoon,” Air India spokesperson V. Chandrashekar told IANS.

Passengers of the cancelled flights were accommodated in the aircraft of private carriers like Jet Airways and Kingfisher.

Polanski to fight extradition to US

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Paris, September 28: Film director Roman Polanski, jailed in Switzerland on an American arrest warrant, will fight extradition to the United States, his French attorney said Monday.

The 76-year-old Polanski “has rejected the extradition demand… by the US”, Herve Temime said in a press statement.

Polanski was arrested late Saturday in Zurich, Switzerland, on an arrest warrant dating from a 1977 California case in which he pleaded guilty to unlawful intercourse with a 13-year-old girl he plied with champagne and sedatives.

Armed robbers loot passengers in Delhi-bound train

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New Delhi, September 28: A group of five-six armed robbers looted passengers on a train headed to Delhi of cash, jewellery and other valuables in the suburbs of the national capital Monday. Police said they had found “definitive” clues and would arrest the robbers soon.

The masked robbers boarded the Kalka-Delhi Himalayan Queen Express at Sonepat in Haryana and looted passengers in the general class bogie of cash, jewellery and valuables like mobile phones at gun and knife point.

Pakistan to reverse clocks by one hour from Nov 1

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Islamabad, September 28: The Pakistan government has decided to reverse the clocks by one hour from Nov 1, the Online news agency reported Monday citing the interior ministry.

The government had decided to advance the clocks by one hour for seven months from April 1 to Oct 31 every year to overcome the energy crisis, while the clocks would be reversed by one hour from Nov 1 to March 31, the report said.

The main purpose to advance the clocks is to use maximum daylight, it added.

–Agencies

Pakistani court issues notice to Musharraf in Benazir killing case

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Islamabad, September 28: A Pakistani court Monday issued notice to former president Pervez Musharraf and nine others after they failed to appear for a hearing in a case relating to the Dec 27, 2007 assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

Judge Ejaz Ahmad Chaudhry of the Rawalpindi bench of the Lahore High court issued the notice on a petition filed by Chaudhry Aslam, Bhutto’s former protocol officer, seeking the registration of a first information report (FIR) on her killing.