Rupee snaps 3-day fall as exporters cash dollars

MUMBAI: The Indian rupee snapped a three-day losing streak and ended up on Wednesday as exporters sold the dollar aggressively following its
weakness against a basket of currencies, including the Japanese yen.

The partially convertible rupee ended up at 48.07/08 per dollar, recovering more than 2 percent from a two-week low of 49.20 per dollar hit in early deals. It closed at 48.78/81 per dollar on Tuesday and traded in a wide 47.75-49.20 per dollar band for the day.

Talk of central bank intervention above 49 per dollar also propped up the rupee, but two dealers said the selling by some state-run banks was probably on behalf of exporters. "It's a typical December market," said a senior dealer at a foreign bank.

Financial markets are shut on Thursday for Christmas and many foreign banks have wound down their trading positions ahead of the year-end, with only a handful of private and state-run banks active in the market. "Volumes are low, volatility is high and there is only very few players in the market," he said.

One-month volatilities, a gauge for daily fluctuations in the rupee were around 15 percent, a level it has stayed near for most of the month.

The rupee has gained 4.2 percent this month, helped partly by foreign portfolio inflows of $462 million in December, but is down 18 percent in 2008 on equity withdrawals of more than $13 billion. Dealers said dollar demand from oil refiners seen in early trade dried up later, also helping the rupee.

The dollar slipped against the yen and a basket of currencies in thin trade on Wednesday as investors braced for U.S. data that may add to the grim outlook for the nation's economy. One-month offshore non-deliverable forward contacts were at 48.25/48.40, a shade weaker than the onshore rate.

US falls deeper into recession as job market darkens

WASHINGTON: US consumers cut their spending for a fifth straight month in November as a year-old recession tightened its grip, but with prices
dropping, they got more for each dollar, a report showed on Wednesday.

A separate report showed initial claims for jobless aid last week hit the highest level in 26 years. The Commerce Department said spending shrank by 0.6 percent last month after falling by 1 per cent in October. However, a sharp drop in prices pushed inflation-adjusted spending up by 0.6 per cent, the first increase since May.

The report also showed incomes fell 0.2 per cent after a slight gain in October, a sign of the strain consumers were under as the holiday shopping season started.

Separately, the Labour Department said the number of US workers filing new claims for unemployment benefits jumped by 30,000 to 586,000 last week, the highest since November 1982, suggesting a steepening drain of jobs is likely into 2009. "All in all, the scenario remains pretty weak," said Daniel Katzive, director of global foreign exchange for Credit Suisse in New York.

The latest data wouldn't change most forecasters view that the US economy is still weakening, he said. The incoming administration of President-elect Barack Obama is preparing a huge economic stimulus package to complement the Federal Reserve's efforts at boosting economic activity through reduced interest rates. A third report from Commerce showed orders for long-lasting durable goods slipped 1 per cent in November, a less severe drop than anticipated but it comes after the biggest drop in October orders since mid-2000.

Orders plummeted 8.4 in October. There were some positive notes in the durables report, as orders rose in November for computers, machinery and fabricated metal products. Transportation equipment orders, down 7.4 per cent after a 12.7 per cent October decline, was the main drag on orders. Excluding transportation, durable goods orders were up 1.2 per cent after falling 6.8 per cent in October but analysts doubted it marked any turning-point in economic prospects.

Most analysts think mid-2009 is the earliest point at which some relief from the current severe downturn may start to be seen. "The pickup in orders in November does not meaningfully alter the underlying weak trend, but it was a relief to see at least a pause in the downward movement," said Michael Moran, chief economist for Daiwa Securities America in New York.

The spending report showed personal savings edged up in November to 2.8 per cent of disposable income from 2.4 per cent in October, still a low level but a possible sign the year-old recession is causing consumers to begin putting more into bank accounts rather than spending it. Prices fell 1.1 per cent as gasoline costs continued to slide. But so-called core prices, which strip out volatile food and energy costs, held steady for a second straight month.

World Bank bars Satyam for 8 years

The World Bank has barred Satyam Computer Services from doing any business with it for the next eight years even as the share prices of India's fourth-largest IT firm tanked 13.5 per cent on rumours that B Ramalinga Raju, founder and chairman, has resigned.

Speculation was also high on news that Wipro Technologies, India's third-largest IT firm, might acquire Satyam, something both companies denied.

Foxnews.com on Tuesday reported that the World Bank ban started in September this year "due to alleged malpractice's including bribery". The news report said the World Bank debarment -- the harshest sanction ever made by the bank since 2004 -- was meted out for 'improper benefit to bank staff' and 'lack of documentation on invoices'.

"The information is true," Sudip Mozumder, a spokesman for the World Bank in New Delhi, told Reuters. Moreover, Robert Van Pulley, the information security official, admitted to the ban during a recent meeting with officials of the Government Accountability Project, a 30-year-old whistle-blowing organisation based in Washington.

When contacted, a Satyam spokesperson said that "the company does not comment on individual clients".

According to reports throughout 2003 to 2008, the World Bank has paid Satyam hundreds of millions of dollars to maintain and manage its software systems across global networks as well as look at back-office operations.

In 2005, the bank's chief information officer, Mohamed Muhsin, was asked to leave after being accused of improperly buying preferential stock options from Satyam, even as he awarded the firm major contracts. A top-secret investigation led to Muhsin being banned permanently from the bank in January 2007.

Satyam has been in the line of fire since it made an attempt to acquire Maytas Infra and Maytas Properties for $1.6 billion that are partially owned by the promoter family. Within 10 to12 hours of this announcement, the company retracted its decision due to investor outrage.

Re ends at 48.78/81 per dollar

MUMBAI: Rupee dropped to its lowest in nearly two weeks on Tuesday, as falling shares raised concerns of foreign fund withdrawals and month-end
dollar demand from importers applied downward pressure.

The partially convertible rupee ended at 48.78/81 per dollar, off an intraday trough of 48.95, its lowest since Dec. 12, according to Reuters data, but around 1.6 per cent lower than Monday's close of 48.01/03.

The rupee has gained around 2.7 per cent this month, helped partly by foreign portfolio inflows of $462 million in December, but is down nearly 20 per cent in 2008 on equity withdrawals of more than $13 billion. Indian shares fell 2.4 per cent on Tuesday to their lowest close in more than a week, as global economic uncertainties and concerns about corporate earnings triggered a flight from risky assets.

"Trading will remain choppy this week. And we are looking at a range of 47.95 to 49.50 against the dollar," a state-run bank trader said. Traders saw heavy dollar demand from importers, including crude refiners, usually witnessed towards the end of each month.

"This is likely to remain tomorrow and (the rupee) may be reaching 49," Paresh Nayar, chief forex dealer at Development Credit Bank, said.

Oil falls further as demand slows

Oil prices have further extended their losses, due to growing signs of weakening demand from consumers and the global economic slowdown.

Share price falls on Wall Street and a record decline in Japanese exports have heightened economic worries.

US light, sweet crude for February delivery slipped 23 cents to $39.68 a barrel in Singapore, after falling 6% on Monday.

Brent crude oil fell 10 cents to $41.35 a barrel.

Among the latest government economic stimulus measures, China cut its interest rates on Monday for the fifth time in four months amid mounting anxiety about spreading job losses and worker protests.

Surging demand from China and other emerging nations had sent oil prices to record highs of $147 a barrel in July, before the economic crisis began to slow demand.

Now, however, even in China oil demand is falling, shrinking for the first time in three years in November.

US new home sales at 17-year-low

US sales of new homes slowed to their lowest level in 17 years in November, while new home prices dropped by the biggest amount in eight months.

New home sales fell to a seasonally adjusted annual sales rate of 407,000 - down 2.9% from October, according to the US Commerce Department.

The figures are further evidence of the slump in the US housing market.

The market is unlikely to recover until prices fall far enough to reduce the large number of homes for sale.

November's new home sales figure was worse than economists had expected and was the slowest sales pace since January 1991.

Sales slump

Builders have struggled to reduce production in the face of a two-year slump in housing that has seen sales and prices plummet.

November sales activity has been depressed by the worst financial crisis since the 1930s, and by the fact that it is harder for potential buyers to get home loans.

The year-on-year decline in home sales in November - comparing it with November 2007 - was 35.3%.

The mid-price of a new home sold in November was $220,400 (£149,900) a drop of 11.5% from the sales price a year ago.

That was the biggest year-over-year price decline since a 12.7% fall in March of this year.

The inventory of unsold new homes stood at 374,000, which was down 7% from October's level.

Economists say this figure is still seen as too high, given that many houses are being dumped onto an already glutted market by a tide of mortgage foreclosures.

Many analysts believe the housing slump will last well into next year, given the difficult sales environment.

PM virtually rules out war with Pakistan

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday virtually ruled out a military conflict with Pakistan but asked the world community to nudge Islamabad to dismantle the "terror machine" in the wake of strikes on Mumbai, which was an attack on India's "ambitions to emerge as an economic power".

Singh clearly hinted at Pakistan over the Mumbai attacks as he said "non-state actors were practising terrorism aided and abetted by state establishments."

Addressing a conclave of over 120 Indian Ambassadors and High Commissioners here, he said India was seeking peace and stability in its neighbourhood but the situation was "worrisome".

Referring to terror strikes in Mumbai, he said these were "an attack on the country's ambitions to emerge as an economic power" but "India would not accept a situation where terrorism is used as an instrument to cripple India's economy or the values it stands for."

Later talking to reporters outside Parliament, Singh said India does not want war with Pakistan but would like Islamabad to dismantle the "terror machine" existing on its soil and the international community to use its "power" to persuade Islamabad to do so.

"The issue is not war. The issue is terror and territory in Pakistan being used to provoke, to aid and abet terrorism. I think that is the issue, the issue is not war. Nobody wants war," he said when asked to speak on the present standoff with Pakistan in the wake of Mumbai terror attacks.

Internet connections will be slow till December 26 in India

Slow internet connections will continue till Friday, even as restoration work on two cables out of the three that had severed a few days ago is under way. In India, the latency will continue till the end of the week, even for customers who have opted for redundancy bandwidth. For those who did not opt for redundancy bandwidth, the latency would be higher till the restoration.

A cable-repairing ship is already at the severed location of the consortium cable SEA-ME-WE-4 (SMW-4). The cable is expected to be restored by December 26, sources close to the development have told Business Standard.

However, work on the other consortium cable, SEA-ME-WE-3, will start only after the work on SMW-4 is over. In India, the latency will continue till the end of the week, even for customers who have opted for redundancy bandwidth. For those who did not opt for redundancy bandwidth, the latency would be higher till the restoration, they added.

The ship, Teliri, has been assigned to conduct the repair work on the Flag Europe Asia cable, owned by Flag Telecom (a subsidiary of Reliance Globalcom). The ship is on its way to the spot and the repair work is expected to be completed by Friday, according to Reliance Globalcom. However, this was subject to weather conditions, the company added.

According to P K Saji, senior vice-president (global infrastructure operations technology) of Sify Technologies, all trans-Atlantic traffic to India has been re-routed through the Pacific cable systems. These include Tata Indicom Cable, i2i (owned by Bharti) and SMW-4's trans-Pacific leg.

"Even though the traffic has been re-routed, there will be a latency of around 40-60 milliseconds for customers buying bandwidth from Sify," he admitted. Nasdaq-listed Sify buys bandwidth on five major submarine cables landing in India and re-sells it in the country.

The cuts are reported on multiple submarine cables including SMW-4, SMW-3, Go and FEA between Alexandria (Egypt) and Palermo (Italy) in the Mediterranean region after a ship had reportedly dropped its anchor on them.

Rupee ends at 48.01/48.03 per dollar

MUMBAI: The rupee notched up its steepest single day drop in more than a month on Monday, weighed down by falling stocks and dumping of the local
unit in offshore currency markets.

The partially convertible rupee ended at 48.01/48.03 per dollar, its lowest level since Dec 16 and 1.6 per cent weaker than Friday's close of 47.25/26. It was the rupee's largest decline in a session since Nov. 13. The unit has gained 4.3 per cent so far this month but is still down 18 per cent in 2008.

"A combination of factors such as negative stocks, positive offshore dollar/rupee and some corporate (dollar) buying between 47.30-47.50 have pulled the rupee lower," said R A Sankaranarayanan, chief of trading at state-owned Bank of India in Mumbai.

The main stock index fell 1.7 per cent on the day tracking wobbly world markets, while foreign investors bought the dollar against a basket of Asian currencies as risk aversion climbed, a dealer at a foreign bank said.

The dollar rose against the Japanese yen following a steep interest rate cut by the Bank of Japan on Friday and after its chief said Japan's economy was deteriorating and conditions were likely to become more severe.

Volume was thin as most foreign banks had shut their books ahead of the year-end and investors were wary of adding big positions in a holiday-shortened week. Financial markets are closed on Thursday for Christmas.

One-month dollar/rupee volatilities, a gauge for daily fluctuations, were around 15 per cent -- a level it has stayed near for most of the month. The rupee was also pressured lower by heavy dollar buying in the offshore non-deliverable forward market, dealers said.

One-month contracts were quoting at 48.38/53 per dollar, stronger than the onshore closing rate. The outlook on the rupee continued to be gloomy with analysts forecasting more interest rate cuts and a worsening balance of payments position due to the global crisis -- strong headwinds for the local unit.

Sonal Varma, an economist at Nomura Research, said falling software services exports and a drop in private remittances would swell the current account deficit to 3 per cent of GDP from 1.5 per cent in 2007/08. Foreign investors have pulled more than $12.7 billion out of the stock market this year, and the rupee is expected to remain under pressure in 2009, too. "The capital account position is more precarious in 2008/09, with global risk aversion resulting in large net capital outflows," Varma said.

Mumbai martyrs set to get Ashoka Chakra

MUMBAI: Twelve Mumbai Police personnel who died in the 26/11 carnage are likely to be conferred with the Ashoka Chakra, the nation's highest
gallantry award. This include senior IPS officers Hemant Karkare and Ashok Kamte and anti-extortion cell inspector Vijay Salaskar.

Mumbai police commissioner Hasan Gafoor confirmed that 12 names had been sent to the Union home ministry but refused to disclose details. A final decision will be taken by a committee attached to the ministry of home affairs.

It is likely that four others who were killed in the terror attack — a police inspector with the Government Railway Police, a head constable with the Railway Protection Force, a constable from the State Reserve Police Force and a homeguard — are in the line for the Ashoka Chakra.

According to sources, there has been hectic lobbying over the past few weeks by some senior police officers keen to get a medal for 26/11. An additional commissioner of police attached to the Anti-Terrorism Squad and a zonal deputy police commissioner have managed to get recommendations for the President's Police Medal for Gallantry (PPMG), the sources say.

The deputy commissioner has been claiming to be responsible for engaging the terrorists at The Taj till NSG commandos arrived. The additional commissioner, who claimed to be part of the team that was at The Oberoi, reportedly exchanged fire with the terrorists.

However, an IPS officer who fired at the terrorists has refused any award, saying that it was part of his duty and that his contribution didn't deserve a gallantry medal.

Additional commissioner of police (central region) Sadanand Date who was injured in a grenade attack while battling the terrorists at Cama Hospital will be conferred with PPMG. "Assistant police inspector Bhaskar Kadam who shot terrorist Mohammed Kasab's aide Ismail Khan at Girgaum, constable Arun Jadhav, attached to the anti-extortion cell and who was with Salaskar, are among others whose names have been forwarded for PPMG," an officer said.

More than 36 police personnel have been recommended for the next level of gallantry award, Police Medal for Gallantry. The sources said additional commissioner of police protection Vinay Koregaonkar and some policemen who took part in the Oberoi operation would be conferred with PMG. It is learnt that a list of 10 more names including those from the Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad will be forwarded in the second list for PMG.

The Top Telugu Films, 2008

Gamyam
Director: Radhakrishna Jagarlamudi (Krish)

A small film directed by a debutant Radhakrishna Jagarlamudi (Krish), Gamyam created quite a stir.

A meaningful story (inspired by The Motorcycle Diaries and Easy Rider), with good performances by Sharwanand, Allari Naresh (as Gaali Seenu), Kamalinee Mukherjee and Rao Ramesh, Krish ensured a freshness which was a welcome change in Telugu cinema.

Gamyam became one of the most talked of films of the year. It is now being remade in Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam and Bengali.



Ashta Chamma
Director: Mohankrishna Indraganti

Yet another small budget film that fared well at the box office, Ashta Chamma was also critically acclaimed.

Directed by National award winning director Mohankrishna Indraganti, Ashta Chamma ensured wholesome entertainment for the entire family. The film revolved around the heroine's fetish for the name Mahesh, and brought back the good old Telugu language, thanks to the director's dialogues.

Though inspired by Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, Mohankrishna wrote this whacky, witty film ingeniously.

Swati, Bhargavi and newcomers Nani and Srinivas Avasarala's superb sense of timing and acting saw this comedy sail smoothly. Rammohan, who ventured into production with this movie, should be complimented for taking up such a script.


Ready
Director: Srinu Vaitla

Srinu Vaitla made Ready within the formulaic pattern but infused it with humour (particularly from Brahmanandam) and borrowed snippets from Hindi and Telugu films.

The highlight was the cute pairing of Ram and Genelia. Devisriprasad's music and good picturisation of a few songs were the additional plus points of the film.


Kotha Bangaru Lokam
Director: Srikanth Addala

Released on Vijayadasami, this movie is directed by debutant Srikanth Addala. It is hugely inspired by Sekhar Kammula's Happy Days, still running in theatres. Varun Sandesh (of Happy Days fame) was paired with Shweta Prasad (of Iqbal fame), making her Telugu debut.

The love story, shot against a college backdrop, had refreshing scenes, good music from Mickey J Meyer, great performances by Varun, Shwetha, Jayasudha, Prakash Raj, Rao Ramesh and brilliant camerawork by Chota K Naidu.

'Dil' Raju, the producer, continued his golden winning streak with this project.


Vinayakudu
Director: Saikiran Adivi

'A big fat love story' was the tagline of this film, directed by Sekhar Kammula's protege, debutant Saikiran Adivi. And there's a lot of romance and cholesterol in Vinayakudu, about a fat man and a hot girl.

Krishnudu, with his cherubic face, and Sonia fit the characters perfectly, and the audiences loved it.

Why are there limits on CPU speed?

When you buy a CPU chip, it has a "maximum" speed rating stamped on the chip's case. For example, the chip might indicate that it is a 3-GHz part. This means that the chip will perform without error when executed at or below that speed within the chip's normal temperature parameters.

There are two things that limit a chip's speed:

* Transmission delays on the chip
* Heat build-up on the chip

Transmission delays occur in the wires that connect things together on a chip. The "wires" on a chip are incredibly small aluminum or copper strips etched onto the silicon. A chip is nothing more than a collection of transistors and wires that hook them together, and a transistor is nothing but an on/off switch. When a switch changes its state from on to off or off to on, it has to either charge up or drain the wire that connects the transistor to the next transistor down the line. Imagine that a transistor is currently "on." The wire it is driving is filled with electrons. When the switch changes to "off," it has to drain off those electrons, and that takes time. The bigger the wire, the longer it takes.

As the size of the wires has gotten smaller over the years, the time required to change states has gotten smaller, too. But there is some limit -- charging and draining the wires takes time. That limit imposes a speed limit on the chip.

There is also a minimum amount of time that a transistor takes to flip states. Transistors are chained together in strings, so the transistor delays add up. On a complex chip like the G5, there are likely to be longer chains, and the length of the longest chain limits the maximum speed­ of the entire chip.

Finally, there is heat. Every time the transistors in a gate change state, they leak a little electricity. This electricity creates heat. As transistor sizes shrink, the amount of wasted current (and therefore heat) has declined, but there is still heat being created. The faster a chip goes, the more heat it generates. Heat build-up puts another limit on speed.

You can try to run your chip at a faster speed -- doing that is called overclocking. On many chips (especially certain models of the Celeron), it works very well. Sometimes, you have to cool the chip artificially to overclock it. Other times, you cannot overclock it at all because you immediately bump into transmission delays.

Finally, US gets tough with Pakistan's 'shifty position'

In a tough message to Pakistan, the United States has said that it is not satisfied with what Islamabad has done so far to eradicate terrorism from its soil after the Mumbai attack, which was not an ordinary event which can be "swept under the carpet."

The message was conveyed by top American officials to Pakistani National Security Adviser Mahmud Ali Durrani, who was summoned to Washington as the US government was "getting increasingly frustrated with what it views as Islamabad's shifty and shifting position on the Mumbai attacks and their aftermath," the Daily Times newspaper reported.

Durrani on Saturday concluded his unannounced three-day US visit during which he met Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, his American counterpart Stephen Hadley and Pentagon officials.

In a speech at the Council on Foreign Relations, Rice said on Wednesday that what Pakistan had done so far to catch those responsible for the Mumbai attacks was not enough.

She said her message to the Pakistani leadership was "...you need to deal with the terrorism problem. And it's not enough to say these are non-state actors. If they're operating from Pakistani territory, then they have to be dealt with."

A 'much stronger message' was conveyed by Rice during a meeting with Durrani, US and diplomatic sources were quoted as saying by the 'Dawn' newspaper.

The Pakistani team, which included Ambassador Hussain Haqqani, learnt from Rice and Hadley that the US is not satisfied with what Pakistan "had done so far for eradicating terrorism from its soil".

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Bush announces $17.4 bn to General Motors, Chrysler

General Motors and Chrysler will receive up to USD 17.4 billion in short-term loans from the US government as part of an aid package to the troubled auto industry.

The package involves USD 13.4 billion in short-term financing from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), with an additional USD 4 billion available in February—contingent upon drawing down the second tranche of TARP funds. If the companies are not viable by March 31, 2009, the loan will be called and all funds returned to the Treasury, according to the plan.

White House said that GM, Chrysler must accept limitations in executive compensations. Credit will be provided to GM, Chrysler over December, January and additional USD 4 billion will be available from TARP in February.

India vs England, 2nd Test, 12/19/2008

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Saina reaches World Super Series semis

Saina Nehwal shrugged off her opening match disappointment to become the first Indian shuttler to reach the semi-finals of the World Super Series Masters Finals when she defeated Mew Choo Wong of Malaysia in the group league stage, in Kuala Lumpur on Friday.

Saina defeated Wong 21-10, 17-21, 21-16 to claim her second successive win that catapulted her to the last four stage.

Following her loss to Tine Rasmussen in the first game, Saina had to win both her quarter-final league matches and she did just that.

After brushing past Hongyan Pi of France 21-18, 21-13 in the day's first encounter, the world No. 10 Indian had to battle hard before edging past Wong in the evening match.

Faced with a must-win situation, a gritty Saina rode on her powerful smashes and opened up a nine-point lead at 13-4 in the first game as her Malaysian counterpart could not match up to her.

The world No. 11 Malaysian tried to level scores but could not get past Saina who held on to her lead and won the game 21-10.

However, Saina lost concentration in the next game and allowed her rival to open a four-point lead at 9-13.

Saina rallied to level the score but was soon staring at defeat as the game progressed. She ultimately conceded the second game 17-21 and allowed the Malaysian to bounce back.

The decider was a cliffhanger as both fought tooth and nail before Saina took a slight advantage with the score reading 13-10 in her favour.

Thereafter she didn't give Wong much chance and wrapped up the match in 48 minutes.

Earlier, Saina hammered fourth-seed Pi of France in a 34-minute contest to keep her semi-final hopes alive.

The 18-year-old national champion rallied well to leave her opponent, ranked three notches above her, huffing and puffing all over the court and indulged in some sharp smashes to gallop her way to the first set at 21-18.

In the next game, Hongyan displayed some powerful strokes and matched Saina's smashes well but the Indian ace was not in a mood to give an inch. She played close to the nets and raced away with the game 21-13.

How Google Maps helped Mum terrorists

Google Earth is the seventh popular Internet application tool but it is being growingly misused by terror groups to have the first glimpse of sensitive places to plot attacks without moving an inch.

Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist Fahim Ahmed Ansari, arrested by Uttar Pradesh Police in Feburuary this year with maps and details of the spots hit during the recent terror attacks, in his statement had conceded that his masters showed him the maps on Google Earth to pin-point the specific targets.

The interrogation report of Fahim, who was trained at the Baitul Mujahideen camp in Pakistan in his statement said that a top Lashker commander 'Kahasa' asked him to show the spots in Mumbai on the Google Earth.

"I was shown the map of Mumbai in Googleearth.com. Kahasa asked me to point out places in Mumbai he noted down and marked those places in the map," he told interrogators, adding, "I was first asked about my residence location and in-laws location in Mumbai."

Sensitive places like offices of Commissioner of Police and DGP, Gateway of India, Navy Nagar, Colaba, Taj Mahal Hotel, Mantralaya, Wankhede Stadium, Race Course, Church Gate Railway Station, Stock Exchange Building, BARC, Kalina Army Gate and other such spots were located and marked on the Google Earth Map.

Fahim, along with Sabauddin, were brought to Mumbai and remanded to police custody till December 31. They are being questioned to ascertain whether they had provided the minute details to Lashkar terrorists to help them plan the terror strike here on November 26.

Rupee depreciates 25 paise against dollar

MUMBAI: The Indian rupee on Friday depreciated by 25 paise against the greenback in early trade on strengthening of dollar against major currencies and melting Asian equity markets.

At the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market, the domestic currency traded at 47.20 against the US currency, a fall of 25 paise over the previous close of 46.95/96 a dollar.

Forex dealers said dollar's rebound against the basket of currencies and fall in Asian equity markets brought the rupee down.

Asian markets on Friday opened weak with Hong Kong's Hang Seng going down almost two%, while Japan's Nikkei 225 falling 1.10% in early trade.

The rupee in the last trading session had appreciated by 71 paise to close at nearly 11-week high of 46.95/96.

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Hindi Songs || Rab ne bana dhi jodi

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Leopold hums back to life

Like always, every day of the year and nearly every hour of the day, the cafe is packed to capacity. And humming.

Waiters in red T-shirts and black slacks tear around with trays laden with giant mugs of frothing, icy beer, fresh lime sodas and tall glasses of fresh fruit juice. Service is invariably prompt here.

Young Indian patrons -- some students and some office-wallahs -- tuck into giant plates of steaming Chinese noodles and chicken. Hippie-looking tourists stray in for a slow, long beer.

The non-stop, cheery buzz of conversation floats up to the ornate-pillared high ceilings above the black glass-topped tables with checked tablecloths and the fruit bar.

It is lunch hour at Leopold cafe in Colaba's tourist district, south Mumbai. The lively noise and bustle is nothing new for this cafe that always gets a huge lunch crowd of nearby office workers and loads of tourists with their guidebooks.

But December 1 was different.

This bullet-scarred cafe re-opened at 2 pm, after being shut for six days.

Kerala CM insults slain Major's dad

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM/BANGALORE: "If it had not been (Major) Sandeep's house, not even a dog would have glanced that way."

This was how Kerala chief minister V S Achuthanandan responded on Monday to the family of NSG Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan slain in the Mumbai terror attack during commando operations, igniting a controversy after smarting under the snub from the angry father of the officer when he went to Bangalore to offer his condolences.

The octogenarian CPM leader was turned away from the Bangalore home of Sandeep, a Keralite, on Sunday for what K Unnikrishnan perceived as Kerala government ignoring his son's supreme sacrifice by not making a condolence call in time.

"He (Sandeep's father) says that the Kerala chief minister did not come whereas the Karnataka chief minister came in the morning itself...and that Kerala has ignored him. He got all worked up over this," Achuthanandan told 'Times Now' in Thiruvananthapuram

The chief minister asked "Is there a rule that the chief ministers of Kerala and Karnataka should be there at the same time?

After a pause, the chief minister went on to say "If it had not been Sandeep's house, not even a dog would have glanced that way."

India has right to protect itself: Obama

Sovereign nations have the right to protect themselves, US President-elect Barack Obama said on Monday, when asked if India could
follow the same policy he advocated during his election campaign — of bombing terrorist camps in Pakistan if there was actionable evidence and Islamabad refused to act on it.

Although Obama said he did not want to comment on the specific situation involving India and Pakistan, his tacit endorsement of New Delhi adopting the same policy was circumscribed by two caveats: first, let the investigators reach definite conclusions about the Mumbai carnage, and second, see if Pakistan will follow through with its commitment to eliminate terrorism.