Facebook on Ice: New Data Center to Be Built Near Arctic Circle

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    AP Photo/Scanpix, Sweco, The Node Pole
    Oct. 27, 2011: An artist's rendering of Facebook's new server farm on the edge of the Arctic Circle, the company's first outside the U.S.
  Social networking site Facebook is to build its first data center outside the United States in the northern Swedish town of Lulea, awarding an initial construction contract of $121 million, the companies said on Thursday.
  The data center, set to be the largest of its kind in Europe, will take advantage of the climate in Lulea, among the coldest in Sweden, to cool tens of thousands of servers.
  "Those servers basically are what allow us to support all of the Facebook products for our users. Friend requests, tags, user updates will be accessed through this facility," Tom Furlong, Facebook's director of site operations, told Reuters.
  "It will mostly serve European users and ideally improve performance for them," he added in a telephone interview.
  Swedish construction group NCC said it was part of a joint venture with two U.S. companies, DPR Construction and Fortis Construction, which had won a contract of 800 million crowns ($121 million) for the first of three server buildings in the data center. NCC's share was 400 million.
  The data center will be the northernmost of its size on Earth. It is Facebook's first in Europe and will serve more than 800 million site users.
  Facebook said in a statement it chose Lulea, despite its remoteness some 1,000 km north of Swedish capital Stockholm, because its cold climate would be good for cooling and that it could provide environmentally friendly hydro-power.
  The three server buildings will have an area of 28,000 square meters (300,000 square ft) each. Construction takes place in three phases and begins instantly.
  "The first building is to be operational within a year and the entire facility is scheduled for completion by 2014," the company added. "About 300 full-time positions will be required during the first three years."
  
  

Pakistani hacks govt. websites

Special ArrangementA screenschot of IMD-Kolkata's webpage, which has been hacked.

Claiming to retaliate the defacement of Pakistani websites by Indian hackers, a Pakistani hacker defaced pages on eight Indian government websites on Thursday and posted objectionable messages on the hacked pages.

According to zone-h.org, a website which runs a mirror of all the defaced or hacked websites, the Pakistani hacker identified as ‘khantastic haXOr,’ defaced five pages of the website belonging to Indian telecom giant BSNL, a website of Indian meteorological department in Kolkata (www.imdkolkata.gov.in/webdata), Jute Corporation of India (www.jci.gov.in), and a page on the website of Chennai Metro Rail (chennaimetrorail.gov.in/logs).

In the message posted on the defaced pages, the hacker maintained that he had deleted and copied the databases of the websites. Most of the websites continued to return the hacked pages when checked on Thursday evening, while some of them returned 404-page not found messages.

First Nvidia Tegra 3 Device May Launch November 9

Nvidia's Tegra 3 will make its debut in the Asus Eee Pad Transformer 2 on November 9th.

While we already know that Nvidia's Tegra 3 quad-core SoC (aka Kal-El) will arrive in the 10-inch Asus Eee Pad Transformer 2 (Prime) tablet, Asus CEO Jonney Shih said that both the tablet and the highly-anticipated superpowered-chip will arrive on November 9.

Nvidia's Tegra 3 was previously reported to arrive by the end of summer or early September, but the company delayed its release due to a need for an increased validation timeframe. "It took a little more time than we thought to get the software optimized for the hardware,” a Nvidia spokesperson told EE Times. "We are on schedule."

Recent reports claim that the Transformer 2's quad-core Tegra 3 chip will clock at 1.3 GHz per core. It will also feature either 16 GB ($499) or 32 GB ($599) of internal storage, depending on your wallet. Other features will include Google 4.0 "Ice Cream Sandwich" as the gadget's OS, a microSD card slot for up to 32 GB of extra storage, a USB port, a mini-HDMI port, a 14.5-hour battery, a rear-facing camera with an LED flash -- all packed within a 8.3-mm frame.

F1 drivers pay respect to Wheldon

Webber: Will pay his respects to Wheldon

Sk

Jenson Button and Mark Webber will this weekend lead the tributes to Dan Wheldon after the recent tragic death of their close friend.

Webber has confirmed stickers bearing Wheldon's logo, his initials in red, white and black, have been manufactured to place on his helmet, that of Button and any other wishing to pay their last respects.

Button has also revealed he will wear a black armband in Sunday's inaugural Indian Grand Prix for Wheldon, who was killed in an Indy 300 race in Las Vegas 11 days ago.

"I sent Jenson a text after the race in Korea and I told him I wanted to get some stickers made up for our helmets," said Webber.

"I asked him if he was keen and he said he was. It's a nice little sticker because we both knew him. It's only natural he is part of us a little this weekend."

Close friends

Webber initially got to know Wheldon in the mid-1990s when they were instructors at a racing school in Brands Hatch.

As for Button, he raced against Wheldon in karts from 1989-1994, and again in the Formula Ford championship in 1998.

For Button, Wheldon served as an inspiration as he said: "I've so many memories of racing with Dan.

"When I was nine years old we were competing and he had the big number one on his car as the British (kart) champion.

"It was Dan, myself and Anthony (Davidson) that pretty much won everything in kadet racing.

"But he was the guy I was always trying to beat, the one I was motivated to get out of bed for and fight against.

"His is a massive loss to motorsport, but you have to take the good memories from it and look at what he achieved in his life that most people wouldn't achieve if they died in their 70s or 80s.

"It's a very tough time for everyone that knows him and is close to him."

With regard to his planned tribute, Button said: "I don't think I will be alone, there will be a few drivers.

"It's a tough one because how much can you do? It's always tricky, but he will definitely be in our thoughts this weekend when we are racing."

Motor sport was further rocked at the weekend by the death of Marco Simoncelli following a crash in the Malaysian MotoGP.

For Webber, a bike fan at heart, the loss of the flamboyant Italian adds further poignancy to the Australian's weekend.

"In a way motorbikes are even dearer to my heart than car racing because I started out in bikes," said Webber.

"I was watching the race live and when you see it you just hope it is not real, particularly for a guy of such a young age.

"He was a phenomenal character who will be massively missed, no question about it."

Tragic

But despite two such tragic incidents in the space of a week, for Webber, they do not alter his mindset.

"I've had moments in my career where it's been close for me," said the 35-year-old.

"You know when you step into the car you are doing something where you are putting yourself at risk.

"It's always going to be there because you're competing at speed, against other people, and there might be an error of judgment or because of the weather, then you might get hurt.

"That's the way it is. But in driving the car tomorrow I will feel incredibly safe and comfortable to push it as hard as I can."

Webber's views have been echoed by all the F1 drivers, who see it as very much a case of 'life goes on'.

That was a point noted by seven-times champion Michael Schumacher who said: "If, when you are on top something happens, then that's what I would call fate, and fate is something we all have to face sooner or later.

"I'm certainly very much touched by what has happened for both of the drivers we have lost, but unfortunately you have to say that's life."

One driver understood to be mulling over his options is three-times IndyCar champion Dario Franchitti, cousin of Force India's Paul di Resta.

Di Resta said: "It's hurt him. Dan was a very close friend.

"I know Dario is out testing the new car at Sebring (Florida) this week and he has said in interviews it has made him think.

"Only time will tell. If he wants to continue we'll support that decision

Actor Ronit Roy arrested for rash driving, gets bail

Film and television star Ronit Roy was on Thursday arrested on the charges of rash and negligent driving after his speeding vehicle hit a moving four-wheeler with four occupants of a family, injuring a woman seriously, in suburban Amboli, police said.

Ronit was produced before the Bandra Metropolitan magistrate court and was granted bail on a surety of Rs 12,000 as all the sections against him were bailable.

The 42-year-old actor was behind the wheels of his Mercedes when he rammed into a WagonR with four occupants at around 6.45 am on Linking Road near Sab TV lane, H. Vhatkar, senior inspector at Amboli police station, told PTI.

The occupants — identified as Deepak Darera (60), his wife Kaanta (56), and daughters Sneha (29) and Pooja (24) — who stay at suburban Andheri’s Shashtri Nagar area, were on their way for a picnic to hill station Matheran, police said.

Kaanta sustained severe injuries on her back, Pooja had stitches on her head whereas Deepak injured his hand. Sneha received negligible injuries. All the four were taken to Kokilaben hospital by the actor himself following which the injured were admitted, police said.

The Udaan star, who is a resident of upscale Yari Road area, was driving towards the home of his brother Rohit, also an actor, when the incident occurred.

Both the vehicles were severely damaged, police said, adding that subsequently Ronit was arrested under IPC sections 279 (rash driving or riding on a public way), 338 (causing grievous hurt by act of endangering life or personal safety of others).

Your private details on Facebook are at risk: Study

LONDON: Do you really know all your Facebook"friends"? Beware, if your answer is 'No', as researchers say you could be putting your private details at risk every time you say 'Yes' to an unknownfriend request. 


A team at the University of British Columbia in Canada found a worrying way to evade Facebook's security measures entirely and harvest information from the popular social networking site. 

They created a team of "fake" Facebook users who were able to harvest tens of thousands of email addresses and private information from unsuspecting users, without human input, the Daily Mail reported. 

Such basic information is often sufficient to launch an identity theft attack or launch a "phishing" attack to pilfer somebody's bank details, said lead researcher Yazan Boshmaf. 

"An attacker could do many things with this data." According to the researchers, the fake Facebook users, known as Socialbots, were software agents that function almost like a social computer virus and can manipulate a Facebook account, pretending to be a human being. 

The 'Socialbots' created by the team began sending friend requests to random users. Each was armed with a profile picture and name -- but were totally unknown to their new "friends". 

The team found that one in five users accepted the friend requests, even without knowing them. The figure rose when the 'Bots' attempted to befriend the friends of the "friends" they already had on the network. 

Because the 'Bots' seemed to be friends of friends, 60 per cent of people accepted the requests. 

The team unleashed 102 Socialbots on the network. Within weeks, they had made 3,000 friends, they reported in New Scientist.

Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography by Walter Isaacson: review

One passage from Walter Isaacson’s eyewateringly frank biography of Steve Jobs could well stand as the book’s epigraph. In 2008, with Jobs already in the grip of the pancreatic cancer that would kill him, Fortunemagazine began preparing a story on Apple’s mysterious, cult-inspiring figurehead. In unsparing detail, the piece recounted Jobs’s legendary “personal abuses”: his vicious tantrums, his habit of reducing employees to tears, his binary view of a world in which people were either “heroes” or “s---heads”, and his habit of parking his Mercedes in disabled parking spots. On hearing of the article, Jobs peremptorily called Fortune’s managing editor to Apple HQ in Cupertino, California, to demand that it be spiked. Leaning into the man’s face and fixing him with his unblinking stare, Jobs said: “So, you’ve uncovered the fact that I’m an asshole. Why is that news?”

Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography by Walter Isaacson

This is an authorised biography, commissioned by Jobs shortly after he was diagnosed with cancer in 2003. Given Jobs’s controlling nature and his often vicious defence of his privacy, there were grounds for fear that the official life might be an in-house whitewash, another example of the famous “reality distortion field” that Apple employees felt surrounded their boss.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Jobs, reports Isaacson, maintained that he had “no skeletons in his closet that can’t be allowed out”. He didn’t ask to read the book, though he cavilled about the cover design, and he encouraged his biographer not only to continue grilling him on his deathbed, but to speak as extensively as possible to friends and enemies.

The result is striking: though Isaacson deeply admires his subject’s achievements, they are in constant danger of being eclipsed by the arresting ghastliness of the character that accompanied them. Because Jobs, as this account mercilessly attests, could be a world-class asshole: and after the gushing obituaries, breathless tributes and comparisons to Leonardo, Edison and Elvis that attended his death this month, that is news.

Jobs’s faith in the “power of the will to bend reality” seems to have instilled itself early, fortified by what Isaacson calls a “craziness of the cultivated sort”. Even in the permissive atmosphere of Seventies California, he cut a peculiar figure, padding everywhere in robes and bare feet and deploying a sequence of mannerisms — silences, bursts of energetic speech, and a penetrating glare — that were calculated to unnerve. When meeting people, one friend recalls, “he would stare into their f---ing eyeballs, ask some question, and want a response without the other person averting their eyes”.

The world bent obligingly to his will. He got his first job with the arcade game company Atari by walking into their lobby and refusing to leave until someone hired him. He commissioned his friend Steve Wozniak to design the circuits for the legendary arcade game Breakout, then stiffed him on the commission. In the offices of the fledgling Apple Computer, Inc, he exercised his “instinct to control”, turning down designs for circuit boards because the wires — invisible to the consumer — were not straight enough. Soaking his bare feet in the lavatory, stalking the halls “smelling like a bum” and greeting the efforts of his new employees with a hostile stare and the comment “That design looks like shit”, the 21-year-old CEO was determined, in his own words, to “make a dent in the universe”.

He was worth $256 million by the age of 25. He turned a company founded in a garage into one of the most valuable in the world. He seized on the ideas of others — the graphical user interface for desktop computing, Pixar’s animation division, the MP3 player — and transformed them into things the public wanted, before it knew it wanted them. He was, one former employee noted, “so weirdly charismatic that you almost had to get deprogrammed after you talked to him”, and he rode roughshod over employees, friends and lovers. “I could see,” he once said, “what the future of computing was destined to be”: and he devoted his life and much of the happiness of those around him to making it happen.

His hiring was as brutal as his firing: “Everything you’ve done in your life is s---,” he told one prospective employee, “so why don’t you come and work for me?” One manager said the only way she could get through her routine consultations with him was to “pretend I’m already dead”.

Yet colleagues at Apple maintained that such abrasive behaviour, coupled with Jobs’s inflexible refusal to take no for an answer, forced them into doing the best work of their lives. “We learned to accept ‘This is s---’ as a code that meant ‘Tell me why this is the best way to do it’,” reports one.

If such accounts carry a whiff of Stockholm syndrome, the efficiency of the results speaks for itself. “Don’t be afraid,” Jobs would say, gazing deep into his interlocutor’s eyes. “Yes, you can do it. Get your mind around it. You can do it.” They would.

Isaacson organises his material well and writes with a pacy, demotic style, though the speed with which this book was rushed out after Jobs’s death is occasionally noticeable at the copy-editing level. There are moments of poor discrimination — a sterner editorial eye on the segments about office design might have been desirable, for example — and Isaacson’s choice of rousing chapter titles from Shakespeare, Dylan, Yeats and the Beatles seems laughably pompous, as when he offers an account of Jobs’s return to Apple in the Nineties under the title “The Second Coming: What Rough Beast, Its Hour Come Round at Last”.

Taken as a whole, though, this is a riveting book, with as much to say about the transformation of modern life in the information age as about its supernaturally gifted and driven subject for whom “a person was either a hero or a bozo, a product was either amazing or s---” but who “could be stymied by things that were more complex, shaded or nuanced: getting married, buying the right sofa, committing to run a company”.

In the end we can’t help but agree with Isaacson’s assessment: “Was he smart? No, not exceptionally. Instead, he was a genius.”

Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography

Just want to finish the race, says Karhtikeyan

India's lone driver Narain Karthikeyan on Thursday said that he just wants to enjoy the country's first-ever Formula One Grand Prix by finishing the race without any trouble and was not thinking about pressure of expectations. Karthikeyan is the only Indian driver to feature in Sunday's Indian GP asTeam Lotus refused a racing seat to Karun Chandhok.

"Well I can say so many things, but the realistic thing with our car is to possibly finish the race and beat your teammate. I think at the moment we can't expect more," he said at a media interaction here.

"It is an historic and symbolic moment that an Indian driver is on the grid and, of course, there is a lot of people who are following F1 for a long time. There will be a lot of fans here. It will be hard to explain but it is what it is. I want to enjoy the weekend, have lots of fun, and try and do the best I can do," said Karthikeyan, who will drive for Hispania Racing Team at the Buddh International Circuit on Sunday.

Karthikeyan admitted that there would be immense pressure to drive before home fans.

"I just need to relax and from tomorrow it is going to be different, you are in the car a lot. I just want to enjoy the whole atmosphere. My family, everyone is coming. All the sponsors and so it will be a huge day for Indian motorsport and those first few laps tomorrow are going to be very special," he said adding that he has received thousands of requests for race passes.

Karthikeyan said since BIC is a new circuit and dust is also there, drivers will take time to find which place on the track has the best grip.

"Well, off-line yes, it is going to be dirty for sure, so you just have to see where the best level of grip is and go for it. For us, the big problem is when you go off-line when you get lapped, that's the problem. We will try to see how it goes. The track is going to evolve a lot and we have to see where the level of grip is," he said.

India against new rights group at Commonwealth

New Delhi

As India seems set to block an attempt by some countries to constitute a human rights monitoring group at the 54th Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), international human rights groups have taken a strong exception to New Delhi’s stance.

The summit begins in the Australian city of Perth o Friday. Vice-President Hamid Ansari left for Perth on Thursday to lead the official delegation at the summit, which includes an executive session where leaders would make formal statements and a retreat during which they would interact informally without the presence of aides.

Australia and Canada are in the forefront of supporting recommendations of an eminent persons’ panel set up by the CHOGM. The 106 recommendations by the panel include creation of the post of Commissioner for Democracy, Rule of Law and Human Rights to monitor human rights situations in the member nations.

India has said that the group should focus on development challenges rather human rights. Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai has said that India’s reservations stem from the fact that the new office of Human Rights Commissioner would undermine the role of both the Secretary General and the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group. Secondly, he believes that the proposal is a duplication of what the UN is already doing through its rapporteurs.

“CHOGM’s real focus should be once again on the development challenges which are uppermost in the minds of vast majority of the members. So, while we support the important values of democracy, rule of law and human rights, we believe the Commonwealth should focus on strengthening existing institutions rather than trying to create new ones,” he added.

However, Director of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiatives Maja Daruwala believes that if the summit dismisses the eminent persons’ report, the Commonwealth will hits its very own stance on human rights. “Those who insist that the introduction of a Commissioner for Democracy, Human Rights and Rule of Law is too ‘punitive’ oppose the Commonwealth’s stated values are distorting the intent and importance of such a position. But values-based scrutiny must be a Commonwealth feature if the association is to claim that it lives up to its stated aims and principles,” she said.

Mathai said that the proposal to inspect human rights violations in Sri Lanka or elsewhere was ill-timed given that the Commonwealth was also facing funding problems noting that India was the fourth-largest contributor to the coffers of the 54-member group and also the largest member in terms of population to assert itself in the association. Mathai said that there was a “need for a more careful review” of the recommendations adding that he brought up the issue at a meeting of Commonwealth officials in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly last month. “A decision was taken in 2009 for the next two CHOGM meetings. That matter has been decided and does not need to be reopened.”

On Australia’s initial objections to the Vice-President standing in for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Mathai said: “In our system, the Vice-President holds a position of great importance. He is second in the warrant of precedence.” Canberra had conveyed to New Delhi that Ansari wouldn’t be treated as a head of a state or government as Australia had no Vice-President. Ansari, it said, would be accorded privileges reserved for the Speaker of Australian Parliament.

The theme of CHOGM this year, chosen by Australia, is 'Building National Resilience, Building Global Resilience'. Australia has circulated a concept paper on the theme, which focuses on strengthening the Commonwealth, to enable it to more effectively assist member nations in dealing with current challenges as individual states, as members of the Commonwealth, and as members of the global community. The paper focuses on issues related to economic and social development, food and energy security, and the adverse effects of climate change.

Bangalore is the suicide capital of India: Report

New Delhi: India's Silicon Valley Bangalore is by far the suicide capital of the country with 1,778 cases reported, according to the crime statistics for 2010 published by the National Crime Records Bureau.

The figures show that 70 per cent of those who commit suicide in the country are married and there are 15 suicides taking place in the country every hour.

West Bengal also leads the states with the most number of suicides.

Madhya Pradesh leads in the number of rapes at 3135, which is far ahead of West Bengal at 2311.

Advani says 'yatra' not to 'repackage' him

NEW DELHI: Accused of planning to get into the Prime Minister's race again, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader LK Advani has said his 'Jan Chetna Yatra' was not meant to 'repackage' him.

BJP leader LK Advani has said his 'Jan Chetna Yatra' was not meant to 'repackage' him.

"I would wish to stress with all the emphasis at my command that this yatra has nothing to do with LK Advani. Nor even with the BJP or the next elections," he said in his blog.

"It is concerned essentially with India," he said. "Frankly, I do not quite understand why I would like to repackage myself."

Advani's 'Jan Chetna Yatra', aimed at fighting black money and corruption, started Oct 11 and will end here Nov 20.

Imagine! Nokia shows it still has a pulse

Nokia is showing signs of life, proving it can rush product to market, innovate and maybe even get something commercial out of its research and development.

It’s early, but there are signs of life here. Perhaps Nokia won’t be road kill for Android and Apple’s iOS.

Let’s connect a few positive data points for Nokia.

First, Nokia is showing off a flexible display and some R&D chops. CNET News’ Stephen Shankland highlighted a “kinetic device” that has a flexible display. Simply put, this flexible display can bend and bowing it inward or outward will zoom in and out of photos and make music selections. Shankland is skeptical about the prospects for this technology--and rightly so--but the big takeaway here is that Nokia is at least thinking of something new. Remember Nokia is the same company that had touch screen technology but determined no one wanted it. Oops.

Nokia can move quickly when it wants. The biggest takeaway from CEO Stephen Elop’s keynote on Wednesday is that the company can go from idea to product in less than a year. Now there are compromises for sure--Mary Jo Foley examines why there aren’t any front-facing cameras on the first Windows Phone. In short, Nokia didn’t have time. That criticism aside Nokia did move faster than it ever has.

Barclays analyst Jeff Kvaal noted:

The Lumia 800 and 710 are set to ship in 4Q and rebuild visibility into Nokia's product engine. These devices are not overly differentiated, but then the development timeline never allowed that. We feel they are, however, well built (800 feels particularly high quality), fully featured, and competitively priced - below the iPhone 4S and on par with Android devices. We include a comparison to rival devices and service plans. We remain confident Nokia will retain traditional advantages in scale and distribution.

The Nokia Lumia 800.

(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET)

And finally, Nokia seems to know its strengths and has scale. You can knock the lack of a 2011 U.S. launch, but Nokia specifically picked its first markets based on its strength. Nokia has to defend its base countries and then move on from there. Analysts also noted that Nokia’s pricing for the Lumia is aggressive. Wunderlich Securities analyst Matthew Robison said in a research note:

The Lumia 800 is listed for €420. The Lumia 710 is somewhat less elegant but sports most of the capabilities of the 800 at €270. Management indicates that deals have been struck with initial carriers to ensure the Lumia 800 retails alongside Android devices at €10-20 below the iPhone. Lumia is targeted for subsidy to the €0-single digit level of the BlackBerry 9900 in the UK.

Meanwhile, Nokia’s new Asha phones—designed for emerging markets—undercut the BlackBerry on pricing.

The message is clear: Nokia will use its scale to defend its turf and cover the world with Windows Phone tiles.

And now for the caveats. The jury is still out on Nokia. The specs for the Lumia leave a lot to be desired. It’s unclear consumers even want Nokia Windows Phone devices. Nokia’s marketing could be a hit or mocked just as easily. And finally Elop is an unknown commodity. Who knows if Elop can really reinvent Nokia?

In the end, Nokia showed this week that it has a pulse and might just get off the mat and punch rivals in the mouth. At this juncture, Nokia is certainly worth keeping an eye on.

We will prosecute killers of Gaddafi: Libya

BENGHAZI: Libya's new rulers today said they would prosecute the killers of ousted dictatorMuammar Gaddafi following the international outcry over the circumstances of his death.
"With regards to Gaddafi, we do not wait for anybody to tell us," said Abdel Hafiz Ghoga, vice chairman of the ruling National Transitional Council at a news conference in Benghazi."We had already launched an investigation. We have issued a code of ethics in handling of prisoners of war. I am sure that was an individual act and not an act of revolutionaries or the national army," the top interim official said.
"Whoever is responsible for that (Gaddafi's killing) will be judged and given a fair trial."
The statement came as NATO weighed a possible new role in Libya following Gaddafi's controversial death, as France said the UN would vote on Thursday to end the alliance's mandate for an air war on October 31.
Global disquiet has grown over how Gaddafi met his end at the hands of NTC fighters who hauled him out of a culvert where he was hiding following a NATO air strike.
Mobile phone videos show him still alive at that point.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin yesterday expressed his "disgust" at the global media for its graphic coverage of the ousted leader's death.
"Almost the entire Gaddafi family was killed. His body was shown on all the world channels. You could not watch without disgust," news agencies quoted Putin as saying.
"What is that?" Putin exclaimed. "They show a bloodied man, wounded, still alive but getting beaten to death. And they splash that all over the screen."

Kejriwal seeks more time on income tax notice

Team Anna member Arvind Kejriwal did not comply with the income tax department notice asking him to pay over Rs 9 lakh in dues, saying he needed more time to decide on the issue as he was given "very little time"."I am consulting my friends and will take a decision in a week or ten days. They had given me very little time," Kejriwal said as the deadline for paying the dues ended on Thursday.

According to I-T officials, they can initiate property attachment proceedings under service rules and subsequently, initiate criminal case against a person who defaults on dues.

The office of the Chief Commissioner of Income Tax had on August 5 issued a notice to Kejriwal asking him to pay Rs 9.27 lakh claiming that he had violated bond clauses under which he went on a study leave for two years. The social activist was asked to deposit the money.

A fresh notice was issued to him a week ago asking him to pay by October 27.

The dues had accumulated following the alleged violation of bond clauses under which Kejriwal, an Indian Revenue Service officer, had gone abroad on study leave for two years between November 2000 and 2002.

When the Delhi  CCIT had written to him in 2007 and 2008 for clearance of his dues, Kejriwal had responded that they may be waived.

Kejriwal and other Team Anna members had attacked the issuance of notice, terming it as an action of the government's "dirty tricks department" under instructions from political bosses.

The activist has claimed that he did not "violate" any bond provisions and he had resigned from the job after the stipulated three years of rejoining duty following his study leave.