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Partial solar eclipse will be seen in the north-eastern region on Friday, starting from 3:50pm as confirmed by Rathnasree, director of Nehru Planetarium. The eclipse will begin in Canada and extends across northern Greenland, the Arctic, central Russia, Mongolia, and China.

The north-eastern parts of India will see quite a large fraction of the disc of the Sun, eclipsed by the Moon while other parts will have a partial effect only. The maximum obscuration of the sun will occur at Sibsagar in Assam.

End of the eclipse will be visible in most of the part except a few places in East like Nagaland and Mizoram where the eclipse ends after sunset

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has made arrangements to telecast live images of the rare celestial event. Detailed predictions, maps, figures and information about this important event is available at http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEmono/TSE2008/TSE2008.html.

In the southern parts of India, eclipse will not be clearly visible but the northern parts can see between 40-70 % of the diameter of the sun, at maximum of the eclipse.

The eastern parts of the country will have the advantage that being closest to sunset, some of the eclipse would still remain so that, a possibility of safely imaging the eclipse against their local geography is feasible, the director said.

NASA coverage will feature views from telescopes and a live educational show during the eclipse. It is warned that people should not view the eclipse with naked eyes and viewing the same using a telescope or a pair of binocular binoculars without a proper filter could be dangerous for eyes.

Tags: Eclipse, Solar, Solar Eclipse

Pakistan has demanded N-deal with US similar to that of Indo-US deal. Ahead of the IAEA meeting on Friday, Pak PM Yousaf Raza Gilani, while his visit to US, has said that he also expects an India-like civil nuclear deal from the US.

At a gathering under the aegis of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Middle East Institute, Gilani added, “there should be no preferential, there should be no discrimination. If they want to give such nuclear status to India, we expect the same for Pakistan.”

The IAEA Board of Governors will meet in Vienna on Friday in a crucial session to consider for approval a key step for operation of the Indo-US nuclear deal.

If the 35-member Board approves the India-specific safeguards agreement by consensus leading to the signing of an unprecedented document, it would pave the way for India’s integration into the world of nuclear commerce.

According to a newspaper, the prime minister said that the government wanted to have cordial relations with all its neighbors, including India and Afghanistan, considering it a guarantee to regional peace.

“With India, we want to resolve all issues including the core issue of Kashmir,” he said when asked about the relationship with its eastern neighbors. He added that Pakistan had good trade ties with India.

Gilani also show his concern over terrorism and extremism, Pak-US relations including the economy and the scope of democracy in the country.

Tags: India, India US, Indo US, Indo USA, N-deal, Nuclear deal, Nuke Deal, Pak, Pakistan

A day after the 20-year-old Ishmeet Singh, the voice of India 2007, died in a swimming pool of a Maldives resort on Tuesday evening, the family members of the victim suspected his death as a murder. His family, on Wednesday, demanded higher level probe into his death.

Ishmeet’s body arrived Ludhiana late Wednesday where he was scheduled to get a state funeral. Post mortem reports of the body states that Ishmeet died due to drowning. However the family remains unconvinced.

Family claims that the swimming pool was just 6ft deep which is not deep enough to drown a young man. Also, Ishmeet’s friends present at the spot gave contradictory statements leaving the relatives doubtful in the matter.

Ishmeet’s uncle Charan Kamal Singh stated that injury marks on the forehead and chest and his swollen face had aroused suspicion that he may have been murdered.  He stated 3 possible reasons of murder: Jealousy of fellow-contestants, conspiracy of professional singers or murder by some militant outfit.

“His death is not an accident alone. It could be part of a conspiracy. We want the matter investigated thoroughly. We want a case registered,” said Charan Kamal Singh while talking to Zee News.

The budding singer was in Maldives to participate in the Star Voice of Maldives on August 1. He didn’t know swimming and ventured deep into the swimming pool and drowned to death at Dhonveli Beach and Spa Resort on Tuesday evening. On Nov 26 last year, he won the trophy of ‘Voice of India’ singing contest handed by Lata Mangeshkar.

Tags: ishmeet, Ishmeet Death, ishmeet singh

After recovery of 18 bombs and confiscated 2 explosives laden cars from Surat in the last two days, the scenario continued on the third day with discovery of 2 more bombs found in the Heera Bazaar and another on a treetop in the Kapodara area of Surat. Bombs were later defused successfully by the bomb disposal squad.

19th live bomb was found on the busy Varacha Road in the morning followed by next in the Prestige market shortly after Chief Minister Narendra Modi visited the diamond city.

After visiting the places from where live bombs were recovered, Modi said that terrorists were waging a proxy war against India and stressed on the need to unite as a country to fight the menace of terror.

Modi said,” the country needed to fight the “proxy war” being waged by terrorists.”

He announced a reward of Rs 51 lakh for information leading to the terrorists involved in the Ahmedabad serial blasts and the planting of bombs in Surat. He said with terrorists targeting cities like Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Mumbai and Hyderabad, it seemed that their intention was to cripple financial activities in the country.

Modi also announced rewards of Rs 21,000 each for those who gave information about live bombs and cars laden with explosives found from Surat and Ahmedabad on Sunday. Police said it was similar to the 18 found yesterday from in and around Varacha, where several diamond processing units are located.

The bombs planted in Surat had integrated circuits (IC), Deputy Director of Forensic Science Laboratories (FSL), Surat, S M Darji said. It was the first time when ICs are used in bombs.

25 teams of ATS have started their investigations into the Ahmedabad blasts. The Mumbai crime branch has also assured its assistance to the ATS teams investigating the blasts case.

Meanwhile, Harakat ul-Jihad-I-Islami (HuJI) has also claimed responsibility for the Ahmedabad blasts. Gujarati TV channel TV9 on Wednesday received a letter from HuJI in which they claimed responsibility for the blasts.

Earlier, it was reported that the Indian Mujahideen had also written e-mails to several media houses claiming responsibility of the blasts in Bangalore and Ahmedabad.

In the wake of rise in toll of recovery of bombs, strict security measures are being taken in the city.

Tags: ahmedabad blast, ahmedabad serial blast, bangalore blast, Bangalore serial blast, Bomb, bomb blast, diamond city, HuJI, Surat, Terror

After giving the cheapest car to the world, India is on its way to provide cheapest laptop at a mere cost of $10. Yes! It is unbelievable but Minister of State for Human Resource Development D. Purandeswari said on Tuesday that research was being conducted to develop the laptop, especially for use by students, which will cost all of $10.

She said that the development of cheap laptop will combat problems like the low computer literacy and e-learning not only in India, but also the world over.

“Research in this direction is being already carried out at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras,” she told the e-India annual summit on information and communication technologies.

At present, the cheapest laptop range not less than $100. It is at least 10 times costlier. The “Xo” sold by the Massachusetts-based non-government organization ‘One Laptop Per Child Foundation’ sells for $188.

However, India did not sign up for the ‘One Laptop Per Child program’ after officials in the education ministry decided that giving a computer to every child is “pedagogically suspect”, and may actually be detrimental to the growth of the creative and analytical abilities of the child.

But Reliance Communications has been doing pilots of the OLPC in India since last year.

Earlier this year, Tata group has developed Rs 1 lakh car, the Nano which get famous not only in India but all over the world.

Tags: cheapest laptop, Computer, computer literacy, Education, India, Laptop, US$10 laptop

The shocking news of death of the 20-year-old winner of Amul Star Voice of India 2007 contest, Ishmeet Singh left his fans stunned and the whole nation gripped in grief. His family was plunged into sorrow.

The reality show winner and singing sensation Ishmeet was in Maldives to participate in the Star Voice of Maldives on August 1. He drowned in a swimming pool at Dhonveli Beach and Spa Resort on Tuesday evening. He ventured deep into the pool while he never could swim and the lifeguard wasn’t available to help. He was there with his friends but alas! None of the boys could swim.

He was taken by a resort launch to ADK hospital in Male’ but he couldn’t saved, according to assistant manager Marlon Robert.

Ishmeet was crowned the winner of Amul Star Voice in November 24, 2007, by the legendary Lata Mangeshkar. Recently, he had even released a Punjabi album called Gurbani.

“It was a real shock for me as the death of a musical gem came as unbelievable to me. I still can’t imagine that he is no more with us,” said Music Director, Lalit Sen.

One of his relative said, “He informed me of his plans to Maldives. We had a function at home and I insisted he stay back, but he prioritized for his trip and I can’t believe that the same God has taken him from us.”

Shiromani Akali Dal President Sukhbir Singh Badal also expressed his shock. “It’s a shock for the entire nation. I am here to be a part of the grieved family,” he said.

His body is to be airlifted to India today afternoon.

Tags: amul star voice, ishmeet, ishmeet singh, ismeet's death, maldives, realty contest winner, star voice, voice of india

Master blaster Sachin Tendulkar is going to enter in Bollywood by his comeo debut in a film, “Vighnaharta Shri Siddhivinayak” about the miracles of the elephant-headed deity Ganesh. The film is about the god and Tendulkar himself will play a small role of “Vighnaharta Shri Siddhivinayak”.

The star of Indian cricket, Sahin Tendulkar is a devotee of Ganesha and he will not charge any money for his role in the movie. The film is expected to start from next month and it will also feature a voice-over by Bollywood icon Amitabh Bachchan.

The film is being produced by the Siddhivinayak Temple Trust, which looks after a famous temple dedicated to Ganesh in Mumbai. Film’s production is handled by company of Rajiv Sanghvi. “He will play a small role, as himself, either in a song sequence or in an actual scene,” said Rajiv Sanghvi.

“Sachin has been a regular at the temple for many years now and he never gives up an opportunity to show his devotion,” said Subhash Mayekar, chairman of the trust.

Indian cricket team is in touring Sri Lanka at present. Sahin’s office confirmed the cricketer would be shooting for the film after he returns from Sri Lanka.

Tags: Bollywood, Cricket, film, Ganesha, Master Blaster, Movie, Sachin, Sachin Tendulkar, shri siddhivinayak

Google’s ex-employees have unveiled a new search engine named ‘Cuil’ (pronounced as cool) on Sunday to challenge the world’s leading search engine, Google. ‘Cuil’ will outdo the Internet search leader in size, but faces an uphill battle changing Web surfing habits.

Founded by Tom Costello, a former employee at IBM, and his wife Anna Patterson, who worked for Google for three years is named after the mythical Irish hero Fin McCuil. The two are joined by two former Google colleagues, Russell Power and Louis Monier. Monier also used to work at AltaVista, where he got the automated machine translator Babel Fish going. He later went to eBay to oversee a redesign.

Cuil (www.cuil.com) covers more web sites than any other search engine – three times more than Google and 10 times more than Microsoft.

“Our significant breakthroughs in search technology have enabled us to index much more of the Internet, placing nearly the entire Web at the fingertips of every user,” Tom Costello said.

Cuil Inc claims can index, faster and more cheaply, a far larger portion of the the Web than Google, which boasts the largest online index. Estimates have shown Google Index at around 30 to 50 billion web sites while Cuil claims it has already indexed 120 billion.

Google saves user data while Cuil doesn’t. Cuil says it wants to analyze the web, not users. Also Cuil does not display search hits as in columns with a brief text and an image unlike Goggle which shows a list of links and short key words. The operators called this new way of presenting hits “organized results” and claim that the hits are more easily readable this way.

Search results are not sorted by popularity, but rather by content in Cuil. Madrone Capital, Greylock and Tugboat Ventures have already invested $33m in the project. Madrone alone has put in $25m.

Tags: Cuil, Google, Internet, search engine

A threat by e-mail is received to blow up the landmark buildings including West Bengal assembly and Calcutta High Court, in Kolkata tonight. The bomb disposal squad and the security has been alert after receiving this information and intensive search operations are going to locate any possible explosives in the area.

The e-mail has been received by a TV channel. City police urges people not to panic as they were looking into such threats of explosions at various vital installations in the city.

We have certain information that that there are explosives in some of the vital installations in the city and we are putting in all our efforts to find out the truth involved in the information. So far, no explosive has been found”, Additional Commissioner of Police Subrata Narayan Sarkar told reporters.

Police said, ”We are trying to trace the sender of the e-mail by locating the remote server in the TV channel.”

Special police arrangements have been made at the High Court and the gate of the Assembly. All the senior officers are on the road and ther is tight security near the surrounding areas also.

A few words of the e-mail told by the police reads: “Some of the important areas of the city like Park Street, Salt Lake and Nicco Park and some landmark buildings like the High Court and the state assembly would be blown up by 10.30 pm tonight.”

Till now there is no such news. Sarkar said “the city police force have been put on alert and we have asked the bomb squad to check whether there is any explosive”.

Tags: Bomb, bomb blast, Calcutta High Court, Kolkata, Security, Terror, threat, west bangal, West Bengal assembly

It seems Surat, the Diamond city came under terror radar. So far 18 bombs have been recovered from various areas in the Diamond city and all of them have been safely defused. Police said that bombs are recovered one after another in a short span of time from different parts of the Varaccha area housing most of Surat’s diamond processing units.

Most of the explosive devices were found from residential localities and the diamond workshop areas generating a wave of panic in the city. Police Commissioner R M S Brar on Tuesday urged the people not to visit the crowded places and to be more vigilant in the surrounding areas.

Three bombs were recovered in the morning followed by fifteen similar incidents in next a few hours. The first bomb was found near the Ladeshwar Police Chowky in the Varaccha area of the city. Another live bomb was recovered from a market in Santosh Nagar. The other explosives were reportedly recovered from the Mini Diamond market in Varaccha area of the city.

Three bombs were deactivated in the Mini Diamond Market area, three in Labeshwar, Santoshinagar and Matavadi localities and three under the Varacha-Kapodra flyover. A bomb was found handing from a tree in Matavadi while in Labeshwar it was left in an abandoned bag.

Gujarat police detained three men for questioning in connection with the serial blasts. Abdul Qadir, Hasil Mohammad and Hussain Ibrahim were detained near Limbi on Rajkot-Ahmedabad highway in Surendranagar district while they were leaving Ahmedabad soon after the Ahmedabad serial blasts that took 49 lives and left over 145 injured.

It was suspected that they are linked with outlawed SIMI and ‘Indian Mujahideen’. Interrogation is still going regarding this issue. Police said they were questioning SIMI activist Abdul Halim, who was arrested on Sunday but declined to give any details on what he has revealed so far.

Contents of the defused bombs have been sent to the forensic science laboratory for analysis and high alert had been sounded in Surat.

Tags: ahmedabad serial blast, Bomb, bomb blast, live bomb, Surat, Terror